ial! Oh! it is all I ask: let me only plead my
cause, and we shall see what judges will dare to condemn me."

"But that is what they will take good care not to do, madam; for they
would be mad to do it when they keep you here in this isolated castle,
in the care of your enemies, having no witness but God, who avenges
crime, but who does not prevent it. Recollect, madam, what Machiavelli
has said, 'A king's tomb is never far from his prison.' You come of a
family in which one dies young, madam, and almost always of a sudden
death: two of your ancestors perished by steel, and one by poison."

"Oh, if my death were sudden and easy," cried Mary, "yes, I should
accept it as an expiation for my faults; for if I am proud when I
compare myself with others, Melville, I am humble when I judge myself. I
am unjustly accused of being an accomplice of Darnley's death, but I am
justly condemned for having married Bothwell."

"Time presses, madam; time presses," cried Melville, looking at the
sand, which, placed on the table, was marking the time. "They are coming
back, they will be here in a minute; and this time you must give them an
answer. Listen, madam, and at least profit by your situation as much
as you can. You are alone here with one woman, without friends, without
protection, without power: an abdication signed at such a juncture will
never appear to your people to have been freely given, but will always
pass as having been torn from you by force; and if need be, madam, if
the day comes when such a solemn declaration is worth something, well,
then you will have two witnesses of the violence done you: the one will
be Mary Seyton, and the other," he added in a low voice and looking
uneasily about him,--"the other will be Robert Melville."

Hardly had he finished speaking when the footsteps of the two nobles
were again heard on the staircase, returning even before the quarter of
an hour had elapsed; a moment afterwards the door opened, and Ruthven
appeared, while over his shoulder was seen Lindsay's head.

"Madam," said Ruthven, "we have returned. Has your Grace decided? We
come for your answer."

"Yes," said Lindsay, pushing aside Ruthven, who stood in his way, and
advancing to the table,--"yes, an answer, clear, precise, positive, and
without dissimulation."

"You are exacting, my lord," said the queen: "you would scarcely have
the right to expect that from me if I were in full liberty on the other
side of the lake and