Once came the King and Queen--Francis and Mary--" Elizabeth drew herself upright with an exclamation.

"Ah, you have seen her--Mary of Scots," she said sharply.

"You have seen her ?" "As near as I might touch her with my hand, as near as is your high Majesty.

She spoke to me--my mother's father was in her train;--as yet we had not become Huguenots, nor did we know her Majesty as now the world knows.

They came, the King and Queen--and that was the beginning." She paused, and looked shyly at Elizabeth, as though she found it hard to tell her story.
"And the beginning, it was-- ?" said Elizabeth, impatient and intent.
"We went to Court.