Then Mary recurred to the power which he possessed of visiting Sir Andrew Melville and the Almoner, the Abbe de Preaux, who were shut up in the Fetterlock tower and court, and requested him to take a billet which she had written to the latter.  The request came like a blow to the young man.  “With permission—­” he began.

“I tell thee,” said Mary, “this concerns naught but mine own soul.  It is nothing to the State, but all and everything to me, a dying woman.”

“Ah, madam!  Let me but obtain consent.”

“What! go to Paulett that he may have occasion to blaspheme my faith and insult me!” said the Queen, offended.

“I should go to Sir Drew Drury, who is of another mould,” said Humfrey—­

“But who dares not lift a finger to cross his fellow,” said Mary, leaning back resignedly.

“And this is the young gentleman’s love for your Grace!” exclaimed Jean Kennedy.

“Nay, madam,” said Humfrey, stung to the quick, “but I am sworn!”

“Let him alone, Nurse Jeanie!” said Mary.  “He is like the rest of the English.  They know not how to distinguish between the spirit and the letter!  I understand it all, though I had thought for a moment that in him there was a love for me and mine that would perceive that I could ask nothing that could damage his honour or his good faith.  I—­who had almost a mother’s love and trust in him.”

“Madam,” cried Humfrey, “you know I would lay down my life for you, but I cannot break my trust.”

“Your trust, fule laddie!” exclaimed Mrs. Kennedy.  “Ane wad think the Queen speired of ye to carry a letter to Mendoza to burn and slay, instead of a bit scart of the pen to ask the good father for his prayers, or the like!  But you are all alike; ye will not stir a hand to aid her poor soul.”

“Pardon me, madam,” entreated Humfrey.  “The matter is, not what the letter may bear, but how my oath binds me!  I may not be the bearer of aught in writing from this chamber.  ’Twas the very reason I would not bring in my father’s letter.  Madam, say but you pardon me.”

“Of course I pardon you,” returned Mary coldly.  “I have so much to pardon that I can well forgive the lukewarmness and precision that are so bred in your nature that you cannot help them.  I pardon injuries, and I may well try to pardon disappointments.  Fare you well, Mr. Talbot; may your fidelity have its reward from Sir Amias Paulett.”

Humfrey was obliged to quit the apartment, cruelly wounded, sometimes wondering whether he had really acted on a harsh selfish punctilio in cutting off the dying woman from the consolations of religion, and thus taking part with the persecutors, while his heart bled for her.  Sometimes it seemed to him as if he had been on the point of earning her consent to his marriage with her daughter, and had thrown it away, and at other moments a horror came over him lest he was being beguiled as poor Antony had been before him.  And if he let his faith slip, how should he meet his father again?  Yet his affection for the Queen repelled this idea like a cruel injury, while, day by day, it was renewed pain and grief to be treated by her with the gentlest and most studied courtesy, but no longer as almost one of her own inner circle of friends and confidants.