the same time engaged in unconjugal correspondence with the Earl of
Bothwell. The King, however, was won by her kindness, and consented to
be removed from among the friends of his family at Glasgow to Edinburgh,
in order that he might there enjoy the benefits of her soft cares and
the salutary attendance of the physicians of the capital. The house of
the provost of Kirk o' Field, which stood not far from the spot where
the buildings of the college now stand, was accordingly prepared for his
reception, on account of the advantages which it afforded for the free
and open air of a rising ground; but it was also a solitary place--a fit
haunt for midnight conspirators and the dark purposes of mysterious
crime.

There, for some time, the Queen lavished upon him all the endearing
gentleness of a true and loving wife, being seldom absent by day, and
sleeping near his sick-chamber at night. The land was blithened with
such assurances of their reconciliation; and the King himself, with the
frank ardour of flattered youth, was contrite for his faults, and
promised her the fondest devotion of all his future days. In this sweet
cordiality, on Sunday, the 9th of February, A.D. 1567, she parted from
him to be present at a masquing in the palace; for the Reformation had
not so penetrated into the habits and business of men as to hallow the
Sabbath in the way it has since done amongst us. But before proceeding
farther, it is proper to resume the thread of my grandfather's story.

He had passed that evening, as he was wont to tell, in pleasant gospel
conversation with several acquaintances in the house of one Raphael
Doquet, a pious lawyer in the Canongate; for even many writers in those
days were smitten with the love of godliness; and as he was returning to
his dry lodgings in an entry now called Baron Grant's Close, he
encountered Winterton, who, after an end had been put to David Rizzio,
became a retainer in the riotous household of the Earl of Bothwell. This
happened a short way aboon the Netherbow, and my grandfather stopped to
speak with him; but there was a haste and confusion in his manner which
made him rather eschew this civility. My grandfather at the time,
however, did not much remark it; but scarcely had they parted ten paces
when a sudden jealousy of some unknown guilt or danger, wherein
Winterton was concerned, came into his mind like a flash of fire, and he
felt as it were an invisible power constraining him to dog his