As to what they saw, we have a
partial record in a subsequent letter from one of them.
"There danced," says this epistle, "the queen and madame, with as many
as made up nineteen fair dancing ladies; amongst which the queen is the
handsomest, which hath wrought in me a greater desire to see her
sister."
This sister was then at Madrid, for the queen of France was a daughter
of Philip III. of Spain. And, as if Spain was the true destination of
the travellers, and to see the French queen's sister their object, at
the early hour of three the next morning they were up and on horseback,
riding out of Paris on the road to Bayonne. Away they went, pressing
onward at speed, he whom we as yet know only as Tom Smith taking the
lead, and pushing forward with such youthful eagerness that even the
seasoned Buckingham looked the worse for wear before they reached the
borders of Spain.
Who was this eager errant knight? All London by this time knew, and it
is time that we should learn. Indeed, while the youthful wayfarers were
speeding away on their mad and merry ride, the privy councillors of
England were on their knees before King James, half beside themselves
with apprehension, saying that Prince Charles had disappeared, that the
rumor was that he had gone to Spain, and begging to know if this wild
rumor were true.
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