and
left him with Mary when he was obliged to leave her, charging the young
poet to support with her the interests of his suit. This post as
confidant brought Mary and Chatelard more together; and, as in her
capacity as poet, the queen treated him like a brother, he made bold in
his passion to risk all to obtain another title. Accordingly, one
evening he got into Mary Stuart's room, and hid himself under the bed;
but at the moment when the queen was beginning to undress, a little dog
she had began to yelp so loudly that her women came running at his
barking, and, led by this indication, perceived Chatelard. A woman
easily pardons a crime for which too great love is the excuse: Mary
Stuart was woman before being queen--she pardoned.

But this kindness only increased Chatelard's confidence: he put down the
reprimand he had received to the presence of the queen's women, and
supposed that if she had been alone she would have forgiven him still
more completely; so that, three weeks after, this same scene was
repeated. But this time, Chatelard, discovered in a cupboard, when the
queen was already in bed, was placed under arrest.

The moment was badly chosen: such a scandal, just when the queen was
about to re-marry, was fatal to Mary, let alone to Chatelard. Murray
took the affair in hand, and, thinking that a public trial could alone
save his sister's reputation, he urged the prosecution with such vigour,
that Chatelard, convicted of the crime of lese-majeste, was condemned to
death. Mary entreated her brother that Chatelard might be sent back to
France; but Murray made her see what terrible consequences such a use of
her right of pardon might have, so that Mary was obliged to let justice
take its course: Chatelard was led to execution. Arrived on the
scaffold, which was set up before the queen's palace, Chatelard, who had
declined the services of a priest, had Ronsard's Ode on Death read; and
when the reading, which he followed with evident pleasure, was ended, he
turned--towards the queen's windows, and, having cried out for the last
time, "Adieu, loveliest and most cruel of princesses!" he stretched out
his neck to the executioner, without displaying any repentance or
uttering any complaint. This death made all the more impression upon
Mary, that she did not dare to show her sympathy openly.

Meanwhile there was a rumour that the queen of Scotland was consenting to
a new marriage, and several suitors came forwa