he dwelling assigned him; but the queen made answer that she could not
receive him at that moment, either at Holyrood or at Stirling, for
fear, if his illness were infectious, lest he might give it to his son:
Darnley was then obliged to make the best of the abode allotted him.

It was an isolated abbey, and little calculated by its position to
dissipate the fears that the king entertained; for it was situated
between two ruined churches and two cemeteries: the only house, which
was distant about a shot from a cross-bow, belonged to the Hamiltons,
and as they were Darnley's mortal enemies the neighbourhood was none the
more reassuring: further, towards the north, rose some wretched huts,
called the "Thieves' cross-roads". In going round his new residence,
Darnley noticed that three holes, each large enough for a man to get
through, had been made in the walls; he asked that these holes, through
which ill-meaning persons could get in, should be stopped up: it was
promised that masons should be sent; but nothing was done, and the holes
remained open.

The day after his arrival at Kirk of Field, the king saw a light in that
house near his which lie believed deserted; next day he asked Alexander
Durham whence it came, and he heard that the Archbishop of St. Andrew's
had left his palace in Edinburgh and had housed there since the
preceding evening, one didn't know why: this news still further
increased the king's uneasiness; the Archbishop of St. Andrew's was one
of his most declared enemies.

The king, little by little abandoned by all his servants lived on the
first floor of an isolated pavilion, having about him only this same
Alexander Durham, whom we have mentioned already, and who was his valet.
Darnley, who had quite a special friendship for him, and who besides, as
we have said, feared some attack on his life at every moment, had made
him move his bed into his own apartment, so that both were sleeping in
the same room.

On the night of the 8th February, Darnley awoke Durham: he thought he
heard footsteps in the apartment beneath him. Durham rose, took a sword
in one hand, a taper in the other, and went down to the ground floor;
but although Darnley was quite certain he had not been deceived, Durham
came up again a moment after, saying he had seen no one.

The morning of the next day passed without bringing anything fresh.
The queen was marrying one of her servants named Sebastian: he was an
Auvergnat whom she had