y last person who should hear them! Credit me, thou wast never
made for privy schemes and conspiracies, and a Queen who can only be
served by such, is no mistress for thee. Thou wilt but run thine own
neck into the noose, and belike that of others."

"That will I never do," quoth Antony. "I may peril myself, but no
others."

"Then the more you keep out of secrets the better. Thou art too
open-hearted and unguarded for them! So speaks thy well-wisher,
Antony, whose friendship thou hast won by thine honourable conduct
towards my rash boy; though I tell thee plainly, the maiden is not for
thee, whether as Scottish or English, Cis or Bride."

So they parted at the gate of the park, the younger man full of hope
and confidence, the elder full of pitying misgiving.

He was too kind-hearted not to let Cicely know that he should see her
mother, or to refuse to take a billet for her,--a little formal note
necessarily silent on the matter at issue, since it had to be laid
before the Earl, who smiled at the scrupulous precaution, and let it
pass.

Thus the good father parted with Humfrey and Diccon, rejoicing in his
heart that they would fight with open foes, instead of struggling with
the meshes of perplexity, which beset all concerned with Queen Mary,
and then he turned his horse's head towards Wingfield Manor, a grand
old castellated mansion of the Talbots, considered by some to excel
even Sheffield. It stood high, on ground falling very steeply from the
walls on three sides, and on the south well fortified, court within
court, and each with a deep-arched and portcullised gateway, with
loopholed turrets on either side, a porter's lodge, and yeomen guards.

Mr. Talbot had to give his name and quality, and show his pass, at each
of these gates, though they were still guarded by Shrewsbury retainers,
with the talbot on their sleeves. He was, however, received with the
respect and courtesy due to a trusted kinsman of their lord; and Sir
Ralf Sadler, a thin, elderly, careworn statesman, came to greet him at
the door of the hall, and would only have been glad could he have
remained a week, instead of for the single night he wished to spend at
Wingfield.

Sadler was one of Mary's most gentle and courteous warders, and he
spoke of her with much kindness, regretting that her health had again
begun to suffer from the approach of winter, and far more from
disappointment.

The negotiation with Scotland on her behalf was now