“Doubt it not,” replied De Noailles, who could scarcely help laughing at the dwarf’s overweening vanity. “I will answer for it, if thou performest thy part well, thou shalt be knighted ere a month be past. But I will put thy skill further to the test. The Princess Elizabeth will be removed from the Tower to-day. Thou must find some means of delivering a letter to her, unperceived by her attendants.”
“I will do it,” replied Xit, unhesitatingly. “Knighted, did your excellency say?”
“Ay, knighted,” returned De Noailles, “within a month. Follow me. I will prepare the letter.”
It being the ambassador’s wish to carry on a secret correspondence with the princess, he pondered upon the safest means of accomplishing his object; and chancing to notice a guitar, which had been lent him by Elizabeth, it occurred to him that it would form an excellent medium of communication. Accordingly, he set to work; and being well versed in various state ciphers, speedily traced a key to the system beneath the strings of the instrument. He then despatched it by a page to the princess, who, immediately comprehending that some mystery must be attached to it, laid it aside to take with her to Ashbridge. De Noailles, meanwhile, wrote a few hasty lines on a piece of paper, explaining his motive in sending the guitar, and delivering it to Xit, charged him, as he valued his life, not to attempt to give it the princess, unless he could do so unobserved.
About noon, Elizabeth, escorted by Sir Edward Hastings, and a large guard, left the palace. She was on horseback, and as she rode through the gateway of the By-ward Tower, Xit, who had stationed himself on Og’s shoulder, took off his bonnet, and let it fall, as if by accident, on her steed’s head. Startled by the blow, the animal reared, and in the confusion that ensued, the dwarf contrived to slip the billet unperceived into her hand. As soon as the cavalcade had passed on, and the dwarf had undergone a severe rebuke from Og and the other warders for his supposed carelessness, he hastened to the ambassador’s room, to relate the successful issue of his undertaking. De Noailles was overjoyed by the intelligence; complimented him on his skill; promised him still higher dignities in case of success; and bade him return in the evening for further orders.
The remainder of the day was consumed by the ambassador in revolving his project. The more he reflected upon the matter, the more convinced he became, that in the present critical state of affairs, nothing could be done without some daring conspiracy; and after a long debate, he conceived a scheme which would either overthrow Mary’s government altogether, and place Elizabeth on the throne, or reduce the former to such an abject state that he could dictate his own terms to her. On consideration, thinking it better not to write to the earl for fear of mischance, he entrusted Xit with a message to him, earnestly impressing upon the dwarf the necessity of caution.
The subject of all this plotting, it has been stated, was confined in the lieutenant’s lodgings. Every consideration due to his rank and peculiar position was shown him by Sir Henry Bedingfeld. He was permitted to occupy the large chamber on the second floor, since noted as the scene of the examinations of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. He was, however, strictly guarded, No one was allowed to hold any communication with him, either personally or by letter, except through the medium of the lieutenant. And every article either of attire or furniture that was brought him was carefully inspected before it was delivered to him.
Xit, who, as a privileged person, went and came where he pleased, found little difficulty in obtaining admittance to the lieutenant’s lodgings. But all his cunning could not procure him a sight of the prisoner, and after wasting several hours in fruitless attempts, being fearful of exciting suspicion, he was compelled for that night to relinquish the design. The next day, he was equally unsuccessful, and he was almost driven to his wits’ end with perplexity, when as he was passing beneath a tree at the southern extremity of the Green, he chanced to cast his eye upwards, and saw a cat spring from one of the topmost branches on to the roof of the Bloody Tower.