orld'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 s