A stately lady was looking out of the window of an apartment in the Royal Chateau of Amboise, in the month of June, 1470.

She was still handsome, though many years of anxiety, misfortune, and trouble, had left their traces on her face.

In the room behind her, a knight was talking to a lady sitting at a tambour frame; a lad of seventeen was standing at another window stroking a hawk that sat on his wrist, while a boy of nine was seated at a table examining the pages of an illuminated missal.
"What will come of it, Eleanor ?" the lady at the window said, turning suddenly and impatiently from it.

"It seems past belief that I am to meet as a friend this haughty earl, who has for fifteen years been the bitterest enemy of my House.

It appears almost impossible." "'Tis strange indeed, my Queen; but so many strange things have befallen your Majesty that you should be the last to wonder at this.