was by steps covered with tapestry wrought in gold. A large cloth of lawn covered both bed and steps, and reached a good way over the floor. As soon as the ambassadors and other officers had assembled, the dowager countess of Marr approached the bed, and making a low obeisance, took up the prince, and delivered him into the hands of the duke of Lennox, who immediately presented him to the English ambassador, whose office was to carry him into the chapel. After a variety of minute ceremonies, too tedious to recapitulate in this place, the procession set out in magnificent order, preceded by the lyon-king-at-arms, and the other heralds in their state uniforms, all the nobility and foreign ambassadors, and was received in the Chapel Royal, where a sermon was delivered by his majesty's chaplain, and followed by an appropriate address in Latin, spoken by the bishop of Aberdeen. The king, leaving his seat, and followed by the ambassadors, advanced towards the pulpit, while the duke of Lennox, again receiving the prince from the Lady Marr, delivered him to the English ambassador, who held him in his arms during the performance of the sacred ceremony. The child was christened by the names of Frederic Henry, which were no sooner pronounced than they were thrice repeated aloud by the lyonking-at-arms, and confirmed by the inferior heralds with a flourish of trumpets. Various other ceremonies being duly performed, the royal family, attended by the same gorgeous retinue, retired to the great hall, or "Parliament House," already named, under continued salvos of artillery from the castle, answered by volleys of small arms from the troops lining the ramparts. When the procession halted, the duke of Lennox, again receiving the prince from the English ambassador, presented him to the king, who dubbed him a knight, the earl of Marr touching him with the spur. He was next created a duke,* with various other ancient titles attached, all of which were proclaimed by heralds at an open window of the hall, and followed with the usual flourish of trumpets. The prince was then carried by the English ambassador to his chamber in the palace, where all the guests of distinction now approached with their baptismal offerings, styled propines. The ceremony concluded with that of knighting a great number of gentlemen present, and was succeeded by a sumptuous banquet at eight

The king placed upon the infant's head a ducal coronet, and the lyon proclaimed-" The right excellent, high and magnanimous, Frederic Henry, by the grace of God, knight and baron of Renfrew, lord of the Isles, earl of Carrick, duke of Rothsay, prince and great steward of Scotland."-Hist. Stirling. † Melvil records several of these as presented by the foreign ambassadors. From Queen Elizabeth was a cupboard overlaid with silver, and some cups of massy gold. The States presented a gold box, inscribed, "Gift to the prince of five thousand (pounds) a year," accompanied by two cups of the same precious material, and "so weighty," says Melvil, whose office it was to receive them, "that I could hardly lift them and set them on the table."-Melvil's Memoirs.

*

STIKLING CASTLE. BAPTISMAL FÊTE.

161 o'clock, at which their majesties presided. Here, however, we must omit many curious particulars. When the first course had been removed, the company was surprised by the whimsical spectacle of a Moor, harnessed by numerous gold chains to a triumphal car, with which he advanced to the sound of trumpets and hautboys. The chariot bore a table richly covered with fruits and confectionary, and attended by six damsels, three of whom were robed in white satin, three in crimsom satin, covered with gold and silver spangles, a garland on the head, the hair flowing luxuriantly over the shoulders, and bedecked with feathers, pearls, and jewels. In front stood Ceres, holding a sickle in one hand, and a bunch of corn in the other, and surrounded by numerous emblematical and allegorical figures, each with classic costume and well selected devices. The precious dessert which freighted the celestial wain was distributed by the damsels in silence to the great nobility in immediate attendance.

After this a second spectacle, equally original, entered the hall, consisting of a ship full rigged, placed upon wheels, moved by invisible springs, and having a length of eighteen feet in the keel, with a breadth of deck of eight feet. The highest flag, which was lowered on passing through the door of the hall, was forty feet; the masts were red; the tackle and cordage silk of the same colour; and the pulleys of gold. Her brass ordnance consisted of thirty-six pieces, elegantly mounted. The sails were of white taffety, and the anchors tipped with silver. In the foresail was a compass, with this device-quouscunque per undas. On the mainsail were painted the joint arms of Scotland and Denmark. All the sails, flags, and streamers, were embroidered with gold and jewels. The mariners, six in number, were clad in variegated Spanish taffety. The pilot, dressed in cloth of gold, moved the ship at will; and fourteen musicians, with Arion and his harp, performed their dulcet office on board. Upon the forecastle stood Neptune, clad in Indian silk embroidered with silver, holding his trident, and wearing a crown. Next stood Thetis, with her mace: and at her right hand, Triton, with his shell and the scroll-Velis, votis, ventis. Around the vessel were three Syrens, accommodating their gestures to the music, and repeating classic verses. The vessel was decked with pearls, corals shells, and other marine productions. At sound of trumpet, the ship moved majestically forward into the hall, making sail at the blast of Triton's shell and the pilot's whistle, and discharging her ordnance, till she had reached the table.

The machine had been so artfully contrived as to appear to be moved by the Moor unassisted. At first it was designed that a lion should draw it; but fearing lest the living savage might alarm the ladies, or, startled by the profusion of lamps and torches, commit havoc without distinction of sex, it was deemed preferable that the trophy should be drawn by the more tractable biped, as described.

T T

Certain officers of the court received the cargo of sweetmeats in crystal vessels, curiously painted with gold and azure, and representing various fishes. While the mimic ship was unlading, Arion, sitting upon the prow, shaped like the fabled dolphin, struck his harp, at which hautboys, violins, and flutes continued to join, till the music deepened into a full concert. When the banquet had ended, thanksgiving was pronounced by the bishop or chaplain; then the 139th Psalm was sung, in seven parts, by fourteen voices; and finally, at the sound of Triton's shell and the pilot's whistle, the ship weighed anchor, and made sail, till she had got outside the hall. Such was the concluding scene of this brilliant, but strange mixture of christian devotion and pagan pantomime. The hull of the vessel is still preserved in the chapel, now the armoury of the fortress. It is impossible, on perusal of this gorgeous but whimsical ceremony, not to observe the painful contrast it offers to that which accompanied the monarch himself, when his ill-fated mother presented him at the same altar.

It was on the 11th of December, 1566, that Mary arrived in Stirling to arrange the ceremony, and to encourage, by her presence, the pomp and circumstance which were to attend the baptism of her infant son, born on the 19th June previous. Darnley had already preceded her; and ambassadors from England, France, Savoy, and Piedmont, were in waiting, to, present the congratulations of their several courts. Cardinal Laurea, the Pope's nuncio, was also to have been of this number, and had already set out on his way to the Scottish court; but the queen, fully aware of the danger to which the public tranquillity might have been exposed, had the minister of his Holiness appeared at a crisis of so much religious excitement, found means to evade the reception, and the cardinal proceeded no further north than Paris.

The preparations for this solemn pageant were concerted by Mary with a splendour which rather alarmed than gratified the minds of her Protestant subjects, and was much more in accordance with the gorgeous shows in the palace of the Tuileries, than with the grave sobriety which now characterised the Protestant ritual. The Earl of Bedford, who arrived in Stirling with a splendid retinue on the part of Queen Elizabeth, presented a font of gold in her name, and enhanced the offering by a jocular message, that the font, having been ordered by his mistress on the first announcement of the Prince's birth in June, might now be too small for so thriving a child; but if so, he added, by way of compliment, it might be reserved for the next scion from

• The excessive expenses and superfluous apparel, says Knox, which were prepared at that time, far exceeded all that ever had been devised or set forth in this country.