Mary Stuart

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The principal events in the life of Mary Queen of Scots. She was the daughter of Jacques the Fifth and Mary Guise and married Francis the Second, King of France. After the death of her husband in 1560, Mary Stuart left France and returned to her former home in Scotland, Her father having died in the meantime, she was made Queen. She was barely nineteen years of age, and her youth as well as her great beauty and charm of manners won for her the hearts of the Scots. She was a devout Roman Catholic and when she ascended the throne she found the country in the hands of the Protestants, who gave their young Queen much trouble. At last they revolted and threw her into prison, where, through the assistance of a maid, she escaped to England and asked her cousin Elizabeth for protection, but the latter betrayed her and had her cast into prison, where, through the assistance of a page, she secures a disguise and escapes through a window. Her maid holds the door while she makes good her escape, and when Elizabeth enters she is so enraged that she immediately sends her soldiers to recapture the unfortunate young Queen. They follow her for some distance and overtake her on the road and, after a desperate struggle, she is again captured and taken back to prison, where she is condemned to death by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. We see the trial scene where the unfortunate woman hears her doom, after which she divides her earthly possessions among her faithful servants. Then comes the walk to the death chamber, where she goes with unfaltering steps, showering blessings upon her enemies, and as she kneels before the block her peaceful countenance bears the same sweet smile that never left her through all her trials, and, kissing the cross for the last time, lays her head calmly on the block and immediately all is over.