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. 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
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