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“Your faithful husband till my end,

“G. Shrewsbury.

“From the Court this Monday the 13th of December. Now it is certain the Scots’ Queen comes to Tutbury to my charge. In what order I cannot ascertain you.

“To my wife the Countess of Shrewsbury

at Tutbury give this.”

It was not till just the close of 1568 that Shrewsbury was certain of his new duty and in a position to write that triumphant postscript. Within a month, in the beginning of the New Year, he had taken over from Sir Francis Knollys the task which was to prove so engrossing, stupendous, so provocative of every imaginable complication, official and domestic.

Imagine the excitement of my Lady at such a juncture! She knew the Scottish Queen only by hearsay, and her curiosity must have been kept at boiling pitch while her heart swelled with importance in the anticipation of the additional chatelaine’s duties thrust upon her by the august guest. She had known what it was to deal with a princess in captivity, for she had been acquainted with Elizabeth before her accession. The present matter was far more vital, more portentous. The Queen who rode wearily from Bolton Castle to Sheffield and thence to Tutbury must be humoured as Queen, served as queens are served, but a network of rules were being prepared, not only for her own retinue and the household, but for earl and lady.