rtained by the young gentleman's airs of patronage.
"However, I am beholden to you."

"That you may be, for you are the only person who hath obtained
admission to the prisoners."

"Not even their wives?"

"Mrs. Tichborne is in the country--so best for her--and Mrs. Babington
hath never demanded it. I trow there is not love enough between them
to make them seek such a meeting. It was one of my mother's matches.
Mistress Cicely would have cleaved to him more closely, though I am
glad you saw through the fellow too well to give her to him. She would
be a landless widow, whereas this Ratcliffe wife has a fair portion for
her child."

"Then Dethick will be forfeited?"

"Ay. They say the Queen hath promised it to Raleigh."

"And there is no hope of mercy?"

"Not a tittle for any man of them! Nay, so far from it, her Majesty
asked if there were no worse nor more extraordinary mode of death for
them."

"I should not have thought it of her."

"Her Majesty hath been affrighted, Master Richard, sorely affrighted,
though she put so bold a face upon it, and there is nothing a woman,
who prides herself on her courage, can so little pardon."

So Richard, sad at heart, took boat and ascended the Thames for his
melancholy visit. The gateway was guarded by a stalwart yeoman,
halbert in hand, who detained him while the officer of the guard was
called. On showing the letter from Sir Francis Walsingham, Mr. Talbot
was conducted by this personage across the first paved court to the
lodgings of the Lieutenant under so close a guard that he felt as if he
were about to be incarcerated himself, and was there kept waiting in a
sort of guard-room while the letter was delivered.

Presently the Lieutenant, Sir Owen Hopton, a well-bred courteous
knight, appeared and saluted him with apologies for his detention and
all these precautions, saying that the orders were to keep a close
guard and to hinder all communication from without, so that nothing
short of this letter would have obtained entrance for the bearer, whom
he further required to set down his name and designation in full.
Then, after asking how long the visitor wished to remain with the
prisoners--for Tichborne and Babington were quartered together--he
called a warder and committed Mr. Talbot to his guidance, to remain for
two hours locked up in the cell.

"Sir," added Sir Owen, "it is superfluous to tell you that on coming
out, you must either give me your word of hon