ghtening you," said Somer.
"Yonder lady is too good to such vagabonds, and they come about us in
swarms. Stand back, woman, or it may be the worse for you. Let me
help you to your horse, Mistress Cicely."

Instead of obeying, the seeming woman, to gain time perhaps, began a
story of woe; and Mr. Somer, being anxious to remount the young lady,
did not immediately stop it, so that before Cis was in her saddle the
Queen had ridden up, with Sir Ralf Sadler a little behind her. There
were thus a few seconds free, in which the stranger sprang to the
Queen's bridle and said a few hasty words almost inaudibly, and as Cis
thought, in French; but they were answered aloud in English--"My good
woman, I know all that you can tell me, and more, of this young lady's
fortune. Here are such alms as are mine to give; but hold your peace,
and quit us now."

Sir Ralf Sadler and his son-in-law both looked suspicious at this
interview, and bade one of the grooms ride after the woman and see what
became of her, but the fellow soon lost right of her in the broken
ground by the river-side.

When the party reached home, there was an anxious consultation of the
inner circle of confidantes over Cicely's story. Neither she nor the
Queen had the least doubt that the stranger was Cuthbert Langston, who
had been employed as an agent of hers for many years past; his
insignificant stature and colourless features eminently fitting him for
it. No concealment was made now that he was the messenger with the
beads and bracelets, which were explained to refer to some ivory beads
which had been once placed among some spare purchased by the Queen, and
which Jean had recognised as part of a rosary belonging to poor Alison
Hepburn, the nurse who had carried the babe from Lochleven. This had
opened the way to the recovery of her daughter. Mary and Sir Andrew
Melville had always held him to be devotedly faithful, but there had
certainly been something of greed, and something of menace in his
language which excited anxiety. Cicely was sure that his expressions
conveyed that he really knew her royal birth, and meant to threaten her
with the consequences, but the few who had known it were absolutely
persuaded that this was impossible, and believed that he could only
surmise that she was of more importance than an archer's daughter.

He had told the Queen in French that he was in great need, and expected
a reward for his discretion respecting what he had br