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. 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. CHAP X a handsome bed had been set up for the King with new 1567 hangings of black velvet. The Queen however seemed January to think that they would be injured by the splashing from Darnley's bath, and desired that they might be passage into After this little attention she left her husband in possession; she intended herself to sleep from time to time there-but her own room was not yet ready. The further plan was still unsettled. Bothwell's first notion was to tempt Darnley out into the country some sunny day for exercise, and then to kill him. But this purpose was changed because it would be known;" and was perhaps abandoned with the alteration of the place from Craigmillar. The Queen meanwhile spent her days at her husband's side, watching over his convalescence with seemingly anxious affection, and returning only to sleep at Holyrood. In the starry evenings, though it was mid-winter, she would go out into the garden with Lady Reres, and there sing and use pastime." After a few days her apartment at Kirk-a-Field was made habitable; a bed was set up there in which she could sleep, and particular directions were given as to the part of the room where it was to stand. Paris through some mistake misplaced it. Fool that you are,' the Queen 1 Examination of Thomas Nelson.-PITCAIRN 3 Depositions of Thomas Nelson.-PITCAIRN. 1 1567 said to him when she saw it, the bed is not to stand CHAP X there; move it yonder to the other side." She perhaps meant nothing, but the words afterwards seemed omi- February nously significant. A powder barrel was to be lighted in that room to blow the house and every one in it into the air. They had placed the bed on the spot chosen for the powder to stand, immediately below the bed of the King. Whatever she meant, she contrived when it was moved to pass two nights there. The object was to make it appear as if, in what was to follow, her own life had been aimed at as well as her husband's. Wednesday the 5th she slept there, and Friday the 7th, and then her penance was almost over, for on Saturday the thing was to have been done. Among the wild youths who followed Bothwell's fortunes three were found who consented to be the instruments-young Hay the Laird of Tallo, Hepburn of Bolton, and the Laird of Ormeston-gentlemen retainers of Bothwell's house, and ready for any desperate adventure. Delay only created a risk of discovery, and the Earl on Friday arranged his plans for the night ensuing.3 It seems however that at the last moment there was an impression either that the powder might fail, or that Darnley could be more conveniently killed in a scuffle with Sot que tu es, je ne veulx pas que mon lit soyt en cest endroyt la, et du fait le feist oster.'-Examination of Paris. PITCAIRN. 2 Hepburn, on his trial, said that when Bothwell first proposed the murder to him, 'he answered it was an evil purpose, but because he was servant to his Lordship he would do as the rest.' So also said Hay and Ormeston. Paris, according to his own story, was alike afraid to refuse Examination of Hay of Tallo.- 1567 CHAP X an appearance of accident. Lord Robert Stuart, Abbot of St. Cross one of James the Fifth's wild brood of children February whom the Church had provided with land and title-had shared in past times in the King's riots, and retaining some regard for him, had warned the poor creature to be on his guard. Darnley making love to destruction, told the Queen; and Stuart knowing that his own life might pay the forfeit of his interference, either received a hint that he might buy his pardon by doing the work himself, or else denied his words, and offered to make the King maintain them at the sword's point. A duel, could it be managed, would remove all difficulty; and Bothwell would take care how it should end. Something of this kind was in contemplation on the Saturday night, and the explosion was deferred in consequence. The Queen that evening at Holyrood bade Paris tell Bothwell that the Abbot of St. Cross should go to the King's room, and do what the Earl knew of." Paris carried the message, and Bothwell answered, ‘Tell the Queen that I will speak to St. Cross, and then I will see her.' 1 But this too came to nothing. Lord Robert went, and angry words, according to some accounts, were exchanged between him and Darnley; but a sick man unable to leave his couch was in no condition to cross swords; and for one more night he was permitted to survive. So at last came Sunday-eleven months exactly from the day of Ritzio's murder; and Mary Stuart's words, that she would never rest till that dark business was revenged were about to be fulfilled. The Earl of Murray knowing perhaps what was coming, yet unable to inter 1 Examination of Paris.-ANDERSON. |