suit which you have cast away in our
service. Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise
thee, on the word of a princess."

"May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not for so
humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it
became me to choose--"

"Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the Queen, interrupting
him. "Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and
so various are the means of thriftless folly, that to give gold to
youth is giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means of
self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess
shall be abridged. Yet thou mayest be poor," she added, "or thy parents
may be. It shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for
the use on't."

Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then modestly
assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her
Majesty had before offered.

"How, boy!" said the Queen, "neither gold nor garment? What is it thou
wouldst have of me, then?"

"Only permission, madam--if it is not asking too high an
honour--permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling
service."

"Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!" said the Queen.

"It is no longer mine," said Walter; "when your Majesty's foot touched
it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its
former owner."

The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a slight
degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.

"Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with
reading romances. I must know something of him, that I may send him safe
to his friends.--What art thou?"

"A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please your
Grace, sent hither with his master of horse upon message to your
Majesty."

In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had hitherto
maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and severity.

"My Lord of Sussex," she said, "has taught us how to regard his messages
by the value he places upon ours. We sent but this morning the physician
in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no usual time, understanding his
lordship's illness to be more dangerous than we had before apprehended.
There is at no court in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most
useful science than Doctor Masters, and he came from U