ation.

We dwell upon all these details somewhat at length, perhaps, but no doubt
our readers will pardon us when they see the use to be made of them.

This is the family, less George, who, as we have said, was absent at the
time of her arrival, into the midst of which the queen had fallen,
passing in a moment from the summit of power to the position of a
prisoner; for from the day following her arrival Mary saw that it was by
such a title she was an inmate of Lochleven Castle. In fact, Lady
Douglas presented herself before her as soon as it was morning, and with
an embarrassment and dislike ill disguised beneath an appearance of
respectful indifference, invited Mary to follow her and take stock of the
several parts of the fortress which had been chosen beforehand for her
private use. She then made her go through three rooms, of which one was
to serve as her bedroom, the second as sitting-room, and the third as
ante-chamber; afterwards, leading the way down a spiral staircase, which
looked into the great hall of the castle, its only outlet, she had
crossed this hall, and had taken Mary into the garden whose trees the
queen had seen topping the high walls on her arrival: it was a little
square of ground, forming a flower-bed in the midst of which was an
artificial fountain. It was entered by a very low door, repeated in the
opposite wall; this second door looked on to the lake and, like all the
castle doors, whose keys, however, never left the belt or the pillow of
William Douglas, it was guarded night and day by a sentinel. This was
now the whole domain of her who had possessed the palaces, the plains,
and the mountains of an entire kingdom.

Mary, on returning to her room, found breakfast ready, and William
Douglas standing near the table he was going to fulfil about the queen
the duties of carver and taster.

In spite of their hatred for Mary, the Douglases would have considered it
an eternal blemish on their honour if any accident should have befallen
the queen while she was dwelling in their castle; and it was in order
that the queen herself should not entertain any fear in this respect that
William Douglas, in his quality of lord of the manor, had not only
desired to carve before the queen, but even to taste first in her
presence, all the dishes served to her, as well as the water and the
several wines to be brought her. This precaution saddened Mary more than
it reassured her; for she understood that, whil