Page:Life and history of Mary, Queen of Scots.pdf/10

16 many marks of her favour and regard; so much so, that the public voice, and among others that of John Knox, the distinguished reformer, accused her of being fonder of Bothwell than she ought to have been, he being a married man, and herself an married woman.

While these schemes were in agitation, Darnley fell ill at Glasgow of the small-pox. The Queen, whose affection seemed to have revived with his illness, sent him her own physician, and afterwards went herself to him. They came together to Edinburgh; and that he might enjoy free air, and be removed from the noise and bustle of the city, he was lodged without the walls, in a house called Kirk of Field. The Queen, with her infant prince, lodged in the Palace of Holyrood, from whence she frequently visited her husband, and they never to have been on better terms than at the time a dreadful conspiracy against his life was on the eve of being executed.

"On the evening of the 9th February, several persons, kinsmen, retainers, and servants of the Earl of Bothwell, came in secret to the Kirk of Field. They had with them a great quantity of gunpowder; and by means of false keys they obtained entrance into the cellars of the building, where they disposed the powder in the vaults below Darnley's apartment, and especially below the spot where his bed was place.

"About two hours after midnight, upon the