watchmen with the gunpowder, and found all safe. Men
locked up under such circumstances, and on the eve of the
perpetration of such a deed, were not likely to sleep at their posts.
All things being now ready, they made a slow match of lint, long
enough to burn for some little time, and inserting one end of it into
the gunpowder, they lighted the other end, and crept stealthily out
of the apartment. They passed over the wall into the convent gardens,
where they rejoined their companions and awaited the result.

Men choose midnight often for the perpetration of crime, from the
facilities afforded by its silence and solitude. This advantage is,
however, sometimes well-nigh balanced by the stimulus which its
mysterious solemnity brings to the stings of remorse and terror.
Bothwell himself felt anxious and agitated. They waited and waited,
but it seemed as if their dreadful suspense would never end. Bothwell
became desperate. He wanted to get over the wall again and look in at
the window, to see if the slow match had not gone out. The rest
restrained him. At length the explosion came like a clap of thunder.
The flash brightened for an instant over the whole sky, and the
report roused the sleeping inhabitants of Edinburgh from their
slumbers, throwing the whole city into sudden consternation.

The perpetrators of the deed, finding that their work was done, fled
immediately. They tried various plans to avoid the sentinels at the
gates of the city, as well as the persons who were beginning to come
toward the scene of the explosion. When they reached the palace of
Holyrood, they were challenged by the sentinel on duty there. They
said that they were friends of Earl Bothwell, bringing dispatches to
him from the country. The sentinel asked them if they knew what was
the cause of that loud explosion. They said they did not, and passed
on.

Bothwell went to his room, called for a drink, undressed himself, and
went to bed. Half an hour afterward, messengers came to awaken him,
and inform him that the king's house had been blown up with
gunpowder, and the king himself killed by the explosion. He rose with
an appearance of great astonishment and indignation, and, after
conferring with some of the other nobles, concluded to go and
communicate the event to the queen. The queen was overwhelmed with
astonishment and indignation too.

The destruction of Darnley in such a manner as this, of course
produced a vast sensation all over Scot