“Is it you, my daughter?” Lord Stafford rose to meet her. The resemblance between them was very striking. “I had just asked for you. This is my child, Fortescue. She of whom we were speaking. Give greeting, Francis, to my good friend Captain Fortescue.” 

 Francis gave a quick glance at her father’s guest. He was a man of commanding stature, with black hair and keen black eyes that held a cruel light in them. He was arrayed in a blue velvet jerkin with hose of the same material. A large beaver hat with a long feather in it lay on the table. A rapier depending from his belt completed his attire which was that of a soldier. Without heeding this fact something in his bearing caused the girl to address him as a priest. 

 “I give thee welcome, good father.” 

 “Said I not that the wench was shrewd?” asked Lord Stafford with a hearty laugh. 

 “Ay, my lord; and ’twas well said,” returned the guest. “My child, do you not see that I am attired as a soldier?” 

 “I crave forbearance,” faltered Francis in some confusion. “I did not notice thy dress, 23 but judged from thy manner. Nathless, priest or soldier, I give thee greeting. Prithee heed not mine error.” 

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 “’Twas naught,” smiled Captain Fortescue. “It is to my praise that thou didst accost me as an holy man. My lord, methinks the maid will serve our purpose well.” 

 “I trow so,” answered Lord Stafford with a proud look. “She hath spirit and courage to a rare degree in a maid. I know no lad of her age that can equal her in hunting or hawking. No tercelet for her, but the fiercest goshawk that e’er seized quarry. How now, Francis?” 

 “My father, I knew that thou wouldst believe my skill,” said Francis eagerly. “Yet a lad did but now contend that he it was who shot a deer in the forest,” and she related the incident graphically. 

 “Beshrew me, I doubt not but that thine was the arrow that slew the buck, yet it contents me well that the lad should endure the penalty of the deed in thy stead. How now, Greville?” to the tutor. “Was the youth of noble birth?” 

 “Methought there seemed something of the 24 gentle in him, though he was but meanly garbed. Yet the apparel doth not always make the man,” answered Greville. 

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