"So this is the gallant young fellow who bled in thy service?" she said to Raleigh. "And in the service of your Majesty," added the knight. "He saved the life of your humblest servant, but he also fought and bled in defence of your Majesty's honour and the integrity of your dominions." Elizabeth looked again at the bent head. "Dost know the colour of mine eyes, Master Morgan?" she asked sharply. "The colour of heaven, your Majesty," gasped Johnnie. The Queen laughed. "I thought thou hadst not looked at them. 'Tis easy to see that thou hast kept company with a certain Walter Raleigh; thou canst assume modesty and yet flatter as glibly as he." "Your Majesty!" cried Raleigh. "Hath excellent eyesight, thank God!" added Elizabeth. "I wish I had found Master Morgan a simpler gentleman. I am sick of pretty speeches, and thought to find a plain, unspoiled Englishman who would speak naught but truth. Wilt let me see what colour thine eyes are, Master Morgan? I have noted every hair on the top of thy head." Johnnie raised a flushed face to the pale, cool countenance of his sovereign. "Dost not find mine eyes _green_?" she asked, and leaned a little forward in her chair. "There is a glint of the verdure of England in them, your Majesty, and the sheen of the blue of her skies and her seas." "And thou dost consider them, therefore, to be perfect for England's Queen?" "God made your Majesty, and we daily thank Him for His abounding goodness and wisdom." A faint blush stole into Elizabeth's cheeks, and the blue-green eyes danced. "Thou dost see merrie England mirrored in these pale orbs?" "The country lives in your Majesty's heart, and the heart looks out through the eyes." Elizabeth sat back. She turned to Raleigh. "They breed poets in the shadow of Dean's oaks," she said. "When first I met Master Morgan he was writing verses in the woodlands." "And to whom?" "A pretty maiden." "Ah! What colour are her eyes, bold forester?" "Blue, an't please your Majesty." "It doth not please me at all. I thought thy conceit about the 'green and blue' of England very pretty and spontaneous for me. Now I perceive 'tis but an old compliment thou hast paid a thousand times before to some woodland wench." "Your Majesty mistakes. The thought never came to my mind before I uttered it just now. I know not what made me think it then, unless 'twas your Majesty's presence inspired me. I am a dull fellow, and no poet, as Mistress Dawe often tells me." "Hast never told her that her eyes are blue?" "I have, your Majesty." "And that she is the fairest maid on earth?" "I have said that also, and 'tis God's truth that I think her to be so." "Humph!"