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 brought her. And when he perceived the danger of being overheard, he had changed it into a pleading, 'I did but tell the fair young lady that I could cast a spell that would bring her some good fortune. Would her Grace hear it?'
'So,' said Mary, 'I could but answer him as I did, Sadler and Somer being both nigh. I gave him my purse, with all there was therein. How much was it, Andrew?'
'Five golden pieces, besides groats and testers, madam,' replied Sir Andrew.
'If he come again, he must have more, if it can be contrived without suspicion,' said the Queen. 'I fear me he may become troublesome if he guess somewhat, and have to be paid to hold his tongue.'
'I dread worse than that,' said Melville, apart to Jean Kennedy; 'there was a scunner in his een that I mislikit, as though her Grace had offended him. And if the lust of the penny-fee hath possessed him, 'tis but who can bid the highest, to have him fast body and soul. Those lads! those lads! I've seen a mony of them. They'll begin for pure love of the Queen and of Holy Church, but ye see, 'tis lying and falsehood and disguise that is needed, and one way or other they get so in love with it, that they come at last to lie to us as well as to the other side, and then none kens where to have them! Cuthbert has been over to that weary Paris, and once a man goes there, he leaves his truth and honour behind him, and ye kenna whether he be serving you, or Queen Elizabeth, or the deil himsel'. I wish I could stop that loon's thrapple, or else wot how much he kens anent our Lady Bride.'
CHAPTER XXIII. THE LOVE TOKEN.
'Yonder woman came to tell this young lady's fortune,' said Sir Ralf, a few days later. 'Did she guess what I, an old man, have to bode for her!' and he smiled at the Queen. 'Here is a token I was entreated by a young gentleman to deliver to this young lady, with his humble suit that he may pay his devoirs to her to-morrow, your Grace permitting.'
'I knew not,' said Mary, 'that my women had license to receive visitors.'
'Assuredly not, as a rule, but this young gentleman, Mr. Babington of Dethick, has my Lord and Lady of Shrewsbury's special commendation.'
'I knew the young man,' said Mary, with perfectly acted heedlessness. 'He was my Lady Shrewsbury's page in his boyhood. I should have no objection to receive him.'
'That, madam, may not be,' returned Sadler. 'I am sorry to say it is contrary to the orders of the council, but if Mr. and Mrs. Curll, and the fair Mistress Cicely, will do me the honour to dine with me to- morrow in the hall, we may bring about the auspicious meeting my Lady desires.'
Cicely's first impulse had been to pout and say she wanted none of Mr. Babington's tokens, nor his company; but her mother's eye held her back, and besides any sort of change of scene, or any new face, could not but be delightful, so there was a certain leap of the young heart when the invitation was accepted for her; and she let Sir Ralf put the token into her hand, and a choice one it was. Everybody pressed to look at it, while she stood blushing, coy and unwilling to display the small egg-shaped watch of the kind recently invented at Nuremberg. Sir Ralf observed that the young lady showed a comely shamefast maidenliness, and therewith bowed himself out of the room.
Cicely laughed with impatient scorn. 'Well spoken, reverend seignior,' she said, as she found herself alone with the Queen. 'I wish my Lady Countess would leave me alone. I am none of hers.'
'Nay, mademoiselle, be not thus disdainful,' said the Queen, in a gay tone of banter; 'give me here this poor token that thou dost so despise, when many a maiden would be distraught with delight and gratitude. Let me see it, I say.'
And as Cicely, restraining with difficulty an impatient, uncourtly gesture, placed the watch in her hand, her delicate deft fingers opened the case, disregarding both the face and the place for inserting the key; but dealing with a spring, which revealed that the case was double, and that between the two thin plates of silver which formed it, was inserted a tiny piece of the thinnest paper, written from corner to corner with the smallest characters in cipher. Mary laughed joyously and triumphantly as she held it up. 'There, mignonne! What sayest thou to thy token now? This is the first secret news I have had from the outer world since we came to this weary Tutbury. And oh! the exquisite jest that my Lady and Sir Ralf Sadler should be the bearers! I always knew some good would come of that suitor of thine! Thou must not flout him, my fair lady, nor scowl at him so with thy beetle brows.'
'It seems but hard to lure him on with false hopes,' said Cicely, gravely.
'Hoots, lassie,' as Dame Jean would say, ''tis but joy and delight to men to be thus tickled. 'Tis the greatest kindness we can do them thus to amuse them,' said Mary, drawing up her head with the conscious fascination of the serpent of old Nile, and toying the while with the ciphered letter, in eagerness, and yet dread, of what it might contain.
Such things were not easy to make out, even to those who had the key, and Mary, unwilling to trust it out of her own hands, leant over it, spelling it out for many minutes, but at last broke forth into a clear ringing burst of girlish laughter and clasped her hands together, 'Mignonne, mignonne, it is too rare a jest to hold back. Deem not that your Highness stands first here! Oh no! 'Tis a letter from Bernardo de Mendoza with a proposition for whose hand thinkest thou? For this poor old captive hand! For mine, maiden. Ay, and from whom? From his Excellency, the Prince of Parma, Lieutenant of the Netherlands. Anon will he be here with 30,000 picked men and the Spanish fleet; and then I shall ride once again at the head of my brave men, hear trumpets bray, and see banners fly! We will begin to work our banner at once, child, and let Sir Ralf think it is a bed- quilt for her sacred Majesty, Elizabeth. Thou look'st dismayed, little maiden.'
'Spanish ships and men, madam, ah! and how would it be with my father-Mr. and Mrs. Talbot, I mean?'
'Not a hair of their heads shall be touched, child. We will send down a chosen troop to protect them, with Babington at its head if thou wilt. But,' added the Queen, recollecting herself, and perceiving that she had startled and even shocked her daughter, 'it is not to be to-morrow, nor for many a weary month. All that is here demanded is whether, all being well, he might look for my hand as his guerdon. Shall I propose thine instead?'
'O madam, he is an old man and full of gout!'
'Well! we will not pull caps for him just yet. And see, thou must be secret as the grave, child, or thou wilt ruin thy mother. I ought not to have told thee, but the surprise was too much for me, and thou canst keep a secret. Leave me now, child, and send me Monsieur Nau.'
The next time any converse was held between mother and daughter, Queen Mary said, 'Will it grieve thee much, my lassie, to return this bauble, on the plea of thy duty to the good couple at Bridgefield?'
After all Cicely had become so fond of the curious and ingenious egg that she was rather sorry to part with it, and there was a little dismal resignation in her answer, 'I will do your bidding, madam.'
'Thou shalt have a better. I will write to Chateauneuf for the choicest that Paris can furnish,' said Mary, 'but seest thou, none other mode is so safe for conveying an answer to this suitor of mine! Nay, little one, do not fear. He is not at hand, and if he be so gout-ridden and stern as I have heard, we will find some way to content him and make him do the service without giving thee a stepfather, even though he be grandson to an emperor.'
