It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, who take their humours for a warrant

To break into the bloody house of life,

And on the winking of authority

To understand a law.

King John .

The Lady of Lochleven sat alone in her chamber, endeavouring with sincere but imperfect zeal, to fix her eyes and her attention on the black-lettered Bible which lay before her, bound in velvet and embroidery, and adorned with massive silver clasps and knosps. But she found her utmost efforts unable to withdraw her mind from the resentful recollection of what had last night passed betwixt her and the Queen, in which the latter had with such bitter taunt reminded her of her early and long-repented transgression.

“Why,” she said, “should I resent so deeply that another reproaches me with that which I have never ceased to make matter of blushing to myself? and yet, why should this woman, who reaps — at least, has reaped — the fruits of my folly, and has jostled my son aside from the throne, why should she, in the face of all my domestics, and of her own, dare to upbraid me with my shame? Is she not in my power? Does she not fear me? Ha! wily tempter, I will wrestle with thee strongly, and with better suggestions than my own evil heart can supply!”

She again took up the sacred volume, and was endeavouring to fix her attention on its contents, when she was disturbed by a tap at the door of the room. It opened at her command, and the steward Dryfesdale entered, and stood before her with a gloomy and perturbed expression on his brow.

“What has chanced, Dryfesdale, that thou lookest thus?” said his mistress —“Have there been evil tidings of my son, or of my grandchildren?”

“No, Lady,” replied Dryfesdale, “but you were deeply insulted last night, and I fear me thou art as deeply avenged this morning — Where is the chaplain?”

“What mean you by hints so dark, and a question so sudden? The chaplain, as you well know, is absent at Perth upon an assembly of the brethren.”

“I care not,” answered the steward; “he is but a priest of Baal.”

“Dryfesdale,” said the Lady, sternly, “what meanest thou? I have ever heard, that in the Low Countries thou didst herd with the Anabaptist preachers, those boars which tear up the vintage — But the ministry which suits me and my house must content my retainers.”

“I would I had good ghostly counsel, though,” replied the steward, not attending to his mistress’s rebuke, and seeming to speak to himself. “This woman of Moab ——”

“Speak of her with reverence,” said the Lady; “she is a king’s daughter.”

“Be it so,” replied Dryfesdale; “she goes where there is little difference betwixt her and a beggar’s child — Mary of Scotland is dying.”

“Dying, and in my castle!” said the Lady, starting up in alarm; “of what disease, or by what accident?”

“Bear patience, Lady. The ministry was mine.”

“Thine, villain and traitor!— how didst thou dare ——”

“I heard you insulted, Lady — I heard you demand vengeance — I promised you should have it, and I now bring tidings of it.”

“Dryfesdale, I trust thou ravest?” said the Lady.

“I rave not,” replied the steward. “That which was written of me a million of years ere I saw the light, must be executed by me. She hath that in her veins that, I fear me, will soon stop the springs of life.” “Cruel villain,” exclaimed the Lady, “thou hast not poisoned her?” “And if I had,” said Dryfesdale, “what does it so greatly merit? Men. bane vermin — why not rid them of their enemies so? in Italy they will do it for a cruizuedor.”

“Cowardly ruffian, begone from my sight!”

“Think better of my zeal, Lady,” said the steward, “and judge not without looking around you. Lindesay, Ruthven, and your kinsman Morton, poniarded Rizzio, and yet you now see no blood on their embroidery — the Lord Semple stabbed the Lord of Sanquhar — does his bonnet sit a jot more awry on his brow? What noble lives in Scotland who has not had a share, for policy or revenge, in some such dealing?— and who imputes it to them? Be not cheated with names — a dagger or a draught work to the same end, and are little unlike — a glass phial imprisons the one, and a leathern sheath the other — one deals with the brain, the other sluices the blood — Yet, I say not I gave aught to this lady.”

“What dost thou mean by thus dallying with me?” said the Lady; “as thou wouldst save thy neck from the rope it merits, tell me the whole truth of this story-thou hast long been known a dangerous man.”

“Ay, in my master’s service I can be cold and sharp as my sword. Be it known to you, that when last on shore, I consulted with a woman of skill and power, called Nicneven, of whom the country has rung for some brief time past. Fools asked her for charms to make them beloved, misers for means to increase their store; some demanded to know the future — an idle wish, since it cannot be altered; others would have an explanation of the past — idler still, since it cannot be recalled. I heard their queries with scorn, and demanded the means of avenging myself of a deadly enemy, for I grow old, and may trust no longer to Bilboa blade. She gave me a packet —‘Mix that,’ said she, ‘with any liquid, and thy vengeance is complete.’”

“Villain! and you mixed it with the food of this imprisoned Lady, to the dishonour of thy master’s house?”

“To redeem the insulted honour of my master’s house, I mixed the contents of the packet with the jar of succory-water: They seldom fail to drain it, and the woman loves it over all.”

“It was a work of hell,” said the Lady Lochleven, “both the asking and the granting.— Away, wretched man, let us see if aid be yet too late!”

“They will not admit us, madam, save we enter by force — I have been. twice at the door, but can obtain no entrance.”

“We will beat it level with the ground, if needful — And, hold — summon Randal hither instantly.— Randal, here is a foul and evil chance befallen — send off a boat instantly to Kinross, the Chamberlain Luke Lundin is said to have skill — Fetch off, too, that foul witch Nicneven; she shall first counteract her own spell, and then be burned to ashes in the island of Saint Serf. Away, away — Tell them to hoist sail and ply oar, as ever they would have good of the Douglas’s hand!”

“Mother Nicneven will not be lightly found, or fetched hither on these conditions,” answered Dryfesdale.

“Then grant her full assurance of safety — Look to it, for thine own life must answer for this lady’s recovery.”

“I might have guessed that,” said Dryfesdale, sullenly; “but it is my comfort I have avenged mine own cause, as well as yours. She hath scoffed and scripped at me, and encouraged her saucy minion of a page to ridicule my stiff gait and slow speech. I felt it borne in upon me that I was to be avenged on them.”

“Go to the western turret,” said the Lady, “and remain there in ward until we see how this gear will terminate. I know thy resolved disposition — thou wilt not attempt escape.”

“Not were the walls of the turret of egg-shells, and the lake sheeted ice,” said Dryfesdale. “I am well taught, and strong in belief, that man does nought of himself; he is but the foam on the billow, which rises, bubbles, and bursts, not by its own effort, but by the mightier impulse of fate which urges him. Yet, Lady, if I may advise, amid this zeal for the life of the Jezebel of Scotland, forget not what is due to thine own honour, and keep the matter secret as you may.”

So saying, the gloomy fatalist turned from her, and stalked off with sullen composure to the place of confinement allotted to him.

His lady caught at his last hint, and only expressed her fear that the prisoner had partaken of some unwholesome food, and was dangerously ill. The castle was soon alarmed and in confusion. Randal was dispatched to the shore to fetch off Lundin, with such remedies as could counteract poison; and with farther instructions to bring mother Nicneven, if she could be found, with full power to pledge the Lady of Lochleven’s word for her safety.

Meanwhile the Lady of Lochleven herself held parley at the door of the Queen’s apartment, and in vain urged the page to undo it.

“Foolish boy!” she said, “thine own life and thy Lady’s are at stake — Open, I say, or we will cause the door to be broken down.”

“I may not open the door without my royal mistress’s orders,” answered Roland; “she has been very ill, and now she slumbers — if you wake her by using violence, let the consequence be on you and your followers.”

“Was ever woman in a strait so fearful!” exclaimed the Lady of Lochleven —“At least, thou rash boy, beware that no one tastes the food, but especially the jar of succory-water.”

She then hastened to the turret, where Dryfesdale had composedly resigned himself to imprisonment. She found him reading, and demanded of him, “Was thy fell potion of speedy operation?”

“Slow,” answered the steward. “The hag asked me which I chose — I told her I loved a slow and sure revenge. ‘Revenge,’ said I, ‘is the highest-flavoured draught which man tastes upon earth, and he should sip it by little and little — not drain it up greedily at once.”

“Against whom, unhappy man, couldst thou nourish so fell a revenge?”

“I had many objects, but the chief was that insolent page.”

“The boy!— thou inhuman man!” exclaimed the lady; “what could he do to deserve thy malice?”

“He rose in your favour, and you graced him with your commissions — that was one thing. He rose in that of George Douglas’s also — that was another. He was the favourite of the Calvinistic Henderson, who hated me because my spirit disowns a separated priesthood. The Moabitish Queen held him dear — winds from each opposing point blew in his favour — the old servitor of your house was held lightly among ye — above all, from the first time I saw his face, I longed to destroy him.”

“What fiend have I nurtured in my house!” replied the Lady. “May God forgive me the sin of having given thee food and raiment!”

“You might not choose, Lady,” answered the steward. “Long ere this castle was builded — ay, long ere the islet which sustains it reared its head above the blue water, I was destined to be your faithful slave, and you to be my ungrateful mistress. Remember you not when I plunged amid the victorious French, in the time of this lady’s mother, and brought off your husband, when those who had hung at the same breasts with him dared not attempt the rescue?— Remember how I plunged into the lake when your grandson’s skiff was overtaken by the tempest, boarded, and steered her safe to the land. Lady — the servant of a Scottish baron is he who regards not his own life, or that of any other, save his master. And, for the death of the woman, I had tried the potion on her sooner, had not Master George been her taster. Her death — would it not be the happiest news that Scotland ever heard? Is she not of the bloody Guisian stock, whose sword was so often red with the blood of God’s saints? Is she not the daughter of the wretched tyrant James, whom Heaven cast down from his kingdom, and his pride, even as the king of Babylon was smitten?”

“Peace, villain !” said the Lady — a thousand varied recollections thronging on her mind at the mention of her royal lover’s name; “Peace, and disturb not the ashes of the dead — of the royal, of the unhappy dead. Read thy Bible; and may God grant thee to avail thyself better of its contents than thou hast yet done!” She departed hastily, and as she reached the next apartment, the tears rose in her eyes so hastily, that she was compelled to stop and use her kerchief to dry them. “I expected not this,” she said, “no more than to have drawn water from the dry flint, or sap from a withered tree. I saw with a dry eye the apostacy and shame of George Douglas, the hope of my son’s house — the child of my love; and yet I now weep for him who has so long lain in his grave — for him to whom I owe it that his daughter can make a scoffing and a jest of my name! But she is his daughter — my heart, hardened against her for so many causes, relents when a glance of her eye places her father unexpectedly before me — and as often her likeness to that true daughter of the house of Guise, her detested mother, has again confirmed my resolution. But she must not — must not die in my house, and by so foul a practice. Thank God, the operation of the potion is slow, and may be counteracted. I will to her apartment once more. But oh! that hardened villain, whose fidelity we held in such esteem, and had such high proof of! What miracle can unite so much wickedness and so much truth in one bosom!”

The Lady of Lochleven was not aware how far minds of a certain gloomy and determined cast by nature, may be warped by a keen sense of petty injuries and insults, combining with the love of gain, and sense of self-interest, and amalgamated with the crude, wild, and indigested fanatical opinions which this man had gathered among the crazy sectaries of Germany; or how far the doctrines of fatalism, which he had embraced so decidedly, sear the human conscience, by representing our actions as the result of inevitable necessity.

During her visit to the prisoner, Roland had communicated to Catherine the tenor of the conversation he had had with her at the door of the apartment. The quick intelligence of that lively maiden instantly comprehended the outline of what was believed to have happened, but her prejudices hurried her beyond the truth.

“They meant to have poisoned us,” she exclaimed in horror, “and there stands the fatal liquor which should have done the deed!— Ay, as soon as Douglas ceased to be our taster, our food was likely to be fatally seasoned. Thou, Roland, who shouldst have made the essay, wert readily doomed to die with us. Oh, dearest Lady Fleming, pardon, pardon, for the injuries I said to you in my anger — your words were prompted by Heaven to save our lives, and especially that of the injured Queen. But what have we now to do? that old crocodile of the lake will be presently back to shed her hypocritical tears over our dying agonies.— Lady Fleming, what shall we do?”

“Our Lady help us in our need !” she replied; “how should I tell?— unless we were to make our plaint to the Regent.”

“Make our plaint to the devil,” said Catherine impatiently, “and accuse his dam at the foot of his burning throne!— The Queen still sleeps — we must gain time. The poisoning hag must not know her scheme has miscarried; the old envenomed spider has but too many ways of mending her broken web. The jar of succory-water,” said she —“Roland, if thou be’st a man, help me — empty the jar on the chimney or from the window — make such waste among the viands as if we had made our usual meal, and leave the fragments on cup and porringer, but taste nothing as thou lovest thy life. I will sit by the Queen, and tell her at her waking, in what a fearful pass we stand. Her sharp wit and ready spirit will teach us what is best to be done. Meanwhile, till farther notice, observe, Roland, that the Queen is in a state of torpor — that Lady Fleming is indisposed — that character” (speaking in a lower tone) “will suit her best, and save her wits some labour in vain. I am not so much indisposed, thou understandest.”

“And I?” said the page —

“You?” replied Catherine, “you are quite well — who thinks it worth while to poison puppy-dogs or pages?”

“Does this levity become the time?” asked the page.

“It does, it does,” answered Catherine Seyton; “if the Queen approves, I see plainly how this disconcerted attempt may do us good service.”

She went to work while she spoke, eagerly assisted by Roland. The breakfast table soon displayed the appearance as if the meal had been eaten as usual; and the ladies retired as softly as possible into the Queen’s sleeping apartment. At a new summons of the Lady Lochleven, the page undid the door, and admitted her into the anteroom, asking her pardon for having withstood her, alleging in excuse, that the Queen had fallen into a heavy slumber since she had broken her fast.

“She has eaten and drunken, then?” said the Lady of Lochleven.

“Surely,” replied the page, “according to her Grace’s ordinary custom, unless upon the fasts of the church.”

“The jar,” she said, hastily examining it, “it is empty — drank the Lady Mary the whole of this water?”

“A large part, madam; and I heard the Lady Catherine Seyton jestingly upbraid the Lady Mary Fleming with having taken more than a just share of what remained, so that but little fell to her own lot.”

“And are they well in health?” said the Lady of Lochleven.

“Lady Fleming,” said the page, “complains of lethargy, and looks duller than usual; and the Lady Catherine of Seyton feels her head somewhat more giddy than is her wont.”

He raised his voice a little as he said these words, to apprise the ladies of the part assigned to each of them, and not, perhaps, without the wish of conveying to the ears of Catherine the page-like jest which lurked in the allotment.

“I will enter the Queen’s bedchamber,” said the Lady of Lochleven; “my business is express.”

As she advanced to the door, the voice of Catherine Seyton was heard from within —“No one can enter here — the Queen sleeps.”

“I will not be controlled, young lady,” replied the Lady of Lochleven; “there is, I wot, no inner bar, and I will enter in your despite.”

“There is, indeed, no inner bar,” answered Catherine, firmly, “but there are the staples where that bar should be; and into those staples have I thrust mine arm, like an ancestress of your own, when, better employed than the Douglasses of our days, she thus defended the bedchamber of her sovereign against murderers. Try your force, then, and see whether a Seyton cannot rival in courage a maiden of the house of Douglas.”

“I dare not attempt the pass at such risk,” said the Lady of Lochleven: “Strange, that this Princess, with all that justly attaches to her as blameworthy, should preserve such empire over the minds of her attendants.— Damsel, I give thee my honour that I come for the Queen’s safety and advantage. Awaken her, if thou lovest her, and pray her leave that I may enter — I will retire from the door the whilst.”

“Thou wilt not awaken the Queen?” said the Lady Fleming.

“What choice have we?” said the ready-witted maiden, “unless you deem it better to wait till the Lady Lochleven herself plays lady of the bedchamber. Her fit of patience will not last long, and the Queen must be prepared to meet her.”

“But thou wilt bring back her Grace’s fit by thus disturbing her.”

“Heaven forbid!” replied Catherine; “but if so, it must pass for an effect of the poison. I hope better things, and that the Queen will be able when she wakes to form her own judgment in this terrible crisis. Meanwhile, do thou, dear Lady Fleming, practise to look as dull and heavy as the alertness of thy spirit will permit.”

Catherine kneeled by the side of the Queen’s bed, and, kissing her hand repeatedly, succeeded at last in awakening without alarming her. She seemed surprised to find that she was ready dressed, but sate up in her bed, and appeared so perfectly composed, that Catherine Seyton, without farther preamble, judged it safe to inform her of the predicament in which they were placed. Mary turned pale, and crossed herself again and again, when she heard the imminent danger in which she had stood. But, like the Ulysses of Homer,

— Hardly waking yet,

Sprung in her mind the momentary wit,

and she at once understood her situation, with the dangers and advantages that attended it.

“We cannot do better,” she said, after her hasty conference with Catherine, pressing her at the same time to her bosom, and kissing her forehead; “we cannot do better than to follow the scheme so happily devised by thy quick wit and bold affection. Undo the door to the Lady Lochleven — She shall meet her match in art, though not in perfidy. Fleming, draw close the curtain, and get thee behind it — thou art a better tire-woman than an actress; do but breathe heavily, and, if thou wilt, groan slightly, and it will top thy part. Hark! they come. Now, Catherine of Medicis, may thy spirit inspire me, for a cold northern brain is too blunt for this scene!”

Ushered by Catherine Seyton, and stepping as light as she could, the Lady Lochleven was shown into the twilight apartment, and conducted to the side of the couch, where Mary, pallid and exhausted from a sleepless night, and the subsequent agitation of the morning, lay extended so listlessly as might well confirm the worst fears of her hostess.

“Now, God forgive us our sins!” said the Lady of Lochleven, forgetting her pride, and throwing herself on her knees by the side of the bed; “It is too true — she is murdered!”

“Who is in the chamber?” said Mary, as if awaking from a heavy sleep. “Seyton, Fleming, where are you? I heard a strange voice. Who waits? — Call Courcelles.”

“Alas! her memory is at Holyrood, though her body is at Lochleven.— Forgive, madam,” continued the Lady, “if I call your attention to me — I am Margaret Erskine, of the house of Mar, by marriage Lady Douglas of Lochleven.”

“Oh, our gentle hostess,” answered the Queen, “who hath such care of our lodgings and of our diet — We cumber you too much and too long, good Lady of Lochleven; but we now trust your task of hospitality is well-nigh ended.”

“Her words go like a knife through my heart,” said the Lady of Lochleven —“With a breaking heart, I pray your Grace to tell me what is your ailment, that aid may be had, if there be yet time.”

“Nay, my ailment,” replied the Queen, “is nothing worth telling, or worth a leech’s notice — my limbs feel heavy — my heart feels cold — a prisoner’s limbs and heart are rarely otherwise — fresh air, methinks, and freedom, would soon revive me; but as the Estates have ordered it, death alone can break my prison-doors.”

“Were it possible, madam,” said the Lady, “that your liberty could restore your perfect health, I would myself encounter the resentment of the Regent &mdash............