"Are you dumbstricken, sir?" he said huskily. "If not, give me knowledge of the worst that you have done." "I waited your Majesty's permission.'

"You have it."

"Then the worst that I have done, my gracious liege, has been to obey your mandate faithfully

"By Heaven, this is too much," interrupted James, choking with passion that was not unmixed with dread of what might be the consequences of such an accusation as he understood Cochrane to be making; a second time you charge me as your accomplice."

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"If your Majesty will be pleased to hear me to the end you will understand that I dare not, and need not, even were I bold enough to dare, attach the mildest breath of calumny to your gracious person."

"Your tidings and your manner have been much misunderstood, then."

"So please your Grace, they have been cruelly misapprehended. My couriers have daily brought you tidings of the course of events. At the very hour when I staked my life and earned a villainous reputation in your Majesty's service -at that hour arrangements had been all but completed to seize your royal person and to keep you under restraint, whilst Albany as Regent, with the aid of Mar, conducted the government until you should be compelled to abdicate

or

He paused, gazing steadily in the King's face.

"How say you? Be sure you have proof of this," cried

James, all his ire rapidly turning to another object, "the Sacred Mother have thanks, but this has been a rarely treacherous matter timely checked. But why have you stopped? Go on, man, and be sure that you do not speak aught for which you may not be prepared with warrant."

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Unhappily, sire, there is too much truth in my averment. I halted in my speech because—

"Well?—because what?"

"The words burn my tongue, but it is proper that you should hear them. Let me call to your mind again the dark legend of the man learned in the signs of the heavens. He told you, my liege, that a lion would be worried by its own whelps."

"What of that now?" wrathfully exclaimed the monarch, but his complexion blanched.

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Only this-that the Regency was to continue until you abdicated or-died."

"Died? Am I so infirm, then, that my days may be numbered and my crown put up to barter?

"Not so infirm, sire, but you may reign till your son's hairs are grey, which in my heart I pray will be your fortune, for our country's sake; but too generous, my liege, to deal with your enemies until they stand openly confessed before you. When they do that, your opportunity will be gone and they will have power to make terms."

The face of the King darkened as he listened.

"Ay, ay," he muttered, "I dally too much with the spark, and give it time to grow into a fire, spreading destruction around me and mine."

"It is because you, my liege, are too just, and those who are near you too envious."

"But your action has left the traitors leaderless-they will not dare advance now?"

"That cannot be answered safely; for since the chief offenders in this matter-although I credit them with too much of your own kind nature to think otherwise than that they have been inveigled into this dark course by older heads and baser minds-since they have been placed under control, night and day my steps have been dogged by men thirsting for my life. Even here, standing in your presence, I am not safe."

'Humph, we shall see to it," said James, casting a quick, uneasy glance round the apartment, and running his fingers nervously over his hauberk.

"But great as the danger is to me now, my liege, it will be magnified twentyfold when it becomes known that Mar is dead."

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Ay, we are back to that foul work," he muttered, gloomily.

"The same unworthy suspicion which has made your face so wroth with your servant will be taken up by the thousands who hate me because of my fidelity to you. They will hold to it that I have done this deed; no proof of innocence will satisfy them, and if you desert me I must perish."

"Before we promise you protection you must satisfy us that you are blameless," said the King, returning to his sterner mood.

"That shall be done speedily, my liege. You are aware that, immediately after the arrest, his lordship of Mar became afflicted with sudden swounds. We sought no chirurgeon's aid because we feared treachery might be used to remove him from your Majesty's guardianship.'

"Dolts that you were, had you not means at your command to render treachery impossible?"

"Our responsibility made cowards of us all. But what skill or cunning we could bring to bear upon his malady we used. He still grew weak, and I, noting this, determined that to-morrow we should seek proper aid. Saints pardon my delay! To-night his lordship entered his bath. He spoke of much feebleness, but of no pain, as Hommel, who acted as his chamberlain, closed the door of the bathroom. We had no thought of the dread danger in which his malady placed him, and we tarried for his summons for Hommel to attend him."

"What followed?"

"The summons never came. We did not count the lapse of time at first, for we were busy discussing what chirurgeon of skill might be with most security called to his lordship's assistance. By-and-by we began to marvel that he spent so long a space in his bath. Still we waited his pleasure to call; but when another half-hour had turned on the dial, we knocked at the door. No voice answered us; and becoming alarmed lest some calamity had happened, we forced the door."

"And found?

"And found his lordship dead. He had been taken with one of his swounds whilst in the bath, his head had sunk below the water, and he was suffocated where the least sound, the least cry for help, would have brought friends to rescue him."

The monarch shuddered slightly, and he remained an instant steadily scrutinizing Cochrane's visage for the least sign that might betoken falsehood.

"Did you leave him there? Did you make no effort to restore him?"

"We e were at first horror-stricken and frightened for

the consequences of the misfortune to ourselves. But a moment after I tried with all my strength and skill to win him back to life, whilst Leonard sought a chirurgeon. The man came, and his cunning availed no more than mine. Finding that my Lord Mar was beyond hope of recovery, I resolved at all hazards to myself to ride hither and inform you of his fate. That is all, my liege, and it is the simple verity."

"You swear that it is so?" said James, huskily.

"I swear it."

The king pressed his hand on his brow, closing his eyes as if the spectacle his imagination conjured up were too horrible for his endurance. It seemed as if he wished to believe the bearer of these sad tidings blameless of any part in forwarding this event, and yet his instinct persuaded him that the facts had been narrated in a garbled fashion, concealing the real cause of the swound which had resulted in the death of Mar. But even at that moment, so effectually had his imagination been played upon, and his dread of the growing influence of his brothers had been so fostered and magnified, that he could not avoid the miserable thought that Mar's death removed at least one powerful foe from his path.

He was grieved by the event, horrified by its nature, and yet he could not shut his eyes to the advantage, poor as that might be, which he reaped from it.

Whilst he stood faltering, whether to accept the statement he had received as a faithful one, or to deliver Cochrane over to the guard, the door of the room was abruptly thrust open, and he was startled by the distant sound of a tumult of voices more than by the apparition of a woman, who thus, without leave, interrupted his privacy..

It was Katherine who presented herself in this strange manner, with an expression of terror and anxiety on her

countenance.

She hesitated at sight of Cochrane, and he regarded her with a look of amazed curiosity. Then she advanced boldly to the King, and displayed Queen Margaret's signet.

"This has been my pass to your Majesty's presence," she said eagerly; "and she who gave it me implores you to save yourself, for your life is beset. Angus and his followers have forced an entrance to the palace, bent upon avenging the murder of my lord of Mar."

The ominous announcement which was made in this abrupt fashion, whilst his Majesty's mind was still in great perturbation about the very subject that had roused his fiery courtiers to action against him, had the effect of stupefying him for a moment. He stood staring at the fair messenger of the Queen in blank bewilderment.

Cochrane, however, after the first bound of alarm and surprise that the vengeance he dreaded should have been sprung so speedily, rushed out of the ante-room to inquire the meaning of the disturbance, which was rapidly becoming louder as it approached the royal apartments.

The sound struck upon the King's ears like a dismal note of warning, and was heard above the wild tumult of the storm that was still raging. All the weakness and indecision of his character beset him at this moment. His vanity, and his keen sense of what was due to his authority, his consciousness of the degrading cowardice which his flight would display, prompted him to hold his ground as became one in his high place, and to awe his rebellious barons into submission by the calm firmness and resolution of Majesty.

He knew that he should stand before them as one raised above the petty fear of personal safety; but he also knew that his resolution would fail him when the troop of wrathful nobles stood in his presence demanding instant vengeance for the crime they believed had been committed by his favourite, and ready to take it if it were refused. The thought of his own helplessness to control the fiery spirits which he was aware would be opposed to him, and the thought of the shame which any display of weakness must bring upon him, counselled flight as the readiest means of escaping the dilemma in which he was placed.

The desire to maintain the dignity of the crown was as strong as his anxiety to avoid the exposure of its wearer's weakness, and between the two sentiments he remained pitifully inactive and irresolute.

Katherine could not guess the conflict of thought and emotion which was afflicting him, and she was distressed by the fancy that he discredited her tidings, or that she had failed to make him comprehend his danger.

"Your Majesty has not understood me," she said, with respectful anxiety-indeed, she seemed as anxious about