of that guilt," said
Susan. "I served her too long, and received too much gentle treatment
from her, to brook the thought that she could be so far left to
herself."

"Mind you, dame," said Richard, "I am not wholly convinced that she was
not aware that her friends would in some way or other bring about the
Queen's death, and that she would scarce have visited it very harshly,
but she is far too wise--ay, and too tender-hearted, to have entered
into the matter beforehand. So I think her not wholly guiltless,
though the wrongs she hath suffered have been so great that I would do
whatever was not disloyal to mine own Queen to aid her to obtain
justice."

"You are doing much, much indeed," said Susan; "and all this time you
have told me nothing of my son, save what all might hear. How fares
he? is his heart still set on this poor maid?"

"And ever will be," said his father. "His is not an outspoken babbling
love like poor Master Nau, who they say was so inspired at finding
himself in the same city with Bess Pierrepoint that he could talk of
nothing else, and seemed to have no thought of his own danger or his
Queen's. No, but he hath told me that he will give up all to serve
her, without hope of requital; for her mother hath made her forswear
him, and though she be not always on his tongue, he will do so, if I
mistake not his steadfastness."

Susan sighed, but she knew that the love, that had begun when the
lonely boy hailed the shipwrecked infant as his little sister, was of a
calm, but unquenchable nature, were it for weal or woe. She could not
but be thankful that the express mandate of both the parents had
withheld her son from sharing the danger which was serious enough even
for her husband's prudence and coolness of head.

By the morning, as she had predicted, the ardour of the Earl and
Countess had considerably slackened; and though still willing to
forward the petitioner on her way, they did not wish their names to
appear in the matter.

They did, however, make an important offer. The Mastiff was newly come
into harbour at Hull, and they offered Richard the use of her as a
conveyance. He gladly accepted it. The saving of expense was a great
object; for he was most unwilling to use Queen Mary's order on the
French Ambassador, and he likewise deemed it possible that such a means
of evasion might be very useful.

The Mastiff was sometimes used by some of the Talbot family on journeys
to London, and ha