and the
glare of torches was seen in the gardens. The king at once thought of
Sir Robert Graham and his threat, and called to the ladies who were
still in the room to keep the doors fast, so as to give him time to
make his escape. After vainly trying to break the bars of the windows,
he suddenly remembered that there was a vault running beneath the
apartment, which was used as a common sewer; whereupon he seized the
tongs, raised a plank in the floor, and let himself down. This vault
had formerly led out into the court of the convent; but, most
unfortunately, he had only a few days before ordered this opening to be
walled up, because, when playing ball, the ball had several times
rolled into it.

In the mean time, the conspirators were hunting for him from room to
room, and at last they reached the one beneath which he was hidden.
The queen and her ladies kept the door shut as long as they could, but
you will remember that the cowardly conspirators had broken the locks
and carried off the bars; and this brings us to one of the most devoted
and heroic acts in Scottish history. Catherine Douglas, one of the
noblest (both by rank and nature) and loveliest of the queen's ladies,
when she found that the bar was gone, with that high spirit which has
made her race wellnigh the most famous of Scotland, thrust her
beautiful, naked arm through the staples, in the place of the bar, and
thus kept the door closed till her arm was crushed and broken by the
pressure of the brutal traitors on the other side. When this heroic
defence was overcome, they burst headlong into the room, with swords
and daggers drawn, beating down and trampling on the brave ladies who
did their best to keep them back. One of them was in the act of
killing the queen, but a son of Graham prevented it, by exclaiming,
"What would you do with the queen? She is but a woman! Let us seek
the king!"

After a careful, but unsuccessful search, they went away to look in
other parts of the building. The king having heard their departure,
and being very cold and uncomfortable, asked the ladies to help him out
of the vault. But some of the conspirators had remembered this vault,
and just at this moment they returned to search it. They tore up the
plank, and there stood the poor, doomed king in his night-gown, and
entirely unarmed; at which, one of them said, "Sirs, I have found the
bride for whom we have been seeking all night."

First, two brothers, named H