Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/534

 5 1 4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 45. large door at the foot of the staircase. A passage ran along the ground floor from which a room opened which had been fitted up for the Queen. At the head of the stairs a similar passage led first to the King's room which was immediately over that of the Queen and further on to closets and rooms for the servants. Here it was that Darnley was established during the last hours which he was to know on earth. The keys of the doors were given ostentatiously to his groom of the chamber, Thomas Nelson ; the Earl of Bothwell being already in possession of duplicates. The door from the cellar into the garden had no lock, but the servants were told that it could be secured with bolts from within. The rooms themselves had been comfortably furnished,, and a handsome bed had been set up for the King with new hangings of black velvet. The Queen however seemed to think that they would be injured by the splashing from Darnley's bath, and desired that they might be taken down and changed. Being a person of ready expedients too she suggested that the door at ii& bottom of the staircase was not required for protection. She had it taken down and turned into a cover for the bath- vat ; ' so that there was nothing left to stop the- passage into the said chamber but only the portal door.' 1 After this little attention she left her husband in possession ; she intended herself to sleep from time to- time there, but her own room was not yet ready. The further plan was still unsettled. Bothwell's first 1 Examination of Thomas Nelso ' : PITCAIRN.