"Nor will there be the need, for I have left no
footprints.
"I hope that may be so, for I tell you, man, that I have ordered
a strict inquiry, bidding them have no respect to any living
person, and to that I shall adhere."
"And if, in spite of that, I am not hanged?" quoth Sir Richard, a
sneer upon his white face.
"Come to me again when the affair is closed, and we will talk of
it."
Sir Richard went out, rage and disgust in his heart, leaving my
lord with rage and fear in his.
Grown calmer now, my lord dressed himself with care and sought
the Queen to tell her of the accident that had removed the
obstacle to their marriage. And that same night her Majesty
coldly informed de Quadra that Lady Robert Dudley had fallen down
a flight of stairs and broken her neck.
The Spaniard received the information with a countenance that was
inscrutable.
"Your Majesty's gift of prophecy is not so widely known as it
deserves to be," was his cryptic comment.
She stared at him blankly a moment. Then a sudden uneasy memory
awakened by his words, she drew him forward to a window embrasure
apart from those who had stood about her, and for greater
security addressed him, as he tells us, in Italian.
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