e she stayed in the
castle, this ceremony would prevent any intimacy at table. However, it
proceeded from too noble an intention for her to impute it as a crime to
her hosts: she resigned herself, then, to this company, insupportable as
it was to her; only, from that day forward, she so cut short her meals
that all the time she was at Lochleven her longest dinners barely lasted
more than a quarter of an hour.

Two days after her arrival, Mary, on sitting down to table for breakfast,
found on her plate a letter addressed to her which had been put there by
William Douglas. Mary recognised Murray's handwriting, and her first
feeling was one of joy; for if a ray of hope remained to her, it came
from her brother, to whom she had always been perfectly kind, whom from
Prior of St. Andrew's she had made an earl in bestowing on him the
splendid estates which formed part of the old earldom of Murray, and to
whom, which was of more importance, she had since pardoned, or pretended
to pardon, the part he had taken in Rizzio's assassination.

Her astonishment was great, then, when, having opened the letter, she
found in it bitter reproaches for her conduct, an exhortation to do
penance, and an assurance several times repeated that she should never
leave her prison. He ended his letter in announcing to her that, in
spite of his distaste for public affairs, he had been obliged to accept
the regency, which he had done less for his country than for his sister,
seeing that it was the sole means he had of standing in the way of the
ignominious trial to which the nobles wished to bring her, as author, or
at least as chief accomplice, of Darnley's death. This imprisonment was
then clearly a great good fortune for her, and she ought to thank Heaven
for it, as an alleviation of the fate awaiting her if he had not
interceded for her.

This letter was a lightning stroke for Mary: only, as she did not wish to
give her enemies the delight of seeing her suffer, she contained her
grief, and, turning to William Douglas--

"My lord," said she, "this letter contains news that you doubtless know
already, for although we are not children by the same mother, he who
writes to me is related to us in the same degree, and will not have
desired to write to his sister without writing to his brother at the same
time; besides, as a good son, he will have desired to acquaint his mother
with the unlooked-for greatness that has befallen him."

"Yes, madam,