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"I know all about him," said Macfarren.

"And my Lord Cecil of Burleigh?"

"Oh, yes. A very great man. Sir Walter I take to be one of the noblest characters of the reign of Queen Bess."

"Then," said Lady Marian, bridling, and laying down her spoon, "thou must have strange notions of loyalty. Sir Walter is a dangerous man; and if the queen should let him out from the Tower, where he now languishes in just punishment for his crimes, the realm will rue it. He hath dealings with the devil, hath Sir Walter."

A sudden idea came to Macfarren. "Have you ever heard," he asked, eagerly, "of a maker of plays at the Globe Theatre, in Blackfriars—one William Shakespeare?"

"I have heard of him," carelessly replied Marian—"an indifferent good player. Our lady the queen hath taken some small notice of him. For my part, I wonder she should trouble about a beggarly strolling play-actor like this Jack Shakespeare. Now, Ben Jonson hath writ good plays, and he is of better birth and breeding than Tom Shakespeare—or Jack, or what you will."