Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/538

 5i8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45. was ill at St Andrew's, and that she wished him to join her; the Queen with some reluctance gave him leave to go. It was a high day at the Court : Sebastian, one of the musicians, was married in the afternoon to Mar- garet Cawood, Mary Stuart's favourite waiting-woman. When the service was over, the Queen took an early supper with the Bishop of Argyle, and afterwards, ac- companied by Cassilis, Huntly, and the Earl of Argyle, she went as usual to spend the evening with her hus- band, and professed to intend to stay the night with him. The hours passed on. She was more than commonly tender ; and Darnley, absorbed in her caresses, paid no attention to sounds in the room below him, which had lie heard them might have disturbed his enjoyment. At ten o'clock that night two servants of Bothwell, Powrie and Patrick Wilson, came by order to the Earl's apartments in Holyrood. Hepburn, who was waiting there, pointed to a heap of leather bags and trunks upon the floor, which he bade them carry to the gate of the gardens at the back of Kirk-a-Field. They threw the load on a pair of pack-horses and led the way in the dark as they were told; Hepburn himself went with them, and at the gate they found Bothwell, with Hay, Ormeston, and another person, muffled in their cloaks. The horses were left standing in the lane. The six men silently took the bags on their shoulders and carried them to the postern door which led through the town wall. Bothwell then went in to join the Queen, and told the rest to make haste with their work and finish