re make me will
be kept?"

"Our word, madam," proudly replied Ruthven.

"Your word, my lord, is a very feeble pledge to offer, when one so
quickly forgets one's signature: have you not some trifle to add to it,
to make me a little easier than I should be with it alone?"

"Enough, Ruthven, enough," cried Lindsay. "Do you not see that for an
hour this woman answers our proposals only by insults?"

"Yes, let us go," said Ruthven; "and thank yourself only, madam, for the
day when the thread breaks which holds the sword suspended over your
head."

"My lords," cried Melville, "my lords, in Heaven's name, a little
patience, and forgive something to her who, accustomed to command, is
today forced to obey."

"Very well," said Lindsay, turning round, "stay with her, then, and try
to obtain by your smooth words what is refused to our frank and loyal
demand. In a quarter of an hour we shall return: let the answer be ready
in a quarter of an hour!"

With these words, the two noblemen went out, leaving Melville with the
queen; and one could count their footsteps, from the noise that Lindsay's
great sword made, in resounding on each step of the staircase.

Scarcely were they alone than Melville threw himself at the queen's feet.

"Madam," said he, "you remarked just now that Lord Herries and my brother
had given your Majesty advice that you repented not having followed;
well, madam, reflect on that I in my turn give you; for it is more
important than the other, for you will regret with still more bitterness
not having listened to it. Ah! you do not know what may happen, you are
ignorant of what your brother is capable."

"It seems to me, however," returned the queen, "that he has just
instructed me on that head: what more will he do than he has done
already? A public trial! Oh! it is all I ask: let me only plead my
cause, and we shall see what judges will dare to condemn me."

"But that is what they will take good care not to do, madam; for they
would be mad to do it when they keep you here in this isolated castle, in
the care of your enemies, having no witness but God, who avenges crime,
but who does not prevent it. Recollect, madam, what Machiavelli has
said, 'A king's tomb is never far from his prison.' You come of a family
in which one dies young, madam, and almost always of a sudden death: two
of your ancestors perished by steel, and one by poison."

"Oh, if my death were sudden and easy," cried Mary, "yes, I