died, leaving Mary Stuart a mere dowager; while her kinsmen, the Guises, lost power, which fell into the unfriendly hands of Catherine de Medici.

At once Arran, who made Knox his confidant, began to woo Mary with a letter and a ring.

Her reply perhaps increased his tendency to madness, which soon became open and incurable by the science of the day.
Here we must try to sketch Mary, _la, Reine blanche_, in her white royal mourning.

Her education had been that of the learned ladies of her age; she had some knowledge of Latin, and knew French and Italian.

French was to her almost a mother-tongue, but not quite; she had retained her Scots, and her attempts to write English are, at first, curiously imperfect.