foot. “What of that snake?” she screamed. “What of Leicester?” She took the woman nearest her and shook her until she begged for mercy.
The Queen’s hair had broken loose from her headdress; her eyes grew wilder and purple color flamed into her face.
No one dared speak until at last Kat said: “Dearest Majesty … dearest … dearest …”
“Did you not hear me?” shouted the Queen. “I said: ‘What of that snake who calls himself a man?’ So he has married that sly animal, has he? He has married that low creature, that she-wolf?”
“Majesty,” said Kat, “it is true. They married …”
“They married!” cried Elizabeth. “Did they ask my consent? Did they keep it secret? Did you? Did you … and you?” Each “you” was accompanied by a stinging blow on the cheek for all those nearest. “And you … and you and … you … knew this, and thought it meet to keep it from me?”
“Dearest, dearest!” begged Kat. And in an agonized whisper she added: “Remember … remember … do not betray your feelings thus.”
Elizabeth was swaying vertiginously with the intensity of her emotion.
“Quick!” cried Kat. “Help me unlace Her Majesty’s bodice. There, my love. Kat has you. Come, lie on your couch, darling. You’ll feel better then. Kat’s here beside you.”
With great presence of mind Kat dismissed all the women; she knelt by the couch, chafing the Queen’s hands while the tears ran down Kat’s cheeks and words babbled from her lips. “Oh, my darling, I would have given my life to spare you this. But, dearest, you would not marry him. You must not blame him …”
“Blame him!” flared Elizabeth. “By God’s Body, I’ll blame him! He shall pay for all the pleasure he has had with her.”
“Darling, it was only natural. You see, he has been so long unmarried.”
“Have I not been long unmarried?”
“But it was my darling’s royal wish.”
“They shall lose their heads for this, and I’ll see the deed done.”
“Be calm, my sweeting. Be quiet, my sweet Bess. Let me get you a little wine.”
“You know I do not like wine.”
“I’ll mix water with it. It will revive you, dearest. There … there … that’s better.”
“It is not better, Kat. It will never be better. You know how I loved him.”
“But you did not marry him, dearest.”
“Stop all this talk of marriage. You do it but to torment me.”
“Dearest Majesty, remember you are the Queen. You must not show your jealousy like this. You are above such things.”
“I am indeed. I am above them all, and I’ll have obedience. They shall go to the Tower at once … both of them.”
“Yes, yes, my love. They shall go to the Tower.”
“If you try to soothe me, Madam, and continue to talk to me as though I am four years old, you shall accompany them to the Tower.”
“Yes, darling, so I shall.”
“Oh Kat! What a deceiver! What a scoundrel!”
“He is the worst man in the world,” said Kat.
“How dare you say it! You know he is not. It is all her fault. Ha! Little does he know the woman he has married. Let him discover.”
She stood up suddenly. Kat watched her fearfully as she strode to the door.
She said to the guards there: “The Earl of Leicester is here at Greenwich, is he not?”
“He is, Your Majesty.”
“Then go to his apartments with a party of the strongest guards. Place him under close arrest, and tell him he may expect to leave shortly for the Tower.”
She came back to her couch and, flinging herself upon it, gave way to bitter weeping.
All England was talking about the “Mounseer.” He had come to England, and he had come without ceremony, and in disguise had appeared suddenly at Greenwich with only two servants, asking to be taken to Her Majesty that he might throw himself at her feet.
He was very small and far from handsome; his face was dark and pock-marked; but he could murmur the kind of compliment that delighted the Queen as none of her courtiers—not even Robert—had been able to do. His clothes were exquisite; he could foot a measure with such grace as to make Christopher Hatton appear clumsy; he displayed French graces of such elegance that Elizabeth, smarting under what she privately called Leicester’s betrayal, declared that she was charmed with him.
Robert and Lettice were under arrest, and Elizabeth had the satisfaction of knowing that they could not meet. She had not sent Robert to the Tower as she had at first intended; Burghley with