“Madam,” answered Ruthven, “I am not of a family, as you know, which ever hesitates to perform a duty, painful as it may be; besides, we hope that your captivity has prepared you to hear what we have to tell you on the part of the Secret Council.”

“The Secret Council!” said the queen.  “Instituted by me, by what right does it act without me?  No matter, I am waiting for this message:  I suppose it is a petition to implore my mercy for the men who have dared to reach to a power that I hold only from God.”

“Madam,” replied Ruthven, who appeared to have undertaken the painful role of spokesman, while Lindsay, mute and impatient, fidgeted with the hilt of his long sword, “it is distressing to me to have to undeceive you on this point:  it is not your mercy that I come to ask; it is, on the contrary, the pardon of the Secret Council that I come to offer you.”

“To me, my lord, to me!” cried Mary:  “subjects offer pardon to their queen!  Oh! it is such a new and wonderful thing, that my amazement outweighs my indignation, and that I beg you to continue, instead of stopping you there, as perhaps I ought to do.”

“And I obey you so much the more willingly, madam,” went on Ruthven imperturbably, “that this pardon is only granted on certain conditions, stated in these documents, destined to re-establish the tranquillity of the State, so cruelly compromised by the errors that they are going to repair.”

“And shall I be permitted, my lord, to read these documents, or must I, allured by my confidence in those who present them to me, sign them with my eyes shut?”

“No, madam,” Ruthven returned; “the Secret Council desire, on the contrary, that you acquaint yourself with them, for you must sign them freely.”

“Read me these documents, my lord; for such a reading is, I think, included in the strange duties you have accepted.”

Lord Ruthven took one of the two papers that he had in his hand, and read with the impassiveness of his usual voice the following: 

“Summoned from my tenderest youth to the government of the kingdom and to the crown of Scotland, I have carefully attended to the administration; but I have experienced so much fatigue and trouble that I no longer find my mind free enough nor my strength great enough to support the burden of affairs of State:  accordingly, and as Divine favour has granted us a son whom we desire to see during our lifetime bear the crown which he has acquired by right of birth, we have resolved to abdicate, and we abdicate in his favour, by these presents, freely and voluntarily, all our rights to the crown and to the government of Scotland, desiring that he may immediately ascend the throne, as if he were called to it by our natural death, and not as the effect of our own will; and that our present abdication may have a more complete and solemn effect, and that no one should put forward the claim of ignorance, we give full powers to our trusty and faithful cousins, the lords Lindsay of Byres and William Ruthven, to appear in our name before the nobility, the clergy, and the burgesses of Scotland, of whom they will convoke an assembly at Stirling, and to there renounce, publicly and solemnly, on our part, all our claims to the crown and to the government of Scotland.