Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/204

340 tiers; and, amidst the enthusiastic loyalty expressed on the occasion of her arrival by all ranks of the people, it is not surprising that every opportunity was taken to impress the queen's mind with a sense of the value which her subjects attached to their new-born liberties. Knox and the other leading reformers, who have been censured for their uncompromising deportment towards their sovereign, were, in addition, influenced by a just regard for their personal safety, which could not fail to be seriously compromised in the event of popery regaining its ascendency in Scotland. The recent history of France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and England, bore testimony to the perfidious and truculent foe with which they had to contend in the Romish church. "The rage for conquest on the continent (remarks Dr M'Crie) was now converted into a rage for proselytism; and steps had already been taken towards forming that league among the popish princes, which had for its object the universal extermination of protestants. The Scottish queen was passionately addicted to the intoxicating cup of which so many of 'the kings of the earth had drunk.' There were numbers in the nation who were similarly disposed. The liberty taken by the queen would soon be demanded for all who declared themselves catholics. Many of those who had hitherto ranged under the protestant standard were lukewarm in the cause; the zeal of others had alroady suffered a sensible abatement since the arrival of their sovereign; and it was to be feared that the favours of the court, and the blandishments of an artful and accomplished princess, would make proselytes of some, and lull others into security, while designs were carried on pregnant with ruin to the religion and liberties of the nation." On the first Sunday after her arrival, Mary was so ill-advised as to have mass celebrated in the chapel at Holyrood, on which occasion her attendants received some rough treatment at the hands of the people. John Knox denounced the observance of mass as idolatry, in the pulpit on the succeeding Sabbath. Two days afterwards, the queen sent for Knox to the palace, and held a long conversation with him in the presence of her brother, the prior of St Andrews, afterwards earl of Murray. She plied all her blandishments to soften the reformer; failing in which she resorted to threats, in the hope of overawing him. The firmness of the reformer was as immovable as his faith was inflexible, and both were proof against the smiles and tears of the youthful princess. On taking leave of her majesty, Knox said, "I pray God, rnadam, that you may be as blessed within the commonwealth of Scotland as ever Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel."

Mary soon afterwards made her first public entry into Edinburgh. Mounted on her palfrey, and suitably escorted, she proceeded up the High Street to the castle, where a banquet was prepared for her. The reception she met with from the citizens was extremely gratifying, notwithstanding the somewhat obtrusive manner in which many of them indicated their contempt for her religion, and their resolution to defend their own. In a subsequent progress through Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, St Andrews, and the neighbouring districts, she was welcomed with high-hearted loyalty, such as the Scottish nation never withheld from Mary or her descendants so long as they respected the religious principles and political liberties of the people. On one occasion, during the royal tour, some public demonstration of the reformers moved the queen to tears. On her return to Edinburgh she evinced a disposition to check the practice of publicly insulting her faith. Within a few days after her arrival, the civil authorities issued a proclamation, proscribing the "wicked rabble of the antichrist of the pope," and ordering them to withdraw from the bounds of the town, within four and twenty hours, under pain of carting through the streets, burning on the cheek, and perpetual banishment. Mary, however, did not allow this invasion of her authority to pass with the same impunity which she