-his brother, a youth of fifteen or sixteen, called the "Little Douglas," and employed as page to his mother.

7. Mary was, of course, made to suffer more heavily, and every fresh precaution against her escape took the form of a new torture. Her life became almost unendurable. She wrote to Elizabeth, to Catherine de' Medicis,1 and to Charles IX., supplicating them for aid; but, before any of them could move in her favor, other help was at hand.

9. George Douglas had never forgotten his promise to set her free. He used the liberty gained by his banishment from the castle to extend the circle of her friends. He engaged the powerful families of the Seatons and the Hamiltons in her cause, and, with their aid, formed a more carefully prepared plan than the last, for her escape.

10. It was arranged that on a given night they should be waiting for her, where he had formerly waited. The page, young Douglas, undertook the rest. Sunday, May 2d, 1568, was the day fixed for the execution of the project. The whole household at Loch Leven took their meals in a common hall; and, while they were together, the keys of the fortress were placed on the table by the governor's side.

11. At supper, on the appointed night, the young page watched his opportunity; and, while he held out his plate to be filled, he contrived to get possession of the keys without being, for the moment, observed. He ran at once to Mary's chamber, and released her, and then led her to the boat, locking every door behind him to diminish the chances of pursuit.

12. After handing the Queen and her waiting-woman into their seats, he threw the keys into the lake, took the oars, and pulled vigorously for the shore. Before leaving

1 Měd'e-che.

the castle he had placed a signal-light in one of the windows, so that when the Queen stepped from the boat she found her friends waiting to receive her.

13. She at once took horse, and, accompanied by Lord Seaton, galloped rapidly to that nobleman's house at Niddry, in East Lothian, whence, after a few hours' repose, she made her way to the more strongly fortified castle of the Hamiltons. She was received there by the Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Lord Claude, who, with fifty horsemen, had gone out to meet her.

14. On Sunday, Mary had been a sad captive, abandoned to her enemies in a solitary tower; but on the Saturday following, she found herself at the head of a powerful confederation, in which nine counts, eight lords, nine bishops, and a great number of gentlemen of the highest rank were engaged to defend her, and to restore her to her throne. But this ray of hope only illumed her sombre destiny for an instant.

15. The keys, thrown into the lake by the page, were found by a fisherman in 1805, and are now placed at Kinross. The place where the fugitive Queen landed, on the southern shore of the lake, is still called Mary's Knoll. Richard Whiting.

LXXXIII. - SPARROWS.

LITTLE birds sit on the telegraph-wires,

And chitter, and flitter, and fold their wings;
May be they think that, for them and their sires,
Stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings:

And, perhaps, the Thought that the world inspires

Did plan for the birds, among other things.

Hopes, and joys, and acts of to-day,
And we think that for these the Lord contrives,
Nor catch what the hidden lightnings say.
Yet, from end to end, His meaning arrives,

And His word runs, underneath, all the way.

4. Is life only wires and lightnings, then,

Apart from that which about it clings?

Are the thoughts, and the works, and the prayers of men,
Only sparrows that light on God's telegraph-strings,
Holding, a moment, and gone again?

Nay; He planned for the birds, with the larger things.
MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY.

I

LXXXIV.MY FIRST LECTURE.

WAS home again, in San Francisco, without means and without employment. I tortured my brain for a saving scheme of some kind, and, at last, a public lecture occurred to me! I sat down and wrote one in a fever of hopeful anticipation. I showed it to several friends, but they all shook their heads. They said nobody would come to hear me, and I would make a humiliating failure of it. They said that, as I had never spoken in public, I would break down in the delivery, anyhow.

2. I was disconsolate, now. But at last an editor slapped me on the back, and told me to "go ahead." He said, “Take the largest house in town, and charge a dollar a ticket." The audacity of the proposition was charming; it seemed fraught with practical worldly wisdom, however. The proprietor of the several theaters endorsed the advice, and said I might have his handsome new opera-house at half-price, - fifty dollars. fifty dollars. In sheer desperation, I took it on credit, for sufficient reasons. 3. In three days, I did one hundred and fifty dollars worth of printing and advertising, and was the most distressed and frightened creature on the Pacific coast. could not sleep,-who could under such circumstances? For other people, there was facetiousness in the last line of my posters; but to me it was plaintive with a pang, when I wrote it :

I

Doors open at 7. The trouble will begin at 8." That line has done good service since. Showmen have borrowed it, frequently. I have even seen it appended to a newspaper advertisement, reminding school pupils, in vacation, what time next term would begin.

4. As those three days of suspense dragged by, I grew more and more unhappy. I had sold two hundred tickets

among my personal friends; but I feared they might not come. My lecture, which had seemed "humorous" to me, at first, grew steadily more and more dreary, till not a vestige of fun seemed left; and I grieved that I could not bring a coffin on the stage, and turn the thing into a funeral.

5. I was so panic-stricken, at last, that I went to three old friends, giants in stature, cordial by nature, and stormy-voiced, and said:

"This thing is going to be a failure; the jokes in it are so dim that nobody will ever see them; I would like to have you sit in the parquette, and help me through." They said they would.

6. Then, I went to the wife of a popular citizen, and said that, if she was willing to do me a very great kindness, I would be glad if she and her husband would sit prominently in the left-hand stage-box, where the whole house could see them. I explained to her that I should need help, and would turn toward her and smile, as a signal, when I had been delivered of an obscure joke "and then, "I added, "do n't wait to investigate, but respond!" She promised.

7. Down the street, I met a man I never had seen before. He had been drinking, and was beaming with smiles and good-nature. He said,

"My name's Sawyer. You don't know me, but that doesn't matter. I haven't a cent, but if you knew how bad I wanted to laugh, you'd give me a ticket. Come, now, what do you say?"

8. "Is your laugh hung on a hair trigger? is it critical, or can you get it off easy?"

that is,

9. My drawling infirmity of speech so affected him. that he laughed a specimen or two which struck me as being about the article I wanted, and I gave him a ticket, and appointed him to sit in the second circle, in the cen