, had
been made in the walls; he asked that these holes, through which
ill-meaning persons could get in, should be stopped up: it was promised
that masons should be sent; but nothing was done, and the holes remained
open.

The day after his arrival at Kirk of Field, the king saw a light in that
house near his which lie believed deserted; next day he asked Alexander
Durham whence it came, and he heard that the Archbishop of St. Andrew's
had left his palace in Edinburgh and had housed there since the preceding
evening, one didn't know why: this news still further increased the
king's uneasiness; the Archbishop of St. Andrew's was one of his most
declared enemies.

The king, little by little abandoned by all his servants lived on the
first floor of an isolated pavilion, having about him only this same
Alexander Durham, whom we have mentioned already, and who was his valet.
Darnley, who had quite a special friendship for him, and who besides, as
we have said, feared some attack on his life at every moment, had made
him move his bed into his own apartment, so that both were sleeping in
the same room.

On the night of the 8th February, Darnley awoke Durham: he thought he
heard footsteps in the apartment beneath him. Durham rose, took a sword
in one hand, a taper in the other, and went down to the ground floor; but
although Darnley was quite certain he had not been deceived, Durham came
up again a moment after, saying he had seen no one.

The morning of the next day passed without bringing anything fresh. The
queen was marrying one of her servants named Sebastian: he was an
Auvergnat whom she had brought with her from France, and whom she liked
very much. However, as the king sent word that he had not seen her for
two days, she left the wedding towards six o'clock in the evening, and
came to pay him a visit, accompanied by the Countess of Argyll and the
Countess of Huntly. While she was there, Durham, in preparing his bed,
set fire to his palliasse, which was burned as well as a part of the
mattress; so that, having thrown them out of the window all in flames,
for fear lest the fire should reach the rest of the furniture, he found
himself without a bed, and asked permission to return to the town to
sleep; but Darnley, who remembered his terror the night before, and who
was surprised at the promptness that had made Durham throw all his
bedding out of the window, begged him not to go away, offering him one of
his mattres