rvitors. So does power
blind us. And the braver the man, the more she would have him in her
service, at her feet, the centre of the world."

"I had served her in a crisis, an hour of peril. Was naught due me?"

The Duke's Daughter drew her close. "She never meant but that all should
be well. And because you had fastened on her feelings as never I have
seen another of your sex, so for the moment she resented it; and because
De la Foret was yours--ah, if you had each been naught to the other, how
easy it would have run! Do you not understand?"

"Nay, then, and yea, then--and I put it from me. See, am I not happy
now? Upon your friendship I build."

"Sweet, I did what I could. Leicester filled her ears with poison every
day, mixed up your business and great affairs with France, sought
to convey that you both were not what you are; until at last I
countermarched him." She laughed merrily. "Ay, I can laugh now, but it
was all hanging by a thread, when my leech sent his letter that brought
you to the palace. It had grieved me that I might not seek you, or
write to you in all those sad days; but the only way to save you was by
keeping the Queen's command; for she had known of Leicester's visits to
you, of your meeting in the maze, and she was set upon it that alone,
all alone, you should be tried to the last vestige of your strength. If
you had failed--"

"If I had failed--" Angele closed her eyes and shuddered. "I had not
cared for myself, but Michel--"

"If you had failed, there had been no need to grieve for Michel. He then
had not grieved for thee. But see, the wind blows fair, and in my heart
I have no fear of the end. You shall go hence in peace. This morning the
Queen was happier than I have seen her these many years: a light was in
her eye brighter than showeth to the Court. She talked of this place,
recalled the hours spent here, spoke even softly of Leicester. And that
gives me warrant for the future. She has relief in his banishment, and
only recalls older and happier days when, if her cares were no greater,
they were borne by the buoyancy of girlhood and youth. Of days spent
here she talked until mine own eyes went blind. She said it was a place
for lovers, and if she knew any two lovers who were true lovers, and had
been long parted, she would send them here."

"There be two true lovers, and they have been long parted," murmured
Angele.

"But she commanded these lovers not to meet till Trinity Day, and sh