e received a
royal order to desist, rests upon sound authority.

* * * * *

That is the story of the assassination of Henry IV. re-told in the
light of certain records which appear to me to have been insufficiently
studied. They should suggest a train of speculation leading to
inferences which, whilst obvious, I hesitate to define absolutely.

"If it be asked," says Perefixe, "who were the friends that suggested to
Ravaillac so damnable a design, history replies that it is ignorant and
that upon an action of Such consequences it is not permissible to give
suspicions and conjectures for certain truths. The judges themselves who
interrogated him dared not open their mouths, and never mentioned the
matter but with gestures of horror and amazement."

VI. THE BARREN WOOING

The Murder of Amy Robsart

There had been a banquet, followed by a masque, and this again by a
dance in which the young queen had paired off with Lord Robert Dudley,
who in repute was the handsomest man in Europe, just as in fact he was
the vainest, shallowest, and most unscrupulous. There had been homage
and flattery lavishly expressed, and there was a hint of masked
hostility from certain quarters to spice the adventure, and to thrill
her bold young spirit. Never yet in all the months of her reign since
her coronation in January of last year had she felt so much a queen, and
so conscious of the power of her high estate; never so much a woman,
and so conscious of the weakness of her sex. The interaction of those
conflicting senses wrought upon her like a heady wine. She leaned more
heavily upon the silken arm of her handsome Master of the Horse, and
careless in her intoxication of what might be thought or said, she--who
by the intimate favour shown him had already loosed the tongue of
Scandal and set it chattering in every court in Europe--drew him forth
from that thronged and glittering chamber of the Palace of Whitehall
into the outer solitude and friendly gloom.

And he, nothing loth to obey the suasion of that white hand upon his
arm, exultant, indeed, to parade before them all the power he had with
her, went willingly enough. Let Norfolk and Sussex scowl, let Arundel
bite his lip until it bled, and sober Cecil stare cold disapproval. They
should mend their countenances soon, and weigh their words or be for
ever silenced, when he was master in England. And that he would soon be
master he was assured to