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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
+it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Kenilworth
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1606]
+Last Updated: November 22, 2009
+Last Updated: September 17, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENILWORTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+KENILWORTH. by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+ INTRODUCTION
+
+KENILWORTH
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+A certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineation of
+Queen Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt something similar
+respecting "her sister and her foe," the celebrated Elizabeth. He
+will not, however, pretend to have approached the task with the same
+feelings; for the candid Robertson himself confesses having felt the
+prejudices with which a Scottishman is tempted to regard the subject;
+and what so liberal a historian avows, a poor romance-writer dares not
+disown. But he hopes the influence of a prejudice, almost as natural to
+him as his native air, will not be found to have greatly affected the
+sketch he has attempted of England's Elizabeth. I have endeavoured
+to describe her as at once a high-minded sovereign, and a female of
+passionate feelings, hesitating betwixt the sense of her rank and
+the duty she owed her subjects on the one hand, and on the other her
+attachment to a nobleman, who, in external qualifications at least,
+amply merited her favour. The interest of the story is thrown upon that
+period when the sudden death of the first Countess of Leicester seemed
+to open to the ambition of her husband the opportunity of sharing the
+crown of his sovereign.
+
+It is possible that slander, which very seldom favours the memories
+of persons in exalted stations, may have blackened the character of
+Leicester with darker shades than really belonged to it. But the almost
+general voice of the times attached the most foul suspicions to the
+death of the unfortunate Countess, more especially as it took place so
+very opportunely for the indulgence of her lover's ambition. If we can
+trust Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, there was but too much ground
+for the traditions which charge Leicester with the murder of his wife.
+In the following extract of the passage, the reader will find the
+authority I had for the story of the romance:--
+
+"At the west end of the church are the ruins of a manor, anciently
+belonging (as a cell, or place of removal, as some report) to the
+monks of Abington. At the Dissolution, the said manor, or lordship, was
+conveyed to one--Owen (I believe), the possessor of Godstow then.
+
+"In the hall, over the chimney, I find Abington arms cut in
+stone--namely, a patonee between four martletts; and also another
+escutcheon--namely, a lion rampant, and several mitres cut in stone
+about the house. There is also in the said house a chamber called
+Dudley's chamber, where the Earl of Leicester's wife was murdered, of
+which this is the story following:--
+
+"Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and
+singularly well featured, being a great favourite to Queen Elizabeth,
+it was thought, and commonly reported, that had he been a bachelor or
+widower, the Queen would have made him her husband; to this end, to free
+himself of all obstacles, he commands, or perhaps, with fair flattering
+entreaties, desires his wife to repose herself here at his servant
+Anthony Forster's house, who then lived in the aforesaid manor-house;
+and also prescribes to Sir Richard Varney (a prompter to this design),
+at his coming hither, that he should first attempt to poison her, and if
+that did not take effect, then by any other way whatsoever to dispatch
+her. This, it seems, was proved by the report of Dr. Walter Bayly,
+sometime fellow of New College, then living in Oxford, and professor of
+physic in that university; whom, because he would not consent to take
+away her life by poison, the Earl endeavoured to displace him the court.
+This man, it seems, reported for most certain that there was a practice
+in Cumnor among the conspirators, to have poisoned this poor innocent
+lady, a little before she was killed, which was attempted after this
+manner:--They seeing the good lady sad and heavy (as one that well
+knew, by her other handling, that her death was not far off), began to
+persuade her that her present disease was abundance of melancholy and
+other humours, etc., and therefore would needs counsel her to take some
+potion, which she absolutely refusing to do, as still suspecting the
+worst; whereupon they sent a messenger on a day (unawares to her) for
+Dr. Bayly, and entreated him to persuade her to take some little potion
+by his direction, and they would fetch the same at Oxford; meaning to
+have added something of their own for her comfort, as the doctor
+upon just cause and consideration did suspect, seeing their great
+importunity, and the small need the lady had of physic, and therefore
+he peremptorily denied their request; misdoubting (as he afterwards
+reported) lest, if they had poisoned her under the name of his potion,
+he might after have been hanged for a colour of their sin, and the
+doctor remained still well assured that this way taking no effect, she
+would not long escape their violence, which afterwards happened thus.
+For Sir Richard Varney abovesaid (the chief projector in this design),
+who, by the Earl's order, remained that day of her death alone with her,
+with one man only and Forster, who had that day forcibly sent away all
+her servants from her to Abington market, about three miles distant from
+this place; they (I say, whether first stifling her, or else strangling
+her) afterwards flung her down a pair of stairs and broke her neck,
+using much violence upon her; but, however, though it was vulgarly
+reported that she by chance fell downstairs (but still without hurting
+her hood that was upon her head), yet the inhabitants will tell you
+there that she was conveyed from her usual chamber where she lay, to
+another where the bed's head of the chamber stood close to a privy
+postern door, where they in the night came and stifled her in her bed,
+bruised her head very much broke her neck, and at length flung her down
+stairs, thereby believing the world would have thought it a mischance,
+and so have blinded their villainy. But behold the mercy and justice
+of God in revenging and discovering this lady's murder; for one of the
+persons that was a coadjutor in this murder was afterwards taken for a
+felony in the marches of Wales, and offering to publish the manner
+of the aforesaid murder, was privately made away in the prison by the
+Earl's appointment; and Sir Richard Varney the other, dying about the
+same time in London, cried miserably, and blasphemed God, and said to
+a person of note (who hath related the same to others since), not long
+before his death, that all the devils in hell did tear him in pieces.
+Forster, likewise, after this fact, being a man formerly addicted to
+hospitality, company, mirth, and music, was afterwards observed to
+forsake all this, and with much melancholy and pensiveness (some say
+with madness) pined and drooped away. The wife also of Bald Butter,
+kinsman to the Earl, gave out the whole fact a little before her death.
+Neither are these following passages to be forgotten, that as soon as
+ever she was murdered, they made great haste to bury her before the
+coroner had given in his inquest (which the Earl himself condemned as
+not done advisedly), which her father, or Sir John Robertsett (as I
+suppose), hearing of, came with all speed hither, caused her corpse to
+be taken up, the coroner to sit upon her, and further inquiry to be made
+concerning this business to the full; but it was generally thought that
+the Earl stopped his mouth, and made up the business betwixt them; and
+the good Earl, to make plain to the world the great love he bare to her
+while alive, and what a grief the loss of so virtuous a lady was to his
+tender heart, caused (though the thing, by these and other means, was
+beaten into the heads of the principal men of the University of Oxford)
+her body to be reburied in St, Mary's Church in Oxford, with great
+pomp and solemnity. It is remarkable, when Dr. Babington, the Earl's
+chaplain, did preach the funeral sermon, he tript once or twice in
+his speech, by recommending to their memories that virtuous lady so
+pitifully murdered, instead of saying pitifully slain. This Earl, after
+all his murders and poisonings, was himself poisoned by that which
+was prepared for others (some say by his wife at Cornbury Lodge before
+mentioned), though Baker in his Chronicle would have it at Killingworth;
+anno 1588." [Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, vol.i., p.149. The
+tradition as to Leicester's death was thus communicated by Ben Jonson to
+Drummond of Hawthornden:--"The Earl of Leicester gave a bottle of liquor
+to his Lady, which he willed her to use in any faintness, which she,
+after his returne from court, not knowing it was poison, gave him, and
+so he died."--BEN JONSON'S INFORMATION TO DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN, MS.,
+SIR ROBERT SIBBALD'S COPY.]
+
+The same accusation has been adopted and circulated by the author of
+Leicester's Commonwealth, a satire written directly against the Earl of
+Leicester, which loaded him with the most horrid crimes, and, among
+the rest, with the murder of his first wife. It was alluded to in the
+Yorkshire Tragedy, a play erroneously ascribed to Shakespeare, where
+a baker, who determines to destroy all his family, throws his wife
+downstairs, with this allusion to the supposed murder of Leicester's
+lady,--
+
+
+     "The only way to charm a woman's tongue
+     Is, break her neck--a politician did it."
+
+The reader will find I have borrowed several incidents as well as names
+from Ashmole, and the more early authorities; but my first acquaintance
+with the history was through the more pleasing medium of verse. There
+is a period in youth when the mere power of numbers has a more strong
+effect on ear and imagination than in more advanced life. At this season
+of immature taste, the author was greatly delighted with the poems of
+Mickle and Langhorne, poets who, though by no means deficient in the
+higher branches of their art, were eminent for their powers of verbal
+melody above most who have practised this department of poetry. One of
+those pieces of Mickle, which the author was particularly pleased with,
+is a ballad, or rather a species of elegy, on the subject of Cumnor
+Hall, which, with others by the same author, was to be found in Evans's
+Ancient Ballads (vol. iv., page 130), to which work Mickle made liberal
+contributions. The first stanza especially had a peculiar species of
+enchantment for the youthful ear of the author, the force of which is
+not even now entirely spent; some others are sufficiently prosaic.
+
+
+     CUMNOR HALL.
+
+     The dews of summer night did fall;
+     The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+     Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+     And many an oak that grew thereby,
+
+     Now nought was heard beneath the skies,
+     The sounds of busy life were still,
+     Save an unhappy lady's sighs,
+     That issued from that lonely pile.
+
+     "Leicester," she cried, "is this thy love
+     That thou so oft hast sworn to me,
+     To leave me in this lonely grove,
+     Immured in shameful privity?
+
+     "No more thou com'st with lover's speed,
+     Thy once beloved bride to see;
+     But be she alive, or be she dead,
+     I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+
+     "Not so the usage I received
+     When happy in my father's hall;
+     No faithless husband then me grieved,
+     No chilling fears did me appal.
+
+     "I rose up with the cheerful morn,
+     No lark more blithe, no flower more gay;
+     And like the bird that haunts the thorn,
+     So merrily sung the livelong day.
+
+     "If that my beauty is but small,
+     Among court ladies all despised,
+     Why didst thou rend it from that hall,
+     Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized?
+
+     "And when you first to me made suit,
+     How fair I was you oft would say!
+     And proud of conquest, pluck'd the fruit,
+     Then left the blossom to decay.
+
+     "Yes!  now neglected and despised,
+     The rose is pale, the lily's dead;
+     But he that once their charms so prized,
+     Is sure the cause those charms are fled.
+
+     "For know, when sick'ning grief doth prey,
+     And tender love's repaid with scorn,
+     The sweetest beauty will decay,--
+     What floweret can endure the storm?
+
+     "At court, I'm told, is beauty's throne,
+     Where every lady's passing rare,
+     That Eastern flowers, that shame the sun,
+     Are not so glowing, not so fair.
+
+     "Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds
+     Where roses and where lilies vie,
+     To seek a primrose, whose pale shades
+     Must sicken when those gauds are by?
+
+     "'Mong rural beauties I was one,
+     Among the fields wild flowers are fair;
+     Some country swain might me have won,
+     And thought my beauty passing rare.
+
+     "But, Leicester (or I much am wrong),
+     Or 'tis not beauty lures thy vows;
+     Rather ambition's gilded crown
+     Makes thee forget thy humble spouse.
+
+     "Then, Leicester, why, again I plead
+     (The injured surely may repine)--
+     Why didst thou wed a country maid,
+     When some fair princess might be thine?
+
+     "Why didst thou praise my hum'ble charms,
+     And, oh!  then leave them to decay?
+     Why didst thou win me to thy arms,
+     Then leave to mourn the livelong day?
+
+     "The village maidens of the plain
+     Salute me lowly as they go;
+     Envious they mark my silken train,
+     Nor think a Countess can have woe.
+
+     "The simple nymphs!  they little know
+     How far more happy's their estate;
+     To smile for joy, than sigh for woe--
+     To be content, than to be great.
+
+     "How far less blest am I than them?
+     Daily to pine and waste with care!
+     Like the poor plant that, from its stem
+     Divided, feels the chilling air.
+
+     "Nor, cruel Earl!  can I enjoy
+     The humble charms of solitude;
+     Your minions proud my peace destroy,
+     By sullen frowns or pratings rude.
+
+     "Last night, as sad I chanced to stray,
+     The village death-bell smote my ear;
+     They wink'd aside, and seemed to say,
+     'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'
+
+     "And now, while happy peasants sleep,
+     Here I sit lonely and forlorn;
+     No one to soothe me as I weep,
+     Save Philomel on yonder thorn.
+
+     "My spirits flag--my hopes decay--
+     Still that dread death-bell smites my ear;
+     And many a boding seems to say,
+     'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'"
+
+     Thus sore and sad that lady grieved,
+     In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear;
+     And many a heartfelt sigh she heaved,
+     And let fall many a bitter tear.
+
+     And ere the dawn of day appear'd,
+     In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear,
+     Full many a piercing scream was heard,
+     And many a cry of mortal fear.
+
+     The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+     An aerial voice was heard to call,
+     And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+     Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.
+
+     The mastiff howl'd at village door,
+     The oaks were shatter'd on the green;
+     Woe was the hour--for never more
+     That hapless Countess e'er was seen!
+
+     And in that Manor now no more
+     Is cheerful feast and sprightly ball;
+     For ever since that dreary hour
+     Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall.
+
+     The village maids, with fearful glance,
+     Avoid the ancient moss-grown wall;
+     Nor ever lead the merry dance,
+     Among the groves of Cumnor Hall.
+
+     Full many a traveller oft hath sigh'd,
+     And pensive wept the Countess' fall,
+     As wand'ring onward they've espied
+     The haunted towers of Cumnor Hall.
+
+     ARBOTSFORD, 1st March 1831.
+
+
+
+
+
+KENILWORTH
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+     I am an innkeeper, and know my grounds,
+     And study them; Brain o' man, I study them.
+     I must have jovial guests to drive my ploughs,
+     And whistling boys to bring my harvests home,
+     Or I shall hear no flails thwack.             THE NEW INN.
+
+It is the privilege of tale-tellers to open their story in an inn, the
+free rendezvous of all travellers, and where the humour of each displays
+itself without ceremony or restraint. This is specially suitable when
+the scene is laid during the old days of merry England, when the
+guests were in some sort not merely the inmates, but the messmates
+and temporary companions of mine Host, who was usually a personage of
+privileged freedom, comely presence, and good-humour. Patronized by him
+the characters of the company were placed in ready contrast; and they
+seldom failed, during the emptying of a six-hooped pot, to throw off
+reserve, and present themselves to each other, and to their landlord,
+with the freedom of old acquaintance.
+
+The village of Cumnor, within three or four miles of Oxford, boasted,
+during the eighteenth of Queen Elizabeth, an excellent inn of the old
+stamp, conducted, or rather ruled, by Giles Gosling, a man of a goodly
+person, and of somewhat round belly; fifty years of age and upwards,
+moderate in his reckonings, prompt in his payments, having a cellar of
+sound liquor, a ready wit, and a pretty daughter. Since the days of
+old Harry Baillie of the Tabard in Southwark, no one had excelled Giles
+Gosling in the power of pleasing his guests of every description; and so
+great was his fame, that to have been in Cumnor without wetting a cup
+at the bonny Black Bear, would have been to avouch one's-self utterly
+indifferent to reputation as a traveller. A country fellow might as well
+return from London without looking in the face of majesty. The men of
+Cumnor were proud of their Host, and their Host was proud of his house,
+his liquor, his daughter, and himself.
+
+It was in the courtyard of the inn which called this honest fellow
+landlord, that a traveller alighted in the close of the evening, gave
+his horse, which seemed to have made a long journey, to the hostler,
+and made some inquiry, which produced the following dialogue betwixt the
+myrmidons of the bonny Black Bear.
+
+"What, ho! John Tapster."
+
+"At hand, Will Hostler," replied the man of the spigot, showing himself
+in his costume of loose jacket, linen breeches, and green apron, half
+within and half without a door, which appeared to descend to an outer
+cellar.
+
+"Here is a gentleman asks if you draw good ale," continued the hostler.
+
+"Beshrew my heart else," answered the tapster, "since there are but four
+miles betwixt us and Oxford. Marry, if my ale did not convince the
+heads of the scholars, they would soon convince my pate with the pewter
+flagon."
+
+"Call you that Oxford logic?" said the stranger, who had now quitted the
+rein of his horse, and was advancing towards the inn-door, when he was
+encountered by the goodly form of Giles Gosling himself.
+
+"Is it logic you talk of, Sir Guest?" said the host; "why, then, have at
+you with a downright consequence--
+
+
+     'The horse to the rack,
+     And to fire with the sack.'"
+
+"Amen! with all my heart, my good host," said the stranger; "let it be a
+quart of your best Canaries, and give me your good help to drink it."
+
+"Nay, you are but in your accidence yet, Sir Traveller, if you call on
+your host for help for such a sipping matter as a quart of sack; Were it
+a gallon, you might lack some neighbouring aid at my hand, and yet call
+yourself a toper."
+
+"Fear me not." said the guest, "I will do my devoir as becomes a man who
+finds himself within five miles of Oxford; for I am not come from the
+field of Mars to discredit myself amongst the followers of Minerva."
+
+As he spoke thus, the landlord, with much semblance of hearty welcome,
+ushered his guest into a large, low chamber, where several persons were
+seated together in different parties--some drinking, some playing at
+cards, some conversing, and some, whose business called them to be early
+risers on the morrow, concluding their evening meal, and conferring with
+the chamberlain about their night's quarters.
+
+The entrance of a stranger procured him that general and careless sort
+of attention which is usually paid on such occasions, from which the
+following results were deduced:--The guest was one of those who, with
+a well-made person, and features not in themselves unpleasing, are
+nevertheless so far from handsome that, whether from the expression
+of their features, or the tone of their voice, or from their gait and
+manner, there arises, on the whole, a disinclination to their society.
+The stranger's address was bold, without being frank, and seemed eagerly
+and hastily to claim for him a degree of attention and deference which
+he feared would be refused, if not instantly vindicated as his right.
+His attire was a riding-cloak, which, when open, displayed a handsome
+jerkin overlaid with lace, and belted with a buff girdle, which
+sustained a broadsword and a pair of pistols.
+
+"You ride well provided, sir," said the host, looking at the weapons as
+he placed on the table the mulled sack which the traveller had ordered.
+
+"Yes, mine host; I have found the use on't in dangerous times, and I do
+not, like your modern grandees, turn off my followers the instant they
+are useless."
+
+"Ay, sir?" said Giles Gosling; "then you are from the Low Countries, the
+land of pike and caliver?"
+
+"I have been high and low, my friend, broad and wide, far and near. But
+here is to thee in a cup of thy sack; fill thyself another to pledge me,
+and, if it is less than superlative, e'en drink as you have brewed."
+
+"Less than superlative?" said Giles Gosling, drinking off the cup, and
+smacking his lips with an air of ineffable relish,--"I know nothing
+of superlative, nor is there such a wine at the Three Cranes, in the
+Vintry, to my knowledge; but if you find better sack than that in the
+Sheres, or in the Canaries either, I would I may never touch either pot
+or penny more. Why, hold it up betwixt you and the light, you shall see
+the little motes dance in the golden liquor like dust in the sunbeam.
+But I would rather draw wine for ten clowns than one traveller.--I trust
+your honour likes the wine?"
+
+"It is neat and comfortable, mine host; but to know good liquor, you
+should drink where the vine grows. Trust me, your Spaniard is too wise
+a man to send you the very soul of the grape. Why, this now, which you
+account so choice, were counted but as a cup of bastard at the Groyne,
+or at Port St. Mary's. You should travel, mine host, if you would be
+deep in the mysteries of the butt and pottle-pot."
+
+"In troth, Signior Guest," said Giles Gosling, "if I were to travel only
+that I might be discontented with that which I can get at home, methinks
+I should go but on a fool's errand. Besides, I warrant you, there is
+many a fool can turn his nose up at good drink without ever having
+been out of the smoke of Old England; and so ever gramercy mine own
+fireside."
+
+"This is but a mean mind of yours, mine host," said the stranger;
+"I warrant me, all your town's folk do not think so basely. You have
+gallants among you, I dare undertake, that have made the Virginia
+voyage, or taken a turn in the Low Countries at least. Come, cudgel your
+memory. Have you no friends in foreign parts that you would gladly have
+tidings of?"
+
+"Troth, sir, not I," answered the host, "since ranting Robin of
+Drysandford was shot at the siege of the Brill. The devil take the
+caliver that fired the ball, for a blither lad never filled a cup
+at midnight! But he is dead and gone, and I know not a soldier, or a
+traveller, who is a soldier's mate, that I would give a peeled codling
+for."
+
+"By the Mass, that is strange. What! so many of our brave English hearts
+are abroad, and you, who seem to be a man of mark, have no friend, no
+kinsman among them?"
+
+"Nay, if you speak of kinsmen," answered Gosling, "I have one wild slip
+of a kinsman, who left us in the last year of Queen Mary; but he is
+better lost than found."
+
+"Do not say so, friend, unless you have heard ill of him lately. Many a
+wild colt has turned out a noble steed.--His name, I pray you?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne," answered the landlord of the Black Bear; "a son of
+my sister's--there is little pleasure in recollecting either the name or
+the connection."
+
+"Michael Lambourne!" said the stranger, as if endeavouring to recollect
+himself--"what, no relation to Michael Lambourne, the gallant cavalier
+who behaved so bravely at the siege of Venlo that Grave Maurice thanked
+him at the head of the army? Men said he was an English cavalier, and of
+no high extraction."
+
+"It could scarcely be my nephew," said Giles Gosling, "for he had not
+the courage of a hen-partridge for aught but mischief."
+
+"Oh, many a man finds courage in the wars," replied the stranger.
+
+"It may be," said the landlord; "but I would have thought our Mike more
+likely to lose the little he had."
+
+"The Michael Lambourne whom I knew," continued the traveller, "was a
+likely fellow--went always gay and well attired, and had a hawk's eye
+after a pretty wench."
+
+"Our Michael," replied the host, "had the look of a dog with a bottle
+at its tail, and wore a coat, every rag of which was bidding good-day to
+the rest."
+
+"Oh, men pick up good apparel in the wars," replied the guest.
+
+"Our Mike," answered the landlord, "was more like to pick it up in a
+frippery warehouse, while the broker was looking another way; and, for
+the hawk's eye you talk of, his was always after my stray spoons. He was
+tapster's boy here in this blessed house for a quarter of a year; and
+between misreckonings, miscarriages, mistakes, and misdemeanours, had
+he dwelt with me for three months longer, I might have pulled down sign,
+shut up house, and given the devil the key to keep."
+
+"You would be sorry, after all," continued the traveller, "were I to
+tell you poor Mike Lambourne was shot at the head of his regiment at the
+taking of a sconce near Maestricht?"
+
+"Sorry!--it would be the blithest news I ever heard of him, since it
+would ensure me he was not hanged. But let him pass--I doubt his
+end will never do such credit to his friends. Were it so, I should
+say"--(taking another cup of sack)--"Here's God rest him, with all my
+heart."
+
+"Tush, man," replied the traveller, "never fear but you will have credit
+by your nephew yet, especially if he be the Michael Lambourne whom I
+knew, and loved very nearly, or altogether, as well as myself. Can you
+tell me no mark by which I could judge whether they be the same?"
+
+"Faith, none that I can think of," answered Giles Gosling, "unless that
+our Mike had the gallows branded on his left shoulder for stealing a
+silver caudle-cup from Dame Snort of Hogsditch."
+
+"Nay, there you lie like a knave, uncle," said the stranger, slipping
+aside his ruff; and turning down the sleeve of his doublet from his neck
+and shoulder; "by this good day, my shoulder is as unscarred as thine
+own.
+
+"What, Mike, boy--Mike!" exclaimed the host;--"and is it thou, in good
+earnest? Nay, I have judged so for this half-hour; for I knew no other
+person would have ta'en half the interest in thee. But, Mike, an thy
+shoulder be unscathed as thou sayest, thou must own that Goodman Thong,
+the hangman, was merciful in his office, and stamped thee with a cold
+iron."
+
+"Tush, uncle--truce with your jests. Keep them to season your sour ale,
+and let us see what hearty welcome thou wilt give a kinsman who has
+rolled the world around for eighteen years; who has seen the sun set
+where it rises, and has travelled till the west has become the east."
+
+"Thou hast brought back one traveller's gift with thee, Mike, as I well
+see; and that was what thou least didst: need to travel for. I remember
+well, among thine other qualities, there was no crediting a word which
+came from thy mouth."
+
+"Here's an unbelieving pagan for you, gentlemen!" said Michael
+Lambourne, turning to those who witnessed this strange interview betwixt
+uncle and nephew, some of whom, being natives of the village, were no
+strangers to his juvenile wildness. "This may be called slaying a Cumnor
+fatted calf for me with a vengeance.--But, uncle, I come not from
+the husks and the swine-trough, and I care not for thy welcome or no
+welcome; I carry that with me will make me welcome, wend where I will."
+
+So saying, he pulled out a purse of gold indifferently well filled, the
+sight of which produced a visible effect upon the company. Some shook
+their heads and whispered to each other, while one or two of the less
+scrupulous speedily began to recollect him as a school-companion,
+a townsman, or so forth. On the other hand, two or three grave,
+sedate-looking persons shook their heads, and left the inn, hinting
+that, if Giles Gosling wished to continue to thrive, he should turn his
+thriftless, godless nephew adrift again, as soon as he could. Gosling
+demeaned himself as if he were much of the same opinion, for even the
+sight of the gold made less impression on the honest gentleman than it
+usually doth upon one of his calling.
+
+"Kinsman Michael," he said, "put up thy purse. My sister's son shall be
+called to no reckoning in my house for supper or lodging; and I reckon
+thou wilt hardly wish to stay longer where thou art e'en but too well
+known."
+
+"For that matter, uncle," replied the traveller, "I shall consult my own
+needs and conveniences. Meantime I wish to give the supper and sleeping
+cup to those good townsmen who are not too proud to remember Mike
+Lambourne, the tapster's boy. If you will let me have entertainment for
+my money, so; if not, it is but a short two minutes' walk to the Hare
+and Tabor, and I trust our neighbours will not grudge going thus far
+with me."
+
+"Nay, Mike," replied his uncle, "as eighteen years have gone over thy
+head, and I trust thou art somewhat amended in thy conditions, thou
+shalt not leave my house at this hour, and shalt e'en have whatever
+in reason you list to call for. But I would I knew that that purse of
+thine, which thou vapourest of, were as well come by as it seems well
+filled."
+
+"Here is an infidel for you, my good neighbours!" said Lambourne, again
+appealing to the audience. "Here's a fellow will rip up his kinsman's
+follies of a good score of years' standing. And for the gold, why, sirs,
+I have been where it grew, and was to be had for the gathering. In
+the New World have I been, man--in the Eldorado, where urchins play
+at cherry-pit with diamonds, and country wenches thread rubies for
+necklaces, instead of rowan-tree berries; where the pantiles are made of
+pure gold, and the paving-stones of virgin silver."
+
+"By my credit, friend Mike," said young Laurence Goldthred, the cutting
+mercer of Abingdon, "that were a likely coast to trade to. And what may
+lawns, cypruses, and ribands fetch, where gold is so plenty?"
+
+"Oh, the profit were unutterable," replied Lambourne, "especially when
+a handsome young merchant bears the pack himself; for the ladies of that
+clime are bona-robas, and being themselves somewhat sunburnt, they catch
+fire like tinder at a fresh complexion like thine, with a head of hair
+inclining to be red."
+
+"I would I might trade thither," said the mercer, chuckling.
+
+"Why, and so thou mayest," said Michael--"that is, if thou art the same
+brisk boy who was partner with me at robbing the Abbot's orchard. 'Tis
+but a little touch of alchemy to decoct thy house and land into ready
+money, and that ready money into a tall ship, with sails, anchors,
+cordage, and all things conforming; then clap thy warehouse of goods
+under hatches, put fifty good fellows on deck, with myself to command
+them, and so hoist topsails, and hey for the New World!"
+
+"Thou hast taught him a secret, kinsman," said Giles Gosling, "to
+decoct, an that be the word, his pound into a penny and his webs into a
+thread.--Take a fool's advice, neighbour Goldthred. Tempt not the sea,
+for she is a devourer. Let cards and cockatrices do their worst, thy
+father's bales may bide a banging for a year or two ere thou comest to
+the Spital; but the sea hath a bottomless appetite,--she would swallow
+the wealth of Lombard Street in a morning, as easily as I would a
+poached egg and a cup of clary. And for my kinsman's Eldorado, never
+trust me if I do not believe he has found it in the pouches of some such
+gulls as thyself.--But take no snuff in the nose about it; fall to and
+welcome, for here comes the supper, and I heartily bestow it on all
+that will take share, in honour of my hopeful nephew's return, always
+trusting that he has come home another man.--In faith, kinsman, thou art
+as like my poor sister as ever was son to mother."
+
+"Not quite so like old Benedict Lambourne, her husband, though," said
+the mercer, nodding and winking. "Dost thou remember, Mike, what thou
+saidst when the schoolmaster's ferule was over thee for striking up thy
+father's crutches?--it is a wise child, saidst thou, that knows its own
+father. Dr. Bircham laughed till he cried again, and his crying saved
+yours."
+
+"Well, he made it up to me many a day after," said Lambourne; "and how
+is the worthy pedagogue?"
+
+"Dead," said Giles Gosling, "this many a day since."
+
+"That he is," said the clerk of the parish; "I sat by his bed the
+whilst. He passed away in a blessed frame. 'MORIOR--MORTUUS SUM VEL
+FUI--MORI'--these were his latest words; and he just added, 'my last
+verb is conjugated."
+
+"Well, peace be with him," said Mike, "he owes me nothing."
+
+"No, truly," replied Goldthred; "and every lash which he laid on thee,
+he always was wont to say, he spared the hangman a labour."
+
+"One would have thought he left him little to do then," said the clerk;
+"and yet Goodman Thong had no sinecure of it with our friend, after
+all."
+
+"VOTO A DIOS!" exclaimed Lambourne, his patience appearing to fail him,
+as he snatched his broad, slouched hat from the table and placed it on
+his head, so that the shadow gave the sinister expression of a Spanish
+brave to eyes and features which naturally boded nothing pleasant.
+"Hark'ee, my masters--all is fair among friends, and under the rose; and
+I have already permitted my worthy uncle here, and all of you, to use
+your pleasure with the frolics of my nonage. But I carry sword and
+dagger, my good friends, and can use them lightly too upon occasion. I
+have learned to be dangerous upon points of honour ever since I served
+the Spaniard, and I would not have you provoke me to the degree of
+falling foul."
+
+"Why, what would you do?" said the clerk.
+
+"Ay, sir, what would you do?" said the mercer, bustling up on the other
+side of the table.
+
+"Slit your throat, and spoil your Sunday's quavering, Sir Clerk,"
+said Lambourne fiercely; "cudgel you, my worshipful dealer in flimsy
+sarsenets, into one of your own bales."
+
+"Come, come," said the host, interposing, "I will have no swaggering
+here.--Nephew, it will become you best to show no haste to take offence;
+and you, gentlemen, will do well to remember, that if you are in an inn,
+still you are the inn-keeper's guests, and should spare the honour
+of his family.--I protest your silly broils make me as oblivious as
+yourself; for yonder sits my silent guest as I call him, who hath been
+my two days' inmate, and hath never spoken a word, save to ask for his
+food and his reckoning--gives no more trouble than a very peasant--pays
+his shot like a prince royal--looks but at the sum total of the
+reckoning, and does not know what day he shall go away. Oh, 'tis a jewel
+of a guest! and yet, hang-dog that I am, I have suffered him to sit
+by himself like a castaway in yonder obscure nook, without so much as
+asking him to take bite or sup along with us. It were but the right
+guerdon of my incivility were he to set off to the Hare and Tabor before
+the night grows older."
+
+With his white napkin gracefully arranged over his left arm, his velvet
+cap laid aside for the moment, and his best silver flagon in his right
+hand, mine host walked up to the solitary guest whom he mentioned, and
+thereby turned upon him the eyes of the assembled company.
+
+He was a man aged betwixt twenty-five and thirty, rather above the
+middle size, dressed with plainness and decency, yet bearing an air of
+ease which almost amounted to dignity, and which seemed to infer that
+his habit was rather beneath his rank. His countenance was reserved and
+thoughtful, with dark hair and dark eyes; the last, upon any momentary
+excitement, sparkled with uncommon lustre, but on other occasions
+had the same meditative and tranquil cast which was exhibited by his
+features. The busy curiosity of the little village had been employed to
+discover his name and quality, as well as his business at Cumnor;
+but nothing had transpired on either subject which could lead to its
+gratification. Giles Gosling, head-borough of the place, and a steady
+friend to Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant religion, was at one time
+inclined to suspect his guest of being a Jesuit, or seminary priest, of
+whom Rome and Spain sent at this time so many to grace the gallows
+in England. But it was scarce possible to retain such a prepossession
+against a guest who gave so little trouble, paid his reckoning so
+regularly, and who proposed, as it seemed, to make a considerable stay
+at the bonny Black Bear.
+
+"Papists," argued Giles Gosling, "are a pinching, close-fisted race,
+and this man would have found a lodging with the wealthy squire at
+Bessellsey, or with the old Knight at Wootton, or in some other of their
+Roman dens, instead of living in a house of public entertainment, as
+every honest man and good Christian should. Besides, on Friday he stuck
+by the salt beef and carrot, though there were as good spitch-cocked
+eels on the board as ever were ta'en out of the Isis."
+
+Honest Giles, therefore, satisfied himself that his guest was no Roman,
+and with all comely courtesy besought the stranger to pledge him in
+a draught of the cool tankard, and honour with his attention a small
+collation which he was giving to his nephew, in honour of his return,
+and, as he verily hoped, of his reformation. The stranger at first shook
+his head, as if declining the courtesy; but mine host proceeded to
+urge him with arguments founded on the credit of his house, and the
+construction which the good people of Cumnor might put upon such an
+unsocial humour.
+
+"By my faith, sir," he said, "it touches my reputation that men should
+be merry in my house; and we have ill tongues amongst us at Cumnor (as
+where be there not?), who put an evil mark on men who pull their hat
+over their brows, as if they were looking back to the days that are
+gone, instead of enjoying the blithe sunshiny weather which God has sent
+us in the sweet looks of our sovereign mistress, Queen Elizabeth, whom
+Heaven long bless and preserve!"
+
+"Why, mine host," answered the stranger, "there is no treason, sure, in
+a man's enjoying his own thoughts, under the shadow of his own bonnet?
+You have lived in the world twice as long as I have, and you must know
+there are thoughts that will haunt us in spite of ourselves, and to
+which it is in vain to say, Begone, and let me be merry."
+
+"By my sooth," answered Giles Gosling, "if such troublesome thoughts
+haunt your mind, and will not get them gone for plain English, we will
+have one of Father Bacon's pupils from Oxford, to conjure them away with
+logic and with Hebrew--or, what say you to laying them in a glorious red
+sea of claret, my noble guest? Come, sir, excuse my freedom. I am an old
+host, and must have my talk. This peevish humour of melancholy sits ill
+upon you; it suits not with a sleek boot, a hat of trim block, a fresh
+cloak, and a full purse. A pize on it! send it off to those who have
+their legs swathed with a hay-wisp, their heads thatched with a felt
+bonnet, their jerkin as thin as a cobweb, and their pouch without ever
+a cross to keep the fiend Melancholy from dancing in it. Cheer up,
+sir! or, by this good liquor, we shall banish thee from the joys
+of blithesome company, into the mists of melancholy and the land of
+little-ease. Here be a set of good fellows willing to be merry; do not
+scowl on them like the devil looking over Lincoln."
+
+"You say well, my worthy host," said the guest, with a melancholy smile,
+which, melancholy as it was, gave a very pleasant: expression to his
+countenance--"you say well, my jovial friend; and they that are moody
+like myself should not disturb the mirth of those who are happy. I will
+drink a round with your guests with all my heart, rather than be termed
+a mar-feast."
+
+So saying, he arose and joined the company, who, encouraged by the
+precept and example of Michael Lambourne, and consisting chiefly of
+persons much disposed to profit by the opportunity of a merry meal at
+the expense of their landlord, had already made some inroads upon the
+limits of temperance, as was evident from the tone in which Michael
+inquired after his old acquaintances in the town, and the bursts of
+laughter with which each answer was received. Giles Gosling himself
+was somewhat scandalized at the obstreperous nature of their mirth,
+especially as he involuntarily felt some respect for his unknown guest.
+He paused, therefore, at some distance from the table occupied by these
+noisy revellers, and began to make a sort of apology for their license.
+
+"You would think," he said, "to hear these fellows talk, that there was
+not one of them who had not been bred to live by Stand and Deliver; and
+yet tomorrow you will find them a set of as painstaking mechanics, and
+so forth, as ever cut an inch short of measure, or paid a letter of
+change in light crowns over a counter. The mercer there wears his hat
+awry, over a shaggy head of hair, that looks like a curly water-dog's
+back, goes unbraced, wears his cloak on one side, and affects a
+ruffianly vapouring humour: when in his shop at Abingdon, he is, from
+his flat cap to his glistening shoes, as precise in his apparel as if he
+was named for mayor. He talks of breaking parks, and taking the highway,
+in such fashion that you would think he haunted every night betwixt
+Hounslow and London; when in fact he may be found sound asleep on his
+feather-bed, with a candle placed beside him on one side, and a Bible on
+the other, to fright away the goblins."
+
+"And your nephew, mine host, this same Michael Lambourne, who is lord of
+the feast--is he, too, such a would-be ruffler as the rest of them?"
+
+"Why, there you push me hard," said the host; "my nephew is my nephew,
+and though he was a desperate Dick of yore, yet Mike may have mended
+like other folks, you wot. And I would not have you think all I said
+of him, even now, was strict gospel; I knew the wag all the while, and
+wished to pluck his plumes from him. And now, sir, by what name shall I
+present my worshipful guest to these gallants?"
+
+"Marry, mine host," replied the stranger, "you may call me Tressilian."
+
+"Tressilian?" answered mine host of the Bear. "A worthy name, and, as I
+think, of Cornish lineage; for what says the south proverb--
+
+
+     'By Pol, Tre, and Pen,
+     You may know the Cornish men.'
+
+Shall I say the worthy Master Tressilian of Cornwall?"
+
+"Say no more than I have given you warrant for, mine host, and so shall
+you be sure you speak no more than is true. A man may have one of those
+honourable prefixes to his name, yet be born far from Saint Michael's
+Mount."
+
+Mine host pushed his curiosity no further, but presented Master
+Tressilian to his nephew's company, who, after exchange of salutations,
+and drinking to the health of their new companion, pursued the
+conversation in which he found them engaged, seasoning it with many an
+intervening pledge.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+     Talk you of young Master Lancelot? --MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+After some brief interval, Master Goldthred, at the earnest instigation
+of mine host, and the joyous concurrence of his guest, indulged the
+company with, the following morsel of melody:--
+
+
+     "Of all the birds on bush or tree,
+     Commend me to the owl,
+     Since he may best ensample be
+     To those the cup that trowl.
+     For when the sun hath left the west,
+     He chooses the tree that he loves the best,
+     And he whoops out his song, and he laughs at his jest;
+     Then, though hours be late and weather foul,
+     We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl.
+
+     "The lark is but a bumpkin fowl,
+     He sleeps in his nest till morn;
+     But my blessing upon the jolly owl,
+     That all night blows his horn.
+     Then up with your cup till you stagger in speech,
+     And match me this catch till you swagger and screech,
+     And drink till you wink, my merry men each;
+     For, though hours be late and weather be foul,
+     We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl."
+
+"There is savour in this, my hearts," said Michael, when the mercer had
+finished his song, "and some goodness seems left among you yet; but what
+a bead-roll you have read me of old comrades, and to every man's name
+tacked some ill-omened motto! And so Swashing Will of Wallingford hath
+bid us good-night?"
+
+"He died the death of a fat buck," said one of the party, "being shot
+with a crossbow bolt, by old Thatcham, the Duke's stout park-keeper at
+Donnington Castle."
+
+"Ay, ay, he always loved venison well," replied Michael, "and a cup
+of claret to boot--and so here's one to his memory. Do me right, my
+masters."
+
+When the memory of this departed worthy had been duly honoured,
+Lambourne proceeded to inquire after Prance of Padworth.
+
+"Pranced off--made immortal ten years since," said the mercer; "marry,
+sir, Oxford Castle and Goodman Thong, and a tenpenny-worth of cord, best
+know how."
+
+"What, so they hung poor Prance high and dry? so much for loving to walk
+by moonlight. A cup to his memory, my masters-all merry fellows like
+moonlight. What has become of Hal with the Plume--he who lived near
+Yattenden, and wore the long feather?--I forget his name."
+
+"What, Hal Hempseed?" replied the mercer. "Why, you may remember he was
+a sort of a gentleman, and would meddle in state matters, and so he
+got into the mire about the Duke of Norfolk's affair these two or three
+years since, fled the country with a pursuivant's warrant at his heels,
+and has never since been heard of."
+
+"Nay, after these baulks," said Michael Lambourne, "I need hardly
+inquire after Tony Foster; for when ropes, and crossbow shafts, and
+pursuivant's warrants, and such-like gear, were so rife, Tony could
+hardly 'scape them."
+
+"Which Tony Foster mean you?" said the innkeeper.
+
+"Why, him they called Tony Fire-the-Fagot, because he brought a light
+to kindle the pile round Latimer and Ridley, when the wind blew out Jack
+Thong's torch, and no man else would give him light for love or money."
+
+"Tony Foster lives and thrives," said the host. "But, kinsman, I would
+not have you call him Tony Fire-the-Fagot, if you would not brook the
+stab."
+
+"How! is he grown ashamed on't?" said Lambourne, "Why, he was wont to
+boast of it, and say he liked as well to see a roasted heretic as a
+roasted ox."
+
+"Ay, but, kinsman, that was in Mary's time," replied the landlord, "when
+Tony's father was reeve here to the Abbot of Abingdon. But since that,
+Tony married a pure precisian, and is as good a Protestant, I warrant
+you, as the best."
+
+"And looks grave, and holds his head high, and scorns his old
+companions," said the mercer.
+
+"Then he hath prospered, I warrant him," said Lambourne; "for ever when
+a man hath got nobles of his own, he keeps out of the way of those whose
+exchequers lie in other men's purchase."
+
+"Prospered, quotha!" said the mercer; "why, you remember Cumnor Place,
+the old mansion-house beside the churchyard?"
+
+"By the same token, I robbed the orchard three times--what of that?
+It was the old abbot's residence when there was plague or sickness at
+Abingdon."
+
+"Ay," said the host, "but that has been long over; and Anthony Foster
+hath a right in it, and lives there by some grant from a great courtier,
+who had the church-lands from the crown. And there he dwells, and has
+as little to do with any poor wight in Cumnor, as if he were himself a
+belted knight."
+
+"Nay," said the mercer, "it is not altogether pride in Tony neither;
+there is a fair lady in the case, and Tony will scarce let the light of
+day look on her."
+
+"How!" said Tressilian, who now for the first time interfered in
+their conversation; "did ye not say this Foster was married, and to a
+precisian?"
+
+"Married he was, and to as bitter a precisian as ever ate flesh in Lent;
+and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony, as men said. But she is dead,
+rest be with her! and Tony hath but a slip of a daughter; so it is
+thought he means to wed this stranger, that men keep such a coil about."
+
+"And why so?--I mean, why do they keep a coil about her?" said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Why, I wot not," answered the host, "except that men say she is as
+beautiful as an angel, and no one knows whence she comes, and every one
+wishes to know why she is kept so closely mewed up. For my part, I never
+saw her--you have, I think, Master Goldthred?"
+
+"That I have, old boy," said the mercer. "Look you, I was riding hither
+from Abingdon. I passed under the east oriel window of the old mansion,
+where all the old saints and histories and such-like are painted. It was
+not the common path I took, but one through the Park; for the postern
+door was upon the latch, and I thought I might take the privilege of an
+old comrade to ride across through the trees, both for shading, as the
+day was somewhat hot, and for avoiding of dust, because I had on my
+peach-coloured doublet, pinked out with cloth of gold."
+
+"Which garment," said Michael Lambourne, "thou wouldst willingly make
+twinkle in the eyes of a fair dame. Ah! villain, thou wilt never leave
+thy old tricks."
+
+"Not so-not so," said the mercer, with a smirking laugh--"not altogether
+so--but curiosity, thou knowest, and a strain of compassion withal; for
+the poor young lady sees nothing from morn to even but Tony Foster, with
+his scowling black brows, his bull's head, and his bandy legs."
+
+"And thou wouldst willingly show her a dapper body, in a silken
+jerkin--a limb like a short-legged hen's, in a cordovan boot--and a
+round, simpering, what-d'ye-lack sort of a countenance, set off with a
+velvet bonnet, a Turkey feather, and a gilded brooch? Ah! jolly mercer,
+they who have good wares are fond to show them!--Come, gentles, let
+not the cup stand--here's to long spurs, short boots, full bonnets, and
+empty skulls!"
+
+"Nay, now, you are jealous of me, Mike," said Goldthred; "and yet my
+luck was but what might have happened to thee, or any man."
+
+"Marry confound thine impudence," retorted Lambourne; "thou wouldst not
+compare thy pudding face, and sarsenet manners, to a gentleman, and a
+soldier?"
+
+"Nay, my good sir," said Tressilian, "let me beseech you will not
+interrupt the gallant citizen; methinks he tells his tale so well, I
+could hearken to him till midnight."
+
+"It's more of your favour than of my desert," answered Master Goldthred;
+"but since I give you pleasure, worthy Master Tressilian, I shall
+proceed, maugre all the gibes and quips of this valiant soldier, who,
+peradventure, hath had more cuffs than crowns in the Low Countries. And
+so, sir, as I passed under the great painted window, leaving my rein
+loose on my ambling palfrey's neck, partly for mine ease, and partly
+that I might have the more leisure to peer about, I hears me the lattice
+open; and never credit me, sir, if there did not stand there the person
+of as fair a woman as ever crossed mine eyes; and I think I have looked
+on as many pretty wenches, and with as much judgment, as other folks."
+
+"May I ask her appearance, sir?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, sir," replied Master Goldthred, "I promise you, she was in
+gentlewoman's attire--a very quaint and pleasing dress, that might have
+served the Queen herself; for she had a forepart with body and sleeves,
+of ginger-coloured satin, which, in my judgment, must have cost by the
+yard some thirty shillings, lined with murrey taffeta, and laid down and
+guarded with two broad laces of gold and silver. And her hat, sir, was
+truly the best fashioned thing that I have seen in these parts, being of
+tawny taffeta, embroidered with scorpions of Venice gold, and having a
+border garnished with gold fringe--I promise you, sir, an absolute
+and all-surpassing device. Touching her skirts, they were in the old
+pass-devant fashion."
+
+"I did not ask you of her attire, sir," said Tressilian, who had shown
+some impatience during this conversation, "but of her complexion--the
+colour of her hair, her features."
+
+"Touching her complexion," answered the mercer, "I am not so special
+certain, but I marked that her fan had an ivory handle, curiously
+inlaid. And then again, as to the colour of her hair, why, I can
+warrant, be its hue what it might, that she wore above it a net of green
+silk, parcel twisted with gold."
+
+"A most mercer-like memory!" said Lambourne. "The gentleman asks him of
+the lady's beauty, and he talks of her fine clothes!"
+
+"I tell thee," said the mercer, somewhat disconcerted, "I had little
+time to look at her; for just as I was about to give her the good time
+of day, and for that purpose had puckered my features with a smile--"
+
+"Like those of a jackanape simpering at a chestnut," said Michael
+Lambourne.
+
+"Up started of a sudden," continued Goldthred, without heeding the
+interruption, "Tony Foster himself, with a cudgel in his hand--"
+
+"And broke thy head across, I hope, for thine impertinence," said his
+entertainer.
+
+"That were more easily said than done," answered Goldthred indignantly;
+"no, no--there was no breaking of heads. It's true, he advanced his
+cudgel, and spoke of laying on, and asked why I did not keep the
+public road, and such like; and I would have knocked him over the pate
+handsomely for his pains, only for the lady's presence, who might have
+swooned, for what I know."
+
+"Now, out upon thee for a faint-spirited slave!" said Lambourne; "what
+adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when he went
+to thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence, and for her
+deliverance? But why talk to thee of dragons, who would be driven back
+by a dragon-fly. There thou hast missed the rarest opportunity!"
+
+"Take it thyself, then, bully Mike," answered Goldthred. "Yonder is the
+enchanted manor, and the dragon, and the lady, all at thy service, if
+thou darest venture on them."
+
+"Why, so I would for a quartern of sack," said the soldier--"or stay: I
+am foully out of linen--wilt thou bet a piece of Hollands against these
+five angels, that I go not up to the Hall to-morrow and force Tony
+Foster to introduce me to his fair guest?"
+
+"I accept your wager," said the mercer; "and I think, though thou hadst
+even the impudence of the devil, I shall gain on thee this bout. Our
+landlord here shall hold stakes, and I will stake down gold till I send
+the linen."
+
+"I will hold stakes on no such matter," said Gosling. "Good now, my
+kinsman, drink your wine in quiet, and let such ventures alone. I
+promise you, Master Foster hath interest enough to lay you up in
+lavender in the Castle at Oxford, or to get your legs made acquainted
+with the town-stocks."
+
+"That would be but renewing an old intimacy, for Mike's shins and the
+town's wooden pinfold have been well known to each other ere now," said
+the mercer; "but he shall not budge from his wager, unless he means to
+pay forfeit."
+
+"Forfeit?" said Lambourne; "I scorn it. I value Tony Foster's wrath no
+more than a shelled pea-cod; and I will visit his Lindabrides, by Saint
+George, be he willing or no!"
+
+"I would gladly pay your halves of the risk, sir," said Tressilian, "to
+be permitted to accompany you on the adventure."
+
+"In what would that advantage you, sir?" answered Lambourne.
+
+"In nothing, sir," said Tressilian, "unless to mark the skill and valour
+with which you conduct yourself. I am a traveller who seeks for strange
+rencounters and uncommon passages, as the knights of yore did after
+adventures and feats of arms."
+
+"Nay, if it pleasures you to see a trout tickled," answered Lambourne,
+"I care not how many witness my skill. And so here I drink success to my
+enterprise; and he that will not pledge me on his knees is a rascal, and
+I will cut his legs off by the garters!"
+
+The draught which Michael Lambourne took upon this occasion had been
+preceded by so many others, that reason tottered on her throne. He
+swore one or two incoherent oaths at the mercer, who refused, reasonably
+enough, to pledge him to a sentiment which inferred the loss of his own
+wager.
+
+"Wilt thou chop logic with me," said Lambourne, "thou knave, with no
+more brains than are in a skein of ravelled silk? By Heaven, I will cut
+thee into fifty yards of galloon lace!"
+
+But as he attempted to draw his sword for this doughty purpose, Michael
+Lambourne was seized upon by the tapster and the chamberlain, and
+conveyed to his own apartment, there to sleep himself sober at his
+leisure.
+
+The party then broke up, and the guests took their leave; much more
+to the contentment of mine host than of some of the company, who were
+unwilling to quit good liquor, when it was to be had for free cost, so
+long as they were able to sit by it. They were, however, compelled to
+remove; and go at length they did, leaving Gosling and Tressilian in the
+empty apartment.
+
+"By my faith," said the former, "I wonder where our great folks find
+pleasure, when they spend their means in entertainments, and in playing
+mine host without sending in a reckoning. It is what I but rarely
+practise; and whenever I do, by Saint Julian, it grieves me beyond
+measure. Each of these empty stoups now, which my nephew and his drunken
+comrades have swilled off, should have been a matter of profit to one in
+my line, and I must set them down a dead loss. I cannot, for my heart,
+conceive the pleasure of noise, and nonsense, and drunken freaks, and
+drunken quarrels, and smut, and blasphemy, and so forth, when a man
+loses money instead of gaining by it. And yet many a fair estate is lost
+in upholding such a useless course, and that greatly contributes to the
+decay of publicans; for who the devil do you think would pay for drink
+at the Black Bear, when he can have it for nothing at my Lord's or the
+Squire's?"
+
+Tressilian perceived that the wine had made some impression even on the
+seasoned brain of mine host, which was chiefly to be inferred from his
+declaiming against drunkenness. As he himself had carefully avoided the
+bowl, he would have availed himself of the frankness of the moment
+to extract from Gosling some further information upon the subject
+of Anthony Foster, and the lady whom the mercer had seen in his
+mansion-house; but his inquiries only set the host upon a new theme of
+declamation against the wiles of the fair sex, in which he brought, at
+full length, the whole wisdom of Solomon to reinforce his own. Finally,
+he turned his admonitions, mixed with much objurgation, upon his
+tapsters and drawers, who were employed in removing the relics of the
+entertainment, and restoring order to the apartment; and at length,
+joining example to precept, though with no good success, he demolished
+a salver with half a score of glasses, in attempting to show how such
+service was done at the Three Cranes in the Vintry, then the most
+topping tavern in London. This last accident so far recalled him to his
+better self, that he retired to his bed, slept sound, and awoke a new
+man in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+     Nay, I'll hold touch--the game shall be play'd out;
+     It ne'er shall stop for me, this merry wager:
+     That which I say when gamesome, I'll avouch
+     In my most sober mood, ne'er trust me else.   THE HAZARD TABLE.
+
+"And how doth your kinsman, good mine host?" said Tressilian, when Giles
+Gosling first appeared in the public room, on the morning following the
+revel which we described in the last chapter. "Is he well, and will he
+abide by his wager?"
+
+"For well, sir, he started two hours since, and has visited I know not
+what purlieus of his old companions; hath but now returned, and is at
+this instant breakfasting on new-laid eggs and muscadine. And for his
+wager, I caution you as a friend to have little to do with that, or
+indeed with aught that Mike proposes. Wherefore, I counsel you to a warm
+breakfast upon a culiss, which shall restore the tone of the stomach;
+and let my nephew and Master Goldthred swagger about their wager as they
+list."
+
+"It seems to me, mine host," said Tressilian, "that you know not well
+what to say about this kinsman of yours, and that you can neither blame
+nor commend him without some twinge of conscience."
+
+"You have spoken truly, Master Tressilian," replied Giles Gosling.
+"There is Natural Affection whimpering into one ear, 'Giles, Giles, why
+wilt thou take away the good name of thy own nephew? Wilt thou defame
+thy sister's son, Giles Gosling? wilt thou defoul thine own nest,
+dishonour thine own blood?' And then, again, comes Justice, and says,
+'Here is a worthy guest as ever came to the bonny Black Bear; one who
+never challenged a reckoning' (as I say to your face you never did,
+Master Tressilian--not that you have had cause), 'one who knows not why
+he came, so far as I can see, or when he is going away; and wilt thou,
+being a publican, having paid scot and lot these thirty years in the
+town of Cumnor, and being at this instant head-borough, wilt thou suffer
+this guest of guests, this man of men, this six-hooped pot (as I may
+say) of a traveller, to fall into the meshes of thy nephew, who is known
+for a swasher and a desperate Dick, a carder and a dicer, a professor of
+the seven damnable sciences, if ever man took degrees in them?' No,
+by Heaven! I might wink, and let him catch such a small butterfly as
+Goldthred; but thou, my guest, shall be forewarned, forearmed, so thou
+wilt but listen to thy trusty host."
+
+"Why, mine host, thy counsel shall not be cast away," replied
+Tressilian; "however, I must uphold my share in this wager, having once
+passed my word to that effect. But lend me, I pray, some of thy counsel.
+This Foster, who or what is he, and why makes he such mystery of his
+female inmate?"
+
+"Troth," replied Gosling, "I can add but little to what you heard last
+night. He was one of Queen Mary's Papists, and now he is one of Queen
+Elizabeth's Protestants; he was an onhanger of the Abbot of Abingdon;
+and now he lives as master of the Manor-house. Above all, he was
+poor, and is rich. Folk talk of private apartments in his old waste
+mansion-house, bedizened fine enough to serve the Queen, God bless her!
+Some men think he found a treasure in the orchard, some that he sold
+himself to the devil for treasure, and some say that he cheated the
+abbot out of the church plate, which was hidden in the old Manor-house
+at the Reformation. Rich, however, he is, and God and his conscience,
+with the devil perhaps besides, only know how he came by it. He has
+sulky ways too--breaking off intercourse with all that are of the place,
+as if he had either some strange secret to keep, or held himself to be
+made of another clay than we are. I think it likely my kinsman and he
+will quarrel, if Mike thrust his acquaintance on him; and I am sorry
+that you, my worthy Master Tressilian, will still think of going in my
+nephew's company."
+
+Tressilian again answered him, that he would proceed with great caution,
+and that he should have no fears on his account; in short, he bestowed
+on him all the customary assurances with which those who are determined
+on a rash action are wont to parry the advice of their friends.
+
+Meantime, the traveller accepted the landlord's invitation, and had just
+finished the excellent breakfast, which was served to him and Gosling
+by pretty Cicely, the beauty of the bar, when the hero of the preceding
+night, Michael Lambourne, entered the apartment. His toilet had
+apparently cost him some labour, for his clothes, which differed from
+those he wore on his journey, were of the newest fashion, and put on
+with great attention to the display of his person.
+
+"By my faith, uncle," said the gallant, "you made a wet night of it, and
+I feel it followed by a dry morning. I will pledge you willingly in a
+cup of bastard.--How, my pretty coz Cicely! why, I left you but a child
+in the cradle, and there thou stand'st in thy velvet waistcoat, as tight
+a girl as England's sun shines on. Know thy friends and kindred,
+Cicely, and come hither, child, that I may kiss thee, and give thee my
+blessing."
+
+"Concern not yourself about Cicely, kinsman," said Giles Gosling, "but
+e'en let her go her way, a' God's name; for although your mother were
+her father's sister, yet that shall not make you and her cater-cousins."
+
+"Why, uncle," replied Lambourne, "think'st thou I am an infidel, and
+would harm those of mine own house?"
+
+"It is for no harm that I speak, Mike," answered his uncle, "but a
+simple humour of precaution which I have. True, thou art as well gilded
+as a snake when he casts his old slough in the spring time; but for all
+that, thou creepest not into my Eden. I will look after mine Eve, Mike,
+and so content thee.--But how brave thou be'st, lad! To look on thee
+now, and compare thee with Master Tressilian here, in his sad-coloured
+riding-suit, who would not say that thou wert the real gentleman and he
+the tapster's boy?"
+
+"Troth, uncle," replied Lambourne, "no one would say so but one of your
+country-breeding, that knows no better. I will say, and I care not who
+hears me, there is something about the real gentry that few men come up
+to that are not born and bred to the mystery. I wot not where the trick
+lies; but although I can enter an ordinary with as much audacity, rebuke
+the waiters and drawers as loudly, drink as deep a health, swear as
+round an oath, and fling my gold as freely about as any of the jingling
+spurs and white feathers that are around me, yet, hang me if I can ever
+catch the true grace of it, though I have practised an hundred times.
+The man of the house sets me lowest at the board, and carves to me the
+last; and the drawer says, 'Coming, friend,' without any more reverence
+or regardful addition. But, hang it, let it pass; care killed a cat. I
+have gentry enough to pass the trick on Tony Fire-the-Faggot, and that
+will do for the matter in hand."
+
+"You hold your purpose, then, of visiting your old acquaintance?" said
+Tressilian to the adventurer.
+
+"Ay, sir," replied Lambourne; "when stakes are made, the game must be
+played; that is gamester's law, all over the world. You, sir, unless
+my memory fails me (for I did steep it somewhat too deeply in the
+sack-butt), took some share in my hazard?"
+
+"I propose to accompany you in your adventure," said Tressilian, "if you
+will do me so much grace as to permit me; and I have staked my share of
+the forfeit in the hands of our worthy host."
+
+"That he hath," answered Giles Gosling, "in as fair Harry-nobles as ever
+were melted into sack by a good fellow. So, luck to your enterprise,
+since you will needs venture on Tony Foster; but, by my credit, you had
+better take another draught before you depart, for your welcome at
+the Hall yonder will be somewhat of the driest. And if you do get into
+peril, beware of taking to cold steel; but send for me, Giles Gosling,
+the head-borough, and I may be able to make something out of Tony yet,
+for as proud as he is."
+
+The nephew dutifully obeyed his uncle's hint, by taking a second
+powerful pull at the tankard, observing that his wit never served him
+so well as when he had washed his temples with a deep morning's draught;
+and they set forth together for the habitation of Anthony Foster.
+
+The village of Cumnor is pleasantly built on a hill, and in a wooded
+park closely adjacent was situated the ancient mansion occupied at this
+time by Anthony Foster, of which the ruins may be still extant. The park
+was then full of large trees, and in particular of ancient and mighty
+oaks, which stretched their giant arms over the high wall surrounding
+the demesne, thus giving it a melancholy, secluded, and monastic
+appearance. The entrance to the park lay through an old-fashioned
+gateway in the outer wall, the door of which was formed of two huge
+oaken leaves thickly studded with nails, like the gate of an old town.
+
+"We shall be finely helped up here," said Michael Lambourne, looking at
+the gateway and gate, "if this fellow's suspicious humour should
+refuse us admission altogether, as it is like he may, in case this
+linsey-wolsey fellow of a mercer's visit to his premises has disquieted
+him. But, no," he added, pushing the huge gate, which gave way, "the
+door stands invitingly open; and here we are within the forbidden
+ground, without other impediment than the passive resistance of a heavy
+oak door moving on rusty hinges."
+
+They stood now in an avenue overshadowed by such old trees as we have
+described, and which had been bordered at one time by high hedges of yew
+and holly. But these, having been untrimmed for many years, had run up
+into great bushes, or rather dwarf-trees, and now encroached, with their
+dark and melancholy boughs, upon the road which they once had screened.
+The avenue itself was grown up with grass, and, in one or two places,
+interrupted by piles of withered brushwood, which had been lopped from
+the trees cut down in the neighbouring park, and was here stacked for
+drying. Formal walks and avenues, which, at different points, crossed
+this principal approach, were, in like manner, choked up and interrupted
+by piles of brushwood and billets, and in other places by underwood and
+brambles. Besides the general effect of desolation which is so strongly
+impressed whenever we behold the contrivances of man wasted and
+obliterated by neglect, and witness the marks of social life effaced
+gradually by the influence of vegetation, the size of the trees and the
+outspreading extent of their boughs diffused a gloom over the scene,
+even when the sun was at the highest, and made a proportional impression
+on the mind of those who visited it. This was felt even by Michael
+Lambourne, however alien his habits were to receiving any impressions,
+excepting from things which addressed themselves immediately to his
+passions.
+
+"This wood is as dark as a wolf's mouth," said he to Tressilian, as they
+walked together slowly along the solitary and broken approach, and had
+just come in sight of the monastic front of the old mansion, with its
+shafted windows, brick walls overgrown with ivy and creeping shrubs,
+and twisted stalks of chimneys of heavy stone-work. "And yet," continued
+Lambourne, "it is fairly done on the part of Foster too for since he
+chooses not visitors, it is right to keep his place in a fashion that
+will invite few to trespass upon his privacy. But had he been the
+Anthony I once knew him, these sturdy oaks had long since become the
+property of some honest woodmonger, and the manor-close here had looked
+lighter at midnight than it now does at noon, while Foster played fast
+and loose with the price, in some cunning corner in the purlieus of
+Whitefriars."
+
+"Was he then such an unthrift?" asked Tressilian.
+
+"He was," answered Lambourne, "like the rest of us, no saint, and no
+saver. But what I liked worst of Tony was, that he loved to take his
+pleasure by himself, and grudged, as men say, every drop of water that
+went past his own mill. I have known him deal with such measures of wine
+when he was alone, as I would not have ventured on with aid of the best
+toper in Berkshire;--that, and some sway towards superstition, which he
+had by temperament, rendered him unworthy the company of a good fellow.
+And now he has earthed himself here, in a den just befitting such a sly
+fox as himself."
+
+"May I ask you, Master Lambourne," said Tressilian, "since your old
+companion's humour jumps so little with your own, wherefore you are so
+desirous to renew acquaintance with him?"
+
+"And may I ask you, in return, Master Tressilian," answered Lambourne,
+"wherefore you have shown yourself so desirous to accompany me on this
+party?"
+
+"I told you my motive," said Tressilian, "when I took share in your
+wager--it was simple curiosity."
+
+"La you there now!" answered Lambourne. "See how you civil and discreet
+gentlemen think to use us who live by the free exercise of our wits! Had
+I answered your question by saying that it was simple curiosity which
+led me to visit my old comrade Anthony Foster, I warrant you had set it
+down for an evasion, and a turn of my trade. But any answer, I suppose,
+must serve my turn."
+
+"And wherefore should not bare curiosity," said Tressilian, "be a
+sufficient reason for my taking this walk with you?"
+
+"Oh, content yourself, sir," replied Lambourne; "you cannot put
+the change on me so easy as you think, for I have lived among the
+quick-stirring spirits of the age too long to swallow chaff for grain.
+You are a gentleman of birth and breeding--your bearing makes it good;
+of civil habits and fair reputation--your manners declare it, and
+my uncle avouches it; and yet you associate yourself with a sort of
+scant-of-grace, as men call me, and, knowing me to be such, you make
+yourself my companion in a visit to a man whom you are a stranger
+to--and all out of mere curiosity, forsooth! The excuse, if curiously
+balanced, would be found to want some scruples of just weight, or so."
+
+"If your suspicions were just," said Tressilian, "you have shown no
+confidence in me to invite or deserve mine."
+
+"Oh, if that be all," said Lambourne, "my motives lie above water. While
+this gold of mine lasts"--taking out his purse, chucking it into the
+air, and catching it as it fell--"I will make it buy pleasure; and
+when it is out I must have more. Now, if this mysterious Lady of the
+Manor--this fair Lindabrides of Tony Fire-the-Fagot--be so admirable a
+piece as men say, why, there is a chance that she may aid me to melt
+my nobles into greats; and, again, if Anthony be so wealthy a chuff
+as report speaks him, he may prove the philosopher's stone to me, and
+convert my greats into fair rose-nobles again."
+
+"A comfortable proposal truly," said Tressilian; "but I see not what
+chance there is of accomplishing it."
+
+"Not to-day, or perchance to-morrow," answered Lambourne; "I expect not
+to catch the old jack till. I have disposed my ground-baits handsomely.
+But I know something more of his affairs this morning than I did last
+night, and I will so use my knowledge that he shall think it more
+perfect than it is. Nay, without expecting either pleasure or profit, or
+both, I had not stepped a stride within this manor, I can tell you; for
+I promise you I hold our visit not altogether without risk.--But here we
+are, and we must make the best on't."
+
+While he thus spoke, they had entered a large orchard which surrounded
+the house on two sides, though the trees, abandoned by the care of man,
+were overgrown and messy, and seemed to bear little fruit. Those which
+had been formerly trained as espaliers had now resumed their natural
+mode of growing, and exhibited grotesque forms, partaking of the
+original training which they had received. The greater part of the
+ground, which had once been parterres and flower-gardens, was suffered
+in like manner to run to waste, excepting a few patches which had been
+dug up and planted with ordinary pot herbs. Some statues, which had
+ornamented the garden in its days of splendour, were now thrown down
+from their pedestals and broken in pieces; and a large summer-house,
+having a heavy stone front, decorated with carving representing the life
+and actions of Samson, was in the same dilapidated condition.
+
+They had just traversed this garden of the sluggard, and were within
+a few steps of the door of the mansion, when Lambourne had ceased
+speaking; a circumstance very agreeable to Tressilian, as it saved him
+the embarrassment of either commenting upon or replying to the frank
+avowal which his companion had just made of the sentiments and views
+which induced him to come hither. Lambourne knocked roundly and boldly
+at the huge door of the mansion, observing, at the same time, he had
+seen a less strong one upon a county jail. It was not until they had
+knocked more than once that an aged, sour-visaged domestic reconnoitred
+them through a small square hole in the door, well secured with bars of
+iron, and demanded what they wanted.
+
+"To speak with Master Foster instantly, on pressing business of the
+state," was the ready reply of Michael Lambourne.
+
+"Methinks you will find difficulty to make that good," said Tressilian
+in a whisper to his companion, while the servant went to carry the
+message to his master.
+
+"Tush," replied the adventurer; "no soldier would go on were he
+always to consider when and how he should come off. Let us once obtain
+entrance, and all will go well enough."
+
+In a short time the servant returned, and drawing with a careful hand
+both bolt and bar, opened the gate, which admitted them through an
+archway into a square court, surrounded by buildings. Opposite to the
+arch was another door, which the serving-man in like manner unlocked,
+and thus introduced them into a stone-paved parlour, where there was but
+little furniture, and that of the rudest and most ancient fashion. The
+windows were tall and ample, reaching almost to the roof of the room,
+which was composed of black oak; those opening to the quadrangle were
+obscured by the height of the surrounding buildings, and, as they were
+traversed with massive shafts of solid stone-work, and thickly painted
+with religious devices, and scenes taken from Scripture history, by no
+means admitted light in proportion to their size, and what did penetrate
+through them partook of the dark and gloomy tinge of the stained glass.
+
+Tressilian and his guide had time enough to observe all these
+particulars, for they waited some space in the apartment ere the present
+master of the mansion at length made his appearance. Prepared as he was
+to see an inauspicious and ill-looking person, the ugliness of Anthony
+Foster considerably exceeded what Tressilian had anticipated. He was
+of middle stature, built strongly, but so clumsily as to border on
+deformity, and to give all his motions the ungainly awkwardness of a
+left-legged and left-handed man. His hair, in arranging which men at
+that time, as at present, were very nice and curious, instead of being
+carefully cleaned and disposed into short curls, or else set up on end,
+as is represented in old paintings, in a manner resembling that used by
+fine gentlemen of our own day, escaped in sable negligence from under
+a furred bonnet, and hung in elf-locks, which seemed strangers to
+the comb, over his rugged brows, and around his very singular and
+unprepossessing countenance. His keen, dark eyes were deep set beneath
+broad and shaggy eyebrows, and as they were usually bent on the ground,
+seemed as if they were themselves ashamed of the expression natural to
+them, and were desirous to conceal it from the observation of men.
+At times, however, when, more intent on observing others, he suddenly
+raised them, and fixed them keenly on those with whom he conversed, they
+seemed to express both the fiercer passions, and the power of mind which
+could at will suppress or disguise the intensity of inward feeling.
+The features which corresponded with these eyes and this form were
+irregular, and marked so as to be indelibly fixed on the mind of him
+who had once seen them. Upon the whole, as Tressilian could not help
+acknowledging to himself, the Anthony Foster who now stood before them
+was the last person, judging from personal appearance, upon whom one
+would have chosen to intrude an unexpected and undesired visit. His
+attire was a doublet of russet leather, like those worn by the better
+sort of country folk, girt with a buff belt, in which was stuck on the
+right side a long knife, or dudgeon dagger, and on the other a
+cutlass. He raised his eyes as he entered the room, and fixed a keenly
+penetrating glance upon his two visitors; then cast them down as if
+counting his steps, while he advanced slowly into the middle of the
+room, and said, in a low and smothered tone of voice, "Let me pray you,
+gentlemen, to tell me the cause of this visit."
+
+He looked as if he expected the answer from Tressilian, so true was
+Lambourne's observation that the superior air of breeding and dignity
+shone through the disguise of an inferior dress. But it was Michael who
+replied to him, with the easy familiarity of an old friend, and a tone
+which seemed unembarrassed by any doubt of the most cordial reception.
+
+"Ha! my dear friend and ingle, Tony Foster!" he exclaimed, seizing
+upon the unwilling hand, and shaking it with such emphasis as almost to
+stagger the sturdy frame of the person whom he addressed, "how fares it
+with you for many a long year? What! have you altogether forgotten your
+friend, gossip, and playfellow, Michael Lambourne?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne!" said Foster, looking at him a moment; then dropping
+his eyes, and with little ceremony extricating his hand from the
+friendly grasp of the person by whom he was addressed, "are you Michael
+Lambourne?"
+
+"Ay; sure as you are Anthony Foster," replied Lambourne.
+
+"'Tis well," answered his sullen host. "And what may Michael Lambourne
+expect from his visit hither?"
+
+"VOTO A DIOS," answered Lambourne, "I expected a better welcome than I
+am like to meet, I think."
+
+"Why, thou gallows-bird--thou jail-rat--thou friend of the hangman
+and his customers!" replied Foster, "hast thou the assurance to expect
+countenance from any one whose neck is beyond the compass of a Tyburn
+tippet?"
+
+"It may be with me as you say," replied Lambourne; "and suppose I grant
+it to be so for argument's sake, I were still good enough society
+for mine ancient friend Anthony Fire-the-Fagot, though he be, for the
+present, by some indescribable title, the master of Cumnor Place."
+
+"Hark you, Michael Lambourne," said Foster; "you are a gambler now, and
+live by the counting of chances--compute me the odds that I do not, on
+this instant, throw you out of that window into the ditch there."
+
+"Twenty to one that you do not," answered the sturdy visitor.
+
+"And wherefore, I pray you?" demanded Anthony Foster, setting his teeth
+and compressing his lips, like one who endeavours to suppress some
+violent internal emotion.
+
+"Because," said Lambourne coolly, "you dare not for your life lay a
+finger on me. I am younger and stronger than you, and have in me a
+double portion of the fighting devil, though not, it may be, quite so
+much of the undermining fiend, that finds an underground way to his
+purpose--who hides halters under folk's pillows, and who puts rats-bane
+into their porridge, as the stage-play says."
+
+Foster looked at him earnestly, then turned away, and paced the room
+twice with the same steady and considerate pace with which he had
+entered it; then suddenly came back, and extended his hand to Michael
+Lambourne, saying, "Be not wroth with me, good Mike; I did but try
+whether thou hadst parted with aught of thine old and honourable
+frankness, which your enviers and backbiters called saucy impudence."
+
+"Let them call it what they will," said Michael Lambourne, "it is the
+commodity we must carry through the world with us.--Uds daggers! I tell
+thee, man, mine own stock of assurance was too small to trade upon. I
+was fain to take in a ton or two more of brass at every port where I
+touched in the voyage of life; and I started overboard what modesty and
+scruples I had remaining, in order to make room for the stowage."
+
+"Nay, nay," replied Foster, "touching scruples and modesty, you sailed
+hence in ballast. But who is this gallant, honest Mike?--is he a
+Corinthian--a cutter like thyself?"
+
+"I prithee, know Master Tressilian, bully Foster," replied Lambourne,
+presenting his friend in answer to his friend's question, "know him
+and honour him, for he is a gentleman of many admirable qualities; and
+though he traffics not in my line of business, at least so far as I
+know, he has, nevertheless, a just respect and admiration for artists
+of our class. He will come to in time, as seldom fails; but as yet he is
+only a neophyte, only a proselyte, and frequents the company of cocks of
+the game, as a puny fencer does the schools of the masters, to see how a
+foil is handled by the teachers of defence."
+
+"If such be his quality, I will pray your company in another chamber,
+honest Mike, for what I have to say to thee is for thy private
+ear.--Meanwhile, I pray you, sir, to abide us in this apartment, and
+without leaving it; there be those in this house who would be alarmed by
+the sight of a stranger."
+
+Tressilian acquiesced, and the two worthies left the apartment together,
+in which he remained alone to await their return. [See Note 1. Foster,
+Lambourne, and the Black Bear.]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+     Not serve two masters?--Here's a youth will try it--
+     Would fain serve God, yet give the devil his due;
+     Says grace before he doth a deed of villainy,
+     And returns his thanks devoutly when 'tis acted,--OLD PLAY.
+
+The room into which the Master of Cumnor Place conducted his worthy
+visitant was of greater extent than that in which they had at first
+conversed, and had yet more the appearance of dilapidation. Large oaken
+presses, filled with shelves of the same wood, surrounded the room, and
+had, at one time, served for the arrangement of a numerous collection
+of books, many of which yet remained, but torn and defaced, covered with
+dust, deprived of their costly clasps and bindings, and tossed together
+in heaps upon the shelves, as things altogether disregarded, and
+abandoned to the pleasure of every spoiler. The very presses themselves
+seemed to have incurred the hostility of those enemies of learning who
+had destroyed the volumes with which they had been heretofore filled.
+They were, in several places, dismantled of their shelves, and otherwise
+broken and damaged, and were, moreover, mantled with cobwebs and covered
+with dust.
+
+"The men who wrote these books," said Lambourne, looking round him,
+"little thought whose keeping they were to fall into."
+
+"Nor what yeoman's service they were to do me," quoth Anthony Foster;
+"the cook hath used them for scouring his pewter, and the groom hath had
+nought else to clean my boots with, this many a month past."
+
+"And yet," said Lambourne, "I have been in cities where such learned
+commodities would have been deemed too good for such offices."
+
+"Pshaw, pshaw," answered Foster, "'they are Popish trash, every one
+of them--private studies of the mumping old Abbot of Abingdon. The
+nineteenthly of a pure gospel sermon were worth a cartload of such
+rakings of the kennel of Rome."
+
+"Gad-a-mercy, Master Tony Fire-the-Fagot!" said Lambourne, by way of
+reply.
+
+Foster scowled darkly at him, as he replied, "Hark ye, friend Mike;
+forget that name, and the passage which it relates to, if you would not
+have our newly-revived comradeship die a sudden and a violent death."
+
+"Why," said Michael Lambourne, "you were wont to glory in the share you
+had in the death of the two old heretical bishops."
+
+"That," said his comrade, "was while I was in the gall of bitterness and
+bond of iniquity, and applies not to my walk or my ways now that I
+am called forth into the lists. Mr. Melchisedek Maultext compared my
+misfortune in that matter to that of the Apostle Paul, who kept the
+clothes of the witnesses who stoned Saint Stephen. He held forth on the
+matter three Sabbaths past, and illustrated the same by the conduct of
+an honourable person present, meaning me."
+
+"I prithee peace, Foster," said Lambourne, "for I know not how it is, I
+have a sort of creeping comes over my skin when I hear the devil quote
+Scripture; and besides, man, how couldst thou have the heart to quit
+that convenient old religion, which you could slip off or on as easily
+as your glove? Do I not remember how you were wont to carry your
+conscience to confession, as duly as the month came round? and when thou
+hadst it scoured, and burnished, and whitewashed by the priest, thou
+wert ever ready for the worst villainy which could be devised, like a
+child who is always readiest to rush into the mire when he has got his
+Sunday's clean jerkin on."
+
+"Trouble not thyself about my conscience," said Foster; "it is a thing
+thou canst not understand, having never had one of thine own. But let
+us rather to the point, and say to me, in one word, what is thy business
+with me, and what hopes have drawn thee hither?"
+
+"The hope of bettering myself, to be sure," answered Lambourne, "as the
+old woman said when she leapt over the bridge at Kingston. Look you,
+this purse has all that is left of as round a sum as a man would wish to
+carry in his slop-pouch. You are here well established, it would seem,
+and, as I think, well befriended, for men talk of thy being under some
+special protection--nay, stare not like a pig that is stuck, mon;
+thou canst not dance in a net and they not see thee. Now I know such
+protection is not purchased for nought; you must have services to render
+for it, and in these I propose to help thee."
+
+"But how if I lack no assistance from thee, Mike? I think thy modesty
+might suppose that were a case possible."
+
+"That is to say," retorted Lambourne, "that you would engross the
+whole work, rather than divide the reward. But be not over-greedy,
+Anthony--covetousness bursts the sack and spills the grain. Look you,
+when the huntsman goes to kill a stag, he takes with him more dogs than
+one. He has the stanch lyme-hound to track the wounded buck over hill
+and dale, but he hath also the fleet gaze-hound to kill him at view.
+Thou art the lyme-hound, I am the gaze-hound; and thy patron will need
+the aid of both, and can well afford to requite it. Thou hast deep
+sagacity--an unrelenting purpose--a steady, long-breathed malignity of
+nature, that surpasses mine. But then, I am the bolder, the quicker, the
+more ready, both at action and expedient. Separate, our properties are
+not so perfect; but unite them, and we drive the world before us. How
+sayest thou--shall we hunt in couples?"
+
+"It is a currish proposal--thus to thrust thyself upon my private
+matters," replied Foster; "but thou wert ever an ill-nurtured whelp."
+
+"You shall have no cause to say so, unless you spurn my courtesy," said
+Michael Lambourne; "but if so, keep thee well from me, Sir Knight, as
+the romance has it. I will either share your counsels or traverse them;
+for I have come here to be busy, either with thee or against thee."
+
+"Well," said Anthony Foster, "since thou dost leave me so fair a choice,
+I will rather be thy friend than thine enemy. Thou art right; I CAN
+prefer thee to the service of a patron who has enough of means to make
+us both, and an hundred more. And, to say truth, thou art well qualified
+for his service. Boldness and dexterity he demands--the justice-books
+bear witness in thy favour; no starting at scruples in his service why,
+who ever suspected thee of a conscience? an assurance he must have who
+would follow a courtier--and thy brow is as impenetrable as a Milan
+visor. There is but one thing I would fain see amended in thee."
+
+"And what is that, my most precious friend Anthony?" replied Lambourne;
+"for I swear by the pillow of the Seven Sleepers I will not be slothful
+in amending it."
+
+"Why, you gave a sample of it even now," said Foster. "Your speech
+twangs too much of the old stamp, and you garnish it ever and anon with
+singular oaths, that savour of Papistrie. Besides, your exterior man is
+altogether too deboshed and irregular to become one of his lordship's
+followers, since he has a reputation to keep up in the eye of the world.
+You must somewhat reform your dress, upon a more grave and composed
+fashion; wear your cloak on both shoulders, and your falling band
+unrumpled and well starched. You must enlarge the brim of your beaver,
+and diminish the superfluity of your trunk-hose; go to church, or, which
+will be better, to meeting, at least once a month; protest only upon
+your faith and conscience; lay aside your swashing look, and never touch
+the hilt of your sword but when you would draw the carnal weapon in good
+earnest."
+
+"By this light, Anthony, thou art mad," answered Lambourne, "and hast
+described rather the gentleman-usher to a puritan's wife, than the
+follower of an ambitious courtier! Yes, such a thing as thou wouldst
+make of me should wear a book at his girdle instead of a poniard, and
+might just be suspected of manhood enough to squire a proud dame-citizen
+to the lecture at Saint Antonlin's, and quarrel in her cause with any
+flat-capped threadmaker that would take the wall of her. He must ruffle
+it in another sort that would walk to court in a nobleman's train."
+
+"Oh, content you, sir," replied Foster, "there is a change since you
+knew the English world; and there are those who can hold their way
+through the boldest courses, and the most secret, and yet never a
+swaggering word, or an oath, or a profane word in their conversation."
+
+"That is to say," replied Lambourne, "they are in a trading copartnery,
+to do the devil's business without mentioning his name in the firm?
+Well, I will do my best to counterfeit, rather than lose ground in this
+new world, since thou sayest it is grown so precise. But, Anthony, what
+is the name of this nobleman, in whose service I am to turn hypocrite?"
+
+"Aha! Master Michael, are you there with your bears?" said Foster, with
+a grim smile; "and is this the knowledge you pretend of my concernments?
+How know you now there is such a person IN RERUM NATURA, and that I have
+not been putting a jape upon you all this time?"
+
+"Thou put a jape on me, thou sodden-brained gull?" answered Lambourne,
+nothing daunted. "Why, dark and muddy as thou think'st thyself, I
+would engage in a day's space to see as clear through thee and thy
+concernments, as thou callest them, as through the filthy horn of an old
+stable lantern."
+
+At this moment their conversation was interrupted by a scream from the
+next apartment.
+
+"By the holy Cross of Abingdon," exclaimed Anthony Foster, forgetting
+his Protestantism in his alarm, "I am a ruined man!"
+
+So saying, he rushed into the apartment whence the scream issued,
+followed by Michael Lambourne. But to account for the sounds which
+interrupted their conversation, it is necessary to recede a little way
+in our narrative.
+
+It has been already observed, that when Lambourne accompanied Foster
+into the library, they left Tressilian alone in the ancient parlour. His
+dark eye followed them forth of the apartment with a glance of contempt,
+a part of which his mind instantly transferred to himself, for having
+stooped to be even for a moment their familiar companion. "These are the
+associates, Amy"--it was thus he communed with himself--"to which
+thy cruel levity--thine unthinking and most unmerited falsehood, has
+condemned him of whom his friends once hoped far other things, and who
+now scorns himself, as he will be scorned by others, for the baseness
+he stoops to for the love of thee! But I will not leave the pursuit of
+thee, once the object of my purest and most devoted affection, though
+to me thou canst henceforth be nothing but a thing to weep over. I will
+save thee from thy betrayer, and from thyself; I will restore thee to
+thy parent--to thy God. I cannot bid the bright star again sparkle in
+the sphere it has shot from, but--"
+
+A slight noise in the apartment interrupted his reverie. He looked
+round, and in the beautiful and richly-attired female who entered at
+that instant by a side-door he recognized the object of his search. The
+first impulse arising from this discovery urged him to conceal his face
+with the collar of his cloak, until he should find a favourable moment
+of making himself known. But his purpose was disconcerted by the young
+lady (she was not above eighteen years old), who ran joyfully towards
+him, and, pulling him by the cloak, said playfully, "Nay, my sweet
+friend, after I have waited for you so long, you come not to my bower
+to play the masquer. You are arraigned of treason to true love and fond
+affection, and you must stand up at the bar and answer it with face
+uncovered--how say you, guilty or not?"
+
+"Alas, Amy!" said Tressilian, in a low and melancholy tone, as he
+suffered her to draw the mantle from his face. The sound of his voice,
+and still more the unexpected sight of his face, changed in an instant
+the lady's playful mood. She staggered back, turned as pale as death,
+and put her hands before her face. Tressilian was himself for a moment
+much overcome, but seeming suddenly to remember the necessity of using
+an opportunity which might not again occur, he said in a low tone, "Amy,
+fear me not."
+
+"Why should I fear you?" said the lady, withdrawing her hands from her
+beautiful face, which was now covered with crimson,--"Why should I fear
+you, Master Tressilian?--or wherefore have you intruded yourself into my
+dwelling, uninvited, sir, and unwished for?"
+
+"Your dwelling, Amy!" said Tressilian. "Alas! is a prison your
+dwelling?--a prison guarded by one of the most sordid of men, but not a
+greater wretch than his employer!"
+
+"This house is mine," said Amy--"mine while I choose to inhabit it. If
+it is my pleasure to live in seclusion, who shall gainsay me?"
+
+"Your father, maiden," answered Tressilian, "your broken-hearted father,
+who dispatched me in quest of you with that authority which he cannot
+exert in person. Here is his letter, written while he blessed his pain
+of body which somewhat stunned the agony of his mind."
+
+"The pain! Is my father then ill?" said the lady.
+
+"So ill," answered Tressilian, "that even your utmost haste may not
+restore him to health; but all shall be instantly prepared for your
+departure, the instant you yourself will give consent."
+
+"Tressilian," answered the lady, "I cannot, I must not, I dare not leave
+this place. Go back to my father--tell him I will obtain leave to see
+him within twelve hours from hence. Go back, Tressilian--tell him I am
+well, I am happy--happy could I think he was so; tell him not to fear
+that I will come, and in such a manner that all the grief Amy has given
+him shall be forgotten--the poor Amy is now greater than she dare name.
+Go, good Tressilian--I have injured thee too, but believe me I have
+power to heal the wounds I have caused. I robbed you of a childish
+heart, which was not worthy of you, and I can repay the loss with
+honours and advancement."
+
+"Do you say this to me, Amy?--do you offer me pageants of idle ambition,
+for the quiet peace you have robbed me of!--But be it so I came not
+to upbraid, but to serve and to free you. You cannot disguise it from
+me--you are a prisoner. Otherwise your kind heart--for it was once a
+kind heart--would have been already at your father's bedside.--Come,
+poor, deceived, unhappy maiden!--all shall be forgot--all shall be
+forgiven. Fear not my importunity for what regarded our contract--it was
+a dream, and I have awaked. But come--your father yet lives--come, and
+one word of affection, one tear of penitence, will efface the memory of
+all that has passed."
+
+"Have I not already said, Tressilian," replied she, "that I will surely
+come to my father, and that without further delay than is necessary to
+discharge other and equally binding duties?--Go, carry him the news;
+I come as sure as there is light in heaven--that is, when I obtain
+permission."
+
+"Permission!--permission to visit your father on his sick-bed, perhaps
+on his death-bed!" repeated Tressilian, impatiently; "and permission
+from whom? From the villain, who, under disguise of friendship, abused
+every duty of hospitality, and stole thee from thy father's roof!"
+
+"Do him no slander, Tressilian! He whom thou speakest of wears a sword
+as sharp as thine--sharper, vain man; for the best deeds thou hast
+ever done in peace or war were as unworthy to be named with his, as thy
+obscure rank to match itself with the sphere he moves in.--Leave me!
+Go, do mine errand to my father; and when he next sends to me, let him
+choose a more welcome messenger."
+
+"Amy," replied Tressilian calmly, "thou canst not move me by thy
+reproaches. Tell me one thing, that I may bear at least one ray of
+comfort to my aged friend:--this rank of his which thou dost boast--dost
+thou share it with him, Amy?--does he claim a husband's right to control
+thy motions?"
+
+"Stop thy base, unmannered tongue!" said the lady; "to no question that
+derogates from my honour do I deign an answer."
+
+"You have said enough in refusing to reply," answered Tressilian;
+"and mark me, unhappy as thou art, I am armed with thy father's full
+authority to command thy obedience, and I will save thee from the
+slavery of sin and of sorrow, even despite of thyself, Amy."
+
+"Menace no violence here!" exclaimed the lady, drawing back from him,
+and alarmed at the determination expressed in his look and manner;
+"threaten me not, Tressilian, for I have means to repel force."
+
+"But not, I trust, the wish to use them in so evil a cause?" said
+Tressilian. "With thy will--thine uninfluenced, free, and natural will,
+Amy, thou canst not choose this state of slavery and dishonour. Thou
+hast been bound by some spell--entrapped by some deceit--art now
+detained by some compelled vow. But thus I break the charm--Amy, in the
+name of thine excellent, thy broken-hearted father, I command thee to
+follow me!"
+
+As he spoke he advanced and extended his arm, as with the purpose of
+laying hold upon her. But she shrunk back from his grasp, and uttered
+the scream which, as we before noticed, brought into the apartment
+Lambourne and Foster.
+
+The latter exclaimed, as soon as he entered, "Fire and fagot! what
+have we here?" Then addressing the lady, in a tone betwixt entreaty
+and command, he added, "Uds precious! madam, what make you here out of
+bounds? Retire--retire--there is life and death in this matter.--And
+you, friend, whoever you may be, leave this house--out with you, before
+my dagger's hilt and your costard become acquainted.--Draw, Mike, and
+rid us of the knave!"
+
+"Not I, on my soul," replied Lambourne; "he came hither in my
+company, and he is safe from me by cutter's law, at least till we meet
+again.--But hark ye, my Cornish comrade, you have brought a Cornish flaw
+of wind with you hither, a hurricanoe as they call it in the Indies.
+Make yourself scarce--depart--vanish--or we'll have you summoned before
+the Mayor of Halgaver, and that before Dudman and Ramhead meet." [Two
+headlands on the Cornish coast. The expressions are proverbial.]
+
+"Away, base groom!" said Tressilian.--"And you, madam, fare you
+well--what life lingers in your father's bosom will leave him at the
+news I have to tell."
+
+He departed, the lady saying faintly as he left the room, "Tressilian,
+be not rash--say no scandal of me."
+
+"Here is proper gear," said Foster. "I pray you go to your chamber, my
+lady, and let us consider how this is to be answered--nay, tarry not."
+
+"I move not at your command, sir," answered the lady.
+
+"Nay, but you must, fair lady," replied Foster; "excuse my freedom, but,
+by blood and nails, this is no time to strain courtesies--you MUST go to
+your chamber.--Mike, follow that meddling coxcomb, and, as you desire
+to thrive, see him safely clear of the premises, while I bring this
+headstrong lady to reason. Draw thy tool, man, and after him."
+
+"I'll follow him," said Michael Lambourne, "and see him fairly out
+of Flanders; but for hurting a man I have drunk my morning's draught
+withal, 'tis clean against my conscience." So saying, he left the
+apartment.
+
+Tressilian, meanwhile, with hasty steps, pursued the first path which
+promised to conduct him through the wild and overgrown park in which the
+mansion of Foster was situated. Haste and distress of mind led his steps
+astray, and instead of taking the avenue which led towards the village,
+he chose another, which, after he had pursued it for some time with a
+hasty and reckless step, conducted him to the other side of the demesne,
+where a postern door opened through the wall, and led into the open
+country.
+
+Tressilian paused an instant. It was indifferent to him by what road he
+left a spot now so odious to his recollections; but it was probable
+that the postern door was locked, and his retreat by that pass rendered
+impossible.
+
+"I must make the attempt, however," he said to himself; "the only means
+of reclaiming this lost--this miserable--this still most lovely and most
+unhappy girl, must rest in her father's appeal to the broken laws of his
+country. I must haste to apprise him of this heartrending intelligence."
+
+As Tressilian, thus conversing with himself, approached to try some
+means of opening the door, or climbing over it, he perceived there was
+a key put into the lock from the outside. It turned round, the bolt
+revolved, and a cavalier, who entered, muffled in his riding-cloak, and
+wearing a slouched hat with a drooping feather, stood at once within
+four yards of him who was desirous of going out. They exclaimed at
+once, in tones of resentment and surprise, the one "Varney!" the other
+"Tressilian!"
+
+"What make you here?" was the stern question put by the stranger to
+Tressilian, when the moment of surprise was past--"what make you here,
+where your presence is neither expected nor desired?"
+
+"Nay, Varney," replied Tressilian, "what make you here? Are you come
+to triumph over the innocence you have destroyed, as the vulture or
+carrion-crow comes to batten on the lamb whose eyes it has first plucked
+out? Or are you come to encounter the merited vengeance of an honest
+man? Draw, dog, and defend thyself!"
+
+Tressilian drew his sword as he spoke, but Varney only laid his hand
+on the hilt of his own, as he replied, "Thou art mad, Tressilian. I own
+appearances are against me; but by every oath a priest can make or a man
+can swear, Mistress Amy Robsart hath had no injury from me. And in truth
+I were somewhat loath to hurt you in this cause--thou knowest I can
+fight."
+
+"I have heard thee say so, Varney," replied Tressilian; "but now,
+methinks, I would fain have some better evidence than thine own word."
+
+"That shall not be lacking, if blade and hilt be but true to me,"
+answered Varney; and drawing his sword with the right hand, he threw his
+cloak around his left, and attacked Tressilian with a vigour which,
+for a moment, seemed to give him the advantage of the combat. But this
+advantage lasted not long. Tressilian added to a spirit determined on
+revenge a hand and eye admirably well adapted to the use of the rapier;
+so that Varney, finding himself hard pressed in his turn, endeavoured
+to avail himself of his superior strength by closing with his adversary.
+For this purpose, he hazarded the receiving one of Tressilian's passes
+in his cloak, wrapped as it was around his arm, and ere his adversary
+could, extricate his rapier thus entangled, he closed with him,
+shortening his own sword at the same time, with the purpose of
+dispatching him. But Tressilian was on his guard, and unsheathing his
+poniard, parried with the blade of that weapon the home-thrust which
+would otherwise have finished the combat, and, in the struggle which
+followed, displayed so much address, as might have confirmed, the
+opinion that he drew his origin from Cornwall whose natives are such
+masters in the art of wrestling, as, were the games of antiquity
+revived, might enable them to challenge all Europe to the ring. Varney,
+in his ill-advised attempt, received a fall so sudden and violent that
+his sword flew several paces from his hand and ere he could recover his
+feet, that of his antagonist was; pointed to his throat.
+
+"Give me the instant means of relieving the victim of thy treachery,"
+said Tressilian, "or take the last look of your Creator's blessed sun!"
+
+And while Varney, too confused or too sullen to reply, made a sudden
+effort to arise, his adversary drew back his arm, and would have
+executed his threat, but that the blow was arrested by the grasp of
+Michael Lambourne, who, directed by the clashing of swords had come up
+just in time to save the life of Varney.
+
+"Come, come, comrade;" said Lambourne, "here is enough done and more
+than enough; put up your fox and let us be jogging. The Black Bear
+growls for us."
+
+"Off, abject!" said Tressilian, striking himself free of Lambourne's
+grasp; "darest thou come betwixt me and mine enemy?"
+
+"Abject! abject!" repeated Lambourne; "that shall be answered with cold
+steel whenever a bowl of sack has washed out memory of the morning's
+draught that we had together. In the meanwhile, do you see,
+shog--tramp--begone--we are two to one."
+
+He spoke truth, for Varney had taken the opportunity to regain his
+weapon, and Tressilian perceived it was madness to press the quarrel
+further against such odds. He took his purse from his side, and taking
+out two gold nobles, flung them to Lambourne. "There, caitiff, is
+thy morning wage; thou shalt not say thou hast been my guide
+unhired.--Varney, farewell! we shall meet where there are none to come
+betwixt us." So saying, he turned round and departed through the postern
+door.
+
+Varney seemed to want the inclination, or perhaps the power (for his
+fall had been a severe one), to follow his retreating enemy. But he
+glared darkly as he disappeared, and then addressed Lambourne. "Art thou
+a comrade of Foster's, good fellow?"
+
+"Sworn friends, as the haft is to the knife," replied Michael Lambourne.
+
+"Here is a broad piece for thee. Follow yonder fellow, and see where he
+takes earth, and bring me word up to the mansion-house here. Cautious
+and silent, thou knave, as thou valuest thy throat."
+
+"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I can draw on a scent as well as a
+sleuth-hound."
+
+"Begone, then," said Varney, sheathing his rapier; and, turning his
+back on Michael Lambourne, he walked slowly towards the house. Lambourne
+stopped but an instant to gather the nobles which his late companion had
+flung towards him so unceremoniously, and muttered to himself, while he
+put them upon his purse along with the gratuity of Varney, "I spoke to
+yonder gulls of Eldorado. By Saint Anthony, there is no Eldorado for
+men of our stamp equal to bonny Old England! It rains nobles, by
+Heaven--they lie on the grass as thick as dewdrops--you may have them
+for gathering. And if I have not my share of such glittering dewdrops,
+may my sword melt like an icicle!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+     He was a man
+     Versed in the world as pilot in his compass.
+     The needle pointed ever to that interest
+     Which was his loadstar, and he spread his sails
+     With vantage to the gale of others' passion.
+     --THE DECEIVER, A TRAGEDY.
+
+Antony Foster was still engaged in debate with his fair guest, who
+treated with scorn every entreaty and request that she would retire to
+her own apartment, when a whistle was heard at the entrance-door of the
+mansion.
+
+"We are fairly sped now," said Foster; "yonder is thy lord's signal, and
+what to say about the disorder which has happened in this household,
+by my conscience, I know not. Some evil fortune dogs the heels of that
+unhanged rogue Lambourne, and he has 'scaped the gallows against every
+chance, to come back and be the ruin of me!"
+
+"Peace, sir," said the lady, "and undo the gate to your master.--My
+lord! my dear lord!" she then exclaimed, hastening to the entrance of
+the apartment; then added, with a voice expressive of disappointment,
+"Pooh! it is but Richard Varney."
+
+"Ay, madam," said Varney, entering and saluting the lady with a
+respectful obeisance, which she returned with a careless mixture of
+negligence and of displeasure, "it is but Richard Varney; but even the
+first grey cloud should be acceptable, when it lightens in the east,
+because it announces the approach of the blessed sun."
+
+"How! comes my lord hither to-night?" said the lady, in joyful yet
+startled agitation; and Anthony Foster caught up the word, and echoed
+the question. Varney replied to the lady, that his lord purposed to
+attend her; and would have proceeded with some compliment, when, running
+to the door of the parlour, she called aloud, "Janet--Janet! come to my
+tiring-room instantly." Then returning to Varney, she asked if her lord
+sent any further commendations to her.
+
+"This letter, honoured madam," said he, taking from his bosom a small
+parcel wrapped in scarlet silk, "and with it a token to the Queen of
+his Affections." With eager speed the lady hastened to undo the silken
+string which surrounded the little packet, and failing to unloose
+readily the knot with which it was secured, she again called loudly on
+Janet, "Bring me a knife--scissors--aught that may undo this envious
+knot!"
+
+"May not my poor poniard serve, honoured madam?" said Varney,
+presenting a small dagger of exquisite workmanship, which hung in his
+Turkey-leather sword-belt.
+
+"No, sir," replied the lady, rejecting the instrument which he
+offered--"steel poniard shall cut no true-love knot of mine."
+
+"It has cut many, however," said Anthony Foster, half aside, and looking
+at Varney. By this time the knot was disentangled without any other
+help than the neat and nimble fingers of Janet, a simply-attired pretty
+maiden, the daughter of Anthony Foster, who came running at the repeated
+call of her mistress. A necklace of orient pearl, the companion of a
+perfumed billet, was now hastily produced from the packet. The lady gave
+the one, after a slight glance, to the charge of her attendant, while
+she read, or rather devoured, the contents of the other.
+
+"Surely, lady," said Janet, gazing with admiration at the neck-string
+of pearls, "the daughters of Tyre wore no fairer neck-jewels than these.
+And then the posy, 'For a neck that is fairer'--each pearl is worth a
+freehold."
+
+"Each word in this dear paper is worth the whole string, my girl. But
+come to my tiring-room, girl; we must be brave, my lord comes hither
+to-night.--He bids me grace you, Master Varney, and to me his wish is a
+law. I bid you to a collation in my bower this afternoon; and you,
+too, Master Foster. Give orders that all is fitting, and that suitable
+preparations be made for my lord's reception to-night." With these words
+she left the apartment.
+
+"She takes state on her already," said Varney, "and distributes the
+favour of her presence, as if she were already the partner of his
+dignity. Well, it is wise to practise beforehand the part which fortune
+prepares us to play--the young eagle must gaze at the sun ere he soars
+on strong wing to meet it."
+
+"If holding her head aloft," said Foster, "will keep her eyes from
+dazzling, I warrant you the dame will not stoop her crest. She will
+presently soar beyond reach of my whistle, Master Varney. I promise you,
+she holds me already in slight regard."
+
+"It is thine own fault, thou sullen, uninventive companion," answered
+Varney, "who knowest no mode of control save downright brute force.
+Canst thou not make home pleasant to her, with music and toys? Canst
+thou not make the out-of-doors frightful to her, with tales of goblins?
+Thou livest here by the churchyard, and hast not even wit enough to
+raise a ghost, to scare thy females into good discipline."
+
+"Speak not thus, Master Varney," said Foster; "the living I fear not,
+but I trifle not nor toy with my dead neighbours of the churchyard. I
+promise you, it requires a good heart to live so near it. Worthy Master
+Holdforth, the afternoon's lecturer of Saint Antonlin's, had a sore
+fright there the last time he came to visit me."
+
+"Hold thy superstitious tongue," answered Varney; "and while thou
+talkest of visiting, answer me, thou paltering knave, how came
+Tressilian to be at the postern door?"
+
+"Tressilian!" answered Foster, "what know I of Tressilian? I never heard
+his name."
+
+"Why, villain, it was the very Cornish chough to whom old Sir Hugh
+Robsart destined his pretty Amy; and hither the hot-brained fool has
+come to look after his fair runaway. There must be some order taken with
+him, for he thinks he hath wrong, and is not the mean hind that will sit
+down with it. Luckily he knows nought of my lord, but thinks he has only
+me to deal with. But how, in the fiend's name, came he hither?"
+
+"Why, with Mike Lambourne, an you must know," answered Foster.
+
+"And who is Mike Lambourne?" demanded Varney. "By Heaven! thou wert best
+set up a bush over thy door, and invite every stroller who passes by to
+see what thou shouldst keep secret even from the sun and air."
+
+"Ay! ay! this is a courtlike requital of my service to you, Master
+Richard Varney," replied Foster. "Didst thou not charge me to seek out
+for thee a fellow who had a good sword and an unscrupulous conscience?
+and was I not busying myself to find a fit man--for, thank Heaven, my
+acquaintance lies not amongst such companions--when, as Heaven would
+have it, this tall fellow, who is in all his dualities the very flashing
+knave thou didst wish, came hither to fix acquaintance upon me in the
+plenitude of his impudence; and I admitted his claim, thinking to do
+you a pleasure. And now see what thanks I get for disgracing myself by
+converse with him!"
+
+"And did he," said Varney, "being such a fellow as thyself, only
+lacking, I suppose, thy present humour of hypocrisy, which lies as thin
+over thy hard, ruffianly heart as gold lacquer upon rusty iron--did he,
+I say, bring the saintly, sighing Tressilian in his train?"
+
+"They came together, by Heaven!" said Foster; "and Tressilian--to speak
+Heaven's truth--obtained a moment's interview with our pretty moppet,
+while I was talking apart with Lambourne."
+
+"Improvident villain! we are both undone," said Varney. "She has of late
+been casting many a backward look to her father's halls, whenever her
+lordly lover leaves her alone. Should this preaching fool whistle her
+back to her old perch, we were but lost men."
+
+"No fear of that, my master," replied Anthony Foster; "she is in no mood
+to stoop to his lure, for she yelled out on seeing him as if an adder
+had stung her."
+
+"That is good. Canst thou not get from thy daughter an inkling of what
+passed between them, good Foster?"
+
+"I tell you plain, Master Varney," said Foster, "my daughter shall not
+enter our purposes or walk in our paths. They may suit me well enough,
+who know how to repent of my misdoings; but I will not have my child's
+soul committed to peril either for your pleasure or my lord's. I may
+walk among snares and pitfalls myself, because I have discretion, but I
+will not trust the poor lamb among them."
+
+"Why, thou suspicious fool, I were as averse as thou art that thy
+baby-faced girl should enter into my plans, or walk to hell at her
+father's elbow. But indirectly thou mightst gain some intelligence of
+her?"
+
+"And so I did, Master Varney," answered Foster; "and she said her lady
+called out upon the sickness of her father."
+
+"Good!" replied Varney; "that is a hint worth catching, and I will work
+upon it. But the country must be rid of this Tressilian. I would have
+cumbered no man about the matter, for I hate him like strong poison--his
+presence is hemlock to me--and this day I had been rid of him, but that
+my foot slipped, when, to speak truth, had not thy comrade yonder come
+to my aid, and held his hand, I should have known by this time whether
+you and I have been treading the path to heaven or hell."
+
+"And you can speak thus of such a risk!" said Foster. "You keep a stout
+heart, Master Varney. For me, if I did not hope to live many years, and
+to have time for the great work of repentance, I would not go forward
+with you."
+
+"Oh! thou shalt live as long as Methuselah," said Varney, "and amass
+as much wealth as Solomon; and thou shalt repent so devoutly, that thy
+repentance shall be more famous than thy villainy--and that is a bold
+word. But for all this, Tressilian must be looked after. Thy ruffian
+yonder is gone to dog him. It concerns our fortunes, Anthony."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Foster sullenly, "this it is to be leagued with one who
+knows not even so much of Scripture, as that the labourer is worthy of
+his hire. I must, as usual, take all the trouble and risk."
+
+"Risk! and what is the mighty risk, I pray you?" answered Varney. "This
+fellow will come prowling again about your demesne or into your house,
+and if you take him for a house-breaker or a park-breaker, is it not
+most natural you should welcome him with cold steel or hot lead? Even
+a mastiff will pull down those who come near his kennel; and who shall
+blame him?"
+
+"Ay, I have a mastiff's work and a mastiff's wage among you," said
+Foster. "Here have you, Master Varney, secured a good freehold estate
+out of this old superstitious foundation; and I have but a poor lease of
+this mansion under you, voidable at your honour's pleasure."
+
+"Ay, and thou wouldst fain convert thy leasehold into a copyhold--the
+thing may chance to happen, Anthony Foster, if thou dost good service
+for it. But softly, good Anthony--it is not the lending a room or two of
+this old house for keeping my lord's pretty paroquet--nay, it is not
+the shutting thy doors and windows to keep her from flying off that may
+deserve it. Remember, the manor and tithes are rated at the clear annual
+value of seventy-nine pounds five shillings and fivepence halfpenny,
+besides the value of the wood. Come, come, thou must be conscionable;
+great and secret service may deserve both this and a better thing. And
+now let thy knave come and pluck off my boots. Get us some dinner, and
+a cup of thy best wine. I must visit this mavis, brave in apparel,
+unruffled in aspect, and gay in temper."
+
+They parted and at the hour of noon, which was then that of dinner, they
+again met at their meal, Varney gaily dressed like a courtier of the
+time, and even Anthony Foster improved in appearance, as far as dress
+could amend an exterior so unfavourable.
+
+This alteration did not escape Varney. Then the meal was finished, the
+cloth removed, and they were left to their private discourse--"Thou
+art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony," said Varney, looking at his host;
+"methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig anon. But I crave your pardon,
+that would secure your ejection from the congregation of the zealous
+botchers, the pure-hearted weavers, and the sanctified bakers of
+Abingdon, who let their ovens cool while their brains get heated."
+
+"To answer you in the spirit, Master Varney," said Foster, "were--excuse
+the parable--to fling sacred and precious things before swine. So I will
+speak to thee in the language of the world, which he who is king of the
+world, hath taught thee, to understand, and to profit by in no common
+measure."
+
+"Say what thou wilt, honest Tony," replied Varney; "for be it according
+to thine absurd faith, or according to thy most villainous practice,
+it cannot choose but be rare matter to qualify this cup of Alicant.
+Thy conversation is relishing and poignant, and beats caviare, dried
+neat's-tongue, and all other provocatives that give savour to good
+liquor."
+
+"Well, then, tell me," said Anthony Foster, "is not our good lord and
+master's turn better served, and his antechamber more suitably filled,
+with decent, God-fearing men, who will work his will and their own
+profit quietly, and without worldly scandal, than that he should be
+manned, and attended, and followed by such open debauchers and ruffianly
+swordsmen as Tidesly, Killigrew, this fellow Lambourne, whom you have
+put me to seek out for you, and other such, who bear the gallows in
+their face and murder in their right hand--who are a terror to peaceable
+men, and a scandal to my lord's service?"
+
+"Oh, content you, good Master Anthony Foster," answered Varney; "he that
+flies at all manner of game must keep all kinds of hawks, both short and
+long-winged. The course my lord holds is no easy one, and he must
+stand provided at all points with trusty retainers to meet each sort of
+service. He must have his gay courtier, like myself, to ruffle it in
+the presence-chamber, and to lay hand on hilt when any speaks in
+disparagement of my lord's honour--"
+
+"Ay," said Foster, "and to whisper a word for him into a fair lady's
+ear, when he may not approach her himself."
+
+"Then," said Varney, going on without appearing to notice the
+interruption, "he must have his lawyers--deep, subtle pioneers--to draw
+his contracts, his pre-contracts, and his post-contracts, and to find
+the way to make the most of grants of church-lands, and commons, and
+licenses for monopoly. And he must have physicians who can spice a cup
+or a caudle. And he must have his cabalists, like Dec and Allan, for
+conjuring up the devil. And he must have ruffling swordsmen, who would
+fight the devil when he is raised and at the wildest. And above
+all, without prejudice to others, he must have such godly, innocent,
+puritanic souls as thou, honest Anthony, who defy Satan, and do his work
+at the same time."
+
+"You would not say, Master Varney," said Foster, "that our good lord
+and master, whom I hold to be fulfilled in all nobleness, would use such
+base and sinful means to rise, as thy speech points at?"
+
+"Tush, man," said Varney, "never look at me with so sad a brow. You trap
+me not--nor am I in your power, as your weak brain may imagine, because
+I name to you freely the engines, the springs, the screws, the tackle,
+and braces, by which great men rise in stirring times. Sayest thou our
+good lord is fulfilled of all nobleness? Amen, and so be it--he has the
+more need to have those about him who are unscrupulous in his service,
+and who, because they know that his fall will overwhelm and crush them,
+must wager both blood and brain, soul and body, in order to keep him
+aloft; and this I tell thee, because I care not who knows it."
+
+"You speak truth, Master Varney," said Anthony Foster. "He that is head
+of a party is but a boat on a wave, that raises not itself, but is moved
+upward by the billow which it floats upon."
+
+"Thou art metaphorical, honest Anthony," replied Varney; "that velvet
+doublet hath made an oracle of thee. We will have thee to Oxford to take
+the degrees in the arts. And, in the meantime, hast thou arranged all
+the matters which were sent from London, and put the western chambers
+into such fashion as may answer my lord's humour?"
+
+"They may serve a king on his bridal-day," said Anthony; "and I promise
+you that Dame Amy sits in them yonder as proud and gay as if she were
+the Queen of Sheba."
+
+"'Tis the better, good Anthony," answered Varney; "we must found our
+future fortunes on her good liking."
+
+"We build on sand then," said Anthony Foster; "for supposing that she
+sails away to court in all her lord's dignity and authority, how is she
+to look back upon me, who am her jailor as it were, to detain her here
+against her will, keeping her a caterpillar on an old wall, when she
+would fain be a painted butterfly in a court garden?"
+
+"Fear not her displeasure, man," said Varney. "I will show her all thou
+hast done in this matter was good service, both to my lord and her;
+and when she chips the egg-shell and walks alone, she shall own we have
+hatched her greatness."
+
+"Look to yourself, Master Varney," said Foster, "you may misreckon
+foully in this matter. She gave you but a frosty reception this morning,
+and, I think, looks on you, as well as me, with an evil eye."
+
+"You mistake her, Foster--you mistake her utterly. To me she is bound
+by all the ties which can secure her to one who has been the means of
+gratifying both her love and ambition. Who was it that took the obscure
+Amy Robsart, the daughter of an impoverished and dotard knight--the
+destined bride of a moonstruck, moping enthusiast, like Edmund
+Tressilian, from her lowly fates, and held out to her in prospect the
+brightest fortune in England, or perchance in Europe? Why, man, it was
+I--as I have often told thee--that found opportunity for their secret
+meetings. It was I who watched the wood while he beat for the deer. It
+was I who, to this day, am blamed by her family as the companion of her
+flight; and were I in their neighbourhood, would be fain to wear a shirt
+of better stuff than Holland linen, lest my ribs should be acquainted
+with Spanish steel. Who carried their letters?--I. Who amused the old
+knight and Tressilian?--I. Who planned her escape?--it was I. It was
+I, in short, Dick Varney, who pulled this pretty little daisy from its
+lowly nook, and placed it in the proudest bonnet in Britain."
+
+"Ay, Master Varney," said Foster; "but it may be she thinks that had the
+matter remained with you, the flower had been stuck so slightly into the
+cap, that the first breath of a changeable breeze of passion had blown
+the poor daisy to the common."
+
+"She should consider," said Varney, smiling, "the true faith I owed my
+lord and master prevented me at first from counselling marriage; and
+yet I did counsel marriage when I saw she would not be satisfied without
+the--the sacrament, or the ceremony--which callest thou it, Anthony?"
+
+"Still she has you at feud on another score," said Foster; "and I tell
+it you that you may look to yourself in time. She would not hide her
+splendour in this dark lantern of an old monastic house, but would fain
+shine a countess amongst countesses."
+
+"Very natural, very right," answered Varney; "but what have I to do
+with that?--she may shine through horn or through crystal at my lord's
+pleasure, I have nought to say against it."
+
+"She deems that you have an oar upon that side of the boat, Master
+Varney," replied Foster, "and that you can pull it or no, at your good
+pleasure. In a word, she ascribes the secrecy and obscurity in which she
+is kept to your secret counsel to my lord, and to my strict agency; and
+so she loves us both as a sentenced man loves his judge and his jailor."
+
+"She must love us better ere she leave this place, Anthony," answered
+Varney. "If I have counselled for weighty reasons that she remain here
+for a season, I can also advise her being brought forth in the full blow
+of her dignity. But I were mad to do so, holding so near a place to
+my lord's person, were she mine enemy. Bear this truth in upon her as
+occasion offers, Anthony, and let me alone for extolling you in her ear,
+and exalting you in her opinion--KA ME, KA THEE--it is a proverb all
+over the world. The lady must know her friends, and be made to judge of
+the power they have of being her enemies; meanwhile, watch her strictly,
+but with all the outward observance that thy rough nature will permit.
+'Tis an excellent thing that sullen look and bull-dog humour of thine;
+thou shouldst thank God for it, and so should my lord, for when there
+is aught harsh or hard-natured to be done, thou dost it as if it flowed
+from thine own natural doggedness, and not from orders, and so my lord
+escapes the scandal.--But, hark--some one knocks at the gate. Look
+out at the window--let no one enter--this were an ill night to be
+interrupted."
+
+"It is he whom we spoke of before dinner," said Foster, as he looked
+through the casement; "it is Michael Lambourne."
+
+"Oh, admit him, by all means," said the courtier; "he comes to give some
+account of his guest; it imports us much to know the movements of Edmund
+Tressilian.--Admit him, I say, but bring him not hither; I will come to
+you presently in the Abbot's library."
+
+Foster left the room, and the courtier, who remained behind, paced the
+parlour more than once in deep thought, his arms folded on his bosom,
+until at length he gave vent to his meditations in broken words, which
+we have somewhat enlarged and connected, that his soliloquy may be
+intelligible to the reader.
+
+"'Tis true," he said, suddenly stopping, and resting his right hand on
+the table at which they had been sitting, "this base churl hath fathomed
+the very depth of my fear, and I have been unable to disguise it from
+him. She loves me not--I would it were as true that I loved not her!
+Idiot that I was, to move her in my own behalf, when wisdom bade me be
+a true broker to my lord! And this fatal error has placed me more at her
+discretion than a wise man would willingly be at that of the best piece
+of painted Eve's flesh of them all. Since the hour that my policy made
+so perilous a slip, I cannot look at her without fear, and hate, and
+fondness, so strangely mingled, that I know not whether, were it at my
+choice, I would rather possess or ruin her. But she must not leave this
+retreat until I am assured on what terms we are to stand. My lord's
+interest--and so far it is mine own, for if he sinks I fall in his
+train--demands concealment of this obscure marriage; and besides, I will
+not lend her my arm to climb to her chair of state, that she may set her
+foot on my neck when she is fairly seated. I must work an interest in
+her, either through love or through fear; and who knows but I may yet
+reap the sweetest and best revenge for her former scorn?--that
+were indeed a masterpiece of courtlike art! Let me but once be her
+counsel-keeper--let her confide to me a secret, did it but concern the
+robbery of a linnet's nest, and, fair Countess, thou art mine own!"
+He again paced the room in silence, stopped, filled and drank a cup of
+wine, as if to compose the agitation of his mind, and muttering,
+"Now for a close heart and an open and unruffled brow," he left the
+apartment.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+     The dews of summer night did fall,
+     The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+     Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+     And many an oak that grew thereby.--MICKLE.
+
+     [This verse is the commencement of the ballad already quoted, as
+     what suggested the novel.]
+
+Four apartments; which, occupied the western side of the old quadrangle
+at Cumnor Place, had been fitted up with extraordinary splendour. This
+had been the work of several days prior to that on which our story
+opened. Workmen sent from London, and not permitted to leave the
+premises until the work was finished, had converted the apartments in
+that side of the building from the dilapidated appearance of a dissolved
+monastic house into the semblance of a royal palace. A mystery was
+observed in all these arrangements: the workmen came thither and
+returned by night, and all measures were taken to prevent the prying
+curiosity of the villagers from observing or speculating upon the
+changes which were taking place in the mansion of their once indigent
+but now wealthy neighbour, Anthony Foster. Accordingly, the secrecy
+desired was so far preserved, that nothing got abroad but vague and
+uncertain reports, which were received and repeated, but without much
+credit being attached to them.
+
+On the evening of which we treat, the new and highly-decorated suite of
+rooms were, for the first time, illuminated, and that with a brilliancy
+which might have been visible half-a-dozen miles off, had not oaken
+shutters, carefully secured with bolt and padlock, and mantled with long
+curtains of silk and of velvet, deeply fringed with gold, prevented the
+slightest gleam of radiance front being seen without.
+
+The principal apartments, as we have seen, were four in number, each
+opening into the other. Access was given to them by a large scale
+staircase, as they were then called, of unusual length and height, which
+had its landing-place at the door of an antechamber, shaped somewhat
+like a gallery. This apartment the abbot had used as an occasional
+council-room, but it was now beautifully wainscoted with dark, foreign
+wood of a brown colour, and bearing a high polish, said to have been
+brought from the Western Indies, and to have been wrought in London with
+infinite difficulty and much damage to the tools of the workmen. The
+dark colour of this finishing was relieved by the number of lights
+in silver sconces which hung against the walls, and by six large and
+richly-framed pictures, by the first masters of the age. A massy oaken
+table, placed at the lower end of the apartment, served to accommodate
+such as chose to play at the then fashionable game of shovel-board;
+and there was at the other end an elevated gallery for the musicians
+or minstrels, who might be summoned to increase the festivity of the
+evening.
+
+From this antechamber opened a banqueting-room of moderate size, but
+brilliant enough to dazzle the eyes of the spectator with the richness
+of its furniture. The walls, lately so bare and ghastly, were now
+clothed with hangings of sky-blue velvet and silver; the chairs were of
+ebony, richly carved, with cushions corresponding to the hangings; and
+the place of the silver sconces which enlightened the ante-chamber was
+supplied by a huge chandelier of the same precious metal. The floor
+was covered with a Spanish foot-cloth, or carpet, on which flowers and
+fruits were represented in such glowing and natural colours, that you
+hesitated to place the foot on such exquisite workmanship. The table, of
+old English oak, stood ready covered with the finest linen; and a large
+portable court-cupboard was placed with the leaves of its embossed
+folding-doors displayed, showing the shelves within, decorated with a
+full display of plate and porcelain. In the midst of the table stood a
+salt-cellar of Italian workmanship--a beautiful and splendid piece of
+plate about two feet high, moulded into a representation of the giant
+Briareus, whose hundred hands of silver presented to the guests various
+sorts of spices, or condiments, to season their food withal.
+
+The third apartment was called the withdrawing-room. It was hung with
+the finest tapestry, representing the fall of Phaeton; for the looms
+of Flanders were now much occupied on classical subjects. The principal
+seat of this apartment was a chair of state, raised a step or two from
+the floor, and large enough to contain two persons. It was surmounted
+by a canopy, which, as well as the cushions, side-curtains, and the very
+footcloth, was composed of crimson velvet, embroidered with seed-pearl.
+On the top of the canopy were two coronets, resembling those of an earl
+and countess. Stools covered with velvet, and some cushions disposed in
+the Moorish fashion, and ornamented with Arabesque needle-work,
+supplied the place of chairs in this apartment, which contained musical
+instruments, embroidery frames, and other articles for ladies' pastime.
+Besides lesser lights, the withdrawing-room was illuminated by four
+tall torches of virgin wax, each of which was placed in the grasp of
+a statue, representing an armed Moor, who held in his left arm a round
+buckler of silver, highly polished, interposed betwixt his breast
+and the light, which was thus brilliantly reflected as from a crystal
+mirror.
+
+The sleeping chamber belonging to this splendid suite of apartments
+was decorated in a taste less showy, but not less rich, than had been
+displayed in the others. Two silver lamps, fed with perfumed oil,
+diffused at once a delicious odour and a trembling twilight-seeming
+shimmer through the quiet apartment. It was carpeted so thick that the
+heaviest step could not have been heard, and the bed, richly heaped with
+down, was spread with an ample coverlet of silk and gold; from under
+which peeped forth cambric sheets and blankets as white as the lambs
+which yielded the fleece that made them. The curtains were of blue
+velvet, lined with crimson silk, deeply festooned with gold, and
+embroidered with the loves of Cupid and Psyche. On the toilet was a
+beautiful Venetian mirror, in a frame of silver filigree, and beside it
+stood a gold posset-dish to contain the night-draught. A pair of pistols
+and a dagger, mounted with gold, were displayed near the head of the
+bed, being the arms for the night, which were presented to honoured
+guests, rather, it may be supposed, in the way of ceremony than from any
+apprehension of danger. We must not omit to mention, what was more
+to the credit of the manners of the time, that in a small recess,
+illuminated by a taper, were disposed two hassocks of velvet and gold,
+corresponding with the bed furniture, before a desk of carved ebony.
+This recess had formerly been the private oratory of the abbot; but the
+crucifix was removed, and instead there were placed on the desk, two
+Books of Common Prayer, richly bound, and embossed with silver. With
+this enviable sleeping apartment, which was so far removed from every
+sound save that of the wind sighing among the oaks of the park, that
+Morpheus might have coveted it for his own proper repose, corresponded
+two wardrobes, or dressing-rooms as they are now termed, suitably
+furnished, and in a style of the same magnificence which we have already
+described. It ought to be added, that a part of the building in the
+adjoining wing was occupied by the kitchen and its offices, and
+served to accommodate the personal attendants of the great and wealthy
+nobleman, for whose use these magnificent preparations had been made.
+
+The divinity for whose sake this temple had been decorated was well
+worthy the cost and pains which had been bestowed. She was seated in the
+withdrawing-room which we have described, surveying with the pleased eye
+of natural and innocent vanity the splendour which had been so suddenly
+created, as it were, in her honour. For, as her own residence at Cumnor
+Place formed the cause of the mystery observed in all the preparations
+for opening these apartments, it was sedulously arranged that, until she
+took possession of them, she should have no means of knowing what was
+going forward in that part of the ancient building, or of exposing
+herself to be seen by the workmen engaged in the decorations. She had
+been, therefore, introduced on that evening to a part of the mansion
+which she had never yet seen, so different from all the rest that it
+appeared, in comparison, like an enchanted palace. And when she first
+examined and occupied these splendid rooms, it was with the wild and
+unrestrained joy of a rustic beauty who finds herself suddenly invested
+with a splendour which her most extravagant wishes had never imagined,
+and at the same time with the keen feeling of an affectionate heart,
+which knows that all the enchantment that surrounds her is the work of
+the great magician Love.
+
+The Countess Amy, therefore--for to that rank she was exalted by her
+private but solemn union with England's proudest Earl--had for a time
+flitted hastily from room to room, admiring each new proof of her lover
+and her bridegroom's taste, and feeling that admiration enhanced as
+she recollected that all she gazed upon was one continued proof of his
+ardent and devoted affection. "How beautiful are these hangings! How
+natural these paintings, which seem to contend with life! How richly
+wrought is that plate, which looks as if all the galleons of Spain had
+been intercepted on the broad seas to furnish it forth! And oh, Janet!"
+she exclaimed repeatedly to the daughter of Anthony Foster, the close
+attendant, who, with equal curiosity, but somewhat less ecstatic
+joy, followed on her mistress's footsteps--"oh, Janet! how much more
+delightful to think that all these fair things have been assembled by
+his love, for the love of me! and that this evening--this very evening,
+which grows darker every instant, I shall thank him more for the love
+that has created such an unimaginable paradise, than for all the wonders
+it contains."
+
+"The Lord is to be thanked first," said the pretty Puritan, "who gave
+thee, lady, the kind and courteous husband whose love has done so much
+for thee. I, too, have done my poor share. But if you thus run wildly
+from room to room, the toil of my crisping and my curling pins will
+vanish like the frost-work on the window when the sun is high."
+
+"Thou sayest true, Janet," said the young and beautiful Countess,
+stopping suddenly from her tripping race of enraptured delight, and
+looking at herself from head to foot in a large mirror, such as she had
+never before seen, and which, indeed, had few to match it even in the
+Queen's palace--"thou sayest true, Janet!" she answered, as she saw,
+with pardonable self-applause, the noble mirror reflect such charms as
+were seldom presented to its fair and polished surface; "I have more of
+the milk-maid than the countess, with these cheeks flushed with haste,
+and all these brown curls, which you laboured to bring to order,
+straying as wild as the tendrils of an unpruned vine. My falling ruff is
+chafed too, and shows the neck and bosom more than is modest and seemly.
+Come, Janet; we will practise state--we will go to the withdrawing-room,
+my good girl, and thou shalt put these rebel locks in order, and
+imprison within lace and cambric the bosom that beats too high."
+
+They went to the withdrawing apartment accordingly, where the Countess
+playfully stretched herself upon the pile of Moorish cushions, half
+sitting, half reclining, half wrapt in her own thoughts, half listening
+to the prattle of her attendant.
+
+While she was in this attitude, and with a corresponding expression
+betwixt listlessness and expectation on her fine and intelligent
+features, you might have searched sea and land without finding anything
+half so expressive or half so lovely. The wreath of brilliants which
+mixed with her dark-brown hair did not match in lustre the hazel eye
+which a light-brown eyebrow, pencilled with exquisite delicacy, and long
+eyelashes of the same colour, relieved and shaded. The exercise she had
+just taken, her excited expectation and gratified vanity, spread a glow
+over her fine features, which had been sometimes censured (as beauty
+as well as art has her minute critics) for being rather too pale. The
+milk-white pearls of the necklace which she wore, the same which she had
+just received as a true-love token from her husband, were excelled in
+purity by her teeth, and by the colour of her skin, saving where the
+blush of pleasure and self-satisfaction had somewhat stained the neck
+with a shade of light crimson.--"Now, have done with these busy fingers,
+Janet," she said to her handmaiden, who was still officiously employed
+in bringing her hair and her dress into order--"have done, I say. I must
+see your father ere my lord arrives, and also Master Richard Varney,
+whom my lord has highly in his esteem--but I could tell that of him
+would lose him favour."
+
+"Oh, do not do so, good my lady!" replied Janet; "leave him to God, who
+punishes the wicked in His own time; but do not you cross Varney's path,
+for so thoroughly hath he my lord's ear, that few have thriven who have
+thwarted his courses."
+
+"And from whom had you this, my most righteous Janet?" said the
+Countess; "or why should I keep terms with so mean a gentleman as
+Varney, being as I am, wife to his master and patron?"
+
+"Nay, madam," replied Janet Foster, "your ladyship knows better than I;
+but I have heard my father say he would rather cross a hungry wolf than
+thwart Richard Varney in his projects. And he has often charged me to
+have a care of holding commerce with him."
+
+"Thy father said well, girl, for thee," replied the lady, "and I dare
+swear meant well. It is a pity, though, his face and manner do little
+match his true purpose--for I think his purpose may be true."
+
+"Doubt it not, my lady," answered Janet--"doubt not that my father
+purposes well, though he is a plain man, and his blunt looks may belie
+his heart."
+
+"I will not doubt it, girl, were it only for thy sake; and yet he has
+one of those faces which men tremble when they look on. I think even thy
+mother, Janet--nay, have done with that poking-iron--could hardly look
+upon him without quaking."
+
+"If it were so, madam," answered Janet Foster, "my mother had those who
+could keep her in honourable countenance. Why, even you, my lady, both
+trembled and blushed when Varney brought the letter from my lord."
+
+"You are bold, damsel," said the Countess, rising from the cushions on
+which she sat half reclined in the arms of her attendant. "Know that
+there are causes of trembling which have nothing to do with fear.--But,
+Janet," she added, immediately relapsing into the good-natured and
+familiar tone which was natural to her, "believe me, I will do what
+credit I can to your father, and the rather that you, sweetheart, are
+his child. Alas! alas!" she added, a sudden sadness passing over her
+fine features, and her eyes filling with tears, "I ought the rather to
+hold sympathy with thy kind heart, that my own poor father is uncertain
+of my fate, and they say lies sick and sorrowful for my worthless sake!
+But I will soon cheer him--the news of my happiness and advancement will
+make him young again. And that I may cheer him the sooner"--she wiped
+her eyes as she spoke--"I must be cheerful myself. My lord must not find
+me insensible to his kindness, or sorrowful, when he snatches a visit to
+his recluse, after so long an absence. Be merry, Janet; the night wears
+on, and my lord must soon arrive. Call thy father hither, and call
+Varney also. I cherish resentment against neither; and though I may have
+some room to be displeased with both, it shall be their own fault if
+ever a complaint against them reaches the Earl through my means. Call
+them hither, Janet."
+
+Janet Foster obeyed her mistress; and in a few minutes after, Varney
+entered the withdrawing-room with the graceful ease and unclouded
+front of an accomplished courtier, skilled, under the veil of external
+politeness, to disguise his own feelings and to penetrate those of
+others. Anthony Foster plodded into the apartment after him, his natural
+gloomy vulgarity of aspect seeming to become yet more remarkable, from
+his clumsy attempt to conceal the mixture of anxiety and dislike with
+which he looked on her, over whom he had hitherto exercised so severe a
+control, now so splendidly attired, and decked with so many pledges
+of the interest which she possessed in her husband's affections. The
+blundering reverence which he made, rather AT than TO the Countess, had
+confession in it. It was like the reverence which the criminal makes to
+the judge, when he at once owns his guilt and implores mercy--which
+is at the same time an impudent and embarrassed attempt at defence or
+extenuation, a confession of a fault, and an entreaty for lenity.
+
+Varney, who, in right of his gentle blood, had pressed into the room
+before Anthony Foster, knew better what to say than he, and said it with
+more assurance and a better grace.
+
+The Countess greeted him indeed with an appearance of cordiality, which
+seemed a complete amnesty for whatever she might have to complain of.
+She rose from her seat, and advanced two steps towards him, holding
+forth her hand as she said, "Master Richard Varney, you brought me
+this morning such welcome tidings, that I fear surprise and joy made me
+neglect my lord and husband's charge to receive you with distinction. We
+offer you our hand, sir, in reconciliation."
+
+"I am unworthy to touch it," said Varney, dropping on one knee, "save as
+a subject honours that of a prince."
+
+He touched with his lips those fair and slender fingers, so richly
+loaded with rings and jewels; then rising, with graceful gallantry, was
+about to hand her to the chair of state, when she said, "No, good Master
+Richard Varney, I take not my place there until my lord himself conducts
+me. I am for the present but a disguised Countess, and will not take
+dignity on me until authorized by him whom I derive it from."
+
+"I trust, my lady," said Foster, "that in doing the commands of my lord
+your husband, in your restraint and so forth, I have not incurred your
+displeasure, seeing that I did but my duty towards your lord and mine;
+for Heaven, as holy writ saith, hath given the husband supremacy and
+dominion over the wife--I think it runs so, or something like it."
+
+"I receive at this moment so pleasant a surprise, Master Foster,"
+answered the Countess, "that I cannot but excuse the rigid fidelity
+which secluded me from these apartments, until they had assumed an
+appearance so new and so splendid."
+
+"Ay lady," said Foster, "it hath cost many a fair crown; and that more
+need not be wasted than is absolutely necessary, I leave you till my
+lord's arrival with good Master Richard Varney, who, as I think, hath
+somewhat to say to you from your most noble lord and husband.--Janet,
+follow me, to see that all be in order."
+
+"No, Master Foster," said the Countess, "we will your daughter remains
+here in our apartment--out of ear-shot, however, in case Varney bath
+ought to say to me from my lord."
+
+Foster made his clumsy reverence, and departed, with an aspect which
+seemed to grudge the profuse expense which had been wasted upon changing
+his house from a bare and ruinous grange to an Asiastic palace. When he
+was gone, his daughter took her embroidery frame, and went to establish
+herself at the bottom of the apartment; while Richard Varney, with a
+profoundly humble courtesy, took the lowest stool he could find, and
+placing it by the side of the pile of cushions on which the Countess
+had now again seated herself, sat with his eyes for a time fixed on the
+ground, and in pro-found silence.
+
+"I thought, Master Varney," said the Countess, when she saw he was not
+likely to open the conversation, "that you had something to communicate
+from my lord and husband; so at least I understood Master Foster, and
+therefore I removed my waiting-maid. If I am mistaken, I will recall
+her to my side; for her needle is not so absolutely perfect in tent and
+cross-stitch, but that my superintendence is advisable."
+
+"Lady," said Varney, "Foster was partly mistaken in my purpose. It
+was not FROM but OF your noble husband, and my approved and most noble
+patron, that I am led, and indeed bound, to speak."
+
+"The theme is most welcome, sir," said the Countess, "whether it be
+of or from my noble husband. But be brief, for I expect his hasty
+approach."
+
+"Briefly then, madam," replied Varney, "and boldly, for my argument
+requires both haste and courage--you have this day seen Tressilian?"
+
+"I have, sir and what of that?" answered the lady somewhat sharply.
+
+"Nothing that concerns me, lady," Varney replied with humility. "But,
+think you, honoured madam, that your lord will hear it with equal
+equanimity?"
+
+"And wherefore should he not? To me alone was Tressilian's visit
+embarrassing and painful, for he brought news of my good father's
+illness."
+
+"Of your father's illness, madam!" answered Varney. "It must have been
+sudden then--very sudden; for the messenger whom I dispatched, at my
+lord's instance, found the good knight on the hunting field, cheering
+his beagles with his wonted jovial field-cry. I trust Tressilian has
+but forged this news. He hath his reasons, madam, as you well know, for
+disquieting your present happiness."
+
+"You do him injustice, Master Varney," replied the Countess, with
+animation--"you do him much injustice. He is the freest, the most open,
+the most gentle heart that breathes. My honourable lord ever excepted, I
+know not one to whom falsehood is more odious than to Tressilian."
+
+"I crave your pardon, madam," said Varney, "I meant the gentleman no
+injustice--I knew not how nearly his cause affected you. A man may, in
+some circumstances, disguise the truth for fair and honest purpose; for
+were it to be always spoken, and upon all occasions, this were no world
+to live in."
+
+"You have a courtly conscience, Master Varney," said the Countess, "and
+your veracity will not, I think, interrupt your preferment in the world,
+such as it is. But touching Tressilian--I must do him justice, for
+I have done him wrong, as none knows better than thou. Tressilian's
+conscience is of other mould--the world thou speakest of has not that
+which could bribe him from the way of truth and honour; and for living
+in it with a soiled fame, the ermine would as soon seek to lodge in the
+den of the foul polecat. For this my father loved him; for this I would
+have loved him--if I could. And yet in this case he had what seemed
+to him, unknowing alike of my marriage and to whom I was united, such
+powerful reasons to withdraw me from this place, that I well trust he
+exaggerated much of my father's indisposition, and that thy better news
+may be the truer."
+
+"Believe me they are, madam," answered Varney. "I pretend not to be a
+champion of that same naked virtue called truth, to the very outrance.
+I can consent that her charms be hidden with a veil, were it but for
+decency's sake. But you must think lower of my head and heart than is
+due to one whom my noble lord deigns to call his friend, if you suppose
+I could wilfully and unnecessarily palm upon your ladyship a falsehood,
+so soon to be detected, in a matter which concerns your happiness."
+
+"Master Varney," said the Countess, "I know that my lord esteems you,
+and holds you a faithful and a good pilot in those seas in which he has
+spread so high and so venturous a sail. Do not suppose, therefore, I
+meant hardly by you, when I spoke the truth in Tressilian's vindication.
+I am as you well know, country-bred, and like plain rustic truth better
+than courtly compliment; but I must change my fashions with my sphere, I
+presume."
+
+"True, madam," said Varney, smiling; "and though you speak now in
+jest, it will not be amiss that in earnest your present speech had some
+connection with your real purpose. A court-dame--take the most noble,
+the most virtuous, the most unimpeachable that stands around our Queen's
+throne--would, for example, have shunned to speak the truth, or what she
+thought such, in praise of a discarded suitor, before the dependant and
+confidant of her noble husband."
+
+"And wherefore," said the Countess, colouring impatiently, "should I not
+do justice to Tressilian's worth, before my husband's friend--before my
+husband himself--before the whole world?"
+
+"And with the same openness," said Varney, "your ladyship will this
+night tell my noble lord your husband that Tressilian has discovered
+your place of residence, so anxiously concealed from the world, and that
+he has had an interview with you?"
+
+"Unquestionably," said the Countess. "It will be the first thing I tell
+him, together with every word that Tressilian said and that I answered.
+I shall speak my own shame in this, for Tressilian's reproaches, less
+just than he esteemed them, were not altogether unmerited. I will speak,
+therefore, with pain, but I will speak, and speak all."
+
+"Your ladyship will do your pleasure," answered Varney; "but methinks
+it were as well, since nothing calls for so frank a disclosure, to
+spare yourself this pain, and my noble lord the disquiet, and Master
+Tressilian, since belike he must be thought of in the matter, the danger
+which is like to ensue."
+
+"I can see nought of all these terrible consequences," said the lady
+composedly, "unless by imputing to my noble lord unworthy thoughts,
+which I am sure never harboured in his generous heart."
+
+"Far be it from me to do so," said Varney. And then, after a moment's
+silence, he added, with a real or affected plainness of manner, very
+different from his usual smooth courtesy, "Come, madam, I will show you
+that a courtier dare speak truth as well as another, when it concerns
+the weal of those whom he honours and regards, ay, and although it may
+infer his own danger." He waited as if to receive commands, or at least
+permission, to go on; but as the lady remained silent, he proceeded,
+but obviously with caution. "Look around you," he said, "noble lady, and
+observe the barriers with which this place is surrounded, the studious
+mystery with which the brightest jewel that England possesses is
+secluded from the admiring gaze. See with what rigour your walks are
+circumscribed, and your movement restrained at the beck of yonder
+churlish Foster. Consider all this, and judge for yourself what can be
+the cause.
+
+"My lord's pleasure," answered the Countess; "and I am bound to seek no
+other motive."
+
+"His pleasure it is indeed," said Varney; "and his pleasure arises out
+of a love worthy of the object which inspires it. But he who possesses a
+treasure, and who values it, is oft anxious, in proportion to the value
+he puts upon it, to secure it from the depredations of others."
+
+"What needs all this talk, Master Varney?" said the lady, in reply. "You
+would have me believe that my noble lord is jealous. Suppose it true, I
+know a cure for jealousy."
+
+"Indeed, madam?" said Varney.
+
+"It is," replied the lady, "to speak the truth to my lord at all
+times--to hold up my mind and my thoughts before him as pure as that
+polished mirror--so that when he looks into my heart, he shall only see
+his own features reflected there."
+
+"I am mute, madam," answered Varney; "and as I have no reason to grieve
+for Tressilian, who would have my heart's blood were he able, I shall
+reconcile myself easily to what may befall the gentleman in consequence
+of your frank disclosure of his having presumed to intrude upon your
+solitude. You, who know my lord so much better than I, will judge if he
+be likely to bear the insult unavenged."
+
+"Nay, if I could think myself the cause of Tressilian's ruin," said the
+Countess, "I who have already occasioned him so much distress, I might
+be brought to be silent. And yet what will it avail, since he was seen
+by Foster, and I think by some one else? No, no, Varney, urge it no
+more. I will tell the whole matter to my lord; and with such pleading
+for Tressilian's folly, as shall dispose my lord's generous heart rather
+to serve than to punish him."
+
+"Your judgment, madam," said Varney, "is far superior to mine,
+especially as you may, if you will, prove the ice before you step on it,
+by mentioning Tressilian's name to my lord, and observing how he endures
+it. For Foster and his attendant, they know not Tressilian by sight, and
+I can easily give them some reasonable excuse for the appearance of an
+unknown stranger."
+
+The lady paused for an instant, and then replied, "If, Varney, it
+be indeed true that Foster knows not as yet that the man he saw was
+Tressilian, I own I were unwilling he should learn what nowise concerns
+him. He bears himself already with austerity enough, and I wish him not
+to be judge or privy-councillor in my affairs."
+
+"Tush," said Varney, "what has the surly groom to do with your
+ladyship's concerns?--no more, surely, than the ban-dog which watches
+his courtyard. If he is in aught distasteful to your ladyship, I have
+interest enough to have him exchanged for a seneschal that shall be more
+agreeable to you."
+
+"Master Varney," said the Countess, "let us drop this theme. When I
+complain of the attendants whom my lord has placed around me, it must be
+to my lord himself.--Hark! I hear the trampling of horse. He comes! he
+comes!" she exclaimed, jumping up in ecstasy.
+
+"I cannot think it is he," said Varney; "or that you can hear the tread
+of his horse through the closely-mantled casements."
+
+"Stop me not, Varney--my ears are keener than thine. It is he!"
+
+"But, madam!--but, madam!" exclaimed Varney anxiously, and still placing
+himself in her way, "I trust that what I have spoken in humble duty and
+service will not be turned to my ruin? I hope that my faithful advice
+will not be bewrayed to my prejudice? I implore that--"
+
+"Content thee, man--content thee!" said the Countess, "and quit my
+skirt--you are too bold to detain me. Content thyself, I think not of
+thee."
+
+At this moment the folding-doors flew wide open, and a man of majestic
+mien, muffled in the folds of a long dark riding-cloak, entered the
+apartment.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+     "This is he
+     Who rides on the court-gale; controls its tides;
+     Knows all their secret shoals and fatal eddies;
+     Whose frown abases, and whose smile exalts.
+     He shines like any rainbow--and, perchance,
+     His colours are as transient."--OLD PLAY.
+
+There was some little displeasure and confusion on the Countess's brow,
+owing to her struggle with Varney's pertinacity; but it was exchanged
+for an expression of the purest joy and affection, as she threw herself
+into the arms of the noble stranger who entered, and clasping him to her
+bosom, exclaimed, "At length--at length thou art come!"
+
+Varney discreetly withdrew as his lord entered, and Janet was about to
+do the same, when her mistress signed to her to remain. She took her
+place at the farther end of the apartment, and continued standing, as if
+ready for attendance.
+
+Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned his lady's
+caress with the most affectionate ardour, but affected to resist when
+she strove to take his cloak from him.
+
+"Nay," she said, "but I will unmantle you. I must see if you have kept
+your word to me, and come as the great Earl men call thee, and not as
+heretofore like a private cavalier."
+
+"Thou art like the rest of the world, Amy," said the Earl, suffering her
+to prevail in the playful contest; "the jewels, and feathers, and silk
+are more to them than the man whom they adorn--many a poor blade looks
+gay in a velvet scabbard."
+
+"But so cannot men say of thee, thou noble Earl," said his lady, as the
+cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as princes when they
+ride abroad; "thou art the good and well-tried steel, whose inly worth
+deserves, yet disdains, its outward ornaments. Do not think Amy can love
+thee better in this glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart
+to him who wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon."
+
+"And thou too," said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically he led
+his beautiful Countess towards the chair of state which was prepared
+for them both--"thou too, my love, hast donned a dress which becomes
+thy rank, though it cannot improve thy beauty. What think'st thou of our
+court taste?"
+
+The lady cast a sidelong glance upon the great mirror as they passed
+it by, and then said, "I know not how it is, but I think not of my own
+person while I look at the reflection of thine. Sit thou there," she
+said, as they approached the chair of state, "like a thing for men to
+worship and to wonder at."
+
+"Ay, love," said the Earl, "if thou wilt share my state with me."
+
+"Not so," said the Countess; "I will sit on this footstool at thy feet,
+that I may spell over thy splendour, and learn, for the first time, how
+princes are attired."
+
+And with a childish wonder, which her youth and rustic education
+rendered not only excusable but becoming, mixed as it was with a
+delicate show of the most tender conjugal affection, she examined and
+admired from head to foot the noble form and princely attire of him who
+formed the proudest ornament of the court of England's Maiden Queen,
+renowned as it was for splendid courtiers, as well as for wise
+counsellors. Regarding affectionately his lovely bride, and gratified by
+her unrepressed admiration, the dark eye and noble features of the Earl
+expressed passions more gentle than the commanding and aspiring
+look which usually sat upon his broad forehead, and in the piercing
+brilliancy of his dark eye; and he smiled at the simplicity which
+dictated the questions she put to him concerning the various ornaments
+with which he was decorated.
+
+"The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee," he said,
+"is the English Garter, an ornament which kings are proud to wear. See,
+here is the star which belongs to it, and here the Diamond George, the
+jewel of the order. You have heard how King Edward and the Countess of
+Salisbury--"
+
+"Oh, I know all that tale," said the Countess, slightly blushing, "and
+how a lady's garter became the proudest badge of English chivalry."
+
+"Even so," said the Earl; "and this most honourable Order I had the good
+hap to receive at the same time with three most noble associates, the
+Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Earl of Rutland.
+I was the lowest of the four in rank--but what then? he that climbs a
+ladder must begin at the first round."
+
+"But this other fair collar, so richly wrought, with some jewel like a
+sheep hung by the middle attached to it, what," said the young Countess,
+"does that emblem signify?"
+
+"This collar," said the Earl, "with its double fusilles interchanged
+with these knobs, which are supposed to present flint-stones sparkling
+with fire, and sustaining the jewel you inquire about, is the badge of
+the noble Order of the Golden Fleece, once appertaining to the House
+of Burgundy it hath high privileges, my Amy, belonging to it, this most
+noble Order; for even the King of Spain himself, who hath now succeeded
+to the honours and demesnes of Burgundy, may not sit in judgment upon
+a knight of the Golden Fleece, unless by assistance and consent of the
+Great Chapter of the Order."
+
+"And is this an Order belonging to the cruel King of Spain?" said the
+Countess. "Alas! my noble lord, that you will defile your noble English
+breast by bearing such an emblem! Bethink you of the most unhappy Queen
+Mary's days, when this same Philip held sway with her in England, and of
+the piles which were built for our noblest, and our wisest, and our most
+truly sanctified prelates and divines--and will you, whom men call the
+standard-bearer of the true Protestant faith, be contented to wear the
+emblem and mark of such a Romish tyrant as he of Spain?"
+
+"Oh, content you, my love," answered the Earl; "we who spread our sails
+to gales of court favour cannot always display the ensigns we love the
+best, or at all times refuse sailing under colours which we like not.
+Believe me, I am not the less good Protestant, that for policy I must
+accept the honour offered me by Spain, in admitting me to this his
+highest order of knighthood. Besides, it belongs properly to Flanders;
+and Egmont, Orange, and others have pride in seeing it displayed on an
+English bosom."
+
+"Nay, my lord, you know your own path best," replied the Countess. "And
+this other collar, to what country does this fair jewel belong?"
+
+"To a very poor one, my love," replied the Earl; "this is the Order of
+Saint Andrew, revived by the last James of Scotland. It was bestowed
+on me when it was thought the young widow of France and Scotland would
+gladly have wedded an English baron; but a free coronet of England is
+worth a crown matrimonial held at the humour of a woman, and owning only
+the poor rocks and bogs of the north."
+
+The Countess paused, as if what the Earl last said had excited some
+painful but interesting train of thought; and, as she still remained
+silent, her husband proceeded:--
+
+"And now, loveliest, your wish is gratified, and you have seen your
+vassal in such of his trim array as accords with riding vestments; for
+robes of state and coronets are only for princely halls."
+
+"Well, then," said the Countess, "my gratified wish has, as usual, given
+rise to a new one."
+
+"And what is it thou canst ask that I can deny?" said the fond husband.
+
+"I wished to see my Earl visit this obscure and secret bower," said the
+Countess, "in all his princely array; and now, methinks I long to sit in
+one of his princely halls, and see him enter dressed in sober russet, as
+when he won poor Amy Robsart's heart."
+
+"That is a wish easily granted," said the Earl--"the sober russet shall
+be donned to-morrow, if you will."
+
+"But shall I," said the lady, "go with you to one of your castles, to
+see how the richness of your dwelling will correspond with your peasant
+habit?"
+
+"Why, Amy," said the Earl, looking around, "are not these apartments
+decorated with sufficient splendour? I gave the most unbounded order,
+and, methinks, it has been indifferently well obeyed; but if thou
+canst tell me aught which remains to be done, I will instantly give
+direction."
+
+"Nay, my lord, now you mock me," replied the Countess; "the gaiety of
+this rich lodging exceeds my imagination as much as it does my desert.
+But shall not your wife, my love--at least one day soon--be surrounded
+with the honour which arises neither from the toils of the mechanic
+who decks her apartment, nor from the silks and jewels with which your
+generosity adorns her, but which is attached to her place among the
+matronage, as the avowed wife of England's noblest Earl?"
+
+"One day?" said her husband. "Yes, Amy, my love, one day this shall
+surely happen; and, believe me, thou canst not wish for that day more
+fondly than I. With what rapture could I retire from labours of state,
+and cares and toils of ambition, to spend my life in dignity and honour
+on my own broad domains, with thee, my lovely Amy, for my friend and
+companion! But, Amy, this cannot yet be; and these dear but stolen
+interviews are all I can give to the loveliest and the best beloved of
+her sex."
+
+"But WHY can it not be?" urged the Countess, in the softest tones of
+persuasion--"why can it not immediately take place--this more perfect,
+this uninterrupted union, for which you say you wish, and which the laws
+of God and man alike command? Ah! did you but desire it half as much
+as you say, mighty and favoured as you are, who or what should bar your
+attaining your wish?"
+
+The Earl's brow was overcast.
+
+"Amy," he said, "you speak of what you understand not. We that toil in
+courts are like those who climb a mountain of loose sand--we dare make
+no halt until some projecting rock affords us a secure footing and
+resting-place. If we pause sooner, we slide down by our own weight,
+an object of universal derision. I stand high, but I stand not secure
+enough to follow my own inclination. To declare my marriage were to be
+the artificer of my own ruin. But, believe me, I will reach a point, and
+that speedily, when I can do justice to thee and to myself. Meantime,
+poison not the bliss of the present moment, by desiring that which
+cannot at present be, Let me rather know whether all here is managed
+to thy liking. How does Foster bear himself to you?--in all things
+respectful, I trust, else the fellow shall dearly rue it."
+
+"He reminds me sometimes of the necessity of this privacy," answered
+the lady, with a sigh; "but that is reminding me of your wishes, and
+therefore I am rather bound to him than disposed to blame him for it."
+
+"I have told you the stern necessity which is upon us," replied the
+Earl. "Foster is, I note, somewhat sullen of mood; but Varney warrants
+to me his fidelity and devotion to my service. If thou hast aught,
+however, to complain of the mode in which he discharges his duty, he
+shall abye it."
+
+"Oh, I have nought to complain of," answered the lady, "so he discharges
+his task with fidelity to you; and his daughter Janet is the kindest and
+best companion of my solitude--her little air of precision sits so well
+upon her!"
+
+"Is she indeed?" said the Earl. "She who gives you pleasure must not
+pass unrewarded.--Come hither, damsel."
+
+"Janet," said the lady, "come hither to my lord."
+
+Janet, who, as we already noticed, had discreetly retired to some
+distance, that her presence might be no check upon the private
+conversation of her lord and lady, now came forward; and as she made
+her reverential curtsy, the Earl could not help smiling at the contrast
+which the extreme simplicity of her dress, and the prim demureness of
+her looks, made with a very pretty countenance and a pair of black eyes,
+that laughed in spite of their mistress's desire to look grave.
+
+"I am bound to you, pretty damsel," said the Earl, "for the contentment
+which your service hath given to this lady." As he said this, he took
+from his finger a ring of some price, and offered it to Janet Foster,
+adding, "Wear this, for her sake and for mine."
+
+"I am well pleased, my lord," answered Janet demurely, "that my poor
+service hath gratified my lady, whom no one can draw nigh to without
+desiring to please; but we of the precious Master Holdforth's
+congregation seek not, like the gay daughters of this world, to twine
+gold around our fingers, or wear stones upon our necks, like the vain
+women of Tyre and of Sidon."
+
+"Oh, what! you are a grave professor of the precise sisterhood, pretty
+Mistress Janet," said the Earl, "and I think your father is of the same
+congregation in sincerity? I like you both the better for it; for I have
+been prayed for, and wished well to, in your congregations. And you may
+the better afford the lack of ornament, Mistress Janet, because your
+fingers are slender, and your neck white. But here is what neither
+Papist nor Puritan, latitudinarian nor precisian, ever boggles or makes
+mouths at. E'en take it, my girl, and employ it as you list."
+
+So saying, he put into her hand five broad gold pieces of Philip and
+Mary.
+
+"I would not accept this gold either," said Janet, "but that I hope to
+find a use for it which will bring a blessing on us all."
+
+"Even please thyself, pretty Janet," said the Earl, "and I shall be well
+satisfied. And I prithee let them hasten the evening collation."
+
+"I have bidden Master Varney and Master Foster to sup with us, my lord,"
+said the Countess, as Janet retired to obey the Earl's commands; "has it
+your approbation?"
+
+"What you do ever must have so, my sweet Amy," replied her husband; "and
+I am the better pleased thou hast done them this grace, because Richard
+Varney is my sworn man, and a close brother of my secret council; and
+for the present, I must needs repose much trust in this Anthony Foster."
+
+"I had a boon to beg of thee, and a secret to tell thee, my dear lord,"
+said the Countess, with a faltering accent.
+
+"Let both be for to-morrow, my love," replied the Earl. "I see they open
+the folding-doors into the banqueting-parlour, and as I have ridden far
+and fast, a cup of wine will not be unacceptable."
+
+So saying he led his lovely wife into the next apartment, where Varney
+and Foster received them with the deepest reverences, which the first
+paid after the fashion of the court, and the second after that of the
+congregation. The Earl returned their salutation with the negligent
+courtesy of one long used to such homage; while the Countess repaid it
+with a punctilious solicitude, which showed it was not quite so familiar
+to her.
+
+The banquet at which the company seated themselves corresponded in
+magnificence with the splendour of the apartment in which it was served
+up, but no domestic gave his attendance. Janet alone stood ready to wait
+upon the company; and, indeed, the board was so well supplied with all
+that could be desired, that little or no assistance was necessary. The
+Earl and his lady occupied the upper end of the table, and Varney and
+Foster sat beneath the salt, as was the custom with inferiors. The
+latter, overawed perhaps by society to which he was altogether unused,
+did not utter a single syllable during the repast; while Varney, with
+great tact and discernment, sustained just so much of the conversation
+as, without the appearance of intrusion on his part, prevented it from
+languishing, and maintained the good-humour of the Earl at the highest
+pitch. This man was indeed highly qualified by nature to discharge the
+part in which he found himself placed, being discreet and cautious on
+the one hand, and, on the other, quick, keen-witted, and imaginative;
+so that even the Countess, prejudiced as she was against him on many
+accounts, felt and enjoyed his powers of conversation, and was more
+disposed than she had ever hitherto found herself to join in the praises
+which the Earl lavished on his favourite. The hour of rest at length
+arrived, the Earl and Countess retired to their apartment, and all was
+silent in the castle for the rest of the night.
+
+Early on the ensuing morning, Varney acted as the Earl's chamberlain as
+well as his master of horse, though the latter was his proper office in
+that magnificent household, where knights and gentlemen of good descent
+were well contented to hold such menial situations, as nobles themselves
+held in that of the sovereign. The duties of each of these charges were
+familiar to Varney, who, sprung from an ancient but somewhat decayed
+family, was the Earl's page during his earlier and more obscure
+fortunes, and, faithful to him in adversity, had afterwards contrived to
+render himself no less useful to him in his rapid and splendid advance
+to fortune; thus establishing in him an interest resting both on present
+and past services, which rendered him an almost indispensable sharer of
+his confidence.
+
+"Help me to do on a plainer riding-suit, Varney," said the Earl, as he
+laid aside his morning-gown, flowered with silk and lined with sables,
+"and put these chains and fetters there" (pointing to the collars of the
+various Orders which lay on the table) "into their place of security--my
+neck last night was well-nigh broke with the weight of them. I am half
+of the mind that they shall gall me no more. They are bonds which knaves
+have invented to fetter fools. How thinkest thou, Varney?"
+
+"Faith, my good lord," said his attendant, "I think fetters of gold are
+like no other fetters--they are ever the weightier the welcomer."
+
+"For all that, Varney," replied his master, "I am well-nigh resolved
+they shall bind me to the court no longer. What can further service and
+higher favour give me, beyond the high rank and large estate which I
+have already secured? What brought my father to the block, but that he
+could not bound his wishes within right and reason? I have, you know,
+had mine own ventures and mine own escapes. I am well-nigh resolved to
+tempt the sea no further, but sit me down in quiet on the shore."
+
+"And gather cockle-shells, with Dan Cupid to aid you," said Varney.
+
+"How mean you by that, Varney?" said the Earl somewhat hastily.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said Varney, "be not angry with me. If your lordship
+is happy in a lady so rarely lovely that, in order to enjoy her company
+with somewhat more freedom, you are willing to part with all you have
+hitherto lived for, some of your poor servants may be sufferers; but
+your bounty hath placed me so high, that I shall ever have enough to
+maintain a poor gentleman in the rank befitting the high office he has
+held in your lordship's family."
+
+"Yet you seem discontented when I propose throwing up a dangerous game,
+which may end in the ruin of both of us."
+
+"I, my lord?" said Varney; "surely I have no cause to regret your
+lordship's retreat! It will not be Richard Varney who will incur
+the displeasure of majesty, and the ridicule of the court, when the
+stateliest fabric that ever was founded upon a prince's favour melts
+away like a morning frost-work. I would only have you yourself to be
+assured, my lord, ere you take a step which cannot be retracted, that
+you consult your fame and happiness in the course you propose."
+
+"Speak on, then, Varney," said the Earl; "I tell thee I have determined
+nothing, and will weigh all considerations on either side."
+
+"Well, then, my lord," replied Varney, "we will suppose the step taken,
+the frown frowned, the laugh laughed, and the moan moaned. You have
+retired, we will say, to some one of your most distant castles, so far
+from court that you hear neither the sorrow of your friends nor the glee
+of your enemies, We will suppose, too, that your successful rival will
+be satisfied (a thing greatly to be doubted) with abridging and cutting
+away the branches of the great tree which so long kept the sun from him,
+and that he does not insist upon tearing you up by the roots. Well; the
+late prime favourite of England, who wielded her general's staff and
+controlled her parliaments, is now a rural baron, hunting, hawking,
+drinking fat ale with country esquires, and mustering his men at the
+command of the high sheriff--"
+
+"Varney, forbear!" said the Earl.
+
+"Nay, my lord, you must give me leave to conclude my picture.--Sussex
+governs England--the Queen's health fails--the succession is to be
+settled--a road is opened to ambition more splendid than ambition ever
+dreamed of. You hear all this as you sit by the hob, under the shade of
+your hall-chimney. You then begin to think what hopes you have fallen
+from, and what insignificance you have embraced; and all that you
+might look babies in the eyes of your fair wife oftener than once a
+fortnight."
+
+"I say, Varney," said the Earl, "no more of this. I said not that the
+step, which my own ease and comfort would urge me to, was to be taken
+hastily, or without due consideration to the public safety. Bear witness
+to me, Varney; I subdue my wishes of retirement, not because I am moved
+by the call of private ambition, but that I may preserve the position in
+which I may best serve my country at the hour of need.--Order our horses
+presently; I will wear, as formerly, one of the livery cloaks, and ride
+before the portmantle. Thou shalt be master for the day, Varney--neglect
+nothing that can blind suspicion. We will to horse ere men are stirring.
+I will but take leave of my lady, and be ready. I impose a restraint on
+my own poor heart, and wound one yet more dear to me; but the patriot
+must subdue the husband."
+
+Having said this in a melancholy but firm accent, he left the dressing
+apartment.
+
+"I am glad thou art gone," thought Varney, "or, practised as I am in the
+follies of mankind, I had laughed in the very face of thee! Thou mayest
+tire as thou wilt of thy new bauble, thy pretty piece of painted Eve's
+flesh there, I will not be thy hindrance. But of thine old bauble,
+ambition, thou shalt not tire; for as you climb the hill, my lord, you
+must drag Richard Varney up with you, and if he can urge you to the
+ascent he means to profit by, believe me he will spare neither whip nor
+spur, and for you, my pretty lady, that would be Countess outright, you
+were best not thwart my courses, lest you are called to an old reckoning
+on a new score. 'Thou shalt be master,' did he say? By my faith, he may
+find that he spoke truer than he is aware of; and thus he who, in
+the estimation of so many wise-judging men, can match Burleigh and
+Walsingham in policy, and Sussex in war, becomes pupil to his own
+menial--and all for a hazel eye and a little cunning red and white, and
+so falls ambition. And yet if the charms of mortal woman could excuse
+a man's politic pate for becoming bewildered, my lord had the excuse
+at his right hand on this blessed evening that has last passed over us.
+Well--let things roll as they may, he shall make me great, or I will
+make myself happy; and for that softer piece of creation, if she speak
+not out her interview with Tressilian, as well I think she dare not, she
+also must traffic with me for concealment and mutual support, in spite
+of all this scorn. I must to the stables. Well, my lord, I order your
+retinue now; the time may soon come that my master of the horse shall
+order mine own. What was Thomas Cromwell but a smith's son? and he died
+my lord--on a scaffold, doubtless, but that, too, was in character.
+And what was Ralph Sadler but the clerk of Cromwell? and he has gazed
+eighteen fair lordships--VIA! I know my steerage as well as they."
+
+So saying, he left the apartment.
+
+In the meanwhile the Earl had re-entered the bedchamber, bent on taking
+a hasty farewell of the lovely Countess, and scarce daring to trust
+himself in private with her, to hear requests again urged which he found
+it difficult to parry, yet which his recent conversation with his master
+of horse had determined him not to grant.
+
+He found her in a white cymar of silk lined with furs, her little
+feet unstockinged and hastily thrust into slippers; her unbraided hair
+escaping from under her midnight coif, with little array but her own
+loveliness, rather augmented than diminished by the grief which she felt
+at the approaching moment of separation.
+
+"Now, God be with thee, my dearest and loveliest!" said the Earl, scarce
+tearing himself from her embrace, yet again returning to fold her again
+and again in his arms, and again bidding farewell, and again returning
+to kiss and bid adieu once more. "The sun is on the verge of the blue
+horizon--I dare not stay. Ere this I should have been ten miles from
+hence."
+
+Such were the words with which at length he strove to cut short their
+parting interview. "You will not grant my request, then?" said the
+Countess. "Ah, false knight! did ever lady, with bare foot in slipper,
+seek boon of a brave knight, yet return with denial?"
+
+"Anything, Amy, anything thou canst ask I will grant," answered the
+Earl--"always excepting," he said, "that which might ruin us both."
+
+"Nay," said the Countess, "I urge not my wish to be acknowledged in the
+character which would make me the envy of England--as the wife, that
+is, of my brave and noble lord, the first as the most fondly beloved of
+English nobles. Let me but share the secret with my dear father! Let me
+but end his misery on my unworthy account--they say he is ill, the good
+old kind-hearted man!"
+
+"They say?" asked the Earl hastily; "who says? Did not Varney convey to
+Sir Hugh all we dare at present tell him concerning your happiness and
+welfare? and has he not told you that the good old knight was following,
+with good heart and health, his favourite and wonted exercise. Who has
+dared put other thoughts into your head?"
+
+"Oh, no one, my lord, no one," said the Countess, something alarmed at
+the tone, in which the question was put; "but yet, my lord, I would fain
+be assured by mine own eyesight that my father is well."
+
+"Be contented, Amy; thou canst not now have communication with thy
+father or his house. Were it not a deep course of policy to commit no
+secret unnecessarily to the custody of more than must needs be, it were
+sufficient reason for secrecy that yonder Cornish man, yonder Trevanion,
+or Tressilian, or whatever his name is, haunts the old knight's house,
+and must necessarily know whatever is communicated there."
+
+"My lord," answered the Countess, "I do not think it so. My father has
+been long noted a worthy and honourable man; and for Tressilian, if
+we can pardon ourselves the ill we have wrought him, I will wager the
+coronet I am to share with you one day that he is incapable of returning
+injury for injury."
+
+"I will not trust him, however, Amy," said her husband--"by my honour,
+I will not trust him, I would rather the foul fiend intermingle in our
+secret than this Tressilian!"
+
+"And why, my lord?" said the Countess, though she shuddered slightly at
+the tone of determination in which he spoke; "let me but know why you
+think thus hardly of Tressilian?"
+
+"Madam," replied the Earl, "my will ought to be a sufficient reason. If
+you desire more, consider how this Tressilian is leagued, and with whom.
+He stands high in the opinion of this Radcliffe, this Sussex, against
+whom I am barely able to maintain my ground in the opinion of our
+suspicious mistress; and if he had me at such advantage, Amy, as to
+become acquainted with the tale of our marriage, before Elizabeth were
+fitly prepared, I were an outcast from her grace for ever--a bankrupt at
+once in favour and in fortune, perhaps, for she hath in her a touch of
+her father Henry--a victim, and it may be a bloody one, to her offended
+and jealous resentment."
+
+"But why, my lord," again urged his lady, "should you deem thus
+injuriously of a man of whom you know so little? What you do know
+of Tressilian is through me, and it is I who assure you that in no
+circumstances will he betray your secret. If I did him wrong in your
+behalf, my lord, I am now the more concerned you should do him justice.
+You are offended at my speaking of him, what would you say had I
+actually myself seen him?"
+
+"If you had," replied the Earl, "you would do well to keep that
+interview as secret as that which is spoken in a confessional. I seek no
+one's ruin; but he who thrusts himself on my secret privacy were better
+look well to his future walk. The bear [The Leicester cognizance was the
+ancient device adopted by his father, when Earl of Warwick, the bear and
+ragged staff.] brooks no one to cross his awful path."
+
+"Awful, indeed!" said the Countess, turning very pale.
+
+"You are ill, my love," said the Earl, supporting her in his arms.
+"Stretch yourself on your couch again; it is but an early day for you to
+leave it. Have you aught else, involving less than my fame, my fortune,
+and my life, to ask of me?"
+
+"Nothing, my lord and love," answered the Countess faintly; "something
+there was that I would have told you, but your anger has driven it from
+my recollection."
+
+"Reserve it till our next meeting, my love," said the Earl fondly, and
+again embracing her; "and barring only those requests which I cannot
+and dare not grant, thy wish must be more than England and all its
+dependencies can fulfil, if it is not gratified to the letter."
+
+Thus saying, he at length took farewell. At the bottom of the staircase
+he received from Varney an ample livery cloak and slouched hat, in which
+he wrapped himself so as to disguise his person and completely conceal
+his features. Horses were ready in the courtyard for himself and Varney;
+for one or two of his train, intrusted with the secret so far as to know
+or guess that the Earl intrigued with a beautiful lady at that mansion,
+though her name and duality were unknown to them, had already been
+dismissed over-night.
+
+Anthony Foster himself had in hand the rein of the Earl's palfrey, a
+stout and able nag for the road; while his old serving-man held the
+bridle of the more showy and gallant steed which Richard Varney was to
+occupy in the character of master.
+
+As the Earl approached, however, Varney advanced to hold his master's
+bridle, and to prevent Foster from paying that duty to the Earl which he
+probably considered as belonging to his own office. Foster scowled at
+an interference which seemed intended to prevent his paying his court
+to his patron, but gave place to Varney; and the Earl, mounting without
+further observation, and forgetting that his assumed character of a
+domestic threw him into the rear of his supposed master, rode pensively
+out of the quadrangle, not without waving his hand repeatedly in answer
+to the signals which were made by the Countess with her kerchief from
+the windows of her apartment.
+
+While his stately form vanished under the dark archway which led out of
+the quadrangle, Varney muttered, "There goes fine policy--the servant
+before the master!" then as he disappeared, seized the moment to speak a
+word with Foster. "Thou look'st dark on me, Anthony," he said, "as if I
+had deprived thee of a parting nod of my lord; but I have moved him to
+leave thee a better remembrance for thy faithful service. See here!
+a purse of as good gold as ever chinked under a miser's thumb and
+fore-finger. Ay, count them, lad," said he, as Foster received the gold
+with a grim smile, "and add to them the goodly remembrance he gave last
+night to Janet."
+
+"How's this? how's this?" said Anthony Foster hastily; "gave he gold to
+Janet?"
+
+"Ay, man, wherefore not?--does not her service to his fair lady require
+guerdon?"
+
+"She shall have none on't," said Foster; "she shall return it. I know
+his dotage on one face is as brief as it is deep. His affections are as
+fickle as the moon."
+
+"Why, Foster, thou art mad--thou dost not hope for such good fortune
+as that my lord should cast an eye on Janet? Who, in the fiend's name,
+would listen to the thrush while the nightingale is singing?"
+
+"Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler; and, Master Varney,
+you can sound the quail-pipe most daintily to wile wantons into his
+nets. I desire no such devil's preferment for Janet as you have brought
+many a poor maiden to. Dost thou laugh? I will keep one limb of my
+family, at least, from Satan's clutches, that thou mayest rely on. She
+shall restore the gold."
+
+"Ay, or give it to thy keeping, Tony, which will serve as well,"
+answered Varney; "but I have that to say which is more serious. Our lord
+is returning to court in an evil humour for us."
+
+"How meanest thou?" said Foster. "Is he tired already of his pretty
+toy--his plaything yonder? He has purchased her at a monarch's ransom,
+and I warrant me he rues his bargain."
+
+"Not a whit, Tony," answered the master of the horse; "he dotes on her,
+and will forsake the court for her. Then down go hopes, possessions, and
+safety--church-lands are resumed, Tony, and well if the holders be not
+called to account in Exchequer."
+
+"That were ruin," said Foster, his brow darkening with apprehensions;
+"and all this for a woman! Had it been for his soul's sake, it were
+something; and I sometimes wish I myself could fling away the world that
+cleaves to me, and be as one of the poorest of our church."
+
+"Thou art like enough to be so, Tony," answered Varney; "but I think
+the devil will give thee little credit for thy compelled poverty, and so
+thou losest on all hands. But follow my counsel, and Cumnor Place shall
+be thy copyhold yet. Say nothing of this Tressilian's visit--not a word
+until I give thee notice."
+
+"And wherefore, I pray you?" asked Foster, suspiciously.
+
+"Dull beast!" replied Varney. "In my lord's present humour it were the
+ready way to confirm him in his resolution of retirement, should he know
+that his lady was haunted with such a spectre in his absence. He would
+be for playing the dragon himself over his golden fruit, and then, Tony,
+thy occupation is ended. A word to the wise. Farewell! I must follow
+him."
+
+He turned his horse, struck him with the spurs, and rode off under the
+archway in pursuit of his lord.
+
+"Would thy occupation were ended, or thy neck broken, damned pander!"
+said Anthony Foster. "But I must follow his beck, for his interest and
+mine are the same, and he can wind the proud Earl to his will. Janet
+shall give me those pieces though; they shall be laid out in some way
+for God's service, and I will keep them separate in my strong chest,
+till I can fall upon a fitting employment for them. No contagious vapour
+shall breathe on Janet--she shall remain pure as a blessed spirit, were
+it but to pray God for her father. I need her prayers, for I am at a
+hard pass. Strange reports are abroad concerning my way of life.
+The congregation look cold on me, and when Master Holdforth spoke of
+hypocrites being like a whited sepulchre, which within was full of
+dead men's bones, methought he looked full at me. The Romish was a
+comfortable faith; Lambourne spoke true in that. A man had but to
+follow his thrift by such ways as offered--tell his beads, hear a mass,
+confess, and be absolved. These Puritans tread a harder and a rougher
+path; but I will try--I will read my Bible for an hour ere I again open
+mine iron chest."
+
+Varney, meantime, spurred after his lord, whom he found waiting for him
+at the postern gate of the park.
+
+"You waste time, Varney," said the Earl, "and it presses. I must be at
+Woodstock before I can safely lay aside my disguise, and till then I
+journey in some peril."
+
+"It is but two hours' brisk riding, my lord," said Varney. "For me,
+I only stopped to enforce your commands of care and secrecy on yonder
+Foster, and to inquire about the abode of the gentleman whom I would
+promote to your lordship's train, in the room of Trevors."
+
+"Is he fit for the meridian of the antechamber, think'st thou?" said the
+Earl.
+
+"He promises well, my lord," replied Varney; "but if your lordship were
+pleased to ride on, I could go back to Cumnor, and bring him to your
+lordship at Woodstock before you are out of bed."
+
+"Why, I am asleep there, thou knowest, at this moment," said the Earl;
+"and I pray you not to spare horse-flesh, that you may be with me at my
+levee."
+
+So saying, he gave his horse the spur, and proceeded on his journey,
+while Varney rode back to Cumnor by the public road, avoiding the park.
+The latter alighted at the door of the bonny Black Bear, and desired to
+speak with Master Michael Lambourne, That respectable character was not
+long of appearing before his new patron, but it was with downcast looks.
+
+"Thou hast lost the scent," said Varney, "of thy comrade Tressilian.
+I know it by thy hang-dog visage. Is this thy alacrity, thou impudent
+knave?"
+
+"Cogswounds!" said Lambourne, "there was never a trail so finely
+hunted. I saw him to earth at mine uncle's here--stuck to him like
+bees'-wax--saw him at supper--watched him to his chamber, and, presto!
+he is gone next morning, the very hostler knows not where."
+
+"This sounds like practice upon me, sir," replied Varney; "and if it
+proves so, by my soul you shall repent it!"
+
+"Sir, the best hound will be sometimes at fault," answered Lambourne;
+"how should it serve me that this fellow should have thus evanished?
+You may ask mine host, Giles Gosling--ask the tapster and hostler--ask
+Cicely, and the whole household, how I kept eyes on Tressilian while
+he was on foot. On my soul, I could not be expected to watch him like a
+sick nurse, when I had seen him fairly a-bed in his chamber. That will
+be allowed me, surely."
+
+Varney did, in fact, make some inquiry among the household, which
+confirmed the truth of Lambourne's statement. Tressilian, it was
+unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly and unexpectedly, betwixt
+night and morning.
+
+"But I will wrong no one," said mine host; "he left on the table in
+his lodging the full value of his reckoning, with some allowance to the
+servants of the house, which was the less necessary that he saddled his
+own gelding, as it seems, without the hostler's assistance."
+
+Thus satisfied of the rectitude of Lambourne's conduct, Varney began to
+talk to him upon his future prospects, and the mode in which he meant
+to bestow himself, intimating that he understood from Foster he was not
+disinclined to enter into the household of a nobleman.
+
+"Have you," said he, "ever been at court?"
+
+"No," replied Lambourne; "but ever since I was ten years old, I have
+dreamt once a week that I was there, and made my fortune."
+
+"It may be your own fault if your dream comes not true," said Varney.
+"Are you needy?"
+
+"Um!" replied Lambourne; "I love pleasure."
+
+"That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one," said Varney. "Know
+you aught of the requisites expected from the retainer of a rising
+courtier?"
+
+"I have imagined them to myself, sir," answered Lambourne; "as, for
+example, a quick eye, a close mouth, a ready and bold hand, a sharp wit,
+and a blunt conscience."
+
+"And thine, I suppose," said Varney, "has had its edge blunted long
+since?"
+
+"I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever over-keen," replied
+Lambourne. "When I was a youth, I had some few whimsies; but I rubbed
+them partly out of my recollection on the rough grindstone of the wars,
+and what remained I washed out in the broad waves of the Atlantic."
+
+"Thou hast served, then, in the Indies?"
+
+"In both East and West," answered the candidate for court service, "by
+both sea and land. I have served both the Portugal and the Spaniard,
+both the Dutchman and the Frenchman, and have made war on our own
+account with a crew of jolly fellows, who held there was no peace beyond
+the Line." [Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold buccaneer of
+those days, were, in fact, little better than pirates.]
+
+"Thou mayest do me, and my lord, and thyself, good service," said
+Varney, after a pause. "But observe, I know the world--and answer me
+truly, canst thou be faithful?"
+
+"Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my duty to
+say ay, without further circumstance, and to swear to it with life and
+honour, and so forth. But as it seems to me that your worship is one who
+desires rather honest truth than politic falsehood, I reply to you, that
+I can be faithful to the gallows' foot, ay, to the loop that dangles
+from it, if I am well used and well recompensed--not otherwise."
+
+"To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in a
+jeering tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when the
+moment demands it?"
+
+"It would cost me nothing," said Lambourne, "to say yes; but, to speak
+on the square, I must needs say no. If you want a hypocrite, you may
+take Anthony Foster, who, from his childhood, had some sort of phantom
+haunting him, which he called religion, though it was that sort of
+godliness which always ended in being great gain. But I have no such
+knack of it."
+
+"Well," replied Varney, "if thou hast no hypocrisy, hast thou not a nag
+here in the stable?"
+
+"Ay, sir," said Lambourne, "that shall take hedge and ditch with my Lord
+Duke's best hunters. Then I made a little mistake on Shooter's Hill,
+and stopped an ancient grazier whose pouches were better lined than his
+brain-pan, the bonny bay nag carried me sheer off in spite of the whole
+hue and cry."
+
+"Saddle him then instantly, and attend me," said Varney. "Leave thy
+clothes and baggage under charge of mine host; and I will conduct thee
+to a service, in which, if thou do not better thyself, the fault shall
+not be fortune's, but thine own."
+
+"Brave and hearty!" said Lambourne, "and I am mounted in an
+instant.--Knave, hostler, saddle my nag without the loss of one second,
+as thou dost value the safety of thy noddle.--Pretty Cicely, take half
+this purse to comfort thee for my sudden departure."
+
+"Gogsnouns!" replied the father, "Cicely wants no such token from thee.
+Go away, Mike, and gather grace if thou canst, though I think thou goest
+not to the land where it grows."
+
+"Let me look at this Cicely of thine, mine host," said Varney; "I have
+heard much talk of her beauty."
+
+"It is a sunburnt beauty," said mine host, "well qualified to stand out
+rain and wind, but little calculated to please such critical gallants as
+yourself. She keeps her chamber, and cannot encounter the glance of such
+sunny-day courtiers as my noble guest."
+
+"Well, peace be with her, my good host," answered Varney; "our horses
+are impatient--we bid you good day."
+
+"Does my nephew go with you, so please you?" said Gosling.
+
+"Ay, such is his purpose," answered Richard Varney.
+
+"You are right--fully right," replied mine host--"you are, I say, fully
+right, my kinsman. Thou hast got a gay horse; see thou light not unaware
+upon a halter--or, if thou wilt needs be made immortal by means of
+a rope, which thy purpose of following this gentleman renders not
+unlikely, I charge thee to find a gallows as far from Cumnor as thou
+conveniently mayest. And so I commend you to your saddle."
+
+The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted accordingly,
+leaving the landlord to conclude his ill-omened farewell, to himself
+and at leisure; and set off together at a rapid pace, which prevented
+conversation until the ascent of a steep sandy hill permitted them to
+resume it.
+
+"You are contented, then," said Varney to his companion, "to take court
+service?"
+
+"Ay, worshipful sir, if you like my terms as well as I like yours."
+
+"And what are your terms?" demanded Varney.
+
+"If I am to have a quick eye for my patron's interest, he must have a
+dull one towards my faults," said Lambourne.
+
+"Ay," said Varney, "so they lie not so grossly open that he must needs
+break his shins over them."
+
+"Agreed," said Lambourne. "Next, if I run down game, I must have the
+picking of the bones."
+
+"That is but reason," replied Varney, "so that your betters are served
+before you."
+
+"Good," said Lambourne; "and it only remains to be said, that if the law
+and I quarrel, my patron must bear me out, for that is a chief point."
+
+"Reason again," said Varney, "if the quarrel hath happened in your
+master's service."
+
+"For the wage and so forth, I say nothing," proceeded Lambourne; "it is
+the secret guerdon that I must live by."
+
+"Never fear," said Varney; "thou shalt have clothes and spending money
+to ruffle it with the best of thy degree, for thou goest to a household
+where you have gold, as they say, by the eye."
+
+"That jumps all with my humour," replied Michael Lambourne; "and it only
+remains that you tell me my master's name."
+
+"My name is Master Richard Varney," answered his companion.
+
+"But I mean," said Lambourne, "the name of the noble lord to whose
+service you are to prefer me."
+
+"How, knave, art thou too good to call me master?" said Varney hastily;
+"I would have thee bold to others, but not saucy to me."
+
+"I crave your worship's pardon," said Lambourne, "but you seemed
+familiar with Anthony Foster; now I am familiar with Anthony myself."
+
+"Thou art a shrewd knave, I see," replied Varney. "Mark me--I do indeed
+propose to introduce thee into a nobleman's household; but it is upon
+my person thou wilt chiefly wait, and upon my countenance that thou wilt
+depend. I am his master of horse. Thou wilt soon know his name--it is
+one that shakes the council and wields the state."
+
+"By this light, a brave spell to conjure with," said Lambourne, "if a
+man would discover hidden treasures!"
+
+"Used with discretion, it may prove so," replied Varney; "but mark--if
+thou conjure with it at thine own hand, it may raise a devil who will
+tear thee in fragments."
+
+"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I will not exceed my limits."
+
+The travellers then resumed the rapid rate of travelling which their
+discourse had interrupted, and soon arrived at the Royal Park of
+Woodstock. This ancient possession of the crown of England was then very
+different from what it had been when it was the residence of the fair
+Rosamond, and the scene of Henry the Second's secret and illicit amours;
+and yet more unlike to the scene which it exhibits in the present day,
+when Blenheim House commemorates the victory of Marlborough, and no less
+the genius of Vanbrugh, though decried in his own time by persons of
+taste far inferior to his own. It was, in Elizabeth's time, an ancient
+mansion in bad repair, which had long ceased to be honoured with the
+royal residence, to the great impoverishment of the adjacent village.
+The inhabitants, however, had made several petitions to the Queen to
+have the favour of the sovereign's countenance occasionally bestowed
+upon them; and upon this very business, ostensibly at least, was the
+noble lord, whom we have already introduced to our readers, a visitor at
+Woodstock.
+
+Varney and Lambourne galloped without ceremony into the courtyard of the
+ancient and dilapidated mansion, which presented on that morning a scene
+of bustle which it had not exhibited for two reigns. Officers of the
+Earl's household, liverymen and retainers, went and came with all the
+insolent fracas which attaches to their profession. The neigh of horses
+and the baying of hounds were heard; for my lord, in his occupation of
+inspecting and surveying the manor and demesne, was of course provided
+with the means of following his pleasure in the chase or park, said to
+have been the earliest that was enclosed in England, and which was well
+stocked with deer that had long roamed there unmolested. Several of the
+inhabitants of the village, in anxious hope of a favourable result from
+this unwonted visit, loitered about the courtyard, and awaited the great
+man's coming forth. Their attention was excited by the hasty arrival of
+Varney, and a murmur ran amongst them, "The Earl's master of the
+horse!" while they hurried to bespeak favour by hastily unbonneting, and
+proffering to hold the bridle and stirrup of the favoured retainer and
+his attendant.
+
+"Stand somewhat aloof, my masters!" said Varney haughtily, "and let the
+domestics do their office."
+
+The mortified citizens and peasants fell back at the signal; while
+Lambourne, who had his eye upon his superior's deportment, repelled
+the services of those who offered to assist him, with yet more
+discourtesy--"Stand back, Jack peasant, with a murrain to you, and let
+these knave footmen do their duty!"
+
+While they gave their nags to the attendants of the household, and
+walked into the mansion with an air of superiority which long practice
+and consciousness of birth rendered natural to Varney, and which
+Lambourne endeavoured to imitate as well as he could, the poor
+inhabitants of Woodstock whispered to each other, "Well-a-day! God save
+us from all such misproud princoxes! An the master be like the men, why,
+the fiend may take all, and yet have no more than his due."
+
+"Silence, good neighbours!" said the bailiff, "keep tongue betwixt
+teeth; we shall know more by-and-by. But never will a lord come to
+Woodstock so welcome as bluff old King Harry! He would horsewhip a
+fellow one day with his own royal hand, and then fling him an handful
+of silver groats, with his own broad face on them, to 'noint the sore
+withal."
+
+"Ay, rest be with him!" echoed the auditors; "it will be long ere this
+Lady Elizabeth horsewhip any of us."
+
+"There is no saying," answered the bailiff. "Meanwhile, patience, good
+neighbours, and let us comfort ourselves by thinking that we deserve
+such notice at her Grace's hands."
+
+Meanwhile, Varney, closely followed by his new dependant, made his way
+to the hall, where men of more note and consequence than those left in
+the courtyard awaited the appearance of the Earl, who as yet kept his
+chamber. All paid court to Varney, with more or less deference, as
+suited their own rank, or the urgency of the business which brought them
+to his lord's levee. To the general question of, "When comes my lord
+forth, Master Varney?" he gave brief answers, as, "See you not my boots?
+I am but just returned from Oxford, and know nothing of it," and the
+like, until the same query was put in a higher tone by a personage of
+more importance. "I will inquire of the chamberlain, Sir Thomas Copely,"
+was the reply. The chamberlain, distinguished by his silver key,
+answered that the Earl only awaited Master Varney's return to come down,
+but that he would first speak with him in his private chamber. Varney,
+therefore, bowed to the company, and took leave, to enter his lord's
+apartment.
+
+There was a murmur of expectation which lasted a few minutes, and was
+at length hushed by the opening of the folding-doors at the upper end or
+the apartment, through which the Earl made his entrance, marshalled by
+his chamberlain and the steward of his family, and followed by Richard
+Varney. In his noble mien and princely features, men read nothing of
+that insolence which was practised by his dependants. His courtesies
+were, indeed, measured by the rank of those to whom they were addressed,
+but even the meanest person present had a share of his gracious notice.
+The inquiries which he made respecting the condition of the manor, of
+the Queen's rights there, and of the advantages and disadvantages which
+might attend her occasional residence at the royal seat of Woodstock,
+seemed to show that he had most earnestly investigated the matter of the
+petition of the inhabitants, and with a desire to forward the interest
+of the place.
+
+"Now the Lord love his noble countenance!" said the bailiff, who had
+thrust himself into the presence-chamber; "he looks somewhat pale. I
+warrant him he hath spent the whole night in perusing our memorial.
+Master Toughyarn, who took six months to draw it up, said it would take
+a week to understand it; and see if the Earl hath not knocked the marrow
+out of it in twenty-four hours!"
+
+The Earl then acquainted them that he should move their sovereign
+to honour Woodstock occasionally with her residence during her royal
+progresses, that the town and its vicinity might derive, from her
+countenance and favour, the same advantages as from those of her
+predecessors. Meanwhile, he rejoiced to be the expounder of her
+gracious pleasure, in assuring them that, for the increase of trade
+and encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her Majesty was
+minded to erect the town into a Staple for wool.
+
+This joyful intelligence was received with the acclamations not only of
+the better sort who were admitted to the audience-chamber, but of the
+commons who awaited without.
+
+The freedom of the corporation was presented to the Earl upon knee by
+the magistrates of the place, together with a purse of gold pieces,
+which the Earl handed to Varney, who, on his part, gave a share to
+Lambourne, as the most acceptable earnest of his new service.
+
+The Earl and his retinue took horse soon after to return to court,
+accompanied by the shouts of the inhabitants of Woodstock, who made the
+old oaks ring with re-echoing, "Long live Queen Elizabeth, and the noble
+Earl of Leicester!" The urbanity and courtesy of the Earl even threw a
+gleam of popularity over his attendants, as their haughty deportment had
+formerly obscured that of their master; and men shouted, "Long life to
+the Earl, and to his gallant followers!" as Varney and Lambourne, each
+in his rank, rode proudly through the streets of Woodstock.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HOST. I will hear you, Master Fenton; and I will, at the least, keep
+your counsel.--MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+
+It becomes necessary to return to the detail of those circumstances
+which accompanied, and indeed occasioned, the sudden disappearance
+of Tressilian from the sign of the Black Bear at Cumnor. It will be
+recollected that this gentleman, after his rencounter with Varney, had
+returned to Giles Gosling's caravansary, where he shut himself up in his
+own chamber, demanded pen, ink, and paper, and announced his purpose
+to remain private for the day. In the evening he appeared again in the
+public room, where Michael Lambourne, who had been on the watch for
+him, agreeably to his engagement to Varney, endeavoured to renew his
+acquaintance with him, and hoped he retained no unfriendly recollection
+of the part he had taken in the morning's scuffle.
+
+But Tressilian repelled his advances firmly, though with civility.
+"Master Lambourne," said he, "I trust I have recompensed to your
+pleasure the time you have wasted on me. Under the show of wild
+bluntness which you exhibit, I know you have sense enough to understand
+me, when I say frankly that the object of our temporary acquaintance
+having been accomplished, we must be strangers to each other in future."
+
+"VOTO!" said Lambourne, twirling his whiskers with one hand, and
+grasping the hilt of his weapon with the other; "if I thought that this
+usage was meant to insult me--"
+
+"You would bear it with discretion, doubtless," interrupted Tressilian,
+"as you must do at any rate. You know too well the distance that is
+betwixt us, to require me to explain myself further. Good evening."
+
+So saying, he turned his back upon his former companion, and entered
+into discourse with the landlord. Michael Lambourne felt strongly
+disposed to bully; but his wrath died away in a few incoherent oaths
+and ejaculations, and he sank unresistingly under the ascendency which
+superior spirits possess over persons of his habits and description. He
+remained moody and silent in a corner of the apartment, paying the most
+marked attention to every motion of his late companion, against whom he
+began now to nourish a quarrel on his own account, which he trusted to
+avenge by the execution of his new master Varney's directions. The hour
+of supper arrived, and was followed by that of repose, when Tressilian,
+like others, retired to his sleeping apartment.
+
+He had not been in bed long, when the train of sad reveries, which
+supplied the place of rest in his disturbed mind, was suddenly
+interrupted by the jar of a door on its hinges, and a light was seen to
+glimmer in the apartment. Tressilian, who was as brave as steel, sprang
+from his bed at this alarm, and had laid hand upon his sword, when he
+was prevented from drawing it by a voice which said, "Be not too rash
+with your rapier, Master Tressilian. It is I, your host, Giles Gosling."
+
+At the same time, unshrouding the dark lantern, which had hitherto
+only emitted an indistinct glimmer, the goodly aspect and figure of
+the landlord of the Black Bear was visibly presented to his astonished
+guest.
+
+"What mummery is this, mine host?" said Tressilian. "Have you supped as
+jollily as last night, and so mistaken your chamber? or is midnight a
+time for masquerading it in your guest's lodging?"
+
+"Master Tressilian," replied mine host, "I know my place and my time as
+well as e'er a merry landlord in England. But here has been my hang-dog
+kinsman watching you as close as ever cat watched a mouse; and here have
+you, on the other hand, quarrelled and fought, either with him or with
+some other person, and I fear that danger will come of it."
+
+"Go to, thou art but a fool, man," said Tressilian. "Thy kinsman is
+beneath my resentment; and besides, why shouldst thou think I had
+quarrelled with any one whomsoever?"
+
+"Oh, sir," replied the innkeeper, "there was a red spot on thy very
+cheek-bone, which boded of a late brawl, as sure as the conjunction of
+Mars and Saturn threatens misfortune; and when you returned, the buckles
+of your girdle were brought forward, and your step was quick and
+hasty, and all things showed your hand and your hilt had been lately
+acquainted."
+
+"Well, good mine host, if I have been obliged to draw my sword," said
+Tressilian, "why should such a circumstance fetch thee out of thy warm
+bed at this time of night? Thou seest the mischief is all over."
+
+"Under favour, that is what I doubt. Anthony Foster is a dangerous man,
+defended by strong court patronage, which hath borne him out in matters
+of very deep concernment. And, then, my kinsman--why, I have told
+you what he is; and if these two old cronies have made up their old
+acquaintance, I would not, my worshipful guest, that it should be at
+thy cost. I promise you, Mike Lambourne has been making very particular
+inquiries at my hostler when and which way you ride. Now, I would have
+you think whether you may not have done or said something for which you
+may be waylaid, and taken at disadvantage."
+
+"Thou art an honest man, mine host," said Tressilian, after a moment's
+consideration, "and I will deal frankly with thee. If these men's malice
+is directed against me--as I deny not but it may--it is because they are
+the agents of a more powerful villain than themselves."
+
+"You mean Master Richard Varney, do you not?" said the landlord; "he was
+at Cumnor Place yesterday, and came not thither so private but what he
+was espied by one who told me."
+
+"I mean the same, mine host."
+
+"Then, for God's sake, worshipful Master Tressilian," said honest
+Gosling, "look well to yourself. This Varney is the protector and patron
+of Anthony Foster, who holds under him, and by his favour, some lease
+of yonder mansion and the park. Varney got a large grant of the lands
+of the Abbacy of Abingdon, and Cumnor Place amongst others, from his
+master, the Earl of Leicester. Men say he can do everything with him,
+though I hold the Earl too good a nobleman to employ him as some men
+talk of. And then the Earl can do anything (that is, anything right or
+fitting) with the Queen, God bless her! So you see what an enemy you
+have made to yourself."
+
+"Well--it is done, and I cannot help it," answered Tressilian.
+
+"Uds precious, but it must be helped in some manner," said the host.
+"Richard Varney--why, what between his influence with my lord, and his
+pretending to so many old and vexatious claims in right of the abbot
+here, men fear almost to mention his name, much more to set themselves
+against his practices. You may judge by our discourses the last night.
+Men said their pleasure of Tony Foster, but not a word of Richard
+Varney, though all men judge him to be at the bottom of yonder mystery
+about the pretty wench. But perhaps you know more of that matter than
+I do; for women, though they wear not swords, are occasion for many
+a blade's exchanging a sheath of neat's leather for one of flesh and
+blood."
+
+"I do indeed know more of that poor unfortunate lady than thou dost,
+my friendly host; and so bankrupt am I, at this moment, of friends and
+advice, that I will willingly make a counsellor of thee, and tell thee
+the whole history, the rather that I have a favour to ask when my tale
+is ended."
+
+"Good Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "I am but a poor innkeeper,
+little able to adjust or counsel such a guest as yourself. But as sure
+as I have risen decently above the world, by giving good measure and
+reasonable charges, I am an honest man; and as such, if I may not
+be able to assist you, I am, at least, not capable to abuse your
+confidence. Say away therefore, as confidently as if you spoke to your
+father; and thus far at least be certain, that my curiosity--for I will
+not deny that which belongs to my calling--is joined to a reasonable
+degree of discretion."
+
+"I doubt it not, mine host," answered Tressilian; and while his auditor
+remained in anxious expectation, he meditated for an instant how he
+should commence his narrative. "My tale," he at length said, "to be
+quite intelligible, must begin at some distance back. You have heard of
+the battle of Stoke, my good host, and perhaps of old Sir Roger Robsart,
+who, in that battle, valiantly took part with Henry VII., the Queen's
+grandfather, and routed the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Geraldin and his wild
+Irish, and the Flemings whom the Duchess of Burgundy had sent over, in
+the quarrel of Lambert Simnel?"
+
+"I remember both one and the other," said Giles Gosling; "it is sung
+of a dozen times a week on my ale-bench below. Sir Roger Robsart of
+Devon--oh, ay, 'tis him of whom minstrels sing to this hour,--
+
+
+     'He was the flower of Stoke's red field,
+     When Martin Swart on ground lay slain;
+     In raging rout he never reel'd,
+     But like a rock did firm remain.'
+
+     [This verse, or something similar, occurs in a long ballad, or
+     poem, on Flodden Field, reprinted by the late Henry Weber.]
+
+"Ay, and then there was Martin Swart I have heard my grandfather talk
+of, and of the jolly Almains whom he commanded, with their slashed
+doublets and quaint hose, all frounced with ribands above the
+nether-stocks. Here's a song goes of Martin Swart, too, an I had but
+memory for it:--
+
+
+     'Martin Swart and his men,
+     Saddle them, saddle them,
+     Martin Swart and his men;
+     Saddle them well.'"
+
+     [This verse of an old song actually occurs in an old play where
+     the singer boasts,
+
+     "Courteously I can both counter and knack
+     Of Martin Swart and all his merry men."]
+
+"True, good mine host--the day was long talked of; but if you sing so
+loud, you will awake more listeners than I care to commit my confidence
+unto."
+
+"I crave pardon, my worshipful guest," said mine host, "I was oblivious.
+When an old song comes across us merry old knights of the spigot, it
+runs away with our discretion."
+
+"Well, mine host, my grandfather, like some other Cornishmen, kept a
+warm affection to the House of York, and espoused the quarrel of this
+Simnel, assuming the title of Earl of Warwick, as the county afterwards,
+in great numbers, countenanced the cause of Perkin Warbeck, calling
+himself the Duke of York. My grandsire joined Simnel's standard, and was
+taken fighting desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders of that
+unhappy army were slain in their harness. The good knight to whom he
+rendered himself, Sir Roger Robsart, protected him from the immediate
+vengeance of the king, and dismissed him without ransom. But he was
+unable to guard him from other penalties of his rashness, being the
+heavy fines by which he was impoverished, according to Henry's mode of
+weakening his enemies. The good knight did what he might to mitigate the
+distresses of my ancestor; and their friendship became so strict, that
+my father was bred up as the sworn brother and intimate of the present
+Sir Hugh Robsart, the only son of Sir Roger, and the heir of his honest,
+and generous, and hospitable temper, though not equal to him in martial
+achievements."
+
+"I have heard of good Sir Hugh Robsart," interrupted the host, "many a
+time and oft; his huntsman and sworn servant, Will Badger, hath spoken
+of him an hundred times in this very house. A jovial knight he is,
+and hath loved hospitality and open housekeeping more than the present
+fashion, which lays as much gold lace on the seams of a doublet as would
+feed a dozen of tall fellows with beef and ale for a twelvemonth, and
+let them have their evening at the alehouse once a week, to do good to
+the publican."
+
+"If you have seen Will Badger, mine host," said Tressilian, "you have
+heard enough of Sir Hugh Robsart; and therefore I will but say, that the
+hospitality you boast of hath proved somewhat detrimental to the estate
+of his family, which is perhaps of the less consequence, as he has but
+one daughter to whom to bequeath it. And here begins my share in the
+tale. Upon my father's death, now several years since, the good Sir Hugh
+would willingly have made me his constant companion. There was a
+time, however, at which I felt the kind knight's excessive love for
+field-sports detained me from studies, by which I might have profited
+more; but I ceased to regret the leisure which gratitude and hereditary
+friendship compelled me to bestow on these rural avocations. The
+exquisite beauty of Mistress Amy Robsart, as she grew up from childhood
+to woman, could not escape one whom circumstances obliged to be so
+constantly in her company--I loved her, in short, mine host, and her
+father saw it."
+
+"And crossed your true loves, no doubt?" said mine host. "It is the way
+in all such cases; and I judge it must have been so in your instance,
+from the heavy sigh you uttered even now."
+
+"The case was different, mine host. My suit was highly approved by
+the generous Sir Hugh Robsart; it was his daughter who was cold to my
+passion."
+
+"She was the more dangerous enemy of the two," said the innkeeper. "I
+fear me your suit proved a cold one."
+
+"She yielded me her esteem," said Tressilian, "and seemed not unwilling
+that I should hope it might ripen into a warmer passion. There was
+a contract of future marriage executed betwixt us, upon her father's
+intercession; but to comply with her anxious request, the execution was
+deferred for a twelvemonth. During this period, Richard Varney appeared
+in the country, and, availing himself of some distant family connection
+with Sir Hugh Robsart, spent much of his time in his company, until, at
+length, he almost lived in the family."
+
+"That could bode no good to the place he honoured with his residence,"
+said Gosling.
+
+"No, by the rood!" replied Tressilian. "Misunderstanding and misery
+followed his presence, yet so strangely that I am at this moment at a
+loss to trace the gradations of their encroachment upon a family which
+had, till then, been so happy. For a time Amy Robsart received the
+attentions of this man Varney with the indifference attached to common
+courtesies; then followed a period in which she seemed to regard him
+with dislike, and even with disgust; and then an extraordinary species
+of connection appeared to grow up betwixt them. Varney dropped those
+airs of pretension and gallantry which had marked his former approaches;
+and Amy, on the other hand, seemed to renounce the ill-disguised disgust
+with which she had regarded them. They seemed to have more of privacy
+and confidence together than I fully liked, and I suspected that they
+met in private, where there was less restraint than in our presence.
+Many circumstances, which I noticed but little at the time--for I deemed
+her heart as open as her angelic countenance--have since arisen on my
+memory, to convince me of their private understanding. But I need not
+detail them--the fact speaks for itself. She vanished from her father's
+house; Varney disappeared at the same time; and this very day I have
+seen her in the character of his paramour, living in the house of his
+sordid dependant Foster, and visited by him, muffled, and by a secret
+entrance."
+
+"And this, then, is the cause of your quarrel? Methinks, you should
+have been sure that the fair lady either desired or deserved your
+interference."
+
+"Mine host," answered Tressilian, "my father--such I must ever consider
+Sir Hugh Robsart--sits at home struggling with his grief, or, if so
+far recovered, vainly attempting to drown, in the practice of
+his field-sports, the recollection that he had once a daughter--a
+recollection which ever and anon breaks from him under circumstances the
+most pathetic. I could not brook the idea that he should live in misery,
+and Amy in guilt; and I endeavoured to-seek her out, with the hope of
+inducing her to return to her family. I have found her, and when I have
+either succeeded in my attempt, or have found it altogether unavailing,
+it is my purpose to embark for the Virginia voyage."
+
+"Be not so rash, good sir," replied Giles Gosling, "and cast not
+yourself away because a woman--to be brief--IS a woman, and changes
+her lovers like her suit of ribands, with no better reason than mere
+fantasy. And ere we probe this matter further, let me ask you what
+circumstances of suspicion directed you so truly to this lady's
+residence, or rather to her place of concealment?"
+
+"The last is the better chosen word, mine host," answered Tressilian;
+"and touching your question, the knowledge that Varney held large grants
+of the demesnes formerly belonging to the monks of Abingdon directed me
+to this neighbourhood; and your nephew's visit to his old comrade Foster
+gave me the means of conviction on the subject."
+
+"And what is now your purpose, worthy sir?--excuse my freedom in asking
+the question so broadly."
+
+"I purpose, mine host," said Tressilian, "to renew my visit to the place
+of her residence to-morrow, and to seek a more detailed communication
+with her than I have had to-day. She must indeed be widely changed from
+what she once was, if my words make no impression upon her."
+
+"Under your favour, Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "you can
+follow no such course. The lady, if I understand you, has already
+rejected your interference in the matter."
+
+"It is but too true," said Tressilian; "I cannot deny it."
+
+"Then, marry, by what right or interest do you process a compulsory
+interference with her inclination, disgraceful as it may be to herself
+and to her parents? Unless my judgment gulls me, those under whose
+protection she has thrown herself would have small hesitation to reject
+your interference, even if it were that of a father or brother; but as
+a discarded lover, you expose yourself to be repelled with the strong
+hand, as well as with scorn. You can apply to no magistrate for aid or
+countenance; and you are hunting, therefore, a shadow in water, and will
+only (excuse my plainness) come by ducking and danger in attempting to
+catch it."
+
+"I will appeal to the Earl of Leicester," said Tressilian, "against
+the infamy of his favourite. He courts the severe and strict sect of
+Puritans. He dare not, for the sake of his own character, refuse my
+appeal, even although he were destitute of the principles of honour and
+nobleness with which fame invests him. Or I will appeal to the Queen
+herself."
+
+"Should Leicester," said the landlord, "be disposed to protect his
+dependant (as indeed he is said to be very confidential with Varney),
+the appeal to the Queen may bring them both to reason. Her Majesty is
+strict in such matters, and (if it be not treason to speak it) will
+rather, it is said, pardon a dozen courtiers for falling in love with
+herself, than one for giving preference to another woman. Coragio then,
+my brave guest! for if thou layest a petition from Sir Hugh at the foot
+of the throne, bucklered by the story of thine own wrongs, the favourite
+Earl dared as soon leap into the Thames at the fullest and deepest, as
+offer to protect Varney in a cause of this nature. But to do this
+with any chance of success, you must go formally to work; and, without
+staying here to tilt with the master of horse to a privy councillor, and
+expose yourself to the dagger of his cameradoes, you should hie you to
+Devonshire, get a petition drawn up for Sir Hugh Robsart, and make as
+many friends as you can to forward your interest at court."
+
+"You have spoken well, mine host," said Tressilian, "and I will profit
+by your advice, and leave you to-morrow early."
+
+"Nay, leave me to-night, sir, before to-morrow comes," said he landlord.
+"I never prayed for a guest's arrival more eagerly than I do to have
+you safely gone, My kinsman's destiny is most like to be hanged for
+something, but I would not that the cause were the murder of an honoured
+guest of mine. 'Better ride safe in the dark,' says the proverb, 'than
+in daylight with a cut-throat at your elbow.' Come, sir, I move you for
+your own safety. Your horse and all is ready, and here is your score."
+
+"It is somewhat under a noble," said Tressilian, giving one to the host;
+"give the balance to pretty Cicely, your daughter, and the servants of
+the house."
+
+"They shall taste of your bounty, sir," said Gosling, "and you should
+taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowledgment, but at this hour
+she cannot grace the porch to greet your departure."
+
+"Do not trust your daughter too far with your guests, my good landlord,"
+said Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, sir, we will keep measure; but I wonder not that you are jealous
+of them all.--May I crave to know with what aspect the fair lady at the
+Place yesterday received you?"
+
+"I own," said Tressilian, "it was angry as well as confused, and affords
+me little hope that she is yet awakened from her unhappy delusion."
+
+"In that case, sir, I see not why you should play the champion of a
+wench that will none of you, and incur the resentment of a favourite's
+favourite, as dangerous a monster as ever a knight adventurer
+encountered in the old story books."
+
+"You do me wrong in the supposition, mine host--gross wrong," said
+Tressilian; "I do not desire that Amy should ever turn thought upon me
+more. Let me but see her restored to her father, and all I have to do in
+Europe--perhaps in the world--is over and ended."
+
+"A wiser resolution were to drink a cup of sack, and forget her," said
+the landlord. "But five-and-twenty and fifty look on those matters with
+different eyes, especially when one cast of peepers is set in the skull
+of a young gallant, and the other in that of an old publican. I pity
+you, Master Tressilian, but I see not how I can aid you in the matter."
+
+"Only thus far, mine host," replied Tressilian--"keep a watch on the
+motions of those at the Place, which thou canst easily learn without
+suspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale-bench; and be pleased to
+communicate the tidings in writing to such person, and to no other,
+who shall bring you this ring as a special token. Look at it; it is of
+value, and I will freely bestow it on you."
+
+"Nay, sir," said the landlord, "I desire no recompense--but it seems an
+unadvised course in me, being in a public line, to connect myself in a
+matter of this dark and perilous nature. I have no interest in it."
+
+"You, and every father in the land, who would have his daughter released
+from the snares of shame, and sin, and misery, have an interest deeper
+than aught concerning earth only could create."
+
+"Well, sir," said the host, "these are brave words; and I do pity from
+my soul the frank-hearted old gentleman, who has minished his estate
+in good housekeeping for the honour of his country, and now has his
+daughter, who should be the stay of his age, and so forth, whisked up
+by such a kite as this Varney. And though your part in the matter is
+somewhat of the wildest, yet I will e'en be a madcap for company, and
+help you in your honest attempt to get back the good man's child, so far
+as being your faithful intelligencer can serve. And as I shall be true
+to you, I pray you to be trusty to me, and keep my secret; for it were
+bad for the custom of the Black Bear should it be said the bear-warder
+interfered in such matters. Varney has interest enough with the
+justices to dismount my noble emblem from the post on which he swings so
+gallantly, to call in my license, and ruin me from garret to cellar."
+
+"Do not doubt my secrecy, mine host," said Tressilian; "I will retain,
+besides, the deepest sense of thy service, and of the risk thou dost
+run--remember the ring is my sure token. And now, farewell! for it was
+thy wise advice that I should tarry here as short a time as may be."
+
+"Follow me, then, Sir Guest," said the landlord, "and tread as gently as
+if eggs were under your foot, instead of deal boards. No man must know
+when or how you departed."
+
+By the aid of his dark lantern he conducted Tressilian, as soon as he
+had made himself ready for his journey, through a long intricacy of
+passages, which opened to an outer court, and from thence to a remote
+stable, where he had already placed his guest's horse. He then aided
+him to fasten on the saddle the small portmantle which contained his
+necessaries, opened a postern door, and with a hearty shake of the hand,
+and a reiteration of his promise to attend to what went on at Cumnor
+Place, he dismissed his guest to his solitary journey.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+     Far in the lane a lonely hut he found,
+     No tenant ventured on the unwholesome ground:
+     Here smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,
+     And early strokes the sounding anvil warm;
+     Around his shop the steely sparkles flew,
+     As for the steed he shaped the bending shoe.--GAY'S TRIVIA.
+
+As it was deemed proper by the traveller himself, as well as by Giles
+Gosling, that Tressilian should avoid being seen in the neighbourhood of
+Cumnor by those whom accident might make early risers, the landlord had
+given him a route, consisting of various byways and lanes, which he was
+to follow in succession, and which, all the turns and short-cuts duly
+observed, was to conduct him to the public road to Marlborough.
+
+But, like counsel of every other kind, this species of direction is much
+more easily given than followed; and what betwixt the intricacy of the
+way, the darkness of the night, Tressilian's ignorance of the country,
+and the sad and perplexing thoughts with which he had to contend, his
+journey proceeded so slowly, that morning found him only in the vale of
+Whitehorse, memorable for the defeat of the Danes in former days, with
+his horse deprived of a fore-foot shoe, an accident which threatened to
+put a stop to his journey by laming the animal. The residence of a
+smith was his first object of inquiry, in which he received little
+satisfaction from the dullness or sullenness of one or two peasants,
+early bound for their labour, who gave brief and indifferent answers to
+his questions on the subject. Anxious, at length, that the partner of
+his journey should suffer as little as possible from the unfortunate
+accident, Tressilian dismounted, and led his horse in the direction of a
+little hamlet, where he hoped either to find or hear tidings of such an
+artificer as he now wanted. Through a deep and muddy lane, he at length
+waded on to the place, which proved only an assemblage of five or six
+miserable huts, about the doors of which one or two persons, whose
+appearance seemed as rude as that of their dwellings, were beginning
+the toils of the day. One cottage, however, seemed of rather superior
+aspect, and the old dame, who was sweeping her threshold, appeared
+something less rude than her neighbours. To her Tressilian addressed the
+oft-repeated question, whether there was a smith in this neighbourhood,
+or any place where he could refresh his horse? The dame looked him in
+the face with a peculiar expression as she replied, "Smith! ay, truly is
+there a smith--what wouldst ha' wi' un, mon?"
+
+"To shoe my horse, good dame," answered Tressiliany; "you may see that
+he has thrown a fore-foot shoe."
+
+"Master Holiday!" exclaimed the dame, without returning any direct
+answer--"Master Herasmus Holiday, come and speak to mon, and please
+you."
+
+"FAVETE LINGUIS," answered a voice from within; "I cannot now come
+forth, Gammer Sludge, being in the very sweetest bit of my morning
+studies."
+
+"Nay, but, good now, Master Holiday, come ye out, do ye. Here's a mon
+would to Wayland Smith, and I care not to show him way to devil; his
+horse hath cast shoe."
+
+"QUID MIHI CUM CABALLO?" replied the man of learning from within; "I
+think there is but one wise man in the hundred, and they cannot shoe a
+horse without him!"
+
+And forth came the honest pedagogue, for such his dress bespoke him. A
+long, lean, shambling, stooping figure was surmounted by a head thatched
+with lank, black hair somewhat inclining to grey. His features had the
+cast of habitual authority, which I suppose Dionysius carried with him
+from the throne to the schoolmaster's pulpit, and bequeathed as a legacy
+to all of the same profession, A black buckram cassock was gathered at
+his middle with a belt, at which hung, instead of knife or weapon, a
+goodly leathern pen-and-ink case. His ferula was stuck on the other
+side, like Harlequin's wooden sword; and he carried in his hand the
+tattered volume which he had been busily perusing.
+
+On seeing a person of Tressilian's appearance, which he was better
+able to estimate than the country folks had been, the schoolmaster
+unbonneted, and accosted him with, "SALVE, DOMINE. INTELLIGISNE LINGUAM
+LATINAM?"
+
+Tressilian mustered his learning to reply, "LINGUAE LATINAE HAUD PENITUS
+IGNARUS, VENIA TUA, DOMINE ERUDITISSIME, VERNACULAM LIBENTIUS LOQUOR."
+
+The Latin reply had upon the schoolmaster the effect which the mason's
+sign is said to produce on the brethren of the trowel. He was at once
+interested in the learned traveller, listened with gravity to his story
+of a tired horse and a lost shoe, and then replied with solemnity, "It
+may appear a simple thing, most worshipful, to reply to you that there
+dwells, within a brief mile of these TUGURIA, the best FABER FERARIUS,
+the most accomplished blacksmith, that ever nailed iron upon horse. Now,
+were I to say so, I warrant me you would think yourself COMPOS VOTI, or,
+as the vulgar have it, a made man."
+
+"I should at least," said Tressilian, "have a direct answer to a plain
+question, which seems difficult to be obtained in this country."
+
+"It is a mere sending of a sinful soul to the evil un," said the old
+woman, "the sending a living creature to Wayland Smith."
+
+"Peace, Gammer Sludge!" said the pedagogue; "PAUCA VERBA, Gammer Sludge;
+look to the furmity, Gammer Sludge; CURETUR JENTACULUM, Gammer Sludge;
+this gentleman is none of thy gossips." Then turning to Tressilian, he
+resumed his lofty tone, "And so, most worshipful, you would really think
+yourself FELIX BIS TERQUE should I point out to you the dwelling of this
+same smith?"
+
+"Sir," replied Tressilian, "I should in that case have all that I want
+at present--a horse fit to carry me forward;--out of hearing of your
+learning." The last words he muttered to himself.
+
+"O CAECA MENS MORTALIUM!" said the learned man "well was it sung by
+Junius Juvenalis, 'NUMINIBUS VOTA EXAUDITA MALIGNIS!'"
+
+"Learned Magister," said Tressilian, "your erudition so greatly exceeds
+my poor intellectual capacity that you must excuse my seeking elsewhere
+for information which I can better understand."
+
+"There again now," replied the pedagogue, "how fondly you fly from him
+that would instruct you! Truly said Quintilian--"
+
+"I pray, sir, let Quintilian be for the present, and answer, in a word
+and in English, if your learning can condescend so far, whether there is
+any place here where I can have opportunity to refresh my horse until I
+can have him shod?"
+
+"Thus much courtesy, sir," said the schoolmaster, "I can readily render
+you, that although there is in this poor hamlet (NOSTRA PAUPERA REGNA)
+no regular HOSPITIUM, as my namesake Erasmus calleth it, yet, forasmuch
+as you are somewhat embued, or at least tinged, as it were, with good
+letters, I will use my interest with the good woman of the house to
+accommodate you with a platter of furmity--an wholesome food for which
+I have found no Latin phrase--your horse shall have a share of the
+cow-house, with a bottle of sweet hay, in which the good woman Sludge so
+much abounds, that it may be said of her cow, FAENUM HABET IN CORNU;
+and if it please you to bestow on me the pleasure of your company, the
+banquet shall cost you NE SEMISSEM QUIDEM, so much is Gammer Sludge
+bound to me for the pains I have bestowed on the top and bottom of her
+hopeful heir Dickie, whom I have painfully made to travel through the
+accidence."
+
+"Now, God yield ye for it, Master Herasmus," said the good Gammer, "and
+grant that little Dickie may be the better for his accident! And for the
+rest, if the gentleman list to stay, breakfast shall be on the board in
+the wringing of a dishclout; and for horse-meat, and man's meat, I bear
+no such base mind as to ask a penny."
+
+Considering the state of his horse, Tressilian, upon the whole, saw
+no better course than to accept the invitation thus learnedly made and
+hospitably confirmed, and take chance that when the good pedagogue had
+exhausted every topic of conversation, he might possibly condescend to
+tell him where he could find the smith they spoke of. He entered the
+hut accordingly, and sat down with the learned Magister Erasmus Holiday,
+partook of his furmity, and listened to his learned account of himself
+for a good half hour, ere he could get him to talk upon any other topic,
+The reader will readily excuse our accompanying this man of learning
+into all the details with which he favoured Tressilian, of which the
+following sketch may suffice.
+
+He was born at Hogsnorton, where, according to popular saying, the pigs
+play upon the organ; a proverb which he interpreted allegorically,
+as having reference to the herd of Epicurus, of which litter Horace
+confessed himself a porker. His name of Erasmus he derived partly from
+his father having been the son of a renowned washerwoman, who had held
+that great scholar in clean linen all the while he was at Oxford; a task
+of some difficulty, as he was only possessed of two shirts, "the one,"
+as she expressed herself, "to wash the other," The vestiges of one of
+these CAMICIAE, as Master Holiday boasted, were still in his possession,
+having fortunately been detained by his grandmother to cover the balance
+of her bill. But he thought there was a still higher and overruling
+cause for his having had the name of Erasmus conferred on him--namely,
+the secret presentiment of his mother's mind that, in the babe to be
+christened, was a hidden genius, which should one day lead him to rival
+the fame of the great scholar of Amsterdam. The schoolmaster's surname
+led him as far into dissertation as his Christian appellative. He was
+inclined to think that he bore the name of Holiday QUASI LUCUS A NON
+LUCENDO, because he gave such few holidays to his school. "Hence," said
+he, "the schoolmaster is termed, classically, LUDI MAGISTER, because he
+deprives boys of their play." And yet, on the other hand, he thought
+it might bear a very different interpretation, and refer to his own
+exquisite art in arranging pageants, morris-dances, May-day festivities,
+and such-like holiday delights, for which he assured Tressilian he had
+positively the purest and the most inventive brain in England; insomuch,
+that his cunning in framing such pleasures had made him known to many
+honourable persons, both in country and court, and especially to the
+noble Earl of Leicester. "And although he may now seem to forget me,"
+he said, "in the multitude of state affairs, yet I am well assured that,
+had he some pretty pastime to array for entertainment of the Queen's
+Grace, horse and man would be seeking the humble cottage of Erasmus
+Holiday. PARVO CONTENTUS, in the meanwhile, I hear my pupils parse and
+construe, worshipful sir, and drive away my time with the aid of the
+Muses. And I have at all times, when in correspondence with foreign
+scholars, subscribed myself Erasmus ab Die Fausto, and have enjoyed the
+distinction due to the learned under that title: witness the erudite
+Diedrichus Buckerschockius, who dedicated to me under that title his
+treatise on the letter TAU. In fine, sir, I have been a happy and
+distinguished man."
+
+"Long may it be so, sir!" said the traveller; "but permit me to ask, in
+your own learned phrase, QUID HOC AD IPHYCLI BOVES? what has all this to
+do with the shoeing of my poor nag?"
+
+"FESTINA LENTE," said the man of learning, "we will presently came to
+that point. You must know that some two or three years past there came
+to these parts one who called himself Doctor Doboobie, although it may
+be he never wrote even MAGISTER ARTIUM, save in right of his hungry
+belly. Or it may be, that if he had any degrees, they were of the
+devil's giving; for he was what the vulgar call a white witch, a cunning
+man, and such like.--Now, good sir, I perceive you are impatient; but if
+a man tell not his tale his own way, how have you warrant to think that
+he can tell it in yours?"
+
+"Well, then, learned sir, take your way," answered Tressilian; "only let
+us travel at a sharper pace, for my time is somewhat of the shortest."
+
+"Well, sir," resumed Erasmus Holiday, with the most provoking
+perseverance, "I will not say that this same Demetrius for so he wrote
+himself when in foreign parts, was an actual conjurer, but certain it
+is that he professed to be a brother of the mystical Order of the Rosy
+Cross, a disciple of Geber (EX NOMINE CUJUS VENIT VERBUM VERNACULUM,
+GIBBERISH). He cured wounds by salving the weapon instead of the sore;
+told fortunes by palmistry; discovered stolen goods by the sieve and
+shears; gathered the right maddow and the male fern seed, through use of
+which men walk invisible; pretended some advances towards the panacea,
+or universal elixir; and affected to convert good lead into sorry
+silver."
+
+"In other words," said Tressilian, "he was a quacksalver and common
+cheat; but what has all this to do with my nag, and the shoe which he
+has lost?"
+
+"With your worshipful patience," replied the diffusive man of letters,
+"you shall understand that presently--PATENTIA then, right worshipful,
+which word, according to our Marcus Tullius, is 'DIFFICILIUM RERUM
+DIURNA PERPESSIO.' This same Demetrius Doboobie, after dealing with the
+country, as I have told you, began to acquire fame INTER MAGNATES, among
+the prime men of the land, and there is likelihood he might have aspired
+to great matters, had not, according to vulgar fame (for I aver not the
+thing as according with my certain knowledge), the devil claimed his
+right, one dark night, and flown off with Demetrius, who was never seen
+or heard of afterwards. Now here comes the MEDULLA, the very marrow,
+of my tale. This Doctor Doboobie had a servant, a poor snake, whom
+he employed in trimming his furnace, regulating it by just
+measure--compounding his drugs--tracing his circles--cajoling his
+patients, ET SIC ET CAETERIS. Well, right worshipful, the Doctor being
+removed thus strangely, and in a way which struck the whole country with
+terror, this poor Zany thinks to himself, in the words of Maro, 'UNO
+AVULSO, NON DEFICIT ALTER;' and, even as a tradesman's apprentice sets
+himself up in his master's shop when he is dead or hath retired from
+business, so doth this Wayland assume the dangerous trade of his defunct
+master. But although, most worshipful sir, the world is ever prone to
+listen to the pretensions of such unworthy men, who are, indeed, mere
+SALTIM BANQUI and CHARLATANI, though usurping the style and skill
+of doctors of medicine, yet the pretensions of this poor Zany, this
+Wayland, were too gross to pass on them, nor was there a mere rustic,
+a villager, who was not ready to accost him in the sense of Persius,
+though in their own rugged words,--
+
+
+     DILIUS HELLEBORUM CERTO COMPESCERE PUNCTO
+     NESCIUS EXAMEN?  VETAT HOC NATURA VEDENDI;
+
+which I have thus rendered in a poor paraphrase of mine own,--
+
+
+     Wilt thou mix hellebore, who dost not know
+     How many grains should to the mixture go?
+     The art of medicine this forbids, I trow.
+
+"Moreover, the evil reputation of the master, and his strange and
+doubtful end, or at least sudden disappearance, prevented any, excepting
+the most desperate of men, to seek any advice or opinion from the
+servant; wherefore, the poor vermin was likely at first to swarf for
+very hunger. But the devil that serves him, since the death of Demetrius
+or Doboobie, put him on a fresh device. This knave, whether from the
+inspiration of the devil, or from early education, shoes horses better
+than e'er a man betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice
+on the bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged species called mankind, and
+betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses."
+
+"Indeed! and where does he lodge all this time?" said Tressilian. "And
+does he shoe horses well? Show me his dwelling presently."
+
+The interruption pleased not the Magister, who exclaimed, "O CAECA MENS
+MORTALIUM!--though, by the way, I used that quotation before. But I
+would the classics could afford me any sentiment of power to stop those
+who are so willing to rush upon their own destruction. Hear but, I pray
+you, the conditions of this man," said he, in continuation, "ere you are
+so willing to place yourself within his danger--"
+
+"A' takes no money for a's work," said the dame, who stood by,
+enraptured as it were with the line words and learned apophthegms which
+glided so fluently from her erudite inmate, Master Holiday. But this
+interruption pleased not the Magister more than that of the traveller.
+
+"Peace," said he, "Gammer Sludge; know your place, if it be your will.
+SUFFLAMINA, Gammer Sludge, and allow me to expound this matter to our
+worshipful guest.--Sir," said he, again addressing Tressilian, "this
+old woman speaks true, though in her own rude style; for certainly this
+FABER FERRARIUS, or blacksmith, takes money of no one."
+
+"And that is a sure sign he deals with Satan," said Dame Sludge; "since
+no good Christian would ever refuse the wages of his labour."
+
+"The old woman hath touched it again," said the pedagogue; "REM ACU
+TETIGIT--she hath pricked it with her needle's point. This Wayland takes
+no money, indeed; nor doth he show himself to any one."
+
+"And can this madman, for such I hold him," said the traveller, "know
+aught like good skill of his trade?"
+
+"Oh, sir, in that let us give the devil his due--Mulciber himself, with
+all his Cyclops, could hardly amend him. But assuredly there is little
+wisdom in taking counsel or receiving aid from one who is but too
+plainly in league with the author of evil."
+
+"I must take my chance of that, good Master Holiday," said Tressilian,
+rising; "and as my horse must now have eaten his provender, I must
+needs thank you for your good cheer, and pray you to show me this man's
+residence, that I may have the means of proceeding on my journey."
+
+"Ay, ay, do ye show him, Master Herasmus," said the old dame, who was,
+perhaps, desirous to get her house freed of her guest; "a' must needs go
+when the devil drives."
+
+"DO MANUS," said the Magister, "I submit--taking the world to witness,
+that I have possessed this honourable gentleman with the full injustice
+which he has done and shall do to his own soul, if he becomes thus a
+trinketer with Satan. Neither will I go forth with our guest myself, but
+rather send my pupil.--RICARDE! ADSIS, NEBULO."
+
+"Under your favour, not so," answered the old woman; "you may peril your
+own soul, if you list, but my son shall budge on no such errand. And I
+wonder at you, Dominie Doctor, to propose such a piece of service for
+little Dickie."
+
+"Nay, my good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor, "Ricardus shall go
+but to the top of the hill, and indicate with his digit to the stranger
+the dwelling of Wayland Smith. Believe not that any evil can come to
+him, he having read this morning, fasting, a chapter of the Septuagint,
+and, moreover, having had his lesson in the Greek Testament."
+
+"Ay," said his mother, "and I have sewn a sprig of witch's elm in the
+neck of un's doublet, ever since that foul thief has begun his practices
+on man and beast in these parts."
+
+"And as he goes oft (as I hugely suspect) towards this conjurer for his
+own pastime, he may for once go thither, or near it, to pleasure us,
+and to assist this stranger.--ERGO, HEUS RICARDE! ADSIS, QUAESO, MI
+DIDASCULE."
+
+The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came stumbling into
+the room; a queer, shambling, ill-made urchin, who, by his stunted
+growth, seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, though he was
+probably, in reality, a year or two older, with a carroty pate in huge
+disorder, a freckled, sunburnt visage, with a snub nose, a long
+chin, and two peery grey eyes, which had a droll obliquity of vision,
+approaching to a squint, though perhaps not a decided one. It was
+impossible to look at the little man without some disposition to laugh,
+especially when Gammer Sludge, seizing upon and kissing him, in spite of
+his struggling and kicking in reply to her caresses, termed him her own
+precious pearl of beauty.
+
+"RICARDE," said the preceptor, "you must forthwith (which is PROFECTO)
+set forth so far as the top of the hill, and show this man of worship
+Wayland Smith's workshop."
+
+"A proper errand of a morning," said the boy, in better language than
+Tressilian expected; "and who knows but the devil may fly away with me
+before I come back?"
+
+"Ay, marry may un," said Dame Sludge; "and you might have thought twice,
+Master Domine, ere you sent my dainty darling on arrow such errand. It
+is not for such doings I feed your belly and clothe your back, I warrant
+you!"
+
+"Pshaw--NUGAE, good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor; "I ensure
+you that Satan, if there be Satan in the case, shall not touch a thread
+of his garment; for Dickie can say his PATER with the best, and may defy
+the foul fiend--EUMENIDES, STYGIUMQUE NEFAS."
+
+"Ay, and I, as I said before, have sewed a sprig of the mountain-ash
+into his collar," said the good woman, "which will avail more than your
+clerkship, I wus; but for all that, it is ill to seek the devil or his
+mates either."
+
+"My good boy," said Tressilian, who saw, from a grotesque sneer on
+Dickie's face, that he was more likely to act upon his own bottom than
+by the instructions of his elders, "I will give thee a silver groat, my
+pretty fellow, if you will but guide me to this man's forge."
+
+The boy gave him a knowing side-look, which seemed to promise
+acquiescence, while at the same time he exclaimed, "I be your guide to
+Wayland Smith's! Why, man, did I not say that the devil might fly off
+with me, just as the kite there" (looking to the window) "is flying off
+with one of grandam's chicks?"
+
+"The kite! the kite!" exclaimed the old woman in return, and forgetting
+all other matters in her alarm, hastened to the rescue of her chickens
+as fast as her old legs could carry her.
+
+"Now for it," said the urchin to Tressilian; "snatch your beaver, get
+out your horse, and have at the silver groat you spoke of."
+
+"Nay, but tarry, tarry," said the preceptor--"SUFFLAMINA, RICARDE!"
+
+"Tarry yourself," said Dickie, "and think what answer you are to make to
+granny for sending me post to the devil."
+
+The teacher, aware of the responsibility he was incurring, bustled up in
+great haste to lay hold of the urchin and to prevent his departure; but
+Dickie slipped through his fingers, bolted from the cottage, and sped
+him to the top of a neighbouring rising ground, while the preceptor,
+despairing, by well-taught experience, of recovering his pupil by speed
+of foot, had recourse to the most honied epithets the Latin vocabulary
+affords to persuade his return. But to MI ANIME, CORCULUM MEUM, and
+all such classical endearments, the truant turned a deaf ear, and kept
+frisking on the top of the rising ground like a goblin by moonlight,
+making signs to his new acquaintance, Tressilian, to follow him.
+
+The traveller lost no time in getting out his horse and departing to
+join his elvish guide, after half-forcing on the poor, deserted teacher
+a recompense for the entertainment he had received, which partly allayed
+that terror he had for facing the return of the old lady of the mansion.
+Apparently this took place soon afterwards; for ere Tressilian and his
+guide had proceeded far on their journey, they heard the screams of a
+cracked female voice, intermingled with the classical objurgations of
+Master Erasmus Holiday. But Dickie Sludge, equally deaf to the voice
+of maternal tenderness and of magisterial authority, skipped on
+unconsciously before Tressilian, only observing that "if they cried
+themselves hoarse, they might go lick the honey-pot, for he had eaten up
+all the honey-comb himself on yesterday even."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+     There entering in, they found the goodman selfe
+     Full busylie unto his work ybent,
+     Who was to weet a wretched wearish elf,
+     With hollow eyes and rawbone cheeks forspent,
+     As if he had been long in prison pent.--THE FAERY QUEENE.
+
+"Are we far from the dwelling of this smith, my pretty lad?" said
+Tressilian to his young guide.
+
+"How is it you call me?" said the boy, looking askew at him with his
+sharp, grey eyes.
+
+"I call you my pretty lad--is there any offence in that, my boy?"
+
+"No; but were you with my grandam and Dominie Holiday, you might sing
+chorus to the old song of
+
+
+     'We three
+     Tom-fools be.'"
+
+"And why so, my little man?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Because," answered the ugly urchin, "you are the only three ever called
+me pretty lad. Now my grandam does it because she is parcel blind by
+age, and whole blind by kindred; and my master, the poor Dominie, does
+it to curry favour, and have the fullest platter of furmity and the
+warmest seat by the fire. But what you call me pretty lad for, you know
+best yourself."
+
+"Thou art a sharp wag at least, if not a pretty one. But what do thy
+playfellows call thee?"
+
+"Hobgoblin," answered the boy readily; "but for all that, I would rather
+have my own ugly viznomy than any of their jolter-heads, that have no
+more brains in them than a brick-bat."
+
+"Then you fear not this smith whom you are going to see?"
+
+"Me fear him!" answered the boy. "If he were the devil folk think him, I
+would not fear him; but though there is something queer about him, he's
+no more a devil than you are, and that's what I would not tell to every
+one."
+
+"And why do you tell it to me, then, my boy?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Because you are another guess gentleman than those we see here every
+day," replied Dickie; "and though I am as ugly as sin, I would not have
+you think me an ass, especially as I may have a boon to ask of you one
+day."
+
+"And what is that, my lad, whom I must not call pretty?" replied
+Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, if I were to ask it just now," said the boy, "you would deny it me;
+but I will wait till we meet at court."
+
+"At court, Richard! are you bound for court?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Ay, ay, that's just like the rest of them," replied the boy. "I warrant
+me, you think, what should such an ill-favoured, scrambling urchin do at
+court? But let Richard Sludge alone; I have not been cock of the roost
+here for nothing. I will make sharp wit mend foul feature."
+
+"But what will your grandam say, and your tutor, Dominie Holiday?"
+
+"E'en what they like," replied Dickie; "the one has her chickens to
+reckon, and the other has his boys to whip. I would have given them the
+candle to hold long since, and shown this trumpery hamlet a fair pair of
+heels, but that Dominie promises I should go with him to bear share in
+the next pageant he is to set forth, and they say there are to be great
+revels shortly."
+
+"And whereabouts are they to be held, my little friend?" said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, at some castle far in the north," answered his guide--"a world's
+breadth from Berkshire. But our old Dominie holds that they cannot go
+forward without him; and it may be he is right, for he has put in order
+many a fair pageant. He is not half the fool you would take him for,
+when he gets to work he understands; and so he can spout verses like
+a play-actor, when, God wot, if you set him to steal a goose's egg, he
+would be drubbed by the gander."
+
+"And you are to play a part in his next show?" said Tressilian, somewhat
+interested by the boy's boldness of conversation and shrewd estimate of
+character.
+
+"In faith," said Richard Sludge, in answer, "he hath so promised me; and
+if he break his word, it will be the worse for him, for let me take the
+bit between my teeth, and turn my head downhill, and I will shake him
+off with a fall that may harm his bones. And I should not like much to
+hurt him neither," said he, "for the tiresome old fool has painfully
+laboured to teach me all he could. But enough of that--here are we at
+Wayland Smith's forge-door."
+
+"You jest, my little friend," said Tressilian; "here is nothing but a
+bare moor, and that ring of stones, with a great one in the midst, like
+a Cornish barrow."
+
+"Ay, and that great flat stone in the midst, which lies across the top
+of these uprights," said the boy, "is Wayland Smith's counter, that you
+must tell down your money upon."
+
+"What do you mean by such folly?" said the traveller, beginning to be
+angry with the boy, and vexed with himself for having trusted such a
+hare-brained guide.
+
+"Why," said Dickie, with a grin, "you must tie your horse to that
+upright stone that has the ring in't, and then you must whistle three
+times, and lay me down your silver groat on that other flat stone, walk
+out of the circle, sit down on the west side of that little thicket
+of bushes, and take heed you look neither to right nor to left for ten
+minutes, or so long as you shall hear the hammer clink, and whenever
+it ceases, say your prayers for the space you could tell a hundred--or
+count over a hundred, which will do as well--and then come into the
+circle; you will find your money gone and your horse shod."
+
+"My money gone to a certainty!" said Tressilian; "but as for the
+rest--Hark ye, my lad, I am not your school-master, but if you play off
+your waggery on me, I will take a part of his task off his hands, and
+punish you to purpose."
+
+"Ay, when you catch me!" said the boy; and presently took to his
+heels across the heath, with a velocity which baffled every attempt of
+Tressilian to overtake him, loaded as he was with his heavy boots. Nor
+was it the least provoking part of the urchin's conduct, that he did not
+exert his utmost speed, like one who finds himself in danger, or who is
+frightened, but preserved just such a rate as to encourage Tressilian to
+continue the chase, and then darted away from him with the swiftness of
+the wind, when his pursuer supposed he had nearly run him down, doubling
+at the same time, and winding, so as always to keep near the place from
+which he started.
+
+This lasted until Tressilian, from very weariness, stood still, and was
+about to abandon the pursuit with a hearty curse on the ill-favoured
+urchin, who had engaged him in an exercise so ridiculous. But the boy,
+who had, as formerly, planted himself on the top of a hillock close
+in front, began to clap his long, thin hands, point with his skinny
+fingers, and twist his wild and ugly features into such an extravagant
+expression of laughter and derision, that Tressilian began half to doubt
+whether he had not in view an actual hobgoblin.
+
+Provoked extremely, yet at the same time feeling an irresistible desire
+to laugh, so very odd were the boy's grimaces and gesticulations, the
+Cornishman returned to his horse, and mounted him with the purpose of
+pursuing Dickie at more advantage.
+
+The boy no sooner saw him mount his horse, than he holloed out to him
+that, rather than he should spoil his white-footed nag, he would come to
+him, on condition he would keep his fingers to himself.
+
+"I will make no conditions with thee, thou ugly varlet!" said
+Tressilian; "I will have thee at my mercy in a moment."
+
+"Aha, Master Traveller," said the boy, "there is a marsh hard by would
+swallow all the horses of the Queen's guard. I will into it, and
+see where you will go then. You shall hear the bittern bump, and the
+wild-drake quack, ere you get hold of me without my consent, I promise
+you."
+
+Tressilian looked out, and, from the appearance of the ground behind
+the hillock, believed it might be as the boy said, and accordingly
+determined to strike up a peace with so light-footed and ready-witted an
+enemy. "Come down," he said, "thou mischievous brat! Leave thy mopping
+and mowing, and, come hither. I will do thee no harm, as I am a
+gentleman."
+
+The boy answered his invitation with the utmost confidence, and danced
+down from his stance with a galliard sort of step, keeping his eye at
+the same time fixed on Tressilian's, who, once more dismounted, stood
+with his horse's bridle in his hand, breathless, and half exhausted with
+his fruitless exercise, though not one drop of moisture appeared on the
+freckled forehead of the urchin, which looked like a piece of dry and
+discoloured parchment, drawn tight across the brow of a fleshless skull.
+
+"And tell me," said Tressilian, "why you use me thus, thou mischievous
+imp? or what your meaning is by telling me so absurd a legend as you
+wished but now to put on me? Or rather show me, in good earnest, this
+smith's forge, and I will give thee what will buy thee apples through
+the whole winter."
+
+"Were you to give me an orchard of apples," said Dickie Sludge, "I can
+guide thee no better than I have done. Lay down the silver token on the
+flat stone--whistle three times--then come sit down on the western side
+of the thicket of gorse. I will sit by you, and give you free leave to
+wring my head off, unless you hear the smith at work within two minutes
+after we are seated."
+
+"I may be tempted to take thee at thy word," said Tressilian, "if you
+make me do aught half so ridiculous for your own mischievous sport;
+however, I will prove your spell. Here, then, I tie my horse to this
+upright stone. I must lay my silver groat here, and whistle three times,
+sayest thou?"
+
+"Ay, but thou must whistle louder than an unfledged ousel," said the
+boy, as Tressilian, having laid down his money, and half ashamed of the
+folly he practised, made a careless whistle--"you must whistle louder
+than that, for who knows where the smith is that you call for? He may be
+in the King of France's stables for what I know."
+
+"Why, you said but now he was no devil," replied Tressilian.
+
+"Man or devil," said Dickie, "I see that I must summon him for you;"
+and therewithal he whistled sharp and shrill, with an acuteness of sound
+that almost thrilled through Tressilian's brain. "That is what I call
+whistling," said he, after he had repeated the signal thrice; "and now
+to cover, to cover, or Whitefoot will not be shod this day."
+
+Tressilian, musing what the upshot of this mummery was to be, yet
+satisfied there was to be some serious result, by the confidence with
+which the boy had put himself in his power, suffered himself to be
+conducted to that side of the little thicket of gorse and brushwood
+which was farthest from the circle of stones, and there sat down; and as
+it occurred to him that, after all, this might be a trick for stealing
+his horse, he kept his hand on the boy's collar, determined to make him
+hostage for its safety.
+
+"Now, hush and listen," said Dickie, in a low whisper; "you will soon
+hear the tack of a hammer that was never forged of earthly iron, for the
+stone it was made of was shot from the moon." And in effect Tressilian
+did immediately hear the light stroke of a hammer, as when a farrier
+is at work. The singularity of such a sound, in so very lonely a place,
+made him involuntarily start; but looking at the boy, and discovering,
+by the arch malicious expression of his countenance, that the urchin saw
+and enjoyed his slight tremor, he became convinced that the whole was
+a concerted stratagem, and determined to know by whom, or for what
+purpose, the trick was played off.
+
+Accordingly, he remained perfectly quiet all the time that the hammer
+continued to sound, being about the space usually employed in fixing
+a horse-shoe. But the instant the sound ceased, Tressilian, instead of
+interposing the space of time which his guide had required, started up
+with his sword in his hand, ran round the thicket, and confronted a man
+in a farrier's leathern apron, but otherwise fantastically attired in a
+bear-skin dressed with the fur on, and a cap of the same, which almost
+hid the sooty and begrimed features of the wearer. "Come back, come
+back!" cried the boy to Tressilian, "or you will be torn to pieces; no
+man lives that looks on him." In fact, the invisible smith (now fully
+visible) heaved up his hammer, and showed symptoms of doing battle.
+
+But when the boy observed that neither his own entreaties nor the
+menaces of the farrier appeared to change Tressilian's purpose, but
+that, on the contrary, he confronted the hammer with his drawn sword,
+he exclaimed to the smith in turn, "Wayland, touch him not, or you will
+come by the worse!--the gentleman is a true gentleman, and a bold."
+
+"So thou hast betrayed me, Flibbertigibbet?" said the smith; "it shall
+be the worse for thee!"
+
+"Be who thou wilt," said Tressilian, "thou art in no danger from me,
+so thou tell me the meaning of this practice, and why thou drivest thy
+trade in this mysterious fashion."
+
+The smith, however, turning to Tressilian, exclaimed, in a threatening
+tone, "Who questions the Keeper of the Crystal Castle of Light, the Lord
+of the Green Lion, the Rider of the Red Dragon? Hence!--avoid thee, ere
+I summon Talpack with his fiery lance, to quell, crush, and consume!"
+These words he uttered with violent gesticulation, mouthing, and
+flourishing his hammer.
+
+"Peace, thou vile cozener, with thy gipsy cant!" replied Tressilian
+scornfully, "and follow me to the next magistrate, or I will cut thee
+over the pate."
+
+"Peace, I pray thee, good Wayland!" said the boy. "Credit me, the
+swaggering vein will not pass here; you must cut boon whids." ["Give
+good words."--SLANG DIALECT.]
+
+"I think, worshipful sir," said the smith, sinking his hammer, and
+assuming a more gentle and submissive tone of voice, "that when so poor
+a man does his day's job, he might be permitted to work it out after his
+own fashion. Your horse is shod, and your farrier paid--what need you
+cumber yourself further than to mount and pursue your journey?"
+
+"Nay, friend, you are mistaken," replied Tressilian; "every man has a
+right to take the mask from the face of a cheat and a juggler; and your
+mode of living raises suspicion that you are both."
+
+"If you are so determined; sir," said the smith, "I cannot help myself
+save by force, which I were unwilling to use towards you, Master
+Tressilian; not that I fear your weapon, but because I know you to be
+a worthy, kind, and well-accomplished gentleman, who would rather help
+than harm a poor man that is in a strait."
+
+"Well said, Wayland," said the boy, who had anxiously awaited the issue
+of their conference. "But let us to thy den, man, for it is ill for thy
+health to stand here talking in the open air."
+
+"Thou art right, Hobgoblin," replied the smith; and going to the little
+thicket of gorse on the side nearest to the circle, and opposite to that
+at which his customer had so lately crouched, he discovered a trap-door
+curiously covered with bushes, raised it, and, descending into the
+earth, vanished from their eyes. Notwithstanding Tressilian's curiosity,
+he had some hesitation at following the fellow into what might be a den
+of robbers, especially when he heard the smith's voice, issuing from the
+bowels of the earth, call out, "Flibertigibbet, do you come last, and be
+sure to fasten the trap!"
+
+"Have you seen enough of Wayland Smith now?" whispered the urchin
+to Tressilian, with an arch sneer, as if marking his companion's
+uncertainty.
+
+"Not yet," said Tressilian firmly; and shaking off his momentary
+irresolution, he descended into the narrow staircase, to which the
+entrance led, and was followed by Dickie Sludge, who made fast the
+trap-door behind him, and thus excluded every glimmer of daylight. The
+descent, however, was only a few steps, and led to a level passage of
+a few yards' length, at the end of which appeared the reflection of a
+lurid and red light. Arrived at this point, with his drawn sword in
+his hand, Tressilian found that a turn to the left admitted him and
+Hobgoblin, who followed closely, into a small, square vault, containing
+a smith's forge, glowing with charcoal, the vapour of which filled the
+apartment with an oppressive smell, which would have been altogether
+suffocating, but that by some concealed vent the smithy communicated
+with the upper air. The light afforded by the red fuel, and by a lamp
+suspended in an iron chain, served to show that, besides an anvil,
+bellows, tongs, hammers, a quantity of ready-made horse-shoes, and other
+articles proper to the profession of a farrier, there were also stoves,
+alembics, crucibles, retorts, and other instruments of alchemy. The
+grotesque figure of the smith, and the ugly but whimsical features of
+the boy, seen by the gloomy and imperfect light of the charcoal fire and
+the dying lamp, accorded very well with all this mystical apparatus,
+and in that age of superstition would have made some impression on the
+courage of most men.
+
+But nature had endowed Tressilian with firm nerves, and his education,
+originally good, had been too sedulously improved by subsequent study to
+give way to any imaginary terrors; and after giving a glance around him,
+he again demanded of the artist who he was, and by what accident he came
+to know and address him by his name.
+
+"Your worship cannot but remember," said the smith, "that about three
+years since, upon Saint Lucy's Eve, there came a travelling juggler to a
+certain hall in Devonshire, and exhibited his skill before a worshipful
+knight and a fair company.--I see from your worship's countenance, dark
+as this place is, that my memory has not done me wrong."
+
+"Thou hast said enough," said Tressilian, turning away, as wishing
+to hide from the speaker the painful train of recollections which his
+discourse had unconsciously awakened.
+
+"The juggler," said the smith, "played his part so bravely that the
+clowns and clown-like squires in the company held his art to be little
+less than magical; but there was one maiden of fifteen, or thereby, with
+the fairest face I ever looked upon, whose rosy cheek grew pale, and her
+bright eyes dim, at the sight of the wonders exhibited."
+
+"Peace, I command thee, peace!" said Tressilian.
+
+"I mean your worship no offence," said the fellow; "but I have cause to
+remember how, to relieve the young maiden's fears, you condescended
+to point out the mode in which these deceptions were practised, and to
+baffle the poor juggler by laying bare the mysteries of his art, as ably
+as if you had been a brother of his order.--She was indeed so fair a
+maiden that, to win a smile of her, a man might well--"
+
+"Not a word more of her, I charge thee!" said Tressilian. "I do well
+remember the night you speak of--one of the few happy evenings my life
+has known."
+
+"She is gone, then," said the smith, interpreting after his own fashion
+the sigh with which Tressilian uttered these words--"she is gone, young,
+beautiful, and beloved as she was!--I crave your worship's pardon--I
+should have hammered on another theme. I see I have unwarily driven the
+nail to the quick."
+
+This speech was made with a mixture of rude feeling which inclined
+Tressilian favourably to the poor artisan, of whom before he was
+inclined to judge very harshly. But nothing can so soon attract the
+unfortunate as real or seeming sympathy with their sorrows.
+
+"I think," proceeded Tressilian, after a minute's silence, "thou wert in
+those days a jovial fellow, who could keep a company merry by song, and
+tale, and rebeck, as well as by thy juggling tricks--why do I find thee
+a laborious handicraftsman, plying thy trade in so melancholy a dwelling
+and under such extraordinary circumstances?"
+
+"My story is not long," said the artist, "but your honour had better
+sit while you listen to it." So saying, he approached to the fire a
+three-footed stool, and took another himself; while Dickie Sludge, or
+Flibbertigibbet, as he called the boy, drew a cricket to the smith's
+feet, and looked up in his face with features which, as illuminated by
+the glow of the forge, seemed convulsed with intense curiosity. "Thou
+too," said the smith to him, "shalt learn, as thou well deservest at my
+hand, the brief history of my life; and, in troth, it were as well tell
+it thee as leave thee to ferret it out, since Nature never packed a
+shrewder wit into a more ungainly casket.--Well, sir, if my poor story
+may pleasure you, it is at your command, But will you not taste a stoup
+of liquor? I promise you that even in this poor cell I have some in
+store."
+
+"Speak not of it," said Tressilian, "but go on with thy story, for my
+leisure is brief."
+
+"You shall have no cause to rue the delay," said the smith, "for
+your horse shall be better fed in the meantime than he hath been this
+morning, and made fitter for travel."
+
+With that the artist left the vault, and returned after a few minutes'
+interval. Here, also, we pause, that the narrative may commence in
+another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+     I say, my lord, can such a subtilty
+     (But all his craft ye must not wot of me,
+     And somewhat help I yet to his working),
+     That all the ground on which we ben riding,
+     Till that we come to Canterbury town,
+     He can all clean turnen so up so down,
+     And pave it all of silver and of gold.
+     --THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE, CANTERBURY TALES.
+
+THE artist commenced his narrative in the following terms:--
+
+"I was bred a blacksmith, and knew my art as well as e'er a
+black-thumbed, leathern-aproned, swart-faced knave of that noble
+mystery. But I tired of ringing hammer-tunes on iron stithies, and went
+out into the world, where I became acquainted with a celebrated juggler,
+whose fingers had become rather too stiff for legerdemain, and who
+wished to have the aid of an apprentice in his noble mystery. I served
+him for six years, until I was master of my trade--I refer myself to
+your worship, whose judgment cannot be disputed, whether I did not learn
+to ply the craft indifferently well?"
+
+"Excellently," said Tressilian; "but be brief."
+
+"It was not long after I had performed at Sir Hugh Robsart's, in your
+worship's presence," said the artist, "that I took myself to the stage,
+and have swaggered with the bravest of them all, both at the Black Bull,
+the Globe, the Fortune, and elsewhere; but I know not how--apples were
+so plenty that year that the lads in the twopenny gallery never took
+more than one bite out of them, and threw the rest of the pippin at
+whatever actor chanced to be on the stage. So I tired of it--renounced
+my half share in the company, gave my foil to my comrade, my buskins to
+the wardrobe, and showed the theatre a clean pair of heels."
+
+"Well, friend, and what," said Tressilian, "was your next shift?"
+
+"I became," said the smith, "half partner, half domestic to a man
+of much skill and little substance, who practised the trade of a
+physicianer."
+
+"In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a
+quacksalver."
+
+"Something beyond that, let me hope, my good Master Tressilian," replied
+the artist; "and yet to say truth, our practice was of an adventurous
+description, and the pharmacy which I had acquired in my first studies
+for the benefit of horses was frequently applied to our human patients.
+But the seeds of all maladies are the same; and if turpentine, tar,
+pitch, and beef-suet, mingled with turmerick, gum-mastick, and one bead
+of garlick, can cure the horse that hath been grieved with a nail, I see
+not but what it may benefit the man that hath been pricked with a sword.
+But my master's practice, as well as his skill, went far beyond
+mine, and dealt in more dangerous concerns. He was not only a bold,
+adventurous practitioner in physic, but also, if your pleasure so
+chanced to be, an adept who read the stars, and expounded the fortunes
+of mankind, genethliacally, as he called it, or otherwise. He was a
+learned distiller of simples, and a profound chemist--made several
+efforts to fix mercury, and judged himself to have made a fair hit at
+the philosopher's stone. I have yet a programme of his on that subject,
+which, if your honour understandeth, I believe you have the better, not
+only of all who read, but also of him who wrote it."
+
+He gave Tressilian a scroll of parchment, bearing at top and bottom, and
+down the margin, the signs of the seven planets, curiously intermingled
+with talismanical characters and scraps of Greek and Hebrew. In the
+midst were some Latin verses from a cabalistical author, written out so
+fairly, that even the gloom of the place did not prevent Tressilian from
+reading them. The tenor of the original ran as follows:--
+
+
+     "Si fixum solvas, faciasque volare solutum,
+     Et volucrem figas, facient te vivere tutum;
+     Si pariat ventum, valet auri pondere centum;
+     Ventus ubi vult spirat--Capiat qui capere potest."
+
+"I protest to you," said Tressilian, "all I understand of this jargon is
+that the last words seem to mean 'Catch who catch can.'"
+
+"That," said the smith, "is the very principle that my worthy friend and
+master, Doctor Doboobie, always acted upon; until, being besotted with
+his own imaginations, and conceited of his high chemical skill, he
+began to spend, in cheating himself, the money which he had acquired
+in cheating others, and either discovered or built for himself, I could
+never know which, this secret elaboratory, in which he used to seclude
+himself both from patients and disciples, who doubtless thought his
+long and mysterious absences from his ordinary residence in the town of
+Farringdon were occasioned by his progress in the mystic sciences, and
+his intercourse with the invisible world. Me also he tried to deceive;
+but though I contradicted him not, he saw that I knew too much of his
+secrets to be any longer a safe companion. Meanwhile, his name waxed
+famous--or rather infamous, and many of those who resorted to him did so
+under persuasion that he was a sorcerer. And yet his supposed advance in
+the occult sciences drew to him the secret resort of men too powerful
+to be named, for purposes too dangerous to be mentioned. Men cursed
+and threatened him, and bestowed on me, the innocent assistant of his
+studies, the nickname of the Devil's foot-post, which procured me a
+volley of stones as soon as ever I ventured to show my face in the
+street of the village. At length my master suddenly disappeared,
+pretending to me that he was about to visit his elaboratory in this
+place, and forbidding me to disturb him till two days were past. When
+this period had elapsed, I became anxious, and resorted to this vault,
+where I found the fires extinguished and the utensils in confusion,
+with a note from the learned Doboobius, as he was wont to style himself,
+acquainting me that we should never meet again, bequeathing me his
+chemical apparatus, and the parchment which I have just put into your
+hands, advising me strongly to prosecute the secret which it
+contained, which would infallibly lead me to the discovery of the grand
+magisterium."
+
+"And didst thou follow this sage advice?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Worshipful sir, no," replied the smith; "for, being by nature cautious,
+and suspicious from knowing with whom I had to do, I made so many
+perquisitions before I ventured even to light a fire, that I at length
+discovered a small barrel of gunpowder, carefully hid beneath the
+furnace, with the purpose, no doubt, that as soon as I should commence
+the grand work of the transmutation of metals, the explosion should
+transmute the vault and all in it into a heap of ruins, which might
+serve at once for my slaughter-house and my grave. This cured me of
+alchemy, and fain would I have returned to the honest hammer and anvil;
+but who would bring a horse to be shod by the Devil's post? Meantime, I
+had won the regard of my honest Flibbertigibbet here, he being then at
+Farringdon with his master, the sage Erasmus Holiday, by teaching him
+a few secrets, such as please youth at his age; and after much counsel
+together, we agreed that, since I could get no practice in the ordinary
+way, I should try how I could work out business among these
+ignorant boors, by practising upon their silly fears; and, thanks to
+Flibbertigibbet, who hath spread my renown, I have not wanted custom.
+But it is won at too great risk, and I fear I shall be at length taken
+up for a wizard; so that I seek but an opportunity to leave this vault,
+when I can have the protection of some worshipful person against the
+fury of the populace, in case they chance to recognize me."
+
+"And art thou," said Tressilian, "perfectly acquainted with the roads in
+this country?"
+
+"I could ride them every inch by midnight," answered Wayland Smith,
+which was the name this adept had assumed.
+
+"Thou hast no horse to ride upon," said Tressilian.
+
+"Pardon me," replied Wayland; "I have as good a tit as ever yeoman
+bestrode; and I forgot to say it was the best part of the mediciner's
+legacy to me, excepting one or two of the choicest of his medical
+secrets, which I picked up without his knowledge and against his will."
+
+"Get thyself washed and shaved, then," said Tressilian; "reform thy
+dress as well as thou canst, and fling away these grotesque trappings;
+and, so thou wilt be secret and faithful, thou shalt follow me for a
+short time, till thy pranks here are forgotten. Thou hast, I think, both
+address and courage, and I have matter to do that may require both."
+
+Wayland Smith eagerly embraced the proposal, and protested his devotion
+to his new master. In a very few minutes he had made so great an
+alteration in his original appearance, by change of dress, trimming his
+beard and hair, and so forth, that Tressilian could not help remarking
+that he thought he would stand in little need of a protector, since none
+of his old acquaintance were likely to recognize him.
+
+"My debtors would not pay me money," said Wayland, shaking his head;
+"but my creditors of every kind would be less easily blinded. And,
+in truth, I hold myself not safe, unless under the protection of a
+gentleman of birth and character, as is your worship."
+
+So saying, he led the way out of the cavern. He then called loudly for
+Hobgoblin, who, after lingering for an instant, appeared with the horse
+furniture, when Wayland closed and sedulously covered up the trap-door,
+observing it might again serve him at his need, besides that the tools
+were worth somewhat. A whistle from the owner brought to his side a nag
+that fed quietly on the common, and was accustomed to the signal.
+
+While he accoutred him for the journey, Tressilian drew his own girths
+tighter, and in a few minutes both were ready to mount.
+
+At this moment Sludge approached to bid them farewell.
+
+"You are going to leave me, then, my old playfellow," said the boy; "and
+there is an end of all our game at bo-peep with the cowardly lubbards
+whom I brought hither to have their broad-footed nags shed by the devil
+and his imps?"
+
+"It is even so," said Wayland Smith, "the best friends must part,
+Flibbertigibbet; but thou, my boy, art the only thing in the Vale of
+Whitehorse which I shall regret to leave behind me."
+
+"Well, I bid thee not farewell," said Dickie Sludge, "for you will be
+at these revels, I judge, and so shall I; for if Dominie Holiday take me
+not thither, by the light of day, which we see not in yonder dark hole,
+I will take myself there!"
+
+"In good time," said Wayland; "but I pray you to do nought rashly."
+
+"Nay, now you would make a child, a common child of me, and tell me of
+the risk of walking without leading-strings. But before you are a mile
+from these stones, you shall know by a sure token that I have more of
+the hobgoblin about me than you credit; and I will so manage that, if
+you take advantage, you may profit by my prank."
+
+"What dost thou mean, boy?" said Tressilian; but Flibbertigibbet only
+answered with a grin and a caper, and bidding both of them farewell,
+and, at the same time, exhorting them to make the best of their way from
+the place, he set them the example by running homeward with the same
+uncommon velocity with which he had baffled Tressilian's former attempts
+to get hold of him.
+
+"It is in vain to chase him," said Wayland Smith; "for unless your
+worship is expert in lark-hunting, we should never catch hold of
+him--and besides, what would it avail? Better make the best of our way
+hence, as he advises."
+
+They mounted their horses accordingly, and began to proceed at a round
+pace, as soon as Tressilian had explained to his guide the direction in
+which he desired to travel.
+
+After they had trotted nearly a mile, Tressilian could not help
+observing to his companion that his horse felt more lively under him
+than even when he mounted in the morning.
+
+"Are you avised of that?" said Wayland Smith, smiling. "That is owing
+to a little secret of mine. I mixed that with an handful of oats which
+shall save your worship's heels the trouble of spurring these six hours
+at least. Nay, I have not studied medicine and pharmacy for nought."
+
+"I trust," said Tressilian, "your drugs will do my horse no harm?"
+
+"No more than the mare's milk; which foaled him," answered the artist,
+and was proceeding to dilate on the excellence of his recipe when he
+was interrupted by an explosion as loud and tremendous as the mine which
+blows up the rampart of a beleaguered city. The horses started, and the
+riders were equally surprised. They turned to gaze in the direction from
+which the thunder-clap was heard, and beheld, just over the spot they
+had left so recently, a huge pillar of dark smoke rising high into the
+clear, blue atmosphere. "My habitation is gone to wreck," said Wayland,
+immediately conjecturing the cause of the explosion. "I was a fool to
+mention the doctor's kind intentions towards my mansion before that limb
+of mischief, Flibbertigibbet; I might have guessed he would long to put
+so rare a frolic into execution. But let us hasten on, for the sound
+will collect the country to the spot."
+
+So saying, he spurred his horse, and Tressilian also quickening his
+speed, they rode briskly forward.
+
+"This, then, was the meaning of the little imp's token which he promised
+us?" said Tressilian. "Had we lingered near the spot, we had found it a
+love-token with a vengeance."
+
+"He would have given us warning," said the smith. "I saw him look back
+more than once to see if we were off--'tis a very devil for mischief,
+yet not an ill-natured devil either. It were long to tell your honour
+how I became first acquainted with him, and how many tricks he played
+me. Many a good turn he did me too, especially in bringing me customers;
+for his great delight was to see them sit shivering behind the bushes
+when they heard the click of my hammer. I think Dame Nature, when she
+lodged a double quantity of brains in that misshapen head of his, gave
+him the power of enjoying other people's distresses, as she gave them
+the pleasure of laughing at his ugliness."
+
+"It may be so," said Tressilian; "those who find themselves severed from
+society by peculiarities of form, if they do not hate the common bulk of
+mankind, are at least not altogether indisposed to enjoy their mishaps
+and calamities."
+
+"But Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland, "hath that about him which
+may redeem his turn for mischievous frolic; for he is as faithful when
+attached as he is tricky and malignant to strangers, and, as I said
+before, I have cause to say so."
+
+Tressilian pursued the conversation no further, and they continued
+their journey towards Devonshire without further adventure, until they
+alighted at an inn in the town of Marlborough, since celebrated for
+having given title to the greatest general (excepting one) whom Britain
+ever produced. Here the travellers received, in the same breath, an
+example of the truth of two old proverbs--namely, that ILL NEWS FLY
+FAST, and that LISTENERS SELDOM HEAR A GOOD TALE OF THEMSELVES.
+
+The inn-yard was in a sort of combustion when they alighted; insomuch,
+that they could scarce get man or boy to take care of their horses, so
+full were the whole household of some news which flew from tongue to
+tongue, the import of which they were for some time unable to discover.
+At length, indeed, they found it respected matters which touched them
+nearly.
+
+"What is the matter, say you, master?" answered, at length, the head
+hostler, in reply to Tressilian's repeated questions.--"Why, truly,
+I scarce know myself. But here was a rider but now, who says that the
+devil hath flown away with him they called Wayland Smith, that won'd
+about three miles from the Whitehorse of Berkshire, this very blessed
+morning, in a flash of fire and a pillar of smoke, and rooted up the
+place he dwelt in, near that old cockpit of upright stones, as cleanly
+as if it had all been delved up for a cropping."
+
+"Why, then," said an old farmer, "the more is the pity; for that Wayland
+Smith (whether he was the devil's crony or no I skill not) had a good
+notion of horses' diseases, and it's to be thought the bots will spread
+in the country far and near, an Satan has not gien un time to leave his
+secret behind un."
+
+"You may say that, Gaffer Grimesby," said the hostler in return; "I have
+carried a horse to Wayland Smith myself, for he passed all farriers in
+this country."
+
+"Did you see him?" said Dame Alison Crane, mistress of the inn
+bearing that sign, and deigning to term HUSBAND the owner thereof, a
+mean-looking hop-o'-my-thumb sort or person, whose halting gait, and
+long neck, and meddling, henpecked insignificance are supposed to have
+given origin to the celebrated old English tune of "My name hath a lame
+tame Crane."
+
+On this occasion he chirped out a repetition of his wife's question,
+"Didst see the devil, Jack Hostler, I say?"
+
+"And what if I did see un, Master Crane?" replied Jack Hostler, for,
+like all the rest of the household, he paid as little respect to his
+master as his mistress herself did.
+
+"Nay, nought, Jack Hostler," replied the pacific Master Crane; "only if
+you saw the devil, methinks I would like to know what un's like?"
+
+"You will know that one day, Master Crane," said his helpmate, "an ye
+mend not your manners, and mind your business, leaving off such idle
+palabras.--But truly, Jack Hostler, I should be glad to know myself what
+like the fellow was."
+
+"Why, dame," said the hostler, more respectfully, "as for what he was
+like I cannot tell, nor no man else, for why I never saw un."
+
+"And how didst thou get thine errand done," said Gaffer Grimesby, "if
+thou seedst him not?"
+
+"Why, I had schoolmaster to write down ailment o' nag," said Jack
+Hostler; "and I went wi' the ugliest slip of a boy for my guide as ever
+man cut out o' lime-tree root to please a child withal."
+
+"And what was it?--and did it cure your nag, Jack Hostler?" was uttered
+and echoed by all who stood around.
+
+"Why, how can I tell you what it was?" said the hostler; "simply it
+smelled and tasted--for I did make bold to put a pea's substance into
+my mouth--like hartshorn and savin mixed with vinegar; but then no
+hartshorn and savin ever wrought so speedy a cure. And I am dreading
+that if Wayland Smith be gone, the bots will have more power over horse
+and cattle."
+
+The pride of art, which is certainly not inferior in its influence to
+any other pride whatever, here so far operated on Wayland Smith, that,
+notwithstanding the obvious danger of his being recognized, he could not
+help winking to Tressilian, and smiling mysteriously, as if triumphing
+in the undoubted evidence of his veterinary skill. In the meanwhile, the
+discourse continued.
+
+"E'en let it be so," said a grave man in black, the companion of Gaffer
+Grimesby; "e'en let us perish under the evil God sends us, rather than
+the devil be our doctor."
+
+"Very true," said Dame Crane; "and I marvel at Jack Hostler that he
+would peril his own soul to cure the bowels of a nag."
+
+"Very true, mistress," said Jack Hostler, "but the nag was my master's;
+and had it been yours, I think ye would ha' held me cheap enow an I had
+feared the devil when the poor beast was in such a taking. For the rest,
+let the clergy look to it. Every man to his craft, says the proverb--the
+parson to the prayer-book, and the groom to his curry-comb.
+
+"I vow," said Dame Crane, "I think Jack Hostler speaks like a good
+Christian and a faithful servant, who will spare neither body nor soul
+in his master's service. However, the devil has lifted him in time, for
+a Constable of the Hundred came hither this morning to get old Gaffer
+Pinniewinks, the trier of witches, to go with him to the Vale of
+Whitehorse to comprehend Wayland Smith, and put him to his probation. I
+helped Pinniewinks to sharpen his pincers and his poking-awl, and I saw
+the warrant from Justice Blindas."
+
+"Pooh--pooh--the devil would laugh both at Blindas and his warrant,
+constable and witch-finder to boot," said old Dame Crank, the Papist
+laundress; "Wayland Smith's flesh would mind Pinniewinks' awl no
+more than a cambric ruff minds a hot piccadilloe-needle. But tell me,
+gentlefolks, if the devil ever had such a hand among ye, as to snatch
+away your smiths and your artists from under your nose, when the good
+Abbots of Abingdon had their own? By Our Lady, no!--they had their
+hallowed tapers; and their holy water, and their relics, and what not,
+could send the foulest fiends a-packing. Go ask a heretic parson to do
+the like. But ours were a comfortable people."
+
+"Very true, Dame Crank," said the hostler; "so said Simpkins of
+Simonburn when the curate kissed his wife,--'They are a comfortable
+people,' said he."
+
+"Silence, thou foul-mouthed vermin," said Dame Crank; "is it fit for
+a heretic horse-boy like thee to handle such a text as the Catholic
+clergy?"
+
+"In troth no, dame," replied the man of oats; "and as you yourself are
+now no text for their handling, dame, whatever may have been the case in
+your day, I think we had e'en better leave un alone."
+
+At this last exchange of sarcasm, Dame Crank set up her throat, and
+began a horrible exclamation against Jack Hostler, under cover of which
+Tressilian and his attendant escaped into the house.
+
+They had no sooner entered a private chamber, to which Goodman Crane
+himself had condescended to usher them, and dispatched their worthy and
+obsequious host on the errand of procuring wine and refreshment, than
+Wayland Smith began to give vent to his self-importance.
+
+"You see, sir," said he, addressing Tressilian, "that I nothing fabled
+in asserting that I possessed fully the mighty mystery of a farrier, or
+mareschal, as the French more honourably term us. These dog-hostlers,
+who, after all, are the better judges in such a case, know what credit
+they should attach to my medicaments. I call you to witness, worshipful
+Master Tressilian, that nought, save the voice of calumny and the hand
+of malicious violence, hath driven me forth from a station in which I
+held a place alike useful and honoured."
+
+"I bear witness, my friend, but will reserve my listening," answered
+Tressilian, "for a safer time; unless, indeed, you deem it essential
+to your reputation to be translated, like your late dwelling, by the
+assistance of a flash of fire. For you see your best friends reckon you
+no better than a mere sorcerer."
+
+"Now, Heaven forgive them," said the artist, "who confounded learned
+skill with unlawful magic! I trust a man may be as skilful, or more so,
+than the best chirurgeon ever meddled with horse-flesh, and yet may be
+upon the matter little more than other ordinary men, or at the worst no
+conjurer."
+
+"God forbid else!" said Tressilian. "But be silent just for the present,
+since here comes mine host with an assistant, who seems something of the
+least."
+
+Everybody about the inn, Dame Crane herself included, had been indeed
+so interested and agitated by the story they had heard of Wayland Smith,
+and by the new, varying, and more marvellous editions of the incident
+which arrived from various quarters, that mine host, in his righteous
+determination to accommodate his guests, had been able to obtain the
+assistance of none of his household, saving that of a little boy, a
+junior tapster, of about twelve years old, who was called Sampson.
+
+"I wish," he said, apologizing to his guests, as he set down a flagon
+of sack, and promised some food immediately--"I wish the devil had flown
+away with my wife and my whole family instead of this Wayland Smith,
+who, I daresay, after all said and done, was much less worthy of the
+distinction which Satan has done him."
+
+"I hold opinion with you, good fellow," replied Wayland Smith; "and I
+will drink to you upon that argument."
+
+"Not that I would justify any man who deals with the devil," said mine
+host, after having pledged Wayland in a rousing draught of sack, "but
+that--saw ye ever better sack, my masters?--but that, I say, a man had
+better deal with a dozen cheats and scoundrel fellows, such as this
+Wayland Smith, than with a devil incarnate, that takes possession of
+house and home, bed and board."
+
+The poor fellow's detail of grievances was here interrupted by the
+shrill voice of his helpmate, screaming from the kitchen, to which he
+instantly hobbled, craving pardon of his guests. He was no sooner gone
+than Wayland Smith expressed, by every contemptuous epithet in the
+language, his utter scorn for a nincompoop who stuck his head under
+his wife's apron-string; and intimated that, saving for the sake of
+the horses, which required both rest and food, he would advise his
+worshipful Master Tressilian to push on a stage farther, rather than pay
+a reckoning to such a mean-spirited, crow-trodden, henpecked coxcomb, as
+Gaffer Crane.
+
+The arrival of a large dish of good cow-heel and bacon something soothed
+the asperity of the artist, which wholly vanished before a choice capon,
+so delicately roasted that the lard frothed on it, said Wayland, like
+May-dew on a lily; and both Gaffer Crane and his good dame became, in
+his eyes, very painstaking, accommodating, obliging persons.
+
+According to the manners of the times, the master and his attendant
+sat at the same table, and the latter observed, with regret, how little
+attention Tressilian paid to his meal. He recollected, indeed, the pain
+he had given by mentioning the maiden in whose company he had first seen
+him; but, fearful of touching upon a topic too tender to be tampered
+with, he chose to ascribe his abstinence to another cause.
+
+"This fare is perhaps too coarse for your worship," said Wayland, as the
+limbs of the capon disappeared before his own exertions; "but had you
+dwelt as long as I have done in yonder dungeon, which Flibbertigibbet
+has translated to the upper element, a place where I dared hardly broil
+my food, lest the smoke should be seen without, you would think a fair
+capon a more welcome dainty."
+
+"If you are pleased, friend," said Tressilian, "it is well.
+Nevertheless, hasten thy meal if thou canst, For this place is
+unfriendly to thy safety, and my concerns crave travelling."
+
+Allowing, therefore, their horses no more rest than was absolutely
+necessary for them, they pursued their journey by a forced march as far
+as Bradford, where they reposed themselves for the night.
+
+The next morning found them early travellers. And, not to fatigue the
+reader with unnecessary particulars, they traversed without adventure
+the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset, and about noon of the third day
+after Tressilian's leaving Cumnor, arrived at Sir Hugh Robsart's seat,
+called Lidcote Hall, on the frontiers of Devonshire.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+     Ah me!  the flower and blossom of your house,
+     The wind hath blown away to other towers.
+     --JOANNA BAILLIE'S  FAMILY LEGEND.
+
+The ancient seat of Lidcote Hall was situated near the village of
+the same name, and adjoined the wild and extensive forest of Exmoor,
+plentifully stocked with game, in which some ancient rights belonging to
+the Robsart family entitled Sir Hugh to pursue his favourite amusement
+of the chase. The old mansion was a low, venerable building, occupying
+a considerable space of ground, which was surrounded by a deep moat. The
+approach and drawbridge were defended by an octagonal tower, of ancient
+brickwork, but so clothed with ivy and other creepers that it was
+difficult to discover of what materials it was constructed. The angles
+of this tower were each decorated with a turret, whimsically various
+in form and in size, and, therefore, very unlike the monotonous stone
+pepperboxes which, in modern Gothic architecture, are employed for
+the same purpose. One of these turrets was square, and occupied as
+a clock-house. But the clock was now standing still; a circumstance
+peculiarly striking to Tressilian, because the good old knight, among
+other harmless peculiarities, had a fidgety anxiety about the exact
+measurement of time, very common to those who have a great deal of that
+commodity to dispose of, and find it lie heavy upon their hands--just
+as we see shopkeepers amuse themselves with taking an exact account of
+their stock at the time there is least demand for it.
+
+The entrance to the courtyard of the old mansion lay through an archway,
+surmounted by the foresaid tower; but the drawbridge was down, and one
+leaf of the iron-studded folding-doors stood carelessly open. Tressilian
+hastily rode over the drawbridge, entered the court, and began to
+call loudly on the domestics by their names. For some time he was only
+answered by the echoes and the howling of the hounds, whose kennel lay
+at no great distance from the mansion, and was surrounded by the same
+moat. At length Will Badger, the old and favourite attendant of the
+knight, who acted alike as squire of his body and superintendent of his
+sports, made his appearance. The stout, weather-beaten forester showed
+great signs of joy when he recognized Tressilian.
+
+"Lord love you," he said, "Master Edmund, be it thou in flesh and fell?
+Then thou mayest do some good on Sir Hugh, for it passes the wit of
+man--that is, of mine own, and the curate's, and Master Mumblazen's--to
+do aught wi'un."
+
+"Is Sir Hugh then worse since I went away, Will?" demanded Tressilian.
+
+"For worse in body--no; he is much better," replied the domestic; "but
+he is clean mazed as it were--eats and drinks as he was wont--but sleeps
+not, or rather wakes not, for he is ever in a sort of twilight, that is
+neither sleeping nor waking. Dame Swineford thought it was like the dead
+palsy. But no, no, dame, said I, it is the heart, it is the heart."
+
+"Can ye not stir his mind to any pastimes?" said Tressilian.
+
+"He is clean and quite off his sports," said Will Badger; "hath neither
+touched backgammon or shovel-board, nor looked on the big book of
+harrowtry wi' Master Mumblazen. I let the clock run down, thinking the
+missing the bell might somewhat move him--for you know, Master Edmund,
+he was particular in counting time--but he never said a word on't, so
+I may e'en set the old chime a-towling again. I made bold to tread on
+Bungay's tail too, and you know what a round rating that would ha' cost
+me once a-day; but he minded the poor tyke's whine no more than a madge
+howlet whooping down the chimney--so the case is beyond me."
+
+"Thou shalt tell me the rest within doors, Will. Meanwhile, let this
+person be ta'en to the buttery, and used with respect. He is a man of
+art."
+
+"White art or black art, I would," said Will Badger, "that he had any
+art which could help us.--Here, Tom Butler, look to the man of art;--and
+see that he steals none of thy spoons, lad," he added in a whisper to
+the butler, who showed himself at a low window, "I have known as honest
+a faced fellow have art enough to do that."
+
+He then ushered Tressilian into a low parlour, and went, at his desire,
+to see in what state his master was, lest the sudden return of his
+darling pupil and proposed son-in-law should affect him too strongly.
+He returned immediately, and said that Sir Hugh was dozing in his
+elbow-chair, but that Master Mumblazen would acquaint Master Tressilian
+the instant he awaked.
+
+"But it is chance if he knows you," said the huntsman, "for he has
+forgotten the name of every hound in the pack. I thought, about a week
+since, he had gotten a favourable turn. 'Saddle me old Sorrel,' said he
+suddenly, after he had taken his usual night-draught out of the great
+silver grace-cup, 'and take the hounds to Mount Hazelhurst to-morrow.'
+Glad men were we all, and out we had him in the morning, and he rode to
+cover as usual, with never a word spoken but that the wind was south,
+and the scent would lie. But ere we had uncoupled'the hounds, he began
+to stare round him, like a man that wakes suddenly out of a dream--turns
+bridle, and walks back to Hall again, and leaves us to hunt at leisure
+by ourselves, if we listed."
+
+"You tell a heavy tale, Will," replied Tressilian; "but God must help
+us--there is no aid in man."
+
+"Then you bring us no news of young Mistress Amy? But what need I
+ask--your brow tells the story. Ever I hoped that if any man could or
+would track her, it must be you. All's over and lost now. But if ever I
+have that Varney within reach of a flight-shot, I will bestow a forked
+shaft on him; and that I swear by salt and bread."
+
+As he spoke, the door opened, and Master Mumblazen appeared--a withered,
+thin, elderly gentleman, with a cheek like a winter apple, and his
+grey hair partly concealed by a small, high hat, shaped like a cone,
+or rather like such a strawberry-basket as London fruiterers exhibit at
+their windows. He was too sententious a person to waste words on mere
+salutation; so, having welcomed Tressilian with a nod and a shake of the
+hand, he beckoned him to follow to Sir Hugh's great chamber, which the
+good knight usually inhabited. Will Badger followed, unasked, anxious to
+see whether his master would be relieved from his state of apathy by the
+arrival of Tressilian.
+
+In a long, low parlour, amply furnished with implements of the chase,
+and with silvan trophies, by a massive stone chimney, over which hung
+a sword and suit of armour somewhat obscured by neglect, sat Sir Hugh
+Robsart of Lidcote, a man of large size, which had been only kept within
+moderate compass by the constant use of violent exercise, It seemed to
+Tressilian that the lethargy, under which his old friend appeared to
+labour, had, even during his few weeks' absence, added bulk to his
+person--at least it had obviously diminished the vivacity of his eye,
+which, as they entered, first followed Master Mumblazen slowly to a
+large oaken desk, on which a ponderous volume lay open, and then rested,
+as if in uncertainty, on the stranger who had entered along with him.
+The curate, a grey-headed clergyman, who had been a confessor in the
+days of Queen Mary, sat with a book in his hand in another recess in the
+apartment. He, too, signed a mournful greeting to Tressilian, and laid
+his book aside, to watch the effect his appearance should produce on the
+afflicted old man.
+
+As Tressilian, his own eyes filling fast with tears, approached more
+and more nearly to the father of his betrothed bride, Sir Hugh's
+intelligence seemed to revive. He sighed heavily, as one who awakens
+from a state of stupor; a slight convulsion passed over his features;
+he opened his arms without speaking a word, and, as Tressilian threw
+himself into them, he folded him to his bosom.
+
+"There is something left to live for yet," were the first words he
+uttered; and while he spoke, he gave vent to his feelings in a paroxysm
+of weeping, the tears chasing each other down his sunburnt cheeks and
+long white beard.
+
+"I ne'er thought to have thanked God to see my master weep," said Will
+Badger; "but now I do, though I am like to weep for company."
+
+"I will ask thee no questions," said the old knight; "no
+questions--none, Edmund. Thou hast not found her--or so found her, that
+she were better lost."
+
+Tressilian was unable to reply otherwise than by putting his hands
+before his face.
+
+"It is enough--it is enough. But do not thou weep for her, Edmund. I
+have cause to weep, for she was my daughter; thou hast cause to rejoice,
+that she did not become thy wife.--Great God! thou knowest best what is
+good for us. It was my nightly prayer that I should see Amy and Edmund
+wedded,--had it been granted, it had now been gall added to bitterness."
+
+"Be comforted, my friend," said the curate, addressing Sir Hugh, "it
+cannot be that the daughter of all our hopes and affections is the vile
+creature you would bespeak her."
+
+"Oh, no," replied Sir Hugh impatiently, "I were wrong to name broadly
+the base thing she is become--there is some new court name for it, I
+warrant me. It is honour enough for the daughter of an old Devonshire
+clown to be the leman of a gay courtier--of Varney too--of Varney, whose
+grandsire was relieved by my father, when his fortune was broken, at
+the battle of--the battle of--where Richard was slain--out on my
+memory!--and I warrant none of you will help me--"
+
+"The battle of Bosworth," said Master Mumblazen--"stricken between
+Richard Crookback and Henry Tudor, grandsire of the Queen that now is,
+PRIMO HENRICI SEPTIMI; and in the year one thousand four hundred and
+eighty-five, POST CHRISTUM NATUM."
+
+"Ay, even so," said the old knight; "every child knows it. But my poor
+head forgets all it should remember, and remembers only what it would
+most willingly forget. My brain has been at fault, Tressilian, almost
+ever since thou hast been away, and even yet it hunts counter."
+
+"Your worship," said the good clergyman, "had better retire to your
+apartment, and try to sleep for a little space. The physician left
+a composing draught; and our Great Physician has commanded us to use
+earthly means, that we may be strengthened to sustain the trials He
+sends us."
+
+"True, true, old friend," said Sir Hugh; "and we will bear our trials
+manfully--we have lost but a woman.--See, Tressilian,"--he drew from
+his bosom a long ringlet of glossy hair,--"see this lock! I tell thee,
+Edmund, the very night she disappeared, when she bid me good even, as
+she was wont, she hung about my neck, and fondled me more than usual;
+and I, like an old fool, held her by this lock, until she took her
+scissors, severed it, and left it in my hand--as all I was ever to see
+more of her!"
+
+Tressilian was unable to reply, well judging what a complication of
+feelings must have crossed the bosom of the unhappy fugitive at that
+cruel moment. The clergyman was about to speak, but Sir Hugh interrupted
+him.
+
+"I know what you would say, Master Curate,--After all, it is but a lock
+of woman's tresses; and by woman, shame, and sin, and death came into
+an innocent world.--And learned Master Mumblazen, too, can say scholarly
+things of their inferiority."
+
+"C'EST L'HOMME," said Master Mumblazen, "QUI SE BAST, ET QUI CONSEILLE."
+
+"True," said Sir Hugh, "and we will bear us, therefore, like men who
+have both mettle and wisdom in us.--Tressilian, thou art as welcome
+as if thou hadst brought better news. But we have spoken too long
+dry-lipped.--Amy, fill a cup of wine to Edmund, and another to me." Then
+instantly recollecting that he called upon her who could not hear,
+he shook his head, and said to the clergyman, "This grief is to my
+bewildered mind what the church of Lidcote is to our park: we may lose
+ourselves among the briers and thickets for a little space, but from
+the end of each avenue we see the old grey steeple and the grave of my
+forefathers. I would I were to travel that road tomorrow!"
+
+Tressilian and the curate joined in urging the exhausted old man to lay
+himself to rest, and at length prevailed. Tressilian remained by his
+pillow till he saw that slumber at length sunk down on him, and then
+returned to consult with the curate what steps should be adopted in
+these unhappy circumstances.
+
+They could not exclude from these deliberations Master Michael
+Mumblazen; and they admitted him the more readily, that besides what
+hopes they entertained from his sagacity, they knew him to be so great
+a friend to taciturnity, that there was no doubt of his keeping counsel.
+He was an old bachelor, of good family, but small fortune, and distantly
+related to the House of Robsart; in virtue of which connection, Lidcote
+Hall had been honoured with his residence for the last twenty years. His
+company was agreeable to Sir Hugh, chiefly on account of his profound
+learning, which, though it only related to heraldry and genealogy, with
+such scraps of history as connected themselves with these subjects,
+was precisely of a kind to captivate the good old knight; besides the
+convenience which he found in having a friend to appeal to when his
+own memory, as frequently happened, proved infirm and played him false
+concerning names and dates, which, and all similar deficiencies, Master
+Michael Mumblazen supplied with due brevity and discretion. And,
+indeed, in matters concerning the modern world, he often gave, in his
+enigmatical and heraldic phrase, advice which was well worth attending
+to, or, in Will Badger's language, started the game while others beat
+the bush.
+
+"We have had an unhappy time of it with the good knight, Master Edmund,"
+said the curate. "I have not suffered so much since I was torn away from
+my beloved flock, and compelled to abandon them to the Romish wolves."
+
+"That was in TERTIO MARIAE," said Master Mumblazen.
+
+"In the name of Heaven," continued the curate, "tell us, has your
+time been better spent than ours, or have you any news of that
+unhappy maiden, who, being for so many years the principal joy of this
+broken-down house, is now proved our greatest unhappiness? Have you not
+at least discovered her place of residence?"
+
+"I have," replied Tressilian. "Know you Cumnor Place, near Oxford?"
+
+"Surely," said the clergyman; "it was a house of removal for the monks
+of Abingdon."
+
+"Whose arms," said Master Michael, "I have seen over a stone chimney in
+the hall,--a cross patonce betwixt four martlets."
+
+"There," said Tressilian, "this unhappy maiden resides, in company with
+the villain Varney. But for a strange mishap, my sword had revenged all
+our injuries, as well as hers, on his worthless head."
+
+"Thank God, that kept thine hand from blood-guiltiness, rash young man!"
+answered the curate. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will
+repay it. It were better study to free her from the villain's nets of
+infamy."
+
+"They are called, in heraldry, LAQUEI AMORIS, or LACS D'AMOUR," said
+Mumblazen.
+
+"It is in that I require your aid, my friends," said Tressilian. "I
+am resolved to accuse this villain, at the very foot of the throne, of
+falsehood, seduction, and breach of hospitable laws. The Queen shall
+hear me, though the Earl of Leicester, the villain's patron, stood at
+her right hand."
+
+"Her Grace," said the curate, "hath set a comely example of continence
+to her subjects, and will doubtless do justice on this inhospitable
+robber. But wert thou not better apply to the Earl of Leicester, in the
+first place, for justice on his servant? If he grants it, thou dost save
+the risk of making thyself a powerful adversary, which will certainly
+chance if, in the first instance, you accuse his master of the horse and
+prime favourite before the Queen."
+
+"My mind revolts from your counsel," said Tressilian. "I cannot brook
+to plead my noble patron's cause the unhappy Amy's cause--before any one
+save my lawful Sovereign. Leicester, thou wilt say, is noble. Be it so;
+he is but a subject like ourselves, and I will not carry my plaint to
+him, if I can do better. Still, I will think on what thou hast said; but
+I must have your assistance to persuade the good Sir Hugh to make me his
+commissioner and fiduciary in this matter, for it is in his name I must
+speak, and not in my own. Since she is so far changed as to dote upon
+this empty profligate courtier, he shall at least do her the justice
+which is yet in his power."
+
+"Better she died CAELEBS and SINE PROLE," said Mumblazen, with more
+animation than he usually expressed, "than part, PER PALE, the noble
+coat of Robsart with that of such a miscreant!"
+
+"If it be your object, as I cannot question," said the clergyman, "to
+save, as much as is yet possible, the credit of this unhappy young
+woman, I repeat, you should apply, in the first instance, to the Earl
+of Leicester. He is as absolute in his household as the Queen in her
+kingdom, and if he expresses to Varney that such is his pleasure, her
+honour will not stand so publicly committed."
+
+"You are right, you are right!" said Tressilian eagerly, "and I thank
+you for pointing out what I overlooked in my haste. I little thought
+ever to have besought grace of Leicester; but I could kneel to the proud
+Dudley, if doing so could remove one shade of shame from this unhappy
+damsel. You will assist me then to procure the necessary powers from Sir
+Hugh Robsart?"
+
+The curate assured him of his assistance, and the herald nodded assent.
+
+"You must hold yourselves also in readiness to testify, in case you are
+called upon, the openhearted hospitality which our good patron exercised
+towards this deceitful traitor, and the solicitude with which he
+laboured to seduce his unhappy daughter."
+
+"At first," said the clergyman, "she did not, as it seemed to me, much
+affect his company; but latterly I saw them often together."
+
+"SEIANT in the parlour," said Michael Mumblazen, "and PASSANT in the
+garden."
+
+"I once came on them by chance," said the priest, "in the South wood,
+in a spring evening. Varney was muffled in a russet cloak, so that I saw
+not his face. They separated hastily, as they heard me rustle amongst
+the leaves; and I observed she turned her head and looked long after
+him."
+
+"With neck REGUARDANT," said the herald. "And on the day of her flight,
+and that was on Saint Austen's Eve, I saw Varney's groom, attired in his
+liveries, hold his master's horse and Mistress Amy's palfrey, bridled
+and saddled PROPER, behind the wall of the churchyard."
+
+"And now is she found mewed up in his secret place of retirement," said
+Tressilian. "The villain is taken in the manner, and I well wish he may
+deny his crime, that I may thrust conviction down his false throat! But
+I must prepare for my journey. Do you, gentlemen, dispose my patron to
+grant me such powers as are needful to act in his name."
+
+So saying, Tressilian left the room.
+
+"He is too hot," said the curate; "and I pray to God that He may grant
+him the patience to deal with Varney as is fitting."
+
+"Patience and Varney," said Mumblazen, "is worse heraldry than metal
+upon metal. He is more false than a siren, more rapacious than a
+griffin, more poisonous than a wyvern, and more cruel than a lion
+rampant."
+
+"Yet I doubt much," said the curate, "whether we can with propriety ask
+from Sir Hugh Robsart, being in his present condition, any deed deputing
+his paternal right in Mistress Amy to whomsoever--"
+
+"Your reverence need not doubt that," said Will Badger, who entered as
+he spoke, "for I will lay my life he is another man when he wakes than
+he has been these thirty days past."
+
+"Ay, Will," said the curate, "hast thou then so much confidence in
+Doctor Diddleum's draught?"
+
+"Not a whit," said Will, "because master ne'er tasted a drop on't,
+seeing it was emptied out by the housemaid. But here's a gentleman, who
+came attending on Master Tressilian, has given Sir Hugh a draught that
+is worth twenty of yon un. I have spoken cunningly with him, and a
+better farrier or one who hath a more just notion of horse and dog
+ailment I have never seen; and such a one would never be unjust to a
+Christian man."
+
+"A farrier! you saucy groom--and by whose authority, pray?" said the
+curate, rising in surprise and indignation; "or who will be warrant for
+this new physician?"
+
+"For authority, an it like your reverence, he had mine; and for warrant,
+I trust I have not been five-and-twenty years in this house without
+having right to warrant the giving of a draught to beast or body--I who
+can gie a drench, and a ball, and bleed, or blister, if need, to my very
+self."
+
+The counsellors of the house of Robsart thought it meet to carry this
+information instantly to Tressilian, who as speedily summoned before
+him Wayland Smith, and demanded of him (in private, however) by what
+authority he had ventured to administer any medicine to Sir Hugh
+Robsart?
+
+"Why," replied the artist, "your worship cannot but remember that I told
+you I had made more progress into my master's--I mean the learned Doctor
+Doboobie's--mystery than he was willing to own; and indeed half of his
+quarrel and malice against me was that, besides that I got something too
+deep into his secrets, several discerning persons, and particularly a
+buxom young widow of Abingdon, preferred my prescriptions to his."
+
+"None of thy buffoonery, sir," said Tressilian sternly. "If thou hast
+trifled with us--much more, if thou hast done aught that may prejudice
+Sir Hugh Robsart's health, thou shalt find thy grave at the bottom of a
+tin-mine."
+
+"I know too little of the great ARCANUM to convert the ore to
+gold," said Wayland firmly. "But truce to your apprehensions, Master
+Tressilian. I understood the good knight's case from what Master William
+Badger told me; and I hope I am able enough to administer a poor dose
+of mandragora, which, with the sleep that must needs follow, is all that
+Sir Hugh Robsart requires to settle his distraught brains."
+
+"I trust thou dealest fairly with me, Wayland?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Most fairly and honestly, as the event shall show," replied the artist.
+"What would it avail me to harm the poor old man for whom you are
+interested?--you, to whom I owe it that Gaffer Pinniewinks is not even
+now rending my flesh and sinews with his accursed pincers, and probing
+every mole in my body with his sharpened awl (a murrain on the hands
+which forged it!) in order to find out the witch's mark?--I trust to
+yoke myself as a humble follower to your worship's train, and I only
+wish to have my faith judged of by the result of the good knight's
+slumbers."
+
+Wayland Smith was right in his prognostication. The sedative draught
+which his skill had prepared, and Will Badger's confidence had
+administered, was attended with the most beneficial effects. The
+patient's sleep was long and healthful, and the poor old knight awoke,
+humbled indeed in thought and weak in frame, yet a much better judge of
+whatever was subjected to his intellect than he had been for some time
+past. He resisted for a while the proposal made by his friends that
+Tressilian should undertake a journey to court, to attempt the recovery
+of his daughter, and the redress of her wrongs, in so far as they might
+yet be repaired. "Let her go," he said; "she is but a hawk that goes
+down the wind; I would not bestow even a whistle to reclaim her." But
+though he for some time maintained this argument, he was at length
+convinced it was his duty to take the part to which natural affection
+inclined him, and consent that such efforts as could yet be made
+should be used by Tressilian in behalf of his daughter. He subscribed,
+therefore, a warrant of attorney, such as the curate's skill enabled him
+to draw up; for in those simple days the clergy were often the advisers
+of their flock in law as well as in gospel.
+
+All matters were prepared for Tressilian's second departure, within
+twenty-four hours after he had returned to Lidcote Hall; but one
+material circumstance had been forgotten, which was first called to the
+remembrance of Tressilian by Master Mumblazen. "You are going to
+court, Master Tressilian," said he; "you will please remember that your
+blazonry must be ARGENT and OR--no other tinctures will pass current."
+The remark was equally just and embarrassing. To prosecute a suit at
+court, ready money was as indispensable even in the golden days of
+Elizabeth as at any succeeding period; and it was a commodity little at
+the command of the inhabitants of Lidcote Hall. Tressilian was himself
+poor; the revenues of good Sir Hugh Robsart were consumed, and even
+anticipated, in his hospitable mode of living; and it was finally
+necessary that the herald who started the doubt should himself solve it.
+Master Michael Mumblazen did so by producing a bag of money, containing
+nearly three hundred pounds in gold and silver of various coinage, the
+savings of twenty years, which he now, without speaking a syllable upon
+the subject, dedicated to the service of the patron whose shelter
+and protection had given him the means of making this little hoard.
+Tressilian accepted it without affecting a moment's hesitation, and a
+mutual grasp of the hand was all that passed betwixt them, to express
+the pleasure which the one felt in dedicating his all to such a purpose,
+and that which the other received from finding so material an obstacle
+to the success of his journey so suddenly removed, and in a manner so
+unexpected.
+
+While Tressilian was making preparations for his departure early
+the ensuing morning, Wayland Smith desired to speak with him, and,
+expressing his hope that he had been pleased with the operation of his
+medicine in behalf of Sir Hugh Robsart, added his desire to accompany
+him to court. This was indeed what Tressilian himself had several times
+thought of; for the shrewdness, alertness of understanding, and variety
+of resource which this fellow had exhibited during the time they had
+travelled together, had made him sensible that his assistance might be
+of importance. But then Wayland was in danger from the grasp of law; and
+of this Tressilian reminded him, mentioning something, at the same time,
+of the pincers of Pinniewinks and the warrant of Master Justice Blindas.
+Wayland Smith laughed both to scorn.
+
+"See you, sir!" said he, "I have changed my garb from that of a farrier
+to a serving-man; but were it still as it was, look at my moustaches.
+They now hang down; I will but turn them up, and dye them with a
+tincture that I know of, and the devil would scarce know me again."
+
+He accompanied these words with the appropriate action, and in less
+than a minute, by setting up, his moustaches and his hair, he seemed
+a different person from him that had but now entered the room. Still,
+however, Tressilian hesitated to accept his services, and the artist
+became proportionably urgent.
+
+"I owe you life and limb," he said, "and I would fain pay a part of the
+debt, especially as I know from Will Badger on what dangerous service
+your worship is bound. I do not, indeed, pretend to be what is called
+a man of mettle, one of those ruffling tear-cats who maintain their
+master's quarrel with sword and buckler. Nay, I am even one of those who
+hold the end of a feast better than the beginning of a fray. But I know
+that I can serve your worship better, in such quest as yours, than any
+of these sword-and-dagger men, and that my head will be worth an hundred
+of their hands."
+
+Tressilian still hesitated. He knew not much of this strange fellow, and
+was doubtful how far he could repose in him the confidence necessary
+to render him a useful attendant upon the present emergency. Ere he
+had come to a determination, the trampling of a horse was heard in the
+courtyard, and Master Mumblazen and Will Badger both entered hastily
+into Tressilian's chamber, speaking almost at the same moment.
+
+"Here is a serving-man on the bonniest grey tit I ever see'd in my
+life," said Will Badger, who got the start--"having on his arm a silver
+cognizance, being a fire-drake holding in his mouth a brickbat, under
+a coronet of an Earl's degree," said Master Mumblazen, "and bearing a
+letter sealed of the same."
+
+Tressilian took the letter, which was addressed "To the worshipful
+Master Edmund Tressilian, our loving kinsman--These--ride, ride,
+ride--for thy life, for thy life, for thy life." He then opened it, and
+found the following contents:--
+
+"MASTER TRESSILIAN, OUR GOOD FRIEND AND COUSIN, "We are at present
+so ill at ease, and otherwise so unhappily circumstanced, that we are
+desirous to have around us those of our friends on whose loving-kindness
+we can most especially repose confidence; amongst whom we hold our good
+Master Tressilian one of the foremost and nearest, both in good will and
+good ability. We therefore pray you, with your most convenient speed, to
+repair to our poor lodging, at Sayes Court, near Deptford, where we will
+treat further with you of matters which we deem it not fit to commit
+unto writing. And so we bid you heartily farewell, being your loving
+kinsman to command,
+
+"RATCLIFFE, EARL OF SUSSEX." "Send up the messenger instantly, Will
+Badger," said Tressilian; and as the man entered the room, he exclaimed,
+"Ah, Stevens, is it you? how does my good lord?"
+
+"Ill, Master Tressilian," was the messenger's reply, "and having
+therefore the more need of good friends around him."
+
+"But what is my lord's malady?" said Tressilian anxiously; "I heard
+nothing of his being ill."
+
+"I know not, sir," replied the man; "he is very ill at ease. The
+leeches are at a stand, and many of his household suspect foul
+practice-witchcraft, or worse."
+
+"What are the symptoms?" said Wayland Smith, stepping forward hastily.
+
+"Anan?" said the messenger, not comprehending his meaning.
+
+"What does he ail?" said Wayland; "where lies his disease?"
+
+The man looked at Tressilian, as if to know whether he should
+answer these inquiries from a stranger, and receiving a sign in the
+affirmative, he hastily enumerated gradual loss of strength, nocturnal
+perspiration, and loss of appetite, faintness, etc.
+
+"Joined," said Wayland, "to a gnawing pain in the stomach, and a low
+fever?"
+
+"Even so," said the messenger, somewhat surprised.
+
+"I know how the disease is caused," said the artist, "and I know the
+cause. Your master has eaten of the manna of Saint Nicholas. I know
+the cure too--my master shall not say I studied in his laboratory for
+nothing."
+
+"How mean you?" said Tressilian, frowning; "we speak of one of the first
+nobles of England. Bethink you, this is no subject for buffoonery."
+
+"God forbid!" said Wayland Smith. "I say that I know this disease, and
+can cure him. Remember what I did for Sir Hugh Robsart."
+
+"We will set forth instantly," said Tressilian. "God calls us."
+
+Accordingly, hastily mentioning this new motive for his instant
+departure, though without alluding to either the suspicions of Stevens,
+or the assurances of Wayland Smith, he took the kindest leave of Sir
+Hugh and the family at Lidcote Hall, who accompanied him with prayers
+and blessings, and, attended by Wayland and the Earl of Sussex's
+domestic, travelled with the utmost speed towards London.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+     Ay, I know you have arsenic,
+     Vitriol, sal-tartre, argaile, alkaly,
+     Cinoper:  I know all.--This fellow, Captain,
+     Will come in time to be a great distiller,
+     And give a say (I will not say directly,
+     But very near) at the philosopher's stone.   THE ALCHEMIST.
+
+Tressilian and his attendants pressed their route with all dispatch.
+He had asked the smith, indeed, when their departure was resolved on,
+whether he would not rather choose to avoid Berkshire, in which he had
+played a part so conspicuous? But Wayland returned a confident answer.
+He had employed the short interval they passed at Lidcote Hall in
+transforming himself in a wonderful manner. His wild and overgrown
+thicket of beard was now restrained to two small moustaches on the
+upper lip, turned up in a military fashion. A tailor from the village
+of Lidcote (well paid) had exerted his skill, under his customer's
+directions, so as completely to alter Wayland's outward man, and take
+off from his appearance almost twenty years of age. Formerly, besmeared
+with soot and charcoal, overgrown with hair, and bent double with the
+nature of his labour, disfigured too by his odd and fantastic dress,
+he seemed a man of fifty years old. But now, in a handsome suit of
+Tressilian's livery, with a sword by his side and a buckler on his
+shoulder, he looked like a gay ruffling serving-man, whose age might
+be betwixt thirty and thirty-five, the very prime of human life.
+His loutish, savage-looking demeanour seemed equally changed, into a
+forward, sharp, and impudent alertness of look and action.
+
+When challenged by Tressilian, who desired to know the cause of a
+metamorphosis so singular and so absolute, Wayland only answered by
+singing a stave from a comedy, which was then new, and was supposed,
+among the more favourable judges, to augur some genius on the part of
+the author. We are happy to preserve the couplet, which ran exactly
+thus,--
+
+
+     "Ban, ban, ca Caliban--
+     Get a new master--Be a new man."
+
+Although Tressilian did not recollect the verses, yet they reminded
+him that Wayland had once been a stage player, a circumstance which,
+of itself, accounted indifferently well for the readiness with which
+he could assume so total a change of personal appearance. The artist
+himself was so confident of his disguise being completely changed, or
+of his having completely changed his disguise, which may be the more
+correct mode of speaking, that he regretted they were not to pass near
+his old place of retreat.
+
+"I could venture," he said, "in my present dress, and with your
+worship's backing, to face Master Justice Blindas, even on a day of
+Quarter Sessions; and I would like to know what is become of Hobgoblin,
+who is like to play the devil in the world, if he can once slip the
+string, and leave his granny and his dominie.--Ay, and the scathed
+vault!" he said; "I would willingly have seen what havoc the explosion
+of so much gunpowder has made among Doctor Demetrius Doboobie's retorts
+and phials. I warrant me, my fame haunts the Vale of the Whitehorse long
+after my body is rotten; and that many a lout ties up his horse, lays
+down his silver groat, and pipes like a sailor whistling in a calm for
+Wayland Smith to come and shoe his tit for him. But the horse will catch
+the founders ere the smith answers the call."
+
+In this particular, indeed, Wayland proved a true prophet; and so easily
+do fables rise, that an obscure tradition of his extraordinary practice
+in farriery prevails in the Vale of Whitehorse even unto this day; and
+neither the tradition of Alfred's Victory, nor of the celebrated Pusey
+Horn, are better preserved in Berkshire than the wild legend of Wayland
+Smith. [See Note 2, Legend of Wayland Smith.]
+
+The haste of the travellers admitted their making no stay upon their
+journey, save what the refreshment of the horses required; and as many
+of the places through which they passed were under the influence of the
+Earl of Leicester, or persons immediately dependent on him, they thought
+it prudent to disguise their names and the purpose of their journey.
+On such occasions the agency of Wayland Smith (by which name we shall
+continue to distinguish the artist, though his real name was Lancelot
+Wayland) was extremely serviceable. He seemed, indeed, to have a
+pleasure in displaying the alertness with which he could baffle
+investigation, and amuse himself by putting the curiosity of tapsters
+and inn-keepers on a false scent. During the course of their brief
+journey, three different and inconsistent reports were circulated by him
+on their account--namely, first, that Tressilian was the Lord Deputy of
+Ireland, come over in disguise to take the Queen's pleasure concerning
+the great rebel Rory Oge MacCarthy MacMahon; secondly, that the said
+Tressilian was an agent of Monsieur, coming to urge his suit to the
+hand of Elizabeth; thirdly, that he was the Duke of Medina, come over,
+incognito, to adjust the quarrel betwixt Philip and that princess.
+
+Tressilian was angry, and expostulated with the artist on the various
+inconveniences, and, in particular, the unnecessary degree of attention
+to which they were subjected by the figments he thus circulated; but
+he was pacified (for who could be proof against such an argument?) by
+Wayland's assuring him that a general importance was attached to his own
+(Tressilian's) striking presence, which rendered it necessary to give an
+extraordinary reason for the rapidity and secrecy of his journey.
+
+At length they approached the metropolis, where, owing to the more
+general recourse of strangers, their appearance excited neither
+observation nor inquiry, and finally they entered London itself.
+
+It was Tressilian's purpose to go down directly to Deptford, where Lord
+Sussex resided, in order to be near the court, then held at Greenwich,
+the favourite residence of Elizabeth, and honoured as her birthplace.
+Still a brief halt in London was necessary; and it was somewhat
+prolonged by the earnest entreaties of Wayland Smith, who desired
+permission to take a walk through the city.
+
+"Take thy sword and buckler, and follow me, then," said Tressilian; "I
+am about to walk myself, and we will go in company."
+
+This he said, because he was not altogether so secure of the fidelity
+of his new retainer as to lose sight of him at this interesting moment,
+when rival factions at the court of Elizabeth were running so high.
+Wayland Smith willingly acquiesced in the precaution, of which he
+probably conjectured the motive, but only stipulated that his master
+should enter the shops of such chemists or apothecaries as he should
+point out, in walking through Fleet Street, and permit him to make some
+necessary purchases. Tressilian agreed, and obeying the signal of his
+attendant, walked successively into more than four or five shops, where
+he observed that Wayland purchased in each only one single drug, in
+various quantities. The medicines which he first asked for were readily
+furnished, each in succession, but those which he afterwards required
+were less easily supplied; and Tressilian observed that Wayland more
+than once, to the surprise of the shopkeeper, returned the gum or herb
+that was offered to him, and compelled him to exchange it for the right
+sort, or else went on to seek it elsewhere. But one ingredient, in
+particular, seemed almost impossible to be found. Some chemists plainly
+admitted they had never seen it; others denied that such a drug existed,
+excepting in the imagination of crazy alchemists; and most of them
+attempted to satisfy their customer, by producing some substitute,
+which, when rejected by Wayland, as not being what he had asked
+for, they maintained possessed, in a superior degree, the self-same
+qualities. In general they all displayed some curiosity concerning the
+purpose for which he wanted it. One old, meagre chemist, to whom
+the artist put the usual question, in terms which Tressilian neither
+understood nor could recollect, answered frankly, there was none of that
+drug in London, unless Yoglan the Jew chanced to have some of it upon
+hand.
+
+"I thought as much," said Wayland. And as soon as they left the shop,
+he said to Tressilian, "I crave your pardon, sir, but no artist can work
+without his tools. I must needs go to this Yoglan's; and I promise you,
+that if this detains you longer than your leisure seems to permit, you
+shall, nevertheless, be well repaid by the use I will make of this rare
+drug. Permit me," he added, "to walk before you, for we are now to quit
+the broad street and we will make double speed if I lead the way."
+
+Tressilian acquiesced, and, following the smith down a lane which turned
+to the left hand towards the river, he found that his guide walked on
+with great speed, and apparently perfect knowledge of the town, through
+a labyrinth of by-streets, courts, and blind alleys, until at length
+Wayland paused in the midst of a very narrow lane, the termination
+of which showed a peep of the Thames looking misty and muddy, which
+background was crossed saltierwise, as Mr. Mumblazen might have said, by
+the masts of two lighters that lay waiting for the tide. The shop under
+which he halted had not, as in modern days, a glazed window, but a
+paltry canvas screen surrounded such a stall as a cobbler now occupies,
+having the front open, much in the manner of a fishmonger's booth of the
+present day. A little old smock-faced man, the very reverse of a Jew in
+complexion, for he was very soft-haired as well as beardless, appeared,
+and with many courtesies asked Wayland what he pleased to want. He had
+no sooner named the drug, than the Jew started and looked surprised.
+"And vat might your vorship vant vith that drug, which is not named,
+mein God, in forty years as I have been chemist here?"
+
+"These questions it is no part of my commission to answer," said
+Wayland; "I only wish to know if you have what I want, and having it,
+are willing to sell it?"
+
+"Ay, mein God, for having it, that I have, and for selling it, I am a
+chemist, and sell every drug." So saying, he exhibited a powder, and
+then continued, "But it will cost much moneys. Vat I ave cost its weight
+in gold--ay, gold well-refined--I vill say six times. It comes from
+Mount Sinai, where we had our blessed Law given forth, and the plant
+blossoms but once in one hundred year."
+
+"I do not know how often it is gathered on Mount Sinai," said Wayland,
+after looking at the drug offered him with great disdain, "but I will
+wager my sword and buckler against your gaberdine, that this trash you
+offer me, instead of what I asked for, may be had for gathering any day
+of the week in the castle ditch of Aleppo."
+
+"You are a rude man," said the Jew; "and, besides, I ave no better than
+that--or if I ave, I will not sell it without order of a physician, or
+without you tell me vat you make of it."
+
+The artist made brief answer in a language of which Tressilian could not
+understand a word, and which seemed to strike the Jew with the
+utmost astonishment. He stared upon Wayland like one who has suddenly
+recognized some mighty hero or dreaded potentate, in the person of an
+unknown and unmarked stranger. "Holy Elias!" he exclaimed, when he had
+recovered the first stunning effects of his surprise; and then passing
+from his former suspicious and surly manner to the very extremity of
+obsequiousness, he cringed low to the artist, and besought him to enter
+his poor house, to bless his miserable threshold by crossing it.
+
+"Vill you not taste a cup vith the poor Jew, Zacharias Yoglan?--Vill you
+Tokay ave?--vill you Lachrymae taste?--vill you--"
+
+"You offend in your proffers," said Wayland; "minister to me in what I
+require of you, and forbear further discourse."
+
+The rebuked Israelite took his bunch of keys, and opening with
+circumspection a cabinet which seemed more strongly secured than the
+other cases of drugs and medicines amongst which it stood, he drew out a
+little secret drawer, having a glass lid, and containing a small portion
+of a black powder. This he offered to Wayland, his manner conveying
+the deepest devotion towards him, though an avaricious and jealous
+expression, which seemed to grudge every grain of what his customer was
+about to possess himself, disputed ground in his countenance with the
+obsequious deference which he desired it should exhibit.
+
+"Have you scales?" said Wayland.
+
+The Jew pointed to those which lay ready for common use in the shop,
+but he did so with a puzzled expression of doubt and fear, which did not
+escape the artist.
+
+"They must be other than these," said Wayland sternly. "Know you not
+that holy things lose their virtue if weighed in an unjust balance?"
+
+The Jew hung his head, took from a steel-plated casket a pair of scales
+beautifully mounted, and said, as he adjusted them for the artist's
+use, "With these I do mine own experiment--one hair of the high-priest's
+beard would turn them."
+
+"It suffices," said the artist, and weighed out two drachms for himself
+of the black powder, which he very carefully folded up, and put into his
+pouch with the other drugs. He then demanded the price of the Jew, who
+answered, shaking his head and bowing,--
+
+"No price--no, nothing at all from such as you. But you will see the
+poor Jew again? you will look into his laboratory, where, God help him,
+he hath dried himself to the substance of the withered gourd of Jonah,
+the holy prophet. You will ave pity on him, and show him one little step
+on the great road?"
+
+"Hush!" said Wayland, laying his finger mysteriously on his mouth; "it
+may be we shall meet again. Thou hast already the SCHAHMAJM, as thine
+own Rabbis call it--the general creation; watch, therefore, and pray,
+for thou must attain the knowledge of Alchahest Elixir Samech ere I
+may commune further with thee." Then returning with a slight nod the
+reverential congees of the Jew, he walked gravely up the lane, followed
+by his master, whose first observation on the scene he had just
+witnessed was, that Wayland ought to have paid the man for his drug,
+whatever it was.
+
+"I pay him?" said the artist. "May the foul fiend pay me if I do! Had
+it not been that I thought it might displease your worship, I would have
+had an ounce or two of gold out of him, in exchange of the same just
+weight of brick dust."
+
+"I advise you to practise no such knavery while waiting upon me," said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Did I not say," answered the artist, "that for that reason alone I
+forbore him for the present?--Knavery, call you it? Why, yonder wretched
+skeleton hath wealth sufficient to pave the whole lane he lives in with
+dollars, and scarce miss them out of his own iron chest; yet he goes mad
+after the philosopher's stone. And besides, he would have cheated a poor
+serving-man, as he thought me at first, with trash that was not worth
+a penny. Match for match, quoth the devil to the collier; if his false
+medicine was worth my good crowns, my true brick dust is as well worth
+his good gold."
+
+"It may be so, for aught I know," said Tressilian, "in dealing amongst
+Jews and apothecaries; but understand that to have such tricks of
+legerdemain practised by one attending on me diminishes my honour, and
+that I will not permit them. I trust thou hast made up thy purchases?"
+
+"I have, sir," replied Wayland; "and with these drugs will I, this very
+day, compound the true orvietan, that noble medicine which is so seldom
+found genuine and effective within these realms of Europe, for want
+of that most rare and precious drug which I got but now from Yoglan."
+[Orvietan, or Venice treacle, as it was sometimes called, was understood
+to be a sovereign remedy against poison; and the reader must be
+contented, for the time he peruses these pages, to hold the same
+opinion, which was once universally received by the learned as well as
+the vulgar.]
+
+"But why not have made all your purchases at one shop?" said his master;
+"we have lost nearly an hour in running from one pounder of simples to
+another."
+
+"Content you, sir," said Wayland. "No man shall learn my secret; and
+it would not be mine long, were I to buy all my materials from one
+chemist."
+
+They now returned to their inn (the famous Bell-Savage); and while the
+Lord Sussex's servant prepared the horses for their journey, Wayland,
+obtaining from the cook the service of a mortar, shut himself up in
+a private chamber, where he mixed, pounded, and amalgamated the drugs
+which he had bought, each in its due proportion, with a readiness
+and address that plainly showed him well practised in all the manual
+operations of pharmacy.
+
+By the time Wayland's electuary was prepared the horses were ready, and
+a short hour's riding brought them to the present habitation of Lord
+Sussex, an ancient house, called Sayes Court, near Deptford, which
+had long pertained to a family of that name, but had for upwards of a
+century been possessed by the ancient and honourable family of Evelyn.
+The present representative of that ancient house took a deep interest
+in the Earl of Sussex, and had willingly accommodated both him and his
+numerous retinue in his hospitable mansion. Sayes Court was afterwards
+the residence of the celebrated Mr. Evelyn, whose "Silva" is still the
+manual of British planters; and whose life, manners, and principles, as
+illustrated in his Memoirs, ought equally to be the manual of English
+gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+     This is rare news thou tell'st me, my good fellow;
+     There are two bulls fierce battling on the green
+     For one fair heifer--if the one goes down,
+     The dale will be more peaceful, and the herd,
+     Which have small interest in their brulziement,
+     May pasture there in peace.     --OLD PLAY.
+
+Sayes Court was watched like a beleaguered fort; and so high rose the
+suspicions of the time, that Tressilian and his attendants were stopped
+and questioned repeatedly by sentinels, both on foot and horseback,
+as they approached the abode of the sick Earl. In truth, the high rank
+which Sussex held in Queen Elizabeth's favour, and his known and avowed
+rivalry of the Earl of Leicester, caused the utmost importance to be
+attached to his welfare; for, at the period we treat of, all men doubted
+whether he or the Earl of Leicester might ultimately have the higher
+rank in her regard.
+
+Elizabeth, like many of her sex, was fond of governing by factions, so
+as to balance two opposing interests, and reserve in her own hand the
+power of making either predominate, as the interest of the state, or
+perhaps as her own female caprice (for to that foible even she was not
+superior), might finally determine. To finesse--to hold the cards--to
+oppose one interest to another--to bridle him who thought himself
+highest in her esteem, by the fears he must entertain of another equally
+trusted, if not equally beloved, were arts which she used throughout
+her reign, and which enabled her, though frequently giving way to the
+weakness of favouritism, to prevent most of its evil effects on her
+kingdom and government.
+
+The two nobles who at present stood as rivals in her favour possessed
+very different pretensions to share it; yet it might be in general said
+that the Earl of Sussex had been most serviceable to the Queen, while
+Leicester was most dear to the woman. Sussex was, according to the
+phrase of the times, a martialist--had done good service in Ireland and
+in Scotland, and especially in the great northern rebellion, in 1569,
+which was quelled, in a great measure, by his military talents. He was,
+therefore, naturally surrounded and looked up to by those who wished to
+make arms their road to distinction. The Earl of Sussex, moreover, was
+of more ancient and honourable descent than his rival, uniting in
+his person the representation of the Fitz-Walters, as well as of
+the Ratcliffes; while the scutcheon of Leicester was stained by the
+degradation of his grandfather, the oppressive minister of Henry VII.,
+and scarce improved by that of his father, the unhappy Dudley, Duke of
+Northumberland, executed on Tower Hill, August 22, 1553. But in person,
+features, and address, weapons so formidable in the court of a
+female sovereign, Leicester had advantages more than sufficient to
+counterbalance the military services, high blood, and frank bearing of
+the Earl of Sussex; and he bore, in the eye of the court and kingdom,
+the higher share in Elizabeth's favour, though (for such was her uniform
+policy) by no means so decidedly expressed as to warrant him against the
+final preponderance of his rival's pretensions. The illness of Sussex
+therefore happened so opportunely for Leicester, as to give rise to
+strange surmises among the public; while the followers of the one Earl
+were filled with the deepest apprehensions, and those of the other with
+the highest hopes of its probable issue. Meanwhile--for in that old time
+men never forgot the probability that the matter might be determined
+by length of sword--the retainers of each noble flocked around their
+patron, appeared well armed in the vicinity of the court itself, and
+disturbed the ear of the sovereign by their frequent and alarming
+debates, held even within the precincts of her palace. This preliminary
+statement is necessary, to render what follows intelligible to the
+reader. [See Note 3. Leicester and Sussex.]
+
+On Tressilian's arrival at Sayes Court, he found the place filled with
+the retainers of the Earl of Sussex, and of the gentlemen who came to
+attend their patron in his illness. Arms were in every hand, and a deep
+gloom on every countenance, as if they had apprehended an immediate
+and violent assault from the opposite faction. In the hall, however,
+to which Tressilian was ushered by one of the Earl's attendants,
+while another went to inform Sussex of his arrival, he found only two
+gentlemen in waiting. There was a remarkable contrast in their dress,
+appearance, and manners. The attire of the elder gentleman, a person
+as it seemed of quality and in the prime of life, was very plain and
+soldierlike, his stature low, his limbs stout, his bearing ungraceful,
+and his features of that kind which express sound common sense, without
+a grain of vivacity or imagination. The younger, who seemed about
+twenty, or upwards, was clad in the gayest habit used by persons of
+quality at the period, wearing a crimson velvet cloak richly ornamented
+with lace and embroidery, with a bonnet of the same, encircled with a
+gold chain turned three times round it, and secured by a medal. His hair
+was adjusted very nearly like that of some fine gentlemen of our own
+time--that is, it was combed upwards, and made to stand as it were on
+end; and in his ears he wore a pair of silver earrings, having each a
+pearl of considerable size. The countenance of this youth, besides being
+regularly handsome and accompanied by a fine person, was animated and
+striking in a degree that seemed to speak at once the firmness of
+a decided and the fire of an enterprising character, the power of
+reflection, and the promptitude of determination.
+
+Both these gentlemen reclined nearly in the same posture on benches
+near each other; but each seeming engaged in his own meditations, looked
+straight upon the wall which was opposite to them, without speaking to
+his companion. The looks of the elder were of that sort which convinced
+the beholder that, in looking on the wall, he saw no more than the side
+of an old hall hung around with cloaks, antlers, bucklers, old pieces
+of armour, partisans, and the similar articles which were usually the
+furniture of such a place. The look of the younger gallant had in it
+something imaginative; he was sunk in reverie, and it seemed as if the
+empty space of air betwixt him and the wall were the stage of a theatre
+on which his fancy was mustering his own DRAMATIS PERSONAE, and treating
+him with sights far different from those which his awakened and earthly
+vision could have offered.
+
+At the entrance of Tressilian both started from their musing, and
+made him welcome--the younger, in particular, with great appearance of
+animation and cordiality.
+
+"Thou art welcome, Tressilian," said the youth. "Thy philosophy stole
+thee from us when this household had objects of ambition to offer; it
+is an honest philosophy, since it returns thee to us when there are only
+dangers to be shared."
+
+"Is my lord, then, so greatly indisposed?" said Tressilian.
+
+"We fear the very worst," answered the elder gentleman, "and by the
+worst practice."
+
+"Fie," replied Tressilian, "my Lord of Leicester is honourable."
+
+"What doth he with such attendants, then, as he hath about him?" said
+the younger gallant. "The man who raises the devil may be honest, but he
+is answerable for the mischief which the fiend does, for all that."
+
+"And is this all of you, my mates," inquired Tressilian, "that are about
+my lord in his utmost straits?"
+
+"No, no," replied the elder gentleman, "there are Tracy, Markham, and
+several more; but we keep watch here by two at once, and some are weary
+and are sleeping in the gallery above."
+
+"And some," said the young man, "are gone down to the Dock yonder at
+Deptford, to look out such a hull; as they may purchase by clubbing
+their broken fortunes; and as soon as all is over, we will lay our noble
+lord in a noble green grave, have a blow at those who have hurried him
+thither, if opportunity suits, and then sail for the Indies with heavy
+hearts and light purses."
+
+"It may be," said Tressilian, "that I will embrace the same purpose, so
+soon as I have settled some business at court."
+
+"Thou business at court!" they both exclaimed at once, "and thou make
+the Indian voyage!"
+
+"Why, Tressilian," said the younger man, "art thou not wedded, and
+beyond these flaws of fortune, that drive folks out to sea when their
+bark bears fairest for the haven?--What has become of the lovely
+Indamira that was to match my Amoret for truth and beauty?"
+
+"Speak not of her!" said Tressilian, averting his face.
+
+"Ay, stands it so with you?" said the youth, taking his hand very
+affectionately; "then, fear not I will again touch the green wound.
+But it is strange as well as sad news. Are none of our fair and merry
+fellowship to escape shipwreck of fortune and happiness in this sudden
+tempest? I had hoped thou wert in harbour, at least, my dear Edmund. But
+truly says another dear friend of thy name,
+
+
+     'What man that sees the ever whirling wheel
+     Of Chance, the which all mortal things doth sway,
+     But that thereby doth find and plainly feel,
+     How Mutability in them doth play
+     Her cruel sports to many men's decay.'"
+
+The elder gentleman had risen from his bench, and was pacing the
+hall with some impatience, while the youth, with much earnestness
+and feeling, recited these lines. When he had done, the other wrapped
+himself in his cloak, and again stretched himself down, saying, "I
+marvel, Tressilian, you will feed the lad in this silly humour. If there
+were ought to draw a judgment upon a virtuous and honourable household
+like my lord's, renounce me if I think not it were this piping,
+whining, childish trick of poetry, that came among us with Master Walter
+Wittypate here and his comrades, twisting into all manner of uncouth and
+incomprehensible forms of speech, the honest plain English phrase which
+God gave us to express our meaning withal."
+
+"Blount believes," said his comrade, laughing, "the devil woo'd Eve
+in rhyme, and that the mystic meaning of the Tree of Knowledge refers
+solely to the art of clashing rhymes and meting out hexameters." [See
+Note 4. Sir Walter Raleigh.]
+
+At this moment the Earl's chamberlain entered, and informed Tressilian
+that his lord required to speak with him.
+
+He found Lord Sussex dressed, but unbraced, and lying on his couch, and
+was shocked at the alteration disease had made in his person. The Earl
+received him with the most friendly cordiality, and inquired into the
+state of his courtship. Tressilian evaded his inquiries for a moment,
+and turning his discourse on the Earl's own health, he discovered, to
+his surprise, that the symptoms of his disorder corresponded minutely
+with those which Wayland had predicated concerning it. He hesitated not,
+therefore, to communicate to Sussex the whole history of his attendant,
+and the pretensions he set up to cure the disorder under which he
+laboured. The Earl listened with incredulous attention until the name
+of Demetrius was mentioned, and then suddenly called to his secretary to
+bring him a certain casket which contained papers of importance. "Take
+out from thence," he said, "the declaration of the rascal cook whom we
+had under examination, and look heedfully if the name of Demetrius be
+not there mentioned."
+
+The secretary turned to the passage at once, and read, "And said
+declarant, being examined, saith, That he remembers having made the
+sauce to the said sturgeon-fish, after eating of which the said noble
+Lord was taken ill; and he put the usual ingredients and condiments
+therein, namely--"
+
+"Pass over his trash," said the Earl, "and see whether he had not been
+supplied with his materials by a herbalist called Demetrius."
+
+"It is even so," answered the secretary. "And he adds, he has not since
+seen the said Demetrius."
+
+"This accords with thy fellow's story, Tressilian," said the Earl; "call
+him hither."
+
+On being summoned to the Earl's presence, Wayland Smith told his former
+tale with firmness and consistency.
+
+"It may be," said the Earl, "thou art sent by those who have begun this
+work, to end it for them; but bethink, if I miscarry under thy medicine,
+it may go hard with thee."
+
+"That were severe measure," said Wayland, "since the issue of medicine,
+and the end of life, are in God's disposal. But I will stand the risk. I
+have not lived so long under ground to be afraid of a grave."
+
+"Nay, if thou be'st so confident," said the Earl of Sussex, "I will take
+the risk too, for the learned can do nothing for me. Tell me how this
+medicine is to be taken."
+
+"That will I do presently," said Wayland; "but allow me to condition
+that, since I incur all the risk of this treatment, no other physician
+shall be permitted to interfere with it."
+
+"That is but fair," replied the Earl; "and now prepare your drug."
+
+While Wayland obeyed the Earl's commands, his servants, by the artist's
+direction, undressed their master, and placed him in bed.
+
+"I warn you," he said, "that the first operation of this medicine will
+be to produce a heavy sleep, during which time the chamber must be kept
+undisturbed, as the consequences may otherwise he fatal. I myself will
+watch by the Earl with any of the gentlemen of his chamber."
+
+"Let all leave the room, save Stanley and this good fellow," said the
+Earl.
+
+"And saving me also," said Tressilian. "I too am deeply interested in
+the effects of this potion."
+
+"Be it so, good friend," said the Earl. "And now for our experiment; but
+first call my secretary and chamberlain."
+
+"Bear witness," he continued, when these officers arrived--"bear witness
+for me, gentlemen, that our honourable friend Tressilian is in no way
+responsible for the effects which this medicine may produce upon me, the
+taking it being my own free action and choice, in regard I believe it to
+be a remedy which God has furnished me by unexpected means to recover me
+of my present malady. Commend me to my noble and princely Mistress;
+and say that I live and die her true servant, and wish to all about her
+throne the same singleness of heart and will to serve her, with more
+ability to do so than hath been assigned to poor Thomas Ratcliffe."
+
+He then folded his hands, and seemed for a second or two absorbed
+in mental devotion, then took the potion in his hand, and, pausing,
+regarded Wayland with a look that seemed designed to penetrate his very
+soul, but which caused no anxiety or hesitation in the countenance or
+manner of the artist.
+
+"Here is nothing to be feared," said Sussex to Tressilian, and swallowed
+the medicine without further hesitation.
+
+"I am now to pray your lordship," said Wayland, "to dispose yourself
+to rest as commodiously as you can; and of you, gentlemen, to remain as
+still and mute as if you waited at your mother's deathbed."
+
+The chamberlain and secretary then withdrew, giving orders that all
+doors should be bolted, and all noise in the house strictly prohibited.
+Several gentlemen were voluntary watchers in the hall, but none remained
+in the chamber of the sick Earl, save his groom of the chamber, the
+artist, and Tressilian.--Wayland Smith's predictions were speedily
+accomplished, and a sleep fell upon the Earl, so deep and sound that
+they who watched his bedside began to fear that, in his weakened state,
+he might pass away without awakening from his lethargy. Wayland Smith
+himself appeared anxious, and felt the temples of the Earl slightly,
+from time to time, attending particularly to the state of his
+respiration, which was full and deep, but at the same time easy and
+uninterrupted.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+     You loggerheaded and unpolish'd grooms,
+     What, no attendance, no regard, no duty?
+     Where is the foolish knave I sent before?
+     --TAMING OF THE SHREW.
+
+There is no period at which men look worse in the eyes of each other, or
+feel more uncomfortable, than when the first dawn of daylight finds them
+watchers. Even a beauty of the first order, after the vigils of a ball
+are interrupted by the dawn, would do wisely to withdraw herself from
+the gaze of her fondest and most partial admirers. Such was the pale,
+inauspicious, and ungrateful light which began to beam upon those who
+kept watch all night in the hall at Sayes Court, and which mingled its
+cold, pale, blue diffusion with the red, yellow, and smoky beams of
+expiring lamps and torches. The young gallant, whom we noticed in our
+last chapter, had left the room for a few minutes, to learn the cause of
+a knocking at the outward gate, and on his return was so struck with
+the forlorn and ghastly aspects of his companions of the watch that
+he exclaimed, "Pity of my heart, my masters, how like owls you look!
+Methinks, when the sun rises, I shall see you flutter off with your eyes
+dazzled, to stick yourselves into the next ivy-tod or ruined steeple."
+
+"Hold thy peace, thou gibing fool," said Blount; "hold thy peace. Is
+this a time for jeering, when the manhood of England is perchance dying
+within a wall's breadth of thee?"
+
+"There thou liest," replied the gallant.
+
+"How, lie!" exclaimed Blount, starting up, "lie! and to me?"
+
+"Why, so thou didst, thou peevish fool," answered the youth; "thou didst
+lie on that bench even now, didst thou not? But art thou not a hasty
+coxcomb to pick up a wry word so wrathfully? Nevertheless, loving and,
+honouring my lord as truly as thou, or any one, I do say that, should
+Heaven take him from us, all England's manhood dies not with him."
+
+"Ay," replied Blount, "a good portion will survive with thee,
+doubtless."
+
+"And a good portion with thyself, Blount, and with stout Markham here,
+and Tracy, and all of us. But I am he will best employ the talent Heaven
+has given to us all."
+
+"As how, I prithee?" said Blount; "tell us your mystery of multiplying."
+
+"Why, sirs," answered the youth, "ye are like goodly land, which bears
+no crop because it is not quickened by manure; but I have that rising
+spirit in me which will make my poor faculties labour to keep pace with
+it. My ambition will keep my brain at work, I warrant thee."
+
+"I pray to God it does not drive thee mad," said Blount; "for my part,
+if we lose our noble lord, I bid adieu to the court and to the camp
+both. I have five hundred foul acres in Norfolk, and thither will I, and
+change the court pantoufle for the country hobnail."
+
+"O base transmutation!" exclaimed his antagonist; "thou hast already got
+the true rustic slouch--thy shoulders stoop, as if thine hands were at
+the stilts of the plough; and thou hast a kind of earthy smell about
+thee, instead of being perfumed with essence, as a gallant and courtier
+should. On my soul, thou hast stolen out to roll thyself on a hay mow!
+Thy only excuse will be to swear by thy hilts that the farmer had a fair
+daughter."
+
+"I pray thee, Walter," said another of the company, "cease thy raillery,
+which suits neither time nor place, and tell us who was at the gate just
+now."
+
+"Doctor Masters, physician to her Grace in ordinary, sent by her
+especial orders to inquire after the Earl's health," answered Walter.
+
+"Ha! what?" exclaimed Tracy; "that was no slight mark of favour. If the
+Earl can but come through, he will match with Leicester yet. Is Masters
+with my lord at present?"
+
+"Nay," replied Walter, "he is half way back to Greenwich by this time,
+and in high dudgeon."
+
+"Thou didst not refuse him admittance?" exclaimed Tracy.
+
+"Thou wert not, surely, so mad?" ejaculated Blount.
+
+"I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny
+to a blind beggar--as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access
+to a dun."
+
+"Why, in the fiend's name, didst thou trust him to go to the gate?" said
+Blount to Tracy.
+
+"It suited his years better than mine," answered Tracy; "but he has
+undone us all now thoroughly. My lord may live or die, he will never
+have a look of favour from her Majesty again."
+
+"Nor the means of making fortunes for his followers," said the young
+gallant, smiling contemptuously;--"there lies the sore point that will
+brook no handling. My good sirs, I sounded my lamentations over my lord
+somewhat less loudly than some of you; but when the point comes of
+doing him service, I will yield to none of you. Had this learned leech
+entered, think'st thou not there had been such a coil betwixt him and
+Tressilian's mediciner, that not the sleeper only, but the very dead
+might have awakened? I know what larurm belongs to the discord of
+doctors."
+
+"And who is to take the blame of opposing the Queen's orders?" said
+Tracy; "for, undeniably, Doctor Masters came with her Grace's positive
+commands to cure the Earl."
+
+"I, who have done the wrong, will bear the blame," said Walter.
+
+"Thus, then, off fly the dreams of court favour thou hast nourished,"
+said Blount, "and despite all thy boasted art and ambition, Devonshire
+will see thee shine a true younger brother, fit to sit low at the board,
+carve turn about with the chaplain, look that the hounds be fed, and see
+the squire's girths drawn when he goes a-hunting."
+
+"Not so," said the young man, colouring, "not while Ireland and the
+Netherlands have wars, and not while the sea hath pathless waves. The
+rich West hath lands undreamed of, and Britain contains bold hearts to
+venture on the quest of them. Adieu for a space, my masters. I go to
+walk in the court and look to the sentinels."
+
+"The lad hath quicksilver in his veins, that is certain," said Blount,
+looking at Markham.
+
+"He hath that both in brain and blood," said Markham, "which may either
+make or mar him. But in closing the door against Masters, he hath done
+a daring and loving piece of service; for Tressilian's fellow hath ever
+averred that to wake the Earl were death, and Masters would wake the
+Seven Sleepers themselves, if he thought they slept not by the regular
+ordinance of medicine."
+
+Morning was well advanced when Tressilian, fatigued and over-watched,
+came down to the hall with the joyful intelligence that the Earl
+had awakened of himself, that he found his internal complaints much
+mitigated, and spoke with a cheerfulness, and looked round with a
+vivacity, which of themselves showed a material and favourable change
+had taken place. Tressilian at the same time commanded the attendance of
+one or two of his followers, to report what had passed during the night,
+and to relieve the watchers in the Earl's chamber.
+
+When the message of the Queen was communicated to the Earl of Sussex, he
+at first smiled at the repulse which the physician had received from his
+zealous young follower; but instantly recollecting himself, he commanded
+Blount, his master of the horse, instantly to take boat, and go down
+the river to the Palace of Greenwich, taking young Walter and Tracy with
+him, and make a suitable compliment, expressing his grateful thanks to
+his Sovereign, and mentioning the cause why he had not been enabled to
+profit by the assistance of the wise and learned Doctor Masters.
+
+"A plague on it!" said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had he sent
+me with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done his errand
+indifferently well. But to go to our gracious Sovereign, before whom all
+words must be lacquered over either with gilding or with sugar, is such
+a confectionary matter as clean baffles my poor old English brain.--Come
+with me, Tracy, and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the
+cause of our having all this ado. Let us see if thy neat brain, that
+frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at need
+with some of thy shrewd devices."
+
+"Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help you
+through; let me but fetch my cloak."
+
+"Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,--"the lad is mazed."
+
+"No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter. "I go not with
+thee to court unless as a gentleman should."
+
+"Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of none
+but some poor groom or porter."
+
+"I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my own
+cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth with you."
+
+"Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a cloak.
+Get thyself ready, a God's name!"
+
+They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad Thames, upon
+which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.
+
+"There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said Walter to
+Blount--"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the earth."
+
+"The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount, "and the
+other would take us there a little faster if it were ebb-tide."
+
+"And this is all thou thinkest--all thou carest--all thou deemest the
+use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers--to guide three such
+poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an idle journey of
+courtly ceremony!"
+
+"It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I could
+excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying me where
+I have no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's wages for my
+trouble--and by my honour," he added, looking out from the head of the
+boat, "it seems to me as if our message were a sort of labour in vain,
+for, see, the Queen's barge lies at the stairs as if her Majesty were
+about to take water."
+
+It was even so. The royal barge, manned with the Queen's watermen
+richly attired in the regal liveries, and having the Banner of England
+displayed, did indeed lie at the great stairs which ascended from the
+river, and along with it two or three other boats for transporting such
+part of her retinue as were not in immediate attendance on the royal
+person. The yeomen of the guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom
+England could produce, guarded with their halberds the passage from
+the palace-gate to the river side, and all seemed in readiness for the
+Queen's coming forth, although the day was yet so early.
+
+"By my faith, this bodes us no good," said Blount; "it must be some
+perilous cause puts her Grace in motion thus untimeously, By my counsel,
+we were best put back again, and tell the Earl what we have seen."
+
+"Tell the Earl what we have seen!" said Walter; "why what have we seen
+but a boat, and men with scarlet jerkins, and halberds in their hands?
+Let us do his errand, and tell him what the Queen says in reply."
+
+So saying, he caused the boat to be pulled towards a landing-place
+at some distance from the principal one, which it would not, at that
+moment, have been thought respectful to approach, and jumped on shore,
+followed, though with reluctance, by his cautious and timid companions.
+As they approached the gate of the palace, one of the sergeant porters
+told them they could not at present enter, as her Majesty was in the act
+of coming forth. The gentlemen used the name of the Earl of Sussex; but
+it proved no charm to subdue the officer, who alleged, in reply, that
+it was as much as his post was worth to disobey in the least tittle the
+commands which he had received.
+
+"Nay, I told you as much before," said Blount; "do, I pray you, my dear
+Walter, let us take boat and return."
+
+"Not till I see the Queen come forth," returned the youth composedly.
+
+"Thou art mad, stark mad, by the Mass!" answered Blount.
+
+"And thou," said Walter, "art turned coward of the sudden. I have seen
+thee face half a score of shag-headed Irish kerns to thy own share of
+them; and now thou wouldst blink and go back to shun the frown of a fair
+lady!"
+
+At this moment the gates opened, and ushers began to issue forth in
+array, preceded and flanked by the band of Gentlemen Pensioners. After
+this, amid a crowd of lords and ladies, yet so disposed around her that
+she could see and be seen on all sides, came Elizabeth herself, then in
+the prime of womanhood, and in the full glow of what in a Sovereign was
+called beauty, and who would in the lowest rank of life have been truly
+judged a noble figure, joined to a striking and commanding physiognomy.
+She leant on the arm of Lord Hunsdon, whose relation to her by her
+mother's side often procured him such distinguished marks of Elizabeth's
+intimacy.
+
+The young cavalier we have so often mentioned had probably never yet
+approached so near the person of his Sovereign, and he pressed forward
+as far as the line of warders permitted, in order to avail himself of
+the present opportunity. His companion, on the contrary, cursing his
+imprudence, kept pulling him backwards, till Walter shook him off
+impatiently, and letting his rich cloak drop carelessly from one
+shoulder; a natural action, which served, however, to display to the
+best advantage his well-proportioned person. Unbonneting at the same
+time, he fixed his eager gaze on the Queen's approach, with a mixture of
+respectful curiosity and modest yet ardent admiration, which suited
+so well with his fine features that the warders, struck with his rich
+attire and noble countenance, suffered him to approach the ground over
+which the Queen was to pass, somewhat closer than was permitted
+to ordinary spectators. Thus the adventurous youth stood full in
+Elizabeth's eye--an eye never indifferent to the admiration which she
+deservedly excited among her subjects, or to the fair proportions of
+external form which chanced to distinguish any of her courtiers.
+
+Accordingly, she fixed her keen glance on the youth, as she approached
+the place where he stood, with a look in which surprise at his boldness
+seemed to be unmingled with resentment, while a trifling accident
+happened which attracted her attention towards him yet more strongly.
+The night had been rainy, and just where the young gentleman stood a
+small quantity of mud interrupted the Queen's passage. As she hesitated
+to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid
+it on the miry spot, so as to ensure her stepping over it dry-shod.
+Elizabeth looked at the young man, who accompanied this act of devoted
+courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush that overspread his
+whole countenance. The Queen was confused, and blushed in her turn,
+nodded her head, hastily passed on, and embarked in her barge without
+saying a word.
+
+"Come along, Sir Coxcomb," said Blount; "your gay cloak will need the
+brush to-day, I wot. Nay, if you had meant to make a footcloth of your
+mantle, better have kept Tracy's old drab-debure, which despises all
+colours."
+
+"This cloak," said the youth, taking it up and folding it, "shall never
+be brushed while in my possession."
+
+"And that will not be long, if you learn not a little more economy; we
+shall have you in CUERPO soon, as the Spaniard says."
+
+Their discourse was here interrupted by one of the band of Pensioners.
+
+"I was sent," said he, after looking at them attentively, "to a
+gentleman who hath no cloak, or a muddy one.--You, sir, I think,"
+addressing the younger cavalier, "are the man; you will please to follow
+me."
+
+"He is in attendance on me," said Blount--"on me, the noble Earl of
+Sussex's master of horse."
+
+"I have nothing to say to that," answered the messenger; "my orders are
+directly from her Majesty, and concern this gentleman only."
+
+So saying, he walked away, followed by Walter, leaving the others
+behind, Blount's eyes almost starting from his head with the excess of
+his astonishment. At length he gave vent to it in an exclamation, "Who
+the good jere would have thought this!" And shaking his head with a
+mysterious air, he walked to his own boat, embarked, and returned to
+Deptford.
+
+The young cavalier was in the meanwhile guided to the water-side by the
+Pensioner, who showed him considerable respect; a circumstance which,
+to persons in his situation, may be considered as an augury of no small
+consequence. He ushered him into one of the wherries which lay ready to
+attend the Queen's barge, which was already proceeding; up the river,
+with the advantage of that flood-tide of which, in the course of their
+descent, Blount had complained to his associates.
+
+The two rowers used their oars with such expedition at the signal of
+the Gentleman Pensioner, that they very soon brought their little skiff
+under the stern of the Queen's boat, where she sat beneath an awning,
+attended by two or three ladies, and the nobles of her household. She
+looked more than once at the wherry in which the young adventurer was
+seated, spoke to those around her, and seemed to laugh. At length one
+of the attendants, by the Queen's order apparently, made a sign for the
+wherry to come alongside, and the young man was desired to step from
+his own skiff into the Queen's barge, which he performed with graceful
+agility at the fore part of the boat, and was brought aft to the Queen's
+presence, the wherry at the same time dropping into the rear. The
+youth underwent the gaze of Majesty, not the less gracefully that his
+self-possession was mingled with embarrassment. The muddled cloak still
+hung upon his arm, and formed the natural topic with which the Queen
+introduced the conversation.
+
+"You have this day spoiled a gay mantle in our behalf, young man.
+We thank you for your service, though the manner of offering it was
+unusual, and something bold."
+
+"In a sovereign's need," answered the youth, "it is each liegeman's duty
+to be bold."
+
+"God's pity! that was well said, my lord," said the Queen, turning to
+a grave person who sat by her, and answered with a grave inclination
+of the head, and something of a mumbled assent.--"Well, young man, your
+gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe keeper, and he
+shall have orders to supply the suit which you have cast away in our
+service. Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise
+thee, on the word of a princess."
+
+"May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not for so
+humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it
+became me to choose--"
+
+"Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the Queen, interrupting
+him. "Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and
+so various are the means of thriftless folly, that to give gold to
+youth is giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means of
+self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess
+shall be abridged. Yet thou mayest be poor," she added, "or thy parents
+may be. It shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for
+the use on't."
+
+Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then modestly
+assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her
+Majesty had before offered.
+
+"How, boy!" said the Queen, "neither gold nor garment? What is it thou
+wouldst have of me, then?"
+
+"Only permission, madam--if it is not asking too high an
+honour--permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling
+service."
+
+"Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!" said the Queen.
+
+"It is no longer mine," said Walter; "when your Majesty's foot touched
+it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its
+former owner."
+
+The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a slight
+degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.
+
+"Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with
+reading romances. I must know something of him, that I may send him safe
+to his friends.--What art thou?"
+
+"A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please your
+Grace, sent hither with his master of horse upon message to your
+Majesty."
+
+In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had hitherto
+maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and severity.
+
+"My Lord of Sussex," she said, "has taught us how to regard his messages
+by the value he places upon ours. We sent but this morning the physician
+in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no usual time, understanding his
+lordship's illness to be more dangerous than we had before apprehended.
+There is at no court in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most
+useful science than Doctor Masters, and he came from Us to our subject.
+Nevertheless, he found the gate of Sayes Court defended by men with
+culverins, as if it had been on the borders of Scotland, not in the
+vicinity of our court; and when he demanded admittance in our name, it
+was stubbornly refused. For this slight of a kindness, which had but too
+much of condescension in it, we will receive, at present at least, no
+excuse; and some such we suppose to have been the purport of my Lord of
+Sussex's message."
+
+This was uttered in a tone and with a gesture which made Lord Sussex's
+friends who were within hearing tremble. He to whom the speech was
+addressed, however, trembled not; but with great deference and humility,
+as soon as the Queen's passion gave him an opportunity, he replied, "So
+please your most gracious Majesty, I was charged with no apology from
+the Earl of Sussex."
+
+"With what were you then charged, sir?" said the Queen, with the
+impetuosity which, amid nobler qualities, strongly marked her character.
+"Was it with a justification?--or, God's death! with a defiance?"
+
+"Madam," said the young man, "my Lord of Sussex knew the offence
+approached towards treason, and could think of nothing save of securing
+the offender, and placing him in your Majesty's hands, and at your
+mercy. The noble Earl was fast asleep when your most gracious message
+reached him, a potion having been administered to that purpose by his
+physician; and his Lordship knew not of the ungracious repulse your
+Majesty's royal and most comfortable message had received, until after
+he awoke this morning."
+
+"And which of his domestics, then, in the name of Heaven, presumed
+to reject my message, without even admitting my own physician to
+the presence of him whom I sent him to attend?" said the Queen, much
+surprised.
+
+"The offender, madam, is before you," replied Walter, bowing very low;
+"the full and sole blame is mine; and my lord has most justly sent me
+to abye the consequences of a fault, of which he is as innocent as a
+sleeping man's dreams can be of a waking man's actions."
+
+"What! was it thou?--thou thyself, that repelled my messenger and my
+physician from Sayes Court?" said the Queen. "What could occasion such
+boldness in one who seems devoted--that is, whose exterior bearing shows
+devotion--to his Sovereign?"
+
+"Madam," said the youth--who, notwithstanding an assumed appearance
+of severity, thought that he saw something in the Queen's face that
+resembled not implacability--"we say in our country, that the physician
+is for the time the liege sovereign of his patient. Now, my noble master
+was then under dominion of a leech, by whose advice he hath greatly
+profited, who had issued his commands that his patient should not that
+night be disturbed, on the very peril of his life."
+
+"Thy master hath trusted some false varlet of an empiric," said the
+Queen.
+
+"I know not, madam, but by the fact that he is now--this very
+morning--awakened much refreshed and strengthened from the only sleep he
+hath had for many hours."
+
+The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see what
+each thought of this news, than to exchange any remarks on what had
+happened. The Queen answered hastily, and without affecting to disguise
+her satisfaction, "By my word, I am glad he is better. But thou wert
+over-bold to deny the access of my Doctor Masters. Knowest thou not the
+Holy Writ saith, 'In the multitude of counsel there is safety'?"
+
+"Ay, madam," said Walter; "but I have heard learned men say that the
+safety spoken of is for the physicians, not for the patient."
+
+"By my faith, child, thou hast pushed me home," said the Queen,
+laughing; "for my Hebrew learning does not come quite at a call.--How
+say you, my Lord of Lincoln? Hath the lad given a just interpretation of
+the text?"
+
+"The word SAFETY, most gracious madam," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "for
+so hath been translated, it may be somewhat hastily, the Hebrew word,
+being--"
+
+"My lord," said the Queen, interrupting him, "we said we had forgotten
+our Hebrew.--But for thee, young man, what is thy name and birth?"
+
+"Raleigh is my name, most gracious Queen, the youngest son of a large
+but honourable family of Devonshire."
+
+"Raleigh?" said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection. "Have we not
+heard of your service in Ireland?"
+
+"I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam," replied
+Raleigh; "scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to reach your
+Grace's ears."
+
+"They hear farther than you think of," said the Queen graciously, "and
+have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against a whole
+band of wild Irish rebels, until the stream ran purple with their blood
+and his own."
+
+"Some blood I may have lost," said the youth, looking down, "but it was
+where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's service."
+
+The Queen paused, and then said hastily, "You are very young to have
+fought so well, and to speak so well. But you must not escape your
+penance for turning back Masters. The poor man hath caught cold on the
+river for our order reached him when he was just returned from certain
+visits in London, and he held it matter of loyalty and conscience
+instantly to set forth again. So hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail
+not to wear thy muddy cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be
+further known. And here," she added, giving him a jewel of gold, in the
+form of a chess-man, "I give thee this to wear at the collar."
+
+Raleigh, to whom nature had taught intuitively, as it were, those
+courtly arts which many scarce acquire from long experience, knelt, and,
+as he took from her hand the jewel, kissed the fingers which gave it.
+He knew, perhaps, better than almost any of the courtiers who surrounded
+her, how to mingle the devotion claimed by the Queen with the gallantry
+due to her personal beauty; and in this, his first attempt to unite
+them, he succeeded so well as at once to gratify Elizabeth's personal
+vanity and her love of power. [See Note 5. Court favour of Sir Walter
+Raleigh.]
+
+His master, the Earl of Sussex, had the full advantage of the
+satisfaction which Raleigh had afforded Elizabeth, on their first
+interview.
+
+"My lords and ladies," said the Queen, looking around to the retinue by
+whom she was attended, "methinks, since we are upon the river, it were
+well to renounce our present purpose of going to the city, and surprise
+this poor Earl of Sussex with a visit. He is ill, and suffering
+doubtless under the fear of our displeasure, from which he hath been
+honestly cleared by the frank avowal of this malapert boy. What think
+ye? were it not an act of charity to give him such consolation as
+the thanks of a Queen, much bound to him for his loyal service, may
+perchance best minister?"
+
+It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech was addressed
+ventured to oppose its purport.
+
+"Your Grace," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "is the breath of our
+nostrils." The men of war averred that the face of the Sovereign was a
+whetstone to the soldier's sword; while the men of state were not less
+of opinion that the light of the Queen's countenance was a lamp to the
+paths of her councillors; and the ladies agreed, with one voice, that no
+noble in England so well deserved the regard of England's Royal Mistress
+as the Earl of Sussex--the Earl of Leicester's right being reserved
+entire, so some of the more politic worded their assent, an exception
+to which Elizabeth paid no apparent attention. The barge had, therefore,
+orders to deposit its royal freight at Deptford, at the nearest and most
+convenient point of communication with Sayes Court, in order that
+the Queen might satisfy her royal and maternal solicitude, by making
+personal inquiries after the health of the Earl of Sussex.
+
+Raleigh, whose acute spirit foresaw and anticipated important
+consequences from the most trifling events, hastened to ask the Queen's
+permission to go in the skiff; and announce the royal visit to his
+master; ingeniously suggesting that the joyful surprise might prove
+prejudicial to his health, since the richest and most generous cordials
+may sometimes be fatal to those who have been long in a languishing
+state.
+
+But whether the Queen deemed it too presumptuous in so young a courtier
+to interpose his opinion unasked, or whether she was moved by a
+recurrence of the feeling of jealousy which had been instilled into her
+by reports that the Earl kept armed men about his person, she desired
+Raleigh, sharply, to reserve his counsel till it was required of him,
+and repeated her former orders to be landed at Deptford, adding, "We
+will ourselves see what sort of household my Lord of Sussex keeps about
+him."
+
+"Now the Lord have pity on us!" said the young courtier to himself.
+"Good hearts, the Earl hath many a one round him; but good heads are
+scarce with us--and he himself is too ill to give direction. And Blount
+will be at his morning meal of Yarmouth herrings and ale, and Tracy
+will have his beastly black puddings and Rhenish; those thorough-paced
+Welshmen, Thomas ap Rice and Evan Evans, will be at work on their leek
+porridge and toasted cheese;--and she detests, they say, all coarse
+meats, evil smells, and strong wines. Could they but think of burning
+some rosemary in the great hall! but VOGUE LA GALERE, all must now be
+trusted to chance. Luck hath done indifferent well for me this morning;
+for I trust I have spoiled a cloak, and made a court fortune. May she do
+as much for my gallant patron!"
+
+The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and, amid the loud shouts of
+the populace, which her presence never failed to excite, the Queen,
+with a canopy borne over her head, walked, accompanied by her retinue,
+towards Sayes Court, where the distant acclamations of the people gave
+the first notice of her arrival. Sussex, who was in the act of advising
+with Tressilian how he should make up the supposed breach in the Queen's
+favour, was infinitely surprised at learning her immediate approach.
+Not that the Queen's custom of visiting her more distinguished nobility,
+whether in health or sickness, could be unknown to him; but the
+suddenness of the communication left no time for those preparations with
+which he well knew Elizabeth loved to be greeted, and the rudeness and
+confusion of his military household, much increased by his late illness,
+rendered him altogether unprepared for her reception.
+
+Cursing internally the chance which thus brought her gracious visitation
+on him unaware, he hastened down with Tressilian, to whose eventful and
+interesting story he had just given an attentive ear.
+
+"My worthy friend," he said, "such support as I can give your accusation
+of Varney, you have a right to expect, alike from justice and gratitude.
+Chance will presently show whether I can do aught with our Sovereign,
+or whether, in very deed, my meddling in your affair may not rather
+prejudice than serve you."
+
+Thus spoke Sussex while hastily casting around him a loose robe of
+sables, and adjusting his person in the best manner he could to meet the
+eye of his Sovereign. But no hurried attention bestowed on his apparel
+could remove the ghastly effects of long illness on a countenance which
+nature had marked with features rather strong than pleasing. Besides, he
+was low of stature, and, though broad-shouldered, athletic, and fit for
+martial achievements, his presence in a peaceful hall was not such as
+ladies love to look upon; a personal disadvantage, which was supposed to
+give Sussex, though esteemed and honoured by his Sovereign, considerable
+disadvantage when compared with Leicester, who was alike remarkable for
+elegance of manners and for beauty of person.
+
+The Earl's utmost dispatch only enabled him to meet the Queen as she
+entered the great hall, and he at once perceived there was a cloud
+on her brow. Her jealous eye had noticed the martial array of armed
+gentlemen and retainers with which the mansion-house was filled, and her
+first words expressed her disapprobation. "Is this a royal garrison, my
+Lord of Sussex, that it holds so many pikes and calivers? or have we by
+accident overshot Sayes Court, and landed at Our Tower of London?"
+
+Lord Sussex hastened to offer some apology.
+
+"It needs not," she said. "My lord, we intend speedily to take up a
+certain quarrel between your lordship and another great lord of our
+household, and at the same time to reprehend this uncivilized and
+dangerous practice of surrounding yourselves with armed, and even with
+ruffianly followers, as if, in the neighbourhood of our capital, nay in
+the very verge of our royal residence, you were preparing to wage civil
+war with each other.--We are glad to see you so well recovered, my lord,
+though without the assistance of the learned physician whom we sent
+to you. Urge no excuse; we know how that matter fell out, and we have
+corrected for it the wild slip, young Raleigh. By the way, my lord, we
+will speedily relieve your household of him, and take him into our own.
+Something there is about him which merits to be better nurtured than he
+is like to be amongst your very military followers."
+
+To this proposal Sussex, though scarce understanding how the Queen
+came to make it could only bow and express his acquiescence. He then
+entreated her to remain till refreshment could be offered, but in this
+he could not prevail. And after a few compliments of a much colder and
+more commonplace character than might have been expected from a step so
+decidedly favourable as a personal visit, the Queen took her leave
+of Sayes Court, having brought confusion thither along with her, and
+leaving doubt and apprehension behind.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+     Then call them to our presence.  Face to face,
+     And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
+     The accuser and accused freely speak;--
+     High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
+     In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.--RICHARD II.
+
+"I am ordered to attend court to-morrow," said Leicester, speaking to
+Varney, "to meet, as they surmise, my Lord of Sussex. The Queen intends
+to take up matters betwixt us. This comes of her visit to Sayes Court,
+of which you must needs speak so lightly."
+
+"I maintain it was nothing," said Varney; "nay, I know from a sure
+intelligencer, who was within earshot of much that was said, that Sussex
+has lost rather than gained by that visit. The Queen said, when she
+stepped into the boat, that Sayes Court looked like a guard-house, and
+smelt like an hospital. 'Like a cook's shop in Ram's Alley, rather,'
+said the Countess of Rutland, who is ever your lordship's good friend.
+And then my Lord of Lincoln must needs put in his holy oar, and say
+that my Lord of Sussex must be excused for his rude and old-world
+housekeeping, since he had as yet no wife."
+
+"And what said the Queen?" asked Leicester hastily.
+
+"She took him up roundly," said Varney, "and asked what my Lord Sussex
+had to do with a wife, or my Lord Bishop to speak on such a subject. 'If
+marriage is permitted,' she said, 'I nowhere read that it is enjoined.'"
+
+"She likes not marriages, or speech of marriage, among churchmen," said
+Leicester.
+
+"Nor among courtiers neither," said Varney; but, observing that
+Leicester changed countenance, he instantly added, "that all the ladies
+who were present had joined in ridiculing Lord Sussex's housekeeping,
+and in contrasting it with the reception her Grace would have assuredly
+received at my Lord of Leicester's."
+
+"You have gathered much tidings," said Leicester, "but you have
+forgotten or omitted the most important of all. She hath added another
+to those dangling satellites whom it is her pleasure to keep revolving
+around her."
+
+"Your lordship meaneth that Raleigh, the Devonshire youth," said
+Varney--"the Knight of the Cloak, as they call him at court?"
+
+"He may be Knight of the Garter one day, for aught I know," said
+Leicester, "for he advances rapidly--she hath capped verses with him,
+and such fooleries. I would gladly abandon, of my own free will, the
+part--I have in her fickle favour; but I will not be elbowed out of
+it by the clown Sussex, or this new upstart. I hear Tressilian is
+with Sussex also, and high in his favour. I would spare him for
+considerations, but he will thrust himself on his fate. Sussex, too, is
+almost as well as ever in his health."
+
+"My lord," replied Varney, "there will be rubs in the smoothest road,
+specially when it leads uphill. Sussex's illness was to us a godsend,
+from which I hoped much. He has recovered, indeed, but he is not now
+more formidable than ere he fell ill, when he received more than one
+foil in wrestling with your lordship. Let not your heart fail you, my
+lord, and all shall be well."
+
+"My heart never failed me, sir," replied Leicester.
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney; "but it has betrayed you right often. He
+that would climb a tree, my lord, must grasp by the branches, not by the
+blossom."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said Leicester impatiently; "I understand thy
+meaning--my heart shall neither fail me nor seduce me. Have my retinue
+in order--see that their array be so splendid as to put down, not only
+the rude companions of Ratcliffe, but the retainers of every other
+nobleman and courtier. Let them be well armed withal, but without any
+outward display of their weapons, wearing them as if more for fashion's
+sake than for use. Do thou thyself keep close to me, I may have business
+for you."
+
+The preparations of Sussex and his party were not less anxious than
+those of Leicester.
+
+"Thy Supplication, impeaching Varney of seduction," said the Earl to
+Tressilian, "is by this time in the Queen's hand--I have sent it through
+a sure channel. Methinks your suit should succeed, being, as it is,
+founded in justice and honour, and Elizabeth being the very muster of
+both. But--I wot not how--the gipsy" (so Sussex was wont to call his
+rival on account of his dark complexion) "hath much to say with her in
+these holyday times of peace. Were war at the gates, I should be one of
+her white boys; but soldiers, like their bucklers and Bilboa blades, get
+out of fashion in peace time, and satin sleeves and walking rapiers bear
+the bell. Well, we must be gay, since such is the fashion.--Blount, hast
+thou seen our household put into their new braveries? But thou knowest
+as little of these toys as I do; thou wouldst be ready enow at disposing
+a stand of pikes."
+
+"My good lord," answered Blount, "Raleigh hath been here, and taken that
+charge upon him--your train will glitter like a May morning. Marry, the
+cost is another question. One might keep an hospital of old soldiers at
+the charge of ten modern lackeys."
+
+"He must not count cost to-day, Nicholas," said the Earl in reply. "I
+am beholden to Raleigh for his care. I trust, though, he has remembered
+that I am an old soldier, and would have no more of these follies than
+needs must."
+
+"Nay, I understand nought about it," said Blount; "but here are your
+honourable lordship's brave kinsmen and friends coming in by scores to
+wait upon you to court, where, methinks, we shall bear as brave a front
+as Leicester, let him ruffle it as he will."
+
+"Give them the strictest charges," said Sussex, "that they suffer no
+provocation short of actual violence to provoke them into quarrel. They
+have hot bloods, and I would not give Leicester the advantage over me by
+any imprudence of theirs."
+
+The Earl of Sussex ran so hastily through these directions, that it was
+with difficulty Tressilian at length found opportunity to express his
+surprise that he should have proceeded so far in the affair of Sir Hugh
+Robsart as to lay his petition at once before the Queen. "It was the
+opinion of the young lady's friends," he said, "that Leicester's
+sense of justice should be first appealed to, as the offence had been
+committed by his officer, and so he had expressly told to Sussex."
+
+"This could have been done without applying to me," said Sussex,
+somewhat haughtily. "I at least, ought not to have been a counsellor
+when the object was a humiliating reference to Leicester; and I am
+suprised that you, Tressilian, a man of honour, and my friend, would
+assume such a mean course. If you said so, I certainly understood you
+not in a matter which sounded so unlike yourself."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "the course I would prefer, for my own sake,
+is that you have adopted; but the friends of this most unhappy lady--"
+
+"Oh, the friends--the friends," said Sussex, interrupting him; "they
+must let us manage this cause in the way which seems best. This is the
+time and the hour to accumulate every charge against Leicester and his
+household, and yours the Queen will hold a heavy one. But at all events
+she hath the complaint before her."
+
+Tressilian could not help suspecting that, in his eagerness to
+strengthen himself against his rival, Sussex had purposely adopted the
+course most likely to throw odium on Leicester, without considering
+minutely whether it were the mode of proceeding most likely to be
+attended with success. But the step was irrevocable, and Sussex escaped
+from further discussing it by dismissing his company, with the command,
+"Let all be in order at eleven o'clock; I must be at court and in the
+presence by high noon precisely."
+
+While the rival statesmen were thus anxiously preparing for their
+approaching meeting in the Queen's presence, even Elizabeth herself was
+not without apprehension of what might chance from the collision of
+two such fiery spirits, each backed by a strong and numerous body of
+followers, and dividing betwixt them, either openly or in secret, the
+hopes and wishes of most of her court. The band of Gentlemen Pensioners
+were all under arms, and a reinforcement of the yeomen of the guard
+was brought down the Thames from London. A royal proclamation was sent
+forth, strictly prohibiting nobles of whatever degree to approach the
+Palace with retainers or followers armed with shot or with long weapons;
+and it was even whispered that the High Sheriff of Kent had secret
+instructions to have a part of the array of the county ready on the
+shortest notice.
+
+The eventful hour, thus anxiously prepared for on all sides, at length
+approached, and, each followed by his long and glittering train of
+friends and followers, the rival Earls entered the Palace Yard of
+Greenwich at noon precisely.
+
+As if by previous arrangement, or perhaps by intimation that such was
+the Queen's pleasure, Sussex and his retinue came to the Palace from
+Deptford by water while Leicester arrived by land; and thus they entered
+the courtyard from opposite sides. This trifling circumstance gave
+Leicester a ascendency in the opinion of the vulgar, the appearance
+of his cavalcade of mounted followers showing more numerous and more
+imposing than those of Sussex's party, who were necessarily upon foot.
+No show or sign of greeting passed between the Earls, though each looked
+full at the other, both expecting perhaps an exchange of courtesies,
+which neither was willing to commence. Almost in the minute of their
+arrival the castle-bell tolled, the gates of the Palace were opened, and
+the Earls entered, each numerously attended by such gentlemen of their
+train whose rank gave them that privilege. The yeomen and inferior
+attendants remained in the courtyard, where the opposite parties eyed
+each other with looks of eager hatred and scorn, as if waiting with
+impatience for some cause of tumult, or some apology for mutual
+aggression. But they were restrained by the strict commands of their
+leaders, and overawed, perhaps, by the presence of an armed guard of
+unusual strength.
+
+In the meanwhile, the more distinguished persons of each train followed
+their patrons into the lofty halls and ante-chambers of the royal
+Palace, flowing on in the same current, like two streams which are
+compelled into the same channel, yet shun to mix their waters. The
+parties arranged themselves, as it were instinctively, on the different
+sides of the lofty apartments, and seemed eager to escape from the
+transient union which the narrowness of the crowded entrance had for an
+instant compelled them to submit to. The folding doors at the upper
+end of the long gallery were immediately afterwards opened, and it was
+announced in a whisper that the Queen was in her presence-chamber, to
+which these gave access. Both Earls moved slowly and stately towards
+the entrance--Sussex followed by Tressilian, Blount, and Raleigh, and
+Leicester by Varney. The pride of Leicester was obliged to give way to
+court-forms, and with a grave and formal inclination of the head, he
+paused until his rival, a peer of older creation than his own, passed
+before him. Sussex returned the reverence with the same formal civility,
+and entered the presence-room. Tressilian and Blount offered to follow
+him, but were not permitted, the Usher of the Black Rod alleging in
+excuse that he had precise orders to look to all admissions that day. To
+Raleigh, who stood back on the repulse of his companions, he said, "You,
+sir, may enter," and he entered accordingly.
+
+"Follow me close, Varney," said the Earl of Leicester, who had stood
+aloof for a moment to mark the reception of Sussex; and advancing to
+the entrance, he was about to pass on, when Varney, who was close behind
+him, dressed out in the utmost bravery of the day, was stopped by the
+usher, as Tressilian and Blount had been before him, "How is this,
+Master Bowyer?" said the Earl of Leicester. "Know you who I am, and that
+this is my friend and follower?"
+
+"Your lordship will pardon me," replied Bowyer stoutly; "my orders are
+precise, and limit me to a strict discharge of my duty."
+
+"Thou art a partial knave," said Leicester, the blood mounting to his
+face, "to do me this dishonour, when you but now admitted a follower of
+my Lord of Sussex."
+
+"My lord," said Bowyer, "Master Raleigh is newly admitted a sworn
+servant of her Grace, and to him my orders did not apply."
+
+"Thou art a knave--an ungrateful knave," said Leicester; "but he that
+hath done can undo--thou shalt not prank thee in thy authority long!"
+
+This threat he uttered aloud, with less than his usual policy and
+discretion; and having done so, he entered the presence-chamber, and
+made his reverence to the Queen, who, attired with even more than her
+usual splendour, and surrounded by those nobles and statesmen whose
+courage and wisdom have rendered her reign immortal, stood ready
+to receive the hommage of her subjects. She graciously returned the
+obeisance of the favourite Earl, and looked alternately at him and at
+Sussex, as if about to speak, when Bowyer, a man whose spirit could
+not brook the insult he had so openly received from Leicester, in the
+discharge of his office, advanced with his black rad in his hand, and
+knelt down before her.
+
+"Why, how now, Bowyer?" said Elizabeth, "thy courtesy seems strangely
+timed!"
+
+"My Liege Sovereign," he said, while every courtier around trembled
+at his audacity, "I come but to ask whether, in the discharge of mine
+office, I am to obey your Highness's commands, or those of the Earl of
+Leicester, who has publicly menaced me with his displeasure, and
+treated me with disparaging terms, because I denied entry to one of his
+followers, in obedience to your Grace's precise orders?"
+
+The spirit of Henry VIII. was instantly aroused in the bosom of his
+daughter, and she turned on Leicester with a severity which appalled
+him, as well as all his followers.
+
+"God's death! my lord." such was her emphatic phrase, "what means this?
+We have thought well of you, and brought you near to our person; but it
+was not that you might hide the sun from our other faithful subjects.
+Who gave you license to contradict our orders, or control our officers?
+I will have in this court, ay, and in this realm, but one mistress, and
+no master. Look to it that Master Bowyer sustains no harm for his duty
+to me faithfully discharged; for, as I am Christian woman and crowned
+Queen, I will hold you dearly answerable.--Go, Bowyer, you have done the
+part of an honest man and a true subject. We will brook no mayor of the
+palace here."
+
+Bowyer kissed the hand which she extended towards him, and withdrew
+to his post, astonished at the success of his own audacity. A smile
+of triumph pervaded the faction of Sussex; that of Leicester seemed
+proportionally dismayed, and the favourite himself, assuming an
+aspect of the deepest humility, did not even attempt a word in his own
+esculpation.
+
+He acted wisely; for it was the policy of Elizabeth to humble, not to
+disgrace him, and it was prudent to suffer her, without opposition or
+reply, to glory in the exertion of her authority. The dignity of
+the Queen was gratified, and the woman began soon to feel for the
+mortification which she had imposed on her favourite. Her keen eye also
+observed the secret looks of congratulation exchanged amongst those who
+favoured Sussex, and it was no part of her policy to give either party a
+decisive triumph.
+
+"What I say to my Lord of Leicester," she said, after a moment's pause,
+"I say also to you, my Lord of Sussex. You also must needs ruffle in the
+court of England, at the head of a faction of your own?"
+
+"My followers, gracious Princess," said Sussex, "have indeed ruffled in
+your cause in Ireland, in Scotland, and against yonder rebellious Earls
+in the north. I am ignorant that--"
+
+"Do you bandy looks and words with me, my lord?" said the Queen,
+interrupting him; "methinks you might learn of my Lord of Leicester the
+modesty to be silent, at least, under our censure. I say, my lord, that
+my grandfather and my father, in their wisdom, debarred the nobles of
+this civilized land from travelling with such disorderly retinues; and
+think you, that because I wear a coif, their sceptre has in my hand been
+changed into a distaff? I tell you, no king in Christendom will less
+brook his court to be cumbered, his people oppressed, and his kingdom's
+peace disturbed, by the arrogance of overgrown power, than she who now
+speaks with you.--My Lord of Leicester, and you, my Lord of Sussex, I
+command you both to be friends with each other; or by the crown I wear,
+you shall find an enemy who will be too strong for both of you!"
+
+"Madam," said the Earl of Leicester, "you who are yourself the fountain
+of honour know best what is due to mine. I place it at your disposal,
+and only say that the terms on which I have stood with my Lord of Sussex
+have not been of my seeking; nor had he cause to think me his enemy,
+until he had done me gross wrong."
+
+"For me, madam," said the Earl of Sussex, "I cannot appeal from your
+sovereign pleasure; but I were well content my Lord of Leicester should
+say in what I have, as he terms it, wronged him, since my tongue never
+spoke the word that I would not willingly justify either on foot or
+horseback.
+
+"And for me," said Leicester, "always under my gracious Sovereign's
+pleasure, my hand shall be as ready to make good my words as that of any
+man who ever wrote himself Ratcliffe."
+
+"My lords," said the Queen, "these are no terms for this presence; and
+if you cannot keep your temper, we will find means to keep both that and
+you close enough. Let me see you join hands, my lords, and forget your
+idle animosities."
+
+The two rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each unwilling
+to make the first advance to execute the Queen's will.
+
+"Sussex," said Elizabeth, "I entreat--Leicester, I command you."
+
+Yet, so were her words accented, that the entreaty sounded like command,
+and the command like entreaty. They remained still and stubborn, until
+she raised her voice to a height which argued at once impatience and
+absolute command.
+
+"Sir Henry Lee," she said, to an officer in attendance, "have a guard
+in present readiness, and man a barge instantly.--My Lords of Sussex and
+Leicester, I bid you once more to join hands; and, God's death! he that
+refuses shall taste of our Tower fare ere he sees our face again. I will
+lower your proud hearts ere we part, and that I promise, on the word of
+a Queen!"
+
+"The prison?" said Leicester, "might be borne, but to lose your Grace's
+presence were to lose light and life at once.--Here, Sussex, is my
+hand."
+
+"And here," said Sussex, "is mine in truth and honesty; but--"
+
+"Nay, under favour, you shall add no more," said the Queen. "Why, this
+is as it should be," she added, looking on them more favourably; "and
+when you the shepherds of the people, unite to protect them, it shall
+be well with the flock we rule over. For, my lords, I tell you plainly,
+your follies and your brawls lead to strange disorders among your
+servants.--My Lord of Leicester, you have a gentleman in your household
+called Varney?"
+
+"Yes, gracious madam," replied Leicester; "I presented him to kiss your
+royal hand when you were last at Nonsuch."
+
+"His outside was well enough," said the Queen, "but scarce so fair, I
+should have thought, as to have caused a maiden of honourable birth and
+hopes to barter her fame for his good looks, and become his paramour.
+Yet so it is; this fellow of yours hath seduced the daughter of a good
+old Devonshire knight, Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall, and she hath
+fled with him from her father's house like a castaway.--My Lord of
+Leicester, are you ill, that you look so deadly pale?"
+
+"No, gracious madam," said Leicester; and it required every effort he
+could make to bring forth these few words.
+
+"You are surely ill, my lord?" said Elizabeth, going towards him with
+hasty speech and hurried step, which indicated the deepest concern.
+"Call Masters--call our surgeon in ordinary.--Where be these loitering
+fools?--we lose the pride of our court through their negligence.--Or
+is it possible, Leicester," she continued, looking on him with a very
+gentle aspect, "can fear of my displeasure have wrought so deeply on
+thee? Doubt not for a moment, noble Dudley, that we could blame THEE
+for the folly of thy retainer--thee, whose thoughts we know to be far
+otherwise employed. He that would climb the eagle's nest, my lord, cares
+not who are catching linnets at the foot of the precipice."
+
+"Mark you that?" said Sussex aside to Raleigh. "The devil aids him
+surely; for all that would sink another ten fathom deep seems but to
+make him float the more easily. Had a follower of mine acted thus--"
+
+"Peace, my good lord," said Raleigh, "for God's sake, peace! Wait the
+change of the tide; it is even now on the turn."
+
+The acute observation of Raleigh, perhaps, did not deceive him; for
+Leicester's confusion was so great, and, indeed, for the moment, so
+irresistibly overwhelming, that Elizabeth, after looking at him with
+a wondering eye, and receiving no intelligible answer to the unusual
+expressions of grace and affection which had escaped from her, shot her
+quick glance around the circle of courtiers, and reading, perhaps, in
+their faces something that accorded with her own awakened suspicions,
+she said suddenly, "Or is there more in this than we see--or than you,
+my lord, wish that we should see? Where is this Varney? Who saw him?"
+
+"An it please your Grace," said Bowyer, "it is the same against whom I
+this instant closed the door of the presence-room."
+
+"An it please me?" repeated Elizabeth sharply, not at that moment in the
+humour of being pleased with anything.--"It does NOT please me that he
+should pass saucily into my presence, or that you should exclude from it
+one who came to justify himself from an accusation."
+
+"May it please you," answered the perplexed usher, "if I knew, in such
+case, how to bear myself, I would take heed--"
+
+"You should have reported the fellow's desire to us, Master Usher, and
+taken our directions. You think yourself a great man, because but now we
+chid a nobleman on your account; yet, after all, we hold you but as the
+lead-weight that keeps the door fast. Call this Varney hither instantly.
+There is one Tressilian also mentioned in this petition. Let them both
+come before us."
+
+She was obeyed, and Tressilian and Varney appeared accordingly. Varney's
+first glance was at Leicester, his second at the Queen. In the looks
+of the latter there appeared an approaching storm, and in the downcast
+countenance of his patron he could read no directions in what way he
+was to trim his vessel for the encounter. He then saw Tressilian, and
+at once perceived the peril of the situation in which he was placed.
+But Varney was as bold-faced and ready-witted as he was cunning and
+unscrupulous--a skilful pilot in extremity, and fully conscious of the
+advantages which he would obtain could he extricate Leicester from his
+present peril, and of the ruin that yawned for himself should he fail in
+doing so.
+
+"Is it true, sirrah," said the Queen, with one of those searching looks
+which few had the audacity to resist, "that you have seduced to infamy
+a young lady of birth and breeding, the daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of
+Lidcote Hall?"
+
+Varney kneeled down, and replied, with a look of the most profound
+contrition, "There had been some love passages betwixt him and Mistress
+Amy Robsart."
+
+Leicester's flesh quivered with indignation as he heard his dependant
+make this avowal, and for one moment he manned himself to step forward,
+and, bidding farewell to the court and the royal favour, confess the
+whole mystery of the secret marriage. But he looked at Sussex, and the
+idea of the triumphant smile which would clothe his cheek upon hearing
+the avowal sealed his lips. "Not now, at least," he thought, "or in this
+presence, will I afford him so rich a triumph." And pressing his lips
+close together, he stood firm and collected, attentive to each word
+which Varney uttered, and determined to hide to the last the secret on
+which his court-favour seemed to depend. Meanwhile, the Queen proceeded
+in her examination of Varney.
+
+"Love passages!" said she, echoing his last words; "what passages, thou
+knave? and why not ask the wench's hand from her father, if thou hadst
+any honesty in thy love for her?"
+
+"An it please your Grace," said Varney, still on his knees, "I dared not
+do so, for her father had promised her hand to a gentleman of birth and
+honour--I will do him justice, though I know he bears me ill-will--one
+Master Edmund Tressilian, whom I now see in the presence."
+
+"Soh!" replied the Queen. "And what was your right to make the simple
+fool break her worthy father's contract, through your love PASSAGES, as
+your conceit and assurance terms them?"
+
+"Madam," replied Varney, "it is in vain to plead the cause of human
+frailty before a judge to whom it is unknown, or that of love to one who
+never yields to the passion"--he paused an instant, and then added, in a
+very low and timid tone--"which she inflicts upon all others."
+
+Elizabeth tried to frown, but smiled in her own despite, as she
+answered, "Thou art a marvellously impudent knave. Art thou married to
+the girl?"
+
+Leicester's feelings became so complicated and so painfully intense,
+that it seemed to him as if his life was to depend on the answer made by
+Varney, who, after a moment's real hesitation, answered, "Yes."
+
+"Thou false villain!" said Leicester, bursting forth into rage, yet
+unable to add another word to the sentence which he had begun with such
+emphatic passion.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said the Queen, "we will, by your leave, stand between
+this fellow and your anger. We have not yet done with him.--Knew your
+master, my Lord of Leicester, of this fair work of yours? Speak truth, I
+command thee, and I will be thy warrant from danger on every quarter."
+
+"Gracious madam," said Varney, "to speak Heaven's truth, my lord was the
+cause of the whole matter."
+
+"Thou villain, wouldst thou betray me?" said Leicester.
+
+"Speak on," said the Queen hastily, her cheek colouring, and her eyes
+sparkling, as she addressed Varney--"speak on. Here no commands are
+heard but mine."
+
+"They are omnipotent, gracious madam," replied Varney; "and to you there
+can be no secrets.--Yet I would not," he added, looking around him,
+"speak of my master's concerns to other ears."
+
+"Fall back, my lords," said the Queen to those who surrounded her, "and
+do you speak on. What hath the Earl to do with this guilty intrigue of
+thine? See, fellow, that thou beliest him not!"
+
+"Far be it from me to traduce my noble patron," replied Varney; "yet
+I am compelled to own that some deep, overwhelming, yet secret feeling
+hath of late dwelt in my lord's mind, hath abstracted him from the
+cares of the household which he was wont to govern with such religious
+strictness, and hath left us opportunities to do follies, of which the
+shame, as in this case, partly falls upon our patron. Without this, I
+had not had means or leisure to commit the folly which has drawn on me
+his displeasure--the heaviest to endure by me which I could by any means
+incur, saving always the yet more dreaded resentment of your Grace."
+
+"And in this sense, and no other, hath he been accessory to thy fault?"
+said Elizabeth.
+
+"Surely, madam, in no other," replied Varney; "but since somewhat hath
+chanced to him, he can scarce be called his own man. Look at him,
+madam, how pale and trembling he stands! how unlike his usual majesty of
+manner!--yet what has he to fear from aught I can say to your Highness?
+Ah! madam, since he received that fatal packet!"
+
+"What packet, and from whence?" said the Queen eagerly.
+
+"From whence, madam, I cannot guess; but I am so near to his person that
+I know he has ever since worn, suspended around his neck and next to his
+heart, that lock of hair which sustains a small golden jewel shaped
+like a heart. He speaks to it when alone--he parts not from it when he
+sleeps--no heathen ever worshipped an idol with such devotion."
+
+"Thou art a prying knave to watch thy master so closely," said
+Elizabeth, blushing, but not with anger; "and a tattling knave to tell
+over again his fooleries.--What colour might the braid of hair be that
+thou pratest of?"
+
+Varney replied, "A poet, madam, might call it a thread from the golden
+web wrought by Minerva; but to my thinking it was paler than even the
+purest gold--more like the last parting sunbeam of the softest day of
+spring."
+
+"Why, you are a poet yourself, Master Varney," said the Queen, smiling.
+"But I have not genius quick enough to follow your rare metaphors. Look
+round these ladies--is there"--(she hesitated, and endeavoured to assume
+an air of great indifference)--"is there here, in this presence, any
+lady, the colour of whose hair reminds thee of that braid? Methinks,
+without prying into my Lord of Leicester's amorous secrets, I would
+fain know what kind of locks are like the thread of Minerva's web, or
+the--what was it?--the last rays of the May-day sun."
+
+Varney looked round the presence-chamber, his eye travelling from one
+lady to another, until at length it rested upon the Queen herself, but
+with an aspect of the deepest veneration. "I see no tresses," he said,
+"in this presence, worthy of such similies, unless where I dare not look
+on them."
+
+"How, sir knave?" said the Queen; "dare you intimate--"
+
+"Nay, madam," replied Varney, shading his eyes with his hand, "it was
+the beams of the May-day sun that dazzled my weak eyes."
+
+"Go to--go to," said the Queen; "thou art a foolish fellow"--and turning
+quickly from him she walked up to Leicester.
+
+Intense curiosity, mingled with all the various hopes, fears,
+and passions which influence court faction, had occupied the
+presence-chamber during the Queen's conference with Varney, as if with
+the strength of an Eastern talisman. Men suspended every, even the
+slightest external motion, and would have ceased to breathe, had Nature
+permitted such an intermission of her functions. The atmosphere was
+contagious, and Leicester, who saw all around wishing or fearing his
+advancement or his fall forgot all that love had previously dictated,
+and saw nothing for the instant but the favour or disgrace which
+depended on the nod of Elizabeth and the fidelity of Varney. He summoned
+himself hastily, and prepared to play his part in the scene which was
+like to ensue, when, as he judged from the glances which the Queen threw
+towards him, Varney's communications, be they what they might, were
+operating in his favour. Elizabeth did not long leave him in doubt; for
+the more than favour with which she accosted him decided his triumph in
+the eyes of his rival, and of the assembled court of England. "Thou hast
+a prating servant of this same Varney, my lord," she said; "it is lucky
+you trust him with nothing that can hurt you in our opinion, for believe
+me, he would keep no counsel."
+
+"From your Highness," said Leicester, dropping gracefully on one knee,
+"it were treason he should. I would that my heart itself lay before you,
+barer than the tongue of any servant could strip it."
+
+"What, my lord," said Elizabeth, looking kindly upon him, "is there no
+one little corner over which you would wish to spread a veil? Ah! I see
+you are confused at the question, and your Queen knows she should not
+look too deeply into her servants' motives for their faithful duty, lest
+she see what might, or at least ought to, displease her."
+
+Relieved by these last words, Leicester broke out into a torrent of
+expressions of deep and passionate attachment, which perhaps, at that
+moment, were not altogether fictitious. The mingled emotions which had
+at first overcome him had now given way to the energetic vigour with
+which he had determined to support his place in the Queen's favour;
+and never did he seem to Elizabeth more eloquent, more handsome, more
+interesting, than while, kneeling at her feet, he conjured her to strip
+him of all his dower, but to leave him the name of her servant.--"Take
+from the poor Dudley," he exclaimed, "all that your bounty has made him,
+and bid him be the poor gentleman he was when your Grace first shone on
+him; leave him no more than his cloak and his sword, but let him still
+boast he has--what in word or deed he never forfeited--the regard of his
+adored Queen and mistress!"
+
+"No, Dudley!" said Elizabeth, raising him with one hand, while she
+extended the other that he might kiss it. "Elizabeth hath not forgotten
+that, whilst you were a poor gentleman, despoiled of your hereditary
+rank, she was as poor a princess, and that in her cause you then
+ventured all that oppression had left you--your life and honour. Rise,
+my lord, and let my hand go--rise, and be what you have ever been, the
+grace of our court and the support of our throne! Your mistress may
+be forced to chide your misdemeanours, but never without owning your
+merits.--And so help me God," she added, turning to the audience, who,
+with various feelings, witnessed this interesting scene--"so help me
+God, gentlemen, as I think never sovereign had a truer servant than I
+have in this noble Earl!"
+
+A murmur of assent rose from the Leicestrian faction, which the friends
+of Sussex dared not oppose. They remained with their eyes fixed on the
+ground, dismayed as well as mortified by the public and absolute triumph
+of their opponents. Leicester's first use of the familiarity to
+which the Queen had so publicly restored him was to ask her commands
+concerning Varney's offence, "although," he said, "the fellow deserves
+nothing from me but displeasure, yet, might I presume to intercede--"
+
+"In truth, we had forgotten his matter," said the Queen; "and it was
+ill done of us, who owe justice to our meanest as well as to our highest
+subject. We are pleased, my lord, that you were the first to recall the
+matter to our memory.--Where is Tressilian, the accuser?--let him come
+before us."
+
+Tressilian appeared, and made a low and beseeming reference. His
+person, as we have elsewhere observed, had an air of grace and even of
+nobleness, which did not escape Queen Elizabeth's critical observation.
+She looked at him with, attention as he stood before her unabashed, but
+with an air of the deepest dejection.
+
+"I cannot but grieve for this gentleman," she said to Leicester. "I have
+inquired concerning him, and his presence confirms what I heard, that he
+is a scholar and a soldier, well accomplished both in arts and arms. We
+women, my lord, are fanciful in our choice--I had said now, to judge by
+the eye, there was no comparison to be held betwixt your follower and
+this gentleman. But Varney is a well-spoken fellow, and, to say truth,
+that goes far with us of the weaker sex.--look you, Master Tressilian, a
+bolt lost is not a bow broken. Your true affection, as I will hold it to
+be, hath been, it seems, but ill requited; but you have scholarship, and
+you know there have been false Cressidas to be found, from the Trojan
+war downwards. Forget, good sir, this Lady Light o' Love--teach your
+affection to see with a wiser eye. This we say to you, more from the
+writings of learned men than our own knowledge, being, as we are, far
+removed by station and will from the enlargement of experience in such
+idle toys of humorous passion. For this dame's father, we can make his
+grief the less by advancing his son-in-law to such station as may
+enable him to give an honourable support to his bride. Thou shalt not be
+forgotten thyself, Tressilian--follow our court, and thou shalt see
+that a true Troilus hath some claim on our grace. Think of what that
+arch-knave Shakespeare says--a plague on him, his toys come into my head
+when I should think of other matters. Stay, how goes it?
+
+
+     'Cressid was yours, tied with the bonds of heaven;
+     These bonds of heaven are slipt, dissolved, and loosed,
+     And with another knot five fingers tied,
+     The fragments of her faith are bound to Diomed.'
+
+You smile, my Lord of Southampton--perchance I make your player's verse
+halt through my bad memory. But let it suffice let there be no more of
+this mad matter."
+
+And as Tressilian kept the posture of one who would willingly be heard,
+though, at the same time, expressive of the deepest reverence, the Queen
+added with some impatience, "What would the man have? The wench
+cannot wed both of you? She has made her election--not a wise one
+perchance--but she is Varney's wedded wife."
+
+"My suit should sleep there, most gracious Sovereign," said Tressilian,
+"and with my suit my revenge. But I hold this Varney's word no good
+warrant for the truth."
+
+"Had that doubt been elsewhere urged," answered Varney, "my sword--"
+
+"THY sword!" interrupted Tressilian scornfully; "with her Grace's leave,
+my sword shall show--"
+
+"Peace, you knaves, both!" said the Queen; "know you where you
+are?--This comes of your feuds, my lords," she added, looking towards
+Leicester and Sussex; "your followers catch your own humour, and must
+bandy and brawl in my court and in my very presence, like so many
+Matamoros.--Look you, sirs, he that speaks of drawing swords in any
+other quarrel than mine or England's, by mine honour, I'll bracelet
+him with iron both on wrist and ankle!" She then paused a minute,
+and resumed in a milder tone, "I must do justice betwixt the bold and
+mutinous knaves notwithstanding.--My Lord of Leicester, will you warrant
+with your honour--that is, to the best of your belief--that your servant
+speaks truth in saying he hath married this Amy Robsart?"
+
+This was a home-thrust, and had nearly staggered Leicester. But he had
+now gone too far to recede, and answered, after a moment's hesitation,
+"To the best of my belief--indeed on my certain knowledge--she is a
+wedded wife."
+
+"Gracious madam," said Tressilian, "may I yet request to know, when and
+under what circumstances this alleged marriage--"
+
+"Out, sirrah," answered the Queen; "ALLEGED marriage! Have you not the
+word of this illustrious Earl to warrant the truth of what his servant
+says? But thou art a loser--thinkest thyself such at least--and thou
+shalt have indulgence; we will look into the matter ourself more at
+leisure.--My Lord of Leicester, I trust you remember we mean to taste
+the good cheer of your Castle of Kenilworth on this week ensuing. We
+will pray you to bid our good and valued friend, the Earl of Sussex, to
+hold company with us there."
+
+"If the noble Earl of Sussex," said Leicester, bowing to his rival with
+the easiest and with the most graceful courtesy, "will so far honour my
+poor house, I will hold it an additional proof of the amicable regard it
+is your Grace's desire we should entertain towards each other."
+
+Sussex was more embarrassed. "I should," said he, "madam, be but a clog
+on your gayer hours, since my late severe illness."
+
+"And have you been indeed so very ill?" said Elizabeth, looking on him
+with more attention than before; "you are, in faith, strangely altered,
+and deeply am I grieved to see it. But be of good cheer--we will
+ourselves look after the health of so valued a servant, and to whom we
+owe so much. Masters shall order your diet; and that we ourselves
+may see that he is obeyed, you must attend us in this progress to
+Kenilworth."
+
+This was said so peremptorily, and at the same time with so much
+kindness, that Sussex, however unwilling to become the guest of his
+rival, had no resource but to bow low to the Queen in obedience to
+her commands, and to express to Leicester, with blunt courtesy, though
+mingled with embarrassment, his acceptance of his invitation. As the
+Earls exchanged compliments on the occasion, the Queen said to her High
+Treasurer, "Methinks, my lord, the countenances of these our two noble
+peers resemble those of the two famed classic streams, the one so dark
+and sad, the other so fair and noble. My old Master Ascham would have
+chid me for forgetting the author. It is Caesar, as I think. See what
+majestic calmness sits on the brow of the noble Leicester, while Sussex
+seems to greet him as if he did our will indeed, but not willingly."
+
+"The doubt of your Majesty's favour," answered the Lord Treasurer, "may
+perchance occasion the difference, which does not--as what does?--escape
+your Grace's eye."
+
+"Such doubt were injurious to us, my lord," replied the Queen. "We hold
+both to be near and dear to us, and will with impartiality employ both
+in honourable service for the weal of our kingdom. But we will break
+their further conference at present.--My Lords of Sussex and Leicester,
+we have a word more with you. 'Tressilian and Varney are near your
+persons--you will see that they attend you at Kenilworth. And as we
+shall then have both Paris and Menelaus within our call, so we will
+have the same fair Helen also, whose fickleness has caused this
+broil.--Varney, thy wife must be at Kenilworth, and forthcoming at my
+order.--My Lord of Leicester, we expect you will look to this."
+
+The Earl and his follower bowed low and raised their heads, without
+daring to look at the Queen, or at each other, for both felt at the
+instant as if the nets and toils which their own falsehood had woven
+were in the act of closing around them. The Queen, however, observed
+not their confusion, but proceeded to say, "My Lords of Sussex and
+Leicester, we require your presence at the privy-council to be presently
+held, where matters of importance are to be debated. We will then take
+the water for our divertisement, and you, my lords, will attend us.--And
+that reminds us of a circumstance.--Do you, Sir Squire of the Soiled
+Cassock" (distinguishing Raleigh by a smile), "fail not to observe
+that you are to attend us on our progress. You shall be supplied with
+suitable means to reform your wardrobe."
+
+And so terminated this celebrated audience, in which, as throughout her
+life, Elizabeth united the occasional caprice of her sex with that sense
+and sound policy in which neither man nor woman ever excelled her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+     Well, then--our course is chosen--spread the sail--
+     Heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well--
+     Look to the helm, good master--many a shoal
+     Marks this stern coast, and rocks, where sits the Siren,
+     Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin.--THE SHIPWRECK.
+
+During the brief interval that took place betwixt the dismissal of the
+audience and the sitting of the privy-council, Leicester had time to
+reflect that he had that morning sealed his own fate. "It was impossible
+for him now," he thought, "after having, in the face of all that was
+honourable in England, pledged his truth (though in an ambiguous phrase)
+for the statement of Varney, to contradict or disavow it, without
+exposing himself, not merely to the loss of court-favour, but to the
+highest displeasure of the Queen, his deceived mistress, and to the
+scorn and contempt at once of his rival and of all his compeers." This
+certainty rushed at once on his mind, together with all the difficulties
+which he would necessarily be exposed to in preserving a secret which
+seemed now equally essential to his safety, to his power, and to his
+honour. He was situated like one who walks upon ice ready to give way
+around him, and whose only safety consists in moving onwards, by firm
+and unvacillating steps. The Queen's favour, to preserve which he
+had made such sacrifices, must now be secured by all means and at all
+hazards; it was the only plank which he could cling to in the tempest.
+He must settle himself, therefore, to the task of not only preserving,
+but augmenting the Queen's partiality--he must be the favourite of
+Elizabeth, or a man utterly shipwrecked in fortune and in honour. All
+other considerations must be laid aside for the moment, and he repelled
+the intrusive thoughts which forced on his mind the image of, Amy, by
+saying to himself there would be time to think hereafter how he was to
+escape from the labyrinth ultimately, since the pilot who sees a Scylla
+under his bows must not for the time think of the more distant dangers
+of Charybdis.
+
+In this mood the Earl of Leicester that day assumed his chair at the
+council table of Elizabeth; and when the hours of business were over,
+in this same mood did he occupy an honoured place near her during her
+pleasure excursion on the Thames. And never did he display to more
+advantage his powers as a politician of the first rank, or his parts as
+an accomplished courtier.
+
+It chanced that in that day's council matters were agitated touching the
+affairs of the unfortunate Mary, the seventh year of whose captivity in
+England was now in doleful currency. There had been opinions in favour
+of this unhappy princess laid before Elizabeth's council, and supported
+with much strength of argument by Sussex and others, who dwelt more upon
+the law of nations and the breach of hospitality than, however softened
+or qualified, was agreeable to the Queen's ear. Leicester adopted the
+contrary opinion with great animation and eloquence, and described the
+necessity of continuing the severe restraint of the Queen of Scots, as
+a measure essential to the safety of the kingdom, and particularly
+of Elizabeth's sacred person, the lightest hair of whose head, he
+maintained, ought, in their lordships' estimation, to be matter of more
+deep and anxious concern than the life and fortunes of a rival, who,
+after setting up a vain and unjust pretence to the throne of England,
+was now, even while in the bosom of her country, the constant hope and
+theme of encouragement to all enemies to Elizabeth, whether at home or
+abroad. He ended by craving pardon of their lordships, if in the zeal
+of speech he had given any offence, but the Queen's safety was a theme
+which hurried him beyond his usual moderation of debate.
+
+Elizabeth chid him, but not severely, for the weight which he attached
+unduly to her personal interests; yet she owned that, since it had been
+the pleasure of Heaven to combine those interests with the weal of
+her subjects, she did only her duty when she adopted such measures of
+self-preservation as circumstances forced upon her; and if the council
+in their wisdom should be of opinion that it was needful to continue
+some restraint on the person of her unhappy sister of Scotland, she
+trusted they would not blame her if she requested of the Countess of
+Shrewsbury to use her with as much kindness as might be consistent with
+her safe keeping. And with this intimation of her pleasure the council
+was dismissed.
+
+Never was more anxious and ready way made for "my Lord of Leicester,"
+than as he passed through the crowded anterooms to go towards the
+river-side, in order to attend her Majesty to her barge--never was
+the voice of the ushers louder, to "make room, make room for the
+noble Earl"--never were these signals more promptly and reverently
+obeyed--never were more anxious eyes turned on him to obtain a glance
+of favour, or even of mere recognition, while the heart of many a humble
+follower throbbed betwixt the desire to offer his congratulations, and
+the fear of intruding himself on the notice of one so infinitely above
+him. The whole court considered the issue of this day's audience,
+expected with so much doubt and anxiety, as a decisive triumph on the
+part of Leicester, and felt assured that the orb of his rival satellite,
+if not altogether obscured by his lustre, must revolve hereafter in a
+dimmer and more distant sphere. So thought the court and courtiers, from
+high to low; and they acted accordingly.
+
+On the other hand, never did Leicester return the general greeting with
+such ready and condescending courtesy, or endeavour more successfully
+to gather (in the words of one who at that moment stood at no great
+distance from him) "golden opinions from all sorts of men."
+
+For all the favourite Earl had a bow a smile at least, and often a kind
+word. Most of these were addressed to courtiers, whose names have long
+gone down the tide of oblivion; but some, to such as sound strangely in
+our ears, when connected with the ordinary matters of human life,
+above which the gratitude of posterity has long elevated them. A few of
+Leicester's interlocutory sentences ran as follows:--
+
+"Poynings, good morrow; and how does your wife and fair daughter? Why
+come they not to court?--Adams, your suit is naught; the Queen will
+grant no more monopolies. But I may serve you in another matter.--My
+good Alderman Aylford, the suit of the City, affecting Queenhithe,
+shall be forwarded as far as my poor interest can serve.--Master Edmund
+Spenser, touching your Irish petition, I would willingly aid you, from
+my love to the Muses; but thou hast nettled the Lord Treasurer."
+
+"My lord," said the poet, "were I permitted to explain--"
+
+"Come to my lodging, Edmund," answered the Earl "not to-morrow, or next
+day, but soon.--Ha, Will Shakespeare--wild Will!--thou hast given my
+nephew Philip Sidney, love-powder; he cannot sleep without thy Venus and
+Adonis under his pillow! We will have thee hanged for the veriest wizard
+in Europe. Hark thee, mad wag, I have not forgotten thy matter of the
+patent, and of the bears."
+
+The PLAYER bowed, and the Earl nodded and passed on--so that age would
+have told the tale; in ours, perhaps, we might say the immortal had done
+homage to the mortal. The next whom the favourite accosted was one of
+his own zealous dependants.
+
+"How now, Sir Francis Denning," he whispered, in answer to his exulting
+salutation, "that smile hath made thy face shorter by one-third than
+when I first saw it this morning.--What, Master Bowyer, stand you back,
+and think you I bear malice? You did but your duty this morning; and if
+I remember aught of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour."
+
+Then the Earl was approached, with several fantastic congees, by a
+person quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiously slashed
+and pinked with crimson satin. A long cock's feather in the velvet
+bonnet, which he held in his hand, and an enormous ruff; stiffened to
+the extremity of the absurd taste of the times, joined with a sharp,
+lively, conceited expression of countenance, seemed to body forth a
+vain, harebrained coxcomb, and small wit; while the rod he held, and
+an assumption of formal authority, appeared to express some sense
+of official consequence, which qualified the natural pertness of his
+manner. A perpetual blush, which occupied rather the sharp nose than the
+thin cheek of this personage, seemed to speak more of "good life," as
+it was called, than of modesty; and the manner in which he approached to
+the Earl confirmed that suspicion.
+
+"Good even to you, Master Robert Laneham," said Leicester, and seemed
+desirous to pass forward, without further speech.
+
+"I have a suit to your noble lordship," said the figure, boldly
+following him.
+
+"And what is it, good master keeper of the council-chamber door?"
+
+"CLERK of the council-chamber door," said Master Robert Laneham, with
+emphasis, by way of reply, and of correction.
+
+"Well, qualify thine office as thou wilt, man," replied the Earl; "what
+wouldst thou have with me?"
+
+"Simply," answered Laneham, "that your lordship would be, as heretofore,
+my good lord, and procure me license to attend the Summer Progress
+unto your lordship's most beautiful and all-to-be-unmatched Castle of
+Kenilworth."
+
+"To what purpose, good Master Laneham?" replied the Earl; "bethink you,
+my guests must needs be many."
+
+"Not so many," replied the petitioner, "but that your nobleness will
+willingly spare your old servitor his crib and his mess. Bethink you,
+my lord, how necessary is this rod of mine to fright away all those
+listeners, who else would play at bo-peep with the honourable council,
+and be searching for keyholes and crannies in the door of the chamber,
+so as to render my staff as needful as a fly-flap in a butcher's shop."
+
+"Methinks you have found out a fly-blown comparison for the honourable
+council, Master Laneham," said the Earl; "but seek not about to justify
+it. Come to Kenilworth, if you list; there will be store of fools there
+besides, and so you will be fitted."
+
+"Nay, an there be fools, my lord," replied Laneham, with much glee, "I
+warrant I will make sport among them, for no greyhound loves to cote a
+hare as I to turn and course a fool. But I have another singular favour
+to beseech of your honour."
+
+"Speak it, and let me go," said the Earl; "I think the Queen comes forth
+instantly."
+
+"My very good lord, I would fain bring a bed-fellow with me."
+
+"How, you irreverent rascal!" said Leicester.
+
+"Nay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons," answered his
+unblushing, or rather his ever-blushing petitioner. "I have a wife as
+curious as her grandmother who ate the apple. Now, take her with me
+I may not, her Highness's orders being so strict against the officers
+bringing with them their wives in a progress, and so lumbering the court
+with womankind. But what I would crave of your lordship is to find room
+for her in some mummery, or pretty pageant, in disguise, as it were; so
+that, not being known for my wife, there may be no offence."
+
+"The foul fiend seize ye both!" said Leicester, stung into
+uncontrollable passion by the recollections which this speech
+excited--"why stop you me with such follies?"
+
+The terrified clerk of the chamber-door, astonished at the burst of
+resentment he had so unconsciously produced, dropped his staff of office
+from his hand, and gazed on the incensed Earl with a foolish face of
+wonder and terror, which instantly recalled Leicester to himself.
+
+"I meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits thine
+office," said he hastily. "Come to Kenilworth, and bring the devil with
+thee, if thou wilt."
+
+"My wife, sir, hath played the devil ere now, in a Mystery, in Queen
+Mary's time; but me shall want a trifle for properties."
+
+"Here is a crown for thee," said the Earl,--"make me rid of thee--the
+great bell rings."
+
+Master Robert Laneham stared a moment at the agitation which he had
+excited, and then said to himself, as he stooped to pick up his staff
+of office, "The noble Earl runs wild humours to-day. But they who give
+crowns expect us witty fellows to wink at their unsettled starts; and,
+by my faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would finger them tightly!"
+[See Note 6. Robert Laneham.]
+
+Leicester moved hastily on, neglecting the courtesies he had hitherto
+dispensed so liberally, and hurrying through the courtly crowd, until
+he paused in a small withdrawing-room, into which he plunged to draw a
+moment's breath unobserved, and in seclusion.
+
+"What am I now," he said to himself, "that am thus jaded by the words
+of a mean, weather-beaten, goose-brained gull! Conscience, thou art a
+bloodhound, whose growl wakes us readily at the paltry stir of a rat
+or mouse as at the step of a lion. Can I not quit myself, by one
+bold stroke, of a state so irksome, so unhonoured? What if I kneel to
+Elizabeth, and, owning the whole, throw myself on her mercy?"
+
+As he pursued this train of thought, the door of the apartment opened,
+and Varney rushed in.
+
+"Thank God, my lord, that I have found you!" was his exclamation.
+
+"Thank the devil, whose agent thou art," was the Earl's reply.
+
+"Thank whom you will, my lord," replied Varney; "but hasten to the
+water-side. The Queen is on board, and asks for you."
+
+"Go, say I am taken suddenly ill," replied Leicester; "for, by Heaven,
+my brain can sustain this no longer!"
+
+"I may well say so," said Varney, with bitterness of expression, "for
+your place, ay, and mine, who, as your master of the horse, was to have
+attended your lordship, is already filled up in the Queen's barge. The
+new minion, Walter Raleigh, and our old acquaintance Tressilian were
+called for to fill our places just as I hastened away to seek you."
+
+"Thou art a devil, Varney," said Leicester hastily; "but thou hast the
+mastery for the present--I follow thee."
+
+Varney replied not, but led the way out of the palace, and towards the
+river, while his master followed him, as if mechanically; until, looking
+back, he said in a tone which savoured of familiarity at least, if not
+of authority, "How is this, my lord? Your cloak hangs on one side--your
+hose are unbraced--permit me--"
+
+"Thou art a fool, Varney, as well as a knave," said Leicester, shaking
+him off, and rejecting his officious assistance. "We are best thus, sir;
+when we require you to order our person, it is well, but now we want you
+not."
+
+So saying, the Earl resumed at once his air of command, and with it his
+self-possession--shook his dress into yet wilder disorder--passed before
+Varney with the air of a superior and master, and in his turn led the
+way to the river-side.
+
+The Queen's barge was on the very point of putting off, the seat
+allotted to Leicester in the stern, and that to his master of the horse
+on the bow of the boat, being already filled up. But on Leicester's
+approach there was a pause, as if the bargemen anticipated some
+alteration in their company. The angry spot was, however, on the Queen's
+cheek, as, in that cold tone with which superiors endeavour to veil
+their internal agitation, while speaking to those before whom it would
+be derogation to express it, she pronounced the chilling words, "We have
+waited, my Lord of Leicester."
+
+"Madam, and most gracious Princess," said Leicester, "you, who can
+pardon so many weaknesses which your own heart never knows, can best
+bestow your commiseration on the agitations of the bosom, which, for a
+moment, affect both head and limbs. I came to your presence a doubting
+and an accused subject; your goodness penetrated the clouds of
+defamation, and restored me to my honour, and, what is yet dearer, to
+your favour--is it wonderful, though for me it is most unhappy, that
+my master of the horse should have found me in a state which scarce
+permitted me to make the exertion necessary to follow him to this place,
+when one glance of your Highness, although, alas! an angry one, has had
+power to do that for me in which Esculapius might have failed?"
+
+"How is this?" said Elizabeth hastily, looking at Varney; "hath your
+lord been ill?"
+
+"Something of a fainting fit," answered the ready-witted Varney, "as
+your Grace may observe from his present condition. My lord's haste would
+not permit me leisure even to bring his dress into order."
+
+"It matters not," said Elizabeth, as she gazed on the noble face and
+form of Leicester, to which even the strange mixture of passions by
+which he had been so lately agitated gave additional interest; "make
+room for my noble lord. Your place, Master Varney, has been filled up;
+you must find a seat in another barge."
+
+Varney bowed, and withdrew.
+
+"And you, too, our young Squire of the Cloak," added she, looking at
+Raleigh, "must, for the time, go to the barge of our ladies of honour.
+As for Tressilian, he hath already suffered too much by the caprice of
+women that I should aggrieve him by my change of plan, so far as he is
+concerned."
+
+Leicester seated himself in his place in the barge, and close to the
+Sovereign. Raleigh rose to retire, and Tressilian would have been so
+ill-timed in his courtesy as to offer to relinquish his own place to his
+friend, had not the acute glance of Raleigh himself, who seemed no in
+his native element, made him sensible that so ready a disclamation of
+the royal favour might be misinterpreted. He sat silent, therefore,
+whilst Raleigh, with a profound bow, and a look of the deepest
+humiliation, was about to quit his place.
+
+A noble courtier, the gallant Lord Willoughby, read, as he thought,
+something in the Queen's face which seemed to pity Raleigh's real or
+assumed semblance of mortification.
+
+"It is not for us old courtiers," he said, "to hide the sunshine from
+the young ones. I will, with her Majesty's leave, relinquish for an
+hour that which her subjects hold dearest, the delight of her Highness's
+presence, and mortify myself by walking in starlight, while I forsake
+for a brief season the glory of Diana's own beams. I will take place
+in the boat which the ladies occupy, and permit this young cavalier his
+hour of promised felicity."
+
+The Queen replied, with an expression betwixt mirth and earnest, "If you
+are so willing to leave us, my lord, we cannot help the mortification.
+But, under favour, we do not trust you--old and experienced as you
+may deem yourself--with the care of our young ladies of honour. Your
+venerable age, my lord," she continued, smiling, "may be better assorted
+with that of my Lord Treasurer, who follows in the third boat, and by
+whose experience even my Lord Willoughby's may be improved."
+
+Lord Willoughby hid his disappointment under a smile--laughed, was
+confused, bowed, and left the Queen's barge to go on board my Lord
+Burleigh's. Leicester, who endeavoured to divert his thoughts from all
+internal reflection, by fixing them on what was passing around, watched
+this circumstance among others. But when the boat put off from the
+shore--when the music sounded from a barge which accompanied them--when
+the shouts of the populace were heard from the shore, and all reminded
+him of the situation in which he was placed, he abstracted his thoughts
+and feelings by a strong effort from everything but the necessity of
+maintaining himself in the favour of his patroness, and exerted his
+talents of pleasing captivation with such success, that the Queen,
+alternately delighted with his conversation, and alarmed for his health,
+at length imposed a temporary silence on him, with playful yet anxious
+care, lest his flow of spirits should exhaust him.
+
+"My lords," she said, "having passed for a time our edict of silence
+upon our good Leicester, we will call you to counsel on a gamesome
+matter, more fitted to be now treated of, amidst mirth and music, than
+in the gravity of our ordinary deliberations. Which of you, my lords,"
+said she, smiling, "know aught of a petition from Orson Pinnit,
+the keeper, as he qualifies himself, of our royal bears? Who stands
+godfather to his request?"
+
+"Marry, with Your Grace's good permission, that do I," said the Earl of
+Sussex. "Orson Pinnit was a stout soldier before he was so mangled by
+the skenes of the Irish clan MacDonough; and I trust your Grace will
+be, as you always have been, good mistress to your good and trusty
+servants."
+
+"Surely," said the Queen, "it is our purpose to be so, and in especial
+to our poor soldiers and sailors, who hazard their lives for little pay.
+We would give," she said, with her eyes sparkling, "yonder royal palace
+of ours to be an hospital for their use, rather than they should call
+their mistress ungrateful. But this is not the question," she said,
+her voice, which had been awakened by her patriotic feelings, once more
+subsiding into the tone of gay and easy conversation; "for this Orson
+Pinnit's request goes something further. He complains that, amidst the
+extreme delight with which men haunt the play-houses, and in especial
+their eager desire for seeing the exhibitions of one Will Shakespeare
+(whom I think, my lords, we have all heard something of), the manly
+amusement of bear-baiting is falling into comparative neglect, since men
+will rather throng to see these roguish players kill each other in
+jest, than to see our royal dogs and bears worry each other in bloody
+earnest.--What say you to this, my Lord of Sussex?"
+
+"Why, truly, gracious madam," said Sussex, "you must expect little from
+an old soldier like me in favour of battles in sport, when they are
+compared with battles in earnest; and yet, by my faith, I wish Will
+Shakespeare no harm. He is a stout man at quarter-staff, and single
+falchion, though, as I am told, a halting fellow; and he stood, they
+say, a tough fight with the rangers of old Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecot,
+when he broke his deer-park and kissed his keeper's daughter."
+
+"I cry you mercy, my Lord of Sussex," said Queen Elizabeth, interrupting
+him; "that matter was heard in council, and we will not have this
+fellow's offence exaggerated--there was no kissing in the matter, and
+the defendant hath put the denial on record. But what say you to his
+present practice, my lord, on the stage? for there lies the point, and
+not in any ways touching his former errors, in breaking parks, or the
+other follies you speak of."
+
+"Why, truly, madam," replied Sussex, "as I said before, I wish the
+gamesome mad fellow no injury. Some of his whoreson poetry (I crave your
+Grace's pardon for such a phrase) has rung in mine ears as if the lines
+sounded to boot and saddle. But then it is all froth and folly--no
+substance or seriousness in it, as your Grace has already well touched.
+What are half a dozen knaves, with rusty foils and tattered targets,
+making but a mere mockery of a stout fight, to compare to the royal game
+of bear-baiting, which hath been graced by your Highness's countenance,
+and that of your royal predecessors, in this your princely kingdom,
+famous for matchless mastiffs and bold bearwards over all Christendom?
+Greatly is it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if
+men should throng to hear the lungs of an idle player belch forth
+nonsensical bombast, instead of bestowing their pence in encouraging the
+bravest image of war that can be shown in peace, and that is the sports
+of the Bear-garden. There you may see the bear lying at guard, with his
+red, pinky eyes watching the onset of the mastiff, like a wily captain
+who maintains his defence that an assailant may be tempted to venture
+within his danger. And then comes Sir Mastiff, like a worthy champion,
+in full career at the throat of his adversary; and then shall Sir Bruin
+teach him the reward for those who, in their over-courage, neglect the
+policies of war, and, catching him in his arms, strain him to his breast
+like a lusty wrestler, until rib after rib crack like the shot of a
+pistolet. And then another mastiff; as bold, but with better aim and
+sounder judgment, catches Sir Bruin by the nether lip, and hangs fast,
+while he tosses about his blood and slaver, and tries in vain to shake
+Sir Talbot from his hold. And then--"
+
+"Nay, by my honour, my lord," said the Queen, laughing, "you have
+described the whole so admirably that, had we never seen a bear-baiting,
+as we have beheld many, and hope, with Heaven's allowance, to see many
+more, your words were sufficient to put the whole Bear-garden before our
+eyes.--But come, who speaks next in this case?--My Lord of Leicester,
+what say you?"
+
+"Am I then to consider myself as unmuzzled, please your Grace?" replied
+Leicester.
+
+"Surely, my lord--that is, if you feel hearty enough to take part in our
+game," answered Elizabeth; "and yet, when I think of your cognizance of
+the bear and ragged staff, methinks we had better hear some less partial
+orator."
+
+"Nay, on my word, gracious Princess," said the Earl, "though my brother
+Ambrose of Warwick and I do carry the ancient cognizance your Highness
+deigns to remember, I nevertheless desire nothing but fair play on all
+sides; or, as they say, 'fight dog, fight bear.' And in behalf of the
+players, I must needs say that they are witty knaves, whose rants and
+jests keep the minds of the commons from busying themselves with
+state affairs, and listening to traitorous speeches, idle rumours,
+and disloyal insinuations. When men are agape to see how Marlow,
+Shakespeare, and other play artificers work out their fanciful plots, as
+they call them, the mind of the spectators is withdrawn from the conduct
+of their rulers."
+
+"We would not have the mind of our subjects withdrawn from the
+consideration of our own conduct, my lord," answered Elizabeth; "because
+the more closely it is examined, the true motives by which we are guided
+will appear the more manifest."
+
+"I have heard, however, madam," said the Dean of St. Asaph's, an eminent
+Puritan, "that these players are wont, in their plays, not only to
+introduce profane and lewd expressions, tending to foster sin and
+harlotry; but even to bellow out such reflections on government, its
+origin and its object, as tend to render the subject discontented, and
+shake the solid foundations of civil society. And it seems to be,
+under your Grace's favour, far less than safe to permit these naughty
+foul-mouthed knaves to ridicule the godly for their decent gravity,
+and, in blaspheming heaven and slandering its earthly rulers, to set at
+defiance the laws both of God and man."
+
+"If we could think this were true, my lord," said Elizabeth, "we should
+give sharp correction for such offences. But it is ill arguing against
+the use of anything from its abuse. And touching this Shakespeare, we
+think there is that in his plays that is worth twenty Bear-gardens;
+and that this new undertaking of his Chronicles, as he calls them, may
+entertain, with honest mirth, mingled with useful instruction, not only
+our subjects, but even the generation which may succeed to us."
+
+"Your Majesty's reign will need no such feeble aid to make it remembered
+to the latest posterity," said Leicester. "And yet, in his way,
+Shakespeare hath so touched some incidents of your Majesty's happy
+government as may countervail what has been spoken by his reverence
+the Dean of St. Asaph's. There are some lines, for example--I would
+my nephew, Philip Sidney, were here; they are scarce ever out of his
+mouth--they are spoken in a mad tale of fairies, love-charms, and I wot
+not what besides; but beautiful they are, however short they may and
+must fall of the subject to which they bear a bold relation--and Philip
+murmurs them, I think, even in his dreams."
+
+"You tantalize us, my lord," said the Queen--"Master Philip Sidney is,
+we know, a minion of the Muses, and we are pleased it should be so.
+Valour never shines to more advantage than when united with the true
+taste and love of letters. But surely there are some others among our
+young courtiers who can recollect what your lordship has forgotten amid
+weightier affairs.--Master Tressilian, you are described to me as a
+worshipper of Minerva--remember you aught of these lines?"
+
+Tressilian's heart was too heavy, his prospects in life too fatally
+blighted, to profit by the opportunity which the Queen thus offered
+to him of attracting her attention; but he determined to transfer the
+advantage to his more ambitious young friend, and excusing himself
+on the score of want of recollection, he added that he believed the
+beautiful verses of which my Lord of Leicester had spoken were in the
+remembrance of Master Walter Raleigh.
+
+At the command of the Queen, that cavalier repeated, with accent and
+manner which even added to their exquisite delicacy of tact and beauty
+of description, the celebrated vision of Oberon:--
+
+
+     "That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),
+     Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
+     Cupid, allarm'd:  a certain aim he took
+     At a fair vestal, throned by the west;
+     And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
+     As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
+     But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
+     Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
+     And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
+     In maiden meditation, fancy free."
+
+The voice of Raleigh, as he repeated the last lines, became a little
+tremulous, as if diffident how the Sovereign to whom the homage was
+addressed might receive it, exquisite as it was. If this diffidence was
+affected, it was good policy; but if real, there was little occasion
+for it. The verses were not probably new to the Queen, for when was ever
+such elegant flattery long in reaching the royal ear to which it was
+addressed? But they were not the less welcome when repeated by such a
+speaker as Raleigh. Alike delighted with the matter, the manner, and
+the graceful form and animated countenance of the gallant young reciter,
+Elizabeth kept time to every cadence with look and with finger. When
+the speaker had ceased, she murmured over the last lines as if scarce
+conscious that she was overheard, and as she uttered the words,
+
+"In maiden meditation, fancy free," she dropped into the Thames the
+supplication of Orson Pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to find more
+favourable acceptance at Sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it.
+
+Leicester was spurred to emulation by the success of the young
+courtier's exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a
+high-mettled colt passes him on the way. He turned the discourse on
+shows, banquets, pageants, and on the character of those by whom these
+gay scenes were then frequented. He mixed acute observation with light
+satire, in that just proportion which was free alike from malignant
+slander and insipid praise. He mimicked with ready accent the manners of
+the affected or the clownish, and made his own graceful tone and manner
+seem doubly such when he resumed it. Foreign countries--their customs,
+their manners, the rules of their courts---the fashions, and even the
+dress of their ladies-were equally his theme; and seldom did he conclude
+without conveying some compliment, always couched in delicacy, and
+expressed with propriety, to the Virgin Queen, her court, and her
+government. Thus passed the conversation during this pleasure voyage,
+seconded by the rest of the attendants upon the royal person, in gay
+discourse, varied by remarks upon ancient classics and modern authors,
+and enriched by maxims of deep policy and sound morality, by the
+statesmen and sages who sat around and mixed wisdom with the lighter
+talk of a female court.
+
+When they returned to the Palace, Elizabeth accepted, or rather
+selected, the arm of Leicester to support her from the stairs where they
+landed to the great gate. It even seemed to him (though that might arise
+from the flattery of his own imagination) that during this short
+passage she leaned on him somewhat more than the slippiness of the
+way necessarily demanded. Certainly her actions and words combined to
+express a degree of favour which, even in his proudest day he had not
+till then attained. His rival, indeed, was repeatedly graced by the
+Queen's notice; but it was in manner that seemed to flow less from
+spontaneous inclination than as extorted by a sense of his merit. And in
+the opinion of many experienced courtiers, all the favour she showed
+him was overbalanced by her whispering in the ear of the Lady Derby that
+"now she saw sickness was a better alchemist than she before wotted
+of, seeing it had changed my Lord of Sussex's copper nose into a golden
+one."
+
+The jest transpired, and the Earl of Leicester enjoyed his triumph,
+as one to whom court-favour had been both the primary and the ultimate
+motive of life, while he forgot, in the intoxication of the moment, the
+perplexities and dangers of his own situation. Indeed, strange as it may
+appear, he thought less at that moment of the perils arising from his
+secret union, than of the marks of grace which Elizabeth from time to
+time showed to young Raleigh. They were indeed transient, but they were
+conferred on one accomplished in mind and body, with grace, gallantry,
+literature, and valour. An accident occurred in the course of the
+evening which riveted Leicester's attention to this object.
+
+The nobles and courtiers who had attended the Queen on her pleasure
+expedition were invited, with royal hospitality, to a splendid banquet
+in the hall of the Palace. The table was not, indeed, graced by the
+presence of the Sovereign; for, agreeable to her idea of what was at
+once modest and dignified, the Maiden Queen on such occasions was wont
+to take in private, or with one or two favourite ladies, her light and
+temperate meal. After a moderate interval, the court again met in the
+splendid gardens of the Palace; and it was while thus engaged that
+the Queen suddenly asked a lady, who was near to her both in place and
+favour, what had become of the young Squire Lack-Cloak.
+
+The Lady Paget answered, "She had seen Master Raleigh but two or
+three minutes since standing at the window of a small pavilion or
+pleasure-house, which looked out on the Thames, and writing on the glass
+with a diamond ring."
+
+"That ring," said the Queen, "was a small token I gave him to make
+amends for his spoiled mantle. Come, Paget, let us see what use he has
+made of it, for I can see through him already. He is a marvellously
+sharp-witted spirit." They went to the spot, within sight of which,
+but at some distance, the young cavalier still lingered, as the fowler
+watches the net which he has set. The Queen approached the window, on
+which Raleigh had used her gift to inscribe the following line:--
+
+
+     "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall."
+
+The Queen smiled, read it twice over, once with deliberation to Lady
+Paget, and once again to herself. "It is a pretty beginning," she said,
+after the consideration of a moment or two; "but methinks the muse
+hath deserted the young wit at the very outset of his task. It were
+good-natured--were it not, Lady Paget?--to complete it for him. Try your
+rhyming faculties."
+
+Lady Paget, prosaic from her cradle upwards as ever any lady of the
+bedchamber before or after her, disclaimed all possibility of assisting
+the young poet.
+
+"Nay, then, we must sacrifice to the Muses ourselves," said Elizabeth.
+
+"The incense of no one can be more acceptable," said Lady Paget; "and
+your Highness will impose such obligation on the ladies of Parnassus--"
+
+"Hush, Paget," said the Queen, "you speak sacrilege against the immortal
+Nine--yet, virgins themselves, they should be exorable to a Virgin
+Queen--and therefore--let me see how runs his verse--
+
+
+     'Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall.'
+
+Might not the answer (for fault of a better) run thus?--
+
+
+     'If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.'"
+
+The dame of honour uttered an exclamation of joy and surprise at so
+happy a termination; and certainly a worse has been applauded, even when
+coming from a less distinguished author.
+
+The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring, and saying, "We
+will give this gallant some cause of marvel when he finds his couplet
+perfected without his own interference," she wrote her own line beneath
+that of Raleigh.
+
+The Queen left the pavilion; but retiring slowly, and often looking
+back, she could see the young cavalier steal, with the flight of a
+lapwing, towards the place where he had seen her make a pause. "She
+stayed but to observe," as she said, "that her train had taken;" and
+then, laughing at the circumstance with the Lady Paget, she took the way
+slowly towards the Palace. Elizabeth, as they returned, cautioned her
+companion not to mention to any one the aid which she had given to the
+young poet, and Lady Paget promised scrupulous secrecy. It is to be
+supposed that she made a mental reservation in favour of Leicester,
+to whom her ladyship transmitted without delay an anecdote so little
+calculated to give him pleasure.
+
+Raleigh, in the meanwhile, stole back to the window, and read, with a
+feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him by the Queen
+in person to follow out his ambitious career, and returned to Sussex
+and his retinue, then on the point of embarking to go up the river,
+his heart beating high with gratified pride, and with hope of future
+distinction.
+
+The reverence due to the person of the Earl prevented any notice being
+taken of the reception he had met with at court, until they had landed,
+and the household were assembled in the great hall at Sayes Court; while
+that lord, exhausted by his late illness and the fatigues of the day,
+had retired to his chamber, demanding the attendance of Wayland, his
+successful physician. Wayland, however, was nowhere to be found; and
+while some of the party were, with military impatience, seeking him and
+cursing his absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him
+on his prospects of court-favour.
+
+He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive circumstance
+of the couplet to which Elizabeth had deigned to find a rhyme; but other
+indications had transpired, which plainly intimated that he had made
+some progress in the Queen's favour. All hastened to wish him joy on the
+mended appearance of his fortune--some from real regard, some, perhaps,
+from hopes that his preferment might hasten their own, and most from a
+mixture of these motives, and a sense that the countenance shown to any
+one of Sussex's household was, in fact, a triumph to the whole. Raleigh
+returned the kindest thanks to them all, disowning, with becoming
+modesty, that one day's fair reception made a favourite, any more than
+one swallow a summer. But he observed that Blount did not join in the
+general congratulation, and, somewhat hurt at his apparent unkindness,
+he plainly asked him the reason.
+
+Blount replied with equal sincerity--"My good Walter, I wish thee as
+well as do any of these chattering gulls, who are whistling and whooping
+gratulations in thine ear because it seems fair weather with thee. But
+I fear for thee, Walter" (and he wiped his honest eye), "I fear for thee
+with all my heart. These court-tricks, and gambols, and flashes of fine
+women's favour are the tricks and trinkets that bring fair fortunes to
+farthings, and fine faces and witty coxcombs to the acquaintance of dull
+block and sharp axes."
+
+So saying, Blount arose and left the hall, while Raleigh looked after
+him with an expression that blanked for a moment his bold and animated
+countenance.
+
+Stanley just then entered the hall, and said to Tressilian, "My lord is
+calling for your fellow Wayland, and your fellow Wayland is just come
+hither in a sculler, and is calling for you, nor will he go to my lord
+till he sees you. The fellow looks as he were mazed, methinks; I would
+you would see him immediately."
+
+Tressilian instantly left the hall, and causing Wayland Smith to be
+shown into a withdrawing apartment, and lights placed, he conducted the
+artist thither, and was surprised when he observed the emotion of his
+countenance.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Smith?" said Tressilian; "have you seen
+the devil?"
+
+"Worse, sir, worse," replied Wayland; "I have seen a basilisk. Thank
+God, I saw him first; for being so seen, and seeing not me, he will do
+the less harm."
+
+"In God's name, speak sense," said Tressilian, "and say what you mean."
+
+"I have seen my old master," said the artist. "Last night a friend whom
+I had acquired took me to see the Palace clock, judging me to be curious
+in such works of art. At the window of a turret next to the clock-house
+I saw my old master."
+
+"Thou must needs have been mistaken," said Tressilian.
+
+"I was not mistaken," said Wayland; "he that once hath his features by
+heart would know him amongst a million. He was anticly habited; but he
+cannot disguise himself from me, God be praised! as I can from him.
+I will not, however, tempt Providence by remaining within his ken.
+Tarleton the player himself could not so disguise himself but that,
+sooner or later, Doboobie would find him out. I must away to-morrow;
+for, as we stand together, it were death to me to remain within reach of
+him."
+
+"But the Earl of Sussex?" said Tressilian.
+
+"He is in little danger from what he has hitherto taken, provided
+he swallow the matter of a bean's size of the orvietan every morning
+fasting; but let him beware of a relapse."
+
+"And how is that to be guarded against?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Only by such caution as you would use against the devil," answered
+Wayland. "Let my lord's clerk of the kitchen kill his lord's meat
+himself, and dress it himself, using no spice but what he procures from
+the surest hands. Let the sewer serve it up himself, and let the master
+of my lord's household see that both clerk and sewer taste the dishes
+which the one dresses and the other serves. Let my lord use no perfumes
+which come not from well accredited persons; no unguents--no pomades.
+Let him, on no account, drink with strangers, or eat fruit with them,
+either in the way of nooning or otherwise. Especially, let him observe
+such caution if he goes to Kenilworth--the excuse of his illness, and
+his being under diet, will, and must, cover the strangeness of such
+practice."
+
+"And thou," said Tressilian, "what dost thou think to make of thyself?"
+
+"France, Spain, either India, East or West, shall be my refuge," said
+Wayland, "ere I venture my life by residing within ken of Doboobie,
+Demetrius, or whatever else he calls himself for the time."
+
+"Well," said Tressilian, "this happens not inopportunely. I had business
+for you in Berkshire, but in the opposite extremity to the place where
+thou art known; and ere thou hadst found out this new reason for living
+private, I had settled to send thee thither upon a secret embassage."
+
+The artist expressed himself willing to receive his commands, and
+Tressilian, knowing he was well acquainted with the outline of his
+business at court, frankly explained to him the whole, mentioned the
+agreement which subsisted betwixt Giles Gosling and him, and told
+what had that day been averred in the presence-chamber by Varney, and
+supported by Leicester.
+
+"Thou seest," he added, "that, in the circumstances in which I am
+placed, it behoves me to keep a narrow watch on the motions of these
+unprincipled men, Varney and his complices, Foster and Lambourne, as
+well as on those of my Lord Leicester himself, who, I suspect, is partly
+a deceiver, and not altogether the deceived in that matter. Here is my
+ring, as a pledge to Giles Gosling. Here is besides gold, which shall be
+trebled if thou serve me faithfully. Away down to Cumnor, and see what
+happens there."
+
+"I go with double good-will," said the artist, "first, because I serve
+your honour, who has been so kind to me; and then, that I may escape my
+old master, who, if not an absolute incarnation of the devil, has, at
+least, as much of the demon about him, in will, word, and action; as
+ever polluted humanity. And yet let him take care of me. I fly him now,
+as heretofore; but if, like the Scottish wild cattle, I am vexed by
+frequent pursuit, I may turn on him in hate and desperation. [A remnant
+of the wild cattle of Scotland are preserved at Chillingham Castle, near
+Wooler, in Northumberland, the seat of Lord Tankerville. They fly before
+strangers; but if disturbed and followed, they turn with fury on those
+who persist in annoying them.] Will your honour command my nag to be
+saddled? I will but give the medicine to my lord, divided in its proper
+proportions, with a few instructions. His safety will then depend on the
+care of his friends and domestics; for the past he is guarded, but let
+him beware of the future."
+
+Wayland Smith accordingly made his farewell visit to the Earl of Sussex,
+dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions concerning his
+diet, and left Sayes Court without waiting for morning.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+     The moment comes--
+     It is already come--when thou must write
+     The absolute total of thy life's vast sum.
+     The constellations stand victorious o'er thee,
+     The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions,
+     And tell thee, "Now's the time."
+     --SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN, BY COLERIDGE.
+
+When Leicester returned to his lodging, alter a day so important and so
+harassing, in which, after riding out more than one gale, and touching
+on more than one shoal, his bark had finally gained the harbour with
+banner displayed, he seemed to experience as much fatigue as a mariner
+after a perilous storm. He spoke not a word while his chamberlain
+exchanged his rich court-mantle for a furred night-robe, and when this
+officer signified that Master Varney desired to speak with his lordship,
+he replied only by a sullen nod. Varney, however, entered, accepting
+this signal as a permission, and the chamberlain withdrew.
+
+The Earl remained silent and almost motionless in his chair, his head
+reclined on his hand, and his elbow resting upon the table which stood
+beside him, without seeming to be conscious of the entrance or of the
+presence of his confidant. Varney waited for some minutes until he
+should speak, desirous to know what was the finally predominant mood of
+a mind through which so many powerful emotions had that day taken their
+course. But he waited in vain, for Leicester continued still silent,
+and the confidant saw himself under the necessity of being the first
+to speak. "May I congratulate your lordship," he said, "on the deserved
+superiority you have this day attained over your most formidable rival?"
+
+Leicester raised his head, and answered sadly, but without anger, "Thou,
+Varney, whose ready invention has involved me in a web of most mean
+and perilous falsehood, knowest best what small reason there is for
+gratulation on the subject."
+
+"Do you blame me, my lord," said Varney, "for not betraying, on the
+first push, the secret on which your fortunes depended, and which
+you have so oft and so earnestly recommended to my safe keeping? Your
+lordship was present in person, and might have contradicted me and
+ruined yourself by an avowal of the truth; but surely it was no part of
+a faithful servant to have done so without your commands."
+
+"I cannot deny it, Varney," said the Earl, rising and walking across the
+room; "my own ambition has been traitor to my love."
+
+"Say rather, my lord, that your love has been traitor to your greatness,
+and barred you from such a prospect of honour and power as the world
+cannot offer to any other. To make my honoured lady a countess, you have
+missed the chance of being yourself--"
+
+He paused, and seemed unwilling to complete the sentence.
+
+"Of being myself what?" demanded Leicester; "speak out thy meaning,
+Varney."
+
+"Of being yourself a KING, my lord," replied Varney; "and King of
+England to boot! It is no treason to our Queen to say so. It would have
+chanced by her obtaining that which all true subjects wish her--a lusty,
+noble, and gallant husband."
+
+"Thou ravest, Varney," answered Leicester. "Besides, our times have
+seen enough to make men loathe the Crown Matrimonial which men take from
+their wives' lap. There was Darnley of Scotland."
+
+"He!" said Varney; "a, gull, a fool, a thrice-sodden ass, who suffered
+himself to be fired off into the air like a rocket on a rejoicing day.
+Had Mary had the hap to have wedded the noble Earl ONCE destined to
+share her throne, she had experienced a husband of different metal; and
+her husband had found in her a wife as complying and loving as the mate
+of the meanest squire who follows the hounds a-horseback, and holds her
+husband's bridle as he mounts."
+
+"It might have been as thou sayest, Varney," said Leicester, a brief
+smile of self-satisfaction passing over his anxious countenance. "Henry
+Darnley knew little of women--with Mary, a man who knew her sex might
+have had some chance of holding his own. But not with Elizabeth, Varney
+for I thank God, when he gave her the heart of a woman, gave her the
+head of a man to control its follies. No, I know her. She will accept
+love-tokens, ay, and requite them with the like--put sugared sonnets
+in her bosom, ay, and answer them too--push gallantry to the very verge
+where it becomes exchange of affection; but she writes NIL ULTRA to all
+which is to follow, and would not barter one iota of her own supreme
+power for all the alphabet of both Cupid and Hymen."
+
+"The better for you, my lord," said Varney--"that is, in the case
+supposed, if such be her disposition; since you think you cannot aspire
+to become her husband. Her favourite you are, and may remain, if the
+lady at Cumnor place continues in her present obscurity."
+
+"Poor Amy!" said Leicester, with a deep sigh; "she desires so earnestly
+to be acknowledged in presence of God and man!"
+
+"Ay, but, my lord," said Varney, "is her desire reasonable? That is
+the question. Her religious scruples are solved; she is an honoured and
+beloved wife, enjoying the society of her husband at such times as his
+weightier duties permit him to afford her his company. What would she
+more? I am right sure that a lady so gentle and so loving would consent
+to live her life through in a certain obscurity--which is, after all,
+not dimmer than when she was at Lidcote Hall--rather than diminish the
+least jot of her lord's honours and greatness by a premature attempt to
+share them."
+
+"There is something in what thou sayest," said Leicester, "and her
+appearance here were fatal. Yet she must be seen at Kenilworth;
+Elizabeth will not forget that she has so appointed."
+
+"Let me sleep on that hard point," said Varney; "I cannot else perfect
+the device I have on the stithy, which I trust will satisfy the Queen
+and please my honoured lady, yet leave this fatal secret where it is now
+buried. Has your lordship further commands for the night?"
+
+"I would be alone," said Leicester. "Leave me, and place my steel casket
+on the table. Be within summons."
+
+Varney retired, and the Earl, opening the window of his apartment,
+looked out long and anxiously upon the brilliant host of stars which
+glimmered in the splendour of a summer firmament. The words burst from
+him as at unawares, "I had never more need that the heavenly bodies
+should befriend me, for my earthly path is darkened and confused."
+
+It is well known that the age reposed a deep confidence in the vain
+predictions of judicial astrology, and Leicester, though exempt from the
+general control of superstition, was not in this respect superior to his
+time, but, on the contrary, was remarkable for the encouragement which
+he gave to the professors of this pretended science. Indeed, the wish to
+pry into futurity, so general among the human race, is peculiarly to
+be found amongst those who trade in state mysteries and the dangerous
+intrigues and cabals of courts. With heedful precaution to see that it
+had not been opened, or its locks tampered with, Leicester applied a key
+to the steel casket, and drew from it, first, a parcel of gold pieces,
+which he put into a silk purse; then a parchment inscribed with
+planetary signs, and the lines and calculations used in framing
+horoscopes, on which he gazed intently for a few moments; and, lastly,
+took forth a large key, which, lifting aside the tapestry, he applied to
+a little, concealed door in the corner of the apartment, and opening it,
+disclosed a stair constructed in the thickness of the wall.
+
+"Alasco," said the Earl, with a voice raised, yet no higher raised than
+to be heard by the inhabitant of the small turret to which the stair
+conducted--"Alasco, I say, descend."
+
+"I come, my lord," answered a voice from above. The foot of an aged man
+was heard slowly descending the narrow stair, and Alasco entered the
+Earl's apartment. The astrologer was a little man, and seemed much
+advanced in age, for his heard was long and white, and reached over
+his black doublet down to his silken girdle. His hair was of the same
+venerable hue. But his eyebrows were as dark as the keen and piercing
+black eyes which they shaded, and this peculiarity gave a wild and
+singular cast to the physiognomy of the old man. His cheek was still
+fresh and ruddy, and the eyes we have mentioned resembled those of a
+rat in acuteness and even fierceness of expression. His manner was not
+without a sort of dignity; and the interpreter of the stars, though
+respectful, seemed altogether at his ease, and even assumed a tone
+of instruction and command in conversing with the prime favourite of
+Elizabeth.
+
+"Your prognostications have failed, Alasco," said the Earl, when they
+had exchanged salutations--"he is recovering."
+
+"My son," replied the astrologer, "let me remind you I warranted not
+his death; nor is there any prognostication that can be derived from
+the heavenly bodies, their aspects and their conjunctions, which is not
+liable to be controlled by the will of Heaven. ASTRA REGUNT HOMINES, SED
+REGIT ASTRA DEUS."
+
+"Of what avail, then, is your mystery?" inquired the Earl.
+
+"Of much, my son," replied the old man, "since it can show the
+natural and probable course of events, although that course moves in
+subordination to an Higher Power. Thus, in reviewing the horoscope which
+your Lordship subjected to my skill, you will observe that Saturn, being
+in the sixth House in opposition to Mars, retrograde in the House of
+Life, cannot but denote long and dangerous sickness, the issue whereof
+is in the will of Heaven, though death may probably be inferred. Yet if
+I knew the name of the party I would erect another scheme."
+
+"His name is a secret," said the Earl; "yet, I must own, thy
+prognostication hath not been unfaithful. He has been sick, and
+dangerously so, not, however, to death. But hast thou again cast my
+horoscope as Varney directed thee, and art thou prepared to say what the
+stars tell of my present fortune?"
+
+"My art stands at your command," said the old man; "and here, my son, is
+the map of thy fortunes, brilliant in aspect as ever beamed from those
+blessed signs whereby our life is influenced, yet not unchequered with
+fears, difficulties, and dangers."
+
+"My lot were more than mortal were it otherwise," said the Earl.
+"Proceed, father, and believe you speak with one ready to undergo his
+destiny in action and in passion as may beseem a noble of England."
+
+"Thy courage to do and to suffer must be wound up yet a strain higher,"
+said the old man. "The stars intimate yet a prouder title, yet an higher
+rank. It is for thee to guess their meaning, not for me to name it."
+
+"Name it, I conjure you--name it, I command you!" said the Earl, his
+eyes brightening as he spoke.
+
+"I may not, and I will not," replied the old man. "The ire of princes is
+as the wrath of the lion. But mark, and judge for thyself. Here Venus,
+ascendant in the House of Life, and conjoined with Sol, showers down
+that flood of silver light, blent with gold, which promises power,
+wealth, dignity, all that the proud heart of man desires, and in such
+abundance that never the future Augustus of that old and mighty Rome
+heard from his HARUSPICES such a tale of glory, as from this rich text
+my lore might read to my favourite son."
+
+"Thou dost but jest with me, father," said the Earl, astonished at the
+strain of enthusiasm in which the astrologer delivered his prediction.
+
+"Is it for him to jest who hath his eye on heaven, who hath his foot in
+the grave?" returned the old man solemnly.
+
+The Earl made two or three strides through the apartment, with his hand
+outstretched, as one who follows the beckoning signal of some phantom,
+waving him on to deeds of high import. As he turned, however, he caught
+the eye of the astrologer fixed on him, while an observing glance of
+the most shrewd penetration shot from under the penthouse of his shaggy,
+dark eyebrows. Leicester's haughty and suspicious soul at once caught
+fire. He darted towards the old man from the farther end of the lofty
+apartment, only standing still when his extended hand was within a foot
+of the astrologer's body.
+
+"Wretch!" he said, "if you dare to palter with me, I will have your skin
+stripped from your living flesh! Confess thou hast been hired to deceive
+and to betray me--that thou art a cheat, and I thy silly prey and
+booty!"
+
+The old man exhibited some symptoms of emotion, but not more than the
+furious deportment of his patron might have extorted from innocence
+itself.
+
+"What means this violence, my lord?" he answered, "or in what can I have
+deserved it at your hand?"
+
+"Give me proof," said the Earl vehemently, "that you have not tampered
+with mine enemies."
+
+"My lord," replied the old man, with dignity, "you can have no better
+proof than that which you yourself elected. In that turret I have spent
+the last twenty-four hours under the key which has been in your own
+custody. The hours of darkness I have spent in gazing on the heavenly
+bodies with these dim eyes, and during those of light I have toiled this
+aged brain to complete the calculation arising from their combinations.
+Earthly food I have not tasted--earthly voice I have not heard. You are
+yourself aware I had no means of doing so; and yet I tell you--I
+who have been thus shut up in solitude and study--that within these
+twenty-four hours your star has become predominant in the horizon, and
+either the bright book of heaven speaks false, or there must have been
+a proportionate revolution in your fortunes upon earth. If nothing has
+happened within that space to secure your power, or advance your favour,
+then am I indeed a cheat, and the divine art, which was first devised in
+the plains of Chaldea, is a foul imposture."
+
+"It is true," said Leicester, after a moment's reflection, "thou wert
+closely immured; and it is also true that the change has taken place in
+my situation which thou sayest the horoscope indicates."
+
+"Wherefore this distrust then, my son?" said the astrologer, assuming a
+tone of admonition; "the celestial intelligences brook not diffidence,
+even in their favourites."
+
+"Peace, father," answered Leicester, "I have erred in doubting thee.
+Not to mortal man, nor to celestial intelligence--under that which is
+supreme--will Dudley's lips say more in condescension or apology. Speak
+rather to the present purpose. Amid these bright promises thou hast said
+there was a threatening aspect. Can thy skill tell whence, or by whose
+means, such danger seems to impend?"
+
+"Thus far only," answered the astrologer, "does my art enable me to
+answer your query. The infortune is threatened by the malignant and
+adverse aspect, through means of a youth, and, as I think, a rival; but
+whether in love or in prince's favour, I know not nor can I give further
+indication respecting him, save that he comes from the western quarter."
+
+"The western--ha!" replied Leicester, "it is enough--the tempest
+does indeed brew in that quarter! Cornwall and Devon--Raleigh and
+Tressilian--one of them is indicated-I must beware of both. Father, if I
+have done thy skill injustice, I will make thee a lordly recompense."
+
+He took a purse of gold from the strong casket which stood before him.
+"Have thou double the recompense which Varney promised. Be faithful--be
+secret--obey the directions thou shalt receive from my master of the
+horse, and grudge not a little seclusion or restraint in my cause--it
+shall be richly considered.--Here, Varney--conduct this venerable man
+to thine own lodging; tend him heedfully in all things, but see that he
+holds communication with no one."
+
+Varney bowed, and the astrologer kissed the Earl's hand in token of
+adieu, and followed the master of the horse to another apartment, in
+which were placed wine and refreshments for his use.
+
+The astrologer sat down to his repast, while Varney shut two doors with
+great precaution, examined the tapestry, lest any listener lurked behind
+it, and then sitting down opposite to the sage, began to question him.
+
+"Saw you my signal from the court beneath?"
+
+"I did," said Alasco, for by such name he was at present called, "and
+shaped the horoscope accordingly."
+
+"And it passed upon the patron without challenge?" continued Varney.
+
+"Not without challenge," replied the old man, "but it did pass; and I
+added, as before agreed, danger from a discovered secret, and a western
+youth."
+
+"My lord's fear will stand sponsor to the one, and his conscience to the
+other, of these prognostications," replied Varney. "Sure never man chose
+to run such a race as his, yet continued to retain those silly scruples!
+I am fain to cheat him to his own profit. But touching your matters,
+sage interpreter of the stars, I can tell you more of your own fortune
+than plan or figure can show. You must be gone from hence forthwith."
+
+"I will not," said Alasco peevishly. "I have been too much hurried
+up and down of late--immured for day and night in a desolate
+turret-chamber. I must enjoy my liberty, and pursue my studies, which
+are of more import than the fate of fifty statesmen and favourites that
+rise and burst like bubbles in the atmosphere of a court."
+
+"At your pleasure," said Varney, with a sneer that habit had rendered
+familiar to his features, and which forms the principal characteristic
+which painters have assigned to that of Satan--"at your pleasure," he
+said; "you may enjoy your liberty and your studies until the daggers
+of Sussex's followers are clashing within your doublet and against your
+ribs." The old man turned pale, and Varney proceeded. "Wot you not he
+hath offered a reward for the arch-quack and poison-vender, Demetrius,
+who sold certain precious spices to his lordship's cook? What! turn you
+pale, old friend? Does Hali already see an infortune in the House of
+Life? Why, hark thee, we will have thee down to an old house of mine
+in the country, where thou shalt live with a hobnailed slave, whom thy
+alchemy may convert into ducats, for to such conversion alone is thy art
+serviceable."
+
+"It is false, thou foul-mouthed railer," said Alasco, shaking with
+impotent anger; "it is well known that I have approached more nearly
+to projection than any hermetic artist who now lives. There are not six
+chemists in the world who possess so near an approximation to the grand
+arcanum--"
+
+"Come, come," said Varney, interrupting him, "what means this, in the
+name of Heaven? Do we not know one another? I believe thee to be so
+perfect--so very perfect--in the mystery of cheating, that, having
+imposed upon all mankind, thou hast at length in some measure imposed
+upon thyself, and without ceasing to dupe others, hast become a species
+of dupe to thine own imagination. Blush not for it, man--thou art
+learned, and shalt have classical comfort:
+
+'Ne quisquam Ajacem possit superare nisi Ajax.'
+
+No one but thyself could have gulled thee; and thou hast gulled the
+whole brotherhood of the Rosy Cross besides--none so deep in the mystery
+as thou. But hark thee in thine ear: had the seasoning which spiced
+Sussex's broth wrought more surely, I would have thought better of the
+chemical science thou dost boast so highly."
+
+"Thou art an hardened villain, Varney," replied Alasco; "many will do
+those things who dare not speak of them."
+
+"And many speak of them who dare not do them," answered Varney. "But be
+not wroth--I will not quarrel with thee. If I did, I were fain to live
+on eggs for a month, that I might feed without fear. Tell me at once,
+how came thine art to fail thee at this great emergency?"
+
+"The Earl of Sussex's horoscope intimates," replied the astrologer,
+"that the sign of the ascendant being in combustion--"
+
+"Away with your gibberish," replied Varney; "thinkest thou it is the
+patron thou speakest with?"
+
+"I crave your pardon," replied the old man, "and swear to you I know but
+one medicine that could have saved the Earl's life; and as no man
+living in England knows that antidote save myself--moreover, as the
+ingredients, one of them in particular, are scarce possible to be come
+by, I must needs suppose his escape was owing to such a constitution of
+lungs and vital parts as was never before bound up in a body of clay."
+
+"There was some talk of a quack who waited on him," said Varney, after
+a moment's reflection. "Are you sure there is no one in England who has
+this secret of thine?"
+
+"One man there was," said the doctor, "once my servant, who might have
+stolen this of me, with one or two other secrets of art. But content
+you, Master Varney, it is no part of my policy to suffer such
+interlopers to interfere in my trade. He pries into no mysteries more,
+I warrant you, for, as I well believe, he hath been wafted to heaven on
+the wing of a fiery dragon--peace be with him! But in this retreat of
+mine shall I have the use of mine elaboratory?"
+
+"Of a whole workshop, man," said Varney; "for a reverend father abbot,
+who was fain to give place to bluff King Hal and some of his courtiers,
+a score of years since, had a chemist's complete apparatus, which he was
+obliged to leave behind him to his successors. Thou shalt there occupy,
+and melt, and puff, and blaze, and multiply, until the Green Dragon
+become a golden goose, or whatever the newer phrase of the brotherhood
+may testify."
+
+"Thou art right, Master Varney," said the alchemist setting his teeth
+close and grinding them together--"thou art right even in thy very
+contempt of right and reason. For what thou sayest in mockery may in
+sober verity chance to happen ere we meet again. If the most venerable
+sages of ancient days have spoken the truth--if the most learned of
+our own have rightly received it; if I have been accepted wherever I
+travelled in Germany, in Poland, in Italy, and in the farther Tartary,
+as one to whom nature has unveiled her darkest secrets; if I have
+acquired the most secret signs and passwords of the Jewish Cabala, so
+that the greyest beard in the synagogue would brush the steps to make
+them clean for me;--if all this is so, and if there remains but one
+step--one little step--betwixt my long, deep, and dark, and subterranean
+progress, and that blaze of light which shall show Nature watching her
+richest and her most glorious productions in the very cradle--one
+step betwixt dependence and the power of sovereignty--one step betwixt
+poverty and such a sum of wealth as earth, without that noble secret,
+cannot minister from all her mines in the old or the new-found world; if
+this be all so, is it not reasonable that to this I dedicate my future
+life, secure, for a brief period of studious patience, to rise above the
+mean dependence upon favourites, and THEIR favourites, by which I am now
+enthralled!"
+
+"Now, bravo! bravo! my good father," said Varney, with the usual
+sardonic expression of ridicule on his countenance; "yet all this
+approximation to the philosopher's stone wringeth not one single crown
+out of my Lord Leicester's pouch, and far less out of Richard Varney's.
+WE must have earthly and substantial services, man, and care not whom
+else thou canst delude with thy philosophical charlatanry."
+
+"My son Varney," said the alchemist, "the unbelief, gathered around thee
+like a frost-fog, hath dimmed thine acute perception to that which is a
+stumbling-block to the wise, and which yet, to him who seeketh knowledge
+with humility, extends a lesson so clear that he who runs may read.
+Hath not Art, thinkest thou, the means of completing Nature's imperfect
+concoctions in her attempts to form the precious metals, even as by
+art we can perfect those other operations of incubation, distillation,
+fermentation, and similar processes of an ordinary description, by
+which we extract life itself out of a senseless egg, summon purity and
+vitality out of muddy dregs, or call into vivacity the inert substance
+of a sluggish liquid?"
+
+"I have heard all this before," said Varney, "and my heart is proof
+against such cant ever since I sent twenty good gold pieces (marry,
+it was in the nonage of my wit) to advance the grand magisterium, all
+which, God help the while, vanished IN FUMO. Since that moment, when I
+paid for my freedom, I defy chemistry, astrology, palmistry, and every
+other occult art, were it as secret as hell itself, to unloose the
+stricture of my purse-strings. Marry, I neither defy the manna of Saint
+Nicholas, nor can I dispense with it. The first task must be to prepare
+some when thou gett'st down to my little sequestered retreat yonder, and
+then make as much gold as thou wilt."
+
+"I will make no more of that dose," said the alchemist, resolutely.
+
+"Then," said the master of the horse, "thou shalt be hanged for what
+thou hast made already, and so were the great secret for ever lost to
+mankind. Do not humanity this injustice, good father, but e'en bend
+to thy destiny, and make us an ounce or two of this same stuff; which
+cannot prejudice above one or two individuals, in order to gain lifetime
+to discover the universal medicine, which shall clear away all mortal
+diseases at once. But cheer up, thou grave, learned, and most melancholy
+jackanape! Hast thou not told me that a moderate portion of thy drug
+hath mild effects, no ways ultimately dangerous to the human frame, but
+which produces depression of spirits, nausea, headache, an unwillingness
+to change of place--even such a state of temper as would keep a bird
+from flying out of a cage were the door left open?"
+
+"I have said so, and it is true," said the alchemist. "This effect will
+it produce, and the bird who partakes of it in such proportion shall sit
+for a season drooping on her perch, without thinking either of the free
+blue sky, or of the fair greenwood, though the one be lighted by the
+rays of the rising sun, and the other ringing with the newly-awakened
+song of all the feathered inhabitants of the forest."
+
+"And this without danger to life?" said Varney, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Ay, so that proportion and measure be not exceeded; and so that one who
+knows the nature of the manna be ever near to watch the symptoms, and
+succour in case of need."
+
+"Thou shalt regulate the whole," said Varney. "Thy reward shall be
+princely, if thou keepest time and touch, and exceedest not the due
+proportion, to the prejudice of her health; otherwise thy punishment
+shall be as signal."
+
+"The prejudice of HER health!" repeated Alasco; "it is, then, a woman I
+am to use my skill upon?"
+
+"No, thou fool," replied Varney, "said I not it was a bird--a reclaimed
+linnet, whose pipe might soothe a hawk when in mid stoop? I see thine
+eye sparkle, and I know thy beard is not altogether so white as art has
+made it--THAT, at least, thou hast been able to transmute to silver. But
+mark me, this is no mate for thee. This caged bird is dear to one who
+brooks no rivalry, and far less such rivalry as thine, and her health
+must over all things be cared for. But she is in the case of
+being commanded down to yonder Kenilworth revels, and it is most
+expedient--most needful--most necessary that she fly not thither. Of
+these necessities and their causes, it is not needful that she should
+know aught; and it is to be thought that her own wish may lead her
+to combat all ordinary reasons which can be urged for her remaining a
+housekeeper."
+
+"That is but natural," said the alchemist with a strange smile,
+which yet bore a greater reference to the human character than the
+uninterested and abstracted gaze which his physiognomy had hitherto
+expressed, where all seemed to refer to some world distant from that
+which was existing around him.
+
+"It is so," answered Varney; "you understand women well, though it may
+have been long since you were conversant amongst them. Well, then, she
+is not to be contradicted; yet she is not to be humoured. Understand
+me--a slight illness, sufficient to take away the desire of removing
+from thence, and to make such of your wise fraternity as may be called
+in to aid, recommend a quiet residence at home, will, in one word, be
+esteemed good service, and remunerated as such."
+
+"I am not to be asked to affect the House of Life?" said the chemist.
+
+"On the contrary, we will have thee hanged if thou dost," replied
+Varney.
+
+"And I must," added Alasco, "have opportunity to do my turn, and all
+facilities for concealment or escape, should there be detection?"
+
+"All, all, and everything, thou infidel in all but the impossibilities
+of alchemy. Why, man, for what dost thou take me?"
+
+The old man rose, and taking a light walked towards the end of the
+apartment, where was a door that led to the small sleeping-room destined
+for his reception during the night. At the door he turned round, and
+slowly repeated Varney's question ere he answered it. "For what do
+I take thee, Richard Varney? Why, for a worse devil than I have been
+myself. But I am in your toils, and I must serve you till my term be
+out."
+
+"Well, well," answered Varney hastily, "be stirring with grey light.
+It may be we shall not need thy medicine--do nought till I myself
+come down. Michael Lambourne shall guide you to the place of your
+destination." [See Note 7. Dr. Julio.]
+
+When Varney heard the adept's door shut and carefully bolted within, he
+stepped towards it, and with similar precaution carefully locked it
+on the outside, and took the key from the lock, muttering to himself,
+"Worse than THEE, thou poisoning quacksalver and witch-monger, who,
+if thou art not a bounden slave to the devil, it is only because he
+disdains such an apprentice! I am a mortal man, and seek by mortal means
+the gratification of my passions and advancement of my prospects; thou
+art a vassal of hell itself--So ho, Lambourne!" he called at another
+door, and Michael made his appearance with a flushed cheek and an
+unsteady step.
+
+"Thou art drunk, thou villain!" said Varney to him.
+
+"Doubtless, noble sir," replied the unabashed Michael; "We have been
+drinking all even to the glories of the day, and to my noble Lord of
+Leicester and his valiant master of the horse. Drunk! odds blades and
+poniards, he that would refuse to swallow a dozen healths on such an
+evening is a base besognio, and a puckfoist, and shall swallow six
+inches of my dagger!"
+
+"Hark ye, scoundrel," said Varney, "be sober on the instant--I command
+thee. I know thou canst throw off thy drunken folly, like a fool's coat,
+at pleasure; and if not, it were the worse for thee."
+
+Lambourne drooped his head, left the apartment, and returned in two or
+three minutes with his face composed, his hair adjusted, his dress in
+order, and exhibiting as great a difference from his former self as if
+the whole man had been changed.
+
+"Art thou sober now, and dost thou comprehend me?" said Varney sternly.
+
+Lambourne bowed in acquiescence.
+
+"Thou must presently down to Cumnor Place with the reverend man of art
+who sleeps yonder in the little vaulted chamber. Here is the key, that
+thou mayest call him by times. Take another trusty fellow with you. Use
+him well on the journey, but let him not escape you--pistol him if he
+attempt it, and I will be your warrant. I will give thee letters to
+Foster. The doctor is to occupy the lower apartments of the eastern
+quadrangle, with freedom to use the old elaboratory and its implements.
+He is to have no access to the lady, but such as I shall point out--only
+she may be amused to see his philosophical jugglery. Thou wilt await
+at Cumnor Place my further orders; and, as thou livest, beware of the
+ale-bench and the aqua vitae flask. Each breath drawn in Cumnor Place
+must be kept severed from common air."
+
+"Enough, my lord--I mean my worshipful master, soon, I trust, to be my
+worshipful knightly master. You have given me my lesson and my license;
+I will execute the one, and not abuse the other. I will be in the saddle
+by daybreak."
+
+"Do so, and deserve favour. Stay--ere thou goest fill me a cup of
+wine--not out of that flask, sirrah," as Lambourne was pouring out from
+that which Alasco had left half finished, "fetch me a fresh one."
+
+Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the liquor,
+drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to retreat to his
+sleeping apartment, "It is strange--I am as little the slave of fancy
+as any one, yet I never speak for a few minutes with this fellow Alasco,
+but my mouth and lungs feel as if soiled with the fumes of calcined
+arsenic--pah!"
+
+So saying, he left the apartment. Lambourne lingered, to drink a cup of
+the freshly-opened flask. "It is from Saint John's-Berg," he said, as he
+paused on the draught to enjoy its flavour, "and has the true relish of
+the violet. But I must forbear it now, that I may one day drink it at my
+own pleasure." And he quaffed a goblet of water to quench the fumes of
+the Rhenish wine, retired slowly towards the door, made a pause, and
+then, finding the temptation irresistible, walked hastily back, and took
+another long pull at the wine flask, without the formality of a cup.
+
+"Were it not for this accursed custom," he said, "I might climb as high
+as Varney himself. But who can climb when the room turns round with
+him like a parish-top? I would the distance were greater, or the road
+rougher, betwixt my hand and mouth! But I will drink nothing to-morrow
+save water--nothing save fair water."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     PISTOL.  And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
+     And happy news of price.
+     FALSTAFF.  I prithee now deliver them like to men of this world.
+     PISTOL.  A foutra for the world, and worldlings base!
+     I speak of Africa, and golden joys.    --HENRY IV. PART II.
+
+The public room of the Black Bear at Cumnor, to which the scene of
+our story now returns, boasted, on the evening which we treat of,
+no ordinary assemblage of guests. There had been a fair in the
+neighbourhood, and the cutting mercer of Abingdon, with some of the
+other personages whom the reader has already been made acquainted with,
+as friends and customers of Giles Gosling, had already formed their
+wonted circle around the evening fire, and were talking over the news of
+the day.
+
+A lively, bustling, arch fellow, whose pack, and oaken ellwand studded
+duly with brass points, denoted him to be of Autolycus's profession,
+occupied a good deal of the attention, and furnished much of the
+amusement, of the evening. The pedlars of those days, it must be
+remembered, were men of far greater importance than the degenerate
+and degraded hawkers of our modern times. It was by means of these
+peripatetic venders that the country trade, in the finer manufactures
+used in female dress particularly, was almost entirely carried on; and
+if a merchant of this description arrived at the dignity of travelling
+with a pack-horse, he was a person of no small consequence, and company
+for the most substantial yeoman or franklin whom he might meet in his
+wanderings.
+
+The pedlar of whom we speak bore, accordingly, an active and unrebuked
+share in the merriment to which the rafters of the bonny Black Bear
+of Cumnor resounded. He had his smile with pretty Mistress Cicely, his
+broad laugh with mine host, and his jest upon dashing Master Goldthred,
+who, though indeed without any such benevolent intention on his own
+part, was the general butt of the evening. The pedlar and he were
+closely engaged in a dispute upon the preference due to the Spanish
+nether-stock over the black Gascoigne hose, and mine host had just
+winked to the guests around him, as who should say, "You will have mirth
+presently, my masters," when the trampling of horses was heard in the
+courtyard, and the hostler was loudly summoned, with a few of the newest
+oaths then in vogue to add force to the invocation. Out tumbled Will
+Hostler, John Tapster, and all the militia of the inn, who had slunk
+from their posts in order to collect some scattered crumbs of the mirth
+which was flying about among the customers. Out into the yard sallied
+mine host himself also, to do fitting salutation to his new guests; and
+presently returned, ushering into the apartment his own worthy nephew,
+Michael Lambourne, pretty tolerably drunk, and having under his escort
+the astrologer. Alasco, though still a little old man, had, by altering
+his gown to a riding-dress, trimming his beard and eyebrows, and so
+forth, struck at least a score of years from his apparent age, and
+might now seem an active man of sixty, or little upwards. He appeared at
+present exceedingly anxious, and had insisted much with Lambourne that
+they should not enter the inn, but go straight forward to the place of
+their destination. But Lambourne would not be controlled. "By Cancer and
+Capricorn," he vociferated, "and the whole heavenly host, besides all
+the stars that these blessed eyes of mine have seen sparkle in the
+southern heavens, to which these northern blinkers are but farthing
+candles, I will be unkindly for no one's humour--I will stay and salute
+my worthy uncle here. Chesu! that good blood should ever be forgotten
+betwixt friends!--A gallon of your best, uncle, and let it go round to
+the health of the noble Earl of Leicester! What! shall we not collogue
+together, and warm the cockles of our ancient kindness?--shall we not
+collogue, I say?"
+
+"With all my heart, kinsman," said mine host, who obviously wished to be
+rid of him; "but are you to stand shot to all this good liquor?"
+
+This is a question has quelled many a jovial toper, but it moved not
+the purpose of Lambourne's soul, "Question my means, nuncle?" he said,
+producing a handful of mixed gold and silver pieces; "question Mexico
+and Peru--question the Queen's exchequer--God save her Majesty!--she is
+my good Lord's good mistress."
+
+"Well, kinsman," said mine host, "it is my business to sell wine to
+those who can buy it--so, Jack Tapster, do me thine office. But I would
+I knew how to come by money as lightly as thou dost, Mike."
+
+"Why, uncle," said Lambourne, "I will tell thee a secret. Dost see this
+little old fellow here? as old and withered a chip as ever the devil put
+into his porridge--and yet, uncle, between you and me--he hath Potosi
+in that brain of his--'sblood! he can coin ducats faster than I can vent
+oaths."
+
+"I will have none of his coinage in my purse, though, Michael," said
+mine host; "I know what belongs to falsifying the Queen's coin."
+
+"Thou art an ass, uncle, for as old as thou art.--Pull me not by the
+skirts, doctor, thou art an ass thyself to boot--so, being both asses, I
+tell ye I spoke but metaphorically."
+
+"Are you mad?" said the old man; "is the devil in you? Can you not let
+us begone without drawing all men's eyes on us?"
+
+"Sayest thou?" said Lambourne. "Thou art deceived now--no man shall see
+you, an I give the word.--By heavens, masters, an any one dare to look
+on this old gentleman, I will slash the eyes out of his head with
+my poniard!--So sit down, old friend, and be merry; these are mine
+ingles--mine ancient inmates, and will betray no man."
+
+"Had you not better withdraw to a private apartment, nephew?" said
+Giles Gosling. "You speak strange matter," he added, "and there be
+intelligencers everywhere."
+
+"I care not for them," said the magnanimous Michael--"intelligencers?
+pshaw! I serve the noble Earl of Leicester.--Here comes the wine.--Fill
+round, Master Skinker, a carouse to the health of the flower of England,
+the noble Earl of Leicester! I say, the noble Earl of Leicester! He that
+does me not reason is a swine of Sussex, and I'll make him kneel to the
+pledge, if I should cut his hams and smoke them for bacon."
+
+None disputed a pledge given under such formidable penalties; and
+Michael Lambourne, whose drunken humour was not of course diminished
+by this new potation, went on in the same wild way, renewing his
+acquaintance with such of the guests as he had formerly known, and
+experiencing a reception in which there was now something of deference
+mingled with a good deal of fear; for the least servitor of the
+favourite Earl, especially such a man as Lambourne, was, for very
+sufficient reasons, an object both of the one and of the other.
+
+In the meanwhile, the old man, seeing his guide in this uncontrollable
+humour, ceased to remonstrate with him, and sitting down in the most
+obscure corner of the room, called for a small measure of sack, over
+which he seemed, as it were, to slumber, withdrawing himself as much as
+possible from general observation, and doing nothing which could recall
+his existence to the recollection of his fellow-traveller, who by this
+time had got into close intimacy with his ancient comrade, Goldthred of
+Abingdon.
+
+"Never believe me, bully Mike," said the mercer, "if I am not as glad to
+see thee as ever I was to see a customer's money! Why, thou canst give
+a friend a sly place at a mask or a revel now, Mike; ay, or, I warrant
+thee, thou canst say in my lord's ear, when my honourable lord is down
+in these parts, and wants a Spanish ruff or the like--thou canst say in
+his ear, There is mine old friend, young Lawrence Goldthred of Abingdon,
+has as good wares, lawn, tiffany, cambric, and so forth--ay, and is as
+pretty a piece of man's flesh, too, as is in Berkshire, and will ruffle
+it for your lordship with any man of his inches; and thou mayest say--"
+
+"I can say a hundred d--d lies besides, mercer," answered Lambourne;
+"what, one must not stand upon a good word for a friend!"
+
+"Here is to thee, Mike, with all my heart," said the mercer; "and thou
+canst tell one the reality of the new fashions too. Here was a rogue
+pedlar but now was crying up the old-fashioned Spanish nether-stock over
+the Gascoigne hose, although thou seest how well the French hose set
+off the leg and knee, being adorned with parti-coloured garters and
+garniture in conformity."
+
+"Excellent, excellent," replied Lambourne; "why, thy limber bit of a
+thigh, thrust through that bunch of slashed buckram and tiffany, shows
+like a housewife's distaff when the flax is half spun off!"
+
+"Said I not so?" said the mercer, whose shallow brain was now overflowed
+in his turn; "where, then, where be this rascal pedlar?--there was a
+pedlar here but now, methinks.--Mine host, where the foul fiend is this
+pedlar?"
+
+"Where wise men should be, Master Goldthred," replied Giles Gosling;
+"even shut up in his private chamber, telling over the sales of to-day,
+and preparing for the custom of to-morrow."
+
+"Hang him, a mechanical chuff!" said the mercer; "but for shame, it
+were a good deed to ease him of his wares--a set of peddling knaves, who
+stroll through the land, and hurt the established trader. There are good
+fellows in Berkshire yet, mine host--your pedlar may be met withal on
+Maiden Castle."
+
+"Ay," replied mine host, laughing, "and he who meets him may meet his
+match--the pedlar is a tall man."
+
+"Is he?" said Goldthred.
+
+"Is he?" replied the host; "ay, by cock and pie is he--the very pedlar
+he who raddled Robin Hood so tightly, as the song says,--
+
+
+     'Now Robin Hood drew his sword so good,
+     The pedlar drew his brand,
+     And he hath raddled him, Robin Hood,
+     Till he neither could see nor stand.'"
+
+"Hang him, foul scroyle, let him pass," said the mercer; "if he be such
+a one, there were small worship to be won upon him.--And now tell me,
+Mike--my honest Mike, how wears the Hollands you won of me?"
+
+"Why, well, as you may see, Master Goldthred," answered Mike; "I will
+bestow a pot on thee for the handsel.--Fill the flagon, Master Tapster."
+
+"Thou wilt win no more Hollands, think, on such wager, friend Mike,"
+said the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails at thee all to
+nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his doors again, for that your
+oaths are enough to blow the roof off a Christian man's dwelling."
+
+"Doth he say so, the mincing, hypocritical miser?" vociferated
+Lambourne. "Why, then, he shall come down and receive my commands here,
+this blessed night, under my uncle's roof! And I will ring him such a
+black sanctus, that he shall think the devil hath him by the skirts for
+a month to come, for barely hearing me."
+
+"Nay, now the pottle-pot is uppermost, with a witness!" said the mercer.
+"Tony Foster obey thy whistle! Alas! good Mike, go sleep--go sleep."
+
+"I tell thee what, thou thin-faced gull," said Michael Lambourne, in
+high chafe, "I will wager thee fifty angels against the first five
+shelves of thy shop, numbering upward from the false light, with all
+that is on them, that I make Tony Foster come down to this public-house
+before we have finished three rounds."
+
+"I will lay no bet to that amount," said the mercer, something
+sobered by an offer which intimated rather too private a knowledge on
+Lambourne's part of the secret recesses of his shop. "I will lay no such
+wager," he said; "but I will stake five angels against thy five, if thou
+wilt, that Tony Foster will not leave his own roof, or come to ale-house
+after prayer time, for thee, or any man."
+
+"Content," said Lambourne.--"Here, uncle, hold stakes, and let one
+of your young bleed-barrels there--one of your infant tapsters--trip
+presently up to The Place, and give this letter to Master Foster, and
+say that I, his ingle, Michael Lambourne, pray to speak with him at mine
+uncle's castle here, upon business of grave import.--Away with thee,
+child, for it is now sundown, and the wretch goeth to bed with the birds
+to save mutton-suet--faugh!"
+
+Shortly after this messenger was dispatched--an interval which was spent
+in drinking and buffoonery--he returned with the answer that Master
+Foster was coming presently.
+
+"Won, won!" said Lambourne, darting on the stakes.
+
+"Not till he comes, if you please," said the mercer, interfering.
+
+"Why, 'sblood, he is at the threshold," replied Michael.--"What said he,
+boy?"
+
+"If it please your worship," answered the messenger, "he looked out of
+window, with a musquetoon in his hand, and when I delivered your errand,
+which I did with fear and trembling, he said, with a vinegar aspect,
+that your worship might be gone to the infernal regions."
+
+"Or to hell, I suppose," said Lambourne--"it is there he disposes of all
+that are not of the congregation."
+
+"Even so," said the boy; "I used the other phrase as being the more
+poetical."
+
+"An ingenious youth," said Michael; "shalt have a drop to whet thy
+poetical whistle. And what said Foster next?"
+
+"He called me back," answered the boy, "and bid me say you might come to
+him if you had aught to say to him."
+
+"And what next?" said Lambourne.
+
+"He read the letter, and seemed in a fluster, and asked if your worship
+was in drink; and I said you were speaking a little Spanish, as one who
+had been in the Canaries."
+
+"Out, you diminutive pint-pot, whelped of an overgrown reckoning!"
+replied Lambourne--"out! But what said he then?"
+
+"Why," said the boy, "he muttered that if he came not your worship would
+bolt out what were better kept in; and so he took his old flat cap,
+and threadbare blue cloak, and, as I said before, he will be here
+incontinent."
+
+"There is truth in what he said," replied Lambourne, as if speaking to
+himself--"my brain has played me its old dog's trick. But corragio--let
+him approach!--I have not rolled about in the world for many a day to
+fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober.--Bring me a flagon of cold water
+to christen my sack withal."
+
+While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have recalled to
+a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing to receive him,
+Giles Gosling stole up to the apartment of the pedlar, whom he found
+traversing the room in much agitation.
+
+"You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company," said the landlord to
+the guest.
+
+"It was time, when the devil became one among you," replied the pedlar.
+
+"It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name," said
+Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in some sort,
+Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan."
+
+"Pooh--I talk not of the swaggering ruffian," replied the pedlar; "it is
+of the other, who, for aught I know--But when go they? or wherefore come
+they?"
+
+"Marry, these are questions I cannot answer," replied the host.
+"But look you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy Master
+Tressilian--a pretty stone it is." He took out the ring, and looked at
+it, adding, as he put it into his purse again, that it was too rich a
+guerdon for anything he could do for the worthy donor. He was, he said,
+in the public line, and it ill became him to be too inquisitive into
+other folk's concerns. He had already said that he could hear nothing
+but that the lady lived still at Cumnor Place in the closest seclusion,
+and, to such as by chance had a view of her, seemed pensive and
+discontented with her solitude. "But here," he said, "if you are
+desirous to gratify your master, is the rarest chance that hath occurred
+for this many a day. Tony Foster is coming down hither, and it is but
+letting Mike Lambourne smell another wine-flask, and the Queen's command
+would not move him from the ale-bench. So they are fast for an hour or
+so. Now, if you will don your pack, which will be your best excuse, you
+may, perchance, win the ear of the old servant, being assured of the
+master's absence, to let you try to get some custom of the lady; and
+then you may learn more of her condition than I or any other can tell
+you."
+
+"True--very true," answered Wayland, for he it was; "an excellent
+device, but methinks something dangerous--for, say Foster should
+return?"
+
+"Very possible indeed," replied the host.
+
+"Or say," continued Wayland, "the lady should render me cold thanks for
+my exertions?"
+
+"As is not unlikely," replied Giles Gosling. "I marvel Master Tressilian
+will take such heed of her that cares not for him."
+
+"In either case I were foully sped," said Wayland, "and therefore I do
+not, on the whole, much relish your device."
+
+"Nay, but take me with you, good master serving-man," replied mine host.
+"This is your master's business, and not mine, you best know the risk to
+be encountered, or how far you are willing to brave it. But that which
+you will not yourself hazard, you cannot expect others to risk."
+
+"Hold, hold," said Wayland; "tell me but one thing--goes yonder old man
+up to Cumnor?"
+
+"Surely, I think so?" said the landlord; "their servant said he was to
+take their baggage thither. But the ale-tap has been as potent for him
+as the sack-spigot has been for Michael."
+
+"It is enough," said Wayland, assuming an air of resolution. "I will
+thwart that old villain's projects; my affright at his baleful aspect
+begins to abate, and my hatred to arise. Help me on with my pack, good
+mine host.--And look to thyself, old Albumazar; there is a malignant
+influence in thy horoscope, and it gleams from the constellation Ursa
+Major."
+
+So saying, he assumed his burden, and, guided by the landlord through
+the postern gate of the Black Bear, took the most private way from
+thence up to Cumnor Place.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+     CLOWN. You have of these pedlars, that have more in'em than
+     you'd think, sister.--WINTER'S TALE, ACT IV., SCENE 3.
+
+In his anxiety to obey the Earl's repeated charges of secrecy, as well
+as from his own unsocial and miserly habits, Anthony Foster was more
+desirous, by his mode of housekeeping, to escape observation than to
+resist intrusive curiosity. Thus, instead of a numerous household, to
+secure his charge, and defend his house, he studied as much as possible
+to elude notice by diminishing his attendants; so that, unless when
+there were followers of the Earl, or of Varney, in the mansion, one
+old male domestic, and two aged crones, who assisted in keeping the
+Countess's apartments in order, were the only servants of the family.
+
+It was one of these old women who opened the door when Wayland knocked,
+and answered his petition, to be admitted to exhibit his wares to the
+ladies of the family, with a volley of vituperation, couched in what is
+there called the JOWRING dialect. The pedlar found the means of
+checking this vociferation by slipping a silver groat into her hand, and
+intimating the present of some stuff for a coif, if the lady would buy
+of his wares.
+
+"God ield thee, for mine is aw in littocks. Slocket with thy pack into
+gharn, mon--her walks in gharn." Into the garden she ushered the pedlar
+accordingly, and pointing to an old, ruinous garden house, said, "Yonder
+be's her, mon--yonder be's her. Zhe will buy changes an zhe loikes
+stuffs."
+
+"She has left me to come off as I may," thought Wayland, as he heard the
+hag shut the garden-door behind him. "But they shall not beat me,
+and they dare not murder me, for so little trespass, and by this fair
+twilight. Hang it, I will on--a brave general never thought of his
+retreat till he was defeated. I see two females in the old garden-house
+yonder--but how to address them? Stay--Will Shakespeare, be my friend in
+need. I will give them a taste of Autolycus." He then sung, with a good
+voice, and becoming audacity, the popular playhouse ditty,--
+
+
+     "Lawn as white as driven snow,
+     Cyprus black as e'er was crow,
+     Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
+     Masks for faces and for noses."
+
+"What hath fortune sent us here for an unwonted sight, Janet?" said the
+lady.
+
+"One of those merchants of vanity, called pedlars," answered Janet,
+demurely, "who utters his light wares in lighter measures. I marvel old
+Dorcas let him pass."
+
+"It is a lucky chance, girl," said the Countess; "we lead a heavy life
+here, and this may while off a weary hour."
+
+"Ay, my gracious lady," said Janet; "but my father?"
+
+"He is not my father, Janet, nor I hope my master," answered the lady.
+"I say, call the man hither--I want some things."
+
+"Nay," replied Janet, "your ladyship has but to say so in the next
+packet, and if England can furnish them they will be sent. There will
+come mischief on't--pray, dearest lady, let me bid the man begone!"
+
+"I will have thee bid him come hither," said the Countess;--"or stay,
+thou terrified fool, I will bid him myself, and spare thee a chiding."
+
+"Ah! well-a-day, dearest lady, if that were the worst," said Janet
+sadly; while the lady called to the pedlar, "Good fellow, step
+forward--undo thy pack; if thou hast good wares, chance has sent thee
+hither for my convenience and thy profit."
+
+"What may your ladyship please to lack?" said Wayland, unstrapping his
+pack, and displaying its contents with as much dexterity as if he had
+been bred to the trade. Indeed he had occasionally pursued it in the
+course of his roving life, and now commended his wares with all the
+volubility of a trader, and showed some skill in the main art of placing
+prices upon them.
+
+"What do I please to lack?" said the lady, "why, considering I have not
+for six long months bought one yard of lawn or cambric, or one trinket,
+the most inconsiderable, for my own use, and at my own choice, the
+better question is, What hast thou got to sell? Lay aside for me that
+cambric partlet and pair of sleeves--and those roundells of gold fringe,
+drawn out with cyprus--and that short cloak of cherry-coloured fine
+cloth, garnished with gold buttons and loops;--is it not of an absolute
+fancy, Janet?"
+
+"Nay, my lady," replied Janet, "if you consult my poor judgment, it is,
+methinks, over-gaudy for a graceful habit."
+
+"Now, out upon thy judgment, if it be no brighter, wench," said the
+Countess. "Thou shalt wear it thyself for penance' sake; and I promise
+thee the gold buttons, being somewhat massive, will comfort thy father,
+and reconcile him to the cherry-coloured body. See that he snap them not
+away, Janet, and send them to bear company with the imprisoned angels
+which he keeps captive in his strong-box."
+
+"May I pray your ladyship to spare my poor father?" said Janet.
+
+"Nay, but why should any one spare him that is so sparing of his own
+nature?" replied the lady.--"Well, but to our gear. That head garniture
+for myself, and that silver bodkin mounted with pearl; and take off two
+gowns of that russet cloth for Dorcas and Alison, Janet, to keep the old
+wretches warm against winter comes.--And stay--hast thou no perfumes and
+sweet bags, or any handsome casting bottles of the newest mode?"
+
+"Were I a pedlar in earnest, I were a made merchant," thought Wayland,
+as he busied himself to answer the demands which she thronged one on
+another, with the eagerness of a young lady who has been long secluded
+from such a pleasing occupation. "But how to bring her to a moment's
+serious reflection?" Then as he exhibited his choicest collection of
+essences and perfumes, he at once arrested her attention by observing
+that these articles had almost risen to double value since the
+magnificent preparations made by the Earl of Leicester to entertain the
+Queen and court at his princely Castle of Kenilworth.
+
+"Ha!" said the Countess hastily; "that rumour, then, is true, Janet."
+
+"Surely, madam," answered Wayland; "and I marvel it hath not reached
+your noble ladyship's ears. The Queen of England feasts with the noble
+Earl for a week during the Summer's Progress; and there are many who
+will tell you England will have a king, and England's Elizabeth--God
+save her!--a husband, ere the Progress be over."
+
+"They lie like villains!" said the Countess, bursting forth impatiently.
+
+"For God's sake, madam, consider," said Janet, trembling with
+apprehension; "who would cumber themselves about pedlar's tidings?"
+
+"Yes, Janet!" exclaimed the Countess; "right, thou hast corrected me
+justly. Such reports, blighting the reputation of England's brightest
+and noblest peer, can only find currency amongst the mean, the abject,
+and the infamous!"
+
+"May I perish, lady," said Wayland Smith, observing that her violence
+directed itself towards him, "if I have done anything to merit this
+strange passion! I have said but what many men say."
+
+By this time the Countess had recovered her composure, and endeavoured,
+alarmed by the anxious hints of Janet, to suppress all appearance of
+displeasure. "I were loath," she said, "good fellow, that our Queen
+should change the virgin style so dear to us her people--think not of
+it." And then, as if desirous to change the subject, she added, "And
+what is this paste, so carefully put up in the silver box?" as she
+examined the contents of a casket in which drugs and perfumes were
+contained in separate drawers.
+
+"It is a remedy, Madam, for a disorder of which I trust your ladyship
+will never have reason to complain. The amount of a small turkey-bean,
+swallowed daily for a week, fortifies the heart against those black
+vapours which arise from solitude, melancholy, unrequited affection,
+disappointed hope--"
+
+"Are you a fool, friend?" said the Countess sharply; "or do you think,
+because I have good-naturedly purchased your trumpery goods at your
+roguish prices, that you may put any gullery you will on me? Who ever
+heard that affections of the heart were cured by medicines given to the
+body?"
+
+"Under your honourable favour," said Wayland, "I am an honest man, and
+I have sold my goods at an honest price. As to this most precious
+medicine, when I told its qualities, I asked you not to purchase it, so
+why should I lie to you? I say not it will cure a rooted affection
+of the mind, which only God and time can do; but I say that this
+restorative relieves the black vapours which are engendered in the body
+of that melancholy which broodeth on the mind. I have relieved many with
+it, both in court and city, and of late one Master Edmund Tressilian, a
+worshipful gentleman in Cornwall, who, on some slight received, it was
+told me, where he had set his affections, was brought into that state of
+melancholy which made his friends alarmed for his life."
+
+He paused, and the lady remained silent for some time, and then asked,
+with a voice which she strove in vain to render firm and indifferent in
+its tone, "Is the gentleman you have mentioned perfectly recovered?"
+
+"Passably, madam," answered Wayland; "he hath at least no bodily
+complaint."
+
+"I will take some of the medicine, Janet," said the Countess. "I too
+have sometimes that dark melancholy which overclouds the brain."
+
+"You shall not do so, madam," said Janet; "who shall answer that this
+fellow vends what is wholesome?"
+
+"I will myself warrant my good faith," said Wayland; and taking a part
+of the medicine, he swallowed it before them. The Countess now bought
+what remained, a step to which Janet, by further objections, only
+determined her the more obstinately. She even took the first dose upon
+the instant, and professed to feel her heart lightened and her spirits
+augmented--a consequence which, in all probability, existed only in
+her own imagination. The lady then piled the purchases she had made
+together, flung her purse to Janet, and desired her to compute the
+amount, and to pay the pedlar; while she herself, as if tired of the
+amusement she at first found in conversing with him, wished him good
+evening, and walked carelessly into the house, thus depriving Wayland of
+every opportunity to speak with her in private. He hastened, however, to
+attempt an explanation with Janet.
+
+"Maiden," he said, "thou hast the face of one who should love her
+mistress. She hath much need of faithful service."
+
+"And well deserves it at my hands," replied Janet; "but what of that?"
+
+"Maiden, I am not altogether what I seem," said the pedlar, lowering his
+voice.
+
+"The less like to be an honest man," said Janet.
+
+"The more so," answered Wayland, "since I am no pedlar."
+
+"Get thee gone then instantly, or I will call for assistance," said
+Janet; "my father must ere this be returned."
+
+"Do not be so rash," said Wayland; "you will do what you may repent of.
+I am one of your mistress's friends; and she had need of more, not that
+thou shouldst ruin those she hath."
+
+"How shall I know that?" said Janet.
+
+"Look me in the face," said Wayland Smith, "and see if thou dost not
+read honesty in my looks."
+
+And in truth, though by no means handsome, there was in his physiognomy
+the sharp, keen expression of inventive genius and prompt intellect,
+which, joined to quick and brilliant eyes, a well-formed mouth, and an
+intelligent smile, often gives grace and interest to features which are
+both homely and irregular. Janet looked at him with the sly simplicity
+of her sect, and replied, "Notwithstanding thy boasted honesty, friend,
+and although I am not accustomed to read and pass judgment on such
+volumes as thou hast submitted to my perusal, I think I see in thy
+countenance something of the pedlar-something of the picaroon."
+
+"On a small scale, perhaps," said Wayland Smith, laughing. "But this
+evening, or to-morrow, will an old man come hither with thy father, who
+has the stealthy step of the cat, the shrewd and vindictive eye of
+the rat, the fawning wile of the spaniel, the determined snatch of the
+mastiff--of him beware, for your own sake and that of your distress.
+See you, fair Janet, he brings the venom of the aspic under the assumed
+innocence of the dove. What precise mischief he meditates towards you I
+cannot guess, but death and disease have ever dogged his footsteps. Say
+nought of this to thy mistress; my art suggests to me that in her state
+the fear of evil may be as dangerous as its operation. But see that
+she take my specific, for" (he lowered his voice, and spoke low but
+impressively in her ear) "it is an antidote against poison.--Hark, they
+enter the garden!"
+
+In effect, a sound of noisy mirth and loud talking approached the garden
+door, alarmed by which Wayland Smith sprung into the midst of a thicket
+of overgrown shrubs, while Janet withdrew to the garden-house that
+she might not incur observation, and that she might at the same time
+conceal, at least for the present, the purchases made from the supposed
+pedlar, which lay scattered on the floor of the summer-house.
+
+Janet, however, had no occasion for anxiety. Her father, his old
+attendant, Lord Leicester's domestic, and the astrologer, entered
+the garden in tumult and in extreme perplexity, endeavouring to quiet
+Lambourne, whose brain had now become completely fired with liquor, and
+who was one of those unfortunate persons who, being once stirred with
+the vinous stimulus, do not fall asleep like other drunkards, but
+remain partially influenced by it for many hours, until at length, by
+successive draughts, they are elevated into a state of uncontrollable
+frenzy. Like many men in this state also, Lambourne neither lost the
+power of motion, speech, or expression; but, on the contrary, spoke with
+unwonted emphasis and readiness, and told all that at another time he
+would have been most desirous to keep secret.
+
+"What!" ejaculated Michael, at the full extent of his voice, "am I to
+have no welcome, no carouse, when I have brought fortune to your old,
+ruinous dog-house in the shape of a devil's ally, that can change
+slate-shivers into Spanish dollars?--Here, you, Tony Fire-the-Fagot,
+Papist, Puritan, hypocrite, miser, profligate, devil, compounded of all
+men's sins, bow down and reverence him who has brought into thy house
+the very mammon thou worshippest."
+
+"For God's sake," said Foster, "speak low--come into the house--thou
+shalt have wine, or whatever thou wilt."
+
+"No, old puckfoist, I will have it here," thundered the inebriated
+ruffian--"here, AL FRESCO, as the Italian hath it. No, no, I will not
+drink with that poisoning devil within doors, to be choked with the
+fumes of arsenic and quick-silver; I learned from villain Varney to
+beware of that."
+
+"Fetch him wine, in the name of all the fiends!" said the alchemist.
+
+"Aha! and thou wouldst spice it for me, old Truepenny, wouldst thou not?
+Ay, I should have copperas, and hellebore, and vitriol, and aqua fortis,
+and twenty devilish materials bubbling in my brain-pan like a charm to
+raise the devil in a witch's cauldron. Hand me the flask thyself, old
+Tony Fire-the-Fagot--and let it be cool--I will have no wine mulled at
+the pile of the old burnt bishops. Or stay, let Leicester be king if
+he will--good--and Varney, villain Varney, grand vizier--why,
+excellent!--and what shall I be, then?--why, emperor--Emperor Lambourne!
+I will see this choice piece of beauty that they have walled up here
+for their private pleasures; I will have her this very night to serve my
+wine-cup and put on my nightcap. What should a fellow do with two
+wives, were he twenty times an Earl? Answer me that, Tony boy, you old
+reprobate, hypocritical dog, whom God struck out of the book of life,
+but tormented with the constant wish to be restored to it--you old
+bishop-burning, blasphemous fanatic, answer me that."
+
+"I will stick my knife to the haft in him," said Foster, in a low tone,
+which trembled with passion.
+
+"For the love of Heaven, no violence!" said the astrologer. "It cannot
+but be looked closely into.--Here, honest Lambourne, wilt thou pledge me
+to the health of the noble Earl of Leicester and Master Richard Varney?"
+
+"I will, mine old Albumazar--I will, my trusty vender of ratsbane. I
+would kiss thee, mine honest infractor of the Lex Julia (as they said
+at Leyden), didst thou not flavour so damnably of sulphur, and such
+fiendish apothecary's stuff.--Here goes it, up seyes--to Varney and
+Leicester two more noble mounting spirits--and more dark-seeking,
+deep-diving, high-flying, malicious, ambitious miscreants--well, I say
+no more, but I will whet my dagger on his heart-spone that refuses to
+pledge me! And so, my masters--"
+
+Thus speaking, Lambourne exhausted the cup which the astrologer had
+handed to him, and which contained not wine, but distilled spirits. He
+swore half an oath, dropped the empty cup from his grasp, laid his hand
+on his sword without being able to draw it, reeled, and fell without
+sense or motion into the arms of the domestic, who dragged him off to
+his chamber, and put him to bed.
+
+In the general confusion, Janet regained her lady's chamber unobserved,
+trembling like an aspen leaf, but determined to keep secret from the
+Countess the dreadful surmises which she could not help entertaining
+from the drunken ravings of Lambourne. Her fears, however, though they
+assumed no certain shape, kept pace with the advice of the pedlar; and
+she confirmed her mistress in her purpose of taking the medicine which
+he had recommended, from which it is probable she would otherwise
+have dissuaded her. Neither had these intimations escaped the ears
+of Wayland, who knew much better how to interpret them. He felt much
+compassion at beholding so lovely a creature as the Countess, and whom
+he had first seen in the bosom of domestic happiness, exposed to the
+machinations of such a gang of villains. His indignation, too, had been
+highly excited by hearing the voice of his old master, against whom he
+felt, in equal degree, the passions of hatred and fear. He nourished
+also a pride in his own art and resources; and, dangerous as the task
+was, he that night formed a determination to attain the bottom of the
+mystery, and to aid the distressed lady, if it were yet possible. From
+some words which Lambourne had dropped among his ravings, Wayland
+now, for the first time, felt inclined to doubt that Varney had acted
+entirely on his own account in wooing and winning the affections of this
+beautiful creature. Fame asserted of this zealous retainer that he
+had accommodated his lord in former love intrigues; and it occurred
+to Wayland Smith that Leicester himself might be the party chiefly
+interested. Her marriage with the Earl he could not suspect; but even
+the discovery of such a passing intrigue with a lady of Mistress Amy
+Robsart's rank was a secret of the deepest importance to the stability
+of the favourite's power over Elizabeth. "If Leicester himself should
+hesitate to stifle such a rumour by very strange means," said he to
+himself, "he has those about him who would do him that favour without
+waiting for his consent. If I would meddle in this business, it must
+be in such guise as my old master uses when he compounds his manna of
+Satan, and that is with a close mask on my face. So I will quit Giles
+Gosling to-morrow, and change my course and place of residence as often
+as a hunted fox. I should like to see this little Puritan, too, once
+more. She looks both pretty and intelligent to have come of such a
+caitiff as Anthony Fire-the-Fagot."
+
+Giles Gosling received the adieus of Wayland rather joyfully than
+otherwise. The honest publican saw so much peril in crossing the course
+of the Earl of Leicester's favourite that his virtue was scarce able to
+support him in the task, and he was well pleased when it was likely to
+be removed from his shoulders still, however, professing his good-will,
+and readiness, in case of need, to do Mr. Tressilian or his emissary any
+service, in so far as consisted with his character of a publican.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+     Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself,
+     And falls on t'other side.        --MACBETH.
+
+The splendour of the approaching revels at Kenilworth was now the
+conversation through all England; and everything was collected at home,
+or from abroad, which could add to the gaiety or glory of the prepared
+reception of Elizabeth at the house of her most distinguished favourite,
+Meantime Leicester appeared daily to advance in the Queen's favour. He
+was perpetually by her side in council--willingly listened to in the
+moments of courtly recreation--favoured with approaches even to familiar
+intimacy--looked up to by all who had aught to hope at court--courted by
+foreign ministers with the most flattering testimonies of respect
+from their sovereigns,--the ALTER EGO, as it seemed, of the stately
+Elizabeth, who was now very generally supposed to be studying the time
+and opportunity for associating him, by marriage, into her sovereign
+power.
+
+Amid such a tide of prosperity, this minion of fortune and of the
+Queen's favour was probably the most unhappy man in the realm which
+seemed at his devotion. He had the Fairy King's superiority over his
+friends and dependants, and saw much which they could not. The character
+of his mistress was intimately known to him. It was his minute and
+studied acquaintance with her humours, as well as her noble faculties,
+which, joined to his powerful mental qualities, and his eminent external
+accomplishments, had raised him so high in her favour; and it was that
+very knowledge of her disposition which led him to apprehend at every
+turn some sudden and overwhelming disgrace. Leicester was like a pilot
+possessed of a chart which points out to him all the peculiarities of
+his navigation, but which exhibits so many shoals, breakers, and reefs
+of rocks, that his anxious eye reaps little more from observing them
+than to be convinced that his final escape can be little else than
+miraculous.
+
+In fact, Queen Elizabeth had a character strangely compounded of the
+strongest masculine sense, with those foibles which are chiefly supposed
+proper to the female sex. Her subjects had the full benefit of her
+virtues, which far predominated over her weaknesses; but her courtiers,
+and those about her person, had often to sustain sudden and embarrassing
+turns of caprice, and the sallies of a temper which was both jealous and
+despotic. She was the nursing-mother of her people, but she was also
+the true daughter of Henry VIII.; and though early sufferings and an
+excellent education had repressed and modified, they had not altogether
+destroyed, the hereditary temper of that "hard-ruled king." "Her mind,"
+says her witty godson, Sir John Harrington, who had experienced both the
+smiles and the frowns which he describes, "was ofttime like the gentle
+air that cometh from the western point in a summer's morn--'twas sweet
+and refreshing to all around her. Her speech did win all affections. And
+again, she could put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking,
+as left no doubting WHOSE daughter she was. When she smiled, it was a
+pure sunshine, that every one did choose to bask in, if they could; but
+anon came a storm from a sudden gathering of clouds, and the thunder
+fell in a wondrous manner on all alike." [Nugae Antiquae, vol.i.,
+pp.355, 356-362.]
+
+This variability of disposition, as Leicester well knew, was chiefly
+formidable to those who had a share in the Queen's affections, and
+who depended rather on her personal regard than on the indispensable
+services which they could render to her councils and her crown. The
+favour of Burleigh or of Walsingham, of a description far less striking
+than that by which he was himself upheld, was founded, as Leicester was
+well aware, on Elizabeth's solid judgment, not on her partiality, and
+was, therefore, free from all those principles of change and decay
+necessarily incident to that which chiefly arose from personal
+accomplishments and female predilection. These great and sage statesmen
+were judged of by the Queen only with reference to the measures they
+suggested, and the reasons by which they supported their opinions in
+council; whereas the success of Leicester's course depended on all those
+light and changeable gales of caprice and humour which thwart or favour
+the progress of a lover in the favour of his mistress, and she, too, a
+mistress who was ever and anon becoming fearful lest she should forget
+the dignity, or compromise the authority, of the Queen, while she
+indulged the affections of the woman. Of the difficulties which
+surrounded his power, "too great to keep or to resign," Leicester
+was fully sensible; and as he looked anxiously round for the means
+of maintaining himself in his precarious situation, and sometimes
+contemplated those of descending from it in safety, he saw but little
+hope of either. At such moments his thoughts turned to dwell upon his
+secret marriage and its consequences; and it was in bitterness against
+himself, if not against his unfortunate Countess, that he ascribed
+to that hasty measure, adopted in the ardour of what he now called
+inconsiderate passion, at once the impossibility of placing his power on
+a solid basis, and the immediate prospect of its precipitate downfall.
+
+"Men say," thus ran his thoughts, in these anxious and repentant
+moments, "that I might marry Elizabeth, and become King of England. All
+things suggest this. The match is carolled in ballads, while the rabble
+throw their caps up. It has been touched upon in the schools--whispered
+in the presence-chamber--recommended from the pulpit--prayed for in the
+Calvinistic churches abroad--touched on by statists in the very council
+at home. These bold insinuations have been rebutted by no rebuke, no
+resentment, no chiding, scarce even by the usual female protestation
+that she would live and die a virgin princess. Her words have been
+more courteous than ever, though she knows such rumours are abroad--her
+actions more gracious, her looks more kind--nought seems wanting to
+make me King of England, and place me beyond the storms of court-favour,
+excepting the putting forth of mine own hand to take that crown imperial
+which is the glory of the universe! And when I might stretch that hand
+out most boldly, it is fettered down by a secret and inextricable bond!
+And here I have letters from Amy," he would say, catching them up with
+a movement of peevishness, "persecuting me to acknowledge her openly--to
+do justice to her and to myself--and I wot not what. Methinks I have
+done less than justice to myself already. And she speaks as if Elizabeth
+were to receive the knowledge of this matter with the glee of a mother
+hearing of the happy marriage of a hopeful son! She, the daughter of
+Henry, who spared neither man in his anger nor woman in his desire--she
+to find herself tricked, drawn on with toys of passion to the verge of
+acknowledging her love to a subject, and he discovered to be a married
+man!--Elizabeth to learn that she had been dallied with in such fashion,
+as a gay courtier might trifle with a country wench--we should then see,
+to our ruin, FURENS QUID FAEMINA!"
+
+He would then pause, and call for Varney, whose advice was now more
+frequently resorted to than ever, because the Earl remembered the
+remonstrances which he had made against his secret contract. And their
+consultation usually terminated in anxious deliberation how, or in what
+manner, the Countess was to be produced at Kenilworth. These communings
+had for some time ended always in a resolution to delay the Progress
+from day to day. But at length a peremptory decision became necessary.
+
+"Elizabeth will not be satisfied without her presence," said the Earl.
+"Whether any suspicion hath entered her mind, as my own apprehensions
+suggest, or whether the petition of Tressilian is kept in her memory
+by Sussex or some other secret enemy, I know not; but amongst all the
+favourable expressions which she uses to me, she often recurs to the
+story of Amy Robsart. I think that Amy is the slave in the chariot, who
+is placed there by my evil fortune to dash and to confound my triumph,
+even when at the highest. Show me thy device, Varney, for solving the
+inextricable difficulty. I have thrown every such impediment in the
+way of these accursed revels as I could propound even with a shade of
+decency, but to-day's interview has put all to a hazard. She said to
+me kindly, but peremptorily, 'We will give you no further time for
+preparations, my lord, lest you should altogether ruin yourself. On
+Saturday, the 9th of July, we will be with you at Kenilworth. We pray
+you to forget none of our appointed guests and suitors, and in especial
+this light-o'-love, Amy Robsart. We would wish to see the woman who
+could postpone yonder poetical gentleman, Master Tressilian, to your
+man, Richard Varney.'--Now, Varney, ply thine invention, whose forge
+hath availed us so often for sure as my name is Dudley, the danger
+menaced by my horoscope is now darkening around me."
+
+"Can my lady be by no means persuaded to bear for a brief space the
+obscure character which circumstances impose on her?" Said Varney after
+some hesitation.
+
+"How, sirrah? my Countess term herself thy wife!--that may neither stand
+with my honour nor with hers."
+
+"Alas! my lord," answered Varney, "and yet such is the quality in which
+Elizabeth now holds her; and to contradict this opinion is to discover
+all."
+
+"Think of something else, Varney," said the Earl, in great agitation;
+"this invention is nought. If I could give way to it, she would not; for
+I tell thee, Varney, if thou knowest it not, that not Elizabeth on the
+throne has more pride than the daughter of this obscure gentleman of
+Devon. She is flexible in many things, but where she holds her honour
+brought in question she hath a spirit and temper as apprehensive as
+lightning, and as swift in execution."
+
+"We have experienced that, my lord, else had we not been thus
+circumstanced," said Varney. "But what else to suggest I know not.
+Methinks she whose good fortune in becoming your lordship's bride, and
+who gives rise to the danger, should do somewhat towards parrying it."
+
+"It is impossible," said the Earl, waving his hand; "I know neither
+authority nor entreaties would make her endure thy name for an hour.
+
+"It is somewhat hard, though," said Varney, in a dry tone; and, without
+pausing on that topic, he added, "Suppose some one were found to
+represent her? Such feats have been performed in the courts of as
+sharp-eyed monarchs as Queen Elizabeth."
+
+"Utter madness, Varney," answered the Earl; "the counterfeit would be
+confronted with Tressilian, and discovery become inevitable."
+
+"Tressilian might be removed from court," said the unhesitating Varney.
+
+"And by what means?"
+
+"There are many," said Varney, "by which a statesman in your situation,
+my lord, may remove from the scene one who pries into your affairs, and
+places himself in perilous opposition to you."
+
+"Speak not to me of such policy, Varney," said the Earl hastily, "which,
+besides, would avail nothing in the present case. Many others there
+be at court to whom Amy may be known; and besides, on the absence
+of Tressilian, her father or some of her friends would be instantly
+summoned hither. Urge thine invention once more."
+
+"My lord, I know not what to say," answered Varney; "but were I myself
+in such perplexity, I would ride post down to Cumnor Place, and compel
+my wife to give her consent to such measures as her safety and mine
+required."
+
+"Varney," said Leicester, "I cannot urge her to aught so repugnant
+to her noble nature as a share in this stratagem; it would be a base
+requital to the love she bears me."
+
+"Well, my lord," said Varney, "your lordship is a wise and an honourable
+man, and skilled in those high points of romantic scruple which are
+current in Arcadia perhaps, as your nephew, Philip Sidney, writes. I
+am your humble servitor--a man of this world, and only happy that my
+knowledge of it, and its ways, is such as your lordship has not scorned
+to avail yourself of. Now I would fain know whether the obligation lies
+on my lady or on you in this fortunate union, and which has most reason
+to show complaisance to the other, and to consider that other's wishes,
+conveniences, and safety?"
+
+"I tell thee, Varney," said the Earl, "that all it was in my power to
+bestow upon her was not merely deserved, but a thousand times overpaid,
+by her own virtue and beauty; for never did greatness descend upon a
+creature so formed by nature to grace and adorn it."
+
+"It is well, my lord, you are so satisfied," answered Varney, with his
+usual sardonic smile, which even respect to his patron could not at
+all times subdue; "you will have time enough to enjoy undisturbed the
+society of one so gracious and beautiful--that is, so soon as such
+confinement in the Tower be over as may correspond to the crime of
+deceiving the affections of Elizabeth Tudor. A cheaper penalty, I
+presume, you do not expect."
+
+"Malicious fiend!" answered Leicester, "do you mock me in my
+misfortune?--Manage it as thou wilt."
+
+"If you are serious, my lord," said Varney, "you must set forth
+instantly and post for Cumnor Place."
+
+"Do thou go thyself, Varney; the devil has given thee that sort of
+eloquence which is most powerful in the worst cause. I should stand
+self-convicted of villainy, were I to urge such a deceit. Begone, I tell
+thee; must I entreat thee to mine own dishonour?"
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney; "but if you are serious in entrusting me
+with the task of urging this most necessary measure, you must give me
+a letter to my lady, as my credentials, and trust to me for backing
+the advice it contains with all the force in my power. And such is my
+opinion of my lady's love for your lordship, and of her willingness to
+do that which is at once to contribute to your pleasure and your safety,
+that I am sure she will condescend to bear for a few brief days the name
+of so humble a man as myself, especially since it is not inferior in
+antiquity to that of her own paternal house."
+
+Leicester seized on writing materials, and twice or thrice commenced
+a letter to the Countess, which he afterwards tore into fragments. At
+length he finished a few distracted lines, in which he conjured her, for
+reasons nearly concerning his life and honour, to consent to bear the
+name of Varney for a few days, during the revels at Kenilworth. He
+added that Varney would communicate all the reasons which rendered this
+deception indispensable; and having signed and sealed these credentials,
+he flung them over the table to Varney with a motion that he should
+depart, which his adviser was not slow to comprehend and to obey.
+
+Leicester remained like one stupefied, till he heard the trampling of
+the horses, as Varney, who took no time even to change his dress, threw
+himself into the saddle, and, followed by a single servant, set off for
+Berkshire. At the sound the Earl started from his seat, and ran to the
+window, with the momentary purpose of recalling the unworthy commission
+with which he had entrusted one of whom he used to say he knew no
+virtuous property save affection to his patron. But Varney was already
+beyond call; and the bright, starry firmament, which the age considered
+as the Book of Fate, lying spread before Leicester when he opened the
+casement, diverted him from his better and more manly purpose.
+
+"There they roll, on their silent but potential course," said the Earl,
+looking around him, "without a voice which speaks to our ear, but not
+without influences which affect, at every change, the indwellers of this
+vile, earthly planet. This, if astrologers fable not, is the very crisis
+of my fate! The hour approaches of which I was taught to beware--the
+hour, too, which I was encouraged to hope for. A King was the word--but
+how?--the crown matrimonial. All hopes of that are gone--let them go.
+The rich Netherlands have demanded me for their leader, and, would
+Elizabeth consent, would yield to me THEIR crown. And have I not such
+a claim even in this kingdom? That of York, descending from George of
+Clarence to the House of Huntingdon, which, this lady failing, may have
+a fair chance--Huntingdon is of my house.--But I will plunge no deeper
+in these high mysteries. Let me hold my course in silence for a while,
+and in obscurity, like a subterranean river; the time shall come that I
+will burst forth in my strength, and bear all opposition before me."
+
+While Leicester was thus stupefying the remonstrances of his own
+conscience, by appealing to political necessity for his apology, or
+losing himself amidst the wild dreams of ambition, his agent left
+town and tower behind him on his hasty journey to Berkshire. HE also
+nourished high hope. He had brought Lord Leicester to the point which
+he had desired, of committing to him the most intimate recesses of
+his breast, and of using him as the channel of his most confidential
+intercourse with his lady. Henceforward it would, he foresaw, be
+difficult for his patron either to dispense with his services, or refuse
+his requests, however unreasonable. And if this disdainful dame, as
+he termed the Countess, should comply with the request of her husband,
+Varney, her pretended husband, must needs become so situated with
+respect to her, that there was no knowing where his audacity might be
+bounded perhaps not till circumstances enabled him to obtain a triumph,
+which he thought of with a mixture of fiendish feelings, in which
+revenge for her previous scorn was foremost and predominant. Again
+he contemplated the possibility of her being totally intractable, and
+refusing obstinately to play the part assigned to her in the drama at
+Kenilworth.
+
+"Alasco must then do his part," he said. "Sickness must serve her
+Majesty as an excuse for not receiving the homage of Mrs. Varney--ay,
+and a sore and wasting sickness it may prove, should Elizabeth continue
+to cast so favourable an eye on my Lord of Leicester. I will not forego
+the chance of being favourite of a monarch for want of determined
+measures, should these be necessary. Forward, good horse,
+forward--ambition and haughty hope of power, pleasure, and revenge
+strike their stings as deep through my bosom as I plunge the rowels in
+thy flanks. On, good horse, on--the devil urges us both forward!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+     Say that my beauty was but small,
+     Among court ladies all despised,
+     Why didst thou rend it from that hall
+     Where, scornful Earl, 'twas dearly prized?
+
+     No more thou com'st with wonted speed,
+     Thy once beloved bride to see;
+     But be she alive, or be she dead,
+     I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+     CUMNOR HALL, by WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.
+
+The ladies of fashion of the present, or of any other period, must have
+allowed that the young and lovely Countess of Leicester had, besides her
+youth and beauty, two qualities which entitled her to a place amongst
+women of rank and distinction. She displayed, as we have seen in her
+interview with the pedlar, a liberal promptitude to make unnecessary
+purchases, solely for the pleasure of acquiring useless and showy
+trifles which ceased to please as soon as they were possessed; and she
+was, besides, apt to spend a considerable space of time every day in
+adorning her person, although the varied splendour of her attire could
+only attract the half satirical praise of the precise Janet, or an
+approving glance from the bright eyes which witnessed their own beams of
+triumph reflected from the mirror.
+
+The Countess Amy had, indeed, to plead for indulgence in those frivolous
+tastes, that the education of the times had done little or nothing for a
+mind naturally gay and averse to study. If she had not loved to
+collect finery and to wear it, she might have woven tapestry or sewed
+embroidery, till her labours spread in gay profusion all over the walls
+and seats at Lidcote Hall; or she might have varied Minerva's labours
+with the task of preparing a mighty pudding against the time that Sir
+Hugh Robsart returned from the greenwood. But Amy had no natural genius
+either for the loom, the needle, or the receipt-book. Her mother had
+died in infancy; her father contradicted her in nothing; and Tressilian,
+the only one that approached her who was able or desirous to attend
+to the cultivation of her mind, had much hurt his interest with her by
+assuming too eagerly the task of a preceptor, so that he was regarded by
+the lively, indulged, and idle girl with some fear and much respect, but
+with little or nothing of that softer emotion which it had been his hope
+and his ambition to inspire. And thus her heart lay readily open, and
+her fancy became easily captivated by the noble exterior and graceful
+deportment and complacent flattery of Leicester, even before he was
+known to her as the dazzling minion of wealth and power.
+
+The frequent visits of Leicester at Cumnor, during the earlier part of
+their union, had reconciled the Countess to the solitude and privacy
+to which she was condemned; but when these visits became rarer and more
+rare, and when the void was filled up with letters of excuse, not always
+very warmly expressed, and generally extremely brief, discontent and
+suspicion began to haunt those splendid apartments which love had fitted
+up for beauty. Her answers to Leicester conveyed these feelings too
+bluntly, and pressed more naturally than prudently that she might
+be relieved from this obscure and secluded residence, by the Earl's
+acknowledgment of their marriage; and in arranging her arguments with
+all the skill she was mistress of, she trusted chiefly to the warmth of
+the entreaties with which she urged them. Sometimes she even ventured
+to mingle reproaches, of which Leicester conceived he had good reason to
+complain.
+
+"I have made her Countess," he said to Varney; "surely she might wait
+till it consisted with my pleasure that she should put on the coronet?"
+
+The Countess Amy viewed the subject in directly an opposite light.
+
+"What signifies," she said, "that I have rank and honour in reality, if
+I am to live an obscure prisoner, without either society or observance,
+and suffering in my character, as one of dubious or disgraced
+reputation? I care not for all those strings of pearl, which you fret me
+by warping into my tresses, Janet. I tell you that at Lidcote Hall, if
+I put but a fresh rosebud among my hair, my good father would call me
+to him, that he might see it more closely; and the kind old curate would
+smile, and Master Mumblazen would say something about roses gules. And
+now I sit here, decked out like an image with gold and gems, and no one
+to see my finery but you, Janet. There was the poor Tressilian, too--but
+it avails not speaking of him."
+
+"It doth not indeed, madam," said her prudent attendant; "and verily
+you make me sometimes wish you would not speak of him so often, or so
+rashly."
+
+"It signifies nothing to warn me, Janet," said the impatient and
+incorrigible Countess; "I was born free, though I am now mewed up like
+some fine foreign slave, rather than the wife of an English noble.
+I bore it all with pleasure while I was sure he loved me; but now my
+tongue and heart shall be free, let them fetter these limbs as they
+will. I tell thee, Janet, I love my husband--I will love him till
+my latest breath--I cannot cease to love him, even if I would, or if
+he--which, God knows, may chance--should cease to love me. But I
+will say, and loudly, I would have been happier than I now am to
+have remained in Lidcote Hall, even although I must have married poor
+Tressilian, with his melancholy look and his head full of learning,
+which I cared not for. He said, if I would read his favourite volumes,
+there would come a time that I should be glad of having done so. I think
+it is come now."
+
+"I bought you some books, madam," said Janet, "from a lame fellow who
+sold them in the Market-place--and who stared something boldly, at me, I
+promise you."
+
+"Let me see them, Janet," said the Countess; "but let them not be of
+your own precise cast,--How is this, most righteous damsel?--'A PAIR OF
+SNUFFERS FOR THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK'--'HANDFULL OF MYRRH AND HYSSOP TO
+PUT A SICK SOUL TO PURGATION'--'A DRAUGHT OF WATER FROM THE VALLEY OF
+BACA'--'FOXES AND FIREBRANDS'--what gear call you this, maiden?"
+
+"Nay, madam," said Janet, "it was but fitting and seemly to put grace in
+your ladyship's way; but an you will none of it, there are play-books,
+and poet-books, I trow."
+
+The Countess proceeded carelessly in her examination, turning over such
+rare volumes as would now make the fortune of twenty retail booksellers.
+Here was a "BOKE OF COOKERY, IMPRINTED BY RICHARD LANT," and "SKELTON'S
+BOOKS"--"THE PASSTIME OF THE PEOPLE"--"THE CASTLE OF KNOWLEDGE," etc.
+But neither to this lore did the Countess's heart incline, and joyfully
+did she start up from the listless task of turning over the leaves of
+the pamphlets, and hastily did she scatter them through the floor, when
+the hasty clatter of horses' feet, heard in the courtyard, called her to
+the window, exclaiming, "It is Leicester!--it is my noble Earl!--it
+is my Dudley!--every stroke of his horse's hoof sounds like a note of
+lordly music!"
+
+There was a brief bustle in the mansion, and Foster, with his downward
+look and sullen manner, entered the apartment to say, "That Master
+Richard Varney was arrived from my lord, having ridden all night, and
+craved to speak with her ladyship instantly."
+
+"Varney?" said the disappointed Countess; "and to speak with me?--pshaw!
+But he comes with news from Leicester, so admit him instantly."
+
+Varney entered her dressing apartment, where she sat arrayed in her
+native loveliness, adorned with all that Janet's art and a rich and
+tasteful undress could bestow. But the most beautiful part of her attire
+was her profuse and luxuriant light-brown locks, which floated in such
+rich abundance around a neck that resembled a swan's, and over a bosom
+heaving with anxious expectation, which communicated a hurried tinge of
+red to her whole countenance.
+
+Varney entered the room in the dress in which he had waited on his
+master that morning to court, the splendour of which made a strange
+contrast with the disorder arising from hasty riding during a dark night
+and foul ways. His brow bore an anxious and hurried expression, as one
+who has that to say of which he doubts the reception, and who hath
+yet posted on from the necessity of communicating his tidings. The
+Countess's anxious eye at once caught the alarm, as she exclaimed, "You
+bring news from my lord, Master Varney--Gracious Heaven! is he ill?"
+
+"No, madam, thank Heaven!" said Varney. "Compose yourself, and permit me
+to take breath ere I communicate my tidings."
+
+"No breath, sir," replied the lady impatiently; "I know your theatrical
+arts. Since your breath hath sufficed to bring you hither, it may
+suffice to tell your tale--at least briefly, and in the gross."
+
+"Madam," answered Varney, "we are not alone, and my lord's message was
+for your ear only."
+
+"Leave us, Janet, and Master Foster," said the lady; "but remain in the
+next apartment, and within call."
+
+Foster and his daughter retired, agreeably to the Lady Leicester's
+commands, into the next apartment, which was the withdrawing-room. The
+door which led from the sleeping-chamber was then carefully shut and
+bolted, and the father and daughter remained both in a posture of
+anxious attention, the first with a stern, suspicious, anxious cast of
+countenance, and Janet with folded hands, and looks which seemed divided
+betwixt her desire to know the fortunes of her mistress, and her prayers
+to Heaven for her safety. Anthony Foster seemed himself to have some
+idea of what was passing through his daughter's mind, for he crossed
+the apartment and took her anxiously by the hand, saying, "That is
+right--pray, Janet, pray; we have all need of prayers, and some of us
+more than others. Pray, Janet--I would pray myself, but I must listen to
+what goes on within--evil has been brewing, love--evil has been brewing.
+God forgive our sins, but Varney's sudden and strange arrival bodes us
+no good."
+
+Janet had never before heard her father excite or even permit her
+attention to anything which passed in their mysterious family; and now
+that he did so, his voice sounded in her ear--she knew not why--like
+that of a screech-owl denouncing some deed of terror and of woe. She
+turned her eyes fearfully towards the door, almost as if she expected
+some sounds of horror to be heard, or some sight of fear to display
+itself.
+
+All, however, was as still as death, and the voices of those who spoke
+in the inner chamber were, if they spoke at all, carefully subdued to a
+tone which could not be heard in the next. At once, however, they were
+heard to speak fast, thick, and hastily; and presently after the voice
+of the Countess was heard exclaiming, at the highest pitch to which
+indignation could raise it, "Undo the door, sir, I command you!--undo
+the door!--I will have no other reply!" she continued, drowning with her
+vehement accents the low and muttered sounds which Varney was heard
+to utter betwixt whiles. "What ho! without there!" she persisted,
+accompanying her words with shrieks, "Janet, alarm the house!--Foster,
+break open the door--I am detained here by a traitor! Use axe and lever,
+Master Foster--I will be your warrant!"
+
+"It shall not need, madam," Varney was at length distinctly heard to
+say. "If you please to expose my lord's important concerns and your own
+to the general ear, I will not be your hindrance."
+
+The door was unlocked and thrown open, and Janet and her father rushed
+in, anxious to learn the cause of these reiterated exclamations.
+
+When they entered the apartment Varney stood by the door grinding his
+teeth, with an expression in which rage, and shame, and fear had each
+their share. The Countess stood in the midst of her apartment like a
+juvenile Pythoness under the influence of the prophetic fury. The veins
+in her beautiful forehead started into swoln blue lines through the
+hurried impulse of her articulation--her cheek and neck glowed like
+scarlet--her eyes were like those of an imprisoned eagle, flashing red
+lightning on the foes which it cannot reach with its talons. Were it
+possible for one of the Graces to have been animated by a Fury, the
+countenance could not have united such beauty with so much hatred,
+scorn, defiance, and resentment. The gesture and attitude corresponded
+with the voice and looks, and altogether presented a spectacle which was
+at once beautiful and fearful; so much of the sublime had the energy
+of passion united with the Countess Amy's natural loveliness. Janet,
+as soon as the door was open, ran to her mistress; and more slowly, yet
+with more haste than he was wont, Anthony Foster went to Richard Varney.
+
+"In the Truth's name, what ails your ladyship?" said the former.
+
+"What, in the name of Satan, have you done to her?" said Foster to his
+friend.
+
+"Who, I?--nothing," answered Varney, but with sunken head and sullen
+voice; "nothing but communicated to her her lord's commands, which, if
+the lady list not to obey, she knows better how to answer it than I may
+pretend to do."
+
+"Now, by Heaven, Janet!" said the Countess, "the false traitor lies
+in his throat! He must needs lie, for he speaks to the dishonour of my
+noble lord; he must needs lie doubly, for he speaks to gain ends of his
+own, equally execrable and unattainable."
+
+"You have misapprehended me, lady," said Varney, with a sulky species
+of submission and apology; "let this matter rest till your passion be
+abated, and I will explain all."
+
+"Thou shalt never have an opportunity to do so," said the
+Countess.--"Look at him, Janet. He is fairly dressed, hath the outside
+of a gentleman, and hither he came to persuade me it was my lord's
+pleasure--nay, more, my wedded lord's commands--that I should go with
+him to Kenilworth, and before the Queen and nobles, and in presence of
+my own wedded lord, that I should acknowledge him--HIM there--that very
+cloak-brushing, shoe-cleaning fellow--HIM there, my lord's lackey,
+for my liege lord and husband; furnishing against myself, Great God!
+whenever I was to vindicate my right and my rank, such weapons as would
+hew my just claim from the root, and destroy my character to be regarded
+as an honourable matron of the English nobility!"
+
+"You hear her, Foster, and you, young maiden, hear this lady," answered
+Varney, taking advantage of the pause which the Countess had made in her
+charge, more for lack of breath than for lack of matter--"you hear that
+her heat only objects to me the course which our good lord, for the
+purpose to keep certain matters secret, suggests in the very letter
+which she holds in her hands."
+
+Foster here attempted to interfere with a face of authority, which he
+thought became the charge entrusted to him, "Nay, lady, I must needs say
+you are over-hasty in this. Such deceit is not utterly to be condemned
+when practised for a righteous end; and thus even the patriarch Abraham
+feigned Sarah to be his sister when they went down to Egypt."
+
+"Ay, sir," answered the Countess; "but God rebuked that deceit even in
+the father of His chosen people, by the mouth of the heathen Pharaoh.
+Out upon you, that will read Scripture only to copy those things which
+are held out to us as warnings, not as examples!"
+
+"But Sarah disputed not the will of her husband, an it be your
+pleasure," said Foster, in reply, "but did as Abraham commanded, calling
+herself his sister, that it might be well with her husband for her sake,
+and that his soul might live because of her beauty."
+
+"Now, so Heaven pardon me my useless anger," answered the Countess,
+"thou art as daring a hypocrite as yonder fellow is an impudent
+deceiver! Never will I believe that the noble Dudley gave countenance
+to so dastardly, so dishonourable a plan. Thus I tread on his infamy, if
+indeed it be, and thus destroy its remembrance for ever!"
+
+So saying, she tore in pieces Leicester's letter, and stamped, in the
+extremity of impatience, as if she would have annihilated the minute
+fragments into which she had rent it.
+
+"Bear witness," said Varney, collecting himself, "she hath torn my
+lord's letter, in order to burden me with the scheme of his devising;
+and although it promises nought but danger and trouble to me, she would
+lay it to my charge, as if I had any purpose of mine own in it."
+
+"Thou liest, thou treacherous slave!" said the Countess in spite of
+Janet's attempts to keep her silent, in the sad foresight that her
+vehemence might only furnish arms against herself--"thou liest," she
+continued.--"Let me go, Janet--were it the last word I have to speak,
+he lies. He had his own foul ends to seek; and broader he would have
+displayed them had my passion permitted me to preserve the silence which
+at first encouraged him to unfold his vile projects."
+
+"Madam," said Varney, overwhelmed in spite of his effrontery, "I entreat
+you to believe yourself mistaken."
+
+"As soon will I believe light darkness," said the enraged Countess.
+"Have I drunk of oblivion? Do I not remember former passages, which,
+known to Leicester, had given thee the preferment of a gallows, instead
+of the honour of his intimacy. I would I were a man but for five
+minutes! It were space enough to make a craven like thee confess his
+villainy. But go--begone! Tell thy master that when I take the foul
+course to which such scandalous deceits as thou hast recommended on
+his behalf must necessarily lead me, I will give him a rival something
+worthy of the name. He shall not be supplanted by an ignominious lackey,
+whose best fortune is to catch a gift of his master's last suit
+of clothes ere it is threadbare, and who is only fit to seduce a
+suburb-wench by the bravery of new roses in his master's old pantoufles.
+Go, begone, sir! I scorn thee so much that I am ashamed to have been
+angry with thee."
+
+Varney left the room with a mute expression of rage, and was followed by
+Foster, whose apprehension, naturally slow, was overpowered by the eager
+and abundant discharge of indignation which, for the first time, he had
+heard burst from the lips of a being who had seemed, till that moment,
+too languid and too gentle to nurse an angry thought or utter an
+intemperate expression. Foster, therefore, pursued Varney from place to
+place, persecuting him with interrogatories, to which the other replied
+not, until they were in the opposite side of the quadrangle, and in the
+old library, with which the reader has already been made acquainted.
+Here he turned round on his persevering follower, and thus addressed
+him, in a tone tolerably equal, that brief walk having been sufficient
+to give one so habituated to command his temper time to rally and
+recover his presence of mind.
+
+"Tony," he said, with his usual sneering laugh, "it avails not to deny
+it. The Woman and the Devil, who, as thine oracle Holdforth will
+confirm to thee, cheated man at the beginning, have this day proved more
+powerful than my discretion. Yon termagant looked so tempting, and had
+the art to preserve her countenance so naturally, while I communicated
+my lord's message, that, by my faith, I thought I might say some little
+thing for myself. She thinks she hath my head under her girdle now, but
+she is deceived. Where is Doctor Alasco?"
+
+"In his laboratory," answered Foster. "It is the hour he is spoken not
+withal. We must wait till noon is past, or spoil his important--what
+said I? important!--I would say interrupt his divine studies."
+
+"Ay, he studies the devil's divinity," said Varney; "but when I want
+him, one hour must suffice as well as another. Lead the way to his
+pandemonium."
+
+So spoke Varney, and with hasty and perturbed steps followed Foster,
+who conducted him through private passages, many of which were
+well-nigh ruinous, to the opposite side of the quadrangle, where, in a
+subterranean apartment, now occupied by the chemist Alasco, one of the
+Abbots of Abingdon, who had a turn for the occult sciences, had, much
+to the scandal of his convent, established a laboratory, in which,
+like other fools of the period, he spent much precious time, and money
+besides, in the pursuit of the grand arcanum.
+
+Anthony Foster paused before the door, which was scrupulously secured
+within, and again showed a marked hesitation to disturb the sage in
+his operations. But Varney, less scrupulous, roused him by knocking
+and voice, until at length, slowly and reluctantly, the inmate of the
+apartment undid the door. The chemist appeared, with his eyes bleared
+with the heat and vapours of the stove or alembic over which he brooded
+and the interior of his cell displayed the confused assemblage of
+heterogeneous substances and extraordinary implements belonging to his
+profession. The old man was muttering, with spiteful impatience, "Am I
+for ever to be recalled to the affairs of earth from those of heaven?"
+
+"To the affairs of hell," answered Varney, "for that is thy proper
+element.--Foster, we need thee at our conference."
+
+Foster slowly entered the room. Varney, following, barred the door, and
+they betook themselves to secret council.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Countess traversed the apartment, with shame and
+anger contending on her lovely cheek.
+
+"The villain," she said--"the cold-blooded, calculating slave!--But I
+unmasked him, Janet--I made the snake uncoil all his folds before me,
+and crawl abroad in his naked deformity; I suspended my resentment, at
+the danger of suffocating under the effort, until he had let me see the
+very bottom of a heart more foul than hell's darkest corner.--And thou,
+Leicester, is it possible thou couldst bid me for a moment deny my
+wedded right in thee, or thyself yield it to another?--But it is
+impossible--the villain has lied in all.--Janet, I will not remain here
+longer--I fear him--I fear thy father. I grieve to say it, Janet--but
+I fear thy father, and, worst of all, this odious Varney, I will escape
+from Cumnor."
+
+"Alas! madam, whither would you fly, or by what means will you escape
+from these walls?"
+
+"I know not, Janet," said the unfortunate young lady, looking upwards!
+and clasping her hands together, "I know not where I shall fly, or by
+what means; but I am certain the God I have served will not abandon me
+in this dreadful crisis, for I am in the hands of wicked men."
+
+"Do not think so, dear lady," said Janet; "my father is stern and strict
+in his temper, and severely true to his trust--but yet--"
+
+At this moment Anthony Foster entered the apartment, bearing in his
+hand a glass cup and a small flask. His manner was singular; for, while
+approaching the Countess with the respect due to her rank, he had till
+this time suffered to become visible, or had been unable to suppress,
+the obdurate sulkiness of his natural disposition, which, as is usual
+with those of his unhappy temper, was chiefly exerted towards those over
+whom circumstances gave him control. But at present he showed nothing
+of that sullen consciousness of authority which he was wont to conceal
+under a clumsy affectation of civility and deference, as a ruffian hides
+his pistols and bludgeon under his ill-fashioned gaberdine. And yet it
+seemed as if his smile was more in fear than courtesy, and as if, while
+he pressed the Countess to taste of the choice cordial, which should
+refresh her spirits after her late alarm, he was conscious of meditating
+some further injury. His hand trembled also, his voice faltered, and his
+whole outward behaviour exhibited so much that was suspicious, that his
+daughter Janet, after she had stood looking at him in astonishment for
+some seconds, seemed at once to collect herself to execute some
+hardy resolution, raised her head, assumed an attitude and gait of
+determination and authority, and walking slowly betwixt her father and
+her mistress, took the salver from the hand of the former, and said in
+a low but marked and decided tone, "Father, I will fill for my noble
+mistress, when such is her pleasure."
+
+"Thou, my child?" said Foster, eagerly and apprehensively; "no, my
+child--it is not THOU shalt render the lady this service."
+
+"And why, I pray you," said Janet, "if it be fitting that the noble lady
+should partake of the cup at all?"
+
+"Why--why?" said the seneschal, hesitating, and then bursting into
+passion as the readiest mode of supplying the lack of all other
+reason--"why, because it is my pleasure, minion, that you should not!
+Get you gone to the evening lecture."
+
+"Now, as I hope to hear lecture again," replied Janet, "I will not go
+thither this night, unless I am better assured of my mistress's safety.
+Give me that flask, father"--and she took it from his reluctant hand,
+while he resigned it as if conscience-struck. "And now," she said,
+"father, that which shall benefit my mistress, cannot do ME prejudice.
+Father, I drink to you."
+
+Foster, without speaking a word, rushed on his daughter and wrested the
+flask from her hand; then, as if embarrassed by what he had done, and
+totally unable to resolve what he should do next, he stood with it in
+his hand, one foot advanced and the other drawn back, glaring on his
+daughter with a countenance in which rage, fear, and convicted villainy
+formed a hideous combination.
+
+"This is strange, my father," said Janet, keeping her eye fixed on his,
+in the manner in which those who have the charge of lunatics are said to
+overawe their unhappy patients; "will you neither let me serve my lady,
+nor drink to her myself?"
+
+The courage of the Countess sustained her through this dreadful scene,
+of which the import was not the less obvious that it was not even hinted
+at. She preserved even the rash carelessness of her temper, and though
+her cheek had grown pale at the first alarm, her eye was calm and almost
+scornful. "Will YOU taste this rare cordial, Master Foster? Perhaps you
+will not yourself refuse to pledge us, though you permit not Janet to do
+so. Drink, sir, I pray you."
+
+"I will not," answered Foster.
+
+"And for whom, then, is the precious beverage reserved, sir?" said the
+Countess.
+
+"For the devil, who brewed it!" answered Foster; and, turning on his
+heel, he left the chamber.
+
+Janet looked at her mistress with a countenance expressive in the
+highest degree of shame, dismay, and sorrow.
+
+"Do not weep for me, Janet," said the Countess kindly.
+
+"No, madam," replied her attendant, in a voice broken by sobs, "it is
+not for you I weep; it is for myself--it is for that unhappy man. Those
+who are dishonoured before man--those who are condemned by God--have
+cause to mourn; not those who are innocent! Farewell, madam!" she said
+hastily assuming the mantle in which she was wont to go abroad.
+
+"Do you leave me, Janet?" said her mistress--"desert me in such an evil
+strait?"
+
+"Desert you, madam!" exclaimed Janet; and running back to her mistress,
+she imprinted a thousand kisses on her hand--"desert you I--may the Hope
+of my trust desert me when I do so! No, madam; well you said the God you
+serve will open you a path for deliverance. There is a way of escape. I
+have prayed night and day for light, that I might see how to act betwixt
+my duty to yonder unhappy man and that which I owe to you. Sternly and
+fearfully that light has now dawned, and I must not shut the door which
+God opens. Ask me no more. I will return in brief space."
+
+So speaking, she wrapped herself in her mantle, and saying to the old
+woman whom she passed in the outer room that she was going to evening
+prayer, she left the house.
+
+Meanwhile her father had reached once more the laboratory, where
+he found the accomplices of his intended guilt. "Has the sweet bird
+sipped?" said Varney, with half a smile; while the astrologer put the
+same question with his eyes, but spoke not a word.
+
+"She has not, nor she shall not from my hands," replied Foster; "would
+you have me do murder in my daughter's presence?"
+
+"Wert thou not told, thou sullen and yet faint-hearted slave," answered
+Varney, with bitterness, "that no MURDER as thou callest it, with that
+staring look and stammering tone, is designed in the matter? Wert thou
+not told that a brief illness, such as woman puts on in very wantonness,
+that she may wear her night-gear at noon, and lie on a settle when
+she should mind her domestic business, is all here aimed at? Here is a
+learned man will swear it to thee by the key of the Castle of Wisdom."
+
+"I swear it," said Alasco, "that the elixir thou hast there in the flask
+will not prejudice life! I swear it by that immortal and indestructible
+quintessence of gold, which pervades every substance in nature, though
+its secret existence can be traced by him only to whom Trismegistus
+renders the key of the Cabala."
+
+"An oath of force," said Varney. "Foster, thou wert worse than a pagan
+to disbelieve it. Believe me, moreover, who swear by nothing but by my
+own word, that if you be not conformable, there is no hope, no, not
+a glimpse of hope, that this thy leasehold may be transmuted into a
+copyhold. Thus, Alasco will leave your pewter artillery untransmigrated,
+and I, honest Anthony, will still have thee for my tenant."
+
+"I know not, gentlemen," said Foster, "where your designs tend to; but
+in one thing I am bound up,--that, fall back fall edge, I will have one
+in this place that may pray for me, and that one shall be my daughter.
+I have lived ill, and the world has been too weighty with me; but she is
+as innocent as ever she was when on her mother's lap, and she, at least,
+shall have her portion in that happy City, whose walls are of pure gold,
+and the foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones."
+
+"Ay, Tony," said Varney, "that were a paradise to thy heart's
+content.--Debate the matter with him, Doctor Alasco; I will be with you
+anon."
+
+So speaking, Varney arose, and taking the flask from the table, he left
+the room.
+
+"I tell thee, my son," said Alasco to Foster, as soon as Varney had
+left them, "that whatever this bold and profligate railer may say of the
+mighty science, in which, by Heaven's blessing, I have advanced so
+far that I would not call the wisest of living artists my better or my
+teacher--I say, howsoever yonder reprobate may scoff at things too holy
+to be apprehended by men merely of carnal and evil thoughts, yet believe
+that the city beheld by St. John, in that bright vision of the Christian
+Apocalypse, that new Jerusalem, of which all Christian men hope to
+partake, sets forth typically the discovery of the GRAND SECRET, whereby
+the most precious and perfect of nature's works are elicited out of
+her basest and most crude productions; just as the light and gaudy
+butterfly, the most beautiful child of the summer's breeze, breaks forth
+from the dungeon of a sordid chrysalis."
+
+"Master Holdforth said nought of this exposition," said Foster
+doubtfully; "and moreover, Doctor Alasco, the Holy Writ says that the
+gold and precious stones of the Holy City are in no sort for those who
+work abomination, or who frame lies."
+
+"Well, my son," said the Doctor, "and what is your inference from
+thence?"
+
+"That those," said Foster, "who distil poisons, and administer them in
+secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeakable riches."
+
+"You are to distinguish, my son," replied the alchemist, "betwixt that
+which is necessarily evil in its progress and in its end also, and that
+which, being evil, is, nevertheless, capable of working forth good. If,
+by the death of one person, the happy period shall be brought nearer
+to us, in which all that is good shall be attained, by wishing its
+presence--all that is evil escaped, by desiring its absence--in which
+sickness, and pain, and sorrow shall be the obedient servants of human
+wisdom, and made to fly at the slightest signal of a sage--in which that
+which is now richest and rarest shall be within the compass of every one
+who shall be obedient to the voice of wisdom--when the art of healing
+shall be lost and absorbed in the one universal medicine when sages
+shall become monarchs of the earth, and death itself retreat before
+their frown,--if this blessed consummation of all things can be hastened
+by the slight circumstance that a frail, earthly body, which must
+needs partake corruption, shall be consigned to the grave a short space
+earlier than in the course of nature, what is such a sacrifice to the
+advancement of the holy Millennium?"
+
+"Millennium is the reign of the Saints," said Foster, somewhat
+doubtfully.
+
+"Say it is the reign of the Sages, my son," answered Alasco; "or rather
+the reign of Wisdom itself."
+
+"I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exercising night,"
+said Foster; "but he says your doctrine is heterodox, and a damnable and
+false exposition."
+
+"He is in the bonds of ignorance, my son," answered Alasco, "and as yet
+burning bricks in Egypt; or, at best, wandering in the dry desert of
+Sinai. Thou didst ill to speak to such a man of such matters. I will,
+however, give thee proof, and that shortly, which I will defy that
+peevish divine to confute, though he should strive with me as the
+magicians strove with Moses before King Pharaoh. I will do projection
+in thy presence, my son,--in thy very presence--and thine eyes shall
+witness the truth."
+
+"Stick to that, learned sage," said Varney, who at this moment entered
+the apartment; "if he refuse the testimony of thy tongue, yet how shall
+he deny that of his own eyes?"
+
+"Varney!" said the adept--"Varney already returned! Hast thou--" he
+stopped short.
+
+"Have I done mine errand, thou wouldst say?" replied Varney. "I have!
+And thou," he added, showing more symptoms of interest than he had
+hitherto exhibited, "art thou sure thou hast poured forth neither more
+nor less than the just measure?"
+
+"Ay," replied the alchemist, "as sure as men can be in these nice
+proportions, for there is diversity of constitutions."
+
+"Nay, then," said Varney, "I fear nothing. I know thou wilt not go a
+step farther to the devil than thou art justly considered for--thou wert
+paid to create illness, and wouldst esteem it thriftless prodigality to
+do murder at the same price. Come, let us each to our chamber we shall
+see the event to-morrow."
+
+"What didst thou do to make her swallow it?" said Foster, shuddering.
+
+"Nothing," answered Varney, "but looked on her with that aspect which
+governs madmen, women, and children. They told me in St. Luke's Hospital
+that I have the right look for overpowering a refractory patient. The
+keepers made me their compliments on't; so I know how to win my bread
+when my court-favour fails me."
+
+"And art thou not afraid," said Foster, "lest the dose be
+disproportioned?"
+
+"If so," replied Varney, "she will but sleep the sounder, and the fear
+of that shall not break my rest. Good night, my masters."
+
+Anthony Foster groaned heavily, and lifted up his hands and eyes. The
+alchemist intimated his purpose to continue some experiment of high
+import during the greater part of the night, and the others separated to
+their places of repose.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+     Now God be good to me in this wild pilgrimage!
+     All hope in human aid I cast behind me.
+     Oh, who would be a woman?--who that fool,
+     A weeping, pining, faithful, loving woman?
+     She hath hard measure still where she hopes kindest,
+     And all her bounties only make ingrates.     LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+The summer evening was closed, and Janet, just when her longer stay
+might have occasioned suspicion and inquiry in that zealous household,
+returned to Cumnor Place, and hastened to the apartment in which she
+had left her lady. She found her with her head resting on her arms, and
+these crossed upon a table which stood before her. As Janet came in, she
+neither looked up nor stirred.
+
+Her faithful attendant ran to her mistress with the speed of lightning,
+and rousing her at the same time with her hand, conjured the Countess,
+in the most earnest manner, to look up and say what thus affected
+her. The unhappy lady raised her head accordingly, and looking on her
+attendant with a ghastly eye, and cheek as pale as clay--"Janet," she
+said, "I have drunk it."
+
+"God be praised!" said Janet hastily--"I mean, God be praised that it is
+no worse; the potion will not harm you. Rise, shake this lethargy from
+your limbs, and this despair from your mind."
+
+"Janet," repeated the Countess again, "disturb me not--leave me at
+peace--let life pass quietly. I am poisoned."
+
+"You are not, my dearest lady," answered the maiden eagerly. "What you
+have swallowed cannot injure you, for the antidote has been taken before
+it, and I hastened hither to tell you that the means of escape are open
+to you."
+
+"Escape!" exclaimed the lady, as she raised herself hastily in her
+chair, while light returned to her eye and life to her cheek; "but ah!
+Janet, it comes too late."
+
+"Not so, dearest lady. Rise, take mine arm, walk through the apartment;
+let not fancy do the work of poison! So; feel you not now that you are
+possessed of the full use of your limbs?"
+
+"The torpor seems to diminish," said the Countess, as, supported by
+Janet, she walked to and fro in the apartment; "but is it then so, and
+have I not swallowed a deadly draught? Varney was here since thou wert
+gone, and commanded me, with eyes in which I read my fate, to swallow
+yon horrible drug. O Janet! it must be fatal; never was harmless draught
+served by such a cup-bearer!"
+
+"He did not deem it harmless, I fear," replied the maiden; "but God
+confounds the devices of the wicked. Believe me, as I swear by the dear
+Gospel in which we trust, your life is safe from his practice. Did you
+not debate with him?"
+
+"The house was silent," answered the lady--"thou gone--no other but he
+in the chamber--and he capable of every crime. I did but stipulate he
+would remove his hateful presence, and I drank whatever he offered.--But
+you spoke of escape, Janet; can I be so happy?"
+
+"Are you strong enough to bear the tidings, and make the effort?" said
+the maiden.
+
+"Strong!" answered the Countess. "Ask the hind, when the fangs of the
+deerhound are stretched to gripe her, if she is strong enough to spring
+over a chasm. I am equal to every effort that may relieve me from this
+place."
+
+"Hear me, then," said Janet. "One whom I deem an assured friend of yours
+has shown himself to me in various disguises, and sought speech of me,
+which--for my mind was not clear on the matter until this evening--I
+have ever declined. He was the pedlar who brought you goods--the
+itinerant hawker who sold me books; whenever I stirred abroad I was sure
+to see him. The event of this night determined me to speak with him.
+He awaits even now at the postern gate of the park with means for your
+flight.--But have you strength of body?--have you courage of mind?--can
+you undertake the enterprise?"
+
+"She that flies from death," said the lady, "finds strength of body--she
+that would escape from shame lacks no strength of mind. The thoughts of
+leaving behind me the villain who menaces both my life and honour would
+give me strength to rise from my deathbed."
+
+"In God's name, then, lady," said Janet, "I must bid you adieu, and to
+God's charge I must commit you!"
+
+"Will you not fly with me, then, Janet?" said the Countess, anxiously.
+"Am I to lose thee? Is this thy faithful service?"
+
+"Lady, I would fly with you as willingly as bird ever fled from cage,
+but my doing so would occasion instant discovery and pursuit. I must
+remain, and use means to disguise the truth for some time. May Heaven
+pardon the falsehood, because of the necessity!"
+
+"And am I then to travel alone with this stranger?" said the lady.
+"Bethink thee, Janet, may not this prove some deeper and darker scheme
+to separate me perhaps from you, who are my only friend?"
+
+"No, madam, do not suppose it," answered Janet readily; "the youth is an
+honest youth in his purpose to you, and a friend to Master Tressilian,
+under whose direction he is come hither."
+
+"If he be a friend of Tressilian," said the Countess, "I will commit
+myself to his charge as to that of an angel sent from heaven; for than
+Tressilian never breathed mortal man more free of whatever was base,
+false, or selfish. He forgot himself whenever he could be of use to
+others. Alas! and how was he requited?"
+
+With eager haste they collected the few necessaries which it was thought
+proper the Countess should take with her, and which Janet, with speed
+and dexterity, formed into a small bundle, not forgetting to add such
+ornaments of intrinsic value as came most readily in her way, and
+particularly a casket of jewels, which she wisely judged might prove of
+service in some future emergency. The Countess of Leicester next changed
+her dress for one which Janet usually wore upon any brief journey, for
+they judged it necessary to avoid every external distinction which might
+attract attention. Ere these preparations were fully made, the moon
+had arisen in the summer heaven, and all in the mansion had betaken
+themselves to rest, or at least to the silence and retirement of their
+chambers.
+
+There was no difficulty anticipated in escaping, whether from the house
+or garden, provided only they could elude observation. Anthony Foster
+had accustomed himself to consider his daughter as a conscious sinner
+might regard a visible guardian angel, which, notwithstanding his guilt,
+continued to hover around him; and therefore his trust in her knew no
+bounds. Janet commanded her own motions during the daytime, and had a
+master-key which opened the postern door of the park, so that she could
+go to the village at pleasure, either upon the household affairs, which
+were entirely confided to her management, or to attend her devotions
+at the meeting-house of her sect. It is true the daughter of Foster was
+thus liberally entrusted under the solemn condition that she should not
+avail herself of these privileges to do anything inconsistent with the
+safe-keeping of the Countess; for so her residence at Cumnor Place
+had been termed, since she began of late to exhibit impatience of the
+restrictions to which she was subjected. Nor is there reason to suppose
+that anything short of the dreadful suspicions which the scene of that
+evening had excited could have induced Janet to violate her word or
+deceive her father's confidence. But from what she had witnessed, she
+now conceived herself not only justified, but imperatively called upon,
+to make her lady's safety the principal object of her care, setting all
+other considerations aside.
+
+The fugitive Countess with her guide traversed with hasty steps the
+broken and interrupted path, which had once been an avenue, now totally
+darkened by the boughs of spreading trees which met above their head,
+and now receiving a doubtful and deceiving light from the beams of the
+moon, which penetrated where the axe had made openings in the wood.
+Their path was repeatedly interrupted by felled trees, or the large
+boughs which had been left on the ground till time served to make them
+into fagots and billets. The inconvenience and difficulty attending
+these interruptions, the breathless haste of the first part of their
+route, the exhausting sensations of hope and fear, so much affected the
+Countess's strength, that Janet was forced to propose that they should
+pause for a few minutes to recover breath and spirits. Both therefore
+stood still beneath the shadow of a huge old gnarled oak-tree, and both
+naturally looked back to the mansion which they had left behind them,
+whose long, dark front was seen in the gloomy distance, with its huge
+stacks of chimneys, turrets, and clock-house, rising above the line
+of the roof, and definedly visible against the pure azure blue of the
+summer sky. One light only twinkled from the extended and shadowy mass,
+and it was placed so low that it rather seemed to glimmer from the
+ground in front of the mansion than from one of the windows. The
+Countess's terror was awakened. "They follow us!" she said, pointing out
+to Janet the light which thus alarmed her.
+
+Less agitated than her mistress, Janet perceived that the gleam was
+stationary, and informed the Countess, in a whisper, that the light
+proceeded from the solitary cell in which the alchemist pursued his
+occult experiments. "He is of those," she added, "who sit up and watch
+by night that they may commit iniquity. Evil was the chance which sent
+hither a man whose mixed speech of earthly wealth and unearthly or
+superhuman knowledge hath in it what does so especially captivate my
+poor father. Well spoke the good Master Holdforth--and, methought,
+not without meaning that those of our household should find therein a
+practical use. 'There be those,' he said, 'and their number is legion,
+who will rather, like the wicked Ahab, listen to the dreams of the false
+prophet Zedekiah, than to the words of him by whom the Lord has spoken.'
+And he further insisted--'Ah, my brethren, there be many Zedekiahs among
+you--men that promise you the light of their carnal knowledge, so you
+will surrender to them that of your heavenly understanding. What are
+they better than the tyrant Naas, who demanded the right eye of those
+who were subjected to him?' And further he insisted--"
+
+It is uncertain how long the fair Puritan's memory might have supported
+her in the recapitulation of Master Holdforth's discourse; but the
+Countess now interrupted her, and assured her she was so much recovered
+that she could now reach the postern without the necessity of a second
+delay.
+
+They set out accordingly, and performed the second part of their journey
+with more deliberation, and of course more easily, than the first hasty
+commencement. This gave them leisure for reflection; and Janet now,
+for the first time, ventured to ask her lady which way she proposed to
+direct her flight. Receiving no immediate answer--for, perhaps, in the
+confusion of her mind this very obvious subject of deliberation had
+not occurred to the Countess---Janet ventured to add, "Probably to your
+father's house, where you are sure of safety and protection?"
+
+"No, Janet," said the lady mournfully; "I left Lidcote Hall while
+my heart was light and my name was honourable, and I will not return
+thither till my lord's permission and public acknowledgment of our
+marriage restore me to my native home with all the rank and honour which
+he has bestowed on me."
+
+"And whither will you, then, madam?" said Janet.
+
+"To Kenilworth, girl," said the Countess, boldly and freely. "I will see
+these revels--these princely revels--the preparation for which makes the
+land ring from side to side. Methinks, when the Queen of England feasts
+within my husband's halls, the Countess of Leicester should be no
+unbeseeming guest."
+
+"I pray God you may be a welcome one!" said Janet hastily.
+
+"You abuse my situation, Janet," said the Countess, angrily, "and you
+forget your own."
+
+"I do neither, dearest madam," said the sorrowful maiden; "but have you
+forgotten that the noble Earl has given such strict charges to keep
+your marriage secret, that he may preserve his court-favour? and can you
+think that your sudden appearance at his castle, at such a juncture, and
+in such a presence, will be acceptable to him?"
+
+"Thou thinkest I would disgrace him," said the Countess; "nay, let go my
+arm, I can walk without aid and work without counsel."
+
+"Be not angry with me, lady," said Janet meekly, "and let me still
+support you; the road is rough, and you are little accustomed to walk in
+darkness."
+
+"If you deem me not so mean as may disgrace my husband," said the
+Countess, in the same resentful tone, "you suppose my Lord of Leicester
+capable of abetting, perhaps of giving aim and authority to, the base
+proceedings of your father and Varney, whose errand I will do to the
+good Earl."
+
+"For God's sake, madam, spare my father in your report," said Janet;
+"let my services, however poor, be some atonement for his errors!"
+
+"I were most unjust, dearest Janet, were it otherwise," said the
+Countess, resuming at once the fondness and confidence of her manner
+towards her faithful attendant, "No, Janet, not a word of mine shall do
+your father prejudice. But thou seest, my love, I have no desire but
+to throw my self on my husband's protection. I have left the abode he
+assigned for me, because of the villainy of the persons by whom I was
+surrounded; but I will disobey his commands in no other particular. I
+will appeal to him alone--I will be protected by him alone; to no other,
+than at his pleasure, have I or will I communicate the secret union
+which combines our hearts and our destinies. I will see him, and receive
+from his own lips the directions for my future conduct. Do not argue
+against my resolution, Janet; you will only confirm me in it. And to own
+the truth, I am resolved to know my fate at once, and from my husband's
+own mouth; and to seek him at Kenilworth is the surest way to attain my
+purpose."
+
+While Janet hastily revolved in her mind the difficulties and
+uncertainties attendant on the unfortunate lady's situation, she was
+inclined to alter her first opinion, and to think, upon the whole, that
+since the Countess had withdrawn herself from the retreat in which she
+had been placed by her husband, it was her first duty to repair to his
+presence, and possess him with the reasons for such conduct. She knew
+what importance the Earl attached to the concealment of their marriage,
+and could not but own, that by taking any step to make it public
+without his permission, the Countess would incur, in a high degree, the
+indignation of her husband. If she retired to her father's house without
+an explicit avowal of her rank, her situation was likely greatly to
+prejudice her character; and if she made such an avowal, it might
+occasion an irreconcilable breach with her husband. At Kenilworth,
+again, she might plead her cause with her husband himself, whom Janet,
+though distrusting him more than the Countess did, believed incapable
+of being accessory to the base and desperate means which his dependants,
+from whose power the lady was now escaping, might resort to, in order to
+stifle her complaints of the treatment she had received at their hands.
+But at the worst, and were the Earl himself to deny her justice and
+protection, still at Kenilworth, if she chose to make her wrongs public,
+the Countess might have Tressilian for her advocate, and the Queen for
+her judge; for so much Janet had learned in her short conference with
+Wayland. She was, therefore, on the whole, reconciled to her lady's
+proposal of going towards Kenilworth, and so expressed herself;
+recommending, however, to the Countess the utmost caution in making her
+arrival known to her husband.
+
+"Hast thou thyself been cautious, Janet?" said the Countess; "this
+guide, in whom I must put my confidence, hast thou not entrusted to him
+the secret of my condition?"
+
+"From me he has learned nothing," said Janet; "nor do I think that he
+knows more than what the public in general believe of your situation."
+
+"And what is that?" said the lady.
+
+"That you left your father's house--but I shall offend you again if I go
+on," said Janet, interrupting herself.
+
+"Nay, go on," said the Countess; "I must learn to endure the evil report
+which my folly has brought upon me. They think, I suppose, that I have
+left my father's house to follow lawless pleasure. It is an error which
+will soon be removed--indeed it shall, for I will live with spotless
+fame, or I shall cease to live.--I am accounted, then, the paramour of
+my Leicester?"
+
+"Most men say of Varney," said Janet; "yet some call him only the
+convenient cloak of his master's pleasures; for reports of the profuse
+expense in garnishing yonder apartments have secretly gone abroad, and
+such doings far surpass the means of Varney. But this latter opinion is
+little prevalent; for men dare hardly even hint suspicion when so high a
+name is concerned, lest the Star Chamber should punish them for scandal
+of the nobility."
+
+"They do well to speak low," said the Countess, "who would mention the
+illustrious Dudley as the accomplice of such a wretch as Varney.--We
+have reached the postern. Ah! Janet, I must bid thee farewell! Weep not,
+my good girl," said she, endeavouring to cover her own reluctance to
+part with her faithful attendant under an attempt at playfulness; "and
+against we meet again, reform me, Janet, that precise ruff of thine for
+an open rabatine of lace and cut work, that will let men see thou hast
+a fair neck; and that kirtle of Philippine chency, with that bugle lace
+which befits only a chambermaid, into three-piled velvet and cloth of
+gold--thou wilt find plenty of stuffs in my chamber, and I freely bestow
+them on you. Thou must be brave, Janet; for though thou art now but
+the attendant of a distressed and errant lady, who is both nameless and
+fameless, yet, when we meet again, thou must be dressed as becomes the
+gentlewoman nearest in love and in service to the first Countess in
+England."
+
+"Now, may God grant it, dear lady!" said Janet--"not that I may go
+with gayer apparel, but that we may both wear our kirtles over lighter
+hearts."
+
+By this time the lock of the postern door had, after some hard
+wrenching, yielded to the master-key; and the Countess, not without
+internal shuddering, saw herself beyond the walls which her husband's
+strict commands had assigned to her as the boundary of her walks.
+Waiting with much anxiety for their appearance, Wayland Smith stood
+at some distance, shrouding himself behind a hedge which bordered the
+high-road.
+
+"Is all safe?" said Janet to him anxiously, as he approached them with
+caution.
+
+"All," he replied; "but I have been unable to procure a horse for the
+lady. Giles Gosling, the cowardly hilding, refused me one on any terms
+whatever, lest, forsooth, he should suffer. But no matter; she must
+ride on my palfrey, and I must walk by her side until I come by another
+horse. There will be no pursuit, if you, pretty Mistress Janet, forget
+not thy lesson."
+
+"No more than the wise widow of Tekoa forgot the words which Joab put
+into her mouth," answered Janet. "Tomorrow, I say that my lady is unable
+to rise."
+
+"Ay; and that she hath aching and heaviness of the head a throbbing at
+the heart, and lists not to be disturbed. Fear not; they will take the
+hint, and trouble thee with few questions--they understand the disease."
+
+"But," said the lady, "My absence must be soon discovered, and they
+will murder her in revenge. I will rather return than expose her to such
+danger."
+
+"Be at ease on my account, madam," said Janet; "I would you were as
+sure of receiving the favour you desire from those to whom you must make
+appeal, as I am that my father, however angry, will suffer no harm to
+befall me."
+
+The Countess was now placed by Wayland upon his horse, around the saddle
+of which he had placed his cloak, so folded as to make her a commodious
+seat.
+
+"Adieu, and may the blessing of God wend with you!" said Janet, again
+kissing her mistress's hand, who returned her benediction with a
+mute caress. They then tore themselves asunder, and Janet, addressing
+Wayland, exclaimed, "May Heaven deal with you at your need, as you are
+true or false to this most injured and most helpless lady!"
+
+"Amen! dearest Janet," replied Wayland; "and believe me, I will so
+acquit myself of my trust as may tempt even your pretty eyes, saintlike
+as they are, to look less scornfully on me when we next meet."
+
+The latter part of this adieu was whispered into Janet's ear and
+although she made no reply to it directly, yet her manner, influenced,
+no doubt, by her desire to leave every motive in force which could
+operate towards her mistress's safety, did not discourage the hope which
+Wayland's words expressed. She re-entered the postern door, and locked
+it behind her; while, Wayland taking the horse's bridle in his hand,
+and walking close by its head, they began in silence their dubious and
+moonlight journey.
+
+Although Wayland Smith used the utmost dispatch which he could make,
+yet this mode of travelling was so slow, that when morning began to dawn
+through the eastern mist, he found himself no farther than about ten
+miles distant from Cumnor. "Now, a plague upon all smooth-spoken
+hosts!" said Wayland, unable longer to suppress his mortification and
+uneasiness. "Had the false loon, Giles Gosling, but told me plainly two
+days since that I was to reckon nought upon him, I had shifted better
+for myself. But your hosts have such a custom of promising whatever is
+called for that it is not till the steed is to be shod you find they are
+out of iron. Had I but known, I could have made twenty shifts; nay, for
+that matter, and in so good a cause, I would have thought little to have
+prigged a prancer from the next common--it had but been sending back
+the brute to the headborough. The farcy and the founders confound every
+horse in the stables of the Black Bear!"
+
+The lady endeavoured to comfort her guide, observing that the dawn would
+enable him to make more speed.
+
+"True, madam," he replied; "but then it will enable other folk to take
+note of us, and that may prove an ill beginning of our journey. I
+had not cared a spark from anvil about the matter had we been further
+advanced on our way. But this Berkshire has been notoriously haunted,
+ever since I knew the country, with that sort of malicious elves who
+sit up late and rise early for no other purpose than to pry into other
+folk's affairs. I have been endangered by them ere now. But do not
+fear," he added, "good madam; for wit, meeting with opportunity, will
+not miss to find a salve for every sore."
+
+The alarms of her guide made more impression on the Countess's mind than
+the comfort which he judged fit to administer along with it. She looked
+anxiously around her, and as the shadows withdrew from the landscape,
+and the heightening glow of the eastern sky promised the speedy rise of
+the sun, expected at every turn that the increasing light would expose
+them to the view of the vengeful pursuers, or present some dangerous
+and insurmountable obstacle to the prosecution of their journey. Wayland
+Smith perceived her uneasiness, and, displeased with himself for having
+given her cause of alarm, strode on with affected alacrity, now talking
+to the horse as one expert in the language of the stable, now whistling
+to himself low and interrupted snatches of tunes, and now assuring
+the lady there was no danger, while at the same time he looked sharply
+around to see that there was nothing in sight which might give the
+lie to his words while they were issuing from his mouth. Thus did
+they journey on, until an unexpected incident gave them the means of
+continuing their pilgrimage with more speed and convenience.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+     RICHARD. A horse!--A horse!--my kingdom for a horse!
+     CATESBY......My lord, I'll help you to a horse.  --RICHARD III.
+
+Our travellers were in the act of passing a small thicket of trees close
+by the roadside, when the first living being presented himself whom
+they had seen since their departure from Cumnor Place. This was a stupid
+lout, seemingly a farmer's boy, in a grey jerkin, with his head bare,
+his hose about his heels, and huge startups upon his feet. He held by
+the bridle what of all things they most wanted--a palfrey, namely, with
+a side-saddle, and all other garniture for a woman's mounting; and he
+hailed Wayland Smith with, "Zur, be ye zure the party?"
+
+"Ay, that I be, my lad," answered Wayland, without an instant's
+hesitation; and it must be owned that consciences trained in a stricter
+school of morality might have given way to an occasion so tempting.
+While he spoke, he caught the rein out of the boy's hand, and almost at
+the same time helped down the Countess from his own horse, and aided
+her to mount on that which chance had thus presented for her acceptance.
+Indeed, so naturally did the whole take place, that the Countess, as it
+afterwards appeared, never suspected but that the horse had been
+placed there to meet them by the precaution of the guide or some of his
+friends.
+
+The lad, however, who was thus hastily dispossessed of his charge, began
+to stare hard, and scratch his head, as if seized with some qualms of
+conscience for delivering up the animal on such brief explanation. "I
+be right zure thou be'st the party," said he, muttering to himself, "but
+thou shouldst ha zaid BEANS, thou knawest."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Wayland, speaking at a venture; "and thou BACON, thou
+knowest."
+
+"Noa, noa," said the lad; "bide ye--bide ye--it was PEAS a should ha
+said."
+
+"Well, well," answered Wayland, "Peas be it, a God's name! though Bacon
+were the better password."
+
+And being by this time mounted on his own horse, he caught the rein of
+the palfrey from the uncertain hold of the hesitating young boor, flung
+him a small piece of money, and made amends for lost time by riding
+briskly off without further parley. The lad was still visible from the
+hill up which they were riding, and Wayland, as he looked back, beheld
+him standing with his fingers in his hair as immovable as a guide-post,
+and his head turned in the direction in which they were escaping from
+him. At length, just as they topped the hill, he saw the clown stoop to
+lift up the silver groat which his benevolence had imparted. "Now this
+is what I call a Godsend," said Wayland; "this is a bonny, well-ridden
+bit of a going thing, and it will carry us so far till we get you as
+well mounted, and then we will send it back time enough to satisfy the
+Hue and Cry."
+
+But he was deceived in his expectations; and fate, which seemed at first
+to promise so fairly, soon threatened to turn the incident which he thus
+gloried in into the cause of their utter ruin.
+
+They had not ridden a short mile from the place where they left the
+lad before they heard a man's voice shouting on the wind behind them,
+"Robbery! robbery!--Stop thief!" and similar exclamations, which
+Wayland's conscience readily assured him must arise out of the
+transaction to which he had been just accessory.
+
+"I had better have gone barefoot all my life," he said; "it is the Hue
+and Cry, and I am a lost man. Ah! Wayland, Wayland, many a time thy
+father said horse-flesh would be the death of thee. Were I once safe
+among the horse-coursers in Smithfield, or Turnbull Street, they should
+have leave to hang me as high as St. Paul's if I e'er meddled more with
+nobles, knights, or gentlewomen."
+
+Amidst these dismal reflections, he turned his head repeatedly to see by
+whom he was chased, and was much comforted when he could only discover
+a single rider, who was, however, well mounted, and came after them at
+a speed which left them no chance of escaping, even had the lady's
+strength permitted her to ride as fast as her palfrey might have been
+able to gallop.
+
+"There may be fair play betwixt us, sure," thought Wayland, "where there
+is but one man on each side, and yonder fellow sits on his horse more
+like a monkey than a cavalier. Pshaw! if it come to the worse, it will
+be easy unhorsing him. Nay, 'snails! I think his horse will take the
+matter in his own hand, for he has the bridle betwixt his teeth. Oons,
+what care I for him?" said he, as the pursuer drew yet nearer; "it is
+but the little animal of a mercer from Abingdon, when all is over."
+
+Even so it was, as the experienced eye of Wayland had descried at a
+distance. For the valiant mercer's horse, which was a beast of mettle,
+feeling himself put to his speed, and discerning a couple of horses
+riding fast at some hundred yards' distance before him, betook himself
+to the road with such alacrity as totally deranged the seat of his
+rider, who not only came up with, but passed at full gallop, those
+whom he had been pursuing, pulling the reins with all his might, and
+ejaculating, "Stop! stop!" an interjection which seemed rather to
+regard his own palfrey than what seamen call "the chase." With the same
+involuntary speed, he shot ahead (to use another nautical phrase) about
+a furlong ere he was able to stop and turn his horse, and then rode back
+towards our travellers, adjusting, as well as he could, his disordered
+dress, resettling himself in the saddle, and endeavouring to substitute
+a bold and martial frown for the confusion and dismay which sat upon his
+visage during his involuntary career.
+
+Wayland had just time to caution the lady not to be alarmed, adding,
+"This fellow is a gull, and I will use him as such."
+
+When the mercer had recovered breath and audacity enough to confront
+them, he ordered Wayland, in a menacing tone, to deliver up his palfrey.
+
+"How?" said the smith, in King Cambyses' vein, "are we commanded to
+stand and deliver on the king's highway? Then out, Excalibur, and tell
+this knight of prowess that dire blows must decide between us!"
+
+"Haro and help, and hue and cry, every true man!" said the mercer. "I am
+withstood in seeking to recover mine own."
+
+"Thou swearest thy gods in vain, foul paynim," said Wayland, "for I
+will through with mine purpose were death at the end on't. Nevertheless,
+know, thou false man of frail cambric and ferrateen, that I am he, even
+the pedlar, whom thou didst boast to meet on Maiden Castle moor, and
+despoil of his pack; wherefore betake thee to thy weapons presently."
+
+"I spoke but in jest, man," said Goldthred; "I am an honest shopkeeper
+and citizen, who scorns to leap forth on any man from behind a hedge."
+
+"Then, by my faith, most puissant mercer," answered Wayland, "I am sorry
+for my vow, which was, that wherever I met thee I would despoil thee of
+thy palfrey, and bestow it upon my leman, unless thou couldst defend it
+by blows of force. But the vow is passed and registered, and all I
+can do for thee is to leave the horse at Donnington, in the nearest
+hostelry."
+
+"But I tell thee, friend," said the mercer, "it is the very horse on
+which I was this day to carry Jane Thackham, of Shottesbrok, as far as
+the parish church yonder, to become Dame Goldthred. She hath jumped out
+of the shot-window of old Gaffer Thackham's grange; and lo ye, yonder
+she stands at the place where she should have met the palfrey, with
+her camlet riding-cloak and ivory-handled whip, like a picture of Lot's
+wife. I pray you, in good terms, let me have back the palfrey."
+
+"Grieved am I," said Wayland, "as much for the fair damsel as for thee,
+most noble imp of muslin. But vows must have their course; thou wilt
+find the palfrey at the Angel yonder at Donnington. It is all I may do
+for thee with a safe conscience."
+
+"To the devil with thy conscience!" said the dismayed mercer. "Wouldst
+thou have a bride walk to church on foot?"
+
+"Thou mayest take her on thy crupper, Sir Goldthred," answered Wayland;
+"it will take down thy steed's mettle."
+
+"And how if you--if you forget to leave my horse, as you propose?" said
+Goldthred, not without hesitation, for his soul was afraid within him.
+
+"My pack shall be pledged for it--yonder it lies with Giles Gosling,
+in his chamber with the damasked leathern hangings, stuffed full with
+velvet, single, double, treble-piled--rash-taffeta, and parapa--shag,
+damask, and mocado, plush, and grogram--"
+
+"Hold! hold!" exclaimed the mercer; "nay, if there be, in truth and
+sincerity, but the half of these wares--but if ever I trust bumpkin with
+bonny Bayard again!"
+
+"As you list for that, good Master Goldthred, and so good morrow to
+you--and well parted," he added, riding on cheerfully with the lady,
+while the discountenanced mercer rode back much slower than he came,
+pondering what excuse he should make to the disappointed bride, who
+stood waiting for her gallant groom in the midst of the king's highway.
+
+"Methought," said the lady, as they rode on, "yonder fool stared at me
+as if he had some remembrance of me; yet I kept my muffler as high as I
+might."
+
+"If I thought so," said Wayland, "I would ride back and cut him over the
+pate; there would be no fear of harming his brains, for he never had
+so much as would make pap to a sucking gosling. We must now push on,
+however, and at Donnington we will leave the oaf's horse, that he may
+have no further temptation to pursue us, and endeavour to assume such a
+change of shape as may baffle his pursuit if he should persevere in it."
+
+The travellers reached Donnington without further alarm, where it became
+matter of necessity that the Countess should enjoy two or three hours'
+repose, during which Wayland disposed himself, with equal address and
+alacrity, to carry through those measures on which the safety of their
+future journey seemed to depend.
+
+Exchanging his pedlar's gaberdine for a smock-frock, he carried the
+palfrey of Goldthred to the Angel Inn, which was at the other end of the
+village from that where our travellers had taken up their quarters. In
+the progress of the morning, as he travelled about his other business,
+he saw the steed brought forth and delivered to the cutting mercer
+himself, who, at the head of a valorous posse of the Hue and Cry, came
+to rescue, by force of arms, what was delivered to him without any
+other ransom than the price of a huge quantity of ale, drunk out by his
+assistants, thirsty, it would seem, with their walk, and concerning
+the price of which Master Goldthred had a fierce dispute with the
+headborough, whom he had summoned to aid him in raising the country.
+
+Having made this act of prudent as well as just restitution, Wayland
+procured such change of apparel for the lady, as well as himself, as
+gave them both the appearance of country people of the better class; it
+being further resolved, that in order to attract the less observation,
+she should pass upon the road for the sister of her guide. A good but
+not a gay horse, fit to keep pace with his own, and gentle enough for
+a lady's use, completed the preparations for the journey; for making
+which, and for other expenses, he had been furnished with sufficient
+funds by Tressilian. And thus, about noon, after the Countess had been
+refreshed by the sound repose of several hours, they resumed their
+journey, with the purpose of making the best of their way to Kenilworth,
+by Coventry and Warwick. They were not, however, destined to travel far
+without meeting some cause of apprehension.
+
+It is necessary to premise that the landlord of the inn had informed
+them that a jovial party, intended, as he understood, to present some
+of the masques or mummeries which made a part of the entertainment with
+which the Queen was usually welcomed on the royal Progresses, had left
+the village of Donnington an hour or two before them in order to
+proceed to Kenilworth. Now it had occurred to Wayland that, by attaching
+themselves in some sort to this group as soon as they should overtake
+them on the road, they would be less likely to attract notice than if
+they continued to travel entirely by themselves. He communicated his
+idea to the Countess, who, only anxious to arrive at Kenilworth without
+interruption, left him free to choose the manner in which this was to
+be accomplished. They pressed forward their horses, therefore, with the
+purpose of overtaking the party of intended revellers, and making the
+journey in their company; and had just seen the little party, consisting
+partly of riders, partly of people on foot, crossing the summit of a
+gentle hill, at about half a mile's distance, and disappearing on
+the other side, when Wayland, who maintained the most circumspect
+observation of all that met his eye in every direction, was aware that
+a rider was coming up behind them on a horse of uncommon action,
+accompanied by a serving-man, whose utmost efforts were unable to keep
+up with his master's trotting hackney, and who, therefore, was fain
+to follow him at a hand gallop. Wayland looked anxiously back at these
+horsemen, became considerably disturbed in his manner, looked back
+again, and became pale, as he said to the lady, "That is Richard
+Varney's trotting gelding; I would know him among a thousand nags. This
+is a worse business than meeting the mercer."
+
+"Draw your sword," answered the lady, "and pierce my bosom with it,
+rather than I should fall into his hands!"
+
+"I would rather by a thousand times," answered Wayland, "pass it through
+his body, or even mine own. But to say truth, fighting is not my best
+point, though I can look on cold iron like another when needs must be.
+And indeed, as for my sword--(put on, I pray you)--it is a poor Provant
+rapier, and I warrant you he has a special Toledo. He has a serving-man,
+too, and I think it is the drunken ruffian Lambourne! upon the horse on
+which men say--(I pray you heartily to put on)--he did the great robbery
+of the west country grazier. It is not that I fear either Varney or
+Lambourne in a good cause--(your palfrey will go yet faster if you urge
+him)--but yet--(nay, I pray you let him not break off into a gallop,
+lest they should see we fear them, and give chase--keep him only at the
+full trot)--but yet, though I fear them not, I would we were well rid
+of them, and that rather by policy than by violence. Could we once reach
+the party before us, we may herd among them, and pass unobserved, unless
+Varney be really come in express pursuit of us, and then, happy man be
+his dole!"
+
+While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained his horse,
+desirous to maintain the fleetest pace that was consistent with the
+idea of an ordinary journey on the road, but to avoid such rapidity of
+movement as might give rise to suspicion that they were flying.
+
+At such a pace they ascended the gentle hill we have mentioned, and
+looking from the top, had the pleasure to see that the party which had
+left Donnington before them were in the little valley or bottom on the
+other side, where the road was traversed by a rivulet, beside which was
+a cottage or two. In this place they seemed to have made a pause, which
+gave Wayland the hope of joining them, and becoming a part of their
+company, ere Varney should overtake them. He was the more anxious, as
+his companion, though she made no complaints, and expressed no fear,
+began to look so deadly pale that he was afraid she might drop from her
+horse. Notwithstanding this symptom of decaying strength, she pushed on
+her palfrey so briskly that they joined the party in the bottom of the
+valley ere Varney appeared on the top of the gentle eminence which they
+had descended.
+
+They found the company to which they meant to associate themselves in
+great disorder. The women with dishevelled locks, and looks of great
+importance, ran in and out of one of the cottages, and the men stood
+around holding the horses, and looking silly enough, as is usual in
+cases where their assistance is not wanted.
+
+Wayland and his charge paused, as if out of curiosity, and then
+gradually, without making any inquiries, or being asked any questions,
+they mingled with the group, as if they had always made part of it.
+
+They had not stood there above five minutes, anxiously keeping as much
+to the side of the road as possible, so as to place the other travellers
+betwixt them and Varney, when Lord Leicester's master of the horse,
+followed by Lambourne, came riding fiercely down the hill, their horses'
+flanks and the rowels of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate
+at which they travelled. The appearance of the stationary group around
+the cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to protect their
+masking dresses, having their light cart for transporting their scenery,
+and carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more
+easy conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and purpose
+of the company.
+
+"You are revellers," said Varney, "designing for Kenilworth?"
+
+"RECTE QUIDEM, DOMINE SPECTATISSIME," answered one of the party.
+
+"And why the devil stand you here?" said Varney, "when your utmost
+dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time? The Queen dines at
+Warwick to-morrow, and you loiter here, ye knaves."
+
+"I very truth, sir," said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a vizard
+with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet hue, having,
+moreover, a black serge jerkin drawn close to his body by lacing,
+garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped as to resemble cloven
+feet--"in very truth, sir, and you are in the right on't. It is my
+father the Devil, who, being taken in labour, has delayed our present
+purpose, by increasing our company with an imp too many."
+
+"The devil he has!" answered Varney, whose laugh, however, never
+exceeded a sarcastic smile.
+
+"It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masker who spoke first;
+"Our major devil--for this is but our minor one--is even now at LUCINA,
+FER OPEM, within that very TUGURIUM."
+
+"By Saint George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a kinsman of the
+fiend in the straw, a most comical chance!" said Varney. "How sayest
+thou, Lambourne, wilt thou stand godfather for the nonce? If the devil
+were to choose a gossip, I know no one more fit for the office."
+
+"Saving always when my betters are in presence," said Lambourne,
+with the civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to be so
+indispensable that his jest will be permitted to pass muster.
+
+"And what is the name of this devil, or devil's dam, who has timed her
+turns so strangely?" said Varney. "We can ill afford to spare any of our
+actors."
+
+"GAUDET NOMINE SIBYLLAE," said the first speaker; "she is called Sibyl
+Laneham, wife of Master Robert Laneham--"
+
+"Clerk to the Council-chamber door," said Varney; "why, she is
+inexcusable, having had experience how to have ordered her matters
+better. But who were those, a man and a woman, I think, who rode so
+hastily up the hill before me even now? Do they belong to your company?"
+
+Wayland was about to hazard a reply to this alarming inquiry, when the
+little diablotin again thrust in his oar.
+
+"So please you," he said, coming close up to Varney, and speaking so as
+not to be overheard by his companions, "the man was our devil major, who
+has tricks enough to supply the lack of a hundred such as Dame Laneham;
+and the woman, if you please, is the sage person whose assistance is
+most particularly necessary to our distressed comrade."
+
+"Oh, what! you have got the wise woman, then?" said Varney. "Why, truly,
+she rode like one bound to a place where she was needed. And you have a
+spare limb of Satan, besides, to supply the place of Mistress Laneham?"
+
+"Ay, sir," said the boy; "they are not so scarce in this world as your
+honour's virtuous eminence would suppose. This master-fiend shall spit a
+few flashes of fire, and eruct a volume or two of smoke on the spot, if
+it will do you pleasure--you would think he had AEtna in his abdomen."
+
+"I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to witness his
+performance," said Varney; "but here is something for you all to drink
+the lucky hour--and so, as the play says, 'God be with Your labour!'"
+
+Thus speaking, he struck his horse with the spurs, and rode on his way.
+
+Lambourne tarried a moment or two behind his master, and rummaged his
+pouch for a piece of silver, which he bestowed on the communicative imp,
+as he said, for his encouragement on his path to the infernal regions,
+some sparks of whose fire, he said, he could discover flashing from him
+already. Then having received the boy's thanks for his generosity he
+also spurred his horse, and rode after his master as fast as the fire
+flashes from flint.
+
+"And now," said the wily imp, sidling close up to Wayland's horse,
+and cutting a gambol in the air which seemed to vindicate his title to
+relationship with the prince of that element, "I have told them who YOU
+are, do you in return tell me who I am?"
+
+"Either Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland Smith, "or else an imp of the
+devil in good earnest."
+
+"Thou hast hit it," answered Dickie Sludge. "I am thine own
+Flibbertigibbet, man; and I have broken forth of bounds, along with my
+learned preceptor, as I told thee I would do, whether he would or not.
+But what lady hast thou got with thee? I saw thou wert at fault the
+first question was asked, and so I drew up for thy assistance. But I
+must know all who she is, dear Wayland."
+
+"Thou shalt know fifty finer things, my dear ingle," said Wayland;
+"but a truce to thine inquiries just now. And since you are bound for
+Kenilworth, thither will I too, even for the love of thy sweet face and
+waggish company."
+
+"Thou shouldst have said my waggish face and sweet company," said
+Dickie; "but how wilt thou travel with us--I mean in what character?"
+
+"E'en in that thou hast assigned me, to be sure--as a juggler; thou
+knowest I am used to the craft," answered Wayland.
+
+"Ay, but the lady?" answered Flibbertigibbet. "Credit me, I think she IS
+one and thou art in a sea of troubles about her at this moment, as I can
+perceive by thy fidgeting."
+
+"Oh, she, man!--she is a poor sister of mine," said Wayland; "she can
+sing and play o' the lute would win the fish out o' the stream."
+
+"Let me hear her instantly," said the boy, "I love the lute rarely; I
+love it of all things, though I never heard it."
+
+"Then how canst thou love it, Flibbertigibbet?" said Wayland.
+
+"As knights love ladies in old tales," answered Dickie--"on hearsay."
+
+"Then love it on hearsay a little longer, till my sister is recovered
+from the fatigue of her journey," said Wayland; muttering afterwards
+betwixt his teeth, "The devil take the imp's curiosity! I must keep fair
+weather with him, or we shall fare the worse."
+
+He then proceeded to state to Master Holiday his own talents as a
+juggler, with those of his sister as a musician. Some proof of his
+dexterity was demanded, which he gave in such a style of excellence,
+that, delighted at obtaining such an accession to their party, they
+readily acquiesced in the apology which he offered when a display of his
+sister's talents was required. The new-comers were invited to partake
+of the refreshments with which the party were provided; and it was with
+some difficulty that Wayland Smith obtained an opportunity of being
+apart with his supposed sister during the meal, of which interval he
+availed himself to entreat her to forget for the present both her
+rank and her sorrows, and condescend, as the most probable chance of
+remaining concealed, to mix in the society of those with whom she was to
+travel.
+
+The Countess allowed the necessity of the case, and when they resumed
+their journey, endeavoured to comply with her guide's advice, by
+addressing herself to a female near her, and expressing her concern for
+the woman whom they were thus obliged to leave behind them.
+
+"Oh, she is well attended, madam," replied the dame whom she addressed,
+who, from her jolly and laughter-loving demeanour, might have been the
+very emblem of the Wife of Bath; "and my gossip Laneham thinks as little
+of these matters as any one. By the ninth day, an the revels last so
+long, we shall have her with us at Kenilworth, even if she should travel
+with her bantling on her back."
+
+There was something in this speech which took away all desire on the
+Countess of Leicester's part to continue the conversation. But having
+broken the charm by speaking to her fellow-traveller first, the good
+dame, who was to play Rare Gillian of Croydon in one of the interludes,
+took care that silence did not again settle on the journey, but
+entertained her mute companion with a thousand anecdotes of revels, from
+the days of King Harry downwards, with the reception given them by
+the great folk, and all the names of those who played the principal
+characters; but ever concluding with "they would be nothing to the
+princely pleasures of Kenilworth."
+
+"And when shall we reach Kenilworth? said the Countess, with an
+agitation which she in vain attempted to conceal.
+
+"We that have horses may, with late riding, get to Warwick to-night, and
+Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles. But then we must
+wait till the foot-people come up; although it is like my good Lord of
+Leicester will have horses or light carriages to meet them, and bring
+them up without being travel-toiled, which last is no good preparation,
+as you may suppose, for dancing before your betters. And yet, Lord help
+me, I have seen the day I would have tramped five leagues of lea-land,
+and turned an my toe the whole evening after, as a juggler spins a
+pewter platter on the point of a needle. But age has clawed me somewhat
+in his clutch, as the song says; though, if I like the tune and like
+my partner, I'll dance the hays yet with any merry lass in Warwickshire
+that writes that unhappy figure four with a round O after it."
+
+If the Countess was overwhelmed with the garrulity of this good dame,
+Wayland Smith, on his part, had enough to do to sustain and parry the
+constant attacks made upon him by the indefatigable curiosity of his
+old acquaintance Richard Sludge. Nature had given that arch youngster a
+prying cast of disposition, which matched admirably with his sharp wit;
+the former inducing him to plant himself as a spy on other people's
+affairs, and the latter quality leading him perpetually to interfere,
+after he had made himself master of that which concerned him not.
+He spent the livelong day in attempting to peer under the Countess's
+muffler, and apparently what he could there discern greatly sharpened
+his curiosity.
+
+"That sister of thine, Wayland," he said, "has a fair neck to have been
+born in a smithy, and a pretty taper hand to have been used for twirling
+a spindle--faith, I'll believe in your relationship when the crow's egg
+is hatched into a cygnet."
+
+"Go to," said Wayland, "thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched
+for thine assurance."
+
+"Well," said the imp, drawing off, "all I say is--remember you have kept
+a secret from me, and if I give thee not a Roland for thine Oliver, my
+name is not Dickon Sludge!"
+
+This threat, and the distance at which Hobgoblin kept from him for the
+rest of the way, alarmed Wayland very much, and he suggested to his
+pretended sister that, on pretext of weariness, she should express a
+desire to stop two or three miles short of the fair town of Warwick,
+promising to rejoin the troop in the morning. A small village inn
+afforded them a resting-place, and it was with secret pleasure that
+Wayland saw the whole party, including Dickon, pass on, after a
+courteous farewell, and leave them behind.
+
+"To-morrow, madam," he said to his charge, "we will, with your leave,
+again start early, and reach Kenilworth before the rout which are to
+assemble there."
+
+The Countess gave assent to the proposal of her faithful guide; but,
+somewhat to his surprise, said nothing further on the subject, which
+left Wayland under the disagreeable uncertainty whether or no she had
+formed any plan for her own future proceedings, as he knew her situation
+demanded circumspection, although he was but imperfectly acquainted with
+all its peculiarities. Concluding, however, that she must have friends
+within the castle, whose advice and assistance she could safely trust,
+he supposed his task would be best accomplished by conducting her
+thither in safety, agreeably to her repeated commands.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+     Hark, the bells summon, and the bugle calls,
+     But she the fairest answers not--the tide
+     Of nobles and of ladies throngs the halls,
+     But she the loveliest must in secret hide.
+     What eyes were thine, proud Prince, which in the gleam
+     Of yon gay meteors lost that better sense,
+     That o'er the glow-worm doth the star esteem,
+     And merit's modest blush o'er courtly insolence?
+     --THE GLASS SLIPPER.
+
+The unfortunate Countess of Leicester had, from her infancy upwards,
+been treated by those around her with indulgence as unbounded as
+injudicious. The natural sweetness of her disposition had saved her from
+becoming insolent and ill-humoured; but the caprice which preferred
+the handsome and insinuating Leicester before Tressilian, of whose high
+honour and unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm an
+opinion--that fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, had
+its origin in the mistaken kindness; that had spared her childhood the
+painful but most necessary lesson of submission and self-command. From
+the same indulgence it followed that she had only been accustomed to
+form and to express her wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfilling
+them; and thus, at the most momentous period of her life, she was alike
+destitute of presence of mind, and of ability to form for herself any
+reasonable or prudent plan of conduct.
+
+These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with overwhelming
+force on the morning which seemed to be the crisis of her fate.
+Overlooking every intermediate consideration, she had only desired to be
+at Kenilworth, and to approach her husband's presence; and now, when
+she was in the vicinity of both, a thousand considerations arose at once
+upon her mind, startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, some
+real, some imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situation
+alike helpless and destitute of aid and counsel.
+
+A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she was
+altogether unable to attend Wayland's early summons. The trusty guide
+became extremely distressed on the lady's account, and somewhat alarmed
+on his own, and was on the point of going alone to Kenilworth, in
+the hope of discovering Tressilian, and intimating to him the lady's
+approach, when about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend her.
+He found her dressed, and ready for resuming her journey, but with a
+paleness of countenance which alarmed him for her health. She intimated
+her desire that the horses might be got instantly ready, and resisted
+with impatience her guide's request that she would take some refreshment
+before setting forward. "I have had," she said, "a cup of water--the
+wretch who is dragged to execution needs no stronger cordial, and that
+may serve me which suffices for him. Do as I command you." Wayland Smith
+still hesitated. "What would you have?" said she. "Have I not spoken
+plainly?"
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what is your further
+purpose? I only wish to know, that I may guide myself by your wishes.
+The whole country is afloat, and streaming towards the Castle of
+Kenilworth. It will be difficult travelling thither, even if we had the
+necessary passports for safe-conduct and free admittance; unknown
+and unfriended, we may come by mishap. Your ladyship will forgive my
+speaking my poor mind--were we not better try to find out the maskers,
+and again join ourselves with them?" The Countess shook her head, and
+her guide proceeded, "Then I see but one other remedy."
+
+"Speak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps, that he
+should thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask; "I believe
+thee faithful--what wouldst thou counsel?"
+
+"That I should warn Master Tressilian," said Wayland, "that you are in
+this place. I am right certain he would get to horse with a few of Lord
+Sussex's followers, and ensure your personal safety."
+
+"And is it to ME you advise," said the Countess, "to put myself under
+the protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble Leicester?"
+Then, seeing the surprise with which Wayland stared upon her, and afraid
+of having too strongly intimated her interest in Leicester, she added,
+"And for Tressilian, it must not be--mention not to him, I charge you,
+my unhappy name; it would but double MY misfortunes, and involve HIM in
+dangers beyond the power of rescue." She paused; but when she observed
+that Wayland continued to look on her with that anxious and uncertain
+gaze which indicated a doubt whether her brain was settled, she assumed
+an air of composure, and added, "Do thou but guide me to Kenilworth
+Castle, good fellow, and thy task is ended, since I will then judge what
+further is to be done. Thou hast yet been true to me--here is something
+that will make thee rich amends."
+
+She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone. Wayland
+looked at it, hesitated a moment, and then returned it. "Not," he said,
+"that I am above your kindness, madam, being but a poor fellow, who have
+been forced, God help me! to live by worse shifts than the bounty of
+such a person as you. But, as my old master the farrier used to say to
+his customers, 'No cure, no pay.' We are not yet in Kenilworth Castle,
+and it is time enough to discharge your guide, as they say, when you
+take your boots off. I trust in God your ladyship is as well assured of
+fitting reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certain
+of my best endeavours to conduct you thither safely. I go to get the
+horses; meantime, let me pray you once more, as your poor physician as
+well as guide, to take some sustenance."
+
+"I will--I will," said the lady hastily. "Begone, begone instantly!--It
+is in vain I assume audacity," said she, when he left the room; "even
+this poor groom sees through my affectation of courage, and fathoms the
+very ground of my fears."
+
+She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some food, but
+was compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even a single morsel
+gave her so much uneasiness as amounted well-nigh to suffocation. A
+moment afterwards the horses appeared at the latticed window. The lady
+mounted, and found that relief from the free air and change of place
+which is frequently experienced in similar circumstances.
+
+It chanced well for the Countess's purpose that Wayland Smith, whose
+previous wandering and unsettled life had made him acquainted with
+almost all England, was intimate with all the byroads, as well as direct
+communications, through the beautiful county of Warwick. For such and so
+great was the throng which flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth,
+to see the entry of Elizabeth into that splendid mansion of her prime
+favourite, that the principal roads were actually blocked up and
+interrupted, and it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travellers
+could proceed on their journey.
+
+The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages
+of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which
+the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board
+of Green Cloth. The Earl of Leicester's household officers had been
+scouring the country for the same purpose; and many of his friends and
+allies, both near and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiating
+themselves by sending large quantities of provisions and delicacies
+of all kinds, with game in huge numbers, and whole tuns of the best
+liquors, foreign and domestic. Thus the highroads were filled with
+droves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and hogs, and choked with loaded
+wains, whose axle-trees cracked under their burdens of wine-casks and
+hogsheads of ale, and huge hampers of grocery goods, and slaughtered
+game, and salted provisions, and sacks of flour. Perpetual stoppages
+took place as these wains became entangled; and their rude drivers,
+swearing and brawling till their wild passions were fully raised, began
+to debate precedence with their wagon-whips and quarterstaves, which
+occasional riots were usually quieted by a purveyor, deputy-marshal's
+man, or some other person in authority, breaking the heads of both
+parties.
+
+Here were, besides, players and mummers, jugglers and showmen, of every
+description, traversing in joyous bands the paths which led to the
+Palace of Princely Pleasure; for so the travelling minstrels had termed
+Kenilworth in the songs which already had come forth in anticipation of
+the revels which were there expected. In the midst of this motley show,
+mendicants were exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming a
+strange though common contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrows
+of human existence. All these floated along with the immense tide
+of population whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where the
+mechanic, in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his
+city mistress; where clowns, with hobnailed shoes, were treading on the
+kibes of substantial burghers and gentlemen of worship; and where Joan
+of the dairy, with robust pace, and red, sturdy arms, rowed her way
+unward, amongst those prim and pretty moppets whose sires were knights
+and squires.
+
+The throng and confusion was, however, of a gay and cheerful character.
+All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all laughed at the trifling
+inconveniences which at another time might have chafed their temper.
+Excepting the occasional brawls which we have mentioned among that
+irritable race the carmen, the mingled sounds which arose from the
+multitude were those of light-hearted mirth and tiptoe jollity. The
+musicians preluded on their instruments--the minstrels hummed their
+songs--the licensed jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness, as he
+brandished his bauble--the morrice-dancers jangled their bells--the
+rustics hallooed and whistled-men laughed loud, and maidens giggled
+shrill; while many a broad jest flew like a shuttlecock from one party,
+to be caught in the air and returned from the opposite side of the road
+by another, at which it was aimed.
+
+No infliction can be so distressing to a mind absorbed in melancholy,
+as being plunged into a scene of mirth and revelry, forming an
+accompaniment so dissonant from its own feelings. Yet, in the case of
+the Countess of Leicester, the noise and tumult of this giddy scene
+distracted her thoughts, and rendered her this sad service, that
+it became impossible for her to brood on her own misery, or to form
+terrible anticipations of her approaching fate. She travelled on like
+one in a dream, following implicitly the guidance of Wayland, who,
+with great address, now threaded his way through the general throng of
+passengers, now stood still until a favourable opportunity occurred
+of again moving forward, and frequently turning altogether out of the
+direct road, followed some circuitous bypath, which brought them into
+the highway again, after having given them the opportunity of traversing
+a considerable way with greater ease and rapidity.
+
+It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose Castle (that fairest
+monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains uninjured
+by time) Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and where she was
+to tarry until past noon, at that time the general hour of dinner
+throughout England, after which repast she was to proceed to Kenilworth,
+In the meanwhile, each passing group had something to say in the
+Sovereign's praise, though not absolutely without the usual mixture
+of satire which qualifies more or less our estimate of our neighbours,
+especially if they chance to be also our betters.
+
+"Heard you," said one, "how graciously she spoke to Master Bailiff and
+the Recorder, and to good Master Griffin the preacher, as they kneeled
+down at her coach-window?"
+
+"Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, 'Master Recorder, men would
+have persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I think, so well
+did you reckon up to me the virtues of a sovereign, that I have more
+reason to be afraid of you.' and then with what grace she took the
+fair-wrought purse with the twenty gold sovereigns, seeming as though
+she would not willingly handle it, and yet taking it withal."
+
+"Ay, ay," said another, "her fingers closed on it pretty willingly
+methought, when all was done; and methought, too, she weighed them for a
+second in her hand, as she would say, I hope they be avoirdupois."
+
+"She needed not, neighbour," said a third; "it is only when the
+corporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me, that they put
+him off with clipped coin. Well, there is a God above all--little Master
+Recorder, since that is the word, will be greater now than ever."
+
+"Come, good neighbour," said the first speaker "be not envious. She is
+a good Queen, and a generous; she gave the purse to the Earl of
+Leicester."
+
+"I envious?--beshrew thy heart for the word!" replied the handicraft.
+"But she will give all to the Earl of Leicester anon, methinks."
+
+"You are turning ill, lady," said Wayland Smith to the Countess of
+Leicester, and proposed that she should draw off from the road, and halt
+till she recovered. But, subduing her feelings at this and different
+speeches to the same purpose, which caught her ear as they passed on,
+she insisted that her guide should proceed to Kenilworth with all
+the haste which the numerous impediments of their journey permitted.
+Meanwhile, Wayland's anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition, and
+her obvious distraction of mind, was hourly increasing, and he became
+extremely desirous that, according to her reiterated requests, she
+should be safely introduced into the Castle, where, he doubted not, she
+was secure of a kind reception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal on
+whom she reposed her hopes.
+
+"An I were once rid of this peril," thought he, "and if any man shall
+find me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant, he shall have
+leave to beat my brains out with my own sledge-hammer!"
+
+At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and the
+domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixty
+thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present
+money.
+
+The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven
+acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a
+pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest
+formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. The
+lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious
+enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated
+buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and
+bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass,
+and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems
+of mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history, could
+Ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty
+favourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. A
+large and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of
+uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhaps
+from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so called. Some
+antiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the
+Castle had its name, a Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early era
+after the Norman Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon
+of the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and
+of the yet more redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons'
+wars, Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III. Here Mortimer,
+Earl of March, famous alike for his rise and his fall, had once gaily
+revelled in Kenilworth, while his dethroned sovereign, Edward
+II., languished in its dungeons. Old John of Gaunt, "time-honoured
+Lancaster," had widely extended the Castle, erecting that noble and
+massive pile which yet bears the name of Lancaster's Buildings; and
+Leicester himself had outdone the former possessors, princely and
+powerful as they were, by erecting another immense structure, which now
+lies crushed under its own ruins, the monument of its owner's ambition.
+The external wall of this royal Castle was, on the south and west sides,
+adorned and defended by a lake partly artificial, across which Leicester
+had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth might enter the Castle
+by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of the usual entrance to the
+northward, over which he had erected a gatehouse or barbican, which
+still exists, and is equal in extent, and superior in architecture, to
+the baronial castle of many a northern chief.
+
+Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red deer, fallow deer,
+roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees, from
+amongst which the extended front and massive towers of the Castle were
+seen to rise in majesty and beauty. We cannot but add, that of this
+lordly palace, where princes feasted and heroes fought, now in the
+bloody earnest of storm and siege, and now in the games of chivalry,
+where beauty dealt the prize which valour won, all is now desolate.
+The bed of the lake is but a rushy swamp; and the massive ruins of the
+Castle only serve to show what their splendour once was, and to impress
+on the musing visitor the transitory value of human possessions, and the
+happiness of those who enjoy a humble lot in virtuous contentment.
+
+It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate Countess of
+Leicester viewed those grey and massive towers, when she first beheld
+them rise above the embowering and richly-shaded woods, over which
+they seemed to preside. She, the undoubted wife of the great Earl, of
+Elizabeth's minion, and England's mighty favourite, was approaching
+the presence of her husband, and that husband's sovereign, under the
+protection, rather than the guidance, of a poor juggler; and though
+unquestioned Mistress of that proud Castle, whose lightest word ought
+to have had force sufficient to make its gates leap from their massive
+hinges to receive her, yet she could not conceal from herself the
+difficulty and peril which she must experience in gaining admission into
+her own halls.
+
+The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment, and
+at length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further progress at
+the great gate leading to a broad and fair road, which, traversing the
+breadth of the chase for the space of two miles, and commanding several
+most beautiful views of the Castle and lake, terminated at the newly
+constructed bridge, to which it was an appendage, and which was destined
+to form the Queen's approach to the Castle on that memorable occasion.
+
+Here the Countess and Wayland found the gate at the end of this avenue,
+which opened on the Warwick road, guarded by a body of the Queen's
+mounted yeomen of the guard, armed in corselets richly carved and
+gilded, and wearing morions instead of bonnets, having their carabines
+resting with the butt-end on their thighs. These guards, distinguished
+for strength and stature, who did duty wherever the Queen went in
+person, were here stationed under the direction of a pursuivant, graced
+with the Bear and Ragged Staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl of
+Leicester, and peremptorily refused all admittance, excepting to such as
+were guests invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform some
+part in the mirthful exhibitions which were proposed.
+
+The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and persons
+of all kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance; to which the
+guards turned an inexorable ear, pleading, in return to fair words,
+and even to fair offers, the strictness of their orders, founded on the
+Queen's well-known dislike to the rude pressing of a multitude. With
+those whom such reasons did not serve they dealt more rudely, repelling
+them without ceremony by the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses,
+and good round blows from the stock of their carabines. These last
+manoeuvres produced undulations amongst the crowd, which rendered
+Wayland much afraid that he might perforce be separated from his charge
+in the throng. Neither did he know what excuse to make in order to
+obtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his head with great
+uncertainty, when the Earl's pursuivant, having cast an eye upon him,
+exclaimed, to his no small surprise, "Yeomen, make room for the fellow
+in the orange-tawny cloak.--Come forward, Sir Coxcomb, and make haste.
+What, in the fiend's name, has kept you waiting? Come forward with your
+bale of woman's gear."
+
+While the pursuivant gave Wayland this pressing yet uncourteous
+invitation, which, for a minute or two, he could not imagine was applied
+to him, the yeomen speedily made a free passage for him, while, only
+cautioning his companion to keep the muffler close around her face, he
+entered the gate leading her palfrey, but with such a drooping crest,
+and such a look of conscious fear and anxiety, that the crowd, not
+greatly pleased at any rate with the preference bestowed upon them,
+accompanied their admission with hooting and a loud laugh of derision.
+
+Admitted thus within the chase, though with no very flattering notice
+or distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward, musing what
+difficulties it would be next their lot to encounter, through the
+broad avenue, which was sentinelled on either side by a long line of
+retainers, armed with swords, and partisans richly dressed in the Earl
+of Leicester's liveries, and bearing his cognizance of the Bear and
+Ragged Staff, each placed within three paces of each other, so as to
+line the whole road from the entrance into the park to the bridge. And,
+indeed, when the lady obtained the first commanding view of the Castle,
+with its stately towers rising from within a long, sweeping line of
+outward walls, ornamented with battlements and turrets and platforms at
+every point of defence, with many a banner streaming from its walls, and
+such a bustle of gay crests and waving plumes disposed on the terraces
+and battlements, and all the gay and gorgeous scene, her heart,
+unaccustomed to such splendour, sank as if it died within her, and for a
+moment she asked herself what she had offered up to Leicester to deserve
+to become the partner of this princely splendour. But her pride and
+generous spirit resisted the whisper which bade her despair.
+
+"I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give. Name and
+fame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificence
+at the altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is my
+husband--I am his wife--whom God hath joined, man cannot sunder. I
+will be bold in claiming my right; even the bolder, that I come thus
+unexpected, and thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well! He will be
+something impatient at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley
+will forgive her."
+
+These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guide
+Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by a
+pair of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one who had dropped
+himself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst the
+shouts of laughter which burst from the sentinels.
+
+"This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!" said Wayland, after
+a vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse the urchin who clung
+to him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns?"
+
+"In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct, "and
+many others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, without
+my teaching you. How would you have passed the pursuivant at the upper
+gate yonder, had not I warned him our principal juggler was to follow
+us? And here have I waited for you, having clambered up into the tree
+from the top of the wain; and I suppose they are all mad for want of me
+by this time."
+
+"Nay, then, thou art a limb of the devil in good earnest," said Wayland.
+"I give thee way, good imp, and will walk by thy counsel; only, as thou
+art powerful be merciful."
+
+As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south extremity of
+the long bridge we have mentioned, which served to protect the outer
+gateway of the Castle of Kenilworth.
+
+Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular company, did
+the unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for the first time, the
+magnificent abode of her almost princely husband.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+     SNUG.   Have you the lion's part written?  pray, if it be, give
+     it me, for I am slow of study.
+     QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
+     --MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
+
+When the Countess of Leicester arrived at the outer gate of the Castle
+of Kenilworth, she found the tower, beneath which its ample portal arch
+opened, guarded in a singular manner. Upon the battlements were placed
+gigantic warders, with clubs, battle-axes, and other implements of
+ancient warfare, designed to represent the soldiers of King Arthur;
+those primitive Britons, by whom, according to romantic tradition,
+the Castle had been first tenanted, though history carried back its
+antiquity only to the times of the Heptarchy.
+
+Some of these tremendous figures were real men, dressed up with vizards
+and buskins; others were mere pageants composed of pasteboard and
+buckram, which, viewed from beneath, and mingled with those that
+were real, formed a sufficiently striking representation of what was
+intended. But the gigantic porter who waited at the gate beneath, and
+actually discharged the duties of warder, owed none of his terrors to
+fictitious means. He was a man whose huge stature, thews, sinews, and
+bulk in proportion, would have enabled him to enact Colbrand, Ascapart,
+or any other giant of romance, without raising himself nearer to heaven
+even by the altitude of a chopin. The legs and knees of this son of Anak
+were bare, as were his arms from a span below the shoulder; but his
+feet were defended with sandals, fastened with cross straps of scarlet
+leather studded with brazen knobs. A close jerkin of scarlet velvet
+looped with gold, with short breeches of the same, covered his body and
+a part of his limbs; and he wore on his shoulders, instead of a cloak,
+the skin of a black bear. The head of this formidable person was
+uncovered, except by his shaggy, black hair, which descended on either
+side around features of that huge, lumpish, and heavy cast which are
+often annexed to men of very uncommon size, and which, notwithstanding
+some distinguished exceptions, have created a general prejudice against
+giants, as being a dull and sullen kind of persons. This tremendous
+warder was appropriately armed with a heavy club spiked with steel. In
+fine, he represented excellently one of those giants of popular romance,
+who figure in every fairy tale or legend of knight-errantry.
+
+The demeanour of this modern Titan, when Wayland Smith bent his
+attention to him, had in it something arguing much mental embarrassment
+and vexation; for sometimes he sat down for an instant on a massive
+stone bench, which seemed placed for his accommodation beside the
+gateway, and then ever and anon he started up, scratching his huge head,
+and striding to and fro on his post, like one under a fit of impatience
+and anxiety. It was while the porter was pacing before the gate in this
+agitated manner, that Wayland, modestly, yet as a matter of course (not,
+however, without some mental misgiving), was about to pass him, and
+enter the portal arch. The porter, however, stopped his progress,
+bidding him, in a thundering voice, "Stand back!" and enforcing his
+injunction by heaving up his steel-shod mace, and dashing it on the
+ground before Wayland's horse's nose with such vehemence that the
+pavement flashed fire, and the archway rang to the clamour. Wayland,
+availing himself of Dickie's hints, began to state that he belonged to a
+band of performers to which his presence was indispensable, that he had
+been accidentally detained behind, and much to the same purpose. But
+the warder was inexorable, and kept muttering and murmuring something
+betwixt his teeth, which Wayland could make little of; and addressing
+betwixt whiles a refusal of admittance, couched in language which was
+but too intelligible. A specimen of his speech might run thus:--"What,
+how now, my masters?" (to himself)--"Here's a stir--here's a
+coil."--(Then to Wayland)--"You are a loitering knave, and shall have no
+entrance."--(Again to himself)--"Here's a throng--here's a thrusting.--I
+shall ne'er get through with it--Here's a--humph--ha."--(To
+Wayland)--"Back from the gate, or I'll break the pate of thee."--(Once
+more to himself)--"Here's a--no--I shall never get through it."
+
+"Stand still," whispered Flibbertigibbet into Wayland's ear, "I know
+where the shoe pinches, and will tame him in an instant."
+
+He dropped down from the horse, and skipping up to the porter, plucked
+him by the tail of the bearskin, so as to induce him to decline his huge
+head, and whispered something in his ear. Not at the command of the lord
+of some Eastern talisman did ever Afrite change his horrid frown into
+a look of smooth submission more suddenly than the gigantic porter
+of Kenilworth relaxed the terrors of his looks at the instant
+Flibbertigibbet's whisper reached his ears. He flung his club upon the
+ground, and caught up Dickie Sludge, raising him to such a distance from
+the earth as might have proved perilous had he chanced to let him slip.
+
+"It is even so," he said, with a thundering sound of exultation--"it is
+even so, my little dandieprat. But who the devil could teach it thee?"
+
+"Do not thou care about that," said Flibbertigibbet--"but--" he looked
+at Wayland and the lady, and then sunk what he had to say in a
+whisper, which needed not be a loud one, as the giant held him for his
+convenience close to his ear. The porter then gave Dickie a warm caress,
+and set him on the ground with the same care which a careful housewife
+uses in replacing a cracked china cup upon her mantelpiece, calling out
+at the same time to Wayland and the lady, "In with you--in with you! and
+take heed how you come too late another day when I chance to be porter."
+
+"Ay, ay, in with you," added Flibbertigibbet; "I must stay a short space
+with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of Gath here; but I will be with
+you anon, and at the bottom of all your secrets, were they as deep and
+dark as the Castle dungeon."
+
+"I do believe thou wouldst," said Wayland; "but I trust the secret will
+be soon out of my keeping, and then I shall care the less whether thou
+or any one knows it."
+
+They now crossed the entrance tower, which obtained the name of the
+Gallery-tower, from the following circumstance: The whole bridge,
+extending from the entrance to another tower on the opposite side of
+the lake, called Mortimer's Tower, was so disposed as to make a spacious
+tilt-yard, about one hundred and thirty yards in length, and ten in
+breadth, strewed with the finest sand, and defended on either side by
+strong and high palisades. The broad and fair gallery, destined for the
+ladies who were to witness the feats of chivalry presented on this area,
+was erected on the northern side of the outer tower, to which it gave
+name. Our travellers passed slowly along the bridge or tilt-yard, and
+arrived at Mortimer's Tower, at its farthest extremity, through which
+the approach led into the outer or base-court of the Castle. Mortimer's
+Tower bore on its front the scutcheon of the Earl of March, whose daring
+ambition overthrew the throne of Edward II., and aspired to share his
+power with the "She-wolf of France," to whom the unhappy monarch was
+wedded. The gate, which opened under this ominous memorial, was guarded
+by many warders in rich liveries; but they offered no opposition to the
+entrance of the Countess and her guide, who, having passed by license of
+the principal porter at the Gallery-tower, were not, it may be supposed,
+liable to interruption from his deputies. They entered accordingly, in
+silence, the great outward court of the Castle, having then full before
+them that vast and lordly pile, with all its stately towers, each gate
+open, as if in sign of unlimited hospitality, and the apartments filled
+with noble guests of every degree, besides dependants, retainers,
+domestics of every description, and all the appendages and promoters of
+mirth and revelry.
+
+Amid this stately and busy scene Wayland halted his horse, and looked
+upon the lady, as if waiting her commands what was next to be done,
+since they had safely reached the place of destination. As she remained
+silent, Wayland, after waiting a minute or two, ventured to ask her, in
+direct terms, what were her next commands. She raised her hand to her
+forehead, as if in the act of collecting her thoughts and resolution,
+while she answered him in a low and suppressed voice, like the murmurs
+of one who speaks in a dream--"Commands? I may indeed claim right to
+command, but who is there will obey me!"
+
+Then suddenly raising her head, like one who has formed a decisive
+resolution, she addressed a gaily-dressed domestic, who was crossing the
+court with importance and bustle in his countenance, "Stop, sir," she
+said; "I desire to speak with, the Earl of Leicester."
+
+"With whom, an it please you?" said the man, surprised at the demand;
+and then looking upon the mean equipage of her who used towards him such
+a tone of authority, he added, with insolence, "Why, what Bess of Bedlam
+is this would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present?"
+
+"Friend," said the Countess, "be not insolent--my business with the Earl
+is most urgent."
+
+"You must get some one else to do it, were it thrice as urgent," said
+the fellow. "I should summon my lord from the Queen's royal presence
+to do YOUR business, should I?--I were like to be thanked with a
+horse-whip. I marvel our old porter took not measure of such ware with
+his club, instead of giving them passage; but his brain is addled with
+getting his speech by heart."
+
+Two or three persons stopped, attracted by the fleering way in which the
+serving-man expressed himself; and Wayland, alarmed both for himself and
+the lady, hastily addressed himself to one who appeared the most civil,
+and thrusting a piece of money into his hand, held a moment's counsel
+with him on the subject of finding a place of temporary retreat for the
+lady. The person to whom he spoke, being one in some authority, rebuked
+the others for their incivility, and commanding one fellow to take care
+of the strangers' horses, he desired them to follow him. The Countess
+retained presence of mind sufficient to see that it was absolutely
+necessary she should comply with his request; and leaving the rude
+lackeys and grooms to crack their brutal jests about light heads,
+light heels, and so forth, Wayland and she followed in silence the
+deputy-usher, who undertook to be their conductor.
+
+They entered the inner court of the Castle by the great gateway, which
+extended betwixt the principal Keep, or Donjon, called Caesar's Tower,
+and a stately building which passed by the name of King Henry's Lodging,
+and were thus placed in the centre of the noble pile, which presented
+on its different fronts magnificent specimens of every species of
+castellated architecture, from the Conquest to the reign of Elizabeth,
+with the appropriate style and ornaments of each.
+
+Across this inner court also they were conducted by their guide to a
+small but strong tower, occupying the north-east angle of the building,
+adjacent to the great hall, and filling up a space betwixt the immense
+range of kitchens and the end of the great hall itself. The lower
+part of this tower was occupied by some of the household officers of
+Leicester, owing to its convenient vicinity to the places where their
+duty lay; but in the upper story, which was reached by a narrow, winding
+stair, was a small octangular chamber, which, in the great demand for
+lodgings, had been on the present occasion fitted up for the reception
+of guests, though generally said to have been used as a place of
+confinement for some unhappy person who had been there murdered.
+Tradition called this prisoner Mervyn, and transferred his name to the
+tower. That it had been used as a prison was not improbable; for the
+floor of each story was arched, the walls of tremendous thickness, while
+the space of the chamber did not exceed fifteen feet in diameter. The
+window, however, was pleasant, though narrow, and commanded a delightful
+view of what was called the Pleasance; a space of ground enclosed
+and decorated with arches, trophies, statues, fountains, and other
+architectural monuments, which formed one access from the Castle
+itself into the garden. There was a bed in the apartment, and other
+preparations for the reception of a guest, to which the Countess paid
+but slight attention, her notice being instantly arrested by the sight
+of writing materials placed on the table (not very commonly to be found
+in the bedrooms of those days), which instantly suggested the idea of
+writing to Leicester, and remaining private until she had received his
+answer.
+
+The deputy-usher having introduced them into this commodious apartment,
+courteously asked Wayland, whose generosity he had experienced, whether
+he could do anything further for his service. Upon receiving a gentle
+hint that some refreshment would not be unacceptable, he presently
+conveyed the smith to the buttery-hatch, where dressed provisions of all
+sorts were distributed, with hospitable profusion, to all who asked for
+them. Wayland was readily supplied with some light provisions, such as
+he thought would best suit the faded appetite of the lady, and did not
+omit the opportunity of himself making a hasty but hearty meal on more
+substantial fare. He then returned to the apartment in the turret, where
+he found the Countess, who had finished her letter to Leicester, and in
+lieu of a seal and silken thread, had secured it with a braid of her own
+beautiful tresses, fastened by what is called a true-love knot.
+
+"Good friend," said she to Wayland, "whom God hath sent to aid me at my
+utmost need, I do beseech thee, as the last trouble you shall take
+for an unfortunate lady, to deliver this letter to the noble Earl of
+Leicester. Be it received as it may," she said, with features agitated
+betwixt hope and fear, "thou, good fellow, shalt have no more cumber
+with me. But I hope the best; and if ever lady made a poor man rich,
+thou hast surely deserved it at my hand, should my happy days ever come
+round again. Give it, I pray you, into Lord Leicester's own hand, and
+mark how he looks on receiving it."
+
+Wayland, on his part, readily undertook the commission, but anxiously
+prayed the lady, in his turn, to partake of some refreshment; in which
+he at length prevailed, more through importunity and her desire to see
+him begone on his errand than from any inclination the Countess felt to
+comply with his request. He then left her, advising her to lock her door
+on the inside, and not to stir from her little apartment; and went to
+seek an opportunity of discharging her errand, as well as of carrying
+into effect a purpose of his own, which circumstances had induced him to
+form.
+
+In fact, from the conduct of the lady during the journey--her long fits
+of profound silence, the irresolution and uncertainty which seemed to
+pervade all her movements, and the obvious incapacity of thinking and
+acting for herself under which she seemed to labour--Wayland had formed
+the not improbable opinion that the difficulties of her situation had in
+some degree affected her understanding.
+
+When she had escaped from the seclusion of Cumnor Place, and the dangers
+to which she was there exposed, it would have seemed her most rational
+course to retire to her father's, or elsewhere at a distance from the
+power of those by whom these dangers had been created. When, instead of
+doing so, she demanded to be conveyed to Kenilworth, Wayland had been
+only able to account for her conduct by supposing that she meant to
+put herself under the tutelage of Tressilian, and to appeal to the
+protection of the Queen. But now, instead of following this natural
+course, she entrusted him with a letter to Leicester, the patron of
+Varney, and within whose jurisdiction at least, if not under his express
+authority, all the evils she had already suffered were inflicted upon
+her. This seemed an unsafe and even a desperate measure, and Wayland
+felt anxiety for his own safety, as well as that of the lady, should he
+execute her commission before he had secured the advice and countenance
+of a protector.
+
+He therefore resolved, before delivering the letter to Leicester, that
+he would seek out Tressilian, and communicate to him the arrival of
+the lady at Kenilworth, and thus at once rid himself of all further
+responsibility, and devolve the task of guiding and protecting this
+unfortunate lady upon the patron who had at first employed him in her
+service.
+
+"He will be a better judge than I am," said Wayland, "whether she is
+to be gratified in this humour of appeal to my Lord of Leicester, which
+seems like an act of insanity; and, therefore, I will turn the matter
+over on his hands, deliver him the letter, receive what they list to
+give me by way of guerdon, and then show the Castle of Kenilworth a pair
+of light heels; for, after the work I have been engaged in, it will be,
+I fear, neither a safe nor wholesome place of residence, and I would
+rather shoe colts an the coldest common in England than share in their
+gayest revels."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+     In my time I have seen a boy do wonders.
+     Robin, the red tinker, had a boy
+     Would ha run through a cat-hole. --THE COXCOMB.
+
+Amid the universal bustle which filled the Castle and its environs, it
+was no easy matter to find out any individual; and Wayland was still
+less likely to light upon Tressilian, whom he sought so anxiously,
+because, sensible of the danger of attracting attention in the
+circumstances in which he was placed, he dared not make general
+inquiries among the retainers or domestics of Leicester. He learned,
+however, by indirect questions, that in all probability Tressilian must
+have been one of a large party of gentlemen in attendance on the Earl
+of Sussex, who had accompanied their patron that morning to Kenilworth,
+when Leicester had received them with marks of the most formal respect
+and distinction. He further learned that both Earls, with their
+followers, and many other nobles, knights, and gentlemen, had taken
+horse, and gone towards Warwick several hours since, for the purpose of
+escorting the Queen to Kenilworth.
+
+Her Majesty's arrival, like other great events, was delayed from hour
+to hour; and it was now announced by a breathless post that her Majesty,
+being detained by her gracious desire to receive the homage of her
+lieges who had thronged to wait upon her at Warwick, it would be the
+hour of twilight ere she entered the Castle. The intelligence released
+for a time those who were upon duty, in the immediate expectation of the
+Queen's appearance, and ready to play their part in the solemnities with
+which it was to be accompanied; and Wayland, seeing several horsemen
+enter the Castle, was not without hopes that Tressilian might be of the
+number. That he might not lose an opportunity of meeting his patron
+in the event of this being the case, Wayland placed himself in the
+base-court of the Castle, near Mortimer's Tower, and watched every one
+who went or came by the bridge, the extremity of which was protected by
+that building. Thus stationed, nobody could enter or leave the Castle
+without his observation, and most anxiously did he study the garb and
+countenance of every horseman, as, passing from under the opposite
+Gallery-tower, they paced slowly, or curveted, along the tilt-yard, and
+approached the entrance of the base-court.
+
+But while Wayland gazed thus eagerly to discover him whom he saw not, he
+was pulled by the sleeve by one by whom he himself would not willingly
+have been seen.
+
+This was Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, who, like the imp whose name
+he bore, and whom he had been accoutred in order to resemble, seemed
+to be ever at the ear of those who thought least of him. Whatever were
+Wayland's internal feelings, he judged it necessary to express pleasure
+at their unexpected meeting.
+
+"Ha! is it thou, my minikin--my miller's thumb--my prince of
+cacodemons--my little mouse?"
+
+"Ay," said Dickie, "the mouse which gnawed asunder the toils, just when
+the lion who was caught in them began to look wonderfully like an ass."
+
+"Thy, thou little hop-the-gutter, thou art as sharp as vinegar this
+afternoon! But tell me, how didst thou come off with yonder jolterheaded
+giant whom I left thee with? I was afraid he would have stripped thy
+clothes, and so swallowed thee, as men peel and eat a roasted chestnut."
+
+"Had he done so," replied the boy, "he would have had more brains in
+his guts than ever he had in his noddle. But the giant is a courteous
+monster, and more grateful than many other folk whom I have helped at a
+pinch, Master Wayland Smith."
+
+"Beshrew me, Flibbertigibbet," replied Wayland, "but thou art sharper
+than a Sheffield whittle! I would I knew by what charm you muzzled
+yonder old bear."
+
+"Ay, that is in your own manner," answered Dickie; "you think fine
+speeches will pass muster instead of good-will. However, as to this
+honest porter, you must know that when we presented ourselves at the
+gate yonder, his brain was over-burdened with a speech that had been
+penned for him, and which proved rather an overmatch for his gigantic
+faculties. Now this same pithy oration had been indited, like sundry
+others, by my learned magister, Erasmus Holiday, so I had heard it often
+enough to remember every line. As soon as I heard him blundering and
+floundering like a fish upon dry land, through the first verse, and
+perceived him at a stand, I knew where the shoe pinched, and helped him
+to the next word, when he caught me up in an ecstasy, even as you saw
+but now. I promised, as the price of your admission, to hide me under
+his bearish gaberdine, and prompt him in the hour of need. I have just
+now been getting some food in the Castle, and am about to return to
+him."
+
+"That's right--that's right, my dear Dickie," replied Wayland;
+"haste thee, for Heaven's sake! else the poor giant will be utterly
+disconsolate for want of his dwarfish auxiliary. Away with thee,
+Dickie!"
+
+"Ay, ay!" answered the boy--"away with Dickie, when we have got what
+good of him we can. You will not let me know the story of this lady,
+then, who is as much sister of thine as I am?"
+
+"Why, what good would it do thee, thou silly elf?" said Wayland.
+
+"Oh, stand ye on these terms?" said the boy. "Well, I care not greatly
+about the matter--only, I never smell out a secret but I try to be
+either at the right or the wrong end of it, and so good evening to ye."
+
+"Nay, but, Dickie," said Wayland, who knew the boy's restless and
+intriguing disposition too well not to fear his enmity--"stay, my dear
+Dickie--part not with old friends so shortly! Thou shalt know all I know
+of the lady one day."
+
+"Ay!" said Dickie; "and that day may prove a nigh one. Fare thee well,
+Wayland--I will to my large-limbed friend, who, if he have not so sharp
+a wit as some folk, is at least more grateful for the service which
+other folk render him. And so again, good evening to ye."
+
+So saying, he cast a somerset through the gateway, and lighting on
+the bridge, ran with the extraordinary agility which was one of his
+distinguishing attributes towards the Gallery-tower, and was out of
+sight in an instant.
+
+"I would to God I were safe out of this Castle again!" prayed Wayland
+internally; "for now that this mischievous imp has put his finger in the
+pie, it cannot but prove a mess fit for the devil's eating. I would to
+Heaven Master Tressilian would appear!"
+
+Tressilian, whom he was thus anxiously expecting in one direction, had
+returned to Kenilworth by another access. It was indeed true, as Wayland
+had conjectured, that in the earlier part of the day he had accompanied
+the Earls on their cavalcade towards Warwick, not without hope that he
+might in that town hear some tidings of his emissary. Being disappointed
+in this expectation, and observing Varney amongst Leicester's
+attendants, seeming as if he had some purpose of advancing to and
+addressing him, he conceived, in the present circumstances, it was
+wisest to avoid the interview. He, therefore, left the presence-chamber
+when the High-Sheriff of the county was in the very midst of his dutiful
+address to her Majesty; and mounting his horse, rode back to Kenilworth
+by a remote and circuitous road, and entered the Castle by a small
+sallyport in the western wall, at which he was readily admitted as
+one of the followers of the Earl of Sussex, towards whom Leicester had
+commanded the utmost courtesy to be exercised. It was thus that he
+met not Wayland, who was impatiently watching his arrival, and whom he
+himself would have been at least equally desirous to see.
+
+Having delivered his horse to the charge of his attendant, he walked
+for a space in the Pleasance and in the garden, rather to indulge in
+comparative solitude his own reflections, than to admire those singular
+beauties of nature and art which the magnificence of Leicester had there
+assembled. The greater part of the persons of condition had left the
+Castle for the present, to form part of the Earl's cavalcade; others,
+who remained behind, were on the battlements, outer walls, and towers,
+eager to view the splendid spectacle of the royal entry. The garden,
+therefore, while every other part of the Castle resounded with the human
+voice, was silent but for the whispering of the leaves, the emulous
+warbling of the tenants of a large aviary with their happier companions
+who remained denizens of the free air, and the plashing of the
+fountains, which, forced into the air from sculptures of fatastic and
+grotesque forms, fell down with ceaseless sound into the great basins of
+Italian marble.
+
+The melancholy thoughts of Tressilian cast a gloomy shade on all the
+objects with which he was surrounded. He compared the magnificent scenes
+which he here traversed with the deep woodland and wild moorland which
+surrounded Lidcote Hall, and the image of Amy Robsart glided like a
+phantom through every landscape which his imagination summoned up.
+Nothing is perhaps more dangerous to the future happiness of men of deep
+thought and retired habits than the entertaining an early, long, and
+unfortunate attachment. It frequently sinks so deep into the mind that
+it becomes their dream by night and their vision by day--mixes itself
+with every source of interest and enjoyment; and when blighted and
+withered by final disappointment, it seems as if the springs of the
+heart were dried up along with it. This aching of the heart, this
+languishing after a shadow which has lost all the gaiety of its
+colouring, this dwelling on the remembrance of a dream from which
+we have been long roughly awakened, is the weakness of a gentle and
+generous heart, and it was that of Tressilian.
+
+He himself at length became sensible of the necessity of forcing other
+objects upon his mind; and for this purpose he left the Pleasance,
+in order to mingle with the noisy crowd upon the walls, and view the
+preparation for the pageants. But as he left the garden, and heard the
+busy hum, mixed with music and laughter, which floated around him, he
+felt an uncontrollable reluctance to mix with society whose feelings
+were in a tone so different from his own, and resolved, instead of doing
+so, to retire to the chamber assigned him, and employ himself in study
+until the tolling of the great Castle bell should announce the arrival
+of Elizabeth.
+
+Tressilian crossed accordingly by the passage betwixt the immense range
+of kitchens and the great hall, and ascended to the third story of
+Mervyn's Tower, and applying himself to the door of the small apartment
+which had been allotted to him, was surprised to find it was locked. He
+then recollected that the deputy-chamberlain had given him a master-key,
+advising him, in the present confused state of the Castle, to keep his
+door as much shut as possible. He applied this key to the lock, the bolt
+revolved, he entered, and in the same instant saw a female form seated
+in the apartment, and recognized that form to be, Amy Robsart. His first
+idea was that a heated imagination had raised the image on which it
+doted into visible existence; his second, that he beheld an apparition;
+the third and abiding conviction, that it was Amy herself, paler,
+indeed, and thinner, than in the days of heedless happiness, when
+she possessed the form and hue of a wood-nymph, with the beauty of a
+sylph--but still Amy, unequalled in loveliness by aught which had ever
+visited his eyes.
+
+The astonishment of the Countess was scarce less than that of
+Tressilian, although it was of shorter duration, because she had heard
+from Wayland that he was in the Castle. She had started up at his first
+entrance, and now stood facing him, the paleness of her cheeks having
+given way to a deep blush.
+
+"Tressilian," she said, at length, "why come you here?"
+
+"Nay, why come you here, Amy," returned Tressilian, "unless it be at
+length to claim that aid, which, as far as one man's heart and arm can
+extend, shall instantly be rendered to you?"
+
+She was silent a moment, and then answered in a sorrowful rather than an
+angry tone, "I require no aid, Tressilian, and would rather be injured
+than benefited by any which your kindness can offer me. Believe me, I am
+near one whom law and love oblige to protect me."
+
+"The villain, then, hath done you the poor justice which remained in his
+power," said Tressilian, "and I behold before me the wife of Varney!"
+
+"The wife of Varney!" she replied, with all the emphasis of scorn. "With
+what base name, sir, does your boldness stigmatize the--the--the--" She
+hesitated, dropped her tone of scorn, looked down, and was confused and
+silent; for she recollected what fatal consequences might attend her
+completing the sentence with "the Countess of Leicester," which were
+the words that had naturally suggested themselves. It would have been
+a betrayal of the secret, on which her husband had assured her that his
+fortunes depended, to Tressilian, to Sussex, to the Queen, and to the
+whole assembled court. "Never," she thought, "will I break my promised
+silence. I will submit to every suspicion rather than that."
+
+The tears rose to her eyes, as she stood silent before Tressilian;
+while, looking on her with mingled grief and pity, he said, "Alas! Amy,
+your eyes contradict your tongue. That speaks of a protector, willing
+and able to watch over you; but these tell me you are ruined, and
+deserted by the wretch to whom you have attached yourself."
+
+She looked on him with eyes in which anger sparkled through her tears,
+but only repeated the word "wretch!" with a scornful emphasis.
+
+"Yes, WRETCH!" said Tressilian; "for were he aught better, why are you
+here, and alone, in my apartment? why was not fitting provision made for
+your honourable reception?"
+
+"In your apartment?" repeated Amy--"in YOUR apartment? It shall
+instantly be relieved of my presence." She hastened towards the door;
+but the sad recollection of her deserted state at once pressed on her
+mind, and pausing on the threshold, she added, in a tone unutterably
+pathetic, "Alas! I had forgot--I know not where to go--"
+
+"I see--I see it all," said Tressilian, springing to her side, and
+leading her back to the seat, on which she sunk down. "You DO need
+aid--you do need protection, though you will not own it; and you shall
+not need it long. Leaning on my arm, as the representative of your
+excellent and broken-hearted father, on the very threshold of the Castle
+gate, you shall meet Elizabeth; and the first deed she shall do in
+the halls of Kenilworth shall be an act of justice to her sex and her
+subjects. Strong in my good cause, and in the Queen's justice, the
+power of her minion shall not shake my resolution. I will instantly seek
+Sussex."
+
+"Not for all that is under heaven!" said the Countess, much alarmed,
+and feeling the absolute necessity of obtaining time, at least, for
+consideration. "Tressilian, you were wont to be generous. Grant me one
+request, and believe, if it be your wish to save me from misery and from
+madness, you will do more by making me the promise I ask of you, than
+Elizabeth can do for me with all her power."
+
+"Ask me anything for which you can allege reason," said Tressilian; "but
+demand not of me--"
+
+"Oh, limit not your boon, dear Edmund!" exclaimed the Countess--"you
+once loved that I should call you so--limit not your boon to reason; for
+my case is all madness, and frenzy must guide the counsels which alone
+can aid me."
+
+"If you speak thus wildly," said Tressilian, astonishment again
+overpowering both his grief and his resolution, "I must believe you
+indeed incapable of thinking or acting for yourself."
+
+"Oh, no!" she exclaimed, sinking on one knee before him, "I am not
+mad--I am but a creature unutterably miserable, and, from circumstances
+the most singular, dragged on to a precipice by the arm of him who
+thinks he is keeping me from it--even by yours, Tressilian--by
+yours, whom I have honoured, respected--all but loved--and yet loved,
+too--loved, too, Tressilian--though not as you wished to be."
+
+There was an energy, a self-possession, an abandonment in her voice
+and manner, a total resignation of herself to his generosity, which,
+together with the kindness of her expressions to himself, moved him
+deeply. He raised her, and, in broken accents, entreated her to be
+comforted.
+
+"I cannot," she said, "I will not be comforted, till you grant me
+my request! I will speak as plainly as I dare. I am now awaiting the
+commands of one who has a right to issue them. The interference of a
+third person--of you in especial, Tressilian--will be ruin--utter ruin
+to me. Wait but four-and-twenty hours, and it may be that the poor
+Amy may have the means to show that she values, and can reward, your
+disinterested friendship--that she is happy herself, and has the means
+to make you so. It is surely worth your patience, for so short a space?"
+
+Tressilian paused, and weighing in his mind the various probabilities
+which might render a violent interference on his part more prejudicial
+than advantageous, both to the happiness and reputation of Amy;
+considering also that she was within the walls of Kenilworth, and could
+suffer no injury in a castle honoured with the Queen's residence, and
+filled with her guards and attendants--he conceived, upon the whole,
+that he might render her more evil than good service by intruding upon
+her his appeal to Elizabeth in her behalf. He expressed his resolution
+cautiously, however, doubting naturally whether Amy's hopes of
+extricating herself from her difficulties rested on anything stronger
+than a blinded attachment to Varney, whom he supposed to be her seducer.
+
+"Amy," he said, while he fixed his sad and expressive eyes on hers,
+which, in her ecstasy of doubt, terror, and perplexity, she cast up
+towards him, "I have ever remarked that when others called thee girlish
+and wilful, there lay under that external semblance of youthful and
+self-willed folly deep feeling and strong sense. In this I will confide,
+trusting your own fate in your own hands for the space of twenty-four
+hours, without my interference by word or act."
+
+"Do you promise me this, Tressilian?" said the Countess. "Is it possible
+you can yet repose so much confidence in me? Do you promise, as you are
+a gentleman and a man of honour, to intrude in my matters neither by
+speech nor action, whatever you may see or hear that seems to you to
+demand your interference? Will you so far trust me?"
+
+"I will upon my honour," said Tressilian; "but when that space is
+expired--"
+
+"Then that space is expired," she said, interrupting him, "you are free
+to act as your judgment shall determine."
+
+"Is there nought besides which I can do for you, Amy?" said Tressilian.
+
+"Nothing," said she, "save to leave me,--that is, if--I blush to
+acknowledge my helplessness by asking it--if you can spare me the use of
+this apartment for the next twenty-four hours."
+
+"This is most wonderful!" said Tressilian; "what hope or interest can
+you have in a Castle where you cannot command even an apartment?"
+
+"Argue not, but leave me," she said; and added, as he slowly and
+unwillingly retired, "Generous Edmund! the time may come when Amy may
+show she deserved thy noble attachment."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+     What, man, ne'er lack a draught, when the full can
+     Stands at thine elbow, and craves emptying!--
+     Nay, fear not me, for I have no delight
+     To watch men's vices, since I have myself
+     Of virtue nought to boast of--I'm a striker,
+     Would have the world strike with me, pell-mell, all.
+     --PANDEMONIUM.
+
+Tressilian, in strange agitation of mind, had hardly stepped down the
+first two or three steps of the winding staircase, when, greatly to his
+surprise and displeasure, he met Michael Lambourne, wearing an impudent
+familiarity of visage, for which Tressilian felt much disposed to throw
+him down-stairs; until he remembered the prejudice which Amy, the only
+object of his solicitude, was likely to receive from his engaging in any
+act of violence at that time and in that place.
+
+He therefore contented himself with looking sternly upon Lambourne, as
+upon one whom he deemed unworthy of notice, and attempted to pass him in
+his way downstairs, without any symptom of recognition. But Lambourne,
+who, amidst the profusion of that day's hospitality, had not failed
+to take a deep though not an overpowering cup of sack, was not in the
+humour of humbling himself before any man's looks. He stopped Tressilian
+upon the staircase without the least bashfulness or embarrassment, and
+addressed him as if he had been on kind and intimate terms:--"What, no
+grudge between us, I hope, upon old scores, Master Tressilian?--nay,
+I am one who remembers former kindness rather than latter feud. I'll
+convince you that I meant honestly and kindly, ay, and comfortably by
+you."
+
+"I desire none of your intimacy," said Tressilian--"keep company with
+your mates."
+
+"Now, see how hasty he is!" said Lambourne; "and how these gentles, that
+are made questionless out of the porcelain clay of the earth, look down
+upon poor Michael Lambourne! You would take Master Tressilian now for
+the most maid-like, modest, simpering squire of dames that ever made
+love when candles were long i' the stuff--snuff; call you it? Why, you
+would play the saint on us, Master Tressilian, and forget that even now
+thou hast a commodity in thy very bedchamber, to the shame of my lord's
+castle, ha! ha! ha! Have I touched you, Master Tressilian?"
+
+"I know not what you mean," said Tressilian, inferring, however, too
+surely, that this licentious ruffian must have been sensible of Amy's
+presence in his apartment; "'i but if," he continued, "thou art
+varlet of the chambers, and lackest a fee, there is one to leave mine
+unmolested."
+
+Lambourne looked at the piece of gold, and put it in his pocket saying,
+"Now, I know not but you might have done more with me by a kind word
+than by this chiming rogue. But after all he pays well that pays with
+gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the
+like. E'en live, and let others live, that is my motto-only, I would not
+let some folks cock their beaver at me neither, as if they were made
+of silver ore, and I of Dutch pewter. So if I keep your secret, Master
+Tressilian, you may look sweet on me at least; and were I to want a
+little backing or countenance, being caught, as you see the best of us
+may be, in a sort of peccadillo--why, you owe it me--and so e'en make
+your chamber serve you and that same bird in bower beside--it's all one
+to Mike Lambourne."
+
+"Make way, sir," said Tressilian, unable to bridle his indignation, "you
+have had your fee."
+
+"Um!" said Lambourne, giving place, however, while he sulkily muttered
+between his teeth, repeating Tressilian's words, "Make way--and you
+have had your fee; but it matters not, I will spoil no sport, as I said
+before. I am no dog in the manger--mind that."
+
+He spoke louder and louder, as Tressilian, by whom he felt himself
+overawed, got farther and farther out of hearing.
+
+"I am no dog in the manger; but I will not carry coals neither--mind
+that, Master Tressilian; and I will have a peep at this wench whom
+you have quartered so commodiously in your old haunted room--afraid of
+ghosts, belike, and not too willing to sleep alone. If I had done this
+now in a strange lord's castle, the word had been, The porter's lodge
+for the knave! and, have him flogged--trundle him downstairs like a
+turnip! Ay, but your virtuous gentlemen take strange privileges over
+us, who are downright servants of our senses. Well--I have my Master
+Tressilian's head under my belt by this lucky discovery, that is one
+thing certain; and I will try to get a sight of this Lindabrides of his,
+that is another."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+     Now fare thee well, my master--if true service
+     Be guerdon'd with hard looks, e'en cut the tow-line,
+     And let our barks across the pathless flood
+     Hold different courses--THE SHIPWRECK.
+
+Tressilian walked into the outer yard of the Castle scarce knowing what
+to think of his late strange and most unexpected interview with Amy
+Robsart, and dubious if he had done well, being entrusted with the
+delegated authority of her father, to pass his word so solemnly to leave
+her to her own guidance for so many hours. Yet how could he have denied
+her request--dependent as she had too probably rendered herself upon
+Varney? Such was his natural reasoning. The happiness of her future
+life might depend upon his not driving her to extremities; and since no
+authority of Tressilian's could extricate her from the power of Varney,
+supposing he was to acknowledge Amy to be his wife, what title had he
+to destroy the hope of domestic peace, which might yet remain to her,
+by setting enmity betwixt them? Tressilian resolved, therefore,
+scrupulously to observe his word pledged to Amy, both because it had
+been given, and because, as he still thought, while he considered and
+reconsidered that extraordinary interview, it could not with justice or
+propriety have been refused.
+
+In one respect, he had gained much towards securing effectual protection
+for this unhappy and still beloved object of his early affection. Amy
+was no longer mewed up in a distant and solitary retreat under the
+charge of persons of doubtful reputation. She was in the Castle of
+Kenilworth, within the verge of the Royal Court for the time, free from
+all risk of violence, and liable to be produced before Elizabeth on
+the first summons. These were circumstances which could not but assist
+greatly the efforts which he might have occasion to use in her behalf.
+
+While he was thus balancing the advantages and perils which attended her
+unexpected presence in Kenilworth, Tressilian was hastily and anxiously
+accosted by Wayland, who, after ejaculating, "Thank God, your worship is
+found at last!" proceeded with breathless caution to pour into his ear
+the intelligence that the lady had escaped from Cumnor Place.
+
+"And is at present in this Castle," said Tressilian. "I know it, and
+I have seen her. Was it by her own choice she found refuge in my
+apartment?"
+
+"No," answered Wayland; "but I could think of no other way of safely
+bestowing her, and was but too happy to find a deputy-usher who knew
+where you were quartered--in jolly society truly, the hall on the one
+hand, and the kitchen on the other!"
+
+"Peace, this is no time for jesting," answered Tressilian sternly.
+
+"I wot that but too well," said the artist, "for I have felt these three
+days as if I had a halter round my neck. This lady knows not her own
+mind--she will have none of your aid--commands you not to be named to
+her--and is about to put herself into the hands of my Lord Leicester.
+I had never got her safe into your chamber, had she known the owner of
+it."
+
+"Is it possible," said Tressilian. "But she may have hopes the Earl will
+exert his influence in her favour over his villainous dependant."
+
+"I know nothing of that," said Wayland; "but I believe, if she is to
+reconcile herself with either Leicester or Varney, the side of the
+Castle of Kenilworth which will be safest for us will be the outside,
+from which we can fastest fly away. It is not my purpose to abide an
+instant after delivery of the letter to Leicester, which waits but your
+commands to find its way to him. See, here it is--but no--a plague on
+it--I must have left it in my dog-hole, in the hay-loft yonder, where I
+am to sleep."
+
+"Death and fury!" said Tressilian, transported beyond his usual
+patience; "thou hast not lost that on which may depend a stake more
+important than a thousand such lives as thine?"
+
+"Lost it!" answered Wayland readily; "that were a jest indeed! No, sir,
+I have it carefully put up with my night-sack, and some matters I have
+occasion to use; I will fetch it in an instant."
+
+"Do so," said Tressilian; "be faithful, and thou shalt be well rewarded.
+But if I have reason to suspect thee, a dead dog were in better case
+than thou!"
+
+Wayland bowed, and took his leave with seeming confidence and alacrity,
+but, in fact, filled with the utmost dread and confusion. The letter was
+lost, that was certain, notwithstanding the apology which he had made to
+appease the impatient displeasure of Tressilian. It was lost--it might
+fall into wrong hands--it would then certainly occasion a discovery
+of the whole intrigue in which he had been engaged; nor, indeed, did
+Wayland see much prospect of its remaining concealed, in any event. He
+felt much hurt, besides, at Tressilian's burst of impatience.
+
+"Nay, if I am to be paid in this coin for services where my neck is
+concerned, it is time I should look to myself. Here have I offended, for
+aught I know, to the death, the lord of this stately castle, whose word
+were as powerful to take away my life as the breath which speaks it
+to blow out a farthing candle. And all this for a mad lady, and a
+melancholy gallant, who, on the loss of a four-nooked bit of paper, has
+his hand on his poignado, and swears death and fury!--Then there is the
+Doctor and Varney.--I will save myself from the whole mess of them. Life
+is dearer than gold. I will fly this instant, though I leave my reward
+behind me."
+
+These reflections naturally enough occurred to a mind like Wayland's,
+who found himself engaged far deeper than he had expected in a train
+of mysterious and unintelligible intrigues, in which the actors seemed
+hardly to know their own course. And yet, to do him justice, his
+personal fears were, in some degree, counterbalanced by his compassion
+for the deserted state of the lady.
+
+"I care not a groat for Master Tressilian," he said; "I have done more
+than bargain by him, and I have brought his errant-damosel within his
+reach, so that he may look after her himself. But I fear the poor thing
+is in much danger amongst these stormy spirits. I will to her chamber,
+and tell her the fate which has befallen her letter, that she may write
+another if she list. She cannot lack a messenger, I trow, where there
+are so many lackeys that can carry a letter to their lord. And I will
+tell her also that I leave the Castle, trusting her to God, her own
+guidance, and Master Tressilian's care and looking after. Perhaps she
+may remember the ring she offered me--it was well earned, I trow; but
+she is a lovely creature, and--marry hang the ring! I will not bear
+a base spirit for the matter. If I fare ill in this world for my
+good-nature, I shall have better chance in the next. So now for the
+lady, and then for the road."
+
+With the stealthy step and jealous eye of the cat that steals on her
+prey, Wayland resumed the way to the Countess's chamber, sliding along
+by the side of the courts and passages, alike observant of all around
+him, and studious himself to escape observation. In this manner he
+crossed the outward and inward Castle yard, and the great arched
+passage, which, running betwixt the range of kitchen offices and the
+hall, led to the bottom of the little winding-stair that gave access to
+the chambers of Mervyn's Tower.
+
+The artist congratulated himself on having escaped the various perils of
+his journey, and was in the act of ascending by two steps at once, when
+he observed that the shadow of a man, thrown from a door which stood
+ajar, darkened the opposite wall of the staircase. Wayland drew back
+cautiously, went down to the inner courtyard, spent about a quarter of
+an hour, which seemed at least quadruple its usual duration, in walking
+from place to place, and then returned to the tower, in hopes to find
+that the lurker had disappeared. He ascended as high as the suspicious
+spot--there was no shadow on the wall; he ascended a few yards
+farther--the door was still ajar, and he was doubtful whether to advance
+or retreat, when it was suddenly thrown wide open, and Michael Lambourne
+bolted out upon the astonished Wayland. "Who the devil art thou? and
+what seekest thou in this part of the Castle? march into that chamber,
+and be hanged to thee!"
+
+"I am no dog, to go at every man's whistle," said the artist, affecting
+a confidence which was belied by a timid shake in his voice.
+
+"Sayest thou me so?--Come hither, Lawrence Staples."
+
+A huge, ill-made and ill-looked fellow, upwards of six feet high,
+appeared at the door, and Lambourne proceeded: "If thou be'st so fond of
+this tower, my friend, thou shalt see its foundations, good twelve feet
+below the bed of the lake, and tenanted by certain jolly toads, snakes,
+and so forth, which thou wilt find mighty good company. Therefore, once
+more I ask you in fair play, who thou art, and what thou seekest here?"
+
+"If the dungeon-grate once clashes behind me," thought Wayland, "I am a
+gone man." He therefore answered submissively, "He was the poor juggler
+whom his honour had met yesterday in Weatherly Bottom."
+
+"And what juggling trick art thou playing in this tower? Thy gang," said
+Lambourne, "lie over against Clinton's buildings."
+
+"I came here to see my sister," said the juggler, "who is in Master
+Tressilian's chamber, just above."
+
+"Aha!" said Lambourne, smiling, "here be truths! Upon my honour, for a
+stranger, this same Master Tressilian makes himself at home among us,
+and furnishes out his cell handsomely, with all sorts of commodities.
+This will be a precious tale of the sainted Master Tressilian, and will
+be welcome to some folks, as a purse of broad pieces to me.--Hark ye,
+fellow," he continued, addressing Wayland, "thou shalt not give Puss
+a hint to steal away we must catch her in her form. So, back with that
+pitiful sheep-biting visage of thine, or I will fling thee from the
+window of the tower, and try if your juggling skill can save your
+bones."
+
+"Your worship will not be so hardhearted, I trust," said Wayland; "poor
+folk must live. I trust your honour will allow me to speak with my
+sister?"
+
+"Sister on Adam's side, I warrant," said Lambourne; "or, if otherwise,
+the more knave thou. But sister or no sister, thou diest on point of
+fox, if thou comest a-prying to this tower once more. And now I think of
+it--uds daggers and death!--I will see thee out of the Castle, for this
+is a more main concern than thy jugglery."
+
+"But, please your worship," said Wayland, "I am to enact Arion in the
+pageant upon the lake this very evening."
+
+"I will act it myself by Saint Christopher!" said Lambourne. "Orion,
+callest thou him?--I will act Orion, his belt and his seven stars
+to boot. Come along, for a rascal knave as thou art--follow me! Or
+stay--Lawrence, do thou bring him along."
+
+Lawrence seized by the collar of the cloak the unresisting juggler;
+while Lambourne, with hasty steps, led the way to that same sallyport,
+or secret postern, by which Tressilian had returned to the Castle, and
+which opened in the western wall at no great distance from Mervyn's
+Tower.
+
+While traversing with a rapid foot the space betwixt the tower and the
+sallyport, Wayland in vain racked his brain for some device which might
+avail the poor lady, for whom, notwithstanding his own imminent danger,
+he felt deep interest. But when he was thrust out of the Castle, and
+informed by Lambourne, with a tremendous oath, that instant death would
+be the consequence of his again approaching it, he cast up his hands
+and eyes to heaven, as if to call God to witness he had stood to the
+uttermost in defence of the oppressed; then turned his back on the proud
+towers of Kenilworth, and went his way to seek a humbler and safer place
+of refuge.
+
+Lawrence and Lambourne gazed a little while after Wayland, and then
+turned to go back to their tower, when the former thus addressed his
+companion: "Never credit me, Master Lambourne, if I can guess why thou
+hast driven this poor caitiff from the Castle, just when he was to bear
+a part in the show that was beginning, and all this about a wench."
+
+"Ah, Lawrence," replied Lambourne, "thou art thinking of Black Joan
+Jugges of Slingdon, and hast sympathy with human frailty. But, corragio,
+most noble Duke of the Dungeon and Lord of Limbo, for thou art as dark
+in this matter as thine own dominions of Little-ease. My most reverend
+Signior of the Low Countries of Kenilworth, know that our most notable
+master, Richard Varney, would give as much to have a hole in this same
+Tressilian's coat, as would make us some fifty midnight carousals, with
+the full leave of bidding the steward go snick up, if he came to startle
+us too soon from our goblets."
+
+"Nay, an that be the case, thou hast right," said Lawrence Staples,
+the upper-warder, or, in common phrase, the first jailer, of Kenilworth
+Castle, and of the Liberty and Honour belonging thereto. "But how
+will you manage when you are absent at the Queen's entrance, Master
+Lambourne; for methinks thou must attend thy master there?"
+
+"Why thou, mine honest prince of prisons, must keep ward in my absence.
+Let Tressilian enter if he will, but see thou let no one come out. If
+the damsel herself would make a break, as 'tis not unlike she may, scare
+her back with rough words; she is but a paltry player's wench after
+all."
+
+"Nay for that matter," said Lawrence, "I might shut the iron wicket upon
+her that stands without the double door, and so force per force she will
+be bound to her answer without more trouble."
+
+"Then Tressilian will not get access to her," said Lambourne, reflecting
+a moment. "But 'tis no matter; she will be detected in his chamber, and
+that is all one. But confess, thou old bat's-eyed dungeon-keeper, that
+you fear to keep awake by yourself in that Mervyn's Tower of thine?"
+
+"Why, as to fear, Master Lambourne," said the fellow, "I mind it not the
+turning of a key; but strange things have been heard and seen in that
+tower. You must have heard, for as short time as you have been in
+Kenilworth, that it is haunted by the spirit of Arthur ap Mervyn, a
+wild chief taken by fierce Lord Mortimer when he was one of the Lords
+Marchers of Wales, and murdered, as they say, in that same tower which
+bears his name."
+
+"Oh, I have heard the tale five hundred times," said Lambourne, "and how
+the ghost is always most vociferous when they boil leeks and stirabout,
+or fry toasted cheese, in the culinary regions. Santo Diavolo, man, hold
+thy tongue, I know all about it!"
+
+"Ay, but thou dost not, though," said the turnkey, "for as wise as thou
+wouldst make thyself. Ah, it is an awful thing to murder a prisoner in
+his ward!--you that may have given a man a stab in a dark street know
+nothing of it. To give a mutinous fellow a knock on the head with the
+keys, and bid him be quiet, that's what I call keeping order in the
+ward; but to draw weapon and slay him, as was done to this Welsh lord,
+THAT raises you a ghost that will render your prison-house untenantable
+by any decent captive for some hundred years. And I have that regard
+for my prisoners, poor things, that I have put good squires and men of
+worship, that have taken a ride on the highway, or slandered my Lord of
+Leicester, or the like, fifty feet under ground, rather than I would
+put them into that upper chamber yonder that they call Mervyn's Bower.
+Indeed, by good Saint Peter of the Fetters, I marvel my noble lord, or
+Master Varney, could think of lodging guests there; and if this Master
+Tressilian could get any one to keep him company, and in especial a
+pretty wench, why, truly, I think he was in the right on't."
+
+"I tell thee," said Lambourne, leading the way into the turnkey's
+apartment, "thou art an ass. Go bolt the wicket on the stair, and
+trouble not thy noddle about ghosts. Give me the wine stoup, man; I am
+somewhat heated with chafing with yonder rascal."
+
+While Lambourne drew a long draught from a pitcher of claret, which he
+made use of without any cup, the warder went on, vindicating his own
+belief in the supernatural.
+
+"Thou hast been few hours in this Castle, and hast been for the whole
+space so drunk, Lambourne, that thou art deaf, dumb, and blind. But we
+should hear less of your bragging were you to pass a night with us at
+full moon; for then the ghost is busiest, and more especially when a
+rattling wind sets in from the north-west, with some sprinkling of rain,
+and now and then a growl of thunder. Body o' me, what crackings and
+clashings, what groanings and what howlings, will there be at such times
+in Mervyn's Bower, right as it were over our heads, till the matter of
+two quarts of distilled waters has not been enough to keep my lads and
+me in some heart!"
+
+"Pshaw, man!" replied Lambourne, on whom his last draught, joined to
+repeated visitations of the pitcher upon former occasions, began to make
+some innovation, "thou speakest thou knowest not what about spirits. No
+one knows justly what to say about them; and, in short, least said may
+in that matter be soonest amended. Some men believe in one thing, some
+in another--it is all matter of fancy. I have known them of all sorts,
+my dear Lawrence Lock-the-door, and sensible men too. There's a great
+lord--we'll pass his name, Lawrence--he believes in the stars and the
+moon, the planets and their courses, and so forth, and that they twinkle
+exclusively for his benefit, when in sober, or rather in drunken truth,
+Lawrence, they are only shining to keep honest fellows like me out
+of the kennel. Well, sir, let his humour pass; he is great enough to
+indulge it. Then, look ye, there is another--a very learned man, I
+promise you, and can vent Greek and Hebrew as fast as I can Thieves'
+Latin he has an humour of sympathies and antipathies--of changing lead
+into gold, and the like; why, via, let that pass too, and let him pay
+those in transmigrated coin who are fools enough to let it be current
+with them. Then here comest thou thyself, another great man, though
+neither learned nor noble, yet full six feet high, and thou, like a
+purblind mole, must needs believe in ghosts and goblins, and such like.
+Now, there is, besides, a great man--that is, a great little man, or a
+little great man, my dear Lawrence--and his name begins with V, and what
+believes he? Why, nothing, honest Lawrence--nothing in earth, heaven, or
+hell; and for my part, if I believe there is a devil, it is only because
+I think there must be some one to catch our aforesaid friend by the back
+'when soul and body sever,' as the ballad says; for your antecedent will
+have a consequent--RARO ANTECEDENTEM, as Doctor Bircham was wont to say.
+But this is Greek to you now, honest Lawrence, and in sooth learning is
+dry work. Hand me the pitcher once more."
+
+"In faith, if you drink more, Michael," said the warder, "you will be
+in sorry case either to play Arion or to wait on your master on such a
+solemn night; and I expect each moment to hear the great bell toll for
+the muster at Mortimer's Tower, to receive the Queen."
+
+While Staples remonstrated, Lambourne drank; and then setting down the
+pitcher, which was nearly emptied, with a deep sigh, he said, in an
+undertone, which soon rose to a high one as his speech proceeded, "Never
+mind, Lawrence; if I be drunk, I know that shall make Varney uphold
+me sober. But, as I said, never mind; I can carry my drink discreetly.
+Moreover, I am to go on the water as Orion, and shall take cold unless
+I take something comfortable beforehand. Not play Orion? Let us see the
+best roarer that ever strained his lungs for twelve pence out-mouth
+me! What if they see me a little disguised? Wherefore should any man be
+sober to-night? answer me that. It is matter of loyalty to be merry;
+and I tell thee there are those in the Castle who, if they are not merry
+when drunk, have little chance to be merry when sober--I name no names,
+Lawrence. But your pottle of sack is a fine shoeing-horn to pull on a
+loyal humour, and a merry one. Huzza for Queen Elizabeth!--for the
+noble Leicester!--for the worshipful Master Varney!--and for Michael
+Lambourne, that can turn them all round his finger!"
+
+So saying, he walked downstairs, and across the inner court.
+
+The warder looked after him, shook his head, and while he drew close and
+locked a wicket, which, crossing the staircase, rendered it impossible
+for any one to ascend higher than the story immediately beneath Mervyn's
+Bower, as Tressilian's chamber was named, he thus soliloquized with
+himself--"It's a good thing to be a favourite. I well-nigh lost mine
+office, because one frosty morning Master Varney thought I smelled of
+aqua vitae; and this fellow can appear before him drunk as a wineskin,
+and yet meet no rebuke. But then he is a pestilent clever fellow withal,
+and no one can understand above one half of what he says."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+     Now bid the steeple rock--she comes, she comes!--
+     Speak for us, bells--speak for us, shrill-tongued tuckets.
+     Stand to thy linstock, gunner; let thy cannon
+     Play such a peal, as if a paynim foe
+     Came stretch'd in turban'd ranks to storm the ramparts.
+     We will have pageants too--but that craves wit,
+     And I'm a rough-hewn soldier.--THE VIRGIN QUEEN--A TRAGI-COMEDY.
+
+Tressilian, when Wayland had left him, as mentioned in the last chapter,
+remained uncertain what he ought next to do, when Raleigh and Blount
+came up to him arm in arm, yet, according to their wont, very eagerly
+disputing together. Tressilian had no great desire for their society
+in the present state of his feelings, but there was no possibility of
+avoiding them; and indeed he felt that, bound by his promise not to
+approach Amy, or take any step in her behalf, it would be his best
+course at once to mix with general society, and to exhibit on his brow
+as little as he could of the anguish and uncertainty which sat heavy
+at his heart. He therefore made a virtue of necessity, and hailed his
+comrades with, "All mirth to you, gentlemen! Whence come ye?"
+
+"From Warwick, to be sure," said Blount; "we must needs home to change
+our habits, like poor players, who are fain to multiply their persons to
+outward appearance by change of suits; and you had better do the like,
+Tressilian."
+
+"Blount is right," said Raleigh; "the Queen loves such marks of
+deference, and notices, as wanting in respect, those who, not arriving
+in her immediate attendance, may appear in their soiled and ruffled
+riding-dress. But look at Blount himself, Tressilian, for the love of
+laughter, and see how his villainous tailor hath apparelled him--in
+blue, green, and crimson, with carnation ribbons, and yellow roses in
+his shoes!"
+
+"Why, what wouldst thou have?" said Blount. "I told the cross-legged
+thief to do his best, and spare no cost; and methinks these things are
+gay enough--gayer than thine own. I'll be judged by Tressilian."
+
+"I agree--I agree," said Walter Raleigh. "Judge betwixt us, Tressilian,
+for the love of heaven!"
+
+Tressilian, thus appealed to, looked at them both, and was immediately
+sensible at a single glance that honest Blount had taken upon the
+tailor's warrant the pied garments which he had chosen to make, and
+was as much embarrassed by the quantity of points and ribbons which
+garnished his dress, as a clown is in his holiday clothes; while the
+dress of Raleigh was a well-fancied and rich suit, which the wearer bore
+as a garb too well adapted to his elegant person to attract particular
+attention. Tressilian said, therefore, "That Blount's dress was finest,
+but Raleigh's the best fancied."
+
+Blount was satisfied with his decision. "I knew mine was finest," he
+said; "if that knave Doublestitch had brought me home such a simple
+doublet as that of Raleigh's, I would have beat his brains out with his
+own pressing-iron. Nay, if we must be fools, ever let us be fools of the
+first head, say I."
+
+"But why gettest thou not on thy braveries, Tressilian?" said Raleigh.
+
+"I am excluded from my apartment by a silly mistake," said Tressilian,
+"and separated for the time from my baggage. I was about to seek thee,
+to beseech a share of thy lodging."
+
+"And welcome," said Raleigh; "it is a noble one. My Lord of Leicester
+has done us that kindness, and lodged us in princely fashion. If his
+courtesy be extorted reluctantly, it is at least extended far. I would
+advise you to tell your strait to the Earl's chamberlain--you will have
+instant redress."
+
+"Nay, it is not worth while, since you can spare me room," replied
+Tressilian--"I would not be troublesome. Has any one come hither with
+you?"
+
+"Oh, ay," said Blount; "Varney and a whole tribe of Leicestrians,
+besides about a score of us honest Sussex folk. We are all, it seems, to
+receive the Queen at what they call the Gallery-tower, and witness some
+fooleries there; and then we're to remain in attendance upon the Queen
+in the Great Hall--God bless the mark!--while those who are now waiting
+upon her Grace get rid of their slough, and doff their riding-suits.
+Heaven help me, if her Grace should speak to me, I shall never know what
+to answer!"
+
+"And what has detained them so long at Warwick?" said Tressilian,
+unwilling that their conversation should return to his own affairs.
+
+"Such a succession of fooleries," said Blount, "as were never seen at
+Bartholomew-fair. We have had speeches and players, and dogs and bears,
+and men making monkeys and women moppets of themselves--I marvel the
+Queen could endure it. But ever and anon came in something of 'the
+lovely light of her gracious countenance,' or some such trash. Ah!
+vanity makes a fool of the wisest. But come, let us on to this same
+Gallery-tower--though I see not what thou Tressilian, canst do with thy
+riding-dress and boots."
+
+"I will take my station behind thee, Blount," said Tressilian, who
+saw that his friend's unusual finery had taken a strong hold of his
+imagination; "thy goodly size and gay dress will cover my defects."
+
+"And so thou shalt, Edmund," said Blount. "In faith I am glad thou
+thinkest my garb well-fancied, for all Mr. Wittypate here; for when one
+does a foolish thing, it is right to do it handsomely."
+
+So saying, Blount cocked his beaver, threw out his leg, and marched
+manfully forward, as if at the head of his brigade of pikemen, ever and
+anon looking with complaisance on his crimson stockings, and the huge
+yellow roses which blossomed on his shoes. Tressilian followed, wrapt
+in his own sad thoughts, and scarce minding Raleigh, whose quick fancy,
+amused by the awkward vanity of his respectable friend, vented itself in
+jests, which he whispered into Tressilian's ear.
+
+In this manner they crossed the long bridge, or tilt-yard, and took
+their station, with other gentlemen of quality, before the outer gate
+of the Gallery, or Entrance-tower. The whole amounted to about forty
+persons, all selected as of the first rank under that of knighthood, and
+were disposed in double rows on either side of the gate, like a guard of
+honour, within the close hedge of pikes and partisans which was formed
+by Leicester's retainers, wearing his liveries. The gentlemen carried no
+arms save their swords and daggers. These gallants were as gaily dressed
+as imagination could devise; and as the garb of the time permitted
+a great display of expensive magnificence, nought was to be seen but
+velvet and cloth of gold and silver, ribbons, leathers, gems, and golden
+chains. In spite of his more serious subjects of distress, Tressilian
+could not help feeling that he, with his riding-suit, however handsome
+it might be, made rather an unworthy figure among these "fierce
+vanities," and the rather because he saw that his deshabille was
+the subject of wonder among his own friends, and of scorn among the
+partisans of Leicester.
+
+We could not suppress this fact, though it may seem something at
+variance with the gravity of Tressilian's character; but the truth is,
+that a regard for personal appearance is a species of self-love,
+from which the wisest are not exempt, and to which the mind clings so
+instinctively that not only the soldier advancing to almost inevitable
+death, but even the doomed criminal who goes to certain execution, shows
+an anxiety to array his person to the best advantage. But this is a
+digression.
+
+It was the twilight of a summer night (9th July, 1575), the sun having
+for some time set, and all were in anxious expectation of the Queen's
+immediate approach. The multitude had remained assembled for many
+hours, and their numbers were still rather on the increase. A profuse
+distribution of refreshments, together with roasted oxen, and barrels of
+ale set a-broach in different places of the road, had kept the populace
+in perfect love and loyalty towards the Queen and her favourite, which
+might have somewhat abated had fasting been added to watching. They
+passed away the time, therefore, with the usual popular amusements of
+whooping, hallooing, shrieking, and playing rude tricks upon each other,
+forming the chorus of discordant sounds usual on such occasions. These
+prevailed all through the crowded roads and fields, and especially
+beyond the gate of the Chase, where the greater number of the common
+sort were stationed; when, all of a sudden, a single rocket was seen to
+shoot into the atmosphere, and, at the instant, far heard over flood and
+field, the great bell of the Castle tolled.
+
+Immediately there was a pause of dead silence, succeeded by a deep hum
+of expectation, the united voice of many thousands, none of whom spoke
+above their breath--or, to use a singular expression, the whisper of an
+immense multitude.
+
+"They come now, for certain," said Raleigh. "Tressilian, that sound is
+grand. We hear it from this distance as mariners, after a long voyage,
+hear, upon their night-watch, the tide rush upon some distant and
+unknown shore."
+
+"Mass!" answered Blount, "I hear it rather as I used to hear mine own
+kine lowing from the close of Wittenswestlowe."
+
+"He will assuredly graze presently," said Raleigh to Tressilian; "his
+thought is all of fat oxen and fertile meadows. He grows little better
+than one of his own beeves, and only becomes grand when he is provoked
+to pushing and goring."
+
+"We shall have him at that presently," said Tressilian, "if you spare
+not your wit."
+
+"Tush, I care not," answered Raleigh; "but thou too, Tressilian, hast
+turned a kind of owl, that flies only by night--hast exchanged thy songs
+for screechings, and good company for an ivy-tod."
+
+"But what manner of animal art thou thyself, Raleigh," said Tressilian,
+"that thou holdest us all so lightly?"
+
+"Who--I?" replied Raleigh. "An eagle am I, that never will think of dull
+earth while there is a heaven to soar in, and a sun to gaze upon."
+
+"Well bragged, by Saint Barnaby!" said Blount; "but, good Master Eagle,
+beware the cage, and beware the fowler. Many birds have flown as high
+that I have seen stuffed with straw and hung up to scare kites.--But
+hark, what a dead silence hath fallen on them at once!"
+
+"The procession pauses," said Raleigh, "at the gate of the Chase, where
+a sibyl, one of the FATIDICAE, meets the Queen, to tell her fortune. I
+saw the verses; there is little savour in them, and her Grace has been
+already crammed full with such poetical compliments. She whispered to
+me, during the Recorder's speech yonder, at Ford-mill, as she entered
+the liberties of Warwick, how she was 'PERTAESA BARBARAE LOQUELAE.'"
+
+"The Queen whispered to HIM!" said Blount, in a kind of soliloquy; "Good
+God, to what will this world come!"
+
+His further meditations were interrupted by a shout of applause from the
+multitude, so tremendously vociferous that the country echoed for miles
+round. The guards, thickly stationed upon the road by which the Queen
+was to advance, caught up the acclamation, which ran like wildfire to
+the Castle, and announced to all within that Queen Elizabeth had entered
+the Royal Chase of Kenilworth. The whole music of the Castle sounded
+at once, and a round of artillery, with a salvo of small arms, was
+discharged from the battlements; but the noise of drums and trumpets,
+and even of the cannon themselves, was but faintly heard amidst the
+roaring and reiterated welcomes of the multitude.
+
+As the noise began to abate, a broad glare of light was seen to appear
+from the gate of the Park, and broadening and brightening as it came
+nearer, advanced along the open and fair avenue that led towards the
+Gallery-tower; and which, as we have already noticed, was lined on
+either hand by the retainers of the Earl of Leicester. The word was
+passed along the line, "The Queen! The Queen! Silence, and stand fast!"
+Onward came the cavalcade, illuminated by two hundred thick waxen
+torches, in the hands of as many horsemen, which cast a light like that
+of broad day all around the procession, but especially on the principal
+group, of which the Queen herself, arrayed in the most splendid manner,
+and blazing with jewels, formed the central figure. She was mounted on a
+milk-white horse, which she reined with peculiar grace and dignity; and
+in the whole of her stately and noble carriage you saw the daughter of
+an hundred kings.
+
+The ladies of the court, who rode beside her Majesty, had taken especial
+care that their own external appearance should not be more glorious than
+their rank and the occasion altogether demanded, so that no inferior
+luminary might appear to approach the orbit of royalty. But their
+personal charms, and the magnificence by which, under every prudential
+restraint, they were necessarily distinguished, exhibited them as
+the very flower of a realm so far famed for splendour and beauty. The
+magnificence of the courtiers, free from such restraints as prudence
+imposed on the ladies, was yet more unbounded.
+
+Leicester, who glittered like a golden image with jewels and cloth of
+gold, rode on her Majesty's right hand, as well in quality of her host
+as of her master of the horse. The black steed which he mounted had
+not a single white hair on his body, and was one of the most renowned
+chargers in Europe, having been purchased by the Earl at large expense
+for this royal occasion. As the noble animal chafed at the slow pace
+of the procession, and, arching his stately neck, champed on the silver
+bits which restrained him, the foam flew from his mouth, and speckled
+his well-formed limbs as if with spots of snow. The rider well became
+the high place which he held, and the proud steed which he bestrode; for
+no man in England, or perhaps in Europe, was more perfect than Dudley in
+horsemanship, and all other exercises belonging to his quality. He
+was bareheaded as were all the courtiers in the train; and the red
+torchlight shone upon his long, curled tresses of dark hair, and on his
+noble features, to the beauty of which even the severest criticism
+could only object the lordly fault, as it may be termed, of a forehead
+somewhat too high. On that proud evening those features wore all the
+grateful solicitude of a subject, to show himself sensible of the high
+honour which the Queen was conferring on him, and all the pride and
+satisfaction which became so glorious a moment. Yet, though neither eye
+nor feature betrayed aught but feelings which suited the occasion, some
+of the Earl's personal attendants remarked that he was unusually pale,
+and they expressed to each other their fear that he was taking more
+fatigue than consisted with his health.
+
+Varney followed close behind his master, as the principal esquire in
+waiting, and had charge of his lordship's black velvet bonnet, garnished
+with a clasp of diamonds and surmounted by a white plume. He kept his
+eye constantly on his master, and, for reasons with which the reader is
+not unacquainted, was, among Leicester's numerous dependants, the one
+who was most anxious that his lord's strength and resolution should
+carry him successfully through a day so agitating. For although Varney
+was one of the few, the very few moral monsters who contrive to lull
+to sleep the remorse of their own bosoms, and are drugged into moral
+insensibility by atheism, as men in extreme agony are lulled by opium,
+yet he knew that in the breast of his patron there was already awakened
+the fire that is never quenched, and that his lord felt, amid all the
+pomp and magnificence we have described, the gnawing of the worm that
+dieth not. Still, however, assured as Lord Leicester stood, by Varney's
+own intelligence, that his Countess laboured under an indisposition
+which formed an unanswerable apology to the Queen for her not appearing
+at Kenilworth, there was little danger, his wily retainer thought, that
+a man so ambitious would betray himself by giving way to any external
+weakness.
+
+The train, male and female, who attended immediately upon the Queen's
+person, were, of course, of the bravest and the fairest--the highest
+born nobles, and the wisest counsellors, of that distinguished reign,
+to repeat whose names were but to weary the reader. Behind came a
+long crowd of knights and gentlemen, whose rank and birth, however
+distinguished, were thrown into shade, as their persons into the rear of
+a procession whose front was of such august majesty.
+
+Thus marshalled, the cavalcade approached the Gallery-tower, which
+formed, as we have often observed, the extreme barrier of the Castle.
+
+It was now the part of the huge porter to step forward; but the lubbard
+was so overwhelmed with confusion of spirit--the contents of one immense
+black jack of double ale, which he had just drunk to quicken his memory,
+having treacherously confused the brain it was intended to clear--that
+he only groaned piteously, and remained sitting on his stone seat; and
+the Queen would have passed on without greeting, had not the gigantic
+warder's secret ally, Flibbertigibbet, who lay perdue behind him, thrust
+a pin into the rear of the short femoral garment which we elsewhere
+described.
+
+The porter uttered a sort of yell, which came not amiss into his part,
+started up with his club, and dealt a sound douse or two on each side
+of him; and then, like a coach-horse pricked by the spur, started off
+at once into the full career of his address, and by dint of active
+prompting on the part of Dickie Sludge, delivered, in sounds of gigantic
+intonation, a speech which may be thus abridged--the reader being to
+suppose that the first lines were addressed to the throng who approached
+the gateway; the conclusion, at the approach of the Queen, upon sight of
+whom, as struck by some heavenly vision, the gigantic warder dropped his
+club, resigned his keys, and gave open way to the Goddess of the night,
+and all her magnificent train.
+
+
+     "What stir, what turmoil, have we for the nones?
+     Stand back, my masters, or beware your bones!
+     Sirs, I'm a warder, and no man of straw,
+     My voice keeps order, and my club gives law.
+
+     Yet soft--nay, stay--what vision have we here?
+     What dainty darling's this--what peerless peer?
+     What loveliest face, that loving ranks unfold,
+     Like brightest diamond chased in purest gold?
+     Dazzled and blind, mine office I forsake,
+     My club, my key, my knee, my homage take.
+     Bright paragon, pass on in joy and bliss;--
+     Beshrew the gate that opes not wide at such a sight as this!"
+
+     [This is an imitation of Gascoigne's verses spoken by the
+     Herculean porter, as mentioned in the text.  The original may be
+     found in the republication of the Princely Pleasures of
+     Kenilworth, by the same author, in the History of Kenilworth
+     already quoted.  Chiswick, 1821.]
+
+Elizabeth received most graciously the homage of the Herculean porter,
+and, bending her head to him in requital, passed through his guarded
+tower, from the top of which was poured a clamorous blast of warlike
+music, which was replied to by other bands of minstrelsy placed at
+different points on the Castle walls, and by others again stationed
+in the Chase; while the tones of the one, as they yet vibrated on
+the echoes, were caught up and answered by new harmony from different
+quarters.
+
+Amidst these bursts of music, which, as if the work of enchantment,
+seemed now close at hand, now softened by distant space, now wailing so
+low and sweet as if that distance were gradually prolonged until only
+the last lingering strains could reach the ear, Queen Elizabeth crossed
+the Gallery-tower, and came upon the long bridge, which extended from
+thence to Mortimer's Tower, and which was already as light as day, so
+many torches had been fastened to the palisades on either side. Most
+of the nobles here alighted, and sent their horses to the neighbouring
+village of Kenilworth, following the Queen on foot, as did the gentlemen
+who had stood in array to receive her at the Gallery-tower.
+
+On this occasion, as at different times during the evening, Raleigh
+addressed himself to Tressilian, and was not a little surprised at
+his vague and unsatisfactory answers; which, joined to his leaving his
+apartment without any assigned reason, appearing in an undress when
+it was likely to be offensive to the Queen, and some other symptoms of
+irregularity which he thought he discovered, led him to doubt whether
+his friend did not labour under some temporary derangement.
+
+Meanwhile, the Queen had no sooner stepped on the bridge than a new
+spectacle was provided; for as soon as the music gave signal that she
+was so far advanced, a raft, so disposed as to resemble a small floating
+island, illuminated by a great variety of torches, and surrounded by
+floating pageants formed to represent sea-horses, on which sat Tritons,
+Nereids, and other fabulous deities of the seas and rivers, made its
+appearance upon the lake, and issuing from behind a small heronry where
+it had been concealed, floated gently towards the farther end of the
+bridge.
+
+On the islet appeared a beautiful woman, clad in a watchet-coloured
+silken mantle, bound with a broad girdle inscribed with characters like
+the phylacteries of the Hebrews. Her feet and arms were bare, but her
+wrists and ankles were adorned with gold bracelets of uncommon size.
+Amidst her long, silky black hair she wore a crown or chaplet of
+artificial mistletoe, and bore in her hand a rod of ebony tipped with
+silver. Two Nymphs attended on her, dressed in the same antique and
+mystical guise.
+
+The pageant was so well managed that this Lady of the Floating Island,
+having performed her voyage with much picturesque effect, landed at
+Mortimer's Tower with her two attendants just as Elizabeth presented
+herself before that outwork. The stranger then, in a well-penned speech,
+announced herself as that famous Lady of the Lake renowned in the
+stories of King Arthur, who had nursed the youth of the redoubted Sir
+Lancelot, and whose beauty 'had proved too powerful both for the wisdom
+and the spells of the mighty Merlin. Since that early period she had
+remained possessed of her crystal dominions, she said, despite the
+various men of fame and might by whom Kenilworth had been successively
+tenanted. 'The Saxons, the Danes, the Normans, the Saintlowes, the
+Clintons, the Montforts, the Mortimers, the Plantagenets, great though
+they were in arms and magnificence, had never, she said, caused her
+to raise her head from the waters which hid her crystal palace. But a
+greater than all these great names had now appeared, and she came in
+homage and duty to welcome the peerless Elizabeth to all sport which the
+Castle and its environs, which lake or land, could afford.
+
+The Queen received this address also with great courtesy, and made
+answer in raillery, "We thought this lake had belonged to our own
+dominions, fair dame; but since so famed a lady claims it for hers,
+we will be glad at some other time to have further communing with you
+touching our joint interests."
+
+With this gracious answer the Lady of the Lake vanished, and Arion,
+who was amongst the maritime deities, appeared upon his dolphin. But
+Lambourne, who had taken upon him the part in the absence of Wayland,
+being chilled with remaining immersed in an element to which he was not
+friendly, having never got his speech by heart, and not having, like the
+porter, the advantage of a prompter, paid it off with impudence, tearing
+off his vizard, and swearing, "Cogs bones! he was none of Arion or Orion
+either, but honest Mike Lambourne, that had been drinking her Majesty's
+health from morning till midnight, and was come to bid her heartily
+welcome to Kenilworth Castle."
+
+This unpremeditated buffoonery answered the purpose probably better than
+the set speech would have done. The Queen laughed heartily, and swore
+(in her turn) that he had made the best speech she had heard that day.
+Lambourne, who instantly saw his jest had saved his bones, jumped on
+shore, gave his dolphin a kick, and declared he would never meddle with
+fish again, except at dinner.
+
+At the same time that the Queen was about to enter the Castle, that
+memorable discharge of fireworks by water and land took place, which
+Master Laneham, formerly introduced to the reader, has strained all his
+eloquence to describe.
+
+"Such," says the Clerk of the Council-chamber door "was the blaze of
+burning darts, the gleams of stars coruscant, the streams and hail of
+fiery sparks, lightnings of wildfire, and flight-shot of thunderbolts,
+with continuance, terror, and vehemency, that the heavens thundered, the
+waters surged, and the earth shook; and for my part, hardy as I am, it
+made me very vengeably afraid."
+
+[See Laneham's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at Killingworth
+Castle, in 1575, a very diverting tract, written by as great a coxcomb
+as ever blotted paper. [See Note 6] The original is extremely rare,
+but it has been twice reprinted; once in Mr. Nichols's very curious and
+interesting collection of the Progresses and Public Processions of
+Queen Elizabeth, vol.i. and more lately in a beautiful antiquarian
+publication, termed KENILWORTH ILLUSTRATED, printed at Chiswick, for
+Meridew of Coventry and Radcliffe of Birmingham. It contains reprints
+of Laneham's Letter, Gascoigne's Princely Progress, and other scarce
+pieces, annotated with accuracy and ability. The author takes the
+liberty to refer to this work as his authority for the account of the
+festivities.
+
+I am indebted for a curious ground-plan of the Castle of Kenilworth,
+as it existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, to the voluntary kindness of
+Richard Badnall Esq. of Olivebank, near Liverpool. From his obliging
+communication, I learn that the original sketch was found among the
+manuscripts of the celebrated J. J. Rousseau, when he left England.
+These were entrusted by the philosopher to the care of his friend
+Mr. Davenport, and passed from his legatee into the possession of Mr.
+Badnall.]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+     Nay, this is matter for the month of March,
+     When hares are maddest.  Either speak in reason,
+     Giving cold argument the wall of passion,
+     Or I break up the court.      --BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
+
+It is by no means our purpose to detail minutely all the princely
+festivities of Kenilworth, after the fashion of Master Robert Laneham,
+whom we quoted in the conclusion of the last chapter. It is sufficient
+to say that under discharge of the splendid fireworks, which we
+have borrowed Laneham's eloquence to describe, the Queen entered the
+base-court of Kenilworth, through Mortimer's Tower, and moving on
+through pageants of heathen gods and heroes of antiquity, who offered
+gifts and compliments on the bended knee, at length found her way to
+the Great Hall of the Castle, gorgeously hung for her reception with the
+richest silken tapestry, misty with perfumes, and sounding to strains
+of soft and delicious music. From the highly-carved oaken roof hung
+a superb chandelier of gilt bronze, formed like a spread eagle, whose
+outstretched wings supported three male and three female figures,
+grasping a pair of branches in each hand. The Hall was thus illuminated
+by twenty-four torches of wax. At the upper end of the splendid
+apartment was a state canopy, overshadowing a royal throne, and beside
+it was a door, which opened to a long suite of apartments, decorated
+with the utmost magnificence for the Queen and her ladies, whenever it
+should be her pleasure to be private.
+
+The Earl of Leicester having handed the Queen up to her throne, and
+seated her there, knelt down before her, and kissing the hand which she
+held out, with an air in which romantic and respectful gallantry was
+happily mingled with the air of loyal devotion, he thanked her, in terms
+of the deepest gratitude, for the highest honour which a sovereign could
+render to a subject. So handsome did he look when kneeling before her,
+that Elizabeth was tempted to prolong the scene a little longer than
+there was, strictly speaking, necessity for; and ere she raised him,
+she passed her hand over his head, so near as almost to touch his long,
+curled, and perfumed hair, and with a movement of fondness that seemed
+to intimate she would, if she dared, have made the motion a slight
+caress.
+
+[To justify what may be considered as a high-coloured picture, the
+author quotes the original of the courtly and shrewd Sir James Melville,
+being then Queen Mary's envoy at the court of London.
+
+"I was required," says Sir James, "to stay till I had seen him made
+Earle of Leicester, and Baron of Denbigh, with great solemnity; herself
+(Elizabeth) helping to put on his ceremonial, he sitting on his knees
+before her, keeping a great gravity and a discreet behaviour; but she
+could not refrain from putting her hand to his neck to kittle (i.e.,
+tickle) him, smilingly, the French Ambassador and I standing beside
+her."--MELVILLE'S MEMOIRS, BANNATYNE EDITION, p. 120.]
+
+She at length raised him, and standing beside the throne, he explained
+to her the various preparations which had been made for her amusement
+and accommodation, all of which received her prompt and gracious
+approbation. The Earl then prayed her Majesty for permission that he
+himself, and the nobles who had been in attendance upon her during the
+journey, might retire for a few minutes, and put themselves into a guise
+more fitting for dutiful attendance, during which space those gentlemen
+of worship (pointing to Varney, Blount, Tressilian, and others), who
+had already put themselves into fresh attire, would have the honour of
+keeping her presence-chamber.
+
+"Be it so, my lord," answered the Queen; "you could manage a theatre
+well, who can thus command a double set of actors. For ourselves, we
+will receive your courtesies this evening but clownishly, since it is
+not our purpose to change our riding attire, being in effect something
+fatigued with a journey which the concourse of our good people hath
+rendered slow, though the love they have shown our person hath, at the
+same time, made it delightful."
+
+Leicester, having received this permission, retired accordingly, and
+was followed by those nobles who had attended the Queen to Kenilworth
+in person. The gentlemen who had preceded them, and were, of course,
+dressed for the solemnity, remained in attendance. But being most of
+them of rather inferior rank, they remained at an awful distance
+from the throne which Elizabeth occupied. The Queen's sharp eye soon
+distinguished Raleigh amongst them, with one or two others who were
+personally known to her, and she instantly made them a sign to approach,
+and accosted them very graciously. Raleigh, in particular, the adventure
+of whose cloak, as well as the incident of the verses, remained on
+her mind, was very graciously received; and to him she most frequently
+applied for information concerning the names and rank of those who
+were in presence. These he communicated concisely, and not without some
+traits of humorous satire, by which Elizabeth seemed much amused. "And
+who is yonder clownish fellow?" she said, looking at Tressilian, whose
+soiled dress on this occasion greatly obscured his good mien.
+
+"A poet, if it please your Grace," replied Raleigh.
+
+"I might have guessed that from his careless garb," said Elizabeth.
+"I have known some poets so thoughtless as to throw their cloaks into
+gutters."
+
+"It must have been when the sun dazzled both their eyes and their
+judgment," answered Raleigh.
+
+Elizabeth smiled, and proceeded, "I asked that slovenly fellow's name,
+and you only told me his profession."
+
+"Tressilian is his name," said Raleigh, with internal reluctance, for
+he foresaw nothing favourable to his friend from the manner in which she
+took notice of him.
+
+"Tressilian!" answered Elizabeth. "Oh, the Menelaus of our romance. Why,
+he has dressed himself in a guise that will go far to exculpate his fair
+and false Helen. And where is Farnham, or whatever his name is--my Lord
+of Leicester's man, I mean--the Paris of this Devonshire tale?"
+
+With still greater reluctance Raleigh named and pointed out to her
+Varney, for whom the tailor had done all that art could perform in
+making his exterior agreeable; and who, if he had not grace, had a sort
+of tact and habitual knowledge of breeding, which came in place of it.
+
+The Queen turned her eyes from the one to the other. "I doubt," she
+said, "this same poetical Master Tressilian, who is too learned, I
+warrant me, to remember whose presence he was to appear in, may be one
+of those of whom Geoffrey Chaucer says wittily, the wisest clerks are
+not the wisest men. I remember that Varney is a smooth-tongued varlet. I
+doubt this fair runaway hath had reasons for breaking her faith."
+
+To this Raleigh durst make no answer, aware how little he should benefit
+Tressilian by contradicting the Queen's sentiments, and not at all
+certain, on the whole, whether the best thing that could befall him
+would not be that she should put an end at once by her authority to this
+affair, upon which it seemed to him Tressilian's thoughts were fixed
+with unavailing and distressing pertinacity. As these reflections
+passed through his active brain, the lower door of the hall opened, and
+Leicester, accompanied by several of his kinsmen, and of the nobles who
+had embraced his faction, re-entered the Castle Hall.
+
+The favourite Earl was now apparelled all in white, his shoes being of
+white velvet; his under-stocks (or stockings) of knit silk; his upper
+stocks of white velvet, lined with cloth of silver, which was shown at
+the slashed part of the middle thigh; his doublet of cloth of
+silver, the close jerkin of white velvet, embroidered with silver and
+seed-pearl, his girdle and the scabbard of his sword of white velvet
+with golden buckles; his poniard and sword hilted and mounted with gold;
+and over all a rich, loose robe of white satin, with a border of golden
+embroidery a foot in breadth. The collar of the Garter, and the azure
+garter itself around his knee, completed the appointments of the Earl
+of Leicester; which were so well matched by his fair stature, graceful
+gesture, fine proportion of body, and handsome countenance, that at that
+moment he was admitted by all who saw him as the goodliest person whom
+they had ever looked upon. Sussex and the other nobles were also richly
+attired, but in point of splendour and gracefulness of mien Leicester
+far exceeded them all.
+
+Elizabeth received him with great complacency. "We have one piece of
+royal justice," she said, "to attend to. It is a piece of justice, too,
+which interests us as a woman, as well as in the character of mother and
+guardian of the English people."
+
+An involuntary shudder came over Leicester as he bowed low, expressive
+of his readiness to receive her royal commands; and a similar cold fit
+came over Varney, whose eyes (seldom during that evening removed from
+his patron) instantly perceived from the change in his looks, slight as
+that was, of what the Queen was speaking. But Leicester had wrought
+his resolution up to the point which, in his crooked policy, he judged
+necessary; and when Elizabeth added, "it is of the matter of Varney
+and Tressilian we speak--is the lady here, my lord?" his answer was
+ready--"Gracious madam, she is not."
+
+Elizabeth bent her brews and compressed her lips. "Our orders were
+strict and positive, my lord," was her answer--
+
+"And should have been obeyed, good my liege," replied Leicester, "had
+they been expressed in the form of the lightest wish. But--Varney, step
+forward--this gentleman will inform your Grace of the cause why the
+lady" (he could not force his rebellious tongue to utter the words--HIS
+WIFE) "cannot attend on your royal presence."
+
+Varney advanced, and pleaded with readiness, what indeed he firmly
+believed, the absolute incapacity of the party (for neither did he dare,
+in Leicester's presence, term her his wife) to wait on her Grace.
+
+"Here," said he, "are attestations from a most learned physician, whose
+skill and honour are well known to my good Lord of Leicester, and from
+an honest and devout Protestant, a man of credit and substance, one
+Anthony Foster, the gentleman in whose house she is at present bestowed,
+that she now labours under an illness which altogether unfits her for
+such a journey as betwixt this Castle and the neighbourhood of Oxford."
+
+"This alters the matter," said the Queen, taking the certificates in
+her hand, and glancing at their contents.--"Let Tressilian come
+forward.--Master Tressilian, we have much sympathy for your situation,
+the rather that you seem to have set your heart deeply on this Amy
+Robsart, or Varney. Our power, thanks to God, and the willing obedience
+of a loving people, is worth much, but there are some things which it
+cannot compass. We cannot, for example, command the affections of a
+giddy young girl, or make her love sense and learning better than a
+courtier's fine doublet; and we cannot control sickness, with which it
+seems this lady is afflicted, who may not, by reason of such infirmity,
+attend our court here, as we had required her to do. Here are the
+testimonials of the physician who hath her under his charge, and the
+gentleman in whose house she resides, so setting forth."
+
+"Under your Majesty's favour," said Tressilian hastily, and in his alarm
+for the consequence of the imposition practised on the Queen forgetting
+in part at least his own promise to Amy, "these certificates speak not
+the truth."
+
+"How, sir!" said the Queen--"impeach my Lord of Leicester's veracity!
+But you shall have a fair hearing. In our presence the meanest of
+our subjects shall be heard against the proudest, and the least known
+against the most favoured; therefore you shall be heard fairly, but
+beware you speak not without a warrant! Take these certificates in your
+own hand, look at them carefully, and say manfully if you impugn the
+truth of them, and upon what evidence."
+
+As the Queen spoke, his promise and all its consequences rushed on the
+mind of the unfortunate Tressilian, and while it controlled his natural
+inclination to pronounce that a falsehood which he knew from the
+evidence of his senses to be untrue, gave an indecision and irresolution
+to his appearance and utterance which made strongly against him in
+the mind of Elizabeth, as well as of all who beheld him. He turned
+the papers over and over, as if he had been an idiot, incapable of
+comprehending their contents. The Queen's impatience began to become
+visible. "You are a scholar, sir," she said, "and of some note, as I
+have heard; yet you seem wondrous slow in reading text hand. How say
+you, are these certificates true or no?"
+
+"Madam," said Tressilian, with obvious embarrassment and hesitation,
+anxious to avoid admitting evidence which he might afterwards have
+reason to confute, yet equally desirous to keep his word to Amy, and to
+give her, as he had promised, space to plead her own cause in her own
+way--"Madam--Madam, your Grace calls on me to admit evidence which ought
+to be proved valid by those who found their defence upon them."
+
+"Why, Tressilian, thou art critical as well as poetical," said the
+Queen, bending on him a brow of displeasure; "methinks these writings,
+being produced in the presence of the noble Earl to whom this Castle
+pertains, and his honour being appealed to as the guarantee of their
+authenticity, might be evidence enough for thee. But since thou listest
+to be so formal--Varney, or rather my Lord of Leicester, for the affair
+becomes yours" (these words, though spoken at random, thrilled through
+the Earl's marrow and bones), "what evidence have you as touching these
+certificates?"
+
+Varney hastened to reply, preventing Leicester--"So please your Majesty,
+my young Lord of Oxford, who is here in presence, knows Master Anthony
+Foster's hand and his character."
+
+The Earl of Oxford, a young unthrift, whom Foster had more than once
+accommodated with loans on usurious interest, acknowledged, on this
+appeal, that he knew him as a wealthy and independent franklin, supposed
+to be worth much money, and verified the certificate produced to be his
+handwriting.
+
+"And who speaks to the Doctor's certificate?" said the Queen. "Alasco,
+methinks, is his name."
+
+Masters, her Majesty's physician (not the less willingly that he
+remembered his repulse from Sayes Court, and thought that his present
+testimony might gratify Leicester, and mortify the Earl of Sussex and
+his faction), acknowledged he had more than once consulted with Doctor
+Alasco, and spoke of him as a man of extraordinary learning and hidden
+acquirements, though not altogether in the regular course of practice.
+The Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Leicester's brother-in-law, and the old
+Countess of Rutland, next sang his praises, and both remembered the
+thin, beautiful Italian hand in which he was wont to write his receipts,
+and which corresponded to the certificate produced as his.
+
+"And now, I trust, Master Tressilian, this matter is ended," said the
+Queen. "We will do something ere the night is older to reconcile old Sir
+Hugh Robsart to the match. You have done your duty something more than
+boldly; but we were no woman had we not compassion for the wounds which
+true love deals, so we forgive your audacity, and your uncleansed
+boots withal, which have well-nigh overpowered my Lord of Leicester's
+perfumes."
+
+So spoke Elizabeth, whose nicety of scent was one of the characteristics
+of her organization, as appeared long afterwards when she expelled Essex
+from her presence, on a charge against his boots similar to that which
+she now expressed against those of Tressilian.
+
+But Tressilian had by this time collected himself, astonished as he had
+at first been by the audacity of the falsehood so feasibly supported,
+and placed in array against the evidence of his own eyes. He rushed
+forward, kneeled down, and caught the Queen by the skirt of her robe.
+"As you are Christian woman," he said, "madam, as you are crowned Queen,
+to do equal justice among your subjects--as you hope yourself to have
+fair hearing (which God grant you) at that last bar at which we must all
+plead, grant me one small request! Decide not this matter so hastily.
+Give me but twenty-four hours' interval, and I will, at the end of that
+brief space, produce evidence which will show to demonstration that
+these certificates, which state this unhappy lady to be now ill at ease
+in Oxfordshire, are false as hell!"
+
+"Let go my train, sir!" said Elizabeth, who was startled at his
+vehemence, though she had too much of the lion in her to fear; "the
+fellow must be distraught. That witty knave, my godson Harrington, must
+have him into his rhymes of Orlando Furioso! And yet, by this light,
+there is something strange in the vehemence of his demand.--Speak,
+Tressilian, what wilt thou do if, at the end of these four-and-twenty
+hours, thou canst not confute a fact so solemnly proved as this lady's
+illness?"
+
+"I will lay down my head on the block," answered Tressilian.
+
+"Pshaw!" replied the Queen, "God's light! thou speakest like a fool.
+What head falls in England but by just sentence of English law? I ask
+thee, man--if thou hast sense to understand me--wilt thou, if thou
+shalt fail in this improbable attempt of thine, render me a good and
+sufficient reason why thou dost undertake it?"
+
+Tressilian paused, and again hesitated; because he felt convinced that
+if, within the interval demanded, Amy should become reconciled to her
+husband, he would in that case do her the worst of offices by again
+ripping up the whole circumstances before Elizabeth, and showing
+how that wise and jealous princess had been imposed upon by false
+testimonials. The consciousness of this dilemma renewed his extreme
+embarrassment of look, voice, and manner; he hesitated, looked down, and
+on the Queen repeating her question with a stern voice and flashing
+eye, he admitted with faltering words, "That it might be--he could not
+positively--that is, in certain events--explain the reasons and grounds
+on which he acted."
+
+"Now, by the soul of King Henry," said the Queen, "this is either
+moonstruck madness or very knavery!--Seest thou, Raleigh, thy friend is
+far too Pindaric for this presence. Have him away, and make us quit of
+him, or it shall be the worse for him; for his flights are too unbridled
+for any place but Parnassus, or Saint Luke's Hospital. But come back
+instantly thyself, when he is placed under fitting restraint.--We wish
+we had seen the beauty which could make such havoc in a wise man's
+brain."
+
+Tressilian was again endeavouring to address the Queen, when Raleigh, in
+obedience to the orders he had received, interfered, and with Blount's
+assistance, half led, half forced him out of the presence-chamber, where
+he himself indeed began to think his appearance did his cause more harm
+than good.
+
+When they had attained the antechamber, Raleigh entreated Blount to see
+Tressilian safely conducted into the apartments allotted to the Earl of
+Sussex's followers, and, if necessary, recommended that a guard should
+be mounted on him.
+
+"This extravagant passion," he said, "and, as it would seem, the news of
+the lady's illness, has utterly wrecked his excellent judgment. But it
+will pass away if he be kept quiet. Only let him break forth again at
+no rate; for he is already far in her Highness's displeasure, and
+should she be again provoked, she will find for him a worse place of
+confinement, and sterner keepers."
+
+"I judged as much as that he was mad," said Nicholas Blount, looking
+down upon his own crimson stockings and yellow roses, "whenever I saw
+him wearing yonder damned boots, which stunk so in her nostrils. I will
+but see him stowed, and be back with you presently. But, Walter, did the
+Queen ask who I was?--methought she glanced an eye at me."
+
+"Twenty--twenty eye-glances she sent! and I told her all--how thou wert
+a brave soldier, and a--But for God's sake, get off Tressilian!"
+
+"I will--I will," said Blount; "but methinks this court-haunting is no
+such bad pastime, after all. We shall rise by it, Walter, my brave lad.
+Thou saidst I was a good soldier, and a--what besides, dearest Walter?"
+
+"An all unutterable-codshead. For God's sake, begone!"
+
+Tressilian, without further resistance or expostulation followed, or
+rather suffered himself to be conducted by Blount to Raleigh's lodging,
+where he was formally installed into a small truckle-bed placed in a
+wardrobe, and designed for a domestic. He saw but too plainly that
+no remonstrances would avail to procure the help or sympathy of his
+friends, until the lapse of the time for which he had pledged himself
+to remain inactive should enable him either to explain the whole
+circumstances to them, or remove from him every pretext or desire of
+further interference with the fortunes of Amy, by her having found means
+to place herself in a state of reconciliation with her husband.
+
+With great difficulty, and only by the most patient and mild
+remonstrances with Blount, he escaped the disgrace and mortification of
+having two of Sussex's stoutest yeomen quartered in his apartment.
+At last, however, when Nicholas had seen him fairly deposited in his
+truckle-bed, and had bestowed one or two hearty kicks, and as hearty
+curses, on the boots, which, in his lately acquired spirit of foppery,
+he considered as a strong symptom, if not the cause, of his friend's
+malady, he contented himself with the modified measure of locking the
+door on the unfortunate Tressilian, whose gallant and disinterested
+efforts to save a female who had treated him with ingratitude thus
+terminated for the present in the displeasure of his Sovereign and the
+conviction of his friends that he was little better than a madman.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+     The wisest Sovereigns err like private men,
+     And royal hand has sometimes laid the sword
+     Of chivalry upon a worthless shoulder,
+     Which better had been branded by the hangman.
+     What then?--Kings do their best; and they and we
+     Must answer for the intent, and not the event.--OLD PLAY.
+
+"It is a melancholy matter," said the Queen, when Tressilian was
+withdrawn, "to see a wise and learned man's wit thus pitifully
+unsettled. Yet this public display of his imperfection of brain plainly
+shows us that his supposed injury and accusation were fruitless; and
+therefore, my Lord of Leicester, we remember your suit formerly made
+to us in behalf of your faithful servant Varney, whose good gifts and
+fidelity, as they are useful to you, ought to have due reward from us,
+knowing well that your lordship, and all you have, are so earnestly
+devoted to our service. And we render Varney the honour more especially
+that we are a guest, and, we fear, a chargeable and troublesome one,
+under your lordship's roof; and also for the satisfaction of the good
+old Knight of Devon, Sir Hugh Robsart, whose daughter he hath married,
+and we trust the especial mark of grace which we are about to confer may
+reconcile him to his son-in-law.--Your sword, my Lord of Leicester."
+
+The Earl unbuckled his sword, and taking it by the point, presented on
+bended knee the hilt to Elizabeth.
+
+She took it slowly drew it from the scabbard, and while the ladies who
+stood around turned away their eyes with real or affected shuddering,
+she noted with a curious eye the high polish and rich, damasked
+ornaments upon the glittering blade.
+
+"Had I been a man," she said, "methinks none of my ancestors would have
+loved a good sword better. As it is with me, I like to look on one, and
+could, like the Fairy of whom I have read in some Italian rhymes--were
+my godson Harrington here, he could tell me the passage--even trim
+my hair, and arrange my head-gear, in such a steel mirror as this
+is.--Richard Varney, come forth, and kneel down. In the name of God and
+Saint George, we dub thee knight! Be Faithful, Brave, and Fortunate.
+Arise, Sir Richard Varney."
+
+
+     [The incident alluded to occurs in the poem of Orlando Innamorato
+     of Boiardo, libro ii. canto 4, stanza 25.
+
+     "Non era per ventura," etc.
+
+It may be rendered thus:--
+
+
+     As then, perchance, unguarded was the tower,
+     So enter'd free Anglante's dauntless knight.
+     No monster and no giant guard the bower
+     In whose recess reclined the fairy light,
+     Robed in a loose cymar of lily white,
+     And on her lap a sword of breadth and might,
+     In whose broad blade, as in a mirror bright,
+     Like maid that trims her for a festal night,
+     The fairy deck'd her hair, and placed her coronet aright.
+
+Elizabeth's attachment to the Italian school of poetry was singularly
+manifested on a well-known occasion. Her godson, Sir John Harrington,
+having offended her delicacy by translating some of the licentious
+passages of the Orlando Furioso, she imposed on him, as a penance, the
+task of rendering the WHOLE poem into English.]
+
+Varney arose and retired, making a deep obeisance to the Sovereign who
+had done him so much honour.
+
+"The buckling of the spur, and what other rites remain," said the Queen,
+"may be finished to-morrow in the chapel; for we intend Sir Richard
+Varney a companion in his honours. And as we must not be partial in
+conferring such distinction, we mean on this matter to confer with our
+cousin of Sussex."
+
+That noble Earl, who since his arrival at Kenilworth, and indeed since
+the commencement of this Progress, had found himself in a subordinate
+situation to Leicester, was now wearing a heavy cloud on his brow; a
+circumstance which had not escaped the Queen, who hoped to appease his
+discontent, and to follow out her system of balancing policy by a mark
+of peculiar favour, the more gratifying as it was tendered at a moment
+when his rival's triumph appeared to be complete.
+
+At the summons of Queen Elizabeth, Sussex hastily approached her person;
+and being asked on which of his followers, being a gentleman and of
+merit, he would wish the honour of knighthood to be conferred, he
+answered, with more sincerity than policy, that he would have ventured
+to speak for Tressilian, to whom he conceived he owed his own life, and
+who was a distinguished soldier and scholar, besides a man of unstained
+lineage, "only," he said, "he feared the events of that night--" And
+then he stopped.
+
+"I am glad your lordship is thus considerate," said Elizabeth. "The
+events of this night would make us, in the eyes of our subjects, as mad
+as this poor brain-sick gentleman himself--for we ascribe his conduct to
+no malice--should we choose this moment to do him grace."
+
+"In that case," said the Earl of Sussex, somewhat discountenanced, "your
+Majesty will allow me to name my master of the horse, Master Nicholas
+Blount, a gentleman of fair estate and ancient name, who has served your
+Majesty both in Scotland and Ireland, and brought away bloody marks on
+his person, all honourably taken and requited."
+
+The Queen could not help shrugging her shoulders slightly even at this
+second suggestion; and the Duchess of Rutland, who read in the Queen's
+manner that she had expected that Sussex would have named Raleigh, and
+thus would have enabled her to gratify her own wish while she honoured
+his recommendation, only waited the Queen's assent to what he had
+proposed, and then said that she hoped, since these two high nobles had
+been each permitted to suggest a candidate for the honours of chivalry,
+she, in behalf of the ladies in presence, might have a similar
+indulgence.
+
+"I were no woman to refuse you such a boon," said the Queen, smiling.
+
+"Then," pursued the Duchess, "in the name of these fair ladies present,
+I request your Majesty to confer the rank of knighthood on Walter
+Raleigh, whose birth, deeds of arms, and promptitude to serve our sex
+with sword or pen, deserve such distinction from us all."
+
+"Gramercy, fair ladies," said Elizabeth, smiling, "your boon is
+granted, and the gentle squire Lack-Cloak shall become the good knight
+Lack-Cloak, at your desire. Let the two aspirants for the honour of
+chivalry step forward."
+
+Blount was not as yet returned from seeing Tressilian, as he conceived,
+safely disposed of; but Raleigh came forth, and kneeling down, received
+at the hand of the Virgin Queen that title of honour, which was never
+conferred on a more distinguished or more illustrious object.
+
+Shortly afterwards Nicholas Blount entered, and hastily apprised by
+Sussex, who met him at the door of the hall, of the Queen's gracious
+purpose regarding him, he was desired to advance towards the throne. It
+is a sight sometimes seen, and it is both ludicrous and pitiable; when
+an honest man of plain common sense is surprised, by the coquetry of a
+pretty woman, or any other cause, into those frivolous fopperies
+which only sit well upon the youthful, the gay, and those to whom long
+practice has rendered them a second nature. Poor Blount was in this
+situation. His head was already giddy from a consciousness of unusual
+finery, and the supposed necessity of suiting his manners to the gaiety
+of his dress; and now this sudden view of promotion altogether completed
+the conquest of the newly inhaled spirit of foppery over his natural
+disposition, and converted a plain, honest, awkward man into a coxcomb
+of a new and most ridiculous kind.
+
+The knight-expectant advanced up the hall, the whole length of which he
+had unfortunately to traverse, turning out his toes with so much zeal
+that he presented his leg at every step with its broadside foremost,
+so that it greatly resembled an old-fashioned table-knife with a curved
+point, when seen sideways. The rest of his gait was in proportion
+to this unhappy amble; and the implied mixture of bashful rear and
+self-satisfaction was so unutterably ridiculous that Leicester's friends
+did not suppress a titter, in which many of Sussex's partisans
+were unable to resist joining, though ready to eat their nails with
+mortification. Sussex himself lost all patience, and could not forbear
+whispering into the ear of his friend, "Curse thee! canst thou not walk
+like a man and a soldier?" an interjection which only made honest Blount
+start and stop, until a glance at his yellow roses and crimson stockings
+restored his self-confidence, when on he went at the same pace as
+before.
+
+The Queen conferred on poor Blount the honour of knighthood with a
+marked sense of reluctance. That wise Princess was fully aware of the
+propriety of using great circumspection and economy in bestowing those
+titles of honour, which the Stewarts, who succeeded to her throne,
+distributed with an imprudent liberality which greatly diminished their
+value. Blount had no sooner arisen and retired than she turned to the
+Duchess of Rutland. "Our woman wit," she said, "dear Rutland, is sharper
+than that of those proud things in doublet and hose. Seest thou, out of
+these three knights, thine is the only true metal to stamp chivalry's
+imprint upon?"
+
+"Sir Richard Varney, surely--the friend of my Lord of Leicester--surely
+he has merit," replied the Duchess.
+
+"Varney has a sly countenance and a smooth tongue," replied the Queen;
+"I fear me he will prove a knave. But the promise was of ancient
+standing. My Lord of Sussex must have lost his own wits, I think, to
+recommend to us first a madman like Tressilian, and then a clownish fool
+like this other fellow. I protest, Rutland, that while he sat on his
+knees before me, mopping and mowing as if he had scalding porridge in
+his mouth, I had much ado to forbear cutting him over the pate, instead
+of striking his shoulder."
+
+"Your Majesty gave him a smart ACCOLADE," said the Duchess; "we who
+stood behind heard the blade clatter on his collar-bone, and the poor
+man fidgeted too as if he felt it."
+
+"I could not help it, wench," said the Queen, laughing. "But we will
+have this same Sir Nicholas sent to Ireland or Scotland, or somewhere,
+to rid our court of so antic a chevalier; he may be a good soldier in
+the field, though a preposterous ass in a banqueting-hall."
+
+The discourse became then more general, and soon after there was a
+summons to the banquet.
+
+In order to obey this signal, the company were under the necessity of
+crossing the inner court of the Castle, that they might reach the new
+buildings containing the large banqueting-room, in which preparations
+for supper were made upon a scale of profuse magnificence, corresponding
+to the occasion.
+
+The livery cupboards were loaded with plate of the richest description,
+and the most varied--some articles tasteful, some perhaps grotesque, in
+the invention and decoration, but all gorgeously magnificent, both from
+the richness of the work and value of the materials. Thus the chief
+table was adorned by a salt, ship-fashion, made of mother-of-pearl,
+garnished with silver and divers warlike ensigns and other ornaments,
+anchors, sails, and sixteen pieces of ordnance. It bore a figure of
+Fortune, placed on a globe, with a flag in her hand. Another salt was
+fashioned of silver, in form of a swan in full sail. That chivalry might
+not be omitted amid this splendour, a silver Saint George was presented,
+mounted and equipped in the usual fashion in which he bestrides the
+dragon. The figures were moulded to be in some sort useful. The horse's
+tail was managed to hold a case of knives, while the breast of the
+dragon presented a similar accommodation for oyster knives.
+
+In the course of the passage from the hall of reception to the
+banqueting-room, and especially in the courtyard, the new-made knights
+were assailed by the heralds, pursuivants, minstrels, etc., with the
+usual cry of LARGESSE, LARGESSE, CHEVALIERS TRES HARDIS! an ancient
+invocation, intended to awaken the bounty of the acolytes of chivalry
+towards those whose business it was to register their armorial bearings,
+and celebrate the deeds by which they were illustrated. The call was,
+of course, liberally and courteously answered by those to whom it was
+addressed. Varney gave his largesse with an affectation of complaisance
+and humility. Raleigh bestowed his with the graceful ease peculiar to
+one who has attained his own place, and is familiar with its dignity.
+Honest Blount gave what his tailor had left him of his half-year's rent,
+dropping some pieces in his hurry, then stooping down to look for them,
+and then distributing them amongst the various claimants, with the
+anxious face and mien of the parish beadle dividing a dole among
+paupers.
+
+The donations were accepted with the usual clamour and VIVATS of
+applause common on such occasions; but as the parties gratified were
+chiefly dependants of Lord Leicester, it was Varney whose name
+was repeated with the loudest acclamations. Lambourne, especially,
+distinguished himself by his vociferations of "Long life to Sir Richard
+Varney!--Health and honour to Sir Richard!--Never was a more worthy
+knight dubbed!"--then, suddenly sinking his voice, he added--"since the
+valiant Sir Pandarus of Troy,"--a winding-up of his clamorous applause
+which set all men a-laughing who were within hearing of it.
+
+It is unnecessary to say anything further of the festivities of the
+evening, which were so brilliant in themselves, and received with such
+obvious and willing satisfaction by the Queen, that Leicester retired
+to his own apartment with all the giddy raptures of successful ambition.
+Varney, who had changed his splendid attire, and now waited on his
+patron in a very modest and plain undress, attended to do the honours of
+the Earl's COUCHER.
+
+"How! Sir Richard," said Leicester, smiling, "your new rank scarce suits
+the humility of this attendance."
+
+"I would disown that rank, my Lord," said Varney, "could I think it was
+to remove me to a distance from your lordship's person."
+
+"Thou art a grateful fellow," said Leicester; "but I must not allow you
+to do what would abate you in the opinion of others."
+
+While thus speaking, he still accepted without hesitation the offices
+about his person, which the new-made knight seemed to render as eagerly
+as if he had really felt, in discharging the task, that pleasure which
+his words expressed.
+
+"I am not afraid of men's misconstruction," he said, in answer to
+Leicester's remark, "since there is not--(permit me to undo the
+collar)--a man within the Castle who does not expect very soon to see
+persons of a rank far superior to that which, by your goodness, I now
+hold, rendering the duties of the bedchamber to you, and accounting it
+an honour."
+
+"It might, indeed, so have been"--said the Earl, with an involuntary
+sigh; and then presently added, "My gown, Varney; I will look out on the
+night. Is not the moon near to the full?"
+
+"I think so, my lord, according to the calendar," answered Varney.
+
+There was an abutting window, which opened on a small projecting balcony
+of stone, battlemented as is usual in Gothic castles. The Earl undid the
+lattice, and stepped out into the open air. The station he had chosen
+commanded an extensive view of the lake and woodlands beyond, where the
+bright moonlight rested on the clear blue waters and the distant masses
+of oak and elm trees. The moon rode high in the heavens, attended by
+thousands and thousands of inferior luminaries. All seemed already to
+be hushed in the nether world, excepting occasionally the voice of the
+watch (for the yeomen of the guard performed that duty wherever the
+Queen was present in person) and the distant baying of the hounds,
+disturbed by the preparations amongst the grooms and prickers for a
+magnificent hunt, which was to be the amusement of the next day.
+
+Leicester looked out on the blue arch of heaven, with gestures and a
+countenance expressive of anxious exultation, while Varney, who remained
+within the darkened apartment, could (himself unnoticed), with a
+secret satisfaction, see his patron stretch his hands with earnest
+gesticulation towards the heavenly bodies.
+
+"Ye distant orbs of living fire," so ran the muttered invocation of the
+ambitious Earl, "ye are silent while you wheel your mystic rounds; but
+Wisdom has given to you a voice. Tell me, then, to what end is my high
+course destined? Shall the greatness to which I have aspired be bright,
+pre-eminent, and stable as your own; or am I but doomed to draw a brief
+and glittering train along the nightly darkness, and then to sink down
+to earth, like the base refuse of those artificial fires with which men
+emulate your rays?"
+
+He looked on the heavens in profound silence for a minute or two longer,
+and then again stepped into the apartment, where Varney seemed to have
+been engaged in putting the Earl's jewels into a casket.
+
+"What said Alasco of my horoscope?" demanded Leicester. "You already
+told me; but it has escaped me, for I think but lightly of that art."
+
+"Many learned and great men have thought otherwise," said Varney; "and,
+not to flatter your lordship, my own opinion leans that way."
+
+"Ay, Saul among the prophets?" said Leicester. "I thought thou wert
+sceptical in all such matters as thou couldst neither see, hear, smell,
+taste, or touch, and that thy belief was limited by thy senses."
+
+"Perhaps, my lord," said Varney, "I may be misled on the present
+occasion by my wish to find the predictions of astrology true. Alasco
+says that your favourite planet is culminating, and that the adverse
+influence--he would not use a plainer term--though not overcome, was
+evidently combust, I think he said, or retrograde."
+
+"It is even so," said Leicester, looking at an abstract of astrological
+calculations which he had in his hand; "the stronger influence will
+prevail, and, as I think, the evil hour pass away. Lend me your hand,
+Sir Richard, to doff my gown; and remain an instant, if it is not
+too burdensome to your knighthood, while I compose myself to sleep.
+I believe the bustle of this day has fevered my blood, for it streams
+through my veins like a current of molten lead. Remain an instant, I
+pray you--I would fain feel my eyes heavy ere I closed them."
+
+Varney officiously assisted his lord to bed, and placed a massive silver
+night-lamp, with a short sword, on a marble table which stood close by
+the head of the couch. Either in order to avoid the light of the lamp,
+or to hide his countenance from Varney, Leicester drew the curtain,
+heavy with entwined silk and gold, so as completely to shade his face.
+Varney took a seat near the bed, but with his back towards his master,
+as if to intimate that he was not watching him, and quietly waited
+till Leicester himself led the way to the topic by which his mind was
+engrossed.
+
+"And so, Varney," said the Earl, after waiting in vain till his
+dependant should commence the conversation, "men talk of the Queen's
+favour towards me?"
+
+"Ay, my good lord," said Varney; "of what can they else, since it is so
+strongly manifested?"
+
+"She is indeed my good and gracious mistress," said Leicester, after
+another pause; "but it is written, 'Put not thy trust in princes.'"
+
+"A good sentence and a true," said Varney, "unless you can unite their
+interest with yours so absolutely that they must needs sit on your wrist
+like hooded hawks."
+
+"I know what thou meanest," said Leicester impatiently, "though thou art
+to-night so prudentially careful of what thou sayest to me. Thou wouldst
+intimate I might marry the Queen if I would?"
+
+"It is your speech, my lord, not mine," answered Varney; "but
+whosesoever be the speech, it is the thought of ninety-nine out of an
+hundred men throughout broad England."
+
+"Ay, but," said Leicester, turning himself in his bed, "the hundredth
+man knows better. Thou, for example, knowest the obstacle that cannot be
+overleaped."
+
+"It must, my lord, if the stars speak true," said Varney composedly.
+
+"What, talkest thou of them," said Leicester, "that believest not in
+them or in aught else?"
+
+"You mistake, my lord, under your gracious pardon," said Varney; "I
+believe in many things that predict the future. I believe, if showers
+fall in April, that we shall have flowers in May; that if the sun
+shines, grain will ripen; and I believe in much natural philosophy to
+the same effect, which, if the stars swear to me, I will say the stars
+speak the truth. And in like manner, I will not disbelieve that which
+I see wished for and expected on earth, solely because the astrologers
+have read it in the heavens."
+
+"Thou art right," said Leicester, again tossing himself on his couch
+"Earth does wish for it. I have had advices from the reformed churches
+of Germany--from the Low Countries--from Switzerland--urging this as a
+point on which Europe's safety depends. France will not oppose it. The
+ruling party in Scotland look to it as their best security. Spain fears
+it, but cannot prevent it. And yet thou knowest it is impossible."
+
+"I know not that, my lord," said Varney; "the Countess is indisposed."
+
+"Villain!" said Leicester, starting up on his couch, and seizing
+the sword which lay on the table beside him, "go thy thoughts that
+way?--thou wouldst not do murder?"
+
+"For whom, or what, do you hold me, my lord?" said Varney, assuming the
+superiority of an innocent man subjected to unjust suspicion. "I said
+nothing to deserve such a horrid imputation as your violence infers. I
+said but that the Countess was ill. And Countess though she be--lovely
+and beloved as she is--surely your lordship must hold her to be mortal?
+She may die, and your lordship's hand become once more your own."
+
+"Away! away!" said Leicester; "let me have no more of this."
+
+"Good night, my lord," said Varney, seeming to understand this as a
+command to depart; but Leicester's voice interrupted his purpose.
+
+"Thou 'scapest me not thus, Sir Fool," said he; "I think thy knighthood
+has addled thy brains. Confess thou hast talked of impossibilities as of
+things which may come to pass."
+
+"My lord, long live your fair Countess," said Varney; "but neither your
+love nor my good wishes can make her immortal. But God grant she live
+long to be happy herself, and to render you so! I see not but you may be
+King of England notwithstanding."
+
+"Nay, now, Varney, thou art stark mad," said Leicester.
+
+"I would I were myself within the same nearness to a good estate of
+freehold," said Varney. "Have we not known in other countries how
+a left-handed marriage might subsist betwixt persons of differing
+degree?--ay, and be no hindrance to prevent the husband from conjoining
+himself afterwards with a more suitable partner?"
+
+"I have heard of such things in Germany," said Leicester.
+
+"Ay, and the most learned doctors in foreign universities justify the
+practice from the Old Testament," said Varney. "And after all, where is
+the harm? The beautiful partner whom you have chosen for true love has
+your secret hours of relaxation and affection. Her fame is safe her
+conscience may slumber securely. You have wealth to provide royally for
+your issue, should Heaven bless you with offspring. Meanwhile you may
+give to Elizabeth ten times the leisure, and ten thousand times the
+affection, that ever Don Philip of Spain spared to her sister Mary; yet
+you know how she doted on him though so cold and neglectful. It requires
+but a close mouth and an open brow, and you keep your Eleanor and your
+fair Rosamond far enough separate. Leave me to build you a bower to
+which no jealous Queen shall find a clew."
+
+Leicester was silent for a moment, then sighed, and said, "It is
+impossible. Good night, Sir Richard Varney--yet stay. Can you guess what
+meant Tressilian by showing himself in such careless guise before the
+Queen to-day?--to strike her tender heart, I should guess, with all
+the sympathies due to a lover abandoned by his mistress and abandoning
+himself."
+
+Varney, smothering a sneering laugh, answered, "He believed Master
+Tressilian had no such matter in his head."
+
+"How!" said Leicester; "what meanest thou? There is ever knavery in that
+laugh of thine, Varney."
+
+"I only meant, my lord," said Varney, "that Tressilian has taken the
+sure way to avoid heart-breaking. He hath had a companion--a female
+companion--a mistress--a sort of player's wife or sister, as I
+believe--with him in Mervyn's Bower, where I quartered him for certain
+reasons of my own."
+
+"A mistress!--meanest thou a paramour?"
+
+"Ay, my lord; what female else waits for hours in a gentleman's
+chamber?"
+
+"By my faith, time and space fitting, this were a good tale to tell,"
+said Leicester. "I ever distrusted those bookish, hypocritical,
+seeming-virtuous scholars. Well--Master Tressilian makes somewhat
+familiar with my house; if I look it over, he is indebted to it for
+certain recollections. I would not harm him more than I can help. Keep
+eye on him, however, Varney."
+
+"I lodged him for that reason," said Varney, "in Mervyn's Tower, where
+he is under the eye of my very vigilant, if he were not also my very
+drunken, servant, Michael Lambourne, whom I have told your Grace of."
+
+"Grace!" said Leicester; "what meanest thou by that epithet?"
+
+"It came unawares, my lord; and yet it sounds so very natural that I
+cannot recall it."
+
+"It is thine own preferment that hath turned thy brain," said Leicester,
+laughing; "new honours are as heady as new wine."
+
+"May your lordship soon have cause to say so from experience," said
+Varney; and wishing his patron good night, he withdrew. [See Note 8.
+Furniture of Kenilworth.]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+     Here stands the victim--there the proud betrayer,
+     E'en as the hind pull'd down by strangling dogs
+     Lies at the hunter's feet--who courteous proffers
+     To some high dame, the Dian of the chase,
+     To whom he looks for guerdon, his sharp blade,
+     To gash the sobbing throat.       --THE WOODSMAN.
+
+We are now to return to Mervyn's Bower, the apartment, or rather the
+prison, of the unfortunate Countess of Leicester, who for some time kept
+within bounds her uncertainty and her impatience. She was aware that, in
+the tumult of the day, there might be some delay ere her letter could be
+safely conveyed to the hands of Leicester, and that some time more might
+elapse ere he could extricate himself from the necessary attendance on
+Elizabeth, to come and visit her in her secret bower. "I will not expect
+him," she said, "till night; he cannot be absent from his royal guest,
+even to see me. He will, I know, come earlier if it be possible, but I
+will not expect him before night." And yet all the while she did expect
+him; and while she tried to argue herself into a contrary belief, each
+hasty noise of the hundred which she heard sounded like the hurried step
+of Leicester on the staircase, hasting to fold her in his arms.
+
+The fatigue of body which Amy had lately undergone, with the agitation
+of mind natural to so cruel a state of uncertainty, began by degrees
+strongly to affect her nerves, and she almost feared her total inability
+to maintain the necessary self-command through the scenes which might
+lie before her. But although spoiled by an over-indulgent system of
+education, Amy had naturally a mind of great power, united with a
+frame which her share in her father's woodland exercises had rendered
+uncommonly healthy. She summoned to her aid such mental and bodily
+resources; and not unconscious how much the issue of her fate might
+depend on her own self-possession, she prayed internally for strength of
+body and for mental fortitude, and resolved at the same time to yield to
+no nervous impulse which might weaken either.
+
+Yet when the great bell of the Castle, which was placed in Caesar's
+Tower, at no great distance from that called Mervyn's, began to send
+its pealing clamour abroad, in signal of the arrival of the royal
+procession, the din was so painfully acute to ears rendered nervously
+sensitive by anxiety, that she could hardly forbear shrieking with
+anguish, in answer to every stunning clash of the relentless peal.
+
+Shortly afterwards, when the small apartment was at once enlightened by
+the shower of artificial fires with which the air was suddenly filled,
+and which crossed each other like fiery spirits, each bent on his own
+separate mission, or like salamanders executing a frolic dance in the
+region of the Sylphs, the Countess felt at first as if each rocket shot
+close by her eyes, and discharged its sparks and flashes so nigh that
+she could feel a sense of the heat. But she struggled against these
+fantastic terrors, and compelled herself to arise, stand by the window,
+look out, and gaze upon a sight which at another time would have
+appeared to her at once captivating and fearful. The magnificent towers
+of the Castle were enveloped in garlands of artificial fire, or shrouded
+with tiaras of pale smoke. The surface of the lake glowed like molten
+iron, while many fireworks (then thought extremely wonderful, though now
+common), whose flame continued to exist in the opposing element, dived
+and rose, hissed and roared, and spouted fire, like so many dragons of
+enchantment sporting upon a burning lake.
+
+Even Amy was for a moment interested by what was to her so new a scene.
+"I had thought it magical art," she said, "but poor Tressilian taught me
+to judge of such things as they are. Great God! and may not these idle
+splendours resemble my own hoped-for happiness--a single spark, which is
+instantly swallowed up by surrounding darkness--a precarious glow,
+which rises but for a brief space into the air, that its fall may be the
+lower? O Leicester! after all--all that thou hast said--hast sworn--that
+Amy was thy love, thy life, can it be that thou art the magician
+at whose nod these enchantments arise, and that she sees them as an
+outcast, if not a captive?"
+
+The sustained, prolonged, and repeated bursts of music, from so many
+different quarters, and at so many varying points of distance, which
+sounded as if not the Castle of Kenilworth only, but the whole country
+around, had been at once the scene of solemnizing some high national
+festival, carried the same oppressive thought still closer to her heart,
+while some notes would melt in distant and falling tones, as if in
+compassion for her sorrows, and some burst close and near upon her, as
+if mocking her misery, with all the insolence of unlimited mirth. "These
+sounds," she said, "are mine--mine, because they are HIS; but I cannot
+say, Be still, these loud strains suit me not; and the voice of the
+meanest peasant that mingles in the dance would have more power to
+modulate the music than the command of her who is mistress of all."
+
+By degrees the sounds of revelry died away, and the Countess withdrew
+from the window at which she had sat listening to them. It was night,
+but the moon afforded considerable light in the room, so that Amy was
+able to make the arrangement which she judged necessary. There was hope
+that Leicester might come to her apartment as soon as the revel in the
+Castle had subsided; but there was also risk she might be disturbed by
+some unauthorized intruder. She had lost confidence in the key since
+Tressilian had entered so easily, though the door was locked on the
+inside; yet all the additional security she could think of was to place
+the table across the door, that she might be warned by the noise should
+any one attempt to enter. Having taken these necessary precautions, the
+unfortunate lady withdrew to her couch, stretched herself down on it,
+mused in anxious expectation, and counted more than one hour after
+midnight, till exhausted nature proved too strong for love, for grief,
+for fear, nay, even for uncertainty, and she slept.
+
+Yes, she slept. The Indian sleeps at the stake in the intervals between
+his tortures; and mental torments, in like manner, exhaust by long
+continuance the sensibility of the sufferer, so that an interval of
+lethargic repose must necessarily ensue, ere the pangs which they
+inflict can again be renewed.
+
+The Countess slept, then, for several hours, and dreamed that she was
+in the ancient house at Cumnor Place, listening for the low whistle with
+which Leicester often used to announce his presence in the courtyard
+when arriving suddenly on one of his stolen visits. But on this
+occasion, instead of a whistle, she heard the peculiar blast of a
+bugle-horn, such as her father used to wind on the fall of the stag, and
+which huntsmen then called a MORT. She ran, as she thought, to a
+window that looked into the courtyard, which she saw filled with men
+in mourning garments. The old Curate seemed about to read the funeral
+service. Mumblazen, tricked out in an antique dress, like an ancient
+herald, held aloft a scutcheon, with its usual decorations of skulls,
+cross-bones, and hour-glasses, surrounding a coat-of-arms, of which she
+could only distinguish that it was surmounted with an Earl's coronet.
+The old man looked at her with a ghastly smile, and said, "Amy, are they
+not rightly quartered?" Just as he spoke, the horns again poured on her
+ear the melancholy yet wild strain of the MORT, or death-note, and she
+awoke.
+
+The Countess awoke to hear a real bugle-note, or rather the combined
+breath of many bugles, sounding not the MORT. but the jolly REVEILLE, to
+remind the inmates of the Castle of Kenilworth that the pleasures of the
+day were to commence with a magnificent stag-hunting in the neighbouring
+Chase. Amy started up from her couch, listened to the sound, saw the
+first beams of the summer morning already twinkle through the lattice
+of her window, and recollected, with feelings of giddy agony, where she
+was, and how circumstanced.
+
+"He thinks not of me," she said; "he will not come nigh me! A Queen is
+his guest, and what cares he in what corner of his huge Castle a wretch
+like me pines in doubt, which is fast fading into despair?" At once a
+sound at the door, as of some one attempting to open it softly, filled
+her with an ineffable mixture of joy and fear; and hastening to remove
+the obstacle she had placed against the door, and to unlock it, she had
+the precaution to ask! "Is it thou, my love?"
+
+"Yes, my Countess," murmured a whisper in reply.
+
+She threw open the door, and exclaiming, "Leicester!" flung her arms
+around the neck of the man who stood without, muffled in his cloak.
+
+"No--not quite Leicester," answered Michael Lambourne, for he it was,
+returning the caress with vehemence--"not quite Leicester, my lovely and
+most loving duchess, but as good a man."
+
+With an exertion of force, of which she would at another time have
+thought herself incapable, the Countess freed herself from the profane
+and profaning grasp of the drunken debauchee, and retreated into the
+midst of her apartment where despair gave her courage to make a stand.
+
+As Lambourne, on entering, dropped the lap of his cloak from his face,
+she knew Varney's profligate servant, the very last person, excepting
+his detested master, by whom she would have wished to be discovered. But
+she was still closely muffled in her travelling dress, and as Lambourne
+had scarce ever been admitted to her presence at Cumnor Place, her
+person, she hoped, might not be so well known to him as his was to her,
+owing to Janet's pointing him frequently out as he crossed the court,
+and telling stories of his wickedness. She might have had still greater
+confidence in her disguise had her experience enabled her to discover
+that he was much intoxicated; but this could scarce have consoled her
+for the risk which she might incur from such a character in such a time,
+place, and circumstances.
+
+Lambourne flung the door behind him as he entered, and folding his
+arms, as if in mockery of the attitude of distraction into which Amy
+had thrown herself, he proceeded thus: "Hark ye, most fair Calipolis--or
+most lovely Countess of clouts, and divine Duchess of dark corners--if
+thou takest all that trouble of skewering thyself together, like a
+trussed fowl, that there may be more pleasure in the carving, even save
+thyself the labour. I love thy first frank manner the best---like thy
+present as little"--(he made a step towards her, and staggered)--"as
+little as--such a damned uneven floor as this, where a gentleman may
+break his neck if he does not walk as upright as a posture-master on the
+tight-rope."
+
+"Stand back!" said the Countess; "do not approach nearer to me on thy
+peril!"
+
+"My peril!--and stand back! Why, how now, madam? Must you have a better
+mate than honest Mike Lambourne? I have been in America, girl, where the
+gold grows, and have brought off such a load on't--"
+
+"Good friend," said the Countess, in great terror at the ruffian's
+determined and audacious manner, "I prithee begone, and leave me."
+
+"And so I will, pretty one, when we are tired of each other's
+company--not a jot sooner." He seized her by the arm, while, incapable
+of further defence, she uttered shriek upon shriek. "Nay, scream away if
+you like it," said he, still holding her fast; "I have heard the sea
+at the loudest, and I mind a squalling woman no more than a miauling
+kitten. Damn me! I have heard fifty or a hundred screaming at once, when
+there was a town stormed."
+
+The cries of the Countess, however, brought unexpected aid in the person
+of Lawrence Staples, who had heard her exclamations from his apartment
+below, and entered in good time to save her from being discovered,
+if not from more atrocious violence. Lawrence was drunk also from the
+debauch of the preceding night, but fortunately his intoxication had
+taken a different turn from that of Lambourne.
+
+"What the devil's noise is this in the ward?" he said. "What! man and
+woman together in the same cell?--that is against rule. I will have
+decency under my rule, by Saint Peter of the Fetters!"
+
+"Get thee downstairs, thou drunken beast," said Lambourne; "seest thou
+not the lady and I would be private?"
+
+"Good sir, worthy sir!" said the Countess, addressing the jailer, "do
+but save me from him, for the sake of mercy!"
+
+"She speaks fairly," said the jailer, "and I will take her part. I love
+my prisoners; and I have had as good prisoners under my key as they have
+had in Newgate or the Compter. And so, being one of my lambkins, as I
+say, no one shall disturb her in her pen-fold. So let go the woman: or
+I'll knock your brains out with my keys."
+
+"I'll make a blood-pudding of thy midriff first," answered Lambourne,
+laying his left hand on his dagger, but still detaining the Countess by
+the arm with his right. "So have at thee, thou old ostrich, whose only
+living is upon a bunch of iron keys."
+
+Lawrence raised the arm of Michael, and prevented him from drawing his
+dagger; and as Lambourne struggled and strove to shake him off; the
+Countess made a sudden exertion on her side, and slipping her hand
+out of the glove on which the ruffian still kept hold, she gained her
+liberty, and escaping from the apartment, ran downstairs; while at the
+same moment she heard the two combatants fall on the floor with a noise
+which increased her terror. The outer wicket offered no impediment to
+her flight, having been opened for Lambourne's admittance; so that she
+succeeded in escaping down the stair, and fled into the Pleasance, which
+seemed to her hasty glance the direction in which she was most likely to
+avoid pursuit.
+
+Meanwhile, Lawrence and Lambourne rolled on the floor of the apartment,
+closely grappled together. Neither had, happily, opportunity to draw
+their daggers; but Lawrence found space enough to clash his heavy keys
+across Michael's face, and Michael in return grasped the turnkey so
+felly by the throat that the blood gushed from nose and mouth, so that
+they were both gory and filthy spectacles when one of the other officers
+of the household, attracted by the noise of the fray, entered the room,
+and with some difficulty effected the separation of the combatants.
+
+"A murrain on you both," said the charitable mediator, "and especially
+on you, Master Lambourne! What the fiend lie you here for, fighting on
+the floor like two butchers' curs in the kennel of the shambles?"
+
+Lambourne arose, and somewhat sobered by the interposition of a third
+party, looked with something less than his usual brazen impudence of
+visage. "We fought for a wench, an thou must know," was his reply.
+
+"A wench! Where is she?" said the officer.
+
+"Why, vanished, I think," said Lambourne, looking around him, "unless
+Lawrence hath swallowed her, That filthy paunch of his devours as
+many distressed damsels and oppressed orphans as e'er a giant in King
+Arthur's history. They are his prime food; he worries them body, soul,
+and substance."
+
+"Ay, ay! It's no matter," said Lawrence, gathering up his huge, ungainly
+form from the floor; "but I have had your betters, Master Michael
+Lambourne, under the little turn of my forefinger and thumb, and I shall
+have thee, before all's done, under my hatches. The impudence of thy
+brow will not always save thy shin-bones from iron, and thy foul,
+thirsty gullet from a hempen cord." The words were no sooner out of his
+mouth, when Lambourne again made at him.
+
+"Nay, go not to it again," said the sewer, "or I will call for him shall
+tame you both, and that is Master Varney--Sir Richard, I mean. He is
+stirring, I promise you; I saw him cross the court just now."
+
+"Didst thou, by G--!" said Lambourne, seizing on the basin and ewer
+which stood in the apartment. "Nay, then, element, do thy work. I
+thought I had enough of thee last night, when I floated about for Orion,
+like a cork on a fermenting cask of ale."
+
+So saying, he fell to work to cleanse from his face and hands the signs
+of the fray, and get his apparel into some order.
+
+"What hast thou done to him?" said the sewer, speaking aside to the
+jailer; "his face is fearfully swelled."
+
+"It is but the imprint of the key of my cabinet--too good a mark for
+his gallows-face. No man shall abuse or insult my prisoners; they are my
+jewels, and I lock them in safe casket accordingly.--And so, mistress,
+leave off your wailing.--Why! why, surely, there was a woman here!"
+
+"I think you are all mad this morning," said the sewer. "I saw no woman
+here, nor no man neither in a proper sense, but only two beasts rolling
+on the floor."
+
+"Nay, then I am undone," said the jailer; "the prison's broken, that is
+all. Kenilworth prison is broken," he continued, in a tone of maudlin
+lamentation, "which was the strongest jail betwixt this and the Welsh
+Marches--ay, and a house that has had knights, and earls, and kings
+sleeping in it, as secure as if they had been in the Tower of London.
+It is broken, the prisoners fled, and the jailer in much danger of being
+hanged!"
+
+So saying, he retreated down to his own den to conclude his
+lamentations, or to sleep himself sober. Lambourne and the sewer
+followed him close; and it was well for them, since the jailer, out of
+mere habit, was about to lock the wicket after him, and had they not
+been within the reach of interfering, they would have had the pleasure
+of being shut up in the turret-chamber, from which the Countess had been
+just delivered.
+
+That unhappy lady, as soon as she found herself at liberty, fled, as
+we have already mentioned, into the Pleasance. She had seen this
+richly-ornamented space of ground from the window of Mervyn's Tower; and
+it occurred to her, at the moment of her escape, that among its numerous
+arbours, bowers, fountains, statues, and grottoes, she might find some
+recess in which she could lie concealed until she had an opportunity of
+addressing herself to a protector, to whom she might communicate as much
+as she dared of her forlorn situation, and through whose means she might
+supplicate an interview with her husband.
+
+"If I could see my guide," she thought, "I would learn if he had
+delivered my letter. Even did I but see Tressilian, it were better to
+risk Dudley's anger, by confiding my whole situation to one who is the
+very soul of honour, than to run the hazard of further insult among the
+insolent menials of this ill-ruled place. I will not again venture into
+an enclosed apartment. I will wait, I will watch; amidst so many human
+beings there must be some kind heart which can judge and compassionate
+what mine endures."
+
+In truth, more than one party entered and traversed the Pleasance. But
+they were in joyous groups of four or five persons together, laughing
+and jesting in their own fullness of mirth and lightness of heart.
+
+The retreat which she had chosen gave her the easy alternative of
+avoiding observation. It was but stepping back to the farthest recess of
+a grotto, ornamented with rustic work and moss-seats, and terminated by
+a fountain, and she might easily remain concealed, or at her pleasure
+discover herself to any solitary wanderer whose curiosity might lead
+him to that romantic retirement. Anticipating such an opportunity, she
+looked into the clear basin which the silent fountain held up to her
+like a mirror, and felt shocked at her own appearance, and doubtful at;
+the same time, muffled and disfigured as her disguise made her seem to
+herself, whether any female (and it was from the compassion of her own
+sex that she chiefly expected sympathy) would engage in conference with
+so suspicious an object. Reasoning thus like a woman, to whom external
+appearance is scarcely in any circumstances a matter of unimportance,
+and like a beauty, who had some confidence in the power of her own
+charms, she laid aside her travelling cloak and capotaine hat, and
+placed them beside her, so that she could assume them in an instant, ere
+one could penetrate from the entrance of the grotto to its extremity, in
+case the intrusion of Varney or of Lambourne should render such disguise
+necessary. The dress which she wore under these vestments was somewhat
+of a theatrical cast, so as to suit the assumed personage of one of the
+females who was to act in the pageant, Wayland had found the means
+of arranging it thus upon the second day of their journey, having
+experienced the service arising from the assumption of such a character
+on the preceding day. The fountain, acting both as a mirror and ewer,
+afforded Amy the means of a brief toilette, of which she availed herself
+as hastily as possible; then took in her hand her small casket of
+jewels, in case she might find them useful intercessors, and retiring to
+the darkest and most sequestered nook, sat down on a seat of moss,
+and awaited till fate should give her some chance of rescue, or of
+propitiating an intercessor.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+     Have you not seen the partridge quake,
+     Viewing the hawk approaching nigh?
+     She cuddles close beneath the brake,
+     Afraid to sit, afraid to fly,   --PRIOR.
+
+It chanced, upon that memorable morning, that one of the earliest of
+the huntress train, who appeared from her chamber in full array for the
+chase, was the Princess for whom all these pleasures were instituted,
+England's Maiden Queen. I know not if it were by chance, or out of the
+befitting courtesy due to a mistress by whom he was so much honoured,
+that she had scarcely made one step beyond the threshold of her
+chamber ere Leicester was by her side, and proposed to her, until the
+preparations for the chase had been completed, to view the Pleasance,
+and the gardens which it connected with the Castle yard.
+
+To this new scene of pleasures they walked, the Earl's arm affording his
+Sovereign the occasional support which she required, where flights
+of steps, then a favourite ornament in a garden, conducted them from
+terrace to terrace, and from parterre to parterre. The ladies in
+attendance, gifted with prudence, or endowed perhaps with the amiable
+desire of acting as they would be done by, did not conceive their duty
+to the Queen's person required them, though they lost not sight of her,
+to approach so near as to share, or perhaps disturb, the conversation
+betwixt the Queen and the Earl, who was not only her host, but also her
+most trusted, esteemed, and favoured servant. They contented themselves
+with admiring the grace of this illustrious couple, whose robes of state
+were now exchanged for hunting suits, almost equally magnificent.
+
+Elizabeth's silvan dress, which was of a pale blue silk, with silver
+lace and AIGUILLETTES, approached in form to that of the ancient
+Amazons, and was therefore well suited at once to her height and to
+the dignity of her mien, which her conscious rank and long habits of
+authority had rendered in some degree too masculine to be seen to the
+best advantage in ordinary female weeds. Leicester's hunting suit of
+Lincoln green, richly embroidered with gold, and crossed by the gay
+baldric which sustained a bugle-horn, and a wood-knife instead of a
+sword, became its master, as did his other vestments of court or of war.
+For such were the perfections of his form and mien, that Leicester was
+always supposed to be seen to the greatest advantage in the character
+and dress which for the time he represented or wore.
+
+The conversation of Elizabeth and the favourite Earl has not reached
+us in detail. But those who watched at some distance (and the eyes of
+courtiers and court ladies are right sharp) were of opinion that on no
+occasion did the dignity of Elizabeth, in gesture and motion, seem
+so decidedly to soften away into a mien expressive of indecision and
+tenderness. Her step was not only slow, but even unequal, a thing most
+unwonted in her carriage; her looks seemed bent on the ground; and there
+was a timid disposition to withdraw from her companion, which external
+gesture in females often indicates exactly the opposite tendency in
+the secret mind. The Duchess of Rutland, who ventured nearest, was even
+heard to aver that she discerned a tear in Elizabeth's eye and a blush
+on her cheek; and still further, "She bent her looks on the ground to
+avoid mine," said the Duchess, "she who, in her ordinary mood, could
+look down a lion." To what conclusion these symptoms led is sufficiently
+evident; nor were they probably entirely groundless. The progress of
+a private conversation betwixt two persons of different sexes is often
+decisive of their fate, and gives it a turn very different perhaps
+from what they themselves anticipated. Gallantry becomes mingled with
+conversation, and affection and passion come gradually to mix with
+gallantry. Nobles, as well as shepherd swains, will, in such a trying
+moment, say more than they intended; and Queens, like village maidens,
+will listen longer than they should.
+
+Horses in the meanwhile neighed and champed the bits with impatience in
+the base-court; hounds yelled in their couples; and yeomen, rangers, and
+prickers lamented the exhaling of the dew, which would prevent the scent
+from lying. But Leicester had another chase in view--or, to speak more
+justly towards him, had become engaged in it without premeditation, as
+the high-spirited hunter which follows the cry of the hounds that have
+crossed his path by accident. The Queen, an accomplished and handsome
+woman, the pride of England, the hope of France and Holland, and the
+dread of Spain, had probably listened with more than usual favour to
+that mixture of romantic gallantry with which she always loved to be
+addressed; and the Earl had, in vanity, in ambition, or in both, thrown
+in more and more of that delicious ingredient, until his importunity
+became the language of love itself.
+
+"No, Dudley," said Elizabeth, yet it was with broken accents--"no, I
+must be the mother of my people. Other ties, that make the lowly maiden
+happy, are denied to her Sovereign. No, Leicester, urge it no more.
+Were I as others, free to seek my own happiness, then, indeed--but it
+cannot--cannot be. Delay the chase--delay it for half an hour--and leave
+me, my lord."
+
+"How! leave you, madam?" said Leicester,--"has my madness offended you?"
+
+"No, Leicester, not so!" answered the Queen hastily; "but it is madness,
+and must not be repeated. Go--but go not far from hence; and meantime
+let no one intrude on my privacy."
+
+While she spoke thus, Dudley bowed deeply, and retired with a slow
+and melancholy air. The Queen stood gazing after him, and murmured to
+herself, "Were it possible--were it BUT possible!--but no--no; Elizabeth
+must be the wife and mother of England alone."
+
+As she spoke thus, and in order to avoid some one whose step she heard
+approaching, the Queen turned into the grotto in which her hapless, and
+yet but too successful, rival lay concealed.
+
+The mind of England's Elizabeth, if somewhat shaken by the agitating
+interview to which she had just put a period, was of that firm and
+decided character which soon recovers its natural tone. It was like one
+of those ancient Druidical monuments called Rocking-stones. The finger
+of Cupid, boy as he is painted, could put her feelings in motion; but
+the power of Hercules could not have destroyed their equilibrium. As she
+advanced with a slow pace towards the inmost extremity of the grotto,
+her countenance, ere she had proceeded half the length, had recovered
+its dignity of look, and her mien its air of command.
+
+It was then the Queen became aware that a female figure was placed
+beside, or rather partly behind, an alabaster column, at the foot of
+which arose the pellucid fountain which occupied the inmost recess of
+the twilight grotto. The classical mind of Elizabeth suggested the story
+of Numa and Egeria, and she doubted not that some Italian sculptor had
+here represented the Naiad whose inspirations gave laws to Rome. As she
+advanced, she became doubtful whether she beheld a statue, or a form
+of flesh and blood. The unfortunate Amy, indeed, remained motionless,
+betwixt the desire which she had to make her condition known to one of
+her own sex, and her awe for the stately form which approached her,
+and which, though her eyes had never before beheld, her fears instantly
+suspected to be the personage she really was. Amy had arisen from her
+seat with the purpose of addressing the lady who entered the grotto
+alone, and, as she at first thought, so opportunely. But when she
+recollected the alarm which Leicester had expressed at the Queen's
+knowing aught of their union, and became more and more satisfied that
+the person whom she now beheld was Elizabeth herself, she stood with
+one foot advanced and one withdrawn, her arms, head, and hands perfectly
+motionless, and her cheek as pallid as the alabaster pedestal against
+which she leaned. Her dress was of pale sea-green silk, little
+distinguished in that imperfect light, and somewhat resembled the
+drapery of a Grecian Nymph, such an antique disguise having been thought
+the most secure, where so many maskers and revellers were assembled; so
+that the Queen's doubt of her being a living form was well justified by
+all contingent circumstances, as well as by the bloodless cheek and the
+fixed eye.
+
+Elizabeth remained in doubt, even after she had approached within a few
+paces, whether she did not gaze on a statue so cunningly fashioned that
+by the doubtful light it could not be distinguished from reality. She
+stopped, therefore, and fixed upon this interesting object her princely
+look with so much keenness that the astonishment which had kept Amy
+immovable gave way to awe, and she gradually cast down her eyes, and
+drooped her head under the commanding gaze of the Sovereign. Still,
+however, she remained in all respects, saving this slow and profound
+inclination of the head, motionless and silent.
+
+From her dress, and the casket which she instinctively held in her hand,
+Elizabeth naturally conjectured that the beautiful but mute figure which
+she beheld was a performer in one of the various theatrical pageants
+which had been placed in different situations to surprise her with their
+homage; and that the poor player, overcome with awe at her presence, had
+either forgot the part assigned her, or lacked courage to go through
+it. It was natural and courteous to give her some encouragement; and
+Elizabeth accordingly said, in a tone of condescending kindness, "How
+now, fair Nymph of this lovely grotto, art thou spell-bound and struck
+with dumbness by the charms of the wicked enchanter whom men term Fear?
+We are his sworn enemy, maiden, and can reverse his charm. Speak, we
+command thee."
+
+Instead of answering her by speech, the unfortunate Countess dropped
+on her knee before the Queen, let her casket fall from her hand, and
+clasping her palms together, looked up in the Queen's face with such a
+mixed agony of fear and supplication, that Elizabeth was considerably
+affected.
+
+"What may this mean?" she said; "this is a stronger passion than befits
+the occasion. Stand up, damsel--what wouldst thou have with us?"
+
+"Your protection, madam," faltered forth the unhappy petitioner.
+
+"Each daughter of England has it while she is worthy of it," replied the
+Queen; "but your distress seems to have a deeper root than a forgotten
+task. Why, and in what, do you crave our protection?"
+
+Amy hastily endeavoured to recall what she were best to say, which might
+secure herself from the imminent dangers that surrounded her, without
+endangering her husband; and plunging from one thought to another,
+amidst the chaos which filled her mind, she could at length, in answer
+to the Queen's repeated inquiries in what she sought protection, only
+falter out, "Alas! I know not."
+
+"This is folly, maiden," said Elizabeth impatiently; for there was
+something in the extreme confusion of the suppliant which irritated her
+curiosity, as well as interested her feelings. "The sick man must tell
+his malady to the physician; nor are WE accustomed to ask questions so
+oft without receiving an answer."
+
+"I request--I implore," stammered forth the unfortunate Countess--"I
+beseech your gracious protection--against--against one Varney." She
+choked well-nigh as she uttered the fatal word, which was instantly
+caught up by the Queen.
+
+"What, Varney--Sir Richard Varney--the servant of Lord Leicester! what,
+damsel, are you to him, or he to you?"
+
+"I--I--was his prisoner--and he practised on my life--and I broke forth
+to--to--"
+
+"To throw thyself on my protection, doubtless," said Elizabeth. "Thou
+shalt have it--that is, if thou art worthy; for we will sift this matter
+to the uttermost. Thou art," she said, bending on the Countess an eye
+which seemed designed to pierce her very inmost soul--"thou art Amy,
+daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall?"
+
+"Forgive me--forgive me, most gracious Princess!" said Amy, dropping
+once more on her knee, from which she had arisen.
+
+"For what should I forgive thee, silly wench?" said Elizabeth; "for
+being the daughter of thine own father? Thou art brain-sick, surely.
+Well I see I must wring the story from thee by inches. Thou didst
+deceive thine old and honoured father--thy look confesses it--cheated
+Master Tressilian--thy blush avouches it--and married this same Varney."
+
+Amy sprung on her feet, and interrupted the Queen eagerly with, "No,
+madam, no! as there is a God above us, I am not the sordid wretch you
+would make me! I am not the wife of that contemptible slave--of that
+most deliberate villain! I am not the wife of Varney! I would rather be
+the bride of Destruction!"
+
+The Queen, overwhelmed in her turn by Amy's vehemence, stood silent for
+an instant, and then replied, "Why, God ha' mercy, woman! I see thou
+canst talk fast enough when the theme likes thee. Nay, tell me, woman,"
+she continued, for to the impulse of curiosity was now added that of an
+undefined jealousy that some deception had been practised on her--"tell
+me, woman--for, by God's day, I WILL know--whose wife, or whose
+paramour, art thou! Speak out, and be speedy. Thou wert better daily
+with a lioness than with Elizabeth."
+
+Urged to this extremity, dragged as it were by irresistible force to the
+verge of the precipice which she saw, but could not avoid--permitted
+not a moment's respite by the eager words and menacing gestures of the
+offended Queen, Amy at length uttered in despair, "The Earl of Leicester
+knows it all."
+
+"The Earl of Leicester!" said Elizabeth, in utter astonishment. "The
+Earl of Leicester!" she repeated with kindling anger. "Woman, thou art
+set on to this--thou dost belie him--he takes no keep of such things
+as thou art. Thou art suborned to slander the noblest lord and the
+truest-hearted gentleman in England! But were he the right hand of our
+trust, or something yet dearer to us, thou shalt have thy hearing, and
+that in his presence. Come with me--come with me instantly!"
+
+As Amy shrunk back with terror, which the incensed Queen interpreted as
+that of conscious guilt, Elizabeth rapidly advanced, seized on her arm,
+and hastened with swift and long steps out of the grotto, and along
+the principal alley of the Pleasance, dragging with her the terrified
+Countess, whom she still held by the arm, and whose utmost exertions
+could but just keep pace with those of the indignant Queen.
+
+Leicester was at this moment the centre of a splendid group of lords and
+ladies, assembled together under an arcade, or portico, which closed
+the alley. The company had drawn together in that place, to attend the
+commands of her Majesty when the hunting-party should go forward, and
+their astonishment may be imagined when, instead of seeing Elizabeth
+advance towards them with her usual measured dignity of motion, they
+beheld her walking so rapidly that she was in the midst of them ere they
+were aware; and then observed, with fear and surprise, that her features
+were flushed betwixt anger and agitation, that her hair was loosened by
+her haste of motion, and that her eyes sparkled as they were wont when
+the spirit of Henry VIII. mounted highest in his daughter. Nor were they
+less astonished at the appearance of the pale, attenuated, half-dead,
+yet still lovely female, whom the Queen upheld by main strength with
+one hand, while with the other she waved aside the ladies and nobles
+who pressed towards her, under the idea that she was taken suddenly ill.
+"Where is my Lord of Leicester?" she said, in a tone that thrilled with
+astonishment all the courtiers who stood around. "Stand forth, my Lord
+of Leicester!"
+
+If, in the midst of the most serene day of summer, when all is light and
+laughing around, a thunderbolt were to fall from the clear blue vault of
+heaven, and rend the earth at the very feet of some careless traveller,
+he could not gaze upon the smouldering chasm, which so unexpectedly
+yawned before him, with half the astonishment and fear which Leicester
+felt at the sight that so suddenly presented itself. He had that
+instant been receiving, with a political affectation of disavowing
+and misunderstanding their meaning, the half-uttered, half-intimated
+congratulations of the courtiers upon the favour of the Queen, carried
+apparently to its highest pitch during the interview of that morning,
+from which most of them seemed to augur that he might soon arise from
+their equal in rank to become their master. And now, while the subdued
+yet proud smile with which he disclaimed those inferences was yet
+curling his cheek, the Queen shot into the circle, her passions excited
+to the uttermost; and supporting with one hand, and apparently without
+an effort, the pale and sinking form of his almost expiring wife,
+and pointing with the finger of the other to her half-dead features,
+demanded in a voice that sounded to the ears of the astounded statesman
+like the last dread trumpet-call that is to summon body and spirit to
+the judgment-seat, "Knowest thou this woman?"
+
+As, at the blast of that last trumpet, the guilty shall call upon the
+mountains to cover them, Leicester's inward thoughts invoked the stately
+arch which he had built in his pride to burst its strong conjunction,
+and overwhelm them in its ruins. But the cemented stones, architrave and
+battlement, stood fast; and it was the proud master himself who, as
+if some actual pressure had bent him to the earth, kneeled down before
+Elizabeth, and prostrated his brow to the marble flag-stones on which
+she stood.
+
+"Leicester," said Elizabeth, in a voice which trembled with passion,
+"could I think thou hast practised on me--on me thy Sovereign--on me thy
+confiding, thy too partial mistress, the base and ungrateful deception
+which thy present confusion surmises--by all that is holy, false lord,
+that head of thine were in as great peril as ever was thy father's!"
+
+Leicester had not conscious innocence, but he had pride to support him.
+He raised slowly his brow and features, which were black and swoln with
+contending emotions, and only replied, "My head cannot fall but by the
+sentence of my peers. To them I will plead, and not to a princess who
+thus requites my faithful service."
+
+"What! my lords," said Elizabeth, looking around, "we are defied, I
+think--defied in the Castle we have ourselves bestowed on this proud
+man!--My Lord Shrewsbury, you are Marshal of England, attach him of high
+treason."
+
+"Whom does your Grace mean?" said Shrewsbury, much surprised, for he had
+that instant joined the astonished circle.
+
+"Whom should I mean, but that traitor Dudley, Earl of Leicester!--Cousin
+of Hunsdon, order out your band of gentlemen pensioners, and take him
+into instant custody. I say, villain, make haste!"
+
+Hunsdon, a rough old noble, who, from his relationship to the Boleyns,
+was accustomed to use more freedom with the Queen than almost any other
+dared to do, replied bluntly, "And it is like your Grace might order me
+to the Tower to-morrow for making too much haste. I do beseech you to be
+patient."
+
+"Patient--God's life!" exclaimed the Queen--"name not the word to me;
+thou knowest not of what he is guilty!"
+
+Amy, who had by this time in some degree recovered herself, and who saw
+her husband, as she conceived, in the utmost danger from the rage of an
+offended Sovereign, instantly (and alas! how many women have done the
+same) forgot her own wrongs and her own danger in her apprehensions for
+him, and throwing herself before the Queen, embraced her knees, while
+she exclaimed, "He is guiltless, madam--he is guiltless; no one can lay
+aught to the charge of the noble Leicester!"
+
+"Why, minion," answered the Queen, "didst not thou thyself say that the
+Earl of Leicester was privy to thy whole history?"
+
+"Did I say so?" repeated the unhappy Amy, laying aside every
+consideration of consistency and of self-interest. "Oh, if I did, I
+foully belied him. May God so judge me, as I believe he was never privy
+to a thought that would harm me!"
+
+"Woman!" said Elizabeth, "I will know who has moved thee to this; or
+my wrath--and the wrath of kings is a flaming fire--shall wither and
+consume thee like a weed in the furnace!"
+
+As the Queen uttered this threat, Leicester's better angel called
+his pride to his aid, and reproached him with the utter extremity
+of meanness which would overwhelm him for ever if he stooped to take
+shelter under the generous interposition of his wife, and abandoned
+her, in return for her kindness, to the resentment of the Queen. He had
+already raised his head with the dignity of a man of honour to avow
+his marriage, and proclaim himself the protector of his Countess, when
+Varney, born, as it appeared, to be his master's evil genius, rushed
+into the presence with every mark of disorder on his face and apparel.
+
+"What means this saucy intrusion?" said Elizabeth.
+
+Varney, with the air of a man altogether overwhelmed with grief and
+confusion, prostrated himself before her feet, exclaiming, "Pardon, my
+Liege, pardon!--or at least let your justice avenge itself on me, where
+it is due; but spare my noble, my generous, my innocent patron and
+master!"
+
+Amy, who was yet kneeling, started up as she saw the man whom she deemed
+most odious place himself so near her, and was about to fly towards
+Leicester, when, checked at once by the uncertainty and even timidity
+which his looks had reassumed as soon as the appearance of his confidant
+seemed to open a new scene, she hung back, and uttering a faint scream,
+besought of her Majesty to cause her to be imprisoned in the lowest
+dungeon of the Castle--to deal with her as the worst of criminals--"but
+spare," she exclaimed, "my sight and hearing what will destroy the
+little judgment I have left--the sight of that unutterable and most
+shameless villain!"
+
+"And why, sweetheart?" said the Queen, moved by a new impulse; "what
+hath he, this false knight, since such thou accountest him, done to
+thee?"
+
+"Oh, worse than sorrow, madam, and worse than injury--he has sown
+dissension where most there should be peace. I shall go mad if I look
+longer on him!"
+
+"Beshrew me, but I think thou art distraught already," answered the
+Queen.--"My Lord Hunsdon, look to this poor distressed young woman, and
+let her be safely bestowed, and in honest keeping, till we require her
+to be forthcoming."
+
+Two or three of the ladies in attendance, either moved by compassion
+for a creature so interesting, or by some other motive, offered their
+services to look after her; but the Queen briefly answered, "Ladies,
+under favour, no. You have all (give God thanks) sharp ears and nimble
+tongues; our kinsman Hunsdon has ears of the dullest, and a tongue
+somewhat rough, but yet of the slowest.--Hunsdon, look to it that none
+have speech of her."
+
+"By Our Lady," said Hunsdon, taking in his strong, sinewy arms the
+fading and almost swooning form of Amy, "she is a lovely child! and
+though a rough nurse, your Grace hath given her a kind one. She is safe
+with me as one of my own ladybirds of daughters."
+
+So saying, he carried her off; unresistingly and almost unconsciously,
+his war-worn locks and long, grey beard mingling with her light-brown
+tresses, as her head reclined on his strong, square shoulder. The Queen
+followed him with her eye. She had already, with that self-command which
+forms so necessary a part of a Sovereign's accomplishments, suppressed
+every appearance of agitation, and seemed as if she desired to banish
+all traces of her burst of passion from the recollection of those who
+had witnessed it. "My Lord of Hunsdon says well," she observed, "he is
+indeed but a rough nurse for so tender a babe."
+
+"My Lord of Hunsdon," said the Dean of St. Asaph--"I speak it not in
+defamation of his more noble qualities--hath a broad license in speech,
+and garnishes his discourse somewhat too freely with the cruel and
+superstitious oaths which savour both of profaneness and of old
+Papistrie."
+
+"It is the fault of his blood, Mr. Dean," said the Queen, turning
+sharply round upon the reverend dignitary as she spoke; "and you may
+blame mine for the same distemperature. The Boleyns were ever a hot and
+plain-spoken race, more hasty to speak their mind than careful to
+choose their expressions. And by my word--I hope there is no sin in that
+affirmation--I question if it were much cooled by mixing with that of
+Tudor."
+
+As she made this last observation she smiled graciously, and stole her
+eyes almost insensibly round to seek those of the Earl of Leicester, to
+whom she now began to think she had spoken with hasty harshness upon the
+unfounded suspicion of a moment.
+
+The Queen's eye found the Earl in no mood to accept the implied offer
+of conciliation. His own looks had followed, with late and rueful
+repentance, the faded form which Hunsdon had just borne from the
+presence. They now reposed gloomily on the ground, but more--so at least
+it seemed to Elizabeth--with the expression of one who has received an
+unjust affront, than of him who is conscious of guilt. She turned her
+face angrily from him, and said to Varney, "Speak, Sir Richard, and
+explain these riddles--thou hast sense and the use of speech, at least,
+which elsewhere we look for in vain."
+
+As she said this, she darted another resentful glance towards Leicester,
+while the wily Varney hastened to tell his own story.
+
+"Your Majesty's piercing eye," he said, "has already detected the cruel
+malady of my beloved lady, which, unhappy that I am, I would not suffer
+to be expressed in the certificate of her physician, seeking to conceal
+what has now broken out with so much the more scandal."
+
+"She is then distraught?" said the Queen. "Indeed we doubted not of
+it; her whole demeanour bears it out. I found her moping in a corner of
+yonder grotto; and every word she spoke--which indeed I dragged from her
+as by the rack--she instantly recalled and forswore. But how came she
+hither? Why had you her not in safe-keeping?"
+
+"My gracious Liege," said Varney, "the worthy gentleman under whose
+charge I left her, Master Anthony Foster, has come hither but now, as
+fast as man and horse can travel, to show me of her escape, which
+she managed with the art peculiar to many who are afflicted with this
+malady. He is at hand for examination."
+
+"Let it be for another time," said the Queen. "But, Sir Richard, we envy
+you not your domestic felicity; your lady railed on you bitterly, and
+seemed ready to swoon at beholding you."
+
+"It is the nature of persons in her disorder, so please your Grace,"
+answered Varney, "to be ever most inveterate in their spleen against
+those whom, in their better moments, they hold nearest and dearest."
+
+"We have heard so, indeed," said Elizabeth, "and give faith to the
+saying."
+
+"May your Grace then be pleased," said Varney, "to command my
+unfortunate wife to be delivered into the custody of her friends?"
+
+Leicester partly started; but making a strong effort, he subdued his
+emotion, while Elizabeth answered sharply, "You are something too hasty,
+Master Varney. We will have first a report of the lady's health and
+state of mind from Masters, our own physician, and then determine what
+shall be thought just. You shall have license, however, to see her, that
+if there be any matrimonial quarrel betwixt you--such things we have
+heard do occur, even betwixt a loving couple--you may make it up,
+without further scandal to our court or trouble to ourselves."
+
+Varney bowed low, and made no other answer.
+
+Elizabeth again looked towards Leicester, and said, with a degree of
+condescension which could only arise out of the most heartfelt interest,
+"Discord, as the Italian poet says, will find her way into peaceful
+convents, as well as into the privacy of families; and we fear our
+own guards and ushers will hardly exclude her from courts. My Lord of
+Leicester, you are offended with us, and we have right to be offended
+with you. We will take the lion's part upon us, and be the first to
+forgive."
+
+Leicester smoothed his brow, as by an effort; but the trouble was too
+deep-seated that its placidity should at once return. He said, however,
+that which fitted the occasion, "That he could not have the happiness of
+forgiving, because she who commanded him to do so could commit no injury
+towards him."
+
+Elizabeth seemed content with this reply, and intimated her pleasure
+that the sports of the morning should proceed. The bugles sounded, the
+hounds bayed, the horses pranced--but the courtiers and ladies sought
+the amusement to which they were summoned with hearts very different
+from those which had leaped to the morning's REVIELLE. There was doubt,
+and fear, and expectation on every brow, and surmise and intrigue in
+every whisper.
+
+Blount took an opportunity to whisper into Raleigh's ear, "This storm
+came like a levanter in the Mediterranean."
+
+"VARIUM ET MUTABILE," answered Raleigh, in a similar tone.
+
+"Nay, I know nought of your Latin," said Blount; "but I thank God
+Tressilian took not the sea during that hurricane. He could scarce have
+missed shipwreck, knowing as he does so little how to trim his sails to
+a court gale."
+
+"Thou wouldst have instructed him!" said Raleigh.
+
+"Why, I have profited by my time as well as thou, Sir Walter," replied
+honest Blount. "I am knight as well as thou, and of the earlier
+creation."
+
+"Now, God further thy wit," said Raleigh. "But for Tressilian, I would I
+knew what were the matter with him. He told me this morning he would not
+leave his chamber for the space of twelve hours or thereby, being bound
+by a promise. This lady's madness, when he shall learn it, will not, I
+fear, cure his infirmity. The moon is at the fullest, and men's brains
+are working like yeast. But hark! they sound to mount. Let us to horse,
+Blount; we young knights must deserve our spurs."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+     Sincerity,
+     Thou first of virtues!  let no mortal leave
+     Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
+     And from the gulf of hell destruction cry,
+     To take dissimulation's winding way.    --DOUGLAS.
+
+It was not till after a long and successful morning's sport, and a
+prolonged repast which followed the return of the Queen to the Castle,
+that Leicester at length found himself alone with Varney, from whom he
+now learned the whole particulars of the Countess's escape, as they
+had been brought to Kenilworth by Foster, who, in his terror for the
+consequences, had himself posted thither with the tidings. As Varney,
+in his narrative, took especial care to be silent concerning those
+practices on the Countess's health which had driven her to so desperate
+a resolution, Leicester, who could only suppose that she had adopted
+it out of jealous impatience to attain the avowed state and appearance
+belonging to her rank, was not a little offended at the levity with
+which his wife had broken his strict commands, and exposed him to the
+resentment of Elizabeth.
+
+"I have given," he said, "to this daughter of an obscure Devonshire
+gentleman the proudest name in England. I have made her sharer of my bed
+and of my fortunes. I ask but of her a little patience, ere she launches
+forth upon the full current of her grandeur; and the infatuated woman
+will rather hazard her own shipwreck and mine--will rather involve me
+in a thousand whirlpools, shoals, and quicksands, and compel me to
+a thousand devices which shame me in mine own eyes--than tarry for a
+little space longer in the obscurity to which she was born. So lovely,
+so delicate, so fond, so faithful, yet to lack in so grave a matter the
+prudence which one might hope from the veriest fool--it puts me beyond
+my patience."
+
+"We may post it over yet well enough," said Varney, "if my lady will be
+but ruled, and take on her the character which the time commands."
+
+"It is but too true, Sir Richard," said Leicester; "there is indeed no
+other remedy. I have heard her termed thy wife in my presence,
+without contradiction. She must bear the title until she is far from
+Kenilworth."
+
+"And long afterwards, I trust," said Varney; then instantly added, "For
+I cannot but hope it will be long after ere she bear the title of Lady
+Leicester--I fear me it may scarce be with safety during the life of
+this Queen. But your lordship is best judge, you alone knowing what
+passages have taken place betwixt Elizabeth and you."
+
+"You are right, Varney," said Leicester. "I have this morning been both
+fool and villain; and when Elizabeth hears of my unhappy marriage, she
+cannot but think herself treated with that premeditated slight which
+women never forgive. We have once this day stood upon terms little short
+of defiance; and to those, I fear, we must again return."
+
+"Is her resentment, then, so implacable?" said Varney.
+
+"Far from it," replied the Earl; "for, being what she is in spirit and
+in station, she has even this day been but too condescending, in giving
+me opportunities to repair what she thinks my faulty heat of temper."
+
+"Ay," answered Varney; "the Italians say right--in lovers' quarrels, the
+party that loves most is always most willing to acknowledge the greater
+fault. So then, my lord, if this union with the lady could be concealed,
+you stand with Elizabeth as you did?"
+
+Leicester sighed, and was silent for a moment, ere he replied.
+
+"Varney, I think thou art true to me, and I will tell thee all. I do NOT
+stand where I did. I have spoken to Elizabeth--under what mad impulse
+I know not--on a theme which cannot be abandoned without touching
+every female feeling to the quick, and which yet I dare not and cannot
+prosecute. She can never, never forgive me for having caused and
+witnessed those yieldings to human passion."
+
+"We must do something, my lord," said Varney, "and that speedily."
+
+"There is nought to be done," answered Leicester, despondingly. "I am
+like one that has long toiled up a dangerous precipice, and when he is
+within one perilous stride of the top, finds his progress arrested
+when retreat has become impossible. I see above me the pinnacle which I
+cannot reach--beneath me the abyss into which I must fall, as soon as
+my relaxing grasp and dizzy brain join to hurl me from my present
+precarious stance."
+
+"Think better of your situation, my lord," said Varney; "let us try the
+experiment in which you have but now acquiesced. Keep we your marriage
+from Elizabeth's knowledge, and all may yet be well. I will instantly go
+to the lady myself. She hates me, because I have been earnest with your
+lordship, as she truly suspects, in opposition to what she terms her
+rights. I care not for her prejudices--she SHALL listen to me; and I
+will show her such reasons for yielding to the pressure of the times
+that I doubt not to bring back her consent to whatever measures these
+exigencies may require."
+
+"No, Varney," said Leicester; "I have thought upon what is to be done,
+and I will myself speak with Amy."
+
+It was now Varney's turn to feel upon his own account the terrors
+which he affected to participate solely on account of his patron. "Your
+lordship will not yourself speak with the lady?"
+
+"It is my fixed purpose," said Leicester. "Fetch me one of the
+livery-cloaks; I will pass the sentinel as thy servant. Thou art to have
+free access to her."
+
+"But, my lord--"
+
+"I will have no BUTS," replied Leicester; "it shall be even thus, and
+not otherwise. Hunsdon sleeps, I think, in Saintlowe's Tower. We can go
+thither from these apartments by the private passage, without risk of
+meeting any one. Or what if I do meet Hunsdon? he is more my friend than
+enemy, and thick-witted enough to adopt any belief that is thrust on
+him. Fetch me the cloak instantly."
+
+Varney had no alternative save obedience. In a few minutes Leicester was
+muffled in the mantle, pulled his bonnet over his brows, and followed
+Varney along the secret passage of the Castle which communicated with
+Hunsdon's apartments, in which there was scarce a chance of meeting
+any inquisitive person, and hardly light enough for any such to have
+satisfied their curiosity. They emerged at a door where Lord Hunsdon
+had, with military precaution, placed a sentinel, one of his own
+northern retainers as it fortuned, who readily admitted Sir Richard
+Varney and his attendant, saying only, in his northern dialect, "I
+would, man, thou couldst make the mad lady be still yonder; for her
+moans do sae dirl through my head that I would rather keep watch on a
+snowdrift, in the wastes of Catlowdie."
+
+They hastily entered, and shut the door behind them.
+
+"Now, good devil, if there be one," said Varney, within himself,
+"for once help a votary at a dead pinch, for my boat is amongst the
+breakers!"
+
+The Countess Amy, with her hair and her garments dishevelled, was seated
+upon a sort of couch, in an attitude of the deepest affliction, out of
+which she was startled by the opening of the door. Size turned hastily
+round, and fixing her eye on Varney, exclaimed, "Wretch! art thou come
+to frame some new plan of villainy?"
+
+Leicester cut short her reproaches by stepping forward and dropping his
+cloak, while he said, in a voice rather of authority than of affection,
+"It is with me, madam, you have to commune, not with Sir Richard
+Varney."
+
+The change effected on the Countess's look and manner was like magic.
+"Dudley!" she exclaimed, "Dudley! and art thou come at last?" And with
+the speed of lightning she flew to her husband, clung round his neck,
+and unheeding the presence of Varney, overwhelmed him with caresses,
+while she bathed his face in a flood of tears, muttering, at the
+same time, but in broken and disjointed monosyllables, the fondest
+expressions which Love teaches his votaries.
+
+Leicester, as it seemed to him, had reason to be angry with his lady
+for transgressing his commands, and thus placing him in the perilous
+situation in which he had that morning stood. But what displeasure could
+keep its ground before these testimonies of affection from a being so
+lovely, that even the negligence of dress, and the withering effects
+of fear, grief, and fatigue, which would have impaired the beauty of
+others, rendered hers but the more interesting. He received and repaid
+her caresses with fondness mingled with melancholy, the last of which
+she seemed scarcely to observe, until the first transport of her own joy
+was over, when, looking anxiously in his face, she asked if he was ill.
+
+"Not in my body, Amy," was his answer.
+
+"Then I will be well too. O Dudley! I have been ill!--very ill, since
+we last met!--for I call not this morning's horrible vision a meeting.
+I have been in sickness, in grief, and in danger. But thou art come, and
+all is joy, and health, and safety!"
+
+"Alas, Amy," said Leicester, "thou hast undone me!"
+
+"I, my lord?" said Amy, her cheek at once losing its transient flush of
+joy--"how could I injure that which I love better than myself?"
+
+"I would not upbraid you, Amy," replied the Earl; "but are you not
+here contrary to my express commands--and does not your presence here
+endanger both yourself and me?"
+
+"Does it, does it indeed?" she exclaimed eagerly; "then why am I here a
+moment longer? Oh, if you knew by what fears I was urged to quit Cumnor
+Place! But I will say nothing of myself--only that if it might be
+otherwise, I would not willingly return THITHER; yet if it concern your
+safety--"
+
+"We will think, Amy, of some other retreat," said Leicester; "and you
+shall go to one of my northern castles, under the personage--it will be
+but needful, I trust, for a very few days--of Varney's wife."
+
+"How, my Lord of Leicester!" said the lady, disengaging herself from
+his embraces; "is it to your wife you give the dishonourable counsel to
+acknowledge herself the bride of another--and of all men, the bride of
+that Varney?"
+
+"Madam, I speak it in earnest--Varney is my true and faithful servant,
+trusted in my deepest secrets. I had better lose my right hand than his
+service at this moment. You have no cause to scorn him as you do."
+
+"I could assign one, my lord," replied the Countess; "and I see he
+shakes even under that assured look of his. But he that is necessary as
+your right hand to your safety is free from any accusation of mine. May
+he be true to you; and that he may be true, trust him not too much or
+too far. But it is enough to say that I will not go with him unless by
+violence, nor would I acknowledge him as my husband were all--"
+
+"It is a temporary deception, madam," said Leicester, irritated by her
+opposition, "necessary for both our safeties, endangered by you through
+female caprice, or the premature desire to seize on a rank to which
+I gave you title only under condition that our marriage, for a time,
+should continue secret. If my proposal disgust you, it is yourself has
+brought it on both of us. There is no other remedy--you must do what
+your own impatient folly hath rendered necessary--I command you."
+
+"I cannot put your commands, my lord," said Amy, "in balance with those
+of honour and conscience. I will NOT, in this instance, obey you.
+You may achieve your own dishonour, to which these crooked policies
+naturally tend, but I will do nought that can blemish mine. How could
+you again, my lord, acknowledge me as a pure and chaste matron, worthy
+to share your fortunes, when, holding that high character, I had
+strolled the country the acknowledged wife of such a profligate fellow
+as your servant Varney?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney interposing, "my lady is too much prejudiced
+against me, unhappily, to listen to what I can offer, yet it may please
+her better than what she proposes. She has good interest with Master
+Edmund Tressilian, and could doubtless prevail on him to consent to
+be her companion to Lidcote Hall, and there she might remain in safety
+until time permitted the development of this mystery."
+
+Leicester was silent, but stood looking eagerly on Amy, with eyes which
+seemed suddenly to glow as much with suspicion as displeasure.
+
+The Countess only said, "Would to God I were in my father's house!
+When I left it, I little thought I was leaving peace of mind and honour
+behind me."
+
+Varney proceeded with a tone of deliberation. "Doubtless this will make
+it necessary to take strangers into my lord's counsels; but surely the
+Countess will be warrant for the honour of Master Tressilian, and such
+of her father's family--"
+
+"Peace, Varney," said Leicester; "by Heaven I will strike my dagger into
+thee if again thou namest Tressilian as a partner of my counsels!"
+
+"And wherefore not!" said the Countess; "unless they be counsels fitter
+for such as Varney, than for a man of stainless honour and integrity. My
+lord, my lord, bend no angry brows on me; it is the truth, and it is I
+who speak it. I once did Tressilian wrong for your sake; I will not do
+him the further injustice of being silent when his honour is brought in
+question. I can forbear," she said, looking at Varney, "to pull the
+mask off hypocrisy, but I will not permit virtue to be slandered in my
+hearing."
+
+There was a dead pause. Leicester stood displeased, yet undetermined,
+and too conscious of the weakness of his cause; while Varney, with a
+deep and hypocritical affectation of sorrow, mingled with humility, bent
+his eyes on the ground.
+
+It was then that the Countess Amy displayed, in the midst of distress
+and difficulty, the natural energy of character which would have
+rendered her, had fate allowed, a distinguished ornament of the rank
+which she held. She walked up to Leicester with a composed step, a
+dignified air, and looks in which strong affection essayed in vain to
+shake the firmness of conscious, truth and rectitude of principle. "You
+have spoken your mind, my lord," she said, "in these difficulties,
+with which, unhappily, I have found myself unable to comply. This
+gentleman--this person I would say--has hinted at another scheme, to
+which I object not but as it displeases you. Will your lordship be
+pleased to hear what a young and timid woman, but your most affectionate
+wife, can suggest in the present extremity?"
+
+Leicester was silent, but bent his head towards the Countess, as an
+intimation that she was at liberty to proceed.
+
+"There hath been but one cause for all these evils, my lord," she
+proceeded, "and it resolves itself into the mysterious duplicity with
+which you, have been induced to surround yourself. Extricate yourself at
+once, my lord, from the tyranny of these disgraceful trammels. Be like
+a true English gentleman, knight, and earl, who holds that truth is the
+foundation of honour, and that honour is dear to him as the breath of
+his nostrils. Take your ill-fated wife by the hand, lead her to the
+footstool of Elizabeth's throne--say that in a moment of infatuation,
+moved by supposed beauty, of which none perhaps can now trace even the
+remains, I gave my hand to this Amy Robsart. You will then have done
+justice to me, my lord, and to your own honour and should law or power
+require you to part from me, I will oppose no objection, since I may
+then with honour hide a grieved and broken heart in those shades from
+which your love withdrew me. Then--have but a little patience, and Amy's
+life will not long darken your brighter prospects."
+
+There was so much of dignity, so much of tenderness, in the Countess's
+remonstrance, that it moved all that was noble and generous in the
+soul of her husband. The scales seemed to fall from his eyes, and the
+duplicity and tergiversation of which he had been guilty stung him at
+once with remorse and shame.
+
+"I am not worthy of you, Amy," he said, "that could weigh aught which
+ambition has to give against such a heart as thine. I have a bitter
+penance to perform, in disentangling, before sneering foes and astounded
+friends, all the meshes of my own deceitful policy. And the Queen--but
+let her take my head, as she has threatened."
+
+"Take your head, my lord!" said the Countess, "because you used the
+freedom and liberty of an English subject in choosing a wife? For shame!
+it is this distrust of the Queen's justice, this apprehension of danger,
+which cannot but be imaginary, that, like scarecrows, have induced you
+to forsake the straightforward path, which, as it is the best, is also
+the safest."
+
+"Ah, Amy, thou little knowest!" said Dudley but instantly checking
+himself, he added, "Yet she shall not find in me a safe or easy victim
+of arbitrary vengeance. I have friends--I have allies--I will not, like
+Norfolk, be dragged to the block as a victim to sacrifice. Fear not,
+Amy; thou shalt see Dudley bear himself worthy of his name. I must
+instantly communicate with some of those friends on whom I can best
+rely; for, as things stand, I may be made prisoner in my own Castle."
+
+"Oh, my good lord," said Amy, "make no faction in a peaceful state!
+There is no friend can help us so well as our own candid truth and
+honour. Bring but these to our assistance, and you are safe amidst a
+whole army of the envious and malignant. Leave these behind you, and all
+other defence will be fruitless. Truth, my noble lord, is well painted
+unarmed."
+
+"But Wisdom, Amy," answered Leicester, "is arrayed in panoply of
+proof. Argue not with me on the means I shall use to render my
+confession--since it must be called so--as safe as may be; it will
+be fraught with enough of danger, do what we will.--Varney, we must
+hence.--Farewell, Amy, whom I am to vindicate as mine own, at an expense
+and risk of which thou alone couldst be worthy. You shall soon hear
+further from me."
+
+He embraced her fervently, muffled himself as before, and accompanied
+Varney from the apartment. The latter, as he left the room, bowed low,
+and as he raised his body, regarded Amy with a peculiar expression,
+as if he desired to know how far his own pardon was included in the
+reconciliation which had taken place betwixt her and her lord. The
+Countess looked upon him with a fixed eye, but seemed no more conscious
+of his presence than if there had been nothing but vacant air on the
+spot where he stood.
+
+"She has brought me to the crisis," he muttered--"she or I am lost.
+There was something--I wot not if it was fear or pity--that prompted me
+to avoid this fatal crisis. It is now decided--she or I must PERISH."
+
+While he thus spoke, he observed, with surprise, that a boy, repulsed by
+the sentinel, made up to Leicester, and spoke with him. Varney was one
+of those politicians whom not the slightest appearances escape without
+inquiry. He asked the sentinel what the lad wanted with him, and
+received for answer that the boy had wished him to transmit a parcel
+to the mad lady; but that he cared not to take charge of it, such
+communication being beyond his commission, His curiosity satisfied in
+that particular, he approached his patron, and heard him say, "Well,
+boy, the packet shall be delivered."
+
+"Thanks, good Master Serving-man," said the boy, and was out of sight in
+an instant.
+
+Leicester and Varney returned with hasty steps to the Earl's private
+apartment, by the same passage which had conducted them to Saintlowe's
+Tower.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+     I have said
+     This is an adulteress--I have said with whom:
+     More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is
+     A federary with her, and one that knows
+     What she should shame to know herself.   --WINTER'S TALE.
+
+They were no sooner in the Earl's cabinet than, taking his tablets from
+his pocket, he began to write, speaking partly to Varney, and partly
+to himself--"There are many of them close bounden to me, and especially
+those in good estate and high office--many who, if they look back
+towards my benefits, or forward towards the perils which may
+befall themselves, will not, I think, be disposed to see me stagger
+unsupported. Let me see--Knollis is sure, and through his means Guernsey
+and Jersey. Horsey commands in the Isle of Wight. My brother-in-law,
+Huntingdon, and Pembroke, have authority in Wales. Through Bedford I
+lead the Puritans, with their interest, so powerful in all the boroughs.
+My brother of Warwick is equal, well-nigh, to myself, in wealth,
+followers, and dependencies. Sir Owen Hopton is at my devotion; he
+commands the Tower of London, and the national treasure deposited there.
+My father and grand-father needed never to have stooped their heads to
+the block had they thus forecast their enterprises.--Why look you so
+sad, Varney? I tell thee, a tree so deep-rooted is not so easily to be
+torn up by the tempest."
+
+"Alas! my lord," said Varney, with well-acted passion, and then resumed
+the same look of despondency which Leicester had before noted.
+
+"Alas!" repeated Leicester; "and wherefore alas, Sir Richard? Doth your
+new spirit of chivalry supply no more vigorous ejaculation when a noble
+struggle is impending? Or, if ALAS means thou wilt flinch from the
+conflict, thou mayest leave the Castle, or go join mine enemies,
+whichever thou thinkest best."
+
+"Not so, my lord," answered his confidant; "Varney will be found
+fighting or dying by your side. Forgive me, if, in love to you, I see
+more fully than your noble heart permits you to do, the inextricable
+difficulties with which you are surrounded. You are strong, my lord,
+and powerful; yet, let me say it without offence, you are so only by
+the reflected light of the Queen's favour. While you are Elizabeth's
+favourite, you are all, save in name, like an actual sovereign. But let
+her call back the honours she has bestowed, and the prophet's gourd did
+not wither more suddenly. Declare against the Queen, and I do not say
+that in the wide nation, or in this province alone, you would find
+yourself instantly deserted and outnumbered; but I will say, that even
+in this very Castle, and in the midst of your vassals, kinsmen, and
+dependants, you would be a captive, nay, a sentenced captive, should she
+please to say the word. Think upon Norfolk, my lord--upon the powerful
+Northumberland--the splendid Westmoreland;--think on all who have made
+head against this sage Princess. They are dead, captive, or fugitive.
+This is not like other thrones, which can be overturned by a combination
+of powerful nobles; the broad foundations which support it are in the
+extended love and affections of the people. You might share it with
+Elizabeth if you would; but neither yours, nor any other power, foreign
+or domestic, will avail to overthrow, or even to shake it."
+
+He paused, and Leicester threw his tablets from him with an air of
+reckless despite. "It may be as thou sayest," he said? "and, in sooth,
+I care not whether truth or cowardice dictate thy forebodings. But it
+shall not be said I fell without a struggle. Give orders that those of
+my retainers who served under me in Ireland be gradually drawn into the
+main Keep, and let our gentlemen and friends stand on their guard, and
+go armed, as if they expected arm onset from the followers of Sussex.
+Possess the townspeople with some apprehension; let them take arms, and
+be ready, at a given signal, to overpower the Pensioners and Yeomen of
+the Guard."
+
+"Let me remind you, my lord," said Varney, with the same appearance of
+deep and melancholy interest, "that you have given me orders to prepare
+for disarming the Queen's guard. It is an act of high treason, but you
+shall nevertheless be obeyed."
+
+"I care not," said Leicester desperately--"I care not. Shame is behind
+me, ruin before me; I must on."
+
+Here there was another pause, which Varney at length broke with the
+following words: "It is come to the point I have long dreaded. I must
+either witness, like an ungrateful beast, the downfall of the best and
+kindest of masters, or I must speak what I would have buried in the
+deepest oblivion, or told by any other mouth than mine."
+
+"What is that thou sayest, or wouldst say?" replied the Earl; "we have
+no time to waste on words when the times call us to action."
+
+"My speech is soon made, my lord--would to God it were as soon answered!
+Your marriage is the sole cause of the threatened breach with your
+Sovereign, my lord, is it not?"
+
+"Thou knowest it is!" replied Leicester. "What needs so fruitless a
+question?"
+
+"Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here. Men will wager
+their lands and lives in defence of a rich diamond, my lord; but were it
+not first prudent to look if there is no flaw in it?"
+
+"What means this?" said Leicester, with eyes sternly fixed on his
+dependant; "of whom dost thou dare to speak?"
+
+"It is--of the Countess Amy, my lord, of whom I am unhappily bound to
+speak; and of whom I WILL speak, were your lordship to kill me for my
+zeal."
+
+"Thou mayest happen to deserve it at my hand," said the Earl; "but speak
+on, I will hear thee."
+
+"Nay, then, my lord, I will be bold. I speak for my own life as well as
+for your lordship's. I like not this lady's tampering and trickstering
+with this same Edmund Tressilian. You know him, my lord. You know he had
+formerly an interest in her, which it cost your lordship some pains to
+supersede. You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit
+against me in behalf of this lady, the open object of which is to drive
+your lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy
+marriage, the point to which my lady also is willing, at any risk, to
+urge you."
+
+Leicester smiled constrainedly. "Thou meanest well, good Sir Richard,
+and wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour, as well as that of any
+other person, to save me from what thou thinkest a step so terrible. But
+remember"--he spoke these words with the most stern decision--"you speak
+of the Countess of Leicester."
+
+"I do, my lord," said Varney; "but it is for the welfare of the Earl of
+Leicester. My tale is but begun. I do most strongly believe that this
+Tressilian has, from the beginning of his moving in her cause, been in
+connivance with her ladyship the Countess."
+
+"Thou speakest wild madness, Varney, with the sober face of a preacher.
+Where, or how, could they communicate together?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney, "unfortunately I can show that but too well.
+It was just before the supplication was presented to the Queen, in
+Tressilian's name, that I met him, to my utter astonishment, at the
+postern gate which leads from the demesne at Cumnor Place."
+
+"Thou met'st him, villain! and why didst thou not strike him dead?"
+exclaimed Leicester.
+
+"I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not my foot slipped, he
+would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-block in your lordship's
+path."
+
+Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise. At length he answered,
+"What other evidence hast thou of this, Varney, save thine own
+assertion?--for, as I will punish deeply, I will examine coolly and
+warily. Sacred Heaven!--but no--I will examine coldly and warily--coldly
+and warily." He repeated these words more than once to himself, as if in
+the very sound there was a sedative quality; and again compressing his
+lips, as if he feared some violent expression might escape from them, he
+asked again, "What further proof?"
+
+"Enough, my lord," said Varney, "and to spare. I would it rested with me
+alone, for with me it might have been silenced for ever. But my servant,
+Michael Lambourne, witnessed the whole, and was, indeed, the means of
+first introducing Tressilian into Cumnor Place; and therefore I took him
+into my service, and retained him in it, though something of a debauched
+fellow, that I might have his tongue always under my own command." He
+then acquainted Lord Leicester how easy it was to prove the circumstance
+of their interview true, by evidence of Anthony Foster, with the
+corroborative testimonies of the various persons at Cumnor, who had
+heard the wager laid, and had seen Lambourne and Tressilian set off
+together. In the whole narrative, Varney hazarded nothing fabulous,
+excepting that, not indeed by direct assertion, but by inference, he led
+his patron to suppose that the interview betwixt Amy and Tressilian at
+Cumnor Place had been longer than the few minutes to which it was in
+reality limited.
+
+"And wherefore was I not told of all this?" said Leicester sternly. "Why
+did all of ye--and in particular thou, Varney--keep back from me such
+material information?"
+
+"Because, my lord," replied Varney, "the Countess pretended to Foster
+and to me that Tressilian had intruded himself upon her; and I concluded
+their interview had been in all honour, and that she would at her own
+time tell it to your lordship. Your lordship knows with what unwilling
+ears we listen to evil surmises against those whom we love; and I thank
+Heaven I am no makebate or informer, to be the first to sow them."
+
+"You are but too ready to receive them, however, Sir Richard," replied
+his patron. "How knowest thou that this interview was not in all honour,
+as thou hast said? Methinks the wife of the Earl of Leicester might
+speak for a short time with such a person as Tressilian without injury
+to me or suspicion to herself."
+
+"Questionless, my lord," answered Varney, "Had I thought otherwise,
+I had been no keeper of the secret. But here lies the rub--Tressilian
+leaves not the place without establishing a correspondence with a poor
+man, the landlord of an inn in Cumnor, for the purpose of carrying off
+the lady. He sent down an emissary of his, whom I trust soon to have
+in right sure keeping under Mervyn's Tower--Killigrew and Lambsbey are
+scouring the country in quest of him. The host is rewarded with a ring
+for keeping counsel--your lordship may have noted it on Tressilian's
+hand--here it is. This fellow, this agent, makes his way to the place
+as a pedlar; holds conferences with the lady, and they make their escape
+together by night; rob a poor fellow of a horse by the way, such was
+their guilty haste, and at length reach this Castle, where the Countess
+of Leicester finds refuge--I dare not say in what place."
+
+"Speak, I command thee," said Leicester--"speak, while I retain sense
+enough to hear thee."
+
+"Since it must be so," answered Varney, "the lady resorted immediately
+to the apartment of Tressilian, where she remained many hours, partly in
+company with him, and partly alone. I told you Tressilian had a paramour
+in his chamber; I little dreamed that paramour was--"
+
+"Amy, thou wouldst say," answered Leicester; "but it is false, false as
+the smoke of hell! Ambitious she may be--fickle and impatient--'tis a
+woman's fault; but false to me!--never, never. The proof--the proof of
+this!" he exclaimed hastily.
+
+"Carrol, the Deputy Marshal, ushered her thither by her own desire, on
+yesterday afternoon; Lambourne and the Warder both found her there at an
+early hour this morning."
+
+"Was Tressilian there with her?" said Leicester, in the same hurried
+tone.
+
+"No, my lord. You may remember," answered Varney, "that he was that
+night placed with Sir Nicholas Blount, under a species of arrest."
+
+"Did Carrol, or the other fellows, know who she was?" demanded
+Leicester.
+
+"No, my lord," replied Varney; "Carrol and the Warder had never seen the
+Countess, and Lambourne knew her not in her disguise. But in seeking
+to prevent her leaving the cell, he obtained possession of one of her
+gloves, which, I think, your lordship may know."
+
+He gave the glove, which had the Bear and Ragged Staff, the Earl's
+impress, embroidered upon it in seed-pearls.
+
+"I do--I do recognize it," said Leicester. "They were my own gift. The
+fellow of it was on the arm which she threw this very day around my
+neck!" He spoke this with violent agitation.
+
+"Your lordship," said Varney, "might yet further inquire of the lady
+herself respecting the truth of these passages."
+
+"It needs not--it needs not," said the tortured Earl; "it is written
+in characters of burning light, as if they were branded on my very
+eyeballs! I see her infamy-I can see nought else; and--gracious
+Heaven!--for this vile woman was I about to commit to danger the lives
+of so many noble friends, shake the foundation of a lawful throne, carry
+the sword and torch through the bosom of a peaceful land, wrong the
+kind mistress who made me what I am, and would, but for that hell-framed
+marriage, have made me all that man can be! All this I was ready to do
+for a woman who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!--And thou,
+villain, why didst thou not speak sooner?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney, "a tear from my lady would have blotted out
+all I could have said. Besides, I had not these proofs until this very
+morning, when Anthony Foster's sudden arrival with the examinations
+and declarations, which he had extorted from the innkeeper Gosling and
+others, explained the manner of her flight from Cumnor Place, and my own
+researches discovered the steps which she had taken here."
+
+"Now, may God be praised for the light He has given! so full, so
+satisfactory, that there breathes not a man in England who shall call
+my proceeding rash, or my revenge unjust.--And yet, Varney, so young,
+so fair, so fawning, and so false! Hence, then, her hatred to thee, my
+trusty, my well-beloved servant, because you withstood her plots, and
+endangered her paramour's life!"
+
+"I never gave her any other cause of dislike, my lord," replied Varney.
+"But she knew that my counsels went directly to diminish her influence
+with your lordship; and that I was, and have been, ever ready to peril
+my life against your enemies."
+
+"It is too, too apparent," replied Leicester "yet with what an air of
+magnanimity she exhorted me to commit my head to the Queen's mercy,
+rather than wear the veil of falsehood a moment longer! Methinks the
+angel of truth himself can have no such tones of high-souled impulse.
+Can it be so, Varney?--can falsehood use thus boldly the language of
+truth?--can infamy thus assume the guise of purity? Varney, thou hast
+been my servant from a child. I have raised thee high--can raise
+thee higher. Think, think for me!--thy brain was ever shrewd and
+piercing--may she not be innocent? Prove her so, and all I have yet done
+for thee shall be as nothing--nothing, in comparison of thy recompense!"
+
+The agony with which his master spoke had some effect even on the
+hardened Varney, who, in the midst of his own wicked and ambitious
+designs, really loved his patron as well as such a wretch was capable
+of loving anything. But he comforted himself, and subdued his
+self-reproaches, with the reflection that if he inflicted upon the Earl
+some immediate and transitory pain, it was in order to pave his way to
+the throne, which, were this marriage dissolved by death or otherwise,
+he deemed Elizabeth would willingly share with his benefactor. He
+therefore persevered in his diabolical policy; and after a moment's
+consideration, answered the anxious queries of the Earl with a
+melancholy look, as if he had in vain sought some exculpation for the
+Countess; then suddenly raising his head, he said, with an expression
+of hope, which instantly communicated itself to the countenance of his
+patron--"Yet wherefore, if guilty, should she have perilled herself
+by coming hither? Why not rather have fled to her father's, or
+elsewhere?--though that, indeed, might have interfered with her desire
+to be acknowledged as Countess of Leicester."
+
+"True, true, true!" exclaimed Leicester, his transient gleam of hope
+giving way to the utmost bitterness of feeling and expression; "thou
+art not fit to fathom a woman's depth of wit, Varney. I see it all. She
+would not quit the estate and title of the wittol who had wedded her.
+Ay, and if in my madness I had started into rebellion, or if the angry
+Queen had taken my head, as she this morning threatened, the wealthy
+dower which law would have assigned to the Countess Dowager of Leicester
+had been no bad windfall to the beggarly Tressilian. Well might she
+goad me on to danger, which could not end otherwise than profitably to
+her,--Speak not for her, Varney! I will have her blood!"
+
+"My lord," replied Varney, "the wildness of your distress breaks forth
+in the wildness of your language."
+
+"I say, speak not for her!" replied Leicester; "she has dishonoured
+me--she would have murdered me--all ties are burst between us. She shall
+die the death of a traitress and adulteress, well merited both by the
+laws of God and man! And--what is this casket," he said, "which was even
+now thrust into my hand by a boy, with the desire I would convey it
+to Tressilian, as he could not give it to the Countess? By Heaven! the
+words surprised me as he spoke them, though other matters chased them
+from my brain; but now they return with double force. It is her casket
+of jewels!--Force it open, Varney--force the hinges open with thy
+poniard!"
+
+"She refused the aid of my dagger once," thought Varney, as he
+unsheathed the weapon, "to cut the string which bound a letter, but now
+it shall work a mightier ministry in her fortunes."
+
+With this reflection, by using the three-cornered stiletto-blade as a
+wedge, he forced open the slender silver hinges of the casket. The
+Earl no sooner saw them give way than he snatched the casket from Sir
+Richard's hand, wrenched off the cover, and tearing out the splendid
+contents, flung them on the floor in a transport of rage, while he
+eagerly searched for some letter or billet which should make the
+fancied guilt of his innocent Countess yet more apparent. Then stamping
+furiously on the gems, he exclaimed, "Thus I annihilate the miserable
+toys for which thou hast sold thyself, body and soul--consigned thyself
+to an early and timeless death, and me to misery and remorse for
+ever!--Tell me not of forgiveness, Varney--she is doomed!"
+
+So saying, he left the room, and rushed into an adjacent closet, the
+door of which he locked and bolted.
+
+Varney looked after him, while something of a more human feeling seemed
+to contend with his habitual sneer. "I am sorry for his weakness," he
+said, "but love has made him a child. He throws down and treads on
+these costly toys-with the same vehemence would he dash to pieces this
+frailest toy of all, of which he used to rave so fondly. But that taste
+also will be forgotten when its object is no more. Well, he has no eye
+to value things as they deserve, and that nature has given to Varney.
+When Leicester shall be a sovereign, he will think as little of the
+gales of passion through which he gained that royal port, as ever
+did sailor in harbour of the perils of a voyage. But these tell-tale
+articles must not remain here--they are rather too rich vails for the
+drudges who dress the chamber."
+
+While Varney was employed in gathering together and putting them into a
+secret drawer of a cabinet that chanced to be open, he saw the door of
+Leicester's closet open, the tapestry pushed aside, and the Earl's face
+thrust out, but with eyes so dead, and lips and cheeks so bloodless
+and pale, that he started at the sudden change. No sooner did his eyes
+encounter the Earl's, than the latter withdrew his head and shut the
+door of the closet. This manoeuvre Leicester repeated twice, without
+speaking a word, so that Varney began to doubt whether his brain was
+not actually affected by his mental agony. The third time, however, he
+beckoned, and Varney obeyed the signal. When he entered, he soon
+found his patron's perturbation was not caused by insanity, but by
+the fullness of purpose which he entertained contending with various
+contrary passions. They passed a full hour in close consultation;
+after which the Earl of Leicester, with an incredible exertion, dressed
+himself, and went to attend his royal guest.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+     You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
+     With most admired disorder.      --MACBETH.
+
+It was afterwards remembered that during the banquets and revels which
+occupied the remainder of this eventful day the bearing of Leicester and
+of Varney were totally different from their usual demeanour. Sir Richard
+Varney had been held rather a man of counsel and of action than a votary
+of pleasure. Business, whether civil or military, seemed always to be
+his proper sphere; and while in festivals and revels, although he well
+understood how to trick them up and present them, his own part was that
+of a mere spectator; or if he exercised his wit, it was in a rough,
+caustic, and severe manner, rather as if he scoffed at the exhibition
+and the guests than shared the common pleasure.
+
+But upon the present day his character seemed changed. He mixed among
+the younger courtiers and ladies, and appeared for the moment to be
+actuated by a spirit of light-hearted gaiety, which rendered him a match
+for the liveliest. Those who had looked upon him as a man given up
+to graver and more ambitious pursuits, a bitter sneerer and passer of
+sarcasms at the expense of those who, taking life as they find it,
+were disposed to snatch at each pastime it presents, now perceived with
+astonishment that his wit could carry as smooth an edge as their own,
+his laugh be as lively, and his brow as unclouded. By what art of
+damnable hypocrisy he could draw this veil of gaiety over the black
+thoughts of one of the worst of human bosoms must remain unintelligible
+to all but his compeers, if any such ever existed; but he was a man of
+extraordinary powers, and those powers were unhappily dedicated in all
+their energy to the very worst of purposes.
+
+It was entirely different with Leicester. However habituated his
+mind usually was to play the part of a good courtier, and appear gay,
+assiduous, and free from all care but that of enhancing the pleasure
+of the moment, while his bosom internally throbbed with the pangs of
+unsatisfied ambition, jealousy, or resentment, his heart had now a
+yet more dreadful guest, whose workings could not be overshadowed or
+suppressed; and you might read in his vacant eye and troubled brow that
+his thoughts were far absent from the scenes in which he was compelling
+himself to play a part. He looked, moved, and spoke as if by a
+succession of continued efforts; and it seemed as if his will had in
+some degree lost the promptitude of command over the acute mind and
+goodly form of which it was the regent. His actions and gestures,
+instead of appearing the consequence of simple volition, seemed, like
+those of an automaton, to wait the revolution of some internal machinery
+ere they could be performed; and his words fell from him piecemeal,
+interrupted, as if he had first to think what he was to say, then how
+it was to be said, and as if, after all, it was only by an effort of
+continued attention that he completed a sentence without forgetting both
+the one and the other.
+
+The singular effects which these distractions of mind produced upon the
+behaviour and conversation of the most accomplished courtier of England,
+as they were visible to the lowest and dullest menial who approached his
+person, could not escape the notice of the most intelligent Princess of
+the age. Nor is there the least doubt that the alternate negligence and
+irregularity of his manner would have called down Elizabeth's severe
+displeasure on the Earl of Leicester, had it not occurred to her to
+account for it by supposing that the apprehension of that displeasure
+which she had expressed towards him with such vivacity that very morning
+was dwelling upon the spirits of her favourite, and, spite of his
+efforts to the contrary, distracted the usual graceful tenor of his mien
+and the charms of his conversation. When this idea, so flattering to
+female vanity, had once obtained possession of her mind, it proved a
+full and satisfactory apology for the numerous errors and mistakes of
+the Earl of Leicester; and the watchful circle around observed with
+astonishment, that, instead of resenting his repeated negligence, and
+want of even ordinary attention (although these were points on which she
+was usually extremely punctilious), the Queen sought, on the contrary,
+to afford him time and means to recollect himself, and deigned to assist
+him in doing so, with an indulgence which seemed altogether inconsistent
+with her usual character. It was clear, however, that this could not
+last much longer, and that Elizabeth must finally put another and more
+severe construction on Leicester's uncourteous conduct, when the Earl
+was summoned by Varney to speak with him in a different apartment.
+
+After having had the message twice delivered to him, he rose, and was
+about to withdraw, as it were, by instinct; then stopped, and turning
+round, entreated permission of the Queen to absent himself for a brief
+space upon matters of pressing importance.
+
+"Go, my lord," said the Queen. "We are aware our presence must occasion
+sudden and unexpected occurrences, which require to be provided for on
+the instant. Yet, my lord, as you would have us believe ourself your
+welcome and honoured guest, we entreat you to think less of our good
+cheer, and favour us with more of your good countenance than we have
+this day enjoyed; for whether prince or peasant be the guest, the
+welcome of the host will always be the better part of the entertainment.
+Go, my lord; and we trust to see you return with an unwrinkled brow, and
+those free thoughts which you are wont to have at the disposal of your
+friends."
+
+Leicester only bowed low in answer to this rebuke, and retired. At the
+door of the apartment he was met by Varney, who eagerly drew him apart,
+and whispered in his ear, "All is well!"
+
+"Has Masters seen her?" said the Earl.
+
+"He has, my lord; and as she would neither answer his queries, nor
+allege any reason for her refusal, he will give full testimony that she
+labours under a mental disorder, and may be best committed to the charge
+of her friends. The opportunity is therefore free to remove her as we
+proposed."
+
+"But Tressilian?" said Leicester.
+
+"He will not know of her departure for some time," replied Varney; "it
+shall take place this very evening, and to-morrow he shall be cared
+for."
+
+"No, by my soul," answered Leicester; "I will take vengeance on him with
+mine own hand!"
+
+"You, my lord, and on so inconsiderable a man as Tressilian! No, my
+lord, he hath long wished to visit foreign parts. Trust him to me--I
+will take care he returns not hither to tell tales."
+
+"Not so, by Heaven, Varney!" exclaimed Leicester. "Inconsiderable do you
+call an enemy that hath had power to wound me so deeply that my whole
+after-life must be one scene of remorse and misery?--No; rather than
+forego the right of doing myself justice with my own hand on that
+accursed villain, I will unfold the whole truth at Elizabeth's
+footstool, and let her vengeance descend at once on them and on myself."
+
+Varney saw with great alarm that his lord was wrought up to such a pitch
+of agitation, that if he gave not way to him he was perfectly capable of
+adopting the desperate resolution which he had announced, and which was
+instant ruin to all the schemes of ambition which Varney had formed
+for his patron and for himself. But the Earl's rage seemed at once
+uncontrollable and deeply concentrated, and while he spoke his eyes
+shot fire, his voice trembled with excess of passion, and the light foam
+stood on his lip.
+
+His confidant made a bold and successful effort to obtain the mastery of
+him even in this hour of emotion. "My lord," he said, leading him to
+a mirror, "behold your reflection in that glass, and think if these
+agitated features belong to one who, in a condition so extreme, is
+capable of forming a resolution for himself."
+
+"What, then, wouldst thou make me?" said Leicester, struck at the change
+in his own physiognomy, though offended at the freedom with which Varney
+made the appeal. "Am I to be thy ward, thy vassal,--the property and
+subject of my servant?"
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney firmly, "but be master of yourself, and of
+your own passion. My lord, I, your born servant, am ashamed to see how
+poorly you bear yourself in the storm of fury. Go to Elizabeth's
+feet, confess your marriage--impeach your wife and her paramour of
+adultery--and avow yourself, amongst all your peers, the wittol who
+married a country girl, and was cozened by her and her book-learned
+gallant. Go, my lord--but first take farewell of Richard Varney, with
+all the benefits you ever conferred on him. He served the noble, the
+lofty, the high-minded Leicester, and was more proud of depending on him
+than he would be of commanding thousands. But the abject lord who stoops
+to every adverse circumstance, whose judicious resolves are scattered
+like chaff before every wind of passion, him Richard Varney serves not.
+He is as much above him in constancy of mind as beneath him in rank and
+fortune."
+
+Varney spoke thus without hypocrisy, for though the firmness of mind
+which he boasted was hardness and impenetrability, yet he really felt
+the ascendency which he vaunted; while the interest which he actually
+felt in the fortunes of Leicester gave unusual emotion to his voice and
+manner.
+
+Leicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority it seemed to the
+unfortunate Earl as if his last friend was about to abandon him. He
+stretched his hand towards Varney as he uttered the words, "Do not leave
+me. What wouldst thou have me do?"
+
+"Be thyself, my noble master," said Varney, touching the Earl's hand
+with his lips, after having respectfully grasped it in his own; "be
+yourself, superior to those storms of passion which wreck inferior
+minds. Are you the first who has been cozened in love--the first whom a
+vain and licentious woman has cheated into an affection, which she
+has afterwards scorned and misused? And will you suffer yourself to be
+driven frantic because you have not been wiser than the wisest men whom
+the world has seen? Let her be as if she had not been--let her pass from
+your memory, as unworthy of ever having held a place there. Let your
+strong resolve of this morning, which I have both courage, zeal,
+and means enough to execute, be like the fiat of a superior being, a
+passionless act of justice. She hath deserved death--let her die!"
+
+While he was speaking, the Earl held his hand fast, compressed his lips
+hard, and frowned, as if he laboured to catch from Varney a portion of
+the cold, ruthless, and dispassionate firmness which he recommended.
+When he was silent, the Earl still continued to rasp his hand, until,
+with an effort at calm decision, he was able to articulate, "Be it
+so--she dies! But one tear might be permitted."
+
+"Not one, my lord," interrupted Varney, who saw by the quivering eye and
+convulsed cheek of his patron that he was about to give way to a burst
+of emotion--"not a tear--the time permits it not. Tressilian must be
+thought of--"
+
+"That indeed is a name," said the Earl, "to convert tears into blood.
+Varney, I have thought on this, and I have determined--neither entreaty
+nor argument shall move me--Tressilian shall be my own victim."
+
+"It is madness, my lord; but you are too mighty for me to bar your
+way to your revenge. Yet resolve at least to choose fitting time and
+opportunity, and to forbear him until these shall be found."
+
+"Thou shalt order me in what thou wilt," said Leicester, "only thwart me
+not in this."
+
+"Then, my lord," said Varney, "I first request of you to lay aside the
+wild, suspected, and half-frenzied demeanour which hath this day drawn
+the eyes of all the court upon you, and which, but for the Queen's
+partial indulgence, which she hath extended towards you in a degree
+far beyond her nature, she had never given you the opportunity to atone
+for."
+
+"Have I indeed been so negligent?" said Leicester, as one who awakes
+from a dream. "I thought I had coloured it well. But fear nothing, my
+mind is now eased--I am calm. My horoscope shall be fulfilled; and that
+it may be fulfilled, I will tax to the highest every faculty of my mind.
+Fear me not, I say. I will to the Queen instantly--not thine own looks
+and language shall be more impenetrable than mine. Hast thou aught else
+to say?"
+
+"I must crave your signet-ring," said Varney gravely, "in token to those
+of your servants whom I must employ, that I possess your full authority
+in commanding their aid."
+
+Leicester drew off the signet-ring which he commonly used, and gave it
+to Varney, with a haggard and stern expression of countenance, adding
+only, in a low, half-whispered tone, but with terrific emphasis, the
+words, "What thou dost, do quickly."
+
+Some anxiety and wonder took place, meanwhile, in the presence-hall, at
+the prolonged absence of the noble Lord of the Castle, and great was
+the delight of his friends when they saw him enter as a man from whose
+bosom, to all human seeming, a weight of care had been just removed.
+Amply did Leicester that day redeem the pledge he had given to Varney,
+who soon saw himself no longer under the necessity of maintaining a
+character so different from his own as that which he had assumed in the
+earlier part of the day, and gradually relapsed into the same grave,
+shrewd, caustic observer of conversation and incident which constituted
+his usual part in society.
+
+With Elizabeth, Leicester played his game as one to whom her natural
+strength of talent and her weakness in one or two particular points were
+well known. He was too wary to exchange on a sudden the sullen personage
+which he had played before he retired with Varney; but on approaching
+her it seemed softened into a melancholy, which had a touch of
+tenderness in it, and which, in the course of conversing with Elizabeth,
+and as she dropped in compassion one mark of favour after another to
+console him, passed into a flow of affectionate gallantry, the most
+assiduous, the most delicate, the most insinuating, yet at the same time
+the most respectful, with which a Queen was ever addressed by a subject.
+Elizabeth listened as in a sort of enchantment. Her jealousy of power
+was lulled asleep; her resolution to forsake all social or domestic
+ties, and dedicate herself exclusively to the care of her people, began
+to be shaken; and once more the star of Dudley culminated in the court
+horizon.
+
+But Leicester did not enjoy this triumph over nature, and over
+conscience, without its being embittered to him, not only by the
+internal rebellion of his feelings against the violence which he
+exercised over them, but by many accidental circumstances, which, in
+the course of the banquet, and during the subsequent amusements of the
+evening, jarred upon that nerve, the least vibration of which was agony.
+
+The courtiers were, for example, in the Great Hall, after having left
+the banqueting-room, awaiting the appearance of a splendid masque,
+which was the expected entertainment of this evening, when the Queen
+interrupted a wild career of wit which the Earl of Leicester was running
+against Lord Willoughby, Raleigh, and some other courtiers, by saying,
+"We will impeach you of high treason, my lord, if you proceed in this
+attempt to slay us with laughter. And here comes a thing may make us all
+grave at his pleasure, our learned physician Masters, with news belike
+of our poor suppliant, Lady Varney;--nay, my lord, we will not have you
+leave us, for this being a dispute betwixt married persons, we do not
+hold our own experience deep enough to decide thereon without good
+counsel.--How now, Masters, what thinkest thou of the runaway bride?"
+
+The smile with which Leicester had been speaking, when the Queen
+interrupted him, remained arrested on his lips, as if it had been carved
+there by the chisel of Michael Angelo or of Chantrey; and he listened to
+the speech of the physician with the same immovable cast of countenance.
+
+"The Lady Varney, gracious Sovereign," said the court physician Masters,
+"is sullen, and would hold little conference with me touching the state
+of her health, talking wildly of being soon to plead her own cause
+before your own presence, and of answering no meaner person's
+inquiries."
+
+"Now the heavens forfend!" said the Queen; "we have already suffered
+from the misconstructions and broils which seem to follow this poor
+brain-sick lady wherever she comes.--Think you not so, my lord?" she
+added, appealing to Leicester with something in her look that indicated
+regret, even tenderly expressed, for their disagreement of that morning.
+Leicester compelled himself to bow low. The utmost force he could
+exert was inadequate to the further effort of expressing in words his
+acquiescence in the Queen's sentiment.
+
+"You are vindictive," she said, "my lord; but we will find time and
+place to punish you. But once more to this same trouble-mirth, this Lady
+Varney. What of her health, Masters?"
+
+"She is sullen, madam, as I already said," replied Masters, "and refuses
+to answer interrogatories, or be amenable to the authority of the
+mediciner. I conceive her to be possessed with a delirium, which I
+incline to term rather HYPOCHONDRIA than PHRENESIS; and I think she were
+best cared for by her husband in his own house, and removed from all
+this bustle of pageants, which disturbs her weak brain with the most
+fantastic phantoms. She drops hints as if she were some great person in
+disguise--some Countess or Princess perchance. God help them, such are
+often the hallucinations of these infirm persons!"
+
+"Nay, then," said the Queen, "away with her with all speed. Let Varney
+care for her with fitting humanity; but let them rid the Castle of her
+forthwith she will think herself lady of all, I warrant you. It is pity
+so fair a form, however, should have an infirm understanding.--What
+think you, my lord?"
+
+"It is pity indeed," said the Earl, repeating the words like a task
+which was set him.
+
+"But, perhaps," said Elizabeth, "you do not join with us in our opinion
+of her beauty; and indeed we have known men prefer a statelier and more
+Juno-like form to that drooping fragile one that hung its head like a
+broken lily. Ay, men are tyrants, my lord, who esteem the animation
+of the strife above the triumph of an unresisting conquest, and, like
+sturdy champions, love best those women who can wage contest with
+them.--I could think with you, Rutland, that give my Lord of Leicester
+such a piece of painted wax for a bride, he would have wished her dead
+ere the end of the honeymoon."
+
+As she said this, she looked on Leicester so expressively that, while
+his heart revolted against the egregious falsehood, he did himself so
+much violence as to reply in a whisper that Leicester's love was more
+lowly than her Majesty deemed, since it was settled where he could never
+command, but must ever obey.
+
+The Queen blushed, and bid him be silent; yet looked as of she expected
+that he would not obey her commands. But at that moment the flourish of
+trumpets and kettle-drums from a high balcony which overlooked the hall
+announced the entrance of the maskers, and relieved Leicester from the
+horrible state of constraint and dissimulation in which the result of
+his own duplicity had placed him.
+
+The masque which entered consisted of four separate bands, which
+followed each other at brief intervals, each consisting of six principal
+persons and as many torch-bearers, and each representing one of the
+various nations by which England had at different times been occupied.
+
+The aboriginal Britons, who first entered, were ushered in by two
+ancient Druids, whose hoary hair was crowned with a chaplet of oak, and
+who bore in their hands branches of mistletoe. The maskers who followed
+these venerable figures were succeeded by two Bards, arrayed in white,
+and bearing harps, which they occasionally touched, singing at the
+same time certain stanzas of an ancient hymn to Belus, or the Sun. The
+aboriginal Britons had been selected from amongst the tallest and most
+robust young gentlemen in attendance on the court. Their masks were
+accommodated with long, shaggy beards and hair; their vestments were
+of the hides of wolves and bears; while their legs, arms, and the upper
+parts of their bodies, being sheathed in flesh-coloured silk, on which
+were traced in grotesque lines representations of the heavenly bodies,
+and of animals and other terrestrial objects, gave them the lively
+appearance of our painted ancestors, whose freedom was first trenched
+upon by the Romans.
+
+The sons of Rome, who came to civilize as well as to conquer, were next
+produced before the princely assembly; and the manager of the revels had
+correctly imitated the high crest and military habits of that celebrated
+people, accommodating them with the light yet strong buckler and the
+short two-edged sword, the use of which had made them victors of the
+world. The Roman eagles were borne before them by two standard-bearers,
+who recited a hymn to Mars, and the classical warriors followed with the
+grave and haughty step of men who aspired at universal conquest.
+
+The third quadrille represented the Saxons, clad in the bearskins which
+they had brought with them from the German forests, and bearing in
+their hands the redoubtable battle-axes which made such havoc among the
+natives of Britain. They were preceded by two Scalds, who chanted the
+praises of Odin.
+
+Last came the knightly Normans, in their mail-shirts and hoods of steel,
+with all the panoply of chivalry, and marshalled by two Minstrels, who
+sang of war and ladies' love.
+
+These four bands entered the spacious hall with the utmost order,
+a short pause being made, that the spectators might satisfy their
+curiosity as to each quadrille before the appearance of the next. They
+then marched completely round the hall, in order the more fully to
+display themselves, regulating their steps to organs, shalms, hautboys,
+and virginals, the music of the Lord Leicester's household. At length
+the four quadrilles of maskers, ranging their torch-bearers behind them,
+drew up in their several ranks on the two opposite sides of the hall,
+so that the Romans confronting the Britons, and the Saxons the Normans,
+seemed to look on each other with eyes of wonder, which presently
+appeared to kindle into anger, expressed by menacing gestures. At the
+burst of a strain of martial music from the gallery the maskers drew
+their swords on all sides, and advanced against each other in the
+measured steps of a sort of Pyrrhic or military dance, clashing their
+swords against their adversaries' shields, and clattering them against
+their blades as they passed each other in the progress of the dance. It
+was a very pleasant spectacle to see how the various bands, preserving
+regularity amid motions which seemed to be totally irregular, mixed
+together, and then disengaging themselves, resumed each their own
+original rank as the music varied.
+
+In this symbolical dance were represented the conflicts which had taken
+place among the various nations which had anciently inhabited Britain.
+
+At length, after many mazy evolutions, which afforded great pleasure to
+the spectators, the sound of a loud-voiced trumpet was heard, as if
+it blew for instant battle, or for victory won. The maskers instantly
+ceased their mimic strife, and collecting themselves under their
+original leaders, or presenters, for such was the appropriate phrase,
+seemed to share the anxious expectation which the spectators experienced
+concerning what was next to appear.
+
+The doors of the hall were thrown wide, and no less a person entered
+than the fiend-born Merlin, dressed in a strange and mystical attire,
+suited to his ambiguous birth and magical power.
+
+About him and behind him fluttered or gambolled many extraordinary
+forms, intended to represent the spirits who waited to do his powerful
+bidding; and so much did this part of the pageant interest the menials
+and others of the lower class then in the Castle, that many of them
+forgot even the reverence due to the Queen's presence, so far as to
+thrust themselves into the lower part of the hall.
+
+The Earl of Leicester, seeing his officers had some difficulty to repel
+these intruders, without more disturbance than was fitting where the
+Queen was in presence, arose and went himself to the bottom of the
+hall; Elizabeth, at the same time, with her usual feeling for the common
+people, requesting that they might be permitted to remain undisturbed
+to witness the pageant. Leicester went under this pretext; but his real
+motive was to gain a moment to himself, and to relieve his mind, were it
+but for one instant, from the dreadful task of hiding, under the guise
+of gaiety and gallantry, the lacerating pangs of shame, anger, remorse,
+and thirst for vengeance. He imposed silence by his look and sign upon
+the vulgar crowd at the lower end of the apartment; but instead of
+instantly returning to wait on her Majesty, he wrapped his cloak around
+him, and mixing with the crowd, stood in some degree an undistinguished
+spectator of the progress of the masque.
+
+Merlin having entered, and advanced into the midst of the hall, summoned
+the presenters of the contending bands around him by a wave of his
+magical rod, and announced to them, in a poetical speech, that the isle
+of Britain was now commanded by a Royal Maiden, to whom it was the will
+of fate that they should all do homage, and request of her to pronounce
+on the various pretensions which each set forth to be esteemed the
+pre-eminent stock, from which the present natives, the happy subjects of
+that angelical Princess, derived their lineage.
+
+In obedience to this mandate, the bands, each moving to solemn music,
+passed in succession before Elizabeth, doing her, as they passed, each
+after the fashion of the people whom they represented, the lowest
+and most devotional homage, which she returned with the same gracious
+courtesy that had marked her whole conduct since she came to Kenilworth.
+
+The presenters of the several masques or quadrilles then alleged, each
+in behalf of his own troop, the reasons which they had for claiming
+pre-eminence over the rest; and when they had been all heard in turn,
+she returned them this gracious answer: "That she was sorry she was not
+better qualified to decide upon the doubtful question which had been
+propounded to her by the direction of the famous Merlin, but that it
+seemed to her that no single one of these celebrated nations could claim
+pre-eminence over the others, as having most contributed to form the
+Englishman of her own time, who unquestionably derived from each of them
+some worthy attribute of his character. Thus," she said, "the Englishman
+had from the ancient Briton his bold and tameless spirit of freedom;
+from the Roman his disciplined courage in war, with his love of letters
+and civilization in time of peace; from the Saxon his wise and equitable
+laws; and from the chivalrous Norman his love of honour and courtesy,
+with his generous desire for glory."
+
+Merlin answered with readiness that it did indeed require that so many
+choice qualities should meet in the English, as might render them in
+some measure the muster of the perfections of other nations, since that
+alone could render them in some degree deserving of the blessings they
+enjoyed under the reign of England's Elizabeth.
+
+The music then sounded, and the quadrilles, together with Merlin and his
+assistants, had begun to remove from the crowded hall, when Leicester,
+who was, as we have mentioned, stationed for the moment near the bottom
+of the hall, and consequently engaged in some degree in the crowd, felt
+himself pulled by the cloak, while a voice whispered in his ear, "My
+Lord, I do desire some instant conference with you."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+     How is't with me, when every noise appals me?  --MACBETH.
+
+"I desire some conference with you." The words were simple in
+themselves, but Lord Leicester was in that alarmed and feverish state
+of mind when the most ordinary occurrences seem fraught with alarming
+import; and he turned hastily round to survey the person by whom
+they had been spoken. There was nothing remarkable in the speaker's
+appearance, which consisted of a black silk doublet and short mantle,
+with a black vizard on his face; for it appeared he had been among the
+crowd of masks who had thronged into the hall in the retinue of Merlin,
+though he did not wear any of the extravagant disguises by which most of
+them were distinguished.
+
+"Who are you, or what do you want with me?" said Leicester, not without
+betraying, by his accents, the hurried state of his spirits.
+
+"No evil, my lord," answered the mask, "but much good and honour, if
+you will rightly understand my purpose. But I must speak with you more
+privately."
+
+"I can speak with no nameless stranger," answered Leicester, dreading he
+knew not precisely what from the request of the stranger; "and those
+who are known to me must seek another and a fitter time to ask an
+interview."
+
+He would have hurried away, but the mask still detained him.
+
+"Those who talk to your lordship of what your own honour demands have a
+right over your time, whatever occupations you may lay aside in order to
+indulge them."
+
+"How! my honour? Who dare impeach it?" said Leicester.
+
+"Your own conduct alone can furnish grounds for accusing it, my lord,
+and it is that topic on which I would speak with you."
+
+"You are insolent," said Leicester, "and abuse the hospitable license
+of the time, which prevents me from having you punished. I demand your
+name!"
+
+"Edmund Tressilian of Cornwall," answered the mask. "My tongue has been
+bound by a promise for four-and-twenty hours. The space is passed,--I
+now speak, and do your lordship the justice to address myself first to
+you."
+
+The thrill of astonishment which had penetrated to Leicester's very
+heart at hearing that name pronounced by the voice of the man he most
+detested, and by whom he conceived himself so deeply injured, at first
+rendered him immovable, but instantly gave way to such a thirst for
+revenge as the pilgrim in the desert feels for the water-brooks. He had
+but sense and self-government enough left to prevent his stabbing to
+the heart the audacious villain, who, after the ruin he had brought
+upon him, dared, with such unmoved assurance, thus to practise upon
+him further. Determined to suppress for the moment every symptom of
+agitation, in order to perceive the full scope of Tressilian's purpose,
+as well as to secure his own vengeance, he answered in a tone so altered
+by restrained passion as scarce to be intelligible, "And what does
+Master Edmund Tressilian require at my hand?"
+
+"Justice, my lord," answered Tressilian, calmly but firmly.
+
+"Justice," said Leicester, "all men are entitled to. YOU, Master
+Tressilian, are peculiarly so, and be assured you shall have it."
+
+"I expect nothing less from your nobleness," answered Tressilian; "but
+time presses, and I must speak with you to-night. May I wait on you in
+your chamber?"
+
+"No," answered Leicester sternly, "not under a roof, and that roof mine
+own. We will meet under the free cope of heaven."
+
+"You are discomposed or displeased, my lord," replied Tressilian; "yet
+there is no occasion for distemperature. The place is equal to me, so
+you allow me one half-hour of your time uninterrupted."
+
+"A shorter time will, I trust, suffice," answered Leicester. "Meet me in
+the Pleasance when the Queen has retired to her chamber."
+
+"Enough," said Tressilian, and withdrew; while a sort of rapture seemed
+for the moment to occupy the mind of Leicester.
+
+"Heaven," he said, "is at last favourable to me, and has put within my
+reach the wretch who has branded me with this deep ignominy--who has
+inflicted on me this cruel agony. I will blame fate no more, since I am
+afforded the means of tracing the wiles by which he means still further
+to practise on me, and then of at once convicting and punishing his
+villainy. To my task--to my task! I will not sink under it now, since
+midnight, at farthest, will bring me vengeance."
+
+While these reflections thronged through Leicester's mind, he again made
+his way amid the obsequious crowd, which divided to give him passage,
+and resumed his place, envied and admired, beside the person of his
+Sovereign. But could the bosom of him thus admired and envied have been
+laid open before the inhabitants of that crowded hall, with all its dark
+thoughts of guilty ambition, blighted affection, deep vengeance, and
+conscious sense of meditated cruelty, crossing each other like spectres
+in the circle of some foul enchantress, which of them, from the most
+ambitious noble in the courtly circle down to the most wretched menial
+who lived by shifting of trenchers, would have desired to change
+characters with the favourite of Elizabeth, and the Lord of Kenilworth?
+
+New tortures awaited him as soon as he had rejoined Elizabeth.
+
+"You come in time, my lord," she said, "to decide a dispute between us
+ladies. Here has Sir Richard Varney asked our permission to depart from
+the Castle with his infirm lady, having, as he tells us, your lordship's
+consent to his absence, so he can obtain ours. Certes, we have no will
+to withhold him from the affectionate charge of this poor young person;
+but you are to know that Sir Richard Varney hath this day shown himself
+so much captivated with these ladies of ours, that here is our Duchess
+of Rutland says he will carry his poor insane wife no farther than the
+lake, plunge her in to tenant the crystal palaces that the enchanted
+nymph told us of, and return a jolly widower, to dry his tears and to
+make up the loss among our train. How say you, my lord? We have seen
+Varney under two or three different guises--you know what are his proper
+attributes--think you he is capable of playing his lady such a knave's
+trick?"
+
+Leicester was confounded, but the danger was urgent, and a reply
+absolutely necessary. "The ladies," he said, "think too lightly of one
+of their own sex, in supposing she could deserve such a fate; or too ill
+of ours, to think it could be inflicted upon an innocent female."
+
+"Hear him, my ladies," said Elizabeth; "like all his sex, he would
+excuse their cruelty by imputing fickleness to us."
+
+"Say not US, madam," replied the Earl. "We say that meaner women, like
+the lesser lights of heaven, have revolutions and phases; but who shall
+impute mutability to the sun, or to Elizabeth?"
+
+The discourse presently afterwards assumed a less perilous tendency, and
+Leicester continued to support his part in it with spirit, at whatever
+expense of mental agony. So pleasing did it seem to Elizabeth, that the
+Castle bell had sounded midnight ere she retired from the company, a
+circumstance unusual in her quiet and regular habits of disposing of
+time. Her departure was, of course, the signal for breaking up the
+company, who dispersed to their several places of repose, to dream over
+the pastimes of the day, or to anticipate those of the morrow.
+
+The unfortunate Lord of the Castle, and founder of the proud festival,
+retired to far different thoughts. His direction to the valet who
+attended him was to send Varney instantly to his apartment. The
+messenger returned after some delay, and informed him that an hour had
+elapsed since Sir Richard Varney had left the Castle by the postern gate
+with three other persons, one of whom was transported in a horse-litter.
+
+"How came he to leave the Castle after the watch was set?" said
+Leicester. "I thought he went not till daybreak."
+
+"He gave satisfactory reasons, as I understand," said the domestic, "to
+the guard, and, as I hear, showed your lordship's signet--"
+
+"True--true," said the Earl; "yet he has been hasty. Do any of his
+attendants remain behind?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne, my lord," said the valet, "was not to be found when
+Sir Richard Varney departed, and his master was much incensed at his
+absence. I saw him but now saddling his horse to gallop after his
+master."
+
+"Bid him come hither instantly," said Leicester; "I have a message to
+his master."
+
+The servant left the apartment, and Leicester traversed it for some time
+in deep meditation. "Varney is over-zealous," he said, "over-pressing.
+He loves me, I think; but he hath his own ends to serve, and he is
+inexorable in pursuit of them. If I rise, he rises; and he hath shown
+himself already but too, eager to rid me of this obstacle which seems
+to stand betwixt me and sovereignty. Yet I will not stoop to bear this
+disgrace. She shall be punished, but it shall be more advisedly. I
+already feel, even in anticipation, that over-haste would light the
+flames of hell in my bosom. No--one victim is enough at once, and that
+victim already waits me."
+
+He seized upon writing materials, and hastily traced these words:--
+
+"Sir Richard Varney, we have resolved to defer the matter entrusted to
+your care, and strictly command you to proceed no further in relation
+to our Countess until our further order. We also command your instant
+return to Kenilworth as soon as you have safely bestowed that with which
+you are entrusted. But if the safe-placing of your present charge shall
+detain you longer than we think for, we command you in that case to send
+back our signet-ring by a trusty and speedy messenger, we having present
+need of the same. And requiring your strict obedience in these things,
+and commending you to God's keeping, we rest your assured good friend
+and master,
+
+"R. LEICESTER. "Given at our Castle of Kenilworth, the tenth of July, in
+the year of Salvation one thousand five hundred and seventy-five."
+
+As Leicester had finished and sealed this mandate, Michael Lambourne,
+booted up to mid-thigh, having his riding-cloak girthed around him
+with a broad belt, and a felt cap on his head, like that of a courier,
+entered his apartment, ushered in by the valet.
+
+"What is thy capacity of service?" said the Earl.
+
+"Equerry to your lordship's master of the horse," answered Lambourne,
+with his customary assurance.
+
+"Tie up thy saucy tongue, sir," said Leicester; "the jests that may suit
+Sir Richard Varney's presence suit not mine. How soon wilt thou overtake
+thy master?"
+
+"In one hour's riding, my lord, if man and horse hold good," said
+Lambourne, with an instant alteration of demeanour, from an approach to
+familiarity to the deepest respect. The Earl measured him with his eye
+from top to toe.
+
+"I have heard of thee," he said "men say thou art a prompt fellow in
+thy service, but too much given to brawling and to wassail to be trusted
+with things of moment."
+
+"My lord," said Lambourne, "I have been soldier, sailor, traveller, and
+adventurer; and these are all trades in which men enjoy to-day, because
+they have no surety of to-morrow. But though I may misuse mine own
+leisure, I have never neglected the duty I owe my master."
+
+"See that it be so in this instance," said Leicester, "and it shall do
+thee good. Deliver this letter speedily and carefully into Sir Richard
+Varney's hands."
+
+"Does my commission reach no further?" said Lambourne.
+
+"No," answered Leicester; "but it deeply concerns me that it be
+carefully as well as hastily executed."
+
+"I will spare neither care nor horse-flesh," answered Lambourne, and
+immediately took his leave.
+
+"So, this is the end of my private audience, from which I hoped so
+much!" he muttered to himself, as he went through the long gallery, and
+down the back staircase. "Cogs bones! I thought the Earl had wanted a
+cast of mine office in some secret intrigue, and it all ends in carrying
+a letter! Well, his pleasure shall be done, however; and as his lordship
+well says, it may do me good another time. The child must creep ere he
+walk, and so must your infant courtier. I will have a look into
+this letter, however, which he hath sealed so sloven-like." Having
+accomplished this, he clapped his hands together in ecstasy, exclaiming,
+"The Countess the Countess! I have the secret that shall make or mar
+me.--But come forth, Bayard," he added, leading his horse into the
+courtyard, "for your flanks and my spurs must be presently acquainted."
+
+Lambourne mounted, accordingly, and left the Castle by the postern gate,
+where his free passage was permitted, in consequence of a message to
+that effect left by Sir Richard Varney.
+
+As soon as Lambourne and the valet had left the apartment, Leicester
+proceeded to change his dress for a very plain one, threw his mantle
+around him, and taking a lamp in his hand, went by the private passage
+of communication to a small secret postern door which opened into the
+courtyard, near to the entrance of the Pleasance. His reflections were
+of a more calm and determined character than they had been at any late
+period, and he endeavoured to claim, even in his own eyes, the character
+of a man more sinned against than sinning.
+
+"I have suffered the deepest injury," such was the tenor of his
+meditations, "yet I have restricted the instant revenge which was in my
+power, and have limited it to that which is manly and noble. But shall
+the union which this false woman has this day disgraced remain an
+abiding fetter on me, to check me in the noble career to which my
+destinies invite me? No; there are other means of disengaging such ties,
+without unloosing the cords of life. In the sight of God, I am no longer
+bound by the union she has broken. Kingdoms shall divide us, oceans roll
+betwixt us, and their waves, whose abysses have swallowed whole navies,
+shall be the sole depositories of the deadly mystery."
+
+By such a train of argument did Leicester labour to reconcile his
+conscience to the prosecution of plans of vengeance, so hastily adopted,
+and of schemes of ambition, which had become so woven in with every
+purpose and action of his life that he was incapable of the effort of
+relinquishing them, until his revenge appeared to him to wear a face of
+justice, and even of generous moderation.
+
+In this mood the vindictive and ambitious Earl entered the superb
+precincts of the Pleasance, then illumined by the full moon. The broad,
+yellow light was reflected on all sides from the white freestone, of
+which the pavement, balustrades, and architectural ornaments of the
+place were constructed; and not a single fleecy cloud was visible in the
+azure sky, so that the scene was nearly as light as if the sun had but
+just left the horizon. The numerous statues of white marble glimmered
+in the pale light like so many sheeted ghosts just arisen from their
+sepulchres, and the fountains threw their jets into the air as if they
+sought that their waters should be brightened by the moonbeams ere they
+fell down again upon their basins in showers of sparkling silver. The
+day had been sultry, and the gentle night-breeze which sighed along the
+terrace of the Pleasance raised not a deeper breath than the fan in the
+hand of youthful beauty. The bird of summer night had built many a nest
+in the bowers of the adjacent garden, and the tenants now indemnified
+themselves for silence during the day by a full chorus of their
+own unrivalled warblings, now joyous, now pathetic, now united, now
+responsive to each other, as if to express their delight in the placid
+and delicious scene to which they poured their melody.
+
+Musing on matters far different from the fall of waters, the gleam of
+moonlight, or the song of the nightingale, the stately Leicester walked
+slowly from the one end of the terrace to the other, his cloak wrapped
+around him, and his sword under his arm, without seeing anything
+resembling the human form.
+
+"I have been fooled by my own generosity," he said, "if I have suffered
+the villain to escape me--ay, and perhaps to go to the rescue of the
+adulteress, who is so poorly guarded."
+
+These were his thoughts, which were instantly dispelled when, turning
+to look back towards the entrance, he saw a human form advancing slowly
+from the portico, and darkening the various objects with its shadow, as
+passing them successively, in its approach towards him.
+
+"Shall I strike ere I again hear his detested voice?" was Leicester's
+thought, as he grasped the hilt of the sword. "But no! I will see which
+way his vile practice tends. I will watch, disgusting as it is, the
+coils and mazes of the loathsome snake, ere I put forth my strength and
+crush him."
+
+His hand quitted the sword-hilt, and he advanced slowly towards
+Tressilian, collecting, for their meeting, all the self-possession he
+could command, until they came front to front with each other.
+
+Tressilian made a profound reverence, to which the Earl replied with
+a haughty inclination of the head, and the words, "You sought secret
+conference with me, sir; I am here, and attentive."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "I am so earnest in that which I have to
+say, and so desirous to find a patient, nay, a favourable hearing, that
+I will stoop to exculpate myself from whatever might prejudice your
+lordship against me. You think me your enemy?"
+
+"Have I not some apparent cause?" answered Leicester, perceiving that
+Tressilian paused for a reply.
+
+"You do me wrong, my lord. I am a friend, but neither a dependant nor
+partisan, of the Earl of Sussex, whom courtiers call your rival; and it
+is some considerable time since I ceased to consider either courts or
+court intrigues as suited to my temper or genius."
+
+"No doubt, sir," answered Leicester "there are other occupations more
+worthy a scholar, and for such the world holds Master Tressilian. Love
+has his intrigues as well as ambition."
+
+"I perceive, my lord," replied Tressilian, "you give much weight to my
+early attachment for the unfortunate young person of whom I am about to
+speak, and perhaps think I am prosecuting her cause out of rivalry, more
+than a sense of justice."
+
+"No matter for my thoughts, sir," said the Earl; "proceed. You have as
+yet spoken of yourself only--an important and worthy subject doubtless,
+but which, perhaps, does not altogether so deeply concern me that I
+should postpone my repose to hear it. Spare me further prelude, sir, and
+speak to the purpose if indeed you have aught to say that concerns me.
+When you have done, I, in my turn, have something to communicate."
+
+"I will speak, then, without further prelude, my lord," answered
+Tressilian, "having to say that which, as it concerns your lordship's
+honour, I am confident you will not think your time wasted in listening
+to. I have to request an account from your lordship of the unhappy Amy
+Robsart, whose history is too well known to you. I regret deeply that I
+did not at once take this course, and make yourself judge between me and
+the villain by whom she is injured. My lord, she extricated herself
+from an unlawful and most perilous state of confinement, trusting to the
+effects of her own remonstrance upon her unworthy husband, and extorted
+from me a promise that I would not interfere in her behalf until she had
+used her own efforts to have her rights acknowledged by him."
+
+"Ha," said Leicester, "remember you to whom you speak?"
+
+"I speak of her unworthy husband, my lord," repeated Tressilian, "and
+my respect can find no softer language. The unhappy young woman is
+withdrawn from my knowledge, and sequestered in some secret place of
+this Castle--if she be not transferred to some place of seclusion better
+fitted for bad designs. This must be reformed, my lord--I speak it as
+authorized by her father--and this ill-fated marriage must be avouched
+and proved in the Queen's presence, and the lady placed without
+restraint and at her own free disposal. And permit me to say it concerns
+no one's honour that these most just demands of mine should be complied
+with so much as it does that of your lordship."
+
+The Earl stood as if he had been petrified at the extreme coolness
+with which the man, whom he considered as having injured him so deeply,
+pleaded the cause of his criminal paramour, as if she had been an
+innocent woman and he a disinterested advocate; nor was his wonder
+lessened by the warmth with which Tressilian seemed to demand for her
+the rank and situation which she had disgraced, and the advantages of
+which she was doubtless to share with the lover who advocated her cause
+with such effrontery. Tressilian had been silent for more than a
+minute ere the Earl recovered from the excess of his astonishment; and
+considering the prepossessions with which his mind was occupied, there
+is little wonder that his passion gained the mastery of every other
+consideration. "I have heard you, Master Tressilian," said he, "without
+interruption, and I bless God that my ears were never before made to
+tingle by the words of so frontless a villain. The task of chastising
+you is fitter for the hangman's scourge than the sword of a nobleman,
+but yet--Villain, draw and defend thyself!"
+
+As he spoke the last words, he dropped his mantle on the ground, struck
+Tressilian smartly with his sheathed sword, and instantly drawing his
+rapier, put himself into a posture of assault. The vehement fury of his
+language at first filled Tressilian, in his turn, with surprise equal
+to what Leicester had felt when he addressed him. But astonishment gave
+place to resentment when the unmerited insults of his language were
+followed by a blow which immediately put to flight every thought save
+that of instant combat. Tressilian's sword was instantly drawn; and
+though perhaps somewhat inferior to Leicester in the use of the weapon,
+he understood it well enough to maintain the contest with great spirit,
+the rather that of the two he was for the time the more cool, since he
+could not help imputing Leicester's conduct either to actual frenzy or
+to the influence of some strong delusion.
+
+The rencontre had continued for several minutes, without either party
+receiving a wound, when of a sudden voices were heard beneath the
+portico which formed the entrance of the terrace, mingled with the steps
+of men advancing hastily. "We are interrupted," said Leicester to his
+antagonist; "follow me."
+
+At the same time a voice from the portico said, "The jackanape is
+right--they are tilting here."
+
+Leicester, meanwhile, drew off Tressilian into a sort of recess behind
+one of the fountains, which served to conceal them, while six of
+the yeomen of the Queen's guard passed along the middle walk of the
+Pleasance, and they could hear one say to the rest, "We shall never find
+them to-night among all these squirting funnels, squirrel cages, and
+rabbit-holes; but if we light not on them before we reach the farther
+end, we will return, and mount a guard at the entrance, and so secure
+them till morning."
+
+"A proper matter," said another, "the drawing of swords so near the
+Queen's presence, ay, and in her very palace as 'twere! Hang it, they
+must be some poor drunken game-cocks fallen to sparring--'twere pity
+almost we should find them--the penalty is chopping off a hand, is it
+not?--'twere hard to lose hand for handling a bit of steel, that comes
+so natural to one's gripe."
+
+"Thou art a brawler thyself, George," said another; "but take heed, for
+the law stands as thou sayest."
+
+"Ay," said the first, "an the act be not mildly construed; for thou
+knowest 'tis not the Queen's palace, but my Lord of Leicester's."
+
+"Why, for that matter, the penalty may be as severe," said another "for
+an our gracious Mistress be Queen, as she is, God save her, my Lord of
+Leicester is as good as King."
+
+"Hush, thou knave!" said a third; "how knowest thou who may be within
+hearing?"
+
+They passed on, making a kind of careless search, but seemingly more
+intent on their own conversation than bent on discovering the persons
+who had created the nocturnal disturbance.
+
+They had no sooner passed forward along the terrace, than Leicester,
+making a sign to Tressilian to follow him, glided away in an opposite
+direction, and escaped through the portico undiscovered. He conducted
+Tressilian to Mervyn's Tower, in which he was now again lodged; and
+then, ere parting with him, said these words, "If thou hast courage to
+continue and bring to an end what is thus broken off, be near me when
+the court goes forth to-morrow; we shall find a time, and I will give
+you a signal when it is fitting."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "at another time I might have inquired the
+meaning of this strange and furious inveteracy against me. But you have
+laid that on my shoulder which only blood can wash away; and were you
+as high as your proudest wishes ever carried you, I would have from you
+satisfaction for my wounded honour."
+
+On these terms they parted, but the adventures of the night were not yet
+ended with Leicester. He was compelled to pass by Saintlowe's Tower, in
+order to gain the private passage which led to his own chamber; and in
+the entrance thereof he met Lord Hunsdon half clothed, and with a naked
+sword under his arm.
+
+"Are you awakened, too, with this 'larum, my Lord of Leicester?" said
+the old soldier. "'Tis well. By gog's nails, the nights are as noisy as
+the day in this Castle of yours. Some two hours since I was waked by
+the screams of that poor brain-sick Lady Varney, whom her husband
+was forcing away. I promise you it required both your warrant and the
+Queen's to keep me from entering into the game, and cutting that Varney
+of yours over the head. And now there is a brawl down in the Pleasance,
+or what call you the stone terrace-walk where all yonder gimcracks
+stand?"
+
+The first part of the old man's speech went through the Earl's heart
+like a knife; to the last he answered that he himself had heard the
+clash of swords, and had come down to take order with those who had been
+so insolent so near the Queen's presence.
+
+"Nay, then," said Hunsdon, "I will be glad of your lordship's company."
+
+Leicester was thus compelled to turn back with the rough old Lord to the
+Pleasance, where Hunsdon heard from the yeomen of the guard, who were
+under his immediate command, the unsuccessful search they had made for
+the authors of the disturbance; and bestowed for their pains some round
+dozen of curses on them, as lazy knaves and blind whoresons. Leicester
+also thought it necessary to seem angry that no discovery had been
+effected; but at length suggested to Lord Hunsdon, that after all it
+could only be some foolish young men who had been drinking healths
+pottle-deep, and who should be sufficiently scared by the search which
+had taken place after them. Hunsdon, who was himself attached to his
+cup, allowed that a pint-flagon might cover many of the follies which it
+had caused, "But," added he, "unless your lordship will be less liberal
+in your housekeeping, and restrain the overflow of ale, and wine, and
+wassail, I foresee it will end in my having some of these good fellows
+into the guard-house, and treating them to a dose of the strappado. And
+with this warning, good night to you."
+
+Joyful at being rid of his company, Leicester took leave of him at the
+entrance of his lodging, where they had first met, and entering the
+private passage, took up the lamp which he had left there, and by its
+expiring light found the way to his own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+     Room!  room!  for my horse will wince
+     If he comes within so many yards of a prince;
+     For to tell you true, and in rhyme,
+     He was foal'd in Queen Elizabeth's time;
+     When the great Earl of Lester
+     In his castle did feast her.
+     --BEN JONSON, MASQUE OF OWLS.
+
+The amusement with which Elizabeth and her court were next day to be
+regaled was an exhibition by the true-hearted men of Coventry, who were
+to represent the strife between the English and the Danes, agreeably
+to a custom long preserved in their ancient borough, and warranted for
+truth by old histories and chronicles. In this pageant one party of the
+townsfolk presented the Saxons and the other the Danes, and set forth,
+both in rude rhymes and with hard blows, the contentions of these two
+fierce nations, and the Amazonian courage of the English women, who,
+according to the story, were the principal agents in the general
+massacre of the Danes, which took place at Hocktide, in the year of God
+1012. This sport, which had been long a favourite pastime with the
+men of Coventry, had, it seems, been put down by the influence of
+some zealous clergymen of the more precise cast, who chanced to have
+considerable influence with the magistrates. But the generality of the
+inhabitants had petitioned the Queen that they might have their play
+again, and be honoured with permission to represent it before her
+Highness. And when the matter was canvassed in the little council which
+usually attended the Queen for dispatch of business, the proposal,
+although opposed by some of the stricter sort, found favour in the eyes
+of Elizabeth, who said that such toys occupied, without offence, the
+minds of many who, lacking them, might find worse subjects of pastime;
+and that their pastors, however commendable for learning and godliness,
+were somewhat too sour in preaching against the pastimes of their flocks
+and so the pageant was permitted to proceed.
+
+Accordingly, after a morning repast, which Master Laneham calls an
+ambrosial breakfast, the principal persons of the court in attendance
+upon her Majesty pressed to the Gallery-tower, to witness the approach
+of the two contending parties of English and Danes; and after a signal
+had been given, the gate which opened in the circuit of the Chase was
+thrown wide to admit them. On they came, foot and horse; for some of
+the more ambitious burghers and yeomen had put themselves into fantastic
+dresses, imitating knights, in order to resemble the chivalry of the two
+different nations. However, to prevent fatal accidents, they were not
+permitted to appear on real horses, but had only license to accoutre
+themselves with those hobby-horses, as they are called, which anciently
+formed the chief delight of a morrice-dance, and which still are
+exhibited on the stage, in the grand battle fought at the conclusion
+of Mr. Bayes's tragedy. The infantry followed in similar disguises.
+The whole exhibition was to be considered as a sort of anti-masque, or
+burlesque of the more stately pageants in which the nobility and gentry
+bore part in the show, and, to the best of their knowledge, imitated
+with accuracy the personages whom they represented. The Hocktide play
+was of a different character, the actors being persons of inferior
+degree, and their habits the better fitted for the occasion, the more
+incongruous and ridiculous that they were in themselves. Accordingly
+their array, which the progress of our tale allows us no time to
+describe, was ludicrous enough; and their weapons, though sufficiently
+formidable to deal sound blows, were long alder-poles instead of lances,
+and sound cudgels for swords; and for fence, both cavalry and infantry
+were well equipped with stout headpieces and targets, both made of thick
+leather.
+
+Captain Coxe, that celebrated humorist of Coventry, whose library of
+ballads, almanacs, and penny histories, fairly wrapped up in parchment,
+and tied round for security with a piece of whipcord, remains still
+the envy of antiquaries, being himself the ingenious person under
+whose direction the pageant had been set forth, rode valiantly on his
+hobby-horse before the bands of English, high-trussed, saith Laneham,
+and brandishing his long sword, as became an experienced man of war, who
+had fought under the Queen's father, bluff King Henry, at the siege of
+Boulogne. This chieftain was, as right and reason craved, the first to
+enter the lists, and passing the Gallery at the head of his myrmidons,
+kissed the hilt of his sword to the Queen, and executed at the same
+time a gambade, the like whereof had never been practised by two-legged
+hobby-horse. Then passing on with all his followers of cavaliers and
+infantry, he drew them up with martial skill at the opposite extremity
+of the bridge, or tilt-yard, until his antagonist should be fairly
+prepared for the onset.
+
+This was no long interval; for the Danish cavalry and infantry, no way
+inferior to the English in number, valour, and equipment, instantly
+arrived, with the northern bagpipe blowing before them in token of their
+country, and headed by a cunning master of defence, only inferior to the
+renowned Captain Coxe, if to him, in the discipline of war. The Danes,
+as invaders, took their station under the Gallery-tower, and opposite
+to that of Mortimer; and when their arrangements were completely made, a
+signal was given for the encounter.
+
+Their first charge upon each other was rather moderate, for either party
+had some dread of being forced into the lake. But as reinforcements came
+up on either side, the encounter grew from a skirmish into a blazing
+battle. They rushed upon one another, as Master Laneham testifies, like
+rams inflamed by jealousy, with such furious encounter that both parties
+were often overthrown, and the clubs and targets made a most horrible
+clatter. In many instances that happened which had been dreaded by the
+more experienced warriors who began the day of strife. The rails which
+defended the ledges of the bridge had been, perhaps on purpose, left but
+slightly fastened, and gave way under the pressure of those who thronged
+to the combat, so that the hot courage of many of the combatants
+received a sufficient cooling. These incidents might have occasioned
+more serious damage than became such an affray, for many of the
+champions who met with this mischance could not swim, and those who
+could were encumbered with their suits of leathern and of paper armour;
+but the case had been provided for, and there were several boats in
+readiness to pick up the unfortunate warriors and convey them to the dry
+land, where, dripping and dejected, they comforted themselves with the
+hot ale and strong waters which were liberally allowed to them, without
+showing any desire to re-enter so desperate a conflict.
+
+Captain Coxe alone, that paragon of Black-Letter antiquaries, after
+twice experiencing, horse and man, the perilous leap from the bridge
+into the lake, equal to any extremity to which the favourite heroes of
+chivalry, whose exploits he studied in an abridged form, whether Amadis,
+Belianis, Bevis, or his own Guy of Warwick, had ever been subjected
+to--Captain Coxe, we repeat, did alone, after two such mischances, rush
+again into the heat of conflict, his bases and the footcloth of his
+hobby-horse dropping water, and twice reanimated by voice and example
+the drooping spirits of the English; so that at last their victory over
+the Danish invaders became, as was just and reasonable, complete and
+decisive. Worthy he was to be rendered immortal by the pen of Ben
+Jonson, who, fifty years afterwards, deemed that a masque, exhibited at
+Kenilworth, could be ushered in by none with so much propriety as by the
+ghost of Captain Coxe, mounted upon his redoubted hobby-horse.
+
+These rough, rural gambols may not altogether agree with the reader's
+preconceived idea of an entertainment presented before Elizabeth, in
+whose reign letters revived with such brilliancy, and whose court,
+governed by a female whose sense of propriety was equal to her strength
+of mind, was no less distinguished for delicacy and refinement than her
+councils for wisdom and fortitude. But whether from the political wish
+to seem interested in popular sports, or whether from a spark of old
+Henry's rough, masculine spirit, which Elizabeth sometimes displayed,
+it is certain the Queen laughed heartily at the imitation, or rather
+burlesque, of chivalry which was presented in the Coventry play. She
+called near her person the Earl of Sussex and Lord Hunsdon, partly
+perhaps to make amends to the former for the long and private audiences
+with which she had indulged the Earl of Leicester, by engaging him in
+conversation upon a pastime which better suited his taste than those
+pageants that were furnished forth from the stores of antiquity. The
+disposition which the Queen showed to laugh and jest with her military
+leaders gave the Earl of Leicester the opportunity he had been watching
+for withdrawing from the royal presence, which to the court around, so
+well had he chosen his time, had the graceful appearance of leaving his
+rival free access to the Queen's person, instead of availing himself of
+his right as her landlord to stand perpetually betwixt others and the
+light of her countenance.
+
+Leicester's thoughts, however, had a far different object from
+mere courtesy; for no sooner did he see the Queen fairly engaged in
+conversation with Sussex and Hunsdon, behind whose back stood Sir
+Nicholas Blount, grinning from ear to ear at each word which was spoken,
+than, making a sign to Tressilian, who, according to appointment,
+watched his motions at a little distance, he extricated himself from the
+press, and walking towards the Chase, made his way through the crowds of
+ordinary spectators, who, with open mouth, stood gazing on the battle
+of the English and the Danes. When he had accomplished this, which was
+a work of some difficulty, he shot another glance behind him to see that
+Tressilian had been equally successful; and as soon as he saw him also
+free from the crowd, he led the way to a small thicket, behind which
+stood a lackey, with two horses ready saddled. He flung himself on the
+one, and made signs to Tressilian to mount the other, who obeyed without
+speaking a single word.
+
+Leicester then spurred his horse, and galloped without stopping until
+he reached a sequestered spot, environed by lofty oaks, about a mile's
+distance from the Castle, and in an opposite direction from the scene to
+which curiosity was drawing every spectator. He there dismounted, bound
+his horse to a tree, and only pronouncing the words, "Here there is no
+risk of interruption," laid his cloak across his saddle, and drew his
+sword.
+
+Tressilian imitated his example punctually, yet could not forbear
+saying, as he drew his weapon, "My lord, as I have been known to many as
+one who does not fear death when placed in balance with honour, methinks
+I may, without derogation, ask wherefore, in the name of all that is
+honourable, your lordship has dared to offer me such a mark of disgrace
+as places us on these terms with respect to each other?"
+
+"If you like not such marks of my scorn," replied the Earl, "betake
+yourself instantly to your weapon, lest I repeat the usage you complain
+of."
+
+"It shall not need, my lord," said Tressilian. "God judge betwixt us!
+and your blood, if you fall, be on your own head."
+
+He had scarce completed the sentence when they instantly closed in
+combat.
+
+But Leicester, who was a perfect master of defence among all other
+exterior accomplishments of the time, had seen on the preceding night
+enough of Tressilian's strength and skill to make him fight with more
+caution than heretofore, and prefer a secure revenge to a hasty one.
+For some minutes they fought with equal skill and fortune, till, in
+a desperate lunge which Leicester successfully put aside, Tressilian
+exposed himself at disadvantage; and in a subsequent attempt to close,
+the Earl forced his sword from his hand, and stretched him on the
+ground. With a grim smile he held the point of his rapier within two
+inches of the throat of his fallen adversary, and placing his foot at
+the same time upon his breast, bid him confess his villainous wrongs
+towards him, and prepare for death.
+
+"I have no villainy nor wrong towards thee to confess," answered
+Tressilian, "and am better prepared for death than thou. Use thine
+advantage as thou wilt, and may God forgive you! I have given you no
+cause for this."
+
+"No cause!" exclaimed the Earl, "no cause!--but why parley with such a
+slave? Die a liar, as thou hast lived!"
+
+He had withdrawn his arm for the purpose of striking the fatal blow,
+when it was suddenly seized from behind.
+
+The Earl turned in wrath to shake off the unexpected obstacle, but was
+surprised to find that a strange-looking boy had hold of his sword-arm,
+and clung to it with such tenacity of grasp that he could not shake him
+of without a considerable struggle, in the course of which Tressilian
+had opportunity to rise and possess himself once more of his weapon.
+Leicester again turned towards him with looks of unabated ferocity, and
+the combat would have recommenced with still more desperation on both
+sides, had not the boy clung to Lord Leicester's knees, and in a shrill
+tone implored him to listen one moment ere he prosecuted this quarrel.
+
+"Stand up, and let me go," said Leicester, "or, by Heaven, I will pierce
+thee with my rapier! What hast thou to do to bar my way to revenge?"
+
+"Much--much!" exclaimed the undaunted boy, "since my folly has been
+the cause of these bloody quarrels between you, and perchance of worse
+evils. Oh, if you would ever again enjoy the peace of an innocent mind,
+if you hope again to sleep in peace and unhaunted by remorse, take so
+much leisure as to peruse this letter, and then do as you list."
+
+While he spoke in this eager and earnest manner, to which his singular
+features and voice gave a goblin-like effect, he held up to Leicester
+a packet, secured with a long tress of woman's hair of a beautiful
+light-brown colour. Enraged as he was, nay, almost blinded with fury to
+see his destined revenge so strangely frustrated, the Earl of Leicester
+could not resist this extraordinary supplicant. He snatched the letter
+from his hand--changed colour as he looked on the superscription--undid
+with faltering hand the knot which secured it--glanced over the
+contents, and staggering back, would have fallen, had he not rested
+against the trunk of a tree, where he stood for an instant, his eyes
+bent on the letter, and his sword-point turned to the ground, without
+seeming to be conscious of the presence of an antagonist towards whom
+he had shown little mercy, and who might in turn have taken him at
+advantage. But for such revenge Tressilian was too noble-minded. He
+also stood still in surprise, waiting the issue of this strange fit of
+passion, but holding his weapon ready to defend himself in case of need
+against some new and sudden attack on the part of Leicester, whom he
+again suspected to be under the influence of actual frenzy. The boy,
+indeed, he easily recognized as his old acquaintance Dickon, whose face,
+once seen, was scarcely to be forgotten; but how he came hither at so
+critical a moment, why his interference was so energetic, and, above
+all, how it came to produce so powerful an effect upon Leicester, were
+questions which he could not solve.
+
+But the letter was of itself powerful enough to work effects yet more
+wonderful. It was that which the unfortunate Amy had written to her
+husband, in which she alleged the reasons and manner of her flight from
+Cumnor Place, informed him of her having made her way to Kenilworth
+to enjoy his protection, and mentioned the circumstances which had
+compelled her to take refuge in Tressilian's apartment, earnestly
+requesting he would, without delay, assign her a more suitable asylum.
+The letter concluded with the most earnest expressions of devoted
+attachment and submission to his will in all things, and particularly
+respecting her situation and place of residence, conjuring him only that
+she might not be placed under the guardianship or restraint of Varney.
+The letter dropped from Leicester's hand when he had perused it. "Take
+my sword," he said, "Tressilian, and pierce my heart, as I would but now
+have pierced yours!"
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "you have done me great wrong, but something
+within my breast ever whispered that it was by egregious error."
+
+"Error, indeed!" said Leicester, and handed him the letter; "I have been
+made to believe a man of honour a villain, and the best and purest of
+creatures a false profligate.--Wretched boy, why comes this letter now,
+and where has the bearer lingered?"
+
+"I dare not tell you, my lord," said the boy, withdrawing, as if to keep
+beyond his reach; "but here comes one who was the messenger."
+
+Wayland at the same moment came up; and interrogated by Leicester,
+hastily detailed all the circumstances of his escape with Amy, the fatal
+practices which had driven her to flight, and her anxious desire to
+throw herself under the instant protection of her husband--pointing
+out the evidence of the domestics of Kenilworth, "who could not," he
+observed, "but remember her eager inquiries after the Earl of Leicester
+on her first arrival."
+
+"The villains!" exclaimed Leicester; "but oh, that worst of villains,
+Varney!--and she is even now in his power!"
+
+"But not, I trust in God," said Tressilian, "with any commands of fatal
+import?"
+
+"No, no, no!" exclaimed the Earl hastily. "I said something in madness;
+but it was recalled, fully recalled, by a hasty messenger, and she is
+now--she must now be safe."
+
+"Yes," said Tressilian, "she MUST be safe, and I MUST be assured of her
+safety. My own quarrel with you is ended, my lord; but there is another
+to begin with the seducer of Amy Robsart, who has screened his guilt
+under the cloak of the infamous Varney."
+
+"The SEDUCER of Amy!" replied Leicester, with a voice like thunder; "say
+her husband!--her misguided, blinded, most unworthy husband! She is
+as surely Countess of Leicester as I am belted Earl. Nor can you, sir,
+point out that manner of justice which I will not render her at my own
+free will. I need scarce say I fear not your compulsion."
+
+The generous nature of Tressilian was instantly turned from
+consideration of anything personal to himself, and centred at once
+upon Amy's welfare. He had by no means undoubting confidence in the
+fluctuating resolutions of Leicester, whose mind seemed to him agitated
+beyond the government of calm reason; neither did he, notwithstanding
+the assurances he had received, think Amy safe in the hands of his
+dependants. "My lord," he said calmly, "I mean you no offence, and am
+far from seeking a quarrel. But my duty to Sir Hugh Robsart compels me
+to carry this matter instantly to the Queen, that the Countess's rank
+may be acknowledged in her person."
+
+"You shall not need, sir," replied the Earl haughtily; "do not dare
+to interfere. No voice but Dudley's shall proclaim Dudley's infamy. To
+Elizabeth herself will I tell it; and then for Cumnor Place with the
+speed of life and death!"
+
+So saying, he unbound his horse from the tree, threw himself into the
+saddle, and rode at full gallop towards the Castle.
+
+"Take me before you, Master Tressilian," said the boy, seeing Tressilian
+mount in the same haste; "my tale is not all told out, and I need your
+protection."
+
+Tressilian complied, and followed the Earl, though at a less furious
+rate. By the way the boy confessed, with much contrition, that in
+resentment at Wayland's evading all his inquiries concerning the lady,
+after Dickon conceived he had in various ways merited his confidence,
+he had purloined from him in revenge the letter with which Amy had
+entrusted him for the Earl of Leicester. His purpose was to have
+restored it to him that evening, as he reckoned himself sure of meeting
+with him, in consequence of Wayland's having to perform the part of
+Arion in the pageant. He was indeed something alarmed when he saw to
+whom the letter was addressed; but he argued that, as Leicester did
+not return to Kenilworth until that evening, it would be again in the
+possession of the proper messenger as soon as, in the nature of things,
+it could possibly be delivered. But Wayland came not to the pageant,
+having been in the interim expelled by Lambourne from the Castle; and
+the boy, not being able to find him, or to get speech of Tressilian, and
+finding himself in possession of a letter addressed to no less a person
+than the Earl of Leicester, became much afraid of the consequences
+of his frolic. The caution, and indeed the alarm, which Wayland had
+expressed respecting Varney and Lambourne, led him to judge that the
+letter must be designed for the Earl's own hand, and that he might
+prejudice the lady by giving it to any of the domestics. He made an
+attempt or two to obtain an audience of Leicester; but the singularity
+of his features and the meanness of his appearance occasioned his being
+always repulsed by the insolent menials whom he applied to for that
+purpose. Once, indeed, he had nearly succeeded, when, in prowling
+about, he found in the grotto the casket, which he knew to belong to the
+unlucky Countess, having seen it on her journey; for nothing escaped his
+prying eye. Having striven in vain to restore it either to Tressilian
+or the Countess, he put it into the hands, as we have seen, of Leicester
+himself, but unfortunately he did not recognize him in his disguise.
+
+At length the boy thought he was on the point of succeeding when the
+Earl came down to the lower part of the hall; but just as he was about
+to accost him, he was prevented by Tressilian. As sharp in ear as in
+wit, the boy heard the appointment settled betwixt them, to take place
+in the Pleasance, and resolved to add a third to the party, in hope
+that, either in coming or returning, he might find an opportunity of
+delivering the letter to Leicester; for strange stories began to flit
+among the domestics, which alarmed him for the lady's safety. Accident,
+however, detained Dickon a little behind the Earl, and as he reached
+the arcade he saw them engaged in combat; in consequence of which he
+hastened to alarm the guard, having little doubt that what bloodshed
+took place betwixt them might arise out of his own frolic. Continuing to
+lurk in the portico, he heard the second appointment which Leicester at
+parting assigned to Tressilian; and was keeping them in view during
+the encounter of the Coventry men, when, to his surprise, he recognized
+Wayland in the crowd, much disguised, indeed, but not sufficiently so to
+escape the prying glance of his old comrade. They drew aside out of the
+crowd to explain their situation to each other. The boy confessed to
+Wayland what we have above told; and the artist, in return, informed him
+that his deep anxiety for the fate of the unfortunate lady had brought
+him back to the neighbourhood of the Castle, upon his learning
+that morning, at a village about ten miles distant, that Varney
+and Lambourne, whose violence he dreaded, had both left Kenilworth
+over-night.
+
+While they spoke, they saw Leicester and Tressilian separate themselves
+from the crowd, dogged them until they mounted their horses, when the
+boy, whose speed of foot has been before mentioned, though he could not
+possibly keep up with them, yet arrived, as we have seen, soon enough
+to save Tressilian's life. The boy had just finished his tale when they
+arrived at the Gallery-tower.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+     High o'er the eastern steep the sun is beaming,
+     And darkness flies with her deceitful shadows;--
+     So truth prevails o'er falsehood.   --OLD PLAY.
+
+As Tressilian rode along the bridge, lately the scene of so much riotous
+sport, he could not but observe that men's countenances had singularly
+changed during the space of his brief absence. The mock fight was over,
+but the men, still habited in their masking suits, stood together in
+groups, like the inhabitants of a city who have been just startled by
+some strange and alarming news.
+
+When he reached the base-court, appearances were the same--domestics,
+retainers, and under-officers stood together and whispered, bending
+their eyes towards the windows of the Great Hall, with looks which
+seemed at once alarmed and mysterious.
+
+Sir Nicholas Blount was the first person of his own particular
+acquaintance Tressilian saw, who left him no time to make inquiries, but
+greeted him with, "God help thy heart, Tressilian! thou art fitter for a
+clown than a courtier thou canst not attend, as becomes one who follows
+her Majesty. Here you are called for, wished for, waited for--no man but
+you will serve the turn; and hither you come with a misbegotten brat on
+thy horse's neck, as if thou wert dry nurse to some sucking devil, and
+wert just returned from airing."
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" said Tressilian, letting go the boy, who
+sprung to ground like a feather, and himself dismounting at the same
+time.
+
+"Why, no one knows the matter," replied Blount; "I cannot smell it out
+myself, though I have a nose like other courtiers. Only, my Lord of
+Leicester has galloped along the bridge as if he would have rode over
+all in his passage, demanded an audience of the Queen, and is closeted
+even now with her, and Burleigh and Walsingham--and you are called for;
+but whether the matter be treason or worse, no one knows."
+
+"He speaks true, by Heaven!" said Raleigh, who that instant appeared;
+"you must immediately to the Queen's presence."
+
+"Be not rash, Raleigh," said Blount, "remember his boots.--For Heaven's
+sake, go to my chamber, dear Tressilian, and don my new bloom-coloured
+silken hose; I have worn them but twice."
+
+"Pshaw!" answered Tressilian; "do thou take care of this boy, Blount; be
+kind to him, and look he escapes you not--much depends on him."
+
+So saying, he followed Raleigh hastily, leaving honest Blount with the
+bridle of his horse in one hand, and the boy in the other. Blount gave a
+long look after him.
+
+"Nobody," he said, "calls me to these mysteries--and he leaves me here
+to play horse-keeper and child-keeper at once. I could excuse the one,
+for I love a good horse naturally; but to be plagued with a bratchet
+whelp.--Whence come ye, my fair-favoured little gossip?"
+
+"From the Fens," answered the boy.
+
+"And what didst thou learn there, forward imp?"
+
+"To catch gulls, with their webbed feet and yellow stockings," said the
+boy.
+
+"Umph!" said Blount, looking down on his own immense roses. "Nay, then,
+the devil take him asks thee more questions."
+
+Meantime Tressilian traversed the full length of the Great Hall,
+in which the astonished courtiers formed various groups, and were
+whispering mysteriously together, while all kept their eyes fixed on
+the door which led from the upper end of the hall into the Queen's
+withdrawing apartment. Raleigh pointed to the door. Tressilian knocked,
+and was instantly admitted. Many a neck was stretched to gain a view
+into the interior of the apartment; but the tapestry which covered
+the door on the inside was dropped too suddenly to admit the slightest
+gratification of curiosity.
+
+Upon entrance, Tressilian found himself, not without a strong
+palpitation of heart, in the presence of Elizabeth, who was walking to
+and fro in a violent agitation, which she seemed to scorn to conceal,
+while two or three of her most sage and confidential counsellors
+exchanged anxious looks with each other, but delayed speaking till her
+wrath abated. Before the empty chair of state in which she had been
+seated, and which was half pushed aside by the violence with which she
+had started from it, knelt Leicester, his arms crossed, and his
+brows bent on the ground, still and motionless as the effigies upon a
+sepulchre. Beside him stood the Lord Shrewsbury, then Earl Marshal of
+England, holding his baton of office. The Earl's sword was unbuckled,
+and lay before him on the floor.
+
+"Ho, sir!" said the Queen, coming close up to Tressilian, and stamping
+on the floor with the action and manner of Henry himself; "you knew of
+this fair work--you are an accomplice in this deception which has been
+practised on us--you have been a main cause of our doing injustice?"
+Tressilian dropped on his knee before the Queen, his good sense showing
+him the risk of attempting any defence at that moment of irritation.
+"Art dumb, sirrah?" she continued; "thou knowest of this affair dost
+thou not?"
+
+"Not, gracious madam, that this poor lady was Countess of Leicester."
+
+"Nor shall any one know her for such," said Elizabeth. "Death of my
+life! Countess of Leicester!--I say Dame Amy Dudley; and well if she
+have not cause to write herself widow of the traitor Robert Dudley."
+
+"Madam," said Leicester, "do with me what it may be your will to do, but
+work no injury on this gentleman; he hath in no way deserved it."
+
+"And will he be the better for thy intercession," said the Queen,
+leaving Tressilian, who slowly arose, and rushing to Leicester, who
+continued kneeling--"the better for thy intercession, thou doubly
+false--thou doubly forsworn;--of thy intercession, whose villainy hath
+made me ridiculous to my subjects and odious to myself? I could tear out
+mine eyes for their blindness!"
+
+Burleigh here ventured to interpose.
+
+"Madam," he said, "remember that you are a Queen--Queen of
+England--mother of your people. Give not way to this wild storm of
+passion."
+
+Elizabeth turned round to him, while a tear actually twinkled in her
+proud and angry eye. "Burleigh," she said, "thou art a statesman--thou
+dost not, thou canst not, comprehend half the scorn, half the misery,
+that man has poured on me!"
+
+With the utmost caution--with the deepest reverence--Burleigh took her
+hand at the moment he saw her heart was at the fullest, and led her
+aside to an oriel window, apart from the others.
+
+"Madam," he said, "I am a statesman, but I am also a man--a man already
+grown old in your councils--who have not and cannot have a wish on earth
+but your glory and happiness; I pray you to be composed."
+
+"Ah! Burleigh," said Elizabeth, "thou little knowest--" here her tears
+fell over her cheeks in despite of her.
+
+"I do--I do know, my honoured sovereign. Oh, beware that you lead not
+others to guess that which they know not!"
+
+"Ha!" said Elizabeth, pausing as if a new train of thought had
+suddenly shot across her brain. "Burleigh, thou art right--thou
+art right--anything but disgrace--anything but a confession of
+weakness--anything rather than seem the cheated, slighted--'sdeath! to
+think on it is distraction!"
+
+"Be but yourself, my Queen," said Burleigh; "and soar far above a
+weakness which no Englishman will ever believe his Elizabeth could have
+entertained, unless the violence of her disappointment carries a sad
+conviction to his bosom."
+
+"What weakness, my lord?" said Elizabeth haughtily; "would you too
+insinuate that the favour in which I held yonder proud traitor derived
+its source from aught--" But here she could no longer sustain the proud
+tone which she had assumed, and again softened as she said, "But why
+should I strive to deceive even thee, my good and wise servant?"
+
+Burleigh stooped to kiss her hand with affection, and--rare in the
+annals of courts--a tear of true sympathy dropped from the eye of the
+minister on the hand of his Sovereign.
+
+It is probable that the consciousness of possessing this sympathy aided
+Elizabeth in supporting her mortification, and suppressing her extreme
+resentment; but she was still more moved by fear that her passion should
+betray to the public the affront and the disappointment, which, alike
+as a woman and a Queen, she was so anxious to conceal. She turned from
+Burleigh, and sternly paced the hall till her features had recovered
+their usual dignity, and her mien its wonted stateliness of regular
+motion.
+
+"Our Sovereign is her noble self once more," whispered Burleigh to
+Walsingham; "mark what she does, and take heed you thwart her not."
+
+She then approached Leicester, and said with calmness, "My Lord
+Shrewsbury, we discharge you of your prisoner.--My Lord of Leicester,
+rise and take up your sword; a quarter of an hour's restraint under
+the custody of our Marshal, my lord, is, we think, no high penance for
+months of falsehood practised upon us. We will now hear the progress
+of this affair." She then seated herself in her chair, and said, "You,
+Tressilian, step forward, and say what you know."
+
+Tressilian told his story generously, suppressing as much as he could
+what affected Leicester, and saying nothing of their having twice
+actually fought together. It is very probable that, in doing so, he did
+the Earl good service; for had the Queen at that instant found anything
+on account of which she could vent her wrath upon him, without laying
+open sentiments of which she was ashamed, it might have fared hard with
+him. She paused when Tressilian had finished his tale.
+
+"We will take that Wayland," she said, "into our own service, and place
+the boy in our Secretary office for instruction, that he may in future
+use discretion towards letters. For you, Tressilian, you did wrong in
+not communicating the whole truth to us, and your promise not to do so
+was both imprudent and undutiful. Yet, having given your word to this
+unhappy lady, it was the part of a man and a gentleman to keep it; and
+on the whole, we esteem you for the character you have sustained in this
+matter.--My Lord of Leicester, it is now your turn to tell us the truth,
+an exercise to which you seem of late to have been too much a stranger."
+
+Accordingly, she extorted, by successive questions, the whole history
+of his first acquaintance with Amy Robsart--their marriage--his
+jealousy--the causes on which it was founded, and many particulars
+besides. Leicester's confession, for such it might be called, was
+wrenched from him piecemeal, yet was upon the whole accurate, excepting
+that he totally omitted to mention that he had, by implication or
+otherwise, assented to Varney's designs upon the life of his Countess.
+Yet the consciousness of this was what at that moment lay nearest to
+his heart; and although he trusted in great measure to the very positive
+counter-orders which he had sent by Lambourne, it was his purpose to set
+out for Cumnor Place in person as soon as he should be dismissed from
+the presence of the Queen, who, he concluded, would presently leave
+Kenilworth.
+
+But the Earl reckoned without his host. It is true his presence and his
+communications were gall and wormwood to his once partial mistress.
+But barred from every other and more direct mode of revenge, the Queen
+perceived that she gave her false suitor torture by these inquiries,
+and dwelt on them for that reason, no more regarding the pain which she
+herself experienced, than the savage cares for the searing of his own
+hands by grasping the hot pincers with which he tears the flesh of his
+captive enemy.
+
+At length, however, the haughty lord, like a deer that turns to bay,
+gave intimation that his patience was failing. "Madam," he said, "I have
+been much to blame--more than even your just resentment has expressed.
+Yet, madam, let me say that my guilt, if it be unpardonable, was not
+unprovoked, and that if beauty and condescending dignity could seduce
+the frail heart of a human being, I might plead both as the causes of my
+concealing this secret from your Majesty."
+
+The Queen was so much struck with this reply, which Leicester took
+care should be heard by no one but herself, that she was for the moment
+silenced, and the Earl had the temerity to pursue his advantage. "Your
+Grace, who has pardoned so much, will excuse my throwing myself on your
+royal mercy for those expressions which were yester-morning accounted
+but a light offence."
+
+The Queen fixed her eyes on him while she replied, "Now, by Heaven, my
+lord, thy effrontery passes the bounds of belief, as well as patience!
+But it shall avail thee nothing.--What ho! my lords, come all and hear
+the news-my Lord of Leicester's stolen marriage has cost me a husband,
+and England a king. His lordship is patriarchal in his tastes--one wife
+at a time was insufficient, and he designed US the honour of his left
+hand. Now, is not this too insolent--that I could not grace him with
+a few marks of court-favour, but he must presume to think my hand and
+crown at his disposal? You, however, think better of me; and I can pity
+this ambitious man, as I could a child, whose bubble of soap has burst
+between his hands. We go to the presence-chamber.--My Lord of Leicester,
+we command your close attendance on us."
+
+All was eager expectation in the hall, and what was the universal
+astonishment when the Queen said to those next her, "The revels of
+Kenilworth are not yet exhausted, my lords and ladies--we are to
+solemnize the noble owner's marriage."
+
+There was an universal expression of surprise.
+
+"It is true, on our royal word," said the Queen; "he hath kept this
+a secret even from us, that he might surprise us with it at this very
+place and time. I see you are dying of curiosity to know the happy
+bride. It is Amy Robsart, the same who, to make up the May-game
+yesterday, figured in the pageant as the wife of his servant Varney."
+
+"For God's sake, madam," said the Earl, approaching her with a mixture
+of humility, vexation, and shame in his countenance, and speaking so low
+as to be heard by no one else, "take my head, as you threatened in your
+anger, and spare me these taunts! Urge not a falling man--tread not on a
+crushed worm."
+
+"A worm, my lord?" said the Queen, in the same tone; "nay, a snake is
+the nobler reptile, and the more exact similitude--the frozen snake you
+wot of, which was warmed in a certain bosom--"
+
+"For your own sake--for mine, madam," said the Earl--"while there is yet
+some reason left in me--"
+
+"Speak aloud, my lord," said Elizabeth, "and at farther distance, so
+please you--your breath thaws our ruff. What have you to ask of us?"
+
+"Permission," said the unfortunate Earl humbly, "to travel to Cumnor
+Place."
+
+"To fetch home your bride belike?--Why, ay--that is but right, for, as
+we have heard, she is indifferently cared for there. But, my lord, you
+go not in person; we have counted upon passing certain days in this
+Castle of Kenilworth, and it were slight courtesy to leave us without a
+landlord during our residence here. Under your favour, we cannot think
+to incur such disgrace in the eyes of our subjects. Tressilian shall
+go to Cumnor Place instead of you, and with him some gentleman who hath
+been sworn of our chamber, lest my Lord of Leicester should be again
+jealous of his old rival.--Whom wouldst thou have to be in commission
+with thee, Tressilian?"
+
+Tressilian, with humble deference, suggested the name of Raleigh.
+
+"Why, ay," said the Queen; "so God ha' me, thou hast made a good choice.
+He is a young knight besides, and to deliver a lady from prison is
+an appropriate first adventure.--Cumnor Place is little better than a
+prison, you are to know, my lords and ladies. Besides, there are certain
+faitours there whom we would willingly have in safe keeping. You will
+furnish them, Master Secretary, with the warrant necessary to secure the
+bodies of Richard Varney and the foreign Alasco, dead or alive. Take
+a sufficient force with you, gentlemen--bring the lady here in all
+honour--lose no time, and God be with you!"
+
+They bowed, and left the presence,
+
+Who shall describe how the rest of that day was spent at Kenilworth?
+The Queen, who seemed to have remained there for the sole purpose of
+mortifying and taunting the Earl of Leicester, showed herself as skilful
+in that female art of vengeance, as she was in the science of wisely
+governing her people. The train of state soon caught the signal, and as
+he walked among his own splendid preparations, the Lord of Kenilworth,
+in his own Castle, already experienced the lot of a disgraced courtier,
+in the slight regard and cold manners of alienated friends, and the
+ill-concealed triumph of avowed and open enemies. Sussex, from his
+natural military frankness of disposition, Burleigh and Walsingham, from
+their penetrating and prospective sagacity, and some of the ladies, from
+the compassion of their sex, were the only persons in the crowded court
+who retained towards him the countenance they had borne in the morning.
+
+So much had Leicester been accustomed to consider court favour as the
+principal object of his life, that all other sensations were, for the
+time, lost in the agony which his haughty spirit felt at the succession
+of petty insults and studied neglects to which he had been subjected;
+but when he retired to his own chamber for the night, that long,
+fair tress of hair which had once secured Amy's letter fell under his
+observation, and, with the influence of a counter-charm, awakened his
+heart to nobler and more natural feelings. He kissed it a thousand
+times; and while he recollected that he had it always in his power to
+shun the mortifications which he had that day undergone, by retiring
+into a dignified and even prince-like seclusion with the beautiful and
+beloved partner of his future life, he felt that he could rise above the
+revenge which Elizabeth had condescended to take.
+
+Accordingly, on the following day the whole conduct of the Earl
+displayed so much dignified equanimity--he seemed so solicitous about
+the accommodations and amusements of his guests, yet so indifferent to
+their personal demeanour towards him--so respectfully distant to the
+Queen, yet so patient of her harassing displeasure--that Elizabeth
+changed her manner to him, and, though cold and distant, ceased to offer
+him any direct affront. She intimated also with some sharpness to others
+around her, who thought they were consulting her pleasure in showing a
+neglectful conduct to the Earl, that while they remained at Kenilworth
+they ought to show the civility due from guests to the Lord of the
+Castle. In short, matters were so far changed in twenty-four hours that
+some of the more experienced and sagacious courtiers foresaw a strong
+possibility of Leicester's restoration to favour, and regulated their
+demeanour towards him, as those who might one day claim merit for not
+having deserted him in adversity. It is time, however, to leave these
+intrigues, and follow Tressilian and Raleigh on their journey.
+
+The troop consisted of six persons; for, besides Wayland, they had
+in company a royal pursuivant and two stout serving-men. All were
+well-armed, and travelled as fast as it was possible with justice to
+their horses, which had a long journey before them. They endeavoured
+to procure some tidings as they rode along of Varney and his party, but
+could hear none, as they had travelled in the dark. At a small village
+about twelve miles from Kenilworth, where they gave some refreshment to
+their horses, a poor clergyman, the curate of the place, came out of a
+small cottage, and entreated any of the company who might know aught of
+surgery to look in for an instant on a dying man.
+
+The empiric Wayland undertook to do his best, and as the curate
+conducted him to the spot, he learned that the man had been found on
+the highroad, about a mile from the village, by labourers, as they were
+going to their work on the preceding morning, and the curate had given
+him shelter in his house. He had received a gun-shot wound, which seemed
+to be obviously mortal; but whether in a brawl or from robbers they
+could not learn, as he was in a fever, and spoke nothing connectedly.
+Wayland entered the dark and lowly apartment, and no sooner had the
+curate drawn aside the curtain than he knew, in the distorted features
+of the patient, the countenance of Michael Lambourne. Under pretence
+of seeking something which he wanted, Wayland hastily apprised
+his fellow-travellers of this extraordinary circumstance; and both
+Tressilian and Raleigh, full of boding apprehensions, hastened to the
+curate's house to see the dying man.
+
+The wretch was by this time in the agonies of death, from which a much
+better surgeon than Wayland could not have rescued him, for the bullet
+had passed clear through his body. He was sensible, however, at least in
+part, for he knew Tressilian, and made signs that he wished him to stoop
+over his bed. Tressilian did so, and after some inarticulate murmurs, in
+which the names of Varney and Lady Leicester were alone distinguishable,
+Lambourne bade him "make haste, or he would come too late." It was in
+vain Tressilian urged the patient for further information; he seemed
+to become in some degree delirious, and when he again made a signal to
+attract Tressilian's attention, it was only for the purpose of desiring
+him to inform his uncle, Giles Gosling of the Black Bear, that "he had
+died without his shoes after all." A convulsion verified his words a few
+minutes after, and the travellers derived nothing from having met with
+him, saving the obscure fears concerning the fate of the Countess, which
+his dying words were calculated to convey, and which induced them to
+urge their journey with the utmost speed, pressing horses in the Queen's
+name when those which they rode became unfit for service.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+     The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+     An aerial voice was heard to call,
+     And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+     Around the towers of Cumnor Hall. --MICKLE.
+
+We are now to return to that part of our story where we intimated that
+Varney, possessed of the authority of the Earl of Leicester, and of
+the Queen's permission to the same effect, hastened to secure himself
+against discovery of his perfidy by removing the Countess from
+Kenilworth Castle. He had proposed to set forth early in the morning;
+but reflecting that the Earl might relent in the interim, and seek
+another interview with the Countess, he resolved to prevent, by
+immediate departure, all chance of what would probably have ended in his
+detection and ruin. For this purpose he called for Lambourne, and was
+exceedingly incensed to find that his trusty attendant was abroad on
+some ramble in the neighbouring village, or elsewhere. As his return
+was expected, Sir Richard commanded that he should prepare himself
+for attending him on an immediate journey, and follow him in case he
+returned after his departure.
+
+In the meanwhile, Varney used the ministry of a servant called Robin
+Tider, one to whom the mysteries of Cumnor Place were already in some
+degree known, as he had been there more than once in attendance on the
+Earl. To this man, whose character resembled that of Lambourne, though
+he was neither quite so prompt nor altogether so profligate, Varney gave
+command to have three horses saddled, and to prepare a horse-litter, and
+have them in readiness at the postern gate. The natural enough excuse of
+his lady's insanity, which was now universally believed, accounted for
+the secrecy with which she was to be removed from the Castle, and he
+reckoned on the same apology in case the unfortunate Amy's resistance or
+screams should render such necessary. The agency of Anthony Foster was
+indispensable, and that Varney now went to secure.
+
+This person, naturally of a sour, unsocial disposition, and somewhat
+tired, besides, with his journey from Cumnor to Warwickshire, in order
+to bring the news of the Countess's escape, had early extricated himself
+from the crowd of wassailers, and betaken himself to his chamber, where
+he lay asleep, when Varney, completely equipped for travelling, and with
+a dark lantern in his hand, entered his apartment. He paused an instant
+to listen to what his associate was murmuring in his sleep, and could
+plainly distinguish the words, "AVE MARIA--ORA PRO NOBIS. No, it runs
+not so--deliver us from evil--ay, so it goes."
+
+"Praying in his sleep," said Varney, "and confounding his old and
+new devotions. He must have more need of prayer ere I am done with
+him.--What ho! holy man, most blessed penitent!--awake--awake! The devil
+has not discharged you from service yet."
+
+As Varney at the same time shook the sleeper by the arm, it changed the
+current of his ideas, and he roared out, "Thieves!--thieves! I will die
+in defence of my gold--my hard-won gold--that has cost me so dear. Where
+is Janet?--Is Janet safe?"
+
+"Safe enough, thou bellowing fool!" said Varney; "art thou not ashamed
+of thy clamour?"
+
+Foster by this time was broad awake, and sitting up in his bed, asked
+Varney the meaning of so untimely a visit. "It augurs nothing good," he
+added.
+
+"A false prophecy, most sainted Anthony," returned Varney; "it augurs
+that the hour is come for converting thy leasehold into copyhold. What
+sayest thou to that?"
+
+"Hadst thou told me this in broad day," said Foster, "I had rejoiced;
+but at this dead hour, and by this dim light, and looking on thy pale
+face, which is a ghastly contradiction to thy light words, I cannot
+but rather think of the work that is to be done, than the guerdon to be
+gained by it."
+
+"Why, thou fool, it is but to escort thy charge back to Cumnor Place."
+
+"Is that indeed all?" said Foster; "thou lookest deadly pale, and thou
+art not moved by trifles--is that indeed all?"
+
+"Ay, that--and maybe a trifle more," said Varney.
+
+"Ah, that trifle more!" said Foster; "still thou lookest paler and
+paler."
+
+"Heed not my countenance," said Varney; "you see it by this wretched
+light. Up and be doing, man. Think of Cumnor Place--thine own proper
+copyhold. Why, thou mayest found a weekly lectureship, besides endowing
+Janet like a baron's daughter. Seventy pounds and odd."
+
+"Seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and fivepence half-penny, besides
+the value of the wood," said Foster; "and I am to have it all as
+copyhold?"
+
+"All, man--squirrels and all. No gipsy shall cut the value of a
+broom--no boy so much as take a bird's nest--without paying thee a
+quittance.--Ay, that is right--don thy matters as fast as possible;
+horses and everything are ready, all save that accursed villain
+Lambourne, who is out on some infernal gambol."
+
+"Ay, Sir Richard," said Foster, "you would take no advice. I ever told
+you that drunken profligate would fail you at need. Now I could have
+helped you to a sober young man."
+
+"What, some slow-spoken, long-breathed brother of the congregation? Why,
+we shall have use for such also, man. Heaven be praised, we shall lack
+labourers of every kind.--Ay, that is right--forget not your pistols.
+Come now, and let us away."
+
+"Whither?" said Anthony.
+
+"To my lady's chamber; and, mind, she MUST along with us. Thou art not a
+fellow to be startled by a shriek?"
+
+"Not if Scripture reason can be rendered for it; and it is written,
+'Wives obey your husbands.' But will my lord's commands bear us out if
+we use violence?"
+
+"Tush, man! here is his signet," answered Varney; and having thus
+silenced the objections of his associate, they went together to Lord
+Hunsdon's apartments, and acquainting the sentinel with their purpose,
+as a matter sanctioned by the Queen and the Earl of Leicester, they
+entered the chamber of the unfortunate Countess.
+
+The horror of Amy may be conceived when, starting from a broken slumber,
+she saw at her bedside Varney, the man on earth she most feared and
+hated. It was even a consolation to see that he was not alone, though
+she had so much reason to dread his sullen companion.
+
+"Madam," said Varney, "there is no time for ceremony. My Lord of
+Leicester, having fully considered the exigencies of the time, sends you
+his orders immediately to accompany us on our return to Cumnor Place.
+See, here is his signet, in token of his instant and pressing commands."
+
+"It is false!" said the Countess; "thou hast stolen the warrant--thou,
+who art capable of every villainy, from the blackest to the basest!"
+
+"It is TRUE, madam," replied Varney; "so true, that if you do not
+instantly arise, and prepare to attend us, we must compel you to obey
+our orders."
+
+"Compel! Thou darest not put it to that issue, base as thou art!"
+exclaimed the unhappy Countess.
+
+"That remains to be proved, madam," said Varney, who had determined on
+intimidation as the only means of subduing her high spirit; "if you put
+me to it, you will find me a rough groom of the chambers."
+
+It was at this threat that Amy screamed so fearfully that, had it not
+been for the received opinion of her insanity, she would quickly have
+had Lord Hunsdon and others to her aid. Perceiving, however, that her
+cries were vain, she appealed to Foster in the most affecting terms,
+conjuring him, as his daughter Janet's honour and purity were dear to
+him, not to permit her to be treated with unwomanly violence.
+
+"Why, madam, wives must obey their husbands---there's Scripture warrant
+for it," said Foster; "and if you will dress yourself, and come with
+us patiently, there's no one shall lay finger on you while I can draw a
+pistol-trigger."
+
+Seeing no help arrive, and comforted even by the dogged language of
+Foster, the Countess promised to arise and dress herself, if they would
+agree to retire from the room. Varney at the same time assured her of
+all safety and honour while in their hands, and promised that he himself
+would not approach her, since his presence was so displeasing. Her
+husband, he added, would be at Cumnor Place within twenty-four hours
+after they had reached it.
+
+Somewhat comforted by this assurance, upon which, however, she saw
+little reason to rely, the unhappy Amy made her toilette by the
+assistance of the lantern, which they left with her when they quitted
+the apartment.
+
+Weeping, trembling, and praying, the unfortunate lady dressed herself
+with sensations how different from the days in which she was wont to
+decorate herself in all the pride of conscious beauty! She endeavoured
+to delay the completing her dress as long as she could, until, terrified
+by the impatience of Varney, she was obliged to declare herself ready to
+attend them.
+
+When they were about to move, the Countess clung to Foster with such an
+appearance of terror at Varney's approach that the latter protested to
+her, with a deep oath, that he had no intention whatever of even coming
+near her. "If you do but consent to execute your husband's will in
+quietness, you shall," he said, "see but little of me. I will leave you
+undisturbed to the care of the usher whom your good taste prefers."
+
+"My husband's will!" she exclaimed. "But it is the will of God, and let
+that be sufficient to me. I will go with Master Foster as unresistingly
+as ever did a literal sacrifice. He is a father at least; and will have
+decency, if not humanity. For thee, Varney, were it my latest word, thou
+art an equal stranger to both."
+
+Varney replied only she was at liberty to choose, and walked some paces
+before them to show the way; while, half leaning on Foster, and half
+carried by him, the Countess was transported from Saintlowe's Tower to
+the postern gate, where Tider waited with the litter and horses.
+
+The Countess was placed in the former without resistance. She saw with
+some satisfaction that, while Foster and Tider rode close by the litter,
+which the latter conducted, the dreaded Varney lingered behind, and was
+soon lost in darkness. A little while she strove, as the road winded
+round the verge of the lake, to keep sight of those stately towers which
+called her husband lord, and which still, in some places, sparkled with
+lights, where wassailers were yet revelling. But when the direction of
+the road rendered this no longer possible, she drew back her head,
+and sinking down in the litter, recommended herself to the care of
+Providence.
+
+Besides the desire of inducing the Countess to proceed quietly on her
+journey, Varney had it also in view to have an interview with Lambourne,
+by whom he every moment expected to be joined, without the presence
+of any witnesses. He knew the character of this man, prompt, bloody,
+resolute, and greedy, and judged him the most fit agent he could employ
+in his further designs. But ten miles of their journey had been measured
+ere he heard the hasty clatter of horse's hoofs behind him, and was
+overtaken by Michael Lambourne.
+
+Fretted as he was with his absence, Varney received his profligate
+servant with a rebuke of unusual bitterness. "Drunken villain," he said,
+"thy idleness and debauched folly will stretch a halter ere it be long,
+and, for me, I care not how soon!"
+
+This style of objurgation Lambourne, who was elated to an unusual
+degree, not only by an extraordinary cup of wine, but by the sort of
+confidential interview he had just had with the Earl, and the secret
+of which he had made himself master, did not receive with his wonted
+humility. "He would take no insolence of language," he said, "from the
+best knight that ever wore spurs. Lord Leicester had detained him on
+some business of import, and that was enough for Varney, who was but a
+servant like himself."
+
+Varney was not a little surprised at his unusual tone of insolence; but
+ascribing it to liquor, suffered it to pass as if unnoticed, and then
+began to tamper with Lambourne touching his willingness to aid in
+removing out of the Earl of Leicester's way an obstacle to a rise, which
+would put it in his power to reward his trusty followers to their utmost
+wish. And upon Michael Lambourne's seeming ignorant what was meant, he
+plainly indicated "the litter-load, yonder," as the impediment which he
+desired should be removed.
+
+"Look you, Sir Richard, and so forth," said Michael, "some are wiser
+than some, that is one thing, and some are worse than some, that's
+another. I know my lord's mind on this matter better than thou, for he
+hath trusted me fully in the matter. Here are his mandates, and his
+last words were, Michael Lambourne--for his lordship speaks to me as a
+gentleman of the sword, and useth not the words drunken villain, or such
+like phrase, of those who know not how to bear new dignities--Varney,
+says he, must pay the utmost respect to my Countess. I trust to you for
+looking to it, Lambourne, says his lordship, and you must bring back my
+signet from him peremptorily."
+
+"Ay," replied Varney, "said he so, indeed? You know all, then?"
+
+"All--all; and you were as wise to make a friend of me while the weather
+is fair betwixt us."
+
+"And was there no one present," said Varney, "when my lord so spoke?"
+
+"Not a breathing creature," replied Lambourne. "Think you my lord would
+trust any one with such matters, save an approved man of action like
+myself?"
+
+"Most true," said Varney; and making a pause, he looked forward on the
+moonlight road. They were traversing a wide and open heath. The litter
+being at least a mile before them, was both out of sight and hearing.
+He looked behind, and there was an expanse, lighted by the moonbeams,
+without one human being in sight. He resumed his speech to Lambourne:
+"And will you turn upon your master, who has introduced you to
+this career of court-like favour--whose apprentice you have been,
+Michael--who has taught you the depths and shallows of court intrigue?"
+
+"Michael not me!" said Lambourne; "I have a name will brook a MASTER
+before it as well as another; and as to the rest, if I have been
+an apprentice, my indenture is out, and I am resolute to set up for
+myself."
+
+"Take thy quittance first, thou fool!" said Varney; and with a pistol,
+which he had for some time held in his hand, shot Lambourne through the
+body.
+
+The wretch fell from his horse without a single groan; and Varney,
+dismounting, rifled his pockets, turning out the lining, that it might
+appear he had fallen by robbers. He secured the Earl's packet, which was
+his chief object; but he also took Lambourne's purse, containing some
+gold pieces, the relics of what his debauchery had left him, and from a
+singular combination of feelings, carried it in his hand only the length
+of a small river, which crossed the road, into which he threw it as far
+as he could fling. Such are the strange remnants of conscience which
+remain after she seems totally subdued, that this cruel and remorseless
+man would have felt himself degraded had he pocketed the few pieces
+belonging to the wretch whom he had thus ruthlessly slain.
+
+The murderer reloaded his pistol after cleansing the lock and barrel
+from the appearances of late explosion, and rode calmly after the
+litter, satisfying himself that he had so adroitly removed a troublesome
+witness to many of his intrigues, and the bearer of mandates which he
+had no intentions to obey, and which, therefore, he was desirous it
+should be thought had never reached his hand.
+
+The remainder of the journey was made with a degree of speed which
+showed the little care they had for the health of the unhappy Countess.
+They paused only at places where all was under their command, and where
+the tale they were prepared to tell of the insane Lady Varney would
+have obtained ready credit had she made an attempt to appeal to the
+compassion of the few persons admitted to see her. But Amy saw no
+chance of obtaining a hearing from any to whom she had an opportunity of
+addressing herself; and besides, was too terrified for the presence of
+Varney to violate the implied condition under which she was to travel
+free from his company. The authority of Varney, often so used during
+the Earl's private journeys to Cumnor, readily procured relays of horses
+where wanted, so that they approached Cumnor Place upon the night after
+they left Kenilworth.
+
+At this period of the journey Varney came up to the rear of the litter,
+as he had done before repeatedly during their progress, and asked, "How
+does she?"
+
+"She sleeps," said Foster. "I would we were home--her strength is
+exhausted."
+
+"Rest will restore her," answered Varney. "She shall soon sleep sound
+and long. We must consider how to lodge her in safety."
+
+"In her own apartments, to be sure," said Foster. "I have sent Janet to
+her aunt's with a proper rebuke, and the old women are truth itself--for
+they hate this lady cordially."
+
+"We will not trust them, however, friend Anthony," said Varney; "We must
+secure her in that stronghold where you keep your gold."
+
+"My gold!" said Anthony, much alarmed; "why, what gold have I? God help
+me, I have no gold--I would I had!"
+
+"Now, marry hang thee, thou stupid brute, who thinks of or cares for thy
+gold? If I did, could I not find an hundred better ways to come at it?
+In one word, thy bedchamber, which thou hast fenced so curiously, must
+be her place of seclusion; and thou, thou hind, shalt press her pillows
+of down. I dare to say the Earl will never ask after the rich furniture
+of these four rooms."
+
+This last consideration rendered Foster tractable; he only asked
+permission to ride before, to make matters ready, and spurring
+his horse, he posted before the litter, while Varney falling about
+threescore paces behind it, it remained only attended by Tider.
+
+When they had arrived at Cumnor Place, the Countess asked eagerly for
+Janet, and showed much alarm when informed that she was no longer to
+have the attendance of that amiable girl.
+
+"My daughter is dear to me, madam," said Foster gruffly; "and I desire
+not that she should get the court-tricks of lying and 'scaping--somewhat
+too much of that has she learned already, an it please your ladyship."
+
+The Countess, much fatigued and greatly terrified by the circumstances
+of her journey, made no answer to this insolence, but mildly expressed a
+wish to retire to her chamber.
+
+"Ay, ay," muttered Foster, "'tis but reasonable; but, under favour,
+you go not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder--you will sleep to-night in
+better security."
+
+"I would it were in my grave," said the Countess; "but that mortal
+feelings shiver at the idea of soul and body parting."
+
+"You, I guess, have no chance to shiver at that," replied Foster. "My
+lord comes hither to-morrow, and doubtless you will make your own ways
+good with him."
+
+"But does he come hither?--does he indeed, good Foster?"
+
+"Oh, ay, good Foster!" replied the other. "But what Foster shall I be
+to-morrow when you speak of me to my lord--though all I have done was to
+obey his own orders?"
+
+"You shall be my protector--a rough one indeed--but still a protector,"
+answered the Countess. "Oh that Janet were but here!"
+
+"She is better where she is," answered Foster--"one of you is enough to
+perplex a plain head. But will you taste any refreshment?"
+
+"Oh no, no--my chamber--my chamber! I trust," she said apprehensively,
+"I may secure it on the inside?"
+
+"With all my heart," answered Foster, "so I may secure it on the
+outside;" and taking a light, he led the way to a part of the building
+where Amy had never been, and conducted her up a stair of great height,
+preceded by one of the old women with a lamp. At the head of the stair,
+which seemed of almost immeasurable height, they crossed a short wooden
+gallery, formed of black oak, and very narrow, at the farther end of
+which was a strong oaken door, which opened and admitted them into the
+miser's apartment, homely in its accommodations in the very last degree,
+and, except in name, little different from a prison-room.
+
+Foster stopped at the door, and gave the lamp to the Countess, without
+either offering or permitting the attendance of the old woman who had
+carried it. The lady stood not on ceremony, but taking it hastily,
+barred the door, and secured it with the ample means provided on the
+inside for that purpose.
+
+Varney, meanwhile, had lurked behind on the stairs; but hearing the door
+barred, he now came up on tiptoe, and Foster, winking to him, pointed
+with self-complacence to a piece of concealed machinery in the wall,
+which, playing with much ease and little noise, dropped a part of the
+wooden gallery, after the manner of a drawbridge, so as to cut off
+all communication between the door of the bedroom, which he usually
+inhabited, and the landing-place of the high, winding stair which
+ascended to it. The rope by which this machinery was wrought was
+generally carried within the bedchamber, it being Foster's object to
+provide against invasion from without; but now that it was intended
+to secure the prisoner within, the cord had been brought over to
+the landing-place, and was there made fast, when Foster with much
+complacency had dropped the unsuspected trap-door.
+
+Varney looked with great attention at the machinery, and peeped more
+than once down the abyss which was opened by the fall of the trap-door.
+It was dark as pitch, and seemed profoundly deep, going, as Foster
+informed his confederate in a whisper, nigh to the lowest vault of the
+Castle. Varney cast once more a fixed and long look down into this
+sable gulf, and then followed Foster to the part of the manor-house most
+usually inhabited.
+
+When they arrived in the parlour which we have mentioned, Varney
+requested Foster to get them supper, and some of the choicest wine. "I
+will seek Alasco," he added; "we have work for him to do, and we must
+put him in good heart."
+
+Foster groaned at this intimation, but made no remonstrance. The old
+woman assured Varney that Alasco had scarce eaten or drunken since her
+master's departure, living perpetually shut up in the laboratory, and
+talking as if the world's continuance depended on what he was doing
+there.
+
+"I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him," said Varney,
+seizing a light, and going in quest of the alchemist. He returned, after
+a considerable absence, very pale, but yet with his habitual sneer on
+his cheek and nostril. "Our friend," he said, "has exhaled."
+
+"How!--what mean you?" said Foster--"run away--fled with my forty
+pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousand-fold? I will have
+Hue and Cry!"
+
+"I will tell thee a surer way," said Varney.
+
+"How!--which way?" exclaimed Foster; "I will have back my forty
+pounds--I deemed them as surely a thousand times multiplied--I will have
+back my in-put, at the least."
+
+"Go hang thyself, then, and sue Alasco in the Devil's Court of Chancery,
+for thither he has carried the cause."
+
+"How!--what dost thou mean is he dead?"
+
+"Ay, truly is he," said Varney; "and properly swollen already in the
+face and body. He had been mixing some of his devil's medicines, and the
+glass mask which he used constantly had fallen from his face, so that
+the subtle poison entered the brain, and did its work."
+
+"SANCTA MARIA!" said Foster--"I mean, God in His mercy preserve us from
+covetousness and deadly sin!--Had he not had projection, think you? Saw
+you no ingots in the crucibles?"
+
+"Nay, I looked not but at the dead carrion," answered Varney; "an ugly
+spectacle--he was swollen like a corpse three days exposed on the wheel.
+Pah! give me a cup of wine."
+
+"I will go," said Foster, "I will examine myself--" He took the lamp,
+and hastened to the door, but there hesitated and paused. "Will you not
+go with me?" said he to Varney.
+
+"To what purpose?" said Varney; "I have seen and smelled enough to spoil
+my appetite. I broke the window, however, and let in the air; it reeked
+of sulphur, and such like suffocating steams, as if the very devil had
+been there."
+
+"And might it not be the act of the demon himself?" said Foster, still
+hesitating; "I have heard he is powerful at such times, and with such
+people."
+
+"Still, if it were that Satan of thine," answered Varney, "who thus
+jades thy imagination, thou art in perfect safety, unless he is a most
+unconscionable devil indeed. He hath had two good sops of late."
+
+"How TWO sops--what mean you?" said Foster--"what mean you?"
+
+"You will know in time," said Varney;--"and then this other banquet--but
+thou wilt esteem Her too choice a morsel for the fiend's tooth--she must
+have her psalms, and harps, and seraphs."
+
+Anthony Foster heard, and came slowly back to the table. "God! Sir
+Richard, and must that then be done?"
+
+"Ay, in very truth, Anthony, or there comes no copyhold in thy way,"
+replied his inflexible associate.
+
+"I always foresaw it would land there!" said Foster. "But how, Sir
+Richard, how?--for not to win the world would I put hands on her."
+
+"I cannot blame thee," said Varney; "I should be reluctant to do that
+myself. We miss Alasco and his manna sorely--ay, and the dog Lambourne."
+
+"Why, where tarries Lambourne?" said Anthony.
+
+"Ask no questions," said Varney, "thou wilt see him one day if thy creed
+is true. But to our graver matter. I will teach thee a spring, Tony, to
+catch a pewit. Yonder trap-door--yonder gimcrack of thine, will remain
+secure in appearance, will it not, though the supports are withdrawn
+beneath?"
+
+"Ay, marry, will it," said Foster; "so long as it is not trodden on."
+
+"But were the lady to attempt an escape over it," replied Varney, "her
+weight would carry it down?"
+
+"A mouse's weight would do it," said Foster.
+
+"Why, then, she dies in attempting her escape, and what could you or
+I help it, honest Tony? Let us to bed, we will adjust our project
+to-morrow."
+
+On the next day, when evening approached, Varney summoned Foster to the
+execution of their plan. Tider and Foster's old man-servant were sent on
+a feigned errand down to the village, and Anthony himself, as if anxious
+to see that the Countess suffered no want of accommodation, visited
+her place of confinement. He was so much staggered at the mildness and
+patience with which she seemed to endure her confinement, that he could
+not help earnestly recommending to her not to cross the threshold of her
+room on any account whatever, until Lord Leicester should come, "which,"
+he added, "I trust in God, will be very soon." Amy patiently promised
+that she would resign herself to her fate, and Foster returned to his
+hardened companion with his conscience half-eased of the perilous load
+that weighed on it. "I have warned her," he said; "surely in vain is the
+snare set in the sight of any bird!"
+
+He left, therefore, the Countess's door unsecured on the outside, and,
+under the eye of Varney, withdrew the supports which sustained the
+falling trap, which, therefore, kept its level position merely by a
+slight adhesion. They withdrew to wait the issue on the ground-floor
+adjoining; but they waited long in vain. At length Varney, after walking
+long to and fro, with his face muffled in his cloak, threw it suddenly
+back and exclaimed, "Surely never was a woman fool enough to neglect so
+fair an opportunity of escape!"
+
+"Perhaps she is resolved," said Foster, "to await her husband's return."
+
+"True!--most true!" said Varney, rushing out; "I had not thought of that
+before."
+
+In less than two minutes, Foster, who remained behind, heard the tread
+of a horse in the courtyard, and then a whistle similar to that
+which was the Earl's usual signal. The instant after the door of the
+Countess's chamber opened, and in the same moment the trap-door gave
+way. There was a rushing sound--a heavy fall--a faint groan--and all was
+over.
+
+At the same instant, Varney called in at the window, in an accent and
+tone which was an indescribable mixture betwixt horror and raillery, "Is
+the bird caught?--is the deed done?"
+
+"O God, forgive us!" replied Anthony Foster.
+
+"Why, thou fool," said Varney, "thy toil is ended, and thy reward
+secure. Look down into the vault--what seest thou?"
+
+"I see only a heap of white clothes, like a snowdrift," said Foster. "O
+God, she moves her arm!"
+
+"Hurl something down on her--thy gold chest, Tony--it is an heavy one."
+
+"Varney, thou art an incarnate fiend!" replied Foster.
+
+"There needs nothing more--she is gone!"
+
+"So pass our troubles," said Varney, entering the room; "I dreamed not I
+could have mimicked the Earl's call so well."
+
+"Oh, if there be judgment in heaven, thou hast deserved it," said
+Foster, "and wilt meet it! Thou hast destroyed her by means of her best
+affections--it is a seething of the kid in the mother's milk!"
+
+"Thou art a fanatical ass," replied Varney; "let us now think how the
+alarm should be given--the body is to remain where it is."
+
+But their wickedness was to be permitted no longer; for even while they
+were at this consultation, Tressilian and Raleigh broke in upon them,
+having obtained admittance by means of Tider and Foster's servant, whom
+they had secured at the village.
+
+Anthony Foster fled on their entrance, and knowing each corner and pass
+of the intricate old house, escaped all search. But Varney was taken on
+the spot; and instead of expressing compunction for what he had done,
+seemed to take a fiendish pleasure in pointing out to them the remains
+of the murdered Countess, while at the same time he defied them to show
+that he had any share in her death. The despairing grief of Tressilian,
+on viewing the mangled and yet warm remains of what had lately been so
+lovely and so beloved, was such that Raleigh was compelled to have him
+removed from the place by force, while he himself assumed the direction
+of what was to be done.
+
+Varney, upon a second examination, made very little mystery either of
+the crime or of its motives---alleging, as a reason for his frankness,
+that though much of what he confessed could only have attached to him by
+suspicion, yet such suspicion would have been sufficient to deprive
+him of Leicester's confidence, and to destroy all his towering plans of
+ambition. "I was not born," he said, "to drag on the remainder of life a
+degraded outcast; nor will I so die that my fate shall make a holiday to
+the vulgar herd."
+
+From these words it was apprehended he had some design upon himself, and
+he was carefully deprived of all means by which such could be carried
+into execution. But like some of the heroes of antiquity, he carried
+about his person a small quantity of strong poison, prepared probably
+by the celebrated Demetrius Alasco. Having swallowed this potion
+over-night, he was found next morning dead in his cell; nor did he
+appear to have suffered much agony, his countenance presenting, even in
+death, the habitual expression of sneering sarcasm which was predominant
+while he lived. "The wicked man," saith Scripture, "hath no bands in his
+death."
+
+The fate of his colleague in wickedness was long unknown. Cumnor Place
+was deserted immediately after the murder; for in the vicinity of what
+was called the Lady Dudley's Chamber, the domestics pretended to hear
+groans, and screams, and other supernatural noises. After a certain
+length of time, Janet, hearing no tidings of her father, became the
+uncontrolled mistress of his property, and conferred it with her hand
+upon Wayland, now a man of settled character, and holding a place in
+Elizabeth's household. But it was after they had been both dead for some
+years that their eldest son and heir, in making some researches about
+Cumnor Hall, discovered a secret passage, closed by an iron door, which,
+opening from behind the bed in the Lady Dudley's Chamber, descended to a
+sort of cell, in which they found an iron chest containing a quantity
+of gold, and a human skeleton stretched above it. The fate of Anthony
+Foster was now manifest. He had fled to this place of concealment,
+forgetting the key of the spring-lock; and being barred from escape by
+the means he had used for preservation of that gold, for which he had
+sold his salvation, he had there perished miserably. Unquestionably the
+groans and screams heard by the domestics were not entirely imaginary,
+but were those of this wretch, who, in his agony, was crying for relief
+and succour.
+
+The news of the Countess's dreadful fate put a sudden period to the
+pleasures of Kenilworth. Leicester retired from court, and for a
+considerable time abandoned himself to his remorse. But as Varney in his
+last declaration had been studious to spare the character of his patron,
+the Earl was the object rather of compassion than resentment. The Queen
+at length recalled him to court; he was once more distinguished as a
+statesman and favourite; and the rest of his career is well known to
+history. But there was something retributive in his death, if, according
+to an account very generally received, it took place from his swallowing
+a draught of poison which was designed by him for another person. [See
+Note 9. Death of the Earl of Leicester.]
+
+Sir Hugh Robsart died very soon after his daughter, having settled his
+estate on Tressilian. But neither the prospect of rural independence,
+nor the promises of favour which Elizabeth held out to induce him to
+follow the court, could remove his profound melancholy. Wherever he went
+he seemed to see before him the disfigured corpse of the early and
+only object of his affection. At length, having made provision for the
+maintenance of the old friends and old servants who formed Sir Hugh's
+family at Lidcote Hall, he himself embarked with his friend Raleigh
+for the Virginia expedition, and, young in years but old in grief, died
+before his day in that foreign land.
+
+Of inferior persons it is only necessary to say that Blount's wit grew
+brighter as his yellow roses faded; that, doing his part as a brave
+commander in the wars, he was much more in his element than during the
+short period of his following the court; and that Flibbertigibbet's
+acute genius raised him to favour and distinction in the employment both
+of Burleigh and Walsingham.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+Note 1. Ch. III.--FOSTER, LAMBOURNE, AND THE BLACK BEAR.
+
+If faith is to be put in epitaphs, Anthony Foster was something the very
+reverse of the character represented in the novel. Ashmole gives this
+description of his tomb. I copy from the ANTIQUITIES OF BERKSHIRE,
+vol.i., p.143.
+
+"In the north wall of the chancel at Cumnor church is a monument of grey
+marble, whereon, in brass plates, are engraved a man in armour, and
+his wife in the habit of her times, both kneeling before a fald-stoole,
+together with the figures of three sons kneeling behind their mother.
+Under the figure of the man is this inscription:--
+
+
+     "ANTONIUS FORSTER, generis generosa propago,
+     Cumnerae Dominus, Bercheriensis erat.
+     Armiger, Armigero prognatus patre Ricardo,
+     Qui quondam Iphlethae Salopiensis erat.
+     Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati,
+     Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat.
+     Mente sagax, animo precellens, corpore promptus,
+     Eloquii dulcis, ore disertus erat.
+     In factis probitas; fuit in sermone venustas,
+     In vultu gravitas, relligione fides,
+     In patriam pietas, in egenos grata voluntas,
+     Accedunt reliquis annumeranda bonis.
+     Si quod cuncta rapit, rapuit non omnia Lethum,
+     Si quod Mors rapuit, vivida fama dedit.
+
+"These verses following are writ at length, two by two, in praise of
+him:--
+
+
+     "Argute resonas Cithare pretendere chordas
+     Novit, et Aonia concrepuisse Lyra.
+     Gaudebat terre teneras defigere plantas;
+     Et mira pulchras construere arte domos
+     Composita varias lingua formare loquelas
+     Doctus, et edocta scribere multa manu."
+
+The arms over it thus:--
+
+Quart. I. 3 HUNTER'S HORNS stringed.
+
+II. 3 PINIONS with their points upwards.
+
+"The crest is a STAG couchant, vulnerated through the neck by a broad
+arrow; on his side is a MARTLETT for a difference."
+
+From this monumental inscription it appears that Anthony Foster,
+instead of being a vulgar, low-bred, puritanical churl, was, in fact, a
+gentleman of birth and consideration, distinguished for his skill in
+the arts of music and horticulture, as also in languages. In so far,
+therefore, the Anthony Foster of the romance has nothing but the name
+in common with the real individual. But notwithstanding the charity,
+benevolence, and religious faith imputed by the monument of grey marble
+to its tenant, tradition, as well as secret history, names him as the
+active agent in the death of the Countess; and it is added that,
+from being a jovial and convivial gallant, as we may infer from some
+expressions in the epitaph, he sunk, after the fatal deed, into a man
+of gloomy and retired habits, whose looks and manners indicated that he
+suffered under the pressure of some atrocious secret.
+
+The name of Lambourne is still known in the vicinity, and it is said
+some of the clan partake the habits, as well as name, of the Michael
+Lambourne of the romance. A man of this name lately murdered his wife,
+outdoing Michael in this respect, who only was concerned in the murder
+of the wife of another man.
+
+I have only to add that the jolly Black Bear has been restored to his
+predominance over bowl and bottle in the village of Cumnor.
+
+Note 2. Ch. XIII.--LEGEND OF WAYLAND SMITH.
+
+The great defeat given by Alfred to the Danish invaders is said by Mr.
+Gough to have taken place near Ashdown, in Berkshire. "The burial
+place of Baereg, the Danish chief, who was slain in this fight, is
+distinguished by a parcel of stones, less than a mile from the hill, set
+on edge, enclosing a piece of ground somewhat raised. On the east side
+of the southern extremity stand three squarish flat stones, of about
+four or five feet over either way, supporting a fourth, and now called
+by the vulgar WAYLAND SMITH, from an idle tradition about an invisible
+smith replacing lost horse-shoes there."--GOUGH'S edition of CAMDEN'S
+BRITANNIA, vol.i., p. 221.
+
+The popular belief still retains memory of this wild legend, which,
+connected as it is with the site of a Danish sepulchre, may have arisen
+from some legend concerning the northern Duergar, who resided in the
+rocks, and were cunning workers in steel and iron. It was believed that
+Wayland Smith's fee was sixpence, and that, unlike other workmen, he was
+offended if more was offered. Of late his offices have been again called
+to memory; but fiction has in this, as in other cases, taken the liberty
+to pillage the stores of oral tradition. This monument must be very
+ancient, for it has been kindly pointed out to me that it is referred to
+in an ancient Saxon charter as a landmark. The monument has been of late
+cleared out, and made considerably more conspicuous.
+
+Note 3. Ch. XIV.--LEICESTER AND SUSSEX.
+
+Naunton gives us numerous and curious particulars of the jealous
+struggle which took place between Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, and the
+rising favourite Leicester. The former, when on his deathbed, predicted
+to his followers that after his death the gipsy (so he called Leicester,
+from his dark complexion) would prove too many for them.
+
+Note 4. Ch. XIV.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+
+Among the attendants and adherents of Sussex, we have ventured to
+introduce the celebrated Raleigh, in the dawn of his court favour.
+
+In Aubrey's Correspondence there are some curious particulars of Sir
+Walter Raleigh. "He was a tall, handsome, bold man; but his naeve was
+that he was damnably proud. Old Sir Robert Harley of Brampton Brian
+Castle, who knew him, would say it was a great question who was the
+proudest, Sir Walter or Sir Thomas Overbury; but the difference that
+was, was judged in Sir Thomas's side. In the great parlour at Downton,
+at Mr. Raleigh's, is a good piece, an original of Sir Walter, in a white
+satin doublet, all embroidered with rich pearls, and a mighty rich chain
+of great pearls about his neck. The old servants have told me that
+the real pearls were near as big as the painted ones. He had a
+most remarkable aspect, an exceeding high forehead, long-faced, and
+sour-eyelidded. A rebus is added to this purpose:--
+
+
+     The enemy to the stomach, and the word of disgrace,
+     Is the name of the gentleman with the bold face.
+
+Sir Walter Raleigh's beard turned up naturally, which gave him an
+advantage over the gallants of the time, whose moustaches received a
+touch of the barber's art to give them the air then most admired.--See
+AUBREY'S CORRESPONDENCE, vol.ii., part ii., p.500.
+
+Note 5. Ch. XV.--COURT FAVOUR OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+
+The gallant incident of the cloak is the traditional account of this
+celebrated statesman's rise at court. None of Elizabeth's courtiers knew
+better than he how to make his court to her personal vanity, or could
+more justly estimate the quantity of flattery which she could
+condescend to swallow. Being confined in the Tower for some offence, and
+understanding the Queen was about to pass to Greenwich in her barge,
+he insisted on approaching the window, that he might see, at whatever
+distance, the Queen of his Affections, the most beautiful object which
+the earth bore on its surface. The Lieutenant of the Tower (his own
+particular friend) threw himself between his prisoner and the window;
+while Sir Waiter, apparently influenced by a fit of unrestrainable
+passion, swore he would not be debarred from seeing his light, his life,
+his goddess! A scuffle ensued, got up for effect's sake, in which the
+Lieutenant and his captive grappled and struggled with fury, tore each
+other's hair, and at length drew daggers, and were only separated by
+force. The Queen being informed of this scene exhibited by her frantic
+adorer, it wrought, as was to be expected, much in favour of the captive
+Paladin. There is little doubt that his quarrel with the Lieutenant was
+entirely contrived for the purpose which it produced.
+
+Note 6. Ch. XVII.--ROBERT LANEHAM.
+
+Little is known of Robert Laneham, save in his curious letter to a
+friend in London, giving an account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainments
+at Kenilworth, written in a style of the most intolerable affectation,
+both in point of composition and orthography. He describes himself as a
+BON VIVANT, who was wont to be jolly and dry in the morning, and by his
+good-will would be chiefly in the company of the ladies. He was, by the
+interest of Lord Leicester, Clerk of the Council Chamber door, and also
+keeper of the same. "When Council sits," says he, "I am at hand. If any
+makes a babbling, PEACE, say I. If I see a listener or a pryer in at
+the chinks or lockhole, I am presently on the bones of him. If a friend
+comes, I make him sit down by me on a form or chest. The rest may walk,
+a God's name!" There has been seldom a better portrait of the pragmatic
+conceit and self-importance of a small man in office.
+
+Note 7. Ch. XVIII.--DR. JULIO.
+
+The Earl of Leicester's Italian physician, Julio, was affirmed by his
+contemporaries to be a skilful compounder of poisons, which he applied
+with such frequency, that the Jesuit Parsons extols ironically the
+marvellous good luck of this great favourite in the opportune deaths of
+those who stood in the way of his wishes. There is a curious passage on
+the subject:--
+
+"Long after this, he fell in love with the Lady Sheffield, whom I
+signified before, and then also had he the same fortune to have her
+husband dye quickly, with an extreame rheume in his head (as it was
+given out), but as others say, of an artificiall catarre that stopped
+his breath.
+
+"The like good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex (as I have
+said before), and that at a time most fortunate for his purpose; for
+when he was coming home from Ireland, with intent to revenge himselfe
+upon my Lord of Leicester for begetting his wife with childe in his
+absence (the childe was a daughter, and brought up by the Lady Shandoes,
+W. Knooles, his wife), my Lord of Leicester hearing thereof, wanted not
+a friend or two to accompany the deputy, as among other a couple of the
+Earles own servants, Crompton (if I misse not his name), yeoman of his
+bottles, and Lloid his secretary, entertained afterward by my Lord of
+Leicester, and so he dyed in the way of an extreame flux, caused by an
+Italian receipe, as all his friends are well assured, the maker whereof
+was a chyrurgeon (as it is beleeved) that then was newly come to my Lord
+from Italy---a cunning man and sure in operation, with whom, if the good
+Lady had been sooner acquainted, and used his help, she should not have
+needed to sitten so pensive at home, and fearefull of her husband's
+former returne out of the same country......Neither must you marvaile
+though all these died in divers manners of outward diseases, for this
+is the excellency of the Italian art, for which this chyrurgeon and
+Dr. Julio were entertained so carefully, who can make a man dye in what
+manner or show of sickness you will--by whose instructions, no doubt;
+but his lordship is now cunning, especially adding also to these the
+counsell of his Doctor Bayly, a man also not a little studied (as he
+seemeth) in his art; for I heard him once myselfe, in a publique act
+in Oxford, and that in presence of my Lord of Leicester (if I be not
+deceived), maintain that poyson might be so tempered and given as it
+should not appear presently, and yet should kill the party afterward,
+at what time should be appointed; which argument belike pleased well his
+lordship, and therefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience, if
+I be not deceived of his being that day present. So, though one dye of a
+flux, and another of a catarre, yet this importeth little to the
+matter, but showeth rather the great cunning and skill of the
+artificer."--PARSONS' LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH, p.23.
+
+It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the Earl is stated
+in the tale to be rather the dupe of villains than the unprincipled
+author of their atrocities. In the latter capacity, which a part
+at least of his contemporaries imputed to him, he would have made a
+character too disgustingly wicked to be useful for the purposes of
+fiction.
+
+I have only to add that the union of the poisoner, the quacksalver, the
+alchemist, and the astrologer in the same person was familiar to the
+pretenders to the mystic sciences.
+
+Note 8. Ch. XXXII.--FURNITURE OF KENILWORTH.
+
+In revising this work, I have had the means of making some accurate
+additions to my attempt to describe the princely pleasures of
+Kenilworth, by the kindness of my friend William Hamper, Esq., who
+had the goodness to communicate to me an inventory of the furniture
+of Kenilworth in the days of the magnificent Earl of Leicester. I have
+adorned the text with some of the splendid articles mentioned in the
+inventory, but antiquaries especially will be desirous to see a more
+full specimen than the story leaves room for.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM KENILWORTH INVENTORY, A.D. 1584. A Salte, ship-fashion,
+of the mother of perle, garnished with silver and divers workes, warlike
+ensignes, and ornaments, with xvj peeces of ordinance whereof ij on
+wheles, two anckers on the foreparte, and on the stearne the image of
+Dame Fortune standing on a globe with a flag in her hand. Pois xxxij oz.
+
+A gilte salte like a swann, mother of perle. Pois xxx oz. iij quarters.
+
+A George on horseback, of wood, painted and gilt, with a case for knives
+in the tayle of the horse, and a case for oyster knives in the brest of
+the Dragon.
+
+A green barge-cloth, embrother'd with white lions and beares.
+
+A perfuming pann, of silver. Pois xix oz.
+
+In the halle. Tabells, long and short, vj. Formes, long and short,
+xiiij.
+
+HANGINGS. (These are minutely specified, and consisted of the following
+subjects, in tapestry, and gilt, and red leather.)
+
+Flowers, beasts, and pillars arched. Forest worke. Historie. Storie
+of Susanna, the Prodigall Childe, Saule, Tobie, Hercules, Lady Fame,
+Hawking and Hunting, Jezabell, Judith and Holofernes, David, Abraham,
+Sampson, Hippolitus, Alexander the Great, Naaman the Assyrian, Jacob,
+etc.
+
+BEDSTEADS, WITH THEIR FURNITURE. (These are magnificent and numerous. I
+shall copy VERBATIM the description of what appears to have been one of
+the best.)
+
+A bedsted of wallnut-tree, toppe fashion, the pillers redd and
+varnished, the ceelor, tester, and single vallance of crimson sattin,
+paned with a broad border of bone lace of golde and silver. The tester
+richlie embrothered with my Lo. armes in a garland of hoppes, roses, and
+pomegranetts, and lyned with buckerom. Fyve curteins of crimson sattin
+to the same bedsted, striped downe with a bone lace of gold and silver,
+garnished with buttons and loops of crimson silk and golde, containing
+xiiij bredths of sattin, and one yarde iij quarters deepe. The ceelor,
+vallance, and curteins lyned with crymson taffata sarsenet.
+
+A crymson sattin counterpointe, quilted and embr. with a golde twiste,
+and lyned with redd sarsenet, being in length iij yards good, and in
+breadth iij scant.
+
+A chaise of crymson sattin, suteable.
+
+A fayre quilte of crymson sattin, vj breadths, iij yardes 3 quarters
+naile deepe, all lozenged over with silver twiste, in the midst a
+cinquefoile within a garland of ragged staves, fringed rounde aboute
+with a small fringe of crymson silke, lyned throughe with white fustian.
+
+Fyve plumes of coolered feathers, garnished with bone lace and spangells
+of goulde and silver, standing in cups knitt all over with goulde,
+silver, and crymson silk. [Probably on the centre and four corners of
+the bedstead. Four bears and ragged staves occupied a similar position
+on another of these sumptuous pieces of furniture.]
+
+A carpett for a cupboarde of crymson sattin, embrothered with a border
+of goulde twiste, about iij parts of it fringed with silk and goulde,
+lyned with bridges [That is, Bruges.] sattin, in length ij yards, and ij
+bredths of sattin.
+
+(There were eleven down beds and ninety feather beds, besides
+thirty-seven mattresses.)
+
+CHYRES, STOOLES, AND CUSHENS. (These were equally splendid with the
+beds, etc. I shall here copy that which stands at the head of the list.)
+
+A chaier of crimson velvet, the seate and backe partlie embrothered,
+with R. L. in cloth of goulde, the beare and ragged staffe in clothe of
+silver, garnished with lace and fringe of goulde, silver, and crimson
+silck. The frame covered with velvet, bounde aboute the edge with goulde
+lace, and studded with gilte nailes.
+
+A square stoole and a foote stoole, of crimson velvet, fringed and
+garnished suteable.
+
+A long cushen of crimson velvet, embr. with the ragged staffe in a
+wreathe of goulde, with my Lo. posie "DROYTE ET LOYALL" written in the
+same, and the letters R. L. in clothe of goulde, being garnished with
+lace, fringe, buttons, and tassels of gold, silver, and crimson silck,
+lyned with crimson taff., being in length 1 yard quarter.
+
+A square cushen, of the like velvet, embr. suteable to the long cushen.
+
+CARPETS. (There were 10 velvet carpets for tables and windows, 49
+Turkey carpets for floors, and 32 cloth carpets. One of each I will now
+specify.)
+
+A carpett of crimson velvet, richlie embr. with my Lo. posie, beares and
+ragged staves, etc., of clothe of goulde and silver, garnished upon
+the seames and aboute with golde lace, fringed accordinglie, lyned
+with crimson taffata sarsenett, being 3 breadths of velvet, one yard 3
+quarters long.
+
+A great Turquoy carpett, the grounde blew, with a list of yelloe at each
+end, being in length x yards, in bredthe iiij yards and quarter
+
+A long carpett of blew clothe, lyned with bridges sattin, fringed with
+blew silck and goulde, in length vj yards lack a quarter, the whole
+bredth of the clothe.
+
+PICTURES. (Chiefly described as having curtains.)
+
+The Queene's Majestie (2 great tables). 3 of my Lord. St. Jerome. Lo. of
+Arundell. Lord Mathevers. Lord of Pembroke. Counte Egmondt. The Queene
+of Scotts. King Philip. The Baker's Daughters. The Duke of Feria.
+Alexander Magnus. Two Yonge Ladies. Pompaea Sabina. Fred. D. of Saxony.
+Emp. Charles. K. Philip's Wife. Prince of Orange and his Wife. Marq. of
+Berges and his Wife. Counte de Home. Count Holstrate. Monsr. Brederode.
+Duke Alva. Cardinal Grandville. Duches of Parma. Henrie E. of Pembrooke
+and his young Countess. Countis of Essex. Occacion and Repentance. Lord
+Mowntacute. Sir Jas. Crofts. Sir Wr. Mildmay. Sr. Wm. Pickering. Edwin
+Abp. of York.
+
+A tabell of an historie of men, women, and children, moulden in wax.
+
+A little foulding table of ebanie, garnished with white bone, wherein
+are written verses with lres. of goulde.
+
+A table of my Lord's armes.
+
+Fyve of the plannetts, painted in frames.
+
+Twentie-three cardes, [That is charts.] or maps of countries.
+
+INSTRUMENTS. (I shall give two specimens.)
+
+An instrument of organs, regall, and virginalls, covered with crimson
+velvet, and garnished with goulde lace.
+
+A fair pair of double virginalls.
+
+CABONETTS. A cabonett of crimson sattin, richlie embr. with a device of
+hunting the stagg, in goulde, silver, and silck, with iiij glasses
+in the topp thereof, xvj cupps of flowers made of goulde, silver, and
+silck, in a case of leather, lyned with greene sattin of bridges.
+
+(Another of purple velvet. A desk of red leather.)
+
+A CHESS BOARDE of ebanie, with checkars of christall and other stones,
+layed with silver, garnished with beares and ragged staves, and
+cinquefoiles of silver. The xxxij men likewyse of christall and other
+stones sett, the one sort in silver white, the other gilte, in a case
+gilded and lyned with green cotton.
+
+(Another of bone and ebanie. A pair of tabells of bone.)
+
+A great BRASON CANDLESTICK to hang in the roofe of the howse, verie
+fayer and curiouslye wrought, with xxiiij branches, xij greate and xij
+of lesser size, 6 rowlers and ij wings for the spreade eagle, xxiiij
+socketts for candells, xij greater and xij of a lesser sorte, xxiiij
+sawcers, or candlecups, of like proporcion to put under the socketts,
+iij images of men and iij of weomen, of brass, verie finely and
+artificiallie done.
+
+These specimens of Leicester's magnificence may serve to assure the
+reader that it scarce lay in the power of a modern author to exaggerate
+the lavish style of expense displayed in the princely pleasures of
+Kenilworth.
+
+Note to Ch. XLI.--DEATH OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
+
+In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben Jonson
+to Drummond of Hawthornden, as transcribed by Sir Robert Sibbald,
+Leicester's death is ascribed to poison administered as a cordial by his
+countess, to whom he had given it, representing it to be a restorative
+in any faintness, in the hope that she herself might be cut off by using
+it. We have already quoted Jonson's account of this merited stroke of
+retribution in a note of the Introduction to this volume. It may be
+here added that the following satirical epitaph on Leicester occurs in
+Drummond's Collection, but is evidently not of his composition:--
+
+
+     EPITAPH ON THE ERLE OF LEISTER.
+
+     Here lies a valiant warriour,
+     Who never drew a sword;
+     Here lies a noble courtier,
+     Who never kept his word;
+     Here lies the Erle of Leister,
+     Who governed the Estates,
+     Whom the earth could never living love,
+     And the just Heaven now hates.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott
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+
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .indent5   { margin-left: 5%;}
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+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 100%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    .side      { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em;
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+    p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0}
+    span.dropcap         { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 }
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Kenilworth
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1606]
+Last Updated: July 25, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENILWORTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      KENILWORTH.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+    </h2>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0006m.jpg" alt="0006m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a><br /> <br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>KENILWORTH</b></big> </a><br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER XXXIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0034"> CHAPTER XXXIV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XXXV. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XXXVI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XXXVII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XXXVIII. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XXXIX. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0040"> CHAPTER XL. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0041"> CHAPTER XLI. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES. </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineation of Queen
+      Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt something similar respecting
+      "her sister and her foe," the celebrated Elizabeth. He will not, however,
+      pretend to have approached the task with the same feelings; for the candid
+      Robertson himself confesses having felt the prejudices with which a
+      Scottishman is tempted to regard the subject; and what so liberal a
+      historian avows, a poor romance-writer dares not disown. But he hopes the
+      influence of a prejudice, almost as natural to him as his native air, will
+      not be found to have greatly affected the sketch he has attempted of
+      England's Elizabeth. I have endeavoured to describe her as at once a
+      high-minded sovereign, and a female of passionate feelings, hesitating
+      betwixt the sense of her rank and the duty she owed her subjects on the
+      one hand, and on the other her attachment to a nobleman, who, in external
+      qualifications at least, amply merited her favour. The interest of the
+      story is thrown upon that period when the sudden death of the first
+      Countess of Leicester seemed to open to the ambition of her husband the
+      opportunity of sharing the crown of his sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is possible that slander, which very seldom favours the memories of
+      persons in exalted stations, may have blackened the character of Leicester
+      with darker shades than really belonged to it. But the almost general
+      voice of the times attached the most foul suspicions to the death of the
+      unfortunate Countess, more especially as it took place so very opportunely
+      for the indulgence of her lover's ambition. If we can trust Ashmole's
+      Antiquities of Berkshire, there was but too much ground for the traditions
+      which charge Leicester with the murder of his wife. In the following
+      extract of the passage, the reader will find the authority I had for the
+      story of the romance:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At the west end of the church are the ruins of a manor, anciently
+      belonging (as a cell, or place of removal, as some report) to the monks of
+      Abington. At the Dissolution, the said manor, or lordship, was conveyed to
+      one&mdash;Owen (I believe), the possessor of Godstow then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the hall, over the chimney, I find Abington arms cut in stone&mdash;namely,
+      a patonee between four martletts; and also another escutcheon&mdash;namely,
+      a lion rampant, and several mitres cut in stone about the house. There is
+      also in the said house a chamber called Dudley's chamber, where the Earl
+      of Leicester's wife was murdered, of which this is the story following:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and singularly
+      well featured, being a great favourite to Queen Elizabeth, it was thought,
+      and commonly reported, that had he been a bachelor or widower, the Queen
+      would have made him her husband; to this end, to free himself of all
+      obstacles, he commands, or perhaps, with fair flattering entreaties,
+      desires his wife to repose herself here at his servant Anthony Forster's
+      house, who then lived in the aforesaid manor-house; and also prescribes to
+      Sir Richard Varney (a prompter to this design), at his coming hither, that
+      he should first attempt to poison her, and if that did not take effect,
+      then by any other way whatsoever to dispatch her. This, it seems, was
+      proved by the report of Dr. Walter Bayly, sometime fellow of New College,
+      then living in Oxford, and professor of physic in that university; whom,
+      because he would not consent to take away her life by poison, the Earl
+      endeavoured to displace him the court. This man, it seems, reported for
+      most certain that there was a practice in Cumnor among the conspirators,
+      to have poisoned this poor innocent lady, a little before she was killed,
+      which was attempted after this manner:&mdash;They seeing the good lady sad
+      and heavy (as one that well knew, by her other handling, that her death
+      was not far off), began to persuade her that her present disease was
+      abundance of melancholy and other humours, etc., and therefore would needs
+      counsel her to take some potion, which she absolutely refusing to do, as
+      still suspecting the worst; whereupon they sent a messenger on a day
+      (unawares to her) for Dr. Bayly, and entreated him to persuade her to take
+      some little potion by his direction, and they would fetch the same at
+      Oxford; meaning to have added something of their own for her comfort, as
+      the doctor upon just cause and consideration did suspect, seeing their
+      great importunity, and the small need the lady had of physic, and
+      therefore he peremptorily denied their request; misdoubting (as he
+      afterwards reported) lest, if they had poisoned her under the name of his
+      potion, he might after have been hanged for a colour of their sin, and the
+      doctor remained still well assured that this way taking no effect, she
+      would not long escape their violence, which afterwards happened thus. For
+      Sir Richard Varney abovesaid (the chief projector in this design), who, by
+      the Earl's order, remained that day of her death alone with her, with one
+      man only and Forster, who had that day forcibly sent away all her servants
+      from her to Abington market, about three miles distant from this place;
+      they (I say, whether first stifling her, or else strangling her)
+      afterwards flung her down a pair of stairs and broke her neck, using much
+      violence upon her; but, however, though it was vulgarly reported that she
+      by chance fell downstairs (but still without hurting her hood that was
+      upon her head), yet the inhabitants will tell you there that she was
+      conveyed from her usual chamber where she lay, to another where the bed's
+      head of the chamber stood close to a privy postern door, where they in the
+      night came and stifled her in her bed, bruised her head very much broke
+      her neck, and at length flung her down stairs, thereby believing the world
+      would have thought it a mischance, and so have blinded their villainy. But
+      behold the mercy and justice of God in revenging and discovering this
+      lady's murder; for one of the persons that was a coadjutor in this murder
+      was afterwards taken for a felony in the marches of Wales, and offering to
+      publish the manner of the aforesaid murder, was privately made away in the
+      prison by the Earl's appointment; and Sir Richard Varney the other, dying
+      about the same time in London, cried miserably, and blasphemed God, and
+      said to a person of note (who hath related the same to others since), not
+      long before his death, that all the devils in hell did tear him in pieces.
+      Forster, likewise, after this fact, being a man formerly addicted to
+      hospitality, company, mirth, and music, was afterwards observed to forsake
+      all this, and with much melancholy and pensiveness (some say with madness)
+      pined and drooped away. The wife also of Bald Butter, kinsman to the Earl,
+      gave out the whole fact a little before her death. Neither are these
+      following passages to be forgotten, that as soon as ever she was murdered,
+      they made great haste to bury her before the coroner had given in his
+      inquest (which the Earl himself condemned as not done advisedly), which
+      her father, or Sir John Robertsett (as I suppose), hearing of, came with
+      all speed hither, caused her corpse to be taken up, the coroner to sit
+      upon her, and further inquiry to be made concerning this business to the
+      full; but it was generally thought that the Earl stopped his mouth, and
+      made up the business betwixt them; and the good Earl, to make plain to the
+      world the great love he bare to her while alive, and what a grief the loss
+      of so virtuous a lady was to his tender heart, caused (though the thing,
+      by these and other means, was beaten into the heads of the principal men
+      of the University of Oxford) her body to be reburied in St, Mary's Church
+      in Oxford, with great pomp and solemnity. It is remarkable, when Dr.
+      Babington, the Earl's chaplain, did preach the funeral sermon, he tript
+      once or twice in his speech, by recommending to their memories that
+      virtuous lady so pitifully murdered, instead of saying pitifully slain.
+      This Earl, after all his murders and poisonings, was himself poisoned by
+      that which was prepared for others (some say by his wife at Cornbury Lodge
+      before mentioned), though Baker in his Chronicle would have it at
+      Killingworth; anno 1588." [Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, vol.i.,
+      p.149. The tradition as to Leicester's death was thus communicated by Ben
+      Jonson to Drummond of Hawthornden:&mdash;"The Earl of Leicester gave a
+      bottle of liquor to his Lady, which he willed her to use in any faintness,
+      which she, after his returne from court, not knowing it was poison, gave
+      him, and so he died."&mdash;BEN JONSON'S INFORMATION TO DRUMMOND OF
+      HAWTHORNDEN, MS., SIR ROBERT SIBBALD'S COPY.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same accusation has been adopted and circulated by the author of
+      Leicester's Commonwealth, a satire written directly against the Earl of
+      Leicester, which loaded him with the most horrid crimes, and, among the
+      rest, with the murder of his first wife. It was alluded to in the
+      Yorkshire Tragedy, a play erroneously ascribed to Shakespeare, where a
+      baker, who determines to destroy all his family, throws his wife
+      downstairs, with this allusion to the supposed murder of Leicester's lady,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "The only way to charm a woman's tongue
+     Is, break her neck&mdash;a politician did it."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The reader will find I have borrowed several incidents as well as names
+      from Ashmole, and the more early authorities; but my first acquaintance
+      with the history was through the more pleasing medium of verse. There is a
+      period in youth when the mere power of numbers has a more strong effect on
+      ear and imagination than in more advanced life. At this season of immature
+      taste, the author was greatly delighted with the poems of Mickle and
+      Langhorne, poets who, though by no means deficient in the higher branches
+      of their art, were eminent for their powers of verbal melody above most
+      who have practised this department of poetry. One of those pieces of
+      Mickle, which the author was particularly pleased with, is a ballad, or
+      rather a species of elegy, on the subject of Cumnor Hall, which, with
+      others by the same author, was to be found in Evans's Ancient Ballads
+      (vol. iv., page 130), to which work Mickle made liberal contributions. The
+      first stanza especially had a peculiar species of enchantment for the
+      youthful ear of the author, the force of which is not even now entirely
+      spent; some others are sufficiently prosaic.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     CUMNOR HALL.
+
+     The dews of summer night did fall;
+     The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+     Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+     And many an oak that grew thereby,
+
+     Now nought was heard beneath the skies,
+     The sounds of busy life were still,
+     Save an unhappy lady's sighs,
+     That issued from that lonely pile.
+
+     "Leicester," she cried, "is this thy love
+     That thou so oft hast sworn to me,
+     To leave me in this lonely grove,
+     Immured in shameful privity?
+
+     "No more thou com'st with lover's speed,
+     Thy once beloved bride to see;
+     But be she alive, or be she dead,
+     I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+
+     "Not so the usage I received
+     When happy in my father's hall;
+     No faithless husband then me grieved,
+     No chilling fears did me appal.
+
+     "I rose up with the cheerful morn,
+     No lark more blithe, no flower more gay;
+     And like the bird that haunts the thorn,
+     So merrily sung the livelong day.
+
+     "If that my beauty is but small,
+     Among court ladies all despised,
+     Why didst thou rend it from that hall,
+     Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized?
+
+     "And when you first to me made suit,
+     How fair I was you oft would say!
+     And proud of conquest, pluck'd the fruit,
+     Then left the blossom to decay.
+
+     "Yes!  now neglected and despised,
+     The rose is pale, the lily's dead;
+     But he that once their charms so prized,
+     Is sure the cause those charms are fled.
+
+     "For know, when sick'ning grief doth prey,
+     And tender love's repaid with scorn,
+     The sweetest beauty will decay,&mdash;
+     What floweret can endure the storm?
+
+     "At court, I'm told, is beauty's throne,
+     Where every lady's passing rare,
+     That Eastern flowers, that shame the sun,
+     Are not so glowing, not so fair.
+
+     "Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds
+     Where roses and where lilies vie,
+     To seek a primrose, whose pale shades
+     Must sicken when those gauds are by?
+
+     "'Mong rural beauties I was one,
+     Among the fields wild flowers are fair;
+     Some country swain might me have won,
+     And thought my beauty passing rare.
+
+     "But, Leicester (or I much am wrong),
+     Or 'tis not beauty lures thy vows;
+     Rather ambition's gilded crown
+     Makes thee forget thy humble spouse.
+
+     "Then, Leicester, why, again I plead
+     (The injured surely may repine)&mdash;
+     Why didst thou wed a country maid,
+     When some fair princess might be thine?
+
+     "Why didst thou praise my hum'ble charms,
+     And, oh!  then leave them to decay?
+     Why didst thou win me to thy arms,
+     Then leave to mourn the livelong day?
+
+     "The village maidens of the plain
+     Salute me lowly as they go;
+     Envious they mark my silken train,
+     Nor think a Countess can have woe.
+
+     "The simple nymphs!  they little know
+     How far more happy's their estate;
+     To smile for joy, than sigh for woe&mdash;
+     To be content, than to be great.
+
+     "How far less blest am I than them?
+     Daily to pine and waste with care!
+     Like the poor plant that, from its stem
+     Divided, feels the chilling air.
+
+     "Nor, cruel Earl!  can I enjoy
+     The humble charms of solitude;
+     Your minions proud my peace destroy,
+     By sullen frowns or pratings rude.
+
+     "Last night, as sad I chanced to stray,
+     The village death-bell smote my ear;
+     They wink'd aside, and seemed to say,
+     'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'
+
+     "And now, while happy peasants sleep,
+     Here I sit lonely and forlorn;
+     No one to soothe me as I weep,
+     Save Philomel on yonder thorn.
+
+     "My spirits flag&mdash;my hopes decay&mdash;
+     Still that dread death-bell smites my ear;
+     And many a boding seems to say,
+     'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'"
+
+     Thus sore and sad that lady grieved,
+     In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear;
+     And many a heartfelt sigh she heaved,
+     And let fall many a bitter tear.
+
+     And ere the dawn of day appear'd,
+     In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear,
+     Full many a piercing scream was heard,
+     And many a cry of mortal fear.
+
+     The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+     An aerial voice was heard to call,
+     And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+     Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.
+
+     The mastiff howl'd at village door,
+     The oaks were shatter'd on the green;
+     Woe was the hour&mdash;for never more
+     That hapless Countess e'er was seen!
+
+     And in that Manor now no more
+     Is cheerful feast and sprightly ball;
+     For ever since that dreary hour
+     Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall.
+
+     The village maids, with fearful glance,
+     Avoid the ancient moss-grown wall;
+     Nor ever lead the merry dance,
+     Among the groves of Cumnor Hall.
+
+     Full many a traveller oft hath sigh'd,
+     And pensive wept the Countess' fall,
+     As wand'ring onward they've espied
+     The haunted towers of Cumnor Hall.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ARBOTSFORD, 1st March 1831.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      KENILWORTH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I am an innkeeper, and know my grounds,
+     And study them; Brain o' man, I study them.
+     I must have jovial guests to drive my ploughs,
+     And whistling boys to bring my harvests home,
+     Or I shall hear no flails thwack.             THE NEW INN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is the privilege of tale-tellers to open their story in an inn, the
+      free rendezvous of all travellers, and where the humour of each displays
+      itself without ceremony or restraint. This is specially suitable when the
+      scene is laid during the old days of merry England, when the guests were
+      in some sort not merely the inmates, but the messmates and temporary
+      companions of mine Host, who was usually a personage of privileged
+      freedom, comely presence, and good-humour. Patronized by him the
+      characters of the company were placed in ready contrast; and they seldom
+      failed, during the emptying of a six-hooped pot, to throw off reserve, and
+      present themselves to each other, and to their landlord, with the freedom
+      of old acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The village of Cumnor, within three or four miles of Oxford, boasted,
+      during the eighteenth of Queen Elizabeth, an excellent inn of the old
+      stamp, conducted, or rather ruled, by Giles Gosling, a man of a goodly
+      person, and of somewhat round belly; fifty years of age and upwards,
+      moderate in his reckonings, prompt in his payments, having a cellar of
+      sound liquor, a ready wit, and a pretty daughter. Since the days of old
+      Harry Baillie of the Tabard in Southwark, no one had excelled Giles
+      Gosling in the power of pleasing his guests of every description; and so
+      great was his fame, that to have been in Cumnor without wetting a cup at
+      the bonny Black Bear, would have been to avouch one's-self utterly
+      indifferent to reputation as a traveller. A country fellow might as well
+      return from London without looking in the face of majesty. The men of
+      Cumnor were proud of their Host, and their Host was proud of his house,
+      his liquor, his daughter, and himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the courtyard of the inn which called this honest fellow
+      landlord, that a traveller alighted in the close of the evening, gave his
+      horse, which seemed to have made a long journey, to the hostler, and made
+      some inquiry, which produced the following dialogue betwixt the myrmidons
+      of the bonny Black Bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, ho! John Tapster."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At hand, Will Hostler," replied the man of the spigot, showing himself in
+      his costume of loose jacket, linen breeches, and green apron, half within
+      and half without a door, which appeared to descend to an outer cellar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is a gentleman asks if you draw good ale," continued the hostler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Beshrew my heart else," answered the tapster, "since there are but four
+      miles betwixt us and Oxford. Marry, if my ale did not convince the heads
+      of the scholars, they would soon convince my pate with the pewter flagon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Call you that Oxford logic?" said the stranger, who had now quitted the
+      rein of his horse, and was advancing towards the inn-door, when he was
+      encountered by the goodly form of Giles Gosling himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it logic you talk of, Sir Guest?" said the host; "why, then, have at
+      you with a downright consequence&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'The horse to the rack,
+     And to fire with the sack.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Amen! with all my heart, my good host," said the stranger; "let it be a
+      quart of your best Canaries, and give me your good help to drink it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, you are but in your accidence yet, Sir Traveller, if you call on
+      your host for help for such a sipping matter as a quart of sack; Were it a
+      gallon, you might lack some neighbouring aid at my hand, and yet call
+      yourself a toper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fear me not." said the guest, "I will do my devoir as becomes a man who
+      finds himself within five miles of Oxford; for I am not come from the
+      field of Mars to discredit myself amongst the followers of Minerva."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke thus, the landlord, with much semblance of hearty welcome,
+      ushered his guest into a large, low chamber, where several persons were
+      seated together in different parties&mdash;some drinking, some playing at
+      cards, some conversing, and some, whose business called them to be early
+      risers on the morrow, concluding their evening meal, and conferring with
+      the chamberlain about their night's quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance of a stranger procured him that general and careless sort of
+      attention which is usually paid on such occasions, from which the
+      following results were deduced:&mdash;The guest was one of those who, with
+      a well-made person, and features not in themselves unpleasing, are
+      nevertheless so far from handsome that, whether from the expression of
+      their features, or the tone of their voice, or from their gait and manner,
+      there arises, on the whole, a disinclination to their society. The
+      stranger's address was bold, without being frank, and seemed eagerly and
+      hastily to claim for him a degree of attention and deference which he
+      feared would be refused, if not instantly vindicated as his right. His
+      attire was a riding-cloak, which, when open, displayed a handsome jerkin
+      overlaid with lace, and belted with a buff girdle, which sustained a
+      broadsword and a pair of pistols.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You ride well provided, sir," said the host, looking at the weapons as he
+      placed on the table the mulled sack which the traveller had ordered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, mine host; I have found the use on't in dangerous times, and I do
+      not, like your modern grandees, turn off my followers the instant they are
+      useless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir?" said Giles Gosling; "then you are from the Low Countries, the
+      land of pike and caliver?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have been high and low, my friend, broad and wide, far and near. But
+      here is to thee in a cup of thy sack; fill thyself another to pledge me,
+      and, if it is less than superlative, e'en drink as you have brewed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Less than superlative?" said Giles Gosling, drinking off the cup, and
+      smacking his lips with an air of ineffable relish,&mdash;"I know nothing
+      of superlative, nor is there such a wine at the Three Cranes, in the
+      Vintry, to my knowledge; but if you find better sack than that in the
+      Sheres, or in the Canaries either, I would I may never touch either pot or
+      penny more. Why, hold it up betwixt you and the light, you shall see the
+      little motes dance in the golden liquor like dust in the sunbeam. But I
+      would rather draw wine for ten clowns than one traveller.&mdash;I trust
+      your honour likes the wine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is neat and comfortable, mine host; but to know good liquor, you
+      should drink where the vine grows. Trust me, your Spaniard is too wise a
+      man to send you the very soul of the grape. Why, this now, which you
+      account so choice, were counted but as a cup of bastard at the Groyne, or
+      at Port St. Mary's. You should travel, mine host, if you would be deep in
+      the mysteries of the butt and pottle-pot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In troth, Signior Guest," said Giles Gosling, "if I were to travel only
+      that I might be discontented with that which I can get at home, methinks I
+      should go but on a fool's errand. Besides, I warrant you, there is many a
+      fool can turn his nose up at good drink without ever having been out of
+      the smoke of Old England; and so ever gramercy mine own fireside."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is but a mean mind of yours, mine host," said the stranger; "I
+      warrant me, all your town's folk do not think so basely. You have gallants
+      among you, I dare undertake, that have made the Virginia voyage, or taken
+      a turn in the Low Countries at least. Come, cudgel your memory. Have you
+      no friends in foreign parts that you would gladly have tidings of?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Troth, sir, not I," answered the host, "since ranting Robin of
+      Drysandford was shot at the siege of the Brill. The devil take the caliver
+      that fired the ball, for a blither lad never filled a cup at midnight! But
+      he is dead and gone, and I know not a soldier, or a traveller, who is a
+      soldier's mate, that I would give a peeled codling for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the Mass, that is strange. What! so many of our brave English hearts
+      are abroad, and you, who seem to be a man of mark, have no friend, no
+      kinsman among them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if you speak of kinsmen," answered Gosling, "I have one wild slip of
+      a kinsman, who left us in the last year of Queen Mary; but he is better
+      lost than found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not say so, friend, unless you have heard ill of him lately. Many a
+      wild colt has turned out a noble steed.&mdash;His name, I pray you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Michael Lambourne," answered the landlord of the Black Bear; "a son of my
+      sister's&mdash;there is little pleasure in recollecting either the name or
+      the connection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Michael Lambourne!" said the stranger, as if endeavouring to recollect
+      himself&mdash;"what, no relation to Michael Lambourne, the gallant
+      cavalier who behaved so bravely at the siege of Venlo that Grave Maurice
+      thanked him at the head of the army? Men said he was an English cavalier,
+      and of no high extraction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It could scarcely be my nephew," said Giles Gosling, "for he had not the
+      courage of a hen-partridge for aught but mischief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, many a man finds courage in the wars," replied the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be," said the landlord; "but I would have thought our Mike more
+      likely to lose the little he had."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Michael Lambourne whom I knew," continued the traveller, "was a
+      likely fellow&mdash;went always gay and well attired, and had a hawk's eye
+      after a pretty wench."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Our Michael," replied the host, "had the look of a dog with a bottle at
+      its tail, and wore a coat, every rag of which was bidding good-day to the
+      rest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, men pick up good apparel in the wars," replied the guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Our Mike," answered the landlord, "was more like to pick it up in a
+      frippery warehouse, while the broker was looking another way; and, for the
+      hawk's eye you talk of, his was always after my stray spoons. He was
+      tapster's boy here in this blessed house for a quarter of a year; and
+      between misreckonings, miscarriages, mistakes, and misdemeanours, had he
+      dwelt with me for three months longer, I might have pulled down sign, shut
+      up house, and given the devil the key to keep."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You would be sorry, after all," continued the traveller, "were I to tell
+      you poor Mike Lambourne was shot at the head of his regiment at the taking
+      of a sconce near Maestricht?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sorry!&mdash;it would be the blithest news I ever heard of him, since it
+      would ensure me he was not hanged. But let him pass&mdash;I doubt his end
+      will never do such credit to his friends. Were it so, I should say"&mdash;(taking
+      another cup of sack)&mdash;"Here's God rest him, with all my heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush, man," replied the traveller, "never fear but you will have credit
+      by your nephew yet, especially if he be the Michael Lambourne whom I knew,
+      and loved very nearly, or altogether, as well as myself. Can you tell me
+      no mark by which I could judge whether they be the same?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Faith, none that I can think of," answered Giles Gosling, "unless that
+      our Mike had the gallows branded on his left shoulder for stealing a
+      silver caudle-cup from Dame Snort of Hogsditch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, there you lie like a knave, uncle," said the stranger, slipping
+      aside his ruff; and turning down the sleeve of his doublet from his neck
+      and shoulder; "by this good day, my shoulder is as unscarred as thine own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, Mike, boy&mdash;Mike!" exclaimed the host;&mdash;"and is it thou,
+      in good earnest? Nay, I have judged so for this half-hour; for I knew no
+      other person would have ta'en half the interest in thee. But, Mike, an thy
+      shoulder be unscathed as thou sayest, thou must own that Goodman Thong,
+      the hangman, was merciful in his office, and stamped thee with a cold
+      iron."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush, uncle&mdash;truce with your jests. Keep them to season your sour
+      ale, and let us see what hearty welcome thou wilt give a kinsman who has
+      rolled the world around for eighteen years; who has seen the sun set where
+      it rises, and has travelled till the west has become the east."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast brought back one traveller's gift with thee, Mike, as I well
+      see; and that was what thou least didst: need to travel for. I remember
+      well, among thine other qualities, there was no crediting a word which
+      came from thy mouth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here's an unbelieving pagan for you, gentlemen!" said Michael Lambourne,
+      turning to those who witnessed this strange interview betwixt uncle and
+      nephew, some of whom, being natives of the village, were no strangers to
+      his juvenile wildness. "This may be called slaying a Cumnor fatted calf
+      for me with a vengeance.&mdash;But, uncle, I come not from the husks and
+      the swine-trough, and I care not for thy welcome or no welcome; I carry
+      that with me will make me welcome, wend where I will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he pulled out a purse of gold indifferently well filled, the
+      sight of which produced a visible effect upon the company. Some shook
+      their heads and whispered to each other, while one or two of the less
+      scrupulous speedily began to recollect him as a school-companion, a
+      townsman, or so forth. On the other hand, two or three grave,
+      sedate-looking persons shook their heads, and left the inn, hinting that,
+      if Giles Gosling wished to continue to thrive, he should turn his
+      thriftless, godless nephew adrift again, as soon as he could. Gosling
+      demeaned himself as if he were much of the same opinion, for even the
+      sight of the gold made less impression on the honest gentleman than it
+      usually doth upon one of his calling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Kinsman Michael," he said, "put up thy purse. My sister's son shall be
+      called to no reckoning in my house for supper or lodging; and I reckon
+      thou wilt hardly wish to stay longer where thou art e'en but too well
+      known."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For that matter, uncle," replied the traveller, "I shall consult my own
+      needs and conveniences. Meantime I wish to give the supper and sleeping
+      cup to those good townsmen who are not too proud to remember Mike
+      Lambourne, the tapster's boy. If you will let me have entertainment for my
+      money, so; if not, it is but a short two minutes' walk to the Hare and
+      Tabor, and I trust our neighbours will not grudge going thus far with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, Mike," replied his uncle, "as eighteen years have gone over thy
+      head, and I trust thou art somewhat amended in thy conditions, thou shalt
+      not leave my house at this hour, and shalt e'en have whatever in reason
+      you list to call for. But I would I knew that that purse of thine, which
+      thou vapourest of, were as well come by as it seems well filled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is an infidel for you, my good neighbours!" said Lambourne, again
+      appealing to the audience. "Here's a fellow will rip up his kinsman's
+      follies of a good score of years' standing. And for the gold, why, sirs, I
+      have been where it grew, and was to be had for the gathering. In the New
+      World have I been, man&mdash;in the Eldorado, where urchins play at
+      cherry-pit with diamonds, and country wenches thread rubies for necklaces,
+      instead of rowan-tree berries; where the pantiles are made of pure gold,
+      and the paving-stones of virgin silver."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my credit, friend Mike," said young Laurence Goldthred, the cutting
+      mercer of Abingdon, "that were a likely coast to trade to. And what may
+      lawns, cypruses, and ribands fetch, where gold is so plenty?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, the profit were unutterable," replied Lambourne, "especially when a
+      handsome young merchant bears the pack himself; for the ladies of that
+      clime are bona-robas, and being themselves somewhat sunburnt, they catch
+      fire like tinder at a fresh complexion like thine, with a head of hair
+      inclining to be red."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would I might trade thither," said the mercer, chuckling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, and so thou mayest," said Michael&mdash;"that is, if thou art the
+      same brisk boy who was partner with me at robbing the Abbot's orchard.
+      'Tis but a little touch of alchemy to decoct thy house and land into ready
+      money, and that ready money into a tall ship, with sails, anchors,
+      cordage, and all things conforming; then clap thy warehouse of goods under
+      hatches, put fifty good fellows on deck, with myself to command them, and
+      so hoist topsails, and hey for the New World!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast taught him a secret, kinsman," said Giles Gosling, "to decoct,
+      an that be the word, his pound into a penny and his webs into a thread.&mdash;Take
+      a fool's advice, neighbour Goldthred. Tempt not the sea, for she is a
+      devourer. Let cards and cockatrices do their worst, thy father's bales may
+      bide a banging for a year or two ere thou comest to the Spital; but the
+      sea hath a bottomless appetite,&mdash;she would swallow the wealth of
+      Lombard Street in a morning, as easily as I would a poached egg and a cup
+      of clary. And for my kinsman's Eldorado, never trust me if I do not
+      believe he has found it in the pouches of some such gulls as thyself.&mdash;But
+      take no snuff in the nose about it; fall to and welcome, for here comes
+      the supper, and I heartily bestow it on all that will take share, in
+      honour of my hopeful nephew's return, always trusting that he has come
+      home another man.&mdash;In faith, kinsman, thou art as like my poor sister
+      as ever was son to mother."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not quite so like old Benedict Lambourne, her husband, though," said the
+      mercer, nodding and winking. "Dost thou remember, Mike, what thou saidst
+      when the schoolmaster's ferule was over thee for striking up thy father's
+      crutches?&mdash;it is a wise child, saidst thou, that knows its own
+      father. Dr. Bircham laughed till he cried again, and his crying saved
+      yours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, he made it up to me many a day after," said Lambourne; "and how is
+      the worthy pedagogue?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dead," said Giles Gosling, "this many a day since."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That he is," said the clerk of the parish; "I sat by his bed the whilst.
+      He passed away in a blessed frame. 'MORIOR&mdash;MORTUUS SUM VEL FUI&mdash;MORI'&mdash;these
+      were his latest words; and he just added, 'my last verb is conjugated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, peace be with him," said Mike, "he owes me nothing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, truly," replied Goldthred; "and every lash which he laid on thee, he
+      always was wont to say, he spared the hangman a labour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One would have thought he left him little to do then," said the clerk;
+      "and yet Goodman Thong had no sinecure of it with our friend, after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "VOTO A DIOS!" exclaimed Lambourne, his patience appearing to fail him, as
+      he snatched his broad, slouched hat from the table and placed it on his
+      head, so that the shadow gave the sinister expression of a Spanish brave
+      to eyes and features which naturally boded nothing pleasant. "Hark'ee, my
+      masters&mdash;all is fair among friends, and under the rose; and I have
+      already permitted my worthy uncle here, and all of you, to use your
+      pleasure with the frolics of my nonage. But I carry sword and dagger, my
+      good friends, and can use them lightly too upon occasion. I have learned
+      to be dangerous upon points of honour ever since I served the Spaniard,
+      and I would not have you provoke me to the degree of falling foul."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what would you do?" said the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir, what would you do?" said the mercer, bustling up on the other
+      side of the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Slit your throat, and spoil your Sunday's quavering, Sir Clerk," said
+      Lambourne fiercely; "cudgel you, my worshipful dealer in flimsy sarsenets,
+      into one of your own bales."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come," said the host, interposing, "I will have no swaggering here.&mdash;Nephew,
+      it will become you best to show no haste to take offence; and you,
+      gentlemen, will do well to remember, that if you are in an inn, still you
+      are the inn-keeper's guests, and should spare the honour of his family.&mdash;I
+      protest your silly broils make me as oblivious as yourself; for yonder
+      sits my silent guest as I call him, who hath been my two days' inmate, and
+      hath never spoken a word, save to ask for his food and his reckoning&mdash;gives
+      no more trouble than a very peasant&mdash;pays his shot like a prince
+      royal&mdash;looks but at the sum total of the reckoning, and does not know
+      what day he shall go away. Oh, 'tis a jewel of a guest! and yet, hang-dog
+      that I am, I have suffered him to sit by himself like a castaway in yonder
+      obscure nook, without so much as asking him to take bite or sup along with
+      us. It were but the right guerdon of my incivility were he to set off to
+      the Hare and Tabor before the night grows older."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his white napkin gracefully arranged over his left arm, his velvet
+      cap laid aside for the moment, and his best silver flagon in his right
+      hand, mine host walked up to the solitary guest whom he mentioned, and
+      thereby turned upon him the eyes of the assembled company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a man aged betwixt twenty-five and thirty, rather above the middle
+      size, dressed with plainness and decency, yet bearing an air of ease which
+      almost amounted to dignity, and which seemed to infer that his habit was
+      rather beneath his rank. His countenance was reserved and thoughtful, with
+      dark hair and dark eyes; the last, upon any momentary excitement, sparkled
+      with uncommon lustre, but on other occasions had the same meditative and
+      tranquil cast which was exhibited by his features. The busy curiosity of
+      the little village had been employed to discover his name and quality, as
+      well as his business at Cumnor; but nothing had transpired on either
+      subject which could lead to its gratification. Giles Gosling, head-borough
+      of the place, and a steady friend to Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant
+      religion, was at one time inclined to suspect his guest of being a Jesuit,
+      or seminary priest, of whom Rome and Spain sent at this time so many to
+      grace the gallows in England. But it was scarce possible to retain such a
+      prepossession against a guest who gave so little trouble, paid his
+      reckoning so regularly, and who proposed, as it seemed, to make a
+      considerable stay at the bonny Black Bear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Papists," argued Giles Gosling, "are a pinching, close-fisted race, and
+      this man would have found a lodging with the wealthy squire at Bessellsey,
+      or with the old Knight at Wootton, or in some other of their Roman dens,
+      instead of living in a house of public entertainment, as every honest man
+      and good Christian should. Besides, on Friday he stuck by the salt beef
+      and carrot, though there were as good spitch-cocked eels on the board as
+      ever were ta'en out of the Isis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Honest Giles, therefore, satisfied himself that his guest was no Roman,
+      and with all comely courtesy besought the stranger to pledge him in a
+      draught of the cool tankard, and honour with his attention a small
+      collation which he was giving to his nephew, in honour of his return, and,
+      as he verily hoped, of his reformation. The stranger at first shook his
+      head, as if declining the courtesy; but mine host proceeded to urge him
+      with arguments founded on the credit of his house, and the construction
+      which the good people of Cumnor might put upon such an unsocial humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, sir," he said, "it touches my reputation that men should be
+      merry in my house; and we have ill tongues amongst us at Cumnor (as where
+      be there not?), who put an evil mark on men who pull their hat over their
+      brows, as if they were looking back to the days that are gone, instead of
+      enjoying the blithe sunshiny weather which God has sent us in the sweet
+      looks of our sovereign mistress, Queen Elizabeth, whom Heaven long bless
+      and preserve!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, mine host," answered the stranger, "there is no treason, sure, in a
+      man's enjoying his own thoughts, under the shadow of his own bonnet? You
+      have lived in the world twice as long as I have, and you must know there
+      are thoughts that will haunt us in spite of ourselves, and to which it is
+      in vain to say, Begone, and let me be merry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my sooth," answered Giles Gosling, "if such troublesome thoughts haunt
+      your mind, and will not get them gone for plain English, we will have one
+      of Father Bacon's pupils from Oxford, to conjure them away with logic and
+      with Hebrew&mdash;or, what say you to laying them in a glorious red sea of
+      claret, my noble guest? Come, sir, excuse my freedom. I am an old host,
+      and must have my talk. This peevish humour of melancholy sits ill upon
+      you; it suits not with a sleek boot, a hat of trim block, a fresh cloak,
+      and a full purse. A pize on it! send it off to those who have their legs
+      swathed with a hay-wisp, their heads thatched with a felt bonnet, their
+      jerkin as thin as a cobweb, and their pouch without ever a cross to keep
+      the fiend Melancholy from dancing in it. Cheer up, sir! or, by this good
+      liquor, we shall banish thee from the joys of blithesome company, into the
+      mists of melancholy and the land of little-ease. Here be a set of good
+      fellows willing to be merry; do not scowl on them like the devil looking
+      over Lincoln."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You say well, my worthy host," said the guest, with a melancholy smile,
+      which, melancholy as it was, gave a very pleasant: expression to his
+      countenance&mdash;"you say well, my jovial friend; and they that are moody
+      like myself should not disturb the mirth of those who are happy. I will
+      drink a round with your guests with all my heart, rather than be termed a
+      mar-feast."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he arose and joined the company, who, encouraged by the precept
+      and example of Michael Lambourne, and consisting chiefly of persons much
+      disposed to profit by the opportunity of a merry meal at the expense of
+      their landlord, had already made some inroads upon the limits of
+      temperance, as was evident from the tone in which Michael inquired after
+      his old acquaintances in the town, and the bursts of laughter with which
+      each answer was received. Giles Gosling himself was somewhat scandalized
+      at the obstreperous nature of their mirth, especially as he involuntarily
+      felt some respect for his unknown guest. He paused, therefore, at some
+      distance from the table occupied by these noisy revellers, and began to
+      make a sort of apology for their license.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You would think," he said, "to hear these fellows talk, that there was
+      not one of them who had not been bred to live by Stand and Deliver; and
+      yet tomorrow you will find them a set of as painstaking mechanics, and so
+      forth, as ever cut an inch short of measure, or paid a letter of change in
+      light crowns over a counter. The mercer there wears his hat awry, over a
+      shaggy head of hair, that looks like a curly water-dog's back, goes
+      unbraced, wears his cloak on one side, and affects a ruffianly vapouring
+      humour: when in his shop at Abingdon, he is, from his flat cap to his
+      glistening shoes, as precise in his apparel as if he was named for mayor.
+      He talks of breaking parks, and taking the highway, in such fashion that
+      you would think he haunted every night betwixt Hounslow and London; when
+      in fact he may be found sound asleep on his feather-bed, with a candle
+      placed beside him on one side, and a Bible on the other, to fright away
+      the goblins."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And your nephew, mine host, this same Michael Lambourne, who is lord of
+      the feast&mdash;is he, too, such a would-be ruffler as the rest of them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, there you push me hard," said the host; "my nephew is my nephew, and
+      though he was a desperate Dick of yore, yet Mike may have mended like
+      other folks, you wot. And I would not have you think all I said of him,
+      even now, was strict gospel; I knew the wag all the while, and wished to
+      pluck his plumes from him. And now, sir, by what name shall I present my
+      worshipful guest to these gallants?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Marry, mine host," replied the stranger, "you may call me Tressilian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian?" answered mine host of the Bear. "A worthy name, and, as I
+      think, of Cornish lineage; for what says the south proverb&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'By Pol, Tre, and Pen,
+     You may know the Cornish men.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Shall I say the worthy Master Tressilian of Cornwall?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say no more than I have given you warrant for, mine host, and so shall
+      you be sure you speak no more than is true. A man may have one of those
+      honourable prefixes to his name, yet be born far from Saint Michael's
+      Mount."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mine host pushed his curiosity no further, but presented Master Tressilian
+      to his nephew's company, who, after exchange of salutations, and drinking
+      to the health of their new companion, pursued the conversation in which he
+      found them engaged, seasoning it with many an intervening pledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Talk you of young Master Lancelot? &mdash;MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After some brief interval, Master Goldthred, at the earnest instigation of
+      mine host, and the joyous concurrence of his guest, indulged the company
+      with, the following morsel of melody:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Of all the birds on bush or tree,
+     Commend me to the owl,
+     Since he may best ensample be
+     To those the cup that trowl.
+     For when the sun hath left the west,
+     He chooses the tree that he loves the best,
+     And he whoops out his song, and he laughs at his jest;
+     Then, though hours be late and weather foul,
+     We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl.
+
+     "The lark is but a bumpkin fowl,
+     He sleeps in his nest till morn;
+     But my blessing upon the jolly owl,
+     That all night blows his horn.
+     Then up with your cup till you stagger in speech,
+     And match me this catch till you swagger and screech,
+     And drink till you wink, my merry men each;
+     For, though hours be late and weather be foul,
+     We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "There is savour in this, my hearts," said Michael, when the mercer had
+      finished his song, "and some goodness seems left among you yet; but what a
+      bead-roll you have read me of old comrades, and to every man's name tacked
+      some ill-omened motto! And so Swashing Will of Wallingford hath bid us
+      good-night?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He died the death of a fat buck," said one of the party, "being shot with
+      a crossbow bolt, by old Thatcham, the Duke's stout park-keeper at
+      Donnington Castle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay, he always loved venison well," replied Michael, "and a cup of
+      claret to boot&mdash;and so here's one to his memory. Do me right, my
+      masters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the memory of this departed worthy had been duly honoured, Lambourne
+      proceeded to inquire after Prance of Padworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pranced off&mdash;made immortal ten years since," said the mercer;
+      "marry, sir, Oxford Castle and Goodman Thong, and a tenpenny-worth of
+      cord, best know how."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, so they hung poor Prance high and dry? so much for loving to walk
+      by moonlight. A cup to his memory, my masters-all merry fellows like
+      moonlight. What has become of Hal with the Plume&mdash;he who lived near
+      Yattenden, and wore the long feather?&mdash;I forget his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, Hal Hempseed?" replied the mercer. "Why, you may remember he was a
+      sort of a gentleman, and would meddle in state matters, and so he got into
+      the mire about the Duke of Norfolk's affair these two or three years
+      since, fled the country with a pursuivant's warrant at his heels, and has
+      never since been heard of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, after these baulks," said Michael Lambourne, "I need hardly inquire
+      after Tony Foster; for when ropes, and crossbow shafts, and pursuivant's
+      warrants, and such-like gear, were so rife, Tony could hardly 'scape
+      them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Which Tony Foster mean you?" said the innkeeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, him they called Tony Fire-the-Fagot, because he brought a light to
+      kindle the pile round Latimer and Ridley, when the wind blew out Jack
+      Thong's torch, and no man else would give him light for love or money."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tony Foster lives and thrives," said the host. "But, kinsman, I would not
+      have you call him Tony Fire-the-Fagot, if you would not brook the stab."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! is he grown ashamed on't?" said Lambourne, "Why, he was wont to
+      boast of it, and say he liked as well to see a roasted heretic as a
+      roasted ox."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but, kinsman, that was in Mary's time," replied the landlord, "when
+      Tony's father was reeve here to the Abbot of Abingdon. But since that,
+      Tony married a pure precisian, and is as good a Protestant, I warrant you,
+      as the best."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And looks grave, and holds his head high, and scorns his old companions,"
+      said the mercer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then he hath prospered, I warrant him," said Lambourne; "for ever when a
+      man hath got nobles of his own, he keeps out of the way of those whose
+      exchequers lie in other men's purchase."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Prospered, quotha!" said the mercer; "why, you remember Cumnor Place, the
+      old mansion-house beside the churchyard?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the same token, I robbed the orchard three times&mdash;what of that?
+      It was the old abbot's residence when there was plague or sickness at
+      Abingdon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said the host, "but that has been long over; and Anthony Foster hath
+      a right in it, and lives there by some grant from a great courtier, who
+      had the church-lands from the crown. And there he dwells, and has as
+      little to do with any poor wight in Cumnor, as if he were himself a belted
+      knight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said the mercer, "it is not altogether pride in Tony neither; there
+      is a fair lady in the case, and Tony will scarce let the light of day look
+      on her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!" said Tressilian, who now for the first time interfered in their
+      conversation; "did ye not say this Foster was married, and to a
+      precisian?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Married he was, and to as bitter a precisian as ever ate flesh in Lent;
+      and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony, as men said. But she is dead,
+      rest be with her! and Tony hath but a slip of a daughter; so it is thought
+      he means to wed this stranger, that men keep such a coil about."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why so?&mdash;I mean, why do they keep a coil about her?" said
+      Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, I wot not," answered the host, "except that men say she is as
+      beautiful as an angel, and no one knows whence she comes, and every one
+      wishes to know why she is kept so closely mewed up. For my part, I never
+      saw her&mdash;you have, I think, Master Goldthred?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I have, old boy," said the mercer. "Look you, I was riding hither
+      from Abingdon. I passed under the east oriel window of the old mansion,
+      where all the old saints and histories and such-like are painted. It was
+      not the common path I took, but one through the Park; for the postern door
+      was upon the latch, and I thought I might take the privilege of an old
+      comrade to ride across through the trees, both for shading, as the day was
+      somewhat hot, and for avoiding of dust, because I had on my peach-coloured
+      doublet, pinked out with cloth of gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Which garment," said Michael Lambourne, "thou wouldst willingly make
+      twinkle in the eyes of a fair dame. Ah! villain, thou wilt never leave thy
+      old tricks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so-not so," said the mercer, with a smirking laugh&mdash;"not
+      altogether so&mdash;but curiosity, thou knowest, and a strain of
+      compassion withal; for the poor young lady sees nothing from morn to even
+      but Tony Foster, with his scowling black brows, his bull's head, and his
+      bandy legs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou wouldst willingly show her a dapper body, in a silken jerkin&mdash;a
+      limb like a short-legged hen's, in a cordovan boot&mdash;and a round,
+      simpering, what-d'ye-lack sort of a countenance, set off with a velvet
+      bonnet, a Turkey feather, and a gilded brooch? Ah! jolly mercer, they who
+      have good wares are fond to show them!&mdash;Come, gentles, let not the
+      cup stand&mdash;here's to long spurs, short boots, full bonnets, and empty
+      skulls!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, now, you are jealous of me, Mike," said Goldthred; "and yet my luck
+      was but what might have happened to thee, or any man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Marry confound thine impudence," retorted Lambourne; "thou wouldst not
+      compare thy pudding face, and sarsenet manners, to a gentleman, and a
+      soldier?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my good sir," said Tressilian, "let me beseech you will not
+      interrupt the gallant citizen; methinks he tells his tale so well, I could
+      hearken to him till midnight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It's more of your favour than of my desert," answered Master Goldthred;
+      "but since I give you pleasure, worthy Master Tressilian, I shall proceed,
+      maugre all the gibes and quips of this valiant soldier, who, peradventure,
+      hath had more cuffs than crowns in the Low Countries. And so, sir, as I
+      passed under the great painted window, leaving my rein loose on my ambling
+      palfrey's neck, partly for mine ease, and partly that I might have the
+      more leisure to peer about, I hears me the lattice open; and never credit
+      me, sir, if there did not stand there the person of as fair a woman as
+      ever crossed mine eyes; and I think I have looked on as many pretty
+      wenches, and with as much judgment, as other folks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I ask her appearance, sir?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, sir," replied Master Goldthred, "I promise you, she was in
+      gentlewoman's attire&mdash;a very quaint and pleasing dress, that might
+      have served the Queen herself; for she had a forepart with body and
+      sleeves, of ginger-coloured satin, which, in my judgment, must have cost
+      by the yard some thirty shillings, lined with murrey taffeta, and laid
+      down and guarded with two broad laces of gold and silver. And her hat,
+      sir, was truly the best fashioned thing that I have seen in these parts,
+      being of tawny taffeta, embroidered with scorpions of Venice gold, and
+      having a border garnished with gold fringe&mdash;I promise you, sir, an
+      absolute and all-surpassing device. Touching her skirts, they were in the
+      old pass-devant fashion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did not ask you of her attire, sir," said Tressilian, who had shown
+      some impatience during this conversation, "but of her complexion&mdash;the
+      colour of her hair, her features."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Touching her complexion," answered the mercer, "I am not so special
+      certain, but I marked that her fan had an ivory handle, curiously inlaid.
+      And then again, as to the colour of her hair, why, I can warrant, be its
+      hue what it might, that she wore above it a net of green silk, parcel
+      twisted with gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A most mercer-like memory!" said Lambourne. "The gentleman asks him of
+      the lady's beauty, and he talks of her fine clothes!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell thee," said the mercer, somewhat disconcerted, "I had little time
+      to look at her; for just as I was about to give her the good time of day,
+      and for that purpose had puckered my features with a smile&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Like those of a jackanape simpering at a chestnut," said Michael
+      Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Up started of a sudden," continued Goldthred, without heeding the
+      interruption, "Tony Foster himself, with a cudgel in his hand&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And broke thy head across, I hope, for thine impertinence," said his
+      entertainer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That were more easily said than done," answered Goldthred indignantly;
+      "no, no&mdash;there was no breaking of heads. It's true, he advanced his
+      cudgel, and spoke of laying on, and asked why I did not keep the public
+      road, and such like; and I would have knocked him over the pate handsomely
+      for his pains, only for the lady's presence, who might have swooned, for
+      what I know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, out upon thee for a faint-spirited slave!" said Lambourne; "what
+      adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when he went to
+      thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence, and for her
+      deliverance? But why talk to thee of dragons, who would be driven back by
+      a dragon-fly. There thou hast missed the rarest opportunity!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take it thyself, then, bully Mike," answered Goldthred. "Yonder is the
+      enchanted manor, and the dragon, and the lady, all at thy service, if thou
+      darest venture on them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, so I would for a quartern of sack," said the soldier&mdash;"or stay:
+      I am foully out of linen&mdash;wilt thou bet a piece of Hollands against
+      these five angels, that I go not up to the Hall to-morrow and force Tony
+      Foster to introduce me to his fair guest?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I accept your wager," said the mercer; "and I think, though thou hadst
+      even the impudence of the devil, I shall gain on thee this bout. Our
+      landlord here shall hold stakes, and I will stake down gold till I send
+      the linen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will hold stakes on no such matter," said Gosling. "Good now, my
+      kinsman, drink your wine in quiet, and let such ventures alone. I promise
+      you, Master Foster hath interest enough to lay you up in lavender in the
+      Castle at Oxford, or to get your legs made acquainted with the
+      town-stocks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That would be but renewing an old intimacy, for Mike's shins and the
+      town's wooden pinfold have been well known to each other ere now," said
+      the mercer; "but he shall not budge from his wager, unless he means to pay
+      forfeit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Forfeit?" said Lambourne; "I scorn it. I value Tony Foster's wrath no
+      more than a shelled pea-cod; and I will visit his Lindabrides, by Saint
+      George, be he willing or no!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would gladly pay your halves of the risk, sir," said Tressilian, "to be
+      permitted to accompany you on the adventure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In what would that advantage you, sir?" answered Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In nothing, sir," said Tressilian, "unless to mark the skill and valour
+      with which you conduct yourself. I am a traveller who seeks for strange
+      rencounters and uncommon passages, as the knights of yore did after
+      adventures and feats of arms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if it pleasures you to see a trout tickled," answered Lambourne, "I
+      care not how many witness my skill. And so here I drink success to my
+      enterprise; and he that will not pledge me on his knees is a rascal, and I
+      will cut his legs off by the garters!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The draught which Michael Lambourne took upon this occasion had been
+      preceded by so many others, that reason tottered on her throne. He swore
+      one or two incoherent oaths at the mercer, who refused, reasonably enough,
+      to pledge him to a sentiment which inferred the loss of his own wager.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wilt thou chop logic with me," said Lambourne, "thou knave, with no more
+      brains than are in a skein of ravelled silk? By Heaven, I will cut thee
+      into fifty yards of galloon lace!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as he attempted to draw his sword for this doughty purpose, Michael
+      Lambourne was seized upon by the tapster and the chamberlain, and conveyed
+      to his own apartment, there to sleep himself sober at his leisure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party then broke up, and the guests took their leave; much more to the
+      contentment of mine host than of some of the company, who were unwilling
+      to quit good liquor, when it was to be had for free cost, so long as they
+      were able to sit by it. They were, however, compelled to remove; and go at
+      length they did, leaving Gosling and Tressilian in the empty apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith," said the former, "I wonder where our great folks find
+      pleasure, when they spend their means in entertainments, and in playing
+      mine host without sending in a reckoning. It is what I but rarely
+      practise; and whenever I do, by Saint Julian, it grieves me beyond
+      measure. Each of these empty stoups now, which my nephew and his drunken
+      comrades have swilled off, should have been a matter of profit to one in
+      my line, and I must set them down a dead loss. I cannot, for my heart,
+      conceive the pleasure of noise, and nonsense, and drunken freaks, and
+      drunken quarrels, and smut, and blasphemy, and so forth, when a man loses
+      money instead of gaining by it. And yet many a fair estate is lost in
+      upholding such a useless course, and that greatly contributes to the decay
+      of publicans; for who the devil do you think would pay for drink at the
+      Black Bear, when he can have it for nothing at my Lord's or the Squire's?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian perceived that the wine had made some impression even on the
+      seasoned brain of mine host, which was chiefly to be inferred from his
+      declaiming against drunkenness. As he himself had carefully avoided the
+      bowl, he would have availed himself of the frankness of the moment to
+      extract from Gosling some further information upon the subject of Anthony
+      Foster, and the lady whom the mercer had seen in his mansion-house; but
+      his inquiries only set the host upon a new theme of declamation against
+      the wiles of the fair sex, in which he brought, at full length, the whole
+      wisdom of Solomon to reinforce his own. Finally, he turned his
+      admonitions, mixed with much objurgation, upon his tapsters and drawers,
+      who were employed in removing the relics of the entertainment, and
+      restoring order to the apartment; and at length, joining example to
+      precept, though with no good success, he demolished a salver with half a
+      score of glasses, in attempting to show how such service was done at the
+      Three Cranes in the Vintry, then the most topping tavern in London. This
+      last accident so far recalled him to his better self, that he retired to
+      his bed, slept sound, and awoke a new man in the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Nay, I'll hold touch&mdash;the game shall be play'd out;
+     It ne'er shall stop for me, this merry wager:
+     That which I say when gamesome, I'll avouch
+     In my most sober mood, ne'er trust me else.   THE HAZARD TABLE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "And how doth your kinsman, good mine host?" said Tressilian, when Giles
+      Gosling first appeared in the public room, on the morning following the
+      revel which we described in the last chapter. "Is he well, and will he
+      abide by his wager?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For well, sir, he started two hours since, and has visited I know not
+      what purlieus of his old companions; hath but now returned, and is at this
+      instant breakfasting on new-laid eggs and muscadine. And for his wager, I
+      caution you as a friend to have little to do with that, or indeed with
+      aught that Mike proposes. Wherefore, I counsel you to a warm breakfast
+      upon a culiss, which shall restore the tone of the stomach; and let my
+      nephew and Master Goldthred swagger about their wager as they list."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It seems to me, mine host," said Tressilian, "that you know not well what
+      to say about this kinsman of yours, and that you can neither blame nor
+      commend him without some twinge of conscience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have spoken truly, Master Tressilian," replied Giles Gosling. "There
+      is Natural Affection whimpering into one ear, 'Giles, Giles, why wilt thou
+      take away the good name of thy own nephew? Wilt thou defame thy sister's
+      son, Giles Gosling? wilt thou defoul thine own nest, dishonour thine own
+      blood?' And then, again, comes Justice, and says, 'Here is a worthy guest
+      as ever came to the bonny Black Bear; one who never challenged a
+      reckoning' (as I say to your face you never did, Master Tressilian&mdash;not
+      that you have had cause), 'one who knows not why he came, so far as I can
+      see, or when he is going away; and wilt thou, being a publican, having
+      paid scot and lot these thirty years in the town of Cumnor, and being at
+      this instant head-borough, wilt thou suffer this guest of guests, this man
+      of men, this six-hooped pot (as I may say) of a traveller, to fall into
+      the meshes of thy nephew, who is known for a swasher and a desperate Dick,
+      a carder and a dicer, a professor of the seven damnable sciences, if ever
+      man took degrees in them?' No, by Heaven! I might wink, and let him catch
+      such a small butterfly as Goldthred; but thou, my guest, shall be
+      forewarned, forearmed, so thou wilt but listen to thy trusty host."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, mine host, thy counsel shall not be cast away," replied Tressilian;
+      "however, I must uphold my share in this wager, having once passed my word
+      to that effect. But lend me, I pray, some of thy counsel. This Foster, who
+      or what is he, and why makes he such mystery of his female inmate?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Troth," replied Gosling, "I can add but little to what you heard last
+      night. He was one of Queen Mary's Papists, and now he is one of Queen
+      Elizabeth's Protestants; he was an onhanger of the Abbot of Abingdon; and
+      now he lives as master of the Manor-house. Above all, he was poor, and is
+      rich. Folk talk of private apartments in his old waste mansion-house,
+      bedizened fine enough to serve the Queen, God bless her! Some men think he
+      found a treasure in the orchard, some that he sold himself to the devil
+      for treasure, and some say that he cheated the abbot out of the church
+      plate, which was hidden in the old Manor-house at the Reformation. Rich,
+      however, he is, and God and his conscience, with the devil perhaps
+      besides, only know how he came by it. He has sulky ways too&mdash;breaking
+      off intercourse with all that are of the place, as if he had either some
+      strange secret to keep, or held himself to be made of another clay than we
+      are. I think it likely my kinsman and he will quarrel, if Mike thrust his
+      acquaintance on him; and I am sorry that you, my worthy Master Tressilian,
+      will still think of going in my nephew's company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian again answered him, that he would proceed with great caution,
+      and that he should have no fears on his account; in short, he bestowed on
+      him all the customary assurances with which those who are determined on a
+      rash action are wont to parry the advice of their friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, the traveller accepted the landlord's invitation, and had just
+      finished the excellent breakfast, which was served to him and Gosling by
+      pretty Cicely, the beauty of the bar, when the hero of the preceding
+      night, Michael Lambourne, entered the apartment. His toilet had apparently
+      cost him some labour, for his clothes, which differed from those he wore
+      on his journey, were of the newest fashion, and put on with great
+      attention to the display of his person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, uncle," said the gallant, "you made a wet night of it, and I
+      feel it followed by a dry morning. I will pledge you willingly in a cup of
+      bastard.&mdash;How, my pretty coz Cicely! why, I left you but a child in
+      the cradle, and there thou stand'st in thy velvet waistcoat, as tight a
+      girl as England's sun shines on. Know thy friends and kindred, Cicely, and
+      come hither, child, that I may kiss thee, and give thee my blessing."
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0045m.jpg" alt="0045m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0045.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Concern not yourself about Cicely, kinsman," said Giles Gosling, "but
+      e'en let her go her way, a' God's name; for although your mother were her
+      father's sister, yet that shall not make you and her cater-cousins."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, uncle," replied Lambourne, "think'st thou I am an infidel, and would
+      harm those of mine own house?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is for no harm that I speak, Mike," answered his uncle, "but a simple
+      humour of precaution which I have. True, thou art as well gilded as a
+      snake when he casts his old slough in the spring time; but for all that,
+      thou creepest not into my Eden. I will look after mine Eve, Mike, and so
+      content thee.&mdash;But how brave thou be'st, lad! To look on thee now,
+      and compare thee with Master Tressilian here, in his sad-coloured
+      riding-suit, who would not say that thou wert the real gentleman and he
+      the tapster's boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Troth, uncle," replied Lambourne, "no one would say so but one of your
+      country-breeding, that knows no better. I will say, and I care not who
+      hears me, there is something about the real gentry that few men come up to
+      that are not born and bred to the mystery. I wot not where the trick lies;
+      but although I can enter an ordinary with as much audacity, rebuke the
+      waiters and drawers as loudly, drink as deep a health, swear as round an
+      oath, and fling my gold as freely about as any of the jingling spurs and
+      white feathers that are around me, yet, hang me if I can ever catch the
+      true grace of it, though I have practised an hundred times. The man of the
+      house sets me lowest at the board, and carves to me the last; and the
+      drawer says, 'Coming, friend,' without any more reverence or regardful
+      addition. But, hang it, let it pass; care killed a cat. I have gentry
+      enough to pass the trick on Tony Fire-the-Faggot, and that will do for the
+      matter in hand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You hold your purpose, then, of visiting your old acquaintance?" said
+      Tressilian to the adventurer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir," replied Lambourne; "when stakes are made, the game must be
+      played; that is gamester's law, all over the world. You, sir, unless my
+      memory fails me (for I did steep it somewhat too deeply in the sack-butt),
+      took some share in my hazard?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I propose to accompany you in your adventure," said Tressilian, "if you
+      will do me so much grace as to permit me; and I have staked my share of
+      the forfeit in the hands of our worthy host."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That he hath," answered Giles Gosling, "in as fair Harry-nobles as ever
+      were melted into sack by a good fellow. So, luck to your enterprise, since
+      you will needs venture on Tony Foster; but, by my credit, you had better
+      take another draught before you depart, for your welcome at the Hall
+      yonder will be somewhat of the driest. And if you do get into peril,
+      beware of taking to cold steel; but send for me, Giles Gosling, the
+      head-borough, and I may be able to make something out of Tony yet, for as
+      proud as he is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nephew dutifully obeyed his uncle's hint, by taking a second powerful
+      pull at the tankard, observing that his wit never served him so well as
+      when he had washed his temples with a deep morning's draught; and they set
+      forth together for the habitation of Anthony Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The village of Cumnor is pleasantly built on a hill, and in a wooded park
+      closely adjacent was situated the ancient mansion occupied at this time by
+      Anthony Foster, of which the ruins may be still extant. The park was then
+      full of large trees, and in particular of ancient and mighty oaks, which
+      stretched their giant arms over the high wall surrounding the demesne,
+      thus giving it a melancholy, secluded, and monastic appearance. The
+      entrance to the park lay through an old-fashioned gateway in the outer
+      wall, the door of which was formed of two huge oaken leaves thickly
+      studded with nails, like the gate of an old town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall be finely helped up here," said Michael Lambourne, looking at
+      the gateway and gate, "if this fellow's suspicious humour should refuse us
+      admission altogether, as it is like he may, in case this linsey-wolsey
+      fellow of a mercer's visit to his premises has disquieted him. But, no,"
+      he added, pushing the huge gate, which gave way, "the door stands
+      invitingly open; and here we are within the forbidden ground, without
+      other impediment than the passive resistance of a heavy oak door moving on
+      rusty hinges."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stood now in an avenue overshadowed by such old trees as we have
+      described, and which had been bordered at one time by high hedges of yew
+      and holly. But these, having been untrimmed for many years, had run up
+      into great bushes, or rather dwarf-trees, and now encroached, with their
+      dark and melancholy boughs, upon the road which they once had screened.
+      The avenue itself was grown up with grass, and, in one or two places,
+      interrupted by piles of withered brushwood, which had been lopped from the
+      trees cut down in the neighbouring park, and was here stacked for drying.
+      Formal walks and avenues, which, at different points, crossed this
+      principal approach, were, in like manner, choked up and interrupted by
+      piles of brushwood and billets, and in other places by underwood and
+      brambles. Besides the general effect of desolation which is so strongly
+      impressed whenever we behold the contrivances of man wasted and
+      obliterated by neglect, and witness the marks of social life effaced
+      gradually by the influence of vegetation, the size of the trees and the
+      outspreading extent of their boughs diffused a gloom over the scene, even
+      when the sun was at the highest, and made a proportional impression on the
+      mind of those who visited it. This was felt even by Michael Lambourne,
+      however alien his habits were to receiving any impressions, excepting from
+      things which addressed themselves immediately to his passions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This wood is as dark as a wolf's mouth," said he to Tressilian, as they
+      walked together slowly along the solitary and broken approach, and had
+      just come in sight of the monastic front of the old mansion, with its
+      shafted windows, brick walls overgrown with ivy and creeping shrubs, and
+      twisted stalks of chimneys of heavy stone-work. "And yet," continued
+      Lambourne, "it is fairly done on the part of Foster too for since he
+      chooses not visitors, it is right to keep his place in a fashion that will
+      invite few to trespass upon his privacy. But had he been the Anthony I
+      once knew him, these sturdy oaks had long since become the property of
+      some honest woodmonger, and the manor-close here had looked lighter at
+      midnight than it now does at noon, while Foster played fast and loose with
+      the price, in some cunning corner in the purlieus of Whitefriars."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was he then such an unthrift?" asked Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He was," answered Lambourne, "like the rest of us, no saint, and no
+      saver. But what I liked worst of Tony was, that he loved to take his
+      pleasure by himself, and grudged, as men say, every drop of water that
+      went past his own mill. I have known him deal with such measures of wine
+      when he was alone, as I would not have ventured on with aid of the best
+      toper in Berkshire;&mdash;that, and some sway towards superstition, which
+      he had by temperament, rendered him unworthy the company of a good fellow.
+      And now he has earthed himself here, in a den just befitting such a sly
+      fox as himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I ask you, Master Lambourne," said Tressilian, "since your old
+      companion's humour jumps so little with your own, wherefore you are so
+      desirous to renew acquaintance with him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And may I ask you, in return, Master Tressilian," answered Lambourne,
+      "wherefore you have shown yourself so desirous to accompany me on this
+      party?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I told you my motive," said Tressilian, "when I took share in your wager&mdash;it
+      was simple curiosity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "La you there now!" answered Lambourne. "See how you civil and discreet
+      gentlemen think to use us who live by the free exercise of our wits! Had I
+      answered your question by saying that it was simple curiosity which led me
+      to visit my old comrade Anthony Foster, I warrant you had set it down for
+      an evasion, and a turn of my trade. But any answer, I suppose, must serve
+      my turn."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore should not bare curiosity," said Tressilian, "be a
+      sufficient reason for my taking this walk with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, content yourself, sir," replied Lambourne; "you cannot put the change
+      on me so easy as you think, for I have lived among the quick-stirring
+      spirits of the age too long to swallow chaff for grain. You are a
+      gentleman of birth and breeding&mdash;your bearing makes it good; of civil
+      habits and fair reputation&mdash;your manners declare it, and my uncle
+      avouches it; and yet you associate yourself with a sort of scant-of-grace,
+      as men call me, and, knowing me to be such, you make yourself my companion
+      in a visit to a man whom you are a stranger to&mdash;and all out of mere
+      curiosity, forsooth! The excuse, if curiously balanced, would be found to
+      want some scruples of just weight, or so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If your suspicions were just," said Tressilian, "you have shown no
+      confidence in me to invite or deserve mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if that be all," said Lambourne, "my motives lie above water. While
+      this gold of mine lasts"&mdash;taking out his purse, chucking it into the
+      air, and catching it as it fell&mdash;"I will make it buy pleasure; and
+      when it is out I must have more. Now, if this mysterious Lady of the Manor&mdash;this
+      fair Lindabrides of Tony Fire-the-Fagot&mdash;be so admirable a piece as
+      men say, why, there is a chance that she may aid me to melt my nobles into
+      groats; and, again, if Anthony be so wealthy a chuff as report speaks him,
+      he may prove the philosopher's stone to me, and convert my greats into
+      fair rose-nobles again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A comfortable proposal truly," said Tressilian; "but I see not what
+      chance there is of accomplishing it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not to-day, or perchance to-morrow," answered Lambourne; "I expect not to
+      catch the old jack till. I have disposed my ground-baits handsomely. But I
+      know something more of his affairs this morning than I did last night, and
+      I will so use my knowledge that he shall think it more perfect than it is.
+      Nay, without expecting either pleasure or profit, or both, I had not
+      stepped a stride within this manor, I can tell you; for I promise you I
+      hold our visit not altogether without risk.&mdash;But here we are, and we
+      must make the best on't."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he thus spoke, they had entered a large orchard which surrounded the
+      house on two sides, though the trees, abandoned by the care of man, were
+      overgrown and messy, and seemed to bear little fruit. Those which had been
+      formerly trained as espaliers had now resumed their natural mode of
+      growing, and exhibited grotesque forms, partaking of the original training
+      which they had received. The greater part of the ground, which had once
+      been parterres and flower-gardens, was suffered in like manner to run to
+      waste, excepting a few patches which had been dug up and planted with
+      ordinary pot herbs. Some statues, which had ornamented the garden in its
+      days of splendour, were now thrown down from their pedestals and broken in
+      pieces; and a large summer-house, having a heavy stone front, decorated
+      with carving representing the life and actions of Samson, was in the same
+      dilapidated condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had just traversed this garden of the sluggard, and were within a few
+      steps of the door of the mansion, when Lambourne had ceased speaking; a
+      circumstance very agreeable to Tressilian, as it saved him the
+      embarrassment of either commenting upon or replying to the frank avowal
+      which his companion had just made of the sentiments and views which
+      induced him to come hither. Lambourne knocked roundly and boldly at the
+      huge door of the mansion, observing, at the same time, he had seen a less
+      strong one upon a county jail. It was not until they had knocked more than
+      once that an aged, sour-visaged domestic reconnoitred them through a small
+      square hole in the door, well secured with bars of iron, and demanded what
+      they wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To speak with Master Foster instantly, on pressing business of the
+      state," was the ready reply of Michael Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks you will find difficulty to make that good," said Tressilian in
+      a whisper to his companion, while the servant went to carry the message to
+      his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush," replied the adventurer; "no soldier would go on were he always to
+      consider when and how he should come off. Let us once obtain entrance, and
+      all will go well enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a short time the servant returned, and drawing with a careful hand both
+      bolt and bar, opened the gate, which admitted them through an archway into
+      a square court, surrounded by buildings. Opposite to the arch was another
+      door, which the serving-man in like manner unlocked, and thus introduced
+      them into a stone-paved parlour, where there was but little furniture, and
+      that of the rudest and most ancient fashion. The windows were tall and
+      ample, reaching almost to the roof of the room, which was composed of
+      black oak; those opening to the quadrangle were obscured by the height of
+      the surrounding buildings, and, as they were traversed with massive shafts
+      of solid stone-work, and thickly painted with religious devices, and
+      scenes taken from Scripture history, by no means admitted light in
+      proportion to their size, and what did penetrate through them partook of
+      the dark and gloomy tinge of the stained glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian and his guide had time enough to observe all these particulars,
+      for they waited some space in the apartment ere the present master of the
+      mansion at length made his appearance. Prepared as he was to see an
+      inauspicious and ill-looking person, the ugliness of Anthony Foster
+      considerably exceeded what Tressilian had anticipated. He was of middle
+      stature, built strongly, but so clumsily as to border on deformity, and to
+      give all his motions the ungainly awkwardness of a left-legged and
+      left-handed man. His hair, in arranging which men at that time, as at
+      present, were very nice and curious, instead of being carefully cleaned
+      and disposed into short curls, or else set up on end, as is represented in
+      old paintings, in a manner resembling that used by fine gentlemen of our
+      own day, escaped in sable negligence from under a furred bonnet, and hung
+      in elf-locks, which seemed strangers to the comb, over his rugged brows,
+      and around his very singular and unprepossessing countenance. His keen,
+      dark eyes were deep set beneath broad and shaggy eyebrows, and as they
+      were usually bent on the ground, seemed as if they were themselves ashamed
+      of the expression natural to them, and were desirous to conceal it from
+      the observation of men. At times, however, when, more intent on observing
+      others, he suddenly raised them, and fixed them keenly on those with whom
+      he conversed, they seemed to express both the fiercer passions, and the
+      power of mind which could at will suppress or disguise the intensity of
+      inward feeling. The features which corresponded with these eyes and this
+      form were irregular, and marked so as to be indelibly fixed on the mind of
+      him who had once seen them. Upon the whole, as Tressilian could not help
+      acknowledging to himself, the Anthony Foster who now stood before them was
+      the last person, judging from personal appearance, upon whom one would
+      have chosen to intrude an unexpected and undesired visit. His attire was a
+      doublet of russet leather, like those worn by the better sort of country
+      folk, girt with a buff belt, in which was stuck on the right side a long
+      knife, or dudgeon dagger, and on the other a cutlass. He raised his eyes
+      as he entered the room, and fixed a keenly penetrating glance upon his two
+      visitors; then cast them down as if counting his steps, while he advanced
+      slowly into the middle of the room, and said, in a low and smothered tone
+      of voice, "Let me pray you, gentlemen, to tell me the cause of this
+      visit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked as if he expected the answer from Tressilian, so true was
+      Lambourne's observation that the superior air of breeding and dignity
+      shone through the disguise of an inferior dress. But it was Michael who
+      replied to him, with the easy familiarity of an old friend, and a tone
+      which seemed unembarrassed by any doubt of the most cordial reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! my dear friend and ingle, Tony Foster!" he exclaimed, seizing upon
+      the unwilling hand, and shaking it with such emphasis as almost to stagger
+      the sturdy frame of the person whom he addressed, "how fares it with you
+      for many a long year? What! have you altogether forgotten your friend,
+      gossip, and playfellow, Michael Lambourne?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Michael Lambourne!" said Foster, looking at him a moment; then dropping
+      his eyes, and with little ceremony extricating his hand from the friendly
+      grasp of the person by whom he was addressed, "are you Michael Lambourne?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay; sure as you are Anthony Foster," replied Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Tis well," answered his sullen host. "And what may Michael Lambourne
+      expect from his visit hither?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "VOTO A DIOS," answered Lambourne, "I expected a better welcome than I am
+      like to meet, I think."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, thou gallows-bird&mdash;thou jail-rat&mdash;thou friend of the
+      hangman and his customers!" replied Foster, "hast thou the assurance to
+      expect countenance from any one whose neck is beyond the compass of a
+      Tyburn tippet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be with me as you say," replied Lambourne; "and suppose I grant it
+      to be so for argument's sake, I were still good enough society for mine
+      ancient friend Anthony Fire-the-Fagot, though he be, for the present, by
+      some indescribable title, the master of Cumnor Place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark you, Michael Lambourne," said Foster; "you are a gambler now, and
+      live by the counting of chances&mdash;compute me the odds that I do not,
+      on this instant, throw you out of that window into the ditch there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twenty to one that you do not," answered the sturdy visitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore, I pray you?" demanded Anthony Foster, setting his teeth
+      and compressing his lips, like one who endeavours to suppress some violent
+      internal emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because," said Lambourne coolly, "you dare not for your life lay a finger
+      on me. I am younger and stronger than you, and have in me a double portion
+      of the fighting devil, though not, it may be, quite so much of the
+      undermining fiend, that finds an underground way to his purpose&mdash;who
+      hides halters under folk's pillows, and who puts rats-bane into their
+      porridge, as the stage-play says."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster looked at him earnestly, then turned away, and paced the room twice
+      with the same steady and considerate pace with which he had entered it;
+      then suddenly came back, and extended his hand to Michael Lambourne,
+      saying, "Be not wroth with me, good Mike; I did but try whether thou hadst
+      parted with aught of thine old and honourable frankness, which your
+      enviers and backbiters called saucy impudence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let them call it what they will," said Michael Lambourne, "it is the
+      commodity we must carry through the world with us.&mdash;Uds daggers! I
+      tell thee, man, mine own stock of assurance was too small to trade upon. I
+      was fain to take in a ton or two more of brass at every port where I
+      touched in the voyage of life; and I started overboard what modesty and
+      scruples I had remaining, in order to make room for the stowage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, nay," replied Foster, "touching scruples and modesty, you sailed
+      hence in ballast. But who is this gallant, honest Mike?&mdash;is he a
+      Corinthian&mdash;a cutter like thyself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I prithee, know Master Tressilian, bully Foster," replied Lambourne,
+      presenting his friend in answer to his friend's question, "know him and
+      honour him, for he is a gentleman of many admirable qualities; and though
+      he traffics not in my line of business, at least so far as I know, he has,
+      nevertheless, a just respect and admiration for artists of our class. He
+      will come to in time, as seldom fails; but as yet he is only a neophyte,
+      only a proselyte, and frequents the company of cocks of the game, as a
+      puny fencer does the schools of the masters, to see how a foil is handled
+      by the teachers of defence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If such be his quality, I will pray your company in another chamber,
+      honest Mike, for what I have to say to thee is for thy private ear.&mdash;Meanwhile,
+      I pray you, sir, to abide us in this apartment, and without leaving it;
+      there be those in this house who would be alarmed by the sight of a
+      stranger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian acquiesced, and the two worthies left the apartment together,
+      in which he remained alone to await their return. [See Note 1. Foster,
+      Lambourne, and the Black Bear.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Not serve two masters?&mdash;Here's a youth will try it&mdash;
+     Would fain serve God, yet give the devil his due;
+     Says grace before he doth a deed of villainy,
+     And returns his thanks devoutly when 'tis acted,&mdash;OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The room into which the Master of Cumnor Place conducted his worthy
+      visitant was of greater extent than that in which they had at first
+      conversed, and had yet more the appearance of dilapidation. Large oaken
+      presses, filled with shelves of the same wood, surrounded the room, and
+      had, at one time, served for the arrangement of a numerous collection of
+      books, many of which yet remained, but torn and defaced, covered with
+      dust, deprived of their costly clasps and bindings, and tossed together in
+      heaps upon the shelves, as things altogether disregarded, and abandoned to
+      the pleasure of every spoiler. The very presses themselves seemed to have
+      incurred the hostility of those enemies of learning who had destroyed the
+      volumes with which they had been heretofore filled. They were, in several
+      places, dismantled of their shelves, and otherwise broken and damaged, and
+      were, moreover, mantled with cobwebs and covered with dust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The men who wrote these books," said Lambourne, looking round him,
+      "little thought whose keeping they were to fall into."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor what yeoman's service they were to do me," quoth Anthony Foster; "the
+      cook hath used them for scouring his pewter, and the groom hath had nought
+      else to clean my boots with, this many a month past."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And yet," said Lambourne, "I have been in cities where such learned
+      commodities would have been deemed too good for such offices."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw, pshaw," answered Foster, "'they are Popish trash, every one of
+      them&mdash;private studies of the mumping old Abbot of Abingdon. The
+      nineteenthly of a pure gospel sermon were worth a cartload of such rakings
+      of the kennel of Rome."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gad-a-mercy, Master Tony Fire-the-Fagot!" said Lambourne, by way of
+      reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster scowled darkly at him, as he replied, "Hark ye, friend Mike; forget
+      that name, and the passage which it relates to, if you would not have our
+      newly-revived comradeship die a sudden and a violent death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said Michael Lambourne, "you were wont to glory in the share you
+      had in the death of the two old heretical bishops."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That," said his comrade, "was while I was in the gall of bitterness and
+      bond of iniquity, and applies not to my walk or my ways now that I am
+      called forth into the lists. Mr. Melchisedek Maultext compared my
+      misfortune in that matter to that of the Apostle Paul, who kept the
+      clothes of the witnesses who stoned Saint Stephen. He held forth on the
+      matter three Sabbaths past, and illustrated the same by the conduct of an
+      honourable person present, meaning me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I prithee peace, Foster," said Lambourne, "for I know not how it is, I
+      have a sort of creeping comes over my skin when I hear the devil quote
+      Scripture; and besides, man, how couldst thou have the heart to quit that
+      convenient old religion, which you could slip off or on as easily as your
+      glove? Do I not remember how you were wont to carry your conscience to
+      confession, as duly as the month came round? and when thou hadst it
+      scoured, and burnished, and whitewashed by the priest, thou wert ever
+      ready for the worst villainy which could be devised, like a child who is
+      always readiest to rush into the mire when he has got his Sunday's clean
+      jerkin on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Trouble not thyself about my conscience," said Foster; "it is a thing
+      thou canst not understand, having never had one of thine own. But let us
+      rather to the point, and say to me, in one word, what is thy business with
+      me, and what hopes have drawn thee hither?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The hope of bettering myself, to be sure," answered Lambourne, "as the
+      old woman said when she leapt over the bridge at Kingston. Look you, this
+      purse has all that is left of as round a sum as a man would wish to carry
+      in his slop-pouch. You are here well established, it would seem, and, as I
+      think, well befriended, for men talk of thy being under some special
+      protection&mdash;nay, stare not like a pig that is stuck, mon; thou canst
+      not dance in a net and they not see thee. Now I know such protection is
+      not purchased for nought; you must have services to render for it, and in
+      these I propose to help thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But how if I lack no assistance from thee, Mike? I think thy modesty
+      might suppose that were a case possible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is to say," retorted Lambourne, "that you would engross the whole
+      work, rather than divide the reward. But be not over-greedy, Anthony&mdash;covetousness
+      bursts the sack and spills the grain. Look you, when the huntsman goes to
+      kill a stag, he takes with him more dogs than one. He has the stanch
+      lyme-hound to track the wounded buck over hill and dale, but he hath also
+      the fleet gaze-hound to kill him at view. Thou art the lyme-hound, I am
+      the gaze-hound; and thy patron will need the aid of both, and can well
+      afford to requite it. Thou hast deep sagacity&mdash;an unrelenting purpose&mdash;a
+      steady, long-breathed malignity of nature, that surpasses mine. But then,
+      I am the bolder, the quicker, the more ready, both at action and
+      expedient. Separate, our properties are not so perfect; but unite them,
+      and we drive the world before us. How sayest thou&mdash;shall we hunt in
+      couples?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a currish proposal&mdash;thus to thrust thyself upon my private
+      matters," replied Foster; "but thou wert ever an ill-nurtured whelp."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall have no cause to say so, unless you spurn my courtesy," said
+      Michael Lambourne; "but if so, keep thee well from me, Sir Knight, as the
+      romance has it. I will either share your counsels or traverse them; for I
+      have come here to be busy, either with thee or against thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Anthony Foster, "since thou dost leave me so fair a choice, I
+      will rather be thy friend than thine enemy. Thou art right; I CAN prefer
+      thee to the service of a patron who has enough of means to make us both,
+      and an hundred more. And, to say truth, thou art well qualified for his
+      service. Boldness and dexterity he demands&mdash;the justice-books bear
+      witness in thy favour; no starting at scruples in his service why, who
+      ever suspected thee of a conscience? an assurance he must have who would
+      follow a courtier&mdash;and thy brow is as impenetrable as a Milan visor.
+      There is but one thing I would fain see amended in thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is that, my most precious friend Anthony?" replied Lambourne;
+      "for I swear by the pillow of the Seven Sleepers I will not be slothful in
+      amending it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, you gave a sample of it even now," said Foster. "Your speech twangs
+      too much of the old stamp, and you garnish it ever and anon with singular
+      oaths, that savour of Papistrie. Besides, your exterior man is altogether
+      too deboshed and irregular to become one of his lordship's followers,
+      since he has a reputation to keep up in the eye of the world. You must
+      somewhat reform your dress, upon a more grave and composed fashion; wear
+      your cloak on both shoulders, and your falling band unrumpled and well
+      starched. You must enlarge the brim of your beaver, and diminish the
+      superfluity of your trunk-hose; go to church, or, which will be better, to
+      meeting, at least once a month; protest only upon your faith and
+      conscience; lay aside your swashing look, and never touch the hilt of your
+      sword but when you would draw the carnal weapon in good earnest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By this light, Anthony, thou art mad," answered Lambourne, "and hast
+      described rather the gentleman-usher to a puritan's wife, than the
+      follower of an ambitious courtier! Yes, such a thing as thou wouldst make
+      of me should wear a book at his girdle instead of a poniard, and might
+      just be suspected of manhood enough to squire a proud dame-citizen to the
+      lecture at Saint Antonlin's, and quarrel in her cause with any flat-capped
+      threadmaker that would take the wall of her. He must ruffle it in another
+      sort that would walk to court in a nobleman's train."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, content you, sir," replied Foster, "there is a change since you knew
+      the English world; and there are those who can hold their way through the
+      boldest courses, and the most secret, and yet never a swaggering word, or
+      an oath, or a profane word in their conversation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is to say," replied Lambourne, "they are in a trading copartnery, to
+      do the devil's business without mentioning his name in the firm? Well, I
+      will do my best to counterfeit, rather than lose ground in this new world,
+      since thou sayest it is grown so precise. But, Anthony, what is the name
+      of this nobleman, in whose service I am to turn hypocrite?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aha! Master Michael, are you there with your bears?" said Foster, with a
+      grim smile; "and is this the knowledge you pretend of my concernments? How
+      know you now there is such a person IN RERUM NATURA, and that I have not
+      been putting a jape upon you all this time?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou put a jape on me, thou sodden-brained gull?" answered Lambourne,
+      nothing daunted. "Why, dark and muddy as thou think'st thyself, I would
+      engage in a day's space to see as clear through thee and thy concernments,
+      as thou callest them, as through the filthy horn of an old stable
+      lantern."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment their conversation was interrupted by a scream from the
+      next apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By the holy Cross of Abingdon," exclaimed Anthony Foster, forgetting his
+      Protestantism in his alarm, "I am a ruined man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he rushed into the apartment whence the scream issued, followed
+      by Michael Lambourne. But to account for the sounds which interrupted
+      their conversation, it is necessary to recede a little way in our
+      narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been already observed, that when Lambourne accompanied Foster into
+      the library, they left Tressilian alone in the ancient parlour. His dark
+      eye followed them forth of the apartment with a glance of contempt, a part
+      of which his mind instantly transferred to himself, for having stooped to
+      be even for a moment their familiar companion. "These are the associates,
+      Amy"&mdash;it was thus he communed with himself&mdash;"to which thy cruel
+      levity&mdash;thine unthinking and most unmerited falsehood, has condemned
+      him of whom his friends once hoped far other things, and who now scorns
+      himself, as he will be scorned by others, for the baseness he stoops to
+      for the love of thee! But I will not leave the pursuit of thee, once the
+      object of my purest and most devoted affection, though to me thou canst
+      henceforth be nothing but a thing to weep over. I will save thee from thy
+      betrayer, and from thyself; I will restore thee to thy parent&mdash;to thy
+      God. I cannot bid the bright star again sparkle in the sphere it has shot
+      from, but&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A slight noise in the apartment interrupted his reverie. He looked round,
+      and in the beautiful and richly-attired female who entered at that instant
+      by a side-door he recognized the object of his search. The first impulse
+      arising from this discovery urged him to conceal his face with the collar
+      of his cloak, until he should find a favourable moment of making himself
+      known. But his purpose was disconcerted by the young lady (she was not
+      above eighteen years old), who ran joyfully towards him, and, pulling him
+      by the cloak, said playfully, "Nay, my sweet friend, after I have waited
+      for you so long, you come not to my bower to play the masquer. You are
+      arraigned of treason to true love and fond affection, and you must stand
+      up at the bar and answer it with face uncovered&mdash;how say you, guilty
+      or not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas, Amy!" said Tressilian, in a low and melancholy tone, as he suffered
+      her to draw the mantle from his face. The sound of his voice, and still
+      more the unexpected sight of his face, changed in an instant the lady's
+      playful mood. She staggered back, turned as pale as death, and put her
+      hands before her face. Tressilian was himself for a moment much overcome,
+      but seeming suddenly to remember the necessity of using an opportunity
+      which might not again occur, he said in a low tone, "Amy, fear me not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why should I fear you?" said the lady, withdrawing her hands from her
+      beautiful face, which was now covered with crimson,&mdash;"Why should I
+      fear you, Master Tressilian?&mdash;or wherefore have you intruded yourself
+      into my dwelling, uninvited, sir, and unwished for?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your dwelling, Amy!" said Tressilian. "Alas! is a prison your dwelling?&mdash;a
+      prison guarded by one of the most sordid of men, but not a greater wretch
+      than his employer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This house is mine," said Amy&mdash;"mine while I choose to inhabit it.
+      If it is my pleasure to live in seclusion, who shall gainsay me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your father, maiden," answered Tressilian, "your broken-hearted father,
+      who dispatched me in quest of you with that authority which he cannot
+      exert in person. Here is his letter, written while he blessed his pain of
+      body which somewhat stunned the agony of his mind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The pain! Is my father then ill?" said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So ill," answered Tressilian, "that even your utmost haste may not
+      restore him to health; but all shall be instantly prepared for your
+      departure, the instant you yourself will give consent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian," answered the lady, "I cannot, I must not, I dare not leave
+      this place. Go back to my father&mdash;tell him I will obtain leave to see
+      him within twelve hours from hence. Go back, Tressilian&mdash;tell him I
+      am well, I am happy&mdash;happy could I think he was so; tell him not to
+      fear that I will come, and in such a manner that all the grief Amy has
+      given him shall be forgotten&mdash;the poor Amy is now greater than she
+      dare name. Go, good Tressilian&mdash;I have injured thee too, but believe
+      me I have power to heal the wounds I have caused. I robbed you of a
+      childish heart, which was not worthy of you, and I can repay the loss with
+      honours and advancement."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you say this to me, Amy?&mdash;do you offer me pageants of idle
+      ambition, for the quiet peace you have robbed me of!&mdash;But be it so I
+      came not to upbraid, but to serve and to free you. You cannot disguise it
+      from me&mdash;you are a prisoner. Otherwise your kind heart&mdash;for it
+      was once a kind heart&mdash;would have been already at your father's
+      bedside.&mdash;Come, poor, deceived, unhappy maiden!&mdash;all shall be
+      forgot&mdash;all shall be forgiven. Fear not my importunity for what
+      regarded our contract&mdash;it was a dream, and I have awaked. But come&mdash;your
+      father yet lives&mdash;come, and one word of affection, one tear of
+      penitence, will efface the memory of all that has passed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have I not already said, Tressilian," replied she, "that I will surely
+      come to my father, and that without further delay than is necessary to
+      discharge other and equally binding duties?&mdash;Go, carry him the news;
+      I come as sure as there is light in heaven&mdash;that is, when I obtain
+      permission."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Permission!&mdash;permission to visit your father on his sick-bed,
+      perhaps on his death-bed!" repeated Tressilian, impatiently; "and
+      permission from whom? From the villain, who, under disguise of friendship,
+      abused every duty of hospitality, and stole thee from thy father's roof!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do him no slander, Tressilian! He whom thou speakest of wears a sword as
+      sharp as thine&mdash;sharper, vain man; for the best deeds thou hast ever
+      done in peace or war were as unworthy to be named with his, as thy obscure
+      rank to match itself with the sphere he moves in.&mdash;Leave me! Go, do
+      mine errand to my father; and when he next sends to me, let him choose a
+      more welcome messenger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amy," replied Tressilian calmly, "thou canst not move me by thy
+      reproaches. Tell me one thing, that I may bear at least one ray of comfort
+      to my aged friend:&mdash;this rank of his which thou dost boast&mdash;dost
+      thou share it with him, Amy?&mdash;does he claim a husband's right to
+      control thy motions?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stop thy base, unmannered tongue!" said the lady; "to no question that
+      derogates from my honour do I deign an answer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have said enough in refusing to reply," answered Tressilian; "and
+      mark me, unhappy as thou art, I am armed with thy father's full authority
+      to command thy obedience, and I will save thee from the slavery of sin and
+      of sorrow, even despite of thyself, Amy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Menace no violence here!" exclaimed the lady, drawing back from him, and
+      alarmed at the determination expressed in his look and manner; "threaten
+      me not, Tressilian, for I have means to repel force."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But not, I trust, the wish to use them in so evil a cause?" said
+      Tressilian. "With thy will&mdash;thine uninfluenced, free, and natural
+      will, Amy, thou canst not choose this state of slavery and dishonour. Thou
+      hast been bound by some spell&mdash;entrapped by some deceit&mdash;art now
+      detained by some compelled vow. But thus I break the charm&mdash;Amy, in
+      the name of thine excellent, thy broken-hearted father, I command thee to
+      follow me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he advanced and extended his arm, as with the purpose of
+      laying hold upon her. But she shrunk back from his grasp, and uttered the
+      scream which, as we before noticed, brought into the apartment Lambourne
+      and Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter exclaimed, as soon as he entered, "Fire and fagot! what have we
+      here?" Then addressing the lady, in a tone betwixt entreaty and command,
+      he added, "Uds precious! madam, what make you here out of bounds? Retire&mdash;retire&mdash;there
+      is life and death in this matter.&mdash;And you, friend, whoever you may
+      be, leave this house&mdash;out with you, before my dagger's hilt and your
+      costard become acquainted.&mdash;Draw, Mike, and rid us of the knave!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not I, on my soul," replied Lambourne; "he came hither in my company, and
+      he is safe from me by cutter's law, at least till we meet again.&mdash;But
+      hark ye, my Cornish comrade, you have brought a Cornish flaw of wind with
+      you hither, a hurricanoe as they call it in the Indies. Make yourself
+      scarce&mdash;depart&mdash;vanish&mdash;or we'll have you summoned before
+      the Mayor of Halgaver, and that before Dudman and Ramhead meet." [Two
+      headlands on the Cornish coast. The expressions are proverbial.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Away, base groom!" said Tressilian.&mdash;"And you, madam, fare you well&mdash;what
+      life lingers in your father's bosom will leave him at the news I have to
+      tell."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He departed, the lady saying faintly as he left the room, "Tressilian, be
+      not rash&mdash;say no scandal of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is proper gear," said Foster. "I pray you go to your chamber, my
+      lady, and let us consider how this is to be answered&mdash;nay, tarry
+      not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I move not at your command, sir," answered the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but you must, fair lady," replied Foster; "excuse my freedom, but,
+      by blood and nails, this is no time to strain courtesies&mdash;you MUST go
+      to your chamber.&mdash;Mike, follow that meddling coxcomb, and, as you
+      desire to thrive, see him safely clear of the premises, while I bring this
+      headstrong lady to reason. Draw thy tool, man, and after him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll follow him," said Michael Lambourne, "and see him fairly out of
+      Flanders; but for hurting a man I have drunk my morning's draught withal,
+      'tis clean against my conscience." So saying, he left the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, meanwhile, with hasty steps, pursued the first path which
+      promised to conduct him through the wild and overgrown park in which the
+      mansion of Foster was situated. Haste and distress of mind led his steps
+      astray, and instead of taking the avenue which led towards the village, he
+      chose another, which, after he had pursued it for some time with a hasty
+      and reckless step, conducted him to the other side of the demesne, where a
+      postern door opened through the wall, and led into the open country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian paused an instant. It was indifferent to him by what road he
+      left a spot now so odious to his recollections; but it was probable that
+      the postern door was locked, and his retreat by that pass rendered
+      impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must make the attempt, however," he said to himself; "the only means of
+      reclaiming this lost&mdash;this miserable&mdash;this still most lovely and
+      most unhappy girl, must rest in her father's appeal to the broken laws of
+      his country. I must haste to apprise him of this heartrending
+      intelligence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Tressilian, thus conversing with himself, approached to try some means
+      of opening the door, or climbing over it, he perceived there was a key put
+      into the lock from the outside. It turned round, the bolt revolved, and a
+      cavalier, who entered, muffled in his riding-cloak, and wearing a slouched
+      hat with a drooping feather, stood at once within four yards of him who
+      was desirous of going out. They exclaimed at once, in tones of resentment
+      and surprise, the one "Varney!" the other "Tressilian!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What make you here?" was the stern question put by the stranger to
+      Tressilian, when the moment of surprise was past&mdash;"what make you
+      here, where your presence is neither expected nor desired?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, Varney," replied Tressilian, "what make you here? Are you come to
+      triumph over the innocence you have destroyed, as the vulture or
+      carrion-crow comes to batten on the lamb whose eyes it has first plucked
+      out? Or are you come to encounter the merited vengeance of an honest man?
+      Draw, dog, and defend thyself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian drew his sword as he spoke, but Varney only laid his hand on
+      the hilt of his own, as he replied, "Thou art mad, Tressilian. I own
+      appearances are against me; but by every oath a priest can make or a man
+      can swear, Mistress Amy Robsart hath had no injury from me. And in truth I
+      were somewhat loath to hurt you in this cause&mdash;thou knowest I can
+      fight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard thee say so, Varney," replied Tressilian; "but now,
+      methinks, I would fain have some better evidence than thine own word."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That shall not be lacking, if blade and hilt be but true to me," answered
+      Varney; and drawing his sword with the right hand, he threw his cloak
+      around his left, and attacked Tressilian with a vigour which, for a
+      moment, seemed to give him the advantage of the combat. But this advantage
+      lasted not long. Tressilian added to a spirit determined on revenge a hand
+      and eye admirably well adapted to the use of the rapier; so that Varney,
+      finding himself hard pressed in his turn, endeavoured to avail himself of
+      his superior strength by closing with his adversary. For this purpose, he
+      hazarded the receiving one of Tressilian's passes in his cloak, wrapped as
+      it was around his arm, and ere his adversary could, extricate his rapier
+      thus entangled, he closed with him, shortening his own sword at the same
+      time, with the purpose of dispatching him. But Tressilian was on his
+      guard, and unsheathing his poniard, parried with the blade of that weapon
+      the home-thrust which would otherwise have finished the combat, and, in
+      the struggle which followed, displayed so much address, as might have
+      confirmed, the opinion that he drew his origin from Cornwall whose natives
+      are such masters in the art of wrestling, as, were the games of antiquity
+      revived, might enable them to challenge all Europe to the ring. Varney, in
+      his ill-advised attempt, received a fall so sudden and violent that his
+      sword flew several paces from his hand and ere he could recover his feet,
+      that of his antagonist was; pointed to his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give me the instant means of relieving the victim of thy treachery," said
+      Tressilian, "or take the last look of your Creator's blessed sun!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And while Varney, too confused or too sullen to reply, made a sudden
+      effort to arise, his adversary drew back his arm, and would have executed
+      his threat, but that the blow was arrested by the grasp of Michael
+      Lambourne, who, directed by the clashing of swords had come up just in
+      time to save the life of Varney.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0515m.jpg" alt="0515m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0515.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come, comrade;" said Lambourne, "here is enough done and more than
+      enough; put up your fox and let us be jogging. The Black Bear growls for
+      us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Off, abject!" said Tressilian, striking himself free of Lambourne's
+      grasp; "darest thou come betwixt me and mine enemy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Abject! abject!" repeated Lambourne; "that shall be answered with cold
+      steel whenever a bowl of sack has washed out memory of the morning's
+      draught that we had together. In the meanwhile, do you see, shog&mdash;tramp&mdash;begone&mdash;we
+      are two to one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke truth, for Varney had taken the opportunity to regain his weapon,
+      and Tressilian perceived it was madness to press the quarrel further
+      against such odds. He took his purse from his side, and taking out two
+      gold nobles, flung them to Lambourne. "There, caitiff, is thy morning
+      wage; thou shalt not say thou hast been my guide unhired.&mdash;Varney,
+      farewell! we shall meet where there are none to come betwixt us." So
+      saying, he turned round and departed through the postern door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney seemed to want the inclination, or perhaps the power (for his fall
+      had been a severe one), to follow his retreating enemy. But he glared
+      darkly as he disappeared, and then addressed Lambourne. "Art thou a
+      comrade of Foster's, good fellow?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sworn friends, as the haft is to the knife," replied Michael Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is a broad piece for thee. Follow yonder fellow, and see where he
+      takes earth, and bring me word up to the mansion-house here. Cautious and
+      silent, thou knave, as thou valuest thy throat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I can draw on a scent as well as a
+      sleuth-hound."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Begone, then," said Varney, sheathing his rapier; and, turning his back
+      on Michael Lambourne, he walked slowly towards the house. Lambourne
+      stopped but an instant to gather the nobles which his late companion had
+      flung towards him so unceremoniously, and muttered to himself, while he
+      put them upon his purse along with the gratuity of Varney, "I spoke to
+      yonder gulls of Eldorado. By Saint Anthony, there is no Eldorado for men
+      of our stamp equal to bonny Old England! It rains nobles, by Heaven&mdash;they
+      lie on the grass as thick as dewdrops&mdash;you may have them for
+      gathering. And if I have not my share of such glittering dewdrops, may my
+      sword melt like an icicle!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     He was a man
+     Versed in the world as pilot in his compass.
+     The needle pointed ever to that interest
+     Which was his loadstar, and he spread his sails
+     With vantage to the gale of others' passion.
+     &mdash;THE DECEIVER, A TRAGEDY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Antony Foster was still engaged in debate with his fair guest, who treated
+      with scorn every entreaty and request that she would retire to her own
+      apartment, when a whistle was heard at the entrance-door of the mansion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are fairly sped now," said Foster; "yonder is thy lord's signal, and
+      what to say about the disorder which has happened in this household, by my
+      conscience, I know not. Some evil fortune dogs the heels of that unhanged
+      rogue Lambourne, and he has 'scaped the gallows against every chance, to
+      come back and be the ruin of me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, sir," said the lady, "and undo the gate to your master.&mdash;My
+      lord! my dear lord!" she then exclaimed, hastening to the entrance of the
+      apartment; then added, with a voice expressive of disappointment, "Pooh!
+      it is but Richard Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, madam," said Varney, entering and saluting the lady with a respectful
+      obeisance, which she returned with a careless mixture of negligence and of
+      displeasure, "it is but Richard Varney; but even the first grey cloud
+      should be acceptable, when it lightens in the east, because it announces
+      the approach of the blessed sun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! comes my lord hither to-night?" said the lady, in joyful yet
+      startled agitation; and Anthony Foster caught up the word, and echoed the
+      question. Varney replied to the lady, that his lord purposed to attend
+      her; and would have proceeded with some compliment, when, running to the
+      door of the parlour, she called aloud, "Janet&mdash;Janet! come to my
+      tiring-room instantly." Then returning to Varney, she asked if her lord
+      sent any further commendations to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This letter, honoured madam," said he, taking from his bosom a small
+      parcel wrapped in scarlet silk, "and with it a token to the Queen of his
+      Affections." With eager speed the lady hastened to undo the silken string
+      which surrounded the little packet, and failing to unloose readily the
+      knot with which it was secured, she again called loudly on Janet, "Bring
+      me a knife&mdash;scissors&mdash;aught that may undo this envious knot!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May not my poor poniard serve, honoured madam?" said Varney, presenting a
+      small dagger of exquisite workmanship, which hung in his Turkey-leather
+      sword-belt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, sir," replied the lady, rejecting the instrument which he offered&mdash;"steel
+      poniard shall cut no true-love knot of mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It has cut many, however," said Anthony Foster, half aside, and looking
+      at Varney. By this time the knot was disentangled without any other help
+      than the neat and nimble fingers of Janet, a simply-attired pretty maiden,
+      the daughter of Anthony Foster, who came running at the repeated call of
+      her mistress. A necklace of orient pearl, the companion of a perfumed
+      billet, was now hastily produced from the packet. The lady gave the one,
+      after a slight glance, to the charge of her attendant, while she read, or
+      rather devoured, the contents of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely, lady," said Janet, gazing with admiration at the neck-string of
+      pearls, "the daughters of Tyre wore no fairer neck-jewels than these. And
+      then the posy, 'For a neck that is fairer'&mdash;each pearl is worth a
+      freehold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Each word in this dear paper is worth the whole string, my girl. But come
+      to my tiring-room, girl; we must be brave, my lord comes hither to-night.&mdash;He
+      bids me grace you, Master Varney, and to me his wish is a law. I bid you
+      to a collation in my bower this afternoon; and you, too, Master Foster.
+      Give orders that all is fitting, and that suitable preparations be made
+      for my lord's reception to-night." With these words she left the
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She takes state on her already," said Varney, "and distributes the favour
+      of her presence, as if she were already the partner of his dignity. Well,
+      it is wise to practise beforehand the part which fortune prepares us to
+      play&mdash;the young eagle must gaze at the sun ere he soars on strong
+      wing to meet it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If holding her head aloft," said Foster, "will keep her eyes from
+      dazzling, I warrant you the dame will not stoop her crest. She will
+      presently soar beyond reach of my whistle, Master Varney. I promise you,
+      she holds me already in slight regard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is thine own fault, thou sullen, uninventive companion," answered
+      Varney, "who knowest no mode of control save downright brute force. Canst
+      thou not make home pleasant to her, with music and toys? Canst thou not
+      make the out-of-doors frightful to her, with tales of goblins? Thou livest
+      here by the churchyard, and hast not even wit enough to raise a ghost, to
+      scare thy females into good discipline."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not thus, Master Varney," said Foster; "the living I fear not, but
+      I trifle not nor toy with my dead neighbours of the churchyard. I promise
+      you, it requires a good heart to live so near it. Worthy Master Holdforth,
+      the afternoon's lecturer of Saint Antonlin's, had a sore fright there the
+      last time he came to visit me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold thy superstitious tongue," answered Varney; "and while thou talkest
+      of visiting, answer me, thou paltering knave, how came Tressilian to be at
+      the postern door?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian!" answered Foster, "what know I of Tressilian? I never heard
+      his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, villain, it was the very Cornish chough to whom old Sir Hugh Robsart
+      destined his pretty Amy; and hither the hot-brained fool has come to look
+      after his fair runaway. There must be some order taken with him, for he
+      thinks he hath wrong, and is not the mean hind that will sit down with it.
+      Luckily he knows nought of my lord, but thinks he has only me to deal
+      with. But how, in the fiend's name, came he hither?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, with Mike Lambourne, an you must know," answered Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who is Mike Lambourne?" demanded Varney. "By Heaven! thou wert best
+      set up a bush over thy door, and invite every stroller who passes by to
+      see what thou shouldst keep secret even from the sun and air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay! ay! this is a courtlike requital of my service to you, Master Richard
+      Varney," replied Foster. "Didst thou not charge me to seek out for thee a
+      fellow who had a good sword and an unscrupulous conscience? and was I not
+      busying myself to find a fit man&mdash;for, thank Heaven, my acquaintance
+      lies not amongst such companions&mdash;when, as Heaven would have it, this
+      tall fellow, who is in all his qualities the very flashing knave thou
+      didst wish, came hither to fix acquaintance upon me in the plenitude of
+      his impudence; and I admitted his claim, thinking to do you a pleasure.
+      And now see what thanks I get for disgracing myself by converse with him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And did he," said Varney, "being such a fellow as thyself, only lacking,
+      I suppose, thy present humour of hypocrisy, which lies as thin over thy
+      hard, ruffianly heart as gold lacquer upon rusty iron&mdash;did he, I say,
+      bring the saintly, sighing Tressilian in his train?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They came together, by Heaven!" said Foster; "and Tressilian&mdash;to
+      speak Heaven's truth&mdash;obtained a moment's interview with our pretty
+      moppet, while I was talking apart with Lambourne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Improvident villain! we are both undone," said Varney. "She has of late
+      been casting many a backward look to her father's halls, whenever her
+      lordly lover leaves her alone. Should this preaching fool whistle her back
+      to her old perch, we were but lost men."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No fear of that, my master," replied Anthony Foster; "she is in no mood
+      to stoop to his lure, for she yelled out on seeing him as if an adder had
+      stung her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is good. Canst thou not get from thy daughter an inkling of what
+      passed between them, good Foster?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell you plain, Master Varney," said Foster, "my daughter shall not
+      enter our purposes or walk in our paths. They may suit me well enough, who
+      know how to repent of my misdoings; but I will not have my child's soul
+      committed to peril either for your pleasure or my lord's. I may walk among
+      snares and pitfalls myself, because I have discretion, but I will not
+      trust the poor lamb among them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, thou suspicious fool, I were as averse as thou art that thy
+      baby-faced girl should enter into my plans, or walk to hell at her
+      father's elbow. But indirectly thou mightst gain some intelligence of
+      her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so I did, Master Varney," answered Foster; "and she said her lady
+      called out upon the sickness of her father."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good!" replied Varney; "that is a hint worth catching, and I will work
+      upon it. But the country must be rid of this Tressilian. I would have
+      cumbered no man about the matter, for I hate him like strong poison&mdash;his
+      presence is hemlock to me&mdash;and this day I had been rid of him, but
+      that my foot slipped, when, to speak truth, had not thy comrade yonder
+      come to my aid, and held his hand, I should have known by this time
+      whether you and I have been treading the path to heaven or hell."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you can speak thus of such a risk!" said Foster. "You keep a stout
+      heart, Master Varney. For me, if I did not hope to live many years, and to
+      have time for the great work of repentance, I would not go forward with
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh! thou shalt live as long as Methuselah," said Varney, "and amass as
+      much wealth as Solomon; and thou shalt repent so devoutly, that thy
+      repentance shall be more famous than thy villainy&mdash;and that is a bold
+      word. But for all this, Tressilian must be looked after. Thy ruffian
+      yonder is gone to dog him. It concerns our fortunes, Anthony."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said Foster sullenly, "this it is to be leagued with one who
+      knows not even so much of Scripture, as that the labourer is worthy of his
+      hire. I must, as usual, take all the trouble and risk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Risk! and what is the mighty risk, I pray you?" answered Varney. "This
+      fellow will come prowling again about your demesne or into your house, and
+      if you take him for a house-breaker or a park-breaker, is it not most
+      natural you should welcome him with cold steel or hot lead? Even a mastiff
+      will pull down those who come near his kennel; and who shall blame him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, I have a mastiff's work and a mastiff's wage among you," said Foster.
+      "Here have you, Master Varney, secured a good freehold estate out of this
+      old superstitious foundation; and I have but a poor lease of this mansion
+      under you, voidable at your honour's pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and thou wouldst fain convert thy leasehold into a copyhold&mdash;the
+      thing may chance to happen, Anthony Foster, if thou dost good service for
+      it. But softly, good Anthony&mdash;it is not the lending a room or two of
+      this old house for keeping my lord's pretty paroquet&mdash;nay, it is not
+      the shutting thy doors and windows to keep her from flying off that may
+      deserve it. Remember, the manor and tithes are rated at the clear annual
+      value of seventy-nine pounds five shillings and fivepence halfpenny,
+      besides the value of the wood. Come, come, thou must be conscionable;
+      great and secret service may deserve both this and a better thing. And now
+      let thy knave come and pluck off my boots. Get us some dinner, and a cup
+      of thy best wine. I must visit this mavis, brave in apparel, unruffled in
+      aspect, and gay in temper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted and at the hour of noon, which was then that of dinner, they
+      again met at their meal, Varney gaily dressed like a courtier of the time,
+      and even Anthony Foster improved in appearance, as far as dress could
+      amend an exterior so unfavourable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This alteration did not escape Varney. Then the meal was finished, the
+      cloth removed, and they were left to their private discourse&mdash;"Thou
+      art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony," said Varney, looking at his host;
+      "methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig anon. But I crave your pardon, that
+      would secure your ejection from the congregation of the zealous botchers,
+      the pure-hearted weavers, and the sanctified bakers of Abingdon, who let
+      their ovens cool while their brains get heated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To answer you in the spirit, Master Varney," said Foster, "were&mdash;excuse
+      the parable&mdash;to fling sacred and precious things before swine. So I
+      will speak to thee in the language of the world, which he who is king of
+      the world, hath taught thee, to understand, and to profit by in no common
+      measure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say what thou wilt, honest Tony," replied Varney; "for be it according to
+      thine absurd faith, or according to thy most villainous practice, it
+      cannot choose but be rare matter to qualify this cup of Alicant. Thy
+      conversation is relishing and poignant, and beats caviare, dried
+      neat's-tongue, and all other provocatives that give savour to good
+      liquor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, tell me," said Anthony Foster, "is not our good lord and
+      master's turn better served, and his antechamber more suitably filled,
+      with decent, God-fearing men, who will work his will and their own profit
+      quietly, and without worldly scandal, than that he should be manned, and
+      attended, and followed by such open debauchers and ruffianly swordsmen as
+      Tidesly, Killigrew, this fellow Lambourne, whom you have put me to seek
+      out for you, and other such, who bear the gallows in their face and murder
+      in their right hand&mdash;who are a terror to peaceable men, and a scandal
+      to my lord's service?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, content you, good Master Anthony Foster," answered Varney; "he that
+      flies at all manner of game must keep all kinds of hawks, both short and
+      long-winged. The course my lord holds is no easy one, and he must stand
+      provided at all points with trusty retainers to meet each sort of service.
+      He must have his gay courtier, like myself, to ruffle it in the
+      presence-chamber, and to lay hand on hilt when any speaks in disparagement
+      of my lord's honour&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Foster, "and to whisper a word for him into a fair lady's ear,
+      when he may not approach her himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said Varney, going on without appearing to notice the
+      interruption, "he must have his lawyers&mdash;deep, subtle pioneers&mdash;to
+      draw his contracts, his pre-contracts, and his post-contracts, and to find
+      the way to make the most of grants of church-lands, and commons, and
+      licenses for monopoly. And he must have physicians who can spice a cup or
+      a caudle. And he must have his cabalists, like Dec and Allan, for
+      conjuring up the devil. And he must have ruffling swordsmen, who would
+      fight the devil when he is raised and at the wildest. And above all,
+      without prejudice to others, he must have such godly, innocent, puritanic
+      souls as thou, honest Anthony, who defy Satan, and do his work at the same
+      time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You would not say, Master Varney," said Foster, "that our good lord and
+      master, whom I hold to be fulfilled in all nobleness, would use such base
+      and sinful means to rise, as thy speech points at?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush, man," said Varney, "never look at me with so sad a brow. You trap
+      me not&mdash;nor am I in your power, as your weak brain may imagine,
+      because I name to you freely the engines, the springs, the screws, the
+      tackle, and braces, by which great men rise in stirring times. Sayest thou
+      our good lord is fulfilled of all nobleness? Amen, and so be it&mdash;he
+      has the more need to have those about him who are unscrupulous in his
+      service, and who, because they know that his fall will overwhelm and crush
+      them, must wager both blood and brain, soul and body, in order to keep him
+      aloft; and this I tell thee, because I care not who knows it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You speak truth, Master Varney," said Anthony Foster. "He that is head of
+      a party is but a boat on a wave, that raises not itself, but is moved
+      upward by the billow which it floats upon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art metaphorical, honest Anthony," replied Varney; "that velvet
+      doublet hath made an oracle of thee. We will have thee to Oxford to take
+      the degrees in the arts. And, in the meantime, hast thou arranged all the
+      matters which were sent from London, and put the western chambers into
+      such fashion as may answer my lord's humour?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They may serve a king on his bridal-day," said Anthony; "and I promise
+      you that Dame Amy sits in them yonder as proud and gay as if she were the
+      Queen of Sheba."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Tis the better, good Anthony," answered Varney; "we must found our
+      future fortunes on her good liking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We build on sand then," said Anthony Foster; "for supposing that she
+      sails away to court in all her lord's dignity and authority, how is she to
+      look back upon me, who am her jailor as it were, to detain her here
+      against her will, keeping her a caterpillar on an old wall, when she would
+      fain be a painted butterfly in a court garden?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fear not her displeasure, man," said Varney. "I will show her all thou
+      hast done in this matter was good service, both to my lord and her; and
+      when she chips the egg-shell and walks alone, she shall own we have
+      hatched her greatness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look to yourself, Master Varney," said Foster, "you may misreckon foully
+      in this matter. She gave you but a frosty reception this morning, and, I
+      think, looks on you, as well as me, with an evil eye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You mistake her, Foster&mdash;you mistake her utterly. To me she is bound
+      by all the ties which can secure her to one who has been the means of
+      gratifying both her love and ambition. Who was it that took the obscure
+      Amy Robsart, the daughter of an impoverished and dotard knight&mdash;the
+      destined bride of a moonstruck, moping enthusiast, like Edmund Tressilian,
+      from her lowly fates, and held out to her in prospect the brightest
+      fortune in England, or perchance in Europe? Why, man, it was I&mdash;as I
+      have often told thee&mdash;that found opportunity for their secret
+      meetings. It was I who watched the wood while he beat for the deer. It was
+      I who, to this day, am blamed by her family as the companion of her
+      flight; and were I in their neighbourhood, would be fain to wear a shirt
+      of better stuff than Holland linen, lest my ribs should be acquainted with
+      Spanish steel. Who carried their letters?&mdash;I. Who amused the old
+      knight and Tressilian?&mdash;I. Who planned her escape?&mdash;it was I. It
+      was I, in short, Dick Varney, who pulled this pretty little daisy from its
+      lowly nook, and placed it in the proudest bonnet in Britain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, Master Varney," said Foster; "but it may be she thinks that had the
+      matter remained with you, the flower had been stuck so slightly into the
+      cap, that the first breath of a changeable breeze of passion had blown the
+      poor daisy to the common."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She should consider," said Varney, smiling, "the true faith I owed my
+      lord and master prevented me at first from counselling marriage; and yet I
+      did counsel marriage when I saw she would not be satisfied without the&mdash;the
+      sacrament, or the ceremony&mdash;which callest thou it, Anthony?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Still she has you at feud on another score," said Foster; "and I tell it
+      you that you may look to yourself in time. She would not hide her
+      splendour in this dark lantern of an old monastic house, but would fain
+      shine a countess amongst countesses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very natural, very right," answered Varney; "but what have I to do with
+      that?&mdash;she may shine through horn or through crystal at my lord's
+      pleasure, I have nought to say against it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She deems that you have an oar upon that side of the boat, Master
+      Varney," replied Foster, "and that you can pull it or no, at your good
+      pleasure. In a word, she ascribes the secrecy and obscurity in which she
+      is kept to your secret counsel to my lord, and to my strict agency; and so
+      she loves us both as a sentenced man loves his judge and his jailor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She must love us better ere she leave this place, Anthony," answered
+      Varney. "If I have counselled for weighty reasons that she remain here for
+      a season, I can also advise her being brought forth in the full blow of
+      her dignity. But I were mad to do so, holding so near a place to my lord's
+      person, were she mine enemy. Bear this truth in upon her as occasion
+      offers, Anthony, and let me alone for extolling you in her ear, and
+      exalting you in her opinion&mdash;KA ME, KA THEE&mdash;it is a proverb all
+      over the world. The lady must know her friends, and be made to judge of
+      the power they have of being her enemies; meanwhile, watch her strictly,
+      but with all the outward observance that thy rough nature will permit.
+      'Tis an excellent thing that sullen look and bull-dog humour of thine;
+      thou shouldst thank God for it, and so should my lord, for when there is
+      aught harsh or hard-natured to be done, thou dost it as if it flowed from
+      thine own natural doggedness, and not from orders, and so my lord escapes
+      the scandal.&mdash;But, hark&mdash;some one knocks at the gate. Look out
+      at the window&mdash;let no one enter&mdash;this were an ill night to be
+      interrupted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is he whom we spoke of before dinner," said Foster, as he looked
+      through the casement; "it is Michael Lambourne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, admit him, by all means," said the courtier; "he comes to give some
+      account of his guest; it imports us much to know the movements of Edmund
+      Tressilian.&mdash;Admit him, I say, but bring him not hither; I will come
+      to you presently in the Abbot's library."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster left the room, and the courtier, who remained behind, paced the
+      parlour more than once in deep thought, his arms folded on his bosom,
+      until at length he gave vent to his meditations in broken words, which we
+      have somewhat enlarged and connected, that his soliloquy may be
+      intelligible to the reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "'Tis true," he said, suddenly stopping, and resting his right hand on the
+      table at which they had been sitting, "this base churl hath fathomed the
+      very depth of my fear, and I have been unable to disguise it from him. She
+      loves me not&mdash;I would it were as true that I loved not her! Idiot
+      that I was, to move her in my own behalf, when wisdom bade me be a true
+      broker to my lord! And this fatal error has placed me more at her
+      discretion than a wise man would willingly be at that of the best piece of
+      painted Eve's flesh of them all. Since the hour that my policy made so
+      perilous a slip, I cannot look at her without fear, and hate, and
+      fondness, so strangely mingled, that I know not whether, were it at my
+      choice, I would rather possess or ruin her. But she must not leave this
+      retreat until I am assured on what terms we are to stand. My lord's
+      interest&mdash;and so far it is mine own, for if he sinks I fall in his
+      train&mdash;demands concealment of this obscure marriage; and besides, I
+      will not lend her my arm to climb to her chair of state, that she may set
+      her foot on my neck when she is fairly seated. I must work an interest in
+      her, either through love or through fear; and who knows but I may yet reap
+      the sweetest and best revenge for her former scorn?&mdash;that were indeed
+      a masterpiece of courtlike art! Let me but once be her counsel-keeper&mdash;let
+      her confide to me a secret, did it but concern the robbery of a linnet's
+      nest, and, fair Countess, thou art mine own!" He again paced the room in
+      silence, stopped, filled and drank a cup of wine, as if to compose the
+      agitation of his mind, and muttering, "Now for a close heart and an open
+      and unruffled brow," he left the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The dews of summer night did fall,
+     The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+     Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+     And many an oak that grew thereby.&mdash;MICKLE.
+
+     [This verse is the commencement of the ballad already quoted, as
+     what suggested the novel.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Four apartments; which, occupied the western side of the old quadrangle at
+      Cumnor Place, had been fitted up with extraordinary splendour. This had
+      been the work of several days prior to that on which our story opened.
+      Workmen sent from London, and not permitted to leave the premises until
+      the work was finished, had converted the apartments in that side of the
+      building from the dilapidated appearance of a dissolved monastic house
+      into the semblance of a royal palace. A mystery was observed in all these
+      arrangements: the workmen came thither and returned by night, and all
+      measures were taken to prevent the prying curiosity of the villagers from
+      observing or speculating upon the changes which were taking place in the
+      mansion of their once indigent but now wealthy neighbour, Anthony Foster.
+      Accordingly, the secrecy desired was so far preserved, that nothing got
+      abroad but vague and uncertain reports, which were received and repeated,
+      but without much credit being attached to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of which we treat, the new and highly-decorated suite of
+      rooms were, for the first time, illuminated, and that with a brilliancy
+      which might have been visible half-a-dozen miles off, had not oaken
+      shutters, carefully secured with bolt and padlock, and mantled with long
+      curtains of silk and of velvet, deeply fringed with gold, prevented the
+      slightest gleam of radiance from being seen without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principal apartments, as we have seen, were four in number, each
+      opening into the other. Access was given to them by a large scale
+      staircase, as they were then called, of unusual length and height, which
+      had its landing-place at the door of an antechamber, shaped somewhat like
+      a gallery. This apartment the abbot had used as an occasional
+      council-room, but it was now beautifully wainscoted with dark, foreign
+      wood of a brown colour, and bearing a high polish, said to have been
+      brought from the Western Indies, and to have been wrought in London with
+      infinite difficulty and much damage to the tools of the workmen. The dark
+      colour of this finishing was relieved by the number of lights in silver
+      sconces which hung against the walls, and by six large and richly-framed
+      pictures, by the first masters of the age. A massy oaken table, placed at
+      the lower end of the apartment, served to accommodate such as chose to
+      play at the then fashionable game of shovel-board; and there was at the
+      other end an elevated gallery for the musicians or minstrels, who might be
+      summoned to increase the festivity of the evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this antechamber opened a banqueting-room of moderate size, but
+      brilliant enough to dazzle the eyes of the spectator with the richness of
+      its furniture. The walls, lately so bare and ghastly, were now clothed
+      with hangings of sky-blue velvet and silver; the chairs were of ebony,
+      richly carved, with cushions corresponding to the hangings; and the place
+      of the silver sconces which enlightened the ante-chamber was supplied by a
+      huge chandelier of the same precious metal. The floor was covered with a
+      Spanish foot-cloth, or carpet, on which flowers and fruits were
+      represented in such glowing and natural colours, that you hesitated to
+      place the foot on such exquisite workmanship. The table, of old English
+      oak, stood ready covered with the finest linen; and a large portable
+      court-cupboard was placed with the leaves of its embossed folding-doors
+      displayed, showing the shelves within, decorated with a full display of
+      plate and porcelain. In the midst of the table stood a salt-cellar of
+      Italian workmanship&mdash;a beautiful and splendid piece of plate about
+      two feet high, moulded into a representation of the giant Briareus, whose
+      hundred hands of silver presented to the guests various sorts of spices,
+      or condiments, to season their food withal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third apartment was called the withdrawing-room. It was hung with the
+      finest tapestry, representing the fall of Phaeton; for the looms of
+      Flanders were now much occupied on classical subjects. The principal seat
+      of this apartment was a chair of state, raised a step or two from the
+      floor, and large enough to contain two persons. It was surmounted by a
+      canopy, which, as well as the cushions, side-curtains, and the very
+      footcloth, was composed of crimson velvet, embroidered with seed-pearl. On
+      the top of the canopy were two coronets, resembling those of an earl and
+      countess. Stools covered with velvet, and some cushions disposed in the
+      Moorish fashion, and ornamented with Arabesque needle-work, supplied the
+      place of chairs in this apartment, which contained musical instruments,
+      embroidery frames, and other articles for ladies' pastime. Besides lesser
+      lights, the withdrawing-room was illuminated by four tall torches of
+      virgin wax, each of which was placed in the grasp of a statue,
+      representing an armed Moor, who held in his left arm a round buckler of
+      silver, highly polished, interposed betwixt his breast and the light,
+      which was thus brilliantly reflected as from a crystal mirror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sleeping chamber belonging to this splendid suite of apartments was
+      decorated in a taste less showy, but not less rich, than had been
+      displayed in the others. Two silver lamps, fed with perfumed oil, diffused
+      at once a delicious odour and a trembling twilight-seeming shimmer through
+      the quiet apartment. It was carpeted so thick that the heaviest step could
+      not have been heard, and the bed, richly heaped with down, was spread with
+      an ample coverlet of silk and gold; from under which peeped forth cambric
+      sheets and blankets as white as the lambs which yielded the fleece that
+      made them. The curtains were of blue velvet, lined with crimson silk,
+      deeply festooned with gold, and embroidered with the loves of Cupid and
+      Psyche. On the toilet was a beautiful Venetian mirror, in a frame of
+      silver filigree, and beside it stood a gold posset-dish to contain the
+      night-draught. A pair of pistols and a dagger, mounted with gold, were
+      displayed near the head of the bed, being the arms for the night, which
+      were presented to honoured guests, rather, it may be supposed, in the way
+      of ceremony than from any apprehension of danger. We must not omit to
+      mention, what was more to the credit of the manners of the time, that in a
+      small recess, illuminated by a taper, were disposed two hassocks of velvet
+      and gold, corresponding with the bed furniture, before a desk of carved
+      ebony. This recess had formerly been the private oratory of the abbot; but
+      the crucifix was removed, and instead there were placed on the desk, two
+      Books of Common Prayer, richly bound, and embossed with silver. With this
+      enviable sleeping apartment, which was so far removed from every sound
+      save that of the wind sighing among the oaks of the park, that Morpheus
+      might have coveted it for his own proper repose, corresponded two
+      wardrobes, or dressing-rooms as they are now termed, suitably furnished,
+      and in a style of the same magnificence which we have already described.
+      It ought to be added, that a part of the building in the adjoining wing
+      was occupied by the kitchen and its offices, and served to accommodate the
+      personal attendants of the great and wealthy nobleman, for whose use these
+      magnificent preparations had been made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The divinity for whose sake this temple had been decorated was well worthy
+      the cost and pains which had been bestowed. She was seated in the
+      withdrawing-room which we have described, surveying with the pleased eye
+      of natural and innocent vanity the splendour which had been so suddenly
+      created, as it were, in her honour. For, as her own residence at Cumnor
+      Place formed the cause of the mystery observed in all the preparations for
+      opening these apartments, it was sedulously arranged that, until she took
+      possession of them, she should have no means of knowing what was going
+      forward in that part of the ancient building, or of exposing herself to be
+      seen by the workmen engaged in the decorations. She had been, therefore,
+      introduced on that evening to a part of the mansion which she had never
+      yet seen, so different from all the rest that it appeared, in comparison,
+      like an enchanted palace. And when she first examined and occupied these
+      splendid rooms, it was with the wild and unrestrained joy of a rustic
+      beauty who finds herself suddenly invested with a splendour which her most
+      extravagant wishes had never imagined, and at the same time with the keen
+      feeling of an affectionate heart, which knows that all the enchantment
+      that surrounds her is the work of the great magician Love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess Amy, therefore&mdash;for to that rank she was exalted by her
+      private but solemn union with England's proudest Earl&mdash;had for a time
+      flitted hastily from room to room, admiring each new proof of her lover
+      and her bridegroom's taste, and feeling that admiration enhanced as she
+      recollected that all she gazed upon was one continued proof of his ardent
+      and devoted affection. "How beautiful are these hangings! How natural
+      these paintings, which seem to contend with life! How richly wrought is
+      that plate, which looks as if all the galleons of Spain had been
+      intercepted on the broad seas to furnish it forth! And oh, Janet!" she
+      exclaimed repeatedly to the daughter of Anthony Foster, the close
+      attendant, who, with equal curiosity, but somewhat less ecstatic joy,
+      followed on her mistress's footsteps&mdash;"oh, Janet! how much more
+      delightful to think that all these fair things have been assembled by his
+      love, for the love of me! and that this evening&mdash;this very evening,
+      which grows darker every instant, I shall thank him more for the love that
+      has created such an unimaginable paradise, than for all the wonders it
+      contains."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Lord is to be thanked first," said the pretty Puritan, "who gave
+      thee, lady, the kind and courteous husband whose love has done so much for
+      thee. I, too, have done my poor share. But if you thus run wildly from
+      room to room, the toil of my crisping and my curling pins will vanish like
+      the frost-work on the window when the sun is high."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou sayest true, Janet," said the young and beautiful Countess, stopping
+      suddenly from her tripping race of enraptured delight, and looking at
+      herself from head to foot in a large mirror, such as she had never before
+      seen, and which, indeed, had few to match it even in the Queen's palace&mdash;"thou
+      sayest true, Janet!" she answered, as she saw, with pardonable
+      self-applause, the noble mirror reflect such charms as were seldom
+      presented to its fair and polished surface; "I have more of the milk-maid
+      than the countess, with these cheeks flushed with haste, and all these
+      brown curls, which you laboured to bring to order, straying as wild as the
+      tendrils of an unpruned vine. My falling ruff is chafed too, and shows the
+      neck and bosom more than is modest and seemly. Come, Janet; we will
+      practise state&mdash;we will go to the withdrawing-room, my good girl, and
+      thou shalt put these rebel locks in order, and imprison within lace and
+      cambric the bosom that beats too high."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to the withdrawing apartment accordingly, where the Countess
+      playfully stretched herself upon the pile of Moorish cushions, half
+      sitting, half reclining, half wrapt in her own thoughts, half listening to
+      the prattle of her attendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While she was in this attitude, and with a corresponding expression
+      betwixt listlessness and expectation on her fine and intelligent features,
+      you might have searched sea and land without finding anything half so
+      expressive or half so lovely. The wreath of brilliants which mixed with
+      her dark-brown hair did not match in lustre the hazel eye which a
+      light-brown eyebrow, pencilled with exquisite delicacy, and long eyelashes
+      of the same colour, relieved and shaded. The exercise she had just taken,
+      her excited expectation and gratified vanity, spread a glow over her fine
+      features, which had been sometimes censured (as beauty as well as art has
+      her minute critics) for being rather too pale. The milk-white pearls of
+      the necklace which she wore, the same which she had just received as a
+      true-love token from her husband, were excelled in purity by her teeth,
+      and by the colour of her skin, saving where the blush of pleasure and
+      self-satisfaction had somewhat stained the neck with a shade of light
+      crimson.&mdash;"Now, have done with these busy fingers, Janet," she said
+      to her handmaiden, who was still officiously employed in bringing her hair
+      and her dress into order&mdash;"have done, I say. I must see your father
+      ere my lord arrives, and also Master Richard Varney, whom my lord has
+      highly in his esteem&mdash;but I could tell that of him would lose him
+      favour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, do not do so, good my lady!" replied Janet; "leave him to God, who
+      punishes the wicked in His own time; but do not you cross Varney's path,
+      for so thoroughly hath he my lord's ear, that few have thriven who have
+      thwarted his courses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And from whom had you this, my most righteous Janet?" said the Countess;
+      "or why should I keep terms with so mean a gentleman as Varney, being as I
+      am, wife to his master and patron?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, madam," replied Janet Foster, "your ladyship knows better than I;
+      but I have heard my father say he would rather cross a hungry wolf than
+      thwart Richard Varney in his projects. And he has often charged me to have
+      a care of holding commerce with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy father said well, girl, for thee," replied the lady, "and I dare
+      swear meant well. It is a pity, though, his face and manner do little
+      match his true purpose&mdash;for I think his purpose may be true."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doubt it not, my lady," answered Janet&mdash;"doubt not that my father
+      purposes well, though he is a plain man, and his blunt looks may belie his
+      heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not doubt it, girl, were it only for thy sake; and yet he has one
+      of those faces which men tremble when they look on. I think even thy
+      mother, Janet&mdash;nay, have done with that poking-iron&mdash;could
+      hardly look upon him without quaking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it were so, madam," answered Janet Foster, "my mother had those who
+      could keep her in honourable countenance. Why, even you, my lady, both
+      trembled and blushed when Varney brought the letter from my lord."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are bold, damsel," said the Countess, rising from the cushions on
+      which she sat half reclined in the arms of her attendant. "Know that there
+      are causes of trembling which have nothing to do with fear.&mdash;But,
+      Janet," she added, immediately relapsing into the good-natured and
+      familiar tone which was natural to her, "believe me, I will do what credit
+      I can to your father, and the rather that you, sweetheart, are his child.
+      Alas! alas!" she added, a sudden sadness passing over her fine features,
+      and her eyes filling with tears, "I ought the rather to hold sympathy with
+      thy kind heart, that my own poor father is uncertain of my fate, and they
+      say lies sick and sorrowful for my worthless sake! But I will soon cheer
+      him&mdash;the news of my happiness and advancement will make him young
+      again. And that I may cheer him the sooner"&mdash;she wiped her eyes as
+      she spoke&mdash;"I must be cheerful myself. My lord must not find me
+      insensible to his kindness, or sorrowful, when he snatches a visit to his
+      recluse, after so long an absence. Be merry, Janet; the night wears on,
+      and my lord must soon arrive. Call thy father hither, and call Varney
+      also. I cherish resentment against neither; and though I may have some
+      room to be displeased with both, it shall be their own fault if ever a
+      complaint against them reaches the Earl through my means. Call them
+      hither, Janet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janet Foster obeyed her mistress; and in a few minutes after, Varney
+      entered the withdrawing-room with the graceful ease and unclouded front of
+      an accomplished courtier, skilled, under the veil of external politeness,
+      to disguise his own feelings and to penetrate those of others. Anthony
+      Foster plodded into the apartment after him, his natural gloomy vulgarity
+      of aspect seeming to become yet more remarkable, from his clumsy attempt
+      to conceal the mixture of anxiety and dislike with which he looked on her,
+      over whom he had hitherto exercised so severe a control, now so splendidly
+      attired, and decked with so many pledges of the interest which she
+      possessed in her husband's affections. The blundering reverence which he
+      made, rather AT than TO the Countess, had confession in it. It was like
+      the reverence which the criminal makes to the judge, when he at once owns
+      his guilt and implores mercy&mdash;which is at the same time an impudent
+      and embarrassed attempt at defence or extenuation, a confession of a
+      fault, and an entreaty for lenity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, who, in right of his gentle blood, had pressed into the room
+      before Anthony Foster, knew better what to say than he, and said it with
+      more assurance and a better grace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess greeted him indeed with an appearance of cordiality, which
+      seemed a complete amnesty for whatever she might have to complain of. She
+      rose from her seat, and advanced two steps towards him, holding forth her
+      hand as she said, "Master Richard Varney, you brought me this morning such
+      welcome tidings, that I fear surprise and joy made me neglect my lord and
+      husband's charge to receive you with distinction. We offer you our hand,
+      sir, in reconciliation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am unworthy to touch it," said Varney, dropping on one knee, "save as a
+      subject honours that of a prince."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He touched with his lips those fair and slender fingers, so richly loaded
+      with rings and jewels; then rising, with graceful gallantry, was about to
+      hand her to the chair of state, when she said, "No, good Master Richard
+      Varney, I take not my place there until my lord himself conducts me. I am
+      for the present but a disguised Countess, and will not take dignity on me
+      until authorized by him whom I derive it from."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I trust, my lady," said Foster, "that in doing the commands of my lord
+      your husband, in your restraint and so forth, I have not incurred your
+      displeasure, seeing that I did but my duty towards your lord and mine; for
+      Heaven, as holy writ saith, hath given the husband supremacy and dominion
+      over the wife&mdash;I think it runs so, or something like it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I receive at this moment so pleasant a surprise, Master Foster," answered
+      the Countess, "that I cannot but excuse the rigid fidelity which secluded
+      me from these apartments, until they had assumed an appearance so new and
+      so splendid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay lady," said Foster, "it hath cost many a fair crown; and that more
+      need not be wasted than is absolutely necessary, I leave you till my
+      lord's arrival with good Master Richard Varney, who, as I think, hath
+      somewhat to say to you from your most noble lord and husband.&mdash;Janet,
+      follow me, to see that all be in order."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Master Foster," said the Countess, "we will your daughter remains
+      here in our apartment&mdash;out of ear-shot, however, in case Varney hath
+      ought to say to me from my lord."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster made his clumsy reverence, and departed, with an aspect which
+      seemed to grudge the profuse expense which had been wasted upon changing
+      his house from a bare and ruinous grange to an Asiastic palace. When he
+      was gone, his daughter took her embroidery frame, and went to establish
+      herself at the bottom of the apartment; while Richard Varney, with a
+      profoundly humble courtesy, took the lowest stool he could find, and
+      placing it by the side of the pile of cushions on which the Countess had
+      now again seated herself, sat with his eyes for a time fixed on the
+      ground, and in pro-found silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought, Master Varney," said the Countess, when she saw he was not
+      likely to open the conversation, "that you had something to communicate
+      from my lord and husband; so at least I understood Master Foster, and
+      therefore I removed my waiting-maid. If I am mistaken, I will recall her
+      to my side; for her needle is not so absolutely perfect in tent and
+      cross-stitch, but that my superintendence is advisable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lady," said Varney, "Foster was partly mistaken in my purpose. It was not
+      FROM but OF your noble husband, and my approved and most noble patron,
+      that I am led, and indeed bound, to speak."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The theme is most welcome, sir," said the Countess, "whether it be of or
+      from my noble husband. But be brief, for I expect his hasty approach."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Briefly then, madam," replied Varney, "and boldly, for my argument
+      requires both haste and courage&mdash;you have this day seen Tressilian?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, sir and what of that?" answered the lady somewhat sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing that concerns me, lady," Varney replied with humility. "But,
+      think you, honoured madam, that your lord will hear it with equal
+      equanimity?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore should he not? To me alone was Tressilian's visit
+      embarrassing and painful, for he brought news of my good father's
+      illness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of your father's illness, madam!" answered Varney. "It must have been
+      sudden then&mdash;very sudden; for the messenger whom I dispatched, at my
+      lord's instance, found the good knight on the hunting field, cheering his
+      beagles with his wonted jovial field-cry. I trust Tressilian has but
+      forged this news. He hath his reasons, madam, as you well know, for
+      disquieting your present happiness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You do him injustice, Master Varney," replied the Countess, with
+      animation&mdash;"you do him much injustice. He is the freest, the most
+      open, the most gentle heart that breathes. My honourable lord ever
+      excepted, I know not one to whom falsehood is more odious than to
+      Tressilian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I crave your pardon, madam," said Varney, "I meant the gentleman no
+      injustice&mdash;I knew not how nearly his cause affected you. A man may,
+      in some circumstances, disguise the truth for fair and honest purpose; for
+      were it to be always spoken, and upon all occasions, this were no world to
+      live in."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have a courtly conscience, Master Varney," said the Countess, "and
+      your veracity will not, I think, interrupt your preferment in the world,
+      such as it is. But touching Tressilian&mdash;I must do him justice, for I
+      have done him wrong, as none knows better than thou. Tressilian's
+      conscience is of other mould&mdash;the world thou speakest of has not that
+      which could bribe him from the way of truth and honour; and for living in
+      it with a soiled fame, the ermine would as soon seek to lodge in the den
+      of the foul polecat. For this my father loved him; for this I would have
+      loved him&mdash;if I could. And yet in this case he had what seemed to
+      him, unknowing alike of my marriage and to whom I was united, such
+      powerful reasons to withdraw me from this place, that I well trust he
+      exaggerated much of my father's indisposition, and that thy better news
+      may be the truer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Believe me they are, madam," answered Varney. "I pretend not to be a
+      champion of that same naked virtue called truth, to the very outrance. I
+      can consent that her charms be hidden with a veil, were it but for
+      decency's sake. But you must think lower of my head and heart than is due
+      to one whom my noble lord deigns to call his friend, if you suppose I
+      could wilfully and unnecessarily palm upon your ladyship a falsehood, so
+      soon to be detected, in a matter which concerns your happiness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Master Varney," said the Countess, "I know that my lord esteems you, and
+      holds you a faithful and a good pilot in those seas in which he has spread
+      so high and so venturous a sail. Do not suppose, therefore, I meant hardly
+      by you, when I spoke the truth in Tressilian's vindication. I am as you
+      well know, country-bred, and like plain rustic truth better than courtly
+      compliment; but I must change my fashions with my sphere, I presume."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, madam," said Varney, smiling; "and though you speak now in jest, it
+      will not be amiss that in earnest your present speech had some connection
+      with your real purpose. A court-dame&mdash;take the most noble, the most
+      virtuous, the most unimpeachable that stands around our Queen's throne&mdash;would,
+      for example, have shunned to speak the truth, or what she thought such, in
+      praise of a discarded suitor, before the dependant and confidant of her
+      noble husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore," said the Countess, colouring impatiently, "should I not
+      do justice to Tressilian's worth, before my husband's friend&mdash;before
+      my husband himself&mdash;before the whole world?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And with the same openness," said Varney, "your ladyship will this night
+      tell my noble lord your husband that Tressilian has discovered your place
+      of residence, so anxiously concealed from the world, and that he has had
+      an interview with you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Unquestionably," said the Countess. "It will be the first thing I tell
+      him, together with every word that Tressilian said and that I answered. I
+      shall speak my own shame in this, for Tressilian's reproaches, less just
+      than he esteemed them, were not altogether unmerited. I will speak,
+      therefore, with pain, but I will speak, and speak all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your ladyship will do your pleasure," answered Varney; "but methinks it
+      were as well, since nothing calls for so frank a disclosure, to spare
+      yourself this pain, and my noble lord the disquiet, and Master Tressilian,
+      since belike he must be thought of in the matter, the danger which is like
+      to ensue."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can see nought of all these terrible consequences," said the lady
+      composedly, "unless by imputing to my noble lord unworthy thoughts, which
+      I am sure never harboured in his generous heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far be it from me to do so," said Varney. And then, after a moment's
+      silence, he added, with a real or affected plainness of manner, very
+      different from his usual smooth courtesy, "Come, madam, I will show you
+      that a courtier dare speak truth as well as another, when it concerns the
+      weal of those whom he honours and regards, ay, and although it may infer
+      his own danger." He waited as if to receive commands, or at least
+      permission, to go on; but as the lady remained silent, he proceeded, but
+      obviously with caution. "Look around you," he said, "noble lady, and
+      observe the barriers with which this place is surrounded, the studious
+      mystery with which the brightest jewel that England possesses is secluded
+      from the admiring gaze. See with what rigour your walks are circumscribed,
+      and your movement restrained at the beck of yonder churlish Foster.
+      Consider all this, and judge for yourself what can be the cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord's pleasure," answered the Countess; "and I am bound to seek no
+      other motive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His pleasure it is indeed," said Varney; "and his pleasure arises out of
+      a love worthy of the object which inspires it. But he who possesses a
+      treasure, and who values it, is oft anxious, in proportion to the value he
+      puts upon it, to secure it from the depredations of others."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What needs all this talk, Master Varney?" said the lady, in reply. "You
+      would have me believe that my noble lord is jealous. Suppose it true, I
+      know a cure for jealousy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed, madam?" said Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is," replied the lady, "to speak the truth to my lord at all times&mdash;to
+      hold up my mind and my thoughts before him as pure as that polished mirror&mdash;so
+      that when he looks into my heart, he shall only see his own features
+      reflected there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am mute, madam," answered Varney; "and as I have no reason to grieve
+      for Tressilian, who would have my heart's blood were he able, I shall
+      reconcile myself easily to what may befall the gentleman in consequence of
+      your frank disclosure of his having presumed to intrude upon your
+      solitude. You, who know my lord so much better than I, will judge if he be
+      likely to bear the insult unavenged."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if I could think myself the cause of Tressilian's ruin," said the
+      Countess, "I who have already occasioned him so much distress, I might be
+      brought to be silent. And yet what will it avail, since he was seen by
+      Foster, and I think by some one else? No, no, Varney, urge it no more. I
+      will tell the whole matter to my lord; and with such pleading for
+      Tressilian's folly, as shall dispose my lord's generous heart rather to
+      serve than to punish him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your judgment, madam," said Varney, "is far superior to mine, especially
+      as you may, if you will, prove the ice before you step on it, by
+      mentioning Tressilian's name to my lord, and observing how he endures it.
+      For Foster and his attendant, they know not Tressilian by sight, and I can
+      easily give them some reasonable excuse for the appearance of an unknown
+      stranger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady paused for an instant, and then replied, "If, Varney, it be
+      indeed true that Foster knows not as yet that the man he saw was
+      Tressilian, I own I were unwilling he should learn what nowise concerns
+      him. He bears himself already with austerity enough, and I wish him not to
+      be judge or privy-councillor in my affairs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush," said Varney, "what has the surly groom to do with your ladyship's
+      concerns?&mdash;no more, surely, than the ban-dog which watches his
+      courtyard. If he is in aught distasteful to your ladyship, I have interest
+      enough to have him exchanged for a seneschal that shall be more agreeable
+      to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Master Varney," said the Countess, "let us drop this theme. When I
+      complain of the attendants whom my lord has placed around me, it must be
+      to my lord himself.&mdash;Hark! I hear the trampling of horse. He comes!
+      he comes!" she exclaimed, jumping up in ecstasy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot think it is he," said Varney; "or that you can hear the tread of
+      his horse through the closely-mantled casements."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stop me not, Varney&mdash;my ears are keener than thine. It is he!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, madam!&mdash;but, madam!" exclaimed Varney anxiously, and still
+      placing himself in her way, "I trust that what I have spoken in humble
+      duty and service will not be turned to my ruin? I hope that my faithful
+      advice will not be bewrayed to my prejudice? I implore that&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Content thee, man&mdash;content thee!" said the Countess, "and quit my
+      skirt&mdash;you are too bold to detain me. Content thyself, I think not of
+      thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the folding-doors flew wide open, and a man of majestic
+      mien, muffled in the folds of a long dark riding-cloak, entered the
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "This is he
+     Who rides on the court-gale; controls its tides;
+     Knows all their secret shoals and fatal eddies;
+     Whose frown abases, and whose smile exalts.
+     He shines like any rainbow&mdash;and, perchance,
+     His colours are as transient."&mdash;OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There was some little displeasure and confusion on the Countess's brow,
+      owing to her struggle with Varney's pertinacity; but it was exchanged for
+      an expression of the purest joy and affection, as she threw herself into
+      the arms of the noble stranger who entered, and clasping him to her bosom,
+      exclaimed, "At length&mdash;at length thou art come!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney discreetly withdrew as his lord entered, and Janet was about to do
+      the same, when her mistress signed to her to remain. She took her place at
+      the farther end of the apartment, and continued standing, as if ready for
+      attendance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned his lady's
+      caress with the most affectionate ardour, but affected to resist when she
+      strove to take his cloak from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," she said, "but I will unmantle you. I must see if you have kept
+      your word to me, and come as the great Earl men call thee, and not as
+      heretofore like a private cavalier."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art like the rest of the world, Amy," said the Earl, suffering her
+      to prevail in the playful contest; "the jewels, and feathers, and silk are
+      more to them than the man whom they adorn&mdash;many a poor blade looks
+      gay in a velvet scabbard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But so cannot men say of thee, thou noble Earl," said his lady, as the
+      cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as princes when they
+      ride abroad; "thou art the good and well-tried steel, whose inly worth
+      deserves, yet disdains, its outward ornaments. Do not think Amy can love
+      thee better in this glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart to
+      him who wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou too," said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically he led his
+      beautiful Countess towards the chair of state which was prepared for them
+      both&mdash;"thou too, my love, hast donned a dress which becomes thy rank,
+      though it cannot improve thy beauty. What think'st thou of our court
+      taste?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady cast a sidelong glance upon the great mirror as they passed it
+      by, and then said, "I know not how it is, but I think not of my own person
+      while I look at the reflection of thine. Sit thou there," she said, as
+      they approached the chair of state, "like a thing for men to worship and
+      to wonder at."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, love," said the Earl, "if thou wilt share my state with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so," said the Countess; "I will sit on this footstool at thy feet,
+      that I may spell over thy splendour, and learn, for the first time, how
+      princes are attired."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with a childish wonder, which her youth and rustic education rendered
+      not only excusable but becoming, mixed as it was with a delicate show of
+      the most tender conjugal affection, she examined and admired from head to
+      foot the noble form and princely attire of him who formed the proudest
+      ornament of the court of England's Maiden Queen, renowned as it was for
+      splendid courtiers, as well as for wise counsellors. Regarding
+      affectionately his lovely bride, and gratified by her unrepressed
+      admiration, the dark eye and noble features of the Earl expressed passions
+      more gentle than the commanding and aspiring look which usually sat upon
+      his broad forehead, and in the piercing brilliancy of his dark eye; and he
+      smiled at the simplicity which dictated the questions she put to him
+      concerning the various ornaments with which he was decorated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee," he said, "is
+      the English Garter, an ornament which kings are proud to wear. See, here
+      is the star which belongs to it, and here the Diamond George, the jewel of
+      the order. You have heard how King Edward and the Countess of Salisbury&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I know all that tale," said the Countess, slightly blushing, "and how
+      a lady's garter became the proudest badge of English chivalry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even so," said the Earl; "and this most honourable Order I had the good
+      hap to receive at the same time with three most noble associates, the Duke
+      of Norfolk, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Earl of Rutland. I was the
+      lowest of the four in rank&mdash;but what then? he that climbs a ladder
+      must begin at the first round."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But this other fair collar, so richly wrought, with some jewel like a
+      sheep hung by the middle attached to it, what," said the young Countess,
+      "does that emblem signify?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This collar," said the Earl, "with its double fusilles interchanged with
+      these knobs, which are supposed to present flint-stones sparkling with
+      fire, and sustaining the jewel you inquire about, is the badge of the
+      noble Order of the Golden Fleece, once appertaining to the House of
+      Burgundy it hath high privileges, my Amy, belonging to it, this most noble
+      Order; for even the King of Spain himself, who hath now succeeded to the
+      honours and demesnes of Burgundy, may not sit in judgment upon a knight of
+      the Golden Fleece, unless by assistance and consent of the Great Chapter
+      of the Order."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is this an Order belonging to the cruel King of Spain?" said the
+      Countess. "Alas! my noble lord, that you will defile your noble English
+      breast by bearing such an emblem! Bethink you of the most unhappy Queen
+      Mary's days, when this same Philip held sway with her in England, and of
+      the piles which were built for our noblest, and our wisest, and our most
+      truly sanctified prelates and divines&mdash;and will you, whom men call
+      the standard-bearer of the true Protestant faith, be contented to wear the
+      emblem and mark of such a Romish tyrant as he of Spain?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, content you, my love," answered the Earl; "we who spread our sails to
+      gales of court favour cannot always display the ensigns we love the best,
+      or at all times refuse sailing under colours which we like not. Believe
+      me, I am not the less good Protestant, that for policy I must accept the
+      honour offered me by Spain, in admitting me to this his highest order of
+      knighthood. Besides, it belongs properly to Flanders; and Egmont, Orange,
+      and others have pride in seeing it displayed on an English bosom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord, you know your own path best," replied the Countess. "And
+      this other collar, to what country does this fair jewel belong?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To a very poor one, my love," replied the Earl; "this is the Order of
+      Saint Andrew, revived by the last James of Scotland. It was bestowed on me
+      when it was thought the young widow of France and Scotland would gladly
+      have wedded an English baron; but a free coronet of England is worth a
+      crown matrimonial held at the humour of a woman, and owning only the poor
+      rocks and bogs of the north."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess paused, as if what the Earl last said had excited some
+      painful but interesting train of thought; and, as she still remained
+      silent, her husband proceeded:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now, loveliest, your wish is gratified, and you have seen your vassal
+      in such of his trim array as accords with riding vestments; for robes of
+      state and coronets are only for princely halls."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then," said the Countess, "my gratified wish has, as usual, given
+      rise to a new one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is it thou canst ask that I can deny?" said the fond husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wished to see my Earl visit this obscure and secret bower," said the
+      Countess, "in all his princely array; and now, methinks I long to sit in
+      one of his princely halls, and see him enter dressed in sober russet, as
+      when he won poor Amy Robsart's heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a wish easily granted," said the Earl&mdash;"the sober russet
+      shall be donned to-morrow, if you will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But shall I," said the lady, "go with you to one of your castles, to see
+      how the richness of your dwelling will correspond with your peasant
+      habit?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Amy," said the Earl, looking around, "are not these apartments
+      decorated with sufficient splendour? I gave the most unbounded order, and,
+      methinks, it has been indifferently well obeyed; but if thou canst tell me
+      aught which remains to be done, I will instantly give direction."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord, now you mock me," replied the Countess; "the gaiety of this
+      rich lodging exceeds my imagination as much as it does my desert. But
+      shall not your wife, my love&mdash;at least one day soon&mdash;be
+      surrounded with the honour which arises neither from the toils of the
+      mechanic who decks her apartment, nor from the silks and jewels with which
+      your generosity adorns her, but which is attached to her place among the
+      matronage, as the avowed wife of England's noblest Earl?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One day?" said her husband. "Yes, Amy, my love, one day this shall surely
+      happen; and, believe me, thou canst not wish for that day more fondly than
+      I. With what rapture could I retire from labours of state, and cares and
+      toils of ambition, to spend my life in dignity and honour on my own broad
+      domains, with thee, my lovely Amy, for my friend and companion! But, Amy,
+      this cannot yet be; and these dear but stolen interviews are all I can
+      give to the loveliest and the best beloved of her sex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But WHY can it not be?" urged the Countess, in the softest tones of
+      persuasion&mdash;"why can it not immediately take place&mdash;this more
+      perfect, this uninterrupted union, for which you say you wish, and which
+      the laws of God and man alike command? Ah! did you but desire it half as
+      much as you say, mighty and favoured as you are, who or what should bar
+      your attaining your wish?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl's brow was overcast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amy," he said, "you speak of what you understand not. We that toil in
+      courts are like those who climb a mountain of loose sand&mdash;we dare
+      make no halt until some projecting rock affords us a secure footing and
+      resting-place. If we pause sooner, we slide down by our own weight, an
+      object of universal derision. I stand high, but I stand not secure enough
+      to follow my own inclination. To declare my marriage were to be the
+      artificer of my own ruin. But, believe me, I will reach a point, and that
+      speedily, when I can do justice to thee and to myself. Meantime, poison
+      not the bliss of the present moment, by desiring that which cannot at
+      present be, Let me rather know whether all here is managed to thy liking.
+      How does Foster bear himself to you?&mdash;in all things respectful, I
+      trust, else the fellow shall dearly rue it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He reminds me sometimes of the necessity of this privacy," answered the
+      lady, with a sigh; "but that is reminding me of your wishes, and therefore
+      I am rather bound to him than disposed to blame him for it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have told you the stern necessity which is upon us," replied the Earl.
+      "Foster is, I note, somewhat sullen of mood; but Varney warrants to me his
+      fidelity and devotion to my service. If thou hast aught, however, to
+      complain of the mode in which he discharges his duty, he shall abye it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I have nought to complain of," answered the lady, "so he discharges
+      his task with fidelity to you; and his daughter Janet is the kindest and
+      best companion of my solitude&mdash;her little air of precision sits so
+      well upon her!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is she indeed?" said the Earl. "She who gives you pleasure must not pass
+      unrewarded.&mdash;Come hither, damsel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Janet," said the lady, "come hither to my lord."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janet, who, as we already noticed, had discreetly retired to some
+      distance, that her presence might be no check upon the private
+      conversation of her lord and lady, now came forward; and as she made her
+      reverential curtsy, the Earl could not help smiling at the contrast which
+      the extreme simplicity of her dress, and the prim demureness of her looks,
+      made with a very pretty countenance and a pair of black eyes, that laughed
+      in spite of their mistress's desire to look grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am bound to you, pretty damsel," said the Earl, "for the contentment
+      which your service hath given to this lady." As he said this, he took from
+      his finger a ring of some price, and offered it to Janet Foster, adding,
+      "Wear this, for her sake and for mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am well pleased, my lord," answered Janet demurely, "that my poor
+      service hath gratified my lady, whom no one can draw nigh to without
+      desiring to please; but we of the precious Master Holdforth's congregation
+      seek not, like the gay daughters of this world, to twine gold around our
+      fingers, or wear stones upon our necks, like the vain women of Tyre and of
+      Sidon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, what! you are a grave professor of the precise sisterhood, pretty
+      Mistress Janet," said the Earl, "and I think your father is of the same
+      congregation in sincerity? I like you both the better for it; for I have
+      been prayed for, and wished well to, in your congregations. And you may
+      the better afford the lack of ornament, Mistress Janet, because your
+      fingers are slender, and your neck white. But here is what neither Papist
+      nor Puritan, latitudinarian nor precisian, ever boggles or makes mouths
+      at. E'en take it, my girl, and employ it as you list."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he put into her hand five broad gold pieces of Philip and Mary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would not accept this gold either," said Janet, "but that I hope to
+      find a use for it which will bring a blessing on us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even please thyself, pretty Janet," said the Earl, "and I shall be well
+      satisfied. And I prithee let them hasten the evening collation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have bidden Master Varney and Master Foster to sup with us, my lord,"
+      said the Countess, as Janet retired to obey the Earl's commands; "has it
+      your approbation?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What you do ever must have so, my sweet Amy," replied her husband; "and I
+      am the better pleased thou hast done them this grace, because Richard
+      Varney is my sworn man, and a close brother of my secret council; and for
+      the present, I must needs repose much trust in this Anthony Foster."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had a boon to beg of thee, and a secret to tell thee, my dear lord,"
+      said the Countess, with a faltering accent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let both be for to-morrow, my love," replied the Earl. "I see they open
+      the folding-doors into the banqueting-parlour, and as I have ridden far
+      and fast, a cup of wine will not be unacceptable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying he led his lovely wife into the next apartment, where Varney and
+      Foster received them with the deepest reverences, which the first paid
+      after the fashion of the court, and the second after that of the
+      congregation. The Earl returned their salutation with the negligent
+      courtesy of one long used to such homage; while the Countess repaid it
+      with a punctilious solicitude, which showed it was not quite so familiar
+      to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The banquet at which the company seated themselves corresponded in
+      magnificence with the splendour of the apartment in which it was served
+      up, but no domestic gave his attendance. Janet alone stood ready to wait
+      upon the company; and, indeed, the board was so well supplied with all
+      that could be desired, that little or no assistance was necessary. The
+      Earl and his lady occupied the upper end of the table, and Varney and
+      Foster sat beneath the salt, as was the custom with inferiors. The latter,
+      overawed perhaps by society to which he was altogether unused, did not
+      utter a single syllable during the repast; while Varney, with great tact
+      and discernment, sustained just so much of the conversation as, without
+      the appearance of intrusion on his part, prevented it from languishing,
+      and maintained the good-humour of the Earl at the highest pitch. This man
+      was indeed highly qualified by nature to discharge the part in which he
+      found himself placed, being discreet and cautious on the one hand, and, on
+      the other, quick, keen-witted, and imaginative; so that even the Countess,
+      prejudiced as she was against him on many accounts, felt and enjoyed his
+      powers of conversation, and was more disposed than she had ever hitherto
+      found herself to join in the praises which the Earl lavished on his
+      favourite. The hour of rest at length arrived, the Earl and Countess
+      retired to their apartment, and all was silent in the castle for the rest
+      of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early on the ensuing morning, Varney acted as the Earl's chamberlain as
+      well as his master of horse, though the latter was his proper office in
+      that magnificent household, where knights and gentlemen of good descent
+      were well contented to hold such menial situations, as nobles themselves
+      held in that of the sovereign. The duties of each of these charges were
+      familiar to Varney, who, sprung from an ancient but somewhat decayed
+      family, was the Earl's page during his earlier and more obscure fortunes,
+      and, faithful to him in adversity, had afterwards contrived to render
+      himself no less useful to him in his rapid and splendid advance to
+      fortune; thus establishing in him an interest resting both on present and
+      past services, which rendered him an almost indispensable sharer of his
+      confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Help me to do on a plainer riding-suit, Varney," said the Earl, as he
+      laid aside his morning-gown, flowered with silk and lined with sables,
+      "and put these chains and fetters there" (pointing to the collars of the
+      various Orders which lay on the table) "into their place of security&mdash;my
+      neck last night was well-nigh broke with the weight of them. I am half of
+      the mind that they shall gall me no more. They are bonds which knaves have
+      invented to fetter fools. How thinkest thou, Varney?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Faith, my good lord," said his attendant, "I think fetters of gold are
+      like no other fetters&mdash;they are ever the weightier the welcomer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For all that, Varney," replied his master, "I am well-nigh resolved they
+      shall bind me to the court no longer. What can further service and higher
+      favour give me, beyond the high rank and large estate which I have already
+      secured? What brought my father to the block, but that he could not bound
+      his wishes within right and reason? I have, you know, had mine own
+      ventures and mine own escapes. I am well-nigh resolved to tempt the sea no
+      further, but sit me down in quiet on the shore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And gather cockle-shells, with Dan Cupid to aid you," said Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How mean you by that, Varney?" said the Earl somewhat hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord," said Varney, "be not angry with me. If your lordship is
+      happy in a lady so rarely lovely that, in order to enjoy her company with
+      somewhat more freedom, you are willing to part with all you have hitherto
+      lived for, some of your poor servants may be sufferers; but your bounty
+      hath placed me so high, that I shall ever have enough to maintain a poor
+      gentleman in the rank befitting the high office he has held in your
+      lordship's family."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet you seem discontented when I propose throwing up a dangerous game,
+      which may end in the ruin of both of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I, my lord?" said Varney; "surely I have no cause to regret your
+      lordship's retreat! It will not be Richard Varney who will incur the
+      displeasure of majesty, and the ridicule of the court, when the stateliest
+      fabric that ever was founded upon a prince's favour melts away like a
+      morning frost-work. I would only have you yourself to be assured, my lord,
+      ere you take a step which cannot be retracted, that you consult your fame
+      and happiness in the course you propose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak on, then, Varney," said the Earl; "I tell thee I have determined
+      nothing, and will weigh all considerations on either side."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, my lord," replied Varney, "we will suppose the step taken,
+      the frown frowned, the laugh laughed, and the moan moaned. You have
+      retired, we will say, to some one of your most distant castles, so far
+      from court that you hear neither the sorrow of your friends nor the glee
+      of your enemies, We will suppose, too, that your successful rival will be
+      satisfied (a thing greatly to be doubted) with abridging and cutting away
+      the branches of the great tree which so long kept the sun from him, and
+      that he does not insist upon tearing you up by the roots. Well; the late
+      prime favourite of England, who wielded her general's staff and controlled
+      her parliaments, is now a rural baron, hunting, hawking, drinking fat ale
+      with country esquires, and mustering his men at the command of the high
+      sheriff&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney, forbear!" said the Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord, you must give me leave to conclude my picture.&mdash;Sussex
+      governs England&mdash;the Queen's health fails&mdash;the succession is to
+      be settled&mdash;a road is opened to ambition more splendid than ambition
+      ever dreamed of. You hear all this as you sit by the hob, under the shade
+      of your hall-chimney. You then begin to think what hopes you have fallen
+      from, and what insignificance you have embraced; and all that you might
+      look babies in the eyes of your fair wife oftener than once a fortnight."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I say, Varney," said the Earl, "no more of this. I said not that the
+      step, which my own ease and comfort would urge me to, was to be taken
+      hastily, or without due consideration to the public safety. Bear witness
+      to me, Varney; I subdue my wishes of retirement, not because I am moved by
+      the call of private ambition, but that I may preserve the position in
+      which I may best serve my country at the hour of need.&mdash;Order our
+      horses presently; I will wear, as formerly, one of the livery cloaks, and
+      ride before the portmantle. Thou shalt be master for the day, Varney&mdash;neglect
+      nothing that can blind suspicion. We will to horse ere men are stirring. I
+      will but take leave of my lady, and be ready. I impose a restraint on my
+      own poor heart, and wound one yet more dear to me; but the patriot must
+      subdue the husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said this in a melancholy but firm accent, he left the dressing
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad thou art gone," thought Varney, "or, practised as I am in the
+      follies of mankind, I had laughed in the very face of thee! Thou mayest
+      tire as thou wilt of thy new bauble, thy pretty piece of painted Eve's
+      flesh there, I will not be thy hindrance. But of thine old bauble,
+      ambition, thou shalt not tire; for as you climb the hill, my lord, you
+      must drag Richard Varney up with you, and if he can urge you to the ascent
+      he means to profit by, believe me he will spare neither whip nor spur, and
+      for you, my pretty lady, that would be Countess outright, you were best
+      not thwart my courses, lest you are called to an old reckoning on a new
+      score. 'Thou shalt be master,' did he say? By my faith, he may find that
+      he spoke truer than he is aware of; and thus he who, in the estimation of
+      so many wise-judging men, can match Burleigh and Walsingham in policy, and
+      Sussex in war, becomes pupil to his own menial&mdash;and all for a hazel
+      eye and a little cunning red and white, and so falls ambition. And yet if
+      the charms of mortal woman could excuse a man's politic pate for becoming
+      bewildered, my lord had the excuse at his right hand on this blessed
+      evening that has last passed over us. Well&mdash;let things roll as they
+      may, he shall make me great, or I will make myself happy; and for that
+      softer piece of creation, if she speak not out her interview with
+      Tressilian, as well I think she dare not, she also must traffic with me
+      for concealment and mutual support, in spite of all this scorn. I must to
+      the stables. Well, my lord, I order your retinue now; the time may soon
+      come that my master of the horse shall order mine own. What was Thomas
+      Cromwell but a smith's son? and he died my lord&mdash;on a scaffold,
+      doubtless, but that, too, was in character. And what was Ralph Sadler but
+      the clerk of Cromwell? and he has gazed eighteen fair lordships&mdash;VIA!
+      I know my steerage as well as they."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he left the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile the Earl had re-entered the bedchamber, bent on taking a
+      hasty farewell of the lovely Countess, and scarce daring to trust himself
+      in private with her, to hear requests again urged which he found it
+      difficult to parry, yet which his recent conversation with his master of
+      horse had determined him not to grant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found her in a white cymar of silk lined with furs, her little feet
+      unstockinged and hastily thrust into slippers; her unbraided hair escaping
+      from under her midnight coif, with little array but her own loveliness,
+      rather augmented than diminished by the grief which she felt at the
+      approaching moment of separation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, God be with thee, my dearest and loveliest!" said the Earl, scarce
+      tearing himself from her embrace, yet again returning to fold her again
+      and again in his arms, and again bidding farewell, and again returning to
+      kiss and bid adieu once more. "The sun is on the verge of the blue horizon&mdash;I
+      dare not stay. Ere this I should have been ten miles from hence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the words with which at length he strove to cut short their
+      parting interview. "You will not grant my request, then?" said the
+      Countess. "Ah, false knight! did ever lady, with bare foot in slipper,
+      seek boon of a brave knight, yet return with denial?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Anything, Amy, anything thou canst ask I will grant," answered the Earl&mdash;"always
+      excepting," he said, "that which might ruin us both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," said the Countess, "I urge not my wish to be acknowledged in the
+      character which would make me the envy of England&mdash;as the wife, that
+      is, of my brave and noble lord, the first as the most fondly beloved of
+      English nobles. Let me but share the secret with my dear father! Let me
+      but end his misery on my unworthy account&mdash;they say he is ill, the
+      good old kind-hearted man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They say?" asked the Earl hastily; "who says? Did not Varney convey to
+      Sir Hugh all we dare at present tell him concerning your happiness and
+      welfare? and has he not told you that the good old knight was following,
+      with good heart and health, his favourite and wonted exercise. Who has
+      dared put other thoughts into your head?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, no one, my lord, no one," said the Countess, something alarmed at the
+      tone, in which the question was put; "but yet, my lord, I would fain be
+      assured by mine own eyesight that my father is well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be contented, Amy; thou canst not now have communication with thy father
+      or his house. Were it not a deep course of policy to commit no secret
+      unnecessarily to the custody of more than must needs be, it were
+      sufficient reason for secrecy that yonder Cornish man, yonder Trevanion,
+      or Tressilian, or whatever his name is, haunts the old knight's house, and
+      must necessarily know whatever is communicated there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," answered the Countess, "I do not think it so. My father has
+      been long noted a worthy and honourable man; and for Tressilian, if we can
+      pardon ourselves the ill we have wrought him, I will wager the coronet I
+      am to share with you one day that he is incapable of returning injury for
+      injury."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not trust him, however, Amy," said her husband&mdash;"by my
+      honour, I will not trust him, I would rather the foul fiend intermingle in
+      our secret than this Tressilian!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why, my lord?" said the Countess, though she shuddered slightly at
+      the tone of determination in which he spoke; "let me but know why you
+      think thus hardly of Tressilian?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," replied the Earl, "my will ought to be a sufficient reason. If
+      you desire more, consider how this Tressilian is leagued, and with whom.
+      He stands high in the opinion of this Radcliffe, this Sussex, against whom
+      I am barely able to maintain my ground in the opinion of our suspicious
+      mistress; and if he had me at such advantage, Amy, as to become acquainted
+      with the tale of our marriage, before Elizabeth were fitly prepared, I
+      were an outcast from her grace for ever&mdash;a bankrupt at once in favour
+      and in fortune, perhaps, for she hath in her a touch of her father Henry&mdash;a
+      victim, and it may be a bloody one, to her offended and jealous
+      resentment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But why, my lord," again urged his lady, "should you deem thus
+      injuriously of a man of whom you know so little? What you do know of
+      Tressilian is through me, and it is I who assure you that in no
+      circumstances will he betray your secret. If I did him wrong in your
+      behalf, my lord, I am now the more concerned you should do him justice.
+      You are offended at my speaking of him, what would you say had I actually
+      myself seen him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you had," replied the Earl, "you would do well to keep that interview
+      as secret as that which is spoken in a confessional. I seek no one's ruin;
+      but he who thrusts himself on my secret privacy were better look well to
+      his future walk. The bear [The Leicester cognizance was the ancient device
+      adopted by his father, when Earl of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff.]
+      brooks no one to cross his awful path."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Awful, indeed!" said the Countess, turning very pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are ill, my love," said the Earl, supporting her in his arms.
+      "Stretch yourself on your couch again; it is but an early day for you to
+      leave it. Have you aught else, involving less than my fame, my fortune,
+      and my life, to ask of me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing, my lord and love," answered the Countess faintly; "something
+      there was that I would have told you, but your anger has driven it from my
+      recollection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Reserve it till our next meeting, my love," said the Earl fondly, and
+      again embracing her; "and barring only those requests which I cannot and
+      dare not grant, thy wish must be more than England and all its
+      dependencies can fulfil, if it is not gratified to the letter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus saying, he at length took farewell. At the bottom of the staircase he
+      received from Varney an ample livery cloak and slouched hat, in which he
+      wrapped himself so as to disguise his person and completely conceal his
+      features. Horses were ready in the courtyard for himself and Varney; for
+      one or two of his train, intrusted with the secret so far as to know or
+      guess that the Earl intrigued with a beautiful lady at that mansion,
+      though her name and quality were unknown to them, had already been
+      dismissed over-night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthony Foster himself had in hand the rein of the Earl's palfrey, a stout
+      and able nag for the road; while his old serving-man held the bridle of
+      the more showy and gallant steed which Richard Varney was to occupy in the
+      character of master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Earl approached, however, Varney advanced to hold his master's
+      bridle, and to prevent Foster from paying that duty to the Earl which he
+      probably considered as belonging to his own office. Foster scowled at an
+      interference which seemed intended to prevent his paying his court to his
+      patron, but gave place to Varney; and the Earl, mounting without further
+      observation, and forgetting that his assumed character of a domestic threw
+      him into the rear of his supposed master, rode pensively out of the
+      quadrangle, not without waving his hand repeatedly in answer to the
+      signals which were made by the Countess with her kerchief from the windows
+      of her apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While his stately form vanished under the dark archway which led out of
+      the quadrangle, Varney muttered, "There goes fine policy&mdash;the servant
+      before the master!" then as he disappeared, seized the moment to speak a
+      word with Foster. "Thou look'st dark on me, Anthony," he said, "as if I
+      had deprived thee of a parting nod of my lord; but I have moved him to
+      leave thee a better remembrance for thy faithful service. See here! a
+      purse of as good gold as ever chinked under a miser's thumb and
+      fore-finger. Ay, count them, lad," said he, as Foster received the gold
+      with a grim smile, "and add to them the goodly remembrance he gave last
+      night to Janet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How's this? how's this?" said Anthony Foster hastily; "gave he gold to
+      Janet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, man, wherefore not?&mdash;does not her service to his fair lady
+      require guerdon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She shall have none on't," said Foster; "she shall return it. I know his
+      dotage on one face is as brief as it is deep. His affections are as fickle
+      as the moon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Foster, thou art mad&mdash;thou dost not hope for such good fortune
+      as that my lord should cast an eye on Janet? Who, in the fiend's name,
+      would listen to the thrush while the nightingale is singing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler; and, Master Varney, you
+      can sound the quail-pipe most daintily to wile wantons into his nets. I
+      desire no such devil's preferment for Janet as you have brought many a
+      poor maiden to. Dost thou laugh? I will keep one limb of my family, at
+      least, from Satan's clutches, that thou mayest rely on. She shall restore
+      the gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, or give it to thy keeping, Tony, which will serve as well," answered
+      Varney; "but I have that to say which is more serious. Our lord is
+      returning to court in an evil humour for us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How meanest thou?" said Foster. "Is he tired already of his pretty toy&mdash;his
+      plaything yonder? He has purchased her at a monarch's ransom, and I
+      warrant me he rues his bargain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not a whit, Tony," answered the master of the horse; "he dotes on her,
+      and will forsake the court for her. Then down go hopes, possessions, and
+      safety&mdash;church-lands are resumed, Tony, and well if the holders be
+      not called to account in Exchequer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That were ruin," said Foster, his brow darkening with apprehensions; "and
+      all this for a woman! Had it been for his soul's sake, it were something;
+      and I sometimes wish I myself could fling away the world that cleaves to
+      me, and be as one of the poorest of our church."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art like enough to be so, Tony," answered Varney; "but I think the
+      devil will give thee little credit for thy compelled poverty, and so thou
+      losest on all hands. But follow my counsel, and Cumnor Place shall be thy
+      copyhold yet. Say nothing of this Tressilian's visit&mdash;not a word
+      until I give thee notice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore, I pray you?" asked Foster, suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Dull beast!" replied Varney. "In my lord's present humour it were the
+      ready way to confirm him in his resolution of retirement, should he know
+      that his lady was haunted with such a spectre in his absence. He would be
+      for playing the dragon himself over his golden fruit, and then, Tony, thy
+      occupation is ended. A word to the wise. Farewell! I must follow him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his horse, struck him with the spurs, and rode off under the
+      archway in pursuit of his lord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Would thy occupation were ended, or thy neck broken, damned pander!" said
+      Anthony Foster. "But I must follow his beck, for his interest and mine are
+      the same, and he can wind the proud Earl to his will. Janet shall give me
+      those pieces though; they shall be laid out in some way for God's service,
+      and I will keep them separate in my strong chest, till I can fall upon a
+      fitting employment for them. No contagious vapour shall breathe on Janet&mdash;she
+      shall remain pure as a blessed spirit, were it but to pray God for her
+      father. I need her prayers, for I am at a hard pass. Strange reports are
+      abroad concerning my way of life. The congregation look cold on me, and
+      when Master Holdforth spoke of hypocrites being like a whited sepulchre,
+      which within was full of dead men's bones, methought he looked full at me.
+      The Romish was a comfortable faith; Lambourne spoke true in that. A man
+      had but to follow his thrift by such ways as offered&mdash;tell his beads,
+      hear a mass, confess, and be absolved. These Puritans tread a harder and a
+      rougher path; but I will try&mdash;I will read my Bible for an hour ere I
+      again open mine iron chest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, meantime, spurred after his lord, whom he found waiting for him at
+      the postern gate of the park.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You waste time, Varney," said the Earl, "and it presses. I must be at
+      Woodstock before I can safely lay aside my disguise, and till then I
+      journey in some peril."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is but two hours' brisk riding, my lord," said Varney. "For me, I only
+      stopped to enforce your commands of care and secrecy on yonder Foster, and
+      to inquire about the abode of the gentleman whom I would promote to your
+      lordship's train, in the room of Trevors."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he fit for the meridian of the antechamber, think'st thou?" said the
+      Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He promises well, my lord," replied Varney; "but if your lordship were
+      pleased to ride on, I could go back to Cumnor, and bring him to your
+      lordship at Woodstock before you are out of bed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, I am asleep there, thou knowest, at this moment," said the Earl;
+      "and I pray you not to spare horse-flesh, that you may be with me at my
+      levee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he gave his horse the spur, and proceeded on his journey, while
+      Varney rode back to Cumnor by the public road, avoiding the park. The
+      latter alighted at the door of the bonny Black Bear, and desired to speak
+      with Master Michael Lambourne, That respectable character was not long of
+      appearing before his new patron, but it was with downcast looks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast lost the scent," said Varney, "of thy comrade Tressilian. I
+      know it by thy hang-dog visage. Is this thy alacrity, thou impudent
+      knave?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Cogswounds!" said Lambourne, "there was never a trail so finely hunted. I
+      saw him to earth at mine uncle's here&mdash;stuck to him like bees'-wax&mdash;saw
+      him at supper&mdash;watched him to his chamber, and, presto! he is gone
+      next morning, the very hostler knows not where."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This sounds like practice upon me, sir," replied Varney; "and if it
+      proves so, by my soul you shall repent it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir, the best hound will be sometimes at fault," answered Lambourne; "how
+      should it serve me that this fellow should have thus evanished? You may
+      ask mine host, Giles Gosling&mdash;ask the tapster and hostler&mdash;ask
+      Cicely, and the whole household, how I kept eyes on Tressilian while he
+      was on foot. On my soul, I could not be expected to watch him like a sick
+      nurse, when I had seen him fairly a-bed in his chamber. That will be
+      allowed me, surely."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney did, in fact, make some inquiry among the household, which
+      confirmed the truth of Lambourne's statement. Tressilian, it was
+      unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly and unexpectedly, betwixt night
+      and morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I will wrong no one," said mine host; "he left on the table in his
+      lodging the full value of his reckoning, with some allowance to the
+      servants of the house, which was the less necessary that he saddled his
+      own gelding, as it seems, without the hostler's assistance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus satisfied of the rectitude of Lambourne's conduct, Varney began to
+      talk to him upon his future prospects, and the mode in which he meant to
+      bestow himself, intimating that he understood from Foster he was not
+      disinclined to enter into the household of a nobleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you," said he, "ever been at court?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," replied Lambourne; "but ever since I was ten years old, I have
+      dreamt once a week that I was there, and made my fortune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be your own fault if your dream comes not true," said Varney. "Are
+      you needy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Um!" replied Lambourne; "I love pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one," said Varney. "Know you
+      aught of the requisites expected from the retainer of a rising courtier?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have imagined them to myself, sir," answered Lambourne; "as, for
+      example, a quick eye, a close mouth, a ready and bold hand, a sharp wit,
+      and a blunt conscience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thine, I suppose," said Varney, "has had its edge blunted long
+      since?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever over-keen," replied
+      Lambourne. "When I was a youth, I had some few whimsies; but I rubbed them
+      partly out of my recollection on the rough grindstone of the wars, and
+      what remained I washed out in the broad waves of the Atlantic."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast served, then, in the Indies?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In both East and West," answered the candidate for court service, "by
+      both sea and land. I have served both the Portugal and the Spaniard, both
+      the Dutchman and the Frenchman, and have made war on our own account with
+      a crew of jolly fellows, who held there was no peace beyond the Line."
+      [Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold buccaneer of those days, were,
+      in fact, little better than pirates.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou mayest do me, and my lord, and thyself, good service," said Varney,
+      after a pause. "But observe, I know the world&mdash;and answer me truly,
+      canst thou be faithful?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my duty to say
+      ay, without further circumstance, and to swear to it with life and honour,
+      and so forth. But as it seems to me that your worship is one who desires
+      rather honest truth than politic falsehood, I reply to you, that I can be
+      faithful to the gallows' foot, ay, to the loop that dangles from it, if I
+      am well used and well recompensed&mdash;not otherwise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in a jeering
+      tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when the moment demands
+      it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It would cost me nothing," said Lambourne, "to say yes; but, to speak on
+      the square, I must needs say no. If you want a hypocrite, you may take
+      Anthony Foster, who, from his childhood, had some sort of phantom haunting
+      him, which he called religion, though it was that sort of godliness which
+      always ended in being great gain. But I have no such knack of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," replied Varney, "if thou hast no hypocrisy, hast thou not a nag
+      here in the stable?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir," said Lambourne, "that shall take hedge and ditch with my Lord
+      Duke's best hunters. Then I made a little mistake on Shooter's Hill, and
+      stopped an ancient grazier whose pouches were better lined than his
+      brain-pan, the bonny bay nag carried me sheer off in spite of the whole
+      hue and cry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saddle him then instantly, and attend me," said Varney. "Leave thy
+      clothes and baggage under charge of mine host; and I will conduct thee to
+      a service, in which, if thou do not better thyself, the fault shall not be
+      fortune's, but thine own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Brave and hearty!" said Lambourne, "and I am mounted in an instant.&mdash;Knave,
+      hostler, saddle my nag without the loss of one second, as thou dost value
+      the safety of thy noddle.&mdash;Pretty Cicely, take half this purse to
+      comfort thee for my sudden departure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gogsnouns!" replied the father, "Cicely wants no such token from thee. Go
+      away, Mike, and gather grace if thou canst, though I think thou goest not
+      to the land where it grows."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me look at this Cicely of thine, mine host," said Varney; "I have
+      heard much talk of her beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a sunburnt beauty," said mine host, "well qualified to stand out
+      rain and wind, but little calculated to please such critical gallants as
+      yourself. She keeps her chamber, and cannot encounter the glance of such
+      sunny-day courtiers as my noble guest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, peace be with her, my good host," answered Varney; "our horses are
+      impatient&mdash;we bid you good day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does my nephew go with you, so please you?" said Gosling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, such is his purpose," answered Richard Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right&mdash;fully right," replied mine host&mdash;"you are, I
+      say, fully right, my kinsman. Thou hast got a gay horse; see thou light
+      not unaware upon a halter&mdash;or, if thou wilt needs be made immortal by
+      means of a rope, which thy purpose of following this gentleman renders not
+      unlikely, I charge thee to find a gallows as far from Cumnor as thou
+      conveniently mayest. And so I commend you to your saddle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted accordingly, leaving
+      the landlord to conclude his ill-omened farewell, to himself and at
+      leisure; and set off together at a rapid pace, which prevented
+      conversation until the ascent of a steep sandy hill permitted them to
+      resume it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are contented, then," said Varney to his companion, "to take court
+      service?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, worshipful sir, if you like my terms as well as I like yours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what are your terms?" demanded Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I am to have a quick eye for my patron's interest, he must have a dull
+      one towards my faults," said Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Varney, "so they lie not so grossly open that he must needs
+      break his shins over them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Agreed," said Lambourne. "Next, if I run down game, I must have the
+      picking of the bones."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is but reason," replied Varney, "so that your betters are served
+      before you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good," said Lambourne; "and it only remains to be said, that if the law
+      and I quarrel, my patron must bear me out, for that is a chief point."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Reason again," said Varney, "if the quarrel hath happened in your
+      master's service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the wage and so forth, I say nothing," proceeded Lambourne; "it is
+      the secret guerdon that I must live by."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Never fear," said Varney; "thou shalt have clothes and spending money to
+      ruffle it with the best of thy degree, for thou goest to a household where
+      you have gold, as they say, by the eye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That jumps all with my humour," replied Michael Lambourne; "and it only
+      remains that you tell me my master's name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My name is Master Richard Varney," answered his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I mean," said Lambourne, "the name of the noble lord to whose service
+      you are to prefer me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, knave, art thou too good to call me master?" said Varney hastily; "I
+      would have thee bold to others, but not saucy to me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I crave your worship's pardon," said Lambourne, "but you seemed familiar
+      with Anthony Foster; now I am familiar with Anthony myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a shrewd knave, I see," replied Varney. "Mark me&mdash;I do
+      indeed propose to introduce thee into a nobleman's household; but it is
+      upon my person thou wilt chiefly wait, and upon my countenance that thou
+      wilt depend. I am his master of horse. Thou wilt soon know his name&mdash;it
+      is one that shakes the council and wields the state."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By this light, a brave spell to conjure with," said Lambourne, "if a man
+      would discover hidden treasures!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Used with discretion, it may prove so," replied Varney; "but mark&mdash;if
+      thou conjure with it at thine own hand, it may raise a devil who will tear
+      thee in fragments."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I will not exceed my limits."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The travellers then resumed the rapid rate of travelling which their
+      discourse had interrupted, and soon arrived at the Royal Park of
+      Woodstock. This ancient possession of the crown of England was then very
+      different from what it had been when it was the residence of the fair
+      Rosamond, and the scene of Henry the Second's secret and illicit amours;
+      and yet more unlike to the scene which it exhibits in the present day,
+      when Blenheim House commemorates the victory of Marlborough, and no less
+      the genius of Vanbrugh, though decried in his own time by persons of taste
+      far inferior to his own. It was, in Elizabeth's time, an ancient mansion
+      in bad repair, which had long ceased to be honoured with the royal
+      residence, to the great impoverishment of the adjacent village. The
+      inhabitants, however, had made several petitions to the Queen to have the
+      favour of the sovereign's countenance occasionally bestowed upon them; and
+      upon this very business, ostensibly at least, was the noble lord, whom we
+      have already introduced to our readers, a visitor at Woodstock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney and Lambourne galloped without ceremony into the courtyard of the
+      ancient and dilapidated mansion, which presented on that morning a scene
+      of bustle which it had not exhibited for two reigns. Officers of the
+      Earl's household, liverymen and retainers, went and came with all the
+      insolent fracas which attaches to their profession. The neigh of horses
+      and the baying of hounds were heard; for my lord, in his occupation of
+      inspecting and surveying the manor and demesne, was of course provided
+      with the means of following his pleasure in the chase or park, said to
+      have been the earliest that was enclosed in England, and which was well
+      stocked with deer that had long roamed there unmolested. Several of the
+      inhabitants of the village, in anxious hope of a favourable result from
+      this unwonted visit, loitered about the courtyard, and awaited the great
+      man's coming forth. Their attention was excited by the hasty arrival of
+      Varney, and a murmur ran amongst them, "The Earl's master of the horse!"
+      while they hurried to bespeak favour by hastily unbonneting, and
+      proffering to hold the bridle and stirrup of the favoured retainer and his
+      attendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand somewhat aloof, my masters!" said Varney haughtily, "and let the
+      domestics do their office."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mortified citizens and peasants fell back at the signal; while
+      Lambourne, who had his eye upon his superior's deportment, repelled the
+      services of those who offered to assist him, with yet more discourtesy&mdash;"Stand
+      back, Jack peasant, with a murrain to you, and let these knave footmen do
+      their duty!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they gave their nags to the attendants of the household, and walked
+      into the mansion with an air of superiority which long practice and
+      consciousness of birth rendered natural to Varney, and which Lambourne
+      endeavoured to imitate as well as he could, the poor inhabitants of
+      Woodstock whispered to each other, "Well-a-day! God save us from all such
+      misproud princoxes! An the master be like the men, why, the fiend may take
+      all, and yet have no more than his due."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silence, good neighbours!" said the bailiff, "keep tongue betwixt teeth;
+      we shall know more by-and-by. But never will a lord come to Woodstock so
+      welcome as bluff old King Harry! He would horsewhip a fellow one day with
+      his own royal hand, and then fling him an handful of silver groats, with
+      his own broad face on them, to 'noint the sore withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, rest be with him!" echoed the auditors; "it will be long ere this
+      Lady Elizabeth horsewhip any of us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is no saying," answered the bailiff. "Meanwhile, patience, good
+      neighbours, and let us comfort ourselves by thinking that we deserve such
+      notice at her Grace's hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, Varney, closely followed by his new dependant, made his way to
+      the hall, where men of more note and consequence than those left in the
+      courtyard awaited the appearance of the Earl, who as yet kept his chamber.
+      All paid court to Varney, with more or less deference, as suited their own
+      rank, or the urgency of the business which brought them to his lord's
+      levee. To the general question of, "When comes my lord forth, Master
+      Varney?" he gave brief answers, as, "See you not my boots? I am but just
+      returned from Oxford, and know nothing of it," and the like, until the
+      same query was put in a higher tone by a personage of more importance. "I
+      will inquire of the chamberlain, Sir Thomas Copely," was the reply. The
+      chamberlain, distinguished by his silver key, answered that the Earl only
+      awaited Master Varney's return to come down, but that he would first speak
+      with him in his private chamber. Varney, therefore, bowed to the company,
+      and took leave, to enter his lord's apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur of expectation which lasted a few minutes, and was at
+      length hushed by the opening of the folding-doors at the upper end or the
+      apartment, through which the Earl made his entrance, marshalled by his
+      chamberlain and the steward of his family, and followed by Richard Varney.
+      In his noble mien and princely features, men read nothing of that
+      insolence which was practised by his dependants. His courtesies were,
+      indeed, measured by the rank of those to whom they were addressed, but
+      even the meanest person present had a share of his gracious notice. The
+      inquiries which he made respecting the condition of the manor, of the
+      Queen's rights there, and of the advantages and disadvantages which might
+      attend her occasional residence at the royal seat of Woodstock, seemed to
+      show that he had most earnestly investigated the matter of the petition of
+      the inhabitants, and with a desire to forward the interest of the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the Lord love his noble countenance!" said the bailiff, who had
+      thrust himself into the presence-chamber; "he looks somewhat pale. I
+      warrant him he hath spent the whole night in perusing our memorial. Master
+      Toughyarn, who took six months to draw it up, said it would take a week to
+      understand it; and see if the Earl hath not knocked the marrow out of it
+      in twenty-four hours!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl then acquainted them that he should move their sovereign to
+      honour Woodstock occasionally with her residence during her royal
+      progresses, that the town and its vicinity might derive, from her
+      countenance and favour, the same advantages as from those of her
+      predecessors. Meanwhile, he rejoiced to be the expounder of her gracious
+      pleasure, in assuring them that, for the increase of trade and
+      encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her Majesty was minded
+      to erect the town into a Staple for wool.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This joyful intelligence was received with the acclamations not only of
+      the better sort who were admitted to the audience-chamber, but of the
+      commons who awaited without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The freedom of the corporation was presented to the Earl upon knee by the
+      magistrates of the place, together with a purse of gold pieces, which the
+      Earl handed to Varney, who, on his part, gave a share to Lambourne, as the
+      most acceptable earnest of his new service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl and his retinue took horse soon after to return to court,
+      accompanied by the shouts of the inhabitants of Woodstock, who made the
+      old oaks ring with re-echoing, "Long live Queen Elizabeth, and the noble
+      Earl of Leicester!" The urbanity and courtesy of the Earl even threw a
+      gleam of popularity over his attendants, as their haughty deportment had
+      formerly obscured that of their master; and men shouted, "Long life to the
+      Earl, and to his gallant followers!" as Varney and Lambourne, each in his
+      rank, rode proudly through the streets of Woodstock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HOST. I will hear you, Master Fenton; and I will, at the least, keep your
+      counsel.&mdash;MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It becomes necessary to return to the detail of those circumstances which
+      accompanied, and indeed occasioned, the sudden disappearance of Tressilian
+      from the sign of the Black Bear at Cumnor. It will be recollected that
+      this gentleman, after his rencounter with Varney, had returned to Giles
+      Gosling's caravansary, where he shut himself up in his own chamber,
+      demanded pen, ink, and paper, and announced his purpose to remain private
+      for the day. In the evening he appeared again in the public room, where
+      Michael Lambourne, who had been on the watch for him, agreeably to his
+      engagement to Varney, endeavoured to renew his acquaintance with him, and
+      hoped he retained no unfriendly recollection of the part he had taken in
+      the morning's scuffle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Tressilian repelled his advances firmly, though with civility. "Master
+      Lambourne," said he, "I trust I have recompensed to your pleasure the time
+      you have wasted on me. Under the show of wild bluntness which you exhibit,
+      I know you have sense enough to understand me, when I say frankly that the
+      object of our temporary acquaintance having been accomplished, we must be
+      strangers to each other in future."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "VOTO!" said Lambourne, twirling his whiskers with one hand, and grasping
+      the hilt of his weapon with the other; "if I thought that this usage was
+      meant to insult me&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You would bear it with discretion, doubtless," interrupted Tressilian,
+      "as you must do at any rate. You know too well the distance that is
+      betwixt us, to require me to explain myself further. Good evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he turned his back upon his former companion, and entered into
+      discourse with the landlord. Michael Lambourne felt strongly disposed to
+      bully; but his wrath died away in a few incoherent oaths and ejaculations,
+      and he sank unresistingly under the ascendency which superior spirits
+      possess over persons of his habits and description. He remained moody and
+      silent in a corner of the apartment, paying the most marked attention to
+      every motion of his late companion, against whom he began now to nourish a
+      quarrel on his own account, which he trusted to avenge by the execution of
+      his new master Varney's directions. The hour of supper arrived, and was
+      followed by that of repose, when Tressilian, like others, retired to his
+      sleeping apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not been in bed long, when the train of sad reveries, which
+      supplied the place of rest in his disturbed mind, was suddenly interrupted
+      by the jar of a door on its hinges, and a light was seen to glimmer in the
+      apartment. Tressilian, who was as brave as steel, sprang from his bed at
+      this alarm, and had laid hand upon his sword, when he was prevented from
+      drawing it by a voice which said, "Be not too rash with your rapier,
+      Master Tressilian. It is I, your host, Giles Gosling."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time, unshrouding the dark lantern, which had hitherto only
+      emitted an indistinct glimmer, the goodly aspect and figure of the
+      landlord of the Black Bear was visibly presented to his astonished guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What mummery is this, mine host?" said Tressilian. "Have you supped as
+      jollily as last night, and so mistaken your chamber? or is midnight a time
+      for masquerading it in your guest's lodging?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Master Tressilian," replied mine host, "I know my place and my time as
+      well as e'er a merry landlord in England. But here has been my hang-dog
+      kinsman watching you as close as ever cat watched a mouse; and here have
+      you, on the other hand, quarrelled and fought, either with him or with
+      some other person, and I fear that danger will come of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go to, thou art but a fool, man," said Tressilian. "Thy kinsman is
+      beneath my resentment; and besides, why shouldst thou think I had
+      quarrelled with any one whomsoever?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, sir," replied the innkeeper, "there was a red spot on thy very
+      cheek-bone, which boded of a late brawl, as sure as the conjunction of
+      Mars and Saturn threatens misfortune; and when you returned, the buckles
+      of your girdle were brought forward, and your step was quick and hasty,
+      and all things showed your hand and your hilt had been lately acquainted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, good mine host, if I have been obliged to draw my sword," said
+      Tressilian, "why should such a circumstance fetch thee out of thy warm bed
+      at this time of night? Thou seest the mischief is all over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Under favour, that is what I doubt. Anthony Foster is a dangerous man,
+      defended by strong court patronage, which hath borne him out in matters of
+      very deep concernment. And, then, my kinsman&mdash;why, I have told you
+      what he is; and if these two old cronies have made up their old
+      acquaintance, I would not, my worshipful guest, that it should be at thy
+      cost. I promise you, Mike Lambourne has been making very particular
+      inquiries at my hostler when and which way you ride. Now, I would have you
+      think whether you may not have done or said something for which you may be
+      waylaid, and taken at disadvantage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art an honest man, mine host," said Tressilian, after a moment's
+      consideration, "and I will deal frankly with thee. If these men's malice
+      is directed against me&mdash;as I deny not but it may&mdash;it is because
+      they are the agents of a more powerful villain than themselves."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You mean Master Richard Varney, do you not?" said the landlord; "he was
+      at Cumnor Place yesterday, and came not thither so private but what he was
+      espied by one who told me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean the same, mine host."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, for God's sake, worshipful Master Tressilian," said honest Gosling,
+      "look well to yourself. This Varney is the protector and patron of Anthony
+      Foster, who holds under him, and by his favour, some lease of yonder
+      mansion and the park. Varney got a large grant of the lands of the Abbacy
+      of Abingdon, and Cumnor Place amongst others, from his master, the Earl of
+      Leicester. Men say he can do everything with him, though I hold the Earl
+      too good a nobleman to employ him as some men talk of. And then the Earl
+      can do anything (that is, anything right or fitting) with the Queen, God
+      bless her! So you see what an enemy you have made to yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well&mdash;it is done, and I cannot help it," answered Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Uds precious, but it must be helped in some manner," said the host.
+      "Richard Varney&mdash;why, what between his influence with my lord, and
+      his pretending to so many old and vexatious claims in right of the abbot
+      here, men fear almost to mention his name, much more to set themselves
+      against his practices. You may judge by our discourses the last night. Men
+      said their pleasure of Tony Foster, but not a word of Richard Varney,
+      though all men judge him to be at the bottom of yonder mystery about the
+      pretty wench. But perhaps you know more of that matter than I do; for
+      women, though they wear not swords, are occasion for many a blade's
+      exchanging a sheath of neat's leather for one of flesh and blood."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do indeed know more of that poor unfortunate lady than thou dost, my
+      friendly host; and so bankrupt am I, at this moment, of friends and
+      advice, that I will willingly make a counsellor of thee, and tell thee the
+      whole history, the rather that I have a favour to ask when my tale is
+      ended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "I am but a poor innkeeper,
+      little able to adjust or counsel such a guest as yourself. But as sure as
+      I have risen decently above the world, by giving good measure and
+      reasonable charges, I am an honest man; and as such, if I may not be able
+      to assist you, I am, at least, not capable to abuse your confidence. Say
+      away therefore, as confidently as if you spoke to your father; and thus
+      far at least be certain, that my curiosity&mdash;for I will not deny that
+      which belongs to my calling&mdash;is joined to a reasonable degree of
+      discretion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I doubt it not, mine host," answered Tressilian; and while his auditor
+      remained in anxious expectation, he meditated for an instant how he should
+      commence his narrative. "My tale," he at length said, "to be quite
+      intelligible, must begin at some distance back. You have heard of the
+      battle of Stoke, my good host, and perhaps of old Sir Roger Robsart, who,
+      in that battle, valiantly took part with Henry VII., the Queen's
+      grandfather, and routed the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Geraldin and his wild
+      Irish, and the Flemings whom the Duchess of Burgundy had sent over, in the
+      quarrel of Lambert Simnel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I remember both one and the other," said Giles Gosling; "it is sung of a
+      dozen times a week on my ale-bench below. Sir Roger Robsart of Devon&mdash;oh,
+      ay, 'tis him of whom minstrels sing to this hour,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'He was the flower of Stoke's red field,
+     When Martin Swart on ground lay slain;
+     In raging rout he never reel'd,
+     But like a rock did firm remain.'
+
+     [This verse, or something similar, occurs in a long ballad, or
+     poem, on Flodden Field, reprinted by the late Henry Weber.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and then there was Martin Swart I have heard my grandfather talk of,
+      and of the jolly Almains whom he commanded, with their slashed doublets
+      and quaint hose, all frounced with ribands above the nether-stocks. Here's
+      a song goes of Martin Swart, too, an I had but memory for it:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Martin Swart and his men,
+     Saddle them, saddle them,
+     Martin Swart and his men;
+     Saddle them well.'"
+
+     [This verse of an old song actually occurs in an old play where
+     the singer boasts,
+
+     "Courteously I can both counter and knack
+     Of Martin Swart and all his merry men."]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "True, good mine host&mdash;the day was long talked of; but if you sing so
+      loud, you will awake more listeners than I care to commit my confidence
+      unto."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I crave pardon, my worshipful guest," said mine host, "I was oblivious.
+      When an old song comes across us merry old knights of the spigot, it runs
+      away with our discretion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, mine host, my grandfather, like some other Cornishmen, kept a warm
+      affection to the House of York, and espoused the quarrel of this Simnel,
+      assuming the title of Earl of Warwick, as the county afterwards, in great
+      numbers, countenanced the cause of Perkin Warbeck, calling himself the
+      Duke of York. My grandsire joined Simnel's standard, and was taken
+      fighting desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders of that unhappy
+      army were slain in their harness. The good knight to whom he rendered
+      himself, Sir Roger Robsart, protected him from the immediate vengeance of
+      the king, and dismissed him without ransom. But he was unable to guard him
+      from other penalties of his rashness, being the heavy fines by which he
+      was impoverished, according to Henry's mode of weakening his enemies. The
+      good knight did what he might to mitigate the distresses of my ancestor;
+      and their friendship became so strict, that my father was bred up as the
+      sworn brother and intimate of the present Sir Hugh Robsart, the only son
+      of Sir Roger, and the heir of his honest, and generous, and hospitable
+      temper, though not equal to him in martial achievements."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard of good Sir Hugh Robsart," interrupted the host, "many a
+      time and oft; his huntsman and sworn servant, Will Badger, hath spoken of
+      him an hundred times in this very house. A jovial knight he is, and hath
+      loved hospitality and open housekeeping more than the present fashion,
+      which lays as much gold lace on the seams of a doublet as would feed a
+      dozen of tall fellows with beef and ale for a twelvemonth, and let them
+      have their evening at the alehouse once a week, to do good to the
+      publican."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you have seen Will Badger, mine host," said Tressilian, "you have
+      heard enough of Sir Hugh Robsart; and therefore I will but say, that the
+      hospitality you boast of hath proved somewhat detrimental to the estate of
+      his family, which is perhaps of the less consequence, as he has but one
+      daughter to whom to bequeath it. And here begins my share in the tale.
+      Upon my father's death, now several years since, the good Sir Hugh would
+      willingly have made me his constant companion. There was a time, however,
+      at which I felt the kind knight's excessive love for field-sports detained
+      me from studies, by which I might have profited more; but I ceased to
+      regret the leisure which gratitude and hereditary friendship compelled me
+      to bestow on these rural avocations. The exquisite beauty of Mistress Amy
+      Robsart, as she grew up from childhood to woman, could not escape one whom
+      circumstances obliged to be so constantly in her company&mdash;I loved
+      her, in short, mine host, and her father saw it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And crossed your true loves, no doubt?" said mine host. "It is the way in
+      all such cases; and I judge it must have been so in your instance, from
+      the heavy sigh you uttered even now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The case was different, mine host. My suit was highly approved by the
+      generous Sir Hugh Robsart; it was his daughter who was cold to my
+      passion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She was the more dangerous enemy of the two," said the innkeeper. "I fear
+      me your suit proved a cold one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She yielded me her esteem," said Tressilian, "and seemed not unwilling
+      that I should hope it might ripen into a warmer passion. There was a
+      contract of future marriage executed betwixt us, upon her father's
+      intercession; but to comply with her anxious request, the execution was
+      deferred for a twelvemonth. During this period, Richard Varney appeared in
+      the country, and, availing himself of some distant family connection with
+      Sir Hugh Robsart, spent much of his time in his company, until, at length,
+      he almost lived in the family."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That could bode no good to the place he honoured with his residence,"
+      said Gosling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, by the rood!" replied Tressilian. "Misunderstanding and misery
+      followed his presence, yet so strangely that I am at this moment at a loss
+      to trace the gradations of their encroachment upon a family which had,
+      till then, been so happy. For a time Amy Robsart received the attentions
+      of this man Varney with the indifference attached to common courtesies;
+      then followed a period in which she seemed to regard him with dislike, and
+      even with disgust; and then an extraordinary species of connection
+      appeared to grow up betwixt them. Varney dropped those airs of pretension
+      and gallantry which had marked his former approaches; and Amy, on the
+      other hand, seemed to renounce the ill-disguised disgust with which she
+      had regarded them. They seemed to have more of privacy and confidence
+      together than I fully liked, and I suspected that they met in private,
+      where there was less restraint than in our presence. Many circumstances,
+      which I noticed but little at the time&mdash;for I deemed her heart as
+      open as her angelic countenance&mdash;have since arisen on my memory, to
+      convince me of their private understanding. But I need not detail them&mdash;the
+      fact speaks for itself. She vanished from her father's house; Varney
+      disappeared at the same time; and this very day I have seen her in the
+      character of his paramour, living in the house of his sordid dependant
+      Foster, and visited by him, muffled, and by a secret entrance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And this, then, is the cause of your quarrel? Methinks, you should have
+      been sure that the fair lady either desired or deserved your
+      interference."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mine host," answered Tressilian, "my father&mdash;such I must ever
+      consider Sir Hugh Robsart&mdash;sits at home struggling with his grief,
+      or, if so far recovered, vainly attempting to drown, in the practice of
+      his field-sports, the recollection that he had once a daughter&mdash;a
+      recollection which ever and anon breaks from him under circumstances the
+      most pathetic. I could not brook the idea that he should live in misery,
+      and Amy in guilt; and I endeavoured to-seek her out, with the hope of
+      inducing her to return to her family. I have found her, and when I have
+      either succeeded in my attempt, or have found it altogether unavailing, it
+      is my purpose to embark for the Virginia voyage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be not so rash, good sir," replied Giles Gosling, "and cast not yourself
+      away because a woman&mdash;to be brief&mdash;IS a woman, and changes her
+      lovers like her suit of ribands, with no better reason than mere fantasy.
+      And ere we probe this matter further, let me ask you what circumstances of
+      suspicion directed you so truly to this lady's residence, or rather to her
+      place of concealment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The last is the better chosen word, mine host," answered Tressilian; "and
+      touching your question, the knowledge that Varney held large grants of the
+      demesnes formerly belonging to the monks of Abingdon directed me to this
+      neighbourhood; and your nephew's visit to his old comrade Foster gave me
+      the means of conviction on the subject."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is now your purpose, worthy sir?&mdash;excuse my freedom in
+      asking the question so broadly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I purpose, mine host," said Tressilian, "to renew my visit to the place
+      of her residence to-morrow, and to seek a more detailed communication with
+      her than I have had to-day. She must indeed be widely changed from what
+      she once was, if my words make no impression upon her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Under your favour, Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "you can follow
+      no such course. The lady, if I understand you, has already rejected your
+      interference in the matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is but too true," said Tressilian; "I cannot deny it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, marry, by what right or interest do you process a compulsory
+      interference with her inclination, disgraceful as it may be to herself and
+      to her parents? Unless my judgment gulls me, those under whose protection
+      she has thrown herself would have small hesitation to reject your
+      interference, even if it were that of a father or brother; but as a
+      discarded lover, you expose yourself to be repelled with the strong hand,
+      as well as with scorn. You can apply to no magistrate for aid or
+      countenance; and you are hunting, therefore, a shadow in water, and will
+      only (excuse my plainness) come by ducking and danger in attempting to
+      catch it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will appeal to the Earl of Leicester," said Tressilian, "against the
+      infamy of his favourite. He courts the severe and strict sect of Puritans.
+      He dare not, for the sake of his own character, refuse my appeal, even
+      although he were destitute of the principles of honour and nobleness with
+      which fame invests him. Or I will appeal to the Queen herself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Should Leicester," said the landlord, "be disposed to protect his
+      dependant (as indeed he is said to be very confidential with Varney), the
+      appeal to the Queen may bring them both to reason. Her Majesty is strict
+      in such matters, and (if it be not treason to speak it) will rather, it is
+      said, pardon a dozen courtiers for falling in love with herself, than one
+      for giving preference to another woman. Coragio then, my brave guest! for
+      if thou layest a petition from Sir Hugh at the foot of the throne,
+      bucklered by the story of thine own wrongs, the favourite Earl dared as
+      soon leap into the Thames at the fullest and deepest, as offer to protect
+      Varney in a cause of this nature. But to do this with any chance of
+      success, you must go formally to work; and, without staying here to tilt
+      with the master of horse to a privy councillor, and expose yourself to the
+      dagger of his cameradoes, you should hie you to Devonshire, get a petition
+      drawn up for Sir Hugh Robsart, and make as many friends as you can to
+      forward your interest at court."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have spoken well, mine host," said Tressilian, "and I will profit by
+      your advice, and leave you to-morrow early."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, leave me to-night, sir, before to-morrow comes," said he landlord.
+      "I never prayed for a guest's arrival more eagerly than I do to have you
+      safely gone, My kinsman's destiny is most like to be hanged for something,
+      but I would not that the cause were the murder of an honoured guest of
+      mine. 'Better ride safe in the dark,' says the proverb, 'than in daylight
+      with a cut-throat at your elbow.' Come, sir, I move you for your own
+      safety. Your horse and all is ready, and here is your score."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is somewhat under a noble," said Tressilian, giving one to the host;
+      "give the balance to pretty Cicely, your daughter, and the servants of the
+      house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They shall taste of your bounty, sir," said Gosling, "and you should
+      taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowledgment, but at this hour
+      she cannot grace the porch to greet your departure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not trust your daughter too far with your guests, my good landlord,"
+      said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, sir, we will keep measure; but I wonder not that you are jealous of
+      them all.&mdash;May I crave to know with what aspect the fair lady at the
+      Place yesterday received you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I own," said Tressilian, "it was angry as well as confused, and affords
+      me little hope that she is yet awakened from her unhappy delusion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case, sir, I see not why you should play the champion of a wench
+      that will none of you, and incur the resentment of a favourite's
+      favourite, as dangerous a monster as ever a knight adventurer encountered
+      in the old story books."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You do me wrong in the supposition, mine host&mdash;gross wrong," said
+      Tressilian; "I do not desire that Amy should ever turn thought upon me
+      more. Let me but see her restored to her father, and all I have to do in
+      Europe&mdash;perhaps in the world&mdash;is over and ended."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A wiser resolution were to drink a cup of sack, and forget her," said the
+      landlord. "But five-and-twenty and fifty look on those matters with
+      different eyes, especially when one cast of peepers is set in the skull of
+      a young gallant, and the other in that of an old publican. I pity you,
+      Master Tressilian, but I see not how I can aid you in the matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only thus far, mine host," replied Tressilian&mdash;"keep a watch on the
+      motions of those at the Place, which thou canst easily learn without
+      suspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale-bench; and be pleased to
+      communicate the tidings in writing to such person, and to no other, who
+      shall bring you this ring as a special token. Look at it; it is of value,
+      and I will freely bestow it on you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, sir," said the landlord, "I desire no recompense&mdash;but it seems
+      an unadvised course in me, being in a public line, to connect myself in a
+      matter of this dark and perilous nature. I have no interest in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You, and every father in the land, who would have his daughter released
+      from the snares of shame, and sin, and misery, have an interest deeper
+      than aught concerning earth only could create."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," said the host, "these are brave words; and I do pity from my
+      soul the frank-hearted old gentleman, who has minished his estate in good
+      housekeeping for the honour of his country, and now has his daughter, who
+      should be the stay of his age, and so forth, whisked up by such a kite as
+      this Varney. And though your part in the matter is somewhat of the
+      wildest, yet I will e'en be a madcap for company, and help you in your
+      honest attempt to get back the good man's child, so far as being your
+      faithful intelligencer can serve. And as I shall be true to you, I pray
+      you to be trusty to me, and keep my secret; for it were bad for the custom
+      of the Black Bear should it be said the bear-warder interfered in such
+      matters. Varney has interest enough with the justices to dismount my noble
+      emblem from the post on which he swings so gallantly, to call in my
+      license, and ruin me from garret to cellar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not doubt my secrecy, mine host," said Tressilian; "I will retain,
+      besides, the deepest sense of thy service, and of the risk thou dost run&mdash;remember
+      the ring is my sure token. And now, farewell! for it was thy wise advice
+      that I should tarry here as short a time as may be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Follow me, then, Sir Guest," said the landlord, "and tread as gently as
+      if eggs were under your foot, instead of deal boards. No man must know
+      when or how you departed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the aid of his dark lantern he conducted Tressilian, as soon as he had
+      made himself ready for his journey, through a long intricacy of passages,
+      which opened to an outer court, and from thence to a remote stable, where
+      he had already placed his guest's horse. He then aided him to fasten on
+      the saddle the small portmantle which contained his necessaries, opened a
+      postern door, and with a hearty shake of the hand, and a reiteration of
+      his promise to attend to what went on at Cumnor Place, he dismissed his
+      guest to his solitary journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Far in the lane a lonely hut he found,
+     No tenant ventured on the unwholesome ground:
+     Here smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,
+     And early strokes the sounding anvil warm;
+     Around his shop the steely sparkles flew,
+     As for the steed he shaped the bending shoe.&mdash;GAY'S TRIVIA.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As it was deemed proper by the traveller himself, as well as by Giles
+      Gosling, that Tressilian should avoid being seen in the neighbourhood of
+      Cumnor by those whom accident might make early risers, the landlord had
+      given him a route, consisting of various byways and lanes, which he was to
+      follow in succession, and which, all the turns and short-cuts duly
+      observed, was to conduct him to the public road to Marlborough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, like counsel of every other kind, this species of direction is much
+      more easily given than followed; and what betwixt the intricacy of the
+      way, the darkness of the night, Tressilian's ignorance of the country, and
+      the sad and perplexing thoughts with which he had to contend, his journey
+      proceeded so slowly, that morning found him only in the vale of
+      Whitehorse, memorable for the defeat of the Danes in former days, with his
+      horse deprived of a fore-foot shoe, an accident which threatened to put a
+      stop to his journey by laming the animal. The residence of a smith was his
+      first object of inquiry, in which he received little satisfaction from the
+      dullness or sullenness of one or two peasants, early bound for their
+      labour, who gave brief and indifferent answers to his questions on the
+      subject. Anxious, at length, that the partner of his journey should suffer
+      as little as possible from the unfortunate accident, Tressilian
+      dismounted, and led his horse in the direction of a little hamlet, where
+      he hoped either to find or hear tidings of such an artificer as he now
+      wanted. Through a deep and muddy lane, he at length waded on to the place,
+      which proved only an assemblage of five or six miserable huts, about the
+      doors of which one or two persons, whose appearance seemed as rude as that
+      of their dwellings, were beginning the toils of the day. One cottage,
+      however, seemed of rather superior aspect, and the old dame, who was
+      sweeping her threshold, appeared something less rude than her neighbours.
+      To her Tressilian addressed the oft-repeated question, whether there was a
+      smith in this neighbourhood, or any place where he could refresh his
+      horse? The dame looked him in the face with a peculiar expression as she
+      replied, "Smith! ay, truly is there a smith&mdash;what wouldst ha' wi' un,
+      mon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To shoe my horse, good dame," answered Tressiliany; "you may see that he
+      has thrown a fore-foot shoe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Master Holiday!" exclaimed the dame, without returning any direct answer&mdash;"Master
+      Herasmus Holiday, come and speak to mon, and please you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "FAVETE LINGUIS," answered a voice from within; "I cannot now come forth,
+      Gammer Sludge, being in the very sweetest bit of my morning studies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but, good now, Master Holiday, come ye out, do ye. Here's a mon
+      would to Wayland Smith, and I care not to show him way to devil; his horse
+      hath cast shoe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "QUID MIHI CUM CABALLO?" replied the man of learning from within; "I think
+      there is but one wise man in the hundred, and they cannot shoe a horse
+      without him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And forth came the honest pedagogue, for such his dress bespoke him. A
+      long, lean, shambling, stooping figure was surmounted by a head thatched
+      with lank, black hair somewhat inclining to grey. His features had the
+      cast of habitual authority, which I suppose Dionysius carried with him
+      from the throne to the schoolmaster's pulpit, and bequeathed as a legacy
+      to all of the same profession, A black buckram cassock was gathered at his
+      middle with a belt, at which hung, instead of knife or weapon, a goodly
+      leathern pen-and-ink case. His ferula was stuck on the other side, like
+      Harlequin's wooden sword; and he carried in his hand the tattered volume
+      which he had been busily perusing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On seeing a person of Tressilian's appearance, which he was better able to
+      estimate than the country folks had been, the schoolmaster unbonneted, and
+      accosted him with, "SALVE, DOMINE. INTELLIGISNE LINGUAM LATINAM?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian mustered his learning to reply, "LINGUAE LATINAE HAUD PENITUS
+      IGNARUS, VENIA TUA, DOMINE ERUDITISSIME, VERNACULAM LIBENTIUS LOQUOR."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Latin reply had upon the schoolmaster the effect which the mason's
+      sign is said to produce on the brethren of the trowel. He was at once
+      interested in the learned traveller, listened with gravity to his story of
+      a tired horse and a lost shoe, and then replied with solemnity, "It may
+      appear a simple thing, most worshipful, to reply to you that there dwells,
+      within a brief mile of these TUGURIA, the best FABER FERARIUS, the most
+      accomplished blacksmith, that ever nailed iron upon horse. Now, were I to
+      say so, I warrant me you would think yourself COMPOS VOTI, or, as the
+      vulgar have it, a made man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I should at least," said Tressilian, "have a direct answer to a plain
+      question, which seems difficult to be obtained in this country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a mere sending of a sinful soul to the evil un," said the old
+      woman, "the sending a living creature to Wayland Smith."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, Gammer Sludge!" said the pedagogue; "PAUCA VERBA, Gammer Sludge;
+      look to the furmity, Gammer Sludge; CURETUR JENTACULUM, Gammer Sludge;
+      this gentleman is none of thy gossips." Then turning to Tressilian, he
+      resumed his lofty tone, "And so, most worshipful, you would really think
+      yourself FELIX BIS TERQUE should I point out to you the dwelling of this
+      same smith?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir," replied Tressilian, "I should in that case have all that I want at
+      present&mdash;a horse fit to carry me forward;&mdash;out of hearing of
+      your learning." The last words he muttered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O CAECA MENS MORTALIUM!" said the learned man "well was it sung by Junius
+      Juvenalis, 'NUMINIBUS VOTA EXAUDITA MALIGNIS!'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Learned Magister," said Tressilian, "your erudition so greatly exceeds my
+      poor intellectual capacity that you must excuse my seeking elsewhere for
+      information which I can better understand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There again now," replied the pedagogue, "how fondly you fly from him
+      that would instruct you! Truly said Quintilian&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I pray, sir, let Quintilian be for the present, and answer, in a word and
+      in English, if your learning can condescend so far, whether there is any
+      place here where I can have opportunity to refresh my horse until I can
+      have him shod?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus much courtesy, sir," said the schoolmaster, "I can readily render
+      you, that although there is in this poor hamlet (NOSTRA PAUPERA REGNA) no
+      regular HOSPITIUM, as my namesake Erasmus calleth it, yet, forasmuch as
+      you are somewhat embued, or at least tinged, as it were, with good
+      letters, I will use my interest with the good woman of the house to
+      accommodate you with a platter of furmity&mdash;an wholesome food for
+      which I have found no Latin phrase&mdash;your horse shall have a share of
+      the cow-house, with a bottle of sweet hay, in which the good woman Sludge
+      so much abounds, that it may be said of her cow, FAENUM HABET IN CORNU;
+      and if it please you to bestow on me the pleasure of your company, the
+      banquet shall cost you NE SEMISSEM QUIDEM, so much is Gammer Sludge bound
+      to me for the pains I have bestowed on the top and bottom of her hopeful
+      heir Dickie, whom I have painfully made to travel through the accidence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, God yield ye for it, Master Herasmus," said the good Gammer, "and
+      grant that little Dickie may be the better for his accident! And for the
+      rest, if the gentleman list to stay, breakfast shall be on the board in
+      the wringing of a dishclout; and for horse-meat, and man's meat, I bear no
+      such base mind as to ask a penny."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering the state of his horse, Tressilian, upon the whole, saw no
+      better course than to accept the invitation thus learnedly made and
+      hospitably confirmed, and take chance that when the good pedagogue had
+      exhausted every topic of conversation, he might possibly condescend to
+      tell him where he could find the smith they spoke of. He entered the hut
+      accordingly, and sat down with the learned Magister Erasmus Holiday,
+      partook of his furmity, and listened to his learned account of himself for
+      a good half hour, ere he could get him to talk upon any other topic, The
+      reader will readily excuse our accompanying this man of learning into all
+      the details with which he favoured Tressilian, of which the following
+      sketch may suffice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was born at Hogsnorton, where, according to popular saying, the pigs
+      play upon the organ; a proverb which he interpreted allegorically, as
+      having reference to the herd of Epicurus, of which litter Horace confessed
+      himself a porker. His name of Erasmus he derived partly from his father
+      having been the son of a renowned washerwoman, who had held that great
+      scholar in clean linen all the while he was at Oxford; a task of some
+      difficulty, as he was only possessed of two shirts, "the one," as she
+      expressed herself, "to wash the other," The vestiges of one of these
+      CAMICIAE, as Master Holiday boasted, were still in his possession, having
+      fortunately been detained by his grandmother to cover the balance of her
+      bill. But he thought there was a still higher and overruling cause for his
+      having had the name of Erasmus conferred on him&mdash;namely, the secret
+      presentiment of his mother's mind that, in the babe to be christened, was
+      a hidden genius, which should one day lead him to rival the fame of the
+      great scholar of Amsterdam. The schoolmaster's surname led him as far into
+      dissertation as his Christian appellative. He was inclined to think that
+      he bore the name of Holiday QUASI LUCUS A NON LUCENDO, because he gave
+      such few holidays to his school. "Hence," said he, "the schoolmaster is
+      termed, classically, LUDI MAGISTER, because he deprives boys of their
+      play." And yet, on the other hand, he thought it might bear a very
+      different interpretation, and refer to his own exquisite art in arranging
+      pageants, morris-dances, May-day festivities, and such-like holiday
+      delights, for which he assured Tressilian he had positively the purest and
+      the most inventive brain in England; insomuch, that his cunning in framing
+      such pleasures had made him known to many honourable persons, both in
+      country and court, and especially to the noble Earl of Leicester. "And
+      although he may now seem to forget me," he said, "in the multitude of
+      state affairs, yet I am well assured that, had he some pretty pastime to
+      array for entertainment of the Queen's Grace, horse and man would be
+      seeking the humble cottage of Erasmus Holiday. PARVO CONTENTUS, in the
+      meanwhile, I hear my pupils parse and construe, worshipful sir, and drive
+      away my time with the aid of the Muses. And I have at all times, when in
+      correspondence with foreign scholars, subscribed myself Erasmus ab Die
+      Fausto, and have enjoyed the distinction due to the learned under that
+      title: witness the erudite Diedrichus Buckerschockius, who dedicated to me
+      under that title his treatise on the letter TAU. In fine, sir, I have been
+      a happy and distinguished man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Long may it be so, sir!" said the traveller; "but permit me to ask, in
+      your own learned phrase, QUID HOC AD IPHYCLI BOVES? what has all this to
+      do with the shoeing of my poor nag?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "FESTINA LENTE," said the man of learning, "we will presently came to that
+      point. You must know that some two or three years past there came to these
+      parts one who called himself Doctor Doboobie, although it may be he never
+      wrote even MAGISTER ARTIUM, save in right of his hungry belly. Or it may
+      be, that if he had any degrees, they were of the devil's giving; for he
+      was what the vulgar call a white witch, a cunning man, and such like.&mdash;Now,
+      good sir, I perceive you are impatient; but if a man tell not his tale his
+      own way, how have you warrant to think that he can tell it in yours?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, then, learned sir, take your way," answered Tressilian; "only let
+      us travel at a sharper pace, for my time is somewhat of the shortest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, sir," resumed Erasmus Holiday, with the most provoking
+      perseverance, "I will not say that this same Demetrius for so he wrote
+      himself when in foreign parts, was an actual conjurer, but certain it is
+      that he professed to be a brother of the mystical Order of the Rosy Cross,
+      a disciple of Geber (EX NOMINE CUJUS VENIT VERBUM VERNACULUM, GIBBERISH).
+      He cured wounds by salving the weapon instead of the sore; told fortunes
+      by palmistry; discovered stolen goods by the sieve and shears; gathered
+      the right maddow and the male fern seed, through use of which men walk
+      invisible; pretended some advances towards the panacea, or universal
+      elixir; and affected to convert good lead into sorry silver."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In other words," said Tressilian, "he was a quacksalver and common cheat;
+      but what has all this to do with my nag, and the shoe which he has lost?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With your worshipful patience," replied the diffusive man of letters,
+      "you shall understand that presently&mdash;PATIENTIA then, right
+      worshipful, which word, according to our Marcus Tullius, is 'DIFFICILIUM
+      RERUM DIURNA PERPESSIO.' This same Demetrius Doboobie, after dealing with
+      the country, as I have told you, began to acquire fame INTER MAGNATES,
+      among the prime men of the land, and there is likelihood he might have
+      aspired to great matters, had not, according to vulgar fame (for I aver
+      not the thing as according with my certain knowledge), the devil claimed
+      his right, one dark night, and flown off with Demetrius, who was never
+      seen or heard of afterwards. Now here comes the MEDULLA, the very marrow,
+      of my tale. This Doctor Doboobie had a servant, a poor snake, whom he
+      employed in trimming his furnace, regulating it by just measure&mdash;compounding
+      his drugs&mdash;tracing his circles&mdash;cajoling his patients, ET SIC DE
+      CAETERIS. Well, right worshipful, the Doctor being removed thus strangely,
+      and in a way which struck the whole country with terror, this poor Zany
+      thinks to himself, in the words of Maro, 'UNO AVULSO, NON DEFICIT ALTER;'
+      and, even as a tradesman's apprentice sets himself up in his master's shop
+      when he is dead or hath retired from business, so doth this Wayland assume
+      the dangerous trade of his defunct master. But although, most worshipful
+      sir, the world is ever prone to listen to the pretensions of such unworthy
+      men, who are, indeed, mere SALTIM BANQUI and CHARLATANI, though usurping
+      the style and skill of doctors of medicine, yet the pretensions of this
+      poor Zany, this Wayland, were too gross to pass on them, nor was there a
+      mere rustic, a villager, who was not ready to accost him in the sense of
+      Persius, though in their own rugged words,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     DILIUS HELLEBORUM CERTO COMPESCERE PUNCTO
+     NESCIUS EXAMEN?  VETAT HOC NATURA MEDENDI;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      which I have thus rendered in a poor paraphrase of mine own,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Wilt thou mix hellebore, who dost not know
+     How many grains should to the mixture go?
+     The art of medicine this forbids, I trow.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Moreover, the evil reputation of the master, and his strange and doubtful
+      end, or at least sudden disappearance, prevented any, excepting the most
+      desperate of men, to seek any advice or opinion from the servant;
+      wherefore, the poor vermin was likely at first to swarf for very hunger.
+      But the devil that serves him, since the death of Demetrius or Doboobie,
+      put him on a fresh device. This knave, whether from the inspiration of the
+      devil, or from early education, shoes horses better than e'er a man
+      betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice on the bipeds, the
+      two-legged and unfledged species called mankind, and betakes him entirely
+      to shoeing of horses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Indeed! and where does he lodge all this time?" said Tressilian. "And
+      does he shoe horses well? Show me his dwelling presently."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interruption pleased not the Magister, who exclaimed, "O CAECA MENS
+      MORTALIUM!&mdash;though, by the way, I used that quotation before. But I
+      would the classics could afford me any sentiment of power to stop those
+      who are so willing to rush upon their own destruction. Hear but, I pray
+      you, the conditions of this man," said he, in continuation, "ere you are
+      so willing to place yourself within his danger&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A' takes no money for a's work," said the dame, who stood by, enraptured
+      as it were with the line words and learned apophthegms which glided so
+      fluently from her erudite inmate, Master Holiday. But this interruption
+      pleased not the Magister more than that of the traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace," said he, "Gammer Sludge; know your place, if it be your will.
+      SUFFLAMINA, Gammer Sludge, and allow me to expound this matter to our
+      worshipful guest.&mdash;Sir," said he, again addressing Tressilian, "this
+      old woman speaks true, though in her own rude style; for certainly this
+      FABER FERRARIUS, or blacksmith, takes money of no one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that is a sure sign he deals with Satan," said Dame Sludge; "since no
+      good Christian would ever refuse the wages of his labour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The old woman hath touched it again," said the pedagogue; "REM ACU
+      TETIGIT&mdash;she hath pricked it with her needle's point. This Wayland
+      takes no money, indeed; nor doth he show himself to any one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And can this madman, for such I hold him," said the traveller, "know
+      aught like good skill of his trade?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, sir, in that let us give the devil his due&mdash;Mulciber himself,
+      with all his Cyclops, could hardly amend him. But assuredly there is
+      little wisdom in taking counsel or receiving aid from one who is but too
+      plainly in league with the author of evil."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must take my chance of that, good Master Holiday," said Tressilian,
+      rising; "and as my horse must now have eaten his provender, I must needs
+      thank you for your good cheer, and pray you to show me this man's
+      residence, that I may have the means of proceeding on my journey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay, do ye show him, Master Herasmus," said the old dame, who was,
+      perhaps, desirous to get her house freed of her guest; "a' must needs go
+      when the devil drives."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "DO MANUS," said the Magister, "I submit&mdash;taking the world to
+      witness, that I have possessed this honourable gentleman with the full
+      injustice which he has done and shall do to his own soul, if he becomes
+      thus a trinketer with Satan. Neither will I go forth with our guest
+      myself, but rather send my pupil.&mdash;RICARDE! ADSIS, NEBULO."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Under your favour, not so," answered the old woman; "you may peril your
+      own soul, if you list, but my son shall budge on no such errand. And I
+      wonder at you, Dominie Doctor, to propose such a piece of service for
+      little Dickie."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor, "Ricardus shall go
+      but to the top of the hill, and indicate with his digit to the stranger
+      the dwelling of Wayland Smith. Believe not that any evil can come to him,
+      he having read this morning, fasting, a chapter of the Septuagint, and,
+      moreover, having had his lesson in the Greek Testament."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said his mother, "and I have sewn a sprig of witch's elm in the neck
+      of un's doublet, ever since that foul thief has begun his practices on man
+      and beast in these parts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And as he goes oft (as I hugely suspect) towards this conjurer for his
+      own pastime, he may for once go thither, or near it, to pleasure us, and
+      to assist this stranger.&mdash;ERGO, HEUS RICARDE! ADSIS, QUAESO, MI
+      DIDASCULE."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came stumbling into the
+      room; a queer, shambling, ill-made urchin, who, by his stunted growth,
+      seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, though he was probably, in
+      reality, a year or two older, with a carroty pate in huge disorder, a
+      freckled, sunburnt visage, with a snub nose, a long chin, and two peery
+      grey eyes, which had a droll obliquity of vision, approaching to a squint,
+      though perhaps not a decided one. It was impossible to look at the little
+      man without some disposition to laugh, especially when Gammer Sludge,
+      seizing upon and kissing him, in spite of his struggling and kicking in
+      reply to her caresses, termed him her own precious pearl of beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "RICARDE," said the preceptor, "you must forthwith (which is PROFECTO) set
+      forth so far as the top of the hill, and show this man of worship Wayland
+      Smith's workshop."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A proper errand of a morning," said the boy, in better language than
+      Tressilian expected; "and who knows but the devil may fly away with me
+      before I come back?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, marry may un," said Dame Sludge; "and you might have thought twice,
+      Master Domine, ere you sent my dainty darling on arrow such errand. It is
+      not for such doings I feed your belly and clothe your back, I warrant
+      you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw&mdash;NUGAE, good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor; "I ensure
+      you that Satan, if there be Satan in the case, shall not touch a thread of
+      his garment; for Dickie can say his PATER with the best, and may defy the
+      foul fiend&mdash;EUMENIDES, STYGIUMQUE NEFAS."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and I, as I said before, have sewed a sprig of the mountain-ash into
+      his collar," said the good woman, "which will avail more than your
+      clerkship, I wus; but for all that, it is ill to seek the devil or his
+      mates either."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My good boy," said Tressilian, who saw, from a grotesque sneer on
+      Dickie's face, that he was more likely to act upon his own bottom than by
+      the instructions of his elders, "I will give thee a silver groat, my
+      pretty fellow, if you will but guide me to this man's forge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy gave him a knowing side-look, which seemed to promise
+      acquiescence, while at the same time he exclaimed, "I be your guide to
+      Wayland Smith's! Why, man, did I not say that the devil might fly off with
+      me, just as the kite there" (looking to the window) "is flying off with
+      one of grandam's chicks?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The kite! the kite!" exclaimed the old woman in return, and forgetting
+      all other matters in her alarm, hastened to the rescue of her chickens as
+      fast as her old legs could carry her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now for it," said the urchin to Tressilian; "snatch your beaver, get out
+      your horse, and have at the silver groat you spoke of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but tarry, tarry," said the preceptor&mdash;"SUFFLAMINA, RICARDE!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tarry yourself," said Dickie, "and think what answer you are to make to
+      granny for sending me post to the devil."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The teacher, aware of the responsibility he was incurring, bustled up in
+      great haste to lay hold of the urchin and to prevent his departure; but
+      Dickie slipped through his fingers, bolted from the cottage, and sped him
+      to the top of a neighbouring rising ground, while the preceptor,
+      despairing, by well-taught experience, of recovering his pupil by speed of
+      foot, had recourse to the most honied epithets the Latin vocabulary
+      affords to persuade his return. But to MI ANIME, CORCULUM MEUM, and all
+      such classical endearments, the truant turned a deaf ear, and kept
+      frisking on the top of the rising ground like a goblin by moonlight,
+      making signs to his new acquaintance, Tressilian, to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller lost no time in getting out his horse and departing to join
+      his elvish guide, after half-forcing on the poor, deserted teacher a
+      recompense for the entertainment he had received, which partly allayed
+      that terror he had for facing the return of the old lady of the mansion.
+      Apparently this took place soon afterwards; for ere Tressilian and his
+      guide had proceeded far on their journey, they heard the screams of a
+      cracked female voice, intermingled with the classical objurgations of
+      Master Erasmus Holiday. But Dickie Sludge, equally deaf to the voice of
+      maternal tenderness and of magisterial authority, skipped on unconsciously
+      before Tressilian, only observing that "if they cried themselves hoarse,
+      they might go lick the honey-pot, for he had eaten up all the honey-comb
+      himself on yesterday even."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     There entering in, they found the goodman selfe
+     Full busylie unto his work ybent,
+     Who was to weet a wretched wearish elf,
+     With hollow eyes and rawbone cheeks forspent,
+     As if he had been long in prison pent.&mdash;THE FAERY QUEENE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Are we far from the dwelling of this smith, my pretty lad?" said
+      Tressilian to his young guide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How is it you call me?" said the boy, looking askew at him with his
+      sharp, grey eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I call you my pretty lad&mdash;is there any offence in that, my boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No; but were you with my grandam and Dominie Holiday, you might sing
+      chorus to the old song of
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'We three
+     Tom-fools be.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "And why so, my little man?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because," answered the ugly urchin, "you are the only three ever called
+      me pretty lad. Now my grandam does it because she is parcel blind by age,
+      and whole blind by kindred; and my master, the poor Dominie, does it to
+      curry favour, and have the fullest platter of furmity and the warmest seat
+      by the fire. But what you call me pretty lad for, you know best yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a sharp wag at least, if not a pretty one. But what do thy
+      playfellows call thee?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hobgoblin," answered the boy readily; "but for all that, I would rather
+      have my own ugly viznomy than any of their jolter-heads, that have no more
+      brains in them than a brick-bat."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you fear not this smith whom you are going to see?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Me fear him!" answered the boy. "If he were the devil folk think him, I
+      would not fear him; but though there is something queer about him, he's no
+      more a devil than you are, and that's what I would not tell to every one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why do you tell it to me, then, my boy?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because you are another guess gentleman than those we see here every
+      day," replied Dickie; "and though I am as ugly as sin, I would not have
+      you think me an ass, especially as I may have a boon to ask of you one
+      day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is that, my lad, whom I must not call pretty?" replied
+      Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if I were to ask it just now," said the boy, "you would deny it me;
+      but I will wait till we meet at court."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At court, Richard! are you bound for court?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay, that's just like the rest of them," replied the boy. "I warrant
+      me, you think, what should such an ill-favoured, scrambling urchin do at
+      court? But let Richard Sludge alone; I have not been cock of the roost
+      here for nothing. I will make sharp wit mend foul feature."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But what will your grandam say, and your tutor, Dominie Holiday?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "E'en what they like," replied Dickie; "the one has her chickens to
+      reckon, and the other has his boys to whip. I would have given them the
+      candle to hold long since, and shown this trumpery hamlet a fair pair of
+      heels, but that Dominie promises I should go with him to bear share in the
+      next pageant he is to set forth, and they say there are to be great revels
+      shortly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And whereabouts are they to be held, my little friend?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, at some castle far in the north," answered his guide&mdash;"a world's
+      breadth from Berkshire. But our old Dominie holds that they cannot go
+      forward without him; and it may be he is right, for he has put in order
+      many a fair pageant. He is not half the fool you would take him for, when
+      he gets to work he understands; and so he can spout verses like a
+      play-actor, when, God wot, if you set him to steal a goose's egg, he would
+      be drubbed by the gander."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you are to play a part in his next show?" said Tressilian, somewhat
+      interested by the boy's boldness of conversation and shrewd estimate of
+      character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In faith," said Richard Sludge, in answer, "he hath so promised me; and
+      if he break his word, it will be the worse for him, for let me take the
+      bit between my teeth, and turn my head downhill, and I will shake him off
+      with a fall that may harm his bones. And I should not like much to hurt
+      him neither," said he, "for the tiresome old fool has painfully laboured
+      to teach me all he could. But enough of that&mdash;here are we at Wayland
+      Smith's forge-door."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You jest, my little friend," said Tressilian; "here is nothing but a bare
+      moor, and that ring of stones, with a great one in the midst, like a
+      Cornish barrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and that great flat stone in the midst, which lies across the top of
+      these uprights," said the boy, "is Wayland Smith's counter, that you must
+      tell down your money upon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What do you mean by such folly?" said the traveller, beginning to be
+      angry with the boy, and vexed with himself for having trusted such a
+      hare-brained guide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said Dickie, with a grin, "you must tie your horse to that upright
+      stone that has the ring in't, and then you must whistle three times, and
+      lay me down your silver groat on that other flat stone, walk out of the
+      circle, sit down on the west side of that little thicket of bushes, and
+      take heed you look neither to right nor to left for ten minutes, or so
+      long as you shall hear the hammer clink, and whenever it ceases, say your
+      prayers for the space you could tell a hundred&mdash;or count over a
+      hundred, which will do as well&mdash;and then come into the circle; you
+      will find your money gone and your horse shod."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My money gone to a certainty!" said Tressilian; "but as for the rest&mdash;Hark
+      ye, my lad, I am not your school-master, but if you play off your waggery
+      on me, I will take a part of his task off his hands, and punish you to
+      purpose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, when you catch me!" said the boy; and presently took to his heels
+      across the heath, with a velocity which baffled every attempt of
+      Tressilian to overtake him, loaded as he was with his heavy boots. Nor was
+      it the least provoking part of the urchin's conduct, that he did not exert
+      his utmost speed, like one who finds himself in danger, or who is
+      frightened, but preserved just such a rate as to encourage Tressilian to
+      continue the chase, and then darted away from him with the swiftness of
+      the wind, when his pursuer supposed he had nearly run him down, doubling
+      at the same time, and winding, so as always to keep near the place from
+      which he started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This lasted until Tressilian, from very weariness, stood still, and was
+      about to abandon the pursuit with a hearty curse on the ill-favoured
+      urchin, who had engaged him in an exercise so ridiculous. But the boy, who
+      had, as formerly, planted himself on the top of a hillock close in front,
+      began to clap his long, thin hands, point with his skinny fingers, and
+      twist his wild and ugly features into such an extravagant expression of
+      laughter and derision, that Tressilian began half to doubt whether he had
+      not in view an actual hobgoblin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Provoked extremely, yet at the same time feeling an irresistible desire to
+      laugh, so very odd were the boy's grimaces and gesticulations, the
+      Cornishman returned to his horse, and mounted him with the purpose of
+      pursuing Dickie at more advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy no sooner saw him mount his horse, than he holloed out to him
+      that, rather than he should spoil his white-footed nag, he would come to
+      him, on condition he would keep his fingers to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will make no conditions with thee, thou ugly varlet!" said Tressilian;
+      "I will have thee at my mercy in a moment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aha, Master Traveller," said the boy, "there is a marsh hard by would
+      swallow all the horses of the Queen's guard. I will into it, and see where
+      you will go then. You shall hear the bittern bump, and the wild-drake
+      quack, ere you get hold of me without my consent, I promise you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian looked out, and, from the appearance of the ground behind the
+      hillock, believed it might be as the boy said, and accordingly determined
+      to strike up a peace with so light-footed and ready-witted an enemy. "Come
+      down," he said, "thou mischievous brat! Leave thy mopping and mowing, and,
+      come hither. I will do thee no harm, as I am a gentleman."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy answered his invitation with the utmost confidence, and danced
+      down from his stance with a galliard sort of step, keeping his eye at the
+      same time fixed on Tressilian's, who, once more dismounted, stood with his
+      horse's bridle in his hand, breathless, and half exhausted with his
+      fruitless exercise, though not one drop of moisture appeared on the
+      freckled forehead of the urchin, which looked like a piece of dry and
+      discoloured parchment, drawn tight across the brow of a fleshless skull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And tell me," said Tressilian, "why you use me thus, thou mischievous
+      imp? or what your meaning is by telling me so absurd a legend as you
+      wished but now to put on me? Or rather show me, in good earnest, this
+      smith's forge, and I will give thee what will buy thee apples through the
+      whole winter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Were you to give me an orchard of apples," said Dickie Sludge, "I can
+      guide thee no better than I have done. Lay down the silver token on the
+      flat stone&mdash;whistle three times&mdash;then come sit down on the
+      western side of the thicket of gorse. I will sit by you, and give you free
+      leave to wring my head off, unless you hear the smith at work within two
+      minutes after we are seated."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may be tempted to take thee at thy word," said Tressilian, "if you make
+      me do aught half so ridiculous for your own mischievous sport; however, I
+      will prove your spell. Here, then, I tie my horse to this upright stone. I
+      must lay my silver groat here, and whistle three times, sayest thou?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but thou must whistle louder than an unfledged ousel," said the boy,
+      as Tressilian, having laid down his money, and half ashamed of the folly
+      he practised, made a careless whistle&mdash;"you must whistle louder than
+      that, for who knows where the smith is that you call for? He may be in the
+      King of France's stables for what I know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, you said but now he was no devil," replied Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Man or devil," said Dickie, "I see that I must summon him for you;" and
+      therewithal he whistled sharp and shrill, with an acuteness of sound that
+      almost thrilled through Tressilian's brain. "That is what I call
+      whistling," said he, after he had repeated the signal thrice; "and now to
+      cover, to cover, or Whitefoot will not be shod this day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, musing what the upshot of this mummery was to be, yet
+      satisfied there was to be some serious result, by the confidence with
+      which the boy had put himself in his power, suffered himself to be
+      conducted to that side of the little thicket of gorse and brushwood which
+      was farthest from the circle of stones, and there sat down; and as it
+      occurred to him that, after all, this might be a trick for stealing his
+      horse, he kept his hand on the boy's collar, determined to make him
+      hostage for its safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, hush and listen," said Dickie, in a low whisper; "you will soon hear
+      the tack of a hammer that was never forged of earthly iron, for the stone
+      it was made of was shot from the moon." And in effect Tressilian did
+      immediately hear the light stroke of a hammer, as when a farrier is at
+      work. The singularity of such a sound, in so very lonely a place, made him
+      involuntarily start; but looking at the boy, and discovering, by the arch
+      malicious expression of his countenance, that the urchin saw and enjoyed
+      his slight tremor, he became convinced that the whole was a concerted
+      stratagem, and determined to know by whom, or for what purpose, the trick
+      was played off.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0591m.jpg" alt="0591m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0591.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, he remained perfectly quiet all the time that the hammer
+      continued to sound, being about the space usually employed in fixing a
+      horse-shoe. But the instant the sound ceased, Tressilian, instead of
+      interposing the space of time which his guide had required, started up
+      with his sword in his hand, ran round the thicket, and confronted a man in
+      a farrier's leathern apron, but otherwise fantastically attired in a
+      bear-skin dressed with the fur on, and a cap of the same, which almost hid
+      the sooty and begrimed features of the wearer. "Come back, come back!"
+      cried the boy to Tressilian, "or you will be torn to pieces; no man lives
+      that looks on him." In fact, the invisible smith (now fully visible)
+      heaved up his hammer, and showed symptoms of doing battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the boy observed that neither his own entreaties nor the menaces
+      of the farrier appeared to change Tressilian's purpose, but that, on the
+      contrary, he confronted the hammer with his drawn sword, he exclaimed to
+      the smith in turn, "Wayland, touch him not, or you will come by the worse!&mdash;the
+      gentleman is a true gentleman, and a bold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So thou hast betrayed me, Flibbertigibbet?" said the smith; "it shall be
+      the worse for thee!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be who thou wilt," said Tressilian, "thou art in no danger from me, so
+      thou tell me the meaning of this practice, and why thou drivest thy trade
+      in this mysterious fashion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smith, however, turning to Tressilian, exclaimed, in a threatening
+      tone, "Who questions the Keeper of the Crystal Castle of Light, the Lord
+      of the Green Lion, the Rider of the Red Dragon? Hence!&mdash;avoid thee,
+      ere I summon Talpack with his fiery lance, to quell, crush, and consume!"
+      These words he uttered with violent gesticulation, mouthing, and
+      flourishing his hammer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, thou vile cozener, with thy gipsy cant!" replied Tressilian
+      scornfully, "and follow me to the next magistrate, or I will cut thee over
+      the pate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, I pray thee, good Wayland!" said the boy. "Credit me, the
+      swaggering vein will not pass here; you must cut boon whids." ["Give good
+      words."&mdash;SLANG DIALECT.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think, worshipful sir," said the smith, sinking his hammer, and
+      assuming a more gentle and submissive tone of voice, "that when so poor a
+      man does his day's job, he might be permitted to work it out after his own
+      fashion. Your horse is shod, and your farrier paid&mdash;what need you
+      cumber yourself further than to mount and pursue your journey?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, friend, you are mistaken," replied Tressilian; "every man has a
+      right to take the mask from the face of a cheat and a juggler; and your
+      mode of living raises suspicion that you are both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are so determined; sir," said the smith, "I cannot help myself
+      save by force, which I were unwilling to use towards you, Master
+      Tressilian; not that I fear your weapon, but because I know you to be a
+      worthy, kind, and well-accomplished gentleman, who would rather help than
+      harm a poor man that is in a strait."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well said, Wayland," said the boy, who had anxiously awaited the issue of
+      their conference. "But let us to thy den, man, for it is ill for thy
+      health to stand here talking in the open air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art right, Hobgoblin," replied the smith; and going to the little
+      thicket of gorse on the side nearest to the circle, and opposite to that
+      at which his customer had so lately crouched, he discovered a trap-door
+      curiously covered with bushes, raised it, and, descending into the earth,
+      vanished from their eyes. Notwithstanding Tressilian's curiosity, he had
+      some hesitation at following the fellow into what might be a den of
+      robbers, especially when he heard the smith's voice, issuing from the
+      bowels of the earth, call out, "Flibertigibbet, do you come last, and be
+      sure to fasten the trap!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you seen enough of Wayland Smith now?" whispered the urchin to
+      Tressilian, with an arch sneer, as if marking his companion's uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not yet," said Tressilian firmly; and shaking off his momentary
+      irresolution, he descended into the narrow staircase, to which the
+      entrance led, and was followed by Dickie Sludge, who made fast the
+      trap-door behind him, and thus excluded every glimmer of daylight. The
+      descent, however, was only a few steps, and led to a level passage of a
+      few yards' length, at the end of which appeared the reflection of a lurid
+      and red light. Arrived at this point, with his drawn sword in his hand,
+      Tressilian found that a turn to the left admitted him and Hobgoblin, who
+      followed closely, into a small, square vault, containing a smith's forge,
+      glowing with charcoal, the vapour of which filled the apartment with an
+      oppressive smell, which would have been altogether suffocating, but that
+      by some concealed vent the smithy communicated with the upper air. The
+      light afforded by the red fuel, and by a lamp suspended in an iron chain,
+      served to show that, besides an anvil, bellows, tongs, hammers, a quantity
+      of ready-made horse-shoes, and other articles proper to the profession of
+      a farrier, there were also stoves, alembics, crucibles, retorts, and other
+      instruments of alchemy. The grotesque figure of the smith, and the ugly
+      but whimsical features of the boy, seen by the gloomy and imperfect light
+      of the charcoal fire and the dying lamp, accorded very well with all this
+      mystical apparatus, and in that age of superstition would have made some
+      impression on the courage of most men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But nature had endowed Tressilian with firm nerves, and his education,
+      originally good, had been too sedulously improved by subsequent study to
+      give way to any imaginary terrors; and after giving a glance around him,
+      he again demanded of the artist who he was, and by what accident he came
+      to know and address him by his name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your worship cannot but remember," said the smith, "that about three
+      years since, upon Saint Lucy's Eve, there came a travelling juggler to a
+      certain hall in Devonshire, and exhibited his skill before a worshipful
+      knight and a fair company.&mdash;I see from your worship's countenance,
+      dark as this place is, that my memory has not done me wrong."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast said enough," said Tressilian, turning away, as wishing to hide
+      from the speaker the painful train of recollections which his discourse
+      had unconsciously awakened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The juggler," said the smith, "played his part so bravely that the clowns
+      and clown-like squires in the company held his art to be little less than
+      magical; but there was one maiden of fifteen, or thereby, with the fairest
+      face I ever looked upon, whose rosy cheek grew pale, and her bright eyes
+      dim, at the sight of the wonders exhibited."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, I command thee, peace!" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I mean your worship no offence," said the fellow; "but I have cause to
+      remember how, to relieve the young maiden's fears, you condescended to
+      point out the mode in which these deceptions were practised, and to baffle
+      the poor juggler by laying bare the mysteries of his art, as ably as if
+      you had been a brother of his order.&mdash;She was indeed so fair a maiden
+      that, to win a smile of her, a man might well&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not a word more of her, I charge thee!" said Tressilian. "I do well
+      remember the night you speak of&mdash;one of the few happy evenings my
+      life has known."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is gone, then," said the smith, interpreting after his own fashion
+      the sigh with which Tressilian uttered these words&mdash;"she is gone,
+      young, beautiful, and beloved as she was!&mdash;I crave your worship's
+      pardon&mdash;I should have hammered on another theme. I see I have
+      unwarily driven the nail to the quick."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech was made with a mixture of rude feeling which inclined
+      Tressilian favourably to the poor artisan, of whom before he was inclined
+      to judge very harshly. But nothing can so soon attract the unfortunate as
+      real or seeming sympathy with their sorrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think," proceeded Tressilian, after a minute's silence, "thou wert in
+      those days a jovial fellow, who could keep a company merry by song, and
+      tale, and rebeck, as well as by thy juggling tricks&mdash;why do I find
+      thee a laborious handicraftsman, plying thy trade in so melancholy a
+      dwelling and under such extraordinary circumstances?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My story is not long," said the artist, "but your honour had better sit
+      while you listen to it." So saying, he approached to the fire a
+      three-footed stool, and took another himself; while Dickie Sludge, or
+      Flibbertigibbet, as he called the boy, drew a cricket to the smith's feet,
+      and looked up in his face with features which, as illuminated by the glow
+      of the forge, seemed convulsed with intense curiosity. "Thou too," said
+      the smith to him, "shalt learn, as thou well deservest at my hand, the
+      brief history of my life; and, in troth, it were as well tell it thee as
+      leave thee to ferret it out, since Nature never packed a shrewder wit into
+      a more ungainly casket.&mdash;Well, sir, if my poor story may pleasure
+      you, it is at your command, But will you not taste a stoup of liquor? I
+      promise you that even in this poor cell I have some in store."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not of it," said Tressilian, "but go on with thy story, for my
+      leisure is brief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall have no cause to rue the delay," said the smith, "for your
+      horse shall be better fed in the meantime than he hath been this morning,
+      and made fitter for travel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With that the artist left the vault, and returned after a few minutes'
+      interval. Here, also, we pause, that the narrative may commence in another
+      chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I say, my lord, can such a subtilty
+     (But all his craft ye must not wot of me,
+     And somewhat help I yet to his working),
+     That all the ground on which we ben riding,
+     Till that we come to Canterbury town,
+     He can all clean turnen so up so down,
+     And pave it all of silver and of gold.
+     &mdash;THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE, CANTERBURY TALES.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE artist commenced his narrative in the following terms:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was bred a blacksmith, and knew my art as well as e'er a black-thumbed,
+      leathern-aproned, swart-faced knave of that noble mystery. But I tired of
+      ringing hammer-tunes on iron stithies, and went out into the world, where
+      I became acquainted with a celebrated juggler, whose fingers had become
+      rather too stiff for legerdemain, and who wished to have the aid of an
+      apprentice in his noble mystery. I served him for six years, until I was
+      master of my trade&mdash;I refer myself to your worship, whose judgment
+      cannot be disputed, whether I did not learn to ply the craft indifferently
+      well?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Excellently," said Tressilian; "but be brief."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was not long after I had performed at Sir Hugh Robsart's, in your
+      worship's presence," said the artist, "that I took myself to the stage,
+      and have swaggered with the bravest of them all, both at the Black Bull,
+      the Globe, the Fortune, and elsewhere; but I know not how&mdash;apples
+      were so plenty that year that the lads in the twopenny gallery never took
+      more than one bite out of them, and threw the rest of the pippin at
+      whatever actor chanced to be on the stage. So I tired of it&mdash;renounced
+      my half share in the company, gave my foil to my comrade, my buskins to
+      the wardrobe, and showed the theatre a clean pair of heels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, friend, and what," said Tressilian, "was your next shift?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I became," said the smith, "half partner, half domestic to a man of much
+      skill and little substance, who practised the trade of a physicianer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a
+      quacksalver."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Something beyond that, let me hope, my good Master Tressilian," replied
+      the artist; "and yet to say truth, our practice was of an adventurous
+      description, and the pharmacy which I had acquired in my first studies for
+      the benefit of horses was frequently applied to our human patients. But
+      the seeds of all maladies are the same; and if turpentine, tar, pitch, and
+      beef-suet, mingled with turmerick, gum-mastick, and one bead of garlick,
+      can cure the horse that hath been grieved with a nail, I see not but what
+      it may benefit the man that hath been pricked with a sword. But my
+      master's practice, as well as his skill, went far beyond mine, and dealt
+      in more dangerous concerns. He was not only a bold, adventurous
+      practitioner in physic, but also, if your pleasure so chanced to be, an
+      adept who read the stars, and expounded the fortunes of mankind,
+      genethliacally, as he called it, or otherwise. He was a learned distiller
+      of simples, and a profound chemist&mdash;made several efforts to fix
+      mercury, and judged himself to have made a fair hit at the philosopher's
+      stone. I have yet a programme of his on that subject, which, if your
+      honour understandeth, I believe you have the better, not only of all who
+      read, but also of him who wrote it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave Tressilian a scroll of parchment, bearing at top and bottom, and
+      down the margin, the signs of the seven planets, curiously intermingled
+      with talismanical characters and scraps of Greek and Hebrew. In the midst
+      were some Latin verses from a cabalistical author, written out so fairly,
+      that even the gloom of the place did not prevent Tressilian from reading
+      them. The tenor of the original ran as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Si fixum solvas, faciasque volare solutum,
+     Et volucrem figas, facient te vivere tutum;
+     Si pariat ventum, valet auri pondere centum;
+     Ventus ubi vult spirat&mdash;Capiat qui capere potest."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I protest to you," said Tressilian, "all I understand of this jargon is
+      that the last words seem to mean 'Catch who catch can.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That," said the smith, "is the very principle that my worthy friend and
+      master, Doctor Doboobie, always acted upon; until, being besotted with his
+      own imaginations, and conceited of his high chemical skill, he began to
+      spend, in cheating himself, the money which he had acquired in cheating
+      others, and either discovered or built for himself, I could never know
+      which, this secret elaboratory, in which he used to seclude himself both
+      from patients and disciples, who doubtless thought his long and mysterious
+      absences from his ordinary residence in the town of Farringdon were
+      occasioned by his progress in the mystic sciences, and his intercourse
+      with the invisible world. Me also he tried to deceive; but though I
+      contradicted him not, he saw that I knew too much of his secrets to be any
+      longer a safe companion. Meanwhile, his name waxed famous&mdash;or rather
+      infamous, and many of those who resorted to him did so under persuasion
+      that he was a sorcerer. And yet his supposed advance in the occult
+      sciences drew to him the secret resort of men too powerful to be named,
+      for purposes too dangerous to be mentioned. Men cursed and threatened him,
+      and bestowed on me, the innocent assistant of his studies, the nickname of
+      the Devil's foot-post, which procured me a volley of stones as soon as
+      ever I ventured to show my face in the street of the village. At length my
+      master suddenly disappeared, pretending to me that he was about to visit
+      his elaboratory in this place, and forbidding me to disturb him till two
+      days were past. When this period had elapsed, I became anxious, and
+      resorted to this vault, where I found the fires extinguished and the
+      utensils in confusion, with a note from the learned Doboobius, as he was
+      wont to style himself, acquainting me that we should never meet again,
+      bequeathing me his chemical apparatus, and the parchment which I have just
+      put into your hands, advising me strongly to prosecute the secret which it
+      contained, which would infallibly lead me to the discovery of the grand
+      magisterium."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And didst thou follow this sage advice?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Worshipful sir, no," replied the smith; "for, being by nature cautious,
+      and suspicious from knowing with whom I had to do, I made so many
+      perquisitions before I ventured even to light a fire, that I at length
+      discovered a small barrel of gunpowder, carefully hid beneath the furnace,
+      with the purpose, no doubt, that as soon as I should commence the grand
+      work of the transmutation of metals, the explosion should transmute the
+      vault and all in it into a heap of ruins, which might serve at once for my
+      slaughter-house and my grave. This cured me of alchemy, and fain would I
+      have returned to the honest hammer and anvil; but who would bring a horse
+      to be shod by the Devil's post? Meantime, I had won the regard of my
+      honest Flibbertigibbet here, he being then at Farringdon with his master,
+      the sage Erasmus Holiday, by teaching him a few secrets, such as please
+      youth at his age; and after much counsel together, we agreed that, since I
+      could get no practice in the ordinary way, I should try how I could work
+      out business among these ignorant boors, by practising upon their silly
+      fears; and, thanks to Flibbertigibbet, who hath spread my renown, I have
+      not wanted custom. But it is won at too great risk, and I fear I shall be
+      at length taken up for a wizard; so that I seek but an opportunity to
+      leave this vault, when I can have the protection of some worshipful person
+      against the fury of the populace, in case they chance to recognize me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And art thou," said Tressilian, "perfectly acquainted with the roads in
+      this country?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I could ride them every inch by midnight," answered Wayland Smith, which
+      was the name this adept had assumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast no horse to ride upon," said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me," replied Wayland; "I have as good a tit as ever yeoman
+      bestrode; and I forgot to say it was the best part of the mediciner's
+      legacy to me, excepting one or two of the choicest of his medical secrets,
+      which I picked up without his knowledge and against his will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Get thyself washed and shaved, then," said Tressilian; "reform thy dress
+      as well as thou canst, and fling away these grotesque trappings; and, so
+      thou wilt be secret and faithful, thou shalt follow me for a short time,
+      till thy pranks here are forgotten. Thou hast, I think, both address and
+      courage, and I have matter to do that may require both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland Smith eagerly embraced the proposal, and protested his devotion to
+      his new master. In a very few minutes he had made so great an alteration
+      in his original appearance, by change of dress, trimming his beard and
+      hair, and so forth, that Tressilian could not help remarking that he
+      thought he would stand in little need of a protector, since none of his
+      old acquaintance were likely to recognize him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My debtors would not pay me money," said Wayland, shaking his head; "but
+      my creditors of every kind would be less easily blinded. And, in truth, I
+      hold myself not safe, unless under the protection of a gentleman of birth
+      and character, as is your worship."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he led the way out of the cavern. He then called loudly for
+      Hobgoblin, who, after lingering for an instant, appeared with the horse
+      furniture, when Wayland closed and sedulously covered up the trap-door,
+      observing it might again serve him at his need, besides that the tools
+      were worth somewhat. A whistle from the owner brought to his side a nag
+      that fed quietly on the common, and was accustomed to the signal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he accoutred him for the journey, Tressilian drew his own girths
+      tighter, and in a few minutes both were ready to mount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Sludge approached to bid them farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are going to leave me, then, my old playfellow," said the boy; "and
+      there is an end of all our game at bo-peep with the cowardly lubbards whom
+      I brought hither to have their broad-footed nags shed by the devil and his
+      imps?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is even so," said Wayland Smith, "the best friends must part,
+      Flibbertigibbet; but thou, my boy, art the only thing in the Vale of
+      Whitehorse which I shall regret to leave behind me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, I bid thee not farewell," said Dickie Sludge, "for you will be at
+      these revels, I judge, and so shall I; for if Dominie Holiday take me not
+      thither, by the light of day, which we see not in yonder dark hole, I will
+      take myself there!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In good time," said Wayland; "but I pray you to do nought rashly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, now you would make a child, a common child of me, and tell me of the
+      risk of walking without leading-strings. But before you are a mile from
+      these stones, you shall know by a sure token that I have more of the
+      hobgoblin about me than you credit; and I will so manage that, if you take
+      advantage, you may profit by my prank."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What dost thou mean, boy?" said Tressilian; but Flibbertigibbet only
+      answered with a grin and a caper, and bidding both of them farewell, and,
+      at the same time, exhorting them to make the best of their way from the
+      place, he set them the example by running homeward with the same uncommon
+      velocity with which he had baffled Tressilian's former attempts to get
+      hold of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is in vain to chase him," said Wayland Smith; "for unless your worship
+      is expert in lark-hunting, we should never catch hold of him&mdash;and
+      besides, what would it avail? Better make the best of our way hence, as he
+      advises."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They mounted their horses accordingly, and began to proceed at a round
+      pace, as soon as Tressilian had explained to his guide the direction in
+      which he desired to travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had trotted nearly a mile, Tressilian could not help observing
+      to his companion that his horse felt more lively under him than even when
+      he mounted in the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you avised of that?" said Wayland Smith, smiling. "That is owing to a
+      little secret of mine. I mixed that with an handful of oats which shall
+      save your worship's heels the trouble of spurring these six hours at
+      least. Nay, I have not studied medicine and pharmacy for nought."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I trust," said Tressilian, "your drugs will do my horse no harm?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No more than the mare's milk; which foaled him," answered the artist, and
+      was proceeding to dilate on the excellence of his recipe when he was
+      interrupted by an explosion as loud and tremendous as the mine which blows
+      up the rampart of a beleaguered city. The horses started, and the riders
+      were equally surprised. They turned to gaze in the direction from which
+      the thunder-clap was heard, and beheld, just over the spot they had left
+      so recently, a huge pillar of dark smoke rising high into the clear, blue
+      atmosphere. "My habitation is gone to wreck," said Wayland, immediately
+      conjecturing the cause of the explosion. "I was a fool to mention the
+      doctor's kind intentions towards my mansion before that limb of mischief,
+      Flibbertigibbet; I might have guessed he would long to put so rare a
+      frolic into execution. But let us hasten on, for the sound will collect
+      the country to the spot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he spurred his horse, and Tressilian also quickening his speed,
+      they rode briskly forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This, then, was the meaning of the little imp's token which he promised
+      us?" said Tressilian. "Had we lingered near the spot, we had found it a
+      love-token with a vengeance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He would have given us warning," said the smith. "I saw him look back
+      more than once to see if we were off&mdash;'tis a very devil for mischief,
+      yet not an ill-natured devil either. It were long to tell your honour how
+      I became first acquainted with him, and how many tricks he played me. Many
+      a good turn he did me too, especially in bringing me customers; for his
+      great delight was to see them sit shivering behind the bushes when they
+      heard the click of my hammer. I think Dame Nature, when she lodged a
+      double quantity of brains in that misshapen head of his, gave him the
+      power of enjoying other people's distresses, as she gave them the pleasure
+      of laughing at his ugliness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be so," said Tressilian; "those who find themselves severed from
+      society by peculiarities of form, if they do not hate the common bulk of
+      mankind, are at least not altogether indisposed to enjoy their mishaps and
+      calamities."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland, "hath that about him which may
+      redeem his turn for mischievous frolic; for he is as faithful when
+      attached as he is tricky and malignant to strangers, and, as I said
+      before, I have cause to say so."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian pursued the conversation no further, and they continued their
+      journey towards Devonshire without further adventure, until they alighted
+      at an inn in the town of Marlborough, since celebrated for having given
+      title to the greatest general (excepting one) whom Britain ever produced.
+      Here the travellers received, in the same breath, an example of the truth
+      of two old proverbs&mdash;namely, that ILL NEWS FLY FAST, and that
+      LISTENERS SELDOM HEAR A GOOD TALE OF THEMSELVES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inn-yard was in a sort of combustion when they alighted; insomuch,
+      that they could scarce get man or boy to take care of their horses, so
+      full were the whole household of some news which flew from tongue to
+      tongue, the import of which they were for some time unable to discover. At
+      length, indeed, they found it respected matters which touched them nearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter, say you, master?" answered, at length, the head
+      hostler, in reply to Tressilian's repeated questions.&mdash;"Why, truly, I
+      scarce know myself. But here was a rider but now, who says that the devil
+      hath flown away with him they called Wayland Smith, that won'd about three
+      miles from the Whitehorse of Berkshire, this very blessed morning, in a
+      flash of fire and a pillar of smoke, and rooted up the place he dwelt in,
+      near that old cockpit of upright stones, as cleanly as if it had all been
+      delved up for a cropping."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, then," said an old farmer, "the more is the pity; for that Wayland
+      Smith (whether he was the devil's crony or no I skill not) had a good
+      notion of horses' diseases, and it's to be thought the bots will spread in
+      the country far and near, an Satan has not gien un time to leave his
+      secret behind un."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You may say that, Gaffer Grimesby," said the hostler in return; "I have
+      carried a horse to Wayland Smith myself, for he passed all farriers in
+      this country."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did you see him?" said Dame Alison Crane, mistress of the inn bearing
+      that sign, and deigning to term HUSBAND the owner thereof, a mean-looking
+      hop-o'-my-thumb sort or person, whose halting gait, and long neck, and
+      meddling, henpecked insignificance are supposed to have given origin to
+      the celebrated old English tune of "My dame hath a lame tame Crane."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this occasion he chirped out a repetition of his wife's question,
+      "Didst see the devil, Jack Hostler, I say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what if I did see un, Master Crane?" replied Jack Hostler, for, like
+      all the rest of the household, he paid as little respect to his master as
+      his mistress herself did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, nought, Jack Hostler," replied the pacific Master Crane; "only if
+      you saw the devil, methinks I would like to know what un's like?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will know that one day, Master Crane," said his helpmate, "an ye mend
+      not your manners, and mind your business, leaving off such idle palabras.&mdash;But
+      truly, Jack Hostler, I should be glad to know myself what like the fellow
+      was."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, dame," said the hostler, more respectfully, "as for what he was like
+      I cannot tell, nor no man else, for why I never saw un."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how didst thou get thine errand done," said Gaffer Grimesby, "if thou
+      seedst him not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, I had schoolmaster to write down ailment o' nag," said Jack Hostler;
+      "and I went wi' the ugliest slip of a boy for my guide as ever man cut out
+      o' lime-tree root to please a child withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what was it?&mdash;and did it cure your nag, Jack Hostler?" was
+      uttered and echoed by all who stood around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, how can I tell you what it was?" said the hostler; "simply it
+      smelled and tasted&mdash;for I did make bold to put a pea's substance into
+      my mouth&mdash;like hartshorn and savin mixed with vinegar; but then no
+      hartshorn and savin ever wrought so speedy a cure. And I am dreading that
+      if Wayland Smith be gone, the bots will have more power over horse and
+      cattle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pride of art, which is certainly not inferior in its influence to any
+      other pride whatever, here so far operated on Wayland Smith, that,
+      notwithstanding the obvious danger of his being recognized, he could not
+      help winking to Tressilian, and smiling mysteriously, as if triumphing in
+      the undoubted evidence of his veterinary skill. In the meanwhile, the
+      discourse continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "E'en let it be so," said a grave man in black, the companion of Gaffer
+      Grimesby; "e'en let us perish under the evil God sends us, rather than the
+      devil be our doctor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true," said Dame Crane; "and I marvel at Jack Hostler that he would
+      peril his own soul to cure the bowels of a nag."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true, mistress," said Jack Hostler, "but the nag was my master's;
+      and had it been yours, I think ye would ha' held me cheap enow an I had
+      feared the devil when the poor beast was in such a taking. For the rest,
+      let the clergy look to it. Every man to his craft, says the proverb&mdash;the
+      parson to the prayer-book, and the groom to his curry-comb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I vow," said Dame Crane, "I think Jack Hostler speaks like a good
+      Christian and a faithful servant, who will spare neither body nor soul in
+      his master's service. However, the devil has lifted him in time, for a
+      Constable of the Hundred came hither this morning to get old Gaffer
+      Pinniewinks, the trier of witches, to go with him to the Vale of
+      Whitehorse to comprehend Wayland Smith, and put him to his probation. I
+      helped Pinniewinks to sharpen his pincers and his poking-awl, and I saw
+      the warrant from Justice Blindas."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pooh&mdash;pooh&mdash;the devil would laugh both at Blindas and his
+      warrant, constable and witch-finder to boot," said old Dame Crank, the
+      Papist laundress; "Wayland Smith's flesh would mind Pinniewinks' awl no
+      more than a cambric ruff minds a hot piccadilloe-needle. But tell me,
+      gentlefolks, if the devil ever had such a hand among ye, as to snatch away
+      your smiths and your artists from under your nose, when the good Abbots of
+      Abingdon had their own? By Our Lady, no!&mdash;they had their hallowed
+      tapers; and their holy water, and their relics, and what not, could send
+      the foulest fiends a-packing. Go ask a heretic parson to do the like. But
+      ours were a comfortable people."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very true, Dame Crank," said the hostler; "so said Simpkins of Simonburn
+      when the curate kissed his wife,&mdash;'They are a comfortable people,'
+      said he."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silence, thou foul-mouthed vermin," said Dame Crank; "is it fit for a
+      heretic horse-boy like thee to handle such a text as the Catholic clergy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In troth no, dame," replied the man of oats; "and as you yourself are now
+      no text for their handling, dame, whatever may have been the case in your
+      day, I think we had e'en better leave un alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this last exchange of sarcasm, Dame Crank set up her throat, and began
+      a horrible exclamation against Jack Hostler, under cover of which
+      Tressilian and his attendant escaped into the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had no sooner entered a private chamber, to which Goodman Crane
+      himself had condescended to usher them, and dispatched their worthy and
+      obsequious host on the errand of procuring wine and refreshment, than
+      Wayland Smith began to give vent to his self-importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You see, sir," said he, addressing Tressilian, "that I nothing fabled in
+      asserting that I possessed fully the mighty mystery of a farrier, or
+      mareschal, as the French more honourably term us. These dog-hostlers, who,
+      after all, are the better judges in such a case, know what credit they
+      should attach to my medicaments. I call you to witness, worshipful Master
+      Tressilian, that nought, save the voice of calumny and the hand of
+      malicious violence, hath driven me forth from a station in which I held a
+      place alike useful and honoured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I bear witness, my friend, but will reserve my listening," answered
+      Tressilian, "for a safer time; unless, indeed, you deem it essential to
+      your reputation to be translated, like your late dwelling, by the
+      assistance of a flash of fire. For you see your best friends reckon you no
+      better than a mere sorcerer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, Heaven forgive them," said the artist, "who confounded learned skill
+      with unlawful magic! I trust a man may be as skilful, or more so, than the
+      best chirurgeon ever meddled with horse-flesh, and yet may be upon the
+      matter little more than other ordinary men, or at the worst no conjurer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God forbid else!" said Tressilian. "But be silent just for the present,
+      since here comes mine host with an assistant, who seems something of the
+      least."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody about the inn, Dame Crane herself included, had been indeed so
+      interested and agitated by the story they had heard of Wayland Smith, and
+      by the new, varying, and more marvellous editions of the incident which
+      arrived from various quarters, that mine host, in his righteous
+      determination to accommodate his guests, had been able to obtain the
+      assistance of none of his household, saving that of a little boy, a junior
+      tapster, of about twelve years old, who was called Sampson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wish," he said, apologizing to his guests, as he set down a flagon of
+      sack, and promised some food immediately&mdash;"I wish the devil had flown
+      away with my wife and my whole family instead of this Wayland Smith, who,
+      I daresay, after all said and done, was much less worthy of the
+      distinction which Satan has done him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I hold opinion with you, good fellow," replied Wayland Smith; "and I will
+      drink to you upon that argument."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not that I would justify any man who deals with the devil," said mine
+      host, after having pledged Wayland in a rousing draught of sack, "but that&mdash;saw
+      ye ever better sack, my masters?&mdash;but that, I say, a man had better
+      deal with a dozen cheats and scoundrel fellows, such as this Wayland
+      Smith, than with a devil incarnate, that takes possession of house and
+      home, bed and board."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow's detail of grievances was here interrupted by the shrill
+      voice of his helpmate, screaming from the kitchen, to which he instantly
+      hobbled, craving pardon of his guests. He was no sooner gone than Wayland
+      Smith expressed, by every contemptuous epithet in the language, his utter
+      scorn for a nincompoop who stuck his head under his wife's apron-string;
+      and intimated that, saving for the sake of the horses, which required both
+      rest and food, he would advise his worshipful Master Tressilian to push on
+      a stage farther, rather than pay a reckoning to such a mean-spirited,
+      crow-trodden, henpecked coxcomb, as Gaffer Crane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrival of a large dish of good cow-heel and bacon something soothed
+      the asperity of the artist, which wholly vanished before a choice capon,
+      so delicately roasted that the lard frothed on it, said Wayland, like
+      May-dew on a lily; and both Gaffer Crane and his good dame became, in his
+      eyes, very painstaking, accommodating, obliging persons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the manners of the times, the master and his attendant sat at
+      the same table, and the latter observed, with regret, how little attention
+      Tressilian paid to his meal. He recollected, indeed, the pain he had given
+      by mentioning the maiden in whose company he had first seen him; but,
+      fearful of touching upon a topic too tender to be tampered with, he chose
+      to ascribe his abstinence to another cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This fare is perhaps too coarse for your worship," said Wayland, as the
+      limbs of the capon disappeared before his own exertions; "but had you
+      dwelt as long as I have done in yonder dungeon, which Flibbertigibbet has
+      translated to the upper element, a place where I dared hardly broil my
+      food, lest the smoke should be seen without, you would think a fair capon
+      a more welcome dainty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are pleased, friend," said Tressilian, "it is well. Nevertheless,
+      hasten thy meal if thou canst, For this place is unfriendly to thy safety,
+      and my concerns crave travelling."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Allowing, therefore, their horses no more rest than was absolutely
+      necessary for them, they pursued their journey by a forced march as far as
+      Bradford, where they reposed themselves for the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning found them early travellers. And, not to fatigue the
+      reader with unnecessary particulars, they traversed without adventure the
+      counties of Wiltshire and Somerset, and about noon of the third day after
+      Tressilian's leaving Cumnor, arrived at Sir Hugh Robsart's seat, called
+      Lidcote Hall, on the frontiers of Devonshire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Ah me!  the flower and blossom of your house,
+     The wind hath blown away to other towers.
+     &mdash;JOANNA BAILLIE'S  FAMILY LEGEND.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The ancient seat of Lidcote Hall was situated near the village of the same
+      name, and adjoined the wild and extensive forest of Exmoor, plentifully
+      stocked with game, in which some ancient rights belonging to the Robsart
+      family entitled Sir Hugh to pursue his favourite amusement of the chase.
+      The old mansion was a low, venerable building, occupying a considerable
+      space of ground, which was surrounded by a deep moat. The approach and
+      drawbridge were defended by an octagonal tower, of ancient brickwork, but
+      so clothed with ivy and other creepers that it was difficult to discover
+      of what materials it was constructed. The angles of this tower were each
+      decorated with a turret, whimsically various in form and in size, and,
+      therefore, very unlike the monotonous stone pepperboxes which, in modern
+      Gothic architecture, are employed for the same purpose. One of these
+      turrets was square, and occupied as a clock-house. But the clock was now
+      standing still; a circumstance peculiarly striking to Tressilian, because
+      the good old knight, among other harmless peculiarities, had a fidgety
+      anxiety about the exact measurement of time, very common to those who have
+      a great deal of that commodity to dispose of, and find it lie heavy upon
+      their hands&mdash;just as we see shopkeepers amuse themselves with taking
+      an exact account of their stock at the time there is least demand for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance to the courtyard of the old mansion lay through an archway,
+      surmounted by the foresaid tower; but the drawbridge was down, and one
+      leaf of the iron-studded folding-doors stood carelessly open. Tressilian
+      hastily rode over the drawbridge, entered the court, and began to call
+      loudly on the domestics by their names. For some time he was only answered
+      by the echoes and the howling of the hounds, whose kennel lay at no great
+      distance from the mansion, and was surrounded by the same moat. At length
+      Will Badger, the old and favourite attendant of the knight, who acted
+      alike as squire of his body and superintendent of his sports, made his
+      appearance. The stout, weather-beaten forester showed great signs of joy
+      when he recognized Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lord love you," he said, "Master Edmund, be it thou in flesh and fell?
+      Then thou mayest do some good on Sir Hugh, for it passes the wit of man&mdash;that
+      is, of mine own, and the curate's, and Master Mumblazen's&mdash;to do
+      aught wi'un."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is Sir Hugh then worse since I went away, Will?" demanded Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For worse in body&mdash;no; he is much better," replied the domestic;
+      "but he is clean mazed as it were&mdash;eats and drinks as he was wont&mdash;but
+      sleeps not, or rather wakes not, for he is ever in a sort of twilight,
+      that is neither sleeping nor waking. Dame Swineford thought it was like
+      the dead palsy. But no, no, dame, said I, it is the heart, it is the
+      heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can ye not stir his mind to any pastimes?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is clean and quite off his sports," said Will Badger; "hath neither
+      touched backgammon or shovel-board, nor looked on the big book of
+      harrowtry wi' Master Mumblazen. I let the clock run down, thinking the
+      missing the bell might somewhat move him&mdash;for you know, Master
+      Edmund, he was particular in counting time&mdash;but he never said a word
+      on't, so I may e'en set the old chime a-towling again. I made bold to
+      tread on Bungay's tail too, and you know what a round rating that would
+      ha' cost me once a-day; but he minded the poor tyke's whine no more than a
+      madge howlet whooping down the chimney&mdash;so the case is beyond me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt tell me the rest within doors, Will. Meanwhile, let this
+      person be ta'en to the buttery, and used with respect. He is a man of
+      art."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "White art or black art, I would," said Will Badger, "that he had any art
+      which could help us.&mdash;Here, Tom Butler, look to the man of art;&mdash;and
+      see that he steals none of thy spoons, lad," he added in a whisper to the
+      butler, who showed himself at a low window, "I have known as honest a
+      faced fellow have art enough to do that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then ushered Tressilian into a low parlour, and went, at his desire, to
+      see in what state his master was, lest the sudden return of his darling
+      pupil and proposed son-in-law should affect him too strongly. He returned
+      immediately, and said that Sir Hugh was dozing in his elbow-chair, but
+      that Master Mumblazen would acquaint Master Tressilian the instant he
+      awaked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But it is chance if he knows you," said the huntsman, "for he has
+      forgotten the name of every hound in the pack. I thought, about a week
+      since, he had gotten a favourable turn. 'Saddle me old Sorrel,' said he
+      suddenly, after he had taken his usual night-draught out of the great
+      silver grace-cup, 'and take the hounds to Mount Hazelhurst to-morrow.'
+      Glad men were we all, and out we had him in the morning, and he rode to
+      cover as usual, with never a word spoken but that the wind was south, and
+      the scent would lie. But ere we had uncoupled'the hounds, he began to
+      stare round him, like a man that wakes suddenly out of a dream&mdash;turns
+      bridle, and walks back to Hall again, and leaves us to hunt at leisure by
+      ourselves, if we listed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You tell a heavy tale, Will," replied Tressilian; "but God must help us&mdash;there
+      is no aid in man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then you bring us no news of young Mistress Amy? But what need I ask&mdash;your
+      brow tells the story. Ever I hoped that if any man could or would track
+      her, it must be you. All's over and lost now. But if ever I have that
+      Varney within reach of a flight-shot, I will bestow a forked shaft on him;
+      and that I swear by salt and bread."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the door opened, and Master Mumblazen appeared&mdash;a
+      withered, thin, elderly gentleman, with a cheek like a winter apple, and
+      his grey hair partly concealed by a small, high hat, shaped like a cone,
+      or rather like such a strawberry-basket as London fruiterers exhibit at
+      their windows. He was too sententious a person to waste words on mere
+      salutation; so, having welcomed Tressilian with a nod and a shake of the
+      hand, he beckoned him to follow to Sir Hugh's great chamber, which the
+      good knight usually inhabited. Will Badger followed, unasked, anxious to
+      see whether his master would be relieved from his state of apathy by the
+      arrival of Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a long, low parlour, amply furnished with implements of the chase, and
+      with silvan trophies, by a massive stone chimney, over which hung a sword
+      and suit of armour somewhat obscured by neglect, sat Sir Hugh Robsart of
+      Lidcote, a man of large size, which had been only kept within moderate
+      compass by the constant use of violent exercise, It seemed to Tressilian
+      that the lethargy, under which his old friend appeared to labour, had,
+      even during his few weeks' absence, added bulk to his person&mdash;at
+      least it had obviously diminished the vivacity of his eye, which, as they
+      entered, first followed Master Mumblazen slowly to a large oaken desk, on
+      which a ponderous volume lay open, and then rested, as if in uncertainty,
+      on the stranger who had entered along with him. The curate, a grey-headed
+      clergyman, who had been a confessor in the days of Queen Mary, sat with a
+      book in his hand in another recess in the apartment. He, too, signed a
+      mournful greeting to Tressilian, and laid his book aside, to watch the
+      effect his appearance should produce on the afflicted old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Tressilian, his own eyes filling fast with tears, approached more and
+      more nearly to the father of his betrothed bride, Sir Hugh's intelligence
+      seemed to revive. He sighed heavily, as one who awakens from a state of
+      stupor; a slight convulsion passed over his features; he opened his arms
+      without speaking a word, and, as Tressilian threw himself into them, he
+      folded him to his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is something left to live for yet," were the first words he
+      uttered; and while he spoke, he gave vent to his feelings in a paroxysm of
+      weeping, the tears chasing each other down his sunburnt cheeks and long
+      white beard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I ne'er thought to have thanked God to see my master weep," said Will
+      Badger; "but now I do, though I am like to weep for company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will ask thee no questions," said the old knight; "no questions&mdash;none,
+      Edmund. Thou hast not found her&mdash;or so found her, that she were
+      better lost."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian was unable to reply otherwise than by putting his hands before
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is enough&mdash;it is enough. But do not thou weep for her, Edmund. I
+      have cause to weep, for she was my daughter; thou hast cause to rejoice,
+      that she did not become thy wife.&mdash;Great God! thou knowest best what
+      is good for us. It was my nightly prayer that I should see Amy and Edmund
+      wedded,&mdash;had it been granted, it had now been gall added to
+      bitterness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be comforted, my friend," said the curate, addressing Sir Hugh, "it
+      cannot be that the daughter of all our hopes and affections is the vile
+      creature you would bespeak her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, no," replied Sir Hugh impatiently, "I were wrong to name broadly the
+      base thing she is become&mdash;there is some new court name for it, I
+      warrant me. It is honour enough for the daughter of an old Devonshire
+      clown to be the leman of a gay courtier&mdash;of Varney too&mdash;of
+      Varney, whose grandsire was relieved by my father, when his fortune was
+      broken, at the battle of&mdash;the battle of&mdash;where Richard was slain&mdash;out
+      on my memory!&mdash;and I warrant none of you will help me&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The battle of Bosworth," said Master Mumblazen&mdash;"stricken between
+      Richard Crookback and Henry Tudor, grandsire of the Queen that now is,
+      PRIMO HENRICI SEPTIMI; and in the year one thousand four hundred and
+      eighty-five, POST CHRISTUM NATUM."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, even so," said the old knight; "every child knows it. But my poor
+      head forgets all it should remember, and remembers only what it would most
+      willingly forget. My brain has been at fault, Tressilian, almost ever
+      since thou hast been away, and even yet it hunts counter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your worship," said the good clergyman, "had better retire to your
+      apartment, and try to sleep for a little space. The physician left a
+      composing draught; and our Great Physician has commanded us to use earthly
+      means, that we may be strengthened to sustain the trials He sends us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, true, old friend," said Sir Hugh; "and we will bear our trials
+      manfully&mdash;we have lost but a woman.&mdash;See, Tressilian,"&mdash;he
+      drew from his bosom a long ringlet of glossy hair,&mdash;"see this lock! I
+      tell thee, Edmund, the very night she disappeared, when she bid me good
+      even, as she was wont, she hung about my neck, and fondled me more than
+      usual; and I, like an old fool, held her by this lock, until she took her
+      scissors, severed it, and left it in my hand&mdash;as all I was ever to
+      see more of her!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian was unable to reply, well judging what a complication of
+      feelings must have crossed the bosom of the unhappy fugitive at that cruel
+      moment. The clergyman was about to speak, but Sir Hugh interrupted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know what you would say, Master Curate,&mdash;After all, it is but a
+      lock of woman's tresses; and by woman, shame, and sin, and death came into
+      an innocent world.&mdash;And learned Master Mumblazen, too, can say
+      scholarly things of their inferiority."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "C'EST L'HOMME," said Master Mumblazen, "QUI SE BAST, ET QUI CONSEILLE."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True," said Sir Hugh, "and we will bear us, therefore, like men who have
+      both mettle and wisdom in us.&mdash;Tressilian, thou art as welcome as if
+      thou hadst brought better news. But we have spoken too long dry-lipped.&mdash;Amy,
+      fill a cup of wine to Edmund, and another to me." Then instantly
+      recollecting that he called upon her who could not hear, he shook his
+      head, and said to the clergyman, "This grief is to my bewildered mind what
+      the church of Lidcote is to our park: we may lose ourselves among the
+      briers and thickets for a little space, but from the end of each avenue we
+      see the old grey steeple and the grave of my forefathers. I would I were
+      to travel that road tomorrow!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian and the curate joined in urging the exhausted old man to lay
+      himself to rest, and at length prevailed. Tressilian remained by his
+      pillow till he saw that slumber at length sunk down on him, and then
+      returned to consult with the curate what steps should be adopted in these
+      unhappy circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They could not exclude from these deliberations Master Michael Mumblazen;
+      and they admitted him the more readily, that besides what hopes they
+      entertained from his sagacity, they knew him to be so great a friend to
+      taciturnity, that there was no doubt of his keeping counsel. He was an old
+      bachelor, of good family, but small fortune, and distantly related to the
+      House of Robsart; in virtue of which connection, Lidcote Hall had been
+      honoured with his residence for the last twenty years. His company was
+      agreeable to Sir Hugh, chiefly on account of his profound learning, which,
+      though it only related to heraldry and genealogy, with such scraps of
+      history as connected themselves with these subjects, was precisely of a
+      kind to captivate the good old knight; besides the convenience which he
+      found in having a friend to appeal to when his own memory, as frequently
+      happened, proved infirm and played him false concerning names and dates,
+      which, and all similar deficiencies, Master Michael Mumblazen supplied
+      with due brevity and discretion. And, indeed, in matters concerning the
+      modern world, he often gave, in his enigmatical and heraldic phrase,
+      advice which was well worth attending to, or, in Will Badger's language,
+      started the game while others beat the bush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have had an unhappy time of it with the good knight, Master Edmund,"
+      said the curate. "I have not suffered so much since I was torn away from
+      my beloved flock, and compelled to abandon them to the Romish wolves."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That was in TERTIO MARIAE," said Master Mumblazen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the name of Heaven," continued the curate, "tell us, has your time
+      been better spent than ours, or have you any news of that unhappy maiden,
+      who, being for so many years the principal joy of this broken-down house,
+      is now proved our greatest unhappiness? Have you not at least discovered
+      her place of residence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have," replied Tressilian. "Know you Cumnor Place, near Oxford?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," said the clergyman; "it was a house of removal for the monks of
+      Abingdon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whose arms," said Master Michael, "I have seen over a stone chimney in
+      the hall,&mdash;a cross patonce betwixt four martlets."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There," said Tressilian, "this unhappy maiden resides, in company with
+      the villain Varney. But for a strange mishap, my sword had revenged all
+      our injuries, as well as hers, on his worthless head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank God, that kept thine hand from blood-guiltiness, rash young man!"
+      answered the curate. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay
+      it. It were better study to free her from the villain's nets of infamy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are called, in heraldry, LAQUEI AMORIS, or LACS D'AMOUR," said
+      Mumblazen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is in that I require your aid, my friends," said Tressilian. "I am
+      resolved to accuse this villain, at the very foot of the throne, of
+      falsehood, seduction, and breach of hospitable laws. The Queen shall hear
+      me, though the Earl of Leicester, the villain's patron, stood at her right
+      hand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Her Grace," said the curate, "hath set a comely example of continence to
+      her subjects, and will doubtless do justice on this inhospitable robber.
+      But wert thou not better apply to the Earl of Leicester, in the first
+      place, for justice on his servant? If he grants it, thou dost save the
+      risk of making thyself a powerful adversary, which will certainly chance
+      if, in the first instance, you accuse his master of the horse and prime
+      favourite before the Queen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My mind revolts from your counsel," said Tressilian. "I cannot brook to
+      plead my noble patron's cause the unhappy Amy's cause&mdash;before any one
+      save my lawful Sovereign. Leicester, thou wilt say, is noble. Be it so; he
+      is but a subject like ourselves, and I will not carry my plaint to him, if
+      I can do better. Still, I will think on what thou hast said; but I must
+      have your assistance to persuade the good Sir Hugh to make me his
+      commissioner and fiduciary in this matter, for it is in his name I must
+      speak, and not in my own. Since she is so far changed as to dote upon this
+      empty profligate courtier, he shall at least do her the justice which is
+      yet in his power."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Better she died CAELEBS and SINE PROLE," said Mumblazen, with more
+      animation than he usually expressed, "than part, PER PALE, the noble coat
+      of Robsart with that of such a miscreant!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it be your object, as I cannot question," said the clergyman, "to
+      save, as much as is yet possible, the credit of this unhappy young woman,
+      I repeat, you should apply, in the first instance, to the Earl of
+      Leicester. He is as absolute in his household as the Queen in her kingdom,
+      and if he expresses to Varney that such is his pleasure, her honour will
+      not stand so publicly committed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, you are right!" said Tressilian eagerly, "and I thank you
+      for pointing out what I overlooked in my haste. I little thought ever to
+      have besought grace of Leicester; but I could kneel to the proud Dudley,
+      if doing so could remove one shade of shame from this unhappy damsel. You
+      will assist me then to procure the necessary powers from Sir Hugh
+      Robsart?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The curate assured him of his assistance, and the herald nodded assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must hold yourselves also in readiness to testify, in case you are
+      called upon, the openhearted hospitality which our good patron exercised
+      towards this deceitful traitor, and the solicitude with which he laboured
+      to seduce his unhappy daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At first," said the clergyman, "she did not, as it seemed to me, much
+      affect his company; but latterly I saw them often together."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "SEIANT in the parlour," said Michael Mumblazen, "and PASSANT in the
+      garden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I once came on them by chance," said the priest, "in the South wood, in a
+      spring evening. Varney was muffled in a russet cloak, so that I saw not
+      his face. They separated hastily, as they heard me rustle amongst the
+      leaves; and I observed she turned her head and looked long after him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With neck REGUARDANT," said the herald. "And on the day of her flight,
+      and that was on Saint Austen's Eve, I saw Varney's groom, attired in his
+      liveries, hold his master's horse and Mistress Amy's palfrey, bridled and
+      saddled PROPER, behind the wall of the churchyard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now is she found mewed up in his secret place of retirement," said
+      Tressilian. "The villain is taken in the manner, and I well wish he may
+      deny his crime, that I may thrust conviction down his false throat! But I
+      must prepare for my journey. Do you, gentlemen, dispose my patron to grant
+      me such powers as are needful to act in his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, Tressilian left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is too hot," said the curate; "and I pray to God that He may grant him
+      the patience to deal with Varney as is fitting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Patience and Varney," said Mumblazen, "is worse heraldry than metal upon
+      metal. He is more false than a siren, more rapacious than a griffin, more
+      poisonous than a wyvern, and more cruel than a lion rampant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yet I doubt much," said the curate, "whether we can with propriety ask
+      from Sir Hugh Robsart, being in his present condition, any deed deputing
+      his paternal right in Mistress Amy to whomsoever&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your reverence need not doubt that," said Will Badger, who entered as he
+      spoke, "for I will lay my life he is another man when he wakes than he has
+      been these thirty days past."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, Will," said the curate, "hast thou then so much confidence in Doctor
+      Diddleum's draught?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not a whit," said Will, "because master ne'er tasted a drop on't, seeing
+      it was emptied out by the housemaid. But here's a gentleman, who came
+      attending on Master Tressilian, has given Sir Hugh a draught that is worth
+      twenty of yon un. I have spoken cunningly with him, and a better farrier
+      or one who hath a more just notion of horse and dog ailment I have never
+      seen; and such a one would never be unjust to a Christian man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A farrier! you saucy groom&mdash;and by whose authority, pray?" said the
+      curate, rising in surprise and indignation; "or who will be warrant for
+      this new physician?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For authority, an it like your reverence, he had mine; and for warrant, I
+      trust I have not been five-and-twenty years in this house without having
+      right to warrant the giving of a draught to beast or body&mdash;I who can
+      gie a drench, and a ball, and bleed, or blister, if need, to my very
+      self."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The counsellors of the house of Robsart thought it meet to carry this
+      information instantly to Tressilian, who as speedily summoned before him
+      Wayland Smith, and demanded of him (in private, however) by what authority
+      he had ventured to administer any medicine to Sir Hugh Robsart?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," replied the artist, "your worship cannot but remember that I told
+      you I had made more progress into my master's&mdash;I mean the learned
+      Doctor Doboobie's&mdash;mystery than he was willing to own; and indeed
+      half of his quarrel and malice against me was that, besides that I got
+      something too deep into his secrets, several discerning persons, and
+      particularly a buxom young widow of Abingdon, preferred my prescriptions
+      to his."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "None of thy buffoonery, sir," said Tressilian sternly. "If thou hast
+      trifled with us&mdash;much more, if thou hast done aught that may
+      prejudice Sir Hugh Robsart's health, thou shalt find thy grave at the
+      bottom of a tin-mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know too little of the great ARCANUM to convert the ore to gold," said
+      Wayland firmly. "But truce to your apprehensions, Master Tressilian. I
+      understood the good knight's case from what Master William Badger told me;
+      and I hope I am able enough to administer a poor dose of mandragora,
+      which, with the sleep that must needs follow, is all that Sir Hugh Robsart
+      requires to settle his distraught brains."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I trust thou dealest fairly with me, Wayland?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most fairly and honestly, as the event shall show," replied the artist.
+      "What would it avail me to harm the poor old man for whom you are
+      interested?&mdash;you, to whom I owe it that Gaffer Pinniewinks is not
+      even now rending my flesh and sinews with his accursed pincers, and
+      probing every mole in my body with his sharpened awl (a murrain on the
+      hands which forged it!) in order to find out the witch's mark?&mdash;I
+      trust to yoke myself as a humble follower to your worship's train, and I
+      only wish to have my faith judged of by the result of the good knight's
+      slumbers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland Smith was right in his prognostication. The sedative draught which
+      his skill had prepared, and Will Badger's confidence had administered, was
+      attended with the most beneficial effects. The patient's sleep was long
+      and healthful, and the poor old knight awoke, humbled indeed in thought
+      and weak in frame, yet a much better judge of whatever was subjected to
+      his intellect than he had been for some time past. He resisted for a while
+      the proposal made by his friends that Tressilian should undertake a
+      journey to court, to attempt the recovery of his daughter, and the redress
+      of her wrongs, in so far as they might yet be repaired. "Let her go," he
+      said; "she is but a hawk that goes down the wind; I would not bestow even
+      a whistle to reclaim her." But though he for some time maintained this
+      argument, he was at length convinced it was his duty to take the part to
+      which natural affection inclined him, and consent that such efforts as
+      could yet be made should be used by Tressilian in behalf of his daughter.
+      He subscribed, therefore, a warrant of attorney, such as the curate's
+      skill enabled him to draw up; for in those simple days the clergy were
+      often the advisers of their flock in law as well as in gospel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All matters were prepared for Tressilian's second departure, within
+      twenty-four hours after he had returned to Lidcote Hall; but one material
+      circumstance had been forgotten, which was first called to the remembrance
+      of Tressilian by Master Mumblazen. "You are going to court, Master
+      Tressilian," said he; "you will please remember that your blazonry must be
+      ARGENT and OR&mdash;no other tinctures will pass current." The remark was
+      equally just and embarrassing. To prosecute a suit at court, ready money
+      was as indispensable even in the golden days of Elizabeth as at any
+      succeeding period; and it was a commodity little at the command of the
+      inhabitants of Lidcote Hall. Tressilian was himself poor; the revenues of
+      good Sir Hugh Robsart were consumed, and even anticipated, in his
+      hospitable mode of living; and it was finally necessary that the herald
+      who started the doubt should himself solve it. Master Michael Mumblazen
+      did so by producing a bag of money, containing nearly three hundred pounds
+      in gold and silver of various coinage, the savings of twenty years, which
+      he now, without speaking a syllable upon the subject, dedicated to the
+      service of the patron whose shelter and protection had given him the means
+      of making this little hoard. Tressilian accepted it without affecting a
+      moment's hesitation, and a mutual grasp of the hand was all that passed
+      betwixt them, to express the pleasure which the one felt in dedicating his
+      all to such a purpose, and that which the other received from finding so
+      material an obstacle to the success of his journey so suddenly removed,
+      and in a manner so unexpected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Tressilian was making preparations for his departure early the
+      ensuing morning, Wayland Smith desired to speak with him, and, expressing
+      his hope that he had been pleased with the operation of his medicine in
+      behalf of Sir Hugh Robsart, added his desire to accompany him to court.
+      This was indeed what Tressilian himself had several times thought of; for
+      the shrewdness, alertness of understanding, and variety of resource which
+      this fellow had exhibited during the time they had travelled together, had
+      made him sensible that his assistance might be of importance. But then
+      Wayland was in danger from the grasp of law; and of this Tressilian
+      reminded him, mentioning something, at the same time, of the pincers of
+      Pinniewinks and the warrant of Master Justice Blindas. Wayland Smith
+      laughed both to scorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "See you, sir!" said he, "I have changed my garb from that of a farrier to
+      a serving-man; but were it still as it was, look at my moustaches. They
+      now hang down; I will but turn them up, and dye them with a tincture that
+      I know of, and the devil would scarce know me again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He accompanied these words with the appropriate action, and in less than a
+      minute, by setting up, his moustaches and his hair, he seemed a different
+      person from him that had but now entered the room. Still, however,
+      Tressilian hesitated to accept his services, and the artist became
+      proportionably urgent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I owe you life and limb," he said, "and I would fain pay a part of the
+      debt, especially as I know from Will Badger on what dangerous service your
+      worship is bound. I do not, indeed, pretend to be what is called a man of
+      mettle, one of those ruffling tear-cats who maintain their master's
+      quarrel with sword and buckler. Nay, I am even one of those who hold the
+      end of a feast better than the beginning of a fray. But I know that I can
+      serve your worship better, in such quest as yours, than any of these
+      sword-and-dagger men, and that my head will be worth an hundred of their
+      hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian still hesitated. He knew not much of this strange fellow, and
+      was doubtful how far he could repose in him the confidence necessary to
+      render him a useful attendant upon the present emergency. Ere he had come
+      to a determination, the trampling of a horse was heard in the courtyard,
+      and Master Mumblazen and Will Badger both entered hastily into
+      Tressilian's chamber, speaking almost at the same moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is a serving-man on the bonniest grey tit I ever see'd in my life,"
+      said Will Badger, who got the start&mdash;"having on his arm a silver
+      cognizance, being a fire-drake holding in his mouth a brickbat, under a
+      coronet of an Earl's degree," said Master Mumblazen, "and bearing a letter
+      sealed of the same."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian took the letter, which was addressed "To the worshipful Master
+      Edmund Tressilian, our loving kinsman&mdash;These&mdash;ride, ride, ride&mdash;for
+      thy life, for thy life, for thy life." He then opened it, and found the
+      following contents:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "MASTER TRESSILIAN, OUR GOOD FRIEND AND COUSIN,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We are at present so ill at ease, and otherwise so unhappily
+      circumstanced, that we are desirous to have around us those of our friends
+      on whose loving-kindness we can most especially repose confidence; amongst
+      whom we hold our good Master Tressilian one of the foremost and nearest,
+      both in good will and good ability. We therefore pray you, with your most
+      convenient speed, to repair to our poor lodging, at Sayes Court, near
+      Deptford, where we will treat further with you of matters which we deem it
+      not fit to commit unto writing. And so we bid you heartily farewell, being
+      your loving kinsman to command,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "RATCLIFFE, EARL OF SUSSEX."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Send up the messenger instantly, Will Badger," said Tressilian; and as
+      the man entered the room, he exclaimed, "Ah, Stevens, is it you? how does
+      my good lord?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ill, Master Tressilian," was the messenger's reply, "and having therefore
+      the more need of good friends around him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But what is my lord's malady?" said Tressilian anxiously; "I heard
+      nothing of his being ill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not, sir," replied the man; "he is very ill at ease. The leeches
+      are at a stand, and many of his household suspect foul
+      practice-witchcraft, or worse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What are the symptoms?" said Wayland Smith, stepping forward hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Anan?" said the messenger, not comprehending his meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What does he ail?" said Wayland; "where lies his disease?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man looked at Tressilian, as if to know whether he should answer these
+      inquiries from a stranger, and receiving a sign in the affirmative, he
+      hastily enumerated gradual loss of strength, nocturnal perspiration, and
+      loss of appetite, faintness, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Joined," said Wayland, "to a gnawing pain in the stomach, and a low
+      fever?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even so," said the messenger, somewhat surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know how the disease is caused," said the artist, "and I know the
+      cause. Your master has eaten of the manna of Saint Nicholas. I know the
+      cure too&mdash;my master shall not say I studied in his laboratory for
+      nothing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How mean you?" said Tressilian, frowning; "we speak of one of the first
+      nobles of England. Bethink you, this is no subject for buffoonery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God forbid!" said Wayland Smith. "I say that I know this disease, and can
+      cure him. Remember what I did for Sir Hugh Robsart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will set forth instantly," said Tressilian. "God calls us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, hastily mentioning this new motive for his instant departure,
+      though without alluding to either the suspicions of Stevens, or the
+      assurances of Wayland Smith, he took the kindest leave of Sir Hugh and the
+      family at Lidcote Hall, who accompanied him with prayers and blessings,
+      and, attended by Wayland and the Earl of Sussex's domestic, travelled with
+      the utmost speed towards London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Ay, I know you have arsenic,
+     Vitriol, sal-tartre, argaile, alkaly,
+     Cinoper:  I know all.&mdash;This fellow, Captain,
+     Will come in time to be a great distiller,
+     And give a say (I will not say directly,
+     But very near) at the philosopher's stone.   THE ALCHEMIST.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian and his attendants pressed their route with all dispatch. He
+      had asked the smith, indeed, when their departure was resolved on, whether
+      he would not rather choose to avoid Berkshire, in which he had played a
+      part so conspicuous? But Wayland returned a confident answer. He had
+      employed the short interval they passed at Lidcote Hall in transforming
+      himself in a wonderful manner. His wild and overgrown thicket of beard was
+      now restrained to two small moustaches on the upper lip, turned up in a
+      military fashion. A tailor from the village of Lidcote (well paid) had
+      exerted his skill, under his customer's directions, so as completely to
+      alter Wayland's outward man, and take off from his appearance almost
+      twenty years of age. Formerly, besmeared with soot and charcoal, overgrown
+      with hair, and bent double with the nature of his labour, disfigured too
+      by his odd and fantastic dress, he seemed a man of fifty years old. But
+      now, in a handsome suit of Tressilian's livery, with a sword by his side
+      and a buckler on his shoulder, he looked like a gay ruffling serving-man,
+      whose age might be betwixt thirty and thirty-five, the very prime of human
+      life. His loutish, savage-looking demeanour seemed equally changed, into a
+      forward, sharp, and impudent alertness of look and action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When challenged by Tressilian, who desired to know the cause of a
+      metamorphosis so singular and so absolute, Wayland only answered by
+      singing a stave from a comedy, which was then new, and was supposed, among
+      the more favourable judges, to augur some genius on the part of the
+      author. We are happy to preserve the couplet, which ran exactly thus,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Ban, ban, ca Caliban&mdash;
+     Get a new master&mdash;Be a new man."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Although Tressilian did not recollect the verses, yet they reminded him
+      that Wayland had once been a stage player, a circumstance which, of
+      itself, accounted indifferently well for the readiness with which he could
+      assume so total a change of personal appearance. The artist himself was so
+      confident of his disguise being completely changed, or of his having
+      completely changed his disguise, which may be the more correct mode of
+      speaking, that he regretted they were not to pass near his old place of
+      retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I could venture," he said, "in my present dress, and with your worship's
+      backing, to face Master Justice Blindas, even on a day of Quarter
+      Sessions; and I would like to know what is become of Hobgoblin, who is
+      like to play the devil in the world, if he can once slip the string, and
+      leave his granny and his dominie.&mdash;Ay, and the scathed vault!" he
+      said; "I would willingly have seen what havoc the explosion of so much
+      gunpowder has made among Doctor Demetrius Doboobie's retorts and phials. I
+      warrant me, my fame haunts the Vale of the Whitehorse long after my body
+      is rotten; and that many a lout ties up his horse, lays down his silver
+      groat, and pipes like a sailor whistling in a calm for Wayland Smith to
+      come and shoe his tit for him. But the horse will catch the founders ere
+      the smith answers the call."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this particular, indeed, Wayland proved a true prophet; and so easily
+      do fables rise, that an obscure tradition of his extraordinary practice in
+      farriery prevails in the Vale of Whitehorse even unto this day; and
+      neither the tradition of Alfred's Victory, nor of the celebrated Pusey
+      Horn, are better preserved in Berkshire than the wild legend of Wayland
+      Smith. [See Note 2, Legend of Wayland Smith.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The haste of the travellers admitted their making no stay upon their
+      journey, save what the refreshment of the horses required; and as many of
+      the places through which they passed were under the influence of the Earl
+      of Leicester, or persons immediately dependent on him, they thought it
+      prudent to disguise their names and the purpose of their journey. On such
+      occasions the agency of Wayland Smith (by which name we shall continue to
+      distinguish the artist, though his real name was Lancelot Wayland) was
+      extremely serviceable. He seemed, indeed, to have a pleasure in displaying
+      the alertness with which he could baffle investigation, and amuse himself
+      by putting the curiosity of tapsters and inn-keepers on a false scent.
+      During the course of their brief journey, three different and inconsistent
+      reports were circulated by him on their account&mdash;namely, first, that
+      Tressilian was the Lord Deputy of Ireland, come over in disguise to take
+      the Queen's pleasure concerning the great rebel Rory Oge MacCarthy
+      MacMahon; secondly, that the said Tressilian was an agent of Monsieur,
+      coming to urge his suit to the hand of Elizabeth; thirdly, that he was the
+      Duke of Medina, come over, incognito, to adjust the quarrel betwixt Philip
+      and that princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian was angry, and expostulated with the artist on the various
+      inconveniences, and, in particular, the unnecessary degree of attention to
+      which they were subjected by the figments he thus circulated; but he was
+      pacified (for who could be proof against such an argument?) by Wayland's
+      assuring him that a general importance was attached to his own
+      (Tressilian's) striking presence, which rendered it necessary to give an
+      extraordinary reason for the rapidity and secrecy of his journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length they approached the metropolis, where, owing to the more general
+      recourse of strangers, their appearance excited neither observation nor
+      inquiry, and finally they entered London itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Tressilian's purpose to go down directly to Deptford, where Lord
+      Sussex resided, in order to be near the court, then held at Greenwich, the
+      favourite residence of Elizabeth, and honoured as her birthplace. Still a
+      brief halt in London was necessary; and it was somewhat prolonged by the
+      earnest entreaties of Wayland Smith, who desired permission to take a walk
+      through the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take thy sword and buckler, and follow me, then," said Tressilian; "I am
+      about to walk myself, and we will go in company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This he said, because he was not altogether so secure of the fidelity of
+      his new retainer as to lose sight of him at this interesting moment, when
+      rival factions at the court of Elizabeth were running so high. Wayland
+      Smith willingly acquiesced in the precaution, of which he probably
+      conjectured the motive, but only stipulated that his master should enter
+      the shops of such chemists or apothecaries as he should point out, in
+      walking through Fleet Street, and permit him to make some necessary
+      purchases. Tressilian agreed, and obeying the signal of his attendant,
+      walked successively into more than four or five shops, where he observed
+      that Wayland purchased in each only one single drug, in various
+      quantities. The medicines which he first asked for were readily furnished,
+      each in succession, but those which he afterwards required were less
+      easily supplied; and Tressilian observed that Wayland more than once, to
+      the surprise of the shopkeeper, returned the gum or herb that was offered
+      to him, and compelled him to exchange it for the right sort, or else went
+      on to seek it elsewhere. But one ingredient, in particular, seemed almost
+      impossible to be found. Some chemists plainly admitted they had never seen
+      it; others denied that such a drug existed, excepting in the imagination
+      of crazy alchemists; and most of them attempted to satisfy their customer,
+      by producing some substitute, which, when rejected by Wayland, as not
+      being what he had asked for, they maintained possessed, in a superior
+      degree, the self-same qualities. In general they all displayed some
+      curiosity concerning the purpose for which he wanted it. One old, meagre
+      chemist, to whom the artist put the usual question, in terms which
+      Tressilian neither understood nor could recollect, answered frankly, there
+      was none of that drug in London, unless Yoglan the Jew chanced to have
+      some of it upon hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I thought as much," said Wayland. And as soon as they left the shop, he
+      said to Tressilian, "I crave your pardon, sir, but no artist can work
+      without his tools. I must needs go to this Yoglan's; and I promise you,
+      that if this detains you longer than your leisure seems to permit, you
+      shall, nevertheless, be well repaid by the use I will make of this rare
+      drug. Permit me," he added, "to walk before you, for we are now to quit
+      the broad street and we will make double speed if I lead the way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian acquiesced, and, following the smith down a lane which turned
+      to the left hand towards the river, he found that his guide walked on with
+      great speed, and apparently perfect knowledge of the town, through a
+      labyrinth of by-streets, courts, and blind alleys, until at length Wayland
+      paused in the midst of a very narrow lane, the termination of which showed
+      a peep of the Thames looking misty and muddy, which background was crossed
+      saltierwise, as Mr. Mumblazen might have said, by the masts of two
+      lighters that lay waiting for the tide. The shop under which he halted had
+      not, as in modern days, a glazed window, but a paltry canvas screen
+      surrounded such a stall as a cobbler now occupies, having the front open,
+      much in the manner of a fishmonger's booth of the present day. A little
+      old smock-faced man, the very reverse of a Jew in complexion, for he was
+      very soft-haired as well as beardless, appeared, and with many courtesies
+      asked Wayland what he pleased to want. He had no sooner named the drug,
+      than the Jew started and looked surprised. "And vat might your vorship
+      vant vith that drug, which is not named, mein God, in forty years as I
+      have been chemist here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "These questions it is no part of my commission to answer," said Wayland;
+      "I only wish to know if you have what I want, and having it, are willing
+      to sell it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, mein God, for having it, that I have, and for selling it, I am a
+      chemist, and sell every drug." So saying, he exhibited a powder, and then
+      continued, "But it will cost much moneys. Vat I ave cost its weight in
+      gold&mdash;ay, gold well-refined&mdash;I vill say six times. It comes from
+      Mount Sinai, where we had our blessed Law given forth, and the plant
+      blossoms but once in one hundred year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do not know how often it is gathered on Mount Sinai," said Wayland,
+      after looking at the drug offered him with great disdain, "but I will
+      wager my sword and buckler against your gaberdine, that this trash you
+      offer me, instead of what I asked for, may be had for gathering any day of
+      the week in the castle ditch of Aleppo."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are a rude man," said the Jew; "and, besides, I ave no better than
+      that&mdash;or if I ave, I will not sell it without order of a physician,
+      or without you tell me vat you make of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist made brief answer in a language of which Tressilian could not
+      understand a word, and which seemed to strike the Jew with the utmost
+      astonishment. He stared upon Wayland like one who has suddenly recognized
+      some mighty hero or dreaded potentate, in the person of an unknown and
+      unmarked stranger. "Holy Elias!" he exclaimed, when he had recovered the
+      first stunning effects of his surprise; and then passing from his former
+      suspicious and surly manner to the very extremity of obsequiousness, he
+      cringed low to the artist, and besought him to enter his poor house, to
+      bless his miserable threshold by crossing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Vill you not taste a cup vith the poor Jew, Zacharias Yoglan?&mdash;Vill
+      you Tokay ave?&mdash;vill you Lachrymae taste?&mdash;vill you&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You offend in your proffers," said Wayland; "minister to me in what I
+      require of you, and forbear further discourse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rebuked Israelite took his bunch of keys, and opening with
+      circumspection a cabinet which seemed more strongly secured than the other
+      cases of drugs and medicines amongst which it stood, he drew out a little
+      secret drawer, having a glass lid, and containing a small portion of a
+      black powder. This he offered to Wayland, his manner conveying the deepest
+      devotion towards him, though an avaricious and jealous expression, which
+      seemed to grudge every grain of what his customer was about to possess
+      himself, disputed ground in his countenance with the obsequious deference
+      which he desired it should exhibit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have you scales?" said Wayland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Jew pointed to those which lay ready for common use in the shop, but
+      he did so with a puzzled expression of doubt and fear, which did not
+      escape the artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They must be other than these," said Wayland sternly. "Know you not that
+      holy things lose their virtue if weighed in an unjust balance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Jew hung his head, took from a steel-plated casket a pair of scales
+      beautifully mounted, and said, as he adjusted them for the artist's use,
+      "With these I do mine own experiment&mdash;one hair of the high-priest's
+      beard would turn them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It suffices," said the artist, and weighed out two drachms for himself of
+      the black powder, which he very carefully folded up, and put into his
+      pouch with the other drugs. He then demanded the price of the Jew, who
+      answered, shaking his head and bowing,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No price&mdash;no, nothing at all from such as you. But you will see the
+      poor Jew again? you will look into his laboratory, where, God help him, he
+      hath dried himself to the substance of the withered gourd of Jonah, the
+      holy prophet. You will ave pity on him, and show him one little step on
+      the great road?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush!" said Wayland, laying his finger mysteriously on his mouth; "it may
+      be we shall meet again. Thou hast already the SCHAHMAJM, as thine own
+      Rabbis call it&mdash;the general creation; watch, therefore, and pray, for
+      thou must attain the knowledge of Alchahest Elixir Samech ere I may
+      commune further with thee." Then returning with a slight nod the
+      reverential congees of the Jew, he walked gravely up the lane, followed by
+      his master, whose first observation on the scene he had just witnessed
+      was, that Wayland ought to have paid the man for his drug, whatever it
+      was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I pay him?" said the artist. "May the foul fiend pay me if I do! Had it
+      not been that I thought it might displease your worship, I would have had
+      an ounce or two of gold out of him, in exchange of the same just weight of
+      brick dust."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I advise you to practise no such knavery while waiting upon me," said
+      Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did I not say," answered the artist, "that for that reason alone I
+      forbore him for the present?&mdash;Knavery, call you it? Why, yonder
+      wretched skeleton hath wealth sufficient to pave the whole lane he lives
+      in with dollars, and scarce miss them out of his own iron chest; yet he
+      goes mad after the philosopher's stone. And besides, he would have cheated
+      a poor serving-man, as he thought me at first, with trash that was not
+      worth a penny. Match for match, quoth the devil to the collier; if his
+      false medicine was worth my good crowns, my true brick dust is as well
+      worth his good gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be so, for aught I know," said Tressilian, "in dealing amongst
+      Jews and apothecaries; but understand that to have such tricks of
+      legerdemain practised by one attending on me diminishes my honour, and
+      that I will not permit them. I trust thou hast made up thy purchases?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have, sir," replied Wayland; "and with these drugs will I, this very
+      day, compound the true orvietan, that noble medicine which is so seldom
+      found genuine and effective within these realms of Europe, for want of
+      that most rare and precious drug which I got but now from Yoglan."
+      [Orvietan, or Venice treacle, as it was sometimes called, was understood
+      to be a sovereign remedy against poison; and the reader must be contented,
+      for the time he peruses these pages, to hold the same opinion, which was
+      once universally received by the learned as well as the vulgar.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But why not have made all your purchases at one shop?" said his master;
+      "we have lost nearly an hour in running from one pounder of simples to
+      another."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Content you, sir," said Wayland. "No man shall learn my secret; and it
+      would not be mine long, were I to buy all my materials from one chemist."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now returned to their inn (the famous Bell-Savage); and while the
+      Lord Sussex's servant prepared the horses for their journey, Wayland,
+      obtaining from the cook the service of a mortar, shut himself up in a
+      private chamber, where he mixed, pounded, and amalgamated the drugs which
+      he had bought, each in its due proportion, with a readiness and address
+      that plainly showed him well practised in all the manual operations of
+      pharmacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time Wayland's electuary was prepared the horses were ready, and a
+      short hour's riding brought them to the present habitation of Lord Sussex,
+      an ancient house, called Sayes Court, near Deptford, which had long
+      pertained to a family of that name, but had for upwards of a century been
+      possessed by the ancient and honourable family of Evelyn. The present
+      representative of that ancient house took a deep interest in the Earl of
+      Sussex, and had willingly accommodated both him and his numerous retinue
+      in his hospitable mansion. Sayes Court was afterwards the residence of the
+      celebrated Mr. Evelyn, whose "Silva" is still the manual of British
+      planters; and whose life, manners, and principles, as illustrated in his
+      Memoirs, ought equally to be the manual of English gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     This is rare news thou tell'st me, my good fellow;
+     There are two bulls fierce battling on the green
+     For one fair heifer&mdash;if the one goes down,
+     The dale will be more peaceful, and the herd,
+     Which have small interest in their brulziement,
+     May pasture there in peace.     &mdash;OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sayes Court was watched like a beleaguered fort; and so high rose the
+      suspicions of the time, that Tressilian and his attendants were stopped
+      and questioned repeatedly by sentinels, both on foot and horseback, as
+      they approached the abode of the sick Earl. In truth, the high rank which
+      Sussex held in Queen Elizabeth's favour, and his known and avowed rivalry
+      of the Earl of Leicester, caused the utmost importance to be attached to
+      his welfare; for, at the period we treat of, all men doubted whether he or
+      the Earl of Leicester might ultimately have the higher rank in her regard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth, like many of her sex, was fond of governing by factions, so as
+      to balance two opposing interests, and reserve in her own hand the power
+      of making either predominate, as the interest of the state, or perhaps as
+      her own female caprice (for to that foible even she was not superior),
+      might finally determine. To finesse&mdash;to hold the cards&mdash;to
+      oppose one interest to another&mdash;to bridle him who thought himself
+      highest in her esteem, by the fears he must entertain of another equally
+      trusted, if not equally beloved, were arts which she used throughout her
+      reign, and which enabled her, though frequently giving way to the weakness
+      of favouritism, to prevent most of its evil effects on her kingdom and
+      government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two nobles who at present stood as rivals in her favour possessed very
+      different pretensions to share it; yet it might be in general said that
+      the Earl of Sussex had been most serviceable to the Queen, while Leicester
+      was most dear to the woman. Sussex was, according to the phrase of the
+      times, a martialist&mdash;had done good service in Ireland and in
+      Scotland, and especially in the great northern rebellion, in 1569, which
+      was quelled, in a great measure, by his military talents. He was,
+      therefore, naturally surrounded and looked up to by those who wished to
+      make arms their road to distinction. The Earl of Sussex, moreover, was of
+      more ancient and honourable descent than his rival, uniting in his person
+      the representation of the Fitz-Walters, as well as of the Ratcliffes;
+      while the scutcheon of Leicester was stained by the degradation of his
+      grandfather, the oppressive minister of Henry VII., and scarce improved by
+      that of his father, the unhappy Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, executed
+      on Tower Hill, August 22, 1553. But in person, features, and address,
+      weapons so formidable in the court of a female sovereign, Leicester had
+      advantages more than sufficient to counterbalance the military services,
+      high blood, and frank bearing of the Earl of Sussex; and he bore, in the
+      eye of the court and kingdom, the higher share in Elizabeth's favour,
+      though (for such was her uniform policy) by no means so decidedly
+      expressed as to warrant him against the final preponderance of his rival's
+      pretensions. The illness of Sussex therefore happened so opportunely for
+      Leicester, as to give rise to strange surmises among the public; while the
+      followers of the one Earl were filled with the deepest apprehensions, and
+      those of the other with the highest hopes of its probable issue. Meanwhile&mdash;for
+      in that old time men never forgot the probability that the matter might be
+      determined by length of sword&mdash;the retainers of each noble flocked
+      around their patron, appeared well armed in the vicinity of the court
+      itself, and disturbed the ear of the sovereign by their frequent and
+      alarming debates, held even within the precincts of her palace. This
+      preliminary statement is necessary, to render what follows intelligible to
+      the reader. [See Note 3. Leicester and Sussex.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Tressilian's arrival at Sayes Court, he found the place filled with the
+      retainers of the Earl of Sussex, and of the gentlemen who came to attend
+      their patron in his illness. Arms were in every hand, and a deep gloom on
+      every countenance, as if they had apprehended an immediate and violent
+      assault from the opposite faction. In the hall, however, to which
+      Tressilian was ushered by one of the Earl's attendants, while another went
+      to inform Sussex of his arrival, he found only two gentlemen in waiting.
+      There was a remarkable contrast in their dress, appearance, and manners.
+      The attire of the elder gentleman, a person as it seemed of quality and in
+      the prime of life, was very plain and soldierlike, his stature low, his
+      limbs stout, his bearing ungraceful, and his features of that kind which
+      express sound common sense, without a grain of vivacity or imagination.
+      The younger, who seemed about twenty, or upwards, was clad in the gayest
+      habit used by persons of quality at the period, wearing a crimson velvet
+      cloak richly ornamented with lace and embroidery, with a bonnet of the
+      same, encircled with a gold chain turned three times round it, and secured
+      by a medal. His hair was adjusted very nearly like that of some fine
+      gentlemen of our own time&mdash;that is, it was combed upwards, and made
+      to stand as it were on end; and in his ears he wore a pair of silver
+      earrings, having each a pearl of considerable size. The countenance of
+      this youth, besides being regularly handsome and accompanied by a fine
+      person, was animated and striking in a degree that seemed to speak at once
+      the firmness of a decided and the fire of an enterprising character, the
+      power of reflection, and the promptitude of determination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both these gentlemen reclined nearly in the same posture on benches near
+      each other; but each seeming engaged in his own meditations, looked
+      straight upon the wall which was opposite to them, without speaking to his
+      companion. The looks of the elder were of that sort which convinced the
+      beholder that, in looking on the wall, he saw no more than the side of an
+      old hall hung around with cloaks, antlers, bucklers, old pieces of armour,
+      partisans, and the similar articles which were usually the furniture of
+      such a place. The look of the younger gallant had in it something
+      imaginative; he was sunk in reverie, and it seemed as if the empty space
+      of air betwixt him and the wall were the stage of a theatre on which his
+      fancy was mustering his own DRAMATIS PERSONAE, and treating him with
+      sights far different from those which his awakened and earthly vision
+      could have offered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the entrance of Tressilian both started from their musing, and made him
+      welcome&mdash;the younger, in particular, with great appearance of
+      animation and cordiality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art welcome, Tressilian," said the youth. "Thy philosophy stole thee
+      from us when this household had objects of ambition to offer; it is an
+      honest philosophy, since it returns thee to us when there are only dangers
+      to be shared."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is my lord, then, so greatly indisposed?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We fear the very worst," answered the elder gentleman, "and by the worst
+      practice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fie," replied Tressilian, "my Lord of Leicester is honourable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What doth he with such attendants, then, as he hath about him?" said the
+      younger gallant. "The man who raises the devil may be honest, but he is
+      answerable for the mischief which the fiend does, for all that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is this all of you, my mates," inquired Tressilian, "that are about
+      my lord in his utmost straits?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, no," replied the elder gentleman, "there are Tracy, Markham, and
+      several more; but we keep watch here by two at once, and some are weary
+      and are sleeping in the gallery above."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And some," said the young man, "are gone down to the Dock yonder at
+      Deptford, to look out such a hull; as they may purchase by clubbing their
+      broken fortunes; and as soon as all is over, we will lay our noble lord in
+      a noble green grave, have a blow at those who have hurried him thither, if
+      opportunity suits, and then sail for the Indies with heavy hearts and
+      light purses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be," said Tressilian, "that I will embrace the same purpose, so
+      soon as I have settled some business at court."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou business at court!" they both exclaimed at once, "and thou make the
+      Indian voyage!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Tressilian," said the younger man, "art thou not wedded, and beyond
+      these flaws of fortune, that drive folks out to sea when their bark bears
+      fairest for the haven?&mdash;What has become of the lovely Indamira that
+      was to match my Amoret for truth and beauty?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not of her!" said Tressilian, averting his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, stands it so with you?" said the youth, taking his hand very
+      affectionately; "then, fear not I will again touch the green wound. But it
+      is strange as well as sad news. Are none of our fair and merry fellowship
+      to escape shipwreck of fortune and happiness in this sudden tempest? I had
+      hoped thou wert in harbour, at least, my dear Edmund. But truly says
+      another dear friend of thy name,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'What man that sees the ever whirling wheel
+     Of Chance, the which all mortal things doth sway,
+     But that thereby doth find and plainly feel,
+     How Mutability in them doth play
+     Her cruel sports to many men's decay.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The elder gentleman had risen from his bench, and was pacing the hall with
+      some impatience, while the youth, with much earnestness and feeling,
+      recited these lines. When he had done, the other wrapped himself in his
+      cloak, and again stretched himself down, saying, "I marvel, Tressilian,
+      you will feed the lad in this silly humour. If there were ought to draw a
+      judgment upon a virtuous and honourable household like my lord's, renounce
+      me if I think not it were this piping, whining, childish trick of poetry,
+      that came among us with Master Walter Wittypate here and his comrades,
+      twisting into all manner of uncouth and incomprehensible forms of speech,
+      the honest plain English phrase which God gave us to express our meaning
+      withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blount believes," said his comrade, laughing, "the devil woo'd Eve in
+      rhyme, and that the mystic meaning of the Tree of Knowledge refers solely
+      to the art of clashing rhymes and meting out hexameters." [See Note 4. Sir
+      Walter Raleigh.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the Earl's chamberlain entered, and informed Tressilian
+      that his lord required to speak with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found Lord Sussex dressed, but unbraced, and lying on his couch, and
+      was shocked at the alteration disease had made in his person. The Earl
+      received him with the most friendly cordiality, and inquired into the
+      state of his courtship. Tressilian evaded his inquiries for a moment, and
+      turning his discourse on the Earl's own health, he discovered, to his
+      surprise, that the symptoms of his disorder corresponded minutely with
+      those which Wayland had predicated concerning it. He hesitated not,
+      therefore, to communicate to Sussex the whole history of his attendant,
+      and the pretensions he set up to cure the disorder under which he
+      laboured. The Earl listened with incredulous attention until the name of
+      Demetrius was mentioned, and then suddenly called to his secretary to
+      bring him a certain casket which contained papers of importance. "Take out
+      from thence," he said, "the declaration of the rascal cook whom we had
+      under examination, and look heedfully if the name of Demetrius be not
+      there mentioned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The secretary turned to the passage at once, and read, "And said
+      declarant, being examined, saith, That he remembers having made the sauce
+      to the said sturgeon-fish, after eating of which the said noble Lord was
+      taken ill; and he put the usual ingredients and condiments therein, namely&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pass over his trash," said the Earl, "and see whether he had not been
+      supplied with his materials by a herbalist called Demetrius."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is even so," answered the secretary. "And he adds, he has not since
+      seen the said Demetrius."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This accords with thy fellow's story, Tressilian," said the Earl; "call
+      him hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On being summoned to the Earl's presence, Wayland Smith told his former
+      tale with firmness and consistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It may be," said the Earl, "thou art sent by those who have begun this
+      work, to end it for them; but bethink, if I miscarry under thy medicine,
+      it may go hard with thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That were severe measure," said Wayland, "since the issue of medicine,
+      and the end of life, are in God's disposal. But I will stand the risk. I
+      have not lived so long under ground to be afraid of a grave."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if thou be'st so confident," said the Earl of Sussex, "I will take
+      the risk too, for the learned can do nothing for me. Tell me how this
+      medicine is to be taken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That will I do presently," said Wayland; "but allow me to condition that,
+      since I incur all the risk of this treatment, no other physician shall be
+      permitted to interfere with it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is but fair," replied the Earl; "and now prepare your drug."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Wayland obeyed the Earl's commands, his servants, by the artist's
+      direction, undressed their master, and placed him in bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I warn you," he said, "that the first operation of this medicine will be
+      to produce a heavy sleep, during which time the chamber must be kept
+      undisturbed, as the consequences may otherwise he fatal. I myself will
+      watch by the Earl with any of the gentlemen of his chamber."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let all leave the room, save Stanley and this good fellow," said the
+      Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And saving me also," said Tressilian. "I too am deeply interested in the
+      effects of this potion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so, good friend," said the Earl. "And now for our experiment; but
+      first call my secretary and chamberlain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bear witness," he continued, when these officers arrived&mdash;"bear
+      witness for me, gentlemen, that our honourable friend Tressilian is in no
+      way responsible for the effects which this medicine may produce upon me,
+      the taking it being my own free action and choice, in regard I believe it
+      to be a remedy which God has furnished me by unexpected means to recover
+      me of my present malady. Commend me to my noble and princely Mistress; and
+      say that I live and die her true servant, and wish to all about her throne
+      the same singleness of heart and will to serve her, with more ability to
+      do so than hath been assigned to poor Thomas Ratcliffe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then folded his hands, and seemed for a second or two absorbed in
+      mental devotion, then took the potion in his hand, and, pausing, regarded
+      Wayland with a look that seemed designed to penetrate his very soul, but
+      which caused no anxiety or hesitation in the countenance or manner of the
+      artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is nothing to be feared," said Sussex to Tressilian, and swallowed
+      the medicine without further hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am now to pray your lordship," said Wayland, "to dispose yourself to
+      rest as commodiously as you can; and of you, gentlemen, to remain as still
+      and mute as if you waited at your mother's deathbed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chamberlain and secretary then withdrew, giving orders that all doors
+      should be bolted, and all noise in the house strictly prohibited. Several
+      gentlemen were voluntary watchers in the hall, but none remained in the
+      chamber of the sick Earl, save his groom of the chamber, the artist, and
+      Tressilian.&mdash;Wayland Smith's predictions were speedily accomplished,
+      and a sleep fell upon the Earl, so deep and sound that they who watched
+      his bedside began to fear that, in his weakened state, he might pass away
+      without awakening from his lethargy. Wayland Smith himself appeared
+      anxious, and felt the temples of the Earl slightly, from time to time,
+      attending particularly to the state of his respiration, which was full and
+      deep, but at the same time easy and uninterrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     You loggerheaded and unpolish'd grooms,
+     What, no attendance, no regard, no duty?
+     Where is the foolish knave I sent before?
+     &mdash;TAMING OF THE SHREW.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is no period at which men look worse in the eyes of each other, or
+      feel more uncomfortable, than when the first dawn of daylight finds them
+      watchers. Even a beauty of the first order, after the vigils of a ball are
+      interrupted by the dawn, would do wisely to withdraw herself from the gaze
+      of her fondest and most partial admirers. Such was the pale, inauspicious,
+      and ungrateful light which began to beam upon those who kept watch all
+      night in the hall at Sayes Court, and which mingled its cold, pale, blue
+      diffusion with the red, yellow, and smoky beams of expiring lamps and
+      torches. The young gallant, whom we noticed in our last chapter, had left
+      the room for a few minutes, to learn the cause of a knocking at the
+      outward gate, and on his return was so struck with the forlorn and ghastly
+      aspects of his companions of the watch that he exclaimed, "Pity of my
+      heart, my masters, how like owls you look! Methinks, when the sun rises, I
+      shall see you flutter off with your eyes dazzled, to stick yourselves into
+      the next ivy-tod or ruined steeple."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold thy peace, thou gibing fool," said Blount; "hold thy peace. Is this
+      a time for jeering, when the manhood of England is perchance dying within
+      a wall's breadth of thee?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There thou liest," replied the gallant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, lie!" exclaimed Blount, starting up, "lie! and to me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, so thou didst, thou peevish fool," answered the youth; "thou didst
+      lie on that bench even now, didst thou not? But art thou not a hasty
+      coxcomb to pick up a wry word so wrathfully? Nevertheless, loving and,
+      honouring my lord as truly as thou, or any one, I do say that, should
+      Heaven take him from us, all England's manhood dies not with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," replied Blount, "a good portion will survive with thee, doubtless."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And a good portion with thyself, Blount, and with stout Markham here, and
+      Tracy, and all of us. But I am he will best employ the talent Heaven has
+      given to us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As how, I prithee?" said Blount; "tell us your mystery of multiplying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, sirs," answered the youth, "ye are like goodly land, which bears no
+      crop because it is not quickened by manure; but I have that rising spirit
+      in me which will make my poor faculties labour to keep pace with it. My
+      ambition will keep my brain at work, I warrant thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I pray to God it does not drive thee mad," said Blount; "for my part, if
+      we lose our noble lord, I bid adieu to the court and to the camp both. I
+      have five hundred foul acres in Norfolk, and thither will I, and change
+      the court pantoufle for the country hobnail."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O base transmutation!" exclaimed his antagonist; "thou hast already got
+      the true rustic slouch&mdash;thy shoulders stoop, as if thine hands were
+      at the stilts of the plough; and thou hast a kind of earthy smell about
+      thee, instead of being perfumed with essence, as a gallant and courtier
+      should. On my soul, thou hast stolen out to roll thyself on a hay mow! Thy
+      only excuse will be to swear by thy hilts that the farmer had a fair
+      daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I pray thee, Walter," said another of the company, "cease thy raillery,
+      which suits neither time nor place, and tell us who was at the gate just
+      now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doctor Masters, physician to her Grace in ordinary, sent by her especial
+      orders to inquire after the Earl's health," answered Walter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! what?" exclaimed Tracy; "that was no slight mark of favour. If the
+      Earl can but come through, he will match with Leicester yet. Is Masters
+      with my lord at present?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," replied Walter, "he is half way back to Greenwich by this time, and
+      in high dudgeon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou didst not refuse him admittance?" exclaimed Tracy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wert not, surely, so mad?" ejaculated Blount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny
+      to a blind beggar&mdash;as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny
+      access to a dun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, in the fiend's name, didst thou trust him to go to the gate?" said
+      Blount to Tracy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It suited his years better than mine," answered Tracy; "but he has undone
+      us all now thoroughly. My lord may live or die, he will never have a look
+      of favour from her Majesty again."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor the means of making fortunes for his followers," said the young
+      gallant, smiling contemptuously;&mdash;"there lies the sore point that
+      will brook no handling. My good sirs, I sounded my lamentations over my
+      lord somewhat less loudly than some of you; but when the point comes of
+      doing him service, I will yield to none of you. Had this learned leech
+      entered, think'st thou not there had been such a coil betwixt him and
+      Tressilian's mediciner, that not the sleeper only, but the very dead might
+      have awakened? I know what larurm belongs to the discord of doctors."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who is to take the blame of opposing the Queen's orders?" said Tracy;
+      "for, undeniably, Doctor Masters came with her Grace's positive commands
+      to cure the Earl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I, who have done the wrong, will bear the blame," said Walter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus, then, off fly the dreams of court favour thou hast nourished," said
+      Blount, "and despite all thy boasted art and ambition, Devonshire will see
+      thee shine a true younger brother, fit to sit low at the board, carve turn
+      about with the chaplain, look that the hounds be fed, and see the squire's
+      girths drawn when he goes a-hunting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so," said the young man, colouring, "not while Ireland and the
+      Netherlands have wars, and not while the sea hath pathless waves. The rich
+      West hath lands undreamed of, and Britain contains bold hearts to venture
+      on the quest of them. Adieu for a space, my masters. I go to walk in the
+      court and look to the sentinels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The lad hath quicksilver in his veins, that is certain," said Blount,
+      looking at Markham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He hath that both in brain and blood," said Markham, "which may either
+      make or mar him. But in closing the door against Masters, he hath done a
+      daring and loving piece of service; for Tressilian's fellow hath ever
+      averred that to wake the Earl were death, and Masters would wake the Seven
+      Sleepers themselves, if he thought they slept not by the regular ordinance
+      of medicine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morning was well advanced when Tressilian, fatigued and over-watched, came
+      down to the hall with the joyful intelligence that the Earl had awakened
+      of himself, that he found his internal complaints much mitigated, and
+      spoke with a cheerfulness, and looked round with a vivacity, which of
+      themselves showed a material and favourable change had taken place.
+      Tressilian at the same time commanded the attendance of one or two of his
+      followers, to report what had passed during the night, and to relieve the
+      watchers in the Earl's chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the message of the Queen was communicated to the Earl of Sussex, he
+      at first smiled at the repulse which the physician had received from his
+      zealous young follower; but instantly recollecting himself, he commanded
+      Blount, his master of the horse, instantly to take boat, and go down the
+      river to the Palace of Greenwich, taking young Walter and Tracy with him,
+      and make a suitable compliment, expressing his grateful thanks to his
+      Sovereign, and mentioning the cause why he had not been enabled to profit
+      by the assistance of the wise and learned Doctor Masters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A plague on it!" said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had he sent me
+      with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done his errand
+      indifferently well. But to go to our gracious Sovereign, before whom all
+      words must be lacquered over either with gilding or with sugar, is such a
+      confectionary matter as clean baffles my poor old English brain.&mdash;Come
+      with me, Tracy, and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the
+      cause of our having all this ado. Let us see if thy neat brain, that
+      frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at need with
+      some of thy shrewd devices."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help you
+      through; let me but fetch my cloak."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,&mdash;"the lad is
+      mazed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter. "I go not with thee
+      to court unless as a gentleman should."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of none but
+      some poor groom or porter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my own
+      cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a cloak.
+      Get thyself ready, a God's name!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad Thames, upon
+      which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said Walter to
+      Blount&mdash;"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the earth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount, "and the
+      other would take us there a little faster if it were ebb-tide."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And this is all thou thinkest&mdash;all thou carest&mdash;all thou
+      deemest the use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers&mdash;to
+      guide three such poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an idle
+      journey of courtly ceremony!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I could
+      excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying me where I have
+      no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's wages for my trouble&mdash;and
+      by my honour," he added, looking out from the head of the boat, "it seems
+      to me as if our message were a sort of labour in vain, for, see, the
+      Queen's barge lies at the stairs as if her Majesty were about to take
+      water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was even so. The royal barge, manned with the Queen's watermen richly
+      attired in the regal liveries, and having the Banner of England displayed,
+      did indeed lie at the great stairs which ascended from the river, and
+      along with it two or three other boats for transporting such part of her
+      retinue as were not in immediate attendance on the royal person. The
+      yeomen of the guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom England could
+      produce, guarded with their halberds the passage from the palace-gate to
+      the river side, and all seemed in readiness for the Queen's coming forth,
+      although the day was yet so early.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, this bodes us no good," said Blount; "it must be some
+      perilous cause puts her Grace in motion thus untimeously, By my counsel,
+      we were best put back again, and tell the Earl what we have seen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tell the Earl what we have seen!" said Walter; "why what have we seen but
+      a boat, and men with scarlet jerkins, and halberds in their hands? Let us
+      do his errand, and tell him what the Queen says in reply."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he caused the boat to be pulled towards a landing-place at some
+      distance from the principal one, which it would not, at that moment, have
+      been thought respectful to approach, and jumped on shore, followed, though
+      with reluctance, by his cautious and timid companions. As they approached
+      the gate of the palace, one of the sergeant porters told them they could
+      not at present enter, as her Majesty was in the act of coming forth. The
+      gentlemen used the name of the Earl of Sussex; but it proved no charm to
+      subdue the officer, who alleged, in reply, that it was as much as his post
+      was worth to disobey in the least tittle the commands which he had
+      received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I told you as much before," said Blount; "do, I pray you, my dear
+      Walter, let us take boat and return."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not till I see the Queen come forth," returned the youth composedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art mad, stark mad, by the Mass!" answered Blount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou," said Walter, "art turned coward of the sudden. I have seen
+      thee face half a score of shag-headed Irish kerns to thy own share of
+      them; and now thou wouldst blink and go back to shun the frown of a fair
+      lady!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the gates opened, and ushers began to issue forth in array,
+      preceded and flanked by the band of Gentlemen Pensioners. After this, amid
+      a crowd of lords and ladies, yet so disposed around her that she could see
+      and be seen on all sides, came Elizabeth herself, then in the prime of
+      womanhood, and in the full glow of what in a Sovereign was called beauty,
+      and who would in the lowest rank of life have been truly judged a noble
+      figure, joined to a striking and commanding physiognomy. She leant on the
+      arm of Lord Hunsdon, whose relation to her by her mother's side often
+      procured him such distinguished marks of Elizabeth's intimacy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cavalier we have so often mentioned had probably never yet
+      approached so near the person of his Sovereign, and he pressed forward as
+      far as the line of warders permitted, in order to avail himself of the
+      present opportunity. His companion, on the contrary, cursing his
+      imprudence, kept pulling him backwards, till Walter shook him off
+      impatiently, and letting his rich cloak drop carelessly from one shoulder;
+      a natural action, which served, however, to display to the best advantage
+      his well-proportioned person. Unbonneting at the same time, he fixed his
+      eager gaze on the Queen's approach, with a mixture of respectful curiosity
+      and modest yet ardent admiration, which suited so well with his fine
+      features that the warders, struck with his rich attire and noble
+      countenance, suffered him to approach the ground over which the Queen was
+      to pass, somewhat closer than was permitted to ordinary spectators. Thus
+      the adventurous youth stood full in Elizabeth's eye&mdash;an eye never
+      indifferent to the admiration which she deservedly excited among her
+      subjects, or to the fair proportions of external form which chanced to
+      distinguish any of her courtiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, she fixed her keen glance on the youth, as she approached the
+      place where he stood, with a look in which surprise at his boldness seemed
+      to be unmingled with resentment, while a trifling accident happened which
+      attracted her attention towards him yet more strongly. The night had been
+      rainy, and just where the young gentleman stood a small quantity of mud
+      interrupted the Queen's passage. As she hesitated to pass on, the gallant,
+      throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on the miry spot, so as to
+      ensure her stepping over it dry-shod. Elizabeth looked at the young man,
+      who accompanied this act of devoted courtesy with a profound reverence,
+      and a blush that overspread his whole countenance. The Queen was confused,
+      and blushed in her turn, nodded her head, hastily passed on, and embarked
+      in her barge without saying a word.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0641m.jpg" alt="0641m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0641.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Come along, Sir Coxcomb," said Blount; "your gay cloak will need the
+      brush to-day, I wot. Nay, if you had meant to make a footcloth of your
+      mantle, better have kept Tracy's old drab-debure, which despises all
+      colours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This cloak," said the youth, taking it up and folding it, "shall never be
+      brushed while in my possession."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And that will not be long, if you learn not a little more economy; we
+      shall have you in CUERPO soon, as the Spaniard says."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their discourse was here interrupted by one of the band of Pensioners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was sent," said he, after looking at them attentively, "to a gentleman
+      who hath no cloak, or a muddy one.&mdash;You, sir, I think," addressing
+      the younger cavalier, "are the man; you will please to follow me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is in attendance on me," said Blount&mdash;"on me, the noble Earl of
+      Sussex's master of horse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have nothing to say to that," answered the messenger; "my orders are
+      directly from her Majesty, and concern this gentleman only."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he walked away, followed by Walter, leaving the others behind,
+      Blount's eyes almost starting from his head with the excess of his
+      astonishment. At length he gave vent to it in an exclamation, "Who the
+      good jere would have thought this!" And shaking his head with a mysterious
+      air, he walked to his own boat, embarked, and returned to Deptford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young cavalier was in the meanwhile guided to the water-side by the
+      Pensioner, who showed him considerable respect; a circumstance which, to
+      persons in his situation, may be considered as an augury of no small
+      consequence. He ushered him into one of the wherries which lay ready to
+      attend the Queen's barge, which was already proceeding; up the river, with
+      the advantage of that flood-tide of which, in the course of their descent,
+      Blount had complained to his associates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two rowers used their oars with such expedition at the signal of the
+      Gentleman Pensioner, that they very soon brought their little skiff under
+      the stern of the Queen's boat, where she sat beneath an awning, attended
+      by two or three ladies, and the nobles of her household. She looked more
+      than once at the wherry in which the young adventurer was seated, spoke to
+      those around her, and seemed to laugh. At length one of the attendants, by
+      the Queen's order apparently, made a sign for the wherry to come
+      alongside, and the young man was desired to step from his own skiff into
+      the Queen's barge, which he performed with graceful agility at the fore
+      part of the boat, and was brought aft to the Queen's presence, the wherry
+      at the same time dropping into the rear. The youth underwent the gaze of
+      Majesty, not the less gracefully that his self-possession was mingled with
+      embarrassment. The muddied cloak still hung upon his arm, and formed the
+      natural topic with which the Queen introduced the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have this day spoiled a gay mantle in our behalf, young man. We thank
+      you for your service, though the manner of offering it was unusual, and
+      something bold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In a sovereign's need," answered the youth, "it is each liegeman's duty
+      to be bold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God's pity! that was well said, my lord," said the Queen, turning to a
+      grave person who sat by her, and answered with a grave inclination of the
+      head, and something of a mumbled assent.&mdash;"Well, young man, your
+      gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe keeper, and he shall
+      have orders to supply the suit which you have cast away in our service.
+      Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise thee, on the
+      word of a princess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not for so
+      humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it
+      became me to choose&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the Queen, interrupting him.
+      "Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and so
+      various are the means of thriftless folly, that to give gold to youth is
+      giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means of
+      self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess
+      shall be abridged. Yet thou mayest be poor," she added, "or thy parents
+      may be. It shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for
+      the use on't."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then modestly
+      assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her
+      Majesty had before offered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, boy!" said the Queen, "neither gold nor garment? What is it thou
+      wouldst have of me, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only permission, madam&mdash;if it is not asking too high an honour&mdash;permission
+      to wear the cloak which did you this trifling service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!" said the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is no longer mine," said Walter; "when your Majesty's foot touched it,
+      it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its former
+      owner."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a slight
+      degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with
+      reading romances. I must know something of him, that I may send him safe
+      to his friends.&mdash;What art thou?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please your Grace,
+      sent hither with his master of horse upon message to your Majesty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had hitherto
+      maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and severity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My Lord of Sussex," she said, "has taught us how to regard his messages
+      by the value he places upon ours. We sent but this morning the physician
+      in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no usual time, understanding his
+      lordship's illness to be more dangerous than we had before apprehended.
+      There is at no court in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most
+      useful science than Doctor Masters, and he came from Us to our subject.
+      Nevertheless, he found the gate of Sayes Court defended by men with
+      culverins, as if it had been on the borders of Scotland, not in the
+      vicinity of our court; and when he demanded admittance in our name, it was
+      stubbornly refused. For this slight of a kindness, which had but too much
+      of condescension in it, we will receive, at present at least, no excuse;
+      and some such we suppose to have been the purport of my Lord of Sussex's
+      message."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was uttered in a tone and with a gesture which made Lord Sussex's
+      friends who were within hearing tremble. He to whom the speech was
+      addressed, however, trembled not; but with great deference and humility,
+      as soon as the Queen's passion gave him an opportunity, he replied, "So
+      please your most gracious Majesty, I was charged with no apology from the
+      Earl of Sussex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With what were you then charged, sir?" said the Queen, with the
+      impetuosity which, amid nobler qualities, strongly marked her character.
+      "Was it with a justification?&mdash;or, God's death! with a defiance?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said the young man, "my Lord of Sussex knew the offence
+      approached towards treason, and could think of nothing save of securing
+      the offender, and placing him in your Majesty's hands, and at your mercy.
+      The noble Earl was fast asleep when your most gracious message reached
+      him, a potion having been administered to that purpose by his physician;
+      and his Lordship knew not of the ungracious repulse your Majesty's royal
+      and most comfortable message had received, until after he awoke this
+      morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And which of his domestics, then, in the name of Heaven, presumed to
+      reject my message, without even admitting my own physician to the presence
+      of him whom I sent him to attend?" said the Queen, much surprised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The offender, madam, is before you," replied Walter, bowing very low;
+      "the full and sole blame is mine; and my lord has most justly sent me to
+      abye the consequences of a fault, of which he is as innocent as a sleeping
+      man's dreams can be of a waking man's actions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! was it thou?&mdash;thou thyself, that repelled my messenger and my
+      physician from Sayes Court?" said the Queen. "What could occasion such
+      boldness in one who seems devoted&mdash;that is, whose exterior bearing
+      shows devotion&mdash;to his Sovereign?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said the youth&mdash;who, notwithstanding an assumed appearance
+      of severity, thought that he saw something in the Queen's face that
+      resembled not implacability&mdash;"we say in our country, that the
+      physician is for the time the liege sovereign of his patient. Now, my
+      noble master was then under dominion of a leech, by whose advice he hath
+      greatly profited, who had issued his commands that his patient should not
+      that night be disturbed, on the very peril of his life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy master hath trusted some false varlet of an empiric," said the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not, madam, but by the fact that he is now&mdash;this very morning&mdash;awakened
+      much refreshed and strengthened from the only sleep he hath had for many
+      hours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see what
+      each thought of this news, than to exchange any remarks on what had
+      happened. The Queen answered hastily, and without affecting to disguise
+      her satisfaction, "By my word, I am glad he is better. But thou wert
+      over-bold to deny the access of my Doctor Masters. Knowest thou not the
+      Holy Writ saith, 'In the multitude of counsel there is safety'?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, madam," said Walter; "but I have heard learned men say that the
+      safety spoken of is for the physicians, not for the patient."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, child, thou hast pushed me home," said the Queen, laughing;
+      "for my Hebrew learning does not come quite at a call.&mdash;How say you,
+      my Lord of Lincoln? Hath the lad given a just interpretation of the text?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The word SAFETY, most gracious madam," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "for
+      so hath been translated, it may be somewhat hastily, the Hebrew word,
+      being&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the Queen, interrupting him, "we said we had forgotten our
+      Hebrew.&mdash;But for thee, young man, what is thy name and birth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Raleigh is my name, most gracious Queen, the youngest son of a large but
+      honourable family of Devonshire."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Raleigh?" said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection. "Have we not
+      heard of your service in Ireland?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam," replied
+      Raleigh; "scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to reach your Grace's
+      ears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They hear farther than you think of," said the Queen graciously, "and
+      have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against a whole band
+      of wild Irish rebels, until the stream ran purple with their blood and his
+      own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Some blood I may have lost," said the youth, looking down, "but it was
+      where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen paused, and then said hastily, "You are very young to have
+      fought so well, and to speak so well. But you must not escape your penance
+      for turning back Masters. The poor man hath caught cold on the river for
+      our order reached him when he was just returned from certain visits in
+      London, and he held it matter of loyalty and conscience instantly to set
+      forth again. So hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail not to wear thy
+      muddy cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be further known.
+      And here," she added, giving him a jewel of gold, in the form of a
+      chess-man, "I give thee this to wear at the collar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh, to whom nature had taught intuitively, as it were, those courtly
+      arts which many scarce acquire from long experience, knelt, and, as he
+      took from her hand the jewel, kissed the fingers which gave it. He knew,
+      perhaps, better than almost any of the courtiers who surrounded her, how
+      to mingle the devotion claimed by the Queen with the gallantry due to her
+      personal beauty; and in this, his first attempt to unite them, he
+      succeeded so well as at once to gratify Elizabeth's personal vanity and
+      her love of power. [See Note 5. Court favour of Sir Walter Raleigh.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His master, the Earl of Sussex, had the full advantage of the satisfaction
+      which Raleigh had afforded Elizabeth, on their first interview.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lords and ladies," said the Queen, looking around to the retinue by
+      whom she was attended, "methinks, since we are upon the river, it were
+      well to renounce our present purpose of going to the city, and surprise
+      this poor Earl of Sussex with a visit. He is ill, and suffering doubtless
+      under the fear of our displeasure, from which he hath been honestly
+      cleared by the frank avowal of this malapert boy. What think ye? were it
+      not an act of charity to give him such consolation as the thanks of a
+      Queen, much bound to him for his loyal service, may perchance best
+      minister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech was addressed
+      ventured to oppose its purport.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Grace," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "is the breath of our nostrils."
+      The men of war averred that the face of the Sovereign was a whetstone to
+      the soldier's sword; while the men of state were not less of opinion that
+      the light of the Queen's countenance was a lamp to the paths of her
+      councillors; and the ladies agreed, with one voice, that no noble in
+      England so well deserved the regard of England's Royal Mistress as the
+      Earl of Sussex&mdash;the Earl of Leicester's right being reserved entire,
+      so some of the more politic worded their assent, an exception to which
+      Elizabeth paid no apparent attention. The barge had, therefore, orders to
+      deposit its royal freight at Deptford, at the nearest and most convenient
+      point of communication with Sayes Court, in order that the Queen might
+      satisfy her royal and maternal solicitude, by making personal inquiries
+      after the health of the Earl of Sussex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh, whose acute spirit foresaw and anticipated important consequences
+      from the most trifling events, hastened to ask the Queen's permission to
+      go in the skiff; and announce the royal visit to his master; ingeniously
+      suggesting that the joyful surprise might prove prejudicial to his health,
+      since the richest and most generous cordials may sometimes be fatal to
+      those who have been long in a languishing state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whether the Queen deemed it too presumptuous in so young a courtier to
+      interpose his opinion unasked, or whether she was moved by a recurrence of
+      the feeling of jealousy which had been instilled into her by reports that
+      the Earl kept armed men about his person, she desired Raleigh, sharply, to
+      reserve his counsel till it was required of him, and repeated her former
+      orders to be landed at Deptford, adding, "We will ourselves see what sort
+      of household my Lord of Sussex keeps about him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the Lord have pity on us!" said the young courtier to himself. "Good
+      hearts, the Earl hath many a one round him; but good heads are scarce with
+      us&mdash;and he himself is too ill to give direction. And Blount will be
+      at his morning meal of Yarmouth herrings and ale, and Tracy will have his
+      beastly black puddings and Rhenish; those thorough-paced Welshmen, Thomas
+      ap Rice and Evan Evans, will be at work on their leek porridge and toasted
+      cheese;&mdash;and she detests, they say, all coarse meats, evil smells,
+      and strong wines. Could they but think of burning some rosemary in the
+      great hall! but VOGUE LA GALERE, all must now be trusted to chance. Luck
+      hath done indifferent well for me this morning; for I trust I have spoiled
+      a cloak, and made a court fortune. May she do as much for my gallant
+      patron!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and, amid the loud shouts of the
+      populace, which her presence never failed to excite, the Queen, with a
+      canopy borne over her head, walked, accompanied by her retinue, towards
+      Sayes Court, where the distant acclamations of the people gave the first
+      notice of her arrival. Sussex, who was in the act of advising with
+      Tressilian how he should make up the supposed breach in the Queen's
+      favour, was infinitely surprised at learning her immediate approach. Not
+      that the Queen's custom of visiting her more distinguished nobility,
+      whether in health or sickness, could be unknown to him; but the suddenness
+      of the communication left no time for those preparations with which he
+      well knew Elizabeth loved to be greeted, and the rudeness and confusion of
+      his military household, much increased by his late illness, rendered him
+      altogether unprepared for her reception.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cursing internally the chance which thus brought her gracious visitation
+      on him unaware, he hastened down with Tressilian, to whose eventful and
+      interesting story he had just given an attentive ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My worthy friend," he said, "such support as I can give your accusation
+      of Varney, you have a right to expect, alike from justice and gratitude.
+      Chance will presently show whether I can do aught with our Sovereign, or
+      whether, in very deed, my meddling in your affair may not rather prejudice
+      than serve you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus spoke Sussex while hastily casting around him a loose robe of sables,
+      and adjusting his person in the best manner he could to meet the eye of
+      his Sovereign. But no hurried attention bestowed on his apparel could
+      remove the ghastly effects of long illness on a countenance which nature
+      had marked with features rather strong than pleasing. Besides, he was low
+      of stature, and, though broad-shouldered, athletic, and fit for martial
+      achievements, his presence in a peaceful hall was not such as ladies love
+      to look upon; a personal disadvantage, which was supposed to give Sussex,
+      though esteemed and honoured by his Sovereign, considerable disadvantage
+      when compared with Leicester, who was alike remarkable for elegance of
+      manners and for beauty of person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl's utmost dispatch only enabled him to meet the Queen as she
+      entered the great hall, and he at once perceived there was a cloud on her
+      brow. Her jealous eye had noticed the martial array of armed gentlemen and
+      retainers with which the mansion-house was filled, and her first words
+      expressed her disapprobation. "Is this a royal garrison, my Lord of
+      Sussex, that it holds so many pikes and calivers? or have we by accident
+      overshot Sayes Court, and landed at Our Tower of London?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Sussex hastened to offer some apology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It needs not," she said. "My lord, we intend speedily to take up a
+      certain quarrel between your lordship and another great lord of our
+      household, and at the same time to reprehend this uncivilized and
+      dangerous practice of surrounding yourselves with armed, and even with
+      ruffianly followers, as if, in the neighbourhood of our capital, nay in
+      the very verge of our royal residence, you were preparing to wage civil
+      war with each other.&mdash;We are glad to see you so well recovered, my
+      lord, though without the assistance of the learned physician whom we sent
+      to you. Urge no excuse; we know how that matter fell out, and we have
+      corrected for it the wild slip, young Raleigh. By the way, my lord, we
+      will speedily relieve your household of him, and take him into our own.
+      Something there is about him which merits to be better nurtured than he is
+      like to be amongst your very military followers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this proposal Sussex, though scarce understanding how the Queen came to
+      make it could only bow and express his acquiescence. He then entreated her
+      to remain till refreshment could be offered, but in this he could not
+      prevail. And after a few compliments of a much colder and more commonplace
+      character than might have been expected from a step so decidedly
+      favourable as a personal visit, the Queen took her leave of Sayes Court,
+      having brought confusion thither along with her, and leaving doubt and
+      apprehension behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Then call them to our presence.  Face to face,
+     And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
+     The accuser and accused freely speak;&mdash;
+     High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
+     In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.&mdash;RICHARD II.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I am ordered to attend court to-morrow," said Leicester, speaking to
+      Varney, "to meet, as they surmise, my Lord of Sussex. The Queen intends to
+      take up matters betwixt us. This comes of her visit to Sayes Court, of
+      which you must needs speak so lightly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I maintain it was nothing," said Varney; "nay, I know from a sure
+      intelligencer, who was within earshot of much that was said, that Sussex
+      has lost rather than gained by that visit. The Queen said, when she
+      stepped into the boat, that Sayes Court looked like a guard-house, and
+      smelt like an hospital. 'Like a cook's shop in Ram's Alley, rather,' said
+      the Countess of Rutland, who is ever your lordship's good friend. And then
+      my Lord of Lincoln must needs put in his holy oar, and say that my Lord of
+      Sussex must be excused for his rude and old-world housekeeping, since he
+      had as yet no wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what said the Queen?" asked Leicester hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She took him up roundly," said Varney, "and asked what my Lord Sussex had
+      to do with a wife, or my Lord Bishop to speak on such a subject. 'If
+      marriage is permitted,' she said, 'I nowhere read that it is enjoined.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She likes not marriages, or speech of marriage, among churchmen," said
+      Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor among courtiers neither," said Varney; but, observing that Leicester
+      changed countenance, he instantly added, "that all the ladies who were
+      present had joined in ridiculing Lord Sussex's housekeeping, and in
+      contrasting it with the reception her Grace would have assuredly received
+      at my Lord of Leicester's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have gathered much tidings," said Leicester, "but you have forgotten
+      or omitted the most important of all. She hath added another to those
+      dangling satellites whom it is her pleasure to keep revolving around her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your lordship meaneth that Raleigh, the Devonshire youth," said Varney&mdash;"the
+      Knight of the Cloak, as they call him at court?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He may be Knight of the Garter one day, for aught I know," said
+      Leicester, "for he advances rapidly&mdash;she hath capped verses with him,
+      and such fooleries. I would gladly abandon, of my own free will, the part&mdash;I
+      have in her fickle favour; but I will not be elbowed out of it by the
+      clown Sussex, or this new upstart. I hear Tressilian is with Sussex also,
+      and high in his favour. I would spare him for considerations, but he will
+      thrust himself on his fate. Sussex, too, is almost as well as ever in his
+      health."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," replied Varney, "there will be rubs in the smoothest road,
+      specially when it leads uphill. Sussex's illness was to us a godsend, from
+      which I hoped much. He has recovered, indeed, but he is not now more
+      formidable than ere he fell ill, when he received more than one foil in
+      wrestling with your lordship. Let not your heart fail you, my lord, and
+      all shall be well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My heart never failed me, sir," replied Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my lord," said Varney; "but it has betrayed you right often. He that
+      would climb a tree, my lord, must grasp by the branches, not by the
+      blossom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well, well!" said Leicester impatiently; "I understand thy meaning&mdash;my
+      heart shall neither fail me nor seduce me. Have my retinue in order&mdash;see
+      that their array be so splendid as to put down, not only the rude
+      companions of Ratcliffe, but the retainers of every other nobleman and
+      courtier. Let them be well armed withal, but without any outward display
+      of their weapons, wearing them as if more for fashion's sake than for use.
+      Do thou thyself keep close to me, I may have business for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The preparations of Sussex and his party were not less anxious than those
+      of Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy Supplication, impeaching Varney of seduction," said the Earl to
+      Tressilian, "is by this time in the Queen's hand&mdash;I have sent it
+      through a sure channel. Methinks your suit should succeed, being, as it
+      is, founded in justice and honour, and Elizabeth being the very muster of
+      both. But&mdash;I wot not how&mdash;the gipsy" (so Sussex was wont to call
+      his rival on account of his dark complexion) "hath much to say with her in
+      these holyday times of peace. Were war at the gates, I should be one of
+      her white boys; but soldiers, like their bucklers and Bilboa blades, get
+      out of fashion in peace time, and satin sleeves and walking rapiers bear
+      the bell. Well, we must be gay, since such is the fashion.&mdash;Blount,
+      hast thou seen our household put into their new braveries? But thou
+      knowest as little of these toys as I do; thou wouldst be ready enow at
+      disposing a stand of pikes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My good lord," answered Blount, "Raleigh hath been here, and taken that
+      charge upon him&mdash;your train will glitter like a May morning. Marry,
+      the cost is another question. One might keep an hospital of old soldiers
+      at the charge of ten modern lackeys."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He must not count cost to-day, Nicholas," said the Earl in reply. "I am
+      beholden to Raleigh for his care. I trust, though, he has remembered that
+      I am an old soldier, and would have no more of these follies than needs
+      must."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I understand nought about it," said Blount; "but here are your
+      honourable lordship's brave kinsmen and friends coming in by scores to
+      wait upon you to court, where, methinks, we shall bear as brave a front as
+      Leicester, let him ruffle it as he will."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give them the strictest charges," said Sussex, "that they suffer no
+      provocation short of actual violence to provoke them into quarrel. They
+      have hot bloods, and I would not give Leicester the advantage over me by
+      any imprudence of theirs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Sussex ran so hastily through these directions, that it was
+      with difficulty Tressilian at length found opportunity to express his
+      surprise that he should have proceeded so far in the affair of Sir Hugh
+      Robsart as to lay his petition at once before the Queen. "It was the
+      opinion of the young lady's friends," he said, "that Leicester's sense of
+      justice should be first appealed to, as the offence had been committed by
+      his officer, and so he had expressly told to Sussex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This could have been done without applying to me," said Sussex, somewhat
+      haughtily. "I at least, ought not to have been a counsellor when the
+      object was a humiliating reference to Leicester; and I am suprised that
+      you, Tressilian, a man of honour, and my friend, would assume such a mean
+      course. If you said so, I certainly understood you not in a matter which
+      sounded so unlike yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Tressilian, "the course I would prefer, for my own sake,
+      is that you have adopted; but the friends of this most unhappy lady&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, the friends&mdash;the friends," said Sussex, interrupting him; "they
+      must let us manage this cause in the way which seems best. This is the
+      time and the hour to accumulate every charge against Leicester and his
+      household, and yours the Queen will hold a heavy one. But at all events
+      she hath the complaint before her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian could not help suspecting that, in his eagerness to strengthen
+      himself against his rival, Sussex had purposely adopted the course most
+      likely to throw odium on Leicester, without considering minutely whether
+      it were the mode of proceeding most likely to be attended with success.
+      But the step was irrevocable, and Sussex escaped from further discussing
+      it by dismissing his company, with the command, "Let all be in order at
+      eleven o'clock; I must be at court and in the presence by high noon
+      precisely."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the rival statesmen were thus anxiously preparing for their
+      approaching meeting in the Queen's presence, even Elizabeth herself was
+      not without apprehension of what might chance from the collision of two
+      such fiery spirits, each backed by a strong and numerous body of
+      followers, and dividing betwixt them, either openly or in secret, the
+      hopes and wishes of most of her court. The band of Gentlemen Pensioners
+      were all under arms, and a reinforcement of the yeomen of the guard was
+      brought down the Thames from London. A royal proclamation was sent forth,
+      strictly prohibiting nobles of whatever degree to approach the Palace with
+      retainers or followers armed with shot or with long weapons; and it was
+      even whispered that the High Sheriff of Kent had secret instructions to
+      have a part of the array of the county ready on the shortest notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eventful hour, thus anxiously prepared for on all sides, at length
+      approached, and, each followed by his long and glittering train of friends
+      and followers, the rival Earls entered the Palace Yard of Greenwich at
+      noon precisely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As if by previous arrangement, or perhaps by intimation that such was the
+      Queen's pleasure, Sussex and his retinue came to the Palace from Deptford
+      by water while Leicester arrived by land; and thus they entered the
+      courtyard from opposite sides. This trifling circumstance gave Leicester a
+      ascendency in the opinion of the vulgar, the appearance of his cavalcade
+      of mounted followers showing more numerous and more imposing than those of
+      Sussex's party, who were necessarily upon foot. No show or sign of
+      greeting passed between the Earls, though each looked full at the other,
+      both expecting perhaps an exchange of courtesies, which neither was
+      willing to commence. Almost in the minute of their arrival the castle-bell
+      tolled, the gates of the Palace were opened, and the Earls entered, each
+      numerously attended by such gentlemen of their train whose rank gave them
+      that privilege. The yeomen and inferior attendants remained in the
+      courtyard, where the opposite parties eyed each other with looks of eager
+      hatred and scorn, as if waiting with impatience for some cause of tumult,
+      or some apology for mutual aggression. But they were restrained by the
+      strict commands of their leaders, and overawed, perhaps, by the presence
+      of an armed guard of unusual strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, the more distinguished persons of each train followed
+      their patrons into the lofty halls and ante-chambers of the royal Palace,
+      flowing on in the same current, like two streams which are compelled into
+      the same channel, yet shun to mix their waters. The parties arranged
+      themselves, as it were instinctively, on the different sides of the lofty
+      apartments, and seemed eager to escape from the transient union which the
+      narrowness of the crowded entrance had for an instant compelled them to
+      submit to. The folding doors at the upper end of the long gallery were
+      immediately afterwards opened, and it was announced in a whisper that the
+      Queen was in her presence-chamber, to which these gave access. Both Earls
+      moved slowly and stately towards the entrance&mdash;Sussex followed by
+      Tressilian, Blount, and Raleigh, and Leicester by Varney. The pride of
+      Leicester was obliged to give way to court-forms, and with a grave and
+      formal inclination of the head, he paused until his rival, a peer of older
+      creation than his own, passed before him. Sussex returned the reverence
+      with the same formal civility, and entered the presence-room. Tressilian
+      and Blount offered to follow him, but were not permitted, the Usher of the
+      Black Rod alleging in excuse that he had precise orders to look to all
+      admissions that day. To Raleigh, who stood back on the repulse of his
+      companions, he said, "You, sir, may enter," and he entered accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Follow me close, Varney," said the Earl of Leicester, who had stood aloof
+      for a moment to mark the reception of Sussex; and advancing to the
+      entrance, he was about to pass on, when Varney, who was close behind him,
+      dressed out in the utmost bravery of the day, was stopped by the usher, as
+      Tressilian and Blount had been before him, "How is this, Master Bowyer?"
+      said the Earl of Leicester. "Know you who I am, and that this is my friend
+      and follower?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your lordship will pardon me," replied Bowyer stoutly; "my orders are
+      precise, and limit me to a strict discharge of my duty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a partial knave," said Leicester, the blood mounting to his
+      face, "to do me this dishonour, when you but now admitted a follower of my
+      Lord of Sussex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Bowyer, "Master Raleigh is newly admitted a sworn servant
+      of her Grace, and to him my orders did not apply."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a knave&mdash;an ungrateful knave," said Leicester; "but he that
+      hath done can undo&mdash;thou shalt not prank thee in thy authority long!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This threat he uttered aloud, with less than his usual policy and
+      discretion; and having done so, he entered the presence-chamber, and made
+      his reverence to the Queen, who, attired with even more than her usual
+      splendour, and surrounded by those nobles and statesmen whose courage and
+      wisdom have rendered her reign immortal, stood ready to receive the
+      hommage of her subjects. She graciously returned the obeisance of the
+      favourite Earl, and looked alternately at him and at Sussex, as if about
+      to speak, when Bowyer, a man whose spirit could not brook the insult he
+      had so openly received from Leicester, in the discharge of his office,
+      advanced with his black rod in his hand, and knelt down before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, how now, Bowyer?" said Elizabeth, "thy courtesy seems strangely
+      timed!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My Liege Sovereign," he said, while every courtier around trembled at his
+      audacity, "I come but to ask whether, in the discharge of mine office, I
+      am to obey your Highness's commands, or those of the Earl of Leicester,
+      who has publicly menaced me with his displeasure, and treated me with
+      disparaging terms, because I denied entry to one of his followers, in
+      obedience to your Grace's precise orders?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spirit of Henry VIII. was instantly aroused in the bosom of his
+      daughter, and she turned on Leicester with a severity which appalled him,
+      as well as all his followers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God's death! my lord." such was her emphatic phrase, "what means this? We
+      have thought well of you, and brought you near to our person; but it was
+      not that you might hide the sun from our other faithful subjects. Who gave
+      you license to contradict our orders, or control our officers? I will have
+      in this court, ay, and in this realm, but one mistress, and no master.
+      Look to it that Master Bowyer sustains no harm for his duty to me
+      faithfully discharged; for, as I am Christian woman and crowned Queen, I
+      will hold you dearly answerable.&mdash;Go, Bowyer, you have done the part
+      of an honest man and a true subject. We will brook no mayor of the palace
+      here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bowyer kissed the hand which she extended towards him, and withdrew to his
+      post, astonished at the success of his own audacity. A smile of triumph
+      pervaded the faction of Sussex; that of Leicester seemed proportionally
+      dismayed, and the favourite himself, assuming an aspect of the deepest
+      humility, did not even attempt a word in his own esculpation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He acted wisely; for it was the policy of Elizabeth to humble, not to
+      disgrace him, and it was prudent to suffer her, without opposition or
+      reply, to glory in the exertion of her authority. The dignity of the Queen
+      was gratified, and the woman began soon to feel for the mortification
+      which she had imposed on her favourite. Her keen eye also observed the
+      secret looks of congratulation exchanged amongst those who favoured
+      Sussex, and it was no part of her policy to give either party a decisive
+      triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What I say to my Lord of Leicester," she said, after a moment's pause, "I
+      say also to you, my Lord of Sussex. You also must needs ruffle in the
+      court of England, at the head of a faction of your own?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My followers, gracious Princess," said Sussex, "have indeed ruffled in
+      your cause in Ireland, in Scotland, and against yonder rebellious Earls in
+      the north. I am ignorant that&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you bandy looks and words with me, my lord?" said the Queen,
+      interrupting him; "methinks you might learn of my Lord of Leicester the
+      modesty to be silent, at least, under our censure. I say, my lord, that my
+      grandfather and my father, in their wisdom, debarred the nobles of this
+      civilized land from travelling with such disorderly retinues; and think
+      you, that because I wear a coif, their sceptre has in my hand been changed
+      into a distaff? I tell you, no king in Christendom will less brook his
+      court to be cumbered, his people oppressed, and his kingdom's peace
+      disturbed, by the arrogance of overgrown power, than she who now speaks
+      with you.&mdash;My Lord of Leicester, and you, my Lord of Sussex, I
+      command you both to be friends with each other; or by the crown I wear,
+      you shall find an enemy who will be too strong for both of you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said the Earl of Leicester, "you who are yourself the fountain of
+      honour know best what is due to mine. I place it at your disposal, and
+      only say that the terms on which I have stood with my Lord of Sussex have
+      not been of my seeking; nor had he cause to think me his enemy, until he
+      had done me gross wrong."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For me, madam," said the Earl of Sussex, "I cannot appeal from your
+      sovereign pleasure; but I were well content my Lord of Leicester should
+      say in what I have, as he terms it, wronged him, since my tongue never
+      spoke the word that I would not willingly justify either on foot or
+      horseback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for me," said Leicester, "always under my gracious Sovereign's
+      pleasure, my hand shall be as ready to make good my words as that of any
+      man who ever wrote himself Ratcliffe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lords," said the Queen, "these are no terms for this presence; and if
+      you cannot keep your temper, we will find means to keep both that and you
+      close enough. Let me see you join hands, my lords, and forget your idle
+      animosities."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each unwilling to
+      make the first advance to execute the Queen's will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sussex," said Elizabeth, "I entreat&mdash;Leicester, I command you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, so were her words accented, that the entreaty sounded like command,
+      and the command like entreaty. They remained still and stubborn, until she
+      raised her voice to a height which argued at once impatience and absolute
+      command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir Henry Lee," she said, to an officer in attendance, "have a guard in
+      present readiness, and man a barge instantly.&mdash;My Lords of Sussex and
+      Leicester, I bid you once more to join hands; and, God's death! he that
+      refuses shall taste of our Tower fare ere he sees our face again. I will
+      lower your proud hearts ere we part, and that I promise, on the word of a
+      Queen!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The prison?" said Leicester, "might be borne, but to lose your Grace's
+      presence were to lose light and life at once.&mdash;Here, Sussex, is my
+      hand."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And here," said Sussex, "is mine in truth and honesty; but&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, under favour, you shall add no more," said the Queen. "Why, this is
+      as it should be," she added, looking on them more favourably; "and when
+      you the shepherds of the people, unite to protect them, it shall be well
+      with the flock we rule over. For, my lords, I tell you plainly, your
+      follies and your brawls lead to strange disorders among your servants.&mdash;My
+      Lord of Leicester, you have a gentleman in your household called Varney?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, gracious madam," replied Leicester; "I presented him to kiss your
+      royal hand when you were last at Nonsuch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His outside was well enough," said the Queen, "but scarce so fair, I
+      should have thought, as to have caused a maiden of honourable birth and
+      hopes to barter her fame for his good looks, and become his paramour. Yet
+      so it is; this fellow of yours hath seduced the daughter of a good old
+      Devonshire knight, Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall, and she hath fled
+      with him from her father's house like a castaway.&mdash;My Lord of
+      Leicester, are you ill, that you look so deadly pale?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, gracious madam," said Leicester; and it required every effort he
+      could make to bring forth these few words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are surely ill, my lord?" said Elizabeth, going towards him with
+      hasty speech and hurried step, which indicated the deepest concern. "Call
+      Masters&mdash;call our surgeon in ordinary.&mdash;Where be these loitering
+      fools?&mdash;we lose the pride of our court through their negligence.&mdash;Or
+      is it possible, Leicester," she continued, looking on him with a very
+      gentle aspect, "can fear of my displeasure have wrought so deeply on thee?
+      Doubt not for a moment, noble Dudley, that we could blame THEE for the
+      folly of thy retainer&mdash;thee, whose thoughts we know to be far
+      otherwise employed. He that would climb the eagle's nest, my lord, cares
+      not who are catching linnets at the foot of the precipice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mark you that?" said Sussex aside to Raleigh. "The devil aids him surely;
+      for all that would sink another ten fathom deep seems but to make him
+      float the more easily. Had a follower of mine acted thus&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, my good lord," said Raleigh, "for God's sake, peace! Wait the
+      change of the tide; it is even now on the turn."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The acute observation of Raleigh, perhaps, did not deceive him; for
+      Leicester's confusion was so great, and, indeed, for the moment, so
+      irresistibly overwhelming, that Elizabeth, after looking at him with a
+      wondering eye, and receiving no intelligible answer to the unusual
+      expressions of grace and affection which had escaped from her, shot her
+      quick glance around the circle of courtiers, and reading, perhaps, in
+      their faces something that accorded with her own awakened suspicions, she
+      said suddenly, "Or is there more in this than we see&mdash;or than you, my
+      lord, wish that we should see? Where is this Varney? Who saw him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An it please your Grace," said Bowyer, "it is the same against whom I
+      this instant closed the door of the presence-room."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An it please me?" repeated Elizabeth sharply, not at that moment in the
+      humour of being pleased with anything.&mdash;"It does NOT please me that
+      he should pass saucily into my presence, or that you should exclude from
+      it one who came to justify himself from an accusation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May it please you," answered the perplexed usher, "if I knew, in such
+      case, how to bear myself, I would take heed&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You should have reported the fellow's desire to us, Master Usher, and
+      taken our directions. You think yourself a great man, because but now we
+      chid a nobleman on your account; yet, after all, we hold you but as the
+      lead-weight that keeps the door fast. Call this Varney hither instantly.
+      There is one Tressilian also mentioned in this petition. Let them both
+      come before us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was obeyed, and Tressilian and Varney appeared accordingly. Varney's
+      first glance was at Leicester, his second at the Queen. In the looks of
+      the latter there appeared an approaching storm, and in the downcast
+      countenance of his patron he could read no directions in what way he was
+      to trim his vessel for the encounter. He then saw Tressilian, and at once
+      perceived the peril of the situation in which he was placed. But Varney
+      was as bold-faced and ready-witted as he was cunning and unscrupulous&mdash;a
+      skilful pilot in extremity, and fully conscious of the advantages which he
+      would obtain could he extricate Leicester from his present peril, and of
+      the ruin that yawned for himself should he fail in doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it true, sirrah," said the Queen, with one of those searching looks
+      which few had the audacity to resist, "that you have seduced to infamy a
+      young lady of birth and breeding, the daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of
+      Lidcote Hall?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney kneeled down, and replied, with a look of the most profound
+      contrition, "There had been some love passages betwixt him and Mistress
+      Amy Robsart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester's flesh quivered with indignation as he heard his dependant make
+      this avowal, and for one moment he manned himself to step forward, and,
+      bidding farewell to the court and the royal favour, confess the whole
+      mystery of the secret marriage. But he looked at Sussex, and the idea of
+      the triumphant smile which would clothe his cheek upon hearing the avowal
+      sealed his lips. "Not now, at least," he thought, "or in this presence,
+      will I afford him so rich a triumph." And pressing his lips close
+      together, he stood firm and collected, attentive to each word which Varney
+      uttered, and determined to hide to the last the secret on which his
+      court-favour seemed to depend. Meanwhile, the Queen proceeded in her
+      examination of Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Love passages!" said she, echoing his last words; "what passages, thou
+      knave? and why not ask the wench's hand from her father, if thou hadst any
+      honesty in thy love for her?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An it please your Grace," said Varney, still on his knees, "I dared not
+      do so, for her father had promised her hand to a gentleman of birth and
+      honour&mdash;I will do him justice, though I know he bears me ill-will&mdash;one
+      Master Edmund Tressilian, whom I now see in the presence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Soh!" replied the Queen. "And what was your right to make the simple fool
+      break her worthy father's contract, through your love PASSAGES, as your
+      conceit and assurance terms them?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," replied Varney, "it is in vain to plead the cause of human
+      frailty before a judge to whom it is unknown, or that of love to one who
+      never yields to the passion"&mdash;he paused an instant, and then added,
+      in a very low and timid tone&mdash;"which she inflicts upon all others."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth tried to frown, but smiled in her own despite, as she answered,
+      "Thou art a marvellously impudent knave. Art thou married to the girl?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester's feelings became so complicated and so painfully intense, that
+      it seemed to him as if his life was to depend on the answer made by
+      Varney, who, after a moment's real hesitation, answered, "Yes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou false villain!" said Leicester, bursting forth into rage, yet unable
+      to add another word to the sentence which he had begun with such emphatic
+      passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord," said the Queen, "we will, by your leave, stand between
+      this fellow and your anger. We have not yet done with him.&mdash;Knew your
+      master, my Lord of Leicester, of this fair work of yours? Speak truth, I
+      command thee, and I will be thy warrant from danger on every quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gracious madam," said Varney, "to speak Heaven's truth, my lord was the
+      cause of the whole matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou villain, wouldst thou betray me?" said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak on," said the Queen hastily, her cheek colouring, and her eyes
+      sparkling, as she addressed Varney&mdash;"speak on. Here no commands are
+      heard but mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They are omnipotent, gracious madam," replied Varney; "and to you there
+      can be no secrets.&mdash;Yet I would not," he added, looking around him,
+      "speak of my master's concerns to other ears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fall back, my lords," said the Queen to those who surrounded her, "and do
+      you speak on. What hath the Earl to do with this guilty intrigue of thine?
+      See, fellow, that thou beliest him not!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far be it from me to traduce my noble patron," replied Varney; "yet I am
+      compelled to own that some deep, overwhelming, yet secret feeling hath of
+      late dwelt in my lord's mind, hath abstracted him from the cares of the
+      household which he was wont to govern with such religious strictness, and
+      hath left us opportunities to do follies, of which the shame, as in this
+      case, partly falls upon our patron. Without this, I had not had means or
+      leisure to commit the folly which has drawn on me his displeasure&mdash;the
+      heaviest to endure by me which I could by any means incur, saving always
+      the yet more dreaded resentment of your Grace."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And in this sense, and no other, hath he been accessory to thy fault?"
+      said Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely, madam, in no other," replied Varney; "but since somewhat hath
+      chanced to him, he can scarce be called his own man. Look at him, madam,
+      how pale and trembling he stands! how unlike his usual majesty of manner!&mdash;yet
+      what has he to fear from aught I can say to your Highness? Ah! madam,
+      since he received that fatal packet!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What packet, and from whence?" said the Queen eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From whence, madam, I cannot guess; but I am so near to his person that I
+      know he has ever since worn, suspended around his neck and next to his
+      heart, that lock of hair which sustains a small golden jewel shaped like a
+      heart. He speaks to it when alone&mdash;he parts not from it when he
+      sleeps&mdash;no heathen ever worshipped an idol with such devotion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a prying knave to watch thy master so closely," said Elizabeth,
+      blushing, but not with anger; "and a tattling knave to tell over again his
+      fooleries.&mdash;What colour might the braid of hair be that thou pratest
+      of?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney replied, "A poet, madam, might call it a thread from the golden web
+      wrought by Minerva; but to my thinking it was paler than even the purest
+      gold&mdash;more like the last parting sunbeam of the softest day of
+      spring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, you are a poet yourself, Master Varney," said the Queen, smiling.
+      "But I have not genius quick enough to follow your rare metaphors. Look
+      round these ladies&mdash;is there"&mdash;(she hesitated, and endeavoured
+      to assume an air of great indifference)&mdash;"is there here, in this
+      presence, any lady, the colour of whose hair reminds thee of that braid?
+      Methinks, without prying into my Lord of Leicester's amorous secrets, I
+      would fain know what kind of locks are like the thread of Minerva's web,
+      or the&mdash;what was it?&mdash;the last rays of the May-day sun."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney looked round the presence-chamber, his eye travelling from one lady
+      to another, until at length it rested upon the Queen herself, but with an
+      aspect of the deepest veneration. "I see no tresses," he said, "in this
+      presence, worthy of such similies, unless where I dare not look on them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, sir knave?" said the Queen; "dare you intimate&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, madam," replied Varney, shading his eyes with his hand, "it was the
+      beams of the May-day sun that dazzled my weak eyes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go to&mdash;go to," said the Queen; "thou art a foolish fellow"&mdash;and
+      turning quickly from him she walked up to Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Intense curiosity, mingled with all the various hopes, fears, and passions
+      which influence court faction, had occupied the presence-chamber during
+      the Queen's conference with Varney, as if with the strength of an Eastern
+      talisman. Men suspended every, even the slightest external motion, and
+      would have ceased to breathe, had Nature permitted such an intermission of
+      her functions. The atmosphere was contagious, and Leicester, who saw all
+      around wishing or fearing his advancement or his fall forgot all that love
+      had previously dictated, and saw nothing for the instant but the favour or
+      disgrace which depended on the nod of Elizabeth and the fidelity of
+      Varney. He summoned himself hastily, and prepared to play his part in the
+      scene which was like to ensue, when, as he judged from the glances which
+      the Queen threw towards him, Varney's communications, be they what they
+      might, were operating in his favour. Elizabeth did not long leave him in
+      doubt; for the more than favour with which she accosted him decided his
+      triumph in the eyes of his rival, and of the assembled court of England.
+      "Thou hast a prating servant of this same Varney, my lord," she said; "it
+      is lucky you trust him with nothing that can hurt you in our opinion, for
+      believe me, he would keep no counsel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From your Highness," said Leicester, dropping gracefully on one knee, "it
+      were treason he should. I would that my heart itself lay before you, barer
+      than the tongue of any servant could strip it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, my lord," said Elizabeth, looking kindly upon him, "is there no one
+      little corner over which you would wish to spread a veil? Ah! I see you
+      are confused at the question, and your Queen knows she should not look too
+      deeply into her servants' motives for their faithful duty, lest she see
+      what might, or at least ought to, displease her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Relieved by these last words, Leicester broke out into a torrent of
+      expressions of deep and passionate attachment, which perhaps, at that
+      moment, were not altogether fictitious. The mingled emotions which had at
+      first overcome him had now given way to the energetic vigour with which he
+      had determined to support his place in the Queen's favour; and never did
+      he seem to Elizabeth more eloquent, more handsome, more interesting, than
+      while, kneeling at her feet, he conjured her to strip him of all his
+      power, but to leave him the name of her servant.&mdash;"Take from the poor
+      Dudley," he exclaimed, "all that your bounty has made him, and bid him be
+      the poor gentleman he was when your Grace first shone on him; leave him no
+      more than his cloak and his sword, but let him still boast he has&mdash;what
+      in word or deed he never forfeited&mdash;the regard of his adored Queen
+      and mistress!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Dudley!" said Elizabeth, raising him with one hand, while she
+      extended the other that he might kiss it. "Elizabeth hath not forgotten
+      that, whilst you were a poor gentleman, despoiled of your hereditary rank,
+      she was as poor a princess, and that in her cause you then ventured all
+      that oppression had left you&mdash;your life and honour. Rise, my lord,
+      and let my hand go&mdash;rise, and be what you have ever been, the grace
+      of our court and the support of our throne! Your mistress may be forced to
+      chide your misdemeanours, but never without owning your merits.&mdash;And
+      so help me God," she added, turning to the audience, who, with various
+      feelings, witnessed this interesting scene&mdash;"so help me God,
+      gentlemen, as I think never sovereign had a truer servant than I have in
+      this noble Earl!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A murmur of assent rose from the Leicestrian faction, which the friends of
+      Sussex dared not oppose. They remained with their eyes fixed on the
+      ground, dismayed as well as mortified by the public and absolute triumph
+      of their opponents. Leicester's first use of the familiarity to which the
+      Queen had so publicly restored him was to ask her commands concerning
+      Varney's offence, "although," he said, "the fellow deserves nothing from
+      me but displeasure, yet, might I presume to intercede&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In truth, we had forgotten his matter," said the Queen; "and it was ill
+      done of us, who owe justice to our meanest as well as to our highest
+      subject. We are pleased, my lord, that you were the first to recall the
+      matter to our memory.&mdash;Where is Tressilian, the accuser?&mdash;let
+      him come before us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian appeared, and made a low and beseeming reference. His person,
+      as we have elsewhere observed, had an air of grace and even of nobleness,
+      which did not escape Queen Elizabeth's critical observation. She looked at
+      him with, attention as he stood before her unabashed, but with an air of
+      the deepest dejection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot but grieve for this gentleman," she said to Leicester. "I have
+      inquired concerning him, and his presence confirms what I heard, that he
+      is a scholar and a soldier, well accomplished both in arts and arms. We
+      women, my lord, are fanciful in our choice&mdash;I had said now, to judge
+      by the eye, there was no comparison to be held betwixt your follower and
+      this gentleman. But Varney is a well-spoken fellow, and, to say truth,
+      that goes far with us of the weaker sex.&mdash;look you, Master
+      Tressilian, a bolt lost is not a bow broken. Your true affection, as I
+      will hold it to be, hath been, it seems, but ill requited; but you have
+      scholarship, and you know there have been false Cressidas to be found,
+      from the Trojan war downwards. Forget, good sir, this Lady Light o' Love&mdash;teach
+      your affection to see with a wiser eye. This we say to you, more from the
+      writings of learned men than our own knowledge, being, as we are, far
+      removed by station and will from the enlargement of experience in such
+      idle toys of humorous passion. For this dame's father, we can make his
+      grief the less by advancing his son-in-law to such station as may enable
+      him to give an honourable support to his bride. Thou shalt not be
+      forgotten thyself, Tressilian&mdash;follow our court, and thou shalt see
+      that a true Troilus hath some claim on our grace. Think of what that
+      arch-knave Shakespeare says&mdash;a plague on him, his toys come into my
+      head when I should think of other matters. Stay, how goes it?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Cressid was yours, tied with the bonds of heaven;
+     These bonds of heaven are slipt, dissolved, and loosed,
+     And with another knot five fingers tied,
+     The fragments of her faith are bound to Diomed.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      You smile, my Lord of Southampton&mdash;perchance I make your player's
+      verse halt through my bad memory. But let it suffice let there be no more
+      of this mad matter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as Tressilian kept the posture of one who would willingly be heard,
+      though, at the same time, expressive of the deepest reverence, the Queen
+      added with some impatience, "What would the man have? The wench cannot wed
+      both of you? She has made her election&mdash;not a wise one perchance&mdash;but
+      she is Varney's wedded wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My suit should sleep there, most gracious Sovereign," said Tressilian,
+      "and with my suit my revenge. But I hold this Varney's word no good
+      warrant for the truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Had that doubt been elsewhere urged," answered Varney, "my sword&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "THY sword!" interrupted Tressilian scornfully; "with her Grace's leave,
+      my sword shall show&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, you knaves, both!" said the Queen; "know you where you are?&mdash;This
+      comes of your feuds, my lords," she added, looking towards Leicester and
+      Sussex; "your followers catch your own humour, and must bandy and brawl in
+      my court and in my very presence, like so many Matamoros.&mdash;Look you,
+      sirs, he that speaks of drawing swords in any other quarrel than mine or
+      England's, by mine honour, I'll bracelet him with iron both on wrist and
+      ankle!" She then paused a minute, and resumed in a milder tone, "I must do
+      justice betwixt the bold and mutinous knaves notwithstanding.&mdash;My
+      Lord of Leicester, will you warrant with your honour&mdash;that is, to the
+      best of your belief&mdash;that your servant speaks truth in saying he hath
+      married this Amy Robsart?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a home-thrust, and had nearly staggered Leicester. But he had now
+      gone too far to recede, and answered, after a moment's hesitation, "To the
+      best of my belief&mdash;indeed on my certain knowledge&mdash;she is a
+      wedded wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gracious madam," said Tressilian, "may I yet request to know, when and
+      under what circumstances this alleged marriage&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out, sirrah," answered the Queen; "ALLEGED marriage! Have you not the
+      word of this illustrious Earl to warrant the truth of what his servant
+      says? But thou art a loser&mdash;thinkest thyself such at least&mdash;and
+      thou shalt have indulgence; we will look into the matter ourself more at
+      leisure.&mdash;My Lord of Leicester, I trust you remember we mean to taste
+      the good cheer of your Castle of Kenilworth on this week ensuing. We will
+      pray you to bid our good and valued friend, the Earl of Sussex, to hold
+      company with us there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If the noble Earl of Sussex," said Leicester, bowing to his rival with
+      the easiest and with the most graceful courtesy, "will so far honour my
+      poor house, I will hold it an additional proof of the amicable regard it
+      is your Grace's desire we should entertain towards each other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sussex was more embarrassed. "I should," said he, "madam, be but a clog on
+      your gayer hours, since my late severe illness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And have you been indeed so very ill?" said Elizabeth, looking on him
+      with more attention than before; "you are, in faith, strangely altered,
+      and deeply am I grieved to see it. But be of good cheer&mdash;we will
+      ourselves look after the health of so valued a servant, and to whom we owe
+      so much. Masters shall order your diet; and that we ourselves may see that
+      he is obeyed, you must attend us in this progress to Kenilworth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said so peremptorily, and at the same time with so much kindness,
+      that Sussex, however unwilling to become the guest of his rival, had no
+      resource but to bow low to the Queen in obedience to her commands, and to
+      express to Leicester, with blunt courtesy, though mingled with
+      embarrassment, his acceptance of his invitation. As the Earls exchanged
+      compliments on the occasion, the Queen said to her High Treasurer,
+      "Methinks, my lord, the countenances of these our two noble peers resemble
+      those of the two famed classic streams, the one so dark and sad, the other
+      so fair and noble. My old Master Ascham would have chid me for forgetting
+      the author. It is Caesar, as I think. See what majestic calmness sits on
+      the brow of the noble Leicester, while Sussex seems to greet him as if he
+      did our will indeed, but not willingly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The doubt of your Majesty's favour," answered the Lord Treasurer, "may
+      perchance occasion the difference, which does not&mdash;as what does?&mdash;escape
+      your Grace's eye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such doubt were injurious to us, my lord," replied the Queen. "We hold
+      both to be near and dear to us, and will with impartiality employ both in
+      honourable service for the weal of our kingdom. But we will break their
+      further conference at present.&mdash;My Lords of Sussex and Leicester, we
+      have a word more with you. 'Tressilian and Varney are near your persons&mdash;you
+      will see that they attend you at Kenilworth. And as we shall then have
+      both Paris and Menelaus within our call, so we will have the same fair
+      Helen also, whose fickleness has caused this broil.&mdash;Varney, thy wife
+      must be at Kenilworth, and forthcoming at my order.&mdash;My Lord of
+      Leicester, we expect you will look to this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl and his follower bowed low and raised their heads, without daring
+      to look at the Queen, or at each other, for both felt at the instant as if
+      the nets and toils which their own falsehood had woven were in the act of
+      closing around them. The Queen, however, observed not their confusion, but
+      proceeded to say, "My Lords of Sussex and Leicester, we require your
+      presence at the privy-council to be presently held, where matters of
+      importance are to be debated. We will then take the water for our
+      divertisement, and you, my lords, will attend us.&mdash;And that reminds
+      us of a circumstance.&mdash;Do you, Sir Squire of the Soiled Cassock"
+      (distinguishing Raleigh by a smile), "fail not to observe that you are to
+      attend us on our progress. You shall be supplied with suitable means to
+      reform your wardrobe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so terminated this celebrated audience, in which, as throughout her
+      life, Elizabeth united the occasional caprice of her sex with that sense
+      and sound policy in which neither man nor woman ever excelled her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Well, then&mdash;our course is chosen&mdash;spread the sail&mdash;
+     Heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well&mdash;
+     Look to the helm, good master&mdash;many a shoal
+     Marks this stern coast, and rocks, where sits the Siren,
+     Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin.&mdash;THE SHIPWRECK.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      During the brief interval that took place betwixt the dismissal of the
+      audience and the sitting of the privy-council, Leicester had time to
+      reflect that he had that morning sealed his own fate. "It was impossible
+      for him now," he thought, "after having, in the face of all that was
+      honourable in England, pledged his truth (though in an ambiguous phrase)
+      for the statement of Varney, to contradict or disavow it, without exposing
+      himself, not merely to the loss of court-favour, but to the highest
+      displeasure of the Queen, his deceived mistress, and to the scorn and
+      contempt at once of his rival and of all his compeers." This certainty
+      rushed at once on his mind, together with all the difficulties which he
+      would necessarily be exposed to in preserving a secret which seemed now
+      equally essential to his safety, to his power, and to his honour. He was
+      situated like one who walks upon ice ready to give way around him, and
+      whose only safety consists in moving onwards, by firm and unvacillating
+      steps. The Queen's favour, to preserve which he had made such sacrifices,
+      must now be secured by all means and at all hazards; it was the only plank
+      which he could cling to in the tempest. He must settle himself, therefore,
+      to the task of not only preserving, but augmenting the Queen's partiality&mdash;he
+      must be the favourite of Elizabeth, or a man utterly shipwrecked in
+      fortune and in honour. All other considerations must be laid aside for the
+      moment, and he repelled the intrusive thoughts which forced on his mind
+      the image of, Amy, by saying to himself there would be time to think
+      hereafter how he was to escape from the labyrinth ultimately, since the
+      pilot who sees a Scylla under his bows must not for the time think of the
+      more distant dangers of Charybdis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this mood the Earl of Leicester that day assumed his chair at the
+      council table of Elizabeth; and when the hours of business were over, in
+      this same mood did he occupy an honoured place near her during her
+      pleasure excursion on the Thames. And never did he display to more
+      advantage his powers as a politician of the first rank, or his parts as an
+      accomplished courtier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It chanced that in that day's council matters were agitated touching the
+      affairs of the unfortunate Mary, the seventh year of whose captivity in
+      England was now in doleful currency. There had been opinions in favour of
+      this unhappy princess laid before Elizabeth's council, and supported with
+      much strength of argument by Sussex and others, who dwelt more upon the
+      law of nations and the breach of hospitality than, however softened or
+      qualified, was agreeable to the Queen's ear. Leicester adopted the
+      contrary opinion with great animation and eloquence, and described the
+      necessity of continuing the severe restraint of the Queen of Scots, as a
+      measure essential to the safety of the kingdom, and particularly of
+      Elizabeth's sacred person, the lightest hair of whose head, he maintained,
+      ought, in their lordships' estimation, to be matter of more deep and
+      anxious concern than the life and fortunes of a rival, who, after setting
+      up a vain and unjust pretence to the throne of England, was now, even
+      while in the bosom of her country, the constant hope and theme of
+      encouragement to all enemies to Elizabeth, whether at home or abroad. He
+      ended by craving pardon of their lordships, if in the zeal of speech he
+      had given any offence, but the Queen's safety was a theme which hurried
+      him beyond his usual moderation of debate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth chid him, but not severely, for the weight which he attached
+      unduly to her personal interests; yet she owned that, since it had been
+      the pleasure of Heaven to combine those interests with the weal of her
+      subjects, she did only her duty when she adopted such measures of
+      self-preservation as circumstances forced upon her; and if the council in
+      their wisdom should be of opinion that it was needful to continue some
+      restraint on the person of her unhappy sister of Scotland, she trusted
+      they would not blame her if she requested of the Countess of Shrewsbury to
+      use her with as much kindness as might be consistent with her safe
+      keeping. And with this intimation of her pleasure the council was
+      dismissed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never was more anxious and ready way made for "my Lord of Leicester," than
+      as he passed through the crowded anterooms to go towards the river-side,
+      in order to attend her Majesty to her barge&mdash;never was the voice of
+      the ushers louder, to "make room, make room for the noble Earl"&mdash;never
+      were these signals more promptly and reverently obeyed&mdash;never were
+      more anxious eyes turned on him to obtain a glance of favour, or even of
+      mere recognition, while the heart of many a humble follower throbbed
+      betwixt the desire to offer his congratulations, and the fear of intruding
+      himself on the notice of one so infinitely above him. The whole court
+      considered the issue of this day's audience, expected with so much doubt
+      and anxiety, as a decisive triumph on the part of Leicester, and felt
+      assured that the orb of his rival satellite, if not altogether obscured by
+      his lustre, must revolve hereafter in a dimmer and more distant sphere. So
+      thought the court and courtiers, from high to low; and they acted
+      accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, never did Leicester return the general greeting with
+      such ready and condescending courtesy, or endeavour more successfully to
+      gather (in the words of one who at that moment stood at no great distance
+      from him) "golden opinions from all sorts of men."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all the favourite Earl had a bow a smile at least, and often a kind
+      word. Most of these were addressed to courtiers, whose names have long
+      gone down the tide of oblivion; but some, to such as sound strangely in
+      our ears, when connected with the ordinary matters of human life, above
+      which the gratitude of posterity has long elevated them. A few of
+      Leicester's interlocutory sentences ran as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Poynings, good morrow; and how does your wife and fair daughter? Why come
+      they not to court?&mdash;Adams, your suit is naught; the Queen will grant
+      no more monopolies. But I may serve you in another matter.&mdash;My good
+      Alderman Aylford, the suit of the City, affecting Queenhithe, shall be
+      forwarded as far as my poor interest can serve.&mdash;Master Edmund
+      Spenser, touching your Irish petition, I would willingly aid you, from my
+      love to the Muses; but thou hast nettled the Lord Treasurer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said the poet, "were I permitted to explain&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come to my lodging, Edmund," answered the Earl "not to-morrow, or next
+      day, but soon.&mdash;Ha, Will Shakespeare&mdash;wild Will!&mdash;thou hast
+      given my nephew Philip Sidney, love-powder; he cannot sleep without thy
+      Venus and Adonis under his pillow! We will have thee hanged for the
+      veriest wizard in Europe. Hark thee, mad wag, I have not forgotten thy
+      matter of the patent, and of the bears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PLAYER bowed, and the Earl nodded and passed on&mdash;so that age
+      would have told the tale; in ours, perhaps, we might say the immortal had
+      done homage to the mortal. The next whom the favourite accosted was one of
+      his own zealous dependants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How now, Sir Francis Denning," he whispered, in answer to his exulting
+      salutation, "that smile hath made thy face shorter by one-third than when
+      I first saw it this morning.&mdash;What, Master Bowyer, stand you back,
+      and think you I bear malice? You did but your duty this morning; and if I
+      remember aught of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Earl was approached, with several fantastic congees, by a person
+      quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiously slashed and
+      pinked with crimson satin. A long cock's feather in the velvet bonnet,
+      which he held in his hand, and an enormous ruff; stiffened to the
+      extremity of the absurd taste of the times, joined with a sharp, lively,
+      conceited expression of countenance, seemed to body forth a vain,
+      harebrained coxcomb, and small wit; while the rod he held, and an
+      assumption of formal authority, appeared to express some sense of official
+      consequence, which qualified the natural pertness of his manner. A
+      perpetual blush, which occupied rather the sharp nose than the thin cheek
+      of this personage, seemed to speak more of "good life," as it was called,
+      than of modesty; and the manner in which he approached to the Earl
+      confirmed that suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good even to you, Master Robert Laneham," said Leicester, and seemed
+      desirous to pass forward, without further speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have a suit to your noble lordship," said the figure, boldly following
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is it, good master keeper of the council-chamber door?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "CLERK of the council-chamber door," said Master Robert Laneham, with
+      emphasis, by way of reply, and of correction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, qualify thine office as thou wilt, man," replied the Earl; "what
+      wouldst thou have with me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Simply," answered Laneham, "that your lordship would be, as heretofore,
+      my good lord, and procure me license to attend the Summer Progress unto
+      your lordship's most beautiful and all-to-be-unmatched Castle of
+      Kenilworth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To what purpose, good Master Laneham?" replied the Earl; "bethink you, my
+      guests must needs be many."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so many," replied the petitioner, "but that your nobleness will
+      willingly spare your old servitor his crib and his mess. Bethink you, my
+      lord, how necessary is this rod of mine to fright away all those
+      listeners, who else would play at bo-peep with the honourable council, and
+      be searching for keyholes and crannies in the door of the chamber, so as
+      to render my staff as needful as a fly-flap in a butcher's shop."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methinks you have found out a fly-blown comparison for the honourable
+      council, Master Laneham," said the Earl; "but seek not about to justify
+      it. Come to Kenilworth, if you list; there will be store of fools there
+      besides, and so you will be fitted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, an there be fools, my lord," replied Laneham, with much glee, "I
+      warrant I will make sport among them, for no greyhound loves to cote a
+      hare as I to turn and course a fool. But I have another singular favour to
+      beseech of your honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak it, and let me go," said the Earl; "I think the Queen comes forth
+      instantly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My very good lord, I would fain bring a bed-fellow with me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, you irreverent rascal!" said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons," answered his unblushing,
+      or rather his ever-blushing petitioner. "I have a wife as curious as her
+      grandmother who ate the apple. Now, take her with me I may not, her
+      Highness's orders being so strict against the officers bringing with them
+      their wives in a progress, and so lumbering the court with womankind. But
+      what I would crave of your lordship is to find room for her in some
+      mummery, or pretty pageant, in disguise, as it were; so that, not being
+      known for my wife, there may be no offence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The foul fiend seize ye both!" said Leicester, stung into uncontrollable
+      passion by the recollections which this speech excited&mdash;"why stop you
+      me with such follies?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrified clerk of the chamber-door, astonished at the burst of
+      resentment he had so unconsciously produced, dropped his staff of office
+      from his hand, and gazed on the incensed Earl with a foolish face of
+      wonder and terror, which instantly recalled Leicester to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits thine office,"
+      said he hastily. "Come to Kenilworth, and bring the devil with thee, if
+      thou wilt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My wife, sir, hath played the devil ere now, in a Mystery, in Queen
+      Mary's time; but me shall want a trifle for properties."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is a crown for thee," said the Earl,&mdash;"make me rid of thee&mdash;the
+      great bell rings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Robert Laneham stared a moment at the agitation which he had
+      excited, and then said to himself, as he stooped to pick up his staff of
+      office, "The noble Earl runs wild humours to-day. But they who give crowns
+      expect us witty fellows to wink at their unsettled starts; and, by my
+      faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would finger them tightly!" [See
+      Note 6. Robert Laneham.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester moved hastily on, neglecting the courtesies he had hitherto
+      dispensed so liberally, and hurrying through the courtly crowd, until he
+      paused in a small withdrawing-room, into which he plunged to draw a
+      moment's breath unobserved, and in seclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What am I now," he said to himself, "that am thus jaded by the words of a
+      mean, weather-beaten, goose-brained gull! Conscience, thou art a
+      bloodhound, whose growl wakes us readily at the paltry stir of a rat or
+      mouse as at the step of a lion. Can I not quit myself, by one bold stroke,
+      of a state so irksome, so unhonoured? What if I kneel to Elizabeth, and,
+      owning the whole, throw myself on her mercy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he pursued this train of thought, the door of the apartment opened, and
+      Varney rushed in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank God, my lord, that I have found you!" was his exclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank the devil, whose agent thou art," was the Earl's reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thank whom you will, my lord," replied Varney; "but hasten to the
+      water-side. The Queen is on board, and asks for you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go, say I am taken suddenly ill," replied Leicester; "for, by Heaven, my
+      brain can sustain this no longer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may well say so," said Varney, with bitterness of expression, "for your
+      place, ay, and mine, who, as your master of the horse, was to have
+      attended your lordship, is already filled up in the Queen's barge. The new
+      minion, Walter Raleigh, and our old acquaintance Tressilian were called
+      for to fill our places just as I hastened away to seek you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a devil, Varney," said Leicester hastily; "but thou hast the
+      mastery for the present&mdash;I follow thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney replied not, but led the way out of the palace, and towards the
+      river, while his master followed him, as if mechanically; until, looking
+      back, he said in a tone which savoured of familiarity at least, if not of
+      authority, "How is this, my lord? Your cloak hangs on one side&mdash;your
+      hose are unbraced&mdash;permit me&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a fool, Varney, as well as a knave," said Leicester, shaking him
+      off, and rejecting his officious assistance. "We are best thus, sir; when
+      we require you to order our person, it is well, but now we want you not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, the Earl resumed at once his air of command, and with it his
+      self-possession&mdash;shook his dress into yet wilder disorder&mdash;passed
+      before Varney with the air of a superior and master, and in his turn led
+      the way to the river-side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen's barge was on the very point of putting off, the seat allotted
+      to Leicester in the stern, and that to his master of the horse on the bow
+      of the boat, being already filled up. But on Leicester's approach there
+      was a pause, as if the bargemen anticipated some alteration in their
+      company. The angry spot was, however, on the Queen's cheek, as, in that
+      cold tone with which superiors endeavour to veil their internal agitation,
+      while speaking to those before whom it would be derogation to express it,
+      she pronounced the chilling words, "We have waited, my Lord of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam, and most gracious Princess," said Leicester, "you, who can pardon
+      so many weaknesses which your own heart never knows, can best bestow your
+      commiseration on the agitations of the bosom, which, for a moment, affect
+      both head and limbs. I came to your presence a doubting and an accused
+      subject; your goodness penetrated the clouds of defamation, and restored
+      me to my honour, and, what is yet dearer, to your favour&mdash;is it
+      wonderful, though for me it is most unhappy, that my master of the horse
+      should have found me in a state which scarce permitted me to make the
+      exertion necessary to follow him to this place, when one glance of your
+      Highness, although, alas! an angry one, has had power to do that for me in
+      which Esculapius might have failed?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How is this?" said Elizabeth hastily, looking at Varney; "hath your lord
+      been ill?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Something of a fainting fit," answered the ready-witted Varney, "as your
+      Grace may observe from his present condition. My lord's haste would not
+      permit me leisure even to bring his dress into order."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It matters not," said Elizabeth, as she gazed on the noble face and form
+      of Leicester, to which even the strange mixture of passions by which he
+      had been so lately agitated gave additional interest; "make room for my
+      noble lord. Your place, Master Varney, has been filled up; you must find a
+      seat in another barge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney bowed, and withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And you, too, our young Squire of the Cloak," added she, looking at
+      Raleigh, "must, for the time, go to the barge of our ladies of honour. As
+      for Tressilian, he hath already suffered too much by the caprice of women
+      that I should aggrieve him by my change of plan, so far as he is
+      concerned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester seated himself in his place in the barge, and close to the
+      Sovereign. Raleigh rose to retire, and Tressilian would have been so
+      ill-timed in his courtesy as to offer to relinquish his own place to his
+      friend, had not the acute glance of Raleigh himself, who seemed not in his
+      native element, made him sensible that so ready a disclamation of the
+      royal favour might be misinterpreted. He sat silent, therefore, whilst
+      Raleigh, with a profound bow, and a look of the deepest humiliation, was
+      about to quit his place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A noble courtier, the gallant Lord Willoughby, read, as he thought,
+      something in the Queen's face which seemed to pity Raleigh's real or
+      assumed semblance of mortification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not for us old courtiers," he said, "to hide the sunshine from the
+      young ones. I will, with her Majesty's leave, relinquish for an hour that
+      which her subjects hold dearest, the delight of her Highness's presence,
+      and mortify myself by walking in starlight, while I forsake for a brief
+      season the glory of Diana's own beams. I will take place in the boat which
+      the ladies occupy, and permit this young cavalier his hour of promised
+      felicity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen replied, with an expression betwixt mirth and earnest, "If you
+      are so willing to leave us, my lord, we cannot help the mortification.
+      But, under favour, we do not trust you&mdash;old and experienced as you
+      may deem yourself&mdash;with the care of our young ladies of honour. Your
+      venerable age, my lord," she continued, smiling, "may be better assorted
+      with that of my Lord Treasurer, who follows in the third boat, and by
+      whose experience even my Lord Willoughby's may be improved."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Willoughby hid his disappointment under a smile&mdash;laughed, was
+      confused, bowed, and left the Queen's barge to go on board my Lord
+      Burleigh's. Leicester, who endeavoured to divert his thoughts from all
+      internal reflection, by fixing them on what was passing around, watched
+      this circumstance among others. But when the boat put off from the shore&mdash;when
+      the music sounded from a barge which accompanied them&mdash;when the
+      shouts of the populace were heard from the shore, and all reminded him of
+      the situation in which he was placed, he abstracted his thoughts and
+      feelings by a strong effort from everything but the necessity of
+      maintaining himself in the favour of his patroness, and exerted his
+      talents of pleasing captivation with such success, that the Queen,
+      alternately delighted with his conversation, and alarmed for his health,
+      at length imposed a temporary silence on him, with playful yet anxious
+      care, lest his flow of spirits should exhaust him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lords," she said, "having passed for a time our edict of silence upon
+      our good Leicester, we will call you to counsel on a gamesome matter, more
+      fitted to be now treated of, amidst mirth and music, than in the gravity
+      of our ordinary deliberations. Which of you, my lords," said she, smiling,
+      "know aught of a petition from Orson Pinnit, the keeper, as he qualifies
+      himself, of our royal bears? Who stands godfather to his request?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Marry, with Your Grace's good permission, that do I," said the Earl of
+      Sussex. "Orson Pinnit was a stout soldier before he was so mangled by the
+      skenes of the Irish clan MacDonough; and I trust your Grace will be, as
+      you always have been, good mistress to your good and trusty servants."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely," said the Queen, "it is our purpose to be so, and in especial to
+      our poor soldiers and sailors, who hazard their lives for little pay. We
+      would give," she said, with her eyes sparkling, "yonder royal palace of
+      ours to be an hospital for their use, rather than they should call their
+      mistress ungrateful. But this is not the question," she said, her voice,
+      which had been awakened by her patriotic feelings, once more subsiding
+      into the tone of gay and easy conversation; "for this Orson Pinnit's
+      request goes something further. He complains that, amidst the extreme
+      delight with which men haunt the play-houses, and in especial their eager
+      desire for seeing the exhibitions of one Will Shakespeare (whom I think,
+      my lords, we have all heard something of), the manly amusement of
+      bear-baiting is falling into comparative neglect, since men will rather
+      throng to see these roguish players kill each other in jest, than to see
+      our royal dogs and bears worry each other in bloody earnest.&mdash;What
+      say you to this, my Lord of Sussex?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, truly, gracious madam," said Sussex, "you must expect little from an
+      old soldier like me in favour of battles in sport, when they are compared
+      with battles in earnest; and yet, by my faith, I wish Will Shakespeare no
+      harm. He is a stout man at quarter-staff, and single falchion, though, as
+      I am told, a halting fellow; and he stood, they say, a tough fight with
+      the rangers of old Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecot, when he broke his
+      deer-park and kissed his keeper's daughter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cry you mercy, my Lord of Sussex," said Queen Elizabeth, interrupting
+      him; "that matter was heard in council, and we will not have this fellow's
+      offence exaggerated&mdash;there was no kissing in the matter, and the
+      defendant hath put the denial on record. But what say you to his present
+      practice, my lord, on the stage? for there lies the point, and not in any
+      ways touching his former errors, in breaking parks, or the other follies
+      you speak of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, truly, madam," replied Sussex, "as I said before, I wish the
+      gamesome mad fellow no injury. Some of his whoreson poetry (I crave your
+      Grace's pardon for such a phrase) has rung in mine ears as if the lines
+      sounded to boot and saddle. But then it is all froth and folly&mdash;no
+      substance or seriousness in it, as your Grace has already well touched.
+      What are half a dozen knaves, with rusty foils and tattered targets,
+      making but a mere mockery of a stout fight, to compare to the royal game
+      of bear-baiting, which hath been graced by your Highness's countenance,
+      and that of your royal predecessors, in this your princely kingdom, famous
+      for matchless mastiffs and bold bearwards over all Christendom? Greatly is
+      it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if men should throng to
+      hear the lungs of an idle player belch forth nonsensical bombast, instead
+      of bestowing their pence in encouraging the bravest image of war that can
+      be shown in peace, and that is the sports of the Bear-garden. There you
+      may see the bear lying at guard, with his red, pinky eyes watching the
+      onset of the mastiff, like a wily captain who maintains his defence that
+      an assailant may be tempted to venture within his danger. And then comes
+      Sir Mastiff, like a worthy champion, in full career at the throat of his
+      adversary; and then shall Sir Bruin teach him the reward for those who, in
+      their over-courage, neglect the policies of war, and, catching him in his
+      arms, strain him to his breast like a lusty wrestler, until rib after rib
+      crack like the shot of a pistolet. And then another mastiff; as bold, but
+      with better aim and sounder judgment, catches Sir Bruin by the nether lip,
+      and hangs fast, while he tosses about his blood and slaver, and tries in
+      vain to shake Sir Talbot from his hold. And then&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, by my honour, my lord," said the Queen, laughing, "you have
+      described the whole so admirably that, had we never seen a bear-baiting,
+      as we have beheld many, and hope, with Heaven's allowance, to see many
+      more, your words were sufficient to put the whole Bear-garden before our
+      eyes.&mdash;But come, who speaks next in this case?&mdash;My Lord of
+      Leicester, what say you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Am I then to consider myself as unmuzzled, please your Grace?" replied
+      Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely, my lord&mdash;that is, if you feel hearty enough to take part in
+      our game," answered Elizabeth; "and yet, when I think of your cognizance
+      of the bear and ragged staff, methinks we had better hear some less
+      partial orator."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, on my word, gracious Princess," said the Earl, "though my brother
+      Ambrose of Warwick and I do carry the ancient cognizance your Highness
+      deigns to remember, I nevertheless desire nothing but fair play on all
+      sides; or, as they say, 'fight dog, fight bear.' And in behalf of the
+      players, I must needs say that they are witty knaves, whose rants and
+      jests keep the minds of the commons from busying themselves with state
+      affairs, and listening to traitorous speeches, idle rumours, and disloyal
+      insinuations. When men are agape to see how Marlow, Shakespeare, and other
+      play artificers work out their fanciful plots, as they call them, the mind
+      of the spectators is withdrawn from the conduct of their rulers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We would not have the mind of our subjects withdrawn from the
+      consideration of our own conduct, my lord," answered Elizabeth; "because
+      the more closely it is examined, the true motives by which we are guided
+      will appear the more manifest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard, however, madam," said the Dean of St. Asaph's, an eminent
+      Puritan, "that these players are wont, in their plays, not only to
+      introduce profane and lewd expressions, tending to foster sin and
+      harlotry; but even to bellow out such reflections on government, its
+      origin and its object, as tend to render the subject discontented, and
+      shake the solid foundations of civil society. And it seems to be, under
+      your Grace's favour, far less than safe to permit these naughty
+      foul-mouthed knaves to ridicule the godly for their decent gravity, and,
+      in blaspheming heaven and slandering its earthly rulers, to set at
+      defiance the laws both of God and man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If we could think this were true, my lord," said Elizabeth, "we should
+      give sharp correction for such offences. But it is ill arguing against the
+      use of anything from its abuse. And touching this Shakespeare, we think
+      there is that in his plays that is worth twenty Bear-gardens; and that
+      this new undertaking of his Chronicles, as he calls them, may entertain,
+      with honest mirth, mingled with useful instruction, not only our subjects,
+      but even the generation which may succeed to us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Majesty's reign will need no such feeble aid to make it remembered
+      to the latest posterity," said Leicester. "And yet, in his way,
+      Shakespeare hath so touched some incidents of your Majesty's happy
+      government as may countervail what has been spoken by his reverence the
+      Dean of St. Asaph's. There are some lines, for example&mdash;I would my
+      nephew, Philip Sidney, were here; they are scarce ever out of his mouth&mdash;they
+      are spoken in a mad tale of fairies, love-charms, and I wot not what
+      besides; but beautiful they are, however short they may and must fall of
+      the subject to which they bear a bold relation&mdash;and Philip murmurs
+      them, I think, even in his dreams."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You tantalize us, my lord," said the Queen&mdash;"Master Philip Sidney
+      is, we know, a minion of the Muses, and we are pleased it should be so.
+      Valour never shines to more advantage than when united with the true taste
+      and love of letters. But surely there are some others among our young
+      courtiers who can recollect what your lordship has forgotten amid
+      weightier affairs.&mdash;Master Tressilian, you are described to me as a
+      worshipper of Minerva&mdash;remember you aught of these lines?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian's heart was too heavy, his prospects in life too fatally
+      blighted, to profit by the opportunity which the Queen thus offered to him
+      of attracting her attention; but he determined to transfer the advantage
+      to his more ambitious young friend, and excusing himself on the score of
+      want of recollection, he added that he believed the beautiful verses of
+      which my Lord of Leicester had spoken were in the remembrance of Master
+      Walter Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the command of the Queen, that cavalier repeated, with accent and
+      manner which even added to their exquisite delicacy of tact and beauty of
+      description, the celebrated vision of Oberon:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),
+     Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
+     Cupid, allarm'd:  a certain aim he took
+     At a fair vestal, throned by the west;
+     And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
+     As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
+     But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
+     Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
+     And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
+     In maiden meditation, fancy free."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The voice of Raleigh, as he repeated the last lines, became a little
+      tremulous, as if diffident how the Sovereign to whom the homage was
+      addressed might receive it, exquisite as it was. If this diffidence was
+      affected, it was good policy; but if real, there was little occasion for
+      it. The verses were not probably new to the Queen, for when was ever such
+      elegant flattery long in reaching the royal ear to which it was addressed?
+      But they were not the less welcome when repeated by such a speaker as
+      Raleigh. Alike delighted with the matter, the manner, and the graceful
+      form and animated countenance of the gallant young reciter, Elizabeth kept
+      time to every cadence with look and with finger. When the speaker had
+      ceased, she murmured over the last lines as if scarce conscious that she
+      was overheard, and as she uttered the words,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In maiden meditation, fancy free," she dropped into the Thames the
+      supplication of Orson Pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to find more
+      favourable acceptance at Sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was spurred to emulation by the success of the young courtier's
+      exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a high-mettled colt passes
+      him on the way. He turned the discourse on shows, banquets, pageants, and
+      on the character of those by whom these gay scenes were then frequented.
+      He mixed acute observation with light satire, in that just proportion
+      which was free alike from malignant slander and insipid praise. He
+      mimicked with ready accent the manners of the affected or the clownish,
+      and made his own graceful tone and manner seem doubly such when he resumed
+      it. Foreign countries&mdash;their customs, their manners, the rules of
+      their courts&mdash;-the fashions, and even the dress of their ladies-were
+      equally his theme; and seldom did he conclude without conveying some
+      compliment, always couched in delicacy, and expressed with propriety, to
+      the Virgin Queen, her court, and her government. Thus passed the
+      conversation during this pleasure voyage, seconded by the rest of the
+      attendants upon the royal person, in gay discourse, varied by remarks upon
+      ancient classics and modern authors, and enriched by maxims of deep policy
+      and sound morality, by the statesmen and sages who sat around and mixed
+      wisdom with the lighter talk of a female court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they returned to the Palace, Elizabeth accepted, or rather selected,
+      the arm of Leicester to support her from the stairs where they landed to
+      the great gate. It even seemed to him (though that might arise from the
+      flattery of his own imagination) that during this short passage she leaned
+      on him somewhat more than the slippiness of the way necessarily demanded.
+      Certainly her actions and words combined to express a degree of favour
+      which, even in his proudest day he had not till then attained. His rival,
+      indeed, was repeatedly graced by the Queen's notice; but it was in manner
+      that seemed to flow less from spontaneous inclination than as extorted by
+      a sense of his merit. And in the opinion of many experienced courtiers,
+      all the favour she showed him was overbalanced by her whispering in the
+      ear of the Lady Derby that "now she saw sickness was a better alchemist
+      than she before wotted of, seeing it had changed my Lord of Sussex's
+      copper nose into a golden one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The jest transpired, and the Earl of Leicester enjoyed his triumph, as one
+      to whom court-favour had been both the primary and the ultimate motive of
+      life, while he forgot, in the intoxication of the moment, the perplexities
+      and dangers of his own situation. Indeed, strange as it may appear, he
+      thought less at that moment of the perils arising from his secret union,
+      than of the marks of grace which Elizabeth from time to time showed to
+      young Raleigh. They were indeed transient, but they were conferred on one
+      accomplished in mind and body, with grace, gallantry, literature, and
+      valour. An accident occurred in the course of the evening which riveted
+      Leicester's attention to this object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nobles and courtiers who had attended the Queen on her pleasure
+      expedition were invited, with royal hospitality, to a splendid banquet in
+      the hall of the Palace. The table was not, indeed, graced by the presence
+      of the Sovereign; for, agreeable to her idea of what was at once modest
+      and dignified, the Maiden Queen on such occasions was wont to take in
+      private, or with one or two favourite ladies, her light and temperate
+      meal. After a moderate interval, the court again met in the splendid
+      gardens of the Palace; and it was while thus engaged that the Queen
+      suddenly asked a lady, who was near to her both in place and favour, what
+      had become of the young Squire Lack-Cloak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Lady Paget answered, "She had seen Master Raleigh but two or three
+      minutes since standing at the window of a small pavilion or
+      pleasure-house, which looked out on the Thames, and writing on the glass
+      with a diamond ring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That ring," said the Queen, "was a small token I gave him to make amends
+      for his spoiled mantle. Come, Paget, let us see what use he has made of
+      it, for I can see through him already. He is a marvellously sharp-witted
+      spirit." They went to the spot, within sight of which, but at some
+      distance, the young cavalier still lingered, as the fowler watches the net
+      which he has set. The Queen approached the window, on which Raleigh had
+      used her gift to inscribe the following line:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Queen smiled, read it twice over, once with deliberation to Lady
+      Paget, and once again to herself. "It is a pretty beginning," she said,
+      after the consideration of a moment or two; "but methinks the muse hath
+      deserted the young wit at the very outset of his task. It were
+      good-natured&mdash;were it not, Lady Paget?&mdash;to complete it for him.
+      Try your rhyming faculties."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Paget, prosaic from her cradle upwards as ever any lady of the
+      bedchamber before or after her, disclaimed all possibility of assisting
+      the young poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then, we must sacrifice to the Muses ourselves," said Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The incense of no one can be more acceptable," said Lady Paget; "and your
+      Highness will impose such obligation on the ladies of Parnassus&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, Paget," said the Queen, "you speak sacrilege against the immortal
+      Nine&mdash;yet, virgins themselves, they should be exorable to a Virgin
+      Queen&mdash;and therefore&mdash;let me see how runs his verse&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Might not the answer (for fault of a better) run thus?&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The dame of honour uttered an exclamation of joy and surprise at so happy
+      a termination; and certainly a worse has been applauded, even when coming
+      from a less distinguished author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring, and saying, "We will
+      give this gallant some cause of marvel when he finds his couplet perfected
+      without his own interference," she wrote her own line beneath that of
+      Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen left the pavilion; but retiring slowly, and often looking back,
+      she could see the young cavalier steal, with the flight of a lapwing,
+      towards the place where he had seen her make a pause. "She stayed but to
+      observe," as she said, "that her train had taken;" and then, laughing at
+      the circumstance with the Lady Paget, she took the way slowly towards the
+      Palace. Elizabeth, as they returned, cautioned her companion not to
+      mention to any one the aid which she had given to the young poet, and Lady
+      Paget promised scrupulous secrecy. It is to be supposed that she made a
+      mental reservation in favour of Leicester, to whom her ladyship
+      transmitted without delay an anecdote so little calculated to give him
+      pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh, in the meanwhile, stole back to the window, and read, with a
+      feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him by the Queen in
+      person to follow out his ambitious career, and returned to Sussex and his
+      retinue, then on the point of embarking to go up the river, his heart
+      beating high with gratified pride, and with hope of future distinction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reverence due to the person of the Earl prevented any notice being
+      taken of the reception he had met with at court, until they had landed,
+      and the household were assembled in the great hall at Sayes Court; while
+      that lord, exhausted by his late illness and the fatigues of the day, had
+      retired to his chamber, demanding the attendance of Wayland, his
+      successful physician. Wayland, however, was nowhere to be found; and while
+      some of the party were, with military impatience, seeking him and cursing
+      his absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him on his
+      prospects of court-favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive circumstance of
+      the couplet to which Elizabeth had deigned to find a rhyme; but other
+      indications had transpired, which plainly intimated that he had made some
+      progress in the Queen's favour. All hastened to wish him joy on the mended
+      appearance of his fortune&mdash;some from real regard, some, perhaps, from
+      hopes that his preferment might hasten their own, and most from a mixture
+      of these motives, and a sense that the countenance shown to any one of
+      Sussex's household was, in fact, a triumph to the whole. Raleigh returned
+      the kindest thanks to them all, disowning, with becoming modesty, that one
+      day's fair reception made a favourite, any more than one swallow a summer.
+      But he observed that Blount did not join in the general congratulation,
+      and, somewhat hurt at his apparent unkindness, he plainly asked him the
+      reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blount replied with equal sincerity&mdash;"My good Walter, I wish thee as
+      well as do any of these chattering gulls, who are whistling and whooping
+      gratulations in thine ear because it seems fair weather with thee. But I
+      fear for thee, Walter" (and he wiped his honest eye), "I fear for thee
+      with all my heart. These court-tricks, and gambols, and flashes of fine
+      women's favour are the tricks and trinkets that bring fair fortunes to
+      farthings, and fine faces and witty coxcombs to the acquaintance of dull
+      block and sharp axes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, Blount arose and left the hall, while Raleigh looked after him
+      with an expression that blanked for a moment his bold and animated
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stanley just then entered the hall, and said to Tressilian, "My lord is
+      calling for your fellow Wayland, and your fellow Wayland is just come
+      hither in a sculler, and is calling for you, nor will he go to my lord
+      till he sees you. The fellow looks as he were mazed, methinks; I would you
+      would see him immediately."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian instantly left the hall, and causing Wayland Smith to be shown
+      into a withdrawing apartment, and lights placed, he conducted the artist
+      thither, and was surprised when he observed the emotion of his
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is the matter with you, Smith?" said Tressilian; "have you seen the
+      devil?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Worse, sir, worse," replied Wayland; "I have seen a basilisk. Thank God,
+      I saw him first; for being so seen, and seeing not me, he will do the less
+      harm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In God's name, speak sense," said Tressilian, "and say what you mean."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have seen my old master," said the artist. "Last night a friend whom I
+      had acquired took me to see the Palace clock, judging me to be curious in
+      such works of art. At the window of a turret next to the clock-house I saw
+      my old master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou must needs have been mistaken," said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was not mistaken," said Wayland; "he that once hath his features by
+      heart would know him amongst a million. He was anticly habited; but he
+      cannot disguise himself from me, God be praised! as I can from him. I will
+      not, however, tempt Providence by remaining within his ken. Tarleton the
+      player himself could not so disguise himself but that, sooner or later,
+      Doboobie would find him out. I must away to-morrow; for, as we stand
+      together, it were death to me to remain within reach of him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But the Earl of Sussex?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is in little danger from what he has hitherto taken, provided he
+      swallow the matter of a bean's size of the orvietan every morning fasting;
+      but let him beware of a relapse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how is that to be guarded against?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Only by such caution as you would use against the devil," answered
+      Wayland. "Let my lord's clerk of the kitchen kill his lord's meat himself,
+      and dress it himself, using no spice but what he procures from the surest
+      hands. Let the sewer serve it up himself, and let the master of my lord's
+      household see that both clerk and sewer taste the dishes which the one
+      dresses and the other serves. Let my lord use no perfumes which come not
+      from well accredited persons; no unguents&mdash;no pomades. Let him, on no
+      account, drink with strangers, or eat fruit with them, either in the way
+      of nooning or otherwise. Especially, let him observe such caution if he
+      goes to Kenilworth&mdash;the excuse of his illness, and his being under
+      diet, will, and must, cover the strangeness of such practice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And thou," said Tressilian, "what dost thou think to make of thyself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "France, Spain, either India, East or West, shall be my refuge," said
+      Wayland, "ere I venture my life by residing within ken of Doboobie,
+      Demetrius, or whatever else he calls himself for the time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said Tressilian, "this happens not inopportunely. I had business
+      for you in Berkshire, but in the opposite extremity to the place where
+      thou art known; and ere thou hadst found out this new reason for living
+      private, I had settled to send thee thither upon a secret embassage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist expressed himself willing to receive his commands, and
+      Tressilian, knowing he was well acquainted with the outline of his
+      business at court, frankly explained to him the whole, mentioned the
+      agreement which subsisted betwixt Giles Gosling and him, and told what had
+      that day been averred in the presence-chamber by Varney, and supported by
+      Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou seest," he added, "that, in the circumstances in which I am placed,
+      it behoves me to keep a narrow watch on the motions of these unprincipled
+      men, Varney and his complices, Foster and Lambourne, as well as on those
+      of my Lord Leicester himself, who, I suspect, is partly a deceiver, and
+      not altogether the deceived in that matter. Here is my ring, as a pledge
+      to Giles Gosling. Here is besides gold, which shall be trebled if thou
+      serve me faithfully. Away down to Cumnor, and see what happens there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I go with double good-will," said the artist, "first, because I serve
+      your honour, who has been so kind to me; and then, that I may escape my
+      old master, who, if not an absolute incarnation of the devil, has, at
+      least, as much of the demon about him, in will, word, and action; as ever
+      polluted humanity. And yet let him take care of me. I fly him now, as
+      heretofore; but if, like the Scottish wild cattle, I am vexed by frequent
+      pursuit, I may turn on him in hate and desperation. [A remnant of the wild
+      cattle of Scotland are preserved at Chillingham Castle, near Wooler, in
+      Northumberland, the seat of Lord Tankerville. They fly before strangers;
+      but if disturbed and followed, they turn with fury on those who persist in
+      annoying them.] Will your honour command my nag to be saddled? I will but
+      give the medicine to my lord, divided in its proper proportions, with a
+      few instructions. His safety will then depend on the care of his friends
+      and domestics; for the past he is guarded, but let him beware of the
+      future."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland Smith accordingly made his farewell visit to the Earl of Sussex,
+      dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions concerning his
+      diet, and left Sayes Court without waiting for morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The moment comes&mdash;
+     It is already come&mdash;when thou must write
+     The absolute total of thy life's vast sum.
+     The constellations stand victorious o'er thee,
+     The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions,
+     And tell thee, "Now's the time."
+     &mdash;SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN, BY COLERIDGE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When Leicester returned to his lodging, after a day so important and so
+      harassing, in which, after riding out more than one gale, and touching on
+      more than one shoal, his bark had finally gained the harbour with banner
+      displayed, he seemed to experience as much fatigue as a mariner after a
+      perilous storm. He spoke not a word while his chamberlain exchanged his
+      rich court-mantle for a furred night-robe, and when this officer signified
+      that Master Varney desired to speak with his lordship, he replied only by
+      a sullen nod. Varney, however, entered, accepting this signal as a
+      permission, and the chamberlain withdrew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl remained silent and almost motionless in his chair, his head
+      reclined on his hand, and his elbow resting upon the table which stood
+      beside him, without seeming to be conscious of the entrance or of the
+      presence of his confidant. Varney waited for some minutes until he should
+      speak, desirous to know what was the finally predominant mood of a mind
+      through which so many powerful emotions had that day taken their course.
+      But he waited in vain, for Leicester continued still silent, and the
+      confidant saw himself under the necessity of being the first to speak.
+      "May I congratulate your lordship," he said, "on the deserved superiority
+      you have this day attained over your most formidable rival?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester raised his head, and answered sadly, but without anger, "Thou,
+      Varney, whose ready invention has involved me in a web of most mean and
+      perilous falsehood, knowest best what small reason there is for
+      gratulation on the subject."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you blame me, my lord," said Varney, "for not betraying, on the first
+      push, the secret on which your fortunes depended, and which you have so
+      oft and so earnestly recommended to my safe keeping? Your lordship was
+      present in person, and might have contradicted me and ruined yourself by
+      an avowal of the truth; but surely it was no part of a faithful servant to
+      have done so without your commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot deny it, Varney," said the Earl, rising and walking across the
+      room; "my own ambition has been traitor to my love."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say rather, my lord, that your love has been traitor to your greatness,
+      and barred you from such a prospect of honour and power as the world
+      cannot offer to any other. To make my honoured lady a countess, you have
+      missed the chance of being yourself&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused, and seemed unwilling to complete the sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of being myself what?" demanded Leicester; "speak out thy meaning,
+      Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of being yourself a KING, my lord," replied Varney; "and King of England
+      to boot! It is no treason to our Queen to say so. It would have chanced by
+      her obtaining that which all true subjects wish her&mdash;a lusty, noble,
+      and gallant husband."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou ravest, Varney," answered Leicester. "Besides, our times have seen
+      enough to make men loathe the Crown Matrimonial which men take from their
+      wives' lap. There was Darnley of Scotland."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He!" said Varney; "a, gull, a fool, a thrice-sodden ass, who suffered
+      himself to be fired off into the air like a rocket on a rejoicing day. Had
+      Mary had the hap to have wedded the noble Earl ONCE destined to share her
+      throne, she had experienced a husband of different metal; and her husband
+      had found in her a wife as complying and loving as the mate of the meanest
+      squire who follows the hounds a-horseback, and holds her husband's bridle
+      as he mounts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It might have been as thou sayest, Varney," said Leicester, a brief smile
+      of self-satisfaction passing over his anxious countenance. "Henry Darnley
+      knew little of women&mdash;with Mary, a man who knew her sex might have
+      had some chance of holding his own. But not with Elizabeth, Varney for I
+      thank God, when he gave her the heart of a woman, gave her the head of a
+      man to control its follies. No, I know her. She will accept love-tokens,
+      ay, and requite them with the like&mdash;put sugared sonnets in her bosom,
+      ay, and answer them too&mdash;push gallantry to the very verge where it
+      becomes exchange of affection; but she writes NIL ULTRA to all which is to
+      follow, and would not barter one iota of her own supreme power for all the
+      alphabet of both Cupid and Hymen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The better for you, my lord," said Varney&mdash;"that is, in the case
+      supposed, if such be her disposition; since you think you cannot aspire to
+      become her husband. Her favourite you are, and may remain, if the lady at
+      Cumnor place continues in her present obscurity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Poor Amy!" said Leicester, with a deep sigh; "she desires so earnestly to
+      be acknowledged in presence of God and man!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but, my lord," said Varney, "is her desire reasonable? That is the
+      question. Her religious scruples are solved; she is an honoured and
+      beloved wife, enjoying the society of her husband at such times as his
+      weightier duties permit him to afford her his company. What would she
+      more? I am right sure that a lady so gentle and so loving would consent to
+      live her life through in a certain obscurity&mdash;which is, after all,
+      not dimmer than when she was at Lidcote Hall&mdash;rather than diminish
+      the least jot of her lord's honours and greatness by a premature attempt
+      to share them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is something in what thou sayest," said Leicester, "and her
+      appearance here were fatal. Yet she must be seen at Kenilworth; Elizabeth
+      will not forget that she has so appointed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me sleep on that hard point," said Varney; "I cannot else perfect the
+      device I have on the stithy, which I trust will satisfy the Queen and
+      please my honoured lady, yet leave this fatal secret where it is now
+      buried. Has your lordship further commands for the night?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would be alone," said Leicester. "Leave me, and place my steel casket
+      on the table. Be within summons."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney retired, and the Earl, opening the window of his apartment, looked
+      out long and anxiously upon the brilliant host of stars which glimmered in
+      the splendour of a summer firmament. The words burst from him as at
+      unawares, "I had never more need that the heavenly bodies should befriend
+      me, for my earthly path is darkened and confused."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well known that the age reposed a deep confidence in the vain
+      predictions of judicial astrology, and Leicester, though exempt from the
+      general control of superstition, was not in this respect superior to his
+      time, but, on the contrary, was remarkable for the encouragement which he
+      gave to the professors of this pretended science. Indeed, the wish to pry
+      into futurity, so general among the human race, is peculiarly to be found
+      amongst those who trade in state mysteries and the dangerous intrigues and
+      cabals of courts. With heedful precaution to see that it had not been
+      opened, or its locks tampered with, Leicester applied a key to the steel
+      casket, and drew from it, first, a parcel of gold pieces, which he put
+      into a silk purse; then a parchment inscribed with planetary signs, and
+      the lines and calculations used in framing horoscopes, on which he gazed
+      intently for a few moments; and, lastly, took forth a large key, which,
+      lifting aside the tapestry, he applied to a little, concealed door in the
+      corner of the apartment, and opening it, disclosed a stair constructed in
+      the thickness of the wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alasco," said the Earl, with a voice raised, yet no higher raised than to
+      be heard by the inhabitant of the small turret to which the stair
+      conducted&mdash;"Alasco, I say, descend."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I come, my lord," answered a voice from above. The foot of an aged man
+      was heard slowly descending the narrow stair, and Alasco entered the
+      Earl's apartment. The astrologer was a little man, and seemed much
+      advanced in age, for his beard was long and white, and reached over his
+      black doublet down to his silken girdle. His hair was of the same
+      venerable hue. But his eyebrows were as dark as the keen and piercing
+      black eyes which they shaded, and this peculiarity gave a wild and
+      singular cast to the physiognomy of the old man. His cheek was still fresh
+      and ruddy, and the eyes we have mentioned resembled those of a rat in
+      acuteness and even fierceness of expression. His manner was not without a
+      sort of dignity; and the interpreter of the stars, though respectful,
+      seemed altogether at his ease, and even assumed a tone of instruction and
+      command in conversing with the prime favourite of Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your prognostications have failed, Alasco," said the Earl, when they had
+      exchanged salutations&mdash;"he is recovering."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My son," replied the astrologer, "let me remind you I warranted not his
+      death; nor is there any prognostication that can be derived from the
+      heavenly bodies, their aspects and their conjunctions, which is not liable
+      to be controlled by the will of Heaven. ASTRA REGUNT HOMINES, SED REGIT
+      ASTRA DEUS."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of what avail, then, is your mystery?" inquired the Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of much, my son," replied the old man, "since it can show the natural and
+      probable course of events, although that course moves in subordination to
+      an Higher Power. Thus, in reviewing the horoscope which your Lordship
+      subjected to my skill, you will observe that Saturn, being in the sixth
+      House in opposition to Mars, retrograde in the House of Life, cannot but
+      denote long and dangerous sickness, the issue whereof is in the will of
+      Heaven, though death may probably be inferred. Yet if I knew the name of
+      the party I would erect another scheme."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "His name is a secret," said the Earl; "yet, I must own, thy
+      prognostication hath not been unfaithful. He has been sick, and
+      dangerously so, not, however, to death. But hast thou again cast my
+      horoscope as Varney directed thee, and art thou prepared to say what the
+      stars tell of my present fortune?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My art stands at your command," said the old man; "and here, my son, is
+      the map of thy fortunes, brilliant in aspect as ever beamed from those
+      blessed signs whereby our life is influenced, yet not unchequered with
+      fears, difficulties, and dangers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lot were more than mortal were it otherwise," said the Earl. "Proceed,
+      father, and believe you speak with one ready to undergo his destiny in
+      action and in passion as may beseem a noble of England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy courage to do and to suffer must be wound up yet a strain higher,"
+      said the old man. "The stars intimate yet a prouder title, yet an higher
+      rank. It is for thee to guess their meaning, not for me to name it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Name it, I conjure you&mdash;name it, I command you!" said the Earl, his
+      eyes brightening as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I may not, and I will not," replied the old man. "The ire of princes is
+      as the wrath of the lion. But mark, and judge for thyself. Here Venus,
+      ascendant in the House of Life, and conjoined with Sol, showers down that
+      flood of silver light, blent with gold, which promises power, wealth,
+      dignity, all that the proud heart of man desires, and in such abundance
+      that never the future Augustus of that old and mighty Rome heard from his
+      HARUSPICES such a tale of glory, as from this rich text my lore might read
+      to my favourite son."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou dost but jest with me, father," said the Earl, astonished at the
+      strain of enthusiasm in which the astrologer delivered his prediction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it for him to jest who hath his eye on heaven, who hath his foot in
+      the grave?" returned the old man solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl made two or three strides through the apartment, with his hand
+      outstretched, as one who follows the beckoning signal of some phantom,
+      waving him on to deeds of high import. As he turned, however, he caught
+      the eye of the astrologer fixed on him, while an observing glance of the
+      most shrewd penetration shot from under the penthouse of his shaggy, dark
+      eyebrows. Leicester's haughty and suspicious soul at once caught fire. He
+      darted towards the old man from the farther end of the lofty apartment,
+      only standing still when his extended hand was within a foot of the
+      astrologer's body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wretch!" he said, "if you dare to palter with me, I will have your skin
+      stripped from your living flesh! Confess thou hast been hired to deceive
+      and to betray me&mdash;that thou art a cheat, and I thy silly prey and
+      booty!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man exhibited some symptoms of emotion, but not more than the
+      furious deportment of his patron might have extorted from innocence
+      itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What means this violence, my lord?" he answered, "or in what can I have
+      deserved it at your hand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Give me proof," said the Earl vehemently, "that you have not tampered
+      with mine enemies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," replied the old man, with dignity, "you can have no better
+      proof than that which you yourself elected. In that turret I have spent
+      the last twenty-four hours under the key which has been in your own
+      custody. The hours of darkness I have spent in gazing on the heavenly
+      bodies with these dim eyes, and during those of light I have toiled this
+      aged brain to complete the calculation arising from their combinations.
+      Earthly food I have not tasted&mdash;earthly voice I have not heard. You
+      are yourself aware I had no means of doing so; and yet I tell you&mdash;I
+      who have been thus shut up in solitude and study&mdash;that within these
+      twenty-four hours your star has become predominant in the horizon, and
+      either the bright book of heaven speaks false, or there must have been a
+      proportionate revolution in your fortunes upon earth. If nothing has
+      happened within that space to secure your power, or advance your favour,
+      then am I indeed a cheat, and the divine art, which was first devised in
+      the plains of Chaldea, is a foul imposture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is true," said Leicester, after a moment's reflection, "thou wert
+      closely immured; and it is also true that the change has taken place in my
+      situation which thou sayest the horoscope indicates."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wherefore this distrust then, my son?" said the astrologer, assuming a
+      tone of admonition; "the celestial intelligences brook not diffidence,
+      even in their favourites."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, father," answered Leicester, "I have erred in doubting thee. Not
+      to mortal man, nor to celestial intelligence&mdash;under that which is
+      supreme&mdash;will Dudley's lips say more in condescension or apology.
+      Speak rather to the present purpose. Amid these bright promises thou hast
+      said there was a threatening aspect. Can thy skill tell whence, or by
+      whose means, such danger seems to impend?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus far only," answered the astrologer, "does my art enable me to answer
+      your query. The infortune is threatened by the malignant and adverse
+      aspect, through means of a youth, and, as I think, a rival; but whether in
+      love or in prince's favour, I know not nor can I give further indication
+      respecting him, save that he comes from the western quarter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The western&mdash;ha!" replied Leicester, "it is enough&mdash;the tempest
+      does indeed brew in that quarter! Cornwall and Devon&mdash;Raleigh and
+      Tressilian&mdash;one of them is indicated-I must beware of both. Father,
+      if I have done thy skill injustice, I will make thee a lordly recompense."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He took a purse of gold from the strong casket which stood before him.
+      "Have thou double the recompense which Varney promised. Be faithful&mdash;be
+      secret&mdash;obey the directions thou shalt receive from my master of the
+      horse, and grudge not a little seclusion or restraint in my cause&mdash;it
+      shall be richly considered.&mdash;Here, Varney&mdash;conduct this
+      venerable man to thine own lodging; tend him heedfully in all things, but
+      see that he holds communication with no one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney bowed, and the astrologer kissed the Earl's hand in token of adieu,
+      and followed the master of the horse to another apartment, in which were
+      placed wine and refreshments for his use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The astrologer sat down to his repast, while Varney shut two doors with
+      great precaution, examined the tapestry, lest any listener lurked behind
+      it, and then sitting down opposite to the sage, began to question him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saw you my signal from the court beneath?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I did," said Alasco, for by such name he was at present called, "and
+      shaped the horoscope accordingly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And it passed upon the patron without challenge?" continued Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not without challenge," replied the old man, "but it did pass; and I
+      added, as before agreed, danger from a discovered secret, and a western
+      youth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord's fear will stand sponsor to the one, and his conscience to the
+      other, of these prognostications," replied Varney. "Sure never man chose
+      to run such a race as his, yet continued to retain those silly scruples! I
+      am fain to cheat him to his own profit. But touching your matters, sage
+      interpreter of the stars, I can tell you more of your own fortune than
+      plan or figure can show. You must be gone from hence forthwith."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not," said Alasco peevishly. "I have been too much hurried up and
+      down of late&mdash;immured for day and night in a desolate turret-chamber.
+      I must enjoy my liberty, and pursue my studies, which are of more import
+      than the fate of fifty statesmen and favourites that rise and burst like
+      bubbles in the atmosphere of a court."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "At your pleasure," said Varney, with a sneer that habit had rendered
+      familiar to his features, and which forms the principal characteristic
+      which painters have assigned to that of Satan&mdash;"at your pleasure," he
+      said; "you may enjoy your liberty and your studies until the daggers of
+      Sussex's followers are clashing within your doublet and against your
+      ribs." The old man turned pale, and Varney proceeded. "Wot you not he hath
+      offered a reward for the arch-quack and poison-vender, Demetrius, who sold
+      certain precious spices to his lordship's cook? What! turn you pale, old
+      friend? Does Hali already see an infortune in the House of Life? Why, hark
+      thee, we will have thee down to an old house of mine in the country, where
+      thou shalt live with a hobnailed slave, whom thy alchemy may convert into
+      ducats, for to such conversion alone is thy art serviceable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is false, thou foul-mouthed railer," said Alasco, shaking with
+      impotent anger; "it is well known that I have approached more nearly to
+      projection than any hermetic artist who now lives. There are not six
+      chemists in the world who possess so near an approximation to the grand
+      arcanum&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, come," said Varney, interrupting him, "what means this, in the name
+      of Heaven? Do we not know one another? I believe thee to be so perfect&mdash;so
+      very perfect&mdash;in the mystery of cheating, that, having imposed upon
+      all mankind, thou hast at length in some measure imposed upon thyself, and
+      without ceasing to dupe others, hast become a species of dupe to thine own
+      imagination. Blush not for it, man&mdash;thou art learned, and shalt have
+      classical comfort:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Ne quisquam Ajacem possit superare nisi Ajax.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one but thyself could have gulled thee; and thou hast gulled the whole
+      brotherhood of the Rosy Cross besides&mdash;none so deep in the mystery as
+      thou. But hark thee in thine ear: had the seasoning which spiced Sussex's
+      broth wrought more surely, I would have thought better of the chemical
+      science thou dost boast so highly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art an hardened villain, Varney," replied Alasco; "many will do
+      those things who dare not speak of them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And many speak of them who dare not do them," answered Varney. "But be
+      not wroth&mdash;I will not quarrel with thee. If I did, I were fain to
+      live on eggs for a month, that I might feed without fear. Tell me at once,
+      how came thine art to fail thee at this great emergency?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Earl of Sussex's horoscope intimates," replied the astrologer, "that
+      the sign of the ascendant being in combustion&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Away with your gibberish," replied Varney; "thinkest thou it is the
+      patron thou speakest with?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I crave your pardon," replied the old man, "and swear to you I know but
+      one medicine that could have saved the Earl's life; and as no man living
+      in England knows that antidote save myself&mdash;moreover, as the
+      ingredients, one of them in particular, are scarce possible to be come by,
+      I must needs suppose his escape was owing to such a constitution of lungs
+      and vital parts as was never before bound up in a body of clay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There was some talk of a quack who waited on him," said Varney, after a
+      moment's reflection. "Are you sure there is no one in England who has this
+      secret of thine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One man there was," said the doctor, "once my servant, who might have
+      stolen this of me, with one or two other secrets of art. But content you,
+      Master Varney, it is no part of my policy to suffer such interlopers to
+      interfere in my trade. He pries into no mysteries more, I warrant you,
+      for, as I well believe, he hath been wafted to heaven on the wing of a
+      fiery dragon&mdash;peace be with him! But in this retreat of mine shall I
+      have the use of mine elaboratory?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Of a whole workshop, man," said Varney; "for a reverend father abbot, who
+      was fain to give place to bluff King Hal and some of his courtiers, a
+      score of years since, had a chemist's complete apparatus, which he was
+      obliged to leave behind him to his successors. Thou shalt there occupy,
+      and melt, and puff, and blaze, and multiply, until the Green Dragon become
+      a golden goose, or whatever the newer phrase of the brotherhood may
+      testify."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art right, Master Varney," said the alchemist setting his teeth
+      close and grinding them together&mdash;"thou art right even in thy very
+      contempt of right and reason. For what thou sayest in mockery may in sober
+      verity chance to happen ere we meet again. If the most venerable sages of
+      ancient days have spoken the truth&mdash;if the most learned of our own
+      have rightly received it; if I have been accepted wherever I travelled in
+      Germany, in Poland, in Italy, and in the farther Tartary, as one to whom
+      nature has unveiled her darkest secrets; if I have acquired the most
+      secret signs and passwords of the Jewish Cabala, so that the greyest beard
+      in the synagogue would brush the steps to make them clean for me;&mdash;if
+      all this is so, and if there remains but one step&mdash;one little step&mdash;betwixt
+      my long, deep, and dark, and subterranean progress, and that blaze of
+      light which shall show Nature watching her richest and her most glorious
+      productions in the very cradle&mdash;one step betwixt dependence and the
+      power of sovereignty&mdash;one step betwixt poverty and such a sum of
+      wealth as earth, without that noble secret, cannot minister from all her
+      mines in the old or the new-found world; if this be all so, is it not
+      reasonable that to this I dedicate my future life, secure, for a brief
+      period of studious patience, to rise above the mean dependence upon
+      favourites, and THEIR favourites, by which I am now enthralled!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, bravo! bravo! my good father," said Varney, with the usual sardonic
+      expression of ridicule on his countenance; "yet all this approximation to
+      the philosopher's stone wringeth not one single crown out of my Lord
+      Leicester's pouch, and far less out of Richard Varney's. WE must have
+      earthly and substantial services, man, and care not whom else thou canst
+      delude with thy philosophical charlatanry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My son Varney," said the alchemist, "the unbelief, gathered around thee
+      like a frost-fog, hath dimmed thine acute perception to that which is a
+      stumbling-block to the wise, and which yet, to him who seeketh knowledge
+      with humility, extends a lesson so clear that he who runs may read. Hath
+      not Art, thinkest thou, the means of completing Nature's imperfect
+      concoctions in her attempts to form the precious metals, even as by art we
+      can perfect those other operations of incubation, distillation,
+      fermentation, and similar processes of an ordinary description, by which
+      we extract life itself out of a senseless egg, summon purity and vitality
+      out of muddy dregs, or call into vivacity the inert substance of a
+      sluggish liquid?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard all this before," said Varney, "and my heart is proof
+      against such cant ever since I sent twenty good gold pieces (marry, it was
+      in the nonage of my wit) to advance the grand magisterium, all which, God
+      help the while, vanished IN FUMO. Since that moment, when I paid for my
+      freedom, I defy chemistry, astrology, palmistry, and every other occult
+      art, were it as secret as hell itself, to unloose the stricture of my
+      purse-strings. Marry, I neither defy the manna of Saint Nicholas, nor can
+      I dispense with it. The first task must be to prepare some when thou
+      gett'st down to my little sequestered retreat yonder, and then make as
+      much gold as thou wilt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will make no more of that dose," said the alchemist, resolutely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," said the master of the horse, "thou shalt be hanged for what thou
+      hast made already, and so were the great secret for ever lost to mankind.
+      Do not humanity this injustice, good father, but e'en bend to thy destiny,
+      and make us an ounce or two of this same stuff; which cannot prejudice
+      above one or two individuals, in order to gain lifetime to discover the
+      universal medicine, which shall clear away all mortal diseases at once.
+      But cheer up, thou grave, learned, and most melancholy jackanape! Hast
+      thou not told me that a moderate portion of thy drug hath mild effects, no
+      ways ultimately dangerous to the human frame, but which produces
+      depression of spirits, nausea, headache, an unwillingness to change of
+      place&mdash;even such a state of temper as would keep a bird from flying
+      out of a cage were the door left open?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have said so, and it is true," said the alchemist. "This effect will it
+      produce, and the bird who partakes of it in such proportion shall sit for
+      a season drooping on her perch, without thinking either of the free blue
+      sky, or of the fair greenwood, though the one be lighted by the rays of
+      the rising sun, and the other ringing with the newly-awakened song of all
+      the feathered inhabitants of the forest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And this without danger to life?" said Varney, somewhat anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, so that proportion and measure be not exceeded; and so that one who
+      knows the nature of the manna be ever near to watch the symptoms, and
+      succour in case of need."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt regulate the whole," said Varney. "Thy reward shall be
+      princely, if thou keepest time and touch, and exceedest not the due
+      proportion, to the prejudice of her health; otherwise thy punishment shall
+      be as signal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The prejudice of HER health!" repeated Alasco; "it is, then, a woman I am
+      to use my skill upon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, thou fool," replied Varney, "said I not it was a bird&mdash;a
+      reclaimed linnet, whose pipe might soothe a hawk when in mid stoop? I see
+      thine eye sparkle, and I know thy beard is not altogether so white as art
+      has made it&mdash;THAT, at least, thou hast been able to transmute to
+      silver. But mark me, this is no mate for thee. This caged bird is dear to
+      one who brooks no rivalry, and far less such rivalry as thine, and her
+      health must over all things be cared for. But she is in the case of being
+      commanded down to yonder Kenilworth revels, and it is most expedient&mdash;most
+      needful&mdash;most necessary that she fly not thither. Of these
+      necessities and their causes, it is not needful that she should know
+      aught; and it is to be thought that her own wish may lead her to combat
+      all ordinary reasons which can be urged for her remaining a housekeeper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That is but natural," said the alchemist with a strange smile, which yet
+      bore a greater reference to the human character than the uninterested and
+      abstracted gaze which his physiognomy had hitherto expressed, where all
+      seemed to refer to some world distant from that which was existing around
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is so," answered Varney; "you understand women well, though it may
+      have been long since you were conversant amongst them. Well, then, she is
+      not to be contradicted; yet she is not to be humoured. Understand me&mdash;a
+      slight illness, sufficient to take away the desire of removing from
+      thence, and to make such of your wise fraternity as may be called in to
+      aid, recommend a quiet residence at home, will, in one word, be esteemed
+      good service, and remunerated as such."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not to be asked to affect the House of Life?" said the chemist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On the contrary, we will have thee hanged if thou dost," replied Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And I must," added Alasco, "have opportunity to do my turn, and all
+      facilities for concealment or escape, should there be detection?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All, all, and everything, thou infidel in all but the impossibilities of
+      alchemy. Why, man, for what dost thou take me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man rose, and taking a light walked towards the end of the
+      apartment, where was a door that led to the small sleeping-room destined
+      for his reception during the night. At the door he turned round, and
+      slowly repeated Varney's question ere he answered it. "For what do I take
+      thee, Richard Varney? Why, for a worse devil than I have been myself. But
+      I am in your toils, and I must serve you till my term be out."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," answered Varney hastily, "be stirring with grey light. It
+      may be we shall not need thy medicine&mdash;do nought till I myself come
+      down. Michael Lambourne shall guide you to the place of your destination."
+      [See Note 7. Dr. Julio.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Varney heard the adept's door shut and carefully bolted within, he
+      stepped towards it, and with similar precaution carefully locked it on the
+      outside, and took the key from the lock, muttering to himself, "Worse than
+      THEE, thou poisoning quacksalver and witch-monger, who, if thou art not a
+      bounden slave to the devil, it is only because he disdains such an
+      apprentice! I am a mortal man, and seek by mortal means the gratification
+      of my passions and advancement of my prospects; thou art a vassal of hell
+      itself&mdash;So ho, Lambourne!" he called at another door, and Michael
+      made his appearance with a flushed cheek and an unsteady step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art drunk, thou villain!" said Varney to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doubtless, noble sir," replied the unabashed Michael; "We have been
+      drinking all even to the glories of the day, and to my noble Lord of
+      Leicester and his valiant master of the horse. Drunk! odds blades and
+      poniards, he that would refuse to swallow a dozen healths on such an
+      evening is a base besognio, and a puckfoist, and shall swallow six inches
+      of my dagger!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hark ye, scoundrel," said Varney, "be sober on the instant&mdash;I
+      command thee. I know thou canst throw off thy drunken folly, like a fool's
+      coat, at pleasure; and if not, it were the worse for thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne drooped his head, left the apartment, and returned in two or
+      three minutes with his face composed, his hair adjusted, his dress in
+      order, and exhibiting as great a difference from his former self as if the
+      whole man had been changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Art thou sober now, and dost thou comprehend me?" said Varney sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne bowed in acquiescence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou must presently down to Cumnor Place with the reverend man of art who
+      sleeps yonder in the little vaulted chamber. Here is the key, that thou
+      mayest call him by times. Take another trusty fellow with you. Use him
+      well on the journey, but let him not escape you&mdash;pistol him if he
+      attempt it, and I will be your warrant. I will give thee letters to
+      Foster. The doctor is to occupy the lower apartments of the eastern
+      quadrangle, with freedom to use the old elaboratory and its implements. He
+      is to have no access to the lady, but such as I shall point out&mdash;only
+      she may be amused to see his philosophical jugglery. Thou wilt await at
+      Cumnor Place my further orders; and, as thou livest, beware of the
+      ale-bench and the aqua vitae flask. Each breath drawn in Cumnor Place must
+      be kept severed from common air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough, my lord&mdash;I mean my worshipful master, soon, I trust, to be
+      my worshipful knightly master. You have given me my lesson and my license;
+      I will execute the one, and not abuse the other. I will be in the saddle
+      by daybreak."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do so, and deserve favour. Stay&mdash;ere thou goest fill me a cup of
+      wine&mdash;not out of that flask, sirrah," as Lambourne was pouring out
+      from that which Alasco had left half finished, "fetch me a fresh one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the liquor,
+      drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to retreat to his
+      sleeping apartment, "It is strange&mdash;I am as little the slave of fancy
+      as any one, yet I never speak for a few minutes with this fellow Alasco,
+      but my mouth and lungs feel as if soiled with the fumes of calcined
+      arsenic&mdash;pah!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he left the apartment. Lambourne lingered, to drink a cup of
+      the freshly-opened flask. "It is from Saint John's-Berg," he said, as he
+      paused on the draught to enjoy its flavour, "and has the true relish of
+      the violet. But I must forbear it now, that I may one day drink it at my
+      own pleasure." And he quaffed a goblet of water to quench the fumes of the
+      Rhenish wine, retired slowly towards the door, made a pause, and then,
+      finding the temptation irresistible, walked hastily back, and took another
+      long pull at the wine flask, without the formality of a cup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Were it not for this accursed custom," he said, "I might climb as high as
+      Varney himself. But who can climb when the room turns round with him like
+      a parish-top? I would the distance were greater, or the road rougher,
+      betwixt my hand and mouth! But I will drink nothing to-morrow save water&mdash;nothing
+      save fair water."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     PISTOL.  And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
+     And happy news of price.
+     FALSTAFF.  I prithee now deliver them like to men of this world.
+     PISTOL.  A foutra for the world, and worldlings base!
+     I speak of Africa, and golden joys.    &mdash;HENRY IV. PART II.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The public room of the Black Bear at Cumnor, to which the scene of our
+      story now returns, boasted, on the evening which we treat of, no ordinary
+      assemblage of guests. There had been a fair in the neighbourhood, and the
+      cutting mercer of Abingdon, with some of the other personages whom the
+      reader has already been made acquainted with, as friends and customers of
+      Giles Gosling, had already formed their wonted circle around the evening
+      fire, and were talking over the news of the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A lively, bustling, arch fellow, whose pack, and oaken ellwand studded
+      duly with brass points, denoted him to be of Autolycus's profession,
+      occupied a good deal of the attention, and furnished much of the
+      amusement, of the evening. The pedlars of those days, it must be
+      remembered, were men of far greater importance than the degenerate and
+      degraded hawkers of our modern times. It was by means of these peripatetic
+      venders that the country trade, in the finer manufactures used in female
+      dress particularly, was almost entirely carried on; and if a merchant of
+      this description arrived at the dignity of travelling with a pack-horse,
+      he was a person of no small consequence, and company for the most
+      substantial yeoman or franklin whom he might meet in his wanderings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pedlar of whom we speak bore, accordingly, an active and unrebuked
+      share in the merriment to which the rafters of the bonny Black Bear of
+      Cumnor resounded. He had his smile with pretty Mistress Cicely, his broad
+      laugh with mine host, and his jest upon dashing Master Goldthred, who,
+      though indeed without any such benevolent intention on his own part, was
+      the general butt of the evening. The pedlar and he were closely engaged in
+      a dispute upon the preference due to the Spanish nether-stock over the
+      black Gascoigne hose, and mine host had just winked to the guests around
+      him, as who should say, "You will have mirth presently, my masters," when
+      the trampling of horses was heard in the courtyard, and the hostler was
+      loudly summoned, with a few of the newest oaths then in vogue to add force
+      to the invocation. Out tumbled Will Hostler, John Tapster, and all the
+      militia of the inn, who had slunk from their posts in order to collect
+      some scattered crumbs of the mirth which was flying about among the
+      customers. Out into the yard sallied mine host himself also, to do fitting
+      salutation to his new guests; and presently returned, ushering into the
+      apartment his own worthy nephew, Michael Lambourne, pretty tolerably
+      drunk, and having under his escort the astrologer. Alasco, though still a
+      little old man, had, by altering his gown to a riding-dress, trimming his
+      beard and eyebrows, and so forth, struck at least a score of years from
+      his apparent age, and might now seem an active man of sixty, or little
+      upwards. He appeared at present exceedingly anxious, and had insisted much
+      with Lambourne that they should not enter the inn, but go straight forward
+      to the place of their destination. But Lambourne would not be controlled.
+      "By Cancer and Capricorn," he vociferated, "and the whole heavenly host,
+      besides all the stars that these blessed eyes of mine have seen sparkle in
+      the southern heavens, to which these northern blinkers are but farthing
+      candles, I will be unkindly for no one's humour&mdash;I will stay and
+      salute my worthy uncle here. Chesu! that good blood should ever be
+      forgotten betwixt friends!&mdash;A gallon of your best, uncle, and let it
+      go round to the health of the noble Earl of Leicester! What! shall we not
+      collogue together, and warm the cockles of our ancient kindness?&mdash;shall
+      we not collogue, I say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With all my heart, kinsman," said mine host, who obviously wished to be
+      rid of him; "but are you to stand shot to all this good liquor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a question has quelled many a jovial toper, but it moved not the
+      purpose of Lambourne's soul, "Question my means, nuncle?" he said,
+      producing a handful of mixed gold and silver pieces; "question Mexico and
+      Peru&mdash;question the Queen's exchequer&mdash;God save her Majesty!&mdash;she
+      is my good Lord's good mistress."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, kinsman," said mine host, "it is my business to sell wine to those
+      who can buy it&mdash;so, Jack Tapster, do me thine office. But I would I
+      knew how to come by money as lightly as thou dost, Mike."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, uncle," said Lambourne, "I will tell thee a secret. Dost see this
+      little old fellow here? as old and withered a chip as ever the devil put
+      into his porridge&mdash;and yet, uncle, between you and me&mdash;he hath
+      Potosi in that brain of his&mdash;'sblood! he can coin ducats faster than
+      I can vent oaths."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will have none of his coinage in my purse, though, Michael," said mine
+      host; "I know what belongs to falsifying the Queen's coin."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art an ass, uncle, for as old as thou art.&mdash;Pull me not by the
+      skirts, doctor, thou art an ass thyself to boot&mdash;so, being both
+      asses, I tell ye I spoke but metaphorically."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you mad?" said the old man; "is the devil in you? Can you not let us
+      begone without drawing all men's eyes on us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sayest thou?" said Lambourne. "Thou art deceived now&mdash;no man shall
+      see you, an I give the word.&mdash;By heavens, masters, an any one dare to
+      look on this old gentleman, I will slash the eyes out of his head with my
+      poniard!&mdash;So sit down, old friend, and be merry; these are mine
+      ingles&mdash;mine ancient inmates, and will betray no man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Had you not better withdraw to a private apartment, nephew?" said Giles
+      Gosling. "You speak strange matter," he added, "and there be
+      intelligencers everywhere."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I care not for them," said the magnanimous Michael&mdash;"intelligencers?
+      pshaw! I serve the noble Earl of Leicester.&mdash;Here comes the wine.&mdash;Fill
+      round, Master Skinker, a carouse to the health of the flower of England,
+      the noble Earl of Leicester! I say, the noble Earl of Leicester! He that
+      does me not reason is a swine of Sussex, and I'll make him kneel to the
+      pledge, if I should cut his hams and smoke them for bacon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None disputed a pledge given under such formidable penalties; and Michael
+      Lambourne, whose drunken humour was not of course diminished by this new
+      potation, went on in the same wild way, renewing his acquaintance with
+      such of the guests as he had formerly known, and experiencing a reception
+      in which there was now something of deference mingled with a good deal of
+      fear; for the least servitor of the favourite Earl, especially such a man
+      as Lambourne, was, for very sufficient reasons, an object both of the one
+      and of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, the old man, seeing his guide in this uncontrollable
+      humour, ceased to remonstrate with him, and sitting down in the most
+      obscure corner of the room, called for a small measure of sack, over which
+      he seemed, as it were, to slumber, withdrawing himself as much as possible
+      from general observation, and doing nothing which could recall his
+      existence to the recollection of his fellow-traveller, who by this time
+      had got into close intimacy with his ancient comrade, Goldthred of
+      Abingdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Never believe me, bully Mike," said the mercer, "if I am not as glad to
+      see thee as ever I was to see a customer's money! Why, thou canst give a
+      friend a sly place at a mask or a revel now, Mike; ay, or, I warrant thee,
+      thou canst say in my lord's ear, when my honourable lord is down in these
+      parts, and wants a Spanish ruff or the like&mdash;thou canst say in his
+      ear, There is mine old friend, young Lawrence Goldthred of Abingdon, has
+      as good wares, lawn, tiffany, cambric, and so forth&mdash;ay, and is as
+      pretty a piece of man's flesh, too, as is in Berkshire, and will ruffle it
+      for your lordship with any man of his inches; and thou mayest say&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can say a hundred d&mdash;d lies besides, mercer," answered Lambourne;
+      "what, one must not stand upon a good word for a friend!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here is to thee, Mike, with all my heart," said the mercer; "and thou
+      canst tell one the reality of the new fashions too. Here was a rogue
+      pedlar but now was crying up the old-fashioned Spanish nether-stock over
+      the Gascoigne hose, although thou seest how well the French hose set off
+      the leg and knee, being adorned with parti-coloured garters and garniture
+      in conformity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Excellent, excellent," replied Lambourne; "why, thy limber bit of a
+      thigh, thrust through that bunch of slashed buckram and tiffany, shows
+      like a housewife's distaff when the flax is half spun off!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Said I not so?" said the mercer, whose shallow brain was now overflowed
+      in his turn; "where, then, where be this rascal pedlar?&mdash;there was a
+      pedlar here but now, methinks.&mdash;Mine host, where the foul fiend is
+      this pedlar?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Where wise men should be, Master Goldthred," replied Giles Gosling; "even
+      shut up in his private chamber, telling over the sales of to-day, and
+      preparing for the custom of to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hang him, a mechanical chuff!" said the mercer; "but for shame, it were a
+      good deed to ease him of his wares&mdash;a set of peddling knaves, who
+      stroll through the land, and hurt the established trader. There are good
+      fellows in Berkshire yet, mine host&mdash;your pedlar may be met withal on
+      Maiden Castle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," replied mine host, laughing, "and he who meets him may meet his
+      match&mdash;the pedlar is a tall man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he?" said Goldthred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is he?" replied the host; "ay, by cock and pie is he&mdash;the very
+      pedlar he who raddled Robin Hood so tightly, as the song says,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Now Robin Hood drew his sword so good,
+     The pedlar drew his brand,
+     And he hath raddled him, Robin Hood,
+     Till he neither could see nor stand.'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "Hang him, foul scroyle, let him pass," said the mercer; "if he be such a
+      one, there were small worship to be won upon him.&mdash;And now tell me,
+      Mike&mdash;my honest Mike, how wears the Hollands you won of me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, well, as you may see, Master Goldthred," answered Mike; "I will
+      bestow a pot on thee for the handsel.&mdash;Fill the flagon, Master
+      Tapster."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wilt win no more Hollands, think, on such wager, friend Mike," said
+      the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails at thee all to
+      nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his doors again, for that your
+      oaths are enough to blow the roof off a Christian man's dwelling."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Doth he say so, the mincing, hypocritical miser?" vociferated Lambourne.
+      "Why, then, he shall come down and receive my commands here, this blessed
+      night, under my uncle's roof! And I will ring him such a black sanctus,
+      that he shall think the devil hath him by the skirts for a month to come,
+      for barely hearing me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, now the pottle-pot is uppermost, with a witness!" said the mercer.
+      "Tony Foster obey thy whistle! Alas! good Mike, go sleep&mdash;go sleep."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell thee what, thou thin-faced gull," said Michael Lambourne, in high
+      chafe, "I will wager thee fifty angels against the first five shelves of
+      thy shop, numbering upward from the false light, with all that is on them,
+      that I make Tony Foster come down to this public-house before we have
+      finished three rounds."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will lay no bet to that amount," said the mercer, something sobered by
+      an offer which intimated rather too private a knowledge on Lambourne's
+      part of the secret recesses of his shop. "I will lay no such wager," he
+      said; "but I will stake five angels against thy five, if thou wilt, that
+      Tony Foster will not leave his own roof, or come to ale-house after prayer
+      time, for thee, or any man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Content," said Lambourne.&mdash;"Here, uncle, hold stakes, and let one of
+      your young bleed-barrels there&mdash;one of your infant tapsters&mdash;trip
+      presently up to The Place, and give this letter to Master Foster, and say
+      that I, his ingle, Michael Lambourne, pray to speak with him at mine
+      uncle's castle here, upon business of grave import.&mdash;Away with thee,
+      child, for it is now sundown, and the wretch goeth to bed with the birds
+      to save mutton-suet&mdash;faugh!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after this messenger was dispatched&mdash;an interval which was
+      spent in drinking and buffoonery&mdash;he returned with the answer that
+      Master Foster was coming presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Won, won!" said Lambourne, darting on the stakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not till he comes, if you please," said the mercer, interfering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, 'sblood, he is at the threshold," replied Michael.&mdash;"What said
+      he, boy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If it please your worship," answered the messenger, "he looked out of
+      window, with a musquetoon in his hand, and when I delivered your errand,
+      which I did with fear and trembling, he said, with a vinegar aspect, that
+      your worship might be gone to the infernal regions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Or to hell, I suppose," said Lambourne&mdash;"it is there he disposes of
+      all that are not of the congregation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Even so," said the boy; "I used the other phrase as being the more
+      poetical."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An ingenious youth," said Michael; "shalt have a drop to whet thy
+      poetical whistle. And what said Foster next?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He called me back," answered the boy, "and bid me say you might come to
+      him if you had aught to say to him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what next?" said Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He read the letter, and seemed in a fluster, and asked if your worship
+      was in drink; and I said you were speaking a little Spanish, as one who
+      had been in the Canaries."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Out, you diminutive pint-pot, whelped of an overgrown reckoning!" replied
+      Lambourne&mdash;"out! But what said he then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why," said the boy, "he muttered that if he came not your worship would
+      bolt out what were better kept in; and so he took his old flat cap, and
+      threadbare blue cloak, and, as I said before, he will be here
+      incontinent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is truth in what he said," replied Lambourne, as if speaking to
+      himself&mdash;"my brain has played me its old dog's trick. But corragio&mdash;let
+      him approach!&mdash;I have not rolled about in the world for many a day to
+      fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober.&mdash;Bring me a flagon of cold
+      water to christen my sack withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have recalled to a
+      sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing to receive him, Giles
+      Gosling stole up to the apartment of the pedlar, whom he found traversing
+      the room in much agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company," said the landlord to
+      the guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It was time, when the devil became one among you," replied the pedlar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name," said
+      Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in some sort,
+      Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pooh&mdash;I talk not of the swaggering ruffian," replied the pedlar; "it
+      is of the other, who, for aught I know&mdash;But when go they? or
+      wherefore come they?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Marry, these are questions I cannot answer," replied the host. "But look
+      you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy Master Tressilian&mdash;a
+      pretty stone it is." He took out the ring, and looked at it, adding, as he
+      put it into his purse again, that it was too rich a guerdon for anything
+      he could do for the worthy donor. He was, he said, in the public line, and
+      it ill became him to be too inquisitive into other folk's concerns. He had
+      already said that he could hear nothing but that the lady lived still at
+      Cumnor Place in the closest seclusion, and, to such as by chance had a
+      view of her, seemed pensive and discontented with her solitude. "But
+      here," he said, "if you are desirous to gratify your master, is the rarest
+      chance that hath occurred for this many a day. Tony Foster is coming down
+      hither, and it is but letting Mike Lambourne smell another wine-flask, and
+      the Queen's command would not move him from the ale-bench. So they are
+      fast for an hour or so. Now, if you will don your pack, which will be your
+      best excuse, you may, perchance, win the ear of the old servant, being
+      assured of the master's absence, to let you try to get some custom of the
+      lady; and then you may learn more of her condition than I or any other can
+      tell you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True&mdash;very true," answered Wayland, for he it was; "an excellent
+      device, but methinks something dangerous&mdash;for, say Foster should
+      return?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Very possible indeed," replied the host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Or say," continued Wayland, "the lady should render me cold thanks for my
+      exertions?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As is not unlikely," replied Giles Gosling. "I marvel Master Tressilian
+      will take such heed of her that cares not for him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In either case I were foully sped," said Wayland, "and therefore I do
+      not, on the whole, much relish your device."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but take me with you, good master serving-man," replied mine host.
+      "This is your master's business, and not mine, you best know the risk to
+      be encountered, or how far you are willing to brave it. But that which you
+      will not yourself hazard, you cannot expect others to risk."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold, hold," said Wayland; "tell me but one thing&mdash;goes yonder old
+      man up to Cumnor?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely, I think so?" said the landlord; "their servant said he was to
+      take their baggage thither. But the ale-tap has been as potent for him as
+      the sack-spigot has been for Michael."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is enough," said Wayland, assuming an air of resolution. "I will
+      thwart that old villain's projects; my affright at his baleful aspect
+      begins to abate, and my hatred to arise. Help me on with my pack, good
+      mine host.&mdash;And look to thyself, old Albumazar; there is a malignant
+      influence in thy horoscope, and it gleams from the constellation Ursa
+      Major."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he assumed his burden, and, guided by the landlord through the
+      postern gate of the Black Bear, took the most private way from thence up
+      to Cumnor Place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     CLOWN. You have of these pedlars, that have more in'em than
+     you'd think, sister.&mdash;WINTER'S TALE, ACT IV., SCENE 3.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In his anxiety to obey the Earl's repeated charges of secrecy, as well as
+      from his own unsocial and miserly habits, Anthony Foster was more
+      desirous, by his mode of housekeeping, to escape observation than to
+      resist intrusive curiosity. Thus, instead of a numerous household, to
+      secure his charge, and defend his house, he studied as much as possible to
+      elude notice by diminishing his attendants; so that, unless when there
+      were followers of the Earl, or of Varney, in the mansion, one old male
+      domestic, and two aged crones, who assisted in keeping the Countess's
+      apartments in order, were the only servants of the family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was one of these old women who opened the door when Wayland knocked,
+      and answered his petition, to be admitted to exhibit his wares to the
+      ladies of the family, with a volley of vituperation, couched in what is
+      there called the JOWRING dialect. The pedlar found the means of checking
+      this vociferation by slipping a silver groat into her hand, and intimating
+      the present of some stuff for a coif, if the lady would buy of his wares.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God ield thee, for mine is aw in littocks. Slocket with thy pack into
+      gharn, mon&mdash;her walks in gharn." Into the garden she ushered the
+      pedlar accordingly, and pointing to an old, ruinous garden house, said,
+      "Yonder be's her, mon&mdash;yonder be's her. Zhe will buy changes an zhe
+      loikes stuffs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She has left me to come off as I may," thought Wayland, as he heard the
+      hag shut the garden-door behind him. "But they shall not beat me, and they
+      dare not murder me, for so little trespass, and by this fair twilight.
+      Hang it, I will on&mdash;a brave general never thought of his retreat till
+      he was defeated. I see two females in the old garden-house yonder&mdash;but
+      how to address them? Stay&mdash;Will Shakespeare, be my friend in need. I
+      will give them a taste of Autolycus." He then sung, with a good voice, and
+      becoming audacity, the popular playhouse ditty,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Lawn as white as driven snow,
+     Cyprus black as e'er was crow,
+     Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
+     Masks for faces and for noses."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "What hath fortune sent us here for an unwonted sight, Janet?" said the
+      lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "One of those merchants of vanity, called pedlars," answered Janet,
+      demurely, "who utters his light wares in lighter measures. I marvel old
+      Dorcas let him pass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a lucky chance, girl," said the Countess; "we lead a heavy life
+      here, and this may while off a weary hour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, my gracious lady," said Janet; "but my father?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is not my father, Janet, nor I hope my master," answered the lady. "I
+      say, call the man hither&mdash;I want some things."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay," replied Janet, "your ladyship has but to say so in the next packet,
+      and if England can furnish them they will be sent. There will come
+      mischief on't&mdash;pray, dearest lady, let me bid the man begone!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will have thee bid him come hither," said the Countess;&mdash;"or stay,
+      thou terrified fool, I will bid him myself, and spare thee a chiding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah! well-a-day, dearest lady, if that were the worst," said Janet sadly;
+      while the lady called to the pedlar, "Good fellow, step forward&mdash;undo
+      thy pack; if thou hast good wares, chance has sent thee hither for my
+      convenience and thy profit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What may your ladyship please to lack?" said Wayland, unstrapping his
+      pack, and displaying its contents with as much dexterity as if he had been
+      bred to the trade. Indeed he had occasionally pursued it in the course of
+      his roving life, and now commended his wares with all the volubility of a
+      trader, and showed some skill in the main art of placing prices upon them.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0713m.jpg" alt="0713m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0713.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "What do I please to lack?" said the lady, "why, considering I have not
+      for six long months bought one yard of lawn or cambric, or one trinket,
+      the most inconsiderable, for my own use, and at my own choice, the better
+      question is, What hast thou got to sell? Lay aside for me that cambric
+      partlet and pair of sleeves&mdash;and those roundells of gold fringe,
+      drawn out with cyprus&mdash;and that short cloak of cherry-coloured fine
+      cloth, garnished with gold buttons and loops;&mdash;is it not of an
+      absolute fancy, Janet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, my lady," replied Janet, "if you consult my poor judgment, it is,
+      methinks, over-gaudy for a graceful habit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, out upon thy judgment, if it be no brighter, wench," said the
+      Countess. "Thou shalt wear it thyself for penance' sake; and I promise
+      thee the gold buttons, being somewhat massive, will comfort thy father,
+      and reconcile him to the cherry-coloured body. See that he snap them not
+      away, Janet, and send them to bear company with the imprisoned angels
+      which he keeps captive in his strong-box."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I pray your ladyship to spare my poor father?" said Janet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but why should any one spare him that is so sparing of his own
+      nature?" replied the lady.&mdash;"Well, but to our gear. That head
+      garniture for myself, and that silver bodkin mounted with pearl; and take
+      off two gowns of that russet cloth for Dorcas and Alison, Janet, to keep
+      the old wretches warm against winter comes.&mdash;And stay&mdash;hast thou
+      no perfumes and sweet bags, or any handsome casting bottles of the newest
+      mode?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Were I a pedlar in earnest, I were a made merchant," thought Wayland, as
+      he busied himself to answer the demands which she thronged one on another,
+      with the eagerness of a young lady who has been long secluded from such a
+      pleasing occupation. "But how to bring her to a moment's serious
+      reflection?" Then as he exhibited his choicest collection of essences and
+      perfumes, he at once arrested her attention by observing that these
+      articles had almost risen to double value since the magnificent
+      preparations made by the Earl of Leicester to entertain the Queen and
+      court at his princely Castle of Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said the Countess hastily; "that rumour, then, is true, Janet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely, madam," answered Wayland; "and I marvel it hath not reached your
+      noble ladyship's ears. The Queen of England feasts with the noble Earl for
+      a week during the Summer's Progress; and there are many who will tell you
+      England will have a king, and England's Elizabeth&mdash;God save her!&mdash;a
+      husband, ere the Progress be over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They lie like villains!" said the Countess, bursting forth impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For God's sake, madam, consider," said Janet, trembling with
+      apprehension; "who would cumber themselves about pedlar's tidings?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, Janet!" exclaimed the Countess; "right, thou hast corrected me
+      justly. Such reports, blighting the reputation of England's brightest and
+      noblest peer, can only find currency amongst the mean, the abject, and the
+      infamous!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May I perish, lady," said Wayland Smith, observing that her violence
+      directed itself towards him, "if I have done anything to merit this
+      strange passion! I have said but what many men say."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the Countess had recovered her composure, and endeavoured,
+      alarmed by the anxious hints of Janet, to suppress all appearance of
+      displeasure. "I were loath," she said, "good fellow, that our Queen should
+      change the virgin style so dear to us her people&mdash;think not of it."
+      And then, as if desirous to change the subject, she added, "And what is
+      this paste, so carefully put up in the silver box?" as she examined the
+      contents of a casket in which drugs and perfumes were contained in
+      separate drawers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a remedy, Madam, for a disorder of which I trust your ladyship will
+      never have reason to complain. The amount of a small turkey-bean,
+      swallowed daily for a week, fortifies the heart against those black
+      vapours which arise from solitude, melancholy, unrequited affection,
+      disappointed hope&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you a fool, friend?" said the Countess sharply; "or do you think,
+      because I have good-naturedly purchased your trumpery goods at your
+      roguish prices, that you may put any gullery you will on me? Who ever
+      heard that affections of the heart were cured by medicines given to the
+      body?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Under your honourable favour," said Wayland, "I am an honest man, and I
+      have sold my goods at an honest price. As to this most precious medicine,
+      when I told its qualities, I asked you not to purchase it, so why should I
+      lie to you? I say not it will cure a rooted affection of the mind, which
+      only God and time can do; but I say that this restorative relieves the
+      black vapours which are engendered in the body of that melancholy which
+      broodeth on the mind. I have relieved many with it, both in court and
+      city, and of late one Master Edmund Tressilian, a worshipful gentleman in
+      Cornwall, who, on some slight received, it was told me, where he had set
+      his affections, was brought into that state of melancholy which made his
+      friends alarmed for his life."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused, and the lady remained silent for some time, and then asked,
+      with a voice which she strove in vain to render firm and indifferent in
+      its tone, "Is the gentleman you have mentioned perfectly recovered?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Passably, madam," answered Wayland; "he hath at least no bodily
+      complaint."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take some of the medicine, Janet," said the Countess. "I too have
+      sometimes that dark melancholy which overclouds the brain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall not do so, madam," said Janet; "who shall answer that this
+      fellow vends what is wholesome?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will myself warrant my good faith," said Wayland; and taking a part of
+      the medicine, he swallowed it before them. The Countess now bought what
+      remained, a step to which Janet, by further objections, only determined
+      her the more obstinately. She even took the first dose upon the instant,
+      and professed to feel her heart lightened and her spirits augmented&mdash;a
+      consequence which, in all probability, existed only in her own
+      imagination. The lady then piled the purchases she had made together,
+      flung her purse to Janet, and desired her to compute the amount, and to
+      pay the pedlar; while she herself, as if tired of the amusement she at
+      first found in conversing with him, wished him good evening, and walked
+      carelessly into the house, thus depriving Wayland of every opportunity to
+      speak with her in private. He hastened, however, to attempt an explanation
+      with Janet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Maiden," he said, "thou hast the face of one who should love her
+      mistress. She hath much need of faithful service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And well deserves it at my hands," replied Janet; "but what of that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Maiden, I am not altogether what I seem," said the pedlar, lowering his
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The less like to be an honest man," said Janet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The more so," answered Wayland, "since I am no pedlar."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Get thee gone then instantly, or I will call for assistance," said Janet;
+      "my father must ere this be returned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not be so rash," said Wayland; "you will do what you may repent of. I
+      am one of your mistress's friends; and she had need of more, not that thou
+      shouldst ruin those she hath."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How shall I know that?" said Janet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look me in the face," said Wayland Smith, "and see if thou dost not read
+      honesty in my looks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in truth, though by no means handsome, there was in his physiognomy
+      the sharp, keen expression of inventive genius and prompt intellect,
+      which, joined to quick and brilliant eyes, a well-formed mouth, and an
+      intelligent smile, often gives grace and interest to features which are
+      both homely and irregular. Janet looked at him with the sly simplicity of
+      her sect, and replied, "Notwithstanding thy boasted honesty, friend, and
+      although I am not accustomed to read and pass judgment on such volumes as
+      thou hast submitted to my perusal, I think I see in thy countenance
+      something of the pedlar-something of the picaroon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "On a small scale, perhaps," said Wayland Smith, laughing. "But this
+      evening, or to-morrow, will an old man come hither with thy father, who
+      has the stealthy step of the cat, the shrewd and vindictive eye of the
+      rat, the fawning wile of the spaniel, the determined snatch of the mastiff&mdash;of
+      him beware, for your own sake and that of your mistress. See you, fair
+      Janet, he brings the venom of the aspic under the assumed innocence of the
+      dove. What precise mischief he meditates towards you I cannot guess, but
+      death and disease have ever dogged his footsteps. Say nought of this to
+      thy mistress; my art suggests to me that in her state the fear of evil may
+      be as dangerous as its operation. But see that she take my specific, for"
+      (he lowered his voice, and spoke low but impressively in her ear) "it is
+      an antidote against poison.&mdash;Hark, they enter the garden!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In effect, a sound of noisy mirth and loud talking approached the garden
+      door, alarmed by which Wayland Smith sprung into the midst of a thicket of
+      overgrown shrubs, while Janet withdrew to the garden-house that she might
+      not incur observation, and that she might at the same time conceal, at
+      least for the present, the purchases made from the supposed pedlar, which
+      lay scattered on the floor of the summer-house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janet, however, had no occasion for anxiety. Her father, his old
+      attendant, Lord Leicester's domestic, and the astrologer, entered the
+      garden in tumult and in extreme perplexity, endeavouring to quiet
+      Lambourne, whose brain had now become completely fired with liquor, and
+      who was one of those unfortunate persons who, being once stirred with the
+      vinous stimulus, do not fall asleep like other drunkards, but remain
+      partially influenced by it for many hours, until at length, by successive
+      draughts, they are elevated into a state of uncontrollable frenzy. Like
+      many men in this state also, Lambourne neither lost the power of motion,
+      speech, or expression; but, on the contrary, spoke with unwonted emphasis
+      and readiness, and told all that at another time he would have been most
+      desirous to keep secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What!" ejaculated Michael, at the full extent of his voice, "am I to have
+      no welcome, no carouse, when I have brought fortune to your old, ruinous
+      dog-house in the shape of a devil's ally, that can change slate-shivers
+      into Spanish dollars?&mdash;Here, you, Tony Fire-the-Fagot, Papist,
+      Puritan, hypocrite, miser, profligate, devil, compounded of all men's
+      sins, bow down and reverence him who has brought into thy house the very
+      mammon thou worshippest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For God's sake," said Foster, "speak low&mdash;come into the house&mdash;thou
+      shalt have wine, or whatever thou wilt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, old puckfoist, I will have it here," thundered the inebriated ruffian&mdash;"here,
+      AL FRESCO, as the Italian hath it. No, no, I will not drink with that
+      poisoning devil within doors, to be choked with the fumes of arsenic and
+      quick-silver; I learned from villain Varney to beware of that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Fetch him wine, in the name of all the fiends!" said the alchemist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aha! and thou wouldst spice it for me, old Truepenny, wouldst thou not?
+      Ay, I should have copperas, and hellebore, and vitriol, and aqua fortis,
+      and twenty devilish materials bubbling in my brain-pan like a charm to
+      raise the devil in a witch's cauldron. Hand me the flask thyself, old Tony
+      Fire-the-Fagot&mdash;and let it be cool&mdash;I will have no wine mulled
+      at the pile of the old burnt bishops. Or stay, let Leicester be king if he
+      will&mdash;good&mdash;and Varney, villain Varney, grand vizier&mdash;why,
+      excellent!&mdash;and what shall I be, then?&mdash;why, emperor&mdash;Emperor
+      Lambourne! I will see this choice piece of beauty that they have walled up
+      here for their private pleasures; I will have her this very night to serve
+      my wine-cup and put on my nightcap. What should a fellow do with two
+      wives, were he twenty times an Earl? Answer me that, Tony boy, you old
+      reprobate, hypocritical dog, whom God struck out of the book of life, but
+      tormented with the constant wish to be restored to it&mdash;you old
+      bishop-burning, blasphemous fanatic, answer me that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will stick my knife to the haft in him," said Foster, in a low tone,
+      which trembled with passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the love of Heaven, no violence!" said the astrologer. "It cannot but
+      be looked closely into.&mdash;Here, honest Lambourne, wilt thou pledge me
+      to the health of the noble Earl of Leicester and Master Richard Varney?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will, mine old Albumazar&mdash;I will, my trusty vender of ratsbane. I
+      would kiss thee, mine honest infractor of the Lex Julia (as they said at
+      Leyden), didst thou not flavour so damnably of sulphur, and such fiendish
+      apothecary's stuff.&mdash;Here goes it, up seyes&mdash;to Varney and
+      Leicester two more noble mounting spirits&mdash;and more dark-seeking,
+      deep-diving, high-flying, malicious, ambitious miscreants&mdash;well, I
+      say no more, but I will whet my dagger on his heart-spone that refuses to
+      pledge me! And so, my masters&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus speaking, Lambourne exhausted the cup which the astrologer had handed
+      to him, and which contained not wine, but distilled spirits. He swore half
+      an oath, dropped the empty cup from his grasp, laid his hand on his sword
+      without being able to draw it, reeled, and fell without sense or motion
+      into the arms of the domestic, who dragged him off to his chamber, and put
+      him to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the general confusion, Janet regained her lady's chamber unobserved,
+      trembling like an aspen leaf, but determined to keep secret from the
+      Countess the dreadful surmises which she could not help entertaining from
+      the drunken ravings of Lambourne. Her fears, however, though they assumed
+      no certain shape, kept pace with the advice of the pedlar; and she
+      confirmed her mistress in her purpose of taking the medicine which he had
+      recommended, from which it is probable she would otherwise have dissuaded
+      her. Neither had these intimations escaped the ears of Wayland, who knew
+      much better how to interpret them. He felt much compassion at beholding so
+      lovely a creature as the Countess, and whom he had first seen in the bosom
+      of domestic happiness, exposed to the machinations of such a gang of
+      villains. His indignation, too, had been highly excited by hearing the
+      voice of his old master, against whom he felt, in equal degree, the
+      passions of hatred and fear. He nourished also a pride in his own art and
+      resources; and, dangerous as the task was, he that night formed a
+      determination to attain the bottom of the mystery, and to aid the
+      distressed lady, if it were yet possible. From some words which Lambourne
+      had dropped among his ravings, Wayland now, for the first time, felt
+      inclined to doubt that Varney had acted entirely on his own account in
+      wooing and winning the affections of this beautiful creature. Fame
+      asserted of this jealous retainer that he had accommodated his lord in
+      former love intrigues; and it occurred to Wayland Smith that Leicester
+      himself might be the party chiefly interested. Her marriage with the Earl
+      he could not suspect; but even the discovery of such a passing intrigue
+      with a lady of Mistress Amy Robsart's rank was a secret of the deepest
+      importance to the stability of the favourite's power over Elizabeth. "If
+      Leicester himself should hesitate to stifle such a rumour by very strange
+      means," said he to himself, "he has those about him who would do him that
+      favour without waiting for his consent. If I would meddle in this
+      business, it must be in such guise as my old master uses when he compounds
+      his manna of Satan, and that is with a close mask on my face. So I will
+      quit Giles Gosling to-morrow, and change my course and place of residence
+      as often as a hunted fox. I should like to see this little Puritan, too,
+      once more. She looks both pretty and intelligent to have come of such a
+      caitiff as Anthony Fire-the-Fagot."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giles Gosling received the adieus of Wayland rather joyfully than
+      otherwise. The honest publican saw so much peril in crossing the course of
+      the Earl of Leicester's favourite that his virtue was scarce able to
+      support him in the task, and he was well pleased when it was likely to be
+      removed from his shoulders still, however, professing his good-will, and
+      readiness, in case of need, to do Mr. Tressilian or his emissary any
+      service, in so far as consisted with his character of a publican.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself,
+     And falls on t'other side.        &mdash;MACBETH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The splendour of the approaching revels at Kenilworth was now the
+      conversation through all England; and everything was collected at home, or
+      from abroad, which could add to the gaiety or glory of the prepared
+      reception of Elizabeth at the house of her most distinguished favourite,
+      Meantime Leicester appeared daily to advance in the Queen's favour. He was
+      perpetually by her side in council&mdash;willingly listened to in the
+      moments of courtly recreation&mdash;favoured with approaches even to
+      familiar intimacy&mdash;looked up to by all who had aught to hope at court&mdash;courted
+      by foreign ministers with the most flattering testimonies of respect from
+      their sovereigns,&mdash;the ALTER EGO, as it seemed, of the stately
+      Elizabeth, who was now very generally supposed to be studying the time and
+      opportunity for associating him, by marriage, into her sovereign power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amid such a tide of prosperity, this minion of fortune and of the Queen's
+      favour was probably the most unhappy man in the realm which seemed at his
+      devotion. He had the Fairy King's superiority over his friends and
+      dependants, and saw much which they could not. The character of his
+      mistress was intimately known to him. It was his minute and studied
+      acquaintance with her humours, as well as her noble faculties, which,
+      joined to his powerful mental qualities, and his eminent external
+      accomplishments, had raised him so high in her favour; and it was that
+      very knowledge of her disposition which led him to apprehend at every turn
+      some sudden and overwhelming disgrace. Leicester was like a pilot
+      possessed of a chart which points out to him all the peculiarities of his
+      navigation, but which exhibits so many shoals, breakers, and reefs of
+      rocks, that his anxious eye reaps little more from observing them than to
+      be convinced that his final escape can be little else than miraculous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, Queen Elizabeth had a character strangely compounded of the
+      strongest masculine sense, with those foibles which are chiefly supposed
+      proper to the female sex. Her subjects had the full benefit of her
+      virtues, which far predominated over her weaknesses; but her courtiers,
+      and those about her person, had often to sustain sudden and embarrassing
+      turns of caprice, and the sallies of a temper which was both jealous and
+      despotic. She was the nursing-mother of her people, but she was also the
+      true daughter of Henry VIII.; and though early sufferings and an excellent
+      education had repressed and modified, they had not altogether destroyed,
+      the hereditary temper of that "hard-ruled king." "Her mind," says her
+      witty godson, Sir John Harrington, who had experienced both the smiles and
+      the frowns which he describes, "was ofttime like the gentle air that
+      cometh from the western point in a summer's morn&mdash;'twas sweet and
+      refreshing to all around her. Her speech did win all affections. And
+      again, she could put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking,
+      as left no doubting WHOSE daughter she was. When she smiled, it was a pure
+      sunshine, that every one did choose to bask in, if they could; but anon
+      came a storm from a sudden gathering of clouds, and the thunder fell in a
+      wondrous manner on all alike." [Nugae Antiquae, vol.i., pp.355, 356-362.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This variability of disposition, as Leicester well knew, was chiefly
+      formidable to those who had a share in the Queen's affections, and who
+      depended rather on her personal regard than on the indispensable services
+      which they could render to her councils and her crown. The favour of
+      Burleigh or of Walsingham, of a description far less striking than that by
+      which he was himself upheld, was founded, as Leicester was well aware, on
+      Elizabeth's solid judgment, not on her partiality, and was, therefore,
+      free from all those principles of change and decay necessarily incident to
+      that which chiefly arose from personal accomplishments and female
+      predilection. These great and sage statesmen were judged of by the Queen
+      only with reference to the measures they suggested, and the reasons by
+      which they supported their opinions in council; whereas the success of
+      Leicester's course depended on all those light and changeable gales of
+      caprice and humour which thwart or favour the progress of a lover in the
+      favour of his mistress, and she, too, a mistress who was ever and anon
+      becoming fearful lest she should forget the dignity, or compromise the
+      authority, of the Queen, while she indulged the affections of the woman.
+      Of the difficulties which surrounded his power, "too great to keep or to
+      resign," Leicester was fully sensible; and as he looked anxiously round
+      for the means of maintaining himself in his precarious situation, and
+      sometimes contemplated those of descending from it in safety, he saw but
+      little hope of either. At such moments his thoughts turned to dwell upon
+      his secret marriage and its consequences; and it was in bitterness against
+      himself, if not against his unfortunate Countess, that he ascribed to that
+      hasty measure, adopted in the ardour of what he now called inconsiderate
+      passion, at once the impossibility of placing his power on a solid basis,
+      and the immediate prospect of its precipitate downfall.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0725m.jpg" alt="0725m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0725.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      "Men say," thus ran his thoughts, in these anxious and repentant moments,
+      "that I might marry Elizabeth, and become King of England. All things
+      suggest this. The match is carolled in ballads, while the rabble throw
+      their caps up. It has been touched upon in the schools&mdash;whispered in
+      the presence-chamber&mdash;recommended from the pulpit&mdash;prayed for in
+      the Calvinistic churches abroad&mdash;touched on by statists in the very
+      council at home. These bold insinuations have been rebutted by no rebuke,
+      no resentment, no chiding, scarce even by the usual female protestation
+      that she would live and die a virgin princess. Her words have been more
+      courteous than ever, though she knows such rumours are abroad&mdash;her
+      actions more gracious, her looks more kind&mdash;nought seems wanting to
+      make me King of England, and place me beyond the storms of court-favour,
+      excepting the putting forth of mine own hand to take that crown imperial
+      which is the glory of the universe! And when I might stretch that hand out
+      most boldly, it is fettered down by a secret and inextricable bond! And
+      here I have letters from Amy," he would say, catching them up with a
+      movement of peevishness, "persecuting me to acknowledge her openly&mdash;to
+      do justice to her and to myself&mdash;and I wot not what. Methinks I have
+      done less than justice to myself already. And she speaks as if Elizabeth
+      were to receive the knowledge of this matter with the glee of a mother
+      hearing of the happy marriage of a hopeful son! She, the daughter of
+      Henry, who spared neither man in his anger nor woman in his desire&mdash;she
+      to find herself tricked, drawn on with toys of passion to the verge of
+      acknowledging her love to a subject, and he discovered to be a married
+      man!&mdash;Elizabeth to learn that she had been dallied with in such
+      fashion, as a gay courtier might trifle with a country wench&mdash;we
+      should then see, to our ruin, FURENS QUID FAEMINA!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He would then pause, and call for Varney, whose advice was now more
+      frequently resorted to than ever, because the Earl remembered the
+      remonstrances which he had made against his secret contract. And their
+      consultation usually terminated in anxious deliberation how, or in what
+      manner, the Countess was to be produced at Kenilworth. These communings
+      had for some time ended always in a resolution to delay the Progress from
+      day to day. But at length a peremptory decision became necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Elizabeth will not be satisfied without her presence," said the Earl.
+      "Whether any suspicion hath entered her mind, as my own apprehensions
+      suggest, or whether the petition of Tressilian is kept in her memory by
+      Sussex or some other secret enemy, I know not; but amongst all the
+      favourable expressions which she uses to me, she often recurs to the story
+      of Amy Robsart. I think that Amy is the slave in the chariot, who is
+      placed there by my evil fortune to dash and to confound my triumph, even
+      when at the highest. Show me thy device, Varney, for solving the
+      inextricable difficulty. I have thrown every such impediment in the way of
+      these accursed revels as I could propound even with a shade of decency,
+      but to-day's interview has put all to a hazard. She said to me kindly, but
+      peremptorily, 'We will give you no further time for preparations, my lord,
+      lest you should altogether ruin yourself. On Saturday, the 9th of July, we
+      will be with you at Kenilworth. We pray you to forget none of our
+      appointed guests and suitors, and in especial this light-o'-love, Amy
+      Robsart. We would wish to see the woman who could postpone yonder poetical
+      gentleman, Master Tressilian, to your man, Richard Varney.'&mdash;Now,
+      Varney, ply thine invention, whose forge hath availed us so often for sure
+      as my name is Dudley, the danger menaced by my horoscope is now darkening
+      around me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Can my lady be by no means persuaded to bear for a brief space the
+      obscure character which circumstances impose on her?" Said Varney after
+      some hesitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, sirrah? my Countess term herself thy wife!&mdash;that may neither
+      stand with my honour nor with hers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas! my lord," answered Varney, "and yet such is the quality in which
+      Elizabeth now holds her; and to contradict this opinion is to discover
+      all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Think of something else, Varney," said the Earl, in great agitation;
+      "this invention is nought. If I could give way to it, she would not; for I
+      tell thee, Varney, if thou knowest it not, that not Elizabeth on the
+      throne has more pride than the daughter of this obscure gentleman of
+      Devon. She is flexible in many things, but where she holds her honour
+      brought in question she hath a spirit and temper as apprehensive as
+      lightning, and as swift in execution."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have experienced that, my lord, else had we not been thus
+      circumstanced," said Varney. "But what else to suggest I know not.
+      Methinks she whose good fortune in becoming your lordship's bride, and who
+      gives rise to the danger, should do somewhat towards parrying it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is impossible," said the Earl, waving his hand; "I know neither
+      authority nor entreaties would make her endure thy name for an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is somewhat hard, though," said Varney, in a dry tone; and, without
+      pausing on that topic, he added, "Suppose some one were found to represent
+      her? Such feats have been performed in the courts of as sharp-eyed
+      monarchs as Queen Elizabeth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Utter madness, Varney," answered the Earl; "the counterfeit would be
+      confronted with Tressilian, and discovery become inevitable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian might be removed from court," said the unhesitating Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And by what means?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There are many," said Varney, "by which a statesman in your situation, my
+      lord, may remove from the scene one who pries into your affairs, and
+      places himself in perilous opposition to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak not to me of such policy, Varney," said the Earl hastily, "which,
+      besides, would avail nothing in the present case. Many others there be at
+      court to whom Amy may be known; and besides, on the absence of Tressilian,
+      her father or some of her friends would be instantly summoned hither. Urge
+      thine invention once more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord, I know not what to say," answered Varney; "but were I myself in
+      such perplexity, I would ride post down to Cumnor Place, and compel my
+      wife to give her consent to such measures as her safety and mine
+      required."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney," said Leicester, "I cannot urge her to aught so repugnant to her
+      noble nature as a share in this stratagem; it would be a base requital to
+      the love she bears me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, my lord," said Varney, "your lordship is a wise and an honourable
+      man, and skilled in those high points of romantic scruple which are
+      current in Arcadia perhaps, as your nephew, Philip Sidney, writes. I am
+      your humble servitor&mdash;a man of this world, and only happy that my
+      knowledge of it, and its ways, is such as your lordship has not scorned to
+      avail yourself of. Now I would fain know whether the obligation lies on my
+      lady or on you in this fortunate union, and which has most reason to show
+      complaisance to the other, and to consider that other's wishes,
+      conveniences, and safety?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell thee, Varney," said the Earl, "that all it was in my power to
+      bestow upon her was not merely deserved, but a thousand times overpaid, by
+      her own virtue and beauty; for never did greatness descend upon a creature
+      so formed by nature to grace and adorn it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is well, my lord, you are so satisfied," answered Varney, with his
+      usual sardonic smile, which even respect to his patron could not at all
+      times subdue; "you will have time enough to enjoy undisturbed the society
+      of one so gracious and beautiful&mdash;that is, so soon as such
+      confinement in the Tower be over as may correspond to the crime of
+      deceiving the affections of Elizabeth Tudor. A cheaper penalty, I presume,
+      you do not expect."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Malicious fiend!" answered Leicester, "do you mock me in my misfortune?&mdash;Manage
+      it as thou wilt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you are serious, my lord," said Varney, "you must set forth instantly
+      and post for Cumnor Place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do thou go thyself, Varney; the devil has given thee that sort of
+      eloquence which is most powerful in the worst cause. I should stand
+      self-convicted of villainy, were I to urge such a deceit. Begone, I tell
+      thee; must I entreat thee to mine own dishonour?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my lord," said Varney; "but if you are serious in entrusting me with
+      the task of urging this most necessary measure, you must give me a letter
+      to my lady, as my credentials, and trust to me for backing the advice it
+      contains with all the force in my power. And such is my opinion of my
+      lady's love for your lordship, and of her willingness to do that which is
+      at once to contribute to your pleasure and your safety, that I am sure she
+      will condescend to bear for a few brief days the name of so humble a man
+      as myself, especially since it is not inferior in antiquity to that of her
+      own paternal house."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester seized on writing materials, and twice or thrice commenced a
+      letter to the Countess, which he afterwards tore into fragments. At length
+      he finished a few distracted lines, in which he conjured her, for reasons
+      nearly concerning his life and honour, to consent to bear the name of
+      Varney for a few days, during the revels at Kenilworth. He added that
+      Varney would communicate all the reasons which rendered this deception
+      indispensable; and having signed and sealed these credentials, he flung
+      them over the table to Varney with a motion that he should depart, which
+      his adviser was not slow to comprehend and to obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester remained like one stupefied, till he heard the trampling of the
+      horses, as Varney, who took no time even to change his dress, threw
+      himself into the saddle, and, followed by a single servant, set off for
+      Berkshire. At the sound the Earl started from his seat, and ran to the
+      window, with the momentary purpose of recalling the unworthy commission
+      with which he had entrusted one of whom he used to say he knew no virtuous
+      property save affection to his patron. But Varney was already beyond call;
+      and the bright, starry firmament, which the age considered as the Book of
+      Fate, lying spread before Leicester when he opened the casement, diverted
+      him from his better and more manly purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There they roll, on their silent but potential course," said the Earl,
+      looking around him, "without a voice which speaks to our ear, but not
+      without influences which affect, at every change, the indwellers of this
+      vile, earthly planet. This, if astrologers fable not, is the very crisis
+      of my fate! The hour approaches of which I was taught to beware&mdash;the
+      hour, too, which I was encouraged to hope for. A King was the word&mdash;but
+      how?&mdash;the crown matrimonial. All hopes of that are gone&mdash;let
+      them go. The rich Netherlands have demanded me for their leader, and,
+      would Elizabeth consent, would yield to me THEIR crown. And have I not
+      such a claim even in this kingdom? That of York, descending from George of
+      Clarence to the House of Huntingdon, which, this lady failing, may have a
+      fair chance&mdash;Huntingdon is of my house.&mdash;But I will plunge no
+      deeper in these high mysteries. Let me hold my course in silence for a
+      while, and in obscurity, like a subterranean river; the time shall come
+      that I will burst forth in my strength, and bear all opposition before
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Leicester was thus stupefying the remonstrances of his own
+      conscience, by appealing to political necessity for his apology, or losing
+      himself amidst the wild dreams of ambition, his agent left town and tower
+      behind him on his hasty journey to Berkshire. HE also nourished high hope.
+      He had brought Lord Leicester to the point which he had desired, of
+      committing to him the most intimate recesses of his breast, and of using
+      him as the channel of his most confidential intercourse with his lady.
+      Henceforward it would, he foresaw, be difficult for his patron either to
+      dispense with his services, or refuse his requests, however unreasonable.
+      And if this disdainful dame, as he termed the Countess, should comply with
+      the request of her husband, Varney, her pretended husband, must needs
+      become so situated with respect to her, that there was no knowing where
+      his audacity might be bounded perhaps not till circumstances enabled him
+      to obtain a triumph, which he thought of with a mixture of fiendish
+      feelings, in which revenge for her previous scorn was foremost and
+      predominant. Again he contemplated the possibility of her being totally
+      intractable, and refusing obstinately to play the part assigned to her in
+      the drama at Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alasco must then do his part," he said. "Sickness must serve her Majesty
+      as an excuse for not receiving the homage of Mrs. Varney&mdash;ay, and a
+      sore and wasting sickness it may prove, should Elizabeth continue to cast
+      so favourable an eye on my Lord of Leicester. I will not forego the chance
+      of being favourite of a monarch for want of determined measures, should
+      these be necessary. Forward, good horse, forward&mdash;ambition and
+      haughty hope of power, pleasure, and revenge strike their stings as deep
+      through my bosom as I plunge the rowels in thy flanks. On, good horse, on&mdash;the
+      devil urges us both forward!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Say that my beauty was but small,
+     Among court ladies all despised,
+     Why didst thou rend it from that hall
+     Where, scornful Earl, 'twas dearly prized?
+
+     No more thou com'st with wonted speed,
+     Thy once beloved bride to see;
+     But be she alive, or be she dead,
+     I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+     CUMNOR HALL, by WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The ladies of fashion of the present, or of any other period, must have
+      allowed that the young and lovely Countess of Leicester had, besides her
+      youth and beauty, two qualities which entitled her to a place amongst
+      women of rank and distinction. She displayed, as we have seen in her
+      interview with the pedlar, a liberal promptitude to make unnecessary
+      purchases, solely for the pleasure of acquiring useless and showy trifles
+      which ceased to please as soon as they were possessed; and she was,
+      besides, apt to spend a considerable space of time every day in adorning
+      her person, although the varied splendour of her attire could only attract
+      the half satirical praise of the precise Janet, or an approving glance
+      from the bright eyes which witnessed their own beams of triumph reflected
+      from the mirror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess Amy had, indeed, to plead for indulgence in those frivolous
+      tastes, that the education of the times had done little or nothing for a
+      mind naturally gay and averse to study. If she had not loved to collect
+      finery and to wear it, she might have woven tapestry or sewed embroidery,
+      till her labours spread in gay profusion all over the walls and seats at
+      Lidcote Hall; or she might have varied Minerva's labours with the task of
+      preparing a mighty pudding against the time that Sir Hugh Robsart returned
+      from the greenwood. But Amy had no natural genius either for the loom, the
+      needle, or the receipt-book. Her mother had died in infancy; her father
+      contradicted her in nothing; and Tressilian, the only one that approached
+      her who was able or desirous to attend to the cultivation of her mind, had
+      much hurt his interest with her by assuming too eagerly the task of a
+      preceptor, so that he was regarded by the lively, indulged, and idle girl
+      with some fear and much respect, but with little or nothing of that softer
+      emotion which it had been his hope and his ambition to inspire. And thus
+      her heart lay readily open, and her fancy became easily captivated by the
+      noble exterior and graceful deportment and complacent flattery of
+      Leicester, even before he was known to her as the dazzling minion of
+      wealth and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The frequent visits of Leicester at Cumnor, during the earlier part of
+      their union, had reconciled the Countess to the solitude and privacy to
+      which she was condemned; but when these visits became rarer and more rare,
+      and when the void was filled up with letters of excuse, not always very
+      warmly expressed, and generally extremely brief, discontent and suspicion
+      began to haunt those splendid apartments which love had fitted up for
+      beauty. Her answers to Leicester conveyed these feelings too bluntly, and
+      pressed more naturally than prudently that she might be relieved from this
+      obscure and secluded residence, by the Earl's acknowledgment of their
+      marriage; and in arranging her arguments with all the skill she was
+      mistress of, she trusted chiefly to the warmth of the entreaties with
+      which she urged them. Sometimes she even ventured to mingle reproaches, of
+      which Leicester conceived he had good reason to complain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have made her Countess," he said to Varney; "surely she might wait till
+      it consisted with my pleasure that she should put on the coronet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess Amy viewed the subject in directly an opposite light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What signifies," she said, "that I have rank and honour in reality, if I
+      am to live an obscure prisoner, without either society or observance, and
+      suffering in my character, as one of dubious or disgraced reputation? I
+      care not for all those strings of pearl, which you fret me by warping into
+      my tresses, Janet. I tell you that at Lidcote Hall, if I put but a fresh
+      rosebud among my hair, my good father would call me to him, that he might
+      see it more closely; and the kind old curate would smile, and Master
+      Mumblazen would say something about roses gules. And now I sit here,
+      decked out like an image with gold and gems, and no one to see my finery
+      but you, Janet. There was the poor Tressilian, too&mdash;but it avails not
+      speaking of him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It doth not indeed, madam," said her prudent attendant; "and verily you
+      make me sometimes wish you would not speak of him so often, or so rashly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It signifies nothing to warn me, Janet," said the impatient and
+      incorrigible Countess; "I was born free, though I am now mewed up like
+      some fine foreign slave, rather than the wife of an English noble. I bore
+      it all with pleasure while I was sure he loved me; but now my tongue and
+      heart shall be free, let them fetter these limbs as they will. I tell
+      thee, Janet, I love my husband&mdash;I will love him till my latest breath&mdash;I
+      cannot cease to love him, even if I would, or if he&mdash;which, God
+      knows, may chance&mdash;should cease to love me. But I will say, and
+      loudly, I would have been happier than I now am to have remained in
+      Lidcote Hall, even although I must have married poor Tressilian, with his
+      melancholy look and his head full of learning, which I cared not for. He
+      said, if I would read his favourite volumes, there would come a time that
+      I should be glad of having done so. I think it is come now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I bought you some books, madam," said Janet, "from a lame fellow who sold
+      them in the Market-place&mdash;and who stared something boldly, at me, I
+      promise you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me see them, Janet," said the Countess; "but let them not be of your
+      own precise cast,&mdash;How is this, most righteous damsel?&mdash;'A PAIR
+      OF SNUFFERS FOR THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK'&mdash;'HANDFULL OF MYRRH AND
+      HYSSOP TO PUT A SICK SOUL TO PURGATION'&mdash;'A DRAUGHT OF WATER FROM THE
+      VALLEY OF BACA'&mdash;'FOXES AND FIREBRANDS'&mdash;what gear call you
+      this, maiden?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, madam," said Janet, "it was but fitting and seemly to put grace in
+      your ladyship's way; but an you will none of it, there are play-books, and
+      poet-books, I trow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess proceeded carelessly in her examination, turning over such
+      rare volumes as would now make the fortune of twenty retail booksellers.
+      Here was a "BOKE OF COOKERY, IMPRINTED BY RICHARD LANT," and "SKELTON'S
+      BOOKS"&mdash;"THE PASSTIME OF THE PEOPLE"&mdash;"THE CASTLE OF KNOWLEDGE,"
+      etc. But neither to this lore did the Countess's heart incline, and
+      joyfully did she start up from the listless task of turning over the
+      leaves of the pamphlets, and hastily did she scatter them through the
+      floor, when the hasty clatter of horses' feet, heard in the courtyard,
+      called her to the window, exclaiming, "It is Leicester!&mdash;it is my
+      noble Earl!&mdash;it is my Dudley!&mdash;every stroke of his horse's hoof
+      sounds like a note of lordly music!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a brief bustle in the mansion, and Foster, with his downward
+      look and sullen manner, entered the apartment to say, "That Master Richard
+      Varney was arrived from my lord, having ridden all night, and craved to
+      speak with her ladyship instantly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney?" said the disappointed Countess; "and to speak with me?&mdash;pshaw!
+      But he comes with news from Leicester, so admit him instantly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney entered her dressing apartment, where she sat arrayed in her native
+      loveliness, adorned with all that Janet's art and a rich and tasteful
+      undress could bestow. But the most beautiful part of her attire was her
+      profuse and luxuriant light-brown locks, which floated in such rich
+      abundance around a neck that resembled a swan's, and over a bosom heaving
+      with anxious expectation, which communicated a hurried tinge of red to her
+      whole countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney entered the room in the dress in which he had waited on his master
+      that morning to court, the splendour of which made a strange contrast with
+      the disorder arising from hasty riding during a dark night and foul ways.
+      His brow bore an anxious and hurried expression, as one who has that to
+      say of which he doubts the reception, and who hath yet posted on from the
+      necessity of communicating his tidings. The Countess's anxious eye at once
+      caught the alarm, as she exclaimed, "You bring news from my lord, Master
+      Varney&mdash;Gracious Heaven! is he ill?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, madam, thank Heaven!" said Varney. "Compose yourself, and permit me
+      to take breath ere I communicate my tidings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No breath, sir," replied the lady impatiently; "I know your theatrical
+      arts. Since your breath hath sufficed to bring you hither, it may suffice
+      to tell your tale&mdash;at least briefly, and in the gross."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," answered Varney, "we are not alone, and my lord's message was for
+      your ear only."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Leave us, Janet, and Master Foster," said the lady; "but remain in the
+      next apartment, and within call."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster and his daughter retired, agreeably to the Lady Leicester's
+      commands, into the next apartment, which was the withdrawing-room. The
+      door which led from the sleeping-chamber was then carefully shut and
+      bolted, and the father and daughter remained both in a posture of anxious
+      attention, the first with a stern, suspicious, anxious cast of
+      countenance, and Janet with folded hands, and looks which seemed divided
+      betwixt her desire to know the fortunes of her mistress, and her prayers
+      to Heaven for her safety. Anthony Foster seemed himself to have some idea
+      of what was passing through his daughter's mind, for he crossed the
+      apartment and took her anxiously by the hand, saying, "That is right&mdash;pray,
+      Janet, pray; we have all need of prayers, and some of us more than others.
+      Pray, Janet&mdash;I would pray myself, but I must listen to what goes on
+      within&mdash;evil has been brewing, love&mdash;evil has been brewing. God
+      forgive our sins, but Varney's sudden and strange arrival bodes us no
+      good."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janet had never before heard her father excite or even permit her
+      attention to anything which passed in their mysterious family; and now
+      that he did so, his voice sounded in her ear&mdash;she knew not why&mdash;like
+      that of a screech-owl denouncing some deed of terror and of woe. She
+      turned her eyes fearfully towards the door, almost as if she expected some
+      sounds of horror to be heard, or some sight of fear to display itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All, however, was as still as death, and the voices of those who spoke in
+      the inner chamber were, if they spoke at all, carefully subdued to a tone
+      which could not be heard in the next. At once, however, they were heard to
+      speak fast, thick, and hastily; and presently after the voice of the
+      Countess was heard exclaiming, at the highest pitch to which indignation
+      could raise it, "Undo the door, sir, I command you!&mdash;undo the door!&mdash;I
+      will have no other reply!" she continued, drowning with her vehement
+      accents the low and muttered sounds which Varney was heard to utter
+      betwixt whiles. "What ho! without there!" she persisted, accompanying her
+      words with shrieks, "Janet, alarm the house!&mdash;Foster, break open the
+      door&mdash;I am detained here by a traitor! Use axe and lever, Master
+      Foster&mdash;I will be your warrant!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It shall not need, madam," Varney was at length distinctly heard to say.
+      "If you please to expose my lord's important concerns and your own to the
+      general ear, I will not be your hindrance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door was unlocked and thrown open, and Janet and her father rushed in,
+      anxious to learn the cause of these reiterated exclamations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they entered the apartment Varney stood by the door grinding his
+      teeth, with an expression in which rage, and shame, and fear had each
+      their share. The Countess stood in the midst of her apartment like a
+      juvenile Pythoness under the influence of the prophetic fury. The veins in
+      her beautiful forehead started into swoln blue lines through the hurried
+      impulse of her articulation&mdash;her cheek and neck glowed like scarlet&mdash;her
+      eyes were like those of an imprisoned eagle, flashing red lightning on the
+      foes which it cannot reach with its talons. Were it possible for one of
+      the Graces to have been animated by a Fury, the countenance could not have
+      united such beauty with so much hatred, scorn, defiance, and resentment.
+      The gesture and attitude corresponded with the voice and looks, and
+      altogether presented a spectacle which was at once beautiful and fearful;
+      so much of the sublime had the energy of passion united with the Countess
+      Amy's natural loveliness. Janet, as soon as the door was open, ran to her
+      mistress; and more slowly, yet with more haste than he was wont, Anthony
+      Foster went to Richard Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the Truth's name, what ails your ladyship?" said the former.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, in the name of Satan, have you done to her?" said Foster to his
+      friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who, I?&mdash;nothing," answered Varney, but with sunken head and sullen
+      voice; "nothing but communicated to her her lord's commands, which, if the
+      lady list not to obey, she knows better how to answer it than I may
+      pretend to do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by Heaven, Janet!" said the Countess, "the false traitor lies in his
+      throat! He must needs lie, for he speaks to the dishonour of my noble
+      lord; he must needs lie doubly, for he speaks to gain ends of his own,
+      equally execrable and unattainable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You have misapprehended me, lady," said Varney, with a sulky species of
+      submission and apology; "let this matter rest till your passion be abated,
+      and I will explain all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt never have an opportunity to do so," said the Countess.&mdash;"Look
+      at him, Janet. He is fairly dressed, hath the outside of a gentleman, and
+      hither he came to persuade me it was my lord's pleasure&mdash;nay, more,
+      my wedded lord's commands&mdash;that I should go with him to Kenilworth,
+      and before the Queen and nobles, and in presence of my own wedded lord,
+      that I should acknowledge him&mdash;HIM there&mdash;that very
+      cloak-brushing, shoe-cleaning fellow&mdash;HIM there, my lord's lackey,
+      for my liege lord and husband; furnishing against myself, Great God!
+      whenever I was to vindicate my right and my rank, such weapons as would
+      hew my just claim from the root, and destroy my character to be regarded
+      as an honourable matron of the English nobility!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You hear her, Foster, and you, young maiden, hear this lady," answered
+      Varney, taking advantage of the pause which the Countess had made in her
+      charge, more for lack of breath than for lack of matter&mdash;"you hear
+      that her heat only objects to me the course which our good lord, for the
+      purpose to keep certain matters secret, suggests in the very letter which
+      she holds in her hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster here attempted to interfere with a face of authority, which he
+      thought became the charge entrusted to him, "Nay, lady, I must needs say
+      you are over-hasty in this. Such deceit is not utterly to be condemned
+      when practised for a righteous end; and thus even the patriarch Abraham
+      feigned Sarah to be his sister when they went down to Egypt."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir," answered the Countess; "but God rebuked that deceit even in the
+      father of His chosen people, by the mouth of the heathen Pharaoh. Out upon
+      you, that will read Scripture only to copy those things which are held out
+      to us as warnings, not as examples!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But Sarah disputed not the will of her husband, an it be your pleasure,"
+      said Foster, in reply, "but did as Abraham commanded, calling herself his
+      sister, that it might be well with her husband for her sake, and that his
+      soul might live because of her beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, so Heaven pardon me my useless anger," answered the Countess, "thou
+      art as daring a hypocrite as yonder fellow is an impudent deceiver! Never
+      will I believe that the noble Dudley gave countenance to so dastardly, so
+      dishonourable a plan. Thus I tread on his infamy, if indeed it be, and
+      thus destroy its remembrance for ever!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she tore in pieces Leicester's letter, and stamped, in the
+      extremity of impatience, as if she would have annihilated the minute
+      fragments into which she had rent it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bear witness," said Varney, collecting himself, "she hath torn my lord's
+      letter, in order to burden me with the scheme of his devising; and
+      although it promises nought but danger and trouble to me, she would lay it
+      to my charge, as if I had any purpose of mine own in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou liest, thou treacherous slave!" said the Countess in spite of
+      Janet's attempts to keep her silent, in the sad foresight that her
+      vehemence might only furnish arms against herself&mdash;"thou liest," she
+      continued.&mdash;"Let me go, Janet&mdash;were it the last word I have to
+      speak, he lies. He had his own foul ends to seek; and broader he would
+      have displayed them had my passion permitted me to preserve the silence
+      which at first encouraged him to unfold his vile projects."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said Varney, overwhelmed in spite of his effrontery, "I entreat
+      you to believe yourself mistaken."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As soon will I believe light darkness," said the enraged Countess. "Have
+      I drunk of oblivion? Do I not remember former passages, which, known to
+      Leicester, had given thee the preferment of a gallows, instead of the
+      honour of his intimacy. I would I were a man but for five minutes! It were
+      space enough to make a craven like thee confess his villainy. But go&mdash;begone!
+      Tell thy master that when I take the foul course to which such scandalous
+      deceits as thou hast recommended on his behalf must necessarily lead me, I
+      will give him a rival something worthy of the name. He shall not be
+      supplanted by an ignominious lackey, whose best fortune is to catch a gift
+      of his master's last suit of clothes ere it is threadbare, and who is only
+      fit to seduce a suburb-wench by the bravery of new roses in his master's
+      old pantoufles. Go, begone, sir! I scorn thee so much that I am ashamed to
+      have been angry with thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney left the room with a mute expression of rage, and was followed by
+      Foster, whose apprehension, naturally slow, was overpowered by the eager
+      and abundant discharge of indignation which, for the first time, he had
+      heard burst from the lips of a being who had seemed, till that moment, too
+      languid and too gentle to nurse an angry thought or utter an intemperate
+      expression. Foster, therefore, pursued Varney from place to place,
+      persecuting him with interrogatories, to which the other replied not,
+      until they were in the opposite side of the quadrangle, and in the old
+      library, with which the reader has already been made acquainted. Here he
+      turned round on his persevering follower, and thus addressed him, in a
+      tone tolerably equal, that brief walk having been sufficient to give one
+      so habituated to command his temper time to rally and recover his presence
+      of mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tony," he said, with his usual sneering laugh, "it avails not to deny it.
+      The Woman and the Devil, who, as thine oracle Holdforth will confirm to
+      thee, cheated man at the beginning, have this day proved more powerful
+      than my discretion. Yon termagant looked so tempting, and had the art to
+      preserve her countenance so naturally, while I communicated my lord's
+      message, that, by my faith, I thought I might say some little thing for
+      myself. She thinks she hath my head under her girdle now, but she is
+      deceived. Where is Doctor Alasco?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In his laboratory," answered Foster. "It is the hour he is spoken not
+      withal. We must wait till noon is past, or spoil his important&mdash;what
+      said I? important!&mdash;I would say interrupt his divine studies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, he studies the devil's divinity," said Varney; "but when I want him,
+      one hour must suffice as well as another. Lead the way to his
+      pandemonium."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So spoke Varney, and with hasty and perturbed steps followed Foster, who
+      conducted him through private passages, many of which were well-nigh
+      ruinous, to the opposite side of the quadrangle, where, in a subterranean
+      apartment, now occupied by the chemist Alasco, one of the Abbots of
+      Abingdon, who had a turn for the occult sciences, had, much to the scandal
+      of his convent, established a laboratory, in which, like other fools of
+      the period, he spent much precious time, and money besides, in the pursuit
+      of the grand arcanum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthony Foster paused before the door, which was scrupulously secured
+      within, and again showed a marked hesitation to disturb the sage in his
+      operations. But Varney, less scrupulous, roused him by knocking and voice,
+      until at length, slowly and reluctantly, the inmate of the apartment undid
+      the door. The chemist appeared, with his eyes bleared with the heat and
+      vapours of the stove or alembic over which he brooded and the interior of
+      his cell displayed the confused assemblage of heterogeneous substances and
+      extraordinary implements belonging to his profession. The old man was
+      muttering, with spiteful impatience, "Am I for ever to be recalled to the
+      affairs of earth from those of heaven?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the affairs of hell," answered Varney, "for that is thy proper
+      element.&mdash;Foster, we need thee at our conference."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster slowly entered the room. Varney, following, barred the door, and
+      they betook themselves to secret council.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, the Countess traversed the apartment, with shame and
+      anger contending on her lovely cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The villain," she said&mdash;"the cold-blooded, calculating slave!&mdash;But
+      I unmasked him, Janet&mdash;I made the snake uncoil all his folds before
+      me, and crawl abroad in his naked deformity; I suspended my resentment, at
+      the danger of suffocating under the effort, until he had let me see the
+      very bottom of a heart more foul than hell's darkest corner.&mdash;And
+      thou, Leicester, is it possible thou couldst bid me for a moment deny my
+      wedded right in thee, or thyself yield it to another?&mdash;But it is
+      impossible&mdash;the villain has lied in all.&mdash;Janet, I will not
+      remain here longer&mdash;I fear him&mdash;I fear thy father. I grieve to
+      say it, Janet&mdash;but I fear thy father, and, worst of all, this odious
+      Varney, I will escape from Cumnor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas! madam, whither would you fly, or by what means will you escape from
+      these walls?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not, Janet," said the unfortunate young lady, looking upwards! and
+      clasping her hands together, "I know not where I shall fly, or by what
+      means; but I am certain the God I have served will not abandon me in this
+      dreadful crisis, for I am in the hands of wicked men."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not think so, dear lady," said Janet; "my father is stern and strict
+      in his temper, and severely true to his trust&mdash;but yet&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Anthony Foster entered the apartment, bearing in his hand a
+      glass cup and a small flask. His manner was singular; for, while
+      approaching the Countess with the respect due to her rank, he had till
+      this time suffered to become visible, or had been unable to suppress, the
+      obdurate sulkiness of his natural disposition, which, as is usual with
+      those of his unhappy temper, was chiefly exerted towards those over whom
+      circumstances gave him control. But at present he showed nothing of that
+      sullen consciousness of authority which he was wont to conceal under a
+      clumsy affectation of civility and deference, as a ruffian hides his
+      pistols and bludgeon under his ill-fashioned gaberdine. And yet it seemed
+      as if his smile was more in fear than courtesy, and as if, while he
+      pressed the Countess to taste of the choice cordial, which should refresh
+      her spirits after her late alarm, he was conscious of meditating some
+      further injury. His hand trembled also, his voice faltered, and his whole
+      outward behaviour exhibited so much that was suspicious, that his daughter
+      Janet, after she had stood looking at him in astonishment for some
+      seconds, seemed at once to collect herself to execute some hardy
+      resolution, raised her head, assumed an attitude and gait of determination
+      and authority, and walking slowly betwixt her father and her mistress,
+      took the salver from the hand of the former, and said in a low but marked
+      and decided tone, "Father, I will fill for my noble mistress, when such is
+      her pleasure."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou, my child?" said Foster, eagerly and apprehensively; "no, my child&mdash;it
+      is not THOU shalt render the lady this service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why, I pray you," said Janet, "if it be fitting that the noble lady
+      should partake of the cup at all?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why&mdash;why?" said the seneschal, hesitating, and then bursting into
+      passion as the readiest mode of supplying the lack of all other reason&mdash;"why,
+      because it is my pleasure, minion, that you should not! Get you gone to
+      the evening lecture."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, as I hope to hear lecture again," replied Janet, "I will not go
+      thither this night, unless I am better assured of my mistress's safety.
+      Give me that flask, father"&mdash;and she took it from his reluctant hand,
+      while he resigned it as if conscience-struck. "And now," she said,
+      "father, that which shall benefit my mistress, cannot do ME prejudice.
+      Father, I drink to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster, without speaking a word, rushed on his daughter and wrested the
+      flask from her hand; then, as if embarrassed by what he had done, and
+      totally unable to resolve what he should do next, he stood with it in his
+      hand, one foot advanced and the other drawn back, glaring on his daughter
+      with a countenance in which rage, fear, and convicted villainy formed a
+      hideous combination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is strange, my father," said Janet, keeping her eye fixed on his, in
+      the manner in which those who have the charge of lunatics are said to
+      overawe their unhappy patients; "will you neither let me serve my lady,
+      nor drink to her myself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The courage of the Countess sustained her through this dreadful scene, of
+      which the import was not the less obvious that it was not even hinted at.
+      She preserved even the rash carelessness of her temper, and though her
+      cheek had grown pale at the first alarm, her eye was calm and almost
+      scornful. "Will YOU taste this rare cordial, Master Foster? Perhaps you
+      will not yourself refuse to pledge us, though you permit not Janet to do
+      so. Drink, sir, I pray you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will not," answered Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And for whom, then, is the precious beverage reserved, sir?" said the
+      Countess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For the devil, who brewed it!" answered Foster; and, turning on his heel,
+      he left the chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Janet looked at her mistress with a countenance expressive in the highest
+      degree of shame, dismay, and sorrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not weep for me, Janet," said the Countess kindly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, madam," replied her attendant, in a voice broken by sobs, "it is not
+      for you I weep; it is for myself&mdash;it is for that unhappy man. Those
+      who are dishonoured before man&mdash;those who are condemned by God&mdash;have
+      cause to mourn; not those who are innocent! Farewell, madam!" she said
+      hastily assuming the mantle in which she was wont to go abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you leave me, Janet?" said her mistress&mdash;"desert me in such an
+      evil strait?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Desert you, madam!" exclaimed Janet; and running back to her mistress,
+      she imprinted a thousand kisses on her hand&mdash;"desert you I&mdash;may
+      the Hope of my trust desert me when I do so! No, madam; well you said the
+      God you serve will open you a path for deliverance. There is a way of
+      escape. I have prayed night and day for light, that I might see how to act
+      betwixt my duty to yonder unhappy man and that which I owe to you. Sternly
+      and fearfully that light has now dawned, and I must not shut the door
+      which God opens. Ask me no more. I will return in brief space."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So speaking, she wrapped herself in her mantle, and saying to the old
+      woman whom she passed in the outer room that she was going to evening
+      prayer, she left the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile her father had reached once more the laboratory, where he found
+      the accomplices of his intended guilt. "Has the sweet bird sipped?" said
+      Varney, with half a smile; while the astrologer put the same question with
+      his eyes, but spoke not a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She has not, nor she shall not from my hands," replied Foster; "would you
+      have me do murder in my daughter's presence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Wert thou not told, thou sullen and yet faint-hearted slave," answered
+      Varney, with bitterness, "that no MURDER as thou callest it, with that
+      staring look and stammering tone, is designed in the matter? Wert thou not
+      told that a brief illness, such as woman puts on in very wantonness, that
+      she may wear her night-gear at noon, and lie on a settle when she should
+      mind her domestic business, is all here aimed at? Here is a learned man
+      will swear it to thee by the key of the Castle of Wisdom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I swear it," said Alasco, "that the elixir thou hast there in the flask
+      will not prejudice life! I swear it by that immortal and indestructible
+      quintessence of gold, which pervades every substance in nature, though its
+      secret existence can be traced by him only to whom Trismegistus renders
+      the key of the Cabala."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An oath of force," said Varney. "Foster, thou wert worse than a pagan to
+      disbelieve it. Believe me, moreover, who swear by nothing but by my own
+      word, that if you be not conformable, there is no hope, no, not a glimpse
+      of hope, that this thy leasehold may be transmuted into a copyhold. Thus,
+      Alasco will leave your pewter artillery untransmigrated, and I, honest
+      Anthony, will still have thee for my tenant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not, gentlemen," said Foster, "where your designs tend to; but in
+      one thing I am bound up,&mdash;that, fall back fall edge, I will have one
+      in this place that may pray for me, and that one shall be my daughter. I
+      have lived ill, and the world has been too weighty with me; but she is as
+      innocent as ever she was when on her mother's lap, and she, at least,
+      shall have her portion in that happy City, whose walls are of pure gold,
+      and the foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, Tony," said Varney, "that were a paradise to thy heart's content.&mdash;Debate
+      the matter with him, Doctor Alasco; I will be with you anon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So speaking, Varney arose, and taking the flask from the table, he left
+      the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell thee, my son," said Alasco to Foster, as soon as Varney had left
+      them, "that whatever this bold and profligate railer may say of the mighty
+      science, in which, by Heaven's blessing, I have advanced so far that I
+      would not call the wisest of living artists my better or my teacher&mdash;I
+      say, howsoever yonder reprobate may scoff at things too holy to be
+      apprehended by men merely of carnal and evil thoughts, yet believe that
+      the city beheld by St. John, in that bright vision of the Christian
+      Apocalypse, that new Jerusalem, of which all Christian men hope to
+      partake, sets forth typically the discovery of the GRAND SECRET, whereby
+      the most precious and perfect of nature's works are elicited out of her
+      basest and most crude productions; just as the light and gaudy butterfly,
+      the most beautiful child of the summer's breeze, breaks forth from the
+      dungeon of a sordid chrysalis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Master Holdforth said nought of this exposition," said Foster doubtfully;
+      "and moreover, Doctor Alasco, the Holy Writ says that the gold and
+      precious stones of the Holy City are in no sort for those who work
+      abomination, or who frame lies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, my son," said the Doctor, "and what is your inference from thence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That those," said Foster, "who distil poisons, and administer them in
+      secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeakable riches."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are to distinguish, my son," replied the alchemist, "betwixt that
+      which is necessarily evil in its progress and in its end also, and that
+      which, being evil, is, nevertheless, capable of working forth good. If, by
+      the death of one person, the happy period shall be brought nearer to us,
+      in which all that is good shall be attained, by wishing its presence&mdash;all
+      that is evil escaped, by desiring its absence&mdash;in which sickness, and
+      pain, and sorrow shall be the obedient servants of human wisdom, and made
+      to fly at the slightest signal of a sage&mdash;in which that which is now
+      richest and rarest shall be within the compass of every one who shall be
+      obedient to the voice of wisdom&mdash;when the art of healing shall be
+      lost and absorbed in the one universal medicine when sages shall become
+      monarchs of the earth, and death itself retreat before their frown,&mdash;if
+      this blessed consummation of all things can be hastened by the slight
+      circumstance that a frail, earthly body, which must needs partake
+      corruption, shall be consigned to the grave a short space earlier than in
+      the course of nature, what is such a sacrifice to the advancement of the
+      holy Millennium?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Millennium is the reign of the Saints," said Foster, somewhat doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say it is the reign of the Sages, my son," answered Alasco; "or rather
+      the reign of Wisdom itself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exercising night,"
+      said Foster; "but he says your doctrine is heterodox, and a damnable and
+      false exposition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He is in the bonds of ignorance, my son," answered Alasco, "and as yet
+      burning bricks in Egypt; or, at best, wandering in the dry desert of
+      Sinai. Thou didst ill to speak to such a man of such matters. I will,
+      however, give thee proof, and that shortly, which I will defy that peevish
+      divine to confute, though he should strive with me as the magicians strove
+      with Moses before King Pharaoh. I will do projection in thy presence, my
+      son,&mdash;in thy very presence&mdash;and thine eyes shall witness the
+      truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stick to that, learned sage," said Varney, who at this moment entered the
+      apartment; "if he refuse the testimony of thy tongue, yet how shall he
+      deny that of his own eyes?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney!" said the adept&mdash;"Varney already returned! Hast thou&mdash;"
+      he stopped short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have I done mine errand, thou wouldst say?" replied Varney. "I have! And
+      thou," he added, showing more symptoms of interest than he had hitherto
+      exhibited, "art thou sure thou hast poured forth neither more nor less
+      than the just measure?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," replied the alchemist, "as sure as men can be in these nice
+      proportions, for there is diversity of constitutions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then," said Varney, "I fear nothing. I know thou wilt not go a step
+      farther to the devil than thou art justly considered for&mdash;thou wert
+      paid to create illness, and wouldst esteem it thriftless prodigality to do
+      murder at the same price. Come, let us each to our chamber we shall see
+      the event to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What didst thou do to make her swallow it?" said Foster, shuddering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing," answered Varney, "but looked on her with that aspect which
+      governs madmen, women, and children. They told me in St. Luke's Hospital
+      that I have the right look for overpowering a refractory patient. The
+      keepers made me their compliments on't; so I know how to win my bread when
+      my court-favour fails me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And art thou not afraid," said Foster, "lest the dose be
+      disproportioned?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If so," replied Varney, "she will but sleep the sounder, and the fear of
+      that shall not break my rest. Good night, my masters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthony Foster groaned heavily, and lifted up his hands and eyes. The
+      alchemist intimated his purpose to continue some experiment of high import
+      during the greater part of the night, and the others separated to their
+      places of repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Now God be good to me in this wild pilgrimage!
+     All hope in human aid I cast behind me.
+     Oh, who would be a woman?&mdash;who that fool,
+     A weeping, pining, faithful, loving woman?
+     She hath hard measure still where she hopes kindest,
+     And all her bounties only make ingrates.     LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The summer evening was closed, and Janet, just when her longer stay might
+      have occasioned suspicion and inquiry in that zealous household, returned
+      to Cumnor Place, and hastened to the apartment in which she had left her
+      lady. She found her with her head resting on her arms, and these crossed
+      upon a table which stood before her. As Janet came in, she neither looked
+      up nor stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her faithful attendant ran to her mistress with the speed of lightning,
+      and rousing her at the same time with her hand, conjured the Countess, in
+      the most earnest manner, to look up and say what thus affected her. The
+      unhappy lady raised her head accordingly, and looking on her attendant
+      with a ghastly eye, and cheek as pale as clay&mdash;"Janet," she said, "I
+      have drunk it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "God be praised!" said Janet hastily&mdash;"I mean, God be praised that it
+      is no worse; the potion will not harm you. Rise, shake this lethargy from
+      your limbs, and this despair from your mind."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Janet," repeated the Countess again, "disturb me not&mdash;leave me at
+      peace&mdash;let life pass quietly. I am poisoned."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are not, my dearest lady," answered the maiden eagerly. "What you
+      have swallowed cannot injure you, for the antidote has been taken before
+      it, and I hastened hither to tell you that the means of escape are open to
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Escape!" exclaimed the lady, as she raised herself hastily in her chair,
+      while light returned to her eye and life to her cheek; "but ah! Janet, it
+      comes too late."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, dearest lady. Rise, take mine arm, walk through the apartment;
+      let not fancy do the work of poison! So; feel you not now that you are
+      possessed of the full use of your limbs?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The torpor seems to diminish," said the Countess, as, supported by Janet,
+      she walked to and fro in the apartment; "but is it then so, and have I not
+      swallowed a deadly draught? Varney was here since thou wert gone, and
+      commanded me, with eyes in which I read my fate, to swallow yon horrible
+      drug. O Janet! it must be fatal; never was harmless draught served by such
+      a cup-bearer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He did not deem it harmless, I fear," replied the maiden; "but God
+      confounds the devices of the wicked. Believe me, as I swear by the dear
+      Gospel in which we trust, your life is safe from his practice. Did you not
+      debate with him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The house was silent," answered the lady&mdash;"thou gone&mdash;no other
+      but he in the chamber&mdash;and he capable of every crime. I did but
+      stipulate he would remove his hateful presence, and I drank whatever he
+      offered.&mdash;But you spoke of escape, Janet; can I be so happy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you strong enough to bear the tidings, and make the effort?" said the
+      maiden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Strong!" answered the Countess. "Ask the hind, when the fangs of the
+      deerhound are stretched to gripe her, if she is strong enough to spring
+      over a chasm. I am equal to every effort that may relieve me from this
+      place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hear me, then," said Janet. "One whom I deem an assured friend of yours
+      has shown himself to me in various disguises, and sought speech of me,
+      which&mdash;for my mind was not clear on the matter until this evening&mdash;I
+      have ever declined. He was the pedlar who brought you goods&mdash;the
+      itinerant hawker who sold me books; whenever I stirred abroad I was sure
+      to see him. The event of this night determined me to speak with him. He
+      awaits even now at the postern gate of the park with means for your
+      flight.&mdash;But have you strength of body?&mdash;have you courage of
+      mind?&mdash;can you undertake the enterprise?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She that flies from death," said the lady, "finds strength of body&mdash;she
+      that would escape from shame lacks no strength of mind. The thoughts of
+      leaving behind me the villain who menaces both my life and honour would
+      give me strength to rise from my deathbed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In God's name, then, lady," said Janet, "I must bid you adieu, and to
+      God's charge I must commit you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Will you not fly with me, then, Janet?" said the Countess, anxiously. "Am
+      I to lose thee? Is this thy faithful service?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lady, I would fly with you as willingly as bird ever fled from cage, but
+      my doing so would occasion instant discovery and pursuit. I must remain,
+      and use means to disguise the truth for some time. May Heaven pardon the
+      falsehood, because of the necessity!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And am I then to travel alone with this stranger?" said the lady.
+      "Bethink thee, Janet, may not this prove some deeper and darker scheme to
+      separate me perhaps from you, who are my only friend?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, madam, do not suppose it," answered Janet readily; "the youth is an
+      honest youth in his purpose to you, and a friend to Master Tressilian,
+      under whose direction he is come hither."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If he be a friend of Tressilian," said the Countess, "I will commit
+      myself to his charge as to that of an angel sent from heaven; for than
+      Tressilian never breathed mortal man more free of whatever was base,
+      false, or selfish. He forgot himself whenever he could be of use to
+      others. Alas! and how was he requited?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With eager haste they collected the few necessaries which it was thought
+      proper the Countess should take with her, and which Janet, with speed and
+      dexterity, formed into a small bundle, not forgetting to add such
+      ornaments of intrinsic value as came most readily in her way, and
+      particularly a casket of jewels, which she wisely judged might prove of
+      service in some future emergency. The Countess of Leicester next changed
+      her dress for one which Janet usually wore upon any brief journey, for
+      they judged it necessary to avoid every external distinction which might
+      attract attention. Ere these preparations were fully made, the moon had
+      arisen in the summer heaven, and all in the mansion had betaken themselves
+      to rest, or at least to the silence and retirement of their chambers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no difficulty anticipated in escaping, whether from the house or
+      garden, provided only they could elude observation. Anthony Foster had
+      accustomed himself to consider his daughter as a conscious sinner might
+      regard a visible guardian angel, which, notwithstanding his guilt,
+      continued to hover around him; and therefore his trust in her knew no
+      bounds. Janet commanded her own motions during the daytime, and had a
+      master-key which opened the postern door of the park, so that she could go
+      to the village at pleasure, either upon the household affairs, which were
+      entirely confided to her management, or to attend her devotions at the
+      meeting-house of her sect. It is true the daughter of Foster was thus
+      liberally entrusted under the solemn condition that she should not avail
+      herself of these privileges to do anything inconsistent with the
+      safe-keeping of the Countess; for so her residence at Cumnor Place had
+      been termed, since she began of late to exhibit impatience of the
+      restrictions to which she was subjected. Nor is there reason to suppose
+      that anything short of the dreadful suspicions which the scene of that
+      evening had excited could have induced Janet to violate her word or
+      deceive her father's confidence. But from what she had witnessed, she now
+      conceived herself not only justified, but imperatively called upon, to
+      make her lady's safety the principal object of her care, setting all other
+      considerations aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fugitive Countess with her guide traversed with hasty steps the broken
+      and interrupted path, which had once been an avenue, now totally darkened
+      by the boughs of spreading trees which met above their head, and now
+      receiving a doubtful and deceiving light from the beams of the moon, which
+      penetrated where the axe had made openings in the wood. Their path was
+      repeatedly interrupted by felled trees, or the large boughs which had been
+      left on the ground till time served to make them into fagots and billets.
+      The inconvenience and difficulty attending these interruptions, the
+      breathless haste of the first part of their route, the exhausting
+      sensations of hope and fear, so much affected the Countess's strength,
+      that Janet was forced to propose that they should pause for a few minutes
+      to recover breath and spirits. Both therefore stood still beneath the
+      shadow of a huge old gnarled oak-tree, and both naturally looked back to
+      the mansion which they had left behind them, whose long, dark front was
+      seen in the gloomy distance, with its huge stacks of chimneys, turrets,
+      and clock-house, rising above the line of the roof, and definedly visible
+      against the pure azure blue of the summer sky. One light only twinkled
+      from the extended and shadowy mass, and it was placed so low that it
+      rather seemed to glimmer from the ground in front of the mansion than from
+      one of the windows. The Countess's terror was awakened. "They follow us!"
+      she said, pointing out to Janet the light which thus alarmed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Less agitated than her mistress, Janet perceived that the gleam was
+      stationary, and informed the Countess, in a whisper, that the light
+      proceeded from the solitary cell in which the alchemist pursued his occult
+      experiments. "He is of those," she added, "who sit up and watch by night
+      that they may commit iniquity. Evil was the chance which sent hither a man
+      whose mixed speech of earthly wealth and unearthly or superhuman knowledge
+      hath in it what does so especially captivate my poor father. Well spoke
+      the good Master Holdforth&mdash;and, methought, not without meaning that
+      those of our household should find therein a practical use. 'There be
+      those,' he said, 'and their number is legion, who will rather, like the
+      wicked Ahab, listen to the dreams of the false prophet Zedekiah, than to
+      the words of him by whom the Lord has spoken.' And he further insisted&mdash;'Ah,
+      my brethren, there be many Zedekiahs among you&mdash;men that promise you
+      the light of their carnal knowledge, so you will surrender to them that of
+      your heavenly understanding. What are they better than the tyrant Naas,
+      who demanded the right eye of those who were subjected to him?' And
+      further he insisted&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is uncertain how long the fair Puritan's memory might have supported
+      her in the recapitulation of Master Holdforth's discourse; but the
+      Countess now interrupted her, and assured her she was so much recovered
+      that she could now reach the postern without the necessity of a second
+      delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set out accordingly, and performed the second part of their journey
+      with more deliberation, and of course more easily, than the first hasty
+      commencement. This gave them leisure for reflection; and Janet now, for
+      the first time, ventured to ask her lady which way she proposed to direct
+      her flight. Receiving no immediate answer&mdash;for, perhaps, in the
+      confusion of her mind this very obvious subject of deliberation had not
+      occurred to the Countess&mdash;-Janet ventured to add, "Probably to your
+      father's house, where you are sure of safety and protection?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Janet," said the lady mournfully; "I left Lidcote Hall while my heart
+      was light and my name was honourable, and I will not return thither till
+      my lord's permission and public acknowledgment of our marriage restore me
+      to my native home with all the rank and honour which he has bestowed on
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And whither will you, then, madam?" said Janet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To Kenilworth, girl," said the Countess, boldly and freely. "I will see
+      these revels&mdash;these princely revels&mdash;the preparation for which
+      makes the land ring from side to side. Methinks, when the Queen of England
+      feasts within my husband's halls, the Countess of Leicester should be no
+      unbeseeming guest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I pray God you may be a welcome one!" said Janet hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You abuse my situation, Janet," said the Countess, angrily, "and you
+      forget your own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do neither, dearest madam," said the sorrowful maiden; "but have you
+      forgotten that the noble Earl has given such strict charges to keep your
+      marriage secret, that he may preserve his court-favour? and can you think
+      that your sudden appearance at his castle, at such a juncture, and in such
+      a presence, will be acceptable to him?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou thinkest I would disgrace him," said the Countess; "nay, let go my
+      arm, I can walk without aid and work without counsel."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be not angry with me, lady," said Janet meekly, "and let me still support
+      you; the road is rough, and you are little accustomed to walk in
+      darkness."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you deem me not so mean as may disgrace my husband," said the
+      Countess, in the same resentful tone, "you suppose my Lord of Leicester
+      capable of abetting, perhaps of giving aim and authority to, the base
+      proceedings of your father and Varney, whose errand I will do to the good
+      Earl."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For God's sake, madam, spare my father in your report," said Janet; "let
+      my services, however poor, be some atonement for his errors!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I were most unjust, dearest Janet, were it otherwise," said the Countess,
+      resuming at once the fondness and confidence of her manner towards her
+      faithful attendant, "No, Janet, not a word of mine shall do your father
+      prejudice. But thou seest, my love, I have no desire but to throw my self
+      on my husband's protection. I have left the abode he assigned for me,
+      because of the villainy of the persons by whom I was surrounded; but I
+      will disobey his commands in no other particular. I will appeal to him
+      alone&mdash;I will be protected by him alone; to no other, than at his
+      pleasure, have I or will I communicate the secret union which combines our
+      hearts and our destinies. I will see him, and receive from his own lips
+      the directions for my future conduct. Do not argue against my resolution,
+      Janet; you will only confirm me in it. And to own the truth, I am resolved
+      to know my fate at once, and from my husband's own mouth; and to seek him
+      at Kenilworth is the surest way to attain my purpose."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Janet hastily revolved in her mind the difficulties and
+      uncertainties attendant on the unfortunate lady's situation, she was
+      inclined to alter her first opinion, and to think, upon the whole, that
+      since the Countess had withdrawn herself from the retreat in which she had
+      been placed by her husband, it was her first duty to repair to his
+      presence, and possess him with the reasons for such conduct. She knew what
+      importance the Earl attached to the concealment of their marriage, and
+      could not but own, that by taking any step to make it public without his
+      permission, the Countess would incur, in a high degree, the indignation of
+      her husband. If she retired to her father's house without an explicit
+      avowal of her rank, her situation was likely greatly to prejudice her
+      character; and if she made such an avowal, it might occasion an
+      irreconcilable breach with her husband. At Kenilworth, again, she might
+      plead her cause with her husband himself, whom Janet, though distrusting
+      him more than the Countess did, believed incapable of being accessory to
+      the base and desperate means which his dependants, from whose power the
+      lady was now escaping, might resort to, in order to stifle her complaints
+      of the treatment she had received at their hands. But at the worst, and
+      were the Earl himself to deny her justice and protection, still at
+      Kenilworth, if she chose to make her wrongs public, the Countess might
+      have Tressilian for her advocate, and the Queen for her judge; for so much
+      Janet had learned in her short conference with Wayland. She was,
+      therefore, on the whole, reconciled to her lady's proposal of going
+      towards Kenilworth, and so expressed herself; recommending, however, to
+      the Countess the utmost caution in making her arrival known to her
+      husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hast thou thyself been cautious, Janet?" said the Countess; "this guide,
+      in whom I must put my confidence, hast thou not entrusted to him the
+      secret of my condition?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From me he has learned nothing," said Janet; "nor do I think that he
+      knows more than what the public in general believe of your situation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is that?" said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That you left your father's house&mdash;but I shall offend you again if I
+      go on," said Janet, interrupting herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, go on," said the Countess; "I must learn to endure the evil report
+      which my folly has brought upon me. They think, I suppose, that I have
+      left my father's house to follow lawless pleasure. It is an error which
+      will soon be removed&mdash;indeed it shall, for I will live with spotless
+      fame, or I shall cease to live.&mdash;I am accounted, then, the paramour
+      of my Leicester?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most men say of Varney," said Janet; "yet some call him only the
+      convenient cloak of his master's pleasures; for reports of the profuse
+      expense in garnishing yonder apartments have secretly gone abroad, and
+      such doings far surpass the means of Varney. But this latter opinion is
+      little prevalent; for men dare hardly even hint suspicion when so high a
+      name is concerned, lest the Star Chamber should punish them for scandal of
+      the nobility."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They do well to speak low," said the Countess, "who would mention the
+      illustrious Dudley as the accomplice of such a wretch as Varney.&mdash;We
+      have reached the postern. Ah! Janet, I must bid thee farewell! Weep not,
+      my good girl," said she, endeavouring to cover her own reluctance to part
+      with her faithful attendant under an attempt at playfulness; "and against
+      we meet again, reform me, Janet, that precise ruff of thine for an open
+      rabatine of lace and cut work, that will let men see thou hast a fair
+      neck; and that kirtle of Philippine chency, with that bugle lace which
+      befits only a chambermaid, into three-piled velvet and cloth of gold&mdash;thou
+      wilt find plenty of stuffs in my chamber, and I freely bestow them on you.
+      Thou must be brave, Janet; for though thou art now but the attendant of a
+      distressed and errant lady, who is both nameless and fameless, yet, when
+      we meet again, thou must be dressed as becomes the gentlewoman nearest in
+      love and in service to the first Countess in England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, may God grant it, dear lady!" said Janet&mdash;"not that I may go
+      with gayer apparel, but that we may both wear our kirtles over lighter
+      hearts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the lock of the postern door had, after some hard wrenching,
+      yielded to the master-key; and the Countess, not without internal
+      shuddering, saw herself beyond the walls which her husband's strict
+      commands had assigned to her as the boundary of her walks. Waiting with
+      much anxiety for their appearance, Wayland Smith stood at some distance,
+      shrouding himself behind a hedge which bordered the high-road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is all safe?" said Janet to him anxiously, as he approached them with
+      caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All," he replied; "but I have been unable to procure a horse for the
+      lady. Giles Gosling, the cowardly hilding, refused me one on any terms
+      whatever, lest, forsooth, he should suffer. But no matter; she must ride
+      on my palfrey, and I must walk by her side until I come by another horse.
+      There will be no pursuit, if you, pretty Mistress Janet, forget not thy
+      lesson."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No more than the wise widow of Tekoa forgot the words which Joab put into
+      her mouth," answered Janet. "Tomorrow, I say that my lady is unable to
+      rise."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay; and that she hath aching and heaviness of the head a throbbing at the
+      heart, and lists not to be disturbed. Fear not; they will take the hint,
+      and trouble thee with few questions&mdash;they understand the disease."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But," said the lady, "My absence must be soon discovered, and they will
+      murder her in revenge. I will rather return than expose her to such
+      danger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be at ease on my account, madam," said Janet; "I would you were as sure
+      of receiving the favour you desire from those to whom you must make
+      appeal, as I am that my father, however angry, will suffer no harm to
+      befall me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess was now placed by Wayland upon his horse, around the saddle
+      of which he had placed his cloak, so folded as to make her a commodious
+      seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Adieu, and may the blessing of God wend with you!" said Janet, again
+      kissing her mistress's hand, who returned her benediction with a mute
+      caress. They then tore themselves asunder, and Janet, addressing Wayland,
+      exclaimed, "May Heaven deal with you at your need, as you are true or
+      false to this most injured and most helpless lady!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amen! dearest Janet," replied Wayland; "and believe me, I will so acquit
+      myself of my trust as may tempt even your pretty eyes, saintlike as they
+      are, to look less scornfully on me when we next meet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter part of this adieu was whispered into Janet's ear and although
+      she made no reply to it directly, yet her manner, influenced, no doubt, by
+      her desire to leave every motive in force which could operate towards her
+      mistress's safety, did not discourage the hope which Wayland's words
+      expressed. She re-entered the postern door, and locked it behind her;
+      while, Wayland taking the horse's bridle in his hand, and walking close by
+      its head, they began in silence their dubious and moonlight journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Wayland Smith used the utmost dispatch which he could make, yet
+      this mode of travelling was so slow, that when morning began to dawn
+      through the eastern mist, he found himself no farther than about ten miles
+      distant from Cumnor. "Now, a plague upon all smooth-spoken hosts!" said
+      Wayland, unable longer to suppress his mortification and uneasiness. "Had
+      the false loon, Giles Gosling, but told me plainly two days since that I
+      was to reckon nought upon him, I had shifted better for myself. But your
+      hosts have such a custom of promising whatever is called for that it is
+      not till the steed is to be shod you find they are out of iron. Had I but
+      known, I could have made twenty shifts; nay, for that matter, and in so
+      good a cause, I would have thought little to have prigged a prancer from
+      the next common&mdash;it had but been sending back the brute to the
+      headborough. The farcy and the founders confound every horse in the
+      stables of the Black Bear!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady endeavoured to comfort her guide, observing that the dawn would
+      enable him to make more speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, madam," he replied; "but then it will enable other folk to take
+      note of us, and that may prove an ill beginning of our journey. I had not
+      cared a spark from anvil about the matter had we been further advanced on
+      our way. But this Berkshire has been notoriously haunted, ever since I
+      knew the country, with that sort of malicious elves who sit up late and
+      rise early for no other purpose than to pry into other folk's affairs. I
+      have been endangered by them ere now. But do not fear," he added, "good
+      madam; for wit, meeting with opportunity, will not miss to find a salve
+      for every sore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alarms of her guide made more impression on the Countess's mind than
+      the comfort which he judged fit to administer along with it. She looked
+      anxiously around her, and as the shadows withdrew from the landscape, and
+      the heightening glow of the eastern sky promised the speedy rise of the
+      sun, expected at every turn that the increasing light would expose them to
+      the view of the vengeful pursuers, or present some dangerous and
+      insurmountable obstacle to the prosecution of their journey. Wayland Smith
+      perceived her uneasiness, and, displeased with himself for having given
+      her cause of alarm, strode on with affected alacrity, now talking to the
+      horse as one expert in the language of the stable, now whistling to
+      himself low and interrupted snatches of tunes, and now assuring the lady
+      there was no danger, while at the same time he looked sharply around to
+      see that there was nothing in sight which might give the lie to his words
+      while they were issuing from his mouth. Thus did they journey on, until an
+      unexpected incident gave them the means of continuing their pilgrimage
+      with more speed and convenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     RICHARD. A horse!&mdash;A horse!&mdash;my kingdom for a horse!
+     CATESBY......My lord, I'll help you to a horse.  &mdash;RICHARD III.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Our travellers were in the act of passing a small thicket of trees close
+      by the roadside, when the first living being presented himself whom they
+      had seen since their departure from Cumnor Place. This was a stupid lout,
+      seemingly a farmer's boy, in a grey jerkin, with his head bare, his hose
+      about his heels, and huge startups upon his feet. He held by the bridle
+      what of all things they most wanted&mdash;a palfrey, namely, with a
+      side-saddle, and all other garniture for a woman's mounting; and he hailed
+      Wayland Smith with, "Zur, be ye zure the party?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, that I be, my lad," answered Wayland, without an instant's
+      hesitation; and it must be owned that consciences trained in a stricter
+      school of morality might have given way to an occasion so tempting. While
+      he spoke, he caught the rein out of the boy's hand, and almost at the same
+      time helped down the Countess from his own horse, and aided her to mount
+      on that which chance had thus presented for her acceptance. Indeed, so
+      naturally did the whole take place, that the Countess, as it afterwards
+      appeared, never suspected but that the horse had been placed there to meet
+      them by the precaution of the guide or some of his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad, however, who was thus hastily dispossessed of his charge, began
+      to stare hard, and scratch his head, as if seized with some qualms of
+      conscience for delivering up the animal on such brief explanation. "I be
+      right zure thou be'st the party," said he, muttering to himself, "but thou
+      shouldst ha zaid BEANS, thou knawest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said Wayland, speaking at a venture; "and thou BACON, thou
+      knowest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Noa, noa," said the lad; "bide ye&mdash;bide ye&mdash;it was PEAS a
+      should ha said."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well, well," answered Wayland, "Peas be it, a God's name! though Bacon
+      were the better password."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And being by this time mounted on his own horse, he caught the rein of the
+      palfrey from the uncertain hold of the hesitating young boor, flung him a
+      small piece of money, and made amends for lost time by riding briskly off
+      without further parley. The lad was still visible from the hill up which
+      they were riding, and Wayland, as he looked back, beheld him standing with
+      his fingers in his hair as immovable as a guide-post, and his head turned
+      in the direction in which they were escaping from him. At length, just as
+      they topped the hill, he saw the clown stoop to lift up the silver groat
+      which his benevolence had imparted. "Now this is what I call a Godsend,"
+      said Wayland; "this is a bonny, well-ridden bit of a going thing, and it
+      will carry us so far till we get you as well mounted, and then we will
+      send it back time enough to satisfy the Hue and Cry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was deceived in his expectations; and fate, which seemed at first
+      to promise so fairly, soon threatened to turn the incident which he thus
+      gloried in into the cause of their utter ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had not ridden a short mile from the place where they left the lad
+      before they heard a man's voice shouting on the wind behind them,
+      "Robbery! robbery!&mdash;Stop thief!" and similar exclamations, which
+      Wayland's conscience readily assured him must arise out of the transaction
+      to which he had been just accessory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I had better have gone barefoot all my life," he said; "it is the Hue and
+      Cry, and I am a lost man. Ah! Wayland, Wayland, many a time thy father
+      said horse-flesh would be the death of thee. Were I once safe among the
+      horse-coursers in Smithfield, or Turnbull Street, they should have leave
+      to hang me as high as St. Paul's if I e'er meddled more with nobles,
+      knights, or gentlewomen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst these dismal reflections, he turned his head repeatedly to see by
+      whom he was chased, and was much comforted when he could only discover a
+      single rider, who was, however, well mounted, and came after them at a
+      speed which left them no chance of escaping, even had the lady's strength
+      permitted her to ride as fast as her palfrey might have been able to
+      gallop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There may be fair play betwixt us, sure," thought Wayland, "where there
+      is but one man on each side, and yonder fellow sits on his horse more like
+      a monkey than a cavalier. Pshaw! if it come to the worse, it will be easy
+      unhorsing him. Nay, 'snails! I think his horse will take the matter in his
+      own hand, for he has the bridle betwixt his teeth. Oons, what care I for
+      him?" said he, as the pursuer drew yet nearer; "it is but the little
+      animal of a mercer from Abingdon, when all is over."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even so it was, as the experienced eye of Wayland had descried at a
+      distance. For the valiant mercer's horse, which was a beast of mettle,
+      feeling himself put to his speed, and discerning a couple of horses riding
+      fast at some hundred yards' distance before him, betook himself to the
+      road with such alacrity as totally deranged the seat of his rider, who not
+      only came up with, but passed at full gallop, those whom he had been
+      pursuing, pulling the reins with all his might, and ejaculating, "Stop!
+      stop!" an interjection which seemed rather to regard his own palfrey than
+      what seamen call "the chase." With the same involuntary speed, he shot
+      ahead (to use another nautical phrase) about a furlong ere he was able to
+      stop and turn his horse, and then rode back towards our travellers,
+      adjusting, as well as he could, his disordered dress, resettling himself
+      in the saddle, and endeavouring to substitute a bold and martial frown for
+      the confusion and dismay which sat upon his visage during his involuntary
+      career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland had just time to caution the lady not to be alarmed, adding, "This
+      fellow is a gull, and I will use him as such."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the mercer had recovered breath and audacity enough to confront them,
+      he ordered Wayland, in a menacing tone, to deliver up his palfrey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How?" said the smith, in King Cambyses' vein, "are we commanded to stand
+      and deliver on the king's highway? Then out, Excalibur, and tell this
+      knight of prowess that dire blows must decide between us!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Haro and help, and hue and cry, every true man!" said the mercer. "I am
+      withstood in seeking to recover mine own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou swearest thy gods in vain, foul paynim," said Wayland, "for I will
+      through with mine purpose were death at the end on't. Nevertheless, know,
+      thou false man of frail cambric and ferrateen, that I am he, even the
+      pedlar, whom thou didst boast to meet on Maiden Castle moor, and despoil
+      of his pack; wherefore betake thee to thy weapons presently."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I spoke but in jest, man," said Goldthred; "I am an honest shopkeeper and
+      citizen, who scorns to leap forth on any man from behind a hedge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, by my faith, most puissant mercer," answered Wayland, "I am sorry
+      for my vow, which was, that wherever I met thee I would despoil thee of
+      thy palfrey, and bestow it upon my leman, unless thou couldst defend it by
+      blows of force. But the vow is passed and registered, and all I can do for
+      thee is to leave the horse at Donnington, in the nearest hostelry."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But I tell thee, friend," said the mercer, "it is the very horse on which
+      I was this day to carry Jane Thackham, of Shottesbrok, as far as the
+      parish church yonder, to become Dame Goldthred. She hath jumped out of the
+      shot-window of old Gaffer Thackham's grange; and lo ye, yonder she stands
+      at the place where she should have met the palfrey, with her camlet
+      riding-cloak and ivory-handled whip, like a picture of Lot's wife. I pray
+      you, in good terms, let me have back the palfrey."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Grieved am I," said Wayland, "as much for the fair damsel as for thee,
+      most noble imp of muslin. But vows must have their course; thou wilt find
+      the palfrey at the Angel yonder at Donnington. It is all I may do for thee
+      with a safe conscience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To the devil with thy conscience!" said the dismayed mercer. "Wouldst
+      thou have a bride walk to church on foot?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou mayest take her on thy crupper, Sir Goldthred," answered Wayland;
+      "it will take down thy steed's mettle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And how if you&mdash;if you forget to leave my horse, as you propose?"
+      said Goldthred, not without hesitation, for his soul was afraid within
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My pack shall be pledged for it&mdash;yonder it lies with Giles Gosling,
+      in his chamber with the damasked leathern hangings, stuffed full with
+      velvet, single, double, treble-piled&mdash;rash-taffeta, and parapa&mdash;shag,
+      damask, and mocado, plush, and grogram&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hold! hold!" exclaimed the mercer; "nay, if there be, in truth and
+      sincerity, but the half of these wares&mdash;but if ever I trust bumpkin
+      with bonny Bayard again!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As you list for that, good Master Goldthred, and so good morrow to you&mdash;and
+      well parted," he added, riding on cheerfully with the lady, while the
+      discountenanced mercer rode back much slower than he came, pondering what
+      excuse he should make to the disappointed bride, who stood waiting for her
+      gallant groom in the midst of the king's highway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Methought," said the lady, as they rode on, "yonder fool stared at me as
+      if he had some remembrance of me; yet I kept my muffler as high as I
+      might."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I thought so," said Wayland, "I would ride back and cut him over the
+      pate; there would be no fear of harming his brains, for he never had so
+      much as would make pap to a sucking gosling. We must now push on, however,
+      and at Donnington we will leave the oaf's horse, that he may have no
+      further temptation to pursue us, and endeavour to assume such a change of
+      shape as may baffle his pursuit if he should persevere in it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The travellers reached Donnington without further alarm, where it became
+      matter of necessity that the Countess should enjoy two or three hours'
+      repose, during which Wayland disposed himself, with equal address and
+      alacrity, to carry through those measures on which the safety of their
+      future journey seemed to depend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Exchanging his pedlar's gaberdine for a smock-frock, he carried the
+      palfrey of Goldthred to the Angel Inn, which was at the other end of the
+      village from that where our travellers had taken up their quarters. In the
+      progress of the morning, as he travelled about his other business, he saw
+      the steed brought forth and delivered to the cutting mercer himself, who,
+      at the head of a valorous posse of the Hue and Cry, came to rescue, by
+      force of arms, what was delivered to him without any other ransom than the
+      price of a huge quantity of ale, drunk out by his assistants, thirsty, it
+      would seem, with their walk, and concerning the price of which Master
+      Goldthred had a fierce dispute with the headborough, whom he had summoned
+      to aid him in raising the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made this act of prudent as well as just restitution, Wayland
+      procured such change of apparel for the lady, as well as himself, as gave
+      them both the appearance of country people of the better class; it being
+      further resolved, that in order to attract the less observation, she
+      should pass upon the road for the sister of her guide. A good but not a
+      gay horse, fit to keep pace with his own, and gentle enough for a lady's
+      use, completed the preparations for the journey; for making which, and for
+      other expenses, he had been furnished with sufficient funds by Tressilian.
+      And thus, about noon, after the Countess had been refreshed by the sound
+      repose of several hours, they resumed their journey, with the purpose of
+      making the best of their way to Kenilworth, by Coventry and Warwick. They
+      were not, however, destined to travel far without meeting some cause of
+      apprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is necessary to premise that the landlord of the inn had informed them
+      that a jovial party, intended, as he understood, to present some of the
+      masques or mummeries which made a part of the entertainment with which the
+      Queen was usually welcomed on the royal Progresses, had left the village
+      of Donnington an hour or two before them in order to proceed to
+      Kenilworth. Now it had occurred to Wayland that, by attaching themselves
+      in some sort to this group as soon as they should overtake them on the
+      road, they would be less likely to attract notice than if they continued
+      to travel entirely by themselves. He communicated his idea to the
+      Countess, who, only anxious to arrive at Kenilworth without interruption,
+      left him free to choose the manner in which this was to be accomplished.
+      They pressed forward their horses, therefore, with the purpose of
+      overtaking the party of intended revellers, and making the journey in
+      their company; and had just seen the little party, consisting partly of
+      riders, partly of people on foot, crossing the summit of a gentle hill, at
+      about half a mile's distance, and disappearing on the other side, when
+      Wayland, who maintained the most circumspect observation of all that met
+      his eye in every direction, was aware that a rider was coming up behind
+      them on a horse of uncommon action, accompanied by a serving-man, whose
+      utmost efforts were unable to keep up with his master's trotting hackney,
+      and who, therefore, was fain to follow him at a hand gallop. Wayland
+      looked anxiously back at these horsemen, became considerably disturbed in
+      his manner, looked back again, and became pale, as he said to the lady,
+      "That is Richard Varney's trotting gelding; I would know him among a
+      thousand nags. This is a worse business than meeting the mercer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Draw your sword," answered the lady, "and pierce my bosom with it, rather
+      than I should fall into his hands!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would rather by a thousand times," answered Wayland, "pass it through
+      his body, or even mine own. But to say truth, fighting is not my best
+      point, though I can look on cold iron like another when needs must be. And
+      indeed, as for my sword&mdash;(put on, I pray you)&mdash;it is a poor
+      Provant rapier, and I warrant you he has a special Toledo. He has a
+      serving-man, too, and I think it is the drunken ruffian Lambourne! upon
+      the horse on which men say&mdash;(I pray you heartily to put on)&mdash;he
+      did the great robbery of the west country grazier. It is not that I fear
+      either Varney or Lambourne in a good cause&mdash;(your palfrey will go yet
+      faster if you urge him)&mdash;but yet&mdash;(nay, I pray you let him not
+      break off into a gallop, lest they should see we fear them, and give chase&mdash;keep
+      him only at the full trot)&mdash;but yet, though I fear them not, I would
+      we were well rid of them, and that rather by policy than by violence.
+      Could we once reach the party before us, we may herd among them, and pass
+      unobserved, unless Varney be really come in express pursuit of us, and
+      then, happy man be his dole!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained his horse,
+      desirous to maintain the fleetest pace that was consistent with the idea
+      of an ordinary journey on the road, but to avoid such rapidity of movement
+      as might give rise to suspicion that they were flying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At such a pace they ascended the gentle hill we have mentioned, and
+      looking from the top, had the pleasure to see that the party which had
+      left Donnington before them were in the little valley or bottom on the
+      other side, where the road was traversed by a rivulet, beside which was a
+      cottage or two. In this place they seemed to have made a pause, which gave
+      Wayland the hope of joining them, and becoming a part of their company,
+      ere Varney should overtake them. He was the more anxious, as his
+      companion, though she made no complaints, and expressed no fear, began to
+      look so deadly pale that he was afraid she might drop from her horse.
+      Notwithstanding this symptom of decaying strength, she pushed on her
+      palfrey so briskly that they joined the party in the bottom of the valley
+      ere Varney appeared on the top of the gentle eminence which they had
+      descended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They found the company to which they meant to associate themselves in
+      great disorder. The women with dishevelled locks, and looks of great
+      importance, ran in and out of one of the cottages, and the men stood
+      around holding the horses, and looking silly enough, as is usual in cases
+      where their assistance is not wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland and his charge paused, as if out of curiosity, and then gradually,
+      without making any inquiries, or being asked any questions, they mingled
+      with the group, as if they had always made part of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had not stood there above five minutes, anxiously keeping as much to
+      the side of the road as possible, so as to place the other travellers
+      betwixt them and Varney, when Lord Leicester's master of the horse,
+      followed by Lambourne, came riding fiercely down the hill, their horses'
+      flanks and the rowels of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate at
+      which they travelled. The appearance of the stationary group around the
+      cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to protect their masking
+      dresses, having their light cart for transporting their scenery, and
+      carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more easy
+      conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and purpose of the
+      company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are revellers," said Varney, "designing for Kenilworth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "RECTE QUIDEM, DOMINE SPECTATISSIME," answered one of the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why the devil stand you here?" said Varney, "when your utmost
+      dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time? The Queen dines at
+      Warwick to-morrow, and you loiter here, ye knaves."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I very truth, sir," said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a vizard
+      with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet hue, having,
+      moreover, a black serge jerkin drawn close to his body by lacing,
+      garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped as to resemble cloven
+      feet&mdash;"in very truth, sir, and you are in the right on't. It is my
+      father the Devil, who, being taken in labour, has delayed our present
+      purpose, by increasing our company with an imp too many."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The devil he has!" answered Varney, whose laugh, however, never exceeded
+      a sarcastic smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masker who spoke first;
+      "Our major devil&mdash;for this is but our minor one&mdash;is even now at
+      LUCINA, FER OPEM, within that very TUGURIUM."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Saint George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a kinsman of the
+      fiend in the straw, a most comical chance!" said Varney. "How sayest thou,
+      Lambourne, wilt thou stand godfather for the nonce? If the devil were to
+      choose a gossip, I know no one more fit for the office."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Saving always when my betters are in presence," said Lambourne, with the
+      civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to be so indispensable
+      that his jest will be permitted to pass muster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what is the name of this devil, or devil's dam, who has timed her
+      turns so strangely?" said Varney. "We can ill afford to spare any of our
+      actors."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "GAUDET NOMINE SIBYLLAE," said the first speaker; "she is called Sibyl
+      Laneham, wife of Master Robert Laneham&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Clerk to the Council-chamber door," said Varney; "why, she is
+      inexcusable, having had experience how to have ordered her matters better.
+      But who were those, a man and a woman, I think, who rode so hastily up the
+      hill before me even now? Do they belong to your company?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland was about to hazard a reply to this alarming inquiry, when the
+      little diablotin again thrust in his oar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So please you," he said, coming close up to Varney, and speaking so as
+      not to be overheard by his companions, "the man was our devil major, who
+      has tricks enough to supply the lack of a hundred such as Dame Laneham;
+      and the woman, if you please, is the sage person whose assistance is most
+      particularly necessary to our distressed comrade."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, what! you have got the wise woman, then?" said Varney. "Why, truly,
+      she rode like one bound to a place where she was needed. And you have a
+      spare limb of Satan, besides, to supply the place of Mistress Laneham?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, sir," said the boy; "they are not so scarce in this world as your
+      honour's virtuous eminence would suppose. This master-fiend shall spit a
+      few flashes of fire, and eruct a volume or two of smoke on the spot, if it
+      will do you pleasure&mdash;you would think he had AEtna in his abdomen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to witness his
+      performance," said Varney; "but here is something for you all to drink the
+      lucky hour&mdash;and so, as the play says, 'God be with Your labour!'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus speaking, he struck his horse with the spurs, and rode on his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne tarried a moment or two behind his master, and rummaged his
+      pouch for a piece of silver, which he bestowed on the communicative imp,
+      as he said, for his encouragement on his path to the infernal regions,
+      some sparks of whose fire, he said, he could discover flashing from him
+      already. Then having received the boy's thanks for his generosity he also
+      spurred his horse, and rode after his master as fast as the fire flashes
+      from flint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now," said the wily imp, sidling close up to Wayland's horse, and
+      cutting a gambol in the air which seemed to vindicate his title to
+      relationship with the prince of that element, "I have told them who YOU
+      are, do you in return tell me who I am?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Either Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland Smith, "or else an imp of the
+      devil in good earnest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast hit it," answered Dickie Sludge. "I am thine own
+      Flibbertigibbet, man; and I have broken forth of bounds, along with my
+      learned preceptor, as I told thee I would do, whether he would or not. But
+      what lady hast thou got with thee? I saw thou wert at fault the first
+      question was asked, and so I drew up for thy assistance. But I must know
+      all who she is, dear Wayland."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt know fifty finer things, my dear ingle," said Wayland; "but a
+      truce to thine inquiries just now. And since you are bound for Kenilworth,
+      thither will I too, even for the love of thy sweet face and waggish
+      company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shouldst have said my waggish face and sweet company," said Dickie;
+      "but how wilt thou travel with us&mdash;I mean in what character?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "E'en in that thou hast assigned me, to be sure&mdash;as a juggler; thou
+      knowest I am used to the craft," answered Wayland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but the lady?" answered Flibbertigibbet. "Credit me, I think she IS
+      one and thou art in a sea of troubles about her at this moment, as I can
+      perceive by thy fidgeting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, she, man!&mdash;she is a poor sister of mine," said Wayland; "she can
+      sing and play o' the lute would win the fish out o' the stream."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me hear her instantly," said the boy, "I love the lute rarely; I love
+      it of all things, though I never heard it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then how canst thou love it, Flibbertigibbet?" said Wayland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "As knights love ladies in old tales," answered Dickie&mdash;"on hearsay."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then love it on hearsay a little longer, till my sister is recovered from
+      the fatigue of her journey," said Wayland; muttering afterwards betwixt
+      his teeth, "The devil take the imp's curiosity! I must keep fair weather
+      with him, or we shall fare the worse."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then proceeded to state to Master Holiday his own talents as a juggler,
+      with those of his sister as a musician. Some proof of his dexterity was
+      demanded, which he gave in such a style of excellence, that, delighted at
+      obtaining such an accession to their party, they readily acquiesced in the
+      apology which he offered when a display of his sister's talents was
+      required. The new-comers were invited to partake of the refreshments with
+      which the party were provided; and it was with some difficulty that
+      Wayland Smith obtained an opportunity of being apart with his supposed
+      sister during the meal, of which interval he availed himself to entreat
+      her to forget for the present both her rank and her sorrows, and
+      condescend, as the most probable chance of remaining concealed, to mix in
+      the society of those with whom she was to travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess allowed the necessity of the case, and when they resumed
+      their journey, endeavoured to comply with her guide's advice, by
+      addressing herself to a female near her, and expressing her concern for
+      the woman whom they were thus obliged to leave behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, she is well attended, madam," replied the dame whom she addressed,
+      who, from her jolly and laughter-loving demeanour, might have been the
+      very emblem of the Wife of Bath; "and my gossip Laneham thinks as little
+      of these matters as any one. By the ninth day, an the revels last so long,
+      we shall have her with us at Kenilworth, even if she should travel with
+      her bantling on her back."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in this speech which took away all desire on the
+      Countess of Leicester's part to continue the conversation. But having
+      broken the charm by speaking to her fellow-traveller first, the good dame,
+      who was to play Rare Gillian of Croydon in one of the interludes, took
+      care that silence did not again settle on the journey, but entertained her
+      mute companion with a thousand anecdotes of revels, from the days of King
+      Harry downwards, with the reception given them by the great folk, and all
+      the names of those who played the principal characters; but ever
+      concluding with "they would be nothing to the princely pleasures of
+      Kenilworth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And when shall we reach Kenilworth? said the Countess, with an agitation
+      which she in vain attempted to conceal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We that have horses may, with late riding, get to Warwick to-night, and
+      Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles. But then we must wait
+      till the foot-people come up; although it is like my good Lord of
+      Leicester will have horses or light carriages to meet them, and bring them
+      up without being travel-toiled, which last is no good preparation, as you
+      may suppose, for dancing before your betters. And yet, Lord help me, I
+      have seen the day I would have tramped five leagues of lea-land, and
+      turned an my toe the whole evening after, as a juggler spins a pewter
+      platter on the point of a needle. But age has clawed me somewhat in his
+      clutch, as the song says; though, if I like the tune and like my partner,
+      I'll dance the hays yet with any merry lass in Warwickshire that writes
+      that unhappy figure four with a round O after it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Countess was overwhelmed with the garrulity of this good dame,
+      Wayland Smith, on his part, had enough to do to sustain and parry the
+      constant attacks made upon him by the indefatigable curiosity of his old
+      acquaintance Richard Sludge. Nature had given that arch youngster a prying
+      cast of disposition, which matched admirably with his sharp wit; the
+      former inducing him to plant himself as a spy on other people's affairs,
+      and the latter quality leading him perpetually to interfere, after he had
+      made himself master of that which concerned him not. He spent the livelong
+      day in attempting to peer under the Countess's muffler, and apparently
+      what he could there discern greatly sharpened his curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That sister of thine, Wayland," he said, "has a fair neck to have been
+      born in a smithy, and a pretty taper hand to have been used for twirling a
+      spindle&mdash;faith, I'll believe in your relationship when the crow's egg
+      is hatched into a cygnet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go to," said Wayland, "thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched for
+      thine assurance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well," said the imp, drawing off, "all I say is&mdash;remember you have
+      kept a secret from me, and if I give thee not a Roland for thine Oliver,
+      my name is not Dickon Sludge!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This threat, and the distance at which Hobgoblin kept from him for the
+      rest of the way, alarmed Wayland very much, and he suggested to his
+      pretended sister that, on pretext of weariness, she should express a
+      desire to stop two or three miles short of the fair town of Warwick,
+      promising to rejoin the troop in the morning. A small village inn afforded
+      them a resting-place, and it was with secret pleasure that Wayland saw the
+      whole party, including Dickon, pass on, after a courteous farewell, and
+      leave them behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To-morrow, madam," he said to his charge, "we will, with your leave,
+      again start early, and reach Kenilworth before the rout which are to
+      assemble there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess gave assent to the proposal of her faithful guide; but,
+      somewhat to his surprise, said nothing further on the subject, which left
+      Wayland under the disagreeable uncertainty whether or no she had formed
+      any plan for her own future proceedings, as he knew her situation demanded
+      circumspection, although he was but imperfectly acquainted with all its
+      peculiarities. Concluding, however, that she must have friends within the
+      castle, whose advice and assistance she could safely trust, he supposed
+      his task would be best accomplished by conducting her thither in safety,
+      agreeably to her repeated commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Hark, the bells summon, and the bugle calls,
+     But she the fairest answers not&mdash;the tide
+     Of nobles and of ladies throngs the halls,
+     But she the loveliest must in secret hide.
+     What eyes were thine, proud Prince, which in the gleam
+     Of yon gay meteors lost that better sense,
+     That o'er the glow-worm doth the star esteem,
+     And merit's modest blush o'er courtly insolence?
+     &mdash;THE GLASS SLIPPER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate Countess of Leicester had, from her infancy upwards, been
+      treated by those around her with indulgence as unbounded as injudicious.
+      The natural sweetness of her disposition had saved her from becoming
+      insolent and ill-humoured; but the caprice which preferred the handsome
+      and insinuating Leicester before Tressilian, of whose high honour and
+      unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm an opinion&mdash;that
+      fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, had its origin in the
+      mistaken kindness; that had spared her childhood the painful but most
+      necessary lesson of submission and self-command. From the same indulgence
+      it followed that she had only been accustomed to form and to express her
+      wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfilling them; and thus, at the
+      most momentous period of her life, she was alike destitute of presence of
+      mind, and of ability to form for herself any reasonable or prudent plan of
+      conduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with overwhelming force
+      on the morning which seemed to be the crisis of her fate. Overlooking
+      every intermediate consideration, she had only desired to be at
+      Kenilworth, and to approach her husband's presence; and now, when she was
+      in the vicinity of both, a thousand considerations arose at once upon her
+      mind, startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, some real, some
+      imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situation alike helpless
+      and destitute of aid and counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she was
+      altogether unable to attend Wayland's early summons. The trusty guide
+      became extremely distressed on the lady's account, and somewhat alarmed on
+      his own, and was on the point of going alone to Kenilworth, in the hope of
+      discovering Tressilian, and intimating to him the lady's approach, when
+      about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend her. He found her
+      dressed, and ready for resuming her journey, but with a paleness of
+      countenance which alarmed him for her health. She intimated her desire
+      that the horses might be got instantly ready, and resisted with impatience
+      her guide's request that she would take some refreshment before setting
+      forward. "I have had," she said, "a cup of water&mdash;the wretch who is
+      dragged to execution needs no stronger cordial, and that may serve me
+      which suffices for him. Do as I command you." Wayland Smith still
+      hesitated. "What would you have?" said she. "Have I not spoken plainly?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what is your further
+      purpose? I only wish to know, that I may guide myself by your wishes. The
+      whole country is afloat, and streaming towards the Castle of Kenilworth.
+      It will be difficult travelling thither, even if we had the necessary
+      passports for safe-conduct and free admittance; unknown and unfriended, we
+      may come by mishap. Your ladyship will forgive my speaking my poor mind&mdash;were
+      we not better try to find out the maskers, and again join ourselves with
+      them?" The Countess shook her head, and her guide proceeded, "Then I see
+      but one other remedy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps, that he should
+      thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask; "I believe thee
+      faithful&mdash;what wouldst thou counsel?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That I should warn Master Tressilian," said Wayland, "that you are in
+      this place. I am right certain he would get to horse with a few of Lord
+      Sussex's followers, and ensure your personal safety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is it to ME you advise," said the Countess, "to put myself under the
+      protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble Leicester?" Then,
+      seeing the surprise with which Wayland stared upon her, and afraid of
+      having too strongly intimated her interest in Leicester, she added, "And
+      for Tressilian, it must not be&mdash;mention not to him, I charge you, my
+      unhappy name; it would but double MY misfortunes, and involve HIM in
+      dangers beyond the power of rescue." She paused; but when she observed
+      that Wayland continued to look on her with that anxious and uncertain gaze
+      which indicated a doubt whether her brain was settled, she assumed an air
+      of composure, and added, "Do thou but guide me to Kenilworth Castle, good
+      fellow, and thy task is ended, since I will then judge what further is to
+      be done. Thou hast yet been true to me&mdash;here is something that will
+      make thee rich amends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone. Wayland looked
+      at it, hesitated a moment, and then returned it. "Not," he said, "that I
+      am above your kindness, madam, being but a poor fellow, who have been
+      forced, God help me! to live by worse shifts than the bounty of such a
+      person as you. But, as my old master the farrier used to say to his
+      customers, 'No cure, no pay.' We are not yet in Kenilworth Castle, and it
+      is time enough to discharge your guide, as they say, when you take your
+      boots off. I trust in God your ladyship is as well assured of fitting
+      reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certain of my best
+      endeavours to conduct you thither safely. I go to get the horses;
+      meantime, let me pray you once more, as your poor physician as well as
+      guide, to take some sustenance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will&mdash;I will," said the lady hastily. "Begone, begone instantly!&mdash;It
+      is in vain I assume audacity," said she, when he left the room; "even this
+      poor groom sees through my affectation of courage, and fathoms the very
+      ground of my fears."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some food, but
+      was compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even a single morsel
+      gave her so much uneasiness as amounted well-nigh to suffocation. A moment
+      afterwards the horses appeared at the latticed window. The lady mounted,
+      and found that relief from the free air and change of place which is
+      frequently experienced in similar circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It chanced well for the Countess's purpose that Wayland Smith, whose
+      previous wandering and unsettled life had made him acquainted with almost
+      all England, was intimate with all the byroads, as well as direct
+      communications, through the beautiful county of Warwick. For such and so
+      great was the throng which flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth,
+      to see the entry of Elizabeth into that splendid mansion of her prime
+      favourite, that the principal roads were actually blocked up and
+      interrupted, and it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travellers
+      could proceed on their journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of
+      those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which the
+      owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green
+      Cloth. The Earl of Leicester's household officers had been scouring the
+      country for the same purpose; and many of his friends and allies, both
+      near and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiating themselves by
+      sending large quantities of provisions and delicacies of all kinds, with
+      game in huge numbers, and whole tuns of the best liquors, foreign and
+      domestic. Thus the highroads were filled with droves of bullocks, sheep,
+      calves, and hogs, and choked with loaded wains, whose axle-trees cracked
+      under their burdens of wine-casks and hogsheads of ale, and huge hampers
+      of grocery goods, and slaughtered game, and salted provisions, and sacks
+      of flour. Perpetual stoppages took place as these wains became entangled;
+      and their rude drivers, swearing and brawling till their wild passions
+      were fully raised, began to debate precedence with their wagon-whips and
+      quarterstaves, which occasional riots were usually quieted by a purveyor,
+      deputy-marshal's man, or some other person in authority, breaking the
+      heads of both parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here were, besides, players and mummers, jugglers and showmen, of every
+      description, traversing in joyous bands the paths which led to the Palace
+      of Princely Pleasure; for so the travelling minstrels had termed
+      Kenilworth in the songs which already had come forth in anticipation of
+      the revels which were there expected. In the midst of this motley show,
+      mendicants were exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming a
+      strange though common contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrows of
+      human existence. All these floated along with the immense tide of
+      population whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where the mechanic,
+      in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his city
+      mistress; where clowns, with hobnailed shoes, were treading on the kibes
+      of substantial burghers and gentlemen of worship; and where Joan of the
+      dairy, with robust pace, and red, sturdy arms, rowed her way unward,
+      amongst those prim and pretty moppets whose sires were knights and
+      squires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The throng and confusion was, however, of a gay and cheerful character.
+      All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all laughed at the trifling
+      inconveniences which at another time might have chafed their temper.
+      Excepting the occasional brawls which we have mentioned among that
+      irritable race the carmen, the mingled sounds which arose from the
+      multitude were those of light-hearted mirth and tiptoe jollity. The
+      musicians preluded on their instruments&mdash;the minstrels hummed their
+      songs&mdash;the licensed jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness, as he
+      brandished his bauble&mdash;the morrice-dancers jangled their bells&mdash;the
+      rustics hallooed and whistled&mdash;men laughed loud, and maidens giggled
+      shrill; while many a broad jest flew like a shuttlecock from one party, to
+      be caught in the air and returned from the opposite side of the road by
+      another, at which it was aimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No infliction can be so distressing to a mind absorbed in melancholy, as
+      being plunged into a scene of mirth and revelry, forming an accompaniment
+      so dissonant from its own feelings. Yet, in the case of the Countess of
+      Leicester, the noise and tumult of this giddy scene distracted her
+      thoughts, and rendered her this sad service, that it became impossible for
+      her to brood on her own misery, or to form terrible anticipations of her
+      approaching fate. She travelled on like one in a dream, following
+      implicitly the guidance of Wayland, who, with great address, now threaded
+      his way through the general throng of passengers, now stood still until a
+      favourable opportunity occurred of again moving forward, and frequently
+      turning altogether out of the direct road, followed some circuitous
+      bypath, which brought them into the highway again, after having given them
+      the opportunity of traversing a considerable way with greater ease and
+      rapidity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose Castle (that fairest monument
+      of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains uninjured by time)
+      Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and where she was to tarry until
+      past noon, at that time the general hour of dinner throughout England,
+      after which repast she was to proceed to Kenilworth, In the meanwhile,
+      each passing group had something to say in the Sovereign's praise, though
+      not absolutely without the usual mixture of satire which qualifies more or
+      less our estimate of our neighbours, especially if they chance to be also
+      our betters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Heard you," said one, "how graciously she spoke to Master Bailiff and the
+      Recorder, and to good Master Griffin the preacher, as they kneeled down at
+      her coach-window?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, 'Master Recorder, men would have
+      persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I think, so well did
+      you reckon up to me the virtues of a sovereign, that I have more reason to
+      be afraid of you.' and then with what grace she took the fair-wrought
+      purse with the twenty gold sovereigns, seeming as though she would not
+      willingly handle it, and yet taking it withal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," said another, "her fingers closed on it pretty willingly
+      methought, when all was done; and methought, too, she weighed them for a
+      second in her hand, as she would say, I hope they be avoirdupois."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She needed not, neighbour," said a third; "it is only when the
+      corporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me, that they put
+      him off with clipped coin. Well, there is a God above all&mdash;little
+      Master Recorder, since that is the word, will be greater now than ever."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Come, good neighbour," said the first speaker "be not envious. She is a
+      good Queen, and a generous; she gave the purse to the Earl of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I envious?&mdash;beshrew thy heart for the word!" replied the handicraft.
+      "But she will give all to the Earl of Leicester anon, methinks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are turning ill, lady," said Wayland Smith to the Countess of
+      Leicester, and proposed that she should draw off from the road, and halt
+      till she recovered. But, subduing her feelings at this and different
+      speeches to the same purpose, which caught her ear as they passed on, she
+      insisted that her guide should proceed to Kenilworth with all the haste
+      which the numerous impediments of their journey permitted. Meanwhile,
+      Wayland's anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition, and her obvious
+      distraction of mind, was hourly increasing, and he became extremely
+      desirous that, according to her reiterated requests, she should be safely
+      introduced into the Castle, where, he doubted not, she was secure of a
+      kind reception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal on whom she reposed
+      her hopes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An I were once rid of this peril," thought he, "and if any man shall find
+      me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant, he shall have leave to
+      beat my brains out with my own sledge-hammer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and the
+      domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixty
+      thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present
+      money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven
+      acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a
+      pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest formed
+      the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. The lordly
+      structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious enclosure,
+      was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated buildings,
+      apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing in
+      the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the
+      armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs
+      who had long passed away, and whose history, could Ambition have lent ear
+      to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty favourite who had now
+      acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. A large and massive Keep,
+      which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of uncertain though great
+      antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhaps from its resemblance to
+      that in the Tower of London so called. Some antiquaries ascribe its
+      foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the Castle had its name, a
+      Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early era after the Norman
+      Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon of the Clintons, by
+      whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and of the yet more
+      redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons' wars, Kenilworth
+      was long held out against Henry III. Here Mortimer, Earl of March, famous
+      alike for his rise and his fall, had once gaily revelled in Kenilworth,
+      while his dethroned sovereign, Edward II., languished in its dungeons. Old
+      John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," had widely extended the Castle,
+      erecting that noble and massive pile which yet bears the name of
+      Lancaster's Buildings; and Leicester himself had outdone the former
+      possessors, princely and powerful as they were, by erecting another
+      immense structure, which now lies crushed under its own ruins, the
+      monument of its owner's ambition. The external wall of this royal Castle
+      was, on the south and west sides, adorned and defended by a lake partly
+      artificial, across which Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that
+      Elizabeth might enter the Castle by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of
+      the usual entrance to the northward, over which he had erected a gatehouse
+      or barbican, which still exists, and is equal in extent, and superior in
+      architecture, to the baronial castle of many a northern chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red deer, fallow deer,
+      roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees, from
+      amongst which the extended front and massive towers of the Castle were
+      seen to rise in majesty and beauty. We cannot but add, that of this lordly
+      palace, where princes feasted and heroes fought, now in the bloody earnest
+      of storm and siege, and now in the games of chivalry, where beauty dealt
+      the prize which valour won, all is now desolate. The bed of the lake is
+      but a rushy swamp; and the massive ruins of the Castle only serve to show
+      what their splendour once was, and to impress on the musing visitor the
+      transitory value of human possessions, and the happiness of those who
+      enjoy a humble lot in virtuous contentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate Countess of
+      Leicester viewed those grey and massive towers, when she first beheld them
+      rise above the embowering and richly-shaded woods, over which they seemed
+      to preside. She, the undoubted wife of the great Earl, of Elizabeth's
+      minion, and England's mighty favourite, was approaching the presence of
+      her husband, and that husband's sovereign, under the protection, rather
+      than the guidance, of a poor juggler; and though unquestioned Mistress of
+      that proud Castle, whose lightest word ought to have had force sufficient
+      to make its gates leap from their massive hinges to receive her, yet she
+      could not conceal from herself the difficulty and peril which she must
+      experience in gaining admission into her own halls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment, and at
+      length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further progress at the
+      great gate leading to a broad and fair road, which, traversing the breadth
+      of the chase for the space of two miles, and commanding several most
+      beautiful views of the Castle and lake, terminated at the newly
+      constructed bridge, to which it was an appendage, and which was destined
+      to form the Queen's approach to the Castle on that memorable occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Countess and Wayland found the gate at the end of this avenue,
+      which opened on the Warwick road, guarded by a body of the Queen's mounted
+      yeomen of the guard, armed in corselets richly carved and gilded, and
+      wearing morions instead of bonnets, having their carabines resting with
+      the butt-end on their thighs. These guards, distinguished for strength and
+      stature, who did duty wherever the Queen went in person, were here
+      stationed under the direction of a pursuivant, graced with the Bear and
+      Ragged Staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl of Leicester, and
+      peremptorily refused all admittance, excepting to such as were guests
+      invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform some part in the
+      mirthful exhibitions which were proposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and persons of all
+      kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance; to which the guards
+      turned an inexorable ear, pleading, in return to fair words, and even to
+      fair offers, the strictness of their orders, founded on the Queen's
+      well-known dislike to the rude pressing of a multitude. With those whom
+      such reasons did not serve they dealt more rudely, repelling them without
+      ceremony by the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses, and good round
+      blows from the stock of their carabines. These last manoeuvres produced
+      undulations amongst the crowd, which rendered Wayland much afraid that he
+      might perforce be separated from his charge in the throng. Neither did he
+      know what excuse to make in order to obtain admittance, and he was
+      debating the matter in his head with great uncertainty, when the Earl's
+      pursuivant, having cast an eye upon him, exclaimed, to his no small
+      surprise, "Yeomen, make room for the fellow in the orange-tawny cloak.&mdash;Come
+      forward, Sir Coxcomb, and make haste. What, in the fiend's name, has kept
+      you waiting? Come forward with your bale of woman's gear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the pursuivant gave Wayland this pressing yet uncourteous
+      invitation, which, for a minute or two, he could not imagine was applied
+      to him, the yeomen speedily made a free passage for him, while, only
+      cautioning his companion to keep the muffler close around her face, he
+      entered the gate leading her palfrey, but with such a drooping crest, and
+      such a look of conscious fear and anxiety, that the crowd, not greatly
+      pleased at any rate with the preference bestowed upon them, accompanied
+      their admission with hooting and a loud laugh of derision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Admitted thus within the chase, though with no very flattering notice or
+      distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward, musing what difficulties
+      it would be next their lot to encounter, through the broad avenue, which
+      was sentinelled on either side by a long line of retainers, armed with
+      swords, and partisans richly dressed in the Earl of Leicester's liveries,
+      and bearing his cognizance of the Bear and Ragged Staff, each placed
+      within three paces of each other, so as to line the whole road from the
+      entrance into the park to the bridge. And, indeed, when the lady obtained
+      the first commanding view of the Castle, with its stately towers rising
+      from within a long, sweeping line of outward walls, ornamented with
+      battlements and turrets and platforms at every point of defence, with many
+      a banner streaming from its walls, and such a bustle of gay crests and
+      waving plumes disposed on the terraces and battlements, and all the gay
+      and gorgeous scene, her heart, unaccustomed to such splendour, sank as if
+      it died within her, and for a moment she asked herself what she had
+      offered up to Leicester to deserve to become the partner of this princely
+      splendour. But her pride and generous spirit resisted the whisper which
+      bade her despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give. Name and fame,
+      heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificence at the
+      altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is my husband&mdash;I
+      am his wife&mdash;whom God hath joined, man cannot sunder. I will be bold
+      in claiming my right; even the bolder, that I come thus unexpected, and
+      thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well! He will be something impatient
+      at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley will forgive her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guide
+      Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by a pair
+      of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one who had dropped himself
+      out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst the shouts of
+      laughter which burst from the sentinels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!" said Wayland, after a
+      vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse the urchin who clung to
+      him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct, "and many
+      others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, without my
+      teaching you. How would you have passed the pursuivant at the upper gate
+      yonder, had not I warned him our principal juggler was to follow us? And
+      here have I waited for you, having clambered up into the tree from the top
+      of the wain; and I suppose they are all mad for want of me by this time."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then, thou art a limb of the devil in good earnest," said Wayland.
+      "I give thee way, good imp, and will walk by thy counsel; only, as thou
+      art powerful be merciful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south extremity of the
+      long bridge we have mentioned, which served to protect the outer gateway
+      of the Castle of Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular company, did the
+      unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for the first time, the
+      magnificent abode of her almost princely husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     SNUG.   Have you the lion's part written?  pray, if it be, give
+     it me, for I am slow of study.
+     QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
+     &mdash;MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the Countess of Leicester arrived at the outer gate of the Castle of
+      Kenilworth, she found the tower, beneath which its ample portal arch
+      opened, guarded in a singular manner. Upon the battlements were placed
+      gigantic warders, with clubs, battle-axes, and other implements of ancient
+      warfare, designed to represent the soldiers of King Arthur; those
+      primitive Britons, by whom, according to romantic tradition, the Castle
+      had been first tenanted, though history carried back its antiquity only to
+      the times of the Heptarchy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of these tremendous figures were real men, dressed up with vizards
+      and buskins; others were mere pageants composed of pasteboard and buckram,
+      which, viewed from beneath, and mingled with those that were real, formed
+      a sufficiently striking representation of what was intended. But the
+      gigantic porter who waited at the gate beneath, and actually discharged
+      the duties of warder, owed none of his terrors to fictitious means. he was
+      a man whose huge stature, thews, sinews, and bulk in proportion, would
+      have enabled him to enact Colbrand, Ascapart, or any other giant of
+      romance, without raising himself nearer to heaven even by the altitude of
+      a chopin. The legs and knees of this son of Anak were bare, as were his
+      arms from a span below the shoulder; but his feet were defended with
+      sandals, fastened with cross straps of scarlet leather studded with brazen
+      knobs. A close jerkin of scarlet velvet looped with gold, with short
+      breeches of the same, covered his body and a part of his limbs; and he
+      wore on his shoulders, instead of a cloak, the skin of a black bear. The
+      head of this formidable person was uncovered, except by his shaggy, black
+      hair, which descended on either side around features of that huge,
+      lumpish, and heavy cast which are often annexed to men of very uncommon
+      size, and which, notwithstanding some distinguished exceptions, have
+      created a general prejudice against giants, as being a dull and sullen
+      kind of persons. This tremendous warder was appropriately armed with a
+      heavy club spiked with steel. In fine, he represented excellently one of
+      those giants of popular romance, who figure in every fairy tale or legend
+      of knight-errantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The demeanour of this modern Titan, when Wayland Smith bent his attention
+      to him, had in it something arguing much mental embarrassment and
+      vexation; for sometimes he sat down for an instant on a massive stone
+      bench, which seemed placed for his accommodation beside the gateway, and
+      then ever and anon he started up, scratching his huge head, and striding
+      to and fro on his post, like one under a fit of impatience and anxiety. It
+      was while the porter was pacing before the gate in this agitated manner,
+      that Wayland, modestly, yet as a matter of course (not, however, without
+      some mental misgiving), was about to pass him, and enter the portal arch.
+      The porter, however, stopped his progress, bidding him, in a thundering
+      voice, "Stand back!" and enforcing his injunction by heaving up his
+      steel-shod mace, and dashing it on the ground before Wayland's horse's
+      nose with such vehemence that the pavement flashed fire, and the archway
+      rang to the clamour. Wayland, availing himself of Dickie's hints, began to
+      state that he belonged to a band of performers to which his presence was
+      indispensable, that he had been accidentally detained behind, and much to
+      the same purpose. But the warder was inexorable, and kept muttering and
+      murmuring something betwixt his teeth, which Wayland could make little of;
+      and addressing betwixt whiles a refusal of admittance, couched in language
+      which was but too intelligible. A specimen of his speech might run thus:&mdash;"What,
+      how now, my masters?" (to himself)&mdash;"Here's a stir&mdash;here's a
+      coil."&mdash;(Then to Wayland)&mdash;"You are a loitering knave, and shall
+      have no entrance."&mdash;(Again to himself)&mdash;"Here's a throng&mdash;here's
+      a thrusting.&mdash;I shall ne'er get through with it&mdash;Here's a&mdash;humph&mdash;ha."&mdash;(To
+      Wayland)&mdash;"Back from the gate, or I'll break the pate of thee."&mdash;(Once
+      more to himself)&mdash;"Here's a&mdash;no&mdash;I shall never get through
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand still," whispered Flibbertigibbet into Wayland's ear, "I know where
+      the shoe pinches, and will tame him in an instant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dropped down from the horse, and skipping up to the porter, plucked him
+      by the tail of the bearskin, so as to induce him to decline his huge head,
+      and whispered something in his ear. Not at the command of the lord of some
+      Eastern talisman did ever Afrite change his horrid frown into a look of
+      smooth submission more suddenly than the gigantic porter of Kenilworth
+      relaxed the terrors of his looks at the instant Flibbertigibbet's whisper
+      reached his ears. He flung his club upon the ground, and caught up Dickie
+      Sludge, raising him to such a distance from the earth as might have proved
+      perilous had he chanced to let him slip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is even so," he said, with a thundering sound of exultation&mdash;"it
+      is even so, my little dandieprat. But who the devil could teach it thee?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do not thou care about that," said Flibbertigibbet&mdash;"but&mdash;" he
+      looked at Wayland and the lady, and then sunk what he had to say in a
+      whisper, which needed not be a loud one, as the giant held him for his
+      convenience close to his ear. The porter then gave Dickie a warm caress,
+      and set him on the ground with the same care which a careful housewife
+      uses in replacing a cracked china cup upon her mantelpiece, calling out at
+      the same time to Wayland and the lady, "In with you&mdash;in with you! and
+      take heed how you come too late another day when I chance to be porter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay, in with you," added Flibbertigibbet; "I must stay a short space
+      with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of Gath here; but I will be with
+      you anon, and at the bottom of all your secrets, were they as deep and
+      dark as the Castle dungeon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do believe thou wouldst," said Wayland; "but I trust the secret will be
+      soon out of my keeping, and then I shall care the less whether thou or any
+      one knows it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now crossed the entrance tower, which obtained the name of the
+      Gallery-tower, from the following circumstance: The whole bridge,
+      extending from the entrance to another tower on the opposite side of the
+      lake, called Mortimer's Tower, was so disposed as to make a spacious
+      tilt-yard, about one hundred and thirty yards in length, and ten in
+      breadth, strewed with the finest sand, and defended on either side by
+      strong and high palisades. The broad and fair gallery, destined for the
+      ladies who were to witness the feats of chivalry presented on this area,
+      was erected on the northern side of the outer tower, to which it gave
+      name. Our travellers passed slowly along the bridge or tilt-yard, and
+      arrived at Mortimer's Tower, at its farthest extremity, through which the
+      approach led into the outer or base-court of the Castle. Mortimer's Tower
+      bore on its front the scutcheon of the Earl of March, whose daring
+      ambition overthrew the throne of Edward II., and aspired to share his
+      power with the "She-wolf of France," to whom the unhappy monarch was
+      wedded. The gate, which opened under this ominous memorial, was guarded by
+      many warders in rich liveries; but they offered no opposition to the
+      entrance of the Countess and her guide, who, having passed by license of
+      the principal porter at the Gallery-tower, were not, it may be supposed,
+      liable to interruption from his deputies. They entered accordingly, in
+      silence, the great outward court of the Castle, having then full before
+      them that vast and lordly pile, with all its stately towers, each gate
+      open, as if in sign of unlimited hospitality, and the apartments filled
+      with noble guests of every degree, besides dependants, retainers,
+      domestics of every description, and all the appendages and promoters of
+      mirth and revelry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amid this stately and busy scene Wayland halted his horse, and looked upon
+      the lady, as if waiting her commands what was next to be done, since they
+      had safely reached the place of destination. As she remained silent,
+      Wayland, after waiting a minute or two, ventured to ask her, in direct
+      terms, what were her next commands. She raised her hand to her forehead,
+      as if in the act of collecting her thoughts and resolution, while she
+      answered him in a low and suppressed voice, like the murmurs of one who
+      speaks in a dream&mdash;"Commands? I may indeed claim right to command,
+      but who is there will obey me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then suddenly raising her head, like one who has formed a decisive
+      resolution, she addressed a gaily-dressed domestic, who was crossing the
+      court with importance and bustle in his countenance, "Stop, sir," she
+      said; "I desire to speak with, the Earl of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With whom, an it please you?" said the man, surprised at the demand; and
+      then looking upon the mean equipage of her who used towards him such a
+      tone of authority, he added, with insolence, "Why, what Bess of Bedlam is
+      this would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Friend," said the Countess, "be not insolent&mdash;my business with the
+      Earl is most urgent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You must get some one else to do it, were it thrice as urgent," said the
+      fellow. "I should summon my lord from the Queen's royal presence to do
+      YOUR business, should I?&mdash;I were like to be thanked with a
+      horse-whip. I marvel our old porter took not measure of such ware with his
+      club, instead of giving them passage; but his brain is addled with getting
+      his speech by heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three persons stopped, attracted by the fleering way in which the
+      serving-man expressed himself; and Wayland, alarmed both for himself and
+      the lady, hastily addressed himself to one who appeared the most civil,
+      and thrusting a piece of money into his hand, held a moment's counsel with
+      him on the subject of finding a place of temporary retreat for the lady.
+      The person to whom he spoke, being one in some authority, rebuked the
+      others for their incivility, and commanding one fellow to take care of the
+      strangers' horses, he desired them to follow him. The Countess retained
+      presence of mind sufficient to see that it was absolutely necessary she
+      should comply with his request; and leaving the rude lackeys and grooms to
+      crack their brutal jests about light heads, light heels, and so forth,
+      Wayland and she followed in silence the deputy-usher, who undertook to be
+      their conductor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered the inner court of the Castle by the great gateway, which
+      extended betwixt the principal Keep, or Donjon, called Caesar's Tower, and
+      a stately building which passed by the name of King Henry's Lodging, and
+      were thus placed in the centre of the noble pile, which presented on its
+      different fronts magnificent specimens of every species of castellated
+      architecture, from the Conquest to the reign of Elizabeth, with the
+      appropriate style and ornaments of each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Across this inner court also they were conducted by their guide to a small
+      but strong tower, occupying the north-east angle of the building, adjacent
+      to the great hall, and filling up a space betwixt the immense range of
+      kitchens and the end of the great hall itself. The lower part of this
+      tower was occupied by some of the household officers of Leicester, owing
+      to its convenient vicinity to the places where their duty lay; but in the
+      upper story, which was reached by a narrow, winding stair, was a small
+      octangular chamber, which, in the great demand for lodgings, had been on
+      the present occasion fitted up for the reception of guests, though
+      generally said to have been used as a place of confinement for some
+      unhappy person who had been there murdered. Tradition called this prisoner
+      Mervyn, and transferred his name to the tower. That it had been used as a
+      prison was not improbable; for the floor of each story was arched, the
+      walls of tremendous thickness, while the space of the chamber did not
+      exceed fifteen feet in diameter. The window, however, was pleasant, though
+      narrow, and commanded a delightful view of what was called the Pleasance;
+      a space of ground enclosed and decorated with arches, trophies, statues,
+      fountains, and other architectural monuments, which formed one access from
+      the Castle itself into the garden. There was a bed in the apartment, and
+      other preparations for the reception of a guest, to which the Countess
+      paid but slight attention, her notice being instantly arrested by the
+      sight of writing materials placed on the table (not very commonly to be
+      found in the bedrooms of those days), which instantly suggested the idea
+      of writing to Leicester, and remaining private until she had received his
+      answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deputy-usher having introduced them into this commodious apartment,
+      courteously asked Wayland, whose generosity he had experienced, whether he
+      could do anything further for his service. Upon receiving a gentle hint
+      that some refreshment would not be unacceptable, he presently conveyed the
+      smith to the buttery-hatch, where dressed provisions of all sorts were
+      distributed, with hospitable profusion, to all who asked for them. Wayland
+      was readily supplied with some light provisions, such as he thought would
+      best suit the faded appetite of the lady, and did not omit the opportunity
+      of himself making a hasty but hearty meal on more substantial fare. He
+      then returned to the apartment in the turret, where he found the Countess,
+      who had finished her letter to Leicester, and in lieu of a seal and silken
+      thread, had secured it with a braid of her own beautiful tresses, fastened
+      by what is called a true-love knot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good friend," said she to Wayland, "whom God hath sent to aid me at my
+      utmost need, I do beseech thee, as the last trouble you shall take for an
+      unfortunate lady, to deliver this letter to the noble Earl of Leicester.
+      Be it received as it may," she said, with features agitated betwixt hope
+      and fear, "thou, good fellow, shalt have no more cumber with me. But I
+      hope the best; and if ever lady made a poor man rich, thou hast surely
+      deserved it at my hand, should my happy days ever come round again. Give
+      it, I pray you, into Lord Leicester's own hand, and mark how he looks on
+      receiving it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland, on his part, readily undertook the commission, but anxiously
+      prayed the lady, in his turn, to partake of some refreshment; in which he
+      at length prevailed, more through importunity and her desire to see him
+      begone on his errand than from any inclination the Countess felt to comply
+      with his request. He then left her, advising her to lock her door on the
+      inside, and not to stir from her little apartment; and went to seek an
+      opportunity of discharging her errand, as well as of carrying into effect
+      a purpose of his own, which circumstances had induced him to form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, from the conduct of the lady during the journey&mdash;her long
+      fits of profound silence, the irresolution and uncertainty which seemed to
+      pervade all her movements, and the obvious incapacity of thinking and
+      acting for herself under which she seemed to labour&mdash;Wayland had
+      formed the not improbable opinion that the difficulties of her situation
+      had in some degree affected her understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she had escaped from the seclusion of Cumnor Place, and the dangers
+      to which she was there exposed, it would have seemed her most rational
+      course to retire to her father's, or elsewhere at a distance from the
+      power of those by whom these dangers had been created. When, instead of
+      doing so, she demanded to be conveyed to Kenilworth, Wayland had been only
+      able to account for her conduct by supposing that she meant to put herself
+      under the tutelage of Tressilian, and to appeal to the protection of the
+      Queen. But now, instead of following this natural course, she entrusted
+      him with a letter to Leicester, the patron of Varney, and within whose
+      jurisdiction at least, if not under his express authority, all the evils
+      she had already suffered were inflicted upon her. This seemed an unsafe
+      and even a desperate measure, and Wayland felt anxiety for his own safety,
+      as well as that of the lady, should he execute her commission before he
+      had secured the advice and countenance of a protector.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He therefore resolved, before delivering the letter to Leicester, that he
+      would seek out Tressilian, and communicate to him the arrival of the lady
+      at Kenilworth, and thus at once rid himself of all further responsibility,
+      and devolve the task of guiding and protecting this unfortunate lady upon
+      the patron who had at first employed him in her service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will be a better judge than I am," said Wayland, "whether she is to be
+      gratified in this humour of appeal to my Lord of Leicester, which seems
+      like an act of insanity; and, therefore, I will turn the matter over on
+      his hands, deliver him the letter, receive what they list to give me by
+      way of guerdon, and then show the Castle of Kenilworth a pair of light
+      heels; for, after the work I have been engaged in, it will be, I fear,
+      neither a safe nor wholesome place of residence, and I would rather shoe
+      colts an the coldest common in England than share in their gayest revels."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     In my time I have seen a boy do wonders.
+     Robin, the red tinker, had a boy
+     Would ha run through a cat-hole. &mdash;THE COXCOMB.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Amid the universal bustle which filled the Castle and its environs, it was
+      no easy matter to find out any individual; and Wayland was still less
+      likely to light upon Tressilian, whom he sought so anxiously, because,
+      sensible of the danger of attracting attention in the circumstances in
+      which he was placed, he dared not make general inquiries among the
+      retainers or domestics of Leicester. He learned, however, by indirect
+      questions, that in all probability Tressilian must have been one of a
+      large party of gentlemen in attendance on the Earl of Sussex, who had
+      accompanied their patron that morning to Kenilworth, when Leicester had
+      received them with marks of the most formal respect and distinction. He
+      further learned that both Earls, with their followers, and many other
+      nobles, knights, and gentlemen, had taken horse, and gone towards Warwick
+      several hours since, for the purpose of escorting the Queen to Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her Majesty's arrival, like other great events, was delayed from hour to
+      hour; and it was now announced by a breathless post that her Majesty,
+      being detained by her gracious desire to receive the homage of her lieges
+      who had thronged to wait upon her at Warwick, it would be the hour of
+      twilight ere she entered the Castle. The intelligence released for a time
+      those who were upon duty, in the immediate expectation of the Queen's
+      appearance, and ready to play their part in the solemnities with which it
+      was to be accompanied; and Wayland, seeing several horsemen enter the
+      Castle, was not without hopes that Tressilian might be of the number. That
+      he might not lose an opportunity of meeting his patron in the event of
+      this being the case, Wayland placed himself in the base-court of the
+      Castle, near Mortimer's Tower, and watched every one who went or came by
+      the bridge, the extremity of which was protected by that building. Thus
+      stationed, nobody could enter or leave the Castle without his observation,
+      and most anxiously did he study the garb and countenance of every
+      horseman, as, passing from under the opposite Gallery-tower, they paced
+      slowly, or curveted, along the tilt-yard, and approached the entrance of
+      the base-court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while Wayland gazed thus eagerly to discover him whom he saw not, he
+      was pulled by the sleeve by one by whom he himself would not willingly
+      have been seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, who, like the imp whose name
+      he bore, and whom he had been accoutred in order to resemble, seemed to be
+      ever at the ear of those who thought least of him. Whatever were Wayland's
+      internal feelings, he judged it necessary to express pleasure at their
+      unexpected meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha! is it thou, my minikin&mdash;my miller's thumb&mdash;my prince of
+      cacodemons&mdash;my little mouse?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said Dickie, "the mouse which gnawed asunder the toils, just when
+      the lion who was caught in them began to look wonderfully like an ass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thy, thou little hop-the-gutter, thou art as sharp as vinegar this
+      afternoon! But tell me, how didst thou come off with yonder jolterheaded
+      giant whom I left thee with? I was afraid he would have stripped thy
+      clothes, and so swallowed thee, as men peel and eat a roasted chestnut."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Had he done so," replied the boy, "he would have had more brains in his
+      guts than ever he had in his noddle. But the giant is a courteous monster,
+      and more grateful than many other folk whom I have helped at a pinch,
+      Master Wayland Smith."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Beshrew me, Flibbertigibbet," replied Wayland, "but thou art sharper than
+      a Sheffield whittle! I would I knew by what charm you muzzled yonder old
+      bear."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, that is in your own manner," answered Dickie; "you think fine
+      speeches will pass muster instead of good-will. However, as to this honest
+      porter, you must know that when we presented ourselves at the gate yonder,
+      his brain was over-burdened with a speech that had been penned for him,
+      and which proved rather an overmatch for his gigantic faculties. Now this
+      same pithy oration had been indited, like sundry others, by my learned
+      magister, Erasmus Holiday, so I had heard it often enough to remember
+      every line. As soon as I heard him blundering and floundering like a fish
+      upon dry land, through the first verse, and perceived him at a stand, I
+      knew where the shoe pinched, and helped him to the next word, when he
+      caught me up in an ecstasy, even as you saw but now. I promised, as the
+      price of your admission, to hide me under his bearish gaberdine, and
+      prompt him in the hour of need. I have just now been getting some food in
+      the Castle, and am about to return to him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That's right&mdash;that's right, my dear Dickie," replied Wayland; "haste
+      thee, for Heaven's sake! else the poor giant will be utterly disconsolate
+      for want of his dwarfish auxiliary. Away with thee, Dickie!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay!" answered the boy&mdash;"away with Dickie, when we have got what
+      good of him we can. You will not let me know the story of this lady, then,
+      who is as much sister of thine as I am?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what good would it do thee, thou silly elf?" said Wayland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, stand ye on these terms?" said the boy. "Well, I care not greatly
+      about the matter&mdash;only, I never smell out a secret but I try to be
+      either at the right or the wrong end of it, and so good evening to ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, but, Dickie," said Wayland, who knew the boy's restless and
+      intriguing disposition too well not to fear his enmity&mdash;"stay, my
+      dear Dickie&mdash;part not with old friends so shortly! Thou shalt know
+      all I know of the lady one day."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay!" said Dickie; "and that day may prove a nigh one. Fare thee well,
+      Wayland&mdash;I will to my large-limbed friend, who, if he have not so
+      sharp a wit as some folk, is at least more grateful for the service which
+      other folk render him. And so again, good evening to ye."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he cast a somerset through the gateway, and lighting on the
+      bridge, ran with the extraordinary agility which was one of his
+      distinguishing attributes towards the Gallery-tower, and was out of sight
+      in an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would to God I were safe out of this Castle again!" prayed Wayland
+      internally; "for now that this mischievous imp has put his finger in the
+      pie, it cannot but prove a mess fit for the devil's eating. I would to
+      Heaven Master Tressilian would appear!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, whom he was thus anxiously expecting in one direction, had
+      returned to Kenilworth by another access. It was indeed true, as Wayland
+      had conjectured, that in the earlier part of the day he had accompanied
+      the Earls on their cavalcade towards Warwick, not without hope that he
+      might in that town hear some tidings of his emissary. Being disappointed
+      in this expectation, and observing Varney amongst Leicester's attendants,
+      seeming as if he had some purpose of advancing to and addressing him, he
+      conceived, in the present circumstances, it was wisest to avoid the
+      interview. He, therefore, left the presence-chamber when the High-Sheriff
+      of the county was in the very midst of his dutiful address to her Majesty;
+      and mounting his horse, rode back to Kenilworth by a remote and circuitous
+      road, and entered the Castle by a small sallyport in the western wall, at
+      which he was readily admitted as one of the followers of the Earl of
+      Sussex, towards whom Leicester had commanded the utmost courtesy to be
+      exercised. It was thus that he met not Wayland, who was impatiently
+      watching his arrival, and whom he himself would have been at least equally
+      desirous to see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having delivered his horse to the charge of his attendant, he walked for a
+      space in the Pleasance and in the garden, rather to indulge in comparative
+      solitude his own reflections, than to admire those singular beauties of
+      nature and art which the magnificence of Leicester had there assembled.
+      The greater part of the persons of condition had left the Castle for the
+      present, to form part of the Earl's cavalcade; others, who remained
+      behind, were on the battlements, outer walls, and towers, eager to view
+      the splendid spectacle of the royal entry. The garden, therefore, while
+      every other part of the Castle resounded with the human voice, was silent
+      but for the whispering of the leaves, the emulous warbling of the tenants
+      of a large aviary with their happier companions who remained denizens of
+      the free air, and the plashing of the fountains, which, forced into the
+      air from sculptures of fantastic and grotesque forms, fell down with
+      ceaseless sound into the great basins of Italian marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The melancholy thoughts of Tressilian cast a gloomy shade on all the
+      objects with which he was surrounded. He compared the magnificent scenes
+      which he here traversed with the deep woodland and wild moorland which
+      surrounded Lidcote Hall, and the image of Amy Robsart glided like a
+      phantom through every landscape which his imagination summoned up. Nothing
+      is perhaps more dangerous to the future happiness of men of deep thought
+      and retired habits than the entertaining an early, long, and unfortunate
+      attachment. It frequently sinks so deep into the mind that it becomes
+      their dream by night and their vision by day&mdash;mixes itself with every
+      source of interest and enjoyment; and when blighted and withered by final
+      disappointment, it seems as if the springs of the heart were dried up
+      along with it. This aching of the heart, this languishing after a shadow
+      which has lost all the gaiety of its colouring, this dwelling on the
+      remembrance of a dream from which we have been long roughly awakened, is
+      the weakness of a gentle and generous heart, and it was that of
+      Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He himself at length became sensible of the necessity of forcing other
+      objects upon his mind; and for this purpose he left the Pleasance, in
+      order to mingle with the noisy crowd upon the walls, and view the
+      preparation for the pageants. But as he left the garden, and heard the
+      busy hum, mixed with music and laughter, which floated around him, he felt
+      an uncontrollable reluctance to mix with society whose feelings were in a
+      tone so different from his own, and resolved, instead of doing so, to
+      retire to the chamber assigned him, and employ himself in study until the
+      tolling of the great Castle bell should announce the arrival of Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian crossed accordingly by the passage betwixt the immense range of
+      kitchens and the great hall, and ascended to the third story of Mervyn's
+      Tower, and applying himself to the door of the small apartment which had
+      been allotted to him, was surprised to find it was locked. He then
+      recollected that the deputy-chamberlain had given him a master-key,
+      advising him, in the present confused state of the Castle, to keep his
+      door as much shut as possible. He applied this key to the lock, the bolt
+      revolved, he entered, and in the same instant saw a female form seated in
+      the apartment, and recognized that form to be, Amy Robsart. His first idea
+      was that a heated imagination had raised the image on which it doted into
+      visible existence; his second, that he beheld an apparition; the third and
+      abiding conviction, that it was Amy herself, paler, indeed, and thinner,
+      than in the days of heedless happiness, when she possessed the form and
+      hue of a wood-nymph, with the beauty of a sylph&mdash;but still Amy,
+      unequalled in loveliness by aught which had ever visited his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The astonishment of the Countess was scarce less than that of Tressilian,
+      although it was of shorter duration, because she had heard from Wayland
+      that he was in the Castle. She had started up at his first entrance, and
+      now stood facing him, the paleness of her cheeks having given way to a
+      deep blush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian," she said, at length, "why come you here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, why come you here, Amy," returned Tressilian, "unless it be at
+      length to claim that aid, which, as far as one man's heart and arm can
+      extend, shall instantly be rendered to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was silent a moment, and then answered in a sorrowful rather than an
+      angry tone, "I require no aid, Tressilian, and would rather be injured
+      than benefited by any which your kindness can offer me. Believe me, I am
+      near one whom law and love oblige to protect me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The villain, then, hath done you the poor justice which remained in his
+      power," said Tressilian, "and I behold before me the wife of Varney!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The wife of Varney!" she replied, with all the emphasis of scorn. "With
+      what base name, sir, does your boldness stigmatize the&mdash;the&mdash;the&mdash;"
+      She hesitated, dropped her tone of scorn, looked down, and was confused
+      and silent; for she recollected what fatal consequences might attend her
+      completing the sentence with "the Countess of Leicester," which were the
+      words that had naturally suggested themselves. It would have been a
+      betrayal of the secret, on which her husband had assured her that his
+      fortunes depended, to Tressilian, to Sussex, to the Queen, and to the
+      whole assembled court. "Never," she thought, "will I break my promised
+      silence. I will submit to every suspicion rather than that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tears rose to her eyes, as she stood silent before Tressilian; while,
+      looking on her with mingled grief and pity, he said, "Alas! Amy, your eyes
+      contradict your tongue. That speaks of a protector, willing and able to
+      watch over you; but these tell me you are ruined, and deserted by the
+      wretch to whom you have attached yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked on him with eyes in which anger sparkled through her tears, but
+      only repeated the word "wretch!" with a scornful emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, WRETCH!" said Tressilian; "for were he aught better, why are you
+      here, and alone, in my apartment? why was not fitting provision made for
+      your honourable reception?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In your apartment?" repeated Amy&mdash;"in YOUR apartment? It shall
+      instantly be relieved of my presence." She hastened towards the door; but
+      the sad recollection of her deserted state at once pressed on her mind,
+      and pausing on the threshold, she added, in a tone unutterably pathetic,
+      "Alas! I had forgot&mdash;I know not where to go&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see&mdash;I see it all," said Tressilian, springing to her side, and
+      leading her back to the seat, on which she sunk down. "You DO need aid&mdash;you
+      do need protection, though you will not own it; and you shall not need it
+      long. Leaning on my arm, as the representative of your excellent and
+      broken-hearted father, on the very threshold of the Castle gate, you shall
+      meet Elizabeth; and the first deed she shall do in the halls of Kenilworth
+      shall be an act of justice to her sex and her subjects. Strong in my good
+      cause, and in the Queen's justice, the power of her minion shall not shake
+      my resolution. I will instantly seek Sussex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not for all that is under heaven!" said the Countess, much alarmed, and
+      feeling the absolute necessity of obtaining time, at least, for
+      consideration. "Tressilian, you were wont to be generous. Grant me one
+      request, and believe, if it be your wish to save me from misery and from
+      madness, you will do more by making me the promise I ask of you, than
+      Elizabeth can do for me with all her power."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ask me anything for which you can allege reason," said Tressilian; "but
+      demand not of me&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, limit not your boon, dear Edmund!" exclaimed the Countess&mdash;"you
+      once loved that I should call you so&mdash;limit not your boon to reason;
+      for my case is all madness, and frenzy must guide the counsels which alone
+      can aid me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you speak thus wildly," said Tressilian, astonishment again
+      overpowering both his grief and his resolution, "I must believe you indeed
+      incapable of thinking or acting for yourself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, sinking on one knee before him, "I am not mad&mdash;I
+      am but a creature unutterably miserable, and, from circumstances the most
+      singular, dragged on to a precipice by the arm of him who thinks he is
+      keeping me from it&mdash;even by yours, Tressilian&mdash;by yours, whom I
+      have honoured, respected&mdash;all but loved&mdash;and yet loved, too&mdash;loved,
+      too, Tressilian&mdash;though not as you wished to be."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an energy, a self-possession, an abandonment in her voice and
+      manner, a total resignation of herself to his generosity, which, together
+      with the kindness of her expressions to himself, moved him deeply. He
+      raised her, and, in broken accents, entreated her to be comforted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot," she said, "I will not be comforted, till you grant me my
+      request! I will speak as plainly as I dare. I am now awaiting the commands
+      of one who has a right to issue them. The interference of a third person&mdash;of
+      you in especial, Tressilian&mdash;will be ruin&mdash;utter ruin to me.
+      Wait but four-and-twenty hours, and it may be that the poor Amy may have
+      the means to show that she values, and can reward, your disinterested
+      friendship&mdash;that she is happy herself, and has the means to make you
+      so. It is surely worth your patience, for so short a space?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian paused, and weighing in his mind the various probabilities
+      which might render a violent interference on his part more prejudicial
+      than advantageous, both to the happiness and reputation of Amy;
+      considering also that she was within the walls of Kenilworth, and could
+      suffer no injury in a castle honoured with the Queen's residence, and
+      filled with her guards and attendants&mdash;he conceived, upon the whole,
+      that he might render her more evil than good service by intruding upon her
+      his appeal to Elizabeth in her behalf. He expressed his resolution
+      cautiously, however, doubting naturally whether Amy's hopes of extricating
+      herself from her difficulties rested on anything stronger than a blinded
+      attachment to Varney, whom he supposed to be her seducer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amy," he said, while he fixed his sad and expressive eyes on hers, which,
+      in her ecstasy of doubt, terror, and perplexity, she cast up towards him,
+      "I have ever remarked that when others called thee girlish and wilful,
+      there lay under that external semblance of youthful and self-willed folly
+      deep feeling and strong sense. In this I will confide, trusting your own
+      fate in your own hands for the space of twenty-four hours, without my
+      interference by word or act."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do you promise me this, Tressilian?" said the Countess. "Is it possible
+      you can yet repose so much confidence in me? Do you promise, as you are a
+      gentleman and a man of honour, to intrude in my matters neither by speech
+      nor action, whatever you may see or hear that seems to you to demand your
+      interference? Will you so far trust me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will upon my honour," said Tressilian; "but when that space is expired&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then that space is expired," she said, interrupting him, "you are free to
+      act as your judgment shall determine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is there nought besides which I can do for you, Amy?" said Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nothing," said she, "save to leave me,&mdash;that is, if&mdash;I blush to
+      acknowledge my helplessness by asking it&mdash;if you can spare me the use
+      of this apartment for the next twenty-four hours."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is most wonderful!" said Tressilian; "what hope or interest can you
+      have in a Castle where you cannot command even an apartment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Argue not, but leave me," she said; and added, as he slowly and
+      unwillingly retired, "Generous Edmund! the time may come when Amy may show
+      she deserved thy noble attachment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     What, man, ne'er lack a draught, when the full can
+     Stands at thine elbow, and craves emptying!&mdash;
+     Nay, fear not me, for I have no delight
+     To watch men's vices, since I have myself
+     Of virtue nought to boast of&mdash;I'm a striker,
+     Would have the world strike with me, pell-mell, all.
+     &mdash;PANDEMONIUM.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, in strange agitation of mind, had hardly stepped down the
+      first two or three steps of the winding staircase, when, greatly to his
+      surprise and displeasure, he met Michael Lambourne, wearing an impudent
+      familiarity of visage, for which Tressilian felt much disposed to throw
+      him down-stairs; until he remembered the prejudice which Amy, the only
+      object of his solicitude, was likely to receive from his engaging in any
+      act of violence at that time and in that place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He therefore contented himself with looking sternly upon Lambourne, as
+      upon one whom he deemed unworthy of notice, and attempted to pass him in
+      his way downstairs, without any symptom of recognition. But Lambourne,
+      who, amidst the profusion of that day's hospitality, had not failed to
+      take a deep though not an overpowering cup of sack, was not in the humour
+      of humbling himself before any man's looks. He stopped Tressilian upon the
+      staircase without the least bashfulness or embarrassment, and addressed
+      him as if he had been on kind and intimate terms:&mdash;"What, no grudge
+      between us, I hope, upon old scores, Master Tressilian?&mdash;nay, I am
+      one who remembers former kindness rather than latter feud. I'll convince
+      you that I meant honestly and kindly, ay, and comfortably by you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I desire none of your intimacy," said Tressilian&mdash;"keep company with
+      your mates."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, see how hasty he is!" said Lambourne; "and how these gentles, that
+      are made questionless out of the porcelain clay of the earth, look down
+      upon poor Michael Lambourne! You would take Master Tressilian now for the
+      most maid-like, modest, simpering squire of dames that ever made love when
+      candles were long i' the stuff&mdash;snuff; call you it? Why, you would
+      play the saint on us, Master Tressilian, and forget that even now thou
+      hast a commodity in thy very bedchamber, to the shame of my lord's castle,
+      ha! ha! ha! Have I touched you, Master Tressilian?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not what you mean," said Tressilian, inferring, however, too
+      surely, that this licentious ruffian must have been sensible of Amy's
+      presence in his apartment; "but if," he continued, "thou art varlet of the
+      chambers, and lackest a fee, there is one to leave mine unmolested."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne looked at the piece of gold, and put it in his pocket saying,
+      "Now, I know not but you might have done more with me by a kind word than
+      by this chiming rogue. But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and
+      Mike Lambourne was never a makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the like. E'en
+      live, and let others live, that is my motto-only, I would not let some
+      folks cock their beaver at me neither, as if they were made of silver ore,
+      and I of Dutch pewter. So if I keep your secret, Master Tressilian, you
+      may look sweet on me at least; and were I to want a little backing or
+      countenance, being caught, as you see the best of us may be, in a sort of
+      peccadillo&mdash;why, you owe it me&mdash;and so e'en make your chamber
+      serve you and that same bird in bower beside&mdash;it's all one to Mike
+      Lambourne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Make way, sir," said Tressilian, unable to bridle his indignation, "you
+      have had your fee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Um!" said Lambourne, giving place, however, while he sulkily muttered
+      between his teeth, repeating Tressilian's words, "Make way&mdash;and you
+      have had your fee; but it matters not, I will spoil no sport, as I said
+      before. I am no dog in the manger&mdash;mind that."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke louder and louder, as Tressilian, by whom he felt himself
+      overawed, got farther and farther out of hearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am no dog in the manger; but I will not carry coals neither&mdash;mind
+      that, Master Tressilian; and I will have a peep at this wench whom you
+      have quartered so commodiously in your old haunted room&mdash;afraid of
+      ghosts, belike, and not too willing to sleep alone. If I had done this now
+      in a strange lord's castle, the word had been, The porter's lodge for the
+      knave! and, have him flogged&mdash;trundle him downstairs like a turnip!
+      Ay, but your virtuous gentlemen take strange privileges over us, who are
+      downright servants of our senses. Well&mdash;I have my Master Tressilian's
+      head under my belt by this lucky discovery, that is one thing certain; and
+      I will try to get a sight of this Lindabrides of his, that is another."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Now fare thee well, my master&mdash;if true service
+     Be guerdon'd with hard looks, e'en cut the tow-line,
+     And let our barks across the pathless flood
+     Hold different courses&mdash;THE SHIPWRECK.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian walked into the outer yard of the Castle scarce knowing what to
+      think of his late strange and most unexpected interview with Amy Robsart,
+      and dubious if he had done well, being entrusted with the delegated
+      authority of her father, to pass his word so solemnly to leave her to her
+      own guidance for so many hours. Yet how could he have denied her request&mdash;dependent
+      as she had too probably rendered herself upon Varney? Such was his natural
+      reasoning. The happiness of her future life might depend upon his not
+      driving her to extremities; and since no authority of Tressilian's could
+      extricate her from the power of Varney, supposing he was to acknowledge
+      Amy to be his wife, what title had he to destroy the hope of domestic
+      peace, which might yet remain to her, by setting enmity betwixt them?
+      Tressilian resolved, therefore, scrupulously to observe his word pledged
+      to Amy, both because it had been given, and because, as he still thought,
+      while he considered and reconsidered that extraordinary interview, it
+      could not with justice or propriety have been refused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one respect, he had gained much towards securing effectual protection
+      for this unhappy and still beloved object of his early affection. Amy was
+      no longer mewed up in a distant and solitary retreat under the charge of
+      persons of doubtful reputation. She was in the Castle of Kenilworth,
+      within the verge of the Royal Court for the time, free from all risk of
+      violence, and liable to be produced before Elizabeth on the first summons.
+      These were circumstances which could not but assist greatly the efforts
+      which he might have occasion to use in her behalf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was thus balancing the advantages and perils which attended her
+      unexpected presence in Kenilworth, Tressilian was hastily and anxiously
+      accosted by Wayland, who, after ejaculating, "Thank God, your worship is
+      found at last!" proceeded with breathless caution to pour into his ear the
+      intelligence that the lady had escaped from Cumnor Place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And is at present in this Castle," said Tressilian. "I know it, and I
+      have seen her. Was it by her own choice she found refuge in my apartment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Wayland; "but I could think of no other way of safely
+      bestowing her, and was but too happy to find a deputy-usher who knew where
+      you were quartered&mdash;in jolly society truly, the hall on the one hand,
+      and the kitchen on the other!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, this is no time for jesting," answered Tressilian sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I wot that but too well," said the artist, "for I have felt these three
+      days as if I had a halter round my neck. This lady knows not her own mind&mdash;she
+      will have none of your aid&mdash;commands you not to be named to her&mdash;and
+      is about to put herself into the hands of my Lord Leicester. I had never
+      got her safe into your chamber, had she known the owner of it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is it possible," said Tressilian. "But she may have hopes the Earl will
+      exert his influence in her favour over his villainous dependant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know nothing of that," said Wayland; "but I believe, if she is to
+      reconcile herself with either Leicester or Varney, the side of the Castle
+      of Kenilworth which will be safest for us will be the outside, from which
+      we can fastest fly away. It is not my purpose to abide an instant after
+      delivery of the letter to Leicester, which waits but your commands to find
+      its way to him. See, here it is&mdash;but no&mdash;a plague on it&mdash;I
+      must have left it in my dog-hole, in the hay-loft yonder, where I am to
+      sleep."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Death and fury!" said Tressilian, transported beyond his usual patience;
+      "thou hast not lost that on which may depend a stake more important than a
+      thousand such lives as thine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Lost it!" answered Wayland readily; "that were a jest indeed! No, sir, I
+      have it carefully put up with my night-sack, and some matters I have
+      occasion to use; I will fetch it in an instant."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Do so," said Tressilian; "be faithful, and thou shalt be well rewarded.
+      But if I have reason to suspect thee, a dead dog were in better case than
+      thou!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland bowed, and took his leave with seeming confidence and alacrity,
+      but, in fact, filled with the utmost dread and confusion. The letter was
+      lost, that was certain, notwithstanding the apology which he had made to
+      appease the impatient displeasure of Tressilian. It was lost&mdash;it
+      might fall into wrong hands&mdash;it would then certainly occasion a
+      discovery of the whole intrigue in which he had been engaged; nor, indeed,
+      did Wayland see much prospect of its remaining concealed, in any event. He
+      felt much hurt, besides, at Tressilian's burst of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, if I am to be paid in this coin for services where my neck is
+      concerned, it is time I should look to myself. Here have I offended, for
+      aught I know, to the death, the lord of this stately castle, whose word
+      were as powerful to take away my life as the breath which speaks it to
+      blow out a farthing candle. And all this for a mad lady, and a melancholy
+      gallant, who, on the loss of a four-nooked bit of paper, has his hand on
+      his poignado, and swears death and fury!&mdash;Then there is the Doctor
+      and Varney.&mdash;I will save myself from the whole mess of them. Life is
+      dearer than gold. I will fly this instant, though I leave my reward behind
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These reflections naturally enough occurred to a mind like Wayland's, who
+      found himself engaged far deeper than he had expected in a train of
+      mysterious and unintelligible intrigues, in which the actors seemed hardly
+      to know their own course. And yet, to do him justice, his personal fears
+      were, in some degree, counterbalanced by his compassion for the deserted
+      state of the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I care not a groat for Master Tressilian," he said; "I have done more
+      than bargain by him, and I have brought his errant-damosel within his
+      reach, so that he may look after her himself. But I fear the poor thing is
+      in much danger amongst these stormy spirits. I will to her chamber, and
+      tell her the fate which has befallen her letter, that she may write
+      another if she list. She cannot lack a messenger, I trow, where there are
+      so many lackeys that can carry a letter to their lord. And I will tell her
+      also that I leave the Castle, trusting her to God, her own guidance, and
+      Master Tressilian's care and looking after. Perhaps she may remember the
+      ring she offered me&mdash;it was well earned, I trow; but she is a lovely
+      creature, and&mdash;marry hang the ring! I will not bear a base spirit for
+      the matter. If I fare ill in this world for my good-nature, I shall have
+      better chance in the next. So now for the lady, and then for the road."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the stealthy step and jealous eye of the cat that steals on her prey,
+      Wayland resumed the way to the Countess's chamber, sliding along by the
+      side of the courts and passages, alike observant of all around him, and
+      studious himself to escape observation. In this manner he crossed the
+      outward and inward Castle yard, and the great arched passage, which,
+      running betwixt the range of kitchen offices and the hall, led to the
+      bottom of the little winding-stair that gave access to the chambers of
+      Mervyn's Tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist congratulated himself on having escaped the various perils of
+      his journey, and was in the act of ascending by two steps at once, when he
+      observed that the shadow of a man, thrown from a door which stood ajar,
+      darkened the opposite wall of the staircase. Wayland drew back cautiously,
+      went down to the inner courtyard, spent about a quarter of an hour, which
+      seemed at least quadruple its usual duration, in walking from place to
+      place, and then returned to the tower, in hopes to find that the lurker
+      had disappeared. He ascended as high as the suspicious spot&mdash;there
+      was no shadow on the wall; he ascended a few yards farther&mdash;the door
+      was still ajar, and he was doubtful whether to advance or retreat, when it
+      was suddenly thrown wide open, and Michael Lambourne bolted out upon the
+      astonished Wayland. "Who the devil art thou? and what seekest thou in this
+      part of the Castle? march into that chamber, and be hanged to thee!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am no dog, to go at every man's whistle," said the artist, affecting a
+      confidence which was belied by a timid shake in his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sayest thou me so?&mdash;Come hither, Lawrence Staples."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A huge, ill-made and ill-looked fellow, upwards of six feet high, appeared
+      at the door, and Lambourne proceeded: "If thou be'st so fond of this
+      tower, my friend, thou shalt see its foundations, good twelve feet below
+      the bed of the lake, and tenanted by certain jolly toads, snakes, and so
+      forth, which thou wilt find mighty good company. Therefore, once more I
+      ask you in fair play, who thou art, and what thou seekest here?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If the dungeon-grate once clashes behind me," thought Wayland, "I am a
+      gone man." He therefore answered submissively, "He was the poor juggler
+      whom his honour had met yesterday in Weatherly Bottom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what juggling trick art thou playing in this tower? Thy gang," said
+      Lambourne, "lie over against Clinton's buildings."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I came here to see my sister," said the juggler, "who is in Master
+      Tressilian's chamber, just above."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Aha!" said Lambourne, smiling, "here be truths! Upon my honour, for a
+      stranger, this same Master Tressilian makes himself at home among us, and
+      furnishes out his cell handsomely, with all sorts of commodities. This
+      will be a precious tale of the sainted Master Tressilian, and will be
+      welcome to some folks, as a purse of broad pieces to me.&mdash;Hark ye,
+      fellow," he continued, addressing Wayland, "thou shalt not give Puss a
+      hint to steal away we must catch her in her form. So, back with that
+      pitiful sheep-biting visage of thine, or I will fling thee from the window
+      of the tower, and try if your juggling skill can save your bones."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your worship will not be so hardhearted, I trust," said Wayland; "poor
+      folk must live. I trust your honour will allow me to speak with my
+      sister?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sister on Adam's side, I warrant," said Lambourne; "or, if otherwise, the
+      more knave thou. But sister or no sister, thou diest on point of fox, if
+      thou comest a-prying to this tower once more. And now I think of it&mdash;uds
+      daggers and death!&mdash;I will see thee out of the Castle, for this is a
+      more main concern than thy jugglery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, please your worship," said Wayland, "I am to enact Arion in the
+      pageant upon the lake this very evening."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will act it myself by Saint Christopher!" said Lambourne. "Orion,
+      callest thou him?&mdash;I will act Orion, his belt and his seven stars to
+      boot. Come along, for a rascal knave as thou art&mdash;follow me! Or stay&mdash;Lawrence,
+      do thou bring him along."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lawrence seized by the collar of the cloak the unresisting juggler; while
+      Lambourne, with hasty steps, led the way to that same sallyport, or secret
+      postern, by which Tressilian had returned to the Castle, and which opened
+      in the western wall at no great distance from Mervyn's Tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While traversing with a rapid foot the space betwixt the tower and the
+      sallyport, Wayland in vain racked his brain for some device which might
+      avail the poor lady, for whom, notwithstanding his own imminent danger, he
+      felt deep interest. But when he was thrust out of the Castle, and informed
+      by Lambourne, with a tremendous oath, that instant death would be the
+      consequence of his again approaching it, he cast up his hands and eyes to
+      heaven, as if to call God to witness he had stood to the uttermost in
+      defence of the oppressed; then turned his back on the proud towers of
+      Kenilworth, and went his way to seek a humbler and safer place of refuge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lawrence and Lambourne gazed a little while after Wayland, and then turned
+      to go back to their tower, when the former thus addressed his companion:
+      "Never credit me, Master Lambourne, if I can guess why thou hast driven
+      this poor caitiff from the Castle, just when he was to bear a part in the
+      show that was beginning, and all this about a wench."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah, Lawrence," replied Lambourne, "thou art thinking of Black Joan Jugges
+      of Slingdon, and hast sympathy with human frailty. But, corragio, most
+      noble Duke of the Dungeon and Lord of Limbo, for thou art as dark in this
+      matter as thine own dominions of Little-ease. My most reverend Signior of
+      the Low Countries of Kenilworth, know that our most notable master,
+      Richard Varney, would give as much to have a hole in this same
+      Tressilian's coat, as would make us some fifty midnight carousals, with
+      the full leave of bidding the steward go snick up, if he came to startle
+      us too soon from our goblets."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, an that be the case, thou hast right," said Lawrence Staples, the
+      upper-warder, or, in common phrase, the first jailer, of Kenilworth
+      Castle, and of the Liberty and Honour belonging thereto. "But how will you
+      manage when you are absent at the Queen's entrance, Master Lambourne; for
+      methinks thou must attend thy master there?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why thou, mine honest prince of prisons, must keep ward in my absence.
+      Let Tressilian enter if he will, but see thou let no one come out. If the
+      damsel herself would make a break, as 'tis not unlike she may, scare her
+      back with rough words; she is but a paltry player's wench after all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay for that matter," said Lawrence, "I might shut the iron wicket upon
+      her that stands without the double door, and so force per force she will
+      be bound to her answer without more trouble."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then Tressilian will not get access to her," said Lambourne, reflecting a
+      moment. "But 'tis no matter; she will be detected in his chamber, and that
+      is all one. But confess, thou old bat's-eyed dungeon-keeper, that you fear
+      to keep awake by yourself in that Mervyn's Tower of thine?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, as to fear, Master Lambourne," said the fellow, "I mind it not the
+      turning of a key; but strange things have been heard and seen in that
+      tower. You must have heard, for as short time as you have been in
+      Kenilworth, that it is haunted by the spirit of Arthur ap Mervyn, a wild
+      chief taken by fierce Lord Mortimer when he was one of the Lords Marchers
+      of Wales, and murdered, as they say, in that same tower which bears his
+      name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, I have heard the tale five hundred times," said Lambourne, "and how
+      the ghost is always most vociferous when they boil leeks and stirabout, or
+      fry toasted cheese, in the culinary regions. Santo Diavolo, man, hold thy
+      tongue, I know all about it!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but thou dost not, though," said the turnkey, "for as wise as thou
+      wouldst make thyself. Ah, it is an awful thing to murder a prisoner in his
+      ward!&mdash;you that may have given a man a stab in a dark street know
+      nothing of it. To give a mutinous fellow a knock on the head with the
+      keys, and bid him be quiet, that's what I call keeping order in the ward;
+      but to draw weapon and slay him, as was done to this Welsh lord, THAT
+      raises you a ghost that will render your prison-house untenantable by any
+      decent captive for some hundred years. And I have that regard for my
+      prisoners, poor things, that I have put good squires and men of worship,
+      that have taken a ride on the highway, or slandered my Lord of Leicester,
+      or the like, fifty feet under ground, rather than I would put them into
+      that upper chamber yonder that they call Mervyn's Bower. Indeed, by good
+      Saint Peter of the Fetters, I marvel my noble lord, or Master Varney,
+      could think of lodging guests there; and if this Master Tressilian could
+      get any one to keep him company, and in especial a pretty wench, why,
+      truly, I think he was in the right on't."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I tell thee," said Lambourne, leading the way into the turnkey's
+      apartment, "thou art an ass. Go bolt the wicket on the stair, and trouble
+      not thy noddle about ghosts. Give me the wine stoup, man; I am somewhat
+      heated with chafing with yonder rascal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Lambourne drew a long draught from a pitcher of claret, which he
+      made use of without any cup, the warder went on, vindicating his own
+      belief in the supernatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou hast been few hours in this Castle, and hast been for the whole
+      space so drunk, Lambourne, that thou art deaf, dumb, and blind. But we
+      should hear less of your bragging were you to pass a night with us at full
+      moon; for then the ghost is busiest, and more especially when a rattling
+      wind sets in from the north-west, with some sprinkling of rain, and now
+      and then a growl of thunder. Body o' me, what crackings and clashings,
+      what groanings and what howlings, will there be at such times in Mervyn's
+      Bower, right as it were over our heads, till the matter of two quarts of
+      distilled waters has not been enough to keep my lads and me in some
+      heart!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw, man!" replied Lambourne, on whom his last draught, joined to
+      repeated visitations of the pitcher upon former occasions, began to make
+      some innovation, "thou speakest thou knowest not what about spirits. No
+      one knows justly what to say about them; and, in short, least said may in
+      that matter be soonest amended. Some men believe in one thing, some in
+      another&mdash;it is all matter of fancy. I have known them of all sorts,
+      my dear Lawrence Lock-the-door, and sensible men too. There's a great lord&mdash;we'll
+      pass his name, Lawrence&mdash;he believes in the stars and the moon, the
+      planets and their courses, and so forth, and that they twinkle exclusively
+      for his benefit, when in sober, or rather in drunken truth, Lawrence, they
+      are only shining to keep honest fellows like me out of the kennel. Well,
+      sir, let his humour pass; he is great enough to indulge it. Then, look ye,
+      there is another&mdash;a very learned man, I promise you, and can vent
+      Greek and Hebrew as fast as I can Thieves' Latin he has an humour of
+      sympathies and antipathies&mdash;of changing lead into gold, and the like;
+      why, via, let that pass too, and let him pay those in transmigrated coin
+      who are fools enough to let it be current with them. Then here comest thou
+      thyself, another great man, though neither learned nor noble, yet full six
+      feet high, and thou, like a purblind mole, must needs believe in ghosts
+      and goblins, and such like. Now, there is, besides, a great man&mdash;that
+      is, a great little man, or a little great man, my dear Lawrence&mdash;and
+      his name begins with V, and what believes he? Why, nothing, honest
+      Lawrence&mdash;nothing in earth, heaven, or hell; and for my part, if I
+      believe there is a devil, it is only because I think there must be some
+      one to catch our aforesaid friend by the back 'when soul and body sever,'
+      as the ballad says; for your antecedent will have a consequent&mdash;RARO
+      ANTECEDENTEM, as Doctor Bircham was wont to say. But this is Greek to you
+      now, honest Lawrence, and in sooth learning is dry work. Hand me the
+      pitcher once more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In faith, if you drink more, Michael," said the warder, "you will be in
+      sorry case either to play Arion or to wait on your master on such a solemn
+      night; and I expect each moment to hear the great bell toll for the muster
+      at Mortimer's Tower, to receive the Queen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Staples remonstrated, Lambourne drank; and then setting down the
+      pitcher, which was nearly emptied, with a deep sigh, he said, in an
+      undertone, which soon rose to a high one as his speech proceeded, "Never
+      mind, Lawrence; if I be drunk, I know that shall make Varney uphold me
+      sober. But, as I said, never mind; I can carry my drink discreetly.
+      Moreover, I am to go on the water as Orion, and shall take cold unless I
+      take something comfortable beforehand. Not play Orion? Let us see the best
+      roarer that ever strained his lungs for twelve pence out-mouth me! What if
+      they see me a little disguised? Wherefore should any man be sober
+      to-night? answer me that. It is matter of loyalty to be merry; and I tell
+      thee there are those in the Castle who, if they are not merry when drunk,
+      have little chance to be merry when sober&mdash;I name no names, Lawrence.
+      But your pottle of sack is a fine shoeing-horn to pull on a loyal humour,
+      and a merry one. Huzza for Queen Elizabeth!&mdash;for the noble Leicester!&mdash;for
+      the worshipful Master Varney!&mdash;and for Michael Lambourne, that can
+      turn them all round his finger!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he walked downstairs, and across the inner court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The warder looked after him, shook his head, and while he drew close and
+      locked a wicket, which, crossing the staircase, rendered it impossible for
+      any one to ascend higher than the story immediately beneath Mervyn's
+      Bower, as Tressilian's chamber was named, he thus soliloquized with
+      himself&mdash;"It's a good thing to be a favourite. I well-nigh lost mine
+      office, because one frosty morning Master Varney thought I smelled of aqua
+      vitae; and this fellow can appear before him drunk as a wineskin, and yet
+      meet no rebuke. But then he is a pestilent clever fellow withal, and no
+      one can understand above one half of what he says."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Now bid the steeple rock&mdash;she comes, she comes!&mdash;
+     Speak for us, bells&mdash;speak for us, shrill-tongued tuckets.
+     Stand to thy linstock, gunner; let thy cannon
+     Play such a peal, as if a paynim foe
+     Came stretch'd in turban'd ranks to storm the ramparts.
+     We will have pageants too&mdash;but that craves wit,
+     And I'm a rough-hewn soldier.&mdash;THE VIRGIN QUEEN&mdash;A TRAGI-COMEDY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, when Wayland had left him, as mentioned in the last chapter,
+      remained uncertain what he ought next to do, when Raleigh and Blount came
+      up to him arm in arm, yet, according to their wont, very eagerly disputing
+      together. Tressilian had no great desire for their society in the present
+      state of his feelings, but there was no possibility of avoiding them; and
+      indeed he felt that, bound by his promise not to approach Amy, or take any
+      step in her behalf, it would be his best course at once to mix with
+      general society, and to exhibit on his brow as little as he could of the
+      anguish and uncertainty which sat heavy at his heart. He therefore made a
+      virtue of necessity, and hailed his comrades with, "All mirth to you,
+      gentlemen! Whence come ye?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From Warwick, to be sure," said Blount; "we must needs home to change our
+      habits, like poor players, who are fain to multiply their persons to
+      outward appearance by change of suits; and you had better do the like,
+      Tressilian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Blount is right," said Raleigh; "the Queen loves such marks of deference,
+      and notices, as wanting in respect, those who, not arriving in her
+      immediate attendance, may appear in their soiled and ruffled riding-dress.
+      But look at Blount himself, Tressilian, for the love of laughter, and see
+      how his villainous tailor hath apparelled him&mdash;in blue, green, and
+      crimson, with carnation ribbons, and yellow roses in his shoes!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what wouldst thou have?" said Blount. "I told the cross-legged thief
+      to do his best, and spare no cost; and methinks these things are gay
+      enough&mdash;gayer than thine own. I'll be judged by Tressilian."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I agree&mdash;I agree," said Walter Raleigh. "Judge betwixt us,
+      Tressilian, for the love of heaven!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, thus appealed to, looked at them both, and was immediately
+      sensible at a single glance that honest Blount had taken upon the tailor's
+      warrant the pied garments which he had chosen to make, and was as much
+      embarrassed by the quantity of points and ribbons which garnished his
+      dress, as a clown is in his holiday clothes; while the dress of Raleigh
+      was a well-fancied and rich suit, which the wearer bore as a garb too well
+      adapted to his elegant person to attract particular attention. Tressilian
+      said, therefore, "That Blount's dress was finest, but Raleigh's the best
+      fancied."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blount was satisfied with his decision. "I knew mine was finest," he said;
+      "if that knave Doublestitch had brought me home such a simple doublet as
+      that of Raleigh's, I would have beat his brains out with his own
+      pressing-iron. Nay, if we must be fools, ever let us be fools of the first
+      head, say I."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But why gettest thou not on thy braveries, Tressilian?" said Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am excluded from my apartment by a silly mistake," said Tressilian,
+      "and separated for the time from my baggage. I was about to seek thee, to
+      beseech a share of thy lodging."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And welcome," said Raleigh; "it is a noble one. My Lord of Leicester has
+      done us that kindness, and lodged us in princely fashion. If his courtesy
+      be extorted reluctantly, it is at least extended far. I would advise you
+      to tell your strait to the Earl's chamberlain&mdash;you will have instant
+      redress."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, it is not worth while, since you can spare me room," replied
+      Tressilian&mdash;"I would not be troublesome. Has any one come hither with
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, ay," said Blount; "Varney and a whole tribe of Leicestrians, besides
+      about a score of us honest Sussex folk. We are all, it seems, to receive
+      the Queen at what they call the Gallery-tower, and witness some fooleries
+      there; and then we're to remain in attendance upon the Queen in the Great
+      Hall&mdash;God bless the mark!&mdash;while those who are now waiting upon
+      her Grace get rid of their slough, and doff their riding-suits. Heaven
+      help me, if her Grace should speak to me, I shall never know what to
+      answer!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what has detained them so long at Warwick?" said Tressilian,
+      unwilling that their conversation should return to his own affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such a succession of fooleries," said Blount, "as were never seen at
+      Bartholomew-fair. We have had speeches and players, and dogs and bears,
+      and men making monkeys and women moppets of themselves&mdash;I marvel the
+      Queen could endure it. But ever and anon came in something of 'the lovely
+      light of her gracious countenance,' or some such trash. Ah! vanity makes a
+      fool of the wisest. But come, let us on to this same Gallery-tower&mdash;though
+      I see not what thou Tressilian, canst do with thy riding-dress and boots."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will take my station behind thee, Blount," said Tressilian, who saw
+      that his friend's unusual finery had taken a strong hold of his
+      imagination; "thy goodly size and gay dress will cover my defects."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so thou shalt, Edmund," said Blount. "In faith I am glad thou
+      thinkest my garb well-fancied, for all Mr. Wittypate here; for when one
+      does a foolish thing, it is right to do it handsomely."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, Blount cocked his beaver, threw out his leg, and marched
+      manfully forward, as if at the head of his brigade of pikemen, ever and
+      anon looking with complaisance on his crimson stockings, and the huge
+      yellow roses which blossomed on his shoes. Tressilian followed, wrapt in
+      his own sad thoughts, and scarce minding Raleigh, whose quick fancy,
+      amused by the awkward vanity of his respectable friend, vented itself in
+      jests, which he whispered into Tressilian's ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this manner they crossed the long bridge, or tilt-yard, and took their
+      station, with other gentlemen of quality, before the outer gate of the
+      Gallery, or Entrance-tower. The whole amounted to about forty persons, all
+      selected as of the first rank under that of knighthood, and were disposed
+      in double rows on either side of the gate, like a guard of honour, within
+      the close hedge of pikes and partisans which was formed by Leicester's
+      retainers, wearing his liveries. The gentlemen carried no arms save their
+      swords and daggers. These gallants were as gaily dressed as imagination
+      could devise; and as the garb of the time permitted a great display of
+      expensive magnificence, nought was to be seen but velvet and cloth of gold
+      and silver, ribbons, feathers, gems, and golden chains. In spite of his
+      more serious subjects of distress, Tressilian could not help feeling that
+      he, with his riding-suit, however handsome it might be, made rather an
+      unworthy figure among these "fierce vanities," and the rather because he
+      saw that his deshabille was the subject of wonder among his own friends,
+      and of scorn among the partisans of Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We could not suppress this fact, though it may seem something at variance
+      with the gravity of Tressilian's character; but the truth is, that a
+      regard for personal appearance is a species of self-love, from which the
+      wisest are not exempt, and to which the mind clings so instinctively that
+      not only the soldier advancing to almost inevitable death, but even the
+      doomed criminal who goes to certain execution, shows an anxiety to array
+      his person to the best advantage. But this is a digression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the twilight of a summer night (9th July, 1575), the sun having for
+      some time set, and all were in anxious expectation of the Queen's
+      immediate approach. The multitude had remained assembled for many hours,
+      and their numbers were still rather on the increase. A profuse
+      distribution of refreshments, together with roasted oxen, and barrels of
+      ale set a-broach in different places of the road, had kept the populace in
+      perfect love and loyalty towards the Queen and her favourite, which might
+      have somewhat abated had fasting been added to watching. They passed away
+      the time, therefore, with the usual popular amusements of whooping,
+      hallooing, shrieking, and playing rude tricks upon each other, forming the
+      chorus of discordant sounds usual on such occasions. These prevailed all
+      through the crowded roads and fields, and especially beyond the gate of
+      the Chase, where the greater number of the common sort were stationed;
+      when, all of a sudden, a single rocket was seen to shoot into the
+      atmosphere, and, at the instant, far heard over flood and field, the great
+      bell of the Castle tolled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately there was a pause of dead silence, succeeded by a deep hum of
+      expectation, the united voice of many thousands, none of whom spoke above
+      their breath&mdash;or, to use a singular expression, the whisper of an
+      immense multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They come now, for certain," said Raleigh. "Tressilian, that sound is
+      grand. We hear it from this distance as mariners, after a long voyage,
+      hear, upon their night-watch, the tide rush upon some distant and unknown
+      shore."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Mass!" answered Blount, "I hear it rather as I used to hear mine own kine
+      lowing from the close of Wittenswestlowe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will assuredly graze presently," said Raleigh to Tressilian; "his
+      thought is all of fat oxen and fertile meadows. He grows little better
+      than one of his own beeves, and only becomes grand when he is provoked to
+      pushing and goring."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We shall have him at that presently," said Tressilian, "if you spare not
+      your wit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush, I care not," answered Raleigh; "but thou too, Tressilian, hast
+      turned a kind of owl, that flies only by night&mdash;hast exchanged thy
+      songs for screechings, and good company for an ivy-tod."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But what manner of animal art thou thyself, Raleigh," said Tressilian,
+      "that thou holdest us all so lightly?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who&mdash;I?" replied Raleigh. "An eagle am I, that never will think of
+      dull earth while there is a heaven to soar in, and a sun to gaze upon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Well bragged, by Saint Barnaby!" said Blount; "but, good Master Eagle,
+      beware the cage, and beware the fowler. Many birds have flown as high that
+      I have seen stuffed with straw and hung up to scare kites.&mdash;But hark,
+      what a dead silence hath fallen on them at once!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The procession pauses," said Raleigh, "at the gate of the Chase, where a
+      sibyl, one of the FATIDICAE, meets the Queen, to tell her fortune. I saw
+      the verses; there is little savour in them, and her Grace has been already
+      crammed full with such poetical compliments. She whispered to me, during
+      the Recorder's speech yonder, at Ford-mill, as she entered the liberties
+      of Warwick, how she was 'PERTAESA BARBARAE LOQUELAE.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Queen whispered to HIM!" said Blount, in a kind of soliloquy; "Good
+      God, to what will this world come!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His further meditations were interrupted by a shout of applause from the
+      multitude, so tremendously vociferous that the country echoed for miles
+      round. The guards, thickly stationed upon the road by which the Queen was
+      to advance, caught up the acclamation, which ran like wildfire to the
+      Castle, and announced to all within that Queen Elizabeth had entered the
+      Royal Chase of Kenilworth. The whole music of the Castle sounded at once,
+      and a round of artillery, with a salvo of small arms, was discharged from
+      the battlements; but the noise of drums and trumpets, and even of the
+      cannon themselves, was but faintly heard amidst the roaring and reiterated
+      welcomes of the multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the noise began to abate, a broad glare of light was seen to appear
+      from the gate of the Park, and broadening and brightening as it came
+      nearer, advanced along the open and fair avenue that led towards the
+      Gallery-tower; and which, as we have already noticed, was lined on either
+      hand by the retainers of the Earl of Leicester. The word was passed along
+      the line, "The Queen! The Queen! Silence, and stand fast!" Onward came the
+      cavalcade, illuminated by two hundred thick waxen torches, in the hands of
+      as many horsemen, which cast a light like that of broad day all around the
+      procession, but especially on the principal group, of which the Queen
+      herself, arrayed in the most splendid manner, and blazing with jewels,
+      formed the central figure. She was mounted on a milk-white horse, which
+      she reined with peculiar grace and dignity; and in the whole of her
+      stately and noble carriage you saw the daughter of an hundred kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ladies of the court, who rode beside her Majesty, had taken especial
+      care that their own external appearance should not be more glorious than
+      their rank and the occasion altogether demanded, so that no inferior
+      luminary might appear to approach the orbit of royalty. But their personal
+      charms, and the magnificence by which, under every prudential restraint,
+      they were necessarily distinguished, exhibited them as the very flower of
+      a realm so far famed for splendour and beauty. The magnificence of the
+      courtiers, free from such restraints as prudence imposed on the ladies,
+      was yet more unbounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester, who glittered like a golden image with jewels and cloth of
+      gold, rode on her Majesty's right hand, as well in quality of her host as
+      of her master of the horse. The black steed which he mounted had not a
+      single white hair on his body, and was one of the most renowned chargers
+      in Europe, having been purchased by the Earl at large expense for this
+      royal occasion. As the noble animal chafed at the slow pace of the
+      procession, and, arching his stately neck, champed on the silver bits
+      which restrained him, the foam flew from his mouth, and speckled his
+      well-formed limbs as if with spots of snow. The rider well became the high
+      place which he held, and the proud steed which he bestrode; for no man in
+      England, or perhaps in Europe, was more perfect than Dudley in
+      horsemanship, and all other exercises belonging to his quality. He was
+      bareheaded as were all the courtiers in the train; and the red torchlight
+      shone upon his long, curled tresses of dark hair, and on his noble
+      features, to the beauty of which even the severest criticism could only
+      object the lordly fault, as it may be termed, of a forehead somewhat too
+      high. On that proud evening those features wore all the grateful
+      solicitude of a subject, to show himself sensible of the high honour which
+      the Queen was conferring on him, and all the pride and satisfaction which
+      became so glorious a moment. Yet, though neither eye nor feature betrayed
+      aught but feelings which suited the occasion, some of the Earl's personal
+      attendants remarked that he was unusually pale, and they expressed to each
+      other their fear that he was taking more fatigue than consisted with his
+      health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney followed close behind his master, as the principal esquire in
+      waiting, and had charge of his lordship's black velvet bonnet, garnished
+      with a clasp of diamonds and surmounted by a white plume. He kept his eye
+      constantly on his master, and, for reasons with which the reader is not
+      unacquainted, was, among Leicester's numerous dependants, the one who was
+      most anxious that his lord's strength and resolution should carry him
+      successfully through a day so agitating. For although Varney was one of
+      the few, the very few moral monsters who contrive to lull to sleep the
+      remorse of their own bosoms, and are drugged into moral insensibility by
+      atheism, as men in extreme agony are lulled by opium, yet he knew that in
+      the breast of his patron there was already awakened the fire that is never
+      quenched, and that his lord felt, amid all the pomp and magnificence we
+      have described, the gnawing of the worm that dieth not. Still, however,
+      assured as Lord Leicester stood, by Varney's own intelligence, that his
+      Countess laboured under an indisposition which formed an unanswerable
+      apology to the Queen for her not appearing at Kenilworth, there was little
+      danger, his wily retainer thought, that a man so ambitious would betray
+      himself by giving way to any external weakness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The train, male and female, who attended immediately upon the Queen's
+      person, were, of course, of the bravest and the fairest&mdash;the highest
+      born nobles, and the wisest counsellors, of that distinguished reign, to
+      repeat whose names were but to weary the reader. Behind came a long crowd
+      of knights and gentlemen, whose rank and birth, however distinguished,
+      were thrown into shade, as their persons into the rear of a procession
+      whose front was of such august majesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus marshalled, the cavalcade approached the Gallery-tower, which formed,
+      as we have often observed, the extreme barrier of the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now the part of the huge porter to step forward; but the lubbard
+      was so overwhelmed with confusion of spirit&mdash;the contents of one
+      immense black jack of double ale, which he had just drunk to quicken his
+      memory, having treacherously confused the brain it was intended to clear&mdash;that
+      he only groaned piteously, and remained sitting on his stone seat; and the
+      Queen would have passed on without greeting, had not the gigantic warder's
+      secret ally, Flibbertigibbet, who lay perdue behind him, thrust a pin into
+      the rear of the short femoral garment which we elsewhere described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The porter uttered a sort of yell, which came not amiss into his part,
+      started up with his club, and dealt a sound douse or two on each side of
+      him; and then, like a coach-horse pricked by the spur, started off at once
+      into the full career of his address, and by dint of active prompting on
+      the part of Dickie Sludge, delivered, in sounds of gigantic intonation, a
+      speech which may be thus abridged&mdash;the reader being to suppose that
+      the first lines were addressed to the throng who approached the gateway;
+      the conclusion, at the approach of the Queen, upon sight of whom, as
+      struck by some heavenly vision, the gigantic warder dropped his club,
+      resigned his keys, and gave open way to the Goddess of the night, and all
+      her magnificent train.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "What stir, what turmoil, have we for the nones?
+     Stand back, my masters, or beware your bones!
+     Sirs, I'm a warder, and no man of straw,
+     My voice keeps order, and my club gives law.
+
+     Yet soft&mdash;nay, stay&mdash;what vision have we here?
+     What dainty darling's this&mdash;what peerless peer?
+     What loveliest face, that loving ranks unfold,
+     Like brightest diamond chased in purest gold?
+     Dazzled and blind, mine office I forsake,
+     My club, my key, my knee, my homage take.
+     Bright paragon, pass on in joy and bliss;&mdash;
+     Beshrew the gate that opes not wide at such a sight as this!"
+
+     [This is an imitation of Gascoigne's verses spoken by the
+     Herculean porter, as mentioned in the text.  The original may be
+     found in the republication of the Princely Pleasures of
+     Kenilworth, by the same author, in the History of Kenilworth
+     already quoted.  Chiswick, 1821.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth received most graciously the homage of the Herculean porter,
+      and, bending her head to him in requital, passed through his guarded
+      tower, from the top of which was poured a clamorous blast of warlike
+      music, which was replied to by other bands of minstrelsy placed at
+      different points on the Castle walls, and by others again stationed in the
+      Chase; while the tones of the one, as they yet vibrated on the echoes,
+      were caught up and answered by new harmony from different quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst these bursts of music, which, as if the work of enchantment, seemed
+      now close at hand, now softened by distant space, now wailing so low and
+      sweet as if that distance were gradually prolonged until only the last
+      lingering strains could reach the ear, Queen Elizabeth crossed the
+      Gallery-tower, and came upon the long bridge, which extended from thence
+      to Mortimer's Tower, and which was already as light as day, so many
+      torches had been fastened to the palisades on either side. Most of the
+      nobles here alighted, and sent their horses to the neighbouring village of
+      Kenilworth, following the Queen on foot, as did the gentlemen who had
+      stood in array to receive her at the Gallery-tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this occasion, as at different times during the evening, Raleigh
+      addressed himself to Tressilian, and was not a little surprised at his
+      vague and unsatisfactory answers; which, joined to his leaving his
+      apartment without any assigned reason, appearing in an undress when it was
+      likely to be offensive to the Queen, and some other symptoms of
+      irregularity which he thought he discovered, led him to doubt whether his
+      friend did not labour under some temporary derangement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, the Queen had no sooner stepped on the bridge than a new
+      spectacle was provided; for as soon as the music gave signal that she was
+      so far advanced, a raft, so disposed as to resemble a small floating
+      island, illuminated by a great variety of torches, and surrounded by
+      floating pageants formed to represent sea-horses, on which sat Tritons,
+      Nereids, and other fabulous deities of the seas and rivers, made its
+      appearance upon the lake, and issuing from behind a small heronry where it
+      had been concealed, floated gently towards the farther end of the bridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the islet appeared a beautiful woman, clad in a watchet-coloured silken
+      mantle, bound with a broad girdle inscribed with characters like the
+      phylacteries of the Hebrews. Her feet and arms were bare, but her wrists
+      and ankles were adorned with gold bracelets of uncommon size. Amidst her
+      long, silky black hair she wore a crown or chaplet of artificial
+      mistletoe, and bore in her hand a rod of ebony tipped with silver. Two
+      Nymphs attended on her, dressed in the same antique and mystical guise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pageant was so well managed that this Lady of the Floating Island,
+      having performed her voyage with much picturesque effect, landed at
+      Mortimer's Tower with her two attendants just as Elizabeth presented
+      herself before that outwork. The stranger then, in a well-penned speech,
+      announced herself as that famous Lady of the Lake renowned in the stories
+      of King Arthur, who had nursed the youth of the redoubted Sir Lancelot,
+      and whose beauty 'had proved too powerful both for the wisdom and the
+      spells of the mighty Merlin. Since that early period she had remained
+      possessed of her crystal dominions, she said, despite the various men of
+      fame and might by whom Kenilworth had been successively tenanted. 'The
+      Saxons, the Danes, the Normans, the Saintlowes, the Clintons, the
+      Montforts, the Mortimers, the Plantagenets, great though they were in arms
+      and magnificence, had never, she said, caused her to raise her head from
+      the waters which hid her crystal palace. But a greater than all these
+      great names had now appeared, and she came in homage and duty to welcome
+      the peerless Elizabeth to all sport which the Castle and its environs,
+      which lake or land, could afford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen received this address also with great courtesy, and made answer
+      in raillery, "We thought this lake had belonged to our own dominions, fair
+      dame; but since so famed a lady claims it for hers, we will be glad at
+      some other time to have further communing with you touching our joint
+      interests."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this gracious answer the Lady of the Lake vanished, and Arion, who
+      was amongst the maritime deities, appeared upon his dolphin. But
+      Lambourne, who had taken upon him the part in the absence of Wayland,
+      being chilled with remaining immersed in an element to which he was not
+      friendly, having never got his speech by heart, and not having, like the
+      porter, the advantage of a prompter, paid it off with impudence, tearing
+      off his vizard, and swearing, "Cogs bones! he was none of Arion or Orion
+      either, but honest Mike Lambourne, that had been drinking her Majesty's
+      health from morning till midnight, and was come to bid her heartily
+      welcome to Kenilworth Castle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This unpremeditated buffoonery answered the purpose probably better than
+      the set speech would have done. The Queen laughed heartily, and swore (in
+      her turn) that he had made the best speech she had heard that day.
+      Lambourne, who instantly saw his jest had saved his bones, jumped on
+      shore, gave his dolphin a kick, and declared he would never meddle with
+      fish again, except at dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time that the Queen was about to enter the Castle, that
+      memorable discharge of fireworks by water and land took place, which
+      Master Laneham, formerly introduced to the reader, has strained all his
+      eloquence to describe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Such," says the Clerk of the Council-chamber door "was the blaze of
+      burning darts, the gleams of stars coruscant, the streams and hail of
+      fiery sparks, lightnings of wildfire, and flight-shot of thunderbolts,
+      with continuance, terror, and vehemency, that the heavens thundered, the
+      waters surged, and the earth shook; and for my part, hardy as I am, it
+      made me very vengeably afraid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [See Laneham's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at Killingworth
+      Castle, in 1575, a very diverting tract, written by as great a coxcomb as
+      ever blotted paper. [See Note 6] The original is extremely rare, but it
+      has been twice reprinted; once in Mr. Nichols's very curious and
+      interesting collection of the Progresses and Public Processions of Queen
+      Elizabeth, vol.i. and more lately in a beautiful antiquarian publication,
+      termed KENILWORTH ILLUSTRATED, printed at Chiswick, for Meridew of
+      Coventry and Radcliffe of Birmingham. It contains reprints of Laneham's
+      Letter, Gascoigne's Princely Progress, and other scarce pieces, annotated
+      with accuracy and ability. The author takes the liberty to refer to this
+      work as his authority for the account of the festivities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am indebted for a curious ground-plan of the Castle of Kenilworth, as it
+      existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, to the voluntary kindness of Richard
+      Badnall Esq. of Olivebank, near Liverpool. From his obliging
+      communication, I learn that the original sketch was found among the
+      manuscripts of the celebrated J. J. Rousseau, when he left England. These
+      were entrusted by the philosopher to the care of his friend Mr. Davenport,
+      and passed from his legatee into the possession of Mr. Badnall.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Nay, this is matter for the month of March,
+     When hares are maddest.  Either speak in reason,
+     Giving cold argument the wall of passion,
+     Or I break up the court.      &mdash;BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is by no means our purpose to detail minutely all the princely
+      festivities of Kenilworth, after the fashion of Master Robert Laneham,
+      whom we quoted in the conclusion of the last chapter. It is sufficient to
+      say that under discharge of the splendid fireworks, which we have borrowed
+      Laneham's eloquence to describe, the Queen entered the base-court of
+      Kenilworth, through Mortimer's Tower, and moving on through pageants of
+      heathen gods and heroes of antiquity, who offered gifts and compliments on
+      the bended knee, at length found her way to the Great Hall of the Castle,
+      gorgeously hung for her reception with the richest silken tapestry, misty
+      with perfumes, and sounding to strains of soft and delicious music. From
+      the highly-carved oaken roof hung a superb chandelier of gilt bronze,
+      formed like a spread eagle, whose outstretched wings supported three male
+      and three female figures, grasping a pair of branches in each hand. The
+      Hall was thus illuminated by twenty-four torches of wax. At the upper end
+      of the splendid apartment was a state canopy, overshadowing a royal
+      throne, and beside it was a door, which opened to a long suite of
+      apartments, decorated with the utmost magnificence for the Queen and her
+      ladies, whenever it should be her pleasure to be private.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Leicester having handed the Queen up to her throne, and seated
+      her there, knelt down before her, and kissing the hand which she held out,
+      with an air in which romantic and respectful gallantry was happily mingled
+      with the air of loyal devotion, he thanked her, in terms of the deepest
+      gratitude, for the highest honour which a sovereign could render to a
+      subject. So handsome did he look when kneeling before her, that Elizabeth
+      was tempted to prolong the scene a little longer than there was, strictly
+      speaking, necessity for; and ere she raised him, she passed her hand over
+      his head, so near as almost to touch his long, curled, and perfumed hair,
+      and with a movement of fondness that seemed to intimate she would, if she
+      dared, have made the motion a slight caress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [To justify what may be considered as a high-coloured picture, the author
+      quotes the original of the courtly and shrewd Sir James Melville, being
+      then Queen Mary's envoy at the court of London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I was required," says Sir James, "to stay till I had seen him made Earle
+      of Leicester, and Baron of Denbigh, with great solemnity; herself
+      (Elizabeth) helping to put on his ceremonial, he sitting on his knees
+      before her, keeping a great gravity and a discreet behaviour; but she
+      could not refrain from putting her hand to his neck to kittle (i.e.,
+      tickle) him, smilingly, the French Ambassador and I standing beside her."&mdash;MELVILLE'S
+      MEMOIRS, BANNATYNE EDITION, p. 120.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She at length raised him, and standing beside the throne, he explained to
+      her the various preparations which had been made for her amusement and
+      accommodation, all of which received her prompt and gracious approbation.
+      The Earl then prayed her Majesty for permission that he himself, and the
+      nobles who had been in attendance upon her during the journey, might
+      retire for a few minutes, and put themselves into a guise more fitting for
+      dutiful attendance, during which space those gentlemen of worship
+      (pointing to Varney, Blount, Tressilian, and others), who had already put
+      themselves into fresh attire, would have the honour of keeping her
+      presence-chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be it so, my lord," answered the Queen; "you could manage a theatre well,
+      who can thus command a double set of actors. For ourselves, we will
+      receive your courtesies this evening but clownishly, since it is not our
+      purpose to change our riding attire, being in effect something fatigued
+      with a journey which the concourse of our good people hath rendered slow,
+      though the love they have shown our person hath, at the same time, made it
+      delightful."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester, having received this permission, retired accordingly, and was
+      followed by those nobles who had attended the Queen to Kenilworth in
+      person. The gentlemen who had preceded them, and were, of course, dressed
+      for the solemnity, remained in attendance. But being most of them of
+      rather inferior rank, they remained at an awful distance from the throne
+      which Elizabeth occupied. The Queen's sharp eye soon distinguished Raleigh
+      amongst them, with one or two others who were personally known to her, and
+      she instantly made them a sign to approach, and accosted them very
+      graciously. Raleigh, in particular, the adventure of whose cloak, as well
+      as the incident of the verses, remained on her mind, was very graciously
+      received; and to him she most frequently applied for information
+      concerning the names and rank of those who were in presence. These he
+      communicated concisely, and not without some traits of humorous satire, by
+      which Elizabeth seemed much amused. "And who is yonder clownish fellow?"
+      she said, looking at Tressilian, whose soiled dress on this occasion
+      greatly obscured his good mien.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A poet, if it please your Grace," replied Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I might have guessed that from his careless garb," said Elizabeth. "I
+      have known some poets so thoughtless as to throw their cloaks into
+      gutters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must have been when the sun dazzled both their eyes and their
+      judgment," answered Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth smiled, and proceeded, "I asked that slovenly fellow's name, and
+      you only told me his profession."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian is his name," said Raleigh, with internal reluctance, for he
+      foresaw nothing favourable to his friend from the manner in which she took
+      notice of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tressilian!" answered Elizabeth. "Oh, the Menelaus of our romance. Why,
+      he has dressed himself in a guise that will go far to exculpate his fair
+      and false Helen. And where is Farnham, or whatever his name is&mdash;my
+      Lord of Leicester's man, I mean&mdash;the Paris of this Devonshire tale?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With still greater reluctance Raleigh named and pointed out to her Varney,
+      for whom the tailor had done all that art could perform in making his
+      exterior agreeable; and who, if he had not grace, had a sort of tact and
+      habitual knowledge of breeding, which came in place of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen turned her eyes from the one to the other. "I doubt," she said,
+      "this same poetical Master Tressilian, who is too learned, I warrant me,
+      to remember whose presence he was to appear in, may be one of those of
+      whom Geoffrey Chaucer says wittily, the wisest clerks are not the wisest
+      men. I remember that Varney is a smooth-tongued varlet. I doubt this fair
+      runaway hath had reasons for breaking her faith."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this Raleigh durst make no answer, aware how little he should benefit
+      Tressilian by contradicting the Queen's sentiments, and not at all
+      certain, on the whole, whether the best thing that could befall him would
+      not be that she should put an end at once by her authority to this affair,
+      upon which it seemed to him Tressilian's thoughts were fixed with
+      unavailing and distressing pertinacity. As these reflections passed
+      through his active brain, the lower door of the hall opened, and
+      Leicester, accompanied by several of his kinsmen, and of the nobles who
+      had embraced his faction, re-entered the Castle Hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The favourite Earl was now apparelled all in white, his shoes being of
+      white velvet; his under-stocks (or stockings) of knit silk; his upper
+      stocks of white velvet, lined with cloth of silver, which was shown at the
+      slashed part of the middle thigh; his doublet of cloth of silver, the
+      close jerkin of white velvet, embroidered with silver and seed-pearl, his
+      girdle and the scabbard of his sword of white velvet with golden buckles;
+      his poniard and sword hilted and mounted with gold; and over all a rich,
+      loose robe of white satin, with a border of golden embroidery a foot in
+      breadth. The collar of the Garter, and the azure garter itself around his
+      knee, completed the appointments of the Earl of Leicester; which were so
+      well matched by his fair stature, graceful gesture, fine proportion of
+      body, and handsome countenance, that at that moment he was admitted by all
+      who saw him as the goodliest person whom they had ever looked upon. Sussex
+      and the other nobles were also richly attired, but in point of splendour
+      and gracefulness of mien Leicester far exceeded them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth received him with great complacency. "We have one piece of royal
+      justice," she said, "to attend to. It is a piece of justice, too, which
+      interests us as a woman, as well as in the character of mother and
+      guardian of the English people."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An involuntary shudder came over Leicester as he bowed low, expressive of
+      his readiness to receive her royal commands; and a similar cold fit came
+      over Varney, whose eyes (seldom during that evening removed from his
+      patron) instantly perceived from the change in his looks, slight as that
+      was, of what the Queen was speaking. But Leicester had wrought his
+      resolution up to the point which, in his crooked policy, he judged
+      necessary; and when Elizabeth added, "it is of the matter of Varney and
+      Tressilian we speak&mdash;is the lady here, my lord?" his answer was ready&mdash;"Gracious
+      madam, she is not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth bent her brows and compressed her lips. "Our orders were strict
+      and positive, my lord," was her answer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And should have been obeyed, good my liege," replied Leicester, "had they
+      been expressed in the form of the lightest wish. But&mdash;Varney, step
+      forward&mdash;this gentleman will inform your Grace of the cause why the
+      lady" (he could not force his rebellious tongue to utter the words&mdash;HIS
+      WIFE) "cannot attend on your royal presence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney advanced, and pleaded with readiness, what indeed he firmly
+      believed, the absolute incapacity of the party (for neither did he dare,
+      in Leicester's presence, term her his wife) to wait on her Grace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Here," said he, "are attestations from a most learned physician, whose
+      skill and honour are well known to my good Lord of Leicester, and from an
+      honest and devout Protestant, a man of credit and substance, one Anthony
+      Foster, the gentleman in whose house she is at present bestowed, that she
+      now labours under an illness which altogether unfits her for such a
+      journey as betwixt this Castle and the neighbourhood of Oxford."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This alters the matter," said the Queen, taking the certificates in her
+      hand, and glancing at their contents.&mdash;"Let Tressilian come forward.&mdash;Master
+      Tressilian, we have much sympathy for your situation, the rather that you
+      seem to have set your heart deeply on this Amy Robsart, or Varney. Our
+      power, thanks to God, and the willing obedience of a loving people, is
+      worth much, but there are some things which it cannot compass. We cannot,
+      for example, command the affections of a giddy young girl, or make her
+      love sense and learning better than a courtier's fine doublet; and we
+      cannot control sickness, with which it seems this lady is afflicted, who
+      may not, by reason of such infirmity, attend our court here, as we had
+      required her to do. Here are the testimonials of the physician who hath
+      her under his charge, and the gentleman in whose house she resides, so
+      setting forth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Under your Majesty's favour," said Tressilian hastily, and in his alarm
+      for the consequence of the imposition practised on the Queen forgetting in
+      part at least his own promise to Amy, "these certificates speak not the
+      truth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, sir!" said the Queen&mdash;"impeach my Lord of Leicester's veracity!
+      But you shall have a fair hearing. In our presence the meanest of our
+      subjects shall be heard against the proudest, and the least known against
+      the most favoured; therefore you shall be heard fairly, but beware you
+      speak not without a warrant! Take these certificates in your own hand,
+      look at them carefully, and say manfully if you impugn the truth of them,
+      and upon what evidence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Queen spoke, his promise and all its consequences rushed on the
+      mind of the unfortunate Tressilian, and while it controlled his natural
+      inclination to pronounce that a falsehood which he knew from the evidence
+      of his senses to be untrue, gave an indecision and irresolution to his
+      appearance and utterance which made strongly against him in the mind of
+      Elizabeth, as well as of all who beheld him. He turned the papers over and
+      over, as if he had been an idiot, incapable of comprehending their
+      contents. The Queen's impatience began to become visible. "You are a
+      scholar, sir," she said, "and of some note, as I have heard; yet you seem
+      wondrous slow in reading text hand. How say you, are these certificates
+      true or no?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said Tressilian, with obvious embarrassment and hesitation,
+      anxious to avoid admitting evidence which he might afterwards have reason
+      to confute, yet equally desirous to keep his word to Amy, and to give her,
+      as he had promised, space to plead her own cause in her own way&mdash;"Madam&mdash;Madam,
+      your Grace calls on me to admit evidence which ought to be proved valid by
+      those who found their defence upon them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, Tressilian, thou art critical as well as poetical," said the Queen,
+      bending on him a brow of displeasure; "methinks these writings, being
+      produced in the presence of the noble Earl to whom this Castle pertains,
+      and his honour being appealed to as the guarantee of their authenticity,
+      might be evidence enough for thee. But since thou listest to be so formal&mdash;Varney,
+      or rather my Lord of Leicester, for the affair becomes yours" (these
+      words, though spoken at random, thrilled through the Earl's marrow and
+      bones), "what evidence have you as touching these certificates?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney hastened to reply, preventing Leicester&mdash;"So please your
+      Majesty, my young Lord of Oxford, who is here in presence, knows Master
+      Anthony Foster's hand and his character."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Oxford, a young unthrift, whom Foster had more than once
+      accommodated with loans on usurious interest, acknowledged, on this
+      appeal, that he knew him as a wealthy and independent franklin, supposed
+      to be worth much money, and verified the certificate produced to be his
+      handwriting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And who speaks to the Doctor's certificate?" said the Queen. "Alasco,
+      methinks, is his name."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Masters, her Majesty's physician (not the less willingly that he
+      remembered his repulse from Sayes Court, and thought that his present
+      testimony might gratify Leicester, and mortify the Earl of Sussex and his
+      faction), acknowledged he had more than once consulted with Doctor Alasco,
+      and spoke of him as a man of extraordinary learning and hidden
+      acquirements, though not altogether in the regular course of practice. The
+      Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Leicester's brother-in-law, and the old Countess
+      of Rutland, next sang his praises, and both remembered the thin, beautiful
+      Italian hand in which he was wont to write his receipts, and which
+      corresponded to the certificate produced as his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And now, I trust, Master Tressilian, this matter is ended," said the
+      Queen. "We will do something ere the night is older to reconcile old Sir
+      Hugh Robsart to the match. You have done your duty something more than
+      boldly; but we were no woman had we not compassion for the wounds which
+      true love deals, so we forgive your audacity, and your uncleansed boots
+      withal, which have well-nigh overpowered my Lord of Leicester's perfumes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So spoke Elizabeth, whose nicety of scent was one of the characteristics
+      of her organization, as appeared long afterwards when she expelled Essex
+      from her presence, on a charge against his boots similar to that which she
+      now expressed against those of Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Tressilian had by this time collected himself, astonished as he had at
+      first been by the audacity of the falsehood so feasibly supported, and
+      placed in array against the evidence of his own eyes. He rushed forward,
+      kneeled down, and caught the Queen by the skirt of her robe. "As you are
+      Christian woman," he said, "madam, as you are crowned Queen, to do equal
+      justice among your subjects&mdash;as you hope yourself to have fair
+      hearing (which God grant you) at that last bar at which we must all plead,
+      grant me one small request! Decide not this matter so hastily. Give me but
+      twenty-four hours' interval, and I will, at the end of that brief space,
+      produce evidence which will show to demonstration that these certificates,
+      which state this unhappy lady to be now ill at ease in Oxfordshire, are
+      false as hell!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let go my train, sir!" said Elizabeth, who was startled at his vehemence,
+      though she had too much of the lion in her to fear; "the fellow must be
+      distraught. That witty knave, my godson Harrington, must have him into his
+      rhymes of Orlando Furioso! And yet, by this light, there is something
+      strange in the vehemence of his demand.&mdash;Speak, Tressilian, what wilt
+      thou do if, at the end of these four-and-twenty hours, thou canst not
+      confute a fact so solemnly proved as this lady's illness?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will lay down my head on the block," answered Tressilian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw!" replied the Queen, "God's light! thou speakest like a fool. What
+      head falls in England but by just sentence of English law? I ask thee, man&mdash;if
+      thou hast sense to understand me&mdash;wilt thou, if thou shalt fail in
+      this improbable attempt of thine, render me a good and sufficient reason
+      why thou dost undertake it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian paused, and again hesitated; because he felt convinced that if,
+      within the interval demanded, Amy should become reconciled to her husband,
+      he would in that case do her the worst of offices by again ripping up the
+      whole circumstances before Elizabeth, and showing how that wise and
+      jealous princess had been imposed upon by false testimonials. The
+      consciousness of this dilemma renewed his extreme embarrassment of look,
+      voice, and manner; he hesitated, looked down, and on the Queen repeating
+      her question with a stern voice and flashing eye, he admitted with
+      faltering words, "That it might be&mdash;he could not positively&mdash;that
+      is, in certain events&mdash;explain the reasons and grounds on which he
+      acted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, by the soul of King Henry," said the Queen, "this is either
+      moonstruck madness or very knavery!&mdash;Seest thou, Raleigh, thy friend
+      is far too Pindaric for this presence. Have him away, and make us quit of
+      him, or it shall be the worse for him; for his flights are too unbridled
+      for any place but Parnassus, or Saint Luke's Hospital. But come back
+      instantly thyself, when he is placed under fitting restraint.&mdash;We
+      wish we had seen the beauty which could make such havoc in a wise man's
+      brain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian was again endeavouring to address the Queen, when Raleigh, in
+      obedience to the orders he had received, interfered, and with Blount's
+      assistance, half led, half forced him out of the presence-chamber, where
+      he himself indeed began to think his appearance did his cause more harm
+      than good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had attained the antechamber, Raleigh entreated Blount to see
+      Tressilian safely conducted into the apartments allotted to the Earl of
+      Sussex's followers, and, if necessary, recommended that a guard should be
+      mounted on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This extravagant passion," he said, "and, as it would seem, the news of
+      the lady's illness, has utterly wrecked his excellent judgment. But it
+      will pass away if he be kept quiet. Only let him break forth again at no
+      rate; for he is already far in her Highness's displeasure, and should she
+      be again provoked, she will find for him a worse place of confinement, and
+      sterner keepers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I judged as much as that he was mad," said Nicholas Blount, looking down
+      upon his own crimson stockings and yellow roses, "whenever I saw him
+      wearing yonder damned boots, which stunk so in her nostrils. I will but
+      see him stowed, and be back with you presently. But, Walter, did the Queen
+      ask who I was?&mdash;methought she glanced an eye at me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Twenty&mdash;twenty eye-glances she sent! and I told her all&mdash;how
+      thou wert a brave soldier, and a&mdash;But for God's sake, get off
+      Tressilian!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will&mdash;I will," said Blount; "but methinks this court-haunting is
+      no such bad pastime, after all. We shall rise by it, Walter, my brave lad.
+      Thou saidst I was a good soldier, and a&mdash;what besides, dearest
+      Walter?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An all unutterable-codshead. For God's sake, begone!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, without further resistance or expostulation followed, or
+      rather suffered himself to be conducted by Blount to Raleigh's lodging,
+      where he was formally installed into a small truckle-bed placed in a
+      wardrobe, and designed for a domestic. He saw but too plainly that no
+      remonstrances would avail to procure the help or sympathy of his friends,
+      until the lapse of the time for which he had pledged himself to remain
+      inactive should enable him either to explain the whole circumstances to
+      them, or remove from him every pretext or desire of further interference
+      with the fortunes of Amy, by her having found means to place herself in a
+      state of reconciliation with her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With great difficulty, and only by the most patient and mild remonstrances
+      with Blount, he escaped the disgrace and mortification of having two of
+      Sussex's stoutest yeomen quartered in his apartment. At last, however,
+      when Nicholas had seen him fairly deposited in his truckle-bed, and had
+      bestowed one or two hearty kicks, and as hearty curses, on the boots,
+      which, in his lately acquired spirit of foppery, he considered as a strong
+      symptom, if not the cause, of his friend's malady, he contented himself
+      with the modified measure of locking the door on the unfortunate
+      Tressilian, whose gallant and disinterested efforts to save a female who
+      had treated him with ingratitude thus terminated for the present in the
+      displeasure of his Sovereign and the conviction of his friends that he was
+      little better than a madman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The wisest Sovereigns err like private men,
+     And royal hand has sometimes laid the sword
+     Of chivalry upon a worthless shoulder,
+     Which better had been branded by the hangman.
+     What then?&mdash;Kings do their best; and they and we
+     Must answer for the intent, and not the event.&mdash;OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "It is a melancholy matter," said the Queen, when Tressilian was
+      withdrawn, "to see a wise and learned man's wit thus pitifully unsettled.
+      Yet this public display of his imperfection of brain plainly shows us that
+      his supposed injury and accusation were fruitless; and therefore, my Lord
+      of Leicester, we remember your suit formerly made to us in behalf of your
+      faithful servant Varney, whose good gifts and fidelity, as they are useful
+      to you, ought to have due reward from us, knowing well that your lordship,
+      and all you have, are so earnestly devoted to our service. And we render
+      Varney the honour more especially that we are a guest, and, we fear, a
+      chargeable and troublesome one, under your lordship's roof; and also for
+      the satisfaction of the good old Knight of Devon, Sir Hugh Robsart, whose
+      daughter he hath married, and we trust the especial mark of grace which we
+      are about to confer may reconcile him to his son-in-law.&mdash;Your sword,
+      my Lord of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl unbuckled his sword, and taking it by the point, presented on
+      bended knee the hilt to Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took it slowly drew it from the scabbard, and while the ladies who
+      stood around turned away their eyes with real or affected shuddering, she
+      noted with a curious eye the high polish and rich, damasked ornaments upon
+      the glittering blade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Had I been a man," she said, "methinks none of my ancestors would have
+      loved a good sword better. As it is with me, I like to look on one, and
+      could, like the Fairy of whom I have read in some Italian rhymes&mdash;were
+      my godson Harrington here, he could tell me the passage&mdash;even trim my
+      hair, and arrange my head-gear, in such a steel mirror as this is.&mdash;Richard
+      Varney, come forth, and kneel down. In the name of God and Saint George,
+      we dub thee knight! Be Faithful, Brave, and Fortunate. Arise, Sir Richard
+      Varney."
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [The incident alluded to occurs in the poem of Orlando Innamorato
+     of Boiardo, libro ii. canto 4, stanza 25.
+
+     "Non era per ventura," etc.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It may be rendered thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     As then, perchance, unguarded was the tower,
+     So enter'd free Anglante's dauntless knight.
+     No monster and no giant guard the bower
+     In whose recess reclined the fairy light,
+     Robed in a loose cymar of lily white,
+     And on her lap a sword of breadth and might,
+     In whose broad blade, as in a mirror bright,
+     Like maid that trims her for a festal night,
+     The fairy deck'd her hair, and placed her coronet aright.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth's attachment to the Italian school of poetry was singularly
+      manifested on a well-known occasion. Her godson, Sir John Harrington,
+      having offended her delicacy by translating some of the licentious
+      passages of the Orlando Furioso, she imposed on him, as a penance, the
+      task of rendering the WHOLE poem into English.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney arose and retired, making a deep obeisance to the Sovereign who had
+      done him so much honour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The buckling of the spur, and what other rites remain," said the Queen,
+      "may be finished to-morrow in the chapel; for we intend Sir Richard Varney
+      a companion in his honours. And as we must not be partial in conferring
+      such distinction, we mean on this matter to confer with our cousin of
+      Sussex."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That noble Earl, who since his arrival at Kenilworth, and indeed since the
+      commencement of this Progress, had found himself in a subordinate
+      situation to Leicester, was now wearing a heavy cloud on his brow; a
+      circumstance which had not escaped the Queen, who hoped to appease his
+      discontent, and to follow out her system of balancing policy by a mark of
+      peculiar favour, the more gratifying as it was tendered at a moment when
+      his rival's triumph appeared to be complete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the summons of Queen Elizabeth, Sussex hastily approached her person;
+      and being asked on which of his followers, being a gentleman and of merit,
+      he would wish the honour of knighthood to be conferred, he answered, with
+      more sincerity than policy, that he would have ventured to speak for
+      Tressilian, to whom he conceived he owed his own life, and who was a
+      distinguished soldier and scholar, besides a man of unstained lineage,
+      "only," he said, "he feared the events of that night&mdash;" And then he
+      stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am glad your lordship is thus considerate," said Elizabeth. "The events
+      of this night would make us, in the eyes of our subjects, as mad as this
+      poor brain-sick gentleman himself&mdash;for we ascribe his conduct to no
+      malice&mdash;should we choose this moment to do him grace."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In that case," said the Earl of Sussex, somewhat discountenanced, "your
+      Majesty will allow me to name my master of the horse, Master Nicholas
+      Blount, a gentleman of fair estate and ancient name, who has served your
+      Majesty both in Scotland and Ireland, and brought away bloody marks on his
+      person, all honourably taken and requited."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen could not help shrugging her shoulders slightly even at this
+      second suggestion; and the Duchess of Rutland, who read in the Queen's
+      manner that she had expected that Sussex would have named Raleigh, and
+      thus would have enabled her to gratify her own wish while she honoured his
+      recommendation, only waited the Queen's assent to what he had proposed,
+      and then said that she hoped, since these two high nobles had been each
+      permitted to suggest a candidate for the honours of chivalry, she, in
+      behalf of the ladies in presence, might have a similar indulgence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I were no woman to refuse you such a boon," said the Queen, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then," pursued the Duchess, "in the name of these fair ladies present, I
+      request your Majesty to confer the rank of knighthood on Walter Raleigh,
+      whose birth, deeds of arms, and promptitude to serve our sex with sword or
+      pen, deserve such distinction from us all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Gramercy, fair ladies," said Elizabeth, smiling, "your boon is granted,
+      and the gentle squire Lack-Cloak shall become the good knight Lack-Cloak,
+      at your desire. Let the two aspirants for the honour of chivalry step
+      forward."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blount was not as yet returned from seeing Tressilian, as he conceived,
+      safely disposed of; but Raleigh came forth, and kneeling down, received at
+      the hand of the Virgin Queen that title of honour, which was never
+      conferred on a more distinguished or more illustrious object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterwards Nicholas Blount entered, and hastily apprised by
+      Sussex, who met him at the door of the hall, of the Queen's gracious
+      purpose regarding him, he was desired to advance towards the throne. It is
+      a sight sometimes seen, and it is both ludicrous and pitiable; when an
+      honest man of plain common sense is surprised, by the coquetry of a pretty
+      woman, or any other cause, into those frivolous fopperies which only sit
+      well upon the youthful, the gay, and those to whom long practice has
+      rendered them a second nature. Poor Blount was in this situation. His head
+      was already giddy from a consciousness of unusual finery, and the supposed
+      necessity of suiting his manners to the gaiety of his dress; and now this
+      sudden view of promotion altogether completed the conquest of the newly
+      inhaled spirit of foppery over his natural disposition, and converted a
+      plain, honest, awkward man into a coxcomb of a new and most ridiculous
+      kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight-expectant advanced up the hall, the whole length of which he
+      had unfortunately to traverse, turning out his toes with so much zeal that
+      he presented his leg at every step with its broadside foremost, so that it
+      greatly resembled an old-fashioned table-knife with a curved point, when
+      seen sideways. The rest of his gait was in proportion to this unhappy
+      amble; and the implied mixture of bashful rear and self-satisfaction was
+      so unutterably ridiculous that Leicester's friends did not suppress a
+      titter, in which many of Sussex's partisans were unable to resist joining,
+      though ready to eat their nails with mortification. Sussex himself lost
+      all patience, and could not forbear whispering into the ear of his friend,
+      "Curse thee! canst thou not walk like a man and a soldier?" an
+      interjection which only made honest Blount start and stop, until a glance
+      at his yellow roses and crimson stockings restored his self-confidence,
+      when on he went at the same pace as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen conferred on poor Blount the honour of knighthood with a marked
+      sense of reluctance. That wise Princess was fully aware of the propriety
+      of using great circumspection and economy in bestowing those titles of
+      honour, which the Stewarts, who succeeded to her throne, distributed with
+      an imprudent liberality which greatly diminished their value. Blount had
+      no sooner arisen and retired than she turned to the Duchess of Rutland.
+      "Our woman wit," she said, "dear Rutland, is sharper than that of those
+      proud things in doublet and hose. Seest thou, out of these three knights,
+      thine is the only true metal to stamp chivalry's imprint upon?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir Richard Varney, surely&mdash;the friend of my Lord of Leicester&mdash;surely
+      he has merit," replied the Duchess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney has a sly countenance and a smooth tongue," replied the Queen; "I
+      fear me he will prove a knave. But the promise was of ancient standing. My
+      Lord of Sussex must have lost his own wits, I think, to recommend to us
+      first a madman like Tressilian, and then a clownish fool like this other
+      fellow. I protest, Rutland, that while he sat on his knees before me,
+      mopping and mowing as if he had scalding porridge in his mouth, I had much
+      ado to forbear cutting him over the pate, instead of striking his
+      shoulder."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Majesty gave him a smart ACCOLADE," said the Duchess; "we who stood
+      behind heard the blade clatter on his collar-bone, and the poor man
+      fidgeted too as if he felt it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I could not help it, wench," said the Queen, laughing. "But we will have
+      this same Sir Nicholas sent to Ireland or Scotland, or somewhere, to rid
+      our court of so antic a chevalier; he may be a good soldier in the field,
+      though a preposterous ass in a banqueting-hall."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discourse became then more general, and soon after there was a summons
+      to the banquet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In order to obey this signal, the company were under the necessity of
+      crossing the inner court of the Castle, that they might reach the new
+      buildings containing the large banqueting-room, in which preparations for
+      supper were made upon a scale of profuse magnificence, corresponding to
+      the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The livery cupboards were loaded with plate of the richest description,
+      and the most varied&mdash;some articles tasteful, some perhaps grotesque,
+      in the invention and decoration, but all gorgeously magnificent, both from
+      the richness of the work and value of the materials. Thus the chief table
+      was adorned by a salt, ship-fashion, made of mother-of-pearl, garnished
+      with silver and divers warlike ensigns and other ornaments, anchors,
+      sails, and sixteen pieces of ordnance. It bore a figure of Fortune, placed
+      on a globe, with a flag in her hand. Another salt was fashioned of silver,
+      in form of a swan in full sail. That chivalry might not be omitted amid
+      this splendour, a silver Saint George was presented, mounted and equipped
+      in the usual fashion in which he bestrides the dragon. The figures were
+      moulded to be in some sort useful. The horse's tail was managed to hold a
+      case of knives, while the breast of the dragon presented a similar
+      accommodation for oyster knives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the passage from the hall of reception to the
+      banqueting-room, and especially in the courtyard, the new-made knights
+      were assailed by the heralds, pursuivants, minstrels, etc., with the usual
+      cry of LARGESSE, LARGESSE, CHEVALIERS TRES HARDIS! an ancient invocation,
+      intended to awaken the bounty of the acolytes of chivalry towards those
+      whose business it was to register their armorial bearings, and celebrate
+      the deeds by which they were illustrated. The call was, of course,
+      liberally and courteously answered by those to whom it was addressed.
+      Varney gave his largesse with an affectation of complaisance and humility.
+      Raleigh bestowed his with the graceful ease peculiar to one who has
+      attained his own place, and is familiar with its dignity. Honest Blount
+      gave what his tailor had left him of his half-year's rent, dropping some
+      pieces in his hurry, then stooping down to look for them, and then
+      distributing them amongst the various claimants, with the anxious face and
+      mien of the parish beadle dividing a dole among paupers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The donations were accepted with the usual clamour and VIVATS of applause
+      common on such occasions; but as the parties gratified were chiefly
+      dependants of Lord Leicester, it was Varney whose name was repeated with
+      the loudest acclamations. Lambourne, especially, distinguished himself by
+      his vociferations of "Long life to Sir Richard Varney!&mdash;Health and
+      honour to Sir Richard!&mdash;Never was a more worthy knight dubbed!"&mdash;then,
+      suddenly sinking his voice, he added&mdash;"since the valiant Sir Pandarus
+      of Troy,"&mdash;a winding-up of his clamorous applause which set all men
+      a-laughing who were within hearing of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is unnecessary to say anything further of the festivities of the
+      evening, which were so brilliant in themselves, and received with such
+      obvious and willing satisfaction by the Queen, that Leicester retired to
+      his own apartment with all the giddy raptures of successful ambition.
+      Varney, who had changed his splendid attire, and now waited on his patron
+      in a very modest and plain undress, attended to do the honours of the
+      Earl's COUCHER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! Sir Richard," said Leicester, smiling, "your new rank scarce suits
+      the humility of this attendance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would disown that rank, my Lord," said Varney, "could I think it was to
+      remove me to a distance from your lordship's person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a grateful fellow," said Leicester; "but I must not allow you to
+      do what would abate you in the opinion of others."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus speaking, he still accepted without hesitation the offices
+      about his person, which the new-made knight seemed to render as eagerly as
+      if he had really felt, in discharging the task, that pleasure which his
+      words expressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not afraid of men's misconstruction," he said, in answer to
+      Leicester's remark, "since there is not&mdash;(permit me to undo the
+      collar)&mdash;a man within the Castle who does not expect very soon to see
+      persons of a rank far superior to that which, by your goodness, I now
+      hold, rendering the duties of the bedchamber to you, and accounting it an
+      honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It might, indeed, so have been"&mdash;said the Earl, with an involuntary
+      sigh; and then presently added, "My gown, Varney; I will look out on the
+      night. Is not the moon near to the full?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think so, my lord, according to the calendar," answered Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an abutting window, which opened on a small projecting balcony
+      of stone, battlemented as is usual in Gothic castles. The Earl undid the
+      lattice, and stepped out into the open air. The station he had chosen
+      commanded an extensive view of the lake and woodlands beyond, where the
+      bright moonlight rested on the clear blue waters and the distant masses of
+      oak and elm trees. The moon rode high in the heavens, attended by
+      thousands and thousands of inferior luminaries. All seemed already to be
+      hushed in the nether world, excepting occasionally the voice of the watch
+      (for the yeomen of the guard performed that duty wherever the Queen was
+      present in person) and the distant baying of the hounds, disturbed by the
+      preparations amongst the grooms and prickers for a magnificent hunt, which
+      was to be the amusement of the next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester looked out on the blue arch of heaven, with gestures and a
+      countenance expressive of anxious exultation, while Varney, who remained
+      within the darkened apartment, could (himself unnoticed), with a secret
+      satisfaction, see his patron stretch his hands with earnest gesticulation
+      towards the heavenly bodies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ye distant orbs of living fire," so ran the muttered invocation of the
+      ambitious Earl, "ye are silent while you wheel your mystic rounds; but
+      Wisdom has given to you a voice. Tell me, then, to what end is my high
+      course destined? Shall the greatness to which I have aspired be bright,
+      pre-eminent, and stable as your own; or am I but doomed to draw a brief
+      and glittering train along the nightly darkness, and then to sink down to
+      earth, like the base refuse of those artificial fires with which men
+      emulate your rays?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked on the heavens in profound silence for a minute or two longer,
+      and then again stepped into the apartment, where Varney seemed to have
+      been engaged in putting the Earl's jewels into a casket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What said Alasco of my horoscope?" demanded Leicester. "You already told
+      me; but it has escaped me, for I think but lightly of that art."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Many learned and great men have thought otherwise," said Varney; "and,
+      not to flatter your lordship, my own opinion leans that way."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, Saul among the prophets?" said Leicester. "I thought thou wert
+      sceptical in all such matters as thou couldst neither see, hear, smell,
+      taste, or touch, and that thy belief was limited by thy senses."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps, my lord," said Varney, "I may be misled on the present occasion
+      by my wish to find the predictions of astrology true. Alasco says that
+      your favourite planet is culminating, and that the adverse influence&mdash;he
+      would not use a plainer term&mdash;though not overcome, was evidently
+      combust, I think he said, or retrograde."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is even so," said Leicester, looking at an abstract of astrological
+      calculations which he had in his hand; "the stronger influence will
+      prevail, and, as I think, the evil hour pass away. Lend me your hand, Sir
+      Richard, to doff my gown; and remain an instant, if it is not too
+      burdensome to your knighthood, while I compose myself to sleep. I believe
+      the bustle of this day has fevered my blood, for it streams through my
+      veins like a current of molten lead. Remain an instant, I pray you&mdash;I
+      would fain feel my eyes heavy ere I closed them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney officiously assisted his lord to bed, and placed a massive silver
+      night-lamp, with a short sword, on a marble table which stood close by the
+      head of the couch. Either in order to avoid the light of the lamp, or to
+      hide his countenance from Varney, Leicester drew the curtain, heavy with
+      entwined silk and gold, so as completely to shade his face. Varney took a
+      seat near the bed, but with his back towards his master, as if to intimate
+      that he was not watching him, and quietly waited till Leicester himself
+      led the way to the topic by which his mind was engrossed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so, Varney," said the Earl, after waiting in vain till his dependant
+      should commence the conversation, "men talk of the Queen's favour towards
+      me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, my good lord," said Varney; "of what can they else, since it is so
+      strongly manifested?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is indeed my good and gracious mistress," said Leicester, after
+      another pause; "but it is written, 'Put not thy trust in princes.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A good sentence and a true," said Varney, "unless you can unite their
+      interest with yours so absolutely that they must needs sit on your wrist
+      like hooded hawks."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know what thou meanest," said Leicester impatiently, "though thou art
+      to-night so prudentially careful of what thou sayest to me. Thou wouldst
+      intimate I might marry the Queen if I would?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is your speech, my lord, not mine," answered Varney; "but whosesoever
+      be the speech, it is the thought of ninety-nine out of an hundred men
+      throughout broad England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, but," said Leicester, turning himself in his bed, "the hundredth man
+      knows better. Thou, for example, knowest the obstacle that cannot be
+      overleaped."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It must, my lord, if the stars speak true," said Varney composedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, talkest thou of them," said Leicester, "that believest not in them
+      or in aught else?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You mistake, my lord, under your gracious pardon," said Varney; "I
+      believe in many things that predict the future. I believe, if showers fall
+      in April, that we shall have flowers in May; that if the sun shines, grain
+      will ripen; and I believe in much natural philosophy to the same effect,
+      which, if the stars swear to me, I will say the stars speak the truth. And
+      in like manner, I will not disbelieve that which I see wished for and
+      expected on earth, solely because the astrologers have read it in the
+      heavens."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art right," said Leicester, again tossing himself on his couch
+      "Earth does wish for it. I have had advices from the reformed churches of
+      Germany&mdash;from the Low Countries&mdash;from Switzerland&mdash;urging
+      this as a point on which Europe's safety depends. France will not oppose
+      it. The ruling party in Scotland look to it as their best security. Spain
+      fears it, but cannot prevent it. And yet thou knowest it is impossible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I know not that, my lord," said Varney; "the Countess is indisposed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Villain!" said Leicester, starting up on his couch, and seizing the sword
+      which lay on the table beside him, "go thy thoughts that way?&mdash;thou
+      wouldst not do murder?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For whom, or what, do you hold me, my lord?" said Varney, assuming the
+      superiority of an innocent man subjected to unjust suspicion. "I said
+      nothing to deserve such a horrid imputation as your violence infers. I
+      said but that the Countess was ill. And Countess though she be&mdash;lovely
+      and beloved as she is&mdash;surely your lordship must hold her to be
+      mortal? She may die, and your lordship's hand become once more your own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Away! away!" said Leicester; "let me have no more of this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good night, my lord," said Varney, seeming to understand this as a
+      command to depart; but Leicester's voice interrupted his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou 'scapest me not thus, Sir Fool," said he; "I think thy knighthood
+      has addled thy brains. Confess thou hast talked of impossibilities as of
+      things which may come to pass."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord, long live your fair Countess," said Varney; "but neither your
+      love nor my good wishes can make her immortal. But God grant she live long
+      to be happy herself, and to render you so! I see not but you may be King
+      of England notwithstanding."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, now, Varney, thou art stark mad," said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would I were myself within the same nearness to a good estate of
+      freehold," said Varney. "Have we not known in other countries how a
+      left-handed marriage might subsist betwixt persons of differing degree?&mdash;ay,
+      and be no hindrance to prevent the husband from conjoining himself
+      afterwards with a more suitable partner?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard of such things in Germany," said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, and the most learned doctors in foreign universities justify the
+      practice from the Old Testament," said Varney. "And after all, where is
+      the harm? The beautiful partner whom you have chosen for true love has
+      your secret hours of relaxation and affection. Her fame is safe her
+      conscience may slumber securely. You have wealth to provide royally for
+      your issue, should Heaven bless you with offspring. Meanwhile you may give
+      to Elizabeth ten times the leisure, and ten thousand times the affection,
+      that ever Don Philip of Spain spared to her sister Mary; yet you know how
+      she doted on him though so cold and neglectful. It requires but a close
+      mouth and an open brow, and you keep your Eleanor and your fair Rosamond
+      far enough separate. Leave me to build you a bower to which no jealous
+      Queen shall find a clew."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was silent for a moment, then sighed, and said, "It is
+      impossible. Good night, Sir Richard Varney&mdash;yet stay. Can you guess
+      what meant Tressilian by showing himself in such careless guise before the
+      Queen to-day?&mdash;to strike her tender heart, I should guess, with all
+      the sympathies due to a lover abandoned by his mistress and abandoning
+      himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, smothering a sneering laugh, answered, "He believed Master
+      Tressilian had no such matter in his head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!" said Leicester; "what meanest thou? There is ever knavery in that
+      laugh of thine, Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I only meant, my lord," said Varney, "that Tressilian has taken the sure
+      way to avoid heart-breaking. He hath had a companion&mdash;a female
+      companion&mdash;a mistress&mdash;a sort of player's wife or sister, as I
+      believe&mdash;with him in Mervyn's Bower, where I quartered him for
+      certain reasons of my own."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A mistress!&mdash;meanest thou a paramour?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, my lord; what female else waits for hours in a gentleman's chamber?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By my faith, time and space fitting, this were a good tale to tell," said
+      Leicester. "I ever distrusted those bookish, hypocritical,
+      seeming-virtuous scholars. Well&mdash;Master Tressilian makes somewhat
+      familiar with my house; if I look it over, he is indebted to it for
+      certain recollections. I would not harm him more than I can help. Keep eye
+      on him, however, Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I lodged him for that reason," said Varney, "in Mervyn's Tower, where he
+      is under the eye of my very vigilant, if he were not also my very drunken,
+      servant, Michael Lambourne, whom I have told your Grace of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Grace!" said Leicester; "what meanest thou by that epithet?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It came unawares, my lord; and yet it sounds so very natural that I
+      cannot recall it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is thine own preferment that hath turned thy brain," said Leicester,
+      laughing; "new honours are as heady as new wine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May your lordship soon have cause to say so from experience," said
+      Varney; and wishing his patron good night, he withdrew. [See Note 8.
+      Furniture of Kenilworth.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Here stands the victim&mdash;there the proud betrayer,
+     E'en as the hind pull'd down by strangling dogs
+     Lies at the hunter's feet&mdash;who courteous proffers
+     To some high dame, the Dian of the chase,
+     To whom he looks for guerdon, his sharp blade,
+     To gash the sobbing throat.       &mdash;THE WOODSMAN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We are now to return to Mervyn's Bower, the apartment, or rather the
+      prison, of the unfortunate Countess of Leicester, who for some time kept
+      within bounds her uncertainty and her impatience. She was aware that, in
+      the tumult of the day, there might be some delay ere her letter could be
+      safely conveyed to the hands of Leicester, and that some time more might
+      elapse ere he could extricate himself from the necessary attendance on
+      Elizabeth, to come and visit her in her secret bower. "I will not expect
+      him," she said, "till night; he cannot be absent from his royal guest,
+      even to see me. He will, I know, come earlier if it be possible, but I
+      will not expect him before night." And yet all the while she did expect
+      him; and while she tried to argue herself into a contrary belief, each
+      hasty noise of the hundred which she heard sounded like the hurried step
+      of Leicester on the staircase, hasting to fold her in his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fatigue of body which Amy had lately undergone, with the agitation of
+      mind natural to so cruel a state of uncertainty, began by degrees strongly
+      to affect her nerves, and she almost feared her total inability to
+      maintain the necessary self-command through the scenes which might lie
+      before her. But although spoiled by an over-indulgent system of education,
+      Amy had naturally a mind of great power, united with a frame which her
+      share in her father's woodland exercises had rendered uncommonly healthy.
+      She summoned to her aid such mental and bodily resources; and not
+      unconscious how much the issue of her fate might depend on her own
+      self-possession, she prayed internally for strength of body and for mental
+      fortitude, and resolved at the same time to yield to no nervous impulse
+      which might weaken either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet when the great bell of the Castle, which was placed in Caesar's Tower,
+      at no great distance from that called Mervyn's, began to send its pealing
+      clamour abroad, in signal of the arrival of the royal procession, the din
+      was so painfully acute to ears rendered nervously sensitive by anxiety,
+      that she could hardly forbear shrieking with anguish, in answer to every
+      stunning clash of the relentless peal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterwards, when the small apartment was at once enlightened by
+      the shower of artificial fires with which the air was suddenly filled, and
+      which crossed each other like fiery spirits, each bent on his own separate
+      mission, or like salamanders executing a frolic dance in the region of the
+      Sylphs, the Countess felt at first as if each rocket shot close by her
+      eyes, and discharged its sparks and flashes so nigh that she could feel a
+      sense of the heat. But she struggled against these fantastic terrors, and
+      compelled herself to arise, stand by the window, look out, and gaze upon a
+      sight which at another time would have appeared to her at once captivating
+      and fearful. The magnificent towers of the Castle were enveloped in
+      garlands of artificial fire, or shrouded with tiaras of pale smoke. The
+      surface of the lake glowed like molten iron, while many fireworks (then
+      thought extremely wonderful, though now common), whose flame continued to
+      exist in the opposing element, dived and rose, hissed and roared, and
+      spouted fire, like so many dragons of enchantment sporting upon a burning
+      lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even Amy was for a moment interested by what was to her so new a scene. "I
+      had thought it magical art," she said, "but poor Tressilian taught me to
+      judge of such things as they are. Great God! and may not these idle
+      splendours resemble my own hoped-for happiness&mdash;a single spark, which
+      is instantly swallowed up by surrounding darkness&mdash;a precarious glow,
+      which rises but for a brief space into the air, that its fall may be the
+      lower? O Leicester! after all&mdash;all that thou hast said&mdash;hast
+      sworn&mdash;that Amy was thy love, thy life, can it be that thou art the
+      magician at whose nod these enchantments arise, and that she sees them as
+      an outcast, if not a captive?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sustained, prolonged, and repeated bursts of music, from so many
+      different quarters, and at so many varying points of distance, which
+      sounded as if not the Castle of Kenilworth only, but the whole country
+      around, had been at once the scene of solemnizing some high national
+      festival, carried the same oppressive thought still closer to her heart,
+      while some notes would melt in distant and falling tones, as if in
+      compassion for her sorrows, and some burst close and near upon her, as if
+      mocking her misery, with all the insolence of unlimited mirth. "These
+      sounds," she said, "are mine&mdash;mine, because they are HIS; but I
+      cannot say, Be still, these loud strains suit me not; and the voice of the
+      meanest peasant that mingles in the dance would have more power to
+      modulate the music than the command of her who is mistress of all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By degrees the sounds of revelry died away, and the Countess withdrew from
+      the window at which she had sat listening to them. It was night, but the
+      moon afforded considerable light in the room, so that Amy was able to make
+      the arrangement which she judged necessary. There was hope that Leicester
+      might come to her apartment as soon as the revel in the Castle had
+      subsided; but there was also risk she might be disturbed by some
+      unauthorized intruder. She had lost confidence in the key since Tressilian
+      had entered so easily, though the door was locked on the inside; yet all
+      the additional security she could think of was to place the table across
+      the door, that she might be warned by the noise should any one attempt to
+      enter. Having taken these necessary precautions, the unfortunate lady
+      withdrew to her couch, stretched herself down on it, mused in anxious
+      expectation, and counted more than one hour after midnight, till exhausted
+      nature proved too strong for love, for grief, for fear, nay, even for
+      uncertainty, and she slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, she slept. The Indian sleeps at the stake in the intervals between
+      his tortures; and mental torments, in like manner, exhaust by long
+      continuance the sensibility of the sufferer, so that an interval of
+      lethargic repose must necessarily ensue, ere the pangs which they inflict
+      can again be renewed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess slept, then, for several hours, and dreamed that she was in
+      the ancient house at Cumnor Place, listening for the low whistle with
+      which Leicester often used to announce his presence in the courtyard when
+      arriving suddenly on one of his stolen visits. But on this occasion,
+      instead of a whistle, she heard the peculiar blast of a bugle-horn, such
+      as her father used to wind on the fall of the stag, and which huntsmen
+      then called a MORT. She ran, as she thought, to a window that looked into
+      the courtyard, which she saw filled with men in mourning garments. The old
+      Curate seemed about to read the funeral service. Mumblazen, tricked out in
+      an antique dress, like an ancient herald, held aloft a scutcheon, with its
+      usual decorations of skulls, cross-bones, and hour-glasses, surrounding a
+      coat-of-arms, of which she could only distinguish that it was surmounted
+      with an Earl's coronet. The old man looked at her with a ghastly smile,
+      and said, "Amy, are they not rightly quartered?" Just as he spoke, the
+      horns again poured on her ear the melancholy yet wild strain of the MORT,
+      or death-note, and she awoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess awoke to hear a real bugle-note, or rather the combined
+      breath of many bugles, sounding not the MORT. but the jolly REVEILLE, to
+      remind the inmates of the Castle of Kenilworth that the pleasures of the
+      day were to commence with a magnificent stag-hunting in the neighbouring
+      Chase. Amy started up from her couch, listened to the sound, saw the first
+      beams of the summer morning already twinkle through the lattice of her
+      window, and recollected, with feelings of giddy agony, where she was, and
+      how circumstanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He thinks not of me," she said; "he will not come nigh me! A Queen is his
+      guest, and what cares he in what corner of his huge Castle a wretch like
+      me pines in doubt, which is fast fading into despair?" At once a sound at
+      the door, as of some one attempting to open it softly, filled her with an
+      ineffable mixture of joy and fear; and hastening to remove the obstacle
+      she had placed against the door, and to unlock it, she had the precaution
+      to ask! "Is it thou, my love?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes, my Countess," murmured a whisper in reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw open the door, and exclaiming, "Leicester!" flung her arms
+      around the neck of the man who stood without, muffled in his cloak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No&mdash;not quite Leicester," answered Michael Lambourne, for he it was,
+      returning the caress with vehemence&mdash;"not quite Leicester, my lovely
+      and most loving duchess, but as good a man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With an exertion of force, of which she would at another time have thought
+      herself incapable, the Countess freed herself from the profane and
+      profaning grasp of the drunken debauchee, and retreated into the midst of
+      her apartment where despair gave her courage to make a stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Lambourne, on entering, dropped the lap of his cloak from his face, she
+      knew Varney's profligate servant, the very last person, excepting his
+      detested master, by whom she would have wished to be discovered. But she
+      was still closely muffled in her travelling dress, and as Lambourne had
+      scarce ever been admitted to her presence at Cumnor Place, her person, she
+      hoped, might not be so well known to him as his was to her, owing to
+      Janet's pointing him frequently out as he crossed the court, and telling
+      stories of his wickedness. She might have had still greater confidence in
+      her disguise had her experience enabled her to discover that he was much
+      intoxicated; but this could scarce have consoled her for the risk which
+      she might incur from such a character in such a time, place, and
+      circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne flung the door behind him as he entered, and folding his arms,
+      as if in mockery of the attitude of distraction into which Amy had thrown
+      herself, he proceeded thus: "Hark ye, most fair Calipolis&mdash;or most
+      lovely Countess of clouts, and divine Duchess of dark corners&mdash;if
+      thou takest all that trouble of skewering thyself together, like a trussed
+      fowl, that there may be more pleasure in the carving, even save thyself
+      the labour. I love thy first frank manner the best&mdash;-like thy present
+      as little"&mdash;(he made a step towards her, and staggered)&mdash;"as
+      little as&mdash;such a damned uneven floor as this, where a gentleman may
+      break his neck if he does not walk as upright as a posture-master on the
+      tight-rope."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand back!" said the Countess; "do not approach nearer to me on thy
+      peril!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My peril!&mdash;and stand back! Why, how now, madam? Must you have a
+      better mate than honest Mike Lambourne? I have been in America, girl,
+      where the gold grows, and have brought off such a load on't&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good friend," said the Countess, in great terror at the ruffian's
+      determined and audacious manner, "I prithee begone, and leave me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And so I will, pretty one, when we are tired of each other's company&mdash;not
+      a jot sooner." He seized her by the arm, while, incapable of further
+      defence, she uttered shriek upon shriek. "Nay, scream away if you like
+      it," said he, still holding her fast; "I have heard the sea at the
+      loudest, and I mind a squalling woman no more than a miauling kitten. Damn
+      me! I have heard fifty or a hundred screaming at once, when there was a
+      town stormed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cries of the Countess, however, brought unexpected aid in the person
+      of Lawrence Staples, who had heard her exclamations from his apartment
+      below, and entered in good time to save her from being discovered, if not
+      from more atrocious violence. Lawrence was drunk also from the debauch of
+      the preceding night, but fortunately his intoxication had taken a
+      different turn from that of Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What the devil's noise is this in the ward?" he said. "What! man and
+      woman together in the same cell?&mdash;that is against rule. I will have
+      decency under my rule, by Saint Peter of the Fetters!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Get thee downstairs, thou drunken beast," said Lambourne; "seest thou not
+      the lady and I would be private?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Good sir, worthy sir!" said the Countess, addressing the jailer, "do but
+      save me from him, for the sake of mercy!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She speaks fairly," said the jailer, "and I will take her part. I love my
+      prisoners; and I have had as good prisoners under my key as they have had
+      in Newgate or the Compter. And so, being one of my lambkins, as I say, no
+      one shall disturb her in her pen-fold. So let go the woman: or I'll knock
+      your brains out with my keys."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I'll make a blood-pudding of thy midriff first," answered Lambourne,
+      laying his left hand on his dagger, but still detaining the Countess by
+      the arm with his right. "So have at thee, thou old ostrich, whose only
+      living is upon a bunch of iron keys."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lawrence raised the arm of Michael, and prevented him from drawing his
+      dagger; and as Lambourne struggled and strove to shake him off; the
+      Countess made a sudden exertion on her side, and slipping her hand out of
+      the glove on which the ruffian still kept hold, she gained her liberty,
+      and escaping from the apartment, ran downstairs; while at the same moment
+      she heard the two combatants fall on the floor with a noise which
+      increased her terror. The outer wicket offered no impediment to her
+      flight, having been opened for Lambourne's admittance; so that she
+      succeeded in escaping down the stair, and fled into the Pleasance, which
+      seemed to her hasty glance the direction in which she was most likely to
+      avoid pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, Lawrence and Lambourne rolled on the floor of the apartment,
+      closely grappled together. Neither had, happily, opportunity to draw their
+      daggers; but Lawrence found space enough to clash his heavy keys across
+      Michael's face, and Michael in return grasped the turnkey so felly by the
+      throat that the blood gushed from nose and mouth, so that they were both
+      gory and filthy spectacles when one of the other officers of the
+      household, attracted by the noise of the fray, entered the room, and with
+      some difficulty effected the separation of the combatants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A murrain on you both," said the charitable mediator, "and especially on
+      you, Master Lambourne! What the fiend lie you here for, fighting on the
+      floor like two butchers' curs in the kennel of the shambles?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne arose, and somewhat sobered by the interposition of a third
+      party, looked with something less than his usual brazen impudence of
+      visage. "We fought for a wench, an thou must know," was his reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A wench! Where is she?" said the officer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, vanished, I think," said Lambourne, looking around him, "unless
+      Lawrence hath swallowed her, That filthy paunch of his devours as many
+      distressed damsels and oppressed orphans as e'er a giant in King Arthur's
+      history. They are his prime food; he worries them body, soul, and
+      substance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay! It's no matter," said Lawrence, gathering up his huge, ungainly
+      form from the floor; "but I have had your betters, Master Michael
+      Lambourne, under the little turn of my forefinger and thumb, and I shall
+      have thee, before all's done, under my hatches. The impudence of thy brow
+      will not always save thy shin-bones from iron, and thy foul, thirsty
+      gullet from a hempen cord." The words were no sooner out of his mouth,
+      when Lambourne again made at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, go not to it again," said the sewer, "or I will call for him shall
+      tame you both, and that is Master Varney&mdash;Sir Richard, I mean. He is
+      stirring, I promise you; I saw him cross the court just now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Didst thou, by G&mdash;!" said Lambourne, seizing on the basin and ewer
+      which stood in the apartment. "Nay, then, element, do thy work. I thought
+      I had enough of thee last night, when I floated about for Orion, like a
+      cork on a fermenting cask of ale."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he fell to work to cleanse from his face and hands the signs of
+      the fray, and get his apparel into some order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What hast thou done to him?" said the sewer, speaking aside to the
+      jailer; "his face is fearfully swelled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is but the imprint of the key of my cabinet&mdash;too good a mark for
+      his gallows-face. No man shall abuse or insult my prisoners; they are my
+      jewels, and I lock them in safe casket accordingly.&mdash;And so,
+      mistress, leave off your wailing.&mdash;Why! why, surely, there was a
+      woman here!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I think you are all mad this morning," said the sewer. "I saw no woman
+      here, nor no man neither in a proper sense, but only two beasts rolling on
+      the floor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then I am undone," said the jailer; "the prison's broken, that is
+      all. Kenilworth prison is broken," he continued, in a tone of maudlin
+      lamentation, "which was the strongest jail betwixt this and the Welsh
+      Marches&mdash;ay, and a house that has had knights, and earls, and kings
+      sleeping in it, as secure as if they had been in the Tower of London. It
+      is broken, the prisoners fled, and the jailer in much danger of being
+      hanged!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he retreated down to his own den to conclude his lamentations,
+      or to sleep himself sober. Lambourne and the sewer followed him close; and
+      it was well for them, since the jailer, out of mere habit, was about to
+      lock the wicket after him, and had they not been within the reach of
+      interfering, they would have had the pleasure of being shut up in the
+      turret-chamber, from which the Countess had been just delivered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That unhappy lady, as soon as she found herself at liberty, fled, as we
+      have already mentioned, into the Pleasance. She had seen this
+      richly-ornamented space of ground from the window of Mervyn's Tower; and
+      it occurred to her, at the moment of her escape, that among its numerous
+      arbours, bowers, fountains, statues, and grottoes, she might find some
+      recess in which she could lie concealed until she had an opportunity of
+      addressing herself to a protector, to whom she might communicate as much
+      as she dared of her forlorn situation, and through whose means she might
+      supplicate an interview with her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If I could see my guide," she thought, "I would learn if he had delivered
+      my letter. Even did I but see Tressilian, it were better to risk Dudley's
+      anger, by confiding my whole situation to one who is the very soul of
+      honour, than to run the hazard of further insult among the insolent
+      menials of this ill-ruled place. I will not again venture into an enclosed
+      apartment. I will wait, I will watch; amidst so many human beings there
+      must be some kind heart which can judge and compassionate what mine
+      endures."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In truth, more than one party entered and traversed the Pleasance. But
+      they were in joyous groups of four or five persons together, laughing and
+      jesting in their own fullness of mirth and lightness of heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The retreat which she had chosen gave her the easy alternative of avoiding
+      observation. It was but stepping back to the farthest recess of a grotto,
+      ornamented with rustic work and moss-seats, and terminated by a fountain,
+      and she might easily remain concealed, or at her pleasure discover herself
+      to any solitary wanderer whose curiosity might lead him to that romantic
+      retirement. Anticipating such an opportunity, she looked into the clear
+      basin which the silent fountain held up to her like a mirror, and felt
+      shocked at her own appearance, and doubtful at; the same time, muffled and
+      disfigured as her disguise made her seem to herself, whether any female
+      (and it was from the compassion of her own sex that she chiefly expected
+      sympathy) would engage in conference with so suspicious an object.
+      Reasoning thus like a woman, to whom external appearance is scarcely in
+      any circumstances a matter of unimportance, and like a beauty, who had
+      some confidence in the power of her own charms, she laid aside her
+      travelling cloak and capotaine hat, and placed them beside her, so that
+      she could assume them in an instant, ere one could penetrate from the
+      entrance of the grotto to its extremity, in case the intrusion of Varney
+      or of Lambourne should render such disguise necessary. The dress which she
+      wore under these vestments was somewhat of a theatrical cast, so as to
+      suit the assumed personage of one of the females who was to act in the
+      pageant, Wayland had found the means of arranging it thus upon the second
+      day of their journey, having experienced the service arising from the
+      assumption of such a character on the preceding day. The fountain, acting
+      both as a mirror and ewer, afforded Amy the means of a brief toilette, of
+      which she availed herself as hastily as possible; then took in her hand
+      her small casket of jewels, in case she might find them useful
+      intercessors, and retiring to the darkest and most sequestered nook, sat
+      down on a seat of moss, and awaited till fate should give her some chance
+      of rescue, or of propitiating an intercessor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Have you not seen the partridge quake,
+     Viewing the hawk approaching nigh?
+     She cuddles close beneath the brake,
+     Afraid to sit, afraid to fly,   &mdash;PRIOR.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It chanced, upon that memorable morning, that one of the earliest of the
+      huntress train, who appeared from her chamber in full array for the chase,
+      was the Princess for whom all these pleasures were instituted, England's
+      Maiden Queen. I know not if it were by chance, or out of the befitting
+      courtesy due to a mistress by whom he was so much honoured, that she had
+      scarcely made one step beyond the threshold of her chamber ere Leicester
+      was by her side, and proposed to her, until the preparations for the chase
+      had been completed, to view the Pleasance, and the gardens which it
+      connected with the Castle yard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this new scene of pleasures they walked, the Earl's arm affording his
+      Sovereign the occasional support which she required, where flights of
+      steps, then a favourite ornament in a garden, conducted them from terrace
+      to terrace, and from parterre to parterre. The ladies in attendance,
+      gifted with prudence, or endowed perhaps with the amiable desire of acting
+      as they would be done by, did not conceive their duty to the Queen's
+      person required them, though they lost not sight of her, to approach so
+      near as to share, or perhaps disturb, the conversation betwixt the Queen
+      and the Earl, who was not only her host, but also her most trusted,
+      esteemed, and favoured servant. They contented themselves with admiring
+      the grace of this illustrious couple, whose robes of state were now
+      exchanged for hunting suits, almost equally magnificent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth's silvan dress, which was of a pale blue silk, with silver lace
+      and AIGUILLETTES, approached in form to that of the ancient Amazons, and
+      was therefore well suited at once to her height and to the dignity of her
+      mien, which her conscious rank and long habits of authority had rendered
+      in some degree too masculine to be seen to the best advantage in ordinary
+      female weeds. Leicester's hunting suit of Lincoln green, richly
+      embroidered with gold, and crossed by the gay baldric which sustained a
+      bugle-horn, and a wood-knife instead of a sword, became its master, as did
+      his other vestments of court or of war. For such were the perfections of
+      his form and mien, that Leicester was always supposed to be seen to the
+      greatest advantage in the character and dress which for the time he
+      represented or wore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation of Elizabeth and the favourite Earl has not reached us in
+      detail. But those who watched at some distance (and the eyes of courtiers
+      and court ladies are right sharp) were of opinion that on no occasion did
+      the dignity of Elizabeth, in gesture and motion, seem so decidedly to
+      soften away into a mien expressive of indecision and tenderness. Her step
+      was not only slow, but even unequal, a thing most unwonted in her
+      carriage; her looks seemed bent on the ground; and there was a timid
+      disposition to withdraw from her companion, which external gesture in
+      females often indicates exactly the opposite tendency in the secret mind.
+      The Duchess of Rutland, who ventured nearest, was even heard to aver that
+      she discerned a tear in Elizabeth's eye and a blush on her cheek; and
+      still further, "She bent her looks on the ground to avoid mine," said the
+      Duchess, "she who, in her ordinary mood, could look down a lion." To what
+      conclusion these symptoms led is sufficiently evident; nor were they
+      probably entirely groundless. The progress of a private conversation
+      betwixt two persons of different sexes is often decisive of their fate,
+      and gives it a turn very different perhaps from what they themselves
+      anticipated. Gallantry becomes mingled with conversation, and affection
+      and passion come gradually to mix with gallantry. Nobles, as well as
+      shepherd swains, will, in such a trying moment, say more than they
+      intended; and Queens, like village maidens, will listen longer than they
+      should.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Horses in the meanwhile neighed and champed the bits with impatience in
+      the base-court; hounds yelled in their couples; and yeomen, rangers, and
+      prickers lamented the exhaling of the dew, which would prevent the scent
+      from lying. But Leicester had another chase in view&mdash;or, to speak
+      more justly towards him, had become engaged in it without premeditation,
+      as the high-spirited hunter which follows the cry of the hounds that have
+      crossed his path by accident. The Queen, an accomplished and handsome
+      woman, the pride of England, the hope of France and Holland, and the dread
+      of Spain, had probably listened with more than usual favour to that
+      mixture of romantic gallantry with which she always loved to be addressed;
+      and the Earl had, in vanity, in ambition, or in both, thrown in more and
+      more of that delicious ingredient, until his importunity became the
+      language of love itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Dudley," said Elizabeth, yet it was with broken accents&mdash;"no, I
+      must be the mother of my people. Other ties, that make the lowly maiden
+      happy, are denied to her Sovereign. No, Leicester, urge it no more. Were I
+      as others, free to seek my own happiness, then, indeed&mdash;but it cannot&mdash;cannot
+      be. Delay the chase&mdash;delay it for half an hour&mdash;and leave me, my
+      lord."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! leave you, madam?" said Leicester,&mdash;"has my madness offended
+      you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Leicester, not so!" answered the Queen hastily; "but it is madness,
+      and must not be repeated. Go&mdash;but go not far from hence; and meantime
+      let no one intrude on my privacy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While she spoke thus, Dudley bowed deeply, and retired with a slow and
+      melancholy air. The Queen stood gazing after him, and murmured to herself,
+      "Were it possible&mdash;were it BUT possible!&mdash;but no&mdash;no;
+      Elizabeth must be the wife and mother of England alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she spoke thus, and in order to avoid some one whose step she heard
+      approaching, the Queen turned into the grotto in which her hapless, and
+      yet but too successful, rival lay concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mind of England's Elizabeth, if somewhat shaken by the agitating
+      interview to which she had just put a period, was of that firm and decided
+      character which soon recovers its natural tone. It was like one of those
+      ancient Druidical monuments called Rocking-stones. The finger of Cupid,
+      boy as he is painted, could put her feelings in motion; but the power of
+      Hercules could not have destroyed their equilibrium. As she advanced with
+      a slow pace towards the inmost extremity of the grotto, her countenance,
+      ere she had proceeded half the length, had recovered its dignity of look,
+      and her mien its air of command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then the Queen became aware that a female figure was placed beside,
+      or rather partly behind, an alabaster column, at the foot of which arose
+      the pellucid fountain which occupied the inmost recess of the twilight
+      grotto. The classical mind of Elizabeth suggested the story of Numa and
+      Egeria, and she doubted not that some Italian sculptor had here
+      represented the Naiad whose inspirations gave laws to Rome. As she
+      advanced, she became doubtful whether she beheld a statue, or a form of
+      flesh and blood. The unfortunate Amy, indeed, remained motionless, betwixt
+      the desire which she had to make her condition known to one of her own
+      sex, and her awe for the stately form which approached her, and which,
+      though her eyes had never before beheld, her fears instantly suspected to
+      be the personage she really was. Amy had arisen from her seat with the
+      purpose of addressing the lady who entered the grotto alone, and, as she
+      at first thought, so opportunely. But when she recollected the alarm which
+      Leicester had expressed at the Queen's knowing aught of their union, and
+      became more and more satisfied that the person whom she now beheld was
+      Elizabeth herself, she stood with one foot advanced and one withdrawn, her
+      arms, head, and hands perfectly motionless, and her cheek as pallid as the
+      alabaster pedestal against which she leaned. Her dress was of pale
+      sea-green silk, little distinguished in that imperfect light, and somewhat
+      resembled the drapery of a Grecian Nymph, such an antique disguise having
+      been thought the most secure, where so many maskers and revellers were
+      assembled; so that the Queen's doubt of her being a living form was well
+      justified by all contingent circumstances, as well as by the bloodless
+      cheek and the fixed eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth remained in doubt, even after she had approached within a few
+      paces, whether she did not gaze on a statue so cunningly fashioned that by
+      the doubtful light it could not be distinguished from reality. She
+      stopped, therefore, and fixed upon this interesting object her princely
+      look with so much keenness that the astonishment which had kept Amy
+      immovable gave way to awe, and she gradually cast down her eyes, and
+      drooped her head under the commanding gaze of the Sovereign. Still,
+      however, she remained in all respects, saving this slow and profound
+      inclination of the head, motionless and silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From her dress, and the casket which she instinctively held in her hand,
+      Elizabeth naturally conjectured that the beautiful but mute figure which
+      she beheld was a performer in one of the various theatrical pageants which
+      had been placed in different situations to surprise her with their homage;
+      and that the poor player, overcome with awe at her presence, had either
+      forgot the part assigned her, or lacked courage to go through it. It was
+      natural and courteous to give her some encouragement; and Elizabeth
+      accordingly said, in a tone of condescending kindness, "How now, fair
+      Nymph of this lovely grotto, art thou spell-bound and struck with dumbness
+      by the charms of the wicked enchanter whom men term Fear? We are his sworn
+      enemy, maiden, and can reverse his charm. Speak, we command thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of answering her by speech, the unfortunate Countess dropped on
+      her knee before the Queen, let her casket fall from her hand, and clasping
+      her palms together, looked up in the Queen's face with such a mixed agony
+      of fear and supplication, that Elizabeth was considerably affected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What may this mean?" she said; "this is a stronger passion than befits
+      the occasion. Stand up, damsel&mdash;what wouldst thou have with us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your protection, madam," faltered forth the unhappy petitioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Each daughter of England has it while she is worthy of it," replied the
+      Queen; "but your distress seems to have a deeper root than a forgotten
+      task. Why, and in what, do you crave our protection?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amy hastily endeavoured to recall what she were best to say, which might
+      secure herself from the imminent dangers that surrounded her, without
+      endangering her husband; and plunging from one thought to another, amidst
+      the chaos which filled her mind, she could at length, in answer to the
+      Queen's repeated inquiries in what she sought protection, only falter out,
+      "Alas! I know not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is folly, maiden," said Elizabeth impatiently; for there was
+      something in the extreme confusion of the suppliant which irritated her
+      curiosity, as well as interested her feelings. "The sick man must tell his
+      malady to the physician; nor are WE accustomed to ask questions so oft
+      without receiving an answer."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I request&mdash;I implore," stammered forth the unfortunate Countess&mdash;"I
+      beseech your gracious protection&mdash;against&mdash;against one Varney."
+      She choked well-nigh as she uttered the fatal word, which was instantly
+      caught up by the Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, Varney&mdash;Sir Richard Varney&mdash;the servant of Lord
+      Leicester! what, damsel, are you to him, or he to you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I&mdash;I&mdash;was his prisoner&mdash;and he practised on my life&mdash;and
+      I broke forth to&mdash;to&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To throw thyself on my protection, doubtless," said Elizabeth. "Thou
+      shalt have it&mdash;that is, if thou art worthy; for we will sift this
+      matter to the uttermost. Thou art," she said, bending on the Countess an
+      eye which seemed designed to pierce her very inmost soul&mdash;"thou art
+      Amy, daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Forgive me&mdash;forgive me, most gracious Princess!" said Amy, dropping
+      once more on her knee, from which she had arisen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For what should I forgive thee, silly wench?" said Elizabeth; "for being
+      the daughter of thine own father? Thou art brain-sick, surely. Well I see
+      I must wring the story from thee by inches. Thou didst deceive thine old
+      and honoured father&mdash;thy look confesses it&mdash;cheated Master
+      Tressilian&mdash;thy blush avouches it&mdash;and married this same
+      Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amy sprung on her feet, and interrupted the Queen eagerly with, "No,
+      madam, no! as there is a God above us, I am not the sordid wretch you
+      would make me! I am not the wife of that contemptible slave&mdash;of that
+      most deliberate villain! I am not the wife of Varney! I would rather be
+      the bride of Destruction!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, overwhelmed in her turn by Amy's vehemence, stood silent for an
+      instant, and then replied, "Why, God ha' mercy, woman! I see thou canst
+      talk fast enough when the theme likes thee. Nay, tell me, woman," she
+      continued, for to the impulse of curiosity was now added that of an
+      undefined jealousy that some deception had been practised on her&mdash;"tell
+      me, woman&mdash;for, by God's day, I WILL know&mdash;whose wife, or whose
+      paramour, art thou! Speak out, and be speedy. Thou wert better dally with
+      a lioness than with Elizabeth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Urged to this extremity, dragged as it were by irresistible force to the
+      verge of the precipice which she saw, but could not avoid&mdash;permitted
+      not a moment's respite by the eager words and menacing gestures of the
+      offended Queen, Amy at length uttered in despair, "The Earl of Leicester
+      knows it all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Earl of Leicester!" said Elizabeth, in utter astonishment. "The Earl
+      of Leicester!" she repeated with kindling anger. "Woman, thou art set on
+      to this&mdash;thou dost belie him&mdash;he takes no keep of such things as
+      thou art. Thou art suborned to slander the noblest lord and the
+      truest-hearted gentleman in England! But were he the right hand of our
+      trust, or something yet dearer to us, thou shalt have thy hearing, and
+      that in his presence. Come with me&mdash;come with me instantly!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Amy shrunk back with terror, which the incensed Queen interpreted as
+      that of conscious guilt, Elizabeth rapidly advanced, seized on her arm,
+      and hastened with swift and long steps out of the grotto, and along the
+      principal alley of the Pleasance, dragging with her the terrified
+      Countess, whom she still held by the arm, and whose utmost exertions could
+      but just keep pace with those of the indignant Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was at this moment the centre of a splendid group of lords and
+      ladies, assembled together under an arcade, or portico, which closed the
+      alley. The company had drawn together in that place, to attend the
+      commands of her Majesty when the hunting-party should go forward, and
+      their astonishment may be imagined when, instead of seeing Elizabeth
+      advance towards them with her usual measured dignity of motion, they
+      beheld her walking so rapidly that she was in the midst of them ere they
+      were aware; and then observed, with fear and surprise, that her features
+      were flushed betwixt anger and agitation, that her hair was loosened by
+      her haste of motion, and that her eyes sparkled as they were wont when the
+      spirit of Henry VIII. mounted highest in his daughter. Nor were they less
+      astonished at the appearance of the pale, attenuated, half-dead, yet still
+      lovely female, whom the Queen upheld by main strength with one hand, while
+      with the other she waved aside the ladies and nobles who pressed towards
+      her, under the idea that she was taken suddenly ill. "Where is my Lord of
+      Leicester?" she said, in a tone that thrilled with astonishment all the
+      courtiers who stood around. "Stand forth, my Lord of Leicester!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, in the midst of the most serene day of summer, when all is light and
+      laughing around, a thunderbolt were to fall from the clear blue vault of
+      heaven, and rend the earth at the very feet of some careless traveller, he
+      could not gaze upon the smouldering chasm, which so unexpectedly yawned
+      before him, with half the astonishment and fear which Leicester felt at
+      the sight that so suddenly presented itself. He had that instant been
+      receiving, with a political affectation of disavowing and misunderstanding
+      their meaning, the half-uttered, half-intimated congratulations of the
+      courtiers upon the favour of the Queen, carried apparently to its highest
+      pitch during the interview of that morning, from which most of them seemed
+      to augur that he might soon arise from their equal in rank to become their
+      master. And now, while the subdued yet proud smile with which he
+      disclaimed those inferences was yet curling his cheek, the Queen shot into
+      the circle, her passions excited to the uttermost; and supporting with one
+      hand, and apparently without an effort, the pale and sinking form of his
+      almost expiring wife, and pointing with the finger of the other to her
+      half-dead features, demanded in a voice that sounded to the ears of the
+      astounded statesman like the last dread trumpet-call that is to summon
+      body and spirit to the judgment-seat, "Knowest thou this woman?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As, at the blast of that last trumpet, the guilty shall call upon the
+      mountains to cover them, Leicester's inward thoughts invoked the stately
+      arch which he had built in his pride to burst its strong conjunction, and
+      overwhelm them in its ruins. But the cemented stones, architrave and
+      battlement, stood fast; and it was the proud master himself who, as if
+      some actual pressure had bent him to the earth, kneeled down before
+      Elizabeth, and prostrated his brow to the marble flag-stones on which she
+      stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Leicester," said Elizabeth, in a voice which trembled with passion,
+      "could I think thou hast practised on me&mdash;on me thy Sovereign&mdash;on
+      me thy confiding, thy too partial mistress, the base and ungrateful
+      deception which thy present confusion surmises&mdash;by all that is holy,
+      false lord, that head of thine were in as great peril as ever was thy
+      father's!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester had not conscious innocence, but he had pride to support him. He
+      raised slowly his brow and features, which were black and swoln with
+      contending emotions, and only replied, "My head cannot fall but by the
+      sentence of my peers. To them I will plead, and not to a princess who thus
+      requites my faithful service."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What! my lords," said Elizabeth, looking around, "we are defied, I think&mdash;defied
+      in the Castle we have ourselves bestowed on this proud man!&mdash;My Lord
+      Shrewsbury, you are Marshal of England, attach him of high treason."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom does your Grace mean?" said Shrewsbury, much surprised, for he had
+      that instant joined the astonished circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whom should I mean, but that traitor Dudley, Earl of Leicester!&mdash;Cousin
+      of Hunsdon, order out your band of gentlemen pensioners, and take him into
+      instant custody. I say, villain, make haste!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hunsdon, a rough old noble, who, from his relationship to the Boleyns, was
+      accustomed to use more freedom with the Queen than almost any other dared
+      to do, replied bluntly, "And it is like your Grace might order me to the
+      Tower to-morrow for making too much haste. I do beseech you to be
+      patient."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Patient&mdash;God's life!" exclaimed the Queen&mdash;"name not the word
+      to me; thou knowest not of what he is guilty!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amy, who had by this time in some degree recovered herself, and who saw
+      her husband, as she conceived, in the utmost danger from the rage of an
+      offended Sovereign, instantly (and alas! how many women have done the
+      same) forgot her own wrongs and her own danger in her apprehensions for
+      him, and throwing herself before the Queen, embraced her knees, while she
+      exclaimed, "He is guiltless, madam&mdash;he is guiltless; no one can lay
+      aught to the charge of the noble Leicester!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, minion," answered the Queen, "didst not thou thyself say that the
+      Earl of Leicester was privy to thy whole history?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did I say so?" repeated the unhappy Amy, laying aside every consideration
+      of consistency and of self-interest. "Oh, if I did, I foully belied him.
+      May God so judge me, as I believe he was never privy to a thought that
+      would harm me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Woman!" said Elizabeth, "I will know who has moved thee to this; or my
+      wrath&mdash;and the wrath of kings is a flaming fire&mdash;shall wither
+      and consume thee like a weed in the furnace!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Queen uttered this threat, Leicester's better angel called his
+      pride to his aid, and reproached him with the utter extremity of meanness
+      which would overwhelm him for ever if he stooped to take shelter under the
+      generous interposition of his wife, and abandoned her, in return for her
+      kindness, to the resentment of the Queen. He had already raised his head
+      with the dignity of a man of honour to avow his marriage, and proclaim
+      himself the protector of his Countess, when Varney, born, as it appeared,
+      to be his master's evil genius, rushed into the presence with every mark
+      of disorder on his face and apparel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What means this saucy intrusion?" said Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, with the air of a man altogether overwhelmed with grief and
+      confusion, prostrated himself before her feet, exclaiming, "Pardon, my
+      Liege, pardon!&mdash;or at least let your justice avenge itself on me,
+      where it is due; but spare my noble, my generous, my innocent patron and
+      master!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amy, who was yet kneeling, started up as she saw the man whom she deemed
+      most odious place himself so near her, and was about to fly towards
+      Leicester, when, checked at once by the uncertainty and even timidity
+      which his looks had reassumed as soon as the appearance of his confidant
+      seemed to open a new scene, she hung back, and uttering a faint scream,
+      besought of her Majesty to cause her to be imprisoned in the lowest
+      dungeon of the Castle&mdash;to deal with her as the worst of criminals&mdash;"but
+      spare," she exclaimed, "my sight and hearing what will destroy the little
+      judgment I have left&mdash;the sight of that unutterable and most
+      shameless villain!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And why, sweetheart?" said the Queen, moved by a new impulse; "what hath
+      he, this false knight, since such thou accountest him, done to thee?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, worse than sorrow, madam, and worse than injury&mdash;he has sown
+      dissension where most there should be peace. I shall go mad if I look
+      longer on him!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Beshrew me, but I think thou art distraught already," answered the Queen.&mdash;"My
+      Lord Hunsdon, look to this poor distressed young woman, and let her be
+      safely bestowed, and in honest keeping, till we require her to be
+      forthcoming."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three of the ladies in attendance, either moved by compassion for a
+      creature so interesting, or by some other motive, offered their services
+      to look after her; but the Queen briefly answered, "Ladies, under favour,
+      no. You have all (give God thanks) sharp ears and nimble tongues; our
+      kinsman Hunsdon has ears of the dullest, and a tongue somewhat rough, but
+      yet of the slowest.&mdash;Hunsdon, look to it that none have speech of
+      her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "By Our Lady," said Hunsdon, taking in his strong, sinewy arms the fading
+      and almost swooning form of Amy, "she is a lovely child! and though a
+      rough nurse, your Grace hath given her a kind one. She is safe with me as
+      one of my own ladybirds of daughters."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he carried her off; unresistingly and almost unconsciously, his
+      war-worn locks and long, grey beard mingling with her light-brown tresses,
+      as her head reclined on his strong, square shoulder. The Queen followed
+      him with her eye. She had already, with that self-command which forms so
+      necessary a part of a Sovereign's accomplishments, suppressed every
+      appearance of agitation, and seemed as if she desired to banish all traces
+      of her burst of passion from the recollection of those who had witnessed
+      it. "My Lord of Hunsdon says well," she observed, "he is indeed but a
+      rough nurse for so tender a babe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My Lord of Hunsdon," said the Dean of St. Asaph&mdash;"I speak it not in
+      defamation of his more noble qualities&mdash;hath a broad license in
+      speech, and garnishes his discourse somewhat too freely with the cruel and
+      superstitious oaths which savour both of profaneness and of old
+      Papistrie."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the fault of his blood, Mr. Dean," said the Queen, turning sharply
+      round upon the reverend dignitary as she spoke; "and you may blame mine
+      for the same distemperature. The Boleyns were ever a hot and plain-spoken
+      race, more hasty to speak their mind than careful to choose their
+      expressions. And by my word&mdash;I hope there is no sin in that
+      affirmation&mdash;I question if it were much cooled by mixing with that of
+      Tudor."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she made this last observation she smiled graciously, and stole her
+      eyes almost insensibly round to seek those of the Earl of Leicester, to
+      whom she now began to think she had spoken with hasty harshness upon the
+      unfounded suspicion of a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen's eye found the Earl in no mood to accept the implied offer of
+      conciliation. His own looks had followed, with late and rueful repentance,
+      the faded form which Hunsdon had just borne from the presence. They now
+      reposed gloomily on the ground, but more&mdash;so at least it seemed to
+      Elizabeth&mdash;with the expression of one who has received an unjust
+      affront, than of him who is conscious of guilt. She turned her face
+      angrily from him, and said to Varney, "Speak, Sir Richard, and explain
+      these riddles&mdash;thou hast sense and the use of speech, at least, which
+      elsewhere we look for in vain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she said this, she darted another resentful glance towards Leicester,
+      while the wily Varney hastened to tell his own story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your Majesty's piercing eye," he said, "has already detected the cruel
+      malady of my beloved lady, which, unhappy that I am, I would not suffer to
+      be expressed in the certificate of her physician, seeking to conceal what
+      has now broken out with so much the more scandal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is then distraught?" said the Queen. "Indeed we doubted not of it;
+      her whole demeanour bears it out. I found her moping in a corner of yonder
+      grotto; and every word she spoke&mdash;which indeed I dragged from her as
+      by the rack&mdash;she instantly recalled and forswore. But how came she
+      hither? Why had you her not in safe-keeping?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My gracious Liege," said Varney, "the worthy gentleman under whose charge
+      I left her, Master Anthony Foster, has come hither but now, as fast as man
+      and horse can travel, to show me of her escape, which she managed with the
+      art peculiar to many who are afflicted with this malady. He is at hand for
+      examination."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let it be for another time," said the Queen. "But, Sir Richard, we envy
+      you not your domestic felicity; your lady railed on you bitterly, and
+      seemed ready to swoon at beholding you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is the nature of persons in her disorder, so please your Grace,"
+      answered Varney, "to be ever most inveterate in their spleen against those
+      whom, in their better moments, they hold nearest and dearest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We have heard so, indeed," said Elizabeth, "and give faith to the
+      saying."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "May your Grace then be pleased," said Varney, "to command my unfortunate
+      wife to be delivered into the custody of her friends?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester partly started; but making a strong effort, he subdued his
+      emotion, while Elizabeth answered sharply, "You are something too hasty,
+      Master Varney. We will have first a report of the lady's health and state
+      of mind from Masters, our own physician, and then determine what shall be
+      thought just. You shall have license, however, to see her, that if there
+      be any matrimonial quarrel betwixt you&mdash;such things we have heard do
+      occur, even betwixt a loving couple&mdash;you may make it up, without
+      further scandal to our court or trouble to ourselves."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney bowed low, and made no other answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth again looked towards Leicester, and said, with a degree of
+      condescension which could only arise out of the most heartfelt interest,
+      "Discord, as the Italian poet says, will find her way into peaceful
+      convents, as well as into the privacy of families; and we fear our own
+      guards and ushers will hardly exclude her from courts. My Lord of
+      Leicester, you are offended with us, and we have right to be offended with
+      you. We will take the lion's part upon us, and be the first to forgive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester smoothed his brow, as by an effort; but the trouble was too
+      deep-seated that its placidity should at once return. He said, however,
+      that which fitted the occasion, "That he could not have the happiness of
+      forgiving, because she who commanded him to do so could commit no injury
+      towards him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth seemed content with this reply, and intimated her pleasure that
+      the sports of the morning should proceed. The bugles sounded, the hounds
+      bayed, the horses pranced&mdash;but the courtiers and ladies sought the
+      amusement to which they were summoned with hearts very different from
+      those which had leaped to the morning's REVIELLE. There was doubt, and
+      fear, and expectation on every brow, and surmise and intrigue in every
+      whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blount took an opportunity to whisper into Raleigh's ear, "This storm came
+      like a levanter in the Mediterranean."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "VARIUM ET MUTABILE," answered Raleigh, in a similar tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I know nought of your Latin," said Blount; "but I thank God
+      Tressilian took not the sea during that hurricane. He could scarce have
+      missed shipwreck, knowing as he does so little how to trim his sails to a
+      court gale."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou wouldst have instructed him!" said Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, I have profited by my time as well as thou, Sir Walter," replied
+      honest Blount. "I am knight as well as thou, and of the earlier creation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, God further thy wit," said Raleigh. "But for Tressilian, I would I
+      knew what were the matter with him. He told me this morning he would not
+      leave his chamber for the space of twelve hours or thereby, being bound by
+      a promise. This lady's madness, when he shall learn it, will not, I fear,
+      cure his infirmity. The moon is at the fullest, and men's brains are
+      working like yeast. But hark! they sound to mount. Let us to horse,
+      Blount; we young knights must deserve our spurs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Sincerity,
+     Thou first of virtues!  let no mortal leave
+     Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
+     And from the gulf of hell destruction cry,
+     To take dissimulation's winding way.    &mdash;DOUGLAS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was not till after a long and successful morning's sport, and a
+      prolonged repast which followed the return of the Queen to the Castle,
+      that Leicester at length found himself alone with Varney, from whom he now
+      learned the whole particulars of the Countess's escape, as they had been
+      brought to Kenilworth by Foster, who, in his terror for the consequences,
+      had himself posted thither with the tidings. As Varney, in his narrative,
+      took especial care to be silent concerning those practices on the
+      Countess's health which had driven her to so desperate a resolution,
+      Leicester, who could only suppose that she had adopted it out of jealous
+      impatience to attain the avowed state and appearance belonging to her
+      rank, was not a little offended at the levity with which his wife had
+      broken his strict commands, and exposed him to the resentment of
+      Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have given," he said, "to this daughter of an obscure Devonshire
+      gentleman the proudest name in England. I have made her sharer of my bed
+      and of my fortunes. I ask but of her a little patience, ere she launches
+      forth upon the full current of her grandeur; and the infatuated woman will
+      rather hazard her own shipwreck and mine&mdash;will rather involve me in a
+      thousand whirlpools, shoals, and quicksands, and compel me to a thousand
+      devices which shame me in mine own eyes&mdash;than tarry for a little
+      space longer in the obscurity to which she was born. So lovely, so
+      delicate, so fond, so faithful, yet to lack in so grave a matter the
+      prudence which one might hope from the veriest fool&mdash;it puts me
+      beyond my patience."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We may post it over yet well enough," said Varney, "if my lady will be
+      but ruled, and take on her the character which the time commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is but too true, Sir Richard," said Leicester; "there is indeed no
+      other remedy. I have heard her termed thy wife in my presence, without
+      contradiction. She must bear the title until she is far from Kenilworth."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And long afterwards, I trust," said Varney; then instantly added, "For I
+      cannot but hope it will be long after ere she bear the title of Lady
+      Leicester&mdash;I fear me it may scarce be with safety during the life of
+      this Queen. But your lordship is best judge, you alone knowing what
+      passages have taken place betwixt Elizabeth and you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are right, Varney," said Leicester. "I have this morning been both
+      fool and villain; and when Elizabeth hears of my unhappy marriage, she
+      cannot but think herself treated with that premeditated slight which women
+      never forgive. We have once this day stood upon terms little short of
+      defiance; and to those, I fear, we must again return."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is her resentment, then, so implacable?" said Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Far from it," replied the Earl; "for, being what she is in spirit and in
+      station, she has even this day been but too condescending, in giving me
+      opportunities to repair what she thinks my faulty heat of temper."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," answered Varney; "the Italians say right&mdash;in lovers' quarrels,
+      the party that loves most is always most willing to acknowledge the
+      greater fault. So then, my lord, if this union with the lady could be
+      concealed, you stand with Elizabeth as you did?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester sighed, and was silent for a moment, ere he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney, I think thou art true to me, and I will tell thee all. I do NOT
+      stand where I did. I have spoken to Elizabeth&mdash;under what mad impulse
+      I know not&mdash;on a theme which cannot be abandoned without touching
+      every female feeling to the quick, and which yet I dare not and cannot
+      prosecute. She can never, never forgive me for having caused and witnessed
+      those yieldings to human passion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We must do something, my lord," said Varney, "and that speedily."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There is nought to be done," answered Leicester, despondingly. "I am like
+      one that has long toiled up a dangerous precipice, and when he is within
+      one perilous stride of the top, finds his progress arrested when retreat
+      has become impossible. I see above me the pinnacle which I cannot reach&mdash;beneath
+      me the abyss into which I must fall, as soon as my relaxing grasp and
+      dizzy brain join to hurl me from my present precarious stance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Think better of your situation, my lord," said Varney; "let us try the
+      experiment in which you have but now acquiesced. Keep we your marriage
+      from Elizabeth's knowledge, and all may yet be well. I will instantly go
+      to the lady myself. She hates me, because I have been earnest with your
+      lordship, as she truly suspects, in opposition to what she terms her
+      rights. I care not for her prejudices&mdash;she SHALL listen to me; and I
+      will show her such reasons for yielding to the pressure of the times that
+      I doubt not to bring back her consent to whatever measures these
+      exigencies may require."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, Varney," said Leicester; "I have thought upon what is to be done, and
+      I will myself speak with Amy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Varney's turn to feel upon his own account the terrors which he
+      affected to participate solely on account of his patron. "Your lordship
+      will not yourself speak with the lady?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is my fixed purpose," said Leicester. "Fetch me one of the
+      livery-cloaks; I will pass the sentinel as thy servant. Thou art to have
+      free access to her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, my lord&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will have no BUTS," replied Leicester; "it shall be even thus, and not
+      otherwise. Hunsdon sleeps, I think, in Saintlowe's Tower. We can go
+      thither from these apartments by the private passage, without risk of
+      meeting any one. Or what if I do meet Hunsdon? he is more my friend than
+      enemy, and thick-witted enough to adopt any belief that is thrust on him.
+      Fetch me the cloak instantly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney had no alternative save obedience. In a few minutes Leicester was
+      muffled in the mantle, pulled his bonnet over his brows, and followed
+      Varney along the secret passage of the Castle which communicated with
+      Hunsdon's apartments, in which there was scarce a chance of meeting any
+      inquisitive person, and hardly light enough for any such to have satisfied
+      their curiosity. They emerged at a door where Lord Hunsdon had, with
+      military precaution, placed a sentinel, one of his own northern retainers
+      as it fortuned, who readily admitted Sir Richard Varney and his attendant,
+      saying only, in his northern dialect, "I would, man, thou couldst make the
+      mad lady be still yonder; for her moans do sae dirl through my head that I
+      would rather keep watch on a snowdrift, in the wastes of Catlowdie."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They hastily entered, and shut the door behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, good devil, if there be one," said Varney, within himself, "for once
+      help a votary at a dead pinch, for my boat is amongst the breakers!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess Amy, with her hair and her garments dishevelled, was seated
+      upon a sort of couch, in an attitude of the deepest affliction, out of
+      which she was startled by the opening of the door. She turned hastily
+      round, and fixing her eye on Varney, exclaimed, "Wretch! art thou come to
+      frame some new plan of villainy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester cut short her reproaches by stepping forward and dropping his
+      cloak, while he said, in a voice rather of authority than of affection,
+      "It is with me, madam, you have to commune, not with Sir Richard Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change effected on the Countess's look and manner was like magic.
+      "Dudley!" she exclaimed, "Dudley! and art thou come at last?" And with the
+      speed of lightning she flew to her husband, clung round his neck, and
+      unheeding the presence of Varney, overwhelmed him with caresses, while she
+      bathed his face in a flood of tears, muttering, at the same time, but in
+      broken and disjointed monosyllables, the fondest expressions which Love
+      teaches his votaries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester, as it seemed to him, had reason to be angry with his lady for
+      transgressing his commands, and thus placing him in the perilous situation
+      in which he had that morning stood. But what displeasure could keep its
+      ground before these testimonies of affection from a being so lovely, that
+      even the negligence of dress, and the withering effects of fear, grief,
+      and fatigue, which would have impaired the beauty of others, rendered hers
+      but the more interesting. He received and repaid her caresses with
+      fondness mingled with melancholy, the last of which she seemed scarcely to
+      observe, until the first transport of her own joy was over, when, looking
+      anxiously in his face, she asked if he was ill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not in my body, Amy," was his answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then I will be well too. O Dudley! I have been ill!&mdash;very ill, since
+      we last met!&mdash;for I call not this morning's horrible vision a
+      meeting. I have been in sickness, in grief, and in danger. But thou art
+      come, and all is joy, and health, and safety!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas, Amy," said Leicester, "thou hast undone me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I, my lord?" said Amy, her cheek at once losing its transient flush of
+      joy&mdash;"how could I injure that which I love better than myself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would not upbraid you, Amy," replied the Earl; "but are you not here
+      contrary to my express commands&mdash;and does not your presence here
+      endanger both yourself and me?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does it, does it indeed?" she exclaimed eagerly; "then why am I here a
+      moment longer? Oh, if you knew by what fears I was urged to quit Cumnor
+      Place! But I will say nothing of myself&mdash;only that if it might be
+      otherwise, I would not willingly return THITHER; yet if it concern your
+      safety&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will think, Amy, of some other retreat," said Leicester; "and you
+      shall go to one of my northern castles, under the personage&mdash;it will
+      be but needful, I trust, for a very few days&mdash;of Varney's wife."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How, my Lord of Leicester!" said the lady, disengaging herself from his
+      embraces; "is it to your wife you give the dishonourable counsel to
+      acknowledge herself the bride of another&mdash;and of all men, the bride
+      of that Varney?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam, I speak it in earnest&mdash;Varney is my true and faithful
+      servant, trusted in my deepest secrets. I had better lose my right hand
+      than his service at this moment. You have no cause to scorn him as you
+      do."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I could assign one, my lord," replied the Countess; "and I see he shakes
+      even under that assured look of his. But he that is necessary as your
+      right hand to your safety is free from any accusation of mine. May he be
+      true to you; and that he may be true, trust him not too much or too far.
+      But it is enough to say that I will not go with him unless by violence,
+      nor would I acknowledge him as my husband were all&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is a temporary deception, madam," said Leicester, irritated by her
+      opposition, "necessary for both our safeties, endangered by you through
+      female caprice, or the premature desire to seize on a rank to which I gave
+      you title only under condition that our marriage, for a time, should
+      continue secret. If my proposal disgust you, it is yourself has brought it
+      on both of us. There is no other remedy&mdash;you must do what your own
+      impatient folly hath rendered necessary&mdash;I command you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot put your commands, my lord," said Amy, "in balance with those of
+      honour and conscience. I will NOT, in this instance, obey you. You may
+      achieve your own dishonour, to which these crooked policies naturally
+      tend, but I will do nought that can blemish mine. How could you again, my
+      lord, acknowledge me as a pure and chaste matron, worthy to share your
+      fortunes, when, holding that high character, I had strolled the country
+      the acknowledged wife of such a profligate fellow as your servant Varney?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Varney interposing, "my lady is too much prejudiced
+      against me, unhappily, to listen to what I can offer, yet it may please
+      her better than what she proposes. She has good interest with Master
+      Edmund Tressilian, and could doubtless prevail on him to consent to be her
+      companion to Lidcote Hall, and there she might remain in safety until time
+      permitted the development of this mystery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was silent, but stood looking eagerly on Amy, with eyes which
+      seemed suddenly to glow as much with suspicion as displeasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess only said, "Would to God I were in my father's house! When I
+      left it, I little thought I was leaving peace of mind and honour behind
+      me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney proceeded with a tone of deliberation. "Doubtless this will make it
+      necessary to take strangers into my lord's counsels; but surely the
+      Countess will be warrant for the honour of Master Tressilian, and such of
+      her father's family&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Peace, Varney," said Leicester; "by Heaven I will strike my dagger into
+      thee if again thou namest Tressilian as a partner of my counsels!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore not!" said the Countess; "unless they be counsels fitter
+      for such as Varney, than for a man of stainless honour and integrity. My
+      lord, my lord, bend no angry brows on me; it is the truth, and it is I who
+      speak it. I once did Tressilian wrong for your sake; I will not do him the
+      further injustice of being silent when his honour is brought in question.
+      I can forbear," she said, looking at Varney, "to pull the mask off
+      hypocrisy, but I will not permit virtue to be slandered in my hearing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead pause. Leicester stood displeased, yet undetermined, and
+      too conscious of the weakness of his cause; while Varney, with a deep and
+      hypocritical affectation of sorrow, mingled with humility, bent his eyes
+      on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then that the Countess Amy displayed, in the midst of distress and
+      difficulty, the natural energy of character which would have rendered her,
+      had fate allowed, a distinguished ornament of the rank which she held. She
+      walked up to Leicester with a composed step, a dignified air, and looks in
+      which strong affection essayed in vain to shake the firmness of conscious,
+      truth and rectitude of principle. "You have spoken your mind, my lord,"
+      she said, "in these difficulties, with which, unhappily, I have found
+      myself unable to comply. This gentleman&mdash;this person I would say&mdash;has
+      hinted at another scheme, to which I object not but as it displeases you.
+      Will your lordship be pleased to hear what a young and timid woman, but
+      your most affectionate wife, can suggest in the present extremity?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was silent, but bent his head towards the Countess, as an
+      intimation that she was at liberty to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There hath been but one cause for all these evils, my lord," she
+      proceeded, "and it resolves itself into the mysterious duplicity with
+      which you, have been induced to surround yourself. Extricate yourself at
+      once, my lord, from the tyranny of these disgraceful trammels. Be like a
+      true English gentleman, knight, and earl, who holds that truth is the
+      foundation of honour, and that honour is dear to him as the breath of his
+      nostrils. Take your ill-fated wife by the hand, lead her to the footstool
+      of Elizabeth's throne&mdash;say that in a moment of infatuation, moved by
+      supposed beauty, of which none perhaps can now trace even the remains, I
+      gave my hand to this Amy Robsart. You will then have done justice to me,
+      my lord, and to your own honour and should law or power require you to
+      part from me, I will oppose no objection, since I may then with honour
+      hide a grieved and broken heart in those shades from which your love
+      withdrew me. Then&mdash;have but a little patience, and Amy's life will
+      not long darken your brighter prospects."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was so much of dignity, so much of tenderness, in the Countess's
+      remonstrance, that it moved all that was noble and generous in the soul of
+      her husband. The scales seemed to fall from his eyes, and the duplicity
+      and tergiversation of which he had been guilty stung him at once with
+      remorse and shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am not worthy of you, Amy," he said, "that could weigh aught which
+      ambition has to give against such a heart as thine. I have a bitter
+      penance to perform, in disentangling, before sneering foes and astounded
+      friends, all the meshes of my own deceitful policy. And the Queen&mdash;but
+      let her take my head, as she has threatened."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take your head, my lord!" said the Countess, "because you used the
+      freedom and liberty of an English subject in choosing a wife? For shame!
+      it is this distrust of the Queen's justice, this apprehension of danger,
+      which cannot but be imaginary, that, like scarecrows, have induced you to
+      forsake the straightforward path, which, as it is the best, is also the
+      safest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah, Amy, thou little knowest!" said Dudley but instantly checking
+      himself, he added, "Yet she shall not find in me a safe or easy victim of
+      arbitrary vengeance. I have friends&mdash;I have allies&mdash;I will not,
+      like Norfolk, be dragged to the block as a victim to sacrifice. Fear not,
+      Amy; thou shalt see Dudley bear himself worthy of his name. I must
+      instantly communicate with some of those friends on whom I can best rely;
+      for, as things stand, I may be made prisoner in my own Castle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, my good lord," said Amy, "make no faction in a peaceful state! There
+      is no friend can help us so well as our own candid truth and honour. Bring
+      but these to our assistance, and you are safe amidst a whole army of the
+      envious and malignant. Leave these behind you, and all other defence will
+      be fruitless. Truth, my noble lord, is well painted unarmed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But Wisdom, Amy," answered Leicester, "is arrayed in panoply of proof.
+      Argue not with me on the means I shall use to render my confession&mdash;since
+      it must be called so&mdash;as safe as may be; it will be fraught with
+      enough of danger, do what we will.&mdash;Varney, we must hence.&mdash;Farewell,
+      Amy, whom I am to vindicate as mine own, at an expense and risk of which
+      thou alone couldst be worthy. You shall soon hear further from me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He embraced her fervently, muffled himself as before, and accompanied
+      Varney from the apartment. The latter, as he left the room, bowed low, and
+      as he raised his body, regarded Amy with a peculiar expression, as if he
+      desired to know how far his own pardon was included in the reconciliation
+      which had taken place betwixt her and her lord. The Countess looked upon
+      him with a fixed eye, but seemed no more conscious of his presence than if
+      there had been nothing but vacant air on the spot where he stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She has brought me to the crisis," he muttered&mdash;"she or I am lost.
+      There was something&mdash;I wot not if it was fear or pity&mdash;that
+      prompted me to avoid this fatal crisis. It is now decided&mdash;she or I
+      must PERISH."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he thus spoke, he observed, with surprise, that a boy, repulsed by
+      the sentinel, made up to Leicester, and spoke with him. Varney was one of
+      those politicians whom not the slightest appearances escape without
+      inquiry. He asked the sentinel what the lad wanted with him, and received
+      for answer that the boy had wished him to transmit a parcel to the mad
+      lady; but that he cared not to take charge of it, such communication being
+      beyond his commission, His curiosity satisfied in that particular, he
+      approached his patron, and heard him say, "Well, boy, the packet shall be
+      delivered."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thanks, good Master Serving-man," said the boy, and was out of sight in
+      an instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester and Varney returned with hasty steps to the Earl's private
+      apartment, by the same passage which had conducted them to Saintlowe's
+      Tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I have said
+     This is an adulteress&mdash;I have said with whom:
+     More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is
+     A federary with her, and one that knows
+     What she should shame to know herself.   &mdash;WINTER'S TALE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They were no sooner in the Earl's cabinet than, taking his tablets from
+      his pocket, he began to write, speaking partly to Varney, and partly to
+      himself&mdash;"There are many of them close bounden to me, and especially
+      those in good estate and high office&mdash;many who, if they look back
+      towards my benefits, or forward towards the perils which may befall
+      themselves, will not, I think, be disposed to see me stagger unsupported.
+      Let me see&mdash;Knollis is sure, and through his means Guernsey and
+      Jersey. Horsey commands in the Isle of Wight. My brother-in-law,
+      Huntingdon, and Pembroke, have authority in Wales. Through Bedford I lead
+      the Puritans, with their interest, so powerful in all the boroughs. My
+      brother of Warwick is equal, well-nigh, to myself, in wealth, followers,
+      and dependencies. Sir Owen Hopton is at my devotion; he commands the Tower
+      of London, and the national treasure deposited there. My father and
+      grand-father needed never to have stooped their heads to the block had
+      they thus forecast their enterprises.&mdash;Why look you so sad, Varney? I
+      tell thee, a tree so deep-rooted is not so easily to be torn up by the
+      tempest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas! my lord," said Varney, with well-acted passion, and then resumed
+      the same look of despondency which Leicester had before noted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Alas!" repeated Leicester; "and wherefore alas, Sir Richard? Doth your
+      new spirit of chivalry supply no more vigorous ejaculation when a noble
+      struggle is impending? Or, if ALAS means thou wilt flinch from the
+      conflict, thou mayest leave the Castle, or go join mine enemies, whichever
+      thou thinkest best."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, my lord," answered his confidant; "Varney will be found fighting
+      or dying by your side. Forgive me, if, in love to you, I see more fully
+      than your noble heart permits you to do, the inextricable difficulties
+      with which you are surrounded. You are strong, my lord, and powerful; yet,
+      let me say it without offence, you are so only by the reflected light of
+      the Queen's favour. While you are Elizabeth's favourite, you are all, save
+      in name, like an actual sovereign. But let her call back the honours she
+      has bestowed, and the prophet's gourd did not wither more suddenly.
+      Declare against the Queen, and I do not say that in the wide nation, or in
+      this province alone, you would find yourself instantly deserted and
+      outnumbered; but I will say, that even in this very Castle, and in the
+      midst of your vassals, kinsmen, and dependants, you would be a captive,
+      nay, a sentenced captive, should she please to say the word. Think upon
+      Norfolk, my lord&mdash;upon the powerful Northumberland&mdash;the splendid
+      Westmoreland;&mdash;think on all who have made head against this sage
+      Princess. They are dead, captive, or fugitive. This is not like other
+      thrones, which can be overturned by a combination of powerful nobles; the
+      broad foundations which support it are in the extended love and affections
+      of the people. You might share it with Elizabeth if you would; but neither
+      yours, nor any other power, foreign or domestic, will avail to overthrow,
+      or even to shake it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused, and Leicester threw his tablets from him with an air of
+      reckless despite. "It may be as thou sayest," he said? "and, in sooth, I
+      care not whether truth or cowardice dictate thy forebodings. But it shall
+      not be said I fell without a struggle. Give orders that those of my
+      retainers who served under me in Ireland be gradually drawn into the main
+      Keep, and let our gentlemen and friends stand on their guard, and go
+      armed, as if they expected arm onset from the followers of Sussex. Possess
+      the townspeople with some apprehension; let them take arms, and be ready,
+      at a given signal, to overpower the Pensioners and Yeomen of the Guard."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Let me remind you, my lord," said Varney, with the same appearance of
+      deep and melancholy interest, "that you have given me orders to prepare
+      for disarming the Queen's guard. It is an act of high treason, but you
+      shall nevertheless be obeyed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I care not," said Leicester desperately&mdash;"I care not. Shame is
+      behind me, ruin before me; I must on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here there was another pause, which Varney at length broke with the
+      following words: "It is come to the point I have long dreaded. I must
+      either witness, like an ungrateful beast, the downfall of the best and
+      kindest of masters, or I must speak what I would have buried in the
+      deepest oblivion, or told by any other mouth than mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is that thou sayest, or wouldst say?" replied the Earl; "we have no
+      time to waste on words when the times call us to action."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My speech is soon made, my lord&mdash;would to God it were as soon
+      answered! Your marriage is the sole cause of the threatened breach with
+      your Sovereign, my lord, is it not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou knowest it is!" replied Leicester. "What needs so fruitless a
+      question?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here. Men will wager
+      their lands and lives in defence of a rich diamond, my lord; but were it
+      not first prudent to look if there is no flaw in it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What means this?" said Leicester, with eyes sternly fixed on his
+      dependant; "of whom dost thou dare to speak?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is&mdash;of the Countess Amy, my lord, of whom I am unhappily bound to
+      speak; and of whom I WILL speak, were your lordship to kill me for my
+      zeal."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou mayest happen to deserve it at my hand," said the Earl; "but speak
+      on, I will hear thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then, my lord, I will be bold. I speak for my own life as well as
+      for your lordship's. I like not this lady's tampering and trickstering
+      with this same Edmund Tressilian. You know him, my lord. You know he had
+      formerly an interest in her, which it cost your lordship some pains to
+      supersede. You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit
+      against me in behalf of this lady, the open object of which is to drive
+      your lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy
+      marriage, the point to which my lady also is willing, at any risk, to urge
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester smiled constrainedly. "Thou meanest well, good Sir Richard, and
+      wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour, as well as that of any other
+      person, to save me from what thou thinkest a step so terrible. But
+      remember"&mdash;he spoke these words with the most stern decision&mdash;"you
+      speak of the Countess of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do, my lord," said Varney; "but it is for the welfare of the Earl of
+      Leicester. My tale is but begun. I do most strongly believe that this
+      Tressilian has, from the beginning of his moving in her cause, been in
+      connivance with her ladyship the Countess."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou speakest wild madness, Varney, with the sober face of a preacher.
+      Where, or how, could they communicate together?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Varney, "unfortunately I can show that but too well. It
+      was just before the supplication was presented to the Queen, in
+      Tressilian's name, that I met him, to my utter astonishment, at the
+      postern gate which leads from the demesne at Cumnor Place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou met'st him, villain! and why didst thou not strike him dead?"
+      exclaimed Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not my foot slipped, he
+      would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-block in your lordship's
+      path."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise. At length he answered, "What
+      other evidence hast thou of this, Varney, save thine own assertion?&mdash;for,
+      as I will punish deeply, I will examine coolly and warily. Sacred Heaven!&mdash;but
+      no&mdash;I will examine coldly and warily&mdash;coldly and warily." He
+      repeated these words more than once to himself, as if in the very sound
+      there was a sedative quality; and again compressing his lips, as if he
+      feared some violent expression might escape from them, he asked again,
+      "What further proof?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough, my lord," said Varney, "and to spare. I would it rested with me
+      alone, for with me it might have been silenced for ever. But my servant,
+      Michael Lambourne, witnessed the whole, and was, indeed, the means of
+      first introducing Tressilian into Cumnor Place; and therefore I took him
+      into my service, and retained him in it, though something of a debauched
+      fellow, that I might have his tongue always under my own command." He then
+      acquainted Lord Leicester how easy it was to prove the circumstance of
+      their interview true, by evidence of Anthony Foster, with the
+      corroborative testimonies of the various persons at Cumnor, who had heard
+      the wager laid, and had seen Lambourne and Tressilian set off together. In
+      the whole narrative, Varney hazarded nothing fabulous, excepting that, not
+      indeed by direct assertion, but by inference, he led his patron to suppose
+      that the interview betwixt Amy and Tressilian at Cumnor Place had been
+      longer than the few minutes to which it was in reality limited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And wherefore was I not told of all this?" said Leicester sternly. "Why
+      did all of ye&mdash;and in particular thou, Varney&mdash;keep back from me
+      such material information?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Because, my lord," replied Varney, "the Countess pretended to Foster and
+      to me that Tressilian had intruded himself upon her; and I concluded their
+      interview had been in all honour, and that she would at her own time tell
+      it to your lordship. Your lordship knows with what unwilling ears we
+      listen to evil surmises against those whom we love; and I thank Heaven I
+      am no makebate or informer, to be the first to sow them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are but too ready to receive them, however, Sir Richard," replied his
+      patron. "How knowest thou that this interview was not in all honour, as
+      thou hast said? Methinks the wife of the Earl of Leicester might speak for
+      a short time with such a person as Tressilian without injury to me or
+      suspicion to herself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Questionless, my lord," answered Varney, "Had I thought otherwise, I had
+      been no keeper of the secret. But here lies the rub&mdash;Tressilian
+      leaves not the place without establishing a correspondence with a poor
+      man, the landlord of an inn in Cumnor, for the purpose of carrying off the
+      lady. He sent down an emissary of his, whom I trust soon to have in right
+      sure keeping under Mervyn's Tower&mdash;Killigrew and Lambsbey are
+      scouring the country in quest of him. The host is rewarded with a ring for
+      keeping counsel&mdash;your lordship may have noted it on Tressilian's hand&mdash;here
+      it is. This fellow, this agent, makes his way to the place as a pedlar;
+      holds conferences with the lady, and they make their escape together by
+      night; rob a poor fellow of a horse by the way, such was their guilty
+      haste, and at length reach this Castle, where the Countess of Leicester
+      finds refuge&mdash;I dare not say in what place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak, I command thee," said Leicester&mdash;"speak, while I retain sense
+      enough to hear thee."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Since it must be so," answered Varney, "the lady resorted immediately to
+      the apartment of Tressilian, where she remained many hours, partly in
+      company with him, and partly alone. I told you Tressilian had a paramour
+      in his chamber; I little dreamed that paramour was&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Amy, thou wouldst say," answered Leicester; "but it is false, false as
+      the smoke of hell! Ambitious she may be&mdash;fickle and impatient&mdash;'tis
+      a woman's fault; but false to me!&mdash;never, never. The proof&mdash;the
+      proof of this!" he exclaimed hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Carrol, the Deputy Marshal, ushered her thither by her own desire, on
+      yesterday afternoon; Lambourne and the Warder both found her there at an
+      early hour this morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Was Tressilian there with her?" said Leicester, in the same hurried tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my lord. You may remember," answered Varney, "that he was that night
+      placed with Sir Nicholas Blount, under a species of arrest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Did Carrol, or the other fellows, know who she was?" demanded Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my lord," replied Varney; "Carrol and the Warder had never seen the
+      Countess, and Lambourne knew her not in her disguise. But in seeking to
+      prevent her leaving the cell, he obtained possession of one of her gloves,
+      which, I think, your lordship may know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gave the glove, which had the Bear and Ragged Staff, the Earl's
+      impress, embroidered upon it in seed-pearls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do&mdash;I do recognize it," said Leicester. "They were my own gift.
+      The fellow of it was on the arm which she threw this very day around my
+      neck!" He spoke this with violent agitation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your lordship," said Varney, "might yet further inquire of the lady
+      herself respecting the truth of these passages."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It needs not&mdash;it needs not," said the tortured Earl; "it is written
+      in characters of burning light, as if they were branded on my very
+      eyeballs! I see her infamy-I can see nought else; and&mdash;gracious
+      Heaven!&mdash;for this vile woman was I about to commit to danger the
+      lives of so many noble friends, shake the foundation of a lawful throne,
+      carry the sword and torch through the bosom of a peaceful land, wrong the
+      kind mistress who made me what I am, and would, but for that hell-framed
+      marriage, have made me all that man can be! All this I was ready to do for
+      a woman who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!&mdash;And thou,
+      villain, why didst thou not speak sooner?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Varney, "a tear from my lady would have blotted out all I
+      could have said. Besides, I had not these proofs until this very morning,
+      when Anthony Foster's sudden arrival with the examinations and
+      declarations, which he had extorted from the innkeeper Gosling and others,
+      explained the manner of her flight from Cumnor Place, and my own
+      researches discovered the steps which she had taken here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, may God be praised for the light He has given! so full, so
+      satisfactory, that there breathes not a man in England who shall call my
+      proceeding rash, or my revenge unjust.&mdash;And yet, Varney, so young, so
+      fair, so fawning, and so false! Hence, then, her hatred to thee, my
+      trusty, my well-beloved servant, because you withstood her plots, and
+      endangered her paramour's life!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I never gave her any other cause of dislike, my lord," replied Varney.
+      "But she knew that my counsels went directly to diminish her influence
+      with your lordship; and that I was, and have been, ever ready to peril my
+      life against your enemies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is too, too apparent," replied Leicester "yet with what an air of
+      magnanimity she exhorted me to commit my head to the Queen's mercy, rather
+      than wear the veil of falsehood a moment longer! Methinks the angel of
+      truth himself can have no such tones of high-souled impulse. Can it be so,
+      Varney?&mdash;can falsehood use thus boldly the language of truth?&mdash;can
+      infamy thus assume the guise of purity? Varney, thou hast been my servant
+      from a child. I have raised thee high&mdash;can raise thee higher. Think,
+      think for me!&mdash;thy brain was ever shrewd and piercing&mdash;may she
+      not be innocent? Prove her so, and all I have yet done for thee shall be
+      as nothing&mdash;nothing, in comparison of thy recompense!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The agony with which his master spoke had some effect even on the hardened
+      Varney, who, in the midst of his own wicked and ambitious designs, really
+      loved his patron as well as such a wretch was capable of loving anything.
+      But he comforted himself, and subdued his self-reproaches, with the
+      reflection that if he inflicted upon the Earl some immediate and
+      transitory pain, it was in order to pave his way to the throne, which,
+      were this marriage dissolved by death or otherwise, he deemed Elizabeth
+      would willingly share with his benefactor. He therefore persevered in his
+      diabolical policy; and after a moment's consideration, answered the
+      anxious queries of the Earl with a melancholy look, as if he had in vain
+      sought some exculpation for the Countess; then suddenly raising his head,
+      he said, with an expression of hope, which instantly communicated itself
+      to the countenance of his patron&mdash;"Yet wherefore, if guilty, should
+      she have perilled herself by coming hither? Why not rather have fled to
+      her father's, or elsewhere?&mdash;though that, indeed, might have
+      interfered with her desire to be acknowledged as Countess of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True, true, true!" exclaimed Leicester, his transient gleam of hope
+      giving way to the utmost bitterness of feeling and expression; "thou art
+      not fit to fathom a woman's depth of wit, Varney. I see it all. She would
+      not quit the estate and title of the wittol who had wedded her. Ay, and if
+      in my madness I had started into rebellion, or if the angry Queen had
+      taken my head, as she this morning threatened, the wealthy dower which law
+      would have assigned to the Countess Dowager of Leicester had been no bad
+      windfall to the beggarly Tressilian. Well might she goad me on to danger,
+      which could not end otherwise than profitably to her,&mdash;Speak not for
+      her, Varney! I will have her blood!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," replied Varney, "the wildness of your distress breaks forth in
+      the wildness of your language."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I say, speak not for her!" replied Leicester; "she has dishonoured me&mdash;she
+      would have murdered me&mdash;all ties are burst between us. She shall die
+      the death of a traitress and adulteress, well merited both by the laws of
+      God and man! And&mdash;what is this casket," he said, "which was even now
+      thrust into my hand by a boy, with the desire I would convey it to
+      Tressilian, as he could not give it to the Countess? By Heaven! the words
+      surprised me as he spoke them, though other matters chased them from my
+      brain; but now they return with double force. It is her casket of jewels!&mdash;Force
+      it open, Varney&mdash;force the hinges open with thy poniard!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She refused the aid of my dagger once," thought Varney, as he unsheathed
+      the weapon, "to cut the string which bound a letter, but now it shall work
+      a mightier ministry in her fortunes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this reflection, by using the three-cornered stiletto-blade as a
+      wedge, he forced open the slender silver hinges of the casket. The Earl no
+      sooner saw them give way than he snatched the casket from Sir Richard's
+      hand, wrenched off the cover, and tearing out the splendid contents, flung
+      them on the floor in a transport of rage, while he eagerly searched for
+      some letter or billet which should make the fancied guilt of his innocent
+      Countess yet more apparent. Then stamping furiously on the gems, he
+      exclaimed, "Thus I annihilate the miserable toys for which thou hast sold
+      thyself, body and soul&mdash;consigned thyself to an early and timeless
+      death, and me to misery and remorse for ever!&mdash;Tell me not of
+      forgiveness, Varney&mdash;she is doomed!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he left the room, and rushed into an adjacent closet, the door
+      of which he locked and bolted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney looked after him, while something of a more human feeling seemed to
+      contend with his habitual sneer. "I am sorry for his weakness," he said,
+      "but love has made him a child. He throws down and treads on these costly
+      toys-with the same vehemence would he dash to pieces this frailest toy of
+      all, of which he used to rave so fondly. But that taste also will be
+      forgotten when its object is no more. Well, he has no eye to value things
+      as they deserve, and that nature has given to Varney. When Leicester shall
+      be a sovereign, he will think as little of the gales of passion through
+      which he gained that royal port, as ever did sailor in harbour of the
+      perils of a voyage. But these tell-tale articles must not remain here&mdash;they
+      are rather too rich vails for the drudges who dress the chamber."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Varney was employed in gathering together and putting them into a
+      secret drawer of a cabinet that chanced to be open, he saw the door of
+      Leicester's closet open, the tapestry pushed aside, and the Earl's face
+      thrust out, but with eyes so dead, and lips and cheeks so bloodless and
+      pale, that he started at the sudden change. No sooner did his eyes
+      encounter the Earl's, than the latter withdrew his head and shut the door
+      of the closet. This manoeuvre Leicester repeated twice, without speaking a
+      word, so that Varney began to doubt whether his brain was not actually
+      affected by his mental agony. The third time, however, he beckoned, and
+      Varney obeyed the signal. When he entered, he soon found his patron's
+      perturbation was not caused by insanity, but by the fullness of purpose
+      which he entertained contending with various contrary passions. They
+      passed a full hour in close consultation; after which the Earl of
+      Leicester, with an incredible exertion, dressed himself, and went to
+      attend his royal guest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
+     With most admired disorder.      &mdash;MACBETH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was afterwards remembered that during the banquets and revels which
+      occupied the remainder of this eventful day the bearing of Leicester and
+      of Varney were totally different from their usual demeanour. Sir Richard
+      Varney had been held rather a man of counsel and of action than a votary
+      of pleasure. Business, whether civil or military, seemed always to be his
+      proper sphere; and while in festivals and revels, although he well
+      understood how to trick them up and present them, his own part was that of
+      a mere spectator; or if he exercised his wit, it was in a rough, caustic,
+      and severe manner, rather as if he scoffed at the exhibition and the
+      guests than shared the common pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But upon the present day his character seemed changed. He mixed among the
+      younger courtiers and ladies, and appeared for the moment to be actuated
+      by a spirit of light-hearted gaiety, which rendered him a match for the
+      liveliest. Those who had looked upon him as a man given up to graver and
+      more ambitious pursuits, a bitter sneerer and passer of sarcasms at the
+      expense of those who, taking life as they find it, were disposed to snatch
+      at each pastime it presents, now perceived with astonishment that his wit
+      could carry as smooth an edge as their own, his laugh be as lively, and
+      his brow as unclouded. By what art of damnable hypocrisy he could draw
+      this veil of gaiety over the black thoughts of one of the worst of human
+      bosoms must remain unintelligible to all but his compeers, if any such
+      ever existed; but he was a man of extraordinary powers, and those powers
+      were unhappily dedicated in all their energy to the very worst of
+      purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was entirely different with Leicester. However habituated his mind
+      usually was to play the part of a good courtier, and appear gay,
+      assiduous, and free from all care but that of enhancing the pleasure of
+      the moment, while his bosom internally throbbed with the pangs of
+      unsatisfied ambition, jealousy, or resentment, his heart had now a yet
+      more dreadful guest, whose workings could not be overshadowed or
+      suppressed; and you might read in his vacant eye and troubled brow that
+      his thoughts were far absent from the scenes in which he was compelling
+      himself to play a part. He looked, moved, and spoke as if by a succession
+      of continued efforts; and it seemed as if his will had in some degree lost
+      the promptitude of command over the acute mind and goodly form of which it
+      was the regent. His actions and gestures, instead of appearing the
+      consequence of simple volition, seemed, like those of an automaton, to
+      wait the revolution of some internal machinery ere they could be
+      performed; and his words fell from him piecemeal, interrupted, as if he
+      had first to think what he was to say, then how it was to be said, and as
+      if, after all, it was only by an effort of continued attention that he
+      completed a sentence without forgetting both the one and the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The singular effects which these distractions of mind produced upon the
+      behaviour and conversation of the most accomplished courtier of England,
+      as they were visible to the lowest and dullest menial who approached his
+      person, could not escape the notice of the most intelligent Princess of
+      the age. Nor is there the least doubt that the alternate negligence and
+      irregularity of his manner would have called down Elizabeth's severe
+      displeasure on the Earl of Leicester, had it not occurred to her to
+      account for it by supposing that the apprehension of that displeasure
+      which she had expressed towards him with such vivacity that very morning
+      was dwelling upon the spirits of her favourite, and, spite of his efforts
+      to the contrary, distracted the usual graceful tenor of his mien and the
+      charms of his conversation. When this idea, so flattering to female
+      vanity, had once obtained possession of her mind, it proved a full and
+      satisfactory apology for the numerous errors and mistakes of the Earl of
+      Leicester; and the watchful circle around observed with astonishment,
+      that, instead of resenting his repeated negligence, and want of even
+      ordinary attention (although these were points on which she was usually
+      extremely punctilious), the Queen sought, on the contrary, to afford him
+      time and means to recollect himself, and deigned to assist him in doing
+      so, with an indulgence which seemed altogether inconsistent with her usual
+      character. It was clear, however, that this could not last much longer,
+      and that Elizabeth must finally put another and more severe construction
+      on Leicester's uncourteous conduct, when the Earl was summoned by Varney
+      to speak with him in a different apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After having had the message twice delivered to him, he rose, and was
+      about to withdraw, as it were, by instinct; then stopped, and turning
+      round, entreated permission of the Queen to absent himself for a brief
+      space upon matters of pressing importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go, my lord," said the Queen. "We are aware our presence must occasion
+      sudden and unexpected occurrences, which require to be provided for on the
+      instant. Yet, my lord, as you would have us believe ourself your welcome
+      and honoured guest, we entreat you to think less of our good cheer, and
+      favour us with more of your good countenance than we have this day
+      enjoyed; for whether prince or peasant be the guest, the welcome of the
+      host will always be the better part of the entertainment. Go, my lord; and
+      we trust to see you return with an unwrinkled brow, and those free
+      thoughts which you are wont to have at the disposal of your friends."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester only bowed low in answer to this rebuke, and retired. At the
+      door of the apartment he was met by Varney, who eagerly drew him apart,
+      and whispered in his ear, "All is well!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Has Masters seen her?" said the Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He has, my lord; and as she would neither answer his queries, nor allege
+      any reason for her refusal, he will give full testimony that she labours
+      under a mental disorder, and may be best committed to the charge of her
+      friends. The opportunity is therefore free to remove her as we proposed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But Tressilian?" said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He will not know of her departure for some time," replied Varney; "it
+      shall take place this very evening, and to-morrow he shall be cared for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, by my soul," answered Leicester; "I will take vengeance on him with
+      mine own hand!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You, my lord, and on so inconsiderable a man as Tressilian! No, my lord,
+      he hath long wished to visit foreign parts. Trust him to me&mdash;I will
+      take care he returns not hither to tell tales."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not so, by Heaven, Varney!" exclaimed Leicester. "Inconsiderable do you
+      call an enemy that hath had power to wound me so deeply that my whole
+      after-life must be one scene of remorse and misery?&mdash;No; rather than
+      forego the right of doing myself justice with my own hand on that accursed
+      villain, I will unfold the whole truth at Elizabeth's footstool, and let
+      her vengeance descend at once on them and on myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney saw with great alarm that his lord was wrought up to such a pitch
+      of agitation, that if he gave not way to him he was perfectly capable of
+      adopting the desperate resolution which he had announced, and which was
+      instant ruin to all the schemes of ambition which Varney had formed for
+      his patron and for himself. But the Earl's rage seemed at once
+      uncontrollable and deeply concentrated, and while he spoke his eyes shot
+      fire, his voice trembled with excess of passion, and the light foam stood
+      on his lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His confidant made a bold and successful effort to obtain the mastery of
+      him even in this hour of emotion. "My lord," he said, leading him to a
+      mirror, "behold your reflection in that glass, and think if these agitated
+      features belong to one who, in a condition so extreme, is capable of
+      forming a resolution for himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, then, wouldst thou make me?" said Leicester, struck at the change
+      in his own physiognomy, though offended at the freedom with which Varney
+      made the appeal. "Am I to be thy ward, thy vassal,&mdash;the property and
+      subject of my servant?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, my lord," said Varney firmly, "but be master of yourself, and of your
+      own passion. My lord, I, your born servant, am ashamed to see how poorly
+      you bear yourself in the storm of fury. Go to Elizabeth's feet, confess
+      your marriage&mdash;impeach your wife and her paramour of adultery&mdash;and
+      avow yourself, amongst all your peers, the wittol who married a country
+      girl, and was cozened by her and her book-learned gallant. Go, my lord&mdash;but
+      first take farewell of Richard Varney, with all the benefits you ever
+      conferred on him. He served the noble, the lofty, the high-minded
+      Leicester, and was more proud of depending on him than he would be of
+      commanding thousands. But the abject lord who stoops to every adverse
+      circumstance, whose judicious resolves are scattered like chaff before
+      every wind of passion, him Richard Varney serves not. He is as much above
+      him in constancy of mind as beneath him in rank and fortune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney spoke thus without hypocrisy, for though the firmness of mind which
+      he boasted was hardness and impenetrability, yet he really felt the
+      ascendency which he vaunted; while the interest which he actually felt in
+      the fortunes of Leicester gave unusual emotion to his voice and manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority it seemed to the
+      unfortunate Earl as if his last friend was about to abandon him. He
+      stretched his hand towards Varney as he uttered the words, "Do not leave
+      me. What wouldst thou have me do?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be thyself, my noble master," said Varney, touching the Earl's hand with
+      his lips, after having respectfully grasped it in his own; "be yourself,
+      superior to those storms of passion which wreck inferior minds. Are you
+      the first who has been cozened in love&mdash;the first whom a vain and
+      licentious woman has cheated into an affection, which she has afterwards
+      scorned and misused? And will you suffer yourself to be driven frantic
+      because you have not been wiser than the wisest men whom the world has
+      seen? Let her be as if she had not been&mdash;let her pass from your
+      memory, as unworthy of ever having held a place there. Let your strong
+      resolve of this morning, which I have both courage, zeal, and means enough
+      to execute, be like the fiat of a superior being, a passionless act of
+      justice. She hath deserved death&mdash;let her die!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was speaking, the Earl held his hand fast, compressed his lips
+      hard, and frowned, as if he laboured to catch from Varney a portion of the
+      cold, ruthless, and dispassionate firmness which he recommended. When he
+      was silent, the Earl still continued to grasp his hand, until, with an
+      effort at calm decision, he was able to articulate, "Be it so&mdash;she
+      dies! But one tear might be permitted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not one, my lord," interrupted Varney, who saw by the quivering eye and
+      convulsed cheek of his patron that he was about to give way to a burst of
+      emotion&mdash;"not a tear&mdash;the time permits it not. Tressilian must
+      be thought of&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That indeed is a name," said the Earl, "to convert tears into blood.
+      Varney, I have thought on this, and I have determined&mdash;neither
+      entreaty nor argument shall move me&mdash;Tressilian shall be my own
+      victim."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is madness, my lord; but you are too mighty for me to bar your way to
+      your revenge. Yet resolve at least to choose fitting time and opportunity,
+      and to forbear him until these shall be found."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou shalt order me in what thou wilt," said Leicester, "only thwart me
+      not in this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Then, my lord," said Varney, "I first request of you to lay aside the
+      wild, suspected, and half-frenzied demeanour which hath this day drawn the
+      eyes of all the court upon you, and which, but for the Queen's partial
+      indulgence, which she hath extended towards you in a degree far beyond her
+      nature, she had never given you the opportunity to atone for."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have I indeed been so negligent?" said Leicester, as one who awakes from
+      a dream. "I thought I had coloured it well. But fear nothing, my mind is
+      now eased&mdash;I am calm. My horoscope shall be fulfilled; and that it
+      may be fulfilled, I will tax to the highest every faculty of my mind. Fear
+      me not, I say. I will to the Queen instantly&mdash;not thine own looks and
+      language shall be more impenetrable than mine. Hast thou aught else to
+      say?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I must crave your signet-ring," said Varney gravely, "in token to those
+      of your servants whom I must employ, that I possess your full authority in
+      commanding their aid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester drew off the signet-ring which he commonly used, and gave it to
+      Varney, with a haggard and stern expression of countenance, adding only,
+      in a low, half-whispered tone, but with terrific emphasis, the words,
+      "What thou dost, do quickly."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some anxiety and wonder took place, meanwhile, in the presence-hall, at
+      the prolonged absence of the noble Lord of the Castle, and great was the
+      delight of his friends when they saw him enter as a man from whose bosom,
+      to all human seeming, a weight of care had been just removed. Amply did
+      Leicester that day redeem the pledge he had given to Varney, who soon saw
+      himself no longer under the necessity of maintaining a character so
+      different from his own as that which he had assumed in the earlier part of
+      the day, and gradually relapsed into the same grave, shrewd, caustic
+      observer of conversation and incident which constituted his usual part in
+      society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With Elizabeth, Leicester played his game as one to whom her natural
+      strength of talent and her weakness in one or two particular points were
+      well known. He was too wary to exchange on a sudden the sullen personage
+      which he had played before he retired with Varney; but on approaching her
+      it seemed softened into a melancholy, which had a touch of tenderness in
+      it, and which, in the course of conversing with Elizabeth, and as she
+      dropped in compassion one mark of favour after another to console him,
+      passed into a flow of affectionate gallantry, the most assiduous, the most
+      delicate, the most insinuating, yet at the same time the most respectful,
+      with which a Queen was ever addressed by a subject. Elizabeth listened as
+      in a sort of enchantment. Her jealousy of power was lulled asleep; her
+      resolution to forsake all social or domestic ties, and dedicate herself
+      exclusively to the care of her people, began to be shaken; and once more
+      the star of Dudley culminated in the court horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Leicester did not enjoy this triumph over nature, and over conscience,
+      without its being embittered to him, not only by the internal rebellion of
+      his feelings against the violence which he exercised over them, but by
+      many accidental circumstances, which, in the course of the banquet, and
+      during the subsequent amusements of the evening, jarred upon that nerve,
+      the least vibration of which was agony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The courtiers were, for example, in the Great Hall, after having left the
+      banqueting-room, awaiting the appearance of a splendid masque, which was
+      the expected entertainment of this evening, when the Queen interrupted a
+      wild career of wit which the Earl of Leicester was running against Lord
+      Willoughby, Raleigh, and some other courtiers, by saying, "We will impeach
+      you of high treason, my lord, if you proceed in this attempt to slay us
+      with laughter. And here comes a thing may make us all grave at his
+      pleasure, our learned physician Masters, with news belike of our poor
+      suppliant, Lady Varney;&mdash;nay, my lord, we will not have you leave us,
+      for this being a dispute betwixt married persons, we do not hold our own
+      experience deep enough to decide thereon without good counsel.&mdash;How
+      now, Masters, what thinkest thou of the runaway bride?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smile with which Leicester had been speaking, when the Queen
+      interrupted him, remained arrested on his lips, as if it had been carved
+      there by the chisel of Michael Angelo or of Chantrey; and he listened to
+      the speech of the physician with the same immovable cast of countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Lady Varney, gracious Sovereign," said the court physician Masters,
+      "is sullen, and would hold little conference with me touching the state of
+      her health, talking wildly of being soon to plead her own cause before
+      your own presence, and of answering no meaner person's inquiries."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now the heavens forfend!" said the Queen; "we have already suffered from
+      the misconstructions and broils which seem to follow this poor brain-sick
+      lady wherever she comes.&mdash;Think you not so, my lord?" she added,
+      appealing to Leicester with something in her look that indicated regret,
+      even tenderly expressed, for their disagreement of that morning. Leicester
+      compelled himself to bow low. The utmost force he could exert was
+      inadequate to the further effort of expressing in words his acquiescence
+      in the Queen's sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are vindictive," she said, "my lord; but we will find time and place
+      to punish you. But once more to this same trouble-mirth, this Lady Varney.
+      What of her health, Masters?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is sullen, madam, as I already said," replied Masters, "and refuses
+      to answer interrogatories, or be amenable to the authority of the
+      mediciner. I conceive her to be possessed with a delirium, which I incline
+      to term rather HYPOCHONDRIA than PHRENESIS; and I think she were best
+      cared for by her husband in his own house, and removed from all this
+      bustle of pageants, which disturbs her weak brain with the most fantastic
+      phantoms. She drops hints as if she were some great person in disguise&mdash;some
+      Countess or Princess perchance. God help them, such are often the
+      hallucinations of these infirm persons!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then," said the Queen, "away with her with all speed. Let Varney
+      care for her with fitting humanity; but let them rid the Castle of her
+      forthwith she will think herself lady of all, I warrant you. It is pity so
+      fair a form, however, should have an infirm understanding.&mdash;What
+      think you, my lord?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is pity indeed," said the Earl, repeating the words like a task which
+      was set him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But, perhaps," said Elizabeth, "you do not join with us in our opinion of
+      her beauty; and indeed we have known men prefer a statelier and more
+      Juno-like form to that drooping fragile one that hung its head like a
+      broken lily. Ay, men are tyrants, my lord, who esteem the animation of the
+      strife above the triumph of an unresisting conquest, and, like sturdy
+      champions, love best those women who can wage contest with them.&mdash;I
+      could think with you, Rutland, that give my Lord of Leicester such a piece
+      of painted wax for a bride, he would have wished her dead ere the end of
+      the honeymoon."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she said this, she looked on Leicester so expressively that, while his
+      heart revolted against the egregious falsehood, he did himself so much
+      violence as to reply in a whisper that Leicester's love was more lowly
+      than her Majesty deemed, since it was settled where he could never
+      command, but must ever obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen blushed, and bid him be silent; yet looked as of she expected
+      that he would not obey her commands. But at that moment the flourish of
+      trumpets and kettle-drums from a high balcony which overlooked the hall
+      announced the entrance of the maskers, and relieved Leicester from the
+      horrible state of constraint and dissimulation in which the result of his
+      own duplicity had placed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The masque which entered consisted of four separate bands, which followed
+      each other at brief intervals, each consisting of six principal persons
+      and as many torch-bearers, and each representing one of the various
+      nations by which England had at different times been occupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The aboriginal Britons, who first entered, were ushered in by two ancient
+      Druids, whose hoary hair was crowned with a chaplet of oak, and who bore
+      in their hands branches of mistletoe. The maskers who followed these
+      venerable figures were succeeded by two Bards, arrayed in white, and
+      bearing harps, which they occasionally touched, singing at the same time
+      certain stanzas of an ancient hymn to Belus, or the Sun. The aboriginal
+      Britons had been selected from amongst the tallest and most robust young
+      gentlemen in attendance on the court. Their masks were accommodated with
+      long, shaggy beards and hair; their vestments were of the hides of wolves
+      and bears; while their legs, arms, and the upper parts of their bodies,
+      being sheathed in flesh-coloured silk, on which were traced in grotesque
+      lines representations of the heavenly bodies, and of animals and other
+      terrestrial objects, gave them the lively appearance of our painted
+      ancestors, whose freedom was first trenched upon by the Romans.
+    </p>
+<div class="fig" style="width:65%;">
+      <img src="images/0137m.jpg" alt="0137m " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0137.jpg"><i>Original</i></a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      The sons of Rome, who came to civilize as well as to conquer, were next
+      produced before the princely assembly; and the manager of the revels had
+      correctly imitated the high crest and military habits of that celebrated
+      people, accommodating them with the light yet strong buckler and the short
+      two-edged sword, the use of which had made them victors of the world. The
+      Roman eagles were borne before them by two standard-bearers, who recited a
+      hymn to Mars, and the classical warriors followed with the grave and
+      haughty step of men who aspired at universal conquest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third quadrille represented the Saxons, clad in the bearskins which
+      they had brought with them from the German forests, and bearing in their
+      hands the redoubtable battle-axes which made such havoc among the natives
+      of Britain. They were preceded by two Scalds, who chanted the praises of
+      Odin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Last came the knightly Normans, in their mail-shirts and hoods of steel,
+      with all the panoply of chivalry, and marshalled by two Minstrels, who
+      sang of war and ladies' love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These four bands entered the spacious hall with the utmost order, a short
+      pause being made, that the spectators might satisfy their curiosity as to
+      each quadrille before the appearance of the next. They then marched
+      completely round the hall, in order the more fully to display themselves,
+      regulating their steps to organs, shalms, hautboys, and virginals, the
+      music of the Lord Leicester's household. At length the four quadrilles of
+      maskers, ranging their torch-bearers behind them, drew up in their several
+      ranks on the two opposite sides of the hall, so that the Romans
+      confronting the Britons, and the Saxons the Normans, seemed to look on
+      each other with eyes of wonder, which presently appeared to kindle into
+      anger, expressed by menacing gestures. At the burst of a strain of martial
+      music from the gallery the maskers drew their swords on all sides, and
+      advanced against each other in the measured steps of a sort of Pyrrhic or
+      military dance, clashing their swords against their adversaries' shields,
+      and clattering them against their blades as they passed each other in the
+      progress of the dance. It was a very pleasant spectacle to see how the
+      various bands, preserving regularity amid motions which seemed to be
+      totally irregular, mixed together, and then disengaging themselves,
+      resumed each their own original rank as the music varied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this symbolical dance were represented the conflicts which had taken
+      place among the various nations which had anciently inhabited Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, after many mazy evolutions, which afforded great pleasure to
+      the spectators, the sound of a loud-voiced trumpet was heard, as if it
+      blew for instant battle, or for victory won. The maskers instantly ceased
+      their mimic strife, and collecting themselves under their original
+      leaders, or presenters, for such was the appropriate phrase, seemed to
+      share the anxious expectation which the spectators experienced concerning
+      what was next to appear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doors of the hall were thrown wide, and no less a person entered than
+      the fiend-born Merlin, dressed in a strange and mystical attire, suited to
+      his ambiguous birth and magical power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About him and behind him fluttered or gambolled many extraordinary forms,
+      intended to represent the spirits who waited to do his powerful bidding;
+      and so much did this part of the pageant interest the menials and others
+      of the lower class then in the Castle, that many of them forgot even the
+      reverence due to the Queen's presence, so far as to thrust themselves into
+      the lower part of the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Leicester, seeing his officers had some difficulty to repel
+      these intruders, without more disturbance than was fitting where the Queen
+      was in presence, arose and went himself to the bottom of the hall;
+      Elizabeth, at the same time, with her usual feeling for the common people,
+      requesting that they might be permitted to remain undisturbed to witness
+      the pageant. Leicester went under this pretext; but his real motive was to
+      gain a moment to himself, and to relieve his mind, were it but for one
+      instant, from the dreadful task of hiding, under the guise of gaiety and
+      gallantry, the lacerating pangs of shame, anger, remorse, and thirst for
+      vengeance. He imposed silence by his look and sign upon the vulgar crowd
+      at the lower end of the apartment; but instead of instantly returning to
+      wait on her Majesty, he wrapped his cloak around him, and mixing with the
+      crowd, stood in some degree an undistinguished spectator of the progress
+      of the masque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Merlin having entered, and advanced into the midst of the hall, summoned
+      the presenters of the contending bands around him by a wave of his magical
+      rod, and announced to them, in a poetical speech, that the isle of Britain
+      was now commanded by a Royal Maiden, to whom it was the will of fate that
+      they should all do homage, and request of her to pronounce on the various
+      pretensions which each set forth to be esteemed the pre-eminent stock,
+      from which the present natives, the happy subjects of that angelical
+      Princess, derived their lineage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In obedience to this mandate, the bands, each moving to solemn music,
+      passed in succession before Elizabeth, doing her, as they passed, each
+      after the fashion of the people whom they represented, the lowest and most
+      devotional homage, which she returned with the same gracious courtesy that
+      had marked her whole conduct since she came to Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The presenters of the several masques or quadrilles then alleged, each in
+      behalf of his own troop, the reasons which they had for claiming
+      pre-eminence over the rest; and when they had been all heard in turn, she
+      returned them this gracious answer: "That she was sorry she was not better
+      qualified to decide upon the doubtful question which had been propounded
+      to her by the direction of the famous Merlin, but that it seemed to her
+      that no single one of these celebrated nations could claim pre-eminence
+      over the others, as having most contributed to form the Englishman of her
+      own time, who unquestionably derived from each of them some worthy
+      attribute of his character. Thus," she said, "the Englishman had from the
+      ancient Briton his bold and tameless spirit of freedom; from the Roman his
+      disciplined courage in war, with his love of letters and civilization in
+      time of peace; from the Saxon his wise and equitable laws; and from the
+      chivalrous Norman his love of honour and courtesy, with his generous
+      desire for glory."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Merlin answered with readiness that it did indeed require that so many
+      choice qualities should meet in the English, as might render them in some
+      measure the muster of the perfections of other nations, since that alone
+      could render them in some degree deserving of the blessings they enjoyed
+      under the reign of England's Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The music then sounded, and the quadrilles, together with Merlin and his
+      assistants, had begun to remove from the crowded hall, when Leicester, who
+      was, as we have mentioned, stationed for the moment near the bottom of the
+      hall, and consequently engaged in some degree in the crowd, felt himself
+      pulled by the cloak, while a voice whispered in his ear, "My Lord, I do
+      desire some instant conference with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     How is't with me, when every noise appals me?  &mdash;MACBETH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "I desire some conference with you." The words were simple in themselves,
+      but Lord Leicester was in that alarmed and feverish state of mind when the
+      most ordinary occurrences seem fraught with alarming import; and he turned
+      hastily round to survey the person by whom they had been spoken. There was
+      nothing remarkable in the speaker's appearance, which consisted of a black
+      silk doublet and short mantle, with a black vizard on his face; for it
+      appeared he had been among the crowd of masks who had thronged into the
+      hall in the retinue of Merlin, though he did not wear any of the
+      extravagant disguises by which most of them were distinguished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who are you, or what do you want with me?" said Leicester, not without
+      betraying, by his accents, the hurried state of his spirits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No evil, my lord," answered the mask, "but much good and honour, if you
+      will rightly understand my purpose. But I must speak with you more
+      privately."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I can speak with no nameless stranger," answered Leicester, dreading he
+      knew not precisely what from the request of the stranger; "and those who
+      are known to me must seek another and a fitter time to ask an interview."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He would have hurried away, but the mask still detained him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Those who talk to your lordship of what your own honour demands have a
+      right over your time, whatever occupations you may lay aside in order to
+      indulge them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How! my honour? Who dare impeach it?" said Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Your own conduct alone can furnish grounds for accusing it, my lord, and
+      it is that topic on which I would speak with you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are insolent," said Leicester, "and abuse the hospitable license of
+      the time, which prevents me from having you punished. I demand your name!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Edmund Tressilian of Cornwall," answered the mask. "My tongue has been
+      bound by a promise for four-and-twenty hours. The space is passed,&mdash;I
+      now speak, and do your lordship the justice to address myself first to
+      you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thrill of astonishment which had penetrated to Leicester's very heart
+      at hearing that name pronounced by the voice of the man he most detested,
+      and by whom he conceived himself so deeply injured, at first rendered him
+      immovable, but instantly gave way to such a thirst for revenge as the
+      pilgrim in the desert feels for the water-brooks. He had but sense and
+      self-government enough left to prevent his stabbing to the heart the
+      audacious villain, who, after the ruin he had brought upon him, dared,
+      with such unmoved assurance, thus to practise upon him further. Determined
+      to suppress for the moment every symptom of agitation, in order to
+      perceive the full scope of Tressilian's purpose, as well as to secure his
+      own vengeance, he answered in a tone so altered by restrained passion as
+      scarce to be intelligible, "And what does Master Edmund Tressilian require
+      at my hand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Justice, my lord," answered Tressilian, calmly but firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Justice," said Leicester, "all men are entitled to. YOU, Master
+      Tressilian, are peculiarly so, and be assured you shall have it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I expect nothing less from your nobleness," answered Tressilian; "but
+      time presses, and I must speak with you to-night. May I wait on you in
+      your chamber?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Leicester sternly, "not under a roof, and that roof mine
+      own. We will meet under the free cope of heaven."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You are discomposed or displeased, my lord," replied Tressilian; "yet
+      there is no occasion for distemperature. The place is equal to me, so you
+      allow me one half-hour of your time uninterrupted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A shorter time will, I trust, suffice," answered Leicester. "Meet me in
+      the Pleasance when the Queen has retired to her chamber."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enough," said Tressilian, and withdrew; while a sort of rapture seemed
+      for the moment to occupy the mind of Leicester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Heaven," he said, "is at last favourable to me, and has put within my
+      reach the wretch who has branded me with this deep ignominy&mdash;who has
+      inflicted on me this cruel agony. I will blame fate no more, since I am
+      afforded the means of tracing the wiles by which he means still further to
+      practise on me, and then of at once convicting and punishing his villainy.
+      To my task&mdash;to my task! I will not sink under it now, since midnight,
+      at farthest, will bring me vengeance."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these reflections thronged through Leicester's mind, he again made
+      his way amid the obsequious crowd, which divided to give him passage, and
+      resumed his place, envied and admired, beside the person of his Sovereign.
+      But could the bosom of him thus admired and envied have been laid open
+      before the inhabitants of that crowded hall, with all its dark thoughts of
+      guilty ambition, blighted affection, deep vengeance, and conscious sense
+      of meditated cruelty, crossing each other like spectres in the circle of
+      some foul enchantress, which of them, from the most ambitious noble in the
+      courtly circle down to the most wretched menial who lived by shifting of
+      trenchers, would have desired to change characters with the favourite of
+      Elizabeth, and the Lord of Kenilworth?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      New tortures awaited him as soon as he had rejoined Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You come in time, my lord," she said, "to decide a dispute between us
+      ladies. Here has Sir Richard Varney asked our permission to depart from
+      the Castle with his infirm lady, having, as he tells us, your lordship's
+      consent to his absence, so he can obtain ours. Certes, we have no will to
+      withhold him from the affectionate charge of this poor young person; but
+      you are to know that Sir Richard Varney hath this day shown himself so
+      much captivated with these ladies of ours, that here is our Duchess of
+      Rutland says he will carry his poor insane wife no farther than the lake,
+      plunge her in to tenant the crystal palaces that the enchanted nymph told
+      us of, and return a jolly widower, to dry his tears and to make up the
+      loss among our train. How say you, my lord? We have seen Varney under two
+      or three different guises&mdash;you know what are his proper attributes&mdash;think
+      you he is capable of playing his lady such a knave's trick?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was confounded, but the danger was urgent, and a reply
+      absolutely necessary. "The ladies," he said, "think too lightly of one of
+      their own sex, in supposing she could deserve such a fate; or too ill of
+      ours, to think it could be inflicted upon an innocent female."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hear him, my ladies," said Elizabeth; "like all his sex, he would excuse
+      their cruelty by imputing fickleness to us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Say not US, madam," replied the Earl. "We say that meaner women, like the
+      lesser lights of heaven, have revolutions and phases; but who shall impute
+      mutability to the sun, or to Elizabeth?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discourse presently afterwards assumed a less perilous tendency, and
+      Leicester continued to support his part in it with spirit, at whatever
+      expense of mental agony. So pleasing did it seem to Elizabeth, that the
+      Castle bell had sounded midnight ere she retired from the company, a
+      circumstance unusual in her quiet and regular habits of disposing of time.
+      Her departure was, of course, the signal for breaking up the company, who
+      dispersed to their several places of repose, to dream over the pastimes of
+      the day, or to anticipate those of the morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate Lord of the Castle, and founder of the proud festival,
+      retired to far different thoughts. His direction to the valet who attended
+      him was to send Varney instantly to his apartment. The messenger returned
+      after some delay, and informed him that an hour had elapsed since Sir
+      Richard Varney had left the Castle by the postern gate with three other
+      persons, one of whom was transported in a horse-litter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How came he to leave the Castle after the watch was set?" said Leicester.
+      "I thought he went not till daybreak."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He gave satisfactory reasons, as I understand," said the domestic, "to
+      the guard, and, as I hear, showed your lordship's signet&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True&mdash;true," said the Earl; "yet he has been hasty. Do any of his
+      attendants remain behind?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Michael Lambourne, my lord," said the valet, "was not to be found when
+      Sir Richard Varney departed, and his master was much incensed at his
+      absence. I saw him but now saddling his horse to gallop after his master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Bid him come hither instantly," said Leicester; "I have a message to his
+      master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The servant left the apartment, and Leicester traversed it for some time
+      in deep meditation. "Varney is over-zealous," he said, "over-pressing. He
+      loves me, I think; but he hath his own ends to serve, and he is inexorable
+      in pursuit of them. If I rise, he rises; and he hath shown himself already
+      but too, eager to rid me of this obstacle which seems to stand betwixt me
+      and sovereignty. Yet I will not stoop to bear this disgrace. She shall be
+      punished, but it shall be more advisedly. I already feel, even in
+      anticipation, that over-haste would light the flames of hell in my bosom.
+      No&mdash;one victim is enough at once, and that victim already waits me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seized upon writing materials, and hastily traced these words:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sir Richard Varney, we have resolved to defer the matter entrusted to
+      your care, and strictly command you to proceed no further in relation to
+      our Countess until our further order. We also command your instant return
+      to Kenilworth as soon as you have safely bestowed that with which you are
+      entrusted. But if the safe-placing of your present charge shall detain you
+      longer than we think for, we command you in that case to send back our
+      signet-ring by a trusty and speedy messenger, we having present need of
+      the same. And requiring your strict obedience in these things, and
+      commending you to God's keeping, we rest your assured good friend and
+      master,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "R. LEICESTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Given at our Castle of Kenilworth, the tenth of July, in the year of
+      Salvation one thousand five hundred and seventy-five."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Leicester had finished and sealed this mandate, Michael Lambourne,
+      booted up to mid-thigh, having his riding-cloak girthed around him with a
+      broad belt, and a felt cap on his head, like that of a courier, entered
+      his apartment, ushered in by the valet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What is thy capacity of service?" said the Earl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Equerry to your lordship's master of the horse," answered Lambourne, with
+      his customary assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tie up thy saucy tongue, sir," said Leicester; "the jests that may suit
+      Sir Richard Varney's presence suit not mine. How soon wilt thou overtake
+      thy master?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In one hour's riding, my lord, if man and horse hold good," said
+      Lambourne, with an instant alteration of demeanour, from an approach to
+      familiarity to the deepest respect. The Earl measured him with his eye
+      from top to toe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have heard of thee," he said "men say thou art a prompt fellow in thy
+      service, but too much given to brawling and to wassail to be trusted with
+      things of moment."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Lambourne, "I have been soldier, sailor, traveller, and
+      adventurer; and these are all trades in which men enjoy to-day, because
+      they have no surety of to-morrow. But though I may misuse mine own
+      leisure, I have never neglected the duty I owe my master."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "See that it be so in this instance," said Leicester, "and it shall do
+      thee good. Deliver this letter speedily and carefully into Sir Richard
+      Varney's hands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Does my commission reach no further?" said Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," answered Leicester; "but it deeply concerns me that it be carefully
+      as well as hastily executed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will spare neither care nor horse-flesh," answered Lambourne, and
+      immediately took his leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So, this is the end of my private audience, from which I hoped so much!"
+      he muttered to himself, as he went through the long gallery, and down the
+      back staircase. "Cogs bones! I thought the Earl had wanted a cast of mine
+      office in some secret intrigue, and it all ends in carrying a letter!
+      Well, his pleasure shall be done, however; and as his lordship well says,
+      it may do me good another time. The child must creep ere he walk, and so
+      must your infant courtier. I will have a look into this letter, however,
+      which he hath sealed so sloven-like." Having accomplished this, he clapped
+      his hands together in ecstasy, exclaiming, "The Countess the Countess! I
+      have the secret that shall make or mar me.&mdash;But come forth, Bayard,"
+      he added, leading his horse into the courtyard, "for your flanks and my
+      spurs must be presently acquainted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lambourne mounted, accordingly, and left the Castle by the postern gate,
+      where his free passage was permitted, in consequence of a message to that
+      effect left by Sir Richard Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as Lambourne and the valet had left the apartment, Leicester
+      proceeded to change his dress for a very plain one, threw his mantle
+      around him, and taking a lamp in his hand, went by the private passage of
+      communication to a small secret postern door which opened into the
+      courtyard, near to the entrance of the Pleasance. His reflections were of
+      a more calm and determined character than they had been at any late
+      period, and he endeavoured to claim, even in his own eyes, the character
+      of a man more sinned against than sinning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have suffered the deepest injury," such was the tenor of his
+      meditations, "yet I have restricted the instant revenge which was in my
+      power, and have limited it to that which is manly and noble. But shall the
+      union which this false woman has this day disgraced remain an abiding
+      fetter on me, to check me in the noble career to which my destinies invite
+      me? No; there are other means of disengaging such ties, without unloosing
+      the cords of life. In the sight of God, I am no longer bound by the union
+      she has broken. Kingdoms shall divide us, oceans roll betwixt us, and
+      their waves, whose abysses have swallowed whole navies, shall be the sole
+      depositories of the deadly mystery."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By such a train of argument did Leicester labour to reconcile his
+      conscience to the prosecution of plans of vengeance, so hastily adopted,
+      and of schemes of ambition, which had become so woven in with every
+      purpose and action of his life that he was incapable of the effort of
+      relinquishing them, until his revenge appeared to him to wear a face of
+      justice, and even of generous moderation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this mood the vindictive and ambitious Earl entered the superb
+      precincts of the Pleasance, then illumined by the full moon. The broad,
+      yellow light was reflected on all sides from the white freestone, of which
+      the pavement, balustrades, and architectural ornaments of the place were
+      constructed; and not a single fleecy cloud was visible in the azure sky,
+      so that the scene was nearly as light as if the sun had but just left the
+      horizon. The numerous statues of white marble glimmered in the pale light
+      like so many sheeted ghosts just arisen from their sepulchres, and the
+      fountains threw their jets into the air as if they sought that their
+      waters should be brightened by the moonbeams ere they fell down again upon
+      their basins in showers of sparkling silver. The day had been sultry, and
+      the gentle night-breeze which sighed along the terrace of the Pleasance
+      raised not a deeper breath than the fan in the hand of youthful beauty.
+      The bird of summer night had built many a nest in the bowers of the
+      adjacent garden, and the tenants now indemnified themselves for silence
+      during the day by a full chorus of their own unrivalled warblings, now
+      joyous, now pathetic, now united, now responsive to each other, as if to
+      express their delight in the placid and delicious scene to which they
+      poured their melody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Musing on matters far different from the fall of waters, the gleam of
+      moonlight, or the song of the nightingale, the stately Leicester walked
+      slowly from the one end of the terrace to the other, his cloak wrapped
+      around him, and his sword under his arm, without seeing anything
+      resembling the human form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have been fooled by my own generosity," he said, "if I have suffered
+      the villain to escape me&mdash;ay, and perhaps to go to the rescue of the
+      adulteress, who is so poorly guarded."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were his thoughts, which were instantly dispelled when, turning to
+      look back towards the entrance, he saw a human form advancing slowly from
+      the portico, and darkening the various objects with its shadow, as passing
+      them successively, in its approach towards him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Shall I strike ere I again hear his detested voice?" was Leicester's
+      thought, as he grasped the hilt of the sword. "But no! I will see which
+      way his vile practice tends. I will watch, disgusting as it is, the coils
+      and mazes of the loathsome snake, ere I put forth my strength and crush
+      him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His hand quitted the sword-hilt, and he advanced slowly towards
+      Tressilian, collecting, for their meeting, all the self-possession he
+      could command, until they came front to front with each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian made a profound reverence, to which the Earl replied with a
+      haughty inclination of the head, and the words, "You sought secret
+      conference with me, sir; I am here, and attentive."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Tressilian, "I am so earnest in that which I have to say,
+      and so desirous to find a patient, nay, a favourable hearing, that I will
+      stoop to exculpate myself from whatever might prejudice your lordship
+      against me. You think me your enemy?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Have I not some apparent cause?" answered Leicester, perceiving that
+      Tressilian paused for a reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You do me wrong, my lord. I am a friend, but neither a dependant nor
+      partisan, of the Earl of Sussex, whom courtiers call your rival; and it is
+      some considerable time since I ceased to consider either courts or court
+      intrigues as suited to my temper or genius."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No doubt, sir," answered Leicester "there are other occupations more
+      worthy a scholar, and for such the world holds Master Tressilian. Love has
+      his intrigues as well as ambition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I perceive, my lord," replied Tressilian, "you give much weight to my
+      early attachment for the unfortunate young person of whom I am about to
+      speak, and perhaps think I am prosecuting her cause out of rivalry, more
+      than a sense of justice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No matter for my thoughts, sir," said the Earl; "proceed. You have as yet
+      spoken of yourself only&mdash;an important and worthy subject doubtless,
+      but which, perhaps, does not altogether so deeply concern me that I should
+      postpone my repose to hear it. Spare me further prelude, sir, and speak to
+      the purpose if indeed you have aught to say that concerns me. When you
+      have done, I, in my turn, have something to communicate."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will speak, then, without further prelude, my lord," answered
+      Tressilian, "having to say that which, as it concerns your lordship's
+      honour, I am confident you will not think your time wasted in listening
+      to. I have to request an account from your lordship of the unhappy Amy
+      Robsart, whose history is too well known to you. I regret deeply that I
+      did not at once take this course, and make yourself judge between me and
+      the villain by whom she is injured. My lord, she extricated herself from
+      an unlawful and most perilous state of confinement, trusting to the
+      effects of her own remonstrance upon her unworthy husband, and extorted
+      from me a promise that I would not interfere in her behalf until she had
+      used her own efforts to have her rights acknowledged by him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha," said Leicester, "remember you to whom you speak?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I speak of her unworthy husband, my lord," repeated Tressilian, "and my
+      respect can find no softer language. The unhappy young woman is withdrawn
+      from my knowledge, and sequestered in some secret place of this Castle&mdash;if
+      she be not transferred to some place of seclusion better fitted for bad
+      designs. This must be reformed, my lord&mdash;I speak it as authorized by
+      her father&mdash;and this ill-fated marriage must be avouched and proved
+      in the Queen's presence, and the lady placed without restraint and at her
+      own free disposal. And permit me to say it concerns no one's honour that
+      these most just demands of mine should be complied with so much as it does
+      that of your lordship."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl stood as if he had been petrified at the extreme coolness with
+      which the man, whom he considered as having injured him so deeply, pleaded
+      the cause of his criminal paramour, as if she had been an innocent woman
+      and he a disinterested advocate; nor was his wonder lessened by the warmth
+      with which Tressilian seemed to demand for her the rank and situation
+      which she had disgraced, and the advantages of which she was doubtless to
+      share with the lover who advocated her cause with such effrontery.
+      Tressilian had been silent for more than a minute ere the Earl recovered
+      from the excess of his astonishment; and considering the prepossessions
+      with which his mind was occupied, there is little wonder that his passion
+      gained the mastery of every other consideration. "I have heard you, Master
+      Tressilian," said he, "without interruption, and I bless God that my ears
+      were never before made to tingle by the words of so frontless a villain.
+      The task of chastising you is fitter for the hangman's scourge than the
+      sword of a nobleman, but yet&mdash;Villain, draw and defend thyself!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the last words, he dropped his mantle on the ground, struck
+      Tressilian smartly with his sheathed sword, and instantly drawing his
+      rapier, put himself into a posture of assault. The vehement fury of his
+      language at first filled Tressilian, in his turn, with surprise equal to
+      what Leicester had felt when he addressed him. But astonishment gave place
+      to resentment when the unmerited insults of his language were followed by
+      a blow which immediately put to flight every thought save that of instant
+      combat. Tressilian's sword was instantly drawn; and though perhaps
+      somewhat inferior to Leicester in the use of the weapon, he understood it
+      well enough to maintain the contest with great spirit, the rather that of
+      the two he was for the time the more cool, since he could not help
+      imputing Leicester's conduct either to actual frenzy or to the influence
+      of some strong delusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rencontre had continued for several minutes, without either party
+      receiving a wound, when of a sudden voices were heard beneath the portico
+      which formed the entrance of the terrace, mingled with the steps of men
+      advancing hastily. "We are interrupted," said Leicester to his antagonist;
+      "follow me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time a voice from the portico said, "The jackanape is right&mdash;they
+      are tilting here."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester, meanwhile, drew off Tressilian into a sort of recess behind one
+      of the fountains, which served to conceal them, while six of the yeomen of
+      the Queen's guard passed along the middle walk of the Pleasance, and they
+      could hear one say to the rest, "We shall never find them to-night among
+      all these squirting funnels, squirrel cages, and rabbit-holes; but if we
+      light not on them before we reach the farther end, we will return, and
+      mount a guard at the entrance, and so secure them till morning."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A proper matter," said another, "the drawing of swords so near the
+      Queen's presence, ay, and in her very palace as 'twere! Hang it, they must
+      be some poor drunken game-cocks fallen to sparring&mdash;'twere pity
+      almost we should find them&mdash;the penalty is chopping off a hand, is it
+      not?&mdash;'twere hard to lose hand for handling a bit of steel, that
+      comes so natural to one's gripe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a brawler thyself, George," said another; "but take heed, for
+      the law stands as thou sayest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," said the first, "an the act be not mildly construed; for thou
+      knowest 'tis not the Queen's palace, but my Lord of Leicester's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, for that matter, the penalty may be as severe," said another "for an
+      our gracious Mistress be Queen, as she is, God save her, my Lord of
+      Leicester is as good as King."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hush, thou knave!" said a third; "how knowest thou who may be within
+      hearing?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed on, making a kind of careless search, but seemingly more
+      intent on their own conversation than bent on discovering the persons who
+      had created the nocturnal disturbance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had no sooner passed forward along the terrace, than Leicester,
+      making a sign to Tressilian to follow him, glided away in an opposite
+      direction, and escaped through the portico undiscovered. He conducted
+      Tressilian to Mervyn's Tower, in which he was now again lodged; and then,
+      ere parting with him, said these words, "If thou hast courage to continue
+      and bring to an end what is thus broken off, be near me when the court
+      goes forth to-morrow; we shall find a time, and I will give you a signal
+      when it is fitting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Tressilian, "at another time I might have inquired the
+      meaning of this strange and furious inveteracy against me. But you have
+      laid that on my shoulder which only blood can wash away; and were you as
+      high as your proudest wishes ever carried you, I would have from you
+      satisfaction for my wounded honour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On these terms they parted, but the adventures of the night were not yet
+      ended with Leicester. He was compelled to pass by Saintlowe's Tower, in
+      order to gain the private passage which led to his own chamber; and in the
+      entrance thereof he met Lord Hunsdon half clothed, and with a naked sword
+      under his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Are you awakened, too, with this 'larum, my Lord of Leicester?" said the
+      old soldier. "'Tis well. By gog's nails, the nights are as noisy as the
+      day in this Castle of yours. Some two hours since I was waked by the
+      screams of that poor brain-sick Lady Varney, whom her husband was forcing
+      away. I promise you it required both your warrant and the Queen's to keep
+      me from entering into the game, and cutting that Varney of yours over the
+      head. And now there is a brawl down in the Pleasance, or what call you the
+      stone terrace-walk where all yonder gimcracks stand?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first part of the old man's speech went through the Earl's heart like
+      a knife; to the last he answered that he himself had heard the clash of
+      swords, and had come down to take order with those who had been so
+      insolent so near the Queen's presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, then," said Hunsdon, "I will be glad of your lordship's company."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester was thus compelled to turn back with the rough old Lord to the
+      Pleasance, where Hunsdon heard from the yeomen of the guard, who were
+      under his immediate command, the unsuccessful search they had made for the
+      authors of the disturbance; and bestowed for their pains some round dozen
+      of curses on them, as lazy knaves and blind whoresons. Leicester also
+      thought it necessary to seem angry that no discovery had been effected;
+      but at length suggested to Lord Hunsdon, that after all it could only be
+      some foolish young men who had been drinking healths pottle-deep, and who
+      should be sufficiently scared by the search which had taken place after
+      them. Hunsdon, who was himself attached to his cup, allowed that a
+      pint-flagon might cover many of the follies which it had caused, "But,"
+      added he, "unless your lordship will be less liberal in your housekeeping,
+      and restrain the overflow of ale, and wine, and wassail, I foresee it will
+      end in my having some of these good fellows into the guard-house, and
+      treating them to a dose of the strappado. And with this warning, good
+      night to you."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joyful at being rid of his company, Leicester took leave of him at the
+      entrance of his lodging, where they had first met, and entering the
+      private passage, took up the lamp which he had left there, and by its
+      expiring light found the way to his own apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Room!  room!  for my horse will wince
+     If he comes within so many yards of a prince;
+     For to tell you true, and in rhyme,
+     He was foal'd in Queen Elizabeth's time;
+     When the great Earl of Lester
+     In his castle did feast her.
+     &mdash;BEN JONSON, MASQUE OF OWLS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The amusement with which Elizabeth and her court were next day to be
+      regaled was an exhibition by the true-hearted men of Coventry, who were to
+      represent the strife between the English and the Danes, agreeably to a
+      custom long preserved in their ancient borough, and warranted for truth by
+      old histories and chronicles. In this pageant one party of the townsfolk
+      presented the Saxons and the other the Danes, and set forth, both in rude
+      rhymes and with hard blows, the contentions of these two fierce nations,
+      and the Amazonian courage of the English women, who, according to the
+      story, were the principal agents in the general massacre of the Danes,
+      which took place at Hocktide, in the year of God 1012. This sport, which
+      had been long a favourite pastime with the men of Coventry, had, it seems,
+      been put down by the influence of some zealous clergymen of the more
+      precise cast, who chanced to have considerable influence with the
+      magistrates. But the generality of the inhabitants had petitioned the
+      Queen that they might have their play again, and be honoured with
+      permission to represent it before her Highness. And when the matter was
+      canvassed in the little council which usually attended the Queen for
+      dispatch of business, the proposal, although opposed by some of the
+      stricter sort, found favour in the eyes of Elizabeth, who said that such
+      toys occupied, without offence, the minds of many who, lacking them, might
+      find worse subjects of pastime; and that their pastors, however
+      commendable for learning and godliness, were somewhat too sour in
+      preaching against the pastimes of their flocks and so the pageant was
+      permitted to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, after a morning repast, which Master Laneham calls an
+      ambrosial breakfast, the principal persons of the court in attendance upon
+      her Majesty pressed to the Gallery-tower, to witness the approach of the
+      two contending parties of English and Danes; and after a signal had been
+      given, the gate which opened in the circuit of the Chase was thrown wide
+      to admit them. On they came, foot and horse; for some of the more
+      ambitious burghers and yeomen had put themselves into fantastic dresses,
+      imitating knights, in order to resemble the chivalry of the two different
+      nations. However, to prevent fatal accidents, they were not permitted to
+      appear on real horses, but had only license to accoutre themselves with
+      those hobby-horses, as they are called, which anciently formed the chief
+      delight of a morrice-dance, and which still are exhibited on the stage, in
+      the grand battle fought at the conclusion of Mr. Bayes's tragedy. The
+      infantry followed in similar disguises. The whole exhibition was to be
+      considered as a sort of anti-masque, or burlesque of the more stately
+      pageants in which the nobility and gentry bore part in the show, and, to
+      the best of their knowledge, imitated with accuracy the personages whom
+      they represented. The Hocktide play was of a different character, the
+      actors being persons of inferior degree, and their habits the better
+      fitted for the occasion, the more incongruous and ridiculous that they
+      were in themselves. Accordingly their array, which the progress of our
+      tale allows us no time to describe, was ludicrous enough; and their
+      weapons, though sufficiently formidable to deal sound blows, were long
+      alder-poles instead of lances, and sound cudgels for swords; and for
+      fence, both cavalry and infantry were well equipped with stout headpieces
+      and targets, both made of thick leather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Coxe, that celebrated humorist of Coventry, whose library of
+      ballads, almanacs, and penny histories, fairly wrapped up in parchment,
+      and tied round for security with a piece of whipcord, remains still the
+      envy of antiquaries, being himself the ingenious person under whose
+      direction the pageant had been set forth, rode valiantly on his
+      hobby-horse before the bands of English, high-trussed, saith Laneham, and
+      brandishing his long sword, as became an experienced man of war, who had
+      fought under the Queen's father, bluff King Henry, at the siege of
+      Boulogne. This chieftain was, as right and reason craved, the first to
+      enter the lists, and passing the Gallery at the head of his myrmidons,
+      kissed the hilt of his sword to the Queen, and executed at the same time a
+      gambade, the like whereof had never been practised by two-legged
+      hobby-horse. Then passing on with all his followers of cavaliers and
+      infantry, he drew them up with martial skill at the opposite extremity of
+      the bridge, or tilt-yard, until his antagonist should be fairly prepared
+      for the onset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was no long interval; for the Danish cavalry and infantry, no way
+      inferior to the English in number, valour, and equipment, instantly
+      arrived, with the northern bagpipe blowing before them in token of their
+      country, and headed by a cunning master of defence, only inferior to the
+      renowned Captain Coxe, if to him, in the discipline of war. The Danes, as
+      invaders, took their station under the Gallery-tower, and opposite to that
+      of Mortimer; and when their arrangements were completely made, a signal
+      was given for the encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their first charge upon each other was rather moderate, for either party
+      had some dread of being forced into the lake. But as reinforcements came
+      up on either side, the encounter grew from a skirmish into a blazing
+      battle. They rushed upon one another, as Master Laneham testifies, like
+      rams inflamed by jealousy, with such furious encounter that both parties
+      were often overthrown, and the clubs and targets made a most horrible
+      clatter. In many instances that happened which had been dreaded by the
+      more experienced warriors who began the day of strife. The rails which
+      defended the ledges of the bridge had been, perhaps on purpose, left but
+      slightly fastened, and gave way under the pressure of those who thronged
+      to the combat, so that the hot courage of many of the combatants received
+      a sufficient cooling. These incidents might have occasioned more serious
+      damage than became such an affray, for many of the champions who met with
+      this mischance could not swim, and those who could were encumbered with
+      their suits of leathern and of paper armour; but the case had been
+      provided for, and there were several boats in readiness to pick up the
+      unfortunate warriors and convey them to the dry land, where, dripping and
+      dejected, they comforted themselves with the hot ale and strong waters
+      which were liberally allowed to them, without showing any desire to
+      re-enter so desperate a conflict.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Coxe alone, that paragon of Black-Letter antiquaries, after twice
+      experiencing, horse and man, the perilous leap from the bridge into the
+      lake, equal to any extremity to which the favourite heroes of chivalry,
+      whose exploits he studied in an abridged form, whether Amadis, Belianis,
+      Bevis, or his own Guy of Warwick, had ever been subjected to&mdash;Captain
+      Coxe, we repeat, did alone, after two such mischances, rush again into the
+      heat of conflict, his bases and the footcloth of his hobby-horse dropping
+      water, and twice reanimated by voice and example the drooping spirits of
+      the English; so that at last their victory over the Danish invaders
+      became, as was just and reasonable, complete and decisive. Worthy he was
+      to be rendered immortal by the pen of Ben Jonson, who, fifty years
+      afterwards, deemed that a masque, exhibited at Kenilworth, could be
+      ushered in by none with so much propriety as by the ghost of Captain Coxe,
+      mounted upon his redoubted hobby-horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These rough, rural gambols may not altogether agree with the reader's
+      preconceived idea of an entertainment presented before Elizabeth, in whose
+      reign letters revived with such brilliancy, and whose court, governed by a
+      female whose sense of propriety was equal to her strength of mind, was no
+      less distinguished for delicacy and refinement than her councils for
+      wisdom and fortitude. But whether from the political wish to seem
+      interested in popular sports, or whether from a spark of old Henry's
+      rough, masculine spirit, which Elizabeth sometimes displayed, it is
+      certain the Queen laughed heartily at the imitation, or rather burlesque,
+      of chivalry which was presented in the Coventry play. She called near her
+      person the Earl of Sussex and Lord Hunsdon, partly perhaps to make amends
+      to the former for the long and private audiences with which she had
+      indulged the Earl of Leicester, by engaging him in conversation upon a
+      pastime which better suited his taste than those pageants that were
+      furnished forth from the stores of antiquity. The disposition which the
+      Queen showed to laugh and jest with her military leaders gave the Earl of
+      Leicester the opportunity he had been watching for withdrawing from the
+      royal presence, which to the court around, so well had he chosen his time,
+      had the graceful appearance of leaving his rival free access to the
+      Queen's person, instead of availing himself of his right as her landlord
+      to stand perpetually betwixt others and the light of her countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester's thoughts, however, had a far different object from mere
+      courtesy; for no sooner did he see the Queen fairly engaged in
+      conversation with Sussex and Hunsdon, behind whose back stood Sir Nicholas
+      Blount, grinning from ear to ear at each word which was spoken, than,
+      making a sign to Tressilian, who, according to appointment, watched his
+      motions at a little distance, he extricated himself from the press, and
+      walking towards the Chase, made his way through the crowds of ordinary
+      spectators, who, with open mouth, stood gazing on the battle of the
+      English and the Danes. When he had accomplished this, which was a work of
+      some difficulty, he shot another glance behind him to see that Tressilian
+      had been equally successful; and as soon as he saw him also free from the
+      crowd, he led the way to a small thicket, behind which stood a lackey,
+      with two horses ready saddled. He flung himself on the one, and made signs
+      to Tressilian to mount the other, who obeyed without speaking a single
+      word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leicester then spurred his horse, and galloped without stopping until he
+      reached a sequestered spot, environed by lofty oaks, about a mile's
+      distance from the Castle, and in an opposite direction from the scene to
+      which curiosity was drawing every spectator. He there dismounted, bound
+      his horse to a tree, and only pronouncing the words, "Here there is no
+      risk of interruption," laid his cloak across his saddle, and drew his
+      sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian imitated his example punctually, yet could not forbear saying,
+      as he drew his weapon, "My lord, as I have been known to many as one who
+      does not fear death when placed in balance with honour, methinks I may,
+      without derogation, ask wherefore, in the name of all that is honourable,
+      your lordship has dared to offer me such a mark of disgrace as places us
+      on these terms with respect to each other?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "If you like not such marks of my scorn," replied the Earl, "betake
+      yourself instantly to your weapon, lest I repeat the usage you complain
+      of."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It shall not need, my lord," said Tressilian. "God judge betwixt us! and
+      your blood, if you fall, be on your own head."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had scarce completed the sentence when they instantly closed in combat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Leicester, who was a perfect master of defence among all other
+      exterior accomplishments of the time, had seen on the preceding night
+      enough of Tressilian's strength and skill to make him fight with more
+      caution than heretofore, and prefer a secure revenge to a hasty one. For
+      some minutes they fought with equal skill and fortune, till, in a
+      desperate lunge which Leicester successfully put aside, Tressilian exposed
+      himself at disadvantage; and in a subsequent attempt to close, the Earl
+      forced his sword from his hand, and stretched him on the ground. With a
+      grim smile he held the point of his rapier within two inches of the throat
+      of his fallen adversary, and placing his foot at the same time upon his
+      breast, bid him confess his villainous wrongs towards him, and prepare for
+      death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have no villainy nor wrong towards thee to confess," answered
+      Tressilian, "and am better prepared for death than thou. Use thine
+      advantage as thou wilt, and may God forgive you! I have given you no cause
+      for this."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No cause!" exclaimed the Earl, "no cause!&mdash;but why parley with such
+      a slave? Die a liar, as thou hast lived!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had withdrawn his arm for the purpose of striking the fatal blow, when
+      it was suddenly seized from behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl turned in wrath to shake off the unexpected obstacle, but was
+      surprised to find that a strange-looking boy had hold of his sword-arm,
+      and clung to it with such tenacity of grasp that he could not shake him
+      off without a considerable struggle, in the course of which Tressilian had
+      opportunity to rise and possess himself once more of his weapon. Leicester
+      again turned towards him with looks of unabated ferocity, and the combat
+      would have recommenced with still more desperation on both sides, had not
+      the boy clung to Lord Leicester's knees, and in a shrill tone implored him
+      to listen one moment ere he prosecuted this quarrel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Stand up, and let me go," said Leicester, "or, by Heaven, I will pierce
+      thee with my rapier! What hast thou to do to bar my way to revenge?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Much&mdash;much!" exclaimed the undaunted boy, "since my folly has been
+      the cause of these bloody quarrels between you, and perchance of worse
+      evils. Oh, if you would ever again enjoy the peace of an innocent mind, if
+      you hope again to sleep in peace and unhaunted by remorse, take so much
+      leisure as to peruse this letter, and then do as you list."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he spoke in this eager and earnest manner, to which his singular
+      features and voice gave a goblin-like effect, he held up to Leicester a
+      packet, secured with a long tress of woman's hair of a beautiful
+      light-brown colour. Enraged as he was, nay, almost blinded with fury to
+      see his destined revenge so strangely frustrated, the Earl of Leicester
+      could not resist this extraordinary supplicant. He snatched the letter
+      from his hand&mdash;changed colour as he looked on the superscription&mdash;undid
+      with faltering hand the knot which secured it&mdash;glanced over the
+      contents, and staggering back, would have fallen, had he not rested
+      against the trunk of a tree, where he stood for an instant, his eyes bent
+      on the letter, and his sword-point turned to the ground, without seeming
+      to be conscious of the presence of an antagonist towards whom he had shown
+      little mercy, and who might in turn have taken him at advantage. But for
+      such revenge Tressilian was too noble-minded. He also stood still in
+      surprise, waiting the issue of this strange fit of passion, but holding
+      his weapon ready to defend himself in case of need against some new and
+      sudden attack on the part of Leicester, whom he again suspected to be
+      under the influence of actual frenzy. The boy, indeed, he easily
+      recognized as his old acquaintance Dickon, whose face, once seen, was
+      scarcely to be forgotten; but how he came hither at so critical a moment,
+      why his interference was so energetic, and, above all, how it came to
+      produce so powerful an effect upon Leicester, were questions which he
+      could not solve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the letter was of itself powerful enough to work effects yet more
+      wonderful. It was that which the unfortunate Amy had written to her
+      husband, in which she alleged the reasons and manner of her flight from
+      Cumnor Place, informed him of her having made her way to Kenilworth to
+      enjoy his protection, and mentioned the circumstances which had compelled
+      her to take refuge in Tressilian's apartment, earnestly requesting he
+      would, without delay, assign her a more suitable asylum. The letter
+      concluded with the most earnest expressions of devoted attachment and
+      submission to his will in all things, and particularly respecting her
+      situation and place of residence, conjuring him only that she might not be
+      placed under the guardianship or restraint of Varney. The letter dropped
+      from Leicester's hand when he had perused it. "Take my sword," he said,
+      "Tressilian, and pierce my heart, as I would but now have pierced yours!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My lord," said Tressilian, "you have done me great wrong, but something
+      within my breast ever whispered that it was by egregious error."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Error, indeed!" said Leicester, and handed him the letter; "I have been
+      made to believe a man of honour a villain, and the best and purest of
+      creatures a false profligate.&mdash;Wretched boy, why comes this letter
+      now, and where has the bearer lingered?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I dare not tell you, my lord," said the boy, withdrawing, as if to keep
+      beyond his reach; "but here comes one who was the messenger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wayland at the same moment came up; and interrogated by Leicester, hastily
+      detailed all the circumstances of his escape with Amy, the fatal practices
+      which had driven her to flight, and her anxious desire to throw herself
+      under the instant protection of her husband&mdash;pointing out the
+      evidence of the domestics of Kenilworth, "who could not," he observed,
+      "but remember her eager inquiries after the Earl of Leicester on her first
+      arrival."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The villains!" exclaimed Leicester; "but oh, that worst of villains,
+      Varney!&mdash;and she is even now in his power!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But not, I trust in God," said Tressilian, "with any commands of fatal
+      import?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No, no, no!" exclaimed the Earl hastily. "I said something in madness;
+      but it was recalled, fully recalled, by a hasty messenger, and she is now&mdash;she
+      must now be safe."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," said Tressilian, "she MUST be safe, and I MUST be assured of her
+      safety. My own quarrel with you is ended, my lord; but there is another to
+      begin with the seducer of Amy Robsart, who has screened his guilt under
+      the cloak of the infamous Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The SEDUCER of Amy!" replied Leicester, with a voice like thunder; "say
+      her husband!&mdash;her misguided, blinded, most unworthy husband! She is
+      as surely Countess of Leicester as I am belted Earl. Nor can you, sir,
+      point out that manner of justice which I will not render her at my own
+      free will. I need scarce say I fear not your compulsion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The generous nature of Tressilian was instantly turned from consideration
+      of anything personal to himself, and centred at once upon Amy's welfare.
+      He had by no means undoubting confidence in the fluctuating resolutions of
+      Leicester, whose mind seemed to him agitated beyond the government of calm
+      reason; neither did he, notwithstanding the assurances he had received,
+      think Amy safe in the hands of his dependants. "My lord," he said calmly,
+      "I mean you no offence, and am far from seeking a quarrel. But my duty to
+      Sir Hugh Robsart compels me to carry this matter instantly to the Queen,
+      that the Countess's rank may be acknowledged in her person."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall not need, sir," replied the Earl haughtily; "do not dare to
+      interfere. No voice but Dudley's shall proclaim Dudley's infamy. To
+      Elizabeth herself will I tell it; and then for Cumnor Place with the speed
+      of life and death!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he unbound his horse from the tree, threw himself into the
+      saddle, and rode at full gallop towards the Castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take me before you, Master Tressilian," said the boy, seeing Tressilian
+      mount in the same haste; "my tale is not all told out, and I need your
+      protection."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian complied, and followed the Earl, though at a less furious rate.
+      By the way the boy confessed, with much contrition, that in resentment at
+      Wayland's evading all his inquiries concerning the lady, after Dickon
+      conceived he had in various ways merited his confidence, he had purloined
+      from him in revenge the letter with which Amy had entrusted him for the
+      Earl of Leicester. His purpose was to have restored it to him that
+      evening, as he reckoned himself sure of meeting with him, in consequence
+      of Wayland's having to perform the part of Arion in the pageant. He was
+      indeed something alarmed when he saw to whom the letter was addressed; but
+      he argued that, as Leicester did not return to Kenilworth until that
+      evening, it would be again in the possession of the proper messenger as
+      soon as, in the nature of things, it could possibly be delivered. But
+      Wayland came not to the pageant, having been in the interim expelled by
+      Lambourne from the Castle; and the boy, not being able to find him, or to
+      get speech of Tressilian, and finding himself in possession of a letter
+      addressed to no less a person than the Earl of Leicester, became much
+      afraid of the consequences of his frolic. The caution, and indeed the
+      alarm, which Wayland had expressed respecting Varney and Lambourne, led
+      him to judge that the letter must be designed for the Earl's own hand, and
+      that he might prejudice the lady by giving it to any of the domestics. He
+      made an attempt or two to obtain an audience of Leicester; but the
+      singularity of his features and the meanness of his appearance occasioned
+      his being always repulsed by the insolent menials whom he applied to for
+      that purpose. Once, indeed, he had nearly succeeded, when, in prowling
+      about, he found in the grotto the casket, which he knew to belong to the
+      unlucky Countess, having seen it on her journey; for nothing escaped his
+      prying eye. Having striven in vain to restore it either to Tressilian or
+      the Countess, he put it into the hands, as we have seen, of Leicester
+      himself, but unfortunately he did not recognize him in his disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the boy thought he was on the point of succeeding when the Earl
+      came down to the lower part of the hall; but just as he was about to
+      accost him, he was prevented by Tressilian. As sharp in ear as in wit, the
+      boy heard the appointment settled betwixt them, to take place in the
+      Pleasance, and resolved to add a third to the party, in hope that, either
+      in coming or returning, he might find an opportunity of delivering the
+      letter to Leicester; for strange stories began to flit among the
+      domestics, which alarmed him for the lady's safety. Accident, however,
+      detained Dickon a little behind the Earl, and as he reached the arcade he
+      saw them engaged in combat; in consequence of which he hastened to alarm
+      the guard, having little doubt that what bloodshed took place betwixt them
+      might arise out of his own frolic. Continuing to lurk in the portico, he
+      heard the second appointment which Leicester at parting assigned to
+      Tressilian; and was keeping them in view during the encounter of the
+      Coventry men, when, to his surprise, he recognized Wayland in the crowd,
+      much disguised, indeed, but not sufficiently so to escape the prying
+      glance of his old comrade. They drew aside out of the crowd to explain
+      their situation to each other. The boy confessed to Wayland what we have
+      above told; and the artist, in return, informed him that his deep anxiety
+      for the fate of the unfortunate lady had brought him back to the
+      neighbourhood of the Castle, upon his learning that morning, at a village
+      about ten miles distant, that Varney and Lambourne, whose violence he
+      dreaded, had both left Kenilworth over-night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they spoke, they saw Leicester and Tressilian separate themselves
+      from the crowd, dogged them until they mounted their horses, when the boy,
+      whose speed of foot has been before mentioned, though he could not
+      possibly keep up with them, yet arrived, as we have seen, soon enough to
+      save Tressilian's life. The boy had just finished his tale when they
+      arrived at the Gallery-tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XL.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     High o'er the eastern steep the sun is beaming,
+     And darkness flies with her deceitful shadows;&mdash;
+     So truth prevails o'er falsehood.   &mdash;OLD PLAY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As Tressilian rode along the bridge, lately the scene of so much riotous
+      sport, he could not but observe that men's countenances had singularly
+      changed during the space of his brief absence. The mock fight was over,
+      but the men, still habited in their masking suits, stood together in
+      groups, like the inhabitants of a city who have been just startled by some
+      strange and alarming news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he reached the base-court, appearances were the same&mdash;domestics,
+      retainers, and under-officers stood together and whispered, bending their
+      eyes towards the windows of the Great Hall, with looks which seemed at
+      once alarmed and mysterious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Nicholas Blount was the first person of his own particular
+      acquaintance Tressilian saw, who left him no time to make inquiries, but
+      greeted him with, "God help thy heart, Tressilian! thou art fitter for a
+      clown than a courtier thou canst not attend, as becomes one who follows
+      her Majesty. Here you are called for, wished for, waited for&mdash;no man
+      but you will serve the turn; and hither you come with a misbegotten brat
+      on thy horse's neck, as if thou wert dry nurse to some sucking devil, and
+      wert just returned from airing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, what is the matter?" said Tressilian, letting go the boy, who sprung
+      to ground like a feather, and himself dismounting at the same time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, no one knows the matter," replied Blount; "I cannot smell it out
+      myself, though I have a nose like other courtiers. Only, my Lord of
+      Leicester has galloped along the bridge as if he would have rode over all
+      in his passage, demanded an audience of the Queen, and is closeted even
+      now with her, and Burleigh and Walsingham&mdash;and you are called for;
+      but whether the matter be treason or worse, no one knows."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "He speaks true, by Heaven!" said Raleigh, who that instant appeared; "you
+      must immediately to the Queen's presence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be not rash, Raleigh," said Blount, "remember his boots.&mdash;For
+      Heaven's sake, go to my chamber, dear Tressilian, and don my new
+      bloom-coloured silken hose; I have worn them but twice."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Pshaw!" answered Tressilian; "do thou take care of this boy, Blount; be
+      kind to him, and look he escapes you not&mdash;much depends on him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he followed Raleigh hastily, leaving honest Blount with the
+      bridle of his horse in one hand, and the boy in the other. Blount gave a
+      long look after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nobody," he said, "calls me to these mysteries&mdash;and he leaves me
+      here to play horse-keeper and child-keeper at once. I could excuse the
+      one, for I love a good horse naturally; but to be plagued with a bratchet
+      whelp.&mdash;Whence come ye, my fair-favoured little gossip?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "From the Fens," answered the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And what didst thou learn there, forward imp?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To catch gulls, with their webbed feet and yellow stockings," said the
+      boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Umph!" said Blount, looking down on his own immense roses. "Nay, then,
+      the devil take him asks thee more questions."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime Tressilian traversed the full length of the Great Hall, in which
+      the astonished courtiers formed various groups, and were whispering
+      mysteriously together, while all kept their eyes fixed on the door which
+      led from the upper end of the hall into the Queen's withdrawing apartment.
+      Raleigh pointed to the door. Tressilian knocked, and was instantly
+      admitted. Many a neck was stretched to gain a view into the interior of
+      the apartment; but the tapestry which covered the door on the inside was
+      dropped too suddenly to admit the slightest gratification of curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon entrance, Tressilian found himself, not without a strong palpitation
+      of heart, in the presence of Elizabeth, who was walking to and fro in a
+      violent agitation, which she seemed to scorn to conceal, while two or
+      three of her most sage and confidential counsellors exchanged anxious
+      looks with each other, but delayed speaking till her wrath abated. Before
+      the empty chair of state in which she had been seated, and which was half
+      pushed aside by the violence with which she had started from it, knelt
+      Leicester, his arms crossed, and his brows bent on the ground, still and
+      motionless as the effigies upon a sepulchre. Beside him stood the Lord
+      Shrewsbury, then Earl Marshal of England, holding his baton of office. The
+      Earl's sword was unbuckled, and lay before him on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ho, sir!" said the Queen, coming close up to Tressilian, and stamping on
+      the floor with the action and manner of Henry himself; "you knew of this
+      fair work&mdash;you are an accomplice in this deception which has been
+      practised on us&mdash;you have been a main cause of our doing injustice?"
+      Tressilian dropped on his knee before the Queen, his good sense showing
+      him the risk of attempting any defence at that moment of irritation. "Art
+      dumb, sirrah?" she continued; "thou knowest of this affair dost thou not?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not, gracious madam, that this poor lady was Countess of Leicester."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nor shall any one know her for such," said Elizabeth. "Death of my life!
+      Countess of Leicester!&mdash;I say Dame Amy Dudley; and well if she have
+      not cause to write herself widow of the traitor Robert Dudley."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said Leicester, "do with me what it may be your will to do, but
+      work no injury on this gentleman; he hath in no way deserved it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And will he be the better for thy intercession," said the Queen, leaving
+      Tressilian, who slowly arose, and rushing to Leicester, who continued
+      kneeling&mdash;"the better for thy intercession, thou doubly false&mdash;thou
+      doubly forsworn;&mdash;of thy intercession, whose villainy hath made me
+      ridiculous to my subjects and odious to myself? I could tear out mine eyes
+      for their blindness!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burleigh here ventured to interpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," he said, "remember that you are a Queen&mdash;Queen of England&mdash;mother
+      of your people. Give not way to this wild storm of passion."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth turned round to him, while a tear actually twinkled in her proud
+      and angry eye. "Burleigh," she said, "thou art a statesman&mdash;thou dost
+      not, thou canst not, comprehend half the scorn, half the misery, that man
+      has poured on me!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the utmost caution&mdash;with the deepest reverence&mdash;Burleigh
+      took her hand at the moment he saw her heart was at the fullest, and led
+      her aside to an oriel window, apart from the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," he said, "I am a statesman, but I am also a man&mdash;a man
+      already grown old in your councils&mdash;who have not and cannot have a
+      wish on earth but your glory and happiness; I pray you to be composed."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah! Burleigh," said Elizabeth, "thou little knowest&mdash;" here her
+      tears fell over her cheeks in despite of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I do&mdash;I do know, my honoured sovereign. Oh, beware that you lead not
+      others to guess that which they know not!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ha!" said Elizabeth, pausing as if a new train of thought had suddenly
+      shot across her brain. "Burleigh, thou art right&mdash;thou art right&mdash;anything
+      but disgrace&mdash;anything but a confession of weakness&mdash;anything
+      rather than seem the cheated, slighted&mdash;'sdeath! to think on it is
+      distraction!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Be but yourself, my Queen," said Burleigh; "and soar far above a weakness
+      which no Englishman will ever believe his Elizabeth could have
+      entertained, unless the violence of her disappointment carries a sad
+      conviction to his bosom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What weakness, my lord?" said Elizabeth haughtily; "would you too
+      insinuate that the favour in which I held yonder proud traitor derived its
+      source from aught&mdash;" But here she could no longer sustain the proud
+      tone which she had assumed, and again softened as she said, "But why
+      should I strive to deceive even thee, my good and wise servant?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burleigh stooped to kiss her hand with affection, and&mdash;rare in the
+      annals of courts&mdash;a tear of true sympathy dropped from the eye of the
+      minister on the hand of his Sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that the consciousness of possessing this sympathy aided
+      Elizabeth in supporting her mortification, and suppressing her extreme
+      resentment; but she was still more moved by fear that her passion should
+      betray to the public the affront and the disappointment, which, alike as a
+      woman and a Queen, she was so anxious to conceal. She turned from
+      Burleigh, and sternly paced the hall till her features had recovered their
+      usual dignity, and her mien its wonted stateliness of regular motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Our Sovereign is her noble self once more," whispered Burleigh to
+      Walsingham; "mark what she does, and take heed you thwart her not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She then approached Leicester, and said with calmness, "My Lord
+      Shrewsbury, we discharge you of your prisoner.&mdash;My Lord of Leicester,
+      rise and take up your sword; a quarter of an hour's restraint under the
+      custody of our Marshal, my lord, is, we think, no high penance for months
+      of falsehood practised upon us. We will now hear the progress of this
+      affair." She then seated herself in her chair, and said, "You, Tressilian,
+      step forward, and say what you know."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian told his story generously, suppressing as much as he could what
+      affected Leicester, and saying nothing of their having twice actually
+      fought together. It is very probable that, in doing so, he did the Earl
+      good service; for had the Queen at that instant found anything on account
+      of which she could vent her wrath upon him, without laying open sentiments
+      of which she was ashamed, it might have fared hard with him. She paused
+      when Tressilian had finished his tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will take that Wayland," she said, "into our own service, and place
+      the boy in our Secretary office for instruction, that he may in future use
+      discretion towards letters. For you, Tressilian, you did wrong in not
+      communicating the whole truth to us, and your promise not to do so was
+      both imprudent and undutiful. Yet, having given your word to this unhappy
+      lady, it was the part of a man and a gentleman to keep it; and on the
+      whole, we esteem you for the character you have sustained in this matter.&mdash;My
+      Lord of Leicester, it is now your turn to tell us the truth, an exercise
+      to which you seem of late to have been too much a stranger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, she extorted, by successive questions, the whole history of
+      his first acquaintance with Amy Robsart&mdash;their marriage&mdash;his
+      jealousy&mdash;the causes on which it was founded, and many particulars
+      besides. Leicester's confession, for such it might be called, was wrenched
+      from him piecemeal, yet was upon the whole accurate, excepting that he
+      totally omitted to mention that he had, by implication or otherwise,
+      assented to Varney's designs upon the life of his Countess. Yet the
+      consciousness of this was what at that moment lay nearest to his heart;
+      and although he trusted in great measure to the very positive
+      counter-orders which he had sent by Lambourne, it was his purpose to set
+      out for Cumnor Place in person as soon as he should be dismissed from the
+      presence of the Queen, who, he concluded, would presently leave
+      Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Earl reckoned without his host. It is true his presence and his
+      communications were gall and wormwood to his once partial mistress. But
+      barred from every other and more direct mode of revenge, the Queen
+      perceived that she gave her false suitor torture by these inquiries, and
+      dwelt on them for that reason, no more regarding the pain which she
+      herself experienced, than the savage cares for the searing of his own
+      hands by grasping the hot pincers with which he tears the flesh of his
+      captive enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, however, the haughty lord, like a deer that turns to bay, gave
+      intimation that his patience was failing. "Madam," he said, "I have been
+      much to blame&mdash;more than even your just resentment has expressed.
+      Yet, madam, let me say that my guilt, if it be unpardonable, was not
+      unprovoked, and that if beauty and condescending dignity could seduce the
+      frail heart of a human being, I might plead both as the causes of my
+      concealing this secret from your Majesty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen was so much struck with this reply, which Leicester took care
+      should be heard by no one but herself, that she was for the moment
+      silenced, and the Earl had the temerity to pursue his advantage. "Your
+      Grace, who has pardoned so much, will excuse my throwing myself on your
+      royal mercy for those expressions which were yester-morning accounted but
+      a light offence."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen fixed her eyes on him while she replied, "Now, by Heaven, my
+      lord, thy effrontery passes the bounds of belief, as well as patience! But
+      it shall avail thee nothing.&mdash;What ho! my lords, come all and hear
+      the news-my Lord of Leicester's stolen marriage has cost me a husband, and
+      England a king. His lordship is patriarchal in his tastes&mdash;one wife
+      at a time was insufficient, and he designed US the honour of his left
+      hand. Now, is not this too insolent&mdash;that I could not grace him with
+      a few marks of court-favour, but he must presume to think my hand and
+      crown at his disposal? You, however, think better of me; and I can pity
+      this ambitious man, as I could a child, whose bubble of soap has burst
+      between his hands. We go to the presence-chamber.&mdash;My Lord of
+      Leicester, we command your close attendance on us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was eager expectation in the hall, and what was the universal
+      astonishment when the Queen said to those next her, "The revels of
+      Kenilworth are not yet exhausted, my lords and ladies&mdash;we are to
+      solemnize the noble owner's marriage."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an universal expression of surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is true, on our royal word," said the Queen; "he hath kept this a
+      secret even from us, that he might surprise us with it at this very place
+      and time. I see you are dying of curiosity to know the happy bride. It is
+      Amy Robsart, the same who, to make up the May-game yesterday, figured in
+      the pageant as the wife of his servant Varney."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For God's sake, madam," said the Earl, approaching her with a mixture of
+      humility, vexation, and shame in his countenance, and speaking so low as
+      to be heard by no one else, "take my head, as you threatened in your
+      anger, and spare me these taunts! Urge not a falling man&mdash;tread not
+      on a crushed worm."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A worm, my lord?" said the Queen, in the same tone; "nay, a snake is the
+      nobler reptile, and the more exact similitude&mdash;the frozen snake you
+      wot of, which was warmed in a certain bosom&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For your own sake&mdash;for mine, madam," said the Earl&mdash;"while
+      there is yet some reason left in me&mdash;"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Speak aloud, my lord," said Elizabeth, "and at farther distance, so
+      please you&mdash;your breath thaws our ruff. What have you to ask of us?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Permission," said the unfortunate Earl humbly, "to travel to Cumnor
+      Place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To fetch home your bride belike?&mdash;Why, ay&mdash;that is but right,
+      for, as we have heard, she is indifferently cared for there. But, my lord,
+      you go not in person; we have counted upon passing certain days in this
+      Castle of Kenilworth, and it were slight courtesy to leave us without a
+      landlord during our residence here. Under your favour, we cannot think to
+      incur such disgrace in the eyes of our subjects. Tressilian shall go to
+      Cumnor Place instead of you, and with him some gentleman who hath been
+      sworn of our chamber, lest my Lord of Leicester should be again jealous of
+      his old rival.&mdash;Whom wouldst thou have to be in commission with thee,
+      Tressilian?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tressilian, with humble deference, suggested the name of Raleigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, ay," said the Queen; "so God ha' me, thou hast made a good choice.
+      He is a young knight besides, and to deliver a lady from prison is an
+      appropriate first adventure.&mdash;Cumnor Place is little better than a
+      prison, you are to know, my lords and ladies. Besides, there are certain
+      faitours there whom we would willingly have in safe keeping. You will
+      furnish them, Master Secretary, with the warrant necessary to secure the
+      bodies of Richard Varney and the foreign Alasco, dead or alive. Take a
+      sufficient force with you, gentlemen&mdash;bring the lady here in all
+      honour&mdash;lose no time, and God be with you!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They bowed, and left the presence,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who shall describe how the rest of that day was spent at Kenilworth? The
+      Queen, who seemed to have remained there for the sole purpose of
+      mortifying and taunting the Earl of Leicester, showed herself as skilful
+      in that female art of vengeance, as she was in the science of wisely
+      governing her people. The train of state soon caught the signal, and as he
+      walked among his own splendid preparations, the Lord of Kenilworth, in his
+      own Castle, already experienced the lot of a disgraced courtier, in the
+      slight regard and cold manners of alienated friends, and the ill-concealed
+      triumph of avowed and open enemies. Sussex, from his natural military
+      frankness of disposition, Burleigh and Walsingham, from their penetrating
+      and prospective sagacity, and some of the ladies, from the compassion of
+      their sex, were the only persons in the crowded court who retained towards
+      him the countenance they had borne in the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much had Leicester been accustomed to consider court favour as the
+      principal object of his life, that all other sensations were, for the
+      time, lost in the agony which his haughty spirit felt at the succession of
+      petty insults and studied neglects to which he had been subjected; but
+      when he retired to his own chamber for the night, that long, fair tress of
+      hair which had once secured Amy's letter fell under his observation, and,
+      with the influence of a counter-charm, awakened his heart to nobler and
+      more natural feelings. He kissed it a thousand times; and while he
+      recollected that he had it always in his power to shun the mortifications
+      which he had that day undergone, by retiring into a dignified and even
+      prince-like seclusion with the beautiful and beloved partner of his future
+      life, he felt that he could rise above the revenge which Elizabeth had
+      condescended to take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, on the following day the whole conduct of the Earl displayed
+      so much dignified equanimity&mdash;he seemed so solicitous about the
+      accommodations and amusements of his guests, yet so indifferent to their
+      personal demeanour towards him&mdash;so respectfully distant to the Queen,
+      yet so patient of her harassing displeasure&mdash;that Elizabeth changed
+      her manner to him, and, though cold and distant, ceased to offer him any
+      direct affront. She intimated also with some sharpness to others around
+      her, who thought they were consulting her pleasure in showing a neglectful
+      conduct to the Earl, that while they remained at Kenilworth they ought to
+      show the civility due from guests to the Lord of the Castle. In short,
+      matters were so far changed in twenty-four hours that some of the more
+      experienced and sagacious courtiers foresaw a strong possibility of
+      Leicester's restoration to favour, and regulated their demeanour towards
+      him, as those who might one day claim merit for not having deserted him in
+      adversity. It is time, however, to leave these intrigues, and follow
+      Tressilian and Raleigh on their journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The troop consisted of six persons; for, besides Wayland, they had in
+      company a royal pursuivant and two stout serving-men. All were well-armed,
+      and travelled as fast as it was possible with justice to their horses,
+      which had a long journey before them. They endeavoured to procure some
+      tidings as they rode along of Varney and his party, but could hear none,
+      as they had travelled in the dark. At a small village about twelve miles
+      from Kenilworth, where they gave some refreshment to their horses, a poor
+      clergyman, the curate of the place, came out of a small cottage, and
+      entreated any of the company who might know aught of surgery to look in
+      for an instant on a dying man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The empiric Wayland undertook to do his best, and as the curate conducted
+      him to the spot, he learned that the man had been found on the highroad,
+      about a mile from the village, by labourers, as they were going to their
+      work on the preceding morning, and the curate had given him shelter in his
+      house. He had received a gun-shot wound, which seemed to be obviously
+      mortal; but whether in a brawl or from robbers they could not learn, as he
+      was in a fever, and spoke nothing connectedly. Wayland entered the dark
+      and lowly apartment, and no sooner had the curate drawn aside the curtain
+      than he knew, in the distorted features of the patient, the countenance of
+      Michael Lambourne. Under pretence of seeking something which he wanted,
+      Wayland hastily apprised his fellow-travellers of this extraordinary
+      circumstance; and both Tressilian and Raleigh, full of boding
+      apprehensions, hastened to the curate's house to see the dying man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wretch was by this time in the agonies of death, from which a much
+      better surgeon than Wayland could not have rescued him, for the bullet had
+      passed clear through his body. He was sensible, however, at least in part,
+      for he knew Tressilian, and made signs that he wished him to stoop over
+      his bed. Tressilian did so, and after some inarticulate murmurs, in which
+      the names of Varney and Lady Leicester were alone distinguishable,
+      Lambourne bade him "make haste, or he would come too late." It was in vain
+      Tressilian urged the patient for further information; he seemed to become
+      in some degree delirious, and when he again made a signal to attract
+      Tressilian's attention, it was only for the purpose of desiring him to
+      inform his uncle, Giles Gosling of the Black Bear, that "he had died
+      without his shoes after all." A convulsion verified his words a few
+      minutes after, and the travellers derived nothing from having met with
+      him, saving the obscure fears concerning the fate of the Countess, which
+      his dying words were calculated to convey, and which induced them to urge
+      their journey with the utmost speed, pressing horses in the Queen's name
+      when those which they rode became unfit for service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XLI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+     An aerial voice was heard to call,
+     And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+     Around the towers of Cumnor Hall. &mdash;MICKLE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We are now to return to that part of our story where we intimated that
+      Varney, possessed of the authority of the Earl of Leicester, and of the
+      Queen's permission to the same effect, hastened to secure himself against
+      discovery of his perfidy by removing the Countess from Kenilworth Castle.
+      He had proposed to set forth early in the morning; but reflecting that the
+      Earl might relent in the interim, and seek another interview with the
+      Countess, he resolved to prevent, by immediate departure, all chance of
+      what would probably have ended in his detection and ruin. For this purpose
+      he called for Lambourne, and was exceedingly incensed to find that his
+      trusty attendant was abroad on some ramble in the neighbouring village, or
+      elsewhere. As his return was expected, Sir Richard commanded that he
+      should prepare himself for attending him on an immediate journey, and
+      follow him in case he returned after his departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, Varney used the ministry of a servant called Robin
+      Tider, one to whom the mysteries of Cumnor Place were already in some
+      degree known, as he had been there more than once in attendance on the
+      Earl. To this man, whose character resembled that of Lambourne, though he
+      was neither quite so prompt nor altogether so profligate, Varney gave
+      command to have three horses saddled, and to prepare a horse-litter, and
+      have them in readiness at the postern gate. The natural enough excuse of
+      his lady's insanity, which was now universally believed, accounted for the
+      secrecy with which she was to be removed from the Castle, and he reckoned
+      on the same apology in case the unfortunate Amy's resistance or screams
+      should render such necessary. The agency of Anthony Foster was
+      indispensable, and that Varney now went to secure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This person, naturally of a sour, unsocial disposition, and somewhat
+      tired, besides, with his journey from Cumnor to Warwickshire, in order to
+      bring the news of the Countess's escape, had early extricated himself from
+      the crowd of wassailers, and betaken himself to his chamber, where he lay
+      asleep, when Varney, completely equipped for travelling, and with a dark
+      lantern in his hand, entered his apartment. He paused an instant to listen
+      to what his associate was murmuring in his sleep, and could plainly
+      distinguish the words, "AVE MARIA&mdash;ORA PRO NOBIS. No, it runs not so&mdash;deliver
+      us from evil&mdash;ay, so it goes."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Praying in his sleep," said Varney, "and confounding his old and new
+      devotions. He must have more need of prayer ere I am done with him.&mdash;What
+      ho! holy man, most blessed penitent!&mdash;awake&mdash;awake! The devil
+      has not discharged you from service yet."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Varney at the same time shook the sleeper by the arm, it changed the
+      current of his ideas, and he roared out, "Thieves!&mdash;thieves! I will
+      die in defence of my gold&mdash;my hard-won gold&mdash;that has cost me so
+      dear. Where is Janet?&mdash;Is Janet safe?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Safe enough, thou bellowing fool!" said Varney; "art thou not ashamed of
+      thy clamour?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster by this time was broad awake, and sitting up in his bed, asked
+      Varney the meaning of so untimely a visit. "It augurs nothing good," he
+      added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A false prophecy, most sainted Anthony," returned Varney; "it augurs that
+      the hour is come for converting thy leasehold into copyhold. What sayest
+      thou to that?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hadst thou told me this in broad day," said Foster, "I had rejoiced; but
+      at this dead hour, and by this dim light, and looking on thy pale face,
+      which is a ghastly contradiction to thy light words, I cannot but rather
+      think of the work that is to be done, than the guerdon to be gained by
+      it."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, thou fool, it is but to escort thy charge back to Cumnor Place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Is that indeed all?" said Foster; "thou lookest deadly pale, and thou art
+      not moved by trifles&mdash;is that indeed all?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, that&mdash;and maybe a trifle more," said Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ah, that trifle more!" said Foster; "still thou lookest paler and paler."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Heed not my countenance," said Varney; "you see it by this wretched
+      light. Up and be doing, man. Think of Cumnor Place&mdash;thine own proper
+      copyhold. Why, thou mayest found a weekly lectureship, besides endowing
+      Janet like a baron's daughter. Seventy pounds and odd."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and fivepence half-penny, besides the
+      value of the wood," said Foster; "and I am to have it all as copyhold?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All, man&mdash;squirrels and all. No gipsy shall cut the value of a broom&mdash;no
+      boy so much as take a bird's nest&mdash;without paying thee a quittance.&mdash;Ay,
+      that is right&mdash;don thy matters as fast as possible; horses and
+      everything are ready, all save that accursed villain Lambourne, who is out
+      on some infernal gambol."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, Sir Richard," said Foster, "you would take no advice. I ever told you
+      that drunken profligate would fail you at need. Now I could have helped
+      you to a sober young man."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "What, some slow-spoken, long-breathed brother of the congregation? Why,
+      we shall have use for such also, man. Heaven be praised, we shall lack
+      labourers of every kind.&mdash;Ay, that is right&mdash;forget not your
+      pistols. Come now, and let us away."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Whither?" said Anthony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To my lady's chamber; and, mind, she MUST along with us. Thou art not a
+      fellow to be startled by a shriek?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not if Scripture reason can be rendered for it; and it is written, 'Wives
+      obey your husbands.' But will my lord's commands bear us out if we use
+      violence?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Tush, man! here is his signet," answered Varney; and having thus silenced
+      the objections of his associate, they went together to Lord Hunsdon's
+      apartments, and acquainting the sentinel with their purpose, as a matter
+      sanctioned by the Queen and the Earl of Leicester, they entered the
+      chamber of the unfortunate Countess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horror of Amy may be conceived when, starting from a broken slumber,
+      she saw at her bedside Varney, the man on earth she most feared and hated.
+      It was even a consolation to see that he was not alone, though she had so
+      much reason to dread his sullen companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Madam," said Varney, "there is no time for ceremony. My Lord of
+      Leicester, having fully considered the exigencies of the time, sends you
+      his orders immediately to accompany us on our return to Cumnor Place. See,
+      here is his signet, in token of his instant and pressing commands."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is false!" said the Countess; "thou hast stolen the warrant&mdash;thou,
+      who art capable of every villainy, from the blackest to the basest!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "It is TRUE, madam," replied Varney; "so true, that if you do not
+      instantly arise, and prepare to attend us, we must compel you to obey our
+      orders."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Compel! Thou darest not put it to that issue, base as thou art!"
+      exclaimed the unhappy Countess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "That remains to be proved, madam," said Varney, who had determined on
+      intimidation as the only means of subduing her high spirit; "if you put me
+      to it, you will find me a rough groom of the chambers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this threat that Amy screamed so fearfully that, had it not been
+      for the received opinion of her insanity, she would quickly have had Lord
+      Hunsdon and others to her aid. Perceiving, however, that her cries were
+      vain, she appealed to Foster in the most affecting terms, conjuring him,
+      as his daughter Janet's honour and purity were dear to him, not to permit
+      her to be treated with unwomanly violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, madam, wives must obey their husbands&mdash;-there's Scripture
+      warrant for it," said Foster; "and if you will dress yourself, and come
+      with us patiently, there's no one shall lay finger on you while I can draw
+      a pistol-trigger."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seeing no help arrive, and comforted even by the dogged language of
+      Foster, the Countess promised to arise and dress herself, if they would
+      agree to retire from the room. Varney at the same time assured her of all
+      safety and honour while in their hands, and promised that he himself would
+      not approach her, since his presence was so displeasing. Her husband, he
+      added, would be at Cumnor Place within twenty-four hours after they had
+      reached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat comforted by this assurance, upon which, however, she saw little
+      reason to rely, the unhappy Amy made her toilette by the assistance of the
+      lantern, which they left with her when they quitted the apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Weeping, trembling, and praying, the unfortunate lady dressed herself with
+      sensations how different from the days in which she was wont to decorate
+      herself in all the pride of conscious beauty! She endeavoured to delay the
+      completing her dress as long as she could, until, terrified by the
+      impatience of Varney, she was obliged to declare herself ready to attend
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were about to move, the Countess clung to Foster with such an
+      appearance of terror at Varney's approach that the latter protested to
+      her, with a deep oath, that he had no intention whatever of even coming
+      near her. "If you do but consent to execute your husband's will in
+      quietness, you shall," he said, "see but little of me. I will leave you
+      undisturbed to the care of the usher whom your good taste prefers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My husband's will!" she exclaimed. "But it is the will of God, and let
+      that be sufficient to me. I will go with Master Foster as unresistingly as
+      ever did a literal sacrifice. He is a father at least; and will have
+      decency, if not humanity. For thee, Varney, were it my latest word, thou
+      art an equal stranger to both."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney replied only she was at liberty to choose, and walked some paces
+      before them to show the way; while, half leaning on Foster, and half
+      carried by him, the Countess was transported from Saintlowe's Tower to the
+      postern gate, where Tider waited with the litter and horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess was placed in the former without resistance. She saw with
+      some satisfaction that, while Foster and Tider rode close by the litter,
+      which the latter conducted, the dreaded Varney lingered behind, and was
+      soon lost in darkness. A little while she strove, as the road winded round
+      the verge of the lake, to keep sight of those stately towers which called
+      her husband lord, and which still, in some places, sparkled with lights,
+      where wassailers were yet revelling. But when the direction of the road
+      rendered this no longer possible, she drew back her head, and sinking down
+      in the litter, recommended herself to the care of Providence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides the desire of inducing the Countess to proceed quietly on her
+      journey, Varney had it also in view to have an interview with Lambourne,
+      by whom he every moment expected to be joined, without the presence of any
+      witnesses. He knew the character of this man, prompt, bloody, resolute,
+      and greedy, and judged him the most fit agent he could employ in his
+      further designs. But ten miles of their journey had been measured ere he
+      heard the hasty clatter of horse's hoofs behind him, and was overtaken by
+      Michael Lambourne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fretted as he was with his absence, Varney received his profligate servant
+      with a rebuke of unusual bitterness. "Drunken villain," he said, "thy
+      idleness and debauched folly will stretch a halter ere it be long, and,
+      for me, I care not how soon!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This style of objurgation Lambourne, who was elated to an unusual degree,
+      not only by an extraordinary cup of wine, but by the sort of confidential
+      interview he had just had with the Earl, and the secret of which he had
+      made himself master, did not receive with his wonted humility. "He would
+      take no insolence of language," he said, "from the best knight that ever
+      wore spurs. Lord Leicester had detained him on some business of import,
+      and that was enough for Varney, who was but a servant like himself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney was not a little surprised at his unusual tone of insolence; but
+      ascribing it to liquor, suffered it to pass as if unnoticed, and then
+      began to tamper with Lambourne touching his willingness to aid in removing
+      out of the Earl of Leicester's way an obstacle to a rise, which would put
+      it in his power to reward his trusty followers to their utmost wish. And
+      upon Michael Lambourne's seeming ignorant what was meant, he plainly
+      indicated "the litter-load, yonder," as the impediment which he desired
+      should be removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Look you, Sir Richard, and so forth," said Michael, "some are wiser than
+      some, that is one thing, and some are worse than some, that's another. I
+      know my lord's mind on this matter better than thou, for he hath trusted
+      me fully in the matter. Here are his mandates, and his last words were,
+      Michael Lambourne&mdash;for his lordship speaks to me as a gentleman of
+      the sword, and useth not the words drunken villain, or such like phrase,
+      of those who know not how to bear new dignities&mdash;Varney, says he,
+      must pay the utmost respect to my Countess. I trust to you for looking to
+      it, Lambourne, says his lordship, and you must bring back my signet from
+      him peremptorily."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay," replied Varney, "said he so, indeed? You know all, then?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "All&mdash;all; and you were as wise to make a friend of me while the
+      weather is fair betwixt us."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And was there no one present," said Varney, "when my lord so spoke?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Not a breathing creature," replied Lambourne. "Think you my lord would
+      trust any one with such matters, save an approved man of action like
+      myself?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Most true," said Varney; and making a pause, he looked forward on the
+      moonlight road. They were traversing a wide and open heath. The litter
+      being at least a mile before them, was both out of sight and hearing. He
+      looked behind, and there was an expanse, lighted by the moonbeams, without
+      one human being in sight. He resumed his speech to Lambourne: "And will
+      you turn upon your master, who has introduced you to this career of
+      court-like favour&mdash;whose apprentice you have been, Michael&mdash;who
+      has taught you the depths and shallows of court intrigue?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Michael not me!" said Lambourne; "I have a name will brook a MASTER
+      before it as well as another; and as to the rest, if I have been an
+      apprentice, my indenture is out, and I am resolute to set up for myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Take thy quittance first, thou fool!" said Varney; and with a pistol,
+      which he had for some time held in his hand, shot Lambourne through the
+      body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wretch fell from his horse without a single groan; and Varney,
+      dismounting, rifled his pockets, turning out the lining, that it might
+      appear he had fallen by robbers. He secured the Earl's packet, which was
+      his chief object; but he also took Lambourne's purse, containing some gold
+      pieces, the relics of what his debauchery had left him, and from a
+      singular combination of feelings, carried it in his hand only the length
+      of a small river, which crossed the road, into which he threw it as far as
+      he could fling. Such are the strange remnants of conscience which remain
+      after she seems totally subdued, that this cruel and remorseless man would
+      have felt himself degraded had he pocketed the few pieces belonging to the
+      wretch whom he had thus ruthlessly slain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murderer reloaded his pistol after cleansing the lock and barrel from
+      the appearances of late explosion, and rode calmly after the litter,
+      satisfying himself that he had so adroitly removed a troublesome witness
+      to many of his intrigues, and the bearer of mandates which he had no
+      intentions to obey, and which, therefore, he was desirous it should be
+      thought had never reached his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remainder of the journey was made with a degree of speed which showed
+      the little care they had for the health of the unhappy Countess. They
+      paused only at places where all was under their command, and where the
+      tale they were prepared to tell of the insane Lady Varney would have
+      obtained ready credit had she made an attempt to appeal to the compassion
+      of the few persons admitted to see her. But Amy saw no chance of obtaining
+      a hearing from any to whom she had an opportunity of addressing herself;
+      and besides, was too terrified for the presence of Varney to violate the
+      implied condition under which she was to travel free from his company. The
+      authority of Varney, often so used during the Earl's private journeys to
+      Cumnor, readily procured relays of horses where wanted, so that they
+      approached Cumnor Place upon the night after they left Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this period of the journey Varney came up to the rear of the litter, as
+      he had done before repeatedly during their progress, and asked, "How does
+      she?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She sleeps," said Foster. "I would we were home&mdash;her strength is
+      exhausted."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Rest will restore her," answered Varney. "She shall soon sleep sound and
+      long. We must consider how to lodge her in safety."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In her own apartments, to be sure," said Foster. "I have sent Janet to
+      her aunt's with a proper rebuke, and the old women are truth itself&mdash;for
+      they hate this lady cordially."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We will not trust them, however, friend Anthony," said Varney; "We must
+      secure her in that stronghold where you keep your gold."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My gold!" said Anthony, much alarmed; "why, what gold have I? God help
+      me, I have no gold&mdash;I would I had!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now, marry hang thee, thou stupid brute, who thinks of or cares for thy
+      gold? If I did, could I not find an hundred better ways to come at it? In
+      one word, thy bedchamber, which thou hast fenced so curiously, must be her
+      place of seclusion; and thou, thou hind, shalt press her pillows of down.
+      I dare to say the Earl will never ask after the rich furniture of these
+      four rooms."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This last consideration rendered Foster tractable; he only asked
+      permission to ride before, to make matters ready, and spurring his horse,
+      he posted before the litter, while Varney falling about threescore paces
+      behind it, it remained only attended by Tider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had arrived at Cumnor Place, the Countess asked eagerly for
+      Janet, and showed much alarm when informed that she was no longer to have
+      the attendance of that amiable girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "My daughter is dear to me, madam," said Foster gruffly; "and I desire not
+      that she should get the court-tricks of lying and 'scaping&mdash;somewhat
+      too much of that has she learned already, an it please your ladyship."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Countess, much fatigued and greatly terrified by the circumstances of
+      her journey, made no answer to this insolence, but mildly expressed a wish
+      to retire to her chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, ay," muttered Foster, "'tis but reasonable; but, under favour, you go
+      not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder&mdash;you will sleep to-night in
+      better security."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I would it were in my grave," said the Countess; "but that mortal
+      feelings shiver at the idea of soul and body parting."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You, I guess, have no chance to shiver at that," replied Foster. "My lord
+      comes hither to-morrow, and doubtless you will make your own ways good
+      with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But does he come hither?&mdash;does he indeed, good Foster?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, ay, good Foster!" replied the other. "But what Foster shall I be
+      to-morrow when you speak of me to my lord&mdash;though all I have done was
+      to obey his own orders?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall be my protector&mdash;a rough one indeed&mdash;but still a
+      protector," answered the Countess. "Oh that Janet were but here!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She is better where she is," answered Foster&mdash;"one of you is enough
+      to perplex a plain head. But will you taste any refreshment?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh no, no&mdash;my chamber&mdash;my chamber! I trust," she said
+      apprehensively, "I may secure it on the inside?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With all my heart," answered Foster, "so I may secure it on the outside;"
+      and taking a light, he led the way to a part of the building where Amy had
+      never been, and conducted her up a stair of great height, preceded by one
+      of the old women with a lamp. At the head of the stair, which seemed of
+      almost immeasurable height, they crossed a short wooden gallery, formed of
+      black oak, and very narrow, at the farther end of which was a strong oaken
+      door, which opened and admitted them into the miser's apartment, homely in
+      its accommodations in the very last degree, and, except in name, little
+      different from a prison-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster stopped at the door, and gave the lamp to the Countess, without
+      either offering or permitting the attendance of the old woman who had
+      carried it. The lady stood not on ceremony, but taking it hastily, barred
+      the door, and secured it with the ample means provided on the inside for
+      that purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, meanwhile, had lurked behind on the stairs; but hearing the door
+      barred, he now came up on tiptoe, and Foster, winking to him, pointed with
+      self-complacence to a piece of concealed machinery in the wall, which,
+      playing with much ease and little noise, dropped a part of the wooden
+      gallery, after the manner of a drawbridge, so as to cut off all
+      communication between the door of the bedroom, which he usually inhabited,
+      and the landing-place of the high, winding stair which ascended to it. The
+      rope by which this machinery was wrought was generally carried within the
+      bedchamber, it being Foster's object to provide against invasion from
+      without; but now that it was intended to secure the prisoner within, the
+      cord had been brought over to the landing-place, and was there made fast,
+      when Foster with much complacency had dropped the unsuspected trap-door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney looked with great attention at the machinery, and peeped more than
+      once down the abyss which was opened by the fall of the trap-door. It was
+      dark as pitch, and seemed profoundly deep, going, as Foster informed his
+      confederate in a whisper, nigh to the lowest vault of the Castle. Varney
+      cast once more a fixed and long look down into this sable gulf, and then
+      followed Foster to the part of the manor-house most usually inhabited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they arrived in the parlour which we have mentioned, Varney requested
+      Foster to get them supper, and some of the choicest wine. "I will seek
+      Alasco," he added; "we have work for him to do, and we must put him in
+      good heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Foster groaned at this intimation, but made no remonstrance. The old woman
+      assured Varney that Alasco had scarce eaten or drunken since her master's
+      departure, living perpetually shut up in the laboratory, and talking as if
+      the world's continuance depended on what he was doing there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him," said Varney,
+      seizing a light, and going in quest of the alchemist. He returned, after a
+      considerable absence, very pale, but yet with his habitual sneer on his
+      cheek and nostril. "Our friend," he said, "has exhaled."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!&mdash;what mean you?" said Foster&mdash;"run away&mdash;fled with my
+      forty pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousand-fold? I will
+      have Hue and Cry!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will tell thee a surer way," said Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!&mdash;which way?" exclaimed Foster; "I will have back my forty
+      pounds&mdash;I deemed them as surely a thousand times multiplied&mdash;I
+      will have back my in-put, at the least."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Go hang thyself, then, and sue Alasco in the Devil's Court of Chancery,
+      for thither he has carried the cause."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How!&mdash;what dost thou mean is he dead?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, truly is he," said Varney; "and properly swollen already in the face
+      and body. He had been mixing some of his devil's medicines, and the glass
+      mask which he used constantly had fallen from his face, so that the subtle
+      poison entered the brain, and did its work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "SANCTA MARIA!" said Foster&mdash;"I mean, God in His mercy preserve us
+      from covetousness and deadly sin!&mdash;Had he not had projection, think
+      you? Saw you no ingots in the crucibles?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Nay, I looked not but at the dead carrion," answered Varney; "an ugly
+      spectacle&mdash;he was swollen like a corpse three days exposed on the
+      wheel. Pah! give me a cup of wine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go," said Foster, "I will examine myself&mdash;" He took the lamp,
+      and hastened to the door, but there hesitated and paused. "Will you not go
+      with me?" said he to Varney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "To what purpose?" said Varney; "I have seen and smelled enough to spoil
+      my appetite. I broke the window, however, and let in the air; it reeked of
+      sulphur, and such like suffocating steams, as if the very devil had been
+      there."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And might it not be the act of the demon himself?" said Foster, still
+      hesitating; "I have heard he is powerful at such times, and with such
+      people."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Still, if it were that Satan of thine," answered Varney, "who thus jades
+      thy imagination, thou art in perfect safety, unless he is a most
+      unconscionable devil indeed. He hath had two good sops of late."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "How TWO sops&mdash;what mean you?" said Foster&mdash;"what mean you?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You will know in time," said Varney;&mdash;"and then this other banquet&mdash;but
+      thou wilt esteem Her too choice a morsel for the fiend's tooth&mdash;she
+      must have her psalms, and harps, and seraphs."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthony Foster heard, and came slowly back to the table. "God! Sir
+      Richard, and must that then be done?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, in very truth, Anthony, or there comes no copyhold in thy way,"
+      replied his inflexible associate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I always foresaw it would land there!" said Foster. "But how, Sir
+      Richard, how?&mdash;for not to win the world would I put hands on her."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I cannot blame thee," said Varney; "I should be reluctant to do that
+      myself. We miss Alasco and his manna sorely&mdash;ay, and the dog
+      Lambourne."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, where tarries Lambourne?" said Anthony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ask no questions," said Varney, "thou wilt see him one day if thy creed
+      is true. But to our graver matter. I will teach thee a spring, Tony, to
+      catch a pewit. Yonder trap-door&mdash;yonder gimcrack of thine, will
+      remain secure in appearance, will it not, though the supports are
+      withdrawn beneath?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Ay, marry, will it," said Foster; "so long as it is not trodden on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "But were the lady to attempt an escape over it," replied Varney, "her
+      weight would carry it down?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "A mouse's weight would do it," said Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, then, she dies in attempting her escape, and what could you or I
+      help it, honest Tony? Let us to bed, we will adjust our project
+      to-morrow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the next day, when evening approached, Varney summoned Foster to the
+      execution of their plan. Tider and Foster's old man-servant were sent on a
+      feigned errand down to the village, and Anthony himself, as if anxious to
+      see that the Countess suffered no want of accommodation, visited her place
+      of confinement. He was so much staggered at the mildness and patience with
+      which she seemed to endure her confinement, that he could not help
+      earnestly recommending to her not to cross the threshold of her room on
+      any account whatever, until Lord Leicester should come, "which," he added,
+      "I trust in God, will be very soon." Amy patiently promised that she would
+      resign herself to her fate, and Foster returned to his hardened companion
+      with his conscience half-eased of the perilous load that weighed on it. "I
+      have warned her," he said; "surely in vain is the snare set in the sight
+      of any bird!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He left, therefore, the Countess's door unsecured on the outside, and,
+      under the eye of Varney, withdrew the supports which sustained the falling
+      trap, which, therefore, kept its level position merely by a slight
+      adhesion. They withdrew to wait the issue on the ground-floor adjoining;
+      but they waited long in vain. At length Varney, after walking long to and
+      fro, with his face muffled in his cloak, threw it suddenly back and
+      exclaimed, "Surely never was a woman fool enough to neglect so fair an
+      opportunity of escape!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Perhaps she is resolved," said Foster, "to await her husband's return."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "True!&mdash;most true!" said Varney, rushing out; "I had not thought of
+      that before."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than two minutes, Foster, who remained behind, heard the tread of
+      a horse in the courtyard, and then a whistle similar to that which was the
+      Earl's usual signal. The instant after the door of the Countess's chamber
+      opened, and in the same moment the trap-door gave way. There was a rushing
+      sound&mdash;a heavy fall&mdash;a faint groan&mdash;and all was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same instant, Varney called in at the window, in an accent and tone
+      which was an indescribable mixture betwixt horror and raillery, "Is the
+      bird caught?&mdash;is the deed done?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "O God, forgive us!" replied Anthony Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Why, thou fool," said Varney, "thy toil is ended, and thy reward secure.
+      Look down into the vault&mdash;what seest thou?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I see only a heap of white clothes, like a snowdrift," said Foster. "O
+      God, she moves her arm!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Hurl something down on her&mdash;thy gold chest, Tony&mdash;it is an
+      heavy one."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Varney, thou art an incarnate fiend!" replied Foster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "There needs nothing more&mdash;she is gone!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So pass our troubles," said Varney, entering the room; "I dreamed not I
+      could have mimicked the Earl's call so well."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh, if there be judgment in heaven, thou hast deserved it," said Foster,
+      "and wilt meet it! Thou hast destroyed her by means of her best affections&mdash;it
+      is a seething of the kid in the mother's milk!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thou art a fanatical ass," replied Varney; "let us now think how the
+      alarm should be given&mdash;the body is to remain where it is."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But their wickedness was to be permitted no longer; for even while they
+      were at this consultation, Tressilian and Raleigh broke in upon them,
+      having obtained admittance by means of Tider and Foster's servant, whom
+      they had secured at the village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthony Foster fled on their entrance, and knowing each corner and pass of
+      the intricate old house, escaped all search. But Varney was taken on the
+      spot; and instead of expressing compunction for what he had done, seemed
+      to take a fiendish pleasure in pointing out to them the remains of the
+      murdered Countess, while at the same time he defied them to show that he
+      had any share in her death. The despairing grief of Tressilian, on viewing
+      the mangled and yet warm remains of what had lately been so lovely and so
+      beloved, was such that Raleigh was compelled to have him removed from the
+      place by force, while he himself assumed the direction of what was to be
+      done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Varney, upon a second examination, made very little mystery either of the
+      crime or of its motives&mdash;-alleging, as a reason for his frankness,
+      that though much of what he confessed could only have attached to him by
+      suspicion, yet such suspicion would have been sufficient to deprive him of
+      Leicester's confidence, and to destroy all his towering plans of ambition.
+      "I was not born," he said, "to drag on the remainder of life a degraded
+      outcast; nor will I so die that my fate shall make a holiday to the vulgar
+      herd."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these words it was apprehended he had some design upon himself, and
+      he was carefully deprived of all means by which such could be carried into
+      execution. But like some of the heroes of antiquity, he carried about his
+      person a small quantity of strong poison, prepared probably by the
+      celebrated Demetrius Alasco. Having swallowed this potion over-night, he
+      was found next morning dead in his cell; nor did he appear to have
+      suffered much agony, his countenance presenting, even in death, the
+      habitual expression of sneering sarcasm which was predominant while he
+      lived. "The wicked man," saith Scripture, "hath no bonds in his death."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fate of his colleague in wickedness was long unknown. Cumnor Place was
+      deserted immediately after the murder; for in the vicinity of what was
+      called the Lady Dudley's Chamber, the domestics pretended to hear groans,
+      and screams, and other supernatural noises. After a certain length of
+      time, Janet, hearing no tidings of her father, became the uncontrolled
+      mistress of his property, and conferred it with her hand upon Wayland, now
+      a man of settled character, and holding a place in Elizabeth's household.
+      But it was after they had been both dead for some years that their eldest
+      son and heir, in making some researches about Cumnor Hall, discovered a
+      secret passage, closed by an iron door, which, opening from behind the bed
+      in the Lady Dudley's Chamber, descended to a sort of cell, in which they
+      found an iron chest containing a quantity of gold, and a human skeleton
+      stretched above it. The fate of Anthony Foster was now manifest. He had
+      fled to this place of concealment, forgetting the key of the spring-lock;
+      and being barred from escape by the means he had used for preservation of
+      that gold, for which he had sold his salvation, he had there perished
+      miserably. Unquestionably the groans and screams heard by the domestics
+      were not entirely imaginary, but were those of this wretch, who, in his
+      agony, was crying for relief and succour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The news of the Countess's dreadful fate put a sudden period to the
+      pleasures of Kenilworth. Leicester retired from court, and for a
+      considerable time abandoned himself to his remorse. But as Varney in his
+      last declaration had been studious to spare the character of his patron,
+      the Earl was the object rather of compassion than resentment. The Queen at
+      length recalled him to court; he was once more distinguished as a
+      statesman and favourite; and the rest of his career is well known to
+      history. But there was something retributive in his death, if, according
+      to an account very generally received, it took place from his swallowing a
+      draught of poison which was designed by him for another person. [See Note
+      9. Death of the Earl of Leicester.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Hugh Robsart died very soon after his daughter, having settled his
+      estate on Tressilian. But neither the prospect of rural independence, nor
+      the promises of favour which Elizabeth held out to induce him to follow
+      the court, could remove his profound melancholy. Wherever he went he
+      seemed to see before him the disfigured corpse of the early and only
+      object of his affection. At length, having made provision for the
+      maintenance of the old friends and old servants who formed Sir Hugh's
+      family at Lidcote Hall, he himself embarked with his friend Raleigh for
+      the Virginia expedition, and, young in years but old in grief, died before
+      his day in that foreign land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of inferior persons it is only necessary to say that Blount's wit grew
+      brighter as his yellow roses faded; that, doing his part as a brave
+      commander in the wars, he was much more in his element than during the
+      short period of his following the court; and that Flibbertigibbet's acute
+      genius raised him to favour and distinction in the employment both of
+      Burleigh and Walsingham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      NOTES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Note 1. Ch. III.&mdash;FOSTER, LAMBOURNE, AND THE BLACK BEAR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If faith is to be put in epitaphs, Anthony Foster was something the very
+      reverse of the character represented in the novel. Ashmole gives this
+      description of his tomb. I copy from the ANTIQUITIES OF BERKSHIRE, vol.i.,
+      p.143.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the north wall of the chancel at Cumnor church is a monument of grey
+      marble, whereon, in brass plates, are engraved a man in armour, and his
+      wife in the habit of her times, both kneeling before a fald-stoole,
+      together with the figures of three sons kneeling behind their mother.
+      Under the figure of the man is this inscription:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "ANTONIUS FORSTER, generis generosa propago,
+     Cumnerae Dominus, Bercheriensis erat.
+     Armiger, Armigero prognatus patre Ricardo,
+     Qui quondam Iphlethae Salopiensis erat.
+     Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati,
+     Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat.
+     Mente sagax, animo precellens, corpore promptus,
+     Eloquii dulcis, ore disertus erat.
+     In factis probitas; fuit in sermone venustas,
+     In vultu gravitas, relligione fides,
+     In patriam pietas, in egenos grata voluntas,
+     Accedunt reliquis annumeranda bonis.
+     Si quod cuncta rapit, rapuit non omnia Lethum,
+     Si quod Mors rapuit, vivida fama dedit.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      "These verses following are writ at length, two by two, in praise of him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Argute resonas Cithare pretendere chordas
+     Novit, et Aonia concrepuisse Lyra.
+     Gaudebat terre teneras defigere plantas;
+     Et mira pulchras construere arte domos
+     Composita varias lingua formare loquelas
+     Doctus, et edocta scribere multa manu."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The arms over it thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quart. I. 3 HUNTER'S HORNS stringed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. 3 PINIONS with their points upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The crest is a STAG couchant, vulnerated through the neck by a broad
+      arrow; on his side is a MARTLETT for a difference."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this monumental inscription it appears that Anthony Foster, instead
+      of being a vulgar, low-bred, puritanical churl, was, in fact, a gentleman
+      of birth and consideration, distinguished for his skill in the arts of
+      music and horticulture, as also in languages. In so far, therefore, the
+      Anthony Foster of the romance has nothing but the name in common with the
+      real individual. But notwithstanding the charity, benevolence, and
+      religious faith imputed by the monument of grey marble to its tenant,
+      tradition, as well as secret history, names him as the active agent in the
+      death of the Countess; and it is added that, from being a jovial and
+      convivial gallant, as we may infer from some expressions in the epitaph,
+      he sunk, after the fatal deed, into a man of gloomy and retired habits,
+      whose looks and manners indicated that he suffered under the pressure of
+      some atrocious secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of Lambourne is still known in the vicinity, and it is said some
+      of the clan partake the habits, as well as name, of the Michael Lambourne
+      of the romance. A man of this name lately murdered his wife, outdoing
+      Michael in this respect, who only was concerned in the murder of the wife
+      of another man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have only to add that the jolly Black Bear has been restored to his
+      predominance over bowl and bottle in the village of Cumnor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 2. Ch. XIII.&mdash;LEGEND OF WAYLAND SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great defeat given by Alfred to the Danish invaders is said by Mr.
+      Gough to have taken place near Ashdown, in Berkshire. "The burial place of
+      Baereg, the Danish chief, who was slain in this fight, is distinguished by
+      a parcel of stones, less than a mile from the hill, set on edge, enclosing
+      a piece of ground somewhat raised. On the east side of the southern
+      extremity stand three squarish flat stones, of about four or five feet
+      over either way, supporting a fourth, and now called by the vulgar WAYLAND
+      SMITH, from an idle tradition about an invisible smith replacing lost
+      horse-shoes there."&mdash;GOUGH'S edition of CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA, vol.i.,
+      p. 221.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The popular belief still retains memory of this wild legend, which,
+      connected as it is with the site of a Danish sepulchre, may have arisen
+      from some legend concerning the northern Duergar, who resided in the
+      rocks, and were cunning workers in steel and iron. It was believed that
+      Wayland Smith's fee was sixpence, and that, unlike other workmen, he was
+      offended if more was offered. Of late his offices have been again called
+      to memory; but fiction has in this, as in other cases, taken the liberty
+      to pillage the stores of oral tradition. This monument must be very
+      ancient, for it has been kindly pointed out to me that it is referred to
+      in an ancient Saxon charter as a landmark. The monument has been of late
+      cleared out, and made considerably more conspicuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 3. Ch. XIV.&mdash;LEICESTER AND SUSSEX.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naunton gives us numerous and curious particulars of the jealous struggle
+      which took place between Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, and the rising
+      favourite Leicester. The former, when on his deathbed, predicted to his
+      followers that after his death the gipsy (so he called Leicester, from his
+      dark complexion) would prove too many for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 4. Ch. XIV.&mdash;SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the attendants and adherents of Sussex, we have ventured to
+      introduce the celebrated Raleigh, in the dawn of his court favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Aubrey's Correspondence there are some curious particulars of Sir
+      Walter Raleigh. "He was a tall, handsome, bold man; but his naeve was that
+      he was damnably proud. Old Sir Robert Harley of Brampton Brian Castle, who
+      knew him, would say it was a great question who was the proudest, Sir
+      Walter or Sir Thomas Overbury; but the difference that was, was judged in
+      Sir Thomas's side. In the great parlour at Downton, at Mr. Raleigh's, is a
+      good piece, an original of Sir Walter, in a white satin doublet, all
+      embroidered with rich pearls, and a mighty rich chain of great pearls
+      about his neck. The old servants have told me that the real pearls were
+      near as big as the painted ones. He had a most remarkable aspect, an
+      exceeding high forehead, long-faced, and sour-eyelidded. A rebus is added
+      to this purpose:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The enemy to the stomach, and the word of disgrace,
+     Is the name of the gentleman with the bold face.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir Walter Raleigh's beard turned up naturally, which gave him an
+      advantage over the gallants of the time, whose moustaches received a touch
+      of the barber's art to give them the air then most admired.&mdash;See
+      AUBREY'S CORRESPONDENCE, vol.ii., part ii., p.500.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 5. Ch. XV.&mdash;COURT FAVOUR OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gallant incident of the cloak is the traditional account of this
+      celebrated statesman's rise at court. None of Elizabeth's courtiers knew
+      better than he how to make his court to her personal vanity, or could more
+      justly estimate the quantity of flattery which she could condescend to
+      swallow. Being confined in the Tower for some offence, and understanding
+      the Queen was about to pass to Greenwich in her barge, he insisted on
+      approaching the window, that he might see, at whatever distance, the Queen
+      of his Affections, the most beautiful object which the earth bore on its
+      surface. The Lieutenant of the Tower (his own particular friend) threw
+      himself between his prisoner and the window; while Sir Waiter, apparently
+      influenced by a fit of unrestrainable passion, swore he would not be
+      debarred from seeing his light, his life, his goddess! A scuffle ensued,
+      got up for effect's sake, in which the Lieutenant and his captive grappled
+      and struggled with fury, tore each other's hair, and at length drew
+      daggers, and were only separated by force. The Queen being informed of
+      this scene exhibited by her frantic adorer, it wrought, as was to be
+      expected, much in favour of the captive Paladin. There is little doubt
+      that his quarrel with the Lieutenant was entirely contrived for the
+      purpose which it produced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 6. Ch. XVII.&mdash;ROBERT LANEHAM.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little is known of Robert Laneham, save in his curious letter to a friend
+      in London, giving an account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainments at
+      Kenilworth, written in a style of the most intolerable affectation, both
+      in point of composition and orthography. He describes himself as a BON
+      VIVANT, who was wont to be jolly and dry in the morning, and by his
+      good-will would be chiefly in the company of the ladies. He was, by the
+      interest of Lord Leicester, Clerk of the Council Chamber door, and also
+      keeper of the same. "When Council sits," says he, "I am at hand. If any
+      makes a babbling, PEACE, say I. If I see a listener or a pryer in at the
+      chinks or lockhole, I am presently on the bones of him. If a friend comes,
+      I make him sit down by me on a form or chest. The rest may walk, a God's
+      name!" There has been seldom a better portrait of the pragmatic conceit
+      and self-importance of a small man in office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 7. Ch. XVIII.&mdash;DR. JULIO.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of Leicester's Italian physician, Julio, was affirmed by his
+      contemporaries to be a skilful compounder of poisons, which he applied
+      with such frequency, that the Jesuit Parsons extols ironically the
+      marvellous good luck of this great favourite in the opportune deaths of
+      those who stood in the way of his wishes. There is a curious passage on
+      the subject:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Long after this, he fell in love with the Lady Sheffield, whom I
+      signified before, and then also had he the same fortune to have her
+      husband dye quickly, with an extreame rheume in his head (as it was given
+      out), but as others say, of an artificiall catarre that stopped his
+      breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The like good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex (as I have
+      said before), and that at a time most fortunate for his purpose; for when
+      he was coming home from Ireland, with intent to revenge himselfe upon my
+      Lord of Leicester for begetting his wife with childe in his absence (the
+      childe was a daughter, and brought up by the Lady Shandoes, W. Knooles,
+      his wife), my Lord of Leicester hearing thereof, wanted not a friend or
+      two to accompany the deputy, as among other a couple of the Earles own
+      servants, Crompton (if I misse not his name), yeoman of his bottles, and
+      Lloid his secretary, entertained afterward by my Lord of Leicester, and so
+      he dyed in the way of an extreame flux, caused by an Italian receipe, as
+      all his friends are well assured, the maker whereof was a chyrurgeon (as
+      it is beleeved) that then was newly come to my Lord from Italy&mdash;-a
+      cunning man and sure in operation, with whom, if the good Lady had been
+      sooner acquainted, and used his help, she should not have needed to sitten
+      so pensive at home, and fearefull of her husband's former returne out of
+      the same country......Neither must you marvaile though all these died in
+      divers manners of outward diseases, for this is the excellency of the
+      Italian art, for which this chyrurgeon and Dr. Julio were entertained so
+      carefully, who can make a man dye in what manner or show of sickness you
+      will&mdash;by whose instructions, no doubt; but his lordship is now
+      cunning, especially adding also to these the counsell of his Doctor Bayly,
+      a man also not a little studied (as he seemeth) in his art; for I heard
+      him once myselfe, in a publique act in Oxford, and that in presence of my
+      Lord of Leicester (if I be not deceived), maintain that poyson might be so
+      tempered and given as it should not appear presently, and yet should kill
+      the party afterward, at what time should be appointed; which argument
+      belike pleased well his lordship, and therefore was chosen to be discussed
+      in his audience, if I be not deceived of his being that day present. So,
+      though one dye of a flux, and another of a catarre, yet this importeth
+      little to the matter, but showeth rather the great cunning and skill of
+      the artificer."&mdash;PARSONS' LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH, p.23.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the Earl is stated in
+      the tale to be rather the dupe of villains than the unprincipled author of
+      their atrocities. In the latter capacity, which a part at least of his
+      contemporaries imputed to him, he would have made a character too
+      disgustingly wicked to be useful for the purposes of fiction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have only to add that the union of the poisoner, the quacksalver, the
+      alchemist, and the astrologer in the same person was familiar to the
+      pretenders to the mystic sciences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note 8. Ch. XXXII.&mdash;FURNITURE OF KENILWORTH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In revising this work, I have had the means of making some accurate
+      additions to my attempt to describe the princely pleasures of Kenilworth,
+      by the kindness of my friend William Hamper, Esq., who had the goodness to
+      communicate to me an inventory of the furniture of Kenilworth in the days
+      of the magnificent Earl of Leicester. I have adorned the text with some of
+      the splendid articles mentioned in the inventory, but antiquaries
+      especially will be desirous to see a more full specimen than the story
+      leaves room for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      EXTRACTS FROM KENILWORTH INVENTORY, A.D. 1584.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Salte, ship-fashion, of the mother of perle, garnished with silver and
+      divers workes, warlike ensignes, and ornaments, with xvj peeces of
+      ordinance whereof ij on wheles, two anckers on the foreparte, and on the
+      stearne the image of Dame Fortune standing on a globe with a flag in her
+      hand. Pois xxxij oz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A gilte salte like a swann, mother of perle. Pois xxx oz. iij quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A George on horseback, of wood, painted and gilt, with a case for knives
+      in the tayle of the horse, and a case for oyster knives in the brest of
+      the Dragon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A green barge-cloth, embrother'd with white lions and beares.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A perfuming pann, of silver. Pois xix oz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the halle. Tabells, long and short, vj. Formes, long and short, xiiij.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      HANGINGS. (These are minutely specified, and consisted of the following
+      subjects, in tapestry, and gilt, and red leather.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flowers, beasts, and pillars arched. Forest worke. Historie. Storie of
+      Susanna, the Prodigall Childe, Saule, Tobie, Hercules, Lady Fame, Hawking
+      and Hunting, Jezabell, Judith and Holofernes, David, Abraham, Sampson,
+      Hippolitus, Alexander the Great, Naaman the Assyrian, Jacob, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BEDSTEADS, WITH THEIR FURNITURE. (These are magnificent and numerous. I
+      shall copy VERBATIM the description of what appears to have been one of
+      the best.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bedsted of wallnut-tree, toppe fashion, the pillers redd and varnished,
+      the ceelor, tester, and single vallance of crimson sattin, paned with a
+      broad border of bone lace of golde and silver. The tester richlie
+      embrothered with my Lo. armes in a garland of hoppes, roses, and
+      pomegranetts, and lyned with buckerom. Fyve curteins of crimson sattin to
+      the same bedsted, striped downe with a bone lace of gold and silver,
+      garnished with buttons and loops of crimson silk and golde, containing
+      xiiij bredths of sattin, and one yarde iij quarters deepe. The ceelor,
+      vallance, and curteins lyned with crymson taffata sarsenet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A crymson sattin counterpointe, quilted and embr. with a golde twiste, and
+      lyned with redd sarsenet, being in length iij yards good, and in breadth
+      iij scant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A chaise of crymson sattin, suteable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fayre quilte of crymson sattin, vj breadths, iij yardes 3 quarters naile
+      deepe, all lozenged over with silver twiste, in the midst a cinquefoile
+      within a garland of ragged staves, fringed rounde aboute with a small
+      fringe of crymson silke, lyned throughe with white fustian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fyve plumes of coolered feathers, garnished with bone lace and spangells
+      of goulde and silver, standing in cups knitt all over with goulde, silver,
+      and crymson silk. [Probably on the centre and four corners of the
+      bedstead. Four bears and ragged staves occupied a similar position on
+      another of these sumptuous pieces of furniture.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A carpett for a cupboarde of crymson sattin, embrothered with a border of
+      goulde twiste, about iij parts of it fringed with silk and goulde, lyned
+      with bridges [That is, Bruges.] sattin, in length ij yards, and ij bredths
+      of sattin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (There were eleven down beds and ninety feather beds, besides thirty-seven
+      mattresses.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CHYRES, STOOLES, AND CUSHENS. (These were equally splendid with the beds,
+      etc. I shall here copy that which stands at the head of the list.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A chaier of crimson velvet, the seate and backe partlie embrothered, with
+      R. L. in cloth of goulde, the beare and ragged staffe in clothe of silver,
+      garnished with lace and fringe of goulde, silver, and crimson silck. The
+      frame covered with velvet, bounde aboute the edge with goulde lace, and
+      studded with gilte nailes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A square stoole and a foote stoole, of crimson velvet, fringed and
+      garnished suteable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long cushen of crimson velvet, embr. with the ragged staffe in a wreathe
+      of goulde, with my Lo. posie "DROYTE ET LOYALL" written in the same, and
+      the letters R. L. in clothe of goulde, being garnished with lace, fringe,
+      buttons, and tassels of gold, silver, and crimson silck, lyned with
+      crimson taff., being in length 1 yard quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A square cushen, of the like velvet, embr. suteable to the long cushen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CARPETS. (There were 10 velvet carpets for tables and windows, 49 Turkey
+      carpets for floors, and 32 cloth carpets. One of each I will now specify.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A carpett of crimson velvet, richlie embr. with my Lo. posie, beares and
+      ragged staves, etc., of clothe of goulde and silver, garnished upon the
+      seames and aboute with golde lace, fringed accordinglie, lyned with
+      crimson taffata sarsenett, being 3 breadths of velvet, one yard 3 quarters
+      long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great Turquoy carpett, the grounde blew, with a list of yelloe at each
+      end, being in length x yards, in bredthe iiij yards and quarter
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long carpett of blew clothe, lyned with bridges sattin, fringed with
+      blew silck and goulde, in length vj yards lack a quarter, the whole bredth
+      of the clothe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PICTURES. (Chiefly described as having curtains.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queene's Majestie (2 great tables). 3 of my Lord. St. Jerome. Lo. of
+      Arundell. Lord Mathevers. Lord of Pembroke. Counte Egmondt. The Queene of
+      Scotts. King Philip. The Baker's Daughters. The Duke of Feria. Alexander
+      Magnus. Two Yonge Ladies. Pompaea Sabina. Fred. D. of Saxony. Emp.
+      Charles. K. Philip's Wife. Prince of Orange and his Wife. Marq. of Berges
+      and his Wife. Counte de Home. Count Holstrate. Monsr. Brederode. Duke
+      Alva. Cardinal Grandville. Duches of Parma. Henrie E. of Pembrooke and his
+      young Countess. Countis of Essex. Occacion and Repentance. Lord
+      Mowntacute. Sir Jas. Crofts. Sir Wm. Mildmay. Sr. Wm. Pickering. Edwin
+      Abp. of York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tabell of an historie of men, women, and children, moulden in wax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little foulding table of ebanie, garnished with white bone, wherein are
+      written verses with lres. of goulde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A table of my Lord's armes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fyve of the plannetts, painted in frames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twentie-three cardes, [That is charts.] or maps of countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      INSTRUMENTS. (I shall give two specimens.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An instrument of organs, regall, and virginalls, covered with crimson
+      velvet, and garnished with goulde lace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fair pair of double virginalls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      CABONETTS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cabonett of crimson sattin, richlie embr. with a device of hunting the
+      stagg, in goulde, silver, and silck, with iiij glasses in the topp
+      thereof, xvj cupps of flowers made of goulde, silver, and silck, in a case
+      of leather, lyned with greene sattin of bridges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (Another of purple velvet. A desk of red leather.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A CHESS BOARDE of ebanie, with checkars of christall and other stones,
+      layed with silver, garnished with beares and ragged staves, and
+      cinquefoiles of silver. The xxxij men likewyse of christall and other
+      stones sett, the one sort in silver white, the other gilte, in a case
+      gilded and lyned with green cotton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (Another of bone and ebanie. A pair of tabells of bone.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great BRASON CANDLESTICK to hang in the roofe of the howse, verie fayer
+      and curiouslye wrought, with xxiiij branches, xij greate and xij of lesser
+      size, 6 rowlers and ij wings for the spreade eagle, xxiiij socketts for
+      candells, xij greater and xij of a lesser sorte, xxiiij sawcers, or
+      candlecups, of like proporcion to put under the socketts, iij images of
+      men and iij of weomen, of brass, verie finely and artificiallie done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These specimens of Leicester's magnificence may serve to assure the reader
+      that it scarce lay in the power of a modern author to exaggerate the
+      lavish style of expense displayed in the princely pleasures of Kenilworth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note to Ch. XLI.&mdash;DEATH OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben Jonson to
+      Drummond of Hawthornden, as transcribed by Sir Robert Sibbald, Leicester's
+      death is ascribed to poison administered as a cordial by his countess, to
+      whom he had given it, representing it to be a restorative in any
+      faintness, in the hope that she herself might be cut off by using it. We
+      have already quoted Jonson's account of this merited stroke of retribution
+      in a note of the Introduction to this volume. It may be here added that
+      the following satirical epitaph on Leicester occurs in Drummond's
+      Collection, but is evidently not of his composition:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     EPITAPH ON THE ERLE OF LEISTER.
+
+     Here lies a valiant warriour,
+     Who never drew a sword;
+     Here lies a noble courtier,
+     Who never kept his word;
+     Here lies the Erle of Leister,
+     Who governed the Estates,
+     Whom the earth could never living love,
+     And the just Heaven now hates.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott
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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Kenilworth, by Walter Scott***
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+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
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+
+
+
+KENILWORTH.
+
+by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
+
+
+
+
+*
+
+Note:  Footnotes and references to the notes at the end of the
+       printed book have been inserted in the etext in square
+       brackets ("[]") close to the place where they were
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+       identify them as was done in the printed text.
+
+       Text in italics has been written in capital letters.
+
+*
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+A certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineation
+of Queen Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt something
+similar respecting "her sister and her foe," the celebrated
+Elizabeth.  He will not, however, pretend to have approached the
+task with the same feelings; for the candid Robertson himself
+confesses having felt the prejudices with which a Scottishman is
+tempted to regard the subject; and what so liberal a historian
+avows, a poor romance-writer dares not disown.  But he hopes the
+influence of a prejudice, almost as natural to him as his native
+air, will not be found to have greatly affected the sketch he has
+attempted of England's Elizabeth.  I have endeavoured to describe
+her as at once a high-minded sovereign, and a female of
+passionate feelings, hesitating betwixt the sense of her rank and
+the duty she owed her subjects on the one hand, and on the other
+her attachment to a nobleman, who, in external qualifications at
+least, amply merited her favour.  The interest of the story is
+thrown upon that period when the sudden death of the first
+Countess of Leicester seemed to open to the ambition of her
+husband the opportunity of sharing the crown of his sovereign.
+
+It is possible that slander, which very seldom favours the
+memories of persons in exalted stations, may have blackened the
+character of Leicester with darker shades than really belonged to
+it.  But the almost general voice of the times attached the most
+foul suspicions to the death of the unfortunate Countess, more
+especially as it took place so very opportunely for the
+indulgence of her lover's ambition.  If we can trust Ashmole's
+Antiquities of Berkshire, there was but too much ground for the
+traditions which charge Leicester with the murder of his wife.
+In the following extract of the passage, the reader will find the
+authority I had for the story of the romance:--
+
+"At the west end of the church are the ruins of a manor,
+anciently belonging (as a cell, or place of removal, as some
+report) to the monks of Abington.  At the Dissolution, the said
+manor, or lordship, was conveyed to one -- Owen (I believe), the
+possessor of Godstow then.
+
+"In the hall, over the chimney, I find Abington arms cut in
+stone--namely, a patonee between four martletts; and also another
+escutcheon--namely, a lion rampant, and several mitres cut in
+stone about the house.  There is also in the said house a chamber
+called Dudley's chamber, where the Earl of Leicester's wife was
+murdered, of which this is the story following:--
+
+"Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and
+singularly well featured, being a great favourite to Queen
+Elizabeth, it was thought, and commonly reported, that had he
+been a bachelor or widower, the Queen would have made him her
+husband; to this end, to free himself of all obstacles, he
+commands, or perhaps, with fair flattering entreaties, desires
+his wife to repose herself here at his servant Anthony Forster's
+house, who then lived in the aforesaid manor-house; and also
+prescribes to Sir Richard Varney (a prompter to this design), at
+his coming hither, that he should first attempt to poison her,
+and if that did not take effect, then by any other way whatsoever
+to dispatch her.  This, it seems, was proved by the report of Dr.
+Walter Bayly, sometime fellow of New College, then living in
+Oxford, and professor of physic in that university; whom, because
+he would not consent to take away her life by poison, the Earl
+endeavoured to displace him the court.  This man, it seems,
+reported for most certain that there was a practice in Cumnor
+among the conspirators, to have poisoned this poor innocent lady,
+a little before she was killed, which was attempted after this
+manner:--They seeing the good lady sad and heavy (as one that
+well knew, by her other handling, that her death was not far
+off), began to persuade her that her present disease was
+abundance of melancholy and other humours, etc., and therefore
+would needs counsel her to take some potion, which she absolutely
+refusing to do, as still suspecting the worst; whereupon they
+sent a messenger on a day (unawares to her) for Dr. Bayly, and
+entreated him to persuade her to take some little potion by his
+direction, and they would fetch the same at Oxford; meaning to
+have added something of their own for her comfort, as the doctor
+upon just cause and consideration did suspect, seeing their great
+importunity, and the small need the lady had of physic, and
+therefore he peremptorily denied their request; misdoubting (as
+he afterwards reported) lest, if they had poisoned her under the
+name of his potion, he might after have been hanged for a colour
+of their sin, and the doctor remained still well assured that
+this way taking no effect, she would not long escape their
+violence, which afterwards happened thus.  For Sir Richard Varney
+abovesaid (the chief projector in this design), who, by the
+Earl's order, remained that day of her death alone with her, with
+one man only and Forster, who had that day forcibly sent away all
+her servants from her to Abington market, about three miles
+distant from this place; they (I say, whether first stifling her,
+or else strangling her) afterwards flung her down a pair of
+stairs and broke her neck, using much violence upon her; but,
+however, though it was vulgarly reported that she by chance fell
+downstairs (but still without hurting her hood that was upon her
+head), yet the inhabitants will tell you there that she was
+conveyed from her usual chamber where she lay, to another where
+the bed's head of the chamber stood close to a privy postern
+door, where they in the night came and stifled her in her bed,
+bruised her head very much broke her neck, and at length flung
+her down stairs, thereby believing the world would have thought
+it a mischance, and so have blinded their villainy.  But behold
+the mercy and justice of God in revenging and discovering this
+lady's murder; for one of the persons that was a coadjutor in
+this murder was afterwards taken for a felony in the marches of
+Wales, and offering to publish the manner of the aforesaid
+murder, was privately made away in the prison by the Earl's
+appointment; and Sir Richard Varney the other, dying about the
+same time in London, cried miserably, and blasphemed God, and
+said to a person of note (who hath related the same to others
+since), not long before his death, that all the devils in hell
+did tear him in pieces.  Forster, likewise, after this fact,
+being a man formerly addicted to hospitality, company, mirth, and
+music, was afterwards observed to forsake all this, and with much
+melancholy and pensiveness (some say with madness) pined and
+drooped away.  The wife also of Bald Butter, kinsman to the Earl,
+gave out the whole fact a little before her death.  Neither are
+these following passages to be forgotten, that as soon as ever
+she was murdered, they made great haste to bury her before the
+coroner had given in his inquest (which the Earl himself
+condemned as not done advisedly), which her father, or Sir John
+Robertsett (as I suppose), hearing of, came with all speed
+hither, caused her corpse to be taken up, the coroner to sit upon
+her, and further inquiry to be made concerning this business to
+the full; but it was generally thought that the Earl stopped his
+mouth, and made up the business betwixt them; and the good Earl,
+to make plain to the world the great love he bare to her while
+alive, and what a grief the loss of so virtuous a lady was to his
+tender heart, caused (though the thing, by these and other means,
+was beaten into the heads of the principal men of the University
+of Oxford) her body to be reburied in St, Mary's Church in
+Oxford, with great pomp and solemnity.  It is remarkable, when
+Dr. Babington, the Earl's chaplain, did preach the funeral
+sermon, he tript once or twice in his speech, by recommending to
+their memories that virtuous lady so pitifully murdered, instead
+of saying pitifully slain.  This Earl, after all his murders and
+poisonings, was himself poisoned by that which was prepared for
+others (some say by his wife at Cornbury Lodge before mentioned),
+though Baker in his Chronicle would have it at Killingworth; anno
+1588."  [Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, vol.i., p.149.  The
+tradition as to Leicester's death was thus communicated by Ben
+Jonson to Drummond of Hawthornden:--"The Earl of Leicester gave
+a bottle of liquor to his Lady, which he willed her to use in any
+faintness, which she, after his returne from court, not knowing
+it was poison, gave him, and so he died."--BEN JONSON'S
+INFORMATION TO DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN, MS., SIR ROBERT SIBBALD'S
+COPY.]
+
+The same accusation has been adopted and circulated by the author
+of Leicester's Commonwealth, a satire written directly against
+the Earl of Leicester, which loaded him with the most horrid
+crimes, and, among the rest, with the murder of his first wife.
+It was alluded to in the Yorkshire Tragedy, a play erroneously
+ascribed to Shakespeare, where a baker, who determines to destroy
+all his family, throws his wife downstairs, with this allusion to
+the supposed murder of Leicester's lady,--
+
+  "The only way to charm a woman's tongue
+  Is, break her neck--a politician did it."
+
+The reader will find I have borrowed several incidents as well as
+names from Ashmole, and the more early authorities; but my first
+acquaintance with the history was through the more pleasing
+medium of verse.  There is a period in youth when the mere power
+of numbers has a more strong effect on ear and imagination than
+in more advanced life.  At this season of immature taste, the
+author was greatly delighted with the poems of Mickle and
+Langhorne, poets who, though by no means deficient in the higher
+branches of their art, were eminent for their powers of verbal
+melody above most who have practised this department of poetry.
+One of those pieces of Mickle, which the author was particularly
+pleased with, is a ballad, or rather a species of elegy, on the
+subject of Cumnor Hall, which, with others by the same author,
+was to be found in Evans's Ancient Ballads (vol. iv., page 130),
+to which work Mickle made liberal contributions.  The first
+stanza especially had a peculiar species of enchantment for the
+youthful ear of the author, the force of which is not even now
+entirely spent; some others are sufficiently prosaic.
+
+
+CUMNOR HALL.
+
+  The dews of summer night did fall;
+   The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+  Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+   And many an oak that grew thereby,
+
+  Now nought was heard beneath the skies,
+   The sounds of busy life were still,
+  Save an unhappy lady's sighs,
+   That issued from that lonely pile.
+
+  "Leicester," she cried, "is this thy love
+   That thou so oft hast sworn to me,
+  To leave me in this lonely grove,
+   Immured in shameful privity?
+
+  "No more thou com'st with lover's speed,
+   Thy once beloved bride to see;
+  But be she alive, or be she dead,
+   I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+
+  "Not so the usage I received
+   When happy in my father's hall;
+  No faithless husband then me grieved,
+   No chilling fears did me appal.
+
+  "I rose up with the cheerful morn,
+   No lark more blithe, no flower more gay;
+  And like the bird that haunts the thorn,
+   So merrily sung the livelong day.
+
+  "If that my beauty is but small,
+   Among court ladies all despised,
+  Why didst thou rend it from that hall,
+   Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized?
+
+  "And when you first to me made suit,
+   How fair I was you oft would say!
+  And proud of conquest, pluck'd the fruit,
+   Then left the blossom to decay.
+
+  "Yes!  now neglected and despised,
+   The rose is pale, the lily's dead;
+  But he that once their charms so prized,
+   Is sure the cause those charms are fled.
+
+  "For know, when sick'ning grief doth prey,
+   And tender love's repaid with scorn,
+  The sweetest beauty will decay,--
+   What floweret can endure the storm?
+
+  "At court, I'm told, is beauty's throne,
+   Where every lady's passing rare,
+  That Eastern flowers, that shame the sun,
+   Are not so glowing, not so fair.
+
+  "Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds
+   Where roses and where lilies vie,
+  To seek a primrose, whose pale shades
+   Must sicken when those gauds are by?
+
+  "'Mong rural beauties I was one,
+   Among the fields wild flowers are fair;
+  Some country swain might me have won,
+   And thought my beauty passing rare.
+
+  "But, Leicester (or I much am wrong),
+   Or 'tis not beauty lures thy vows;
+  Rather ambition's gilded crown
+   Makes thee forget thy humble spouse.
+
+  "Then, Leicester, why, again I plead
+   (The injured surely may repine)--
+  Why didst thou wed a country maid,
+   When some fair princess might be thine?
+
+  "Why didst thou praise my hum'ble charms,
+   And, oh!  then leave them to decay?
+  Why didst thou win me to thy arms,
+   Then leave to mourn the livelong day?
+
+  "The village maidens of the plain
+   Salute me lowly as they go;
+  Envious they mark my silken train,
+   Nor think a Countess can have woe.
+
+  "The simple nymphs!  they little know
+   How far more happy's their estate;
+  To smile for joy, than sigh for woe--
+   To be content, than to be great.
+
+  "How far less blest am I than them?
+   Daily to pine and waste with care!
+  Like the poor plant that, from its stem
+   Divided, feels the chilling air.
+
+  "Nor, cruel Earl!  can I enjoy
+   The humble charms of solitude;
+  Your minions proud my peace destroy,
+   By sullen frowns or pratings rude.
+
+  "Last night, as sad I chanced to stray,
+   The village death-bell smote my ear;
+  They wink'd aside, and seemed to say,
+   'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'
+
+  "And now, while happy peasants sleep,
+   Here I sit lonely and forlorn;
+  No one to soothe me as I weep,
+   Save Philomel on yonder thorn.
+
+  "My spirits flag--my hopes decay--
+   Still that dread death-bell smites my ear;
+  And many a boding seems to say,
+   'Countess, prepare, thy end is near!'"
+
+  Thus sore and sad that lady grieved,
+   In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear;
+  And many a heartfelt sigh she heaved,
+   And let fall many a bitter tear.
+
+  And ere the dawn of day appear'd,
+   In Cumnor Hall, so lone and drear,
+  Full many a piercing scream was heard,
+   And many a cry of mortal fear.
+
+  The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+   An aerial voice was heard to call,
+  And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+   Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.
+
+  The mastiff howl'd at village door,
+   The oaks were shatter'd on the green;
+  Woe was the hour--for never more
+   That hapless Countess e'er was seen!
+
+  And in that Manor now no more
+   Is cheerful feast and sprightly ball;
+  For ever since that dreary hour
+   Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall.
+
+  The village maids, with fearful glance,
+   Avoid the ancient moss-grown wall;
+  Nor ever lead the merry dance,
+   Among the groves of Cumnor Hall.
+
+  Full many a traveller oft hath sigh'd,
+   And pensive wept the Countess' fall,
+  As wand'ring onward they've espied
+   The haunted towers of Cumnor Hall.
+
+ARBOTSFORD,
+1st March 1831.
+
+
+*
+
+
+KENILWORTH
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  I am an innkeeper, and know my grounds,
+  And study them; Brain o' man, I study them.
+  I must have jovial guests to drive my ploughs,
+  And whistling boys to bring my harvests home,
+  Or I shall hear no flails thwack.             THE NEW INN.
+
+It is the privilege of tale-tellers to open their story in an
+inn, the free rendezvous of all travellers, and where the humour
+of each displays itself without ceremony or restraint.  This is
+specially suitable when the scene is laid during the old days of
+merry England, when the guests were in some sort not merely the
+inmates, but the messmates and temporary companions of mine Host,
+who was usually a personage of privileged freedom, comely
+presence, and good-humour.  Patronized by him the characters of
+the company were placed in ready contrast; and they seldom
+failed, during the emptying of a six-hooped pot, to throw off
+reserve, and present themselves to each other, and to their
+landlord, with the freedom of old acquaintance.
+
+The village of Cumnor, within three or four miles of Oxford,
+boasted, during the eighteenth of Queen Elizabeth, an excellent
+inn of the old stamp, conducted, or rather ruled, by Giles
+Gosling, a man of a goodly person, and of somewhat round belly;
+fifty years of age and upwards, moderate in his reckonings,
+prompt in his payments, having a cellar of sound liquor, a ready
+wit, and a pretty daughter.  Since the days of old Harry Baillie
+of the Tabard in Southwark, no one had excelled Giles Gosling in
+the power of pleasing his guests of every description; and so
+great was his fame, that to have been in Cumnor without wetting a
+cup at the bonny Black Bear, would have been to avouch one's-self
+utterly indifferent to reputation as a traveller.  A country
+fellow might as well return from London without looking in the
+face of majesty.  The men of Cumnor were proud of their Host, and
+their Host was proud of his house, his liquor, his daughter, and
+himself.
+
+It was in the courtyard of the inn which called this honest
+fellow landlord, that a traveller alighted in the close of the
+evening, gave his horse, which seemed to have made a long
+journey, to the hostler, and made some inquiry, which produced
+the following dialogue betwixt the myrmidons of the bonny Black
+Bear.
+
+"What, ho!  John Tapster."
+
+"At hand, Will Hostler," replied the man of the spigot, showing
+himself in his costume of loose jacket, linen breeches, and green
+apron, half within and half without a door, which appeared to
+descend to an outer cellar.
+
+"Here is a gentleman asks if you draw good ale," continued the
+hostler.
+
+"Beshrew my heart else," answered the tapster, "since there are
+but four miles betwixt us and Oxford.  Marry, if my ale did not
+convince the heads of the scholars, they would soon convince my
+pate with the pewter flagon."
+
+"Call you that Oxford logic?"  said the stranger, who had now
+quitted the rein of his horse, and was advancing towards the inn-
+door, when he was encountered by the goodly form of Giles Gosling
+himself.
+
+"Is it logic you talk of, Sir Guest?"  said the host; "why, then,
+have at you with a downright consequence--
+
+  'The horse to the rack,
+  And to fire with the sack.'"
+
+"Amen!  with all my heart, my good host," said the stranger; "let
+it be a quart of your best Canaries, and give me your good help
+to drink it."
+
+"Nay, you are but in your accidence yet, Sir Traveller, if you
+call on your host for help for such a sipping matter as a quart
+of sack; Were it a gallon, you might lack some neighbouring aid
+at my hand, and yet call yourself a toper."
+
+"Fear me not."  said the guest, "I will do my devoir as becomes a
+man who finds himself within five miles of Oxford; for I am not
+come from the field of Mars to discredit myself amongst the
+followers of Minerva."
+
+As he spoke thus, the landlord, with much semblance of hearty
+welcome, ushered his guest into a large, low chamber, where
+several persons were seated together in different parties--some
+drinking, some playing at cards, some conversing, and some, whose
+business called them to be early risers on the morrow, concluding
+their evening meal, and conferring with the chamberlain about
+their night's quarters.
+
+The entrance of a stranger procured him that general and careless
+sort of attention which is usually paid on such occasions, from
+which the following results were deduced:--The guest was one of
+those who, with a well-made person, and features not in
+themselves unpleasing, are nevertheless so far from handsome
+that, whether from the expression of their features, or the tone
+of their voice, or from their gait and manner, there arises, on
+the whole, a disinclination to their society.  The stranger's
+address was bold, without being frank, and seemed eagerly and
+hastily to claim for him a degree of attention and deference
+which he feared would be refused, if not instantly vindicated as
+his right.  His attire was a riding-cloak, which, when open,
+displayed a handsome jerkin overlaid with lace, and belted with a
+buff girdle, which sustained a broadsword and a pair of pistols.
+
+"You ride well provided, sir," said the host, looking at the
+weapons as he placed on the table the mulled sack which the
+traveller had ordered.
+
+"Yes, mine host; I have found the use on't in dangerous times,
+and I do not, like your modern grandees, turn off my followers
+the instant they are useless."
+
+"Ay, sir?"  said Giles Gosling; "then you are from the Low
+Countries, the land of pike and caliver?"
+
+"I have been high and low, my friend, broad and wide, far and
+near.  But here is to thee in a cup of thy sack; fill thyself
+another to pledge me, and, if it is less than superlative, e'en
+drink as you have brewed."
+
+"Less than superlative?"  said Giles Gosling, drinking off the
+cup, and smacking his lips with an air of ineffable relish,--"I
+know nothing of superlative, nor is there such a wine at the
+Three Cranes, in the Vintry, to my knowledge; but if you find
+better sack than that in the Sheres, or in the Canaries either, I
+would I may never touch either pot or penny more.  Why, hold it
+up betwixt you and the light, you shall see the little motes
+dance in the golden liquor like dust in the sunbeam.  But I would
+rather draw wine for ten clowns than one traveller.--I trust your
+honour likes the wine?"
+
+"It is neat and comfortable, mine host; but to know good liquor,
+you should drink where the vine grows.  Trust me, your Spaniard
+is too wise a man to send you the very soul of the grape.  Why,
+this now, which you account so choice, were counted but as a cup
+of bastard at the Groyne, or at Port St. Mary's.  You should
+travel, mine host, if you would be deep in the mysteries of the
+butt and pottle-pot."
+
+"In troth, Signior Guest," said Giles Gosling, "if I were to
+travel only that I might be discontented with that which I can
+get at home, methinks I should go but on a fool's errand.
+Besides, I warrant you, there is many a fool can turn his nose up
+at good drink without ever having been out of the smoke of Old
+England; and so ever gramercy mine own fireside."
+
+"This is but a mean mind of yours, mine host," said the stranger;
+"I warrant me, all your town's folk do not think so basely.  You
+have gallants among you, I dare undertake, that have made the
+Virginia voyage, or taken a turn in the Low Countries at least.
+Come, cudgel your memory.  Have you no friends in foreign parts
+that you would gladly have tidings of?"
+
+"Troth, sir, not I," answered the host, "since ranting Robin of
+Drysandford was shot at the siege of the Brill.  The devil take
+the caliver that fired the ball, for a blither lad never filled a
+cup at midnight!  But he is dead and gone, and I know not a
+soldier, or a traveller, who is a soldier's mate, that I would
+give a peeled codling for."
+
+"By the Mass, that is strange.  What!  so many of our brave
+English hearts are abroad, and you, who seem to be a man of mark,
+have no friend, no kinsman among them?"
+
+"Nay, if you speak of kinsmen," answered Gosling, "I have one
+wild slip of a kinsman, who left us in the last year of Queen
+Mary; but he is better lost than found."
+
+"Do not say so, friend, unless you have heard ill of him lately.
+Many a wild colt has turned out a noble steed.--His name, I pray
+you?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne," answered the landlord of the Black Bear; "a
+son of my sister's--there is little pleasure in recollecting
+either the name or the connection."
+
+"Michael Lambourne!"  said the stranger, as if endeavouring to
+recollect himself--"what, no relation to Michael Lambourne, the
+gallant cavalier who behaved so bravely at the siege of Venlo
+that Grave Maurice thanked him at the head of the army?  Men said
+he was an English cavalier, and of no high extraction."
+
+"It could scarcely be my nephew," said Giles Gosling, "for he had
+not the courage of a hen-partridge for aught but mischief."
+
+"Oh, many a man finds courage in the wars," replied the stranger.
+
+"It may be," said the landlord; "but I would have thought our
+Mike more likely to lose the little he had."
+
+"The Michael Lambourne whom I knew," continued the traveller,
+"was a likely fellow--went always gay and well attired, and had a
+hawk's eye after a pretty wench."
+
+"Our Michael," replied the host, "had the look of a dog with a
+bottle at its tail, and wore a coat, every rag of which was
+bidding good-day to the rest."
+
+"Oh, men pick up good apparel in the wars," replied the guest.
+
+"Our Mike," answered the landlord, "was more like to pick it up
+in a frippery warehouse, while the broker was looking another
+way; and, for the hawk's eye you talk of, his was always after my
+stray spoons.  He was tapster's boy here in this blessed house
+for a quarter of a year; and between misreckonings, miscarriages,
+mistakes, and misdemeanours, had he dwelt with me for three
+months longer, I might have pulled down sign, shut up house, and
+given the devil the key to keep."
+
+"You would be sorry, after all," continued the traveller, "were I
+to tell you poor Mike Lambourne was shot at the head of his
+regiment at the taking of a sconce near Maestricht?"
+
+"Sorry!--it would be the blithest news I ever heard of him, since
+it would ensure me he was not hanged.  But let him pass--I doubt
+his end will never do such credit to his friends.  Were it so, I
+should say"--(taking another cup of sack)--"Here's God rest him,
+with all my heart."
+
+"Tush, man," replied the traveller, "never fear but you will have
+credit by your nephew yet, especially if he be the Michael
+Lambourne whom I knew, and loved very nearly, or altogether, as
+well as myself.  Can you tell me no mark by which I could judge
+whether they be the same?"
+
+"Faith, none that I can think of," answered Giles Gosling,
+"unless that our Mike had the gallows branded on his left
+shoulder for stealing a silver caudle-cup from Dame Snort of
+Hogsditch."
+
+"Nay, there you lie like a knave, uncle," said the stranger,
+slipping aside his ruff; and turning down the sleeve of his
+doublet from his neck and shoulder; "by this good day, my
+shoulder is as unscarred as thine own.
+
+"What, Mike, boy--Mike!"  exclaimed the host;--"and is it thou,
+in good earnest?  Nay, I have judged so for this half-hour; for I
+knew no other person would have ta'en half the interest in thee.
+But, Mike, an thy shoulder be unscathed as thou sayest, thou must
+own that Goodman Thong, the hangman, was merciful in his office,
+and stamped thee with a cold iron."
+
+"Tush, uncle--truce with your jests.  Keep them to season your
+sour ale, and let us see what hearty welcome thou wilt give a
+kinsman who has rolled the world around for eighteen years; who
+has seen the sun set where it rises, and has travelled till the
+west has become the east."
+
+"Thou hast brought back one traveller's gift with thee, Mike, as
+I well see; and that was what thou least didst:  need to travel
+for.  I remember well, among thine other qualities, there was no
+crediting a word which came from thy mouth."
+
+"Here's an unbelieving pagan for you, gentlemen!"  said Michael
+Lambourne, turning to those who witnessed this strange interview
+betwixt uncle and nephew, some of whom, being natives of the
+village, were no strangers to his juvenile wildness.  "This may
+be called slaying a Cumnor fatted calf for me with a vengeance.--
+But, uncle, I come not from the husks and the swine-trough, and I
+care not for thy welcome or no welcome; I carry that with me will
+make me welcome, wend where I will."
+
+So saying, he pulled out a purse of gold indifferently well
+filled, the sight of which produced a visible effect upon the
+company.  Some shook their heads and whispered to each other,
+while one or two of the less scrupulous speedily began to
+recollect him as a school-companion, a townsman, or so forth.  On
+the other hand, two or three grave, sedate-looking persons shook
+their heads, and left the inn, hinting that, if Giles Gosling
+wished to continue to thrive, he should turn his thriftless,
+godless nephew adrift again, as soon as he could.  Gosling
+demeaned himself as if he were much of the same opinion, for even
+the sight of the gold made less impression on the honest
+gentleman than it usually doth upon one of his calling.
+
+"Kinsman Michael," he said, "put up thy purse.  My sister's son
+shall be called to no reckoning in my house for supper or
+lodging; and I reckon thou wilt hardly wish to stay longer where
+thou art e'en but too well known."
+
+"For that matter, uncle," replied the traveller, "I shall consult
+my own needs and conveniences.  Meantime I wish to give the
+supper and sleeping cup to those good townsmen who are not too
+proud to remember Mike Lambourne, the tapster's boy.  If you will
+let me have entertainment for my money, so; if not, it is but a
+short two minutes' walk to the Hare and Tabor, and I trust our
+neighbours will not grudge going thus far with me."
+
+"Nay, Mike," replied his uncle, "as eighteen years have gone over
+thy head, and I trust thou art somewhat amended in thy
+conditions, thou shalt not leave my house at this hour, and shalt
+e'en have whatever in reason you list to call for.  But I would I
+knew that that purse of thine, which thou vapourest of, were as
+well come by as it seems well filled."
+
+"Here is an infidel for you, my good neighbours!"  said
+Lambourne, again appealing to the audience.  "Here's a fellow
+will rip up his kinsman's follies of a good score of years'
+standing.  And for the gold, why, sirs, I have been where it
+grew, and was to be had for the gathering.  In the New World have
+I been, man--in the Eldorado, where urchins play at cherry-pit
+with diamonds, and country wenches thread rubies for necklaces,
+instead of rowan-tree berries; where the pantiles are made of
+pure gold, and the paving-stones of virgin silver."
+
+"By my credit, friend Mike," said young Laurence Goldthred, the
+cutting mercer of Abingdon, "that were a likely coast to trade
+to.  And what may lawns, cypruses, and ribands fetch, where gold
+is so plenty?"
+
+"Oh, the profit were unutterable," replied Lambourne, "especially
+when a handsome young merchant bears the pack himself; for the
+ladies of that clime are bona-robas, and being themselves somewhat
+sunburnt, they catch fire like tinder at a fresh complexion like
+thine, with a head of hair inclining to be red."
+
+"I would I might trade thither," said the mercer, chuckling.
+
+"Why, and so thou mayest," said Michael--"that is, if thou art
+the same brisk boy who was partner with me at robbing the Abbot's
+orchard.  'Tis but a little touch of alchemy to decoct thy house
+and land into ready money, and that ready money into a tall ship,
+with sails, anchors, cordage, and all things conforming; then
+clap thy warehouse of goods under hatches, put fifty good fellows
+on deck, with myself to command them, and so hoist topsails, and
+hey for the New World!"
+
+"Thou hast taught him a secret, kinsman," said Giles Gosling, "to
+decoct, an that be the word, his pound into a penny and his webs
+into a thread.--Take a fool's advice, neighbour Goldthred.  Tempt
+not the sea, for she is a devourer.  Let cards and cockatrices do
+their worst, thy father's bales may bide a banging for a year or
+two ere thou comest to the Spital; but the sea hath a bottomless
+appetite,--she would swallow the wealth of Lombard Street in a
+morning, as easily as I would a poached egg and a cup of clary.
+And for my kinsman's Eldorado, never trust me if I do not believe
+he has found it in the pouches of some such gulls as thyself.--
+But take no snuff in the nose about it; fall to and welcome, for
+here comes the supper, and I heartily bestow it on all that will
+take share, in honour of my hopeful nephew's return, always
+trusting that he has come home another man.--In faith, kinsman,
+thou art as like my poor sister as ever was son to mother."
+
+"Not quite so like old Benedict Lambourne, her husband, though,"
+said the mercer, nodding and winking.  "Dost thou remember, Mike,
+what thou saidst when the schoolmaster's ferule was over thee for
+striking up thy father's crutches?--it is a wise child, saidst
+thou, that knows its own father.  Dr. Bircham laughed till he
+cried again, and his crying saved yours."
+
+"Well, he made it up to me many a day after," said Lambourne;
+"and how is the worthy pedagogue?"
+
+"Dead," said Giles Gosling, "this many a day since."
+
+"That he is," said the clerk of the parish; "I sat by his bed the
+whilst.  He passed away in a blessed frame.  'MORIOR--MORTUUS SUM
+VEL FUI--MORI'--these were his latest words; and he just added,
+'my last verb is conjugated."
+
+"Well, peace be with him," said Mike, "he owes me nothing."
+
+"No, truly," replied Goldthred; "and every lash which he laid on
+thee, he always was wont to say, he spared the hangman a labour."
+
+"One would have thought he left him little to do then," said the
+clerk; "and yet Goodman Thong had no sinecure of it with our
+friend, after all."
+
+"VOTO A DIOS!"  exclaimed Lambourne, his patience appearing to
+fail him, as he snatched his broad, slouched hat from the table
+and placed it on his head, so that the shadow gave the sinister
+expression of a Spanish brave to eyes and features which
+naturally boded nothing pleasant.  "Hark'ee, my masters--all is
+fair among friends, and under the rose; and I have already
+permitted my worthy uncle here, and all of you, to use your
+pleasure with the frolics of my nonage.  But I carry sword and
+dagger, my good friends, and can use them lightly too upon
+occasion.  I have learned to be dangerous upon points of honour
+ever since I served the Spaniard, and I would not have you
+provoke me to the degree of falling foul."
+
+"Why, what would you do?"  said the clerk.
+
+"Ay, sir, what would you do?"  said the mercer, bustling up on
+the other side of the table.
+
+"Slit your throat, and spoil your Sunday's quavering, Sir Clerk,"
+said Lambourne fiercely; "cudgel you, my worshipful dealer in
+flimsy sarsenets, into one of your own bales."
+
+"Come, come," said the host, interposing, "I will have no
+swaggering here.--Nephew, it will become you best to show no
+haste to take offence; and you, gentlemen, will do well to
+remember, that if you are in an inn, still you are the inn-
+keeper's guests, and should spare the honour of his family.--I
+protest your silly broils make me as oblivious as yourself; for
+yonder sits my silent guest as I call him, who hath been my two
+days' inmate, and hath never spoken a word, save to ask for his
+food and his reckoning--gives no more trouble than a very
+peasant--pays his shot like a prince royal--looks but at the sum
+total of the reckoning, and does not know what day he shall go
+away.  Oh, 'tis a jewel of a guest!  and yet, hang-dog that I am,
+I have suffered him to sit by himself like a castaway in yonder
+obscure nook, without so much as asking him to take bite or sup
+along with us.  It were but the right guerdon of my incivility
+were he to set off to the Hare and Tabor before the night grows
+older."
+
+With his white napkin gracefully arranged over his left arm, his
+velvet cap laid aside for the moment, and his best silver flagon
+in his right hand, mine host walked up to the solitary guest whom
+he mentioned, and thereby turned upon him the eyes of the
+assembled company.
+
+He was a man aged betwixt twenty-five and thirty, rather above
+the middle size, dressed with plainness and decency, yet bearing
+an air of ease which almost amounted to dignity, and which seemed
+to infer that his habit was rather beneath his rank.  His
+countenance was reserved and thoughtful, with dark hair and dark
+eyes; the last, upon any momentary excitement, sparkled with
+uncommon lustre, but on other occasions had the same meditative
+and tranquil cast which was exhibited by his features.  The busy
+curiosity of the little village had been employed to discover his
+name and quality, as well as his business at Cumnor; but nothing
+had transpired on either subject which could lead to its
+gratification.  Giles Gosling, head-borough of the place, and a
+steady friend to Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant religion, was
+at one time inclined to suspect his guest of being a Jesuit, or
+seminary priest, of whom Rome and Spain sent at this time so many
+to grace the gallows in England.  But it was scarce possible to
+retain such a prepossession against a guest who gave so little
+trouble, paid his reckoning so regularly, and who proposed, as it
+seemed, to make a considerable stay at the bonny Black Bear.
+
+"Papists," argued Giles Gosling, "are a pinching, close-fisted
+race, and this man would have found a lodging with the wealthy
+squire at Bessellsey, or with the old Knight at Wootton, or in
+some other of their Roman dens, instead of living in a house of
+public entertainment, as every honest man and good Christian
+should.  Besides, on Friday he stuck by the salt beef and carrot,
+though there were as good spitch-cocked eels on the board as ever
+were ta'en out of the Isis."
+
+Honest Giles, therefore, satisfied himself that his guest was no
+Roman, and with all comely courtesy besought the stranger to
+pledge him in a draught of the cool tankard, and honour with his
+attention a small collation which he was giving to his nephew, in
+honour of his return, and, as he verily hoped, of his
+reformation.  The stranger at first shook his head, as if
+declining the courtesy; but mine host proceeded to urge him with
+arguments founded on the credit of his house, and the
+construction which the good people of Cumnor might put upon such
+an unsocial humour.
+
+"By my faith, sir," he said, "it touches my reputation that men
+should be merry in my house; and we have ill tongues amongst us
+at Cumnor (as where be there not?), who put an evil mark on men
+who pull their hat over their brows, as if they were looking back
+to the days that are gone, instead of enjoying the blithe
+sunshiny weather which God has sent us in the sweet looks of our
+sovereign mistress, Queen Elizabeth, whom Heaven long bless and
+preserve!"
+
+"Why, mine host," answered the stranger, "there is no treason,
+sure, in a man's enjoying his own thoughts, under the shadow of
+his own bonnet?  You have lived in the world twice as long as I
+have, and you must know there are thoughts that will haunt us in
+spite of ourselves, and to which it is in vain to say, Begone,
+and let me be merry."
+
+"By my sooth," answered Giles Gosling, "if such troublesome
+thoughts haunt your mind, and will not get them gone for plain
+English, we will have one of Father Bacon's pupils from Oxford,
+to conjure them away with logic and with Hebrew--or, what say you
+to laying them in a glorious red sea of claret, my noble guest?
+Come, sir, excuse my freedom.  I am an old host, and must have my
+talk.  This peevish humour of melancholy sits ill upon you; it
+suits not with a sleek boot, a hat of trim block, a fresh cloak,
+and a full purse.  A pize on it!  send it off to those who have
+their legs swathed with a hay-wisp, their heads thatched with a
+felt bonnet, their jerkin as thin as a cobweb, and their pouch
+without ever a cross to keep the fiend Melancholy from dancing in
+it.  Cheer up, sir!  or, by this good liquor, we shall banish
+thee from the joys of blithesome company, into the mists of
+melancholy and the land of little-ease.  Here be a set of good
+fellows willing to be merry; do not scowl on them like the devil
+looking over Lincoln."
+
+"You say well, my worthy host," said the guest, with a melancholy
+smile, which, melancholy as it was, gave a very pleasant:
+expression to his countenance--"you say well, my jovial friend;
+and they that are moody like myself should not disturb the mirth
+of those who are happy.  I will drink a round with your guests
+with all my heart, rather than be termed a mar-feast."
+
+So saying, he arose and joined the company, who, encouraged by
+the precept and example of Michael Lambourne, and consisting
+chiefly of persons much disposed to profit by the opportunity of
+a merry meal at the expense of their landlord, had already made
+some inroads upon the limits of temperance, as was evident from
+the tone in which Michael inquired after his old acquaintances in
+the town, and the bursts of laughter with which each answer was
+received.  Giles Gosling himself was somewhat scandalized at the
+obstreperous nature of their mirth, especially as he
+involuntarily felt some respect for his unknown guest.  He
+paused, therefore, at some distance from the table occupied by
+these noisy revellers, and began to make a sort of apology for
+their license.
+
+"You would think," he said, "to hear these fellows talk, that
+there was not one of them who had not been bred to live by Stand
+and Deliver; and yet tomorrow you will find them a set of as
+painstaking mechanics, and so forth, as ever cut an inch short of
+measure, or paid a letter of change in light crowns over a
+counter.  The mercer there wears his hat awry, over a shaggy head
+of hair, that looks like a curly water-dog's back, goes unbraced,
+wears his cloak on one side, and affects a ruffianly vapouring
+humour:  when in his shop at Abingdon, he is, from his flat cap
+to his glistening shoes, as precise in his apparel as if he was
+named for mayor.  He talks of breaking parks, and taking the
+highway, in such fashion that you would think he haunted every
+night betwixt Hounslow and London; when in fact he may be found
+sound asleep on his feather-bed, with a candle placed beside him
+on one side, and a Bible on the other, to fright away the
+goblins."
+
+"And your nephew, mine host, this same Michael Lambourne, who is
+lord of the feast--is he, too, such a would-be ruffler as the
+rest of them?"
+
+"Why, there you push me hard," said the host; "my nephew is my
+nephew, and though he was a desperate Dick of yore, yet Mike may
+have mended like other folks, you wot.  And I would not have you
+think all I said of him, even now, was strict gospel; I knew the
+wag all the while, and wished to pluck his plumes from him.  And
+now, sir, by what name shall I present my worshipful guest to
+these gallants?"
+
+"Marry, mine host," replied the stranger, "you may call me
+Tressilian."
+
+"Tressilian?"  answered mine host of the Bear.  "A worthy name,
+and, as I think, of Cornish lineage; for what says the south
+proverb--
+
+  'By Pol, Tre, and Pen,
+  You may know the Cornish men.'
+
+Shall I say the worthy Master Tressilian of Cornwall?"
+
+"Say no more than I have given you warrant for, mine host, and so
+shall you be sure you speak no more than is true.  A man may have
+one of those honourable prefixes to his name, yet be born far
+from Saint Michael's Mount."
+
+Mine host pushed his curiosity no further, but presented Master
+Tressilian to his nephew's company, who, after exchange of
+salutations, and drinking to the health of their new companion,
+pursued the conversation in which he found them engaged,
+seasoning it with many an intervening pledge.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  Talk you of young Master Lancelot?   MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+After some brief interval, Master Goldthred, at the earnest
+instigation of mine host, and the joyous concurrence of his
+guest, indulged the company with, the following morsel of
+melody:-
+
+    "Of all the birds on bush or tree,
+     Commend me to the owl,
+    Since he may best ensample be
+     To those the cup that trowl.
+  For when the sun hath left the west,
+  He chooses the tree that he loves the best,
+  And he whoops out his song, and he laughs at his jest;
+  Then, though hours be late and weather foul,
+  We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl.
+
+    "The lark is but a bumpkin fowl,
+     He sleeps in his nest till morn;
+    But my blessing upon the jolly owl,
+     That all night blows his horn.
+  Then up with your cup till you stagger in speech,
+  And match me this catch till you swagger and screech,
+  And drink till you wink, my merry men each;
+  For, though hours be late and weather be foul,
+  We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl."
+
+"There is savour in this, my hearts," said Michael, when the
+mercer had finished his song, "and some goodness seems left among
+you yet; but what a bead-roll you have read me of old comrades,
+and to every man's name tacked some ill-omened motto!  And so
+Swashing Will of Wallingford hath bid us good-night?"
+
+"He died the death of a fat buck," said one of the party, "being
+shot with a crossbow bolt, by old Thatcham, the Duke's stout
+park-keeper at Donnington Castle."
+
+"Ay, ay, he always loved venison well," replied Michael, "and a
+cup of claret to boot--and so here's one to his memory.  Do me
+right, my masters."
+
+When the memory of this departed worthy had been duly honoured,
+Lambourne proceeded to inquire after Prance of Padworth.
+
+"Pranced off--made immortal ten years since," said the mercer;
+"marry, sir, Oxford Castle and Goodman Thong, and a tenpenny-
+worth of cord, best know how."
+
+"What, so they hung poor Prance high and dry?  so much for loving
+to walk by moonlight.  A cup to his memory, my masters-all merry
+fellows like moonlight.  What has become of Hal with the Plume--
+he who lived near Yattenden, and wore the long feather?--I
+forget his name."
+
+"What, Hal Hempseed?"  replied the mercer.  "Why, you may
+remember he was a sort of a gentleman, and would meddle in state
+matters, and so he got into the mire about the Duke of Norfolk's
+affair these two or three years since, fled the country with a
+pursuivant's warrant at his heels, and has never since been heard
+of."
+
+"Nay, after these baulks," said Michael Lambourne, "I need hardly
+inquire after Tony Foster; for when ropes, and crossbow shafts,
+and pursuivant's warrants, and such-like gear, were so rife, Tony
+could hardly 'scape them."
+
+"Which Tony Foster mean you?"  said the innkeeper.
+
+"Why, him they called Tony Fire-the-Fagot, because he brought a
+light to kindle the pile round Latimer and Ridley, when the wind
+blew out Jack Thong's torch, and no man else would give him light
+for love or money."
+
+"Tony Foster lives and thrives," said the host.  "But, kinsman, I
+would not have you call him Tony Fire-the-Fagot, if you would
+not brook the stab."
+
+"How!  is he grown ashamed on't?"  said Lambourne, "Why, he was
+wont to boast of it, and say he liked as well to see a roasted
+heretic as a roasted ox."
+
+"Ay, but, kinsman, that was in Mary's time," replied the
+landlord, "when Tony's father was reeve here to the Abbot of
+Abingdon.  But since that, Tony married a pure precisian, and is
+as good a Protestant, I warrant you, as the best."
+
+"And looks grave, and holds his head high, and scorns his old
+companions," said the mercer.
+
+"Then he hath prospered, I warrant him," said Lambourne; "for
+ever when a man hath got nobles of his own, he keeps out of the
+way of those whose exchequers lie in other men's purchase."
+
+"Prospered, quotha!"  said the mercer; "why, you remember Cumnor
+Place, the old mansion-house beside the churchyard?"
+
+"By the same token, I robbed the orchard three times-- what of
+that?  It was the old abbot's residence when there was plague or
+sickness at Abingdon."
+
+"Ay," said the host, "but that has been long over; and Anthony
+Foster hath a right in it, and lives there by some grant from a
+great courtier, who had the church-lands from the crown.  And
+there he dwells, and has as little to do with any poor wight in
+Cumnor, as if he were himself a belted knight."
+
+"Nay," said the mercer, "it is not altogether pride in Tony
+neither; there is a fair lady in the case, and Tony will scarce
+let the light of day look on her."
+
+"How!"  said Tressilian, who now for the first time interfered in
+their conversation; "did ye not say this Foster was married, and
+to a precisian?"
+
+"Married he was, and to as bitter a precisian as ever ate flesh
+in Lent; and a cat-and-dog life she led with Tony, as men said.
+But she is dead, rest be with her!  and Tony hath but a slip of a
+daughter; so it is thought he means to wed this stranger, that
+men keep such a coil about."
+
+"And why so?--I mean, why do they keep a coil about her?"  said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Why, I wot not," answered the host, "except that men say she is
+as beautiful as an angel, and no one knows whence she comes, and
+every one wishes to know why she is kept so closely mewed up.
+For my part, I never saw her--you have, I think, Master
+Goldthred?"
+
+"That I have, old boy," said the mercer.  "Look you, I was riding
+hither from Abingdon.  I passed under the east oriel window of
+the old mansion, where all the old saints and histories and such-
+like are painted.  It was not the common path I took, but one
+through the Park; for the postern door was upon the latch, and I
+thought I might take the privilege of an old comrade to ride
+across through the trees, both for shading, as the day was
+somewhat hot, and for avoiding of dust, because I had on my
+peach-coloured doublet, pinked out with cloth of gold."
+
+"Which garment," said Michael Lambourne, "thou wouldst willingly
+make twinkle in the eyes of a fair dame.  Ah!  villain, thou wilt
+never leave thy old tricks."
+
+"Not so-not so," said the mercer, with a smirking laugh--"not
+altogether so--but curiosity, thou knowest, and a strain of
+compassion withal; for the poor young lady sees nothing from morn
+to even but Tony Foster, with his scowling black brows, his
+bull's head, and his bandy legs."
+
+"And thou wouldst willingly show her a dapper body, in a silken
+jerkin--a limb like a short-legged hen's, in a cordovan boot--
+and a round, simpering, what-d'ye-lack sort of a countenance,
+set off with a velvet bonnet, a Turkey feather, and a gilded
+brooch?  Ah!  jolly mercer, they who have good wares are fond to
+show them!--Come, gentles, let not the cup stand--here's to long
+spurs, short boots, full bonnets, and empty skulls!"
+
+"Nay, now, you are jealous of me, Mike," said Goldthred; "and yet
+my luck was but what might have happened to thee, or any man."
+
+"Marry confound thine impudence," retorted Lambourne; "thou
+wouldst not compare thy pudding face, and sarsenet manners, to a
+gentleman, and a soldier?"
+
+"Nay, my good sir," said Tressilian, "let me beseech you will not
+interrupt the gallant citizen; methinks he tells his tale so
+well, I could hearken to him till midnight."
+
+"It's more of your favour than of my desert," answered Master
+Goldthred; "but since I give you pleasure, worthy Master
+Tressilian, I shall proceed, maugre all the gibes and quips of
+this valiant soldier, who, peradventure, hath had more cuffs than
+crowns in the Low Countries.  And so, sir, as I passed under the
+great painted window, leaving my rein loose on my ambling
+palfrey's neck, partly for mine ease, and partly that I might
+have the more leisure to peer about, I hears me the lattice open;
+and never credit me, sir, if there did not stand there the person
+of as fair a woman as ever crossed mine eyes; and I think I have
+looked on as many pretty wenches, and with as much judgment, as
+other folks."
+
+"May I ask her appearance, sir?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, sir," replied Master Goldthred, "I promise you, she was in
+gentlewoman's attire--a very quaint and pleasing dress, that
+might have served the Queen herself; for she had a forepart with
+body and sleeves, of ginger-coloured satin, which, in my
+judgment, must have cost by the yard some thirty shillings, lined
+with murrey taffeta, and laid down and guarded with two broad
+laces of gold and silver.  And her hat, sir, was truly the best
+fashioned thing that I have seen in these parts, being of tawny
+taffeta, embroidered with scorpions of Venice gold, and having a
+border garnished with gold fringe--I promise you, sir, an
+absolute and all-surpassing device.  Touching her skirts, they
+were in the old pass-devant fashion."
+
+"I did not ask you of her attire, sir," said Tressilian, who had
+shown some impatience during this conversation, "but of her
+complexion--the colour of her hair, her features."
+
+"Touching her complexion," answered the mercer, "I am not so
+special certain, but I marked that her fan had an ivory handle,
+curiously inlaid.  And then again, as to the colour of her hair,
+why, I can warrant, be its hue what it might, that she wore above
+it a net of green silk, parcel twisted with gold."
+
+"A most mercer-like memory!"  said Lambourne.  "The gentleman
+asks him of the lady's beauty, and he talks of her fine clothes!"
+
+"I tell thee," said the mercer, somewhat disconcerted, "I had
+little time to look at her; for just as I was about to give her
+the good time of day, and for that purpose had puckered my
+features with a smile--"
+
+"Like those of a jackanape simpering at a chestnut," said Michael
+Lambourne.
+
+"Up started of a sudden," continued Goldthred, without heeding
+the interruption, "Tony Foster himself, with a cudgel in his
+hand--"
+
+"And broke thy head across, I hope, for thine impertinence," said
+his entertainer.
+
+"That were more easily said than done," answered Goldthred
+indignantly; "no, no--there was no breaking of heads.  It's true,
+he advanced his cudgel, and spoke of laying on, and asked why I
+did not keep the public road, and such like; and I would have
+knocked him over the pate handsomely for his pains, only for the
+lady's presence, who might have swooned, for what I know."
+
+"Now, out upon thee for a faint-spirited slave!"  said Lambourne;
+"what adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when
+he went to thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence,
+and for her deliverance?  But why talk to thee of dragons, who
+would be driven back by a dragon-fly.  There thou hast missed the
+rarest opportunity!"
+
+"Take it thyself, then, bully Mike," answered Goldthred.  "Yonder
+is the enchanted manor, and the dragon, and the lady, all at thy
+service, if thou darest venture on them."
+
+"Why, so I would for a quartern of sack," said the soldier --"or
+stay:  I am foully out of linen--wilt thou bet a piece of
+Hollands against these five angels, that I go not up to the Hall
+to-morrow and force Tony Foster to introduce me to his fair
+guest?"
+
+"I accept your wager," said the mercer; "and I think, though thou
+hadst even the impudence of the devil, I shall gain on thee this
+bout.  Our landlord here shall hold stakes, and I will stake down
+gold till I send the linen."
+
+"I will hold stakes on no such matter," said Gosling.  "Good now,
+my kinsman, drink your wine in quiet, and let such ventures
+alone.  I promise you, Master Foster hath interest enough to lay
+you up in lavender in the Castle at Oxford, or to get your legs
+made acquainted with the town-stocks."
+
+"That would be but renewing an old intimacy, for Mike's shins and
+the town's wooden pinfold have been well known to each other ere
+now," said the mercer; "but he shall not budge from his wager,
+unless he means to pay forfeit."
+
+"Forfeit?"  said Lambourne; "I scorn it.  I value Tony Foster's
+wrath no more than a shelled pea-cod; and I will visit his
+Lindabrides, by Saint George, be he willing or no!"
+
+"I would gladly pay your halves of the risk, sir," said
+Tressilian, "to be permitted to accompany you on the adventure."
+
+"In what would that advantage you, sir?"  answered Lambourne.
+
+"In nothing, sir," said Tressilian, "unless to mark the skill and
+valour with which you conduct yourself.  I am a traveller who
+seeks for strange rencounters and uncommon passages, as the
+knights of yore did after adventures and feats of arms."
+
+"Nay, if it pleasures you to see a trout tickled," answered
+Lambourne, "I care not how many witness my skill.  And so here I
+drink success to my enterprise; and he that will not pledge me on
+his knees is a rascal, and I will cut his legs off by the
+garters!"
+
+The draught which Michael Lambourne took upon this occasion had
+been preceded by so many others, that reason tottered on her
+throne.  He swore one or two incoherent oaths at the mercer, who
+refused, reasonably enough, to pledge him to a sentiment which
+inferred the loss of his own wager.
+
+"Wilt thou chop logic with me," said Lambourne, "thou knave, with
+no more brains than are in a skein of ravelled silk?  By Heaven,
+I will cut thee into fifty yards of galloon lace!"
+
+But as he attempted to draw his sword for this doughty purpose,
+Michael Lambourne was seized upon by the tapster and the
+chamberlain, and conveyed to his own apartment, there to sleep
+himself sober at his leisure.
+
+The party then broke up, and the guests took their leave; much
+more to the contentment of mine host than of some of the company,
+who were unwilling to quit good liquor, when it was to be had for
+free cost, so long as they were able to sit by it.  They were,
+however, compelled to remove; and go at length they did, leaving
+Gosling and Tressilian in the empty apartment.
+
+"By my faith," said the former, "I wonder where our great folks
+find pleasure, when they spend their means in entertainments, and
+in playing mine host without sending in a reckoning.  It is what
+I but rarely practise; and whenever I do, by Saint Julian, it
+grieves me beyond measure.  Each of these empty stoups now, which
+my nephew and his drunken comrades have swilled off, should have
+been a matter of profit to one in my line, and I must set them
+down a dead loss.  I cannot, for my heart, conceive the pleasure
+of noise, and nonsense, and drunken freaks, and drunken quarrels,
+and smut, and blasphemy, and so forth, when a man loses money
+instead of gaining by it.  And yet many a fair estate is lost in
+upholding such a useless course, and that greatly contributes to
+the decay of publicans; for who the devil do you think would pay
+for drink at the Black Bear, when he can have it for nothing at
+my Lord's or the Squire's?"
+
+Tressilian perceived that the wine had made some impression even
+on the seasoned brain of mine host, which was chiefly to be
+inferred from his declaiming against drunkenness.  As he himself
+had carefully avoided the bowl, he would have availed himself of
+the frankness of the moment to extract from Gosling some further
+information upon the subject of Anthony Foster, and the lady whom
+the mercer had seen in his mansion-house; but his inquiries only
+set the host upon a new theme of declamation against the wiles of
+the fair sex, in which he brought, at full length, the whole
+wisdom of Solomon to reinforce his own.  Finally, he turned his
+admonitions, mixed with much objurgation, upon his tapsters and
+drawers, who were employed in removing the relics of the
+entertainment, and restoring order to the apartment; and at
+length, joining example to precept, though with no good success,
+he demolished a salver with half a score of glasses, in
+attempting to show how such service was done at the Three Cranes
+in the Vintry, then the most topping tavern in London.  This last
+accident so far recalled him to his better self, that he retired
+to his bed, slept sound, and awoke a new man in the morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  Nay, I'll hold touch--the game shall be play'd out;
+  It ne'er shall stop for me, this merry wager:
+  That which I say when gamesome, I'll avouch
+  In my most sober mood, ne'er trust me else.   THE HAZARD TABLE.
+
+"And how doth your kinsman, good mine host?"  said Tressilian,
+when Giles Gosling first appeared in the public room, on the
+morning following the revel which we described in the last
+chapter.  "Is he well, and will he abide by his wager?"
+
+"For well, sir, he started two hours since, and has visited I
+know not what purlieus of his old companions; hath but now
+returned, and is at this instant breakfasting on new-laid eggs
+and muscadine.  And for his wager, I caution you as a friend to
+have little to do with that, or indeed with aught that Mike
+proposes.  Wherefore, I counsel you to a warm breakfast upon a
+culiss, which shall restore the tone of the stomach; and let my
+nephew and Master Goldthred swagger about their wager as they
+list."
+
+"It seems to me, mine host," said Tressilian, "that you know not
+well what to say about this kinsman of yours, and that you can
+neither blame nor commend him without some twinge of conscience."
+
+"You have spoken truly, Master Tressilian," replied Giles
+Gosling.  "There is Natural Affection whimpering into one ear,
+'Giles, Giles, why wilt thou take away the good name of thy own
+nephew?  Wilt thou defame thy sister's son, Giles Gosling?  wilt
+thou defoul thine own nest, dishonour thine own blood?' And then,
+again, comes Justice, and says, 'Here is a worthy guest as ever
+came to the bonny Black Bear; one who never challenged a
+reckoning' (as I say to your face you never did, Master
+Tressilian--not that you have had cause), 'one who knows not why
+he came, so far as I can see, or when he is going away; and wilt
+thou, being a publican, having paid scot and lot these thirty
+years in the town of Cumnor, and being at this instant head-
+borough, wilt thou suffer this guest of guests, this man of men,
+this six-hooped pot (as I may say) of a traveller, to fall into
+the meshes of thy nephew, who is known for a swasher and a
+desperate Dick, a carder and a dicer, a professor of the seven
+damnable sciences, if ever man took degrees in them?'  No, by
+Heaven!  I might wink, and let him catch such a small butterfly
+as Goldthred; but thou, my guest, shall be forewarned, forearmed,
+so thou wilt but listen to thy trusty host."
+
+"Why, mine host, thy counsel shall not be cast away," replied
+Tressilian; "however, I must uphold my share in this wager,
+having once passed my word to that effect.  But lend me, I pray,
+some of thy counsel.  This Foster, who or what is he, and why
+makes he such mystery of his female inmate?"
+
+"Troth," replied Gosling, "I can add but little to what you heard
+last night.  He was one of Queen Mary's Papists, and now he is
+one of Queen Elizabeth's Protestants; he was an onhanger of the
+Abbot of Abingdon; and now he lives as master of the Manor-house.
+Above all, he was poor, and is rich.  Folk talk of private
+apartments in his old waste mansion-house, bedizened fine enough
+to serve the Queen, God bless her!  Some men think he found a
+treasure in the orchard, some that he sold himself to the devil
+for treasure, and some say that he cheated the abbot out of the
+church plate, which was hidden in the old Manor-house at the
+Reformation.  Rich, however, he is, and God and his conscience,
+with the devil perhaps besides, only know how he came by it.  He
+has sulky ways too--breaking off intercourse with all that are of
+the place, as if he had either some strange secret to keep, or
+held himself to be made of another clay than we are.  I think it
+likely my kinsman and he will quarrel, if Mike thrust his
+acquaintance on him; and I am sorry that you, my worthy Master
+Tressilian, will still think of going in my nephew's company."
+
+Tressilian again answered him, that he would proceed with great
+caution, and that he should have no fears on his account; in
+short, he bestowed on him all the customary assurances with which
+those who are determined on a rash action are wont to parry the
+advice of their friends.
+
+Meantime, the traveller accepted the landlord's invitation, and
+had just finished the excellent breakfast, which was served to
+him and Gosling by pretty Cicely, the beauty of the bar, when the
+hero of the preceding night, Michael Lambourne, entered the
+apartment.  His toilet had apparently cost him some labour, for
+his clothes, which differed from those he wore on his journey,
+were of the newest fashion, and put on with great attention to
+the display of his person.
+
+"By my faith, uncle," said the gallant, "you made a wet night of
+it, and I feel it followed by a dry morning.  I will pledge you
+willingly in a cup of bastard.--How, my pretty coz Cicely!  why,
+I left you but a child in the cradle, and there thou stand'st in
+thy velvet waistcoat, as tight a girl as England's sun shines on.
+Know thy friends and kindred, Cicely, and come hither, child,
+that I may kiss thee, and give thee my blessing."
+
+"Concern not yourself about Cicely, kinsman," said Giles Gosling,
+"but e'en let her go her way, a' God's name; for although your
+mother were her father's sister, yet that shall not make you and
+her cater-cousins."
+
+"Why, uncle," replied Lambourne, "think'st thou I am an infidel,
+and would harm those of mine own house?"
+
+"It is for no harm that I speak, Mike," answered his uncle, "but
+a simple humour of precaution which I have.  True, thou art as
+well gilded as a snake when he casts his old slough in the spring
+time; but for all that, thou creepest not into my Eden.  I will
+look after mine Eve, Mike, and so content thee.--But how brave
+thou be'st, lad!  To look on thee now, and compare thee with
+Master Tressilian here, in his sad-coloured riding-suit, who
+would not say that thou wert the real gentleman and he the
+tapster's boy?"
+
+"Troth, uncle," replied Lambourne, "no one would say so but one
+of your country-breeding, that knows no better.  I will say, and
+I care not who hears me, there is something about the real gentry
+that few men come up to that are not born and bred to the
+mystery.  I wot not where the trick lies; but although I can
+enter an ordinary with as much audacity, rebuke the waiters and
+drawers as loudly, drink as deep a health, swear as round an
+oath, and fling my gold as freely about as any of the jingling
+spurs and white feathers that are around me, yet, hang me if I
+can ever catch the true grace of it, though I have practised an
+hundred times.  The man of the house sets me lowest at the board,
+and carves to me the last; and the drawer says, 'Coming, friend,'
+without any more reverence or regardful addition.  But, hang it,
+let it pass; care killed a cat.  I have gentry enough to pass the
+trick on Tony Fire-the-Faggot, and that will do for the matter in
+hand."
+
+"You hold your purpose, then, of visiting your old acquaintance?"
+said Tressilian to the adventurer.
+
+"Ay, sir," replied Lambourne; "when stakes are made, the game
+must be played; that is gamester's law, all over the world.  You,
+sir, unless my memory fails me (for I did steep it somewhat too
+deeply in the sack-butt), took some share in my hazard?"
+
+"I propose to accompany you in your adventure," said Tressilian,
+"if you will do me so much grace as to permit me; and I have
+staked my share of the forfeit in the hands of our worthy host."
+
+"That he hath," answered Giles Gosling, "in as fair Harry-nobles
+as ever were melted into sack by a good fellow.  So, luck to your
+enterprise, since you will needs venture on Tony Foster; but, by
+my credit, you had better take another draught before you depart,
+for your welcome at the Hall yonder will be somewhat of the
+driest.  And if you do get into peril, beware of taking to cold
+steel; but send for me, Giles Gosling, the head-borough, and I
+may be able to make something out of Tony yet, for as proud as he
+is."
+
+The nephew dutifully obeyed his uncle's hint, by taking a second
+powerful pull at the tankard, observing that his wit never served
+him so well as when he had washed his temples with a deep
+morning's draught; and they set forth together for the habitation
+of Anthony Foster.
+
+The village of Cumnor is pleasantly built on a hill, and in a
+wooded park closely adjacent was situated the ancient mansion
+occupied at this time by Anthony Foster, of which the ruins may
+be still extant.  The park was then full of large trees, and in
+particular of ancient and mighty oaks, which stretched their
+giant arms over the high wall surrounding the demesne, thus
+giving it a melancholy, secluded, and monastic appearance.  The
+entrance to the park lay through an old-fashioned gateway in the
+outer wall, the door of which was formed of two huge oaken leaves
+thickly studded with nails, like the gate of an old town.
+
+"We shall be finely helped up here," said Michael Lambourne,
+looking at the gateway and gate, "if this fellow's suspicious
+humour should refuse us admission altogether, as it is like he
+may, in case this linsey-wolsey fellow of a mercer's visit to his
+premises has disquieted him.  But, no," he added, pushing the
+huge gate, which gave way, "the door stands invitingly open; and
+here we are within the forbidden ground, without other impediment
+than the passive resistance of a heavy oak door moving on rusty
+hinges."
+
+They stood now in an avenue overshadowed by such old trees as we
+have described, and which had been bordered at one time by high
+hedges of yew and holly.  But these, having been untrimmed for
+many years, had run up into great bushes, or rather dwarf-trees,
+and now encroached, with their dark and melancholy boughs, upon
+the road which they once had screened.  The avenue itself was
+grown up with grass, and, in one or two places, interrupted by
+piles of withered brushwood, which had been lopped from the trees
+cut down in the neighbouring park, and was here stacked for
+drying.  Formal walks and avenues, which, at different points,
+crossed this principal approach, were, in like manner, choked up
+and interrupted by piles of brushwood and billets, and in other
+places by underwood and brambles.  Besides the general effect of
+desolation which is so strongly impressed whenever we behold the
+contrivances of man wasted and obliterated by neglect, and
+witness the marks of social life effaced gradually by the
+influence of vegetation, the size of the trees and the
+outspreading extent of their boughs diffused a gloom over the
+scene, even when the sun was at the highest, and made a
+proportional impression on the mind of those who visited it.
+This was felt even by Michael Lambourne, however alien his habits
+were to receiving any impressions, excepting from things which
+addressed themselves immediately to his passions.
+
+"This wood is as dark as a wolf's mouth," said he to Tressilian,
+as they walked together slowly along the solitary and broken
+approach, and had just come in sight of the monastic front of the
+old mansion, with its shafted windows, brick walls overgrown with
+ivy and creeping shrubs, and twisted stalks of chimneys of heavy
+stone-work.  "And yet," continued Lambourne, "it is fairly done
+on the part of Foster too for since he chooses not visitors, it
+is right to keep his place in a fashion that will invite few to
+trespass upon his privacy.  But had he been the Anthony I once
+knew him, these sturdy oaks had long since become the property of
+some honest woodmonger, and the manor-close here had looked
+lighter at midnight than it now does at noon, while Foster played
+fast and loose with the price, in some cunning corner in the
+purlieus of Whitefriars."
+
+"Was he then such an unthrift?"  asked Tressilian.
+
+"He was," answered Lambourne, "like the rest of us, no saint, and
+no saver.  But what I liked worst of Tony was, that he loved to
+take his pleasure by himself, and grudged, as men say, every drop
+of water that went past his own mill.  I have known him deal with
+such measures of wine when he was alone, as I would not have
+ventured on with aid of the best toper in Berkshire;--that, and
+some sway towards superstition, which he had by temperament,
+rendered him unworthy the company of a good fellow.  And now he
+has earthed himself here, in a den just befitting such a sly fox
+as himself."
+
+"May I ask you, Master Lambourne," said Tressilian, "since your
+old companion's humour jumps so little with your own, wherefore
+you are so desirous to renew acquaintance with him?"
+
+"And may I ask you, in return, Master Tressilian," answered
+Lambourne, "wherefore you have shown yourself so desirous to
+accompany me on this party?"
+
+"I told you my motive," said Tressilian, "when I took share in
+your wager--it was simple curiosity."
+
+"La you there now!"  answered Lambourne.  "See how you civil and
+discreet gentlemen think to use us who live by the free exercise
+of our wits!  Had I answered your question by saying that it was
+simple curiosity which led me to visit my old comrade Anthony
+Foster, I warrant you had set it down for an evasion, and a turn
+of my trade.  But any answer, I suppose, must serve my turn."
+
+"And wherefore should not bare curiosity," said Tressilian, "be a
+sufficient reason for my taking this walk with you?"
+
+"Oh, content yourself, sir," replied Lambourne; "you cannot put
+the change on me so easy as you think, for I have lived among the
+quick-stirring spirits of the age too long to swallow chaff for
+grain.  You are a gentleman of birth and breeding--your bearing
+makes it good; of civil habits and fair reputation--your manners
+declare it, and my uncle avouches it; and yet you associate
+yourself with a sort of scant-of-grace, as men call me, and,
+knowing me to be such, you make yourself my companion in a visit
+to a man whom you are a stranger to--and all out of mere
+curiosity, forsooth!  The excuse, if curiously balanced, would be
+found to want some scruples of just weight, or so."
+
+"If your suspicions were just," said Tressilian, "you have shown
+no confidence in me to invite or deserve mine."
+
+"Oh, if that be all," said Lambourne, "my motives lie above
+water.  While this gold of mine lasts"--taking out his purse,
+chucking it into the air, and catching it as it fell--"I will
+make it buy pleasure; and when it is out I must have more.  Now,
+if this mysterious Lady of the Manor--this fair Lindabrides of
+Tony Fire-the-Fagot--be so admirable a piece as men say, why,
+there is a chance that she may aid me to melt my nobles into
+greats; and, again, if Anthony be so wealthy a chuff as report
+speaks him, he may prove the philosopher's stone to me, and
+convert my greats into fair rose-nobles again."
+
+"A comfortable proposal truly," said Tressilian; "but I see not
+what chance there is of accomplishing it."
+
+"Not to-day, or perchance to-morrow," answered Lambourne; "I
+expect not to catch the old jack till.  I have disposed my
+ground-baits handsomely.  But I know something more of his
+affairs this morning than I did last night, and I will so use my
+knowledge that he shall think it more perfect than it is.  Nay,
+without expecting either pleasure or profit, or both, I had not
+stepped a stride within this manor, I can tell you; for I promise
+you I hold our visit not altogether without risk.--But here we
+are, and we must make the best on't."
+
+While he thus spoke, they had entered a large orchard which
+surrounded the house on two sides, though the trees, abandoned by
+the care of man, were overgrown and messy, and seemed to bear
+little fruit.  Those which had been formerly trained as espaliers
+had now resumed their natural mode of growing, and exhibited
+grotesque forms, partaking of the original training which they
+had received.  The greater part of the ground, which had once
+been parterres and flower-gardens, was suffered in like manner to
+run to waste, excepting a few patches which had been dug up and
+planted with ordinary pot herbs.  Some statues, which had
+ornamented the garden in its days of splendour, were now thrown
+down from their pedestals and broken in pieces; and a large
+summer-house, having a heavy stone front, decorated with carving
+representing the life and actions of Samson, was in the same
+dilapidated condition.
+
+They had just traversed this garden of the sluggard, and were
+within a few steps of the door of the mansion, when Lambourne had
+ceased speaking; a circumstance very agreeable to Tressilian, as
+it saved him the embarrassment of either commenting upon or
+replying to the frank avowal which his companion had just made of
+the sentiments and views which induced him to come hither.
+Lambourne knocked roundly and boldly at the huge door of the
+mansion, observing, at the same time, he had seen a less strong
+one upon a county jail.  It was not until they had knocked more
+than once that an aged, sour-visaged domestic reconnoitred them
+through a small square hole in the door, well secured with bars
+of iron, and demanded what they wanted.
+
+"To speak with Master Foster instantly, on pressing business of
+the state," was the ready reply of Michael Lambourne.
+
+"Methinks you will find difficulty to make that good," said
+Tressilian in a whisper to his companion, while the servant went
+to carry the message to his master.
+
+"Tush," replied the adventurer; "no soldier would go on were he
+always to consider when and how he should come off.  Let us once
+obtain entrance, and all will go well enough."
+
+In a short time the servant returned, and drawing with a careful
+hand both bolt and bar, opened the gate, which admitted them
+through an archway into a square court, surrounded by buildings.
+Opposite to the arch was another door, which the serving-man in
+like manner unlocked, and thus introduced them into a stone-paved
+parlour, where there was but little furniture, and that of the
+rudest and most ancient fashion.  The windows were tall and
+ample, reaching almost to the roof of the room, which was
+composed of black oak; those opening to the quadrangle were
+obscured by the height of the surrounding buildings, and, as they
+were traversed with massive shafts of solid stone-work, and
+thickly painted with religious devices, and scenes taken from
+Scripture history, by no means admitted light in proportion to
+their size, and what did penetrate through them partook of the
+dark and gloomy tinge of the stained glass.
+
+Tressilian and his guide had time enough to observe all these
+particulars, for they waited some space in the apartment ere the
+present master of the mansion at length made his appearance.
+Prepared as he was to see an inauspicious and ill-looking person,
+the ugliness of Anthony Foster considerably exceeded what
+Tressilian had anticipated.  He was of middle stature, built
+strongly, but so clumsily as to border on deformity, and to give
+all his motions the ungainly awkwardness of a left-legged and
+left-handed man.  His hair, in arranging which men at that time,
+as at present, were very nice and curious, instead of being
+carefully cleaned and disposed into short curls, or else set up
+on end, as is represented in old paintings, in a manner
+resembling that used by fine gentlemen of our own day, escaped in
+sable negligence from under a furred bonnet, and hung in elf-
+locks, which seemed strangers to the comb, over his rugged brows,
+and around his very singular and unprepossessing countenance.
+His keen, dark eyes were deep set beneath broad and shaggy
+eyebrows, and as they were usually bent on the ground, seemed as
+if they were themselves ashamed of the expression natural to
+them, and were desirous to conceal it from the observation of
+men.  At times, however, when, more intent on observing others,
+he suddenly raised them, and fixed them keenly on those with whom
+he conversed, they seemed to express both the fiercer passions,
+and the power of mind which could at will suppress or disguise
+the intensity of inward feeling.  The features which corresponded
+with these eyes and this form were irregular, and marked so as to
+be indelibly fixed on the mind of him who had once seen them.
+Upon the whole, as Tressilian could not help acknowledging to
+himself, the Anthony Foster who now stood before them was the
+last person, judging from personal appearance, upon whom one
+would have chosen to intrude an unexpected and undesired visit.
+His attire was a doublet of russet leather, like those worn by
+the better sort of country folk, girt with a buff belt, in which
+was stuck on the right side a long knife, or dudgeon dagger, and
+on the other a cutlass.  He raised his eyes as he entered the
+room, and fixed a keenly penetrating glance upon his two
+visitors; then cast them down as if counting his steps, while he
+advanced slowly into the middle of the room, and said, in a low
+and smothered tone of voice, "Let me pray you, gentlemen, to tell
+me the cause of this visit."
+
+He looked as if he expected the answer from Tressilian, so true
+was Lambourne's observation that the superior air of breeding and
+dignity shone through the disguise of an inferior dress.  But it
+was Michael who replied to him, with the easy familiarity of an
+old friend, and a tone which seemed unembarrassed by any doubt of
+the most cordial reception.
+
+"Ha!  my dear friend and ingle, Tony Foster!"  he exclaimed,
+seizing upon the unwilling hand, and shaking it with such
+emphasis as almost to stagger the sturdy frame of the person whom
+he addressed, "how fares it with you for many a long year?  What!
+have you altogether forgotten your friend, gossip, and
+playfellow, Michael Lambourne?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne!"  said Foster, looking at him a moment; then
+dropping his eyes, and with little ceremony extricating his hand
+from the friendly grasp of the person by whom he was addressed,
+"are you Michael Lambourne?"
+
+"Ay; sure as you are Anthony Foster," replied Lambourne.
+
+"'Tis well," answered his sullen host.  "And what may Michael
+Lambourne expect from his visit hither?"
+
+"VOTO A DIOS," answered Lambourne, "I expected a better welcome
+than I am like to meet, I think."
+
+"Why, thou gallows-bird--thou jail-rat--thou friend of the
+hangman and his customers!"  replied Foster, "hast thou the
+assurance to expect countenance from any one whose neck is beyond
+the compass of a Tyburn tippet?"
+
+"It may be with me as you say," replied Lambourne; "and suppose I
+grant it to be so for argument's sake, I were still good enough
+society for mine ancient friend Anthony Fire-the-Fagot, though he
+be, for the present, by some indescribable title, the master of
+Cumnor Place."
+
+"Hark you, Michael Lambourne," said Foster; "you are a gambler
+now, and live by the counting of chances--compute me the odds
+that I do not, on this instant, throw you out of that window into
+the ditch there."
+
+"Twenty to one that you do not," answered the sturdy visitor.
+
+"And wherefore, I pray you?"  demanded Anthony Foster, setting
+his teeth and compressing his lips, like one who endeavours to
+suppress some violent internal emotion.
+
+"Because," said Lambourne coolly, "you dare not for your life lay
+a finger on me.  I am younger and stronger than you, and have in
+me a double portion of the fighting devil, though not, it may be,
+quite so much of the undermining fiend, that finds an underground
+way to his purpose--who hides halters under folk's pillows, and
+who puts rats-bane into their porridge, as the stage-play says."
+
+Foster looked at him earnestly, then turned away, and paced the
+room twice with the same steady and considerate pace with which
+he had entered it; then suddenly came back, and extended his hand
+to Michael Lambourne, saying, "Be not wroth with me, good Mike; I
+did but try whether thou hadst parted with aught of thine old and
+honourable frankness, which your enviers and backbiters called
+saucy impudence."
+
+"Let them call it what they will," said Michael Lambourne, "it is
+the commodity we must carry through the world with us.--Uds
+daggers!  I tell thee, man, mine own stock of assurance was too
+small to trade upon.  I was fain to take in a ton or two more of
+brass at every port where I touched in the voyage of life; and I
+started overboard what modesty and scruples I had remaining, in
+order to make room for the stowage."
+
+"Nay, nay," replied Foster, "touching scruples and modesty, you
+sailed hence in ballast.  But who is this gallant, honest Mike?
+--is he a Corinthian--a cutter like thyself?"
+
+"I prithee, know Master Tressilian, bully Foster," replied
+Lambourne, presenting his friend in answer to his friend's
+question, "know him and honour him, for he is a gentleman of many
+admirable qualities; and though he traffics not in my line of
+business, at least so far as I know, he has, nevertheless, a just
+respect and admiration for artists of our class.  He will come to
+in time, as seldom fails; but as yet he is only a neophyte, only
+a proselyte, and frequents the company of cocks of the game, as a
+puny fencer does the schools of the masters, to see how a foil is
+handled by the teachers of defence."
+
+"If such be his quality, I will pray your company in another
+chamber, honest Mike, for what I have to say to thee is for thy
+private ear.--Meanwhile, I pray you, sir, to abide us in this
+apartment, and without leaving it; there be those in this house
+who would be alarmed by the sight of a stranger."
+
+Tressilian acquiesced, and the two worthies left the apartment
+together, in which he remained alone to await their return."
+[See Note 1. Foster, Lambourne, and the Black Bear.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Not serve two masters?--Here's a youth will try it--
+  Would fain serve God, yet give the devil his due;
+  Says grace before he doth a deed of villainy,
+  And returns his thanks devoutly when 'tis acted,   OLD PLAY.
+
+The room into which the Master of Cumnor Place conducted his
+worthy visitant was of greater extent than that in which they had
+at first conversed, and had yet more the appearance of
+dilapidation.  Large oaken presses, filled with shelves of the
+same wood, surrounded the room, and had, at one time, served for
+the arrangement of a numerous collection of books, many of which
+yet remained, but torn and defaced, covered with dust, deprived
+of their costly clasps and bindings, and tossed together in heaps
+upon the shelves, as things altogether disregarded, and abandoned
+to the pleasure of every spoiler.  The very presses themselves
+seemed to have incurred the hostility of those enemies of
+learning who had destroyed the volumes with which they had been
+heretofore filled.  They were, in several places, dismantled of
+their shelves, and otherwise broken and damaged, and were,
+moreover, mantled with cobwebs and covered with dust.
+
+"The men who wrote these books," said Lambourne, looking round
+him, "little thought whose keeping they were to fall into."
+
+"Nor what yeoman's service they were to do me," quoth Anthony
+Foster; "the cook hath used them for scouring his pewter, and the
+groom hath had nought else to clean my boots with, this many a
+month past."
+
+"And yet," said Lambourne, "I have been in cities where such
+learned commodities would have been deemed too good for such
+offices."
+
+"Pshaw, pshaw," answered Foster, "'they are Popish trash, every
+one of them--private studies of the mumping old Abbot of
+Abingdon.  The nineteenthly of a pure gospel sermon were worth a
+cartload of such rakings of the kennel of Rome."
+
+"Gad-a-mercy, Master Tony Fire-the-Fagot!"  said Lambourne, by
+way of reply.
+
+Foster scowled darkly at him, as he replied, "Hark ye, friend
+Mike; forget that name, and the passage which it relates to, if
+you would not have our newly-revived comradeship die a sudden and
+a violent death."
+
+"Why," said Michael Lambourne, "you were wont to glory in the
+share you had in the death of the two old heretical bishops."
+
+"That," said his comrade, "was while I was in the gall of
+bitterness and bond of iniquity, and applies not to my walk or my
+ways now that I am called forth into the lists.  Mr. Melchisedek
+Maultext compared my misfortune in that matter to that of the
+Apostle Paul, who kept the clothes of the witnesses who stoned
+Saint Stephen.  He held forth on the matter three Sabbaths past,
+and illustrated the same by the conduct of an honourable person
+present, meaning me."
+
+"I prithee peace, Foster," said Lambourne, "for I know not how it
+is, I have a sort of creeping comes over my skin when I hear the
+devil quote Scripture; and besides, man, how couldst thou have
+the heart to quit that convenient old religion, which you could
+slip off or on as easily as your glove?  Do I not remember how
+you were wont to carry your conscience to confession, as duly as
+the month came round?  and when thou hadst it scoured, and
+burnished, and whitewashed by the priest, thou wert ever ready
+for the worst villainy which could be devised, like a child who
+is always readiest to rush into the mire when he has got his
+Sunday's clean jerkin on."
+
+"Trouble not thyself about my conscience," said Foster; "it is a
+thing thou canst not understand, having never had one of thine
+own.  But let us rather to the point, and say to me, in one word,
+what is thy business with me, and what hopes have drawn thee
+hither?"
+
+"The hope of bettering myself, to be sure," answered Lambourne,
+"as the old woman said when she leapt over the bridge at
+Kingston.  Look you, this purse has all that is left of as round
+a sum as a man would wish to carry in his slop-pouch.  You are
+here well established, it would seem, and, as I think, well
+befriended, for men talk of thy being under some special
+protection--nay, stare not like a pig that is stuck, mon; thou
+canst not dance in a net and they not see thee.  Now I know such
+protection is not purchased for nought; you must have services to
+render for it, and in these I propose to help thee."
+
+"But how if I lack no assistance from thee, Mike?  I think thy
+modesty might suppose that were a case possible."
+
+"That is to say," retorted Lambourne, "that you would engross the
+whole work, rather than divide the reward.  But be not over-
+greedy, Anthony--covetousness bursts the sack and spills the
+grain.  Look you, when the huntsman goes to kill a stag, he takes
+with him more dogs than one.  He has the stanch lyme-hound to
+track the wounded buck over hill and dale, but he hath also the
+fleet gaze-hound to kill him at view.  Thou art the lyme-hound, I
+am the gaze-hound; and thy patron will need the aid of both, and
+can well afford to requite it.  Thou hast deep sagacity--an
+unrelenting purpose--a steady, long-breathed malignity of nature,
+that surpasses mine.  But then, I am the bolder, the quicker, the
+more ready, both at action and expedient.  Separate, our
+properties are not so perfect; but unite them, and we drive the
+world before us.  How sayest thou--shall we hunt in couples?"
+
+"It is a currish proposal--thus to thrust thyself upon my private
+matters," replied Foster; "but thou wert ever an ill-nurtured
+whelp."
+
+"You shall have no cause to say so, unless you spurn my
+courtesy," said Michael Lambourne; "but if so, keep thee well
+from me, Sir Knight, as the romance has it.  I will either share
+your counsels or traverse them; for I have come here to be busy,
+either with thee or against thee."
+
+"Well," said Anthony Foster, "since thou dost leave me so fair a
+choice, I will rather be thy friend than thine enemy.  Thou art
+right; I CAN prefer thee to the service of a patron who has
+enough of means to make us both, and an hundred more.  And, to
+say truth, thou art well qualified for his service.  Boldness and
+dexterity he demands--the justice-books bear witness in thy
+favour; no starting at scruples in his service why, who ever
+suspected thee of a conscience?  an assurance he must have who
+would follow a courtier--and thy brow is as impenetrable as a
+Milan visor.  There is but one thing I would fain see amended in
+thee."
+
+"And what is that, my most precious friend Anthony?"  replied
+Lambourne; "for I swear by the pillow of the Seven Sleepers I
+will not be slothful in amending it."
+
+"Why, you gave a sample of it even now," said Foster.  "Your
+speech twangs too much of the old stamp, and you garnish it ever
+and anon with singular oaths, that savour of Papistrie.  Besides,
+your exterior man is altogether too deboshed and irregular to
+become one of his lordship's followers, since he has a reputation
+to keep up in the eye of the world.  You must somewhat reform
+your dress, upon a more grave and composed fashion; wear your
+cloak on both shoulders, and your falling band unrumpled and well
+starched.  You must enlarge the brim of your beaver, and diminish
+the superfluity of your trunk-hose; go to church, or, which will
+be better, to meeting, at least once a month; protest only upon
+your faith and conscience; lay aside your swashing look, and
+never touch the hilt of your sword but when you would draw the
+carnal weapon in good earnest."
+
+"By this light, Anthony, thou art mad," answered Lambourne, "and
+hast described rather the gentleman-usher to a puritan's wife,
+than the follower of an ambitious courtier!  Yes, such a thing as
+thou wouldst make of me should wear a book at his girdle instead
+of a poniard, and might just be suspected of manhood enough to
+squire a proud dame-citizen to the lecture at Saint Antonlin's,
+and quarrel in her cause with any flat-capped threadmaker that
+would take the wall of her.  He must ruffle it in another sort
+that would walk to court in a nobleman's train."
+
+"Oh, content you, sir," replied Foster, "there is a change since
+you knew the English world; and there are those who can hold
+their way through the boldest courses, and the most secret, and
+yet never a swaggering word, or an oath, or a profane word in
+their conversation."
+
+"That is to say," replied Lambourne, "they are in a trading
+copartnery, to do the devil's business without mentioning his
+name in the firm?  Well, I will do my best to counterfeit, rather
+than lose ground in this new world, since thou sayest it is grown
+so precise.  But, Anthony, what is the name of this nobleman, in
+whose service I am to turn hypocrite?"
+
+"Aha!  Master Michael, are you there with your bears?"  said
+Foster, with a grim smile; "and is this the knowledge you pretend
+of my concernments?  How know you now there is such a person IN
+RERUM NATURA, and that I have not been putting a jape upon you
+all this time?"
+
+"Thou put a jape on me, thou sodden-brained gull?"  answered
+Lambourne, nothing daunted.  "Why, dark and muddy as thou
+think'st thyself, I would engage in a day's space to sec as clear
+through thee and thy concernments, as thou callest them, as
+through the filthy horn of an old stable lantern."
+
+At this moment their conversation was interrupted by a scream
+from the next apartment.
+
+"By the holy Cross of Abingdon," exclaimed Anthony Foster,
+forgetting his Protestantism in his alarm, "I am a ruined man!"
+
+So saying, he rushed into the apartment whence the scream issued,
+followed by Michael Lambourne.  But to account for the sounds
+which interrupted their conversation, it is necessary to recede a
+little way in our narrative.
+
+It has been already observed, that when Lambourne accompanied
+Foster into the library, they left Tressilian alone in the
+ancient parlour.  His dark eye followed them forth of the
+apartment with a glance of contempt, a part of which his mind
+instantly transferred to himself, for having stooped to be even
+for a moment their familiar companion.  "These are the
+associates, Amy"--it was thus he communed with himself--"to which
+thy cruel levity--thine unthinking and most unmerited falsehood,
+has condemned him of whom his friends once hoped far other
+things, and who now scorns himself, as he will be scorned by
+others, for the baseness he stoops to for the love of thee!  But
+I will not leave the pursuit of thee, once the object of my
+purest and most devoted affection, though to me thou canst
+henceforth be nothing but a thing to weep over.  I will save thee
+from thy betrayer, and from thyself; I will restore thee to thy
+parent--to thy God.  I cannot bid the bright star again sparkle
+in the sphere it has shot from, but--"
+
+A slight noise in the apartment interrupted his reverie.  He
+looked round, and in the beautiful and richly-attired female who
+entered at that instant by a side-door he recognized the object
+of his search.  The first impulse arising from this discovery
+urged him to conceal his face with the collar of his cloak, until
+he should find a favourable moment of making himself known.  But
+his purpose was disconcerted by the young lady (she was not above
+eighteen years old), who ran joyfully towards him, and, pulling
+him by the cloak, said playfully, "Nay, my sweet friend, after I
+have waited for you so long, you come not to my bower to play the
+masquer.  You are arraigned of treason to true love and fond
+affection, and you must stand up at the bar and answer it with
+face uncovered--how say you, guilty or not?"
+
+"Alas, Amy!"  said Tressilian, in a low and melancholy tone, as
+he suffered her to draw the mantle from his face.  The sound of
+his voice, and still more the unexpected sight of his face,
+changed in an instant the lady's playful mood.  She staggered
+back, turned as pale as death, and put her hands before her face.
+Tressilian was himself for a moment much overcome, but seeming
+suddenly to remember the necessity of using an opportunity which
+might not again occur, he said in a low tone, "Amy, fear me not."
+
+"Why should I fear you?"  said the lady, withdrawing her hands
+from her beautiful face, which was now covered with crimson,-
+-"Why should I fear you, Master Tressilian?--or wherefore have
+you intruded yourself into my dwelling, uninvited, sir, and
+unwished for?"
+
+"Your dwelling, Amy!"  said Tressilian.  "Alas!  is a prison your
+dwelling?--a prison guarded by one of the most sordid of men, but
+not a greater wretch than his employer!"
+
+"This house is mine," said Amy--"mine while I choose to inhabit
+it.  If it is my pleasure to live in seclusion, who shall gainsay
+me?"
+
+"Your father, maiden," answered Tressilian, "your broken-hearted
+father, who dispatched me in quest of you with that authority
+which he cannot exert in person.  Here is his letter, written
+while he blessed his pain of body which somewhat stunned the
+agony of his mind."
+
+"The pain!  Is my father then ill?"  said the lady.
+
+"So ill," answered Tressilian, "that even your utmost haste may
+not restore him to health; but all shall be instantly prepared
+for your departure, the instant you yourself will give consent."
+
+"Tressilian," answered the lady, "I cannot, I must not, I dare
+not leave this place.  Go back to my father--tell him I will
+obtain leave to see him within twelve hours from hence.  Go back,
+Tressilian--tell him I am well, I am happy--happy could I think
+he was so; tell him not to fear that I will come, and in such a
+manner that all the grief Amy has given him shall be forgotten
+--the poor Amy is now greater than she dare name.  Go, good
+Tressilian--I have injured thee too, but believe me I have power
+to heal the wounds I have caused.  I robbed you of a childish
+heart, which was not worthy of you, and I can repay the loss with
+honours and advancement."
+
+"Do you say this to me, Amy?--do you offer me pageants of idle
+ambition, for the quiet peace you have robbed me of!--But be it
+so I came not to upbraid, but to serve and to free you.  You
+cannot disguise it from me--you are a prisoner.  Otherwise your
+kind heart--for it was once a kind heart--would have been already
+at your father's bedside.--Come, poor, deceived, unhappy maiden!
+--all shall be forgot--all shall be forgiven.  Fear not my
+importunity for what regarded our contract--it was a dream, and I
+have awaked.  But come--your father yet lives--come, and one word
+of affection, one tear of penitence, will efface the memory of
+all that has passed."
+
+"Have I not already said, Tressilian," replied she, "that I will
+surely come to my father, and that without further delay than is
+necessary to discharge other and equally binding duties?--Go,
+carry him the news; I come as sure as there is light in heaven
+--that is, when I obtain permission."
+
+"Permission!--permission to visit your father on his sick-bed,
+perhaps on his death-bed!"  repeated Tressilian, impatiently;
+"and permission from whom?  From the villain, who, under disguise
+of friendship, abused every duty of hospitality, and stole thee
+from thy father's roof!"
+
+"Do him no slander, Tressilian!  He whom thou speakest of wears a
+sword as sharp as thine--sharper, vain man; for the best deeds
+thou hast ever done in peace or war were as unworthy to be named
+with his, as thy obscure rank to match itself with the sphere he
+moves in.--Leave me!  Go, do mine errand to my father; and when
+he next sends to me, let him choose a more welcome messenger."
+
+"Amy," replied Tressilian calmly, "thou canst not move me by thy
+reproaches.  Tell me one thing, that I may bear at least one ray
+of comfort to my aged friend:--this rank of his which thou dost
+boast--dost thou share it with him, Amy?--does he claim a
+husband's right to control thy motions?"
+
+"Stop thy base, unmannered tongue!"  said the lady; "to no
+question that derogates from my honour do I deign an answer."
+
+"You have said enough in refusing to reply," answered Tressilian;
+"and mark me, unhappy as thou art, I am armed with thy father's
+full authority to command thy obedience, and I will save thee
+from the slavery of sin and of sorrow, even despite of thyself,
+Amy."
+
+"Menace no violence here!"  exclaimed the lady, drawing back from
+him, and alarmed at the determination expressed in his look and
+manner; "threaten me not, Tressilian, for I have means to repel
+force."
+
+"But not, I trust, the wish to use them in so evil a cause?"
+said Tressilian.  "With thy will--thine uninfluenced, free, and
+natural will, Amy, thou canst not choose this state of slavery
+and dishonour.  Thou hast been bound by some spell--entrapped by
+some deceit--art now detained by some compelled vow.  But thus I
+break the charm--Amy, in the name of thine excellent, thy broken-
+hearted father, I command thee to follow me!"
+
+As he spoke he advanced and extended his arm, as with the purpose
+of laying hold upon her.  But she shrunk back from his grasp, and
+uttered the scream which, as we before noticed, brought into the
+apartment Lambourne and Foster.
+
+The latter exclaimed, as soon as he entered, "Fire and fagot!
+what have we here?"  Then addressing the lady, in a tone betwixt
+entreaty and command, he added, "Uds precious!  madam, what make
+you here out of bounds?  Retire--retire--there is life and death
+in this matter.--And you, friend, whoever you may be, leave this
+house--out with you, before my dagger's hilt and your costard
+become acquainted.--Draw, Mike, and rid us of the knave!"
+
+"Not I, on my soul," replied Lambourne; "he came hither in my
+company, and he is safe from me by cutter's law, at least till we
+meet again.--But hark ye, my Cornish comrade, you have brought a
+Cornish flaw of wind with you hither, a hurricanoe as they call
+it in the Indies.  Make yourself scarce--depart--vanish--or we'll
+have you summoned before the Mayor of Halgaver, and that before
+Dudman and Ramhead meet."  [Two headlands on the Cornish coast.
+The expressions are proverbial.]
+
+"Away, base groom!"  said Tressilian.--"And you, madam, fare you
+well--what life lingers in your father's bosom will leave him at
+the news I have to tell."
+
+He departed, the lady saying faintly as he left the room,
+"Tressilian, be not rash--say no scandal of me."
+
+"Here is proper gear," said Foster.  "I pray you go to your
+chamber, my lady, and let us consider how this is to be answered
+--nay, tarry not."
+
+"I move not at your command, sir," answered the lady.
+
+"Nay, but you must, fair lady," replied Foster; "excuse my
+freedom, but, by blood and nails, this is no time to strain
+courtesies--you MUST go to your chamber.--Mike, follow that
+meddling coxcomb, and, as you desire to thrive, see him safely
+clear of the premises, while I bring this headstrong lady to
+reason.  Draw thy tool, man, and after him."
+
+"I'll follow him," said Michael Lambourne, "and see him fairly
+out of Flanders; but for hurting a man I have drunk my morning's
+draught withal, 'tis clean against my conscience."  So saying, he
+left the apartment.
+
+Tressilian, meanwhile, with hasty steps, pursued the first path
+which promised to conduct him through the wild and overgrown park
+in which the mansion of Foster was situated.  Haste and distress
+of mind led his steps astray, and instead of taking the avenue
+which led towards the village, he chose another, which, after he
+had pursued it for some time with a hasty and reckless step,
+conducted him to the other side of the demesne, where a postern
+door opened through the wall, and led into the open country.
+
+Tressilian paused an instant.  It was indifferent to him by what
+road he left a spot now so odious to his recollections; but it
+was probable that the postern door was locked, and his retreat by
+that pass rendered impossible.
+
+"I must make the attempt, however," he said to himself; "the only
+means of reclaiming this lost--this miserable--this still most
+lovely and most unhappy girl, must rest in her father's appeal to
+the broken laws of his country.  I must haste to apprise him of
+this heartrending intelligence."
+
+As Tressilian, thus conversing with himself, approached to try
+some means of opening the door, or climbing over it, he perceived
+there was a key put into the lock from the outside.  It turned
+round, the bolt revolved, and a cavalier, who entered, muffled in
+his riding-cloak, and wearing a slouched hat with a drooping
+feather, stood at once within four yards of him who was desirous
+of going out.  They exclaimed at once, in tones of resentment and
+surprise, the one "Varney!"  the other "Tressilian!"
+
+"What make you here?"  was the stern question put by the stranger
+to Tressilian, when the moment of surprise was past--"what make
+you here, where your presence is neither expected nor desired?"
+
+"Nay, Varney," replied Tressilian, "what make you here?  Are you
+come to triumph over the innocence you have destroyed, as the
+vulture or carrion-crow comes to batten on the lamb whose eyes it
+has first plucked out?  Or are you come to encounter the merited
+vengeance of an honest man?  Draw, dog, and defend thyself!"
+
+Tressilian drew his sword as he spoke, but Varney only laid his
+hand on the hilt of his own, as he replied, "Thou art mad,
+Tressilian.  I own appearances are against me; but by every oath
+a priest can make or a man can swear, Mistress Amy Robsart hath
+had no injury from me.  And in truth I were somewhat loath to
+hurt you in this cause--thou knowest I can fight."
+
+"I have heard thee say so, Varney," replied Tressilian; "but now,
+methinks, I would fain have some better evidence than thine own
+word."
+
+"That shall not be lacking, if blade and hilt be but true to me,"
+answered Varney; and drawing his sword with the right hand, he
+threw his cloak around his left, and attacked Tressilian with a
+vigour which, for a moment, seemed to give him the advantage of
+the combat.  But this advantage lasted not long.  Tressilian
+added to a spirit determined on revenge a hand and eye admirably
+well adapted to the use of the rapier; so that Varney, finding
+himself hard pressed in his turn, endeavoured to avail himself of
+his superior strength by closing with his adversary.  For this
+purpose, he hazarded the receiving one of Tressilian's passes in
+his cloak, wrapped as it was around his arm, and ere his
+adversary could, extricate his rapier thus entangled, he closed
+with him, shortening his own sword at the same time, with the
+purpose of dispatching him.  But Tressilian was on his guard, and
+unsheathing his poniard, parried with the blade of that weapon
+the home-thrust which would otherwise have finished the combat,
+and, in the struggle which followed, displayed so much address,
+as might have confirmed, the opinion that he drew his origin from
+Cornwall whose natives are such masters in the art of wrestling,
+as, were the games of antiquity revived, might enable them to
+challenge all Europe to the ring.  Varney, in his ill-advised
+attempt, received a fall so sudden and violent that his sword
+flew several paces from his hand and ere he could recover his
+feet, that of his antagonist was; pointed to his throat.
+
+"Give me the instant means of relieving the victim of thy
+treachery," said Tressilian, "or take the last look of your
+Creator's blessed sun!"
+
+And while Varney, too confused or too sullen to reply, made a
+sudden effort to arise, his adversary drew back his arm, and
+would have executed his threat, but that the blow was arrested by
+the grasp of Michael Lambourne, who, directed by the clashing of
+swords had come up just in time to save the life of Varney,
+
+"Come, come, comrade;" said Lambourne, "here is enough done and
+more than enough; put up your fox and let us be jogging.  The
+Black Bear growls for us."
+
+"Off, abject!"  said Tressilian, striking himself free of
+Lambourne's grasp; "darest thou come betwixt me and mine enemy?"
+
+"Abject!  abject!"  repeated Lambourne; "that shall be answered
+with cold steel whenever a bowl of sack has washed out memory of
+the morning's draught that we had together.  In the meanwhile, do
+you see, shog--tramp--begone--we are two to one."
+
+He spoke truth, for Varney had taken the opportunity to regain
+his weapon, and Tressilian perceived it was madness to press the
+quarrel further against such odds.  He took his purse from his
+side, and taking out two gold nobles, flung them to Lambourne.
+"There, caitiff, is thy morning wage; thou shalt not say thou
+hast been my guide unhired.--Varney, farewell!  we shall meet
+where there are none to come betwixt us."  So saying, he turned
+round and departed through the postern door.
+
+Varney seemed to want the inclination, or perhaps the power (for
+his fall had been a severe one), to follow his retreating enemy.
+But he glared darkly as he disappeared, and then addressed
+Lambourne.  "Art thou a comrade of Foster's, good fellow?"
+
+"Sworn friends, as the haft is to the knife," replied Michael
+Lambourne.
+
+"Here is a broad piece for thee.  Follow yonder fellow, and see
+where he takes earth, and bring me word up to the mansion-house
+here.  Cautious and silent, thou knave, as thou valuest thy
+throat."
+
+"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I can draw on a scent as well
+as a sleuth-hound."
+
+"Begone, then," said Varney, sheathing his rapier; and, turning
+his back on Michael Lambourne, he walked slowly towards the
+house.  Lambourne stopped but an instant to gather the nobles
+which his late companion had flung towards him so
+unceremoniously, and muttered to himself, while he put them upon
+his purse along with the gratuity of Varney, "I spoke to yonder
+gulls of Eldorado.  By Saint Anthony, there is no Eldorado for
+men of our stamp equal to bonny Old England!  It rains nobles, by
+Heaven--they lie on the grass as thick as dewdrops--you may have
+them for gathering.  And if I have not my share of such
+glittering dewdrops, may my sword melt like an icicle!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+         He was a man
+  Versed in the world as pilot in his compass.
+  The needle pointed ever to that interest
+  Which was his loadstar, and he spread his sails
+  With vantage to the gale of others' passion.
+                                 THE DECEIVER, A TRAGEDY.
+
+Antony Foster was still engaged in debate with his fair guest,
+who treated with scorn every entreaty and request that she would
+retire to her own apartment, when a whistle was heard at the
+entrance-door of the mansion.
+
+"We are fairly sped now," said Foster; "yonder is thy lord's
+signal, and what to say about the disorder which has happened in
+this household, by my conscience, I know not.  Some evil fortune
+dogs the heels of that unhanged rogue Lambourne, and he has
+'scaped the gallows against every chance, to come back and be the
+ruin of me!"
+
+"Peace, sir," said the lady, "and undo the gate to your master.
+--My lord!  my dear lord!"  she then exclaimed, hastening to the
+entrance of the apartment; then added, with a voice expressive of
+disappointment, "Pooh!  it is but Richard Varney."
+
+"Ay, madam," said Varney, entering and saluting the lady with a
+respectful obeisance, which she returned with a careless mixture
+of negligence and of displeasure, "it is but Richard Varney; but
+even the first grey cloud should be acceptable, when it lightens
+in the east, because it announces the approach of the blessed
+sun."
+
+"How!  comes my lord hither to-night?"  said the lady, in joyful
+yet startled agitation; and Anthony Foster caught up the word,
+and echoed the question.  Varney replied to the lady, that his
+lord purposed to attend her; and would have proceeded with some
+compliment, when, running to the door of the parlour, she called
+aloud, "Janet--Janet!  come to my tiring-room instantly."  Then
+returning to Varney, she asked if her lord sent any further
+commendations to her.
+
+"This letter, honoured madam," said he, taking from his bosom a
+small parcel wrapped in scarlet silk, "and with it a token to
+the Queen of his Affections."  With eager speed the lady hastened
+to undo the silken string which surrounded the little packet, and
+failing to unloose readily the knot with which it was secured,
+she again called loudly on Janet, "Bring me a knife--scissors--
+aught that may undo this envious knot!"
+
+"May not my poor poniard serve, honoured madam?"  said Varney,
+presenting a small dagger of exquisite workmanship, which hung in
+his Turkey-leather sword-belt.
+
+"No, sir," replied the lady, rejecting the instrument which he
+offered--"steel poniard shall cut no true-love knot of mine."
+
+"It has cut many, however," said Anthony Foster, half aside, and
+looking at Varney.  By this time the knot was disentangled
+without any other help than the neat and nimble fingers of Janet,
+a simply-attired pretty maiden, the daughter of Anthony Foster,
+who came running at the repeated call of her mistress.  A
+necklace of orient pearl, the companion of a perfumed billet, was
+now hastily produced from the packet.  The lady gave the one,
+after a slight glance, to the charge of her attendant, while she
+read, or rather devoured, the contents of the other.
+
+"Surely, lady," said Janet, gazing with admiration at the neck-
+string of pearls, "the daughters of Tyre wore no fairer neck-
+jewels than these.  And then the posy, 'For a neck that is
+fairer'--each pearl is worth a freehold."
+
+"Each word in this dear paper is worth the whole string, my girl.
+But come to my tiring-room, girl; we must be brave, my lord comes
+hither to-night.--He bids me grace you, Master Varney, and to me
+his wish is a law.  I bid you to a collation in my bower this
+afternoon; and you, too, Master Foster.  Give orders that all is
+fitting, and that suitable preparations be made for my lord's
+reception to-night."  With these words she left the apartment.
+
+"She takes state on her already," said Varney, "and distributes
+the favour of her presence, as if she were already the partner of
+his dignity.  Well, it is wise to practise beforehand the part
+which fortune prepares us to play--the young eagle must gaze at
+the sun ere he soars on strong wing to meet it."
+
+"If holding her head aloft," said Foster, "will keep her eyes
+from dazzling, I warrant you the dame will not stoop her crest.
+She will presently soar beyond reach of my whistle, Master
+Varney.  I promise you, she holds me already in slight regard."
+
+"It is thine own fault, thou sullen, uninventive companion,"
+answered Varney, "who knowest no mode of control save downright
+brute force.  Canst thou not make home pleasant to her, with
+music and toys?  Canst thou not make the out-of-doors frightful
+to her, with tales of goblins?  Thou livest here by the
+churchyard, and hast not even wit enough to raise a ghost, to
+scare thy females into good discipline."
+
+"Speak not thus, Master Varney," said Foster; "the living I fear
+not, but I trifle not nor toy with my dead neighbours of the
+churchyard.  I promise you, it requires a good heart to live so
+near it.  Worthy Master Holdforth, the afternoon's lecturer of
+Saint Antonlin's, had a sore fright there the last time he came
+to visit me."
+
+"Hold thy superstitious tongue," answered Varney; "and while thou
+talkest of visiting, answer me, thou paltering knave, how came
+Tressilian to be at the postern door?"
+
+"Tressilian!"  answered Foster, "what know I of Tressilian?  I
+never heard his name."
+
+"Why, villain, it was the very Cornish chough to whom old Sir
+Hugh Robsart destined his pretty Amy; and hither the hot-brained
+fool has come to look after his fair runaway.  There must be some
+order taken with him, for he thinks he hath wrong, and is not the
+mean hind that will sit down with it.  Luckily he knows nought of
+my lord, but thinks he has only me to deal with.  But how, in the
+fiend's name, came he hither?"
+
+"Why, with Mike Lambourne, an you must know," answered Foster.
+
+"And who is Mike Lambourne?"  demanded Varney.  "By Heaven!  thou
+wert best set up a bush over thy door, and invite every stroller
+who passes by to see what thou shouldst keep secret even from the
+sun and air."
+
+"Ay!  ay!  this is a courtlike requital of my service to you,
+Master Richard Varney," replied Foster.  "Didst thou not charge
+me to seek out for thee a fellow who had a good sword and an
+unscrupulous conscience?  and was I not busying myself to find a
+fit man--for, thank Heaven, my acquaintance lies not amongst such
+companions--when, as Heaven would have it, this tall fellow, who
+is in all his dualities the very flashing knave thou didst wish,
+came hither to fix acquaintance upon me in the plenitude of his
+impudence; and I admitted his claim, thinking to do you a
+pleasure.  And now see what thanks I get for disgracing myself by
+converse with him!"
+
+"And did he," said Varney, "being such a fellow as thyself, only
+lacking, I suppose, thy present humour of hypocrisy, which lies
+as thin over thy hard, ruffianly heart as gold lacquer upon rusty
+iron--did he, I say, bring the saintly, sighing Tressilian in his
+train?"
+
+"They came together, by Heaven!"  said Foster; "and Tressilian--
+to speak Heaven's truth--obtained a moment's interview with our
+pretty moppet, while I was talking apart with Lambourne."
+
+"Improvident villain!  we are both undone," said Varney.  "She
+has of late been casting many a backward look to her father's
+halls, whenever her lordly lover leaves her alone.  Should this
+preaching fool whistle her back to her old perch, we were but
+lost men."
+
+"No fear of that, my master," replied Anthony Foster; "she is in
+no mood to stoop to his lure, for she yelled out on seeing him as
+if an adder had stung her."
+
+"That is good.  Canst thou not get from thy daughter an inkling
+of what passed between them, good Foster?"
+
+"I tell you plain, Master Varney," said Foster, "my daughter
+shall not enter our purposes or walk in our paths.  They may suit
+me well enough, who know how to repent of my misdoings; but I
+will not have my child's soul committed to peril either for your
+pleasure or my lord's.  I may walk among snares and pitfalls
+myself, because I have discretion, but I will not trust the poor
+lamb among them."
+
+"Why, thou suspicious fool, I were as averse as thou art that thy
+baby-faced girl should enter into my plans, or walk to hell at
+her father's elbow.  But indirectly thou mightst gain some
+intelligence of her?"
+
+"And so I did, Master Varney," answered Foster; "and she said her
+lady called out upon the sickness of her father."
+
+"Good!"  replied Varney; "that is a hint worth catching, and I
+will work upon it.  But the country must be rid of this
+Tressilian.  I would have cumbered no man about the matter, for I
+hate him like strong poison--his presence is hemlock to me--and
+this day I had been rid of him, but that my foot slipped, when,
+to speak truth, had not thy comrade yonder come to my aid, and
+held his hand, I should have known by this time whether you and I
+have been treading the path to heaven or hell."
+
+"And you can speak thus of such a risk!"  said Foster.  "You keep
+a stout heart, Master Varney.  For me, if I did not hope to live
+many years, and to have time for the great work of repentance, I
+would not go forward with you."
+
+"Oh!  thou shalt live as long as Methuselah," said Varney, "and
+amass as much wealth as Solomon; and thou shalt repent so
+devoutly, that thy repentance shall be more famous than thy
+villainy--and that is a bold word.  But for all this, Tressilian
+must be looked after.  Thy ruffian yonder is gone to dog him.  It
+concerns our fortunes, Anthony."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Foster sullenly, "this it is to be leagued with
+one who knows not even so much of Scripture, as that the labourer
+is worthy of his hire.  I must, as usual, take all the trouble
+and risk."
+
+"Risk!  and what is the mighty risk, I pray you?"  answered
+Varney. "This fellow will come prowling again about your demesne
+or into your house, and if you take him for a house-breaker or a
+park-breaker, is it not most natural you should welcome him with
+cold steel or hot lead?  Even a mastiff will pull down those who
+come near his kennel; and who shall blame him?"
+
+"Ay, I have a mastiff's work and a mastiff's wage among you,"
+said Foster.  "Here have you, Master Varney, secured a good
+freehold estate out of this old superstitious foundation; and I
+have but a poor lease of this mansion under you, voidable at your
+honour's pleasure."
+
+"Ay, and thou wouldst fain convert thy leasehold into a copyhold
+--the thing may chance to happen, Anthony Foster, if thou dost
+good service for it.  But softly, good Anthony--it is not the
+lending a room or two of this old house for keeping my lord's
+pretty paroquet--nay, it is not the shutting thy doors and
+windows to keep her from flying off that may deserve it.
+Remember, the manor and tithes are rated at the clear annual
+value of seventy-nine pounds five shillings and fivepence
+halfpenny, besides the value of the wood.  Come, come, thou must
+be conscionable; great and secret service may deserve both this
+and a better thing.  And now let thy knave come and pluck off my
+boots.  Get us some dinner, and a cup of thy best wine.  I must
+visit this mavis, brave in apparel, unruffled in aspect, and gay
+in temper."
+
+They parted and at the hour of noon, which was then that of
+dinner, they again met at their meal, Varney gaily dressed like a
+courtier of the time, and even Anthony Foster improved in
+appearance, as far as dress could amend an exterior so
+unfavourable.
+
+This alteration did not escape Varney.  Then the meal was
+finished, the cloth removed, and they were left to their private
+discourse--"Thou art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony," said Varney,
+looking at his host; "methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig anon.
+But I crave your pardon, that would secure your ejection from the
+congregation of the zealous botchers, the pure-hearted weavers,
+and the sanctified bakers of Abingdon, who let their ovens cool
+while their brains get heated."
+
+"To answer you in the spirit, Master Varney," said Foster, "were
+--excuse the parable--to fling sacred and precious things before
+swine.  So I will speak to thee in the language of the world,
+which he who is king of the world, hath taught thee, to
+understand, and to profit by in no common measure."
+
+"Say what thou wilt, honest Tony," replied Varney; "for be it
+according to thine absurd faith, or according to thy most
+villainous practice, it cannot choose but be rare matter to
+qualify this cup of Alicant.  Thy conversation is relishing and
+poignant, and beats caviare, dried neat's-tongue, and all other
+provocatives that give savour to good liquor."
+
+"Well, then, tell me," said Anthony Foster, "is not our good lord
+and master's turn better served, and his antechamber more
+suitably filled, with decent, God-fearing men, who will work his
+will and their own profit quietly, and without worldly scandal,
+than that he should be manned, and attended, and followed by such
+open debauchers and ruffianly swordsmen as Tidesly, Killigrew,
+this fellow Lambourne, whom you have put me to seek out for you,
+and other such, who bear the gallows in their face and murder in
+their right hand--who are a terror to peaceable men, and a
+scandal to my lord's service?"
+
+"Oh, content you, good Master Anthony Foster," answered Varney;
+"he that flies at all manner of game must keep all kinds of
+hawks, both short and long-winged.  The course my lord holds is
+no easy one, and he must stand provided at all points with trusty
+retainers to meet each sort of service.  He must have his gay
+courtier, like myself, to ruffle it in the presence-chamber, and
+to lay hand on hilt when any speaks in disparagement of my lord's
+honour--"
+
+"Ay," said Foster, "and to whisper a word for him into a fair
+lady's ear, when he may not approach her himself."
+
+"Then," said Varney, going on without appearing to notice the
+interruption, "he must have his lawyers--deep, subtle pioneers
+--to draw his contracts, his pre-contracts, and his post-
+contracts, and to find the way to make the most of grants of
+church-lands, and commons, and licenses for monopoly.  And he
+must have physicians who can spice a cup or a caudle.  And he
+must have his cabalists, like Dec and Allan, for conjuring up the
+devil.  And he must have ruffling swordsmen, who would fight the
+devil when he is raised and at the wildest.  And above all,
+without prejudice to others, he must have such godly, innocent,
+puritanic souls as thou, honest Anthony, who defy Satan, and do
+his work at the same time."
+
+"You would not say, Master Varney," said Foster, "that our good
+lord and master, whom I hold to be fulfilled in all nobleness,
+would use such base and sinful means to rise, as thy speech
+points at?"
+
+"Tush, man," said Varney, "never look at me with so sad a brow.
+You trap me not--nor am I in your power, as your weak brain may
+imagine, because I name to you freely the engines, the springs,
+the screws, the tackle, and braces, by which great men rise in
+stirring times.  Sayest thou our good lord is fulfilled of all
+nobleness?  Amen, and so be it--he has the more need to have
+those about him who are unscrupulous in his service, and who,
+because they know that his fall will overwhelm and crush them,
+must wager both blood and brain, soul and body, in order to keep
+him aloft; and this I tell thee, because I care not who knows
+it."
+
+"You speak truth, Master Varney," said Anthony Foster.  "He that
+is head of a party is but a boat on a wave, that raises not
+itself, but is moved upward by the billow which it floats upon."
+
+"Thou art metaphorical, honest Anthony," replied Varney; "that
+velvet doublet hath made an oracle of thee.  We will have thee to
+Oxford to take the degrees in the arts.  And, in the meantime,
+hast thou arranged all the matters which were sent from London,
+and put the western chambers into such fashion as may answer my
+lord's humour?"
+
+"They may serve a king on his bridal-day," said Anthony; "and I
+promise you that Dame Amy sits in them yonder as proud and gay as
+if she were the Queen of Sheba."
+
+"'Tis the better, good Anthony," answered Varney; "we must found
+our future fortunes on her good liking."
+
+"We build on sand then," said Anthony Foster; "for supposing that
+she sails away to court in all her lord's dignity and authority,
+how is she to look back upon me, who am her jailor as it were, to
+detain her here against her will, keeping her a caterpillar on an
+old wall, when she would fain be a painted butterfly in a court
+garden?"
+
+"Fear not her displeasure, man," said Varney.  "I will show her
+all thou hast done in this matter was good service, both to my
+lord and her; and when she chips the egg-shell and walks alone,
+she shall own we have hatched her greatness."
+
+"Look to yourself, Master Varney," said Foster, "you may
+misreckon foully in this matter.  She gave you but a frosty
+reception this morning, and, I think, looks on you, as well as
+me, with an evil eye."
+
+"You mistake her, Foster--you mistake her utterly.  To me she is
+bound by all the ties which can secure her to one who has been
+the means of gratifying both her love and ambition.  Who was it
+that took the obscure Amy Robsart, the daughter of an
+impoverished and dotard knight--the destined bride of a
+moonstruck, moping enthusiast, like Edmund Tressilian, from her
+lowly fates, and held out to her in prospect the brightest
+fortune in England, or perchance in Europe?  Why, man, it was I
+--as I have often told thee--that found opportunity for their
+secret meetings.  It was I who watched the wood while he beat for
+the deer.  It was I who, to this day, am blamed by her family as
+the companion of her flight; and were I in their neighbourhood,
+would be fain to wear a shirt of better stuff than Holland linen,
+lest my ribs should be acquainted with Spanish steel.  Who
+carried their letters?--I.  Who amused the old knight and
+Tressilian?--I.  Who planned her escape?--it was I.  It was I, in
+short, Dick Varney, who pulled this pretty little daisy from its
+lowly nook, and placed it in the proudest bonnet in Britain."
+
+"Ay, Master Varney," said Foster; "but it may be she thinks that
+had the matter remained with you, the flower had been stuck so
+slightly into the cap, that the first breath of a changeable
+breeze of passion had blown the poor daisy to the common."
+
+"She should consider," said Varney, smiling, "the true faith I
+owed my lord and master prevented me at first from counselling
+marriage; and yet I did counsel marriage when I saw she would not
+be satisfied without the--the sacrament, or the ceremony--which
+callest thou it, Anthony?"
+
+"Still she has you at feud on another score," said Foster; "and I
+tell it you that you may look to yourself in time.  She would not
+hide her splendour in this dark lantern of an old monastic house,
+but would fain shine a countess amongst countesses."
+
+"Very natural, very right," answered Varney; "but what have I to
+do with that?--she may shine through horn or through crystal at
+my lord's pleasure, I have nought to say against it."
+
+"She deems that you have an oar upon that side of the boat,
+Master Varney," replied Foster, "and that you can pull it or no,
+at your good pleasure.  In a word, she ascribes the secrecy and
+obscurity in which she is kept to your secret counsel to my lord,
+and to my strict agency; and so she loves us both as a sentenced
+man loves his judge and his jailor."
+
+"She must love us better ere she leave this place, Anthony,"
+answered Varney.  "If I have counselled for weighty reasons that
+she remain here for a season, I can also advise her being brought
+forth in the full blow of her dignity.  But I were mad to do so,
+holding so near a place to my lord's person, were she mine enemy.
+Bear this truth in upon her as occasion offers, Anthony, and let
+me alone for extolling you in her ear, and exalting you in her
+opinion--KA ME, KA THEE--it is a proverb all over the world.  The
+lady must know her friends, and be made to judge of the power
+they have of being her enemies; meanwhile, watch her strictly,
+but with all the outward observance that thy rough nature will
+permit.  'Tis an excellent thing that sullen look and bull-dog
+humour of thine; thou shouldst thank God for it, and so should my
+lord, for when there is aught harsh or hard-natured to be done,
+thou dost it as if it flowed from thine own natural doggedness,
+and not from orders, and so my lord escapes the scandal.--But,
+hark--some one knocks at the gate.  Look out at the window--let
+no one enter--this were an ill night to be interrupted."
+
+"It is he whom we spoke of before dinner," said Foster, as he
+looked through the casement; "it is Michael Lambourne."
+
+"Oh, admit him, by all means," said the courtier; "he comes to
+give some account of his guest; it imports us much to know the
+movements of Edmund Tressilian.--Admit him, I say, but bring him
+not hither; I will come to you presently in the Abbot's library."
+
+Foster left the room, and the courtier, who remained behind,
+paced the parlour more than once in deep thought, his arms folded
+on his bosom, until at length he gave vent to his meditations in
+broken words, which we have somewhat enlarged and connected, that
+his soliloquy may be intelligible to the reader.
+
+"'Tis true," he said, suddenly stopping, and resting his right
+hand on the table at which they had been sitting, "this base
+churl hath fathomed the very depth of my fear, and I have been
+unable to disguise it from him.  She loves me not--I would it
+were as true that I loved not her!  Idiot that I was, to move her
+in my own behalf, when wisdom bade me be a true broker to my
+lord!  And this fatal error has placed me more at her discretion
+than a wise man would willingly be at that of the best piece of
+painted Eve's flesh of them all.  Since the hour that my policy
+made so perilous a slip, I cannot look at her without fear, and
+hate, and fondness, so strangely mingled, that I know not
+whether, were it at my choice, I would rather possess or ruin
+her.  But she must not leave this retreat until I am assured on
+what terms we are to stand.  My lord's interest--and so far it is
+mine own, for if he sinks I fall in his train--demands
+concealment of this obscure marriage; and besides, I will not
+lend her my arm to climb to her chair of state, that she may set
+her foot on my neck when she is fairly seated.  I must work an
+interest in her, either through love or through fear; and who
+knows but I may yet reap the sweetest and best revenge for her
+former scorn?--that were indeed a masterpiece of courtlike art!
+Let me but once be her counsel-keeper--let her confide to me a
+secret, did it but concern the robbery of a linnet's nest, and,
+fair Countess, thou art mine own!"  He again paced the room in
+silence, stopped, filled and drank a cup of wine, as if to
+compose the agitation of his mind, and muttering, "Now for a
+close heart and an open and unruffled brow," he left the
+apartment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  The dews of summer night did fall,
+    The moon, sweet regent of the sky,
+  Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall,
+    And many an oak that grew thereby.     MICKLE.
+
+[This verse is the commencement of the ballad already quoted, as
+what suggested the novel.]
+
+Four apartments; which, occupied the western side of the old
+quadrangle at Cumnor Place, had been fitted up with extraordinary
+splendour.  This had been the work of several days prior to that
+on which our story opened.  Workmen sent from London, and not
+permitted to leave the premises until the work was finished, had
+converted the apartments in that side of the building from the
+dilapidated appearance of a dissolved monastic house into the
+semblance of a royal palace.  A mystery was observed in all these
+arrangements:  the workmen came thither and returned by night,
+and all measures were taken to prevent the prying curiosity of
+the villagers from observing or speculating upon the changes
+which were taking place in the mansion of their once indigent but
+now wealthy neighbour, Anthony Foster.  Accordingly, the secrecy
+desired was so far preserved, that nothing got abroad but vague
+and uncertain reports, which were received and repeated, but
+without much credit being attached to them.
+
+On the evening of which we treat, the new and highly-decorated
+suite of rooms were, for the first time, illuminated, and that
+with a brilliancy which might have been visible half-a-dozen
+miles off, had not oaken shutters, carefully secured with bolt
+and padlock, and mantled with long curtains of silk and of
+velvet, deeply fringed with gold, prevented the slightest gleam
+of radiance front being seen without.
+
+The principal apartments, as we have seen, were four in number,
+each opening into the other.  Access was given to them by a large
+scale staircase, as they were then called, of unusual length and
+height, which had its landing-place at the door of an
+antechamber, shaped somewhat like a gallery.  This apartment the
+abbot had used as an occasional council-room, but it was now
+beautifully wainscoted with dark, foreign wood of a brown colour,
+and bearing a high polish, said to have been brought from the
+Western Indies, and to have been wrought in London with infinite
+difficulty and much damage to the tools of the workmen.  The dark
+colour of this finishing was relieved by the number of lights in
+silver sconces which hung against the walls, and by six large and
+richly-framed pictures, by the first masters of the age.  A massy
+oaken table, placed at the lower end of the apartment, served to
+accommodate such as chose to play at the then fashionable game of
+shovel-board; and there was at the other end an elevated gallery
+for the musicians or minstrels, who might be summoned to increase
+the festivity of the evening.
+
+From this antechamber opened a banqueting-room of moderate size,
+but brilliant enough to dazzle the eyes of the spectator with the
+richness of its furniture.  The walls, lately so bare and
+ghastly, were now clothed with hangings of sky-blue velvet and
+silver; the chairs were of ebony, richly carved, with cushions
+corresponding to the hangings; and the place of the silver
+sconces which enlightened the ante-chamber was supplied by a huge
+chandelier of the same precious metal.  The floor was covered
+with a Spanish foot-cloth, or carpet, on which flowers and fruits
+were represented in such glowing and natural colours, that you
+hesitated to place the foot on such exquisite workmanship.  The
+table, of old English oak, stood ready covered with the finest
+linen; and a large portable court-cupboard was placed with the
+leaves of its embossed folding-doors displayed, showing the
+shelves within, decorated with a full display of plate and
+porcelain.  In the midst of the table stood a salt-cellar of
+Italian workmanship--a beautiful and splendid piece of plate
+about two feet high, moulded into a representation of the giant
+Briareus, whose hundred hands of silver presented to the guests
+various sorts of spices, or condiments, to season their food
+withal.
+
+The third apartment was called the withdrawing-room.  It was hung
+with the finest tapestry, representing the fall of Phaeton; for
+the looms of Flanders were now much occupied on classical
+subjects.  The principal seat of this apartment was a chair of
+state, raised a step or two from the floor, and large enough to
+contain two persons.  It was surmounted by a canopy, which, as
+well as the cushions, side-curtains, and the very footcloth, was
+composed of crimson velvet, embroidered with seed-pearl.  On the
+top of the canopy were two coronets, resembling those of an earl
+and countess.  Stools covered with velvet, and some cushions
+disposed in the Moorish fashion, and ornamented with Arabesque
+needle-work, supplied the place of chairs in this apartment,
+which contained musical instruments, embroidery frames, and other
+articles for ladies' pastime.  Besides lesser lights, the
+withdrawing-room was illuminated by four tall torches of virgin
+wax, each of which was placed in the grasp of a statue,
+representing an armed Moor, who held in his left arm a round
+buckler of silver, highly polished, interposed betwixt his breast
+and the light, which was thus brilliantly reflected as from a
+crystal mirror.
+
+The sleeping chamber belonging to this splendid suite of
+apartments was decorated in a taste less showy, but not less
+rich, than had been displayed in the others.  Two silver lamps,
+fed with perfumed oil, diffused at once a delicious odour and a
+trembling twilight-seeming shimmer through the quiet apartment.
+It was carpeted so thick that the heaviest step could not have
+been heard, and the bed, richly heaped with down, was spread with
+an ample coverlet of silk and gold; from under which peeped forth
+cambric sheets and blankets as white as the lambs which yielded
+the fleece that made them.  The curtains were of blue velvet,
+lined with crimson silk, deeply festooned with gold, and
+embroidered with the loves of Cupid and Psyche.  On the toilet
+was a beautiful Venetian mirror, in a frame of silver filigree,
+and beside it stood a gold posset-dish to contain the night-
+draught.  A pair of pistols and a dagger, mounted with gold, were
+displayed near the head of the bed, being the arms for the night,
+which were presented to honoured guests, rather, it may be
+supposed, in the way of ceremony than from any apprehension of
+danger.  We must not omit to mention, what was more to the credit
+of the manners of the time, that in a small recess, illuminated
+by a taper, were disposed two hassocks of velvet and gold,
+corresponding with the bed furniture, before a desk of carved
+ebony.  This recess had formerly been the private oratory of the
+abbot; but the crucifix was removed, and instead there were
+placed on the desk, two Books of Common Prayer, richly bound, and
+embossed with silver.  With this enviable sleeping apartment,
+which was so far removed from every sound save that of the wind
+sighing among the oaks of the park, that Morpheus might have
+coveted it for his own proper repose, corresponded two wardrobes,
+or dressing-rooms as they are now termed, suitably furnished, and
+in a style of the same magnificence which we have already
+described.  It ought to be added, that a part of the building in
+the adjoining wing was occupied by the kitchen and its offices,
+and served to accommodate the personal attendants of the great
+and wealthy nobleman, for whose use these magnificent
+preparations had been made.
+
+The divinity for whose sake this temple had been decorated was
+well worthy the cost and pains which had been bestowed.  She was
+seated in the withdrawing-room which we have described, surveying
+with the pleased eye of natural and innocent vanity the splendour
+which had been so suddenly created, as it were, in her honour.
+For, as her own residence at Cumnor Place formed the cause of the
+mystery observed in all the preparations for opening these
+apartments, it was sedulously arranged that, until she took
+possession of them, she should have no means of knowing what was
+going forward in that part of the ancient building, or of
+exposing herself to be seen by the workmen engaged in the
+decorations.  She had been, therefore, introduced on that evening
+to a part of the mansion which she had never yet seen, so
+different from all the rest that it appeared, in comparison, like
+an enchanted palace.  And when she first examined and occupied
+these splendid rooms, it was with the wild and unrestrained joy
+of a rustic beauty who finds herself suddenly invested with a
+splendour which her most extravagant wishes had never imagined,
+and at the same time with the keen feeling of an affectionate
+heart, which knows that all the enchantment that surrounds her is
+the work of the great magician Love.
+
+The Countess Amy, therefore--for to that rank she was exalted by
+her private but solemn union with England's proudest Earl--had
+for a time flitted hastily from room to room, admiring each new
+proof of her lover and her bridegroom's taste, and feeling that
+admiration enhanced as she recollected that all she gazed upon
+was one continued proof of his ardent and devoted affection.
+"How beautiful are these hangings!  How natural these paintings,
+which seem to contend with life!  How richly wrought is that
+plate, which looks as if all the galleons of Spain had been
+intercepted on the broad seas to furnish it forth!  And oh,
+Janet!"  she exclaimed repeatedly to the daughter of Anthony
+Foster, the close attendant, who, with equal curiosity, but
+somewhat less ecstatic joy, followed on her mistress's footsteps
+--"oh, Janet!  how much more delightful to think that all these
+fair things have been assembled by his love, for the love of me!
+and that this evening--this very evening, which grows darker
+every instant, I shall thank him more for the love that has
+created such an unimaginable paradise, than for all the wonders
+it contains."
+
+"The Lord is to be thanked first," said the pretty Puritan, "who
+gave thee, lady, the kind and courteous husband whose love has
+done so much for thee.  I, too, have done my poor share.  But if
+you thus run wildly from room to room, the toil of my crisping
+and my curling pins will vanish like the frost-work on the window
+when the sun is high."
+
+"Thou sayest true, Janet," said the young and beautiful Countess,
+stopping suddenly from her tripping race of enraptured delight,
+and looking at herself from head to foot in a large mirror, such
+as she had never before seen, and which, indeed, had few to match
+it even in the Queen's palace--"thou sayest true, Janet!"  she
+answered, as she saw, with pardonable self-applause, the noble
+mirror reflect such charms as were seldom presented to its fair
+and polished surface; "I have more of the milk-maid than the
+countess, with these cheeks flushed with haste, and all these
+brown curls, which you laboured to bring to order, straying as
+wild as the tendrils of an unpruned vine.  My falling ruff is
+chafed too, and shows the neck and bosom more than is modest and
+seemly.  Come, Janet; we will practise state--we will go to the
+withdrawing-room, my good girl, and thou shalt put these rebel
+locks in order, and imprison within lace and cambric the bosom
+that beats too high."
+
+They went to the withdrawing apartment accordingly, where the
+Countess playfully stretched herself upon the pile of Moorish
+cushions, half sitting, half reclining, half wrapt in her own
+thoughts, half listening to the prattle of her attendant.
+
+While she was in this attitude, and with a corresponding
+expression betwixt listlessness and expectation on her fine and
+intelligent features, you might have searched sea and land
+without finding anything half so expressive or half so lovely.
+The wreath of brilliants which mixed with her dark-brown hair did
+not match in lustre the hazel eye which a light-brown eyebrow,
+pencilled with exquisite delicacy, and long eyelashes of the same
+colour, relieved and shaded.  The exercise she had just taken,
+her excited expectation and gratified vanity, spread a glow over
+her fine features, which had been sometimes censured (as beauty
+as well as art has her minute critics) for being rather too pale.
+The milk-white pearls of the necklace which she wore, the same
+which she had just received as a true-love token from her
+husband, were excelled in purity by her teeth, and by the colour
+of her skin, saving where the blush of pleasure and self-
+satisfaction had somewhat stained the neck with a shade of light
+crimson.--"Now, have done with these busy fingers, Janet," she
+said to her handmaiden, who was still officiously employed in
+bringing her hair and her dress into order--"have done, I say.  I
+must see your father ere my lord arrives, and also Master Richard
+Varney, whom my lord has highly in his esteem--but I could tell
+that of him would lose him favour."
+
+"Oh, do not do so, good my lady!"  replied Janet; "leave him to
+God, who punishes the wicked in His own time; but do not you
+cross Varney's path, for so thoroughly hath he my lord's ear,
+that few have thriven who have thwarted his courses."
+
+"And from whom had you this, my most righteous Janet?"  said the
+Countess; "or why should I keep terms with so mean a gentleman as
+Varney, being as I am, wife to his master and patron?"
+
+"Nay, madam," replied Janet Foster, "your ladyship knows better
+than I; but I have heard my father say he would rather cross a
+hungry wolf than thwart Richard Varney in his projects.  And he
+has often charged me to have a care of holding commerce with
+him."
+
+"Thy father said well, girl, for thee," replied the lady, "and I
+dare swear meant well.  It is a pity, though, his face and manner
+do little match his true purpose--for I think his purpose may be
+true."
+
+"Doubt it not, my lady," answered Janet--"doubt not that my
+father purposes well, though he is a plain man, and his blunt
+looks may belie his heart."
+
+"I will not doubt it, girl, were it only for thy sake; and yet he
+has one of those faces which men tremble when they look on.  I
+think even thy mother, Janet--nay, have done with that poking-
+iron--could hardly look upon him without quaking."
+
+"If it were so, madam," answered Janet Foster, "my mother had
+those who could keep her in honourable countenance.  Why, even
+you, my lady, both trembled and blushed when Varney brought the
+letter from my lord."
+
+"You are bold, damsel," said the Countess, rising from the
+cushions on which she sat half reclined in the arms of her
+attendant.  "Know that there are causes of trembling which have
+nothing to do with fear.--But, Janet," she added, immediately
+relapsing into the good-natured and familiar tone which was
+natural to her, "believe me, I will do what credit I can to your
+father, and the rather that you, sweetheart, are his child.
+Alas!  alas!"  she added, a sudden sadness passing over her fine
+features, and her eyes filling with tears, "I ought the rather to
+hold sympathy with thy kind heart, that my own poor father is
+uncertain of my fate, and they say lies sick and sorrowful for my
+worthless sake!  But I will soon cheer him--the news of my
+happiness and advancement will make him young again.  And that I
+may cheer him the sooner"--she wiped her eyes as she spoke--"I
+must be cheerful myself.  My lord must not find me insensible to
+his kindness, or sorrowful, when he snatches a visit to his
+recluse, after so long an absence.  Be merry, Janet; the night
+wears on, and my lord must soon arrive.  Call thy father hither,
+and call Varney also.  I cherish resentment against neither; and
+though I may have some room to be displeased with both, it shall
+be their own fault if ever a complaint against them reaches the
+Earl through my means.  Call them hither, Janet."
+
+Janet Foster obeyed her mistress; and in a few minutes after,
+Varney entered the withdrawing-room with the graceful ease and
+unclouded front of an accomplished courtier, skilled, under the
+veil of external politeness, to disguise his own feelings and to
+penetrate those of others.  Anthony Foster plodded into the
+apartment after him, his natural gloomy vulgarity of aspect
+seeming to become yet more remarkable, from his clumsy attempt to
+conceal the mixture of anxiety and dislike with which he looked
+on her, over whom he had hitherto exercised so severe a control,
+now so splendidly attired, and decked with so many pledges of the
+interest which she possessed in her husband's affections.  The
+blundering reverence which he made, rather AT than TO the
+Countess, had confession in it.  It was like the reverence which
+the criminal makes to the judge, when he at once owns his guilt
+and implores mercy--which is at the same time an impudent and
+embarrassed attempt at defence or extenuation, a confession of a
+fault, and an entreaty for lenity.
+
+Varney, who, in right of his gentle blood, had pressed into the
+room before Anthony Foster, knew better what to say than he, and
+said it with more assurance and a better grace.
+
+The Countess greeted him indeed with an appearance of cordiality,
+which seemed a complete amnesty for whatever she might have to
+complain of.  She rose from her seat, and advanced two steps
+towards him, holding forth her hand as she said, "Master Richard
+Varney, you brought me this morning such welcome tidings, that I
+fear surprise and joy made me neglect my lord and husband's
+charge to receive you with distinction.  We offer you our hand,
+sir, in reconciliation."
+
+"I am unworthy to touch it," said Varney, dropping on one knee,
+"save as a subject honours that of a prince."
+
+He touched with his lips those fair and slender fingers, so
+richly loaded with rings and jewels; then rising, with graceful
+gallantry, was about to hand her to the chair of state, when she
+said, "No, good Master Richard Varney, I take not my place there
+until my lord himself conducts me.  I am for the present but a
+disguised Countess, and will not take dignity on me until
+authorized by him whom I derive it from."
+
+"I trust, my lady," said Foster, "that in doing the commands of
+my lord your husband, in your restraint and so forth, I have not
+incurred your displeasure, seeing that I did but my duty towards
+your lord and mine; for Heaven, as holy writ saith, hath given
+the husband supremacy and dominion over the wife--I think it runs
+so, or something like it."
+
+"I receive at this moment so pleasant a surprise, Master Foster,"
+answered the Countess, "that I cannot but excuse the rigid
+fidelity which secluded me from these apartments, until they had
+assumed an appearance so new and so splendid."
+
+"Ay lady," said Foster, "it hath cost many a fair crown; and that
+more need not be wasted than is absolutely necessary, I leave you
+till my lord's arrival with good Master Richard Varney, who, as I
+think, hath somewhat to say to you from your most noble lord and
+husband.--Janet, follow me, to see that all be in order."
+
+"No, Master Foster," said the Countess, "we will your daughter
+remains here in our apartment--out of ear-shot, however, in case
+Varney bath ought to say to me from my lord."
+
+Foster made his clumsy reverence, and departed, with an aspect
+which seemed to grudge the profuse expense which had been wasted
+upon changing his house from a bare and ruinous grange to an
+Asiastic palace.  When he was gone, his daughter took her
+embroidery frame, and went to establish herself at the bottom of
+the apartment; while Richard Varney, with a profoundly humble
+courtesy, took the lowest stool he could find, and placing it by
+the side of the pile of cushions on which the Countess had now
+again seated herself, sat with his eyes for a time fixed on the
+ground, and in pro-found silence
+
+"I thought, Master Varney," said the Countess, when she saw he
+was not likely to open the conversation, "that you had something
+to communicate from my lord and husband; so at least I understood
+Master Foster, and therefore I removed my waiting-maid.  If I am
+mistaken, I will recall her to my side; for her needle is not so
+absolutely perfect in tent and cross-stitch, but that my
+superintendence is advisable."
+
+"Lady," said Varney, "Foster was partly mistaken in my purpose.
+It was not FROM but OF your noble husband, and my approved and
+most noble patron, that I am led, and indeed bound, to speak."
+
+"The theme is most welcome, sir," said the Countess, "whether it
+be of or from my noble husband.  But be brief, for I expect his
+hasty approach."
+
+"Briefly then, madam," replied Varney, "and boldly, for my
+argument requires both haste and courage--you have this day seen
+Tressilian?"
+
+"I have, sir and what of that?"  answered the lady somewhat
+sharply.
+
+"Nothing that concerns me, lady," Varney replied with humility.
+"But, think you, honoured madam, that your lord will hear it with
+equal equanimity?"
+
+"And wherefore should he not?  To me alone was Tressilian's visit
+embarrassing and painful, for he brought news of my good father's
+illness."
+
+"Of your father's illness, madam!"  answered Varney.  "It must
+have been sudden then--very sudden; for the messenger whom I
+dispatched, at my lord's instance, found the good knight on the
+hunting field, cheering his beagles with his wonted jovial field-
+cry.  I trust Tressilian has but forged this news.  He hath his
+reasons, madam, as you well know, for disquieting your present
+happiness."
+
+"You do him injustice, Master Varney," replied the Countess, with
+animation--"you do him much injustice.  He is the freest, the
+most open, the most gentle heart that breathes.  My honourable
+lord ever excepted, I know not one to whom falsehood is more
+odious than to Tressilian."
+
+"I crave your pardon, madam," said Varney, "I meant the gentleman
+no injustice--I knew not how nearly his cause affected you.  A
+man may, in some circumstances, disguise the truth for fair and
+honest purpose; for were it to be always spoken, and upon all
+occasions, this were no world to live in."
+
+"You have a courtly conscience, Master Varney," said the
+Countess, "and your veracity will not, I think, interrupt your
+preferment in the world, such as it is.  But touching Tressilian
+--I must do him justice, for I have done him wrong, as none knows
+better than thou.  Tressilian's conscience is of other mould--the
+world thou speakest of has not that which could bribe him from
+the way of truth and honour; and for living in it with a soiled
+fame, the ermine would as soon seek to lodge in the den of the
+foul polecat.  For this my father loved him; for this I would
+have loved him--if I could.  And yet in this case he had what
+seemed to him, unknowing alike of my marriage and to whom I was
+united, such powerful reasons to withdraw me from this place,
+that I well trust he exaggerated much of my father's
+indisposition, and that thy better news may be the truer."
+
+"Believe me they are, madam," answered Varney.  "I pretend not to
+be a champion of that same naked virtue called truth, to the very
+outrance.  I can consent that her charms be hidden with a veil,
+were it but for decency's sake.  But you must think lower of my
+head and heart than is due to one whom my noble lord deigns to
+call his friend, if you suppose I could wilfully and
+unnecessarily palm upon your ladyship a falsehood, so soon to be
+detected, in a matter which concerns your happiness."
+
+"Master Varney," said the Countess, "I know that my lord esteems
+you, and holds you a faithful and a good pilot in those seas in
+which he has spread so high and so venturous a sail.  Do not
+suppose, therefore, I meant hardly by you, when I spoke the truth
+in Tressilian's vindication.  I am as you well know, country-
+bred, and like plain rustic truth better than courtly compliment;
+but I must change my fashions with my sphere, I presume."
+
+"True, madam," said Varney, smiling; "and though you speak now in
+jest, it will not be amiss that in earnest your present speech
+had some connection with your real purpose.  A court-dame--take
+the most noble, the most virtuous, the most unimpeachable that
+stands around our Queen's throne--would, for example, have
+shunned to speak the truth, or what she thought such, in praise
+of a discarded suitor, before the dependant and confidant of her
+noble husband."
+
+"And wherefore," said the Countess, colouring impatiently,
+"should I not do justice to Tressilian's worth, before my
+husband's friend--before my husband himself--before the whole
+world?"
+
+"And with the same openness," said Varney, "your ladyship will
+this night tell my noble lord your husband that Tressilian has
+discovered your place of residence, so anxiously concealed from
+the world, and that he has had an interview with you?"
+
+"Unquestionably," said the Countess.  "It will be the first thing
+I tell him, together with every word that Tressilian said and
+that I answered.  I shall speak my own shame in this, for
+Tressilian's reproaches, less just than he esteemed them, were
+not altogether unmerited.  I will speak, therefore, with pain,
+but I will speak, and speak all."
+
+"Your ladyship will do your pleasure," answered Varney; "but
+methinks it were as well, since nothing calls for so frank a
+disclosure, to spare yourself this pain, and my noble lord the
+disquiet, and Master Tressilian, since belike he must be thought
+of in the matter, the danger which is like to ensue."
+
+"I can see nought of all these terrible consequences," said the
+lady composedly, "unless by imputing to my noble lord unworthy
+thoughts, which I am sure never harboured in his generous heart."
+
+"Far be it from me to do so," said Varney.  And then, after a
+moment's silence, he added, with a real or affected plainness of
+manner, very different from his usual smooth courtesy, "Come,
+madam, I will show you that a courtier dare speak truth as well
+as another, when it concerns the weal of those whom he honours
+and regards, ay, and although it may infer his own danger."  He
+waited as if to receive commands, or at least permission, to go
+on; but as the lady remained silent, he proceeded, but obviously
+with caution.  "Look around you," he said, "noble lady, and
+observe the barriers with which this place is surrounded, the
+studious mystery with which the brightest jewel that England
+possesses is secluded from the admiring gaze.  See with what
+rigour your walks are circumscribed.  and your movement
+restrained at the beck of yonder churlish Foster.  Consider all
+this, and judge for yourself what can be the cause.
+
+"My lord's pleasure," answered the Countess; "and I am bound to
+seek no other motive."
+
+"His pleasure it is indeed," said Varney; "and his pleasure
+arises out of a love worthy of the object which inspires it.  But
+he who possesses a treasure, and who values it, is oft anxious,
+in proportion to the value he puts upon it, to secure it from the
+depredations of others."
+
+"What needs all this talk, Master Varney?"  said the lady, in
+reply.  "You would have me believe that my noble lord is
+jealous.  Suppose it true, I know a cure for jealousy."
+
+"Indeed, madam?"  said Varney.
+
+"It is," replied the lady, "to speak the truth to my lord at all
+times--to hold up my mind and my thoughts before him as pure as
+that polished mirror--so that when he looks into my heart, he
+shall only see his own features reflected there."
+
+"I am mute, madam answered Varney; "and as I have no reason to
+grieve for Tressilian, who would have my heart's blood were he
+able, I shall reconcile myself easily to what may befall the
+gentleman in consequence of your frank disclosure of his having
+presumed to intrude upon your solitude.  You, who know my lord so
+much better than I, will judge if he be likely to bear the insult
+unavenged."
+
+"Nay, if I could think myself the cause of Tressilian's ruin,"
+said the Countess, "I who have already occasioned him so much
+distress, I might be brought to be silent.  And yet what will it
+avail, since he was seen by Foster, and I think by some one else?
+No, no, Varney, urge it no more.  I will tell the whole matter to
+my lord; and with such pleading for Tressilian's folly, as shall
+dispose my lord's generous heart rather to serve than to punish
+him."
+
+"Your judgment, madam," said Varney, "is far superior to mine,
+especially as you may, if you will, prove the ice before you step
+on it, by mentioning Tressilian's name to my lord, and observing
+how he endures it.  For Foster and his attendant, they know not
+Tressilian by sight, and I can easily give them some reasonable
+excuse for the appearance of an unknown stranger."
+
+The lady paused for an instant, and then replied, "If, Varney, it
+be indeed true that Foster knows not as yet that the man he saw
+was Tressilian, I own I were unwilling he should learn what
+nowise concerns him.  He bears himself already with austerity
+enough, and I wish him not to be judge or privy-councillor in my
+affairs."
+
+"Tush," said Varney, "what has the surly groom to do with your
+ladyship's concerns?--no more, surely, than the ban-dog which
+watches his courtyard.  If he is in aught distasteful to your
+ladyship, I have interest enough to have him exchanged for a
+seneschal that shall be more agreeable to you."
+
+"Master Varney," said the Countess, "let us drop this theme.
+When I complain of the attendants whom my lord has placed around
+me, it must be to my lord himself.--Hark!  I hear the trampling
+of horse.  He comes!  he comes!"  she exclaimed, jumping up in
+ecstasy.
+
+"I cannot think it is he," said Varney; "or that you can hear the
+tread of his horse through the closely-mantled casements."
+
+"Stop me not, Varney--my ears are keener than thine.  It is he!"
+
+"But, madam!--but, madam!"  exclaimed Varney anxiously, and still
+placing himself in her way, "I trust that what I have spoken in
+humble duty and service will not be turned to my ruin?  I hope
+that my faithful advice will not be bewrayed to my prejudice?  I
+implore that--"
+
+"Content thee, man--content thee!"  said the Countess, "and quit
+my skirt--you are too bold to detain me.  Content thyself, I
+think not of thee."
+
+At this moment the folding-doors flew wide open, and a man of
+majestic mien, muffled in the folds of a long dark riding-cloak,
+entered the apartment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+       This is he
+  Who rides on the court-gale; controls its tides;
+  Knows all their secret shoals and fatal eddies;
+  Whose frown abases, and whose smile exalts.
+  He shines like any rainbow--and, perchance,
+  His colours are as transient."                OLD PLAY.
+
+There was some little displeasure and confusion on the Countess's
+brow, owing to her struggle with Varney's pertinacity; but it was
+exchanged for an expression of the purest joy and affection, as
+she threw herself into the arms of the noble stranger who
+entered, and clasping him to her bosom, exclaimed, "At length--at
+length thou art come!"
+
+Varney discreetly withdrew as his lord entered, and Janet was
+about to do the same, when her mistress signed to her to remain.
+She took her place at the farther end of the apartment, and
+continued standing, as if ready for attendance.
+
+Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned his
+lady's caress with the most affectionate ardour, but affected to
+resist when she strove to take his cloak from him.
+
+"Nay," she said, "but I will unmantle you.  I must see if you
+have kept your word to me, and come as the great Earl men call
+thee, and not as heretofore like a private cavalier."
+
+"Thou art like the rest of the world, Amy," said the Earl,
+suffering her to prevail in the playful contest; "the jewels, and
+feathers, and silk are more to them than the man whom they adorn
+--many a poor blade looks gay in a velvet scabbard."
+
+"But so cannot men say of thee, thou noble Earl," said his lady,
+as the cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as
+princes when they ride abroad; "thou art the good and well-tried
+steel, whose inly worth deserves, yet disdains, its outward
+ornaments.  Do not think Amy can love thee better in this
+glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart to him who
+wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon."
+
+"And thou too," said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically he
+led his beautiful Countess towards the chair of state which was
+prepared for them both--"thou too, my love, hast donned a dress
+which becomes thy rank, though it cannot improve thy beauty.
+What think'st thou of our court taste?"
+
+The lady cast a sidelong glance upon the great mirror as they
+passed it by, and then said, "I know not how it is, but I think
+not of my own person while I look at the reflection of thine.
+Sit thou there," she said, as they approached the chair of state,
+"like a thing for men to worship and to wonder at."
+
+"Ay, love," said the Earl, "if thou wilt share my state with me."
+
+"Not so," said the Countess; "I will sit on this footstool at thy
+feet, that I may spell over thy splendour, and learn, for the
+first time, how princes are attired."
+
+And with a childish wonder, which her youth and rustic education
+rendered not only excusable but becoming, mixed as it was with a
+delicate show of the most tender conjugal affection, she examined
+and admired from head to foot the noble form and princely attire
+of him who formed the proudest ornament of the court of England's
+Maiden Queen, renowned as it was for splendid courtiers, as well
+as for wise counsellors.  Regarding affectionately his lovely
+bride, and gratified by her unrepressed admiration, the dark eye
+and noble features of the Earl expressed passions more gentle
+than the commanding and aspiring look which usually sat upon his
+broad forehead, and in the piercing brilliancy of his dark eye;
+and he smiled at the simplicity which dictated the questions she
+put to him concerning the various ornaments with which he was
+decorated.
+
+"The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee," he
+said, "is the English Garter, an ornament which kings are proud
+to wear.  See, here is the star which belongs to it, and here the
+Diamond George, the jewel of the order.  You have heard how King
+Edward and the Countess of Salisbury--"
+
+"Oh, I know all that tale," said the Countess, slightly blushing,
+"and how a lady's garter became the proudest badge of English
+chivalry."
+
+"Even so," said the Earl; "and this most honourable Order I had
+the good hap to receive at the same time with three most noble
+associates, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Northampton, and
+the Earl of Rutland.  I was the lowest of the four in rank--but
+what then?  he that climbs a ladder must begin at the first
+round."
+
+"But this other fair collar, so richly wrought, with some jewel
+like a sheep hung by the middle attached to it, what," said the
+young Countess, "does that emblem signify?"
+
+"This collar," said the Earl, "with its double fusilles
+interchanged with these knobs, which are supposed to present
+flint-stones sparkling with fire, and sustaining the jewel you
+inquire about, is the badge of the noble Order of the Golden
+Fleece, once appertaining to the House of Burgundy it hath high
+privileges, my Amy, belonging to it, this most noble Order; for
+even the King of Spain himself, who hath now succeeded to the
+honours and demesnes of Burgundy, may not sit in judgment upon a
+knight of the Golden Fleece, unless by assistance and consent of
+the Great Chapter of the Order."
+
+"And is this an Order belonging to the cruel King of Spain?"
+said the Countess.  "Alas!  my noble lord, that you will defile
+your noble English breast by bearing such an emblem!  Bethink you
+of the most unhappy Queen Mary's days, when this same Philip held
+sway with her in England, and of the piles which were built for
+our noblest, and our wisest, and our most truly sanctified
+prelates and divines--and will you, whom men call the standard-
+bearer of the true Protestant faith, be contented to wear the
+emblem and mark of such a Romish tyrant as he of Spain?"
+
+"Oh, content you, my love," answered the Earl; "we who spread our
+sails to gales of court favour cannot always display the ensigns
+we love the best, or at all times refuse sailing under colours
+which we like not.  Believe me, I am not the less good
+Protestant, that for policy I must accept the honour offered me
+by Spain, in admitting me to this his highest order of
+knighthood.  Besides, it belongs properly to Flanders; and
+Egmont, Orange, and others have pride in seeing it displayed on
+an English bosom."
+
+"Nay, my lord, you know your own path best," replied the
+Countess.  "And this other collar, to what country does this fair
+jewel belong?"
+
+"To a very poor one, my love," replied the Earl; "this is the
+Order of Saint Andrew, revived by the last James of Scotland.  It
+was bestowed on me when it was thought the young widow of France
+and Scotland would gladly have wedded an English baron; but a
+free coronet of England is worth a crown matrimonial held at the
+humour of a woman, and owning only the poor rocks and bogs of the
+north."
+
+The Countess paused, as if what the Earl last said had excited
+some painful but interesting train of thought; and, as she still
+remained silent, her husband proceeded:--
+
+"And now, loveliest, your wish is gratified, and you have seen
+your vassal in such of his trim array as accords with riding
+vestments; for robes of state and coronets are only for princely
+halls."
+
+"Well, then," said the Countess, "my gratified wish has, as
+usual, given rise to a new one."
+
+"And what is it thou canst ask that I can deny?"  said the fond
+husband.
+
+"I wished to see my Earl visit this obscure and secret bower,"
+said the Countess, "in all his princely array; and now, methinks
+I long to sit in one of his princely halls, and see him enter
+dressed in sober russet, as when he won poor Amy Robsart's
+heart."
+
+"That is a wish easily granted," said the Earl--"the sober russet
+shall be donned to-morrow, if you will."
+
+"But shall I," said the lady, "go with you to one of your
+castles, to see how the richness of your dwelling will correspond
+with your peasant habit?"
+
+"Why, Amy," said the Earl, looking around, "are not these
+apartments decorated with sufficient splendour?  I gave the most
+unbounded order, and, methinks, it has been indifferently well
+obeyed; but if thou canst tell me aught which remains to be done,
+I will instantly give direction."
+
+"Nay, my lord, now you mock me," replied the Countess; "the
+gaiety of this rich lodging exceeds my imagination as much as it
+does my desert.  But shall not your wife, my love--at least one
+day soon--be surrounded with the honour which arises neither from
+the toils of the mechanic who decks her apartment, nor from the
+silks and jewels with which your generosity adorns her, but which
+is attached to her place among the matronage, as the avowed wife
+of England's noblest Earl?"
+
+"One day?"  said her husband.  "Yes, Amy, my love, one day this
+shall surely happen; and, believe me, thou canst not wish for
+that day more fondly than I.  With what rapture could I retire
+from labours of state, and cares and toils of ambition, to spend
+my life in dignity and honour on my own broad domains, with thee,
+my lovely Amy, for my friend and companion!  But, Amy, this
+cannot yet be; and these dear but stolen interviews are all I can
+give to the loveliest and the best beloved of her sex."
+
+"But WHY can it not be?"  urged the Countess, in the softest
+tones of persuasion--"why can it not immediately take place--this
+more perfect, this uninterrupted union, for which you say you
+wish, and which the laws of God and man alike command?  Ah!  did
+you but desire it half as much as you say, mighty and favoured as
+you are, who or what should bar your attaining your wish?"
+
+The Earl's brow was overcast.
+
+"Amy," he said, "you speak of what you understand not.  We that
+toil in courts are like those who climb a mountain of loose sand
+--we dare make no halt until some projecting rock affords us a
+secure footing and resting-place.  If we pause sooner, we slide
+down by our own weight, an object of universal derision.  I stand
+high, but I stand not secure enough to follow my own inclination.
+To declare my marriage were to be the artificer of my own ruin.
+But, believe me, I will reach a point, and that speedily, when I
+can do justice to thee and to myself.  Meantime, poison not the
+bliss of the present moment, by desiring that which cannot at
+present be, Let me rather know whether all here is managed to thy
+liking.  How does Foster bear himself to you?--in all things
+respectful, I trust, else the fellow shall dearly rue it."
+
+"He reminds me sometimes of the necessity of this privacy,"
+answered the lady, with a sigh; "but that is reminding me of your
+wishes, and therefore I am rather bound to him than disposed to
+blame him for it."
+
+"I have told you the stern necessity which is upon us," replied
+the Earl.  "Foster is, I note, somewhat sullen of mood; but
+Varney warrants to me his fidelity and devotion to my service.
+If thou hast aught, however, to complain of the mode in which he
+discharges his duty, he shall abye it."
+
+"Oh, I have nought to complain of," answered the lady, "so he
+discharges his task with fidelity to you; and his daughter Janet
+is the kindest and best companion of my solitude--her little air
+of precision sits so well upon her!"
+
+"Is she indeed?"  said the Earl.  "She who gives you pleasure
+must not pass unrewarded.--Come hither, damsel."
+
+"Janet," said the lady, "come hither to my lord."
+
+Janet, who, as we already noticed, had discreetly retired to some
+distance, that her presence might be no check upon the private
+conversation of her lord and lady, now came forward; and as she
+made her reverential curtsy, the Earl could not help smiling at
+the contrast which the extreme simplicity of her dress, and the
+prim demureness of her looks, made with a very pretty countenance
+and a pair of black eyes, that laughed in spite of their
+mistress's desire to look grave.
+
+"I am bound to you, pretty damsel," said the Earl, "for the
+contentment which your service hath given to this lady."  As he
+said this, he took from his finger a ring of some price, and
+offered it to Janet Foster, adding, "Wear this, for her sake and
+for mine."
+
+"I am well pleased, my lord," answered Janet demurely, "that my
+poor service hath gratified my lady, whom no one can draw nigh to
+without desiring to please; but we of the precious Master
+Holdforth's congregation seek not, like the gay daughters of this
+world, to twine gold around our fingers, or wear stones upon our
+necks, like the vain women of Tyre and of Sidon."
+
+"Oh, what!  you are a grave professor of the precise sisterhood,
+pretty Mistress Janet," said the Earl, "and I think your father
+is of the same congregation in sincerity?  I like you both the
+better for it; for I have been prayed for, and wished well to, in
+your congregations.  And you may the better afford the lack of
+ornament, Mistress Janet, because your fingers are slender, and
+your neck white.  But here is what neither Papist nor Puritan,
+latitudinarian nor precisian, ever boggles or makes mouths at.
+E'en take it, my girl, and employ it as you list."
+
+So saying, he put into her hand five broad gold pieces of Philip
+and Mary,
+
+"I would not accept this gold either," said Janet, "but that I
+hope to find a use for it which will bring a blessing on us all."
+
+"Even please thyself, pretty Janet," said the Earl, "and I shall
+be well satisfied.  And I prithee let them hasten the evening
+collation."
+
+"I have bidden Master Varney and Master Foster to sup with us, my
+lord," said the Countess, as Janet retired to obey the Earl's
+commands; "has it your approbation?"
+
+"What you do ever must have so, my sweet Amy," replied her
+husband; "and I am the better pleased thou hast done them this
+grace, because Richard Varney is my sworn man, and a close
+brother of my secret council; and for the present, I must needs
+repose much trust in this Anthony Foster."
+
+"I had a boon to beg of thee, and a secret to tell thee, my dear
+lord," said the Countess, with a faltering accent.
+
+"Let both be for to-morrow, my love," replied the Earl.  "I see
+they open the folding-doors into the banqueting-parlour, and as I
+have ridden far and fast, a cup of wine will not be
+unacceptable."
+
+So saying he led his lovely wife into the next apartment, where
+Varney and Foster received them with the deepest reverences,
+which the first paid after the fashion of the court, and the
+second after that of the congregation.  The Earl returned their
+salutation with the negligent courtesy of one long used to such
+homage; while the Countess repaid it with a punctilious
+solicitude, which showed it was not quite so familiar to her.
+
+The banquet at which the company seated themselves corresponded
+in magnificence with the splendour of the apartment in which it
+was served up, but no domestic gave his attendance.  Janet alone
+stood ready to wait upon the company; and, indeed, the board was
+so well supplied with all that could be desired, that little or
+no assistance was necessary.  The Earl and his lady occupied the
+upper end of the table, and Varney and Foster sat beneath the
+salt, as was the custom with inferiors.  The latter, overawed
+perhaps by society to which he was altogether unused, did not
+utter a single syllable during the repast; while Varney, with
+great tact and discernment, sustained just so much of the
+conversation as, without the appearance of intrusion on his part,
+prevented it from languishing, and maintained the good-humour of
+the Earl at the highest pitch.  This man was indeed highly
+qualified by nature to discharge the part in which he found
+himself placed, being discreet and cautious on the one hand, and,
+on the other, quick, keen-witted, and imaginative; so that even
+the Countess, prejudiced as she was against him on many accounts,
+felt and enjoyed his powers of conversation, and was more
+disposed than she had ever hitherto found herself to join in the
+praises which the Earl lavished on his favourite.  The hour of
+rest at length arrived, the Earl and Countess retired to their
+apartment, and all was silent in the castle for the rest of the
+night.
+
+Early on the ensuing morning, Varney acted as the Earl's
+chamberlain as well as his master of horse, though the latter was
+his proper office in that magnificent household, where knights
+and gentlemen of good descent were well contented to hold such
+menial situations, as nobles themselves held in that of the
+sovereign.  The duties of each of these charges were familiar to
+Varney, who, sprung from an ancient but somewhat decayed family,
+was the Earl's page during his earlier and more obscure fortunes,
+and, faithful to him in adversity, had afterwards contrived to
+render himself no less useful to him in his rapid and splendid
+advance to fortune; thus establishing in him an interest resting
+both on present and past services, which rendered him an almost
+indispensable sharer of his confidence.
+
+"Help me to do on a plainer riding-suit, Varney," said the Earl,
+as he laid aside his morning-gown, flowered with silk and lined
+with sables, "and put these chains and fetters there" (pointing
+to the collars of the various Orders which lay on the table)
+"into their place of security--my neck last night was well-nigh
+broke with the weight of them.  I am half of the mind that they
+shall gall me no more.  They are bonds which knaves have invented
+to fetter fools.  How thinkest thou, Varney?"
+
+"Faith, my good lord," said his attendant, "I think fetters of
+gold are like no other fetters--they are ever the weightier the
+welcomer."
+
+"For all that, Varney," replied his master, "I am well-nigh
+resolved they shall bind me to the court no longer.  What can
+further service and higher favour give me, beyond the high rank
+and large estate which I have already secured?  What brought my
+father to the block, but that he could not bound his wishes
+within right and reason?  I have, you know, had mine own ventures
+and mine own escapes.  I am well-nigh resolved to tempt the sea
+no further, but sit me down in quiet on the shore."
+
+"And gather cockle-shells, with Dan Cupid to aid you," said
+Varney.
+
+"How mean you by that, Varney?"  said the Earl somewhat hastily.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said Varney, "be not angry with me.  If your
+lordship is happy in a lady so rarely lovely that, in order to
+enjoy her company with somewhat more freedom, you are willing to
+part with all you have hitherto lived for, some of your poor
+servants may be sufferers; but your bounty hath placed me so
+high, that I shall ever have enough to maintain a poor gentleman
+in the rank befitting the high office he has held in your
+lordship's family."
+
+"Yet you seem discontented when I propose throwing up a dangerous
+game, which may end in the ruin of both of us."
+
+"I, my lord?"  said Varney; "surely I have no cause to regret
+your lordship's retreat!  It will not be Richard Varney who will
+incur the displeasure of majesty, and the ridicule of the court,
+when the stateliest fabric that ever was founded upon a prince's
+favour melts away like a morning frost-work.  I would only have
+you yourself to be assured, my lord, ere you take a step which
+cannot be retracted, that you consult your fame and happiness in
+the course you propose."
+
+"Speak on, then, Varney," said the Earl; "I tell thee I have
+determined nothing, and will weigh all considerations on either
+side."
+
+"Well, then, my lord," replied Varney, "we will suppose the step
+taken, the frown frowned, the laugh laughed, and the moan moaned.
+You have retired, we will say, to some one of your most distant
+castles, so far from court that you hear neither the sorrow of
+your friends nor the glee of your enemies, We will suppose, too,
+that your successful rival will be satisfied (a thing greatly to
+be doubted) with abridging and cutting away the branches of the
+great tree which so long kept the sun from him, and that he does
+not insist upon tearing you up by the roots.  Well; the late
+prime favourite of England, who wielded her general's staff and
+controlled her parliaments, is now a rural baron, hunting,
+hawking, drinking fat ale with country esquires, and mustering
+his men at the command of the high sheriff--"
+
+"Varney, forbear!"  said the Earl.
+
+"Nay, my lord, you must give me leave to conclude my picture.
+--Sussex governs England--the Queen's health fails--the
+succession is to be settled--a road is opened to ambition more
+splendid than ambition ever dreamed of.  You hear all this as you
+sit by the hob, under the shade of your hall-chimney.  You then
+begin to think what hopes you have fallen from, and what
+insignificance you have embraced; and all that you might look
+babies in the eyes of your fair wife oftener than once a
+fortnight,"
+
+"I say, Varney," said the Earl, "no more of this.  I said not
+that the step, which my own ease and comfort would urge me to,
+was to be taken hastily, or without due consideration to the
+public safety.  Bear witness to me, Varney; I subdue my wishes of
+retirement, not because I am moved by the call of private
+ambition, but that I may preserve the position in which I may
+best serve my country at the hour of need.--Order our horses
+presently; I will wear, as formerly, one of the livery cloaks,
+and ride before the portmantle.  Thou shalt be master for the
+day, Varney--neglect nothing that can blind suspicion.  We will
+to horse ere men are stirring.  I will but take leave of my lady,
+and be ready.  I impose a restraint on my own poor heart, and
+wound one yet more dear to me; but the patriot must subdue the
+husband.
+
+Having said this in a melancholy but firm accent, he left the
+dressing apartment.
+
+"I am glad thou art gone," thought Varney, "or, practised as I am
+in the follies of mankind, I had laughed in the very face of
+thee!  Thou mayest tire as thou wilt of thy new bauble, thy
+pretty piece of painted Eve's flesh there, I will not be thy
+hindrance. But of thine old bauble, ambition, thou shalt not
+tire; for as you climb the hill, my lord, you must drag Richard
+Varney up with you, and if he can urge you to the ascent he means
+to profit by, believe me he will spare neither whip nor spur, and
+for you, my pretty lady, that would be Countess outright, you
+were best not thwart my courses, lest you are called to an old
+reckoning on a new score.  'Thou shalt be master,' did he say?
+By my faith, he may find that he spoke truer than he is aware of;
+and thus he who, in the estimation of so many wise-judging men,
+can match Burleigh and Walsingham in policy, and Sussex in war,
+becomes pupil to his own menial--and all for a hazel eye and a
+little cunning red and white, and so falls ambition.  And yet if
+the charms of mortal woman could excuse a man's politic pate for
+becoming bewildered, my lord had the excuse at his right hand on
+this blessed evening that has last passed over us.  Well--let
+things roll as they may, he shall make me great, or I will make
+myself happy; and for that softer piece of creation, if she speak
+not out her interview with Tressilian, as well I think she dare
+not, she also must traffic with me for concealment and mutual
+support, in spite of all this scorn.  I must to the stables.
+Well, my lord, I order your retinue now; the time may soon come
+that my master of the horse shall order mine own.  What was
+Thomas Cromwell but a smith's son?  and he died my lord--on a
+scaffold, doubtless, but that, too, was in character.  And what
+was Ralph Sadler but the clerk of Cromwell?  and he has gazed
+eighteen fair lordships--VIA!  I know my steerage as well as
+they."
+
+So saying, he left the apartment.
+
+In the meanwhile the Earl had re-entered the bedchamber, bent on
+taking a hasty farewell of the lovely Countess, and scarce daring
+to trust himself in private with her, to hear requests again
+urged which he found it difficult to parry, yet which his recent
+conversation with his master of horse had determined him not to
+grant.
+
+He found her in a white cymar of silk lined with furs, her little
+feet unstockinged and hastily thrust into slippers; her unbraided
+hair escaping from under her midnight coif, with little array but
+her own loveliness, rather augmented than diminished by the grief
+which she felt at the approaching moment of separation.
+
+"Now, God be with thee, my dearest and loveliest!"  said the
+Earl, scarce tearing himself from her embrace, yet again
+returning to fold her again and again in his arms, and again
+bidding farewell, and again returning to kiss and bid adieu once
+more.  "The sun is on the verge of the blue horizon--I dare not
+stay.  Ere this I should have been ten miles from hence."
+
+Such were the words with which at length he strove to cut short
+their parting interview.  "You will not grant my request, then?"
+said the Countess.  "Ah, false knight!  did ever lady, with bare
+foot in slipper, seek boon of a brave knight, yet return with
+denial?"
+
+"Anything, Amy, anything thou canst ask I will grant," answered
+the Earl--"always excepting," he said, "that which might ruin us
+both."
+
+"Nay," said the Countess, "I urge not my wish to be acknowledged
+in the character which would make me the envy of England--as the
+wife, that is, of my brave and noble lord, the first as the most
+fondly beloved of English nobles.  Let me but share the secret
+with my dear father!  Let me but end his misery on my unworthy
+account--they say he is ill, the good old kind-hearted man!"
+
+"They say?"  asked the Earl hastily; "who says?  Did not Varney
+convey to Sir Hugh all we dare at present tell him concerning
+your happiness and welfare?  and has he not told you that the
+good old knight was following, with good heart and health, his
+favourite and wonted exercise.  Who has dared put other thoughts
+into your head?"
+
+"Oh, no one, my lord, no one," said the Countess, something
+alarmed at the tone, in which the question was put; "but yet, my
+lord, I would fain be assured by mine own eyesight that my father
+is well."
+
+"Be contented, Amy; thou canst not now have communication with
+thy father or his house.  Were it not a deep course of policy to
+commit no secret unnecessarily to the custody of more than must
+needs be, it were sufficient reason for secrecy that yonder
+Cornish man, yonder Trevanion, or Tressilian, or whatever his
+name is, haunts the old knight's house, and must necessarily know
+whatever is communicated there."
+
+"My lord," answered the Countess, "I do not think it so.  My
+father has been long noted a worthy and honourable man; and for
+Tressilian, if we can pardon ourselves the ill we have wrought
+him, I will wager the coronet I am to share with you one day that
+he is incapable of returning injury for injury."
+
+"I will not trust him, however, Amy," said her husband--"by my
+honour, I will not trust him, I would rather the foul fiend
+intermingle in our secret than this Tressilian!"
+
+"And why, my lord?"  said the Countess, though she shuddered
+slightly at the tone of determination in which he spoke; "let me
+but know why you think thus hardly of Tressilian?"
+
+"Madam," replied the Earl, "my will ought to be a sufficient
+reason.  If you desire more, consider how this Tressilian is
+leagued, and with whom.  He stands high in the opinion of this
+Radcliffe, this Sussex, against whom I am barely able to maintain
+my ground in the opinion of our suspicious mistress; and if he
+had me at such advantage, Amy, as to become acquainted with the
+tale of our marriage, before Elizabeth were fitly prepared, I
+were an outcast from her grace for ever--a bankrupt at once in
+favour and in fortune, perhaps, for she hath in her a touch of
+her father Henry--a victim, and it may be a bloody one, to her
+offended and jealous resentment."
+
+"But why, my lord," again urged his lady, "should you deem thus
+injuriously of a man of whom you know so little?  What you do
+know of Tressilian is through me, and it is I who assure you that
+in no circumstances will be betray your secret.  If I did him
+wrong in your behalf, my lord, I am now the more concerned you
+should do him justice.  You are offended at my speaking of him,
+what would you say had I actually myself seen him?"
+
+"If you had," replied the Earl, "you would do well to keep that
+interview as secret as that which is spoken in a confessional.  I
+seek no one's ruin; but he who thrusts himself on my secret
+privacy were better look well to his future walk.  The bear [The
+Leicester cognizance was the ancient device  adopted by his
+father, when Earl of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff.]  brooks
+no one to cross his awful path."
+
+"Awful, indeed!"  said the Countess, turning very pale.
+
+"You are ill, my love," said the Earl, supporting her in his
+arms.  "Stretch yourself on your couch again; it is but an early
+day for you to leave it.  Have you aught else, involving less
+than my fame, my fortune, and my life, to ask of me?"
+
+"Nothing, my lord and love," answered the Countess faintly;
+"something there was that I would have told you, but your anger
+has driven it from my recollection."
+
+"Reserve it till our next meeting, my love," said the Earl
+fondly, and again embracing her; "and barring only those requests
+which I cannot and dare not grant, thy wish must be more than
+England and all its dependencies can fulfil, if it is not
+gratified to the letter."
+
+Thus saying, he at length took farewell.  At the bottom of the
+staircase he received from Varney an ample livery cloak and
+slouched hat, in which he wrapped himself so as to disguise his
+person and completely conceal his features.  Horses were ready in
+the courtyard for himself and Varney; for one or two of his
+train, intrusted with the secret so far as to know or guess that
+the Earl intrigued with a beautiful lady at that mansion, though
+her name and duality were unknown to them, had already been
+dismissed over-night.
+
+Anthony Foster himself had in hand the rein of the Earl's
+palfrey, a stout and able nag for the road; while his old
+serving-man held the bridle of the more showy and gallant steed
+which Richard Varney was to occupy in the character of master.
+
+As the Earl approached, however, Varney advanced to hold his
+master's bridle, and to prevent Foster from paying that duty to
+the Earl which he probably considered as belonging to his own
+office.  Foster scowled at an interference which seemed intended
+to prevent his paying his court to his patron, but gave place to
+Varney; and the Earl, mounting without further observation, and
+forgetting that his assumed character of a domestic threw him
+into the rear of his supposed master, rode pensively out of the
+quadrangle, not without waving his hand repeatedly in answer to
+the signals which were made by the Countess with her kerchief
+from the windows of her apartment.
+
+While his stately form vanished under the dark archway which led
+out of the quadrangle, Varney muttered, "There goes fine policy
+--the servant before the master!"  then as he disappeared, seized
+the moment to speak a word with Foster.  "Thou look'st dark on
+me, Anthony," he said, "as if I had deprived thee of a parting
+nod of my lord; but I have moved him to leave thee a better
+remembrance for thy faithful service.  See here!  a purse of as
+good gold as ever chinked under a miser's thumb and fore-finger.
+Ay, count them, lad," said he, as Foster received the gold with a
+grim smile, "and add to them the goodly remembrance he gave last
+night to Janet."
+
+"How's this?  how's this?"  said Anthony Foster hastily; "gave he
+gold to Janet?"
+
+"Ay, man, wherefore not?--does not her service to his fair lady
+require guerdon?"
+
+"She shall have none on't," said Foster; "she shall return it.  I
+know his dotage on one face is as brief as it is deep.  His
+affections are as fickle as the moon."
+
+"Why, Foster, thou art mad--thou dost not hope for such good
+fortune as that my lord should cast an eye on Janet?  Who, in the
+fiend's name, would listen to the thrush while the nightingale is
+singing?"
+
+"Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler; and, Master
+Varney, you can sound the quail-pipe most daintily to wile
+wantons into his nets.  I desire no such devil's preferment for
+Janet as you have brought many a poor maiden to.  Dost thou
+laugh?  I will keep one limb of my family, at least, from Satan's
+clutches, that thou mayest rely on.  She shall restore the gold."
+
+"Ay, or give it to thy keeping, Tony, which will serve as well,"
+answered Varney; "but I have that to say which is more serious.
+Our lord is returning to court in an evil humour for us."
+
+"How meanest thou?"  said Foster.  "Is he tired already of his
+pretty toy--his plaything yonder?  He has purchased her at a
+monarch's ransom, and I warrant me he rues his bargain."
+
+"Not a whit, Tony," answered the master of the horse; "he dotes
+on her, and will forsake the court for her.  Then down go hopes,
+possessions, and safety--church-lands are resumed, Tony, and well
+if the holders be not called to account in Exchequer."
+
+"That were ruin," said Foster, his brow darkening with
+apprehensions; "and all this for a woman!  Had it been for his
+soul's sake, it were something; and I sometimes wish I myself
+could fling away the world that cleaves to me, and be as one of
+the poorest of our church."
+
+"Thou art like enough to be so, Tony," answered Varney; "but I
+think the devil will give thee little credit for thy compelled
+poverty, and so thou losest on all hands.  But follow my counsel,
+and Cumnor Place shall be thy copyhold yet.  Say nothing of this
+Tressilian's visit--not a word until I give thee notice."
+
+"And wherefore, I pray you?"  asked Foster, suspiciously.
+
+"Dull beast!"  replied Varney.  "In my lord's present humour it
+were the ready way to confirm him in his resolution of
+retirement, should he know that his lady was haunted with such a
+spectre in his absence.  He would be for playing the dragon
+himself over his golden fruit, and then, Tony, thy occupation is
+ended.  A word to the wise.  Farewell!  I must follow him."
+
+He turned his horse, struck him with the spurs, and rode off
+under the archway in pursuit of his lord.
+
+"Would thy occupation were ended, or thy neck broken, damned
+pander!"  said Anthony Foster.  "But I must follow his beck, for
+his interest and mine are the same, and he can wind the proud
+Earl to his will.  Janet shall give me those pieces though; they
+shall be laid out in some way for God's service, and I will keep
+them separate in my strong chest, till I can fall upon a fitting
+employment for them.  No contagious vapour shall breathe on
+Janet--she shall remain pure as a blessed spirit, were it but to
+pray God for her father.  I need her prayers, for I am at a hard
+pass.  Strange reports are abroad concerning my way of life.  The
+congregation look cold on me, and when Master Holdforth spoke of
+hypocrites being like a whited sepulchre, which within was full
+of dead men's bones, methought he looked full at me.  The Romish
+was a comfortable faith; Lambourne spoke true in that.  A man had
+but to follow his thrift by such ways as offered--tell his beads,
+hear a mass, confess, and be absolved.  These Puritans tread a
+harder and a rougher path; but I will try--I will read my Bible
+for an hour ere I again open mine iron chest."
+
+Varney, meantime, spurred after his lord, whom he found waiting
+for him at the postern gate of the park.
+
+"You waste time, Varney," said the Earl, "and it presses.  I must
+be at Woodstock before I can safely lay aside my disguise, and
+till then I journey in some peril."
+
+"It is but two hours' brisk riding, my lord," said Varney.  "For
+me, I only stopped to enforce your commands of care and secrecy
+on yonder Foster, and to inquire about the abode of the gentleman
+whom I would promote to your lordship's train, in the room of
+Trevors."
+
+"Is he fit for the meridian of the antechamber, think'st thou?"
+said the Earl.
+
+"He promises well, my lord," replied Varney ; "but if your
+lordship were pleased to ride on, I could go back to Cumnor, and
+bring him to your lordship at Woodstock before you are out of
+bed."
+
+"Why, I am asleep there, thou knowest, at this moment," said the
+Earl; "and I pray you not to spare horse-flesh, that you may be
+with me at my levee."
+
+So saying, he gave his horse the spur, and proceeded on his
+journey, while Varney rode back to Cumnor by the public road,
+avoiding the park.  The latter alighted at the door of the bonny
+Black Bear, and desired to speak with Master Michael Lambourne,
+That respectable character was not long of appearing before his
+new patron, but it was with downcast looks.
+
+"Thou hast lost the scent," said Varney, "of thy comrade
+Tressilian.  I know it by thy bang-dog visage.  Is this thy
+alacrity, thou impudent knave?"
+
+"Cogswounds!"  said Lambourne, "there was never a trail so finely
+hunted.  I saw him to earth at mine uncle's here--stuck to him
+like bees'-wax--saw him at supper--watched him to his chamber,
+and, presto!  he is gone next morning, the very hostler knows not
+where."
+
+"This sounds like practice upon me, sir," replied Varney; "and if
+it proves so, by my soul you shall repent it!"
+
+"Sir, the best hound will be sometimes at fault," answered
+Lambourne; "how should it serve me that this fellow should have
+thus evanished?  You may ask mine host, Giles Gosling--ask the
+tapster and hostler--ask Cicely, and the whole household, how I
+kept eyes on Tressilian while he was on foot.  On my soul, I
+could not be expected to watch him like a sick nurse, when I had
+seen him fairly a-bed in his chamber.  That will be allowed me,
+surely."
+
+Varney did, in fact, make some inquiry among the household, which
+confirmed the truth of Lambourne's statement.  Tressilian, it was
+unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly and unexpectedly,
+betwixt night and morning.
+
+"But I will wrong no one," said mine host; "he left on the table
+in his lodging the full value of his reckoning, with some
+allowance to the servants of the house, which was the less
+necessary that he saddled his own gelding, as it seems, without
+the hostler's assistance."
+
+Thus satisfied of the rectitude of Lambourne's conduct, Varney
+began to talk to him upon his future prospects, and the mode in
+which he meant to bestow himself, intimating that he understood
+from Foster he was not disinclined to enter into the household of
+a nobleman.
+
+"Have you," said he, "ever been at court?"
+
+"No," replied Lambourne; "but ever since I was ten years old, I
+have dreamt once a week that I was there, and made my fortune."
+
+"It may be your own fault if your dream comes not true," said
+Varney.  "Are you needy?"
+
+"Um!"  replied Lambourne; "I love pleasure."
+
+"That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one," said Varney.
+"Know you aught of the requisites expected from the retainer of a
+rising courtier?"
+
+"I have imagined them to myself, sir," answered Lambourne; "as,
+for example, a quick eye, a close mouth, a ready and bold hand, a
+sharp wit, and a blunt conscience."
+
+"And thine, I suppose," said Varney, "has had its edge blunted
+long since?"
+
+"I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever over-keen,"
+replied Lambourne.  "When I was a youth, I had some few whimsies;
+but I rubbed them partly out of my recollection on the rough
+grindstone of the wars, and what remained I washed out in the
+broad waves of the Atlantic."
+
+"Thou hast served, then, in the Indies?"
+
+"In both East and West," answered the candidate for court
+service, "by both sea and land.  I have served both the Portugal
+and the Spaniard, both the Dutchman and the Frenchman, and have
+made war on our own account with a crew of jolly fellows, who
+held there was no peace beyond the Line."  [Sir Francis Drake,
+Morgan, and many a bold buccaneer of those days, were, in fact,
+little better than pirates.]
+
+"Thou mayest do me, and my lord, and thyself, good service," said
+Varney, after a pause.  "But observe, I know the world--and
+answer me truly, canst thou be faithful?"
+
+"Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my
+duty to say ay, without further circumstance, and to swear to it
+with life and honour, and so forth.  But as it seems to me that
+your worship is one who desires rather honest truth than politic
+falsehood, I reply to you, that I can be faithful to the gallows'
+foot, ay, to the loop that dangles from it, if I am well used and
+well recompensed--not otherwise."
+
+"To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in
+a jeering tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when
+the moment demands it?"
+
+"It would cost me nothing," said Lambourne, "to say yes; but, to
+speak on the square, I must needs say no.  If you want a
+hypocrite, you may take Anthony Foster, who, from his childhood,
+had some sort of phantom haunting him, which he called religion,
+though it was that sort of godliness which always ended in being
+great gain.  But I have no such knack of it."
+
+"Well," replied Varney, "if thou hast no hypocrisy, hast thou not
+a nag here in the stable?"
+
+"Ay, sir," said Lambourne, "that shall take hedge and ditch with
+my Lord Duke's best hunters.  Then I made a little mistake on
+Shooter's Hill, and stopped an ancient grazier whose pouches were
+better lined than his brain-pan, the bonny bay nag carried me
+sheer off in spite of the whole hue and cry."
+
+"Saddle him then instantly, and attend me," said Varney.  "Leave
+thy clothes and baggage under charge of mine host; and I will
+conduct thee to a service, in which, if thou do not better
+thyself, the fault shall not be fortune's, but thine own."
+
+"Brave and hearty!"  said Lambourne, "and I am mounted in an
+instant.--Knave, hostler, saddle my nag without the loss of one
+second, as thou dost value the safety of thy noddle.--Pretty
+Cicely, take half this purse to comfort thee for my sudden
+departure."
+
+"Gogsnouns!"  replied the father, "Cicely wants no such token
+from thee.  Go away, Mike, and gather grace if thou canst, though
+I think thou goest not to the land where it grows."
+
+"Let me look at this Cicely of thine, mine host," said Varney; "I
+have heard much talk of her beauty."
+
+"It is a sunburnt beauty," said mine host, "well qualified to
+stand out rain and wind, but little calculated to please such
+critical gallants as yourself.  She keeps her chamber, and cannot
+encounter the glance of such sunny-day courtiers as my noble
+guest."
+
+"Well, peace be with her, my good host," answered Varney; "our
+horses are impatient--we bid you good day."
+
+"Does my nephew go with you, so please you?"  said Gosling.
+
+"Ay, such is his purpose," answered Richard Varney.
+
+"You are right--fully right," replied mine host--"you are, I say,
+fully right, my kinsman.  Thou hast got a gay horse; see thou
+light not unaware upon a halter--or, if thou wilt needs be made
+immortal by means of a rope, which thy purpose of following this
+gentleman renders not unlikely, I charge thee to find a gallows
+as far from Cumnor as thou conveniently mayest.  And so I commend
+you to your saddle."
+
+The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted accordingly,
+leaving the landlord to conclude his ill-omened farewell, to
+himself and at leisure; and set off together at a rapid pace,
+which prevented conversation until the ascent of a steep sandy
+hill permitted them to resume it.
+
+"You are contented, then," said Varney to his companion, "to take
+court service?"
+
+"Ay, worshipful sir, if you like my terms as well as I like
+yours."
+
+"And what are your terms?"  demanded Varney.
+
+"If I am to have a quick eye for my patron's interest, he must
+have a dull one towards my faults," said Lambourne.
+
+"Ay," said Varney, "so they lie not so grossly open that he must
+needs break his shins over them."
+
+"Agreed," said Lambourne.  "Next, if I run down game, I must have
+the picking of the bones."
+
+"That is but reason," replied Varney, "so that your betters are
+served before you."
+
+"Good," said Lambourne; "and it only remains to be said, that if
+the law and I quarrel, my patron must bear me out, for that is a
+chief point."
+
+"Reason again," said Varney, "if the quarrel hath happened in
+your master's service."
+
+"For the wage and so forth, I say nothing," proceeded Lambourne;
+"it is the secret guerdon that I must live by."
+
+"Never fear," said Varney; "thou shalt have clothes and spending
+money to ruffle it with the best of thy degree, for thou goest to
+a household where you have gold, as they say, by the eye."
+
+"That jumps all with my humour," replied Michael Lambourne; "and
+it only remains that you tell me my master's name."
+
+"My name is Master Richard Varney," answered his companion.
+
+"But I mean," said Lambourne, "the name of the noble lord to
+whose service you are to prefer me."
+
+"How, knave, art thou too good to call me master?"  said Varney
+hastily; "I would have thee bold to others, but not saucy to me."
+
+"I crave your worship's pardon," said Lambourne, "but you seemed
+familiar with Anthony Foster; now I am familiar with Anthony
+myself."
+
+"Thou art a shrewd knave, I see," replied Varney.  "Mark me--I do
+indeed propose to introduce thee into a nobleman's household; but
+it is upon my person thou wilt chiefly wait, and upon my
+countenance that thou wilt depend.  I am his master of horse.
+Thou wilt soon know his name--it is one that shakes the council
+and wields the state."
+
+"By this light, a brave spell to conjure with," said Lambourne,
+"if a man would discover hidden treasures!"
+
+"Used with discretion, it may prove so," replied Varney; "but
+mark--if thou conjure with it at thine own hand, it may raise a
+devil who will tear thee in fragments."
+
+"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I will not exceed my limits."
+
+The travellers then resumed the rapid rate of travelling which
+their discourse had interrupted, and soon arrived at the Royal
+Park of Woodstock.  This ancient possession of the crown of
+England was then very different from what it had been when it was
+the residence of the fair Rosamond, and the scene of Henry the
+Second's secret and illicit amours; and yet more unlike to the
+scene which it exhibits in the present day, when Blenheim House
+commemorates the victory of Marlborough, and no less the genius
+of Vanbrugh, though decried in his own time by persons of taste
+far inferior to his own.  It was, in Elizabeth's time, an ancient
+mansion in bad repair, which had long ceased to be honoured with
+the royal residence, to the great impoverishment of the adjacent
+village.  The inhabitants, however, had made several petitions to
+the Queen to have the favour of the sovereign's countenance
+occasionally bestowed upon them; and upon this very business,
+ostensibly at least, was the noble lord, whom we have already
+introduced to our readers, a visitor at Woodstock.
+
+Varney and Lambourne galloped without ceremony into the courtyard
+of the ancient and dilapidated mansion, which presented on that
+morning a scene of bustle which it had not exhibited for two
+reigns.  Officers of the Earl's household, liverymen and
+retainers, went and came with all the insolent fracas which
+attaches to their profession.  The neigh of horses and the baying
+of hounds were heard; for my lord, in his occupation of
+inspecting and surveying the manor and demesne, was of course
+provided with the means of following his pleasure in the chase or
+park, said to have been the earliest that was enclosed in
+England, and which was well stocked with deer that had long
+roamed there unmolested.  Several of the inhabitants of the
+village, in anxious hope of a favourable result from this
+unwonted visit, loitered about the courtyard, and awaited the
+great man's coming forth.  Their attention was excited by the
+hasty arrival of Varney, and a murmur ran amongst them, "The
+Earl's master of the horse!"  while they hurried to bespeak
+favour by hastily unbonneting, and proffering to hold the bridle
+and stirrup of the favoured retainer and his attendant.
+
+"Stand somewhat aloof, my masters!"  said Varney haughtily, "and
+let the domestics do their office."
+
+The mortified citizens and peasants fell back at the signal;
+while Lambourne, who had his eye upon his superior's deportment,
+repelled the services of those who offered to assist him, with
+yet more discourtesy--"Stand back, Jack peasant, with a murrain
+to you, and let these knave footmen do their duty!"
+
+While they gave their nags to the attendants of the household,
+and walked into the mansion with an air of superiority which long
+practice and consciousness of birth rendered natural to Varney,
+and which Lambourne endeavoured to imitate as well as he could,
+the poor inhabitants of Woodstock whispered to each other, "Well-
+a-day!  God save us from all such misproud princoxes!  An the
+master be like the men, why, the fiend may take all, and yet have
+no more than his due."
+
+"Silence, good neighbours!"  said the bailiff, "keep tongue
+betwixt teeth; we shall know more by-and-by.  But never will a
+lord come to Woodstock so welcome as bluff old King Harry!  He
+would horsewhip a fellow one day with his own royal hand, and
+then fling him an handful of silver groats, with his own broad
+face on them, to 'noint the sore withal."
+
+"Ay, rest be with him!"  echoed the auditors; "it will be long
+ere this Lady Elizabeth horsewhip any of us."
+
+"There is no saying," answered the bailiff.  "Meanwhile,
+patience, good neighbours, and let us comfort ourselves by
+thinking that we deserve such notice at her Grace's hands."
+
+Meanwhile, Varney, closely followed by his new dependant, made
+his way to the hall, where men of more note and consequence than
+those left in the courtyard awaited the appearance of the Earl,
+who as yet kept his chamber.  All paid court to Varney, with more
+or less deference, as suited their own rank, or the urgency of
+the business which brought them to his lord's levee.  To the
+general question of, "When comes my lord forth, Master Varney?"
+he gave brief answers, as, "See you not my boots?  I am but just
+returned from Oxford, and know nothing of it," and the like,
+until the same query was put in a higher tone by a personage of
+more importance.  "I will inquire of the chamberlain, Sir Thomas
+Copely," was the reply.  The chamberlain, distinguished by his
+silver key, answered that the Earl only awaited Master Varney's
+return to come down, but that he would first speak with him in
+his private chamber.  Varney, therefore, bowed to the company,
+and took leave, to enter his lord's apartment.
+
+There was a murmur of expectation which lasted a few minutes, and
+was at length hushed by the opening of the folding-doors at the
+upper end or the apartment, through which the Earl made his
+entrance, marshalled by his chamberlain and the steward of his
+family, and followed by Richard Varney.  In his noble mien and
+princely features, men read nothing of that insolence which was
+practised by his dependants.  His courtesies were, indeed,
+measured by the rank of those to whom they were addressed, but
+even the meanest person present had a share of his gracious
+notice.  The inquiries which he made respecting the condition of
+the manor, of the Queen's rights there, and of the advantages and
+disadvantages which might attend her occasional residence at the
+royal seat of Woodstock, seemed to show that he had most
+earnestly investigated the matter of the petition of the
+inhabitants, and with a desire to forward the interest of the
+place.
+
+"Now the Lord love his noble countenance!"  said the bailiff, who
+had thrust himself into the presence-chamber; "he looks somewhat
+pale.  I warrant him he hath spent the whole night in perusing
+our memorial.  Master Toughyarn, who took six months to draw it
+up, said it would take a week to understand it; and see if the
+Earl hath not knocked the marrow out of it in twenty-four hours!"
+
+The Earl then acquainted them that he should move their sovereign
+to honour Woodstock occasionally with her residence during her
+royal progresses, that the town and its vicinity might derive,
+from her countenance and favour, the same advantages as from
+those of her predecessors.  Meanwhile, he rejoiced to be the
+expounder of her gracious pleasure, in assuring them that, for
+the increase of trade and encouragement of the worthy burgesses
+of Woodstock, her Majesty was minded to erect the town into a
+Staple for wool.
+
+This joyful intelligence was received with the acclamations not
+only of the better sort who were admitted to the audience-
+chamber, but of the commons who awaited without.
+
+The freedom of the corporation was presented to the Earl upon
+knee by the magistrates of the place, together with a purse of
+gold pieces, which the Earl handed to Varney, who, on his part,
+gave a share to Lambourne, as the most acceptable earnest of his
+new service.
+
+The Earl and his retinue took horse soon after to return to
+court, accompanied by the shouts of the inhabitants of Woodstock,
+who made the old oaks ring with re-echoing, "Long live Queen
+Elizabeth, and the noble Earl of Leicester!"  The urbanity and
+courtesy of the Earl even threw a gleam of popularity over his
+attendants, as their haughty deportment had formerly obscured
+that of their master; and men shouted, "Long life to the Earl,
+and to his gallant followers!"  as Varney and Lambourne, each in
+his rank, rode proudly through the streets of Woodstock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  HOST.  I will hear you, Master Fenton; and I will, at the
+  least, keep your counsel.--MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+
+It becomes necessary to return to the detail of those
+circumstances which accompanied, and indeed occasioned, the
+sudden disappearance of Tressilian from the sign of the Black
+Bear at Cumnor.  It will be recollected that this gentleman,
+after his rencounter with Varney, had returned to Giles Gosling's
+caravansary, where he shut himself up in his own chamber,
+demanded pen, ink, and paper, and announced his purpose to remain
+private for the day.  In the evening he appeared again in the
+public room, where Michael Lambourne, who had been on the watch
+for him, agreeably to his engagement to Varney, endeavoured to
+renew his acquaintance with him, and hoped he retained no
+unfriendly recollection of the part he had taken in the morning's
+scuffle.
+
+But Tressilian repelled his advances firmly, though with
+civility.  "Master Lambourne," said he, "I trust I have
+recompensed to your pleasure the time you have wasted on me.
+Under the show of wild bluntness which you exhibit, I know you
+have sense enough to understand me, when I say frankly that the
+object of our temporary acquaintance having been accomplished, we
+must be strangers to each other in future."
+
+"VOTO!"  said Lambourne, twirling his whiskers with one hand, and
+grasping the hilt of his weapon with the other; "if I thought
+that this usage was meant to insult me--"
+
+"You would bear it with discretion, doubtless," interrupted
+Tressilian, "as you must do at any rate.  You know too well the
+distance that is betwixt us, to require me to explain myself
+further.  Good evening."
+
+So saying, he turned his back upon his former companion, and
+entered into discourse with the landlord.  Michael Lambourne felt
+strongly disposed to bully; but his wrath died away in a few
+incoherent oaths and ejaculations, and he sank unresistingly
+under the ascendency which superior spirits possess over persons
+of his habits and description.  He remained moody and silent in a
+corner of the apartment, paying the most marked attention to
+every motion of his late companion, against whom he began now to
+nourish a quarrel on his own account, which he trusted to avenge
+by the execution of his new master Varney's directions.  The hour
+of supper arrived, and was followed by that of repose, when
+Tressilian, like others, retired to his sleeping apartment.
+
+He had not been in bed long, when the train of sad reveries,
+which supplied the place of rest in his disturbed mind, was
+suddenly interrupted by the jar of a door on its hinges, and a
+light was seen to glimmer in the apartment.  Tressilian, who was
+as brave as steel, sprang from his bed at this alarm, and had
+laid hand upon his sword, when he was prevented from drawing it
+by a voice which said, "Be not too rash with your rapier, Master
+Tressilian.  It is I, your host, Giles Gosling."
+
+At the same time, unshrouding the dark lantern, which had
+hitherto only emitted an indistinct glimmer, the goodly aspect
+and figure of the landlord of the Black Bear was visibly
+presented to his astonished guest.
+
+"What mummery is this, mine host?"  said Tressilian.  "Have you
+supped as jollily as last night, and so mistaken your chamber?
+or is midnight a time for masquerading it in your guest's
+lodging?"
+
+"Master Tressilian," replied mine host, "I know my place and my
+time as well as e'er a merry landlord in England.  But here has
+been my hang-dog kinsman watching you as close as ever cat
+watched a mouse; and here have you, on the other hand, quarrelled
+and fought, either with him or with some other person, and I fear
+that danger will come of it."
+
+"Go to, thou art but a fool, man," said Tressilian.  "Thy kinsman
+is beneath my resentment; and besides, why shouldst thou think I
+had quarrelled with any one whomsoever?"
+
+"Oh, sir," replied the innkeeper, "there was a red spot on thy
+very cheek-bone, which boded of a late brawl, as sure as the
+conjunction of Mars and Saturn threatens misfortune; and when you
+returned, the buckles of your girdle were brought forward, and
+your step was quick and hasty, and all things showed your hand
+and your hilt had been lately acquainted."
+
+"Well, good mine host, if I have been obliged to draw my sword,"
+said Tressilian, "why should such a circumstance fetch thee out
+of thy warm bed at this time of night?  Thou seest the mischief
+is all over."
+
+"Under favour, that is what I doubt.  Anthony Foster is a
+dangerous man, defended by strong court patronage, which hath
+borne him out in matters of very deep concernment.  And, then, my
+kinsman--why, I have told you what he is; and if these two old
+cronies have made up their old acquaintance, I would not, my
+worshipful guest, that it should be at thy cost.  I promise you,
+Mike Lambourne has been making very particular inquiries at my
+hostler when and which way you ride.  Now, I would have you think
+whether you may not have done or said something for which you may
+be waylaid, and taken at disadvantage."
+
+"Thou art an honest man, mine host," said Tressilian, after a
+moment's consideration, "and I will deal frankly with thee.  If
+these men's malice is directed against me--as I deny not but it
+may--it is because they are the agents of a more powerful villain
+than themselves."
+
+"You mean Master Richard Varney, do you not?"  said the landlord;
+"he was at Cumnor Place yesterday, and came not thither so
+private but what he was espied by one who told me."
+
+"I mean the same, mine host."
+
+"Then, for God's sake, worshipful Master Tressilian," said honest
+Gosling, "look well to yourself.  This Varney is the protector
+and patron of Anthony Foster, who holds under him, and by his
+favour, some lease of yonder mansion and the park.  Varney got a
+large grant of the lands of the Abbacy of Abingdon, and Cumnor
+Place amongst others, from his master, the Earl of Leicester.
+Men say he can do everything with him, though I hold the Earl too
+good a nobleman to employ him as some men talk of.  And then the
+Earl can do anything (that is, anything right or fitting) with
+the Queen, God bless her!  So you see what an enemy you have made
+to yourself."
+
+"Well--it is done, and I cannot help it," answered Tressilian.
+
+"Uds precious, but it must be helped in some manner," said the
+host.  "Richard Varney--why, what between his influence with my
+lord, and his pretending to so many old and vexatious claims in
+right of the abbot here, men fear almost to mention his name,
+much more to set themselves against his practices.  You may judge
+by our discourses the last night. Men said their pleasure of Tony
+Foster, but not a word of Richard Varney, though all men judge
+him to be at the bottom of yonder mystery about the pretty wench.
+But perhaps you know more of that matter than I do; for women,
+though they wear not swords, are occasion for many a blade's
+exchanging a sheath of neat's leather for one of flesh and
+blood."
+
+"I do indeed know more of that poor unfortunate lady than thou
+dost, my friendly host; and so bankrupt am I, at this moment, of
+friends and advice, that I will willingly make a counsellor of
+thee, and tell thee the whole history, the rather that I have a
+favour to ask when my tale is ended."
+
+"Good Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "I am but a poor
+innkeeper, little able to adjust or counsel such a guest as
+yourself.  But as sure as I have risen decently above the world,
+by giving good measure and reasonable charges, I am an honest
+man; and as such, if I may not be able to assist you, I am, at
+least, not capable to abuse your confidence.  Say away therefore,
+as confidently as if you spoke to your father; and thus far at
+least be certain, that my curiosity--for I will not deny that
+which belongs to my calling--is joined to a reasonable degree of
+discretion."
+
+"I doubt it not, mine host," answered Tressilian; and while his
+auditor remained in anxious expectation, he meditated for an
+instant how he should commence his narrative.  "My tale," he at
+length said, "to be quite intelligible, must begin at some
+distance back.  You have heard of the battle of Stoke, my good
+host, and perhaps of old Sir Roger Robsart, who, in that battle,
+valiantly took part with Henry VII., the Queen's grandfather, and
+routed the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Geraldin and his wild Irish, and
+the Flemings whom the Duchess of Burgundy had sent over, in the
+quarrel of Lambert Simnel?"
+
+"I remember both one and the other," said Giles Gosling; "it is
+sung of a dozen times a week on my ale-bench below.  Sir Roger
+Robsart of Devon--oh, ay, 'tis him of whom minstrels sing to this
+hour,--
+
+ 'He was the flower of Stoke's red field,
+  When Martin Swart on ground lay slain;
+  In raging rout he never reel'd,
+  But like a rock did firm remain.'
+
+[This verse, or something similar, occurs in a long ballad, or
+poem, on Flodden Field, reprinted by the late Henry Weber.]
+
+Ay, and then there was Martin Swart I have heard my grandfather
+talk of, and of the jolly Almains whom he commanded, with their
+slashed doublets and quaint hose, all frounced with ribands above
+the nether-stocks.  Here's a song goes of Martin Swart, too, an I
+had but memory for it:--
+
+ 'Martin Swart and his men,
+  Saddle them, saddle them,
+  Martin Swart and his men;
+  Saddle them well.'"
+
+[This verse of an old song actually occurs in an old play where
+the singer boasts,
+ "Courteously I can both counter and knack
+  Of Martin Swart and all his merry men."]
+
+"True, good mine host--the day was long talked of; but if you
+sing so loud, you will awake more listeners than I care to commit
+my confidence unto."
+
+"I crave pardon, my worshipful guest," said mine host, "I was
+oblivious.  When an old song comes across us merry old knights of
+the spigot, it runs away with our discretion."
+
+"Well, mine host, my grandfather, like some other Cornishmen,
+kept a warm affection to the House of York, and espoused the
+quarrel of this Simnel, assuming the title of Earl of Warwick, as
+the county afterwards, in great numbers, countenanced the cause
+of Perkin Warbeck, calling himself the Duke of York.  My
+grandsire joined Simnel's standard, and was taken fighting
+desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders of that unhappy
+army were slain in their harness.  The good knight to whom he
+rendered himself, Sir Roger Robsart, protected him from the
+immediate vengeance of the king, and dismissed him without
+ransom.  But he was unable to guard him from other penalties of
+his rashness, being the heavy fines by which he was impoverished,
+according to Henry's mode of weakening his enemies.  The good
+knight did what he might to mitigate the distresses of my
+ancestor; and their friendship became so strict, that my father
+was bred up as the sworn brother and intimate of the present Sir
+Hugh Robsart, the only son of Sir Roger, and the heir of his
+honest, and generous, and hospitable temper, though not equal to
+him in martial achievements."
+
+"I have heard of good Sir Hugh Robsart," interrupted the host,
+"many a time and oft; his huntsman and sworn servant, Will
+Badger, hath spoken of him an hundred times in this very house.
+A jovial knight he is, and hath loved hospitality and open
+housekeeping more than the present fashion, which lays as much
+gold lace on the seams of a doublet as would feed a dozen of tall
+fellows with beef and ale for a twelvemonth, and let them have
+their evening at the alehouse once a week, to do good to the
+publican."
+
+"If you have seen Will Badger, mine host," said Tressilian, "you
+have heard enough of Sir Hugh Robsart; and therefore I will but
+say, that the hospitality you boast of hath proved somewhat
+detrimental to the estate of his family, which is perhaps of the
+less consequence, as he has but one daughter to whom to bequeath
+it.  And here begins my share in the tale.  Upon my father's
+death, now several years since, the good Sir Hugh would willingly
+have made me his constant companion.  There was a time, however,
+at which I felt the kind knight's excessive love for field-sports
+detained me from studies, by which I might have profited more;
+but I ceased to regret the leisure which gratitude and hereditary
+friendship compelled me to bestow on these rural avocations.  The
+exquisite beauty of Mistress Amy Robsart, as she grew up from
+childhood to woman, could not escape one whom circumstances
+obliged to be so constantly in her company--I loved her, in
+short, mine host, and her father saw it."
+
+"And crossed your true loves, no doubt?"  said mine host.  "It is
+the way in all such cases; and I judge it must have been so in
+your instance, from the heavy sigh you uttered even now."
+
+"The case was different, mine host.  My suit was highly approved
+by the generous Sir Hugh Robsart; it was his daughter who was
+cold to my passion."
+
+"She was the more dangerous enemy of the two," said the
+innkeeper.  "I fear me your suit proved a cold one."
+
+"She yielded me her esteem," said Tressilian, "and seemed not
+unwilling that I should hope it might ripen into a warmer
+passion.  There was a contract of future marriage executed
+betwixt us, upon her father's intercession; but to comply with
+her anxious request, the execution was deferred for a
+twelvemonth.  During this period, Richard Varney appeared in the
+country, and, availing himself of some distant family connection
+with Sir Hugh Robsart, spent much of his time in his company,
+until, at length, he almost lived in the family."
+
+"That could bode no good to the place he honoured with his
+residence," said Gosling.
+
+"No, by the rood!"  replied Tressilian.  "Misunderstanding and
+misery followed his presence, yet so strangely that I am at this
+moment at a loss to trace the gradations of their encroachment
+upon a family which had, till then, been so happy.  For a time
+Amy Robsart received the attentions of this man Varney with the
+indifference attached to common courtesies; then followed a
+period in which she seemed to regard him with dislike, and even
+with disgust; and then an extraordinary species of connection
+appeared to grow up betwixt them.  Varney dropped those airs of
+pretension and gallantry which had marked his former approaches;
+and Amy, on the other hand, seemed to renounce the ill-disguised
+disgust with which she had regarded them.  They seemed to have
+more of privacy and confidence together than I fully liked, and I
+suspected that they met in private, where there was less
+restraint than in our presence.  Many circumstances, which I
+noticed but little at the time--for I deemed her heart as open as
+her angelic countenance--have since arisen on my memory, to
+convince me of their private understanding.  But I need not
+detail them--the fact speaks for itself.  She vanished from her
+father's house; Varney disappeared at the same time; and this
+very day I have seen her in the character of his paramour, living
+in the house of his sordid dependant Foster, and visited by him,
+muffled, and by a secret entrance."
+
+"And this, then, is the cause of your quarrel?  Methinks, you
+should have been sure that the fair lady either desired or
+deserved your interference."
+
+"Mine host," answered Tressilian, "my father--such I must ever
+consider Sir Hugh Robsart--sits at home struggling with his
+grief, or, if so far recovered, vainly attempting to drown, in
+the practice of his field-sports, the recollection that he had
+once a daughter--a recollection which ever and anon breaks from
+him under circumstances the most pathetic.  I could not brook the
+idea that he should live in misery, and Amy in guilt; and I
+endeavoured to-seek her out, with the hope of inducing her to
+return to her family.  I have found her, and when I have either
+succeeded in my attempt, or have found it altogether unavailing,
+it is my purpose to embark for the Virginia voyage."
+
+"Be not so rash, good sir," replied Giles Gosling, "and cast not
+yourself away because a woman--to be brief--IS a woman, and
+changes her lovers like her suit of ribands, with no better
+reason than mere fantasy.  And ere we probe this matter further,
+let me ask you what circumstances of suspicion directed you so
+truly to this lady's residence, or rather to her place of
+concealment?"
+
+"The last is the better chosen word, mine host," answered
+Tressilian; "and touching your question, the knowledge that
+Varney held large grants of the demesnes formerly belonging to
+the monks of Abingdon directed me to this neighbourhood; and your
+nephew's visit to his old comrade Foster gave me the means of
+conviction on the subject."
+
+"And what is now your purpose, worthy sir?--excuse my freedom in
+asking the question so broadly."
+
+"I purpose, mine host," said Tressilian, "to renew my visit to
+the place of her residence to-morrow, and to seek a more detailed
+communication with her than I have had to-day.  She must indeed
+be widely changed from what she once was, if my words make no
+impression upon her."
+
+"Under your favour, Master Tressilian," said the landlord, "you
+can follow no such course.  The lady, if I understand you, has
+already rejected your interference in the matter."
+
+"It is but too true," said Tressilian; "I cannot deny it."
+
+"Then, marry, by what right or interest do you process a
+compulsory interference with her inclination, disgraceful as it
+may be to herself and to her parents?  Unless my judgment gulls
+me, those under whose protection she has thrown herself would
+have small hesitation to reject your interference, even if it
+were that of a father or brother; but as a discarded lover, you
+expose yourself to be repelled with the strong hand, as well as
+with scorn.  You can apply to no magistrate for aid or
+countenance; and you are hunting, therefore, a shadow in water,
+and will only (excuse my plainness) come by ducking and danger in
+attempting to catch it."
+
+"I will appeal to the Earl of Leicester," said Tressilian,
+"against the infamy of his favourite.  He courts the severe and
+strict sect of Puritans.  He dare not, for the sake of his own
+character, refuse my appeal, even although he were destitute of
+the principles of honour and nobleness with which fame invests
+him.  Or I will appeal to the Queen herself."
+
+"Should Leicester," said the landlord, "be disposed to protect
+his dependant (as indeed he is said to be very confidential with
+Varney), the appeal to the Queen may bring them both to reason.
+Her Majesty is strict in such matters, and (if it be not treason
+to speak it) will rather, it is said, pardon a dozen courtiers
+for falling in love with herself, than one for giving preference
+to another woman.  Coragio then, my brave guest!  for if thou
+layest a petition from Sir Hugh at the foot of the throne,
+bucklered by the story of thine own wrongs, the favourite Earl
+dared as soon leap into the Thames at the fullest and deepest, as
+offer to protect Varney in a cause of this nature.  But to do
+this with any chance of success, you must go formally to work;
+and, without staying here to tilt with the master of horse to a
+privy councillor, and expose yourself to the dagger of his
+cameradoes, you should hie you to Devonshire, get a petition
+drawn up for Sir Hugh Robsart, and make as many friends as you
+can to forward your interest at court."
+
+"You have spoken well, mine host," said Tressilian, "and I will
+profit by your advice, and leave you to-morrow early."
+
+"Nay, leave me to-night, sir, before to-morrow comes," said he
+landlord.  "I never prayed for a guest's arrival more eagerly
+than I do to have you safely gone, My kinsman's destiny is most
+like to be hanged for something, but I would not that the cause
+were the murder of an honoured guest of mine.  'Better ride safe
+in the dark,' says the proverb, 'than in daylight with a cut-
+throat at your elbow.' Come, sir, I move you for your own safety.
+Your horse and all is ready, and here is your score."
+
+"It is somewhat under a noble," said Tressilian, giving one to
+the host; "give the balance to pretty Cicely, your daughter, and
+the servants of the house."
+
+"They shall taste of your bounty, sir," said Gosling, "and you
+should taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowledgment,
+but at this hour she cannot grace the porch to greet your
+departure."
+
+"Do not trust your daughter too far with your guests, my good
+landlord," said Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, sir, we will keep measure; but I wonder not that you are
+jealous of them all.--May I crave to know with what aspect the
+fair lady at the Place yesterday received you?"
+
+"I own," said Tressilian, "it was angry as well as confused, and
+affords me little hope that she is yet awakened from her unhappy
+delusion."
+
+"In that case, sir, I see not why you should play the champion of
+a wench that will none of you, and incur the resentment of a
+favourite's favourite, as dangerous a monster as ever a knight
+adventurer encountered in the old story books."
+
+"You do me wrong in the supposition, mine host--gross wrong,"
+said Tressilian; "I do not desire that Amy should ever turn
+thought upon me more.  Let me but see her restored to her father,
+and all I have to do in Europe--perhaps in the world--is over and
+ended."
+
+"A wiser resolution were to drink a cup of sack, and forget her,"
+said the landlord.  "But five-and-twenty and fifty look on those
+matters with different eyes, especially when one cast of peepers
+is set in the skull of a young gallant, and the other in that of
+an old publican.  I pity you, Master Tressilian, but I see not
+how I can aid you in the matter."
+
+"Only thus far, mine host," replied Tressilian--"keep a watch on
+the motions of those at the Place, which thou canst easily learn
+without suspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale-bench; and be
+pleased to communicate the tidings in writing to such person, and
+to no other, who shall bring you this ring as a special token.
+Look at it; it is of value, and I will freely bestow it on you."
+
+"Nay, sir," said the landlord, "I desire no recompense--but it
+seems an unadvised course in me, being in a public line, to
+connect myself in a matter of this dark and perilous nature.  I
+have no interest in it."
+
+"You, and every father in the land, who would have his daughter
+released from the snares of shame, and sin, and misery, have an
+interest deeper than aught concerning earth only could create."
+
+"Well, sir," said the host, "these are brave words; and I do pity
+from my soul the frank-hearted old gentleman, who has minished
+his estate in good housekeeping for the honour of his country,
+and now has his daughter, who should be the stay of his age, and
+so forth, whisked up by such a kite as this Varney.  And though
+your part in the matter is somewhat of the wildest, yet I will
+e'en be a madcap for company, and help you in your honest attempt
+to get back the good man's child, so far as being your faithful
+intelligencer can serve.  And as I shall be true to you, I pray
+you to be trusty to me, and keep my secret; for it were bad for
+the custom of the Black Bear should it be said the bear-warder
+interfered in such matters.  Varney has interest enough with the
+justices to dismount my noble emblem from the post on which he
+swings so gallantly, to call in my license, and ruin me from
+garret to cellar."
+
+"Do not doubt my secrecy, mine host," said Tressilian; "I will
+retain, besides, the deepest sense of thy service, and of the
+risk thou dost run--remember the ring is my sure token.  And now,
+farewell!  for it was thy wise advice that I should tarry here as
+short a time as may be."
+
+"Follow me, then, Sir Guest," said the landlord, "and tread as
+gently as if eggs were under your foot, instead of deal boards.
+No man must know when or how you departed."
+
+By the aid of his dark lantern he conducted Tressilian, as soon
+as he had made himself ready for his journey, through a long
+intricacy of passages, which opened to an outer court, and from
+thence to a remote stable, where he had already placed his
+guest's horse.  He then aided him to fasten on the saddle the
+small portmantle which contained his necessaries, opened a
+postern door, and with a hearty shake of the hand, and a
+reiteration of his promise to attend to what went on at Cumnor
+Place, he dismissed his guest to his solitary journey.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  Far in the lane a lonely hut he found,
+  No tenant ventured on the unwholesome ground:
+  Here smokes his forge, he bares his sinewy arm,
+  And early strokes the sounding anvil warm;
+  Around his shop the steely sparkles flew,
+  As for the steed he shaped the bending shoe.   GAY'S TRIVIA.
+
+As it was deemed proper by the traveller himself, as well as by
+Giles Gosling, that Tressilian should avoid being seen in the
+neighbourhood of Cumnor by those whom accident might make early
+risers, the landlord had given him a route, consisting of various
+byways and lanes, which he was to follow in succession, and
+which, all the turns and short-cuts duly observed, was to conduct
+him to the public road to Marlborough.
+
+But, like counsel of every other kind, this species of direction
+is much more easily given than followed; and what betwixt the
+intricacy of the way, the darkness of the night, Tressilian's
+ignorance of the country, and the sad and perplexing thoughts
+with which he had to contend, his journey proceeded so slowly,
+that morning found him only in the vale of Whitehorse, memorable
+for the defeat of the Danes in former days, with his horse
+deprived of a fore-foot shoe, an accident which threatened to put
+a stop to his journey by laming the animal.  The residence of a
+smith was his first object of inquiry, in which he received
+little satisfaction from the dullness or sullenness of one or two
+peasants, early bound for their labour, who gave brief and
+indifferent answers to his questions on the subject.  Anxious, at
+length, that the partner of his journey should suffer as little
+as possible from the unfortunate accident, Tressilian dismounted,
+and led his horse in the direction of a little hamlet, where he
+hoped either to find or hear tidings of such an artificer as he
+now wanted.  Through a deep and muddy lane, he at length waded on
+to the place, which proved only an assemblage of five or six
+miserable huts, about the doors of which one or two persons,
+whose appearance seemed as rude as that of their dwellings, were
+beginning the toils of the day.  One cottage, however, seemed of
+rather superior aspect, and the old dame, who was sweeping her
+threshold, appeared something less rude than her neighbours.  To
+her Tressilian addressed the oft-repeated question, whether there
+was a smith in this neighbourhood, or any place where he could
+refresh his horse?  The dame looked him in the face with a
+peculiar expression as she replied, "Smith!  ay, truly is there a
+smith--what wouldst ha' wi' un, mon?"
+
+"To shoe my horse, good dame," answered Tressiliany:  you may see
+that he has thrown a fore-foot shoe."
+
+"Master Holiday!"  exclaimed the dame, without returning any
+direct answer--"Master Herasmus Holiday, come and speak to mon,
+and please you."
+
+"FAVETE LINGUIS," answered a voice from within;" I cannot now
+come forth, Gammer Sludge, being in the very sweetest bit of my
+morning studies."
+
+"Nay, but, good now, Master Holiday, come ye out, do ye.  Here's
+a mon would to Wayland Smith, and I care not to show him way to
+devil; his horse hath cast shoe."
+
+"QUID MIHI CUM CABALLO?"  replied the man of learning from
+within; "I think there is but one wise man in the hundred, and
+they cannot shoe a horse without him!"
+
+And forth came the honest pedagogue, for such his dress bespoke
+him.  A long, lean, shambling, stooping figure was surmounted by
+a head thatched with lank, black hair somewhat inclining to grey.
+His features had the cast of habitual authority, which I suppose
+Dionysius carried with him from the throne to the schoolmaster's
+pulpit, and bequeathed as a legacy to all of the same profession,
+A black buckram cassock was gathered at his middle with a belt,
+at which hung, instead of knife or weapon, a goodly leathern pen-
+and-ink case.  His ferula was stuck on the other side, like
+Harlequin's wooden sword; and he carried in his hand the tattered
+volume which he had been busily perusing.
+
+On seeing a person of Tressilian's appearance, which he was
+better able to estimate than the country folks had been, the
+schoolmaster unbonneted, and accosted him with, "SALVE, DOMINE.
+INTELLIGISNE LINGUAM LATINAM?"
+
+Tressilian mustered his learning to reply, "LINGUAE LATINAE HAUD
+PENITUS IGNARUS, VENIA TUA, DOMINE ERUDITISSIME, VERNACULAM
+LIBENTIUS LOQUOR."
+
+The Latin reply had upon the schoolmaster the effect which the
+mason's sign is said to produce on the brethren of the trowel.
+He was at once interested in the learned traveller, listened with
+gravity to his story of a tired horse and a lost shoe, and then
+replied with solemnity, "It may appear a simple thing, most
+worshipful, to reply to you that there dwells, within a brief
+mile of these TUGURIA, the best FABER FERARIUS, the most
+accomplished blacksmith, that ever nailed iron upon horse.  Now,
+were I to say so, I warrant me you would think yourself COMPOS
+VOTI, or, as the vulgar have it, a made man."
+
+"I should at least," said Tressilian, "have a direct answer to a
+plain question, which seems difficult to be obtained in this
+country."
+
+"It is a mere sending of a sinful soul to the evil un," said the
+old woman, "the sending a living creature to Wayland Smith."
+
+"Peace, Gammer Sludge!"  said the pedagogue; "PAUCA VERBA, Gammer
+Sludge; look to the furmity, Gammer Sludge; CURETUR JENTACULUM,
+Gammer Sludge; this gentleman is none of thy gossips."  Then
+turning to Tressilian, he resumed his lofty tone, "And so, most
+worshipful, you would really think yourself FELIX BIS TERQUE
+should I point out to you the dwelling of this same smith?"
+
+"Sir," replied Tressilian, "I should in that case have all that I
+want at present--a horse fit to carry me forward;--out of hearing
+of your learning."  The last words he muttered to himself.
+
+"O CAECA MENS MORTALIUM!"  said the learned man "well was it sung
+by Junius Juvenalis, 'NUMINIBUS VOTA EXAUDITA MALIGNIS!'"
+
+"Learned Magister," said Tressilian, "your erudition so greatly
+exceeds my poor intellectual capacity that you must excuse my
+seeking elsewhere for information which I can better understand."
+
+"There again now," replied the pedagogue, "how fondly you fly
+from him that would instruct you!  Truly said Quintilian--"
+
+"I pray, sir, let Quintilian be for the present, and answer, in a
+word and in English, if your learning can condescend so far,
+whether there is any place here where I can have opportunity to
+refresh my horse until I can have him shod?"
+
+"Thus much courtesy, sir," said the schoolmaster, "I can readily
+render you, that although there is in this poor hamlet (NOSTRA
+PAUPERA REGNA) no regular HOSPITIUM, as my namesake Erasmus
+calleth it, yet, forasmuch as you are somewhat embued, or at
+least tinged, as it were, with good letters, I will use my
+interest with the good woman of the house to accommodate you with
+a platter of furmity--an wholesome food for which I have found no
+Latin phrase--your horse shall have a share of the cow-house,
+with a bottle of sweet hay, in which the good woman Sludge so
+much abounds, that it may be said of her cow, FAENUM HABET IN
+CORNU; and if it please you to bestow on me the pleasure of your
+company, the banquet shall cost you NE SEMISSEM QUIDEM, so much
+is Gammer Sludge bound to me for the pains I have bestowed on the
+top and bottom of her hopeful heir Dickie, whom I have painfully
+made to travel through the accidence."
+
+"Now, God yield ye for it, Master Herasmus," said the good
+Gammer, "and grant that little Dickie may be the better for his
+accident!  And for the rest, if the gentleman list to stay,
+breakfast shall be on the board in the wringing of a dishclout;
+and for horse-meat, and man's meat, I bear no such base mind as
+to ask a penny."
+
+Considering the state of his horse, Tressilian, upon the whole,
+saw no better course than to accept the invitation thus learnedly
+made and hospitably confirmed, and take chance that when the good
+pedagogue had exhausted every topic of conversation, he might
+possibly condescend to tell him where he could find the smith
+they spoke of.  He entered the hut accordingly, and sat down with
+the learned Magister Erasmus Holiday, partook of his furmity, and
+listened to his learned account of himself for a good half hour,
+ere he could get him to talk upon any other topic, The reader
+will readily excuse our accompanying this man of learning into
+all the details with which he favoured Tressilian, of which the
+following sketch may suffice.
+
+He was born at Hogsnorton, where, according to popular saying,
+the pigs play upon the organ; a proverb which he interpreted
+allegorically, as having reference to the herd of Epicurus, of
+which litter Horace confessed himself a porker.  His name of
+Erasmus he derived partly from his father having been the son of
+a renowned washerwoman, who had held that great scholar in clean
+linen all the while he was at Oxford; a task of some difficulty,
+as he was only possessed of two shirts, "the one," as she
+expressed herself, "to wash the other," The vestiges of one of
+these CAMICIAE, as Master Holiday boasted, were still in his
+possession, having fortunately been detained by his grandmother
+to cover the balance of her bill.  But he thought there was a
+still higher and overruling cause for his having had the name of
+Erasmus conferred on him--namely, the secret presentiment of his
+mother's mind that, in the babe to be christened, was a hidden
+genius, which should one day lead him to rival the fame of the
+great scholar of Amsterdam.  The schoolmaster's surname led him
+as far into dissertation as his Christian appellative.  He was
+inclined to think that he bore the name of Holiday QUASI LUCUS A
+NON LUCENDO, because he gave such few holidays to his school.
+"Hence," said he, "the schoolmaster is termed, classically, LUDI
+MAGISTER, because he deprives boys of their play."  And yet, on
+the other hand, he thought it might bear a very different
+interpretation, and refer to his own exquisite art in arranging
+pageants, morris-dances, May-day festivities, and such-like
+holiday delights, for which he assured Tressilian he had
+positively the purest and the most inventive brain in England;
+insomuch, that his cunning in framing such pleasures had made him
+known to many honourable persons, both in country and court, and
+especially to the noble Earl of Leicester.  "And although he may
+now seem to forget me," he said, "in the multitude of state
+affairs, yet I am well assured that, had he some pretty pastime
+to array for entertainment of the Queen's Grace, horse and man
+would be seeking the humble cottage of Erasmus Holiday.  PARVO
+CONTENTUS, in the meanwhile, I hear my pupils parse and construe,
+worshipful sir, and drive away my time with the aid of the Muses.
+And I have at all times, when in correspondence with foreign
+scholars, subscribed myself Erasmus ab Die Fausto, and have
+enjoyed the distinction due to the learned under that title:
+witness the erudite Diedrichus Buckerschockius, who dedicated to
+me under that title his treatise on the letter TAU.  In fine,
+sir, I have been a happy and distinguished man."
+
+"Long may it be so, sir!"  said the traveller; "but permit me to
+ask, in your own learned phrase, QUID HOC AD IPHYCLI BOVES?  what
+has all this to do with the shoeing of my poor nag?"
+
+"FESTINA LENTE," said the man of learning, "we will presently
+came to that point.  You must know that some two or three years
+past there came to these parts one who called himself Doctor
+Doboobie, although it may be he never wrote even MAGISTER ARTIUM,
+save in right of his hungry belly.  Or it may be, that if he had
+any degrees, they were of the devil's giving; for he was what the
+vulgar call a white witch, a cunning man, and such like.--Now,
+good sir, I perceive you are impatient; but if a man tell not his
+tale his own way, how have you warrant to think that he can tell
+it in yours?"
+
+"Well, then, learned sir, take your way," answered Tressilian;
+"only let us travel at a sharper pace, for my time is somewhat of
+the shortest."
+
+"Well, sir," resumed Erasmus Holiday, with the most provoking
+perseverance, "I will not say that this same Demetrius for so he
+wrote himself when in foreign parts, was an actual conjurer, but
+certain it is that he professed to be a brother of the mystical
+Order of the Rosy Cross, a disciple of Geber (EX NOMINE CUJUS
+VENIT VERBUM VERNACULUM, GIBBERISH).  He cured wounds by salving
+the weapon instead of the sore; told fortunes by palmistry;
+discovered stolen goods by the sieve and shears; gathered the
+right maddow and the male fern seed, through use of which men
+walk invisible; pretended some advances towards the panacea, or
+universal elixir; and affected to convert good lead into sorry
+silver."
+
+"In other words," said Tressilian, "he was a quacksalver and
+common cheat; but what has all this to do with my nag, and the
+shoe which he has lost?"
+
+"With your worshipful patience," replied the diffusive man of
+letters, "you shall understand that presently--PATENTIA then,
+right worshipful, which word, according to our Marcus Tullius, is
+'DIFFICILIUM RERUM DIURNA PERPESSIO.' This same Demetrius
+Doboobie, after dealing with the country, as I have told you,
+began to acquire fame INTER MAGNATES, among the prime men of the
+land, and there is likelihood he might have aspired to great
+matters, had not, according to vulgar fame (for I aver not the
+thing as according with my certain knowledge), the devil claimed
+his right, one dark night, and flown off with Demetrius, who was
+never seen or heard of afterwards.  Now here comes the MEDULLA,
+the very marrow, of my tale.  This Doctor Doboobie had a servant,
+a poor snake, whom he employed in trimming his furnace,
+regulating it by just measure--compounding his drugs--tracing his
+circles--cajoling his patients, ET SIC ET CAETERIS.  Well, right
+worshipful, the Doctor being removed thus strangely, and in a way
+which struck the whole country with terror, this poor Zany thinks
+to himself, in the words of Maro, 'UNO AVULSO, NON DEFICIT
+ALTER;' and, even as a tradesman's apprentice sets himself up in
+his master's shop when he is dead or hath retired from business,
+so doth this Wayland assume the dangerous trade of his defunct
+master.  But although, most worshipful sir, the world is ever
+prone to listen to the pretensions of such unworthy men, who are,
+indeed, mere SALTIM BANQUI and CHARLATANI, though usurping the
+style and skill of doctors of medicine, yet the pretensions of
+this poor Zany, this Wayland, were too gross to pass on them, nor
+was there a mere rustic, a villager, who was not ready to accost
+him in the sense of Persius, though in their own rugged words,--
+
+  DILIUS HELLEBORUM CERTO COMPESCERE PUNCTO
+  NESCIUS EXAMEN?  VETAT HOC NATURA VEDENDI;'
+
+which I have thus rendered in a poor paraphrase of mine own,--
+
+  Wilt thou mix hellebore, who dost not know
+  How many grains should to the mixture go?
+  The art of medicine this forbids, I trow.
+
+Moreover, the evil reputation of the master, and his strange and
+doubtful end, or at least sudden disappearance, prevented any,
+excepting the most desperate of men, to seek any advice or
+opinion from the servant; wherefore, the poor vermin was likely
+at first to swarf for very hunger.  But the devil that serves
+him, since the death of Demetrius or Doboobie, put him on a fresh
+device.  This knave, whether from the inspiration of the devil,
+or from early education, shoes horses better than e'er a man
+betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice on the
+bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged species called mankind, and
+betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses."
+
+"Indeed!  and where does he lodge all this time?"  said
+Tressilian. "And does he shoe horses well?  Show me his dwelling
+presently."
+
+The interruption pleased not the Magister, who exclaimed, "O
+CAECA MENS MORTALIUM!--though, by the way, I used that quotation
+before.  But I would the classics could afford me any sentiment
+of power to stop those who are so willing to rush upon their own
+destruction.  Hear but, I pray you, the conditions of this man,"
+said he, in continuation, "ere you are so willing to place
+yourself within his danger--"
+
+"A' takes no money for a's work," said the dame, who stood by,
+enraptured as it were with the line words and learned apophthegms
+which glided so fluently from her erudite inmate, Master Holiday.
+But this interruption pleased not the Magister more than that of
+the traveller.
+
+"Peace," said he, "Gammer Sludge; know your place, if it be your
+will.  SUFFLAMINA, Gammer Sludge, and allow me to expound this
+matter to our worshipful guest.--Sir," said he, again addressing
+Tressilian, "this old woman speaks true, though in her own rude
+style; for certainly this FABER FERRARIUS, or blacksmith, takes
+money of no one."
+
+"And that is a sure sign he deals with Satan," said Dame Sludge;
+"since no good Christian would ever refuse the wages of his
+labour."
+
+"The old woman hath touched it again," said the pedagogue; "REM
+ACU TETIGIT--she hath pricked it with her needle's point.  This
+Wayland takes no money, indeed; nor doth he show himself to any
+one."
+
+"And can this madman, for such I hold him," said the traveller,
+"know aught like good skill of his trade?"
+
+"Oh, sir, in that let us give the devil his due--Mulciber
+himself, with all his Cyclops, could hardly amend him.  But
+assuredly there is little wisdom in taking counsel or receiving
+aid from one who is but too plainly in league with the author of
+evil."
+
+"I must take my chance of that, good Master Holiday," said
+Tressilian, rising; "and as my horse must now have eaten his
+provender, I must needs thank you for your good cheer, and pray
+you to show me this man's residence, that I may have the means of
+proceeding on my journey."
+
+"Ay, ay, do ye show him, Master Herasmus," said the old dame, who
+was, perhaps, desirous to get her house freed of her guest; "a'
+must needs go when the devil drives."
+
+"DO MANUS," said the Magister, "I submit--taking the world to
+witness, that I have possessed this honourable gentleman with the
+full injustice which he has done and shall do to his own soul, if
+he becomes thus a trinketer with Satan.  Neither will I go forth
+with our guest myself, but rather send my pupil.--RICARDE!
+ADSIS, NEBULO."
+
+"Under your favour, not so," answered the old woman; "you may
+peril your own soul, if you list, but my son shall budge on no
+such errand.  And I wonder at you, Dominie Doctor, to propose
+such a piece of service for little Dickie."
+
+"Nay, my good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor, "Ricardus
+shall go but to the top of the hill, and indicate with his digit
+to the stranger the dwelling of Wayland Smith.  Believe not that
+any evil can come to him, he having read this morning, fasting, a
+chapter of the Septuagint, and, moreover, having had his lesson
+in the Greek Testament."
+
+"Ay," said his mother, "and I have sewn a sprig of witch's elm in
+the neck of un's doublet, ever since that foul thief has begun
+his practices on man and beast in these parts."
+
+"And as he goes oft (as I hugely suspect) towards this conjurer
+for his own pastime, he may for once go thither, or near it, to
+pleasure us, and to assist this stranger.--ERGO, HEUS RICARDE!
+ADSIS, QUAESO, MI DIDASCULE."
+
+The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came stumbling
+into the room; a queer, shambling, ill-made urchin, who, by his
+stunted growth, seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, though
+he was probably, in reality, a year or two older, with a carroty
+pate in huge disorder, a freckled, sunburnt visage, with a snub
+nose, a long chin, and two peery grey eyes, which had a droll
+obliquity of vision, approaching to a squint, though perhaps not
+a decided one.  It was impossible to look at the little man
+without some disposition to laugh, especially when Gammer Sludge,
+seizing upon and kissing him, in spite of his struggling and
+kicking in reply to her caresses, termed him her own precious
+pearl of beauty.
+
+"RICARDE," said the preceptor, "you must forthwith (which is
+PROFECTO) set forth so far as the top of the hill, and show this
+man of worship Wayland Smith's workshop."
+
+"A proper errand of a morning," said the boy, in better language
+than Tressilian expected; "and who knows but the devil may fly
+away with me before I come back?"
+
+"Ay, marry may un," said Dame Sludge; "and you might have thought
+twice, Master Domine, ere you sent my dainty darling on arrow
+such errand.  It is not for such doings I feed your belly and
+clothe your back, I warrant you!"
+
+"Pshaw--NUGAE, good Gammer Sludge," answered the preceptor; "I
+ensure you that Satan, if there be Satan in the case, shall not
+touch a thread of his garment; for Dickie can say his PATER with
+the best, and may defy the foul fiend--EUMENIDES, STYGIUMQUE
+NEFAS."
+
+"Ay, and I, as I said before, have sewed a sprig of the mountain-
+ash into his collar," said the good woman, "which will avail more
+than your clerkship, I wus; but for all that, it is ill to seek
+the devil or his mates either."
+
+"My good boy," said Tressilian, who saw, from a grotesque sneer
+on Dickie's face, that he was more likely to act upon his own
+bottom than by the instructions of his elders, "I will give thee
+a silver groat, my pretty fellow, if you will but guide me to
+this man's forge."
+
+The boy gave him a knowing side-look, which seemed to promise
+acquiescence, while at the same time he exclaimed, "I be your
+guide to Wayland Smith's!  Why, man, did I not say that the devil
+might fly off with me, just as the kite there" (looking to the
+window) "is flying off with one of grandam's chicks?"
+
+"The kite!  the kite!"  exclaimed the old woman in return, and
+forgetting all other matters in her alarm, hastened to the rescue
+of her chickens as fast as her old legs could carry her.
+
+"Now for it," said the urchin to Tressilian; "snatch your beaver,
+get out your horse, and have at the silver groat you spoke of."
+
+"Nay, but tarry, tarry," said the preceptor--"SUFFLAMINA,
+RICARDE!"
+
+"Tarry yourself," said Dickie, "and think what answer you are to
+make to granny for sending me post to the devil."
+
+The teacher, aware of the responsibility he was incurring,
+bustled up in great haste to lay hold of the urchin and to
+prevent his departure; but Dickie slipped through his fingers,
+bolted from the cottage, and sped him to the top of a
+neighbouring rising ground, while the preceptor, despairing, by
+well-taught experience, of recovering his pupil by speed of foot,
+had recourse to the most honied epithets the Latin vocabulary
+affords to persuade his return.  But to MI ANIME, CORCULUM MEUM,
+and all such classical endearments, the truant turned a deaf ear,
+and kept frisking on the top of the rising ground like a goblin
+by moonlight, making signs to his new acquaintance, Tressilian,
+to follow him.
+
+The traveller lost no time in getting out his horse and departing
+to join his elvish guide, after half-forcing on the poor,
+deserted teacher a recompense for the entertainment he had
+received, which partly allayed that terror he had for facing the
+return of the old lady of the mansion.  Apparently this took
+place soon afterwards; for ere Tressilian and his guide had
+proceeded far on their journey, they heard the screams of a
+cracked female voice, intermingled with the classical
+objurgations of Master Erasmus Holiday.  But Dickie Sludge,
+equally deaf to the voice of maternal tenderness and of
+magisterial authority, skipped on unconsciously before
+Tressilian, only observing that "if they cried themselves hoarse,
+they might go lick the honey-pot, for he had eaten up all the
+honey-comb himself on yesterday even."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  There entering in, they found the goodman selfe
+  Full busylie unto his work ybent,
+  Who was to weet a wretched wearish elf,
+  With hollow eyes and rawbone cheeks forspent,
+  As if he had been long in prison pent.   THE FAERY QUEENE.
+
+"Are we far from the dwelling of this smith, my pretty lad?"
+said Tressilian to his young guide.
+
+"How is it you call me?"  said the boy, looking askew at him with
+his sharp, grey eyes.
+
+"I call you my pretty lad--is there any offence in that, my boy?"
+
+"No; but were you with my grandam and Dominie Holiday, you might
+sing chorus to the old song of
+
+  'We three
+  Tom-fools be.'"
+
+"And why so, my little man?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Because," answered the ugly urchin, "you are the only three ever
+called me pretty lad.  Now my grandam does it because she is
+parcel blind by age, and whole blind by kindred; and my master,
+the poor Dominie, does it to curry favour, and have the fullest
+platter of furmity and the warmest seat by the fire.  But what
+you call me pretty lad for, you know best yourself."
+
+"Thou art a sharp wag at least, if not a pretty one.  But what do
+thy playfellows call thee?"
+
+"Hobgoblin," answered the boy readily; "but for all that, I would
+rather have my own ugly viznomy than any of their jolter-heads,
+that have no more brains in them than a brick-bat."
+
+"Then you fear not this smith whom you are going to see?"
+
+"Me fear him!"  answered the boy.  "If he were the devil folk
+think him, I would not fear him; but though there is something
+queer about him, he's no more a devil than you are, and that's
+what I would not tell to every one."
+
+"And why do you tell it to me, then, my boy?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Because you are another guess gentleman than those we see here
+every day," replied Dickie; "and though I am as ugly as sin, I
+would not have you think me an ass, especially as I may have a
+boon to ask of you one day."
+
+"And what is that, my lad, whom I must not call pretty?"  replied
+Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, if I were to ask it just now," said the boy, "you would deny
+it me; but I will wait till we meet at court."
+
+"At court, Richard!  are you bound for court?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Ay, ay, that's just like the rest of them," replied the boy.  "I
+warrant me, you think, what should such an ill-favoured,
+scrambling urchin do at court?  But let Richard Sludge alone; I
+have not been cock of the roost here for nothing.  I will make
+sharp wit mend foul feature."
+
+"But what will your grandam say, and your tutor, Dominie
+Holiday?"
+
+"E'en what they like," replied Dickie; "the one has her chickens
+to reckon, and the other has his boys to whip.  I would have
+given them the candle to hold long since, and shown this trumpery
+hamlet a fair pair of heels, but that Dominie promises I should
+go with him to bear share in the next pageant he is to set forth,
+and they say there are to be great revels shortly."
+
+"And whereabouts are they to be held, my little friend?"  said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Oh, at some castle far in the north," answered his guide--"a
+world's breadth from Berkshire.  But our old Dominie holds that
+they cannot go forward without him; and it may be he is right,
+for he has put in order many a fair pageant.  He is not half the
+fool you would take him for, when he gets to work he understands;
+and so he can spout verses like a play-actor, when, God wot, if
+you set him to steal a goose's egg, he would be drubbed by the
+gander."
+
+"And you are to play a part in his next show?"  said Tressilian,
+somewhat interested by the boy's boldness of conversation and
+shrewd estimate of character.
+
+"In faith," said Richard Sludge, in answer, "he hath so promised
+me; and if he break his word, it will be the worse for him, for
+let me take the bit between my teeth, and turn my head downhill,
+and I will shake him off with a fall that may harm his bones.
+And I should not like much to hurt him neither," said he, "for
+the tiresome old fool has painfully laboured to teach me all he
+could.  But enough of that--here are we at Wayland Smith's forge-
+door."
+
+"You jest, my little friend," said Tressilian; "here is nothing
+but a bare moor, and that ring of stones, with a great one in the
+midst, like a Cornish barrow."
+
+"Ay, and that great flat stone in the midst, which lies across
+the top of these uprights," said the boy, "is Wayland Smith's
+counter, that you must tell down your money upon."
+
+"What do you mean by such folly?"  said the traveller, beginning
+to be angry with the boy, and vexed with himself for having
+trusted such a hare-brained guide.
+
+"Why," said Dickie, with a grin, "you must tie your horse to that
+upright stone that has the ring in't, and then you must whistle
+three times, and lay me down your silver groat on that other flat
+stone, walk out of the circle, sit down on the west side of that
+little thicket of bushes, and take heed you look neither to right
+nor to left for ten minutes, or so long as you shall hear the
+hammer clink, and whenever it ceases, say your prayers for the
+space you could tell a hundred--or count over a hundred, which
+will do as well--and then come into the circle; you will find
+your money gone and your horse shod."
+
+"My money gone to a certainty!"  said Tressilian; "but as for the
+rest--Hark ye, my lad, I am not your school-master, but if you
+play off your waggery on me, I will take a part of his task off
+his hands, and punish you to purpose."
+
+"Ay, when you catch me!"  said the boy; and presently took to his
+heels across the heath, with a velocity which baffled every
+attempt of Tressilian to overtake him, loaded as he was with his
+heavy boots.  Nor was it the least provoking part of the urchin's
+conduct, that he did not exert his utmost speed, like one who
+finds himself in danger, or who is frightened, but preserved just
+such a rate as to encourage Tressilian to continue the chase, and
+then darted away from him with the swiftness of the wind, when
+his pursuer supposed he had nearly run him down, doubling at the
+same time, and winding, so as always to keep near the place from
+which he started.
+
+This lasted until Tressilian, from very weariness, stood still,
+and was about to abandon the pursuit with a hearty curse on the
+ill-favoured urchin, who had engaged him in an exercise so
+ridiculous.  But the boy, who had, as formerly, planted himself
+on the top of a hillock close in front, began to clap his long,
+thin hands, point with his skinny fingers, and twist his wild and
+ugly features into such an extravagant expression of laughter and
+derision, that Tressilian began half to doubt whether he had not
+in view an actual hobgoblin.
+
+Provoked extremely, yet at the same time feeling an irresistible
+desire to laugh, so very odd were the boy's grimaces and
+gesticulations, the Cornishman returned to his horse, and mounted
+him with the purpose of pursuing Dickie at more advantage.
+
+The boy no sooner saw him mount his horse, than he holloed out to
+him that, rather than he should spoil his white-footed nag, he
+would come to him, on condition he would keep his fingers to
+himself.
+
+"I will make no conditions with thee, thou ugly varlet!"  said
+Tressilian; "I will have thee at my mercy in a moment."
+
+"Aha, Master Traveller," said the boy, "there is a marsh hard by
+would swallow all the horses of the Queen's guard.  I will into
+it, and see where you will go then.  You shall hear the bittern
+bump, and the wild-drake quack, ere you get hold of me without my
+consent, I promise you."
+
+Tressilian looked out, and, from the appearance of the ground
+behind the hillock, believed it might be as the boy said, and
+accordingly determined to strike up a peace with so light-footed
+and ready-witted an enemy.  "Come down," he said, "thou
+mischievous brat!  Leave thy mopping and mowing, and, come
+hither.
+
+I will do thee no harm, as I am a gentleman."
+
+The boy answered his invitation with the utmost confidence, and
+danced down from his stance with a galliard sort of step, keeping
+his eye at the same time fixed on Tressilian's, who, once more
+dismounted, stood with his horse's bridle in his hand,
+breathless, and half exhausted with his fruitless exercise,
+though not one drop of moisture appeared on the freckled forehead
+of the urchin, which looked like a piece of dry and discoloured
+parchment, drawn tight across the brow of a fleshless skull.
+
+"And tell me," said Tressilian, "why you use me thus, thou
+mischievous imp?  or what your meaning is by telling me so absurd
+a legend as you wished but now to put on me?  Or rather show me,
+in good earnest, this smith's forge, and I will give thee what
+will buy thee apples through the whole winter."
+
+"Were you to give me an orchard of apples," said Dickie Sludge,
+"I can guide thee no better than I have done.  Lay down the
+silver token on the flat stone--whistle three times--then come
+sit down on the western side of the thicket of gorse.  I will sit
+by you, and give you free leave to wring my head off, unless you
+hear the smith at work within two minutes after we are seated."
+
+"I may be tempted to take thee at thy word," said Tressilian, "if
+you make me do aught half so ridiculous for your own mischievous
+sport; however, I will prove your spell.  Here, then, I tie my
+horse to this upright stone.  I must lay my silver groat here,
+and whistle three times, sayest thou?"
+
+"Ay, but thou must whistle louder than an unfledged ousel," said
+the boy, as Tressilian, having laid down his money, and half
+ashamed of the folly he practised, made a careless whistle--"you
+must whistle louder than that, for who knows where the smith is
+that you call for?  He may be in the King of France's stables for
+what I know."
+
+"Why, you said but now he was no devil," replied Tressilian.
+
+"Man or devil," said Dickie, "I see that I must summon him for
+you;" and therewithal he whistled sharp and shrill, with an
+acuteness of sound that almost thrilled through Tressilian's
+brain.  "That is what I call whistling," said he, after he had
+repeated the signal thrice; "and now to cover, to cover, or
+Whitefoot will not be shod this day."
+
+Tressilian, musing what the upshot of this mummery was to be, yet
+satisfied there was to be some serious result, by the confidence
+with which the boy had put himself in his power, suffered himself
+to be conducted to that side of the little thicket of gorse and
+brushwood which was farthest from the circle of stones, and there
+sat down; and as it occurred to him that, after all, this might
+be a trick for stealing his horse, he kept his hand on the boy's
+collar, determined to make him hostage for its safety.
+
+"Now, hush and listen," said Dickie, in a low whisper; "you will
+soon hear the tack of a hammer that was never forged of earthly
+iron, for the stone it was made of was shot from the moon."  And
+in effect Tressilian did immediately hear the light stroke of a
+hammer, as when a farrier is at work.  The singularity of such a
+sound, in so very lonely a place, made him involuntarily start;
+but looking at the boy, and discovering, by the arch malicious
+expression of his countenance, that the urchin saw and enjoyed
+his slight tremor, he became convinced that the whole was a
+concerted stratagem, and determined to know by whom, or for what
+purpose, the trick was played off.
+
+Accordingly, he remained perfectly quiet all the time that the
+hammer continued to sound, being about the space usually employed
+in fixing a horse-shoe.  But the instant the sound ceased,
+Tressilian, instead of interposing the space of time which his
+guide had required, started up with his sword in his hand, ran
+round the thicket, and confronted a man in a farrier's leathern
+apron, but otherwise fantastically attired in a bear-skin dressed
+with the fur on, and a cap of the same, which almost hid the
+sooty and begrimed features of the wearer.  "Come back, come
+back!"  cried the boy to Tressilian, "or you will be torn to
+pieces; no man lives that looks on him."  In fact, the invisible
+smith (now fully visible) heaved up his hammer, and showed
+symptoms of doing battle.
+
+But when the boy observed that neither his own entreaties nor the
+menaces of the farrier appeared to change Tressilian's purpose,
+but that, on the contrary, he confronted the hammer with his
+drawn sword, he exclaimed to the smith in turn, "Wayland, touch
+him not, or you will come by the worse!--the gentleman is a true
+gentleman, and a bold."
+
+"So thou hast betrayed me, Flibbertigibbet?"  said the smith; "it
+shall be the worse for thee!"
+
+"Be who thou wilt," said Tressilian, "thou art in no danger from
+me, so thou tell me the meaning of this practice, and why thou
+drivest thy trade in this mysterious fashion."
+
+The smith, however, turning to Tressilian, exclaimed, in a
+threatening tone, "Who questions the Keeper of the Crystal Castle
+of Light, the Lord of the Green Lion, the Rider of the Red
+Dragon?  Hence!--avoid thee, ere I summon Talpack with his fiery
+lance, to quell, crush, and consume!"  These words he uttered
+with violent gesticulation, mouthing, and flourishing his hammer.
+
+"Peace, thou vile cozener, with thy gipsy cant!"  replied
+Tressilian scornfully, "and follow me to the next magistrate, or
+I will cut thee over the pate."
+
+"Peace, I pray thee, good Wayland!"  said the boy.  "Credit me,
+the swaggering vein will not pass here; you must cut boon whids."
+["Give good words."--SLANG DIALECT.]
+
+"I think, worshipful sir," said the smith, sinking his hammer,
+and assuming a more gentle and submissive tone of voice, "that
+when so poor a man does his day's job, he might be permitted to
+work it out after his own fashion.  Your horse is shod, and your
+farrier paid--what need you cumber yourself further than to mount
+and pursue your journey?"
+
+"Nay, friend, you are mistaken," replied Tressilian; "every man
+has a right to take the mask from the face of a cheat and a
+juggler; and your mode of living raises suspicion that you are
+both."
+
+"If you are so determined; sir," said the smith, "I cannot help
+myself save by force, which I were unwilling to use towards you,
+Master Tressilian; not that I fear your weapon, but because I
+know you to be a worthy, kind, and well-accomplished gentleman,
+who would rather help than harm a poor man that is in a strait."
+
+"Well said, Wayland," said the boy, who had anxiously awaited the
+issue of their conference.  "But let us to thy den, man, for it
+is ill for thy health to stand here talking in the open air."
+
+"Thou art right, Hobgoblin," replied the smith; and going to the
+little thicket of gorse on the side nearest to the circle, and
+opposite to that at which his customer had so lately crouched, he
+discovered a trap-door curiously covered with bushes, raised it,
+and, descending into the earth, vanished from their eyes.
+Notwithstanding Tressilian's curiosity, he had some hesitation at
+following the fellow into what might be a den of robbers,
+especially when he heard the smith's voice, issuing from the
+bowels of the earth, call out, "Flibertigibbet, do you come last,
+and be sure to fasten the trap!"
+
+"Have you seen enough of Wayland Smith now?"  whispered the
+urchin to Tressilian, with an arch sneer, as if marking his
+companion's uncertainty.
+
+"Not yet," said Tressilian firmly; and shaking off his momentary
+irresolution, he descended into the narrow staircase, to which
+the entrance led, and was followed by Dickie Sludge, who made
+fast the trap-door behind him, and thus excluded every glimmer of
+daylight.  The descent, however, was only a few steps, and led to
+a level passage of a few yards' length, at the end of which
+appeared the reflection of a lurid and red light.  Arrived at
+this point, with his drawn sword in his hand, Tressilian found
+that a turn to the left admitted him and Hobgoblin, who followed
+closely, into a small, square vault, containing a smith's forge,
+glowing with charcoal, the vapour of which filled the apartment
+with an oppressive smell, which would have been altogether
+suffocating, but that by some concealed vent the smithy
+communicated with the upper air.  The light afforded by the red
+fuel, and by a lamp suspended in an iron chain, served to show
+that, besides an anvil, bellows, tongs, hammers, a quantity of
+ready-made horse-shoes, and other articles proper to the
+profession of a farrier, there were also stoves, alembics,
+crucibles, retorts, and other instruments of alchemy.  The
+grotesque figure of the smith, and the ugly but whimsical
+features of the boy, seen by the gloomy and imperfect light of
+the charcoal fire and the dying lamp, accorded very well with all
+this mystical apparatus, and in that age of superstition would
+have made some impression on the courage of most men.
+
+But nature had endowed Tressilian with firm nerves, and his
+education, originally good, had been too sedulously improved by
+subsequent study to give way to any imaginary terrors; and after
+giving a glance around him, he again demanded of the artist who
+he was, and by what accident he came to know and address him by
+his name.
+
+"Your worship cannot but remember," said the smith, "that about
+three years since, upon Saint Lucy's Eve, there came a travelling
+juggler to a certain hall in Devonshire, and exhibited his skill
+before a worshipful knight and a fair company.--I see from your
+worship's countenance, dark as this place is, that my memory has
+not done me wrong."
+
+"Thou hast said enough," said Tressilian, turning away, as
+wishing to hide from the speaker the painful train of
+recollections which his discourse had unconsciously awakened.
+
+"The juggler," said the smith, "played his part so bravely that
+the clowns and clown-like squires in the company held his art to
+be little less than magical; but there was one maiden of fifteen,
+or thereby, with the fairest face I ever looked upon, whose rosy
+cheek grew pale, and her bright eyes dim, at the sight of the
+wonders exhibited."
+
+"Peace, I command thee, peace!"  said Tressilian.
+
+"I mean your worship no offence," said the fellow; "but I have
+cause to remember how, to relieve the young maiden's fears, you
+condescended to point out the mode in which these deceptions were
+practised, and to baffle the poor juggler by laying bare the
+mysteries of his art, as ably as if you had been a brother of his
+order.--She was indeed so fair a maiden that, to win a smile of
+her, a man might well--"
+
+"Not a word more of her, I charge thee!"  said Tressilian.  "I do
+well remember the night you speak of--one of the few happy
+evenings my life has known."
+
+"She is gone, then," said the smith, interpreting after his own
+fashion the sigh with which Tressilian uttered these words--"she
+is gone, young, beautiful, and beloved as she was!--I crave your
+worship's pardon--I should have hammered on another theme.  I see
+I have unwarily driven the nail to the quick."
+
+This speech was made with a mixture of rude feeling which
+inclined Tressilian favourably to the poor artisan, of whom
+before he was inclined to judge very harshly.  But nothing can so
+soon attract the unfortunate as real or seeming sympathy with
+their sorrows.
+
+"I think," proceeded Tressilian, after a minute's silence, "thou
+wert in those days a jovial fellow, who could keep a company
+merry by song, and tale, and rebeck, as well as by thy juggling
+tricks--why do I find thee a laborious handicraftsman, plying thy
+trade in so melancholy a dwelling and under such extraordinary
+circumstances?"
+
+"My story is not long," said the artist, "but your honour had
+better sit while you listen to it."  So saying, he approached to
+the fire a three-footed stool, and took another himself; while
+Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, as he called the boy, drew a
+cricket to the smith's feet, and looked up in his face with
+features which, as illuminated by the glow of the forge, seemed
+convulsed with intense curiosity.  "Thou too," said the smith to
+him, "shalt learn, as thou well deservest at my hand, the brief
+history of my life; and, in troth, it were as well tell it thee
+as leave thee to ferret it out, since Nature never packed a
+shrewder wit into a more ungainly casket.--Well, sir, if my poor
+story may pleasure you, it is at your command, But will you not
+taste a stoup of liquor?  I promise you that even in this poor
+cell I have some in store."
+
+"Speak not of it," said Tressilian, "but go on with thy story,
+for my leisure is brief."
+
+"You shall have no cause to rue the delay," said the smith, "for
+your horse shall be better fed in the meantime than he hath been
+this morning, and made fitter for travel."
+
+With that the artist left the vault, and returned after a few
+minutes' interval.  Here, also, we pause, that the narrative may
+commence in another chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  I say, my lord, can such a subtilty
+  (But all his craft ye must not wot of me,
+  And somewhat help I yet to his working),
+  That all the ground on which we ben riding,
+  Till that we come to Canterbury town,
+  He can all clean turnen so up so down,
+  And pave it all of silver and of gold.
+       THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE, CANTERBURY TALES.
+
+THE artist commenced his narrative in the following terms:--
+
+"I was bred a blacksmith, and knew my art as well as e'er a
+black-thumbed, leathern-aproned, swart-faced knave of that noble
+mystery.  But I tired of ringing hammer-tunes on iron stithies,
+and went out into the world, where I became acquainted with a
+celebrated juggler, whose fingers had become rather too stiff for
+legerdemain, and who wished to have the aid of an apprentice in
+his noble mystery.  I served him for six years, until I was
+master of my trade--I refer myself to your worship, whose
+judgment cannot be disputed, whether I did not learn to ply the
+craft indifferently well?"
+
+"Excellently," said Tressilian; "but be brief."
+
+"It was not long after I had performed at Sir Hugh Robsart's, in
+your worship's presence," said the artist, "that I took myself to
+the stage, and have swaggered with the bravest of them all, both
+at the Black Bull, the Globe, the Fortune, and elsewhere; but I
+know not how--apples were so plenty that year that the lads in
+the twopenny gallery never took more than one bite out of them,
+and threw the rest of the pippin at whatever actor chanced to be
+on the stage.  So I tired of it--renounced my half share in the
+company, gave my foil to my comrade, my buskins to the wardrobe,
+and showed the theatre a clean pair of heels."
+
+"Well, friend, and what," said Tressilian, "was your next shift?"
+
+"I became," said the smith, "half partner, half domestic to a man
+of much skill and little substance, who practised the trade of a
+physicianer."
+
+"In other words," said Tressilian, "you were Jack Pudding to a
+quacksalver."
+
+"Something beyond that, let me hope, my good Master Tressilian,"
+replied the artist; "and yet to say truth, our practice was of an
+adventurous description, and the pharmacy which I had acquired in
+my first studies for the benefit of horses was frequently applied
+to our human patients.  But the seeds of all maladies are the
+same; and if turpentine, tar, pitch, and beef-suet, mingled with
+turmerick, gum-mastick, and one bead of garlick, can cure the
+horse that hath been grieved with a nail, I see not but what it
+may benefit the man that hath been pricked with a sword.  But my
+master's practice, as well as his skill, went far beyond mine,
+and dealt in more dangerous concerns.  He was not only a bold,
+adventurous practitioner in physic, but also, if your pleasure so
+chanced to be, an adept who read the stars, and expounded the
+fortunes of mankind, genethliacally, as he called it, or
+otherwise.  He was a learned distiller of simples, and a profound
+chemist--made several efforts to fix mercury, and judged himself
+to have made a fair hit at the philosopher's stone.  I have yet a
+programme of his on that subject, which, if your honour
+understandeth, I believe you have the better, not only of all who
+read, but also of him who wrote it."
+
+He gave Tressilian a scroll of parchment, bearing at top and
+bottom, and down the margin, the signs of the seven planets,
+curiously intermingled with talismanical characters and scraps of
+Greek and Hebrew.  In the midst were some Latin verses from a
+cabalistical author, written out so fairly, that even the gloom
+of the place did not prevent Tressilian from reading them.  The
+tenor of the original ran as follows:-
+
+  "Si fixum solvas, faciasque volare solutum,
+  Et volucrem figas, facient te vivere tutum;
+  Si pariat ventum, valet auri pondere centum;
+  Ventus ubi vult spirat--Capiat qui capere potest."
+
+"I protest to you," said Tressilian, "all I understand of this
+jargon is that the last words seem to mean 'Catch who catch
+can.'"
+
+"That," said the smith, "is the very principle that my worthy
+friend and master, Doctor Doboobie, always acted upon; until,
+being besotted with his own imaginations, and conceited of his
+high chemical skill, he began to spend, in cheating himself, the
+money which he had acquired in cheating others, and either
+discovered or built for himself, I could never know which, this
+secret elaboratory, in which he used to seclude himself both from
+patients and disciples, who doubtless thought his long and
+mysterious absences from his ordinary residence in the town of
+Farringdon were occasioned by his progress in the mystic
+sciences, and his intercourse with the invisible world.  Me also
+he tried to deceive; but though I contradicted him not, he saw
+that I knew too much of his secrets to be any longer a safe
+companion.  Meanwhile, his name waxed famous--or rather infamous,
+and many of those who resorted to him did so under persuasion
+that he was a sorcerer.  And yet his supposed advance in the
+occult sciences drew to him the secret resort of men too powerful
+to be named, for purposes too dangerous to be mentioned.  Men
+cursed and threatened him, and bestowed on me, the innocent
+assistant of his studies, the nickname of the Devil's foot-post,
+which procured me a volley of stones as soon as ever I ventured
+to show my face in the street of the village.  At length my
+master suddenly disappeared, pretending to me that he was about
+to visit his elaboratory in this place, and forbidding me to
+disturb him till two days were past.  When this period had
+elapsed, I became anxious, and resorted to this vault, where I
+found the fires extinguished and the utensils in confusion, with
+a note from the learned Doboobius, as he was wont to style
+himself, acquainting me that we should never meet again,
+bequeathing me his chemical apparatus, and the parchment which I
+have just put into your hands, advising me strongly to prosecute
+the secret which it contained, which would infallibly lead me to
+the discovery of the grand magisterium."
+
+"And didst thou follow this sage advice?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Worshipful sir, no," replied the smith; "for, being by nature
+cautious, and suspicious from knowing with whom I had to do, I
+made so many perquisitions before I ventured even to light a
+fire, that I at length discovered a small barrel of gunpowder,
+carefully hid beneath the furnace, with the purpose, no doubt,
+that as soon as I should commence the grand work of the
+transmutation of metals, the explosion should transmute the vault
+and all in it into a heap of ruins, which might serve at once for
+my slaughter-house and my grave.  This cured me of alchemy, and
+fain would I have returned to the honest hammer and anvil; but
+who would bring a horse to be shod by the Devil's post?
+Meantime, I had won the regard of my honest Flibbertigibbet here,
+he being then at Farringdon with his master, the sage Erasmus
+Holiday, by teaching him a few secrets, such as please youth at
+his age; and after much counsel together, we agreed that, since I
+could get no practice in the ordinary way, I should try how I
+could work out business among these ignorant boors, by practising
+upon their silly fears; and, thanks to Flibbertigibbet, who hath
+spread my renown, I have not wanted custom.  But it is won at too
+great risk, and I fear I shall be at length taken up for a
+wizard; so that I seek but an opportunity to leave this vault,
+when I can have the protection of some worshipful person against
+the fury of the populace, in case they chance to recognize me."
+
+"And art thou," said Tressilian, "perfectly acquainted with the
+roads in this country?"
+
+"I could ride them every inch by midnight," answered Wayland
+Smith, which was the name this adept had assumed.
+
+"Thou hast no horse to ride upon," said Tressilian.
+
+"Pardon me," replied Wayland; "I have as good a tit as ever
+yeoman bestrode; and I forgot to say it was the best part of the
+mediciner's legacy to me, excepting one or two of the choicest of
+his medical secrets, which I picked up without his knowledge and
+against his will."
+
+"Get thyself washed and shaved, then," said Tressilian; "reform
+thy dress as well as thou canst, and fling away these grotesque
+trappings; and, so thou wilt be secret and faithful, thou shalt
+follow me for a short time, till thy pranks here are forgotten.
+Thou hast, I think, both address and courage, and I have matter
+to do that may require both."
+
+Wayland Smith eagerly embraced the proposal, and protested his
+devotion to his new master.  In a very few minutes he had made so
+great an alteration in his original appearance, by change of
+dress, trimming his beard and hair, and so forth, that Tressilian
+could not help remarking that he thought he would stand in little
+need of a protector, since none of his old acquaintance were
+likely to recognize him.
+
+"My debtors would not pay me money," said Wayland, shaking his
+head; "but my creditors of every kind would be less easily
+blinded.  And, in truth, I hold myself not safe, unless under the
+protection of a gentleman of birth and character, as is your
+worship."
+
+So saying, he led the way out of the cavern.  He then called
+loudly for Hobgoblin, who, after lingering for an instant,
+appeared with the horse furniture, when Wayland closed and
+sedulously covered up the trap-door, observing it might again
+serve him at his need, besides that the tools were worth
+somewhat.  A whistle from the owner brought to his side a nag
+that fed quietly on the common, and was accustomed to the signal.
+
+While he accoutred him for the journey, Tressilian drew his own
+girths tighter, and in a few minutes both were ready to mount.
+
+At this moment Sludge approached to bid them farewell.
+
+"You are going to leave me, then, my old playfellow," said the
+boy; "and there is an end of all our game at bo-peep with the
+cowardly lubbards whom I brought hither to have their broad-
+footed nags shed by the devil and his imps?"
+
+"It is even so," said Wayland Smith, "the best friends must part,
+Flibbertigibbet; but thou, my boy, art the only thing in the Vale
+of Whitehorse which I shall regret to leave behind me."
+
+"Well, I bid thee not farewell," said Dickie Sludge, "for you
+will be at these revels, I judge, and so shall I; for if Dominie
+Holiday take me not thither, by the light of day, which we see
+not in yonder dark hole, I will take myself there!"
+
+"In good time," said Wayland; "but I pray you to do nought
+rashly."
+
+"Nay, now you would make a child, a common child of me, and tell
+me of the risk of walking without leading-strings.  But before
+you are a mile from these stones, you shall know by a sure token
+that I have more of the hobgoblin about me than you credit; and I
+will so manage that, if you take advantage, you may profit by my
+prank."
+
+"What dost thou mean, boy?"  said Tressilian; but Flibbertigibbet
+only answered with a grin and a caper, and bidding both of them
+farewell, and, at the same time, exhorting them to make the best
+of their way from the place, he set them the example by running
+homeward with the same uncommon velocity with which he had
+baffled Tressilian's former attempts to get hold of him.
+
+"It is in vain to chase him," said Wayland Smith; "for unless
+your worship is expert in lark-hunting, we should never catch
+hold of him--and besides, what would it avail?  Better make the
+best of our way hence, as he advises."
+
+They mounted their horses accordingly, and began to proceed at a
+round pace, as soon as Tressilian had explained to his guide the
+direction in which he desired to travel.
+
+After they had trotted nearly a mile, Tressilian could not help
+observing to his companion that his horse felt more lively under
+him than even when he mounted in the morning.
+
+"Are you avised of that?"  said Wayland Smith, smiling.  "That is
+owing to a little secret of mine.  I mixed that with an handful
+of oats which shall save your worship's heels the trouble of
+spurring these six hours at least.  Nay, I have not studied
+medicine and pharmacy for nought."
+
+"I trust," said Tressilian, "your drugs will do my horse no
+harm?"
+
+"No more than the mare's milk; which foaled him," answered the
+artist, and was proceeding to dilate on the excellence of his
+recipe when he was interrupted by an explosion as loud and
+tremendous as the mine which blows up the rampart of a
+beleaguered city.  The horses started, and the riders were
+equally surprised.  They turned to gaze in the direction from
+which the thunder-clap was heard, and beheld, just over the spot
+they had left so recently, a huge pillar of dark smoke rising
+high into the clear, blue atmosphere.  "My habitation is gone to
+wreck," said Wayland, immediately conjecturing the cause of the
+explosion.  "I was a fool to mention the doctor's kind intentions
+towards my mansion before that limb of mischief, Flibbertigibbet;
+I might have guessed he would long to put so rare a frolic into
+execution.  But let us hasten on, for the sound will collect the
+country to the spot."
+
+So saying, he spurred his horse, and Tressilian also quickening
+his speed, they rode briskly forward.
+
+"This, then, was the meaning of the little imp's token which he
+promised us?"  said Tressilian.  "Had we lingered near the spot,
+we had found it a love-token with a vengeance."
+
+"He would have given us warning," said the smith.  "I saw him
+look back more than once to see if we were off--'tis a very
+devil for mischief, yet not an ill-natured devil either.  It were
+long to tell your honour how I became first acquainted with him,
+and how many tricks he played me.  Many a good turn he did me
+too, especially in bringing me customers; for his great delight
+was to see them sit shivering behind the bushes when they heard
+the click of my hammer.  I think Dame Nature, when she lodged a
+double quantity of brains in that misshapen head of his, gave him
+the power of enjoying other people's distresses, as she gave them
+the pleasure of laughing at his ugliness."
+
+"It may be so," said Tressilian; "those who find themselves
+severed from society by peculiarities of form, if they do not
+hate the common bulk of mankind, are at least not altogether
+indisposed to enjoy their mishaps and calamities."
+
+"But Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland, "hath that about him
+which may redeem his turn for mischievous frolic; for he is as
+faithful when attached as he is tricky and malignant to
+strangers, and, as I said before, I have cause to say so."
+
+Tressilian pursued the conversation no further, and they
+continued their journey towards Devonshire without further
+adventure, until they alighted at an inn in the town of
+Marlborough, since celebrated for having given title to the
+greatest general (excepting one) whom Britain ever produced.
+Here the travellers received, in the same breath, an example of
+the truth of two old proverbs--namely, that ILL NEWS FLY FAST,
+and that LISTENERS SELDOM HEAR A GOOD TALE OF THEMSELVES.
+
+The inn-yard was in a sort of combustion when they alighted;
+insomuch, that they could scarce get man or boy to take care of
+their horses, so full were the whole household of some news which
+flew from tongue to tongue, the import of which they were for
+some time unable to discover.  At length, indeed, they found it
+respected matters which touched them nearly.
+
+"What is the matter, say you, master?"  answered, at length, the
+head hostler, in reply to Tressilian's repeated questions.--"Why,
+truly, I scarce know myself.  But here was a rider but now, who
+says that the devil hath flown away with him they called Wayland
+Smith, that won'd about three miles from the Whitehorse of
+Berkshire, this very blessed morning, in a flash of fire and a
+pillar of smoke, and rooted up the place he dwelt in, near that
+old cockpit of upright stones, as cleanly as if it had all been
+delved up for a cropping."
+
+"Why, then," said an old farmer, "the more is the pity; for that
+Wayland Smith (whether he was the devil's crony or no I skill
+not) had a good notion of horses' diseases, and it's to be
+thought the bots will spread in the country far and near, an
+Satan has not gien un time to leave his secret behind un."
+
+"You may say that, Gaffer Grimesby," said the hostler in return;
+"I have carried a horse to Wayland Smith myself, for he passed
+all farriers in this country."
+
+"Did you see him?"  said Dame Alison Crane, mistress of the inn
+bearing that sign, and deigning to term HUSBAND the owner
+thereof, a mean-looking hop-o'-my-thumb sort or person, whose
+halting gait, and long neck, and meddling, henpecked
+insignificance are supposed to have given origin to the
+celebrated old English tune of "My name hath a lame tame Crane."
+
+On this occasion he chirped out a repetition of his wife's
+question, "Didst see the devil, Jack Hostler, I say?"
+
+"And what if I did see un, Master Crane?"  replied Jack Hostler,
+for, like all the rest of the household, he paid as little
+respect to his master as his mistress herself did.
+
+"Nay, nought, Jack Hostler," replied the pacific Master Crane;
+"only if you saw the devil, methinks I would like to know what
+un's like?"
+
+"You will know that one day, Master Crane," said his helpmate,
+"an ye mend not your manners, and mind your business, leaving off
+such idle palabras.--But truly, Jack Hostler, I should be glad to
+know myself what like the fellow was."
+
+"Why, dame," said the hostler, more respectfully, "as for what he
+was like I cannot tell, nor no man else, for why I never saw un."
+
+"And how didst thou get thine errand done," said Gaffer Grimesby,
+"if thou seedst him not?"
+
+"Why, I had schoolmaster to write down ailment o' nag," said Jack
+Hostler; "and I went wi' the ugliest slip of a boy for my guide
+as ever man cut out o' lime-tree root to please a child withal."
+
+"And what was it?--and did it cure your nag, Jack Hostler?"  was
+uttered and echoed by all who stood around.
+
+"Why, how can I tell you what it was?"  said the hostler; "simply
+it smelled and tasted--for I did make bold to put a pea's
+substance into my mouth--like hartshorn and savin mixed with
+vinegar; but then no hartshorn and savin ever wrought so speedy a
+cure.  And I am dreading that if Wayland Smith be gone, the bots
+will have more power over horse and cattle."
+
+The pride of art, which is certainly not inferior in its
+influence to any other pride whatever, here so far operated on
+Wayland Smith, that, notwithstanding the obvious danger of his
+being recognized, he could not help winking to Tressilian, and
+smiling mysteriously, as if triumphing in the undoubted evidence
+of his veterinary skill.  In the meanwhile, the discourse
+continued.
+
+"E'en let it be so," said a grave man in black, the companion of
+Gaffer Grimesby; "e'en let us perish under the evil God sends us,
+rather than the devil be our doctor."
+
+"Very true," said Dame Crane; "and I marvel at Jack Hostler that
+he would peril his own soul to cure the bowels of a nag."
+
+"Very true, mistress," said Jack Hostler, "but the nag was my
+master's; and had it been yours, I think ye would ha' held me
+cheap enow an I had feared the devil when the poor beast was in
+such a taking.  For the rest, let the clergy look to it.  Every
+man to his craft, says the proverb--the parson to the prayer-
+book, and the groom to his curry-comb.
+
+"I vow," said Dame Crane, "I think Jack Hostler speaks like a
+good Christian and a faithful servant, who will spare neither
+body nor soul in his master's service.  However, the devil has
+lifted him in time, for a Constable of the Hundred came hither
+this morning to get old Gaffer Pinniewinks, the trier of witches,
+to go with him to the Vale of Whitehorse to comprehend Wayland
+Smith, and put him to his probation.  I helped Pinniewinks to
+sharpen his pincers and his poking-awl, and I saw the warrant
+from Justice Blindas."
+
+"Pooh--pooh--the devil would laugh both at Blindas and his
+warrant, constable and witch-finder to boot," said old Dame
+Crank, the Papist laundress; "Wayland Smith's flesh would mind
+Pinniewinks' awl no more than a cambric ruff minds a hot
+piccadilloe-needle.  But tell me, gentlefolks, if the devil ever
+had such a hand among ye, as to snatch away your smiths and your
+artists from under your nose, when the good Abbots of Abingdon
+had their own?  By Our Lady, no!--they had their hallowed tapers;
+and their holy water, and their relics, and what not, could send
+the foulest fiends a-packing.  Go ask a heretic parson to do the
+like.  But ours were a comfortable people."
+
+"Very true, Dame Crank," said the hostler; "so said Simpkins of
+Simonburn when the curate kissed his wife,--'They are a
+comfortable people,' said he."
+
+"Silence, thou foul-mouthed vermin," said Dame Crank; "is it fit
+for a heretic horse-boy like thee to handle such a text as the
+Catholic clergy?"
+
+"In troth no, dame," replied the man of oats; "and as you
+yourself are now no text for their handling, dame, whatever may
+have been the case in your day, I think we had e'en better leave
+un alone."
+
+At this last exchange of sarcasm, Dame Crank set up her throat,
+and began a horrible exclamation against Jack Hostler, under
+cover of which Tressilian and his attendant escaped into the
+house.
+
+They had no sooner entered a private chamber, to which Goodman
+Crane himself had condescended to usher them, and dispatched
+their worthy and obsequious host on the errand of procuring wine
+and refreshment, than Wayland Smith began to give vent to his
+self-importance.
+
+"You see, sir," said he, addressing Tressilian, "that I nothing
+fabled in asserting that I possessed fully the mighty mystery of
+a farrier, or mareschal, as the French more honourably term us.
+These dog-hostlers, who, after all, are the better judges in such
+a case, know what credit they should attach to my medicaments.  I
+call you to witness, worshipful Master Tressilian, that nought,
+save the voice of calumny and the hand of malicious violence,
+hath driven me forth from a station in which I held a place alike
+useful and honoured."
+
+"I bear witness, my friend, but will reserve my listening,"
+answered Tressilian, "for a safer time; unless, indeed, you deem
+it essential to your reputation to be translated, like your late
+dwelling, by the assistance of a flash of fire.  For you see your
+best friends reckon you no better than a mere sorcerer."
+
+"Now, Heaven forgive them," said the artist, "who confounded
+learned skill with unlawful magic!  I trust a man may be as
+skilful, or more so, than the best chirurgeon ever meddled with
+horse-flesh, and yet may be upon the matter little more than
+other ordinary men, or at the worst no conjurer."
+
+"God forbid else!"  said Tressilian.  "But be silent just for the
+present, since here comes mine host with an assistant, who seems
+something of the least."
+
+Everybody about the inn, Dame Crane herself included, had been
+indeed so interested and agitated by the story they had heard of
+Wayland Smith, and by the new, varying, and more marvellous
+editions of the incident which arrived from various quarters,
+that mine host, in his righteous determination to accommodate his
+guests, had been able to obtain the assistance of none of his
+household, saving that of a little boy, a junior tapster, of
+about twelve years old, who was called Sampson.
+
+"I wish," he said, apologizing to his guests, as he set down a
+flagon of sack, and promised some food immediately--"I wish the
+devil had flown away with my wife and my whole family instead of
+this Wayland Smith, who, I daresay, after all said and done, was
+much less worthy of the distinction which Satan has done him."
+
+"I hold opinion with you, good fellow," replied Wayland Smith;
+"and I will drink to you upon that argument."
+
+"Not that I would justify any man who deals with the devil," said
+mine host, after having pledged Wayland in a rousing draught of
+sack, "but that--saw ye ever better sack, my masters?--but that,
+I say, a man had better deal with a dozen cheats and scoundrel
+fellows, such as this Wayland Smith, than with a devil incarnate,
+that takes possession of house and home, bed and board."
+
+The poor fellow's detail of grievances was here interrupted by
+the shrill voice of his helpmate, screaming from the kitchen, to
+which he instantly hobbled, craving pardon of his guests.  He was
+no sooner gone than Wayland Smith expressed, by every
+contemptuous epithet in the language, his utter scorn for a
+nincompoop who stuck his head under his wife's apron-string; and
+intimated that, saving for the sake of the horses, which required
+both rest and food, he would advise his worshipful Master
+Tressilian to push on a stage farther, rather than pay a
+reckoning to such a mean-spirited, crow-trodden, henpecked
+coxcomb, as Gaffer Crane.
+
+The arrival of a large dish of good cow-heel and bacon something
+soothed the asperity of the artist, which wholly vanished before
+a choice capon, so delicately roasted that the lard frothed on
+it, said Wayland, like May-dew on a lily; and both Gaffer Crane
+and his good dame became, in his eyes, very painstaking,
+accommodating, obliging persons.
+
+According to the manners of the times, the master and his
+attendant sat at the same table, and the latter observed, with
+regret, how little attention Tressilian paid to his meal.  He
+recollected, indeed, the pain he had given by mentioning the
+maiden in whose company he had first seen him; but, fearful of
+touching upon a topic too tender to be tampered with, he chose to
+ascribe his abstinence to another cause.
+
+"This fare is perhaps too coarse for your worship," said Wayland,
+as the limbs of the capon disappeared before his own exertions;
+"but had you dwelt as long as I have done in yonder dungeon,
+which Flibbertigibbet has translated to the upper element, a
+place where I dared hardly broil my food, lest the smoke should
+be seen without, you would think a fair capon a more welcome
+dainty."
+
+"If you are pleased, friend," said Tressilian, "it is well.
+Nevertheless, hasten thy meal if thou canst, For this place is
+unfriendly to thy safety, and my concerns crave travelling."
+
+Allowing, therefore, their horses no more rest than was
+absolutely necessary for them, they pursued their journey by a
+forced march as far as Bradford, where they reposed themselves
+for the night.
+
+The next morning found them early travellers.  And, not to
+fatigue the reader with unnecessary particulars, they traversed
+without adventure the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset, and
+about noon of the third day after Tressilian's leaving Cumnor,
+arrived at Sir Hugh Robsart's seat, called Lidcote Hall, on the
+frontiers of Devonshire.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  Ah me!  the flower and blossom of your house,
+  The wind hath blown away to other towers.
+                        JOANNA BAILLIE'S  FAMILY LEGEND.
+
+The ancient seat of Lidcote Hall was situated near the village of
+the same name, and adjoined the wild and extensive forest of
+Exmoor, plentifully stocked with game, in which some ancient
+rights belonging to the Robsart family entitled Sir Hugh to
+pursue his favourite amusement of the chase.  The old mansion was
+a low, venerable building, occupying a considerable space of
+ground, which was surrounded by a deep moat.  The approach and
+drawbridge were defended by an octagonal tower, of ancient
+brickwork, but so clothed with ivy and other creepers that it was
+difficult to discover of what materials it was constructed.  The
+angles of this tower were each decorated with a turret,
+whimsically various in form and in size, and, therefore, very
+unlike the monotonous stone pepperboxes which, in modern Gothic
+architecture, are employed for the same purpose.  One of these
+turrets was square, and occupied as a clock-house.  But the clock
+was now standing still; a circumstance peculiarly striking to
+Tressilian, because the good old knight, among other harmless
+peculiarities, had a fidgety anxiety about the exact measurement
+of time, very common to those who have a great deal of that
+commodity to dispose of, and find it lie heavy upon their hands--
+just as we see shopkeepers amuse themselves with taking an exact
+account of their stock at the time there is least demand for it.
+
+The entrance to the courtyard of the old mansion lay through an
+archway, surmounted by the foresaid tower; but the drawbridge was
+down, and one leaf of the iron-studded folding-doors stood
+carelessly open.  Tressilian hastily rode over the drawbridge,
+entered the court, and began to call loudly on the domestics by
+their names.  For some time he was only answered by the echoes
+and the howling of the hounds, whose kennel lay at no great
+distance from the mansion, and was surrounded by the same moat.
+At length Will Badger, the old and favourite attendant of the
+knight, who acted alike as squire of his body and superintendent
+of his sports, made his appearance.  The stout, weather-beaten
+forester showed great signs of joy when he recognized Tressilian.
+
+"Lord love you," he said, "Master Edmund, be it thou in flesh and
+fell?  Then thou mayest do some good on Sir Hugh, for it passes
+the wit of man--that is, of mine own, and the curate's, and
+Master Mumblazen's--to do aught wi'un."
+
+"Is Sir Hugh then worse since I went away, Will?"  demanded
+Tressilian.
+
+"For worse in body--no; he is much better," replied the domestic;
+"but he is clean mazed as it were--eats and drinks as he was
+wont--but sleeps not, or rather wakes not, for he is ever in a
+sort of twilight, that is neither sleeping nor waking.  Dame
+Swineford thought it was like the dead palsy.  But no, no, dame,
+said I, it is the heart, it is the heart."
+
+"Can ye not stir his mind to any pastimes?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"He is clean and quite off his sports," said Will Badger; "hath
+neither touched backgammon or shovel-board, nor looked on the big
+book of harrowtry wi' Master Mumblazen.  I let the clock run
+down, thinking the missing the bell might somewhat move him--for
+you know, Master Edmund, he was particular in counting time--but
+he never said a word on't, so I may e'en set the old chime a-
+towling again.  I made bold to tread on Bungay's tail too, and
+you know what a round rating that would ha' cost me once a-day;
+but he minded the poor tyke's whine no more than a madge howlet
+whooping down the chimney--so the case is beyond me."
+
+"Thou shalt tell me the rest within doors, Will.  Meanwhile, let
+this person be ta'en to the buttery, and used with respect.  He
+is a man of art."
+
+"White art or black art, I would," said Will Badger, "that he had
+any art which could help us.--Here, Tom Butler, look to the man
+of art;--and see that he steals none of thy spoons, lad," he
+added in a whisper to the butler, who showed himself at a low
+window, "I have known as honest a faced fellow have art enough to
+do that."
+
+He then ushered Tressilian into a low parlour, and went, at his
+desire, to see in what state his master was, lest the sudden
+return of his darling pupil and proposed son-in-law should affect
+him too strongly.  He returned immediately, and said that Sir
+Hugh was dozing in his elbow-chair, but that Master Mumblazen
+would acquaint Master Tressilian the instant he awaked.
+
+"But it is chance if he knows you," said the huntsman, "for he
+has forgotten the name of every hound in the pack.  I thought,
+about a week since, he had gotten a favourable turn.  'Saddle me
+old Sorrel,' said he suddenly, after he had taken his usual
+night-draught out of the great silver grace-cup, 'and take the
+hounds to Mount Hazelhurst to-morrow.' Glad men were we all, and
+out we had him in the morning, and he rode to cover as usual,
+with never a word spoken but that the wind was south, and the
+scent would lie.  But ere we had uncoupled'the hounds, he began
+to stare round him, like a man that wakes suddenly out of a
+dream--turns bridle, and walks back to Hall again, and leaves us
+to hunt at leisure by ourselves, if we listed."
+
+"You tell a heavy tale, Will," replied Tressilian; "but God must
+help us--there is no aid in man."
+
+"Then you bring us no news of young Mistress Amy?  But what need
+I ask--your brow tells the story.  Ever I hoped that if any man
+could or would track her, it must be you.  All's over and lost
+now.  But if ever I have that Varney within reach of a flight-
+shot, I will bestow a forked shaft on him; and that I swear by
+salt and bread."
+
+As he spoke, the door opened, and Master Mumblazen appeared--a
+withered, thin, elderly gentleman, with a cheek like a winter
+apple, and his grey hair partly concealed by a small, high hat,
+shaped like a cone, or rather like such a strawberry-basket as
+London fruiterers exhibit at their windows.  He was too
+sententious a person to waste words on mere salutation; so,
+having welcomed Tressilian with a nod and a shake of the hand, he
+beckoned him to follow to Sir Hugh's great chamber, which the
+good knight usually inhabited.  Will Badger followed, unasked,
+anxious to see whether his master would be relieved from his
+state of apathy by the arrival of Tressilian.
+
+In a long, low parlour, amply furnished with implements of the
+chase, and with silvan trophies, by a massive stone chimney, over
+which hung a sword and suit of armour somewhat obscured by
+neglect, sat Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote, a man of large size,
+which had been only kept within moderate compass by the constant
+use of violent exercise, It seemed to Tressilian that the
+lethargy, under which his old friend appeared to labour, had,
+even during his few weeks' absence, added bulk to his person--at
+least it had obviously diminished the vivacity of his eye, which,
+as they entered, first followed Master Mumblazen slowly to a
+large oaken desk, on which a ponderous volume lay open, and then
+rested, as if in uncertainty, on the stranger who had entered
+along with him.  The curate, a grey-headed clergyman, who had
+been a confessor in the days of Queen Mary, sat with a book in
+his hand in another recess in the apartment.  He, too, signed a
+mournful greeting to Tressilian, and laid his book aside, to
+watch the effect his appearance should produce on the afflicted
+old man.
+
+As Tressilian, his own eyes filling fast with tears, approached
+more and more nearly to the father of his betrothed bride, Sir
+Hugh's intelligence seemed to revive.  He sighed heavily, as one
+who awakens from a state of stupor; a slight convulsion passed
+over his features; he opened his arms without speaking a word,
+and, as Tressilian threw himself into them, he folded him to his
+bosom.
+
+"There is something left to live for yet," were the first words
+he uttered; and while he spoke, he gave vent to his feelings in a
+paroxysm of weeping, the tears chasing each other down his
+sunburnt cheeks and long white beard.
+
+"I ne'er thought to have thanked God to see my master weep," said
+Will Badger; "but now I do, though I am like to weep for
+company."
+
+"I will ask thee no questions," said the old knight; "no
+questions--none, Edmund.  Thou hast not found her--or so found
+her, that she were better lost."
+
+Tressilian was unable to reply otherwise than by putting his
+hands before his face.
+
+"It is enough--it is enough.  But do not thou weep for her,
+Edmund.  I have cause to weep, for she was my daughter; thou hast
+cause to rejoice, that she did not become thy wife.--Great God!
+thou knowest best what is good for us.  It was my nightly prayer
+that I should see Amy and Edmund wedded,--had it been granted, it
+had now been gall added to bitterness."
+
+"Be comforted, my friend," said the curate, addressing Sir Hugh,
+"it cannot be that the daughter of all our hopes and affections
+is the vile creature you would bespeak her."
+
+"Oh, no," replied Sir Hugh impatiently, "I were wrong to name
+broadly the base thing she is become--there is some new court
+name for it, I warrant me.  It is honour enough for the daughter
+of an old Devonshire clown to be the leman of a gay courtier--of
+Varney too--of Varney, whose grandsire was relieved by my father,
+when his fortune was broken, at the battle of--the battle of--
+where Richard was slain--out on my memory!--and I warrant none
+of you will help me--"
+
+"The battle of Bosworth," said Master Mumblazen--"stricken
+between Richard Crookback and Henry Tudor, grandsire of the Queen
+that now is, PRIMO HENRICI SEPTIMI; and in the year one thousand
+four hundred and eighty-five, POST CHRISTUM NATUM."
+
+"Ay, even so," said the old knight; "every child knows it.  But
+my poor head forgets all it should remember, and remembers only
+what it would most willingly forget.  My brain has been at fault,
+Tressilian, almost ever since thou hast been away, and even yet
+it hunts counter."
+
+"Your worship," said the good clergyman, "had better retire to
+your apartment, and try to sleep for a little space.  The
+physician left a composing draught; and our Great Physician has
+commanded us to use earthly means, that we may be strengthened to
+sustain the trials He sends us."
+
+"True, true, old friend," said Sir Hugh; "and we will bear our
+trials manfully--we have lost but a woman.--See, Tressilian,"--he
+drew from his bosom a long ringlet of glossy hair,--"see this
+lock!  I tell thee, Edmund, the very night she disappeared, when
+she bid me good even, as she was wont, she hung about my neck,
+and fondled me more than usual; and I, like an old fool, held her
+by this lock, until she took her scissors, severed it, and left
+it in my hand--as all I was ever to see more of her!"
+
+Tressilian was unable to reply, well judging what a complication
+of feelings must have crossed the bosom of the unhappy fugitive
+at that cruel moment.  The clergyman was about to speak, but Sir
+Hugh interrupted him.
+
+"I know what you would say, Master Curate,--After all, it is but
+a lock of woman's tresses; and by woman, shame, and sin, and
+death came into an innocent world.--And learned Master Mumblazen,
+too, can say scholarly things of their inferiority."
+
+"C'EST L'HOMME," said Master Mumblazen, "QUI SE BAST, ET QUI
+CONSEILLE."
+
+"True," said Sir Hugh, "and we will bear us, therefore, like men
+who have both mettle and wisdom in us.--Tressilian, thou art as
+welcome as if thou hadst brought better news.  But we have spoken
+too long dry-lipped.--Amy, fill a cup of wine to Edmund, and
+another to me."  Then instantly recollecting that he called upon
+her who could not hear, he shook his head, and said to the
+clergyman, "This grief is to my bewildered mind what the church
+of Lidcote is to our park: we may lose ourselves among the briers
+and thickets for a little space, but from the end of each avenue
+we see the old grey steeple and the grave of my forefathers.  I
+would I were to travel that road tomorrow!"
+
+Tressilian and the curate joined in urging the exhausted old man
+to lay himself to rest, and at length prevailed.  Tressilian
+remained by his pillow till he saw that slumber at length sunk
+down on him, and then returned to consult with the curate what
+steps should be adopted in these unhappy circumstances.
+
+They could not exclude from these deliberations Master Michael
+Mumblazen; and they admitted him the more readily, that besides
+what hopes they entertained from his sagacity, they knew him to
+be so great a friend to taciturnity, that there was no doubt of
+his keeping counsel.  He was an old bachelor, of good family, but
+small fortune, and distantly related to the House of Robsart; in
+virtue of which connection, Lidcote Hall had been honoured with
+his residence for the last twenty years.  His company was
+agreeable to Sir Hugh, chiefly on account of his profound
+learning, which, though it only related to heraldry and
+genealogy, with such scraps of history as connected themselves
+with these subjects, was precisely of a kind to captivate the
+good old knight; besides the convenience which he found in having
+a friend to appeal to when his own memory, as frequently
+happened, proved infirm and played him false concerning names and
+dates, which, and all similar deficiencies, Master Michael
+Mumblazen supplied with due brevity and discretion.  And, indeed,
+in matters concerning the modern world, he often gave, in his
+enigmatical and heraldic phrase, advice which was well worth
+attending to, or, in Will Badger's language, started the game
+while others beat the bush.
+
+"We have had an unhappy time of it with the good knight, Master
+Edmund," said the curate.  "I have not suffered so much since I
+was torn away from my beloved flock, and compelled to abandon
+them to the Romish wolves."
+
+"That was in TERTIO MARIAE," said Master Mumblazen.
+
+"In the name of Heaven," continued the curate, "tell us, has your
+time been better spent than ours, or have you any news of that
+unhappy maiden, who, being for so many years the principal joy of
+this broken-down house, is now proved our greatest unhappiness?
+Have you not at least discovered her place of residence?"
+
+"I have," replied Tressilian.  "Know you Cumnor Place, near
+Oxford?"
+
+"Surely," said the clergyman; "it was a house of removal for the
+monks of Abingdon."
+
+"Whose arms," said Master Michael, "I have seen over a stone
+chimney in the hall,--a cross patonce betwixt four martlets."
+
+"There," said Tressilian, "this unhappy maiden resides, in
+company with the villain Varney.  But for a strange mishap, my
+sword had revenged all our injuries, as well as hers, on his
+worthless head."
+
+"Thank God, that kept thine hand from blood-guiltiness, rash
+young man!"  answered the curate.  "Vengeance is mine, saith the
+Lord, and I will repay it.  It were better study to free her from
+the villain's nets of infamy."
+
+"They are called, in heraldry, LAQUEI AMORIS, or LACS D'AMOUR,"
+said Mumblazen.
+
+"It is in that I require your aid, my friends," said Tressilian.
+"I am resolved to accuse this villain, at the very foot of the
+throne, of falsehood, seduction, and breach of hospitable laws.
+The Queen shall hear me, though the Earl of Leicester, the
+villain's patron, stood at her right hand."
+
+"Her Grace," said the curate, "hath set a comely example of
+continence to her subjects, and will doubtless do justice on this
+inhospitable robber.  But wert thou not better apply to the Earl
+of Leicester, in the first place, for justice on his servant?  If
+he grants it, thou dost save the risk of making thyself a
+powerful adversary, which will certainly chance if, in the first
+instance, you accuse his master of the horse and prime favourite
+before the Queen."
+
+"My mind revolts from your counsel," said Tressilian.  "I cannot
+brook to plead my noble patron's cause the unhappy Amy's cause--
+before any one save my lawful Sovereign.  Leicester, thou wilt
+say, is noble.  Be it so; he is but a subject like ourselves, and
+I will not carry my plaint to him, if I can do better.  Still, I
+will think on what thou hast said; but I must have your
+assistance to persuade the good Sir Hugh to make me his
+commissioner and fiduciary in this matter, for it is in his name
+I must speak, and not in my own.  Since she is so far changed as
+to dote upon this empty profligate courtier, he shall at least do
+her the justice which is yet in his power."
+
+"Better she died CAELEBS and SINE PROLE," said Mumblazen, with
+more animation than he usually expressed, "than part, PER PALE,
+the noble coat of Robsart with that of such a miscreant!"
+
+"If it be your object, as I cannot question," said the clergyman,
+"to save, as much as is yet possible, the credit of this unhappy
+young woman, I repeat, you should apply, in the first instance,
+to the Earl of Leicester.  He is as absolute in his household as
+the Queen in her kingdom, and if he expresses to Varney that such
+is his pleasure, her honour will not stand so publicly
+committed."
+
+"You are right, you are right!"  said Tressilian eagerly, "and I
+thank you for pointing out what I overlooked in my haste.  I
+little thought ever to have besought grace of Leicester; but I
+could kneel to the proud Dudley, if doing so could remove one
+shade of shame from this unhappy damsel.  You will assist me then
+to procure the necessary powers from Sir Hugh Robsart?"
+
+The curate assured him of his assistance, and the herald nodded
+assent.
+
+"You must hold yourselves also in readiness to testify, in case
+you are called upon, the openhearted hospitality which our good
+patron exercised towards this deceitful traitor, and the
+solicitude with which he laboured to seduce his unhappy
+daughter."
+
+"At first," said the clergyman, "she did not, as it seemed to me,
+much affect his company; but latterly I saw them often together."
+
+"SEIANT in the parlour," said Michael Mumblazen, "and PASSANT in
+the garden."
+
+"I once came on them by chance," said the priest, "in the South
+wood, in a spring evening.  Varney was muffled in a russet cloak,
+so that I saw not his face.  They separated hastily, as they
+heard me rustle amongst the leaves; and I observed she turned her
+head and looked long after him."
+
+"With neck REGUARDANT," said the herald.  "And on the day of her
+flight, and that was on Saint Austen's Eve, I saw Varney's groom,
+attired in his liveries, hold his master's horse and Mistress
+Amy's palfrey, bridled and saddled PROPER, behind the wall of the
+churchyard,"
+
+"And now is she found mewed up in his secret place of
+retirement," said Tressilian.  "The villain is taken in the
+manner, and I well wish he may deny his crime, that I may thrust
+conviction down his false throat!  But I must prepare for my
+journey.  Do you, gentlemen, dispose my patron to grant me such
+powers as are needful to act in his name."
+
+So saying, Tressilian left the room.
+
+"He is too hot," said the curate; "and I pray to God that He may
+grant him the patience to deal with Varney as is fitting."
+
+"Patience and Varney," said Mumblazen, "is worse heraldry than
+metal upon metal.  He is more false than a siren, more rapacious
+than a griffin, more poisonous than a wyvern, and more cruel than
+a lion rampant."
+
+"Yet I doubt much," said the curate, "whether we can with
+propriety ask from Sir Hugh Robsart, being in his present
+condition, any deed deputing his paternal right in Mistress Amy
+to whomsoever--"
+
+"Your reverence need not doubt that," said Will Badger, who
+entered as he spoke, "for I will lay my life he is another man
+when he wakes than he has been these thirty days past."
+
+"Ay, Will," said the curate, "hast thou then so much confidence
+in Doctor Diddleum's draught?"
+
+"Not a whit," said Will, "because master ne'er tasted a drop
+on't, seeing it was emptied out by the housemaid.  But here's a
+gentleman, who came attending on Master Tressilian, has given Sir
+Hugh a draught that is worth twenty of yon un.  I have spoken
+cunningly with him, and a better farrier or one who hath a more
+just notion of horse and dog ailment I have never seen; and such
+a one would never be unjust to a Christian man."
+
+"A farrier!  you saucy groom--and by whose authority, pray?"
+said the curate, rising in surprise and indignation; "or who will
+be warrant for this new physician?"
+
+"For authority, an it like your reverence, he had mine; and for
+warrant, I trust I have not been five-and-twenty years in this
+house without having right to warrant the giving of a draught to
+beast or body--I who can gie a drench, and a ball, and bleed, or
+blister, if need, to my very self."
+
+The counsellors of the house of Robsart thought it meet to carry
+this information instantly to Tressilian, who as speedily
+summoned before him Wayland Smith, and demanded of him (in
+private, however) by what authority he had ventured to administer
+any medicine to Sir Hugh Robsart?
+
+"Why," replied the artist, "your worship cannot but remember that
+I told you I had made more progress into my master's--I mean the
+learned Doctor Doboobie's--mystery than he was willing to own;
+and indeed half of his quarrel and malice against me was that,
+besides that I got something too deep into his secrets, several
+discerning persons, and particularly a buxom young widow of
+Abingdon, preferred my prescriptions to his."
+
+"None of thy buffoonery, sir," said Tressilian sternly.  "If thou
+hast trifled with us--much more, if thou hast done aught that may
+prejudice Sir Hugh Robsart's health, thou shalt find thy grave at
+the bottom of a tin-mine."
+
+"I know too little of the great ARCANUM to convert the ore to
+gold," said Wayland firmly.  "But truce to your apprehensions,
+Master Tressilian.  I understood the good knight's case from what
+Master William Badger told me; and I hope I am able enough to
+administer a poor dose of mandragora, which, with the sleep that
+must needs follow, is all that Sir Hugh Robsart requires to
+settle his distraught brains."
+
+"I trust thou dealest fairly with me, Wayland?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Most fairly and honestly, as the event shall show," replied the
+artist.  "What would it avail me to harm the poor old man for
+whom you are interested?--you, to whom I owe it that Gaffer
+Pinniewinks is not even now rending my flesh and sinews with his
+accursed pincers, and probing every mole in my body with his
+sharpened awl (a murrain on the hands which forged it!) in order
+to find out the witch's mark?--I trust to yoke myself as a humble
+follower to your worship's train, and I only wish to have my
+faith judged of by the result of the good knight's slumbers."
+
+Wayland Smith was right in his prognostication.  The sedative
+draught which his skill had prepared, and Will Badger's
+confidence had administered, was attended with the most
+beneficial effects.  The patient's sleep was long and healthful,
+and the poor old knight awoke, humbled indeed in thought and weak
+in frame, yet a much better judge of whatever was subjected to
+his intellect than he had been for some time past.  He resisted
+for a while the proposal made by his friends that Tressilian
+should undertake a journey to court, to attempt the recovery of
+his daughter, and the redress of her wrongs, in so far as they
+might yet be repaired.  "Let her go," he said; "she is but a hawk
+that goes down the wind; I would not bestow even a whistle to
+reclaim her."  But though he for some time maintained this
+argument, he was at length convinced it was his duty to take the
+part to which natural affection inclined him, and consent that
+such efforts as could yet be made should be used by Tressilian in
+behalf of his daughter.  He subscribed, therefore, a warrant of
+attorney, such as the curate's skill enabled him to draw up; for
+in those simple days the clergy were often the advisers of their
+flock in law as well as in gospel.
+
+All matters were prepared for Tressilian's second departure,
+within twenty-four hours after he had returned to Lidcote Hall;
+but one material circumstance had been forgotten, which was first
+called to the remembrance of Tressilian by Master Mumblazen.
+"You are going to court, Master Tressilian," said he; "you will
+please remember that your blazonry must be ARGENT and OR--no
+other tinctures will pass current."  The remark was equally just
+and embarrassing.  To prosecute a suit at court, ready money was
+as indispensable even in the golden days of Elizabeth as at any
+succeeding period; and it was a commodity little at the command
+of the inhabitants of Lidcote Hall.  Tressilian was himself poor;
+the revenues of good Sir Hugh Robsart were consumed, and even
+anticipated, in his hospitable mode of living; and it was finally
+necessary that the herald who started the doubt should himself
+solve it.  Master Michael Mumblazen did so by producing a bag of
+money, containing nearly three hundred pounds in gold and silver
+of various coinage, the savings of twenty years, which he now,
+without speaking a syllable upon the subject, dedicated to the
+service of the patron whose shelter and protection had given him
+the means of making this little hoard.  Tressilian accepted it
+without affecting a moment's hesitation, and a mutual grasp of
+the hand was all that passed betwixt them, to express the
+pleasure which the one felt in dedicating his all to such a
+purpose, and that which the other received from finding so
+material an obstacle to the success of his journey so suddenly
+removed, and in a manner so unexpected.
+
+While Tressilian was making preparations for his departure early
+the ensuing morning, Wayland Smith desired to speak with him,
+and, expressing his hope that he had been pleased with the
+operation of his medicine in behalf of Sir Hugh Robsart, added
+his desire to accompany him to court.  This was indeed what
+Tressilian himself had several times thought of; for the
+shrewdness, alertness of understanding, and variety of resource
+which this fellow had exhibited during the time they had
+travelled together, had made him sensible that his assistance
+might be of importance.  But then Wayland was in danger from the
+grasp of law; and of this Tressilian reminded him, mentioning
+something, at the same time, of the pincers of Pinniewinks and
+the warrant of Master Justice Blindas.  Wayland Smith laughed
+both to scorn.
+
+"See you, sir!"  said he, "I have changed my garb from that of a
+farrier to a serving-man; but were it still as it was, look at my
+moustaches.  They now hang down; I will but turn them up, and dye
+them with a tincture that I know of, and the devil would scarce
+know me again."
+
+He accompanied these words with the appropriate action, and in
+less than a minute, by setting up, his moustaches and his hair,
+he seemed a different person from him that had but now entered
+the room.  Still, however, Tressilian hesitated to accept his
+services, and the artist became proportionably urgent.
+
+"I owe you life and limb," he said, "and I would fain pay a part
+of the debt, especially as I know from Will Badger on what
+dangerous service your worship is bound.  I do not, indeed,
+pretend to be what is called a man of mettle, one of those
+ruffling tear-cats who maintain their master's quarrel with sword
+and buckler.  Nay, I am even one of those who hold the end of a
+feast better than the beginning of a fray.  But I know that I can
+serve your worship better, in such quest as yours, than any of
+these sword-and-dagger men, and that my head will be worth an
+hundred of their hands."
+
+Tressilian still hesitated.  He knew not much of this strange
+fellow, and was doubtful how far he could repose in him the
+confidence necessary to render him a useful attendant upon the
+present emergency.  Ere he had come to a determination, the
+trampling of a horse was heard in the courtyard, and Master
+Mumblazen and Will Badger both entered hastily into Tressilian's
+chamber, speaking almost at the same moment.
+
+"Here is a serving-man on the bonniest grey tit I ever see'd in
+my life," said Will Badger, who got the start--"having on his
+arm a silver cognizance, being a fire-drake holding in his mouth
+a brickbat, under a coronet of an Earl's degree," said Master
+Mumblazen, "and bearing a letter sealed of the same."
+
+Tressilian took the letter, which was addressed "To the
+worshipful Master Edmund Tressilian, our loving kinsman--These--
+ride, ride, ride--for thy life, for thy life, for thy life.  "He
+then opened it, and found the following contents:--
+
+"MASTER TRESSILIAN, OUR GOOD FRIEND AND COUSIN,
+
+"We are at present so ill at ease, and otherwise so unhappily
+circumstanced, that we are desirous to have around us those of
+our friends on whose loving-kindness we can most especially
+repose confidence; amongst whom we hold our good Master
+Tressilian one of the foremost and nearest, both in good will and
+good ability.  We therefore pray you, with your most convenient
+speed, to repair to our poor lodging, at Sayes Court, near
+Deptford, where we will treat further with you of matters which
+we deem it not fit to commit unto writing.  And so we bid you
+heartily farewell, being your loving kinsman to command,
+          "RATCLIFFE, EARL OF SUSSEX."
+
+"Send up the messenger instantly, Will Badger," said Tressilian;
+and as the man entered the room, he exclaimed, "Ah, Stevens, is
+it you?  how does my good lord?"
+
+"Ill, Master Tressilian," was the messenger's reply, "and having
+therefore the more need of good friends around him."
+
+"But what is my lord's malady?"  said Tressilian anxiously; I
+heard nothing of his being ill."
+
+"I know not, sir," replied the man; "he is very ill at ease.  The
+leeches are at a stand, and many of his household suspect foul
+practice-witchcraft, or worse."
+
+"What are the symptoms?"  said Wayland Smith, stepping forward
+hastily.
+
+"Anan?"  said the messenger, not comprehending his meaning.
+
+"What does he ail?"  said Wayland; "where lies his disease?"
+
+The man looked at Tressilian, as if to know whether he should
+answer these inquiries from a stranger, and receiving a sign in
+the affirmative, he hastily enumerated gradual loss of strength,
+nocturnal perspiration, and loss of appetite, faintness, etc.
+
+"Joined," said Wayland, "to a gnawing pain in the stomach, and a
+low fever?"
+
+"Even so," said the messenger, somewhat surprised.
+
+"I know how the disease is caused," said the artist, "and I know
+the cause.  Your master has eaten of the manna of Saint Nicholas.
+I know the cure too--my master shall not say I studied in his
+laboratory for nothing."
+
+"How mean you?"  said Tressilian, frowning; "we speak of one of
+the first nobles of England.  Bethink you, this is no subject for
+buffoonery."
+
+"God forbid!"  said Wayland Smith.  "I say that I know this
+disease, and can cure him.  Remember what I did for Sir Hugh
+Robsart,"
+
+"We will set forth instantly," said Tressilian.  "God calls us."
+
+Accordingly, hastily mentioning this new motive for his instant
+departure, though without alluding to either the suspicions of
+Stevens, or the assurances of Wayland Smith, he took the kindest
+leave of Sir Hugh and the family at Lidcote Hall, who accompanied
+him with prayers and blessings, and, attended by Wayland and the
+Earl of Sussex's domestic, travelled with the utmost speed
+towards London.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  Ay, I know you have arsenic,
+  Vitriol, sal-tartre, argaile, alkaly,
+  Cinoper:  I know all.--This fellow, Captain,
+  Will come in time to be a great distiller,
+  And give a say (I will not say directly,
+  But very near) at the philosopher's stone.   THE ALCHEMIST.
+
+Tressilian and his attendants pressed their route with all
+dispatch.  He had asked the smith, indeed, when their departure
+was resolved on, whether he would not rather choose to avoid
+Berkshire, in which he had played a part so conspicuous?  But
+Wayland returned a confident answer.  He had employed the short
+interval they passed at Lidcote Hall in transforming himself in a
+wonderful manner.  His wild and overgrown thicket of beard was
+now restrained to two small moustaches on the upper lip, turned
+up in a military fashion.  A tailor from the village of Lidcote
+(well paid) had exerted his skill, under his customer's
+directions, so as completely to alter Wayland's outward man, and
+take off from his appearance almost twenty years of age.
+Formerly, besmeared with soot and charcoal, overgrown with hair,
+and bent double with the nature of his labour, disfigured too by
+his odd and fantastic dress, he seemed a man of fifty years old.
+But now, in a handsome suit of Tressilian's livery, with a sword
+by his side and a buckler on his shoulder, he looked like a gay
+ruffling serving-man, whose age might be betwixt thirty and
+thirty-five, the very prime of human life.  His loutish, savage-
+looking demeanour seemed equally changed, into a forward, sharp,
+and impudent alertness of look and action.
+
+When challenged by Tressilian, who desired to know the cause of a
+metamorphosis so singular and so absolute, Wayland only answered
+by singing a stave from a comedy, which was then new, and was
+supposed, among the more favourable judges, to augur some genius
+on the part of the author.  We are happy to preserve the couplet,
+which ran exactly thus,--
+
+  "Ban, ban, ca Caliban--
+  Get a new master--Be a new man."
+
+Although Tressilian did not recollect the verses, yet they
+reminded him that Wayland had once been a stage player, a
+circumstance which, of itself, accounted indifferently well for
+the readiness with which he could assume so total a change of
+personal appearance.  The artist himself was so confident of his
+disguise being completely changed, or of his having completely
+changed his disguise, which may be the more correct mode of
+speaking, that he regretted they were not to pass near his old
+place of retreat.
+
+"I could venture," he said, "in my present dress, and with your
+worship's backing, to face Master Justice Blindas, even on a day
+of Quarter Sessions; and I would like to know what is become of
+Hobgoblin, who is like to play the devil in the world, if he can
+once slip the string, and leave his granny and his dominie.--Ay,
+and the scathed vault!"  he said; "I would willingly have seen
+what havoc the explosion of so much gunpowder has made among
+Doctor Demetrius Doboobie's retorts and phials.  I warrant me, my
+fame haunts the Vale of the Whitehorse long after my body is
+rotten; and that many a lout ties up his horse, lays down his
+silver groat, and pipes like a sailor whistling in a calm for
+Wayland Smith to come and shoe his tit for him.  But the horse
+will catch the founders ere the smith answers the call."
+
+In this particular, indeed, Wayland proved a true prophet; and so
+easily do fables rise, that an obscure tradition of his
+extraordinary practice in farriery prevails in the Vale of
+Whitehorse even unto this day; and neither the tradition of
+Alfred's Victory, nor of the celebrated Pusey Horn, are better
+preserved in Berkshire than the wild legend of Wayland Smith.
+[See Note 2, Legend of Wayland Smith.]
+
+The haste of the travellers admitted their making no stay upon
+their journey, save what the refreshment of the horses required;
+and as many of the places through which they passed were under
+the influence of the Earl of Leicester, or persons immediately
+dependent on him, they thought it prudent to disguise their names
+and the purpose of their journey.  On such occasions the agency
+of Wayland Smith (by which name we shall continue to distinguish
+the artist, though his real name was Lancelot Wayland) was
+extremely serviceable.  He seemed, indeed, to have a pleasure in
+displaying the alertness with which he could baffle
+investigation, and amuse himself by putting the curiosity of
+tapsters and inn-keepers on a false scent.  During the course of
+their brief journey, three different and inconsistent reports
+were circulated by him on their account--namely, first, that
+Tressilian was the Lord Deputy of Ireland, come over in disguise
+to take the Queen's pleasure concerning the great rebel Rory Oge
+MacCarthy MacMahon; secondly, that the said Tressilian was an
+agent of Monsieur, coming to urge his suit to the hand of
+Elizabeth; thirdly, that he was the Duke of Medina, come over,
+incognito, to adjust the quarrel betwixt Philip and that
+princess.
+
+Tressilian was angry, and expostulated with the artist on the
+various inconveniences, and, in particular, the unnecessary
+degree of attention to which they were subjected by the figments
+he thus circulated; but he was pacified (for who could be proof
+against such an argument?) by Wayland's assuring him that a
+general importance was attached to his own (Tressilian's)
+striking presence, which rendered it necessary to give an
+extraordinary reason for the rapidity and secrecy of his journey.
+
+At length they approached the metropolis, where, owing to the
+more general recourse of strangers, their appearance excited
+neither observation nor inquiry, and finally they entered London
+itself.
+
+It was Tressilian's purpose to go down directly to Deptford,
+where Lord Sussex resided, in order to be near the court, then
+held at Greenwich, the favourite residence of Elizabeth, and
+honoured as her birthplace.  Still a brief halt in London was
+necessary; and it was somewhat prolonged by the earnest
+entreaties of Wayland Smith, who desired permission to take a
+walk through the city.
+
+"Take thy sword and buckler, and follow me, then," said
+Tressilian; "I am about to walk myself, and we will go in
+company."
+
+This he said, because he was not altogether so secure of the
+fidelity of his new retainer as to lose sight of him at this
+interesting moment, when rival factions at the court of Elizabeth
+were running so high.  Wayland Smith willingly acquiesced in the
+precaution, of which he probably conjectured the motive, but only
+stipulated that his master should enter the shops of such
+chemists or apothecaries as he should point out, in walking
+through Fleet Street, and permit him to make some necessary
+purchases.  Tressilian agreed, and obeying the signal of his
+attendant, walked successively into more than four or five shops,
+where he observed that Wayland purchased in each only one single
+drug, in various quantities.  The medicines which he first asked
+for were readily furnished, each in succession, but those which
+he afterwards required were less easily supplied; and Tressilian
+observed that Wayland more than once, to the surprise of the
+shopkeeper, returned the gum or herb that was offered to him, and
+compelled him to exchange it for the right sort, or else went on
+to seek it elsewhere.  But one ingredient, in particular, seemed
+almost impossible to be found.  Some chemists plainly admitted
+they had never seen it; others denied that such a drug existed,
+excepting in the imagination of crazy alchemists; and most of
+them attempted to satisfy their customer, by producing some
+substitute, which, when rejected by Wayland, as not being what he
+had asked for, they maintained possessed, in a superior degree,
+the self-same qualities.  In general they all displayed some
+curiosity concerning the purpose for which he wanted it.  One
+old, meagre chemist, to whom the artist put the usual question,
+in terms which Tressilian neither understood nor could recollect,
+answered frankly, there was none of that drug in London, unless
+Yoglan the Jew chanced to have some of it upon hand.
+
+"I thought as much," said Wayland.  And as soon as they left the
+shop, he said to Tressilian, "I crave your pardon, sir, but no
+artist can work without his tools.  I must needs go to this
+Yoglan's; and I promise you, that if this detains you longer than
+your leisure seems to permit, you shall, nevertheless, be well
+repaid by the use I will make of this rare drug.  Permit me," he
+added, "to walk before you, for we are now to quit the broad
+street and we will make double speed if I lead the way."
+
+Tressilian acquiesced, and, following the smith down a lane which
+turned to the left hand towards the river, he found that his
+guide walked on with great speed, and apparently perfect
+knowledge of the town, through a labyrinth of by-streets, courts,
+and blind alleys, until at length Wayland paused in the midst of
+a very narrow lane, the termination of which showed a peep of the
+Thames looking misty and muddy, which background was crossed
+saltierwise, as Mr. Mumblazen might have said, by the masts of
+two lighters that lay waiting for the tide.  The shop under which
+he halted had not, as in modern days, a glazed window, but a
+paltry canvas screen surrounded such a stall as a cobbler now
+occupies, having the front open, much in the manner of a
+fishmonger's booth of the present day.  A little old smock-faced
+man, the very reverse of a Jew in complexion, for he was very
+soft-haired as well as beardless, appeared, and with many
+courtesies asked Wayland what he pleased to want.  He had no
+sooner named the drug, than the Jew started and looked surprised.
+"And vat might your vorship vant vith that drug, which is not
+named, mein God, in forty years as I have been chemist here?"
+
+"These questions it is no part of my commission to answer," said
+Wayland; "I only wish to know if you have what I want, and having
+it, are willing to sell it?"
+
+"Ay, mein God, for having it, that I have, and for selling it, I
+am a chemist, and sell every drug."  So saying, he exhibited a
+powder, and then continued, "But it will cost much moneys.  Vat I
+ave cost its weight in gold--ay, gold well-refined--I vilI say
+six times.  It comes from Mount Sinai, where we had our blessed
+Law given forth, and the plant blossoms but once in one hundred
+year."
+
+"I do not know how often it is gathered on Mount Sinai," said
+Wayland, after looking at the drug offered him with great
+disdain, "but I will wager my sword and buckler against your
+gaberdine, that this trash you offer me, instead of what I asked
+for, may be had for gathering any day of the week in the castle
+ditch of Aleppo."
+
+"You are a rude man," said the Jew; "and, besides, I ave no
+better than that--or if I ave, I will not sell it without order
+of a physician, or without you tell me vat you make of it."
+
+The artist made brief answer in a language of which Tressilian
+could not understand a word, and which seemed to strike the Jew
+with the utmost astonishment.  He stared upon Wayland like one
+who has suddenly recognized some mighty hero or dreaded
+potentate, in the person of an unknown and unmarked stranger.
+"Holy Elias!"  he exclaimed, when he had recovered the first
+stunning effects of his surprise; and then passing from his
+former suspicious and surly manner to the very extremity of
+obsequiousness, he cringed low to the artist, and besought him to
+enter his poor house, to bless his miserable threshold by
+crossing it.
+
+"Vill you not taste a cup vith the poor Jew, Zacharias Yoglan?
+--Vill you Tokay ave?--vill you Lachrymae taste?--vill you--"
+
+"You offend in your proffers," said Wayland; "minister to me in
+what I require of you, and forbear further discourse."
+
+The rebuked Israelite took his bunch of keys, and opening with
+circumspection a cabinet which seemed more strongly secured than
+the other cases of drugs and medicines amongst which it stood, he
+drew out a little secret drawer, having a glass lid, and
+containing a small portion of a black powder.  This he offered to
+Wayland, his manner conveying the deepest devotion towards him,
+though an avaricious and jealous expression, which seemed to
+grudge every grain of what his customer was about to possess
+himself, disputed ground in his countenance with the obsequious
+deference which he desired it should exhibit.
+
+"Have you scales?"  said Wayland.
+
+The Jew pointed to those which lay ready for common use in the
+shop, but he did so with a puzzled expression of doubt and fear,
+which did not escape the artist.
+
+"They must be other than these," said Wayland sternly.  "Know you
+not that holy things lose their virtue if weighed in an unjust
+balance?"
+
+The Jew hung his head, took from a steel-plated casket a pair of
+scales beautifully mounted, and said, as he adjusted them for the
+artist's use, "With these I do mine own experiment--one hair of
+the high-priest's beard would turn them."
+
+"It suffices," said the artist, and weighed out two drachms for
+himself of the black powder, which he very carefully folded up,
+and put into his pouch with the other drugs.  He then demanded
+the price of the Jew, who answered, shaking his head and bowing,
+--
+
+"No price--no, nothing at all from such as you.  But you will see
+the poor Jew again?  you will look into his laboratory, where,
+God help him, he hath dried himself to the substance of the
+withered gourd of Jonah, the holy prophet.  You will ave pity on
+him, and show him one little step on the great road?"
+
+"Hush!"  said Wayland, laying his finger mysteriously on his
+mouth; "it may be we shall meet again.  Thou hast already the
+SCHAHMAJM, as thine own Rabbis call it--the general creation;
+watch, therefore, and pray, for thou must attain the knowledge of
+Alchahest Elixir Samech ere I may commune further with thee."
+Then returning with a slight nod the reverential congees of the
+Jew, he walked gravely up the lane, followed by his master, whose
+first observation on the scene he had just witnessed was, that
+Wayland ought to have paid the man for his drug, whatever it was.
+
+"I pay him?"  said the artist.  "May the foul fiend pay me if I
+do!  Had it not been that I thought it might displease your
+worship, I would have had an ounce or two of gold out of him, in
+exchange of the same just weight of brick dust."
+
+"I advise you to practise no such knavery while waiting upon me,"
+said Tressilian.
+
+"Did I not say," answered the artist, "that for that reason alone
+I forbore him for the present?--Knavery, call you it?  Why,
+yonder wretched skeleton hath wealth sufficient to pave the whole
+lane he lives in with dollars, and scarce miss them out of his
+own iron chest; yet he goes mad after the philosopher's stone.
+And besides, he would have cheated a poor serving-man, as he
+thought me at first, with trash that was not worth a penny.
+Match for match, quoth the devil to the collier; if his false
+medicine was worth my good crowns, my true brick dust is as well
+worth his good gold."
+
+"It may be so, for aught I know," said Tressilian, "in dealing
+amongst Jews and apothecaries; but understand that to have such
+tricks of legerdemain practised by one attending on me diminishes
+my honour, and that I will not permit them.  I trust thou hast
+made up thy purchases?"
+
+"I have, sir," replied Wayland; "and with these drugs will I,
+this very day, compound the true orvietan, that noble medicine
+which is so seldom found genuine and effective within these
+realms of Europe, for want of that most rare and precious drug
+which I got but now from Yoglan."  [Orvietan, or Venice treacle,
+as it was sometimes called, was understood to be a sovereign
+remedy against poison; and the reader must be contented, for the
+time he peruses these pages, to hold the same opinion, which was
+once universally received by the learned as well as the vulgar.]
+
+"But why not have made all your purchases at one shop?"  said his
+master; "we have lost nearly an hour in running from one pounder
+of simples to another."
+
+"Content you, sir," said Wayland.  "No man shall learn my secret;
+and it would not be mine long, were I to buy all my materials
+from one chemist."
+
+They now returned to their inn (the famous Bell-Savage); and
+while the Lord Sussex's servant prepared the horses for their
+journey, Wayland, obtaining from the cook the service of a
+mortar, shut himself up in a private chamber, where he mixed,
+pounded, and amalgamated the drugs which he had bought, each in
+its due proportion, with a readiness and address that plainly
+showed him well practised in all the manual operations of
+pharmacy.
+
+By the time Wayland's electuary was prepared the horses were
+ready, and a short hour's riding brought them to the present
+habitation of Lord Sussex, an ancient house, called Sayes Court,
+near Deptford, which had long pertained to a family of that name,
+but had for upwards of a century been possessed by the ancient
+and honourable family of Evelyn.  The present representative of
+that ancient house took a deep interest in the Earl of Sussex,
+and had willingly accommodated both him and his numerous retinue
+in his hospitable mansion.  Sayes Court was afterwards the
+residence of the celebrated Mr. Evelyn, whose "Silva" is still
+the manual of British planters; and whose life, manners, and
+principles, as illustrated in his Memoirs, ought equally to be
+the manual of English gentlemen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  This is rare news thou tell'st me, my good fellow;
+  There are two bulls fierce battling on the green
+  For one fair heifer--if the one goes down,
+  The dale will be more peaceful, and the herd,
+  Which have small interest in their brulziement,
+  May pasture there in peace.--OLD PLAY.
+
+Sayes Court was watched like a beleaguered fort; and so high rose
+the suspicions of the time, that Tressilian and his attendants
+were stopped and questioned repeatedly by sentinels, both on foot
+and horseback, as they approached the abode of the sick Earl.  In
+truth, the high rank which Sussex held in Queen Elizabeth's
+favour, and his known and avowed rivalry of the Earl of
+Leicester, caused the utmost importance to be attached to his
+welfare; for, at the period we treat of, all men doubted whether
+he or the Earl of Leicester might ultimately have the higher rank
+in her regard.
+
+Elizabeth, like many of her sex, was fond of governing by
+factions, so as to balance two opposing interests, and reserve in
+her own hand the power of making either predominate, as the
+interest of the state, or perhaps as her own female caprice (for
+to that foible even she was not superior), might finally
+determine.  To finesse--to hold the cards--to oppose one interest
+to another--to bridle him who thought himself highest in her
+esteem, by the fears he must entertain of another equally
+trusted, if not equally beloved, were arts which she used
+throughout her reign, and which enabled her, though frequently
+giving way to the weakness of favouritism, to prevent most of its
+evil effects on her kingdom and government.
+
+The two nobles who at present stood as rivals in her favour
+possessed very different pretensions to share it; yet it might be
+in general said that the Earl of Sussex had been most serviceable
+to the Queen, while Leicester was most dear to the woman.  Sussex
+was, according to the phrase of the times, a martialist--had done
+good service in Ireland and in Scotland, and especially in the
+great northern rebellion, in 1569, which was quelled, in a great
+measure, by his military talents.  He was, therefore, naturally
+surrounded and looked up to by those who wished to make arms
+their road to distinction.  The Earl of Sussex, moreover, was of
+more ancient and honourable descent than his rival, uniting in
+his person the representation of the Fitz-Walters, as well as of
+the Ratcliffes; while the scutcheon of Leicester was stained by
+the degradation of his grandfather, the oppressive minister of
+Henry VII., and scarce improved by that of his father, the
+unhappy Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, executed on Tower Hill,
+August 22, 1553.  But in person, features, and address, weapons
+so formidable in the court of a female sovereign, Leicester had
+advantages more than sufficient to counterbalance the military
+services, high blood, and frank bearing of the Earl of Sussex;
+and he bore, in the eye of the court and kingdom, the higher
+share in Elizabeth's favour, though (for such was her uniform
+policy) by no means so decidedly expressed as to warrant him
+against the final preponderance of his rival's pretensions.  The
+illness of Sussex therefore happened so opportunely for
+Leicester, as to give rise to strange surmises among the public;
+while the followers of the one Earl were filled with the deepest
+apprehensions, and those of the other with the highest hopes of
+its probable issue.  Meanwhile--for in that old time men never
+forgot the probability that the matter might be determined by
+length of sword--the retainers of each noble flocked around their
+patron, appeared well armed in the vicinity of the court itself,
+and disturbed the ear of the sovereign by their frequent and
+alarming debates, held even within the precincts of her palace.
+This preliminary statement is necessary, to render what follows
+intelligible to the reader.  [See Note 3. Leicester and Sussex.]
+
+On Tressilian's arrival at Sayes Court, he found the place filled
+with the retainers of the Earl of Sussex, and of the gentlemen
+who came to attend their patron in his illness.  Arms were in
+every hand, and a deep gloom on every countenance, as if they had
+apprehended an immediate and violent assault from the opposite
+faction.  In the hall, however, to which Tressilian was ushered
+by one of the Earl's attendants, while another went to inform
+Sussex of his arrival, he found only two gentlemen in waiting.
+There was a remarkable contrast in their dress, appearance, and
+manners.  The attire of the elder gentleman, a person as it
+seemed of quality and in the prime of life, was very plain and
+soldierlike, his stature low, his limbs stout, his bearing
+ungraceful, and his features of that kind which express sound
+common sense, without a grain of vivacity or imagination.  The
+younger, who seemed about twenty, or upwards, was clad in the
+gayest habit used by persons of quality at the period, wearing a
+crimson velvet cloak richly ornamented with lace and embroidery,
+with a bonnet of the same, encircled with a gold chain turned
+three times round it, and secured by a medal.  His hair was
+adjusted very nearly like that of some fine gentlemen of our own
+time--that is, it was combed upwards, and made to stand as it
+were on end; and in his ears he wore a pair of silver earrings,
+having each a pearl of considerable size.  The countenance of
+this youth, besides being regularly handsome and accompanied by a
+fine person, was animated and striking in a degree that seemed to
+speak at once the firmness of a decided and the fire of an
+enterprising character, the power of reflection, and the
+promptitude of determination.
+
+Both these gentlemen reclined nearly in the same posture on
+benches near each other; but each seeming engaged in his own
+meditations, looked straight upon the wall which was opposite to
+them, without speaking to his companion.  The looks of the elder
+were of that sort which convinced the beholder that, in looking
+on the wall, he saw no more than the side of an old hall hung
+around with cloaks, antlers, bucklers, old pieces of armour,
+partisans, and the similar articles which were usually the
+furniture of such a place.  The look of the younger gallant had
+in it something imaginative; he was sunk in reverie, and it
+seemed as if the empty space of air betwixt him and the wall were
+the stage of a theatre on which his fancy was mustering his own
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE, and treating him with sights far different
+from those which his awakened and earthly vision could have
+offered.
+
+At the entrance of Tressilian both started from their musing, and
+made him welcome--the younger, in particular, with great
+appearance of animation and cordiality.
+
+"Thou art welcome, Tressilian," said the youth.  "Thy philosophy
+stole thee from us when this household had objects of ambition to
+offer; it is an honest philosophy, since it returns thee to us
+when there are only dangers to be shared."
+
+"Is my lord, then, so greatly indisposed?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"We fear the very worst," answered the elder gentleman, "and by
+the worst practice."
+
+"Fie," replied Tressilian, "my Lord of Leicester is honourable."
+
+"What doth he with such attendants, then, as he hath about him?"
+said the younger gallant.  "The man who raises the devil may be
+honest, but he is answerable for the mischief which the fiend
+does, for all that."
+
+"And is this all of you, my mates," inquired Tressilian, "that
+are about my lord in his utmost straits?"
+
+"No, no," replied the elder gentleman, "there are Tracy, Markham,
+and several more; but we keep watch here by two at once, and some
+are weary and are sleeping in the gallery above."
+
+"And some," said the young man," are gone down to the Dock yonder
+at Deptford, to look out such a hull; as they may purchase by
+clubbing their broken fortunes; and as soon as all is over, we
+will lay our noble lord in a noble green grave, have a blow at
+those who have hurried him thither, if opportunity suits, and
+then sail for the Indies with heavy hearts and light purses."
+
+"It may be," said Tressilian, "that I will embrace the same
+purpose, so soon as I have settled some business at court."
+
+"Thou business at court!"  they both exclaimed at once, "and thou
+make the Indian voyage!"
+
+"Why, Tressilian," said the younger man, "art thou not wedded,
+and beyond these flaws of fortune, that drive folks out to sea
+when their bark bears fairest for the haven?-- What has become of
+the lovely Indamira that was to match my Amoret for truth and
+beauty?"
+
+"Speak not of her!"  said Tressilian, averting his face.
+
+"Ay, stands it so with you?"  said the youth, taking his hand
+very affectionately; "then, fear not I will again touch the green
+wound.  But it is strange as well as sad news.  Are none of our
+fair and merry fellowship to escape shipwreck of fortune and
+happiness in this sudden tempest?  I had hoped thou wert in
+harbour, at least, my dear Edmund.  But truly says another dear
+friend of thy name,
+
+  'What man that sees the ever whirling wheel
+  Of Chance, the which all mortal things doth sway,
+  But that thereby doth find and plainly feel,
+  How Mutability in them doth play
+  Her cruel sports to many men's decay.'"
+
+The elder gentleman had risen from his bench, and was pacing the
+hall with some impatience, while the youth, with much earnestness
+and feeling, recited these lines.  When he had done, the other
+wrapped himself in his cloak, and again stretched himself down,
+saying, "I marvel, Tressilian, you will feed the lad in this
+silly humour.  If there were ought to draw a judgment upon a
+virtuous and honourable household like my lord's, renounce me if
+I think not it were this piping, whining, childish trick of
+poetry, that came among us with Master Walter Wittypate here and
+his comrades, twisting into all manner of uncouth and
+incomprehensible forms of speech, the honest plain English phrase
+which God gave us to express our meaning withal."
+
+"Blount believes," said his comrade, laughing, "the devil woo'd
+Eve in rhyme, and that the mystic meaning of the Tree of
+Knowledge refers solely to the art of clashing rhymes and meting
+out hexameters."  [See Note 4. Sir Walter Raleigh.]
+
+At this moment the Earl's chamberlain entered, and informed
+Tressilian that his lord required to speak with him.
+
+He found Lord Sussex dressed, but unbraced, and lying on his
+couch, and was shocked at the alteration disease had made in his
+person.  The Earl received him with the most friendly cordiality,
+and inquired into the state of his courtship.  Tressilian evaded
+his inquiries for a moment, and turning his discourse on the
+Earl's own health, he discovered, to his surprise, that the
+symptoms of his disorder corresponded minutely with those which
+Wayland had predicated concerning it.  He hesitated not,
+therefore, to communicate to Sussex the whole history of his
+attendant, and the pretensions he set up to cure the disorder
+under which he laboured.  The Earl listened with incredulous
+attention until the name of Demetrius was mentioned, and then
+suddenly called to his secretary to bring him a certain casket
+which contained papers of importance.  "Take out from thence," he
+said, "the declaration of the rascal cook whom we had under
+examination, and look heedfully if the name of Demetrius be not
+there mentioned."
+
+The secretary turned to the passage at once, and read, "And said
+declarant, being examined, saith, That he remembers having made
+the sauce to the said sturgeon-fish, after eating of which the
+said noble Lord was taken ill; "and he put the usual ingredients
+and condiments therein, namely--"
+
+"Pass over his trash," said the Earl, "and see whether he had not
+been supplied with his materials by a herbalist called
+Demetrius."
+
+"It is even so," answered the secretary.  "And he adds, he has
+not since seen the said Demetrius."
+
+"This accords with thy fellow's story, Tressilian," said the
+Earl; "call him hither."
+
+On being summoned to the Earl's presence, Wayland Smith told his
+former tale with firmness and consistency.
+
+"It may be," said the Earl, "thou art sent by those who have
+begun this work, to end it for them; but bethink, if I miscarry
+under thy medicine, it may go hard with thee."
+
+"That were severe measure," said Wayland, "since the issue of
+medicine, and the end of life, are in God's disposal.  But I will
+stand the risk.  I have not lived so long under ground to be
+afraid of a grave."
+
+"Nay, if thou be'st so confident," said the Earl of Sussex, "I
+will take the risk too, for the learned can do nothing for me.
+Tell me how this medicine is to be taken."
+
+"That will I do presently," said Wayland; "but allow me to
+condition that, since I incur all the risk of this treatment, no
+other physician shall be permitted to interfere with it."
+
+"That is but fair," replied the Earl; "and now prepare your
+drug."
+
+While Wayland obeyed the Earl's commands, his servants, by the
+artist's direction, undressed their master, and placed him in
+bed.
+
+"I warn you," he said, "that the first operation of this medicine
+will be to produce a heavy sleep, during which time the chamber
+must be kept undisturbed, as the consequences may otherwise he
+fatal.  I myself will watch by the Earl with any of the gentlemen
+of his chamber."
+
+"Let all leave the room, save Stanley and this good fellow," said
+the Earl.
+
+"And saving me also," said Tressilian.  "I too am deeply
+interested in the effects of this potion."
+
+"Be it so, good friend," said the Earl.  "And now for our
+experiment; but first call my secretary and chamberlain."
+
+"Bear witness," he continued, when these officers arrived--"bear
+witness for me, gentlemen, that our honourable friend Tressilian
+is in no way responsible for the effects which this medicine may
+produce upon me, the taking it being my own free action and
+choice, in regard I believe it to be a remedy which God has
+furnished me by unexpected means to recover me of my present
+malady.  Commend me to my noble and princely Mistress; and say
+that I live and die her true servant, and wish to all about her
+throne the same singleness of heart and will to serve her, with
+more ability to do so than hath been assigned to poor Thomas
+Ratcliffe."
+
+He then folded his hands, and seemed for a second or two absorbed
+in mental devotion, then took the potion in his hand, and,
+pausing, regarded Wayland with a look that seemed designed to
+penetrate his very soul, but which caused no anxiety or
+hesitation in the countenance or manner of the artist.
+
+"Here is nothing to be feared," said Sussex to Tressilian, and
+swallowed the medicine without further hesitation
+
+"I am now to pray your lordship," said Wayland, "to dispose
+yourself to rest as commodiously as you can; and of you,
+gentlemen, to remain as still and mute as if you waited at your
+mother's deathbed."
+
+The chamberlain and secretary then withdrew, giving orders that
+all doors should be bolted, and all noise in the house strictly
+prohibited.  Several gentlemen were voluntary watchers in the
+hall, but none remained in the chamber of the sick Earl, save his
+groom of the chamber, the artist, and Tressilian.--Wayland
+Smith's predictions were speedily accomplished, and a sleep fell
+upon the Earl, so deep and sound that they who watched his
+bedside began to fear that, in his weakened state, he might pass
+away without awakening from his lethargy.  Wayland Smith himself
+appeared anxious, and felt the temples of the Earl slightly, from
+time to time, attending particularly to the state of his
+respiration, which was full and deep, but at the same time easy
+and uninterrupted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV,
+
+  You loggerheaded and unpolish'd grooms,
+  What, no attendance, no regard, no duty?
+  Where is the foolish knave I sent before?  TAMING OF THE SHREW.
+
+There is no period at which men look worse in the eyes of each
+other, or feel more uncomfortable, than when the first dawn of
+daylight finds them watchers.  Even a beauty of the first order,
+after the vigils of a ball are interrupted by the dawn, would do
+wisely to withdraw herself from the gaze of her fondest and most
+partial admirers.  Such was the pale, inauspicious, and
+ungrateful light which began to beam upon those who kept watch
+all night in the hall at Sayes Court, and which mingled its cold,
+pale, blue diffusion with the red, yellow, and smoky beams of
+expiring lamps and torches.  The young gallant, whom we noticed
+in our last chapter, had left the room for a few minutes, to
+learn the cause of a knocking at the outward gate, and on his
+return was so struck with the forlorn and ghastly aspects of his
+companions of the watch that he exclaimed, "Pity of my heart, my
+masters, how like owls you look!  Methinks, when the sun rises, I
+shall see you flutter off with your eyes dazzled, to stick
+yourselves into the next ivy-tod or ruined steeple."
+
+"Hold thy peace, thou gibing fool," said Blount; "hold thy peace.
+
+Is this a time for jeering, when the manhood of England is
+perchance dying within a wall's breadth of thee?"
+
+"There thou liest," replied the gallant.
+
+"How, lie!"  exclaimed Blount, starting up, "lie!  and to me?"
+
+"Why, so thou didst, thou peevish fool," answered the youth;
+"thou didst lie on that bench even now, didst thou not?  But art
+thou not a hasty coxcomb to pick up a wry word so wrathfully?
+Nevertheless, loving and, honouring my lord as truly as thou, or
+any one, I do say that, should Heaven take him from us, all
+England's manhood dies not with him."
+
+"Ay," replied Blount, "a good portion will survive with thee,
+doubtless."
+
+"And a good portion with thyself, Blount, and with stout Markham
+here, and Tracy, and all of us.  But I am he will best employ the
+talent Heaven has given to us all."
+
+"As how, I prithee?"  said Blount; "tell us your mystery of
+multiplying."
+
+"Why, sirs," answered the youth, "ye are like goodly land, which
+bears no crop because it is not quickened by manure; but I have
+that rising spirit in me which will make my poor faculties labour
+to keep pace with it.  My ambition will keep my brain at work, I
+warrant thee."
+
+"I pray to God it does not drive thee mad," said Blount; "for my
+part, if we lose our noble lord, I bid adieu to the court and to
+the camp both.  I have five hundred foul acres in Norfolk, and
+thither will I, and change the court pantoufle for the country
+hobnail."
+
+"O base transmutation!"  exclaimed his antagonist; "thou hast
+already got the true rustic slouch--thy shoulders stoop, as if
+thine hands were at the stilts of the plough; and thou hast a
+kind of earthy smell about thee, instead of being perfumed with
+essence, as a gallant and courtier should.  On my soul, thou hast
+stolen out to roll thyself on a hay mow!  Thy only excuse will be
+to swear by thy hilts that the farmer had a fair daughter."
+
+"I pray thee, Walter," said another of the company, "cease thy
+raillery, which suits neither time nor place, and tell us who was
+at the gate just now."
+
+"Doctor Masters, physician to her Grace in ordinary, sent by her
+especial orders to inquire after the Earl's health," answered
+Walter.
+
+"Ha!  what?"  exclaimed Tracy; "that was no slight mark of
+favour. If the Earl can but come through, he will match with
+Leicester yet.  Is Masters with my lord at present?"
+
+"Nay," replied Walter, "he is half way back to Greenwich by this
+time, and in high dudgeon."
+
+"Thou didst not refuse him admittance?"  exclaimed Tracy.
+
+"Thou wert not, surely, so mad?"  ejaculated Blount.
+
+"I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse
+a penny to a blind beggar--as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst
+ever deny access to a dun."
+
+"Why, in the fiend's name, didst thou trust him to go to the
+gate?"  said Blount to Tracy.
+
+"It suited his years better than mine," answered Tracy; "but he
+has undone us all now thoroughly.  My lord may live or die, he
+will never have a look of favour from her Majesty again."
+
+"Nor the means of making fortunes for his followers," said the
+young gallant, smiling contemptuously;--"there lies the sore
+point that will brook no handling.  My good sirs, I sounded my
+lamentations over my lord somewhat less loudly than some of you;
+but when the point comes of doing him service, I will yield to
+none of you.  Had this learned leech entered, think'st thou not
+there had been such a coil betwixt him and Tressilian's
+mediciner, that not the sleeper only, but the very dead might
+have awakened?  I know what larurm belongs to the discord of
+doctors."
+
+"And who is to take the blame of opposing the Queen's orders?"
+said Tracy; "for, undeniably, Doctor Masters came with her
+Grace's positive commands to cure the Earl."
+
+"I, who have done the wrong, will bear the blame," said Walter.
+
+"Thus, then, off fly the dreams of court favour thou hast
+nourished," said Blount, "and despite all thy boasted art and
+ambition, Devonshire will see thee shine a true younger brother,
+fit to sit low at the board, carve turn about with the chaplain,
+look that the hounds be fed, and see the squire's girths drawn
+when he goes a-hunting."
+
+"Not so," said the young man, colouring, "not while Ireland and
+the Netherlands have wars, and not while the sea hath pathless
+waves.  The rich West hath lands undreamed of, and Britain
+contains bold hearts to venture on the quest of them.  Adieu for
+a space, my masters.  I go to walk in the court and look to the
+sentinels."
+
+"The lad hath quicksilver in his veins, that is certain," said
+Blount, looking at Markham.
+
+"He hath that both in brain and blood," said Markham, "which may
+either make or mar him.  But in closing the door against Masters,
+he hath done a daring and loving piece of service; for
+Tressilian's fellow hath ever averred that to wake the Earl were
+death, and Masters would wake the Seven Sleepers themselves, if
+he thought they slept not by the regular ordinance of medicine."
+
+Morning was well advanced when Tressilian, fatigued and over-
+watched, came down to the hall with the joyful intelligence that
+the Earl had awakened of himself, that he found his internal
+complaints much mitigated, and spoke with a cheerfulness, and
+looked round with a vivacity, which of themselves showed a
+material and favourable change had taken place.  Tressilian at
+the same time commanded the attendance of one or two of his
+followers, to report what had passed during the night, and to
+relieve the watchers in the Earl's chamber.
+
+When the message of the Queen was communicated to the Earl of
+Sussex, he at first smiled at the repulse which the physician had
+received from his zealous young follower; but instantly
+recollecting himself, he commanded Blount, his master of the
+horse, instantly to take boat, and go down the river to the
+Palace of Greenwich, taking young Walter and Tracy with him, and
+make a suitable compliment, expressing his grateful thanks to his
+Sovereign, and mentioning the cause why he had not been enabled
+to profit by the assistance of the wise and learned Doctor
+Masters.
+
+"A plague on it!"  said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had
+he sent me with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done
+his errand indifferently well.  But to go to our gracious
+Sovereign, before whom all words must be lacquered over either
+with gilding or with sugar, is such a confectionary matter as
+clean baffles my poor old English brain.--Come with me, Tracy,
+and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the cause of
+our having all this ado.  Let us see if thy neat brain, that
+frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at
+need with some of thy shrewd devices."
+
+"Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help
+you through; let me but fetch my cloak."
+
+"Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,--"the lad is
+mazed,"
+
+"No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter.  "I go not
+with thee to court unless as a gentleman should."
+
+"Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of
+none but some poor groom or porter."
+
+"I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my
+own cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth
+with you."
+
+"Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a
+cloak.  Get thyself ready, a God's name!"
+
+They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad
+Thames, upon which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.
+
+"There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said
+Walter to Blount--"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the
+earth."
+
+"The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount,
+"and the other would take us there a little faster if it were
+ebb-tide."
+
+"And this is all thou thinkest--all thou carest--all thou deemest
+the use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers--to guide
+three such poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an
+idle journey of courtly ceremony!"
+
+"It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I
+could excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying
+me where I have no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's
+wages for my trouble--and by my honour," he added, looking out
+from the head of the boat, "it seems to me as if our message were
+a sort of labour in vain, for, see, the Queen's barge lies at the
+stairs as if her Majesty were about to take water."
+
+It was even so.  The royal barge, manned with the Queen's
+watermen richly attired in the regal liveries, and having the
+Banner of England displayed, did indeed lie at the great stairs
+which ascended from the river, and along with it two or three
+other boats for transporting such part of her retinue as were not
+in immediate attendance on the royal person.  The yeomen of the
+guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom England could
+produce, guarded with their halberds the passage from the palace-
+gate to the river side, and all seemed in readiness for the
+Queen's coming forth, although the day was yet so early.
+
+"By my faith, this bodes us no good," said Blount; "it must be
+some perilous cause puts her Grace in motion thus untimeously, By
+my counsel, we were best put back again, and tell the Earl what
+we have seen."
+
+"Tell the Earl what we have seen!"  said Walter; "why what have
+we seen but a boat, and men with scarlet jerkins, and halberds in
+their hands?  Let us do his errand, and tell him what the Queen
+says in reply."
+
+So saying, he caused the boat to be pulled towards a landing-
+place at some distance from the principal one, which it would
+not, at that moment, have been thought respectful to approach,
+and jumped on shore, followed, though with reluctance, by his
+cautious and timid companions.  As they approached the gate of
+the palace, one of the sergeant porters told them they could not
+at present enter, as her Majesty was in the act of coming forth.
+The gentlemen used the name of the Earl of Sussex; but it proved
+no charm to subdue the officer, who alleged, in reply, that it
+was as much as his post was worth to disobey in the least tittle
+the commands which he had received.
+
+"Nay, I told you as much before," said Blount; "do, I pray you,
+my dear Walter, let us take boat and return."
+
+"Not till I see the Queen come forth," returned the youth
+composedly.
+
+"Thou art mad, stark mad, by the Mass!"  answered Blount.
+
+"And thou," said Walter, "art turned coward of the sudden.  I
+have seen thee face half a score of shag-headed Irish kerns to
+thy own share of them; and now thou wouldst blink and go back to
+shun the frown of a fair lady!"
+
+At this moment the gates opened, and ushers began to issue forth
+in array, preceded and flanked by the band of Gentlemen
+Pensioners.  After this, amid a crowd of lords and ladies, yet so
+disposed around her that she could see and be seen on all sides,
+came Elizabeth herself, then in the prime of womanhood, and in
+the full glow of what in a Sovereign was called beauty, and who
+would in the lowest rank of life have been truly judged a noble
+figure, joined to a striking and commanding physiognomy.  She
+leant on the arm of Lord Hunsdon, whose relation to her by her
+mother's side often procured him such distinguished marks of
+Elizabeth's intimacy.
+
+The young cavalier we have so often mentioned had probably never
+yet approached so near the person of his Sovereign, and he
+pressed forward as far as the line of warders permitted, in order
+to avail himself of the present opportunity.  His companion, on
+the contrary, cursing his imprudence, kept pulling him backwards,
+till Walter shook him off impatiently, and letting his rich cloak
+drop carelessly from one shoulder; a natural action, which
+served, however, to display to the best advantage his well-
+proportioned person.  Unbonneting at the same time, he fixed his
+eager gaze on the Queen's approach, with a mixture of respectful
+curiosity and modest yet ardent admiration, which suited so well
+with his fine features that the warders, struck with his rich
+attire and noble countenance, suffered him to approach the ground
+over which the Queen was to pass, somewhat closer than was
+permitted to ordinary spectators.  Thus the adventurous youth
+stood full in Elizabeth's eye--an eye never indifferent to the
+admiration which she deservedly excited among her subjects, or to
+the fair proportions of external form which chanced to
+distinguish any of her courtiers.
+
+Accordingly, she fixed her keen glance on the youth, as she
+approached the place where he stood, with a look in which
+surprise at his boldness seemed to be unmingled with resentment,
+while a trifling accident happened which attracted her attention
+towards him yet more strongly.  The night had been rainy, and
+just where the young gentleman stood a small quantity of mud
+interrupted the Queen's passage.  As she hesitated to pass on,
+the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on
+the miry spot, so as to ensure her stepping over it dry-shod.
+Elizabeth looked at the young man, who accompanied this act of
+devoted courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush that
+overspread his whole countenance.  The Queen was confused, and
+blushed in her turn, nodded her head, hastily passed on, and
+embarked in her barge without saying a word.
+
+"Come along, Sir Coxcomb," said Blount; "your gay cloak will need
+the brush to-day, I wot.  Nay, if you had meant to make a
+footcloth of your mantle, better have kept Tracy's old drab-de-
+bure, which despises all colours."
+
+"This cloak," said the youth, taking it up and folding it, "shall
+never be brushed while in my possession."
+
+"And that will not be long, if you learn not a little more
+economy; we shall have you in CUERPO soon, as the Spaniard says."
+
+Their discourse was here interrupted by one of the band of
+Pensioners.
+
+"I was sent," said he, after looking at them attentively, "to a
+gentleman who hath no cloak, or a muddy one.--You, sir, I think,"
+addressing the younger cavalier, "are the man; you will please to
+follow me."
+
+"He is in attendance on me," said Blount--"on me, the noble Earl
+of Sussex's master of horse."
+
+"I have nothing to say to that," answered the messenger; "my
+orders are directly from her Majesty, and concern this gentleman
+only."
+
+So saying, he walked away, followed by Walter, leaving the others
+behind, Blount's eyes almost starting from his head with the
+excess of his astonishment.  At length he gave vent to it in an
+exclamation, "Who the good jere would have thought this!"  And
+shaking his head with a mysterious air, he walked to his own
+boat, embarked, and returned to Deptford.
+
+The young cavalier was in the meanwhile guided to the water-side
+by the Pensioner, who showed him considerable respect; a
+circumstance which, to persons in his situation, may be
+considered as an augury of no small consequence.  He ushered him
+into one of the wherries which lay ready to attend the Queen's
+barge, which was already proceeding; up the river, with the
+advantage of that flood-tide of which, in the course of their
+descent, Blount had complained to his associates.
+
+The two rowers used their oars with such expedition at the signal
+of the Gentleman Pensioner, that they very soon brought their
+little skiff under the stern of the Queen's boat, where she sat
+beneath an awning, attended by two or three ladies, and the
+nobles of her household.  She looked more than once at the wherry
+in which the young adventurer was seated, spoke to those around
+her, and seemed to laugh.  At length one of the attendants, by
+the Queen's order apparently, made a sign for the wherry to come
+alongside, and the young man was desired to step from his own
+skiff into the Queen's barge, which he performed with graceful
+agility at the fore part of the boat, and was brought aft to the
+Queen's presence, the wherry at the same time dropping into the
+rear.  The youth underwent the gaze of Majesty, not the less
+gracefully that his self-possession was mingled with
+embarrassment.  The muddled cloak still hung upon his arm, and
+formed the natural topic with which the Queen introduced the
+conversation.
+
+"You have this day spoiled a gay mantle in our behalf, young man.
+We thank you for your service, though the manner of offering it
+was unusual, and something bold."
+
+"In a sovereign's need," answered the youth, "it is each liege-
+man's duty to be bold."
+
+"God's pity!  that was well said, my lord," said the Queen,
+turning to a grave person who sat by her, and answered with a
+grave inclination of the head, and something of a mumbled
+assent.--"Well, young man, your gallantry shall not go
+unrewarded.  Go to the wardrobe keeper, and he shall have orders
+to supply the suit which you have cast away in our service.  Thou
+shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise thee, on
+the word of a princess."
+
+"May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not
+for so humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your
+bounties; but if it became me to choose--"
+
+"Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the Queen,
+interrupting him.  "Fie, young man!  I take shame to say that in
+our capital such and so various are the means of thriftless
+folly, that to give gold to youth is giving fuel to fire, and
+furnishing them with the means of self-destruction.  If I live
+and reign, these means of unchristian excess shall be abridged.
+Yet thou mayest be poor," she added, "or thy parents may be.  It
+shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for the
+use on't."
+
+Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then
+modestly assured her that gold was still less in his wish than
+the raiment her Majesty had before offered.
+
+"How, boy!"  said the Queen, "neither gold nor garment?  What is
+it thou wouldst have of me, then?"
+
+"Only permission, madam--if it is not asking too high an honour
+--permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling
+service."
+
+"Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!"  said the
+Queen.
+
+"It is no longer mine," said Walter; "when your Majesty's foot
+touched it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich
+a one for its former owner."
+
+The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a
+slight degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.
+
+"Heard you ever the like, my lords?  The youth's head is turned
+with reading romances.  I must know something of him, that I may
+send him safe to his friends.--What art thou?"
+
+"A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please
+your Grace, sent hither with his master of horse upon message to
+your Majesty."
+
+In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had
+hitherto maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and
+severity.
+
+"My Lord of Sussex," she said, "has taught us how to regard his
+messages by the value he places upon ours.  We sent but this
+morning the physician in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no
+usual time, understanding his lordship's illness to be more
+dangerous than we had before apprehended.  There is at no court
+in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most useful science
+than Doctor Masters, and he came from Us to our subject.
+Nevertheless, he found the gate of Sayes Court defended by men
+with culverins, as if it had been on the borders of Scotland, not
+in the vicinity of our court; and when he demanded admittance in
+our name, it was stubbornly refused.  For this slight of a
+kindness, which had but too much of condescension in it, we will
+receive, at present at least, no excuse; and some such we suppose
+to have been the purport of my Lord of Sussex's message."
+
+This was uttered in a tone and with a gesture which made Lord
+Sussex's friends who were within hearing tremble.  He to whom the
+speech was addressed, however, trembled not; but with great
+deference and humility, as soon as the Queen's passion gave him
+an opportunity, he replied, "So please your most gracious
+Majesty, I was charged with no apology from the Earl of Sussex."
+
+"With what were you then charged, sir?"  said the Queen, with the
+impetuosity which, amid nobler qualities, strongly marked her
+character.  "Was it with a justification?--or, God's death!  with
+a defiance?"
+
+"Madam," said the young man, "my Lord of Sussex knew the offence
+approached towards treason, and could think of nothing save of
+securing the offender, and placing him in your Majesty's hands,
+and at your mercy.  The noble Earl was fast asleep when your most
+gracious message reached him, a potion having been administered
+to that purpose by his physician; and his Lordship knew not of
+the ungracious repulse your Majesty's royal and most comfortable
+message had received, until after he awoke this morning."
+
+"And which of his domestics, then, in the name of Heaven,
+presumed to reject my message, without even admitting my own
+physician to the presence of him whom I sent him to attend?"
+said the Queen, much surprised.
+
+"The offender, madam, is before you," replied Walter, bowing very
+low; "the full and sole blame is mine; and my lord has most
+justly sent me to abye the consequences of a fault, of which he
+is as innocent as a sleeping man's dreams can be of a waking
+man's actions."
+
+"What!  was it thou?--thou thyself, that repelled my messenger
+and my physician from Sayes Court?"  said the Queen.  "What could
+occasion such boldness in one who seems devoted--that is, whose
+exterior bearing shows devotion--to his Sovereign?"
+
+"Madam," said the youth--who, notwithstanding an assumed
+appearance of severity, thought that he saw something in the
+Queen's face that resembled not implacability--"we say in our
+country, that the physician is for the time the liege sovereign
+of his patient.  Now, my noble master was then under dominion of
+a leech, by whose advice he hath greatly profited, who had issued
+his commands that his patient should not that night be disturbed,
+on the very peril of his life."
+
+"Thy master hath trusted some false varlet of an empiric," said
+the Queen.
+
+"I know not, madam, but by the fact that he is now--this very
+morning--awakened much refreshed and strengthened from the only
+sleep he hath had for many hours."
+
+The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see
+what each thought of this news, than to exchange any remarks on
+what had happened.  The Queen answered hastily, and without
+affecting to disguise her satisfaction, "By my word, I am glad he
+is better.  But thou wert over-bold to deny the access of my
+Doctor Masters.  Knowest thou not the Holy Writ saith, 'In the
+multitude of counsel there is safety'?"
+
+"Ay, madam," said Walter; "but I have heard learned men say that
+the safety spoken of is for the physicians, not for the patient."
+
+"By my faith, child, thou hast pushed me home," said the Queen,
+laughing; "for my Hebrew learning does not come quite at a call.
+--How say you, my Lord of Lincoln?  Hath the lad given a just
+interpretation of the text?"
+
+"The word SAFETY, most gracious madam," said the Bishop of
+Lincoln, "for so hath been translated, it may be somewhat
+hastily, the Hebrew word, being--"
+
+"My lord," said the Queen, interrupting him, "we said we had
+forgotten our Hebrew.--But for thee, young man, what is thy name
+and birth?"
+
+"Raleigh is my name, most gracious Queen, the youngest son of a
+large but honourable family of Devonshire."
+
+"Raleigh?"  said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection.  "Have
+we not heard of your service in Ireland?"
+
+"I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam,"
+replied Raleigh; "scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to
+reach your Grace's ears."
+
+"They hear farther than you think of," said the Queen graciously,
+"and have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against
+a whole band of wild Irish rebels, until the stream ran purple
+with their blood and his own."
+
+"Some blood I may have lost," said the youth, looking down, "but
+it was where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's
+service."
+
+The Queen paused, and then said hastily, "You are very young to
+have fought so well, and to speak so well.  But you must not
+escape your penance for turning back Masters.  The poor man hath
+caught cold on the river for our order reached him when he was
+just returned from certain visits in London, and he held it
+matter of loyalty and conscience instantly to set forth again.
+So hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail not to wear thy muddy
+cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be further known.
+And here," she added, giving him a jewel of gold, in the form of
+a chess-man, "I give thee this to wear at the collar."
+
+Raleigh, to whom nature had taught intuitively, as it were, those
+courtly arts which many scarce acquire from long experience,
+knelt, and, as he took from her hand the jewel, kissed the
+fingers which gave it.  He knew, perhaps, better than almost any
+of the courtiers who surrounded her, how to mingle the devotion
+claimed by the Queen with the gallantry due to her personal
+beauty; and in this, his first attempt to unite them, he
+succeeded so well as at once to gratify Elizabeth's personal
+vanity and her love of power.  [See Note 5. Court favour of Sir
+Walter Raleigh.]
+
+His master, the Earl of Sussex, had the full advantage of the
+satisfaction which Raleigh had afforded Elizabeth, on their first
+interview.
+
+"My lords and ladies," said the Queen, looking around to the
+retinue by whom she was attended, "methinks, since we are upon
+the river, it were well to renounce our present purpose of going
+to the city, and surprise this poor Earl of Sussex with a visit.
+He is ill, and suffering doubtless under the fear of our
+displeasure, from which he hath been honestly cleared by the
+frank avowal of this malapert boy.  What think ye?  were it not
+an act of charity to give him such consolation as the thanks of a
+Queen, much bound to him for his loyal service, may perchance
+best minister?"
+
+It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech was
+addressed ventured to oppose its purport.
+
+"Your Grace," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "is the breath of our
+nostrils."  The men of war averred that the face of the Sovereign
+was a whetstone to the soldier's sword; while the men of state
+were not less of opinion that the light of the Queen's
+countenance was a lamp to the paths of her councillors; and the
+ladies agreed, with one voice, that no noble in England so well
+deserved the regard of England's Royal Mistress as the Earl of
+Sussex--the Earl of Leicester's right being reserved entire, so
+some of the more politic worded their assent, an exception to
+which Elizabeth paid no apparent attention.  The barge had,
+therefore, orders to deposit its royal freight at Deptford, at
+the nearest and most convenient point of communication with Sayes
+Court, in order that the Queen might satisfy her royal and
+maternal solicitude, by making personal inquiries after the
+health of the Earl of Sussex.
+
+Raleigh, whose acute spirit foresaw and anticipated important
+consequences from the most trifling events, hastened to ask the
+Queen's permission to go in the skiff; and announce the royal
+visit to his master; ingeniously suggesting that the joyful
+surprise might prove prejudicial to his health, since the richest
+and most generous cordials may sometimes be fatal to those who
+have been long in a languishing state.
+
+But whether the Queen deemed it too presumptuous in so young a
+courtier to interpose his opinion unasked, or whether she was
+moved by a recurrence of the feeling of jealousy which had been
+instilled into her by reports that the Earl kept armed men about
+his person, she desired Raleigh, sharply, to reserve his counsel
+till it was required of him, and repeated her former orders to be
+landed at Deptford, adding, "We will ourselves see what sort of
+household my Lord of Sussex keeps about him."
+
+"Now the Lord have pity on us!"  said the young courtier to
+himself.  "Good hearts, the Earl hath many a one round him; but
+good heads are scarce with us--and he himself is too ill to give
+direction.  And Blount will be at his morning meal of Yarmouth
+herrings and ale, and Tracy will have his beastly black puddings
+and Rhenish; those thorough-paced Welshmen, Thomas ap Rice and
+Evan Evans, will be at work on their leek porridge and toasted
+cheese;--and she detests, they say, all coarse meats, evil
+smells, and strong wines.  Could they but think of burning some
+rosemary in the great hall!  but VOGUE LA GALERE, all must now be
+trusted to chance.  Luck hath done indifferent well for me this
+morning; for I trust I have spoiled a cloak, and made a court
+fortune.  May she do as much for my gallant patron!"
+
+The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and, amid the loud
+shouts of the populace, which her presence never failed to
+excite, the Queen, with a canopy borne over her head, walked,
+accompanied by her retinue, towards Sayes Court, where the
+distant acclamations of the people gave the first notice of her
+arrival.  Sussex, who was in the act of advising with Tressilian
+how he should make up the supposed breach in the Queen's favour,
+was infinitely surprised at learning her immediate approach.  Not
+that the Queen's custom of visiting her more distinguished
+nobility, whether in health or sickness, could be unknown to him;
+but the suddenness of the communication left no time for those
+preparations with which he well knew Elizabeth loved to be
+greeted, and the rudeness and confusion of his military
+household, much increased by his late illness, rendered him
+altogether unprepared for her reception.
+
+Cursing internally the chance which thus brought her gracious
+visitation on him unaware, he hastened down with Tressilian, to
+whose eventful and interesting story he had just given an
+attentive ear.
+
+"My worthy friend," he said, "such support as I can give your
+accusation of Varney, you have a right to expect, alike from
+justice and gratitude.  Chance will presently show whether I can
+do aught with our Sovereign, or whether, in very deed, my
+meddling in your affair may not rather prejudice than serve you."
+
+Thus spoke Sussex while hastily casting around him a loose robe
+of sables, and adjusting his person in the best manner he could
+to meet the eye of his Sovereign.  But no hurried attention
+bestowed on his apparel could remove the ghastly effects of long
+illness on a countenance which nature had marked with features
+rather strong than pleasing.  Besides, he was low of stature,
+and, though broad-shouldered, athletic, and fit for martial
+achievements, his presence in a peaceful hall was not such as
+ladies love to look upon; a personal disadvantage, which was
+supposed to give Sussex, though esteemed and honoured by his
+Sovereign, considerable disadvantage when compared with
+Leicester, who was alike remarkable for elegance of manners and
+for beauty of person.
+
+The Earl's utmost dispatch only enabled him to meet the Queen as
+she entered the great hall, and he at once perceived there was a
+cloud on her brow.  Her jealous eye had noticed the martial array
+of armed gentlemen and retainers with which the mansion-house was
+filled, and her first words expressed her disapprobation.  "Is
+this a royal garrison, my Lord of Sussex, that it holds so many
+pikes and calivers?  or have we by accident overshot Sayes Court,
+and landed at Our Tower of London?"
+
+Lord Sussex hastened to offer some apology.
+
+"It needs not," she said.  "My lord, we intend speedily to take
+up a certain quarrel between your lordship and another great lord
+of our household, and at the same time to reprehend this
+uncivilized and dangerous practice of surrounding yourselves with
+armed, and even with ruffianly followers, as if, in the
+neighbourhood of our capital, nay in the very verge of our royal
+residence, you were preparing to wage civil war with each other.
+--We are glad to see you so well recovered, my lord, though
+without the assistance of the learned physician whom we sent to
+you.  Urge no excuse; we know how that matter fell out, and we
+have corrected for it the wild slip, young Raleigh.  By the way,
+my lord, we will speedily relieve your household of him, and take
+him into our own.  Something there is about him which merits to
+be better nurtured than he is like to be amongst your very
+military followers."
+
+To this proposal Sussex, though scarce understanding how the
+Queen came to make it could only bow and express his
+acquiescence.  He then entreated her to remain till refreshment
+could be offered, but in this he could not prevail.  And after a
+few compliments of a much colder and more commonplace character
+than might have been expected from a step so decidedly favourable
+as a personal visit, the Queen took her leave of Sayes Court,
+having brought confusion thither along with her, and leaving
+doubt and apprehension behind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  Then call them to our presence.  Face to face,
+  And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
+  The accuser and accused freely speak;--
+  High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
+  In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.         RICHARD II.
+
+"I am ordered to attend court to-morrow," said Leicester,
+speaking to Varney, "to meet, as they surmise, my Lord of Sussex.
+The Queen intends to take up matters betwixt us.  This comes of
+her visit to Sayes Court, of which you must needs speak so
+lightly."
+
+"I maintain it was nothing," said Varney; "nay, I know from a
+sure intelligencer, who was within earshot of much that was said,
+that Sussex has lost rather than gained by that visit.  The Queen
+said, when she stepped into the boat, that Sayes Court looked
+like a guard-house, and smelt like an hospital.  'Like a cook's
+shop in Ram's Alley, rather,' said the Countess of Rutland, who
+is ever your lordship's good friend.  And then my Lord of Lincoln
+must needs put in his holy oar, and say that my Lord of Sussex
+must be excused for his rude and old-world housekeeping, since he
+had as yet no wife."
+
+"And what said the Queen?"  asked Leicester hastily.
+
+"She took him up roundly," said Varney, "and asked what my Lord
+Sussex had to do with a wife, or my Lord Bishop to speak on such
+a subject.  'If marriage is permitted,' she said, 'I nowhere read
+that it is enjoined.'"
+
+"She likes not marriages, or speech of marriage, among
+churchmen," said Leicester.
+
+"Nor among courtiers neither," said Varney; but, observing that
+Leicester changed countenance, he instantly added, "that all the
+ladies who were present had joined in ridiculing Lord Sussex's
+housekeeping, and in contrasting it with the reception her Grace
+would have assuredly received at my Lord of Leicester's."
+
+"You have gathered much tidings," said Leicester, "but you have
+forgotten or omitted the most important of all.  She hath added
+another to those dangling satellites whom it is her pleasure to
+keep revolving around her."
+
+"Your lordship meaneth that Raleigh, the Devonshire youth," said
+Varney--"the Knight of the Cloak, as they call him at court?"
+
+"He may be Knight of the Garter one day, for aught I know," said
+Leicester, "for he advances rapidly--she hath capped verses with
+him, and such fooleries.  I would gladly abandon, of my own free
+will, the part--I have in her fickle favour; but I will not be
+elbowed out of it by the clown Sussex, or this new upstart.  I
+hear Tressilian is with Sussex also, and high in his favour.  I
+would spare him for considerations, but he will thrust himself on
+his fate.  Sussex, too, is almost as well as ever in his health."
+
+"My lord," replied Varney, "there will be rubs in the smoothest
+road, specially when it leads uphill.  Sussex's illness was to us
+a godsend, from which I hoped much.  He has recovered, indeed,
+but he is not now more formidable than ere he fell ill, when he
+received more than one foil in wrestling with your lordship.  Let
+not your heart fail you, my lord, and all shall be well."
+
+"My heart never failed me, sir," replied Leicester.
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney; "but it has betrayed you right often.
+He that would climb a tree, my lord, must grasp by the branches,
+not by the blossom."
+
+"Well, well, well!"  said Leicester impatiently; "I understand
+thy meaning--my heart shall neither fail me nor seduce me.  Have
+my retinue in order--see that their array be so splendid as to
+put down, not only the rude companions of Ratcliffe, but the
+retainers of every other nobleman and courtier.  Let them be well
+armed withal, but without any outward display of their weapons,
+wearing them as if more for fashion's sake than for use.  Do thou
+thyself keep close to me, I may have business for you."
+
+The preparations of Sussex and his party were not less anxious
+than those of Leicester.
+
+"Thy Supplication, impeaching Varney of seduction," said the Earl
+to Tressilian, "is by this time in the Queen's hand--I have sent
+it through a sure channel.  Methinks your suit should succeed,
+being, as it is, founded in justice and honour, and Elizabeth
+being the very muster of both.  But--I wot not how--the gipsy"
+(so Sussex was wont to call his rival on account of his dark
+complexion) "hath much to say with her in these holyday times of
+peace.  Were war at the gates, I should be one of her white boys;
+but soldiers, like their bucklers and Bilboa blades, get out of
+fashion in peace time, and satin sleeves and walking rapiers bear
+the bell.  Well, we must be gay, since such is the fashion.--
+Blount, hast thou seen our household put into their new
+braveries?  "But thou knowest as little of these toys as I do;
+thou wouldst be ready enow at disposing a stand of pikes."
+
+"My good lord," answered Blount, "Raleigh hath been here, and
+taken that charge upon him--your train will glitter like a May
+morning.  Marry, the cost is another question.  One might keep an
+hospital of old soldiers at the charge of ten modern lackeys."
+
+"He must not count cost to-day, Nicholas," said the Earl in
+reply.  "I am beholden to Raleigh for his care.  I trust, though,
+he has remembered that I am an old soldier, and would have no
+more of these follies than needs must."
+
+"Nay, I understand nought about it," said Blount; "but here are
+your honourable lordship's brave kinsmen and friends coming in by
+scores to wait upon you to court, where, methinks, we shall bear
+as brave a front as Leicester, let him ruffle it as he will."
+
+"Give them the strictest charges," said Sussex, "that they suffer
+no provocation short of actual violence to provoke them into
+quarrel.  They have hot bloods, and I would not give Leicester
+the advantage over me by any imprudence of theirs."
+
+The Earl of Sussex ran so hastily through these directions, that
+it was with difficulty Tressilian at length found opportunity to
+express his surprise that he should have proceeded so far in the
+affair of Sir Hugh Robsart as to lay his petition at once before
+the Queen.  "It was the opinion of the young lady's friends," he
+said, "that Leicester's sense of justice should be first appealed
+to, as the offence had been committed by his officer, and so he
+had expressly told to Sussex."
+
+"This could have been done without applying to me," said Sussex,
+somewhat haughtily.  "I at least, ought not to have been a
+counsellor when the object was a humiliating reference to
+Leicester; and I am suprised that you, Tressilian, a man of
+honour, and my friend, would assume such a mean course.  If you
+said so, I certainly understood you not in a matter which sounded
+so unlike yourself."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "the course I would prefer, for my
+own sake, is that you have adopted; but the friends of this most
+unhappy lady--"
+
+"Oh, the friends--the friends," said Sussex, interrupting him;
+"they must let us manage this cause in the way which seems best.
+This is the time and the hour to accumulate every charge against
+Leicester and his household, and yours the Queen will hold a
+heavy one.  But at all events she hath the complaint before her."
+
+Tressilian could not help suspecting that, in his eagerness to
+strengthen himself against his rival, Sussex had purposely
+adopted the course most likely to throw odium on Leicester,
+without considering minutely whether it were the mode of
+proceeding most likely to be attended with success.  But the step
+was irrevocable, and Sussex escaped from further discussing it by
+dismissing his company, with the command, "Let all be in order at
+eleven o'clock; I must be at court and in the presence by high
+noon precisely."
+
+While the rival statesmen were thus anxiously preparing for their
+approaching meeting in the Queen's presence, even Elizabeth
+herself was not without apprehension of what might chance from
+the collision of two such fiery spirits, each backed by a strong
+and numerous body of followers, and dividing betwixt them, either
+openly or in secret, the hopes and wishes of most of her court.
+The band of Gentlemen Pensioners were all under arms, and a
+reinforcement of the yeomen of the guard was brought down the
+Thames from London.  A royal proclamation was sent forth,
+strictly prohibiting nobles of whatever degree to approach the
+Palace with retainers or followers armed with shot or with long
+weapons; and it was even whispered that the High Sheriff of Kent
+had secret instructions to have a part of the array of the county
+ready on the shortest notice.
+
+The eventful hour, thus anxiously prepared for on all sides, at
+length approached, and, each followed by his long and glittering
+train of friends and followers, the rival Earls entered the
+Palace Yard of Greenwich at noon precisely.
+
+As if by previous arrangement, or perhaps by intimation that such
+was the Queen's pleasure, Sussex and his retinue came to the
+Palace from Deptford by water while Leicester arrived by land;
+and thus they entered the courtyard from opposite sides.  This
+trifling circumstance gave Leicester a ascendency in the opinion
+of the vulgar, the appearance of his cavalcade of mounted
+followers showing more numerous and more imposing than those of
+Sussex's party, who were necessarily upon foot.  No show or sign
+of greeting passed between the Earls, though each looked full at
+the other, both expecting perhaps an exchange of courtesies,
+which neither was willing to commence.  Almost in the minute of
+their arrival the castle-bell tolled, the gates of the Palace
+were opened, and the Earls entered, each numerously attended by
+such gentlemen of their train whose rank gave them that
+privilege.  The yeomen and inferior attendants remained in the
+courtyard, where the opposite parties eyed each other with looks
+of eager hatred and scorn, as if waiting with impatience for some
+cause of tumult, or some apology for mutual aggression.  But they
+were restrained by the strict commands of their leaders, and
+overawed, perhaps, by the presence of an armed guard of unusual
+strength.
+
+In the meanwhile, the more distinguished persons of each train
+followed their patrons into the lofty halls and ante-chambers of
+the royal Palace, flowing on in the same current, like two
+streams which are compelled into the same channel, yet shun to
+mix their waters.  The parties arranged themselves, as it were
+instinctively, on the different sides of the lofty apartments,
+and seemed eager to escape from the transient union which the
+narrowness of the crowded entrance had for an instant compelled
+them to submit to.  The folding doors at the upper end of the
+long gallery were immediately afterwards opened, and it was
+announced in a whisper that the Queen was in her presence-
+chamber, to which these gave access.  Both Earls moved slowly and
+stately towards the entrance--Sussex followed by Tressilian,
+Blount, and Raleigh, and Leicester by Varney.  The pride of
+Leicester was obliged to give way to court-forms, and with a
+grave and formal inclination of the head, he paused until his
+rival, a peer of older creation than his own, passed before him.
+Sussex returned the reverence with the same formal civility, and
+entered the presence-room.  Tressilian and Blount offered to
+follow him, but were not permitted, the Usher of the Black Rod
+alleging in excuse that he had precise orders to look to all
+admissions that day.  To Raleigh, who stood back on the repulse
+of his companions, he said, "You, sir, may enter," and he entered
+accordingly.
+
+"Follow me close, Varney," said the Earl of Leicester, who had
+stood aloof for a moment to mark the reception of Sussex; and
+advancing to the entrance, he was about to pass on, when Varney,
+who was close behind him, dressed out in the utmost bravery of
+the day, was stopped by the usher, as Tressilian and Blount had
+been before him, "How is this, Master Bowyer?"  said the Earl of
+Leicester.  "Know you who I am, and that this is my friend and
+follower?"
+
+"Your lordship will pardon me," replied Bowyer stoutly; "my
+orders are precise, and limit me to a strict discharge of my
+duty."
+
+"Thou art a partial knave," said Leicester, the blood mounting to
+his face, "to do me this dishonour, when you but now admitted a
+follower of my Lord of Sussex."
+
+"My lord," said Bowyer, "Master Raleigh is newly admitted a sworn
+servant of her Grace, and to him my orders did not apply."
+
+"Thou art a knave--an ungrateful knave," said Leicester; "but he
+that hath done can undo--thou shalt not prank thee in thy
+authority long!"
+
+This threat he uttered aloud, with less than his usual policy and
+discretion; and having done so, he entered the presence-chamber,
+and made his reverence to the Queen, who, attired with even more
+than her usual splendour, and surrounded by those nobles and
+statesmen whose courage and wisdom have rendered her reign
+immortal, stood ready to receive the hommage of her subjects.
+She graciously returned the obeisance of the favourite Earl, and
+looked alternately at him and at Sussex, as if about to speak,
+when Bowyer, a man whose spirit could not brook the insult he had
+so openly received from Leicester, in the discharge of his
+office, advanced with his black rad in his hand, and knelt down
+before her.
+
+"Why, how now, Bowyer?"  said Elizabeth, "thy courtesy seems
+strangely timed!"
+
+"My Liege Sovereign," he said, while every courtier around
+trembled at his audacity, "I come but to ask whether, in the
+discharge of mine office, I am to obey your Highness's commands,
+or those of the Earl of Leicester, who has publicly menaced me
+with his displeasure, and treated me with disparaging terms,
+because I denied entry to one of his followers, in obedience to
+your Grace's precise orders?"
+
+The spirit of Henry VIII.  was instantly aroused in the bosom of
+his daughter, and she turned on Leicester with a severity which
+appalled him, as well as all his followers.
+
+"God's death!  my lord."  such was her emphatic phrase, "what
+means this?  We have thought well of you, and brought you near to
+our person; but it was not that you might hide the sun from our
+other faithful subjects.  Who gave you license to contradict our
+orders, or control our officers?  I will have in this court, ay,
+and in this realm, but one mistress, and no master.  Look to it
+that Master Bowyer sustains no harm for his duty to me faithfully
+discharged; for, as I am Christian woman and crowned Queen, I
+will hold you dearly answerable.--Go, Bowyer, you have done the
+part of an honest man and a true subject.  We will brook no mayor
+of the palace here.
+
+Bowyer kissed the hand which she extended towards him, and
+withdrew to his post!  astonished at the success of his own
+audacity.  A smile of triumph pervaded the faction of Sussex;
+that of Leicester seemed proportionally dismayed, and the
+favourite himself, assuming an aspect of the deepest humility,
+did not even attempt a word in his own esculpation.
+
+He acted wisely; for it was the policy of Elizabeth to humble,
+not to disgrace him, and it was prudent to suffer her, without
+opposition or reply, to glory in the exertion of her authority.
+The dignity of the Queen was gratified, and the woman began soon
+to feel for the mortification which she had imposed on her
+favourite.  Her keen eye also observed the secret looks of
+congratulation exchanged amongst those who favoured Sussex, and
+it was no part of her policy to give either party a decisive
+triumph.
+
+"What I say to my Lord of Leicester," she said, after a moment's
+pause, "I say also to you, my Lord of Sussex.  You also must
+needs ruffle in the court of England, at the head of a faction of
+your own?"
+
+"My followers, gracious Princess," said Sussex, "have indeed
+ruffled in your cause in Ireland, in Scotland, and against yonder
+rebellious Earls in the north.  I am ignorant that--"
+
+"Do you bandy looks and words with me, my lord?"  said the Queen,
+interrupting him; "methinks you might learn of my Lord of
+Leicester the modesty to be silent, at least, under our censure.
+I say, my lord, that my grandfather and my father, in their
+wisdom, debarred the nobles of this civilized land from
+travelling with such disorderly retinues; and think you, that
+because I wear a coif, their sceptre has in my hand been changed
+into a distaff?  I tell you, no king in Christendom will less
+brook his court to be cumbered, his people oppressed, and his
+kingdom's peace disturbed, by the arrogance of overgrown power,
+than she who now speaks with you.--My Lord of Leicester, and you,
+my Lord of Sussex, I command you both to be friends with each
+other; or by the crown I wear, you shall find an enemy who will
+be too strong for both of you!"
+
+"Madam," said the Earl of Leicester, "you who are yourself the
+fountain of honour know best what is due to mine.  I place it at
+your disposal, and only say that the terms on which I have stood
+with my Lord of Sussex have not been of my seeking; nor had he
+cause to think me his enemy, until he had done me gross wrong."
+
+"For me, madam," said the Earl of Sussex, "I cannot appeal from
+your sovereign pleasure; but I were well content my Lord of
+Leicester should say in what I have, as he terms it, wronged him,
+since my tongue never spoke the word that I would not willingly
+justify either on foot or horseback.
+
+"And for me," said Leicester, "always under my gracious
+Sovereign's pleasure, my hand shall be as ready to make good my
+words as that of any man who ever wrote himself Ratcliffe."
+
+"My lords," said the Queen, "these are no terms for this
+presence; and if you cannot keep your temper, we will find means
+to keep both that and you close enough.  Let me see you join
+hands, my lords, and forget your idle animosities."
+
+The two rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each
+unwilling to make the first advance to execute the Queen's will.
+
+"Sussex," said Elizabeth,"I entreat--Leicester, I command you."
+
+Yet, so were her words accented, that the entreaty sounded like
+command, and the command like entreaty.  They remained still and
+stubborn, until she raised her voice to a height which argued at
+once impatience and absolute command.
+
+"Sir Henry Lee," she said, to an officer in attendance, "have a
+guard in present readiness, and man a barge instantly.--My Lords
+of Sussex and Leicester, I bid you once more to join hands; and,
+God's death!  he that refuses shall taste of our Tower fare ere
+he sees our face again.  I will lower your proud hearts ere we
+part, and that I promise, on the word of a Queen!"
+
+"The prison?"  said Leicester, "might be borne, but to lose your
+Grace's presence were to lose light and life at once.--Here,
+Sussex, is my hand."
+
+"And here," said Sussex, "is mine in truth and honesty; but--"
+
+"Nay, under favour, you shall add no more," said the Queen.
+"Why, this is as it should be," she added, looking on them more
+favourably; "and when you the shepherds of the people, unite to
+protect them, it shall be well with the flock we rule over.  For,
+my lords, I tell you plainly, your follies and your brawls lead
+to strange disorders among your servants.--My Lord of Leicester,
+you have a gentleman in your household called Varney?"
+
+"Yes, gracious madam," replied Leicester; "I presented him to
+kiss your royal hand when you were last at Nonsuch."
+
+"His outside was well enough," said the Queen, "but scarce so
+fair, I should have thought, as to have caused a maiden of
+honourable birth and hopes to barter her fame for his good looks,
+and become his paramour.  Yet so it is; this fellow of yours hath
+seduced the daughter of a good old Devonshire knight, Sir Hugh
+Robsart of Lidcote Hall, and she hath fled with him from her
+father's house like a castaway.--My Lord of Leicester, are you
+ill, that you look so deadly pale?"
+
+"No, gracious madam," said Leicester; and it required every
+effort he could make to bring forth these few words.
+
+"You are surely ill, my lord?"  said Elizabeth, going towards him
+with hasty speech and hurried step, which indicated the deepest
+concern.  "Call Masters--call our surgeon in ordinary.--Where be
+these loitering fools?--we lose the pride of our court through
+their negligence.--Or is it possible, Leicester," she continued,
+looking on him with a very gentle aspect, "can fear of my
+displeasure have wrought so deeply on thee?  Doubt not for a
+moment, noble Dudley, that we could blame THEE for the folly of
+thy retainer--thee, whose thoughts we know to be far otherwise
+employed.  He that would climb the eagle's nest, my lord, cares
+not who are catching linnets at the foot of the precipice."
+
+"Mark you that?"  said Sussex aside to Raleigh.  "The devil aids
+him surely; for all that would sink another ten fathom deep seems
+but to make him float the more easily.  Had a follower of mine
+acted thus--"
+
+"Peace, my good lord," said Raleigh, "for God's sake, peace!
+Wait the change of the tide; it is even now on the turn."
+
+The acute observation of Raleigh, perhaps, did not deceive him;
+for Leicester's confusion was so great, and, indeed, for the
+moment, so irresistibly overwhelming, that Elizabeth, after
+looking at him with a wondering eye, and receiving no
+intelligible answer to the unusual expressions of grace and
+affection which had escaped from her, shot her quick glance
+around the circle of courtiers, and reading, perhaps, in their
+faces something that accorded with her own awakened suspicions,
+she said suddenly, "Or is there more in this than we see--or than
+you, my lord, wish that we should see?  Where is this Varney?
+Who saw him?"
+
+"An it please your Grace," said Bowyer, "it is the same against
+whom I this instant closed the door of the presence-room."
+
+"An it please me?"  repeated Elizabeth sharply, not at that
+moment in the humour of being pleased with anything.--"It does
+NOT please me that he should pass saucily into my presence, or
+that you should exclude from it one who came to justify himself
+from an accusation."
+
+"May it please you," answered the perplexed usher, "if I knew, in
+such case, how to bear myself, I would take heed--"
+
+"You should have reported the fellow's desire to us, Master
+Usher, and taken our directions.  You think yourself a great man,
+because but now we chid a nobleman on your account; yet, after
+all, we hold you but as the lead-weight that keeps the door fast.
+Call this Varney hither instantly.  There is one Tressilian also
+mentioned in this petition.  Let them both come before us."
+
+She was obeyed, and Tressilian and Varney appeared accordingly.
+Varney's first glance was at Leicester, his second at the Queen.
+In the looks of the latter there appeared an approaching storm,
+and in the downcast countenance of his patron he could read no
+directions in what way he was to trim his vessel for the
+encounter.  He then saw Tressilian, and at once perceived the
+peril of the situation in which he was placed.  But Varney was as
+bold-faced and ready-witted as he was cunning and unscrupulous--a
+skilful pilot in extremity, and fully conscious of the advantages
+which he would obtain could he extricate Leicester from his
+present peril, and of the ruin that yawned for himself should he
+fail in doing so.
+
+"Is it true, sirrah," said the Queen, with one of those searching
+looks which few had the audacity to resist, "that you have
+seduced to infamy a young lady of birth and breeding, the
+daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall?"
+
+Varney kneeled down, and replied, with a look of the most
+profound contrition, "There had been some love passages betwixt
+him and Mistress Amy Robsart."
+
+Leicester's flesh quivered with indignation as he heard his
+dependant make this avowal, and for one moment he manned himself
+to step forward, and, bidding farewell to the court and the royal
+favour, confess the whole mystery of the secret marriage.  But he
+looked at Sussex, and the idea of the triumphant smile which
+would clothe his cheek upon hearing the avowal sealed his lips.
+"Not now, at least," he thought, "or in this presence, will I
+afford him so rich a triumph."  And pressing his lips close
+together, he stood firm and collected, attentive to each word
+which Varney uttered, and determined to hide to the last the
+secret on which his court-favour seemed to depend.  Meanwhile,
+the Queen proceeded in her examination of Varney.
+
+"Love passages!"  said she, echoing his last words; "what
+passages, thou knave?  and why not ask the wench's hand from her
+father, if thou hadst any honesty in thy love for her?"
+
+"An it please your Grace," said Varney, still on his knees, "I
+dared not do so, for her father had promised her hand to a
+gentleman of birth and honour--I will do him justice, though I
+know he bears me ill-will--one Master Edmund Tressilian, whom I
+now see in the presence."
+
+"Soh!"  replied the Queen.  "And what was your right to make the
+simple fool break her worthy father's contract, through your love
+PASSAGES, as your conceit and assurance terms them?"
+
+"Madam," replied Varney, "it is in vain to plead the cause of
+human frailty before a judge to whom it is unknown, or that of
+love to one who never yields to the passion"--he paused an
+instant, and then added, in a very low and timid tone--"which she
+inflicts upon all others."
+
+Elizabeth tried to frown, but smiled in her own despite, as she
+answered, "Thou art a marvellously impudent knave.  Art thou
+married to the girl?"
+
+Leicester's feelings became so complicated and so painfully
+intense, that it seemed to him as if his life was to depend on
+the answer made by Varney, who, after a moment's real hesitation,
+answered, "Yes."
+
+"Thou false villain!"  said Leicester, bursting forth into rage,
+yet unable to add another word to the sentence which he had begun
+with such emphatic passion.
+
+"Nay, my lord," said the Queen, "we will, by your leave, stand
+between this fellow and your anger.  We have not yet done with
+him.--Knew your master, my Lord of Leicester, of this fair work
+of yours?  Speak truth, I command thee, and I will be thy warrant
+from danger on every quarter."
+
+"Gracious madam," said Varney, "to speak Heaven's truth, my lord
+was the cause of the whole matter."
+
+"Thou villain, wouldst thou betray me?"  said Leicester.
+
+"Speak on," said the Queen hastily, her cheek colouring, and her
+eyes sparkling, as she addressed Varney--"speak on.  Here no
+commands are heard but mine."
+
+"They are omnipotent, gracious madam," replied Varney; "and to
+you there can be no secrets.--Yet I would not," he added, looking
+around him, "speak of my master's concerns to other ears."
+
+"Fall back, my lords," said the Queen to those who surrounded
+her, "and do you speak on.  What hath the Earl to do with this
+guilty intrigue of thine?  See, fellow, that thou beliest him
+not!"
+
+"Far be it from me to traduce my noble patron," replied Varney;
+"yet I am compelled to own that some deep, overwhelming, yet
+secret feeling hath of late dwelt in my lord's mind, hath
+abstracted him from the cares of the household which he was wont
+to govern with such religious strictness, and hath left us
+opportunities to do follies, of which the shame, as in this case,
+partly falls upon our patron.  Without this, I had not had means
+or leisure to commit the folly which has drawn on me his
+displeasure--the heaviest to endure by me which I could by any
+means incur, saving always the yet more dreaded resentment of
+your Grace."
+
+"And in this sense, and no other, hath he been accessory to thy
+fault?"  said Elizabeth.
+
+"Surely, madam, in no other," replied Varney; "but since somewhat
+hath chanced to him, he can scarce be called his own man.  Look
+at him, madam, how pale and trembling he stands!  how unlike his
+usual majesty of manner!--yet what has he to fear from aught I
+can say to your Highness?  Ah!  madam, since he received that
+fatal packet!"
+
+"What packet, and from whence?"  said the Queen eagerly.
+
+"From whence, madam, I cannot guess; but I am so near to his
+person that I know he has ever since worn, suspended around his
+neck and next to his heart, that lock of hair which sustains a
+small golden jewel shaped like a heart.  He speaks to it when
+alone--he parts not from it when he sleeps--no heathen ever
+worshipped an idol with such devotion."
+
+"Thou art a prying knave to watch thy master so closely," said
+Elizabeth, blushing, but not with anger; "and a tattling knave to
+tell over again his fooleries.--What colour might the braid of
+hair be that thou pratest of?"
+
+Varney replied, "A poet, madam, might call it a thread from the
+golden web wrought by Minerva; but to my thinking it was paler
+than even the purest gold--more like the last parting sunbeam of
+the softest day of spring."
+
+"Why, you are a poet yourself, Master Varney," said the Queen,
+smiling.  "But I have not genius quick enough to follow your rare
+metaphors.  Look round these ladies--is there"--(she hesitated,
+and endeavoured to assume an air of great indifference)--"is
+there here, in this presence, any lady, the colour of whose hair
+reminds thee of that braid?  Methinks, without prying into my
+Lord of Leicester's amorous secrets, I would fain know what kind
+of locks are like the thread of Minerva's web, or the--what was
+it?--the last rays of the May-day sun."
+
+Varney looked round the presence-chamber, his eye travelling from
+one lady to another, until at length it rested upon the Queen
+herself, but with an aspect of the deepest veneration.  "I see no
+tresses," he said, "in this presence, worthy of such similies,
+unless where I dare not look on them."
+
+"How, sir knave?"  said the Queen; "dare you intimate--"
+
+"Nay, madam," replied Varney, shading his eyes with his hand, "it
+was the beams of the May-day sun that dazzled my weak eyes."
+
+"Go to--go to," said the Queen; "thou art a foolish fellow"--and
+turning quickly from him she walked up to Leicester.
+
+Intense curiosity, mingled with all the various hopes, fears, and
+passions which influence court faction, had occupied the
+presence-chamber during the Queen's conference with Varney, as if
+with the strength of an Eastern talisman.  Men suspended every,
+even the slightest external motion, and would have ceased to
+breathe, had Nature permitted such an intermission of her
+functions.  The atmosphere was contagious, and Leicester, who saw
+all around wishing or fearing his advancement or his fall forgot
+all that love had previously dictated, and saw nothing for the
+instant but the favour or disgrace which depended on the nod of
+Elizabeth and the fidelity of Varney.  He summoned himself
+hastily, and prepared to play his part in the scene which was
+like to ensue, when, as he judged from the glances which the
+Queen threw towards him, Varney's communications, be they what
+they might, were operating in his favour.  Elizabeth did not long
+leave him in doubt; for the more than favour with which she
+accosted him decided his triumph in the eyes of his rival, and of
+the assembled court of England.  "Thou hast a prating servant of
+this same Varney, my lord," she said; "it is lucky you trust him
+with nothing that can hurt you in our opinion, for believe me, he
+would keep no counsel."
+
+"From your Highness," said Leicester, dropping gracefully on one
+knee, "it were treason he should.  I would that my heart itself
+lay before you, barer than the tongue of any servant could strip
+it."
+
+"What, my lord," said Elizabeth, looking kindly upon him, "is
+there no one little corner over which you would wish to spread a
+veil?  Ah!  I see you are confused at the question, and your
+Queen knows she should not look too deeply into her servants'
+motives for their faithful duty, lest she see what might, or at
+least ought to, displease her."
+
+Relieved by these last words, Leicester broke out into a torrent
+of expressions of deep and passionate attachment, which perhaps,
+at that moment, were not altogether fictitious.  The mingled
+emotions which had at first overcome him had now given way to the
+energetic vigour with which he had determined to support his
+place in the Queen's favour; and never did he seem to Elizabeth
+more eloquent, more handsome, more interesting, than while,
+kneeling at her feet, he conjured her to strip him of all his
+dower, but to leave him the name of her servant.--"Take from the
+poor Dudley," he exclaimed, "all that your bounty has made him,
+and bid him be the poor gentleman he was when your Grace first
+shone on him; leave him no more than his cloak and his sword, but
+let him still boast he has--what in word or deed he never
+forfeited--the regard of his adored Queen and mistress!"
+
+"No, Dudley!"  said Elizabeth, raising him with one hand, while
+she extended the other that he might kiss it.  "Elizabeth hath
+not forgotten that, whilst you were a poor gentleman, despoiled
+of your hereditary rank, she was as poor a princess, and that in
+her cause you then ventured all that oppression had left you--
+your life and honour.  Rise, my lord, and let my hand go--rise,
+and be what you have ever been, the grace of our court and the
+support of our throne!  Your mistress may be forced to chide your
+misdemeanours, but never without owning your merits.--And so help
+me God," she added, turning to the audience, who, with various
+feelings, witnessed this interesting scene--"so help me God,
+gentlemen, as I think never sovereign had a truer servant than I
+have in this noble Earl!"
+
+A murmur of assent rose from the Leicestrian faction, which the
+friends of Sussex dared not oppose.  They remained with their
+eyes fixed on the ground, dismayed as well as mortified by the
+public and absolute triumph of their opponents.  Leicester's
+first use of the familiarity to which the Queen had so publicly
+restored him was to ask her commands concerning Varney's offence.
+"although," he said, "the fellow deserves nothing from me but
+displeasure, yet, might I presume to intercede--"
+
+"In truth, we had forgotten his matter," said the Queen; "and it
+was ill done of us, who owe justice to our meanest as well as to
+our highest subject.  We are pleased, my lord, that you were the
+first to recall the matter to our memory.--Where is Tressilian,
+the accuser?--let him come before us."
+
+Tressilian appeared, and made a low and beseeming reference.  His
+person, as we have elsewhere observed, had an air of grace and
+even of nobleness, which did not escape Queen Elizabeth's
+critical observation.  She looked at him with, attention as he
+stood before her unabashed, but with an air of the deepest
+dejection.
+
+"I cannot but grieve for this gentleman," she said to Leicester.
+"I have inquired concerning him, and his presence confirms what I
+heard, that he is a scholar and a soldier, well accomplished both
+in arts and arms.  We women, my lord, are fanciful in our choice
+--I had said now, to judge by the eye, there was no comparison to
+be held betwixt your follower and this gentleman.  But Varney is
+a well-spoken fellow, and, to say truth, that goes far with us of
+the weaker sex.--look you, Master Tressilian, a bolt lost is not
+a bow broken.  Your true affection, as I will hold it to be, hath
+been, it seems, but ill requited; but you have scholarship, and
+you know there have been false Cressidas to be found, from the
+Trojan war downwards.  Forget, good sir, this Lady Light o' Love
+--teach your affection to see with a wiser eye.  This we say to
+you, more from the writings of learned men than our own
+knowledge, being, as we are, far removed by station and will from
+the enlargement of experience in such idle toys of humorous
+passion.  For this dame's father, we can make his grief the less
+by advancing his son-in-law to such station as may enable him to
+give an honourable support to his bride.  Thou shalt not be
+forgotten thyself, Tressilian--follow our court, and thou shalt
+see that a true Troilus hath some claim on our grace.  Think of
+what that arch-knave Shakespeare says--a plague on him, his toys
+come into my head when I should think of other matters.  Stay,
+how goes it?
+
+ 'Cressid was yours, tied with the bonds of heaven ;
+  These bonds of heaven are slipt, dissolved, and loosed,
+  And with another knot five fingers tied,
+  The fragments of her faith are bound to Diomed.'
+
+You smile, my Lord of Southampton--perchance I make your player's
+verse halt through my bad memory.  But let it suffice let there
+be no more of this mad matter."
+
+And as Tressilian kept the posture of one who would willingly be
+heard, though, at the same time, expressive of the deepest
+reverence, the Queen added with some impatience, "What would the
+man have?  The wench cannot wed both of you?  She has made her
+election--not a wise one perchance--but she is Varney's wedded
+wife."
+
+"My suit should sleep there, most gracious Sovereign," said
+Tressilian, "and with my suit my revenge.  But I hold this
+Varney's word no good warrant for the truth."
+
+"Had that doubt been elsewhere urged," answered Varney, "my
+sword--"
+
+"THY sword!"  interrupted Tressilian scornfully; "with her
+Grace's leave, my sword shall show--"
+
+"Peace, you knaves, both!"  said the Queen; "know you where you
+are?--This comes of your feuds, my lords," she added, looking
+towards Leicester and Sussex; "your followers catch your own
+humour, and must bandy and brawl in my court and in my very
+presence, like so many Matamoros.--Look you, sirs, he that speaks
+of drawing swords in any other quarrel than mine or England's, by
+mine honour, I'll bracelet him with iron both on wrist and
+ankle!"  She then paused a minute, and resumed in a milder tone,
+"I must do justice betwixt the bold and mutinous knaves
+notwithstanding.--My Lord of Leicester, will you warrant with
+your honour--that is, to the best of your belief--that your
+servant speaks truth in saying he hath married this Amy Robsart?"
+
+This was a home-thrust, and had nearly staggered Leicester.  But
+he had now gone too far to recede, and answered, after a moment's
+hesitation, "To the best of my belief--indeed on my certain
+knowledge--she is a wedded wife."
+
+"Gracious madam," said Tressilian, "may I yet request to know,
+when and under what circumstances this alleged marriage--"
+
+"Out, sirrah," answered the Queen; "ALLEGED marriage!  Have you
+not the word of this illustrious Earl to warrant the truth of
+what his servant says?  But thou art a loser--thinkest thyself
+such at least--and thou shalt have indulgence; we will look into
+the matter ourself more at leisure.--My Lord of Leicester, I
+trust you remember we mean to taste the good cheer of your Castle
+of Kenilworth on this week ensuing.  We will pray you to bid our
+good and valued friend, the Earl of Sussex, to hold company with
+us there."
+
+"If the noble Earl of Sussex," said Leicester, bowing to his
+rival with the easiest and with the most graceful courtesy, "will
+so far honour my poor house, I will hold it an additional proof
+of the amicable regard it is your Grace's desire we should
+entertain towards each other."
+
+Sussex was more embarrassed.  "I should," said he, "madam, be but
+a clog on your gayer hours, since my late severe illness."
+
+"And have you been indeed so very ill?"  said Elizabeth, looking
+on him with more attention than before; "you are, in faith,
+strangely altered, and deeply am I grieved to see it.  But be of
+good cheer--we will ourselves look after the health of so valued
+a servant, and to whom we owe so much.  Masters shall order your
+diet; and that we ourselves may see that he is obeyed, you must
+attend us in this progress to Kenilworth."
+
+This was said so peremptorily, and at the same time with so much
+kindness, that Sussex, however unwilling to become the guest of
+his rival, had no resource but to bow low to the Queen in
+obedience to her commands, and to express to Leicester, with
+blunt courtesy, though mingled with embarrassment, his acceptance
+of his invitation.  As the Earls exchanged compliments on the
+occasion, the Queen said to her High Treasurer, "Methinks, my
+lord, the countenances of these our two noble peers resemble
+those of the two famed classic streams, the one so dark and sad,
+the other so fair and noble.  My old Master Ascham would have
+chid me for forgetting the author.  It is Caesar, as I think.
+See what majestic calmness sits on the brow of the noble
+Leicester, while Sussex seems to greet him as if he did our will
+indeed, but not willingly."
+
+"The doubt of your Majesty's favour," answered the Lord
+Treasurer, "may perchance occasion the difference, which does
+not--as what does?--escape your Grace's eye."
+
+"Such doubt were injurious to us, my lord," replied the Queen.
+"We hold both to be near and dear to us, and will with
+impartiality employ both in honourable service for the weal of
+our kingdom.  But we will break their further conference at
+present.--My Lords of Sussex and Leicester, we have a word more
+with you.  'Tressilian and Varney are near your persons--you will
+see that they attend you at Kenilworth.  And as we shall then
+have both Paris and Menelaus within our call, so we will have the
+same fair Helen also, whose fickleness has caused this broil.--
+Varney, thy wife must be at Kenilworth, and forthcoming at my
+order.--My Lord of Leicester, we expect you will look to this."
+
+The Earl and his follower bowed low and raised their heads,
+without daring to look at the Queen, or at each other, for both
+felt at the instant as if the nets and toils which their own
+falsehood had woven were in the act of closing around them.  The
+Queen, however, observed not their confusion, but proceeded to
+say, "My Lords of Sussex and Leicester, we require your presence
+at the privy-council to be presently held, where matters of
+importance are to be debated.  We will then take the water for
+our divertisement, and you, my lords, will attend us.--And that
+reminds us of a circumstance.--Do you, Sir Squire of the Soiled
+Cassock" (distinguishing Raleigh by a smile), "fail not to
+observe that you are to attend us on our progress.  You shall be
+supplied with suitable means to reform your wardrobe."
+
+And so terminated this celebrated audience, in which, as
+throughout her life, Elizabeth united the occasional caprice of
+her sex with that sense and sound policy in which neither man nor
+woman ever excelled her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  Well, then--our course is chosen--spread the sail--
+  Heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well--
+  Look to the helm, good master--many a shoal
+  Marks this stern coast, and rocks, where sits the Siren,
+  Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin.     THE SHIPWRECK.
+
+During the brief interval that took place betwixt the dismissal
+of the audience and the sitting of the privy-council, Leicester
+had time to reflect that he had that morning sealed his own fate.
+"It was impossible for him now," he thought, "after having, in
+the face of all that was honourable in England, pledged his truth
+(though in an ambiguous phrase) for the statement of Varney, to
+contradict or disavow it, without exposing himself, not merely to
+the loss of court-favour, but to the highest displeasure of the
+Queen, his deceived mistress, and to the scorn and contempt at
+once of his rival and of all his compeers."  This certainty
+rushed at once on his mind, together with all the difficulties
+which he would necessarily be exposed to in preserving a secret
+which seemed now equally essential to his safety, to his power,
+and to his honour.  He was situated like one who walks upon ice
+ready to give way around him, and whose only safety consists in
+moving onwards, by firm and unvacillating steps.  The Queen's
+favour, to preserve which he had made such sacrifices, must now
+be secured by all means and at all hazards; it was the only plank
+which he could cling to in the tempest.  He must settle himself,
+therefore, to the task of not only preserving, but augmenting the
+Queen's partiality--he must be the favourite of Elizabeth, or a
+man utterly shipwrecked in fortune and in honour.  All other
+considerations must be laid aside for the moment, and he repelled
+the intrusive thoughts which forced on his mind the image of,
+Amy, by saying to himself there would be time to think hereafter
+how he was to escape from the labyrinth ultimately, since the
+pilot who sees a Scylla under his bows must not for the time
+think of the more distant dangers of Charybdis.
+
+In this mood the Earl of Leicester that day assumed his chair at
+the council table of Elizabeth; and when the hours of business
+were over, in this same mood did he occupy an honoured place near
+her during her pleasure excursion on the Thames.  And never did
+he display to more advantage his powers as a politician of the
+first rank, or his parts as an accomplished courtier.
+
+It chanced that in that day's council matters were agitated
+touching the affairs of the unfortunate Mary, the seventh year of
+whose captivity in England was now in doleful currency.  There
+had been opinions in favour of this unhappy princess laid before
+Elizabeth's council, and supported with much strength of argument
+by Sussex and others, who dwelt more upon the law of nations and
+the breach of hospitality than, however softened or qualified,
+was agreeable to the Queen's ear.  Leicester adopted the contrary
+opinion with great animation and eloquence, and described the
+necessity of continuing the severe restraint of the Queen of
+Scots, as a measure essential to the safety of the kingdom, and
+particularly of Elizabeth's sacred person, the lightest hair of
+whose head, he maintained, ought, in their lordships' estimation,
+to be matter of more deep and anxious concern than the life and
+fortunes of a rival, who, after setting up a vain and unjust
+pretence to the throne of England, was now, even while in the
+bosom of her country, the constant hope and theme of
+encouragement to all enemies to Elizabeth, whether at home or
+abroad.  He ended by craving pardon of their lordships, if in the
+zeal of speech he had given any offence, but the Queen's safety
+was a theme which hurried him beyond his usual moderation of
+debate.
+
+Elizabeth chid him, but not severely, for the weight which he
+attached unduly to her personal interests; yet she owned that,
+since it had been the pleasure of Heaven to combine those
+interests with the weal of her subjects, she did only her duty
+when she adopted such measures of self-preservation as
+circumstances forced upon her; and if the council in their wisdom
+should be of opinion that it was needful to continue some
+restraint on the person of her unhappy sister of Scotland, she
+trusted they would not blame her if she requested of the Countess
+of Shrewsbury to use her with as much kindness as might be
+consistent with her safe keeping.  And with this intimation of
+her pleasure the council was dismissed.
+
+Never was more anxious and ready way made for "my Lord of
+Leicester," than as he passed through the crowded anterooms to go
+towards the river-side, in order to attend her Majesty to her
+barge--never was the voice of the ushers louder, to "make room,
+make room for the noble Earl"--never were these signals more
+promptly and reverently obeyed--never were more anxious eyes
+turned on him to obtain a glance of favour, or even of mere
+recognition, while the heart of many a humble follower throbbed
+betwixt the desire to offer his congratulations, and the fear of
+intruding himself on the notice of one so infinitely above him.
+The whole court considered the issue of this day's audience,
+expected with so much doubt and anxiety, as a decisive triumph on
+the part of Leicester, and felt assured that the orb of his rival
+satellite, if not altogether obscured by his lustre, must revolve
+hereafter in a dimmer and more distant sphere.  So thought the
+court and courtiers, from high to low; and they acted
+accordingly.
+
+On the other hand, never did Leicester return the general
+greeting with such ready and condescending courtesy, or endeavour
+more successfully to gather (in the words of one who at that
+moment stood at no great distance from him) "golden opinions from
+all sorts of men."
+
+For all the favourite Earl had a bow a smile at least, and often
+a kind word.  Most of these were addressed to courtiers, whose
+names have long gone down the tide of oblivion; but some, to such
+as sound strangely in our ears, when connected with the ordinary
+matters of human life, above which the gratitude of posterity has
+long elevated them.  A few of Leicester's interlocutory sentences
+ran as follows:--
+
+"Poynings, good morrow; and how does your wife and fair daughter?
+Why come they not to court?--Adams, your suit is naught; the
+Queen will grant no more monopolies.  But I may serve you in
+another matter.--My good Alderman Aylford, the suit of the City,
+affecting Queenhithe, shall be forwarded as far as my poor
+interest can serve.--Master Edmund Spenser, touching your Irish
+petition, I would willingly aid you, from my love to the Muses;
+but thou hast nettled the Lord Treasurer."
+
+"My lord, " said the poet, "were I permitted to explain--"
+
+"Come to my lodging, Edmund," answered the Earl "not to-morrow,
+or next day, but soon.--Ha, Will Shakespeare--wild Will!--thou
+hast given my nephew Philip Sidney, love-powder; he cannot sleep
+without thy Venus and Adonis under his pillow!  We will have thee
+hanged for the veriest wizard in Europe.  Hark thee, mad wag, I
+have not forgotten thy matter of the patent, and of the bears."
+
+The PLAYER bowed, and the Earl nodded and passed on--so that age
+would have told the tale; in ours, perhaps, we might say the
+immortal had done homage to the mortal.  The next whom the
+favourite accosted was one of his own zealous dependants.
+
+"How now, Sir Francis Denning," he whispered, in answer to his
+exulting salutation, "that smile hath made thy face shorter by
+one-third than when I first saw it this morning.--What, Master
+Bowyer, stand you back, and think you I bear malice?  You did but
+your duty this morning; and if I remember aught of the passage
+betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour."
+
+Then the Earl was approached, with several fantastic congees, by
+a person quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiously
+slashed and pinked with crimson satin.  A long cock's feather in
+the velvet bonnet, which he held in his hand, and an enormous
+ruff; stiffened to the extremity of the absurd taste of the
+times, joined with a sharp, lively, conceited expression of
+countenance, seemed to body forth a vain, harebrained coxcomb,
+and small wit; while the rod he held, and an assumption of formal
+authority, appeared to express some sense of official
+consequence, which qualified the natural pertness of his manner.
+A perpetual blush, which occupied rather the sharp nose than the
+thin cheek of this personage, seemed to speak more of "good
+life," as it was called, than of modesty; and the manner in which
+he approached to the Earl confirmed that suspicion.
+
+"Good even to you, Master Robert Laneham," said Leicester, and
+seemed desirous to pass forward, without further speech.
+
+"I have a suit to your noble lordship," said the figure, boldly
+following him.
+
+"And what is it, good master keeper of the council-chamber door?"
+
+"CLERK of the council-chamber door," said Master Robert Laneham,
+with emphasis, by way of reply, and of correction.
+
+"Well, qualify thine office as thou wilt, man," replied the Earl;
+"what wouldst thou have with me?"
+
+"Simply," answered Laneham, "that your lordship would be, as
+heretofore, my good lord, and procure me license to attend the
+Summer Progress unto your lordship's most beautiful and all-to-
+be-unmatched Castle of Kenilworth."
+
+"To what purpose, good Master Laneham?"  replied the Earl;
+"bethink you, my guests must needs be many."
+
+"Not so many," replied the petitioner, "but that your nobleness
+will willingly spare your old servitor his crib and his mess.
+Bethink you, my lord, how necessary is this rod of mine to fright
+away all those listeners, who else would play at bo-peep with the
+honourable council, and be searching for keyholes and crannies in
+the door of the chamber, so as to render my staff as needful as a
+fly-flap in a butcher's shop."
+
+"Methinks you have found out a fly-blown comparison for the
+honourable council, Master Laneham," said the Earl; "but seek not
+about to justify it.  Come to Kenilworth, if you list; there will
+be store of fools there besides, and so you will be fitted."
+
+"Nay, an there be fools, my lord," replied Laneham, with much
+glee, "I warrant I will make sport among them, for no greyhound
+loves to cote a hare as I to turn and course a fool.  But I have
+another singular favour to beseech of your honour."
+
+"Speak it, and let me go," said the Earl; "I think the Queen
+comes forth instantly."
+
+"My very good lord, I would fain bring a bed-fellow with me."
+
+"How, you irreverent rascal!"  said Leicester.
+
+"Nay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons," answered his
+unblushing, or rather his ever-blushing petitioner.  "I have a
+wife as curious as her grandmother who ate the apple.  Now, take
+her with me I may not, her Highness's orders being so strict
+against the officers bringing with them their wives in a
+progress, and so lumbering the court with womankind.  But what I
+would crave of your lordship is to find room for her in some
+mummery, or pretty pageant, in disguise, as it were; so that, not
+being known for my wife, there may be no offence."
+
+"The foul fiend seize ye both!"  said Leicester, stung into
+uncontrollable passion by the recollections which this speech
+excited--"why stop you me with such follies?"
+
+The terrified clerk of the chamber-door, astonished at the burst
+of resentment he had so unconsciously produced, dropped his staff
+of office from his hand, and gazed on the incensed Earl with a
+foolish face of wonder and terror, which instantly recalled
+Leicester to himself.
+
+"I meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits thine
+office," said he hastily.  "Come to Kenilworth, and bring the
+devil with thee, if thou wilt."
+
+"My wife, sir, hath played the devil ere now, in a Mystery, in
+Queen Mary's time; but me shall want a trifle for properties."
+
+"Here is a crown for thee," said the Earl,--"make me rid of thee
+--the great bell rings."
+
+Master Robert Laneham stared a moment at the agitation which he
+had excited, and then said to himself, as he stooped to pick up
+his staff of office, "The noble Earl runs wild humours to-day.
+But they who give crowns expect us witty fellows to wink at their
+unsettled starts; and, by my faith, if they paid not for mercy,
+we would finger them tightly!"  [See Note 6.  Robert Laneham.]
+
+Leicester moved hastily on, neglecting the courtesies he had
+hitherto dispensed so liberally, and hurrying through the courtly
+crowd, until he paused in a small withdrawing-room, into which he
+plunged to draw a moment's breath unobserved, and in seclusion.
+
+"What am I now," he said to himself, "that am thus jaded by the
+words of a mean, weather-beaten, goose-brained gull!  Conscience,
+thou art a bloodhound, whose growl wakes us readily at the paltry
+stir of a rat or mouse as at the step of a lion.  Can I not quit
+myself, by one bold stroke, of a state so irksome, so unhonoured?
+What if I kneel to Elizabeth, and, owning the whole, throw myself
+on her mercy?"
+
+As he pursued this train of thought, the door of the apartment
+opened, and Varney rushed in.
+
+"Thank God, my lord, that I have found you!"  was his
+exclamation.
+
+"Thank the devil, whose agent thou art," was the Earl's reply.
+
+"Thank whom you will, my lord," replied Varney; "but hasten to
+the water-side.  The Queen is on board, and asks for you."
+
+"Go, say I am taken suddenly ill," replied Leicester; "for, by
+Heaven, my brain can sustain this no longer!"
+
+"I may well say so," said Varney, with bitterness of expression,
+"for your place, ay, and mine, who, as your master of the horse,
+was to have attended your lordship, is already filled up in the
+Queen's barge.  The new minion, Walter Raleigh, and our old
+acquaintance Tressilian were called for to fill our places just
+as I hastened away to seek you."
+
+"Thou art a devil, Varney," said Leicester hastily; "but thou
+hast the mastery for the present--I follow thee."
+
+Varney replied not, but led the way out of the palace, and
+towards the river, while his master followed him, as if
+mechanically; until, looking back, he said in a tone which
+savoured of familiarity at least, if not of authority, "How is
+this, my lord?  Your cloak hangs on one side--your hose are
+unbraced--permit me--"
+
+"Thou art a fool, Varney, as well as a knave," said Leicester,
+shaking him off, and rejecting his officious assistance.  "We are
+best thus, sir; when we require you to order our person, it is
+well, but now we want you not."
+
+So saying, the Earl resumed at once his air of command, and with
+it his self-possession--shook his dress into yet wilder disorder
+--passed before Varney with the air of a superior and master, and
+in his turn led the way to the river-side.
+
+The Queen's barge was on the very point of putting off, the seat
+allotted to Leicester in the stern, and that to his master of the
+horse on the bow of the boat, being already filled up.  But on
+Leicester's approach there was a pause, as if the bargemen
+anticipated some alteration in their company.  The angry spot
+was, however, on the Queen's cheek, as, in that cold tone with
+which superiors endeavour to veil their internal agitation, while
+speaking to those before whom it would be derogation to express
+it, she pronounced the chilling words, "We have waited, my Lord
+of Leicester."
+
+"Madam, and most gracious Princess," said Leicester, "you, who
+can pardon so many weaknesses which your own heart never knows,
+can best bestow your commiseration on the agitations of the
+bosom, which, for a moment, affect both head and limbs.  I came
+to your presence a doubting and an accused subject; your goodness
+penetrated the clouds of defamation, and restored me to my
+honour, and, what is yet dearer, to your favour--is it wonderful,
+though for me it is most unhappy, that my master of the horse
+should have found me in a state which scarce permitted me to make
+the exertion necessary to follow him to this place, when one
+glance of your Highness, although, alas!  an angry one, has had
+power to do that for me in which Esculapius might have failed?"
+
+"How is this?"  said Elizabeth hastily, looking at Varney; "hath
+your lord been ill?"
+
+"Something of a fainting fit," answered the ready-witted Varney,
+"as your Grace may observe from his present condition.  My lord's
+haste would not permit me leisure even to bring his dress into
+order."
+
+"It matters not," said Elizabeth, as she gazed on the noble face
+and form of Leicester, to which even the strange mixture of
+passions by which he had been so lately agitated gave additional
+interest; "make room for my noble lord.  Your place, Master
+Varney, has been filled up; you must find a seat in another
+barge."
+
+Varney bowed, and withdrew.
+
+"And you, too, our young Squire of the Cloak," added she, looking
+at Raleigh, "must, for the time, go to the barge of our ladies of
+honour.  As for Tressilian, he hath already suffered too much by
+the caprice of women that I should aggrieve him by my change of
+plan, so far as he is concerned."
+
+Leicester seated himself in his place in the barge, and close to
+the Sovereign.  Raleigh rose to retire, and Tressilian would have
+been so ill-timed in his courtesy as to offer to relinquish his
+own place to his friend, had not the acute glance of Raleigh
+himself, who seemed no in his native element, made him sensible
+that so ready a disclamation of the royal favour might be
+misinterpreted.  He sat silent, therefore, whilst Raleigh, with a
+profound bow, and a look of the deepest humiliation, was about to
+quit his place.
+
+A noble courtier, the gallant Lord Willoughby, read, as he
+thought, something in the Queen's face which seemed to pity
+Raleigh's real or assumed semblance of mortification.
+
+"It is not for us old courtiers," he said, "to hide the sunshine
+from the young ones.  I will, with her Majesty's leave,
+relinquish for an hour that which her subjects hold dearest, the
+delight of her Highness's presence, and mortify myself by walking
+in starlight, while I forsake for a brief season the glory of
+Diana's own beams.  I will take place in the boat which the
+ladies occupy, and permit this young cavalier his hour of
+promised felicity."
+
+The Queen replied, with an expression betwixt mirth and earnest,
+"If you are so willing to leave us, my lord, we cannot help the
+mortification.  But, under favour, we do not trust you--old and
+experienced as you may deem yourself--with the care of our young
+ladies of honour.  Your venerable age, my lord," she continued,
+smiling, "may be better assorted with that of my Lord Treasurer,
+who follows in the third boat, and by whose experience even my
+Lord Willoughby's may be improved."
+
+Lord Willoughby hid his disappointment under a smile--laughed,
+was confused, bowed, and left the Queen's barge to go on board my
+Lord Burleigh's.  Leicester, who endeavoured to divert his
+thoughts from all internal reflection, by fixing them on what was
+passing around, watched this circumstance among others.  But when
+the boat put off from the shore--when the music sounded from a
+barge which accompanied them--when the shouts of the populace
+were heard from the shore, and all reminded him of the situation
+in which he was placed, he abstracted his thoughts and feelings
+by a strong effort from everything but the necessity of
+maintaining himself in the favour of his patroness, and exerted
+his talents of pleasing captivation with such success, that the
+Queen, alternately delighted with his conversation, and alarmed
+for his health, at length imposed a temporary silence on him,
+with playful yet anxious care, lest his flow of spirits should
+exhaust him.
+
+"My lords," she said, "having passed for a time our edict of
+silence upon our good Leicester, we will call you to counsel on a
+gamesome matter, more fitted to be now treated of, amidst mirth
+and music, than in the gravity of our ordinary deliberations.
+Which of you, my lords," said she, smiling, "know aught of a
+petition from Orson Pinnit, the keeper, as he qualifies himself,
+of our royal bears?  Who stands godfather to his request?"
+
+"Marry, with Your Grace's good permission, that do I," said the
+Earl of Sussex.  "Orson Pinnit was a stout soldier before he was
+so mangled by the skenes of the Irish clan MacDonough; and I
+trust your Grace will be, as you always have been, good mistress
+to your good and trusty servants."
+
+"Surely," said the Queen, "it is our purpose to be so, and in
+especial to our poor soldiers and sailors, who hazard their lives
+for little pay.  We would give," she said, with her eyes
+sparkling, "yonder royal palace of ours to be an hospital for
+their use, rather than they should call their mistress
+ungrateful.  But this is not the question," she said, her voice,
+which had been awakened by her patriotic feelings, once more
+subsiding into the tone of gay and easy conversation; "for this
+Orson Pinnit's request goes something further.  He complains
+that, amidst the extreme delight with which men haunt the play-
+houses, and in especial their eager desire for seeing the
+exhibitions of one Will Shakespeare (whom I think, my lords, we
+have all heard something of), the manly amusement of bear-baiting
+is falling into comparative neglect, since men will rather throng
+to see these roguish players kill each other in jest, than to see
+our royal dogs and bears worry each other in bloody earnest.--
+What say you to this, my Lord of Sussex?"
+
+"Why, truly, gracious madam," said Sussex, "you must expect
+little from an old soldier like me in favour of battles in sport,
+when they are compared with battles in earnest; and yet, by my
+faith, I wish Will Shakespeare no harm.  He is a stout man at
+quarter-staff, and single falchion, though, as I am told, a
+halting fellow; and he stood, they say, a tough fight with the
+rangers of old Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecot, when he broke his
+deer-park and kissed his keeper's daughter."
+
+"I cry you mercy, my Lord of Sussex," said Queen Elizabeth,
+interrupting him; "that matter was heard in council, and we will
+not have this fellow's offence exaggerated--there was no kissing
+in the matter, and the defendant hath put the denial on record.
+But what say you to his present practice, my lord, on the stage?
+for there lies the point, and not in any ways touching his former
+errors, in breaking parks, or the other follies you speak of."
+
+"Why, truly, madam," replied Sussex, "as I said before, I wish
+the gamesome mad fellow no injury.  Some of his whoreson poetry
+(I crave your Grace's pardon for such a phrase) has rung in mine
+ears as if the lines sounded to boot and saddle.  But then it is
+all froth and folly--no substance or seriousness in it, as your
+Grace has already well touched.  What are half a dozen knaves,
+with rusty foils and tattered targets, making but a mere mockery
+of a stout fight, to compare to the royal game of bear-baiting,
+which hath been graced by your Highness's countenance, and that
+of your royal predecessors, in this your princely kingdom, famous
+for matchless mastiffs and bold bearwards over all Christendom?
+Greatly is it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if
+men should throng to hear the lungs of an idle player belch forth
+nonsensical bombast, instead of bestowing their pence in
+encouraging the bravest image of war that can be shown in peace,
+and that is the sports of the Bear-garden.  There you may see the
+bear lying at guard, with his red, pinky eyes watching the onset
+of the mastiff, like a wily captain who maintains his defence
+that an assailant may be tempted to venture within his danger.
+And then comes Sir Mastiff, like a worthy champion, in full
+career at the throat of his adversary; and then shall Sir Bruin
+teach him the reward for those who, in their over-courage,
+neglect the policies of war, and, catching him in his arms,
+strain him to his breast like a lusty wrestler, until rib after
+rib crack like the shot of a pistolet.  And then another mastiff;
+as bold, but with better aim and sounder judgment, catches Sir
+Bruin by the nether lip, and hangs fast, while he tosses about
+his blood and slaver, and tries in vain to shake Sir Talbot from
+his hold.  And then--"
+
+"Nay, by my honour, my lord," said the Queen, laughing, "you have
+described the whole so admirably that, had we never seen a bear-
+baiting, as we have beheld many, and hope, with Heaven's
+allowance, to see many more, your words were sufficient to put
+the whole Bear-garden before our eyes.--But come, who speaks next
+in this case?--My Lord of Leicester, what say you?"
+
+"Am I then to consider myself as unmuzzled, please your Grace?"
+replied Leicester.
+
+"Surely, my lord--that is, if you feel hearty enough to take part
+in our game," answered Elizabeth; "and yet, when I think of your
+cognizance of the bear and ragged staff, methinks we had better
+hear some less partial orator."
+
+"Nay, on my word, gracious Princess," said the Earl, "though my
+brother Ambrose of Warwick and I do carry the ancient cognizance
+your Highness deigns to remember, I nevertheless desire nothing
+but fair play on all sides; or, as they say, 'fight dog, fight
+bear.'  And in behalf of the players, I must needs say that they
+are witty knaves, whose rants and jests keep the minds of the
+commons from busying themselves with state affairs, and listening
+to traitorous speeches, idle rumours, and disloyal insinuations.
+When men are agape to see how Marlow, Shakespeare, and other play
+artificers work out their fanciful plots, as they call them, the
+mind of the spectators is withdrawn from the conduct of their
+rulers."
+
+"We would not have the mind of our subjects withdrawn from the
+consideration of our own conduct, my lord," answered Elizabeth;
+"because the more closely it is examined, the true motives by
+which we are guided will appear the more manifest."
+
+"I have heard, however, madam," said the Dean of St. Asaph's, an
+eminent Puritan, "that these players are wont, in their plays,
+not only to introduce profane and lewd expressions, tending to
+foster sin and harlotry; but even to bellow out such reflections
+on government, its origin and its object, as tend to render the
+subject discontented, and shake the solid foundations of civil
+society.  And it seems to be, under your Grace's favour, far less
+than safe to permit these naughty foul-mouthed knaves to ridicule
+the godly for their decent gravity, and, in blaspheming heaven
+and slandering its earthly rulers, to set at defiance the laws
+both of God and man."
+
+"If we could think this were true, my lord," said Elizabeth, "we
+should give sharp correction for such offences.  But it is ill
+arguing against the use of anything from its abuse.  And touching
+this Shakespeare, we think there is that in his plays that is
+worth twenty Bear-gardens; and that this new undertaking of his
+Chronicles, as he calls them, may entertain, with honest mirth,
+mingled with useful instruction, not only our subjects, but even
+the generation which may succeed to us."
+
+"Your Majesty's reign will need no such feeble aid to make it
+remembered to the latest posterity," said Leicester.  "And yet,
+in his way, Shakespeare hath so touched some incidents of your
+Majesty's happy government as may countervail what has been
+spoken by his reverence the Dean of St. Asaph's.  There are some
+lines, for example--I would my nephew, Philip Sidney, were here;
+they are scarce ever out of his mouth--they are spoken in a mad
+tale of fairies, love-charms, and I wot not what besides; but
+beautiful they are, however short they may and must fall of the
+subject to which they bear a bold relation--and Philip murmurs
+them, I think, even in his dreams."
+
+"You tantalize us, my lord," said the Queen--"Master Philip
+Sidney is, we know, a minion of the Muses, and we are pleased it
+should be so.  Valour never shines to more advantage than when
+united with the true taste and love of letters.  But surely there
+are some others among our young courtiers who can recollect what
+your lordship has forgotten amid weightier affairs.--Master
+Tressilian, you are described to me as a worshipper of Minerva--
+remember you aught of these lines?"
+
+Tressilian's heart was too heavy, his prospects in life too
+fatally blighted, to profit by the opportunity which the Queen
+thus offered to him of attracting her attention; but he
+determined to transfer the advantage to his more ambitious young
+friend, and excusing himself on the score of want of
+recollection, he added that he believed the beautiful verses of
+which my Lord of Leicester had spoken were in the remembrance of
+Master Walter Raleigh.
+
+At the command of the Queen, that cavalier repeated, with accent
+and manner which even added to their exquisite delicacy of tact
+and beauty of description, the celebrated vision of Oberon:--
+
+  "That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),
+  Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
+  Cupid, allarm'd:  a certain aim he took
+  At a fair vestal, throned by the west;
+  And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
+  As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
+  But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
+  Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
+  And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
+  In maiden meditation, fancy free."
+
+The voice of Raleigh, as he repeated the last lines, became a
+little tremulous, as if diffident how the Sovereign to whom the
+homage was addressed might receive it, exquisite as it was.  If
+this diffidence was affected, it was good policy; but if real,
+there was little occasion for it.  The verses were not probably
+new to the Queen, for when was ever such elegant flattery long in
+reaching the royal ear to which it was addressed?  But they were
+not the less welcome when repeated by such a speaker as Raleigh.
+Alike delighted with the matter, the manner, and the graceful
+form and animated countenance of the gallant young reciter,
+Elizabeth kept time to every cadence with look and with finger.
+When the speaker had ceased, she murmured over the last lines as
+if scarce conscious that she was overheard, and as she uttered
+the words,
+
+"In maiden meditation, fancy free," she dropped into the Thames
+the supplication of Orson Pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to
+find more favourable acceptance at Sheerness, or wherever the
+tide might waft it.
+
+Leicester was spurred to emulation by the success of the young
+courtier's exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a
+high-mettled colt passes him on the way.  He turned the discourse
+on shows, banquets, pageants, and on the character of those by
+whom these gay scenes were then frequented.  He mixed acute
+observation with light satire, in that just proportion which was
+free alike from malignant slander and insipid praise.  He
+mimicked with ready accent the manners of the affected or the
+clownish, and made his own graceful tone and manner seem doubly
+such when he resumed it.  Foreign countries--their customs, their
+manners, the rules of their courts---the fashions, and even the
+dress of their ladies-were equally his theme; and seldom did he
+conclude without conveying some compliment, always couched in
+delicacy, and expressed with propriety, to the Virgin Queen, her
+court, and her government.  Thus passed the conversation during
+this pleasure voyage, seconded by the rest of the attendants upon
+the royal person, in gay discourse, varied by remarks upon
+ancient classics and modern authors, and enriched by maxims of
+deep policy and sound morality, by the statesmen and sages who
+sat around and mixed wisdom with the lighter talk of a female
+court.
+
+When they returned to the Palace, Elizabeth accepted, or rather
+selected, the arm of Leicester to support her from the stairs
+where they landed to the great gate.  It even seemed to him
+(though that might arise from the flattery of his own
+imagination) that during this short passage she leaned on him
+somewhat more than the slippiness of the way necessarily
+demanded.  Certainly her actions and words combined to express a
+degree of favour which, even in his proudest day he had not till
+then attained.  His rival, indeed, was repeatedly graced by the
+Queen's notice; but it was in manner that seemed to flow less
+from spontaneous inclination than as extorted by a sense of his
+merit.  And in the opinion of many experienced courtiers, all the
+favour she showed him was overbalanced by her whispering in the
+ear of the Lady Derby that "now she saw sickness was a better
+alchemist than she before wotted of, seeing it had changed my
+Lord of Sussex's copper nose into a golden one."
+
+The jest transpired, and the Earl of Leicester enjoyed his
+triumph, as one to whom court-favour had been both the primary
+and the ultimate motive of life, while he forgot, in the
+intoxication of the moment, the perplexities and dangers of his
+own situation.  Indeed, strange as it may appear, he thought less
+at that moment of the perils arising from his secret union, than
+of the marks of grace which Elizabeth from time to time showed to
+young Raleigh.  They were indeed transient, but they were
+conferred on one accomplished in mind and body, with grace,
+gallantry, literature, and valour.  An accident occurred in the
+course of the evening which riveted Leicester's attention to this
+object.
+
+The nobles and courtiers who had attended the Queen on her
+pleasure expedition were invited, with royal hospitality, to a
+splendid banquet in the hall of the Palace.  The table was not,
+indeed, graced by the presence of the Sovereign; for, agreeable
+to her idea of what was at once modest and dignified, the Maiden
+Queen on such occasions was wont to take in private, or with one
+or two favourite ladies, her light and temperate meal.  After a
+moderate interval, the court again met in the splendid gardens of
+the Palace; and it was while thus engaged that the Queen suddenly
+asked a lady, who was near to her both in place and favour, what
+had become of the young Squire Lack-Cloak.
+
+The Lady Paget answered, "She had seen Master Raleigh but two or
+three minutes since standing at the window of a small pavilion or
+pleasure-house, which looked out on the Thames, and writing on
+the glass with a diamond ring."
+
+"That ring," said the Queen, "was a small token I gave him to
+make amends for his spoiled mantle.  Come, Paget, let us see what
+use he has made of it, for I can see through him already.  He is
+a marvellously sharp-witted spirit."  They went to the spot,
+within sight of which, but at some distance, the young cavalier
+still lingered, as the fowler watches the net which he has set.
+The Queen approached the window, on which Raleigh had used her
+gift, to inscribe the following line:--
+
+  "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall."
+
+The Queen smiled, read it twice over, once with deliberation to
+Lady Paget, and once again to herself.  "It is a pretty
+beginning," she said, after the consideration of a moment or two;
+"but methinks the muse hath deserted the young wit at the very
+outset of his task.  It were good-natured--were it not, Lady
+Paget?--to complete it for him.  Try your rhyming faculties."
+
+Lady Paget, prosaic from her cradle upwards as ever any lady of
+the bedchamber before or after her, disclaimed all possibility of
+assisting the young poet.
+
+"Nay, then, we must sacrifice to the Muses ourselves," said
+Elizabeth.
+
+"The incense of no one can be more acceptable," said Lady Paget;
+"and your Highness will impose such obligation on the ladies of
+Parnassus--"
+
+"Hush, Paget," said the Queen, "you speak sacrilege against the
+immortal Nine--yet, virgins themselves, they should be exorable
+to a Virgin Queen--and therefore--let me see how runs his verse--
+
+  'Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall.'
+
+Might not the answer (for fault of a better) run thus?--
+
+  'If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.'"
+
+The dame of honour uttered an exclamation of joy and surprise at
+so happy a termination; and certainly a worse has been applauded,
+even when coming from a less distinguished author.
+
+The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring, and saying,
+"We will give this gallant some cause of marvel when he finds his
+couplet perfected without his own interference," she wrote her
+own line beneath that of Raleigh.
+
+The Queen left the pavilion; but retiring slowly, and often
+looking back, she could see the young cavalier steal, with the
+flight of a lapwing, towards the place where he had seen her make
+a pause.  "She stayed but to observe," as she said, "that her
+train had taken;" and then, laughing at the circumstance with the
+Lady Paget, she took the way slowly towards the Palace.
+Elizabeth, as they returned, cautioned her companion not to
+mention to any one the aid which she had given to the young poet,
+and Lady Paget promised scrupulous secrecy.  It is to be supposed
+that she made a mental reservation in favour of Leicester, to
+whom her ladyship transmitted without delay an anecdote so little
+calculated to give him pleasure.
+
+Raleigh, in the meanwhile, stole back to the window, and read,
+with a feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him
+by the Queen in person to follow out his ambitious career, and
+returned to Sussex and his retinue, then on the point of
+embarking to go up the river, his heart beating high with
+gratified pride, and with hope of future distinction.
+
+The reverence due to the person of the Earl prevented any notice
+being taken of the reception he had met with at court, until they
+had landed, and the household were assembled in the great hall at
+Sayes Court; while that lord, exhausted by his late illness and
+the fatigues of the day, had retired to his chamber, demanding
+the attendance of Wayland, his successful physician.  Wayland,
+however, was nowhere to be found; and while some of the party
+were, with military impatience, seeking him and cursing his
+absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him on
+his prospects of court-favour.
+
+He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive
+circumstance of the couplet to which Elizabeth had deigned to
+find a rhyme; but other indications had transpired, which plainly
+intimated that he had made some progress in the Queen's favour.
+All hastened to wish him joy on the mended appearance of his
+fortune--some from real regard, some, perhaps, from hopes that
+his preferment might hasten their own, and most from a mixture of
+these motives, and a sense that the countenance shown to any one
+of Sussex's household was, in fact, a triumph to the whole.
+Raleigh returned the kindest thanks to them all, disowning, with
+becoming modesty, that one day's fair reception made a favourite,
+any more than one swallow a summer.  But he observed that Blount
+did not join in the general congratulation, and, somewhat hurt at
+his apparent unkindness, he plainly asked him the reason.
+
+Blount replied with equal sincerity--"My good Walter, I wish thee
+as well as do any of these chattering gulls, who are whistling
+and whooping gratulations in thine ear because it seems fair
+weather with thee.  But I fear for thee, "Walter" (and he wiped
+his honest eye), "I fear for thee with all my heart.  These
+court-tricks, and gambols, and flashes of fine women's favour are
+the tricks and trinkets that bring fair fortunes to farthings,
+and fine faces and witty coxcombs to the acquaintance of dull
+block and sharp axes."
+
+So saying, Blount arose and left the hall, while Raleigh looked
+after him with an expression that blanked for a moment his bold
+and animated countenance.
+
+Stanley just then entered the hall, and said to Tressilian, "My
+lord is calling for your fellow Wayland, and your fellow Wayland
+is just come hither in a sculler, and is calling for you, nor
+will he go to my lord till he sees you.  The fellow looks as he
+were mazed, methinks; I would you would see him immediately."
+
+Tressilian instantly left the hall, and causing Wayland Smith to
+be shown into a withdrawing apartment, and lights placed, he
+conducted the artist thither, and was surprised when he observed
+the emotion of his countenance.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Smith?"  said Tressilian; "have you
+seen the devil?"
+
+"Worse, sir, worse," replied Wayland; "I have seen a basilisk.
+Thank God, I saw him first; for being so seen, and seeing not me,
+he will do the less harm."
+
+"In God's name, speak sense," said Tressilian, "and say what you
+mean."
+
+"I have seen my old master," said the artist.  "Last night a
+friend whom I had acquired took me to see the Palace clock,
+judging me to be curious in such works of art.  At the window of
+a turret next to the clock-house I saw my old master."
+
+"Thou must needs have been mistaken," said Tressilian.
+
+"I was not mistaken," said Wayland; "he that once hath his
+features by heart would know him amongst a million.  He was
+anticly habited; but he cannot disguise himself from me, God be
+praised!  as I can from him.  I will not, however, tempt
+Providence by remaining within his ken.  Tarleton the player
+himself could not so disguise himself but that, sooner or later,
+Doboobie would find him out.  I must away to-morrow; for, as we
+stand together, it were death to me to remain within reach of
+him."
+
+"But the Earl of Sussex?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"He is in little danger from what he has hitherto taken, provided
+he swallow the matter of a bean's size of the orvietan every
+morning fasting; but let him beware of a relapse."
+
+"And how is that to be guarded against?"  said Tressilian.
+
+"Only by such caution as you would use against the devil,"
+answered Wayland.  "Let my lord's clerk of the kitchen kill his
+lord's meat himself, and dress it himself, using no spice but
+what he procures from the surest hands.  Let the sewer serve it
+up himself, and let the master of my lord's household see that
+both clerk and sewer taste the dishes which the one dresses and
+the other serves.  Let my lord use no perfumes which come not
+from well accredited persons; no unguents--no pomades.  Let him,
+on no account, drink with strangers, or eat fruit with them,
+either in the way of nooning or otherwise.  Especially, let him
+observe such caution if he goes to Kenilworth--the excuse of his
+illness, and his being under diet, will, and must, cover the
+strangeness of such practice."
+
+"And thou," said Tressilian, "what dost thou think to make of
+thyself?"
+
+"France, Spain, either India, East or West, shall be my refuge,"
+said Wayland, "ere I venture my life by residing within ken of
+Doboobie, Demetrius, or whatever else he calls himself for the
+time."
+
+"Well," said Tressilian, "this happens not inopportunely.  I had
+business for you in Berkshire, but in the opposite extremity to
+the place where thou art known; and ere thou hadst found out this
+new reason for living private, I had settled to send thee thither
+upon a secret embassage."
+
+The artist expressed himself willing to receive his commands, and
+Tressilian, knowing he was well acquainted with the outline of
+his business at court, frankly explained to him the whole,
+mentioned the agreement which subsisted betwixt Giles Gosling and
+him, and told what had that day been averred in the presence-
+chamber by Varney, and supported by Leicester.
+
+"Thou seest," he added, "that, in the circumstances in which I am
+placed, it behoves me to keep a narrow watch on the motions of
+these unprincipled men, Varney and his complices, Foster and
+Lambourne, as well as on those of my Lord Leicester himself, who,
+I suspect, is partly a deceiver, and not altogether the deceived
+in that matter.  Here is my ring, as a pledge to Giles Gosling.
+Here is besides gold, which shall be trebled if thou serve me
+faithfully.  Away down to Cumnor, and see what happens there."
+
+"I go with double good-will," said the artist, "first, because I
+serve your honour, who has been so kind to me; and then, that I
+may escape my old master, who, if not an absolute incarnation of
+the devil, has, at least, as much of the demon about him, in
+will, word, and action; as ever polluted humanity.  And yet let
+him take care of me.  I fly him now, as heretofore; but if, like
+the Scottish wild cattle, I am vexed by frequent pursuit, I may
+turn on him in hate and desperation.  [A remnant of the wild
+cattle of Scotland are preserved at Chillingham Castle, near
+Wooler, in Northumberland, the seat of Lord Tankerville.  They
+fly before strangers; but if disturbed and followed, they turn
+with fury on those who persist in annoying them.]  Will your
+honour command my nag to be saddled?  I will but give the
+medicine to my lord, divided in its proper proportions, with a
+few instructions.  His safety will then depend on the care of his
+friends and domestics; for the past he is guarded, but let him
+beware of the future."
+
+Wayland Smith accordingly made his farewell visit to the Earl of
+Sussex, dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions
+concerning his diet, and left Sayes Court without waiting for
+morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+        The moment comes--
+  It is already come--when thou must write
+  The absolute total of thy life's vast sum.
+  The constellations stand victorious o'er thee,
+  The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions,
+  And tell thee, "Now's the time."
+                          SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN, BY COLERIDGE.
+
+When Leicester returned to his lodging, alter a day so important
+and so harassing, in which, after riding out more than one gale,
+and touching on more than one shoal, his bark had finally gained
+the harbour with banner displayed, he seemed to experience as
+much fatigue as a mariner after a perilous storm.  He spoke not a
+word while his chamberlain exchanged his rich court-mantle for a
+furred night-robe, and when this officer signified that Master
+Varney desired to speak with his lordship, he replied only by a
+sullen nod.  Varney, however, entered, accepting this signal as a
+permission, and the chamberlain withdrew.
+
+The Earl remained silent and almost motionless in his chair, his
+head reclined on his hand, and his elbow resting upon the table
+which stood beside him, without seeming to be conscious of the
+entrance or of the presence of his confidant.  Varney waited for
+some minutes until he should speak, desirous to know what was the
+finally predominant mood of a mind through which so many powerful
+emotions had that day taken their course.  But he waited in vain,
+for Leicester continued still silent, and the confidant saw
+himself under the necessity of being the first to speak.  "May I
+congratulate your lordship," he said, "on the deserved
+superiority you have this day attained over your most formidable
+rival?"
+
+Leicester raised his head, and answered sadly, but without anger,
+"Thou, Varney, whose ready invention has involved me in a web of
+most mean and perilous falsehood, knowest best what small reason
+there is for gratulation on the subject."
+
+"Do you blame me, my lord," said Varney, "for not betraying, on
+the first push, the secret on which your fortunes depended, and
+which you have so oft and so earnestly recommended to my safe
+keeping?  Your lordship was present in person, and might have
+contradicted me and ruined yourself by an avowal of the truth;
+but surely it was no part of a faithful servant to have done so
+without your commands."
+
+"I cannot deny it, Varney," said the Earl, rising and walking
+across the room; "my own ambition has been traitor to my love."
+
+"Say rather, my lord, that your love has been traitor to your
+greatness, and barred you from such a prospect of honour and
+power as the world cannot offer to any other.  To make my
+honoured lady a countess, you have missed the chance of being
+yourself--"
+
+He paused, and seemed unwilling to complete the sentence.
+
+"Of being myself what?"  demanded Leicester; "speak out thy
+meaning, Varney."
+
+"Of being yourself a KING, my lord," replied Varney; "and King of
+England to boot!  It is no treason to our Queen to say so.  It
+would have chanced by her obtaining that which all true subjects
+wish her--a lusty, noble, and gallant husband."
+
+"Thou ravest, Varney," answered Leicester.  "Besides, our times
+have seen enough to make men loathe the Crown Matrimonial which
+men take from their wives' lap.  There was Darnley of Scotland."
+
+"He!"  said Varney; "a, gull, a fool, a thrice-sodden ass, who
+suffered himself to be fired off into the air like a rocket on a
+rejoicing day.  Had Mary had the hap to have wedded the noble
+Earl ONCE destined to share her throne, she had experienced a
+husband of different metal; and her husband had found in her a
+wife as complying and loving as the mate of the meanest squire
+who follows the hounds a-horseback, and holds her husband's
+bridle as he mounts."
+
+"It might have been as thou sayest, Varney," said Leicester, a
+brief smile of self-satisfaction passing over his anxious
+countenance.  "Henry Darnley knew little of women--with Mary, a
+man who knew her sex might have had some chance of holding his
+own.  But not with Elizabeth, Varney for I thank God, when he
+gave her the heart of a woman, gave her the head of a man to
+control its follies.  No, I know her.  She will accept love-
+tokens, ay, and requite them with the like--put sugared sonnets
+in her bosom, ay, and answer them too--push gallantry to the very
+verge where it becomes exchange of affection; but she writes NIL
+ULTRA to all which is to follow, and would not barter one iota of
+her own supreme power for all the alphabet of both Cupid and
+Hymen."
+
+"The better for you, my lord," said Varney--"that is, in the case
+supposed, if such be her disposition; since you think you cannot
+aspire to become her husband.  Her favourite you are, and may
+remain, if the lady at Cumnor place continues in her present
+obscurity."
+
+"Poor Amy!"  said Leicester, with a deep sigh; "she desires so
+earnestly to be acknowledged in presence of God and man!"
+
+"Ay, but, my lord," said Varney, "is her desire reasonable?  That
+is the question.  Her religious scruples are solved; she is an
+honoured and beloved wife, enjoying the society of her husband at
+such times as his weightier duties permit him to afford her his
+company.  What would she more?  I am right sure that a lady so
+gentle and so loving would consent to live her life through in a
+certain obscurity--which is, after all, not dimmer than when she
+was at Lidcote Hall--rather than diminish the least jot of her
+lord's honours and greatness by a premature attempt to share
+them."
+
+"There is something in what thou sayest," said Leicester, "and
+her appearance here were fatal.  Yet she must be seen at
+Kenilworth; Elizabeth will not forget that she has so appointed."
+
+"Let me sleep on that hard point," said Varney; "I cannot else
+perfect the device I have on the stithy, which I trust will
+satisfy the Queen and please my honoured lady, yet leave this
+fatal secret where it is now buried.  Has your lordship further
+commands for the night?"
+
+"I would be alone," said Leicester.  "Leave me, and place my
+steel casket on the table.  Be within summons."
+
+Varney retired, and the Earl, opening the window of his
+apartment, looked out long and anxiously upon the brilliant host
+of stars which glimmered in the splendour of a summer firmament.
+The words burst from him as at unawares, "I had never more need
+that the heavenly bodies should befriend me, for my earthly path
+is darkened and confused."
+
+It is well known that the age reposed a deep confidence in the
+vain predictions of judicial astrology, and Leicester, though
+exempt from the general control of superstition, was not in this
+respect superior to his time, but, on the contrary, was
+remarkable for the encouragement which he gave to the professors
+of this pretended science.  Indeed, the wish to pry into
+futurity, so general among the human race, is peculiarly to be
+found amongst those who trade in state mysteries and the
+dangerous intrigues and cabals of courts.  With heedful
+precaution to see that it had not been opened, or its locks
+tampered with, Leicester applied a key to the steel casket, and
+drew from it, first, a parcel of gold pieces, which he put into a
+silk purse; then a parchment inscribed with planetary signs, and
+the lines and calculations used in framing horoscopes, on which
+he gazed intently for a few moments; and, lastly, took forth a
+large key, which, lifting aside the tapestry, he applied to a
+little, concealed door in the corner of the apartment, and
+opening it, disclosed a stair constructed in the thickness of the
+wall.
+
+"Alasco," said the Earl, with a voice raised, yet no higher
+raised than to be heard by the inhabitant of the small turret to
+which the stair conducted--"Alasco, I say, descend."
+
+"I come, my lord," answered a voice from above.  The foot of an
+aged man was heard slowly descending the narrow stair, and Alasco
+entered the Earl's apartment.  The astrologer was a little man,
+and seemed much advanced in age, for his heard was long and
+white, and reached over his black doublet down to his silken
+girdle.  His hair was of the same venerable hue.  But his
+eyebrows were as dark as the keen and piercing black eyes which
+they shaded, and this peculiarity gave a wild and singular cast
+to the physiognomy of the old man.  His cheek was still fresh and
+ruddy, and the eyes we have mentioned resembled those of a rat in
+acuteness and even fierceness of expression.  His manner was not
+without a sort of dignity; and the interpreter of the stars,
+though respectful, seemed altogether at his ease, and even
+assumed a tone of instruction and command in conversing with the
+prime favourite of Elizabeth.
+
+"Your prognostications have failed, Alasco," said the Earl, when
+they had exchanged salutations--"he is recovering."
+
+"My son," replied the astrologer, "let me remind you I warranted
+not his death; nor is there any prognostication that can be
+derived from the heavenly bodies, their aspects and their
+conjunctions, which is not liable to be controlled by the will of
+Heaven.  ASTRA REGUNT HOMINES, SED REGIT ASTRA DEUS."
+
+"Of what avail, then, is your mystery?"  inquired the Earl.
+
+"Of much, my son," replied the old man, "since it can show the
+natural and probable course of events, although that course moves
+in subordination to an Higher Power.  Thus, in reviewing the
+horoscope which your Lordship subjected to my skill, you will
+observe that Saturn, being in the sixth House in opposition to
+Mars, retrograde in the House of Life, cannot but denote long and
+dangerous sickness, the issue whereof is in the will of Heaven,
+though death may probably be inferred.  Yet if I knew the name of
+the party I would erect another scheme."
+
+"His name is a secret," said the Earl; "yet, I must own, thy
+prognostication hath not been unfaithful.  He has been sick, and
+dangerously so, not, however, to death.  But hast thou again cast
+my horoscope as Varney directed thee, and art thou prepared to
+say what the stars tell of my present fortune?"
+
+"My art stands at your command," said the old man; "and here, my
+son, is the map of thy fortunes, brilliant in aspect as ever
+beamed from those blessed signs whereby our life is influenced,
+yet not unchequered with fears, difficulties, and dangers."
+
+"My lot were more than mortal were it otherwise," said the Earl.
+"Proceed, father, and believe you speak with one ready to undergo
+his destiny in action and in passion as may beseem a noble of
+England."
+
+"Thy courage to do and to suffer must be wound up yet a strain
+higher," said the old man.  "The stars intimate yet a prouder
+title, yet an higher rank.  It is for thee to guess their
+meaning, not for me to name it."
+
+"Name it, I conjure you--name it, I command you!"  said the Earl,
+his eyes brightening as he spoke.
+
+"I may not, and I will not," replied the old man.  "The ire of
+princes Is as the wrath of the lion.  But mark, and judge for
+thyself.  Here Venus, ascendant in the House of Life, and
+conjoined with Sol, showers down that flood of silver light,
+blent with gold, which promises power, wealth, dignity, all that
+the proud heart of man desires, and in such abundance that never
+the future Augustus of that old and mighty Rome heard from his
+HARUSPICES such a tale of glory, as from this rich text my lore
+might read to my favourite son."
+
+"Thou dost but jest with me, father," said the Earl, astonished
+at the strain of enthusiasm in which the astrologer delivered his
+prediction.
+
+"Is it for him to jest who hath his eye on heaven, who hath his
+foot in the grave?"  returned the old man solemnly.
+
+The Earl made two or three strides through the apartment, with
+his hand outstretched, as one who follows the beckoning signal of
+some phantom, waving him on to deeds of high import.  As he
+turned, however, he caught the eye of the astrologer fixed on
+him, while an observing glance of the most shrewd penetration
+shot from under the penthouse of his shaggy, dark eyebrows.
+Leicester's haughty and suspicious soul at once caught fire.  He
+darted towards the old man from the farther end of the lofty
+apartment, only standing still when his extended hand was within
+a foot of the astrologer's body.
+
+"Wretch!"  he said, "if you dare to palter with me, I will have
+your skin stripped from your living flesh!  Confess thou hast
+been hired to deceive and to betray me--that thou art a cheat,
+and I thy silly prey and booty!"
+
+The old man exhibited some symptoms of emotion, but not more than
+the furious deportment of his patron might have extorted from
+innocence itself.
+
+"What means this violence, my lord?"  he answered, "or in what
+can I have deserved it at your hand?"
+
+"Give me proof," said the Earl vehemently, "that you have not
+tampered with mine enemies."
+
+"My lord," replied the old man, with dignity, "you can have no
+better proof than that which you yourself elected.  In that
+turret I have spent the last twenty-four hours under the key
+which has been in your own custody.  The hours of darkness I have
+spent in gazing on the heavenly bodies with these dim eyes, and
+during those of light I have toiled this aged brain to complete
+the calculation arising from their combinations.  Earthly food I
+have not tasted--earthly voice I have not heard.  You are
+yourself aware I had no means of doing so; and yet I tell you--I
+who have been thus shut up in solitude and study--that within
+these twenty-four hours your star has become predominant in the
+horizon, and either the bright book of heaven speaks false, or
+there must have been a proportionate revolution in your fortunes
+upon earth.  If nothing has happened within that space to secure
+your power, or advance your favour, then am I indeed a cheat, and
+the divine art, which was first devised in the plains of Chaldea,
+is a foul imposture."
+
+"It is true," said Leicester, after a moment's reflection, "thou
+wert closely immured; and it is also true that the change has
+taken place in my situation which thou sayest the horoscope
+indicates."
+
+"Wherefore this distrust then, my son?"  said the astrologer,
+assuming a tone of admonition; "the celestial intelligences brook
+not diffidence, even in their favourites."
+
+"Peace, father," answered Leicester, "I have erred in doubting
+thee.  Not to mortal man, nor to celestial intelligence--under
+that which is supreme--will Dudley's lips say more in
+condescension or apology.  Speak rather to the present purpose.
+Amid these bright promises thou hast said there was a threatening
+aspect.  Can thy skill tell whence, or by whose means, such
+danger seems to impend?"
+
+"Thus far only," answered the astrologer, "does my art enable me
+to answer your query.  The infortune is threatened by the
+malignant and adverse aspect, through means of a youth, and, as I
+think, a rival; but whether in love or in prince's favour, I know
+not nor can I give further indication respecting him, save that
+he comes from the western quarter."
+
+"The western--ha!"  replied Leicester, "it is enough--the tempest
+does indeed brew in that quarter!  Cornwall and Devon--Raleigh
+and Tressilian--one of them is indicated-I must beware of both.
+Father, if I have done thy skill injustice, I will make thee a
+lordly recompense."
+
+He took a purse of gold from the strong casket which stood before
+him.  "Have thou double the recompense which Varney promised.  Be
+faithful--be secret--obey the directions thou shalt receive from
+my master of the horse, and grudge not a little seclusion or
+restraint in my cause--it shall be richly considered.--Here,
+Varney--conduct this venerable man to thine own lodging; tend him
+heedfully in all things, but see that he holds communication with
+no one.
+
+Varney bowed, and the astrologer kissed the Earl's hand in token
+of adieu, and followed the master of the horse to another
+apartment, in which were placed wine and refreshments for his
+use.
+
+The astrologer sat down to his repast, while Varney shut two
+doors with great precaution, examined the tapestry, lest any
+listener lurked behind it, and then sitting down opposite to the
+sage, began to question him.
+
+"Saw you my signal from the court beneath?"
+
+"I did," said Alasco, for by such name he was at present called,
+"and shaped the horoscope accordingly."
+
+"And it passed upon the patron without challenge?"  continued
+Varney.
+
+"Not without challenge," replied the old man, "but it did pass;
+and I added, as before agreed, danger from a discovered secret,
+and a western youth."
+
+"My lord's fear will stand sponsor to the one, and his conscience
+to the other, of these prognostications," replied Varney.  "Sure
+never man chose to run such a race as his, yet continued to
+retain those silly scruples!  I am fain to cheat him to his own
+profit.  But touching your matters, sage interpreter of the
+stars, I can tell you more of your own fortune than plan or
+figure can show.  You must be gone from hence forthwith."
+
+"I will not," said Alasco peevishly.  "I have been too much
+hurried up and down of late--immured for day and night in a
+desolate turret-chamber.  I must enjoy my liberty, and pursue my
+studies, which are of more import than the fate of fifty
+statesmen and favourites that rise and burst like bubbles in the
+atmosphere of a court."
+
+"At your pleasure," said Varney, with a sneer that habit had
+rendered familiar to his features, and which forms the principal
+characteristic which painters have assigned to that of Satan--"at
+your pleasure," he said; "you may enjoy your liberty and your
+studies until the daggers of Sussex's followers are clashing
+within your doublet and against your ribs."  The old man turned
+pale, and Varney proceeded.  "Wot you not he hath offered a
+reward for the arch-quack and poison-vender, Demetrius, who sold
+certain precious spices to his lordship's cook?  What!  turn you
+pale, old friend?  Does Hali already see an infortune in the
+House of Life?  Why, hark thee, we will have thee down to an old
+house of mine in the country, where thou shalt live with a
+hobnailed slave, whom thy alchemy may convert into ducats, for to
+such conversion alone is thy art serviceable."
+
+"It is false, thou foul-mouthed railer," said Alasco, shaking
+with impotent anger; "it is well known that I have approached
+more nearly to projection than any hermetic artist who now lives.
+There are not six chemists in the world who possess so near an
+approximation to the grand arcanum--"
+
+"Come, come," said Varney, interrupting him, "what means this, in
+the name of Heaven?  Do we not know one another?  I believe thee
+to be so perfect--so very perfect--in the mystery of cheating,
+that, having imposed upon all mankind, thou hast at length in
+some measure imposed upon thyself, and without ceasing to dupe
+others, hast become a species of dupe to thine own imagination.
+Blush not for it, man--thou art learned, and shalt have classical
+comfort:
+
+  'Ne quisquam Ajacem possit superare nisi Ajax.'
+
+No one but thyself could have gulled thee; and thou hast gulled
+the whole brotherhood of the Rosy Cross besides--none so deep in
+the mystery as thou.  But hark thee in thine ear:  had the
+seasoning which spiced Sussex's broth wrought more surely, I
+would have thought better of the chemical science thou dost boast
+so highly."
+
+"Thou art an hardened villain, Varney," replied Alasco; "many
+will do those things who dare not speak of them."
+
+"And many speak of them who dare not do them," answered Varney.
+"But be not wroth--I will not quarrel with thee.  If I did, I
+were fain to live on eggs for a month, that I might feed without
+fear.  Tell me at once, how came thine art to fail thee at this
+great emergency?"
+
+"The Earl of Sussex's horoscope intimates," replied the
+astrologer, "that the sign of the ascendant being in combustion
+--"
+
+"Away with your gibberish," replied Varney; "thinkest thou it is
+the patron thou speakest with?"
+
+"I crave your pardon," replied the old man, "and swear to you I
+know but one medicine that could have saved the Earl's life; and
+as no man living in England knows that antidote save myself--
+moreover, as the ingredients, one of them in particular, are
+scarce possible to be come by, I must needs suppose his escape
+was owing to such a constitution of lungs and vital parts as was
+never before bound up in a body of clay."
+
+"There was some talk of a quack who waited on him," said Varney,
+after a moment's reflection.  "Are you sure there is no one in
+England who has this secret of thine?"
+
+"One man there was," said the doctor, "once my servant, who might
+have stolen this of me, with one or two other secrets of art.
+But content you, Master Varney, it is no part of my policy to
+suffer such interlopers to interfere in my trade.  He pries into
+no mysteries more, I warrant you, for, as I well believe, he hath
+been wafted to heaven on the wing of a fiery dragon--peace be
+with him!  But in this retreat of mine shall I have the use of
+mine elaboratory?"
+
+"Of a whole workshop, man," said Varney; "for a reverend father
+abbot, who was fain to give place to bluff King Hal and some of
+his courtiers, a score of years since, had a chemist's complete
+apparatus, which he was obliged to leave behind him to his
+successors.  Thou shalt there occupy, and melt, and puff, and
+blaze, and multiply, until the Green Dragon become a golden
+goose, or whatever the newer phrase of the brotherhood may
+testify."
+
+"Thou art right, Master Varney," said the alchemist setting his
+teeth close and grinding them together--"thou art right even in
+thy very contempt of right and reason.  For what thou sayest in
+mockery may in sober verity chance to happen ere we meet again.
+If the most venerable sages of ancient days have spoken the
+truth--if the most learned of our own have rightly received it;
+if I have been accepted wherever I travelled in Germany, in
+Poland, in Italy, and in the farther Tartary, as one to whom
+nature has unveiled her darkest secrets; if I have acquired the
+most secret signs and passwords of the Jewish Cabala, so that the
+greyest beard in the synagogue would brush the steps to make them
+clean for me;--if all this is so, and if there remains but one
+step--one little step--betwixt my long, deep, and dark, and
+subterranean progress, and that blaze of light which shall show
+Nature watching her richest and her most glorious productions in
+the very cradle--one step betwixt dependence and the power of
+sovereignty--one step betwixt poverty and such a sum of wealth as
+earth, without that noble secret, cannot minister from all her
+mines in the old or the new-found world; if this be all so, is it
+not reasonable that to this I dedicate my future life, secure,
+for a brief period of studious patience, to rise above the mean
+dependence upon favourites, and THEIR favourites, by which I am
+now enthralled!"
+
+"Now, bravo!  bravo!  my good father," said Varney, with the
+usual sardonic expression of ridicule on his countenance; "yet
+all this approximation to the philosopher's stone wringeth not
+one single crown out of my Lord Leicester's pouch, and far less
+out of Richard Varney's.  WE must have earthly and substantial
+services, man, and care not whom else thou canst delude with thy
+philosophical charlatanry."
+
+"My son Varney," said the alchemist, "the unbelief, gathered
+around thee like a frost-fog, hath dimmed thine acute perception
+to that which is a stumbling-block to the wise, and which yet, to
+him who seeketh knowledge with humility, extends a lesson so
+clear that he who runs may read.  Hath not Art, thinkest thou,
+the means of completing Nature's imperfect concoctions in her
+attempts to form the precious metals, even as by art we can
+perfect those other operations of incubation, distillation,
+fermentation, and similar processes of an ordinary description,
+by which we extract life itself out of a senseless egg, summon
+purity and vitality out of muddy dregs, or call into vivacity the
+inert substance of a sluggish liquid?"
+
+"I have heard all this before," said Varney, "and my heart is
+proof against such cant ever since I sent twenty good gold pieces
+(marry, it was in the nonage of my wit) to advance the grand
+magisterium, all which, God help the while, vanished IN FUMO.
+Since that moment, when I paid for my freedom, I defy chemistry,
+astrology, palmistry, and every other occult art, were it as
+secret as hell itself, to unloose the stricture of my purse-
+strings.  Marry, I neither defy the manna of Saint Nicholas, nor
+can I dispense with it.  The first task must be to prepare some
+when thou gett'st down to my little sequestered retreat yonder,
+and then make as much gold as thou wilt."
+
+"I will make no more of that dose," said the alchemist,
+resolutely.
+
+"Then," said the master of the horse, "thou shalt be hanged for
+what thou hast made already, and so were the great secret for
+ever lost to mankind.  Do not humanity this injustice, good
+father, but e'en bend to thy destiny, and make us an ounce or two
+of this same stuff; which cannot prejudice above one or two
+individuals, in order to gain lifetime to discover the universal
+medicine, which shall clear away all mortal diseases at once.
+But cheer up, thou grave, learned, and most melancholy jackanape!
+Hast thou not told me that a moderate portion of thy drug hath
+mild effects, no ways ultimately dangerous to the human frame,
+but which produces depression of spirits, nausea, headache, an
+unwillingness to change of place--even such a state of temper as
+would keep a bird from flying out of a cage were the door left
+open?"
+
+"I have said so, and it is true," said the alchemist.  "This
+effect will it produce, and the bird who partakes of it in such
+proportion shall sit for a season drooping on her perch, without
+thinking either of the free blue sky, or of the fair greenwood,
+though the one be lighted by the rays of the rising sun, and the
+other ringing with the newly-awakened song of all the feathered
+inhabitants of the forest."
+
+"And this without danger to life?"  said Varney, somewhat
+anxiously.
+
+"Ay, so that proportion and measure be not exceeded; and so that
+one who knows the nature of the manna be ever near to watch the
+symptoms, and succour in case of need."
+
+"Thou shalt regulate the whole," said Varney.  "Thy reward shall
+be princely, if thou keepest time and touch, and exceedest not
+the due proportion, to the prejudice of her health; otherwise thy
+punishment shall be as signal."
+
+"The prejudice of HER health!"  repeated Alasco; "it is, then, a
+woman I am to use my skill upon?"
+
+"No, thou fool," replied Varney, "said I not it was a bird--a
+reclaimed linnet, whose pipe might soothe a hawk when in mid
+stoop?  I see thine eye sparkle, and I know thy beard is not
+altogether so white as art has made it--THAT, at least, thou hast
+been able to transmute to silver.  But mark me, this is no mate
+for thee.  This caged bird is dear to one who brooks no rivalry,
+and far less such rivalry as thine, and her health must over all
+things be cared for.  But she is in the case of being commanded
+down to yonder Kenilworth revels, and it is most expedient--most
+needful--most necessary that she fly not thither.  Of these
+necessities and their causes, it is not needful that she should
+know aught; and it is to be thought that her own wish may lead
+her to combat all ordinary reasons which can be urged for her
+remaining a housekeeper."
+
+"That is but natural," said the alchemist with a strange smile,
+which yet bore a greater reference to the human character than
+the uninterested and abstracted gaze which his physiognomy had
+hitherto expressed, where all seemed to refer to some world
+distant from that which was existing around him.
+
+"It is so," answered Varney; "you understand women well, though
+it may have been long since you were conversant amongst them.
+Well, then, she is not to be contradicted; yet she is not to be
+humoured.  Understand me--a slight illness, sufficient to take
+away the desire of removing from thence, and to make such of your
+wise fraternity as may be called in to aid, recommend a quiet
+residence at home, will, in one word, be esteemed good service,
+and remunerated as such."
+
+"I am not to be asked to affect the House of Life?"  said the
+chemist.
+
+"On the contrary, we will have thee hanged if thou dost," replied
+Varney.
+
+"And I must," added Alasco, "have opportunity to do my turn, and
+all facilities for concealment or escape, should there be
+detection?"
+
+"All, all, and everything, thou infidel in all but the
+impossibilities of alchemy.  Why, man, for what dost thou take
+me?"
+
+The old man rose, and taking a light walked towards the end of
+the apartment, where was a door that led to the small sleeping-
+room destined for his reception during the night.  At the door he
+turned round, and slowly repeated Varney's question ere he
+answered it.  "For what do I take thee, Richard Varney?  Why, for
+a worse devil than I have been myself.  But I am in your toils,
+and I must serve you till my term be out."
+
+"Well, well," answered Varney hastily, "be stirring with grey
+light.  It may be we shall not need thy medicine--do nought till
+I myself come down.  Michael Lambourne shall guide you to the
+place of your destination."  [See Note 7.  Dr. Julio.]
+
+When Varney heard the adept's door shut and carefully bolted
+within, he stepped towards it, and with similar precaution
+carefully locked it on the outside, and took the key from the
+lock, muttering to himself, "Worse than THEE, thou poisoning
+quacksalver and witch-monger, who, if thou art not a bounden
+slave to the devil, it is only because he disdains such an
+apprentice!  I am a mortal man, and seek by mortal means the
+gratification of my passions and advancement of my prospects;
+thou art a vassal of hell itself--So ho, Lambourne!"  he called
+at another door, and Michael made his appearance with a flushed
+cheek and an unsteady step.
+
+"Thou art drunk, thou villain!"  said Varney to him.
+
+"Doubtless, noble sir," replied the unabashed Michael; "We have
+been drinking all even to the glories of the day, and to my noble
+Lord of Leicester and his valiant master of the horse.  Drunk!
+odds blades and poniards, he that would refuse to swallow a dozen
+healths on such an evening is a base besognio, and a puckfoist,
+and shall swallow six inches of my dagger!"
+
+"Hark ye, scoundrel," said Varney, "be sober on the instant--I
+command thee.  I know thou canst throw off thy drunken folly,
+like a fool's coat, at pleasure; and if not, it were the worse
+for thee."
+
+Lambourne drooped his head, left the apartment, and returned in
+two or three minutes with his face composed, his hair adjusted,
+his dress in order, and exhibiting as great a difference from his
+former self as if the whole man had been changed.
+
+"Art thou sober now, and dost thou comprehend me?"  said Varney
+sternly.
+
+Lambourne bowed in acquiescence.
+
+"Thou must presently down to Cumnor Place with the reverend man
+of art who sleeps yonder in the little vaulted chamber.  Here is
+the key, that thou mayest call him by times.  Take another trusty
+fellow with you.  Use him well on the journey, but let him not
+escape you--pistol him if he attempt it, and I will be your
+warrant.  I will give thee letters to Foster.  The doctor is to
+occupy the lower apartments of the eastern quadrangle, with
+freedom to use the old elaboratory and its implements.  He is to
+have no access to the lady, but such as I shall point out--only
+she may be amused to see his philosophical jugglery.  Thou wilt
+await at Cumnor Place my further orders; and, as thou livest,
+beware of the ale-bench and the aqua vitae flask.  Each breath
+drawn in Cumnor Place must be kept severed from common air."
+
+"Enough, my lord--I mean my worshipful master, soon, I trust, to
+be my worshipful knightly master.  You have given me my lesson
+and my license; I will execute the one, and not abuse the other.
+I will be in the saddle by daybreak."
+
+"Do so, and deserve favour.  Stay--ere thou goest fill me a cup
+of wine--not out of that flask, sirrah," as Lambourne was pouring
+out from that which Alasco had left half finished, "fetch me a
+fresh one."
+
+Lambourne obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the
+liquor, drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to
+retreat to his sleeping apartment, "It is strange--I am as little
+the slave of fancy as any one, yet I never speak for a few
+minutes with this fellow Alasco, but my mouth and lungs feel as
+if soiled with the fumes of calcined arsenic--pah!"
+
+So saying, he left the apartment.  Lambourne lingered, to drink a
+cup of the freshly-opened flask.  "It is from Saint John's-Berg,"
+he said, as he paused on the draught to enjoy its flavour, "and
+has the true relish of the violet.  But I must forbear it now,
+that I may one day drink it at my own pleasure."  And he quaffed
+a goblet of water to quench the fumes of the Rhenish wine,
+retired slowly towards the door, made a pause, and then, finding
+the temptation irresistible, walked hastily back, and took
+another long pull at the wine flask, without the formality of a
+cup.
+
+"Were it not for this accursed custom," he said, "I might climb
+as high as Varney himself.  But who can climb when the room turns
+round with him like a parish-top?  I would the distance were
+greater, or the road rougher, betwixt my hand and mouth!  But I
+will drink nothing to-morrow save water--nothing save fair
+water."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ PISTOL.  And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
+    And happy news of price.
+ FALSTAFF.  I prithee now deliver them like to men of this world.
+ PISTOL.  A foutra for the world, and worldlings base!
+    I speak of Africa, and golden joys.        HENRY IV. PART II.
+
+The public room of the Black Bear at Cumnor, to which the scene
+of our story now returns, boasted, on the evening which we treat
+of, no ordinary assemblage of guests.  There had been a fair in
+the neighbourhood, and the cutting mercer of Abingdon, with some
+of the other personages whom the reader has already been made
+acquainted with, as friends and customers of Giles Gosling, had
+already formed their wonted circle around the evening fire, and
+were talking over the news of the day.
+
+A lively, bustling, arch fellow, whose pack, and oaken ellwand
+studded duly with brass points, denoted him to be of Autolycus's
+profession, occupied a good deal of the attention, and furnished
+much of the amusement, of the evening.  The pedlars of those
+days, it must be remembered, were men of far greater importance
+than the degenerate and degraded hawkers of our modern times.  It
+was by means of these peripatetic venders that the country trade,
+in the finer manufactures used in female dress particularly, was
+almost entirely carried on; and if a merchant of this description
+arrived at the dignity of travelling with a pack-horse, he was a
+person of no small consequence, and company for the most
+substantial yeoman or franklin whom he might meet in his
+wanderings.
+
+The pedlar of whom we speak bore, accordingly, an active and
+unrebuked share in the merriment to which the rafters of the
+bonny Black Bear of Cumnor resounded.  He had his smile with
+pretty Mistress Cicely, his broad laugh with mine host, and his
+jest upon dashing Master Goldthred, who, though indeed without
+any such benevolent intention on his own part, was the general
+butt of the evening.  The pedlar and he were closely engaged in a
+dispute upon the preference due to the Spanish nether-stock over
+the black Gascoigne hose, and mine host had just winked to the
+guests around him, as who should say, "You will have mirth
+presently, my masters," when the trampling of horses was heard in
+the courtyard, and the hostler was loudly summoned, with a few of
+the newest oaths then in vogue to add force to the invocation.
+Out tumbled Will Hostler, John Tapster, and all the militia of
+the inn, who had slunk from their posts in order to collect some
+scattered crumbs of the mirth which was flying about among the
+customers.  Out into the yard sallied mine host himself also, to
+do fitting salutation to his new guests; and presently returned,
+ushering into the apartment his own worthy nephew, Michael
+Lambourne, pretty tolerably drunk, and having under his escort
+the astrologer.  Alasco, though still a little old man, had, by
+altering his gown to a riding-dress, trimming his beard and
+eyebrows, and so forth, struck at least a score of years from his
+apparent age, and might now seem an active man of sixty, or
+little upwards.  He appeared at present exceedingly anxious, and
+had insisted much with Lambourne that they should not enter the
+inn, but go straight forward to the place of their destination.
+But Lambourne would not be controlled.  "By Cancer and
+Capricorn," he vociferated, "and the whole heavenly host, besides
+all the stars that these blessed eyes of mine have seen sparkle
+in the southern heavens, to which these northern blinkers are but
+farthing candles, I will be unkindly for no one's humour--I will
+stay and salute my worthy uncle here.  Chesu!  that good blood
+should ever be forgotten betwixt friends!--A gallon of your best,
+uncle, and let it go round to the health of the noble Earl of
+Leicester!  What!  shall we not collogue together, and warm the
+cockles of our ancient kindness?--shall we not collogue, I say?"
+
+"With all my heart, kinsman," said mine host, who obviously
+wished to be rid of him; "but are you to stand shot to all this
+good liquor?"
+
+This is a question has quelled many a jovial toper, but it moved
+not the purpose of Lambourne's soul, "Question my means, nuncle?"
+he said, producing a handful of mixed gold and silver pieces;
+"question Mexico and Peru--question the Queen's exchequer--God
+save her Majesty!--she is my good Lord's good mistress."
+
+"Well, kinsman," said mine host, "it is my business to sell wine
+to those who can buy it--so, Jack Tapster, do me thine office.
+But I would I knew how to come by money as lightly as thou dost,
+Mike."
+
+"Why, uncle," said Lambourne, "I will tell thee a secret.  Dost
+see this little old fellow here?  as old and withered a chip as
+ever the devil put into his porridge--and yet, uncle, between you
+and me--he hath Potosi in that brain of his--'sblood!  he can
+coin ducats faster than I can vent oaths."
+
+"I will have none of his coinage in my purse, though, Michael,"
+said mine host; "I know what belongs to falsifying the Queen's
+coin."
+
+"Thou art an ass, uncle, for as old as thou art.--Pull me not by
+the skirts, doctor, thou art an ass thyself to boot--so, being
+both asses, I tell ye I spoke but metaphorically."
+
+"Are you mad?' said the old man; "is the devil in you?  Can you
+not let us begone without drawing all men's eyes on us?"
+
+"Sayest thou?"  said Lambourne.  "Thou art deceived now--no man
+shall see you, an I give the word.--By heavens, masters, an any
+one dare to look on this old gentleman, I will slash the eyes out
+of his head with my poniard!--So sit down, old friend, and be
+merry; these are mine ingles--mine ancient inmates, and will
+betray no man."
+
+"Had you not better withdraw to a private apartment, nephew?"
+said Giles Gosling.  "You speak strange matter," he added, "and
+there be intelligencers everywhere."
+
+"I care not for them," said the magnanimous Michael--
+"intelligencers?  pshaw!  I serve the noble Earl of Leicester.
+--Here comes the wine.--Fill round, Master Skinker, a carouse to
+the health of the flower of England, the noble Earl of Leicester!
+I say, the noble Earl of Leicester!  He that does me not reason
+is a swine of Sussex, and I'll make him kneel to the pledge, if I
+should cut his hams and smoke them for bacon."
+
+None disputed a pledge given under such formidable penalties; and
+Michael Lambourne, whose drunken humour was not of course
+diminished by this new potation, went on in the same wild way,
+renewing his acquaintance with such of the guests as he had
+formerly known, and experiencing a reception in which there was
+now something of deference mingled with a good deal of fear; for
+the least servitor of the favourite Earl, especially such a man
+as Lambourne, was, for very sufficient reasons, an object both of
+the one and of the other.
+
+In the meanwhile, the old man, seeing his guide in this
+uncontrollable humour, ceased to remonstrate with him, and
+sitting down in the most obscure corner of the room, called for a
+small measure of sack, over which he seemed, as it were, to
+slumber, withdrawing himself as much as possible from general
+observation, and doing nothing which could recall his existence
+to the recollection of his fellow-traveller, who by this time had
+got into close intimacy with his ancient comrade, Goldthred of
+Abingdon.
+
+"Never believe me, bully Mike," said the mercer, "if I am not as
+glad to see thee as ever I was to see a customer's money!  Why,
+thou canst give a friend a sly place at a mask or a revel now,
+Mike; ay, or, I warrant thee, thou canst say in my lord's ear,
+when my honourable lord is down in these parts, and wants a
+Spanish ruff or the like--thou canst say in his ear, There is
+mine old friend, young Lawrence Goldthred of Abingdon, has as
+good wares, lawn, tiffany, cambric, and so forth--ay, and is as
+pretty a piece of man's flesh, too, as is in Berkshire, and will
+ruffle it for your lordship with any man of his inches; and thou
+mayest say--"
+
+"I can say a hundred d--d lies besides, mercer," answered
+Lambourne; "what, one must not stand upon a good word for a
+friend!"
+
+"Here is to thee, Mike, with all my heart," said the mercer; "and
+thou canst tell one the reality of the new fashions too.  Here
+was a rogue pedlar but now was crying up the old-fashioned
+Spanish nether-stock over the Gascoigne hose, although thou seest
+how well the French hose set off the leg and knee, being adorned
+with parti-coloured garters and garniture in conformity."
+
+"Excellent, excellent," replied Lambourne; "why, thy limber bit
+of a thigh, thrust through that bunch of slashed buckram and
+tiffany, shows like a housewife's distaff when the flax is half
+spun off!"
+
+"Said I not so?"  said the mercer, whose shallow brain was now
+overflowed in his turn; "where, then, where be this rascal
+pedlar?--there was a pedlar here but now, methinks.--Mine host,
+where the foul fiend is this pedlar?"
+
+"Where wise men should be, Master Goldthred," replied Giles
+Gosling; "even shut up in his private chamber, telling over the
+sales of to-day, and preparing for the custom of to-morrow."
+
+"Hang him, a mechanical chuff!"  said the mercer; "but for shame,
+it were a good deed to ease him of his wares--a set of peddling
+knaves, who stroll through the land, and hurt the established
+trader.  There are good fellows in Berkshire yet, mine host--your
+pedlar may be met withal on Maiden Castle."
+
+"Ay," replied mine host, laughing, "and he who meets him may meet
+his match--the pedlar is a tall man."
+
+"Is he?"  said Goldthred.
+
+"Is he?"  replied the host; "ay, by cock and pie is he--the very
+pedlar he who raddled Robin Hood so tightly, as the song says,--
+
+'Now Robin Hood drew his sword so good,
+ The pedlar drew his brand,
+And he hath raddled him, Robin Hood,
+ Till he neither could see nor stand.'"
+
+"Hang him, foul scroyle, let him pass," said the mercer; "if he
+be such a one, there were small worship to be won upon him.--And
+now tell me, Mike--my honest Mike, how wears the Hollands you won
+of me?"
+
+"Why, well, as you may see, Master Goldthred," answered Mike; "I
+will bestow a pot on thee for the handsel.--Fill the flagon,
+Master Tapster."
+
+"Thou wilt win no more Hollands, think, on such wager, friend
+Mike," said the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails
+at thee all to nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his
+doors again, for that your oaths are enough to blow the roof off
+a Christian man's dwelling."
+
+"Doth he say so, the mincing, hypocritical miser?"  vociferated
+Lambourne.  "Why, then, he shall come down and receive my
+commands here, this blessed night, under my uncle's roof!  And I
+will ring him such a black sanctus, that he shall think the devil
+hath him by the skirts for a month to come, for barely hearing
+me."
+
+"Nay, now the pottle-pot is uppermost, with a witness!"  said the
+mercer.  "Tony Foster obey thy whistle!  Alas!  good Mike, go
+sleep--go sleep."
+
+"I tell thee what, thou thin-faced gull," said Michael Lambourne,
+in high chafe, "I will wager thee fifty angels against the first
+five shelves of thy shop, numbering upward from the false light,
+with all that is on them, that I make Tony Foster come down to
+this public-house before we have finished three rounds."
+
+"I will lay no bet to that amount," said the mercer, something
+sobered by an offer which intimated rather too private a
+knowledge on Lambourne's part of the secret recesses of his shop.
+"I will lay no such wager," he said; "but I will stake five
+angels against thy five, if thou wilt, that Tony Foster will not
+leave his own roof, or come to ale-house after prayer time, for
+thee, or any man."
+
+"Content," said Lambourne.--"Here, uncle, hold stakes, and let
+one of your young bleed-barrels there--one of your infant
+tapsters--trip presently up to The Place, and give this letter to
+Master Foster, and say that I, his ingle, Michael Lambourne, pray
+to speak with him at mine uncle's castle here, upon business of
+grave import.--Away with thee, child, for it is now sundown, and
+the wretch goeth to bed with the birds to save mutton-suet--
+faugh!"
+
+Shortly after this messenger was dispatched--an interval which
+was spent in drinking and buffoonery--he returned with the answer
+that Master Foster was coming presently.
+
+"Won, won!"  said Lambourne, darting on the stakes.
+
+"Not till he comes, if you please," said the mercer, interfering.
+
+"Why, 'sblood, he is at the threshold," replied Michael.--"What
+said he, boy?"
+
+"If it please your worship," answered the messenger, "he looked
+out of window, with a musquetoon in his hand, and when I
+delivered your errand, which I did with fear and trembling, he
+said, with a vinegar aspect, that your worship might be gone to
+the infernal regions."
+
+"Or to hell, I suppose," said Lambourne--"it is there he disposes
+of all that are not of the congregation."
+
+"Even so," said the boy; "I used the other phrase as being the
+more poetical."
+
+"An ingenious youth," said Michael; "shalt have a drop to whet
+thy poetical whistle.  And what said Foster next?"
+
+"He called me back," answered the boy, "and bid me say you might
+come to him if you had aught to say to him."
+
+"And what next?"  said Lambourne.
+
+"He read the letter, and seemed in a fluster, and asked if your
+worship was in drink; and I said you were speaking a little
+Spanish, as one who had been in the Canaries."
+
+"Out, you diminutive pint-pot, whelped of an overgrown
+reckoning!"  replied Lambourne--"out!  But what said he then?"
+
+"Why," said the boy, "he muttered that if he came not your
+worship would bolt out what were better kept in; and so he took
+his old flat cap, and threadbare blue cloak, and, as I said
+before, he will be here incontinent."
+
+"There is truth in what he said," replied Lambourne, as if
+speaking to himself--"my brain has played me its old dog's trick.
+But corragio--let him approach!--I have not rolled about in the
+world for many a day to fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober.--
+Bring me a flagon of cold water to christen my sack withal."
+
+While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have
+recalled to a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing
+to receive him, Giles Gosling stole up to the apartment of the
+pedlar, whom he found traversing the room in much agitation.
+
+"You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company," said the
+landlord to the guest.
+
+"It was time, when the devil became one among you," replied the
+pedlar.
+
+"It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name,"
+said Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in
+some sort, Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan."
+
+"Pooh--I talk not of the swaggering ruffian," replied the pedlar;
+"it is of the other, who, for aught I know--But when go they?  or
+wherefore come they?"
+
+"Marry, these are questions I cannot answer," replied the host.
+"But look you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy
+Master Tressilian--a pretty stone it is."  He took out the ring,
+and looked at it, adding, as he put it into his purse again, that
+it was too rich a guerdon for anything he could do for the worthy
+donor.  He was, he said, in the public line, and it ill became
+him to be too inquisitive into other folk's concerns.  He had
+already said that he could hear nothing but that the lady lived
+still at Cumnor Place in the closest seclusion, and, to such as
+by chance had a view of her, seemed pensive and discontented with
+her solitude.  "But here," he said, "if you are desirous to
+gratify your master, is the rarest chance that hath occurred for
+this many a day.  Tony Foster is coming down hither, and it is
+but letting Mike Lambourne smell another wine-flask, and the
+Queen's command would not move him from the ale-bench.  So they
+are fast for an hour or so.  Now, if you will don your pack,
+which will be your best excuse, you may, perchance, win the ear
+of the old servant, being assured of the master's absence, to let
+you try to get some custom of the lady; and then you may learn
+more of her condition than I or any other can tell you."
+
+"True--very true," answered Wayland, for he it was; "an excellent
+device, but methinks something dangerous--for, say Foster should
+return?"
+
+"Very possible indeed," replied the host.
+
+"Or say," continued Way]and, "the lady should render me cold
+thanks for my exertions?"
+
+"As is not unlikely," replied Giles Gosling.  "I marvel Master
+Tressilian will take such heed of her that cares not for him."
+
+"In either case I were foully sped," said Wayland, "and therefore
+I do not, on the whole, much relish your device."
+
+"Nay, but take me with you, good master serving-man," replied
+mine host.  "This is your master's business, and not mine:, you
+best know the risk to be encountered, or how far you are willing
+to brave it.  But that which you will not yourself hazard, you
+cannot expect others to risk."
+
+"Hold, hold," said Wayland; "tell me but one thing--goes yonder
+old man up to Cumnor?"
+
+"Surely, I think so?"  said the landlord; "their servant said he
+was to take their baggage thither.  But the ale-tap has been as
+potent for him as the sack-spigot has been for Michael."
+
+"It is enough," said Wayland, assuming an air of resolution.  "I
+will thwart that old villain's projects; my affright at his
+baleful aspect begins to abate, and my hatred to arise.  Help me
+on with my pack, good mine host.--And look to thyself, old
+Albumazar; there is a malignant influence in thy horoscope, and
+it gleams from the constellation Ursa Major."
+
+So saying, he assumed his burden, and, guided by the landlord
+through the postern gate of the Black Bear, took the most private
+way from thence up to Cumnor Place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+  CLOWN. You have of these pedlars, that have more in'em than
+         you'd think, sister.--WINTER'S TALE, ACT IV., SCENE 3.
+
+In his anxiety to obey the Earl's repeated charges of secrecy, as
+well as from his own unsocial and miserly habits, Anthony Foster
+was more desirous, by his mode of housekeeping, to escape
+observation than to resist intrusive curiosity.  Thus, instead of
+a numerous household, to secure his charge, and defend his house,
+he studied as much as possible to elude notice by diminishing his
+attendants; so that, unless when there were followers of the
+Earl, or of Varney, in the mansion, one old male domestic, and
+two aged crones, who assisted in keeping the Countess's
+apartments in order, were the only servants of the family.
+
+It was one of these old women who opened the door when Wayland
+knocked, and answered his petition, to be admitted to exhibit his
+wares to the ladies of the family, with a volley of vituperation,
+couched in what is there called the JOWRING dialect.  The pedlar
+found the means of checking this vociferation by slipping a
+silver groat into her hand, and intimating the present of some
+stuff for a coif, if the lady would buy of his wares.
+
+"God ield thee, for mine is aw in littocks.  Slocket with thy
+pack into gharn, mon--her walks in gharn."  Into the garden she
+ushered the pedlar accordingly, and pointing to an old, ruinous
+garden house, said, "Yonder be's her, mon--yonder be's her.  Zhe
+will buy changes an zhe loikes stuffs."
+
+"She has left me to come off as I may," thought Wayland, as he
+heard the hag shut the garden-door behind him.  "But they shall
+not beat me, and they dare not murder me, for so little trespass,
+and by this fair twilight.  Hang it, I will on--a brave general
+never thought of his retreat till he was defeated.  I see two
+females in the old garden-house yonder--but how to address them?
+Stay--Will Shakespeare, be my friend in need.  I will give them a
+taste of Autolycus."  He then sung, with a good voice, and
+becoming audacity, the popular playhouse ditty,--
+
+  "Lawn as white as driven snow,
+  Cyprus black as e'er was crow,
+  Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
+  Masks for faces and for noses."
+
+"What hath fortune sent us here for an unwonted sight, Janet?"
+said the lady.
+
+"One of those merchants of vanity, called pedlars," answered
+Janet, demurely, "who utters his light wares in lighter measures.
+I marvel old Dorcas let him pass."
+
+"It is a lucky chance, girl," said the Countess; "we lead a heavy
+life here, and this may while off a weary hour."
+
+"Ay, my gracious lady," said Janet; "but my father?"
+
+"He is not my father, Janet, nor I hope my master," answered the
+lady.  "I say, call the man hither--I want some things."
+
+"Nay," replied Janet, "your ladyship has but to say so in the
+next packet, and if England can furnish them they will be sent.
+There will come mischief on't--pray, dearest lady, let me bid the
+man begone!"
+
+"I will have thee bid him come hither," said the Countess;--"or
+stay, thou terrified fool, I will bid him myself, and spare thee
+a chiding."
+
+"Ah!  well-a-day, dearest lady, if that were the worst," said
+Janet sadly; while the lady called to the pedlar, "Good fellow,
+step forward--undo thy pack; if thou hast good wares, chance has
+sent thee hither for my convenience and thy profit."
+
+"What may your ladyship please to lack?"  said Wayland,
+unstrapping his pack, and displaying its contents with as much
+dexterity as if he had been bred to the trade.  Indeed he had
+occasionally pursued it in the course of his roving life, and now
+commended his wares with all the volubility of a trader, and
+showed some skill in the main art of placing prices upon them.
+
+"What do I please to lack?"  said the lady, "why, considering I
+have not for six long months bought one yard of lawn or cambric,
+or one trinket, the most inconsiderable, for my own use, and at
+my own choice, the better question is, What hast thou got to
+sell?  Lay aside for me that cambric partlet and pair of sleeves
+--and those roundells of gold fringe, drawn out with cyprus--and
+that short cloak of cherry-coloured fine cloth, garnished with
+gold buttons and loops;--is it not of an absolute fancy, Janet?"
+
+"Nay, my lady," replied Janet, "if you consult my poor judgment,
+it is, methinks, over-gaudy for a graceful habit."
+
+"Now, out upon thy judgment, if it be no brighter, wench," said
+the Countess.  "Thou shalt wear it thyself for penance' sake; and
+I promise thee the gold buttons, being somewhat massive, will
+comfort thy father, and reconcile him to the cherry-coloured
+body.  See that he snap them not away, Janet, and send them to
+bear company with the imprisoned angels which he keeps captive in
+his strong-box."
+
+"May I pray your ladyship to spare my poor father?"  said Janet.
+
+"Nay, but why should any one spare him that is so sparing of his
+own nature?"  replied the lady.--"Well, but to our gear.  That
+head garniture for myself, and that silver bodkin mounted with
+pearl; and take off two gowns of that russet cloth for Dorcas and
+Alison, Janet, to keep the old wretches warm against winter
+comes.--And stay--hast thou no perfumes and sweet bags, or any
+handsome casting bottles of the newest mode?"
+
+"Were I a pedlar in earnest, I were a made merchant," thought
+Wayland, as he busied himself to answer the demands which she
+thronged one on another, with the eagerness of a young lady who
+has been long secluded from such a pleasing occupation.  "But how
+to bring her to a moment's serious reflection?"  Then as he
+exhibited his choicest collection of essences and perfumes, he at
+once arrested her attention by observing that these articles had
+almost risen to double value since the magnificent preparations
+made by the Earl of Leicester to entertain the Queen and court at
+his princely Castle of Kenilworth.
+
+"Ha!"  said the Countess hastily; "that rumour, then, is true,
+Janet."
+
+"Surely, madam," answered Wayland; "and I marvel it hath not
+reached your noble ladyship's ears.  The Queen of England feasts
+with the noble Earl for a week during the Summer's Progress; and
+there are many who will tell you England will have a king, and
+England's Elizabeth--God save her!--a husband, ere the Progress
+be over."
+
+"They lie like villains!"  said the Countess, bursting forth
+impatiently.
+
+"For God's sake, madam, consider," said Janet, trembling with
+apprehension; "who would cumber themselves about pedlar's
+tidings?"
+
+"Yes, Janet!"  exclaimed the Countess; "right, thou hast
+corrected me justly.  Such reports, blighting the reputation of
+England's brightest and noblest peer, can only find currency
+amongst the mean, the abject, and the infamous!"
+
+"May I perish, lady," said Wayland Smith, observing that her
+violence directed itself towards him, "if I have done anything to
+merit this strange passion!  I have said but what many men say."
+
+By this time the Countess had recovered her composure, and
+endeavoured, alarmed by the anxious hints of Janet, to suppress
+all appearance of displeasure.  "I were loath," she said, "good
+fellow, that our Queen should change the virgin style so dear to
+us her people--think not of it."  And then, as if desirous to
+change the subject, she added, "And what is this paste, so
+carefully put up in the silver box?"  as she examined the
+contents of a casket in which drugs and perfumes were contained
+in separate drawers.
+
+"It is a remedy, Madam, for a disorder of which I trust your
+ladyship will never have reason to complain.  The amount of a
+small turkey-bean, swallowed daily for a week, fortifies the
+heart against those black vapours which arise from solitude,
+melancholy, unrequited affection, disappointed hope--"
+
+"Are you a fool, friend?"  said the Countess sharply; "or do you
+think, because I have good-naturedly purchased your trumpery
+goods at your roguish prices, that you may put any gullery you
+will on me?  Who ever heard that affections of the heart were
+cured by medicines given to the body?"
+
+"Under your honourable favour," said Wayland, "I am an honest
+man, and I have sold my goods at an honest price.  As to this
+most precious medicine, when I told its qualities, I asked you
+not to purchase it, so why should I lie to you?  I say not it
+will cure a rooted affection of the mind, which only God and time
+can do; but I say that this restorative relieves the black
+vapours which are engendered in the body of that melancholy which
+broodeth on the mind.  I have relieved many with it, both in
+court and city, and of late one Master Edmund Tressilian, a
+worshipful gentleman in Cornwall, who, on some slight received,
+it was told me, where he had set his affections, was brought into
+that state of melancholy which made his friends alarmed for his
+life."
+
+He paused, and the lady remained silent for some time, and then
+asked, with a voice which she strove in vain to render firm and
+indifferent in its tone, "Is the gentleman you have mentioned
+perfectly recovered?"
+
+"Passably, madam," answered Wayland; "he hath at least no bodily
+complaint."
+
+"I will take some of the medicine, Janet," said the Countess.  "I
+too have sometimes that dark melancholy which overclouds the
+brain."
+
+"You shall not do so, madam," said Janet; "who shall answer that
+this fellow vends what is wholesome?"
+
+"I will myself warrant my good faith," said Wayland; and taking a
+part of the medicine, he swallowed it before them.  The Countess
+now bought what remained, a step to which Janet, by further
+objections, only determined her the more obstinately.  She even
+took the first dose upon the instant, and professed to feel her
+heart lightened and her spirits augmented--a consequence which,
+in all probability, existed only in her own imagination.  The
+lady then piled the purchases she had made together, flung her
+purse to Janet, and desired her to compute the amount, and to pay
+the pedlar; while she herself, as if tired of the amusement she
+at first found in conversing with him, wished him good evening,
+and walked carelessly into the house, thus depriving Wayland of
+every opportunity to speak with her in private.  He hastened,
+however, to attempt an explanation with Janet.
+
+"Maiden," he said, "thou hast the face of one who should love her
+mistress.  She hath much need of faithful service."
+
+"And well deserves it at my hands," replied Janet; "but
+what of that?"
+
+"Maiden, I am not altogether what I seem," said the pedlar,
+lowering his voice.
+
+"The less like to be an honest man," said Janet.
+
+"The more so," answered Wayland, "since I am no pedlar."
+
+"Get thee gone then instantly, or I will call for assistance,"
+said Janet; "my father must ere this be returned."
+
+"Do not be so rash," said Wayland; "you will do what you may
+repent of.  I am one of your mistress's friends; and she had need
+of more, not that thou shouldst ruin those she hath."
+
+"How shall I know that?"  said Janet.
+
+"Look me in the face," said Wayland Smith, "and see if thou dost
+not read honesty in my looks."
+
+And in truth, though by no means handsome, there was in his
+physiognomy the sharp, keen expression of inventive genius and
+prompt intellect, which, joined to quick and brilliant eyes, a
+well-formed mouth, and an intelligent smile, often gives grace
+and interest to features which are both homely and irregular.
+Janet looked at him with the sly simplicity of her sect, and
+replied, "Notwithstanding thy boasted honesty, friend, and
+although I am not accustomed to read and pass judgment on such
+volumes as thou hast submitted to my perusal, I think I see in
+thy countenance something of the pedlar-something of the
+picaroon."
+
+"On a small scale, perhaps," said Wayland Smith, laughing.  "But
+this evening, or to-morrow, will an old man come hither with thy
+father, who has the stealthy step of the cat, the shrewd and
+vindictive eye of the rat, the fawning wile of the spaniel, the
+determined snatch of the mastiff--of him beware, for your own
+sake and that of your distress.  See you, fair Janet, he brings
+the venom of the aspic under the assumed innocence of the dove.
+What precise mischief he meditates towards you I cannot guess,
+but death and disease have ever dogged his footsteps.  Say nought
+of this to thy mistress; my art suggests to me that in her state
+the fear of evil may be as dangerous as its operation.  But see
+that she take my specific, for" (he lowered his voice, and spoke
+low but impressively in her ear) "it is an antidote against
+poison.--Hark, they enter the garden!"
+
+In effect, a sound of noisy mirth and loud talking approached the
+garden door, alarmed by which Wayland Smith sprung into the midst
+of a thicket of overgrown shrubs, while Janet withdrew to the
+garden-house that she might not incur observation, and that she
+might at the same time conceal, at least for the present, the
+purchases made from the supposed pedlar, which lay scattered on
+the floor of the summer-house.
+
+Janet, however, had no occasion for anxiety.  Her father, his old
+attendant, Lord Leicester's domestic, and the astrologer, entered
+the garden in tumult and in extreme perplexity, endeavouring to
+quiet Lambourne, whose brain had now become completely fired with
+liquor, and who was one of those unfortunate persons who, being
+once stirred with the vinous stimulus, do not fall asleep like
+other drunkards, but remain partially influenced by it for many
+hours, until at length, by successive draughts, they are elevated
+into a state of uncontrollable frenzy.  Like many men in this
+state also, Lambourne neither lost the power of motion, speech,
+or expression; but, on the contrary, spoke with unwonted emphasis
+and readiness, and told all that at another time he would have
+been most desirous to keep secret.
+
+"What!"  ejaculated Michael, at the full extent of his voice, "am
+I to have no welcome, no carouse, when I have brought fortune to
+your old, ruinous dog-house in the shape of a devil's ally, that
+can change slate-shivers into Spanish dollars?--Here, you, Tony
+Fire-the-Fagot, Papist, Puritan, hypocrite, miser, profligate,
+devil, compounded of all men's sins, bow down and reverence him
+who has brought into thy house the very mammon thou worshippest."
+
+"For God's sake," said Foster, "speak low--come into the house--
+thou shalt have wine, or whatever thou wilt."
+
+"No, old puckfoist, I will have it here," thundered the
+inebriated ruffian--"here, AL FRESCO, as the Italian hath it. No,
+no, I will not drink with that poisoning devil within doors, to
+be choked with the fumes of arsenic and quick-silver; I learned
+from villain Varney to beware of that."
+
+"Fetch him wine, in the name of all the fiends!"  said the
+alchemist.
+
+"Aha!  and thou wouldst spice it for me, old Truepenny, wouldst
+thou not?  Ay, I should have copperas, and hellebore, and
+vitriol, and aqua fortis, and twenty devilish materials bubbling
+in my brain-pan like a charm to raise the devil in a witch's
+cauldron. Hand me the flask thyself, old Tony Fire-the-Fagot--and
+let it be cool--I will have no wine mulled at the pile of the old
+burnt bishops.  Or stay, let Leicester be king if he will--good--
+and Varney, villain Varney, grand vizier--why, excellent!--and
+what shall I be, then?--why, emperor--Emperor Lambourne!  I will
+see this choice piece of beauty that they have walled up here for
+their private pleasures; I will have her this very night to serve
+my wine-cup and put on my nightcap.  What should a fellow do with
+two wives, were he twenty times an Earl?  Answer me that, Tony
+boy, you old reprobate, hypocritical dog, whom God struck out of
+the book of life, but tormented with the constant wish to be
+restored to it--you old bishop-burning, blasphemous fanatic,
+answer me that."
+
+"I will stick my knife to the haft in him," said Foster, in a low
+tone, which trembled with passion.
+
+"For the love of Heaven, no violence!"  said the astrologer.  "It
+cannot but be looked closely into.--Here, honest Lambourne, wilt
+thou pledge me to the health of the noble Earl of Leicester and
+Master Richard Varney?"
+
+"I will, mine old Albumazar--I will, my trusty vender of
+ratsbane.  I would kiss thee, mine honest infractor of the Lex
+Julia (as they said at Leyden), didst thou not flavour so
+damnably of sulphur, and such fiendish apothecary's stuff.--Here
+goes it, up seyes--to Varney and Leicester two more noble
+mounting spirits--and more dark-seeking, deep-diving, high-
+flying, malicious, ambitious miscreants--well, I say no more, but
+I will whet my dagger on his heart-spone that refuses to pledge
+me!  And so, my masters--"
+
+Thus speaking, Lambourne exhausted the cup which the astrologer
+had handed to him, and which contained not wine, but distilled
+spirits.  He swore half an oath, dropped the empty cup from his
+grasp, laid his hand on his sword without being able to draw it,
+reeled, and fell without sense or motion into the arms of the
+domestic, who dragged him off to his chamber, and put him to bed.
+
+In the general confusion, Janet regained her lady's chamber
+unobserved, trembling like an aspen leaf, but determined to keep
+secret from the Countess the dreadful surmises which she could
+not help entertaining from the drunken ravings of Lambourne.  Her
+fears, however, though they assumed no certain shape, kept pace
+with the advice of the pedlar; and she confirmed her mistress in
+her purpose of taking the medicine which he had recommended, from
+which it is probable she would otherwise have dissuaded her.
+Neither had these intimations escaped the ears of Wayland, who
+knew much better how to interpret them.  He felt much compassion
+at beholding so lovely a creature as the Countess, and whom he
+had first seen in the bosom of domestic happiness, exposed to the
+machinations of such a gang of villains.  His indignation, too,
+had been highly excited by hearing the voice of his old master,
+against whom he felt, in equal degree, the passions of hatred and
+fear.  He nourished also a pride in his own art and resources;
+and, dangerous as the task was, he that night formed a
+determination to attain the bottom of the mystery, and to aid the
+distressed lady, if it were yet possible.  From some words which
+Lambourne had dropped among his ravings, Wayland now, for the
+first time, felt inclined to doubt that Varney had acted entirely
+on his own account in wooing and winning the affections of this
+beautiful creature.  Fame asserted of this zealous retainer that
+he had accommodated his lord in former love intrigues; and it
+occurred to Wayland Smith that Leicester himself might be the
+party chiefly interested.  Her marriage with the Earl he could
+not suspect; but even the discovery of such a passing intrigue
+with a lady of Mistress Amy Robsart's rank was a secret of the
+deepest importance to the stability of the favourite's power over
+Elizabeth.  "If Leicester himself should hesitate to stifle such
+a rumour by very strange means," said he to himself, "he has
+those about him who would do him that favour without waiting for
+his consent.  If I would meddle in this business, it must be in
+such guise as my old master uses when he compounds his manna of
+Satan, and that is with a close mask on my face.  So I will quit
+Giles Gosling to-morrow, and change my course and place of
+residence as often as a hunted fox.  I should like to see this
+little Puritan, too, once more.  She looks both pretty and
+intelligent to have come of such a caitiff as Anthony Fire-the-
+Fagot."
+
+Giles Gosling received the adieus of Wayland rather joyfully than
+otherwise.  The honest publican saw so much peril in crossing the
+course of the Earl of Leicester's favourite that his virtue was
+scarce able to support him in the task, and he was well pleased
+when it was likely to be removed from his shoulders still,
+however, professing his good-will, and readiness, in case of
+need, to do Mr. Tressilian or his emissary any service, in so far
+as consisted with his character of a publican.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself,
+  And falls on t'other side.                MACBETH.
+
+The splendour of the approaching revels at Kenilworth was now the
+conversation through all England; and everything was collected at
+home, or from abroad, which could add to the gaiety or glory of
+the prepared reception of Elizabeth at the house of her most
+distinguished favourite, Meantime Leicester appeared daily to
+advance in the Queen's favour.  He was perpetually by her side in
+council--willingly listened to in the moments of courtly
+recreation--favoured with approaches even to familiar intimacy--
+looked up to by all who had aught to hope at court--courted by
+foreign ministers with the most flattering testimonies of respect
+from their sovereigns,--the ALTER EGO, as it seemed, of the
+stately Elizabeth, who was now very generally supposed to be
+studying the time and opportunity for associating him, by
+marriage, into her sovereign power.
+
+Amid such a tide of prosperity, this minion of fortune and of the
+Queen's favour was probably the most unhappy man in the realm
+which seemed at his devotion.  He had the Fairy King's
+superiority over his friends and dependants, and saw much which
+they could not.  The character of his mistress was intimately
+known to him.  It was his minute and studied acquaintance with
+her humours, as well as her noble faculties, which, joined to his
+powerful mental qualities, and his eminent external
+accomplishments, had raised him so high in her favour; and it was
+that very knowledge of her disposition which led him to apprehend
+at every turn some sudden and overwhelming disgrace.  Leicester
+was like a pilot possessed of a chart which points out to him all
+the peculiarities of his navigation, but which exhibits so many
+shoals, breakers, and reefs of rocks, that his anxious eye reaps
+little more from observing them than to be convinced that his
+final escape can be little else than miraculous.
+
+In fact, Queen Elizabeth had a character strangely compounded of
+the strongest masculine sense, with those foibles which are
+chiefly supposed proper to the female sex.  Her subjects had the
+full benefit of her virtues, which far predominated over her
+weaknesses; but her courtiers, and those about her person, had
+often to sustain sudden and embarrassing turns of caprice, and
+the sallies of a temper which was both jealous and despotic.  She
+was the nursing-mother of her people, but she was also the true
+daughter of Henry VIII.; and though early sufferings and an
+excellent education had repressed and modified, they had not
+altogether destroyed, the hereditary temper of that "hard-ruled
+king."  "Her mind," says her witty godson, Sir John Harrington,
+who had experienced both the smiles and the frowns which he
+describes, "was ofttime like the gentle air that cometh from the
+western point in a summer's morn--'twas sweet and refreshing to
+all around her.  Her speech did win all affections.  And again,
+she could put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking,
+as left no doubting WHOSE daughter she was.  When she smiled, it
+was a pure sunshine, that every one did choose to bask in, if
+they could; but anon came a storm from a sudden gathering of
+clouds, and the thunder fell in a wondrous manner on all alike."
+[Nugae Antiquae, vol.i., pp.355, 356-362.]
+
+This variability of disposition, as Leicester well knew, was
+chiefly formidable to those who had a share in the Queen's
+affections, and who depended rather on her personal regard than
+on the indispensable services which they could render to her
+councils and her crown.  The favour of Burleigh or of Walsingham,
+of a description far less striking than that by which he was
+himself upheld, was founded, as Leicester was well aware, on
+Elizabeth's solid judgment, not on her partiality, and was,
+therefore, free from all those principles of change and decay
+necessarily incident to that which chiefly arose from personal
+accomplishments and female predilection.  These great and sage
+statesmen were judged of by the Queen only with reference to the
+measures they suggested, and the reasons by which they supported
+their opinions in council; whereas the success of Leicester's
+course depended on all those light and changeable gales of
+caprice and humour which thwart or favour the progress of a lover
+in the favour of his mistress, and she, too, a mistress who was
+ever and anon becoming fearful lest she should forget the
+dignity, or compromise the authority, of the Queen, while she
+indulged the affections of the woman.  Of the difficulties which
+surrounded his power, "too great to keep or to resign," Leicester
+was fully sensible; and as he looked anxiously round for the
+means of maintaining himself in his precarious situation, and
+sometimes contemplated those of descending from it in safety, he
+saw but little hope of either.  At such moments his thoughts
+turned to dwell upon his secret marriage and its consequences;
+and it was in bitterness against himself, if not against his
+unfortunate Countess, that he ascribed to that hasty measure,
+adopted in the ardour of what he now called inconsiderate
+passion, at once the impossibility of placing his power on a
+solid basis, and the immediate prospect of its precipitate
+downfall.
+
+"Men say," thus ran his thoughts, in these anxious and repentant
+moments, "that I might marry Elizabeth, and become King of
+England.  All things suggest this.  The match is carolled in
+ballads, while the rabble throw their caps up.  It has been
+touched upon in the schools--whispered in the presence-chamber--
+recommended from the pulpit--prayed for in the Calvinistic
+churches abroad--touched on by statists in the very council at
+home.  These bold insinuations have been rebutted by no rebuke,
+no resentment, no chiding, scarce even by the usual female
+protestation that she would live and die a virgin princess.  Her
+words have been more courteous than ever, though she knows such
+rumours are abroad--her actions more gracious, her looks more
+kind--nought seems wanting to make me King of England, and place
+me beyond the storms of court-favour, excepting the putting forth
+of mine own hand to take that crown imperial which is the glory
+of the universe!  And when I might stretch that hand out most
+boldly, it is fettered down by a secret and inextricable bond!
+And here I have letters from Amy," he would say, catching them up
+with a movement of peevishness, "persecuting me to acknowledge
+her openly--to do justice to her and to myself--and I wot not
+what.  Methinks I have done less than justice to myself already.
+And she speaks as if Elizabeth were to receive the knowledge of
+this matter with the glee of a mother hearing of the happy
+marriage of a hopeful son!  She, the daughter of Henry, who
+spared neither man in his anger nor woman in his desire--she to
+find herself tricked, drawn on with toys of passion to the verge
+of acknowledging her love to a subject, and he discovered to be a
+married man!--Elizabeth to learn that she had been dallied with
+in such fashion, as a gay courtier might trifle with a country
+wench--we should then see, to our ruin, FURENS QUID FAEMINA!"
+
+He would then pause, and call for Varney, whose advice was now
+more frequently resorted to than ever, because the Earl
+remembered the remonstrances which he had made against his secret
+contract.  And their consultation usually terminated in anxious
+deliberation how, or in what manner, the Countess was to be
+produced at Kenilworth.  These communings had for some time ended
+always in a resolution to delay the Progress from day to day.
+But at length a peremptory decision became necessary.
+
+"Elizabeth will not be satisfied without her presence," said the
+Earl.  "Whether any suspicion hath entered her mind, as my own
+apprehensions suggest, or whether the petition of Tressilian is
+kept in her memory by Sussex or some other secret enemy, I know
+not; but amongst all the favourable expressions which she uses to
+me, she often recurs to the story of Amy Robsart.  I think that
+Amy is the slave in the chariot, who is placed there by my evil
+fortune to dash and to confound my triumph, even when at the
+highest.  Show me thy device, Varney, for solving the
+inextricable difficulty.  I have thrown every such impediment in
+the way of these accursed revels as I could propound even with a
+shade of decency, but to-day's interview has put all to a hazard.
+She said to me kindly, but peremptorily, 'We will give you no
+further time for preparations, my lord, lest you should
+altogether ruin yourself.  On Saturday, the 9th of July, we will
+be with you at Kenilworth.  We pray you to forget none of our
+appointed guests and suitors, and in especial this light-o'-love,
+Amy Robsart.  We would wish to see the woman who could postpone
+yonder poetical gentleman, Master Tressilian, to your man,
+Richard Varney.'--Now, Varney, ply thine invention, whose forge
+hath availed us so often for sure as my name is Dudley, the
+danger menaced by my horoscope is now darkening around me."
+
+"Can my lady be by no means persuaded to bear for a brief space
+the obscure character which circumstances impose on her?"  Said
+Varney after some hesitation.
+
+"How, sirrah?  my Countess term herself thy wife!--that may
+neither stand with my honour nor with hers."
+
+"Alas!  my lord," answered Varney, "and yet such is the quality
+in which Elizabeth now holds her; and to contradict this opinion
+is to discover all."
+
+"Think of something else, Varney," said the Earl, in great
+agitation; "this invention is nought.  If I could give way to it,
+she would not; for I tell thee, Varney, if thou knowest it not,
+that not Elizabeth on the throne has more pride than the daughter
+of this obscure gentleman of Devon.  She is flexible in many
+things, but where she holds her honour brought in question she
+hath a spirit and temper as apprehensive as lightning, and as
+swift in execution."
+
+"We have experienced that, my lord, else had we not been thus
+circumstanced," said Varney.  "But what else to suggest I know
+not.  Methinks she whose good fortune in becoming your lordship's
+bride, and who gives rise to the danger, should do somewhat
+towards parrying it."
+
+"It is impossible," said the Earl, waving his hand; "I know
+neither authority nor entreaties would make her endure thy name
+for an hour.
+
+"It is somewhat hard, though," said Varney, in a dry tone; and,
+without pausing on that topic, he added, "Suppose some one were
+found to represent her?  Such feats have been performed in the
+courts of as sharp-eyed monarchs as Queen Elizabeth."
+
+"Utter madness, Varney," answered the Earl; "the counterfeit
+would be confronted with Tressilian, and discovery become
+inevitable,"
+
+"Tressilian might be removed from court," said the unhesitating
+Varney.
+
+"And by what means?"
+
+"There are many," said Varney, "by which a statesman in your
+situation, my lord, may remove from the scene one who pries into
+your affairs, and places himself in perilous opposition to you."
+
+"Speak not to me of such policy, Varney," said the Earl hastily,
+"which, besides, would avail nothing in the present case.  Many
+others there be at court to whom Amy may be known; and besides,
+on the absence of Tressilian, her father or some of her friends
+would be instantly summoned hither.  Urge thine invention once
+more."
+
+"My lord, I know not what to say," answered Varney; "but were I
+myself in such perplexity, I would ride post down to Cumnor
+Place, and compel my wife to give her consent to such measures as
+her safety and mine required."
+
+"Varney," said Leicester, "I cannot urge her to aught so
+repugnant to her noble nature as a share in this stratagem; it
+would be a base requital to the love she bears me."
+
+"Well, my lord," said Varney, "your lordship is a wise and an
+honourable man, and skilled in those high points of romantic
+scruple which are current in Arcadia perhaps, as your nephew,
+Philip Sidney, writes.  I am your humble servitor--a man of this
+world, and only happy that my knowledge of it, and its ways, is
+such as your lordship has not scorned to avail yourself of.  Now
+I would fain know whether the obligation lies on my lady or on
+you in this fortunate union, and which has most reason to show
+complaisance to the other, and to consider that other's wishes,
+conveniences, and safety?"
+
+"I tell thee, Varney," said the Earl, "that all it was in my
+power to bestow upon her was not merely deserved, but a thousand
+times overpaid, by her own virtue and beauty; for never did
+greatness descend upon a creature so formed by nature to grace
+and adorn it."
+
+"It is well, my lord, you are so satisfied," answered Varney,
+with his usual sardonic smile, which even respect to his patron
+could not at all times subdue; "you will have time enough to
+enjoy undisturbed the society of one so gracious and beautiful--
+that is, so soon as such confinement in the Tower be over as may
+correspond to the crime of deceiving the affections of Elizabeth
+Tudor.  A cheaper penalty, I presume, you do not expect."
+
+"Malicious fiend!"  answered Leicester, "do you mock me in my
+misfortune?--Manage it as thou wilt."
+
+"If you are serious, my lord," said Varney, "you must set forth
+instantly and post for Cumnor Place."
+
+"Do thou go thyself, Varney; the devil has given thee that sort
+of eloquence which is most powerful in the worst cause.  I should
+stand self-convicted of villainy, were I to urge such a deceit.
+Begone, I tell thee; must I entreat thee to mine own dishonour?"
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney; "but if you are serious in entrusting
+me with the task of urging this most necessary measure, you must
+give me a letter to my lady, as my credentials, and trust to me
+for backing the advice it contains with all the force in my
+power.  And such is my opinion of my lady's love for your
+lordship, and of her willingness to do that which is at once to
+contribute to your pleasure and your safety, that I am sure she
+will condescend to bear for a few brief days the name of so
+humble a man as myself, especially since it is not inferior in
+antiquity to that of her own paternal house."
+
+Leicester seized on writing materials, and twice or thrice
+commenced a letter to the Countess, which he afterwards tore into
+fragments.  At length he finished a few distracted lines, in
+which he conjured her, for reasons nearly concerning his life and
+honour, to consent to bear the name of Varney for a few days,
+during the revels at Kenilworth.  He added that Varney would
+communicate all the reasons which rendered this deception
+indispensable; and having signed and sealed these credentials, he
+flung them over the table to Varney with a motion that he should
+depart, which his adviser was not slow to comprehend and to obey.
+
+Leicester remained like one stupefied, till he heard the
+trampling of the horses, as Varney, who took no time even to
+change his dress, threw himself into the saddle, and, followed by
+a single servant, set off for Berkshire.  At the sound the Earl
+started from his seat, and ran to the window, with the momentary
+purpose of recalling the unworthy commission with which he had
+entrusted one of whom he used to say he knew no virtuous property
+save affection to his patron.  But Varney was already beyond
+call; and the bright, starry firmament, which the age considered
+as the Book of Fate, lying spread before Leicester when he opened
+the casement, diverted him from his better and more manly
+purpose.
+
+"There they roll, on their silent but potential course," said the
+Earl, looking around him, "without a voice which speaks to our
+ear, but not without influences which affect, at every change,
+the indwellers of this vile, earthly planet.  This, if
+astrologers fable not, is the very crisis of my fate!  The hour
+approaches of which I was taught to beware--the hour, too, which
+I was encouraged to hope for.  A King was the word--but how?--the
+crown matrimonial.  All hopes of that are gone--let them go.  The
+rich Netherlands have demanded me for their leader, and, would
+Elizabeth consent, would yield to me THEIR crown.  And have I not
+such a claim even in this kingdom?  That of York, descending from
+George of Clarence to the House of Huntingdon, which, this lady
+failing, may have a fair chance--Huntingdon is of my house.--But
+I will plunge no deeper in these high mysteries.  Let me hold my
+course in silence for a while, and in obscurity, like a
+subterranean river; the time shall come that I will burst forth
+in my strength, and bear all opposition before me."
+
+While Leicester was thus stupefying the remonstrances of his own
+conscience, by appealing to political necessity for his apology,
+or losing himself amidst the wild dreams of ambition, his agent
+left town and tower behind him on his hasty journey to Berkshire.
+HE also nourished high hope.  He had brought Lord Leicester to
+the point which he had desired, of committing to him the most
+intimate recesses of his breast, and of using him as the channel
+of his most confidential intercourse with his lady.  Henceforward
+it would, he foresaw, be difficult for his patron either to
+dispense with his services, or refuse his requests, however
+unreasonable.  And if this disdainful dame, as he termed the
+Countess, should comply with the request of her husband, Varney,
+her pretended husband, must needs become so situated with respect
+to her, that there was no knowing where his audacity might be
+bounded perhaps not till circumstances enabled him to obtain a
+triumph, which he thought of with a mixture of fiendish feelings,
+in which revenge for her previous scorn was foremost and
+predominant.  Again he contemplated the possibility of her being
+totally intractable, and refusing obstinately to play the part
+assigned to her in the drama at Kenilworth.
+
+"Alasco must then do his part," he said.  "Sickness must serve
+her Majesty as an excuse for not receiving the homage of Mrs.
+Varney--ay, and a sore and wasting sickness it may prove, should
+Elizabeth continue to cast so favourable an eye on my Lord of
+Leicester.  I will not forego the chance of being favourite of a
+monarch for want of determined measures, should these be
+necessary.  Forward, good horse, forward--ambition and haughty
+hope of power, pleasure, and revenge strike their stings as deep
+through my bosom as I plunge the rowels in thy flanks.  On, good
+horse, on--the devil urges us both forward!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  Say that my beauty was but small,
+   Among court ladies all despised,
+  Why didst thou rend it from that hall
+   Where, scornful Earl, 'twas dearly prized?
+
+  No more thou com'st with wonted speed,
+   Thy once beloved bride to see;
+  But be she alive, or be she dead,
+   I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee.
+                       CUMNOR HALL, by WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.
+
+The ladies of fashion of the present, or of any other period,
+must have allowed that the young and lovely Countess of Leicester
+had, besides her youth and beauty, two qualities which entitled
+her to a place amongst women of rank and distinction.  She
+displayed, as we have seen in her interview with the pedlar, a
+liberal promptitude to make unnecessary purchases, solely for the
+pleasure of acquiring useless and showy trifles which ceased to
+please as soon as they were possessed; and she was, besides, apt
+to spend a considerable space of time every day in adorning her
+person, although the varied splendour of her attire could only
+attract the half satirical praise of the precise Janet, or an
+approving glance from the bright eyes which witnessed their own
+beams of triumph reflected from the mirror.
+
+The Countess Amy had, indeed, to plead for indulgence in those
+frivolous tastes, that the education of the times had done little
+or nothing for a mind naturally gay and averse to study.  If she
+had not loved to collect finery and to wear it, she might have
+woven tapestry or sewed embroidery, till her labours spread in
+gay profusion all over the walls and seats at Lidcote Hall; or
+she might have varied Minerva's labours with the task of
+preparing a mighty pudding against the time that Sir Hugh Robsart
+returned from the greenwood.  But Amy had no natural genius
+either for the loom, the needle, or the receipt-book.  Her mother
+had died in infancy; her father contradicted her in nothing; and
+Tressilian, the only one that approached her who was able or
+desirous to attend to the cultivation of her mind, had much hurt
+his interest with her by assuming too eagerly the task of a
+preceptor, so that he was regarded by the lively, indulged, and
+idle girl with some fear and much respect, but with little or
+nothing of that softer emotion which it had been his hope and his
+ambition to inspire.  And thus her heart lay readily open, and
+her fancy became easily captivated by the noble exterior and
+graceful deportment and complacent flattery of Leicester, even
+before he was known to her as the dazzling minion of wealth and
+power.
+
+The frequent visits of Leicester at Cumnor, during the earlier
+part of their union, had reconciled the Countess to the solitude
+and privacy to which she was condemned; but when these visits
+became rarer and more rare, and when the void was filled up with
+letters of excuse, not always very warmly expressed, and
+generally extremely brief, discontent and suspicion began to
+haunt those splendid apartments which love had fitted up for
+beauty.  Her answers to Leicester conveyed these feelings too
+bluntly, and pressed more naturally than prudently that she might
+be relieved from this obscure and secluded residence, by the
+Earl's acknowledgment of their marriage; and in arranging her
+arguments with all the skill she was mistress of, she trusted
+chiefly to the warmth of the entreaties with which she urged
+them.  Sometimes she even ventured to mingle reproaches, of which
+Leicester conceived he had good reason to complain.
+
+"I have made her Countess," he said to Varney; "surely she might
+wait till it consisted with my pleasure that she should put on
+the coronet?"
+
+The Countess Amy viewed the subject in directly an opposite
+light.
+
+"What signifies," she said, "that I have rank and honour in
+reality, if I am to live an obscure prisoner, without either
+society or observance, and suffering in my character, as one of
+dubious or disgraced reputation?  I care not for all those
+strings of pearl, which you fret me by warping into my tresses,
+Janet.  I tell you that at Lidcote Hall, if I put but a fresh
+rosebud among my hair, my good father would call me to him, that
+he might see it more closely; and the kind old curate would
+smile, and Master Mumblazen would say something about roses
+gules.  And now I sit here, decked out like an image with gold
+and gems, and no one to see my finery but you, Janet.  There was
+the poor Tressilian, too--but it avails not speaking of him."
+
+"It doth not indeed, madam," said her prudent attendant; "and
+verily you make me sometimes wish you would not speak of him so
+often, or so rashly."
+
+"It signifies nothing to warn me, Janet," said the impatient and
+incorrigible Countess; "I was born free, though I am now mewed up
+like some fine foreign slave, rather than the wife of an English
+noble.  I bore it all with pleasure while I was sure he loved me;
+but now my tongue and heart shall be free, let them fetter these
+limbs as they will.  I tell thee, Janet, I love my husband--I
+will love him till my latest breath--I cannot cease to love him,
+even if I would, or if he--which, God knows, may chance--should
+cease to love me.  But I will say, and loudly, I would have been
+happier than I now am to have remained in Lidcote Hall, even
+although I must have married poor Tressilian, with his melancholy
+look and his head full of learning, which I cared not for.  He
+said, if I would read his favourite volumes, there would come a
+time that I should be glad of having done so.  I think it is come
+now."
+
+"I bought you some books, madam," said Janet, "from a lame fellow
+who sold them in the Market-place--and who stared something
+boldly, at me, I promise you."
+
+"Let me see them, Janet," said the Countess; "but let them not be
+of your own precise cast,--How is this, most righteous damsel?--
+'A PAIR OF SNUFFERS FOR THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK'--'HANDFULL OF
+MYRRH AND HYSSOP TO PUT A SICK SOUL TO PURGATION'--'A DRAUGHT OF
+WATER FROM THE VALLEY OF BACA'--'FOXES AND FIREBRANDS'--what gear
+call you this, maiden?"
+
+"Nay, madam," said Janet, "it was but fitting and seemly to put
+grace in your ladyship's way; but an you will none of it, there
+are play-books, and poet-books, I trow."
+
+The Countess proceeded carelessly in her examination, turning
+over such rare volumes as would now make the fortune of twenty
+retail booksellers.  Here was a "BOKE OF COOKERY, IMPRINTED BY
+RICHARD LANT," and "SKELTON'S BOOKS"--"THE PASSTIME OF THE
+PEOPLE"--"THE CASTLE OF KNOWLEDGE," etc.  But neither to this
+lore did the Countess's heart incline, and joyfully did she start
+up from the listless task of turning over the leaves of the
+pamphlets, and hastily did she scatter them through the floor,
+when the hasty clatter of horses' feet, heard in the courtyard,
+called her to the window, exclaiming, "It is Leicester!--it is my
+noble Earl!--it is my Dudley!--every stroke of his horse's hoof
+sounds like a note of lordly music!"
+
+There was a brief bustle in the mansion, and Foster, with his
+downward look and sullen manner, entered the apartment to say,
+"That Master Richard Varney was arrived from my lord, having
+ridden all night, and craved to speak with her ladyship
+instantly."
+
+"Varney?"  said the disappointed Countess; "and to speak with me?
+--pshaw!  But he comes with news from Leicester, so admit him
+instantly."
+
+Varney entered her dressing apartment, where she sat arrayed in
+her native loveliness, adorned with all that Janet's art and a
+rich and tasteful undress could bestow.  But the most beautiful
+part of her attire was her profuse and luxuriant light-brown
+locks, which floated in such rich abundance around a neck that
+resembled a swan's, and over a bosom heaving with anxious
+expectation, which communicated a hurried tinge of red to her
+whole countenance.
+
+Varney entered the room in the dress in which he had waited on
+his master that morning to court, the splendour of which made a
+strange contrast with the disorder arising from hasty riding
+during a dark night and foul ways.  His brow bore an anxious and
+hurried expression, as one who has that to say of which he doubts
+the reception, and who hath yet posted on from the necessity of
+communicating his tidings.  The Countess's anxious eye at once
+caught the alarm, as she exclaimed, "You bring news from my lord,
+Master Varney--Gracious Heaven!  is he ill?"
+
+"No, madam, thank Heaven!"  said Varney.  "Compose yourself, and
+permit me to take breath ere I communicate my tidings."
+
+"No breath, sir," replied the lady impatiently; "I know your
+theatrical arts.  Since your breath hath sufficed to bring you
+hither, it may suffice to tell your tale--at least briefly, and
+in the gross."
+
+"Madam," answered Varney, "we are not alone, and my lord's
+message was for your ear only."
+
+"Leave us, Janet, and Master Foster," said the lady; "but remain
+in the next apartment, and within call."
+
+Foster and his daughter retired, agreeably to the Lady
+Leicester's commands, into the next apartment, which was the
+withdrawing-room.  The door which led from the sleeping-chamber
+was then carefully shut and bolted, and the father and daughter
+remained both in a posture of anxious attention, the first with a
+stern, suspicious, anxious cast of countenance, and Janet with
+folded hands, and looks which seemed divided betwixt her desire
+to know the fortunes of her mistress, and her prayers to Heaven
+for her safety.  Anthony Foster seemed himself to have some idea
+of what was passing through his daughter's mind, for he crossed
+the apartment and took her anxiously by the hand, saying, "That
+is right--pray, Janet, pray; we have all need of prayers, and
+some of us more than others.  Pray, Janet--I would pray myself,
+but I must listen to what goes on within--evil has been brewing,
+love--evil has been brewing.  God forgive our sins, but Varney's
+sudden and strange arrival bodes us no good."
+
+Janet had never before heard her father excite or even permit her
+attention to anything which passed in their mysterious family;
+and now that he did so, his voice sounded in her ear--she knew
+not why--like that of a screech-owl denouncing some deed of
+terror and of woe.  She turned her eyes fearfully towards the
+door, almost as if she expected some sounds of horror to be
+heard, or some sight of fear to display itself.
+
+All, however, was as still as death, and the voices of those who
+spoke in the inner chamber were, if they spoke at all, carefully
+subdued to a tone which could not be heard in the next.  At once,
+however, they were heard to speak fast, thick, and hastily; and
+presently after the voice of the Countess was heard exclaiming,
+at the highest pitch to which indignation could raise it, "Undo
+the door, sir, I command you!--undo the door!--I will have no
+other reply!"  she continued, drowning with her vehement accents
+the low and muttered sounds which Varney was heard to utter
+betwixt whiles.  "What ho!  without there!"  she persisted,
+accompanying her words with shrieks, "Janet, alarm the house!--
+Foster, break open the door--I am detained here by a traitor!
+Use axe and lever, Master Foster--I will be your warrant!"
+
+"It shall not need, madam," Varney was at length distinctly heard
+to say.  "If you please to expose my lord's important concerns
+and your own to the general ear, I will not be your hindrance."
+
+The door was unlocked and thrown open, and Janet and her father
+rushed in, anxious to learn the cause of these reiterated
+exclamations.
+
+When they entered the apartment Varney stood by the door grinding
+his teeth, with an expression in which rage, and shame, and fear
+had each their share.  The Countess stood in the midst of her
+apartment like a juvenile Pythoness under the influence of the
+prophetic fury.  The veins in her beautiful forehead started into
+swoln blue lines through the hurried impulse of her articulation
+--her cheek and neck glowed like scarlet--her eyes were like
+those of an imprisoned eagle, flashing red lightning on the foes
+which it cannot reach with its talons.  Were it possible for one
+of the Graces to have been animated by a Fury, the countenance
+could not have united such beauty with so much hatred, scorn,
+defiance, and resentment.  The gesture and attitude corresponded
+with the voice and looks, and altogether presented a spectacle
+which was at once beautiful and fearful; so much of the sublime
+had the energy of passion united with the Countess Amy's natural
+loveliness.  Janet, as soon as the door was open, ran to her
+mistress; and more slowly, yet with more haste than he was wont,
+Anthony Foster went to Richard Varney.
+
+"In the Truth's name, what ails your ladyship?"  said the former.
+
+"What, in the name of Satan, have you done to her?"  said Foster
+to his friend.
+
+"Who, I?--nothing," answered Varney, but with sunken head and
+sullen voice; "nothing but communicated to her her lord's
+commands, which, if the lady list not to obey, she knows better
+how to answer it than I may pretend to do."
+
+"Now, by Heaven, Janet!"  said the Countess, "the false traitor
+lies in his throat!  He must needs lie, for he speaks to the
+dishonour of my noble lord; he must needs lie doubly, for he
+speaks to gain ends of his own, equally execrable and
+unattainable."
+
+"You have misapprehended me, lady," said Varney, with a sulky
+species of submission and apology; "let this matter rest till
+your passion be abated, and I will explain all."
+
+"Thou shalt never have an opportunity to do so," said the
+Countess.--"Look at him, Janet.  He is fairly dressed, hath the
+outside of a gentleman, and hither he came to persuade me it was
+my lord's pleasure--nay, more, my wedded lord's commands--that I
+should go with him to Kenilworth, and before the Queen and
+nobles, and in presence of my own wedded lord, that I should
+acknowledge him--HIM there--that very cloak-brushing, shoe-
+cleaning fellow--HIM there, my lord's lackey, for my liege lord
+and husband; furnishing against myself, Great God!  whenever I
+was to vindicate my right and my rank, such weapons as would hew
+my just claim from the root, and destroy my character to be
+regarded as an honourable matron of the English nobility!"
+
+"You hear her, Foster, and you, young maiden, hear this lady,"
+answered Varney, taking advantage of the pause which the Countess
+had made in her charge, more for lack of breath than for lack of
+matter--"you hear that her heat only objects to me the course
+which our good lord, for the purpose to keep certain matters
+secret, suggests in the very letter which she holds in her
+hands."
+
+Foster here attempted to interfere with a face of authority,
+which he thought became the charge entrusted to him, "Nay, lady,
+I must needs say you are over-hasty in this.  Such deceit is not
+utterly to be condemned when practised for a righteous end I and
+thus even the patriarch Abraham feigned Sarah to be his sister
+when they went down to Egypt."
+
+"Ay, sir," answered the Countess; "but God rebuked that deceit
+even in the father of His chosen people, by the mouth of the
+heathen Pharaoh.  Out upon you, that will read Scripture only to
+copy those things which are held out to us as warnings, not as
+examples!"
+
+"But Sarah disputed not the will of her husband, an it be your
+pleasure," said Foster, in reply, "but did as Abraham commanded,
+calling herself his sister, that it might be well with her
+husband for her sake, and that his soul might live because of her
+beauty."
+
+"Now, so Heaven pardon me my useless anger," answered the
+Countess, "thou art as daring a hypocrite as yonder fellow is an
+impudent deceiver!  Never will I believe that the noble Dudley
+gave countenance to so dastardly, so dishonourable a plan.  Thus
+I tread on his infamy, if indeed it be, and thus destroy its
+remembrance for ever!"
+
+So saying, she tore in pieces Leicester's letter, and stamped, in
+the extremity of impatience, as if she would have annihilated the
+minute fragments into which she had rent it.
+
+"Bear witness," said Varney, collecting himself, "she hath torn
+my lord's letter, in order to burden me with the scheme of his
+devising; and although it promises nought but danger and trouble
+to me, she would lay it to my charge, as if I had any purpose of
+mine own in it."
+
+"Thou liest, thou treacherous slave!"  said the Countess in spite
+of Janet's attempts to keep her silent, in the sad foresight that
+her vehemence might only furnish arms against herself--"thou
+liest," she continued.--"Let me go, Janet--were it the last word
+I have to speak, he lies.  He had his own foul ends to seek; and
+broader he would have displayed them had my passion permitted me
+to preserve the silence which at first encouraged him to unfold
+his vile projects."
+
+"Madam," said Varney, overwhelmed in spite of his effrontery, "I
+entreat you to believe yourself mistaken."
+
+"As soon will I believe light darkness," said the enraged
+Countess.  "Have I drunk of oblivion?  Do I not remember former
+passages, which, known to Leicester, had given thee the
+preferment of a gallows, instead of the honour of his intimacy.
+I would I were a man but for five minutes!  It were space enough
+to make a craven like thee confess his villainy.  But go--begone!
+Tell thy master that when I take the foul course to which such
+scandalous deceits as thou hast recommended on his behalf must
+necessarily lead me, I will give him a rival something worthy of
+the name.  He shall not be supplanted by an ignominious lackey,
+whose best fortune is to catch a gift of his master's last suit
+of clothes ere it is threadbare, and who is only fit to seduce a
+suburb-wench by the bravery of new roses in his master's old
+pantoufles.  Go, begone, sir!  I scorn thee so much that I am
+ashamed to have been angry with thee."
+
+Varney left the room with a mute expression of rage, and was
+followed by Foster, whose apprehension, naturally slow, was
+overpowered by the eager and abundant discharge of indignation
+which, for the first time, he had heard burst from the lips of a
+being who had seemed, till that moment, too languid and too
+gentle to nurse an angry thought or utter an intemperate
+expression.  Foster, therefore, pursued Varney from place to
+place, persecuting him with interrogatories, to which the other
+replied not, until they were in the opposite side of the
+quadrangle, and in the old library, with which the reader has
+already been made acquainted.  Here he turned round on his
+persevering follower, and thus addressed him, in a tone tolerably
+equal, that brief walk having been sufficient to give one so
+habituated to command his temper time to rally and recover his
+presence of mind.
+
+"Tony," he said, with his usual sneering laugh, "it avails not to
+deny it.  The Woman and the Devil, who, as thine oracle Holdforth
+will confirm to thee, cheated man at the beginning, have this day
+proved more powerful than my discretion.  Yon termagant looked so
+tempting, and had the art to preserve her countenance so
+naturally, while I communicated my lord's message, that, by my
+faith, I thought I might say some little thing for myself.  She
+thinks she hath my head under her girdle now, but she is
+deceived.  Where is Doctor Alasco?"
+
+"In his laboratory," answered Foster.  "It is the hour he is
+spoken not withal.  We must wait till noon is past, or spoil his
+important--what said I?  important!--I would say interrupt his
+divine studies."
+
+"Ay, he studies the devil's divinity," said Varney; "but when I
+want him, one hour must suffice as well as another.  Lead the way
+to his pandemonium."
+
+So spoke Varney, and with hasty and perturbed steps followed
+Foster, who conducted him through private passages, many of which
+were well-nigh ruinous, to the opposite side of the quadrangle,
+where, in a subterranean apartment, now occupied by the chemist
+Alasco, one of the Abbots of Abingdon, who had a turn for the
+occult sciences, had, much to the scandal of his convent,
+established a laboratory, in which, like other fools of the
+period, he spent much precious time, and money besides, in the
+pursuit of the grand arcanum.
+
+Anthony Foster paused before the door, which was scrupulously
+secured within, and again showed a marked hesitation to disturb
+the sage in his operations.  But Varney, less scrupulous, roused
+him by knocking and voice, until at length, slowly and
+reluctantly, the inmate of the apartment undid the door.  The
+chemist appeared, with his eyes bleared with the heat and vapours
+of the stove or alembic over which he brooded and the interior of
+his cell displayed the confused assemblage of heterogeneous
+substances and extraordinary implements belonging to his
+profession.  The old man was muttering, with spiteful impatience,
+"Am I for ever to be recalled to the affairs of earth from those
+of heaven?"
+
+"To the affairs of hell," answered Varney, "for that is thy
+proper element.--Foster, we need thee at our conference."
+
+"Foster slowly entered the room.  Varney, following, barred the
+door, and they betook themselves to secret council.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Countess traversed the apartment, with
+shame and anger contending on her lovely cheek.
+
+"The villain," she said--"the cold-blooded, calculating slave!--
+But I unmasked him, Janet--I made the snake uncoil all his folds
+before me, and crawl abroad in his naked deformity; I suspended
+my resentment, at the danger of suffocating under the effort,
+until he had let me see the very bottom of a heart more foul than
+hell's darkest corner.--And thou, Leicester, is it possible thou
+couldst bid me for a moment deny my wedded right in thee, or
+thyself yield it to another?--But it is impossible--the villain
+has lied in all.--Janet, I will not remain here longer--I fear
+him--I fear thy father.  I grieve to say it, Janet--but I fear
+thy father, and, worst of all, this odious Varney, I will escape
+from Cumnor."
+
+"Alas!  madam, whither would you fly, or by what means will you
+escape from these walls?"
+
+"I know not, Janet," said the unfortunate young lady, looking
+upwards!  and clasping her hands together, "I know not where I
+shall fly, or by what means; but I am certain the God I have
+served will not abandon me in this dreadful crisis, for I am in
+the hands of wicked men."
+
+"Do not think so, dear lady," said Janet; "my father is stern and
+strict in his temper, and severely true to his trust--but yet--"
+
+At this moment Anthony Foster entered the apartment, bearing in
+his hand a glass cup and a small flask.  His manner was singular;
+for, while approaching the Countess with the respect due to her
+rank, he had till this time suffered to become visible, or had
+been unable to suppress, the obdurate sulkiness of his natural
+disposition, which, as is usual with those of his unhappy temper,
+was chiefly exerted towards those over whom circumstances gave
+him control.  But at present he showed nothing of that sullen
+consciousness of authority which he was wont to conceal under a
+clumsy affectation of civility and deference, as a ruffian hides
+his pistols and bludgeon under his ill-fashioned gaberdine.  And
+yet it seemed as if his smile was more in fear than courtesy, and
+as if, while he pressed the Countess to taste of the choice
+cordial, which should refresh her spirits after her late alarm,
+he was conscious of meditating some further injury.  His hand
+trembled also, his voice faltered, and his whole outward
+behaviour exhibited so much that was suspicious, that his
+daughter Janet, after she had stood looking at him in
+astonishment for some seconds, seemed at once to collect herself
+to execute some hardy resolution, raised her head, assumed an
+attitude and gait of determination and authority, and walking
+slowly betwixt her father and her mistress, took the salver from
+the hand of the former, and said in a low but marked and decided
+tone, "Father, I will fill for my noble mistress, when such is
+her pleasure."
+
+"Thou, my child?"  said Foster, eagerly and apprehensively; "no,
+my child--it is not THOU shalt render the lady this service."
+
+"And why, I pray you," said Janet, "if it be fitting that the
+noble lady should partake of the cup at all?"
+
+"Why--why?"  said the seneschal, hesitating, and then bursting
+into passion as the readiest mode of supplying the lack of all
+other reason--"why, because it is my pleasure, minion, that you
+should not!  Get you gone to the evening lecture."
+
+"Now, as I hope to hear lecture again," replied Janet, "I will
+not go thither this night, unless I am better assured of my
+mistress's safety.  Give me that flask, father"--and she took it
+from his reluctant hand, while he resigned it as if conscience-
+struck.  "And now," she said, "father, that which shall benefit
+my mistress, cannot do ME prejudice.  Father, I drink to you."
+
+Foster, without speaking a word, rushed on his daughter and
+wrested the flask from her hand; then, as if embarrassed by what
+he had done, and totally unable to resolve what he should do
+next, he stood with it in his hand, one foot advanced and the
+other drawn back, glaring on his daughter with a countenance in
+which rage, fear, and convicted villainy formed a hideous
+combination.
+
+"This is strange, my father," said Janet, keeping her eye fixed
+on his, in the manner in which those who have the charge of
+lunatics are said to overawe their unhappy patients; "will you
+neither let me serve my lady, nor drink to her myself?"
+
+The courage of the Countess sustained her through this dreadful
+scene, of which the import was not the less obvious that it was
+not even hinted at.  She preserved even the rash carelessness of
+her temper, and though her cheek had grown pale at the first
+alarm, her eye was calm and almost scornful.  "Will YOU taste
+this rare cordial, Master Foster?  Perhaps you will not yourself
+refuse to pledge us, though you permit not Janet to do so.
+Drink, sir, I pray you."
+
+"I will not," answered Foster.
+
+"And for whom, then, is the precious beverage reserved, sir?"
+said the Countess.
+
+"For the devil, who brewed it!"  answered Foster; and, turning on
+his heel, he left the chamber.
+
+Janet looked at her mistress with a countenance expressive in the
+highest degree of shame, dismay, and sorrow.
+
+"Do not weep for me, Janet," said the Countess kindly.
+
+"No, madam," replied her attendant, in a voice broken by sobs,
+"it is not for you I weep; it is for myself--it is for that
+unhappy man.  Those who are dishonoured before man--those who are
+condemned by God--have cause to mourn; not those who are
+innocent!  Farewell, madam!"  she said hastily assuming the
+mantle in which she was wont to go abroad.
+
+"Do you leave me, Janet?"  said her mistress--"desert me in such
+an evil strait?"
+
+"Desert you, madam!"  exclaimed Janet; and running back to her
+mistress, she imprinted a thousand kisses on her hand--"desert
+you I--may the Hope of my trust desert me when I do so!  No,
+madam; well you said the God you serve will open you a path for
+deliverance.  There is a way of escape.  I have prayed night and
+day for light, that I might see how to act betwixt my duty to
+yonder unhappy man and that which I owe to you.  Sternly and
+fearfully that light has now dawned, and I must not shut the door
+which God opens.  Ask me no more.  I will return in brief space."
+
+So speaking, she wrapped herself in her mantle, and saying to the
+old woman whom she passed in the outer room that she was going to
+evening prayer, she left the house.
+
+Meanwhile her father had reached once more the laboratory, where
+he found the accomplices of his intended guilt.  "Has the sweet
+bird sipped?"  said Varney, with half a smile; while the
+astrologer put the same question with his eyes, but spoke not a
+word.
+
+"She has not, nor she shall not from my hands," replied Foster;
+"would you have me do murder in my daughter's presence?"
+
+"Wert thou not told, thou sullen and yet faint-hearted slave,"
+answered Varney, with bitterness, "that no MURDER as thou callest
+it, with that staring look and stammering tone, is designed in
+the matter?  Wert thou not told that a brief illness, such as
+woman puts on in very wantonness, that she may wear her night-
+gear at noon, and lie on a settle when she should mind her
+domestic business, is all here aimed at?  Here is a learned man
+will swear it to thee by the key of the Castle of Wisdom."
+
+"I swear it," said Alasco, "that the elixir thou hast there in
+the flask will not prejudice life!  I swear it by that immortal
+and indestructible quintessence of gold, which pervades every
+substance in nature, though its secret existence can be traced by
+him only to whom Trismegistus renders the key of the Cabala."
+
+"An oath of force," said Varney.  "Foster, thou wert worse than a
+pagan to disbelieve it.  Believe me, moreover, who swear by
+nothing but by my own word, that if you be not conformable, there
+is no hope, no, not a glimpse of hope, that this thy leasehold
+may be transmuted into a copyhold.  Thus, Alasco will leave your
+pewter artillery untransmigrated, and I, honest Anthony, will
+still have thee for my tenant."
+
+"I know not, gentlemen," said Foster, "where your designs tend
+to; but in one thing I am bound up,--that, fall back fall edge, I
+will have one in this place that may pray for me, and that one
+shall be my daughter.  I have lived ill, and the world has been
+too weighty with me; but she is as innocent as ever she was when
+on her mother's lap, and she, at least, shall have her portion in
+that happy City, whose walls are of pure gold, and the
+foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones."
+
+"Ay, Tony," said Varney, "that were a paradise to thy heart's
+content.--Debate the matter with him, Doctor Alasco; I will be
+with you anon."
+
+So speaking, Varney arose, and taking the flask from the table,
+he left the room.
+
+"I tell thee, my son," said Alasco to Foster, as soon as Varney
+had left them, "that whatever this bold and profligate railer may
+say of the mighty science, in which, by Heaven's blessing, I have
+advanced so far that I would not call the wisest of living
+artists my better or my teacher--I say, howsoever yonder
+reprobate may scoff at things too holy to be apprehended by men
+merely of carnal and evil thoughts, yet believe that the city
+beheld by St. John, in that bright vision of the Christian
+Apocalypse, that new Jerusalem, of which all Christian men hope
+to partake, sets forth typically the discovery of the GRAND
+SECRET, whereby the most precious and perfect of nature's works
+are elicited out of her basest and most crude productions; just
+as the light and gaudy butterfly, the most beautiful child of the
+summer's breeze, breaks forth from the dungeon of a sordid
+chrysalis."
+
+"Master Holdforth said nought of this exposition," said Foster
+doubtfully; "and moreover, Doctor Alasco, the Holy Writ says that
+the gold and precious stones of the Holy City are in no sort for
+those who work abomination, or who frame lies."
+
+"Well, my son," said the Doctor, "and what is your inference from
+thence?"
+
+"That those," said Foster, "who distil poisons, and administer
+them in secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeakable
+riches."
+
+"You are to distinguish, my son," replied the alchemist, "betwixt
+that which is necessarily evil in its progress and in its end
+also, and that which, being evil, is, nevertheless, capable of
+working forth good.  If, by the death of one person, the happy
+period shall be brought nearer to us, in which all that is good
+shall be attained, by wishing its presence--all that is evil
+escaped, by desiring its absence--in which sickness, and pain,
+and sorrow shall be the obedient servants of human wisdom, and
+made to fly at the slightest signal of a sage--in which that
+which is now richest and rarest shall be within the compass of
+every one who shall be obedient to the voice of wisdom--when the
+art of healing shall be lost and absorbed in the one universal
+medicine when sages shall become monarchs of the earth, and death
+itself retreat before their frown,--if this blessed consummation
+of all things can be hastened by the slight circumstance that a
+frail, earthly body, which must needs partake corruption, shall
+be consigned to the grave a short space earlier than in the
+course of nature, what is such a sacrifice to the advancement of
+the holy Millennium?"
+
+"Millennium is the reign of the Saints," said Foster, somewhat
+doubtfully.
+
+"Say it is the reign of the Sages, my son," answered Alasco; "or
+rather the reign of Wisdom itself."
+
+"I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exercising
+night," said Foster; "but he says your doctrine is heterodox, and
+a damnable and false exposition."
+
+"He is in the bonds of ignorance, my son," answered Alasco, "and
+as yet burning bricks in Egypt; or, at best, wandering in the dry
+desert of Sinai.  Thou didst ill to speak to such a man of such
+matters.  I will, however, give thee proof, and that shortly,
+which I will defy that peevish divine to confute, though he
+should strive with me as the magicians strove with Moses before
+King Pharaoh.  I will do projection in thy presence, my son,--in
+thy very presence--and thine eyes shall witness the truth."
+
+"Stick to that, learned sage," said Varney, who at this moment
+entered the apartment; "if he refuse the testimony of thy tongue,
+yet how shall he deny that of his own eyes?"
+
+"Varney!"  said the adept--"Varney already returned!  Hast thou
+--" he stopped short.
+
+"Have I done mine errand, thou wouldst say?"  replied Varney.  "I
+have!  And thou," he added, showing more symptoms of interest
+than he had hitherto exhibited, "art thou sure thou hast poured
+forth neither more nor less than the just measure?"
+
+"Ay," replied the alchemist, "as sure as men can be in these nice
+proportions, for there is diversity of constitutions."
+
+"Nay, then," said Varney, "I fear nothing.  I know thou wilt not
+go a step farther to the devil than thou art justly considered
+for--thou wert paid to create illness, and wouldst esteem it
+thriftless prodigality to do murder at the same price.  Come, let
+us each to our chamber we shall see the event to-morrow."
+
+"What didst thou do to make her swallow it?"  said Foster,
+shuddering.
+
+"Nothing," answered Varney, "but looked on her with that aspect
+which governs madmen, women, and children.  They told me in St.
+Luke's Hospital that I have the right look for overpowering a
+refractory patient.  The keepers made me their compliments on't;
+so I know how to win my bread when my court-favour fails me."
+
+"And art thou not afraid," said Foster, "lest the dose be
+disproportioned?"
+
+"If so," replied Varney, "she will but sleep the sounder, and the
+fear of that shall not break my rest.  Good night, my masters."
+
+Anthony Foster groaned heavily, and lifted up his hands and eyes.
+The alchemist intimated his purpose to continue some experiment
+of high import during the greater part of the night, and the
+others separated to their places of repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  Now God be good to me in this wild pilgrimage!
+  All hope in human aid I cast behind me.
+  Oh, who would be a woman?--who that fool,
+  A weeping, pining, faithful, loving woman?
+  She hath hard measure still where she hopes kindest,
+  And all her bounties only make ingrates.     LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+The summer evening was closed, and Janet, just when her longer
+stay might have occasioned suspicion and inquiry in that zealous
+household, returned to Cumnor Place, and hastened to the
+apartment in which she had left her lady.  She found her with her
+head resting on her arms, and these crossed upon a table which
+stood before her.  As Janet came in, she neither looked up nor
+stirred.
+
+Her faithful attendant ran to her mistress with the speed of
+lightning, and rousing her at the same time with her hand,
+conjured the Countess, in the most earnest manner, to look up and
+say what thus affected her.  The unhappy lady raised her head
+accordingly, and looking on her attendant with a ghastly eye, and
+cheek as pale as clay--"Janet," she said, "I have drunk it."
+
+"God be praised!"  said Janet hastily--"I mean, God be praised
+that it is no worse; the potion will not harm you.  Rise, shake
+this lethargy from your limbs, and this despair from your mind."
+
+"Janet," repeated the Countess again, "disturb me not--leave me
+at peace--let life pass quietly.  I am poisoned."
+
+"You are not, my dearest lady," answered the maiden eagerly.
+"What you have swallowed cannot injure you, for the antidote has
+been taken before it, and I hastened hither to tell you that the
+means of escape are open to you."
+
+"Escape!"  exclaimed the lady, as she raised herself hastily in
+her chair, while light returned to her eye and life to her cheek;
+"but ah!  Janet, it comes too late."
+
+"Not so, dearest lady.  Rise, take mine arm, walk through the
+apartment; let not fancy do the work of poison!  So; feel you not
+now that you are possessed of the full use of your limbs?"
+
+"The torpor seems to diminish," said the Countess, as, supported
+by Janet, she walked to and fro in the apartment; "but is it then
+so, and have I not swallowed a deadly draught?  Varney was here
+since thou wert gone, and commanded me, with eyes in which I read
+my fate, to swallow yon horrible drug.  O Janet!  it must be
+fatal; never was harmless draught served by such a cup-bearer!"
+
+"He did not deem it harmless, I fear," replied the maiden; "but
+God confounds the devices of the wicked.  Believe me, as I swear
+by the dear Gospel in which we trust, your life is safe from his
+practice.  Did you not debate with him?"
+
+"The house was silent," answered the lady--"thou gone--no other
+but he in the chamber--and he capable of every crime.  I did but
+stipulate he would remove his hateful presence, and I drank
+whatever he offered.--But you spoke of escape, Janet; can I be so
+happy?"
+
+"Are you strong enough to bear the tidings, and make the effort?"
+said the maiden.
+
+"Strong!"  answered the Countess.  "Ask the hind, when the fangs
+of the deerhound are stretched to gripe her, if she is strong
+enough to spring over a chasm.  I am equal to every effort that
+may relieve me from this place."
+
+"Hear me, then," said Janet.  "One whom I deem an assured friend
+of yours has shown himself to me in various disguises, and sought
+speech of me, which--for my mind was not clear on the matter
+until this evening--I have ever declined.  He was the pedlar who
+brought you goods--the itinerant hawker who sold me books;
+whenever I stirred abroad I was sure to see him.  The event of
+this night determined me to speak with him.  He awaits even now
+at the postern gate of the park with means for your flight.--But
+have you strength of body?--have you courage of mind?--can you
+undertake the enterprise?"
+
+"She that flies from death," said the lady, "finds strength of
+body--she that would escape from shame lacks no strength of mind.
+The thoughts of leaving behind me the villain who menaces both my
+life and honour would give me strength to rise from my deathbed."
+
+"In God's name, then, lady," said Janet, "I must bid you adieu,
+and to God's charge I must commit you!"
+
+"Will you not fly with me, then, Janet?"  said the Countess,
+anxiously.  "Am I to lose thee?  Is this thy faithful service?"
+
+"Lady, I would fly with you as willingly as bird ever fled from
+cage, but my doing so would occasion instant discovery and
+pursuit.  I must remain, and use means to disguise the truth for
+some time.  May Heaven pardon the falsehood, because of the
+necessity!"
+
+"And am I then to travel alone with this stranger?"  said the
+lady.  "Bethink thee, Janet, may not this prove some deeper and
+darker scheme to separate me perhaps from you, who are my only
+friend?"
+
+"No, madam, do not suppose it," answered Janet readily; "the
+youth is an honest youth in his purpose to you, and a friend to
+Master Tressilian, under whose direction he is come hither."
+
+"If he be a friend of Tressilian," said the Countess, "I will
+commit myself to his charge as to that of an angel sent from
+heaven; for than Tressilian never breathed mortal man more free
+of whatever was base, false, or selfish.  He forgot himself
+whenever he could be of use to others.  Alas!  and how was he
+requited?"
+
+With eager haste they collected the few necessaries which it was
+thought proper the Countess should take with her, and which
+Janet, with speed and dexterity, formed into a small bundle, not
+forgetting to add such ornaments of intrinsic value as came most
+readily in her way, and particularly a casket of jewels, which
+she wisely judged might prove of service in some future
+emergency.  The Countess of Leicester next changed her dress for
+one which Janet usually wore upon any brief journey, for they
+judged it necessary to avoid every external distinction which
+might attract attention.  Ere these preparations were fully made,
+the moon had arisen in the summer heaven, and all in the mansion
+had betaken themselves to rest, or at least to the silence and
+retirement of their chambers.
+
+There was no difficulty anticipated in escaping, whether from the
+house or garden, provided only they could elude observation.
+Anthony Foster had accustomed himself to consider his daughter as
+a conscious sinner might regard a visible guardian angel, which,
+notwithstanding his guilt, continued to hover around him; and
+therefore his trust in her knew no bounds.  Janet commanded her
+own motions during the daytime, and had a master-key which opened
+the postern door of the park, so that she could go to the village
+at pleasure, either upon the household affairs, which were
+entirely confided to her management, or to attend her devotions
+at the meeting-house of her sect.  It is true the daughter of
+Foster was thus liberally entrusted under the solemn condition
+that she should not avail herself of these privileges to do
+anything inconsistent with the safe-keeping of the Countess; for
+so her residence at Cumnor Place had been termed, since she began
+of late to exhibit impatience of the restrictions to which she
+was subjected.  Nor is there reason to suppose that anything
+short of the dreadful suspicions which the scene of that evening
+had excited could have induced Janet to violate her word or
+deceive her father's confidence.  But from what she had
+witnessed, she now conceived herself not only justified, but
+imperatively called upon, to make her lady's safety the principal
+object of her care, setting all other considerations aside.
+
+The fugitive Countess with her guide traversed with hasty steps
+the broken and interrupted path, which had once been an avenue,
+now totally darkened by the boughs of spreading trees which met
+above their head, and now receiving a doubtful and deceiving
+light from the beams of the moon, which penetrated where the axe
+had made openings in the wood.  Their path was repeatedly
+interrupted by felled trees, or the large boughs which had been
+left on the ground till time served to make them into fagots and
+billets.  The inconvenience and difficulty attending these
+interruptions, the breathless haste of the first part of their
+route, the exhausting sensations of hope and fear, so much
+affected the Countess's strength, that Janet was forced to
+propose that they should pause for a few minutes to recover
+breath and spirits.  Both therefore stood still beneath the
+shadow of a huge old gnarled oak-tree, and both naturally looked
+back to the mansion which they had left behind them, whose long,
+dark front was seen in the gloomy distance, with its huge stacks
+of chimneys, turrets, and clock-house, rising above the line of
+the roof, and definedly visible against the pure azure blue of
+the summer sky.  One light only twinkled from the extended and
+shadowy mass, and it was placed so low that it rather seemed to
+glimmer from the ground in front of the mansion than from one of
+the windows.  The Countess's terror was awakened.  "They follow
+us!"  she said, pointing out to Janet the light which thus
+alarmed her.
+
+Less agitated than her mistress, Janet perceived that the gleam
+was stationary, and informed the Countess, in a whisper, that the
+light proceeded from the solitary cell in which the alchemist
+pursued his occult experiments.  "He is of those," she added,
+"who sit up and watch by night that they may commit iniquity.
+Evil was the chance which sent hither a man whose mixed speech of
+earthly wealth and unearthly or superhuman knowledge hath in it
+what does so especially captivate my poor father.  Well spoke the
+good Master Holdforth--and, methought, not without meaning that
+those of our household should find therein a practical use.
+'There be those,' he said, 'and their number is legion, who will
+rather, like the wicked Ahab, listen to the dreams of the false
+prophet Zedekiah, than to the words of him by whom the Lord has
+spoken.' And he further insisted--'Ah, my brethren, there be many
+Zedekiahs among you--men that promise you the light of their
+carnal knowledge, so you will surrender to them that of your
+heavenly understanding.  What are they better than the tyrant
+Naas, who demanded the right eye of those who were subjected to
+him?' And further he insisted--"
+
+It is uncertain how long the fair Puritan's memory might have
+supported her in the recapitulation of Master Holdforth's
+discourse; but the Countess now interrupted her, and assured her
+she was so much recovered that she could now reach the postern
+without the necessity of a second delay.
+
+They set out accordingly, and performed the second part of their
+journey with more deliberation, and of course more easily, than
+the first hasty commencement.  This gave them leisure for
+reflection; and Janet now, for the first time, ventured to ask
+her lady which way she proposed to direct her flight.  Receiving
+no immediate answer--for, perhaps, in the confusion of her mind
+this very obvious subject of deliberation had not occurred to the
+Countess---Janet ventured to add, "Probably to your father's
+house, where you are sure of safety and protection?"
+
+"No, Janet," said the lady mournfully; "I left Lidcote Hall while
+my heart was light and my name was honourable, and I will not
+return thither till my lord's permission and public
+acknowledgment of our marriage restore me to my native home with
+all the rank and honour which he has bestowed on me."
+
+"And whither will you, then, madam?"  said Janet.
+
+"To Kenilworth, girl," said the Countess, boldly and freely.  "I
+will see these revels--these princely revels--the preparation for
+which makes the land ring from side to side.  Methinks, when the
+Queen of England feasts within my husband's halls, the Countess
+of Leicester should be no unbeseeming guest."
+
+"I pray God you may be a welcome one!"  said Janet hastily.
+
+"You abuse my situation, Janet," said the Countess, angrily, "and
+you forget your own."
+
+"I do neither, dearest madam," said the sorrowful maiden; "but
+have you forgotten that the noble Earl has given such strict
+charges to keep your marriage secret, that he may preserve his
+court-favour?  and can you think that your sudden appearance at
+his castle, at such a juncture, and in such a presence, will be
+acceptable to him?"
+
+"Thou thinkest I would disgrace him," said the Countess; "nay,
+let go my arm, I can walk without aid and work without counsel."
+
+"Be not angry with me, lady," said Janet meekly, "and let me
+still support you; the road is rough, and you are little
+accustomed to walk in darkness."
+
+"If you deem me not so mean as may disgrace my husband," said the
+Countess, in the same resentful tone, "you suppose my Lord of
+Leicester capable of abetting, perhaps of giving aim and
+authority to, the base proceedings of your father and Varney,
+whose errand I will do to the good Earl."
+
+"For God's sake, madam, spare my father in your report," said
+Janet; "let my services, however poor, be some atonement for his
+errors!"
+
+"I were most unjust, dearest Janet, were it otherwise," said the
+Countess, resuming at once the fondness and confidence of her
+manner towards her faithful attendant, "No, Janet, not a word of
+mine shall do your father prejudice.  But thou seest, my love, I
+have no desire but to throw my self on my husband's protection.
+I have left the abode he assigned for me, because of the villainy
+of the persons by whom I was surrounded; but I will disobey his
+commands in no other particular.  I will appeal to him alone--I
+will be protected by him alone; to no other, than at his
+pleasure, have I or will I communicate the secret union which
+combines our hearts and our destinies.  I will see him, and
+receive from his own lips the directions for my future conduct.
+Do not argue against my resolution, Janet; you will only confirm
+me in it.  And to own the truth, I am resolved to know my fate at
+once, and from my husband's own mouth; and to seek him at
+Kenilworth is the surest way to attain my purpose."
+
+While Janet hastily revolved in her mind the difficulties and
+uncertainties attendant on the unfortunate lady's situation, she
+was inclined to alter her first opinion, and to think, upon the
+whole, that since the Countess had withdrawn herself from the
+retreat in which she had been placed by her husband, it was her
+first duty to repair to his presence, and possess him with the
+reasons for such conduct.  She knew what importance the Earl
+attached to the concealment of their marriage, and could not but
+own, that by taking any step to make it public without his
+permission, the Countess would incur, in a high degree, the
+indignation of her husband.  If she retired to her father's house
+without an explicit avowal of her rank, her situation was likely
+greatly to prejudice her character; and if she made such an
+avowal, it might occasion an irreconcilable breach with her
+husband.  At Kenilworth, again, she might plead her cause with
+her husband himself, whom Janet, though distrusting him more than
+the Countess did, believed incapable of being accessory to the
+base and desperate means which his dependants, from whose power
+the lady was now escaping, might resort to, in order to stifle
+her complaints of the treatment she had received at their hands.
+But at the worst, and were the Earl himself to deny her justice
+and protection, still at Kenilworth, if she chose to make her
+wrongs public, the Countess might have Tressilian for her
+advocate, and the Queen for her judge; for so much Janet had
+learned in her short conference with Wayland.  She was,
+therefore, on the whole, reconciled to her lady's proposal of
+going towards Kenilworth, and so expressed herself; recommending,
+however, to the Countess the utmost caution in making her arrival
+known to her husband,
+
+"Hast thou thyself been cautious, Janet?"  said the Countess;
+"this guide, in whom I must put my confidence, hast thou not
+entrusted to him the secret of my condition?"
+
+"From me he has learned nothing," said Janet; "nor do I think
+that he knows more than what the public in general believe of
+your situation."
+
+"And what is that?"  said the lady.
+
+"That you left your father's house--but I shall offend you again
+if I go on," said Janet, interrupting herself.
+
+"Nay, go on," said the Countess; "I must learn to endure the evil
+report which my folly has brought upon me.  They think, I
+suppose, that I have left my father's house to follow lawless
+pleasure.  It is an error which will soon be removed--indeed it
+shall, for I will live with spotless fame, or I shall cease to
+live.--I am accounted, then, the paramour of my Leicester?"
+
+"Most men say of Varney," said Janet; "yet some call him only the
+convenient cloak of his master's pleasures; for reports of the
+profuse expense in garnishing yonder apartments have secretly
+gone abroad, and such doings far surpass the means of Varney.
+But this latter opinion is little prevalent; for men dare hardly
+even hint suspicion when so high a name is concerned, lest the
+Star Chamber should punish them for scandal of the nobility."
+
+"They do well to speak low," said the Countess, "who would
+mention the illustrious Dudley as the accomplice of such a wretch
+as Varney.--We have reached the postern.  Ah!  Janet, I must bid
+thee farewell!  Weep not, my good girl," said she, endeavouring
+to cover her own reluctance to part with her faithful attendant
+under an attempt at playfulness; "and against we meet again,
+reform me, Janet, that precise ruff of thine for an open rabatine
+of lace and cut work, that will let men see thou hast a fair
+neck; and that kirtle of Philippine chency, with that bugle lace
+which befits only a chambermaid, into three-piled velvet and
+cloth of gold--thou wilt find plenty of stuffs in my chamber, and
+I freely bestow them on you.  Thou must be brave, Janet; for
+though thou art now but the attendant of a distressed and errant
+lady, who is both nameless and fameless, yet, when we meet again,
+thou must be dressed as becomes the gentlewoman nearest in love
+and in service to the first Countess in England."
+
+"Now, may God grant it, dear lady!"  said Janet--"not that I may
+go with gayer apparel, but that we may both wear our kirtles over
+lighter hearts."
+
+By this time the lock of the postern door had, after some hard
+wrenching, yielded to the master-key; and the Countess, not
+without internal shuddering, saw herself beyond the walls which
+her husband's strict commands had assigned to her as the boundary
+of her walks.  Waiting with much anxiety for their appearance,
+Wayland Smith stood at some distance, shrouding himself behind a
+hedge which bordered the high-road.
+
+"Is all safe?"  said Janet to him anxiously, as he approached
+them with caution.
+
+"All," he replied; "but I have been unable to procure a horse for
+the lady.  Giles Gosling, the cowardly hilding, refused me one on
+any terms whatever, lest, forsooth, he should suffer.  But no
+matter; she must ride on my palfrey, and I must walk by her side
+until I come by another horse.  There will be no pursuit, if you,
+pretty Mistress Janet, forget not thy lesson."
+
+"No more than the wise widow of Tekoa forgot the words which Joab
+put into her mouth," answered Janet.  "Tomorrow, I say that my
+lady is unable to rise."
+
+"Ay; and that she hath aching and heaviness of the head a
+throbbing at the heart, and lists not to be disturbed.  Fear not;
+they will take the hint, and trouble thee with few questions--
+they understand the disease,"
+
+"But," said the lady, "My absence must be soon discovered, and
+they will murder her in revenge.  I will rather return than
+expose her to such danger."
+
+"Be at ease on my account, madam," said Janet; "I would you were
+as sure of receiving the favour you desire from those to whom you
+must make appeal, as I am that my father, however angry, will
+suffer no harm to befall me."
+
+The Countess was now placed by Wayland upon his horse, around the
+saddle of which he had placed his cloak, so folded as to make her
+a commodious seat.
+
+"Adieu, and may the blessing of God wend with you!"  said Janet,
+again kissing her mistress's hand, who returned her benediction
+with a mute caress.  They then tore themselves asunder, and
+Janet, addressing Wayland, exclaimed, "May Heaven deal with you
+at your need, as you are true or false to this most injured and
+most helpless lady!"
+
+"Amen!  dearest Janet," replied Way]and; "and believe me, I will
+so acquit myself of my trust as may tempt even your pretty eyes,
+saintlike as they are, to look less scornfully on me when we next
+meet."
+
+The latter part of this adieu was whispered into Janet's ear and
+although she made no reply to it directly, yet her manner,
+influenced, no doubt, by her desire to leave every motive in
+force which could operate towards her mistress's safety, did not
+discourage the hope which Wayland's words expressed.  She
+re-entered the postern door, and locked it behind her; while,
+Wayland taking the horse's bridle in his hand, and walking close
+by its head, they began in silence their dubious and moonlight
+journey.
+
+Although Wayland Smith used the utmost dispatch which he could
+make, yet this mode of travelling was so slow, that when morning
+began to dawn through the eastern mist, he found himself no
+farther than about ten miles distant from Cumnor.  "Now, a plague
+upon all smooth-spoken hosts!"  said Wayland, unable longer to
+suppress his mortification and uneasiness.  "Had the false loon,
+Giles Gosling, but told me plainly two days since that I was to
+reckon nought upon him, I had shifted better for myself.  But
+your hosts have such a custom of promising whatever is called for
+that it is not till the steed is to be shod you find they are out
+of iron.  Had I but known, I could have made twenty shifts; nay,
+for that matter, and in so good a cause, I would have thought
+little to have prigged a prancer from the next common--it had but
+been sending back the brute to the headborough.  The farcy and
+the founders confound every horse in the stables of the Black
+Bear!"
+
+The lady endeavoured to comfort her guide, observing that the
+dawn would enable him to make more speed.
+
+"True, madam," he replied; "but then it will enable other folk to
+take note of us, and that may prove an ill beginning of our
+journey.  I had not cared a spark from anvil about the matter had
+we been further advanced on our way.  But this Berkshire has been
+notoriously haunted, ever since I knew the country, with that
+sort of malicious elves who sit up late and rise early for no
+other purpose than to pry into other folk's affairs.  I have been
+endangered by them ere now.  But do not fear," he added, "good
+madam; for wit, meeting with opportunity, will not miss to find a
+salve for every sore."
+
+The alarms of her guide made more impression on the Countess's
+mind than the comfort which he judged fit to administer along
+with it.  She looked anxiously around her.  and as the shadows
+withdrew from the landscape, and the heightening glow of the
+eastern sky promised the speedy rise of the sun, expected at
+every turn that the increasing light would expose them to the
+view of the vengeful pursuers, or present some dangerous and
+insurmountable obstacle to the prosecution of their journey.
+Wayland Smith perceived her uneasiness, and, displeased with
+himself for having given her cause of alarm, strode on with
+affected alacrity, now talking to the horse as one expert in the
+language of the stable, now whistling to himself low and
+interrupted snatches of tunes, and now assuring the lady there
+was no danger, while at the same time he looked sharply around to
+see that there was nothing in sight which might give the lie to
+his words while they were issuing from his mouth.  Thus did they
+journey on, until an unexpected incident gave them the means of
+continuing their pilgrimage with more speed and convenience.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  RICHARD. A horse!--A horse!--my kingdom for a horse!
+  CATESBY. .....My lord, I'll help you to a horse.   RICHARD III.
+
+
+Our travellers were in the act of passing a small thicket of
+trees close by the roadside, when the first living being
+presented himself whom they had seen since their departure from
+Cumnor Place.  This was a stupid lout, seemingly a farmer's boy,
+in a grey jerkin, with his head bare, his hose about his heels,
+and huge startups upon his feet.  He held by the bridle what of
+all things they most wanted--a palfrey, namely, with a side-
+saddle, and all other garniture for a woman's mounting; and he
+hailed Wayland Smith with, "Zur, be ye zure the party?"
+
+"Ay, that I be, my lad," answered Wayland, without an instant's
+hesitation; and it must be owned that consciences trained in a
+stricter school of morality might have given way to an occasion
+so tempting.  While he spoke, he caught the rein out of the boy's
+hand, and almost at the same time helped down the Countess from
+his own horse, and aided her to mount on that which chance had
+thus presented for her acceptance.  Indeed, so naturally did the
+whole take place, that the Countess, as it afterwards appeared,
+never suspected but that the horse had been placed there to meet
+them by the precaution of the guide or some of his friends.
+
+The lad, however, who was thus hastily dispossessed of his
+charge, began to stare hard, and scratch his head, as if seized
+with some qualms of conscience for delivering up the animal on
+such brief explanation.  "I be right zure thou be'st the party,"
+said he, muttering to himself, "but thou shouldst ha zaid BEANS,
+thou knawest."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Wayland, speaking at a venture; "and thou BACON,
+thou knowest."
+
+"Noa, noa," said the lad; "bide ye--bide ye--it was PEAS a should
+ha said."
+
+"Well, well," answered Wayland, "Peas be it, a God's name!
+though Bacon were the better password."
+
+And being by this time mounted on his own horse, he caught the
+rein of the palfrey from the uncertain hold of the hesitating
+young boor, flung him a small piece of money, and made amends for
+lost time by riding briskly off without further parley.  The lad
+was still visible from the hill up which they were riding, and
+Wayland, as he looked back, beheld him standing with his fingers
+in his hair as immovable as a guide-post, and his head turned in
+the direction in which they were escaping from him.  At length,
+just as they topped the hill, he saw the clown stoop to lift up
+the silver groat which his benevolence had imparted.  "Now this
+is what I call a Godsend," said Wayland; "this is a bonny, well-
+ridden bit of a going thing, and it will carry us so far till we
+get you as well mounted, and then we will send it back time
+enough to satisfy the Hue and Cry."
+
+But he was deceived in his expectations; and fate, which seemed
+at first to promise so fairly, soon threatened to turn the
+incident which he thus gloried in into the cause of their utter
+ruin.
+
+They had not ridden a short mile from the place where they left
+the lad before they heard a man's voice shouting on the wind
+behind them, "Robbery!  robbery!--Stop thief!"  and similar
+exclamations, which Wayland's conscience readily assured him must
+arise out of the transaction to which he had been just accessory.
+
+"I had better have gone barefoot all my life," he said; "it is
+the Hue and Cry, and I am a lost man.  Ah!  Wayland, Wayland,
+many a time thy father said horse-flesh would be the death of
+thee. Were I once safe among the horse-coursers in Smithfield, or
+Turnbull Street, they should have leave to hang me as high as St.
+Paul's if I e'er meddled more with nobles, knights, or
+gentlewomen."
+
+Amidst these dismal reflections, he turned his head repeatedly to
+see by whom he was chased, and was much comforted when he could
+only discover a single rider, who was, however, well mounted, and
+came after them at a speed which left them no chance of escaping,
+even had the lady's strength permitted her to ride as fast as her
+palfrey might have been able to gallop.
+
+"There may be fair play betwixt us, sure," thought Wayland,
+"where there is but one man on each side, and yonder fellow sits
+on his horse more like a monkey than a cavalier.  Pshaw!  if it
+come to the worse, it will be easy unhorsing him.  Nay, 'snails!
+I think his horse will take the matter in his own hand, for he
+has the bridle betwixt his teeth.  Oons, what care I for him?"
+said he, as the pursuer drew yet nearer; "it is but the little
+animal of a mercer from Abingdon, when all is over."
+
+Even so it was, as the experienced eye of Wayland had descried at
+a distance.  For the valiant mercer's horse, which was a beast of
+mettle, feeling himself put to his speed, and discerning a couple
+of horses riding fast at some hundred yards' distance before him,
+betook himself to the road with such alacrity as totally deranged
+the seat of his rider, who not only came up with, but passed at
+full gallop, those whom he had been pursuing, pulling the reins
+with all his might, and ejaculating, "Stop!  stop!"  an
+interjection which seemed rather to regard his own palfrey than
+what seamen call "the chase."  With the same involuntary speed,
+he shot ahead (to use another nautical phrase) about a furlong
+ere he was able to stop and turn his horse, and then rode back
+towards our travellers, adjusting, as well as he could, his
+disordered dress, resettling himself in the saddle, and
+endeavouring to substitute a bold and martial frown for the
+confusion and dismay which sat upon his visage during his
+involuntary career.
+
+Wayland had just time to caution the lady not to be alarmed,
+adding, "This fellow is a gull, and I will use him as such."
+
+When the mercer had recovered breath and audacity enough to
+confront them, he ordered Wayland, in a menacing tone, to deliver
+up his palfrey.
+
+"How?"  said the smith, in King Cambyses' vein, "are we commanded
+to stand and deliver on the king's highway?  Then out, Excalibur,
+and tell this knight of prowess that dire blows must decide
+between us!"
+
+"Haro and help, and hue and cry, every true man!"  said the
+mercer.  "I am withstood in seeking to recover mine own."
+
+"Thou swearest thy gods in vain, foul paynim," said Wayland, "for
+I will through with mine purpose were death at the end on't.
+Nevertheless, know, thou false man of frail cambric and
+ferrateen, that I am he, even the pedlar, whom thou didst boast
+to meet on Maiden Castle moor, and despoil of his pack;
+wherefore betake thee to thy weapons presently."
+
+"I spoke but in jest, man," said Goldthred; "I am an honest
+shopkeeper and citizen, who scorns to leap forth on any man from
+behind a hedge."
+
+"Then, by my faith, most puissant mercer," answered Wayland, "I
+am sorry for my vow, which was, that wherever I met thee I would
+despoil thee of thy palfrey, and bestow it upon my leman, unless
+thou couldst defend it by blows of force.  But the vow is passed
+and registered, and all I can do for thee is to leave the horse
+at Donnington, in the nearest hostelry."
+
+"But I tell thee, friend," said the mercer, "it is the very horse
+on which I was this day to carry Jane Thackham, of Shottesbrok,
+as far as the parish church yonder, to become Dame Goldthred.
+She hath jumped out of the shot-window of old Gaffer Thackham's
+grange; and lo ye, yonder she stands at the place where she
+should have met the palfrey, with her camlet riding-cloak and
+ivory-handled whip, like a picture of Lot's wife.  I pray you, in
+good terms, let me have back the palfrey."
+
+"Grieved am I," said Wayland, "as much for the fair damsel as for
+thee, most noble imp of muslin.  But vows must have their course;
+thou wilt find the palfrey at the Angel yonder at Donnington.  It
+is all I may do for thee with a safe conscience."
+
+"To the devil with thy conscience!"  said the dismayed mercer.
+"Wouldst thou have a bride walk to church on foot?"
+
+"Thou mayest take her on thy crupper, Sir Goldthred," answered
+Wayland; "it will take down thy steed's mettle."
+
+"And how if you--if you forget to leave my horse, as you
+propose?"  said Goldthred, not without hesitation, for his soul
+was afraid within him.
+
+"My pack shall be pledged for it--yonder it lies with Giles
+Gosling, in his chamber with the damasked leathern hangings,
+stuffed full with velvet, single, double, treble-piled--rash-
+taffeta, and parapa--shag, damask, and mocado, plush, and
+grogram--"
+
+"Hold!  hold!"  exclaimed the mercer; "nay, if there be, in truth
+and sincerity, but the half of these wares--but if ever I trust
+bumpkin with bonny Bayard again!"
+
+"As you list for that, good Master Goldthred, and so good morrow
+to you--and well parted," he added, riding on cheerfully with the
+lady, while the discountenanced mercer rode back much slower than
+he came, pondering what excuse he should make to the disappointed
+bride, who stood waiting for her gallant groom in the midst of
+the king's highway.
+
+"Methought," said the lady, as they rode on, "yonder fool stared
+at me as if he had some remembrance of me; yet I kept my muffler
+as high as I might."
+
+"If I thought so," said Wayland, "I would ride back and cut him
+over the pate; there would be no fear of harming his brains, for
+he never had so much as would make pap to a sucking gosling.  We
+must now push on, however, and at Donnington we will leave the
+oaf's horse, that he may have no further temptation to pursue us,
+and endeavour to assume such a change of shape as may baffle his
+pursuit if he should persevere in it."
+
+The travellers reached Donnington without further alarm, where it
+became matter of necessity that the Countess should enjoy two or
+three hours' repose, during which Wayland disposed himself, with
+equal address and alacrity, to carry through those measures on
+which the safety of their future journey seemed to depend.
+
+Exchanging his pedlar's gaberdine for a smock-frock, he carried
+the palfrey of Goldthred to the Angel Inn, which was at the other
+end of the village from that where our travellers had taken up
+their quarters.  In the progress of the morning, as he travelled
+about his other business, he saw the steed brought forth and
+delivered to the cutting mercer himself, who, at the head of a
+valorous posse of the Hue and Cry, came to rescue, by force of
+arms, what was delivered to him without any other ransom than the
+price of a huge quantity of ale, drunk out by his assistants,
+thirsty, it would seem, with their walk, and concerning the price
+of which Master Goldthred had a fierce dispute with the
+headborough, whom he had summoned to aid him in raising the
+country.
+
+Having made this act of prudent as well as just restitution,
+Wayland procured such change of apparel for the lady, as well as
+himself, as gave them both the appearance of country people of
+the better class; it being further resolved, that in order to
+attract the less observation, she should pass upon the road for
+the sister of her guide.  A good but not a gay horse, fit to keep
+pace with his own, and gentle enough for a lady's use, completed
+the preparations for the journey; for making which, and for other
+expenses, he had been furnished with sufficient funds by
+Tressilian.  And thus, about noon, after the Countess had been
+refreshed by the sound repose of several hours, they resumed
+their journey, with the purpose of making the best of their way
+to Kenilworth, by Coventry and Warwick.  They were not, however,
+destined to travel far without meeting some cause of
+apprehension.
+
+It is necessary to premise that the landlord of the inn had
+informed them that a jovial party, intended, as he understood, to
+present some of the masques or mummeries which made a part of the
+entertainment with which the Queen was usually welcomed on the
+royal Progresses, had left the village of Donnington an hour or
+two before them in order to proceed to Kenilworth.  Now it had
+occurred to Wayland that, by attaching themselves in some sort to
+this group as soon as they should overtake them on the road, they
+would be less likely to attract notice than if they continued to
+travel entirely by themselves.  He communicated his idea to the
+Countess, who, only anxious to arrive at Kenilworth without
+interruption, left him free to choose the manner in which this
+was to be accomplished.  They pressed forward their horses,
+therefore, with the purpose of overtaking the party of intended
+revellers, and making the journey in their company; and had just
+seen the little party, consisting partly of riders, partly of
+people on foot, crossing the summit of a gentle hill, at about
+half a mile's distance, and disappearing on the other side, when
+Wayland, who maintained the most circumspect observation of all
+that met his eye in every direction, was aware that a rider was
+coming up behind them on a horse of uncommon action, accompanied
+by a serving-man, whose utmost efforts were unable to keep up
+with his master's trotting hackney, and who, therefore, was fain
+to follow him at a hand gallop.  Wayland looked anxiously back at
+these horsemen, became considerably disturbed in his manner,
+looked back again, and became pale, as he said to the lady, "That
+is Richard Varney's trotting gelding; I would know him among a
+thousand nags.  This is a worse business than meeting the
+mercer."
+
+"Draw your sword," answered the lady, "and pierce my bosom with
+it, rather than I should fall into his hands!"
+
+"I would rather by a thousand times," answered Wayland, "pass it
+through his body, or even mine own.  But to say truth, fighting
+is not my best point, though I can look on cold iron like another
+when needs must be.  And indeed, as for my sword--(put on, I pray
+you)--it is a poor Provant rapier, and I warrant you he has a
+special Toledo.  He has a serving-man, too, and I think it is the
+drunken ruffian Lambourne!  upon the horse on which men say--(I
+pray you heartily to put on)--he did the great robbery of the
+west country grazier.  It is not that I fear either Varney or
+Lambourne in a good cause--(your palfrey will go yet faster if
+you urge him)--but yet--(nay, I pray you let him not break off
+into a gallop, lest they should see we fear them, and give chase
+--keep him only at the full trot)--but yet, though I fear them
+not, I would we were well rid of them, and that rather by policy
+than by violence.  Could we once reach the party before us, we
+may herd among them, and pass unobserved, unless Varney be really
+come in express pursuit of us, and then, happy man be his dole!"
+
+While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained his
+horse, desirous to maintain the fleetest pace that was consistent
+with the idea of an ordinary journey on the road, but to avoid
+such rapidity of movement as might give rise to suspicion that
+they were flying.
+
+At such a pace they ascended the gentle hill we have mentioned,
+and looking from the top, had the pleasure to see that the party
+which had left Donnington before them were in the little valley
+or bottom on the other side, where the road was traversed by a
+rivulet, beside which was a cottage or two.  In this place they
+seemed to have made a pause, which gave Wayland the hope of
+joining them, and becoming a part of their company, ere Varney
+should overtake them.  He was the more anxious, as his companion,
+though she made no complaints, and expressed no fear, began to
+look so deadly pale that he was afraid she might drop from her
+horse.  Notwithstanding this symptom of decaying strength, she
+pushed on her palfrey so briskly that they joined the party in
+the bottom of the valley ere Varney appeared on the top of the
+gentle eminence which they had descended.
+
+They found the company to which they meant to associate
+themselves in great disorder.  The women with dishevelled locks,
+and looks of great importance, ran in and out of one of the
+cottages, and the men stood around holding the horses, and
+looking silly enough, as is usual in cases where their assistance
+is not wanted.
+
+Wayland and his charge paused, as if out of curiosity, and then
+gradually, without making any inquiries, or being asked any
+questions, they mingled with the group, as if they had always
+made part of it.
+
+They had not stood there above five minutes, anxiously keeping as
+much to the side of the road as possible, so as to place the
+other travellers betwixt them and Varney, when Lord Leicester's
+master of the horse, followed by Lambourne, came riding fiercely
+down the hill, their horses' flanks and the rowels of their spurs
+showing bloody tokens of the rate at which they travelled.  The
+appearance of the stationary group around the cottages, wearing
+their buckram suits in order to protect their masking dresses,
+having their light cart for transporting their scenery, and
+carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more
+easy conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and
+purpose of the company.
+
+"You are revelIers," said Varney, "designing for Kenilworth?"
+
+"RECTE QUIDEM, DOMINE SPECTATISSIME," answered one of the party.
+
+"And why the devil stand you here?"  said Varney, "when your
+utmost dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time?  The
+Queen dines at Warwick to-morrow, and you loiter here, ye
+knaves."
+
+"I very truth, sir," said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a
+vizard with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet
+hue, having, moreover, a black serge jerkin drawn close to his
+body by lacing, garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped
+as to resemble cloven feet--"in very truth, sir, and you are in
+the right on't.  It is my father the Devil, who, being taken in
+labour, has delayed our present purpose, by increasing our
+company with an imp too many,"
+
+"The devil he has!"  answered Varney, whose laugh, however, never
+exceeded a sarcastic smile.
+
+"It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masker who spoke
+first; "Our major devil--for this is but our minor one--is even
+now at LUCINA, FER OPEM, within that very TUGURIUM."
+
+"By Saint George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a kinsman
+of the fiend in the straw, a most comical chance!"  said Varney.
+"How sayest thou, Lambourne, wilt thou stand godfather for the
+nonce?  If the devil were to choose a gossip, I know no one more
+fit for the office."
+
+"Saving always when my betters are in presence," said Lambourne,
+with the civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to
+be so indispensable that his jest will be permitted to pass
+muster.
+
+"And what is the name of this devil, or devil's dam, who has
+timed her turns so strangely?"  said Varney.  "We can ill afford
+to spare any of our actors."
+
+"GAUDET NOMINE SIBYLLAE," said the first speaker; "she is called
+Sibyl Laneham, wife of Master Robert Laneham--"
+
+"Clerk to the Council-chamber door," said Varney; "why, she is
+inexcusable, having had experience how to have ordered her
+matters better.  But who were those, a man and a woman, I think,
+who rode so hastily up the hill before me even now?  Do they
+belong to your company?"
+
+Wayland was about to hazard a reply to this alarming inquiry,
+when the little diablotin again thrust in his oar.
+
+"So please you," he said, coming close up to Varney, and speaking
+so as not to be overheard by his companions, "the man was our
+devil major, who has tricks enough to supply the lack of a
+hundred such as Dame Laneham; and the woman, if you please, is
+the sage person whose assistance is most particularly necessary
+to our distressed comrade."
+
+"Oh, what!  you have got the wise woman, then?"  said Varney.
+"Why, truly, she rode like one bound to a place where she was
+needed.  And you have a spare limb of Satan, besides, to supply
+the place of Mistress Laneham?"
+
+"Ay, sir," said the boy; "they are not so scarce in this world as
+your honour's virtuous eminence would suppose.  This master-fiend
+shall spit a few flashes of fire, and eruct a volume or two of
+smoke on the spot, if it will do you pleasure--you would think he
+had AEtna in his abdomen."
+
+"I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to witness
+his performance," said Varney; "but here is something for you all
+to drink the lucky hour--and so, as the play says, 'God be with
+Your labour!'"
+
+Thus speaking, he struck his horse with the spurs, and rode on
+his way.
+
+Lambourne tarried a moment or two behind his master, and rummaged
+his pouch for a piece of silver, which he bestowed on the
+communicative imp, as he said, for his encouragement on his path
+to the infernal regions, some sparks of whose fire, he said, he
+could discover flashing from him already.  Then having received
+the boy's thanks for his generosity he also spurred his horse,
+and rode after his master as fast as the fire flashes from flint.
+
+"And now," said the wily imp, sidling close up to Wayland's
+horse, and cutting a gambol in the air which seemed to vindicate
+his title to relationship with the prince of that element, "I
+have told them who YOU are, do you in return tell me who I am?"
+
+"Either Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland Smith, "or else an imp
+of the devil in good earnest."
+
+"Thou hast hit it," answered Dickie Sludge.  "I am thine own
+Flibbertigibbet, man; and I have broken forth of bounds, along
+with my learned preceptor, as I told thee I would do, whether he
+would or not.  But what lady hast thou got with thee?  I saw thou
+wert at fault the first question was asked, and so I drew up for
+thy assistance.  But I must know all who she is, dear Wayland."
+
+"Thou shalt know fifty finer things, my dear ingle," said
+Wayland; "but a truce to thine inquiries just now.  And since you
+are bound for Kenilworth, thither will I too, even for the love
+of thy sweet face and waggish company."
+
+"Thou shouldst have said my waggish face and sweet company," said
+Dickie;" but how wilt thou travel with us--I mean in what
+character?"
+
+"E'en in that thou hast assigned me, to be sure--as a juggler;
+thou knowest I am used to the craft," answered Wayland.
+
+"Ay, but the lady?"  answered Flibbertigibbet.  "Credit me, I
+think she IS one and thou art in a sea of troubles about her at
+this moment, as I can perceive by thy fidgeting."
+
+"Oh, she, man!--she is a poor sister of mine," said Wayland; "she
+can sing and play o' the lute would win the fish out o' the
+stream."
+
+"Let me hear her instantly," said the boy, "I love the lute
+rarely; I love it of all things, though I never heard it."
+
+"Then how canst thou love it, Flibbertigibbet?"  said Wayland.
+
+"As knights love ladies in old tales," answered Dickie--"on
+hearsay."
+
+"Then love it on hearsay a little longer, till my sister is
+recovered from the fatigue of her journey," said Wayland;
+muttering afterwards betwixt his teeth, "The devil take the imp's
+curiosity!  I must keep fair weather with him, or we shall fare
+the worse."
+
+He then proceeded to state to Master Holiday his own talents as a
+juggler, with those of his sister as a musician.  Some proof of
+his dexterity was demanded, which he gave in such a style of
+excellence, that, delighted at obtaining such an accession to
+their party, they readily acquiesced in the apology which he
+offered when a display of his sister's talents was required.  The
+new-comers were invited to partake of the refreshments with which
+the party were provided; and it was with some difficulty that
+Wayland Smith obtained an opportunity of being apart with his
+supposed sister during the meal, of which interval he availed
+himself to entreat her to forget for the present both her rank
+and her sorrows, and condescend, as the most probable chance of
+remaining concealed, to mix in the society of those with whom she
+was to travel.
+
+The Countess allowed the necessity of the case, and when they
+resumed their journey, endeavoured to comply with her guide's
+advice, by addressing herself to a female near her, and
+expressing her concern for the woman whom they were thus obliged
+to leave behind them.
+
+"Oh, she is well attended, madam," replied the dame whom she
+addressed, who, from her jolly and laughter-loving demeanour,
+might have been the very emblem of the Wife of Bath; "and my
+gossip Laneham thinks as little of these matters as any one.  By
+the ninth day, an the revels last so long, we shall have her with
+us at Kenilworth, even if she should travel with her bantling on
+her back."
+
+There was something in this speech which took away all desire on
+the Countess of Leicester's part to continue the conversation.
+But having broken the charm by speaking to her fellow-traveller
+first, the good dame, who was to play Rare Gillian of Croydon in
+one of the interludes, took care that silence did not again
+settle on the journey, but entertained her mute companion with a
+thousand anecdotes of revels, from the days of King Harry
+downwards, with the reception given them by the great folk, and
+all the names of those who played the principal characters; but
+ever concluding with "they would be nothing to the princely
+pleasures of Kenilworth."
+
+"And when shall we reach Kenilworth?  said the Countess, with an
+agitation which she in vain attempted to conceal.
+
+"We that have horses may, with late riding, get to Warwick to-
+night, and Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles.
+But then we must wait till the foot-people come up; although it
+is like my good Lord of Leicester will have horses or light
+carriages to meet them, and bring them up without being travel-
+toiled, which last is no good preparation, as you may suppose,
+for dancing before your betters.  And yet, Lord help me, I have
+seen the day I would have tramped five leagues of lea-land, and
+turned an my toe the whole evening after, as a juggler spins a
+pewter platter on the point of a needle.  But age has clawed me
+somewhat in his clutch, as the song says; though, if I like the
+tune and like my partner, I'll dance the hays yet with any merry
+lass in Warwickshire that writes that unhappy figure four with a
+round O after it."
+
+If the Countess was overwhelmed with the garrulity of this good
+dame, Wayland Smith, on his part, had enough to do to sustain and
+parry,the constant attacks made upon him by the indefatigable
+curiosity of his old acquaintance Richard Sludge.  Nature had
+given that arch youngster a prying cast of disposition, which
+matched admirably with his sharp wit; the former inducing him to
+plant himself as a spy on other people's affairs, and the latter
+quality leading him perpetually to interfere, after he had made
+himself master of that which concerned him not.  He spent the
+livelong day in attempting to peer under the Countess's muffler,
+and apparently what he could there discern greatly sharpened his
+curiosity.
+
+"That sister of thine, Wayland," he said, "has a fair neck to
+have been born in a smithy, and a pretty taper hand to have been
+used for twirling a spindle--faith, I'll believe in your
+relationship when the crow's egg is hatched into a cygnet."
+
+"Go to," said Wayland, "thou art a prating boy, and should be
+breeched for thine assurance."
+
+"Well," said the imp, drawing off, "all I say is--remember you
+have kept a secret from me, and if I give thee not a Roland for
+thine Oliver, my name is not Dickon Sludge!"
+
+This threat, and the distance at which Hobgoblin kept from him
+for the rest of the way, alarmed Wayland very much, and he
+suggested to his pretended sister that, on pretext of weariness,
+she should express a desire to stop two or three miles short of
+the fair town of Warwick, promising to rejoin the troop in the
+morning.  A small village inn afforded them a resting-place, and
+it was with secret pleasure that Wayland saw the whole party,
+including Dickon, pass on, after a courteous farewell, and leave
+them behind.
+
+"To-morrow, madam," he said to his charge, "we will, with your
+leave, again start early, and reach Kenilworth before the rout
+which are to assemble there."
+
+The Countess gave assent to the proposal of her faithful guide;
+but, somewhat to his surprise, said nothing further on the
+subject, which left Wayland under the disagreeable uncertainty
+whether or no she had formed any plan for her own future
+proceedings, as he knew her situation demanded circumspection,
+although he was but imperfectly acquainted with all its
+peculiarities.  Concluding, however, that she must have friends
+within the castle, whose advice and assistance she could safely
+trust, he supposed his task would be best accomplished by
+conducting her thither in safety, agreeably to her repeated
+commands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  Hark, the bells summon, and the bugle calls,
+  But she the fairest answers not--the tide
+  Of nobles and of ladies throngs the halls,
+  But she the loveliest must in secret hide.
+  What eyes were thine, proud Prince, which in the gleam
+  Of yon gay meteors lost that better sense,
+  That o'er the glow-worm doth the star esteem,
+  And merit's modest blush o'er courtly insolence?
+                                         THE GLASS SLIPPER.
+
+The unfortunate Countess of Leicester had, from her infancy
+upwards, been treated by those around her with indulgence as
+unbounded as injudicious.  The natural sweetness of her
+disposition had saved her from becoming insolent and ill-
+humoured; but the caprice which preferred the handsome and
+insinuating Leicester before Tressilian, of whose high honour and
+unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm an opinion
+--that fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, had
+its origin in the mistaken kindness; that had spared her
+childhood the painful but most necessary lesson of submission and
+self-command.  From the same indulgence it followed that she had
+only been accustomed to form and to express her wishes, leaving
+to others the task of fulfilling them; and thus, at the most
+momentous period of her life, she was alike destitute of presence
+of mind, and of ability to form for herself any reasonable or
+prudent plan of conduct.
+
+These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with
+overwhelming force on the morning which seemed to be the crisis
+of her fate.  Overlooking every intermediate consideration, she
+had only desired to be at Kenilworth, and to approach her
+husband's presence; and now, when she was in the vicinity of
+both, a thousand considerations arose at once upon her mind,
+startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, some real,
+some imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situation
+alike helpless and destitute of aid and counsel.
+
+A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she
+was altogether unable to attend Wayland's early summons.  The
+trusty guide became extremely distressed on the lady's account,
+and somewhat alarmed on his own, and was on the point of going
+alone to Kenilworth, in the hope of discovering Tressilian, and
+intimating to him the lady's approach, when about nine in the
+morning he was summoned to attend her.  He found her dressed, and
+ready for resuming her journey, but with a paleness of
+countenance which alarmed him for her health.  She intimated her
+desire that the horses might be got instantly ready, and resisted
+with impatience her guide's request that she would take some
+refreshment before setting forward.  "I have had," she said, "a
+cup of water--the wretch who is dragged to execution needs no
+stronger cordial, and that may serve me which suffices for him.
+Do as I command you."   Wayland Smith still hesitated.  "What
+would you have?"  said she.  "Have I not spoken plainly?"
+
+"Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what is your
+further purpose? I only wish to know, that I may guide myself by
+your wishes.  The whole country is afloat, and streaming towards
+the Castle of Kenilworth.  It will be difficult travelling
+thither, even if we had the necessary passports for safe-conduct
+and free admittance; unknown and unfriended, we may come by
+mishap.  Your ladyship will forgive my speaking my poor mind--
+were we not better try to find out the maskers, and again join
+ourselves with them?"  The Countess shook her head, and her guide
+proceeded, "Then I see but one other remedy."
+
+"Speak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps, that
+he should thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask; "I
+believe thee faithful--what wouldst thou counsel?"
+
+"That I should warn Master Tressilian," said Wayland, "that you
+are in this place.  I am right certain he would get to horse with
+a few of Lord Sussex's followers, and ensure your personal
+safety."
+
+"And is it to ME you advise," said the Countess, "to put myself
+under the protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble
+Leicester?"  Then, seeing the surprise with which Wayland stared
+upon her, and afraid of having too strongly intimated her
+interest in Leicester, she added, "And for Tressilian, it must
+not be--mention not to him, I charge you, my unhappy name; it
+would but double MY misfortunes, and involve HIM in dangers
+beyond the power of rescue."  She paused; but when she observed
+that Wayland continued to look on her with that anxious and
+uncertain gaze which indicated a doubt whether her brain was
+settled, she assumed an air of composure, and added, "Do thou but
+guide me to Kenilworth Castle, good fellow, and thy task is
+ended, since I will then judge what further is to be done.  Thou
+hast yet been true to me--here is something that will make thee
+rich amends."
+
+She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone.
+Wayland looked at it, hesitated a moment, and then returned it.
+"Not," he said, "that I am above your kindness, madam, being but
+a poor fellow, who have been forced, God help me!  to live by
+worse shifts than the bounty of such a person as you.  But, as my
+old master the farrier used to say to his customers, 'No cure, no
+pay.' We are not yet in Kenilworth Castle, and it is time enough
+to discharge your guide, as they say, when you take your boots
+off.  I trust in God your ladyship is as well assured of fitting
+reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certain of my
+best endeavours to conduct you thither safely.  I go to get the
+horses; meantime, let me pray you once more, as your poor
+physician as well as guide, to take some sustenance."
+
+"I will--I will," said the lady hastily.  "Begone, begone
+instantly!--It is in vain I assume audacity," said she, when he
+left the room; "even this poor groom sees through my affectation
+of courage, and fathoms the very ground of my fears."
+
+She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some
+food, but was compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even
+a single morsel gave her so much uneasiness as amounted well-nigh
+to suffocation.  A moment afterwards the horses appeared at the
+latticed window.  The lady mounted, and found that relief from
+the free air and change of place which is frequently experienced
+in similar circumstances.
+
+It chanced well for the Countess's purpose that Wayland Smith,
+whose previous wandering and unsettled life had made him
+acquainted with almost all England, was intimate with all the by-
+roads, as well as direct communications, through the beautiful
+county of Warwick.  For such and so great was the throng which
+flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth, to see the entry of
+Elizabeth into that splendid mansion of her prime favourite, that
+the principal roads were actually blocked up and interrupted, and
+it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travellers could
+proceed on their journey.
+
+The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and
+villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal
+Progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a
+tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth.  The Earl of
+Leicester's household officers had been scouring the country for
+the same purpose; and many of his friends and allies, both near
+and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiating themselves by
+sending large quantities of provisions and delicacies of all
+kinds, with game in huge numbers, and whole tuns of the best
+liquors, foreign and domestic.  Thus the highroads were filled
+with droves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and hogs, and choked with
+loaded wains, whose axle-trees cracked under their burdens of
+wine-casks and hogsheads of ale, and huge hampers of grocery
+goods, and slaughtered game, and salted provisions, and sacks of
+flour.  Perpetual stoppages took place as these wains became
+entangled; and their rude drivers, swearing and brawling till
+their wild passions were fully raised, began to debate precedence
+with their wagon-whips and quarterstaves, which occasional riots
+were usually quieted by a purveyor, deputy-marshal's man, or some
+other person in authority, breaking the heads of both parties.
+
+Here were, besides, players and mummers, jugglers and showmen, of
+every description, traversing in joyous bands the paths which led
+to the Palace of Princely Pleasure; for so the travelling
+minstrels had termed Kenilworth in the songs which already had
+come forth in anticipation of the revels which were there
+expected.  In the midst of this motley show, mendicants were
+exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming a strange
+though common contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrows of
+human existence.  All these floated along with the immense tide
+of population whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where
+the mechanic, in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty
+dame, his city mistress; where clowns, with hobnailed shoes, were
+treading on the kibes of substantial burghers and gentlemen of
+worship; and where Joan of the dairy, with robust pace, and red,
+sturdy arms, rowed her way unward, amongst those prim and pretty
+moppets whose sires were knights and squires.
+
+The throng and confusion was, however, of a gay and cheerful
+character.  All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all laughed
+at the trifling inconveniences which at another time might have
+chafed their temper.  Excepting the occasional brawls which we
+have mentioned among that irritable race the carmen, the mingled
+sounds which arose from the multitude were those of light-hearted
+mirth and tiptoe jollity.  The musicians preluded on their
+instruments--the minstrels hummed their songs--the licensed
+jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness, as he brandished his
+bauble--the morrice-dancers jangled their bells--the rustics
+hallooed and whistled-men laughed loud, and maidens giggled
+shrill; while many a broad jest flew like a shuttlecock from one
+party, to be caught in the air and returned from the opposite
+side of the road by another, at which it was aimed.
+
+No infliction can be so distressing to a mind absorbed in
+melancholy, as being plunged into a scene of mirth and revelry,
+forming an accompaniment so dissonant from its own feelings.
+Yet, in the case of the Countess of Leicester, the noise and
+tumult of this giddy scene distracted her thoughts, and rendered
+her this sad service, that it became impossible for her to brood
+on her own misery, or to form terrible anticipations of her
+approaching fate.  She travelled on like one in a dream,
+following implicitly the guidance of Wayland, who, with great
+address, now threaded his way through the general throng of
+passengers, now stood still until a favourable opportunity
+occurred of again moving forward, and frequently turning
+altogether out of the direct road, followed some circuitous by-
+path, which brought them into the highway again, after having
+given them the opportunity of traversing a considerable way with
+greater ease and rapidity.
+
+It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose Castle (that fairest
+monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains
+uninjured by time) Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and
+where she was to tarry until past noon, at that time the general
+hour of dinner throughout England, after which repast she was to
+proceed to Kenilworth, In the meanwhile, each passing group had
+something to say in the Sovereign's praise, though not absolutely
+without the usual mixture of satire which qualifies more or less
+our estimate of our neighbours, especially if they chance to be
+also our betters.
+
+"Heard you," said.  one, "how graciously she spoke to Master
+Bailiff and the Recorder, and to good Master Griffin the
+preacher, as they kneeled down at her coach-window?"
+
+"Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, 'Master Recorder, men
+would have persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I
+think, so well did you reckon up to me the virtues of a
+sovereign, that I have more reason to be afraid of you.' and then
+with what grace she took the fair-wrought purse with the twenty
+gold sovereigns, seeming as though she would not willingly handle
+it, and yet taking it withal."
+
+"Ay, ay," said another, "her fingers closed on it pretty
+willingly methought, when all was done; and methought, too, she
+weighed them for a second in her hand, as she would say, I hope
+they be avoirdupois."
+
+"She needed not, neighbour," said a third; "it is only when the
+corporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me, that
+they put him off with clipped coin.  Well, there is a God above
+all--little Master Recorder, since that is the word, will be
+greater now than ever."
+
+"Come, good neighbour," said the first speaker "be not envious.
+She is a good Queen, and a generous; she gave the purse to the
+Earl of Leicester."
+
+"I envious?--beshrew thy heart for the word!"  replied the
+handicraft.  "But she will give all to the Earl of Leicester
+anon, methinks."
+
+"You are turning ill, lady," said Wayland Smith to the Countess
+of Leicester, and proposed that she should draw off from the
+road, and halt till she recovered.  But, subduing her feelings at
+this and different speeches to the same purpose, which caught her
+ear as they passed on, she insisted that her guide should proceed
+to Kenilworth with all the haste which the numerous impediments
+of their journey permitted.  Meanwhile, Wayland's anxiety at her
+repeated fits of indisposition, and her obvious distraction of
+mind, was hourly increasing, and he became extremely desirous
+that, according to her reiterated requests, she should be safely
+introduced into the Castle, where, he doubted not, she was secure
+of a kind reception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal on
+whom she reposed her hopes.
+
+"An I were once rid of this peril," thought he, "and if any man
+shall find me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant, he
+shall have leave to beat my brains out with my own sledge-
+hammer!"
+
+At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and
+the domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said,
+expended sixty thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a
+million of our present money.
+
+The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed
+seven acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables,
+and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres,
+and the rest formed the large base-court or outer yard of the
+noble Castle.  The lordly structure itself, which rose near the
+centre of this spacious enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of
+magnificent castellated buildings, apparently of different ages,
+surrounding an inner court, and bearing in the names attached to
+each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the armorial
+bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs
+who had long passed away, and whose history, could Ambition have
+lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty favourite
+who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain.  A large
+and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of
+uncertain though great antiquity.  It bore the name of Caesar,
+perhaps from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so
+called.  Some antiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of
+Kenelph, from whom the Castle had its name, a Saxon King of
+Mercia, and others to an early era after the Norman Conquest.  On
+the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon of the Clintons, by whom
+they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and of the yet more
+redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons' wars,
+Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III.  Here Mortimer,
+Earl of March, famous alike for his rise and his fall, had once
+gaily revelled in Kenilworth, while his dethroned sovereign,
+Edward II., languished in its dungeons.  Old John of Gaunt,
+"time-honoured Lancaster," had widely extended the Castle,
+erecting that noble and massive pile which yet bears the name of
+Lancaster's Buildings; and Leicester himself had outdone the
+former possessors, princely and powerful as they were, by
+erecting another immense structure, which now lies crushed under
+its own ruins, the monument of its owner's ambition.  The
+external wall of this royal Castle was, on the south and west
+sides, adorned and defended by a lake partly artificial, across
+which Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth
+might enter the Castle by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of
+the usual entrance to the northward, over which he had erected a
+gatehouse or barbican, which still exists, and is equal in
+extent, and superior in architecture, to the baronial castle of
+many a northern chief.
+
+Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red deer, fallow
+deer, roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty
+trees, from amongst which the extended front and massive towers
+of the Castle were seen to rise in majesty and beauty.  We cannot
+but add, that of this lordly palace, where princes feasted and
+heroes fought, now in the bloody earnest of storm and siege, and
+now in the games of chivalry, where beauty dealt the prize which
+valour won, all is now desolate.  The bed of the lake is but a
+rushy swamp; and the massive ruins of the Castle only serve to
+show what their splendour once was, and to impress on the musing
+visitor the transitory value of human possessions, and the
+happiness of those who enjoy a humble lot in virtuous
+contentment.
+
+It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate Countess
+of Leicester viewed those grey and massive towers, when she first
+beheld them rise above the embowering and richly-shaded woods,
+over which they seemed to preside.  She, the undoubted wife of
+the great Earl, of Elizabeth's minion, and England's mighty
+favourite, was approaching the presence of her husband, and that
+husband's sovereign, under the protection, rather than the
+guidance, of a poor juggler; and though unquestioned Mistress of
+that proud Castle, whose lightest word ought to have had force
+sufficient to make its gates leap from their massive hinges to
+receive her, yet she could not conceal from herself the
+difficulty and peril which she must experience in gaining
+admission into her own halls.
+
+The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment,
+and at length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further
+progress at the great gate leading to a broad and fair road,
+which, traversing the breadth of the chase for the space of two
+miles, and commanding several most beautiful views of the Castle
+and lake, terminated at the newly constructed bridge, to which it
+was an appendage, and which was destined to form the Queen's
+approach to the Castle on that memorable occasion.
+
+Here the Countess and Wayland found the gate at the end of this
+avenue, which opened on the Warwick road, guarded by a body of
+the Queen's mounted yeomen of the guard, armed in corselets
+richly carved and gilded, and wearing morions instead of bonnets,
+having their carabines resting with the butt-end on their thighs.
+These guards, distinguished for strength and stature, who did
+duty wherever the Queen went in person, were here stationed under
+the direction of a pursuivant, graced with the Bear and Ragged
+Staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl of Leicester, and
+peremptorily refused all admittance, excepting to such as were
+guests invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform
+some part in the mirthful exhibitions which were proposed.
+
+The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and
+persons of all kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance;
+to which the guards turned an inexorable ear, pleading, in return
+to fair words, and even to fair offers, the strictness of their
+orders, founded on the Queen's well-known dislike to the rude
+pressing of a multitude.  With those whom such reasons did not
+serve,they dealt more rudely, repelling them without ceremony by
+the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses, and good round
+blows from the stock of their carabines.  These last manoeuvres
+produced undulations amongst the crowd, which rendered Wayland
+much afraid that he might perforce be separated from his charge
+in the throng.  Neither did he know what excuse to make in order
+to obtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his head
+with great uncertainty, when the Earl's pursuivant, having cast
+an eye upon him, exclaimed, to his no small surprise, "Yeomen,
+make room for the fellow in the orange-tawny cloak.--Come
+forward, Sir Coxcomb, and make haste.  What, in the fiend's name,
+has kept you waiting? Come forward with your bale of woman's
+gear."
+
+While the pursuivant gave Wayland this pressing yet uncourteous
+invitation, which, for a minute or two, he could not imagine was
+applied to him, the yeomen speedily made a free passage for him,
+while, only cautioning his companion to keep the muffler close
+around her face, he entered the gate leading her palfrey, but
+with such a drooping crest, and such a look of conscious fear and
+anxiety, that the crowd, not greatly pleased at any rate with the
+preference bestowed upon them, accompanied their admission with
+hooting and a loud laugh of derision.
+
+Admitted thus within the chase, though with no very flattering
+notice or distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward,
+musing what difficulties it would be next their lot to encounter,
+through the broad avenue, which was sentinelled on either side by
+a long line of retainers, armed with swords, and partisans richly
+dressed in the Earl of Leicester's liveries, and bearing his
+cognizance of the Bear and Ragged Staff, each placed within three
+paces of each other, so as to line the whole road from the
+entrance into the park to the bridge.  And, indeed, when the lady
+obtained the first commanding view of the Castle, with its
+stately towers rising from within a long, sweeping line of
+outward walls, ornamented with battlements and turrets and
+platforms at every point of defence, with many a banner streaming
+from its walls, and such a bustle of gay crests and waving plumes
+disposed on the terraces and battlements, and all the gay and
+gorgeous scene, her heart, unaccustomed to such splendour, sank
+as if it died within her, and for a moment she asked herself what
+she had offered up to Leicester to deserve to become the partner
+of this princely splendour.  But her pride and generous spirit
+resisted the whisper which bade her despair.
+
+"I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give.  Name
+and fame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this
+magnificence at the altar, and England's Queen could give him no
+more.  He is my husband--I am his wife--whom God hath joined, man
+cannot sunder.  I will be bold in claiming my right; even the
+bolder, that I come thus unexpected, and thus forlorn.  I know my
+noble Dudley well!  He will be something impatient at my
+disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley will forgive her."
+
+These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her
+guide Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the
+body by a pair of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one
+who had dropped himself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his
+horse, amidst the shouts of laughter which burst from the
+sentinels.
+
+"This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!"  said
+Wayland, after a vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse
+the urchin who clung to him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such
+acorns?"
+
+"In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct,
+"and many others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you
+are, without my teaching you.  How would you have passed the
+pursuivant at the upper gate yonder, had not I warned him our
+principal juggler was to follow us? And here have I waited for
+you, having clambered up into the tree from the top of the wain;
+and I suppose they are all mad for want of me by this time,"
+
+"Nay, then, thou art a limb of the devil in good earnest," said
+Wayland.  "I give thee way, good imp, and will walk by thy
+counsel; only, as thou art powerful be merciful."
+
+As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south
+extremity of the long bridge we have mentioned, which served to
+protect the outer gateway of the Castle of Kenilworth.
+
+Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular
+company, did the unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for
+the first time, the magnificent abode of her almost princely
+husband.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+SNUG.   Have you the lion's part written?  pray, if it be, give
+        it me, for I am slow of study.
+QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
+                                 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
+
+When the Countess of Leicester arrived at the outer gate of the
+Castle of Kenilworth, she found the tower, beneath which its
+ample portal arch opened, guarded in a singular manner.  Upon the
+battlements were placed gigantic warders, with clubs, battle-
+axes, and other implements of ancient warfare, designed to
+represent the soldiers of King Arthur; those primitive Britons,
+by whom, according to romantic tradition, the Castle had been
+first tenanted, though history carried back its antiquity only to
+the times of the Heptarchy.
+
+Some of these tremendous figures were real men, dressed up with
+vizards and buskins; others were mere pageants composed of
+pasteboard and buckram, which, viewed from beneath, and mingled
+with those that were real, formed a sufficiently striking
+representation of what was intended.  But the gigantic porter who
+waited at the gate beneath, and actually discharged the duties of
+warder, owed none of his terrors to fictitious means.  We was a
+man whose huge stature, thews, sinews, and bulk in proportion,
+would have enabled him to enact Colbrand, Ascapart, or any other
+giant of romance, without raising himself nearer to heaven even
+by the altitude of a chopin.  The legs and knees of this son of
+Anak were bare, as were his arms from a span below the shoulder;
+but his feet were defended with sandals, fastened with cross
+straps of scarlet leather studded with brazen knobs.  A close
+jerkin of scarlet velvet looped with gold, with short breeches of
+the same, covered his body and a part of his limbs; and he wore
+on his shoulders, instead of a cloak, the skin of a black bear.
+The head of this formidable person was uncovered, except by his
+shaggy, black hair, which descended on either side around
+features of that huge, lumpish, and heavy cast which are often
+annexed to men of very uncommon size, and which, notwithstanding
+some distinguished exceptions, have created a general prejudice
+against giants, as being a dull and sullen kind of persons.  This
+tremendous warder was appropriately armed with a heavy club
+spiked with steel.  In fine, he represented excellently one of
+those giants of popular romance, who figure in every fairy tale
+or legend of knight-errantry.
+
+The demeanour of this modern Titan, when Wayland Smith bent his
+attention to him, had in it something arguing much mental
+embarrassment and vexation; for sometimes he sat down for an
+instant on a massive stone bench, which seemed placed for his
+accommodation beside the gateway, and then ever and anon he
+started up, scratching his huge head, and striding to and fro on
+his post, like one under a fit of impatience and anxiety.  It was
+while the porter was pacing before the gate in this agitated
+manner, that Wayland, modestly, yet as a matter of course (not,
+however, without some mental misgiving), was about to pass him,
+and enter the portal arch.  The porter, however, stopped his
+progress, bidding him, in a thundering voice, "Stand back!"  and
+enforcing his injunction by heaving up his steel-shod mace, and
+dashing it on the ground before Wayland's horse's nose with such
+vehemence that the pavement flashed fire, and the archway rang to
+the clamour.  Wayland, availing himself of Dickie's hints, began
+to state that he belonged to a band of performers to which his
+presence was indispensable, that he had been accidentally
+detained behind, and much to the same purpose.  But the warder
+was inexorable, and kept muttering and murmuring something
+betwixt his teeth, which Wayland could make little of; and
+addressing betwixt whiles a refusal of admittance, couched in
+language which was but too intelligible.  A specimen of his
+speech might run thus:--"What, how now, my masters?"  (to
+himself)--"Here's a stir--here's a coil."--(Then to Wayland)--
+"You are a loitering knave, and shall have no entrance."--(Again
+to himself)--"Here's a throng--here's a thrusting.--I shall ne'er
+get through with it--Here's a--humph--ha."--(To Wayland)--"Back
+from the gate, or I'll break the pate of thee."--(Once more to
+himself)--"Here's a--no--I shall never get through it."
+
+"Stand still," whispered Flibbertigibbet into Wayland's ear, "I
+know where the shoe pinches, and will tame him in an instant."
+
+He dropped down from the horse, and skipping up to the porter,
+plucked him by the tail of the bearskin, so as to induce him to
+decline his huge head, and whispered something in his ear.  Not
+at the command of the lord of some Eastern talisman did ever
+Afrite change his horrid frown into a look of smooth submission
+more suddenly than the gigantic porter of Kenilworth relaxed the
+terrors of his looks at the instant Flibbertigibbet's whisper
+reached his ears.  He flung his club upon the ground, and caught
+up Dickie Sludge, raising him to such a distance from the earth
+as might have proved perilous had he chanced to let him slip.
+
+"It is even so," he said, with a thundering sound of exultation
+--"it is even so, my little dandieprat.  But who the devil could
+teach it thee?"
+
+"Do not thou care about that," said Flibbertigibbet--"but--" he
+looked at Wayland and the lady, and then sunk what he had to say
+in a whisper, which needed not be a loud one, as the giant held
+him for his convenience close to his ear.  The porter then gave
+Dickie a warm caress, and set him on the ground with the same
+care which a careful housewife uses in replacing a cracked china
+cup upon her mantelpiece, calling out at the same time to Wayland
+and the lady, "In with you--in with you!  and take heed how you
+come too late another day when I chance to be porter."
+
+"Ay, ay, in with you," added Flibbertigibbet; "I must stay a
+short space with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of Gath here;
+but I will be with you anon, and at the bottom of all your
+secrets, were they as deep and dark as the Castle dungeon."
+
+"I do believe thou wouldst," said Wayland; "but I trust the
+secret will be soon out of my keeping, and then I shall care the
+less whether thou or any one knows it."
+
+They now crossed the entrance tower, which obtained the name of
+the Gallery-tower, from the following circumstance: The whole
+bridge, extending from the entrance to another tower on the
+opposite side of the lake, called Mortimer's Tower, was so
+disposed as to make a spacious tilt-yard, about one hundred and
+thirty yards in length, and ten in breadth, strewed with the
+finest sand, and defended on either side by strong and high
+palisades.  The broad and fair gallery, destined for the ladies
+who were to witness the feats of chivalry presented on this area,
+was erected on the northern side of the outer tower, to which it
+gave name.  Our travellers passed slowly along the bridge or
+tilt-yard, and arrived at Mortimer's Tower, at its farthest
+extremity, through which the approach led into the outer or base-
+court of the Castle.  Mortimer's Tower bore on its front the
+scutcheon of the Earl of March, whose daring ambition overthrew
+the throne of Edward II., and aspired to share his power with the
+"She-wolf of France," to whom the unhappy monarch was wedded.
+The gate, which opened under this ominous memorial, was guarded
+by many warders in rich liveries; but they offered no opposition
+to the entrance of the Countess and her guide, who, having passed
+by license of the principal porter at the Gallery-tower, were
+not, it may be supposed, liable to interruption from his
+deputies.  They entered accordingly, in silence, the great
+outward court of the Castle, having then full before them that
+vast and lordly pile, with all its stately towers, each gate
+open, as if in sign of unlimited hospitality, and the apartments
+filled with noble guests of every degree, besides dependants,
+retainers, domestics of every description, and all the appendages
+and promoters of mirth and revelry.
+
+Amid this stately and busy scene Wayland halted his horse, and
+looked upon the lady, as if waiting her commands what was next to
+be done, since they had safely reached the place of destination.
+As she remained silent, Wayland, after waiting a minute or two,
+ventured to ask her, in direct terms, what were her next
+commands.  She raised her hand to her forehead, as if in the act
+of collecting her thoughts and resolution, while she answered him
+in a low and suppressed voice, like the murmurs of one who speaks
+in a dream--"Commands?  I may indeed claim right to command, but
+who is there will obey me!"
+
+Then suddenly raising her head, like one who has formed a
+decisive resolution, she addressed a gaily-dressed domestic, who
+was crossing the court with importance and bustle in his
+countenance, "Stop, sir," she said; "I desire to speak with, the
+Earl of Leicester."
+
+"With whom, an it please you?"  said the man, surprised at the
+demand; and then looking upon the mean equipage of her who used
+towards him such a tone of authority, he added, with insolence,
+"Why, what Bess of Bedlam is this would ask to see my lord on
+such a day as the present?"
+
+"Friend," said the Countess, "be not insolent--my business with
+the Earl is most urgent."
+
+"You must get some one else to do it, were it thrice as urgent,"
+said the fellow.  "I should summon my lord from the Queen's royal
+presence to do YOUR business, should I?--I were like to be
+thanked with a horse-whip.  I marvel our old porter took not
+measure of such ware with his club, instead of giving them
+passage; but his brain is addled with getting his speech by
+heart."
+
+Two or three persons stopped, attracted by the fleering way in
+which the serving-man expressed himself; and Wayland, alarmed
+both for himself and the lady, hastily addressed himself to one
+who appeared the most civil, and thrusting a piece of money into
+his hand, held a moment's counsel with him on the subject of
+finding a place of temporary retreat for the lady.  The person to
+whom he spoke, being one in some authority, rebuked the others
+for their incivility, and commanding one fellow to take care of
+the strangers' horses, he desired them to follow him.  The
+Countess retained presence of mind sufficient to see that it was
+absolutely necessary she should comply with his request; and
+leaving the rude lackeys and grooms to crack their brutal jests
+about light heads, light heels, and so forth, Wayland and she
+followed in silence the deputy-usher, who undertook to be their
+conductor.
+
+They entered the inner court of the Castle by the great gateway,
+which extended betwixt the principal Keep, or Donjon, called
+Caesar's Tower, and a stately building which passed by the name
+of King Henry's Lodging, and were thus placed in the centre of
+the noble pile, which presented on its different fronts
+magnificent specimens of every species of castellated
+architecture, from the Conquest to the reign of Elizabeth, with
+the appropriate style and ornaments of each.
+
+Across this inner court also they were conducted by their guide
+to a small but strong tower, occupying the north-east angle of
+the building, adjacent to the great hall, and filling up a space
+betwixt the immense range of kitchens and the end of the great
+hall itself.  The lower part of this tower was occupied by some
+of the household officers of Leicester, owing to its convenient
+vicinity to the places where their duty lay; but in the upper
+story, which was reached by a narrow, winding stair, was a small
+octangular chamber, which, in the great demand for lodgings, had
+been on the present occasion fitted up for the reception of
+guests, though generally said to have been used as a place of
+confinement for some unhappy person who had been there murdered.
+Tradition called this prisoner Mervyn, and transferred his name
+to the tower.  That it had been used as a prison was not
+improbable; for the floor of each story was arched, the walls of
+tremendous thickness, while the space of the chamber did not
+exceed fifteen feet in diameter.  The window, however, was
+pleasant, though narrow, and commanded a delightful view of what
+was called the Pleasance; a space of ground enclosed and
+decorated with arches, trophies, statues, fountains, and other
+architectural monuments, which formed one access from the Castle
+itself into the garden.  There was a bed in the apartment, and
+other preparations for the reception of a guest, to which the
+Countess paid but slight attention, her notice being instantly
+arrested by the sight of writing materials placed on the table
+(not very commonly to be found in the bedrooms of those days),
+which instantly suggested the idea of writing to Leicester, and
+remaining private until she had received his answer.
+
+The deputy-usher having introduced them into this commodious
+apartment, courteously asked Wayland, whose generosity he had
+experienced, whether he could do anything further for his
+service.  Upon receiving a gentle hint that some refreshment
+would not be unacceptable, he presently conveyed the smith to the
+buttery-hatch, where dressed provisions of all sorts were
+distributed, with hospitable profusion, to all who asked for
+them.  Wayland was readily supplied with some light provisions,
+such as he thought would best suit the faded appetite of the
+lady, and did not omit the opportunity of himself making a hasty
+but hearty meal on more substantial fare.  He then returned to
+the apartment in the turret, where he found the Countess, who had
+finished her letter to Leicester, and in lieu of a seal and
+silken thread, had secured it with a braid of her own beautiful
+tresses, fastened by what is called a true-love knot.
+
+"Good friend," said she to Wayland, "whom God hath sent to aid me
+at my utmost need, I do beseech thee, as the last trouble you
+shall take for an unfortunate lady, to deliver this letter to the
+noble Earl of Leicester.  Be it received as it may," she said,
+with features agitated betwixt hope and fear, "thou, good fellow,
+shalt have no more cumber with me.  But I hope the best; and if
+ever lady made a poor man rich, thou hast surely deserved it at
+my hand, should my happy days ever come round again.  Give it, I
+pray you, into Lord Leicester's own hand, and mark how he looks
+on receiving it."
+
+Wayland, on his part, readily undertook the commission, but
+anxiously prayed the lady, in his turn, to partake of some
+refreshment; in which he at length prevailed, more through
+importunity and her desire to see him begone on his errand than
+from any inclination the Countess felt to comply with his
+request.  He then left her, advising her to lock her door on the
+inside, and not to stir from her little apartment; and went to
+seek an opportunity of discharging her errand, as well as of
+carrying into effect a purpose of his own, which circumstances
+had induced him to form.
+
+In fact, from the conduct of the lady during the journey--her
+long fits of profound silence, the irresolution and uncertainty
+which seemed to pervade all her movements, and the obvious
+incapacity of thinking and acting for herself under which she
+seemed to labour--Wayland had formed the not improbable opinion
+that the difficulties of her situation had in some degree
+affected her understanding.
+
+When she had escaped from the seclusion of Cumnor Place, and the
+dangers to which she was there exposed, it would have seemed her
+most rational course to retire to her father's, or elsewhere at a
+distance from the power of those by whom these dangers had been
+created.  When, instead of doing so, she demanded to be conveyed
+to Kenilworth, Wayland had been only able to account for her
+conduct by supposing that she meant to put herself under the
+tutelage of Tressilian, and to appeal to the protection of the
+Queen.  But now, instead of following this natural course, she
+entrusted him with a letter to Leicester, the patron of Varney,
+and within whose jurisdiction at least, if not under his express
+authority, all the evils she had already suffered were inflicted
+upon her.  This seemed an unsafe and even a desperate measure,
+and Wayland felt anxiety for his own safety, as well as that of
+the lady, should he execute her commission before he had secured
+the advice and countenance of a protector.
+
+He therefore resolved, before delivering the letter to Leicester,
+that he would seek out Tressilian, and communicate to him the
+arrival of the lady at Kenilworth, and thus at once rid himself
+of all further responsibility, and devolve the task of guiding
+and protecting this unfortunate lady upon the patron who had at
+first employed him in her service.
+
+"He will be a better judge than I am," said Wayland, "whether she
+is to be gratified in this humour of appeal to my Lord of
+Leicester, which seems like an act of insanity; and, therefore, I
+will turn the matter over on his hands, deliver him the letter,
+receive what they list to give me by way of guerdon, and then
+show the Castle of Kenilworth a pair of light heels; for, after
+the work I have been engaged in, it will be, I fear, neither a
+safe nor wholesome place of residence, and I would rather shoe
+colts an the coldest common in England than share in their gayest
+revels."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+In my time I have seen a boy do wonders.
+Robin, the red tinker, had a boy
+Would ha run through a cat-hole.    THE COXCOMB.
+
+Amid the universal bustle which filled the Castle and its
+environs, it was no easy matter to find out any individual; and
+Wayland was still less likely to light upon Tressilian, whom he
+sought so anxiously, because, sensible of the danger of
+attracting attention in the circumstances in which he was placed,
+he dared not make general inquiries among the retainers or
+domestics of Leicester.  He learned, however, by indirect
+questions, that in all probability Tressilian must have been one
+of a large party of gentlemen in attendance on the Earl of
+Sussex, who had accompanied their patron that morning to
+Kenilworth, when Leicester had received them with marks of the
+most formal respect and distinction.  He further learned that
+both Earls, with their followers, and many other nobles, knights,
+and gentlemen, had taken horse, and gone towards Warwick several
+hours since, for the purpose of escorting the Queen to
+Kenilworth.
+
+Her Majesty's arrival, like other great events, was delayed from
+hour to hour; and it was now announced by a breathless post that
+her Majesty, being detained by her gracious desire to receive the
+homage of her lieges who had thronged to wait upon her at
+Warwick, it would be the hour of twilight ere she entered the
+Castle.  The intelligence released for a time those who were upon
+duty, in the immediate expectation of the Queen's appearance, and
+ready to play their part in the solemnities with which it was to
+be accompanied; and Wayland, seeing several horsemen enter the
+Castle, was not without hopes that Tressilian might be of the
+number.  That he might not lose an opportunity of meeting his
+patron in the event of this being the case, Wayland placed
+himself in the base-court of the Castle, near Mortimer's Tower,
+and watched every one who went or came by the bridge, the
+extremity of which was protected by that building.  Thus
+stationed, nobody could enter or leave the Castle without his
+observation, and most anxiously did he study the garb and
+countenance of every horseman, as, passing from under the
+opposite Gallery-tower, they paced slowly, or curveted, along the
+tilt-yard, and approached the entrance of the base-court.
+
+But while Wayland gazed thus eagerly to discover him whom he saw
+not, he was pulled by the sleeve by one by whom he himself would
+not willingly have been seen.
+
+This was Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, who, like the imp
+whose name he bore, and whom he had been accoutred in order to
+resemble, seemed to be ever at the ear of those who thought least
+of him.  Whatever were Wayland's internal feelings, he judged it
+necessary to express pleasure at their unexpected meeting.
+
+"Ha!  is it thou, my minikin--my miller's thumb--my prince of
+cacodemons--my little mouse?"
+
+"Ay," said Dickie, "the mouse which gnawed asunder the toils,
+just when the lion who was caught in them began to look
+wonderfully like an ass."
+
+"Thy, thou little hop-the-gutter, thou art as sharp as vinegar
+this afternoon!  But tell me, how didst thou come off with yonder
+jolterheaded giant whom I left thee with?  I was afraid he would
+have stripped thy clothes, and so swallowed thee, as men peel and
+eat a roasted chestnut."
+
+"Had he done so," replied the boy, "he would have had more brains
+in his guts than ever he had in his noddle.  But the giant is a
+courteous monster, and more grateful than many other folk whom I
+have helped at a pinch, Master Wayland Smith."
+
+"Beshrew me, Flibbertigibbet," replied Wayland, "but thou art
+sharper than a Sheffield whittle!  I would I knew by what charm
+you muzzled yonder old bear."
+
+"Ay, that is in your own manner," answered Dickie; "you think
+fine speeches will pass muster instead of good-will.  However, as
+to this honest porter, you must know that when we presented
+ourselves at the gate yonder, his brain was over-burdened with a
+speech that had been penned for him, and which proved rather an
+overmatch for his gigantic faculties.  Now this same pithy
+oration had been indited, like sundry others, by my learned
+magister, Erasmus Holiday, so I had heard it often enough to
+remember every line.  As soon as I heard him blundering and
+floundering like a fish upon dry land, through the first verse,
+and perceived him at a stand, I knew where the shoe pinched, and
+helped him to the next word, when he caught me up in an ecstasy,
+even as you saw but now.  I promised, as the price of your
+admission, to hide me under his bearish gaberdine, and prompt him
+in the hour of need.  I have just now been getting some food in
+the Castle, and am about to return to him."
+
+"That's right--that's right, my dear Dickie," replied Wayland;
+"haste thee, for Heaven's sake!  else the poor giant will be
+utterly disconsolate for want of his dwarfish auxiliary.  Away
+with thee, Dickie!"
+
+"Ay, ay!"  answered the boy--"away with Dickie, when we have got
+what good of him we can.  You will not let me know the story of
+this lady, then, who is as much sister of thine as I am?"
+
+"Why, what good would it do thee, thou silly elf?"  said Wayland.
+
+"Oh, stand ye on these terms?"  said the boy.  "Well, I care not
+greatly about the matter--only, I never smell out a secret but I
+try to be either at the right or the wrong end of it, and so good
+evening to ye."
+
+"Nay, but, Dickie," said Wayland, who knew the boy's restless and
+intriguing disposition too well not to fear his enmity--"stay, my
+dear Dickie--part not with old friends so shortly!  Thou shalt
+know all I know of the lady one day."
+
+"Ay!"  said Dickie; "and that day may prove a nigh one.  Fare
+thee well, Wayland--I will to my large-limbed friend, who, if he
+have not so sharp a wit as some folk, is at least more grateful
+for the service which other folk render him.  And so again, good
+evening to ye."
+
+So saying, he cast a somerset through the gateway, and lighting
+on the bridge, ran with the extraordinary agility which was one
+of his distinguishing attributes towards the Gallery-tower, and
+was out of sight in an instant.
+
+"I would to God I were safe out of this Castle again!"  prayed
+Wayland internally; "for now that this mischievous imp has put
+his finger in the pie, it cannot but prove a mess fit for the
+devil's eating.  I would to Heaven Master Tressilian would
+appear!"
+
+Tressilian, whom he was thus anxiously expecting in one
+direction, had returned to Kenilworth by another access.  It was
+indeed true, as Wayland had conjectured, that in the earlier part
+of the day he had accompanied the Earls on their cavalcade
+towards Warwick, not without hope that he might in that town hear
+some tidings of his emissary.  Being disappointed in this
+expectation, and observing Varney amongst Leicester's attendants,
+seeming as if he had some purpose of advancing to and addressing
+him, he conceived, in the present circumstances, it was wisest to
+avoid the interview.  He, therefore, left the presence-chamber
+when the High-Sheriff of the county was in the very midst of his
+dutiful address to her Majesty; and mounting his horse, rode back
+to Kenilworth by a remote and circuitous road, and entered the
+Castle by a small sallyport in the western wall, at which he was
+readily admitted as one of the followers of the Earl of Sussex,
+towards whom Leicester had commanded the utmost courtesy to be
+exercised.  It was thus that he met not Wayland, who was
+impatiently watching his arrival, and whom he himself would have
+been at least equally desirous to see.
+
+Having delivered his horse to the charge of his attendant, he
+walked for a space in the Pleasance and in the garden, rather to
+indulge in comparative solitude his own reflections, than to
+admire those singular beauties of nature and art which the
+magnificence of Leicester had there assembled.  The greater part
+of the persons of condition had left the Castle for the present,
+to form part of the Earl's cavalcade; others, who remained
+behind, were on the battlements, outer walls, and towers, eager
+to view the splendid spectacle of the royal entry.  The garden,
+therefore, while every other part of the Castle resounded with
+the human voice, was silent but for the whispering of the leaves,
+the emulous warbling of the tenants of a large aviary with their
+happier companions who remained denizens of the free air, and the
+plashing of the fountains, which, forced into the air from
+sculptures of fatastic and grotesque forms, fell down with
+ceaseless sound into the great basins of Italian marble.
+
+The melancholy thoughts of Tressilian cast a gloomy shade on all
+the objects with which he was surrounded.  He compared the
+magnificent scenes which he here traversed with the deep woodland
+and wild moorland which surrounded Lidcote Hall, and the image of
+Amy Robsart glided like a phantom through every landscape which
+his imagination summoned up.  Nothing is perhaps more dangerous
+to the future happiness of men of deep thought and retired habits
+than the entertaining an early, long, and unfortunate attachment.
+It frequently sinks so deep into the mind that it becomes their
+dream by night and their vision by day--mixes itself with every
+source of interest and enjoyment; and when blighted and withered
+by final disappointment, it seems as if the springs of the heart
+were dried up along with it.  This aching of the heart, this
+languishing after a shadow which has lost all the gaiety of its
+colouring, this dwelling on the remembrance of a dream from which
+we have been long roughly awakened, is the weakness of a gentle
+and generous heart, and it was that of Tressilian.
+
+He himself at length became sensible of the necessity of forcing
+other objects upon his mind; and for this purpose he left the
+Pleasance, in order to mingle with the noisy crowd upon the
+walls, and view the preparation for the pageants.  But as he left
+the garden, and heard the busy hum, mixed with music and
+laughter, which floated around him, he felt an uncontrollable
+reluctance to mix with society whose feelings were in a tone so
+different from his own, and resolved, instead of doing so, to
+retire to the chamber assigned him, and employ himself in study
+until the tolling of the great Castle bell should announce the
+arrival of Elizabeth.
+
+Tressilian crossed accordingly by the passage betwixt the immense
+range of kitchens and the great hall, and ascended to the third
+story of Mervyn's Tower, and applying himself to the door of the
+small apartment which had been allotted to him, was surprised to
+find it was locked.  He then recollected that the deputy-
+chamberlain had given him a master-key, advising him, in the
+present confused state of the Castle, to keep his door as much
+shut as possible.  He applied this key to the lock, the bolt
+revolved, he entered, and in the same instant saw a female form
+seated in the apartment, and recognized that form to be, Amy
+Robsart.  His first idea was that a heated imagination had raised
+the image on which it doted into visible existence; his second,
+that he beheld an apparition; the third and abiding conviction,
+that it was Amy herself, paler, indeed, and thinner, than in the
+days of heedless happiness, when she possessed the form and hue
+of a wood-nymph, with the beauty of a sylph--but still Amy,
+unequalled in loveliness by aught which had ever visited his
+eyes.
+
+The astonishment of the Countess was scarce less than that of
+Tressilian, although it was of shorter duration, because she had
+heard from Wayland that he was in the Castle.  She had started up
+at his first entrance, and now stood facing him, the paleness of
+her cheeks having given way to a deep blush.
+
+"Tressilian," she said, at length, "why come you here?"
+
+"Nay, why come you here, Amy," returned Tressilian, "unless it be
+at length to claim that aid, which, as far as one man's heart and
+arm can extend, shall instantly be rendered to you?"
+
+She was silent a moment, and then answered in a sorrowful rather
+than an angry tone, "I require no aid, Tressilian, and would
+rather be injured than benefited by any which your kindness can
+offer me.  Believe me, I am near one whom law and love oblige to
+protect me."
+
+"The villain, then, hath done you the poor justice which remained
+in his power," said Tressilian, "and I behold before me the wife
+of Varney!"
+
+"The wife of Varney!"  she replied, with all the emphasis of
+scorn.  "With what base name, sir, does your boldness stigmatize
+the--the--the--" She hesitated, dropped her tone of scorn, looked
+down, and was confused and silent; for she recollected what fatal
+consequences might attend her completing the sentence with "the
+Countess of Leicester," which were the words that had naturally
+suggested themselves.  It would have been a betrayal of the
+secret, on which her husband had assured her that his fortunes
+depended, to Tressilian, to Sussex, to the Queen, and to the
+whole assembled court.  "Never," she thought, "will I break my
+promised silence.  I will submit to every suspicion rather than
+that."
+
+The tears rose to her eyes, as she stood silent before
+Tressilian; while, looking on her with mingled grief and pity, he
+said, "Alas!  Amy, your eyes contradict your tongue.  That
+speaks of a protector, willing and able to watch over you; but
+these tell me you are ruined, and deserted by the wretch to whom
+you have attached yourself."
+
+She looked on him with eyes in which anger sparkled through her
+tears, but only repeated the word "wretch!"  with a scornful
+emphasis.
+
+"Yes, WRETCH!"  said Tressilian; "for were he aught better, why
+are you here, and alone, in my apartment?  why was not fitting
+provision made for your honourable reception?"
+
+"In your apartment?"  repeated Amy--"in YOUR apartment?  It shall
+instantly be relieved of my presence."  She hastened towards the
+door; but the sad recollection of her deserted state at once
+pressed on her mind, and pausing on the threshold, she added, in
+a tone unutterably pathetic, "Alas!  I had forgot--I know not
+where to go--"
+
+"I see--I see it all," said Tressilian, springing to her side,
+and leading her back to the seat, on which she sunk down.  "You
+DO need aid--you do need protection, though you will not own it;
+and you shall not need it long.  Leaning on my arm, as the
+representative of your excellent and broken-hearted father, on
+the very threshold of the Castle gate, you shall meet Elizabeth;
+and the first deed she shall do in the halls of Kenilworth shall
+be an act of justice to her sex and her subjects.  Strong in my
+good cause, and in the Queen's justice, the power of her minion
+shall not shake my resolution.  I will instantly seek Sussex."
+
+"Not for all that is under heaven!"  said the Countess, much
+alarmed, and feeling the absolute necessity of obtaining time, at
+least, for consideration.  "Tressilian, you were wont to be
+generous.  Grant me one request, and believe, if it be your wish
+to save me from misery and from madness, you will do more by
+making me the promise I ask of you, than Elizabeth can do for me
+with all her power."
+
+"Ask me anything for which you can allege reason," said
+Tressilian; "but demand not of me--"
+
+"Oh, limit not your boon, dear Edmund!"  exclaimed the Countess
+--"you once loved that I should call you so--limit not your boon
+to reason; for my case is all madness, and frenzy must guide the
+counsels which alone can aid me."
+
+"If you speak thus wildly," said Tressilian, astonishment again
+overpowering both his grief and his resolution, "I must believe
+you indeed incapable of thinking or acting for yourself."
+
+"Oh, no!"  she exclaimed, sinking on one knee before him, "I am
+not mad--I am but a creature unutterably miserable, and, from
+circumstances the most singular, dragged on to a precipice by the
+arm of him who thinks he is keeping me from it--even by yours,
+Tressilian--by yours, whom I have honoured, respected--all but
+loved--and yet loved, too--loved, too, Tressilian--though not as
+you wished to be."
+
+There was an energy, a self-possession, an abandonment in her
+voice and manner, a total resignation of herself to his
+generosity, which, together with the kindness of her expressions
+to himself, moved him deeply.  He raised her, and, in broken
+accents, entreated her to be comforted.
+
+"I cannot," she said, "I will not be comforted, till you grant me
+my request!  I will speak as plainly as I dare.  I am now
+awaiting the commands of one who has a right to issue them.  The
+interference of a third person--of you in especial, Tressilian--
+will be ruin--utter ruin to me.  Wait but four-and-twenty hours,
+and it may be that the poor Amy may have the means to show that
+she values, and can reward, your disinterested friendship--that
+she is happy herself, and has the means to make you so.  It is
+surely worth your patience, for so short a space?"
+
+Tressilian paused, and weighing in his mind the various
+probabilities which might render a violent interference on his
+part more prejudicial than advantageous, both to the happiness
+and reputation of Amy; considering also that she was within the
+walls of Kenilworth, and could suffer no injury in a castle
+honoured with the Queen's residence, and filled with her guards
+and attendants--he conceived, upon the whole, that he might
+render her more evil than good service by intruding upon her his
+appeal to Elizabeth in her behalf.  He expressed his resolution
+cautiously, however, doubting naturally whether Amy's hopes of
+extricating herself from her difficulties rested on anything
+stronger than a blinded attachment to Varney, whom he supposed to
+be her seducer.
+
+"Amy," he said, while he fixed his sad and expressive eyes on
+hers, which, in her ecstasy of doubt, terror, and perplexity, she
+cast up towards him, "I have ever remarked that when others
+called thee girlish and wilful, there lay under that external
+semblance of youthful and self-willed folly deep feeling and
+strong sense.  In this I will confide, trusting your own fate in
+your own hands for the space of twenty-four hours, without my
+interference by word or act."
+
+"Do you promise me this, Tressilian?"  said the Countess.  "Is it
+possible you can yet repose so much confidence in me?  Do you
+promise, as you are a gentleman and a man of honour, to intrude
+in my matters neither by speech nor action, whatever you may see
+or hear that seems to you to demand your interference?  Will you
+so far trust me?"
+
+"I will upon my honour," said Tressilian; "but when that space is
+expired--"
+
+"Then that space is expired," she said, interrupting him, "you
+are free to act as your judgment shall determine."
+
+"Is there nought besides which I can do for you, Amy?"  said
+Tressilian.
+
+"Nothing," said she, "save to leave me,--that is, if--I blush to
+acknowledge my helplessness by asking it--if you can spare me the
+use of this apartment for the next twenty-four hours."
+
+"This is most wonderful!"  said Tressilian; "what hope or
+interest can you have in a Castle where you cannot command even
+an apartment?"
+
+"Argue not, but leave me," she said; and added, as he slowly and
+unwillingly retired, "Generous Edmund!  the time may come when
+Amy may show she deserved thy noble attachment."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+  What, man, ne'er lack a draught, when the full can
+  Stands at thine elbow, and craves emptying!--
+  Nay, fear not me, for I have no delight
+  To watch men's vices, since I have myself
+  Of virtue nought to boast of--I'm a striker,
+  Would have the world strike with me, pell-mell, all.
+                                            PANDEMONIUM.
+
+Tressilian, in strange agitation of mind, had hardly stepped down
+the first two or three steps of the winding staircase, when,
+greatly to his surprise and displeasure, he met Michael
+Lambourne, wearing an impudent familiarity of visage, for which
+Tressilian felt much disposed to throw him down-stairs; until he
+remembered the prejudice which Amy, the only object of his
+solicitude, was likely to receive from his engaging in any act of
+violence at that time and in that place.
+
+He therefore contented himself with looking sternly upon
+Lambourne, as upon one whom he deemed unworthy of notice, and
+attempted to pass him in his way downstairs, without any symptom
+of recognition.  But Lambourne, who, amidst the profusion of that
+day's hospitality, had not failed to take a deep though not an
+overpowering cup of sack, was not in the humour of humbling
+himself before any man's looks.  He stopped Tressilian upon the
+staircase without the least bashfulness or embarrassment, and
+addressed him as if he had been on kind and intimate terms:--
+"What, no grudge between us, I hope, upon old scores, Master
+Tressilian?--nay, I am one who remembers former kindness rather
+than latter feud.  I'll convince you that I meant honestly and
+kindly, ay, and comfortably by you."
+
+"I desire none of your intimacy," said Tressilian--"keep company
+with your mates."
+
+"Now, see how hasty he is!"  said Lambourne; "and how these
+gentles, that are made questionless out of the porcelain clay of
+the earth, look down upon poor Michael Lambourne!  You would take
+Master Tressilian now for the most maid-like, modest, simpering
+squire of dames that ever made love when candles were long i' the
+stuff--snuff; call you it?  Why, you would play the saint on us,
+Master Tressilian, and forget that even now thou hast a commodity
+in thy very bedchamber, to the shame of my lord's castle, ha!
+ha!  ha!  Have I touched you, Master Tressilian?"
+
+"I know not what you mean," said Tressilian, inferring, however,
+too surely, that this licentious ruffian must have been sensible
+of Amy's presence in his apartment; 'i but if," he continued,
+"thou art varlet of the chambers, and lackest a fee, there is one
+to leave mine unmolested."
+
+Lambourne looked at the piece of gold, and put it in his pocket
+saying, "Now, I know not but you might have done more with me by
+a kind word than by this chiming rogue.  But after all he pays
+well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a
+makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the like.  E'en live, and let
+others live, that is my motto-only, I would not let some folks
+cock their beaver at me neither, as if they were made of silver
+ore, and I of Dutch pewter.  So if I keep your secret, Master
+Tressilian, you may look sweet on me at least; and were I to want
+a little backing or countenance, being caught, as you see the
+best of us may be, in a sort of peccadillo--why, you owe it me--
+and so e'en make your chamber serve you and that same bird in
+bower beside--it's all one to Mike Lambourne."
+
+"Make way, sir," said Tressilian, unable to bridle his
+indignation, "you have had your fee."
+
+"Um!"  said Lambourne, giving place, however, while he sulkily
+muttered between his teeth, repeating Tressilian's words, "Make
+way--and you have had your fee; but it matters not, I will spoil
+no sport, as I said before.  I am no dog in the manger--mind
+that."
+
+He spoke louder and louder, as Tressilian, by whom he felt
+himself overawed, got farther and farther out of hearing.
+
+"I am no dog in the manger; but I will not carry coals neither--
+mind that, Master Tressilian; and I will have a peep at this
+wench whom you have quartered so commodiously in your old haunted
+room--afraid of ghosts, belike, and not too willing to sleep
+alone.  If I had done this now in a strange lord's castle, the
+word had been, The porter's lodge for the knave!  and, have him
+flogged--trundle him downstairs like a turnip!  Ay, but your
+virtuous gentlemen take strange privileges over us, who are
+downright servants of our senses.  Well--I have my Master
+Tressilian's head under my belt by this lucky discovery, that is
+one thing certain; and I will try to get a sight of this
+Lindabrides of his, that is another."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+  Now fare thee well, my master--if true service
+  Be guerdon'd with hard looks, e'en cut the tow-line,
+  And let our barks across the pathless flood
+  Hold different courses--        THE SHIPWRECK.
+
+Tressilian walked into the outer yard of the Castle scarce
+knowing what to think of his late strange and most unexpected
+interview with Amy Robsart, and dubious if he had done well,
+being entrusted with the delegated authority of her father, to
+pass his word so solemnly to leave her to her own guidance for so
+many hours.  Yet how could he have denied her request--dependent
+as she had too probably rendered herself upon Varney?  Such was
+his natural reasoning.  The happiness of her future life might
+depend upon his not driving her to extremities; and since no
+authority of Tressilian's could extricate her from the power of
+Varney, supposing he was to acknowledge Amy to be his wife, what
+title had he to destroy the hope of domestic peace, which might
+yet remain to her, by setting enmity betwixt them?  Tressilian
+resolved, therefore, scrupulously to observe his word pledged to
+Amy, both because it had been given, and because, as he still
+thought, while he considered and reconsidered that extraordinary
+interview, it could not with justice or propriety have been
+refused.
+
+In one respect, he had gained much towards securing effectual
+protection for this unhappy and still beloved object of his early
+affection.  Amy was no longer mewed up in a distant and solitary
+retreat under the charge of persons of doubtful reputation.  She
+was in the Castle of Kenilworth, within the verge of the Royal
+Court for the time, free from all risk of violence, and liable to
+be produced before Elizabeth on the first summons.  These were
+circumstances which could not but assist greatly the efforts
+which he might have occasion to use in her behalf.
+
+While he was thus balancing the advantages and perils which
+attended her unexpected presence in Kenilworth, Tressilian was
+hastily and anxiously accosted by Wayland, who, after
+ejaculating, "Thank God, your worship is found at last!"
+proceeded with breathless caution to pour into his ear the
+intelligence that the lady had escaped from Cumnor Place.
+
+"And is at present in this Castle," said Tressilian.  "I know it,
+and I have seen her.  Was it by her own choice she found refuge
+in my apartment?"
+
+"No," answered Wayland; "but I could think of no other way of
+safely bestowing her, and was but too happy to find a deputy-
+usher who knew where you were quartered--in jolly society truly,
+the hall on the one hand, and the kitchen on the other!"
+
+"Peace, this is no time for jesting," answered Tressilian
+sternly.
+
+"I wot that but too well," said the artist, "for I have felt
+these three days as if I had a halter round my neck.  This lady
+knows not her own mind--she will have none of your aid--commands
+you not to be named to her--and is about to put herself into the
+hands of my Lord Leicester.  I had never got her safe into your
+chamber, had she known the owner of it."
+
+"Is it possible"" said Tressilian.  "But she may have hopes the
+Earl will exert his influence in her favour over his villainous
+dependant."
+
+"I know nothing of that," said Wayland; "but I believe, if she is
+to reconcile herself with either Leicester or Varney, the side of
+the Castle of Kenilworth which will be safest for us will be the
+outside, from which we can fastest fly away.  It is not my
+purpose to abide an instant after delivery of the letter to
+Leicester, which waits but your commands to find its way to him.
+See, here it is--but no--a plague on it--I must have left it in
+my dog-hole, in the hay-loft yonder, where I am to sleep."
+
+"Death and fury!"  said Tressilian, transported beyond his usual
+patience; "thou hast not lost that on which may depend a stake
+more important than a thousand such lives as thine?"
+
+"Lost it!"  answered Wayland readily; "that were a jest indeed!
+No, sir, I have it carefully put up with my night-sack, and some
+matters I have occasion to use; I will fetch it in an instant."
+
+"Do so," said Tressilian; "be faithful, and thou shalt be well
+rewarded.  But if I have reason to suspect thee, a dead dog were
+in better case than thou!"
+
+Wayland bowed, and took his leave with seeming confidence and
+alacrity, but, in fact, filled with the utmost dread and
+confusion.  The letter was lost, that was certain,
+notwithstanding the apology which he had made to appease the
+impatient displeasure of Tressilian.  It was lost--it might fall
+into wrong hands--it would then certainly occasion a discovery of
+the whole intrigue in which he had been engaged; nor, indeed, did
+Wayland see much prospect of its remaining concealed, in any
+event.  He felt much hurt, besides, at Tressilian's burst of
+impatience.
+
+"Nay, if I am to be paid in this coin for services where my neck
+is concerned, it is time I should look to myself.  Here have I
+offended, for aught I know, to the death, the lord of this
+stately castle, whose word were as powerful to take away my life
+as the breath which speaks it to blow out a farthing candle.  And
+all this for a mad lady, and a melancholy gallant, who, on the
+loss of a four-nooked bit of paper, has his hand on his poignado,
+and swears death and fury!--Then there is the Doctor and Varney.
+--I will save myself from the whole mess of them.  Life is dearer
+than gold.  I will fly this instant, though I leave my reward
+behind me."
+
+These reflections naturally enough occurred to a mind like
+Wayland's, who found himself engaged far deeper than he had
+expected in a train of mysterious and unintelligible intrigues,
+in which the actors seemed hardly to know their own course.  And
+yet, to do him justice, his personal fears were, in some degree,
+counterbalanced by his compassion for the deserted state of the
+lady.
+
+"I care not a groat for Master Tressilian," he said; "I have done
+more than bargain by him, and I have brought his errant-damosel
+within his reach, so that he may look after her himself.  But I
+fear the poor thing is in much danger amongst these stormy
+spirits.  I will to her chamber, and tell her the fate which has
+befallen her letter, that she may write another if she list.  She
+cannot lack a messenger, I trow, where there are so many lackeys
+that can carry a letter to their lord.  And I will tell her also
+that I leave the Castle, trusting her to God, her own guidance,
+and Master Tressilian's care and looking after.  Perhaps she may
+remember the ring she offered me--it was well earned, I trow; but
+she is a lovely creature, and--marry hang the ring!  I will not
+bear a base spirit for the matter.  If I fare ill in this world
+for my good-nature, I shall have better chance in the next.  So
+now for the lady, and then for the road."
+
+With the stealthy step and jealous eye of the cat that steals on
+her prey, Wayland resumed the way to the Countess's chamber,
+sliding along by the side of the courts and passages, alike
+observant of all around him, and studious himself to escape
+observation.  In this manner he crossed the outward and inward
+Castle yard, and the great arched passage, which, running betwixt
+the range of kitchen offices and the hall, led to the bottom of
+the little winding-stair that gave access to the chambers of
+Mervyn's Tower.
+
+The artist congratulated himself on having escaped the various
+perils of his journey, and was in the act of ascending by two
+steps at once, when he observed that the shadow of a man, thrown
+from a door which stood ajar, darkened the opposite wall of the
+staircase.  Wayland drew back cautiously, went down to the inner
+courtyard, spent about a quarter of an hour, which seemed at
+least quadruple its usual duration, in walking from place to
+place, and then returned to the tower, in hopes to find that the
+lurker had disappeared.  He ascended as high as the suspicious
+spot--there was no shadow on the wall; he ascended a few yards
+farther--the door was still ajar, and he was doubtful whether to
+advance or retreat, when it was suddenly thrown wide open, and
+Michael Lambourne bolted out upon the astonished Wayland.  "Who
+the devil art thou?  and what seekest thou in this part of the
+Castle?  march into that chamber, and be hanged to thee!"
+
+"I am no dog, to go at every man's whistle," said the artist,
+affecting a confidence which was belied by a timid shake in his
+voice.
+
+"Sayest thou me so?--Come hither, Lawrence Staples."
+
+A huge, ill-made and ill-looked fellow, upwards of six feet high,
+appeared at the door, and Lambourne proceeded:  "If thou be'st so
+fond of this tower, my friend, thou shalt see its foundations,
+good twelve feet below the bed of the lake, and tenanted by
+certain jolly toads, snakes, and so forth, which thou wilt find
+mighty good company.  Therefore, once more I ask you in fair
+play, who thou art, and what thou seekest here?"
+
+"If the dungeon-grate once clashes behind me," thought Wayland,
+"I am a gone man." He therefore answered submissively, "He was
+the poor juggler whom his honour had met yesterday in Weatherly
+Bottom."
+
+"And what juggling trick art thou playing in this tower?  Thy
+gang," said Lambourne, "lie over against Clinton's buildings."
+
+"I came here to see my sister," said the juggler, "who is in
+Master Tressilian's chamber, just above."
+
+"Aha!"  said Lambourne, smiling, "here be truths!  Upon my
+honour, for a stranger, this same Master Tressilian makes himself
+at home among us, and furnishes out his cell handsomely, with all
+sorts of commodities.  This will be a precious tale of the
+sainted Master Tressilian, and will be welcome to some folks, as
+a purse of broad pieces to me.--Hark ye, fellow," he continued,
+addressing Wayland, "thou shalt not give Puss a hint to steal
+away we must catch her in her form.  So, back with that pitiful
+sheep-biting visage of thine, or I will fling thee from the
+window of the tower, and try if your juggling skill can save your
+bones."
+
+"Your worship will not be so hardhearted, I trust," said Wayland;
+"poor folk must live.  I trust your honour will allow me to speak
+with my sister?"
+
+"Sister on Adam's side, I warrant," said Lambourne; "or, if
+otherwise, the more knave thou.  But sister or no sister.  thou
+diest on point of fox, if thou comest a-prying to this tower once
+more.  And now I think of it--uds daggers and death!--I will see
+thee out of the Castle, for this is a more main concern than thy
+jugglery."
+
+"But, please your worship," said Wayland, "I am to enact Arion in
+the pageant upon the lake this very evening."
+
+"I will act it myself by Saint Christopher!"  said Lambourne.
+"Orion, callest thou him?--I will act Orion, his belt and his
+seven stars to boot.  Come along, for a rascal knave as thou art
+--follow me!  Or stay--Lawrence, do thou bring him along."
+
+Lawrence seized by the collar of the cloak the unresisting
+juggler; while Lambourne, with hasty steps, led the way to that
+same sallyport, or secret postern, by which Tressilian had
+returned to the Castle, and which opened in the western wall at
+no great distance from Mervyn's Tower.
+
+While traversing with a rapid foot the space betwixt the tower
+and the sallyport, Wayland in vain racked his brain for some
+device which might avail the poor lady, for whom, notwithstanding
+his own imminent danger, he felt deep interest.  But when he was
+thrust out of the Castle, and informed by Lambourne, with a
+tremendous oath, that instant death would be the consequence of
+his again approaching it, he cast up his hands and eyes to
+heaven, as if to call God to witness he had stood to the
+uttermost in defence of the oppressed; then turned his back on
+the proud towers of Kenilworth, and went his way to seek a
+humbler and safer place of refuge.
+
+Lawrence and Lambourne gazed a little while after Wayland, and
+then turned to go back to their tower, when the former thus
+addressed his companion:  "Never credit me, Master Lambourne, if
+I can guess why thou hast driven this poor caitiff from the
+Castle, just when he was to bear a part in the show that was
+beginning, and all this about a wench,"
+
+"Ah, Lawrence," replied Lambourne, "thou art thinking of Black
+Joan Jugges of Slingdon, and hast sympathy with human frailty.
+But, corragio, most noble Duke of the Dungeon and Lord of Limbo,
+for thou art as dark in this matter as thine own dominions of
+Little-ease.  My most reverend Signior of the Low Countries of
+Kenilworth, know that our most notable master, Richard Varney,
+would give as much to have a hole in this same Tressilian's coat,
+as would make us some fifty midnight carousals, with the full
+leave of bidding the steward go snick up, if he came to startle
+us too soon from our goblets."
+
+"Nay, an that be the case, thou hast right," said Lawrence
+Staples, the upper-warder, or, in common phrase, the first
+jailer, of Kenilworth Castle, and of the Liberty and Honour
+belonging thereto.  "But how will you manage when you are absent
+at the Queen's entrance, Master Lambourne; for methinks thou must
+attend thy master there?"
+
+"Why thou, mine honest prince of prisons, must keep ward in my
+absence.  Let Tressilian enter if he will, but see thou let no
+one come out.  If the damsel herself would make a break, as 'tis
+not unlike she may, scare her back with rough words; she is but a
+paltry player's wench after all."
+
+"Nay for that matter," said Lawrence, "I might shut the iron
+wicket upon her that stands without the double door, and so force
+per force she will be bound to her answer without more trouble."
+
+"Then Tressilian will not get access to her," said Lambourne,
+reflecting a moment.  "But 'tis no matter; she will be detected
+in his chamber, and that is all one.  But confess, thou old
+bat's-eyed dungeon-keeper, that you fear to keep awake by
+yourself in that Mervyn's Tower of thine?"
+
+"Why, as to fear, Master Lambourne," said the fellow, "I mind it
+not the turning of a key; but strange things have been heard and
+seen in that tower.  You must have heard, for as short time as
+you have been in Kenilworth, that it is haunted by the spirit of
+Arthur ap Mervyn, a wild chief taken by fierce Lord Mortimer when
+he was one of the Lords Marchers of Wales, and murdered, as they
+say, in that same tower which bears his name."
+
+"Oh, I have heard the tale five hundred times," said Lambourne,
+"and how the ghost is always most vociferous when they boil leeks
+and stirabout, or fry toasted cheese, in the culinary regions.
+Santo Diavolo, man, hold thy tongue, I know all about it!"
+
+"Ay, but thou dost not, though," said the turnkey, " for as wise
+as thou wouldst make thyself.  Ah, it is an awful thing to murder
+a prisoner in his ward!--you that may have given a man a stab in
+a dark street know nothing of it.  To give a mutinous fellow a
+knock on the head with the keys, and bid him be quiet, that's
+what I call keeping order in the ward; but to draw weapon and
+slay him, as was done to this Welsh lord, THAT raises you a ghost
+that will render your prison-house untenantable by any decent
+captive for some hundred years.  And I have that regard for my
+prisoners, poor things, that I have put good squires and men of
+worship, that have taken a ride on the highway, or slandered my
+Lord of Leicester, or the like, fifty feet under ground, rather
+than I would put them into that upper chamber yonder that they
+call Mervyn's Bower.  Indeed, by good Saint Peter of the Fetters,
+I marvel my noble lord, or Master Varney, could think of lodging
+guests there; and if this Master Tressilian could get any one to
+keep him company, and in especial a pretty wench, why, truly, I
+think he was in the right on't."
+
+"I tell thee," said Lambourne, leading the way into the turnkey's
+apartment, "thou art an ass.  Go bolt the wicket on the stair,
+and trouble not thy noddle about ghosts.  Give me the wine stoup,
+man; I am somewhat heated with chafing with yonder rascal."
+
+While Lambourne drew a long draught from a pitcher of claret,
+which he made use of without any cup, the warder went on,
+vindicating his own belief in the supernatural.
+
+"Thou hast been few hours in this Castle, and hast been for the
+whole space so drunk, Lambourne, that thou art deaf, dumb, and
+blind.  But we should hear less of your bragging were you to pass
+a night with us at full moon; for then the ghost is busiest, and
+more especially when a rattling wind sets in from the north-west,
+with some sprinkling of rain, and now and then a growl of
+thunder.  Body o' me, what crackings and clashings, what
+groanings and what howlings, will there be at such times in
+Mervyn's Bower, right as it were over our heads, till the matter
+of two quarts of distilled waters has not been enough to keep my
+lads and me in some heart!"
+
+"Pshaw, man!"  replied Lambourne, on whom his last draught,
+joined to repeated visitations of the pitcher upon former
+occasions, began to make some innovation, "thou speakest thou
+knowest not what about spirits.  No one knows justly what to say
+about them; and, in short, least said may in that matter be
+soonest amended. Some men believe in one thing, some in another
+--it is all matter of fancy.  I have known them of all sorts, my
+dear Lawrence Lock-the-door, and sensible men too.  There's a
+great lord--we'll pass his name, Lawrence--he believes in the
+stars and the moon, the planets and their courses, and so forth,
+and that they twinkle exclusively for his benefit, when in sober,
+or rather in drunken truth, Lawrence, they are only shining to
+keep honest fellows like me out of the kennel.  Well, sir, let
+his humour pass; he is great enough to indulge it.  Then, look
+ye, there is another--a very learned man, I promise you, and can
+vent Greek and Hebrew as fast as I can Thieves' Latin he has an
+humour of sympathies and antipathies--of changing lead into gold,
+and the like; why, via, let that pass too, and let him pay those
+in transmigrated coin who are fools enough to let it be current
+with them.  Then here comest thou thyself, another great man,
+though neither learned nor noble, yet full six feet high, and
+thou, like a purblind mole, must needs believe in ghosts and
+goblins, and such like.  Now, there is, besides, a great man--
+that is, a great little man, or a little great man, my dear
+Lawrence--and his name begins with V, and what believes he?  Why,
+nothing, honest Lawrence--nothing in earth, heaven, or hell; and
+for my part, if I believe there is a devil, it is only because I
+think there must be some one to catch our aforesaid friend by the
+back 'when soul and body sever,' as the ballad says; for your
+antecedent will have a consequent--RARO ANTECEDENTEM, as Doctor
+Bircham was wont to say.  But this is Greek to you now, honest
+Lawrence, and in sooth learning is dry work.  Hand me the pitcher
+once more."
+
+"In faith, if you drink more, Michael," said the warder, "you
+will be in sorry case either to play Arion or to wait on your
+master on such a solemn night; and I expect each moment to hear
+the great bell toll for the muster at Mortimer's Tower, to
+receive the Queen."
+
+While Staples remonstrated, Lambourne drank; and then setting
+down the pitcher, which was nearly emptied, with a deep sigh, he
+said, in an undertone, which soon rose to a high one as his
+speech proceeded, "Never mind, Lawrence; if I be drunk, I know
+that shall make Varney uphold me sober.  But, as I said, never
+mind; I can carry my drink discreetly.  Moreover, I am to go on
+the water as Orion, and shall take cold unless I take something
+comfortable beforehand.  Not play Orion?  Let us see the best
+roarer that ever strained his lungs for twelve pence out-mouth
+me!  What if they see me a little disguised?  Wherefore should
+any man be sober to-night?  answer me that.  It is matter of
+loyalty to be merry; and I tell thee there are those in the
+Castle who, if they are not merry when drunk, have little chance
+to be merry when sober--I name no names, Lawrence.  But your
+pottle of sack is a fine shoeing-horn to pull on a loyal humour,
+and a merry one.  Huzza for Queen Elizabeth!--for the noble
+Leicester!--for the worshipful Master Varney!--and for Michael
+Lambourne, that can turn them all round his finger!"
+
+So saying, he walked downstairs, and across the inner court.
+
+The warder looked after him, shook his head, and while he drew
+close and locked a wicket, which, crossing the staircase,
+rendered it impossible for any one to ascend higher than the
+story immediately beneath Mervyn's Bower, as Tressilian's chamber
+was named, he thus soliloquized with himself--"It's a good thing
+to be a favourite.  I well-nigh lost mine office, because one
+frosty morning Master Varney thought I smelled of aqua vitae; and
+this fellow can appear before him drunk as a wineskin, and yet
+meet no rebuke.  But then he is a pestilent clever fellow withal,
+and no one can understand above one half of what he says."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+  Now bid the steeple rock--she comes, she comes!--
+  Speak for us, bells--speak for us, shrill-tongued tuckets.
+  Stand to thy linstock, gunner; let thy cannon
+  Play such a peal, as if a paynim foe
+  Came stretch'd in turban'd ranks to storm the ramparts.
+  We will have pageants too--but that craves wit,
+  And I'm a rough-hewn soldier.  THE VIRGIN QUEEN--A TRAGI-COMEDY.
+
+Tressilian, when Wayland had left him, as mentioned in the last
+chapter, remained uncertain what he ought next to do, when
+Raleigh and Blount came up to him arm in arm, yet, according to
+their wont, very eagerly disputing together.  Tressilian had no
+great desire for their society in the present state of his
+feelings, but there was no possibility of avoiding them; and
+indeed he felt that, bound by his promise not to approach Amy, or
+take any step in her behalf, it would be his best course at once
+to mix with general society, and to exhibit on his brow as little
+as he could of the anguish and uncertainty which sat heavy at his
+heart.  He therefore made a virtue of necessity, and hailed his
+comrades with, "All mirth to you, gentlemen!  Whence come ye?"
+
+"From Warwick, to be sure," said Blount; "we must needs home to
+change our habits, like poor players, who are fain to multiply
+their persons to outward appearance by change of suits; and you
+had better do the like, Tressilian."
+
+"Blount is right," said Raleigh; "the Queen loves such marks of
+deference, and notices, as wanting in respect, those who, not
+arriving in her immediate attendance, may appear in their soiled
+and ruffled riding-dress.  But look at Blount himself,
+Tressilian, for the love of laughter, and see how his villainous
+tailor hath apparelled him--in blue, green, and crimson, with
+carnation ribbons, and yellow roses in his shoes!"
+
+"Why, what wouldst thou have?"  said Blount.  "I told the cross-
+legged thief to do his best, and spare no cost; and methinks
+these things are gay enough--gayer than thine own.  I'll be
+judged by Tressilian."
+
+"I agree--I agree," said Walter Raleigh.  "Judge betwixt us,
+Tressilian, for the love of heaven!"
+
+Tressilian, thus appealed to, looked at them both, and was
+immediately sensible at a single glance that honest Blount had
+taken upon the tailor's warrant the pied garments which he had
+chosen to make, and was as much embarrassed by the quantity of
+points and ribbons which garnished his dress, as a clown is in
+his holiday clothes; while the dress of Raleigh was a well-
+fancied and rich suit, which the wearer bore as a garb too well
+adapted to his elegant person to attract particular attention.
+Tressilian said, therefore, "That Blount's dress was finest, but
+Raleigh's the best fancied."
+
+Blount was satisfied with his decision.  "I knew mine was
+finest," he said; "if that knave Doublestitch had brought me home
+such a simple doublet as that of Raleigh's, I would have beat his
+brains out with his own pressing-iron.  Nay, if we must be fools,
+ever let us be fools of the first head, say I."
+
+"But why gettest thou not on thy braveries, Tressilian?"  said
+Raleigh.
+
+"I am excluded from my apartment by a silly mistake," said
+Tressilian, "and separated for the time from my baggage.  I was
+about to seek thee, to beseech a share of thy lodging."
+
+"And welcome," said Raleigh; "it is a noble one.  My Lord of
+Leicester has done us that kindness, and lodged us in princely
+fashion.  If his courtesy be extorted reluctantly, it is at least
+extended far.  I would advise you to tell your strait to the
+Earl's chamberlain--you will have instant redress."
+
+"Nay, it is not worth while, since you can spare me room,"
+replied Tressilian--"I would not be troublesome.  Has any one
+come hither with you?"
+
+"Oh, ay," said Blount; "Varney and a whole tribe of Leicestrians,
+besides about a score of us honest Sussex folk.  We are all, it
+seems, to receive the Queen at what they call the Gallery-tower,
+and witness some fooleries there; and then we're to remain in
+attendance upon the Queen in the Great Hall--God bless the mark!
+--while those who are now waiting upon her Grace get rid of their
+slough, and doff their riding-suits.  Heaven help me, if her
+Grace should speak to me, I shall never know what to answer!"
+
+"And what has detained them so long at Warwick?"  said
+Tressilian, unwilling that their conversation should return to
+his own affairs.
+
+"Such a succession of fooleries," said Blount, "as were never
+seen at Bartholomew-fair.  We have had speeches and players, and
+dogs and bears, and men making monkeys and women moppets of
+themselves--I marvel the Queen could endure it.  But ever and
+anon came in something of 'the lovely light of her gracious
+countenance,' or some such trash.  Ah!  vanity makes a fool of
+the wisest.  But come, let us on to this same Gallery-tower--
+though I see not what thou Tressilian, canst do with thy riding-
+dress and boots."
+
+"I will take my station behind thee, Blount," said Tressilian,
+who saw that his friend's unusual finery had taken a strong hold
+of his imagination; "thy goodly size and gay dress will cover my
+defects."
+
+"And so thou shalt, Edmund," said Blount.  "In faith I am glad
+thou thinkest my garb well-fancied, for all Mr. Wittypate here;
+for when one does a foolish thing, it is right to do it
+handsomely."
+
+So saying, Blount cocked his beaver, threw out his leg, and
+marched manfully forward, as if at the head of his brigade of
+pikemen, ever and anon looking with complaisance on his crimson
+stockings, and the huge yellow roses which blossomed on his
+shoes.  Tressilian followed, wrapt in his own sad thoughts, and
+scarce minding Raleigh, whose quick fancy, amused by the awkward
+vanity of his respectable friend, vented itself in jests, which
+he whispered into Tressilian's ear.
+
+In this manner they crossed the long bridge, or tilt-yard, and
+took their station, with other gentlemen of quality, before the
+outer gate of the Gallery, or Entrance-tower.  The whole amounted
+to about forty persons, all selected as of the first rank under
+that of knighthood, and were disposed in double rows on either
+side of the gate, like a guard of honour, within the close hedge
+of pikes and partisans which was formed by Leicester's retainers,
+wearing his liveries.  The gentlemen carried no arms save their
+swords and daggers.  These gallants were as gaily dressed as
+imagination could devise; and as the garb of the time permitted a
+great display of expensive magnificence, nought was to be seen
+but velvet and cloth of gold and silver, ribbons, leathers, gems,
+and golden chains.  In spite of his more serious subjects of
+distress, Tressilian could not help feeling that he, with his
+riding-suit, however handsome it might be, made rather an
+unworthy figure among these "fierce vanities," and the rather
+because he saw that his deshabille was the subject of wonder
+among his own friends, and of scorn among the partisans of
+Leicester.
+
+We could not suppress this fact, though it may seem something at
+variance with the gravity of Tressilian's character; but the
+truth is, that a regard for personal appearance is a species of
+self-love, from which the wisest are not exempt, and to which the
+mind clings so instinctively that not only the soldier advancing
+to almost inevitable death, but even the doomed criminal who goes
+to certain execution, shows an anxiety to array his person to the
+best advantage.  But this is a digression.
+
+It was the twilight of a summer night (9th July, 1575), the sun
+having for some time set, and all were in anxious expectation of
+the Queen's immediate approach.  The multitude had remained
+assembled for many hours, and their numbers were still rather on
+the increase.  A profuse distribution of refreshments, together
+with roasted oxen, and barrels of ale set a-broach in different
+places of the road, had kept the populace in perfect love and
+loyalty towards the Queen and her favourite, which might have
+somewhat abated had fasting been added to watching.  They passed
+away the time, therefore, with the usual popular amusements of
+whooping, hallooing, shrieking, and playing rude tricks upon each
+other, forming the chorus of discordant sounds usual on such
+occasions.  These prevailed all through the crowded roads and
+fields, and especially beyond the gate of the Chase, where the
+greater number of the common sort were stationed; when, all of a
+sudden, a single rocket was seen to shoot into the atmosphere,
+and, at the instant, far heard over flood and field, the great
+bell of the Castle tolled.
+
+Immediately there was a pause of dead silence, succeeded by a
+deep hum of expectation, the united voice of many thousands, none
+of whom spoke above their breath--or, to use a singular
+expression, the whisper of an immense multitude.
+
+"They come now, for certain," said Raleigh.  "Tressilian, that
+sound is grand.  We hear it from this distance as mariners, after
+a long voyage, hear, upon their night-watch, the tide rush upon
+some distant and unknown shore."
+
+"Mass!"  answered Blount, "I hear it rather as I used to hear
+mine own kine lowing from the close of Wittenswestlowe."
+
+"He will assuredly graze presently," said Raleigh to Tressilian;
+"his thought is all of fat oxen and fertile meadows.  He grows
+little better than one of his own beeves, and only becomes grand
+when he is provoked to pushing and goring."
+
+"We shall have him at that presently," said Tressilian, "if you
+spare not your wit."
+
+"Tush, I care not," answered Raleigh; "but thou too, Tressilian,
+hast turned a kind of owl, that flies only by night--hast
+exchanged thy songs for screechings, and good company for an ivy-
+tod."
+
+"But what manner of animal art thou thyself, Raleigh," said
+Tressilian, "that thou holdest us all so lightly?"
+
+"Who--I?"  replied Raleigh.  "An eagle am I, that never will
+think of dull earth while there is a heaven to soar in, and a sun
+to gaze upon."
+
+"Well bragged, by Saint Barnaby!"  said Blount; "but, good Master
+Eagle, beware the cage, and beware the fowler.  Many birds have
+flown as high that I have seen stuffed with straw and hung up to
+scare kites.--But hark, what a dead silence hath fallen on them
+at once!"
+
+"The procession pauses," said Raleigh, "at the gate of the Chase,
+where a sibyl, one of the FATIDICAE, meets the Queen, to tell her
+fortune.  I saw the verses; there is little savour in them, and
+her Grace has been already crammed full with such poetical
+compliments.  She whispered to me, during the Recorder's speech
+yonder, at Ford-mill, as she entered the liberties of Warwick,
+how she was 'PERTAESA BARBARAE LOQUELAE.'"
+
+"The Queen whispered to HIM!"  said Blount, in a kind of
+soliloquy; "Good God, to what will this world come!"
+
+His further meditations were interrupted by a shout of applause
+from the multitude, so tremendously vociferous that the country
+echoed for miles round.  The guards, thickly stationed upon the
+road by which the Queen was to advance, caught up the
+acclamation, which ran like wildfire to the Castle, and announced
+to all within that Queen Elizabeth had entered the Royal Chase of
+Kenilworth.  The whole music of the Castle sounded at once, and a
+round of artillery, with a salvo of small arms, was discharged
+from the battlements; but the noise of drums and trumpets, and
+even of the cannon themselves, was but faintly heard amidst the
+roaring and reiterated welcomes of the multitude.
+
+As the noise began to abate, a broad glare of light was seen to
+appear from the gate of the Park, and broadening and brightening
+as it came nearer, advanced along the open and fair avenue that
+led towards the Gallery-tower; and which, as we have already
+noticed, was lined on either hand by the retainers of the Earl of
+Leicester.  The word was passed along the line, "The Queen!  The
+Queen!  Silence, and stand fast!"  Onward came the cavalcade,
+illuminated by two hundred thick waxen torches, in the hands of
+as many horsemen, which cast a light like that of broad day all
+around the procession, but especially on the principal group, of
+which the Queen herself, arrayed in the most splendid manner, and
+blazing with jewels, formed the central figure.  She was mounted
+on a milk-white horse, which she reined with peculiar grace and
+dignity; and in the whole of her stately and noble carriage you
+saw the daughter of an hundred kings.
+
+The ladies of the court, who rode beside her Majesty, had taken
+especial care that their own external appearance should not be
+more glorious than their rank and the occasion altogether
+demanded, so that no inferior luminary might appear to approach
+the orbit of royalty.  But their personal charms, and the
+magnificence by which, under every prudential restraint, they
+were necessarily distinguished, exhibited them as the very flower
+of a realm so far famed for splendour and beauty.  The
+magnificence of the courtiers, free from such restraints as
+prudence imposed on the ladies, was yet more unbounded.
+
+Leicester, who glittered like a golden image with jewels and
+cloth of gold, rode on her Majesty's right hand, as well in
+quality of her host as of her master of the horse.  The black
+steed which he mounted had not a single white hair on his body,
+and was one of the most renowned chargers in Europe, having been
+purchased by the Earl at large expense for this royal occasion.
+As the noble animal chafed at the slow pace of the procession,
+and, arching his stately neck, champed on the silver bits which
+restrained him, the foam flew from his mouth, and speckled his
+well-formed limbs as if with spots of snow.  The rider well
+became the high place which he held, and the proud steed which he
+bestrode; for no man in England, or perhaps in Europe, was more
+perfect than Dudley in horsemanship, and all other exercises
+belonging to his quality.  He was bareheaded as were all the
+courtiers in the train; and the red torchlight shone upon his
+long, curled tresses of dark hair, and on his noble features, to
+the beauty of which even the severest criticism could only object
+the lordly fault, as it may be termed, of a forehead somewhat too
+high.  On that proud evening those features wore all the grateful
+solicitude of a subject, to show himself sensible of the high
+honour which the Queen was conferring on him, and all the pride
+and satisfaction which became so glorious a moment.  Yet, though
+neither eye nor feature betrayed aught but feelings which suited
+the occasion, some of the Earl's personal attendants remarked
+that he was unusually pale, and they expressed to each other
+their fear that he was taking more fatigue than consisted with
+his health.
+
+Varney followed close behind his master, as the principal esquire
+in waiting, and had charge of his lordship's black velvet bonnet,
+garnished with a clasp of diamonds and surmounted by a white
+plume.  He kept his eye constantly on his master, and, for
+reasons with which the reader is not unacquainted, was, among
+Leicester's numerous dependants, the one who was most anxious
+that his lord's strength and resolution should carry him
+successfully through a day so agitating.  For although Varney was
+one of the few, the very few moral monsters who contrive to lull
+to sleep the remorse of their own bosoms, and are drugged into
+moral insensibility by atheism, as men in extreme agony are
+lulled by opium, yet he knew that in the breast of his patron
+there was already awakened the fire that is never quenched, and
+that his lord felt, amid all the pomp and magnificence we have
+described, the gnawing of the worm that dieth not.  Still,
+however, assured as Lord Leicester stood, by Varney's own
+intelligence, that his Countess laboured under an indisposition
+which formed an unanswerable apology to the Queen for her not
+appearing at Kenilworth, there was little danger, his wily
+retainer thought, that a man so ambitious would betray himself by
+giving way to any external weakness.
+
+The train, male and female, who attended immediately upon the
+Queen's person, were, of course, of the bravest and the fairest
+--the highest born nobles, and the wisest counsellors, of that
+distinguished reign, to repeat whose names were but to weary the
+reader.  Behind came a long crowd of knights and gentlemen, whose
+rank and birth, however distinguished, were thrown into shade, as
+their persons into the rear of a procession whose front was of
+such august majesty.
+
+Thus marshalled, the cavalcade approached the Gallery-tower,
+which formed, as we have often observed, the extreme barrier of
+the Castle.
+
+It was now the part of the huge porter to step forward; but the
+lubbard was so overwhelmed with confusion of spirit--the contents
+of one immense black jack of double ale, which he had just drunk
+to quicken his memory, having treacherously confused the brain it
+was intended to clear--that he only groaned piteously, and
+remained sitting on his stone seat; and the Queen would have
+passed on without greeting, had not the gigantic warder's secret
+ally, Flibbertigibbet, who lay perdue behind him, thrust a pin
+into the rear of the short femoral garment which we elsewhere
+described.
+
+The porter uttered a sort of yell, which came not amiss into his
+part, started up with his club, and dealt a sound douse or two on
+each side of him; and then, like a coach-horse pricked by the
+spur, started off at once into the full career of his address,
+and by dint of active prompting on the part of Dickie Sludge,
+delivered, in sounds of gigantic intonation, a speech which may
+be thus abridged--the reader being to suppose that the first
+lines were addressed to the throng who approached the gateway;
+the conclusion, at the approach of the Queen, upon sight of whom,
+as struck by some heavenly vision, the gigantic warder dropped
+his club, resigned his keys, and gave open way to the Goddess of
+the night, and all her magnificent train.
+
+  "What stir, what turmoil, have we for the nones?
+  Stand back, my masters, or beware your bones!
+  Sirs, I'm a warder, and no man of straw,
+  My voice keeps order, and my club gives law.
+
+  Yet soft--nay, stay--what vision have we here?
+  What dainty darling's this--what peerless peer?
+  What loveliest face, that loving ranks unfold,
+  Like brightest diamond chased in purest gold?
+  Dazzled and blind, mine office I forsake,
+  My club, my key, my knee, my homage take.
+  Bright paragon, pass on in joy and bliss;--
+  Beshrew the gate that opes not wide at such a sight as this!"
+
+[This is an imitation of Gascoigne's verses spoken by the
+Herculean porter, as mentioned in the text.  The original may be
+found in the republication of the Princely Pleasures of
+Kenilworth, by the same author, in the History of Kenilworth
+already quoted.  Chiswick, 1821.]
+
+Elizabeth received most graciously the homage of the Herculean
+porter, and, bending her head to him in requital, passed through
+his guarded tower, from the top of which was poured a clamorous
+blast of warlike music, which was replied to by other bands of
+minstrelsy placed at different points on the Castle walls, and by
+others again stationed in the Chase; while the tones of the one,
+as they yet vibrated on the echoes, were caught up and answered
+by new harmony from different quarters.
+
+Amidst these bursts of music, which, as if the work of
+enchantment, seemed now close at hand, now softened by distant
+space, now wailing so low and sweet as if that distance were
+gradually prolonged until only the last lingering strains could
+reach the ear, Queen Elizabeth crossed the Gallery-tower, and
+came upon the long bridge, which extended from thence to
+Mortimer's Tower, and which was already as light as day, so many
+torches had been fastened to the palisades on either side.  Most
+of the nobles here alighted, and sent their horses to the
+neighbouring village of Kenilworth, following the Queen on foot,
+as did the gentlemen who had stood in array to receive her at the
+Gallery-tower.
+
+On this occasion, as at different times during the evening,
+Raleigh addressed himself to Tressilian, and was not a little
+surprised at his vague and unsatisfactory answers; which, joined
+to his leaving his apartment without any assigned reason,
+appearing in an undress when it was likely to be offensive to the
+Queen, and some other symptoms of irregularity which he thought
+he discovered, led him to doubt whether his friend did not labour
+under some temporary derangement.
+
+Meanwhile, the Queen had no sooner stepped on the bridge than a
+new spectacle was provided; for as soon as the music gave signal
+that she was so far advanced, a raft, so disposed as to resemble
+a small floating island, illuminated by a great variety of
+torches, and surrounded by floating pageants formed to represent
+sea-horses, on which sat Tritons, Nereids, and other fabulous
+deities of the seas and rivers, made its appearance upon the
+lake, and issuing from behind a small heronry where it had been
+concealed, floated gently towards the farther end of the bridge.
+
+On the islet appeared a beautiful woman, clad in a watchet-
+coloured silken mantle, bound with a broad girdle inscribed with
+characters like the phylacteries of the Hebrews.  Her feet and
+arms were bare, but her wrists and ankles were adorned with gold
+bracelets of uncommon size.  Amidst her long, silky black hair
+she wore a crown or chaplet of artificial mistletoe, and bore in
+her hand a rod of ebony tipped with silver.  Two Nymphs attended
+on her, dressed in the same antique and mystical guise.
+
+The pageant was so well managed that this Lady of the Floating
+Island, having performed her voyage with much picturesque effect,
+landed at Mortimer's Tower with her two attendants just as
+Elizabeth presented herself before that outwork.  The stranger
+then, in a well-penned speech, announced herself as that famous
+Lady of the Lake renowned in the stories of King Arthur, who had
+nursed the youth of the redoubted Sir Lancelot, and whose beauty
+'had proved too powerful both for the wisdom and the spells of
+the mighty Merlin.  Since that early period she had remained
+possessed of her crystal dominions, she said, despite the various
+men of fame and might by whom Kenilworth had been successively
+tenanted.  'The Saxons, the Danes, the Normans, the Saintlowes,
+the Clintons, the Montforts, the Mortimers, the Plantagenets,
+great though they were in arms and magnificence, had never, she
+said, caused her to raise her head from the waters which hid her
+crystal palace.  But a greater than all these great names had now
+appeared, and she came in homage and duty to welcome the peerless
+Elizabeth to all sport which the Castle and its environs, which
+lake or land, could afford.
+
+The Queen received this address also with great courtesy, and
+made answer in raillery, "We thought this lake had belonged to
+our own dominions, fair dame; but since so famed a lady claims it
+for hers, we will be glad at some other time to have further
+communing with you touching our joint interests."
+
+With this gracious answer the Lady of the Lake vanished, and
+Arion, who was amongst the maritime deities, appeared upon his
+dolphin.  But Lambourne, who had taken upon him the part in the
+absence of Wayland, being chilled with remaining immersed in an
+element to which he was not friendly, having never got his speech
+by heart, and not having, like the porter, the advantage of a
+prompter, paid it off with impudence, tearing off his vizard, and
+swearing, "Cogs bones!  he was none of Arion or Orion either, but
+honest Mike Lambourne, that had been drinking her Majesty's
+health from morning till midnight, and was come to bid her
+heartily welcome to Kenilworth Castle."
+
+This unpremeditated buffoonery answered the purpose probably
+better than the set speech would have done.  The Queen laughed
+heartily, and swore (in her turn) that he had made the best
+speech she had heard that day.  Lambourne, who instantly saw his
+jest had saved his bones, jumped on shore, gave his dolphin a
+kick, and declared he would never meddle with fish again, except
+at dinner.
+
+At the same time that the Queen was about to enter the Castle,
+that memorable discharge of fireworks by water and land took
+place, which Master Laneham, formerly introduced to the reader,
+has strained all his eloquence to describe.
+
+"Such," says the Clerk of the Council-chamber door "was the blaze
+of burning darts, the gleams of stars coruscant, the streams and
+hail of fiery sparks, lightnings of wildfire, and flight-shot of
+thunderbolts, with continuance, terror, and vehemency, that the
+heavens thundered, the waters surged, and the earth shook; and
+for my part, hardy as I am, it made me very vengeably afraid."
+
+[See Laneham's Account of the Queen's Entertainment at
+Killingworth Castle, in 1575, a very diverting tract, written by
+as great a coxcomb as ever blotted paper.  [See Note 6]  The
+original is extremely rare, but it has been twice reprinted; once
+in Mr. Nichols's very curious and interesting collection of the
+Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, vol.i.  and
+more lately in a beautiful antiquarian publication, termed
+KENILWORTH ILLUSTRATED, printed at Chiswick, for Meridew of
+Coventry and Radcliffe of Birmingham.  It contains reprints of
+Laneham's Letter, Gascoigne's PrinceIy Progress, and other scarce
+pieces, annotated with accuracy and ability.  The author takes
+the liberty to refer to this work as his authority for the
+account of the festivities.
+
+I am indebted for a curious ground-plan of the Castle of
+Kenilworth, as it existed in Queen Elizabeth's time, to the
+voluntary kindness of Richard Badnall Esq. of Olivebank, near
+Liverpool.  From his obliging communication, I learn that the
+original sketch was found among the manuscripts of the celebrated
+J. J. Rousseau, when he left  England.  These were entrusted by
+the philosopher to the care of his friend Mr. Davenport, and
+passed from his legatee into the possession of Mr. Badnall.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+  Nay, this is matter for the month of March,
+  When hares are maddest.  Either speak in reason,
+  Giving cold argument the wall of passion,
+  Or I break up the court.      BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
+
+It is by no means our purpose to detail minutely all the princely
+festivities of Kenilworth, after the fashion of Master Robert
+Laneham, whom we quoted in the conclusion of the last chapter.
+It is sufficient to say that under discharge of the splendid
+fireworks, which we have borrowed Laneham's eloquence to
+describe, the Queen entered the base-court of Kenilworth, through
+Mortimer's Tower, and moving on through pageants of heathen gods
+and heroes of antiquity, who offered gifts and compliments on the
+bended knee, at length found her way to the Great Hall of the
+Castle, gorgeously hung for her reception with the richest silken
+tapestry, misty with perfumes, and sounding to strains of soft
+and delicious music.  From the highly-carved oaken roof hung a
+superb chandelier of gilt bronze, formed like a spread eagle,
+whose outstretched wings supported three male and three female
+figures, grasping a pair of branches in each hand.  The Hall was
+thus illuminated by twenty-four torches of wax.  At the upper end
+of the splendid apartment was a state canopy, overshadowing a
+royal throne, and beside it was a door, which opened to a long
+suite of apartments, decorated with the utmost magnificence for
+the Queen and her ladies, whenever it should be her pleasure to
+be private.
+
+The Earl of Leicester having handed the Queen up to her throne,
+and seated her there, knelt down before her, and kissing the hand
+which she held out, with an air in which romantic and respectful
+gallantry was happily mingled with the air of loyal devotion, he
+thanked her, in terms of the deepest gratitude, for the highest
+honour which a sovereign could render to a subject.  So handsome
+did he look when kneeling before her, that Elizabeth was tempted
+to prolong the scene a little longer than there was, strictly
+speaking, necessity for; and ere she raised him, she passed her
+hand over his head, so near as almost to touch his long, curled,
+and perfumed hair, and with a movement of fondness that seemed to
+intimate she would, if she dared, have made the motion a slight
+caress.
+
+[To justify what may be considered as a high-coloured picture,
+the author quotes the original of the courtly and shrewd Sir
+James Melville, being then Queen Mary's envoy at the court of
+London.
+
+"I was required," says Sir James, "to stay till I had seen him
+made Earle of Leicester, and Baron of Denbigh, with great
+solemnity; herself (Elizabeth) helping to put on his ceremonial,
+he sitting on his knees before her, keeping a great gravity and a
+discreet behaviour; but she could not refrain from putting her
+hand to his neck to kittle (i.e., tickle) him, smilingly, the
+French Ambassador and I standing beside her."--MELVILLE'S
+MEMOIRS, BANNATYNE EDITION, p. 120.]
+
+She at length raised him, and standing beside the throne, he
+explained to her the various preparations which had been made for
+her amusement and accommodation, all of which received her prompt
+and gracious approbation.  The Earl then prayed her Majesty for
+permission that he himself, and the nobles who had been in
+attendance upon her during the journey, might retire for a few
+minutes, and put themselves into a guise more fitting for dutiful
+attendance, during which space those gentlemen of worship
+(pointing to Varney, Blount, Tressilian, and others), who had
+already put themselves into fresh attire, would have the honour
+of keeping her presence-chamber.
+
+"Be it so, my lord," answered the Queen; "you could manage a
+theatre well, who can thus command a double set of actors.  For
+ourselves, we will receive your courtesies this evening but
+clownishly, since it is not our purpose to change our riding
+attire, being in effect something fatigued with a journey which
+the concourse of our good people hath rendered slow, though the
+love they have shown our person hath, at the same time, made it
+delightful."
+
+Leicester, having received this permission, retired accordingly,
+and was followed by those nobles who had attended the Queen to
+Kenilworth in person.  The gentlemen who had preceded them, and
+were, of course, dressed for the solemnity, remained in
+attendance.  But being most of them of rather inferior rank, they
+remained at an awful distance from the throne which Elizabeth
+occupied.  The Queen's sharp eye soon distinguished Raleigh
+amongst them, with one or two others who were personally known to
+her, and she instantly made them a sign to approach, and accosted
+them very graciously.  Raleigh, in particular, the adventure of
+whose cloak, as well as the incident of the verses, remained on
+her mind, was very graciously received; and to him she most
+frequently applied for information concerning the names and rank
+of those who were in presence.  These he communicated concisely,
+and not without some traits of humorous satire, by which
+Elizabeth seemed much amused.  "And who is yonder clownish
+fellow?"  she said, looking at Tressilian, whose soiled dress on
+this occasion greatly obscured his good mien.
+
+"A poet, if it please your Grace," replied Raleigh.
+
+"I might have guessed that from his careless garb," said
+Elizabeth.  "I have known some poets so thoughtless as to throw
+their cloaks into gutters."
+
+"It must have been when the sun dazzled both their eyes and their
+judgment," answered Raleigh.
+
+Elizabeth smiled, and proceeded, "I asked that slovenly fellow's
+name, and you only told me his profession."
+
+"Tressilian is his name," said Raleigh, with internal reluctance,
+for he foresaw nothing favourable to his friend from the manner
+in which she took notice of him.
+
+"Tressilian!"  answered Elizabeth.  "Oh, the Menelaus of our
+romance.  Why, he has dressed himself in a guise that will go far
+to exculpate his fair and false Helen.  And where is Farnham, or
+whatever his name is--my Lord of Leicester's man, I mean--the
+Paris of this Devonshire tale?"
+
+With still greater reluctance Raleigh named and pointed out to
+her Varney, for whom the tailor had done all that art could
+perform in making his exterior agreeable; and who, if he had not
+grace, had a sort of tact and habitual knowledge of breeding,
+which came in place of it.
+
+The Queen turned her eyes from the one to the other.  "I doubt,"
+she said, "this same poetical Master Tressilian, who is too
+learned, I warrant me, to remember whose presence he was to
+appear in, may be one of those of whom Geoffrey Chaucer says
+wittily, the wisest clerks are not the wisest men.  I remember
+that Varney is a smooth-tongued varlet.  I doubt this fair
+runaway hath had reasons for breaking her faith."
+
+To this Raleigh durst make no answer, aware how little he should
+benefit Tressilian by contradicting the Queen's sentiments, and
+not at all certain, on the whole, whether the best thing that
+could befall him would not be that she should put an end at once
+by her authority to this affair, upon which it seemed to him
+Tressilian's thoughts were fixed with unavailing and distressing
+pertinacity.  As these reflections passed through his active
+brain, the lower door of the hall opened, and Leicester,
+accompanied by several of his kinsmen, and of the nobles who had
+embraced his faction, re-entered the Castle Hall.
+
+The favourite Earl was now apparelled all in white, his shoes
+being of white velvet; his under-stocks (or stockings) of knit
+silk; his upper stocks of white velvet, lined with cloth of
+silver, which was shown at the slashed part of the middle thigh;
+his doublet of cloth of silver, the close jerkin of white velvet,
+embroidered with silver and seed-pearl, his girdle and the
+scabbard of his sword of white velvet with golden buckles; his
+poniard and sword hilted and mounted with gold; and over all a
+rich, loose robe of white satin, with a border of golden
+embroidery a foot in breadth.  The collar of the Garter, and the
+azure garter itself around his knee, completed the appointments
+of the Earl of Leicester; which were so well matched by his fair
+stature, graceful gesture, fine proportion of body, and handsome
+countenance, that at that moment he was admitted by all who saw
+him as the goodliest person whom they had ever looked upon.
+Sussex and the other nobles were also richly attired, but in
+point of splendour and gracefulness of mien Leicester far
+exceeded them all.
+
+Elizabeth received him with great complacency.  "We have one
+piece of royal justice," she said, "to attend to.  It is a piece
+of justice, too, which interests us as a woman, as well as in the
+character of mother and guardian of the English people."
+
+An involuntary shudder came over Leicester as he bowed low,
+expressive of his readiness to receive her royal commands; and a
+similar cold fit came over Varney, whose eyes (seldom during that
+evening removed from his patron) instantly perceived from the
+change in his looks, slight as that was, of what the Queen was
+speaking.  But Leicester had wrought his resolution up to the
+point which, in his crooked policy, he judged necessary; and when
+Elizabeth added, "it is of the matter of Varney and Tressilian we
+speak--is the lady here, my lord?"  his answer was ready--
+"Gracious madam, she is not."
+
+Elizabeth bent her brews and compressed her lips.  "Our orders
+were strict and positive, my lord," was her answer--
+
+"And should have been obeyed, good my liege," replied Leicester,
+"had they been expressed in the form of the lightest wish.  But
+--Varney, step forward--this gentleman will inform your Grace of
+the cause why the lady" (he could not force his rebellious tongue
+to utter the words--HIS WIFE) "cannot attend on your royal
+presence."
+
+Varney advanced, and pleaded with readiness, what indeed he
+firmly believed, the absolute incapacity of the party (for
+neither did he dare, in Leicester's presence, term her his wife)
+to wait on her Grace.
+
+"Here," said he, "are attestations from a most learned physician,
+whose skill and honour are well known to my good Lord of
+Leicester, and from an honest and devout Protestant, a man of
+credit and substance, one Anthony Foster, the gentleman in whose
+house she is at present bestowed, that she now labours under an
+illness which altogether unfits her for such a journey as betwixt
+this Castle and the neighbourhood of Oxford."
+
+"This alters the matter," said the Queen, taking the certificates
+in her hand, and glancing at their contents.--"Let Tressilian
+come forward.--Master Tressilian, we have much sympathy for your
+situation, the rather that you seem to have set your heart deeply
+on this Amy Robsart, or Varney.  Our power, thanks to God, and
+the willing obedience of a loving people, is worth much, but
+there are some things which it cannot compass.  We cannot, for
+example, command the affections of a giddy young girl, or make
+her love sense and learning better than a courtier's fine
+doublet; and we cannot control sickness, with which it seems this
+lady is afflicted, who may not, by reason of such infirmity,
+attend our court here, as we had required her to do.  Here are
+the testimonials of the physician who hath her under his charge,
+and the gentleman in whose house she resides, so setting forth."
+
+"Under your Majesty's favour," said Tressilian hastily, and in
+his alarm for the consequence of the imposition practised on the
+Queen forgetting in part at least his own promise to Amy, "these
+certificates speak not the truth."
+
+"How, sir!"  said the Queen--"impeach my Lord of Leicester's
+veracity!  But you shall have a fair hearing.  In our presence
+the meanest of our subjects shall be heard against the proudest,
+and the least known against the most favoured; therefore you
+shall be heard fairly, but beware you speak not without a
+warrant!  Take these certificates in your own hand, look at them
+carefully, and say manfully if you impugn the truth of them, and
+upon what evidence."
+
+As the Queen spoke, his promise and all its consequences rushed
+on the mind of the unfortunate Tressilian, and while it
+controlled his natural inclination to pronounce that a falsehood
+which he knew from the evidence of his senses to be untrue, gave
+an indecision and irresolution to his appearance and utterance
+which made strongly against him in the mind of Elizabeth, as well
+as of all who beheld him.  He turned the papers over and over, as
+if he had been an idiot, incapable of comprehending their
+contents.  The Queen's impatience began to become visible.  "You
+are a scholar, sir," she said, "and of some note, as I have
+heard; yet you seem wondrous slow in reading text hand.  How say
+you, are these certificates true or no?"
+
+"Madam," said Tressilian, with obvious embarrassment and
+hesitation, anxious to avoid admitting evidence which he might
+afterwards have reason to confute, yet equally desirous to keep
+his word to Amy, and to give her, as he had promised, space to
+plead her own cause in her own way--"Madam--Madam, your Grace
+calls on me to admit evidence which ought to be proved valid by
+those who found their defence upon them."
+
+"Why, Tressilian, thou art critical as well as poetical," said
+the Queen, bending on him a brow of displeasure; "methinks these
+writings, being produced in the presence of the noble Earl to
+whom this Castle pertains, and his honour being appealed to as
+the guarantee of their authenticity, might be evidence enough for
+thee.  But since thou listest to be so formal--Varney, or rather
+my Lord of Leicester, for the affair becomes yours" (these words,
+though spoken at random, thrilled through the Earl's marrow and
+bones), "what evidence have you as touching these certificates?"
+
+Varney hastened to reply, preventing Leicester--"So please your
+Majesty, my young Lord of Oxford, who is here in presence, knows
+Master Anthony Foster's hand and his character."
+
+The Earl of Oxford, a young unthrift, whom Foster had more than
+once accommodated with loans on usurious interest, acknowledged,
+on this appeal, that he knew him as a wealthy and independent
+franklin, supposed to be worth much money, and verified the
+certificate produced to be his handwriting.
+
+"And who speaks to the Doctor's certificate?"  said the Queen.
+"Alasco, methinks, is his name."
+
+Masters, her Majesty's physician (not the less willingly that he
+remembered his repulse from Sayes Court, and thought that his
+present testimony might gratify Leicester, and mortify the Earl
+of Sussex and his faction), acknowledged he had more than once
+consulted with Doctor Alasco, and spoke of him as a man of
+extraordinary learning and hidden acquirements, though not
+altogether in the regular course of practice.  The Earl of
+Huntingdon, Lord Leicester's brother-in-law, and the old Countess
+of Rutland, next sang his praises, and both remembered the thin,
+beautiful Italian hand in which he was wont to write his
+receipts, and which corresponded to the certificate produced as
+his.
+
+"And now, I trust, Master Tressilian, this matter is ended," said
+the Queen.  "We will do something ere the night is older to
+reconcile old Sir Hugh Robsart to the match.  You have done your
+duty something more than boldly; but we were no woman had we not
+compassion for the wounds which true love deals, so we forgive
+your audacity, and your uncleansed boots withal, which have well-
+nigh overpowered my Lord of Leicester's perfumes."
+
+So spoke Elizabeth, whose nicety of scent was one of the
+characteristics of her organization, as appeared long afterwards
+when she expelled Essex from her presence, on a charge against
+his boots similar to that which she now expressed against those
+of Tressilian
+
+But Tressilian had by this time collected himself, astonished as
+he had at first been by the audacity of the falsehood so feasibly
+supported, and placed in array against the evidence of his own
+eyes.  He rushed forward, kneeled down, and caught the Queen by
+the skirt of her robe.  "As you are Christian woman," he said,
+"madam, as you are crowned Queen, to do equal justice among your
+subjects--as you hope yourself to have fair hearing (which God
+grant you) at that last bar at which we must all plead, grant me
+one small request!  Decide not this matter so hastily.  Give me
+but twenty-four hours' interval, and I will, at the end of that
+brief space, produce evidence which will show to demonstration
+that these certificates, which state this unhappy lady to be now
+ill at ease in Oxfordshire, are false as hell!"
+
+"Let go my train, sir!"  said Elizabeth, who was startled at his
+vehemence, though she had too much of the lion in her to fear;
+"the fellow must be distraught.  That witty knave, my godson
+Harrington, must have him into his rhymes of Orlando Furioso!
+And yet, by this light, there is something strange in the
+vehemence of his demand.--Speak, Tressilian, what wilt thou do
+if, at the end of these four-and-twenty hours, thou canst not
+confute a fact so solemnly proved as this lady's illness?"
+
+"I will lay down my head on the block," answered Tressilian.
+
+"Pshaw!"  replied the Queen, "God's light!  thou speakest like a
+fool.  What head falls in England but by just sentence of English
+law?  I ask thee, man--if thou hast sense to understand me--wilt
+thou, if thou shalt fail in this improbable attempt of thine,
+render me a good and sufficient reason why thou dost undertake
+it?"
+
+Tressilian paused, and again hesitated; because he felt convinced
+that if, within the interval demanded, Amy should become
+reconciled to her husband, he would in that case do her the worst
+of offices by again ripping up the whole circumstances before
+Elizabeth, and showing how that wise and jealous princess had
+been imposed upon by false testimonials.  The consciousness of
+this dilemma renewed his extreme embarrassment of look, voice,
+and manner; he hesitated, looked down, and on the Queen repeating
+her question with a stern voice and flashing eye, he admitted
+with faltering words, "That it might be--he could not positively
+--that is, in certain events--explain the reasons and grounds on
+which he acted."
+
+"Now, by the soul of King Henry," said the Queen, "this is either
+moonstruck madness or very knavery!--Seest thou, Raleigh, thy
+friend is far too Pindaric for this presence.  Have him away, and
+make us quit of him, or it shall be the worse for him; for his
+flights are too unbridled for any place but Parnassus, or Saint
+Luke's Hospital.  But come back instantly thyself, when he is
+placed under fitting restraint.--We wish we had seen the beauty
+which could make such havoc in a wise man's brain."
+
+Tressilian was again endeavouring to address the Queen, when
+Raleigh, in obedience to the orders he had received, interfered,
+and with Blount's assistance, half led, half forced him out of
+the presence-chamber, where he himself indeed began to think his
+appearance did his cause more harm than good.
+
+When they had attained the antechamber, Raleigh entreated Blount
+to see Tressilian safely conducted into the apartments allotted
+to the Earl of Sussex's followers, and, if necessary, recommended
+that a guard should be mounted on him.
+
+"This extravagant passion," he said, "and, as it would seem, the
+news of the lady's illness, has utterly wrecked his excellent
+judgment.  But it will pass away if he be kept quiet.  Only let
+him break forth again at no rate; for he is already far in her
+Highness's displeasure, and should she be again provoked, she
+will find for him a worse place of confinement, and sterner
+keepers."
+
+"I judged as much as that he was mad," said Nicholas Blount,
+looking down upon his own crimson stockings and yellow roses,
+"whenever I saw him wearing yonder damned boots, which stunk so
+in her nostrils.  I will but see him stowed, and be back with you
+presently.  But, Walter, did the Queen ask who I was?--methought
+she glanced an eye at me."
+
+"Twenty--twenty eye-glances she sent!  and I told her all--how
+thou wert a brave soldier, and a-- But for God's sake, get off
+Tressilian!"
+
+"I will--I will," said Blount; "but methinks this court-haunting
+is no such bad pastime, after all.  We shall rise by it, Walter,
+my brave lad.  Thou saidst I was a good soldier, and a-- what
+besides, dearest Walter?"
+
+"An all unutterable-codshead.  For God's sake, begone!"
+
+Tressilian, without further resistance or expostulation followed,
+or rather suffered himself to be conducted by Blount to Raleigh's
+lodging, where he was formally installed into a small truckle-bed
+placed in a wardrobe, and designed for a domestic.  He saw but
+too plainly that no remonstrances would avail to procure the help
+or sympathy of his friends, until the lapse of the time for which
+he had pledged himself to remain inactive should enable him
+either to explain the whole circumstances to them, or remove from
+him every pretext or desire of further interference with the
+fortunes of Amy, by her having found means to place herself in a
+state of reconciliation with her husband.
+
+With great difficulty, and only by the most patient and mild
+remonstrances with Blount, he escaped the disgrace and
+mortification of having two of Sussex's stoutest yeomen quartered
+in his apartment.  At last, however, when Nicholas had seen him
+fairly deposited in his truckle-bed, and had bestowed one or two
+hearty kicks, and as hearty curses, on the boots, which, in his
+lately acquired spirit of foppery, he considered as a strong
+symptom, if not the cause, of his friend's malady, he contented
+himself with the modified measure of locking the door on the
+unfortunate Tressilian, whose gallant and disinterested efforts
+to save a female who had treated him with ingratitude thus
+terminated for the present in the displeasure of his Sovereign
+and the conviction of his friends that he was little better than
+a madman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+  The wisest Sovereigns err like private men,
+  And royal hand has sometimes laid the sword
+  Of chivalry upon a worthless shoulder,
+  Which better had been branded by the hangman.
+  What then?--Kings do their best; and they and we
+  Must answer for the intent, and not the event.    OLD PLAY.
+
+"It is a melancholy matter," said the Queen, when Tressilian was
+withdrawn, "to see a wise and learned man's wit thus pitifully
+unsettled.  Yet this public display of his imperfection of brain
+plainly shows us that his supposed injury and accusation were
+fruitless; and therefore, my Lord of Leicester, we remember your
+suit formerly made to us in behalf of your faithful servant
+Varney, whose good gifts and fidelity, as they are useful to you,
+ought to have due reward from us, knowing well that your
+lordship, and all you have, are so earnestly devoted to our
+service.  And we render Varney the honour more especially that we
+are a guest, and, we fear, a chargeable and troublesome one,
+under your lordship's roof; and also for the satisfaction of the
+good old Knight of Devon, Sir Hugh Robsart, whose daughter he
+hath married, and we trust the especial mark of grace which we
+are about to confer may reconcile him to his son-in-law.--Your
+sword, my Lord of Leicester."
+
+The Earl unbuckled his sword, and taking it by the point,
+presented on bended knee the hilt to Elizabeth.
+
+She took it slowly drew it from the scabbard, and while the
+ladies who stood around turned away their eyes with real or
+affected shuddering, she noted with a curious eye the high polish
+and rich, damasked ornaments upon the glittering blade.
+
+"Had I been a man," she said, "methinks none of my ancestors
+would have loved a good sword better.  As it is with me, I like
+to look on one, and could, like the Fairy of whom I have read in
+some Italian rhymes--were my godson Harrington here, he could
+tell me the passage--even trim my hair, and arrange my head-gear,
+in such a steel mirror as this is.--Richard Varney, come forth,
+and kneel down.  In the name of God and Saint George, we dub thee
+knight!  Be Faithful, Brave, and Fortunate.  Arise, Sir Richard
+Varney."
+
+[The incident alluded to occurs in the poem of Orlando Innamorato
+of Boiardo, libro ii. canto 4, stanza 25.
+
+  "Non era per ventura," etc.
+
+It may be rendered thus:--
+
+  As then, perchance, unguarded was the tower,
+   So enter'd free Anglante's dauntless knight.
+  No monster and no giant guard the bower
+   In whose recess reclined the fairy light,
+  Robed in a loose cymar of lily white,
+   And on her lap a sword of breadth and might,
+  In whose broad blade, as in a mirror bright,
+   Like maid that trims her for a festal night,
+  The fairy deck'd her hair, and placed her coronet aright.
+
+Elizabeth's attachment to the Italian school of poetry was
+singularly manifested on a well-known occasion.  Her godson, Sir
+John Harrington, having offended her delicacy by translating some
+of the licentious passages of the Orlando Furioso, she imposed on
+him, as a penance, the task of rendering the WHOLE poem into
+English.]
+
+Varney arose and retired, making a deep obeisance to the
+Sovereign who had done him so much honour.
+
+"The buckling of the spur, and what other rites remain," said the
+Queen, "may be finished to-morrow in the chapel; for we intend
+Sir Richard Varney a companion in his honours.  And as we must
+not be partial in conferring such distinction, we mean on this
+matter to confer with our cousin of Sussex."
+
+That noble Earl, who since his arrival at Kenilworth, and indeed
+since the commencement of this Progress, had found himself in a
+subordinate situation to Leicester, was now wearing a heavy cloud
+on his brow; a circumstance which had not escaped the Queen, who
+hoped to appease his discontent, and to follow out her system of
+balancing policy by a mark of peculiar favour, the more
+gratifying as it was tendered at a moment when his rival's
+triumph appeared to be complete.
+
+At the summons of Queen Elizabeth, Sussex hastily approached her
+person; and being asked on which of his followers, being a
+gentleman and of merit, he would wish the honour of knighthood to
+be conferred, he answered, with more sincerity than policy, that
+he would have ventured to speak for Tressilian, to whom he
+conceived he owed his own life, and who was a distinguished
+soldier and scholar, besides a man of unstained lineage, "only,"
+he said, "he feared the events of that night--" And then he
+stopped.
+
+"I am glad your lordship is thus considerate," said Elizabeth.
+"The events of this night would make us, in the eyes of our
+subjects, as mad as this poor brain-sick gentleman himself--for
+we ascribe his conduct to no malice--should we choose this moment
+to do him grace."
+
+"In that case," said the Earl of Sussex, somewhat
+discountenanced, your Majesty will allow me to name my master of
+the horse, Master Nicholas Blount, a gentleman of fair estate and
+ancient name, who has served your Majesty both in Scotland and
+Ireland, and brought away bloody marks on his person, all
+honourably taken and requited."
+
+The Queen could not help shrugging her shoulders slightly even at
+this second suggestion; and the Duchess of Rutland, who read in
+the Queen's manner that she had expected that Sussex would have
+named Raleigh, and thus would have enabled her to gratify her own
+wish while she honoured his recommendation, only waited the
+Queen's assent to what he had proposed, and then said that she
+hoped, since these two high nobles had been each permitted to
+suggest a candidate for the honours of chivalry, she, in behalf
+of the ladies in presence, might have a similar indulgence.
+
+"I were no woman to refuse you such a boon," said the Queen,
+smiling.
+
+"Then," pursued the Duchess, "in the name of these fair ladies
+present, I request your Majesty to confer the rank of knighthood
+on Walter Raleigh, whose birth, deeds of arms, and promptitude to
+serve our sex with sword or pen, deserve such distinction from us
+all."
+
+"Gramercy, fair ladies," said Elizabeth, smiling, "your boon is
+granted, and the gentle squire Lack-Cloak shall become the good
+knight Lack-Cloak, at your desire.  Let the two aspirants for the
+honour of chivalry step forward."
+
+Blount was not as yet returned from seeing Tressilian, as he
+conceived, safely disposed of; but Raleigh came forth, and
+kneeling down, received at the hand of the Virgin Queen that
+title of honour, which was never conferred on a more
+distinguished or more illustrious object.
+
+Shortly afterwards Nicholas Blount entered, and hastily apprised
+by Sussex, who met him at the door of the hall, of the Queen's
+gracious purpose regarding him, he was desired to advance towards
+the throne.  It is a sight sometimes seen, and it is both
+ludicrous and pitiable; when an honest man of plain common sense
+is surprised, by the coquetry of a pretty woman, or any other
+cause, into those frivolous fopperies which only sit well upon
+the youthful, the gay, and those to whom long practice has
+rendered them a second nature.  Poor Blount was in this
+situation.  His head was already giddy from a consciousness of
+unusual finery, and the supposed necessity of suiting his manners
+to the gaiety of his dress; and now this sudden view of promotion
+altogether completed the conquest of the newly inhaled spirit of
+foppery over his natural disposition, and converted a plain,
+honest, awkward man into a coxcomb of a new and most ridiculous
+kind.
+
+The knight-expectant advanced up the hall, the whole length of
+which he had unfortunately to traverse, turning out his toes with
+so much zeal that he presented his leg at every step with its
+broadside foremost, so that it greatly resembled an old-fashioned
+table-knife with a curved point, when seen sideways.  The rest of
+his gait was in proportion to this unhappy amble; and the implied
+mixture of bashful rear and self-satisfaction was so unutterably
+ridiculous that Leicester's friends did not suppress a titter, in
+which many of Sussex's partisans were unable to resist joining,
+though ready to eat their nails with mortification.  Sussex
+himself lost all patience, and could not forbear whispering into
+the ear of his friend, "Curse thee!  canst thou not walk like a
+man and a soldier?"  an interjection which only made honest
+Blount start and stop, until a glance at his yellow roses and
+crimson stockings restored his self-confidence, when on he went
+at the same pace as before.
+
+The Queen conferred on poor Blount the honour of knighthood with
+a marked sense of reluctance.  That wise Princess was fully aware
+of the propriety of using great circumspection and economy in
+bestowing those titles of honour, which the Stewarts, who
+succeeded to her throne, distributed with an imprudent liberality
+which greatly diminished their value.  Blount had no sooner
+arisen and retired than she turned to the Duchess of Rutland.
+"Our woman wit," she said, "dear Rutland, is sharper than that of
+those proud things in doublet and hose.  Seest thou, out of these
+three knights, thine is the only true metal to stamp chivalry's
+imprint upon?"
+
+"Sir Richard Varney, surely--the friend of my Lord of Leicester
+--surely he has merit," replied the Duchess.
+
+"Varney has a sly countenance and a smooth tongue," replied the
+Queen; "I fear me he will prove a knave.  But the promise was of
+ancient standing.  My Lord of Sussex must have lost his own wits,
+I think, to recommend to us first a madman like Tressilian, and
+then a clownish fool like this other fellow.  I protest, Rutland,
+that while he sat on his knees before me, mopping and mowing as
+if he had scalding porridge in his mouth, I had much ado to
+forbear cutting him over the pate, instead of striking his
+shoulder."
+
+"Your Majesty gave him a smart ACCOLADE," said the Duchess; "we
+who stood behind heard the blade clatter on his collar-bone, and
+the poor man fidgeted too as if he felt it."
+
+"I could not help it, wench," said the Queen, laughing.  "But we
+will have this same Sir Nicholas sent to Ireland or Scotland, or
+somewhere, to rid our court of so antic a chevalier; he may be a
+good soldier in the field, though a preposterous ass in a
+banqueting-hall."
+
+The discourse became then more general, and soon after there was
+a summons to the banquet.
+
+In order to obey this signal, the company were under the
+necessity of crossing the inner court of the Castle, that they
+might reach the new buildings containing the large banqueting-
+room, in which preparations for supper were made upon a scale of
+profuse magnificence, corresponding to the occasion.
+
+The livery cupboards were loaded with plate of the richest
+description, and the most varied--some articles tasteful, some
+perhaps grotesque, in the invention and decoration, but all
+gorgeously magnificent, both from the richness of the work and
+value of the materials.  Thus the chief table was adorned by a
+salt, ship-fashion, made of mother-of-pearl, garnished with
+silver and divers warlike ensigns and other ornaments, anchors,
+sails, and sixteen pieces of ordnance.  It bore a figure of
+Fortune, placed on a globe, with a flag in her hand.  Another
+salt was fashioned of silver, in form of a swan in full sail.
+That chivalry might not be omitted amid this splendour, a silver
+Saint George was presented, mounted and equipped in the usual
+fashion in which he bestrides the dragon.  The figures were
+moulded to be in some sort useful.  The horse's tail was managed
+to hold a case of knives, while the breast of the dragon
+presented a similar accommodation for oyster knives,
+
+In the course of the passage from the hall of reception to the
+banqueting-room, and especially in the courtyard, the new-made
+knights were assailed by the heralds, pursuivants, minstrels,
+etc., with the usual cry of LARGESSE, LARGESSE, CHEVALIERS TRES
+HARDIS!  an ancient invocation, intended to awaken the bounty of
+the acolytes of chivalry towards those whose business it was to
+register their armorial bearings, and celebrate the deeds by
+which they were illustrated.  The call was, of course, liberally
+and courteously answered by those to whom it was addressed.
+Varney gave his largesse with an affectation of complaisance and
+humility.  Raleigh bestowed his with the graceful ease peculiar
+to one who has attained his own place, and is familiar with its
+dignity.  Honest Blount gave what his tailor had left him of his
+half-year's rent, dropping some pieces in his hurry, then
+stooping down to look for them, and then distributing them
+amongst the various claimants, with the anxious face and mien of
+the parish beadle dividing a dole among paupers.
+
+The donations were accepted with the usual clamour and VIVATS of
+applause common on such occasions; but as the parties gratified
+were chiefly dependants of Lord Leicester, it was Varney whose
+name was repeated with the loudest acclamations.  Lambourne,
+especially, distinguished himself by his vociferations of "Long
+life to Sir Richard Varney!--Health and honour to Sir Richard!--
+Never was a more worthy knight dubbed!"--then, suddenly sinking
+his voice, he added--"since the valiant Sir Pandarus of Troy,"--a
+winding-up of his clamorous applause which set all men a-laughing
+who were within hearing of it.
+
+It is unnecessary to say anything further of the festivities of
+the evening, which were so brilliant in themselves, and received
+with such obvious and willing satisfaction by the Queen, that
+Leicester retired to his own apartment with all the giddy
+raptures of successful ambition.  Varney, who had changed his
+splendid attire, and now waited on his patron in a very modest
+and plain undress, attended to do the honours of the Earl's
+COUCHER.
+
+"How!  Sir Richard," said Leicester, smiling, "your new rank
+scarce suits the humility of this attendance."
+
+"I would disown that rank, my Lord," said Varney, "could I think
+it was to remove me to a distance from your lordship's person."
+
+"Thou art a grateful fellow," said Leicester; "but I must not
+allow you to do what would abate you in the opinion of others."
+
+While thus speaking, he still accepted without hesitation the
+offices about his person, which the new-made knight seemed to
+render as eagerly as if he had really felt, in discharging the
+task, that pleasure which his words expressed.
+
+"I am not afraid of men's misconstruction," he said, in answer to
+Leicester's remark, "since there is not--(permit me to undo the
+collar)--a man within the Castle who does not expect very soon to
+see persons of a rank far superior to that which, by your
+goodness, I now hold, rendering the duties of the bedchamber to
+you, and accounting it an honour."
+
+"It might, indeed, so have been"--said the Earl, with an
+involuntary sigh; and then presently added, "My gown, Varney; I
+will look out on the night.  Is not the moon near to the full?"
+
+"I think so, my lord, according to the calendar," answered
+Varney.
+
+There was an abutting window, which opened on a small projecting
+balcony of stone, battlemented as is usual in Gothic castles.
+The Earl undid the lattice, and stepped out into the open air.
+The station he had chosen commanded an extensive view of the lake
+and woodlands beyond, where the bright moonlight rested on the
+clear blue waters and the distant masses of oak and elm trees.
+The moon rode high in the heavens, attended by thousands and
+thousands of inferior luminaries.  All seemed already to be
+hushed in the nether world, excepting occasionally the voice of
+the watch (for the yeomen of the guard performed that duty
+wherever the Queen was present in person) and the distant baying
+of the hounds, disturbed by the preparations amongst the grooms
+and prickers for a magnificent hunt, which was to be the
+amusement of the next day.
+
+Leicester looked out on the blue arch of heaven, with gestures
+and a countenance expressive of anxious exultation, while Varney,
+who remained within the darkened apartment, could (himself
+unnoticed), with a secret satisfaction, see his patron stretch
+his hands with earnest gesticulation towards the heavenly bodies.
+
+"Ye distant orbs of living fire," so ran the muttered invocation
+of the ambitious Earl, "ye are silent while you wheel your mystic
+rounds; but Wisdom has given to you a voice.  Tell me, then, to
+what end is my high course destined?  Shall the greatness to
+which I have aspired be bright, pre-eminent, and stable as your
+own; or am I but doomed to draw a brief and glittering train
+along the nightly darkness, and then to sink down to earth, like
+the base refuse of those artificial fires with which men emulate
+your rays?"
+
+He looked on the heavens in profound silence for a minute or two
+longer, and then again stepped into the apartment, where Varney
+seemed to have been engaged in putting the Earl's jewels into a
+casket.
+
+"What said Alasco of my horoscope?"  demanded Leicester.  "You
+already told me; but it has escaped me, for I think but lightly
+of that art."
+
+"Many learned and great men have thought otherwise," said Varney;
+"and, not to flatter your lordship, my own opinion leans that
+way."
+
+"Ay, Saul among the prophets?"  said Leicester.  "I thought thou
+wert sceptical in all such matters as thou couldst neither see,
+hear, smell, taste, or touch, and that thy belief was limited by
+thy senses."
+
+"Perhaps, my lord," said Varney, "I may be misled on the present
+occasion by my wish to find the predictions of astrology true.
+Alasco says that your favourite planet is culminating, and that
+the adverse influence--he would not use a plainer term--though
+not overcome, was evidently combust, I think he said, or
+retrograde."
+
+"It is even so," said Leicester, looking at an abstract of
+astrological calculations which he had in his hand; "the stronger
+influence will prevail, and, as I think, the evil hour pass away.
+Lend me your hand, Sir Richard, to doff my gown; and remain an
+instant, if it is not too burdensome to your knighthood, while I
+compose myself to sleep.  I believe the bustle of this day has
+fevered my blood, for it streams through my veins like a current
+of molten lead.  Remain an instant, I pray you--I would fain feel
+my eyes heavy ere I closed them."
+
+Varney officiously assisted his lord to bed, and placed a massive
+silver night-lamp, with a short sword, on a marble table which
+stood close by the head of the couch.  Either in order to avoid
+the light of the lamp, or to hide his countenance from Varney,
+Leicester drew the curtain, heavy with entwined silk and gold, so
+as completely to shade his face.  Varney took a seat near the
+bed, but with his back towards his master, as if to intimate that
+he was not watching him, and quietly waited till Leicester
+himself led the way to the topic by which his mind was engrossed.
+
+"And so, Varney," said the Earl, after waiting in vain till his
+dependant should commence the conversation, "men talk of the
+Queen's favour towards me?"
+
+"Ay, my good lord," said Varney; "of what can they else, since it
+is so strongly manifested?"
+
+"She is indeed my good and gracious mistress," said Leicester,
+after another pause; "but it is written, 'Put not thy trust in
+princes.'"
+
+"A good sentence and a true," said Varney, "unless you can unite
+their interest with yours so absolutely that they must needs sit
+on your wrist like hooded hawks."
+
+"I know what thou meanest," said Leicester impatiently, "though
+thou art to-night so prudentially careful of what thou sayest to
+me.  Thou wouldst intimate I might marry the Queen if I would?"
+
+"It is your speech, my lord, not mine," answered Varney; "but
+whosesoever be the speech, it is the thought of ninety-nine out
+of an hundred men throughout broad England."
+
+"Ay, but," said Leicester, turning himself in his bed, "the
+hundredth man knows better.  Thou, for example, knowest the
+obstacle that cannot be overleaped."
+
+"It must, my lord, if the stars speak true," said Varney
+composedly.
+
+"What, talkest thou of them," said Leicester, "that believest not
+in them or in aught else?"
+
+"You mistake, my lord, under your gracious pardon," said Varney;
+"I believe in many things that predict the future.  I believe, if
+showers fall in April, that we shall have flowers in May; that if
+the sun shines, grain will ripen; and I believe in much natural
+philosophy to the same effect, which, if the stars swear to me, I
+will say the stars speak the truth.  And in like manner, I will
+not disbelieve that which I see wished for and expected on earth,
+solely because the astrologers have read it in the heavens."
+
+"Thou art right," said Leicester, again tossing himself on his
+couch "Earth does wish for it.  I have had advices from the
+reformed churches of Germany--from the Low Countries--from
+Switzerland--urging this as a point on which Europe's safety
+depends.  France will not oppose it.  The ruling party in
+Scotland look to it as their best security.  Spain fears it, but
+cannot prevent it.  And yet thou knowest it is impossible."
+
+"I know not that, my lord," said Varney; "the Countess is
+indisposed."
+
+"Villain!"  said Leicester, starting up on his couch, and seizing
+the sword which lay on the table beside him, "go thy thoughts
+that way?--thou wouldst not do murder?"
+
+"For whom, or what, do you hold me, my lord?"  said Varney,
+assuming the superiority of an innocent man subjected to unjust
+suspicion.  "I said nothing to deserve such a horrid imputation
+as your violence infers.  I said but that the Countess was ill.
+And Countess though she be--lovely and beloved as she is--surely
+your lordship must hold her to be mortal?  She may die, and your
+lordship's hand become once more your own."
+
+"Away!  away!"  said Leicester; "let me have no more of this."
+
+"Good night, my lord," said Varney, seeming to understand this as
+a command to depart; but Leicester's voice interrupted his
+purpose.
+
+"Thou 'scapest me not thus, Sir Fool," said he; "I think thy
+knighthood has addled thy brains.  Confess thou hast talked of
+impossibilities as of things which may come to pass."
+
+"My lord, long live your fair Countess," said Varney; "but
+neither your love nor my good wishes can make her immortal.  But
+God grant she live long to be happy herself, and to render you
+so!  I see not but you may be King of England notwithstanding."
+
+"Nay, now, Varney, thou art stark mad," said Leicester.
+
+"I would I were myself within the same nearness to a good estate
+of freehold," said Varney.  "Have we not known in other countries
+how a left-handed marriage might subsist betwixt persons of
+differing degree?--ay, and be no hindrance to prevent the husband
+from conjoining himself afterwards with a more suitable partner?"
+
+"I have heard of such things in Germany," said Leicester.
+
+"Ay, and the most learned doctors in foreign universities justify
+the practice from the Old Testament," said Varney.  "And after
+all, where is the harm?  The beautiful partner whom you have
+chosen for true love has your secret hours of relaxation and
+affection.  Her fame is safe her conscience may slumber securely.
+You have wealth to provide royally for your issue, should Heaven
+bless you with offspring.  Meanwhile you may give to Elizabeth
+ten times the leisure, and ten thousand times the affection, that
+ever Don Philip of Spain spared to her sister Mary; yet you know
+how she doted on him though so cold and neglectful.  It requires
+but a close mouth and an open brow, and you keep your Eleanor and
+your fair Rosamond far enough separate.  Leave me to build you a
+bower to which no jealous Queen shall find a clew."
+
+Leicester was silent for a moment, then sighed, and said, "It is
+impossible.  Good night, Sir Richard Varney--yet stay.  Can you
+guess what meant Tressilian by showing himself in such careless
+guise before the Queen to-day?--to strike her tender heart, I
+should guess, with all the sympathies due to a lover abandoned by
+his mistress and abandoning himself."
+
+Varney, smothering a sneering laugh, answered, "He believed
+Master Tressilian had no such matter in his head."
+
+"How!"  said Leicester; "what meanest thou?  There is ever
+knavery in that laugh of thine, Varney."
+
+"I only meant, my lord," said Varney, "that Tressilian has taken
+the sure way to avoid heart-breaking.  He hath had a companion--a
+female companion--a mistress--a sort of player's wife or sister,
+as I believe--with him in Mervyn's Bower, where I quartered him
+for certain reasons of my own."
+
+"A mistress!--meanest thou a paramour?"
+
+"Ay, my lord; what female else waits for hours in a gentleman's
+chamber?"
+
+"By my faith, time and space fitting, this were a good tale to
+tell," said Leicester.  "I ever distrusted those bookish,
+hypocritical, seeming-virtuous scholars.  Well--Master Tressilian
+makes somewhat familiar with my house; if I look it over, he is
+indebted to it for certain recollections.  I would not harm him
+more than I can help.  Keep eye on him, however, Varney."
+
+"I lodged him for that reason," said Varney, "in Mervyn's Tower,
+where he is under the eye of my very vigilant, if he were not
+also my very drunken, servant, Michael Lambourne, whom I have
+told your Grace of."
+
+"Grace!"  said Leicester; "what meanest thou by that epithet?"
+
+"It came unawares, my lord; and yet it sounds so very natural
+that I cannot recall it."
+
+"It is thine own preferment that hath turned thy brain," said
+Leicester, laughing; "new honours are as heady as new wine."
+
+"May your lordship soon have cause to say so from experience,"
+said Varney; and wishing his patron good night, he withdrew."
+[See Note 8. Furniture of Kenilworth.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+  Here stands the victim--there the proud betrayer,
+  E'en as the hind pull'd down by strangling dogs
+  Lies at the hunter's feet--who courteous proffers
+  To some high dame, the Dian of the chase,
+  To whom he looks for guerdon, his sharp blade,
+  To gash the sobbing throat.           THE WOODSMAN.
+
+We are now to return to Mervyn's Bower, the apartment, or rather
+the prison, of the unfortunate Countess of Leicester, who for
+some time kept within bounds her uncertainty and her impatience.
+She was aware that, in the tumult of the day, there might be some
+delay ere her letter could be safely conveyed to the hands of
+Leicester, and that some time more might elapse ere he could
+extricate himself from the necessary attendance on Elizabeth, to
+come and visit her in her secret bower.  "I will not expect him,"
+she said, "till night; he cannot be absent from his royal guest,
+even to see me.  He will, I know, come earlier if it be possible,
+but I will not expect him before night."  And yet all the while
+she did expect him; and while she tried to argue herself into a
+contrary belief, each hasty noise of the hundred which she heard
+sounded like the hurried step of Leicester on the staircase,
+hasting to fold her in his arms.
+
+The fatigue of body which Amy had lately undergone, with the
+agitation of mind natural to so cruel a state of uncertainty,
+began by degrees strongly to affect her nerves, and she almost
+feared her total inability to maintain the necessary self-command
+through the scenes which might lie before her.  But although
+spoiled by an over-indulgent system of education, Amy had
+naturally a mind of great power, united with a frame which her
+share in her father's woodland exercises had rendered uncommonly
+healthy.  She summoned to her aid such mental and bodily
+resources; and not unconscious how much the issue of her fate
+might depend on her own self-possession, she prayed internally
+for strength of body and for mental fortitude, and resolved at
+the same time to yield to no nervous impulse which might weaken
+either.
+
+Yet when the great bell of the Castle, which was placed in
+Caesar's Tower, at no great distance from that called Mervyn's,
+began to send its pealing clamour abroad, in signal of the
+arrival of the royal procession, the din was so painfully acute
+to ears rendered nervously sensitive by anxiety, that she could
+hardly forbear shrieking with anguish, in answer to every
+stunning clash of the relentless peal.
+
+Shortly afterwards, when the small apartment was at once
+enlightened by the shower of artificial fires with which the air
+was suddenly filled, and which crossed each other like fiery
+spirits, each bent on his own separate mission, or like
+salamanders executing a frolic dance in the region of the Sylphs,
+the Countess felt at first as if each rocket shot close by her
+eyes, and discharged its sparks and flashes so nigh that she
+could feel a sense of the heat.  But she struggled against these
+fantastic terrors, and compelled herself to arise, stand by the
+window, look out, and gaze upon a sight which at another time
+would have appeared to her at once captivating and fearful.  The
+magnificent towers of the Castle were enveloped in garlands of
+artificial fire, or shrouded with tiaras of pale smoke.  The
+surface of the lake glowed like molten iron, while many fireworks
+(then thought extremely wonderful, though now common), whose
+flame continued to exist in the opposing element, dived and rose,
+hissed and roared, and spouted fire, like so many dragons of
+enchantment sporting upon a burning lake.
+
+Even Amy was for a moment interested by what was to her so new a
+scene.  "I had thought it magical art," she said, "but poor
+Tressilian taught me to judge of such things as they are.  Great
+God!  and may not these idle splendours resemble my own hoped-for
+happiness--a single spark, which is instantly swallowed up by
+surrounding darkness--a precarious glow, which rises but for a
+brief space into the air, that its fall may be the lower?  O
+Leicester!  after all--all that thou hast said--hast sworn--that
+Amy was thy love, thy life, can it be that thou art the magician
+at whose nod these enchantments arise, and that she sees them as
+an outcast, if not a captive?"
+
+The sustained, prolonged, and repeated bursts of music, from so
+many different quarters, and at so many varying points of
+distance, which sounded as if not the Castle of Kenilworth only,
+but the whole country around, had been at once the scene of
+solemnizing some high national festival, carried the same
+oppressive thought still closer to her heart, while some notes
+would melt in distant and falling tones, as if in compassion for
+her sorrows, and some burst close and near upon her, as if
+mocking her misery, with all the insolence of unlimited mirth.
+"These sounds," she said, "are mine--mine, because they are HIS;
+but I cannot say, Be still, these loud strains suit me not; and
+the voice of the meanest peasant that mingles in the dance would
+have more power to modulate the music than the command of her who
+is mistress of all."
+
+By degrees the sounds of revelry died away, and the Countess
+withdrew from the window at which she had sat listening to them.
+It was night, but the moon afforded considerable light in the
+room, so that Amy was able to make the arrangement which she
+judged necessary.  There was hope that Leicester might come to
+her apartment as soon as the revel in the Castle had subsided;
+but there was also risk she might be disturbed by some
+unauthorized intruder.  She had lost confidence in the key since
+Tressilian had entered so easily, though the door was locked on
+the inside; yet all the additional security she could think of
+was to place the table across the door, that she might be warned
+by the noise should any one attempt to enter.  Having taken these
+necessary precautions, the unfortunate lady withdrew to her
+couch, stretched herself down on it, mused in anxious
+expectation, and counted more than one hour after midnight, till
+exhausted nature proved too strong for love, for grief, for fear,
+nay, even for uncertainty, and she slept.
+
+Yes, she slept.  The Indian sleeps at the stake in the intervals
+between his tortures; and mental torments, in like manner,
+exhaust by long continuance the sensibility of the sufferer, so
+that an interval of lethargic repose must necessarily ensue, ere
+the pangs which they inflict can again be renewed.
+
+The Countess slept, then, for several hours, and dreamed that she
+was in the ancient house at Cumnor Place, listening for the low
+whistle with which Leicester often used to announce his presence
+in the courtyard when arriving suddenly on one of his stolen
+visits.  But on this occasion, instead of a whistle, she heard
+the peculiar blast of a bugle-horn, such as her father used to
+wind on the fall of the stag, and which huntsmen then called a
+MORT.  She ran, as she thought, to a window that looked into the
+courtyard, which she saw filled with men in mourning garments.
+The old Curate seemed about to read the funeral service.
+Mumblazen, tricked out in an antique dress, like an ancient
+herald, held aloft a scutcheon, with its usual decorations of
+skulls, cross-bones, and hour-glasses, surrounding a coat-of-
+arms, of which she could only distinguish that it was surmounted
+with an Earl's coronet.  The old man looked at her with a ghastly
+smile, and said, "Amy, are they not rightly quartered?"  Just as
+he spoke, the horns again poured on her ear the melancholy yet
+wild strain of the MORT, or death-note, and she awoke.
+
+The Countess awoke to hear a real bugle-note, or rather the
+combined breath of many bugles, sounding not the MORT.  but the
+jolly REVEILLE, to remind the inmates of the Castle of Kenilworth
+that the pleasures of the day were to commence with a magnificent
+stag-hunting in the neighbouring Chase.  Amy started up from her
+couch, listened to the sound, saw the first beams of the summer
+morning already twinkle through the lattice of her window, and
+recollected, with feelings of giddy agony, where she was, and how
+circumstanced.
+
+"He thinks not of me," she said; "he will not come nigh me!  A
+Queen is his guest, and what cares he in what corner of his huge
+Castle a wretch like me pines in doubt, which is fast fading into
+despair?"  At once a sound at the door, as of some one attempting
+to open it softly, filled her with an ineffable mixture of joy
+and fear; and hastening to remove the obstacle she had placed
+against the door, and to unlock it, she had the precaution to
+ask!  "Is it thou, my love?"
+
+"Yes, my Countess," murmured a whisper in reply.
+
+She threw open the door, and exclaiming, "Leicester!"  flung her
+arms around the neck of the man who stood without, muffled in his
+cloak.
+
+"No--not quite Leicester," answered Michael Lambourne, for he it
+was, returning the caress with vehemence--"not quite Leicester,
+my lovely and most loving duchess, but as good a man."
+
+With an exertion of force, of which she would at another time
+have thought herself incapable, the Countess freed herself from
+the profane and profaning grasp of the drunken debauchee, and
+retreated into the midst of her apartment.  where despair gave
+her courage to make a stand.
+
+As Lambourne, on entering, dropped the lap of his cloak from his
+face, she knew Varney's profligate servant, the very last person,
+excepting his detested master, by whom she would have wished to
+be discovered.  But she was still closely muffled in her
+travelling dress, and as Lambourne had scarce ever been admitted
+to her presence at Cumnor Place, her person, she hoped, might not
+be so well known to him as his was to her, owing to Janet's
+pointing him frequently out as he crossed the court, and telling
+stories of his wickedness.  She might have had still greater
+confidence in her disguise had her experience enabled her to
+discover that he was much intoxicated; but this could scarce have
+consoled her for the risk which she might incur from such a
+character in such a time, place, and circumstances.
+
+Lambourne flung the door behind him as he entered, and folding
+his arms, as if in mockery of the attitude of distraction into
+which Amy had thrown herself, he proceeded thus:  "Hark ye, most
+fair Calipolis--or most lovely Countess of clouts, and divine
+Duchess of dark corners--if thou takest all that trouble of
+skewering thyself together, like a trussed fowl, that there may
+be more pleasure in the carving, even save thyself the labour.  I
+love thy first frank manner the best---like thy present as
+little"--(he made a step towards her, and staggered)--"as little
+as--such a damned uneven floor as this, where a gentleman may
+break his neck if he does not walk as upright as a posture-master
+on the tight-rope."
+
+"Stand back!"  said the Countess; "do not approach nearer to me
+on thy peril!"
+
+"My peril!--and stand back!  Why, how now, madam?  Must you have
+a better mate than honest Mike Lambourne?  I have been in
+America, girl, where the gold grows, and have brought off such a
+load on't--"
+
+"Good friend," said the Countess, in great terror at the
+ruffian's determined and audacious manner, "I prithee begone, and
+leave me."
+
+"And so I will, pretty one, when we are tired of each other's
+company--not a jot sooner."  He seized her by the arm, while,
+incapable of further defence, she uttered shriek upon shriek.
+"Nay, scream away if you like it," said he, still holding her
+fast; "I have heard the sea at the loudest, and I mind a
+squalling woman no more than a miauling kitten.  Damn me!  I have
+heard fifty or a hundred screaming at once, when there was a town
+stormed."
+
+The cries of the Countess, however, brought unexpected aid in the
+person of Lawrence Staples, who had heard her exclamations from
+his apartment below, and entered in good time to save her from
+being discovered, if not from more atrocious violence.  Lawrence
+was drunk also from the debauch of the preceding night, but
+fortunately his intoxication had taken a different turn from that
+of Lambourne.
+
+"What the devil's noise is this in the ward?"  he said.  "What!
+man and woman together in the same cell?--that is against rule.
+I will have decency under my rule, by Saint Peter of the
+Fetters!"
+
+"Get thee downstairs, thou drunken beast," said Lambourne; "seest
+thou not the lady and I would be private?"
+
+"Good sir, worthy sir!"  said the Countess, addressing the
+jailer, "do but save me from him, for the sake of mercy!"
+
+"She speaks fairly," said the jailer, "and I will take her part.
+I love my prisoners; and I have had as good prisoners under my
+key as they have had in Newgate or the Compter.  And so, being
+one of my lambkins, as I say, no one shall disturb her in her
+pen-fold.  So let go the woman:  or I'll knock your brains out
+with my keys."
+
+"I'll make a blood-pudding of thy midriff first," answered
+Lambourne, laying his left hand on his dagger, but still
+detaining the Countess by the arm with his right.  "So have at
+thee, thou old ostrich, whose only living is upon a bunch of iron
+keys."
+
+Lawrence raised the arm of Michael, and prevented him from
+drawing his dagger; and as Lambourne struggled and strove to
+shake him off; the Countess made a sudden exertion on her side,
+and slipping her hand out of the glove on which the ruffian still
+kept hold, she gained her liberty, and escaping from the
+apartment, ran downstairs; while at the same moment she heard the
+two combatants fall on the floor with a noise which increased her
+terror.  The outer wicket offered no impediment to her flight,
+having been opened for Lambourne's admittance; so that she
+succeeded in escaping down the stair, and fled into the
+Pleasance, which seemed to her hasty glance the direction in
+which she was most likely to avoid pursuit.
+
+Meanwhile, Lawrence and Lambourne rolled on the floor of the
+apartment, closely grappled together.  Neither had, happily,
+opportunity to draw their daggers; but Lawrence found space
+enough to clash his heavy keys across Michael's face, and Michael
+in return grasped the turnkey so felly by the throat that the
+blood gushed from nose and mouth, so that they were both gory and
+filthy spectacles when one of the other officers of the
+household, attracted by the noise of the fray, entered the room,
+and with some difficulty effected the separation of the
+combatants.
+
+"A murrain on you both," said the charitable mediator, "and
+especially on you, Master Lambourne!  What the fiend lie you here
+for, fighting on the floor like two butchers' curs in the kennel
+of the shambles?"
+
+Lambourne arose, and somewhat sobered by the interposition of a
+third party, looked with something less than his usual brazen
+impudence of visage.  "We fought for a wench, an thou must know,"
+was his reply.
+
+"A wench!  Where is she?"  said the officer.
+
+"Why, vanished, I think," said Lambourne, looking around him,
+"unless Lawrence hath swallowed her, That filthy paunch of his
+devours as many distressed damsels and oppressed orphans as e'er
+a giant in King Arthur's history.  They are his prime food; he
+worries them body, soul, and substance."
+
+"Ay, ay!  It's no matter," said Lawrence, gathering up his huge,
+ungainly form from the floor; "but I have had your betters,
+Master Michael Lambourne, under the little turn of my forefinger
+and thumb, and I shall have thee, before all's done, under my
+hatches.  The impudence of thy brow will not always save thy
+shin-bones from iron, and thy foul, thirsty gullet from a hempen
+cord."  The words were no sooner out of his mouth, when Lambourne
+again made at him.
+
+"Nay, go not to it again," said the sewer, "or I will call for
+him shall tame you both, and that is Master Varney--Sir Richard,
+I mean.  He is stirring, I promise you; I saw him cross the court
+just now."
+
+"Didst thou, by G--!"  said Lambourne, seizing on the basin and
+ewer which stood in the apartment.  "Nay, then, element, do thy
+work.  I thought I had enough of thee last night, when I floated
+about for Orion, like a cork on a fermenting cask of ale."
+
+So saying, he fell to work to cleanse from his face and hands the
+signs of the fray, and get his apparel into some order.
+
+"What hast thou done to him?"  said the sewer, speaking aside to
+the jailer; "his face is fearfully swelled."
+
+"It is but the imprint of the key of my cabinet--too good a mark
+for his gallows-face.  No man shall abuse or insult my prisoners;
+they are my jewels, and I lock them in safe casket accordingly.
+--And so, mistress, leave off your wailing.--Why!  why, surely,
+there was a woman here!"
+
+"I think you are all mad this morning," said the sewer.  "I saw
+no woman here, nor no man neither in a proper sense, but only two
+beasts rolling on the floor."
+
+"Nay, then I am undone," said the jailer; "the prison's broken,
+that is all.  Kenilworth prison is broken," he continued, in a
+tone of maudlin lamentation, "which was the strongest jail
+betwixt this and the Welsh Marches--ay, and a house that has had
+knights, and earls, and kings sleeping in it, as secure as if
+they had been in the Tower of London.  It is broken, the
+prisoners fled, and the jailer in much danger of being hanged!"
+
+So saying, he retreated down to his own den to conclude his
+lamentations, or to sleep himself sober.  Lambourne and the sewer
+followed him close; and it was well for them, since the jailer,
+out of mere habit, was about to lock the wicket after him, and
+had they not been within the reach of interfering, they would
+have had the pleasure of being shut up in the turret-chamber,
+from which the Countess had been just delivered.
+
+That unhappy lady, as soon as she found herself at liberty, fled,
+as we have already mentioned, into the Pleasance.  She had seen
+this richly-ornamented space of ground from the window of
+Mervyn's Tower; and it occurred to her, at the moment of her
+escape, that among its numerous arbours, bowers, fountains,
+statues, and grottoes, she might find some recess in which she
+could lie concealed until she had an opportunity of addressing
+herself to a protector, to whom she might communicate as much as
+she dared of her forlorn situation, and through whose means she
+might supplicate an interview with her husband.
+
+"If I could see my guide," she thought, "I would learn if he had
+delivered my letter.  Even did I but see Tressilian, it were
+better to risk Dudley's anger, by confiding my whole situation to
+one who is the very soul of honour, than to run the hazard of
+further insult among the insolent menials of this ill-ruled
+place.  I will not again venture into an enclosed apartment.  I
+will wait, I will watch; amidst so many human beings there must
+be some kind heart which can judge and compassionate what mine
+endures."
+
+In truth, more than one party entered and traversed the
+Pleasance.  But they were in joyous groups of four or five
+persons together, laughing and jesting in their own fullness of
+mirth and lightness of heart.
+
+The retreat which she had chosen gave her the easy alternative of
+avoiding observation.  It was but stepping back to the farthest
+recess of a grotto, ornamented with rustic work and moss-seats,
+and terminated by a fountain, and she might easily remain
+concealed, or at her pleasure discover herself to any solitary
+wanderer whose curiosity might lead him to that romantic
+retirement.  Anticipating such an opportunity, she looked into
+the clear basin which the silent fountain held up to her like a
+mirror, and felt shocked at her own appearance, and doubtful at;
+the same time, muffled and disfigured as her disguise made her
+seem to herself, whether any female (and it was from the
+compassion of her own sex that she chiefly expected sympathy)
+would engage in conference with so suspicious an object.
+Reasoning thus like a woman, to whom external appearance is
+scarcely in any circumstances a matter of unimportance, and like
+a beauty, who had some confidence in the power of her own charms,
+she laid aside her travelling cloak and capotaine hat, and placed
+them beside her, so that she could assume them in an instant, ere
+one could penetrate from the entrance of the grotto to its
+extremity, in case the intrusion of Varney or of Lambourne should
+render such disguise necessary.  The dress which she wore under
+these vestments was somewhat of a theatrical cast, so as to suit
+the assumed personage of one of the females who was to act in the
+pageant, Wayland had found the means of arranging it thus upon
+the second day of their journey, having experienced the service
+arising from the assumption of such a character on the preceding
+day.  The fountain, acting both as a mirror and ewer, afforded
+Amy the means of a brief toilette, of which she availed herself
+as hastily as possible; then took in her hand her small casket of
+jewels, in case she might find them useful intercessors, and
+retiring to the darkest and most sequestered nook, sat down on a
+seat of moss, and awaited till fate should give her some chance
+of rescue, or of propitiating an intercessor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+  Have you not seen the partridge quake,
+  Viewing the hawk approaching nigh?
+  She cuddles close beneath the brake,
+  Afraid to sit, afraid to fly,          PRIOR.
+
+It chanced, upon that memorable morning, that one of the earliest
+of the huntress train, who appeared from her chamber in full
+array for the chase, was the Princess for whom all these
+pleasures were instituted, England's Maiden Queen.  I know not if
+it were by chance, or out of the befitting courtesy due to a
+mistress by whom he was so much honoured, that she had scarcely
+made one step beyond the threshold of her chamber ere Leicester
+was by her side, and proposed to her, until the preparations for
+the chase had been completed, to view the Pleasance, and the
+gardens which it connected with the Castle yard.
+
+To this new scene of pleasures they walked, the Earl's arm
+affording his Sovereign the occasional support which she
+required, where flights of steps, then a favourite ornament in a
+garden, conducted them from terrace to terrace, and from parterre
+to parterre.  The ladies in attendance, gifted with prudence, or
+endowed perhaps with the amiable desire of acting as they would
+be done by, did not conceive their duty to the Queen's person
+required them, though they lost not sight of her, to approach so
+near as to share, or perhaps disturb, the conversation betwixt
+the Queen and the Earl, who was not only her host, but also her
+most trusted, esteemed, and favoured servant.  They contented
+themselves with admiring the grace of this illustrious couple,
+whose robes of state were now exchanged for hunting suits, almost
+equally magnificent.
+
+Elizabeth's silvan dress, which was of a pale blue silk, with
+silver lace and AIGUILLETTES, approached in form to that of the
+ancient Amazons, and was therefore well suited at once to her
+height and to the dignity of her mien, which her conscious rank
+and long habits of authority had rendered in some degree too
+masculine to be seen to the best advantage in ordinary female
+weeds.  Leicester's hunting suit of Lincoln green, richly
+embroidered with gold, and crossed by the gay baldric which
+sustained a bugle-horn, and a wood-knife instead of a sword,
+became its master, as did his other vestments of court or of war.
+For such were the perfections of his form and mien, that
+Leicester was always supposed to be seen to the greatest
+advantage in the character and dress which for the time he
+represented or wore.
+
+The conversation of Elizabeth and the favourite Earl has not
+reached us in detail.  But those who watched at some distance
+(and the eyes of courtiers and court ladies are right sharp) were
+of opinion that on no occasion did the dignity of Elizabeth, in
+gesture and motion, seem so decidedly to soften away into a mien
+expressive of indecision and tenderness.  Her step was not only
+slow, but even unequal, a thing most unwonted in her carriage;
+her looks seemed bent on the ground; and there was a timid
+disposition to withdraw from her companion, which external
+gesture in females often indicates exactly the opposite tendency
+in the secret mind.  The Duchess of Rutland, who ventured
+nearest, was even heard to aver that she discerned a tear in
+Elizabeth's eye and a blush on her cheek; and still further, "She
+bent her looks on the ground to avoid mine," said the Duchess,
+"she who, in her ordinary mood, could look down a lion."  To what
+conclusion these symptoms led is sufficiently evident; nor were
+they probably entirely groundless.  The progress of a private
+conversation betwixt two persons of different sexes is often
+decisive of their fate, and gives it a turn very different
+perhaps from what they themselves anticipated.  Gallantry becomes
+mingled with conversation, and affection and passion come
+gradually to mix with gallantry.  Nobles, as well as shepherd
+swains, will, in such a trying moment, say more than they
+intended; and Queens, like village maidens, will listen longer
+than they should.
+
+Horses in the meanwhile neighed and champed the bits with
+impatience in the base-court; hounds yelled in their couples; and
+yeomen, rangers, and prickers lamented the exhaling of the dew,
+which would prevent the scent from lying.  But Leicester had
+another chase in view--or, to speak more justly towards him, had
+become engaged in it without premeditation, as the high-spirited
+hunter which follows the cry of the hounds that have crossed his
+path by accident.  The Queen, an accomplished and handsome woman,
+the pride of England, the hope of France and Holland, and the
+dread of Spain, had probably listened with more than usual favour
+to that mixture of romantic gallantry with which she always loved
+to be addressed; and the Earl had, in vanity, in ambition, or in
+both, thrown in more and more of that delicious ingredient, until
+his importunity became the language of love itself.
+
+"No, Dudley," said Elizabeth, yet it was with broken accents--
+"no, I must be the mother of my people.  Other ties, that make
+the lowly maiden happy, are denied to her Sovereign.  No,
+Leicester, urge it no more.  Were I as others, free to seek my
+own happiness, then, indeed--but it cannot--cannot be.  Delay the
+chase--delay it for half an hour--and leave me, my lord."
+
+"How!  leave you, madam?"  said Leicester,--"has my madness
+offended you?"
+
+"No, Leicester, not so!"  answered the Queen hastily; "but it is
+madness, and must not be repeated.  Go--but go not far from
+hence; and meantime let no one intrude on my privacy."
+
+While she spoke thus, Dudley bowed deeply, and retired with a
+slow and melancholy air.  The Queen stood gazing after him, and
+murmured to herself, "Were it possible--were it BUT possible!--
+but no--no; Elizabeth must be the wife and mother of England
+alone."
+
+As she spoke thus, and in order to avoid some one whose step she
+heard approaching, the Queen turned into the grotto in which her
+hapless, and yet but too successful, rival lay concealed.
+
+The mind of England's Elizabeth, if somewhat shaken by the
+agitating interview to which she had just put a period, was of
+that firm and decided character which soon recovers its natural
+tone.  It was like one of those ancient Druidical monuments
+called Rocking-stones.  The finger of Cupid, boy as he is
+painted, could put her feelings in motion; but the power of
+Hercules could not have destroyed their equilibrium.  As she
+advanced with a slow pace towards the inmost extremity of the
+grotto, her countenance, ere she had proceeded half the length,
+had recovered its dignity of look, and her mien its air of
+command.
+
+It was then the Queen became aware that a female figure was
+placed beside, or rather partly behind, an alabaster column, at
+the foot of which arose the pellucid fountain which occupied the
+inmost recess of the twilight grotto.  The classical mind of
+Elizabeth suggested the story of Numa and Egeria, and she doubted
+not that some Italian sculptor had here represented the Naiad
+whose inspirations gave laws to Rome.  As she advanced, she
+became doubtful whether she beheld a statue, or a form of flesh
+and blood.  The unfortunate Amy, indeed, remained motionless,
+betwixt the desire which she had to make her condition known to
+one of her own sex, and her awe for the stately form which
+approached her, and which, though her eyes had never before
+beheld, her fears instantly suspected to be the personage she
+really was.  Amy had arisen from her seat with the purpose of
+addressing the lady who entered the grotto alone, and, as she at
+first thought, so opportunely.  But when she recollected the
+alarm which Leicester had expressed at the Queen's knowing aught
+of their union, and became more and more satisfied that the
+person whom she now beheld was Elizabeth herself, she stood with
+one foot advanced and one withdrawn, her arms, head, and hands
+perfectly motionless, and her cheek as pallid as the alabaster
+pedestal against which she leaned.  Her dress was of pale sea-
+green silk, little distinguished in that imperfect light, and
+somewhat resembled the drapery of a Grecian Nymph, such an
+antique disguise having been thought the most secure, where so
+many maskers and revellers were assembled; so that the Queen's
+doubt of her being a living form was well justified by all
+contingent circumstances, as well as by the bloodless cheek and
+the fixed eye.
+
+Elizabeth remained in doubt, even after she had approached within
+a few paces, whether she did not gaze on a statue so cunningly
+fashioned that by the doubtful light it could not be
+distinguished from reality.  She stopped, therefore, and fixed
+upon this interesting object her princely look with so much
+keenness that the astonishment which had kept Amy immovable gave
+way to awe, and she gradually cast down her eyes, and drooped her
+head under the commanding gaze of the Sovereign.  Still, however,
+she remained in all respects, saving this slow and profound
+inclination of the head, motionless and silent.
+
+From her dress, and the casket which she instinctively held in
+her hand, Elizabeth naturally conjectured that the beautiful but
+mute figure which she beheld was a performer in one of the
+various theatrical pageants which had been placed in different
+situations to surprise her with their homage; and that the poor
+player, overcome with awe at her presence, had either forgot the
+part assigned her, or lacked courage to go through it.  It was
+natural and courteous to give her some encouragement; and
+Elizabeth accordingly said, in a, tone of condescending kindness,
+"How now, fair Nymph of this lovely grotto, art thou spell-bound
+and struck with dumbness by the charms of the wicked enchanter
+whom men term Fear?  We are his sworn enemy, maiden, and can
+reverse his charm.  Speak, we command thee."
+
+Instead of answering her by speech, the unfortunate Countess
+dropped on her knee before the Queen, let her casket fall from
+her hand, and clasping her palms together, looked up in the
+Queen's face with such a mixed agony of fear and supplication,
+that Elizabeth was considerably affected.
+
+"What may this mean?"  she said; "this is a stronger passion than
+befits the occasion.  Stand up, damsel--what wouldst thou have
+with us?"
+
+"Your protection, madam," faltered forth the unhappy petitioner.
+
+"Each daughter of England has it while she is worthy of it,"
+replied the Queen; "but your distress seems to have a deeper root
+than a forgotten task.  Why, and in what, do you crave our
+protection?"
+
+Amy hastily endeavoured to recall what she were best to say,
+which might secure herself from the imminent dangers that
+surrounded her, without endangering her husband; and plunging
+from one thought to another, amidst the chaos which filled her
+mind, she could at length, in answer to the Queen's repeated
+inquiries in what she sought protection, only falter out, "Alas!
+I know not."
+
+"This is folly, maiden," said Elizabeth impatiently; for there
+was something in the extreme confusion of the suppliant which
+irritated her curiosity, as well as interested her feelings.
+"The sick man must tell his malady to the physician; nor are WE
+accustomed to ask questions so oft without receiving an answer."
+
+"I request--I implore," stammered forth the unfortunate Countess
+--"I beseech your gracious protection--against--against one
+Varney."  She choked well-nigh as she uttered the fatal word,
+which was instantly caught up by the Queen.
+
+"What, Varney--Sir Richard Varney--the servant of Lord Leicester!
+what, damsel, are you to him, or he to you?"
+
+"I--I--was his prisoner--and he practised on my life--and I broke
+forth to--to--"
+
+"To throw thyself on my protection, doubtless," said Elizabeth.
+"Thou shalt have it--that is, if thou art worthy; for we will
+sift this matter to the uttermost.  Thou art," she said, bending
+on the Countess an eye which seemed designed to pierce her very
+inmost soul--"thou art Amy, daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of
+Lidcote Hall?"
+
+"Forgive me--forgive me, most gracious Princess!"  said Amy,
+dropping once more on her knee, from which she had arisen.
+
+"For what should I forgive thee, silly wench?"  said Elizabeth;
+"for being the daughter of thine own father?  Thou art brain-
+sick, surely.  Well I see I must wring the story from thee by
+inches. Thou didst deceive thine old and honoured father--thy
+look confesses it--cheated Master Tressilian--thy blush avouches
+it--and married this same Varney."
+
+Amy sprung on her feet, and interrupted the Queen eagerly with,
+"No, madam, no!  as there is a God above us, I am not the sordid
+wretch you would make me!  I am not the wife of that contemptible
+slave--of that most deliberate villain!  I am not the wife of
+Varney!  I would rather be the bride of Destruction!"
+
+The Queen, overwhelmed in her turn by Amy's vehemence, stood
+silent for an instant, and then replied, "Why, God ha' mercy,
+woman!  I see thou canst talk fast enough when the theme likes
+thee.  Nay, tell me, woman," she continued, for to the impulse of
+curiosity was now added that of an undefined jealousy that some
+deception had been practised on her--"tell me, woman--for, by
+God's day, I WILL know--whose wife, or whose paramour, art thou!
+Speak out, and be speedy.  Thou wert better daily with a lioness
+than with Elizabeth."
+
+Urged to this extremity, dragged as it were by irresistible force
+to the verge of the precipice which she saw, but could not avoid
+--permitted not a moment's respite by the eager words and
+menacing gestures of the offended Queen, Amy at length uttered in
+despair, "The Earl of Leicester knows it all."
+
+"The Earl of Leicester!"  said Elizabeth, in utter astonishment.
+"The Earl of Leicester!"  she repeated with kindling anger.
+"Woman, thou art set on to this--thou dost belie him--he takes no
+keep of such things as thou art.  Thou art suborned to slander
+the noblest lord and the truest-hearted gentleman in England!
+But were he the right hand of our trust, or something yet dearer
+to us, thou shalt have thy hearing, and that in his presence.
+Come with me--come with me instantly!"
+
+As Amy shrunk back with terror, which the incensed Queen
+interpreted as that of conscious guilt, Elizabeth rapidly
+advanced, seized on her arm, and hastened with swift and long
+steps out of the grotto, and along the principal alley of the
+Pleasance, dragging with her the terrified Countess, whom she
+still held by the arm, and whose utmost exertions could but just
+keep pace with those of the indignant Queen.
+
+Leicester was at this moment the centre of a splendid group of
+lords and ladies, assembled together under an arcade, or portico,
+which closed the alley.  The company had drawn together in that
+place, to attend the commands of her Majesty when the hunting-
+party should go forward, and their astonishment may be imagined
+when, instead of seeing Elizabeth advance towards them with her
+usual measured dignity of motion, they beheld her walking so
+rapidly that she was in the midst of them ere they were aware;
+and then observed, with fear and surprise, that her features were
+flushed betwixt anger and agitation, that her hair was loosened
+by her haste of motion, and that her eyes sparkled as they were
+wont when the spirit of Henry VIII.  mounted highest in his
+daughter.  Nor were they less astonished at the appearance of the
+pale, attenuated, half-dead, yet still lovely female, whom the
+Queen upheld by main strength with one hand, while with the other
+she waved aside the ladies and nobles who pressed towards her,
+under the idea that she was taken suddenly ill.  "Where is my
+Lord of Leicester?"  she said, in a tone that thrilled with
+astonishment all the courtiers who stood around.  "Stand forth,
+my Lord of Leicester!"
+
+If, in the midst of the most serene day of summer, when all is
+light and laughing around, a thunderbolt were to fall from the
+clear blue vault of heaven, and rend the earth at the very feet
+of some careless traveller, he could not gaze upon the
+smouldering chasm, which so unexpectedly yawned before him, with
+half the astonishment and fear which Leicester felt at the sight
+that so suddenly presented itself.  He had that instant been
+receiving, with a political affectation of disavowing and
+misunderstanding their meaning, the half-uttered, half-intimated
+congratulations of the courtiers upon the favour of the Queen,
+carried apparently to its highest pitch during the interview of
+that morning, from which most of them seemed to augur that he
+might soon arise from their equal in rank to become their master.
+And now, while the subdued yet proud smile with which he
+disclaimed those inferences was yet curling his cheek, the Queen
+shot into the circle, her passions excited to the uttermost; and
+supporting with one hand, and apparently without an effort, the
+pale and sinking form of his almost expiring wife, and pointing
+with the finger of the other to her half-dead features, demanded
+in a voice that sounded to the ears of the astounded statesman
+like the last dread trumpet-call that is to summon body and
+spirit to the judgment-seat, "Knowest thou this woman?"
+
+As, at the blast of that last trumpet, the guilty shall call upon
+the mountains to cover them, Leicester's inward thoughts invoked
+the stately arch which he had built in his pride to burst its
+strong conjunction, and overwhelm them in its ruins.  But the
+cemented stones, architrave and battlement, stood fast; and it
+was the proud master himself who, as if some actual pressure had
+bent him to the earth, kneeled down before Elizabeth, and
+prostrated his brow to the marble flag-stones on which she stood.
+
+"Leicester," said Elizabeth, in a voice which trembled with
+passion, "could I think thou hast practised on me--on me thy
+Sovereign--on me thy confiding, thy too partial mistress, the
+base and ungrateful deception which thy present confusion
+surmises--by all that is holy, false lord, that head of thine
+were in as great peril as ever was thy father's!"
+
+Leicester had not conscious innocence, but he had pride to
+support him.  He raised slowly his brow and features, which were
+black and swoln with contending emotions, and only replied, "My
+head cannot fall but by the sentence of my peers.  To them I will
+plead, and not to a princess who thus requites my faithful
+service."
+
+"What!  my lords," said Elizabeth, looking around, "we are
+defied, I think--defied in the Castle we have ourselves bestowed
+on this proud man!--My Lord Shrewsbury, you are Marshal of
+England, attach him of high treason."
+
+"Whom does your Grace mean?"  said Shrewsbury, much surprised,
+for he had that instant joined the astonished circle.
+
+"Whom should I mean, but that traitor Dudley, Earl of Leicester!
+--Cousin of Hunsdon, order out your band of gentlemen pensioners,
+and take him into instant custody.  I say, villain, make haste!"
+
+Hunsdon, a rough old noble, who, from his relationship to the
+Boleyns, was accustomed to use more freedom with the Queen than
+almost any other dared to do, replied bluntly, "And it is like
+your Grace might order me to the Tower to-morrow for making too
+much haste.  I do beseech you to be patient."
+
+"Patient--God's life!"  exclaimed the Queen--"name not the word
+to me; thou knowest not of what he is guilty!"
+
+Amy, who had by this time in some degree recovered herself, and
+who saw her husband, as she conceived, in the utmost danger from
+the rage of an offended Sovereign, instantly (and alas!  how
+many women have done the same) forgot her own wrongs and her own
+danger in her apprehensions for him, and throwing herself before
+the Queen, embraced her knees, while she exclaimed, "He is
+guiltless, madam--he is guiltless; no one can lay aught to the
+charge of the noble Leicester!"
+
+"Why, minion," answered the Queen, "didst not thou thyself say
+that the Earl of Leicester was privy to thy whole history?"
+
+"Did I say so?"  repeated the unhappy Amy, laying aside every
+consideration of consistency and of self-interest.  "Oh, if I
+did, I foully belied him.  May God so judge me, as I believe he
+was never privy to a thought that would harm me!"
+
+"Woman!"  said Elizabeth, "I will know who has moved thee to
+this; or my wrath--and the wrath of kings is a flaming fire--
+shall wither and consume thee like a weed in the furnace!"
+
+As the Queen uttered this threat, Leicester's better angel called
+his pride to his aid, and reproached him with the utter extremity
+of meanness which would overwhelm him for ever if he stooped to
+take shelter under the generous interposition of his wife, and
+abandoned her, in return for her kindness, to the resentment of
+the Queen.  He had already raised his head with the dignity of a
+man of honour to avow his marriage, and proclaim himself the
+protector of his Countess, when Varney, born, as it appeared, to
+be his master's evil genius, rushed into the presence with every
+mark of disorder on his face and apparel.
+
+"What means this saucy intrusion?"  said Elizabeth.
+
+Varney, with the air of a man altogether overwhelmed with grief
+and confusion, prostrated himself before her feet, exclaiming,
+"Pardon, my Liege, pardon!--or at least let your justice avenge
+itself on me, where it is due; but spare my noble, my generous,
+my innocent patron and master!"
+
+Amy, who was yet kneeling, started up as she saw the man whom she
+deemed most odious place himself so near her, and was about to
+fly towards Leicester, when, checked at once by the uncertainty
+and even timidity which his looks had reassumed as soon as the
+appearance of his confidant seemed to open a new scene, she hung
+back, and uttering a faint scream, besought of her Majesty to
+cause her to be imprisoned in the lowest dungeon of the Castle--
+to deal with her as the worst of criminals--"but spare," she
+exclaimed, "my sight and hearing what will destroy the little
+judgment I have left--the sight of that unutterable and most
+shameless villain!"
+
+"And why, sweetheart?"  said the Queen, moved by a new impulse;
+"what hath he, this false knight, since such thou accountest him,
+done to thee?"
+
+"Oh, worse than sorrow, madam, and worse than injury--he has sown
+dissension where most there should be peace.  I shall go mad if I
+look longer on him!"
+
+"Beshrew me, but I think thou art distraught already," answered
+the Queen.--"My Lord Hunsdon, look to this poor distressed young
+woman, and let her be safely bestowed, and in honest keeping,
+till we require her to be forthcoming."
+
+Two or three of the ladies in attendance, either moved by
+compassion for a creature so interesting, or by some other
+motive, offered their services to look after her; but the Queen
+briefly answered, "Ladies, under favour, no.  You have all (give
+God thanks) sharp ears and nimble tongues; our kinsman Hunsdon
+has ears of the dullest, and a tongue somewhat rough, but yet of
+the slowest.--Hunsdon, look to it that none have speech of her."
+
+"By Our Lady," said Hunsdon, taking in his strong, sinewy arms
+the fading and almost swooning form of Amy, "she is a lovely
+child!  and though a rough nurse, your Grace hath given her a
+kind one.  She is safe with me as one of my own ladybirds of
+daughters."
+
+So saying, he carried her off; unresistingly and almost
+unconsciously, his war-worn locks and long, grey beard mingling
+with her light-brown tresses, as her head reclined on his strong,
+square shoulder.  The Queen followed him with her eye.  She had
+already, with that self-command which forms so necessary a part
+of a Sovereign's accomplishments, suppressed every appearance of
+agitation, and seemed as if she desired to banish all traces of
+her burst of passion from the recollection of those who had
+witnessed it.  "My Lord of Hunsdon says well," she observed, "he
+is indeed but a rough nurse for so tender a babe."
+
+"My Lord of Hunsdon," said the Dean of St. Asaph--"I speak it not
+in defamation of his more noble qualities--hath a broad license
+in speech, and garnishes his discourse somewhat too freely with
+the cruel and superstitious oaths which savour both of
+profaneness and of old Papistrie."
+
+"It is the fault of his blood, Mr. Dean," said the Queen, turning
+sharply round upon the reverend dignitary as she spoke; "and you
+may blame mine for the same distemperature.  The Boleyns were
+ever a hot and plain-spoken race, more hasty to speak their mind
+than careful to choose their expressions.  And by my word--I hope
+there is no sin in that affirmation--I question if it were much
+cooled by mixing with that of Tudor."
+
+As she made this last observation she smiled graciously, and
+stole her eyes almost insensibly round to seek those of the Earl
+of Leicester, to whom she now began to think she had spoken with
+hasty harshness upon the unfounded suspicion of a moment.
+
+The Queen's eye found the Earl in no mood to accept the implied
+offer of conciliation.  His own looks had followed, with late and
+rueful repentance, the faded form which Hunsdon had just borne
+from the presence.  They now reposed gloomily on the ground, but
+more--so at least it seemed to Elizabeth--with the expression of
+one who has received an unjust affront, than of him who is
+conscious of guilt.  She turned her face angrily from him, and
+said to Varney, "Speak, Sir Richard, and explain these riddles--
+thou hast sense and the use of speech, at least, which elsewhere
+we look for in vain."
+
+As she said this, she darted another resentful glance towards
+Leicester, while the wily Varney hastened to tell his own story.
+
+"Your Majesty's piercing eye," he said, "has already detected the
+cruel malady of my beloved lady, which, unhappy that I am, I
+would not suffer to be expressed in the certificate of her
+physician, seeking to conceal what has now broken out with so
+much the more scandal."
+
+"She is then distraught?"  said the Queen.  "Indeed we doubted
+not of it; her whole demeanour bears it out.  I found her moping
+in a corner of yonder grotto; and every word she spoke--which
+indeed I dragged from her as by the rack--she instantly recalled
+and forswore.  But how came she hither?  Why had you her not in
+safe-keeping?"
+
+"My gracious Liege," said Varney, "the worthy gentleman under
+whose charge I left her, Master Anthony Foster, has come hither
+but now, as fast as man and horse can travel, to show me of her
+escape, which she managed with the art peculiar to many who are
+afflicted with this malady.  He is at hand for examination."
+
+"Let it be for another time," said the Queen.  "But, Sir Richard,
+we envy you not your domestic felicity; your lady railed on you
+bitterly, and seemed ready to swoon at beholding you."
+
+"It is the nature of persons in her disorder, so please your
+Grace," answered Varney, "to be ever most inveterate in their
+spleen against those whom, in their better moments, they hold
+nearest and dearest."
+
+"We have heard so, indeed," said Elizabeth, "and give faith to
+the saying."
+
+"May your Grace then be pleased," said Varney, " to command my
+unfortunate wife to be delivered into the custody of her
+friends?"
+
+Leicester partly started; but making a strong effort, he subdued
+his emotion, while Elizabeth answered sharply, "You are something
+too hasty, Master Varney.  We will have first a report of the
+lady's health and state of mind from Masters, our own physician,
+and then determine what shall be thought just.  You shall have
+license, however, to see her, that if there be any matrimonial
+quarrel betwixt you--such things we have heard do occur, even
+betwixt a loving couple--you may make it up, without further
+scandal to our court or trouble to ourselves."
+
+Varney bowed low, and made no other answer.
+
+Elizabeth again looked towards Leicester, and said, with a degree
+of condescension which could only arise out of the most heartfelt
+interest, "Discord, as the Italian poet says, will find her way
+into peaceful convents, as well as into the privacy of families;
+and we fear our own guards and ushers will hardly exclude her
+from courts.  My Lord of Leicester, you are offended with us, and
+we have right to be offended with you.  We will take the lion's
+part upon us, and be the first to forgive."
+
+Leicester smoothed his brow, as by an effort; but the trouble was
+too deep-seated that its placidity should at once return.  He
+said, however, that which fitted the occasion, "That he could not
+have the happiness of forgiving, because she who commanded him to
+do so could commit no injury towards him."
+
+Elizabeth seemed content with this reply, and intimated her
+pleasure that the sports of the morning should proceed.  The
+bugles sounded, the hounds bayed, the horses pranced --but the
+courtiers and ladies sought the amusement to which they were
+summoned with hearts very different from those which had leaped
+to the morning's REVIELLE.  There was doubt, and fear, and
+expectation on every brow, and surmise and intrigue in every
+whisper.
+
+Blount took an opportunity to whisper into Raleigh's ear, "This
+storm came like a levanter in the Mediterranean."
+
+"VARIUM ET MUTABILE," answered Raleigh, in a similar tone.
+
+"Nay, I know nought of your Latin," said Blount; "but I thank God
+Tressilian took not the sea during that hurricane.  He could
+scarce have missed shipwreck, knowing as he does so little how to
+trim his sails to a court gale."
+
+"Thou wouldst have instructed him!"  said Raleigh.
+
+"Why, I have profited by my time as well as thou, Sir Walter,"
+replied honest Blount.  "I am knight as well as thou, and of the
+earlier creation."
+
+"Now, God further thy wit," said Raleigh.  "But for Tressilian, I
+would I knew what were the matter with him.  He told me this
+morning he would not leave his chamber for the space of twelve
+hours or thereby, being bound by a promise.  This lady's madness,
+when he shall learn it, will not, I fear, cure his infirmity.
+The moon is at the fullest, and men's brains are working like
+yeast.  But hark!  they sound to mount.  Let us to horse, Blount;
+we young knights must deserve our spurs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+        Sincerity,
+   Thou first of virtues!  let no mortal leave
+   Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
+   And from the gulf of hell destruction cry,
+   To take dissimulation's winding way.        DOUGLAS.
+
+It was not till after a long and successful morning's sport, and
+a prolonged repast which followed the return of the Queen to the
+Castle, that Leicester at length found himself alone with Varney,
+from whom he now learned the whole particulars of the Countess's
+escape, as they had been brought to Kenilworth by Foster, who, in
+his terror for the consequences, had himself posted thither with
+the tidings.  As Varney, in his narrative, took especial care to
+be silent concerning those practices on the Countess's health
+which had driven her to so desperate a resolution, Leicester, who
+could only suppose that she had adopted it out of jealous
+impatience to attain the avowed state and appearance belonging to
+her rank, was not a little offended at the levity with which his
+wife had broken his strict commands, and exposed him to the
+resentment of Elizabeth.
+
+"I have given," he said, "to this daughter of an obscure
+Devonshire gentleman the proudest name in England.  I have made
+her sharer of my bed and of my fortunes.  I ask but of her a
+little patience, ere she launches forth upon the full current of
+her grandeur; and the infatuated woman will rather hazard her own
+shipwreck and mine--will rather involve me in a thousand
+whirlpools, shoals, and quicksands, and compel me to a thousand
+devices which shame me in mine own eyes--than tarry for a little
+space longer in the obscurity to which she was born.  So lovely,
+so delicate, so fond, so faithful, yet to lack in so grave a
+matter the prudence which one might hope from the veriest fool--
+it puts me beyond my patience."
+
+"We may post it over yet well enough," said Varney, "if my lady
+will be but ruled, and take on her the character which the time
+commands."
+
+"It is but too true, Sir Richard," said Leicester; "there is
+indeed no other remedy.  I have heard her termed thy wife in my
+presence, without contradiction.  She must bear the title until
+she is far from Kenilworth."
+
+"And long afterwards, I trust," said Varney; then instantly
+added, "For I cannot but hope it will be long after ere she bear
+the title of Lady Leicester--I fear me it may scarce be with
+safety during the life of this Queen.  But your lordship is best
+judge, you alone knowing what passages have taken place betwixt
+Elizabeth and you."
+
+"You are right, Varney," said Leicester.  "I have this morning
+been both fool and villain; and when Elizabeth hears of my
+unhappy marriage, she cannot but think herself treated with that
+premeditated slight which women never forgive.  We have once this
+day stood upon terms little short of defiance; and to those, I
+fear, we must again return."
+
+"Is her resentment, then, so implacable?" said Varney.
+
+"Far from it," replied the Earl; "for, being what she is in
+spirit and in station, she has even this day been but too
+condescending, in giving me opportunities to repair what she
+thinks my faulty heat of temper."
+
+"Ay," answered Varney; "the Italians say right--in lovers'
+quarrels, the party that loves most is always most willing to
+acknowledge the greater fault.  So then, my lord, if this union
+with the lady could be concealed, you stand with Elizabeth as you
+did?"
+
+Leicester sighed, and was silent for a moment, ere he replied.
+
+"Varney, I think thou art true to me, and I will tell thee all.
+I do NOT stand where I did.  I have spoken to Elizabeth--under
+what mad impulse I know not--on a theme which cannot be abandoned
+without touching every female feeling to the quick, and which yet
+I dare not and cannot prosecute.  She can never, never forgive me
+for having caused and witnessed those yieldings to human
+passion."
+
+"We must do something, my lord," said Varney, "and that
+speedily."
+
+"There is nought to be done," answered Leicester, despondingly.
+"I am like one that has long toiled up a dangerous precipice, and
+when he is within one perilous stride of the top, finds his
+progress arrested when retreat has become impossible.  I see
+above me the pinnacle which I cannot reach--beneath me the abyss
+into which I must fall, as soon as my relaxing grasp and dizzy
+brain join to hurl me from my present precarious stance."
+
+"Think better of your situation, my lord," said Varney; "let us
+try the experiment in which you have but now acquiesced.  Keep we
+your marriage from Elizabeth's knowledge, and all may yet be
+well.  I will instantly go to the lady myself.  She hates me,
+because I have been earnest with your lordship, as she truly
+suspects, in opposition to what she terms her rights.  I care not
+for her prejudices--she SHALL listen to me; and I will show her
+such reasons for yielding to the pressure of the times that I
+doubt not to bring back her consent to whatever measures these
+exigencies may require."
+
+"No, Varney," said Leicester; "I have thought upon what is to be
+done, and I will myself speak with Amy."
+
+It was now Varney's turn to feel upon his own account the terrors
+which he affected to participate solely on account of his patron.
+"Your lordship will not yourself speak with the lady?"
+
+"It is my fixed purpose," said Leicester.  "Fetch me one of the
+livery-cloaks; I will pass the sentinel as thy servant.  Thou art
+to have free access to her."
+
+"But, my lord--"
+
+"I will have no BUTS," replied Leicester; "it shall be even thus,
+and not otherwise.  Hunsdon sleeps, I think, in Saintlowe's
+Tower.  We can go thither from these apartments by the private
+passage, without risk of meeting any one.  Or what if I do meet
+Hunsdon?  he is more my friend than enemy, and thick-witted
+enough to adopt any belief that is thrust on him.  Fetch me the
+cloak instantly."
+
+Varney had no alternative save obedience.  In a few minutes
+Leicester was muffled in the mantle, pulled his bonnet over his
+brows, and followed Varney along the secret passage of the Castle
+which communicated with Hunsdon's apartments, in which there was
+scarce a chance of meeting any inquisitive person, and hardly
+light enough for any such to have satisfied their curiosity.
+They emerged at a door where Lord Hunsdon had, with military
+precaution, placed a sentinel, one of his own northern retainers
+as it fortuned, who readily admitted Sir Richard Varney and his
+attendant, saying only, in his northern dialect, "I would, man,
+thou couldst make the mad lady be still yonder; for her moans do
+sae dirl through my head that I would rather keep watch on a
+snowdrift, in the wastes of Catlowdie."
+
+They hastily entered, and shut the door behind them.
+
+"Now, good devil, if there be one," said Varney, within himself,
+"for once help a votary at a dead pinch, for my boat is amongst
+the breakers!"
+
+The Countess Amy, with her hair and her garments dishevelled, was
+seated upon a sort of couch, in an attitude of the deepest
+affliction, out of which she was startled by the opening of the
+door.  Size turned hastily round, and fixing her eye on Varney,
+exclaimed, "Wretch!  art thou come to frame some new plan of
+villainy?"
+
+Leicester cut short her reproaches by stepping forward and
+dropping his cloak, while he said, in a voice rather of authority
+than of affection, "It is with me, madam, you have to commune,
+not with Sir Richard Varney."
+
+The change effected on the Countess's look and manner was like
+magic.  "Dudley!"  she exclaimed, "Dudley!  and art thou come at
+last?" And with the speed of lightning she flew to her husband,
+clung round his neck, and unheeding the presence of Varney,
+overwhelmed him with caresses, while she bathed his face in a
+flood of tears, muttering, at the same time, but in broken and
+disjointed monosyllables, the fondest expressions which Love
+teaches his votaries.
+
+Leicester, as it seemed to him, had reason to be angry with his
+lady for transgressing his commands, and thus placing him in the
+perilous situation in which he had that morning stood.  But what
+displeasure could keep its ground before these testimonies of
+affection from a being so lovely, that even the negligence of
+dress, and the withering effects of fear, grief, and fatigue,
+which would have impaired the beauty of others, rendered hers but
+the more interesting.  He received and repaid her caresses with
+fondness mingled with melancholy, the last of which she seemed
+scarcely to observe, until the first transport of her own joy was
+over, when, looking anxiously in his face, she asked if he was
+ill.
+
+"Not in my body, Amy," was his answer.
+
+"Then I will be well too.  O Dudley!  I have been ill!--very ill,
+since we last met!--for I call not this morning's horrible vision
+a meeting.  I have been in sickness, in grief, and in danger.
+But thou art come, and all is joy, and health, and safety!"
+
+"Alas, Amy," said Leicester, "thou hast undone me!"
+
+"I, my lord?" said Amy, her cheek at once losing its transient
+flush of joy--"how could I injure that which I love better than
+myself?"
+
+"I would not upbraid you, Amy," replied the Earl; "but are you
+not here contrary to my express commands--and does not your
+presence here endanger both yourself and me?"
+
+"Does it, does it indeed?" she exclaimed eagerly; "then why am I
+here a moment longer?  Oh, if you knew by what fears I was urged
+to quit Cumnor Place!  But I will say nothing of myself--only
+that if it might be otherwise, I would not willingly return
+THITHER; yet if it concern your safety--"
+
+"We will think, Amy, of some other retreat," said Leicester; "and
+you shall go to one of my northern castles, under the personage--
+it will be but needful, I trust, for a very few days--of Varney's
+wife."
+
+"How, my Lord of Leicester!"  said the lady, disengaging herself
+from his embraces; "is it to your wife you give the dishonourable
+counsel to acknowledge herself the bride of another--and of all
+men, the bride of that Varney?"
+
+"Madam, I speak it in earnest--Varney is my true and faithful
+servant, trusted in my deepest secrets.  I had better lose my
+right hand than his service at this moment.  You have no cause to
+scorn him as you do."
+
+"I could assign one, my lord," replied the Countess; "and I see
+he shakes even under that assured look of his.  But he that is
+necessary as your right hand to your safety is free from any
+accusation of mine.  May he be true to you; and that he may be
+true, trust him not too much or too far.  But it is enough to say
+that I will not go with him unless by violence, nor would I
+acknowledge him as my husband were all--"
+
+"It is a temporary deception, madam," said Leicester, irritated
+by her opposition, "necessary for both our safeties, endangered
+by you through female caprice, or the premature desire to seize
+on a rank to which I gave you title only under condition that our
+marriage, for a time, should continue secret.  If my proposal
+disgust you, it is yourself has brought it on both of us.  There
+is no other remedy--you must do what your own impatient folly
+hath rendered necessary--I command you."
+
+"I cannot put your commands, my lord," said Amy, "in balance with
+those of honour and conscience.  I will NOT, in this instance,
+obey you.  You may achieve your own dishonour, to which these
+crooked policies naturally tend, but I will do nought that can
+blemish mine.  How could you again, my lord, acknowledge me as a
+pure and chaste matron, worthy to share your fortunes, when,
+holding that high character, I had strolled the country the
+acknowledged wife of such a profligate fellow as your servant
+Varney?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney interposing, "my lady is too much
+prejudiced against me, unhappily, to listen to what I can offer,
+yet it may please her better than what she proposes.  She has
+good interest with Master Edmund Tressilian, and could doubtless
+prevail on him to consent to be her companion to Lidcote Hall,
+and there she might remain in safety until time permitted the
+development of this mystery."
+
+Leicester was silent, but stood looking eagerly on Amy, with eyes
+which seemed suddenly to glow as much with suspicion as
+displeasure.
+
+The Countess only said, "Would to God I were in my father's
+house!  When I left it, I little thought I was leaving peace of
+mind and honour behind me."
+
+Varney proceeded with a tone of deliberation.  "Doubtless this
+will make it necessary to take strangers into my lord's counsels;
+but surely the Countess will be warrant for the honour of Master
+Tressilian, and such of her father's family--"
+
+"Peace, Varney," said Leicester; "by Heaven I will strike my
+dagger into thee if again thou namest Tressilian as a partner of
+my counsels!"
+
+"And wherefore not!"  said the Countess; "unless they be counsels
+fitter for such as Varney, than for a man of stainless honour and
+integrity.  My lord, my lord, bend no angry brows on me; it is
+the truth, and it is I who speak it.  I once did Tressilian wrong
+for your sake; I will not do him the further injustice of being
+silent when his honour is brought in question.  I can forbear,"
+she said, looking at Varney, "to pull the mask off hypocrisy, but
+I will not permit virtue to be slandered in my hearing."
+
+There was a dead pause.  Leicester stood displeased, yet
+undetermined, and too conscious of the weakness of his cause;
+while Varney, with a deep and hypocritical affectation of sorrow,
+mingled with humility, bent his eyes on the ground.
+
+It was then that the Countess Amy displayed, in the midst of
+distress and difficulty, the natural energy of character which
+would have rendered her, had fate allowed, a distinguished
+ornament of the rank which she held.  She walked up to Leicester
+with a composed step, a dignified air, and looks in which strong
+affection essayed in vain to shake the firmness of conscious,
+truth and rectitude of principle.  "You have spoken your mind, my
+lord," she said, "in these difficulties, with which, unhappily, I
+have found myself unable to comply.  This gentleman--this person
+I would say--has hinted at another scheme, to which I object not
+but as it displeases you.  Will your lordship be pleased to hear
+what a young and timid woman, but your most affectionate wife,
+can suggest in the present extremity?"
+
+Leicester was silent, but bent his head towards the Countess, as
+an intimation that she was at liberty to proceed.
+
+"There hath been but one cause for all these evils, my lord," she
+proceeded, "and it resolves itself into the mysterious duplicity
+with which you, have been induced to surround yourself.
+Extricate yourself at once, my lord, from the tyranny of these
+disgraceful trammels.  Be like a true English gentleman, knight,
+and earl, who holds that truth is the foundation of honour, and
+that honour is dear to him as the breath of his nostrils.  Take
+your ill-fated wife by the hand, lead her to the footstool of
+Elizabeth's throne--say that in a moment of infatuation, moved by
+supposed beauty, of which none perhaps can now trace even the
+remains, I gave my hand to this Amy Robsart.  You will then have
+done justice to me, my lord, and to your own honour and should
+law or power require you to part from me, I will oppose no
+objection, since I may then with honour hide a grieved and broken
+heart in those shades from which your love withdrew me.  Then--
+have but a little patience, and Amy's life will not long darken
+your brighter prospects."
+
+There was so much of dignity, so much of tenderness, in the
+Countess's remonstrance, that it moved all that was noble and
+generous in the soul of her husband.  The scales seemed to fall
+from his eyes, and the duplicity and tergiversation of which he
+had been guilty stung him at once with remorse and shame.
+
+"I am not worthy of you, Amy," he said, "that could weigh aught
+which ambition has to give against such a heart as thine.  I have
+a bitter penance to perform, in disentangling, before sneering
+foes and astounded friends, all the meshes of my own deceitful
+policy.  And the Queen--but let her take my head, as she has
+threatened."
+
+"Take your head, my lord!"  said the Countess, "because you used
+the freedom and liberty of an English subject in choosing a wife?
+For shame!  it is this distrust of the Queen's justice, this
+apprehension of danger, which cannot but be imaginary, that, like
+scarecrows, have induced you to forsake the straightforward path,
+which, as it is the best, is also the safest."
+
+"Ah, Amy, thou little knowest!"  said Dudley but instantly
+checking himself, he added, "Yet she shall not find in me a safe
+or easy victim of arbitrary vengeance.  I have friends--I have
+allies--I will not, like Norfolk, be dragged to the block as a
+victim to sacrifice.  Fear not, Amy; thou shalt see Dudley bear
+himself worthy of his name.  I must instantly communicate with
+some of those friends on whom I can best rely; for, as things
+stand, I may be made prisoner in my own Castle."
+
+"Oh, my good lord," said Amy, "make no faction in a peaceful
+state!  There is no friend can help us so well as our own candid
+truth and honour.  Bring but these to our assistance, and you are
+safe amidst a whole army of the envious and malignant.  Leave
+these behind you, and all other defence will be fruitless.
+Truth, my noble lord, is well painted unarmed."
+
+"But Wisdom, Amy," answered Leicester, is arrayed in panoply of
+proof.  Argue not with me on the means I shall use to render my
+confession--since it must be called so--as safe as may be; it
+will be fraught with enough of danger, do what we will.--Varney,
+we must hence.--Farewell, Amy, whom I am to vindicate as mine
+own, at an expense and risk of which thou alone couldst be
+worthy.  You shall soon hear further from me."
+
+He embraced her fervently, muffled himself as before, and
+accompanied Varney from the apartment.  The latter, as he left
+the room, bowed low, and as he raised his body, regarded Amy with
+a peculiar expression, as if he desired to know how far his own
+pardon was included in the reconciliation which had taken place
+betwixt her and her lord.  The Countess looked upon him with a
+fixed eye, but seemed no more conscious of his presence than if
+there had been nothing but vacant air on the spot where he stood.
+
+"She has brought me to the crisis," he muttered--"she or I am
+lost.  There was something--I wot not if it was fear or pity--
+that prompted me to avoid this fatal crisis.  It is now decided
+--she or I must PERISH."
+
+While he thus spoke, he observed, with surprise, that a boy,
+repulsed by the sentinel, made up to Leicester, and spoke with
+him.  Varney was one of those politicians whom not the slightest
+appearances escape without inquiry.  He asked the sentinel what
+the lad wanted with him, and received for answer that the boy had
+wished him to transmit a parcel to the mad lady; but that he
+cared not to take charge of it, such communication being beyond
+his commission, His curiosity satisfied in that particular, he
+approached his patron, and heard him say, "Well, boy, the packet
+shall be delivered."
+
+"Thanks, good Master Serving-man," said the boy, and was out of
+sight in an instant.
+
+Leicester and Varney returned with hasty steps to the Earl's
+private apartment, by the same passage which had conducted them
+to Saintlowe's Tower.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+  I have said
+  This is an adulteress--I have said with whom:
+  More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is
+  A federary with her, and one that knows
+  What she should shame to know herself.      WINTER'S TALE.
+
+They were no sooner in the Earl's cabinet than, taking his
+tablets from his pocket, he began to write, speaking partly to
+Varney, and partly to himself--"There are many of them close
+bounden to me, and especially those in good estate and high
+office--many who, if they look back towards my benefits, or
+forward towards the perils which may befall themselves, will not,
+I think, be disposed to see me stagger unsupported.  Let me see
+--Knollis is sure, and through his means Guernsey and Jersey.
+Horsey commands in the Isle of Wight.  My brother-in-law,
+Huntingdon, and Pembroke, have authority in Wales.  Through
+Bedford I lead the Puritans, with their interest, so powerful in
+all the boroughs.  My brother of Warwick is equal, well-nigh, to
+myself, in wealth, followers, and dependencies.  Sir Owen Hopton
+is at my devotion; he commands the Tower of London, and the
+national treasure deposited there.  My father and grand-father
+needed never to have stooped their heads to the block had they
+thus forecast their enterprises.--Why look you so sad, Varney?  I
+tell thee, a tree so deep-rooted is not so easily to be torn up
+by the tempest."
+
+"Alas!  my lord," said Varney, with well-acted passion, and then
+resumed the same look of despondency which Leicester had before
+noted.
+
+"Alas!"  repeated Leicester; "and wherefore alas, Sir Richard?
+Doth your new spirit of chivalry supply no more vigorous
+ejaculation when a noble struggle is impending?  Or, if ALAS
+means thou wilt flinch from the conflict, thou mayest leave the
+Castle, or go join mine enemies, whichever thou thinkest best."
+
+"Not so, my lord," answered his confidant; "Varney will be found
+fighting or dying by your side.  Forgive me, if, in love to you,
+I see more fully than your noble heart permits you to do, the
+inextricable difficulties with which you are surrounded.  You are
+strong, my lord, and powerful; yet, let me say it without
+offence, you are so only by the reflected light of the Queen's
+favour.  While you are Elizabeth's favourite, you are all, save
+in name, like an actual sovereign.  But let her call back the
+honours she has bestowed, and the prophet's gourd did not wither
+more suddenly.  Declare against the Queen, and I do not say that
+in the wide nation, or in this province alone, you would find
+yourself instantly deserted and outnumbered; but I will say, that
+even in this very Castle, and in the midst of your vassals,
+kinsmen, and dependants, you would be a captive, nay, a sentenced
+captive, should she please to say the word.  Think upon Norfolk,
+my lord--upon the powerful Northumberland--the splendid
+Westmoreland;--think on all who have made head against this sage
+Princess.  They are dead, captive, or fugitive.  This is not like
+other thrones, which can be overturned by a combination of
+powerful nobles; the broad foundations which support it are in
+the extended love and affections of the people.  You might share
+it with Elizabeth if you would; but neither yours, nor any other
+power, foreign or domestic, will avail to overthrow, or even to
+shake it."
+
+He paused, and Leicester threw his tablets from him with an air
+of reckless despite.  "It may be as thou sayest," he said?  "and,
+in sooth, I care not whether truth or cowardice dictate thy
+forebodings.  But it shall not be said I fell without a struggle.
+
+Give orders that those of my retainers who served under me in
+Ireland be gradually drawn into the main Keep, and let our
+gentlemen and friends stand on their guard, and go armed, as if
+they expected arm onset from the followers of Sussex.  Possess
+the townspeople with some apprehension; let them take arms, and
+be ready, at a given signal, to overpower the Pensioners and
+Yeomen of the Guard."
+
+"Let me remind you, my lord," said Varney, with the same
+appearance of deep and melancholy interest, "that you have given
+me orders to prepare for disarming the Queen's guard.  It is an
+act of high treason, but you shall nevertheless be obeyed."
+
+"I care not," said Leicester desperately--"I care not.  Shame is
+behind me, ruin before me; I must on."
+
+Here there was another pause, which Varney at length broke with
+the following words:  "It is come to the point I have long
+dreaded.  I must either witness, like an ungrateful beast, the
+downfall of the best and kindest of masters, or I must speak what
+I would have buried in the deepest oblivion, or told by any other
+mouth than mine."
+
+"What is that thou sayest, or wouldst say?"  replied the Earl;
+"we have no time to waste on words when the times call us to
+action."
+
+"My speech is soon made, my lord-would to God it were as soon
+answered!  Your marriage is the sole cause of the threatened
+breach with your Sovereign, my lord, is it not?"
+
+"Thou knowest it is!"  replied Leicester.  "What needs so
+fruitless a question?"
+
+"Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here.  Men will
+wager their lands and lives in defence of a rich diamond, my
+lord; but were it not first prudent to look if there is no flaw
+in it?"
+
+"What means this?"  said Leicester, with eyes sternly fixed on
+his dependant; "of whom dost thou dare to speak?"
+
+"It is--of the Countess Amy, my lord, of whom I am unhappily
+bound to speak; and of whom I WILL speak, were your lordship to
+kill me for my zeal."
+
+"Thou mayest happen to deserve it at my hand," said the Earl;
+"but speak on, I will hear thee."
+
+"Nay, then, my lord, I will be bold.  I speak for my own life as
+well as for your lordship's.  I like not this lady's tampering
+and trickstering with this same Edmund Tressilian.  You know him,
+my lord.  You know he had formerly an interest in her, which it
+cost your lordship some pains to supersede.  You know the
+eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit against me in
+behalf of this lady, the open object of which is to drive your
+lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy
+marriage, the point to which my lady also is willing, at any
+risk, to urge you."
+
+Leicester smiled constrainedly.  "Thou meanest well, good Sir
+Richard, and wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour, as
+well as that of any other person, to save me from what thou
+thinkest a step so terrible.  But remember"--he spoke these words
+with the most stern decision--"you speak of the Countess of
+Leicester."
+
+"I do, my lord," said Varney; "but it is for the welfare of the
+Earl of Leicester.  My tale is but begun.  I do most strongly
+believe that this Tressilian has, from the beginning of his
+moving in her cause, been in connivance with her ladyship the
+Countess."
+
+"Thou speakest wild madness, Varney, with the sober face of a
+preacher.  Where, or how, could they communicate together?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney, "unfortunately I can show that but too
+well.  It was just before the supplication was presented to the
+Queen, in Tressilian's name, that I met him, to my utter
+astonishment, at the postern gate which leads from the demesne at
+Cumnor Place."
+
+"Thou met'st him, villain!  and why didst thou not strike him
+dead?"  exclaimed Leicester.
+
+"I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not my foot
+slipped, he would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-block
+in your lordship's path."
+
+Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise.  At length he
+answered, "What other evidence hast thou of this, Varney, save
+thine own assertion?--for, as I will punish deeply, I will
+examine coolly and warily.  Sacred Heaven!--but no--I will
+examine coldly and warily-coldly and warily."  He repeated these
+words more than once to himself, as if in the very sound there
+was a sedative quality; and again compressing his lips, as if he
+feared some violent expression might escape from them, he asked
+again, "What further proof?"
+
+"Enough, my lord," said Varney, "and to spare.  I would it rested
+with me alone, for with me it might have been silenced for ever.
+But my servant, Michael Lambourne, witnessed the whole, and was,
+indeed, the means of first introducing Tressilian into Cumnor
+Place; and therefore I took him into my service, and retained him
+in it, though something of a debauched fellow, that I might have
+his tongue always under my own command."  He then acquainted Lord
+Leicester how easy it was to prove the circumstance of their
+interview true, by evidence of Anthony Foster, with the
+corroborative testimonies of the various persons at Cumnor, who
+had heard the wager laid, and had seen Lambourne and Tressilian
+set off together.  In the whole narrative, Varney hazarded
+nothing fabulous, excepting that, not indeed by direct assertion,
+but by inference, he led his patron to suppose that the interview
+betwixt Amy and Tressilian at Cumnor Place had been longer than
+the few minutes to which it was in reality limited.
+
+"And wherefore was I not told of all this?"  said Leicester
+sternly.  "Why did all of ye--and in particular thou, Varney--
+keep back from me such material information?"
+
+"Because, my lord," replied Varney, "the Countess pretended to
+Foster and to me that Tressilian had intruded himself upon her;
+and I concluded their interview had been in all honour, and that
+she would at her own time tell it to your lordship.  Your
+lordship knows with what unwilling ears we listen to evil
+surmises against those whom we love; and I thank Heaven I am no
+makebate or informer, to be the first to sow them."
+
+"You are but too ready to receive them, however, Sir Richard,"
+replied his patron.  "How knowest thou that this interview was
+not in all honour, as thou hast said?  Methinks the wife of the
+Earl of Leicester might speak for a short time with such a person
+as Tressilian without injury to me or suspicion to herself."
+
+"Questionless, my lord," answered Varney, "Had I thought
+otherwise, I had been no keeper of the secret.  But here lies the
+rub--Tressilian leaves not the place without establishing a
+correspondence with a poor man, the landlord of an inn in Cumnor,
+for the purpose of carrying off the lady.  He sent down an
+emissary of his, whom I trust soon to have in right sure keeping
+under Mervyn's Tower--Killigrew and Lambsbey are scouring the
+country in quest of him.  The host is rewarded with a ring for
+keeping counsel--your lordship may have noted it on Tressilian's
+hand--here it is.  This fellow, this agent, makes his way to the
+place as a pedlar; holds conferences with the lady, and they make
+their escape together by night; rob a poor fellow of a horse by
+the way, such was their guilty haste, and at length reach this
+Castle, where the Countess of Leicester finds refuge--I dare not
+say in what place."
+
+"Speak, I command thee," said Leicester--"speak, while I retain
+sense enough to hear thee."
+
+"Since it must be so," answered Varney, "the lady resorted
+immediately to the apartment of Tressilian, where she remained
+many hours, partly in company with him, and partly alone.  I told
+you Tressilian had a paramour in his chamber; I little dreamed
+that paramour was--"
+
+"Amy, thou wouldst say," answered Leicester; "but it is false,
+false as the smoke of hell!  Ambitious she may be--fickle and
+impatient--'tis a woman's fault; but false to me!--never, never.
+The proof--the proof of this!"  he exclaimed hastily.
+
+"Carrol, the Deputy Marshal, ushered her thither by her own
+desire, on yesterday afternoon; Lambourne and the Warder both
+found her there at an early hour this morning,"
+
+"Was Tressilian there with her?"  said Leicester, in the same
+hurried tone.
+
+"No, my lord.  You may remember," answered Varney, "that he was
+that night placed with Sir Nicholas Blount, under a species of
+arrest."
+
+"Did Carrol, or the other fellows, know who she was?"  demanded
+Leicester.
+
+"No, my lord," replied Varney; "Carrol and the Warder had never
+seen the Countess, and Lambourne knew her not in her disguise.
+But in seeking to prevent her leaving the cell, he obtained
+possession of one of her gloves, which, I think, your lordship
+may know."
+
+He gave the glove, which had the Bear and Ragged Staff, the
+Earl's impress, embroidered upon it in seed-pearls.
+
+"I do--I do recognize it," said Leicester.  "They were my own
+gift.  The fellow of it was on the arm which she threw this very
+day around my neck!"  He spoke this with violent agitation.
+
+"Your lordship," said Varney, "might yet further inquire of the
+lady herself respecting the truth of these passages."
+
+"It needs not--it needs not," said the tortured Earl; "it is
+written in characters of burning light, as if they were branded
+on my very eyeballs!  I see her infamy-I can see nought else;
+and--gracious Heaven!--for this vile woman was I about to commit
+to danger the lives of so many noble friends, shake the
+foundation of a lawful throne, carry the sword and torch through
+the bosom of a peaceful land, wrong the kind mistress who made me
+what I am, and would, but for that hell-framed marriage, have
+made me all that man can be!  All this I was ready to do for a
+woman who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!--And thou,
+villain, why didst thou not speak sooner?"
+
+"My lord," said Varney, "a tear from my lady would have blotted
+out all I could have said.  Besides, I had not these proofs until
+this very morning, when Anthony Foster's sudden arrival with the
+examinations and declarations, which he had extorted from the
+innkeeper Gosling and others, explained the manner of her flight
+from Cumnor Place, and my own researches discovered the steps
+which she had taken here."
+
+"Now, may God be praised for the light He has given!  so full, so
+satisfactory, that there breathes not a man in England who shall
+call my proceeding rash, or my revenge unjust.--And yet, Varney,
+so young, so fair, so fawning, and so false!  Hence, then, her
+hatred to thee, my trusty, my well-beloved servant, because you
+withstood her plots, and endangered her paramour's life!"
+
+"I never gave her any other cause of dislike, my lord," replied
+Varney.  "But she knew that my counsels went directly to diminish
+her influence with your lordship; and that I was, and have been,
+ever ready to peril my life against your enemies."
+
+"It is too, too apparent," replied Leicester "yet with what an
+air of magnanimity she exhorted me to commit my head to the
+Queen's mercy, rather than wear the veil of falsehood a moment
+longer!  Methinks the angel of truth himself can have no such
+tones of high-souled impulse.  Can it be so, Varney?--can
+falsehood use thus boldly the language of truth?--can infamy thus
+assume the guise of purity?  Varney, thou hast been my servant
+from a child.  I have raised thee high--can raise thee higher.
+Think, think for me!--thy brain was ever shrewd and piercing--
+may she not be innocent?  Prove her so, and all I have yet done
+for thee shall be as nothing--nothing, in comparison of thy
+recompense!"
+
+The agony with which his master spoke had some effect even on the
+hardened Varney, who, in the midst of his own wicked and
+ambitious designs, really loved his patron as well as such a
+wretch was capable of loving anything.  But he comforted himself,
+and subdued his self-reproaches, with the reflection that if he
+inflicted upon the Earl some immediate and transitory pain, it
+was in order to pave his way to the throne, which, were this
+marriage dissolved by death or otherwise, he deemed Elizabeth
+would willingly share with his benefactor.  He therefore
+persevered in his diabolical policy; and after a moment's
+consideration, answered the anxious queries of the Earl with a
+melancholy look, as if he had in vain sought some exculpation for
+the Countess; then suddenly raising his head, he said, with an
+expression of hope, which instantly communicated itself to the
+countenance of his patron--"Yet wherefore, if guilty, should she
+have perilled herself by coming hither?  Why not rather have fled
+to her father's, or elsewhere?--though that, indeed, might have
+interfered with her desire to be acknowledged as Countess of
+Leicester."
+
+"True, true, true!"  exclaimed Leicester, his transient gleam of
+hope giving way to the utmost bitterness of feeling and
+expression; "thou art not fit to fathom a woman's depth of wit,
+Varney.  I see it all.  She would not quit the estate and title
+of the wittol who had wedded her.  Ay, and if in my madness I had
+started into rebellion, or if the angry Queen had taken my head,
+as she this morning threatened, the wealthy dower which law would
+have assigned to the Countess Dowager of Leicester had been no
+bad windfall to the beggarly Tressilian.  Well might she goad me
+on to danger, which could not end otherwise than profitably to
+her,--Speak not for her, Varney!  I will have her blood!"
+
+"My lord," replied Varney, "the wildness of your distress breaks
+forth in the wildness of your language,"
+
+"I say, speak not for her!"  replied Leicester; "she has
+dishonoured me--she would have murdered me--all ties are burst
+between us.  She shall die the death of a traitress and
+adulteress, well merited both by the laws of God and man!  And--
+what is this casket," he said, "which was even now thrust into my
+hand by a boy, with the desire I would convey it to Tressilian,
+as he could not give it to the Countess?  By Heaven! the words
+surprised me as he spoke them, though other matters chased them
+from my brain; but now they return with double force. It is her
+casket of jewels!--Force it open, Varney--force the hinges open
+with thy poniard!"
+
+"She refused the aid of my dagger once," thought Varney, as he
+unsheathed the weapon, "to cut the string which bound a letter,
+but now it shall work a mightier ministry in her fortunes."
+
+With this reflection, by using the three-cornered stiletto-blade
+as a wedge, he forced open the slender silver hinges of the
+casket.  The Earl no sooner saw them give way than he snatched
+the casket from Sir Richard's hand, wrenched off the cover, and
+tearing out the splendid contents, flung them on the floor in a
+transport of rage, while he eagerly searched for some letter or
+billet which should make the fancied guilt of his innocent
+Countess yet more apparent.  Then stamping furiously on the gems,
+he exclaimed, "Thus I annihilate the miserable toys for which
+thou hast sold thyself, body and soul--consigned thyself to an
+early and timeless death, and me to misery and remorse for ever!
+--Tell me not of forgiveness, Varney--she is doomed!"
+
+So saying, he left the room, and rushed into an adjacent closet,
+the door of which he locked and bolted.
+
+Varney looked after him, while something of a more human feeling
+seemed to contend with his habitual sneer.  "I am sorry for his
+weakness," he said, "but love has made him a child.  He throws
+down and treads on these costly toys-with the same vehemence
+would he dash to pieces this frailest toy of all, of which he
+used to rave so fondly.  But that taste also will be forgotten
+when its object is no more.  Well, he has no eye to value things
+as they deserve, and that nature has given to Varney.  When
+Leicester shall be a sovereign, he will think as little of the
+gales of passion through which he gained that royal port, as ever
+did sailor in harbour of the perils of a voyage.  But these tell-
+tale articles must not remain here--they are rather too rich
+vails for the drudges who dress the chamber."
+
+While Varney was employed in gathering together and putting them
+into a secret drawer of a cabinet that chanced to be open, he saw
+the door of Leicester's closet open, the tapestry pushed aside,
+and the Earl's face thrust out, but with eyes so dead, and lips
+and cheeks so bloodless and pale, that he started at the sudden
+change.  No sooner did his eyes encounter the Earl's, than the
+latter withdrew his head and shut the door of the closet.  This
+manoeuvre Leicester repeated twice, without speaking a word, so
+that Varney began to doubt whether his brain was not actually
+affected by his mental agony.  The third time, however, he
+beckoned, and Varney obeyed the signal.  When he entered, he soon
+found his patron's perturbation was not caused by insanity, but
+by the fullness of purpose which he entertained contending with
+various contrary passions.  They passed a full hour in close
+consultation; after which the Earl of Leicester, with an
+incredible exertion, dressed himself, and went to attend his
+royal guest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+  You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
+  With most admired disorder.           MACBETH.
+
+It was afterwards remembered that during the banquets and revels
+which occupied the remainder of this eventful day the bearing of
+Leicester and of Varney were totally different from their usual
+demeanour.  Sir Richard Varney had been held rather a man of
+counsel and of action than a votary of pleasure.  Business,
+whether civil or military, seemed always to be his proper sphere;
+and while in festivals and revels, although he well understood
+how to trick them up and present them, his own part was that of a
+mere spectator; or if he exercised his wit, it was in a rough,
+caustic, and severe manner, rather as if he scoffed at the
+exhibition and the guests than shared the common pleasure.
+
+But upon the present day his character seemed changed.  He mixed
+among the younger courtiers and ladies, and appeared for the
+moment to be actuated by a spirit of light-hearted gaiety, which
+rendered him a match for the liveliest.  Those who had looked
+upon him as a man given up to graver and more ambitious pursuits,
+a bitter sneerer and passer of sarcasms at the expense of those
+who, taking life as they find it, were disposed to snatch at
+each pastime it presents, now perceived with astonishment that
+his wit could carry as smooth an edge as their own, his laugh be
+as lively, and his brow as unclouded.  By what art of damnable
+hypocrisy he could draw this veil of gaiety over the black
+thoughts of one of the worst of human bosoms must remain
+unintelligible to all but his compeers, if any such ever existed;
+but he was a man of extraordinary powers, and those powers were
+unhappily dedicated in all their energy to the very worst of
+purposes.
+
+It was entirely different with Leicester.  However habituated his
+mind usually was to play the part of a good courtier, and appear
+gay, assiduous, and free from all care but that of enhancing the
+pleasure of the moment, while his bosom internally throbbed with
+the pangs of unsatisfied ambition, jealousy, or resentment, his
+heart had now a yet more dreadful guest, whose workings could not
+be overshadowed or suppressed; and you might read in his vacant
+eye and troubled brow that his thoughts were far absent from the
+scenes in which he was compelling himself to play a part.  He
+looked, moved, and spoke as if by a succession of continued
+efforts; and it seemed as if his will had in some degree lost the
+promptitude of command over the acute mind and goodly form of
+which it was the regent.  His actions and gestures, instead of
+appearing the consequence of simple volition, seemed, like those
+of an automaton, to wait the revolution of some internal
+machinery ere they could be performed; and his words fell from
+him piecemeal, interrupted, as if he had first to think what he
+was to say, then how it was to be said, and as if, after all, it
+was only by an effort of continued attention that he completed a
+sentence without forgetting both the one and the other.
+
+The singular effects which these distractions of mind produced
+upon the behaviour and conversation of the most accomplished
+courtier of England, as they were visible to the lowest and
+dullest menial who approached his person, could not escape the
+notice of the most intelligent Princess of the age.  Nor is there
+the least doubt that the alternate negligence and irregularity of
+his manner would have called down Elizabeth's severe displeasure
+on the Earl of Leicester, had it not occurred to her to account
+for it by supposing that the apprehension of that displeasure
+which she had expressed towards him with such vivacity that very
+morning was dwelling upon the spirits of her favourite, and,
+spite of his efforts to the contrary, distracted the usual
+graceful tenor of his mien and the charms of his conversation.
+When this idea, so flattering to female vanity, had once obtained
+possession of her mind, it proved a full and satisfactory apology
+for the numerous errors and mistakes of the Earl of Leicester;
+and the watchful circle around observed with astonishment, that,
+instead of resenting his repeated negligence, and want of even
+ordinary attention (although these were points on which she was
+usually extremely punctilious), the Queen sought, on the
+contrary, to afford him time and means to recollect himself, and
+deigned to assist him in doing so, with an indulgence which
+seemed altogether inconsistent with her usual character.  It was
+clear, however, that this could not last much longer, and that
+Elizabeth must finally put another and more severe construction
+on Leicester's uncourteous conduct, when the Earl was summoned by
+Varney to speak with him in a different apartment.
+
+After having had the message twice delivered to him, he rose, and
+was about to withdraw, as it were, by instinct; then stopped, and
+turning round, entreated permission of the Queen to absent
+himself for a brief space upon matters of pressing importance.
+
+"Go, my lord," said the Queen.  "We are aware our presence must
+occasion sudden and unexpected occurrences, which require to be
+provided for on the instant.  Yet, my lord, as you would have us
+believe ourself your welcome and honoured guest, we entreat you
+to think less of our good cheer, and favour us with more of your
+good countenance than we have this day enjoyed; for whether
+prince or peasant be the guest, the welcome of the host will
+always be the better part of the entertainment.  Go, my lord; and
+we trust to see you return with an unwrinkled brow, and those
+free thoughts which you are wont to have at the disposal of your
+friends."
+
+Leicester only bowed low in answer to this rebuke, and retired.
+At the door of the apartment he was met by Varney, who eagerly
+drew him apart, and whispered in his ear, "All is well!"
+
+"Has Masters seen her?"  said the Earl.
+
+"He has, my lord; and as she would neither answer his queries,
+nor allege any reason for her refusal, he will give full
+testimony that she labours under a mental disorder, and may be
+best committed to the charge of her friends.  The opportunity is
+therefore free to remove her as we proposed."
+
+"But Tressilian?"  said Leicester.
+
+"He will not know of her departure for some time," replied
+Varney; "it shall take place this very evening, and to-morrow he
+shall be cared for."
+
+"No, by my soul," answered Leicester; "I will take vengeance on
+him with mine own hand!"
+
+"You, my lord, and on so inconsiderable a man as Tressilian!  No,
+my lord, he hath long wished to visit foreign parts.  Trust him
+to me--I will take care he returns not hither to tell tales."
+
+"Not so, by Heaven, Varney!"  exclaimed Leicester.
+"Inconsiderable do you call an enemy that hath had power to wound
+me so deeply that my whole after-life must be one scene of
+remorse and misery?--No; rather than forego the right of doing
+myself justice with my own hand on that accursed villain, I will
+unfold the whole truth at Elizabeth's footstool, and let her
+vengeance descend at once on them and on myself."
+
+Varney saw with great alarm that his lord was wrought up to such
+a pitch of agitation, that if he gave not way to him he was
+perfectly capable of adopting the desperate resolution which he
+had announced, and which was instant ruin to all the schemes of
+ambition which Varney had formed for his patron and for himself.
+But the Earl's rage seemed at once uncontrollable and deeply
+concentrated, and while he spoke his eyes shot fire, his voice
+trembled with excess of passion, and the light foam stood on his
+lip.
+
+His confidant made a bold and successful effort to obtain the
+mastery of him even in this hour of emotion.  "My lord," he said,
+leading him to a mirror, "behold your reflection in that glass,
+and think if these agitated features belong to one who, in a
+condition so extreme, is capable of forming a resolution for
+himself"
+
+"What, then, wouldst thou make me?"  said Leicester, struck at
+the change in his own physiognomy, though offended at the freedom
+with which Varney made the appeal.  "Am I to be thy ward, thy
+vassal,--the property and subject of my servant?"
+
+"No, my lord," said Varney firmly, "but be master of yourself,
+and of your own passion.  My lord, I, your born servant, am
+ashamed to see how poorly you bear yourself in the storm of fury.
+Go to Elizabeth's feet, confess your marriage--impeach your wife
+and her paramour of adultery--and avow yourself, amongst all your
+peers, the wittol who married a country girl, and was cozened by
+her and her book-learned gallant.  Go, my lord--but first take
+farewell of Richard Varney, with all the benefits you ever
+conferred on him.  He served the noble, the lofty, the high-
+minded Leicester, and was more proud of depending on him than he
+would be of commanding thousands.  But the abject lord who stoops
+to every adverse circumstance, whose judicious resolves are
+scattered like chaff before every wind of passion, him Richard
+Varney serves not.  He is as much above him in constancy of mind
+as beneath him in rank and fortune."
+
+Varney spoke thus without hypocrisy, for though the firmness of
+mind which he boasted was hardness and impenetrability, yet he
+really felt the ascendency which he vaunted; while the interest
+which he actually felt in the fortunes of Leicester gave unusual
+emotion to his voice and manner.
+
+Leicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority it seemed to
+the unfortunate Earl as if his last friend was about to abandon
+him.  He stretched his hand towards Varney as he uttered the
+words, "Do not leave me.  What wouldst thou have me do?"
+
+"Be thyself, my noble master," said Varney, touching the Earl's
+hand with his lips, after having respectfully grasped it in his
+own; "be yourself, superior to those storms of passion which
+wreck inferior minds.  Are you the first who has been cozened in
+love--the first whom a vain and licentious woman has cheated into
+an affection, which she has afterwards scorned and misused?  And
+will you suffer yourself to be driven frantic because you have
+not been wiser than the wisest men whom the world has seen?  Let
+her be as if she had not been--let her pass from your memory, as
+unworthy of ever having held a place there.  Let your strong
+resolve of this morning, which I have both courage, zeal, and
+means enough to execute, be like the fiat of a superior being, a
+passionless act of justice.  She hath deserved death--let her
+die!"
+
+While he was speaking, the Earl held his hand fast, compressed
+his lips hard, and frowned, as if he laboured to catch from
+Varney a portion of the cold, ruthless, and dispassionate
+firmness which he recommended.  When he was silent, the Earl
+still continued to rasp his hand, until, with an effort at calm
+decision, he was able to articulate, "Be it so--she dies!  But
+one tear might be permitted."
+
+"Not one, my lord," interrupted Varney, who saw by the quivering
+eye and convulsed cheek of his patron that he was about to give
+way to a burst of emotion--"not a tear--the time permits it not.
+Tressilian must be thought of--"
+
+"That indeed is a name," said the Earl, "to convert tears into
+blood.  Varney, I have thought on this, and I have determined--
+neither entreaty nor argument shall move me--Tressilian shall be
+my own victim."
+
+"It is madness, my lord; but you are too mighty for me to bar
+your way to your revenge.  Yet resolve at least to choose fitting
+time and opportunity, and to forbear him until these shall be
+found."
+
+"Thou shalt order me in what thou wilt," said Leicester, "only
+thwart me not in this."
+
+"Then, my lord," said Varney, "I first request of you to lay
+aside the wild, suspected, and half-frenzied demeanour which hath
+this day drawn the eyes of all the court upon you, and which, but
+for the Queen's partial indulgence, which she hath extended
+towards you in a degree far beyond her nature, she had never
+given you the opportunity to atone for."
+
+"Have I indeed been so negligent?"  said Leicester, as one who
+awakes from a dream.  "I thought I had coloured it well.  But
+fear nothing, my mind is now eased--I am calm.  My horoscope
+shall be fulfilled; and that it may be fulfilled, I will tax to
+the highest every faculty of my mind.  Fear me not, I say.  I
+will to the Queen instantly--not thine own looks and language
+shall be more impenetrable than mine.  Hast thou aught else to
+say?"
+
+"I must crave your signet-ring," said Varney gravely, "in token
+to those of your servants whom I must employ, that I possess your
+full authority in commanding their aid."
+
+Leicester drew off the signet-ring which he commonly used, and
+gave it to Varney, with a haggard and stern expression of
+countenance, adding only, in a low, half-whispered tone, but with
+terrific emphasis, the words, "What thou dost, do quickly."
+
+Some anxiety and wonder took place, meanwhile, in the presence-
+hall, at the prolonged absence of the noble Lord of the Castle,
+and great was the delight of his friends when they saw him enter
+as a man from whose bosom, to all human seeming, a weight of care
+had been just removed.  Amply did Leicester that day redeem the
+pledge he had given to Varney, who soon saw himself no longer
+under the necessity of maintaining a character so different from
+his own as that which he had assumed in the earlier part of the
+day, and gradually relapsed into the same grave, shrewd, caustic
+observer of conversation and incident which constituted his usual
+part in society.
+
+With Elizabeth, Leicester played his game as one to whom her
+natural strength of talent and her weakness in one or two
+particular points were well known.  He was too wary to exchange
+on a sudden the sullen personage which he had played before he
+retired with Varney; but on approaching her it seemed softened
+into a melancholy, which had a touch of tenderness in it, and
+which, in the course of conversing with Elizabeth, and as she
+dropped in compassion one mark of favour after another to console
+him, passed into a flow of affectionate gallantry, the most
+assiduous, the most delicate, the most insinuating, yet at the
+same time the most respectful, with which a Queen was ever
+addressed by a subject.  Elizabeth listened as in a sort of
+enchantment.  Her jealousy of power was lulled asleep; her
+resolution to forsake all social or domestic ties, and dedicate
+herself exclusively to the care of her people, began to be
+shaken; and once more the star of Dudley culminated in the court
+horizon.
+
+But Leicester did not enjoy this triumph over nature, and over
+conscience, without its being embittered to him, not only by the
+internal rebellion of his feelings against the violence which he
+exercised over them, but by many accidental circumstances, which,
+in the course of the banquet, and during the subsequent
+amusements of the evening, jarred upon that nerve, the least
+vibration of which was agony.
+
+The courtiers were, for example, in the Great Hall, after having
+left the banqueting-room, awaiting the appearance of a splendid
+masque, which was the expected entertainment of this evening,
+when the Queen interrupted a wild career of wit which the Earl of
+Leicester was running against Lord Willoughby, Raleigh, and some
+other courtiers, by saying, "We will impeach you of high treason,
+my lord, if you proceed in this attempt to slay us with laughter.
+And here comes a thing may make us all grave at his pleasure, our
+learned physician Masters, with news belike of our poor
+suppliant, Lady Varney;--nay, my lord, we will not have you leave
+us, for this being a dispute betwixt married persons, we do not
+hold our own experience deep enough to decide thereon without
+good counsel.--How now, Masters, what thinkest thou of the
+runaway bride?"
+
+The smile with which Leicester had been speaking, when the Queen
+interrupted him, remained arrested on his lips, as if it had been
+carved there by the chisel of Michael Angelo or of Chantrey; and
+he listened to the speech of the physician with the same
+immovable cast of countenance.
+
+"The Lady Varney, gracious Sovereign," said the court physician
+Masters, "is sullen, and would hold little conference with me
+touching the state of her health, talking wildly of being soon to
+plead her own cause before your own presence, and of answering no
+meaner person's inquiries."
+
+"Now the heavens forfend!"  said the Queen; "we have already
+suffered from the misconstructions and broils which seem to
+follow this poor brain-sick lady wherever she comes.--Think you
+not so, my lord?"  she added, appealing to Leicester with
+something in her look that indicated regret, even tenderly
+expressed, for their disagreement of that morning.  Leicester
+compelled himself to bow low.  The utmost force he could exert
+was inadequate to the further effort of expressing in words his
+acquiescence in the Queen's sentiment.
+
+"You are vindictive," she said, "my lord; but we will find time
+and place to punish you.  But once more to this same trouble-
+mirth, this Lady Varney.  What of her health, Masters?"
+
+"She is sullen, madam, as I already said," replied Masters, "and
+refuses to answer interrogatories, or be amenable to the
+authority of the mediciner.  I conceive her to be possessed with
+a delirium, which I incline to term rather HYPOCHONDRIA than
+PHRENESIS; and I think she were best cared for by her husband in
+his own house, and removed from all this bustle of pageants,
+which disturbs her weak brain with the most fantastic phantoms.
+She drops hints as if she were some great person in disguise--
+some Countess or Princess perchance.  God help them, such are
+often the hallucinations of these infirm persons!"
+
+"Nay, then," said the Queen, "away with her with all speed.  Let
+Varney care for her with fitting humanity; but let them rid the
+Castle of her forthwith she will think herself lady of all, I
+warrant you.  It is pity so fair a form, however, should have an
+infirm understanding.--What think you, my lord?"
+
+"It is pity indeed," said the Earl, repeating the words like a
+task which was set him.
+
+"But, perhaps," said Elizabeth, "you do not join with us in our
+opinion of her beauty; and indeed we have known men prefer a
+statelier and more Juno-like form to that drooping fragile one
+that hung its head like a broken lily.  Ay, men are tyrants, my
+lord, who esteem the animation of the strife above the triumph of
+an unresisting conquest, and, like sturdy champions, love best
+those women who can wage contest with them.--I could think with
+you, Rutland, that give my Lord of Leicester such a piece of
+painted wax for a bride, he would have wished her dead ere the
+end of the honeymoon."
+
+As she said this, she looked on Leicester so expressively that,
+while his heart revolted against the egregious falsehood, he did
+himself so much violence as to reply in a whisper that
+Leicester's love was more lowly than her Majesty deemed, since it
+was settled where he could never command, but must ever obey.
+
+The Queen blushed, and bid him be silent; yet looked as of she
+expected that he would not obey her commands.  But at that moment
+the flourish of trumpets and kettle-drums from a high balcony
+which overlooked the hall announced the entrance of the maskers,
+and relieved Leicester from the horrible state of constraint and
+dissimulation in which the result of his own duplicity had placed
+him.
+
+The masque which entered consisted of four separate bands, which
+followed each other at brief intervals, each consisting of six
+principal persons and as many torch-bearers, and each
+representing one of the various nations by which England had at
+different times been occupied.
+
+The aboriginal Britons, who first entered, were ushered in by two
+ancient Druids, whose hoary hair was crowned with a chaplet of
+oak, and who bore in their hands branches of mistletoe.  The
+maskers who followed these venerable figures were succeeded by
+two Bards, arrayed in white, and bearing harps, which they
+occasionally touched, singing at the same time certain stanzas of
+an ancient hymn to Belus, or the Sun.  The aboriginal Britons had
+been selected from amongst the tallest and most robust young
+gentlemen in attendance on the court.  Their masks were
+accommodated with long, shaggy beards and hair; their vestments
+were of the hides of wolves and bears; while their legs, arms,
+and the upper parts of their bodies, being sheathed in flesh-
+coloured silk, on which were traced in grotesque lines
+representations of the heavenly bodies, and of animals and other
+terrestrial objects, gave them the lively appearance of our
+painted ancestors, whose freedom was first trenched upon by the
+Romans.
+
+The sons of Rome, who came to civilize as well as to conquer,
+were next produced before the princely assembly; and the manager
+of the revels had correctly imitated the high crest and military
+habits of that celebrated people, accommodating them with the
+light yet strong buckler and the short two-edged sword, the use
+of which had made them victors of the world.  The Roman eagles
+were borne before them by two standard-bearers, who recited a
+hymn to Mars, and the classical warriors followed with the grave
+and haughty step of men who aspired at universal conquest.
+
+The third quadrille represented the Saxons, clad in the bearskins
+which they had brought with them from the German forests, and
+bearing in their hands the redoubtable battle-axes which made
+such havoc among the natives of Britain.  They were preceded by
+two Scalds, who chanted the praises of Odin.
+
+Last came the knightly Normans, in their mail-shirts and hoods of
+steel, with all the panoply of chivalry, and marshalled by two
+Minstrels, who sang of war and ladies' love.
+
+These four bands entered the spacious hall with the utmost order,
+a short pause being made, that the spectators might satisfy their
+curiosity as to each quadrille before the appearance of the next.
+They then marched completely round the hall, in order the more
+fully to display themselves, regulating their steps to organs,
+shalms, hautboys, and virginals, the music of the Lord
+Leicester's household.  At length the four quadrilles of maskers,
+ranging their torch-bearers behind them, drew up in their several
+ranks on the two opposite sides of the hall, so that the Romans
+confronting the Britons, and the Saxons the Normans, seemed to
+look on each other with eyes of wonder, which presently appeared
+to kindle into anger, expressed by menacing gestures.  At the
+burst of a strain of martial music from the gallery the maskers
+drew their swords on all sides, and advanced against each other
+in the measured steps of a sort of Pyrrhic or military dance,
+clashing their swords against their adversaries' shields, and
+clattering them against their blades as they passed each other in
+the progress of the dance.  It was a very pleasant spectacle to
+see how the various bands, preserving regularity amid motions
+which seemed to be totally irregular, mixed together, and then
+disengaging themselves, resumed each their own original rank as
+the music varied.
+
+In this symbolical dance were represented the conflicts which had
+taken place among the various nations which had anciently
+inhabited Britain.
+
+At length, after many mazy evolutions, which afforded great
+pleasure to the spectators, the sound of a loud-voiced trumpet
+was heard, as if it blew for instant battle, or for victory won.
+The maskers instantly ceased their mimic strife, and collecting
+themselves under their original leaders, or presenters, for such
+was the appropriate phrase, seemed to share the anxious
+expectation which the spectators experienced concerning what was
+next to appear.
+
+The doors of the hall were thrown wide, and no less a person
+entered than the fiend-born Merlin, dressed in a strange and
+mystical attire, suited to his ambiguous birth and magical power.
+
+About him and behind him fluttered or gambolled many
+extraordinary forms, intended to represent the spirits who waited
+to do his powerful bidding; and so much did this part of the
+pageant interest the menials and others of the lower class then
+in the Castle, that many of them forgot even the reverence due to
+the Queen's presence, so far as to thrust themselves into the
+lower part of the hall.
+
+The Earl of Leicester, seeing his officers had some difficulty to
+repel these intruders, without more disturbance than was fitting
+where the Queen was in presence, arose and went himself to the
+bottom of the hall; Elizabeth, at the same time, with her usual
+feeling for the common people, requesting that they might be
+permitted to remain undisturbed to witness the pageant.
+Leicester went under this pretext; but his real motive was to
+gain a moment to himself, and to relieve his mind, were it but
+for one instant, from the dreadful task of hiding, under the
+guise of gaiety and gallantry, the lacerating pangs of shame,
+anger, remorse, and thirst for vengeance.  He imposed silence by
+his look and sign upon the vulgar crowd at the lower end of the
+apartment; but instead of instantly returning to wait on her
+Majesty, he wrapped his cloak around him, and mixing with the
+crowd, stood in some degree an undistinguished spectator of the
+progress of the masque.
+
+Merlin having entered, and advanced into the midst of the hall,
+summoned the presenters of the contending bands around him by a
+wave of his magical rod, and announced to them, in a poetical
+speech, that the isle of Britain was now commanded by a Royal
+Maiden, to whom it was the will of fate that they should all do
+homage, and request of her to pronounce on the various
+pretensions which each set forth to be esteemed the pre-eminent
+stock, from which the present natives, the happy subjects of that
+angelical Princess, derived their lineage.
+
+In obedience to this mandate, the bands, each moving to solemn
+music, passed in succession before Elizabeth, doing her, as they
+passed, each after the fashion of the people whom they
+represented, the lowest and most devotional homage, which she
+returned with the same gracious courtesy that had marked her
+whole conduct since she came to Kenilworth.
+
+The presenters of the several masques or quadrilles then alleged,
+each in behalf of his own troop, the reasons which they had for
+claiming pre-eminence over the rest; and when they had been all
+heard in turn, she returned them this gracious answer:  "That she
+was sorry she was not better qualified to decide upon the
+doubtful question which had been propounded to her by the
+direction of the famous Merlin, but that it seemed to her that no
+single one of these celebrated nations could claim pre-eminence
+over the others, as having most contributed to form the
+Englishman of her own time, who unquestionably derived from each
+of them some worthy attribute of his character.  Thus," she said,
+"the Englishman had from the ancient Briton his bold and tameless
+spirit of freedom; from the Roman his disciplined courage in war,
+with his love of letters and civilization in time of peace; from
+the Saxon his wise and equitable laws; and from the chivalrous
+Norman his love of honour and courtesy, with his generous desire
+for glory."
+
+Merlin answered with readiness that it did indeed require that so
+many choice qualities should meet in the English, as might render
+them in some measure the muster of the perfections of other
+nations, since that alone could render them in some degree
+deserving of the blessings they enjoyed under the reign of
+England's Elizabeth.
+
+The music then sounded, and the quadrilles, together with Merlin
+and his assistants, had begun to remove from the crowded hall,
+when Leicester, who was, as we have mentioned, stationed for the
+moment near the bottom of the hall, and consequently engaged in
+some degree in the crowd, felt himself pulled by the cloak, while
+a voice whispered in his ear, "My Lord, I do desire some instant
+conference with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+  How is't with me, when every noise appals me?     MACBETH.
+
+"I desire some conference with you."  The words were simple in
+themselves, but Lord Leicester was in that alarmed and feverish
+state of mind when the most ordinary occurrences seem fraught
+with alarming import; and he turned hastily round to survey the
+person by whom they had been spoken.  There was nothing
+remarkable in the speaker's appearance, which consisted of a
+black silk doublet and short mantle, with a black vizard on his
+face; for it appeared he had been among the crowd of masks who
+had thronged into the hall in the retinue of Merlin, though he
+did not wear any of the extravagant disguises by which most of
+them were distinguished.
+
+"Who are you, or what do you want with me?"  said Leicester, not
+without betraying, by his accents, the hurried state of his
+spirits.
+
+"No evil, my lord," answered the mask, "but much good and honour,
+if you will rightly understand my purpose.  But I must speak with
+you more privately."
+
+"I can speak with no nameless stranger," answered Leicester,
+dreading he knew not precisely what from the request of the
+stranger; "and those who are known to me must seek another and a
+fitter time to ask an interview."
+
+He would have hurried away, but the mask still detained him.
+
+"Those who talk to your lordship of what your own honour demands
+have a right over your time, whatever occupations you may lay
+aside in order to indulge them."
+
+"How!  my honour?  Who dare impeach it?"  said Leicester.
+
+"Your own conduct alone can furnish grounds for accusing it, my
+lord, and it is that topic on which I would speak with you."
+
+"You are insolent," said Leicester, "and abuse the hospitable
+license of the time, which prevents me from having you punished.
+I demand your name!"
+
+"Edmund Tressilian of Cornwall," answered the mask.  "My tongue
+has been bound by a promise for four-and-twenty hours.  The space
+is passed,--I now speak, and do your lordship the justice to
+address myself first to you."
+
+The thrill of astonishment which had penetrated to Leicester's
+very heart at hearing that name pronounced by the voice of the
+man he most detested, and by whom he conceived himself so deeply
+injured, at first rendered him immovable, but instantly gave way
+to such a thirst for revenge as the pilgrim in the desert feels
+for the water-brooks.  He had but sense and self-government
+enough left to prevent his stabbing to the heart the audacious
+villain, who, after the ruin he had brought upon him, dared, with
+such unmoved assurance, thus to practise upon him further.
+Determined to suppress for the moment every symptom of agitation,
+in order to perceive the full scope of Tressilian's purpose, as
+well as to secure his own vengeance, he answered in a tone so
+altered by restrained passion as scarce to be intelligible, "And
+what does Master Edmund Tressilian require at my hand?"
+
+"Justice, my lord," answered Tressilian, calmly but firmly.
+
+"Justice," said Leicester, "all men are entitled to.  YOU, Master
+Tressilian, are peculiarly so, and be assured you shall have it."
+
+"I expect nothing less from your nobleness," answered Tressilian;
+"but time presses, and I must speak with you to-night.  May I
+wait on you in your chamber?"
+
+"No," answered Leicester sternly, "not under a roof, and that
+roof mine own.  We will meet under the free cope of heaven."
+
+"You are discomposed or displeased, my lord," replied Tressilian;
+"yet there is no occasion for distemperature.  The place is equal
+to me, so you allow me one half-hour of your time uninterrupted."
+
+"A shorter time will, I trust, suffice," answered Leicester.
+"Meet me in the Pleasance when the Queen has retired to her
+chamber."
+
+"Enough," said Tressilian, and withdrew; while a sort of rapture
+seemed for the moment to occupy the mind of Leicester.
+
+"Heaven," he said, "is at last favourable to me, and has put
+within my reach the wretch who has branded me with this deep
+ignominy--who has inflicted on me this cruel agony.  I will blame
+fate no more, since I am afforded the means of tracing the wiles
+by which he means still further to practise on me, and then of at
+once convicting and punishing his villainy.  To my task--to my
+task!  I will not sink under it now, since midnight, at farthest,
+will bring me vengeance."
+
+While these reflections thronged through Leicester's mind, he
+again made his way amid the obsequious crowd, which divided to
+give him passage, and resumed his place, envied and admired,
+beside the person of his Sovereign.  But could the bosom of him
+thus admired and envied have been laid open before the
+inhabitants of that crowded hall, with all its dark thoughts of
+guilty ambition, blighted affection, deep vengeance, and
+conscious sense of meditated cruelty, crossing each other like
+spectres in the circle of some foul enchantress, which of them,
+from the most ambitious noble in the courtly circle down to the
+most wretched menial who lived by shifting of trenchers, would
+have desired to change characters with the favourite of
+Elizabeth, and the Lord of Kenilworth?
+
+New tortures awaited him as soon as he had rejoined Elizabeth.
+
+"You come in time, my lord," she said, "to decide a dispute
+between us ladies.  Here has Sir Richard Varney asked our
+permission to depart from the Castle with his infirm lady,
+having, as he tells us, your lordship's consent to his absence,
+so he can obtain ours.  Certes, we have no will to withhold him
+from the affectionate charge of this poor young person; but you
+are to know that Sir Richard Varney hath this day shown himself
+so much captivated with these ladies of ours, that here is our
+Duchess of Rutland says he will carry his poor insane wife no
+farther than the lake, plunge her in to tenant the crystal
+palaces that the enchanted nymph told us of, and return a jolly
+widower, to dry his tears and to make up the loss among our
+train.  How say you, my lord?  We have seen Varney under two or
+three different guises--you know what are his proper attributes
+--think you he is capable of playing his lady such a knave's
+trick?"
+
+Leicester was confounded, but the danger was urgent, and a reply
+absolutely necessary.  "The ladies," he said, "think too lightly
+of one of their own sex, in supposing she could deserve such a
+fate; or too ill of ours, to think it could be inflicted upon an
+innocent female."
+
+"Hear him, my ladies," said Elizabeth; "like all his sex, he
+would excuse their cruelty by imputing fickleness to us."
+
+"Say not US, madam," replied the Earl.  "We say that meaner
+women, like the lesser lights of heaven, have revolutions and
+phases; but who shall impute mutability to the sun, or to
+Elizabeth?"
+
+The discourse presently afterwards assumed a less perilous
+tendency, and Leicester continued to support his part in it with
+spirit, at whatever expense of mental agony.  So pleasing did it
+seem to Elizabeth, that the Castle bell had sounded midnight ere
+she retired from the company, a circumstance unusual in her quiet
+and regular habits of disposing of time.  Her departure was, of
+course, the signal for breaking up the company, who dispersed to
+their several places of repose, to dream over the pastimes of the
+day, or to anticipate those of the morrow.
+
+The unfortunate Lord of the Castle, and founder of the proud
+festival, retired to far different thoughts.  His direction to
+the valet who attended him was to send Varney instantly to his
+apartment.  The messenger returned after some delay, and informed
+him that an hour had elapsed since Sir Richard Varney had left
+the Castle by the postern gate with three other persons, one of
+whom was transported in a horse-litter.
+
+"How came he to leave the Castle after the watch was set?"  said
+Leicester.  "I thought he went not till daybreak."
+
+"He gave satisfactory reasons, as I understand," said the
+domestic, "to the guard, and, as I hear, showed your lordship's
+signet--"
+
+"True--true," said the Earl; "yet he has been hasty.  Do any of
+his attendants remain behind?"
+
+"Michael Lambourne, my lord," said the valet, "was not to be
+found when Sir Richard Varney departed, and his master was much
+incensed at his absence.  I saw him but now saddling his horse to
+gallop after his master."
+
+"Bid him come hither instantly," said Leicester; "I have a
+message to his master."
+
+The servant left the apartment, and Leicester traversed it for
+some time in deep meditation.  "Varney is over-zealous," he said,
+"over-pressing.  He loves me, I think; but he hath his own ends
+to serve, and he is inexorable in pursuit of them.  If I rise, he
+rises; and he hath shown himself already but too, eager to rid me
+of this obstacle which seems to stand betwixt me and sovereignty.
+Yet I will not stoop to bear this disgrace.  She shall be
+punished, but it shall be more advisedly.  I already feel, even
+in anticipation, that over-haste would light the flames of hell
+in my bosom.  No--one victim is enough at once, and that victim
+already waits me."
+
+He seized upon writing materials, and hastily traced these
+words:--
+"Sir Richard Varney, we have resolved to defer the matter
+entrusted to your care, and strictly command you to proceed no
+further in relation to our Countess until our further order.  We
+also command your instant return to Kenilworth as soon as you
+have safely bestowed that with which you are entrusted.  But if
+the safe-placing of your present charge shall detain you longer
+than we think for, we command you in that case to send back our
+signet-ring by a trusty and speedy messenger, we having present
+need of the same.  And requiring your strict obedience in these
+things, and commending you to God's keeping, we rest your assured
+good friend and master,         R. LEICESTER.
+
+"Given at our Castle of Kenilworth, the tenth of July, in the
+year of Salvation one thousand five hundred and seventy-five."
+
+As Leicester had finished and sealed this mandate, Michael
+Lambourne, booted up to mid-thigh, having his riding-cloak
+girthed around him with a broad belt, and a felt cap on his head,
+like that of a courier, entered his apartment, ushered in by the
+valet.
+
+"What is thy capacity of service?"  said the Earl.
+
+"Equerry to your lordship's master of the horse," answered
+Lambourne, with his customary assurance.
+
+"Tie up thy saucy tongue, sir," said Leicester; "the jests that
+may suit Sir Richard Varney's presence suit not mine.  How soon
+wilt thou overtake thy master?"
+
+"In one hour's riding, my lord, if man and horse hold good," said
+Lambourne, with an instant alteration of demeanour, from an
+approach to familiarity to the deepest respect.  The Earl
+measured him with his eye from top to toe.
+
+"I have heard of thee," he said "men say thou art a prompt fellow
+in thy service, but too much given to brawling and to wassail to
+be trusted with things of moment."
+
+"My lord," said Lambourne, "I have been soldier, sailor,
+traveller, and adventurer; and these are all trades in which men
+enjoy to-day, because they have no surety of to-morrow.  But
+though I may misuse mine own leisure, I have never neglected the
+duty I owe my master."
+
+"See that it be so in this instance," said Leicester, "and it
+shall do thee good.  Deliver this letter speedily and carefully
+into Sir Richard Varney's hands."
+
+"Does my commission reach no further?"  said Lambourne.
+
+"No," answered Leicester; "but it deeply concerns me that it be
+carefully as well as hastily executed."
+
+"I will spare neither care nor horse-flesh," answered Lambourne,
+and immediately took his leave.
+
+"So, this is the end of my private audience, from which I hoped
+so much!"  he muttered to himself, as he went through the long
+gallery, and down the back staircase.  Cogs bones!  I thought the
+Earl had wanted a cast of mine office in some secret intrigue,
+and it all ends in carrying a letter!  Well, his pleasure shall
+be done, however; and as his lordship well says, it may do me
+good another time.  The child must creep ere he walk, and so must
+your infant courtier.  I will have a look into this letter,
+however, which he hath sealed so sloven-like."  Having
+accomplished this, he clapped his hands together in ecstasy,
+exclaiming, "The Countess the Countess!  I have the secret that
+shall make or mar me.--But come forth, Bayard," he added, leading
+his horse into the courtyard, "for your flanks and my spurs must
+be presently acquainted."
+
+Lambourne mounted, accordingly, and left the Castle by the
+postern gate, where his free passage was permitted, in
+consequence of a message to that effect left by Sir Richard
+Varney.
+
+As soon as Lambourne and the valet had left the apartment,
+Leicester proceeded to change his dress for a very plain one,
+threw his mantle around him, and taking a lamp in his hand, went
+by the private passage of communication to a small secret postern
+door which opened into the courtyard, near to the entrance of the
+Pleasance.  His reflections were of a more calm and determined
+character than they had been at any late period, and he
+endeavoured to claim, even in his own eyes, the character of a
+man more sinned against than sinning.
+
+"I have suffered the deepest injury," such was the tenor of his
+meditations, "yet I have restricted the instant revenge which was
+in my power, and have limited it to that which is manly and
+noble.  But shall the union which this false woman has this day
+disgraced remain an abiding fetter on me, to check me in the
+noble career to which my destinies invite me?  No; there are
+other means of disengaging such ties, without unloosing the cords
+of life.  In the sight of God, I am no longer bound by the union
+she has broken.  Kingdoms shall divide us, oceans roll betwixt
+us, and their waves, whose abysses have swallowed whole navies,
+shall be the sole depositories of the deadly mystery."
+
+By such a train of argument did Leicester labour to reconcile his
+conscience to the prosecution of plans of vengeance, so hastily
+adopted, and of schemes of ambition, which had become so woven in
+with every purpose and action of his life that he was incapable
+of the effort of relinquishing them, until his revenge appeared
+to him to wear a face of justice, and even of generous
+moderation.
+
+In this mood the vindictive and ambitious Earl entered the superb
+precincts of the Pleasance, then illumined by the full moon.  The
+broad, yellow light was reflected on all sides from the white
+freestone, of which the pavement, balustrades, and architectural
+ornaments of the place were constructed; and not a single fleecy
+cloud was visible in the azure sky, so that the scene was nearly
+as light as if the sun had but just left the horizon.  The
+numerous statues of white marble glimmered in the pale light like
+so many sheeted ghosts just arisen from their sepulchres, and the
+fountains threw their jets into the air as if they sought that
+their waters should be brightened by the moonbeams ere they fell
+down again upon their basins in showers of sparkling silver.  The
+day had been sultry, and the gentle night-breeze which sighed
+along the terrace of the Pleasance raised not a deeper breath
+than the fan in the hand of youthful beauty.  The bird of summer
+night had built many a nest in the bowers of the adjacent garden,
+and the tenants now indemnified themselves for silence during the
+day by a full chorus of their own unrivalled warblings, now
+joyous, now pathetic, now united, now responsive to each other,
+as if to express their delight in the placid and delicious scene
+to which they poured their melody.
+
+Musing on matters far different from the fall of waters, the
+gleam of moonlight, or the song of the nightingale, the stately
+Leicester walked slowly from the one end of the terrace to the
+other, his cloak wrapped around him, and his sword under his arm,
+without seeing anything resembling the human form.
+
+"I have been fooled by my own generosity," he said, "if I have
+suffered the villain to escape me--ay, and perhaps to go to the
+rescue of the adulteress, who is so poorly guarded."
+
+These were his thoughts, which were instantly dispelled when,
+turning to look back towards the entrance, he saw a human form
+advancing slowly from the portico, and darkening the various
+objects with its shadow, as passing them successively, in its
+approach towards him.
+
+"Shall I strike ere I again hear his detested voice?"  was
+Leicester's thought, as he grasped the hilt of the sword.  "But
+no!  I will see which way his vile practice tends.  I will watch,
+disgusting as it is, the coils and mazes of the loathsome snake,
+ere I put forth my strength and crush him."
+
+His hand quitted the sword-hilt, and he advanced slowly towards
+Tressilian, collecting, for their meeting, all the self-
+possession he could command, until they came front to front with
+each other.
+
+Tressilian made a profound reverence, to which the Earl replied
+with a haughty inclination of the head, and the words, "You
+sought secret conference with me, sir; I am here, and attentive."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "I am so earnest in that which I have
+to say, and so desirous to find a patient, nay, a favourable
+hearing, that I will stoop to exculpate myself from whatever
+might prejudice your lordship against me.  You think me your
+enemy?"
+
+"Have I not some apparent cause?"  answered Leicester, perceiving
+that Tressilian paused for a reply.
+
+"You do me wrong, my lord.  I am a friend, but neither a
+dependant nor partisan, of the Earl of Sussex, whom courtiers
+call your rival; and it is some considerable time since I ceased
+to consider either courts or court intrigues as suited to my
+temper or genius."
+
+"No doubt, sir," answered Leicester "there are other occupations
+more worthy a scholar, and for such the world holds Master
+Tressilian.  Love has his intrigues as well as ambition."
+
+"I perceive, my lord," replied Tressilian, "you give much weight
+to my early attachment for the unfortunate young person of whom I
+am about to speak, and perhaps think I am prosecuting her cause
+out of rivalry, more than a sense of justice."
+
+"No matter for my thoughts, sir," said the Earl; "proceed.  You
+have as yet spoken of yourself only--an important and worthy
+subject doubtless, but which, perhaps, does not altogether so
+deeply concern me that I should postpone my repose to hear it.
+Spare me further prelude, sir, and speak to the purpose if indeed
+you have aught to say that concerns me.  When you have done, I,
+in my turn, have something to communicate."
+
+"I will speak, then, without further prelude, my lord," answered
+Tressilian, "having to say that which, as it concerns your
+lordship's honour, I am confident you will not think your time
+wasted in listening to.  I have to request an account from your
+lordship of the unhappy Amy Robsart, whose history is too well
+known to you.  I regret deeply that I did not at once take this
+course, and make yourself judge between me and the villain by
+whom she is injured.  My lord, she extricated herself from an
+unlawful and most perilous state of confinement, trusting to the
+effects of her own remonstrance upon her unworthy husband, and
+extorted from me a promise that I would not interfere in her
+behalf until she had used her own efforts to have her rights
+acknowledged by him."
+
+"Ha," said Leicester, "remember you to whom you speak?"
+
+"I speak of her unworthy husband, my lord," repeated Tressilian,
+"and my respect can find no softer language.  The unhappy young
+woman is withdrawn from my knowledge, and sequestered in some
+secret place of this Castle--if she be not transferred to some
+place of seclusion better fitted for bad designs.  This must be
+reformed, my lord--I speak it as authorized by her father--and
+this ill-fated marriage must be avouched and proved in the
+Queen's presence, and the lady placed without restraint and at
+her own free disposal.  And permit me to say it concerns no one's
+honour that these most just demands of mine should be complied
+with so much as it does that of your lordship."
+
+The Earl stood as if he had been petrified at the extreme
+coolness with which the man, whom he considered as having injured
+him so deeply, pleaded the cause of his criminal paramour, as if
+she had been an innocent woman and he a disinterested advocate;
+nor was his wonder lessened by the warmth with which Tressilian
+seemed to demand for her the rank and situation which she had
+disgraced, and the advantages of which she was doubtless to share
+with the lover who advocated her cause with such effrontery.
+Tressilian had been silent for more than a minute ere the Earl
+recovered from the excess of his astonishment; and considering
+the prepossessions with which his mind was occupied, there is
+little wonder that his passion gained the mastery of every other
+consideration.  "I have heard you, Master Tressilian," said he,
+"without interruption, and I bless God that my ears were never
+before made to tingle by the words of so frontless a villain.
+The task of chastising you is fitter for the hangman's scourge
+than the sword of a nobleman, but yet--Villain, draw and defend
+thyself!"
+
+As he spoke the last words, he dropped his mantle on the ground,
+struck Tressilian smartly with his sheathed sword, and instantly
+drawing his rapier, put himself into a posture of assault.  The
+vehement fury of his language at first filled Tressilian, in his
+turn, with surprise equal to what Leicester had felt when he
+addressed him.  But astonishment gave place to resentment when
+the unmerited insults of his language were followed by a blow
+which immediately put to flight every thought save that of
+instant combat.  Tressilian's sword was instantly drawn; and
+though perhaps somewhat inferior to Leicester in the use of the
+weapon, he understood it well enough to maintain the contest with
+great spirit, the rather that of the two he was for the time the
+more cool, since he could not help imputing Leicester's conduct
+either to actual frenzy or to the influence of some strong
+delusion.
+
+The rencontre had continued for several minutes, without either
+party receiving a wound, when of a sudden voices were heard
+beneath the portico which formed the entrance of the terrace,
+mingled with the steps of men advancing hastily.  "We are
+interrupted," said Leicester to his antagonist; "follow me."
+
+At the same time a voice from the portico said, "The jackanape is
+right--they are tilting here."
+
+Leicester, meanwhile, drew off Tressilian into a sort of recess
+behind one of the fountains, which served to conceal them, while
+six of the yeomen of the Queen's guard passed along the middle
+walk of the Pleasance, and they could hear one say to the rest,
+"We shall never find them to-night among all these squirting
+funnels, squirrel cages, and rabbit-holes; but if we light not on
+them before we reach the farther end, we will return, and mount a
+guard at the entrance, and so secure them till morning."
+
+"A proper matter," said another, "the drawing of swords so near
+the Queen's presence, ay, and in her very palace as 'twere!  Hang
+it, they must be some poor drunken game-cocks fallen to sparring
+--'twere pity almost we should find them--the penalty is chopping
+off a hand, is it not?--'twere hard to lose hand for handling a
+bit of steel, that comes so natural to one's gripe."
+
+"Thou art a brawler thyself, George," said another; "but take
+heed, for the law stands as thou sayest."
+
+"Ay," said the first, "an the act be not mildly construed; for
+thou knowest 'tis not the Queen's palace, but my Lord of
+Leicester's."
+
+"Why, for that matter, the penalty may be as severe," said
+another "for an our gracious Mistress be Queen, as she is, God
+save her, my Lord of Leicester is as good as King."
+
+"Hush, thou knave!"  said a third; "how knowest thou who may be
+within hearing?"
+
+They passed on, making a kind of careless search, but seemingly
+more intent on their own conversation than bent on discovering
+the persons who had created the nocturnal disturbance.
+
+They had no sooner passed forward along the terrace, than
+Leicester, making a sign to Tressilian to follow him, glided away
+in an opposite direction, and escaped through the portico
+undiscovered.  He conducted Tressilian to Mervyn's Tower, in
+which he was now again lodged; and then, ere parting with him,
+said these words, "If thou hast courage to continue and bring to
+an end what is thus broken off, be near me when the court goes
+forth to-morrow; we shall find a time, and I will give you a
+signal when it is fitting."
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "at another time I might have
+inquired the meaning of this strange and furious inveteracy
+against me.  But you have laid that on my shoulder which only
+blood can wash away; and were you as high as your proudest wishes
+ever carried you, I would have from you satisfaction for my
+wounded honour."
+
+On these terms they parted, but the adventures of the night were
+not yet ended with Leicester.  He was compelled to pass by
+Saintlowe's Tower, in order to gain the private passage which led
+to his own chamber; and in the entrance thereof he met Lord
+Hunsdon half clothed, and with a naked sword under his arm.
+
+"Are you awakened, too, with this 'larum, my Lord of Leicester?"
+said the old soldier.  "'Tis well.  By gog's nails, the nights
+are as noisy as the day in this Castle of yours.  Some two hours
+since I was waked by the screams of that poor brain-sick Lady
+Varney, whom her husband was forcing away.  I promise you it
+required both your warrant and the Queen's to keep me from
+entering into the game, and cutting that Varney of yours over the
+head.  And now there is a brawl down in the Pleasance, or what
+call you the stone terrace-walk where all yonder gimcracks
+stand?"
+
+The first part of the old man's speech went through the Earl's
+heart like a knife; to the last he answered that he himself had
+heard the clash of swords, and had come down to take order with
+those who had been so insolent so near the Queen's presence.
+
+"Nay, then," said Hunsdon, "I will be glad of your lordship's
+company."
+
+Leicester was thus compelled to turn back with the rough old Lord
+to the Pleasance, where Hunsdon heard from the yeomen of the
+guard, who were under his immediate command, the unsuccessful
+search they had made for the authors of the disturbance; and
+bestowed for their pains some round dozen of curses on them, as
+lazy knaves and blind whoresons.  Leicester also thought it
+necessary to seem angry that no discovery had been effected; but
+at length suggested to Lord Hunsdon, that after all it could only
+be some foolish young men who had been drinking healths pottle-
+deep, and who should be sufficiently scared by the search which
+had taken place after them.  Hunsdon, who was himself attached to
+his cup, allowed that a pint-flagon might cover many of the
+follies which it had caused, "But," added he, "unless your
+lordship will be less liberal in your housekeeping, and restrain
+the overflow of ale, and wine, and wassail, I foresee it will end
+in my having some of these good fellows into the guard-house, and
+treating them to a dose of the strappado.  And with this warning,
+good night to you."
+
+Joyful at being rid of his company, Leicester took leave of him
+at the entrance of his lodging, where they had first met, and
+entering the private passage, took up the lamp which he had left
+there, and by its expiring light found the way to his own
+apartment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+  Room!  room!  for my horse will wince
+  If he comes within so many yards of a prince;
+  For to tell you true, and in rhyme,
+  He was foal'd in Queen Elizabeth's time;
+  When the great Earl of Lester
+  In his castle did feast her.
+                                BEN JONSON, MASQUE OF OWLS.
+
+The amusement with which Elizabeth and her court were next day to
+be regaled was an exhibition by the true-hearted men of Coventry,
+who were to represent the strife between the English and the
+Danes, agreeably to a custom long preserved in their ancient
+borough, and warranted for truth by old histories and chronicles.
+In this pageant one party of the townsfolk presented the Saxons
+and the other the Danes, and set forth, both in rude rhymes and
+with hard blows, the contentions of these two fierce nations, and
+the Amazonian courage of the English women, who, according to the
+story, were the principal agents in the general massacre of the
+Danes, which took place at Hocktide, in the year of God 1012.
+This sport, which had been long a favourite pastime with the men
+of Coventry, had, it seems, been put down by the influence of
+some zealous clergymen of the more precise cast, who chanced to
+have considerable influence with the magistrates.  But the
+generality of the inhabitants had petitioned the Queen that they
+might have their play again, and be honoured with permission to
+represent it before her Highness.  And when the matter was
+canvassed in the little council which usually attended the Queen
+for dispatch of business, the proposal, although opposed by some
+of the stricter sort, found favour in the eyes of Elizabeth, who
+said that such toys occupied, without offence, the minds of many
+who, lacking them, might find worse subjects of pastime; and that
+their pastors, however commendable for learning and godliness,
+were somewhat too sour in preaching against the pastimes of their
+flocks and so the pageant was permitted to proceed.
+
+Accordingly, after a morning repast, which Master Laneham calls
+an ambrosial breakfast, the principal persons of the court in
+attendance upon her Majesty pressed to the Gallery-tower, to
+witness the approach of the two contending parties of English and
+Danes; and after a signal had been given, the gate which opened
+in the circuit of the Chase was thrown wide to admit them.  On
+they came, foot and horse; for some of the more ambitious
+burghers and yeomen had put themselves into fantastic dresses,
+imitating knights, in order to resemble the chivalry of the two
+different nations.  However, to prevent fatal accidents, they
+were not permitted to appear on real horses, but had only license
+to accoutre themselves with those hobby-horses, as they are
+called, which anciently formed the chief delight of a morrice-
+dance, and which still are exhibited on the stage, in the grand
+battle fought at the conclusion of Mr. Bayes's tragedy.  The
+infantry followed in similar disguises.  The whole exhibition was
+to be considered as a sort of anti-masque, or burlesque of the
+more stately pageants in which the nobility and gentry bore part
+in the show, and, to the best of their knowledge, imitated with
+accuracy the personages whom they represented.  The Hocktide play
+was of a different character, the actors being persons of
+inferior degree, and their habits the better fitted for the
+occasion, the more incongruous and ridiculous that they were in
+themselves.  Accordingly their array, which the progress of our
+tale allows us no time to describe, was ludicrous enough; and
+their weapons, though sufficiently formidable to deal sound
+blows, were long alder-poles instead of lances, and sound cudgels
+for swords; and for fence, both cavalry and infantry were well
+equipped with stout headpieces and targets, both made of thick
+leather.
+
+Captain Coxe, that celebrated humorist of Coventry, whose library
+of ballads, almanacs, and penny histories, fairly wrapped up in
+parchment, and tied round for security with a piece of whipcord,
+remains still the envy of antiquaries, being himself the
+ingenious person under whose direction the pageant had been set
+forth, rode valiantly on his hobby-horse before the bands of
+English, high-trussed, saith Laneham, and brandishing his long
+sword, as became an experienced man of war, who had fought under
+the Queen's father, bluff King Henry, at the siege of Boulogne.
+This chieftain was, as right and reason craved, the first to
+enter the lists, and passing the Gallery at the head of his
+myrmidons, kissed the hilt of his sword to the Queen, and
+executed at the same time a gambade, the like whereof had never
+been practised by two-legged hobby-horse.  Then passing on with
+all his followers of cavaliers and infantry, he drew them up with
+martial skill at the opposite extremity of the bridge, or tilt-
+yard, until his antagonist should be fairly prepared for the
+onset.
+
+This was no long interval; for the Danish cavalry and infantry,
+no way inferior to the English in number, valour, and equipment,
+instantly arrived, with the northern bagpipe blowing before them
+in token of their country, and headed by a cunning master of
+defence, only inferior to the renowned Captain Coxe, if to him,
+in the discipline of war.  The Danes, as invaders, took their
+station under the Gallery-tower, and opposite to that of
+Mortimer; and when their arrangements were completely made, a
+signal was given for the encounter.
+
+Their first charge upon each other was rather moderate, for
+either party had some dread of being forced into the lake.  But
+as reinforcements came up on either side, the encounter grew from
+a skirmish into a blazing battle.  They rushed upon one another,
+as Master Laneham testifies, like rams inflamed by jealousy, with
+such furious encounter that both parties were often overthrown,
+and the clubs and targets made a most horrible clatter.  In many
+instances that happened which had been dreaded by the more
+experienced warriors who began the day of strife.  The rails
+which defended the ledges of the bridge had been, perhaps on
+purpose, left but slightly fastened, and gave way under the
+pressure of those who thronged to the combat, so that the hot
+courage of many of the combatants received a sufficient cooling.
+These incidents might have occasioned more serious damage than
+became such an affray, for many of the champions who met with
+this mischance could not swim, and those who could were
+encumbered with their suits of leathern and of paper armour; but
+the case had been provided for, and there were several boats in
+readiness to pick up the unfortunate warriors and convey them to
+the dry land, where, dripping and dejected, they comforted
+themselves with the hot ale and strong waters which were
+liberally allowed to them, without showing any desire to re-enter
+so desperate a conflict.
+
+Captain Coxe alone, that paragon of Black-Letter antiquaries,
+after twice experiencing, horse and man, the perilous leap from
+the bridge into the lake, equal to any extremity to which the
+favourite heroes of chivalry, whose exploits he studied in an
+abridged form, whether Amadis, Belianis, Bevis, or his own Guy of
+Warwick, had ever been subjected to--Captain Coxe, we repeat, did
+alone, after two such mischances, rush again into the heat of
+conflict, his bases and the footcloth of his hobby-horse dropping
+water, and twice reanimated by voice and example the drooping
+spirits of the English; so that at last their victory over the
+Danish invaders became, as was just and reasonable, complete and
+decisive.  Worthy he was to be rendered immortal by the pen of
+Ben Jonson, who, fifty years afterwards, deemed that a masque,
+exhibited at Kenilworth, could be ushered in by none with so much
+propriety as by the ghost of Captain Coxe, mounted upon his
+redoubted hobby-horse.
+
+These rough, rural gambols may not altogether agree with the
+reader's preconceived idea of an entertainment presented before
+Elizabeth, in whose reign letters revived with such brilliancy,
+and whose court, governed by a female whose sense of propriety
+was equal to her strength of mind, was no less distinguished for
+delicacy and refinement than her councils for wisdom and
+fortitude.  But whether from the political wish to seem
+interested in popular sports, or whether from a spark of old
+Henry's rough, masculine spirit, which Elizabeth sometimes
+displayed, it is certain the Queen laughed heartily at the
+imitation, or rather burlesque, of chivalry which was presented
+in the Coventry play.  She called near her person the Earl of
+Sussex and Lord Hunsdon, partly perhaps to make amends to the
+former for the long and private audiences with which she had
+indulged the Earl of Leicester, by engaging him in conversation
+upon a pastime which better suited his taste than those pageants
+that were furnished forth from the stores of antiquity.  The
+disposition which the Queen showed to laugh and jest with her
+military leaders gave the Earl of Leicester the opportunity he
+had been watching for withdrawing from the royal presence, which
+to the court around, so well had he chosen his time, had the
+graceful appearance of leaving his rival free access to the
+Queen's person, instead of availing himself of his right as her
+landlord to stand perpetually betwixt others and the light of her
+countenance.
+
+Leicester's thoughts, however, had a far different object from
+mere courtesy; for no sooner did he see the Queen fairly engaged
+in conversation with Sussex and Hunsdon, behind whose back stood
+Sir Nicholas Blount, grinning from ear to ear at each word which
+was spoken, than, making a sign to Tressilian, who, according to
+appointment, watched his motions at a little distance, he
+extricated himself from the press, and walking towards the Chase,
+made his way through the crowds of ordinary spectators, who, with
+open mouth, stood gazing on the battle of the English and the
+Danes.  When he had accomplished this, which was a work of some
+difficulty, he shot another glance behind him to see that
+Tressilian had been equally successful; and as soon as he saw him
+also free from the crowd, he led the way to a small thicket,
+behind which stood a lackey, with two horses ready saddled.  He
+flung himself on the one, and made signs to Tressilian to mount
+the other, who obeyed without speaking a single word.
+
+Leicester then spurred his horse, and galloped without stopping
+until he reached a sequestered spot, environed by lofty oaks,
+about a mile's distance from the Castle, and in an opposite
+direction from the scene to which curiosity was drawing every
+spectator.  He there dismounted, bound his horse to a tree, and
+only pronouncing the words, "Here there is no risk of
+interruption," laid his cloak across his saddle, and drew his
+sword.
+
+Tressilian imitated his example punctually, yet could not forbear
+saying, as he drew his weapon, "My lord, as I have been known to
+many as one who does not fear death when placed in balance with
+honour, methinks I may, without derogation, ask wherefore, in the
+name of all that is honourable, your lordship has dared to offer
+me such a mark of disgrace as places us on these terms with
+respect to each other?"
+
+"If you like not such marks of my scorn," replied the Earl,
+"betake yourself instantly to your weapon, lest I repeat the
+usage you complain of."
+
+"It shall not need, my lord," said Tressilian.  "God judge
+betwixt us!  and your blood, if you fall, be on your own head."
+
+He had scarce completed the sentence when they instantly closed
+in combat.
+
+But Leicester, who was a perfect master of defence among all
+other exterior accomplishments of the time, had seen on the
+preceding night enough of Tressilian's strength and skill to make
+him fight with more caution than heretofore, and prefer a secure
+revenge to a hasty one.  For some minutes they fought with equal
+skill and fortune, till, in a desperate lunge which Leicester
+successfully put aside, Tressilian exposed himself at
+disadvantage; and in a subsequent attempt to close, the Earl
+forced his sword from his hand, and stretched him on the ground.
+With a grim smile he held the point of his rapier within two
+inches of the throat of his fallen adversary, and placing his
+foot at the same time upon his breast, bid him confess his
+villainous wrongs towards him, and prepare for death.
+
+"I have no villainy nor wrong towards thee to confess," answered
+Tressilian, "and am better prepared for death than thou.  Use
+thine advantage as thou wilt, and may God forgive you!  I have
+given you no cause for this."
+
+"No cause!"  exclaimed the Earl, "no cause!--but why parley with
+such a slave?  Die a liar, as thou hast lived!"
+
+He had withdrawn his arm for the purpose of striking the fatal
+blow, when it was suddenly seized from behind.
+
+The Earl turned in wrath to shake off the unexpected obstacle,
+but was surprised to find that a strange-looking boy had hold of
+his sword-arm, and clung to it with such tenacity of grasp that
+he could not shake him of without a considerable struggle, in the
+course of which Tressilian had opportunity to rise and possess
+himself once more of his weapon.  Leicester again turned towards
+him with looks of unabated ferocity, and the combat would have
+recommenced with still more desperation on both sides, had not
+the boy clung to Lord Leicester's knees, and in a shrill tone
+implored him to listen one moment ere he prosecuted this quarrel.
+
+"Stand up, and let me go," said Leicester, "or, by Heaven, I will
+pierce thee with my rapier!  What hast thou to do to bar my way
+to revenge?"
+
+"Much--much!"  exclaimed the undaunted boy, "since my folly has
+been the cause of these bloody quarrels between you, and
+perchance of worse evils.  Oh, if you would ever again enjoy the
+peace of an innocent mind, if you hope again to sleep in peace
+and unhaunted by remorse, take so much leisure as to peruse this
+letter, and then do as you list."
+
+While he spoke in this eager and earnest manner, to which his
+singular features and voice gave a goblin-like effect, he held up
+to Leicester a packet, secured with a long tress of woman's hair
+of a beautiful light-brown colour.  Enraged as he was, nay,
+almost blinded with fury to see his destined revenge so strangely
+frustrated, the Earl of Leicester could not resist this
+extraordinary supplicant.  He snatched the letter from his hand--
+changed colour as he looked on the superscription--undid with
+faltering hand the knot which secured it--glanced over the
+contents, and staggering back, would have fallen, had he not
+rested against the trunk of a tree, where he stood for an
+instant, his eyes bent on the letter, and his sword-point turned
+to the ground, without seeming to be conscious of the presence of
+an antagonist towards whom he had shown little mercy, and who
+might in turn have taken him at advantage.  But for such revenge
+Tressilian was too noble-minded.  He also stood still in
+surprise, waiting the issue of this strange fit of passion, but
+holding his weapon ready to defend himself in case of need
+against some new and sudden attack on the part of Leicester, whom
+he again suspected to be under the influence of actual frenzy.
+The boy, indeed, he easily recognized as his old acquaintance
+Dickon, whose face, once seen, was scarcely to be forgotten; but
+how he came hither at so critical a moment, why his interference
+was so energetic, and, above all, how it came to produce so
+powerful an effect upon Leicester, were questions which he could
+not solve.
+
+But the letter was of itself powerful enough to work effects yet
+more wonderful.  It was that which the unfortunate Amy had
+written to her husband, in which she alleged the reasons and
+manner of her flight from Cumnor Place, informed him of her
+having made her way to Kenilworth to enjoy his protection, and
+mentioned the circumstances which had compelled her to take
+refuge in Tressilian's apartment, earnestly requesting he would,
+without delay, assign her a more suitable asylum.  The letter
+concluded with the most earnest expressions of devoted attachment
+and submission to his will in all things, and particularly
+respecting her situation and place of residence, conjuring him
+only that she might not be placed under the guardianship or
+restraint of Varney.  The letter dropped from Leicester's hand
+when he had perused it.  "Take my sword," he said, "Tressilian,
+and pierce my heart, as I would but now have pierced yours!"
+
+"My lord," said Tressilian, "you have done me great wrong, but
+something within my breast ever whispered that it was by
+egregious error."
+
+"Error, indeed!"  said Leicester, and handed him the letter; "I
+have been made to believe a man of honour a villain, and the best
+and purest of creatures a false profligate.--Wretched boy, why
+comes this letter now, and where has the bearer lingered?"
+
+"I dare not tell you, my lord," said the boy, withdrawing, as if
+to keep beyond his reach; "but here comes one who was the
+messenger."
+
+Wayland at the same moment came up; and interrogated by
+Leicester, hastily detailed all the circumstances of his escape
+with Amy, the fatal practices which had driven her to flight, and
+her anxious desire to throw herself under the instant protection
+of her husband--pointing out the evidence of the domestics of
+Kenilworth, "who could not," he observed, "but remember her eager
+inquiries after the Earl of Leicester on her first arrival."
+
+"The villains!"  exclaimed Leicester; "but oh, that worst of
+villains, Varney!--and she is even now in his power!"
+
+"But not, I trust in God," said Tressilian, "with any commands of
+fatal import?"
+
+"No, no, no!"  exclaimed the Earl hastily.  "I said something in
+madness; but it was recalled, fully recalled, by a hasty
+messenger, and she is now--she must now be safe."
+
+"Yes," said Tressilian," she MUST be safe, and I MUST be assured
+of her safety.  My own quarrel with you is ended, my lord; but
+there is another to begin with the seducer of Amy Robsart, who
+has screened his guilt under the cloak of the infamous Varney."
+
+"The SEDUCER of Amy!"  replied Leicester, with a voice like
+thunder; "say her husband!--her misguided, blinded, most unworthy
+husband!  She is as surely Countess of Leicester as I am belted
+Earl.  Nor can you, sir, point out that manner of justice which I
+will not render her at my own free will.  I need scarce say I
+fear not your compulsion."
+
+The generous nature of Tressilian was instantly turned from
+consideration of anything personal to himself, and centred at
+once upon Amy's welfare.  He had by no means undoubting
+confidence in the fluctuating resolutions of Leicester, whose
+mind seemed to him agitated beyond the government of calm reason;
+neither did he, notwithstanding the assurances he had received,
+think Amy safe in the hands of his dependants.  "My lord," he
+said calmly, "I mean you no offence, and am far from seeking a
+quarrel.  But my duty to Sir Hugh Robsart compels me to carry
+this matter instantly to the Queen, that the Countess's rank may
+be acknowledged in her person."
+
+"You shall not need, sir," replied the Earl haughtily; "do not
+dare to interfere.  No voice but Dudley's shall proclaim Dudley's
+infamy.  To Elizabeth herself will I tell it; and then for Cumnor
+Place with the speed of life and death!"
+
+So saying, he unbound his horse from the tree, threw himself into
+the saddle, and rode at full gallop towards the Castle.
+
+"Take me before you, Master Tressilian," said the boy, seeing
+Tressilian mount in the same haste; "my tale is not all told out,
+and I need your protection."
+
+Tressilian complied, and followed the Earl, though at a less
+furious rate.  By the way the boy confessed, with much
+contrition, that in resentment at Wayland's evading all his
+inquiries concerning the lady, after Dickon conceived he had in
+various ways merited his confidence, he had purloined from him in
+revenge the letter with which Amy had entrusted him for the Earl
+of Leicester.  His purpose was to have restored it to him that
+evening, as he reckoned himself sure of meeting with him, in
+consequence of Wayland's having to perform the part of Arion in
+the pageant.  He was indeed something alarmed when he saw to whom
+the letter was addressed; but he argued that, as Leicester did
+not return to Kenilworth until that evening, it would be again in
+the possession of the proper messenger as soon as, in the nature
+of things, it could possibly be delivered.  But Wayland came not
+to the pageant, having been in the interim expelled by Lambourne
+from the Castle; and the boy, not being able to find him, or to
+get speech of Tressilian, and finding himself in possession of a
+letter addressed to no less a person than the Earl of Leicester,
+became much afraid of the consequences of his frolic.  The
+caution, and indeed the alarm, which Wayland had expressed
+respecting Varney and Lambourne, led him to judge that the letter
+must be designed for the Earl's own hand, and that he might
+prejudice the lady by giving it to any of the domestics.  He made
+an attempt or two to obtain an audience of Leicester; but the
+singularity of his features and the meanness of his appearance
+occasioned his being always repulsed by the insolent menials whom
+he applied to for that purpose.  Once, indeed, he had nearly
+succeeded, when, in prowling about, he found in the grotto the
+casket, which he knew to belong to the unlucky Countess, having
+seen it on her journey; for nothing escaped his prying eye.
+Having striven in vain to restore it either to Tressilian or the
+Countess, he put it into the hands, as we have seen, of Leicester
+himself, but unfortunately he did not recognize him in his
+disguise.
+
+At length the boy thought he was on the point of succeeding when
+the Earl came down to the lower part of the hall; but just as he
+was about to accost him, he was prevented by Tressilian.  As
+sharp in ear as in wit, the boy heard the appointment settled
+betwixt them, to take place in the Pleasance, and resolved to add
+a third to the party, in hope that, either in coming or
+returning, he might find an opportunity of delivering the letter
+to Leicester; for strange stories began to flit among the
+domestics, which alarmed him for the lady's safety.  Accident,
+however, detained Dickon a little behind the Earl, and as he
+reached the arcade he saw them engaged in combat; in consequence
+of which he hastened to alarm the guard, having little doubt that
+what bloodshed took place betwixt them might arise out of his own
+frolic.  Continuing to lurk in the portico, he heard the second
+appointment which Leicester at parting assigned to Tressilian;
+and was keeping them in view during the encounter of the Coventry
+men, when, to his surprise, he recognized Wayland in the crowd,
+much disguised, indeed, but not sufficiently so to escape the
+prying glance of his old comrade.  They drew aside out of the
+crowd to explain their situation to each other.  The boy
+confessed to Wayland what we have above told; and the artist, in
+return, informed him that his deep anxiety for the fate of the
+unfortunate lady had brought him back to the neighbourhood of the
+Castle, upon his learning that morning, at a village about ten
+miles distant, that Varney and Lambourne, whose violence he
+dreaded, had both left Kenilworth over-night.
+
+While they spoke, they saw Leicester and Tressilian separate
+themselves from the crowd, dogged them until they mounted their
+horses, when the boy, whose speed of foot has been before
+mentioned, though he could not possibly keep up with them, yet
+arrived, as we have seen, soon enough to save Tressilian's life.
+The boy had just finished his tale when they arrived at the
+Gallery-tower.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+  High o'er the eastern steep the sun is beaming,
+  And darkness flies with her deceitful shadows;--
+  So truth prevails o'er falsehood.       OLD PLAY.
+
+As Tressilian rode along the bridge, lately the scene of so much
+riotous sport, he could not but observe that men's countenances
+had singularly changed during the space of his brief absence.
+The mock fight was over, but the men, still habited in their
+masking suits, stood together in groups, like the inhabitants of
+a city who have been just startled by some strange and alarming
+news.
+
+When he reached the base-court, appearances were the same--
+domestics, retainers, and under-officers stood together and
+whispered, bending their eyes towards the windows of the Great
+Hall, with looks which seemed at once alarmed and mysterious.
+
+Sir Nicholas Blount was the first person of his own particular
+acquaintance Tressilian saw, who left him no time to make
+inquiries, but greeted him with, "God help thy heart, Tressilian!
+thou art fitter for a clown than a courtier thou canst not
+attend, as becomes one who follows her Majesty.  Here you are
+called for, wished for, waited for--no man but you will serve the
+turn; and hither you come with a misbegotten brat on thy horse's
+neck, as if thou wert dry nurse to some sucking devil, and wert
+just returned from airing."
+
+"Why, what is the matter?"  said Tressilian, letting go the boy,
+who sprung to ground like a feather, and himself dismounting at
+the same time.
+
+"Why, no one knows the matter," replied Blount; "I cannot smell
+it out myself, though I have a nose like other courtiers.  Only,
+my Lord of Leicester has galloped along the bridge as if he would
+have rode over all in his passage, demanded an audience of the
+Queen, and is closeted even now with her, and Burleigh and
+Walsingham--and you are called for; but whether the matter be
+treason or worse, no one knows."
+
+"He speaks true, by Heaven!"  said Raleigh, who that instant
+appeared; "you must immediately to the Queen's presence."
+
+"Be not rash, Raleigh," said Blount, "remember his boots.--For
+Heaven's sake, go to my chamber, dear Tressilian, and don my new
+bloom-coloured silken hose; I have worn them but twice."
+
+"Pshaw!"  answered Tressilian; "do thou take care of this boy,
+Blount; be kind to him, and look he escapes you not--much depends
+on him."
+
+So saying, he followed Raleigh hastily, leaving honest Blount
+with the bridle of his horse in one hand, and the boy in the
+other.  Blount gave a long look after him.
+
+"Nobody," he said, "calls me to these mysteries--and he leaves me
+here to play horse-keeper and child-keeper at once.  I could
+excuse the one, for I love a good horse naturally; but to be
+plagued with a bratchet whelp.--Whence come ye, my fair-favoured
+little gossip?"
+
+"From the Fens," answered the boy.
+
+"And what didst thou learn there, forward imp?"
+
+"To catch gulls, with their webbed feet and yellow stockings,"
+said the boy.
+
+"Umph!"  said Blount, looking down on his own immense roses.
+"Nay, then, the devil take him asks thee more questions."
+
+Meantime Tressilian traversed the full length of the Great Hall,
+in which the astonished courtiers formed various groups, and were
+whispering mysteriously together, while all kept their eyes fixed
+on the door which led from the upper end of the hall into the
+Queen's withdrawing apartment.  Raleigh pointed to the door.
+Tressilian knocked, and was instantly admitted.  Many a neck was
+stretched to gain a view into the interior of the apartment; but
+the tapestry which covered the door on the inside was dropped too
+suddenly to admit the slightest gratification of curiosity.
+
+Upon entrance, Tressilian found himself, not without a strong
+palpitation of heart, in the presence of Elizabeth, who was
+walking to and fro in a violent agitation, which she seemed to
+scorn to conceal, while two or three of her most sage and
+confidential counsellors exchanged anxious looks with each other,
+but delayed speaking till her wrath abated.  Before the empty
+chair of state in which she had been seated, and which was half
+pushed aside by the violence with which she had started from it,
+knelt Leicester, his arms crossed, and his brows bent on the
+ground, still and motionless as the effigies upon a sepulchre.
+Beside him stood the Lord Shrewsbury, then Earl Marshal of
+England, holding his baton of office.  The Earl's sword was
+unbuckled, and lay before him on the floor.
+
+"Ho, sir!"  said the Queen, coming close up to Tressilian, and
+stamping on the floor with the action and manner of Henry
+himself; "you knew of this fair work--you are an accomplice in
+this deception which has been practised on us--you have been a
+main cause of our doing injustice?"  Tressilian dropped on his
+knee before the Queen, his good sense showing him the risk of
+attempting any defence at that moment of irritation.  "Art dumb,
+sirrah?"  she continued; "thou knowest of this affair dost thou
+not?"
+
+"Not, gracious madam, that this poor lady was Countess of
+Leicester."
+
+"Nor shall any one know her for such," said Elizabeth.  "Death of
+my life!  Countess of Leicester!--I say Dame Amy Dudley; and well
+if she have not cause to write herself widow of the traitor
+Robert Dudley."
+
+"Madam," said Leicester, "do with me what it may be your will to
+do, but work no injury on this gentleman; he hath in no way
+deserved it."
+
+"And will he be the better for thy intercession," said the Queen,
+leaving Tressilian, who slowly arose, and rushing to Leicester,
+who continued kneeling--"the better for thy intercession, thou
+doubly false--thou doubly forsworn;--of thy intercession, whose
+villainy hath made me ridiculous to my subjects and odious to
+myself?  I could tear out mine eyes for their blindness!"
+
+Burleigh here ventured to interpose.
+
+"Madam," he said, "remember that you are a Queen--Queen of
+England--mother of your people.  Give not way to this wild storm
+of passion."
+
+Elizabeth turned round to him, while a tear actually twinkled in
+her proud and angry eye.  "Burleigh," she said, "thou art a
+statesman--thou dost not, thou canst not, comprehend half the
+scorn, half the misery, that man has poured on me!"
+
+With the utmost caution--with the deepest reverence--Burleigh
+took her hand at the moment he saw her heart was at the fullest,
+and led her aside to an oriel window, apart from the others.
+
+"Madam," he said, "I am a statesman, but I am also a man--a man
+already grown old in your councils--who have not and cannot have
+a wish on earth but your glory and happiness; I pray you to be
+composed."
+
+"Ah!  Burleigh," said Elizabeth, "thou little knowest--" here her
+tears fell over her cheeks in despite of her.
+
+"I do--I do know, my honoured sovereign.  Oh, beware that you
+lead not others to guess that which they know not!"
+
+"Ha!"  said Elizabeth, pausing as if a new train of thought had
+suddenly shot across her brain.  "Burleigh, thou art right--thou
+art right--anything but disgrace--anything but a confession of
+weakness--anything rather than seem the cheated, slighted--
+'sdeath!  to think on it is distraction!"
+
+"Be but yourself, my Queen," said Burleigh; "and soar far above a
+weakness which no Englishman will ever believe his Elizabeth
+could have entertained, unless the violence of her disappointment
+carries a sad conviction to his bosom."
+
+"What weakness, my lord?"  said Elizabeth haughtily; "would you
+too insinuate that the favour in which I held yonder proud
+traitor derived its source from aught--"  But here she could no
+longer sustain the proud tone which she had assumed, and again
+softened as she said, "But why should I strive to deceive even
+thee, my good and wise servant?"
+
+Burleigh stooped to kiss her hand with affection, and--rare in
+the annals of courts--a tear of true sympathy dropped from the
+eye of the minister on the hand of his Sovereign.
+
+It is probable that the consciousness of possessing this sympathy
+aided Elizabeth in supporting her mortification, and suppressing
+her extreme resentment; but she was still more moved by fear that
+her passion should betray to the public the affront and the
+disappointment, which, alike as a woman and a Queen, she was so
+anxious to conceal.  She turned from Burleigh, and sternly paced
+the hall till her features had recovered their usual dignity, and
+her mien its wonted stateliness of regular motion.
+
+"Our Sovereign is her noble self once more," whispered Burleigh
+to Walsingham; "mark what she does, and take heed you thwart her
+not."
+
+She then approached Leicester, and said with calmness, "My Lord
+Shrewsbury, we discharge you of your prisoner.--My Lord of
+Leicester, rise and take up your sword; a quarter of an hour's
+restraint under the custody of our Marshal, my lord, is, we
+think, no high penance for months of falsehood practised upon us.
+We will now hear the progress of this affair."  She then seated
+herself in her chair, and said, "You, Tressilian, step forward,
+and say what you know."
+
+Tressilian told his story generously, suppressing as much as he
+could what affected Leicester, and saying nothing of their having
+twice actually fought together.  It is very probable that, in
+doing so, he did the Earl good service; for had the Queen at that
+instant found anything on account of which she could vent her
+wrath upon him, without laying open sentiments of which she was
+ashamed, it might have fared hard with him.  She paused when
+Tressilian had finished his tale.
+
+"We will take that Wayland," she said, "into our own service, and
+place the boy in our Secretary office for instruction, that he
+may in future use discretion towards letters.  For you,
+Tressilian, you did wrong in not communicating the whole truth to
+us, and your promise not to do so was both imprudent and
+undutiful.  Yet, having given your word to this unhappy lady, it
+was the part of a man and a gentleman to keep it; and on the
+whole, we esteem you for the character you have sustained in this
+matter.--My Lord of Leicester, it is now your turn to tell us the
+truth, an exercise to which you seem of late to have been too
+much a stranger."
+
+Accordingly, she extorted, by successive questions, the whole
+history of his first acquaintance with Amy Robsart--their
+marriage--his jealousy--the causes on which it was founded, and
+many particulars besides.  Leicester's confession, for such it
+might be called, was wrenched from him piecemeal, yet was upon
+the whole accurate, excepting that he totally omitted to mention
+that he had, by implication or otherwise, assented to Varney's
+designs upon the life of his Countess.  Yet the consciousness of
+this was what at that moment lay nearest to his heart; and
+although he trusted in great measure to the very positive
+counter-orders which he had sent by Lambourne, it was his purpose
+to set out for Cumnor Place in person as soon as he should be
+dismissed from the presence of the Queen, who, he concluded,
+would presently leave Kenilworth.
+
+But the Earl reckoned without his host.  It is true his presence
+and his communications were gall and wormwood to his once partial
+mistress.  But barred from every other and more direct mode of
+revenge, the Queen perceived that she gave her false suitor
+torture by these inquiries, and dwelt on them for that reason, no
+more regarding the pain which she herself experienced, than the
+savage cares for the searing of his own hands by grasping the hot
+pincers with which he tears the flesh of his captive enemy.
+
+At length, however, the haughty lord, like a deer that turns to
+bay, gave intimation that his patience was failing.  "Madam," he
+said, "I have been much to blame--more than even your just
+resentment has expressed.  Yet, madam, let me say that my guilt,
+if it be unpardonable, was not unprovoked, and that if beauty and
+condescending dignity could seduce the frail heart of a human
+being, I might plead both as the causes of my concealing this
+secret from your Majesty."
+
+The Queen was so much struck with this reply, which Leicester
+took care should be heard by no one but herself, that she was for
+the moment silenced, and the Earl had the temerity to pursue his
+advantage.  "Your Grace, who has pardoned so much, will excuse my
+throwing myself on your royal mercy for those expressions which
+were yester-morning accounted but a light offence."
+
+The Queen fixed her eyes on him while she replied, "Now, by
+Heaven, my lord, thy effrontery passes the bounds of belief, as
+well as patience!  But it shall avail thee nothing.--What ho!  my
+lords, come all and hear the news-my Lord of Leicester's stolen
+marriage has cost me a husband, and England a king.  His lordship
+is patriarchal in his tastes--one wife at a time was
+insufficient, and he designed US the honour of his left hand.
+Now, is not this too insolent--that I could not grace him with a
+few marks of court-favour, but he must presume to think my hand
+and crown at his disposal?  You, however, think better of me; and
+I can pity this ambitious man, as I could a child, whose bubble
+of soap has burst between his hands.  We go to the presence-
+chamber.--My Lord of Leicester, we command your close attendance
+on us."
+
+All was eager expectation in the hall, and what was the universal
+astonishment when the Queen said to those next her, "The revels
+of Kenilworth are not yet exhausted, my lords and ladies--we are
+to solemnize the noble owner's marriage."
+
+There was an universal expression of surprise.
+
+"It is true, on our royal word," said the Queen; "he hath kept
+this a secret even from us, that he might surprise us with it at
+this very place and time.  I see you are dying of curiosity to
+know the happy bride.  It is Amy Robsart, the same who, to make
+up the May-game yesterday, figured in the pageant as the wife of
+his servant Varney."
+
+"For God's sake, madam," said the Earl, approaching her with a
+mixture of humility, vexation, and shame in his countenance, and
+speaking so low as to be heard by no one else, "take my head, as
+you threatened in your anger, and spare me these taunts!  Urge
+not a falling man--tread not on a crushed worm."
+
+"A worm, my lord?"  said the Queen, in the same tone; "nay, a
+snake is the nobler reptile, and the more exact similitude--the
+frozen snake you wot of, which was warmed in a certain bosom--"
+
+"For your own sake--for mine, madam," said the Earl--"while there
+is yet some reason left in me--"
+
+"Speak aloud, my lord," said Elizabeth, "and at farther distance,
+so please you--your breath thaws our ruff.  What have you to ask
+of us?"
+
+"Permission," said the unfortunate Earl humbly, "to travel to
+Cumnor Place."
+
+"To fetch home your bride belike?--Why, ay--that is but right,
+for, as we have heard, she is indifferently cared for there.
+But, my lord, you go not in person; we have counted upon passing
+certain days in this Castle of Kenilworth, and it were slight
+courtesy to leave us without a landlord during our residence
+here.  Under your favour, we cannot think to incur such disgrace
+in the eyes of our subjects.  Tressilian shall go to Cumnor Place
+instead of you, and with him some gentleman who hath been sworn
+of our chamber, lest my Lord of Leicester should be again jealous
+of his old rival.--Whom wouldst thou have to be in commission
+with thee, Tressilian?"
+
+Tressilian, with humble deference, suggested the name of Raleigh.
+
+"Why, ay," said the Queen; "so God ha' me, thou hast made a good
+choice.  He is a young knight besides, and to deliver a lady from
+prison is an appropriate first adventure.--Cumnor Place is little
+better than a prison, you are to know, my lords and ladies.
+Besides, there are certain faitours there whom we would willingly
+have in safe keeping.  You will furnish them, Master Secretary,
+with the warrant necessary to secure the bodies of Richard Varney
+and the foreign Alasco, dead or alive.  Take a sufficient force
+with you, gentlemen--bring the lady here in all honour--lose no
+time, and God be with you!"
+
+They bowed, and left the presence,
+
+Who shall describe how the rest of that day was spent at
+Kenilworth?  The Queen, who seemed to have remained there for the
+sole purpose of mortifying and taunting the Earl of Leicester,
+showed herself as skilful in that female art of vengeance, as she
+was in the science of wisely governing her people.  The train of
+state soon caught the signal, and as he walked among his own
+splendid preparations, the Lord of Kenilworth, in his own Castle,
+already experienced the lot of a disgraced courtier, in the
+slight regard and cold manners of alienated friends, and the ill-
+concealed triumph of avowed and open enemies.  Sussex, from his
+natural military frankness of disposition, Burleigh and
+Walsingham, from their penetrating and prospective sagacity, and
+some of the ladies, from the compassion of their sex, were the
+only persons in the crowded court who retained towards him the
+countenance they had borne in the morning.
+
+So much had Leicester been accustomed to consider court favour as
+the principal object of his life, that all other sensations were,
+for the time, lost in the agony which his haughty spirit felt at
+the succession of petty insults and studied neglects to which he
+had been subjected; but when he retired to his own chamber for
+the night, that long, fair tress of hair which had once secured
+Amy's letter fell under his observation, and, with the influence
+of a counter-charm, awakened his heart to nobler and more natural
+feelings.  He kissed it a thousand times; and while he
+recollected that he had it always in his power to shun the
+mortifications which he had that day undergone, by retiring into
+a dignified and even prince-like seclusion with the beautiful and
+beloved partner of his future life, he felt that he could rise
+above the revenge which Elizabeth had condescended to take.
+
+Accordingly, on the following day the whole conduct of the Earl
+displayed so much dignified equanimity--he seemed so solicitous
+about the accommodations and amusements of his guests, yet so
+indifferent to their personal demeanour towards him--so
+respectfully distant to the Queen, yet so patient of her
+harassing displeasure--that Elizabeth changed her manner to him,
+and, though cold and distant, ceased to offer him any direct
+affront.  She intimated also with some sharpness to others around
+her, who thought they were consulting her pleasure in showing a
+neglectful conduct to the Earl, that while they remained at
+Kenilworth they ought to show the civility due from guests to the
+Lord of the Castle.  In short, matters were so far changed in
+twenty-four hours that some of the more experienced and sagacious
+courtiers foresaw a strong possibility of Leicester's restoration
+to favour, and regulated their demeanour towards him, as those
+who might one day claim merit for not having deserted him in
+adversity.  It is time, however, to leave these intrigues, and
+follow Tressilian and Raleigh on their journey.
+
+The troop consisted of six persons; for, besides Wayland, they
+had in company a royal pursuivant and two stout serving-men.  All
+were well-armed, and travelled as fast as it was possible with
+justice to their horses, which had a long journey before them.
+They endeavoured to procure some tidings as they rode along of
+Varney and his party, but could hear none, as they had travelled
+in the dark.  At a small village about twelve miles from
+Kenilworth, where they gave some refreshment to their horses, a
+poor clergyman, the curate of the place, came out of a small
+cottage, and entreated any of the company who might know aught of
+surgery to look in for an instant on a dying man.
+
+The empiric Wayland undertook to do his best, and as the curate
+conducted him to the spot, he learned that the man had been found
+on the highroad, about a mile from the village, by labourers, as
+they were going to their work on the preceding morning, and the
+curate had given him shelter in his house.  He had received a
+gun-shot wound, which seemed to be obviously mortal; but whether
+in a brawl or from robbers they could not learn, as he was in a
+fever, and spoke nothing connectedly.  Wayland entered the dark
+and lowly apartment, and no sooner had the curate drawn aside the
+curtain than he knew, in the distorted features of the patient,
+the countenance of Michael Lambourne.  Under pretence of seeking
+something which he wanted, Wayland hastily apprised his fellow-
+travellers of this extraordinary circumstance; and both
+Tressilian and Raleigh, full of boding apprehensions, hastened to
+the curate's house to see the dying man.
+
+The wretch was by this time in the agonies of death, from which a
+much better surgeon than Wayland could not have rescued him, for
+the bullet had passed clear through his body.  He was sensible,
+however, at least in part, for he knew Tressilian, and made signs
+that he wished him to stoop over his bed.  Tressilian did so, and
+after some inarticulate murmurs, in which the names of Varney and
+Lady Leicester were alone distinguishable, Lambourne bade him
+"make haste, or he would come too late."  It was in vain
+Tressilian urged the patient for further information; he seemed
+to become in some degree delirious, and when he again made a
+signal to attract Tressilian's attention, it was only for the
+purpose of desiring him to inform his uncle, Giles Gosling of the
+Black Bear, that "he had died without his shoes after all."  A
+convulsion verified his words a few minutes after, and the
+travellers derived nothing from having met with him, saving the
+obscure fears concerning the fate of the Countess, which his
+dying words were calculated to convey, and which induced them to
+urge their journey with the utmost speed, pressing horses in the
+Queen's name when those which they rode became unfit for service.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+  The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,
+   An aerial voice was heard to call,
+  And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing
+   Around the towers of Cumnor Hall.     MICKLE.
+
+We are now to return to that part of our story where we intimated
+that Varney, possessed of the authority of the Earl of Leicester,
+and of the Queen's permission to the same effect, hastened to
+secure himself against discovery of his perfidy by removing the
+Countess from Kenilworth Castle.  He had proposed to set forth
+early in the morning; but reflecting that the Earl might relent
+in the interim, and seek another interview with the Countess, he
+resolved to prevent, by immediate departure, all chance of what
+would probably have ended in his detection and ruin.  For this
+purpose he called for Lambourne, and was exceedingly incensed to
+find that his trusty attendant was abroad on some ramble in the
+neighbouring village, or elsewhere.  As his return was expected,
+Sir Richard commanded that he should prepare himself for
+attending him on an immediate journey, and follow him in case he
+returned after his departure.
+
+In the meanwhile, Varney used the ministry of a servant called
+Robin Tider, one to whom the mysteries of Cumnor Place were
+already in some degree known, as he had been there more than once
+in attendance on the Earl.  To this man, whose character
+resembled that of Lambourne, though he was neither quite so
+prompt nor altogether so profligate, Varney gave command to have
+three horses saddled, and to prepare a horse-litter, and have
+them in readiness at the postern gate.  The natural enough excuse
+of his lady's insanity, which was now universally believed,
+accounted for the secrecy with which she was to be removed from
+the Castle, and he reckoned on the same apology in case the
+unfortunate Amy's resistance or screams should render such
+necessary.  The agency of Anthony Foster was indispensable, and
+that Varney now went to secure.
+
+This person, naturally of a sour, unsocial disposition, and
+somewhat tired, besides, with his journey from Cumnor to
+Warwickshire, in order to bring the news of the Countess's
+escape, had early extricated himself from the crowd of
+wassailers, and betaken himself to his chamber, where he lay
+asleep, when Varney, completely equipped for travelling, and with
+a dark lantern in his hand, entered his apartment.  He paused an
+instant to listen to what his associate was murmuring in his
+sleep, and could plainly distinguish the words, "AVE MARIA--ORA
+PRO NOBIS.  No, it runs not so--deliver us from evil--ay, so it
+goes."
+
+"Praying in his sleep," said Varney, "and confounding his old and
+new devotions.  He must have more need of prayer ere I am done
+with him.--What ho!  holy man, most blessed penitent!--awake--
+awake!  The devil has not discharged you from service yet."
+
+As Varney at the same time shook the sleeper by the arm, it
+changed the current of his ideas, and he roared out, "Thieves!--
+thieves!  I will die in defence of my gold--my hard-won gold--
+that has cost me so dear.  Where is Janet?--Is Janet safe?"
+
+"Safe enough, thou bellowing fool!"  said Varney; "art thou not
+ashamed of thy clamour?"
+
+Foster by this time was broad awake, and sitting up in his bed,
+asked Varney the meaning of so untimely a visit.  "It augurs
+nothing good," he added.
+
+"A false prophecy, most sainted Anthony," returned Varney; "it
+augurs that the hour is come for converting thy leasehold into
+copyhold.  What sayest thou to that?"
+
+"Hadst thou told me this in broad day," said Foster, "I had
+rejoiced; but at this dead hour, and by this dim light, and
+looking on thy pale face, which is a ghastly contradiction to thy
+light words, I cannot but rather think of the work that is to be
+done, than the guerdon to be gained by it."
+
+"Why, thou fool, it is but to escort thy charge back to Cumnor
+Place."
+
+"Is that indeed all?"  said Foster; "thou lookest deadly pale,
+and thou art not moved by trifles--is that indeed all?"
+
+"Ay, that--and maybe a trifle more," said Varney.
+
+"Ah, that trifle more!"  said Foster; "still thou lookest paler
+and paler."
+
+"Heed not my countenance," said Varney; "you see it by this
+wretched light.  Up and be doing, man.  Think of Cumnor Place--
+thine own proper copyhold.  Why, thou mayest found a weekly
+lectureship, besides endowing Janet like a baron's daughter.
+Seventy pounds and odd."
+
+"Seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and fivepence half-penny,
+besides the value of the wood," said Foster; "and I am to have it
+all as copyhold?"
+
+"All, man--squirrels and all.  No gipsy shall cut the value of a
+broom--no boy so much as take a bird's nest--without paying thee
+a quittance.--Ay, that is right--don thy matters as fast as
+possible; horses and everything are ready, all save that accursed
+villain Lambourne, who is out on some infernal gambol."
+
+"Ay, Sir Richard," said Foster, "you would take no advice.  I
+ever told you that drunken profligate would fail you at need.
+Now I could have helped you to a sober young man."
+
+"What, some slow-spoken, long-breathed brother of the
+congregation?  Why, we shall have use for such also, man.  Heaven
+be praised, we shall lack labourers of every kind.--Ay, that is
+right--forget not your pistols.  Come now, and let us away."
+
+"Whither?"  said Anthony.
+
+"To my lady's chamber; and, mind, she MUST along with us.  Thou
+art not a fellow to be startled by a shriek?"
+
+"Not if Scripture reason can be rendered for it; and it is
+written, 'Wives obey your husbands.' But will my lord's commands
+bear us out if we use violence?"
+
+"Tush, man!  here is his signet," answered Varney; and having
+thus silenced the objections of his associate, they went together
+to Lord Hunsdon's apartments, and acquainting the sentinel with
+their purpose, as a matter sanctioned by the Queen and the Earl
+of Leicester, they entered the chamber of the unfortunate
+Countess.
+
+The horror of Amy may be conceived when, starting from a broken
+slumber, she saw at her bedside Varney, the man on earth she most
+feared and hated.  It was even a consolation to see that he was
+not alone, though she had so much reason to dread his sullen
+companion.
+
+"Madam," said Varney, "there is no time for ceremony.  My Lord of
+Leicester, having fully considered the exigencies of the time,
+sends you his orders immediately to accompany us on our return to
+Cumnor Place.  See, here is his signet, in token of his instant
+and pressing commands."
+
+"It is false!"  said the Countess; "thou hast stolen the warrant
+--thou, who art capable of every villainy, from the blackest to
+the basest!"
+
+"It is TRUE, madam," replied Varney; "so true, that if you do not
+instantly arise, and prepare to attend us, we must compel you to
+obey our orders."
+
+"Compel!  Thou darest not put it to that issue, base as thou
+art!"  exclaimed the unhappy Countess.
+
+"That remains to be proved, madam," said Varney, who had
+determined on intimidation as the only means of subduing her high
+spirit; "if you put me to it, you will find me a rough groom of
+the chambers."
+
+It was at this threat that Amy screamed so fearfully that, had it
+not been for the received opinion of her insanity, she would
+quickly have had Lord Hunsdon and others to her aid.  Perceiving,
+however, that her cries were vain, she appealed to Foster in the
+most affecting terms, conjuring him, as his daughter Janet's
+honour and purity were dear to him, not to permit her to be
+treated with unwomanly violence.
+
+"Why, madam, wives must obey their husbands---there's Scripture
+warrant for it," said Foster; "and if you will dress yourself,
+and come with us patiently, there's no one shall lay finger on
+you while I can draw a pistol-trigger."
+
+Seeing no help arrive, and comforted even by the dogged language
+of Foster, the Countess promised to arise and dress herself, if
+they would agree to retire from the room.  Varney at the same
+time assured her of all safety and honour while in their hands,
+and promised that he himself would not approach her, since his
+presence was so displeasing.  Her husband, he added, would be at
+Cumnor Place within twenty-four hours after they had reached it.
+
+Somewhat comforted by this assurance, upon which, however, she
+saw little reason to rely, the unhappy Amy made her toilette by
+the assistance of the lantern, which they left with her when they
+quitted the apartment.
+
+Weeping, trembling, and praying, the unfortunate lady dressed
+herself with sensations how different from the days in which she
+was wont to decorate herself in all the pride of conscious
+beauty!  She endeavoured to delay the completing her dress as
+long as she could, until, terrified by the impatience of Varney,
+she was obliged to declare herself ready to attend them.
+
+When they were about to move, the Countess clung to Foster with
+such an appearance of terror at Varney's approach that the latter
+protested to her, with a deep oath, that he had no intention
+whatever of even coming near her.  "If you do but consent to
+execute your husband's will in quietness, you shall," he said,
+"see but little of me.  I will leave you undisturbed to the care
+of the usher whom your good taste prefers."
+
+"My husband's will!"  she exclaimed.  "But it is the will of God,
+and let that be sufficient to me.  I will go with Master Foster
+as unresistingly as ever did a literal sacrifice.  He is a father
+at least; and will have decency, if not humanity.  For thee,
+Varney, were it my latest word, thou art an equal stranger to
+both."
+
+Varney replied only she was at liberty to choose, and walked some
+paces before them to show the way; while, half leaning on Foster,
+and half carried by him, the Countess was transported from
+Saintlowe's Tower to the postern gate, where Tider waited with
+the litter and horses.
+
+The Countess was placed in the former without resistance.  She
+saw with some satisfaction that, while Foster and Tider rode
+close by the litter, which the latter conducted, the dreaded
+Varney lingered behind, and was soon lost in darkness.  A little
+while she strove, as the road winded round the verge of the lake,
+to keep sight of those stately towers which called her husband
+lord, and which still, in some places, sparkled with lights,
+where wassailers were yet revelling.  But when the direction of
+the road rendered this no longer possible, she drew back her
+head, and sinking down in the litter, recommended herself to the
+care of Providence.
+
+Besides the desire of inducing the Countess to proceed quietly on
+her journey, Varney had it also in view to have an interview with
+Lambourne, by whom he every moment expected to be joined, without
+the presence of any witnesses.  He knew the character of this
+man, prompt, bloody, resolute, and greedy, and judged him the
+most fit agent he could employ in his further designs.  But ten
+miles of their journey had been measured ere he heard the hasty
+clatter of horse's hoofs behind him, and was overtaken by Michael
+Lambourne.
+
+Fretted as he was with his absence, Varney received his
+profligate servant with a rebuke of unusual bitterness.  "Drunken
+villain," he said, "thy idleness and debauched folly will stretch
+a halter ere it be long, and, for me, I care not how soon!"
+
+This style of objurgation Lambourne, who was elated to an unusual
+degree, not only by an extraordinary cup of wine, but by the sort
+of confidential interview he had just had with the Earl, and the
+secret of which he had made himself master, did not receive with
+his wonted humility.  "He would take no insolence of language,"
+he said, "from the best knight that ever wore spurs.  Lord
+Leicester had detained him on some business of import, and that
+was enough for Varney, who was but a servant like himself."
+
+Varney was not a little surprised at his unusual tone of
+insolence; but ascribing it to liquor, suffered it to pass as if
+unnoticed, and then began to tamper with Lambourne touching his
+willingness to aid in removing out of the Earl of Leicester's way
+an obstacle to a rise, which would put it in his power to reward
+his trusty followers to their utmost wish.  And upon Michael
+Lambourne's seeming ignorant what was meant, he plainly indicated
+"the litter-load, yonder," as the impediment which he desired
+should be removed.
+
+"Look you, Sir Richard, and so forth," said Michael, "some are
+wiser than some, that is one thing, and some are worse than some,
+that's another.  I know my lord's mind on this matter better than
+thou, for he hath trusted me fully in the matter.  Here are his
+mandates, and his last words were, Michael Lambourne--for his
+lordship speaks to me as a gentleman of the sword, and useth not
+the words drunken villain, or such like phrase, of those who know
+not how to bear new dignities--Varney, says he, must pay the
+utmost respect to my Countess.  I trust to you for looking to it,
+Lambourne, says his lordship, and you must bring back my signet
+from him peremptorily."
+
+"Ay," replied Varney, "said he so, indeed?  You know all, then?"
+
+"All--all; and you were as wise to make a friend of me while the
+weather is fair betwixt us."
+
+"And was there no one present," said Varney, "when my lord so
+spoke?"
+
+"Not a breathing creature," replied Lambourne.  "Think you my
+lord would trust any one with such matters, save an approved man
+of action like myself?"
+
+"Most true," said Varney; and making a pause, he looked forward
+on the moonlight road.  They were traversing a wide and open
+heath.  The litter being at least a mile before them, was both
+out of sight and hearing.  He looked behind, and there was an
+expanse, lighted by the moonbeams, without one human being in
+sight.  He resumed his speech to Lambourne:  "And will you turn
+upon your master, who has introduced you to this career of court-
+like favour--whose apprentice you have been, Michael--who has
+taught you the depths and shallows of court intrigue?"
+
+"Michael not me!"  said Lambourne; "I have a name will brook a
+MASTER before it as well as another; and as to the rest, if I
+have been an apprentice, my indenture is out, and I am resolute
+to set up for myself."
+
+"Take thy quittance first, thou fool!"  said Varney; and with a
+pistol, which he had for some time held in his hand, shot
+Lambourne through the body.
+
+The wretch fell from his horse without a single groan; and
+Varney, dismounting, rifled his pockets, turning out the lining,
+that it might appear he had fallen by robbers.  He secured the
+Earl's packet, which was his chief object; but he also took
+Lambourne"s purse, containing some gold pieces, the relics of
+what his debauchery had left him, and from a singular combination
+of feelings, carried it in his hand only the length of a small
+river, which crossed the road, into which he threw it as far as
+he could fling.  Such are the strange remnants of conscience
+which remain after she seems totally subdued, that this cruel and
+remorseless man would have felt himself degraded had he pocketed
+the few pieces belonging to the wretch whom he had thus
+ruthlessly slain.
+
+The murderer reloaded his pistol after cleansing the lock and
+barrel from the appearances of late explosion, and rode calmly
+after the litter, satisfying himself that he had so adroitly
+removed a troublesome witness to many of his intrigues, and the
+bearer of mandates which he had no intentions to obey, and which,
+therefore, he was desirous it should be thought had never reached
+his hand.
+
+The remainder of the journey was made with a degree of speed
+which showed the little care they had for the health of the
+unhappy Countess.  They paused only at places where all was under
+their command, and where the tale they were prepared to tell of
+the insane Lady Varney would have obtained ready credit had she
+made an attempt to appeal to the compassion of the few persons
+admitted to see her.  But Amy saw no chance of obtaining a
+hearing from any to whom she had an opportunity of addressing
+herself; and besides, was too terrified for the presence of
+Varney to violate the implied condition under which she was to
+travel free from his company.  The authority of Varney, often so
+used during the Earl's private journeys to Cumnor, readily
+procured relays of horses where wanted, so that they approached
+Cumnor Place upon the night after they left Kenilworth.
+
+At this period of the journey Varney came up to the rear of the
+litter, as he had done before repeatedly during their progress,
+and asked, "How does she?"
+
+"She sleeps," said Foster.  "I would we were home--her strength
+is exhausted."
+
+"Rest will restore her," answered Varney.  "She shall soon sleep
+sound and long.  We must consider how to lodge her in safety."
+
+"In her own apartments, to be sure," said Foster.  "I have sent
+Janet to her aunt's with a proper rebuke, and the old women are
+truth itself--for they hate this lady cordially."
+
+"We will not trust them, however, friend Anthony," said Varney;
+"We must secure her in that stronghold where you keep your gold."
+
+"My gold!"  said Anthony, much alarmed; "why, what gold have I?
+God help me, I have no gold--I would I had!"
+
+"Now, marry hang thee, thou stupid brute, who thinks of or cares
+for thy gold?  If I did, could I not find an hundred better ways
+to come at it?  In one word, thy bedchamber, which thou hast
+fenced so curiously, must be her place of seclusion; and thou,
+thou hind, shalt press her pillows of down.  I dare to say the
+Earl will never ask after the rich furniture of these four
+rooms."
+
+This last consideration rendered Foster tractable; he only asked
+permission to ride before, to make matters ready, and spurring
+his horse, he posted before the litter, while Varney falling
+about threescore paces behind it, it remained only attended by
+Tider.
+
+When they had arrived at Cumnor Place, the Countess asked eagerly
+for Janet, and showed much alarm when informed that she was no
+longer to have the attendance of that amiable girl.
+
+"My daughter is dear to me, madam," said Foster gruffly; "and I
+desire not that she should get the court-tricks of lying and
+'scaping--somewhat too much of that has she learned already, an
+it please your ladyship."
+
+The Countess, much fatigued and greatly terrified by the
+circumstances of her journey, made no answer to this insolence,
+but mildly expressed a wish to retire to her chamber,
+
+"Ay, ay," muttered Foster, "'tis but reasonable; but, under
+favour, you go not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder--you will
+sleep to-night in better security."
+
+"I would it were in my grave," said the Countess; "but that
+mortal feelings shiver at the idea of soul and body parting."
+
+"You, I guess, have no chance to shiver at that," replied Foster.
+"My lord comes hither to-morrow, and doubtless you will make your
+own ways good with him."
+
+"But does he come hither?--does he indeed, good Foster?"
+
+"Oh, ay, good Foster!"  replied the other.  "But what Foster
+shall I be to-morrow when you speak of me to my lord--though all
+I have done was to obey his own orders?"
+
+"You shall be my protector--a rough one indeed--but still a
+protector," answered the Countess.  "Oh that Janet were but
+here!"
+
+"She is better where she is," answered Foster--"one of you is
+enough to perplex a plain head.  But will you taste any
+refreshment?"
+
+"Oh no, no--my chamber--my chamber!  I trust," she said
+apprehensively, "I may secure it on the inside?"
+
+"With all my heart," answered Foster, "so I may secure it on the
+outside;" and taking a light, he led the way to a part of the
+building where Amy had never been, and conducted her up a stair
+of great height, preceded by one of the old women with a lamp.
+At the head of the stair, which seemed of almost immeasurable
+height, they crossed a short wooden gallery, formed of black oak,
+and very narrow, at the farther end of which was a strong oaken
+door, which opened and admitted them into the miser's apartment,
+homely in its accommodations in the very last degree, and, except
+in name, little different from a prison-room.
+
+Foster stopped at the door, and gave the lamp to the Countess,
+without either offering or permitting the attendance of the old
+woman who had carried it.  The lady stood not on ceremony, but
+taking it hastily, barred the door, and secured it with the ample
+means provided on the inside for that purpose.
+
+Varney, meanwhile, had lurked behind on the stairs; but hearing
+the door barred, he now came up on tiptoe, and Foster, winking to
+him, pointed with self-complacence to a piece of concealed
+machinery in the wall, which, playing with much ease and little
+noise, dropped a part of the wooden gallery, after the manner of
+a drawbridge, so as to cut off all communication between the door
+of the bedroom, which he usually inhabited, and the landing-place
+of the high, winding stair which ascended to it.  The rope by
+which this machinery was wrought was generally carried within the
+bedchamber, it being Foster's object to provide against invasion
+from without; but now that it was intended to secure the prisoner
+within, the cord had been brought over to the landing-place, and
+was there made fast, when Foster with much complacency had
+dropped the unsuspected trap-door.
+
+Varney looked with great attention at the machinery, and peeped
+more than once down the abyss which was opened by the fall of the
+trap-door.  It was dark as pitch, and seemed profoundly deep,
+going, as Foster informed his confederate in a whisper, nigh to
+the lowest vault of the Castle.  Varney cast once more a fixed
+and long look down into this sable gulf, and then followed Foster
+to the part of the manor-house most usually inhabited.
+
+When they arrived in the parlour which we have mentioned, Varney
+requested Foster to get them supper, and some of the choicest
+wine.  "I will seek Alasco," he added; "we have work for him to
+do, and we must put him in good heart."
+
+Foster groaned at this intimation, but made no remonstrance.  The
+old woman assured Varney that Alasco had scarce eaten or drunken
+since her master's departure, living perpetually shut up in the
+laboratory, and talking as if the world's continuance depended on
+what he was doing there.
+
+"I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him," said
+Varney, seizing a light, and going in quest of the alchemist.  He
+returned, after a considerable absence, very pale, but yet with
+his habitual sneer on his cheek and nostril.  "Our friend," he
+said, "has exhaled."
+
+"How!--what mean you?"  said Foster--"run away--fled with my
+forty pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousand-fold?
+I will have Hue and Cry!"
+
+"I will tell thee a surer way," said Varney.
+
+"How!--which way?"  exclaimed Foster; "I will have back my forty
+pounds--I deemed them as surely a thousand times multiplied--I
+will have back my in-put, at the least."
+
+"Go hang thyself, then, and sue Alasco in the Devil's Court of
+Chancery, for thither he has carried the cause."
+
+"How!--what dost thou mean is he dead?"
+
+"Ay, truly is he," said Varney; "and properly swollen already in
+the face and body.  He had been mixing some of his devil's
+medicines, and the glass mask which he used constantly had fallen
+from his face, so that the subtle poison entered the brain, and
+did its work."
+
+"SANCTA MARIA!"  said Foster--"I mean, God in His mercy preserve
+us from covetousness and deadly sin!--Had he not had projection,
+think you?  Saw you no ingots in the crucibles?"
+
+"Nay, I looked not but at the dead carrion," answered Varney; "an
+ugly spectacle--he was swollen like a corpse three days exposed
+on the wheel.  Pah!  give me a cup of wine."
+
+"I will go," said Foster, "I will examine myself--" He took the
+lamp, and hastened to the door, but there hesitated and paused.
+"Will you not go with me?"  said he to Varney.
+
+"To what purpose?"  said Varney; "I have seen and smelled enough
+to spoil my appetite.  I broke the window, however, and let in
+the air; it reeked of sulphur, and such like suffocating steams,
+as if the very devil had been there."
+
+"And might it not be the act of the demon himself?"  said Foster,
+still hesitating; "I have heard he is powerful at such times, and
+with such people."
+
+"Still, if it were that Satan of thine," answered Varney, "who
+thus jades thy imagination, thou art in perfect safety, unless he
+is a most unconscionable devil indeed.  He hath had two good sops
+of late."
+
+"How TWO sops--what mean you?"  said Foster--"what mean you?"
+
+"You will know in time," said Varney;--"and then this other
+banquet--but thou wilt esteem Her too choice a morsel for the
+fiend's tooth--she must have her psalms, and harps, and seraphs."
+
+Anthony Foster heard, and came slowly back to the table.  "God!
+Sir Richard, and must that then be done?"
+
+"Ay, in very truth, Anthony, or there comes no copyhold in thy
+way," replied his inflexible associate.
+
+"I always foresaw it would land there!"  said Foster.  "But how,
+Sir Richard, how?--for not to win the world would I put hands on
+her."
+
+"I cannot blame thee," said Varney; "I should be reluctant to do
+that myself.  We miss Alasco and his manna sorely--ay, and the
+dog Lambourne."
+
+"Why, where tarries Lambourne?"  said Anthony.
+
+"Ask no questions," said Varney, "thou wilt see him one day if
+thy creed is true.  But to our graver matter.  I will teach thee
+a spring, Tony, to catch a pewit.  Yonder trap-door--yonder
+gimcrack of thine, will remain secure in appearance, will it not,
+though the supports are withdrawn beneath?"
+
+"Ay, marry, will it," said Foster; "so long as it is not trodden
+on."
+
+"But were the lady to attempt an escape over it," replied Varney,
+"her weight would carry it down?"
+
+"A mouse's weight would do it," said Foster.
+
+"Why, then, she dies in attempting her escape, and what could you
+or I help it, honest Tony?  Let us to bed, we will adjust our
+project to-morrow."
+
+On the next day, when evening approached, Varney summoned Foster
+to the execution of their plan.  Tider and Foster's old man-
+servant were sent on a feigned errand down to the village, and
+Anthony himself, as if anxious to see that the Countess suffered
+no want of accommodation, visited her place of confinement.  He
+was so much staggered at the mildness and patience with which she
+seemed to endure her confinement, that he could not help
+earnestly recommending to her not to cross the threshold of her
+room on any account whatever, until Lord Leicester should come,
+"which," he added, "I trust in God, will be very soon."  Amy
+patiently promised that she would resign herself to her fate.
+and Foster returned to his hardened companion with his conscience
+half-eased of the perilous load that weighed on it.  "I have
+warned her," he said; "surely in vain is the snare set in the
+sight of any bird!"
+
+He left, therefore, the Countess's door unsecured on the outside,
+and, under the eye of Varney, withdrew the supports which
+sustained the falling trap, which, therefore, kept its level
+position merely by a slight adhesion.  They withdrew to wait the
+issue on the ground-floor adjoining; but they waited long in
+vain.  At length Varney, after walking long to and fro, with his
+face muffled in his cloak, threw it suddenly back and exclaimed,
+"Surely never was a woman fool enough to neglect so fair an
+opportunity of escape!"
+
+"Perhaps she is resolved," said Foster, "to await her husband's
+return,"
+
+"True!--most true!"  said Varney, rushing out; "I had not thought
+of that before."
+
+In less than two minutes, Foster, who remained behind, heard the
+tread of a horse in the courtyard, and then a whistle similar to
+that which was the Earl's usual signal.  The instant after the
+door of the Countess's chamber opened, and in the same moment the
+trap-door gave way.  There was a rushing sound--a heavy fall--a
+faint groan--and all was over.
+
+At the same instant, Varney called in at the window, in an accent
+and tone which was an indescribable mixture betwixt horror and
+raillery, "Is the bird caught?--is the deed done?"
+
+"O God, forgive us!"  replied Anthony Foster.
+
+"Why, thou fool," said Varney, "thy toil is ended, and thy reward
+secure.  Look down into the vault--what seest thou?"
+
+"I see only a heap of white clothes, like a snowdrift," said
+Foster.  "O God, she moves her arm!"
+
+"Hurl something down on her--thy gold chest, Tony--it is an heavy
+one."
+
+"Varney, thou art an incarnate fiend!"  replied Foster.
+
+"There needs nothing more--she is gone!"
+
+"So pass our troubles," said Varney, entering the room; "I
+dreamed not I could have mimicked the Earl's call so well."
+
+"Oh, if there be judgment in heaven, thou hast deserved it," said
+Foster, "and wilt meet it!  Thou hast destroyed her by means of
+her best affections--it is a seething of the kid in the mother's
+milk!"
+
+"Thou art a fanatical ass," replied Varney; "let us now think how
+the alarm should be given--the body is to remain where it is."
+
+But their wickedness was to be permitted no longer; for even
+while they were at this consultation, Tressilian and Raleigh
+broke in upon them, having obtained admittance by means of Tider
+and Foster's servant, whom they had secured at the village.
+
+Anthony Foster fled on their entrance, and knowing each corner
+and pass of the intricate old house, escaped all search.  But
+Varney was taken on the spot; and instead of expressing
+compunction for what he had done, seemed to take a fiendish
+pleasure in pointing out to them the remains of the murdered
+Countess, while at the same time he defied them to show that he
+had any share in her death.  The despairing grief of Tressilian,
+on viewing the mangled and yet warm remains of what had lately
+been so lovely and so beloved, was such that Raleigh was
+compelled to have him removed from the place by force, while he
+himself assumed the direction of what was to be done.
+
+Varney, upon a second examination, made very little mystery
+either of the crime or of its motives---alleging, as a reason for
+his frankness, that though much of what he confessed could only
+have attached to him by suspicion, yet such suspicion would have
+been sufficient to deprive him of Leicester's confidence, and to
+destroy all his towering plans of ambition.  "I was not born," he
+said, "to drag on the remainder of life a degraded outcast; nor
+will I so die that my fate shall make a holiday to the vulgar
+herd."
+
+From these words it was apprehended he had some design upon
+himself, and he was carefully deprived of all means by which such
+could be carried into execution.  But like some of the heroes of
+antiquity, he carried about his person a small quantity of strong
+poison, prepared probably by the celebrated Demetrius Alasco.
+Having swallowed this potion over-night, he was found next
+morning dead in his cell; nor did he appear to have suffered much
+agony, his countenance presenting, even in death, the habitual
+expression of sneering sarcasm which was predominant while he
+lived.  "The wicked man," saith Scripture, "hath no bands in his
+death."
+
+The fate of his colleague in wickedness was long unknown.  Cumnor
+Place was deserted immediately after the murder; for in the
+vicinity of what was called the Lady Dudley's Chamber, the
+domestics pretended to hear groans, and screams, and other
+supernatural noises.  After a certain length of time, Janet,
+hearing no tidings of her father, became the uncontrolled
+mistress of his property, and conferred it with her hand upon
+Wayland, now a man of settled character, and holding a place in
+Elizabeth's household.  But it was after they had been both dead
+for some years that their eldest son and heir, in making some
+researches about Cumnor Hall, discovered a secret passage, closed
+by an iron door, which, opening from behind the bed in the Lady
+Dudley's Chamber, descended to a sort of cell, in which they
+found an iron chest containing a quantity of gold, and a human
+skeleton stretched above it.  The fate of Anthony Foster was now
+manifest.  He had fled to this place of concealment, forgetting
+the key of the spring-lock; and being barred from escape by the
+means he had used for preservation of that gold, for which he had
+sold his salvation, he had there perished miserably.
+Unquestionably the groans and screams heard by the domestics were
+not entirely imaginary, but were those of this wretch, who, in
+his agony, was crying for relief and succour.
+
+The news of the Countess's dreadful fate put a sudden period to
+the pleasures of Kenilworth.  Leicester retired from court, and
+for a considerable time abandoned himself to his remorse.  But as
+Varney in his last declaration had been studious to spare the
+character of his patron, the Earl was the object rather of
+compassion than resentment.  The Queen at length recalled him to
+court; he was once more distinguished as a statesman and
+favourite; and the rest of his career is well known to history.
+But there was something retributive in his death, if, according
+to an account very generally received, it took place from his
+swallowing a draught of poison which was designed by him for
+another person.  [See Note 9.  Death of the Earl of Leicester.]
+
+Sir Hugh Robsart died very soon after his daughter, having
+settled his estate on Tressilian.  But neither the prospect of
+rural independence, nor the promises of favour which Elizabeth
+held out to induce him to follow the court, could remove his
+profound melancholy.  Wherever he went he seemed to see before
+him the disfigured corpse of the early and only object of his
+affection.  At length, having made provision for the maintenance
+of the old friends and old servants who formed Sir Hugh's family
+at Lidcote Hall, he himself embarked with his friend Raleigh for
+the Virginia expedition, and, young in years but old in grief,
+died before his day in that foreign land.
+
+Of inferior persons it is only necessary to say that Blount's wit
+grew brighter as his yellow roses faded; that, doing his part as
+a brave commander in the wars, he was much more in his element
+than during the short period of his following the court; and that
+Flibbertigibbet's acute genius raised him to favour and
+distinction in the employment both of Burleigh and Walsingham.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+Note 1. Ch. III.--FOSTER, LAMBOURNE, AND THE BLACK BEAR.
+
+If faith is to be put in epitaphs, Anthony Foster was something
+the very reverse of the character represented in the novel.
+Ashmole gives this description of his tomb.  I copy from the
+ANTIQUITIES OF BERKSHIRE, vol.i., p.143.
+
+"In the north wall of the chancel at Cumnor church is a monument
+of grey marble, whereon, in brass plates, are engraved a man in
+armour, and his wife in the habit of her times, both kneeling
+before a fald-stoole, together with the figures of three sons
+kneeling behind their mother.  Under the figure of the man is
+this inscription:--
+
+ "ANTONIUS FORSTER, generis generosa propago,
+   Cumnerae Dominus, Bercheriensis erat.
+ Armiger, Armigero prognatus patre Ricardo,
+   Qui quondam Iphlethae Salopiensis erat.
+ Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati,
+  Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat.
+ Mente sagax, animo precellens, corpore promptus,
+  Eloquii dulcis, ore disertus erat.
+ In factis probitas; fuit in sermone venustas,
+  In vultu gravitas, relligione fides,
+ In patriam pietas, in egenos grata voluntas,
+  Accedunt reliquis annumeranda bonis.
+ Si quod cuncta rapit, rapuit non omnia Lethum,
+  Si quod Mors rapuit, vivida fama dedit.
+
+"These verses following are writ at length, two by two, in praise
+of him:--
+
+  "Argute resonas Cithare pretendere chordas
+      Novit, et Aonia concrepuisse Lyra.
+  Gaudebat terre teneras defigere plantas;
+      Et mira pulchras construere arte domos
+  Composita varias lingua formare loquelas
+      Doctus, et edocta scribere multa manu.
+
+"The arms over it thus:--
+
+Quart.  I. 3 HUNTER'S HORNS stringed.
+       II. 3 PINIONS with their points upwards.
+
+"The crest is a STAG couchant, vulnerated through the neck by a
+broad arrow; on his side is a MARTLETT for a difference."
+
+From this monumental inscription it appears that Anthony Foster,
+instead of being a vulgar, low-bred, puritanical churl, was, in
+fact, a gentleman of birth and consideration, distinguished for
+his skill in the arts of music and horticulture, as also in
+languages.  In so far, therefore, the Anthony Foster of the
+romance has nothing but the name in common with the real
+individual.  But notwithstanding the charity, benevolence, and
+religious faith imputed by the monument of grey marble to its
+tenant, tradition, as well as secret history, names him as the
+active agent in the death of the Countess; and it is added that,
+from being a jovial and convivial gallant, as we may infer from
+some expressions in the epitaph, he sunk, after the fatal deed,
+into a man of gloomy and retired habits, whose looks and manners
+indicated that he suffered under the pressure of some atrocious
+secret.
+
+The name of Lambourne is still known in the vicinity, and it is
+said some of the clan partake the habits, as well as name, of the
+Michael Lambourne of the romance.  A man of this name lately
+murdered his wife, outdoing Michael in this respect, who only was
+concerned in the murder of the wife of another man.
+
+I have only to add that the jolly Black Bear has been restored to
+his predominance over bowl and bottle in the village of Cumnor.
+
+*
+
+Note 2. Ch. XIII.--LEGEND OF WAYLAND SMITH.
+
+The great defeat given by Alfred to the Danish invaders is said
+by Mr. Gough to have taken place near Ashdown, in Berkshire. "The
+burial place of Baereg, the Danish chief, who was slain in this
+fight, is distinguished by a parcel of stones, less than a mile
+from the hill, set on edge, enclosing a piece of ground somewhat
+raised.  On the east side of the southern extremity stand three
+squarish flat stones, of about four or five feet over either way,
+supporting a fourth, and now called by the vulgar WAYLAND SMITH,
+from an idle tradition about an invisible smith replacing lost
+horse-shoes there."--GOUGH'S edition of CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA,
+vol.i., p. 221.
+
+The popular belief still retains memory of this wild legend,
+which, connected as it is with the site of a Danish sepulchre,
+may have arisen from some legend concerning the northern Duergar,
+who resided in the rocks, and were cunning workers in steel and
+iron.  It was believed that Wayland Smith's fee was sixpence, and
+that, unlike other workmen, he was offended if more was offered.
+Of late his offices have been again called to memory; but fiction
+has in this, as in other cases, taken the liberty to pillage the
+stores of oral tradition.  This monument must be very ancient,
+for it has been kindly pointed out to me that it is referred to
+in an ancient Saxon charter as a landmark.  The monument has been
+of late cleared out, and made considerably more conspicuous.
+
+*
+
+Note 3. Ch. XIV.--LEICESTER AND SUSSEX.
+
+Naunton gives us numerous and curious particulars of the jealous
+struggle which took place between Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, and
+the rising favourite Leicester.  The former, when on his
+deathbed, predicted to his followers that after his death the
+gipsy (so he called Leicester, from his dark complexion) would
+prove too many for them.
+
+*
+
+Note 4. Ch. XIV.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+
+Among the attendants and adherents of Sussex, we have ventured to
+introduce the celebrated Raleigh, in the dawn of his court
+favour.
+
+In Aubrey's Correspondence there are some curious particulars of
+Sir Walter Raleigh.  "He was a tall, handsome, bold man; but his
+naeve was that he was damnably proud.  Old Sir Robert Harley of
+Brampton Brian Castle, who knew him, would say it was a great
+question who was the proudest, Sir Walter or Sir Thomas Overbury;
+but the difference that was, was judged in Sir Thomas's side.  In
+the great parlour at Downton, at Mr. Raleigh's, is a good piece,
+an original of Sir Walter, in a white satin doublet, all
+embroidered with rich pearls, and a mighty rich chain of great
+pearls about his neck.  The old servants have told me that the
+real pearls were near as big as the painted ones.  He had a most
+remarkable aspect, an exceeding high forehead, long-faced, and
+sour-eyelidded.  "A rebus is added to this purpose:--
+
+  The enemy to the stomach, and the word of disgrace,
+  Is the name of the gentleman with the bold face.
+
+Sir Walter Raleigh's beard turned up naturally, which gave him an
+advantage over the gallants of the time, whose moustaches
+received a touch of the barber's art to give them the air then
+most admired.--See AUBREY'S CORRESPONDENCE, vol.ii., part ii.,
+p.500.
+
+*
+
+Note 5. Ch. XV.--COURT FAVOUR OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
+
+The gallant incident of the cloak is the traditional account of
+this celebrated statesman's rise at court.  None of Elizabeth's
+courtiers knew better than he how to make his court to her
+personal vanity, or could more justly estimate the quantity of
+flattery which she could condescend to swallow.  Being confined
+in the Tower for some offence, and understanding the Queen was
+about to pass to Greenwich in her barge, he insisted on
+approaching the window, that he might see, at whatever distance,
+the Queen of his Affections, the most beautiful object which the
+earth bore on its surface.  The Lieutenant of the Tower (his own
+particular friend) threw himself between his prisoner and the
+window; while Sir Waiter, apparently influenced by a fit of
+unrestrainable passion, swore he would not be debarred from
+seeing his light, his life, his goddess!  A scuffle ensued, got
+up for effect's sake, in which the Lieutenant and his captive
+grappled and struggled with fury, tore each other's hair, and at
+length drew daggers, and were only separated by force.  The Queen
+being informed of this scene exhibited by her frantic adorer, it
+wrought, as was to be expected, much in favour of the captive
+Paladin.  There is little doubt that his quarrel with the
+Lieutenant was entirely contrived for the purpose which it
+produced.
+
+*
+
+Note 6. Ch. XVII.--ROBERT LANEHAM.
+
+Little is known of Robert Laneham, save in his curious letter to
+a friend in London, giving an account of Queen Elizabeth's
+entertainments at Kenilworth, written in a style of the most
+intolerable affectation, both in point of composition and
+orthography.  He describes himself as a BON VIVANT, who was wont
+to be jolly and dry in the morning, and by his good-will would be
+chiefly in the company of the ladies.  He was, by the interest of
+Lord Leicester, Clerk of the Council Chamber door, and also
+keeper of the same.  "When Council sits," says he, "I am at hand.
+If any makes a babbling, PEACE, say I.  If I see a listener or a
+pryer in at the chinks or lockhole, I am presently on the bones
+of him.  If a friend comes, I make him sit down by me on a form
+or chest.  The rest may walk, a God's name!"  There has been
+seldom a better portrait of the pragmatic conceit and self-
+importance of a small man in office.
+
+*
+
+Note 7. Ch. XVIII.--DR. JULIO.
+
+The Earl of Leicester's Italian physician, Julio, was affirmed by
+his contemporaries to be a skilful compounder of poisons, which
+he applied with such frequency, that the Jesuit Parsons extols
+ironically the marvellous good luck of this great favourite in
+the opportune deaths of those who stood in the way of his wishes.
+There is a curious passage on the subject:--
+
+"Long after this, he fell in love with the Lady Sheffield, whom I
+signified before, and then also had he the same fortune to have
+her husband dye quickly, with an extreame rheume in his head (as
+it was given out), but as others say, of an artificiall catarre
+that stopped his breath.
+
+"The like good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex (as
+I have said before), and that at a time most fortunate for his
+purpose; for when he was coming home from Ireland, with intent to
+revenge himselfe upon my Lord of Leicester for begetting his wife
+with childe in his absence (the childe was a daughter, and
+brought up by the Lady Shandoes, W. Knooles, his wife), my Lord
+of Leicester hearing thereof, wanted not a friend or two to
+accompany the deputy, as among other a couple of the Earles own
+servants, Crompton (if I misse not his name), yeoman of his
+bottles, and Lloid his secretary, entertained afterward by my
+Lord of Leicester, and so he dyed in the way of an extreame flux,
+caused by an Italian receipe, as all his friends are well
+assured, the maker whereof was a chyrurgeon (as it is beleeved)
+that then was newly come to my Lord from Italy---a cunning man
+and sure in operation, with whom, if the good Lady had been
+sooner acquainted, and used his help, she should not have needed
+to sitten so pensive at home, and fearefull of her husband's
+former returne out of the same country......Neither must you
+marvaile though all these died in divers manners of outward
+diseases, for this is the excellency of the Italian art, for
+which this chyrurgeon and Dr. Julio were entertained so
+carefully, who can make a man dye in what manner or show of
+sickness you will--by whose instructions, no doubt; but his
+lordship is now cunning, especially adding also to these the
+counsell of his Doctor Bayly, a man also not a little studied (as
+he seemeth) in his art; for I heard him once myselfe, in a
+publique act in Oxford, and that in presence of my Lord of
+Leicester (if I be not deceived), maintain that poyson might be
+so tempered and given as it should not appear presently, and yet
+should kill the party afterward, at what time should be
+appointed; which argument belike pleased well his lordship, and
+therefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience, if I be not
+deceived of his being that day present.  So, though one dye of a
+flux, and another of a catarre, yet this importeth little to the
+matter, but showeth rather the great cunning and skill of the
+artificer."--PARSONS' LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH, p.23.
+
+It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the Earl is
+stated in the tale to be rather the dupe of villains than the
+unprincipled author of their atrocities.  In the latter capacity,
+which a part at least of his contemporaries imputed to him, he
+would have made a character too disgustingly wicked to be useful
+for the purposes of fiction.
+
+I have only to add that the union of the poisoner, the
+quacksalver, the alchemist, and the astrologer in the same person
+was familiar to the pretenders to the mystic sciences.
+
+*
+
+Note 8. Ch. XXXII.--FURNITURE OF KENILWORTH.
+
+In revising this work, I have had the means of making some
+accurate additions to my attempt to describe the princely
+pleasures of Kenilworth, by the kindness of my friend William
+Hamper, Esq., who had the goodness to communicate to me an
+inventory of the furniture of Kenilworth in the days of the
+magnificent Earl of Leicester.  I have adorned the text with some
+of the splendid articles mentioned in the inventory, but
+antiquaries especially will be desirous to see a more full
+specimen than the story leaves room for.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM KENILWORTH INVENTORY, A.D. 1584.
+
+A Salte, ship-fashion, of the mother of perle, garnished with
+silver and divers workes, warlike ensignes, and ornaments, with
+xvj peeces of ordinance whereof ij on wheles, two anckers on the
+foreparte, and on the stearne the image of Dame Fortune standing
+on a globe with a flag in her hand.  Pois xxxij oz.
+
+A gilte salte like a swann, mother of perle.  Pois xxx oz. iij
+quarters.
+
+A George on horseback, of wood, painted and gilt, with a case for
+knives in the tayle of the horse, and a case for oyster knives in
+the brest of the Dragon.
+
+A green barge-cloth, embrother'd with white lions and beares.
+
+A perfuming pann, of silver.  Pois xix oz.
+
+In the halle.  Tabells, long and short, vj. Formes, long and
+short, xiiij.
+
+HANGINGS.
+(These are minutely specified, and consisted of the following
+subjects, in tapestry, and gilt, and red leather.)
+
+Flowers, beasts, and pillars arched.  Forest worke.  Historie.
+Storie of Susanna, the Prodigall Childe, Saule, Tobie, Hercules,
+Lady Fame, Hawking and Hunting, Jezabell, Judith and Holofernes,
+David, Abraham, Sampson, Hippolitus, Alexander the Great, Naaman
+the Assyrian, Jacob, etc.
+
+BEDSTEADS, WITH THEIR FURNITURE.
+(These are magnificent and numerous.  I shall copy VERBATIM the
+description of what appears to have been one of the best.)
+
+A bedsted of wallnut-tree, toppe fashion, the pillers redd and
+varnished, the ceelor, tester, and single vallance of crimson
+sattin, paned with a broad border of bone lace of golde and
+silver.  The tester richlie embrothered with my Lo. armes in a
+garland of hoppes, roses, and pomegranetts, and lyned with
+buckerom.  Fyve curteins of crimson sattin to the same bedsted,
+striped downe with a bone lace of gold and silver, garnished with
+buttons and loops of crimson silk and golde, containing xiiij
+bredths of sattin, and one yarde iij quarters deepe.  The ceelor,
+vallance, and curteins lyned with crymson taffata sarsenet.
+
+A crymson sattin counterpointe, quilted and embr.  with a golde
+twiste, and lyned with redd sarsenet, being in length iij yards
+good, and in breadth iij scant.
+
+A chaise of crymson sattin, suteable.
+
+A fayre quilte of crymson sattin, vj breadths, iij yardes 3
+quarters naile deepe, all lozenged over with silver twiste, in
+the midst a cinquefoile within a garland of ragged staves,
+fringed rounde aboute with a small fringe of crymson silke, lyned
+throughe with white fustian.
+
+Fyve plumes of coolered feathers, garnished with bone lace and
+spangells of goulde and silver, standing in cups knitt all over
+with goulde, silver, and crymson silk.  [Probably on the centre
+and four corners of the bedstead.  Four bears and ragged staves
+occupied a similar position on another of these sumptuous pieces
+of furniture.]
+
+A carpett for a cupboarde of crymson sattin, embrothered with a
+border of goulde twiste, about iij parts of it fringed with silk
+and goulde, lyned with bridges [That is, Bruges.] sattin, in
+length ij yards, and ij bredths of sattin.
+
+(There were eleven down beds and ninety feather beds, besides
+thirty-seven mattresses.)
+
+CHYRES, STOOLES, AND CUSHENS.
+(These were equally splendid with the beds, etc.  I shall here
+copy that which stands at the head of the list.)
+
+A chaier of crimson velvet, the seate and backe partlie
+embrothered, with R. L. in cloth of goulde, the beare and ragged
+staffe in clothe of silver, garnished with lace and fringe of
+goulde, silver, and crimson silck.  The frame covered with
+velvet, bounde aboute the edge with goulde lace, and studded with
+gilte nailes.
+
+A square stoole and a foote stoole, of crimson velvet, fringed
+and garnished suteable.
+
+A long cushen of crimson velvet, embr.  with the ragged staffe in
+a wreathe of goulde, with my Lo. posie "DROYTE ET LOYALL" written
+in the same, and the letters R. L. in clothe of goulde, being
+garnished with lace, fringe, buttons, and tassels of gold,
+silver, and crimson silck, lyned with crimson taff., being in
+length 1 yard quarter.
+
+A square cushen, of the like velvet, embr. suteable to the long
+cushen.
+
+CARPETS.
+(There were 10 velvet carpets for tables and windows, 49 Turkey
+carpets for floors, and 32 cloth carpets.  One of each I will now
+specify.)
+
+A carpett of crimson velvet, richlie embr.  with my Lo. posie,
+beares and ragged staves, etc., of clothe of goulde and silver,
+garnished upon the seames and aboute with golde lace, fringed
+accordinglie, lyned with crimson taffata sarsenett, being 3
+breadths of velvet, one yard 3 quarters long.
+
+A great Turquoy carpett, the grounde blew, with a list of yelloe
+at each end, being in length x yards, in bredthe iiij yards and
+quarter
+
+A long carpett of blew clothe, lyned with bridges sattin, fringed
+with blew silck and goulde, in length vj yards lack a quarter,
+the whole bredth of the clothe.
+
+PICTURES.
+(Chiefly described as having curtains.)
+
+The Queene's Majestie (2 great tables).  3 of my Lord.  St.
+Jerome.  Lo. of Arundell.  Lord Mathevers.  Lord of Pembroke.
+Counte Egmondt.  The Queene of Scotts.  King Philip.  The Baker's
+Daughters.  The Duke of Feria.  Alexander Magnus.  Two Yonge
+Ladies.  Pompaea Sabina.  Fred. D. of Saxony.  Emp. Charles.
+K. Philip's Wife.  Prince of Orange and his Wife.  Marq.  of
+Berges and his Wife.  Counte de Home.  Count Holstrate.  Monsr.
+Brederode.  Duke Alva.  Cardinal Grandville.  Duches of Parma.
+Henrie E. of Pembrooke and his young Countess.  Countis of Essex.
+Occacion and Repentance.  Lord Mowntacute.  Sir Jas. Crofts.  Sir
+Wr. Mildmay.  Sr. Wm. Pickering.  Edwin Abp. of York.
+
+A tabell of an historie of men, women, and children, moulden in
+wax.
+
+A little foulding table of ebanie, garnished with white bone,
+wherein are written verses with lres.  of goulde.
+
+A table of my Lord's armes.
+
+Fyve of the plannetts, painted in frames.
+
+Twentie-three cardes, [That is charts.] or maps of countries.
+
+INSTRUMENTS.
+(I shall give two specimens.)
+
+An instrument of organs, regall, and virginalls, covered with
+crimson velvet, and garnished with goulde lace.
+
+A fair pair of double virginalls.
+
+CABONETTS.
+
+A cabonett of crimson sattin, richlie embr.  with a device of
+hunting the stagg, in goulde, silver, and silck, with iiij
+glasses in the topp thereof, xvj cupps of flowers made of goulde,
+silver, and silck, in a case of leather, lyned with greene sattin
+of bridges.
+
+(Another of purple velvet.  A desk of red leather.)
+
+A CHESS BOARDE of ebanie, with checkars of christall and other
+stones, layed with silver, garnished with beares and ragged
+staves, and cinquefoiles of silver.  The xxxij men likewyse of
+christall and other stones sett, the one sort in silver white,
+the other gilte, in a case gilded and lyned with green cotton.
+
+(Another of bone and ebanie.  A pair of tabells of bone.)
+
+A great BRASON CANDLESTICK to hang in the roofe of the howse,
+verie fayer and curiouslye wrought, with xxiiij branches, xij
+greate and xij of lesser size, 6 rowlers and ij wings for the
+spreade eagle, xxiiij socketts for candells, xij greater and xij
+of a lesser sorte, xxiiij sawcers, or candlecups, of like
+proporcion to put under the socketts, iij images of men and iij
+of weomen, of brass, verie finely and artificiallie done.
+
+These specimens of Leicester's magnificence may serve to assure
+the reader that it scarce lay in the power of a modern author to
+exaggerate the lavish style of expense displayed in the princely
+pleasures of Kenilworth.
+
+*
+
+Note to Ch. XLI.--DEATH OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
+
+In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben
+Jonson to Drummond of Hawthornden, as transcribed by Sir Robert
+Sibbald, Leicester's death is ascribed to poison administered as
+a cordial by his countess, to whom he had given it, representing
+it to be a restorative in any faintness, in the hope that she
+herself might be cut off by using it.  We have already quoted
+Jonson's account of this merited stroke of retribution in a note
+of the Introduction to this volume.  It may be here added that
+the following satirical epitaph on Leicester occurs in Drummond's
+Collection, but is evidently not of his composition:--
+
+EPITAPH ON THE ERLE OF LEISTER.
+
+  Here lies a valiant warriour,
+   Who never drew a sword;
+  Here lies a noble courtier,
+   Who never kept his word;
+  Here lies the Erle of Leister,
+   Who governed the Estates,
+  Whom the earth could never living love,
+   And the just Heaven now hates.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Kenilworth, by Walter Scott
+
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/knlwt10.zip