a high carved chair by the
table, and watched the door. This figure dominated the whole room: the
lad as he dropped on his knees, was conscious of eyes watching him from
behind the chair, of tapestried walls, and a lute that lay on the table,
but all those things were but trifling accessories to that scarlet
central figure with a burnished halo of auburn hair round a shadowed
face.

* * * *

There was complete silence for a moment or two; a hound bayed in the
court outside, and there came a far-away bang of a door somewhere in the
palace. There was a rustle of silk that set every nerve of his body
thrilling, and then a clear hard penetrating voice spoke two words.

"Well, sir?"

Anthony drew a breath, and swallowed in his throat.

"Your Grace," he said, and lifted his eyes for a moment, and dropped them
again. But in the glimpse every detail stamped itself clear on his
imagination. There she sat in vivid scarlet and cloth of gold, radiating
light; with high puffed sleeves; an immense ruff fringed with lace. The
narrow eyes were fixed on him, and as he now waited again, he knew that
they were running up and down his figure, his dark splashed hose and his
tumbled doublet and ruff.

"You come strangely dressed."

Anthony drew a quick breath again.

"My heart is sick," he said.

There was another slight movement.

"Well, sir," the voice said again, "you have not told us why you are
here."

"For justice from my queen," he said, and stopped. "And for mercy from a
woman," he added, scarcely knowing what he said.

Again Elizabeth stirred in her chair.

"You taught him that, you wicked girl," she said.

"No, madam," came Mary's voice from behind, subdued and entreating, "it
is his heart that speaks."

"Enough, sir," said Elizabeth; "now tell us plainly what you want of us."

Then Anthony thought it time to be bold. He made a great effort, and the
sense of constraint relaxed a little.

"I have been, your Grace, to Sir Francis Walsingham, and my lord Bishop
of London, and I can get neither justice nor mercy from either; and so I
come to your Grace, who are their mistress, to teach them manners."

"Stay," said Elizabeth, "that is insolence to my ministers."

"So my lord said," answered Anthony frankly, looking into that hard clear
face that was beginning to be lined with age. And he saw that Elizabeth
smiled, and that the face behind the chair nodded at him encou