The Talbots soon felt her keen eye on them, and a look of recognition passed over her face as she saw Diccon.  As soon as the meal was over, and the table of trestles removed, she sent a page to command Lord Talbot to present them to her.

“So, sir,” she said, as Richard the elder knelt before her, “you are the father of two brave sons, whom you have bred up to do good service; but I only see one of them here.  Where is the elder?”

“So please your Majesty, Sir Amias Paulett desired to retain him at Chartley to assist in guarding the Queen of Scots.”

“It is well.  Paulett knows a trusty lad when he sees him.  And so do I. I would have the youths both for my gentlemen pensioners—­the elder when he can be spared from his charge, this stripling at once.”

“We are much beholden to your Majesty,” said Richard, bending his head the lower as he knelt on one knee; for such an appointment gave both training and recommendation to young country gentlemen, and was much sought after.

“Methinks,” said Elizabeth, who had the royal faculty of remembering faces, “you have yourself so served us, Mr. Talbot?”

“I was for three years in the band of your Majesty’s sister, Queen Mary,” said Richard, “but I quitted it on her death to serve at sea, and I have since been in charge at Sheffield, under my Lord of Shrewsbury.”

“We have heard that he hath found you a faithful servant,” said the Queen, “yea, so well affected as even to have refused your daughter in marriage to this same Babington.  Is this true?”

“It is, so please your Majesty.”

“And it was because you already perceived his villainy?”

“There were many causes, Madam,” said Richard, catching at the chance of saying a word for the unhappy lad, “but it was not so much villainy that I perceived in him as a nature that might be easily practised upon by worse men than himself.”

“Not so much a villain ready made as the stuff villains are made of,” said the Queen, satisfied with her own repartee.

“So please your Majesty, the metal that in good hands becomes a brave sword, in evil ones becomes a treacherous dagger.”

“Well said, Master Captain, and therefore, we must destroy alike the dagger and the hands that perverted it.”

“Yet,” ventured Richard, “the dagger attempered by your Majesty’s clemency might yet do noble service.”

Elizabeth, however, broke out fiercely with one of her wonted oaths.

“How now?  Thou wouldst not plead for the rascal!  I would have you to know that to crave pardon for such a fellow is well-nigh treason in itself.  You have license to leave us, sir.”

“I should scarce have brought you, Richard,” said Lord Talbot, as soon as they had left the presence chamber, “had I known you would venture on such folly.  Know you not how incensed she is?  Naught but your proved loyalty and my father’s could have borne you off this time, and it would be small marvel to me if the lad’s appointment were forgotten.”