Your lordship will forgive me if I abridge this
conference. A brief description of a bloody fight is long enough to
satisfy a lady's curiosity; and unless my Lord of Lindesay has
something more important to tell us than of the deeds which old
Bell-the-Cat achieved, and how he would himself have emulated them,
had time and tide permitted, we will retire to our private apartment,
and you, Fleming, shall finish reading to us yonder little treatise
_Des Rodomontades Espagnolles_."
"Tarry, madam," said Lindesay, his complexion reddening in his turn,
"I know your quick wit too well of old to have sought an interview
that you might sharpen its edge at the expense of my honour. Lord
Ruthven and myself, with Sir Robert Melville as a concurrent, come to
your Grace on the part of the Secret Council, to tender to you what
much concerns the safety of your own life and the welfare of the
State."
"The Secret Council?" said the Queen; "by what powers can it subsist
or act, while I, from whom it holds its character, am here detained
under unjust restraint? But it matters not--what concerns the welfare
of Scotland shall be acceptable to Mary Stewart, come from whatever
quarter it will--and for what concerns her own life, she has lived
long enough to be weary of it, even at the age of twenty-five.--Where
is your colleague, my lord?--why tarries he?"
"He comes, madam," said Melville, and Lord Ruthven entered at the
instant, holding in his hand a packet.
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