It
is well known that her death was at length hastened by a letter which
she wrote to Queen Elizabeth, in which she treated her jealous rival,
and the Countess of Shrewsbury, with the keenest irony and ridicule.
As the ladies met together, the Queen said, bending her head at the
same time, in return to the obeisance of the Lady Lochleven, "We are
this day fortunate--we enjoy the company of our amiable hostess at an
unusual hour, and during a period which we have hitherto been
permitted to give to our private exercise. But our good hostess knows
well she has at all times access to our presence, and need not observe
the useless ceremony of requiring our permission."
"I am sorry my presence is deemed an intrusion by your Grace," said
the Lady of Lochleven. "I came but to announce the arrival of an
addition to your train," motioning with her hand towards Roland
Graeme; "a circumstance to which ladies are seldom indifferent."
"Oh! I crave your ladyship's pardon; and am bent to the earth with
obligations for the kindness of my nobles--or my sovereigns, shall I
call them?--who have permitted me such a respectable addition to my
personal retinue."
"They have indeed studied, Madam," said the Lady of Lochleven, "to
show their kindness towards your Grace--something at the risk perhaps
of sound policy, and I trust their doings will not be misconstrued."
"Impossible!" said the Queen; "the bounty which permits the daughter
of so many kings, and who yet is Queen of the realm, the attendance of
two waiting-women and a boy, is a grace which Mary Stewart can never
sufficiently acknowledge.
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