Summer 1558, pages 24 - 28 Summary

In the next section, entitled Summer 1557, Robert Dudley has fled the Robsart house and has made his way to the newly built Richmond Palace, where he is staying with his brother-in-law during the evenings and, during the day, is a petitioner at court.

Being a petitioner means that he has to wait in the available "public" spaces along with the other common folk until someone higher up than him (a clerk of the palace, or even a noble of the royal household) notices him and asks him what he is doing there. Then he will have the opportunity to explain himself and ask for dispensation. Robert Dudley muses that his fortunes have been completely reversed since he had been a child and had wondered why on earth the common folk had nothing better to do than beg for favors...