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NORTHIAM 51
meant a brief imprisonment in the Tower for him, and expulsion from the Court for his poor bride. It throws a significant light on the kind of stuff Elizabeth was ready to swallow to read the letters to her which Raleigh judiciously allowed to reach her eyes :
" How can I live alone in prison, while she (the Queen) is afar off ? I, who was wont to behold her riding like, Alexander, fair hair about her pure cheeks, like any seraph, sometimes sitting in the shade, like a goddess, sometimes playing on the lute like Orpheus."
But Kipling reminds us that at least while her men adventured all over the world she toiled in England that they might find a safe home to come back to. Another side of the kaleidoscope of her character is to be found in the well-known story of her dealings with the Windsor carter. Whenever the Queen desired to go from Windsor to some other palace, the carts and horses in the neighbourhood of Windsor were " impressed " for the Royal service. The Queen changed her mind constantly, with the result that a Windsor carter, who had been ordered to provide carriage for a part of the Royal wardrobe, came to Windsor Castle once to find the Queen had changed her day of departure ; came a second time to find the |
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