hands. I am doing what I hate. Would you not CHAP X laugh to see me lie so well and dissemble so well, and 1567 tell truth betwixt my hands. We are coupled with two January bad companions. The devil sunder us and God knit us together to be the most faithful couple that ever he united. This is my faith-I will die in it. I am writing to you while the rest are sleeping, since I cannot sleep as they do, and as I would desire—that is in your arms, my dear love; whom I pray God preserve from all evil and send you repose.'

Without much moral scrupulousness about her, Mary Stuart had still feelings which answer to a loose man's sense of honour.'

'I must go forward,' she said, 'with my odious purpose. You make me dissemble so far that I abhor it, and you cause me to do the office of a traitress. If it were not to obey you I had rather die than do it; my heart bleeds at it. He will not come with me except I promise him that I shall be with him as before, and doing this he will do all I please and come with me. To make him trust me I had to fence in some things with him; so when he asked that when he was well we should have both but one bed, I said that if he changed not purpose between now and then it should be so; but in the mean time I bade him take care that he let nobody know of it, because the lords would fear if we agreed together, he would make them feel the small account they made of him. In fine, he will go any where that I ask him. Alas! I never deceived anybody; but I remit me altogether to your pleasure. Send me word what to do and I will do it. Consider whether you can contrive anything more secret by medicine. He

January

CHAP X is to take medicine and baths at Craigmillar. He suspects 1567 greatly, and yet he trusts me. I am sorry to hurt any one that depends on me; yet you may command me in all things. About Lady Reres he said, I pray God she may serve you to your honour. He suspects the thing you know, and of his life; but as to the last, when I speak two or three kind words he is happy and out of doubt. Burn this letter, for it is dangerous and nothing well said in it.'

Then following the ebb and flow of her emotions to that strange point where the criminal passion of a woman becomes almost virtue in its utter self-abandonment, she appealed to Bothwell not to despise her for the treachery to which for his sake she was condescending.

'Have no evil opinion of me for this,' she concluded; 'you yourself are the cause of it; for my own private revenge I would not do it to him. Seeing then that to obey you, my dear love, I spare neither, honour, conscience, hazard, nor greatness, take it I pray you in good part. Look not at that woman whose false tears should not be so much regarded as the true and faithful labour which I am bearing to deserve her place; to obtain whichagainst my nature-I betray those that may hinder me. God forgive me, and God give you, my only love, the happiness and prosperity which your humble and faithful friend desires for you. She hopes soon to be another thing to you. It is late. I could write to you for ever; yet now I will kiss your hand and end."

With these thoughts in her mind Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland lay down upon her bed-to sleep, doubtless

1 Mary Stuart to Bothwell.-ANDERSON's Collection.

1567

-sleep with the soft tranquillity of an innocent child. CHAP X Remorse may disturb the slumbers of the man who is dabbling with his first experiences of wrong. When the January pleasure that has been tasted and is gone, and nothing is left of the crime but the ruin which it has wrought, then too the Furies take their seats upon the midnight pillow. But the meridian of evil is for the most part left unvexed; and when a man has chosen his road he is let alone to follow it to the end.

The next morning the Queen added a few closing words:

If in the meantime I hear nothing to the contrary, according to my commission I will bring the man to Craigmillar on Monday-where he will be all Wednesday—and I will go to Edinburgh to draw blood of me. Provide for all things and discourse upon it first with yourself.'

to Bothwell

tions.

This letter and another to Maitland she gave in Paris goes charge to Paris to take to Edinburgh. In delivering for instruc them she bade him tell Bothwell that she had prevented the King from kissing her, as Lady Reres could witness; and she told him to ask Maitland whether Craigmillar was to be the place, or whether they had changed their plan. They would give him answers with which he would come back to her immediately. She would herself wait at Glasgow with the King till his return.

Paris after being a day upon the road, reached Edinburgh with his despatches on the night of Saturday the 25th. On going to Bothwell's room the next morning, he found the Earl absent, and a servant directed him to a house belonging to Sir Robert Balfour, brother of James Balfour who signed the Craigmillar bond.

St. Mary's-in-the-Fields, called commonly Kirk-a-Field, was a roofless and ruined church, standing just inside

1567 January

house at

Kirk-aField.

CHAP X the old town walls of Edinburgh, at the north-western corner of the present College. Adjoining it there stood a quadrangular building which had at one time belonged Plan of the to the Dominican monks. The north front was built along the edge of the slope which descends to the Cowgate; the south side contained a low range of unoccupied rooms which had been priests' chambers;' the east consisted of offices and servants' rooms; the principal apartments in the dwelling into which the place had been converted, were in the western wing, which completed the square. Under the windows there was a narrow strip of grassplat, dividing the house from the town wall; and outside the wall were gardens into which there was an opening through the cellars by an underground passage. The principal gateway faced north and led direct into the quadrangle.

message.

6

Here it was that Paris found Bothwell with Sir James Balfour. He delivered his letter and gave his Bothwell's message. The Earl wrote a few words in reply. Commend me to the Queen,' he said as he gave the note, and tell her that all will go well. Say that Balfour and I have not slept all night, that everything is arranged, and that the King's lodgings are ready for him. I have sent her a diamond. You may say I would send my heart too were it in my power-but she has it already.'

A few more words passed, and from Bothwell Paris went to Maitland, who also wrote a brief answer. To the verbal question he answered, 'Tell her Majesty to take the King to Kirk-a-Field;' and with these replies the messenger rode back through the night to his mistress.

She was not up when he arrived; her impatience could not rest till she was dressed, and she received him in bed. He gave his letters and his message. She asked if there was anything further. He answered that

1567

Bothwell bade him say 'he would have no rest till he CHAP X had accomplished the enterprise, and that for love of her he would train a pike all his life.' The Queen laughed. Please God,' she said, it shall not come to that.'1

January

removed to

Field.

A few hours later she was on the road with her victim. He could be moved but slowly. She was Darnley is obliged to rest with him two days at Linlithgow; and it Kirk-awas not till the 30th that she was able to bring him to Edinburgh. As yet he knew nothing of the change of his destination, and supposed that he was going on to Craigmillar. Bothwell however met the cavalcade outside the gates, and took charge of it. No attention was paid either to the exclamations of the attendants, or the remonstrances of Darnley himself; he was informed that the Kirk-a-Field house was most convenient for him, and to Kirk-a-Field he was conducted.

The lodgings' prepared for him were in the west wing, which was divided from the rest of the house by a large door at the foot of the staircase. A passage ran along the ground floor from which a room opened which had been fitted up for the Queen. At the head of the stairs a similar passage led first to the King's roomwhich was immediately over that of the Queen's-and further on, to closets and rooms for the servants.

Here it was that Darnley was established during the last hours which he was to know on earth. The keys of the doors were given ostentatiously to his groom of the chamber, Thomas Nelson; the Earl of Bothwell being already in possession of duplicates. The door from the cellar into the garden had no lock, but the servants were told that it could be secured with bolts from within. The rooms themselves had been comfortably furnished, and

1 Examination of Paris.-PITCAIRN's Criminal Trials, vol. i.