"Yes, no doubt, madam, it was upon a great occasion," replied Lindsay, in
spite of the imploring signs made by Melville, "and this will have at
least the advantage of the others, in being sufficiently recent for you
to remember. It was ten days ago, on the battlefield of Carberry Hill,
madam, when the infamous Bothwell had the audacity to make a public
challenge in which he defied to single combat whomsoever would dare to
maintain that he was not innocent of the murder of the king your husband.
I made him answer then, I the third, that he was an assassin. And as he
refused to fight with the two others under the pretext that they were
only barons, I presented myself in my turn, I who am earl and lord. It
was on that occasion that the noble Earl of Morton gave me this good
sword to fight him to the death. So that, if he had been a little more
presumptuous or a little less cowardly, dogs and vultures would be eating
at this moment the pieces that, with the help of this good sword, I
should have carved for them from that traitor's carcass."

At these words, Mary Seyton and Robert Melville looked at each other in
terror, for the events that they recalled were so recent that they were,
so to speak, still living in the queen's heart; but the queen, with
incredible impassibility and a smile of contempt on her lips--

"It is easy, my lord," said she, "to vanquish an enemy who does not
appear in the lists; however, believe me, if Mary had inherited the
Stuarts' sword as she has inherited their sceptre, your sword, long as it
is, would yet have seemed to you too short. But as you have only to
relate to us now, my lord, what you intended doing, and not what you have
done, think it fit that I bring you back to something of more reality;
for I do not suppose you have given yourself the trouble to come here
purely and simply to add a chapter to the little treatise Des
Rodomontades Espagnolles by M. de Brantome."

"You are right, madam," replied Lindsay, reddening with anger, "and you
would already know the object of our mission if Lord Ruthven did not so
ridiculously keep us waiting. But," added he, "have patience; the matter
will not be long now, for here he is."

Indeed, at that moment they heard steps mounting the staircase and
approaching the room, and at the sound of these steps, the queen, who had
borne with such firmness Lindsay's insults, grew so perceptibly paler,
that Melville, who did not take his eyes off her,--put