There is plenty of room for wonder, considering that Admiral Seymour had earlier wanted to marry Elizabeth. But Catherine was a clever woman, who had already had three husbands--Seymour was her fourth--and children. If any one would see through a boy’s disguise as a girl she was the one. It is hard to imagine that Seymour’s wife had not good cause for some form revenge on him of whom Hallam speaks of as a “dangerous and unprincipled man” and of whom Latimer said “he was a man farthest from the fear of God that ever I knew or heard of in England” as it was believed at the time of her death that he had poisoned his wife, the Queen dowager, to make way for a marriage with Elizabeth, with whom according to common belief he was still in love, it would be only natural that a woman of her disposition and with her sense of humour, should revenge herself in a truly wifely way by using for the purpose, without betraying the secret, her private knowledge or belief of the quasi-princess’s real sex. Such would afford an infinite gratification to an ill-used wife jealous of so vain a husband. [Illustration: THE DUKE OF RICHMOND] We now come to the crux of the whole story--the touchstone of this strange eventful history. Could there have been such a boy as is told of; one answering to the many conditions above shown to be vitally necessary for the carrying out of such a scheme of imposture. The answer to this question is distinctly in the affirmative; there _could_ have been such a boy; had the Duke of Richmond been born fourteen or fifteen years earlier than he was, the difficulties of appearance, intellect, education, and other qualifications need not have presented themselves. If the question to be asked is: “Was there such a boy?” the answer cannot be so readily given. In the meantime there are some considerations from the study of which--or through which--an answer may, later, be derived. H. THE SOLUTION _The Duke of Richmond_ The points which must be settled before we can solve the mystery of the _Bisley Boy_ are: (1) Was there such an episode regarding the early life of the Princess Elizabeth? (2) Was there such a boy as was spoken of? (3) How could such an imposture have been carried out, implying as it did-- (a) A likeness to the Princess so extraordinary as not to have created suspicion in the mind of anyone not already in the plot. (b) An acquaintance with the circumstances of the life of the Princess sufficiently accurate to ward off incipient suspicion caused by any overlooking or neglect of necessary conditions. (c) An amount of education and knowledge equal to that held by a child of ten to twelve years of age who had been taught by some of the most learned persons of the time. (d) A skill in classics and foreign tongues only known amongst high scholars and diplomatists. (e) An ease of body and a courtliness of manner and bearing utterly foreign to any not bred in the higher circles of social life.