“What exercises did she take when you were at the Court?”
“Sometimes she hunted, your Majesty, and sometimes she played upon the virginals.”
“Did she play to effect?”
“Reasonably, your noble Majesty.”
“You shall hear me play, and then speak truth upon us, for I have known none with so true a tongue since my father died.”
Thereon she called to a lady who waited near in a little room to bring an instrument; but at that moment Cecil appeared again at the door, and his face seeming to show anxiety, Elizabeth, with a sigh, beckoned him to enter.
“Your face, Cecil, is as long as a Lenten collect. What raven croaks in England on May Day eve?” Cecil knelt before her, and gave into her hand a paper.
“What record runs here?” she asked querulously. “A prayer of your faithful Lords and Commons that your Majesty will grant speech with their chosen deputies to lay before your Majesty a cause they have at heart.”
“Touching of—?” darkly asked the Queen.
“The deputies wait even now—will not your Majesty receive them? They have come humbly, and will go hence as humbly on the instant, if the hour is ill chosen.”