With these words, she rose, and, bowing to the earls, Sir Robert Beale, Amyas, and Drury, she indictated, by a gesture full of dignity, that she wished to be alone and in peace; then, as they prepared to go out—­

“Apropos, my lords,” said she, “for what o’clock should I make ready to die?”

“For eight o’clock to-morrow, madam,” answered the Earl of Shrewsbury, stammering.

“It is well,” said Mary; “but have you not some reply to make me, from my sister Elizabeth, relative to a letter which I wrote to her about a month ago?”

“And of what did this letter treat, if it please you, madam?” asked the Earl of Kent.

“Of my burial and my funeral ceremony, my lord:  I asked to be interred in France, in the cathedral church of Rheims, near the late queen my mother.”

“That may not be, madam,” replied the Earl of Kent; “but do not trouble yourself as to all these details:  the queen, my august mistress, will provide for them as is suitable.  Has your grace anything else to ask us?”

“I would also like to know,” said Mary, “if my servants will be allowed to return, each to his own country, with the little that I can give him; which will hardly be enough, in any case, for the long service they have done me, and the long imprisonment they have borne on my account.”

“We have no instructions on that head, madam,” the Earl of Kent said, “but we think that an order will be given for this as for the other things, in accordance with your wishes.  Is this all that your Grace has to say to us?”

“Yes, my lord,” replied the queen, bowing a second time, “and now you may withdraw.”

“One moment, my lords, in Heaven’s name, one moment!” cried the old physician, coming forward and throwing himself on his knees before the two earls.

“What do you want?” asked Lord Shrewsbury.

“To point out to you, my lords,” replied the aged Bourgoin, weeping, “that you have granted the queen but a very short time for such an important matter as this of her life.  Reflect, my lords, what rank and degree she whom you have condemned has held among the princes of this earth, and consider if it is well and seemly to treat her as an ordinary condemned person of middling estate.  And if not for the sake of this noble queen, my lords, do this for the sake of us her poor servants, who, having had the honour of living near her so long, cannot thus part from her so quickly and without preparation.  Besides, my lords, think of it, a woman of her state and position ought to have some time in which to set in order her last affairs.  And what will become of her, and of us, if before dying, our mistress has not time to regulate her jointure and her accounts and to put in order her papers and her title-deeds?  She has services to reward and offices of piety to perform.  She should not neglect the one or the other.  Besides, we know that she will only concern herself with us, and, through this, my lords, neglect her own salvation.  Grant her, then, a few more days, my lords; and as our mistress is too proud to ask of you such a favour, I ask you in all our names, and implore you not to refuse to poor servants a request which your august queen would certainly not refuse them, if they had the good fortune to be able to lay it at her feet.”