uch an imprudent demonstration naturally led to fresh quarrels between
Mary and Darnley: these quarrels were the more bitter that, as one can
well understand, the reconciliation between the husband and wife, at
least on the latter's side, had never been anything but a pretence; so
that, feeling herself in a stronger position still on account of her
pregnancy, she restrained herself no longer, and, leaving Darnley, she
went from Dunbar to Edinburgh Castle, where on June 19th, 1566, three
months after the assassination of Rizzio, she gave birth to a son who
afterwards became James VI.

CHAPTER III

Directly she was delivered, Mary sent for James Melville, her usual envoy
to Elizabeth, and charged him to convey this news to the Queen of
England, and to beg her to be godmother to the royal child at the same
time. On arriving in London, Melville immediately presented himself at
the palace; but as there was a court ball, he could not see the queen,
and contented himself with making known the reason for his journey to the
minister Cecil, and with begging him to ask his mistress for an audience
next day. Elizabeth was dancing in a quadrille at the moment when Cecil,
approaching her, said in a low voice, "Queen Mary of Scotland has just
given birth to a son". At these words she grew frightfully pale, and,
looking about her with a bewildered air, and as if she were about to
faint, she leaned against an arm-chair; then, soon, not being able to
stand upright, she sat down, threw back her head, and plunged into a
mournful reverie. Then one of the ladies of her court, breaking through
the circle which had formed round the queen, approached her, ill at ease,
and asked her of what she was thinking so sadly. "Ah! madam," Elizabeth
replied impatiently, "do you not know that Mary Stuart has given birth to
a son, while I am but a barren stock, who will die without offspring?"

Yet Elizabeth was too good a politician, in spite of her liability to be
carried away by a first impulse, to compromise herself by a longer
display of her grief. The ball was not discontinued on that account, and
the interrupted quadrille was resumed and finished.

The next day, Melville had his audience. Elizabeth received him to
perfection, assuring him of all the pleasure that the news he brought had
caused her, and which, she said, had cured her of a complaint from which
she had suffered for a fortnight. Melville replied that his mistress had
has