Before thy hallowed crofs fhe proftrate lies,
O hear her prayers, commiferate her fighs!
Extend thy arms of mercy and of love,

And bear her to thy peaceful realms above.

Buchanan dedicated to Queen Mary his beau tiful tranflation of the Pfalms into Latin verse, The concluding lines of his Tranflation are:

Non tamen aufus eram malè natum exponere fœtum,
Ne mihi difpliceant, quæ placuere tibi,

Nam quod ab ingenio Domini fperare nequibunt,
Debebunt genio forfitan illa tuo.

They were thus altered by Bishop Atterbury the night before he died, and were fent by him to the late Lord Marshal Keith:

At fi culta parum, fi fint incondita. Noftri
Scilicet ingenii eft, non ea culpa foli.

Poffe etiam hic nofci quæ funt pulcherrima spondet,
Ex vultu et genio Scotica terra tuo.

If thefe rude barb'rous lines their author fhame,
His mufe and not his country is to blame;
That excellence e'en Scotland can bestow,
We from thy genius and thy beauty know.

When the Commiffioners from Queen Eliza, beth came into her chamber to conduct her to the fcaffold, fhe faid to them, "The English "have more than once ftained their hands with "the blood of their Kings, I am of the fame « blood;

M3

"blood; fo there is nothing extraordinary in my death, nor in their conduct." As the went to the scaffold with a crucifix in her hand, one of the Commiffioners brutally told her, fhe had much better have her Saviour in her heart than in her hands. "Sir," replied fhe coolly, "it is almost impoffible for any one to have his "Saviour in his hands without having his heart "deeply affected by him." She was preffed even at the scaffold to change her religion; to which fhe nobly replied, " Pray give yourselves "no farther trouble on that point. I was born "in the Catholick Faith, I have lived in the "Catholick Faith, and I am refolved to die " in it."

"And now," fays Wilson in his " History of "the Reign of King James," in speaking of the fecond funeral of Mary in Westminster Abbey, "in the tenth year of his reign, the King casts " his thoughts towards Peterborough, where his "Mother lay, whom he caused to be translated "to a magnificent tomb at Westminster. << (fomewhat fuitable to her mind when she was "living) fhe had a tranflucent paffage in the

And

night through the city of London, by multi❝tudes of torches: the tapers placed by the tomb "and the altar in the cathedral, fmoaking with "them like an offertorie, with all the ceremonies

"and voices their quires and copes could exprefs, "attended by many Prelates and Nobles, who "payd this last tribute to her memory. This ઃઃ was counted a piaculous action of the King's "by many, though fome have not stuck to fay, "that as Queen Elizabeth was willing to be rid "of the Queen of Scots, yet would not have it "her action, and being it could not be done "without her command, when it was done she "renounced her own act. So, though the King "was angry when he heard his Mother was taken

away by a violent death, recalling his Ambaf"fador, threatening war, and making a great "noife, (which was after calmed and clofed up " with a large penfion from the Queen,) yet he "might well enough be pleased that such a spirit “was layd, as might have conjured up three "kingdoms against him."

JOHN KNOX.

Of this celebrated Reformer, who difgraced his useful and refpectable character by outrage and violence, the Regent Earl of Morton faid, when he attended his funeral, " There lies a man, who "in his life never feared the face of a man; who hath been often threatened with dag and dag

ger, but

yet hath he ended his days in peace " and honour; for he had God's providence "watching over him in a special manner when "his very life was fought."

Timoleon, the Reformer of Corinth, when he caufed his brother's blood to be fhed, turned afide his head, covered it with his cloak, and wept. The Scottish Reformer, however, not only performed the great work in which he was engaged with earnestnefs, but occafionally added want of feeling toward the perfons who fuffered for it. In defcribing the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he introduces a joke about his corpulency, and adds, “these things we write merrily.' When he relates an account of an exhortation which he gave to the unfortunate Queen Mary, he adds, "I made the Hyæna weep *." His writings are in the fame ftyle with his fpeeches, and bear titles expreffive of the agitation and violence of mind of him who penned them; as, "The First Blaft of the Trumpet against the

*The elegant Mary herself, on feeing the bleeding body. of a young gentleman brought near her, who had been fhot by fome of her foldiers, faid, "I cannot be refponsible for "accidents, but I wish it had been his father." So nearly equal in brutality are the polite and the coarfe, the uncultivated and the refined, the Sovereign and the peasant, when they fuffer their minds to be tranfported by the violence of paffion, or corrupted by the partiality of prejudice.