ene."

"You had better, my lord," replied Mary, evasively--for she was still
reluctant to commit the unfortunate poet--"obtain what explanations you
desire from Chatelard himself. He surely is the fittest person to
explain his own conduct."

"True, madam," said Murray, sneeringly, "but I thought it not by any
means improbable that you might be as well informed on the point in
question as the gentleman himself."

"Your insinuation is rude, my lord," replied the queen, haughtily; and,
without vouchsafing any other remark, walked away to the further end of
the apartment, leaving the earl and Chatelard together.

Murray now saw, from the perfectly composed and independent manner of
the queen, that he could make out nothing to her prejudice from the case
before him, nor elicit the slightest evidence of anything like
connivance, on the part of Mary, at Chatelard's intrusion. Seeing this,
he determined on proceeding against the unfortunate poet with the utmost
rigour to which his imprudence had exposed him, in the hope that
severity would wring from him such confessions as would implicate the
queen.

Having come to this resolution--"Sir," he said, addressing Chatelard,
"prepare to abide the consequences of your presumption." And he
proceeded to the door, called an attendant, and desired him to send the
captain of the guard and a party to him instantly.

In a few minutes, they appeared, when the earl, addressing the officer
just named, and pointing to Chatelard, desired him to put that gentleman
in ward; and the latter was immediately hurried out of the apartment.
When the guard, with their prisoner, had left the queen's chamber, the
earl walked up to Mary, who, with her head leaning pensively on her
hand, had been silently contemplating the proceedings that were going
forward in her apartment.

"Madam," said Murray, on approaching her, "I think you may consider
yourself in safety for this night, at any rate, from any further
intrusion from this itinerant versifier; and it shall be my fault if he
ever again annoys you or any one else."

"What, brother!" exclaimed Mary, in evident alarm at this ambiguous, but
ominous hint--"you will not surely proceed to extremities against the
unfortunate young man?"

"By St Bride, but I will though," replied Murray, angrily. "Why, madam,
has not your reputation as a woman, and your dignity as a queen, both
been assailed by this insolent foreigner, in the daring act he has
done?"