acked a week or ten days
before; all the Queen's papers had been taken from her, and even her
jewellery and pictures sent off to Elizabeth; and the only persons
ordinarily allowed to speak with her, besides her gaoler, were two of
her women, and Mr. Bourgoign himself.

That morning then, before six o'clock, Robin had said mass in the sick
woman's room and given her communion, with her companion, who answered
his mass, as it was thought more prudent that the other priest should
not even be present; and, at the close of the mass he had reserved in a
little pyx, hidden beneath his clothes, a consecrated particle. Mr.
Bourgoign had said that he would see to it that the Queen should be
fasting up to ten o'clock that day.

And now the last miracle had been accomplished. A servant had come down
late the night before, with a discreet letter from the apothecary,
saying that Sir Amyas had consented to receive and examine for himself
the travelling physician from Paris; and here now went Robin, striving
to remember the old Latin names he had learned as a boy, and to carry a
medical air with him.

* * * * *

The parlour in which he found himself was furnished severely and even
rather sparely, owing, perhaps, he thought, to the temporary nature of
the household. It was the custom in great houses to carry with the
family, from house to house, all luxuries such as extra hangings or
painted pictures or carpets, as well as even such things as cooking
utensils; and in the Queen's sudden removal back again from Tixall, many
matters must have been neglected. The oak wainscoting was completely
bare; and over the upper parts of the walls in many places the stones
showed through between the ill-fitting tapestries. A sheaf of pikes
stood in one corner; an oil portrait of an unknown worthy in the dress
of fifty years ago hung over one of the doors; a large round oak table,
with ink-horn and pounce-box, stood in the centre of the room with
stools beside it: there was no hearth or chimney visible; and there was
no tapestry upon the floor: a skin only lay between the windows. The
priest sat down and waited.

He had enough to occupy his mind; for not only had he the thought of the
character he was to sustain presently under the scrutiny of a suspicious
man; but he had the prospect, as he hoped, of coming into the presence
of the most-talked-of woman in Europe, and of ministering to her as a
priest alone could do