Crestfallen at this event, M. de Chateauneuf was still shut up at
the Embassy, when, a fortnight later, he received an invitation from
Elizabeth to visit her at the country house of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. M. de Chateauneuf went thither with the firm resolve to
say no word to her on what had happened; but as soon as she saw him,
Elizabeth, dressed in black, rose, went to him, and, overwhelming him
with kind attentions, told him that she was ready to place all the
strength of her kingdom at Henry III's disposal to help him put down
the League. Chateauneuf received all these offers with a cold and severe
expression, without saying, as he had promised himself, a single word
about the event which had put both the queen and himself into mourning.
But, taking him by the hand, she drew him aside, and there, with deep
sighs, said--

"Ah! sir, since I saw you the greatest misfortune which could befall me
has happened: I mean the death of my good sister, the Queen of Scotland,
of which I swear by God Himself, my soul and my salvation, that I
am perfectly innocent. I had signed the order, it is true; but my
counsellors have played me a trick for which I cannot calm myself; and
I swear to God that if it were not for their long service I would have
them beheaded. I have a woman's frame, sir, but in this woman's frame
beats a man's heart."

Chateauneuf bowed without a response; but his letter to Henry III and
Henry's answer prove that neither the one nor the other was the dupe of
this female Tiberius.

Meanwhile, as we have said, the unfortunate servants were prisoners,
and the poor body was in that great hall waiting for a royal interment.
Things remained thus, Elizabeth said, to give her time to order a
splendid funeral for her good sister Mary, but in reality because the
queen dared not place in juxtaposition the secret and infamous death
and the public and royal burial; then, was not time needed for the first
reports which it pleased Elizabeth to spread to be credited before the
truth should be known by the mouths of the servants? For the queen hoped
that once this careless world had made up its mind about the death of
the Queen of Scots, it would not take any further trouble to change it.
Finally, it was only when the warders were as tired as the prisoners,
that Elizabeth, having received a report stating that the ill-embalmed
body could no longer be kept, at last ordered the funeral to take place.

Accordingly, aft