My Lord’s appearance at Bridgefield was a rarer and more awful event than was my Lady’s, and if Mistress Susan had been warned beforehand, there is no saying how at the head of her men and maids she would have scrubbed and polished the floors, and brushed the hangings and cushions.  What then were her feelings when the rider, who dismounted from his little hackney as unpretendingly as did her husband in the twilight court, proved to have my Lord’s long beard and narrow face!

Curtseying her lowest and with a feeling of consternation and pity, as she thought of the orphan boy, she accepted his greeting with duteous welcome as he said, “Kinswoman, I am come to cumber you, whilst I inquire into this matter.  I give your son thanks for the honesty and faithfulness he hath shown in the matter, as befitted his father’s son.  I should wish myself to examine the springald.”

Humfrey was accordingly called, and, privately admonished by his father that he must not allow any scruples about bringing his playmate into trouble to lead him to withhold his evidence, or shrink from telling the whole truth as he knew it, Humfrey accordingly stood before the Earl and made his replies a little sullenly but quite straightforwardly.  He had prevented the whistle from being given to his sister for the huckstress because the woman was a witch, who frightened her, and moreover he knew it was against rules.  Did he suspect that the whistle came from the Queen of Scots?

He looked startled, and asked if it were so indeed, and when again commanded to say why he had thought it possible, he replied that he knew Antony thought the Queen of Scots a fair and gracious lady.

Did he believe that Antony ever had communication with her or her people unheard by others?

“Assuredly!  Wherefore not, when he carried my Lady Countess’s messages?”

Lord Shrewsbury bent his brow, but did not further pursue this branch of the subject, but demanded of Humfrey a description of Tibbott, huckster or witch, man or woman.

“She wears a big black hood and muffler,” said Humfrey, “and hath a long hooked stick.”

“I asked thee not of her muffler, boy, but of her person.”

“She hath pouncet boxes and hawks’ bells, and dog-whistles in her basket,” proceeded Humfrey, but as the Earl waxed impatient, and demanded whether no one could give him a clearer account, Richard bade Humfrey call his mother.

She, however, could say nothing as to the woman’s appearance.  She had gone to Norman’s cottage to offer her services after the supposed accident, but had been told that the potticary of the Queen of Scots had undertaken her cure, and had only seen her huddled up in a heap of rags, asleep.  Since her recovery the woman had been several times at Bridgefield, but it had struck the mistress of the house that there was a certain avoidance of direct communication with her, and a preference for the servants and children.