Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/331

 THE DARNLE Y MARK I A GE. 311 was informed by trumpet and proclamation that the Queen of Scots having determined to take to herself as her husband Henry Earl of Hoss and Albany, the said Henry was thenceforth to be designated King of Scot- land, and in all acts and deeds his name would be asso- ciated with her own. 1 The crowd listened in silence. A single voice cried ' God save his Grace ! ' but the speaker was Lennox. ^ ____^^ The next da}|^July_t^29th^bemg Sunday, while the drowsy citizens of Edinburgh were still in their morning sleep, Mary Stuart became the wife of Darnley. The ceremony took place in the royal chapel just after sun- rise. It was performed by a Catholic priest, and with the usual Catholic rites ; the Queen for some strange reason appearing at the altar in a mourning dress of black velvet, ' such as she wore the doleful day of the burial of her husband.' Whether it was an accident whether the doom of the House of Stuart haunted her at that hour with its fatal f or eshado wings or whether simply for a great political purpose she was doing an act which in itself she loathed, it is impossible to tell ; but that black drapery struck the spectators with a cold uneasy awe. But such dreamy vanities were soon forgotten. The deed was done which Elizabeth had forbidden. It re- 1 The title was a mere sound. The crown matrimonial could be conferred only by Act of Parliament ; nor would Mary Stuart share the reality of her power with a raw boy whose character she imperfectly knew. But Darnley was impatient for the name of king ; ' He would in no case have it deferred a day,' and the Queen was contented to humour him.