“And the queen?” said in a low voice a man who was waiting on the other side of the wall.

“She is following me,” replied the child.

George Douglas, for it was he, sprang into the garden, and, taking the queen’s arm on one side and Mary Seyton’s on the other, he hurried them away quickly to the lake-side.  When passing through the doorway Mary Stuart could not help throwing an uneasy look about her, and it seemed to her that a shapeless object was lying at the bottom of the wall, and as she was shuddering all over.

“Do not pity him,” said George in a low voice, “for it is a judgment from heaven.  That man was the infamous Warden who betrayed us.”

“Alas!” said the queen, “guilty as he was, he is none the less dead on my account.”

“When it concerned your safety, madam, was one to haggle over drops of that base blood?  But silence!  This way, William, this way; let us keep along the wall, whose shadow hides us.  The boat is within twenty steps, and we are saved.”

With these words, George hurried on the two women still more quickly, and all four, without having been detected, reached the banks of the lake.  ’As Douglas had said, a little boat was waiting; and, on seeing the fugitives approach, four rowers, couched along its bottom, rose, and one of them, springing to land, pulled the chain, so that the queen and Mary Seyton could get in.  Douglas seated them at the prow, the child placed himself at the rudder, and George, with a kick, pushed off the boat, which began to glide over the lake.

“And now,” said he, “we are really saved; for they might as well pursue a sea swallow on Solway Firth as try to reach us.  Row, children, row; never mind if they hear us:  the main thing is to get into the open.”

“Who goes there?” cried a voice above, from the castle terrace.

“Row, row,” said Douglas, placing himself in front of the queen.

“The boat! the boat!” cried the same voice; “bring to the boat!” Then, seeing that it continued to recede, “Treason! treason!” cried the sentinel.  “To arms!”

At the same moment a flash lit up the lake; the report of a firearm was heard, and a ball passed, whistling.  The queen uttered a little cry, although she had run no danger, George, as we have said, having placed himself in front of her, quite protecting her with his body.

The alarm bell now rang, and all the castle lights were seen moving and glancing about, as if distracted, in the rooms.

“Courage, children!” said Douglas.  “Row as if your lives depended on each stroke of the oar; for ere five minutes the skiff will be out after us.”

“That won’t be so easy for them as you think, George,” said Little Douglas; “for I shut all the doors behind me, and some time will elapse before the keys that I have left there open them.  As to these,” added he, showing those he had so skilfully abstracted, “I resign them to the Kelpie, the genie of the lake, and I nominate him porter of Lochleven Castle.”