, having punished the living woman
as a criminal, had just treated the dead woman as a queen, had also
wished that the honours of the funeral banquet should be for the
servants, so long forgotten by her. But, as one can imagine, these ill
accommodated themselves to that intention, did not seem astonished
at this luxury nor rejoiced at this good cheer, but, on the contrary,
drowned their bread and wine in tears, without otherwise responding to
the questions put to them or the honours granted them. And as soon as
the repast was ended, the poor servants left Peterborough and took the
road back to Fotheringay, where they heard that they were free at last
to withdraw whither they would. They did not need to be told twice; for
they lived in perpetual fear, not considering their lives safe so long
as they remained in England. They therefore immediately collected all
their belongings, each taking his own, and thus went out of Fotheringay
Castle on foot, Monday, 13th August, 1587.

Bourgoin went last: having reached the farther side of the drawbridge,
he turned, and, Christian as he was, unable to forgive Elizabeth, not
for his own sufferings, but for his mistress's, he faced about to those
regicide walls, and, with hands outstretched to them, said in a loud and
threatening voice, those words of David: "Let vengeance for the blood
of Thy servants, which has been shed, O Lord God, be acceptable in
Thy sight". The old man's curse was heard, and inflexible history is
burdened with Elizabeth's punishment.

We said that the executioner's axe, in striking Mary Stuart's head, had
caused the crucifix and the book of Hours which she was holding to fly
from her hands. We also said that the two relics had been picked up
by people in her following. We are not aware of what became of the
crucifix, but the book of Hours is in the royal library, where those
curious about these kinds of historical souvenirs can see it: two
certificates inscribed on one of the blank leaves of the volume
demonstrate its authenticity. These are they:

FIRST CERTIFICATE

"We the undersigned Vicar Superior of the strict observance of the Order
of Cluny, certify that this book has been entrusted to us by order of
the defunct Dom Michel Nardin, a professed religious priest of our said
observance, deceased in our college of Saint-Martial of Avignon, March
28th, 1723, aged about eighty years, of which he has spent about thirty
among us, havi