Pray Heaven that you may never have cause to repent your words."
"Tut, child! why should I repent them? Now be advised by me, and take advantage of the humor of the queen. A good husbandman, as thou knowest, improves the sunshine to make hay. We must do likewise. It is the queen"s habit to repair to her closet to play each day upon the virginals. This she doeth for the most part privately, but, as she plays markedly well, she is not ill pleased to have others hear her. Especially is this true if it transpires accidentally. Now do you place yourself in the gallery behind the arras. When the queen plays seem to be drawn into her presence by the sweetness of her music, even as Orpheus drew Eurydice from among the demons. Then excuse thy intrusion with some well-timed phrase.
Elizabeth is great, but she hath a weakness for judicious flattery the which, in truth, doth not ill accord with her femininity. Then, if she receive thee graciously, throw thyself upon her mercy and confess all."
"But, my lord, doth it not savor too much of guile?" objected Francis, her spirit revolting at the manner of the transaction.
"It doth, Francis, but what would you? "Tis the manner of all courts, and the queen is not deceived thereby. Such things the rather appeal to her if the fashion of them be adroit. What boots the method then if the end is accomplished, and the queen pleased. No harm is done."
"My lord, I like not the style of it. It seemeth to me that nothing is ever done in a straightforward manner any more. Is life full of naught but crookedness and devious windings and turnings? Let me go to the queen openly, I beseech you."
"Nay; "twill avail thee nothing. Subdue thy pride for once, and be guided by one to whom all the ways of the court are as an open book. Thou dost hold thyself with too much of spirit. Set not thyself above those who are older and of superior wisdom."
Francis felt the rebuke so sharply spoken, and answered in a conciliatory manner.
"My lord, I intend not to hold my judgment higher than thine for thou art of superior wisdom and age. I am willing to be guided by thee, but I would that the end could be gained by other ways than those of crookedness."
""Tis for thy parents" sake as well as thine," observed the other. "Thou knowest how full of anxiety they must be, and how solicitously they await thy return. Thou shouldst be willing to adopt any course that would allay that uneasiness and restore thee to their arms."
"And I am willing," responded the girl with fervor. "Away, indecision!
Away, doubts! No longer will I listen to ye; for what says Will Shakspeare:
""Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt."
Speak on, my lord. Unfold again thy plan, and I will follow it, be the issue what it may."
"There spake the Stafford blood," exclaimed the n.o.bleman approvingly.
"Listen, girl, then haste thee to the queen"s gallery; for on the hazard of this die depends thy fortune."
Francis gave heed to all of his instructions, and then made her way to the queen"s apartment. The chamber was unoccupied, and she looked about in quest of some suitable hiding-place. At one end of the room the mullioned window opened upon a long balcony which overlooked the private garden. Francis resolved to place herself there rather than behind the rich tapestries.
She had scarcely taken her position near an open window where she could both see and hear without being herself seen when Elizabeth entered. To the girl"s consternation she was not alone, but attended by Walsingham, Burleigh, Hatton and Leicester.
Elizabeth seemed much agitated, and Francis, unwilling to be a listener in matters of state, looked about her for some means of retiring when her attention was caught by a name.
"And thou art sure, Walsingham, of the truth of this matter? Hast thou indisputable proofs that Anthony Babington is guilty of design to murder us? Long have I known that he inclined toward the claims of our cousin, Mary of Scotland, but so too do my Lord Stafford, my Lord Percy, and other of our subjects. Yet none of these gentlemen would lift a hand against the person of his queen. Art sure of what thou art saying?"
"I have here the proofs, Your Majesty," returned Walsingham. "Here is a tablet upon which is painted the face of Babington and five others who are a.s.sociated with him in perilous enterprise, as thou seest engraved.
Further: here are letters which have pa.s.sed between Mary of Scotland and the conspirators in which she commends the performance of the deed. The act was to be committed on thy way to chapel."
"Then, my lord, if this be true, why have you not apprehended these men?
Methinks that the safety of your queen should be your first consideration."
"Her Highness is right," cried Leicester. "Upon her life depends not only the safety of her ministers but the welfare of the Commonwealth."
"Pardon me, my liege lady," said Walsingham, "if I have seemed to be careless of that life which is so dear to all of us. But I wished to involve Mary so deeply in this conspiracy as to open the way to rid the country of her. Your Majesty will never be safe while that woman lives.
She is a menace as long as she remains in England."
"Deport her then," suggested Elizabeth. "France would gladly receive her."
"Nay, madam. That were to place her where she could abet the design of Phillip to invade England. That bourne from which no traveler returns is the only proper abode for Mary Stuart. And for thy protection, madam, I took precautions. Ballard, the priest, as thou knowest, hath long since been confined in the Tower. Babington has been lodged in mine own house where I could watch him. He can be taken at any time. That time hath now come. The warrants are issued, not only for him, but for Tilney, Savage, Tichbourne, Stafford and other conspirators a.s.sociated in the enterprise."
Stafford! Francis gave a faint gasp, and started up in terror. Her father? Was he to be taken with these men? But the queen was speaking:
"Lord Stafford?" she said interrogatively. "Stafford, Walsingham? Surely not he. He is an honorable gentleman, and would not be concerned in such foul designs."
"Did I not tell you some time since that it was whispered in mine ear that Stafford and his son delivered letters to Mary? The whisper hath become a certainty. Those letters were to apprise the queen of the intent to slay thee, deliver her from custody, and raise her to the throne. This hour will I send to arrest Lord Stafford as well as the others. And then----"
[Ill.u.s.tration: _SHE GAVE A FAINT GASP_]
"Death to the traitors," said Burleigh impressively. "They must perish, as must all who are traitors to England and to England"s queen."
Francis waited to hear no more. Her father to be taken and tried for treason? That would mean death. She must warn him.
She ran quickly to the other end of the balcony, and swung herself over the bal.u.s.trade. Hastily she made her way through the grounds to Lord Shrope"s lodgings, bursting in upon that astonished n.o.bleman just as he was about to partake of his dinner.
CHAPTER XVIII
AN ADVENTURE
"I must see thee, my lord, alone," she cried in such tones that her friend arose without a word and conducted her into his own withdrawing room.
"How now, Francis? What mishap hath attended thy enterprise? Gramercy, girl! what is it? Thou art disheveled and as excited as though some untoward accident had befallen thee. What said the queen? Say what hath happened?"
"My lord," gasped the girl scarcely able to articulate, "once thou didst love my father. For the sake of that love, I pray you, grant me aid to reach him."
"Child, what is it?" cried he in alarm "Tell me what hath occurred? Hath Elizabeth sent thee from her?"
"I have not seen the queen," said Francis trying to speak with calmness.
"After I had hidden myself as you bade me, the queen in company with Hatton, Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham and Lord Leicester entered the chamber. They discovered to her a plot to slay her, and to elevate Mary of Scotland to the throne, furthered by Anthony Babington, and others, among whom they named my father. My lord, I must go to him. Aid me I beseech you."
Lord Shrope"s face turned white, and he withdrew himself from the girl"s clinging hands.
"A plot to slay the queen? The saints defend us! Girl, I cannot, I dare not aid thee. It would be as much as my life is worth."
"You must, my lord. I must reach my father. I must and will, my lord."
"If William Stafford be concerned in conspiracy against Elizabeth he must abide the consequences. I will aid no traitor to the queen."
"My lord, he is no traitor," cried the girl in despair. "He did wish to release Mary from bondage, for he had compa.s.sion on her misery as who hath not? But that he is party to the design to murder the queen, I deny.
I know, my lord, I know."
"What do you know? Are you too engaged in conspiracies? I thought thee as innocent as the daisy that grows in thy father"s field."
"I am in no plots nor conspiracies, sir," declared Francis. "But we lose time in idle words. Give me thine aid to reach my father, I implore thee."