monarch's chess-board; and she was so evidently unhappy over
Babington's courtship, and so little disposed to enjoy her first
feminine triumph, that the Queen declared that Nature had designed
her for the convent she had so narrowly missed; and, valuable as was
the intelligence she had brought, she was never trusted with the
contents of the correspondence. On the removal of Mary to Chartley
the barrel with the false bottom came into use, but the secretaries
Nau and Curll alone knew in full what was there conveyed. Little
more was said to Cicely of Babington.

However, it was a relief when, before the end of this summer, Cicely
heard of his marriage to a young lady selected by the Earl. She
hoped it would make him forget his dangerous inclination to herself;
but yet there was a little lurking vanity which believed that it had
been rather a marriage for property's than for love's sake.




CHAPTER XXIV. A LIONESS AT BAY.



It was in the middle of the summer of 1586 that Humfrey and his young
brother Richard, in broad grass hats and long feathers, found
themselves again in London, Diccon looking considerably taller and
leaner than when he went away. For when, after many months' delay,
the naval expedition had taken place, he had been laid low with fever
during the attack on Florida by Sir Francis Drake's little fleet; and
the return to England had been only just in time to save his life.