Old photograph of Mary Queen Of Scots bedroom in Rossend Castle, Burntisland, Fife, Scotland. It was here that the romantic Frenchman, Du Chastelard committed the act of lese-majestie which led to his execution. Fixated on the Queen, and thinking his feelings were reciprocated, he had on a previous occasion, sneaked into her bedchamber at Holyrood in Edinburgh. He secretly followed the Queen to Burntisland, and entering the Castle by the secret staircase, burst in on the Queen while she was preparing for bed. The shrieks of Mary and her Ladies brought assistance, and Mary, glowing with indignation at the insult, commanded Moray, who first ran to her succour, to stab him with his dagger, but he preferred securing him to this summary vengeance, a formal trial followed, and the miserable man was condemned and executed within two days after his offence. On the scaffold, instead of having recourse to his missal or breviary, he drew from his pocket a volume of Ronsard, and, reciting the poet’s hymn to Death, resigned himself to his fate with gaiety and indifference.
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