The Queen's Tragedy

📕 This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III MARY THE QUEEN PREPARES FOR A JOURNEY 1 It was on the evening of a hot August day that the Queen came home once more to St. James'. Mistress Dormer had been unwell at Hampton Court, and had been sent up to London a week or two previously in the Royal litter, as the Queen thought that the journey by water would be harmful to her health; and she met Mary now at the foot of the stairs to welcome her back. The Queen asked her how she did. "I am reasonably well, I thank your Grace." "So am not I," said Mary, and went wearily upstairs. It had been heavy weather both in town and country. Day had followed day, parched and breathless; the rain that fell from time to time had no freshness in it; the hot ground had drunk it and craved for more; the river that flowed past Hampton Court had reflected the trees on the other side as in an oily mirror; the foliage in the park had hung motionless day after day, and seemed to exhaust rather than enliven the starved air. Again and again by night there had been seen strange fires, pale and blue, that gathered, stirred, hovered and dispersed, and caused the supernaturally-minded to whisper of stakes and faggots, and the physically-minded to fear fever. It had told terribly upon Mary. The face that Jane had seen at the foot of the stairs had been drawn with exhaustion, her eyes unnaturally bright under heavy lids, and she held painfully to the balustrade as she went up, stopping to pant at each landing. Mistress Dormer was not well herself; she had had a touch of fever at Hampton Court, and her convalescence had left her weak and tired out; but it did not prevent her, after she had seen the Queen to bed, from going into Magdalene's room to hear the details of the past fortnight. "It is no more...