you, Rosabelle awaits your Majesty."

"Noble Douglas!" murmured the queen, with eyes full of tears; then, as if
speaking to herself, "And this is precisely one of those devotions that
we can never repay. The others will be happy with honours, places,
money; but to Douglas what matter all these things?"

"Come, madam, come," said Mary Seyton, "God takes on Himself the debts of
kings; He will reward Douglas. As to your Majesty, reflect that they are
waiting dinner for you. I hope," added she, smiling, "that you will not
affront my father as you did Lord Douglas yesterday in refusing to
partake of his feast on his fortunate home-coming."

"And luck has come to me for it, I hope," replied Mary. "But you are
right, darling: no more sad thoughts; we will consider when we have
indeed become queen again what we can do for Douglas."

The queen dressed and went down. As Mary Seyton had told her, the chief
noblemen of her party, already gathered round her, were waiting for her
in the great hall of the castle. Her arrival was greeted with
acclamations of the liveliest enthusiasm, and she sat down to table, with
Lord Seyton on her right hand, Douglas on her left, and behind her Little
William, who the same day was beginning his duties as page.

Next morning the queen was awakened by the sound of trumpets and bugles:
it had been decided the day before that she should set out that day for
Hamilton, where reinforcements were looked for. The queen donned an
elegant riding-habit, and soon, mounted on Rosabelle, appeared amid her
defenders. The shouts of joy redoubled: her beauty, her grace, and her
courage were admired by everyone. Mary Stuart became her own self once
more, and she felt spring up in her again the power of fascination she
had always exercised on those who came near her. Everyone was in good
humour, and the happiest of all was perhaps Little William, who for the
first time in his life had such a fine dress and such a fine horse.

Two or three thousand men were awaiting the queen at Hamilton, which she
reached the same evening; and during the night following her arrival the
troops increased to six thousand. The 2nd of May she was a prisoner,
without another friend but a child in her prison, without other means of
communication with her adherents than the flickering and uncertain light
of a lamp, and three days afterwards--that is to say, between the Sunday
and the Wednesday--she found herself not only free, b