"They say that Queen Anne, too, could make songs," said Ralph, "and that she made one in prison that begins:--
'Oh, Death, rock me asleep. Bring on my quiet rest.'"
"When Anne Boleyn went to France with the sister of King Henry, she was a merry, innocent child. At his door lies the sin of whatever of wrong she has done," said Lady Margaret solemnly, half turning away from Clarice and her brother and looking absently out of the open window. The lawn lay before her, fresh and green. Here and there were daisies, gleaming in the May sunshine. "I know the very place," said she with a shudder. "It is the green within the Tower. The grass is fresh and bright there, too, but the daisies will be red to-day with the blood of our own crowned queen. It is terrible to think of the daisies."
"Pretty daisies," said a clear, childish voice under the window.
"Let us go out on the lawn," said Clarice, "it stifles me here."
"Remember," bade Lady Margaret hastily, "to say 'Lady,' not 'Princess.'"
The young man fell upon one knee before a tiny maiden, not yet three years old. The child gravely extended her hand for him to kiss. He kissed it and said:--
"No," said Lady Margaret, "not 'Princess' but 'Lady.'"
"Princess 'Lizbeth," insisted the child with a stamp of her baby foot on the soft turf and a positive little shake of her red gold curls. "Princess brought you some daisies," and with a winning smile she held out the handful of flowers to Lady Margaret and put up her face to be kissed.
"I'll give you one," said the child to the young man, and again she extended her hand to him.
"Princess 'Lizbeth wants to go to hear the birds sing. Take me," she bade the attendant. She made the quaintest little courtesy that can be imagined, and left the three standing under the great beech tree.
"That is our Lady Elizabeth," said Lady Margaret, "the most wilful, winsome little lassie in all the world."
"But why may she not be called 'Princess' as has been the custom?" asked Ralph.
"It is but three days, indeed, since the king's order was given," answered Lady Margaret. "When Archbishop Cranmer decided that Anne Boleyn was not the lawful wife of Henry, the king declared that Princess Elizabeth should no longer be the heir to the throne, and so should be called 'Lady' instead of 'Princess.' It is many months since he has done aught for her save to provide for her safe keeping here at Hunsdon. The child lacks many things that every child of quality should have, let alone that she be the daughter of a king. I dare not tell the king her needs, lest he be angry, and both the little one and myself feel his wrath."