more
eagerly on to the ruins of the house, which were still burning. The
walls were rent, and in many places thrown down; the west gable was
blown clean away, and the very ground, on the side where the King's
chamber had been, was torn as with a hundred ploughshares. Certain trees
that grew hard by were cleft and riven as with a thunderbolt, and stones
were sticking in their timber like wedges and the shot of cannon.

It was thought, that in such a sudden blast of desolation, nothing in
the house could have withstood the shock, but that all therein must have
been shivered to atoms. When, however, the day began to dawn, it was
seen that many things had escaped unblemished by the fire; and the
King's body, with that of the servant who watched in his chamber, was
found in a neighbouring garden, without having suffered any material
change,--the which caused the greater marvelling; for it thereby
appeared that they were the only sufferers in that dark treason, making
the truth plain before the people, that the contrivance and firing
thereof was concerted and brought to maturity by some in authority with
the Queen,--and who that was the people answered by crying as the royal
corpse was carried to the palace, "Bothwell, Lord Bothwell, he is the
traitor!"

CHAPTER XXXII

All the next day, and for many days after, consternation reigned in the
streets of the city, and horror sat shuddering in all her
dwelling-places. Multitudes stood in amazement from morning to night
around the palace; for the Earl of Bothwell was within, and still
honoured with all the homages due to the greatest public trusts. Ever
and anon a cry was heard, "Bothwell is the murderer!" and the multitude
shouted, "Justice, justice!" But their cry was not heard.

Night after night the trembling citizens watched with candles at their
casements, dreading some yet greater alarm; and in the stillness of the
midnight hour a voice was heard crying, "The Queen and Bothwell are the
murderers!" and another voice replied, "Vengeance, vengeance!--Blood for
blood!"

Every morning on the walls of the houses writings were seen, demanding
the punishment of the regicides--and the Queen's name, and the name of
Bothwell, and the names of many more, with the Archbishop of St Andrews
at their head, were emblazoned on all sides as the names of the
regicides. But Bothwell, with the resolute bravery of guilt in the
confidence of power, heeded not the cry that thus mounted