a
moment's notice, and when he comes waste not a precious instant;
it may mean all to thee and me. I could write on and on forever,
but it would be only to tell thee o'er and o'er that my heart is
full of thee to overflowing. I thank thee that thou hast never
doubted me, and will see that thou hast hereafter only good cause
for better faith.

"MARY, Regina."

"Regina!" That was all. Only a queen! Surely no one could charge
Brandon with possessing too modest tastes.

It was, I think, during the second week in December that I gave this
letter to Brandon, and about a fortnight later there came to him a
messenger from Paris, bringing another from Mary, as follows:

"_Master Charles Brandon_:

"Sir and Dear Friend, Greeting--I have but time to write that the
king is so ill he cannot but die ere morning. Thou knowest that
which I last wrote to thee, and in addition thereto I would say
that although I have, as thou likewise knowest, my brother's
permission to marry whom I wish, yet as I have his one consent it
is safer that we act upon that rather than be so scrupulous as to
ask for another. So it were better that thou take me to wife upon
the old one, rather than risk the necessity of having to do it
without any. I say no more, but come with all the speed thou
knowest.

"MARY."

It is needless to say that Brandon started in haste for Paris. He left
court for the ostensible purpose of paying me a visit and came to
Ipswich, whence we sailed.

The French king was dead before Mary's message reached London, and
when we arrived at Paris, Francis I reigned on the throne of his
father-in-law. I had guessed only too accurately. As soon as the
restraint of the old king's presence, light as it had been, was
removed, the young king opened his attack upon Mary in dreadful
earnest. He begged and pleaded and swore his love, which was surely
manifest enough, and within three days after the old king's death
offered to divorce Claude and make Mary his queen. When she refused
this flattering offer his surprise was genuine.

"Do you know what you refuse?" he asked in a temper. "I offer to make
you my wife--queen of fifteen millions of the greatest subjects on
earth--and are you such a fool as to refuse a gift like that, and a
man like me for a husband?"

"That I am, your majesty, and with a good grace. I am Queen of France
without your help, and care not so much as one penny for the honor