had been committed, the Queen would seem as guilty as her lover.
Cecil accordingly decided that his course of action must be to laugh at the suggestion of murder.
This attitude would give the lie to the words the Spanish ambassador had already written to his master. Even Philip might doubt the veracity of de Quadra, if Cecil treated the scandal with scorn and contempt.
Cecil went ostentatiously to Kew to visit his dear friend Lord Robert Dudley, and to assure him of his belief in his innocence.
The Queen was pleased with Cecil; she knew that she and he could always rely upon each other.
But the country was demanding justice. Several preachers in various parts were asking that a full inquiry be made into the death of Lady Dudley, and grievous suspicions disposed of.
And all knew that in this there was not only a threat to Lord Robert, but to the Queen herself.
Thomas Blount worked assiduously in the service of his master.
He went to Cumnor Place with the express purpose of proving Amy’s death an accident.
He questioned Mistress Odingsells, Mistress Owen, and the Forsters. Mr. Forster told him that Amy seemed a little absent-minded on that fatal Sunday morning. It would not surprise him if she had fallen down as she was descending the stairs. But the Forsters were suspect, as any servants of Lord Robert’s at Cumnor Place must be; for if the task of murder had to be entrusted to one of them, it would be to a man in Forster’s position.
A jury, deciding that it dared not offend the man who might be King, and at the same time the Queen herself, would not bring in a verdict of murder; but this was not only a matter for a court jury; in this case the whole of England was the self-appointed judge and jury; and the whole of England could neither be bribed nor threatened.
It seemed strange and mysterious that Amy, who had always insisted on having people about her, should have tried to send the entire household to the Fair on that Sunday morning.
Blount was puzzled. He must carefully question every person in the household in an endeavor to understand Amy’s strange action.
At length he came to Amy’s personal maid, the woman who, he had heard, was devoted to her mistress.
Pinto had lived in a daze since the tragedy.
It was all so clear to her. Someone—she suspected Forster—had been awaiting the opportunity; and it was her actions, her schemes which had given him what he sought.
She knew of the murmuring throughout the country. She knew that people were saying: “Robert Dudley is a murderer. His grandfather and his father died on the block. Let him die on the block, for he deserves death even as they did.”
What if he were to die for this? She could not call to a halt that procession of tableaux which haunted her. She thought of a hundred pictures from those two and a half years when he and she had lived under the same roof. Often she had watched him when he did not know he was watched. He had not noticed her except for one moment, and then it had been her apparent indifference to him that had so briefly attracted him.
Yet she knew that during the whole of her life she would never forget him.
One of the maids came to her and said that Master Blount wished to question her as he was questioning the whole household.
The maid’s face was alive with eagerness. She whispered: “He is trying to prove it was an accident. Lord Robert has sent him to do so. But … how can they prove that … and what will happen now to my lord?”
What would happen to him now?
Pinto was excited suddenly because she felt that there was within her a power to decide what should happen to him.
She could tell the truth; she could tell of the plan she had made with Amy. That would not help Lord Robert. But there was one explanation which was not incredible. No one would believe Amy’s death was due to an accident; but might they not believe in that one alternative to murder: suicide?
That would not endear Lord Robert to the people; he would still have his detractors; but at the same time a man who neglected his wife to serve his sovereign was not on that account a criminal.
She stood before Thomas Blount, who studied her intently. A personable creature of her kind, he thought; and one whose