Bothwell saw that they were lovers; for nothing could surpass the sweetness and confidence of the girl’s smile when she gazed on Sir Arthur’s face; for then the impulses of love and religion together, lit up her eyes with a rapture that made her seem something divine.
The Earl thought of Mary—of the desperate part he had yet to play; of all he had dared and done, and had yet to dare and do; the paroxysm passed, and he felt his heart nerved with renewed courage.
Love revived—remorse was forgotten; and, the moment mass was over, he stole hurried to Holyrood—gained his apartments unseen, swallowed a horn of brandy to drown all recollection, and flung himself on his bed, to await the coming discovery and the coming day.
He is my lord!—my husband! Death! twas death!— Death married us together! Here I will dig A bridal bed, and we’ll lie there for ever! I will not go! Ha! you may pluck my heart out, But I will never go. Help! help! Hemeya! They drag me to Pescara’s cursed bed. _Sheils’ Apostate._
A stupor, not a slumber, sank upon him; it weighed down his eyelids, it confused his faculties, and oppressed his heart; but even that state of half unconsciousness was one of bliss, compared to the mental torture he had endured.
The tolling of the great alarm bell of the city, which usually summoned the craftsmen to arms, and the gathering hum of startled multitudes, murmuring like the waves of a distant ocean, as the citizens were roused by those who kept watch and ward, awoke Earl Bothwell. He listened intently. Loudly and clearly the great bell rang on the wind, above the hum of the people pouring downwards like a sea, to chafe against the palace gates. Then came distant voices, crying—
Steps came hastily along the resounding corridor; there was a sharp knocking at the door of his chamber, and, without waiting for the usual ceremony of being introduced by a page, Master George Halkett, the Earl of Huntly, and Hepburn of Bolton, entered. The latter was now in complete armour, that the visor might conceal the terrible expression of his altered face.
"How now, Master Halkett!" asked the Earl with affected surprise. "Whence this intrusion? What is the matter?"
"Matter enough, I trow!" replied the other; "the king’s house has been blown up, and his majesty slain."