Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/420

 400 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 44. word privately that ' all was well ; ' and at eight in the evening Stewart of Traquair, Captain of the Royal Gruard, Arthur Erskine, ' whom she would trust with a thousand lives/ and Standen, a young and gallant gen- tleman, assembled in the Queen's room to arrange a plan for the escape from Holyrood. The first question was where she was to go. Though the gates were no longer occupied the palace would doubtless be watched ; and to attempt flight and to fail would be certain ruin. In th<? Castle of Edinburgh she would be safe with Lord Erskine, but she could reach the Castle only through the streets which would be beset with enemies ; and unfit as she was for the ^xertion, she_determined to make for Dunbar. She stirred the blood of the three youths with the most touching appeal which could be made to the gen- erosity of man. Pointing to the child that was in her womb, she adjured them by their loyalty to save the un- born hope of Scotland. So addressed they would have flung themselves naked on the pikes of Morton's troopers. They swore they would do her bidding be it what it would; and then ' after her sweet manner and wise direc- tions, she dismissed them till midnight to put all in order as she herself excellently directed/ ' The rendezvous appointed with the horses was near the broken tombs and demolished sepultures in the ruined Abbey of Holyrood/ 1 A secret passage led underground from the palace to the vaults of the abbey ; Then standing at the south-eastern angle of the Royal Chapel.