spoken well, Rozel, and you shall speak by the book to the
end, if you will save your friends. What concern is it of yours whether
Michel de la Foret live or die?"

"It is a concern of one whom I've sworn to befriend, and that is my
concern, your ineffable Majesty." "Who is the friend?"

"Mademoiselle Aubert."

"The betrothed of this Michel de la Foret?"

"Even so, your exalted Majesty. But I made sure De la Foret was dead
when I asked her to be my wife."

"Lord, Lord, Lord, hear this vast infant, this hulking baby of a
Seigneur, this primeval innocence! Listen to him, cousin," said the
Queen, turning again to the Duke's Daughter. "Was ever the like of it in
any kingdom of this earth? He chooses a penniless exile--he, a butler
to the Queen, with three dove-cotes and the perquage--and a Huguenot
withal. He is refused; then comes the absent lover over sea, to
shipwreck; and our Seigneur rescues him, 'fends him; and when yon master
exile is in peril, defies his Queen's commands"--she tapped the papers
lying beside her on the table--"then comes to England with the lady to
plead the case before his outraged sovereign, with an outlawed buccaneer
for comrade and lieutenant. There is the case, is't not?"

"I swore to be her friend," answered Lempriere stubbornly, "and I have
done according to my word."

"There's not another nobleman in my kingdom who would not have thought
twice about the matter, with the lady aboard his ship on the high
seas-'tis a miraculous chivalry, cousin," she added to the Duke's
Daughter, who bowed, settled herself again on her velvet cushion, and
looked out of the corner of her eyes at Lempriere.

"You opposed Sir Hugh Pawlett's officers who went to arrest this De la
Foret," continued Elizabeth. "Call you that serving your Queen? Pawlett
had our commands."

"I opposed them but in form, that the matter might the more surely be
brought to your Majesty's knowledge."

"It might easily have brought you to the Tower, man."

"I had faith that your Majesty would do right in this, as in all else.
So I came hither to tell the whole story to your judicial Majesty."

"Our thanks for your certificate of character," said the Queen, with
amused irony. "What is your wish? Make your words few and plain."

"I desire before all that Michel de la Foret shall not be returned to
the Medici, most radiant Majesty."

"That's plain. But there are weighty matters 'twixt France and England,
and De la Foret may tu