‘I do not, madam.’
She turned unwillingly to Gordon. ‘What do you plead, sir?’
‘Nothing, madam.’
She flew out at them all. ‘Insolence! This is not to be borne. You think to save your faces by this latter pride. You should have been proud before—proud enough not to promise and to lie. You expect me to be humble, to sue you to plead! If my mercy is not worth your asking, it is not worth your receiving. My Lord Gordon, surrender yourself to the law’s discretion. Madam, you gain nothing by your reproaches; and you, young mistress, nothing by your silence. The council is dissolved.’
Lord Gordon walked into ward. The Queen told Lethington that all the forms of law must be observed; by which Lord Gordon’s execution was to be understood.
When she reached Holyrood she sent for Adam Gordon: this shows you that a thaw had set in. She received him in private, alone. This proves that she wanted something yet from the Gordons.
The lad stood shamefully by the door, red with shame, and by shame made sullen. But the Queen had melted before he came; the tears stood waiting in her eyes. ‘Oh, Adam, Adam Gordon, they have hurt you! And you have hurt me!’ She held out her arms.
He looked at her askance, he fired up, he gulped a sob; and then he jumped forward into the shelter of her and cried his heart out upon her bosom. After a time of mothering and such-like, he sat by her knee and told her everything.
His father’s exorbitant pride, Findlater’s ambitions, the clamours of the clan and want of ready pence, had undone the house of Huntly. Findlater was restless. He knew that the country would have him chief; he knew that he was a better man than his father or the heir; and old Huntly knew it too, and would never lag behind. His brother Gordon, said Adam, was an honest man. For why? He had refused to bear arms against her Majesty, when it came to that or ruin. That hurt him so much with the kindred that he had gone away. If he was a coward, Adam held, such cowardice was very noble courage. ‘And be you sure, madam, from what I am telling you, that he loves you over-well.’