e, but to have been actually the
consequence and the record of that terrible assassination."

"As I cannot accept the challenge to the field, fair cousin, I am
contented to require proof."

"The unaltered tradition of the Palace, and the correspondence of the
existing state of things with that tradition."

"Explain, if you please."

"I will. The universal tradition bears that, when Rizzio was dragged
out of the chamber of the Queen, the heat and fury of the assassins, who
struggled which should deal him most wounds, despatched him at the door
of the anteroom. At the door of the apartment, therefore, the greater
quantity of the ill fated minion's blood was spilled, and there the
marks of it are still shown. It is reported further by historians, that
Mary continued her entreaties for his life, mingling her prayers with
screams and exclamations, until she knew that he was assuredly slain; on
which she wiped her eyes and said, 'I will now study revenge.'"

"All this is granted. But the blood--would it not wash out, or waste
out, think you, in so many years?"

"I am coming to that presently. The constant tradition of the Palace
says, that Mary discharged any measures to be taken to remove the marks
of slaughter, which she had resolved should remain as a memorial to
quicken and confirm her purposed vengeance. But it is added that,
satisfied with the knowledge that it existed, and not desirous to have
the ghastly evidence always under her eye, she caused a traverse, as it
is called (that is, a temporary screen of boards), to be drawn along the
under part of the anteroom, a few feet from the door, so as to separate
the place stained with the blood from the rest of the apartment, and
involve it in considerable obscurity. Now this temporary partition still
exists, and, by running across and interrupting the plan of the roof
and cornices, plainly intimates that it has been intended to serve some
temporary purpose, since it disfigures the proportions of the room,
interferes with the ornaments of the ceiling, and could only have been
put there for some such purpose as hiding an object too disagreeable
to be looked upon. As to the objection that the bloodstains would have
disappeared in course of time, I apprehend that, if measures to efface
them were not taken immediately after the affair happened--if the blood,
in other words, were allowed to sink into the wood, the stain would
become almost indelible. Now, not to mention tha