LOCH LEVEN 91 



Ronsard's latest poems, with Italian romances, 

 with a boat on the loch, and some Rizzio to sing 

 to her on the still summer days. From her 

 Castle she would hear how the politicians were 

 squabbling, lying, raising a man to divinity and 

 stoning him next day, cutting each other's heads 



THE STARTING PLACE 



off, swearing and forswearing themselves, con- 

 spiring and caballing. Suave mari y and the peace 

 of Loch Leven and the island hermitage would 

 have been the sweeter for the din outside. A 

 woman, a Queen, a Stuart, could not attain, and 

 perhaps ought not to have attained, this epi- 

 cureanism. Mary Stuart had her chance, and 



