me to my son, and assure him I have done nothing prejudicial to the state or the crown of Scotland. Admonish him to persevere in amity and friendship with the Queen of England; and, for thy own part, do him faithful service. And so, good Melvil, farewell; once again, farewell, good Melvil, and grant the assistance of thy prayers to thy queen and thy mistress." In this place she was received by the four noblemen, who with great difficulty were prevailed upon to allow Melvil, with her physician, apothecary, and two female attendants, to be present at her execution. She then passed (the noblemen and the sheriff going before, and Melvil bearing up her train) into another hall, where was a scaffold erected, and covered with black. As soon as she was seated, Beale began to read the warrant for her execution. Then Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, standing without the rails, repeated a long exhortation, which she desired him to forbear, as she was firmly resolved to die in the Catholic religion. The room was crowded with spectators, who beheld her with pity and distress, while her beauty, though dimmed by age and affliction, gleamed through her sufferings, and was still remarkable in this fatal moment. The Earl of Kent, observing that in her devotions she made frequent use of the

ing her, exhorting her to have Christ in her heart, not in her hand. She replied, with presence of mind, that it was difficult to hold such an object in her hand, without feeling her heart touched for the sufferings of him whom it represented. She now began, with the aid of her two women, to undress for the block; and the executioner also lent his hand to assist them. She smiled, and said that she was not accustomed to undress herself before so large a company, or to be attended by such servants. Her women bursting into tears and loud exclamations of sorrow, she turned about to them, put her finger upon her lips, as a sign of imposing silence upon them; and having given them her blessing, desired their prayers in return. The two executioners kneeling, and asking her pardon, she said she forgave them and all the authors of her death, as freely as she hoped forgiveness of her Maker; and once more made a solemn protestation of her innocence. Her eyes were then covered with a linen handkerchief; she laid herself down without any fear or trepidation, and when she had recited a psalm, and repeated a pious ejaculation, her head was severed from her body at two strokes. The executioner instantly held it up to the spectators, streaming with blood, and agitated with the convulsions of death. The Dean of Peterborough alone exclaimed, perish all Queen Elizabeth's ene

"So

mies !" The Earl of Kent replied Amen, while the rest of the spectators wept and sighed at this affecting spectacle; for flattery and zeal alike gave place to stronger and better emotions. Thus died Mary, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and the nineteenth of her captivity-a princess un

matched in beauty, and unequalled in misfortunes. In contemplating the contentions of mankind, we find almost ever both sides culpable: Mary, who was stained with crimes that deserved punishment, was put to death by a princess who had no right to inflict punishment on her equal.

THE Duke of Medina set sail with his whole fleet from the Groyne, the 12th day of July, according to the account of the Julian Year; and after a day or two he sent Roderico Telie before into the Low Countries, to advertise the Prince of Parma of the coming of the fleet, and to tell him what was best to be done. For he had orders to join with the Prince of Parma's forces and shipping, and to conduct them under the protection of his fleet into England, and withal to send the land forces ashore at the Thames' mouth. And now will I give a brief account, out of the most credible relations, as well of the Spaniards as of our own countrymen, what was done every day in this expedition, that the truth may the more plainly appear.

On the 16th day there was a great calm, and a thick fog till noon; then the north-east wind blew very strongly, and presently after the west wind till midnight, and then the east-south-east wind; inmuch as the Spanish fleet be

ing dispersed thereby, was hardly gathered together again till it came within sight of England on the 19th day. Upon which day the Lord Admiral of England, being certainly informed by Flemming, the captain of a pinnace, that the Spanish fleet was entered into the British Sea (which the seamen ordinarily call the Channel), and was seen near the point called the Lizard, towed out the English fleet into the main sea, not without great difficulty, the wind blowing stiffly into the haven, but indeed with singular diligence and industry, and with admirable alacrity of the seamen, whom he encouraged at their halser-work, assisting them and the common soldiers in the doing of it in person.

The next day the English discovered the Spanish fleet with lofty turrets like castles, in front like a half-moon, the wings thereof spreading out about the length of seven miles, sailing very slowly, though with full sails, the winds being as it were tired with carrying them, and the ocean groaning

proper station, according to the platform agreed on in Spain, and made it death for any one to abandon his post. Glich, an ensign, was despatched to the Prince of Parma, to acquaint him with the state of the navy; and Oquenda's ship was turned loose to sea, her cargo being first taken out and disposed of into other vessels. The very same day she was taken by the English, with about fifty sailors wretchedly bruised and burnt, and carried into Weymouth harbour. On the 23d of this month, the Spaniards, very early in the morning, took the advantage of a northerly wind, and bore down upon the English, who soon tacked about and stood westward. Both fleets strove hard for some time to get to the windward, and then prepared for the engagement. It was managed with confusion enough, and various success. The English on the one hand rescued some ships of London, that were surrounded by the Spaniards; and the Spaniards on the other as bravely brought off Recalde, when he was in equal danger. The great guns on both sides rattled like so many peals of thunder; but the Spaniards' shot flew for the most part over the heads of the English, without doing execution; Cock being the only Englishman that died bravely in the midst of his enemies in a ship of The reason of this was, that the English ships being far less than the enemy's, made the atwith more quickness and

his own.

a broadside, they presently sheered off to a convenient distance, and levelled their shot so directly at the bigger and more unwieldy ships of the Spaniards, as seldom to miss their aim; though the Lord Admiral did not think it safe or proper to grapple with them, as some advised, with much more heat than discretion, because that the enemy's fleet carried a considerable army within their sides, whereas ours had no such advantage. Besides their ships far exceeded ours in number and bulk, and were much stronger and higher built; insomuch that their men having the opportunity to ply us from such lofty hatches, must inevitably destroy those that were obliged, as it were, to fight beneath them. And he easily foresaw likewise, that the damage and disgrace of a total defeat would weigh much heavier than the advantage of a victory, should he happen to compass it; since, if he were vanquished, it would much endanger the safety of the whole kingdom; but if he got the better, he could obtain no more than the naked credit of putting a fleet to disorder and baffling an enemy.

On the 24th day of the month there was a cessation on both sides, and the Lord Admiral sent some of his smaller vessels to the nearest of the English harbours, to fetch a supply of powder and ammunition; then he divided the fleet into four squadrons, the first of which he commanded himself, the second he committed to Drake,