"Fie, sir page! Thou dost shame thy manhood. True, thou art yet guiltless of beard, yet still thou shouldst not play the woman."
"But, madam, I shall report this to the queen. What think you she will say when she knows that one of her ladies was guilty of this outrage?"
"She would not listen to thee, malapert. Should she do so, I would say that Priscilla Rutland knew no peace until she could emulate in her own locks the regal color that crowned her august mistress' brow. That she would stoop to do anything could she but faintly follow such beauty. But I fear not thy disclosure, sirrah. Art thou not in disgrace? Then what boots it what thou sayst?"
"True;" said Francis and opened her lips no more. Clip, clip, went the shears until at last all of her ringlets lay, a mass of ruddy gold, in a great heap among the rushes. Francis looked at them, and then at the mocking face of the lady, and her heart throbbed with wrath.
"Madam," she said as the Lady Priscilla untied her bonds and she was once more free, "I will never forgive this."
"Thou art rude, sirrah," laughed the lady. "But I blame thee not. Be patient, master page. I will come to thee when thy locks have been woven into a wig and thou shalt see how well they become me."
"Thou shalt never wear hair of mine," cried Francis, white with anger. Before the lady or her maids could prevent she seized a lamp from one of the scones and threw it into the midst of red curls.
"Help! Help!" cried the lady and the maids simultaneously, for the lamp which was of the simplest manufacture, being a wick fed by oil, set fire instantly to the curls and surrounding rushes. Scattering to the right and left the maids called lustily: "Fire! Fire! Seize the boy!"
Staying only long enough to see that there was no probability of saving the hair, Francis dashed through the arras, and fled through chamber after chamber trying to find an exit.
"This way," she heard a voice call as, bewildered and confused, she paused, not knowing which way to turn.
To her amazement, Edward Devereaux stood in a door of a chamber beckoning to her. She gave an exclamation of surprise but, enemy though she considered him, followed him without hesitation. Through a maze of rooms the boy led the way with the air of one to whom they were familiar; then down a flight of steps, through an open window and out upon a balcony that overlooked the great garden.