"Oh, those are the styles, the fashions! That's the fashion page, ye
know. That's where they tell all about what the rich folks down to New
York are wearin'."
There was a murmur and a rustle among the ladies-in-waiting, who had
hitherto made no sign, and upon the Queen's cheek there spread an added
tinge, betokening a high degree of interest and gratification.
"Ah!" she sighed, and glanced pleasantly over her shoulder, "here be
matters of moment, indeed! Your Grace of Devonshire, what say you to
this?"
Eagerly the elderly lady so addressed stepped forward and made a low
reverence.
"Look--look here, ladies all!" Elizabeth continued, with a tremor of
excitement in her voice. "Saw you ever such an array as this?"
With one accord the whole bevy of assembled ladies pressed forward,
trembling with delighted anticipation. A fashion sheet--and from the
New World! What wonder they were moved!
Her Majesty was about to begin perusal of one of the fascinating
paragraphs wherein were described those marvellous fashion-plates when
there was a cry outside of "Way 'nough!" and a moment later the smart
young lieutenant who had before accosted Rebecca entered and stood at
attention.
Elizabeth looked up and frowned slightly. Folding the paper carefully,
she called to Sir Walter, who still held in his unconscious hand the
other section of the paper.
"Bring hither yon sheet, Sir Walter," she cried. "Perchance there may be
further intelligence of this sort therein. We will peruse both pamphlets
at our leisure anon."
Then, turning to the Lord High Admiral:
"My Lord of Nottingham," she said, "you may depart. Your duties await
you without. Let it be the charge of your Grace," she continued,
addressing the Duchess of Devonshire, "to attend her Highness the Lady
Rebecca. See that she be maintained as suits her rank, and let her be
near our person that we may not lose aught of her society."
The ceremony of landing prevented further discourse between Rebecca and
the Queen, and it was with the greatest interest that the stranger
observed every detail of the formal function.
Peering through the glass sides of the cabin, Rebecca could see the
landing wharf, thronged with servants and magnificently dressed
officers, while beyond there loomed a long, two-storied white stone
building, with a round-arched entrance flanked by two towers. This was
Greenwich Palace, a favorite summer residence of the Queen.
CHAPTER XI
THE FAT KNIGHT AT THE BOAR'S HEAD
When Francis Bacon, having evaded Rebecca's mistaken pursuit, reached
the deserted grove in which the Panchronicon still rested, he found to
his dismay that Droop was absent.
Copernicus was not the man to let the grass grow under his feet, and he
had set off that morning with his letter of introduction to seek Sir
Percevall Hart, the Queen's knight harbinger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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