German writer Ernest Pitaval (1829–1887) is the brightest representative of the historical adventure genre; known as the author of one of the most interesting literary versions of the tragic fate of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart. Several novels about her, created by Pitaval almost a century and a half ago, are still read with undiminished interest. The novel “On the Way to the Block” published in this volume takes the reader to Europe of the 16th century, at that romantic and cruel time when England, Scotland and France was connected and at the same time separated by the struggle for power, the ambitious aspirations of the reigning persons and their favorites. The novel describes the last part of the life of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart from the time of her forced abdication of the throne.