However, she then turned her attention to the accounts, where Sir
Andrew Melville was ready to question and debate every item set down
by Shrewsbury's steward; while his mistress showed herself liberal
and open-handed. Indeed she had considerable command of money from
her French dowry, the proceeds of which were, in spite of the
troubles of the League, regularly paid to her, and no doubt served
her well in maintaining the correspondence which, throughout her
captivity, eluded the vigilance of her keepers. On taking leave of
her, which Richard Talbot did before joining his host at the mid-day
meal, she reiterated her thanks for his care of her daughter, and her
charges to let no persuasion induce him to consent to Babington's
overtures, adding that she hoped soon to obtain permission to have
the maiden amongst her authorised attendants. She gave him a billet,
loosely tied with black floss silk and unsealed, so that if needful,
Sadler and Shrewsbury might both inspect the tender, playful,
messages she wrote to her "mignonne," and which she took care should
not outrun those which she had often addressed to Bessie Pierrepoint.

Cicely was a little disappointed when she first opened the letter,
but ere long she bethought herself of the directions she had received
to hold such notes to the fire, and accordingly she watched, waiting
even till the next day before she could have free and solitary access
to either of the two fires in the house, those in the hall and in the
kitchen.

At last, while the master was out farming, Ned at school, and the
mistress and all her maids engaged in the unsavoury occupation of
making candles, by repeated dipping of rushes into a caldron of
melted fat, after the winter's salting, she escaped under pretext of
attending to the hall fire, and kneeling beside the glowing embers,