The Works of William Robertson: To which is Prefixed an Account of His Life and Writings of the Author, Volume 2

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Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1851 - Europe

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Page 217 - Mary's sufferings exceed, both in degree and in duration, those tragical distresses which fancy has feigned to excite sorrow and commiseration ; and while we survey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties, we think of her faults with less indignation, and approve of our tears, as if they were shed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure vjrtue.
Page 395 - I have shown Your Honour's letter unto the Lord James, Lord Morton, Lord Lidington ; they wish as Your Honour doth, that she might be stayed yet for a space, and if it were not for their obedience sake, some of them care not tho
Page 212 - is not worthy the joys of heaven, which repines because the body must endure the stroke of the executioner; and though I did not expect that the Queen of England would set the first example of violating the sacred, person of a sovereign prince, I willingly submit to that which Providence has decreed to be my lot...
Page 175 - That if any rebellion shall be excited in the kingdom, or any thing attempted to the hurt of her majesty's person, by or for any person pretending a title to the crown, the queen shall empower twentyfour persons, by a commission under the great seal, to examine into, and pass sentence upon such offences ; and after judgment given, a proclamation...
Page 216 - Tmpatient of contradiction; because she had been accustomed from her infancy to be treated as a queen. No stranger, on some occasions, to dissimulation; which, in that perfidious court where she received her education, was reckoned among the necessary arts of government.
Page 217 - She danced, she walked, and rode with equal grace. Her taste for music was just, and she both sung and played upon the lute with uncommon skill. Towards the end of her life, long confinement, and the coldness of the houses in which she had been imprisoned, brought on a rheumatism, which often deprived her of the use of her limbs. No man, says Brantome, ever beheld her person without admiration and love, or will read her history without sorrow.
Page 267 - The rest of James's subjects, in order to avoid suspicion, or to gain his favour, contended who should be most forward to execute his vengeance. A convention of estates being called, pronounced the late insurrection to be high treason ; ordained every minister to subscribe a declaration of his submission to the king's jurisdiction, in all matters civil and criminal...
Page 314 - James acquired such an immense accession of wealth, of power, and of splendour, that the nobles, astonished and intimidated, thought it vain to struggle for privileges which they were now unable to defend. Nor was it from fear alone that they submitted to the yoke : James, partial to his countrymen, and willing that they should partake in his good fortune, loaded them with riches and honours ; and the hope of his favour concurred with the dread of his power, in taming their fierce and independent...
Page 106 - Ballanden, his servant, holding up the other oxter (armpit) from the abbey to the parish kirk, and, by the said Richard and another servant, lifted up to the pulpit where he behoved to lean at his first entry ; but ere he had done with his sermon, he was so active and vigorous that he was like to ding the pulpit in blads (splinters) and fly out of it.
Page 213 - She wrote her testament with her own hand. Her money, her jewels, and her clothes, she distributed among her servants, according to their rank, or merit. She wrote a short letter to the king of France, and another to the duke of Guise, full of tender but magnanimous sentiments, and recommended her soul to their prayers, and her afflicted servants to their protection. At supper she ate temperately, as usual, and conversed not only with ease, but with cheerfulness; she drank to every one of her servants,...

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