"  If  it  be  asked,"  says  Perefixe,  "  who  were  the  friends
that  suggested  to  Ravaillac  so  damnable  a  design,  history
replies  that  it  is  ignorant  and  that  upon  an  action  of  such
consequences  it  is  not  permissible  to  give  suspicions  and
conjectures  for  certain  truths.  The  judges  themselves
who  interrogated  him  dared  not  open  their  mouths,  and
never  mentioned  the  matter  but  with  gestures  of  horror
and  amazement."


VI.     The  Barren   Wooing
The  Murder  of  Amy  Robsart


VI.     The  Barren   Wooing


"^HERE  had  been  a  banquet,  followed  by  a  masque,
-*•  and  this  again  by  a  dance  in  which  the  young  queen
had  paired  off  with  Lord  Robert  Dudley,  who  in  repute  was
the  handsomest  man  in  Europe,  just  as  in  fact  he  was  the
vainest,  shallowest,  and  most  unscrupulous.  There  had
been  homage  and  flattery  lavishly  expressed,  and  there  was
a  hint  of  masked  hostility  from  certain  quarters  to  spice
the  adventure,  and  to  thrill  her  bold  young  spirit.  Never
yet  in  all  the  months  of  her  reign  since  her  coronation  in
January  of  last  year  had  she  felt  so  much  a  queen,  and  so
conscious  of  the  power  of  her  high  estate  ,  never  so  much  a
woman,  and  so  conscious  of  the  weakness  of  her  sex.  Th  e
interaction  of  those  conflicting  senses  wrought  upon  her
like  a  heady  wine.  She  leaned  more  heavily  upon  the
silken  arm  of  her  handsome  Master  of  the  Horse,  and
careless  in  her  intoxication  of  what  might  be  thought  or
said,  she — who  by  the  intimate  favour  shown  him  haci
already  loosed  the  tongue  of  Scandal  and  set  it  chattering
in  every  court  in  Europe — drew  him  forth  from  that
thronged  and  glittering  chamber  of  the  Palace  of  White-
hall into  the  outer  solitude  and  friendly  gloom.
