396 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 44. endangered ; and she prayed that at least, situated as she was, she might not be left entirely among men, and that her ladies might be allowed to attend her. Soft as the clay of which he was made, Darnley ob- tained the reluctant consent of Morton and Ruthven. The ladies of the palace were admitted to assist at the Queen's morning toilet, and the instant use she made of them was to communicate with Huntly and Bothwell. The next point was to obtain larger liberty for herself. Towards the afternoon ' she made as though she would part with her child; ' a midwife was sent for, who, with the French physician, insisted that she must be removed to a less confined air. To Darnley she maintained an attitude of dependent tenderness ; and fooled in his idle pride by the prayers of the woman whom he be- lieved that he had brought to his feet, he was led on to require that the guard should be removed from the gate, and that the exclusive charge of her should be committed to himself. The conspirators, ' seeing that he was growing effem- inate, liked his proposals in no way ; ' they warned him that if he yielded so easily ' both he and they would have cause to repent ; ' and satisfied that the threat of miscarriage was but ' trick and policy/ they refused to dismiss a man from his post, and watched the palace with unremitting vigilance. So passed Sunday. As the dusk closed in, a troop of horse appeared on the road from Dunbar. In a few moments more the Earl of Murray was at the gate. It was not thus that Mary Stuart had hoped to meet
