The monastery; The abbot.

THE ABBOT. 40T
into each other, and assigned as the dwelling of the captive Princess. The
outermost was a small hall or ante-room, within which opened a large
parlour, and from that again the Queen's bedroom. Another small apartment, which opened into the same parlour, contained the beds of the gentlewomen in waiting.
Roland Groeme stopped, as became his station, in the outermost of these
apartments, there to await such orders as might be communicated to him.
From the grated window of the room he saw Lindesay, Melville, and their
followers disembark; and observed that they were met at the castle gate by a
third noble, to whom Lindesay exclaimed, in his loud harsh voice, "My
Lord of Ruthven, you have the start of us i"
At this instant, the page's attention was called to a burst of hysterical
sobs from the inner apartment, and to the hurried ejaculations of the
terrified females, which led him almost instantly to hasten to their assistance.
When he entered, he saw that the Queen had thrown herself into the large
chair which stood nearest the door, and was sobbing for breath in a strong
fit of hysterical affection. The elder female supported her in her arms,
while the younger bathed her face with water and with tears alternately.
"Hasten, young man " said the elder lady, in alarm, "fly - call in
assistance -she is swooning!"
But the Queen ejaculated in a faint and broken voice, " Stir not, I charge
you! - call no one to witness - I am better - I shall recover instantly."
And, indeed, with an effort which seemed like that of one struggling for
life, she sate up in her chair, and endeavoured to resume her composure,
while her features yet trembled with the violent emotion of body and mind
which she had undergone. "I am ashamed of my weakness, girls," she
said, taking the hands of her attendants; " but it is over -and I am Mary
Stewart once more. The savage tone of that man's voice my knowledge
of his insolence- the name which he named - the purpose for which they
come-may excuse a moment's weakness, and it shall be a moment's only.'
She snatched from her head the curch or cap, which had been disordered
during her hysterical agony, shook down the thick clustered tresses of dark
brown which had been before veiled under it- and, drawing her slender
fingers across the labyrinth which they formed, she arose from the chair,
and stood like the inspired image of a Grecian prophetess in a mood which
partook at once of sorrow and pride, of smiles and of tears. " We are ill
appointed," she said, "to meet our rebel subjects; but, as far as we may,
we will strive to present ourselves as becomes their Queen. Follow me, my
maidens," she said; "what says thy favourite song, my Fleming?'My maids, come to my dressing-bower,
And deck ny nut-brown hair;
Where'er ye laid a plait before,
Look ye lay ten times mair.'
Alas!" she added, when she had repeated with a smile these lines of an old
ballad, "violence has already robbed me of the ordinary decorations of my
rank; and the few that nature gave me have been destroyed by sorrow and
by fear." Yet while she spoke thus, she again let her slender fingers stray
through the wilderness of the beautiful tresses which veiled her kingly neck
and swelling bosom, as if, in her agony of mind, she had not altogether lost
the consciousness of her unrivalled charms. Roland Grseme, on whose
youth, inexperience, and ardent sense of what was dignified and lovely, the
demeanour of so fair and high-born a lady wrought like the charm of a
magician, stood rooted to the spot with surprise and interest, longing to
hazard his life in a quarrel so fair as that which Mary Stewart's must needs
be. She had been bred in France she was possessed of the most distinguished beauty she had reigned a Queen and a Scottish Queen, to whom
knowledge of character was as essential as the use of vital air. In all these
capacities, Mary was, of all women on the earth, most alert at perceiving
and using the advantages which her charms gave her over almost all who