.

Within the yard and at the landing-place there was a great deal of
confusion. Servitors were running to and fro, courtiers were grouped
together talking excitedly, while numerous officials and dignitaries were
taking boat for London. Among these latter the girl discerned the form of
Walsingham, the queen's secretary of state. Her heart sank at sight of
him.

"He goes to send pursuivants for my father," was her thought, and her
conclusion was correct. The secretary was indeed on his way to cause the
arrest of the conspirators.

Seeing her among the followers of Walsingham, the watermen permitted her
to enter one of the wherries and she found herself being carried to
London more expeditiously than would otherwise have been the case. There
was no indulgence on the part of the boatmen in song. Stern and silent
they bent to their oars, responding with all their mights to Walsingham's
"Faster, my men, faster!"

It seemed to Francis that they no sooner reached London than the whole
city was ablaze with the news. Traffic was suspended, and citizens
discussed in hushed accents the plot to kill the queen.

Francis made haste to Lord Shrope's house in Broad Street, and by means
of the ring, procured an excellent horse. Mounting him she urged the
animal to great speed and was soon outside the city.

"Heaven grant that I may reach my father before Walsingham's men," she
murmured. "I have gotten the start of them somehow. Let me make the most
of it."

Now the reason for her advantage was this: several of the conspirators,
notably the six who had associated together to assassinate the queen,
were in London awaiting their opportunity. Anthony Babington lodged at
Walsingham's own house, lured there by the wily secretary under pretense
of taking him into his confidence; while Babington, to further his own
ends, seemingly acquiesced in the minister's plans. It was a case of
duplicity against duplicity, craft matched against craft, with the odds
on the side of Elizabeth's brainy secretary. For the reason that the
chief conspirators were in London, Walsingham tarried there to apprehend
them before sending forth to arrest the other gentlemen concerned in the
plot who lived somewhat remotely from the city. But the conspirators had
gotten wind of his intentions, and when he reached the city they had
fled.

All this the girl did not know until long afterward. Now she pushed
forward with the utmost expedition, hoping to reach the Ha