Fotheringhay Castle.

memorials of hov visit in a br Ige y vi t v . ri . amis to nor ancestors . Last scene of ail : —Miry . la :, ¦• ' : ¦ , re ; i ; v jl i : > . n U '; . ; . ¦ . : o . ' , carers the Gastlo , the last of her twelve Mnglis ' i prisons , i : he seventeenth of her forced removals during the eighteen long mournful yours of nor captivity . There she is , and what is she ? Simply the most superbly gifted , the most royally born , and the most unto rkn ante , sonic say Ihe most guilty , of her time , the enigma of the historian and the moralist of her sex and tho ages . Tall in stature , majestic in presence ,

with features so pure and perfe . 'f , so delicate aud refined , that while the noblest hearts worshipped , artists dcspiirod to paint their charm ; the most beautiful as site was the most hapless of all the handsome , bub ill-fated House of Stuart ; the most eloquent of her brilliant contemporaries : graced by literary taste and the a icoiaglisEiment of verse ; endowed with a voice capable of melting pathos , touching ¦ '• fine spirits to fine issues ; " generous to profusion ; pvonil with the "pride oil her \ 0 ng-d 033 ended a : id illustrious ancestry , yet winning all hearts by her -conies eashm and her sympathy , matchless in her

withering sarcasm and lofty scorn , yet the most subtle and accomplished politician of a great age , the centre , in faot , around , which for years the policies of statesmen and of kings revolved , only to be baffled , successful only by violence ; the pivot ou which tho fortunes of our present civilization for good or evil turned , and crowning hoi" brief , but troubled life by a fortitude and trust in death which at once . abashed and amazed her judges and her exe . miuuiers ; she stands out in these halls one of thc . most

striking-, as she is one of the most inexplicable , figures in the great gallery of time . Shadows , indeed , haunt her steps and stain the lustre of her powers , dimming - into doubt the eyes which would fain see only exaggerated virtues and high impulses passing Into faults and possibly crimes , through the had example of a vicious and unprincipled Court in which her early years had been spent , and the bewildering conflicts of a nevf world emerging amid

clouds , aud darkness , and storm , into the li ght of a new day . The key to that woman ' s fate as to her life and oivva ' . tar lies where ? You will search for it in vain in the historian ' s pa . ge . ilo hand seems to have seized the key . and , like that filing into her own Lochleven , jealous time may long wash over it fathoms down , until some inspired fisherman of history recover it . It is easy to form a theory ( with . Liugard and Frond ) , still more easy to marshal evidence in support of it ; but I believe the solution of her life-problem , as

that of all the more powerful natures , with their broad lights and deepening shadows , lies in those thoughts too deep for utterance , if not too deep for tears . The stand-point from which this woman must be judged may have been reached by some ; but what they have seen lias been described by none . Tire silent heart , perhaps , and the all-knowing God alone see the springs and the meaning of the mystery . r , 1 i \ ere she is then , this much maligned and fiercel y hated , this much loved unci passionately lauded , princess in the " hall of presence " refusing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Commissioners

ot Elizabeth , more than a match for a whole tribe of Burghleys ; and heedless of the cause , scanning with a woman ' s curiosity the features of her judges . And see it li ghtens ; she has ( lashed out some scathing rebuke with a peerless scorn which . silences for a time tho wily sagacity practised in a thousand snares . She is their superior not only in rank aud birth , hut in sheer force of genius . Hurling hack upon her adversaries tlie broken arrows of their accusations , soe her , after two clays' torture , rising in cold scorn , and

demanding to be heard in Parliament , or to speak in person with the Queen , and then , with perfect self-possession , leaving—mark the irony of historythe hall of her ancestors ! Ah , it is all very strange , and very moving , this connection of Fotheringhay with Scotland and Scotland ' s last Queen . But , tue door of her chamber in toe keep , opens on that coin February morning , anel there stands Mary Stuart , attire , ! as if for so :. ie solemn festival . Passing throug h tho hall of presence , she is uirested by Melville in tears ; where arc