ched with
increasing panic for confirmation, and presently saw that he had been
right. Not one, but several shadows were shifting there among the
trees. Shadows of men, they were, and as he peered, he saw one that
went running from the house across the lawn and joined the others, now
clustered together in a group. What could be their purpose here? In the
silence, he seemed to hear again the echo of Mary's last words to him:

"It would be just about this time last year that Davie was slain."

In terror, he groped his way to the chair where the page slept and shook
the lad vigorously.

"Afoot, boy!" he said, in a hoarse whisper. He had meant to shout it,
but his voice failed him, his windpipe clutched by panic. "Afoot--we are
beset by enemies!"

At once the youth was wide awake, and together the King just in his
shirt as he was--they made their way from the room in the dark, groping
their way, and so reached the windows at the back. Darnley opened one of
these very softly, then sent the boy back for a sheet. Making this
fast, they descended by it to the garden, and started towards the wall,
intending to climb it, that they might reach the open.

The boy led the way, and the King followed, his teeth chattering as much
from the cold as from the terror that possessed him. And then, quite
suddenly, without the least warning, the ground, it seemed to them,
heaved under their feet, and they were flung violently forward on their
faces. A great blaze rent the darkness of the night, accompanied by
the thunders of an explosion so terrific that it seemed as if the whole
world must have been shattered by it.

For some instants the King and his page lay half stunned where they had
fallen, and well might it have been for them had they so continued. But
Darnley, recovering, staggered to his feet, pulling the boy up with him
and supporting him. Then, as he began to move, he heard a soft whistle
in the gloom behind him. Over his shoulder he looked towards the house,
to behold a great, smoking gap now yawning in it. Through this gap
he caught a glimpse of shadowy men moving in the close beyond, and he
realized that he had been seen. The white shirt he wore had betrayed his
presence to them.

With a stifled scream, he began to run towards the wall, the page
staggering after him. Behind them now came the clank and thud of a score
of overtaking feet. Soon they were surrounded. The King turned this way
and that, desperately seeking a w