ed, it would save Mr. Talbot from all
risk; but the Queen doubted whether she could support the character, so
English was her air, though there were Scottish and English nuns at
Soissons, and still more at Louvaine and Douay, who _might_ have
brought her up.

"I cannot feign, madam," said Cicely, alarmed. "Oh, I hope I need only
speak truth!" and her tone sounded much more like a confession of
incapacity than a moral objection, and so it was received: "Poor child,
I know thou canst not act a part, and thy return to the honest mastiffs
will not further thee in it; but I have bidden Chateauneuf to do what
he can for thee--and after all the eyes will not be very critical."

If there still was time, Cicely was to endeavour first of all to obtain
of Elizabeth that Mary might be brought to London to see her, and be
judged before Parliament with full means of defence. If this were no
longer possible, Cicely might attempt to expose Walsingham's
contrivance; but this would probably be too dangerous. Chateauneuf
must judge. Or, as another alternative, Queen Mary gave Cicely the
ring already shown at the trial, and with that as her pledge, a solemn
offer was to be made on her behalf to retire into a convent in Austria,
or in one of the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland, out of the
reach of Spain and France, and there take the veil, resigning all her
rights to her son. All her money had been taken away, but she told
Cicely she had given orders to Chateauneuf to supply from her French
dowry all that might be needed for the expenses that must be incurred.

Now that the matter was becoming so real, Cicely's heart quailed a
little. Castles in the air that look heroic at the first glance would
not so remain did not they show themselves terrible at a nearer
approach, and the maiden wondered, whether Queen Elizabeth would be
much more formidable than my Lady Countess in a rage!

And what would become of herself? Would she be detained in the bondage
in which the poor sisters of the Grey blood had been kept? Or would her
mother carry her off to these strange lands?.... It was all strange,
and the very boldness of her offer, since it had been thus accepted,
made her feel helpless and passive in the grasp of the powers that her
simple wish had set moving.

The letters were sewn up in the most ingenious manner in her dress by
Mary Seaton, in case any search should be made; but the only woman Sir
Amias would be able to employ i