"I must listen, child, when thou callest me so from your heart; but it
is of no use, my poor little one. They have referred the matter to the
Star Chamber, that they may settle it there with closed doors and no
forms of law. Thou couldst do nothing! And could I trust thee to go
wandering to London, like a maiden in a ballad, all alone?"

"Nay, madam, I should not go alone. My father, I mean Mr. Talbot,
would take me."

"Come, bairnie, that is presuming overmuch on the good man's kindness."

"I do not speak without warrant, madam. I told him what I longed to
do, and he said it might be my duty, and if it were so, he would not
gainsay me; but that he could not let me go alone, and would go with
me. And he can get access for me to the Queen. He has seen her
himself, and so has Humfrey; and Diccon is a gentleman pensioner."

"There have been ventures enough for me already," said Mary. "I will
bring no more faithful heads into peril."

"Then will you not consent, mother? He will quit the castle to-morrow,
and I am to see him in the morning and give him an answer. If you would
let me go, he would crave license to take me home, saying that I look
paler than my wont."

"And so thou dost, child. If I could be sure of ever seeing thee
again, I should have proposed thy going home to good Mistress Susan's
tendance for a little space. But it is not to be thought of. I could
not risk thee, or any honest loving heart, on so desperate a stake as
mine! I love thee, mine ain, true, leal lassie, all the more, and I
honour him; but it may not be! Ask me no more."

Mary was here interrupted by a request from Sir Christopher Hatton for
one of the many harassing interviews that beset her during the days
following the trial, when judgment was withheld, according to the
express command of the vacillating Elizabeth, and the case remitted to
the Star Chamber. Lord Burghley considered this hesitation to be the
effect of judicial blindness--so utterly had hatred and fear of the
future shut his eyes to all sense of justice and fair play.

Cicely felt all youth's disappointment in the rejection of its grand
schemes. But to her surprise at night Mary addressed her again, "My
daughter, did that true-hearted foster-father of thine speak in sooth?"

"He never doth otherwise," returned Cicely.

"For," said her mother, "I have thought of a way of gaining thee access
to the Queen, far less perilous to him, and less likely to fail.