There were two flags, but only one message.
Flanked by the European circle on her right and the Saltire on her left, Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland had been robbed.
It was a sombre occasion.
Packed into the relatively small if ornate living room of Bute House, haggard journalists and staffers waited for the inevitable.
Independence is back on the table, the first minister said – and a vote could take place within two years.
It had been a tumultuous 24 hours of course and it is little surprise that this announcement – expected as it was – met little but the sound of pen scratching paper.
Alex Salmond had delivered his resignation speech from the same spot in the same room a little over 18 months before, after the defeat in the last vote.
This time, however, Ms Sturgeon seems to think it could go differently.
The first minister’s speech was perhaps a little hurried for such a seminal moment.
Like her audience, she had been up all night watching the events unfold – and it showed.
But that did not detract from what was – separation aside – a well-mannered, conciliatory speech.
She had warm words for many, including the now out-going Prime Minister David Cameron.
Her tone was upbeat – outraged, of course, but also considered.
After she closed, there was a flurry of questions, but Ms Sturgeon chose, unusually, to answer just four – a reflection, perhaps, that her policy on how to deal with EU referendum is a work in progress, rather than a finished product.
Nevertheless, she has laid down a marker to her opponents, both in Scotland and the wider UK.
There was no doubt, as she swished away in her blood red suit, that Ms Sturgeon has a compelling argument on her side.
For Scotland to be taken out of the EU against its will is a democratic disgrace – no more, no less – she argued.
As the flags behind her poignantly and deliberately reminded viewers, Scotland wants to be in Europe.
The message was clear – how it will be delivered, though, remains to be seen.
