he Princess Anne could be hidden in a
cupboard.

Anne, in the first impulse, exclaimed, "She is gone!"

In a moment Mrs. Royer turned, "Gone, did you say? Do you know it?"

"You knew it and kept it secret!" cried Lady Strickland.

"A traitor too!" said Lady Oglethorpe, in her vehement Irish tone.
"I would not have thought it of Nanny Moore's daughter!" and she
turned her eyes in sad reproach on Anne.

"If you know, tell me where she is gone," cried Mrs. Buss, and the
cry was re-echoed by the other women, while Anne's startled "I
cannot tell! I do not know!" was unheeded.

Only the Queen raising her hand gravely said, "Silence! What is
this?"

"Miss Woodford knew."

"And never told!" cried the babble of voices.

"Come hither, Mistress Woodford," said the Queen. "Tell me, do you
know where Her Highness is?"

"No, please your Majesty," said Anne, trembling from head to foot.
"I do not know where she is."

"Did you know of her purpose?"

"Your Majesty pardon me. She called me to her closet yesterday and
pledged me to secrecy before I knew what she would say."

"Only youthful inexperience will permit that pledge to be implied in
matters of State," said the Queen. "Continue, Mistress Woodford;
what did she tell you?"

"She said she feared to be made a hostage for the Prince of Denmark,
and meant to escape, and she bade me come to her chamber at night to
go with her."

"And wherefore did you not? You are of her religion," said the
Queen bitterly.

"Madam, how could I break mine oath to your Majesty and His Royal
Highness?"

"And you thought concealing the matter according to that oath? Nay,
nay, child, I blame you not. It was a hard strait between your
honour to her and your duty to the King and to me, and I cannot but
be thankful to any one who does regard her word. But this desertion
will be a sore grief to His Majesty."

Mary Beatrice was fairer-minded than the women, who looked askance
at the girl, Princess Anne's people resenting that one of the other
household should have been chosen as confidante, and the Queen's
being displeased that the secret had been kept. But at that moment
frightful yells and shouts arose, and a hasty glance from the
windows showed a mass of men, women, and children howling for their
Princess. They would tear down Whitehall if she were not delivered
up to them. However, a line of helmeted Life-guards on their heavy
horses was drawn up between, with sabres hel