"In care of Mine Hostess of
"The Fox and Grapes."
She took it up and recognized Robin's writing. The angry blood glowed in her veins. "The insolent varlet!" she muttered. "He has been writing to a woman—'Mistress Larkyn,' indeed!—Mine Hostess of the 'Fox and Grapes,' forsooth! 'Tis some low intrigue, and I thought him my true lover and loyal husband. I will see how he addresses this creature." She was about to tear open the packet, when a crash below stairs and the sound of hurried footsteps warned her that the soldiers had broken into the house. She hurriedly thrust it into her bosom and waited.
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?"