It presently occurred to the Queen that a handkerchief would be required to bandage her eyes. She told one of her women to bring her a very fine and beautiful one, edged with gold embroidery, and carefully put it aside for the occasion. For some hours the Queen rested on her bed. She lay immovable, with closed eyes and hands crossed on her breast, but she did not sleep. Her attendants perceived, by the movement of her lips and an occasional peaceful smile, that she was praying, and all absorbed in the thought of the life to come. As Jane Kennedy expressed it, she seemed to be "laughing with the angels." Outside the Queen's room sinister noises disturbed the silence of the night. From the great hall came ominous sounds of hammering, and in the intervals of silence the measured tramp of the troops posted round the castle could be distinguished. Thus passed the dreary night, full of anguish to the watchers, but spent in a holy calm and peace by the royal victim herself. CHAPTER XI THE END "He is not worthy of the joys of heaven whose body cannot suffer the stroke of the executioner."--Queen Mary to Kent, Camden, p. 454. It was Tuesday morning, the 8th of February. When the Queen heard six o'clock strike she called her women to her, reminding them that she had but two hours to live.[132] Then rising, she dressed herself with unusual care and magnificence, as in preparation for some great and solemn occasion. Her robes--the only ones she had reserved of former splendours--were such as were then worn by queens-dowager. The skirt and bodice of black satin were worn over a petticoat of russet-brown velvet; while the long regal mantle, also of black satin, embroidered with gold and trimmed with fur, had long hanging sleeves and a train. The Queen's head-dress was of white crape, from which fell a long veil of the same delicate material, edged with lace. Round her neck she wore a chain of scented beads with a cross, and at her waist a golden rosary. [Footnote 132: The details respecting the last hours of the life of Queen Mary are derived chiefly from two original narratives, both of which are printed in the second volume of Jebb. They are the following: (1) Blackwood, Adam, _Martyre de Marie Stuart_, Paris, 1644, Jebb, p. 175; (2) _La Mort de la Royne d'Escosse_, 1589, _ibid._ p. 611. The information which they contain has been carefully used by Hosack, Chantelauze, Bourgoing, and Kervyn de Lettenhove, thereby rendering unnecessary further references to the several authorities given by Jebb.] [Illustration: Contemporary Drawing of the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringay. From the Calthorpe MS.] [Illustration: List of Names, in Beale's handwriting, of those present at the Execution. Accompanying the Calthorpe Drawing.]