The History of Scotland, Volume 3

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Page 68 - Her eyes were a dark gray, her complexion was exquisitely fine, and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to shape and colour. Her stature was of a height that rose to the majestic. 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.
Page 62 - Her attendants, during this conversation, were bathed in tears, and though overawed by the presence of the two earls, with difficulty suppressed their anguish ; but no sooner did Kent and Shrewsbury withdraw, than they ran to their mistress, and burst out into the most passionate expressions of tenderness and sorrow.
Page 61 - 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 43 - Nor is my spirit so broken by its past misfortunes, or so intimidated by present dangers, as to stoop to any thing unbecoming the majesty of a crowned head, or that will disgrace the ancestors from whom I am descended, and the son to whom I shall' leave my throne. If I must be tried, princes alone can be my peers. The queen of England's subjects, however noble their birth may be, are of a rank inferior to mine.
Page 65 - ... to undress before so many spectators, nor to be served by such valets. With calm but undaunted fortitude, she laid her neck on the block ; and while one executioner held her hands, the other, at the second stroke, cut off her head, which, falling out of its attire, discovered her hair already grown quite gray with cares and sorrows. The executioner held it up still streaming with blood, and the dean crying out, " So perish all Queen Elizabeth's enemies," the earl of Kent alone answered, Amen.
Page 199 - Thus, during the whole seventeenth century, the English were gradually refining their language and their taste ; in Scotland, the former was much debased, and the latter almost entirely lost. In the beginning of that period, both nations were emerging out of barbarity ; but the distance between them, which was then inconsiderable, became, before the end of it, immense. Even after science had once dawned...
Page 68 - 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 309 - ... she can as much prevail with him, in any thing that is against his will, as Your Lordship may with me to persuade that I should hang myself; this last dignity out of hand to have been proclaimed King, she would have...
Page 200 - At length, the union having incorporated the two nations, and rendered them one people, the distinctions which had subsisted for many ages gradually wear away ; peculiarities disappear ; the same manners prevail in both parts of the island ; the same authors are read and admired ; the same entertainments are frequented by the elegant and polite ; and the same standard of taste, and of purity in language, is established.
Page 309 - ... are already given and granted ; no man pleaseth her that contenteth not him ; and what may I say more, she hath given over to him her whole will, to be ruled and guided as himself best liketh...

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