Mary Queen of Scotland & the Isles by Margaret George

Author:Margaret George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

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Mary ordered the court into mourning, providing them with the requisite black cloth to be sewn into the costumes. A week after his death, Darnley was entombed with royal honours and a Catholic funeral in Holyrood, next to the vault of James V.

Watching the casket being borne to the altar and hearing the chanting, Mary felt nothing but relief that his unhappy life was over, then stabs of guilt that she could summon so little pity. But he had died as if by his own hand, attempting to kill others. And innocent people had perished in the explosion.

The court had been stunned, creeping about quietly until it became clear that the plot had perished with the man, that there was no further danger. Ashamed that this seemed to confirm the rest of the world’s opinion that Scotland was a barbarous country, inhabited by savages where atrocious deeds were everyday occurrences, a murmuring arose—low at first, then rising. Punish the villains. No one seemed to believe that Mary had been in any danger, or that anyone but Darnley had been the target of the crime. In death Darnley acquired the majesty and importance he had lacked in life. Regicide had been committed! The King had been slain!

A barrel had been found by the ruins of the house, proof that the powder had been brought hastily from someplace—Holyrood? Men had walked the streets boldly that night, declaring themselves “friends of my Lord Bothwell’s,” so it was said. Black Ormiston, a henchman of Bothwell’s, had been seen close to the fateful house just after the explosion.

Mary and her Council offered a reward of two thousand pounds for information about the perpetrators of the crime, although she knew none would be found. None except Darnley, and that must remain secret. She wished to protect his name, for his little son’s sake, and knew Bothwell would never reveal the truth. Besides him, who would know? Whoever had helped to place the powder there originally? Yes, those accomplices would know.… An investigation was opened the day after the explosion by a committee of lords meeting at the Tolbooth.

* * *

The choking closeness of the mourning chamber at Edinburgh Castle was oppressive to Mary. Black drapes shrouded the walls, and fat beeswax candles burned serenely on their stands. She felt as though she were entombed herself. The continual companionship of death, where the spectre seemed as real as the hunched figure of Madame Rallay or the veiled face of Mary Seton, kneeling on the prie-dieu, was intensely disturbing. She even had horrible dreams in which she and Bothwell were dead, clutching each other in skeletal forms.

Bourgoing was alarmed at her agitated, morbid state of mind. He ordered her to leave the chamber as soon as Darnley’s funeral was over, and seek the healthful open air of a site near the sea. Time and again he had found that being near water could help restore distracted spirits.

Mary Seton’s brother George offered his castle on the Forth, and on

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