Mary queen of Scots Author:Jacob Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the wedding. Reasoni for b Chapter III The Great Wedding V/fTHEN Mary was about fifteen years j( age, the King of France began to think that it was tim... more »e for her to be married. It is true that she was still very young, but there were strong reasons for having the marriage take place at the earliest possible period, for fear that something might occur to prevent its consummation at all. In fact, there were very strong parties opposed to it altogether. ( The whole Protestant interest in Scotland were opposed to it, any! were continually contriving plans to dofeat-iLi They thought that if Mary married a French prince, who was, of course, a Catholic, she would become wedded to the Catholic interest hopelessly and forever. This made them feel a most bitter and determined opno rition to the plan. In fact, so bitter and relentless were the a i- imosities that grew out of this question, that an attempt was actually made to poison Mary. The man who committed this crime was an archer in the king's guard: he was a Sootnb tteipt to poiiwu Mary. The (¡nice. Catharine'! jealouij man, and his name was Stewart. His attempt veas discovered in time tc prevent the aeooin- ulisnment of his purpose. He was tried and condemned. They made every effort to induct Kim to explain the reason which led him to such an act, or, if he was employed by others, to reveal their names ; but he would reveal nothing. He was executed for his crime, leaving mankind to conjecture that his motive, or that of the persons who instigated him to the deed, was a desperate determination to save Scotland, at all hazards, from falling under the influence of papal power. Mary's mother, the queen dowager of Scotland, was of a celebrated French family, called the family of Guise. She is often, herself, called in ...« less