other still keeps absolute proofs in the garments
and the letter that were found on the child when recovered from the
wreck. I had never known that she was not my sister till her journey
to London; and when next I went to the north my mother told me the
whole truth."

"I pray, then, how suits it with the boasted loyalty of your house that
this brother of yours should have wedded the maid?"

"Madam; it was not prudent, but he had never a thought save for her
throughout his life. Her mother committed her to him, and holding the
matter a deep and dead secret, he thought to do your Majesty no wrong
by the marriage. If he erred, be merciful, madam."

"Pah! foolish youth, to whom should I be merciful since the man is
dead? No doubt he hath left half a score of children to be puffed up
with the wind of their royal extraction."

"Not one, madam. When last I heard they were still childless."

"And now you are on your way to take on you the cheering of your
sister-in-law, the widow," said the Queen, and as Diccon made a gesture
of assent, she stretched out her hand and drew him nearer. "She is then
alone in the world. She is my kinswoman, if so be she is all she calls
herself. Now, Master Talbot, go not open-mouthed about your work, but
tell this lady that if she can prove her kindred to me, and bring
evidence of her birth at Lochleven, I will welcome her here, treat her
as my cousin the Princess of Scotland, and, it may be, put her on her
way to higher preferment, so she prove herself worthy thereof. You
take me, sir?"

Diccon did take in the situation. He had understood how Cavendish,
partly blinded by Langston, partly unwilling to believe in any
competitor who would be nearer the throne than his niece Arabella
Stewart, and partly disconcerted by Langston's disappearance, had made
such a report to the Queen and the French Ambassador, that they had
thought that the whole matter was an imposture, and had been so ashamed
of their acquiescence as to obliterate all record of it. But the
Queen's mind had since recurred to the matter, and as in these later
years of her reign one of her constant desires was to hinder James from
making too sure of the succession, she was evidently willing to play
his sister off against him.

Nay, in the general uncertainty, dreams came over Diccon of possible
royal honours to Queen Bridget; and then what glories would be
reflected on the house of Talbot! His father and mother were too