Mary laughed aloud, and, with that mocking gayety so peculiarly her own, she accepted the oath, and reached me her white hand, sparkling with diamonds, to seal the vow with a kiss.

I faithfully kept it.

I had but just arrived in Rome when I received the account of her imprisonment.

I presented myself immediately to the pope, the great Sixtus V., who then occupied the chair of St.Peter.Fortunately, he was my friend, and I had formerly been useful to him, in assisting him to carry out his great and liberal ideas for the welfare of humanity.

As a return, I prayed the Holy Father to give me a consecrated hostie for the unhappy Queen Mary Stuart, and the permission to carry it to her in her prison.