of Sweden. The government of Scotland, however, being anxious to retain possession of the Orkneys, and desirous to avoid a naval war with their powerful neighbour, Frederick the Second, gave the Danish ambassadors a cordial reception, and dispatched James's old schoolmaster, Peter Young, to the court of Denmark, to forward the arrangements for the match. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who, by bribery and other means, had secured the majority in the Scottish Government, brought Mary, Queen of Scots, to the block, and succeeded in delaying the Danish match for about three years. At the close of 1587, the exasperated King of Denmark threatened Scotland with war, if the Orkneys were not promptly restored. King James took the hint, and again dispatched Peter Young, and with him, Crownel Stuart, to the Danish Court. In the summer of 1588, these commissioners returned, "well rewardit and well contentit," and reported so favourably of the Princesses; pronouncing them to be "braw lassies," with a "routhie tocher" [plentiful marriage portion], that James instantly dispatched Crownel Stuart and the Bishop of St. Andrew's, to conclude the match with the Danish King's eldest daughter. Just as this embassy had embarked, and through the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth, who took infinite pleasure in traversing the matrimonial desires of all within her reach, commissioners from the King of Navarre landed in Scotland, and offered to James the hand of Katherine of Navarre, a Princess old enough to be his mother. With the object of this commission, Elizabeth, with all speed, acquainted the Danish sovereign; who, on discovering that the information was correct, flew in a rage, told the Scotch ambassadors to their faces, they were a set of cheats; betrothed his eldest daughter to the Duke of Brunswick, and vowed to regain the sovereignty of his islands, cost him what it might. The Scotch ambassadors endeavoured to soothe him, and after much bickering, it was arranged that James should wed his younger daughter, Anne, if the espousals took place before the

first of May, 1589; but, if not, the engagement should then be null and void, and the islands should be restored. When the Scotch commissioners returned, they brought to James an exquisite miniature of the beautiful Anne of Denmark, which so excited his love, that shortly afterwards he told his council, that "having prayed and avised with God aboon twa weeks, he had resolvit to wed bonnie Anne of Denmark." The majority of the council being the paid creatures of Queen Elizabeth, strongly opposed the match; but James, impressed with a belief that, to secure the royal lassie, "she must be wooed and married, and a'" before the first of May, 1589, effectually terminated their artful procrastination, by paying the artisans of Edinburgh, to rise in insurrection in favour of the Danish match; an uprising, which so alarmed the council, that they instantly dispatched the Earl Marshal of Scotland, the Constable of Dundee, and the Lord Andrew Keith, to Denmark, to espouse the Princess Anne, in the King's name. Meanwhile, the death of the Danish Monarch, which took place at the close of 1588, deprived Anne of the rank of a reigning King's daughter, and, indeed, so altered the position of affairs, that, although James's proxies did not reachi Denmark before the middle of June, more than six weeks after the extreme time specified for the betrothment, by the late Frederick the Second, they met with a cordial reception, and on the twentieth of August, 1589, Anne was married by proxy to the King of Scots, at the strongly fortified castle of Cronenburg, in the island of Zealand.

In September, the Scotch proxies and the royal bride embarked with their retinue for Scotland, with a fleet of eleven ships, under the command of Peter Munch, the Danish Admiral. But they had scarcely put to sea, when a violent tempest arose, and although by strenuous exertions they twice obtained a glimpse of the Scottish coast, they were, at last, driven by the adverse winds to take refuge in a sound in Norway. Here the young Queen landed, and at the inhospitable village of Upslo, sought shel