lOS SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



occupied by the Comte d'Artois ; and again, after a long interval, by the same 

 personage, as Charles X. The north wing forms the long portrait gallery of 

 Scottish kings, from Fergus downward. Next to these are Lord Dunmore's 

 apartments, and those appropriated to the duke of Hamilton, as hereditary 

 keeper of the palace. The latter' are remarkable as having been those in which 

 Queen Mary resided during the period so fatal to her peace, and fertile in the 

 perpetration of crimes— the murder of Rizzio, and the more mysterious, though 

 not less certain, murder of her husband Darnley. 



The former of these — an oft-told tale— we shall here recapitulate with all 

 possible brevity. It was about eight o'clock in the evening of Saturday, March 

 the 9th, 1566, when Mary, at that time within three months of her confinement, 

 was sitting at supper with the countess of Argyll, and others* of her court. 

 The approaching event, on which depended the stabihty of the throne, gave 

 to the presence of majesty a still more sacred character, and rendered her the 

 first object of national solicitude ; but this could not protect her against the 

 appalling spectacle which brutal jealousy and revenge had now brought to 

 maturity. Rizzio, it is related, was tasting, in the closet adjoining, some 

 dishes previous to their being served to the queen. Suddenly, a panel of the 

 wainscot close to the floor burst open, and through this the king entered, 

 supported by Ruthven in full armour, whose ghastly countenance — the result 

 of long sickness — and glaring eyes, told their bloody purpose. A band of 

 assassins followed, and the passage was soon filled with the instrimients of 

 premeditated violence. The Queen and the countess, little dreaming of such a 

 nsit, shrieked, and started from their seats ! " Why," exclaimed her Majesty, 

 addressing Darnley,^" why this breach of privilege — this unceremonious 

 and armed intrusion upon our privacy?" To this demand none replied, till 

 Ruthven, pointing to the secretary, said — " Our business, madam, is to remove 

 that insidious alien from the royal presence !" 



Rizzio, appalled by this sudden, though not unexpected intimation, f rightly 

 interpreted its fatal purpose, and with looks of mingled terror and supplication, 



• Her natural brother, Kobert, conirncndator of Holyrooil House, Belon of Crcich, master of the 

 liousehokl, and Arlliur Erskine, 



t ..." Yet," says Sir James Melvil, (the faitliful and long tried counsellor of the Queen,) "this Uizzio 

 wanted not his own fears; therefore he lamented his estate to nne, asking one day my counsel how to 

 behave himself." After much excellent advice, sucli as none but one long versed in court policy, and a 

 man of strict prudence, could have given. Sir James concluded with a personal anecdote for Rizzio's example. 

 " I told him," says he, " how I had been in so great favour with the Elector Palatine, that he caused me 

 to sit at his own table, and that he used frequently to confer with me in presence of his whole court; whereat 

 divers of them took great indignation against me ; which, so soon as I perceived, I requested his highness 



