most part
of them, politicians more than the others, and these wondered to have
seen, through their peep-holes and door-cracks, the Queen's cousin go
away with these lords that were of the contrary party. Some said that T.
Culpepper was her emissary to win them over to her interests, and some,
that always cousins, uncles, and kin were the bitterest foes a Queen
had, as witness the case of Queen Anne Boleyn and the Yellow Dog of
Norfolk who had worked to ruin her. And some said it was marvellous that
there they could sit or stand and talk of such things--for a year or so
ago all the Court was spies, so that the haymen mistrusted them that
forked down the straw, and meat-servers them with the wine. But now each
man could talk as he would, and it made greatly for fellowship when a
man could sit against a wall, unbutton in the warm nights, and say what
he listed.

The light of the great fires grew dull in the line of kitchen windows;
sweethearting couples came in through the great gateway from the
grass-slopes beneath the castle walls. There was a little bustle when
four horsemen rode in to say that the King's Highness was but nine miles
from the castle, and torchmen must be there to light him in towards
midnight. But the Queen should not be told for her greater pleasure and
surprise. Then all these servingmen stood up and shook themselves, and
said--'To bed.' For, on the morrow, with the King back, there would
surely be great doings and hard work. And to mews and kennels and huts,
in the straw and beds of rushes, these men betook themselves. The young
lords came back laughing from Widow Amnot's at the castle foot; there
was not any light to be seen save one in all that courtyard full of
windows. The King's torchmen slumbered in the guard-room where they
awaited his approach. Darkness, silence, and deep shadow lay everywhere,
though overhead the sky was pale with moonlight, and, from high in the
air, the thin and silvery tones of the watchman's horn on the roof
filtered down at the quarter hours. A drowsy bell marked the hours, and
the cries and drillings of the night birds vibrated from very high.

V

Coming very late to her bedroom the Queen found awaiting her her
tiring-maid, Mary Trelyon, whom she had advanced into the post that
Margot Poins had held, and the old Lady Rochford.

'Why,' she said to her maid, 'when you have unlaced me you may go, or
you will not love my service that keeps you so late.'

Mary Trel