A bold thought came to me as he was speaking. The good physician was in search of a girl who could sing well, who in fact could sing Queen Mary to sleep, and I, who could sing well, wanted above all things to get into the Tower; it therefore seemed conclusive that I must be the girl to sing for the queen. But Queen Mary? I would rather that it had been Queen Jane. 'Doctor,' I said entreatingly, 'I am your girl. Your sweet singer, you know,' I hurriedly explained, seeing that he did not understand. 'I can sing very sweetly, though I say it myself. Take me to Queen Mary.' 'You!' The good man looked amazed. 'I am afraid it would not do,' he said. 'Supposing now that Her Majesty found out that you had been in the Tower with Queen Jane?' 'I don't think that that would make so much difference,' I said. 'A singer may sing to any one.' After a little more demur, to my intense satisfaction, Dr. Massingbird consented to take me, only stipulating that I should conceal my real name and position from the queen, and appear before her as a professional singer only. He also made me promise that I would do Queen Mary no harm in any way when admitted into her presence--for these were days in which treachery was common. Under his care, escorted by him, in scarcely an hour from the time in which we met in Thames Street, I was entering the royal apartments of the ancient palace[1] in the mighty Tower of London. [1] This palace of the old kings of England has long since disappeared. It was at the south-east of the Tower.--ED. I must confess candidly that, whilst outwardly appearing dignified and calm, I was inwardly in a state of great trepidation and timidity. Always overawed by the vastness and gloom of the mighty fortress, even when there with Queen Jane, while she was in power and every effort was made to display its riches and magnificence, it can easily be understood, that I was many times more so now when, late at night under an assumed character, yet at heart an adherent of the imprisoned ex-queen, I ventured alone, except for the presence of the physician, himself a servant, into the palace of the reigning monarch. Curious glances were cast at me by guards and sentinels, squires and dames, lords and ladies, as we ascended the great oaken staircase and passed through a long gallery into a spacious hall, with narrow Gothic windows of stained glass, hung with tarnished cloth of gold curtains. Here the furniture was large and splendid, the windows were in deep recesses, whilst there was a gallery round the upper part of the room. 'Wait a little here, until I return,' said my guide, signing to me to sit down on an old oak chair.