CHAPTER X. Chatelard's imprudent Attachment, and Knox's persevering Hatred 166 CHAPTER XI. The domestic Life of Mary, with some Anecdotes of Elizabeth 182 CHAPTER XII. Mary's Suitors, and the Machinations of her Enemies 198 CHAPTER XIII. Mary's Marriage with Darnley 222 CHAPTER XIV. Murray's Rebellion 232 CHAPTER XV. The Earl of Morton's Plot 251 CHAPTER XVI. The Assassination of David Rizzio 272 CHAPTER XVII. The Birth of James VI 287 CHAPTER XVIII. Mary's Treatment of Darnley, and alleged Love for the Earl of Bothwell 295 INTRODUCTION. During the reigns of James IV. and James V., Scotland emerged from barbarism into comparative civilization. Shut out, as it had previously been, from almost any intercourse with the rest of Europe, both by the peculiarities of its situation, and its incessant wars with England, it had long slumbered in all the ignorance and darkness of those remote countries, which even Roman greatness, before its dissolution, found it impossible to enclose and retain within the fortunate pale of its conquests. The refinement, which must always more or less attend upon the person of a king, and shelter itself in the stronghold of his court, was little felt in Scotland. Though attached, from long custom, to the monarchical form of government, the sturdy feudal barons, each possessing a kind of separate principality of his own, took good care that their sovereign's superior influence should be more nominal than real. Distracted too by perpetual jealousies among themselves, it was only upon rare occasions that the nobles would assemble peaceably together, to aid the king by their counsel, and strengthen his authority by their unanimity. Hence, there was no standard of national manners,--no means of fixing and consolidating the wavering and turbulent character of the people. Each clan attached itself to its own hereditary chieftain; and, whatever his prejudices or follies might be, was implicitly subservient to them. The feuds and personal animosities which existed among the leaders, were thus invariably transmitted to the very humblest of their retainers, and a state of society was the consequence, pregnant with civil discord and confusion, which, on the slightest impulse, broke out into anarchy and bloodshed.