a satisfactory character, he died before November 1581. Mary
Fleming, early in 1587, married the famous William Maitland of
Lethington, 'being no more fit for her than I to be a page,' says
Kirkcaldy of Grange. Her life was wretched enough, through the
stormy career and sad death of her lord. Mary Beaton, with whom
Randolph, the English ambassador, used to flirt, married, in 1566,
Ogilvy of Boyne, the first love of Lady Jane Gordon, the bride of
Bothwell. Mary Seaton remained a maiden and busked the Queen's hair
during her English captivity. We last hear of her from James
Maitland of Lethington, in 1613, living at Rheims, very old,
'decrepid,' and poor. There is no room in the Four for Mary
Hamilton, and no mention of her appears in the records of the Court.

How, then, did Mary Hamilton find her way into the old ballad about
Darnley and the Queen?

To explain this puzzle, some modern writers have denied that the
ballad of 'The Queen's Marie' is really old; they attribute it to
the eighteenth century. The antiquary who launched this opinion was
Scott's not very loyal friend, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe.
According to him, a certain Miss Hambledon (no Christian name is
given), being Maid of Honour to the Empress Catherine of Russia, had
three children by an amour, and murdered all three. Peter the Great
caused her to be, not hanged, but decapitated. Sharpe took his
facts from 'a German almanac,' and says: 'The Russian tragedy must
be the original.' The late Professor Child, from more authentic
documents, dates Miss Hambledon's or Hamilton's execution on March
14, 1719. At that time, or nearly then, Charles Wogan was in Russia
on a mission from the Chevalier de St. George (James III.), and
through him the news might reach Scotland. Mr. Courthope, in his