signal to enter the moment when they should hear him cry, "To me,
Douglas!" he went round by the secret passage, so that seeing him come in
by his usual door the queen's suspicions might not be roused by his
unlooked-for visit.

Mary was at supper with six persons, having, say de Thou and Melville,
Rizzio seated on her right; while, on the contrary, Carapden assures us
that he was eating standing at a sideboard. The talk was gay and
intimate; for all were giving themselves up to the ease one feels at
being safe and warm, at a hospitable board, while the snow is beating
against the windows and the wind roaring in the chimneys. Suddenly Mary,
surprised that the most profound silence had succeeded to the lively and
animated flow of words among her guests since the beginning of supper,
and suspecting, from their glances, that the cause of their uneasiness
was behind her, turned round and saw Darnley leaning on the back of her
chair. The queen shuddered; for although her husband was smiling when
looking at Rizzio, this smile lead assumed such a strange expression that
it was clear that something terrible was about to happen. At the same
moment, Mary heard in the next room a heavy, dragging step drew near the
cabinet, then the tapestry was raised, and Lord Ruthven, in armour of
which he could barely support the weight, pale as a ghost, appeared on
the threshold, and, drawing his sword in silence, leaned upon it.

The queen thought he was delirious.

"What do you want, my lord?" she said to him; "and why do you come to the
palace like this?"

"Ask the king, madam," replied Ruthven in an indistinct voice. "It is for
him to answer."