k to the fire, confronting her,
nor did he further trouble to lower his voice. "We have considered it
already."

"What have you considered?"

Her voice was strained; fear and excitement blended in her face.

"How the shackles that fetter you might be broken. Be not alarmed.
It was the virtuous Murray himself propounded it to Argyll and
Lethington--for the good of Scotland and yourself." A sneer flitted
across his tanned face. "Let them speak for themselves." He raised his
voice and called to them across the room.

They came at once, and the four made an odd group as they stood there in
the firelit gloom of that November day--the lovely young Queen, so frail
and wistful in her high-backed chair; the stalwart, arrogant Bothwell,
magnificent in a doublet of peach-coloured velvet that tapered to a
golden girdle; Argyll, portly and sober in a rich suit of black; and
Maitland of Lethington, lean and crafty of face, in a long furred gown
that flapped about his bony shanks.

It was to Lethington that Bothwell addressed himself.

"Her Grace is in a mood to hear how the Gordian knot of her marriage
might be unravelled," said he, grimly ironic.

Lethington raised his eyebrows, licked his thin lips, and rubbed his
bony hands one in the other.

"Unravelled?" he echoed with wondering stress. "Unravelled? Ha!" His
dark eyes flashed round at them. "Better adopt Alexander's plan, and cut
it. 'Twill be more complete, and--and final."

"No, no!" she cried. "I will not have you shed his blood."

"He himself was none so tender where another was concerned," Bothwell
reminded her--as if the memory of Rizzio were dear to him.

"What he may have done does not weigh upon my conscience," was her
answer.

"He might," put in Argyll, "be convicted of treason for having consented
to Your Grace's retention in ward at Holyrood after Rizzio's murder."

She considered an instant, then shook her head.

"It is too late. It should have been done long since. Now men will say
that it is but a pretext to be rid of him." She looked up at Bothwell,
who remained standing immediately before her, between her and the fire.
"You said that my Lord of Murray had discussed this matter. Was it in
such terms as these?"

Bothwell laughed silently at the thought of the sly Murray rendering
himself a party to anything so direct and desperate. It was Lethington
who answered her.

"My Lord Murray was for a divorce. That would set Your Grace free,
and it mi