e a more active part in the conversation than
her preoccupation allowed her; but William Douglas did not seem in any
way to observe this absence of mind, and all passed as at breakfast.

Directly he had gone the queen ran to the window: the few clouds which
were chasing one another in the sky an hour before had thickened and
spread, and--all the blue was blotted out, to give place to a hue dull
and leaden as pewter. Mary Stuart's presentiments were thus realised:
as to the little house in Kinross, which one could still make out in the
dusk, it remained shut up, and seemed deserted.

Night fell: the light shone as usual; the queen signalled, it
disappeared. Mary Stuart waited in vain; everything remained in
darkness: the escape was for the same evening. The queen heard eight
o'clock, nine o'clock, and ten o'clock strike successively. At ten
o'clock the sentinels were relieved; Mary Stuart heard the patrols pass
beneath her windows, the steps of the watch recede: then all returned to
silence. Half an hour passed away thus; suddenly the owl's cry resounded
thrice, the queen recognised George Douglas's signal: the supreme moment
had come.

In these circumstances the queen found all her strength revive: she
signed to Mary Seyton to take away the bar and to fix the rope ladder,
while, putting out the lamp, she felt her way into the bedroom to seek
the casket which contained her few remaining jewels. When she came back,
George Douglas was already in the room.

"All goes well, madam," said he. "Your friends await you on the other
side of the lake, Thomas Warden watches at the postern, and God has sent
us a dark night."

The queen, without replying, gave him her hand. George bent his knee and
carried this hand to his lips; but on touching it, he felt it cold and
trembling.

"Madam," said he, "in Heaven's name summon all your courage, and do not
let yourself be downcast at such a moment."

"Our Lady-of-Good-Help," murmured Seyton, "come to our aid!"

"Summon to you the spirit of the kings your ancestors," responded
George, "for at this moment it is not the resignation of a Christian
that you require, but the strength and resolution of a queen."

"Oh, Douglas! Douglas," cried Mary mournfully, "a fortune-teller
predicted to me that I should die in prison and by a violent death: has
not the hour of the prediction arrived?"

"Perhaps," George said, "but it is better to die as a queen than to live
in this ancient castle ca