But it was under Mary Queen of Scots that Holyrood became really famous. She made it her constant and favourite residence. After her many years of education in France, and her brief career as the wife of the sickly Francis II., she returned to her native country in August, 1561. John Knox, with the superstition of the age, comments upon the peculiar fogginess and darkness of the weather which marked the young Queen's arrival, saying, "that forewarning gave God unto us, but alas! the most were blind." Bonfires were lit, and great demonstrations of joy were manifested when Mary took up her abode at Holyrood. A band of musicians with much zeal but little skill played outside her bedroom window, being courteously thanked by the Queen; but Brantôme, the French courtier, who had accompanied Queen Mary from France, complains in his memoirs of the terrible noise of these musicians who sang psalms all out of tune; "Quelle musique! et quel repos pour sa nuit" he writes. The very first Sunday after her arrival was marred by a tumult outside the Chapel Royal, where Mass was being performed, a disturbance which was only checked by Lord James Stuart, the Queen's natural brother, who stood in front of the chapel door, and being a zealous Protestant himself, managed to check the Reformers. The palace witnessed three interviews between the great reformer, John Knox, and his young and beautiful Queen. Using his pulpit as the opportunity for declaiming against the doings of the Queen and that of idolators generally, John Knox was called to task by Mary, who ordered him to appear before her at Holyrood. The first interview took place in the audience-chamber, leading into the Queen's bedchamber. Only Lord James Stuart, afterwards the Regent Moray, was present at the interview, in which Knox answered the Queen's accusations very cleverly. The second interview was held in the Queen's bedroom, the room which remains much as she left it, with the actual bed in which she slept. Off this room were two small rooms, in one of which she was supping with her Italian secretary, David Riccio, when the band of armed men, headed by her husband Darnley, burst into the room. Riccio clung to the Queen's dress, but was torn apart, stabbed, and dragged out to be despatched with many wounds at the top of the staircase. Queen Mary's son, James VI., spent some time of every year in the palace, and restored it when he was expecting his Danish bride.