The scene is Tower Green in 16^th-century England. Colonel Fairfax is due to be beheaded on a trumped-up charge of sourcery. Sergeant Meryll and his daughter Phoebe hatch a plot to free Fairfax whereby he will take the identity of Leonard, sergeant Meryll’s son as a new Yeoman.

Meanwhile, to thwart a scheming kinsman of an inheritance, Fairfax asks the Lieutenant to find him a wife before he is beheaded. The arrival of two strolling players, Elsie Maynard and Jack Point, gives the Lieutenant his opportunity, and Elsie agrees to marry the man who is about to die. At the ceremony she is blindfolded. She does not know her husband’s identity, nor he hers. Jack Point, already a sick man, obtains employment with the Lieutenant to stay near his love Elsie.


Phoebe wheedles the keys of Fairfax’s cell from her jealous admirer, Wilfred Shadbolt, the jailer, and Fairfax, freed, assumes the identity of Leonard. When the escape is discovered Elsie swoons into the arms of the disguised Fairfax, and Point is left to contemplate life without her.

Point, in low spirits, bribes Shadbolt to tell how the jailer shot and killed Fairfax.The Tower housekeeper, Dame Carruthers, and her niece Kate reveal to Fairfax Elsie’s secret marriage and he, realising that it is Elsie he has married, sets about wooing his own wife.


To general surprise Shadbolt announces he has killed Fairfax and Point tries again to woo Elsie – only to find she now loves the disguised Fairfax. A word out of place betrays both Phoebe and Sergeant Meryll and as punishment they have to marry Shadbolt and Dame Carruthers.


The reprieve arrives for Fairfax and he, forsaking disguise, claims Elsie as his bride. She at last recognises him and spurns Point’s last plea to her. He falls dead at her feet.