"Ah! madam," Elizabeth replied impatiently, "do you not know that Mary Stuart has given birth to a son, while I am but a barren stock, who will die without offspring ?" Yet Elizabeth was too good a politician, in spite of her liability to be carried away by a first impulse, to compromise herself by a longer display of her grief.

The ball was not discontinued on that account, and the interrupted quadrille was resumed and finished.
The next day, Melville had his audience.

Elizabeth received him to perfection, assuring him of all the pleasure that the news he brought had caused her, and which, she said, had cured her of a complaint from which she had suffered for a fortnight.

Melville replied that his mistress had hastened to acquaint her with her joy, knowing that she had no better friend; but he added that this joy had nearly cost Mary her life, so grievous had been her confinement.

As he was returning to this point for the third time, with the object of still further increasing the queen of England's dislike to marriage-- "Be easy, Melville," Elizabeth answered him; "you need not insist upon it.