Now Dom Manuel takes ship and goes into England: and for what happened there we have no authority save the account which Dom Manuel rendered on his return to his wife. Thus said Dom Manuel: He went straight to Woodstock, where the King and Queen then were. At Woodstock Dom Manuel was handsomely received, and there he passed the month of September-- (_"Why need you stay so long, though?" Dame Niafer inquired. "Well," Manuel explained, "one thing led to another, as it were." "H'm!" Niafer remarked._) He had presently a private talk with the Queen. How was she dressed? As near as Manuel recalled, she wore a green mantle fastened in front with a square fermoir of gems and wrought gold; under it, a close fitting gown of gold-diapered brocade, with tight sleeves so long that they half covered her hands, something like mitts. Her crown was of floriated trefoils surmounting a band of rubies. Of course, though, they might have been only garnets-- (_"And where was it that she dressed up in all this finery to talk with you in private?" "Why, at Woodstock, naturally." "I know it was at Woodstock, but whereabouts at Woodstock?" "It was by a window, my dear, by a window with panes of white glass and wooden lattices and a pent covered with lead." "Your account is very circumstantial, but where was the window?" "Oh, now I understand you! It was in a room." "What sort of room?" "Well, the walls were covered with gay frescoes from Saxon history; the fireplace was covered with very handsomely carved stone dragons; and the floor was covered with new rushes. Indeed, the Queen has one of the neatest bedrooms I have ever seen." "Ah, yes," said Niafer: "and what did you talk about during the time that you spent in your dear friend's bedroom?"_) Well, he found all going well with Queen Alianora (Dom Manuel continued) except that she had not yet provided an heir for the English throne, and it was this alone which was troubling her. It was on account of this that she had sent for Count Manuel. "It is considered not to look at all well, after three years of marriage," the Queen told him, "and people are beginning to say a number of unkind things." "It is the common fate of queens," Dom Manuel replies, "to be exposed to the criticism of envious persons." "No, do not be brilliant and aphoristic, Manuel, for I want you to help me more practically in this matter." "Very willingly will I help you if I can. But how can I?" "Why, you must assist me in getting a baby,--a boy baby, of course." "I am willing to do all that I can, because certainly it does not look well for you to have no son to be King of England. But how can I, of all persons, help you in this affair?" "Now, Manuel, after getting three children you surely ought to know what is necessary!" Dom Manuel shook a gray head. "My children came from a source which is exhausted."