In the British Museum is a ring which belonged to one whose life had been a tissue of cowardice, cruelty, falsehood and weakness, Lord Darnley. If this was a ring he ordinarily wore, it probably was upon his finger when he led the way to the murder of Riccio and pointed him out to the slayers. However this may be, the story goes that when Darnley was reconciled to Mary and was in the house called Kirk of Field, she, one evening, on taking leave in order to attend a marriage of a servant, embraced him tenderly; took a ring from her finger and placed it upon his. It was on this night that a terrific explosion was heard, which shook the city of Edinburgh. Then it was that the Kirk of Field was blown up; and at a little distance, in the garden, were the dead bodies of Darnley and his page. We are not of those who believe that Mary’s hand or heart were in this murder, notwithstanding we read of the vote of the Scotch Parliament and peruse Buchanan’s suggested letters from the Queen to Bothwell--especially as these epistles are not forthcoming. It has been said that Buchanan expressed sorrow on his death-bed for what he had written against Mary. But he certainly was not a repentant. We have a proof of his indomitable disposition in the fact that when, at his dying hour, he was informed that the King was highly incensed against him for writing his books _De Jure Regni_ and History of Scotland, he replied, “he was not much concerned about that, for he was shortly going to a place where there were few kings.”[281] Writers who show no esteem for Buchanan give him the character of an inveterate drinker even up to his death hour; he, “continuing his debauches of the belly, made shift to get the dropsy by immoderate drinking,” and it was said of him, by way of jest, that he was troubled _vino inter cute_ and not _aquâ inter cute_ (by _wine between the skin_ and not _water between the skin_).[282]