""Had our Queen known of our going beforehand, Philip might have held her to blame for some small things we did on the seas," the younger lisps.
""As for treasure," says the elder, "we brought back but our bare lives.
We were wrecked on the Gascons" Graveyard, where our sole company for three months was the bleached bones of De Avila"s men."
"Gloriana"s mind jumped back to Philip"s last letter.
""De Avila that destroyed the Huguenots? What d"you know of him?" she says. The music called from the house here, and they three turned back between the yews.
""Simply that De Avila broke in upon a plantation of Frenchmen on that coast, and very Spaniardly hung them all for heretics--eight hundred or so. The next year Dominique de Gorgues, a Gascon, broke in upon De Avila"s men, and very justly hung "em all for murderers--five hundred or so. No Christians inhabit there now," says the elder lad, "though "tis a goodly land north of Florida."
""How far is it from England?" asks prudent Gloriana.
""With a fair wind, six weeks. They say that Philip will plant it again soon." This was the younger, and he looked at her out of the corner of his innocent eye.
"Chris Hatton, fuming, meets and leads her into Brickwall Hall, where she dances--thus. A woman can think while she dances--can think. I"ll show you. Watch!"
She took off her cloak slowly, and stood forth in dove-coloured satin, worked over with pearls that trembled like running water in the running shadows of the trees. Still talking--more to herself than to the children--she swam into a majestical dance of the stateliest balancings, the haughtiest wheelings and turnings aside, the most dignified sinkings, the gravest risings, all joined together by the elaboratest interlacing steps and circles.
They leaned forward breathlessly to watch the splendid acting.
"Would a Spaniard," she began, looking on the ground, "speak of his revenge till his revenge were ripe? No. Yet a man who loved a woman might threaten her in the hope that his threats would make her love him.
Such things have been." She moved slowly across a bar of sunlight. "A destruction from the West may signify that Philip means to descend on Ireland. But then my Irish spies would have had some warning. The Irish keep no secrets. No--it is not Ireland. Now why--why--why"--the red shoes clicked and paused--"does Philip name Pedro Melendez de Avila, a general in his Americas, unless"--she turned more quickly--"unless he intends to work his destruction from the Americas? Did he say De Avila only to put her off her guard, or for this once has his black pen betrayed his black heart? We"--she raised herself to her full height--"England must forestall Master Philip. But not openly," she sank again--"we cannot fight Spain openly--not yet--not yet." She stepped three paces as though she were pegging down some snare with her twinkling shoe-buckles. "The Queen"s mad gentlemen may fight Philip"s poor admirals where they find "em, but England, Gloriana, Harry"s daughter, must keep the peace. Perhaps, after all, Philip loves her--as many men and boys do. That may help England. Oh, _what_ shall help England?"
She raised her head--the masked head that seemed to have nothing to do with the busy feet--and stared straight at the children.
"I think this is rather creepy," said Una with a shiver. "I wish she"d stop."
The lady held out her jewelled hand as though she were taking some one else"s hand in the Grand Chain.
"Can a ship go down into the Gascons" Graveyard and wait there?" she asked into the air, and pa.s.sed on rustling.
"She"s pretending to ask one of the cousins, isn"t she?" said Dan, and Puck nodded.
Back she came in the silent, swaying, ghostly dance. They saw she was smiling beneath the mask, and they could hear her breathing hard.
"I cannot lend you any my ships for the venture; Philip would hear of it," she whispered over her shoulder; "but as much guns and powder as you ask, if you do not ask too----" her voice shot up and she stamped her foot thrice. "Louder! Louder, the music in the gallery! Oh, me, but I have burst out of my shoe!"
She gathered her skirts in each hand, and began a curtsy. "You will go at your own charges," she whispered straight before her. "Oh, enviable and adorable age of youth!" Her eyes shone through the mask-holes. "But I warn you you"ll repent it. Put not your trust in princes--or Queens.
Philip"s ships"ll blow you out of water. You"ll not be frightened? Well, we"ll talk on it again, when I return from Rye, dear lads."
The wonderful curtsy ended. She stood up. Nothing stirred on her except the rush of the shadows.
"And so it was finished," she said to the children. "Why d"you not applaud?"
"What was finished?" said Una.
"The dance," the lady replied offendedly. "And a pair of green shoes."
"I don"t understand a bit," said Una.
"Eh? What did _you_ make of it, young Burleigh?"
"I"m not quite sure," Dan began, "but----"
"You never can be--with a woman. But----"
"But I thought Gloriana meant the cousins to go back to the Gascons"
Graveyard, wherever that was."
""Twas Virginia afterwards. Her plantation of Virginia."
"Virginia afterwards, and stop Philip from taking it. Didn"t she say she"d lend "em guns?"
"Right so. But not ships--_then_."
"And I thought you meant they must have told her they"d do it off their own bat, without getting her into a row with Philip. Was I right?"
"Near enough for a Minister of the Queen. But remember she gave the lads full time to change their minds. She was three long days at Rye Royal--knighting of fat Mayors. When she came back to Brickwall, they met her a mile down the road, and she could feel their eyes burn through her riding-mask. Chris Hatton, poor fool, was vexed at it.
""You would not birch them when I gave you the chance," says she to Chris. "Now you must get me half an hour"s private speech with "em in Brickwall garden. Eve tempted Adam in a garden. Quick, man, or I may repent!""
"She was a Queen. Why did she not send for them herself," said Una.
The lady shook her head. "That was never her way. I"ve seen her walk to her own mirror by bye-ends, and the woman that cannot walk straight _there_ is past praying for. Yet I would have you pray for her! What else--what else in England"s name could she have done?" She lifted her hand to her throat for a moment. "Faith," she cried, "I"d forgotten the little green shoes! She left "em at Brickwall--so she did. And I remember she gave the Norgem parson--John Withers, was he?--a text for his sermon--"Over Edom have I cast out my shoe." Neat, if he"d understood!"
"I don"t understand," said Una. "What about the two cousins?"
"You are as cruel as a woman," the lady answered. "_I_ was not to blame.
I told you I gave "em time to change their minds. On my honour (_ay de mi!_), she asked no more of "em at first than to wait a while off that coast--the Gascons" Graveyard--to hover a little if their ships chanced to pa.s.s that way--they had only one tall ship and a pinnace--only to watch and bring me word of Philip"s doings. One must watch Philip always. What a murrain right had he to make any plantation there, a hundred leagues north of his Spanish Main, and only six weeks from England? By my dread father"s soul, I tell you he had none--none!" She stamped her red foot again, and the two children shrunk back for a second.
"Nay, nay. You must not turn from me too! She laid it all fairly before the lads in Brickwall garden between the yews. I told "em that if Philip sent a fleet (and to make a plantation he could not well send less), their poor little c.o.c.k-boats could not sink it. They answered that, with submission, the fight would be their own concern. She showed "em again that there could be only one end to it--quick death on the sea, or slow death in Philip"s prisons. They asked no more than to embrace death for my sake. Many men have prayed to me for life. I"ve refused "em, and slept none the worse after; but when my men, my tall, fantastical young men beseech me on their knees for leave to die for me, it shakes me--ah, it shakes me to the marrow of my old bones."
Her chest sounded like a board as she hit it.
"She showed "em all. I told "em that this was no time for open war with Spain. If by miracle inconceivable they prevailed against Philip"s fleet, Philip would hold me accountable. For England"s sake, to save war, I should e"en be forced (I told "em so) to give him up their young lives. If they failed, and again by some miracle escaped Philip"s hand, and crept back to England with their bare lives, they must lie--oh, I told "em all--under my sovereign displeasure. She could not know them, see them, nor hear their names, nor stretch out a finger to save them from the gallows, if Philip chose to ask it.
""Be it the gallows, then," says the elder. (I could have wept, but that my face was made for the day.)
""Either way--any way--this venture is death, which I know you fear not.
But it is death with a.s.sured dishonour," I cried.
""Yet our Queen will know in her heart what we have done," says the younger.
""Sweetheart," I said. "A queen has no heart."
""But she is a woman, and a woman would not forget," says the elder. "We will go!" They knelt at my feet.
""Nay, dear lads--but here!" I said, and I opened my arms to them and I kissed them.