nt that now that he showed himself master of the
situation she would not repine over what was done beyond recall, but
would submit to the inevitable, be reconciled with him, and grant him,
perforce--supported as he now was by the rebellious lords--the crown
matrimonial and the full kingly power he coveted.

But her reception of him broke that confidence into shards.

"You have done me such a Wrong," she told him in a voice of cold hatred,
"that neither the recollection of our early friendship, nor all the hope
you can give me of the future, could ever make me forget it. Jamais!
Jamais je n'oublierai!" she added, and upon that she dismissed him so
imperiously that he went at once.

She sought a way to deal with him, groped blindly for it, being as yet
but half informed of what was taking place; and whilst she groped, the
thing she sought was suddenly thrust into her land. Mary Beaton, one of
the few attendants left her, brought her word later that day that the
Earl of Murray, with Rothes and some other of the exiled lords, was
in the palace. The news brought revelation. It flooded with light
the tragic happening of the night before, showed her how Darnley was
building himself a party in the state. It did more than that. She
recalled the erstwhile mutual hatred and mistrust of Murray and Darnley,
and saw how it might serve her in this emergency.

Instantly she summoned Murray to her presence with the message that
she welcomed his return. Yet, despite that message, he hardly
expected--considering what lay between them--the reception that awaited
him at her hands.

She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused with tears. She
embraced him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for comfort,
her cheek against his bearded face, she allowed her tears to flow
unchecked.

"I am punished," she sobbed--"oh, I am punished! Had I kept you at home,
Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as I have been
entreated."

Holding her to hint, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her,
utterly taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an
affection for him that he had never hitherto suspected in her.

"Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!" she
continued. "It is the fault of others that you have been so long out of
the country. I but require of you that you be a good subject to me, and
you shall never find me other to you than you deserve."

And he, shaken to the dept