mind the old petulance and smothered anger against beauty and love and
marriage. She could ill bear that one near her person should not be
content to flourish in the light and warmth of her own favour, setting
aside all other small affections. So it was that she had sent Angele to
her father and kept De la Foret in the palace. Perplexed, troubled by
new developments, the birth of a son to Mary Queen of Scots, the demand
of her Parliament that she should marry, the pressure of foreign policy
which compelled her to open up again negotiations for marriage with the
Duke of Anjou--all these combined to detach her from the interest
she had suddenly felt in Angele. But, by instinct, she knew also that
Leicester, through jealousy, had increased the complication; and,
fretful under the long influence he had had upon her, she steadily
lessened intercourse with him. The duel he fought with Lempriere on May
Day came to her ears through the Duke's Daughter, and she seized upon it
with sharp petulance. First she ostentatiously gave housing and care
to Lempriere, and went to visit him; then, having refused Leicester
audience, wrote to him.

"What is this I hear," she scrawled upon the paper, "that you have
forced a quarrel with the Lord of Rozel, and have well-ny ta'en his
life! Is swording then your dearest vice that you must urge it on a
harmless gentle man, and my visitor? Do you think you hold a charter
of freedom for your self-will? Have a care, Leicester, or, by God! you
shall know another sword surer than your own."

The rage of Leicester on receiving this knew no bounds; for though he
had received from Elizabeth stormy letters before, none had had in it
the cold irony of this missive. The cause of it? Desperation seized
him. With a mad disloyalty he read in every word of Elizabeth's letter,
Michel de la Foret, refugee. With madder fury he determined to strike
for the immediate ruin of De la Foret, and Angele with him--for had
she not thrice repulsed him as though he had been some village captain?
After the meeting in the maze he had kept his promise of visiting her
"prison." By every art, and without avail, he had through patient days
sought to gain an influence over her; for he saw that if he could but
show the Queen that the girl was open to his advances, accepted his
protection, her ruin would be certain--in anger Elizabeth would take
revenge upon both refugees. But however much he succeeded with Monsieur
Aubert, he faile