“This palfrey sent me by my dear sister of Scotland shall bear me among you, friends; and in days to come _I will remember how she hath given new life to me by her loving message_. Sir Andrew Melvill, I shall have further speech with you; and you, sir”--speaking to the sinister figure by his side--“come hither.” The man dismounted, and with unsteady step came forward. Elizabeth held out her gloved hand for him to kiss. His face turned white. It was come soon, his punishment. None knew save Angèle and the Queen the doom that was upon him, if Angèle’s warning was well founded. He knelt, and bent his head over her hand. “Salute sir,” she said, in a low voice. He touched his lips to her fingers. She pressed them swiftly against his mouth. An instant, then he rose and stepped backward to his horse. Tremblingly, blindly, he mounted. A moment passed, then Elizabeth rode on with her ladies behind her, her gentlemen beside her. As she passed slowly, the would-be regicide swayed and fell from his horse, and stirred no more. Elizabeth rode on, her hand upon the pommel of the saddle. So she rode for a full half-hour, and came back to her palace. But she raised not her gloved right hand above the pommel, and she dismounted with exceeding care. That night the man who cared for the horse died secretly, as had done his master, with the Queen’s glove pressed to his nostrils by one whom Cecil could trust. And the matter was hidden from the court and the people; for it was given out that Melvill’s friend had died of some heart trouble. XV It seemed an unspeakable smallness in a man of such high place in the state, whose hand had tied and untied myriad knots of political and court intrigue, that he should stoop to a game which any pettifogging hanger-on might play--and reap scorn in the playing. By insidious arts, Leicester had in his day turned the Queen’s mind to his own will; had foiled the diplomacy of the Spaniard, the German, and the Gaul; had by subterranean means checkmated the designs of the Medici; had traced his way through plot and counter-plot, hated by most, loved by none save, maybe, his royal mistress, to whom he was now more a custom than a beloved friend. Year upon year he had built up his influence. None had championed him save himself, and even from the consequences of rashness and folly he had risen to a still higher place in the kingdom. But such as Leicester are ever at last a sacrifice to the laborious means by which they achieve their greatest ends--means contemptible and small.