"I am punished," she sobbed - "oh, I am punished! Had I kept you
at home, Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as
I have been entreated."

Holding her to hint, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her,
utterly taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an
affection for him that he had never hitherto suspected in her.

"Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!"
she continued. "It is the fault of others that you have been so
long out of the country. I but require of you that you be a good
subject to me, and you shall never find me other to you than you
deserve."

And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her
clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered
with an oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted
subject than himself could all Scotland yield her.

"And, as for this killing of Davie," he ended vehemently, "I swear
by my soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any
knowledge of it until my return!"

"I know - I know!" she moaned. "Should I make you welcome, else?
Be my friend, Jamie; be my friend!"

He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the
door of his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped.
Then he spoke of Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what
he might have to say, protesting that the King swore that he had