S WALK

CHAPTER XXVI. IN THE WEB

CHAPTER XXVII. THE CASTLE WELL

CHAPTER XXVIII. HUNTING DOWN THE DEER

CHAPTER XXIX. THE SEARCH

CHAPTER XXX. TETE-A-TETE

CHAPTER XXXI. EVIDENCE

CHAPTER XXXII. WESTMINSTER HALL

CHAPTER XXXIII. IN THE TOWER

CHAPTER XXXIV. FOTHERINGHAY

CHAPTER XXXV. BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS

CHAPTER XXXVI. A VENTURE

CHAPTER XXXVII. MY LADY'S REMORSE

CHAPTER XXXVIII. MASTER TALBOT AND HIS CHARGE

CHAPTER XXXIX. THE FETTERLOCK COURT

CHAPTER XL. THE SENTENCE

CHAPTER XLI. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

CHAPTER XLII. THE SUPPLICATION

CHAPTER XLIII. THE WARRANT

CHAPTER XLIV. ON THE HUMBER

CHAPTER XLV. TEN YEARS AFTER

UNKNOWN TO HISTORY.

Poor scape-goat of crimes, where,--her part what it may,
So tortured, so hunted to die,
Foul age of deceit and of hate,--on her head
Least stains of gore-guiltiness lie;
To the hearts of the just her blood from the dust
Not in vain for mercy will cry.

Poor scape-goat of nations and faiths in their strife
So cruel,--and thou so fair!
Poor girl!--so, best, in her misery named,--
Discrown'd of two kingdoms, and bare;
Not first nor last on this one was cast
The burden that others should share.
Visions of England, by F. T. Palgrave

CHAPTER I.

THE LITTLE WAIF.

On a spring day, in the year 1568, Mistress Talbot sat in her lodging
at Hull, an upper chamber, with a large latticed window, glazed with
the circle and diamond leading perpetuated in Dutch pictures, and
opening on a carved balcony, whence, had she been so minded, she could
have shaken hands with her opposite neighbour. There was a richly
carved mantel-piece, with a sea-coal fire burning in it, for though it
was May, the sea winds blew cold, and there was a fishy odour about the
town, such as it was well to counteract. The floor was of slippery
polished oak, the walls hung with leather, gilded in some places and
depending from cornices, whose ornaments proved to an initiated eye,
that this had once been the refectory of a small priory, or cell,
broken up at the Reformation.

Of furniture there was not much, only an open cupboard, displaying two
silver cups and tankards, a sauce-pan of the same metal, a few tall,
slender, Venetian glasses, a little pewter, and some rare shells. A
few high-backed chairs were ranged against the wall; there was a tall
"armory," i.e. a linen-press of dark oak, guarded on each side by t