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 pass 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 cock-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