QUEEN MARY'S APARTMENTS.
Before we follow Mr. George and the boys into Queen Mary's apartments, I
have one or two other explanations to make, in addition to the
information which Mr. George communicated to the boys on the stairs.
These explanations relate to the situation of Mary's apartments in the
palace. They were in a sort of wing, which forms the extreme left of the
front of the palace. The wing is square. It projects to the front. At
the two corners of it, in front, are two round towers, which are
surmounted above by short spires. As there is a similar wing at the
right hand end of the front, with similar towers at the corners, the
facade of the building is marked with four towers and four spires. The
left hand portion is represented in the engraving opposite.
[Illustration: THE CORNER TOWER OF THE PALACE OF HOLYROOD.]
Queen Mary's rooms are in the third story, as seen in the engraving. The
principal room is in the square part of the wing, between the two round
towers. This was the bedroom. In the right hand tower, as seen in the
engraving, is a small room, as large as the tower can contain, which was
used by Mary as an oratory; that is, a little chapel for her private
devotions. In the left hand tower was another small room, similar to the
oratory, which Mary used as a private sitting room or boudoir. It is
just large enough for a window and a fireplace, and for a very few
persons to sit. It was in this little room that Mary was having supper,
with two or three of her friends, when Darnley and his gang came up to
murder Rizzio, who was one among them.
Besides Mary's bedroom, which was in the front part of the wing, between
the two towers, there was another large room behind it, which also
belonged to her. Darnley's apartments were very similar to the queen's,
only they were in the story below. It was the custom in those days, as
it is now, indeed, in high life, for the husband and wife to have
separate ranges of apartments, with a private passage connecting them.
In this case the private passage leading from Darnley's apartments to
Mary's was in the wall. It was a narrow stairway, leading up to Mary's
bedroom, and the door where it came out was very near to the door
leading to the little room in the tower where Mary and her friends were
taking supper on the night of Rizzio's murder.
When Mr. George and the boys reached the top of the stairs, they entered
a large room, which, they were told by an attendant who was there to
receive them, was Mary's audience chamber. This was the room situated
back of the bedroom. The room itself, and every thing which it
contained, wore a very antique and venerable appearance. The furniture
was dilapidated, and the coverings of it were worn and moth-eaten. Very
ancient-looking pictures were hanging on the walls. There was a large
fireplace, with an immense movable iron grate in it. The grate was
almost entirely worn out. The attendant who showed these rooms said that
it was the oldest grate in Scotland. Still, it was not so old as the
time of Mary, for it was brought into Scotland, the attendant said, by
Charles II., who was Mary's great grandson.
There was a window in a very deep recess in this room. It looked out
upon a green park, on the side of the palace. A very ancient-looking
table stood in this recess, which, the attendant said, was brought by
Mary from France. The ceiling was carved and ornamented in a very
curious manner.
[Illustration: QUEEN MARY'S BEDROOM.]
"And which is the door," said Waldron to the attendant, "where
Darnley and his men came in, to murder Rizzio?"
"That is in the next room," said the attendant. So saying, he pointed to
a door, and Mr. George and the boys, and also two or three other
visitors whom they had found in the room when they came in, went forward
and entered the room.
"This, gentlemen and ladies," said the attendant, as they went in, "was
Queen Mary's bed chamber. The door where we are coming in was the main
or principal entrance to it. This is the bed and bedstead, just as they
were left when Queen Mary vacated the apartment. That door,"--pointing
to a corner of the room diagonally opposite to where the company had
entered,--"leads to the little boudoir[G] where Rizzio was killed, and
that opening in the wall by the side of it, under the tapestry, is the
place where Darnley and the other assassins came up by the private
stair."
[G] A boudoir is a small private apartment, fitted up for a lady, where
she receives her intimate and confidential friends.
A view of the room, and of the various objects which the attendant
showing them thus pointed out to the company, may be seen in the
engraving on the opposite page.
The bedstead is seen on the right. It is surmounted by a heavy cornice,
richly carved and gilded. This cornice, and the embroidered curtains
that hang from it, must have been very magnificent in their day, though
now they are faded and tattered by age. The coverings of the bed are
also greatly decayed. Only a little shred of the blanket now remains,
and that is laid upon the bolster. The rest of it has been gradually
carried away by visitors, who for a long time were accustomed to pull
off little shreds of it to take with them, as souvenirs of their visit.
These depredations are, however, now no longer allowed. That part of the
room is now enclosed by a cord, fastened to iron rods fixed in the
floor, so that visitors cannot approach the bed. They are watched, too,
very closely, wherever they go, to prevent their taking any thing away.
They are not allowed to sit down in any of the chairs.
The door in the corner of the room to the left leads into the little
boudoir, or cabinet, where Rizzio was murdered. You can see a little way
into this room, in the picture. Mr. George and the boys went into it.
There was a table on the back side of it, with the armor, and also the
gloves, and one of the boots which Darnley wore, lying upon it. The
attendant took up a breast-plate, which formed a part of the armor, and
let the boys lift it. It was very heavy. There was an indentation in the
front of it, where it had been struck by a bullet. The boot, too, was
prodigiously thick and heavy. The heel was not less than three inches
high.
There was a fireplace in this room, and over it was an altar-piece; a
sort of picture in stone, which Mary used in her oratory, according to
the custom of the Catholics. It had been broken to pieces and put
together again. It was said that John Knox broke it, to show his
abhorrence of Popery, but that the pieces were saved, and it was
afterwards mended.
There was also in this room a square stone, shaped like a block, about
two feet long, sawed off from the end of a beam of timber. This was the
stone that Mary knelt upon when she was crowned Queen of Scotland.
To the right of the door which leads to the boudoir, under the tapestry,
we see in the engraving the opening in the wall which leads to the
staircase where the conspirators came up. The boys went in here and
looked down. The stairs were very narrow, and very dark. The passage was
closed below, so that they could not go down. In Mary's time these
stairs not only led down to Darnley's rooms, but there was a
continuation of them down the lower story, and thence along by a private
way to Mary's place in the chapel of the monastery, where she used to go
to attend divine service. She always went by this private way, so that
nobody ever saw her go or come. They only knew that she was there by
seeing the curtains drawn before the little compartment in the walls of
the chapel where she was accustomed to sit.
In the deep recess of the window, seen at the left in the engraving, you
will see a tall stand, with a sort of basket on the top of it. This
basket contained baby linen, and was sent to Mary as a present by Queen
Elizabeth of England, at the time when Mary's child was born. This was
the child that afterwards became King James. He was not born here,
however. He was born in the castle. His birth took place only about
three months after the murder of Rizzio. The basket was a very pretty
one, and it was lined with the most costly lace, only a few remnants of
which are, however, remaining.
The attendant showed all these things to the visitors, and many more,
which I have not time now to describe. Among the rest was a piece of
embroidery set in the top of a workbox, which Mary herself worked. The
top of the box was formed of a plate of glass; the embroidery was placed
underneath it, so that it could be seen through the glass. It was old
and faded, and the boys did not think that it was very pretty. It was,
however, curious to see it, since Mary had worked it with her own hands;
especially as she did it when she was a child; for the guide said she
embroidered it when she was only about twelve years old.
"She was very skilful with her needle," said the attendant. "She learned
the art in France, at the convent where she was educated. This tapestry
which hangs upon the wall was worked by the nuns at that convent, and it
is said that Mary assisted them."
The tapestry to which the guide referred is the same that you see in the
engraving on the wall of the room, opposite to the observer. It hung
down over the door leading to the private staircase.
Besides the bedroom and the boudoir, there was the oratory, too; that
is, the small room corresponding to the boudoir, in the other round
tower. This room is not shown in the engraving, as the opening leading
into it is on the side of the bed chamber where the spectator is
supposed to stand. It was a very small room, like a round closet, with a
window in it. It contained very little furniture. There were two tall,
carved stands, to hold the candlesticks, on each side of the altar, and
several very ancient-looking chairs. There was also a small and very
peculiar-shaped old mirror hanging upon the wall. It had no frame, but
the glass itself was cut into an ornamental form. This mirror was a
great curiosity, it must be confessed; but it was past performing any
useful function, for the silver was worn off to such an extent that it
was very difficult to see one's face in it.
After looking some time longer at Queen Mary's rooms, Mr. George and the
boys went back again to Lord Darnley's apartments below. There they saw
a picture of Queen Mary which they had not observed before. It
represented her, the man said, in the dress she wore the day that she
was beheaded. The dress was of dark silk or velvet, plain, but very
rich. It fitted close to the form, and came up high in the neck. The
countenance evinced the changes produced by time and grief, but it wore
the same sweet expression that was seen in the portrait painted in her
earlier years.
"What was she beheaded for?" asked Rollo, while they were looking at
this portrait.
"She was beheaded by the government of Queen Elizabeth of England,"
replied Mr. George. "They charged her with forming plots to dethrone
Elizabeth, and make herself Queen of England in her place."
"And did she really form the plots?" asked Waldron.
"Why--yes," said Mr. George, speaking, however, in a somewhat doubtful
tone, "yes--I suppose she did; or, at least, her friends and party did;
she herself consenting. You see she was herself descended from an
English king, just as Elizabeth was, and it was extremely doubtful which
was the rightful heir. Mary, and all her friends and party, claimed that
she was; and Elizabeth, on the other hand, insisted that _her_ claim was
clear and unquestionable."
"Which was right?" asked Waldron.
"It is impossible to say," replied Mr. George. "It was such a
complicated case that you could not decide it either way. The question
was like a piece of changeable silk. You could make it look green or
brown, just according to the way you looked at it. When you come to read
the history you will see just how it was."
"Yes," said Waldron, "I mean to read all about it."
"After the difficulties in Scotland," continued Mr. George, "Mary's
armies were driven across the line into England, and there Mary was
seized and made prisoner. Elizabeth would have given her her liberty if
she would have renounced her claims to the English crown--but this Mary
would not do. She was kept in prison a number of years. At last some of
her friends began to form plots to get her out, and make her Queen of
England. She was accused of joining in these plots, and so she was
tried, convicted, and beheaded."
"And did she really join in the plots?" asked Waldron.
"I presume so," said Mr. George. "I would have joined in them if I had
been in her place."
"So would I," said Waldron.
"Did Queen Elizabeth order her to be beheaded?" asked Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George, "not directly--or, at least, she pretended that
she did not. She appointed some judges to go and try her, on the charge
of treason, and the judges condemned her to death. Elizabeth might have
saved her if she chose, but she did not; though afterwards, when she
heard that Mary had been executed, she pretended to be in a great rage
with those who had carried the sentence into effect, and to be deeply
grieved at her cousin's death."
"The old hag!" said Waldron.
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH ON PARADE.]
"Why, no," said Mr. George, "I don't know that we ought to consider her
an old hag for this. It was human nature, that is all. She may have
been sincere in her grief at Mary's death, while yet she consented to
it, and even desired it, beforehand. We often wish to have a thing done,
and yet are very sorry for it after it is done.
"You see," continued Mr. George, "Queen Elizabeth was a very proud and
ambitious woman. She was very fond of the power, and also of the pomp
and parade of royalty; and she could not endure that any one should ever
question her claim to the crown."
"Well," said Waldron, "at any rate I am sorry for poor Mary."
After this, Mr. George and the boys went down the staircase where they
had come up, to the court, and then proceeding along the piazza to the
back corner of it, they passed through an open door that led them to the
ruins of the old abbey, which stood on this spot some centuries before
the palace was built. There was nothing left of this ancient edifice but
the walls, and some of the pillars of the chapel. The roof was gone, and
every thing was in a state of dilapidation and ruin.
There was a guide there who pointed out the place where Mary stood at
the time of her marriage with Lord Darnley. The grass was growing on
the spot, and above, all was open to the sky. Multitudes of birds were
flying about, and chirping mournfully around the naked and crumbling
walls.