n in respect to the time when
they could be received, the delegation proceeded in state to the Abbey
on the appointed day, and were received by the abbot and by Elizabeth
with due ceremony in the Jerusalem chamber, the great audience hall of
the Abbey, which has already been described.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at the head of the delegation,
explained the case to the queen. They wished her, he said, to allow
her son, the Duke of York, to leave the sanctuary, and to join his
brother the king at his royal residence in the Tower. He would be
perfectly safe there, he said, under the care of his uncle, the Lord
Protector.

"The Protector thinks it very necessary that the duke should go,"
added the archbishop, "to be company for his brother. The king is very
melancholy, he says, for want of a playfellow."

"And so the Protector," replied the queen--"God grant that he may
really prove a protector--thinks that the king needs a playfellow! And
can no playfellow be found for him except his brother?

"Besides," she added, "he is not in a mood to play. He is not well.
They must find some other playmate for his brother. Just as if
princes, while they are so young, could not as well have some one to
play with them not of their own rank, or as if a boy must have his
brother, and nobody else for his mate, when every body knows that boys
are more likely to disagree with their brothers than they are with
other children."

The archbishop, in reply, proceeded to argue the case with the queen,
and to represent the necessity, arising from reasons of state, why the
young duke should be committed to the charge of his uncle. He
explained to her, too, that the Lord Protector had been fully
authorized, by a decree of the council, to come and take his nephew
from the Abbey, and to employ force, if necessary, to effect the
purpose, but that it would be much better, both for the queen herself
and the young duke, as well as for all concerned, that the affair
should be settled in a peaceable and amicable manner.

The unhappy queen saw at last that there was no alternative but for
her to submit to her fate and give up her boy. Slowly and reluctantly
she came to this conclusion, and finally gave her consent. Richard was
brought in. His mother took him by the hand, and again addressed the
archbishop and the delegation, speaking substantially as follows:

"My lord," said she, "and all my lords now present, I will not be so
suspicious