Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/241

 MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 159 MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP (1542-1587) MARY STUART, Queen oi Scots, was the third child of James V. and his wife, Mary of Guise. That lady had borne him previ- ously, two sons, both ol whom died in infancy, Mary was born on Decem- ber 7, 1542, in the palace of Linlithgow. She was only seven days old when she lost her father, who, at the time of her birth, lay sick at the palace of Falkland. The young queen was crowned by Cardinal Bea- ton, at Stirling, on Septem- ber 9, 1543. Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated commissioners, to whom they intrusted the charge of the queen's per- son, leaving all her other interests to the care of her mother. The first two years of her life, Mary spent at Linlithgow, where it is said she had the small-pox, but the disease must have been of a particularly gentle kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater part of the years 1545, 1546, and 1547, she re- sided at Stirling Castle, in the keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. She was afterward removed to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the lake of Monteith; after remaining there upward of two years, it was thought expedient by those who had at the time the disposal of her future destiny, that she should be re- moved to France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age, taken lo Dunbarton, where she was delivered to the French admiral, whose vessels were waiting to receive her ; and attended by Lords Erskine and Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and four young ladies as companions, she left Scotland. The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. She was re- ceived at Brest, by order of Henry II., with all the honors due to her rank and royal destiny. She travelled by easy stages to the palace at St. Germain en