ing them there, partly as a guard, partly as a master of the
ceremonies, ready to explain the arrangements, and tell the names of
the personages who appeared in sight.

"There," said he, "close below us, where you cannot see it, is the
chair with a cloth of state over it."

"For our Queen?" asked Jean Kennedy.

"No, madam. It is there to represent the Majesty of Queen Elizabeth.
That other chair, half-way down the hall, with the canopy from the beam
over it, is for the Queen of Scots."

Jean Kennedy sniffed the air a little at this, but her attention was
directed to the gentlemen who began to fill the seats on either side.
Some of them had before had interviews with Queen Mary, and thus were
known by sight to her own attendants; some had been seen by Humfrey
during his visit to London; and even now at a great distance, and a
different table, he had been taking his meals with them at the present
juncture.

The seats were long benches against the wall, for the Earls on one
side, the Barons on the other. The Lord Chancellor Bromley, in his red
and white gown, and Burghley, the Lord Treasurer, with long white beard
and hard impenetrable face, sat with them.

"That a man should have such a beard, and yet dare to speak to the
Queen as he did two days ago," whispered Cis.

"See," said Mrs. Kennedy, "who is that burly figure with the black eyes
and grizzled beard?"

"That, madam," said Humfrey, "is the Earl of Warwick."

"The brother of the minion Leicester?" said Jean Kennedy. "He hath
scant show of his comeliness."

"Nay; they say he is become the best favoured," said Humfrey; "my Lord
of Leicester being grown heavy and red-faced. He is away in the
Netherlands, or you might judge of him."

"And who," asked the lady, "may be yon, with the strangely-plumed hat
and long, yellow hair, like a half-tamed Borderer?"

"He?" said Humfrey. "He is my Lord of Cumberland. I marvelled to see
him back so soon. He is here, there, and everywhere; and when I was in
London was commanding a fleet bearing victuals to relieve the Dutch in
Helvoetsluys. Had I not other work in hand, I would gladly sail with
him, though there be something fantastic in his humour. But here come
the Knights of the Privy Council, who are to my mind more noteworthy
than the Earls."

The seats of these knights were placed a little below and beyond those
of the noblemen. The courteous Sir Ralf Sadler looked up and saluted
the ladies in the gallery