stirring up quarrels in the royal family, between the mother and the son and between the uncle and the nephew, and anxious to make the proposed union forever impossible, hinted to the young prince that the eldest daughter of the King of France, the sister-in-law of Catherine de’ Medici, would be for him a far more glorious and advantageous alliance. This scheme pleased James, and when the rumor ran that the emperor was on the point of invading France, the King of Scotland, in order to win the favor of the father of the bride whom he desired, offered to him the aid of his army.[199] Then he set sail, September 1, with six vessels, accompanied by a suite of five hundred persons, all of noble or gentle birth. In ten days he reached Dieppe,[200] and without consulting the opinion of his uncle, he asked for and obtained the hand of Madame Madeleine, who had been very tenderly brought up by her aunt, Margaret of Valois.[201] The Scottish priests were in high glee, because in their view this alliance with France tended to strengthen the papacy in Scotland; but their joy was premature. The kings of France were beginning to assume an air of superiority towards Scotland, which was offensive to a nation proud though small. It was far worse afterwards, when Henry II., king of France, marrying his son to Mary Stuart, required that princess to sign contracts which were humiliating to ancient Caledonia. [Sidenote: MADELEINE DE VALOIS.] James had found in Madeleine an accomplished princess. Her health was frail, but her heart was virtuous and her soul was no stranger to the piety of her aunt. How great a gain for the Reformation if there should be seated on the throne of Scotland a queen who was a lover of the Word of God! James embarked with his young wife on a fleet of seventeen sail. On reaching Leith, the amiable queen, who was of noble bearing though of unhealthy aspect, set foot on land, knelt down on the shore, and taking up a handful of the sand of Scotland, kissed it with deep feeling, and implored God’s blessing on her beloved husband and on her new country. Madeleine was received at Edinburgh with great enthusiasm by the people and the nobles; but the churchmen, better informed than they were at first, were disquieted, and were afraid that this princess would diffuse around her the evangelical opinions of the sister of Francis I. This happiness was not in store for Scotland. The flower transplanted into that rough climate withered and fell. On July 2 [1537] the queen breathed her last. All who had known her, except the priests, deeply regretted her. Buchanan, struck with such glory and such mourning, composed an epitaph on her in Latin verse, to the following effect:--‘I was wife of a king, daughter of a king, niece of a king, and, according to my wish and my hope, I was to become mother of a king. But cruel death, unwilling that I should stand on the highest pinnacle of honor that a mortal creature can attain to, has