"Have done with heroics," she said. "What is
your name ?"

"I am called William Shakespeare," he answered,
"and this is John Hallam, serving-man to my father,
Master John Shakespeare."

"Well, for your boldness, I will spare your father
his serving-man. Raleigh, you will seize Young
Arrogance and execute upon him the sentence I had
but now passed upon his man. We will show this
country bumpkin how unsafe it is to trifle with an
angry queen. Let the cavalcade proceed. Sir Amias
Paulet, you will attend me."

Two soldiers stepped forward and passed a thong
around young Shakespeare's arms, while the released
yokel fell sobbing at his feet.
In the group about Queen Elizabeth was a hand-
some young maid of honour who looked to be but
scarcely out of her teens, and whose proud beauty
and haughty bearing marked her as a person high in
royal favour.
She had sat on her horse, a silent witness to the
discomfiture of the serving-man, but when the youth
had stepped forward with his plea for justice a flush
of admiration for his bravery arose to her cheek and
her eyes never left his face while he was speaking.
