My Lord,--After most hearty commendations, I write upon haste to your
Lordship with Saunders Bog, who was sent by M. de Croc this last
Wednesday to advertise of the Queen's Majesty's sickness, which at that
time was wondrous great; for assuredly her Majesty was so handled with
great vehemency, that all that were with her were desperate of her
convalescence. Nevertheless, soon after the departing of Saunders Bog,
her Majesty got some relief, which lasted till Thursday at ten hours at
even, at which time her Majesty swooned again, and failed in her sight;
her feet and her hands were cold, which were handled by extreme rubbing,
drawing, and other cures, by the space of four hours, that no creature
could endure greater pain; and through the vehemency of this cure her
Majesty got some relief, till about six hours in the morning on Friday,
that her Majesty became dead, and all her members cold, eyes closed,
mouth fast, and feet and arms stiff and cold. Nevertheless, Master Nau,
who is a perfect man of his craft, would not give the matter over in
that manner, but of new began to draw her knees, legs, arms, feet, and
the rest, with such vehement torments, which lasted the space of three
hours, till her Majesty recovered again her sight and speech, and got a
great sweating, which was held the relief of the sickness, because it
was on the ninth day, which commonly is called the crisis of the
sickness, and so here thought the cooling of the fever. And since then
continually, thanks to God, her Majesty convalesces better and
better.... Always, I assure your Lordship, in all this sickness, her
Majesty used herself marvellous godly and Catholic, and continually
desired to hear speak of God and godly prayers....
_THE QUEEN'S RECOVERY_
[Mr. Small, in his "Queen Mary at Jedburgh" (p. 18), gives the
following as the opinion of "a distinguished physician" on the
illness:--"An attack of hæmatemesis, or effusion of blood into the
stomach, subsequently discharged by vomiting; presenting also,
possibly, hysterical complications, the whole induced by
over-exertion and vexation."]
_Marc Antonio Barbaro, Venetian Ambassador in France to the
Signory, from Paris_, Nov. 6, 1566. _Venetian Calendar._
The Ambassador from Scotland came to me to-day with the good news that
his Queen ... is so much better that it is hoped and almost believed
that she is certain to live.
The illness was caused by her dissatisfaction at a decision made by the
King, her husband, to go to a place twenty-five or thirty miles distant
without assigning any cause for it; which departure so afflicted this
unfortunate Princess, not so much for the love she bears him as from the
consequences of his absence, which reduced her to the extremity heard of
by your Serenity.
_BUCHANAN ON CRAIGMILLAR CONFERENCE_
1566.--The Craigmillar Conference.
_Buchanan's Detection._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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