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Michel and Angele — Volume 2 by Gilbert Parker
page 32 of 60 (53%)
mortal seemeth a small thing, but to those of little consequence it is
the cable by which they unsteadily hold over the chasm 'twixt life and
immortality. To thee, oh greatest monarch of the world, it is a staff
on which thou need'st not lean, which thou hast never grasped; to me
it is my all; without it I fail and fall and die."

She had spoken as she felt, yet, because she was a woman and guessed
the mind of another woman, she had touched Elizabeth where her armour
was weakest. She had suggested that the Queen had been the object of
adoration, but had never given her heart to any man; that hers was the
virgin heart and life; and that she had never stooped to conquer.
Without realising it, and only dimly moving with that end in view, she
had whetted Elizabeth's vanity. She had indeed soothed a pride wounded
of late beyond endurance, suspecting, as she did, that Leicester had
played his long part for his own sordid purposes, that his devotion was
more alloy than precious metal. No note of praise could be pitched too
high for Elizabeth, and if only policy did not intervene, if but no
political advantage was lost by saving De la Foret, that safety seemed
now secure.

"You tell a tale and adorn it with good grace," she said, and held out
her hand. Angele kissed it. "And you have said to Elizabeth what none
else dared to say since I was Queen here. He who hath never seen the
lightning hath no dread of it. I had not thought there was in the world
so much artlessness, with all the power of perfect art. But we live to
be wiser. Thou shalt continue in thy tale. Thou hast seen Mary, once
Queen of France, now Queen of Scots--answer me fairly; without if, or
though, or any sort of doubt, the questions I shall put. Which of us
twain, this ruin-starred queen or I, is of higher stature?"

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