A Queen of Nine Days

by Unknown

'It is a difficult matter for an outsider to get in there,' he said, 'and, if I mistake not, you are one who would be liable to be suspected, by reason of your having been there before with the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey.'

'Then you remember me? I thought you would. I am Margaret Brown,' I faltered.

'Mistress Margaret Brown,' said he, very gently, 'I will give you one word of advice, and that is, go home to your friends.'

'Alas!' I said, wringing my hands, 'I have no friend—save one—so dear as she who is imprisoned in the Tower. Help me to get to her, Dr. Massingbird, I implore you. She said that it would be a comfort to her to have me there, and she is in sore need of comfort!'

'Poor lady! Poor young lady! So sinned against, and yet so innocent; and made a tool of by that wicked man who has met with his just fate. I mean Northumberland.'

'Yes,' said I. 'It was he and his ambition that ruined my dear lady.'

We were standing talking together in Thames Street, not far from the Bulwark Gate of the great Tower of London. For a week I had been making many endeavours to get into the Tower, but, owing to the great precautions which were being taken against treachery—especially during Queen Mary's residence there—every attempt of mine to effect an entrance was in vain. I had found Betsy all right on London Bridge, where she stayed twelve hours waiting for me, in spite of every effort made to dislodge her from her position, and she and I were lodging, with the Woods, in apartments in the Strand.

Sir William Wood and Lady Caroline had no power to assist me to get into the Tower; they were obliged to keep as quiet as possible, only going out at night, owing to Sir William's partisanship of Lady Jane, whilst, for the same reason, Sir Hubert Blair, too, was compelled to remain hidden until certain plans were matured. He could not help me, and indeed I had not seen him since we parted on Kingston Bridge. As for the Duke of Suffolk, he was quite unable to assist me to go to his daughter, for, having been liberated after two or three days' imprisonment, owing to the intercession of his wife who prostrated herself before Mary, pleading that he was delicate and that his health would suffer if he were not set free, upon which Her Majesty graciously forgave him, he was most ungratefully busying himself with secret schemes for ousting her from the throne and reinstating Queen Jane. Always careless of the latter's feelings, whether she had her favourite gentlewoman with her in her imprisonment, or not, was a matter of indifference to him. Others who had made my acquaintance during the queen's short reign cut me dead, or treated me with scanty civility upon my reappearing on the scene. There was not one of those fine Court ladies who had formerly professed to admire and love Queen Jane who would lift a hand to help her now that she was in affliction and imprisonment. I was thinking sadly about this, as I returned from my last fruitless effort to gain ingress into the Tower, when I met one of the physicians who had attended Queen Jane during her illness in the royal palace. He was a truly benevolent man, and although he was evidently going somewhere in a hurry, he got out of his coach when I called to him, to inquire what I wanted.

'I am very hurried just now,' he said, temporizing, 'The fact is Queen Mary cannot sleep; evil, unpleasant thoughts trouble her, from the moment in which she lies down in bed until it is well nigh time to rise again, and potions and drugs do not cure the malady. But I bethought me of King Saul, to whom David played when he was distracted in that manner, until the evil spirits no longer troubled him, so I told Her Majesty that I would slip out of the Tower and go and fetch a young female singer, who would sing to her so beautifully that she would fall into a natural sleep. I heard a girl singing very sweetly in a friend's house in the Strand once, but whether I shall be able to find her or not I know not. It is growing late. The curfew bell has rung; the streets will not be very safe to be out in soon, and yet I must try to find the girl, if Queen Mary is to sleep.'

A bold thought came to me as he was speaking. The good physician was in search of a girl who could sing well, who in fact could sing Queen Mary to sleep, and I, who could sing well, wanted above all things to get into the Tower; it therefore seemed conclusive that I must be the girl to sing for the queen. But Queen Mary? I would rather that it had been Queen Jane.