Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 21, 2025
The Bow bells were ringing as Francis and her escort, Lord Shrope, drew near the city of London three days later. It was sunset and the silvery peal of the bells was clearly borne to them upon the evening breeze. Merrily they rang. Now wild and free; now loud and deep; now slower and more slow until they seemed to knell the requiem of the day.
"My liege sovereign," cried Lord Shrope without waiting for the Lord Chamberlain to announce him, "I have come. Behold here is the lad for whom you sent me." "Out of my sight," cried the queen angrily. "'Ods death! is there none to keep the door that every minion that lists may enter? Out of my sight, and plague me not with a sight of that boy. Away, varlet!"
"A maiden," repeated Lord Shrope. "Francis Stafford is not the son but the daughter of Lord Stafford." "Then, in the name of St. George, why this disguise?" asked the secretary. "Tell him, child," commanded the nobleman, but Francis clung to him convulsively, unable to speak.
"He means, Your Highness," cried Lord Shrope, "that his son is not a boy, but a girl." "Hold thy tongue, Shrope!" commanded the queen sharply. "Thy wits are addled. Who is there who will read the riddle clearly? Thou, Francis Stafford?" But Francis, utterly miserable in that her father took no notice of her, was sobbing bitterly and therefore could not reply.
"Why dost thou shiver?" asked Lord Shrope kindly, as he noticed her involuntary tremor. "Sir," answered Francis, in mournful tones, "I fear that Tower. Something seems to whisper me that yon grim walls and I will become better acquainted." "Now Heaven forfend!" ejaculated Lord Shrope. "Thy doubts of thy reception at the queen's hands render thee fearful. Take courage, child. All will yet be well.
Fain would I know, for truly he hath been mine only friend in this dire time of need." "Lord Shrope hath been in the Netherlands for nigh two years past, Francis." "Marry, child!" exclaimed Mrs. Shelton. "Then it could not have been he who sent thee all those things." "No; who, who could it have been? Methought in all England I had no friend but him.
His face thin and sinister was of a pale sickly color while his eyes, black and glittering, held the gaze with a basilisk glare. He was the sworn tormentor of the Tower. Francis shrieked at sight of him, striving in vain to control her terror. Just as the torturer reached her side the door was flung open and a warder, accompanied by Lord Shrope, burst into the room.
Lord Shrope bent a look of compassion upon her, but uttered no word. The song of the boatmen ceased as they drew near the landing stairs of the palace. There were numerous wherries waiting to unload their human freight, and this gave Francis time to recover her composure.
She bade my supposed son to attend her in her chamber; and then, thou knowest the tenor of the court talk, she asked if she did not deem her mother fairer than she, the queen, was. My daughter, Shrope, knows naught but to speak the truth. She is a maiden of tender years, simply brought up, and as wild and free as the linnet that sings upon yon bough.
Lord Shrope feared to press the matter, but as soon as it was expedient he hastened to seek Francis. "The tide hath turned, child," he ejaculated. "Fate hath at last become propitious to thee, for Elizabeth hath begun to look upon thee with kindness. The accident of the hair hath done for thee what naught else hath been able to do," and he told her what the queen had said.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking