Sur moy seul tout de mesme on voudra desormais Prendre vengeance d'elle, et je n'en pourray mais: Où ceux qui sont auteurs du mal de ceste Reine, Au milieu de mes pleurs se riront de ma peine. Le sort est bien cruel qui me donne la loy! Je ne le veux point faire et faire je le doy: Il faut bien le vouloir; car c'est force forcée; Tremblant je m'y resous."[186] Davison is followed by Mary, whom her attendants accompany. In a touching speech she tells the sad story of her life--her unhappy childhood, her brief reign in France, her return to her Scottish kingdom, of which the distracted state is described in a few vigorous lines: "Ayant laissé glisser dedans la fantaisie La folle opinion d'une rance hérésie, Ayant pour un erreur fardé de nouveauté Abreuvé son esprit de la déloyauté, Il esmeut furieux des querelles civiles, Il révolte les champs, il mutine les villes, Il conjure ma honte et me recherche à tort Croyant qu'à mon espoux j'eusse brassé la mort."[187] To this accusation of having plotted the death of her husband she replies with an impassioned apostrophe to him, calling upon him to rise from the dead and bear witness to her innocence. Then she recalls her flight from Scotland, and, forgetful of historical fact, attributes it to adverse fate and a furious storm that she was obliged to land on the inhospitable shores of the barbarous English: "Peuple double et cruel, dont les suprêmes loix Sont les loix de la force et de la tyrannie, Dont le coeur est couvé de rage et félonie Dont l'oeil se paist de meutre et n'a rien de plus cher Que voir le sang humain sur la terre espancher."[188] And now that no hope of liberty remains, the royal captive longs for the death which she believes to have already been prepared for her. At this point there is a really dramatic situation. The sorrowing Queen has scarcely been assured by the Chorus that her enemies will not dare proceed to such extremes, when a page announces the approach of a royal messenger. It is Davison. He has come to make her death sentence known to the prisoner, who welcomes it as the news of her speedy deliverance. The fourth act is a lofty elegy--Mary's farewell to the world. The tender and touching lines with which it opens indicate the spirit with which it is animated throughout.