before the heralds could summon the wardens or demand entrance in
the name of the Regent, the great gates rolled back, and all who were
near enough to see gazed in amazement at such a group in the gateway as
must have filled many eyes with tears, and which gave at once the most
astonishing climax to that wonderful picture. There Margaret stood, a
young woman of twenty-five, not a noble type of beauty, perhaps, but
with the fresh and florid Tudor good looks, and no doubt the imperious
Tudor port imposing to the crowd, with her child in his little cloak and
plumed bonnet, four years old, holding her hand. Among her little troop
of attendants, the ladies of her subdued Court, and the cluster of
cavaliers who surrounded her young husband, there might well be another
name of gentler fame--the then Provost of St. Giles, Gawin Douglas, poet
and statesman, who was her counsellor and the negotiator of her many
troubled affairs. But in this emergency it was the Queen herself who
bade the startled lords stand and deliver their message. They stepped
forward in some confusion, one would guess, not having calculated upon
this sudden encounter with such an unexpected champion, difficult to
silence--not only a queen with all the prestige both real and
sentimental which surrounds such a position, but also a mother whose
children were threatened. When they had finished their explanation, the
crowd looking on, no doubt impatient of the pause and of the voices that
could not reach their ears, Margaret stepped back and bade her
attendants quickly to let down the portcullis. They must have been
stationed ready with the intention, and no doubt the lords had no
attendants with them who could have hindered any such step or forced an
entrance. While the people looked on wondering, the iron bars came
crashing down, and in a moment the Queen and her child were safe though
visible within. Then Margaret addressed through that iron trellis the
astonished deputation. She told them that she was the guardian of the
castle, enfeoffed in it by her royal husband, and not minded to yield it
to any man, but that she respected the Parliament and country, and would
take six days to consider the demand made to her. The lords left outside
had no alternative but to turn and go back, not we may be sure without a
chorus of commentaries from the lively crowd, ever quick to note the
discomfiture of its masters, and delighted with such a novel sensation:
though the gra