_Item._--Thereafter the said Master of Erskine shall report to the King {of France}, how rejoiced the Queen's Grace and my Lord Governor were of the news of our Sovereign Lady's welfare, and to hear that the King's Highness was so well contented with her Grace, and that she was so able to increase in virtue, and that the King's Majesty takes such consolation, seeing the beginning of her up-bringing to have been so good, that he hopes some day to see his son the husband of one of the most virtuous princes that man can desire: beseeching God of His infinite goodness that His Highness may see not only the thing that his noble heart desires, but also that our Sovereign Lady be after this so endued with the graces of God that she may by her birth {offspring} make his Highness to be called the grandfather of one of the most virtuous princes in the world, and king long to reign prosperously over both realms. _HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS_ Her Education and Accomplishments. _Conaeus._ (_Jebb: De Vita ac Rebus_, vol. ii. p. 15.) Her main course of study was directed towards the attainment of the best European languages. So graceful was her French that the judgment of the most learned men recognised her command of the language; nor did she neglect Spanish or Italian, although she aimed rather at an useful knowledge than at a pretentious fluency. She followed Latin more readily than she spoke it. The charm of her poetry owed nothing to art. Her penmanship was clear, and (what is rare in a woman) swift. Her excellence in singing arose from a natural, not an acquired, ability to modulate her voice: the instruments she played were the cittern, the harp, and the harpsichord. Being very agile, she danced admirably to a musical accompaniment, yet with beauty and comeliness, for the silent and gentle movement of her limbs kept time to the harmony of the chords. She devoted herself to learning to ride so far as it is necessary for travelling or for her favourite exercise of hunting, thinking anything further more fitted for a man than for a woman.... Several tapestries worked by her with wonderful skill are yet to be seen in France, dedicated to the altars of God, especially in the monastery in which she was nurtured on her first arrival in the kingdom. _THE "HANDFASTING"_ 1558.--April. Mary's Betrothal and Marriage to the Dauphin. _Lesley's History of Scotland_ (_Bannatyne Club_, pp. 264-5).