nks as messengers, as
he had done at first, he would send a little page, dressed now in one
colour and now in another; and the page used to stand at the doorways
through which the ladies were wont to pass, and deliver his letters
secretly in the throng. But one day, when the Queen was going out into
the country, it chanced that one who was charged to look after this
matter recognised the page, and hastened after him; but he, being
keen-witted and suspecting that he was being pursued, entered the house
of a poor woman who was boiling her pot on the fire, and there forthwith
burned his letters. The gentleman who followed him stripped him naked
and searched through all his clothes; but he could find nothing, and so
let him go. And the boy being gone, the old woman asked the gentleman
why he had so searched him.

"To find some letters," he replied, "which I thought he had upon him."

"You could by no means have found them," said the old woman, "they were
too well hidden for that."

"I pray you," said the gentleman, in the hope of getting them before
long, "tell me where they were."

However, when he heard that they had been thrown into the fire, he
perceived that the page had proved more crafty than himself, and
forthwith made report of the matter to the Queen.

From that time, however, the Bastard no longer employed the page or any
other child, but sent an old servant of his, who, laying aside all fear
of the death which, as he well knew, was threatened by the Queen against
all such as should interfere in this matter, undertook to carry his
master's letters to Rolandine. And having come to the castle where she
was, he posted himself on the watch at the foot of a broad staircase,
beside a doorway through which all the ladies were wont to pass. But a
serving-man, who had aforetime seen him, knew him again immediately and
reported the matter to the Queen's Master of the Household, who quickly
came to arrest him. However, the discreet and wary servant, seeing that
he was being watched from a distance, turned towards the wall as
though he desired to make water, and tearing the letter he had into
the smallest possible pieces, threw them behind a door. Immediately
afterwards he was taken and thoroughly searched, and nothing being found
on him, they asked him on his oath whether he had not brought letters,
using all manner of threats and persuasions to make him confess the
truth; but neither by promises nor threats could they