g, that I should think any hope of royal splendour or preferment
should draw her from waiting for Humfrey. Ay, she knew he would come!
And if not, she would never be more than his faithful widow. Had he
not given up all for her? Should she fail in patience because his ship
tarried awhile? No; he should find her ready in his home that he had
made for her."

"Why, this is as good as the Globe Theatre!" cried the Queen, but with
a tear glittering in her eye.

"Your Majesty would have said so truly," said Diccon; "for as I sat at
evening, striving hard to make her give over these fantastic notions
and consult her true interest, behold she gave a cry--''Tis his foot!'
Yea, and verily there was Humfrey, brown as a berry, having been so far
with his mate as to the very mouth of the River Plate. He had, indeed,
lost his Ark of Fortune, but he has come home with a carrack that
quadruples her burthen, and with a thousand bars of silver in her hold.
And then, madam, the joy, the kisses, the embraces, and even more--the
look of perfect content, and peace, and trust, were enough to make a
bachelor long for a wife."

"Long to be a fool!" broke out the Queen sharply. "Look you, lad:
there may be such couples as this Humfrey and--what call you her?--here
and there."

"My father and mother are such."

"Yea, saucy cockerel as you are; but for one such, there are a hundred
others who fret the yoke, and long to be free! Ay, and this brother of
thine, what hath he got with this wife of his but banishment and dread
of his own land?"

"Even so, madam; but they still count all they either could have had or
hoped for, nought in comparison with their love to one another."

"After ten years! Ha! They are no subjects for this real world of
ours; are they not rather swains in my poor Philip Sidney's Arcadia?
Ho, no; 'twere pity to meddle with them. Leave them to their Dutch
household and their carracks. Let them keep their own secret; I'll
meddle in the matter no more."

And so, though after Elizabeth's death and James's accession, Sir
Humfrey and Lady Talbot gladdened the eyes of the loving and venerable
pair at Bridgefield, the Princess Bride of Scotland still remained in
happy obscurity, "Unknown to History."

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's Unknown to History, by Charlotte M. Yonge

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNKNOWN TO HISTORY ***

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