account.
Tottering, she leaned on Mary Seyton, who herself felt her strength
giving way. Meanwhile Little Douglas was trying the keys: the second
opened the door.

"And the queen?" said in a low voice a man who was waiting on the other
side of the wall.

"She is following me," replied the child.

George Douglas, for it was he, sprang into the garden, and, taking the
queen's arm on one side and Mary Seyton's on the other, he hurried them
away quickly to the lake-side. When passing through the doorway Mary
Stuart could not help throwing an uneasy look about her, and it seemed to
her that a shapeless object was lying at the bottom of the wall, and as
she was shuddering all over.

"Do not pity him," said George in a low voice, "for it is a judgment from
heaven. That man was the infamous Warden who betrayed us."

"Alas!" said the queen, "guilty as he was, he is none the less dead on my
account."

"When it concerned your safety, madam, was one to haggle over drops of
that base blood? But silence! This way, William, this way; let us keep
along the wall, whose shadow hides us. The boat is within twenty steps,
and we are saved."

With these words, George hurried on the two women still more quickly, and
all four, without having been detected, reached the banks of the lake.
'As Douglas had said, a little boat was waiting; and, on seeing the
fugitives approach, four rowers, couched along its bottom, rose, and one
of them, springing to land, pulled the chain, so that the queen and Mary
Seyton could get in. Douglas seated them at the prow, the child placed
himself at the rudder, and George, with a kick, pushed off the boat,
which began to glide over the lake.

"And now," said he, "we are really saved; for they might as well pursue a
sea swallow on Solway Firth as try to reach us. Row, children, row;
never mind if they hear us: the main thing is to get into the open."

"Who goes there?" cried a voice above, from the castle terrace.

"Row, row," said Douglas, placing himself in front of the queen.

"The boat! the boat!" cried the same voice; "bring to the boat!" Then,
seeing that it continued to recede, "Treason! treason!" cried the
sentinel. "To arms!"

At the same moment a flash lit up the lake; the report of a firearm was
heard, and a ball passed, whistling. The queen uttered a little cry,
although she had run no danger, George, as we have said, having placed
himself in front of her, quite protecting her wi