Accompanied by Bothwell, Argyle, Huntly, Cassils, and others, Mary now proceeded to the palace, going first up the Blackfriars' Wynd, and then down the Canongate. Just as she was about to enter Holyrood House, she met one of the Earl of Bothwell's servants (either Dalgleish or Powrie), whom she asked where he had been, that he smelt so strongly of gunpowder? The fellow made some excuse, and no further notice was taken of the circumstance.[45] The Queen proceeded immediately to the rooms where Sebastian's friends were assembled; and Bothwell, who was very anxious to avoid any suspicion, and, above all, to prevent Mary from suspecting him, continued to attend her assiduously. Paris, who carried in his pocket the key of Mary's bed-room at the Kirk-of-Field, in which he had locked Hay and Hepburn, followed in the Earl's train. Upon entering the apartment where the dancing and masquing was going on, this Frenchman, who had neither the courage nor the cunning necessary to carry him through such a deed of villany, retired in a melancholy mood to a corner, and stood by himself wrapt in a profound reverie. Bothwell, observing him, and fearing that his conduct might excite observation, went up to him, and angrily demanded why he looked so sad, telling him in a whisper, _that if he retained that lugubrious countenance before the Queen, he should be made to suffer for it_. Paris answered despondingly, that he did not care what became of himself, if he could only get permission to go home to bed, for he was ill. "No," said Bothwell, "you must remain with me; would you leave those two gentlemen, Hay and Hepburn, locked up where they now are?"--"Alas!" answered Paris, "what more must I do this night? I have no heart for this business." Bothwell put an end to the conversation, by ordering Paris to follow him immediately.[46] It is uncertain whether the Queen had retired to her own chamber before Bothwell quitted the Palace, or whether he left her at the masque. Buchanan, always ready to fabricate calumny, says, that the Queen and Bothwell were "in long talk together, in her own chamber after midnight." But the falsehood of this assertion is clearly established; for Buchanan himself allows, that it was past eleven before Mary left the Kirk-of-Field, and Dalgleish and Powrie both state, that Bothwell came to his own lodgings from the Palace about twelve. If, therefore, he was at the masque, as we have seen, he had no time to talk with the Queen in private; and, if he had talked with the Queen, he could not have been at the masque. It is most likely that Mary continued for some time after Bothwell's departure at Sebastian's wedding, for Sebastian was "in great favour with the Queen, for his skill in music and his merry jesting."