was less glorious but more real. It was a
sign of intimate communication with the sovereign. Whoever might be, by
birth or favour, in a position to receive direct communications from
majesty, had in the wall of their bedchamber a shaft in which was
adjusted a bell. The bell sounded, the shaft opened, a royal missive
appeared on a gold plate or on a cushion of velvet, and the shaft
closed. This was intimate and solemn, the mysterious in the familiar.
The shaft was used for no other purpose. The sound of the bell announced
a royal message. No one saw who brought it. It was of course merely the
page of the king or the queen. Leicester _avait le tour_ under
Elizabeth; Buckingham under James I. Josiana had it under Anne, though
not much in favour. Never was a privilege more envied.

This privilege entailed additional servility. The recipient was more of
a servant. At court that which elevates, degrades. _Avoir le tour_ was
said in French; this circumstance of English etiquette having, probably,
been borrowed from some old French folly.

Lady Josiana, a virgin peeress as Elizabeth had been a virgin queen,
led--sometimes in the City, and sometimes in the country, according to
the season--an almost princely life, and kept nearly a court, at which
Lord David was courtier, with many others.

Not being married, Lord David and Lady Josiana could show themselves
together in public without exciting ridicule, and they did so
frequently. They often went to plays and racecourses in the same
carriage, and sat together in the same box. They were chilled by the
impending marriage, which was not only permitted to them, but imposed
upon them; but they felt an attraction for each other's society. The
privacy permitted to the engaged has a frontier easily passed. From this
they abstained; that which is easy is in bad taste.

The best pugilistic encounters then took place at Lambeth, a parish in
which the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury has a palace though the air
there is unhealthy, and a rich library open at certain hours to decent
people.

One evening in winter there was in a meadow there, the gates of which
were locked, a fight, at which Josiana, escorted by Lord David, was
present. She had asked,--

"Are women admitted?"

And David had responded,--

"_Sunt faeminae magnates!_"

Liberal translation, "Not shopkeepers." Literal translation, "Great
ladies exist. A duchess goes everywhere!"

This is why Lady Josiana saw a boxing matc