ly writhe at the prospect of entertaining their sovereign with
suitable magnificence, but the tradesmen and purveyors rubbed their
hands. When a company of Flemings was employed for four years on the
carving of the beams and panels of the Middle Temple Hall, or noblemen
to be in the fashion built new banquet-rooms in the Italian style, with
long windows and galleries, English, Flemish and Huguenot builders
flocked to the kingdom. If she took with one hand she gave with the
other, and it was not without reason that the common folk of England
long after she was dead called their daughters after "good Queen Bess."
To Armadas and Barlowe it was a novel and splendid pageant. After they
were presented to the Queen, and expressed their modest thanks for the
honor of being sent upon her service, they withdrew to a window-recess
to watch the company. The gentlemen pensioners in gold-embroidered suits
and lace-edged ruffs, the dignified councilors in richer if darker
robes, the maids of honor, bright as damask roses moving in the wind,
all circled around one pale woman with keen gray-blue eyes that never
betrayed her. A little apart, speaking now and then to some courtier or
councilor, stood the Spanish Ambassador in somber black and gold, like a
watchful spider in a garden of rich flowers. Ralegh, careless and
debonair, gave him a frank salutation as he came to speak to his
captains.
"You may repent of the venture and wish to stay at Court," he said
smiling. "The Queen thinks well of ye."
"Not I," growled Barlowe, and Armadas laughed, "My Lord, do you think so
ill of us as to deem us weathercocks in the wind?"
"You must take care to avoid the clutches of the Inquisition," Ralegh
added, not lowering his voice noticeably, yet not speaking loud enough
to be heard by others. "I have hastened the fitting out of the ships and
delayed your coming to Court lest Philip's ferrets be set on you. The
life of Kings and Queens is like to a game of chess."
"Of primero rather, it seems to me," said Armadas, "or the game the
Spanish call ombre. Chess is brain against brain, fair play. In the
other one may win the game by the fall of the cards--or by cheatery."[4]
"A good simile, Philip," said Ralegh, with shining eyes. "'T is all very
well to say, as some do, that if old King Harry were alive he'd have our
Englishmen out of Spanish prisons. But in his day Spain had hardly begun
her conquests over seas, and the Inquisition had not tast
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