partly
instinctively and partly pushed by George, who, on the contrary, leaned
out of the window to see whence came this cry, which, twice again
renewed, remained twice unanswered, and was immediately followed by a
report and the flash of a firearm: at the same moment the sentinel on
duty on the tower blew his bugle, another set going the alarm bell, and
the cries, "To arms, to arms!" and "Treason, treason!" resounded
throughout the castle.

"Yes, yes, treason, treason!" cried George Douglas, leaping down into the
room. "Yes, the infamous Warden has betrayed us!" Then, advancing to
Mary, cold and motionless as a statue, "Courage, madam," said he,
"courage! Whatever happens, a friend yet remains for you in the castle;
it is Little Douglas."

Scarcely had he finished speaking when the door of the queen's apartment
opened, and William Douglas and Lady Lochleven, preceded by servants
carrying torches and armed soldiers, appeared on the threshold: the room
was immediately filled with people and light.

"Mother," said William Douglas, pointing to his brother standing before
Mary Stuart and protecting her with his body, "do you believe me now?
Look!"

The old lady was for a moment speechless; then finding a word at last,
and taking a step forward--

"Speak, George Douglas," cried she, "speak, and clear yourself at once of
the charge which weighs on your honour; say but these words, 'A Douglas
was never faithless to his trust,' and I believe you".

"Yes, mother," answered William, "a Douglas!... but he--he is not a
Douglas."

"May God grant my old age the strength needed to bear on the part of one
of my sons such a misfortune, and on the part of the other such an
injury!" exclaimed Lady Lochleven. "O woman born under a fatal star,"
she went on, addressing the queen, "when will you cease to be, in the
Devil's hands, an instrument of perdition and death to all who approach
you? O ancient house of Lochleven, cursed be the hour when this
enchantress crossed thy threshold!"

"Do not say that, mother, do not say that," cried George; "blessed be, on
the contrary, the moment which proves that, if there are Douglases who no
longer remember what they owe to their sovereigns, there are others who
have never forgotten it."

"Douglas! Douglas!" murmured Mary Stuart, "did I not tell you?"

"And I, madam," said George, "what did I reply then? That it was an
honour and a duty to every faithful subject of your Majesty to die