each other fond, foolish letters that none of their ministers should
open.'

'Did her ministers ever open Queen Elizabeth's letters?' said Una.

'Faith, yes! But she'd have done as much for theirs, any day. You are to
think of Gloriana, then (they say she had a pretty hand), excusing
herself thus to the company--for the Queen's time is never her own--and,
while the music strikes up, reading Philip's letter, as I do.' She drew
a real letter from her pocket, and held it out almost at arm's length,
like the old post-mistress in the village when she reads telegrams.

'_Hm! Hm! Hm!_ Philip writes as ever most lovingly. He says his Gloriana
is cold, for which reason he burns for her through a fair written
page.' She turned it with a snap. 'What's here? Philip complains that
certain of her gentlemen have fought against his generals in the Low
Countries. He prays her to hang 'em when they re-enter her realms. (Hm,
that's as may be.) Here's a list of burnt shipping slipped between two
vows of burning adoration. Oh, poor Philip! His admirals at sea--no less
than three of 'em--have been boarded, sacked, and scuttled on their
lawful voyages by certain English mariners (gentlemen, he will not call
them), who are now at large and working more piracies in _his_ American
ocean, which the Pope gave him. (He and the Pope should guard it, then!)
Philip hears, but his devout ears will not credit it, that Gloriana in
some fashion countenances these villains' misdeeds, shares in their
booty, and--oh, shame!--has even lent them ships royal for their sinful
thefts. Therefore he requires (which is a word Gloriana loves not),
_requires_ that she shall hang 'em when they return to England, and
afterwards shall account to him for all the goods and gold they have
plundered. A most loving request! If Gloriana will not be Philip's
bride, she shall be his broker and his butcher! Should she still be
stiff-necked, he writes--see where the pen digged the innocent
paper!--that he hath both the means and the intention to be revenged on
her. Aha! Now we come to the Spaniard in his shirt!' (She waved the
letter merrily.) 'Listen here! Philip will prepare for Gloriana a
destruction from the West--a destruction from the West--far exceeding
that which Pedro de Avila wrought upon the Huguenots. And he rests and
remains, kissing her feet and her hands, her slave, her enemy, or her
conqueror, as he shall find that she uses him.'

She thrust back the letter und