THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 
 
 BY 
 
 G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' DIGBY GRAND,' ' THE INTEEPEETEE,' ' HOLMBY HOUSE,' 
 ' GOOD FOR NOTHING,' ETC. 
 
 r J * ft 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PARKER, SON, AND BOURN, WEST STRAND. 
 
 1862.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PKINTED BY G. PHIPPS, 13 & 14, TOTHILL STREET, 
 
 WESTMINSTER. 
 
 
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 TO A LADY 
 
 WHOSE UNTIRING ENERGY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 
 
 HAVE ADDED LARGELY TO THE LITERATURE 
 
 OF OUR COUNTRY, AND WHOSE 
 
 ELOQUENT DEFENCE OF A CALUMNIATED QUEEN, 
 
 HAS IDENTIFIED WITH MARY STUART, 
 
 THE NAME OF 
 
 AGNES STRICKLAND, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY 
 DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Bartrams, Hampstead, 
 
 June 1802. /-^/--w « « .r-^ -.. 
 
 204422
 
 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES. 
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 
 
 * Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, 
 The day she'll hae but three, 
 There was Mary Beton, and Mary Seton, 
 And Mary Carmichael, and me.' 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ' Turn back, turn back, ye weel-fau'red May, 
 My heart will break in three, 
 And sae did mine on yon bonny hill-side, 
 When ye wadna let me be ! ' 
 
 ilANY a smiling plain, many a wooded slope 
 and sequestered valley, adorns the fair 
 province of Picardy. Nor is it without 
 reason, that her Norman-looking sons and 
 handsome daughters are proud of their birth-place; but 
 the most prejudiced of them will hardly be found to 
 affirm that her sea-board is either picturesque or in- 
 teresting, and perhaps the strictest search would fail 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 to discover a duller toAvn than Calais in the whole 
 bounds of France. With the gloom of night settling 
 down upon the long low line of white sand which 
 stretches westward from the harbour, and an angry 
 surge rising on the adjacent shoal, while out to seaward 
 darkness is brooding over the face of the deep, an 
 unwilling traveller might, indeed, be induced to turn 
 nito the narrow ill-paved streets of the town, on the 
 seamanlike principle of running for any port in a storm; 
 but it would be from the sheer necessity of procuring 
 food and lodging, not from any delusive expectation of 
 gaiety and amusement, essential ingredients in a French- 
 man's every-day life. And yet Calais has been the 
 scene of many a thrilling incident and stirring event. 
 Could they speak, those old houses with their pointed 
 gables, their overhanging roofs and quaint diamond- 
 paned windows, they could tell some strange tales of 
 love and war, of French and English chivahy, of deeds 
 of arms performed for the sake of honour and beauty 
 and ambition and gold, the four strings on which most 
 of the tunes are played that speed the Dance of Death, 
 of failures and successes, hopes and disappointments, 
 the ups and downs, the ins and outs, the cross-purposes, 
 the hide and seek that constitute the game of Life. 
 In that very house over the way yonder, with its silent 
 court-yard, in which the grass shoots up vigorously 
 between the stones, and from which to-day nothing 
 more unusual issues than an old peasant woman in a 
 clean cap, carrying a young child with a dirty face, 
 slept, perhaps, the loveliest woman the world ever saw, a 
 widow while yet a bride, a Queen while yet a child, on 
 her way from one royal throne to take possession of
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 6 
 
 another. Yes, here she lay the night before she quitted 
 her dear France, never to see it again ; the bright, the 
 beautiful, the beloved, a very rose amongst all the 
 flowers of the garden, a very gem amongst all the gold 
 and tinsel that suiTounded her, the link in a line of 
 kings, the pride of two countries, the fairest of God's 
 creatures — Mary, Queen of Scots — here she lay, with 
 life and love and hope before her, and slept, and 
 dreamed not of Fotheringay. 
 
 It was a chill autumn night. Beyond the walls a 
 rising breeze moaned fitfully over the dreary flats. 
 The ebbing tide murmured as it receded, returning, 
 and yet returning, as though loth to leave that com- 
 fortless expanse of wet level sand. A few drops of 
 rain fell from time to time, and though a star struggled 
 out here and there, the sky became momentarily more 
 obscured. It was a gloomy night out at sea yonder ; it 
 was a gloomy night here on shore, dismal, foreboding, 
 and suggestive of Farewell. 
 
 But within the town, bustle and hurry, and a certain 
 amount of confusion, not unmixed with revelry, im- 
 parted considerable life and animation to the hoiu's of 
 darkness, scaring indeed some of the quiet householders, 
 and rousing the echoes in the narrow streets. Horses, 
 picketed in the market-place, stamped and snorted and 
 shook their bridles, spurs clanked on the pavement, 
 steel corslet and head-piece flashed in the light of 
 torches held by bearded men-at-arms, looking doubly 
 martial in that red glare. Here might be seen a dainty 
 page in satin doublet, with velvet cap and feather, 
 elbowing some sturdy groom who was bearing a cuirass 
 home from the armourer's, or leading a charger to its 
 
 B2
 
 4 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 stall, and enquiring, with all a page's freedom, for the 
 lodging of his lord, to receive, probably, an answer 
 neither respectful nor explanatory, but productive of a 
 stinging retort, for in those days the pages of a great 
 house were masters of all weapons, but especially of the 
 tongue. There might be observed a group of peasant- 
 women in clean hoods and aprons, with baskets on their 
 heads, lingering somewhat longer than was absolutely 
 necessary to exchange with harquebusiers or spearmen 
 those compliments in which the French imagination is 
 so prolific, and which the French lano-uao-e renders 
 with such graceful facility. Anon, a lord of high 
 degree, easily recognized by the dignity of his bearing, 
 and the number of his retainers throngino; round him 
 with arms and torches, passed along the streets, ex- 
 citing the curiosity of the vulgar, and the admiration 
 of tlie softer sex, while more than one churchman, 
 threading his way quietly homeward, dropped his 
 ' Benedicite ' with gentle impartiality amongst the 
 throng. The blessing was usually received with grati- 
 tude, though an exception might occur in the person 
 of some stalwart man-at-arms, large of limb, fresh- 
 coloured, and fair-bearded, who returned the good 
 man's greeting with derision or contempt. These re- 
 probates were invariably well armed, and extremely 
 soldier-like in their bearing, to bo distinguished more- 
 over by their blue velvet surcoats, on which St. An- 
 drew's Cross was embroidered in silver, and the peculiar 
 form of their steel-lined bonnets, which they wore with 
 a jaunty air on one side the head. Something also, of 
 more than the usual assumption of a soldier might be 
 traced in their demeanour, as is apt to be the case with
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 
 
 the members of a corps d'elite, and such the Archers 
 of the Scottish Body-guard had indeed a right to be 
 considered both by friend and foe. Although in the 
 service of His Most Catholic Majesty, many of them, 
 including their captain, the unfortunate Earl of Arran, 
 were staunch Protestants, and at that rancorous period 
 the supporters of the Reformed Church did by no 
 means confine themselves to a silent abnegation of the 
 errors they had renounced. 
 
 One Archer, however, a young man with nothing 
 peculiarly striking either in face or figure, save an air 
 of frankness and quiet determination on his sun-burnt 
 brow, acknowledged the benediction of a passing eccle- 
 siastic with a humility that excited the jeers of two or 
 three comrades, to which he replied with the quiet 
 simplicity that seemed to be a part of his character, 
 ' An old man's blessing, lads, can do neither you nor 
 me any harm,' and proceeded on his way without 
 further remark or explanation ; while the manner in 
 which his rebuke was received by the scorners them- 
 selves, denoted that he was at least a person of some 
 consideration and standing in the corps. Elbowing his 
 way through a gaudy crowd, consisting of the Marquis 
 d'Elboeuf's retainers, who were accompanying their 
 master in his attendance on his royal niece, and certain 
 satellites of the House of Guise, for the Duke and 
 Duchess, with Cardinal Lorraine, had already escorted 
 the Queen of Scotland thus far upon her journey, our 
 Archer turned into an auberge, already filled with a 
 mixture of courtiers, soldiers, pages, men-at-arms, and 
 other officials, and seating himself at a small deal table, 
 coarse and clean, requested to be served, in a tone of
 
 6 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 impatience that implied a vigorous appetite, and a long 
 fast. While the host, quick, com-teous, and smiling, 
 bustled up to him, with napkin, trencher, and some 
 two feet of bread, the Archer removed the bonnet from 
 his brow, and, looking around him, nodded to one or 
 two acquaintances with an air of considerable pre- 
 occupation, ere he subsided into a profound fit of ab- 
 straction, which, to judge bj his countenance, proceeded 
 from no agreeable theme. 
 
 He was a man of less than thirty summers, suffi- 
 ciently well built, and of ordinary stature, with no pe- 
 culiar advantages of person or bearing, that should 
 distinguish him from any other gentleman-private of 
 the Scottish Body-guard. His arms, indeed, were scru- 
 pulously clean, and of the best workmanship, for when 
 a man's life depends daily on the quality of his blade, 
 such details become a matter of course ; and if his 
 apparel were a thought more carefully put on, and of a 
 more precise cut than that of his fellows, this distinc- 
 tion seemed but to arise from that habitual attention 
 to trifles which is the usual concomitant of energy and 
 readiness for action. A sloven may be a brave man, 
 and a capable ; but if the machine is to remain in 
 good working order, every screw should fit to a hair's 
 breadth, and a coat of varnish over the whole, will not 
 detract from its efficiency. Our Archer then was well 
 but not splendidly dressed, nor would his face more 
 than his figure have attracted the attention of any 
 casual observer. Nine men out of ten would have 
 passed him by unnoticed. A woman would have been 
 first puzzled, then interested, perhaps eventually fas- 
 cinated, by the quiet repose of that stern, calm brow.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. / 
 
 It was a face of which the expression was many years 
 older than the features. A physiognomist would have 
 detected in it, resolution, tenacity of purpose, strong 
 feeling repressed by habitual self-control — above all, 
 self-denial, and great power "of suffering. 
 
 For the rest, his complexion, where not tanned by 
 the weather, was fair and fresh-coloured, according well 
 with the keen grey eye, and light brown haii* of his 
 Scottish origin. 
 
 The Archer's meditations, however, were soon put to 
 flight by the agreeable interruption of a well-served 
 supper (for, indeed, prior to those days, as old Froissart 
 will bear us witness, the French excelled in cookery) ; 
 and after the first cravings of appetite were appeased, 
 he emptied a cup of red wine with a sigh of consider- 
 able satisfaction, then returned to his platter with 
 renewed vigom", and filled his goblet once more to the 
 brim. 
 
 ' Good wine drowns care,' said a laughing voice 
 behind him ; ' and Cupid himself cannot fly when his 
 wings are drenched. Ho ! drawer, quick ! Another 
 flask of Burgundy, and place me a chair by my 
 pearl of Scottish Archers, till he tells me what brings 
 him here eighty leagues from Paris, unless it be to 
 mingle his tears with the salt brine of the accursed 
 Channel that bears our White Queen* from the shores 
 of France.' 
 
 An expression of pain shot rapidly over the Archer's 
 face as he greeted the speaker with a cordial grasp of 
 
 * Mary was called "La Reine Blanche," because she mourned 
 in white for her first husband, Francis II.
 
 i8 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 the hand ; but he answered in the deep steady tones 
 that were habitual to him. 
 
 ' A man may have despatches to carry from the 
 Constable to his son, and d'Amville is not likely to 
 overlook a soldier's delay on such a road as this, where 
 there are as many horses as poplar trees. I could 
 take the Montmorency's orders yesterday at noon, and 
 be here to supper to-night, without borrowing the 
 Pegasus you ride so recklessly, my poetical friend.' 
 
 The other laughed gaily — and when he laughed, his 
 dark eyes flashed and sparkled like diamonds. 
 
 ' My Pegasus,' said he, ' needs oftener the spm- than 
 the rein ; but who could not write verses, and sing them 
 too, with such a theme before him ? Listen, my friend. I 
 am to sail to-morrow with them for Scotland. Heaven's 
 blessings on d'Amville that he has selected me to ac- 
 company him ! Nay, we are appointed to the Queen's 
 galley ; and Mary will take at least one heart along with 
 her as loyal and devoted as any she can leave behind.' 
 
 He checked himself suddenly, and a sad, wistful ex- 
 pression crossed his handsome brow, whilst the dark 
 eyes dimmed, and he set down untasted the Burgundy 
 he had lifted to his lips. Something in his voice, too, 
 seemed to have enlisted the Archer's sympathy, and he 
 also was silent for a moment, and averted his looks from 
 his companion's face. 
 
 After a while, he forced himself to speak. 
 
 ' I must return,' said he, ' in two more days. Is it 
 true they embark without fail to-morrow? Is there 
 no danger from the ships of England ? Is Her Majesty 
 well accompanied ? Doth the household sail with her ? 
 Ladies and all ? '
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 9 
 
 * The Maries, of course,' replied the other, answer- 
 ing only the last question, which he reasonably considered 
 the most interesting to his listener ; ' and right glad 
 they seem to be to quit this merry land of France for 
 that cold bleak country, where I hear, music is scarcely 
 known, and dancing interdicted as a sin ! I marvel 
 much at their taste. To be sure, they accompany one 
 who would inspire the wildest savages with chivalry, 
 and make the veriest desert a Paradise ! Ah ! when 
 was such a garland of beauty ever trusted to the waves ? 
 The Queen and her satellites ! One lovelier than an- 
 other, but all paling before her. A bumper, my friend ! 
 on your knees a bumper — a health to the letter M ! 
 nay, pledge me one for each of the four, and a fresh 
 flask for the Queen — for the Queen ! ' 
 
 Again the speaker's voice sank to a whisper, and the 
 Archer who had ere now recovered the usual indifier- 
 ence of his demeanour, proceeded to do justice to a toast 
 which could not, according to the manners of the age, 
 have been refused, and which, in truth, for reasons of 
 his own, he was by no means loth to pledge. The table 
 at which they sat, however, was by this time surrounded 
 by the different frequenters of the auberge, for the 
 Archer's companion, no other than the poet Chastelar, 
 was too well-known and popular an individual in the gay 
 circles of France to remain long unnoticed, where so many 
 of her nobility were congregated. Young, handsome, 
 and well-born, his romantic disposition and undoubted 
 talents had rendered him an especial favourite, with a 
 people who, above all things, delight to be amused, and 
 with whom enthusiasm, whether real or affected, is 
 generally accepted as an equivalent for merit. To look
 
 10 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 on Chastelar, with his long dark curls and his bright 
 eyes, was to behold the poet-type in its most attractive 
 form; and when to beauty of feature and delicacy of 
 mind, were added a graceful figure, skill in horseman- 
 ship, as in all knightly exercises, great kindliness of 
 disposition, and gentle birth, what wonder that with the 
 ladies of the French Court, to be in love with Chastelar 
 was as indispensable a fashion as to wear a pointed 
 stomacher, or a delicate lace edging to the ruff? And 
 Chastelar, with true poet-nature, sunned himself in 
 their smiles, and enjoyed life intensely, as only such 
 natm-es can, and bore about with him the while, unsus- 
 pected and incurable, a sorrow near akin to madness in 
 his heart. 
 
 As gallant after gallant strolled up to the table at 
 which the two friends sat, the conversation became 
 general, turning, as suet conversations usually do, on 
 the congenial themes of Love and War. Again and 
 again was mine host summoned for fresh supplies of 
 wine, and the Archer, whose recent arrival from Paris 
 made him an object of general interest, was plied with 
 questions as to the latest news and gossip of the capital. 
 Richly mounted swords were laid aside on the coarse 
 deal table, cloaks of velvet and embroidery draped the 
 uncouth chairs, gilt spurs jingled on the humble floor, 
 and voices that had bandied opinions with kings in 
 council, or shouted ' St. Denis ! ' in the field, were now 
 exchanging jest and laugh and repartee under the 
 homely roof of a common wine-shop. 
 
 Even the Marquis d'Elboeuf, the Queen's uncle, a 
 lord of the princely house of Guise, and Admiral of 
 France, joined with a sailor's frankness in the gay
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYKOOD. 11 
 
 revel, and taking a seat between Chastelar and the 
 Archer, questioned the latter as to his late interview 
 with the Constable, and the well-being of that distin- 
 guished veteran, a soldier of whom every man in France 
 was proud. 
 
 ' And you made sail with the despatches the moment 
 you were out of his sight,' observed the Marquis. ' I '11 
 warrant you made a fair wind of it all the way to 
 Calais, for the Montmorency brooks no delay in the 
 execution of his orders. How looked he, my friend ? 
 — and what said he ? Come, tell us the exact words.' 
 
 *He looked like an old lion, as he always does/ 
 answered the Archer, simply ; ' and he said to me in so 
 many words, " These letters must be in my son's hands 
 within eight-and-forty hours. I can depend upon you 
 Scots. May the blessing of Our Lady be upon you, 
 my child. And now, Rightj — Face ! and go to the 
 devil!"' 
 
 The Marquis laughed heartily. 
 
 ' He loves your countrymen well,' said he, ' and with 
 reason ; I have heard him swear, the bravest man he 
 ever saw was a Scot.' 
 
 A murmur of dissent, if not disapproval, rose around 
 the table, and many of the Frenchmen present bent 
 their brows in manifest impatience ; but the Marquis, 
 who had his own reasons for wishing to be well with 
 the Scottish nation, and whose frank nature brooked 
 no withdrawal or modification of his opinions, struck 
 his hand on the board till the cups leaped again, and 
 repeated in loud tones — 
 
 ' A Scot ! — Yes, gentlemen — a Scot. And I know 
 why he said so — for I too was present at the boldest
 
 12 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 feat-of-arms even the Constable ever witnessed, and so 
 was mj modest friend here with the Cross of St. An- 
 drew on his breast, only he was but a stripling then, 
 and had hardly strength to hold his pike at the Ad- 
 vance. A health, gentlemen. Do me reason. To the 
 memory of Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes ! One 
 of your difficult Scotch names. Norman Leslie, the 
 bravest of the brave ! — Will you hear the story ? ' 
 
 ' Tell it. Marquis ! ' was repeated on all sides, and 
 cups were set down empty on the board, as many an 
 eager warlike face turned towards the Admiral of 
 France. 
 
 ' It was at Rentz, then,' proceeded d'Elboeuf, ' where 
 the old Empei'or out-generalled us, as completely as we 
 out-fought him, and the two armies were almost within 
 bow-shot of each other. We resembled a couple of 
 angry dogs that are not permitted by their masters to 
 fight. A clear slope of some two or three hundred 
 paces divided us, and the German light-horsemen came 
 galloping out to skirmish, tossing their lances in the 
 air and bantering us. There must have been, at least, 
 a hundred of them within a pistol-shot of our lines. 
 The blood of Frenchmen soon boils up, gentlemen, but 
 we had no orders to engage, and I, for one, kept my 
 men-at-arms in hand, for the King was commanding 
 in person, and Conde, and the Constable, and the Due 
 d'Anguien were present, and likely to visit any breach 
 of discipline with severe reproof. Ah ! they cannot 
 thus interfere with us at sea ; but I ground my teeth 
 at intervals, and thought, if the order would only come, 
 what short work we would make with the German dogs. 
 
 ' Norman Leslie, however, had come up after the coun-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 13 
 
 cil was over in the King's tent, and so, I suppose, fancied 
 himself free to act. He had but half a score men Avith 
 him at most, but he formed them into line, and charged 
 up the hill into the thick of the enemy. It was a 
 noble sight to see him, gentlemen, in his coat of black 
 velvet, with its broad white crosses, and his burnished 
 armour, with a red Scotch bonnet on his head. How 
 he drove that good grey horse of his a dozen lances' 
 lengths ahead of his following ! He rode through 
 and through the Germans as if they were a troop 
 of children at play. We, in the lines, I tell you, 
 counted five of them go down before his lance broke. 
 Then he drew his sword, and though they shot at him 
 with musquetoons and culverines, we could still see the 
 red bonnet glancing to and fro, like fire among the 
 smoke. At last they detached a company of spearmen 
 to surround him, and then striking spurs into his horse, 
 he came galloping back to our lines, and rode gallantly 
 to salute the Constable in the centre. As he kissed 
 his sword-hilt, the good grey fell dead at Montmo- 
 rency's feet. Alas ! his master followed him in less 
 than a fortnight, for though the King sent his own 
 leech to dress his wounds, brave Norman Leslie was 
 hurt in so many places, that it was out of the power 
 of leech-craft to save him. What say you, gentlemen ? 
 a bolder feat-of-arms than that was never attempted by 
 a soldier, and it was executed by a Scot ! What say 
 you of a man that would ride through an armed host 
 single-handed, to fetch away a laurel-leaf?' 
 
 The Archer smiled, and bowed low at this flattering 
 tribute to his nation. 
 
 ' I might return your compliments, Marquis,' said
 
 14 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 he, ' had we not a Scotch proverb which implies '■'■Stroke 
 me and I will stroke thee.^' And yet it is but fair to 
 say I have known a rougher ride than even Norman 
 Leslie's, taken for a silk handkerchief, and by a French- 
 man,' 
 
 ' A silk handkerchief! a lady's of course,' said one. 
 ' A love- token ! ' exclaimed another. ' Undertaken in 
 deliverance of a vow,' suggested a third. ' Done by an 
 Eugiishman for a wager,' laughed a fourth, — all had 
 some remark to make except Chastelar, whose colour 
 rose visibly and who looked distressed and ill-at-ease. 
 
 ' A handkerchief of the softest Cyprus silk,' insisted 
 the Archer in his quiet impressive voice, ' and rescued 
 by the very man to whom I this day presented his 
 father's letters. And yet it is no wonder that the Con- 
 stable's son and a Marshal of France, should be a brave 
 man. I tell you, gentlemen, that I saw d'Amville at the 
 head of a band of Huguenots sorely pressed and out- 
 numbered by his countrymen of the Catholic faith, so 
 that he had but one chance of retreat in placing a rapid 
 stream betwixt himself and his pursuers. As he was 
 facing the enemy, whilst the last of his followers 
 entered the water, a handkerchief dropped unnoticed 
 from beneath his corslet. He discovered his loss, how- 
 ever, as soon as he reached the opposite bank, and dash- 
 ing once more into the stream under a murderous fire, 
 charged through the press of men-at-arms to the spot 
 where it lay, dismounted, picked it up, and cut his way 
 back again to his own troop. There was blood on the 
 handkerchief when his page unarmed him that night, 
 but I think it was the blood of the bravest man in 
 France.'
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 15 
 
 'And the handkerchief?' — cried several voices. 
 ' Whose was it ? ' ' Who gave it to him ? ' ' Happy 
 the lady who owned so true a Knight.' 
 
 The Archer smiled once more. 
 
 ' Nay, gentlemen,' said he, ' it was no love-token after 
 all. But the Marshal is the soul of loyalty as of honour. 
 There was an M. and a crown-royal embroidered on the 
 margin. It belonged to the White Queen — to her whom 
 France is to lose to-morrow for ever.' 
 
 ' What a theme for the minstrel !' exclaimed d'Elboeuf 
 gaily. ' Chastelar ! can'st thou hear and be silent ? 
 Awake man ! di-ench thy brain with Burgundy, and im- 
 provise us some stanzas ! ' 
 
 The poet looked up with the air of one who shakes 
 some painful burden off his mind. He put his cup to 
 his lips, and answered gaily enough, 
 
 ' Not on that theme. Marquis, at least to-night. Is 
 it not the eve of our departure ? And can there be 
 merriment for France when she thinks of all she is to 
 lose on the morrow ? Nay, gentlemen, if you must 
 have a song let it be a lament. Let France mourn the 
 absence of one whose like she may never hope to see 
 again.' 
 
 Seats were drawn nearer the table — -the guests' 
 faces assumed an air of interest and expectation. 
 Through the open door-way might be seen the humbler 
 servants of the household crowding eagerly to listen. 
 Chastelar looked around him well-pleased, and sang in 
 a rich mellow voice the following stanzas after the 
 model of his old instructor the celebrated Ronsard : —
 
 16 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' As an upland bare and sere, 
 In the waning of the year, 
 
 When the golden drops are withered off the broom ; 
 As a picture when the pride 
 Of its colouring hath died, 
 
 And faded like a phantom into gloom : 
 
 ' As a night without a star, 
 Or a ship without a spar, 
 
 Or a mist that broods and gathers o'er the sea ; 
 As a court without a throne. 
 Or a ring without a stone, 
 Seems the widowed land of France bereft of thee. 
 
 ' Our darling, pearl, and pride ! 
 Our blossom, and our bride ! 
 
 Wilt thou never gladden eyes of ours again ? 
 Would the waves might rise and drown 
 Barren Scotland and her crown, 
 So thou wert back with us in fair Touraine !' 
 
 Amidst the applause which followed the notes of their 
 favourite, cloaks and swords were assumed, reckonings 
 were discharged, farewells exchanged, and laughing 
 light-hearted gallants streamed up the dark street in 
 quest of their respective lodgings. Soon each was 
 housed, and all was quiet ere the first streaks of dawn 
 rose upon the sleeping town, and the cold bleak shore, 
 and the dull waves of the brooding Channel.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' Farewell ! Farewell ! How soon 'tis said ! 
 The wind is ofl" the bay, 
 The sweeps are out, the sail is spread, 
 The galley gathers way. 
 
 ' Farewell ! Farewell ! The words how light ! 
 Yet what can words say more ? 
 Sad hearts are on the sea to-night, 
 And sadder on the shore.' 
 
 i WENT Y-four hours had elapsed since Chas- 
 telar sang his farewell song in the little 
 auberge at Calais. 
 
 He now stood on the deck of a laro-e 
 galley, manned by a sturdy crew of rowers, whose 
 efforts, however, were but little assisted by the light 
 airs that blew off the shore. The ample sail would fill 
 at intervals, and then flap idly against the mast. The 
 measured stroke of the oars seemed on that wide ex- 
 panse of water to have but little effect in propelling 
 the labouring craft, and the companionship of a cor- 
 responding vessel at some quarter of a mile distance 
 proceeding at the same rate, and in the same direction, 
 neutralized all appearance of locomotion, A bright 
 moon shone down upon the Channel, and the coast of 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 France still at no great distance, was distinctly visible 
 in her light. Comparatively little way had been made 
 since the galley's departure, nor did her course bear her 
 in a direct line from the shore. The rowers also had 
 flagged somewhat in their usual efforts. Rank upon 
 rank, these brawny ruffians chained to their heavy oars 
 were accustomed to labour doggedly, yet effectually, 
 under the stimulus of the whip. To-night, however, a 
 gentle voice had interceded even for the rude galley- 
 slaves, and while they enjoyed this rare respite from 
 over-exertion, many a foul lip that had long forgotten 
 to form anything but curses, writhed itself into an un- 
 accustomed blessing for the fair widowed Queen of 
 France. Yes, what a strange companionship in that 
 dark hull, having indeed nothing in common but the 
 thin plank that was equally the hope of all ! Down 
 below, forcing her through the water, men who had 
 almost lost the outward semblance of humanity, whose 
 hearts were as black with crime as their bodies were 
 disfigured with the hardships of their lot. Men whom 
 their fellows had been forced to hunt like wild beasts 
 out of the society of their kind, and to keep chained 
 and guarded at an enforced labour worse than death ; 
 and seated on deck within ten paces of these convicts, 
 a bevy of the fairest and gentlest of the human race, 
 a knot of lovely maidens chosen for their birth, and 
 beauty, and womanly accomplishments, to surround a 
 mistress who was herself the most fascinating of them 
 all, the very pearl of her sex, Mary Stuart, Queen of 
 Scots. 
 
 Chastelar, leaning against the mast, gazed aft upon 
 the deck, and listened to the talk of Mary and her
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 19 
 
 maidens as tliej chatted together in the freedom of 
 that mirestrained intercourse which the Stuarts have 
 ever encouraged with their household. It was pleasant 
 to hear the women's soft tones mingling with the plash 
 of the water, and the flap of the empty sail, but there 
 was one voice of which every note thrilled, even pain- 
 fully, to the poet's heart. 
 
 Mary was reclining on a couch that had been pre- 
 pared for her against the taifrail of the vessel. Though 
 the tears were still wet upon her cheek, and a fresh 
 burst was imminent every time she looked upon the 
 coast, she could yet force herself to speak gaily, and 
 strove to keep up the spirits of her maidens with that 
 charm of manner, which never failed her af the very 
 worst. 
 
 ' And where is our Duenna ? ' said the Queen archly, 
 ' I have scarce seen her since the hour we embarked, 
 when she walked the deck with her head up and the 
 port of an Admiral. D'Amville yonder, studying his 
 charts as if he were in unknown seas, instead of the 
 ditch that divides France from Britain, could scarce 
 have looked more seamanlike.' 
 
 The young lady she addressed, a provoking specimen 
 of the saucy style of beauty, with mischievous eyes, 
 the whitest of teeth, and an exquisite little foot that was 
 always conspicuous, laughed most unfeelingly in reply. 
 
 ' Your Majesty should see her now,' she said. ' I 
 shall never call her proud Mary Beton again. She 
 is below, in the darkest corner of the cabin. She has 
 buried her head in the cushions. She is ill. She is 
 frightened, and her velvet dress is creased and tumbled, 
 and stained all over with sea-water ! ' 
 
 C 2
 
 20 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 ' You cruel child,' said the Queen, good-humouredly. 
 ' Mary Seton, you are incorrigible. But we must send 
 down to succour her, poor thing ! Ah ! it is only a 
 heart-ache like mine that makes one insensible to all 
 other sufferings. Mary Hamilton is too susceptible, 
 •she will be ill also; but you, Mary Carmichael,you have 
 a kind disposition and a ready hand. You will not 
 laugh in her face like this saucy girl here, go down and 
 succour poor Beton. Give her our love — tell her she 
 will yet be well enough to come and look her last with 
 us on the dear land of France.' 
 
 The young lady whom she addressed, rose at once 
 from her occupation, which like that of her mistress, 
 seemed to consist in gazing stedfastly at the French 
 coast, and with a graceful reverence to the Queen, 
 departed on her errand of consolation. As she passed 
 Mary Seton, the hitter's quick eye detected a few 
 drops, it might be of spray, upon her cheek. The 
 Maries could sympathize with their Queen's regret in 
 leaving a country that had been to them a pleasant 
 home; and a woman's sorrow, as we all know, while 
 it is more easily cured, is also more easily excited, 
 than that of the sterner sex. Mary Carmichael's was 
 not a disposition to give way to unavailing grief; 
 above all, was one in which the instinct to conceal 
 strong emotion predominated. With much kindliness 
 of heart and real good-nature, she was yet somewhat 
 intolerant of weakness in herself and others. Brave 
 and self-reliant, she could make small allowance for 
 timidity or vacillation, even in her own sex, and 
 had either mental or bodily pain been able to extort 
 one exclamation of suffering from her lips, she would
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 21 
 
 have been bitterly ashamed of it a moment after- 
 wards. To look on her clear blue eyes, her finely cut 
 and regular features, her smooth brow, and determined 
 mouth and chin, determined and uncompromising, de- 
 spite of red lips, white teeth, and dimples, you would 
 have decided that the one drawback to her attractions 
 was the want of that yielding softness which is a 
 woman's greatest charm. 'On aime ce qu^ on protege^ and 
 the haughty beauty who humbles while she conquers, 
 little guesses how a man's rude heart ' warms to the 
 gentler suppliant, who clings to him, and trusts in 
 him, and seems to say she has but ' him in the world.' 
 Masses of soft brown hair, and a rounded outline of 
 form, feminine and symmetrical, somewhat redeemed 
 Mary Carmichael's appearance from the charge of 
 hardness. Altogether she gave the gallants of the 
 French court the impression of a woman whom it 
 would be difficult to like a little, and hazardous to 
 like much. So what with the danger of her charms, 
 and her own dignified and reserved demeanour, she 
 had received less admiration than was due to the un- 
 doubted beauty of her face and figure. 
 
 While she goes below to succour her friend, who is 
 suffering from sea-sickness, we will give some account 
 of the four ladies of honour, commonly called the 
 Maries, who waited on the Queen of Scots. 
 
 Mary Stuart herself, with all her predilections in 
 favour of France, a country in which she spent the 
 few tranquil years of her distm'bed and sorrowful life, 
 never suffered her connection with Scotland to be 
 weakened or neglected. She kept up an active corre- 
 spondence with her mother, Mary of Guise, who held
 
 22 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 the reins of government with no inefficient hand in 
 that country, till her death. Many of her household 
 were Scotch. She showed especial favour to the 
 Archer-guard, all of whom were of Scotch extraction, 
 — favour, which over-estimated and misunderstood by 
 their Captain, the heir of the house of Hamilton, was, 
 perhaps, the original cause that ' turned weak Arran's 
 brain.' She gave such appointments in her house- 
 hold, as were nearest her person, to the Scotch nobility, 
 and she chose for her own immediate attendants four 
 young ladies of ancient Scottish families, whose quali- 
 fications were birth, beauty, and the possession of 
 her own Christian name. ' The Maries,' as they were 
 called, accordingly occupy a prominent position in the 
 court history of the time, and as their number was 
 always kept up to four, several of the oldest families 
 in Scotland, such as the Setons, the Flemings, the 
 Livingstones, &c., had the honour of furnishing re- 
 cruits to the lovely body-guard. At the time of her 
 embarkation for Leith, the Queen was accompanied by 
 a very devoted quartette, as conspicuous for their per- 
 sonal attractions as for their loyalty to their Sovereign. 
 It was even rumoured that the faithful maidens had 
 bound themselves by a vow not to marry till their 
 Queen did : be this, however, as it may, not one of 
 them but might have chosen from the flower of the 
 French court, had she been so disposed. Nay, gossips 
 were found to affirm that many a warlike count and 
 stately marquis would have been happy to take any 
 one of the four ! only too blest in the possession of a 
 Mary, be she Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Car- 
 michael, or Mary Hamilton.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 23 
 
 A short sketch of each, at the commencement of our 
 narrative may serve, perhaps, to prevent confusion, and 
 to ehicidate the actions of some of the humbler cha- 
 racters in our drama. We are of honest Bottom's 
 opinion that it is best ' to call forth the actors gene- 
 rally according to the scrip. First say what the play 
 treats on ; then read the names of the actors ; and 
 so grow to a point.' 
 
 We will begin, then, with the eldest of the four, — the 
 lady who with her head buried in cushions was groan- 
 ing afresh at every lurch of the creaking galley, and 
 who sufiered despondently, refusing to be comforted. 
 
 To-day it is scarcely fair to bring her before the 
 public. Yesterday she might have been seen to the 
 greatest advantage, for Mary Beton was one of those 
 people who seem to have been placed in the world 
 for the express purpose of wearing full dress. The 
 most romantic imagination could not have associated 
 her with homely duties, deshabille, or dishevelled hair ; 
 and the Queen used to observe laughingly, that he 
 must be a bold man who could venture to ask her 
 hand for a galliard, and contemplate the possibility 
 of disarranging a fold of her robe even in that state- 
 liest of measures. 
 
 And yet she was handsome too, in a cold, unfeeling, 
 haughty style. She had large handsome eyes, and a 
 large handsome figure, and large handsome hands, 
 which she loved to display. She was perfect in all 
 matters of court etiquette, in which it was impossible 
 to find her tripping, and would have died rather than 
 'bate one of the accustomed ceremonies with which she 
 delighted to glorify her mistress and herself. When
 
 24 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 she stood behind the throne with the Queen's gloves in 
 her hand, she was the admiration of all chamberlains, 
 grand carvers, seneschals, and such court officials, so 
 unmoved and dignified was her bearing, so scrupulously 
 rigid her demeanour, so completely did she sink the 
 woman in the Maid-of-Honour. And her disposition 
 corresponded with her lofty manners, and her fine, 
 well-dressed form. Less unfeeling than careless of all 
 matters that did not appertain directly or indirectly 
 to the court, she neither seemed to seek nor to afford 
 sjTupathy for the petty vexations and annoyances which 
 a little coterie of women is pretty sure to find or 
 create for itself. None of the Maries ever went to 
 her for advice and assistance, only for instructions and 
 commands. Though but little their senior, she was 
 always considered and treated as a kind of lady- 
 superior by the other three, and even the Queen used 
 to call her jestingly The Duenna, and vowed that she 
 never felt so unlike a Stuart as when after some 
 trilling breach of court etiquette, she encountered the 
 tacit rebuke of Mary Beton's grave cold eye. 
 
 If she had a weakness, it was ambition. If there 
 was any one road that led to her heart, it must have 
 been through the portals of a palace ; along tapestried 
 passages, between lines of bowing lackeys, with a gen- 
 tleman-usher at each turning to point out the way. 
 She wrapped herself in the folds of a majestic decorum, 
 and paced along the journey of life gravely and dis- 
 posedly, as if it were a minuet. 
 
 What a contrast to laughing, roguish, Mary Seton, 
 that Will-o'-the-Wisp in petticoats, who flitted hither 
 and thither amongst the courtiers, and pervaded every
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 25 
 
 apartment of the palace with the air of a spoilt child 
 whom nobody ventured to thwart or to chide. White- 
 headed statesmen, grave ambassadors ponderous in the 
 double weight of their Sovereign's dignity and their 
 personal appearance, iron-handed warriors and haughty 
 cardinals, all acknowledged the influence of the be- 
 witching- little maid-of-honour ; and it seemed that 
 the most devoted of her slaves were those whose years 
 and station afibrded the strongest contrast to her own. 
 
 The Constable himself, the famous Montmorency , from 
 whom the faintest gesture of approval could have lured 
 every brave man in France willingly to death, would 
 follow her about like a tame dog, and Cardinal Lor- 
 raine, churchman though he were, would have entrusted 
 her with state secrets that he scarcely ventured to 
 whisper to his own pillow. She might have done a 
 deal of mischief if she had chosen, that lively, laughing 
 little maiden. Fortunately she was thoroughly good- 
 natured, so heedless that she forgot in the afternoon 
 everything that was told her in the morning, and 
 had, moreover, not the slightest taste for mystery or 
 political intrigue. It would be difficult to say what 
 was the especial charm people found in Mary Seton. 
 Her features were irregular, and her figure, though 
 exquisitely shaped, of the smallest. Dark eyes and 
 eyelashes with a profusion of light hair gave a singular 
 expression to the upper part of her face, whilst a mis- 
 chievous smile, disclosing the pearliest of teeth, com- 
 pleted all the personal attractions of which she could 
 boast. It was, indeed, one of those hmmting faces 
 which once seen, make an unaccountable impression, 
 and which, if ever permitted to engrave themselves on
 
 26 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 the heart, do so in lines that are not to be oblite- 
 rated without considerable pain. There was something 
 piquante, too, in her continual restlessness. Even here 
 on shipboard she could not be still for five minutes 
 together. She had already pervaded the whole vessel 
 from stem to stern, above and below, nor was her 
 curiosity satisfied till she had personally inspected the 
 poor galley-slaves, returning to the Queen brim-full 
 of the private history of the two or three greatest 
 criminals amongst them, with which according to 
 custom she had made herself familiar, ere she had 
 been an hour on board. Her mistress, though in no 
 merry mood, could not forbear being amused. 
 
 ' I believe,' said she, ' that you would rather work, 
 chained to an oar like these poor wretches, than sit 
 still.' 
 
 And Mary Seton replied demurely, 
 ' Indeed, madam, idleness is the parent of evil, and 
 doubtless even at the galleys my good behaviour would 
 soon raise me to be captain of the gang.' 
 
 A pair of dark eyes, that had hitherto been fixed on 
 some object amidships, were raised, in wonder, to the 
 laughing speaker, reproachful, as it were, of her levity 
 at such a time, and Mary Hamilton's beautiful face, 
 paler and more beautiful than ever, in the moonlight, 
 seemed to take a deeper shade of sadness as she resumed 
 the occupation in which she had been interrupted with 
 an unconscious sigh. Sitting at the Queen's feet, she 
 was ready, as usual, at the shortest notice, to fulfil her 
 mistress's wishes ; but the latter remarked, with con- 
 cern, that her favourite maid-of-honour had been silent 
 for hours, and that the novelties incidental to their
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 2T 
 
 situation had failed to rouse her from the abstraction 
 in which, of late, she had been habitually plunged. 
 It grieved the Queen's kind heart, for, though she loved 
 the others dearly, perhaps she loved Mary Hamilton 
 the best of all ; and it was no wonder. Beautiful as she 
 was, with her large solemn eyes, and her black hair, 
 framing the oval of a perfect face, pale and serene like 
 an autumn evening, with her tall graceful figure, and 
 womanly gestures, there was yet an indefinable charm 
 about Mary Hamilton that seemed independent of all 
 outward advantao;es ; as though she must still have 
 been lovable, had she been old, ugly, and deformed. 
 
 It is a melancholy, nay, a morbid sentiment, which 
 bids us feel, in all exceeding beauty, something akin 
 to sorrow — and yet, who Avill deny the uncomfortable 
 fact ? Perhaps it arises from the longing after per- 
 fection which appertains to our immortality. Perhaps 
 it is but the hopeless consciousness that our ideal can 
 never be attained. At least the feeling exists, and in 
 Mary Hamilton's beauty, doubtless, the melancholy 
 element predominated. It did not make her the less 
 beloved, we may be sure ; and the black-eyed maid-of- 
 honour was worthy of the attachments she kindled 
 wherever she was known. A kinder heart than hers 
 never beat beneath a boddice. Wherever she heard of 
 a sorrow, however trivial the cause, she was there to 
 soothe. Utterly unselfish, she was ever ready to sacri- 
 fice her own will, her own amusem,ents, her own advan- 
 tage, to the lightest wish of another. And although 
 the very sentinels at the palace-gate blessed her for her 
 beauty, as she passed through, she seemed the only per- 
 son about the Court who was insensible to her own at-
 
 28 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 tractions. Gentle, yielding, trusting, and enthusiastic, 
 here was a woman ready prepared and bound, as it were, 
 for the sacrifice. Need we say the victim could not 
 fail to be offered up ? 
 
 Meanwhile, the galley strained and laboured on. 
 The dripping oars fell with measured cadence on the 
 water ; but the land-breeze, dying away towards mid- 
 night, refused to second the efforts of the rowers, so 
 that the distance from the French sea-board appeared 
 scarcely to increase. The Queen evinced no intention 
 of going to rest. Reclining on deck, she kept her eyes 
 fixed on the cherished land she was so loth to leave, and 
 inwardly longed for a storm, or any other contingency, 
 that should drive them back into port, and give her a 
 few more days' respite from her banishment. 
 
 Probably so unwilling a journey was never taken to 
 claim a crown, and yet Mary was accompanied by many 
 good friends, and true affectionate relatives, and loyal 
 subjects, all anxious to see her securely established 
 on the Scottish throne. Another galley of like ton- 
 nage accompanied her with a portion of her household, 
 whilst two ships of war furnished an escort, by no means 
 unnecessary, for Elizabeth's friendship was little to be 
 relied on, and England, as usual, commanded the Chan- 
 nel with her fleet. 
 
 On board the Queen's own ship, d'Amville had taken 
 the personal command, and studiously refrained from 
 indulgence in the society of his charge, lest her fas- 
 cinating conversation should have seduced him from 
 his seamanlike duties. D'Amville, too, had long since 
 yielded to the charm of that beautiful face, which only 
 to look on was to love, and worshipped the Queen of
 
 A ROMANCE OF I^OLTROOD. 29 
 
 Scotland Avith a devotion as touching as it was chi- 
 valrous in its hopeless generosity. D'Amville, who 
 sat now in the small dimly lighted cabin, with his 
 charts before him, and pressed to his bosom the Cyprus 
 silk handkerchief of which we have already heard — the 
 one treasure prized by that loyal manly heart — the 
 guerdon for which he gave up ambition, and comfort, 
 and even hope. Truly there are strange bargains driven 
 in love, reminding us of our traffic in beads, and brass, 
 and tinsel, with naked savages. A fcAV inches of 
 silk, a half-worn glove, a thread of soft hair, in ex- 
 change for the noblest efforts of body and mind, the 
 best years of life, perhaps the eternity of an immortal 
 soul ! Not that the coveted prize is reserved for such 
 adoration. Alas ! that it should be so. Rude hands 
 pluck down the fruit that fond eyes have gazed on for 
 so many sunny hours in vain, and the Sabine maiden 
 loves her Roman bridegroom none the less that he 
 carried her off by sheer force of manhood, not, perhaps, 
 entirely so reluctant as she seemed. 
 
 Chastelar had been standing motionless for a consi- 
 derable period, leaning against the mast, apparently 
 wrapped in meditation. At a signal from the Queen, 
 however, his whole bearing altered ; his face lighted up, 
 and in an instant he was at her side. Mary Hamilton 
 changed her position somewhat restlessly, and Mary 
 Seton, rejoicing in the capture of a fresh listener, im- 
 mediately took upon herself to commmiicate the com- 
 mands of her mistress. 
 
 ' Fair sir,' said the laughing maid-of-honour, ' although 
 you are certainly an ornamental object, measimng your 
 stature yonder, against the mast, you will be more use-
 
 30 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 ful here, at Her Majesty's feet, to give us some inform- 
 ation as to the progress of our voyage. Doubtless 
 you are in Monsieur d'Amville's confidence, who seems 
 to think himself relieved of all care of us now he has 
 got his unprotected charge fau'ly out to sea.' 
 
 ' Hush ! mad-cap,' said the Queen. ' And do you, 
 Chastelar, go below and enquire of our courteous Com- 
 mander whether by to-morrow at day-break we shall, 
 indeed, have lost sight of our beloved France. Already 
 the beacon off the harbour is low down on the horizon, 
 and the weather seems thickening to windward. Ah ! 
 the next lights we see will be on the bleak shores of 
 Scotland. A dark, sad voyage, indeed, with a dreary 
 termination.' 
 
 The poet bowed low and retired to fulfil the royal 
 commands, whilst the Queen, leaning her white arms 
 upon the bulwark, gazed longingly towards the shore. 
 Tears coursed each other down her beautiful face as 
 she murmm-ed forth her unavailing sorrow in such bro- 
 ken sentences as these. 
 
 ' France ! France ! my own beloved France ! I shall 
 never see you again. Country of my adoption ! coun- 
 try of my love ! Ah ! it is sad to step at once, like 
 this, from youth to age ; it is cruel to feel still young 
 and hopeful and capable of happiness, and to know 
 that the bright days have departed from us for ever- 
 more. Poor Dido ! you too gazed, in your agony, upon 
 the sea, as I look ever towards the land, and your fond 
 heart ached as mine aches now, and broke at last as 
 mine, I feel, will break ere long. My case is worse 
 than yours ; you had at least your home and country 
 left, though you lost your Trojan love that the sea gave 
 you and the sea took back again ! '
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 3l 
 
 Whilst she spoke she felt Mary Hamilton's cold lips 
 pressed against her hand. The kiud heart, alas ! itself 
 not wholly ignorant of sorrow, could not bear to witness 
 the sufferings of its mistress. Her other maid-of- 
 honour, however, took a livelier view of their position, 
 and was not slow to express her dissent. 
 
 ' Nay, madam,' said she, ' Dido gave up a throne for 
 a bonfire, as I have heard your Majesty relate, whereas 
 you are but losing sight of that faint beacon over yon- 
 der for the certainty of a crown. Besides, are there 
 not Trojans in plenty where we are bound ? What say 
 you, Mary Hamilton, we need not look long for an 
 Eneas a-piece, without counting those we take across 
 with us ? Listen, there is one of them singing even now.' 
 
 Mary Hamilton felt her face burning in the darkness 
 though none could see her blush, and indeed, whilst her 
 companion spoke, the Calais light sank beneath the 
 black line of the horizon. As it disappeared, Chaste- 
 lar's mellow voice was heard, rising above the rush and 
 ripple of the water and the jerk of the massive oars. 
 
 ' What need have we of beacon sheen 
 
 To warn us or to save, 
 With the star -bright eyes of our lovely Queen 
 Guiding us o'er the wave ? 
 
 ' What need have we of a following tide ? 
 
 What need of a smiling sky ? 
 
 'Tis sunshine ever at Mary's side, 
 
 And summer when she is by. 
 
 ' Her glances, like the day-god's light, 
 
 On each and all are thrown ; 
 Like him she shines, impartial, bright, 
 Unrivalled, and alone.
 
 32 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 ' Alone ! alone ! an ice-qneen's lot, 
 Though dazzling on a throne ; 
 Ah ! better to love in the lowliest cot 
 Than pine in a palace — alone ! 
 
 As he concluded, the smger approached Her Majesty 
 with the information she had sent him to seek. 
 
 Softened by her sorrows, influenced by the time, the 
 scene, the devotion of her follower, feeling now more 
 than ever the value of such kind adherents, what could 
 Mary do but reach him graciously the white hand that 
 was not the least attractive of her peerless charms ? 
 And if Chastelar pressed it to his lips with a fervour 
 that partook more of the lover's worship than the sub- 
 ject's loyalty, what less was to be expected from an 
 over-wrought imagination, and a susceptible heart, thus 
 brouo;ht in contact with the most fascinating; woman 
 of the age ? And the Queen drew away her hand hur- 
 riedly, rather than unkindly, with a consciousness not 
 wholly displeasing, and Mary Seton looked discreetly 
 into the far distance, as though there was something 
 unusually interesting in that dull expanse of sea. And 
 Mary Hamilton, clasping both hands tightly to her 
 heart, leaned her head against the bulwark, and said 
 nothing ; but rose, as if intensely relieved, when an 
 increasing bustle on board the galley, and a general 
 movement amongst its inmates, denoted some fresh 
 alarm and the necessity for increased watchfulness and 
 exertion. 
 
 It was even so. Their consort holding a parallel 
 course at no great distance, had caught sight of the 
 English cruizers, who, whatever might be their orders 
 from ' good Queen Bess,' were as much mistrusted by
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 33 
 
 d'Elboeuf in his command of the Scottish Queen's 
 little squadron, as by d'Amville who took her own 
 galley under his especial charge. In those days the 
 sea and land services were not so distinct as now. 
 
 Signals were exchanged between the two galleys to 
 make all possible speed, and the slaves grateful for 
 Mary's interposition on their behalf, laid to their oars 
 with a will, in a manner that could never have been ex- 
 torted from them by the lash. As there was but little 
 wind, they soon increased their distance from the 
 English men-of-war, who, however, came up with and 
 captured one of the French ships containing the Eaid 
 of Eglinton and the Queen's favourite saddle horses. 
 Mary herself nevertheless escaped their vigilance, and 
 an increasing fog soon shrouded the little convoy from 
 its pursuers. 
 
 Thus in darkness and danger, too ominous, alas ! of 
 her subsequent career, Mary Stuart sped on towards 
 the coast of Scotland, leaving behind her the sunny 
 plains of her beloved France, as she left behind her the 
 bright days of her youth, — days that she seemed in- 
 stinctively to feel were never to dawn for her again 
 through the storms and clouds that brooded over the 
 destinies of her future kingdom. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ' Oh ! 'gin I had a bonny ship. 
 And men to sail wi' me, 
 
 It's I wad gang to my true love, 
 Sin' my love comes not to me.' 
 
 BOUT the same hour at which the galley 
 bearing Mary Stuart and her fortunes, 
 eluded in the increasing darkness the 
 vigilance of the English cruizers, an 
 Archer of the Scottish Body-guard, with whom we have 
 already made acquaintance might have been seen 
 pacing to and fro on a strip of white sand adjoining 
 Calais harbour. After a long day of labour and ex- 
 citement, preparatory also to a ride of some two 
 hundred miles on the morrow, this midnight walk was 
 perhaps the least judicious method of passing the hours 
 sensible persons devote to repose. Our Archer never- 
 theless continued it with a perseverance that denoted 
 considerable pre-occupation, pausing at intervals to gaze 
 wistfully on the sea, and anon resuming his exercise, as 
 if goaded to bodily effort by some acute mental conflict. 
 In honest truth, like Sinbad the sailor, he was op- 
 pressed by a metaphorical Old Man of the Sea, that he 
 could not get rid of, although in his case the unwel-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 35 
 
 come equestrian had assumed the form of a prevailing 
 idea, connected with a young woman instead of an old 
 man, and resembling Sinbad's incumbrance in no par- 
 ticular except the tenacity with which it clung. 
 
 Reader it is w^orth while to go to the Pampas to see 
 a Guacho lasso and mount a hitherto unbroken horse. 
 How the animal, conscious of his degradation, fights 
 and rears and plunges, wincing from the cruel spurs to 
 rise at the maddening bit ! How his eye dilates and 
 his nostril reddens, and his whole form contracts with 
 mingled fear and rage ! Shaking his head wildly, he 
 dashes ere long into a headlong gallop and becomes 
 stupefied to discover that even at his fiercest speed he 
 bears his tormentor along with him. Subdued at last, 
 he bends his neck to the hand that has tamed him, and 
 experiences a new sensation of increased power and 
 confidence, in submitting to the master-will. So is it 
 with a manly, resolute nature when it first feels the 
 influence of another's existence on its own. There is a 
 certain charm indeed in the novelty of the sentiment, 
 but there is also surprise, apprehension, and a strong 
 disposition to oppose and crush the unaccustomed 
 usurpation. After many an unavailing struggle, the 
 conquered must, however, submit to the conqueror, and 
 like other slaves he loses the desire for liberty with the 
 consciousness of incapacity to be free. Use in time 
 renders him perfectly docile and broken-in ; at last he 
 is perfect in all the paces of the manege, and carries 
 one rider nearly as pleasantly as another. He is a 
 useful hack now, but the mettle of the wild-horse has 
 left him for evermore. 
 
 Our Archer was in the first stages of his tuition. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 He was, so to speak, only lately caught and mounted. 
 We can but wish, him a merciful rider with a kind heart 
 and a light hand ! 
 
 Walter Maxwell, for such was the name in which he 
 stood enrolled on the list of the Archer-guard, was the 
 younger son of an old Scottish family possessed of an 
 unblemished pedigree, considerable territorial posses- 
 sions and a sad lack of broad pieces. Then, as now, the 
 upper classes in Scotland, with many noble qualities, 
 were cursed with a morbid desire for the shadow rather 
 than the substance of wealth. In Queen Mary's days 
 the pound Scots represented in value the shilling Eng- 
 lish. In Queen Victoria's, the laird on one side the 
 Tweed, with his few hundreds a year, would fain make 
 believe that his possessions equal those of the squire 
 on the other, who owns as many thousands. His diffi- 
 culties, his short-comings, his meannesses originate in 
 this, the paltriest of all ambition, that would make his 
 shillino; look like half-a-crown. Fruo;al and industrious 
 as are her peasantry, prosperous and enterprising as 
 are her yeomen and traders, probably the gentry of 
 Scotland are at this moment more oppressed with diffi- 
 culties than the parallel class in any other country 
 under the sun. 
 
 In the time of which we write, the Scottish nobility 
 were afflicted with the same unfortunate tendencies. 
 There was then even more of display abroad and 
 less of ease at home, whilst the unsettled state of 
 the country compelling every baron to entertain as 
 many feudal retainers as he could arm and feed, 
 helped to drain their resom'ces to the very dregs. 
 Violence and intrigue, political as well as private, were
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 37 
 
 naturally resorted to by those who had no other means 
 of replenishing their empty purses ; and what with old 
 feuds strictly entailed, and new differences perpetually 
 arising, Scotland could only be likened to some huge 
 caldi'on, in which a thousand different ingredients were 
 boiling, and the scum perpetually rising to the surface. 
 
 In such a state of things there was not much pro- 
 vision for younger brothers ; and as the somewhat 
 heathenish doctrine, not yet eradicated, then prevailed 
 of considering individuals simply as links in a line, 
 and postponing all personal claims to those of that 
 great myth, the family, it may easily be imagined 
 that the younger sons of a noble Scotch house had 
 small cause to congratulate themselves on their aris- 
 tocratic lineage. 
 
 Walter Maxwell might consider himself fortunate 
 that he had the shelter of the old tower at home 
 until he had arrived at the strength and stature of 
 a man — that he was permitted to feed at the same 
 board, and enjoy the same pastimes as his elder 
 brother, the heir — that he might follow to her grave 
 with a son's decorous grief the mother who had doted 
 on her youngest — and that his share of the family 
 possessions was not limited to its name, but included 
 a right to breathe the moorland air round the old 
 place till he had attained his fifteenth year. Perhaps, 
 after all, he inherited his share of the patrimony. He 
 gained health and strength, and good manhood, on its 
 broad acres. He learned to back a horse in its 
 meadows, and fly a hawk on its hills, to swim in 
 its dark loch, and to wield a blade within its walls. 
 Perhaps, in bequeathing him an iron constitution, a
 
 38 . THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 vigorous frame, and a courageous heart, the old lord' 
 had done enough for the golden-haired child who used 
 to come running to him after supper and pull his grey 
 moustaches, and climb merrily upon one knee, whilst 
 the heir occupied the other. 
 
 At fifteen Walter Maxwell went out upon the world. 
 A year after, he was the youngest gentleman-private 
 in the French King's Archer-guard. Many a dame 
 in Paris would turn round to look again on the bloom- 
 ing youthful face — almost a child's still — so pleasing 
 ih its contrast with that manly form, clad in the showy 
 armour of the guard. The Duchess of Valentinois 
 herself had desired to have the young boy-archer pre- 
 sented to her, and it is to be presumed that Diane 
 de Poitiers, a lady of mature experience, was no mean 
 judge of masculine attractions. A word from the 
 woman he so adored was sufficient to interest Henry 
 II. in the Scottish recruit, and Walter Maxwell was 
 more than once selected for duties demandino: dis- 
 cretion as well as fidelity and courage. All these quali- 
 ties were indeed in constant request at such a court as 
 that of the French King. At a more advanced age, 
 the young soldier had also distinguished himself in the 
 disastrous affairs of St. Quentin and Gravelines, where 
 the French suffered serious defeats, and it was but the 
 consistency with which he remained stedfast to the 
 Protestant religion that stood in the way of his rapid 
 promotion. He was a favourite too with his comrades 
 for his courage and soldier-like bearing beyond his 
 years, as well as for the indefinable attraction of those 
 buoyant spirits which, like the bloom of youth on the 
 cheek, seldom outlast maturity.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 3^ 
 
 During the reign of Henry IE., that chivalrous 
 monarch, notwithstanding his severity to the Pro- 
 testants, and the prevalence of their religion amongst 
 his Scottish Archers, placed the most implicit confidence 
 in his body-guard, rivetting their unshaken loyalty 
 with many favours and immunities, till they walked the 
 streets of the capital objects of admiration and envy to 
 the very grandees themselves. Perhaps the warlike 
 Henry was of opinion that a soldier's religion need not 
 interfere with his obedience ; and, indeed, too many of 
 the Archers might have made the same answer, that 
 some two centuries and a half later the old grenadier 
 of the Empire gave on a question of doctrine to the 
 Pope, — ' Et de quelle religion es tu monfils f asked his 
 Holiness of the grim sentry who kept the door that led 
 into the awful presence of Napoleon I. ' Je suis de la 
 religion de la Vieille Ciarde^ replied the veteran, with 
 an astounding clatter of his musket, as he ' carried 
 arms ' to the Pontiif. We take leave to doubt if the 
 Protestantism of the Scotch Guard often stood in the 
 way of Henry's commands to his favourites. 
 
 But the evil day dawned at last. In the pride of his 
 manly beauty, and the vigour of his warlike frame, the 
 King of France rode gallantly into the lists, to break a 
 lance in sport for the bright eyes of his ladye-love. On 
 his helmet he wore the colours of Diane de Poitiers. 
 And the Duchess herself looking down from the gallery, 
 felt her heart leap with pride in the noble appearance 
 of her royal lover. What shall we say of Henry's in- 
 fatuation for this seductive woman, nearly twenty years 
 his senior? Himself the husband of the most accom- 
 plished lady in Europe, for Catherine of Medicis was
 
 40 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 notoriously as wise as she was beautiful ? What, but 
 that it is folly to argue on the wilfulness of the human 
 heart, and that the most untoward and ill-advised 
 attachments are apt to prove the strongest and the 
 most fatal. The King loved her madly, and was 
 not ashamed to avow his passion openly in the sight of 
 France. Walter Maxwell attended the Sovereign as 
 one of his squires, and bore a knot of the same coloured 
 ribbons on his bonnet. 
 
 And now the trumpet sounds a flourish, and the 
 King raising his vizor, calls for a bowl of wine, and 
 without dismounting, quaffs it with an ill-concealed 
 gesture of courtesy to some one in the gallery — 
 then, a perfect horsemr^n, he backs his charger to his 
 post. Opposite, like a statue sheathed in steel, sits 
 his antagonist, the captain of the Archer-guard. A 
 proud man to-day is Gabriel, Earl of Montgomery, for 
 the Scottish peer has been chosen to break a lance with 
 the French King, in presence of two royal brides 
 and their bridegrooms ! There is a hush of pleased 
 expectation and interest over the whole assembly ; only 
 the Duchess of Valentinois turns pale with ill-defined 
 apprehension. She feels the value of her last love, 
 wildest and dearest of all, lawless though it be. It was 
 but this morning the King told her in jest, he should 
 not close his vizor lest she mio;ht not recognise him ; 
 and she had chidden him half playfully, half in earnest 
 for the insinuation. She would know that warlike form 
 she thinks in any disguise — and the colour mounts 
 again to her face as she catches his last glance, Avhile 
 he settles himself in the saddle, and lays his lance in 
 the rest. He has not closed his helmet after all ! She
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 41 
 
 will chide him seriously, though, to-night, for his selfish 
 carelessness of danger. Again the trumpet sounds, and 
 the lances shiver fairly in mid-career. Firm and erect, 
 the King reaches the opposite extremity of the lists; 
 then, swaying heavily in the saddle, falls in his ringing 
 harness to the ground. The Queen and her ladies rush 
 tumultuously into the lists. Catherine de Medicis has 
 a rigid to succour her husband. Diane de Poitiers, sick 
 and faint, loses her consciousness in a swoon. She is 
 scarcely noticed, for all are crowding round the King. 
 
 Alas for the gallant monarch ! Alas for the bold 
 man-at-arms ! A splinter from Montgomery's lance 
 has entered the eye through the unclosed helmet, and 
 penetrated nearly to the brain. Ere twelve days elapse, 
 Catherine de Medicis is a widow, Francis II. has suc- 
 ceeded to the throne, and Mary Stuart is Queen of 
 France. 
 
 The favom' of the Duchess of Valentinois was no 
 passport, we may fairly suppose, to the good graces of 
 the Queen-Mother ; and although Walter Maxwell 
 retained his appointment in the guard, his hopes of 
 advancement perished with the death of his royal 
 patron. Such disappointments, however, though they 
 press heavily on an enthusiastic spirit, are lightly 
 borne by such a temperament as Maxwell's. His 
 disposition was naturally calm and unimpressionable 
 beyond the average. He possessed the rare quality of 
 seeing things as they were, and not as he wished them 
 to be. Above all, he had that quiet confidence in 
 himself which could wait patiently for an occasion, and 
 seize it without hurry or agitation when it arrived. 
 Moreover, he had been brought up in the stem school
 
 42 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 that turns out the most finished pupils after all. 
 Poverty and hardship give their lessons for nothing, 
 but men remember them better than Latin and Greek. 
 We may be allowed to doubt whether all George 
 Buchanan's classic lore and pedantic periods were as 
 well worth acquiring as Maxwell's aptitude to saddle, 
 shoe, and groom his own horse, cook his own ration, 
 burnish his own corslet, and keep his head with his 
 hand. 
 
 Changes also took place in the Scottish Guard. The 
 Earl of Arran, heir to th? house of Hamilton, was ap- 
 pointed to its command, and already that eccentricity 
 began to manifest itself which was fostered, at last, into 
 madness, by the sunshine of Mary's unconscious smiles. 
 Arran chose to alter the discipline, the accoutrements, 
 and the whole system of the corps, and such interfer- 
 ence with their old habits was by no means relished by 
 its members. During the short reign of Francis 11. 
 Mary Stuart's sympathies with her countrymen, and 
 knowledge of their customs and prejudices, checked 
 many a proposed innovation that would have created 
 open dissatisfaction; but when she became a dowager 
 Queen, and Charles IX. succeeded to the throne, the 
 Archers found themselves curtailed of many of their 
 privileges and no longer looked upon as what they con- 
 sidered themselves — the elite of the French army. See- 
 ing, however, that, like the famous ' gants ghees ' of a 
 later period, they had earned this position by con- 
 stantly volunteering for all dangerous duties, they 
 might well be uneasy at the prospect of forfeiting a 
 distinction it had cost so much hard fighting to attain. 
 It was dm-ing the short eighteen months of Mary's
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 43 
 
 reign as Queen of France, that our Archer, in virtue of 
 his office, was brought in contact with the fascinating 
 sovereign and her court. That he became the devoted 
 adherent of his royal countrywoman is not to be won- 
 dered at ; but in Maxwell's consistent loyalty to the 
 Stuart there lurked a deeper feeling of interest than he 
 liked to allow even to himself; an interest that he could 
 not but connect with another Mary attached to the per- 
 son of her mistress. The Queen, as is well known, was 
 a daring and skilful horsewoman, a masculine accom- 
 plishment, by the way, that many womanly natures 
 acquire with great ease. Perhaps as its chief art con- 
 sists in ruling by judicious concession, they have 
 learned half the lesson before they get into the saddle. 
 As a natural consequence, Mary was passionately 
 fond of the chase, and followed it with a degree of 
 recklessness somewhat discomfiting to her less courage- 
 ous or worse-mounted attendants. In fact she sus- 
 tained more than one severe fall without its curhig her 
 in the least of her galloping propensities. 
 
 It fell out on one occasion, near the Castle of Cham- 
 bord, whither the court had repaired for this princely 
 recreation, that our Archer was in attendance on Mary 
 and her suite at the moment the stag was unharboured, 
 and, with a burst of inspiriting music, the hounds were 
 laid on. The Queen, as was her custom, went off at a 
 gallop, outstripping her attendants, and followed, at un- 
 equal distances by the whole cavalcade. Walter Max- 
 well, on a clambering, Roman-nosed French horse, was 
 plying his spurs to keep within sight of the chase, 
 when a faint scream of distress and a young lady borne 
 past him at a pace that showed she was run away with,
 
 44 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 diverted his attention from the pleasures to the exi- 
 gencies of the moment. Though the animal beneath 
 him was neither speedy nor active, he managed, by a 
 skilful turn, to reach her bridle rein, and so guiding 
 her impetuous horse into an alley that diverged from 
 the line of the chase, succeeded in stopping him before 
 his own was completely exhausted. While the young 
 lady did not, in the least, lose her presence of mind, 
 she was, natm-ally, a little discomposed and a good deal 
 out of breath. Nevertheless, she thanked her preserver 
 with frank and graceful courtesy, avowing, at the same 
 time, in very broken sentences, her inability to control 
 the animal she rode. 
 
 The confession was tantamount to a request that her 
 new friend would not leave her. The most determined 
 Nimrod could scarcely have abandoned a lady who thus 
 placed herself under his charge, and Walter Maxwell, 
 with his passionless exterior, had a good deal of that 
 manly generosity in his composition, which warms at 
 once to the unprotected and the weak. Instead of toil- 
 ing after the whole company, then, on a tired horse, 
 behold him riding quietly through beautiful woods, 
 by the side of a young lady whose peace of mind 
 seemed to depend on his keeping his hand on her bridle 
 rein. 
 
 People soon become acquainted when thus associated. 
 Mary Carmichacl, with a colour much heightened from 
 a variety of causes, and her rich brown hair disordered 
 by her gallop, had never looked prettier in lier life ; 
 whilst a glance or two shot at her protector from under 
 her riding-hat satisfied her that he was a gentleman of 
 good nurture and lineage, also that she had remarked
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 45 
 
 him more than once before, when fulfillmg his duties as 
 a guardsman about the court. Before they had ridden 
 a mile he had told her his name and all about himself. 
 
 ' A Maxwell ! ' exclaimed the young lady, whose ap- 
 prehensions were by this time considerably soothed. 
 ' I ought to have known you for a Maxwell at once. 
 You've got the frank brow and the ready hand, and 
 the silent tongue of the Maxwells ;' here she checked 
 herself with a laugh and blush, whereat her companion 
 laughed and coloured a little too. ' Why, we are kins- 
 folk at that rate,' she added courteously. ' My mother's 
 niece married a Maxwell of the Den, and they are a 
 branch of the Terreagles Maxwells, and so are you.' 
 
 ' I have left home so long,' answered Walter gravely, 
 *I cannot count my kin; and yet I will take your 
 word for it. I should think the better of myself,' 
 he added with a smile, ' to have a right to call you 
 cousin.' • 
 
 The Archer rarely smiled ; when he did, his usually 
 stem features softened and lighted up almost into 
 beauty. The change was not unmarked by the maid- 
 of-honour. 
 
 'A Carmichael never failed a kinsman,' said she, 
 and her voice shook a little, while her soft eyes gleamed ; 
 — ' or the old tower would be looking down still upon 
 Dumfries, and there would be more than a blackened 
 arch, and a few mounds of grass standing by the 
 hearth-stone, where my father once received King 
 James. Well, Sir Archer, you have done a cousinly 
 deed for me at least to-day.' 
 
 Perhaps she expected he would make some acknow- 
 ledgment of his good fortune in the opportunity, but
 
 46 . THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 Maxwell rode on in silence. A French gallant would 
 have overwhelmed her with eloquence, and few men but 
 would have hazarded a few compliments, however 
 trifling. She scarcely seemed oflFended, nevertheless. 
 Her mute companion was absorbed in a brown study, 
 thinking how well she looked in her riding-gear. 
 It may be that her woman's intuition told her as 
 much. 
 
 Presently a burst of horns in the distance announced 
 the direction of the chase. Mary Carmichael's steed 
 pricked his ears, and showed symptoms of insubordi- 
 nation once more. Walter's grasp was on the bridle 
 in an instant, and the rider thanked him with a grate- 
 ful smile. 
 
 ' The ready hand ! ' she said, laughing. ' Was I not 
 right in saying you inherited the gifts of your family ?' 
 
 ' It must excuse the silent tongue,' he answered. ' I 
 am no squire of dames, and you ladies of tlie court 
 must needs look down on the unpolished soldier. And 
 yet his silence may offer more of respect and regard 
 in its humility than the loudest professions of admira- 
 tion from those who have never been taught to say less 
 than they think, and think less than they feel.' 
 
 ' And receive twice as much in return,' she replied 
 in a very low voice, and averting her face from her 
 companion as she spoke. Then she put her horse into 
 a quicker pace, and ere long they met and joined a 
 party of the courtiers returning from the chase. 
 
 After this, though they saw each other but seldom, 
 and had no more rides together, there was a sort of 
 tacit understanding between the two. Nobody remarked 
 that if Walter Maxwell was on guard, Mary Car-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 47 
 
 michael's manner displayed more animation, and her 
 dress was, if possible, more becomingly arranged than 
 usual. Nobody remarked that one of the Archers, 
 more than any of his comrades, displayed unusual 
 readiness in volunteering for all duties that brought 
 him near the Queen's person, and never seemed so 
 contented as when riding in her escort, or mounting 
 guard at her door. Yet it was true, notwithstanding ; 
 and, although not a word had been exchanged by these 
 young persons of a more explicit tendency than those 
 we have related, there had yet sprung up between them 
 one of those mysterious affinities, that in this world of 
 ours, lead to such troublesome results. 
 
 It was not till Mary Carmichael had sailed for Scot- 
 land in the suite of her royal mistress, that it occurred 
 to Maxwell he was losing time and opportunities by 
 remaining in his present service at the court of France. 
 He wondered it had never before struck him so forcibly 
 that the Archer-guard no longer occupied its proud 
 position in the land of its adoption — that its privates 
 were no longer so well born, its drill so exact, nor its 
 discipline so perfect as in the days of its old com- 
 mander, Montgomery — that Arran was a weak-minded 
 enthusiast, who would finish by disgusting both officers 
 and men ; and that Charles IX. was already beginning 
 to look coldly upon them, and depriving them, one by 
 one, of the privileges by which they set such store. 
 Then his patron, Montmorency, was getting infirm and 
 worn-out ; and with the Constable's demise, adieu to 
 his hopes of advancement in the service of France ! 
 
 Mary Stuart, too, in her new kingdom, would need 
 all the stout hands and loyal hearts that she could
 
 48 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 muster. It was clearly the duty of every Scotcliman 
 to rally round the fair young Queen. 
 
 Ere our Archer had concluded his midnight walk, he 
 had made up his mind ; and as he posted back his long 
 ride to Paris the following day, he resolved to claim 
 his dismissal from the French King, and to seek his 
 fortune once more in the land of his birth. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ' We are the boys that can wrestle and ride, 
 Empty a saddle, and emjity a can. 
 
 Keeping the rights of the border-side. 
 Warden to warden, and man to man ; 
 
 Never another so welcome here 
 
 As the lads of the snaffle, spur, and spear ' 
 
 T the time of which we write, there were 
 few worse places wherein to be benighted 
 than that wild .district on the borders of 
 England and Scotland, appropriately called 
 Debateable Land.' Bleak and barren on a gusty 
 evening late in autumn, a less desirable locality for the 
 traveller could scarcely be imagined, and he must have 
 been a hardy adventurer who would not have preferred 
 the dirtiest corner of the smokiest hostelry, to the un- 
 certain track that led through its morasses, especially 
 on a tired horse. Such was the reflection uppermost in 
 Walter Maxwell's mind, as he marked the dusky horizon 
 becoming more and more indistinct, and calculated the 
 diminishing chances of his reaching the Castle of 
 Hermitage, where he had hoped to find rest and refresh- 
 ment with his kinsman, James Hepburn, Earl of Both- 
 well, and doubtless, in that country where horses were 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 SO easily come by, a fresh mount to take him northward 
 on the morrow. No longer an Archer of the Scottish 
 Guard, Maxwell was on his way to Edinburgh from the 
 English sea-port at which he had landed in returning 
 from France. With his reputation as a soldier and his 
 family connexions, he had little doubt but that he would 
 be welcome at Holy rood, and indeed had it been other- 
 wise, an indefinable attraction that he would not have 
 confessed, seemed to draw him irresistibly towards the 
 Scottish capital. 
 
 During the whole of his journey, however, by land 
 and sea, his destination had never seemed so remote, 
 nor the likelihood of his reachino; it so small, as at 
 present. 
 
 ' Hold up ! you brute ! ' said Maxwell, as he felt if 
 the straps of his corslet were secure and his sword loose 
 in its sheath, whilst his poor horse took that oppor- 
 tunity of floundering on its head. 
 
 'Hold up! if you fall you'll never get up again, 
 and unless mine host's directions were inspired by beer 
 and brandy, we must be a good way oif Hermitage yet. 
 Happily the moon is rising every minute. Well, you 
 were a good beast this morning, though you're not 
 worth your four shoes now ! ' 
 
 While he spoke he patted the poor animal on the 
 neck, and as if encouraged by the caress, it pricked its 
 ears and mended its pace of its own accord. 
 
 Maxwell was too old a soldier not to be on the alert 
 in such a situation : it was with a feeling more of an- 
 noyance than surprise that he heard the tramp of 
 horses advancing at a rapid pace over the sounder 
 sward he had left behind him ; and whilst he shortened
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 51 
 
 his reins, and hitched his sword-belt to the front, it was 
 but with a dogged consciousness that, though he meant 
 to fight to the last, he was sure to get the worst of it, 
 out-numbered, and on a tired horse. 
 
 He had, however, the caution to halt on the far side 
 of some broken and boggy ground, so that the new 
 comers, whom he now made out to be but two, must 
 attack him at a disadvantage if they intended violence, 
 and he thought how he could best separate them, that 
 they might not both set on him at once. 
 
 The horsemen, however, halted immediately they 
 caught sight of him, and the foremost called out in a 
 loud frank voice, undoubtedly English in its tone, 
 
 ' Is it friend or foe ? A man must be one or other, 
 in the Debateable Land ! ' 
 
 ' Friend ! ' answered Maxwell confidently, adding, as 
 an earnest of his sincerity, ' Keep near the big stone, 
 or you'll go in up to your girths !' 
 
 Following his advice the horseman and his attendant, 
 who appeared nothing more than a simple domestic, 
 emerged upon sound ground. The former was admirably 
 mounted, and although his dress denoted the gentleman 
 rather than the soldier, he sat his horse with the ease 
 of a skilful cavalier. 
 
 Maxwell made out also in the moonlight that he was 
 perfectly armed, wearing both pistols and rapier, and 
 carried a small valise, with somewhat ostentatious care, 
 on the saddle in front of him. 
 
 ' Friend ! ' he repeated bowing ceremoniously as he 
 brought his horse alongside Maxwell's, ' foes are more 
 plentiful in this district on a moonlight night. We 
 may meet some gentlemen hereabouts, who would give 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 US anything but a " Highland welcome." As we are 
 going in the same direction, by your good leave we will 
 travel together — union is strength; although,' he 
 added, glancing at the other's tired horse, 'haste is 
 not speed.' 
 
 His manner was courtly, or rather courtier-like, in 
 the extreme, and Maxwell saw at a glance he had to do 
 with one of the porcelain vessels of the earth ; yet there 
 was a conventional tone of indifference, a something of 
 covert sarcasm, and implied superiority in his voice, 
 that jarred upon the franker nature of the soldier. 
 
 They rode on, however, amicably together, the at- 
 tendant, a burly Southron, apparently by no means 
 easy either in mind or body, keeping close behind his 
 master. The latter was bound, he said, for Hermitage, 
 which he hoped to reach before midnight, and he 
 seemed to treat his new companion with a shade more 
 deference, when he learned that Maxwell was a kins- 
 man of the redoubted Earl of Bothwell. 
 
 Some men have a knack of extracting information 
 without affording any in return, and this faculty ap- 
 peared to be largely possessed by the well-mounted 
 traveller, who, while he conversed with the ease and 
 freedom of a thorough man of the world, dropped every 
 now and then a leading question that denoted an insati- 
 able and unscrupulous curiosity. 
 
 The Scotch have generally an insurmountable dislike 
 to being ' pumped,' and Maxwell, whose shrewdness 
 soon perceived his new friend's intention of subjecting 
 him to that process, resented it by an increased re- 
 serve which subsided ere long into an almost unbroken 
 silence.
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD, 53 
 
 Tliej rode on for some time accordingly, interchang- 
 ing only an occasional remark, the stranger accommo- 
 dating his horse's pace to that of his new acquaintance, 
 whilst his servant jogged painfully along behind him, 
 suffering obviously from abrasion, the curse of un- 
 practised riders, and seeking relief as well by sighs and 
 groans as by fruitless changes of position in the 
 saddle. The moon shone out brightly, and its light 
 enabled Maxwell to examine the face and figure of his 
 comrade. 
 
 He was a spare man, of less than middle age, with 
 the marks of good-breeding apparent in his thin, 
 sharp features, and small feet and hands. His figure, 
 though too angular, was sufficiently graceful ; and 
 his face, though pale, bore the clear hue of a healthy 
 and enduring constitution. Altogether he would have 
 been a well-looking man enough, but for the restless ex- 
 pression of his small grey eyes, which peered from mider 
 the straight thick eyebrows with a vigilance amounting 
 to suspicion ; and the thin firmly-compressed lips, a 
 little drawn in at the corners, as if by an habitual 
 sneer. 
 
 Maxwell, accustomed in his warlike life to judge of 
 men at a glance, found himself vaguely speculating on 
 an exterior beyond which he could not penetrate. The 
 shaven lip and cheek denoted a man of peaceful profes- 
 sion ; but the finished horsemanship, the hanging of the 
 sword, the readiness with which his hand sought his 
 pistol-holsters, savoured of the soldier. Again, his 
 thoughtful brow and worn face might well become some 
 distinguished scholar or man of science ; but the tone of 
 his conversation, and the levity of his bearing, contra-
 
 54 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 dieted the supposition that he could belong to the ' wise 
 ones of the earth.' He seemed conscious, too, of his 
 new friend's observation, and more inclined to court 
 than shrink from it, as if priding himself on the impene- 
 trable reserve, with which he could combine an appearance 
 of extreme cordiality. The restless eyes, however, were 
 not still for an instant ; and the soldier, in the midst of 
 his speculations, was equally startled and shamed by the 
 observation which aroused him, and proved that the ci- 
 vilian's vigilance had been far more active than his own. 
 
 ' I thought so ! ' said the latter, speaking in quiet 
 rapid tones. ' There are night-hawks abroad, as usual, 
 in this cursed wilderness. Did you not see the glitter of 
 a head-piece over the height yonder? Now, if these 
 are jackmen out on their own account, you and I will 
 have to trust to the speed of our horses, which is doubt- 
 ful, and our knowledge of the locality, which is negative ; 
 this poor devil will have his throat cut to a certainty.' 
 
 Even at this disagreeable juncture, the man spoke in 
 a bantering tone, as it were between jest a.nd earnest. 
 His servant, a stout able-bodied fellow enough, regarded 
 his master with a ludicrous expression of dismay. 
 
 ' Your horse is fresh, and looks like a good one,' 
 answered Maxwell, somewhat contemptuously ; ' keep 
 round the shoulder of that hill, and you will find a 
 beaten track that leads to Hermitage. At least, so they 
 directed me. Mine is tired: I canH run, so I must 
 fight. If I arrive not by daybreak, you will know what 
 has become of me, and can tell the Warden he should 
 keep better order on the Marches.' 
 
 The other lauo-hed outright. 
 
 ' A sharp pair of spurs are no bad weapons on occasion,'
 
 . A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 65 
 
 said he ; ' but I am much afraid I must trust to other 
 friends to-night.' He laid his hand on his holsters, and 
 continued, '■ those fellows will come in again in front of 
 us, and I had rather face every outlaw in Britain, from 
 Robin Hood downwards, than turn back into the wilder- 
 ness. Let us halt for a minute. I can hear the tramp 
 of their horses even now.' 
 
 As the three drew up under the shadow of some 
 rising ground, they could distinctly hear the gallop of 
 horses and the clatter of arms on the other side of the 
 acclivity. 
 
 ' There are half-a-score, at least,' observed Maxwell, 
 with increasing animation. ' You are quite right — they 
 want to intercept us in the pass yonder. What say you, 
 sir ? Shall we pay them in steel or silver ? for metal 
 they will have. Can your servant fight ? ' 
 
 ' Like a devil,' answered the other, ' when it is im- 
 possible to run away ; and faith, he'll be between two 
 fires to-night, for I can hear a body of horse in our rear 
 as well. What say you, Jenkin ? Had you not rather 
 be lying drunk in the filthiest gutter in Eastcheap than 
 make your bed here on the heather, with a rough- 
 footed borderer to pull yom* boots off, and an Armstrong's 
 lance through your body to make you sleep well ? ' 
 
 The man gave a sulky grunt in answer. He was evi- 
 dently irritated at the heartless levity of his master, but 
 he looked all the more dogged and resolute, and seemed 
 likely to fight to the last. The night wind, too, bore on 
 their ears the tramp of a body of horse behind them, 
 and it was simply a question whether it were not better 
 to charge through those in front, and take their chance. 
 
 After a hurried consultation, they agreed to ride
 
 66 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 steadily forward to the pass, at a good round pace, yet 
 not fast enough to convey the idea of flight. If their 
 enemies were there before them, they must charge 
 without hesitation, and try to cut their way through, 
 the Englishman remarking with grim sarcasm, that 
 ' the Warden was likely to have a good appetite if he 
 waited supper until his guests arrived.' 
 
 As the three wayfarers neared the pass, the dusky 
 forms of their enemies were already drawn up in its 
 shadow, and a shot fired at Maxwell, which cut the 
 ribbon from his sleeve, sufficiently denoted their inten- 
 tions. A voice, too, from the midst of the little black 
 mass was heard to exclaim, in more polished language 
 than might have been expected, 
 
 ' Dead or alive. Rough Rob ! take the man m the 
 centre, and let the others go free ! ' 
 
 ' Thank you,' observed the Englishman who occupied 
 that position between his servant and Maxwell, adding 
 through his set teeth, ' I shall owe you one, whoever 
 you are, and pay it before I've done wdth you, or my 
 name is not Thomas Randolph ! ' 
 
 Maxwell heard the promise, but had no time for 
 astonishment at thus finding himself the companion of 
 Elizabeth's ambassador to the Scotch court, under such 
 uncomfortable circumstances, inasmuch as a grim bor- 
 derer, on a tall bay horse, was already within lance's 
 length of him, and in another stride, his ow^n tired 
 animal was rolling on the heather, and he was defend- 
 ing himself as well as he could on his feet. 
 
 Two or three shots were fired, the flashes from the 
 pistols and musquetoons lighting up the faces of thq 
 combatants, as they rode to and fro through the
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 57 
 
 skirmish. With the exception, however, of Mr. Ran- 
 dolph's first shot, which made ' Rough Rob's' good grey 
 mare masterless, the fire-arms did little damage, save 
 rendering three or four of the horses perfectly un- 
 manageable. 
 
 As Maxwell shifted his ground, and traveled here 
 and there, parrying with his sword the thrusts of his 
 adversary's long lance, a tall man rode up to him, and 
 shouting, ' a Carmichael ! ' seemed about to cut him 
 down ; then, as if perceiving his mistake, he checked 
 his raised arm, and turned upon Mr. Randolph, whom 
 he attacked with considerable energy, shouting his war- 
 cry, as though from the force of habit, once more. 
 
 The latter defended himself valiantly, but notwith- 
 standing the assistance of his servant, who fought with 
 the cool intrepidity of an Englishman in a difficulty, 
 he had too great odds to contend with, and must have 
 fared badly had not assistance come from an unex- 
 pected quarter at the very moment when honest Jen- 
 kin fell from the saddle with an awkward knock on his 
 pate from the back of a Jedwood axe, rmmmg his 
 assailant through the arm, however, as he went down. 
 
 Mr. Randolph's bridle had already been seized, and 
 the valise torn from his saddle by the tall man who 
 seemed to command the party. Both Maxwell and the 
 Ambassador were now surrounded and nearly over- 
 powered, when two more horsemen, followed by a 
 numerous troop of cavalry, came galloping up from 
 the rear, and charged into the tiielee with a violence 
 that made a clean breach through the outlaws. One 
 of them, a gigantic borderer, with a broad good- 
 humoui'ed face, rolled Maxwell's antagonist, horse and
 
 58 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 man, to the ground, knocking the rider down again 
 with the butt-end of his lance when he strove to rise ; 
 whilst the other, a tall cavalier magnificently accoutred, 
 turned Mr. Randolph's horse coiu'teously out of the 
 press, dealing one of his assailants a buffet that must 
 have cut him in two, had it not been mercifully deli- 
 vered with the flat of the sword, and rebuking the 
 others in a voice of authority that all seemed to recog- 
 nise. Indeed, a cry of ' the Warden ! the Warden ! ' was 
 by this time passed from lip to lip amongst the outlaws, 
 and horses' heads were already tunied, and spurs plied 
 to seek safety in flight. For the third time, too, to- 
 night. Maxwell heard the name spoken which kmdled 
 so many recollections in his breast. Disembarrassed of 
 his enemies by the rescue that arrived so opportunely, 
 he noticed the Warden ride rapidly up to the leader of 
 the band, and say in a low voice, ' You here, Car- 
 michael! for shame!' after which, the other turned 
 rein, and galloped off at the utmost speed, accompanied 
 by all his followers save two, one of whom was dead, 
 and the other disabled. It struck him also that the 
 pursuit was not nearly so vigorous as might have been 
 expected from the rescue, and that the Warden appeared 
 far more anxious to pay every attention to Mr. Ran- 
 dolph than to take vengeance on those who had attacked 
 him. The latter had never lost his sanf/ froid during 
 the encounter, and was, if possible, more self-possessed 
 than usual at its termination. 
 
 ' Your Scottish welcomes, my Lord Earl,' said he, 
 ' are hearty, though rough. I never was more glad to 
 see your lordship. It is fortunate for us all, except 
 this gentleman, whose acquaintance I regret to have
 
 A ROMANCE- OF HOLYROOD. 59 
 
 made so inopportunely, that you came to-night some- 
 what further than the drawbridge to meet your guests.' 
 As he spoke, he pointed to the dead body of ' Rough 
 Rob,' which was lying at his horse's feet. 
 
 ' Who is it ? ' asked Both well of his henchman 
 anxiously, ere he replied to the courtier; and the 
 gigantic horseman who had rescued Maxwell, dis- 
 mounting, turned the dead man's face to the moon- 
 light. 
 
 ' It is but " Rough Rob," replied he carelessly, after 
 a brief examination of the corpse. ' A likely lad, too, 
 though he was a kinsman of my ain. Aye, Rob, 
 thou'rt out of the saddle at last man ; but I would like 
 weel to ken wha's gotten the gude grey mare.' 
 
 ' Secure the other rascal,' said the Warden, turning 
 his horse's head homeward. ' Let Dick Rutherford 
 and two more jackmen, bring him on in the rear. 
 Help Mr. Maxwell to his horse, some of you, and leave 
 that carrion to the crows.' 
 
 The cavalcade was now set in motion, Bothwell and 
 Mr. Randolph riding together in front ; the former, 
 after a hasty greeting to his kinsman, appearing to 
 devote his whole attention to the Ambassador. Max- 
 well, whose relationship to the Warden made him an 
 object of interest to the jackmen, came on in the rear 
 at a slower pace, for his horse was now completely 
 exhausted. He was, however, accompanied by the 
 borderer who had rescued him, and who seemed to 
 have taken a great fancy to him for his swordsmanship. 
 
 Dick Rutherford, or as he was more commonly 
 called ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' set much store by that 
 cool courage which he himself possessed in no common
 
 60 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 degree ; and as he looked on every hand-to-hand 
 encounter in the light of a pastime at which he was 
 himself a first-rate performer, so he could never with- 
 hold a certain amount of facetious approbation from 
 any other skilful player at the game. He was, at 
 this period, the Warden's henchman or principal man- 
 at-arms, and would have followed his chief to the 
 death, for Bothwell had the knack of winning the 
 hearts of his retainers by a rude cordiality and boister- 
 ous frankness akin to their own. 
 
 The Warden could di'ain a deeper cup, back a wilder 
 horse, and couch a heavier spear than the rudest of 
 his jackmen ; his fine manly person, great strength, 
 and soldier-like bearing, fascinated while they con- 
 trolled these savage natures ; and whatever deep de- 
 signs may have lurked beneath this frank exterior, 
 James Hepburn seemed to have no ambition beyond 
 the reputation of being the boldest borderer on the 
 Marches. He would ride alone, or attended only by 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' through the worst of these lawless 
 districts, and the latter was never tired of detailing 
 the hand-to-hand encounters with freebooters, in which 
 the Warden had come off victorious. Dick, too, was 
 an adept in all the intricacies of his profession. He 
 could follow a trail like a blood-hound, fight like a 
 demon, and drink and ride like — a borderer. With all 
 this his great strong body contained a soft heart, and 
 an inexhaustible fund of good humour. 
 
 After looking at Maxwell in silent admiration for a 
 space of five minutes, he began — 
 
 ' I would ha' wagered a hundred merks now that 
 there wasna a man in Scotland could ha' kept little
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 61 
 
 Jock Elliott at half-sword like that; and he on his 
 "vvhite-footed gelding with his long lance in his hand. 
 Jock will no' hear the last o'it from me in a hurry. 
 I trow he's found his match o' this side Teviot-dale, 
 brag how he may ! ' 
 
 'You know him then?' asked Maxwell, somewhat 
 surprised to discover such an intimate acquaintance 
 with an outlaw on the part of the Warden's henchman. 
 
 ' Know him ! ' repeated the other, ' he broke my 
 head at Bewcastle market only yesterday was three 
 weeks; but I'm thinking I'm even with ye now, Jock 
 my man ! All in good part though,' he added, ' for 
 little Jock Elliott's a canny lad, and a far-off cousin 
 o' my ain.' 
 
 ' Little Jock Elliott ! ' observed Maxwell, in return. 
 * Why he looked to me nearly as big a man as yourself.' 
 
 'It's a name he got when a boy,' answered the 
 borderer, ' to know him from his brother, big Jock 
 Elliott, that's gone to his rest. Ye see they were 
 all Elliotts and Armstrongs that were in the slack* 
 the night, /orJye "Rough Rob," and he was a Ruther- 
 ford, more shame till him that let himself get guided 
 that way by a Southron ! ' 
 
 ' I heard another name too,' said Maxwell, whose 
 cm-iosity was thoroughly aroused. ' Who was the tall 
 man that seemed to be the leader of the party? the 
 man that rode by me just before you struck in so 
 opportunely, and shouted, ' a Carmichael ' when he 
 drew his sword.' 
 
 ' Oh ! it would just be one o' the Carmichaels that 
 
 * The pass.
 
 62 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 happened there by chance,' replied Dick, with an ex- 
 pression of hopeless stolidity overspreading his broad 
 countenance; and Maxwell, seeing it would be useless 
 to question him further on that subject, turned the 
 conversation to the more congenial topics of horses 
 and weapons, and the advantages and disadvantages of 
 the new-fashioned musquetoon. In this manner they 
 journeyed on in rear of the party till the dark towers 
 of Hermitage loomed against the midnight sky, and 
 the clatter of the draw-bridge, as it was lowered, to- 
 gether with a considerable bustle inside the walls, 
 announced that preparations were being made for their 
 entrance. 
 
 Both well and Randolph, who had been riding at the 
 head of the party, halted at the postern until the rest 
 came up, and the former proceeded to muster his troop 
 once more ere they crossed the bridge. Maxwell re- 
 marked that the prisoner had escaped, but as no one 
 else seemed to take any notice of the circumstance, he 
 discreetly held his tongue. Whilst the gates were 
 being opened, and the draw-bridge secured, operations 
 which occupied a considerable time, Bothwell welcomed 
 his guests formally to his ' poor tower,' addressing 
 himself, as before, more particularly to Randolph. 
 
 ' I regret much,' said he to the latter, ' that your 
 duty compels you to be in the saddle again to-morrow 
 at day -break ; but he who serves a Queen, as well I 
 know, must never flag for an hour in his zeal. It 
 shall be my care to provide you with a proper 
 escort, and my own henchman shall accompany you 
 to Edinburgh.' 
 
 Randolph thanked the Warden courteously.
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 63 
 
 ' Your kinsman,' said he, ' will, perhaps, accompany 
 me. He, too, as he tells me, has urgent affairs in the 
 capital, and I could not wish a stouter escort if I carried 
 a king's ransom along with me.' 
 
 Maxwell accepted the offer eagerly, notwithstanding 
 the Earl's hospitable objections; and Bothwell, as they 
 turned to cross the draw-bridge, once more expressed 
 his sorrow that the English Ambassador should have 
 been attacked within his jm-isdiction. 
 
 ' I must take yet stricter order with these knaves, 
 said the Warden ; ' there are too many broken men still 
 in the Debateable Land who get their living by what 
 they can lift. Your valise is gone, but that we can 
 easily replace. I fear, however, that it contained some- 
 thing more valuable than wearing apparel. Despatches 
 probably for the Queen, and — and — Lord James, Her 
 Majesty's half-brother ? ' 
 
 Mr. Randolph could not repress a sneer. 
 
 ' Certain letters,' he answered, ' indeed there were, of 
 no great value to those knaves, if, as your lordship seems 
 satisfied, they are illiterate freebooters who cannot read. 
 I have a few more here,' he added, pointing to a packet 
 that peeped from his boot ; ' and, indeed the only one of 
 importance is written in a cypher with which I am my- 
 self unacquainted. Your lordship need not, therefore, 
 be uneasy about the safety of my despatches.' 
 
 Bothwell looked considerably put out, though he 
 strove to mask his annoyance under an affectation of 
 great cordiality ; and Randolph, as he followed him into 
 the castle, seemed hugely to enjoy the discomfiture of 
 his host.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' She could whisper, and smile, and sigh, 
 Pleading, flattering, . . so can the rest ; 
 But oh ! the light in her roving eye 
 
 Would have wiled the babe from its mother's breast.' 
 
 HE Queen of Scotland was fairly settled in 
 her own palace of Holyrood. We must 
 now shift the scene to the royal presence- 
 chamber in that picturesque old building. 
 It is a lofty and well-proportioned apartment, of which, 
 however, the small windows and thick walls denote that 
 it was originally constructed with a view to purposes of 
 defence. It is hung round with a quaint and elaborate 
 tapestry, more curious, perhaps, than tasteful, repre- 
 senting various incidents in the heathenish history of 
 
 Diana 
 
 whereon the goddess bares her knee and draws 
 
 her bow, to the discomfiture of her rival's children, with 
 mythological effrontery. Beautiful oak carvings adorn 
 its massive chimney-piece, and its panelled roof is richly 
 emblazoned with the armorial bearings of a line of kings. 
 The floor, instead of being strewed with rushes, is care- 
 fully waxed and polished, a foreign innovation which 
 has already excited some displeasure amongst the 
 graver courtiers. Such furniture as the room contains 
 is heavily gilt and decorated. The sovereign's chair of
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 65 
 
 State seems to blaze with embroidery and cloth of gold. 
 It is a right rojal apartment, not unworthy of the com- 
 pany by which it is occupied. 
 
 To-night the Queen holds one of her state-receptions, 
 and around her person are gathered the flower of the 
 Scottish aristocracy. Many a bold baron who spends 
 half his life sheathed in armour, walks none the less 
 stately to-night that he has donned satin doublet and 
 silken hose, that his brow is bare of its steel head-piece, 
 and he carries his plumed bonnet in his hand. Many 
 a dame of clear blue eye and dazzling fairness scans 
 with critical glance every fold of the royal drapery, 
 and watches if she cannot catch and appropriate an- 
 other grace from her Queen. They are thronging round 
 her- now, for the dissensions which shall mar her un- 
 happy reign are as yet only in the bud. Each may 
 expect some fresh boon from a new sovereign, and the 
 baron's ambition to become an earl is just as eager, and 
 probably twice as unprincipled, as the varlet's to become 
 a page, or the page's to become a squire. Even thought- 
 ful Lord James, the Queen's half-brother, the lay-church- 
 man, the soldier-statesman, the staff on which she leans, 
 little dreaming it can ever break in her hand and pierce 
 her to the quick, has forgotten his sister in his sove- 
 reign, and wears on his calm sad face an unusual ex- 
 pression of deference to-night, because of prospective 
 advancement and his promised earldom of Mar, and 
 the broad lands and additional title of Moray, to 
 which he hopes it may lead. He has taken his stand 
 on the right of the Queen's chair, and Mary whispers 
 to him ever and anon as she requires information con- 
 cerning her new subjects ; although, with the tact of 
 VOL. L p
 
 66 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 her family and her own kindly acuteness, she has al- 
 ready mastered the names of most of them, and has 
 even gained the good-will of more than one rugged 
 baron by a happy question regarding his old grey tower 
 or his favourite horse. 
 
 But amongst many eager countenances, of which, 
 with all their different expressions, each wears a family 
 likeness of curiosity and expectation, it is touching to 
 observe the chivalrous face and the lofty bearing of 
 the Marechal d'Amville, who has come to bid fare- 
 well to his Queen and his ladye-love. With all the 
 polish of a courtier, with all the pride of a soldier, 
 and with that dignity of manner which noble natures, 
 and these alone, acquire from a hopeless sorrow bravely 
 borne, d'Amville kneels before her who was Queen of 
 France in the sunny days that seem to have shone so 
 long ago. Many a weary year has he knelt in spirit 
 before that magic beauty which he now feels he looks 
 on for the last time. He never expected for a mo- 
 ment that his wild hopeless love could win him any- 
 thing but sorrow, yet he grudged it not, nor strove to 
 conquer the idolatry for which he was prepared to 'pay 
 its cruel penalty, — he is paying it even now. Kneel- 
 ing there to kiss the white hand that reaches him a 
 letter for her kinsfolk in France so gently and so 
 gracefully, looking up once more at the face that will 
 haunt him to his grave, and feeling that none but him- 
 self will ever know his folly or its punishment ; and 
 that she, its object, smiling so frankly upon him, little 
 guesses how gladly he would give her his blighted life, 
 then and there, at her feet. 
 
 But, gentleman and soldier as he is, none can guess
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 67 
 
 his heart bj the unmoved brow, the unshaken voice, 
 and the scrupulous deference with which he pays his 
 homage. Gracefully he insists on the reception he 
 will meet with in France, as bearing the latest news 
 from her who was the pleasure and the pride of the 
 whole kingdom, and his own good fortune in having 
 been permitted to accompany her, and see her safely 
 bestowed on her Scottish throne. Mary can scarcely 
 keep back her tears at the allusion ; but, with so many 
 jealous eyes around her, well she knows she must play her 
 part at any cost, and she gulps them down with an effort. 
 
 ' Farewell,' she says, ' my brave protector and pi- 
 lot ; be assured Mary Stuart never forgets a friend. 
 You will advise the Guises of my welfare and happi- 
 ness. You will tell the French court and the French 
 people,' she added, drawing herself up and speaking in 
 a louder tone, so as to be heard by all, ' that you left 
 me on a royal throne, surrounded by the bravest and 
 the most loyal nobility in Europe.' 
 
 A murmur of applause went the round of the circle 
 at this spirited declaration, and Lord James gave the 
 Queen a glance of mingled surprise and approval. 
 
 As d'Amville rose from his knee and retired, Chas- 
 telar, who followed in the train of the Marechal, passed 
 before the Queen to make his farewell obeisance. The 
 poet's face wore an expression of determination foreign 
 to its usual character; but it was observed by one 
 who watched its every turn that he never lifted his 
 eyes above the hem of Mary's robe. She inclined 
 her head graciously to him nevertheless, and he passed 
 into the outer circle, and was soon conversing lightly 
 with the maids-of-honour and other of the courtiers. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 It chanced, however, that the Queen had forgotten 
 some additional message for her kinsfolk, with which she 
 intended to charge d'Amville, and ere he had reached 
 the door, she wished to call him back. The first per- 
 son whose eye she caught happened to be the Earl of 
 Arran, who had taken up a position opposite Her Ma- 
 jesty and seemed to observe her narrowly. Not un- 
 willing to pay the house of Hamilton every compliment 
 in her power, Mary beckoned the Earl to her side and 
 charged him with her commission. Arran's wild eye 
 flashed fire at the proposal ! 
 
 ' I will obey your commands, madam,' said he, rudely, 
 ' though there be pages enough in the gallery to send 
 after a French adventurer. It seems that France had 
 better come to Holyrood and abide with your Majesty 
 once for all.' 
 
 His tone Avas so loud, and his bearing so excited, 
 that the bystanders gazed in astonishment on one 
 another and on the Queen. 
 
 Mary looked surprised, almost scared for a moment, 
 and then flushed with displeasure ; but her sweet temper 
 soon prevailed, and she answered gently, 
 
 ' Nay, cousin, you shall do my bidding yourself as you 
 have always done. Have not you and I reason to look 
 back upon the days we spent in France as the happiest 
 of our lives ? Youth comes but once, my lord, and we 
 shall neither of us ever be so light-hearted again.' 
 
 The unfortunate nobleman trembled from head to 
 foot, and turned deadly pale. He seemed about to 
 indulge in some frantic outbreak, which he repressed 
 with an effort ; then with writhing lip and dilated 
 nostril, he strode towards the door-way, the courtiers
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 69 
 
 miking way for him as he passed. with looks of as- 
 tonishment and alarm. 
 
 Lord James, glancing at Morton, put his finger to 
 his brow and shook his head gravely. The grim 
 Douglas laughed his ghastly laugh, and with his hand 
 on the haft of his dudgeon-dagger, muttered something 
 about ' blood-letting ' and ' melancholy,' that had he 
 been the physician would have boded no good to the 
 patient ; and Arran rushing tumultuously through the 
 gallery to cool his brow in the night-air, re-appeared 
 in the Presence no more that night. 
 
 It seems to us there is a strange, sad moral in the 
 history of this beautiful Queen. Probably the gift that 
 women most desire beyond riches, wisdom, even virtue 
 itself, is a power of fascination over the other sex; 
 and this dangerous chann must have been possessed by 
 Mary to a degree, that in the days of Greece and 
 E-ome would have been attributed to supernatural 
 influence. With all her advantages of rank, talent,. 
 and education, this very quality, so far from adding to 
 her happiness, seems to have been the one engine which 
 worked her own destruction, and that of every kindly 
 heart that came within her sphere. Few of the other 
 sex could look upon Mary without an inclination, at 
 least, to love her ; and how many, like high-minded 
 d'Amville and poor half-crazed Arran, had cause to 
 curse the day when first they felt the spell of that 
 sweet face, apparently so unconscious of its power ! 
 Of all the eminently beautiful women the world has 
 seen, Mary Stuart wrought the most of wreck and 
 utter ruin with the kindliest disposition and the best 
 intentions. Daliiah, we have never doubted, was a
 
 70 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 heartless sensualist ; covetous only of pleasure and gold. 
 The Phrynes and Aspasias were, probably, finished 
 coui'tezans, with whom the affections were but instru- 
 ments necessary to a profession of which they were 
 thorough mistresses. Cleopatra, like a royal volup- 
 tuary, grudged no price for her desire ; and in her love 
 of conquest, blazoned forth and made the most of her 
 rich southern charms. Marguerite de Vcdois, knew 
 and cultivated her resplendent beauty with the dili- 
 gence of a devotee and the scientific aptitude of a 
 Frenchwoman. But the Queen of Scotland alone seems 
 to have been half ignorant and wholly careless of those 
 advantages which women most prize and cherish ; seems 
 to have regarded her loveliness as little as the flower 
 its fragrance, and to have gone about frankly and 
 freely dispensing her dangerous notice with the inno- 
 cence of an involuntary and unconscious coquette. 
 
 It is notorious, that even the lower animals acknow- 
 ledged the influence of this captivating natm'e. Dogs 
 attached themselves to the Queen with their brave 
 fidelity, from the instant they came into her presence. 
 She loved to dress her own hawks, and was pleased to 
 boast that she could reclaim the wild bird of the air 
 with greater facility than the most experienced of her 
 falconers. Horses that fretted and chafed under the 
 boldest cavaliers, would bend at once to the gentle hand 
 of the royal equestrian, and carry her with safety and 
 docility. The brute yielded gladly, as though proud 
 to contribute to her happiness ; and man looked and 
 longed and grieved, and did his best to make both him- 
 self and her miserable.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 71 
 
 Of physical beauty there is no question that she 
 possessed an extraordinary share — perhaps more than 
 any woman of that or any other age. Like her mother, 
 she was of lofty stature and peculiar dignity of bearing, 
 whilst she inherited from her father an exact symmetry, 
 and the most graceful proportions. James V., though 
 he made bad use of his physical advantages, was one 
 of the comeliest and best-limbed men in his dominions. 
 Mary's hand was a model for a sculptor, whilst every 
 gesture and every movement of her body was at once 
 womanly and dignified. But it was the Queen's face 
 that rivetted the attention and fascinated both sexes 
 with its entrancina; loveliness. Other women might 
 be beautiful; other women might have had the same 
 smooth open brow, the same chiselled features and 
 pencilled eye-brows, the same delicate chin and white 
 full neck and bosom — aye, even the same long, soft 
 hazel eyes, and rich dark chestnut hair ; but where was 
 the woman in Europe whose glance like hers, raised 
 from under those sweeping eye-lashes, found its way 
 straight to the heart ? whose smile seemed at once to 
 entreat and to command — to extort obedience and bestow 
 reward, like sunlight penetrating the coldest object and 
 warming and brightening all within its sphere ? Yes, 
 there was many a beautiful woman in France and 
 Scotland, not to mention such fair dames at the English 
 court as did not fear to provoke the displeasure of 
 'good Queen Bess' by too engaging a deportment, or 
 too becoming an attire ; but there was only one Mary 
 Stuart, as many an aching heart in steel-clad bosom 
 was fain to confess to its cost.
 
 72 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 And yet on that fair face was often to be remarked 
 an expression of melancholy, as though produced by 
 some vao;ue forebodino; of evil, such as cast a shadow 
 over the countenances of so many of the Stuarts. 
 
 Even James V., though he could revel with the 
 noisiest, and sing many a merry stave of his own 
 writing, amongst which, 
 
 ' We'll go no more a roving 
 By the light of the moon,' 
 
 is not the least suggestive and poetical, bore on his 
 brow this mysterious presage of evil, although it was 
 perhaps more apparent, as well it might be, in the 
 pensive lineaments of his descendant, the first Charles, 
 and the surpassing beauty of his peerless daughter, 
 Mary Queen of Scots. Was it this that the sooth- 
 sayer meant, when Mary of Guise took her beautiful 
 child, then a mere infant, to the famous Nostradamus, 
 and bade him cast her horoscope, and foretell her des- 
 tinies. The sage looked on the blooming face turned 
 so artlessly towards his owti, and annoimced in his 
 deep grave tones, ' There is blood on that fair young 
 brow ! ' 
 
 Through her happy childhood, in the peaceful islet of 
 Inch-ma-home — through her graceful youth, spent with 
 the daughters of France in the quiet retreats of -Amboise 
 and Fontainebleau — through her early wedded life, and 
 short supremacy, as through her widowhood, when the 
 Blanche Heine was the darling and pride of the French 
 court, this shadow of evil never left her. It pervaded 
 her turbulent reign in Scotland, her many reverses, her 
 cruel injuries, her disheartening defeats, her dreary
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 73 
 
 captivity. Perhaps it never faded from her brow till 
 the glory of death shone over it, in the hands of the 
 headsman at Fotheringay. 
 
 Mary looked round her courtiers in dismay at Arran's 
 extraordinary conduct. The sad expression was more 
 than usually apparent on her fair forehead ; she whis- 
 pered a few words to her brother, who seemed to be her 
 refuge, as was natural, in her difficulties, and Lord 
 James, darting another glance at Morton, quitted the 
 apartment with his usual staid impassive air. 
 
 Then the Queen, rising, broke up the circle by 
 which she was sm-roimded, and pacing through the 
 room, addressed herself by turns to the different nobles 
 present, and was observed to be more than usually 
 condescending to the Earl of Morton, as though some 
 instinctive prescience bade her deprecate, as early as 
 possible, the hostility of that fierce uncompromising 
 nature. 
 
 The Earl's grim countenance relaxed into a smile 
 that added to its natural ghastliness, as she passed ; 
 and Secretary Maitland whispered to Lord John Stuart 
 that, — 
 
 ' The Douglas was in a com-tly mood to-night, and 
 reminded him of the lion in George Buchanan's elegy 
 that was led by the lady in a silken chain ; ' to which 
 the gay Prior of Coldinghame, contemplating a shapely 
 leg he loved well to display in a galliard, replied with a 
 light laugh, 
 
 ' I never mistrust the lion so much as when he shows 
 his fangs,' alluding to the prominent teeth and im- 
 shapely mouth of the redoubted Earl.
 
 74 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES. 
 
 ' Nor I the Douglas so much as when he hides his 
 claws,' answered Secretary Maitland ; and the two passed 
 gaily on to take part in the amusements and revelry 
 that once more enlivened the walls of old Holyrood.
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ' She -waited not for guard nor gi-oom. 
 
 But stepped into the hall : 
 Around her were the four Maries, 
 Herself the rose of aU.' 
 
 T is not always in the immediate presence of 
 royalty that there is the most enlivening 
 conversation, or the greatest amount of 
 gaiety about a court. Although the Queen 
 of Scotland was the essence of good humour, and when 
 in comparative privacy, encouraged to the utmost free- 
 dom of intercourse and absence of formality amongst her 
 attendants, yet on an occasion like the present, in a 
 gathering of the great nobility of her kingdom, it may 
 easily be imagined that an unusual amount of decorum 
 and restraint was observed throughout the circle which 
 actually surrounded their sovereign. 
 
 At a short distance, however, from these graver 
 seniors were grouped the Maries, in the splendour of 
 their coiu'tly dresses, and the bloom of their own in- 
 trinsic charms. The young ladies seemed to have 
 completely recovered whatever ill effects may have been 
 produced by the hardships of a sea voyage, and their 
 plumage, like that of certain tropical wild birds, appeared 
 the sleeker and more variegated for the storms through
 
 76 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 which they had passed. We would fain possess the pen 
 of that eloquent writer who describes in our morning 
 journals the weekly recurring changes of Parisian fashion, 
 with a fidelity not to be surpassed by the superlative 
 gossiping powers of Brantome or Pepys, and a touching 
 earnestness that never stops short of enthusiasm, and 
 often amounts to poetry; then would we detail the taste- 
 ful costumes of this seductive quartette with an accuracy 
 that should make the ladies' mouths water, and every 
 hair on the head of the family stand on end. We would 
 depict in glowing language their several robes of orange 
 and violet and courtly cramoisie — the stately fall of 
 their folds, the delicate edging of their lace, the trim 
 defences of the jealous ruff, and rich embroidery on the 
 shapely glove. We would not 'bate a pearl, nor a tress, 
 nor a flounce, till the dazzled reader should count every 
 stitch of needlework on the attire of these sumptuous 
 damsels. But we must leave such visions to younger 
 and keener eyesights, satisfied to take for granted the 
 i^adiance of the Maries from the admiration they ex- 
 cited, and the compliments that were paid them by all. 
 
 As Chastelar followed the Marechal through the outer 
 circle, he lingered for a few minutes amongst the maids- 
 of-honour to take his leave of the ladies, with whom of 
 late he had been so closely associated. It would have 
 been amusing to mark the different effect his farewell 
 produced on each individual of the four. 
 
 Mary Beton, half-a-head taller than her companions, 
 magnificent in dress and deportment, received his salu- 
 tation with the dignity of an empress accepting the 
 homage of a vassal. 
 
 Mary Seton laughed in his face.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 77 
 
 ' Farewell ! ' said she, "with mischief gleaming from 
 her eyes : ' Farewell ! om* fellow-sufferer and Prince of 
 Troubadours. As you are never likely to cross the seas 
 again, be sure you take back with you to France nothing 
 but what belongs to you. None of the hearts of us un- 
 fortunate maids-of-honour, for instance. They are 
 prized in Scotland, I can tell you ; and the Maries want 
 at least as many as they have got amongst the five of 
 them, you may be sure ! ' 
 
 ' And suppose I leave my own instead,' answered 
 Chastelar, laughing, yet at the same time colouring, an 
 embarrassment not unmarked by Mary Hamilton, who 
 shot one eager glance at him, and turned her eyes away, 
 blushing too ; ' suppose I must return to France, fair 
 mistress, a loser by the exchange ? ' 
 
 ' We '11 have the palace swept and searched for the 
 missing article,' she answered gaily. ' I think I can 
 promise you that the one who has got it won't keep it. 
 There, you needn't look so shocked, mistress Beton ! 
 You can't guess which of the Maries has robbed our 
 poor poet so mercilessly. It's a sweet name, Mary, is 
 it not? But don't forget it rhymes to " vary." And 
 so, good luck to you, Chastelar ! and fare you well ! ' 
 
 ' Souvent femme varie, fol qui shj fie^ answered the 
 poet, forcing a laugh, though a less acute observer than 
 any one of the four might have noted that he was dis- 
 tressed at the turn their conversation had taken, and 
 that the wilful girl's shaft had been shot home. ' Adieu, 
 mistress Carmichael,' he added, as she, too, in her turn 
 frankly bade him farewell ; and then he passed on to 
 Mary Hamilton, and paused for an instant, irresolute, 
 before the dark-eyed maid-of-honour.
 
 78 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 Slie did not offer him her hand as the others had 
 done. She never lifted her looks to his face. Pale as 
 she usually was, she turned paler than ever, and her 
 cold, distant bearing would have almost seemed to infer 
 that she was offended, and that her greeting was ex- 
 torted from her as a duty of ceremony, rather than 
 springing from the free impulse of friendship. 
 
 And yet he knew it was not so. Though scarcely so 
 quick-sighted on such matters as women, even men have 
 an intuitive perception that they are beloved. In either 
 sex the consciousness produces a kindly feeling towards 
 the worshipper, and it seems hard to deny a few gentle 
 words where so much is ungrudgingly bestowed. Mis- 
 taken compassion ! Perhaps the fiercest efforts of hate 
 would be less cruel than this ill-judged lenity. It is 
 like hanging out the beacon where it shall guide the 
 bark on to the quicksand. It is like Yarney counter- 
 feiting Leicester's whistle to lure Amy Robsart to de- 
 struction. When people pass spurious money in exchange 
 for sterling gold they find themselves ere long in the 
 felon's dock, but there is no law to punish the coiner who 
 stamps a few false words with the royal die of truth, 
 and pays them away unblushingly, for all the happiness 
 and all the welfare, of the poor fool he deceives. 
 
 ' You are going back to France,' said Mary Hamilton, 
 with a wonderfully composed countenance and steady 
 lip. 'It is your home — I wish you joy of your re- 
 turn.' 
 
 ' Nay,' answered Chastelar, his voice softening while 
 he spoke. ' You know how happy I have been in 
 Scotland. How devoted I must always be to this court 
 and this country. I must follow d'Amville to Paris for
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 79 
 
 the present, but the one hope of my life will be, that I 
 shall soon return.' 
 
 He spoke truly enough ; he even hoped the royal lady 
 then employing all the fascinations of her manner on 
 Morton and his kindred, might hear his last words and 
 give him one responsive glance to carry with him into his 
 banishment. In this he was disappointed. The Queen, 
 seated at some distance from the group, and surroimded 
 by her barons, was for the moment ' every inch a Queen,' 
 and Chastelar passed out of Holyrood, with Mary 
 Hamilton's ' farewell ' warmer and more hopeful since 
 his last words, to warn him, (could indeed warning ever 
 profit in such cases,) that in stretching for the rose he 
 would never reach, he was trampling the poor violet 
 ruthlessly beneath his feet. 
 
 She seemed in better spirits too, after he was gone, 
 although silent and inattentive to the surrounding 
 gaiety, a distraction not unnoticed by Mary Be ton, who 
 believed herself officially answerable not only for the 
 dresses and deportment of her three companions, but 
 for the thoughts and sentiments of their inmost hearts. 
 
 ' I have told you twice,' she said at length with an 
 offended air, ' that the Queen rides out to-morrow for 
 the hawking after early mass, and that you and Mary 
 Seton will be in attendance. You will wear the sad- 
 coloured riding-gear passamented with silver, and 
 French hats, — but neither of you seem to heed me.' 
 
 ' She is thinking of a French head, rather than a 
 French hat,' laughed incorrigible Mary Seton, ' but 
 indeed I have listened to you even more attentively 
 than usual. Ah ! mistress Beton, what would I not 
 give to possess your careful forethought, and common
 
 80 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 sense ? You never neglect anything — you never forget 
 anything. The Queen trusts you with her state-secrets, 
 and when you carry her work to her in the Council- 
 chamber, even Maitland and Morton look upon you as if 
 you were one of themselves. Why are you not weak 
 and giddy like me, or pensive and sad like Hamilton, 
 or absent and haughty like Mary Carmichael has grown 
 of late ? Look at her yonder holding the Queen's train 
 as if she were the Sovereign, and our beautiful Mistress, 
 the maid-of- honour !' 
 
 Mary Beton smiled, not displeased at the adroit 
 flattery of her junior. She did indeed pride herself on 
 two especial qualities, viz., utter impassability, and 
 scrupulous attention to details. 
 
 ' I am somewhat older than the rest of you,' she 
 said, bridling her handsome neck within her handsome 
 ruff, ' and I have learned to avoid all pleasures and 
 interests that take my attention from my duty. I am 
 always responsible and always employed. I have no 
 time for the follies that seem to afford the rest of you 
 so much amusement.' 
 
 ' And yet you would become them well,' said the 
 other coaxingly. ' Come now, be persuaded to play 
 Diana in the next masque. I will dress your hair 
 myself, and the gallants all vow you are fitted for the 
 part both in person and character. Handsome and 
 stately and cold.' 
 
 ' That is exactly Avhy I do not care to join in it,' 
 replied the elder lady with increasing cordiality, for no 
 daughter of Eve was ever yet insensible to flattery, 
 even when ugly and repulsive and old, whereas Mary 
 Beton could boast considerable attractions. ' I tell you,
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 81 
 
 •my dear, it is better to keep out of temptation. You 
 envj me my self-command, you say, and I repeat to 
 you it is a quality I possess because I am heart-whole 
 and free.' 
 
 ' But so am I,' interposed the girl vehemently, ' and 
 so are we all, I suppose, in reality, for the matter of 
 that ; and yet it is possible that our time may be coming 
 too,' she added reflectively. ' Ah ! mistress Beton, 
 I shall see you some day with a lover as stately as 
 yourself, perhaps. What an imperial pair you will 
 make !' 
 
 Mary Beton looked by no means displeased. The 
 smile on her handsome face partook of a meaning ex- 
 pression not devoid of triumph, as though the contin- 
 gency were neither very remote, nor wholly disagree- 
 able, but of course the less she felt it to be unalterable, 
 the more emphasis she laid on her denial. 
 
 ' Never ! ' she exclaimed strenuously. ' I am surprised, 
 my dear, at your thinking for an instant of such an ab- 
 surdity. I never saw one yet, to my fancy, that I 
 could like better than another.' 
 
 'Nor I neither,' echoed Mary Seton eagerly; add- 
 ing in a voice of unusual gravity, and with a wistful 
 expression on her countenance rarely seen there, ' I 
 think if I did, it would be an unlucky day both for 
 him and for me !' 
 
 Even while she spoke an unusual stir in the ante- 
 room heralded the approach of some distinguished 
 stranger who was to be received with more than ordi- 
 nary ceremony. In such cases the Queen's ladies 
 gathered round their mistress as in duty bound, 
 although at other times it was Mary's practice to re- 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 tain but one of them in the immediate vicinity of her 
 person, and to permit the rest to mingle in the general 
 circle, amusing themselves in their own way. The 
 duties devolving on ' the Maries ' were indeed much to 
 their liking, and might well be called a ' labour of love.' 
 They vied with each other in passionate adoration of 
 their mistress, whose sweet temper and generous dis- 
 position never failed to gain the hearts of all those who 
 came about her person. If there was a charm in all the 
 Stuarts which won blind devotion from their associates, 
 what must have been the fascination that surrounded 
 the gentlest and loveliest scion of that illustrious 
 race ! 
 
 The Queen of Scots was a thorough gentlewoman in 
 the noblest and fullest acceptation of the term. That she 
 lacked firmness where her affections were involved, and 
 promptitude of action when her safety was threatened, 
 what is this but to say that she was a woman and 
 not a hero ? Courage, both the masculine spirit that 
 braves mortal peril, and the feminine fortitude that can 
 sustain suffering and sorrow, she proved that she pos- 
 sessed on more than one stricken field, in more than one 
 dreary house of humiliation and bondage. On both these 
 chivalrous qualities the last scene of her life drew 
 largely, and Bayard himself, the bravest of the brave, 
 could not have faced death more nobly than did Mary, 
 the fairest of the fair. Yet with all this she was ex- 
 quisitely sensitive of the feelings of others — she could 
 not bear to give pain, she hesitated to remonstrate, and 
 could scarcely bring herself to chide. The regulations 
 of her household, to the carrying out of which the 
 Queen herself attended with housewifely care, prove
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 83 
 
 the regard she entertained for the personal comfort of 
 her domestics. 
 
 The allowance for the table of her ladies and maids- 
 of-honour was the same as that of their Sovereign. If 
 the reader is curious to see the bill of fare for a royal 
 dinner in the sixteenth century, the following are its 
 contents : — 
 
 Tour soups, four entrees, a piece of "beef-royal" 
 boiled, a loin of mutton, and a capon ; of roast meat, 
 one neck of mutton, one capon, three pigeons, three 
 hares, and two pieces of fat meat. For the dessert, 
 seven dishes of fruit, and one of chicory-paste, one 
 gallon of wine, one quart of white wine, and one of 
 claret ; eight rolls of bread.' The latter item appears 
 as if this plentiful supply were a dinner for but eight 
 people. Probably, however, the remains of the feast 
 furnished forth the inferior tables. A characteristic 
 memorandum appears at the same time directing that 
 the Queen's ladies, including the Maries, shall have the 
 same diet as their mistress. 
 
 Mary Carmichael was in attendance on Her Majesty 
 and holding the royal train during the conversation we 
 have detailed. It was broken off abruptly by the stir 
 in the ante-room. 
 
 ' This must be the English Ambassador ! ' exclaimed 
 MaryBeton, drawing herself up to her full height, and 
 assuming her most frigid air of etiquette. 
 
 ' He has come back sooner than he was expected, and 
 I wish he had stayed away altogether,' observed mis- 
 tress Seton, on whom Randolph had made no favourable 
 impression during their previous acquaintance, for the 
 latter had held Elizabeth's credentials at the Court of 
 
 G2
 
 84 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. . 
 
 Holyrood from the Queen of Scotland's first arrival, 
 and had been absent to receive personal instructions 
 from his own Sovereign but for a few weeks. 
 
 ' What is the matter with Mary Carmichael ? ' whis- 
 pered mistress Hamilton anxiously, as the three young 
 ladies glided into their places behind the Queen. She 
 might have spared herself the question, for almost ere 
 it was spoken the agitation which caused it had dis- 
 appeared ; and although when Randolph entered the 
 presence chamber, Mary Carmichael had started, turned 
 very pale, and dropped the royal robe from her hand, 
 ere he had advanced three paces, her colour had re- 
 turned somewhat higher than before, and she was 
 fulfilling her duties more scrupulously than ever, with 
 an unusual expression of cold indifference on her fair 
 and haughty face.
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 For though I was rugged and wild and free, 
 I had a heart, like another man ; 
 
 And, oh ! had I known how the end would he, 
 I would it had broke ere the play began.' 
 
 S Mary Stuart stood forward to welcome 
 Elizabeth's Ambassador to her court, many 
 an eye dwelt on the face and figure of 
 the Scottish Queen with enthusiastic ad- 
 miration. Though dressed in the mourning which she 
 still wore for her first husband, the dark folds of her 
 robe did but enhance the brilliancy of her complexion, 
 and whilst even the spotless rufi" did not detract from 
 the fairness of her neck, the whitest hand in Europe 
 hung like a snow-drop against the black volume of her 
 draperies. Even Randolph, cynic though he were, 
 could not repress a thrill of delight as he approached 
 so beautiful an object, though the sentiment uppermost 
 in his diplomatic heart, had he put it into words, would 
 probably have been as follows : — 
 
 ' It is lucky my mistress cannot see you at this mo- 
 ment, or she would hate you more cordially than ever, 
 and my task would be even more difiicult than it is ! ' 
 
 He made his obeisance, nevertheless, with the cool 
 assurance and easy grace of a practised courtier. The
 
 86 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 Queen received liim with a cordiality that she seemed 
 anxious should not be lost on the bystanders. 
 
 ' A messenger from my loving cousin,' said she, ' is 
 always welcome ; how much more when he comes in 
 the person of our old and esteemed friend Mr. Randolph.' 
 
 The Ambassador answered in a few well-chosen words 
 for his Sovereign and himself, dropping once more on 
 his knee, and craving permission to present an auto- 
 graph letter and a costly ring from Elizabeth to the 
 cousin whom she never saw. Mary received them both 
 with expressions of unbounded delight, and the shrewd 
 bearer, judging from his own experience and his own 
 heart, argued that there must be no small weakness 
 concealed under so much affection, and that it was 
 unnatural for one woman to be so fond of another, 
 unless she felt herself uncomfortably in her power. 
 
 Mary questioned him of his journey. 
 
 ' You have had a long ride,' said the Queen, ' and we 
 can but give you a rude though hearty welcome. A long 
 ride, and a dangerous, for indeed the borders of both 
 countries are not so quiet as we could wish, or as we 
 hope to render them before many months are past.' 
 
 Randolph answered with ready tact, — 
 
 ' It is to the Queen of Scotland's servants I owe my 
 safe arrival at Holyrood. Permit me to recall to your 
 Majesty's recollection an Archer of your old Scottish 
 Guard.' 
 
 With these words he drew Maxwell forward and 
 presented him to the Queen. Randolph was a good- 
 natured man when it cost nothing, and, moreover, it 
 was a part of his profession to make a friend wherever 
 it could be done at a small outlay. Mary received
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 87 
 
 Walter Maxwell with the utmost condescension. Had 
 she followed her own impulse, she would have shaken 
 him cordially by both hands and bidden him a hearty 
 welcome, for the sake of old times and the memory of 
 her dear France ; but monarchs must not give way to 
 impulse, and indeed are better without such weaknesses 
 as affections and associations. So he knelt low before 
 her and kissed her royal hand, the while Mary Car- 
 michael seemed to have discovered something so en- 
 grossing in the skirt of her mistress's robe that she 
 never lifted her eyes from the embroidery with which 
 it was adorned. 
 
 ' And how fared you in the wild Border-land ? ' re- 
 sumed the Queen, ' the land of moss and moor — of jack 
 and spear — a pleasant district if you want to breathe a 
 horse or fly a hawk, but, as our loyal burghers say, bad 
 to sleep in for those who would pull their boots off when 
 they retire to rest.' The Queen spoke of the Border 
 as though it brought agreeable associations to her mind, 
 and indeed she dearly loved the open plain and the free 
 air of Heaven. 
 
 ' Had it not been for your Warden, Madam,' answered 
 the courtier, ' I might have slept in my boots till the 
 day of judgment. This gallant Archer and myself 
 would scarce have had a tale to tell, if the Earl of 
 Bothwell did not take to spur and snaffle as kindly as 
 the wildest freebooter on the Marches.' 
 
 ' How so ? ' enquired Mary, the colour mantling to her 
 cheek, and her eye sparkling with animated interest. 
 The Queen was a Stuart to the marrow, and loved well 
 to hear of a "allant feat of arms. 
 
 ' Why thus, Madam,' replied the Ambassador. ' Ere
 
 88 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 the moon had been up an hour, we saw ourselves beset 
 bj a party of some ten or twelve horsemen, who occu- 
 pied a pass in front of us, and as we were but three, 
 I leave your Majesty to judge that my feelings, as a 
 man whose trade is rather peace than war, were by no 
 means agreeable. My companion, I may observe, was 
 all for fighting, without counting.' He spoke, as usual, 
 in a tone that might be either jest or earnest ; also, as 
 usual, nothing within the range of his eye escaped him. 
 He noted the Queen's interest. He observed Mary 
 Carmichael look up for an instant, and resume the 
 study of her embroidery with a heightened colour. He 
 caught mistress Beton in the fact, examining his own 
 person with an air of dignified approval that amounted 
 to admiration ; and it was not lost upon him, that while 
 Lord James looked more anxious than common, others 
 of the circle exchanged glances of deeper meaning than 
 his plain tale would at first appear to warrant. All 
 this he saw without seeming to see, and made a note of 
 his observations. 
 
 ' And you charged them and cut your way through ! ' 
 exclaimed the Queen, with head up and flashing eyes, 
 like some beautiful Amazon, clenching her slender hand 
 the while as though it held a sword. 
 
 ' Charge them, your Majesty, we did perforce, for it 
 was more dangerous to go back than forward ; but the 
 cutting seemed more on their part than ours. The 
 situation, too, was ridiculous enough, had a man been 
 in cue to laugh ! ' resumed Randolph in the same dry 
 sneering tones. ' My comrade's horse was rolling on the 
 heather, and he defending himself like a second St. 
 George on foot. My servant, saving your Grace's
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 89 
 
 presence, a beef-fed knave from Smithfield, roared and 
 plunged about like a baited bull, till he received a 
 coup-de-grdce that would have cracked any skull but a 
 Londoner's, from a useful instrument that my Lord 
 Bothwell tells me is called a Jedwood-axe. Whilst I 
 myself, vainly endeavouring to protect person and pro- 
 perty, was forced to abandon my valise, and turn all my 
 attention to the defence of my own head.' 
 
 ' And they robbed you of your despatches ! ' ex- 
 claimed Lord James, interrupting the narrator with 
 ill-concealed anxiety, while three or four nobles glanced 
 at each other with looks of covert triumph and amuse- 
 ment. 'Indeed, Madam,' added the future Regent, 
 recovering himself with an effort, ' these outrages are 
 insupportable ; they must be promptly punished and 
 put down ! ' 
 
 ' And they shall be so,' answered Mary, drawing 
 herself up proudly, ' if I ride through the " Debateable 
 Land" myself in corslet and head-piece, as my fathers 
 did before me. Alas ! I fear steel harness is the most 
 fitting attire for a Scottish Queen. — But you have not 
 told us how you escaped,' proceeded she, turning to 
 Randolph with marked courtesy and a softened manner. 
 ' You were rescued, were you not, at your utmost need, 
 by oiu- Warden ? ' 
 
 ' The Earl of Bothwell did, indeed, come riding in 
 like a whirlwind,' replied Randolph, ' at the very mo- 
 ment when I had resolved that my last sleep must be 
 that booted one to which your Majesty's citizens have 
 such a rational objection. If the Warden of the 
 Marches be chosen for his prowess in single combat, 
 there never was a better selection ! Man and horse
 
 90 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 went down before his lance without a struggle, and his 
 A'cry war-cry seemed to act upon the freebooters like the 
 shriek of a hawk on a wisp of wild-fowl. 'Faith they 
 took to their wings like wild-fowl too, where it was 
 hopeless to follow them, and I rode home to supper at 
 Hermitage without the slightest wish to culti^'ate a 
 further acquaintance with that portion of your Majesty's 
 domains.' 
 
 The Queen laughed as he concluded. She had 
 listened with obvious interest to the Englishman's ac- 
 count of the skirmish, and seemed in heightened spirits 
 when it was over. She beckoned to Mary Beton, and 
 whispered in that lady's ear, who retired from the 
 circle, and presently returned followed by a page, bear- 
 ing a small gold cup, richly chased and decorated with 
 precious stones. It was filled with wine, and Mary put 
 her own lips to it ere she offered it to Randolph. 
 
 ' You will pledge us,' said the Queen, with her sunny 
 smile, ' and when you drink to a lady, sir, not a. drop 
 must remain in the cup. If you examine it, you will 
 see that its sides are ornamented with lance-heads, and 
 trophies of arms. Will you favour Mary Stuart by 
 keeping it in remembrance of your rough ride, and the 
 dangers you affronted in her service ? ' 
 
 Randolph bowed to the ground. He knew and ap- 
 preciated the value of such a compliment, and whilst 
 he saw in the giver's frank countenance and cordial 
 manner the sincerity of her good-will, his heart never 
 smote him for the double part he was expressly sent 
 there to play. 
 
 The Queen's curiosity did not yet seem, however, to 
 be thoroughly satisfied, and she questioned the Ambas-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 91 
 
 sador, with considerable minuteness, as to the appear- 
 ance and bearing of his foes. Randolph's answers 
 were marked by his usual tone of covert sarcasm ; but 
 she elicited no more from him than he had already 
 detailed, save that the valise which he had lost con- 
 tained in reality no papers of importance, or, indeed, 
 any papers whatever, except a few private memoranda 
 of his own — an announcement which seemed to clear 
 Lord James's brow from a load of care, while it created 
 obvious disappointment on two or three other anxious 
 faces. 
 
 The truth was, that Randolph, faithful to his own 
 Queen in the faithless part which he enacted to another, 
 was the bearer of certain instructions to Lord James, 
 which were very different in tenor from the cordial 
 letter he was charged by Elizabeth to deliver to her 
 cousin. There was even yet a strong Catholic party 
 about the court, to whom the possession of these de- 
 spatches would have been an inestimable windfall, no 
 less, indeed, than a foundation for a charge of treason 
 against the Queen's Protestant half-brother. 
 
 The attack, then, on Randolph and his companion 
 was prompted by nobler names than the Armstrongs 
 and Elliotts who lived by rapine on the borders; but 
 their schemes had been baffled by the wily Englishman, 
 who fought like a demon to preserve the valise, of 
 which he was, in reality, utterly careless, and by that 
 means, led his assailants to believe that, in carrying it 
 off, they had become possessed of a valuable prize. 
 
 ' I am charged by the Earl of Bothwell,' said Ran- 
 dolph, at the conclusion of his narrative, ' to present 
 his unalterable duty to your Majesty. His lordship,
 
 92 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 not satisfied with extricating me from the sloughs of 
 the " Debateable Land," has sent his own henchman to 
 conduct me safely to the capital.' 
 
 Marj started perceptibly, and the colour she could 
 not entirely repress rose faintly to her cheek. Well 
 did she know that her Warden was thoroughly devoted 
 to her interests, and that, in whatever intrigues he 
 might be mixed, Bothwell's loyalty was unshaken to 
 his Queen. Perhaps she may have already asked her- 
 self whether it did not partake of that devotion which 
 shed a halo over the days of chivalry. At all events, 
 his sending his own henchman to the court, denoted some 
 more than usual necessity for communicating with his 
 Sovereign ; and Mary prepared to take her measures 
 accordingly. 
 
 At that unhappy period, when not a day passed 
 without the hatching of some plot, the development 
 of some intrigue — when every man's hand was against 
 his neighbour, and noble preyed upon noble without 
 scruple or remorse, even the Queen was obliged to 
 remember that jealous eyes were on the watch for 
 her every movement, and to practise dissimulation, 
 where dissimulation was alike unsafe and unworthy. 
 
 She turned to Mary Seton, who had been listening 
 with an appearance of great amusement, and gave her 
 some directions in a low voice, that even Randolph's 
 quick ears could not overhear. 
 
 The young lady curtsied, and withdrew, first casting 
 a glance of considerable meaning at Mary Carmichael, 
 who replied to it by assuming as unconscious an air as 
 was compatible with the red spot that burned in either 
 cheek.
 
 A EO MANGE OF HOLYROOD. 93 
 
 Walter Maxwell now found himself in the presence 
 of the lady whom he had been determining so many 
 long weeks that he would forget, and to see whom once 
 more, he had consistently abandoned his profession, and 
 undertaken a long journey by sea and land. As is 
 usually the case, the moment he had looked forward 
 to hardly repaid the anxiety of expectation. The 
 maid-of-honour's greeting was formal in the extreme, 
 betraying a degree of coldness that seemed almost 
 to argue aversion ; and he was, of course, fool enough 
 to be hurt and angry, instead of pleased and tri- 
 umphant. Who ever saw a woman accost the man 
 she loves with half the cordiality she displays to the 
 merest acquaintance ? On the contrary ; she receives 
 his greeting with a reserve that to any one else would 
 be positive rudeness; and even when alone with him, 
 preserves, for a space, a certain embarrassment in her 
 womanly shame and fear, lest she should betray the 
 tenth part of all she feels. 
 
 Mary Carmichael was no exception to the rule of 
 her ^sex. In fact, she possessed more than her due 
 share of that pride which, when brought in contact 
 with a kind nature, produces so much sorrow, and with 
 a proud one, so much dissension. Although the Queen, 
 who was again seated, had dismissed her from her duty 
 as train-bearer, and she was at liberty to converse with 
 all the freedom a crowded assembly permits, she could 
 think of no more pertinent remark to make to her 
 admirer than the following. 
 
 ' You have brought us news from the French coui't, 
 master Maxwell? Is it as gay as it used to be? I 
 wonder you had the heart to leave it.'
 
 94 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 There was something in her manner that repelled 
 and irritated him. 
 
 ' I came to serve my Queen,' he replied, stiffly, and 
 in a tone as cold as her o^vn. ' Our Sovereign knows 
 how to appreciate loyalty, and does not forget her old 
 adherents in the short space of a few months.' 
 
 ' Our Sovereign would welcome a lap-dog if it came 
 from France, I think,' replied the other, indifferently, 
 utterly disregarding the future suffering her insincerity 
 would cause herself. ' Our Sovereign has already ex- 
 pressed her satisfaction at seeing you, and would pro- 
 bably give you a yet heartier greeting if you could 
 inform her of the latest fashions in head-tire and 
 farthingale. We are far behind-hand here, you see, in 
 these barbarous regions ! ' 
 
 She spoke with an assumption of levity so unlike 
 herself, that he was disgusted as well as angry ; and, 
 indeed, it was somewhat unjust that the maid-of-honoui* 
 should thus revenge upon him her own confusion at his 
 appearance. 
 
 ' I am no silk-mercer,' he answered, rudely, ' nor 
 have I travelled so far to bring a lady the colour of a 
 ribbon,' — and with a swelling heart, and a feeling of 
 pain he could not have believed possible, without ex- 
 periencing it, Walter Maxwell turned away, and lost 
 himself amongst the crowd of surrounding courtiers. 
 
 Far different was the conversation carried on at the 
 same moment by that courtly pair, the diplomatic Mr. 
 Thomas Randolph, and the stately mistress Mary 
 Beton. The former, witli his keen political foresight, 
 had lately been reflecting, that a close intimacy with 
 at least one of the household, would open a fertile
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 95 
 
 channel for information regarding the Queen's private 
 thoughts and doings, such as would be invaluable to 
 him in his present capacity as confidential agent to 
 Elizabeth. He had also observed the admiration which 
 his late appearance had obviously elicited from the 
 senior maid-of-honour, and he had no more scruple 
 in deliberately proceeding to make love to that austere 
 damsel, than he would have had in putting her to 
 the torture, had the latter process rather than the 
 former, been the most effectual way of gaining her con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Mary Beton was not insensible to admiration. She 
 was a woman, and with all her magnificence of deport- 
 ment, consequently inherited the propensities of her 
 sex ; but she would not have appreciated indiscriminate 
 homage, and the dish to please her palate, if we may so 
 speak, required to be elaborately dressed and seasoned, 
 and sent up on a silver trencher at least. 
 
 To have won Mr. Randolph's good opinion, however, 
 was a conquest of which any lady might be proud. 
 The Ambassador's high position, his invariable assurance 
 and self-reliance, his thorough knowledge of the world, 
 and sarcastic readiness of tongue, had rendered him an 
 object of considerable interest to the dames of the 
 Scottish Court. They exaggerated, as women will, 
 liis influence, his talents, his successes — diplomatic as 
 well as social — and the favour with which he was 
 regarded by the English Queen. They quoted him, 
 they talked about him, — above all, they were a little 
 afraid of him; and the latter sensation possesses an 
 indefinable charm for the venturous tendencies of the 
 female character.
 
 96 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 Mary Beton was startled to find how gratifying to her 
 self-love were the attentions of the English courtier. 
 
 It was difficult to say by what subtle process he led 
 her to infer that he took pleasui'e in her society. Every 
 word he said might have been proclaimed unblushingly 
 by the Lion King-at-Arms. And yet, before Ran- 
 dolph had spoken a dozen sentences to Mary Beton, he 
 had dexterously led her to infer that she was the only 
 woman in that crowded assemblage whom he considered 
 worthy of his notice; that their ideas were sympathetic, 
 their tastes similar, and that a mutual alliance must 
 necessarily be established between them. 
 
 To-night he confined himself to a few adroit questions 
 respecting the costumes in a proposed masque; and 
 Mary Beton answered them with a freedom far different 
 from her usual reticence. All he wanted was to pave 
 the way to her confidence ; and he was the last man to 
 scare the steed by showing the halter while he profiered 
 the corn. So he took his leave as soon as he saw he 
 had made a favourable impression, and went his way 
 cheerfully to sup with Morton and Maitland, leaving 
 mistress Beton in a most agreeable frame of mind, 
 with her head, at least, an inch higher than usual. 
 
 We must now follow Mary Seton as she glided 
 stealthily away from the presence to fulfil the Queen's 
 whispered command. 
 
 With an expression of more than usual intelligence 
 on her saucy features, that active damsel hurried 
 through the ante-rooms and galleries, and along certain 
 dark stone passages, which she threaded with the con- 
 fidence of one to whom these intricacies were familiar, 
 till she reached a small vaulted apartment, from whence 
 
 1
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 97 
 
 emanated a prevailing odour of beef and ale, denoting 
 it to be the buttery. Spur and steel scabbard clat- 
 tered on the stone floor of this resort, and rouo-h voices 
 might be heard jeering and pledging each other with 
 a rude cordiality, proportioned to the extent in which, 
 as the Scotch say, ' The malt got above the meal^ 
 
 A grave individual in black, however, presided over 
 these festivities, and could always keep order by the 
 summary process of refusing to draw more ale. This 
 official started to behold the white figure of the maid- 
 of-honour standing in the door-way ; but Mary Seton, 
 with a finger on her lip, simply said, ' Lord Bothwell's 
 henchman,' and the Seneschal, interrupting that per- 
 sonage with the black jack of ale at his lips, brought 
 him into the dark stone passage, and confided him to 
 the radiant messenger before he was aware. 
 
 Dick Rutherford, though his faculties were of the 
 keenest on a moonless night in Liddesdale, was some- 
 what confused on this his first visit to Holyrood ; nor 
 were his intellects necessarily brightened by a huge re- 
 past of beef, washed down with strong ale, after a long 
 ride, and a fourteen hom-s' fast. 
 
 Once in the passage, he thought he was dreaming. 
 A vision of loveliness in shining array, whose head 
 reached to about the middle of his corslet, accosted 
 him with hasty frankness. 
 
 ' You left Hermitage this morning ? ' said she, laco- 
 nically. 
 
 ' At day-break,' answered the borderer, scarcely re- 
 assm-ed by this acciu'ate knowledge of his movements. 
 
 ' You have a letter from the Warden for the Queen ? ' 
 proceeded the damsel. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' A letter ! ' repeated ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' his Scot- 
 tish caution coming rapidly to the rescue. 'I'll no 
 say but there might be a bit parcel, or such like. If 
 I've no lost it by the way,' he added, doubtfully, and 
 feeling the while under his corslet for the safety of the 
 packet. 
 
 Mary Seton's little foot stamped impatiently, whereat 
 the giant started in his boots. She turned upon him 
 quite fiercely. 
 
 ' A jackman does not lose a Queen's packet,' said 
 she. ' If he does, he may chance to lose his own head. 
 Follow me ! ' and she flitted on through the dark pas- 
 sages, turning at intervals to see that she was followed 
 by the astonished borderer. 
 
 Presently they climbed a narrow winding stair. After 
 ascending several steps, the maid-of-honour stopped, 
 opened a door, and pushing aside some heavy folds of 
 tapestry, bade her follower enter, warning him not to 
 strike his head against the low door-way. 
 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' dazzled and confused, found 
 hin^self in a very small and brilliantly lighted apart- 
 ment. The roof was high ; but the room itself was 
 scarcely large enough to contain six or eight persons. 
 A table prepared for supper, and laid for two, occupied 
 the whole space between the window and the ample 
 hearth, on which a wood fire blazed and crackled cheer- 
 fully. The borderer's gaze was rivetted at once by the 
 gold plate on the supper-table, richly chased, and bear- 
 ing the crown-royal on its burnished surface. 
 
 Mary Seton could not forbear a smile at his astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 ' This is somewhat different from the head of a
 
 A KOIVIANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 99 
 
 glen in Liddesdale,' said she, with a ringing laugh. 
 ' Thanks to my good-nature, you have now seen a 
 Queen's chamber. Give me your packet, and get you 
 gone ! ' 
 
 WhUe she spoke, she ran her eye over the athletic 
 figui-e of the borderer, magnificent in its size and 
 strength when seen in that small apartment, and well 
 set off by his war-like gear. 
 
 ' What a fine man,' thought Mary Seton, as she 
 scanned him. ' And oh ! what a good face, and how 
 unlike a courtier.' 
 
 But on ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh's ' honest countenance 
 might be seen an expression of great perplexity. In 
 the first place, he was a good deal charmed, and not a 
 little stupefied, by the beauty of his guide. In the 
 next, he was extremely apprehensive of an immediate 
 apparition of royalty ; and lastly, he was embarrassed 
 how to refuse anything to the most fascinating young 
 lady he had ever yet set eyes on. Nevertheless, he 
 answered stoutly though deferentially, 
 
 ' My packet must be delivered into the Queen's ain 
 hand. You're no the Queen hersel', I'm thinking, 
 though well you might be, my bonny lady, for I never 
 saw the like o' ye.' 
 
 The tone of admiration in which he spoke was so 
 obviously involuntary as to be flattering in the extreme. 
 
 Mary Seton looked pleased, and continued more 
 graciously, 
 
 ' I spoke to prove you. You can be faithful to a 
 trust, can you ? What is your name ? ' 
 
 ' They call me Dick Rutherford,' he answered ; ' but 
 in Liddesdale I 'm " Dick-o'-the-Cleugh." Ask the Lid- 
 
 H2
 
 100 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 desdale lads if I'm to be trusted ! But I'm havering. 
 The like o' you will never set your bonny foot in Lid- 
 desdale, nor ask tidings o' the like o' me.' 
 
 Dick spoke almost despondently for a moment. He 
 brightened up though at her reply. 
 
 ' A brave man and an honest is the noblest of God's 
 creatures. I believe you to be both. Although,' she 
 added, mischievously, ' they're scarce enough at Holy- 
 rood, there are a good many more brave men than 
 honest on your side the country, or I've been misin- 
 formed.' 
 
 Dick was on the eve of entering into an elaborate 
 defence of his kindred, and an explanation of border 
 probity, which could not but have been edifying, when 
 he was interrupted by the entrance of the Queen her- 
 self, about to sup, after the fatigues of the day, pri- 
 vate and quietly, with her kinswoman the Comitess of 
 Argyle. 
 
 The borderer was now completely overwhelmed. 
 Nevertheless, he delivered his packet with an honest 
 simplicity, in favourable contrast to the manners of 
 most of her ambassadors ; and Mary Stuart acknow- 
 ledged its receipt with a few" gold pieces, and dismissed 
 him with her pleasantest smile. 
 
 His previous conductor guided him back till she 
 landed him in the court of the palace ; and although 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' possessed to the full the loyalty of 
 his countrymen, and a borderer's devoted admiration for 
 womanly beauty, he had no distinct recollection of the 
 Sovereign's countenance, so completely was it effaced 
 from his memory by her bewitching maid-of-honour. 
 
 Poor Dick ! Many a long day afterwards his honest
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 101 
 
 heart ached when he thought of that memorable night, 
 recalling the merry eyes and the sunny hair, and the 
 dazzling figure of his fascinating guide. Brave, simple 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ! ' He had better have been up 
 to his neck in the softest moss in all Liddesdale.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ' But had I wist before I kist, 
 
 That love had been sae hard to win, 
 I'd have locked my heart in a case of gowd. 
 An' pinned it wi' a siller pin.' 
 
 T was the anniversary of the death of 
 Francis II., and Mary, whose attachment 
 to her youthful husband evinced itself 
 by a scrupulous respect for his memory, 
 had ordered a dirge to be performed in the Royal 
 Chapel at Holyrood for the repose of his soul. The 
 sacred edifice had been appropriately hung with 
 black ; nor was any accessory neglected that could 
 enhance the gloom of the scene. Carpenters had been 
 employed for some days previously in preparing the 
 mournful display, and a good deal of murmuring and 
 discontent had arisen both in the com*t and city at 
 the proposed ordinance. The Godly, as the Protestant 
 party somewhat presumptuously termed themselves, 
 mistrusted this return to Papal ceremonials, and made 
 no secret of their dissatisfaction. 
 
 Mary, however, tolerant as she was of opposite 
 opinions, always remained staunch to the ritual in 
 which she had been brought up, and spared no pains
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 103 
 
 to carry out with due pomp a solemnity which she 
 esteemed essential to the occasion. 
 
 The morning broke gloomily, when the Queen, 
 attired in deep mournmg, and attended only by Lady 
 Hamilton, entered the chapel for early mass. Her 
 lovely face looked paler than usual under the veil of 
 crape which shaded it, and there was an expression 
 of something more than sorrow, of annoyance and ap- 
 prehension on its lineaments. Perhaps she was think- 
 ing of her brief reign in France, not long enough 
 for a Sovereign to discover the many troubles and 
 anxieties that line a cro^vn. Perhaps she was recalling 
 the adoration she had been used to receive from the 
 excitable French people, and contrasting it with the 
 gloomy brows and ominous mutterings she had ah-eady 
 encountered amongst her new subjects. 
 
 Mary had been but a few weeks on the Scottish 
 throne ere she became aware that even her beauty and 
 her bereavement were not sufficient to cover the odium 
 of her religion in the eyes of these northern zealots, and 
 that Protestantism might esteem it a duty both to God 
 and man to insult a helpless woman because she was a 
 Catholic Queen. 
 
 As she passed slowly up the aisle with weary step 
 and downcast air, followed by her maid-of-honour, it 
 may be that both the women were longing wearily for 
 that rest which they came here to seek — glad to be 
 relieved, if but for an horn-, of the burden which at 
 some future time they should cast down at once and 
 for ever — almost wishing that the time was come and 
 the journey over and the resting-place at hand. 
 
 And now the anthem swells and sinks and fills the
 
 104 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 echoing aisle ; and the crimson light streams through 
 the deep-stained windows on chiselled font and sculp- 
 tured cross and monumental marble, while the tones 
 of the choristers rise and fall like the song of angels 
 speaking of hope and peace and pardon for the 
 penitent — wailing in their celestial sorrow for the 
 loved that yet are lost for evermore. 
 
 In that flood of harmony the Queen bathed her 
 wounded spirit, bidding it contemn the reefs and 
 rocks that beset its earthly course as it floated, if 
 but for an instant, towards the eternal shore ; and 
 Mary Hamilton, joining in the tide of prayer and 
 praise, forgot her hopes and fears, her tottering hap- 
 piness and earthly misgivings, while she felt that there 
 was yet in store for her a home of endless welcome, a 
 joy that no uncertainty could poison, a love no false- 
 hood could take away. 
 
 Prosperity goes to church, as well it may, to return 
 thanks for the benefits it has received; to fulfil, as 
 it were, its own part of the compact by which it 
 flourishes ; to acknowledge its advantages and to 
 entreat their continuance ; then it walks back into 
 the sunshine in its purple and fine linen, with a 
 pleasant consciousness of debts discharged and duties 
 well fulfilled. Not so its ailing brother, gaunt Ad- 
 versity. For the latter the temple of God is the 
 temple of refuge; the temple of healing, the temple 
 of consolation ; thither it may bring its sores and its 
 sackcloth, without misgivings and without shame ; 
 there it is on a level with the proudest, and in 
 unison with the happiest ; it drinks from the same 
 stream, and out of the same cup; it returns to its
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 105 
 
 labour and its sorrow, strengthened and refreshed. 
 Though the heart be aching, it is sound and unbroken 
 still ; and the storms may pelt their fiercest, it only 
 longs the more to come again. 
 
 As the anthem proceeded the Scottish Queen became 
 aware that another voice had been added to her choir, 
 of considerable depth and volume, thereby completing 
 its harmony and greatly enhancing its effect. This 
 organ was the property of an individual whose un- 
 fortmiate destiny it was to make a far greater stir 
 at the court of Holyrood than became either his 
 talents or his station, and to meet with a fate which 
 his antecedents did not deserve. 
 
 In the train of the Comit de Moretta, Ambassador 
 from the court of Savoy, the Duke of which princi- 
 pality was another misuccessful suitor for the hand of 
 the Scottish Queen, came a good-humoured little 
 Italian, David Riccio by name, whose especial gifts at 
 this period seem to have been a knack of mimicry, not 
 unusual among his countrymen, and a fine bass voice of 
 great power and sweetness. 
 
 These were the qualities that first recommended him 
 to the notice of Mary ; and when, in addition to his 
 musical acquirements, she found him quick-witted, 
 ready and obliging, fluent with the pen, and a perfect 
 master of the French language, she promoted the good- 
 humoured, deformed, and diminutive foreigner to the 
 post of private secretary, little dreaming of the con- 
 struction which would hereafter be put upon so harm- 
 less an appointment. 
 
 In the meantime Riccio revelled in the exercise of 
 his delightful talent — filling the crape-hmig building
 
 106 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 with his notes of mournful melody — and Mary listened 
 entranced, and forgot for the moment her troubles, her 
 widowhood, and her crown. 
 
 But the charms of music, and even the consolations 
 of religion, can but stave oif earthly cares for a brief 
 period of repose, after which they are prone to thrust 
 themselves on our notice with a vigour all the more 
 imperative for such temporary respite. When mass 
 was concluded, and Mary, with her maid-of-honour, 
 was about to quit the chapel, she could not but observe 
 how none, save her immediate attendants and personal 
 household, had assisted to form the congregation ; how 
 the nobility of her court, with but few exceptions, had 
 remained outside with a certain ostentatious assump- 
 tion of dissent from the religion of their Queen. She 
 could not help remarking as much to her attendant. 
 
 ' Do you not see, my dear,' said she bitterly, ' how 
 the new religion is disposed to charity and toleration ? 
 My Protestant lords will not even join in the devotions 
 of their Sovereign when she prays for the welfare of 
 her husband's soul. They will not " weep with those 
 who weep," nor " rejoice with those who rejoice," 
 miless it be by Master Knox's permission, and in black 
 cassock and Geneva band. Verily, Mary Hamilton, it 
 is a weary lot to be a woman, but it is a daily humili- 
 ation to be a Queen ! ' 
 
 ' I know not what a Queen's trials may be. Madam,' 
 answered the other, on whose sweet face the halo of 
 devotion had not yet faded away ; ' but a woman's 
 sorrows I fancy may be too hard for a woman to bear, 
 unless she brings them with her unreservedly and lays 
 them all down here.'
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLY ROOD. 107 
 
 While she spoke she stood near the chapel-door, and 
 the December sun, shedding its rays through the deep 
 red cross of the stained window above, streamed full 
 upon her fair and gentle face. It seemed to her Mis- 
 tress even then that she looked like some patient saint, 
 purified by suffering, and bearing the cross of her Mas- 
 ter in the red glory of martyrdom. 
 
 But such holy thoughts as these were soon driven 
 from Mary's mind by fresh annoyances. On leaving 
 her chapel, and emerging into the court-yard of her 
 palace, the Queen found it crowded by an assemblage 
 of her nobility, whose motley apparel of the gayest and 
 gaudiest hues, contrasted offensively with her own. sad 
 mourning garb. Not one of them had shown sufficient 
 sympathy with her feelings to wear so much as a black 
 ribbon on his doublet, or to doJBf the plume that flaunted 
 from his rich velvet bonnet. Stung to the quick by 
 such disrespect, Mary determined to meet it by an insult 
 as injudicious as it was unworthy. Halting on the 
 threshhold of her chapel, she took not the slightest 
 notice of the salutations ofiered her by the proudest lords 
 in Scotland, but beckoned to the new singer, whose 
 voice had recently so much delighted her, and giving 
 him her missal to carry, complimented him with marked 
 familiarity on his performance; and so holding the 
 astonished Italian in conversation at the chapel-door, 
 kept every one else waiting uncovered until she had 
 done with him. 
 
 Many a haughty brow was already bent on the un- 
 known stranger. Grey mustaches that had bristled in 
 the teeth of the English archers at Flodden, were 
 pulled in mingled astonishment and anger, while hands,
 
 108 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 always too prompt to shed blood, griped dagger and 
 sword-hilt, as though neither the sacred locality nor 
 the presence of the Sovereign would long restrain them 
 from open violence. The first impulse of the Scottish 
 noble was to resent an insult or avenge an injury on 
 the spot. Morton alone of all the crowd, seemed to 
 experience neither indignation nor surprise. The smile 
 that gave his face so fiendish an expression, only 
 deepened and hardened round his mouth. He glanced 
 from the Queen to her ill-chosen favourite with looks 
 rather of amused malignity than offended pride. Mor- 
 ton's will was strong in proportion to his passions, and 
 these with all their abiding energy, were thoroughly 
 under the control of his hard unfeeling nature. The 
 Douglas was indeed one of those who would ' strike 
 sooner than speak, and di'ink sooner than pray.' Yet 
 he only glared on the singer with a kind of comic fero- 
 city, and the poor little Italian shrunk nearer his pro- 
 tectress with a prophetic horror of the hard-featured 
 Earl. 
 
 Bidding Riccio follow in her train, the Queen passed 
 on through the cloisters of the palace towards her own 
 apartments, returning with cold courtesy the salutations 
 of her nobility. The courtiers looked meaningly at 
 each other and then at the new favourite who slunk 
 along behind his mistress, bearing her gorgeous missal, 
 in ludicrous dismay. Secretary Maitland, a man 
 whose wits were always at hand, and who could trans- 
 act more business in ten minutes than the rest of the 
 privy council in as many days, approached Her Majesty 
 with a huge bundle of papers under his arm, and the
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 109 
 
 Queen, taking tliem from him, without remark, handed 
 the whole, at once, to Riccio. The Secretary ventured 
 on an expostulation. 
 
 ' They are for your Majesty's private information,' 
 said he, deferentially, but in a tone of marked disap- 
 proval. 
 
 'And I have given them to my private secretary,' 
 replied Mary, haughtily ; thus hastily and injudiciously 
 confirming the appointment that led to such disastrous 
 results. 
 
 ' Shall I attend your Grace, to explain their contents?' 
 asked Maitland, as coolly as if nothing unusual had 
 taken place. 
 
 ' When I send for you, sir,' answered the Queen ; 
 and even Maitland's assurance was compelled to give 
 way. He could but bow and fall back amongst the 
 crowd. 
 
 Some of the nobles were so offended that they quitted 
 the court on the spot ; others thought it a bad oppor- 
 tunity to press their respective suits with the Sovereign 
 and lounged off, as it were inadvertently, to their dif- 
 ferent amusements and occupations, — one to fly a hawk, 
 another to try a horse, not a few to break their fast 
 on rich food and strong potations, the while they dis- 
 cussed the gossip of the court, which had received no 
 inconsiderable fillip from the events of the morning. 
 
 Lord James walked gravely away to Mr. Randolph's 
 lodging. His brother, the gay lay-prior of Colding- 
 hame, mounted his horse to join a merry-making on 
 Leith sands. The Earl of Huntley and the Earl 
 Marechal departed to prepare an ordinance for the
 
 110 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 Council, discussing, to all appearance, weighty mat- 
 ters of state ; yet, perhaps, could their dialogue have 
 been overheard, it related to far less important topics. 
 The court-yard of the palace was almost deserted, and 
 Mary, dismissing her maid-of-honour and the Italian, 
 prepared to take a solitary turn up and down the clois- 
 ters to soothe her temper and compose her troubled 
 mind. 
 
 The Queen thought she was alone. It was not so, 
 however, for, from the moment of her leaving the cha- 
 pel, her movements had been watched by a man con- 
 cealed behind one of the arches, and no sooner had 
 her attendants quitted her than he emerged from his 
 hiding-place. 
 
 Mary started, and almost screamed, as this unex- 
 pected figure stepped forth and stood in front of her. 
 Indeed, a bolder nature might have been alarmed at 
 its wild appearance and the vehemence of its gestures. 
 
 Pale and haggard, all unbraced, and with disordered 
 dress — but unarmed, even to his sword — the Earl of 
 Arran confronted Mary Stuart with none of the cere- 
 mony observed by a subject in the presence of his 
 Queen. 
 
 ' At last ! ' he shouted with passionate vehemence, 
 and placing himself so that she could not pass by him. 
 ' At last I see thee once more. After weary hours of 
 watching by night and day, after danger and difficulty 
 and longing, I^see thee once more. No longer the Queen 
 of Scotland, surrounded by her court, and haughty in 
 all the panoply of royalty, but Mary Stuart, the flower 
 of womanhood, the darling of France, and the idol of 
 Arran's heart.'
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYllOOD. Ill 
 
 ' What mean you, mj lord,' exclaimed the Queen, 
 utterly aghast at this unheard of proceeding, and 
 hardly knowing, in her astonishment, whether to stand 
 or fly. ' Are you mad or dreaming ? I am, indeed, 
 Mary Stuart, and it is not thus I should be accosted by 
 the Earl of Arran.' 
 
 ' Mad ! ' returned the unfortunate nobleman, the 
 wild cunning of insanity gleaming from his eye, and 
 pointing with his wasted hand to the palace windows 
 as he spoke. ' Hark ye. Madam ; they are mad, up 
 yonder. Mad from vaults to roof of this accursed 
 building ; this stronghold of superstition and papacy. 
 The Lord James is mad, who would deliver his sister 
 into the hand of the ungodly ; the priests are mad, who 
 would withhold her, by main force, from the tidings of 
 salvation ; the choristers are mad, singing their unholy 
 dirges for the souls that are gone to perdition. Mary ! 
 Mary!' — he changed to accents of wild affection and 
 entreaty : 'I alone am devoted to you. The house of 
 Hamilton is the only refuge for the Stuart.' 
 
 Mary was constitutionally brave. Her courage be- 
 gan to return as she reflected she was within call of 
 her household and retainers. She had a natural regard, 
 too, for her kinsman, and a woman's pity for the wreck 
 that something within, too truly, told her she herself 
 had made. She tried to quiet the poor maniac with 
 soothing, gentle words. 
 
 ' Nay, cousin,' said the Queen, ' when have I doubted 
 your loyalty or your honour? Why come to assure 
 me of it at this unbecoming hour, and in this un- 
 becoming guise? You are afiiicted, Arran, and ill- 
 at-ease. Retire into the palace, om' own physician
 
 112 THE queen's MAIilES, 
 
 shall attend you, the best of lodging and the best of 
 care shall not be grudged to my kinsman.' 
 
 For a moment Arran seemed calmer, and once or 
 twice he passed his hand across his brow, as though 
 waking from some troubled sleep, or trying to recall 
 some lost recollection. And, indeed, whilst the Queen 
 kept her eye on him, though he tried hard to avoid her 
 glance, it held him in a certain subjection. No sooner, 
 however, was it withdrawn, than his madness blazed 
 forth once more. 
 
 ' It is the plot ! ' he shouted again, as though ad- 
 dressing some imaginary audience ; ' the accursed trai- 
 torous plot, that I alone have power to prevent. Papist 
 and Protestant, rebel and renegade, from the four winds 
 of heaven, they are banded together to carry oflF my 
 Queen. Listen, Madam, on my knees I implore you to 
 listen.' 
 
 He knelt, and clasped Mary's hand in both his own. 
 
 ' I have discovered a conspiracy to seize your royal 
 person, and to carry you into bondage. Lord James 
 has consented to join in it. The Earls of Seton and 
 Livingstone have signed the bond drawn up by smooth and 
 crafty Lethhigton, with every name attached in charac- 
 ters of blood, except his own. Morton has promised his 
 assistance, for when was the Douglas out of any scheme 
 of violence and crime ? And Bothwell, with his border 
 reprobates, is to put it in execution ; but Arran will 
 save his Queen ! ' 
 
 'How say you? Morton? my brother? trusty Seton? 
 and Bothwell, loyal and true ? Impossible ! You are 
 raving,' said the Queen, now thoroughly alarmed. 
 'Where shall I turn to? What shall I do? '
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 11 
 
 o 
 
 ' The Hamiltons will rally round the Stuart ! ' ex- 
 claimed the maniac, rising from his knees, and making 
 as though he would seize Mary in his arms. 
 
 Before she could call for help, however, he suddenly 
 desisted from his purpose, and placing his finger on his 
 lip with a gesture of caution and a glance at the Queen, 
 in which cunning and imbecility were strangely mingled, 
 moved swiftly and stealthily away. 
 
 With the quick perceptions of insanity, he had caught 
 the somid of an armed step approaching through the 
 cloisters, and ere Mary had recovered from her dismay, 
 a tall warlike figure bowed to its very sword-hilt before 
 her, and she found herself face to face with the Warden 
 of the Marches. 
 
 He had been riding all night to reach Holyrood. Pie 
 had galloped on ahead of the best mounted of his troop, 
 who were even now rounding the base of Arthur's seat, 
 as they neared the Scottish capital. In those troubled 
 times there was no lack of excuses for the Warden to 
 seek personal instructions from his Sovereign, and 
 Bothwell had availed himself of some late misunder- 
 standing with Lord Scrope, the Warden on the English 
 side, to obtain an audience of the Queen. With a wild 
 feverish longing for the sweet fiice, to behold which 
 was fast becoming a necessity of his existence, he had 
 hurried to the presence of his Sovereign. And now, 
 when the moment had at last arrived, the colour faded 
 in his bronzed cheek, and he trembled, that strong man- 
 at-arms, like a girl. 
 
 Agitated and frightened as she was, Mary recovered 
 herself sufficiently to receive him with becoming dignity. 
 As his stalwart figui'e bent in homage, and the up- 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE queen's MAEIES, 
 
 turned face, with its manly features and fair short- 
 curling beard, softened visibly beneath her glance, the 
 Queen might well leave her hand in her subject's for an 
 instant longer than the customs of a court required. He 
 looked like a man who had both strength and will to 
 help a woman at her need, and the bold border chief 
 kissed the white hand that lay so gently in his own, 
 with all the devotion of a worshipper kneeling before a 
 saint. 
 
 ' You are welcome, Bothwell,' said Mary, ' though you 
 come, doubtless, to tell me of fresh disturbances on the 
 border : fresh troubles to harass and perplex the Queen. 
 The true heart and ready hand grow rare at Holyrood, 
 and more and more welcome to Mary Stuart day by day.' 
 
 ' I am but a plain soldier. Madam,' answered Bothwell. 
 ' Your Majesty's need of me is at once my pride and my 
 reward. It is nothing new to tell you that every drop 
 of James Hepburn's blood belongs to his Queen.' 
 
 ' I believe it,' answered Mary, smiling sadly ; ' and 
 yet even Bothwell's loyalty has this very morning been 
 questioned. Nay,' she added, as the Earl started indig- 
 nantly to his feet, ' I at least never doubted you for an 
 instant.' 
 
 ' I have but one answer to my accusers, Madam,' re- 
 plied the Warden, pointing significantly to his sword. 
 ' If a subject questions my loyalty, I can demand the 
 ordeal. If my Sovereign suspects it,' he added, with a 
 slight trembling in his voice, 'I can but give her my life 
 to vindicate my honour.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Bothwell,' exclaimed Mary, ' would that all 
 were like you. I have none to counsel me ; none in 
 whom 1 can trust ; none to sympathize with me in my
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 115 
 
 loneliness, a widow and a Queen. To-day, in my be- 
 reavement and mj affliction,' she added, reverting to the 
 conduct of her courtiers which had so hm't and irritated 
 her best feelings, ' not one of them had the decency to 
 share in the mourning of their Sovereign. Even my 
 Warden comes before me in his ordinary attire, but that 
 is fairly excusable when it consists of corslet and head- 
 piece hacked and dinted in my service.' 
 
 ' Say not so. Madam,' answered Bothwell, pointing to 
 a sprig of willow worn in his basnet. ' I gathered yon 
 sprig from the sallows that skirt its bank as I rode the 
 water of Roslin in the misty dawn. I could not forget 
 the day of my Queen's bereavement ; and it shall never 
 be told that Bothwell forbore to share the dangers or 
 the sorrows of his Sovereign.' 
 
 The angry colour that had brightened it all the 
 morning died out on Mary's cheek. She looked at the 
 Earl stedfastly, while one might have counted ten; then 
 her lip quivered. She turned her face away, and burst 
 into tears. 
 
 12
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 • To anus !" the citizens bellow — " Alack ! 
 
 These riders are loose in the town once more ! ' 
 But a good steel jack, and a friend to my back, 
 
 The Causeway I '11 keep in the teeth of a score. 
 For never another can ruffle it here 
 Like the lads of the snaffle, spur, and spear,' 
 
 E have seen Botlnvell in his harness, — the 
 loyal nobleman, the true knight, the 
 Warden of the Marches, and Lieutenant 
 of the Borders in the service of his 
 Queen. A different personage, in truth, from wild 
 James Hepburn, with his father's hot blood rioting in 
 his veins, and his own propensities for evil, encouraged 
 by a strong will and vigorous temperament, acting on 
 a bad education, a weak brain, and a heart with just 
 enough of good in it to make him lonely and un- 
 happy. 
 
 Like his father, the profligate Earl Patrick, he was 
 disposed by nature to take a leading part in all scenes 
 of turbulence and strife ; unlike that father, his better 
 feelings would sometimes be permitted to influence his 
 policy, and weaken his determination. Earl Patrick 
 seems to have had a happy facility of ignoring all
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 117 
 
 promises, bonds, and even oaths, when their observance 
 became inconvenient, and would have scorned to allow 
 his patriotism to stand for an hour in the way of his 
 advancement. His son, with all his faults, was a 
 Scotsman at heart, and perhaps, like many another whose 
 fate has served to ' point a moral or adorn a tale,' it 
 wanted but the difference of a hair's-breadth, at the 
 right moment, to have made him as good as he turned 
 out evil. Perhaps Bothwell's real sphere was riding 
 his war-horse in mail and plate amongst the wild 
 morasses of the Marches. Perhaps he was never so 
 happy as when engaged in hand-to-hand conflict with 
 some daring marauder, a stalwart man-at-arms like 
 himself, lance-thrust and sword-stroke freely dealt and 
 stoutly received with but little ill-will on either side. 
 Whilst his foe was ui the saddle, he would close with 
 him gallantly, striking fiercely, and shouting, ' Queen 
 Mary ! ' but down upon the heather the adversary of a 
 moment ago became the helpless friend, to be set upon 
 a horse and borne gently to Hermitage, there to be 
 tended carefully till his wounds were cured, when he 
 should be set free at a trifling ransom, to meet and 
 fio;ht it out ao;ain. 
 
 'T was a wild adventurous life that of a southern Scot- 
 tish nobleman in the days of the beautiful Stuart ; 
 yet not without its pleasures and its charm. He lived 
 in his old keep, a petty monarch within his bounds; 
 surrounded by adherents who would not scruple to 
 shed every drop of their blood in the service of their 
 chief. Bold, athletic, and self-reliant, he held his 
 sway by the charter of his sword, he gained his reve- 
 nues by the unfailing influence of ' snafile, spur, and
 
 118 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 spear.' For his relaxation he leapt on a good horse, 
 and cast his hawk into the air by the side of many a 
 green nook and fresh brawling stream, or holloaed his 
 hounds on the slot of the flying deer, scouring over the 
 moorland, and bruising the fragrant heather beneath 
 its hoofs. For the business of life, the same good 
 horse came round to the door, champing under his steel 
 frontlet ; and the men-at-arms mustered on their bonny 
 bay geldings with laugh and jest, and loud anticipa- 
 tions of plunder. The moon glinted coldly on steel 
 jack and burnished head-piece as they clattered off, 
 and the morning sun rose on the troop returning with 
 its booty — driving jaded cattle before them with their 
 long lances — encumbered with panting, foot-sore sheep 
 — household plenishing on some of the saddles — armour 
 hacked and besmirched — two or three bloody sconces 
 beneath draggled plumes — and here and there a led 
 horse coming masterless home. 
 
 But the life was at least one of manhood and adven- 
 ture ; a good training for a soldier, and an invigorating 
 substitute for the debaucheries in which, under other 
 circumstances, these bold spirits would have been prone 
 to indulge. When a border-noble with his train, rode 
 into Edinburgh, the vintner hugged himself in his 
 snow-white apron, and the canny burgher made his 
 doors fast ere it was yet twilight, and resolved that no 
 shouts for help on the causeway should lure him at 
 night from his chimney corner into the troubled 
 street. 
 
 Walter Maxwell, proceeding quietly up the High- 
 street, and ruminating, not too pleasantly, on his 
 prospects, found himself accosted by his new friend,
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 119 
 
 ' Dick-o'-tlie-Cleugli,' as lie was about to tm-n into his 
 solitary lodging, and get through the evening as well as 
 he could, reflecting on two unpleasant subjects — the 
 continued coyness of his ladye-love and his own dimin- 
 ished fortunes, for his employment at the Scottish 
 Court was more honourable than lucrative. To be in 
 love usually makes a man unsociable ; to be in debt 
 often has a reverse effect. Maxwell, at all events, felt 
 little disposed for an evening spent in his own com- 
 pany. 
 
 ' I've been the length of Holyrood to see for you !' 
 exclaimed the borderer with a boisterous welcome, ' and 
 here I happen on you like a deer, that's ta'en the 
 double when the blood-hound is off the slot. Come 
 away, man, come away, the Warden's gotten a grand 
 spread the night, an' I was bid to fetch ye, 'gin ye were 
 in the Queen's presence! And noo' ye '11 just gang in 
 wi' me ; ye ken we've an awfu' grip, we Liddesdale 
 lads ! an' I would like fine to see if ye can drink, man, 
 as well as ye can fight, I'm thinkin' little Jock 
 Elliott's no forgotten ye, Mr. Maxwell ! ' and Dick 
 laughed heartily at the recollection of his first acquaint- 
 ance with his present companion. 
 
 Maxwell professed his readiness to accept the Earl's 
 invitation, and linking his arm in that of the stalwart 
 henchman, proceeded in the direction of Bothwell's 
 lodging, the pair provoking no little ill-will from divers 
 armed retainers in the street, who recognized the 
 cognizance of the Hepburn, and some admiration from 
 the maids and matrons of the old town, the latter 
 especially approving of Dick's stalwart proportions and 
 comely good-natured face.
 
 120 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 ' Yon 's a proper man ! ' observed a stout dame witli 
 her arms akimbo, to a dishevelled and dirty lady empty- 
 ing a pail of water scarcely more dirty than herself. 
 
 ' He's no that ill,' replied the other, desisting from 
 her operations to push back her tangled locks, that she 
 might have a good look. ' Lass !' she added in shrill 
 impressive tones, ' he 's a godless borderer. I ken 
 them fine by their 'spauld-pieces.* He'll get his licks 
 the night I'm thinkin', an' muckle guid may they do 
 till him ! It 's no sae saft lyin' on the causeway as 
 doun amang the moss-hags at hame!' After which 
 ill-omened sentiment, she retired abruptly, shutting her 
 door with a bang. 
 
 Honest Dick, however, took no notice of these and 
 other less unpleasant remarks, but strode boldly on, dis- 
 coursing, between bursts of merriment, on the encounter 
 with little Jock Elliott, an assault of which he seemed 
 to entertain a highly facetious remembrance. 
 
 ' In here man,' said he, turning up one of those off- 
 shoots from the main-street, which is termed to this 
 day ' a close,' and dragging Maxwell after him with 
 obvious glee. ' I ken the place fine by the weather- 
 marks forenent the wa'. It's an awfu' town this for a 
 body to lose theirsel' ! There's runnin' water too to 
 guide a man,' pointing to a sluggish stream of filth 
 that trickled under their feet, ' but it's no that clear that 
 it is in Liddesdale. Up the stair, man ; yer' welcome, 
 nae fears ! ' 
 
 As Maxwell entered the apartment, a long low room 
 
 * Plates of steel that defended the arm and shoulder.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 121 
 
 plainly furnished and crowded with armed men, he was 
 cordially greeted by the Earl's retainers, who had 
 mustered in great force. They had seen his hand keep 
 his head, against heavy odds, and they warmed to him 
 at once as a kindred nature. Their meal seemed to be 
 concluded, but the serious part of the entertainment 
 was yet to commence, and large jacks of strong ale with 
 flasks of wine, standing at no great intervals on the 
 board, denoted ample means of quenching the thirst 
 engendered by a long ride. The Warden rose to greet 
 his new guest with frank courtesy, and bade him to the 
 upper end of the room, where he himself sat at a cross 
 table surrounded by the most distinguished of his 
 guests. 
 
 Bothwell had doffed his usual attire of steel jack and 
 head-piece ; he was now dressed in close-fitting doublet 
 and hose, which set off the strong proportions of his 
 figure to great advantage. Without pretensions to 
 strict personal beauty, the Warden had fine features, 
 and a bold, frank bearing, not unpleasing. Though he 
 had lost one of his eyes in a skirmish, the defect was 
 scarcely observable, and the slight scar left by the 
 wound on his cheek and eye-brow rather added to the 
 characteristic expression of his face. It was that of 
 a daring, perhaps a reckless man, one who was inured to 
 danger and used to strife, yet was there something soft 
 and even tender in his smile. Flushed with wine, and 
 exchanging broad jests of the coarsest, with his laugh- 
 ing guests, he looked a fitting leader in a revel or a 
 charge, and yet a close observer would have detected a 
 hollow ring in the loud laugh, a false note in the jovial
 
 122 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 strain, a capability for better things than feasting and 
 fio-htino;, and a self-accusino; consciousness that it was 
 lost and thrown away. 
 
 The mirth was at its highest. If Bothwell was 
 splendidly dressed, his costume was but sombre when 
 compared with that of his princely guest, the Marquis 
 d'Elboeuf, who shone with satin and jewellery in all the 
 florid brilliancy of French decoration. If the Warden's 
 draughts were deep, and his toasts objectionable, the 
 Lords John and Robert Stuart, the Queen's half- 
 brothers, pledged him freely and out-talked him shame- 
 lessly, with a happy mixture of juvenile thirst and 
 royal audacity. When Maxwell took his seat at the 
 upper table, amidst these and two or three more of the 
 wilder gallants of the Court, the wine had circulated 
 freely, and the spirits of the party had risen to that 
 point at which discretion ceases to interfere, and reason 
 begins to discover that she has been all day in the 
 wrong. D'Elboeuf flung" himself into the spirit of the 
 scene with the keen zest of his nation. The Admiral 
 of France was the last man to refuse a challenge from 
 friend or foe. 
 
 'You shall pledge me in turn, Bothwell,' said he, 
 filling a large silver measure with wine. ' Every man 
 of you shall do me reason. These wild lads, who ought 
 to be nephews of my own, and who drink as if they 
 were grandsons of Charlemagne ; Mr. Maxwell, there, 
 who has just come in, and must be suffocated with 
 thirst ; your huge squire of the body, who might hold 
 a cask ; and all your gentlemen riders, rovers on land, 
 as their chief used to be at sea. What, Count Both-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 123 
 
 well ? We have not forgotten the breeze off shore and 
 the bold Norwetrian coast.' 
 
 ' Nay, Marquis,' answered Bothwell, filling himself a 
 bumper, ' my Liddesdale lads will drink any toast you 
 please if they like the liquor. But down on the 
 Marches we have a saying that " he who rides in the 
 dark should dismount before daylight," and faith, now 
 that I am on shore, I have forgotten all about the coast 
 of Norway and the wild North Sea, once for all.' 
 
 ' The toast ! the toast ! ' exclaimed Lord John Stuart. 
 ' Let us have the drink first. Marquis, and the tale of 
 the Warden's wicked doings afterwards. There's 
 something in this wine that makes a man marvellously 
 thirsty.' 
 
 ' Waifs and strays ! ' replied the Marquis, holding 
 his beaker above his head. ' Count Bothwell first taught 
 me the rights of an Admiral on neutral seas. Pledge 
 me, gentlemen, the toast is quite in your own line;' and 
 d'Elboeuf, laughing heartily, set his cup on the board 
 — empty. 
 
 A dark flush swept over Bothwell's brow. A man 
 does not always like to be reminded of his past exploits, 
 but the company were clamorous for an explanation of 
 the Frenchman's toast, and d'Elboeuf had drunk too 
 much wine to disappoint them. 
 
 ' We were lying off the coast of Norway,' said the 
 Admiral, ' and oui' host here in his armed galliot, with 
 the Lion of Scotland at the main, was never tired of 
 cruising about in search of adventures. He was Ad- 
 miral of Scotland, as I of France ; but whilst I waited 
 for Fortune, I think he followed the jade and grasped
 
 124 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 her bj the hair. Some pirates had fired a village and 
 were carrying off the inhabitants, when your Warden 
 here caught the knaves, red-handed, in the bay; — we 
 make short work with these gentry at sea, where ropes 
 are so convenient, and he strung them up to the yard- 
 arm by dozens, like Normandy apples on a tree. The 
 poor captives were too rejoiced to go back to the ashes 
 of their dwellings ; but a breeze springing up from the 
 land, our friend here was obliged to make sail, carrying 
 off, inadvertently, two or three trifles belonging to the 
 village ; amongst others a fair girl with blue eyes and 
 golden hair who had once inhabited the principal house. 
 I was on board the galliot some six weeks afterwards 
 at an entertainment given by our host, where we drank 
 nearly as much wine as we are like to do to-night, and 
 this fair lass filled my cup and emptied her own nothing 
 loth, as though she relished her wine and her company. 
 " But shall you not send her back?" said I to my host, 
 seeing that she had been already six weeks on board. 
 " Shall you not send her back before her friends lose 
 patience and a complaint is made at Court and a coil, 
 all for a pair of merry eyes and a wisp of yellow hair ? " 
 " Not yet," answered your Warden. " Not yet. Do 
 you not know that waifs and strays belong to the 
 Admiral?"' 
 
 A loud laugh followed d'Elbocuf 's explanation. The 
 sentiment was quite in accordance with the company, 
 and the point of his narrative, turning as it did on an 
 act of illegal appropriation, was hugely enjoyed by the 
 carousing borderers. 
 
 There were two exceptions, however, to the general
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 125 
 
 merriment. Botlnvell looked grave, more sorrowful, 
 perhaps, than displeased, and honest ' Dick-o'-the- 
 Cleugh,' smiting a sledge-hammer fist on the table 
 that made the beakers leap again, burst out, 
 
 ' Puir lassie ! It 's ill liftin' a bairn from the ingle 
 or a lamb from the fauld ! ' 
 
 The wine was, by this time, producing its effect on 
 the company. The men-at-arms were beginning to 
 flush and talk thick, descanting without much regard 
 for listeners on the merits of their horses and their own 
 prowess, both in fighting and carrying off the property 
 of their neighbours ; the latter branch of their profes- 
 sion being obviously esteemed equally honom-able with, 
 and the natural prelude to, or consequence of, the for- 
 mer. Even Maxwell's brain was somewhat heated, 
 albeit he was naturally of a temperament on which 
 wine is slow to take effect, and his late arrival had 
 spared him some of the pledges of the borderers, al- 
 though, to do them justice, they evinced a most hospit- 
 able desire to make up for lost time. Bothwell, too, 
 who had been plunged in gloomy fits of abstraction, 
 and who seemed to rouse himself with difficulty from 
 some engrossing subject of meditation, was now getting 
 as hilarious as the rest. D'Elboeuf was full of smiles 
 and spirits and scraps of French songs, somewhat 
 wasted on his audience ; whilst Lord John, whose 
 ruling passion was of course in the ascendant, pro- 
 posed gravely to dance a measure amongst the jugs 
 and drinking cups on the table, and actually mounted a 
 chair as the first step towards that difiicult performance. 
 
 At this juncture, a ray of moonlight streaming
 
 126 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 througli the narrow windows, athwart the glare of 
 lamps and torches, gave a new turn to the impulses of 
 the merry-makers. 
 
 'It'll be a bra' night this in Liddesdale,' observed 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' who was givento sentiment in his 
 cups. 
 
 ' A rare night for a foray ! ' exclaimed Lord Robert, 
 producing from the interior of his bonnet two or three 
 black velvet masks such as were then frequently worn 
 in cities by both sexes. 
 
 ' Shall we have a cruise. Admiral ? ' said Bothwell. 
 ' I doubt not I can find you in vizards, for you and I 
 are both well enough known in Edinburgh to meet 
 fewer friends than foes.' 
 
 D'Elboeuf agreed cordially to the proposal. Like 
 his countrymen in general, he was averse to continuous 
 hard-diinking, and a night of adventure in the town 
 was more to his taste than a steady carouse with these 
 inexhaustible borderers. His host, too, appeared in 
 the restless mood of a man who has some secret pain 
 goading him to action. The more he drank, the fiercer 
 seemed to grow the impulse to be doing. When the 
 arch-tempter wants a tool that shall be at once keen 
 and strong, he takes a bold vigorous nature ; he 
 humbles it in its own eyes ; he wounds it in its best 
 afiections ; he whispers ' do to others as they have done 
 unto you;' then he tempers it in the furnace of 
 memory, and sharpens it carefully on the grindstone 
 of remorse ; finally, he steeps it in rough strong 
 wine ; after that it is fit for anything, and will cut 
 through steel harness and muslin fold with vindictive 
 impartiality.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 127 
 
 Masks for the party were soon produced in sufficient 
 number, and these, with their cloaks or plaids, would 
 be disguise enough in the event of the night's amuse- 
 ment growing to a breach of the laws, such being by 
 no means an unlikely result. The Warden desired his 
 retainers to sit still and continue drinking till his 
 return, directions mih which they showed no unwil- 
 lingness to comply ; but as the masked party, brandish- 
 ing their torches, shouting, singing, and laughing, 
 descended the stair into the close, ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' 
 whispered to Maxwell to get his sword and accompany 
 him. 
 
 ' There'll be mair pows than ane crackit the night, 
 or all's done,' remarked the borderer. ' The Warden's 
 no canny when he's crossit. Aince the whingars be 
 cot, I'm no thinkin' muckle o' }^n' French-man, 
 an' thae wild lads is clean wud wi' drink. We'll be 
 nane the waur o' a decent body like yoursel', Mr. 
 Maxwell, just to strike in an' see fair play.' 
 
 With the exception of a slight delay in the close to 
 witness Lord John's performance of his promised horn- 
 pipe, the effect of which was somewhat marred by the 
 gutter traversing the pavement, nothing occurred to 
 check the progress of the rioters. Save for themselves, 
 the street lay utterly quiet and deserted in the cold 
 moonlight. The party, linking anns, reeled and swag- 
 gered on, followed at no long interval by ' Dick-o'-the- 
 Cleugh ' and Maxwell, both tolerably sober. 
 
 Presently Bothwell halted at the door of the only 
 house from which lights were shining. 
 
 ' What say you, gentlemen ? ' laughed the Warden. 
 ' I know master Craig, the mercer, well. It seems that
 
 128 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 he is expecting us. Shall we go in and take our rere- 
 supper with pretty mistress Alison, his daughter ? ' 
 
 'By all means!' exclaimed d'Elbceuf. 'The best- 
 dressed damsel that walks the High-street on Sundays. 
 I should know her anywhere by the orange stripes on 
 her farthingale.' 
 
 ' And the bonniest lass on Leith Sands at the 
 merry-making to-day,' added Lord Robert. ' I little 
 thought when I gave her her fairings this morning, I 
 should sup with her to-night ! ' 
 
 ' The neatest foot and the tightest stocking in the 
 Old Town,' said Lord John, ' and the best dancer to 
 boot. Knock at the door, Bothwell, and bid them let 
 us in, in the devil's name ! ' 
 
 Concealing themselves under the wall of the house, 
 the party waited with much stifled merriment, the 
 result of Bothwell's application for admittance. 
 
 His cautious knock was at first unanswered, but on 
 repetition the light was observed to be obscured at 
 one of the windows, and a female head scarcely so 
 well arranged as that of mistress Alison herself, was 
 thrust into the moonlight, the owner demanding in a 
 guarded whisper, ' What's your wull ?' 
 
 ' Go down and unbar the door,' answered Bothwell, 
 in like tones of secrecy, and pulling his mask care- 
 fully over his face. ' We have come to sup with youi' 
 mistress.' 
 
 'It's the Earl!' the girl was heard to say, turning 
 round obviously to hold parley with some one in the 
 room ; and then another voice whispered in softer tones, 
 * Is it you, my lord ? ' 
 
 * Why of course it is ! ' answered Bothwell, some-
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 129 
 
 what surprised, nevertheless, that he should be so 
 easily recognised. 
 
 ' I have expected you this hour and more,' was the 
 reply, as the two figm-es moved at once from the 
 window. 
 
 ' The devil you have!' observed the "Warden, now 
 completely puzzled; 'then why don't you come do'svn 
 and open the door ? ' 
 
 Presently bars were heard to be withdrawn, and the 
 party of rioters, if we may so term them, marshalled 
 themselves in close order, prepared if necessary to go 
 in with a rush. The door, however, was only partially 
 unclosed, and the figure of a strapping serving-wench 
 guarded the narrow interstice. She seemed less satis- 
 fied than her mistress, and inclined to hold further 
 parley. 
 
 'Hoo will I ken it's you?' said she, shading the 
 candle with her large coarse hand. 
 
 But the caution was too late. Lord John's shoulder 
 was by this time applied to the door. Lord Robert 
 blew out the candle, and the Admiral of France, with 
 characteristic gallantry and national politeness, stifled 
 the outcry of the astonished damsel in the dark. 
 
 The assailants had now gained the body of the place, 
 still keeping their masks on, and with noiseless foot- 
 steps they ascended the stair ; Maxwell and ' Dick-o'- 
 the-Cleugh,' who had neither of them much stomach for 
 the adventure, remaining at the door to keep watch. 
 
 The others turned into a comfortable parlour in which 
 fire and lights were burning, as if to make them tho- 
 roughly at home. A delicate little supper, with a flask 
 or two of wine, stood on the table, and a very smartly 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 dressed ladj, not without beauty of a bold imposing 
 style, rose to welcome them. 
 
 As Bothwell entered, this gaudy -looking dame seemed 
 about to rush into his arms, but observing that he did 
 not remove his mask, and was accompanied by three or 
 four others, she checked herself, and remained standing 
 in the middle of the room as if not altogether mistress of 
 the position. 
 
 The Warden, bowing low, advanced to take her hand, 
 and mistress Alison suffered him to do so, with an 
 expression of ludicrous uncertainty on her handsome 
 face. 
 
 ' Will you not unmask, my lord ? ' said she ; ' though 
 late you are welcome, and so are your friends. Why 
 did you bring them with you ? ' she added in a troubled 
 whisper. 
 
 It was impossible to carry on the deception any 
 longer ; and by this time the laughter of the party had 
 been so long smothered as to defy further restraint. 
 With many apologies, and courtly compliments, and 
 honied phrases, interrupted by bursts of merriment, one 
 and all unmasked, disclosing to the bewildered mistress 
 Alison the features of quite another earl from her ex- 
 pected guest, and of three or four of the wildest gallants 
 at Holyrood, with whom nevertheless she was not 
 entirely unacquainted. 
 
 One of the most beautiful qualities in woman is her 
 pliant nature, her tendency to adapt herself to circum- 
 stances : the readiness with which in the absence of 
 white bread, she contents herself with brown. Of this 
 amiable facility the mercer's daughter now afforded a 
 striking instance. Bidden or unbidden, here were the
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 131 
 
 gallants, — good-looking, amusing, and well-dressed ; and 
 there was the supper. Mistress Alison did not hesitate 
 long. 
 
 ' You will not depart without breaking bread,' said 
 she, pointing to the well-covered table, with coui'teous 
 hospitality. 
 
 Lord Robert filled himself a bumper on the spot. 
 
 ' Pledge us, fair mistress Alison ! ' said he ; ' a cup of 
 wine will restore the bloom to that damask cheek, paled 
 with the alarm of our sudden arrival.' 
 
 The lady drank and smiled. It is but fair to observe 
 that, notwithstanding his lordship's polite fiction, the 
 ' damask cheek ' had never paled, nor mistress Alison 
 lost her presence of mind for an instant. Perhaps she 
 was not entirely unused to these impromptu supper- 
 parties. 
 
 Merrily they sat down, heaping their cloaks, and 
 swords, and masks, in the corner of the room, their 
 hostess only stipulating against too much noise, and 
 insisting that her guests should not disturb the repose 
 of the honest mercer who slept above. 
 
 Mistress Alison seemed tolerably familiar with the 
 private history of her company, and the general gossip 
 of the Court. As she displayed the turn of her round 
 arm, and close-fitting boddice, while filling plates and 
 drinking-cups, she had a jeer, or a sarcasm, or a com- 
 pliment for each. She congratulated d'Elboeuf on the 
 conquest he had made of her serving-woman who, never 
 having seen a live Frenchman before, gazed at the 
 Admiral open-mouthed. She twitted the two Stuarts 
 with their approaching bondage that should put an end 
 to all such midnight pranks. K 2
 
 132 THE QUEEN'S MAPJES, 
 
 ' For,' said mistress Alison, ' in less than a week, ye '11 
 both be dancing in fetters to the tune of " Wooed and 
 married and a'," and the bonny brides will have gotten 
 the two most graceless gallants in Scotland for their 
 grooms ; and as sure as death I'll see the wedding if I 
 creep into the palace through the buttery-window ! 
 Aye, my Lord Bothwell ! you're bold riders, you Hep- 
 burns ; but the bonny lass that thinks to tame wild John 
 Stuart is the boldest amongst you all. Well, well ! it's 
 a good steed that'll gallop till dawn. Once she gets 
 into the saddle, she'll daunton"^ him, never fear ! ' 
 
 A loud laugh rewarded this sally at the expense of 
 the young noblemen, who were indeed making the most 
 of their remaining hours of freedom ; and Lord John, 
 who was about to marry Both well's sister, was so de- 
 lighted with the conversation, that he took mistress 
 Alison's hand and proposed that they should dance a 
 measure together on the spot. 
 
 But the lady had no intention that her agreeable 
 visitors should remain for too long a period. Li the 
 midst of her mirth she had never entirely got rid of a 
 certain air of apprehension, and twice or thrice she had 
 stopped in the middle of a sentence, as if to listen. All 
 at once she turned pale, really pale this time, and set 
 her goblet down untasted. 
 
 ' For any sake ! my lord,' she exclaimed, with an 
 imploring look at Bothwell, ' go your ways now. I can 
 let you down the back stair. Go your ways, gentlemen. 
 
 ♦ Dauutou, to tame ; or familiarly, to cow : from the French 
 domptcr.
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 133 
 
 I entreat you, or there will be blood spilt before all's 
 done ! ' 
 
 Already the tramp of feet and altercation of voices 
 had been heard in the street; now the clink of steel 
 fell familiarly on the ears of the guests upstairs. They 
 rose to their feet, and commenced buckling on their 
 swords simultaneously. 
 
 'We are, indeed, fortunate,' observed d'Elboeuf in 
 high glee ; ' a jovial carouse, a delightful supper-party, 
 and a midnight fray, all without the slightest trouble 
 or inconvenience.' 
 
 ' For the love of mercy begone ! ' pleaded mistress 
 Alison, pushing them, one after another, to the door. 
 ' For my sake, for any sake, for all our sakes ! They're 
 breaking in the door! They're coming up the stair ! 
 It's the Earl, as sure as death it's the Earl !' 
 
 ' What Earl ? ' laughed Both well carelessly, and yet 
 curious to know the name of the favoured nobleman 
 for whom the supper they had just eaten was pre- 
 pared. 
 
 ' The Earl of Arran, of course ! ' replied mistress 
 Alison, blushing through her tears. ' It's too late now, 
 for their swords are out and their blood up, and the 
 street full of the red-handed Hamiltons ! What will I 
 do? What will I do?' 
 
 Pending further measures, mistress Alison covered 
 her head with her mantle, and cried piteously. 
 
 Bothwell smiled grimly in his beard when he heard 
 the name of Arran. They were none of the best of 
 friends, the Hepburns and the Hamiltons, at any time. 
 To-night the Warden's heart thrilled with a fierce
 
 134 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 pleasure at the thought of crossing swords with their 
 chieftain's son. 
 
 ' Draw gentlemen,' exclaimed Bothwell, putting him- 
 self at the head of the party. ' A Hepburn ! a Hep- 
 bum to the rescue ! draw, and follow me ! ' 
 
 Thus shouting, he rushed to the stair-head, followed 
 by his friends, who appeared, one and all, as ready for 
 the fray as they had proved themselves for the feast. 
 
 The door had, indeed, been broken open, but the 
 narrow entrance was still filled, and stoutly defended 
 by the stalwart figure of the Warden's henchman. 
 Though the odds were fearfully against him, his great 
 strength and familiarity with his weapon had enabled 
 him to make a g-allant defence against the assailants 
 who were closing round him. At the first alarm (and 
 the borderer's quick ear had caught the step of armed 
 men approaching long before they came in sight) he 
 had entreated Maxwell to return for the assistance of 
 his comrades, who were sure to be found still carousing 
 in Bothwell's lodging. That gentleman used his OAvn 
 discretion in preferring to turn out the city-guard, 
 but of this intention the other was ignorant. ' Dick-o'- 
 the-Cleugh ' never doubted he could keep the door single- 
 handed till assistance should arrive. 
 
 Thrust and blow and parry succeeded each other 
 with fearful rapidity. The borderer was long of limb, 
 and in capital wind; moreover, his heart was as true 
 as the steel in his hand, but three or four to one will 
 beat the best of swordsmen, and he was overpowered at 
 last, and driven back towards the stair. 
 
 At this crisis a desperate charge of fresh combatants,
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 135 
 
 led by Bothwell from above, came opportmiely to the 
 rescue. It cleared the hall and the door, which was 
 instantaneously closed and barred by the ready-witted 
 serving-woman. Assailants and assailed now found 
 themselves carrying on the combat in the street. 
 
 The skirmish became general. The Hamiltons 
 mustered in force, and came swarming to the assistance 
 of their kinsmen. Bothwell's riders, too, disturbed 
 from their carouse, arrived by twos and threes, and 
 the superiority of their arms and training, made them 
 formidable partizans. Inured, as all Scotsmen were in 
 those days, to blows and bloodshed, strife was the 
 natural element of the borderer ; and, drunk or sober, 
 he was always ready for a fight. 
 
 The old town was soon disturbed from its repose — 
 peaceful citizens leaped from their beds, and ran to the 
 windows ; night- capped heads were thrust out into the 
 moonlight to watch the tumult in the street below, as 
 it waved backwards and forwards in the vicissitudes of 
 the struggle. There was but little outcry, for men's 
 passions were thoroughly aroused, and they were fight- 
 ing to the death. Sometimes a hollow groan, or a 
 heavy fall on the stones contrasted dully with the 
 scuffle of feet and the clash of steel. Sometimes a 
 fierce oath accompanied a shrewder blow than common, 
 or a deadly thrust that had been driven desperately 
 home ; but there were few shots exchanged, and in the 
 hand-to-hand conflict, the Hamiltons were gradually 
 losing ground. 
 
 Once Bothwell succeeded in reaching his enemy, and 
 exchanged a couple of passes with Arran, but the
 
 136 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 Hamiltons rallied round their chieftain's son, and the 
 Warden, grinding his teeth with rage, was compelled to 
 forego his revenge. 
 
 Several wounded, and more than one corpse encum- 
 bered the street ; the fray was getting serious, and 
 even 'Dick-o'-the-Cleugh' seemed to think it was an 
 affair more of business than pleasm-e, when the com- 
 mon bell began to toll loudly, and the city-guard, 
 guided by Walter Maxwell, and commanded by no less 
 a personage than Lord James Stuart himself, made its 
 appearance on the scene. 
 
 ■ These hardy burghers, well armed, and confident in 
 the sympathies, and if necessary, the assistance of the 
 towns-folk, thrust themselves boldly between the com- 
 batants. Lord James, on whose thoughtful brow could 
 be traced no more excitement than ordinary, himself 
 striking up the weapons of either party, as he bade them 
 lay down their arms in the Queen's name. 
 
 Bothwell had just reached Arran for the second time. 
 The Warden's eye glared wickedly, and the froth was 
 white on his moustache. Arran, pale as death, and 
 with madness flaring in his looks, struggled to meet his 
 enemy, shouting wildly and incoherently in a paroxysm 
 of insanity. 
 
 Their swords had actually crossed when Lord James 
 struck in between. His face was calm and unmoved ; 
 nay, there was a lurking satisfaction in his eye, for, to 
 the plotting diplomatist, there is always gain in the 
 differences of the powerful ; but to-night it was Lord 
 James's cue rather to stifle than foment such dissen- 
 sions, and he wished also to stand well with the citizens 
 by quellmg a disturbance that had alarmed the town.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 137 
 
 ' For shame, gentlemen ! ' said he, beating down their 
 weapons with the sheathed sword. ' For shame ! you, 
 Arran, her near kinsman ! and you. Both well, in whom 
 she trusts. What will the Queen say when she hears 
 of it?' 
 
 The red blood faded from the Warden's angry brow 
 at Mary Stuart's name, and sinking the point of his 
 sword, he fell back with a look of deep shame and con- 
 trition. In his fiercest moments that spell was sufficient 
 to make him docile as a child. 
 
 Not so Arran. With a wild shriek of rage, he darted 
 a savage thrust at the peace-maker, that had it taken 
 effect, might have spared Scotland much bloodshed and 
 Mary Stuart many a tear, for her wily bastard-brother 
 would never have moved again. It was not fated, how- 
 ever, to reach its object, for 'Dick-o'-the-Cleugh's' quick 
 eye caught the movement, and he parried it with a 
 force and rapidity that shivered Arran's blade in pieces, 
 and beat it from his hand. His retainers now gathered 
 round their leader, and forced him from the ground, the 
 unfortunate maniac raving and writhing in their grasp. 
 
 Bothwell, too, got his men in order, and withdrew 
 them, submitting patiently to the rebukes of Lord 
 James. It is needless to observe that on the first ap- 
 pearance of their grave brother, the Lords John and 
 Robert had taken to flight, closely followed by d'Elboeuf, 
 who did not wish to figure as a brawler at his niece's 
 court. The Warden alone remained to bear the blame, 
 and now that the excitement had cooled, he bitterly 
 regretted what he had done. 
 
 As he was followed by his henchman, Lord James 
 called the latter back.
 
 138 THE queen's MARIES. 
 
 ' Let me look in your face, good fellow,' said he ; 
 ' you have saved my life to-night.' 
 
 ' The redder's lick is aye the warst in the fray,' an- 
 swered the other good-humouredly ; ' and doubtless your 
 honour was no takin' notice, and it must have gone clean 
 through ye,' he added dogmatically. 
 
 ' You have saved my life,' repeated Lord James. ' I 
 leave no scores unpaid for good or evil, and if ever the 
 time should come, I shall not forget the debt I owe you.' 
 
 But ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' shook his head doubtfully. 
 ' I'm no sae dooms sure o' that,' said he, as he strode on 
 after his chief. ' An' I wad like ill to be beholden to 
 a man that could part sic a bonny fray. Oh, man ! ' 
 he added to Maxwell, who had now joined him, ' what 
 garred ye bring in the burgher-guard ? The drink 
 was just dyin' out in our lads, and we wad ha' gotten 
 the grandest ploy I've seen sin' I cam' out of Carlisle 
 gaol.'
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ' Away ! away ! thou traitor Strang ! 
 Out o' my sicht soon mayst thou be I 
 I granted never a traitor grace, 
 And now I '11 not begin with thee.' 
 
 T was with no agreeable feelings that Max- 
 well received a summons to attend the 
 Council at Holyrood the morning after 
 the fraj. Ere he had well slept oiF the 
 fatigues and dissipation of the previous night, he was 
 disturbed by a pursuivant in the royal livery, with the 
 lion emblazoned on his surcoat, who required his imme- 
 diate presence at the palace, and from whose rigid sense 
 of duty he found it difficult to extort permission to 
 summon 'Dick-o'-the-Cleugh' as a witness in his favour. 
 Maxwell reflected that the borderer's straightforward 
 testimony would serve to exonerate him from any share 
 in the disturbance except the measures which put a stop 
 to it; and by dint of argument, remonstrance, and a 
 bonnet-piece or two, he succeeded in sending a message 
 to Bothwell himself, who, for reasons of his own, was 
 only too ready to dispatch his henchman in reply. 
 
 As they proceeded together towards the palace, at- 
 tended by the pursuivant and four stout men-at-arms,
 
 140 THE QUEEN'S MAETES, 
 
 *Dick-o'-the-Cleugh' could by no means be brought to 
 consider their past broil in the light of a breach of the 
 peace. On the contrary, he esteemed it from beginning 
 to end as the simple and natural consequence of a jaunt 
 to the capital, and was fully persuaded that their pre- 
 sent expedition must result in a vote of praise to all 
 concerned. 
 
 Yet the borderer's iron nerves seemed affected as 
 they entered the precincts of the Abbey. He was 
 unusually restless, and glanced hither and thither, as 
 though in expectation. Certain female tones in the 
 garden by no means restored his composure ; and while 
 Maxwell, with a thrill of offended pride, that was yet 
 longing to forgive, recognized Mary Carmichael's well- 
 known voice, Dick nudged him vigorously with his 
 elbow, and whispered, 
 
 ' Ye '11 hae to speak up for the twae o' us, Mr. Max- 
 well. I was aye dashed wi' the women -folk; — an' it's 
 like they'll no let us away the day without gettin' a 
 sight o' the Queen and her leddies. Man ! I would like 
 fine to see them in their braws ! ' 
 
 Ere Walter could reply, a gentleman-usher beckoned 
 him silently to advance, while two stout men-at-arms, 
 crossing their axes in front of his follower, gave ' Dick- 
 o'-the-Cleugh' to understand he must wait till he was 
 sent for. Unusual vigilance seemed to pervade the 
 palace. The guard was doubled on the staircase and in 
 the galleries, whilst a strong body of cavalry occupied 
 the court. 
 
 As Maxwell's conductors halted at the door of the 
 council-chamber, the former felt his wonted composure 
 sadly disturbed by the appearance of Mary Carmichael,
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD, 141 
 
 wlio was crossing from the garden towards the Queen's 
 apartments. She started and bhished vividly when she 
 met his eye, and then observing him to be mider escort, 
 turned pale with obvious apprehension. She stopped, 
 too, as if she would fain speak with him ; but, after an 
 imploring glance that seemed to entreat his forgiveness, 
 and assure him of her sympathy, hurried away. 
 
 So strangely constituted is the human mind, even in 
 those who most pride themselves on their philosophy, 
 that Maxwell felt his heart lighter than it had been for 
 a week, and entered the awful presence of the Council 
 without the slightest appearance of dismay ; and yet 
 he had not exchanged a syllable with her, — had only 
 caught her eye for an instant, and heard the rustle of 
 her garments as she passed. Sm-ely there is some 
 strano-e magic in om- nature that works below the surface, 
 and encircles the bravest and the strongest in its spells. 
 
 In the centre of the room which JNIaxwell now en- 
 tered, stood a massive oak table, covered with papers 
 and parchments, prepared for the sign-manual of Mary 
 Stuart. Around it were seated those Scottish noble- 
 men, whose turn it was to assist the deliberations of 
 their Sovereign, thwarting indeed her free-will, and 
 impeding her resolutions, yet constituting and con- 
 sidering themselves the trusty advisers of the Crown. 
 
 The Duke of Chatelherault, in right of his high 
 rank and royal lineage, acted as president ; and on his 
 noble brow might be traced an expression of puzzled 
 vexation as he followed in vain Secretary Maitland's 
 rapid and masterly explanation of the business in hand. 
 That astute diplomatist, carrying his colleagues tri- 
 umphantly with him, was furnishing a brilliant display
 
 142 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 of rhetorical fire-works, to prove that the measure he 
 now advocated, (which had indeed for its object the 
 placing of additional power in Lord James Stuart's 
 hands,) was the only possibility of saving the country ; 
 and the haughty Hamilton, dazzled rather than en- 
 lightened by his eloquence, looked as dissatisfied as a 
 man generally does who is ' convinced against his will.' 
 
 The Queen's brother had assumed a modest and 
 deprecating air, as who should say, ' I seek not autho- 
 rity, but only wish rigidly to fulfil the duties that are 
 thrust upon me,' — a sentiment he had already expressed 
 to the Council when they sat do^vn. The others lis- 
 tened in different attitudes of attention or approval, 
 according as their interests or their convictions led them 
 to agree with the speaker ; whilst Mary herself, whose 
 chair was drawn a little apart from the table, looked up 
 from her embroidery ever and anon in the face of her 
 half-brother, with an expression of perfect confidence 
 and affection. Though her noble intellect might detect 
 many a flaw in her Secretary's arguments, she was too 
 thoroughly a woman not to be a dishonest reasoner ; and 
 of all the intriguers who backed Lord James in his 
 efforts at supreme power, none supported him so fear- 
 lessly and confidingly as the Queen. 
 
 David Riccio sat, so to speak, under Her Majesty's 
 wino- ; his evident favour with his mistress extorted for 
 him a certain outward deference and cold civility from 
 the nobles, but he was already inclined to put himself 
 too forward, without reflecting that the key of a lady's 
 escritoire is but a frail weapon to meet a two-handed 
 sword, and a velvet doublet, a poor defence against the 
 blow of a dudgeon-dagger.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 143 
 
 When Maxwell was admitted, the State Secretary 
 had just concluded his peroration, and was shuifling 
 his papers together on the table with an air of business- 
 like satisfaction. He looked up at this new arrival, 
 however, with calm indiflference, and spreading a blank 
 sheet of paper before him, appeared ready to enter at 
 once upon a new affair with fresh energy and attention. 
 
 Lord Ruthven, whose temper was none of the sweet- 
 est, and whose liking for the Warden was of that kind 
 which would fain have had a yard-and-a-half of green 
 turf, and the same measure of cold steel, between them, 
 scowled upon Bothwell's kinsman with all the ferocity 
 of which his stern features were capable, a compliment 
 returned by Maxwell with a stare of undaunted defi- 
 ance. Morton stole a rapid and sinister glance at the 
 Queen, while his beard curled with his habitual sneering 
 smile. Huntley, Argyle, and the rest, settled them- 
 selves into comfortable attitudes, as though the more 
 important business of the morning were now disposed of. 
 
 The Duke of Chatelherault, as the aggrieved person, 
 was the first to speak. With a haughty aflectation of 
 indifierence, he asked, 
 
 ' Who is this witness ? Is he of gentle birth ? ' 
 
 And being informed by Maitland that he was a kins- 
 man of Earl Bothwell, his Grace replied indignantly, 
 
 ' An impartial witness ye have brought before the 
 Council ! Why not examine the Earl himself ? if, in- 
 deed, he acknowledges any authority but border-law. 
 It is well that the Hamiltons can right themselves 
 with their own good swords.' 
 
 Maitland cut short his further objections by desiring 
 Maxwell to proceed with his account of the fray, while
 
 144 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 the Queen looked up from her work as if about to ex- 
 postulate, but checked herself with a half-smothered 
 sigh. 
 
 Maxwell told his tale simply and frankly. It was 
 obvious that the fray had originated in a brawl begun 
 by the Hamiltons, who had insisted on forcing their way 
 into mistress Alison's house. Seeing that bloodshed 
 was unavoidable he had hurried off to alarm the civic 
 guard, leaving the Earl's henchman at the door. When 
 he returned, the skirmish, as Lord James could cor- 
 roborate, was at its height. The henchman could speak 
 to what took place during the narrator's absence ; he 
 had craved permission to bring him to Holyrood for 
 that purpose. 
 
 His manly straightforward evidence seemed to make a 
 favourable impression on the Council. Maitland looked 
 up from his notes, and, glancing at the Duke for approval, 
 desired the borderer to be summoned. 
 
 Honest Dick entered the council chamber with an 
 undaunted front till he caught sight of the Queen, 
 when he blushed up to his ears and made a profound 
 and exceedingly awkward obeisance. Then he looked 
 about as if in search of something, and finally stood 
 bolt upright, like a man prepared to be ' shot at.' 
 
 ' Your name,' said the Duke, haughtily. 
 
 Dick reflected a few moments, and then answered 
 with the air of one who makes an admission under 
 protest, 
 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh.' 
 
 * Your calling,' added the President severely. 
 
 ' Just a rider,' answered Dick, after another pause.
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 145 
 
 The nobles glanced significantly at each other, and 
 Huntley observed with a smile, 
 
 ' That is another word for thief in your country, is 
 it not?' 
 
 Dick looked extremely demure and unconscious as he 
 replied, 
 
 ' Na, it's broken men they ca' thieves on the Border 
 — just like Catherans an' Gordons an' that in the 
 North.' 
 
 The Council could not forbear a laugh, and even the 
 Queen bent over her work to conceal her amusement. 
 
 ' Faith, Huntley, he shivered his lance fairly against 
 thy breast-plate this time,' said Lord Seton ; and Huntley, 
 throwing his portly person back in his chair, vowed 
 good-humouredly that the definition was a sufficiently 
 precise one at either extremity of the kingdom. 
 
 The borderer's examination then proceeded. 
 
 ' Was it by your chief's orders that you defended the 
 door in the High-street last night ? ' 
 
 ' I took na« orders yestreen frae the Warden,' replied 
 Dick, ' forbye to see to the naigs about our back- 
 coming.' 
 
 ' Would you have ventured to draw upon the Earl of 
 Arran — upon my son,' asked the Duke, ' without your 
 chief's express commands to slay him if you came across 
 him?' 
 
 ' I ken your Grace fine,' answered the borderer, not 
 very directly, ' seein' you 're the grandest nobleman in 
 Scotland ; but if yon was the Earl of Arran an' a' j^our 
 Grace's blood fight like yon camsteary chiel, I wad like 
 ill to keep the causeway anither nicht frae the Hamiltons.' 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' What was the origin of the disturbance ? ' here 
 interposed Secretary Maitland, seeing that the discus- 
 sion produced no obvious results. ' Who began the 
 brawl, man, and first bared steel ?' 
 
 ' I could not say,' replied Dick, looking profoundly 
 ignorant. ' I'm thinkin' the stramash was a' in gude 
 fellowship till his Honour here, the Lord James 
 an' the city-guard struck in an' spoilt all.' 
 
 ' Why, you yourself were at half-sword with a score 
 of them when I came up,' said Lord James, laughing 
 in spite of himself, at the borderer's coolness. 
 
 ' Oo ! that was just a ploy ! ' answered Dick, with a 
 grin of delight at the recollection. ' I've seen waur 
 licks than yon gi'en an' ta'en in Bewcastle markit, 
 just for gude-will ye ken, an' a tass or twa o' brandy.' 
 
 ' Let him go,' said the Duke, ' till we send for him 
 again. It is not against this faithful knave, your Ma- 
 jesty and my lords, that I appeal for justice, but 
 against the Earl of Bothwell.' 
 
 Again Morton shot a lurid glance at the Queen, 
 whose white fingers were travelling fast to and fro 
 through her embroidery. 
 
 ' The Earl had entered the house peacefully enough 
 when I left,' began Maxwell, but he was sternly and 
 peremptorily commanded to hold his peace, whilst a 
 whispered consultation was carried on by the chief 
 nobility present, in which Lord James alone took no 
 part. 
 
 The Queen, with an angry spot on each cheek, con- 
 tinued to work very fast. 
 
 ' It is but a part of the plot against Her Majesty's 
 person,' said the Duke, after a while, ' a plot which
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 147 
 
 my son himself lias discovered, and which on his re- 
 covery he will prove on the Earl of Bothwell's body 
 with his blade. Meantime, there lies my glove; if 
 the Hepburn has a friend, let him take it up ! ' 
 
 Maxwell interposed eagerly. 
 
 ' To any one of my own degree,' he began ; but an im- 
 ploring glance from the Queen at her brother had roused 
 that statesman from his apathy, and he interfered. 
 
 ' Take back your glove, my Lord Duke ! ' said he. 
 ' This is no affair of private brawl, but a matter in 
 which the safety of the Crown is involved. My lords, 
 I move for a committee of inquiry on the spot.' 
 
 The Duke bit his glove through, ere he replaced it 
 on his hand, and then with moody brow and angry 
 eye, listened in silence to the conference. 
 
 ' I move that James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, be 
 committed to ward till such time as he can purge him- 
 self from the charges brought against him by the Earl 
 of Arran,' said Lord Ruthven, after another brief con- 
 sultation, with a smile of triumph on his pale gaunt 
 face. 
 
 With the exception of Seton and Argyle, who 
 seemed to think the Warden was receiving scant 
 justice, and a weak remonstrance from Lord James, 
 which yielded gracefully to the urgency of the case, 
 the Council agreed upon this precautionary measure, 
 and it was carried accordingly. 
 
 Secretary Maitland made out the warrant for the 
 Earl's committal ; it wanted but the Queen's signature 
 to become valid. • 
 
 Mary rose from her chair and drew up her majestic 
 figure. L 2
 
 148 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES. 
 
 ' Nay, my lords,' said she. ' It is surely unjust to 
 condemn the absent without proof. Let the Warden 
 return to his charge on the Border. He may render 
 himself at any time in less than twenty-four hours 
 from Hermitage.' 
 
 ' You cannot refuse to ratify the deed of your 
 Council ! ' urged Ruthven, fiercely. ' Nay, Madam, 
 you dare not,' he added, with growing insolence; and 
 would have said more, but Mary shot a glance at him, 
 before which even his rugged nature quailed. 
 
 ' Your Majesty's confidence in the Earl is greater 
 than that of your advisers,' observed Morton, not 
 deigning to conceal a sneer. ' Already he boasts of 
 his influence over the Queen, and vows that steel 
 gauntlet shall not wrest him from Holy rood, though 
 a white glove can lure him from Hermitage.' 
 
 The colour rose on Mary's brow, and her bosom 
 heaved quickly. It was evident the Queen was 
 wavering. 
 
 ' It is but a measure of precaution,' argued Mait- 
 land, in his plausible off-hand tones, spreading at the 
 same time the warrant before his Sovereign. ' After 
 all,' he added, ' it may be but a mere brawl about a 
 wench ! The Earl of Bothwell has ever been given 
 to such follies overmuch.' 
 
 The Queen signed the paper hastily ; then threw the 
 pen on the table, and walked in silence from the 
 council chamber.
 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ' Oh ! better for me that a blind-bom child 
 Never a line I had learned to trace. 
 Than thus by a look and a laugh beguiled, 
 To have read my doom in fair Alice's face. 
 
 ' And better for me to have made my bed 
 Under the yews where my fatliers sleep, 
 Calm and quiet, at rest with the dead, 
 
 Than have given my heart to fair Alice to keep.' 
 
 Bothwell was committed to ward in Edin- 
 burgh Castle, yet was his durance but of 
 a temporary nature, and devoid of the 
 customary rigours that accompany im- 
 prisonment. The Warden made no effort to escape, 
 although he had a strong party of friends about the 
 Court, and might at any time have created considerable 
 distui'bance had he chosen to resist the royal authority ; 
 but he bowed his head to the blast with unexpected 
 humility and a submission, the result of mixed motives. 
 He lived in daily expectation of release by the Queen's 
 own authority. His appointment on the Border had 
 not yet been filled up, and Hermitage was still occu- 
 pied by a staunch garrison who acknowledged no law 
 but their chief's behests. Day by day did the war-
 
 150 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 like Earl, pining, as well he might, for the free breeze 
 on his brow and the swinging gallop of his steed, 
 reflect on the eifect which such devotion as his could 
 not fail to produce on the Queen. Danger he had 
 always faced readily for her sake ; fatigue he had 
 cheerfully endured, and now he submitted patiently 
 to captivity, because it was Mary Stuart's will. Day 
 by day he expected a pardon, a release, an acknow- 
 ledo-ment, a communication, and day by day he was 
 disappointed. ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' 
 but this proverb applies rather to weak natures ; in 
 strong, it is apt to make the heart savage. Stung 
 by what he conceived to be ingratitude, irritated 
 by neglect, sore from conflicting feelings such as 
 rend an ill-disciplined character with pangs to which 
 mere physical suffering is comparative relief, those 
 weeks spent in Edinburgh Castle produced an effect 
 on Bothwell's disposition that after-years could never 
 eradicate. Even ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh,' who remained 
 in attendance on his master, and who was free to come 
 and go at his pleasure, shook his head gravely and 
 averred that ' confinement was just destruction baith 
 to man an' beast! He would like fine to see the 
 Warden ridin' the Marches again wi' the Liddesdale 
 lads at his back.' 
 
 But though Dick thus expressed himself, and doubt- 
 less meant what he said, he was conscious in his heart 
 that the banks of the Eske and the braes of Teviot-dale 
 would never be the same to him again. The bra-^Tiy 
 borderer had a new interest in life now, strange to say, 
 unconnected with hawk or hound, with morning chase
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 151 
 
 or midniglit foraj, with axe or lance or mighty stoups 
 of ale. 
 
 Once in the week it was Mary Seton's custom to visit 
 the town of Edinburgh on foot, to make purchases for 
 her mistress and her comrades, of those odds-and-ends 
 which ladies consume in such wonderful quantities. 
 The wilful little damsel had taken a great fancy to the 
 borderer, as you may see a child sometimes pleased with 
 a huge Newfoundland dos;. Such attachments are not 
 remarkable for reciprocity. The biped, half pitiful, half 
 amused, entertains a feeble liking for so faithful an at- 
 tendant; the quadruped wishes no better lot than to 
 serve its little idol slavishly all its life and die licking its 
 hand. How the child cuffs it and teases it and makes 
 the noble animal ridiculous, pulling its ears and tail ! 
 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' had but one day now in his 
 week instead of seven. He observed, not without 
 inward gratulation, that his attendance on these saints' 
 days, so to speak, was by no means unwelcome ; and 
 Mary Seton, on her return to the palace, never omitted 
 to inform the Queen that she had seen Earl Bothwell's 
 henchman, neither did her mistress take her to task 
 herself, nor suffer Mary Beton to do so, for these 
 interviews. 
 
 So the strangely matched pair moved along the High- 
 street, and the lady, who, in addition to his other good 
 qualities, had discovered the borderer to be a capital 
 listener, told him the court news for the edification of 
 his chief, with considerable volubility. 
 
 ' We 're all in confusion now,' said she, one bright 
 winter's day, as she tripped along the cleaner portion of
 
 152 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 the pavement with a light basket in her hand, which 
 sometimes as a great favour she permitted her New- 
 foundland to carry, while that faithful animal stamped 
 contentedly alongside in the gutter. ' The palace is 
 turned inside out. We have got the "new acquaint- 
 ance" at Holyrood.' 
 
 Dick looked as if he didn't understand, and yet did 
 not quite like the information. Something that would 
 have been jealousy in a more presumptuous admirer, 
 shot through his great frame. Had he been physically 
 a retriever, he would have put his tail between his legs. 
 
 ' I dinna like acquaintances,' said he, looking down 
 at her bodily a foot or so ; looking up at her metaphori- 
 cally any number of yards. ' Give me friends, mistress 
 Seton, auld friends, an' no too mony o' them.' 
 
 ' You wouldn't like this acquaintance ! ' laughed the 
 young lady merrily, whereat her companion looked on 
 her admiringly as one who listens to sweet music. 
 ' He's an acquaintance that would put you on your 
 back readily ; for as strong as you think yourself ; he 
 has overcome the Queen and the household and Mr. 
 Randolph and Mary Beton, and all of them but wze.' 
 
 ' No,' replied the borderer. He did not the least 
 understand what she meant, but admired her intensely 
 nevertheless. 
 
 ' It's the sickness,'* at last she condescended to 
 explain between bursts of laughter at her companion's 
 
 * An epidemic that prevailed at the Court, answering to the in- 
 dispf)sition which we now term injluenza, and mentioned hy lian- 
 dolph in his letters to Cecil.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 153 
 
 puzzled countenance. ' There are but two of the Queen's 
 ladies fit for duty at all, — Mary Carmichael and me ; 
 and she is so occupied with your chief's kinsman, Mr. 
 Maxwell, that she couldn't be more useless if she was 
 ill in bed. The Court is as dull as ditch-water, and I 
 shall have to walk up this weary hill to do everybody's 
 business twice a week instead of once, that is the upshot 
 of it.' 
 
 A ray of intense pleasure gleamed on her listener's 
 face at this announcement ; but it clouded over a minute 
 afterwards, and he asked with undisguised anxiety, ' If 
 there was no danger for herself? ' 
 
 The girl could not but feel gratified at his obvious 
 interest in her safety; but she laughed again, and 
 answered merrily, 
 
 ' Do you think nobody can be bold who is not six 
 foot high ? I fear sickness, I tell you, as little as you 
 fear Lord Scrope, and hate it perhaps more ; and yet 
 you have the best of it, too. I had rather face death on 
 an open moor than in closed bed-curtains. I wonder 
 if anybody would miss me much,' she added, more to 
 herself than him, for the grave chord had somehow been 
 struck in her thoughtless character. 
 
 He did not answer, and when she looked at him, his 
 face was turned away. 
 
 ' Do you think they would ? ' she proceeded, with the 
 pertinacity of a spoiled child. ' Stranger things have 
 come to pass. You might be riding merrily in Liddes- 
 dale whilst Mary Seton was lying stark and cold under 
 the Abbey stones.' 
 
 ' It would be a dark day in Liddesdale,' was all the
 
 154 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 answer he made ; but he would not let her see his face, 
 and his voice sounded as it had never done before. 
 . A tinge of remorse, such as that which the urchin 
 feels when he takes a bird's-nest, smote almost uncon- 
 sciously at the girl's heart: yet was the sensation, 
 though pathetic, by no means unpleasant. 
 
 She laughed and bantered him more than usual dur- 
 ing their walk ; but on that day, and indeed every day 
 afterwards till he returned to the Border, she suflFered 
 him to carry her basket; and the honest retriever, 
 proud of his degradation, followed at her heel, with ever 
 increasing fidelity and devotion. The bird's-nest was 
 taken now, and it is no use attempting to put such 
 articles back again ; moreover it had been thoroughly 
 harried, emptied clean of its treasures, and all the eggs 
 were in that one basket.
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Ob ! is my basnet a widow's curch, 
 
 Or my lance a wand of tbe willow tree, 
 
 Or my ami a lady's Uly liand, 
 Tbat an English lord should lightly me?' 
 
 NUSUAL silence prevailed in the lofty hall 
 of Hermitage, and the dinner hour, com- 
 monly one of mirth and festivity, airived 
 with a solemn gravity by no means welcome 
 to the light-hearted borderers. It was in vain that large 
 joints of beef and mutton steamed on the long tables, 
 and ample baskets piled to the edge with coarse oaten 
 bread stood side by side with deep measures of foaming 
 ale below the salt, while a modest display of plate, in 
 which one or tAvo church ornaments were conspicuous, 
 decked the upper end of the board. The preparations 
 indeed smacked of good cheer, but the hilarity which 
 promotes digestion was wanting. 
 
 The master-spirit, gloomy, morose, and pre-occupied, 
 walked to and fro under the stag's antlers, at the ex- 
 tremity of the hall, and no man dared to question or 
 interrupt his meditations. 
 
 Both well was indeed chafing to the verge of madness. 
 In vain he had submitted patiently to a mock imprison-
 
 156 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 merit at the Queen's pleasure ; in vain he had waited 
 till days grew to weeks and weeks to months for some 
 acknowledgment from Mary of the injustice she had 
 done him — some expression of sorrow or sympathy for 
 the loyal soldier and devoted vassal. No acquittal 
 came, no reprieve, no message. Desperate and goaded 
 he had escaped from his confinement at last, and fled 
 to Hermitage, where he now found himself as autumn 
 waned in the anomalous attitude of an attainted subject 
 holding a royal fortress, and a Warden of the Marches, 
 without the privilege of communicating with his Sove- 
 reign. It has been truly said that no position is so 
 false as that which entails responsibility without con- 
 ferring authority, and of this he found himself too 
 keenly conscious. Neither was Bothwell's a nature to 
 submit patiently to a slight. Hotheaded and irascible, 
 with strong feelings and a sad want of foresight, he 
 could act but he could not endure. At this period he 
 had indeed sufficient reason to feel aggrieved, and he 
 fretted like some wild animal in a cage. It was noon ; 
 the guard was being relieved in the outer court. 
 Bustle reimed in the kitchen; two or three old 
 hounds with wistful faces, licked their lips as they 
 nosed the savoury preparations that emanated from 
 that department ; hawks screamed and flapped their 
 wings on the perch ; everything denoted the arrival 
 of the most important hour in the twenty-four. 
 
 By twos and threes brawny men-at-arms lounged 
 into the hall and took their places at the board. A 
 year ago, shout and jest and schoolboy prank would 
 have been rife at such a moment; the Earl's laugh 
 would have been the loudest and his voice the gayest
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 157 
 
 amongst them all ; now thej watched him pacing 
 silently to and fro, with looks askance. Taking their 
 cue from their chief, the boisterous riders were gloomy 
 as mutes. 
 
 Bothwell turned suddenly and summoned his hench- 
 man. 
 
 ' Is the holy man not ready yet ? ' said he with 
 something of irony in his tone. ' Ho ! bid the knaves 
 brmg in the food. Cowl or cassock, rochet and stole, 
 or black Geneva gown, not one of them but comes to 
 corn as kindly as the longest-legged boixlerer that ever 
 lifted a spear. Bid them serve, Dick, in the devil's name.' 
 
 ' Nay, James Hepburn,' said a deep stern voice at 
 the Earl's elbow, ' not in the name of the evil one, but 
 in His from whom cometh all good. Bless the food,' 
 he added, stretching both hands over the board which 
 was now spread, and shutting his eyes reverently while 
 he prayed ; ' Bless those good things which are the 
 product of thrift and honest industry, but may every 
 morsel turn to gall on the lip and poison in the breast 
 that is wrested by violence and bloodshed from the 
 store of the widow and the fatherless ! ' 
 
 ' Amen ! ' ejaculated Bothwell, without pretending 
 to conceal the sneer on his lip, as he took his seat ; 
 whilst his retainers, glancing Avith a comical mixture 
 of respect and astonishment at a man who dared to 
 address their formidable chief in accents of reproach, 
 seemed uncertain how to receive a blessing of such 
 doubtful import on the Border ; the obvious course 
 was to fall to without fm'ther ceremony, and soon the 
 clatter of knives and drinking horns drowned all qualms 
 of conscience, if indeed such were experienced ; ' Dick-
 
 158 THE QUEEN'S MAPJES, 
 
 o'-the-Cleugh' merely remarking as he filled his trencher, 
 ' that if all the beef in the larder that was lifted be- 
 hoved to turn to gall, there wou'd be no want o' mustard 
 for a whiley in Liddesdale.' 
 
 Evidently putting a strong constraint on himself, the 
 Earl proceeded to entertain his guest with marked dis- 
 tinction and courtesy. Indeed, after a time the stately 
 bearing and obvious sincerity of the man could not fail 
 to produce a favourable effect ; and though Bothwell 
 for political reasons was disposed to court his good 
 opinion, he could not but confess to himself, that under 
 that black robe and grave exterior, lurked a spirit equal 
 in point of courage and far superior in energy, per- 
 severance, and force of character, to his own. 
 
 Even the rude borderers felt the influence of his pre- 
 sence. Although the name of John Knox was ere this 
 familiar in all men's mouths through the length and 
 breadth of Scotland, these lawless soldiers, while profess- 
 ing for the most part the Reformed religion, which com- 
 bined in their eyes the intrinsic advantages of freedom, 
 liberality, and cheapness, were at heart woefully indiffer- 
 ent to its tenets or its obligations. They had thrown off 
 with small compunction the shackles of the Roman 
 Catholic Church; they were not quite so ready, how- 
 ever, to submit themselves to the discipline of that 
 faith which had supplanted it. In all violent and fun- 
 damental changes of opinion, the teachers of a new 
 doctrine have to contend with two serious difficulties: 
 the ill-judged warmth of their more zealous disciples, 
 and the convenient indifference of a large proportion of 
 converts who cannot be brought to see the advantao-e
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLY ROOD. 159 
 
 of dissent if it is to substitute one form of government 
 for another. 
 
 Physically, the great Scottish Reformer appeared 
 scarcely equal to the work he had engaged to perform. 
 His spare frame was indeed sufficiently ascetic to command 
 respect, and his dignified bearing, well set ofi" by the 
 close black gown, with its loose sleeves which he chose 
 to wear, was not unworthy of the holy profession of 
 which he was so zealous a member ; but his statm-e was 
 low and his bodily strength proportionate. Neverthe- 
 less, in his high grave brow, only partially covered by 
 a close black skull-cap, there was rectitude, pitiless in- 
 deed of others' weakness, but equally stern and uncom- 
 promising towards its own. The bold features and pale 
 colouring of a face more remarkable than comely, 
 denoted energy with force of will ; and though the 
 mouth was somewhat large and coarse, its expression 
 was firm and daring in the highest degree. His dark 
 eyes, which it was his habit to fix intently on those 
 with whom he conversed, were brilliantly piercing, and 
 in the heat of argument or declamation shone and 
 sparkled with an inward flame. A flowing beard de- 
 scended to his girdle, somewhat softening the harshness 
 of his features and imparting a patriarchal dignity to 
 his whole person. There was but little appearance of 
 versatility on his immoveable face, and yet John Knox, 
 driven by his zeal into the political stream, had been 
 forced to trim his bark more than once to suit the exi- 
 gencies of the storm, and it may be that this very con- 
 sciousness added to the stern defiance of his bearing. 
 
 Without attempting to be ' all things to all men,' the
 
 160 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 Reformer never forgot for an instant the one end and 
 aim of his unceasing efforts, the destruction of papacy 
 in his native land ; and if ever he did turn aside for an 
 advantage or halt for a breathing-space, it was but to 
 gather fresh energies for the great work, and devote 
 himself more unreservedly to its accomplishment. If 
 he was prejudiced, bigoted, and illiberal, he was at least 
 an honest man thoroughly in earnest. 
 
 The latter quality invariably wins respect in the 
 rudest as in the most civilized societies, and even Earl 
 Both well's wild jackmen could not withhold an involun- 
 tary homage from one whose peaceful profession, while 
 it did not aifect his insensibility to physical danger, or 
 his coolness under trying circumstances, was followed 
 out with an energy and perseverance of which their own 
 lawless pursuits afforded no example. The Reformer, 
 too, for all his infirmities, could back a horse and fly a 
 hawk with the best of them. His stirring life had given 
 him habits of activity and daring, whilst the energy of ac- 
 tion was not wanting, which is so useful an accessory to a 
 keen intellect. Though he ate sparingly, the preacher's 
 cup was filled and emptied with grave good-fellowship, 
 and he did not disdain to mingle in such mirth as 
 was restrained within the bounds of decorum. There 
 was a spice of quaint humour in his conversation that 
 insensibly excited the attention of the most careless lis- 
 teners, and though he never so far forgot his sacred 
 office as to descend into buffoonery, he was no contemner 
 of a ludicrous illustration or a harmless jest. 
 
 The dinner, nevertheless, progressed wearily. The 
 churchman's presence restrained that wild ribaldry 
 which had been of late Bothwell's only attempt at
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 161 
 
 gaiety ; and when the jackmen had eaten their fill and 
 satisfied their thirst, a gloomy silence once more per- 
 vaded the old hall. 
 
 It was the practice at Hermitage to conclude every 
 meal with the standing toast of ' Snaffle, spur, and 
 spear ; ' but to-day cups were emptied less cordially than 
 usual to the accustomed pledge, and a long grace from 
 Mr. Knox immediately succeeding it, was received by 
 the listeners with more respect than attention. It was 
 a relief to all when the Earl, calling for a bason and 
 ewer, dipped his hands, wiped his beard, and rose from 
 table, summoning the Reformer to attend him for a 
 stroll upon the rampart, and whispering a few words to 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' as he passed out of the hall. 
 
 That worthy received his master's commands with an 
 appearance of intense gratification, which communicated 
 itself, as if by electricity, to the majority of his comrades. 
 Bustle and activity seemed all at once to pervade the 
 castle, and the merriment hitherto stifled and repressed 
 broke forth with renewed violence. The tramp of horses 
 and the clank of steel smote gratefully on ears in which 
 such sounds made the sweetest of music ; and when the 
 churchman crossed the court-yard in search of his 
 host, he found it filled by some two score of well-mounted 
 men-at-arms, drawn up in disciplined array, with ' Dick- 
 o'-the-Cleugh ' at their head. 
 
 The Earl was giving his final orders to this leader 
 with considerable energy. He was in a towering pas- 
 sion, none the less unbridled that he was not going to 
 command the expedition himself. 
 
 ' Were he ten times Warden,' the Reformer heard him 
 say, ' he should not drive horses, with impunity, from 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 my side the March. Does my Lord Scrope think that 
 James Hepburn has been superseded at Hermitage ? or 
 that I am a likely man to submit to the slight he has 
 endeavoured to put upon me. Faith, not while this 
 arm of mine can lay lance in the rest. If you 
 come across the English Warden, Dick Rutherford, 
 you shall cast James Hepburn's defiance in his teeth. 
 Within twenty-one days, alone, or with his following, 
 on foot or on horseback, with spear, sword, or axe, and 
 not more than three English miles from the Border, 
 I challenge him to meet me, if he be a man, and " God 
 defend the right ! " Have you picked the horses ? ' he 
 added abruptly, and turning with a soldier's eye to 
 scan the troop. 
 
 ' I cast the twa four-year-aulds,' answered Dick, ' an' 
 I waled the soar'^ and the three bays, forbye the white- 
 footed yane, an' I'm ridin' Wanton Willie mysel'. Gin 
 I track the drove to Peel-fell, will I follow them into 
 Cumberland ? ' 
 
 ' Follow them to hell ! ' answered Both well. ' I will 
 have that grey gelding back if he is stabled in Carlisle. 
 I'll have him from under Lord Scrope himself, if the 
 Englishman never gets across a horse again. What ! 
 there is peace between the two countries, more's the 
 pity, or I had been at his castle gate by this time with 
 all Teviot-dale at my back ; and so you may tell him if 
 you can meet with him under steel.' 
 
 ' They might ha' been ta'en by the Langholme lads,' 
 interposed Dick, whose spirits were rising considerably 
 
 * Sorrel or chestnut — next to bay the favourite colour of the 
 borderers.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 163 
 
 with the prospect of a foray, but who looked upon the 
 whole affair nevertheless as a matter of business com- 
 bined with wholesome recreation. ' They lifted a score o' 
 runts frae " daft Davie," in Lammas-time, an took the 
 vara' coverlet aff his wife's bed. He saw it himsel' at 
 Dumfries, puir fallow ! ' 
 
 ' Nay, nay,' answered Bothwell, ' the Langholme ri- 
 ders do not come down by the score, with dags, and 
 petronels, and St. George's cross on their basnets. If 
 it's not a Warden-raid, as indeed it can hardly be, it 
 has been done by the Warden's orders, and he shall 
 answer it to me as sure as I serve Queen Mary ! At 
 least, with all her pride, she shall know that Bothwell 
 never suffered it to be lowered an inch,' he muttered 
 between his teeth as he turned away. 
 
 ' Dick-o'-the-Cleugh ' put the men in motion and him- 
 self at their head. As they emerged upon the open 
 ground from the grey walls of the square old keep, the 
 slanting beams of an autumn sun gilded the brown 
 heather, and shed a soft lustre over the undulating 
 moorland ere it flashed from the steel armour of the 
 troop. The riders were in high spirits at the prospect 
 of a change from their long period of inaction. The 
 horses snorted and shook their bridles gaily. It was a 
 party of pleasure and adventurous excitement to all 
 concerned, and even now they were anticipating their 
 plunder and jesting about their profits. Only one 
 heart felt more softened than usual under its steel 
 breast-plate. 'Dick-o'-the-Cleugh' acknoAvledged the 
 influence of the mellow sunlight and the balmy breeze. 
 Somehow the very earth and sky seemed to connect 
 themselves with a pair of laughing eyes and a shower 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE queen's mahies, 
 
 of bright hair, ^vith a fairy figure tripping up the High 
 Street, a basket on its arm ; or, as he had seen it 
 first, shining like a vision of light in the dark pas- 
 sages of Holyrood, with a voice that used to thrill so 
 sweetlj once, that he never heard now but in his 
 dreams. The henchman would have fought like a lion, 
 and yet he felt tenderly disposed towards all living 
 things. ' He would have met death more cheerfully than 
 ever, yet he seemed only to have learned the value of 
 life within the last few months ; another contradiction, 
 but is it not full of contradictions, that engrossing folly 
 in which the true believer is as sure to suffer martyr- 
 dom as the false Avorshipper is to obtain his reward? 
 
 The Earl and his visitor watched the troop defiling 
 round the base of a low acclivity that soon hid them 
 from sight. As they disappeared, Bothwell turned 
 away with a bitter curse. He scarcely felt as if he had 
 a right to order an expedition on the Border in the 
 name of his Sovereign, and again Mary's injustice and 
 neglect rankled like a poisoned shaft in his breast. 
 But the Earl was in no mood for balancing probabilities 
 or counting cost. The horses that had bec^i driven 
 were his own, and he had reason to believe that Lord 
 Scrope was not ignorant of the theft ; this was 
 sufficient to rouse his ire to the utmost, and he had 
 dispatched a force to follow and retake them strong 
 enough to preclude the possibility of faihu'e. It was 
 maddening though, to be compelled to stay within the 
 four walls of Hermitage when his retainers were in the 
 field ; maddening, all the more that his present false 
 position, as he argued, was ow ing to a Queen's injustice 
 and a woman's mgratitude.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 165 
 
 A few short turns upon the rampart, with the soft 
 west wind fanning his brow, restored his composure, and 
 addressing his companion, he professed his readiness to 
 enter at once upon the business which had brought the 
 latter to Hermitage. 
 
 The preacher pointed to the surrounding scenery, the 
 waving tracts of moorland bathed in the lustre of an 
 afternoon sim, the cattle feeding securely in the green 
 nooks and pasturage which broke the uniformity of the 
 undulating waste, the yellow patch of cultivation under 
 the very shadow of the keep, and the clear autumnal 
 heaven above all, pale and serene, and dappled here 
 and there by flaky clouds edged with gold. 
 
 ' It is not my business,' said the preacher, ' nor is it 
 thine, Lord Warden, that hath brought me here, but the 
 will of Him who holdeth this glorious universe in the 
 hollow of his hand. It is to do his work that I have 
 ridden through these wastes from dawn till mid-day, 
 and that I must depart again ere set of sun. I charge 
 thee to aid me, heart and hand, in the service of my 
 Master!' 
 
 It is the misfortune of earnest men that in this self- 
 seeking world of ours, they seldom obtain the credit 
 they deserve for sincerity and singleness of heart. 
 Bothwell listened vath outward respect, yet unworthy 
 suspicions would not be kept down. 
 
 ' Now for some double-dyed intrigue,' was his inmost 
 thought, ' some plot set on foot by impenetrable Moray, 
 not satisfied with his new earldom, and turbulent 
 Morton, with his own craft added to the recklessness of 
 all his Douglas ancestors, and Maitland, the skilful 
 penman, the subtle diplomatist, wise as the serpent and
 
 166 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 plausible as the father of lies himself. They would 
 fain make a cat's-paw of rude James Hepburn, for 
 doubtless they want a bold heart and a ready hand to 
 aid their schemes, and they send this godly man, half- 
 fanatic, half-hypocrite, to feel if the tool be heated to 
 the right temper. I wot they may burn their fingers, 
 one and all of them, yet ! ' But he only answered 
 abruptly, 
 
 ' I believe you are the friend of my house. You will 
 counsel nothing that can prejudice my honour, or my 
 loyalty to the Queen.' 
 
 ' My great-grandfather, my gude-sire, and my father, 
 have served your family, James Hepburn, for three 
 generations. Aye ! served them when their banner was 
 waving in the fore-front of the battle, and the arrows 
 of the English archers were hailing against their 
 harness like a storm from hell. Do you think their 
 blood is not boiling in my veins because I wear a 
 Geneva cassock for a steel breast-plate ? Do you think 
 if my forbears shrank not to ride through fire and 
 water for the Hepburn, I would fear to encounter death 
 in his defence, much less would tempt him to danger 
 or disgrace. Nay, my lord Earl, though the commands 
 of my Master are imperative, they will but lead to your 
 aggrandizement in this world, and your salvation in the 
 next.' 
 
 John Knox paused and turned a scrutinizing look on 
 his companion's face. 
 
 The latter plucked a morsel of grass from the ram- 
 part and flung it on the breeze. 
 
 ' Let us see how the wind blows,' he replied with a 
 scornful laugh ; ' fair or foul, ye can trim your sails to 
 
 'A
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 167 
 
 it, all of ye, and I can ride through a storm with the 
 best ! ' 
 
 ' Nay,' exclaimed the Reformer, ' the labourer is 
 worthy of his hire ; know ye not that the great trial is 
 approaching between the powers of darkness and the 
 children of light ? In France the sovereign and his 
 ministers are determined to stifle the good cause with 
 the strong hand, and even now the blood of saints and 
 martyrs crieth aloud from the very stones in the streets 
 of Paris. The scarlet woman who spreadeth her mantle 
 over the Seven Hills, and waveth her white arms abroad 
 to lure souls to perdition, seducing some with indul- 
 gences and driving others to despair with her curse, — 
 is battling for her very existence and that of the 
 reptiles she hath spawned, and who crawl around her 
 feet. Here in Scotland, aye, at Holyrood itself, hath 
 not an ima^e been erected unto Baal? and is not the 
 idolatry of the mass raised weekly by Mary Stuart, 
 whom men call Queen of Scotland, and who is herself 
 a daughter of perdition ! ' 
 
 ' Hold ! ' exclaimed Bothwell, in a voice of thunder, 
 and advancing a step towards the speaker as though about 
 to hurl him from the rampart. He restrained himself 
 however with an obvious effort, and proceeded in a calmer 
 voice, ' It was not to malign his Queen that you sought 
 an interview with the most devoted of her servants?' 
 
 Knox saw his zeal had carried him too far. The 
 Reformer, like those whose persuasion he reprobated, 
 was somewhat prone to allow that ' the end justified the 
 means.' He retraced his steps therefore, as it were, 
 and resumed more calmly, 
 
 ' Her Majesty must be saved from the influence of
 
 ■168 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 evil advisers. Why are her communications with the 
 bloody Guises so frequent ? Why is Popish Riccio all 
 powerful at Holyrood? Why is Both well virtually 
 banished, and well nigh attainted for a traitor ? But 
 because there is a schism in the camp of the faithful, 
 and a house divided against itself shall not stand.' 
 
 ' The Queen has indeed dealt me scant justice,' 
 answered the Earl musingly. ' What would your em- 
 ployers have me do ? ' 
 
 ' I speak for myself,' replied the other, ' or rather I 
 speak the words that are borne in unto me by Him 
 whose servant I am. What shall ye say of a family in 
 which brother is at variance with brother ? of an army 
 in which troop falls away from troop, for some petty 
 feud, when the enemy is drawn up over against them in 
 battle array ? The nobles of Scotland are gathering 
 to the front for the defence of their souls' liberties, 
 and the boldest spirit amongst them all keeps aloof here 
 at Hermitage because of a foolish brawl with a weak 
 enthusiast who bore him no real ill-will.' 
 
 ' I will never return to Holyrood,' answered Both- 
 well, looking wistfully towards the north while he 
 spoke, ' till the Queen sends for me herself and acknow- 
 ledges her injustice. I will never stretch the hand of 
 reconciliation to Arran till I have dealt him a buffet 
 with a steel gauntlet and a Jedwood axe in its grasp.' 
 
 ' Nay, nay,' expostulated the Reformer, ' shall the 
 edifice that such as you might rear on the goodly 
 foundation of religious zeal, with the barons of Scotland 
 for your fellow- workmen, crumble away for want of one 
 stone in its right place ? Once reconciled with Arran, 
 the House of Hamilton might easily be secured in your
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 169 
 
 interest. I can take upon myself to promise so much, 
 or why am I here to-day ? With Moray's good-will, 
 Morton's friendship, the Duke's aid, and the favour of 
 the godly throughout the kingdom, who so powerful at 
 Com-t as the Earl of Bothwell ? Would it not be well 
 to teach the Queen (for her own welfare) the indis- 
 pensable lesson that a woman can only rule through the 
 influence of men ; by the brain of the wise and the arm 
 of the strong ? Would it not be well that Mary Stuart 
 should learn, once for all, that she must look to James 
 Hepburn as her champion and her trust ? ' 
 
 The picture was painted in glowing colours and set in a 
 vivid light. The temptation to such a nature as Both well's 
 was indeed of the strongest. It thrilled through heart 
 and brain, that imaginary victory which should place in 
 his power the option of humbling her to the dust, by 
 whom he felt so aggrieved, or better still of foregoing 
 his revenge and enjoying the nobler yet more complete 
 triumph of forgiveness to his Queen. Nevertheless, the 
 feudal feeling of resentment for an aspersion was still 
 strong within him. 
 
 ' But he accused me of treason,' urged the Earl, 
 lashing himself once more into anger, ' would have 
 attainted me before the Council as a traitor to Queen 
 Mary, as a rebel who meditated violence on her sacred 
 person !' 
 
 ' The dream of a madman ! ' answered Knox. ' You 
 know well that the Earl's health has long been failing, 
 that he is of those who are scourged and tormented in 
 the body for the discipline of their souls. In his 
 paroxysms of insanity he is as one possessed, but they 
 leave him like the poor maniac from whom devils were
 
 170 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 cast out, " clothed and in his right mind." Nay, he 
 did but accuse you of that which he had himself medi- 
 tated in his madness. The Earl of Arran did indeed 
 entertain a wild project to carry off the person of Mary 
 Stuart, and immure her in some stronghold at his plea- 
 sure. The scheme was that of a madman, and yet 
 might it have been feasible nevertheless.' 
 
 Bothwell started and turned pale. He could not 
 trust himself to speak. At that moment wild phantom 
 shapes, that had vaguely haunted him for long, seemed 
 suddenly to assume a distinct aspect of reality. Dropped 
 by an unconscious hand, the seed now struck root, that 
 was hereafter destined to bear such appalling fruit. 
 The offspring of a chance word, a wild and maddening 
 vision took possession of his brain. He looked around 
 at the solid dimensions of his fortress ; he counted the 
 gallant hearts within its walls, for whom his will was 
 law; he thought of his friends and following, his re- 
 sources and his influence, his own daring and his 
 father's brilliant crimes. One desperate cast for the 
 great stake; one bold swoop for the shrinking quarry: 
 a few shots, a thrust or two, a white form borne swiftly 
 away at a gallop, and the sweet face that had been a 
 dream to him all his life, might become a reality at last ! 
 
 Why, even crazed Arran had been man enough to 
 entertain such a scheme, whilst he, Bothwell, was eating 
 his own heart here at Hermitage. Well, stranger 
 things had come to pass. He must watch and bide his 
 time; must be wary, vigilant: above all must be patient. 
 It was a stirring season. For a bold man nothing was 
 impossible. 
 
 He replied at last, but cautiously and with reserva-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 171 
 
 tions. If he joined the Protestant party, agreeing to 
 act with Moray, Morton, and the rest, it must be under 
 certain conditions : if he consented to a reconciliation 
 with Arran, it must be accompanied with sundry stipu- 
 lations which should be communicated hereafter at 
 greater length. Even Maitland could not have been 
 more mysterious, and the Reformer found himself won- 
 dering at the rapidity of a transformation which had 
 changed the wild reckless border noble into a cold and 
 scheming diplomatist. 
 
 He had attained his object, however, and that was 
 enough for him. With a firm persuasion that he was 
 furthering the good work, he took his leave of the Earl 
 well satisfied, resisting all hospitable importunities to 
 remain, and even declining the offer of an escort to 
 conduct him in safety through that lawless district. 
 
 ' My Master will care for me,' said the preacher, as 
 he prepared to leave the castle on horseback when the 
 shades of night were closing in. ' He who has sent me 
 on my mission will provide for the safety of his ser- 
 vant ! ' And so departed unarmed and alone. 
 
 Well might Morton hereafter pronounce over this 
 dauntless nature its well-known epitaph, ' There lies 
 one that never feared the face of man.'
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 ' Bonny Kilmeny gaed up the glen, 
 But it was na to meet wi' Dunira's men, 
 Nor the rosy monk of the isle to see, 
 For Kilmeny was pure as maiden could be.' 
 
 ALTER MAXWELL was ere this domi- 
 ciled at Holyrood. Attached to the 
 Queen's household, and devoted to her 
 person, Mary esteemed him not the least 
 trustworthy of those servants in whom she placed im- 
 plicit confidence. He had accompanied his Sovereign 
 on those roving expeditions in which she took so much 
 pleasure, when the beautiful Stuart, worthy to reign 
 over a nation of warriors, would pass entire days in the 
 saddle, traversing her dominions, and making acquaint- 
 ance with her subjects ; or flying her hawk and fol- 
 lowing her deer-hounds over the wild moorlands, and 
 amongst the romantic passes of her new kingdom. He 
 had attended her in her progress to Aberdeen, that ill- 
 advised journey which, commencing with merriment 
 and festivity, the hmitsman's holloa and the cheering 
 notes of the horn, ended in strife and bloodshed and 
 the wild wailing of the coronach, cried by the widows of 
 the Gordon over the flower of their clan.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 173 
 
 Maxwell had done good service on that sad day when 
 the waters of Corrichie ran crimson with the Highland- 
 man's blood, and had turned with a brave man's pity 
 from the sickening sight of Sir John Gordon's execution 
 at Aberdeen, performed before the very eyes of the 
 weeping Queen. Gallant, handsome John Gordon ! the 
 victim of a political intrigue, who walked to the block 
 with the jaunty step of a bridegroom in holiday 
 attire and waved his dying homage to his Sovereign, 
 a brave soldier and a loyal gentleman to the last. 
 
 It is said that Mary fainted at the sight, and, indeed, 
 she never attained the necessary hardness of heart to 
 rule such a turbulent and distracted country as that in 
 which it was her lot to reign. 
 
 On more than one occasion Maxwell had proved him- 
 self the possessor of a shrewd brain, a silent tongue, and 
 a ready hand. His was that least courtier-like of cha- 
 racters, which yet perhaps thrives best at a court. 
 When all around are selfish and intriguing, each feels 
 well-disposed towards the frank single-hearted comrade 
 who wishes but to serve his Sovereign loyally, and en- 
 tertains cordial good-will towards his fellows. Monarchs, 
 too, even the haughtiest and most exacting, are disposed 
 to appreciate a blunt honesty that does not shrink from 
 encountering the royal displeasure for the royal advan- 
 tage, and doubtless find it refreshing from its contrast 
 with the servility to which they are accustomed. It 
 must be like the change from the sickly air of a hot- 
 house to the fresh mountain-breeze. Besides, it is so 
 easy to forgive even insolence in those who are wholly 
 in their power ; and there is a delicate flattery after all
 
 174 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 to the lion's forbearance, in the man's temerity, who 
 puts his head in the lion's mouth. 
 
 The Queen of Scotland, however, was one of those 
 who, while they attach to themselves irresistibly all who 
 come within their sphere, are from their own feelings 
 disposed to think kindly of their immediate retainers, 
 and to reward fidelity and affection as they deserve. 
 
 Maxwell found himself in high favour with Mary, 
 and it is not strange that he should have been devoted 
 heart and soul to her interests. He persuaded himself 
 that he was loyal to his Sovereign for her own sake, and 
 ignored with considerable determination that mistress 
 Carmichael had any influence whatever over his sen- 
 timents. 
 
 That young lady's behaviour at this juncture was of 
 a nature to make an admirer sufficiently uncomfortable. 
 We remember to have heard that there are female dis- 
 positions on which the exercise of the afiections has an 
 irritating tendency, and to whom the dawning possi- 
 bility of eventual thraldom is as agitating as it is inviting. 
 These wild-birds, albeit they become when tamed the 
 gentlest of domestic fowls, are sadly prone at first to beat 
 their breasts against the cage, also to peck viciously at the 
 caressing hand that would smooth their ruffled plumes. 
 Whether it be that they entertain a feminine delight 
 in any state of sentiment, argument, or fact involving 
 a contradiction, or whether they indemnify themselves 
 whilst they can for future docility, we profess ourselves 
 incompetent to state ; but, the axiom seems to be suffi- 
 ciently estabhshed, that the process of taming is often 
 uncomfortable and hazardous, the result not always to 
 be depended upon when complete.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 175 
 
 Mary Carmichael, in addition to her other qualifica- 
 tions, was a devoted Papist. Maxwell, it is needless to 
 observe, a staunch Reformer. Religious feeling ran 
 high at Holji'ood. The Romish Chui-ch, a zealous ad- 
 vocate for proselytism at all times, has ever been most 
 intolerant when losing ground ; and perhaps no bigotry 
 is so blind as a woman's adherence to a sinking faith. 
 
 Maxwell could not conscientiously look with approval 
 on mistress Carmichael's rigid attendance at mass in the 
 Chapel Royal. The maid-of-honour concealed neither 
 her dislike nor her contempt for those who had aban- 
 doned the religion of their fathers and the ritual of 
 their Sovereign. This alone was a fruitful source of irri- 
 tation and ill-feeling between the lovers, if so they can 
 be called ; and when we add that the gentleman was of a 
 haughty and reserved disposition, the soul of honesty and 
 frankness, without the slightest experience in the ways 
 of woman, and the lady as wilful, unjust, and self-tor- 
 menting, as those reasonable beings usually become when 
 thoroughly in earnest, it is superfluous to dwell upon 
 the feelings likely to exist between such a pair, con- 
 tinually brooding over imaginary wrongs, and never for 
 a moment out of each other's minds. 
 
 One scene, amongst many, may afford a specimen of 
 the terms on which they stood. 
 
 Maxwell was proceeding to the royal apartments 
 with certain papers which had been submitted to Mr. 
 Randolph's inspection ere they were returned to the 
 Queen for signature — so anxious was Mary, at this 
 period, to keep well with her Cousin of England. 
 Elizabeth's Ambassador had taken rather a fancy, in 
 his own selfish easy way, to his former travelling com-
 
 176 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 panion, and though, of course, he would have sacrificed 
 him without scruple, he probably liked him none the 
 less that he could not fashion him into a tool. 
 
 As Maxwell traversed the long gallery, mistress Car- 
 michael was proceeding in the same direction with a 
 basket of winter roses gathered in the Abbey-garden, 
 and could not forbear blushing as deep as the reddest 
 of them when she encountered him. Of course she was 
 angry with herself for doing so, and naturally visited 
 the fault on him, arguing, plausibly enough, that if he 
 had not been there it would not have happened ; there- 
 fore she turned her head steadfastly away and marched 
 on without speaking. Hurt and irritated, he drew 
 aside to let her pass, thus meeting her, as it were, half 
 way in her desire to avoid recognition. So far no- 
 thing could be simpler. If the lady did not wish to be 
 delayed she had only to pass on without further stop- 
 page. She did so accordingly, but by the merest acci- 
 dent, and the most provoking awkwardness, tilted her 
 basket and dropped half her flowers on the floor. Of 
 course he was compelled to assist her in picking them 
 up ; for these two were the only occupants of the gal- 
 lery ; so he knelt down and refilled the basket gravely 
 without a word. 
 
 ' Thank you,' said ]\Iary Carmichael, with the slight- 
 est possible tremor in her voice. ' How deftly you 
 have done it, and how much beholden to you I am — 
 and — and — thank you, Mr. Maxwell.' 
 
 Here was an opportunity that would have been seized 
 by any other gallant about the Court to ask, at least, for 
 one of the roses in reward ; and perhaps even Maxwell, 
 though somewhat impatient of such follies, would have
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 177 
 
 been less reserved with any other of the Maries than 
 the one who now stood before him, still arrano:in£: her 
 basket, and obviously in no immediate hurry to go away. 
 He waited, however, for her to speak first. After a 
 httle hesitation she pointed to the papers he was carry- 
 ing. 
 
 ' Shall I take them for you to the Queen ? ' said she, 
 and her hand trembled as she extended it towards him. 
 
 He took the pretty hand in his own and she did not 
 withdraw it. 
 
 ' Mistress Carmichael,' said he, ' I am a plain man, 
 and I hope an honest one. I have not so many friends 
 that I can afford to lose any for lack of courage to ask 
 an explanation. How have I offended you of late ? 
 Tell me as frankly as I ask you, and I will take care 
 not to transgress ao-ain.' 
 
 Her bosom heaved and her colour went and came. 
 
 ' Offended ? ' she replied, ' and me ? oh ! no. What 
 have I done to make you think so ? ' 
 
 He was still very grave and a shade paler than before, 
 but his countenance was immovable and indeed stern. 
 It was a peculiarity of Walter Maxwell that under strong 
 excitement his exterior became unusually cold and com- 
 posed. 
 
 ' I have thought so for long,' he resumed. ' Perhaps 
 it has distressed me more than you would think possible. 
 I trust I have done my duty as thoroughly as if you and 
 I had been friends, but I have felt that difficulties ap- 
 peared greater and hardships less endurable than if our 
 differences had not existed. The breach has widened 
 day by day ; ere long you and I will have learned to 
 hate each other.' 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' Oh ! no, no,' she murmured, scarce above her breath, 
 but she kept her head bent down and the tears were 
 dropping fast among the winter-roses in her basket. 
 
 He had never let go her hand ; he folded it in both 
 his own and pressed it to his lips. 
 
 ' Mary Carmichael,' said he, ' since the day we first 
 met in the forest of Chambord I have wished to be wor- 
 thy of you, and you alone. I am no woman-worshipper, 
 no smooth-tongued silken gallant, and yet I think there 
 are feAv things I could not do to please you ; nothing, 
 save my honour, I would not sacrifice for your sake.' 
 
 A gleam of intense pride and pleasure shone for an 
 instant in her eyes ; the next, her face contracted as if 
 with pain, and she looked up scared and wild, through 
 her tears. 
 
 ' You must not say so — you must not say so,' she 
 exclaimed, drawing her hand away hiu"riedly, and with 
 a frightened, half distracted air. ' Let me go now, let 
 me go ; I hear the others coming.' 
 
 ' Is that your answer ?' said he, very lowly and dis- 
 tinctly, but with a pale face and something in his voice 
 that it was better not to trifle with. 
 
 She looked here and there, like some graceful wild 
 animal caught in the toils. Footsteps were indeed ap- 
 proaching, and half the flowers were again scattered on 
 the floor. 
 
 ' You must not say so,' she repeated ; but for an in- 
 stant she placed her hand once more in his with a 
 lightning glance of unspeakable tenderness ; ' at least 
 not yet ! ' she added, and sped hurriedly away. 
 
 When she was gone Walter Maxwell stooped down, 
 picked up one of the roses, and hid it carefully within
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 179 
 
 his doublet. Then he proceeded to his business with a 
 lighter heart and a brighter face than he had carried 
 since he came to Holyrood. 
 
 We will follow the young lady to the apartment in 
 which the Maries were accustomed to congregate when 
 off duty, plying their needles with industrious rapidity, 
 and lightening their labours, we may be sure, with the 
 pleasures of conversation. 
 
 It was a pretty room high up in one of the turrets of 
 the palace, overlooking the Abbey-garden, and was full 
 of the little elegancies and comforts which women 
 gather about them, or which seem to grow up around, 
 in the most unlikely places, as a natural consequence of 
 their presence. Quaint tapestry adorned its walls, less 
 hideous than are usually those grotesque efforts of 
 industry, and representing pastoral scenes of love- 
 making and simplicity, not devoid of browsing sheep, 
 limpid streams, and fat little cupids flying about in the 
 air. Scarfs, fans, gloves, and needle-work were scattered 
 over the room, and Mary Hamilton's rosary of fragrant 
 wooden beads inlaid with gold, hung from the back 
 of a carved oak chair, of which the cushions were 
 triumphs of embroidery wrought by the maids-of- 
 honour themselves. A portrait of the Queen in her 
 well-known velvet head-dress and voluminous ruff smiled 
 above the chimney-piece, and immediately under it was 
 placed an elaborate crystal time-piece, of French work- 
 manship, presented by her mistress to Mary Beton, and 
 reverenced equally as a token of the royal good-will aud 
 a marvel of mechanical art. The last named lady 
 glati-ced at it with the conscious pride of possession. 
 
 ' It will be dark in less than an hour,' said she, fold- 
 
 N 2
 
 180 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ing away the corner of a large square piece of em- 
 broidery on which herself and two of her companions 
 were engaged ; ' we have done enough for one daj, and 
 these small stitches are very trying to the eyes. I ex- 
 pect the Queen's summons too, every minute, for one or 
 other of us.' 
 
 ' She is writing letters in her cabinet,' answered 
 Mary Carmichael, who had her own reasons for knowing 
 how large a packet had just gone in. ' I could see her 
 beautiful head bending; over her table as I came down 
 the terrace-steps in the Abbey-garden w^hen I brought 
 you in these roses.' 
 
 ' You haven't half filled the basket after all!' ex- 
 claimed Mary Seton, who was busy arranging the 
 flowers about the room, ' and like your sex, my dear, 
 you have taken care to gather plenty of thorns. If I 
 wear a garland of them at the masque to-morrow as I 
 intended, I shall be a veritable Scotch thistle, not to 
 be touched with impunity ; a fitting partner for that 
 masterful border-thief, little Jock Elliott, who cocks 
 his bonnet and sings " Wha dare meddle wi' me ? " ' 
 
 ' You have become half a borderer yourself, I think, 
 ever since Bothwell was banished the Court,' answered 
 the other, not quite relishing this allusion to the half- 
 filled basket of which the spoils were scattered in the 
 gallery. 
 
 ' Poor Bothwell !' answered Mary Seton with a sigh, 
 ' now that is what I call a man ! When he walks 
 throu2;h the court in his armour, he looks like a tower 
 amongst the other lords. There is not a taller or a 
 more stalwart figure amongst all his riders, proper men
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 181 
 
 , though they be, except perhaps that gigantic henchman 
 of his ; ' and again the damsel sighed, and looked grave 
 for an instant, though she was laughing merrily again 
 the next. 
 
 ' Is he not coming back soon ? ' asked Mary Hamilton, 
 waking up from one of her fits of abstraction and fixing 
 her large mournful black eyes on Mary Seton's saucy 
 blue ones. 
 
 ' Who ? which ? ' asked the latter mischievously. 
 
 ' Why, d'Amville ? ' answered Mary Hamilton, ab- 
 sently, ' were you not talking of him ? He has been 
 more than a year away.' 
 
 ' D'Amville ! ' exclaimed the other with her ringing 
 laugh, ' I hope not ! At least if he brings that mad 
 poet in his train, to turn all our heads with rhymes and 
 flattery. Nothing interests you but what comes from 
 France ! No, we were talking of Bothwell, stout Earl 
 Bothwell, who is worth a dozen of him. I am sure the 
 Queen thinks so.' 
 
 Mary Beton looked up reprovingly, but in vain ; the 
 flippant speaker was in her swing and not to be dis- 
 appointed of her say. 
 
 ' I'm sure we've all been dull enough at Court ever 
 since Bothwell got into disgrace. And after all, I don't 
 believe he bared steel till the others drew on him first. 
 I hnow the Hamiltons out-numbered his people two to 
 one, and nobody disputes that Arran is quite mad now, 
 or that the Duke was always an old goose. I think it 
 very hard that Bothwell should have been made the 
 scape-goat, that I do ! and I've always said he hadn't 
 fair play from first to last.'
 
 182 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' Hush ! ' interposed Mary Beton gravely, ' the matter 
 was tried in Her Majesty's own presence, before the 
 Councih' 
 
 ' The Council were a parcel of intriguers ! ' vociferated 
 the little partisan, now getting positively vehement. 
 ' The Council wanted to get rid of him because he was 
 the most loyal amongst them all, and they made the 
 skirmish an excuse. Why, I'm sm^e Ruthven is ready 
 enough with his dagger, and my own dear father cleared 
 the High-street from end to end with his own good 
 sword and half-a-dozen jackmen before I was born, and 
 the King swore he was quite right. I've heard him say 
 so a score of times. No ! no ! the Council had their 
 own reasons, and I'll never believe but that English- 
 man was at the bottom of it, though he pretended to be 
 the Warden's friend ! ' 
 
 ' If you mean Mr. Randolph,' said Mary Beton, 
 bridling within her ruff in high disdain, ' you only ex- 
 pose youi' ignorance of state affairs. What could he 
 have to do with it ? or how could the turbulence of a 
 wild border-noble affect the Queen of England's con- 
 fidential minister ? ' 
 
 ' Only that I am convinced his red-haired mis- 
 tress is at the bottom of all the mischief that goes on 
 here,' answered the other, determined not to be put 
 down. ' I believe she hates our dear beautiful angel of 
 a Queen, partly because she's her cousin, and partly 
 because she's been married, and partly because there is 
 nobody like her in this world. I won't abuse Randolph, 
 mistress Beton, because he admires you hugely, and 
 that shows the man has good taste ; but I may say
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 183 
 
 what I like of Elizabeth Tudor, who is no more my 
 Queen than I am hers. 
 
 The elder damsel looked mollified, though she feebly 
 deprecated the implied compliment. 
 
 ' These are dangerous topics,' said she, gathering her 
 draperies around her, and rising from her chair. ' It is 
 enough for us to occupy ourselves with our own office, 
 and I cannot conceive why we have not yet heard Her 
 Majesty's summons.' 
 
 This lady was of a methodical disposition, and loved 
 to perform her regular duties at their stated times 
 without interruption. 
 
 'Those endless letters!' exclaimed Mary Seton ; 
 '■ and all about treaties and alliances and the most un- 
 interestmg subjects. I declare I wouldn't change 
 places with the Queen to have her beauty and her 
 throne. She is harassed and wearied to death. Dear 
 me ! how I wish she would marry, and take some stout- 
 hearted lord to share her troubles and anxieties with 
 her once for all ! ' 
 
 ' I'm surprised at you ! ' exclaimed Mary Beton, now 
 completely shocked. ' It is most indiscreet to talk on 
 such matters, and scarce maidenly even to think of 
 them. Is it that you might follow her example ? ' she 
 added in a tone of severe reproof. 
 
 ' I am not sure but what I should,' sighed the other, 
 and relapsed into silence which, strange to say, was not 
 broken for the space of full five minutes. 
 
 Perhaps the last suggestion thrown out had awakened 
 matter for reflection in the minds of each of the four 
 Maries.
 
 184 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 At the expiration of that period, however, Mary Beton 
 remarked that it was getting very dark ; and Mary Seton 
 at the same moment proposed that James Geddes, the 
 Queen's fool, should be summoned to make sport for 
 them during the hour of idleness preceding supper. 
 
 ' I will go for him,' said Mary Carmichael, and, 
 wrapping a plaid round her head and shoulders, hurried 
 out of the room. 
 
 James Geddes, who filled the honourable and some- 
 what lucrative office of royal fool or jester in the palace 
 of Holyrood, was one of those half-witted unfortunates 
 of whom so many may be met with even in the present 
 day in Scotland, and who occupy the intermediate space 
 between sanity and positive imbecility. They cannot be 
 termed lunatics, for they are usually harmless and even 
 amiable in disposition, showing kindly feelings towards 
 animals, infants, and such helpless objects, and even 
 school-childi'en, if not tormented by the urchins beyond 
 all endurance. They are not idiots, for although their 
 perceptions may be warped, they are in vigorous pos- 
 session of their faculties, and indulge indeed in a shrewd 
 caustic humour of their own with which few rational 
 beings can compete. Neither can they be called ac- 
 tually in their right mind. Perhaps the Scottish peasant 
 best describes the mental state of such an one when he 
 says in an explanatory tone, ' Ou! he's just a natural ! ' 
 
 James Geddes accordingly was 'just a natural,' and 
 earned his wages, consisting of meat, and fee, a parti- 
 coloured suit of clothes, and a cap and bells which he 
 could not be persuaded to wear, by furnishing unlimited 
 mirth to the royal household, and occasionally a jest
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 185 
 
 that diverted the grave lords in council, and reached 
 the ears of the gentle Queen herself. 
 
 Such was the wiseacre, in search of whom Mary Car- 
 michael sped down the winding stairs that led from the 
 Maidens' Tower into the devious passages of the palace. 
 Obviously the most likely place in which to find him 
 would have been the buttery, for it is a kind compensa- 
 tion of nature, that weakness of brain should be accom- 
 panied by great power of the digestive organs, and 
 James Geddes could eat as much at one meal as would 
 last a philosopher for a week. The maid-of-honour, 
 nevertheless, passed that well-stored apartment without 
 stopping, and proceeded with a light step and a heaving 
 bosom into the Abbey-garden, over which the dew was 
 falling, and the shades of evening gathering fast. 
 
 Passing through the flower-beds she had despoiled in 
 the afternoon, and which doubtless failed not to call up 
 tender recollections, the young lady glided like a phan- 
 tom into the shade of an adjoining orchard, through the 
 branches of which an early star or two were already be- 
 ginning to twinkle down. Here she halted, and, re- 
 moving the shawl from her head, peered into the 
 darkness, and listened attentively, though for a few 
 minutes — 
 
 ' The beating of her own heart 
 Was all the sound she heard.' 
 
 Now, by one of those coincidences which do occasion- 
 ally happen in real life, especially where certain myste- 
 rious affinities combine to produce improbable results, 
 Walter Maxwell was returning from Secretary Mait- 
 land's office to his own lodging at the same twilight
 
 186 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 hour, and although it involved a considerable detour, 
 had chosen to proceed through the Abbey-garden and 
 along the corner of the orchard, from which in the day- 
 time he could see the windows of the Queen's apartments 
 and those of her ladies. Walter was no romantic enthu- 
 siast, to derive intense pleasure from a mere association 
 of ideas, and yet he paused under the shadow of an old 
 apple-tree, and gazing on the dark mass of building 
 opposite, recalled with an intoxicatnig thrill his interview 
 with his mistress in the gallery. We have, most of us, 
 experienced certain moments in life when we are satisfied 
 to enjoy present bliss, without taking into account the 
 insufficiency of its cause, or the shortness of its duration. 
 We know we are happier than we have any right to be, 
 and we wilfully ignore the consciousness and refrain 
 from asking ourselves the ' reason why.' Like pride, 
 this state of self-gratulation usually ' goeth before a 
 fall.' 
 
 Maxwell's quick ear could not fail to detect the light 
 footstep of his ladye-love as she, too, entered the or- 
 chard, and he recognized her muffled as she was, and 
 in the darkness, as we recognize intuitively those whom 
 we have trusted with our happiness. He sprang for- 
 ward to meet her. Undemonstrative and calm as was 
 his character, he would have caught her to his heart 
 and vowed never to part with her from that moment ; 
 but ere he had made one step in advance, a tall cloaked 
 figure, which seemed to come out of the very stem of 
 an adjoining tree, anticipated his movements, and Max- 
 well, scarce believing his eyes, saw the woman he 
 loved caught in its arms and disappearing in the folds 
 of that close and familiar embrace.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 187 
 
 He had nerve, temper, and above all, self-command. 
 Though the cold drops stood on his forehead and a 
 deadly sickness crept about his heart, he had presence 
 of mind to reflect on what he ought to do. In a dozen 
 seconds he had argued the point, for and against, in his 
 own mind, and had come to the conclusion that he was 
 justified in undeceiving himself, at such a crisis, by the 
 evidence of his senses. He remained under the shadow 
 of the old tree and listened, with every organ painfully 
 acute and every nerve strung to its utmost pitch. 
 
 ' My darling,' said the stranger, smoothing back the 
 hair from the face which looked fondly up into his own, 
 ' how late you are this evening. I should have gone 
 without seeing you in five minutes more ; but I knew 
 you would not fail me, if you could help it, at our tryst- 
 ing-place.' 
 
 ' You might be sure of that,' she answered, clinging 
 to him with both hands clasped upon his shoulder. 
 ' Last week, and the week before, I came to the mo- 
 ment. I cannot bear to keep you waiting, or to think 
 of you watching and hiding here like a thief. You 
 that I am so proud of and so fond of ; you on whose 
 arm I would like to hang before the Queen and the 
 whole Court, and I dare not even mention your name, 
 except in my prayers. You are cold,' she added, wrap- 
 ping his cloak across his throat and chest with sedulous 
 affection. ' Cold and wet with dew already, and per- 
 haps tired and hungry too, and I may not bring you 
 into the palace and warm you and take care of you. 
 Oh ! what a life it is.' 
 
 He laughed cheerfully, though with caution. 
 
 ' Always the same,' he said ; ' always unselfish and
 
 188 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 considerate and thinking of me. Why, you little witch, 
 do you never reflect on what a scolding you would get 
 if you Avere caught running about like this, in the 
 gloaming, to meet a cavalier under a tree? What 
 Avould mistress Beton say forsooth ? Strict mistress 
 Beton ! She would vow not a dove would be left in the 
 dove-cote after a while if such doings were passed over. 
 Do I look like a hawk to harry a bird's-nest, Mary ? 
 Am I such a terrible wild young gallant, my pretty 
 one?' 
 
 She put her white hand over his mouth ; Maxwell 
 saw it in the starlight. 
 
 ' Do not speak so loud,' she said, ' I am sm-e you are 
 as incautious as a boy. Indeed I wish you would harry 
 the nest, as you say, and carry me ofl" with you, for I 
 am tired of never seeing you, except by stealth ; and 
 then it makes me so anxious and so fretful not to know 
 where you are or when we shall meet, for weeks and 
 months together.' 
 
 ' My dear,' he answered gravely, ' it is in the Queen's 
 service and that of our religion. It must triumph at 
 last, as sure as those stars are shining above our heads. 
 You and I have vowed to devote our lives, if need be, 
 to the good cause. If worst should come to worst, we 
 shall not be separated for long. There are no partings 
 up there, Mary.' 
 
 He pressed her tenderly to his side and pointed to 
 the sky, in which star after star was now glimmering 
 forth. 
 
 She drew her hand across her eyes and kissed him 
 fervently once more. 
 
 ' I shall be missed,' she said ; I must stay no longer.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 189 
 
 It is very hard not to see you again for such a time ! 
 Well, well, duty before all. And now, have you the 
 packet from the Cardinal ? What say the Guises to 
 the last communication ? ' 
 
 ' They dare not even write,' he answered. ' Though 
 I acted my part well, and looked such a masterful beg- 
 gar, that even you, Mary, would have flung me an 
 alms, they searched me when I landed at the port of 
 Leith, scrip, wallet and all, nay, they broke my staff 
 across, lest it should be hollow and filled with papers — 
 I would I might have done it myself over the knave's 
 pate that could be so wary. No, the despatches must 
 travel by word of mouth, and that is a better trick than 
 even Randolph has learned yet, with all his cunning. 
 Listen, Mary ; they trust you, my pretty one, because 
 you belong to me, — this is for the Queen's private ear 
 alone.' 
 
 Maxwell was a man of honour. He would stay to 
 hear no more. It was enough that his dearest hopes 
 had withered in a breath ; that the edifice he had been 
 building insensibly for so long, decking it with all his 
 fancies and furnishing it, so to speak, with the most 
 precious gifts of his affections and the warmest feelings 
 of his heart, had crumbled into dust at a moment's 
 notice ; he would not for that intrude upon another's 
 secrets ; and although the delay of a few moments 
 might have placed him in possession of matters that 
 would have ensured his own aggrandizement, and en- 
 abled him to take a fearful revenge on the two by whom 
 he felt so cruelly injured, yet he stole noiselessly away, 
 placing his hands upon his ears, that he might not, in- 
 advertently, hear another word of their communications.
 
 190 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 Where is the man who can consistently shape liis 
 conduct upon a train of reasoning independent of his 
 feelings, at least where those feelings are vitally con- 
 cerned ? It never occurred to him that he had no right 
 to listen at all. The question was one of life and death 
 to him, and he felt justified in arriving by any means 
 at a certainty. Such is human nature in the best of 
 us. Principle is principle, and honour is honour, only 
 so long as circumstances are not too overwhelming or 
 necessity too urgent. Conscience is the only guide who 
 never yet lost his way. 
 
 We will not follow Walter Maxwell as he left the 
 Abbey-garden for the solitude of his own chamber, 
 never utterly dreary and forlorn till to-night. He had 
 a brave stout heart, that could strive against any odds, 
 and scorned to flinch from any amount of pain. Per- 
 haps these suffer most in proportion to their strength.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ' And some said this, and some said that, 
 
 And our bounie Queen, she laughed loud and free. 
 But down on his knees, the poor fool sat. 
 
 Says, " Never a fool is there here but three ! " ' 
 
 FTER taking a tender farewell of the cloaked 
 stranger, more touching and affectionate, 
 if possible, than her greeting, Mary Car- 
 michael fled back to the palace like a lap- 
 wing. There was no time to lose in securing James 
 Geddes, if she would not have the length of her ab- 
 sence remarked, and she found him as she expected 
 drinking a warm posset in the buttery. Like the rest 
 of his class, the fool could at times be sufiiciently self- 
 willed and captious, rating his own society at no trifling 
 value, more especially if he saw that it was sought 
 after, and it required no small amount of management 
 to wheedle him into merriment if not so disposed. On 
 the present occasion he refused point-blank to stir from 
 the chimney-corner, and it was only by dint of much 
 coaxing, and the promised bribe of a box of French 
 comfits, that Mary Carmichael prevailed on him to ac- 
 company her, and bore him off in triumph to the
 
 192 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 turret-chamber, there to make sport for the Queen's 
 maids-of-honour. 
 
 His entrance was greeted bj acclamations, which he 
 received with complete indifference ; he brightened up, 
 however, when the comfits were produced, and sat down 
 to munch them with an expression of the most perfect 
 satisfaction and vacuity. 
 
 He was a stout middle-sized man, with a long heavy 
 face, a large mouth, and hanging under-jaw. When he 
 lolled his tongue out, and half shut his meaningless 
 grey eyes, he looked a being devoid of the slightest 
 spark of intellect ; at such times, nevertheless, he was 
 most apt to produce those simple witticisms, which 
 served to amuse the Com-t. 
 
 Not a word was to be got from him till he had 
 finished the comfits. At length the last and largest 
 disappeared down that capacious maw, then he yawned, 
 stretched himself, and condescended to observe, 
 
 'He would have to bid the ladies farewell, as to- 
 morrow he should take his leave of Holyrood.' 
 
 ' What shall we do without you ? ' exclaimed Mary 
 Seton, who took James Geddes under her special pro- 
 tection, and vowed, in her pert way, that he was 
 infinitely more sane than half the Queen's advisers. 
 ' We cannot let you go, — you are the only amusement 
 we have ! ' 
 
 ' There'll be no lack of fules the morn,' answered 
 James with a look of comical disgust ; ' 'deed they may 
 call it Folly-rood now, with gude cause. Have ye no 
 heard tell of the braw doings in the Queen's Park? 
 Troth, ye '11 be able to wale your joes the morn ! Every 
 lass her lad ! And they riding mother-naked every man
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 193 
 
 o' them. Na, na, they're no wantin' fules at Court i' 
 the noo, an' I'll just tak' my foot iu my hand, an' 
 turn wiselike mysel'.' 
 
 ' Why the masque will only be six against six as 
 usual,' answered Mary Beton, characteristically disposed 
 to take a matter-of-fact view of the proceedings, ' six 
 Savages and six Amazons. I have seen the dresses, 
 and very complete they are. What is there in that 
 to displease you, James ? I thought you dearly loved 
 a festival or a frolic' 
 
 'I'll no gang till I've had my denner,' answered 
 James, ' but I'll no bide at Holyrood, once the trade 
 is overstocked as it is like to be. I'll just gang my ways 
 to the Border an' take up with stout Earl Bothwell and 
 muckle Dick. He'll like fine to get word o' mistress 
 Seton. Troth, if they measure fules by the foot ye 've 
 gotten a grand yane, my bonny doo, to your share, for 
 ye've clean bewitched Dick.' 
 
 That young lady laughed and blushed, then frowned 
 and looked cross, lastly peeped into the box of comfits 
 for something to stop James's mouth withal. The latter 
 put on his densest look and proceeded, 
 
 ' Aye, the time's no what it was. I mind when me 
 and Jenny Colquhoun was the only fules in Holyrood, 
 forbye the French lassie that was no worth speaking of, 
 and Robin Hamilton, the porter. Set him up ! to shut 
 the wicket in my very face last St. Andrew's day and 
 swear he would break my sconce across, if it wasna as 
 toom as a borderer's bonnet. Awbody kens he's a 
 Hamilton, an' the Hamiltons have aye mair hide than 
 horns. Nae offence to the bonny leddy here, that's no 
 mindin' the like o' me. Aweel, there's mair fules than 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 three at Holyrood i' the noo, an' it's time for James 
 Geddes to be packing, when he's the only wiselike body 
 about the place.' 
 
 ' Then you think we are all losing our wits,' re- 
 marked Mary Carmichael, as she made up the wood-fire, 
 lit the silver lamp that stood on the table, and set the 
 room in order, according to her wont. 
 
 'Ye '11 no find yours in the Abbey-garden, I'm 
 thinkin',' replied James, whereat the questioner looked 
 extremely angry and confused. ' I mind a bonny sang 
 that plays — 
 
 " I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager wi' you, 
 Five hundred merks and ten." 
 
 I'll no tell ye the wager, mistress Carmichael; I'm 
 only a fule ye ken; but "I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll 
 wager wi' you," that ye dinna gang oot like a ghaist in 
 the gloamin' just to pu' an apple frae a tree. There's 
 a canny lad wad like ill to jalouse ye kept tryst wi' 
 anither ; that's just one mair to the count. I doubt I 
 maun be flittin' frae Holyrood, or we a' gang daft 
 thegither.' 
 
 ' What does he mean ? ' exclaimed Mary Beton, all 
 ,the duenna aroused within her as she marked the fool's 
 cunning looks, and her comrade's obvious discomfiture. 
 
 ' Hooly an' fairly, mistress Beton ! ' exclaimed Geddes, 
 with whom the Queen's principal lady was no great fa- 
 vourite. ' Keep your ain breath to cool your ain brose. 
 Will you grudge the lasses their bit ploy, an' keep 
 back all the joes to yersel ? 
 
 " She wadna hae a Lowland laird, 
 Nor be an English lady."
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 195 
 
 They'll no threep tliat on you, mistress Beton. Na' 
 na, ye 're a true Scotswoman, an' it's just a spoilin' o' 
 the Egyptians, as godly John Knox wad call it. Troth, 
 ye've made a fule o' a wiser body than yoursel', I'm 
 thinkin'. I'll no grudge maister Randolph the cap an' 
 bells, but he'll get the fee an' bountith a' gate the like 
 o' him gangs, I ken fine. Aweel ! ten fingers an' ten 
 taes, I canna number the fules at Holyrood, for I'm no 
 gude at the countin,' and I canna tell mair than a score ; 
 but I'll gang my ways to the Border the morn, for the 
 trade is just over-stockit.' 
 
 ' You give your tongue too much liberty,' said Mary 
 Beton, who was considerably displeased at James 
 Geddes's indiscreet allusions, and not disposed to con- 
 ceal her disapproval. ' You presume on the Queen's 
 good nature. Have a care ; if I mention your conduct 
 to the master of the household, you will be taken to the 
 porter's lodge to taste of Robin Hamilton's discipline 
 once again ! ' 
 
 The fool's face grew livid, and an ugly gleam shot 
 from his heavy eye. There was evidently some rancour 
 brooding in his heart against the tall porter, who, it may 
 be, in virtue of his office, had been ordered ere now to 
 inflict corporal punishment on the jester. He fell to 
 cursing the Hamiltons with the unmeaning malevolence 
 of insanity. From the proud Duke and his unfortunate 
 son, whose state of mind should indeed have obtained 
 immunity from a fellow-sufferer, to the stalwart gate- 
 keeper, he called down upon all who owned the name 
 every evil that madness could imagine, or hatred sug- 
 gest, and then stopping suddenly in his curses, he moved 
 
 2
 
 196 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 awkwardly across the room to where Mary Hamilton, 
 buried in thought, sat somewhat apart from the rest, 
 and seizing the hem of her garment, began mouthing 
 and kissing it and wetting it with his tears, in a reac- 
 tion of feeling which, sustained by one so imbecile, it 
 was pitiful to behold. 
 
 As they are given to unaccountable and deep-rooted 
 aversions, to gratify which they have been known to 
 display incredible sagacity and cunning, so these unfor- 
 tunates are capable of strong attachments, cherished 
 with a morbid vehemence peculiar to their malady. A 
 madman's affection and a madman's hatred are alike to 
 be avoided, since the former is as mconvenient as the 
 latter is dangerous. 
 
 James Geddes entertained a devotion for Mary 
 Hamilton which amounted to idolatry, and was never so 
 well-satisfied with himself, or so nearly rational, as 
 when employed in some trifling commission, for the 
 beautiful maid-of-honour. Also he watched her as you 
 may see a dumb animal watch every look of its owner, 
 and was especially jealous and irritated if he fancied 
 she bestowed too much notice or favour on any one else. 
 
 ' What is he driving at ? ' exclaimed Mary Seton, 
 observing that the fool, although with an expression of 
 deep contrition, was now indulging in a series of mys- 
 terious winks and signs. ' Ask him, Mary Hamilton ! 
 He seems to have some secret understanding with you. 
 Ask him, for pity's sake, my dear, he'll have a fit if he 
 goes on like that.' 
 
 But her curiosity was not destined to be satisfied, for 
 at this juncture a page entered the apartment with a 
 summons for mistress Hamilton to attend the Queen ;
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 197 
 
 and that lady departed accordingly, leaving her half- 
 witted adorer in a state of woeful penitence and discom- 
 fiture. Crouching among the embers in the hearth, 
 he hid his face in his hands, rocking himself to and fro, 
 and ' crooning ' in a sing-song voice a succession of 
 broken unintelligible sentences. From these fits of 
 dejection the ladies knew it was impossible to arouse him. 
 
 The Queen was seated at a massive oaken writing- 
 table, on which she was heaping together a quantity of 
 letters and papers when Mary Hamilton entered. A 
 single lamp shed its light upon her fair brow, which 
 seemed to-night heavy with an unusual load of care. 
 Her features wore the languor of mental fatigue, and 
 even her attitude denoted the listlessness of one who is 
 wearied by too much thought and study. She had been 
 writing to her Cousin of England, and if it was a diffi- 
 cult matter to be well with Elizabeth at best, how much 
 more so now when her suspicions were excited and her 
 jealousy kept continually awake by the question of suc- 
 cession. The Maiden Queen was not without that strange 
 weakness of humanity, which so disquiets itself as to 
 what shall become of its earthly possessions when it is 
 gone. — An anxiety no stronger in the monarch who 
 has a kingdom to bequeath than in the old woman 
 who has hoarded her forty shillings in a stocking. 
 Will it afiect them so much in that spirit-world, even if 
 they learn it, to know that the dynasty has been 
 changed, or the funded property squandered, or the 
 entail cut off? 
 
 There is many a man now living who would rather 
 lose an arm or a leg than think that the old avenue 
 will be cut down when he is gone to a land where the
 
 198 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 trees of life and knowledge flourish in perennial verdure, 
 and all the while young Graceless his heir, is scanning 
 their girth and substance, with a wistful consciousness 
 that the Jews must be paid at last, Horace has told us 
 something about those ' dreaded cypresses' which we 
 would fain ignore. They will wave over our dwelling 
 when the oaks in the park have been disposed of at so 
 much per foot and the family tree itself is withered 
 and forgotten. Do you think it matters much to Smith 
 deceased, the tenth of his illustrious line, that Brown 
 should have succeeded to his place and property, or that 
 B. should cede in turn to Jones and Bobinson ? ' A 
 plague o' both your houses ! ' All this, however, has 
 nothing to do with the House of Tudor. 
 
 Independent of the natural aversion entertained by 
 every right-minded woman for another of her own sex 
 who is sought after by a multitude of suitors, Eliza- 
 beth had a variety of excellent reasons for disliking the 
 Queen of Scots. The latter was considerably her 
 junior, unquestionably more beautiful and accomplished, 
 gifted with that mysterious fascination which makes 
 women angry and men foolish, and in addition to these 
 ofiences, was indubitably the next heir to the English 
 Crown. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising 
 that the Maiden Queen should have delighted in heaping 
 difficulties across the path of her widowed cousin, and 
 this was done the more efiectually by keeping well with 
 her to all outward appearance, and interchanging a con- 
 stant succession of rings, precious stones, letters of 
 courtesy, and the like insidious compliments. 
 
 Nor was Mary deceived by these artifices. It is pro- 
 bable that she clearly perceived the hollow nature of
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 199 
 
 her kinswoman's friendship, and returned it in kind so 
 far as her open generous character would permit. But 
 it was not in this Queen's nature to cherish lasting 
 feelings of ill-will, and she had also doubtless the good 
 sense to see that in her precarious position Elizabeth's 
 favour was essential to her security and support. So 
 she corresponded with her regularly in a vein of cordial 
 aiSection, amounting even to familiarity, and it is no 
 wonder that Mary rose from the composition of one of 
 these letters with an air of unusual exhaustion on her 
 lovely face. 
 
 ' Help me to seal these packets, my dear,' said she, 
 to the maid-of-honour as the latter approached her table, 
 ' my fingers are perfectly stiflF with holding a pen. No 
 wonder my forefathers esteemed the art of writing a 
 disgrace, and swore that the grasp of a noble hand 
 should never close on anything lighter than a lance. I 
 often wish I was a man to wear steel on my breast 
 and at my side ! ' While she spoke, she stretched her 
 beautiful fingers, which did indeed look far too delicate 
 to wield any weapon heavier than a needle, and pushing 
 the state seal across to her maid-of-honour, threw her- 
 self back in her chair as if thoroughly tired with her 
 day's work. 
 
 ISIary Hamilton occupied herself at once about her 
 task, affixing the seal of Scotland with its lion rampant 
 and its crown-royal to document after document, in a 
 graceful womanly way that attracted the Queen's no- 
 tice, and caused her to regard her favourite maid-of- 
 honour with more attention than common. 
 
 The latter was always pale, and unusually quiet in 
 her demeanour, but of late she had become paler than
 
 200 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 ever, and her customary repose of manner had subsided 
 into dejection. Without obvious ailment, she looked 
 listless and out of spirits, languid in her movements, and 
 far too grave for one so young. 
 
 Herself wearied and harassed, it struck the Queen 
 particularly to-night, and she could not forbear notic- 
 ing it. 
 
 ' You are ill, Mary,' said she, ' and worse than that, 
 you are unhappy. What is it ? there is something the 
 matter ! ' 
 
 ' Nothing, Madam,' answered the other, looking up 
 with a transparent effort at cheerfulness. ' How can I 
 be unhappy when I am at Holy rood, and near your 
 Majesty ? ' 
 
 She did not say it in the complacent tone of a cour- 
 tier, but with a warmth and sincerity that could not 
 have been assumed, her large dark eyes moistening and 
 shining in the lamp-light; she thought she loved the 
 Queen better than anything on earth, and so she did — 
 save one. 
 
 ' I know you are fond of me, child,' answered the 
 Queen affectionately ; ' that does not make me the less 
 anxious about you. I think of all my Maries you are 
 the most dependent upon me. Have a care, my dear ! 
 there seems to be a fatality about Mary Stuart. Those 
 who love me best seem ever to be the most unfortunate.' 
 
 She spoke mournfully, and in an abstracted tone. Was 
 she thinking of her dead bridegroom who had wor- 
 shipped her? of the mother who had doated on her? 
 of the loyal and brave and the true already proscribed, 
 banished, or disgraced ? was it memory, or foreboding,
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 201 
 
 the sorrows of the past, or fears for the future, that thus 
 so often cast a gloom over her spirit, and damped her 
 rojal courage at her need ? 
 
 ' Do you think that would not make me love you ten 
 times more ? ' exclaimed the other with a flash from her 
 glorious eyes that lightened up her whole face. ' Can 
 there be love without sacrifice, Madam ? Nay,' she 
 added in a sadder voice, ' can there even be love with- 
 out suffering?' 
 
 ' You are very young to say so,' answered the Queen, 
 * two years younger than I am, and I emember how I 
 used to think that sorrow was the especial heritage of 
 the old. I have learnt otherwise now ; but you, Mary 
 Hamilton, you whom I have always watched and 
 sheltered as a bird shelters its nestling under its wing, 
 what can you know of suffering ? ' 
 
 The maid-of-honour looked wistfully at her mistress 
 while she replied. 
 
 ' I never can know real sorrow. Madam,' she said, 
 ' nor real suffering, because I have a refuge more secure 
 than even a queen's favours, and to that refuge I betake 
 me whenever grief becomes too heavy to endure. Ah ! 
 Madam, they may take everything from us here, but 
 they cannot rob us of that; this world is sometimes 
 very dark and sad, but the light is always shining just 
 the same, far away at home.' 
 
 The Queen looked at her with concern and surprise ; 
 what could it be, this engrossing sorrow which cast its 
 shadow over a young life that ought to have shone so 
 hopeful and so bright? The girl must be very un- 
 happy, she argued, to be so devout. Alas ! that it
 
 202 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 should be so ; that religion, instead of the pride of the 
 strong, should so often prove but the refuge for the 
 weak. And yet it is but one more instance of that 
 mercj which knows no limit. The happy and the 
 pious too, enjoy indeed a favoured lot, but human 
 nature is so warped, that in the majority continuous 
 prosperity produces hardness of heart, and for these it 
 ' is good to be in trouble.' When they have lost all 
 (it matters not what constitutes it, fame, wealth, or 
 affection) they run for consolation, like a child in dis- 
 tress to a parent, where it never is denied ; and which 
 of us is there who does not know how unspeakably pre- 
 cious is the balm of kindness to a bruised and empty 
 heart ? A few there are on whom adversity has a con- 
 trary effect. Rebellious spirits, not without force of 
 character and capacities for happiness, who become fro- 
 ward and desperate under the rod. Woe be to them ! 
 what shall bring such as these back to the fold ? Hu- 
 man forbearance would say ' let them go in their wilful- 
 ness to destruction ! ' but it is well for us that it is not 
 with human forbearance we have to do. 
 
 The Queen of Scots herself was of a gay and hope- 
 ful disposition, one which perhaps it required many 
 reverses to steady and sober down. Plenty of them 
 she sustained ere all was done ! In the mean time her 
 kind heart was moved to think that her maid-of-honour 
 should have some secret grief she herself could not 
 alleviate. 
 
 ' Tell me, dear,' said she, ' what it is that thus weighs 
 upon your spirits and takes the colour out of your 
 cheek. I have seen it for long ; confide in me, not as
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 203 
 
 your Queen, Mary Hamilton, but as your mother or 
 your elder sister. I too am a woman, a failing, weak- 
 hearted woman like the rest. I can only imagine one 
 cause for such deep-rooted sorrow, and yet I cannot 
 think my beautiful Hamilton should be in such a 
 plight. Is it,' and the Queen too looked confused 
 while she asked the question, ' is it some unfortunate 
 — some unrequited attachment ? ' 
 
 The maid-of-honour blushed to her very temples, 
 and the lustrous eyes that had been gazing fondly into 
 the Queen's face were lowered for an instant, but she 
 raised them with an effort, and drawing herself up, 
 with her colour deepening every moment, answered 
 proudly, 
 
 ' Nay, Madam ; we Hamiltons have your own 
 princely blood in our veins, and do not give om- love 
 unasked or un returned. The Maries, too, follow their 
 Queen's example, and would deem it worse than un- 
 maidenly to entertain a secret or unacknowledged pre- 
 ference. We hold our heads high, you know. Madam, 
 like our mistress.' 
 
 The Queen looked as if she did not quite agree with 
 her. and was about to answer, when a soft strain of 
 music rose from the Abbey-garden, and arrested the at- 
 tention of each lady as if by a charm. The casement 
 was thrown open, and the night wind stole in bear- 
 ing with it the melodious tones of a lute struck by 
 no unpractised hand, and the notes of a rich voice that 
 each seemed to recognise simultaneously with mingled 
 embarrassment and delight. 
 
 There was then a proverb current in Scotland, which
 
 204 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 the poet seemed to have embodied in the verses he now 
 poured forth on a flood of harmony — 
 
 ' The brightest gems in heaven that glow, 
 
 Shine out from the midmost sky ; 
 The whitest pearls of the sea below 
 
 In its darkest caverns lie. 
 He must stretch afar, who would reach a star, 
 
 Dive deep for the pearl, I trow : 
 And the fau-est rose that in Scotland blows 
 
 Hangs high on the topmost bough. 
 
 ' The stream of the strath runs broad and strong, 
 
 But sweeter the mountain rill ; 
 And those who would drink with the fairy throng 
 
 Must climb to the crest of the hill. 
 For the moonlit ring of the Elfin-king 
 
 Is danced on the steepest knowe. 
 And the bonniest rose that in Scotland blows 
 
 Hangs high on the topmost bough. 
 
 ' The violet peeps from its sheltering brake, 
 
 The lily lies low on the lea, 
 Wliile the bloom is on ye may touch and take. 
 
 For the humble are frank and free ; 
 But the garden's pride wears a thorn at her side, 
 
 It has pricked to the bone ere now. 
 And the noblest rose that in Scotland blows 
 
 Hangs high on the topmost bough. 
 
 *'Twere a glorious gain to have bartered all 
 
 For the bonniest branch in the bower, 
 And a man might well be content to fall 
 
 In a leap for its queenliest flower ! 
 To win her, indeed, were too princely a meed, 
 
 To serve her is guerdon enow. 
 And the loveliest rose that in Scotland blows 
 
 Hangs high on the topmost bough.'
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYKOOD. 205 
 
 Mary Stuart and Mary Hamilton looked at each 
 other in amazement. The former laughed sweetly. 
 
 ' It is our minstrel come back again,' said she, •• and 
 as welcome as he is unexpected. He has not forgotten 
 the art in his absence from the inspiration.' 
 
 While she spoke she shifted the lamp from the 
 writing-table to the window-shelf, where its flame was 
 sheltered from the breeze by the unopened half of the 
 casement. 
 
 The maid-of-honour answered nothing ; but the Queen 
 could not help remarking she became very restless and 
 pre-occupied, accepting her dismissal for the night in 
 silence, but with more alacrity than usual. 
 
 Chastelar -in the garden saw the light shifted from 
 its place in the Queen's apartment, and interpreted it 
 into an encouragement of his own wild hopes. His 
 heart leapt, his brain glowed, his blood ran fire. Long 
 absence, rational considerations, obvious impossibility, 
 had not quenched his folly. He had left d'Amville, 
 had wandered to and fro, had returned to Scotland with 
 no definite object but to look on the face that haunted 
 him night and day. He was love-mad ; it mattered not 
 what became of him : to live or die he cared not ; but 
 it must be at the Queen of Scotland's feet. 
 
 And Mary Hamilton, in her solitary chamber, fell 
 on her knees and thanked heaven that she should see 
 him once again.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ' Four-and-twenty nobles sit in the king's ha' ; 
 Bonnie Glenlogie is the flower amang them a' ; 
 In cam' Lady Jean, skipping on the floor, 
 And she has cliosen Glenlogie 'mang a' that was there. 
 
 ' Glenlogie ! Glenlogie ! an' you will prove kind, 
 My love is laid on you ; I 'm teUing you my mind : 
 He turned^about lightly, as the Gordons does a' — 
 I thank ye, Lady Jean, my love 's promised aVa'.' 
 
 HOUGH it was mid-winter the sun shone 
 brightly as in June. The bold outline 
 of Arthur's Seat cut against a cloudless 
 sky, and a light air from the opposite 
 coast of Fife, cleared the Firth of its accustomed va- 
 ])ours, and brought out in fair relief the smiling bays 
 and noble headlands of its romantic shores. Far to 
 the eastward, where a white sail glistened in the sun, 
 loomed the bluff island of the Bass, poised, as it seemed, 
 in mid-air by the magician's art, so imperceptibly were 
 sea and sky blended together in the distant horizon ; 
 while beyond it, North-Berwick Law reared its cone 
 above the undulating line of coast that stretched away 
 to the southward till it faded from the sight. To the 
 west, the wooded shores, the jutting promontories, and
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 207 
 
 the sparkling water, combined to form a scene such as 
 men imagine in their dreams, shut in by the dai'k glades 
 of Hopetoun and Dalmeny ; dim, rich, and beautiful, 
 like a glimpse of fairy-land. With the castle of her 
 strength crowning her comely brow, the old town sun- 
 ned her terraced streets and high fantastic buildings in 
 the warmth of noon, looking doAvn, as it were, with 
 proud protection on the smooth lawns and dainty gar- 
 dens that adorned the palace of her kings. Like some 
 rare jewel, carved, rich, and massive, resting on a velvet 
 cushion, lay the square edifice of Holyrood, on its green 
 and level site. Though the stately towers and delicate 
 pinnacles of the Abbey were in deep shadow, the sun 
 shone gaily on the Queen's Park beyond, crowded as it 
 was with masses of spectators and glittermg with the 
 brightest and fairest of the Scottish nobility. 
 
 Barriers had been placed in this well selected spot, 
 lists for the exercises of chivalry carefully laid out, and 
 galleries erected for the fairer portion of the assembly, 
 whose applause was destined to encourage the competi- 
 tors and reward the successful. 
 
 The Queen and her maidens occupied the most pro- 
 minent of these stages ; but Mary Stuart, true to the 
 warlike predilections of her blood, descended from her 
 position of advantage and, followed by her train, pro- 
 ceeded in person to examine the arrangements for the 
 pastimes, and the dress and horses of those engaged. 
 
 Loud acclamations greeted her as she passed through 
 the crowd. Though habited in mourning, as was her 
 custom, that bewitching face did not fail to produce its 
 usual effect even on the strictest of the Reformers. 
 Here and there, indeed, some severer dame might shake
 
 208 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 her head and purse up her lips in obvious disapproval 
 of her Sovereign, but such demonstrations were confined 
 to the female sex, and only to the oldest and ugliest of 
 them. 
 
 The tournament of the Middle Ages had ere this 
 period fallen into disuse. Gunpowder had already 
 taught the warrior that his cumbersome array of mail 
 and plate was no secure defence, and although he had 
 not yet discarded corslet and head-piece, he was already 
 beginning to learn the lesson of modern warfare — that 
 sagacity is as important a gift as courage, and agility 
 a more eifcctive quality than strength. Perhaps also 
 the untoward accident that, within a few years, had de- 
 prived France of her monarch, served to bring the tour- 
 nament into disrepute ; and the Scotch who, besides 
 their tendency to imitate French manners, were then 
 as now, somewhat of utilitarians, need not have been 
 lono- in arrivino; at the conclusion that such conflicts 
 were a waste of strength, courage, and mettle, both in 
 man and horse. 
 
 Riding at the ring, however, an exercise requiring 
 perfect horsemanship and great dexterity in the use of 
 the lance, long remained a favourite amusement amongst 
 the young Scotch lords. It was no easy task to carry 
 off, on the point of a spear, a ring scarce two inches in 
 diameter, suspended from a slackened cord, whilst 
 moving at a gallop ; and the cavalier whose hand, eye, 
 and seat were alike perfect enough to accomplish this 
 feat, would have been a formidable antagonist in the 
 crash of a real encounter — man to man and horse to 
 horse, armed cap-a-pie in steel. 
 
 On the present occasion the amusement partook
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 209 
 
 somewhat of the character of a masque. The two 
 Lords Stuart, in defiance of mistress Alison Craig's 
 prophecy, had not found themselves so tamed and 
 spirit-broken by marriage as to give up their favourite 
 occupations, and had been instrumental in setting on 
 foot the pageant which had now collected so motley a 
 concourse in the Queen's Park. Six gallants disguised 
 as amazons, had resolved to hold the lists against 
 other six disguised as savages, the victory to be 
 decided by success in carrying oflf the ring. The 
 Queen herself had given the prize to be contended 
 for — a gold heart of exquisite workmanship, and a 
 purse filled with broad pieces. To add to the interest, 
 a dozen of ladies chosen by lot, amongst whom were 
 the Queen and the Maries, had been entreated to 
 select each one a champion, and it was partly for 
 this purpose that the train of female beauty, with 
 Mary Stuart at its head, now wound in and out 
 amono-st the barriers which enclosed the lists, together 
 with the domestics and horses of those who were about 
 to ride. 
 
 As she approached one of the savages, who was 
 already in the saddle and poising his lance in his 
 hand, the Queen started and turned pale in obvious 
 distress. She would have passed him without notice, 
 but the rider, whose wandering eye and excited gestures 
 denoted that he ought not to be at large, reined his 
 horse across Her Majesty so as to oppose her progress, 
 and casting his lance at her feet, demanded to be 
 chosen her champion and her true knight. 
 
 The Queen drew herself up and looked really angry. 
 
 ' This is too much ! ' said she. ' How far has the 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 Earl of Arran's loyalty and good conduct been so pre- 
 eminent that he can dare to claim this proud dis- 
 tinction ? By the laws of chivalry every lady has 
 the right to her own choice, and here is mine.' 
 
 The Queen pointed to the nearest horseman as she 
 spoke. He was richly dressed as an amazon, and his 
 glowing complexion and regular features would have 
 done no discredit even to one of those female warriors. 
 She had selected him at random as a proper rebuke to 
 Arran's insane presumption, but like many another act 
 of her life it was as untoward as it was hasty. 
 Chastelar, for it was none other, sprang from his 
 horse and knelt in acknowledgment at the Queen's 
 feet, laying his lance down at the same time before 
 her in an attitude expressive of humility and adoration. 
 
 ' To the death ! ' exclaimed the poet, literally kiss- 
 ing the hem of the Queen's garment ere he sprang 
 once more into the saddle and forced his horse in a 
 series of managed bounds to the farther extremity of 
 the enclosure. 
 
 One of the maids-of-honour looked disappointed and 
 distressed. Mary Hamilton would fain have selected 
 the Frenchman for her champion during the day, a 
 distinction which would probably make him her partner 
 also in the ball at night. 
 
 As the ladies passed on, the Queen's half-brothers, 
 both habited as amazons, approached Her Majesty, 
 dragging between them with shouts and laughter, a 
 lad of some sixteen summers, whose fair, beardless 
 face was indeed blushing like a girl's. 
 
 ' Choose him. Madam !' exclaimed the merry lords, in 
 a breath, while the younger, with a comical affectation
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 211 
 
 of womanly reserve, spread his gilded buckler before 
 the lad's crimson cheeks. ' George Douglas has never 
 lifted spear before; he is indeed a redoubtable cham- 
 pion for a Queen.' 
 
 Tears of shame and vexation started to the boy's 
 eyes, yet he looked pleadingly at his Sovereign, as 
 if with a confused hope that the great ambition of 
 his life might be realized. 
 
 Mary was always gentle and considerate. She 
 smiled on him encouragingly. 
 
 ' It is mettle that makes the man-at-arms,' said she. 
 ' I would have chosen you indeed, young sir, had these 
 merry gossips of yours brought you to me sooner. 
 Never mind, you shall ride to-day for Mary Hamilton.' 
 
 The young eyes glistened with pride and happiness ; 
 the young heart swelled. Those few kind words had 
 riveted it for ever to the cause of Queen Mary. 
 
 The English Ambassador, who in compliance with 
 the directions of his Court mingled in all the amuse- 
 ments at Holy rood, and who was as skilled in arms 
 as in policy, now presented himself before the ladies. 
 Mr. Randolph's costume, as one of the six savages, was 
 remarkably well-chosen and appropriate. A bear-skin 
 hung from his shoulders, and he had decked himself and 
 his horse with wreaths of holly, of which the red berries 
 were strung and looped together as savages wear their 
 beads. He dropped on one knee to mistress Beton, 
 craving permission to carry her good wishes with him 
 in the ensuing courses ; and Alexander Ogilvy in the 
 dress of the opposite party looked on and wished he 
 was an ambassador too, or at least might woo that 
 haughty dame so frankly without fear of a rebuff. 
 
 P 2
 
 212 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 The lace on Mary Beton's collar vibrated with 
 pleasure as she bowed a gracious alBrmative. In truth 
 the stately lady was insensibly beginning to take no 
 small pleasure in the attentions of her diplomatic 
 admirer. 
 
 Mary Seton in the mean time had been inspecting 
 with sarcastic scrutiny the persons and accoutrements of 
 all the competitors. With a stinging jest or biting re- 
 tort she had refused to accept the homage of one after 
 another, and finally took as her knight one John Sem- 
 pill, an Englishman, who had sought refuge at the Court 
 of Holyrood, a plain silent man, who appeared some- 
 what surprised to find himself in a scene of merry- 
 making, and whose only recommendation in the eyes of 
 the maid-of-honour must have been that he was the 
 direct opposite of herself. 
 
 There was yet one of the Maries who had not chosen 
 her champion. All unconscious that there could have 
 been a witness to her rendezvous in the Abbey -garden, 
 Mary Carmichael rejected candidate after candidate, in 
 hopes the right one would apply at last. With a 
 brighter eye and a deeper colour than usual she followed 
 in the train of her mistress, and more than one gallant 
 observed that he had never seen mistress Carmichael to 
 such advantage, and were it not for the Queen, she 
 would carry oif the palm of beauty from all upon the 
 ground. 
 
 But the eye grew dim by degrees and the colour 
 faded, as Walter Maxwell, habited like a savage, 
 remained aloof, standing apart, busy with the caparison 
 of his horse, and obviously anxious to avoid notice and 
 conversation. A sleepless night had somewhat paled
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 213 
 
 his cheek, but otherwise his look was as composed and 
 reserved as usual. A manly nature is as much ashamed 
 of disclosing mental suflfering as physical pain. 
 
 The girl was puzzled: she could not understand 
 him : yesterday, so kind and loyal and frank ; to-da}^, 
 so distant and calm and cold. Had he been the most 
 experienced carpet-knight that ever made war upon the 
 sex, instead of an honest true-hearted soldier, he could 
 not have adopted a better method of aggression. She 
 had never felt so much engrossed with him in her life. 
 It is hardly fair to fight a woman with her own weapons; 
 but we imagine it discomfits them exceedingly, the more 
 so that they are well aware a man's coldness, unlike 
 their own, is the result of real displeasure, and the 
 forerunner of a rupture. 
 
 Eventually all the ladies had chosen but Mary Car- 
 michael; all the horsemen were selected but Walter 
 Maxwell. She detached herself from the rest, and 
 walked to where he was standing apart, still fastening 
 his bridle and caressing his good horse. 
 
 She tried to speak in an easy off-hand manner ; but 
 a duller ear than his might have detected the forced 
 tone of her voice. 
 
 ' They are mounting,' said she ; ' you will be left out. 
 Will you not be my knight ? ' 
 
 ' For to-day,' he answered, bowing low, and with a 
 strained courtesy more galling than actual rudeness. 
 
 Then he too sprang into the saddle and galloped oflF 
 to join his comrades. The girl bit her lip till the blood 
 came, tears of shame and vexation rose to her eyes, and 
 yet she had never liked him so well as at this moment. 
 
 The Queen with her ladies now returned to the gal-
 
 214 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 lery, from whence she could have a good view of the 
 sports, dispensing once more amongst the crowd that 
 good-humoured notice which is so fascinating from a 
 Sovereign. Many a reflective Scotch face smoothed its 
 rugged brows as she passed : many a stern Protestant 
 who followed weekly the vigorous discourses of John 
 Knox with approval in proportion to the strength of 
 their doctrine, and attention never diverted for a moment 
 from the profound casuistry of their arguments, looked 
 after her with a wistful pitying admiration, as though 
 loth to believe such a creature of light could be a chosen 
 tool of the arch-enemy, and a vessel of wrath doomed to 
 everlasting perdition. The younger members of the 
 crowd blessed her audibly, while here and there some 
 godless jackman ruflling it in all the audacious freedom 
 of inebriety, swore loudly that it was his profession and 
 his pastime to die for the Queen. 
 
 The Earl of Moray and his bride occupied the next 
 seats to the royal household. Matrimony had not 
 altered the composure of the deep-scheming Earl. His 
 own attire and that of his lady were of the gravest and 
 most sombre, rebuking by their austere simplicity the 
 bravery of the Queen's immediate attendants. 
 
 Moray, while he kept well with the Court, was careful 
 not to offend the prejudices of the strict Protestant 
 party, in whose ranks he felt lay his chief strength, and 
 while he smiled with a melancholy forbearance on the 
 gaieties of his brothers and his royal half-sister, he 
 never forgot for an instant the character he had assumed, 
 of the rigid guardian and upholder of religion : the man 
 in whom the ' country might have confidence,' the prop 
 and stay of ' the godly ' through the length and breadth
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 215 
 
 of Scotland. His bride, a comely laughing lass when 
 she married him, was obviously taming down, day by 
 day, to the required pattern of decorum. Like some 
 flower denied the sun-light, she was fading from her 
 youthfid colour and brightness, into that premature old 
 age which it is so pitiful to witness — the waning of the 
 heart and feelings before the face is wrinkled or the 
 locks are grey. 
 
 And now the crowd are driven from the enclosure by 
 a score of men-at-arms wearing the royal livery. As 
 these push their well-trained horses amongst the foot- 
 people, much elbowing and squeezing is the result. The 
 lads, as Scotchmen are termed up to the most advanced 
 period of life, bear the jostling good-humoui'edly enough ; 
 the lasses laugh and shriek, and display extraordinary 
 unsteadiness, and an unusual craving for protection and 
 support. But the lists are cleared at last, and the 
 troop of mounted masquers come down like a whirlwind, 
 in line, till they reach the Queen's gallery, when they 
 wheel to right and left from their centre, and sweeping 
 round at the same pace, take up their respective posi- 
 tions at either extremity of the lists. 
 
 In Her Majesty's gallery, eager eyes are watching 
 their movements. The Queen and her ladies criticize 
 both steeds and horsemanship pretty freely, wagering 
 gloves and trinkets on the result, but Mary Carmichael 
 sits pale and silent, and sees everything in a mist 
 because she cannot keep back her tears. 
 
 The ring is up, and borne off fairly by several of 
 the cavaliers. All acquit themselves with knightly 
 prowess, but some of the horses are unsteady, and 
 Lord John Stuart shooting at a gallop past the object,
 
 216 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 of which he has only struck the outer edge, encounters 
 amongst the spectators the laughing face of mistress 
 Alison Craig. 
 
 ' Fie on ye ! ' exclaims that unabashed dame, loud 
 enough for the discomfited nobleman to hear ; ' an' ye 
 ride no better than that, ye '11 never wear the orange 
 and black in your bonnet again on Leith sands ! ' 
 
 He cannot choose but laugh as he recalls his prowess 
 the year before among the citizens while carrying the 
 colours of the mercer's daughter, and mistress Alison 
 with becoming modesty puts down her wimple to hide 
 the cheek that has long since forgotten how to blush. 
 
 At last Mr. Randolph, young George Douglas, 
 Walter Maxwell, and Chastelar, alone remain to contest 
 the prize. One failure withdraws the competitor, and 
 but these four have borne away the little circlet at each 
 attempt with graceful skill. The excitement amongst 
 the ladies increases visibly, and there is an obvious feel- 
 ing in favour of the handsome child, for he is scarcely 
 more, who wears on his amazonian helmet the Bleeding 
 Heart of the House of Douglas. 
 
 The crowd too cheer the boy lustily. The people 
 have alternately loved and feared the Douglas since the 
 days of ' Good Lord James,' but their Scottish hearts 
 Avarm to that grand old line, and the lad's youth and 
 beauty are sure to tell on such an assemblage as the 
 present. He flushes to the eyes and casts a look at the 
 Queen's gallery, then couches his lance and drives his 
 horse furiously to his course. 
 
 Hand and seat and eye, all are true enough, but he 
 is going a little too fast, and the glittering object is
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD, 217 
 
 missed bj a hair's breadth. As he leaps from the 
 saddle at the end of his career, the boy bursts into 
 tears, and withdraws to hide his face amongst the 
 crowd. 
 
 Mr. Randolph also fails, but with a grace and dignity 
 that in Mary Beton's opinion are more creditable than 
 success itself. 
 
 Chastelar, who, to the natural dexterity of a French- 
 man, has added the skill acquired by constant practice, 
 once more carries off the ring, and glances proudly at 
 the Queen as he brandishes it aloft on the point of his 
 lance. 
 
 Again it is Maxwell's turn to try his fortune. Mary 
 Carmichael's heart beats painfully. If he wins the 
 prize how will he act ? By all the laws of chivalry he 
 must lay the ring at her feet, and she must deliver him 
 the costly trophy. Already she anticipates the moment 
 of triumph. Shall she enjoy it coldly and with dignified 
 displeasure, making him as unhappy as she has been 
 herself? No ; she longs to forgive him, and be friends. 
 All these disquietudes are wholly unnecessary ; as he 
 arrives within a stride of the object, his horse falls, rolls 
 over him, and both disappear in a cloud of dust. Mary 
 Carmichael utters a faint shriek and then sits cold and 
 rigid like a statue. At this moment, the Queen dis- 
 covers the secret of her maid-of-honour. 
 
 Chastelar then turns his horse round, carries off the 
 ring once more, and lays it at the Queen's feet, his dark 
 eyes flashing with excitement. 
 
 With the graceful courtesy that becomes her so well, 
 Mary presents the prize to the successful competitor.
 
 218 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' One more trophy,' says the Queen, ' to the Trouba- 
 dour, who wins all hearts by the sweetness of his songs, 
 and who wields the lance as successfully as the pen.' 
 
 Chastelar strives to speak in reply, but his voice fails 
 him and he turns ashy white. Mary Hamilton watching 
 him from behind her mistress almost expects him to fall 
 from his horse. He recovers himself after a short 
 interval, and mutters a few unintelligible sentences ; 
 then opening the purse, scatters its contents amongst 
 the multitude, and dismounting, falls upon his knees, 
 and replaces the heart in the Queen's hands. 
 
 ' Will you not keep it. Madam,' says the poet in a 
 hoarse broken voice, ' a tribute from the humblest and 
 most devoted of your worshippers ; fitting emblem of 
 all Chastelar has to give ? A pure heart of sterling gold 
 is the most appropriate oflFcring that can be presented to 
 the Queen of Grace and Beauty.' 
 
 Somewhat unprepared for the compliment, Mary ac- 
 cepts it with a little confusion, and the crowd shouting 
 loudly, testify their approval of the generosity as well 
 as the prowess displayed by the Frenchman. 
 
 Some discontent has indeed been manifested at the 
 success of a foreigner, but the freedom with which the 
 broad pieces have been scattered about has rapidly con- 
 verted all invidious demonstrations into cordial ap- 
 plause. On such terms they would gladly see him win 
 hearts and purses every day. 
 
 Though stunned and shaken for the moment. Max- 
 well was not seriously hurt. After changing his cos- 
 tume for his ordinary attire, he rejoined the party of 
 gallants and ladies that had congregated round the 
 Queen. A fall with a horse is no very serious affair
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 
 
 219 
 
 to an accomplished cavalier in the pride of youth and 
 strength ; his bearing was as composed as usual, and 
 save a mischievous glance from Mary Seton, and a 
 little short speech of condolence, in which good-nature 
 and sarcasm were strangely mingled, little notice was 
 taken of his mishap. While the Queen, however, whose 
 French education had not destroyed her predilection 
 for pedestrian exercise, made her way back to the 
 palace on foot, followed by her train, mistress Car- 
 michael lingered behind the others till she found 
 herself next to the fallen cavalier ; and as he walked on 
 for a time without speaking, she summoned up courage 
 at last to take the initiative. 
 
 ' I must condole with my knight,' said she ; ' he did 
 his part well, and had his horse not failed him I think 
 we should have carried off the prize.' 
 
 She spoke with a constrained effort at playfulness, 
 and was conscious that her heart beat very fast the 
 while. Whence came this new feeling of subjection ? 
 She never used to be afraid of him like this. 
 
 ^ I should like to have won it for your sake,' he an- 
 swered, but very coldly and gravely. 'You and I will 
 have but little in common, mistress Carmichael, after 
 to-day.' 
 
 ' What do you mean ? ' she gasped, thoroughly 
 frightened now and too anxious to be indignant ; but 
 ere he could reply the train of courtiers had already 
 dropped back to them, and Mary Carmichael was com- 
 pelled to join her companions with a weight of grievous 
 apprehension at her heart. 
 
 Another sentence might perhaps have cleared up 
 everything, or at least put an end to doubts and mis-
 
 220 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 givings ; but how could he speak it with a score of the 
 sharpest ears at Court ready to catch every syllable as 
 it fell ? Perhaps an explanation might never arrive, 
 or if it did would come too late ; perhaps pride might 
 rise up to prevent it, or the opportunity never occur 
 at all : and thus originate half the misunderstandings 
 and estrangements that embitter the whole existence of 
 those, who could they but speak three words to each 
 other alone, would never doubt or mistrust in their lives 
 again.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Knights were dancing by three and three, 
 There was revel, game and play. 
 
 Lovely ladies fair and free, 
 
 Dancing with them in rich array. 
 
 LOODS of light were again streaming 
 through the lofty halls of Holjrood. Music 
 was pealing loud and harmonious above 
 the ringing of wine-cups, the clatter of a 
 banquet, and the merry din of voices. Massive plate 
 emblazoned with the royal arms of Scotland glittered 
 on the board ; silks, satins, and jewels shone and 
 sparkled around it. In goblets of gold the red wine 
 bubbled to the brim, and stately heads were bent and 
 bright eyes glistened while gallants laughed and whis- 
 pered, and ladies blushed and smiled. All that luxury 
 could lavish, all that refinement could require, enhanced 
 the splendour of the feast. Tall, elaborate devices of 
 architecture, mythology, and fancy, peering from 
 amongst winter plants and flowers, decked the tables ; 
 whilst the very claws of the pheasants and moor-fowl 
 were gilt ere they were served : the peacock, roasted 
 yet not despoiled of his sleek plumage, offered a lordly 
 delicacy ; and the boar's head garnished with rosemary
 
 222 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 grinned its fierce welcome with the customary apple in 
 its mouth. 
 
 At a cross table, behind a huge candelabra, shedding 
 a refulg-ent lio-ht on her features, and in front of a side- 
 board piled with rich plate and burnished trenchers, 
 till she seemed literally enshrined in gold, sat the 
 Queen with the most distinguished of her nobility on 
 either hand. Her face was radiant with animation, 
 for pomp and pleasure were not without their charms 
 to her impressible nature ; and her manner, as her 
 guests could not but observe, combined inimitably the 
 cordiality of the hostess with the dignity of the Sove- 
 reign. Her Maries were placed at the adjoining tables, 
 and more fortunate than their mistress, had at least 
 the chance of sitting next those individuals in whose 
 conversation they took especial pleasure. These lot- 
 teries, however, are very apt to turn up an unreason- 
 able proportion of blanks, and while Mary Carmichael 
 could not even see where Walter Maxwell was supping, 
 and mistress Beton to her dismay, found herself placed 
 three seats off from the English Ambassador, Mary 
 Hamilton alone saw the seat next her occupied by the 
 person whose society she liked best in the world, and 
 none but herself knew how she trembled when her cup 
 was filled by the poet Chastelar. 
 
 Is it not always so ? We take incalculable pains to 
 prepare for our festivities ; how anxious we are that 
 they should go off well ; how engrossed is the butler 
 with his plate-basket and his ice-pail ; how concerned 
 the host that my lord's venison should not be over-done. 
 Every plait must be laid to a hair's-breadth in the glis-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 223 
 
 tening tresses of the lady of the house. Two mirrors 
 satisfy her, at last, that folds and flounces and flowers 
 are all adjusted to a nicety, but still there weighs on 
 her mind the list of precedence, and the probable con- 
 tingency that the most important guest may not turn 
 up at all. Perhaps it may come across even her con- 
 ventional mind that there are games for which it is 
 scarce worth while to purchase such expensive candles, 
 and that a two o'clock dinner with the children is a 
 more agreeable repast, after all. Aye ! even at the 
 best, there is a speck on the epergne, an earwig in 
 the flower-basket, a flavour of wormwood in the liquid 
 amber called champagne. Surgit amari over and over, 
 again ! Perhaps it was not so in that banquet of which 
 the halt and the maimed and the blind were invited to 
 partake. Perhaps there are no insects in a dinner of 
 herbs ; no heart-burnings in the crust we share with 
 Hunger ; no bitter drop in that cup, though it be but 
 cold water, wherewith we pledge celestial Charity, and 
 ' entertain an angel unawares.' 
 
 Chastelar was flushed and pre-occupied ; thus much 
 was apparent to the eyes that watched him with such 
 eager interest. Ever and anon he glanced uneasily 
 towards the royal table, but ere long something he no- 
 ticed there seemed to give him intense satisfaction, and 
 filling his goblet to the brim, he devoted himself, like 
 an accomplished gallant, to his fair neighbour. Such 
 is the nature of his sex. A woman always feels a little 
 humbled when she thinks she has been too gracious, 
 even towards a favourite ; a man, on the contrary, 
 though his afiections may be fixed elsewhere, considers
 
 224 THE QUEEN'S MAPJES, 
 
 it due to himself to be as captivating as he can. And 
 then thej talk of female vanity and female love of 
 admiration ! 
 
 ' I was sorry for my young knight to-day,' said Mary 
 Hamilton, not, it must be confessed, very truthfully, and 
 without raising her eyes to her companion's face. ' Poor 
 boy, he would have been so pleased to win. I wish he 
 had carried off the prize.' 
 
 Chastelar could not forbear giving her a meaning 
 look. 
 
 ' And yet you did not choose him,' he said. ' He 
 was given you by the Queen. Did he really carry your 
 good wishes with him, mistress Hamilton ? I marvel 
 his lance could fail : if I had thought that, mme would 
 hardly have been so steady.' 
 
 He scarce knew what he was saying. Flushed with 
 success, intoxicated with his own wild happiness ; excited 
 as such imaginative natures are by music, lights, wine, 
 and beauty, he was in that reckless mood which drains 
 pleasure eagerly from every cup and thinks not of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 ' You are jesting with me,' she answered, in a low 
 trembling voice. 
 
 Oh ! had he known how these light words of his 
 thrilled to that kind unsuspecting heart, he would have 
 spared her for very pity's sake. 
 
 ' Nay, fair mistress,' he replied gaily, ' I do not jest 
 with you ; there are some with whom to break jests is 
 like breaking lances, sharp pointed ones too, and ending 
 in a combat a routrance. I am afraid of you, mis- 
 tress Hamilton.'
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 225 
 
 ' Why SO ? ' she asked, looking up at him with her 
 clear guileless eyes. ' Am I so very formidable ? You 
 do not seem much afraid of anything to-night.' 
 
 A gleam of triumph shot from his eyes, and once 
 more he glanced towards the upper end of the hall, then 
 lowering his voice he whispered, 
 
 ' There are contests in which to win is as perilous as 
 to lose. There are lists in which the true knio-ht fio-hts 
 unarmed whilst his adversary is clothed in steel. Give 
 me my conp-de-grdce, mistress Hamilton,' he added, 
 with a bright smile, ' I must depart now to prepare for 
 the masque. Before I go I yield me " rescue or no 
 
 rescue." ' 
 
 ' You have a merciful gaoler ' was all she could trust 
 herself to reply ; but as He rose from his seat and left 
 the hall, Mary Hamilton's eyes followed him with a 
 wistful longing gaze, and Mary Hamilton's heart 
 thrilled in her bosom, with a keen sense of pleasure 
 that was not far removed from pain. 
 
 Meanwhile the banquet progressed merrily, not un- 
 cheered by those lively strains that have made Scotch 
 music, from time immemorial, so appropriate to all 
 scenes of merry-making or excitement. Wine, too, 
 flowed freely, for the stalwart barons would, indeed, 
 have deemed themselves wanting in respect to their 
 Sovereign had they stinted their accustomed measure 
 because they sat at a Queen's table. Thirsty souls 
 they were, some of those iron old paladins, and quaffed 
 such mighty draughts as their degenerate descendants 
 would scarce believe ; but it was observed that those 
 among them who were most liberal in their potations, 
 
 VOL. I. Q ,
 
 226 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 became also graver, more dignified, and sententious, in 
 proportion to the quantity they imbibed. 
 
 Here and there a vacant seat might be perceived as 
 several gallants quitted the feast by stealth to prepare 
 for the coming pageant, -which was tacitly conceded to 
 be a surprise. 
 
 Ere long the lower tables at the extremity of the 
 hall were drawn, and their occupants gathering round 
 the royal circle, began to display that flutter of ex- 
 pectation which pervades all assemblies when there is 
 anything to be seen. 
 
 Presently two grave ushers with white wands threw 
 open the folding doors, and amidst peals of laughter 
 from the men and exclamations of astonishment, not 
 without a shriek or two from the ladies, in rushed a 
 troop of satyrs, and commenced clearing a space in 
 the middle of the hall for the further exhibition of 
 the performances. 
 
 These masquers were in uncouth and fantastic dis- 
 guise : their flesh-coloured coverings were adorned with 
 wreaths of oak-leaf and ivy ; horns sprouted from their 
 brows ; goat-skins covered their nether limbs, which ter- 
 minated in cloven feet ; and long tails depended from 
 their backs, which they brandished in their hands and 
 used as whips to clear a passage in the throng. 
 
 The Queen clapped her hands, and laughed aloud. 
 
 ' None but Sebastian could have plotted this,' she 
 exclaimed. ' Come hither, 'Bastian, that we may thank 
 thee for thine ingenious device.' 
 
 The satyr thus summoned, who seemed indeed the 
 leader of tlie rest, and no mean representative of the 
 god Pan, approached the royal presence with quaint
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 227 
 
 reverence, beating a measured dance with his cloven 
 feet, and brandishing his tail the while. 
 
 James Geddes, the fool, in an irrepressible state of 
 excitement, could not forbear imitating his gestures 
 with a grotesque fidelity that provoked shouts of 
 laughter. 
 
 Sebastian, somewhat irritated, and taking advantage 
 of his position, struck at him viciously with his tail ; 
 but the fool, familiar mth such salutes, dodged it 
 adroitly, and the blow fell across the shapely leg of 
 the English Ambassador, who winced and turned crim- 
 son with the pain. 
 
 Mr. Randolph, however, had far too much self-com- 
 mand to betray his anger, which was little alleviated 
 by the laughter that the Queen could not repress. 
 
 'How now?' quoth the statesman, trying hard to 
 force a smile ; ' Is Pan like Atropos, that he spares 
 neither Wisdom nor Folly, but smites down all alike ? ' 
 
 'It's the knave aye gets the fiile's arles,'* re- 
 marked James ; ' or he wadna be siccan a knave ; an' 
 it's the fule aye tynesf them, or he wadna be siccan 
 afule!' 
 
 And so speaking he sat composedly down at the 
 Queen's feet, pulling a grimace at the same time that 
 was too much even for the Earl of Moray's gravity. 
 
 The satyrs then proceeded to enclose a space for the 
 coming masque. So thorough was their disguise as to 
 bafile even the keen eyes of those who were most in- 
 terested in their identity ; and as the sylvan monsters 
 
 Wages. t Loses. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 ranged themselves on each side the hall, soft voices 
 behind them whispered, 
 
 'Are you Sholto?' or 'It must be Archibald!' to 
 receive no more satisfactory answer than a stifled laugh. 
 
 A flourish of music now announced the continuation 
 of the pageant, and the three planets, Mercury, Mars, 
 and Venus, made their appearance, habited in robes of 
 silver gauze and spangles: the first, winged strictly 
 according to mythology at head and heel ; the God of 
 War armed with glittering helmet, flashing buckler, and 
 greaves of burnished gold; and the Queen of Beauty, 
 represented by young George Douglas, extremely em- 
 barrassed with her draperies, and blushing as Venus 
 surely, save on one memorable occasion, never blushed 
 in her life. 
 
 These representations of the starry host were then 
 succeeded by the Nine Muses, all in different colom-s, 
 and notwithstanding their beardless faces and classical 
 folds, displaying legs unusually muscular for Muses, 
 and also a good deal more limb than is customary with 
 that sex to which ' the tuneful Nine ' are supposed to 
 belong. 
 
 Melpomene, too, could not forbear laughing outright ; 
 Clio, albeit the daughter of memory, forgot whether 
 she was herself or Urania ; and Terpsichore, somewhat 
 flushed with sack, caught her feet in her petticoats, 
 and narrowly escaped the indignity of entering the 
 royal presence on her head. They trooped oft", how- 
 ever, after making their obeisance to the Queen, and 
 ranged themselves in front of the satyrs on either side 
 the hall. 
 
 After them a score of cavaliers, momited on the
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYKOOD. 229 
 
 well-known hobby-horse, of which the sweeping housings 
 concealed its rider's real less, whilst his false ones 
 dangled outside in ludicrous unison with its gambols, 
 plunged and frolicked into the apartment. Half were 
 represented as huntsmen, half as heathen Turks, and 
 they blew their horns or brandished their scimitars with 
 an energetic gravity edifying to behold. One truculent 
 looking Saracen earned immortal honour by the life- 
 like manner in which he backed his hobby-horse the 
 whole length of the hall, and then caused it to rear 
 straight-on-end ere he took up his position, comiter- 
 feiting inimitably the coquetry of the practised rider, 
 and the repressed mettle of the unwilling yet obedient 
 steed. Some of the courtiers whispered that it was 
 Lord John Stuart, others, the Grand Falconer ; not a 
 few believed it to be the Warden of the Marches in 
 disguise ; but the better informed were all the time 
 aware that it was no less a personage than Her 
 Majesty's head cook. 
 
 Then came pilgrims decked with sandals and scallop- 
 shell, leading with them bears, wolves, tigers, and an 
 occasional unicorn ; all these quadrupeds presenting 
 alike the anomaly of a pair of hind legs jointed the 
 wrong way, but performing their parts in other respects 
 with decorous fidelity, and an obvious difficulty in 
 keeping up with their leaders. These were succeeded 
 by musicians bearing lutes, harps, wind instruments 
 and guitars, dumb indeed in reality, but going through 
 all the motions of a lively measure, which the Queen's 
 real musicians were playing for their encouragement. 
 
 Next came two little cupids armed with silver bows 
 and baldricks, their rosy limbs uncovered, and their
 
 230 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 golden curls mingling with the wings of gauze that 
 stood from their shoulders. Pretty urchins they were, 
 but somewhat too young for their task, and already 
 rubhing their sleepy eyes with dimpled little fists. 
 Hand-in-hand they trotted into the hall boldly enough, 
 but ere half the distance was accomplished their hearts 
 failed them, they stopped, looked about them, and one 
 began to cry. This was too much for his little com- 
 panion's philosophy, who incontinently followed his 
 example, but both were immediately caught up by some 
 of the ladies, and quickly caressed into composure. 
 The Queen, too, had them brought to her forthwith, 
 and soothing them with kind words and sweet-meats, 
 sent them to bed happy and consoled. 
 
 During this unexpected interlude, the principal 
 feature of the pageant, and one which had tasked to 
 the utmost the ingenuity of its contrivers, now entered 
 the hall. It consisted of a fleet of ships constructed 
 of light wicker-work, and moved upon wheels, which 
 were worked unseen from within. The sides of these 
 galleys were formed of cloth, coloured to represent 
 beams of cedar, fastened and inlaid with gold ; the 
 masts and spars were gilt, the tackle of silver tissue, and 
 the sails of gauze. A murmur of admiration greeted 
 the pageant as it glided up the hall with the stately 
 motion of ships sailing over a smooth sea. 
 
 On the deck of each bark stood an unknown lord 
 dressed with the utmost magnificence, and closely 
 masked. So resolved were these silken pirates not to 
 be identified, that their doublets, their hose, and even 
 their gloves were padded so as to conceal the shape of 
 their figures, their limbs and their very hands. They
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 231 
 
 were known to be gallants of the Court but that was all. 
 The nobles laughed and applauded, their dames whis- 
 pered and speculated, when, with a burst of music 
 rising into loud triumphant tones, the ships increased 
 their speed, and the leading galley closely followed by 
 the rest, bore swiftly down upon the circle which con- 
 tained the Queen and her ladies with obvious intention 
 of a capture. 
 
 Each masquer took a partner by the hand, and cour- 
 teously entreated her in dumb show to enter his gorgeous 
 bark. The Queen first set the example of compliance, 
 and amidst shouts of admiration the barks veered 
 round, and doubly freighted, floated once more proudly 
 down the hall. 
 
 Then the squadron divided, the sails were furled, 
 the voyagers disembarked, and each gallant kneeling 
 low as he gave his hand to his companion and helped 
 her to a,light, unmasked at the same instant, while the 
 music changing to a merry lilt, the couples found them- 
 selves arranged in due order to tread a well-known 
 measure called ' the Purpose,' on the polished floor. 
 
 This ' Purpose,' as it was called, a word which sig- 
 nified confidential conversation, was a dance resembling 
 the cotillion so popular with our grandmothers, and 
 not entirely despised to-day when lights are waning 
 after a night of festivity, and gloves are soiled, and 
 flowers faded, and cheeks begin to pale before the 
 coming dawn. Then is the moment to infuse fictitious 
 vio;our borrowed from excitement into the closing 
 scene — then the careful mother at the emptying door- 
 way, with shawl and wrapper on her braceleted arm, 
 waves her unwelcome summons to the bounding damsel
 
 232 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 warmed up into bloom once more, and every turn is 
 precious now because every turn must be the last. 
 Then shall the prey, which has been playing round it 
 all night, gorge the glittering bait for good and all. 
 Wind up the reel, in with the tackle, out with the 
 landing-net, — gold-fish or gudgeon, he is gasping help- 
 less on the bank ; but had it not been for the cotillion, 
 he might have been wriggling his tail even now in 
 derision through the elusive waters, might have de- 
 spised the fire and ignored the frying-pan to this 
 day. 
 
 The ' Purpose ' was so called because the figure ex- 
 acted that at stated intervals the couples should dance 
 together through the doorway into an adjoining room, 
 and having made the circuit of that apartment, should 
 return, unbosomed of any secrets they might have had 
 to interchange, to the rest of the laughing company. It 
 was a figure obviously adopted for the triumph of 
 coquetry and the discomfiture of mankind. 
 
 The leading pirate had dutifully borne off the Queen, 
 and when he unmasked, Mary discovered that Chastelar 
 was to be her partner in the dance. The poet's manner 
 was more full of deference than usual, but there was a 
 light of unearthly happiness in his eye. 
 
 Randolph had secured Mary Beton nothing loth. 
 That very morning the Ambassador had received in- 
 structions from his Government to leave no stone un- 
 turned till he had discovered the Queen's predilections 
 amongst the numerous marriages that were proposed to 
 her, all and each of which gave Elizabeth such disquiet. 
 He proceeded now deliberately to sound her principal
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 233 
 
 maid-of-honour, under cover of making fierce love to her 
 himself. 
 
 With the loud music and the long intervals of inac- 
 tion there was ample opportunity for the process. 
 
 ' We shall soon have nobler doings even than these,' 
 observed Mr. Randolph, whispering confidentially to 
 his partner, ' when another royal wedding gladdens 
 the walls of Holyrood. Shall we dance the Spaniard's 
 bolero, or the Austrian's gavolte, or our own old English 
 brawl ? Whatever be the measure, mistress Beton, my 
 only hope is that we may dance it together.' 
 
 Randolph looked very tenderly at her while he spoke, 
 and his partner's rufi" heaved visibly. 
 
 ' Nay, you statesmen are too premature,' she replied. 
 ' Ladies are not to be thus wooed and won in a day, 
 much less queens. The Arch-duke, Don Carlos, Lord 
 Robert, which of them can be called a fitting mate for 
 our Sovereign? You must not hurry us thus, Mr. 
 Randolph ; you are indiscreet.' 
 
 ' And cannot you guess why I am so anxious for 
 your mistress to marry ? ' whispered the insidious 
 statesman, pressing nearer his listener. ' Is it not 
 that alone which will free her beautiful maidens from 
 their self-imposed celibacy ? Till that auspicious day 
 even our thoughts are not our own, and a man of 
 honour must be tongue-tied on the subject nearest his 
 heart.' 
 
 Mary Beton blushed and trembled. It was almost a 
 declaration, and from that impenetrable and capable 
 man ! The staid maid-of-honour was losing her head 
 every moment.
 
 234 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 ' It may come sooner than any of us think,' p.he mur- 
 mured, giving him her hand to lead her, as the dance 
 demanded, on their tour throuijh the rooms. ' Sooner 
 than any of us desire,' she added, with a sudden re- 
 sumption of her usual stateliness. 
 
 He pressed the hand affectionately, and his voice be- 
 came exceedingly trusting and confidential. Mr. Ran- 
 dolph was a man who never hesitated to waste a sprat 
 for the purpose of catching a salmon. 
 
 ' It will not be Lord Robert,' said he. ' I can tell 
 you that, though it is as much as« my life is worth. 
 But I would trust you with my head, Jseautiful mistress 
 Beton ; far rather than my heart,' he added, in a low 
 fond voice; ' were it not indeed too late to make that 
 reservation.' 
 
 The lights seemed to swim in, Mary Beton's eyes, 
 and the music was like surging w^ter in her ears. A 
 true woman, despite her natural caution and her court 
 education, she returned confidence for confidence. 
 
 ' They do talk -of a bridegroom,' she whispered. ' It 
 is a secret, Mr. Randolph; but I feel I am safe with 
 you. The Countess of Leimox has already suggested 
 her son, and I think the Queen is not averse to the 
 idea. If it should ever be,' she added, with rising colour 
 and some hesitation, ' we shall be differently circum- 
 stanced of course, and, in short,, the future must always 
 be uncertain for us all.' 
 
 He replied with less warmth than she perhaps ex- 
 pected ; but his commonplaces were extremely polite, 
 nay complimentary, and. when he led her back to the 
 company, there was that complacent expression on his
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYllOOD. 235 
 
 countenance, which is worn by a man who finds, in the 
 hand dealt him, the leading card of the game. 
 
 Far diiferent was 'the purpose' entertained bj 
 Walter Maxwell and Mary Carmichael, in their interval 
 of conversation. With the frank kindliness of his 
 nature, that honest gentleman had determined at least 
 to ask an explanation ere he condemned at once and for 
 ever the woman he felt he still loved only too well. 
 
 With this intention he had joined the merry band of 
 masquers, though his heart was sadly out of tune for 
 mirth, and had carried off his mistress without hesitation 
 from the fair circle who were waiting to be abducted. 
 Nay, when he unmasked, and mistress Carmichael, who 
 had recomised him from the first, stole a look at his 
 face, it wore its usual grave but kindly expression, and 
 the displeasure which had so discomfited her all day, 
 and spoilt her gaiety all night, had entirely disappeared. 
 He was determined to be just and kind and temperate 
 in his dealing with her, though more than life depended 
 on the result. 
 
 When he spoke it was in a low soft voice, but every 
 syllable was strangely emphatic and distinct. 
 
 ' I behaved unkindly in the Queen's Park,' said he, 
 ' but I was hurt and offended at your conduct. Had I 
 not cause ? ' 
 
 She blushed, yet her eye was bright with repressed 
 exultation. 
 
 ' How have I ofiended you ? ' she asked quickly. ' I 
 would not do so willingly, you know.' 
 
 ' I thought you difterent from the others,' he re- 
 sumed with more agitation. ' In common charity I ask
 
 236 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 to be undeceived. Did I not see you in the Abbey- 
 garden the night before last ? ' 
 
 She trembled all over, but looked him full in the face 
 nevertheless, yet so scared, so startled. 
 
 ' What then ? ' she murmured in obvious agitation. 
 
 ' You were not alone,' he continued with a severe 
 brow ; ' who was your companion ? ' 
 
 She drew a long breath as if immensely relieved, nay, 
 she almost smiled as she replied, 
 
 ' Then you do not know ? you cannot even guess ? ' 
 
 ' Had I kno^vn,' he answered significantly, ' it would 
 not have been the lady I should have questioned.' 
 
 She raised her head haughtily. 
 
 ' And by what right do you question the lady now?' 
 she exclaimed. ' Am I answerable to Walter Maxwell for 
 my conduct ? I take leave to think, sir, you might be 
 better employed than in watching my movements.' 
 
 He was growing very angry and consequently calmer 
 every second. 
 
 ' You had rather give no explanation ? ' he said, with 
 studied politeness. 
 
 She bowed her head in silence, but the colour was 
 fading faster and faster from her cheek. 
 
 ' You decline it ? ' he added, still very low, but 
 through his set teeth, 
 
 ' Distinctly ! ' answered the lady, adding, as only a 
 woman would at such a moment, ' You are neglecting 
 the figure, the dance is going on without you.' 
 
 After this the pair derived but small gratification we 
 imagine from the amusements of the evening. Walter 
 Maxwell took the earliest opportunity of departing to 
 cool his irritation in the night air, whither, as we dis-
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 237 
 
 like seeing a strong man wrestling with pain, we will 
 not follow him. Mary Carmichael, however, bore her 
 part bravely to the end, and although her answers were 
 at times a little absent and her laughter somewhat mis- 
 placed, none could have guessed by her outward bearing 
 that she had so recently seen the great stake of her 
 life's happiness set, played for, and lost. She was not 
 the only gambler in the hall. There was one heart 
 amongst those dancers within a few yards of her that 
 had resolved to-night to play the great game in which 
 the odds were incalculably against it, and which to lose 
 was ruin entire and irretrievable. There were a 
 couple now gracefully moving through the figure of 
 ' the Purpose,' as the music swelled and sank in tri- 
 umphant harmony or pleading sweetness, of whom one 
 was enjoying unconsciously the gratification of the 
 moment, gay, kindly, generous, and impressionable, yet 
 calm and dignified because thinking no evil, and the 
 other with beating heart and swimming brain was 
 steeped to the lips in the intoxication of that madness 
 which comes but once in" a life-time, and seems to have 
 but one fatal and invariable result. 
 
 Woe to the idolater ! It is written on the tables of 
 stone : Woe to the idolater ! Be the image what it 
 may, wood, brass, or marble, or one ' a little lower than 
 the angels,' whom the worshipper must needs exalt 
 above the Being to whom the Heavenly Host itself is 
 but as dust in the hollow of a man's hand. The punish- 
 ment shall not come from abroad ; it shall not be 
 wrought by foreign enmity, nor owe its keenest pang to 
 foreign injustice. If so, the sting would be extracted; 
 the vengeance incomplete. No ; Dagon alone shall
 
 238 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 crush the deluded votary who grovelled at Dagon's 
 pedestal. It is the hand he trusted that shall strike 
 him to the heart, the feet he kissed that shall spurn 
 him in the dust. When he shall have stripped himself 
 of all to do his false god service ; when he shall have 
 lost his friends, his wealth, his fame, his self-respect, 
 and forfeited his honour, and pawned his birth-right, 
 then, and not till then, shall the image of stone rock and 
 totter and fall upon him and crush him to powder. 
 Were there no world but this, it would indeed be better 
 for that man that he had never been born. 
 
 The Dagon of to-night was fair to look on, queenly 
 and graceful and gloriously beautiful. It seemed un- 
 natural to refuse her homage ; it seemed ecstasy to kneel 
 and supplicate and adore. The worshipper was in the 
 wildest stage of his idolatry. He looked for no greater 
 glory than to lay down life and heart and soul at her 
 feet. 
 
 What good results could come from such a link 
 between the lovely Queen of Scotland and the infatu- 
 ated minstrel of France ?
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 ' He either fears his fate too much, 
 
 Or his deserts are small, 
 Who dares not put it to the touch 
 To win or lose it all.' 
 
 lARY STUART still wore in her bosom the 
 gold heart that had been won by Chaste- 
 lar in his victory of the day. This it was 
 that had so elated him at the banquet J 
 this it was that gave him com^age in the dance to speak 
 words of love to his Queen. 
 
 The distant music had subsided to a low plaintive 
 strain ; the apartment into which, in their turn, the 
 two had seemed to float upon those floods of melody, 
 was bathed in a subdued and softened light ; the odour 
 of perfumes loaded the atmosphere ; and the sounds of 
 far-off revelry did but add to the languor and seclusion 
 of the scene. Mary's cheek was a shade paler and her 
 step scarce so buoyant as usual. She seemed fatigued, 
 and whilst awaiting the louder peal of music that should 
 summon them back to the dance, the Queen seated her- 
 self on a low chair near the doorway and fixed her eyes 
 upon the floor with a dreamy listless gaze. Chastelar 
 remained standing, bent over her chair as if fascinated,
 
 240 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 spell-bound. The music sank lower and lower, and 
 they were alone ! 
 
 At last the Queen raised her eyes to his, and what 
 she saw there brought the blood reddening to her brow. 
 It broke the charm, however, and the poet found his 
 voice to speak, though his lips trembled so that he 
 could scarcely form his words. He knelt before her as 
 he would have knelt to a saint. 
 
 ' Ah ! Madam,' he exclaimed, in broken accents, 
 ' accept my homage, my thanks, my everlasting grati- 
 tude. This is the day in Chastelar's life that he had 
 better lay him down and die in his great happiness, for 
 the sun can never shine on such another for him ao;ain.' 
 
 She smiled on him, half-kindly and half-pitiful. 
 
 ' Why should you thus thank me, jChastelar ? ' she 
 said. ' What have I granted to my Troubadour that is not 
 richly merited by one so loyal, so devoted, and so true ?' 
 
 She spoke lightly and playfully, yet was there a tone 
 of repressed feeling in her voice. No woman alive 
 could have looked unmoved on the depth of intense de- 
 votion that glowed in Chastelar's face. 
 
 ' Aye, Madam,' he replied, ' you have ever been 
 kind and condescending and gracious to your slave. 
 You know not what your notice is to him : how he 
 watches every turn of your face and hangs on every 
 word of your lips. What the blessed sunlight is to 
 creation — its hope, its love, its pride, its whole exist- 
 ence — such is your presence, oh ! Mary, oh ! my 
 Queen, to me.' 
 
 ' Nay,' she replied, half rising from her seat, and 
 looking round as though not caring that their dialogue 
 should be overheard. ' Nay, Chastelar, now you are
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 241 
 
 trenching on your own prerogative and wasting on my 
 solitary ear the materials for a sonnet which should 
 delight the whole Court ; I cannot listen to such com- 
 pliments from my Troubadour save in verse. 
 
 ' You will listen to them thus,' he exclaimed eagerly. 
 ' You will allow me to lay at your feet a volume I have 
 long wished, but not dared, to pray you to accept. 
 May I experience this great happiness ? Is it a pro- 
 mise ? ' 
 
 She bowed her fair head in acquiescence and her colour 
 went and came. Queen though she were, Mary Stuart 
 was also a woman to the heart's core, and it was not in 
 woman's nature but to experience a tinge of gratifica- 
 tion and triumph in an authority so despotic, a dominion 
 so complete as this. 
 
 Emboldened by the permission he hurried on, 
 
 ' I would lay all I have — my fame, my happiness, 
 my life, nay, my very soul — at your Majesty's feet, and 
 thank and bless you, even did you trample them to dust. 
 Oh ! Madam, have you not read of such devotion ? can 
 you not believe in it ? Do you not hiow that there 
 may exist a love so pure, so holy, so self-denying, that 
 its blessing and its privilege is to give all and ask for 
 nothing in return.' 
 
 Again she looked around her startled and confused, 
 but there were no listeners near. Still the strain of 
 the 'Purpose' stole soft and low and soothing on her ear. 
 She resolved she must never hear him speak again like 
 this, but the moments were all the more precious at the 
 time. It would be too unkind to check him harshly 
 now. He was madly in love with her, no doubt, and 
 his punishment would come quite soon enough ; mean- 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 time she thought it better to treat the whole affair play- 
 fully. 
 
 ' I too can write verses,' said she, with a bright 
 smile. ' Shall I repeat you a couplet or two I composed 
 to-day; they are not amiss, Chastelar, at least for a 
 Queen ! and considering they are in rhyme, they are 
 tolerably true — too true, I fear, the more the pity. Lis- 
 ten, Troubadour, and take a lesson in your own trade ; 
 moreover, beseech you, mark the moral, for that is the 
 whole merit of the stave.' 
 
 ' Wild Folly, so the legends tell, 
 
 Was wedded to a maid ; 
 A dusky maid that used to dwell 
 In drowsy summer-shade. 
 
 ' Tlieir offspring is a fairy elf, 
 A thing of tricks and wiles ; 
 He plays with hearts to please himself, 
 And when they break he smiles. 
 
 ' Unpitied pain and toil in vain 
 That little tyrant brings ; 
 And those who fain would slip his chain 
 Must cheat him of his wings. 
 
 ' To Cupid's tortures, you may guess, 
 
 Each parent lends a part ; 
 The chain, the toils, from Idleness, 
 While Folly adds the smart,' 
 
 ' And yet, Madam, there are chains that the slave 
 hugs to his bosom,' answered Chastelar, gazing on her 
 with looks of imploring affection ; ' there is a labour of 
 love that is sweeter than the profoundest repose ; there 
 
 i
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 243 
 
 is a pain that we prize and cherish, clasping it tighter 
 and tighter till it pierces to our hearts, and so we 
 die.' 
 
 ' Such chains I would not lay on my servants,' said 
 the Queen ; ' such labour I would never impose ; such 
 pain I could not bear to inflict.' 
 
 He looked up brightly. 
 
 ' Say you so, Madam,' he replied ; ' then indeed 
 do you give me new life and something to live 
 for; you graciously accepted that trinket from me 
 to-day, and the proudest moment of my existence was 
 when I saw it on your breast to-night — that gold 
 heart is but an emblem of mine own; it is yours, 
 my Queen, if you will deign to take it. Do with it 
 what you will ; keep it, or break it, or cast it scorn- 
 fully away.' 
 
 He took the Queen's hand as he spoke and pressed 
 it fervently to his lips ; but he had gone too far, and 
 Mary, rising from her chair, snatched her hand from 
 him, and drew herself to her full height 
 
 ' You forget,' she said, ' you must surely forget 
 where we are and to whom you speak ! this is Holy- 
 rood, Monsieur Chastelar, the royal palace of the 
 kings of Scotland, and I am Mary Stuart, its Mistress 
 and its Queen. Lead me back, sir, to the dancers, 
 the music warns us, and do not expect to be forgiven if 
 you should so far presume again.' 
 
 She spoke angrily, yet some feeling of compunction 
 smote her the while ; and perhaps she was not quite so 
 a^ngry as she looked. She gave him her hand to lead 
 her back to the dance with lofty condescension, and it 
 was remarked on her retm-n to the hall by more than 
 
 R 2
 
 244 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 one acute observer, that the Queen seemed to have quite 
 recovered her fatigue, and that her colour was deeper, 
 her glance brighter, and her step firmer than during 
 the earlj part of the evening. One pair of eyes too 
 that never left him save when they met his own, that 
 shone with liquid lustre when he was present and filled 
 many a time with unbidden tears when he was far 
 away, gazed wistfully on Chastelar to-night, and a 
 fond heart wondered why his face was so pale, and his 
 manner so dejected and wild and sad. 
 
 Mary Hamilton was one of those characters less rare 
 in her own than in the stronger sex, with whom to use 
 the poet's expression, ' love is its own avenger.' For 
 such, happiness when it does come, should indeed be 
 intense, for their sufferings are acute, their doubts 
 harassing, their self-depreciation unsparing in propor- 
 tion to the abandonment with which they merge their 
 whole existence in that of another. It is good to love 
 for those who can love wisely, but alas ! for the self- 
 inflicted tortures of the heart that loves too well. 
 
 The revel was at its height ; louder and louder pealed 
 the music, faster and faster flew the dancers : all 
 seemed bent on the enjoyment of the hour, and resolved 
 that the concluding scene of the festival should be the 
 wildest and merriest of the night. To look at those 
 panting forms, flushed cheeks, bright eyes, and floating 
 tresses, who would have believed but that here, if any- 
 where, was to be found the gaiety that flings itself with- 
 out reservation into the pleasures of the moment? 
 Who would have thought there could be room for care 
 or sorrow in the fair bosoms heaving proudly under 
 pearls and gold, or detected the ring of spurious
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 245 
 
 metal in the joyous tones that told of gratified vanity 
 and partial approbation and careless, thoughtless 
 mirth? 
 
 It is better to leave your partner when you have 
 shawled her deftly at the door ; there she bids you 
 a cordial, perhaps even a tender ' good night' with her 
 mask on, the same mask you always see, that is painted 
 in such a radiant smile. It comes off though in her 
 dressing room, when the aching temples are released 
 from their garland, and the shining tresses are un- 
 bound, and the being that you have envied as a model 
 of good sense, gaiety, and content, sits her down 
 with a weary sigh, and dismissing you and your plati- 
 tudes, with which she seemed so highly delighted, from 
 her thoughts, leans her head upon her hand while the 
 hot tears trickle through her fingers for the sake of 
 Somebody you never saw or heard of, who is far, far 
 away. 
 
 Perhaps you are even with her; perhaps you, 
 too, meeting her gloved hand in the dance, wince under 
 the senseless exterior which you assume with yom* 
 evening-clothes, in painful consciousness that you can- 
 not quite forget a Somebody of yom" own, the very rustle 
 of whose di'ess was music to your ears in the olden 
 golden days that are spent and vanished like a dream ; 
 aye, though you seemed so gay and caustic and debonair 
 in the cloak-room a while since, when you walk out 
 into the night, the stars you loved to watch for her 
 sake long ago look do\vn upon you more in pity than 
 reproach, and the sighing wind reminds you, as it never 
 fails to do, of the gentle face that was all your 
 trust and treasure once, that is lost to you now for
 
 246 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 evermore. There is no need for you to hum the re- 
 frain of that beautiful song wailing for ' the tender 
 grace of a day that is dead.' Are you likely to forget 
 it, clinging as it does about your heart like ice and 
 chilling you to the marrow even now ? Never mind ! 
 you have ' done your ball ' handsomely and creditably, 
 both to self and partner ; it matters little that you are 
 a couple of well-dressed hypocrites, covering your re- 
 spective sores under broad-cloth and Mechlin lace ; 
 you have offered your incense at the conventional 
 altar ; you have sacrificed religiously to society ; you 
 are at liberty to take off your trappings now and 
 wash the paint from your wan faces, and go both of 
 you away by yourselves to be as wretched as you 
 please. 
 
 The Queen and her Maries danced on, fresh and 
 gay to the very last. Even the musician's well-trained 
 fingers seemed less untiring than the ladies' feet. But 
 the revel came to an end soon after midnight, and the 
 sentinels at the palace-gates, relieved at that hour, 
 glanced admiringly after the noble groups that de- 
 parted in quick succession ; some of the older and 
 statelier forms, be it observed, walking with a more 
 staid and solemn air than usual, attributable to the 
 excess of the Queen's hospitality and the excellence 
 of the French wines that graced her table. 
 
 There were two individuals, however, now strolling 
 away arm-in-arm with an appearance of great cordiality, 
 who never suffered their brains to be heated beyond 
 their self-control, and who, relying on their wits as 
 the good swordsman on his blade, were careful to 
 keep those weapons constantly bright and keen and
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 247 
 
 tempered for immediate use. Thej were engaged even 
 in this friendly promenade, in a kind of moral 
 fencing-bout, with muffled points indeed, and blood- 
 less intentions, yet such as should prove to each his 
 adversary's strength against the future possibility of 
 a real encounter. 
 
 Said Mr. Randolph to Secretary Maitland, 
 
 ' The revel hath indeed sped gaily. I never wit- 
 nessed a merrier even at the English Court, where 
 my royal Mistress hath always given so hearty a 
 welcome to the Lord of Lethington. The masques 
 were quaint ; the music exquisite ; the supper beyond 
 all praise. Holyrood was indeed to-night one blaze of 
 splendour.' 
 
 ' And our Scottish ladies ? ' asked the Secretary, 
 who had not failed to observe his companion's atten- 
 tions to mistress Beton, and suspecting his design, 
 glanced curiously at his face, to gather what he could 
 from that inscrutable volume. 
 
 The Firth down yonder sleeping in the moonlight 
 could not have been less unruffled than the English- 
 man's countenance, nevertheless his language was too 
 enthusiastic to be sincere. 
 
 ' They are above all praise,' said he. ' Were I one of 
 those soft-headed, iron-handed paladins of fifty years 
 ago, I would break any number of lances, in maintain- 
 ing your Queen and her Maries to be the brightest 
 bevy of beauty in Christendom ! But those follies 
 went out with the mass to make room for others ! 
 And, by the way, what thinks worthy master Knox 
 and his godly party of all this feasting and fiddling 
 and mummery ? '
 
 248 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 ' There is a strong feeling of religion amongst our 
 town's-folk,' was the guarded answer, ' combined with 
 loyalty to Her Majesty.' 
 
 ' Then they desire to see her wedded,' resumed Ran- 
 dolph. ' It rejoices me to hear this, guessing, as I 
 think I can, at the Queen of England's wishes. 
 Frankly now, and between friends, hath your beautiful 
 Mistress no predilection for any of her wooers ? ' 
 
 ' I am only a statesman,' answered Maitland, laugh- 
 ing ; ' I can fathom a plot or an intrigue, but a 
 woman's schemes are far too deep for me. I believe, 
 however, that on this subject ladies are not prone to 
 speak their real minds.' 
 
 ' Lord Robert Dudley is a staunch Protestant,' pro- 
 ceeded Randolph, interrogatively ; ' and a comely per- 
 sonable nobleman besides ? ' 
 
 ' Would your Mistress like to part with him to 
 mine ? ' said the other, with increasing mirth. ' If 
 Dudley aims at a crown -matrimonial, Mr. Randolph, 
 he need not cross the Tweed to fetch it, or we are 
 strangely misinformed in the North.' 
 
 ' Nay,' answered the Englishman, ' I will be frank 
 with you. The Maiden Queen would be loth to resign 
 either title. But it is not on her marriage that the 
 eyes of all Protestant Europe are fixed. The destiny 
 of the Reformed Church will be strongly influenced by 
 Mary Stuart's choice of a husband.' 
 
 ' She will be guided doubtless in this as in every- 
 thing, by the wishes of her people and the advice of 
 her royal Cousin,' was the diplomatic reply. ' The 
 Austrian and the Spanish match are alike distaste- 
 ful. The Arch-duke is a grey-beard, and Don Carlos
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 249 
 
 a puling sickly boy. You see, I can be candid with 
 you. Our Queen will have none of these.' 
 
 Mr. Randolph, in common with the general public, 
 had known this important disclosure for weeks. It 
 was his cue, however, to accept the communication for 
 somewhat more than it was worth. 
 
 ' As we are in confidence, then,' he continued, ' I 
 will round in your ear an idea of mine own. What 
 if the Scottish Queen should unite herself to one of 
 her own blood and of suitable years, thus avoiding all 
 foreign influences, the while she does no violence to 
 her natural inclinations : a goodly young gentleman 
 of honest nurture and of the Reformed religion. 
 Surely such a mate could be found amongst the noble 
 families in both kingdoms.' 
 
 It was a leading suggestion from which Randolph 
 hoped to gather a corroboration of Mary Beton's in- 
 telligence, but he had to do with one as skilled in 
 state-craft as himself and equally unhampered by 
 compunctions as to truth or sincerity. 
 
 ' There is none that I can think of,' replied Mait- 
 land, with an air of such exceeding candour that the 
 other felt convinced he was telling him a lie. ' Unless 
 it be young Lord Darnley, and there are so many ob- 
 jections to his claim, that although it has often been 
 considered, it has never been entertained for a moment. 
 Is it possible that it would meet with your Court's 
 approval ? ' 
 
 ' I cannot answer without instructions,' said Randolph, 
 laughing ; and wishing each other ' Good-night,' the well- 
 matched pair separated, without either having gained a 
 decided advantage in the encounter of their wits.
 
 250 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 The Laird of Lethington, indeed, who had been 
 acting on the defensive, was satisfied with his own reti- 
 cence, although his suspicions were aroused, and the 
 eternal question, ' What is he aiming at ? ' that haunts 
 the diplomatist, followed him to his pillow; but Mr. 
 Randolph was puzzled and discomfited. He could not 
 piece his information together as he liked into one of 
 those perfect specimens of workmanship which he de- 
 lighted to forward to Secretary Cecil for the inspection 
 of his Queen. Nevertheless he sat up far into the night 
 writing a state-paper to the English grand vizier, and 
 when it was finished, such is the inconsistency of man, 
 dwelt with considerable complacency on the handsome 
 stately image of the lady who had suggested it. The 
 road to power is not often strewed with flowers. Mr. 
 Randolph had no objection to gather them when he 
 could do so without going out of his way, though he was 
 the last man to keep them when withered, or indeed care 
 for them one jot after the first freshness was oflf their 
 bloom. 
 
 But what were the musings of a weary courtier, or 
 even the misgivings of a baflEled diplomatist, to the tide 
 of anxiety and anguish that surged through the over- 
 wrought brain of Chastelar, till the poet felt as if he 
 must go mad. Alas ! for the gift, dangerous as it is 
 brilliant, of a vivid imagination acting on a deep and 
 tender heart. There are certain insects in the tropics, 
 with which unconscious of the cruelty, ladies are wont 
 to trim their dresses, that sparkle like diamonds when 
 thus impaled in torture : while they sufier they glow, 
 and when they cease to glow they die. So it is with 
 certain temperaments, and those not the dullest nor the
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 251 
 
 least amiable of their kind. Their very lustre arises 
 from the pain that is goading them within. The flash 
 that sets the table in a roar springs often from an aching 
 heart : the glowing words that clothe immortal thoughts 
 in godlike imagery rise to lips wet with the bitterest 
 draught of all. Who can describe happiness so vividly as 
 he who feels that it can never be his own ? Who yearns 
 for beauty with the thirst of him to whom all that is 
 fairest in earth and heaven but mocks the impotence of 
 his despair ? If such temperaments enjoy keenly, and 
 indeed it would be hard if they did not, they suffer with 
 an intensity of pain that goads them nearly to madness, 
 and causes them to rush into follies and extravagances 
 such as less ardent natures are never tempted to commit. 
 Chastelar left the hall tortured with shame and doubt 
 and fear. Sometimes he wondered at his own reckless- 
 ness, that could thus risk his very existence on a word, 
 for he felt that if Mary were really offended, and he 
 were banished from the Court, he had better die. Then 
 he taxed the Queen with perfidy, injustice, hardness of 
 heart. Anon, a softer feeling argued that his offence 
 was not of so grievous a nature after all, that the Sove- 
 reign might pardon and look kindly on a confession of 
 such devotion to the woman, nay, that it might have 
 been welcome to her and expected long ago ; but 
 Mary's image, rising from her chair in offended majesty, 
 dispelled this brighter vision, and though his very heart 
 was flooded with the remembrance of her beauty, the 
 sense of hopelessness that had chilled it so often, seemed 
 to creep over him and paralyse him as of old. At least 
 he felt he could not bear her displeasure. She had 
 turned away from him when he had sought her eye
 
 252 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 after the dance. Perhaps she was mortally oiFended, 
 and would never speak to him again. Like all others, 
 under the same spell, he was totally incapable of judg- 
 ing his own case, and saw everything in a false light. 
 He was even himself aware that he could no longer rely 
 upon his faculties, and yet he felt an irresistible im- 
 pulse goading him to action, no matter what. There is 
 method in every phase of madness save one, and that is 
 the madness of a man in love. 
 
 He paced his room in an agony of irresolution. At 
 last he made up his mind to ask the Queen's forgiveness. 
 He could not sleep without it. He must have it this 
 very night before she retired. He bethought him of the 
 book that she had consented to accept. It was a happy 
 idea: that unconscious little volume should befriend 
 him. He would present it to her on his knees, and 
 would read his sentence in the looks with which she 
 received the token. He was more composed now, and 
 felt as if he were about the most rational proceeding in 
 the world. 
 
 Acting on this suggestion, Chastelar, with his offering 
 in his hand, stole softly through the gallery and up the 
 staircase that led to the Queen's private apartments. 
 The lights were already extinguished, and none were 
 moving in the palace, save one or two tired domestics, 
 loitering drowsily to bed. With a beating heart and 
 noiseless tread he reached the door of an ante-room that 
 led to the Queen's chamber, and paused for an instant 
 to listen. The latch of the door clanked loudly as he 
 opened it, but all was dark within. 
 
 Whilst deliberating whether to enter or not, a light 
 shone along the passage, and a measm-ed step, accom-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 253 
 
 panied hj tlie rustle of a lady's dress, made his heart 
 leap to his mouth. At this juncture his presence 
 of mind, which had so strangely abandoned him all 
 night, came back in a moment. Without looking to 
 identify the intruder he laid his book upon the door-sill, 
 and stooping down imprinted a kiss on the threshold 
 as one who takes his last leave of the shrine that guards 
 his idol ere he retires. In rising he encountered the 
 Queen herself, still in her robes of ceremony and alone. 
 She was proceeding from the Countess of Argyle's 
 chamber to her own, and had dismissed all her attend- 
 ants save the two that were even now waiting for her 
 in her bed-room. She started when she saw Chastelar, 
 and the blood came to her cheek. Was it the light 
 that shone round her like a glory in the poet's heated 
 imagination that produced the semblance, or was it his 
 own fancy, or could it be reality? — he thought her 
 eyes looked wet with tears. 
 
 This was too much for his over-wrought feelings. 
 He flung himself at Mary's feet, and taking the skirt of 
 her robe in his hands, literally kissed the hem of her 
 garment again and again. 
 
 ' Forgive me. Madam, forgive me ! ' he exclaimed in 
 broken accents and weeping like a woman or a child. 
 ' I could not bear it ; I could not rest ; I felt I had of- 
 fended you — I who would die to give you a moment's 
 pleasure. I was mad ! I knew not what I did, but I 
 crept here to lay my offering at your feet and to pray 
 for your forgiveness ; although you would not know it, 
 would never hear or heed me. Pardon ! oh ! pardon 
 me, my Queen ! ' 
 
 She could not but pity him ; she who was so good
 
 254 
 
 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 and tender-hearted and pitiful to all : his sorrow was 
 so obvious, his misery so complete. She gave him her 
 white hand and bade him rise to his feet ; then she chid 
 him gently, kindly, with a grave sorrow on her young 
 face, like a mother who takes to task a dear but froward 
 child. 
 
 ' You would not grieve me, Chastelar,' said she, ' I 
 know. Not one of my Scottish subjects is more loyal 
 and true than my French minstrel. Give me your book ; 
 I will accept it as a pledge of your service and fidelity 
 to your Sovereign. To your Sovereign,' she added, with 
 a significant look, before which his eyes were lowered 
 and his whole countenance fell. ' I am not only Mary 
 Stuart,' she added, and perhaps it was but his fancy 
 made him think there was a dash of sadness in her tone, 
 ' I am the Queen of Scotland as well. This country 
 too is not like France ; there are grave eyes watching 
 here to which the lightest matters are a scandal and an 
 ofience. Enough of this. I have resolved to trust you, 
 Chastelar ; I will employ you in my service. You will 
 be far from Holyrood, but you will be fulfilling my 
 wishes and fui-thering my interests. To-morrow you will 
 receive your instructions. Chastelar, I can count on 
 obedience. Farewell ! ' 
 
 There was a tone of sorrow in her voice and she looked 
 on him very sadly as she passed on into her apartments 
 out of his sight. 
 
 Though he heard her words, they were unable to rouse 
 him ; though he saw the glance he appeared to heed it 
 not; his frame seemed crushed and powerless; his 
 head was sunk on his breast ; when he lifted it she was 
 gone. Then he drew himself up and looked around
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 255 
 
 him like a man who wakes from some ghastly dream. 
 His face was very white when he walked away, and 
 there was a smile on it not pleasant to behold. You 
 may see such on the face of one who is sentenced to 
 death. 
 
 Why should he be pitied ? If a man must needs sit 
 down to play his all, whose fault is it that he gets up a 
 beggar ? If he grasps at the phial, though it be marked 
 ' Poison,' and drains it to the dregs, what is he to ex- 
 pect ? Experience will not warn the gambler, he must 
 go to the workhouse at last ; nor Reason stay the hand 
 of the suicide, he must die like a dog — in a ditch.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ' To seek hot water beneath cauld ice 
 
 I trow it is a great folie ; 
 I have asked grace at a graceless face, 
 But there is nane for my men and me.' 
 
 HE Queen and her brother sat in grave de- 
 liberation in Her Majesty's private apart- 
 ment. Moray's face betrayed, under its 
 usual composure, a sense of triumph and 
 satisfaction. The scheming Earl had succeeded in 
 bringing about an interview, from which he expected 
 great things, forgetting, as such intriguers often do, 
 the frank nature of his sister, and the uncompromising 
 character of the Churchman whom he wished her to 
 conciliate. He glanced anxiously now and then at the 
 time-piece, for men of his stamp have scant leisure to 
 spare, and something like a smile overspread his fea- 
 tures as he detected a bustle in the ante-room which 
 indicated an arrival. 
 
 Mary seemed absent and depressed. With her cheek 
 leaning on her hand she had listened to her brother's 
 arguments like one whose thoughts are far away. She 
 was already conscious that the burden of state-craft 
 was too heavy for her to bear ; her young head and
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 257 
 
 heart, too, were aching under the weight and restrictions 
 of a crown. 
 
 She looked up with a weary sigh when the door 
 opened, and a staid usher, too long schooled at Court to 
 betray surprise whatever he might feel, announced the 
 entrance of Mr. John Knox. 
 
 The Reformer advanced with the grave dignified air 
 that was habitual to him, and that sprang from no ad- 
 vantages of bodily presence, but from the consciousness 
 of unshaken integrity within. His flowing beard and 
 long black gown accorded well with the severe and 
 thoughtful brow. For an instant, as he lifted his eyes 
 to the beautiful face of his Sovereign, they shone with 
 an expression of pity and admiration that softened his 
 whole countenance ; but the gleam was transient, soon 
 to make way for an increased rigidity of demeanour, as 
 the Churchman recalled the sacred nature of his ofiice 
 and the interests he felt commissioned to represent. 
 
 The Queen rose when he entered and greeted him 
 courteously. They formed a strange contrast, that pair 
 of disputants : icy Winter and leafy June, the budding 
 hawthorn and the knarled oak branch, the smiling sun- 
 beam and the keen north blast, could not have been 
 more difierent. For a moment they were silent, and 
 scanned each other narrowly. Her Majesty, as became 
 her rank, was the first to speak. 
 
 ' I have summoned you, master Knox,' said she, ' for 
 that I would not willingly mistrust a friend, without an 
 explanation, or condemn a subject unheard. There is 
 sedition abroad in Scotland, and those in whom a Queen 
 should put her confidence conspire to bring her authority 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 to nought. Master Knox, master Knox, can you 
 answer to your Sovereign the heavy charges brought 
 against you ? ' 
 
 ' To my Sovereign, and to hers^ replied the Reformer, 
 pointing upward. ' Confront me with mine accusers, 
 Madam, and I will put them to open shame.' 
 
 ' Nay,' resumed the Queen, glancing at her brother 
 as if for support, ' I can judge of your sedition for my- 
 self. Have you not written a book expressly to over- 
 throw my just government, wherein the casuistry and 
 lore for which you are celebrated have been employed for 
 the worst purpose ; but which, nevertheless, I will com- 
 mission the most learned men in Europe to refute ? 
 Have you not stirred up rebellion, and even caused 
 bloodshed, in England, to sap the very foundations of 
 my throne ? Have you not practised the black un- 
 hallowed art of magic, rather than leave a stone 
 unturned to fui'ther your cruel and undutiful enmity 
 against me your Queen ? ' 
 
 ' Madam,' replied the Preacher, not without a certain 
 sarcastic admiration in his tone, ' you are skilled in the 
 knowledge of the schools, and for a gentlewoman tole- 
 rably familiar with the laws of logic and the rules of 
 disputation. I will answer your charges categorically 
 and in order. If to teach the word of truth to the dis- 
 comfiture of idolatry ; if to exhort the multitude to that 
 worship of the spirit which is alone acceptable in the 
 sight of heaven ; if to fulfil the commission of my 
 Master by waging war to the death against the Roman 
 Antichrist, to hew down root and branch, and cast 
 into the fire the deadly Upas-tree — its breviaries, its 
 scapularies, its masses, its mummeries, its rank bias-
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 259 
 
 phemous ceremonials : if this be sedition and rebellion, 
 I plead guilty. If princes are not better served by 
 those who have cast off the yoke of the popish despot, 
 and if subjects are not more loyal who fear God and 
 honour the king, than those who flatter the crown and 
 obey the crozier. If your Grace have not more cheer- 
 ful homage from your free Scottish people than ever 
 your fathers enjoyed from our priest-ridden forbears, — 
 I plead guilty. If mine enemies can prove that one 
 drop of blood hath ever been shed by my influence or 
 my consent ; if they can deny that wherever I have 
 lived, at Geneva, in England, at Berwick, and now in 
 Edinburgh, it has been my constant endeavour to in- 
 culate the doctrines of " peace and good-will," and God 
 hath so blessed my labours that they have borne fruit 
 an hundred-fold, — I plead guilty. With regard to the 
 charge of magic, I can the more easily bear the brunt of 
 that indictment when I mind me that my Master while 
 on earth was taxed with the same accusation. What 
 said the priests? the priests. Madam, who like your 
 own were fain to own all the wealth and power of 
 earth at the loss of heaven, — " He casteth out devils," 
 said they, " by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." 
 So far as I have striven to walk in the footsteps of my 
 Master ; so far as my weak unworthy efforts have 
 been directed to follow His example, — to this also I 
 plead guilty. But if these charges fail, as fail they 
 must, when your Grace brings your own clear-sighted 
 reason to bear upon them, the verdict will be " not 
 guilty," and the accusation of rebellion and sedition 
 falls to the ground.' 
 
 Mary had been listening with obvious impatience 
 
 B 2
 
 260 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 and no very close attention. She had perhaps made up 
 her mind beforehand. She had again seated herself, 
 and tapped the floor fretfully with her foot, glancing 
 occasionally at her brother as if to ascertain his opinion 
 of the controversy. Moray looked on with the calm 
 approval of a partisan, who thinks his own man is get- 
 ting the best of it. When Knox paused, the Queen 
 broke in with unusual vehemence, 
 
 ' And the book ? At least you cannot deny the 
 book, nor its object, nor its reflections on my mother 
 and myself. Even the nice casuistry of master Knox 
 cannot refine away his authorship of that " First Blast 
 of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of 
 Women." Oh ! it is a worthy title for a worthy pro- 
 duction ! and in any other country under Heaven but 
 this it would have brought its writer to the block. By 
 the crown I wear, in a parallel case, my Cousin of 
 England would have had it burnt by the common hang- 
 man ! ' 
 
 She breathed quick and gesticulated more than was 
 her wont. She was lashing herself into anger, the 
 gentle Queen, as she thought of her own weakness and 
 Elizabeth Tudor's strength. Knox met her glance 
 unmoved. When thus embarked on the tide of argu- 
 ment, he was no more to be influenced by force than 
 persuasion ; the softest eyes that ever smiled and the 
 sternest brows that ever frowned were alike to him. In 
 the pride of his calling and the fierce delight of dis- 
 putation, a man of marble within and without. 
 
 ' As to the book that so angers your Majesty,' said 
 he, ' I owTi to it freely. Yes, I wrote it deliberately 
 and on reflection, nor is there a position laid down, nor
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 261 
 
 an argument adduced in the whole of it that I fear to 
 establish and substantiate before any ten of the most 
 learned men in Europe ! ' 
 
 ' Then you maintain that I have no just authority 
 even over my own subjects,' urged the Queen, with diffi- 
 culty keeping back her tears. 
 
 ' These are all fair matters for dispute, Madam,' was 
 his reply. ' The learned may surely be suffered to dis- 
 cuss such questions unmolested, when they refrain from 
 putting their theories of good government into practice. 
 Plato himself, as I need scarcely remind your Majesty, 
 argued the necessity of many reforms fundamentally 
 opposed to the very principles of the commonwealth in 
 which he lived. The litera scripta manet indeed, Madam ; 
 but it is for future generations ; and no book written, if 
 left unfortified by persecution, ever yet subverted the 
 authority existent at the time it was composed, and 
 against which it may seem to have been aimed. Be- 
 sides, Madam,' added the Churchman, warming into 
 good-humour as he got into the full swing of his 
 oratory, ' my book was not directed so much against 
 yourself as your name-sake, the bloody Jezebel of 
 England, with her wicked satellites, godless Gardiner 
 and blaspheming Bonner, the one on her right hand 
 and the other on her left! Had I meant to have 
 troubled your estate. Madam, would I not have chosen 
 a more fitting time and a weaker breach in the defences, 
 for my assault?' 
 
 ' But at least,' resumed Mary, a little mollified by 
 this admission, ' ye cannot deny that ye have taught the 
 people to follow a religion difierent from that of their . 
 prince. How is this to be reconciled with the divine
 
 262 THE queen's MArjES, 
 
 command that subjects should obey their rulers ? I 
 cannot wrestle with you in argument, master Knox, I 
 am but a foolish woman after all, yet here, methinks, I 
 have you on the hip.' 
 
 He paused a moment, like a true rhetorician, gratified 
 at an opposition he deemed worthy to be controverted. 
 
 ' The objection, Madam,' he answered, ' is a fair one ; 
 yet thus do I demolish it. True religion, it cannot be 
 disputed, cometh from God and not from the King, else 
 why are we enjoined but to honour the latter, whilst we 
 are to fear and consequently obey the former ? This 
 is the argument positive. Of the negative I can pro- 
 duce instances in abundance. The following may be 
 thought sufficient : The Hebrews were not to conform 
 to the idolatry of Pharaoh or the self-glorification of 
 Nebuchadnezzar the King, nor were the primitive 
 Christians to practise the degrading superstitions of the 
 Roman Emperors.' 
 
 ' Good,' replied Mary ; ' yet we read not that Jew or 
 Christian was justified in resisting with the sword.' 
 
 ' The Almighty had not seen fit to give them the 
 power,' answered Knox. 
 
 ' Then you hold that subjects are entitled to take up 
 arms against their Sovereign,' proceeded Mary ; ' in good 
 faith, master Knox, this is a dangerous doctrine even 
 in these lawless times.' 
 
 ' Extreme means are allowable in extreme cases,' was 
 his reply ; ' the father hath authority over his family, 
 but if the father be seized with madness it is lawful for 
 the children to rise up against him and, stripping him 
 of his power, to place him under constraint, for his safety 
 and their own. So is it with princes, Madam ; and that
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYKOOD. 263 
 
 prince who goeth about in his frenzy to commit iniquity 
 must be disarmed, deposed, and cast into prison, until 
 he hath been brought to a more sober mind and disci- 
 plined to submission under the will of Heaven.' 
 
 It was a bold argument to propound in a royal palace 
 in the presence of majesty itself. The Queen looked at 
 her brother astonished and aghast. True to his part, 
 Moray assumed an air of profound reflection and con- 
 viction after mature thought. Again Mary felt goaded 
 to irritation as she wondered how Elizabeth would have 
 brooked a similar discussion, but she commanded her- 
 self with a strong effort and shifted her ground for a 
 new attack. 
 
 'And where shall we find this will of Heaven de- 
 clared,' argued the Queen, ' or who shall decide between 
 you and me when each interprets differently the same 
 command ? ' 
 
 ' The words of Scripture and the ordinances of the 
 Church are sufiicient for our guidance,' replied the 
 Preacher. 
 
 ' But your Church is not mine^ retorted the Queen. 
 * I believe in my heart the Church of Rome to be the 
 true Chm-ch of God.' 
 
 ' Your will, Madam,' said the other, ' cannot impose 
 a reason, neither doth opinion constitute argument; I 
 am fully prepared to bear witness against the Scarlet 
 Woman, whom ye would fain substitute for the pure 
 Spouse ; but I will employ the weapons of controversy, 
 in which mine adversaries are so skilled, to do battle 
 for the right. I will undertake to prove, against the 
 strongest of your priestly disputants, that the Romish 
 Church hath more degenerated from the truth and
 
 264 THE QUEEN'S MAETES, 
 
 purity of apostolical teaching, than the Jews from the 
 ordinances handed down to them by their first law- 
 givers — Moses and Aaron — when they shouted to the 
 Roman governor, that he should crucify the Innocent 
 and let Barabbas go free.' 
 
 • ' My conscience tells me it is not so,' answered Mary. 
 
 * I cannot contend with you in argument, as it is neither 
 my profession nor my pleasure ; but I have read and 
 studied and formed my own conclusions. Why should 
 not my views be as clear as yours, or may we not both 
 be right?' 
 
 ' Impossible ! ' thundered Knox. ' Ye shall come out 
 from the ungodly and shall not be partakers with them, 
 no, not of one single drop in the cup of their abomina- 
 tions. There is but one straight path for monarch and 
 subject, the Queen on her throne and the beggar at the 
 gate. I tell you, Madam, that if you deviate from it 
 one hair's-breadth you shall be lost in the howling wil- 
 derness and become the prey of the raging lion. I will 
 not concede to you one jot nor one tittle ; I will prove 
 to you that your tenets are false, your practice sinful, 
 and your ceremonials blasphemous. Stone by stone will 
 I destroy the edifice that priestly ambition hath raised 
 on the foundations of corruption and cemented with the 
 blood of the prophets from time to time, even unto this 
 day. First of all I will demolish the very key-stone on 
 which the whole fabric rests ; I will cast down the idol 
 and trample it under my feet ; I will testify in the face 
 of all men against the gross and godless mummery of 
 the Mass.' 
 
 Mary looked shocked and a little scared at his ve- 
 hemence ; she was ii-ritated too by this unscrupulous
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLTROOD. 265 
 
 attack on all she held most sacred, but she controlled 
 herself and only replied quietly, 
 
 ' Abuse is not argument, master Knox ; neither are 
 assertions of much weight until they are proved.' 
 
 He settled his gown on his shoulders, and spreading 
 his hands before him, proceeded to demonstrate his pro- 
 positions in the manner that had become habitual to 
 him in the pulpit, checking off the main points of his 
 argument on his fingers as he proceeded. 
 
 ' Ye maintain the Mass,' said he, ' to be a sacrifice, 
 and, as such, to be holy in itself, for that things are sanc- 
 tified which have been once placed upon the altar ! Ye 
 argue that in the Scriptures are to be found antitypes 
 that shall support this doctrine, and that Melchizedek, 
 when he brought out bread and wine before Abraham, 
 prefigm-ed the offering which ye now esteem to be the 
 holiest of mysteries. I will not pause to discuss with 
 one of your Majesty's learning the object with which 
 Melchizedek brought forth these provisions, nor the ar- 
 guments which may be produced for and against the 
 probability that he simply offered them as refreshment 
 to Abraham and his company. We will let this be 
 for the present, and proceed at once to the very root 
 and core of the matter. Ye shall observe, Madam, that 
 of sacrifices there are two kinds — the sacrifices of propi- 
 tiation and the sacrifices of thanksgiving — the propitia- 
 torice and the eucharistice. Now, with regard to the 
 former,' — 
 
 ' Hold, sir,' interrupted the Queen, much to the 
 Divine's disappointment. ' Now ye are lamiched on 
 the depths of controversial divinity, which are too pro- 
 found for me, and ye would fain confuse and overwhelm
 
 266 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 me with jour learned Latin terms ; I pray your mercy. 
 Under favour, I shall find those who are better capable 
 than I am of holding their ground in argument against 
 master Knox.' 
 
 ' So be it, Madam,' answered the Reformer proudly ; 
 ' as in the dark a^es om* ancestors feared not to 
 encounter the strongest champions armed with fleshly 
 weapons in the lists, so shall I be found, I humbly trust, 
 prompt at the hour of trial to do battle in the cause of 
 Truth.' 
 
 ' Those champions at least turned not their weapons 
 against a weak, helpless woman,' replied Mary in a 
 tone of considerable exasperation. ' When they op- 
 posed their Sovereign, it was to resist tyi'anny and 
 oppression, not to deprive him of his dignity, and even 
 curtail him of his very amusements. They fronted 
 him boldly in the field, but they would have scorned 
 to wound him in his tenderest feelings, or to attack 
 him in the privacy of his household.' 
 
 ' Your Majesty's shaft is well-aimed,' replied Knox ; 
 ' yet doth it rebound harmless from the armour of 
 duty in which the minister of the Word is encased. It 
 is my calling. Madam, to reprove sin from the pulpit, 
 whether it be found rearing its head on high in the 
 palace or crawling among the sewers of the street. I 
 tell you, Mary Stuart, that the day will come when 
 your masques and your music and your mummeries 
 shall be recorded against you in such characters of fire 
 as roused Belshazzar and his nobles from their last 
 revelry on earth. In your feastings and fiddlings and 
 dancings do ye remember the dance of death, down 
 which ye are footing it so thoughtlessly ? When your
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLTROOD. 267 
 
 ears are tickled by the foolish squeaking of your lutes, 
 your rebecks, or your vii'ginals, do ye reflect on the 
 awful blast of the last trumpet and the wail of per- 
 dition coming up from the lake of fire ? ' 
 
 ' Then you esteem a simple innocent measure to be 
 an unpardonable sin,' retorted the Queen, in high 
 scorn. ' Master Knox, master Knox, is there not a 
 certain virtue called Charity, without which all the 
 others are of no avail ? ' 
 
 ' The guilt of the action, Madam,' answered he, 
 argumentatively, ' depends on the motive of the dancer. 
 David, indeed, leaped and danced before the Ark ; but 
 it was in pious zeal and singleness of heart. Not so 
 that child of sin, the daughter of Herodias, graceful 
 and fierce-hearted as the panther, when she danced oiF 
 the head of John the Baptist. Think ye. Madam, 
 that the walls of Holyrood will shelter the guilty more 
 securely than the roof of Antipas? Think ye that 
 can be but a harmless folly in the Queen of Scotland, 
 which entailed the curse of blood on that flaunting 
 minion who so charmed and cozened the Tetrarch of 
 Galilee?' 
 
 ' And you dare to compare me to her ! ' exclaimed 
 Mary, rising from her chair with flashing eyes. ' This 
 is too much ! Moray ! Brother ! I appeal to you ! 
 This is too much ! ' 
 
 And turning away she covered her face with both 
 hands and burst into tears. 
 
 Even Knox could not see her thus unmoved. He has- 
 tened to explain away all that was most ofiensive in his 
 allusions. As far as lay in his uncompromising nature, 
 he strove to modify the virulence of his declamation.
 
 268 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 ' Nay, Madam,' said he; * to be effectual the remedies 
 of the physician must be unpalatable ; but I mean not 
 to offend your Majesty, nor to be guilty of any dis- 
 respect towards your person. I would that you could 
 see many matters in another and a clearer light for your 
 own welfare and that of your people. It is my zeal 
 for your Majesty's happiness here and hereafter that 
 makes me so stern and so unpleasant a counsellor. I 
 •will fulfil my duty even at the risk of your Majesty's 
 displeasure, and yet it grieves me in my human weak- 
 ness to see your fair face sad. It is my daily prayer 
 that Mary Stuart should be brought into the right 
 path. I am an old man. Madam, if not in years, in 
 labour and bodily infirmities. I am no courtier, ye 
 know right well. Believe me, I cherish no disloyalty 
 towards your person. I would fain see you a happy 
 triumphant monarch, the joy of your people, the hope 
 and stay of the godly, a fruitful branch in the vine- 
 yard, and a second Deborah in Israel ! ' 
 
 The Queen was easily mollified. A bright smile 
 dried the tears on her face, and she stretched her 
 hand graciously to the zealous Reformer. 
 
 ' Ye shall advise with me from time to time, master 
 Knox,' said she. ' If I cannot compete with you in 
 argument, I can at least equal you in truth and 
 sincerity, and a good-will to do that which is right.' 
 
 The Churchman's stem nature was moved. He bent 
 over the hand she gave him, and made as though he 
 would have touched it with his lips ; then dropped it 
 somewhat awkwardly, and resumed with a little em- 
 barrassment, 
 
 'I am at your Majesty's service always, second
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 269 
 
 only to His whose minister I am. Yet I beseech you 
 to dismiss me. I may tarry no longer; even now I 
 shall be blamed that I am not at my book.' 
 
 ' Ye cannot be always at your book,' replied the 
 Queen, smiling. ' Doth not Solomon tell us, " there is 
 a time for all things ? " ' 
 
 ' Even so, Madam,' answered Knox, moving re- 
 spectfully towards the door ; ' yet must Time himself 
 be seized by the forelock, for his poll is bald behind. 
 Master Buchanan would not fail to remind your Majesty, 
 
 " Fronte capillata post est occasio calva." ' 
 
 The Queen either imperfectly heard or did not per- 
 fectly understand, for she bowed her farewell without 
 replying; but Moray, pondering on the adage, shook 
 his head as he murmured, more to himself than to her, 
 
 ' There is a time even for seizing the time ; and it 
 is but an indiscreet haste that would pluck the pear 
 before it is ripe ! ' 
 
 As Knox traversed the ante-room in leaving the 
 royal audience-chamber, he found the Maries sitting 
 at work in that apartment, and paused for an instant 
 on his way through, to contemplate that which was 
 in truth a sufficiently pleasing scene. The ladies were 
 seated in different attitudes at their embroidery, and 
 although, doubtless, they had been in the full tide 
 of conversation previously, there was a profound silence 
 at the moment of his entrance. 
 
 Wistfully, nay sadly, with the concerned air of one 
 who looks on a bed of lilies that he foresees are to be 
 withered at night by the early frost, the Preacher 
 gazed for an instant on this bevy of beauty ere he
 
 270 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 uncovered his head to salute them. In doing so his 
 cap slipped out of his hand to the ground, and it was 
 curious to observe the behaviour of the Maries at this 
 juncture. It is needless to state that master Knox 
 enjoyed but a small share of popularity amongst these 
 ladies. As the official reprover of all their gaieties 
 and amusements, it may easily be understood that they 
 looked on him with no approving eye, and that if they 
 had one favom-ite aversion at the Court, next to a wet 
 Valentine's day, it was master John Knox. 
 
 Though of active habits the great Reformer was 
 somewhat stiff and enfeebled with rheumatism ; he 
 stooped with difficulty, and for awhile could not re- 
 cover his lost head-gear. 
 
 Mistress Beton, sitting bolt upright, looked straight 
 beyond him at the opposite wall with the air of being 
 as unconscious of his presence as Mary Hamilton 
 really was. The latter had indeed been all the 
 morning immersed in a brown study from which it 
 seemed impossible to extricate her. Mistress Car- 
 michael was not in the best of humours, and it may 
 be observed that her fair brow had of late been con- 
 tinually clouded, and her eyes full of tears, without 
 apparent cause. She made not the slightest move- 
 ment of assistance in the old man's favour, and even 
 whispered something to Mary Seton with marked and 
 offensive indifference ; but the latter, springing gaily from 
 her chair, picked up the fallen skull-cap and returned 
 it to its owner with a pleasant smile, which, saucy as 
 it was, brightened her whole face like a smibeam. 
 
 ' I thank thee, fair mistress,' said Knox. ' These old 
 limbs of mine are stiff now, and the time is not far
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 271 
 
 off when thej shall be motionless for evermore. Your 
 knees are young and supple ; the more cause have you 
 to be thankful and to bend them while you can in 
 prayer.' 
 
 ' The neck may be stiff as well as the knees,' 
 answered Mary Seton, glancing meaningly towards 
 the Queen's chamber. ' I hope my loyalty may out- 
 last my lissomeness, if I live to be as old as your 
 Reverence ! ' 
 
 He smiled on her sorrowfully yet kindly. 
 
 ' The yomig,' said he, ' think that they are to live 
 for ever, and the old hope still to live a few years 
 longer. Fair mistress, fear God, do your duty, and 
 snap your fingers at the chances of life.' 
 
 Mistress Beton here interposed with stately scorn. 
 
 ' We shall scarce take lessons of master Knox,' 
 said she, ' in our duty towards the Queen. Under 
 favour, sir, we need none of your Reverence's teaching 
 in loyalty and obedience.' 
 
 He turned good-humouredly towards her, still smiling. 
 
 ' Ye are angry with me, fair ladies,' said he, ' and 
 why ? Because I am too old to learn your courtly 
 graces, and too honest to use your courtly terms? 
 Because I call a fig a fig when I see one, and a spade 
 a spade. Nay, ye should rather prize and cherish one 
 who can look even on your beauty without his eyes 
 being dazzled, and tell you the truth for your salvation, 
 rather than a lie for your ruin.' 
 
 ' Ye speak fairly,' answered Mary Seton, who in 
 virtue of her previous civility seemed to have consti- 
 tuted herself in some sort his protectress. ' Yet I 
 warrant me ye spake not so tenderly to Her Majesty
 
 272 THE QUEEN'S MARIES. 
 
 even now. I marvel that ye are not abashed to look 
 thus boldly in the face of an anointed Queen ! ' 
 
 ' Nay, young lady,' answered the Preacher, in a tone 
 of pleasant humour, 'why should the fair face of a 
 gentlewoman frighten me, who have fronted many angry 
 men. Think ye a bonny brow, unscored by guilt, can 
 be an object of terror, whether it be crowned with a 
 circle of gold like hers, or a wealth of bright hair 
 like your own ? No, no, the old man can neither be 
 coaxed nor frightened from doing his duty.' 
 
 The Maries looked from one to the other in un- 
 certainty. Knox had obviously gained their attention, 
 and he added a few words with a good motive. 
 
 ' I tell ye the truth, fair ladies,' said he, preparing 
 to withdraw. ' Better take it from me than the truth- 
 teller to whom ye must listen some day, whether ye 
 will or no. Aye ! what a goodly life were this if it 
 could last for ever, or if we might but pass to Heaven 
 with all this gay gear ; but out upon the knave Death ! 
 that cometh whether we will or no, and strippeth us 
 of all, and taketh us we know not where ! Prepare 
 yourselves for him now, fair ladies, while he is afar, so 
 when he cometh ye shall be found watching, and may 
 laugh in his face.' 
 
 His admonition was well meant and received with 
 sufficient decorum, but the impression soon faded away, 
 for he had not been gone five minutes ere they fell to 
 discussing his outward appearance, the severity of his 
 manners, the fashion of his garments, and the general 
 unloveliness of his demeanour.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ' I freighted my bark with the rich and rare, 
 
 Alice of Ormsldrk, all for thee, 
 Little I reckoned of cost or care, 
 But I launched her out on a summer sea — 
 
 ' A summer sea and a smiling sky. 
 
 Never a ripple and never a frown. 
 Never a token of shipwreck nigh ; 
 
 What did it matter ? The bark went down. 
 
 OHN KNOX went back to his studies and 
 his hxbours. The Queen and her Maries 
 betook themselves to the duties of adorn- 
 ment and the preparations for a journey. 
 The Court was about to move for a season to the pleasant 
 sea-side town of St. Andrew's in Fife, a favourite resort 
 with Her Majesty, and much affected by the household, 
 as their sojourn in the old episcopal city was marked by 
 a gaiety and freedom from restraint exceedingly wel- 
 come both to the Sovereign and her Court. The caval- 
 cade moved off in high spirits. It was but a small 
 party, consisting at the most of not more than twenty 
 equestrians, including the four maids-of-honour, and the 
 more immediate attendants on the person of royalty. 
 Horses stamped and snorted, and shook their bridles 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 merrily, as they were mounted at the palace-gates to 
 move on in gay procession down the winding causeway 
 that led towards the Firth. Feathers waved, spurs 
 jingled, men's voices rose in merriment, and the soft 
 laughter of women floated like music on the pure calm 
 air. The dames of Queen Mary's household, like their 
 Mistress, were skilful horsewomen, yet it was wonderful 
 how many of those little attentions, which are so de- 
 lightful to render and so welcome to receive, they ex- 
 acted from the cavaliers who accompanied them. Horses 
 were insufliciently bitted, saddles insecurely girthed, 
 housings unbecomingly disposed ; it seemed as if each 
 of the fair travellers had reason to complain of her 
 groom's negligence or incapacity, yet they bore it with 
 exemplary good-humour notwithstanding. Even Mary 
 Carmichael, after refusing assistance from every gentle- 
 man in turn, and bending her pretty fingers backward 
 against an obstinate buckle, was fain to apply to Walter 
 Maxwell for his help ; and although it was rendered 
 in the gravest and coldest manner possible, thanked 
 him with a bright and kindly smile. It was, perhaps, 
 the most provoking way to treat him. Had she quar- 
 reled with him outright, he would have known how to 
 act, for he was hurt and angered to the depths of his 
 loyal and resolute heart, but this off-hand good-humour 
 was irritating in the extreme. It was treating him like 
 a child, he thought, and he chafed under it inwardly, 
 the while the girl herself was only striving to avoid a 
 final rupture, and longing to be friends with him as 
 before. 
 
 ' Do you journey with us to St. Andrew's?' said she, 
 glancing timidly at his immovable face, or do you
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 275 
 
 return to Holyrood from the water-side?' and her heart 
 beat faster while she waited for his answer. 
 
 ' As the Queen shall direct,' he replied, it must be 
 admitted, not with his natural sincerity. ' I confess I 
 am profoundly indifferent myself,' He spoke in a hard 
 dry tone, and she made her horse bound forward from 
 his side, and bent her head down to caress the animal, 
 till her bright hair mingled with its mane. 
 
 The others rode gaily on, talking and laughing joy- 
 fully, all but the Queen. Mary Stuart was a thought 
 paler than her wont, and unusually silent and pre-occu- 
 pied. Was it that the remonstrances of master Knox 
 had sunk into her heart ? or was she over-laden with 
 the cares of her kingdom ? or was there some feeling 
 of pity and compunction gnawing her, foreign to the 
 weightier considerations of religion and policy, yet, 
 perhaps, keener and more engrossing than these? 
 Whatever might be the reason, she, who was generally 
 so eager, so buoyant, on an expedition like this, now 
 rode listlessly and carelessly with her hand resting idle 
 on her knee, and her rein lying loose on her horse's 
 neck. ' Black Agnes,' however, by no means shared 
 the dejection of her Mistress. That favourite palfrey, 
 a gift from her brother Moray, and called after the 
 famous Agnes of Dmibar, who was Countess of Moray 
 in her own right, was in the highest spirits at her 
 release from the stable, and sharing the mettle of the 
 tameless heroine whose name she bore, was no eligible 
 conveyance for an inattentive horsewoman. Ere the 
 gleaming waters of the Firth were in sight, the black 
 mare shied at a beggar on the road-side and swerved 
 from him with such activity, that Mary, unprepared as 
 
 T 2
 
 276 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 she was, must have been unseated had a dexterous hand 
 not seized her bridle-rein at the decisive moment, and a 
 ready arm supported her till she regained her balance 
 in the saddle. 
 
 ' It is the last service I may render my Queen,' said 
 Chastelar's low sad voice in her ear. ' Oh ! Madam, send 
 me not away from you, I beseech you ! ' 
 
 She knew he was in the cavalcade, indeed she had 
 never retracted the permission originally given, that he 
 should accompany the Court to St. Andrew's, and per- 
 haps something had told her he was not riding very far 
 off, althouo-h she had resolved to treat him henceforth 
 with enforced coldness and reserve. As she turned to 
 thank him now, and marked his gallant bearing, the 
 skill with which he rode his mettled chestnut horse, the 
 bravery of his apparel, the respectful deference of his 
 manner, and the pale worn face that told of so much 
 sorrow and suffering, the Queen's heart swelled with that 
 remorseful pity which is not many degrees removed from 
 a softer feeling. 
 
 ' You must leave me now,' she said hurriedly. ' I 
 will tell you more when we are embarked. You shall 
 come to me then for your last directions, Chastelar, 
 and to bid me farewell ! ' 
 
 ' Is there no hope ? ' he asked in a low stifled whis- 
 per. 
 
 ' None,' she answered firmly, in the same guarded 
 tone. ' Oh ! Chastelar ! I pity you,' she added, while 
 the tears sprang to her eyes ; ' from my heart I pity 
 you, but it must be so.' 
 
 He fell back quietly and humbly. Mary put ' Black 
 Agnes ' into a gallop, and the cavalcade were soon en-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 277 
 
 gaged in all the bustle of embarkation at the water- 
 side. 
 
 It was Valentine's Day, and the weather was indeed 
 in unison with that mild and popular saint. It was 
 one of those soft pleasant days, with a calm atmosphere 
 and a serene though clouded sky, that come in the 
 early spring to remind us of the principles of growth 
 and fragrance, still existing, though dormant, in the 
 bosom of the teeming earth. The russet sward was 
 saturated with moisture, and not a bud had yet started 
 into life, not a snowdrop lifted its gentle head on the 
 southern side of the sleeping braes and shaws, heavy 
 with the promise of another year. Ashore, the rooks 
 were flocking to the fresh turned glebe, where the 
 bright ploughshare, sticking in the furrow, marked 
 that the half-day's work was done ; while, on the broad 
 Firth, soft and smooth and white as milk, the dark 
 sea-bird rode calm and motionless, as if at anchor, 
 poised on the surface of his home ; the distant moun- 
 tains loomed grand and dim and sullen, the nearer 
 points and promontories shot sharply out into the 
 water, clearly defined against the sheeted level of the 
 Firth ; the very tide seemed but to heave and sob at 
 intervals, lapping drowsily against the dripping sea- 
 weed on the rocks. It was a scene of beauty, but 
 beauty of a softening, saddening tendency, and all on 
 board were fain to acknowledge its melancholy influence 
 and partake in the depression it produced. 
 
 The sturdy boatmen bent to their oars ; the cour- 
 tiers, disposed in difierent attitudes, appeared chiefly 
 intent on arriving at the termination of their voyage ; 
 and Mary, sitting in the stem of the boat, dipped her
 
 278 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 hand idlj in the water, silent and gazing downwards, 
 in obvious disquietude of mind, 
 
 Chastelar watched the Queen with eager eyes. After 
 a while he struck a few notes on the lute, without which 
 he seldom travelled ; and observing that this, as usual, 
 was the signal for general attention, and that Mary 
 did not seem to disapprove, proceeded to play a mourn- 
 ful melody, which as it rose and fell, he accompanied 
 in apparent abstraction with his voice. 
 
 ' Gone ! wholly gone ! How cold and dark ; 
 
 A cheerless world, of hope bereft ; 
 The beacon quenched, and not a spark 
 In all the dull grey ashes left. 
 
 ' No more, no more, a living part 
 
 In life's contending maze to own ; 
 Dead to its kind, an empty heart 
 Feeds on itself alone !— alone ! 
 
 ' The present all a blank, and worse ; 
 No ray along the future cast ; 
 All blighted by the blighting curse 
 Except the past ! — except the past ! 
 
 ' Aye, if the cup be crushed and spilt, 
 More than the sin the loss I rue, 
 And if the cloud was black with guilt 
 The silver light of love shone through. 
 
 ' And though the price be maddening pain ; 
 One half their rapture to restore, 
 And live those blissful hours again, 
 I'd pay the cruel price once more. 
 
 'Dreams ! Dreams ! Not backward flows the tide 
 Of life and love, — it cannot be : 
 Well — thine the triumpli and the pride, 
 The suifering and the shame for me !'
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 279 
 
 As he concluded, even the rough boatmen looked 
 from one to the other in undisguised approval. Never 
 insensible to the charms of music have been these bold 
 sons of the sea. To this day they are persuaded that 
 the silver shoals of herring are attracted by harmonious 
 sounds, and they dredge for oysters with a low mono- 
 tonous chant, that they believe peculiarly grateful to 
 that retiring zoophyte. Long after Chastelar's last 
 notes had died graduallv out over the silent waters, 
 they laid to their oars with a will, and seemed to pull 
 their long sweeping strokes in measured cadence to the 
 unforgotten strain. The Maries, too, applauded enthu- 
 siastically, all but one, and she was weeping in silence, 
 because her heart was full. 
 
 In the stern of the boat, a wide roomy shallop, 
 pulled by some six or eight oars, the Queen sat apart 
 from the rest of the company. More than once she 
 had glanced at Chastelar while he sung, and varying 
 expressions, none of them in keeping with the serene 
 sky overhead, had crossed her brow. After he had 
 finished she remained silent for several minutes, ab- 
 sorbed in deep reflection. By degrees as they ap- 
 proached the opposite shore of Burntisland, and the 
 hills of Fife began to rise clear and brown above the 
 black jagged rocks, and level strips of white sand that 
 edged the water's margin, the attention of Her Ma- 
 jesty's train became diverted to the different objects 
 around, and anon a shoal of porpoises, tumbling to 
 windward in grotesque succession, drew them, with 
 many exclamations of wonder and amusement, to the 
 bows. 
 
 None were now left in the stern of the boat save the
 
 280 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 Queen and the steersman. That ancient Triton's whole 
 attention was rivetted, seaman-like, on the shallows 
 they were nearing, where for the first time during their 
 passage, the rolling waves were breaking languidly into 
 surf. Chastelar remained in the place he had never 
 quitted, his eyes fixed on the Queen's face. She 
 beckoned him to approach, and in an instant he was at 
 her side. 
 
 ' We remain at Burntisland to-night,' said INIary, in 
 a low measured voice that seemed the result either of 
 extreme indifference or perfect self-command. ' In the 
 morning we shall ride on to St. Andrew's, I have a 
 packet that must be delivered without delay at Dun- 
 fermline. Can I depend upon you to undertake its 
 safe arrival there before to-morrow's dawn ? ' 
 
 He assented eagerly. This was no such distant 
 banishment ! He should be under the same sky, 
 within a day's journey ! the light of hope shone over 
 his face, but while the Queen proceeded in those dry 
 chilling tones, it faded as it came. 
 
 ' You will ride thence to Stirling, w^here you will 
 remain until you receive instructions from Maitland or 
 Melvil. They will be accompanied by letters for the 
 French Court, and on the instant of their receipt you 
 will depart for Paris. Chastelar, I depend upon your 
 obedience — you will not fail me,' 
 
 The cold drops stood on his forehead. It was in a 
 broken hollow voice, that he replied, 
 
 ' My life is in your hands. Do with me what you 
 will!' 
 
 Again her kindly heart smote her sore. It was a fear- 
 ful gift this charm that she possessed. It was a dread-
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 281 
 
 ful responsibility thus to hold the happiness of a human 
 being, so to speak, in her hand. Could she dash it to 
 pieces without some tinge of pity and remorse ? She 
 resumed her task very sadly and unwillingly. 
 
 ' It is better,' said she, ' that this should be done at 
 once. Queen though she be, nay, because she is a 
 Queen, Mary Stuart may not listen for a moment to 
 the voice of her own feelings, nor the impulse of her 
 own heart, pitying as it does those who are in trouble, 
 though their sufferings and their sorrows spring from 
 their own deed. Nay,' she added, seeing him about to 
 speak, and deprecating his words, as it were, with a 
 gentle, almost a caressing gesture of her white hand, 
 ' there is nothing you can urge that shall induce me to 
 alter my determination. A woman's heart is weak, but 
 her ivill is iron as a man's. It must be so Chastelar, for 
 your own sake — and — and for mine ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, God!' he exclaimed, in an agony like a man 
 writhing under a death-blow. ' Have pity — have pity ! 
 Anything but this — any disgrace, any punishment, any 
 ordeal. But oh ! think of the forlorn despairing prayer, 
 " Entreat me not to leave thee !" ' 
 
 The tears dropped fast from her eyes, and the beauti- 
 ful face quivered in its struggle to be firm. What was 
 that to him ? He could only think her hard, unfeeling 
 as the sea-board rock. She yielded not an inch. 
 
 ' It must be so,' she repeated, ' loyal and true, you 
 will not fail me at last ! ' 
 
 His eyes flashed with anger. Man's nature can 
 scarce endure great sorrow without a tinge of resent- 
 ment. 
 
 ' Loyalty and truth are soon forgotten in the absent,'
 
 282 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 said he, bitterly. ' Lip-service and flattery are more 
 welcome to princes. I cannot refuse to make room for 
 a newer favourite ! ' 
 
 She smiled on him gentle and forgiving through her 
 tears. 
 
 ' You are unjust,' she said, ' and unkind ; you know 
 it is not so, and when you are far off" it will be your 
 punishment to think that you could have spoken such 
 words to me to-day.' 
 
 The re-action of his feelings was frightful : he put 
 his hand to his throat as if he was choking, and gasped 
 out in broken syllables, 
 
 ' Forgive me ! only forgive me before I go out from 
 the- light into eternal darkness and despair ! ' 
 
 ' Obedience ? ' she asked in her turn, looking wistfully 
 at the shore which they were now approaching, and on 
 their arrival at which, something perhaps warned her 
 that she must take her last leave of Chastelar and his 
 unselfish, unexacting devotion. 
 
 ' To the death ! ' he replied, and even while he spoke 
 the boatmen shipped their oars, and those who were 
 forward leaped out waist-deep in water, to steady the 
 shallop for the disembarkation of the ladies. 
 
 This was no such easy task. In these days people 
 walk from a roomy steamer roofed in and glazed like 
 a conservatory, across a platform securely railed on to a 
 substantial stone-built quay that reaches a quarter of 
 a mile out into the Firth, and renders them as inde- 
 pendent of tide as the vessel herself does of weather ; 
 save for the slight oscillation caused by the motive 
 power, a blind man, unless in a gale of wind, would 
 never know that he had left terra Jirma. But even 
 
 i
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 283 
 
 within the recollection of those now scarce past middle 
 age, the crossing of the Firth was an aifair of con- 
 siderable discomfort if not a little danger. The state 
 of the tide was of paramount importance ; the transit 
 in an open boat, generally of the smallest and craziest 
 description, to the steamer moored half-a-mile off, was 
 in itself a voyage of no slight apprehension to the 
 timid, especially if the wind had been blowing for two 
 or three days steadily from the east, and the disem- 
 barkation on the northern side was, if possible, worse ; 
 the boat had to be beached with practised dexterity not 
 to capsize altogether, and under the most favourable 
 circumstances the pursuing waves were pretty sure to 
 come dashing in over her stern, wetting to the skin 
 those unwary passengers who had not taken refuge at 
 the prow. 
 
 At low water also a considerable journey had to 
 be made which partook of the discomforts both of land 
 and sea, inasmuch as it was performed in the ungainly 
 fashion termed by school-boys ' pick-a-back' on the 
 shoulders of veteran boatmen wading knee-deep through 
 the surf. To a heavy weight and a timid rider this 
 mode of progression was also not without its terrors, 
 for if the bearer, generally old and often infirm, made 
 the slightest false step, a very complete ducking was 
 the inevitable result. 
 
 In this hazardous mode it was necessary to land the 
 Queen and her ladies on their arrival at Burntisland : 
 the scene was one of bustle, dash, and excitement, 
 none the less picturesque for the hard-weather appear- 
 ance of the boatmen and the gaudy dresses of the 
 fishermen's wives and daughters, who came down in
 
 284 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 numbers to welcome their Sovereign, and shrank not 
 from criticizing in loud ear-piercing tones the personal 
 appearance of the party, and the whole details of the 
 proceeding. 
 
 The horses that had been conveyed across in the 
 boat accompanying the Queen's, splashed one after 
 another into the water amidst shouts of laughter, and 
 half swam, half-scrambled ashore as they might. The 
 retainers and men-at-arms jeered each other merrily 
 as they waded through the waves, or wrung the wet 
 from their boots and clothing on the sand ; the female 
 spectators screamed out their advice and opinions, 
 fluttering aloof shrill and pertinacious as the sea-mews 
 themselves, whilst-white-headed urchins ran hither and 
 thither through the crowd, devising impossible jobs 
 which they professed their readiness to perform for the 
 smallest remuneration in copper. But the Queen's 
 shallop excited the interest and attention of all. 
 
 One by one the ladies were received into the arms of 
 their attending boatmen to be conveyed tenderly and 
 carefully ashore. In right of his years, his experience, 
 his patriarchal dignity, and his solemn demeanour, 
 the oldest of these mariners was intrusted with the 
 person of the Queen. He was a stalwart, fine old man, 
 broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, large of 
 stature and strong of limb. He took Mary in his 
 arms as if she had been a baby, and waded with her 
 deliberately through the surf : another score of yards 
 and she would have been safe on land ; but whether 
 the veteran had been celebrating his prospective dis- 
 tinction by deep potations of alcohol, or whether his 
 toil-worn frame failed him at the pinch, or whether it
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYKOOD. 285 
 
 was indeed by one of those fatalities for which it is 
 impossible to account, he made a false step, a fruitless 
 effort to recover it, and but for prompt assistance must 
 have precipitated his royal burden before him into the 
 water. 
 
 Need we say that it was Chastelar who was at hand 
 to save ; that it was his grasp which plucked the Queen 
 from her falling supporter at this critical juncture; 
 and that for a few blissful moments, worth to his deli- 
 rious fancy whole ages of torture, the love-stricken poet 
 for the first and last time bore the precious form of 
 Mary Stuart in his arms. 
 
 Slowly, carefully, gently he waded with her to the 
 land ; not a word was spoken, — not a look exchanged ; 
 the Queen's face was cold and impassive as marble, and 
 Chastelar in the tumult of his love and his despair was 
 conscious but of one frantic wish, that the waves would 
 rise over their heads and cover them, and they might 
 be at rest fathom-deep down there together for ever- 
 more.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 • Night by night must I pace the shore, 
 
 Longing, lingering, to and fro, 
 Questioning, " May I not see her once more, 
 Alice of Oi-mskirk ? " answering — " No ! " 
 
 • And still the echoing sea-cave rings 
 
 With one unceasing pitiless strain ; 
 And still the wild wave dashes and sings — 
 " Never again, love ! never again." ' 
 
 HE episode of idolatry and madness was 
 fast drawing to a close. When the 
 Queen and her household went to estab- 
 lish themselves in the lodging where they 
 designed to pass the night, Chastelar remained on the 
 beach, apparently imconscious of all about him, gazing 
 out to sea-ward, as a man does who is utterly lost to 
 the interests and occupations of the shore. Amongst 
 the many mysterious sympathies that connect natural 
 objects so inexplicably with the mind, there is a strange 
 affinity between human sorrow and the watery element 
 — be it the gentle ripple of a running stream or the 
 dash and recoil of the mounting wave breaking on the 
 beach, or the dark-blue line of a sea-horizon clear 
 against the sky.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 287 
 
 There is some morbid attraction to mortal grief in 
 the contemplation of each of these ; there is something 
 that takes man out of himself, and though it speaks 
 not of hope nor consolation, seems to promise oblivion 
 and repose at last. Aye, we love to prate of the 
 beauties of nature, to enlarge upon the pleasures of 
 smiling skies and gorgeous landscapes and magnificent 
 scenery. Are we quite honest about the efiFect produced 
 by such objects ? and can we declare that they create 
 sensations of unmixed gratification ? On the contrary, 
 most of us, if sincere, will confess that when we were 
 happy we took very little notice of them, and it was 
 but in some keen hopeless sorrow we turned to nature 
 for an anodyne, and found she added sharpness to our 
 pangs and mocked us with a smile as she poured fresh 
 venom into the wound. No ; if we would be consoled 
 we must look to where the running stream loses itself 
 in the ocean that we have never seen ; we must carry 
 our thoughts athwart the far horizon in search of the 
 eternal shore; we must strain our eyes to pierce the 
 smiling heaven, and catch if but a glimpse of the un- 
 dying world beyond. 
 
 Chastelar paced to and fro upon the sand with all 
 the worst passions of our nature tearing at a heart 
 that yet seemed formed for better things. Utterly 
 undisciplined in his wild imaginative character, he had 
 never prepared himself for such complete desolation 
 as this. For many years, more than he now dared 
 count, the smiles of that beautiful Queen had been to 
 him dearer than the very air he breathed. A less en- 
 thusiastic temperament would have asked itself long 
 ago, to what result this abject service, this blind ador-
 
 288 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES, 
 
 ation, could eventually lead, and would, at least, have 
 prepared for the final shock, which it required little 
 sagacity to foresee must sooner or later tumble the 
 magic edifice to the ground; but Chastelar's was a 
 character that never stops to count the cost. 
 
 There was to him an unspeakable joy in the very 
 abandonment of his attachment, in the lavish devotion 
 which only asked to be received without return. Full 
 of a generous fire kindled in his own ardent imagina- 
 tion, and nourished by those seductive follies which 
 constituted the very essence of an age of chivalry, it 
 seemed to him as rich a happiness to cherish his hopeless 
 attachment for the Queen, as it would have seemed to 
 a coarser and stronger mind to possess itself of Mary's 
 heart and person. The poet never dreamed the time 
 could come when he should be told that even this self- 
 sacrifice was unwelcome ; that for one unguarded word, 
 wrung from him by the very depth and tenderness of 
 his feelings, he should be banished from her presence, 
 and that she who was the light of his eyes should her- 
 self determine that he must look upon her no more. 
 
 Presently the devil got into his heart ; the rebellious 
 spirit, that is never so strong as when men feel they 
 have been virtuous and self-denying in vain, rose 
 tumultuous now, all the fiercer for having been kept 
 down so long, and urged the counsels of despair. Of 
 what availed his old and faithful service, his constancy, 
 his loyalty, his obedience and truth ? She flung them 
 away as nothing, and less than nothing ; she could 
 take his warm fresh heart from him when it suited her, 
 as a mere matter of pastime, and squeezing it, as 
 one would squeeze an orange, give it him back again
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 289 
 
 when she had no further use for it, all withered and 
 empty, the very essence of its existence gone. 
 
 Queen though she were, she had no right to do this. 
 She forbade him her presence ! He would see her 
 whether she would or no ! He had done with obedience 
 now and discretion and consideration ! He would speak 
 to Mary Stuart once more if all the devils in hell rose 
 to prevent it ! 
 
 Turning on his steps he strode fiercely along the 
 now solitary shore in the direction of the hamlet of 
 Burntisland, where the Queen was to pass the night. 
 Already the day was waning, and the evening mist 
 gathering from the eastward crept slowly up the 
 margin of the Firth. A light drizzling rain had 
 also begun to fall, and the sea-gulls, no longer floating 
 in repose, were screaming and turning restlessly on 
 the wing, as they flitted to and fro in search of 
 shelter for the ni2;ht. Boatmen and fish-wives had 
 betaken themselves to their homes, and none were left 
 to witness the gestures of anger and despair with 
 which the unhappy Chastelar accompanied his racking, 
 maddening thoughts. He wrapped his cloak round 
 him, and walked faster and faster as he began to 
 shape his resolve. 
 
 But within a short distance of the hamlet he met 
 a figure approaching him through the increasing gloom : 
 a female figure, cloaked and hooded, walking swiftly, 
 yet with smooth majestic gait, and of a stature that 
 seemed unusually lofty in that imcertain light. For 
 an instant the blood gathered round his heart as a 
 possibility flashed across him that even in his madness 
 he could scarcely dare believe. In that space of time 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 a thousand frantic surmises swept througli his brain. 
 Reaction, remorse, a woman's pity, and a woman's 
 tenderness, over-riding all, even the reserve and dignity 
 of a Queen. But the foolish fancies died out rapidly 
 as they arose, for the figure stopped, handed him in 
 silence a small packet tied round with a morsel of 
 silk (he could notice such a trifle even then) , and while 
 she threw back her hood with a gesture of relief, the 
 clear guileless eyes of Mary Hamilton looked him sadly 
 and enquiringly in the face. 
 
 She spoke not for awhile, she seemed to stop and 
 take breath ; then she said very quietly and coldly, 
 
 ' The Queen bade me bring you this. She says it 
 must be forwarded without delay.' 
 
 He bowed courteously. He had recovered himself 
 now, for he had a scheme in view, and shaping it out 
 rapidly in his working brain he bethought him that 
 here was an miconscious instrument which he might 
 turn to good account. 
 
 ' How did you know where to find me ? ' he asked, 
 forcing himself to smile. 
 
 A bright blush swept over the maid-of-honour's fore- 
 head, but she paled again almost immediately as she 
 replied, 
 
 ' I saw you from our window walking on the shore. 
 I knew it was you, and I asked to bring the pa<;ket 
 myself because they tell me you are going away to- 
 night, and I was anxious to bid you Farewell.' 
 
 This was a great deal for Mary Hamilton to say. 
 No successful gallant could have wrung such an avowal 
 from her lips ; but the keen eye of afiection had told 
 her that Chastelar was dejected and unhappy, so she
 
 A EOMANCE OF HOLYEOOD. 291 
 
 longed to console him and speak kindly to him ere 
 he went away. 
 
 Should he not have pitied her? He who knew 
 what it was to love in vain ? Of all women on earth 
 he should have spared her, but the devil had entered 
 into him, and he saw in this pure unselfish affection 
 a way to his o^vn object ; so she, too, must be sacrificed 
 without remorse. What did it matter ? Was he alone 
 to suffer and be trampled under foot ? 
 
 ' It was good of you, mistress Hamilton,' he replied 
 with a soft glance from his dark eyes, that made her 
 flush and tremble where she stood. ' Few but yourself 
 would have been so considerate, and I should have 
 valued the kindness as much from none. Shall I 
 leave one person at Court to regret me when I am 
 gone ? ' 
 
 ' More than that,' she answered hurriedly, and scarce 
 knowing what she said. ' There will be no music for 
 us now, at least none worth listening to. The Queen 
 said so herself — and — and — are you not coming back 
 again ? ' 
 
 'Never!' he replied darkly, and then seeing her scared 
 and troubled face, adding with a laugh, ' Never is a long 
 word, is it not ? and who can tell in such a country 
 as this what a few months may bring? But I shall 
 be absent a weary while, mistress Hamilton, and I 
 cannot bear unkindness from those I love. I would not 
 willingly be forgotten, and supplanted by newer faces.' 
 Her eloquent eyes told him that was impossible, but 
 she dared not trust herself to speak. 
 
 ' Will you think of me when I am gone ? ' he pro- 
 ceeded in a lower tone, and pressing nearer his com- 
 
 U 2
 
 292 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 panion's side. ' When you are feasting merrily at 
 Holyrood, and enjoying dance and song and revelry, 
 will you not keep one little corner in your heart for 
 the absent who used to do all in his poor power to 
 make your time pass pleasantly, who will be thinking 
 every hour so sadly and longingly of you ? ' 
 
 Even in the midst of her astonished happiness she 
 experienced a shadowy misgiving that it was too good 
 to be real ; but she could only reply, 
 
 ' You must think very poorly of us all, Chastelar, 
 if you imagine we could ever forget you,' 
 
 ' It is not distance that can separate those who care 
 for each other,' resumed the poet, dreamily ; ' after all, 
 it is thought that unites soul to soul ; that sea-bird's 
 wing would droop ere he had traversed a thousand miles 
 of ocean, and yet twice the distance separates the lover 
 from his mistress no more than a score of yards and a 
 brick wall. He can be with her in spirit, although his 
 body may be at the uttermost end of the earth. Never- 
 theless, for all this, mistress Hamilton, it grieves me 
 sore to bid you farewell.' 
 
 She could have listened to him for an hour ; she loved 
 to hang on his musical accents, and drink in the tones 
 of his rich Southern voice ; above all, were such senti- 
 ments as these congenial to her own lofty conceptions 
 of an ideal, and her trusting clinging heart. 
 
 He was pitiless ; he went on speaking low and 
 hurriedly, 
 
 ' We may not meet again for many, many months — 
 perhaps never in this world. Do you think I am a man 
 of marble that I cannot feel ? Do you think mine is a 
 happy lot, thus to leave all I value or esteem and take
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 293 
 
 not even hope with me into exile? Mary Hamilton, 
 you will not refuse me what I ask you on such a day as 
 this?' 
 
 ' I would give my life for yours,' she answered, scarce 
 above her breath. ' What is it you would have me do ? ' 
 
 ' Listen,' he replied. ' I must be in the saddle soon 
 after night-fall. For reasons I cannot explain to you, 
 it must be supposed by the household that I have de- 
 parted at sun-down. My very life is in danger, if I 
 am known to have remained. I cannot tell you why. 
 Do you trust me ? ' 
 
 She bowed her head. 
 
 ' I trust you,' she answered, very quietly, and he 
 needed only to look in her face for confirmation of 
 her words. 
 
 ' Then grant me my request,' he resumed. ' It is 
 a foolish fancy of mine, but you at least cannot blame, 
 though you may scoff at it. There is one person 
 whom I must see the very last before I depart. One 
 face of which I must take the picture with me, into 
 banishment, engraven on my heart, one hand of which 
 the farewell pressure must remain on mine till we meet 
 again. An hour after supper, I will be at the door of 
 the small garden into which your apartments open. 
 You will meet me there, for the last, last time ? ' 
 
 She looked a good deal frightened and discomposed. 
 
 ' But I shall not be dismissed so soon,' she urged, 
 ' and if I am absent they will come to look for me 
 everywhere, and oh ! I ought not ! I ought not ! ' 
 
 He was prepared for her objection, he knew the 
 Queen's habits so well ; this was exactly what he wanted. 
 
 ' Nay, then,' he resumed, ' I will ask you to risk
 
 294 THE QUEEN'S MAKIES, 
 
 nothing for my sake ; and yet, see the last of the dear 
 face I must and will. The days are short now. It 
 is already twilight, and it will be as dark as mid- 
 night in an hour. I will go make my preparations 
 for departure. Do you as you enter unlock the garden- 
 door and take the key with you ; it cannot then be 
 fastened from inside. I will conceal myself amongst 
 the shrubs and wait for you there. As soon as you 
 are dismissed for the night you can come out and 
 bid me farewell.' 
 
 ' It is better not,' she murmured in sad perturbation. 
 She could not bear to refuse him, and yet all her 
 womanly feelings revolted at the clandestine nature 
 of such a proceeding. ' We are close at home now. 
 All good attend you, Chastelar. I will pray for you 
 night and morning — farewell ! ' 
 
 She gave him her hand, as if to take her final leave, 
 but she had not the heart to withdraw it at once. It 
 lingered long and lovingly in his clasp. 
 
 ' Mary ! ' said he, and the dear name came so ten- 
 derly off his lips. ' Mary ! you will not let me part 
 from you thus?' 
 
 ' I will do as you wish,' was all she answered, once 
 more dropping the hood over her face and hurrying 
 away. They were within a stone's throw of the Queen's 
 lodging, and it was already time for her to resume 
 her duties. Her mind was in a sad tumult when she 
 left him. She felt she was going to do wrong, de- 
 liberately wrong ; yet how could she refuse him ? She 
 loved him so, and he was going away ! 
 
 With a wicked smile, suggestive of anything but 
 mirth or happiness, engraven, as it were, on his coun-
 
 A KOMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 295 
 
 tenance, Cliastelar strode up the narrow street to the 
 stable in which his trusty chestnut was disposed. This 
 animal was a gift from the Queen, and valued accord- 
 ingly. We would fain describe him from his velvet 
 muzzle to his flinty hoofs, for where shall we find so 
 seductive a theme as the beauty of a horse ? but will 
 only observe that he was in every respect a fitting 
 present from Royalty. The Frenchman ordered his 
 favourite to be saddled with considerable parade, and 
 spoke loudly of the journey before him. Then, osten- 
 tatiously assuming his arms and valise, momited and 
 rode away in the direction of Dunfermline, followed as 
 his figure disappeared in the gloom, by the admiring 
 glances of such ostlers and retainers as his noisy de- 
 parture had gathered to observe him. 
 
 For a mile or so he proceeded along the coast and 
 then, turning off the horse-track into the recess of an 
 old quarry, dismounted and fastened his horse to the 
 roots of a whin-bush, growing from the chinks in the 
 cold blue stone. For all his feverish excitement, he 
 disposed the animal in a nook sheltered from the chill 
 east wind, and taking his own cloak from about him 
 cast it over the flanks of his dumb friend. Then, with 
 a farewell pat, he returned on foot the way he had 
 come, rapidly and breathlessly, never stopping till he 
 reached the hamlet of Burntisland, and saw the lights 
 twinkling once more in the Queen's lodging. 
 
 He stole softly to the garden-gate, of which he had 
 spoken to Mary Hamilton. It opened noiselessly to his 
 push. By this time it was quite dark, and on entering 
 the enclosure he found no necessity for concealment 
 amongst the scanty shrubs it contained. Here he drew
 
 296 THE QUEEN'S MAEIES. 
 
 off his heavy horseman's boots with extreme caution, 
 and thus, with his rapier at his side and his pistols in 
 his belt, took up his position close against the door of 
 the house, which opened outwards. 
 
 Here he waited, watched, and listened. A drizzling 
 rain was falling and the wind was very keen, but though 
 stripped to his doublet and hose, Chastelar was uncon- 
 scious of the weather. Had he been immersed in snow, 
 he could scarce have felt cold while that fever burned 
 and raged so fiercely at his heart.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ' For constancy hath her place ahove. 
 
 And life is thorny, and youth is vain, 
 And to be wroth with one we love, 
 
 Doth work like madness in the brain.' 
 
 'IIFi 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 1^^ 
 
 mim 
 
 Uv'-^ 
 
 mm 
 
 HE Queen's supper and the coucJiee which 
 succeeded it seemed endless. Her Ma- 
 jesty, though bj no means in her usual 
 spirits, eating but little, and scarcely 
 speaking at all, was yet none the more disposed to 
 dismiss her ladies and betake herself to repose. Mary 
 Hamilton with flushed cheeks and unsettled gestures, 
 busied herself about every arrangement she could think 
 of that should further the process of retiring for the 
 night, till even the Queen, rousing from her medita- 
 tions, taxed her with bemg fatigued after her ride, and 
 did not scruple to hint at the remarkable restlessness of 
 her demeanour. After this she controlled herself indeed 
 with an effort, but felt the while that if the suspense 
 continued much longer it would drive her mad. 
 
 It was Mary Seton's tui-n and hers to put the Queen 
 to bed, and the gossiping propensities of the former, 
 whose lively disposition never acknowledged fatigue or 
 low spirits, did by no means conduce to the dispatch of 
 matters. For reasons of her own, too, this young lady
 
 298 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 chose to ask a series of questions concerning the Earl 
 of Bothwell, and the probability of his returning to 
 Court, interspersed with remarks on that nobleman and 
 his borderers and his enemies, all delivered with con- 
 siderable freedom and a flippancy peculiar to herself. 
 The Queen, who seemed to-night more or less impatient 
 of every subject broached, at length called her a ' saucy 
 chatterbox' and bade her good-humouredly ' hold her 
 tongue.' As usual the reproof only produced a merry 
 smile and a provoking little grimace at which Her 
 Majesty could not forbear laughing, though she looked 
 sadder than ever a moment afterwards. 
 
 Wearily the minutes passed on ; Mary Hamilton had 
 never before thought Royalty so exacting or an attend- 
 ance on her own dear Mistress so tiresome. One by 
 one the Queen's garments had to be taken off, folded 
 up and disposed each in its proper place; then the 
 loose flowing gown was brought her by the senior maid- 
 of-honour, and the junior let down the long, rich hair 
 that covered her more nobly than the mantle of royalty 
 itself. While mistress Seton combed and stroked those 
 chestnut tresses carefully, mistress Hamilton brought 
 a bason and ewer, offering it on her knees ; after which 
 ceremony it was her duty to place an ivory crucifix and 
 a small lamp, with the Queen's breviary on the table by 
 her bedside ; then she handed Her Majesty's beautiful 
 rosary, consisting of beads of sandal-wood inlaid with 
 silver, and Mary Stuart betook her after the manner of 
 the Ancient Faith to those devotions she never neg- 
 lected in her chequered life, and that served her so 
 nobly in the hour of trial with which it closed. 
 
 The maids-of-honoiu- retired. Mary Seton would fain
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 299 
 
 have prolonged the conversation even on the threshold 
 of their mutual chamber. She was never tired, not 
 she ! but her friend, vowing she had forgotten some- 
 thing in the supper-room, hurried away down stairs, 
 with a feeling of intense relief and yet horribly 
 frightened and uncomfortable, as she fled like a lap- 
 wing along the dark passages towards the garden. 
 
 The servants and retainers had all gone to their 
 repose wearied with the toils of the day and antici- 
 pating an early start on the morrow. Even in that 
 small house there was something gloomy and alarming 
 in the profound silence. Mary Hamilton, while con- 
 scious of the purity of her motives, trembled as inno- 
 cence always does tremble, far more violently than 
 guilt ; and it was with a beating heart and quick- 
 coming breath that she reached the door, and un- 
 fastening it gently, peered out into the thick darkness 
 beyond. 
 
 For a minute or two she waited, listening anxiously. 
 Not a sound was to be heard but the dull beat of the 
 tide upon the shore. Then she advanced a few paces 
 into the garden, now that it seemed likely to elude 
 her, more resolved upon the interview than she could 
 have believed possible a short while ago. The small 
 rain struck chill against her face, and she strained 
 her eyes in vain to pierce the surrounding gloom. 
 
 Had she turned round at this moment she might 
 perhaps have faintly distinguished a dark shadow that 
 passed swiftly from behind the door and entered the 
 house by the passage she had just quitted. 
 
 But she was intent only on Chastelar. She stepped 
 softly to the garden-door and peeped into the sandy
 
 300 THE queen's MARIES, 
 
 lane on which it opened. Here there was a little 
 more lisht, and she could see some ten or a dozen 
 paces to right and left. No living object was dis- 
 cernible ; the rain fell faster and the tide moaned and 
 gurgled in its ebb and flow against the shallow beach. 
 
 Mary Hamilton was puzzled and distressed. An 
 hour ago she would have hailed as an unspeakable 
 relief the news that Chastelar had actually gone with- 
 out further parley, but now that she had been school- 
 ing herself and stringing her nerves for an interview, 
 it was provoking that so much agitation should be 
 wasted for nothing ; it seemed hard and cruel not to 
 see him just once again. 
 
 She ventured on a gentle cough ; a timid whisper, 
 very soft and cautious ; there was no result. At last 
 she spoke his name out loud, and then, half-frightened 
 and a good deal disappointed, made her way back 
 into the house, barring the door after her with as little 
 noise as her trembling hands would permit. 
 
 Poor Mary Hamilton! In that dark passage she 
 paused to lay her head against the wall and weep. 
 She dared not return at once to the chamber which 
 she shared with her comrades, in case any one of them 
 should be awake. She felt she could not brook ob- 
 servation or remark on her streaming eyes and agitated 
 looks. As the tears flowed silently they did her so 
 much good ! For weeks the girl had been living in 
 a morbid state of overstrung excitement. Continually 
 in the presence of the man she loved, and that man gifted 
 with many brilliant qualities exceedingly attractive to 
 the female heart; never convinced of his preference, 
 yet suspecting it from a thousand trifles that she
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 301 
 
 naturally interpreted in her own favour ; living in 
 an atmosphere of alternate hope and fear, exposed to 
 the daily charm of his person, his conversation, his 
 musical talents, and his warm foreign cordiality, it 
 was no wonder that she hailed as a blissful relief the 
 certainty which she was persuaded had burst upon her 
 to-day, even though accompanied by the miserable con- 
 viction that she must bid him a long, perhaps a hope- 
 less farewell. The sweet and the bitter were strangely 
 mingled in the cup she had drained so eagerly, the 
 cup that slakes but never quenches thirst. She was so 
 relieved and yet so troubled; so proud, and yet so 
 fearful ; so happy, yet so sad. 
 
 What could a poor woman do but droop her head and 
 weep her heart out, simply because she was a woman. 
 
 Suddenly she started as if she had been shot. A 
 loud shriek, followed by a succession of outcries for 
 assistance in the Queen's voice, rang through the 
 small house, and were quickly followed by the scuffling 
 of feet, the banging of doors, and the tumult of many 
 tongues, in which the shrill tones of the maids-of- 
 honour predominated. Lights were already glancing 
 in the passages ; women in white with pale, scared 
 faces, and half-dressed men but half-awake, snatching 
 at whatever weapons came to hand, rushed to and fro 
 tumultuously ; everybody seemed exceedingly alarmed 
 and excited, but none to know the least what was the 
 matter. All this Mary Hamilton observed as we see 
 things in a dream, while she rushed up-stairs and 
 dashed unhesitatingly into the Queen's chamber. 
 
 The sight that met her there arrested her as if 
 by magic on the threshold. In the twinkling of an
 
 302 THE QUEEN'S MARIES, 
 
 eye the warm impulsive woman seemed frozen into a 
 statue. 
 
 Pale as her night-gear, breathless and trembling, 
 while she clung to her brother's shoulder for support, 
 yet with the ' Stuart frown ' stamped sternly on her 
 brow, the Queen was gazing in fear and anger on the 
 dark figure of a man who stood with his arms folded 
 in the corner of the apartment. That man, calm, 
 erect, defiant, almost sublime in the intrepidity with 
 which he confronted threatening brows and levelled 
 weapons (for already the royal retainers were filling 
 the place), was Chastelar. Mary Hamilton turned sick 
 and giddy while she looked. The Queen raved and 
 shook and seemed half mad with fear and shame ; her 
 ladies crowded about her in helpless astonishment and 
 dismay, while the servants and men-at-arms glanced 
 from one to another utterly at their wits'-end. Except 
 the fatal cause himself of all this disturbance, Moray 
 alone seemed to retain his presence of mind. Alter- 
 nately he soothed his frantic sister, and gave directions 
 to the astonished bystanders. 
 
 ' Stab him ! ' exclaimed the Queen, pointing with 
 shaking hand at the unfortunate man who stood there, 
 so pale, so calm, offering no attempt at escape or re- 
 sistance. ' Brother, for the honour of our house, put 
 your sword through him, an' ye be half a Stuart. 
 Let him not live an hour to boast of this daring, this 
 atrocious insult. Oh ! it is too much — too much ! ' 
 
 The Queen covered her face with both hands, com- 
 pletely overcome ; her beautiful hair, escaping from the 
 ribbon which confined it, fell over her shoulders to her 
 waist.
 
 A ROMANCE OF HOLYROOD. 303 
 
 Chastelar looked proudly and lovingly at her even 
 then. Madman ! even then ! 
 
 ' Nay, Madam,' urged Moray, with soothing accents, 
 ' bethink you, I beseech your Grace. In the name of 
 prudence and discretion, bid me not dip my hands in 
 the blood of this man. Remember you have yourself 
 treated him with over-courtesy and kindness, to the 
 offence of your nobility and, pardon me for saying it, 
 to the scandal of the Court. Reflect, Madam, what 
 shall the world think of it when they hear that a 
 Queen's musician was found in a Queen's bed-chamber 
 and put to death lest he should tell the tale.' 
 The Queen raised her head with flashing eyes. 
 ' You dare to shield him, Moray ! You, my own 
 blood ! ' she vociferated. ' On your allegiance I charge 
 you. Wliat ! You will never let him speak ! To the 
 death with him on the spot ! ' 
 
 But Moray knew the pliant and forgiving nature of 
 her with whom he had to deal. 
 
 ' Nay, Madam,' said the prudent Earl, ' patience ; 
 I entreat you, patience ; the unhappy man is clearly 
 distraught; let us not shed his blood unwittingly. 
 He shall be brought to justice and punished according 
 to his deserving, so shall his treason be sufiiciently 
 expiated by death. Remove him,' he added, speaking 
 composedly to the men-at-arms who crowded round 
 the door. ' Bind him forthwith, and let him be placed 
 securely in ward.' 
 
 Chastelar still remained perfectly immovable ; never 
 once had he taken his eyes off the Queen's face ; never 
 once had the strange longing, loving gaze, with its 
 dash of wild triumph and its depth of intense affection,
 
 304 THE queen's MARIES. 
 
 faded or varied for an instant. While they bound him 
 fast, drawing a girdle tight round his arms above the 
 elbow, he neither seemed to feel the pressure nor to be 
 conscious of the indignity ; while they pressed round 
 him and hustled him from the room, his looks never 
 strayed for an instant from the Queen. 
 
 All this Mary Hamilton saw as if in a trance. 
 Though every stroke of her pulse beat with a loud 
 stupefying clang upon her brain, she knew that this was 
 reality, that this was truth, that there was no hope of 
 awaking to find it all a dream ; but when Chastelar 
 reached the door, and beholding the Queen no longer 
 seemed roused to consciousness at last, she met his eye 
 for the first time, and the whole hopeless misery of her 
 situation rushed upon her at once. 
 
 He smiled on her very sadly and kindly, there was 
 a pitying remorseful expression in his face, a wistful 
 mournful tenderness in his glance ; she could bear it 
 no longer, and she fainted dead away upon the floor. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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