Mr Underhill laughed. "Verily," said he, "I would be bond that I could match him for beauty with any the first man I should meet withal in the City. There were two swords carried afore him--" "Ay," said Dr Thorpe, "to cut off all heads withal that be left yet unmown." "I fear so much," answered Mr Underhill, more gravely than was his wont. "Were you forth this even?" "No," said John; "we have all sat at home sithence my home-coming." "In the streets to-night," said he, "I count I have met four Spaniards for every Englishman. If the King bring all Spain over hither, we shall be sweetly off. As I was coming hither, I protest unto you, I heard more Spanish talked than mine own tongue. I trust some of you have that tongue, or you shall find you in a foreign country--yea, even in the heart of London." "I have it," said John, "and so hath Mrs Rose; but methinks we stand alone." "No, Mr Avery, you do not so," quietly said Esther. [Note 9]. "Marry, I never learned any tongue save mine own, nor never repented thereof," answered Dr Thorpe; "saving, of course, so much Latin as a physician must needs pick up withal. I count I could bray like a jackass an' I tried, and that were good enough for any strange-born companion as ever cumbered the soil of merry England." Mr Underhill laughed, as did John and Robin. "Dr Thorpe, you are exceedingly courteous, and I thank you heartily," said Mrs Rose, smiling almost for the first time. "Body o' me! what is a man to do when he falleth into the ditch o' this manner?" said he, with a comical look. "Mrs Rose, I am an ass by nature, and shall find little hardship in braying. I do beseech you of pardon, for that I meant not to offend you; and in very deed, I scarce ever do remember that you are not my countrywoman. You are good enough for an English woman, and I would you were--There! I am about to make yet again a fool of myself. Heed not, I pray you, an old man in his dotage." "My good friend, say not one other word," answered Mrs Rose, kindly. "I do feel most delighted that you should say I am good enough for an English woman. I can see that is very much from you." Spaniards were everywhere. England had become a nation of Spaniards in her streets, as she was a province of Spain in her government. And Englishmen knew that Spain, like Rome, whose true daughter she was, never unloosed her hand from any thing she had once grasped. Isoult begged her husband to teach her Spanish; but Kate desired to know why they were all come. "Is there no meat ne drink in their country, that they come to eat up ours?" she asked in her simplicity. Her mother told her "they were come to wait on the King, which was a gentleman of their nation." "But wherefore so?" said she. "Could the Queen not marry an Englishman, that could have talked English? I am sure our Robin is good enough for any Queen that ever carried a crown on her head."