give us much fresh information on the marriage negotiations. Another confidential agent of Alençon was also constantly about the Queen’s person, and his letters at Hatfield prove that for many months the most secret instructions of the French ambassador and the special envoys were immediately conveyed to Elizabeth by this man, who is only known to us under the pseudonym of “Le Moyne,” with which he signed his letters to the Queen and to Alençon, with both of whom he seems to have been equally familiar. “Le Moyne” has, I believe, never hitherto been identified, but a careful comparison of his letters with certain known facts of Marchaumont’s life convinces me that the mysterious “monk” who was so deep in the confidence of the Queen was Marchaumont himself. How highly she favoured him is proved by her behaviour to him on the occasion of her famous visit to Drake’s ship, the _Pelican_, at Deptford early in April, 1581. When the great sailor approached his sovereign after the banquet to receive the honour of knighthood, she jokingly told him she had a gilded sword wherewith to strike off his head, but turning to Marchaumont she handed the sword to him and authorised him to give Drake the accolade, which he did.[122] When she was crossing the gangway to go on board the _Pelican_, one of her purple and gold garters slipped down and trailed behind her, whereupon Marchaumont, who followed, seized it as a lawful prize to send to his master. The Queen besought him to return it to her, as she had nothing else to prevent her stocking from slipping down; but the gallant Frenchman refused to surrender it until she promised to restore it to him as soon as she returned to Westminster. She made no ado about putting the garter on before him, and the next day M. de Mery was started off hastily to the lovelorn “frog,” again bearing with him a letter of high-flown affection from the Queen and the precious garter from Marchaumont.[123] For a long time afterwards Alençon, in his letters to the Queen, refers to her “belle jartière” as a talisman which is the cause of all his good fortune. Garters and loving words were very well in their way, but Alençon was anxious to come to business. The embassy was waiting to go over to England, and affairs both in Flanders and France were reaching a point where it was necessary for the Duke to know upon whom he could depend. His answer, therefore, was most pressing. “He could have,” he said, “no rest until the Queen gave him a certain and definite answer as to the fulfilment of the marriage so long treated of. He earnestly beseeches her, in recompense for his faithful affection, to put aside all doubts, ambiguities, and irresolutions, and give expression to her final wishes on the matter. If she shall approve of the setting out of the embassy to conclude the marriage, as soon as her reply to the present despatch shall have been received, they shall be sent with instructions to obey