ill not be amiss to relate it.

[Sidenote: Lady Neville.]

[Sidenote: First interview.]

[Sidenote: Dauphiness.]

The first connection which Queen Margaret, as we are henceforth to
call her, had with the affair of Lady Neville, took place at
Abbeville, a town in France not very far from Calais, when the queen
was advancing toward the sea-coast on her way to England. While she
was at Abbeville, there suddenly appeared a young and beautiful lady
who asked an audience of Margaret, announcing herself simply as one of
the ladies who had been attached to the service of the dauphiness, who
was the wife of the oldest son of the king,[5] and who had recently
died. She was admitted. She remained in private conversation with
Margaret two hours, and when this mysterious interview was concluded
she was introduced to the other ladies of Margaret's court as Miss
Sanders, an English lady who had been attached to the court of the
dauphiness, but who now, since the death of her mistress, wished to
return to England in Margaret's train. Margaret informed the other
ladies that she had received her into her household, and gave
directions that she should be treated with the utmost consideration.

[Footnote 5: See map. The oldest son of the King of France
and the heir to the crown is styled the Dauphin. His rank and
position corresponds with that of the Prince of Wales in
England.]

[Sidenote: Curiosity of the ladies.]

[Sidenote: The stranger's reserve.]

The other ladies were very curious to solve the mystery of this case,
but they could not obtain any clew to it. The stranger was very
reserved, mingled very little with her new companions, and evinced a
constant desire to avoid observation. There was something, however, in
her beauty, and in the expression of deep and constant grief which her
countenance wore, which made her an object of great interest to all
the household of the queen, but they could not learn any particulars
of her history. The facts, however, were these.

[Sidenote: Her story.]

Her real name was Anne Neville. She was the daughter of Richard
Neville, Earl of Salisbury, one of the leading and most
highly-connected noblemen in England. When she was about fifteen years
old she was married to a relative of the family. The marriage,
however, proved a very unhappy one. Her husband was very jealous of
her. From her subsequent conduct it would seem probable that he might
have had