Soon after her arrival, she dined in the Castle of Edinburgh; and it was there contrived, that a boy, six years of age, should be let down from the roof, and should present her with a Bible, a Psalter, and the keys of the castle.

Lest she should be at a loss to understand this insult on her as a Papist, all the decorations expressed the burning of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and other punishments inflicted by God upon idolatry.[***] The town council of Edinburgh had the assurance, from their own authority, to issue a proclamation banishing from their district "all the wicked rabble of Antichrist the pope, such as priests, monks, friars, together with adulterers and fornicators."[****] And because the privy council suspended the magistrates for their insolence, the passionate historians[v] of that age have inferred that the queen was engaged, by a sympathy of manners, to take adulterers and fornicators under her protection.

It appears probable, that the magistrates were afterwards reinstated in their office, and that their proclamation was confirmed.[v*] * Keith, p.

179.
** Keith, p.

202.
*** Keith, p.