"The criminal was one Buonespoir, the occasion our coming hither to wait
upon the Queen of England and our Lady of Normandy, for such is your
well-born Majesty to your loyal Jersiais." And thereupon he plunged into
an impeachment of De Carteret of St. Ouen's, and stumbled through a blunt
broken story of the wrongs and the sorrows of Michel and Angele and the
doings of Buonespoir in their behalf.

Elizabeth frowned and interrupted him. "I have heard of this Buonespoir,
Monsieur, through others than the Seigneur of St. Ouen's. He is an
unlikely squire of dames. There's a hill in my kingdom has long bided
his coming. Where waits the rascal now?"

"In the ante-chapel, your Majesty."

"By the rood!" said Elizabeth in sudden amazement. "In my ante-chapel,
forsooth!"

She looked beyond the doorway and saw the great red-topped figure of
Buonespoir, his good-natured, fearless fare, his shock of hair, his clear
blue eye--he was not thirty feet away.

"He comes to crave pardon for his rank offences, your benignant Majesty,"
said Lempriere.

The humour of the thing rushed upon the Queen. Never before were two
such naive folk at court. There was not a hair of duplicity in the heads
of the two, and she judged them well in her mind.

"I will see you stand together--you and your henchman," she said to