In the morning Paris came down and said that her Majesty desired to see Mistress Sempill. She was taken up, and found the Queen in bed in a darkened room. She walked to the edge of the bed and looked down, seeing little. The Queen lay still, one of her bare arms out of bed; this arm she slowly raised and touched her Livingstone’s cheek, then dropped it again heavily.
But her Livingstone had now recovered herself, and could afford to be cynical.
‘Well—Honeypot?’ said she.
‘Empty,’ said the Queen.
Then her Livingstone kissed her.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BRIDE’S PRELUDE
French Paris took a letter to Lady Bothwell from Dunbar, as he thinks, on the day after the ravishing: he fixes his date from the fact that Sir James Melvill happened to tell him that it was his birthday, the 25th of April.