A voice shouted harshly, "In the queen’s name!" and the door was opened without ceremony. Half-a-dozen soldiers with drawn swords rushed in, and at sight of the little cloaked figure, came to a halt in some confusion. But Prue, without waiting to be interrogated, threw back her veil, exclaiming, "Soldiers!" in accents of well-feigned joy and relief. "Oh! I am so glad! I was afraid, when I heard the noise, that I had fallen into a den of robbers, who would, perhaps, kill me for the sake of the queen’s necklace." "The queen’s necklace!" exclaimed the officer in command. "Who are you, and what do you know about the queen’s necklace?" "I am the Viscountess Brooke," she replied, in her loftiest tone, "and this message will explain why I am here, and what I know about the queen’s necklace." She landed the paper to him and watched anxiously to see its effect. He read it dubiously and turned it over and over, evidently at a loss how to deal with a matter outside of his instructions. "You see the necklace," she went on after a pause, taking up the emblazoned casket and opening it. "The person who brought me here disappeared when the noise began at the gate." She looked round in every direction but the window. "I think there must be a secret panel somewhere in the room, for while my attention was distracted by the noise, she disappeared." "_She!_" cried the officer. "Did a woman bring you here? What kind of person was it? Could it not have been a man, disguised?" "A man!" she exclaimed; "oh, no"—then the advantage of prolonging this cross-examination struck her and she continued slowly, as if pondering over the suggestion—"at least, that never occurred to me. Her voice was loud and rough ’tis true—" "Was she—or he—tall and broad?" demanded the officer, glancing at a document in his hand and reading from it—"swarthy complexion, black eyes, black hair, without powder, worn—" She interrupted him with a laugh. "Surely not, the woman was old, bent, no taller than myself; a toothless, blear-eyed beldame—" "And she disappeared, you say? Sergeant, examine the room thoroughly and break in anything that seems like a secret panel. I fear, Madam," the officer said, again addressing Prue, "that I shall be compelled to arrest you if we can not find the person we are seeking." "Arrest _me_!" cried Prue. "Why, you will make yourself the laughing-stock of London if you arrest Lady Prudence Brooke. As to myself, I should enjoy it amazingly; I have never been arrested, and it would be something quite new for me in the way of an adventure, but I have found the queen’s necklace"—she clasped it in her arms with an air of defiance—"and you must first take me either to Marlborough House, where it was lost, or to Kensington Palace, where you will easily find out whether or no to arrest one of Her Majesty’s ladies-in-waiting."