e as she saw Diccon. As soon as the meal was over,
and the table of trestles removed, she sent a page to command Lord
Talbot to present them to her.

"So, sir," she said, as Richard the elder knelt before her, "you are
the father of two brave sons, whom you have bred up to do good service;
but I only see one of them here. Where is the elder?"

"So please your Majesty, Sir Amias Paulett desired to retain him at
Chartley to assist in guarding the Queen of Scots."

"It is well. Paulett knows a trusty lad when he sees him. And so do
I. I would have the youths both for my gentlemen pensioners--the elder
when he can be spared from his charge, this stripling at once."

"We are much beholden to your Majesty," said Richard, bending his head
the lower as he knelt on one knee; for such an appointment gave both
training and recommendation to young country gentlemen, and was much
sought after.

"Methinks," said Elizabeth, who had the royal faculty of remembering
faces, "you have yourself so served us, Mr. Talbot?"

"I was for three years in the band of your Majesty's sister, Queen
Mary," said Richard, "but I quitted it on her death to serve at sea,
and I have since been in charge at Sheffield, under my Lord of
Shrewsbury."

"We have heard that he hath found you a faithful servant," said the
Queen, "yea, so well affected as even to have refused your daughter in
marriage to this same Babington. Is this true?"

"It is, so please your Majesty."

"And it was because you already perceived his villainy?"

"There were many causes, Madam," said Richard, catching at the chance
of saying a word for the unhappy lad, "but it was not so much villainy
that I perceived in him as a nature that might be easily practised upon
by worse men than himself."

"Not so much a villain ready made as the stuff villains are made of,"
said the Queen, satisfied with her own repartee.

"So please your Majesty, the metal that in good hands becomes a brave
sword, in evil ones becomes a treacherous dagger."

"Well said, Master Captain, and therefore, we must destroy alike the
dagger and the hands that perverted it."

"Yet," ventured Richard, "the dagger attempered by your Majesty's
clemency might yet do noble service."

Elizabeth, however, broke out fiercely with one of her wonted oaths.

"How now? Thou wouldst not plead for the rascal! I would have you to
know that to crave pardon for such a fellow is well-nigh treason in
itself. You have