midnight
was it you who stretched your body before me , '' said the Queen , `` when the balls were raining around us ? '' `` Believe you , '' said he , in a low tone , `` that Douglas would have resigned to any one the chance of protecting his Queen 's life with his own ? '' The dialogue was here interrupted by a shot or two from one of those small pieces of artillery called falconets , then used in defending castles . The shot was too vague to have any effect , but the broader flash , the deeper sound , the louder return which was made by the midnight echoes of Bennarty , terrified and imposed silence on the liberated prisoners . The boat was alongside of a rude quay or landing place , running out from a garden of considerable extent , ere any of them again attempted to speak . They landed , and while the Abbot returned thanks aloud to Heaven , -- which had thus far favoured their enterprise , Douglas enjoyed the best reward of his desperate undertaking , in conducting the Queen to the house of the gardener . Yet , not unmindful of Roland Graeme even in that moment of terror and exhaustion , Mary expressly commanded Seyton to give his assistance to Fleming , while Catherine voluntarily , and without bidding , took the arm of the page .