ournful reverie. Then one of the ladies of her court,
breaking through the circle which had formed round the queen, approached
her, ill at ease, and asked her of what she was thinking so sadly. "Ah!
madam," Elizabeth replied impatiently, "do you not know that Mary Stuart
has given birth to a son, while I am but a barren stock, who will die
without offspring?"

Yet Elizabeth was too good a politician, in spite of her liability to
be carried away by a first impulse, to compromise herself by a longer
display of her grief. The ball was not discontinued on that account, and
the interrupted quadrille was resumed and finished.

The next day, Melville had his audience. Elizabeth received him to
perfection, assuring him of all the pleasure that the news he brought
had caused her, and which, she said, had cured her of a complaint
from which she had suffered for a fortnight. Melville replied that his
mistress had hastened to acquaint her with her joy, knowing that she had
no better friend; but he added that this joy had nearly cost Mary her
life, so grievous had been her confinement. As he was returning to this
point for the third time, with the object of still further increasing
the queen of England's dislike to marriage--

"Be easy, Melville," Elizabeth answered him; "you need not insist upon
it. I shall never marry; my kingdom takes the place of a husband for
me, and my subjects are my children. When I am dead, I wish graven on my
tombstone: 'Here lies Elizabeth, who reigned so many years, and who died
a virgin.'"

Melville availed himself of this opportunity to remind Elizabeth of
the desire she had shown to see Mary, three or four years before; but
Elizabeth said, besides her country's affairs, which necessitated her
presence in the heart of her possessions, she did not care, after
all she had heard said of her rival's beauty, to expose herself to a
comparison disadvantageous to her pride. She contented herself, then,
with choosing as her proxy the Earl of Bedford, who set out with
several other noblemen for Stirling Castle, where the young prince was
christened with great pomp, and received the name of Charles James.

It was remarked that Darnley did not appear at this ceremony, and that
his absence seemed to scandalise greatly the queen of England's envoy.
On the contrary, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, had the most important
place there.

This was because, since the evening when Bothwell, at Mary's cries, had
run