‘My God, sir!’
‘What of the Queen?’
‘Her women have her.’
‘Now, Baptist. You say the lion-house is below these windows. Which windows? There are four.’
‘The two in the midst, my lord. My lord, across the Little Garden—in a straight line—there are holes in the wall.’
‘Oho! You are a brave lad. Go to your bed.’
Jean-Marie-Baptiste Des-Essars went back to the Queen’s side. At the door of the cabinet he found Adam Gordon in a fit of sobs. ‘Oh, my fine man,’ says the French lad, stirring him with his foot, ‘leave tears to the women. This is men’s business.’
Adam lifted up his stricken face. ‘Where have you been cowering, traitor?’
Jean-Marie laughed grimly. ‘I have been saving Scotland,’ he said, ‘whilst you were blubbering here.’
Adam Gordon, being up by now, knocked Jean-Marie down.