soldier, Queen Elizabeth remained at home to succour the wounded and dying. She was constantly to be found in the hospitals, tending the wounded, comforting the dying, and cheering those poor fellows who had to undergo painful operations. After the war was over, the wives of the Roumanian soldiers subscribed for a statue of her Majesty. It stands to-day in the public square of Bucharest, and represents the queen giving a drink of water to a wounded soldier. It is not only an ornament to the city, but also proves a nation's gratitude.

In order to find time for her literary pursuits, the queen is in the habit of rising very early, and writes until eight o'clock, often gaining in this way three or four hours before the ordinary engagements of the day begin. In her own words-for this time "she can be a woman and author; for the rest of the day she must be queen.

From her recently-published "Life" we quote two specimen hymns written by the Queen of Roumania. Here is her "Confirmation Hymn," as translated by Sir Edwin Arnold. Referring to this rite, she wrote to her brother: "I am sure you can understand what I feel in having entered into the year in which I have to bind myself with a promise before the altar to become a responsible member of human society. I think of it with real apprehension, for I am not yet ripe for it."

"Praise ye the Lord who in mightiness hath wrought ye;

Praise him who safely with blessings hath brought ye;

Praise him, thou earth, and thou star of the sky;
Let what hath being the Lord glorify!

II. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.

THIS unfortunate queen, celebrated alike for her beauty, wit, learning, and misfortunes, was born in 1542, the only child of James V. of Scotland, by a French princess, Maria of Lorraine. James died when. the little Mary was only a few days old, and the widowed mother, with her infant, was left to encounter, undefended by a husband, the stormy factions of that most stormy period of Scottish history. For six

years the child resided in the palace of Linlithgow, under the united guardianship of her mother and the Earl of Arran, the next heir to the Scottish throne; but when Mary was about six years of age, she was taken by her mother to France, and sent to a conventschool for the daughters of the French nobility. Here Mary became proficient in the Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian languages, and developed a taste for music and poetry. Many of her poetical compositions of this date were of much promise.

When in her sixteenth year, Mary was married to the Dauphin, afterwards Francis II. of France; but after about eighteen months of married life, and only six months after his accession to the French throne, Francis died. Thus, by cruel bereavement, she was again left friendless, and exposed to the plottings of enemies.

After this Mary returned to Scotland, but her affections were in "la belle France;" and no wonder, for the times were not such as would suit a weak, shrinking woman, young in years, newly widowed, and full of foreboding as to what the future might have in store.

Under pressure from Queen Elizabeth of England, who all along regarded Mary as a dangerous rival, Mary married Lord Darnley, by whom she had one son, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England. Darnley died a violent death, and she afterwards married the Earl of Bothwell. Her conduct has been much condemned in relation to the intrigues and intimacies which prevailed at the Scottish court at that time, and

certainly some things appear suspicious. But the kingdom was distracted by tumults and civil war, the Scots were a quarrelsome and half- civilized people, and noble plotted against noble in the endeavour to seize the throne. These troubles caused Bothwell to fly the kingdom, and Mary was carried prisoner to Loch Leven Castle. From thence she went into England, after an eleven months' captivity, and threw herself on the generosity of Queen Elizabeth. But the English queen was a very wary foe. Mary had been, while resident in France, so ill-advised as to assume the arms and title of Queen of England, in addition to that of France and Scotland, and Elizabeth never forgave the offence, seeing that by it a doubt was cast on her own legitimate title to the succession.

Elizabeth, who could be brave and generous when she chose, was a woman who could stoop to crush an enemy mercilessly, especially if that enemy were a woman. To her eternal dishonour, it must be recorded that she did this with the unfortunate Mary. She had got her enemy into her power, and with a refinement of cruelty of which no woman should have been capable, she kept her a prisoner in one castle or another for nineteen weary years. At last, upon what is now considered a trumped-up charge of conspiracy against Elizabeth, she was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle, February 8, 1587, in the forty-fifth year of her age. Her son, although King of Scotland at this time, made no attempt to rescue his mother from her imprisonment and doom; but after his accession to the English

throne, he paid her the tardy honour of interring her remains in Westminster Abbey.

It is said that she wrote the following "Lament" and "Prayer" during her imprisonment at Fotheringay, and when expecting death :

"Alas! what am I? what my life become?
A corpse existing when the pulse hath fled,
An empty shadow, mark for conflict dread,
Whose only hope of refuge is the tomb!
Cease to pursue, O foes, with envious hate,
My share of this world's glories hath been brief;
Soon will your ire on me be satiate,

For I consume and die of mortal grief.

And ye, my faithful friends, who hold me dear,
In dire adversity, and bonds, and woe,

I lack the power to guerdon love sincere.
Wish, then, the close of all my ills below,

That purified on earth with sins forgiven,

My ransomed soul may share the joys of heaven."

Her Prayer" runs thus:

"O Lord God,

I've trusted in thee;

O Jesus beloved,

Now liberate me!

In fetters so galling,
In tortures appalling,
I long after thee.
In moaning, in groaning,
On bent knee atoning,

I adore thee,
I implore thee
To liberate me."