Note 55 — Chapter VI · AFTER THE SENTENCE
Reading edition
A sad office was reserved for the cover of this table; it was afterwards used to enshroud the body of the Queen after her execution, as we may see by the following passage from Brantôme: "Immediately after the execution, when the headsman had despoiled Mary's corpse, it was carried into a room adjoining that in which her maids of honour were confined; and they, looking through a crevice, saw the body of their mistress half covered by a piece of rough woollen stuff, which had been hastily taken from the billiard-table."