Before reproducing Bourgoyne's _Journal_ it will be necessary for the reader's benefit to give a summary of the correspondence and political manœuvres of the period. The accompanying narrative will enable the reader to recognise Queen Mary's actual position and circumstances, and the unconquerable spirit she manifested to the very last in defending herself for nineteen years against the false and calumnious charges of her enemies. The people of Scotland appear to have been quite in the dark, and to have taken no part in the extraordinary proceedings that in her last days were going on. One writer informs us that her death was not known in Scotland for a month after its occurrence, while the administration of the Crown of England for this period was almost wholly confined to her persecution and the creating of schemes by which her death might be accomplished. When Mary abandoned all hope of getting satisfaction from Elizabeth, she addressed a communication on the subject to Chateauneuf, the French Ambassador in London, setting forth the nature of her grievances, and desired him to discuss the same with Elizabeth. This letter leaves us in no doubt regarding the sufferings of the writer. She speaks plainly of the cruelty of Elizabeth and of the “infirm and pitiable condition to which eighteen years of imprisonment have brought me”; that for four years she had endeavoured to please Elizabeth, and had sent her secretary with _carte blanche_ to come to terms with her; but everything had failed. The Ambassador discussed it very seriously with Elizabeth, but made no impression. A few days after the despatch of this letter Mary wrote another to Chateauneuf, both of which we reproduce slightly condensed. The letter to the French Ambassador speaks for itself, and gives us a better idea of her forlorn condition than any other paper we possess. It is painfully evident that she was reduced to the level of a criminal, and every comfort and every means of recreation denied her. Nobody was permitted even to approach the house where she was living without declaring their object, and no one was allowed to have access to her. “It is unreasonable,” as she says, “to make me suffer for that of which I am not the cause.” But that is not the most painful part of this pitiable letter. She adds, “And to speak still more freely, necessity making me, to my great regret, overcome shame, I began to be very ill attended to in my own person, and with no regard to my infirm state.” Even if Mary had been guilty of all that was laid to her charge, this treatment by the English Queen was infamous, and what is to be said if she was innocent? It was only a month after the date of this letter that the kidnapping of Mary took place by Elizabeth's command. The letter was in the following terms:— Queen Mary to Chateauneuf, end of July 1586, Chartley: