cause but a few minutes
beforehand, whatever it might be, to give her countenance that calm and
that majesty which she had always found to influence her enemies.

Left alone, Mary let her glance stray back to the little house in
Kinross, her sole hope; but the distance was too great to distinguish
anything; besides, its shutters remained closed all day, and seemed to
open only in the evening, like the clouds, which, having covered the sky
for a whole morning, scatter at last to reveal to the lost sailor a
solitary star. She had remained no less motionless, her gaze always
fixed on the same object, when she was drawn from this mute contemplation
by the step of Mary Seyton.

"Well, darling?" asked the queen, turning round.

"Your Majesty is not mistaken," replied the messenger: "it really was Sir
Robert Melville and Lord Lindsay; but there came yesterday with Sir
William Douglas a third ambassador, whose name, I am afraid, will be
still more odious to your Majesty than either of the two I have just
pronounced."

"You deceive yourself, Mary," the queen answered: "neither the name of
Melville nor that of Lindsay is odious to me. Melville's, on the
contrary, is, in my present circumstances, one of those which I have most
pleasure in hearing; as to Lord Lindsay's, it is doubtless not agreeable
to me, but it is none the less an honourable name, always borne by men
rough and wild, it is true, but incapable of treachery. Tell me, then,
what is this name, Mary; for you see I am calm and prepared."

"Alas! madam," returned Mary, "calm and prepared as you may be, collect
all your strength, not merely to hear this name uttered, but also to
receive in a few minutes the man who bears it; for this name is that of
Lord Ruthven."

Mary Seyton had spoken truly, and this name had a terrible influence upon
the queen; for scarcely had it escaped the young girl's lips than Mary
Stuart uttered a cry, and turning pale, as if she were about to faint,
caught hold of the window-ledge.

Mary Seyton, frightened at the effect produced by this fatal name,
immediately sprang to support the queen; but she, stretching one hand
towards her, while she laid the other on her heart--

"It is nothing," said she; "I shall be better in a moment. Yes, Mary,
yes, as you said, it is a fatal name and mingled with one of my most
bloody memories. What such men are coming to ask of me must be dreadful
indeed. But no matter, I shall soon be ready to recei