Man or woman had found in Leicester the delicate and intrepid gamester, exquisite in the choice of detail, masterful in the breadth of method.

And now, as though his whole future depended on this interview, he brought to bear a life-long skill to influence her.

He had determined to set the Queen against her.
He did not know--not even he--that she had saved the Queen's life on that auspicious May Day when Harry Lee had fought the white knight Michel de la Foret and halved the honours of the lists with him.

If he had but known that the Queen had hid from him this fact--this vital thing touching herself and England, he would have viewed his future with a vaster distrust.

But there could be no surer sign of Elizabeth's growing coldness and intended breach than that she had hid from him the dreadful incident of the poisoned glove, and the swift execution of the would-be murderer, and had made Cecil her only confidant.