‘She waited not for guard nor groom,
But stepp’d into the hall:
Around her were the four Maries,
Herself the rose of all.’
It is not always in the immediate presence of royalty that there is the
most enlivening conversation, or the greatest amount of gaiety about a
court. Although the Queen of Scotland was the essence of good-humour,
and when in comparative privacy encouraged to the utmost freedom of
intercourse and absence of formality amongst her attendants, yet on
an occasion like the present, in a gathering of the great nobility
of her kingdom, it may easily be imagined that an unusual amount of
decorum and restraint was observed throughout the circle which actually
surrounded their sovereign.
At a short distance, however, from these graver seniors were grouped
the Maries, in the splendour of their courtly dresses, and the bloom
of their own intrinsic charms. The young ladies seemed to have
completely recovered whatever ill effects may have been produced by
the hardships of a sea voyage, and their plumage, like that of certain
tropical wild birds, appeared the sleeker and more variegated for the
storms through which they had passed. We would fain possess the pen
of that eloquent writer who describes in our morning journals the
weekly recurring changes of Parisian fashion, with a fidelity not to
be surpassed by the superlative gossiping powers of Brantôme or Pepys,
and a touching earnestness that never stops short of enthusiasm, and
often amounts to poetry; then would we detail the tasteful costumes of
this seductive quartette with an accuracy that should make the ladies’
mouths water, and every hair on the head of the family stand on end.
We would depict in glowing language their several robes of orange and
violet and courtly _cramoisie_--the stately fall of their folds, the
delicate edging of their lace, the trim defences of the jealous ruff,
and rich embroidery on the shapely glove. We would not ’bate a pearl,
nor a tress, nor a flounce, till the dazzled reader should count every
stitch of needlework on the attire of these sumptuous damsels. But we
must leave such visions to younger and keener eyesights, satisfied to
take for granted the radiance of the Maries from the admiration they
excited, and the compliments that were paid them by all.
As Chastelâr followed the Maréchal through the outer circle, he
lingered for a few minutes amongst the maids-of-honour, to take
his leave of the ladies with whom of late he had been so closely
associated. It would have been amusing to mark the different effect his
farewell produced on each individual of the four.
Mary Beton, half-a-head taller than her companions, magnificent in
dress and deportment, received his salutation with the dignity of an
empress accepting the homage of a vassal.
Mary Seton laughed in his face.
‘Farewell!’ said she, with mischief gleaming from her eyes: ‘Farewell!
our fellow-sufferer and Prince of Troubadours. As you are never likely
to cross the seas again, be sure you take back with you to France
nothing but what belongs to you. None of the hearts of us unfortunate
maids-of-honour, for instance. They are prized in Scotland, I can tell
you; and the Maries want at least as many as they have got amongst the
five of them, you may be sure!’
‘And suppose I leave my own instead,’ answered Chastelâr, laughing,
yet at the same time colouring--an embarrassment not unmarked by Mary
Hamilton, who shot one eager glance at him, and turned her eyes away,
blushing too; ‘suppose I must return to France, fair mistress, a loser
by the exchange?’
‘We’ll have the palace swept and searched for the missing article,’
she answered, gaily. ‘I think I can promise you that the one who has
got it won’t keep it. There, you needn’t look so shocked, Mistress
Beton! You can’t guess which of the Maries has robbed our poor poet so
mercilessly. It’s a sweet name, Mary, is it not? But don’t forget it
rhymes to “vary.” And so, good luck to you, Chastelâr! and fare you
well!’
‘_Souvent femme varie, fol qui s’y fie_,’ answered the poet, forcing
a laugh, though a less acute observer than any one of the four might
have noted that he was distressed at the turn their conversation had
taken, and that the wilful girl’s shaft had been shot home. ‘Adieu,
Mistress Carmichael,’ he added, as she, too, in her turn frankly bade
him farewell; and then he passed on to Mary Hamilton, and paused for an
instant, irresolute, before the dark-eyed maid-of-honour.
She did not offer him her hand as the others had done. She never lifted
her looks to his face. Pale as she usually was, she turned paler than
ever, and her cold, distant bearing would have almost seemed to infer
that she was offended, and that her greeting was extorted from her as
a duty of ceremony, rather than springing from the free impulse of
friendship.
And yet he knew it was not so. Though scarcely so quick-sighted on
such matters as women, even men have an intuitive perception that they
are beloved. In either sex the consciousness produces a kindly feeling
towards the worshipper, and it seems hard to deny a few gentle words
where so much is ungrudgingly bestowed. Mistaken compassion! Perhaps
the fiercest efforts of hate would be less cruel than this ill-judged
lenity. It is like hanging out the beacon where it shall guide the bark
on to the quicksand. It is like Varney counterfeiting Leicester’s
whistle to lure Amy Robsart to destruction. When people pass spurious
money in exchange for sterling gold, they find themselves ere long in
the felon’s dock; but there is no law to punish the coiner who stamps
a few false words with the royal die of truth, and pays them away
unblushingly, for all the happiness and all the welfare of the poor
fool he deceives.
‘You are going back to France,’ said Mary Hamilton, with a wonderfully
composed countenance and steady lip. ‘It is your home--I wish you joy
of your return.’
‘Nay,’ answered Chastelâr, his voice softening while he spoke. ‘You
know how happy I have been in Scotland. How devoted I must always be to
this court and this country. I must follow d’Amville to Paris for the
present, but the one hope of my life will be that I shall soon return.’
He spoke truly enough; he even hoped the royal lady then employing all
the fascinations of her manner on Morton and his kindred, might hear
his last words and give him one responsive glance to carry with him
into his banishment. In this he was disappointed. The Queen, seated at
some distance from the group, and surrounded by her barons, was for
the moment ‘every inch a Queen,’ and Chastelâr passed out of Holyrood,
with Mary Hamilton’s ‘farewell’ warmer and more hopeful since his last
words, to warn him (could, indeed, warning ever profit in such cases),
that, in stretching for the rose he would never reach, he was trampling
the poor violet ruthlessly beneath his feet.
She seemed in better spirits, too, after he was gone, although silent
and inattentive to the surrounding gaiety, a distraction not unnoticed
by Mary Beton, who believed herself officially answerable not only
for the dresses and deportment of her three companions, but for the
thoughts and sentiments of their inmost hearts.
‘I have told you twice,’ she said at length with an offended air,
‘that the Queen rides out to-morrow for the hawking after early mass,
and that you and Mary Seton will be in attendance. You will wear the
sad-coloured riding gear passamented with silver, and French hats--but
neither of you seem to heed me.’
‘She is thinking of a French head, rather than a French hat,’ laughed
incorrigible Mary Seton; ‘but indeed I have listened to you even more
attentively than usual. Ah! Mistress Beton, what would I not give
to possess your careful forethought and common sense! _You_ never
neglect anything--_you_ never forget anything. The Queen trusts you
with her state-secrets, and when you carry her work to her in the
Council-chamber, even Maitland and Morton look upon you as if you were
one of themselves. Why are you not weak and giddy like me, or pensive
and sad like Hamilton, or absent and haughty like Mary Carmichael has
grown of late? Look at her yonder holding the Queen’s train as if _she_
were the sovereign, and our beautiful Mistress the maid-of-honour!’
Mary Beton smiled, not displeased at the adroit flattery of her
junior. She did indeed pride herself on two especial qualities--utter
impassibility, and scrupulous attention to details.
‘I am somewhat older than the rest of you,’ she said, bridling her
handsome neck within her handsome ruff, ‘and I have learned to avoid
all pleasures and interests that take my attention from my duty. I am
always responsible and always employed. I have no time for the follies
that seem to afford the rest of you so much amusement.’
‘And yet you would become them well,’ said the other, coaxingly. ‘Come,
now, be persuaded to play Diana in the next _masque_. I will dress your
hair myself, and the gallants all vow you are fitted for the part both
in person and character. Handsome and stately and cold.’
‘That is exactly why I do not care to join in it,’ replied the elder
lady, with increasing cordiality, for no daughter of Eve was ever yet
insensible to flattery, even when ugly and repulsive and old, whereas
Mary Beton could boast considerable attractions. ‘I tell you, my dear,
it is better to keep out of temptation. You envy me my self-command,
you say, and I repeat to you it is a quality I possess because I am
heart-whole and free.’
‘But so am I,’ interposed the girl, vehemently, ‘and so are we all, I
suppose, in reality, for the matter of that; and yet it is possible
that our time maybe coming too,’ she added, reflectively. ‘Ah!
Mistress Beton, I shall see you some day with a lover as stately as
yourself, perhaps. What an imperial pair you will make!’
Mary Beton looked by no means displeased. The smile on her handsome
face partook of a meaning expression not devoid of triumph, as though
the contingency were neither very remote, nor wholly disagreeable; but,
of course, the less she felt it to be unalterable, the more emphasis
she laid on her denial.
‘Never!’ she exclaimed, strenuously. ‘I am surprised, my dear, at your
thinking for an instant of such an absurdity. I never saw one yet, to
my fancy, that I could like better than another.’
‘Nor I neither,’ echoed Mary Seton, eagerly; adding, in a voice of
unusual gravity, and with a wistful expression on her countenance
rarely seen there, ‘I think if I did, it would be an unlucky day both
for him and for me!’
Even while she spoke an unusual stir in the ante-room heralded the
approach of some distinguished stranger who was to be received with
more than ordinary ceremony. In such cases the Queen’s ladies gathered
round their mistress as in duty bound, although at other times it was
Mary’s practice to retain but one of them in the immediate vicinity of
her person, and to permit the rest to mingle in the general circle,
amusing themselves in their own way.
The duties devolving on ‘the Maries’ were, indeed, much to their
liking, and might well be called a ‘labour of love.’ They vied with
each other in passionate adoration of their mistress, whose sweet
temper and generous disposition never failed to gain the hearts of
all those who came about her person. If there was a charm in all the
Stuarts which won blind devotion from their associates, what must have
been the fascination that surrounded the gentlest and loveliest scion
of that illustrious race!
The Queen of Scots was a thorough _gentlewoman_, in the noblest and
fullest acceptation of the term. That she lacked firmness where her
affections were involved, and promptitude of action where her safety
was threatened, what is this but to say that she was a woman and not
a hero? Courage, both the masculine spirit that braves mortal peril,
and the feminine fortitude that can sustain suffering and sorrow, she
proved that she possessed on more than one stricken field, in more than
one dreary house of humiliation and bondage. On both these chivalrous
qualities the last scene of her life drew largely, and Bayard himself,
the bravest of the brave, could not have faced death more nobly
than did Mary, the fairest of the fair. Yet with all this she was
exquisitely sensitive of the feelings of others; she could not bear
to give pain; she hesitated to remonstrate, and could scarcely bring
herself to chide. The regulations of her household, to the carrying out
of which the Queen herself attended with housewifely care, prove the
regard she entertained for the personal comfort of her domestics.
The allowance for the table of her ladies and maids-of-honour was the
same as that of their sovereign. If the reader is curious to see the
bill of fare for a royal dinner in the sixteenth century, the following
are its contents:--
‘Four soups, four _entrées_, a piece of “beef-royal” boiled, a loin
of mutton, and a capon; of roast meat, one neck of mutton, one capon,
three pigeons, three hares, and two pieces of fat meat. For the
dessert, seven dishes of fruit, and one of chicory-paste, one gallon
of wine, one quart of white wine, and one of claret; eight rolls of
bread.’ The latter item appears as if this plentiful supply were a
dinner for but eight people. Probably, however, the remains of the
feast furnished forth the inferior tables. A characteristic memorandum
appears at the same time directing that the Queen’s ladies, including
the Maries, shall have the same diet as their mistress.
Mary Carmichael was in attendance on Her Majesty, and holding the royal
train during the conversation we have detailed. It was broken off
abruptly by the stir in the ante-room.
‘This must be the English Ambassador!’ exclaimed Mary Beton, drawing
herself up to her full height, and assuming her most frigid air of
_étiquette_.
‘He has come back sooner than he was expected, and I wish he had stayed
away altogether,’ observed Mistress Seton, on whom Randolph had made
no favourable impression during their previous acquaintance, for the
latter had held Elizabeth’s credentials at the court of Holyrood from
the Queen of Scotland’s first arrival, and had been absent to receive
personal instructions from his own sovereign but for a few weeks.
‘What is the matter with Mary Carmichael?’ whispered Mistress Hamilton,
anxiously, as the three young ladies glided into their places behind
the Queen. She might have spared herself the question, for almost
ere it was spoken the agitation which caused it had disappeared; and
although, when Randolph entered the presence-chamber, Mary Carmichael
had started, turned very pale, and dropped the royal robe from her
hand, ere he had advanced three paces, her colour had returned somewhat
higher than before, and she was fulfilling her duties more scrupulously
than ever, with an unusual expression of cold indifference on her fair
and haughty face.