Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/525

1567.] THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 505 he said that ' he could not believe that she who was his own proper flesh would do him harm ; ' ' if any other would do it/ he added with something of his old brava- do, ' they should buy him dear unless they took him sleeping.' Her part was difficult to act. As she seemed so kind he begged that she would give him his food ; he even wished to kiss her, and his breath after his illness was not pleasant. ' It almost killed me/ she wrote to Both- well, ' though I sat as far from him as the bed would allow : he is more gay than ever you saw him ; in fact he makes love to me, of the which I take so great plea- sure that I enter never where he is but incontinent I take the sickness of my sore side which I am so troubled with/ 1 When she attempted to leave the room he implored her to stay with him. He had been told, he said, that she had brought a litter with her ; did she mean to take him away ? She said she thought the air of Craigmillar would do him good ; and as he could not sit on horseback she had contrived a means by which he could be carried. The name of Craigmillar had an ominous sound. The words were kind, but there was perhaps some odd glitter of the eyes not wholly satisfactory. He answered that if she would promise him on her honour to live with him as his wife and not to leave him any more, he would go with her to the world's end, Mary Stuart to Bothwell : ANDERSON'S Collection