learned that the steward and herself were the only persons deceived; and that the material he had used was harmless, and its apparent effects were feigned. The Lady had also to listen to a wild prophecy from the excited old woman, proclaiming Mary's speedy release, not only from enthralment there, but anywhere in Scotland.

The steward was then sent from the castle, on an odd mission, that related to treatment for his deserts, for which he did not go far. At a "change house, as it was termed, not very distant from a romantic dell, well known by the name of Keirie Craigs," he was killed in an altercation with Henry Seyton, brother of Catherine. While dying, he confessed his attempt at poisoning to George Douglas (the son of the Lady), who appeared there.

"I failed in my attempt to take away that Moabitish stumblingblock and her retinue," he said. "I did chiefly purpose for love of thee." "Hast thou not, despite the honor thou owest to thy parents, the faith that is due to thy religion, the truth that is due to thy King, been so carried away by the charms of this beautiful sorceress, that thou wouldst have helped her to escape from her prison-house, and lent her thine arm again to ascend the throne, which she had made a place of abomination?" The steward declared that he had acted only to save a Douglas, believing that he was doing righteous service against a Papist enemy of Scotland, and one bewitching, to ruin, the heir of the house he served. The Queen, indeed, with that fascination she always possessed, and could exercise most powerfully, had gained entire control over the susceptible son of her vigilant guardian, and even permitted him to indulge the most delightful and ambitious hopes in connection with herself; and thus she had farther gained an important assistant towards her escape, whose aid might be rendered available at the very place and time where then much needed. For, as she told Roland, her plans of escape were "indifferent well laid" on the mainland; but the difficulty, in accomplishing them, was that of passing the castle locks, and of reaching the land. To obviate this difficulty, young Douglas might be used; and to assist in removing it, Roland, devotedly attached to the Queen, used his greatest ingenuity. And thus he performed his part in that glorious design, and almost holy cause, to which his aged grandmother had introduced him, and which the Queen and her adherents strove to consummate at the earliest practicable time. Already, Mary corre

sponded, or telegraphed by means of lights, with the inmates of the hut at Kinross that Roland had visited,· -a secret business he was allowed to learn. Meanwhile, he practised an art with which he had become acquainted at Avenel Castle, and, by use of an otherwise deserted forge in the cellar beneath the royal rooms, fashioned a bundle of keys to closely resemble that carried by Lady Douglas, and mastering the important locks of her prison. A farther development of the design was effected by introduction into the castle of a man-at-arms who was recommended to the Lady by her son. This man was engaged as a guard by her, after she had examined him, and learned from him that he was Edward Glendinning, nearly related to the Knight of Avenel, a well-known, earnest Protestant. The Lady did not, however, quite comprehend then, that, although he was so nearly related to the knight as to be his brother, he had very different politics and religion, and was no other than the Abbot of Kennaquhair, disguised and serving his sovereign.

At length an eventful night came, that for trial of meditated and elaborated plans of escape. The new military retainer was posted sentinel. Two lights in the cottage informed that all was ready on the mainland. The Lady, as had been her custom since the steward's attempt at poisoning, came to Mary's apartment to taste the dishes provided for the Queen's supper. Just then, leaving her keys a moment upon the table, and being skilfully thrown off her guard, she "forgot her charge for one second; and in that second were lost the whole fruits of her former vigilance: " during it, Roland substituted his forged keys for hers, that were genuine. Awaiting "the dead hour of midnight, when all was silent in the castle," he began the final act of the Queen's escape. He first opened a postern door to a little external garden, exchanged a word with the disguised abbot, and learned that a boat was ready, close under the walls. The guard upon the tower, who had received proper attention, had drunk deeply of ale, and was asleep. Immediately the queen and her maid of honor, Catherine, and another person, and the disguised abbot, were stealthily embarked in this boat, commanded by Henry Seyton. During a moment's delay, Roland locked gate and wicket behind the escaping party, and then away the boatman pulled. But the dash of their oars aroused the sentinel on the tower, who at once sounded an alarm. Thanks, however, to Roland for his precaution, doors of oak and bolts of iron kept the garrison within close bounds, from which, although harque

came from the boat were

the village, that ves drary d

with Douglas acting as their mate
ground, and began to me as is a v
together in good order* Dong before tur
hasty and perilous journey belire te puta y
West Lothian, belonging a Bors Sermost
of this tour towards Elating all es de
the same place by way of Dundermine vis

Stirling with its many amamtists area; tele

ruinous, is accessible from the hat terveet the Ader and Ele burgh, from which it is totam aor a dizet met

the railway, whence the passing teele ne sare a pada 2 its great, grim tower. The reden de tur vertet & Var

trol Queen Mary, och perm met to 1 tea i

to greet some assembled inga subjecte and ometi time ir len Græme to appear and declare Found Avenel. The Queen, on the morning after her FLYI the strong castle of Dumbarton-ass vel movs is tore who pass along the lower Clyde for ma **** - 200 COTTAG ing outlook. But the opposing hepat King, va araty it the field to meet her; and from a pot set the Sour Loome * (about three miles south of Gargon. 112 Ag sentit 31 the 13th of May, 1368, the bamie of Langrise that decided ver ige tory, and finally deprived her of her crown. 7:4 felt 120023 two miles south-west of Glasgow. Southeastery of the fer, neer Cathcart Castle, is, or was an spright stone bring a wy crown and the inscription, M. R. 1361⁄2" man to the Quran position, that overlocks the field sloping to a comvidercle d'vtance below it. There are remains of a small komas and is borhood, sometimes, though erroneously, ces sees Mary camp." Scott represents that she viewed the battle from Cros

example of that style ever reared, — indeed, one of the noblest open-air monuments on earth, the just and honorable memorial of Scotland to Sir Walter Scott. And there, between the Old Town and the New, that both look on it, sits the gloriously canopied marble form of the genial man and manly genius who loved them both so well, and who, in the spirit allowed to abide upon earth, watches over them and fills them with a strange and pleasant fascination.

If we would obtain a wider and more complete, and perhaps the best, view of this his "own romantic town," and of the not less romantic country around it, we should obtain the view from some commanding height. The most commanding in or near the city, we shall find south-eastward from it. Not far beyond Holyrood, and in that direction, rises, nearly six hundred feet above sealevel, a vast range of dark crags sweeping in bold curve forward towards the town, and presenting, along their tops, precipitous walls, from which steeply slope long trails of débris. These, the Salisbury Crags, composed of greenstone interposed among successively upheaved layers of sandstone, are the shattered ends of mighty strata thrown up at a sharp angle, and dipping as sharply eastward. Directly beyond the Crags, and rising yet higher, is Arthur's Seat, a huge double-headed hill, presenting, from some directions, peculiar resemblance to the form of a recumbent lion. Its summit, eight hundred and twenty-two feet above sea-level, the highest in or near Edinburgh, should, if possible, be reached by travellers.

The ascent is not difficult, either from Salisbury Crags, or by an easier route from Dunsappie Loch, on the other side, that traversed on foot by Queen Victoria herself. The hill is a worthy, even if a merely traditional, memorial of the great British Prince, Arthur, who is said to have defeated the Saxons on or near it. Composed largely of porphyry, veined with jasper; of basalt, and trap-rock breaking upon sandstone formations, and bearing upwards of four hundred species of plants, it presents much of interest to the naturalist, while the view commanded from its summit, embracing a wonderful variety of picturesque natural objects, and of historical and legendary scenes in chorographical comprehensiveness, is pleasing to almost every one.

One who, on a clear day, looks out, over its bare grassy or rock-bound slopes, sees a panorama of great extent and of really

national character. Nearly westward, in the middle distance, rises the nobly picturesque Castle, dominant over the city, and reached by the ascending crest of the Old Town, with its dark-gray tone of coloring, and the smoky veil suggesting its name, - Auld Reekie. There, too, are seen the sharp lofty spire of Victoria Hall and the crowned tower of St. Giles and the long ranges of the High-Street buildings. Left of these are George Heriot's magnificent Hospital, and the green trees of George's Square, where Scott lived in early life, and the "meadows" and Bruntsfield Links. Just at the foot of the slope of the Old Town, and seen over the crest of the Crags, appears Jeanie Deans's Cottage. A little to the right is the fresh, stately New Town, athwart which rises the glorious spire of the great monument to Sir Walter Scott. Further on, to the right, is the Calton Hill, studded with monumental structures. Then, yet farther, in a deep, quiet valley, is Holyrood with its palatial quadrangle and ruined chapel. Beyond it are seen, in more distant range, the broad, bright waters of the Frith of Forth, bordered, northward, by the hills of Fife, - among these, the East and West Lomonds, near Loch Leven, and, left of them, the dim, gray Ochils. Towards the west, over Linlithgowshire, the smoke of Stirling (more than thirty miles distant) may be seen, and, far beyond this, the pale-blue summits of Ben Ledi and Ben Lomond. South-west, rising perhaps most prominent of all the many heights in sight, are the green, forest-grown Pentland Hills, abounding in ravines. And nearer and more southward are Braid Hills, at the eastern end of which is the pretty village of Libberton (Reuben Butler's home), with its little square, pinnacled, gray church-tower and cottages nestled among trees. Nearer is Blackford Hill, whence Marmion saw arrayed the army of James IV., before its march to Flodden, and the hill of which Scott wrote:

"Blackford! on whose uncultured breast,
Among the broom and thorn and whin,
A truant boy, I sought the nest,

Or listed as I lay at rest,

While rose on breezes thin

The murmur of the city crowd."

Not far eastward are places suggesting the "Heart of Mid-Lothian." There is the reputed farm of Dumbiedikes, with its house imbosomed among dark-green trees, upon a slight knoll. And there, also, is the very fork of the roads where the Laird, pursuing Jeanie Deans when she started for London, offered her "siller" and