Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/824

810 was the great hope of the catholics, and Elizabeth's ministers aggravated the hate of their mistress, by a sort of crusading zeal, which has no pity or faith for a heretic. The letters pretending to be written by her to Bothwell, before the death of her husband, which Mr. Whitaker has shewn to contain many internal evidences of forgery, without seal or subscription, were never, even in copies, submitted to her perusal, or that of her friends, so that she had no opportunity of exposing their falsehood. Of a height approaching to the majestic, with a beautiful and benevolent countenance, dark hair and eyes, Mary had a flexibility of mind, which yielded to her feelings, even when her understanding should have taught her better. Prone to confidence and generosity, she seemed to expect it even where she had been frequently deceived; and before confinement had subdued her feelings, was hysterical under the impression of misfortune or unkindness. She wrote Poems on various occasions, in Latin, Italian, French, and Scotch; Advice to her Son, in two books: the consolation of her long imprisonment. A great number of her original letters were preserved in the King of France's library, and in the Royal, Cottonian, and Ashmolean libraries.

wrote some thousands of pieces. The fragment of a satire against Domitian, who published a decree for the