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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Michel and Angle, by Gilbert Parker, v2
+#78 in our series by Gilbert Parker
+
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+Title: Michel and Angele [A Ladder of Swords], Volume 2.
+
+Author: Gilbert Parker
+
+Release Date: August, 2004  [EBook #6251]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 31, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MICHEL AND ANGELE, PARKER, V2 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+MICHEL AND ANGELE
+
+[A Ladder of Swords]
+
+By Gilbert Parker
+
+Volume 2.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Five minutes later, Lempriere of Rozel, as butler to the Queen, saw a
+sight of which he told to his dying day.  When, after varied troubles
+hereafter set down, he went back to Jersey, he made a speech before the
+Royal Court, in which he told what chanced while Elizabeth was at chapel.
+
+"There stood I, butler to the Queen," he said, with a large gesture,
+"but what knew I of butler's duties at Greenwich Palace!  Her Majesty had
+given me an office where all the work was done for me.  Odds life, but
+when I saw the Gentleman of the Rod and his fellow get down on their
+knees to lay the cloth upon the table, as though it was an altar at
+Jerusalem, I thought it time to say my prayers.  There was naught but
+kneeling and retiring.  Now it was the salt-cellar, the plate, and the
+bread; then it was a Duke's Daughter--a noble soul as ever lived--with a
+tasting-knife, as beautiful as a rose; then another lady enters who
+glares at me, and gets to her knees as does the other.  Three times up
+and down, and then one rubs the plate with bread and salt, as solemn as
+St. Ouen's when he says prayers in the Royal Court.  Gentles, that was a
+day for Jersey.  For there stood I as master of all, the Queen's butler,
+and the greatest ladies of the land doing my will--though it was all
+Persian mystery to me, save when the kettle-drums began to beat and the
+trumpet to blow, and in walk bareheaded the Yeomen of the Guard, all
+scarlet, with a golden rose on their backs, bringing in a course of
+twenty-four gold dishes; and I, as Queen's butler, receiving them.
+
+"Then it was I opened my mouth amazed at the endless dishes filled with
+niceties of earth, and the Duke's Daughter pops onto my tongue a mouthful
+of the first dish brought, and then does the same to every Yeoman of the
+Guard that carried a dish--that her notorious Majesty be safe against the
+hand of poisoners.  There was I, fed by a Duke's Daughter; and thus was
+Jersey honoured; and the Duke's Daughter whispers to me, as a dozen other
+unmarried ladies enter, 'The Queen liked not the cut of your frieze
+jerkin better than do I, Seigneur.'  With that she joins the others, and
+they all kneel down and rise up again, and lifting the meat from the
+table, bear it into the Queen's private chamber.
+
+"When they return, and the Yeomen of the Guard go forth, I am left alone
+with these ladies, and there stand with twelve pair of eyes upon me,
+little knowing what to do.  There was laughter in the faces of some, and
+looks less taking in the eyes of others; for my Lord Leicester was to
+have done the duty I was set to do that day, and he the greatest gallant
+of the kingdom, as all the world knows.  What they said among themselves
+I know not, but I heard Leicester's name, and I guessed that they were
+mostly in the pay of his soft words.  But the Duke's Daughter was on my
+side, as was proved betimes when Leicester made trouble for us who went
+from Jersey to plead the cause of injured folk.  Of the Earl's enmity to
+me--a foolish spite of a great nobleman against a Norman-Jersey
+gentleman--and of how it injured others for the moment, you all know; but
+we had him by the heels before the end of it, great earl and favourite as
+he was."
+
+In the same speech Lempriere told of his audience with the Queen, even as
+she sat at dinner, and of what she said to him; but since his words give
+but a partial picture of events, the relation must not be his.
+
+When the Queen returned from chapel to her apartments, Lempriere was
+called by an attendant, and he stood behind the Queen's chair until she
+summoned him to face her.  Then, having finished her meal, and dipped her
+fingers in a bowl of rose-water, she took up the papers Leicester had
+given her--the Duke's Daughter had read them aloud as she ate--and said:
+
+"Now, my good Seigneur of Rozel, answer me these few questions: First,
+what concern is it of yours whether this Michel de la Foret be sent back
+to France, or die here in England?"
+
+"I helped to save his life at sea--one good turn deserves another, your
+high-born Majesty."
+
+The Queen looked sharply at him, then burst out laughing.
+
+"God's life, but here's a bull making epigrams!" she said.  Then her
+humour changed.  "See you, my butler of Rozel, you shall speak the truth,
+or I'll have you where that jerkin will fit you not so well a month
+hence.  Plain answers I will have to plain questions, or De Carteret of
+St. Ouen's shall have his will of you and your precious pirate.  So bear
+yourself as you would save your head and your honours."
+
+Lempriere of Rozel never had a better moment than when he met the Queen
+of England's threats with faultless intrepidity.  "I am concerned about
+my head, but more about my honours, and most about my honour," he
+replied.  "My head is my own, my honours are my family's, for which I
+would give my head when needed; and my honour defends both until both are
+naught--and all are in the service of my Queen."
+
+Smiling, Elizabeth suddenly leaned forward, and, with a glance of
+satisfaction towards the Duke's Daughter, who was present, said:
+
+"I had not thought to find so much logic behind your rampant skull," she
+said.  "You've spoken well, Rozel, and you shall speak by the book to the
+end, if you will save your friends.  What concern is it of yours whether
+Michel de la Foret live or die?"
+
+"It is a concern of one whom I've sworn to befriend, and that is my
+concern, your ineffable Majesty."  "Who is the friend?"
+
+"Mademoiselle Aubert."
+
+"The betrothed of this Michel de la Foret?"
+
+"Even so, your exalted Majesty.  But I made sure De la Foret was dead
+when I asked her to be my wife."
+
+"Lord, Lord, Lord, hear this vast infant, this hulking baby of a
+Seigneur, this primeval innocence!  Listen to him, cousin," said the
+Queen, turning again to the Duke's Daughter.  "Was ever the like of it in
+any kingdom of this earth?  He chooses a penniless exile--he, a butler to
+the Queen, with three dove-cotes and the perquage--and a Huguenot withal.
+He is refused; then comes the absent lover over sea, to shipwreck; and
+our Seigneur rescues him, 'fends him; and when yon master exile is in
+peril, defies his Queen's commands"--she tapped the papers lying beside
+her on the table--"then comes to England with the lady to plead the case
+before his outraged sovereign, with an outlawed buccaneer for comrade and
+lieutenant.  There is the case, is't not?"
+
+"I swore to be her friend," answered Lempriere stubbornly, "and I have
+done according to my word."
+
+"There's not another nobleman in my kingdom who would not have thought
+twice about the matter, with the lady aboard his ship on the high seas-
+'tis a miraculous chivalry, cousin," she added to the Duke's Daughter,
+who bowed, settled herself again on her velvet cushion, and looked out of
+the corner of her eyes at Lempriere.
+
+"You opposed Sir Hugh Pawlett's officers who went to arrest this De la
+Foret," continued Elizabeth.  "Call you that serving your Queen?  Pawlett
+had our commands."
+
+"I opposed them but in form, that the matter might the more surely be
+brought to your Majesty's knowledge."
+
+"It might easily have brought you to the Tower, man."
+
+"I had faith that your Majesty would do right in this, as in all else.
+So I came hither to tell the whole story to your judicial Majesty."
+
+"Our thanks for your certificate of character," said the Queen, with
+amused irony.  "What is your wish?  Make your words few and plain."
+
+"I desire before all that Michel de la Foret shall not be returned to the
+Medici, most radiant Majesty."
+
+"That's plain.  But there are weighty matters 'twixt France and England,
+and De la Foret may turn the scale one way or another.  What follows,
+beggar of Rozel?"
+
+"That Mademoiselle Aubert and her father may live without let or
+hindrance in Jersey."
+
+"That you may eat sour grapes ad eternam?  Next?"
+
+"That Buonespoir be pardoned all offences and let live in Jersey on
+pledge that he sin no more, not even to raid St. Ouen's cellars of the
+muscadella reserved for your generous Majesty."
+
+There was such humour in Lempriere's look as he spoke of the muscadella
+that the Queen questioned him closely upon Buonespoir's raid; and so
+infectious was his mirth, as he told the tale, that Elizabeth, though she
+stamped her foot in assumed impatience, smiled also.
+
+"You shall have your Buonespoir, Seigneur," she said; "but for his future
+you shall answer as well as he."
+
+"For what he does in Jersey Isle, your commiserate Majesty?"
+
+"For crime elsewhere, if he be caught, he shall march to Tyburn, friend,"
+she answered.  Then she hurriedly added: "Straightway go and bring
+Mademoiselle and her father hither.  Orders are given for their disposal.
+And to-morrow at this hour you shall wait upon me in their company.  I
+thank you for your services as butler this day, Monsieur of Rozel.  You
+do your office rarely."
+
+As the Seigneur left Elizabeth's apartments, he met the Earl of Leicester
+hurrying thither, preceded by the Queen's messenger.  Leicester stopped
+and said, with a slow malicious smile: "Farming is good, then--you have
+fine crops this year on your holding?"
+
+The point escaped Lempriere at first, for the favourite's look was all
+innocence, and he replied: "You are mistook, my lord.  You will remember
+I was in the presence-chamber an hour ago, my lord.  I am Lempriere,
+Seigneur of Rozel, butler to her Majesty."
+
+"But are you, then?  I thought you were a farmer and raised cabbages."
+Smiling, Leicester passed on.
+
+For a moment the Seigneur stood pondering the Earl's words and angrily
+wondering at his obtuseness.  Then suddenly he knew he had been mocked,
+and he turned and ran after his enemy; but Leicester had vanished into
+the Queen's apartments.
+
+The Queen's fool was standing near, seemingly engaged in the light
+occupation of catching imaginary flies, buzzing with his motions.  As
+Leicester disappeared he looked from under his arm at Lempriere.  "If a
+bird will not stop for the salt to its tail, then the salt is damned,
+Nuncio; and you must cry David!  and get thee to the quarry."
+
+Lempriere stared at him swelling with rage; but the quaint smiling of the
+fool conquered him, and instead of turning on his heel, he spread himself
+like a Colossus and looked down in grandeur.  "And wherefore cry David!
+and get quarrying?" he asked.  "Come, what sense is there in thy words,
+when I am wroth with yonder nobleman?"
+
+"Oh, Nuncio, Nuncio, thou art a child of innocence and without history.
+The salt held not the bird for the net of thy anger, Nuncio; so it is
+meet that other ways be found.  David the ancient put a stone in a sling
+and Goliath laid him down like an egg in a nest--therefore, Nuncio, get
+thee to the quarry.  Obligato, which is to say Leicester yonder, hath no
+tail--the devil cut it off and wears it himself.  So let salt be damned,
+and go sling thy stone!"
+
+Lempriere was good-humoured again.  He fumbled in his purse and brought
+forth a gold-piece.  "Fool, thou hast spoken like a man born sensible and
+infinite.  I understand thee like a book.  Thou hast not folly and thou
+shalt not be answered as if thou wast a fool.  But in terms of gold shalt
+thou have reply."  He put the gold-piece in the fool's hand and slapped
+him on the shoulder.
+
+"Why now, Nuncio," answered the other, "it is clear that there is a fool
+at Court, for is it not written that a fool and his money are soon
+parted?  And this gold-piece is still hot with running 'tween thee and
+me."
+
+Lempriere roared.  "Why, then, for thy hit thou shalt have another gold-
+piece, gossip.  But see"--his voice lowered--"know you where is my
+friend, Buonespoir, the pirate?  Know you where he is in durance?"
+
+"As I know marrow in a bone I know where he hides, Nuncio, so come with
+me," answered the fool.
+
+"If De Carteret had but thy sense, we could live at peace in Jersey,"
+rejoined Lempriere, and strode ponderously after the light-footed fool
+who capered forth singing:
+
+              "Come hither, O come hither,
+                 There's a bride upon her bed;
+               They have strewn her o'er with roses,
+                 There are roses 'neath her head:
+               Life is love and tears and laughter,
+                 But the laughter it is dead
+               Sing the way to the Valley, to the Valley!
+                 Hey, but the roses they are red!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The next day at noon, as her Majesty had advised the Seigneur, De la
+Foret was ushered into the presence.  The Queen's eye quickened as she
+saw him, and she remarked with secret pleasure the figure and bearing of
+this young captain of the Huguenots.  She loved physical grace and
+prowess with a full heart.  The day had almost passed when she would
+measure all men against Leicester in his favour; and he, knowing this
+clearly now, saw with haughty anxiety the gradual passing of his power,
+and clutched futilely at the vanishing substance.  Thus it was that he
+now spent his strength in getting his way with the Queen in little
+things.  She had been so long used to take his counsel--in some part wise
+and skilful--that when she at length did without it, or followed her own
+mind, it became a fever with him to let no chance pass for serving his
+own will by persuading her out of hers.  This was why he had spent an
+hour the day before in sadly yet vaguely reproaching her for the slight
+she put upon him in the presence-chamber by her frown; and another in
+urging her to come to terms with Catherine de Medici in this small
+affair--since the Frenchwoman had set her revengeful heart upon it--that
+larger matters might be settled to the gain of England.  It was not so
+much that he had reason to destroy De la Foret, as that he saw that the
+Queen was disposed to deal friendly by him and protect him.  He did not
+see the danger of rousing in the Queen the same unreasoning tenaciousness
+of will upon just such lesser things as might well be left to her
+advisers.  In spite of which he almost succeeded, this very day, in
+regaining, for a time at least, the ground he had lost with her.  He had
+never been so adroit, so brilliant, so witty, so insinuating; and he left
+her with the feeling that if he had his way concerning De la Foret--a
+mere stubborn whim, with no fair reason behind it--his influence would
+be again securely set.  The sense of crisis was on him.
+
+On Michel de la Foret entering the presence the Queen's attention had
+become riveted.  She felt in him a spirit of mastery, yet of unselfish
+purpose.  Here was one, she thought, who might well be in her household,
+or leading a regiment of her troops.  The clear fresh face, curling hair,
+direct look, quiet energy, and air of nobility--this sort of man could
+only be begotten of a great cause; he were not possible in idle or
+prosperous times.
+
+Elizabeth looked him up and down, then affected surprise.  "Monsieur de
+la Foret," she said, "I do not recognise you in this attire"--glancing
+towards his dress.
+
+De la Foret bowed, and Elizabeth continued, looking at a paper in her
+hand: "You landed on our shores of Jersey in the robes of a priest of
+France.  The passport for a priest of France was found upon your person
+when our officers in Jersey made search of you.  Which is yourself--
+Michel de la Foret, soldier, or a priest of France?"
+
+De la Foret replied gravely that he was a soldier, and that the priestly
+dress had been but a disguise.
+
+"In which papist attire, methinks, Michel de la Foret, soldier and
+Huguenot, must have been ill at ease--the eagle with the vulture's wing.
+What say you, Monsieur?"
+
+"That vulture's wing hath carried me to a safe dove-cote, your gracious
+Majesty," he answered, with a low obeisance.
+
+"I'm none so sure of that, Monsieur," was Elizabeth's answer, and
+she glanced quizzically at Leicester, who made a gesture of annoyance.
+"Our cousin France makes you to us a dark intriguer and conspirator, a
+dangerous weed in our good garden of England, a 'troublous, treacherous
+violence'--such are you called, Monsieur."
+
+"I am in your high Majesty's power," he answered, "to do with me as it
+seemeth best.  If your Majesty wills it that I be returned to France,
+I pray you set me upon its coast as I came from it, a fugitive.  Thence
+will I try to find my way to the army and the poor stricken people of
+whom I was.  I pray for that only, and not to be given to the red hand of
+the Medici."
+
+"Red hand--by my faith, but you are bold, Monsieur!"
+
+Leicester tapped his foot upon the floor impatiently, then caught the
+Queen's eye, and gave her a meaning look.
+
+De la Foret saw the look and knew his enemy, but he did not quail.  "Bold
+only by your high Majesty's faith, indeed," he answered the Queen, with
+harmless guile.
+
+Elizabeth smiled.  She loved such flattering speech from a strong man.
+It touched a chord in her deeper than that under Leicester's finger.
+Leicester's impatience only made her more self-willed on the instant.
+
+"You speak with the trumpet note, Monsieur," she said to De la Foret.
+"We will prove you.  You shall have a company in my Lord Leicester's army
+here, and we will send you upon some service worthy of your fame."
+
+"I crave your Majesty's pardon, but I cannot do it," was De la Foret's
+instant reply.  "I have sworn that I will lift my sword in one cause
+only, and to that I must stand.  And more--the widow of my dead chief,
+Gabriel de Montgomery, is set down in this land unsheltered and alone.
+I have sworn to one who loves her, and for my dead chief's sake, that I
+will serve her and be near her until better days be come and she may
+return in quietness to France.  In exile we few stricken folk must stand
+together, your august Majesty."
+
+Elizabeth's eye flashed up.  She was impatient of refusal of her favour.
+She was also a woman, and that De la Foret should flaunt his devotion to
+another woman was little to her liking.  The woman in her, which had
+never been blessed with a noble love, was roused.  The sourness of a
+childless, uncompanionable life was stronger for the moment than her
+strong mind and sense.
+
+"Monsieur has sworn this, and Monsieur has sworn that," she said
+petulantly--" and to one who loveth a lady, and for a cause--tut, tut,
+tut!--"
+
+Suddenly a kind of intriguing laugh leaped into her eye, and she turned
+to Leicester and whispered in his ear.  Leicester frowned, then smiled,
+and glanced up and down De la Foret's figure impertinently.
+
+"See, Monsieur de la Foret," she added; "since you will not fight, you
+shall preach.  A priest you came into my kingdom, and a priest you shall
+remain; but you shall preach good English doctrine and no Popish folly."
+
+De la Foret started, then composed himself, and before he had time to
+reply, Elizabeth continued: "Partly for your own sake am I thus gracious;
+for as a preacher of the Word I have not need to give you up, according
+to agreement with our brother of France.  As a rebel and conspirator I
+were bound to do so, unless you were an officer of my army.  The Seigneur
+of Rozel has spoken for you, and the Comtesse de Montgomery has written a
+pleading letter.  Also I have from another source a tearful prayer--the
+ink is scarce dry upon it--which has been of service to you.  But I
+myself have chosen this way of escape for you.  Prove yourself worthy,
+and all may be well--but prove yourself you shall.  You have prepared
+your own brine, Monsieur; in it you shall pickle."
+
+She smiled a sour smile, for she was piqued, and added: "Do you think I
+will have you here squiring of distressed dames, save as a priest?  You
+shall hence to Madame of Montgomery as her faithful chaplain, once I have
+heard you preach and know your doctrine."
+
+Leicester almost laughed outright in the young man's face now, for he had
+no thought that De la Foret would accept, and refusal meant the exile's
+doom.
+
+It seemed fantastic that this noble gentleman, this very type of the
+perfect soldier, with the brown face of a picaroon and an athletic valour
+of body, should become a preacher even in necessity.
+
+Elizabeth, seeing De la Foret's dumb amazement and anxiety, spoke up
+sharply: "Do this, or get you hence to the Medici, and Madame of
+Montgomery shall mourn her protector, and Mademoiselle your mistress
+of the vermilion cheek, shall have one lover the less; which, methinks,
+our Seigneur of Rozel would thank me for."
+
+De la Foret started, his lips pressed firmly together in effort of
+restraint.  There seemed little the Queen did not know concerning him;
+and reference to Angele roused him to sharp solicitude.
+
+"Well, well?" asked Elizabeth impatiently, then made a motion to
+Leicester, and he, going to the door, bade some one to enter.
+
+There stepped inside the Seigneur of Rozel, who made a lumbering
+obeisance, then got to his knees before the Queen.
+
+"You have brought the lady safely--with her father?" she asked.
+
+Lempriere, puzzled, looked inquiringly at the Queen, then replied: "Both
+are safe without, your infinite Majesty."
+
+De la Foret's face grew pale.  He knew now for the first time that Angele
+and her father were in England, and he looked Lempriere suspiciously in
+the eyes; but the swaggering Seigneur met his look frankly, and bowed
+with ponderous and genial gravity.
+
+Now De la Foret spoke.  "Your high Majesty," said he, "if I may ask
+Mademoiselle Aubert one question in your presence--"
+
+"Your answer now; the lady in due season," interposed the Queen.
+
+"She was betrothed to a soldier, she may resent a priest," said De la
+Foret, with a touch of humour, for he saw the better way was to take the
+matter with some outward ease.
+
+Elizabeth smiled.  "It is the custom of her sex to have a fondness for
+both," she answered, with an acid smile.  "But your answer?"
+
+De la Foret's face became exceeding grave.  Bowing his head, he said:
+"My sword has spoken freely for the Cause; God forbid that my tongue
+should not speak also.  I will do your Majesty's behest."
+
+The jesting word that was upon the royal lips came not forth, for De la
+Foret's face was that of a man who had determined a great thing, and
+Elizabeth was one who had a heart for high deeds.  "The man is brave
+indeed," she said under her breath, and, turning to the dumfounded
+Seigneur, bade him bring in Mademoiselle Aubert.
+
+A moment later Angele entered, came a few steps forward, made obeisance,
+and stood still.  She showed no trepidation, but looked before her
+steadily.  She knew not what was to be required of her, she was a
+stranger in a strange land; but persecution and exile had gone far
+to strengthen her spirit and greaten her composure.
+
+Elizabeth gazed at the girl coldly and critically.  To women she was not
+over-amiable; but as she looked at the young Huguenot maid, of this calm
+bearing, warm of colour, clear of eye, and purposeful of face, some thing
+kindled in her.  Most like it was that love for a cause, which was more
+to be encouraged by her than any woman's love for a man, which as she
+grew older inspired her with aversion, as talk of marriage brought
+cynical allusions to her lips.
+
+"I have your letter and its protests and its pleadings.  There were fine
+words and adjurations--are you so religious, then?" she asked brusquely.
+
+"I am a Huguenot, your noble Majesty," answered the girl, as though that
+answered all.
+
+"How is it, then, you are betrothed to a roistering soldier?" asked the
+Queen.
+
+"Some must pray for Christ's sake, and some must fight, your most
+christian Majesty," answered the girl.  "Some must do both," rejoined the
+Queen, in a kinder voice, for the pure spirit of the girl worked upon
+her.  "I am told that Monsieur de la Foret fights fairly.  If he can pray
+as well, methinks he shall have safety in our kingdom, and ye shall all
+have peace.  On Trinity Sunday you shall preach in my chapel, Monsieur de
+la Foret, and thereafter you shall know your fate."
+
+She rose.  "My Lord," she said to Leicester, on whose face gloom had
+settled, "you will tell the Lord Chamberlain that Monsieur de la Foret's
+durance must be made comfortable in the west tower of my palace till
+chapel-going of Trinity Day.  I will send him for his comfort and
+instruction some sermons of Latimer."
+
+She stepped down from the dais.  "You will come with me, mistress," she
+said to Angele, and reached out her hand.
+
+Angele fell on her knees and kissed it, tears falling down her cheek,
+then rose and followed the Queen from the chamber.  She greatly desired
+to look backward towards De la Foret, but some good angel bade her not.
+She realised that to offend the Queen at this moment might ruin all; and
+Elizabeth herself was little like to offer chance for farewell and love-
+tokens.
+
+So it was that, with bowed head, Angele left the room with the Queen of
+England, leaving Lempriere and De la Foret gazing at each other, the one
+bewildered, the other lost in painful reverie, and Leicester smiling
+maliciously at them both.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Every man, if you bring him to the right point, if you touch him in the
+corner where he is most sensitive, where he most lives, as it were; if
+you prick his nerves with a needle of suggestion where all his passions,
+ambitions and sentiments are at white heat, will readily throw away the
+whole game of life in some mad act out of harmony with all he ever did.
+It matters little whether the needle prick him by accident or blunder or
+design, he will burst all bounds, and establish again the old truth that
+each of us will prove himself a fool given perfect opportunity.  Nor need
+the occasion of this revolution be a great one; the most trivial event
+may produce the great fire which burns up wisdom, prudence and habit.
+
+The Earl of Leicester, so long counted astute, clearheaded, and well-
+governed, had been suddenly foisted out of balance, shaken from his
+imperious composure, tortured out of an assumed and persistent urbanity,
+by the presence in Greenwich Palace of a Huguenot exile of no seeming
+importance, save what the Medici grimly gave him by desiring his head.
+It appeared absurd that the great Leicester, whose nearness to the throne
+had made him the most feared, most notable, and, by virtue of his
+opportunities, the most dramatic figure in England, should have sleepless
+nights by reason of a fugitive like Michel de la Foret.  On the surface
+it was preposterous that he should see in the Queen's offer of service to
+the refugee evidence that she was set to grant him special favours; it
+was equally absurd that her offer of safety to him on pledge of his
+turning preacher should seem proof that she meant to have him near her.
+Elizabeth had left the presence-chamber without so much as a glance at
+him, though she had turned and looked graciously at the stranger.  He had
+hastily followed her, and thereafter impatiently awaited a summons which
+never came, though he had sent a message that his hours were at her
+Majesty's disposal.  Waiting, he saw Angele's father escorted from the
+palace by a Gentleman Pensioner to a lodge in the park; he saw Michel de
+la Foret taken to his apartments; he saw the Seigneur of Rozel walking in
+the palace grounds with such possession as though they were his own,
+self-content in every motion of his body.
+
+Upon the instant the great Earl was incensed out of all proportion to the
+affront of the Seigneur's existence.  He suddenly hated Lempriere only
+less than he hated Michel de la Foret.  As he still waited irritably for
+a summons from Elizabeth, he brooded on every word and every look she had
+given him of late; he recalled her manner to him in the ante-chapel the
+day before, and the admiring look she cast on De la Foret but now.  He
+had seen more in it than mere approval of courage and the self-reliant
+bearing of a refugee of her own religion.
+
+These were days when the soldier of fortune mounted to high places.  He
+needed but to carry the banner of bravery, and a busy sword, and his way
+to power was not hindered by poor estate.  To be gently born was the one
+thing needful, and Michel de la Foret was gently born; and he had still
+his sword, though he chose not to use it in Elizabeth's service.  My Lord
+knew it might be easier for a stranger like De la Foret, who came with no
+encumbrance, to mount to place in the struggles of the Court, than for an
+Englishman, whose increasing and ever-bolder enemies were undermining on
+every hand, to hold his own.
+
+He began to think upon ways and means to meet this sudden preference of
+the Queen, made sharply manifest as he waited in the ante-chamber, by a
+summons to the refugee to enter the Queen's apartments.  When the refugee
+came forth again he wore a sword the Queen had sent him, and a packet of
+Latimer's sermons were under his arm.  Leicester was unaware that
+Elizabeth herself did not see De la Foret when he was thus hastily
+called; but that her lady-in-waiting, the Duke's Daughter, who figured
+so largely in the pictures Lempriere drew of his experiences at Greenwich
+Palace, brought forth the sermons and the sword, with this message from
+the Queen:
+
+"The Queen says that it is but fair to the sword to be by Michel de la
+Foret's side when the sermons are in his hand, that his choice have every
+seeming of fairness.  For her Majesty says it is still his choice between
+the Sword and the Book till Trinity Day."
+
+Leicester, however, only saw the sword at the side of the refugee and the
+gold-bound book under his arm as he came forth, and in a rage he left the
+palace and gloomily walked under the trees, denying himself to every one.
+
+To seize De la Foret, and send him to the Medici, and then rely on
+Elizabeth's favour for his pardon, as he had done in the past?  That
+might do, but the risk to England was too great.  It would be like the
+Queen, if her temper was up, to demand from the Medici the return of De
+la Foret, and war might ensue.  Two women, with two nations behind them,
+were not to be played lightly against each other, trusting to their
+common sense and humour.
+
+As he walked among the trees, brooding with averted eyes, he was suddenly
+faced by the Seigneur of Rozel, who also was shaken from his discretion
+and the best interests of the two fugitives he was bound to protect, by a
+late offence against his own dignity.  A seed of rancour had been sown in
+his mind which had grown to a great size and must presently burst into a
+dark flower of vengeance.  He, Lempriere of Rozel, with three dovecotes,
+the perquage, and the office of butler to the Queen, to be called a
+"farmer," to be sneered at--it was not in the blood of man, not in the
+towering vanity of a Lempriere, to endure it at any price computable to
+mortal mind.
+
+Thus there were in England on that day two fools (there are as many now),
+and one said:
+
+"My Lord Leicester, I crave a word with you."
+
+"Crave on, good fellow," responded Leicester with a look of boredom,
+making to pass by.
+
+"I am Lempriere, lord of Rozel, my lord--"
+
+"Ah yes, I took you for a farmer," answered Leicester.  "Instead of that,
+I believe you keep doves, and wear a jerkin that fits like a king's.
+Dear Lord, so does greatness come with girth!"
+
+"The King that gave me dove-cotes gave me honour, and 'tis not for the
+Earl of Leicester to belittle it."
+
+"What is your coat of arms?" said Leicester with a faint smile, but in
+an assumed tone of natural interest.
+
+"A swan upon a sea of azure, two stars above, and over all a sword with a
+wreath around its point," answered Lempriere simply, unsuspecting irony,
+and touched by Leicester's flint where he was most like to flare up with
+vanity.
+
+"Ah!" said Leicester.  "And the motto?"
+
+"Mea spes supra stella--my hope is beyond the stars."
+
+"And the wreath--of parsley, I suppose?"
+
+Now Lempriere understood, and he shook with fury as he roared:
+
+"Yes, by God, and to be got at the point of the sword, to put on the
+heads of insolents like Lord Leicester!"  His face was flaming, he was
+like a cock strutting upon a stable mound.
+
+There fell a slight pause, and then Leicester said: "To-morrow at
+daylight, eh?"
+
+"Now, my lord, now!"
+
+"We have no seconds."
+
+"'Sblood!  'Tis not your way, my lord, to be stickling in detail of
+courtesy."
+
+"'Tis not the custom to draw swords in secret, Lempriere of Rozel.  Also
+my teeth are not on edge to fight you."
+
+Lempriere had already drawn his sword, and the look of his eyes was as
+that of a mad bull in a ring.  "You won't fight with me--you don't think
+Rozel your equal?"  His voice was high.
+
+Leicester's face took on a hard, cruel look.  "We cannot fight among the
+ladies," he said quietly.  Lempriere followed his glance, and saw the
+Duke's Daughter and another in the trees near by.
+
+He hastily put up his sword.  "When, my lord?" he asked.
+
+"You will hear from me to-night," was the answer, and Leicester went
+forward hastily to meet the ladies--they had news no doubt.
+
+Lempriere turned on his heel and walked quickly away among the trees
+towards the quarters where Buonespoir was in durance, which was little
+more severe than to keep him within the palace yard.  There he found the
+fool and the pirate in whimsical converse.
+
+The fool had brought a letter of inquiry and warm greeting from Angele to
+Buonespoir, who was laboriously inditing one in return.  When Lempriere
+entered the pirate greeted him jovially.
+
+"In the very pinch of time you come," he said.  "You have grammar and
+syntax and etiquette."
+
+"'Tis even so, Nuncio," said the fool.  "Here is needed prosody
+potential.  Exhale!"
+
+The three put their heads together above the paper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"I would know your story.  How came you and yours to this pass?  Where
+were you born?  Of what degree are you?  And this Michel de la Foret,
+when came he to your feet--or you to his arms?  I would know all.  Begin
+where life began; end where you sit here at the feet of Elizabeth.  This
+other cushion to your knees.  There--now speak.  We are alone."
+
+Elizabeth pushed a velvet cushion towards Angele, where she half-knelt,
+half-sat on the rush-strewn floor of the great chamber.  The warm light
+of the afternoon sun glowed through the thick-tinted glass high up, and,
+in the gleam, the heavy tapestries sent by an archduke, once suitor for
+Elizabeth's hand, emerged with dramatic distinctness, and peopled the
+room with silent watchers of the great Queen and the nobly-born but poor
+and fugitive Huguenot.  A splendid piece of sculpture--Eleanor, wife of
+Edward--given Elizabeth by another royal suitor, who had sought to be her
+consort through many years, caught the warm bath of gold and crimson from
+the clerestory and seemed alive and breathing.  Against the pedestal the
+Queen had placed her visitor, the red cushions making vivid contrast to
+her white gown and black hair.  In the half-kneeling, half-sitting
+posture, with her hands clasped before her, so to steady herself to
+composure, Angele looked a suppliant--and a saint.  Her pure,
+straightforward gaze, her smooth, urbane forehead, the guilelessness
+that spoke in every feature, were not made worldly by the intelligence
+and humour reposing in the brown depths of her eyes.  Not a line vexed
+her face or forehead.  Her countenance was of a singular and almost
+polished smoothness, and though her gown was severely simple by
+comparison with silks and velvets, furs and ruffles of a gorgeous Court
+at its most gorgeous period, yet in it here and there were touches of
+exquisite fineness.  The black velvet ribbon slashing her sleeves, the
+slight cloud-like gathering of lace at the back of her head, gave a
+distinguished softness to her appearance.
+
+She was in curious contrast to the Queen, who sat upon heaped-up
+cushions, her rich buff and black gown a blaze of jewels, her yellow
+hair, now streaked with grey, roped with pearls, her hands heavy with
+rings, her face past its youth, past its hopefulness, however noble and
+impressive, past its vivid beauty.  Her eyes wore ever a determined look,
+were persistent and vigilant, with a lurking trouble, yet flooded, too,
+by a quiet melancholy, like a low, insistent note that floats through an
+opera of passion, romance, and tragedy; like a tone of pathos giving deep
+character to some splendid pageant, which praises whilst it commemorates,
+proclaiming conquest while the grass has not yet grown on quiet houses
+of the children of the sword who no more wield the sword.  Evasive,
+cautious, secretive, creator of her own policy, she had sacrificed her
+womanhood to the power she held and the State she served.  Vain,
+passionate, and faithful, her heart all England and Elizabeth, the hunger
+for glimpses of what she had never known, and was never to know, thrust
+itself into her famished life; and she was wont to indulge, as now, in
+fancies and follow some emotional whim with a determination very like to
+eccentricity.
+
+That, at this time, when great national events were forward, when
+conspiracies abounded, when Parliament was grimly gathering strength to
+compel her to marry; and her Council were as sternly pursuing their
+policy for the destruction of Leicester; while that very day had come
+news of a rising in the North and of fresh Popish plots hatched in
+France--that in such case, this day she should set aside all business,
+refuse ambassadors and envoys admission, and occupy herself with two
+Huguenot refugees seemed incredible to the younger courtiers.  To such
+as Cecil, however, there was clear understanding.  He knew that when she
+seemed most inert, most impassive to turbulent occurrences, most careless
+of consequences, she was but waiting till, in her own mind, her plans
+were grown; so that she should see her end clearly ere she spoke or
+moved.  Now, as the great minister showed himself at the door of the
+chamber and saw Elizabeth seated with Angele, he drew back instinctively,
+expectant of the upraised hand which told him he must wait.  And, in
+truth, he was nothing loth to do so, for his news he cared little to
+deliver, important though it was that she should have it promptly and act
+upon it soon.  He turned away with a feeling of relief, however, for this
+gossip with the Huguenot maid would no doubt interest her, give new
+direction to her warm sympathies, which if roused in one thing were ever
+more easily roused in others.  He knew that a crisis was nearing in the
+royal relations with Leicester.  In a life of devotion to her service he
+had seen her before in this strange mood, and he could feel that she was
+ready for an outburst.  As he thought of De la Foret and the favour with
+which she had looked at him he smiled grimly, for if it meant aught it
+meant that it would drive Leicester to some act which would hasten his
+own doom; though, indeed, it might also make another path more difficult
+for himself, for the Parliament, for the people.
+
+Little as Elizabeth could endure tales of love and news of marriage;
+little as she believed in any vows, save those made to herself; little
+as she was inclined to adjust the rough courses of true love, she was the
+surgeon to this particular business, and she had the surgeon's love of
+laying bare even to her own cynicism the hurt of the poor patient under
+her knife.  Indeed, so had Angele impressed her that for once she thought
+she might hear the truth.  Because she saw the awe in the other's face
+and a worshipping admiration of the great protectress of Protestantism,
+who had by large gifts of men and money in times past helped the Cause,
+she looked upon her here with kindness.
+
+"Speak now, mistress fugitive, and I will listen," she added, as Cecil
+withdrew; and she made a motion to musicians in a distant gallery.
+
+Angele's heart fluttered to her mouth, but the soft, simple music helped
+her, and she began with eyes bent upon the ground, her linked fingers
+clasping and unclasping slowly.
+
+"I was born at Rouen, your high Majesty," she said.  "My mother was a
+cousin of the Prince of Passy, the great Protestant--"
+
+"Of Passy--ah!" said Elizabeth amazed.  "Then you are Protestants
+indeed; and your face is no invention, but cometh honestly.  No, no,
+'tis no accident--God rest his soul, great Passy!"
+
+"She died--my mother--when I was a little child.  I can but just remember
+her--so brightly quiet, so quick, so beautiful.  In Rouen life had little
+motion; but now and then came stir and turmoil, for war sent its message
+into the old streets, and our captains and our peasants poured forth to
+fight for the King.  Once came the King and Queen--Francis and Mary--"
+
+Elizabeth drew herself upright with an exclamation.  "Ah, you have seen
+her--Mary of Scots," she said sharply.  "You have seen her?"
+
+"As near as I might touch her with my hand, as near as is your high
+Majesty.  She spoke to me--my mother's father was in her train;--as yet
+we had not become Huguenots, nor did we know her Majesty as now the world
+knows.  They came, the King and Queen--and that was the beginning."
+
+She paused, and looked shyly at Elizabeth, as though she found it hard to
+tell her story.
+
+"And the beginning, it was--?" said Elizabeth, impatient and intent.
+
+"We went to Court.  The Queen called my mother into her train.  But it
+was in no wise for our good.  At Court my mother pined away--and so she
+died in durance."
+
+"Wherefore in durance?"
+
+"To what she saw she would not shut her eyes; to what she heard she would
+not close her soul; what was required of her she would not do."
+
+"She would not obey the Queen?"
+
+"She could not obey those whom the Queen favoured.  Then the tyranny that
+broke her heart--"
+
+The Queen interrupted her.
+
+"In very truth, but 'tis not in France alone that Queen's favourites
+grasp the sceptre and speak the word.  Hath a Queen a thousand eyes--can
+she know truth where most dissemble?"
+
+"There was a man--he could not know there was one true woman there, who
+for her daughter's sake, for her desired advancement, and because she was
+cousin of Passy, who urged it, lived that starved life; this man, this
+prince, drew round her feet snares, set pit-falls for her while my father
+was sent upon a mission.  Steadfast she kept her soul unspotted; but it
+wore away her life.  The Queen would not permit return to Rouen--who can
+tell what tale was told her by one whom she foiled?  And so she stayed.
+In this slow, savage persecution, when she was like a bird that, thinking
+it is free, flieth against the window-pane and falleth back beaten, so
+did she stay, and none could save her.  To cry out, to throw herself upon
+the spears, would have been ruin of herself, her husband and her child;
+and for these she lived."
+
+Elizabeth's eyes had kindled.  Perhaps never in her life had the life at
+Court been so exposed to her.  The simple words, meant but to convey the
+story, and with no thought behind, had thrown a light on her own Court,
+on her own position.  Adept in weaving a sinuous course in her policy,
+in making mazes for others to tread, the mazes which they in turn
+prepared had never before been traced beneath her eyes to the same
+vivid and ultimate effect.
+
+"Help me, ye saints, but things are not at such a pass in this place!"
+she said abruptly, but with weariness in her voice.  "Yet sometimes I
+know not.  The Court is a city by itself, walled and moated, and hath a
+life all its own.  'If there be found ten honest men within the city yet
+will I save it,' saith the Lord.  By my father's head, I would not risk
+a finger on the hazard if this city, this Court of Elizabeth were set
+'twixt the fire from Heaven and eternal peace.  In truth, child, I would
+lay me down and die in black disgust were it not that one might come
+hereafter would make a very Sodom or Gomorrah of this land: and out
+yonder--out in all my counties, where the truth of England is among my
+poor burgesses, who die for the great causes which my nobles profess but
+risk not their lives--out yonder all that they have won, and for which I
+have striven, would be lost.  .  .  .  Speak on.  I have not heard so
+plain a tongue and so little guile these twenty years."
+
+Angele continued, more courage in her voice.  "In the midst of it all
+came the wave of the new faith upon my mother.  And before ill could fall
+upon her from her foes, she died and was at rest.  Then we returned to
+Rouen, my father and I, and there we lived in peril, but in great
+happiness of soul until the day of massacre.  That night in Paris
+we were given greatly of the mercy of God."
+
+"You were there--you were in the massacre at Paris?"
+
+In the house of the Duke of Langon, with whom was resting after a
+hazardous enterprise, Michel de la Foret."
+
+"And here beginneth the second lesson," said the Queen with a smile on
+her lips; but there was a look of scrutiny in her eyes, and something
+like irony in her tone.  "And I will swear by all the stars of Heaven
+that this Michel saved ye both.  Is it not so?"
+
+"It is even so.  By his skill and bravery we found our way to safety,
+and in a hiding-place near to our loved Rouen watched him return from the
+gates of death."
+
+"He was wounded then?"
+
+"Seven times wounded, and with as little blood left in him as would fill
+a cup.  But it was summer, and we were in the hills, and they brought us,
+our friends of Rouen, all that we had need of; and so God was with us.
+
+"But did he save thy life, except by skill, by indirect and fortunate
+wisdom?  Was there deadly danger upon thee?  Did he beat down the sword
+of death?"
+
+"He saved my life thrice directly.  The wounds he carried were got by
+interposing his own sword 'twixt death and me."
+
+"And that hath need of recompense?"
+
+"My life was little worth the wounds he suffered; but I waited not until
+he saved it to owe it unto him.  All that it is was his before he drew
+the sword."
+
+"And 'tis this ye would call love betwixt ye--sweet givings and takings
+of looks, and soft sayings, and unchangeable and devouring faith.  Is't
+this--and is this all?"
+
+The girl had spoken out of an innocent heart, but the challenge in the
+Queen's voice worked upon her, and though she shrank a little, the
+fulness of her soul welled up and strengthened her.  She spoke again,
+and now in her need and in her will to save the man she loved, by making
+this majesty of England his protector, her words had eloquence.
+
+"It is not all, noble Queen.  Love is more than that.  It is the waking
+in the poorest minds, in the most barren souls, of something greater than
+themselves--as a chemist should find a substance that would give all
+other things by touching of them a new and higher value; as light and
+sun draw from the earth the tendrils of the seed that else had lain
+unproducing.  'Tis not alone soft words and touch of hand or lip.  This
+caring wholly for one outside one's self kills that self which else would
+make the world blind and deaf and dumb.  None hath loved greatly but hath
+helped to love in others.  Ah, most sweet Majesty, for great souls like
+thine, souls born great, this medicine is not needful, for already hath
+the love of a nation inspired and enlarged it; but for souls like mine
+and of so many, none better and none worse than me, to love one other
+soul deeply and abidingly lifts us higher than ourselves.  Your Majesty
+hath been loved by a whole people, by princes and great men in a
+different sort--is it not the world's talk that none that ever reigned
+hath drawn such slavery of princes, and of great nobles who have courted
+death for hopeless love of one beyond their star?  And is it not written
+in the world's book also that the Queen of England hath loved no man, but
+hath poured out her heart to a people; and hath served great causes in
+all the earth because of that love which hath still enlarged her soul,
+dowered at birth beyond reckoning?"  Tears filled her eyes.  "Ah, your
+supreme Majesty, to you whose heart is universal, the love of one poor
+mortal seemeth a small thing, but to those of little consequence it is
+the cable by which they unsteadily hold over the chasm 'twixt life and
+immortality.  To thee, oh greatest monarch of the world, it is a staff
+on which thou need'st not lean, which thou hast never grasped; to me
+it is my all; without it I fail and fall and die."
+
+She had spoken as she felt, yet, because she was a woman and guessed
+the mind of another woman, she had touched Elizabeth where her armour
+was weakest.  She had suggested that the Queen had been the object of
+adoration, but had never given her heart to any man; that hers was the
+virgin heart and life; and that she had never stooped to conquer.
+Without realising it, and only dimly moving with that end in view, she
+had whetted Elizabeth's vanity.  She had indeed soothed a pride wounded
+of late beyond endurance, suspecting, as she did, that Leicester had
+played his long part for his own sordid purposes, that his devotion was
+more alloy than precious metal.  No note of praise could be pitched too
+high for Elizabeth, and if only policy did not intervene, if but no
+political advantage was lost by saving De la Foret, that safety seemed
+now secure.
+
+"You tell a tale and adorn it with good grace," she said, and held out
+her hand.  Angele kissed it.  "And you have said to Elizabeth what none
+else dared to say since I was Queen here.  He who hath never seen the
+lightning hath no dread of it.  I had not thought there was in the world
+so much artlessness, with all the power of perfect art.  But we live to
+be wiser.  Thou shalt continue in thy tale.  Thou hast seen Mary, once
+Queen of France, now Queen of Scots--answer me fairly; without if, or
+though, or any sort of doubt, the questions I shall put.  Which of us
+twain, this ruin-starred queen or I, is of higher stature?"
+
+"She hath advantage in little of your Majesty," bravely answered Angele.
+
+"Then," answered Elizabeth sourly, "she is too high, for I myself am
+neither too high nor too low.  .  .  .  And of complexion, which is the
+fairer?"
+
+"Her complexion is the fairer, but your Majesty's countenance hath truer
+beauty, and sweeter majesty."  Elizabeth frowned slightly, then said:
+
+"What exercises did she take when you were at the Court?"
+
+"Sometimes she hunted, your Majesty, and sometimes she played upon the
+virginals."
+
+"Did she play to effect?"
+
+"Reasonably, your noble Majesty."
+
+"You shall hear me play, and then speak truth upon us, for I have known
+none with so true a tongue since my father died."
+
+Thereon she called to a lady who waited near in a little room to bring an
+instrument; but at that moment Cecil appeared again at the door, and his
+face seeming to show anxiety, Elizabeth, with a sigh, beckoned him to
+enter.
+
+"Your face, Cecil, is as long as a Lenten collect.  What raven croaks in
+England on May Day eve?"  Cecil knelt before her, and gave into her hand
+a paper.
+
+"What record runs here?" she asked querulously.  "A prayer of your
+faithful Lords and Commons that your Majesty will grant speech with their
+chosen deputies to lay before your Majesty a cause they have at heart."
+
+"Touching of--?" darkly asked the Queen.
+
+"The deputies wait even now--will not your Majesty receive them?  They
+have come humbly, and will go hence as humbly on the instant, if the hour
+is ill chosen."
+
+Immediately Elizabeth's humour changed.  A look of passion swept across
+her face, but her eyes lighted, and her lips smiled proudly.  She avoided
+troubles by every means, fought off by subtleties the issues which she
+must meet; but when the inevitable hour came none knew so well to meet it
+as though it were a dearest friend, no matter what the danger, how great
+the stake.
+
+"They are here at my door, these good servants of the State--shall they
+be kept dangling?" she said loudly.  "Though it were time for prayers
+and God's mercy yet should they speak with me, have my counsel, or my
+hand upon the sacred parchment of the State.  Bring them hither, Cecil.
+Now we shall see--Now you shall see, Angele of Rouen, now you shall see
+how queens shall have no hearts to call their own, but be head and heart
+and soul and body at the will of every churl who thinks he serves the
+State and knows the will of Heaven.  Stand here at my left hand.  Mark
+the players and the play."
+
+Kneeling, the deputies presented a resolution from the Lords and Commons
+that the Queen should, without more delay, in keeping with her oft-
+expressed resolve and the promise of her Council, appoint one who should
+succeed to the throne in case of her death "without posterity."  Her
+faithful people pleaded with her gracious Majesty to forego unwillingness
+to marry and seek a consort worthy of her supreme consideration, to be
+raised to a place beside her near that throne which she had made the
+greatest in the world.
+
+Gravely, solemnly, the chief members of the Lords and Commons spoke, and
+with as weighty pauses and devoted protestations as though this were the
+first time their plea had been urged, this obvious duty had been set out
+before her.  Long ago in the flush and pride of her extreme youth and the
+full assurance of the fruits of marriage, they had spoken with the same
+sober responsibility; and though her youth had gone and the old certainty
+had for ever disappeared, they spoke of her marriage and its consequences
+as though it were still that far-off yesterday.  Well for them that they
+did so, for though time had flown and royal suitors without number had
+become figures dim in the people's mind, Elizabeth, fed upon adulation,
+invoked, admired, besieged by young courtiers, flattered by maids who
+praised her beauty, had never seen the hands of the clock pass high noon,
+and still remained under the dearest and saddest illusion which can rest
+in a woman's mind.  Long after the hands of life's clock had moved into
+afternoon, the ancient prayer was still gravely presented that she should
+marry and give an heir to England's crown; and she as solemnly listened
+and dropped her eyes, and strove to hide her virgin modesty behind a high
+demeanour which must needs sink self in royal duty.
+
+"These be the dear desires of your supreme Majesty's faithful Lords and
+Commons and the people of the shires whose wills they represent.  Your
+Majesty's life, God grant it last beyond that of the youngest of your
+people so greatly blessed in your rule!  But accidents of time be many;
+and while the world is full of guile, none can tell what peril may beset
+the crown, if your Majesty's wisdom sets not apart, gives not to her
+country, one whom the nation can surround with its care, encompass
+lovingly by its duty."
+
+The talk with Angele had had a curious influence upon the Queen.
+It was plain that now she was moved by real feeling, and that, though
+she deceived herself, or pretended so to do, shutting her eyes to sober
+facts, and dreaming old dreams--as it were, in a world where never was a
+mirror nor a timepiece--yet there was working in her a fresher spirit,
+urging her to a fairer course than she had shaped for many a day.
+
+"My lords and gentlemen and my beloved subjects," she answered presently,
+and for an instant set her eyes upon Angele, then turned to them again,
+"I pray you stand and hear me.  .  .  .  Ye have spoken fair words to my
+face, and of my face, and of the person of this daughter of great Henry,
+from whom I got whatever grace or manner or favour is to me; and by all
+your reasoning you do flatter the heart of the Queen of England, whose
+mind indeed sleeps not in deed or desire for this realm.  Ye have drawn a
+fair picture of this mortal me, and though from the grace of the picture
+the colours may fade by time, may give by weather, may be spoiled by
+chance, yet my loyal mind, nor time with her swift wings shall overtake,
+nor the misty clouds may darken, nor chance with her slippery foot may
+overthrow.  It sets its course by the heart of England, and when it
+passeth there shall be found that one shall be left behind who shall be
+surety of all that hath been lying in the dim warehouse of fate for
+England's high future.  Be sure that in this thing I have entered into
+the weigh-house, and I hold the balance, and ye shall be well satisfied.
+Ye have been fruitful in counsel, ye have been long knitting a knot never
+tied, ye shall have comfort soon.  But know ye beyond peradventure that I
+have bided my time with good reason.  If our loom be framed with rotten
+hurdles, when our web is well-ny done, our work is yet to begin.  Against
+mischance and dark discoveries my mind, with knowledge hidden from you,
+hath been firmly arrayed.  If it be in your thought that I am set against
+a marriage which shall serve the nation, purge yourselves, friends, of
+that sort of heresy, for the belief is awry.  Though I think that to be
+one and always one, neither mated nor mothering, be good for a private
+woman, for a prince it is not meet.  Therefore, say to my Lords and
+Commons that I am more concerned for what shall chance to England when I
+am gone than to linger out my living thread.  I hope, my lords and
+gentlemen, to die with a good Nunc Dimittis, which could not be if I did
+not give surety for the nation after my graved bones.  Ye shall hear
+soon--ye shall hear and be satisfied, and so I give you to the care of
+Almighty God."
+
+Once more they knelt, and then slowly withdrew, with faces downcast and
+troubled.  They had secret knowledge which she did not yet possess, but
+which at any moment she must know, and her ambiguous speech carried no
+conviction to their minds.  Yet their conference with her was most
+opportune, for the news she must presently receive, brought by a
+messenger from Scotland who had outstripped all others, would no doubt
+move her to action which should set the minds of the people at rest, and
+go far to stem the tide of conspiracy flowing through the kingdom.
+
+Elizabeth stood watching them, and remained gazing after they had
+disappeared; then rousing herself, she turned to leave the room, and
+beckoned to Angele to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+As twilight was giving place to night Angele was roused from the reverie
+into which she had fallen, by the Duke's Daughter, who whispered to her
+that if she would have a pleasure given to but few, she would come
+quickly.  Taking her hand the Duke's Daughter--as true and whimsical a
+spirit as ever lived in troubled days and under the aegis of the sword-
+led her swiftly to the Queen's chamber.  They did not enter, but waited
+in a quiet gallery.
+
+"The Queen is playing upon the virginals, and she playeth best when
+alone; so stand you here by this tapestry, and you shall have pleasure
+beyond payment," said the Duke's Daughter.
+
+Angele had no thought that the Queen of her vanity had commanded that she
+be placed there as though secretly, and she listened dutifully at first;
+but presently her ears were ravished; and even the Duke's Daughter showed
+some surprise, for never had she heard the Queen play with such grace and
+feeling.  The countenance of the musician was towards them, and at last,
+as though by accident, Elizabeth looked up and saw the face of her lady.
+
+"Spy, spy," she cried.  "Come hither--come hither, all of you!"
+
+When they had descended and knelt to her, she made as if she would punish
+the Duke's Daughter by striking her with a scarf that lay at her hand,
+but to Angele she said:
+
+"How think you then, hath that other greater skill--Darnley's wife I
+mean?"
+
+"Not she or any other hath so delighted me," said Angele, with worship in
+her eyes--so doth talent given to majesty become lifted beyond its
+measure.
+
+The Queen's eyes lighted.  "We shall have dancing, then," she said.  "The
+dance hath charms for me.  We shall not deny our youth.  The heart shall
+keep as young as the body."
+
+An instant later the room was full of dancers, and Elizabeth gave her
+hand to Leicester, who bent every faculty to pleasing her.  His face had
+darkened as he had seen Angele beside her, but the Queen's graciousness,
+whether assumed or real, had returned, and her face carried a look of
+triumph and spirit and delight.  Again and again she glanced towards
+Angele, and what she saw evidently gave her pleasure, for she laughed and
+disported herself with grace and an agreeable temper, and Leicester lent
+himself to her spirit with adroit wit and humility.  He had seen his
+mistake of the morning, and was now intent to restore himself to favour.
+
+He succeeded well, for the emotions roused in Elizabeth during the day,
+now heightened by vanity and emulation, found in him a centre upon which
+they could converge; and, in her mind, Angele, for the nonce, was
+disassociated from any thought of De la Foret.  Leicester's undoubted
+gifts were well and cautiously directed, and his talent of assumed
+passion--his heart was facile, and his gallantry knew no bounds--was
+put to dexterous use, convincing for the moment.  The Queen seemed
+all complaisance again.  Presently she had Angele brought to her.
+
+"How doth her dance compare-she who hath wedded Darnley?"
+
+"She danceth not so high nor disposedly, with no such joyous lightness as
+your high Majesty, but yet she moveth with circumspection."
+
+"Circumspection--circumspection, that is no gift in dancing, which should
+be wilful yet airily composed, thoughtless yet inducing.  Circumspection!
+--in nothing else hath Mary shown it where she should.  'Tis like this
+Queen perversely to make a psalm of dancing, and then pirouette with
+sacred duty.  But you have spoken the truth, and I am well content.  So
+get you to your rest."
+
+She tapped Ange'le's cheek.  "You shall remain here to-night.  'Tis too
+late for you to be sent abroad."  She was about to dismiss her, when
+there was a sudden stir.  Cecil had entered and was making his way to the
+Queen, followed by two strangers.  Elizabeth waited their approach.
+
+"Your gracious Majesty," said Cecil, in a voice none heard save
+Elizabeth, for all had fallen back at a wave of her hand, "the Queen of
+Scots is the mother of a fair son."
+
+Elizabeth's face flushed, then became pale, and she struck her knee with
+her clinched hand.  "Who bringeth the news?" she inquired in a sharp
+voice.
+
+"Sir Andrew Melvill here."
+
+"Who is with him yonder?"
+
+"One who hath been attached to the Queen of Scots."
+
+"He hath the ill look of such an one," she answered, and then said below
+her breath bitterly: "She hath a son--and I am but a barren stock."
+
+Rising, she added hurriedly: "We will speak to the people at the May Day
+sports to-morrow.  Let there be great feasting."
+
+She motioned to Sir Andrew Melvill to come forward, and with a gesture of
+welcome and a promise of speech with him on the morrow she dismissed
+them.
+
+Since the two strangers had entered, Angele's eyes had been fastened on
+the gentleman who accompanied Sir Andrew Melvill.  Her first glance at
+him had sent a chill through her, and she remained confused and
+disturbed.  In vain her memory strove to find where the man was set in
+her past.  The time, the place, the event eluded her, but a sense of
+foreboding possessed her; and her eyes followed him with strained anxiety
+as he retired from the presence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+As had been arranged when Lempriere challenged Leicester, they met soon
+after dawn among the trees beside the Thames.  A gentleman of the court,
+to whom the Duke's Daughter had previously presented Lempriere, gaily
+agreed to act as second, and gallantly attended the lord of Rozel in his
+adventurous enterprise.  There were few at Court who had not some grudge
+against Leicester, few who would not willingly have done duty at such a
+time; for Leicester's friends were of fair-weather sort, ready to defend
+him, to support him, not for friendship but for the crumbs that dropped
+from the table of his power.  The favourite himself was attended by the
+Earl of Ealing, a youngster who had his spurs to win, who thought it
+policy to serve the great time-server.  Two others also came.
+
+It was a morning little made for deeds of rancour or of blood.  As they
+passed, the early morning mists above the green fields of Kent and Essex
+were being melted by the summer sun.  The smell of ripening fruit came on
+them with pungent sweetness, their feet crashed odorously through clumps
+of tiger-lilies, and the dew on the ribbon-grass shook glistening drops
+upon their velvets.  Overhead the carolling of the thrush came swimming
+recklessly through the trees, and far over in the fields the ploughmen
+started upon the heavy courses of their labour; while here and there
+poachers with bows and arrows slid through the green undergrowth, like
+spies hovering on an army's flank.
+
+To Lempriere the morning carried no impression save that life was well
+worth living.  No agitation passed across his nerves, no apprehension
+reached his mind.  He had no imagination; he loved the things that his
+eyes saw because they filled him with enjoyment; but why they were, or
+whence they came, or what they meant or boded, never gave him meditation.
+A vast epicurean, a consummate egotist, ripe with feeling and rich with
+energy, he could not believe that when he spoke the heavens would not
+fall.  The stinging sweetness of the morning was a tonic to all his
+energies, an elation to his mind; he swaggered through the lush grasses
+and boskage as though marching to a marriage.
+
+Leicester, on his part, no more caught at the meaning of the morning, at
+the long whisper of enlivened nature, than did his foe.  The day gave to
+him no more than was his right.  If the day was not fine, then Leicester
+was injured; but if the day was fine, then Leicester had his due.  Moral
+blindness made him blind for the million deep teachings trembling round
+him.  He felt only the garish and the splendid.  So it was that at
+Kenilworth, where his Queen had visited him, the fetes that he had held
+would far outshine the fete which would take place in Greenwich Park on
+this May Day.  The fete of this May Day would take place, but would he
+see it?  The thought flashed through his mind that he might not; but he
+trod it under foot; not through an inborn, primitive egotism like that
+of Lempriere, but through an innate arrogance, an unalterable belief that
+Fate was ever on his side.  He had played so many tricks with Fate, had
+mocked while taking its gifts so often, that, like the son who has
+flouted his indulgent father through innumerable times, he conceived that
+he should never be disinherited.  It irked him that he should be fighting
+with a farmer, as he termed the Seigneur of the Jersey Isle; but there
+was in the event, too, a sense of relief, for he had a will for murder.
+Yesterday's events were still fresh in his mind; and he had a feeling
+that the letting of Lempriere's blood would cool his own and be some cure
+for the choler which the presence of these strangers at the Court had
+wrought in him.
+
+There were better swordsmen in England than he, but his skill was
+various, and he knew tricks of the trade which this primitive Norman
+could never have learnt.  He had some touch of wit, some biting
+observation, and, as he neared the place of the encounter, he played upon
+the coming event with a mordant frivolity.  Not by nature a brave man,
+he was so much a fatalist, such a worshipper of his star, that he had
+acquired an artificial courage which had served him well.  The unschooled
+gentlemen with him roared with laughter at his sallies, and they came to
+the place of meeting as though to a summer feast.
+
+"Good-morrow, nobility," said Leicester with courtesy overdone, and
+bowing much too low.  "Good-morrow, valentine," answered Lempriere,
+flushing slightly at the disguised insult, and rising to the moment.
+
+"I hear the crop of fools is short this year in Jersey, and through no
+fault of yours--you've done your best most loyally," jeered Leicester, as
+he doffed his doublet, his gentlemen laughing in derision.
+
+"'Tis true enough, my lord, and I have come to find new seed in England,
+where are fools to spare; as I trust in Heaven one shall be spared on
+this very day for planting yonder."
+
+He was eaten with rage, but he was cool and steady.
+
+He was now in his linen and small clothes and looked like some untrained
+Hercules.
+
+"Well said, nobility," laughed Leicester with an ugly look.  "'Tis seed
+time--let us measure out the seed.  On guard!"
+
+Never were two men such opposites, never two so seemingly ill-matched.
+Leicester's dark face and its sardonic look, his lithe figure, the
+nervous strength of his bearing, were in strong contrast to the bulking
+breadth, the perspiring robustness of Lempriere of Rozel.  It was not
+easy of belief that Lempriere should be set to fight this toreador of a
+fighting Court.  But there they stood, Lempriere's face with a great-eyed
+gravity looming above his rotund figure like a moon above a purple cloud.
+But huge and loose though the Seigneur's motions seemed, he was as intent
+as though there were but two beings in the universe, Leicester and
+himself.  A strange alertness seemed to be upon him, and, as Leicester
+found when the swords crossed, he was quicker than his bulk gave warrant.
+His perfect health made his vision sure; and, though not a fine
+swordsman, he had done much fighting in his time, had been ever ready for
+the touch of steel; and had served some warlike days in fighting France,
+where fate had well befriended him.  That which Leicester meant should be
+by-play of a moment became a full half-hour's desperate game.  Leicester
+found that the thrust--the fatal thrust learned from an Italian master--
+he meant to give, was met by a swift precision, responding to quick
+vision.  Again and again he would have brought the end, but Lempriere
+heavily foiled him.  The wound which the Seigneur got at last, meant to
+be mortal, was saved from that by the facility of a quick apprehension.
+Indeed, for a time the issue had seemed doubtful, for the endurance and
+persistence of the Seigneur made for exasperation and recklessness in his
+antagonist, and once blood was drawn from the wrist of the great man; but
+at length Lempriere went upon the aggressive.  Here he erred, for
+Leicester found the chance for which he had manoeuvred--to use the feint
+and thrust got out of Italy.  He brought his enemy low, but only after a
+duel the like of which had never been seen at the Court of England.  The
+toreador had slain his bull at last, but had done no justice to his
+reputation.  Never did man more gallantly sustain his honour with
+heaviest odds against him than did the Seigneur of Rozel that day.
+
+As he was carried away by the merry gentlemen of the Court, he called
+back to the favourite:
+
+"Leicester is not so great a swordsman after all.  Hang fast to your
+honours by the skin of your teeth, my lord."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+It was Monday, and the eyes of London and the Court were turned towards
+Greenwich Park, where the Queen was to give entertainment to the French
+Envoy who had come once more to urge upon the Queen marriage with a son
+of the Medici, and to obtain an assurance that she would return to France
+the widow of the great Montgomery and his valiant lieutenant, Michel de
+la Foret.  The river was covered with boats and barges, festooned,
+canopied, and hung with banners and devices; and from sunrise music and
+singing conducted down the stream the gaily dressed populace--for those
+were the days when a man spent on his ruff and his hose and his russet
+coat as much as would feed and house a family for a year; when the fine-
+figured ruflier with sables about his neck, corked slipper, trimmed
+buskin, and cloak of silk or damask furred, carried his all upon his
+back.
+
+Loud-voiced gallants came floating by; men of a hundred guilds bearing
+devices pompously held on their way to the great pageant; country
+bumpkins up from Surrey roystered and swore that there was but one land
+that God had blessed, and challenged the grinning watermen from Gravesend
+and Hampton Court to deny it; and the sun with ardour drove from the sky
+every invading cloud, leaving Essex and Kent as far as eye could see
+perfect green gardens of opulence.
+
+Before Elizabeth had left her bed, London had emptied itself into
+Greenwich Park.  Thither the London Companies had come in their varied
+dazzling accoutrements--hundreds armed in fine corselets bearing the long
+Moorish pike; tall halberdiers in the unique armour called Almainrivets,
+and gunners or muleteers equipped in shirts of mail with morions or steel
+caps.  Here too were to come the Gentlemen Pensioners, resplendent in
+scarlet, to "run with the spear;" and hundreds of men-at-arms were set
+at every point to give garish bravery to all.  Thousands of citizens,
+openmouthed, gazed down the long arenas of green festooned with every
+sort of decoration and picturesque invention.  Cages of large birds from
+the Indies, fruits, corn, fishes, grapes, hung in the trees, players
+perched in the branches discoursed sweet music, and poets recited their
+verses from rustic bridges or on platforms with weapons and armour hung
+trophy-wise on ragged staves.  Upon a small lake a dolphin four-and-
+twenty feet in length came swimming, within its belly a lively orchestra;
+Italian tumblers swung from rope to bar; and crowds gathered at the
+places where bear and bull-baiting were to excite the none too fastidious
+tastes of the time.
+
+All morning the gay delights went on, and at high noon the cry was
+carried from mouth to mouth: "The Queen!  The Queen!"
+
+She appeared on a balcony surrounded by her lords and ladies, and there
+received the diplomatists, speaking at length to the French Envoy in a
+tone of lightness and elusive cheerfulness which he was at a loss to
+understand and tried in vain to pierce by cogent remarks bearing on
+matters of moment involved in his embassage.  Not far away stood
+Leicester, but the Queen had done no more than note his presence by a
+glance, and now and again with ostentatious emphasis she spoke to Angele,
+whom she had had brought to her in the morning before chapel-going.  Thus
+early, after a few questions and some scrutiny, she had sent her in
+charge of a gentleman-at-arms and a maid of the Duke's Daughter to her
+father's lodging, with orders to change her robe, to return to the palace
+in good time before noon, and to bring her father to a safe place where
+he could watch the pleasures of the people.  When Angele came to the
+presence again she saw that the Queen was wearing a gown of pure white
+with the sleeves shot with black, such as she herself had worn when
+admitted to audience yesterday.  Vexed, agitated, embittered as Elizabeth
+had been by the news brought to her the night before, she had kept her
+wardrobers and seamstresses at work the whole night to alter a white
+satin habit to the simplicity and style of that which Angele had worn.
+
+"What think you of my gown, my lady refugee?" she said to Angele at
+last, as the Gentlemen Pensioners paraded in the space below, followed by
+the Knights Tilters--at their head the Queen's Champion, Sir Henry Lee:
+twenty-five of the most gallant and favoured of the courtiers of
+Elizabeth, including the gravest of her counsellors and the youngest
+gallant who had won her smile, Master Christopher Hatton.  Some of these
+brave suitors, taken from the noblest families, had appeared in the tilt-
+yard every anniversary of the year of her accession, and had lifted their
+romantic office, which seemed but the service of enamoured knights, into
+an almost solemn dignity.
+
+The vast crowd disposed itself around the great improvised yard where the
+Knights Tilters were to engage, and the Queen, followed by her retinue,
+descended to the dais which had been set up near the palace.  Her white
+satin gown, roped with pearls only at the neck and breast, glistened in
+the bright sun, and her fair hair took on a burnished radiance.  As
+Angele passed with her in the gorgeous procession, she could not but view
+the scene with admiring eye, albeit her own sweet sober attire, a pearly
+grey, seemed little in keeping; for the ladies and lords were most richly
+attired, and the damask and satin cloaks, crimson velvet gowns, silk
+hoods, and jewelled swords and daggers made a brave show.  She was like
+some moth in a whorl of butterflies.
+
+Her face was pale, and her eye had a curious disturbed look, as though
+they had seen frightening things.  The events of last evening had tried
+her simple spirit, and she shrank from this glittering show; but the
+knowledge that her lover's life was in danger, and that her happiness was
+here and now at stake, held her bravely to her place, beset as it was
+with peril; for the Queen, with that eccentricity which had lifted her up
+yesterday, might cast her down to-day, and she had good reason to fear
+the power and influence of Leicester, whom she knew with a sure instinct
+was intent on Michel's ruin.  Behind all her nervous shrinking and her
+heart's doubt, the memory of the face of the stranger she had seen last
+night with Sir Andrew Melvill tortured her.  She could not find the time
+and place where she had seen the eyes that, in the palace, had filled
+her with mislike and abhorrence as they looked upon the Queen.  Again
+and again in her fitful sleep had she dreamt of him, and a sense of
+foreboding was heavy upon her--she seemed to hear the footfall of coming
+disaster.  The anxiety of her soul lent an unnatural brightness to her
+eyes; so that more than one enamoured courtier made essay to engage her
+in conversation, and paid her deferential compliment when the Queen's
+eyes were not turned her way.  Come to the dais, she was placed not far
+from her Majesty, beside the Duke's Daughter, whose whimsical nature
+found frequent expression in what the Queen was wont to call "a merry
+volt."  She seemed a privileged person, with whom none ventured to take
+liberties, and against whom none was entitled to bear offence, for her
+quips were free from malice, and her ingenuity in humour of mark.  She it
+was who had put into the Queen's head that morning an idea which was
+presently to startle Angele and all others.
+
+Leicester was riding with the Knights Tilters, and as they cantered
+lightly past the dais, trailing their spears in obeisance, Elizabeth
+engaged herself in talk with Cecil, who was standing near, and appeared
+not to see the favourite.  This was the first time since he had mounted
+to good fortune that she had not thrown him a favour to pick up with his
+spear and wear in her honour, and he could scarce believe that she had
+meant to neglect him.  He half halted, but she only deigned an
+inclination of the head, and he spurred his horse angrily on with a
+muttered imprecation, yet, to all seeming, gallantly paying homage.
+
+"There shall be doings ere this day is done.  'Beware the Gipsy'!" said
+the Duke's Daughter in a low tone to Angele, and she laughed.  lightly.
+
+"Who is the Gipsy?" asked Angele, with good suspicion, however.
+
+"Who but Leicester," answered the other.  "Is he not black enough?"
+
+"Why was he so called?  Who put the name upon Who but the Earl of Sussex
+as he died--as noble a chief, as true a counsellor as ever spoke truth to
+a Queen.  But truth is not all at Court, and Sussex was no flatterer.
+Leicester bowed under the storm for a moment when Sussex showed him in
+his true colours; but Sussex had no gift of intrigue, the tide turned,
+and so he broke his heart, and died.  But he left a message which I
+sometimes remember with my collects.  'I am now passing to another
+world,' said he, 'and must leave you to your fortunes and to the Queen's
+grace and goodness; but beware the Gipsy, for he will be too hard for all
+of you; you know not the beast so well as I do.' But my Lord Sussex was
+wrong.  One there is who knows him through and through, and hath little
+joy in the knowing."
+
+The look in the eyes of the Duke's Daughter became like steel and her
+voice hardened, and Angele realised that Leicester had in this beautiful
+and delicate maid-of-honour as bitter an enemy as ever brought down the
+mighty from their seats; that a pride had been sometime wounded, suffered
+an unwarrantable affront, which only innocence could feel so acutely.
+Her heart went out to the Duke's Daughter as it had never gone out to any
+of her sex since her mother's death, and she showed her admiration in her
+glance.  The other saw it and smiled, slipping a hand in hers for a
+moment; and then a look, half-debating, half-triumphant, came into her
+face as her eyes followed Leicester down the green stretches of the
+tilting-yard.
+
+The trumpet sounded, the people broke out in shouts of delight, the
+tilting began.  For an hour the handsome joust went on, the Earl of
+Oxford, Charles Howard, Sir Henry Lee, Sir Christopher Hatton, and
+Leicester challenging, and so even was the combat that victory seemed to
+settle in the plumes of neither, though Leicester of them all showed not
+the greatest skill, while in some regards greatest grace and deportment.
+Suddenly there rode into the lists, whence, no one seemed to know, so
+intent had the public gaze been fixed, so quickly had he come, a mounted
+figure all in white, and at the moment when Sir Henry Lee had cried aloud
+his challenge for the last time.  Silence fell as the bright figure
+cantered down the list, lifted the gauge, and sat still upon his black
+steed.  Consternation fell.  None among the people or the Knights Tilters
+knew who the invader was, and Leicester called upon the Masters of the
+Ceremonies to demand his name and quality.  The white horseman made no
+reply, but sat unmoved, while noise and turmoil suddenly sprang up around
+him.
+
+Presently the voice of the Queen was heard clearly ringing through the
+lists.  "His quality hath evidence.  Set on."
+
+The Duke's Daughter laughed, and whispered mischievously in Angele's ear.
+
+The gentlemen of England fared ill that day in the sight of all the
+people, for the challenger of the Knights Tilters was more than a match
+for each that came upon him.  He rode like a wild horseman of Yucatan.
+Wary, resourceful, sudden in device and powerful in onset, he bore all
+down, until the Queen cried: "There hath not been such skill in England
+since my father rode these lists.  Three of my best gentlemen down, and
+it hath been but breathing to him.  Now, Sir Harry Lee, it is thy turn,"
+she laughed as she saw the champion ride forward; "and next 'tis thine,
+Leicester.  Ah, Leicester would have at him now!" she added sharply, as
+she saw the favourite spur forward before the gallant Lee.  "He is full
+of choler--it becomes him, but it shall not be; bravery is not all.  And
+if he failed "she smiled acidly--"he would get him home to Kenilworth and
+show himself no more--if he failed, and the White Knight failed not!
+What think you, dove?" she cried to the Duke's Daughter.  "Would he not
+fall in the megrims for that England's honour had been over thrown?
+Leicester could not live if England's honour should be toppled down like
+our dear Chris Hatton and his gallants yonder."
+
+The Duke's Daughter curtsied.  "Methinks England's honour is in little
+peril--your Majesty knows well how to 'fend it.  No subject keeps it."
+
+"If I must 'fend it, dove, then Leicester there must not fight to-day.
+It shall surely be Sir Harry Lee.  My Lord Leicester must have the place
+of honour at the last," she called aloud.  Leicester swung his horse
+round and galloped to the Queen.
+
+"Your Majesty," he cried in suppressed anger, "must I give place?"
+
+"When all have failed and Leicester has won, then all yield place to
+Leicester," said the Queen drily.  The look on his face was not good to
+see, but he saluted gravely and rode away to watch the encounter between
+the most gallant Knight Tilter in England and the stranger.  Rage was in
+his heart, and it blinded him to the certainty of his defeat, for he was
+not expert in the lists.  But by a sure instinct he had guessed the
+identity of the White Horseman, and every nerve quivered with desire to
+meet him in combat.  Last night's good work seemed to have gone for
+naught.  Elizabeth's humour had changed; and to-day she seemed set on
+humiliating him before the nobles who hated him, before the people who
+had found in him the cause why the Queen had not married, so giving no
+heir to the throne.  Perturbed and charged with anger as he was, however,
+the combat now forward soon chained his attention.  Not in many a year
+had there been seen in England such a display of skill and determination.
+The veteran Knight Tilter, who knew that the result of this business
+meant more than life to him, and that more than the honour of his
+comrades was at stake--even the valour of England which had been
+challenged--fought as he had never fought before, as no man had fought
+in England for many a year.  At first the people cried aloud their
+encouragement; but as onset and attack after onset and attack showed that
+two masters of their craft, two desperate men, had met, and that the
+great sport had become a vital combat between their own champion and the
+champion of another land--Spain, France, Denmark, Russia, Italy?--a hush
+spread over the great space, and every eye was strained; men gazed with
+bated breath.
+
+The green turf was torn and mangled, the horses reeked with sweat and
+foam, but overhead the soaring skylark sang, as it were, to express the
+joyance of the day.  During many minutes the only sound that broke the
+stillness was the clash of armed men, the thud of hoofs, and the snorting
+and the wild breathing of the chargers.  The lark's notes, however,
+ringing out over the lists freed the tongue of the Queen's fool, who
+suddenly ran out into the lists, in his motley and cap and bells, and in
+his high trilling voice sang a fool's song to the fighting twain:
+
+              "Who would lie down and close his eyes
+                 While yet the lark sings o'er the dale?
+               Who would to Love make no replies,
+                 Nor drink the nut-brown ale,
+               While throbs the pulse, and full 's the purse
+                 And all the world 's for sale?"
+
+Suddenly a cry of relief, of roaring excitement, burst from the people.
+Both horsemen and their chargers were on the ground.  The fight was over,
+the fierce game at an end.  That which all had feared, even the Queen
+herself, as the fight fared on, had not come to pass--England's champion
+had not been beaten by the armed mystery, though the odds had seemed
+against him.
+
+              "Though wintry blasts may prove unkind,
+                 When winter's past we do forget;
+               Love's breast in summer time is kind,
+                 And all 's well while life 's with us yet
+                   Hey, ho, now the lark is mating,
+                   Life's sweet wages are in waiting!"
+
+Thus sang the fool as the two warriors were helped to their feet.
+Cumbered with their armour, and all dust-covered and blood-stained,
+though not seriously hurt, they were helped to their horses, and rode to
+the dais where the Queen sat.
+
+"Ye have fought like men of old," she said, "and neither had advantage
+at the last.  England's champion still may cry his challenge and not be
+forsworn, and he who challenged goeth in honour again from the lists.
+You, sir, who have challenged, shall we not see your face or hear your
+voice?  For what country, for what prince lifted you the gauge and
+challenged England's honour?"
+
+"I crave your high Majesty's pardon"--Angele's heart stood still.  Her
+love had not pierced his disguise, though Leicester's hate had done so on
+the instant--"I crave your noble Majesty's grace," answered the stranger,
+"that I may still keep my face covered in humility.  My voice speaks for
+no country and for no prince.  I have fought for mine own honour, and to
+prove to England's Queen that she hath a champion who smiteth with strong
+arm, as on me and my steed this hath been seen to-day."
+
+"Gallantly thought and well said," answered Elizabeth; "but England's
+champion and his strong arm have no victory.  If gifts were given they
+must needs be cut in twain.  But answer me, what is your country?  I will
+not have it that any man pick up the gauge of England for his own honour.
+What is your country?
+
+"I am an exile, your high Majesty; and the only land for which I raise my
+sword this day is that land where I have found safety from my enemies."
+
+The Queen turned and smiled at the Duke's Daughter.  "I knew not where my
+own question might lead, but he hath turned it to full account," she
+said, under her breath.  "His tongue is as ready as his spear.  Then ye
+have both laboured in England's honour, and I drink to you both," she
+added, and raised to her lips a glass of wine which a page presented.
+"I love ye both--in your high qualities," she hastened to add with dry
+irony, and her eye rested mockingly on Leicester.
+
+"My lords and gentlemen and all of my kingdom," she added in a clear
+voice, insistent in its force, "ye have come upon May Day to take delight
+of England in my gardens, and ye are welcome.  Ye have seen such a sight
+as doeth good to the eyes of brave men.  It hath pleased me well, and I
+am constrained to say to you what, for divers great reasons, I have kept
+to my own counsels, labouring for your good.  The day hath come, however,
+the day and the hour when ye shall know that wherein I propose to serve
+you as ye well deserve.  It is my will--and now I see my way to its good
+fulfilment--that I remain no longer in that virgin state wherein I have
+ever lived."
+
+Great cheering here broke in, and for a time she could get no further.
+Ever alive to the bent of the popular mind, she had chosen a perfect
+occasion to take them into her confidence--however little or much she
+would abide by her words, or intended the union of which she spoke.  In
+the past she had counselled with her great advisers, with Cecil and the
+rest, and through them messages were borne to the people; but now she
+spoke direct to them all, and it had its immediate reward--the
+acclamations were as those with which she was greeted when she first
+passed through the streets of London on inheriting the crown.
+
+Well pleased, she continued: "This I will do with expedition and
+weightiest judgment, for of little account though I am, he that sits
+with the Queen of England in this realm must needs be a prince indeed....
+So be ye sure of this that ye shall have your heart-most wishes, and
+there shall be one to come after me who will wear this crown even as
+I have worn, in direct descent, my father's crown.  Our dearest sister,
+the Queen of the Scots, hath been delivered of a fair son; and in high
+affection the news thereof she hath sent me, with a palfry which I shall
+ride among you in token of the love I bear her Majesty.  She hath in her
+time got an heir to the throne with which we are ever in kinship and
+alliance, and I in my time shall give ye your heart's desire."
+
+Angele, who had, with palpitating heart and swimming head, seen Michel de
+la Foret leave the lists and disappear among the trees, as mysteriously
+as he came, was scarce conscious of the cheers and riotous delight that
+followed Elizabeth's tactful if delusive speech to the people.  A few
+whispered words from the Duke's Daughter had told her that Michel had
+obeyed the Queen's command in entering the lists and taking up the
+challenge; and that she herself, carrying the royal message to him and
+making arrangements for his accoutrement and mounting, had urged him to
+obedience.  She observed drily that he had needed little pressure, and
+that his eyes had lighted at the prospect of the combat.  Apart from his
+innate love of fighting, he had realised that in the moment of declining
+to enter the Queen's service he had been at a disadvantage, and that his
+courage was open to attack by the incredulous or malicious.  This would
+have mattered little were it not that he had been given unusual
+importance as a prisoner by the Queen's personal notice of himself.  He
+had, therefore, sprung to the acceptance, and sent his humble duty to the
+Queen by her winsome messenger, who, with conspicuous dramatic skill, had
+arranged secretly, with the help of a Gentleman Pensioner and the Master
+of the Horse, his appearance and his exit.  That all succeeded as she had
+planned quickened her pulses, and made her heart still warmer to Angele,
+who, now that all was over, and her Huguenot lover had gone his
+mysterious ways, seemed lost in a troubled reverie.
+
+It was a troubled reverie indeed, for Angele's eyes were on the stranger
+who was present with Sir Andrew Melvill the night before.  Her gaze upon
+him now became fixed and insistent, for the sense of foreboding so heavy
+on her deepened to a torturing suspense.  Where had she seen this man
+before?  To what day or hour in her past did he belong?  What was there
+in his smooth, smiling, malicious face that made her blood run cold?  As
+she watched him, he turned his head.  She followed his eyes.  The horse
+which Mary Queen of Scots had sent with the message of the birth of her
+son was being led to the Queen by the dark browed, pale-faced churl who
+had brought it from Scotland.  She saw a sharp dark look pass between the
+two.
+
+Suddenly her sight swam, she swayed and would have fainted, but
+resolution steadied her, and a low exclamation broke from her lips.
+Now she knew!
+
+The face that had eluded her was at last in the grasp of horrified
+memory.  It was the face of one who many years ago was known to have
+poisoned the Due de Chambly by anointing the pommel of his saddle with a
+delicate poison which the rider would touch, and touching would, perhaps,
+carry to his nostrils or mouth as he rode, and die upon the instant.  She
+herself had seen the Due de Chambly fall; had seen this man fly from
+Paris for his life; and had thereafter known of his return to favour at
+the court of Mary and Francis, for nothing could be proved against him.
+The memory flashed like lightning through her brain.  She moved swiftly
+forward despite the detaining hand of the Duke's Daughter.  The Queen was
+already mounted, her hand already upon the pommel of the saddle.
+
+Elizabeth noted the look of anguished anxiety in Angele's eyes, her
+face like that of one who had seen souls in purgatory; and some swift
+instinct, born of years upon years of peril in old days when her life was
+no boon to her enemies, made her lean towards the girl, whose quick
+whispered words were to her as loud as thunder.  She was, however,
+composed and still.  Not a tremor passed through her.
+
+"Your wish is granted, mistress," she said aloud, then addressed a word
+to Cecil at her side, who passed on her command.  Presently she turned
+slowly to the spot where Sir Andrew Melvill and the other sat upon their
+horses.  She scanned complacently the faces of both, then her eyes
+settled steadily on the face of the murderer.  Still gazing intently she
+drew the back of her gloved fingers along the pommel.  The man saw the
+motion, unnoted and unsignificant to any other save Angele, meaningless
+even to Melvill, the innocent and honest gentleman at his side; and he
+realised that the Queen had had a warning.  Noting the slight stir among
+the gentlemen round him, he knew that his game was foiled, that there was
+no escape.  He was not prepared for what followed.
+
+In a voice to be heard only at small distance, the Queen said calmly:
+
+"This palfry sent me by my dear sister of Scotland shall bear me among
+you, friends; and in days to come I will remember how she hath given new
+life to me by her loving message.  Sir Andrew Melvill, I shall have
+further speech with you; and you, sir,"--speaking to the sinister figure
+by his side--"come hither."
+
+The man dismounted, and with unsteady step came forward.  Elizabeth held
+out her gloved hand for him to kiss.  His face turned white.  It was come
+soon, his punishment.  None knew save Angele and the Queen the doom that
+was upon him, if Angele's warning was well-founded.  He knelt, and bent
+his head over her hand.
+
+"Salute, sir," she said in a low voice.
+
+He touched his lips to her fingers.  She pressed them swiftly against his
+mouth.  An instant, then he rose and stepped backwards to his horse.
+Tremblingly, blindly, he mounted.
+
+A moment passed, then Elizabeth rode on with her ladies behind her, her
+gentlemen beside her.  As she passed slowly, the would-be regicide swayed
+and fell from his horse, and stirred no more.
+
+Elizabeth rode on, her hand upon the pommel of the saddle.  So she rode
+for a full half-hour, and came back to her palace.  But she raised not
+her gloved right hand above the pommel, and she dismounted with exceeding
+care.
+
+That night the man who cared for the horse died secretly as had done his
+master, with the Queen's glove pressed to his nostrils by one whom Cecil
+could trust.  And the matter was hidden from the Court and the people;
+for it was given out that Melvill's friend had died of some heart
+trouble.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Each of us will prove himself a fool given perfect opportunity
+No note of praise could be pitched too high for Elizabeth
+She had never stooped to conquer
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MICHEL AND ANGELE, PARKER, V2 ***
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