en would have no power to avert it.

At that moment the door opened, and the Queen herself entered, and all
the maidens stood up to receive her. She looked grave and sad, and her
eyes filled with tears as they fell on Margaret, who had been her
playmate when they were both children in far-away Denmark, and who was
her favourite maid-of-honour.

Seeing this, kind-hearted Gertrud gave her friend a little push. "See,"
she whispered, "she is sorry for thee; if thou go now and beg of her she
will grant thy request."

Slowly, as if in a dream, the girl stepped forward, and knelt at her
royal Mistress's feet, but the Queen laid her hand gently on her
shoulder.

"'Tis useless asking me, Margaret," she said. "God knows I would have
granted his pardon willingly. I do not believe that he meant treason to
his Grace, only he should not have carried the packet; but I have
besought the King already on his behalf and he will not hear me. Or his
lords will not," she added in an undertone.

Then the girl found her voice. "Oh Madam, I will go to the King myself,"
she cried, "if you think there is any chance. Perhaps if I found him
alone he might hear me. I shall tell him what I know is true, that Hugh
never dreamt that there was treason in the packet which he carried."

"Thou canst try it, my child," said the Queen, "though I fear me 'twill
be but little use. At the same time, the King is fond of thee, and thy
betrothal to young Weymes pleased him well."

So, with a faint hope rising in her heart, Margaret withdrew to her
little turret chamber, and there, with the help of the kind-hearted
Gertrud, she dressed herself as carefully as she could.

She remembered how the King had praised a dull green dress which she had
once worn, saying that in it she looked like a lily, so she put it on,
and Gertrud curled her long yellow hair, and fastened it in two thick
plaits behind, and sent her away on her errand with strong encouraging
words; then she sat down and waited, wondering what the outcome of it
all would be.

Alas! in little more than a quarter of an hour she heard steps coming
heavily up the stairs, and when Margaret entered, it needed no look at
her quivering face to know that she had failed.

"It is no use, Gertrud," she moaned, "no use, I tell thee. His Majesty
might have let him off--I saw by his face that he was sorry--but who
should come into the hall but my Lords Hamilton and Lennox, and then I
knew all hope was gone. Th