And Mary Stuart returned, Queen of Scotland — and this was cause enough to disquiet Elizabeth, especially as the woman was adorned with lofty qualities, had prowess in the field of rule and practice in the affairs of politics, having been the wife of King Francis II. Elizabeth's fear melted away when Mary married her cousin Henry Stuart.

But Mary's remaining alive was a standing threat to Elizabeth... Revolts broke out again in the country, kindled by the Catholics at the prompting of the other European powers, Spain and France at their head; the Queen managed in the end to quell all these movements, even in Scotland, and proclaimed herself Queen of England without a rival.

In 1579 the Jesuit missionaries resumed their activity in England; they cared nothing for the troubles that stood in their way, and marched toward their goal with tremendous steadfastness, which compelled her to declare martial law; and in the latter days of her reign she put to death some three hundred, by burning. Nor did this lessen the plots that Mary, Queen of Scotland, went on contriving... Some of the nobles

came forward with a new proposal calling for Mary's death; naturally Elizabeth did not consent to the shedding of royal blood, but she was persuaded in the end that the political interest required the death of Mary, who was executed on the charge of high treason.

On the eighth of February, in the year 1587, Mary appeared in a procession of her executioners, her body wrapped in a gown of black 'satin.' She walked through the hall with pride and unconcern, and when the chaplain of the court church asked her to change her faith, she lifted her head and answered him boldly: I am a Catholic, and in my faith I shall die. Then she took off the black satin cloak and flung it to her lady-in-waiting, who stood behind her weeping; and beneath it appeared a robe of crimson velvet... One of her ladies handed her a pair of gloves of the same color; and so the queen stood in her last moment, her body dyed deep red. Then she knelt, and the sword's edge passed once, and swept away her small head...

And when the news reached London, decorations were raised in the streets; and all the while, Elizabeth sat alone in her room... sobbing...

Gloves of white leather embroidered with gold, which the Queen used to wear

Talk of the Heart — A Young Girl ...

Talk of the Heart

I asked you, Mama:

of what might you be dreaming,

in your long pensiveness

across the phantoms of the dark??

What dust-gray desolation

does night bind about your heart?

* * *

Your tenderness... Mama!

Where might your thought be wandering—

those hills that lie between

wakefulness and slumber,

the hour the body sinks beneath the blanket,

drowned in soft warmth,

gasping as limb strikes against limb—

and restful sleep refuses,

and sleeplessness clamors in the bed?!

* * *

I would give myself for you... Mama!

Could it be that, like me,

the axis of your dim, becalmed dreams,

in your pensiveness and the drifting of fancy,

is some obscure yearning?

The clasp of an arm.... and a mouth?!