For many months before my flight, however, I had not been permitted to bask in the light of Mary's smiles to the extent of my wishes.

Younger men, among them Darnley, who was but eighteen years of age, were preferred to me, and I had begun to consider the advisability of an orderly retreat from the Scottish court before my lustre should be entirely dimmed.

It is said that a man is young so long as he is strong, and I was strong as in the days of my youth.

My cheeks were fresh, my eyes were bright, and my hair was red as when I was twenty, and without a thread of gray.

Stills my temperament was more exacting and serious, and the thought of becoming settled for life, or rather for old age and death, was growing in favor with me.