Kenilworth

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LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

SANTA BARBARA

PRESENTED BY

HARRY MCGUIRE

At till' coiiiniaiiil of thf gin'i-ii. IJak'iKh repi-ateil ttie cflcbrated vision of

JKIenilworth ^^^^^^^^
By ^ ^ -^ ^ Sir Walter Scott

Chicago and New York « « «
Rand, McNally & Company

INTEODUCTIOI^ TO KENILWOETH.

A CERTAIN degree of success, real or supposed, in the deline-
ation of Queen Mary, natiu-ally 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
Kobertson 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-wi'iter 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 Coimtess 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 ia exalted stations, may have blackened
the character of Leicester with darker shades than really be-
longed to it. But the almost general voice of the times at-
tached the most foul suspicions to the death of the unfortunate
coimtess, more especially as it took place so very opportunely
for the indulgence of her lover's ambition. If we can trust
Ashmole's Antiqxdties of Brrloiliire, 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,

6 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the reader will find tlie authority I had for the story of the
romance :

*' At the west end of the church is the ruins of a manor, anciently belong-
ing (as a cell, or place of removal, as some report) to the monks of Abing-
ton. 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, viz.
a patonee between four martletts ; and also another escutcheon, viz. a lion
rampant, and several miters 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:

"jRobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a very goodly personage, and singu-
larly 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 him-
self of all obstacles, he commands, or perhaps, with fair, flattering in-
treaties, desires his wife to repose herself here at his servant Anthony
Forster's house, who then lived in the aforesaid manor-house ; and also
prescribed to Sir Richard Varney (a prompter to this design), at his com-
ing 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 uni-
versity ; who, because he would not consent to take away her life by poison,
the earl endeavoured to displace him from 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
(ady sad and heavy (as one that well knew by her other handling that her
death was not far off), began to perswade 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 intreated him to perswade 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 there-
fore he peremptorily denied their request ; misdoubting (as he afterwards
reported) least, 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 re-
mained still well assured that, this way taking no effect, she would not
long escape their violence, which afterwards happened thus. For Sir
Richard Varney above-said (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 ser-
vants from her to Abington market, about 3 miles distant from this
place — they (I say, whether first stifling her or else strangling her) after-
wards flung her down a pair of stairs and broke her neck, using much vio-
lence upon her ; but, however, though it was vulgarly reported that she by
chance fell downstairs (but yet without hurting her hood that was upon

INTRODUCTION TO KENILWORTH. • 7

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 downstairs, thereby believing the world
would have thought it a mischance, and so have blinded their villany.
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), hear-
ing of, came with all speed hither, caused her corps to be taken up, the
coroner to sit upon her, and further enquiry 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, 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.
Maries church in Oxford with great pomp and solemnity. It is remark-
able, when Dr. Babington (the earl's chaplain) did preach the funeral ser-
mon, he tript once or twice in his speech, by recommending to their
memories that virtuous lady so pitifully murdered, instead of saying piti-
fully 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. " »

The same accusation lias been adopted and circulated by tlie
author of Leicester's Commonwealth, a satire * written directly

» Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, vol. i. p. 149. The tradition as to
Leicester's death was thus communicated by Ben Jonsonto 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 return
from court, not knowing it was poison, gave him, and so he died." — Ben
Jonson's Information to Drummond of Hawthornden, MS. — Sir Robert Sib-
bald's copy.

a This satire was written by the notorious Jesuit, Robert Parsons and

8 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 Yorlcshire Tragedy ^ a
play erroneously ascribed to Shakspeare, where a baker, who
determines to destroy all his family, throws his wife down-
stairs 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 wiU 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 tlie 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 g^-eatly 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, were to be found in Evans's Ancient Ballads (vol. iv.
p. 130), to which work Mickle made liberal contributions.
The first stanza especially had a peculiar species of enchant-
ment for the youthful ear] of the Author, the force of which
is not even now entirely spent j some others are sufficiently
prosaic.

Cumnor Iball,

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.

was lai^ely copied by Ashmole in his Antiquities. These authorities were
perhaps too much relied upon by the Author (Lalng).

» See Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. vi. pp. 266, 2M. » See Note 1.

INTRODUCTION TO KENILWORTH.

Now naught 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 has sworn to me,

To leave me in this lonely grove,
Immured in shameful privity ?

" No more thou comest 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 \ie,

To seek a primrose, whose pale shades
Must sicken when those gauds are by?

10 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 'Monjj rural beauties I was one,
Among the fields wild flowers are fair;

Some country swain might me have wou
And thought ray beauty passing rare.

"But, Leicester (or I much am wrong),
Or 'tis not beauty hires 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 humble charms,
And, oh ! then leave them to decay ?

Why didst thou win me to thy arms.
Then leave me to mourn the livelong day f

" 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 steiu
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 I '

** And now, while happy peasants sleep,
Here I sit lonely and forlorn ;

No one to sooth me as I weep,
Save Philomel on yonder thorn.

" My spirits flag — my hopes decay —
Still that dread death-bell smites my ear j

And many a boding seems to say,
'Countess, prepare, thy end is near! ' "

INTRODUCTION TO KENILWORTH. 1j

Thus sore and sad that lady grieved,

In Cuninor 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 onwards they've espied

The haunted towers of Cumnor Hall.

AbbotsforDj 1st March, 1831,

KENILWORTH.

CHAPTER. L

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 flaUs 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 hu-
mour 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 miue host, who was usually a personage of
privileged freedom, comely presence, and good-humour. Pat-
ronised 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 them-
selves 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 excel-
lent inn of the old stamp, conducted, or rather ruled, by Giles
Gosling, a man of a goodly person and of somewhat round
beUy, fifty years of age and upwards, moderate in his reckon-
ings, 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 ex-
celled Giles Gosling in the power of pleasing his guests of
every description; and so great was his fame, that to have

14 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

been in Cumnor without wetting 'a cup at tlie bonny Black
Bear would have been to avouch oneself 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 pro-
duced 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, haK 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 towai'ds
the inn door, when he was encountered by the godly form of
Oiles Gosling himself.

"Is it logic you talk of, sir guest?" said the host j "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 neigh-
bourly aid at my hand, and yet call yourself a toper."

KENILWORTH. 15

" Fear me not," said the guest, " I will do my devoir as be-
comes 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 par-
ties— 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 occa-
sions, 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 de-
gree of attention and deference, which he feared would be re-
fused, if not iustantly vindicated as his right. His attire was
a riding-cloak, which, when open, displayed a handsome jer-
kiu 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 thy-
self another to pledge me ; and, if it is less than superlative,
e'en drink as you have brewed."

16 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Less than superlative !" said Giles Gosliag, drinking off the
cup^ and smacking liis lips with an air of ineli'able 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 thau that in the Sheres, or in the Canaries
either, I would I may never touch either pot or penny more.
"Why, hold it uj) betwixt you and the light, you shall see the
little motes dance in the golden liquor like dust in the sun-
beam. 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 driuk 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 wovdd 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 caa
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! oik 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 tid-
ings of?"

"Troth, sir, not I," answered the host, "since ranting
Bobin of Drysandford'was shot at the siege of the Brill. The
devil take the caliver that fired the ball, for a blyther 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

KEKILWORTH. 17

brave English hearts are abroad, and you, who seem to be a
man of mark, have no friend, no kinsman, among them?"

*' Xay, 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?"

'• 3Iichael Lambourne, " answered the landlord of the Black
Bear, "a son of my sister's; there is little pleasure in recol-
lecting either the name or the connexion."

"Michael Lambourne!" said the stranger, as if endeavour-
ing to recollect himseK, " what, no relation to jMichael Lam-
bourne, the gallant cavalier who behaved so bravely at the siege
of Venlo that Grave INIaurice 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 mis-
chief."

" 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 mis-
reckonings, miscarriages, mistakes, and misdemeanours, had
2

18 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

lie 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 blythest 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 hang-
man, 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 eighteeu
years ; who has seen the sun set where it rises, and has trav-
elled 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

KENILWORTH. 19

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
©r 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

20 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

conditions, thou slialt 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 vapour-
est of, were as well come by as it seems well filled. "

"Here is an uifidel for you, my good neighbours!" said
Lambourne, again appealing to the audience. " Here's a fel-
low 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 gathermg. 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 Gold-
thred, 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, " es-
pecially when a handsome yoimg 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 mayst, " 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 tail ship, with sails, anchors, cordage, and aU things
conforming; then clap thy warehouse of goods under hatches,
put fifty good fellows on deck, with myself to command them,
and so hoise topsails, and hey for the New World 1"

" Thou hast taught him a secret, kinsman, " said Giles Gos-
ling, " 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

KENILWORTH. 21

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 El-
dorado, never trust me if I do not believe he has found it in
the pouches of some such gulls as thyself. But take no snufE
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. Bricham laughed till he cried again, and his crying saved
yours."

" Well, he made it up to me many a day after," said Lam-
bourne; "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, '3Iorior —
mortims sum vel fui — morV — these were his latest words, and
lie just added, 'jMy last verb is conjugated.' "

"Well, peace be with him," said Mike, "he owes me noth-
ing."

"Ko, truly," replied Goldthred; "and every lash which he
laid on thee, he always was wont to say, he spared the hang-
man 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 appear-
ing to fad 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 bravo to eyes and features
which naturally boded nothmg pleasant. " Harkee, my mas-

22 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ters, all is fair among friends, and under the rose, and I hare
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 m 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.

KENILWORTH. 23

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 ex-
citement, sparkled with uncommon lustre, but on other occa-
sions 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 tim.e 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 Bessellsley, or with the old knight at Woot-
ton, 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 spitchcocked
eels on the board as ever were ta'en out of the Isis."

Honest Giles, therefore, satisfied himself that his guest was
no Eoman, 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

24 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

tongues amongst us at Cumnor — as where be there not? — who
put rui 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 blythe sunshiny weather which God has sent
us in the sweet looks of our sovereign mistress, Queen Eliza-
beth, whom Heaven long bless and preserve V

"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 trouble-
some 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 He-
brew. 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 a 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 danc-
ing in it. Cheer up, sir ! or, by this good liquor, we wiU ban-
ish thee from the joys of blythesome 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 weU, 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, encour-

KENILWORTH. 25

aged by the precept and example of Michael Lamhourne, 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 scandalised at the obstreperous- nature of their
mirth, especially as he involuntarily felt some respect for his
imloiown 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 thiuk, " 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 to-morrow you will find i;hem
a set of as painstaking mechanics, and so forth, as ever cut an
mch short of measure, or paid a lettei' of change in. light
ero'UTis over a counter. The mercer there wears his hat awry,
over a shagged head of hair, that looks like a curly water-dog's
back, goes unbraced, wears his cloak on one side, and affects a
rufiianly vapouring humour ; when in his shop at Abingdon,
he is, frc-m 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 Lam«
bourne, who is lord of the feast — is he too such an would-be
ruftler 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?"

26 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 worth/ Mr. 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 St. Michael's Mount."

Mine host pushed his curiosity no farther, but presented
Mr. Tressilian to his nephew's company, who, after exchange
of salutations, and drinking to the health of their new com-
panion, pursued the conversation in which he found them en-
gaged, 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
guests, 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.

KENILWORTH. 27

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 Wallingf ord hath bid us
good-night?"

"He died the death of a fat buck," said one of the party,
*' being shot with a cross-bow 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. AVhat has become
of Hal with the Plume? he who lived near Yattendon, 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 mto 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
cross-bow 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.

28 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Why, he they called Tony Fire-the-Fagot, because he
brought a light to kindle the pile round Latimer and Kidley,
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 tlmves," 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 gro^vn 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 remem-
ber Cumnor Place, the old mansion-house beside the church-
yard?"

" 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 himseK 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 inter-
fered in their conversation, " did ye not say this Foster was
married, and to a precisian?"

KENILWORTH. 29

" Married lie was, and to as bitter a i^recisian as ever eat
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 thmk. 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 ! vil-
lain, thou wilt never leave thy old tricks."

" Not so — not so, " said the mercer, with a smirking laughs
" not altogether so ; but curiosity, thou knowest, and a strain
of compassion withal, for the poor young lady sees nothiag
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 romid, simpering, what-d'ye-lack sort of a coun-
tenance, 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
skuUsI"

30 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Nay, now, you are jealous of me, Mike," said Goldthred;
" and yet my luck was l3ut 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 fore-
part with body and sleeves, of ginger-colourea satin, which, in
my judgment, must have cost by the yard some thirty shUl-
ings, 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 de-
vice. 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."

KENILWORTH. 31

• "Touching her complexion," answered the mercer, "I am
not so special certaia ; 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 gen-
tleman 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 simperiug at a chestnut," said
Michael Lambourne.

— " Up started of a sudden, " continued Goldthred, without
heeding the interruption, " Tony Foster himseK, with a cudgel
in his hand "

"And broke thy head across, 1 hope, for thine imperti-
nence, " said his entertainer.

" That were more easily said than done, " answered Gold-
thred, 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 Lam-
bourne ; " 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
HoUands against these five angels that I go not up to the hall

32 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

to-moiTow 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 ven-
tiires 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 l<Jiown 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 St. George, be he willing or no!"

"I would gladly j)ay your halves of the risk, sir," said
TressUian, " to be permitted to accompany you on the adven-
ture."

" In what would that advantage you, sir?" answered Lam-
borne.

" 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 feat 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 occa-
sion 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

KENILWORTH. 33

knave, witli no more brains than are in a skein of ravelled
silk? By Heaven, I will cut thee into fifty yards of galloori
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 unwilliag 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 entertain-
ments, and in playing mine host without sending in a reckon-
ing. It is what I but rarely practise; and whenever I do, by
St. Julian, it grieves me beyond measure. Each of these
empty stoups now, which my nephiew and his drunken com-
rades 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 non-
sense, 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 up-
holding such an 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 impres-
sion even on the seasoned brain of mine host, wliich was
chiefly to be inferred from his declaimmg against drunken-
ness. 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

34 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 entertain-
ment 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 seK 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
TressUian, when Giles Gosling first appeared in the public
Toom, 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 j and

KENILWORTH. 35

that you can neither blame him nor commend him without
some tinge of conscience."

*' Tou 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, shalt be forewarned, forearmed, so thou wilt but
listen to thy trusty host."

" Why, mme host, thy counsel shall not be cast away, " re-
plied 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
on-hanger of the abbot of Abingdon, and now he lives as
master of the manor-house. Above all, he was poor and is
rich. Polk talk of private apartments in his old waste man-
sion-house bedizened fine enough to serve the Queen, God
bless her! Some men think he found a treasure in the or-
chard, some that he sold himself to the devil for treasure, and
some say that he cheated the abbot out of the church plate

36 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 Lamboume,
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. &iow thy fi-iends 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^

KENILWORTH. 37

** but a simple humour of precaution wldch 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 gentle-
man 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 nQt
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 fluig 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 himdi*ed 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-Fagot, and that will do for the matter
in hand."

" You hold your piu'pose, then, of visiting your old acquaint-
since?" said Tressilian to the adventurer.

"Ay, sir," replied Lamboui'ne: "when stakes are made,
the game must be played; that is gamester's law aU 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 m 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.

38 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 appear-
ance. 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 holped up here," said Michael Lam-
bourne, 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 in-
vitingly open ; and here we are within the forbidden ground,
without other impediment than the passive resistance of a
heavy oaken 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 rim up into great bushes,
or rather dwarf-trees, and now encroached, with their dark
and melancholy boughs, upon the road which they once had

KENILWORTH. 39

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 neigh-
bouring park, and was here stacked for drymg. Formal
walks and avenues, which, at different points, crossed this
principal approach, were in like manner choked up and inter-
rupted 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 influ-
ence 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 im-
pression 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 ad-
dressed 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 mo-
nastic front of the old mansion with its shafted windows, brick
walls overgrown with ivy and creeping shrubs, and twisted
stalks of chimneys of heavy stonework. "And yet," con-
tinued 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 cimning corner in
the purlieus of Whitefriars."

" Was he then such an un thrift?" 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.

40 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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, " an-
swered 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 can-
not ^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, wovild 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. "

KENILWORTH. 41

" 0]i, 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.
Kow, if this mysterious Lady of the Manor — this fair Linda-
brides of Tony Fire-the-Fagot — be so admirable a piece as
men say, why, there is 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 groats 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 Lam-
bouxne: "I ^.expect not to catch the old jack till I have dis-
posed 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 mossy,
«iid seemed to bear little fruit. Those which had been for-
merly 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-
gai'dens, was suffered in like manner to run to waste, except-
ing 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.

42 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

They had just traversed this garden of the sluggard, and
were within a few steps of the door of the mansion, when
Lambounie had ceased speaking — a circumstance very agree-
able 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 busi-
ness 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 ser-
vant 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 ad-
mitted them through an archway into a square court, sur-
rounded 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 trav-
ersed with massive shafts of solid stonework, 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

KENILWORTH. 43

these particulars, for they waited some space in the apartment
■ere the present master of the mansion at length made his ap-
pearance. 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 deform-
ity, and to give all his motions the ungainly awkwardness of
a left-legged and left-handed man. His hair, in arrangmg
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
«yes 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 Tres-
silian could not help acknowledging to himself, the Anthony
Foster who now stood before them was the last person, judg-
ing 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 coimtry 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

44 WAVERLET NOVELS.

he advanced slowly into the middle of the room, and said, in
a low and smothered tone of voice : " Let me pray you, gentle-
men, 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 unem-
barrassed by any doubt of the most cordial reception.

"Ha! my dear friend and ingle, Tony Foster!" he ex-
claimed, 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 mo-
ment ; then dropping his eyes, and with little ceremony extri-
cating 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 Lam-
bourne.

"'Tis well," answered his sullen host; "and what may
Michael Lambourne expect from his visit hither?"

" Vofo a Dios, " answered Lambourne, " I exrpected 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 mdescribable
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."

KENILWORTH. 4=5

"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 en-
deavours to suppress some violent internal emotion.

"Because," said Lambourne, cooUy, "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 folks' pillows, and who puts ratsbane into their por-
ridge, 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 assur-
ance 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 mod-
esty, you sailed hence in ballast. But who is this gallant,
honest Mike? Is he a Corinthian — a cutter like thyself?"

" I prithee, know Master TressUian, 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, never-
theless, 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

46 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

cocks of tlie game, as a puny fencer does the scliools of the
masters, to see how a foil is handled by the teachers of de^
fence. "

" If such be his quality, I will pray your company in an-
other 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 apart-
ment together, in which he remained alone to await their
return.

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, tilled 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 hos-
tility 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 other-
wise broken and damaged, and were, moreover, mantled with
cobwebs and covered with dust.

" The men who wrote these books, " said Lambourne, look-

• See Foster, Lambourne, and the Black Bear. Note 8.

KENILWORTH. 47

ing 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 scourrag 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 Poster, "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 cart-load of such rakiags of the kennel
of Eome."

" Gad-a-mercy, Master Tony Fire-the-Pagot!" said Lam-
bourne, by way of reply.

Foster scowled darkly at him, as he replied : " Hark ye,
friend Mike ; forget that name,- and the passage which it re-
lates to, if you would not have our newly-revived comrade-
ship 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 wit-
nesses who stoned St. 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

48 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

hadst it scoured, and burnished, and whitowaslied 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 jjoint, and say to
me, in one word, what is thy business with me, and what
hopes have di-awn thee hither?"

" The hope of bettering myself, to be sure, " answered Lam-
bourne, "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 a,re 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 sui^pose 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 re-
quite 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 propei"ties are
not so perfect ; but unite them, and we drive the world before
us. How sayst thou, shall we hunt in couples?"

** It is a currish proposal, thus to thrust thyself upon my

KENILWORTH. 49

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 ser-
vice. Boldness and dexterity he demands — the justice-books
bear witness in thy favour ; no starting at scruples in his ser-
vice— why, who ever suspected thee of a conscience? an assur-
ance 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
Paptistrie. Besides, your exterior man is altogether too de-
boshed 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 sAvashuig 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 Lam-
boui'ne, " and hast described rather the gentleman-usher to a
4

50 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 sus-
pected of manhood enough to squire a proud dame-citizen to
the lecture at St. Antonlin's, and quarrel in her cause with
any flat-capp'd 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 pro-
fane 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 nafura, and that I have not been,
putting a jape upon you all this time?"

" Thou put a jape on me, thou sodden-brained gull?" an-
swered 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 call'st
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.

KENILWORTH. 61

It has been already observed tbat, wben Lambourne accom-
panied 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 asso-
ciates. 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 re-
store thee to thy parents — 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 recognised the
object of his search. The first impulse arising from this dis-
covery 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 uncov-
ered— 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 miexpected 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

52 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

overcome, but seeming suddenly to remember tlie necessity of
using an opportunity which, might not again occur, he said ia
alow 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, Mr. Tressilian? or where-
fore 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 em-
ployer!"

" 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 despatched 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 pre-
pared for your departure the instant you yourself will giv©
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 j 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 be-
lieve 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?

KENILWORTH. 5$

But be it so — I came Bot 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 bed-side. Come,
poor, deceived, unhappy maiden. All shall be forgot — all
shall be forgiven. Fear not my importunity for what re-
garded '^ur 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 1
will surely come to my father, and that without farther 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, impa-
tiently; " 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 ma
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 h©
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 an-
swer."

"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

54 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 vrill. 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 com-
pelled vow. But thus I break the charm : Amy, in the name
of thine excellent, thy broken-hearted father, I command thee
t» 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 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? Ketire — retire;
there is life and death in this matter. And you, friend, who-
ever 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 Kamhead
meet."

"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."

KENILWORTH. 55

He departed, the lady saying faintly as lie 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 nnist 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 con-
science." 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 openmg 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 en-

.66 WAVERLSY NOVELS.

tered, 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 gohag out. They exclaimed at once,
in tones of resentment and surprise, - the one ''Vamey!" 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 ex-
pected nor desired?"

"Nay, Varney," replied Tressilian, "what make T/ouheve?
Are you come to triumph over the innocence you have de-
stroyed, 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
^very 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 loth to hurt you in this cause. Thou know'st
I can fight."

"I have heard thee say so, Varney," replied Tressilian;
^' but now, methinks, I would fain have some better evidence
than thme 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
liand, he threw his cloak around his left, and attacked Tres-
silian 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;
«o that Varney, finding himself hard pressed in his turn, en-
deavoured to avail himself of his superior strength, by closing
with his adversary. For this purpose, he hazarded the receiv-
ing one of Tressilian's passes in his cloak, wrapt as it was
:around his arm, and ere his adversary could extricate his ra-
pier thus entangled, he closed with him, shortening his own

KENILTTORTH. 57"

sword at the same time, with the purpose ox despatching him^
But Tressiliau was ou. his guard, and, unsheathing his poniard^
parried with the blade of that weapon the home-thrust whicli
would otherwise have finished the combat, and, in the struggle
which followed, displayed so much addi-ess as might have con-
firmed tftie 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 chal-
lenge all Europe to the ring, Varney, in his ill-advised at-
tempt, received a fall so sudden and violent that his sword fle-w
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 sim!"

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 mean while, do you see, shog — tramp — begone; we are
two to one."

He spoke truth, for Varney had taken the opportunity ta
regain his weapon, and Tressilian perceived it was madness to
press the quarrel farther 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^

68 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 retreat-
ing 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 man-
sion-house here. Cautious and silent, thou knave, as thou
vainest thy throat."

"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I can di-aw 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 uncere-
moniously, and muttered to himseK, while he put them up in
his purse along with the gratuity of Varney: "I spoke to
yonder gulls of Eldorado. By St. 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!"

KENILWORTH. '^9

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.

T/ie Deceiver, a Tragedy.

Anthony 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 Lam-
bourne, 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, has-
tening 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 care-
less mixture of negligence and of displeasure, " it is but Rich-
ard 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 hitherto-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 farther commendations to her.

j60 waverley novels.

" This letter, honoured madam, " said he, taking from his
bosom a small parcel wrapt in scarlet silk, " and with it a tok-
en 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
lie 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 dis-
entangled without any other help than the neat and nimble
fingers of Janet — a simply-attired, pretty maiden, the daugh-
ter 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
Tieck-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 m 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. Mas-
ter Varney, and to me his wish is a law. I bid you to a col-
lation in my bower this afternoon, and you, too. Master
Foster. Give orders that all is fitting, and that suitable prep-
arations 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 dis-
•tributes the favour of her presence, as if she were already
the partner of his dignity. Well, it is wise to practise before-

KENILWORTH. 61

liand tlie part whicli 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 ia slight
regard."

*•' It is thine own fault, thou sullen, uninventive companion, "
answered Varney, "who know'st no mode of control, save
downright brute force. Canst thou not make home pleasant
to her vnth music and toys? Canst thou not make the out-
of-doors fi-ightful 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 Yamey, " 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 lec-
turer of St. Antonliii's, had a sore fright there the last time
he came to visit me."

"Hold thy superstitious tongue," answered Varney; "and
while thou talk' st 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 Lamboume, an you must know," an-
swered Foster."

"And who is Mike Lambourne?" demanded Varney. "By
Heaven ! thou wert best set up a bush over thy door, and in-

62 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

vite every stroller who passes by to see what thou shouldst
keep secret even from the sun and air."

" Ay ! ay ! this is a court-like 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 my-
self 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 qualities the very
flashing knave thou didst wish, came hither to fix acquaint-
ance upon me in the plenitude of his impudence, and I ad-
mitted 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 thy-
self, 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
TressUian — to speak Heaven's truth — obtained a moment's in-
terview 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 daugh-
ter shall not enter our purposes or walk in our paths. They
may suit me well enough, who know how to repent of my mis-
doings, but I will not have my child's soul committed to peril
either for your pleasure or my lord's. I may walk among

KENILWORTH. 63

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 re-
pent 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 rviffian 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?" answ^sred
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 ivho shall
blame him?"

64 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"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 j
and I have but a poor lease of this mansion under you, void-
able 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 j
it is not the lending a room or two of this old house for keep-
ing my lord's pretty paroquet — nay, it is not the shutting thy
doors and windows to keep her from flying off, that may de-
serve it. Remember, the manor and tithes are rated at the
clear annual value of seventy-nine pounds five shillings and
fivepence half -penny, 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 di-essed
like a courtier of the time, and even Anthony Foster improved
in appearance, as far as dress could amend an exterior so un-
favourable.

This alteration did not escape Varney. When the meal was
finished, the cloth removed, and they were left to their private
discourse : " Thou art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony, " said Var-
ney, looking at his host; "methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig
anon; but I crave your pardon, that would secure yoiu* 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

KENIL WORTH. 65

"be it according to thiae absurd faith, or according to thy
most villauious 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 aU.
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 ante-cham-
ber 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 swords-
men 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 Avhisper 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 [Dee and Allan, for con-
juring up the devU. 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
5

^ WAVERLEY NOVELS.

onr 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,
Ijecause I q^xe 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 upwards by the billow which it floats
upon."

"Thou art metaphorical, honest Anthony," replied Var-
ney : " that velvet doublet hath made an oracle of thee ; we
'fsill have thee to Oxford to take the degrees in the arts.
And, in the mean time, hast thou arranged all the matters
wnich 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 jl 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," answei-ed Varney; "we
must found oiu' future fortunes on her good liking. "

"We build on sand then," said Anthony Foster; "for sup-
posing 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 against her will, keeping her
a caterpillar on an old wall, when she woidd fain be a painted
butterfly iu a court gardenV"

" Fear not her displeasure, man, " saad Varney. " I will show
her that all thou hast done in this matter was good service,
toth to my lord and her; and when she chips the egg-shell

KENILWORTH. 67

and walks alone, slie shall o\m ^ye have hatclied Iter great-
ness.'"'

"Look to yourself, Master Varney," said Foster, "you may
misreekon 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 aml)i-
tion. Who was it that took the obscui-e Amy Robsart, the
daughter of an impoverished and dotard knight, the destined
bride of a moonstruck, moping enthusiast like Edmund Tres-
silian, from her lowly fates, and held out to her in prospect
the brightest fortune in England, or perchance in Euro]je?
Why, man, it was I — as I have often told thee — that found op-
portmiity 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
shii't 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 Avas I. It was I, in short, Dick
Varney, who puRed this pretty little daisy from its lowly nook,
and placed it in the proudest bonnet in Britain, "

'•' Ay, INIaster 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 Vamey, 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 woidd 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 riot hide her splendour in this dark lantern of an old

68 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

monastic house, but would fain shine a countess amongst
countesses. "

"Very natural, very right," answered Varney; " Out 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 coun-
sel 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 occa-
sion 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."

KENILWORTH. 69

Foster left the room, and the courtier, who remained be-
hind, 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 en-
larged 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 can-
not 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 ob-
scure 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 court-like 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.

70 WAVERLEY NOYELS.

CHAPTER VI.

The dews of summer night did fall,

The moon, sweet regent of tlie sky,
Silver' d the walls of Cum nor Hall,

And many an oak that grew thereby.'

MiCKLE.

Four apartments, which occupied the western side of the
old quadrangle at Cumnor Place, had been fitted up with ex-
traordinary 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 a,partments in that
side of the building from the dilapidated appearance of a dis-
solved monastic house into the semblance of a royal palace.
A mystery was observed in all these arrangements : the work-
men came thither and returned by night, and all measures
were taken to prevent the prying curiosit}^ 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 dec-
orated 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, carefull}^ secured with
bolt and padlock, and mantled with xong curtains of silk and
of velvet, deeply fringed with gold, prevented the slightest
gleam of radiance from 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

• This verse is the commencement of the ballad already quoted as what
suggested the novel.

KENILWORTH. Tl

door of an ante-chamber, 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 finish-
ing was relieved by the number of lights in silver sconces
which hung agauist the walls, and by six large and richly
fi-amed 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-boai-d ; and there was at the other end an ele-
vated gallery for the musicians or minstrels, who might be
summoned to increase the festivity of the evening.

From this ante-chamber opened a banquetiug-room of mod-
erate size, but brilliant enough to dazzle the eyes of the spec
tator 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 haugmgs ; 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 jwrcelain. 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 Briai-eus, whose hundred hands
of silver presented to the guest various sorts of spices, or con-
diments, to season then- food withal.

The thii'd apartment was called the withdi-awing-room. It
was hung with the finest tapestry, representing the fall of

72 WAVERLET NOVELS.

Phaeton ; for the looms of Flanders were now much occupied
ou 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 foot-cloth, was composed of crimson velvet, embroid-
ered 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 Moor-
ish fashion, and ornamented with Arabesque needlework, sup-
plied 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 sil-
ver, 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 silvor 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, ra
the way of ceremony than from any apprehension of danger.

KENILWORTH. 73

We must not omit to mention, -wliat was more to the credit of
tlie manners of the time, that in a small recess, illuminated by
a taper, were disposed two hassocks of velvet and gold, corre-
sponding 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. AVith 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, suit-
ably 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 de-
scribed, surveying with the pleased eye of natural and in-
nocent vanity the splendour which had been so suddeidy
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 SoCn 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 d'fferent 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 imag-
ined, and at the same time with the keen feeling of an affec-

74 ■ WAYERLEY NOVELS.

tionate heart, wliicli knows that) all the enchantment that sur-
rounds her is the work of the great magician Love.

The Countess Amy, thei-efore — for to that rank she "was
exalted by her private but solemn union with England's
proudest earl — had for a time flitted hastily f i-om room to room,,
admiring each new proof of her lover and her bridegroom's
taste, and feeling that adniii-ation 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 I
How richly wrought is that plate, which looks as if all thS'
galleons of Spain had been intercepted on the broad seas to
furnish it forth ! And oh, Janet T' 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 1 how much more de-
lightful 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 tlie wonders it contains."

" The Lord is to be thanked first," said the pretty Puritaja,
" who gave thee, lady, the kind and courteous husband whose
love has done so much for thee. I, too, have done my ppor
share ; but if you thus run wildly from room to room, the toil
of my crisping and my curling pins will vanish like the fret-
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 enrap-
tured 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 — " thoa
sayest true, Janet!" she answered, as she saw, with pardoa-
able 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 coimtess, with these
cheeks flushed with haste, and all these brown curls, which
you laboured to bring to order, straying as wild as the tendril*

KENILWORTH. 75

of aa unpriined 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 with-
drawing-room, my good girl, and thou shalt put these rebel
locks in order, and imprison Avithin 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 Moor-
ish 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 anythiug half so expressive or half so lovely.
The wreath of brilliants which mixed with her dai'k 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 some-
times censured (as beauty as well as art has her minute critics)
for being rather too pale. The milk-white pearls of the neck-
lace which she wore, the same which she had just received as
a true-love token from her husband, were excelled in pui'ity
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 ofliciously employed ui 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 favoui-."

"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 Vamey's path, for so thoroughly hath he
my lord's ear, that few have thriven who have thwarted his
courses."

76 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" And from whom had you this, my most righteous Janet?"
said the countess ; " or why should I keep terms with so meaa
a gentleman as Yarney, being, as T 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 counte-
nance. 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 sate haK-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, imme-
diately 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

KENILWORTH. 77

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 kiadness, or sor-
rowful 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 miautes after,
Varney entered the withdrawing-room with the graceful ease
and unclouded front of an accomplished courtier, skilled, un-
der 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 pos-
sessed in her husband's affections. The blundering revereuce
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 embar-
rassed 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 Kichard 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

78 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

you with distinctiou. We offer you our haud, sii, La recon-
siliation,"

'•' I am unworthy to touch it," said Yarney, dropping on one
knee, " save as a subject honours that of a prince."

He touched with his lips those fair and sleuder fingers, so
richly loaded with rings and jewels j then rising with graceful
gallantry, was about to hand her to the chair of state, when she
said: "No, good Master Eichard Varney, I take not my place
there until my lord himself conducts me. I am for the pres-
ent but a disguised countess, and will not take dignity on me
until authorised by him whom I derive it from. "

"I trust, my lady," said Foster, "that in doing the com-
mands 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
4hey had assumed an appearance so new and so splendid."

"Ay, lady," said Foster, "it hath cost many a fair crown;
iuid that more need not be wasted than is absolutely necessary,
I leave you till my lord's ai-rival with good Master Eichard
Yarney, 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 wiH your
daughter remains here in our apartment; out of ear-shot,
however, in case Yarney hath aught to say to me from my
lord."

Foster made his clumsy reverence and departed, with aa
aspect that seemed to grudge the profuse expense which had
been wasted upon changing his house from a bare and ruinous
grange to an Asiatic palace. When he was gone, his daughter
took her embroidery frame and went to establish herself at the
bottom of the apartment, while Eichard Yarney, with a pro-
foundly humble courtesy, took the lowest stool he could find.

KENILWORTH. 79

aad 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 profound silence.

"I thought, Master Varney," said the countess, when sha
saw he was not likely to open the conversation, " that you had
something to communicate from my lord and husband ; so aJb
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 pei-fect in tent and cross-
stitch but what my superintendence is advisable."

" Lady, " said Varney, " Foster was partly mistaken in mj
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 brie^
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, some-
what sharply.

"Nothing that concerns me, lady," Varney replied with,
hamility. " But, think you, honoured madam, that your lord
win hear it with equal equanimity?"

" And wherefore should he not? To me alone was Trea-
silian's visit embai-rassing and painful, for he brought news
of my good father's illness."

" Of your father's illness, madam I" answered Varney. " It
must have been sudden then — very sudden j for the messenger
whom I despatched, at my lord's mstance, found the good
knight on the hunting-field, cheering his beagles with his
wonted jovial field-ciy. 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 coun-
tess, with animation — "you do him much injustice. He is
the freest, the most open, the most gentle heart that breathea.

so WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 al-
ways 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 Tressil-
ian — 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 power-
ful reasons to withdraw me from this place, that I well trust
lie exaggerated much of my father's indisposition, and that
thy better news may be the truer."

" Believe me they are, madam, " answered Varney. " I pre-
tend 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

KENILWORTH. 81

tlian 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 connexion 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 hus-
band's friend — before my husband himself — before the whole
world?"

" And with the same openness, " said Varney, " your lady-
ship 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 interriew
with you?"

" Unquestionably, " said the countess. " It wiU 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,
^ith 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 s " Come, madam, I will show you that a courtier

6

82 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 com-
mands, 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 movements 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 ain
boimd 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 Vai-ney; "and as I have
no reason to grieve for TressUian, who would have my heart's
blood were he able, I shall reconcile myseK easily to what
may befaU. the gentleman in consequence of your frank dis-
closure 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 thinli by some

KENILWORTa 83

one else? Xo, no, Varney, urge it no more. I will tell tlie
whole matter to my lord; and with, such pleading for Tres-
silian'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 attend-
ant, they know not Tressilian by sight, and I can easily give
them some reasonable excuse for the appearance of an un-
known stranger."

The lady paused for an instant, and then replied : " If, Var-
ney, it be indeed true that Foster knows not as yet that the
man he saw was Tressilian, I own I were imwilling he should
learn what nowise concerns him. He bears himself abeady
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 complaiu 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 caa
hear the tread of his horse through the closely mantled case-
ments."

" Stop me not, Varney; my ears are keener than thine — ^it
is he!"

"But, madam! — but, madam!" exclaimed Varney, anxious-
ly, and stni 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 wiU not be bewrayed
to my prejudice. I implore that "

"Content thee, man — content thee I" said the countess.

84 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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, muifled 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 perti-
nacity; 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 apart-
ment, 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 scab-
bard."

" But so cannot men say of thee, thou noble earl, " said his

KENILWORTH. 85

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 majesti-
cally he led his beautiful coimtess 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 im-
prove 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 affec-
tion, she examined and admired from head to foot the noble
form and princely attire of him who formed the proudest orna-
ment of the court of England's Maiden Queen, renowned as it
was for splendid courtiers, as well as for wise counsellors.
Eegarding 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 sate 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 deco-
rated.

"The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my

S6 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

knee, '' he said, " is the Euglish Garter — an ornament which
kings are proud to wear. See, here is the star Avhich belongs
to it, and here the Diamond George, the jewel of the order.
You have heard how King Edward and the Coiuitess of Salis-
bury "

" Oh, I know all that tale," said the countess, slightly blush-
ing, " and how a lady's garter became the proudest badge of
English chivahy."

"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 roimd. "

" 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 iuter-
changed with these knobs, which are supposed to present
flintstones, sparkling with fire, and sustaining the jewel you
inquire about, is the badge of the noble order of the Golden
Eleece, 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 Biu-gundy, may
not sit in judgment upon a knight of the Golden Fleece,
imless 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! Be-
thLak you of the most unhappy Queen Mai-y'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
Homish tyrant as he of Spain?"

KENILWORTH. 87

"Oh, content you, iny 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."

*•' X ay, 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 St. Andrew, revived by the last James of Scot-
laud. 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 crowa
matrimonial held at the humour of a woman, and owning only
the poor rocks and bogs of the noi-th. "

The countess paused, as if what the earl last said had ex-
cited 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 an-ay as accords with rid-
mg 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 obscuie 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 Eobsart's heart."

"That is a wish easily granted," said the earlj "the sober
russet shall be donned to-morrow, if you will."

"But shall I," said the lady, "go with you to one of youx

88 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

castles, to see how the richness of your dwelling will corre-
spond 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 indifferent-
ly 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 soft-
est 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
afford us a secure footing and resting-place ; if we pause sooner,
we slide down by our own weight, an object of universal de-
rision. I stand high, but I stand not secure enough to follow

KENILWORTH. 89

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
myseK. Meantime, poison not the bliss of the present mo-
ment 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 pri-
vacy," 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, " re-
plied the earl. " Foster is, I note, somewhat sullen of mood,
but V'arney 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 pleas-
ure 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 courtesy, the earl could not
avoid smiling at the contrast which the extreme simplicity of
her dress, and the prim demureuess 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 yoiir 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.

90 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

** that my poor service Hath gratified my lady, whom no one
can draw nigh to without desiring to please ; but we of the
precicnis Master Holdforth's congi-egation 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 sister-
hood, pretty Mrs. 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 yom* congregations. And you may the better
afford the lack of ornament, ^lis. 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 neither, " said Janet, " but
that I hope to find a use for it which will bring a blessing on
us aU.»

" 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 Poster 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 Pichard 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."

KENILWORTH. 91

So saying, he led his lovely wife into the next apartment^
where Varney and Foster received them with the deepest rev-
erences, which the iirst 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 fa-
miliar to her."

The banquet at which the company seated themselves cor-
responded in magnificence with the splendour of the apart-
ment in which it was served up, but no domestic gave his
attendance. Janet alone stood ready to wait upon the com-
pany; and, indeed, the board was so well supplied with aE
that fiould be desired that little or no assistance was necessary.
The earl and his lady occupied the upper end of the table, and
Vainey and Foster sat beneath the salt, as was the custom
with inferiors. The latter, overawed perhaps by society ta
which he was altogether unused, did not utter a single syllable
during the repast ; while Varney, with great tact and discern-
ment, sustained just so much of the conversation as, without
the appearance of intrusion on his part, prevented it from
languishing, and maintained the good-hmnour 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 coun-
tess, 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 apart-
ment, 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
bold such menial situations as nobles themselves held in thab

t2 WAVKRLEY NOVELS.

of the sovereign. The duties of each of these charges were
familial" to Varney, who, sprung from an ancient but some*
what 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 estab-
lishing in him an interest resting both on present and past ser-
vices, which rendered him an almost indispensable sharer of
his confidence.

" Help me to do on a plainer riding-suit, Varney, " said the
€arl, 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
wellnigh 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 think' st thou,
Yarney?"

" 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 wellnigh
resolved they shall bind me to the court no longer. What
can further service and higher favour give me, beyond the
i-ank 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 wellnigh re-
solved to tempt the sea no farther, 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

KENILWORTH. 93

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 re-
gret your lordship's retreat. It will not be Eichard 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 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 ene-
mies. We will suppose, too, that your successful rival wiU 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 chim-
ney. You then begin to think what hopes you have fallea

94 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

from, and what insignificance you have embraced, and all that
you might look babies in the eyes of youi- 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. Beai' 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 pa-
triot 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 mayst tire as thou wilt of thy new bauble,
thy pretty piece of painted Eve's flesh there, I will not be
thy hinderance. 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 lu-ge you to
the ascent he means to profit by, believe me he will spare
neither whip nor spur. And for you, my prett)"- lady, that
wou.ld 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 coidd excuse a man's
politic pate for becoming bewildered, my lord had the excuse

KENILWORTH. 95

at his light hand on tMs 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 mi/ master of the horse shall
order mine OAvn. What was Thomas Cromwell but a smith's
sou, and he died *my lord' — on a scaffold, doubtless, but
that, too, was in chai'acter. And what was Ralph Sadler but
the clerk of Cromwell, and he has gazed eighteen fair lord-
ships,— via/ I know my steerage as well as they."

So saying, he left the apartment.

In the mean while the earl had re-entered the bedchamber,
bent on taking a hasty farewell of the lovely covuitess, and
scarce daring to trust himself in private with her, to hear re-
quests 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 liaed 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 teai'ing 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 ?"

96 WAVERLET NOVELS.

"Anything, Amy — anything thou canst ask I •will grant,"
answered the earl j " always excepting, " he said, " that which
might ruin us both."

*' Nay, " said the countess, " I urge not my wish to be ac-
knowledged 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 communica-
tion 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 Cornishman — 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 thiak 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 TressUian!"

"And why, my lord?" said the countess, though she shud-
dered slightly at the tone of determination in which he spoke ;
"let me but know why you think thus hardly of Tressilian?"

Tnaringr himself from her embrace, yet again returuiiif? to fold her atrain and
agaiu ill his arms.

KENIL WORTH. 97

rr-

" 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 Eatcliffe, 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 litly 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 re-
sentment. "

"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 confes-
sional. I seek no one's ruin; but he who thrusts himseK on
my secret privacy were better look well to his future walk.
The bear ' 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 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?"

" iSTothing, my lord and love, " answered the countess, faint-
ly; " 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 re-
quests which I cannot and dare not grant, thy wish must be

' The Leicester cognizance was the ancient device adopted by his father,
when Earl of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff.
7

98 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 Yarney an ample livery cloak
and slouched hat, in which he wrapped himself so as to dis-
guise his person and completely conceal his features. Horses
were ready in the courtyard for himseK and Varney; for one
or two of his train, entrusted with the secret so far as to know
or guess that the earl intrigued with a beautifid lady at that
mansion, though her name and quality 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 serv-
ing-man held the bridle of the more showy and gallant steed
which E-ichard 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 ofiice. Foster scowled at an interference which seemed
intended to prevent his paying his court to his patron, but gave
place to Varney J and the earl, mounting without farther ob-
servation, and forgetting that his assumed character of a do-
mestic 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 ser-
vice. See here ! a purse of as good gold as ever chinked under
a miser's thumb and forefinger. 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."

KENILWORTH. 99

"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 when
the nightingale is singing?"

" Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler ; and, Mas-
ter 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 mayst 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 re-
sumed, Tony, and well if the holders be not called to account
in Exchequer."

" That were ruin, " said Foster, his brow darkening with ap-
prehensions ; " 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 com-
pelled poverty, and so thou losest on all hands. But follow

100 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

my counsel, and Cuninor Place shall be tliy 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 hu-
mour 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 miae 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 emplojrment 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 hypo-
crites being like a whited sepulchre, which within was full of
dead men's bones, methought he looked fuU at me. The
E-omish 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 ab-
solved. These Puritans tread a harder and a rougher path ;
but I will try — and 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 dis-
guise, and till then I journey in some peril."

KENILWORTH. 101

"It is but two hours' brisk riding, my lord," said Varuey;
"for me, I only stopped to enforce your commands of cai-e
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 ante-chamber, 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 Lam-
bourne. That respectable character was not long of appear-
ing 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?"

"Cog's wounds!" 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 prove 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 f eUow should
have thus vanished? You may ask mine host, Giles Gosling —
ask the tapster and hostler — aslc Cicely, and the whole house-
hold, 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."

102 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Varney did, in fact, make some inquiry among the house-
hold, which confirmed the truth of Lambourne's statement.
Tressilian, it was unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly
and unexpectedly, betwixt night and morning.

" But I win 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, with-
out 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 Var-
ney. " Know you aught of the requisites expected from the
retainer of a rising courtier?"

"I have imagined them to myself, sir," aniswered Lam-
bourne ; "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 Port-
ugal and the Spaniard, both the Dutchman and the Frencli-

KENILWORTH. 103

man. and have made war on our own account with, a crew of
J0II3" fellows who held there was no peace beyond the Line." '

" Thou mayst do me, and my lord, and thyself, good ser-
vice, " 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
ti'uth than politic falsehood, I reply to you that I can be faith-
ful 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 hj-pocrisy, 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. When I made a
little mistake on Shooter's Hill, and stopped an ancient grazier
whose pouches were better liaed 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 wUl 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

* Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold buccanier of those days,
were, in fact, little better than pirates.

104 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

of one second, as tliou 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 Var-
ney ; " 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 Gos-
ling.

" 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 pur-
pose of following this gentleman renders not unlikely, I charge
thee to find a gallows as far from Cumnor as thou conveniently
mayst ; and so I commend you to your saddle. "

The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted
accordingly, leavmg 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 duU one towards my faults, " said Lambourne.

KENILWORTH. 105

" 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 hap-
pened 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 Lam-
bourne ; " and it only remains that you tell me my master's
name."

" My name is Master Richard Varney, " answered his com-
panion.

"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 vie 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 comicil and wields the state. "

" By this light, a brave spell to conjure with, " said Lam-
bourne, "if a man would discover hidden treasures!"

106 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Used witli discretion, it may prove so," replied Yarney;
*' but mark — if thou conjure with it at thine OAvn 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 Eosamond, 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 Marl-
borough, and no less the genius of Vanburgh, 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 resi-
dence, 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 occa-
siojially bestowed upon themj 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 pre-
sented on that morning a scene of bustle which it had not ex-
hibited for two reigns. Officers of the earl's household,
livery-men 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 oc-
cupation of inspecting and surveying the manor and demesne,
was of course provided with the means of following his pleas-
ure in the chase or park, said to have been the earliest that
was inclosed 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 courtj'ard,
and waited the great man's coming forth. Their attentioa

KENILWORTH. 10^

was excited by the hasty arrival of Varney, and a murniur ran
amongst them, "The earl's master of the horse!" while they
hurried to bespeak favour by hastily mibonneting and proffer-
ing 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 de-
portment, 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 house-
hold, 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 mis-
proud 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 dependent,
made his way to the hall, where men of more note and conse-
quence than those left in the courtyard awaited the appear-
ance 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

108 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 of the apartment, through
which the earl made his entrance, marshalled by his chamber-
lain 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 depen-
dants. 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 in-
quiries which he made respecting the condition of the manor,
of the Queen's rights there, and of the advantages and disad-
vantages 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 inhabi-
tants, 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 di-aw 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 resi-
dence during her royal progresses, that the town and its
vicinity might derive from her countenance and favour the

KENILWORTH. 109

same advantages as from those of lier predecessors. Mean-
•whiie, he rejoiced to be the expounder of her gracious pleas-
ure, in assuring them that, for the increase of trade and en-
couragement 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 accept-
able earnest of his new service.

The earl and his retinvie took horse soon after to return to
court, accompanied by the shouts of the inhabitants of Wood-
stock, 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 popu-
larity 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 Var-
aey and Lambourne, each in his rank, rode proudly through
the streets of Woodstock.

CHAPTEE VIII.

Host, I will hear you, Master Fenton ;
And I will, at least, keep your counsel.

Merry Wives of Windsor.

It becomes necessary to return to the detail of those cir-
cumstances 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 Gos-
ling's caravansary, where he shut himself up in his own
chamber, demanded pen, ink, and paper, and announced his

110 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

purpose to remain private for the day. In the evening he
appeared again in the public room, where Michael Lamboume^
who had been on the watch for him, agreeably to his engage-
laent 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 scuffle.

But Tressilian repelled his advances firmly, though with
civility. "Master Lambourne," he said, "I trust I have rec-
ompensed to your pleasure the time you have wasted on me.
Under the show of wild bluntuess 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, " interiiipted
Tressilian, " as you must do at any rate. You know too well
the distance that is betwixt us to require me to explain myself
farther. Good evening."

So saying, he turned his back upon his former companion,
and entered into discourse with the landlord. Michael Lam-
bourne felt strongly disposed to buUy; 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 re-
mained moody and silent in a corner of the apartment, paying
the most marked attention to every motion of his late com-
panion, 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, a,nd 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 alariUi and

KENILWORTH. HI

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, uushrouding 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 pre-
sented to his astonished guest.

"^Vhat 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 conjimetion 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 ac-
quainted."

" 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 acquaint-
ance, I woidd not, my worshipful guest, that it should be at
thy cost. I promise you, Mike Lamboume has been making

112 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

very particular inquiries at my hostler, when and which way
you ride. New, I would have you think, whether you may
not have done or said something for which you may be way-
laid 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 power-
ful 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
the 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 Abing-
don, 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 Tres-
silian.

" Uds precious, but it must be helped in some manner, " said
the host. " Richard Varney — why, what between his influ-
ence 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 Poster, 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."

KENILWORTH. 113

" 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 inakeeper, little able to adjust or counsel such a guest
as yourseK. 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 min-
Btrels 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.

Ay, and then there was Martin Swart I have heard my
grandfather talk of, and of the jolly Almains whom he com*
manded, with their slashed doublets and quaint hose, all
8

114 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

frounced with ribands above tbe netliei-stocks. Here's a song
goes of Martin Swart, too, an I had bat memory for it :

Martin Swart and his men.

Saddle them, saddle them ;
Martin Swart and his men,

Saddle them well." «

"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 Cornish-
men, kept a warm affection to the house of York, and espoused
the quarrel of this Simnel, assumuig the title of Earl of War-
wick, as the county afterwards, in great numbers, counte-
nanced the cause of Perkin Warbeck, calling himself the Duke
of York. My grandsire joined Sinmel's standard, and was
taken fighting desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders
of that imhappy army were slain in their harness. The good
knight to whom he rendered himseK, Sir Roger Robsart, pro-
tected 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 ser-
vant, Will Badger, hath spoke of him an hundred times in
this very house — a jovia,l knight he is, and hath loved hos-

« See Martin Swart. Note 3,

KENILWORTH. 115

pitality 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 ale-
house 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 com-
panion. 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 whose 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 unwiUing 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 ap-
peared in the country, and, availing himself of some distant

116 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

family connexion witli Sir Hugh Bobsart, 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. "Misunderstand-
ing 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 Kobsart received the attentions of
this man Varney with the indifference attached to common
courtesies ; then followed a period in which she seemed to re-
gard him with dislike, and even with disgust ; and then an
extraordinary species of connection appeared to grow up be-
twixt 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 dis-
gust 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 van-
ished from her father's house — Varney disappeared at the
eame 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 Eobsart, 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

KENILWORTH. HT

could not brook the idea that he should live in misery and
Amy in guilt; and I endeavoured to seek her out, with tn»
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 Abiugdon 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 iudeed be widely changed from what she once waa
if my words make no impression upon her. "

" Under your favour. Master TressUian, " 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 thi-own 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

118 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 des-
titute of the principles of honour and nobleness with which
fame invests him. Or I will ap]3eal to the Queen herself."

" Should Leicester, " said the landlord, " be disposed to pro-
tect 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 bC
not treason to speak it — ^will rather, it is said, pardon a dozeu
courtiers for falling in love with herself than one for giving
preference to another woman. Corragio 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 fa-
vourite 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 for-
mally to work ; and, without staying here to tilt with the mas-
ter 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
the 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

KENILWORTH. 119

to the host ; " give tihe balance to prettj Cicely, your daughter,
and the servants of the house. "

" They shall taste of your bounty, sir, " said Grosling, " and
you should taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowl-
edgment, 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 measui-e ; 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 j^esterday 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 cham-
pion of a wench that will none of you, and incur the resent-
ment of a favourite's favourite, as dangerous a monster as ever
a knight adventurer encountered in the old story-books. "

"You do me wi-ong 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 — j)erhaps 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 iifty look
on those matters with different eyes, especially when one case
of peepers is set in the skull of a young gallant and the other
in that of an old publican. I pity you, Master TressUian^^
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 siTspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale-
bench; and be pleased to communicate the tidings in Avi-iting
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."

" Kay, sir, " said the landlord, " I desire no recompense ; but
it seems an unadvised course iu me, being in a public line, to

120 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 mis-
ery, 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
ministered 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 himseK 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 dooi*, and with a hearty shake of the hand,
and a reiteration of his promise to attend to what went on at
Cunmor Place, he dismissed his guest to his solitary journey.

KENILWORTa 121

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 bye-ways 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 Marl-
borough.

But, like counsel of every other kind, this species of direc-
tion is much more easily given than followed ; and what be-
twixt the intricacy of the way, the darkness of the night,
Tressilian' s ignorance of the country, and the sad and per-
plexing 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 forefoot shoe — an
accident which threatened to put a stop to his journey by lam-
ing the animal. The residence of a smith was his first object
of inquiry, in which he received little satisfaction from the
dulness or suUenness 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 jjossible from the un-
fortunate 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 miser-

122 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

able huts, about tbe doors of wbich one or two persons, whose
appearance seemed as rude as that of their dwellings, were be-
ginning 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 neigh-
bours. 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 I
ay, truly is there a smith; what wouldst ha' wi' un, mon?"

" To shoe my horse, good dame," answered Tressilian; "you
may see that he has thrown a forefoot shoe."

"Master Holiday!" exclaimed the dame, without returning
any direct answer — "Master Herasmus Holiday, come and
speak to mon, and please you. "

^^ Favete Unguis," 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 mild cum cahallo ? " 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 au-
thority 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 cas-
sock 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 hai-lequin'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

KENILWORTH. 123

schoolmaster unbonneted, and accosted him with, ^^ Salve,
doviine. Intelligisne llnguam Latinam ? "

Tressilian mustered his learning to reply: " LingiuB LatincB
haaid penitus ignarus, venia tua, domine emditissime, vema-
culam Uhent'ms loqiior."

The Latia 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 ouce 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 sim-
ple thing, most worshipful, to reply to you that there dwells,
within a brief mile of these fvguria, the best fab er ferraritiSf
the most accomplished blacksmith, that ever nailed iron upon
horse. Now, were I to say so, I warrant me you would think
yourself coawpos 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 li\dng creature to Wayland
Smith."

"Peace, Gammer Sludge!" said the pedagogue; "^;a?<ca
verba, Gammer Sludge ; look to the f urmity. Gammer Sludge ;
eurefur jentacidum, 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
jouvsoM felix bis terqvs ^hovldi I point out to you the dwelling
of this same smith?"

" Sir, " replied TressUian, " I should in that case have all
that I want at jiresent, a horse fit to carry me forward — out
of hearing of your learning." The last words he muttered to
himself.

" 0, cceca mens mortalium, ! " said the learned man ; " well
was it sung by Junius Juvenalis, * nuowinibvs vota exaudita
malignis ! ' "

"Learned magister," said Tressilian, "your erudition so
greatly exceeds my poor intellectual capacity, that you must

124 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

excuse my seeking elsewliere for information wliicli I can bet-
ter understand."

"There again now," replied the pedagogue, "how fondly
you fly from him that would instruct you ! Truly said Quin-
tilian "

" 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 oppor-
tunity 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 ham-
let— nostra paupera regna — no regular hospitium, as my name-
sake 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 ac-
commodate 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, foenum habet in cornu; and if it please you to be-
stow on me the pleasure of your company, the banquet shall
cost you ne semissem qmdem, 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 dish-
clout ; 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

KENILWORTH. 125

Holiday, partook of his furinity, and listened to his learned
account of himself for a good haK-hour, ere he could get him.
to talk upon any other topic. The reader will readUy 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
saymg, 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 hav-
ing been the son of a renowned washerwoman, who had held
that great scholar in clean linen all the while he was at Ox-
ford— a task of some difficulty, as he was only possessed of
two shirts, " the one, " as she expressed herseK, " to wash the
other." The vestiges of one of these camicue, as Master Holi-
day 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 dif-
ferent 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 pleas-
ures had made him known to many honourable persons, both in
coimtry and court, and especially to the noble Earl of Leices-
ter. " And although he may now seem to forget me," he said.

126 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 mean
while, 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 IpJnjcli
boves — what has all this to do with the shoeing of my poor
nag?"

" Festina lente, " said the man of learning, " we will present-
ly come 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 viagister artium, save in right of his hungry belly. Or
it may be that, if he had any degrees, they were of the devil's
givuig, for he was what the vulgar call a white witch, a cun-
ning 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 Tres-
sUian ; " only let us travel at a sharper pace, for my time is
somewhat of the shortest."

"Well, sir," resumed Erasmus Holiday, with the most pro-
voking 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 Eosy Cross, a disciple of Geber,
€X noynine cujus venit verhutn vemacifhiTn, gibberish. He cured
wounds by salving the weapon instead of the sore, told for-
tunes by palmistry, discovered stolen goods by the sieve and
shears, gathered the right maddow and the male fern seed.

KENILWORTH. 127

througli use of wlxicli men walk invisible, pretended some ad-
vances 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 leters, " you shall imderstand that presently ; patientia
then, right worshix-)ful, which word, according to our Marcus
Tullius, is '' difficilium t^erum diurna perjyessio." This same
Demetrius Doboobie, after dealiug 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 Aoilgar
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. Kow 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, regulatiug
it by just measure, compounding his di'ugs, tracing his cir-
cles, cajoling his patients, et sic de ccetei'is. Well, right wor-
shipful, 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, * TJno avulso, non
deficit alter ^; and, even as a tradesman's apprentice sets
liimself up in his master's shop when he is dead, or hath re-
tired from business, so doth this Wayland assume the dan-
gerous trade of his defunct master. But although, most wor-
shipful sir, the world is ever prone to listen to the pretensions
of such unworthy men, who are, indeed, mere saltim hanqui
and tharlatani, though usurping the stj'le and skill of doctors
of medicine, yet the pretensions of this poor zany, this Way-
land, 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 o^vn rugged words :

Dilnis hellebornm, certo compescere puncto
Nescius examen ? vetat hoc natura medendii

128 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

which I have thus rendered in a poor paraphrase of mine

own:

"Wilt thou mis hellebore, who doth 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 devO. that
serves him, since the death of Demetrius or Doboobie, put him
on a fresh device. This knave, whether from the inspiratioa
of the devil or from early education, shoes horses better
than e'er a man betwixt us and Iceland ; and so he gives up
Ids practice on the bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged spe-
cies called mankind, and betakes him entirely to shoeing of
horses."

"Indeed I 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 :
*' Oj cceca 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 fine words and learned
apophthegms which glided so fluently from her erudite in-
mate, 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 wiU. Sttfflamina, 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 ovm rude style, for certainly this faber farrarius,
or blacksmith, takes money of no one."

KENILWORTH. 12^

" And that is a sure sign lie 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 poiut.
This Wayland takes no money, iudeed, nor doth he sho\y
himself to any one."

"And can this madman, for such I hold him," said the
traveller, "Imow aught like good skill of his trade?"

" Oh, sir, in that let us give the devil his due. Mulciber
himseK, 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 TressUian, 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 ma7ius," said the magister — "I submit, taking the
world to witness that I have possessed this honourable gentle-
man 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 j
" you may peril your own soul, if you list, but my son shall
budge on no such errand ; and I wonder at you. Dominie Doc-
tor, 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.**
9

130 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Ay, " said his mother, " and I have sewn a sprig of witch's
elm in the necli 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 con-
jurer for his own pastime, he may for once go thither, or near
it, to pleasure us, and to assist this stranger. Ergo^ heus,
Micarde ! adsis, qttceso, mi didaseule. "

The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came
stumbling into the room — a queer, shambling, ill-made urchin,
who, by his stmited 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, sun-
burnt 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 im-
possible to look at the little man without some disposition to
laugh, especially when Gammer Sludge, seizmg 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 Wayiaud Smith's workshop."

"A proper errand of a morning," said the boy, in better
language than Tressilian expected j "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 Dominie, 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 ! migcB, good Gammer Sludge, " answered the pre-
ceptor; "I ensure you that Satan, if there be Satan in the
ease, shall not touch a thread of his garment; for Dickie can
say his pater with the best, and may defy the foul fiend —
Muinenides, Sti/gmmique nefas. "

" Ay, and I, as I said before, have sewed a sprig of the moun-
tain-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."

KENILWORTH. 131

" My good boy, " said Tressilian, who saw, from a grotesque
sneer oa Dickie's face, that he was more likely to act upon his
own bottom than by the instruction 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 Waj^land 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 grandame'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 chicken as fast as her old legs could carry her.

" Kow 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, " Sufflaminaf
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 pre-
vent 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 vocab-
ulary affords to persuade his return. But to 7ni anlme, cov
euhfin 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 de-
parting to join his elvish guide, after half -forcing on the poor
deserted teacher a recompense for the entertainment he had
received, which partly allayed the terror he had for facing the
return of the old lady of the mansion. Apparently this took

132 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

place soon afterwards ; for ere Tressiliau and his guide had
proceeded far on their journey they heard the screams of a
cracked female voice, intermingled with the classical objurga-
tions of Master Erasmus Holiday. But Dickie Sludge, equally
deaf to the voice of maternal tenderness and of magisterial au-
thority, skipped on unconsciously before Tressilian, only ob-
serving that : " If they cried themselves hoarse, they might go
lick the honey-pot, for he had eaten up all the honeycomb
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.

" Ake 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
Tboy?"

" No, bat were you with my grandame and Dominie Holi-
day, 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 grandame 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."

KENILWORTH. 133

" 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
jolterheads, 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,
und that's what I would not tell to every one."

" And why do you tell it to me, then, my boy?" said
Tressiiian.

" 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 Tressiiian.

" 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, Eichard! are you bound for court?" said Tres-
siiian.

"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 Eichard
Sludge alone ; I have not been cock of the roost here for noth-
ing. I will make sharp wit mend foul feature. "

" But what will your grandame 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 whereabout are they to be held, my little friend?"
said Tressiiian.

134 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Oh, at some castle far iu 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 Tres-
silian, somewhat interested by the boy's boldness of conversa-
tion and shrewd estimate of character.

" In faith, " said Eichard 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 down hill, 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 noth-
ing 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 Way-
land Smith's counter, that you must tell down your money
upon."

"What do you mean by such folly?" said the traveller, be-
ginning 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 thea
you must whistle three times, and lay me down your sil-
ver 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

KENILTVORTH. 135

into the circle ; you will find yoiu* money gone and your horse
«hod."

" My money gone to a certainty !" said Tressilian ; " but as
for the rest Hark ye, my lad, I am not your schoolmas-
ter; but if you play oif your waggery on me, I wiU take a
part of his task off his hands, and punish you to purpose."

"Ay, when you can catch me!" said the boy; and present-
ly took to his heels across the heath, with a velocity which
bafEed every attempt of Tressilian to overtake him, loaded as
he was with his heaiy boots. Kor 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 fright-
ened, 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 weariaess, 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 ridicidous. 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 ex-
pression 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 irre-
sistible 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 hallooed
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

136 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

hard by would swallow all the horses of the Queen's Guard; I
will mto 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 mow-
ing, and come hither ; I will do thee no harm, as I am a gentle-
man."

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 haK-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 flesh-
less 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 Tres-
silian, " 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, sayst thou?"

" Ay, but thou must whistle louder than an unfledged ouzel, "

KENILWORTH. 137

said tlie boy, as Tressilian, having laid down his money, and
lalf -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 Tres-
silian.

" Man or devil, " said Dickie, " I see that I must summon
iim for you" ; and therewithal he whistled sharp and shrill,
with an acuteness of sound that almost thrilled through Tres-
silian'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

138 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"wliich Ills guide had required, started up with his sword in
his haud, ran round the thicket, and confronted a man in a
farrier's leathern apron, but otherwise fantastically attired la
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 Tressil-
ian, " 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 ! th©
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
Ked Dragon? Hence! avoid thee, ere I summon Talpack with
his iiery 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
TressUian, 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."

"I think, worshipful sir," said the smith, sinking his ham-
mer, 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

KE^^ILWORTH. 139

is sliod, and your farrier paid. What need you cumber your-
self 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
ai"e 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
couched, 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 : " Flib-
bertigibbet, 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 ai-ch sneer, as if marking his
companion's uncertainty.

" Not yet, " said Tressilian, firmly ; and shaking off his mo-
mentary 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

140 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 sus-
pended 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 im-
proved by subsequent study to give way to any imaginary
terrors ; and after givmg a glance around him, he again de-
manded 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 St. 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 com-
pany. 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 pamf ul train of recol-
lections 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.

KENILWORTH. 141

** 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, 1 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 handicrafts-
man, plying thy trade in so melancholy a dwelling, and imder
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 ap-
proached 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 de-
servest 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 imgainly

142 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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."

"SjDeak not of it," said Tressilian, "but go on Avitn. 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 mean time than he
hath been this morning, and made fitter for travel."

With that the artist left the vault, and returned after afew
minutes' interval. Here, also, we pause, that the narrative
may commence in another chapter.

CHAPTER XI.

I say, my lord can siich a subtil ty
( 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 Canoii's Yeoman^s Prologue — Canterhnry 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-thumb' d, leathern-apron' d, swart-faced knave of that
noble mystery. But I tired of ringing hanimer-tiuies on iron
stithies, and went out into the world, where I became ac-
quainted 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 weU?"

"Excellently," said Tressilian; "but be brief,"

" It was not long after I had performed at Sir Hugh Eob-
sart's, in your worship's presence," said the artist, "that I
took myself to the stage, and have swaggered with the brav-

KENILWORTH. 143

est of them all, both at the Black Bull, the Globe, the For-
tune, 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, mmgled with turmerick, gum-mastick,
and one head 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 prac-
tice, as well as his skill, went far beyond mme, and dealt in
more dangerous concerns. He was not only a bold, adven-
turous practitioner in physic, but also, if your pleasure so
chanced to be, an adept, who read the stars, and expounded
the fortunes of mankind, gel^thliacally, as he called it, or
otherwise. He was a learned distiller of simples, and a pro-
foimd 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,

144 WAVER LEY NOVELS.

curiously intermingled with talismanical characters, and scraps
of Greek and Hebrew. In the midst were some Latin verses
from a cabalistic 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 cheat-
ing 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 doubt-
less thought his long and mysterious absences from his ordi-
nary residence in the town of Farringdon were occasioned by
Shis 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 pro-
cured 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
euddenly disappeared, pretending to me that he was about to
visit his elaboratory in this place, and forbidding me to disturb

KENILWORTH. 145

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 him-
self, acquainting me that we should never meet again, be-
queathing me his chemical apparatus and the parchment which
I have just put into your hands, advising me strongly to pros-
ecute 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 re-
turned 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 Holi-
day, 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 Flibberti-
gibbet, who hath spread my renown, I have not wanted cus-
tom. 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 opportu-
nity to leave this vault when I can have the protection of some
worshipful person agamst the fury of the populace, in case
they chance to recognise me."

" And art thou, " said Tressilian, " perfectly acquainted with
the roads in this country?"

"I could ride them every inch by midnight," answered
10

146 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Wayland Smith, which was the name this adept had aa-
sumed.

" 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 di-ess 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 thiak, both address and courage, and
I have matter to do that may require both."

Wayland Smith eagerly embraced the proposal, and pro-
tested 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 recognise him.

"My debtors would not pay me money," said Wayland,
shaking his head ; " but my creditors of every kind would be
less easily blinded. Aiid, in truth, I hold myself not safe,
unless under the protection of a gentleman of birth and char-
acter, 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 in-
stant, 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, Tres-
silian 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

KENILWORTH. 14=7

the boy, "and there is an end of all our game at bo-pee^D with
the cowardly lubbards whom I brought hither to have their
broad-footed nags shod 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 ad-
vantage, you may profit by my prank."

"What dost thou mean, boy?" said Tressilian ; butFlibber*
tigibbet 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 bafded Tressilian's former at-
tempts to get hold of him.

"It is in vain to chase him," said Wayland Smith; "for,
tmless 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 pro-
ceed at a round pace, as soon as Tressilian had exx^lained 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.

148 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

*' That is owing to a little secret of mine. I mixed tliat with
an handful of oats which shall save your worship's heels th©
trouble of spurring these six hours at least. Nay, I have not
studied medicine and pharmacy for nought."

" I trust, " said Tressilian, " your di'ugs will do my horse na
harm?"

"Ko more than the mare's milk which foaled him,"aji»j
swered the artist ; and was proceeding to dilate on the excel-
lence of his recipe, when he was interrupted by an explosion
as loud and tremendous as the mine which blows up the ram-
pari; of a beleaguered city. The horses started, and the riders
were equally surprised. They turned to gaze in the directioa
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 habitatioa
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 quick*
ening 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
iNature, 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."

KENILWORTH. 149

" It may be so, " said Tressilian ; " those who find thpnLnelves
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 j
for he is as faithful when attached as he is tricky and malig-
nant to strangers; and, as I said before, I have cause ta
say so."

Tressilian pursued the conversation no farther; and they
continued their journey towards Devonshire without farther
adventure, until they alighted at an inn in the town of Marl-
borough, since celebrated for havmg 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 ID. news fly fast, and
that Listeners seldom hear a good tale of themselves.

The innyard 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 ques-
tions. " 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 thi-ee miles
from the Whitehorse of Berkshire, this very blessed morning,
in a flash of fire and a piUar 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 horse 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

150 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

return ; " I liave carried a horse to Wayland Smitli myself
for he passed all farriers in this country."

" Did you see him?" said Dame Alison Crane, mistress ol
the inn bearing that sign, and deigning to term "husband"
the owner thereof, a mean-looking hop-o'-my-thumb sort of
person, whose haltuig gait, and long neck, and meddling, hen-
pecked insignificance are supposed to have given origin to tha
celebrated old English tune of " My Dame hath a lame tauiQ
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 fel-
low 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 ailent 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
chHd 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 savia
mixed with vinegar; but then no hartshorn and savin ever
wrought so speedy a cure. And I am di-eading that, if Way

KENILWORTH. 151

land Smith be gone, the bots will have more power over
horse and cattle."

The pride of art, which is certainly not inferior in its influ-
ence to any other pride whatever, here so far operated oa
Wayland Smith that, notwithstanding the obvious danger of
his being recognised, he could not help winking to Tressilian,
and smiling mysteriously, as if triumphing in the undoubted
evidence of his veterinary skill. In the mean while, the dis-
course continued.

"E'en let it be so," said a grave man in black, the com-
panion 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. Eor the rest, let the clergy look
to it. Every man to his craft, says the proverb — the parsoa
to the prayer-book and the groom to his currycomb."

"I vow," said Dame Crane, "I think Jack E[ostler 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 Pinnie^vinks 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 Piimiewinks's awl no more than a cambric ruif
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 I

152 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 Simp-
kins 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
despatched their worthy and obsequious host on the errand
of procuring wine and refreshment, than Way land Smith began
to give vent to his self-importance.

" You see, sir," said he, addressing Tressilian, "that I noth-
ing fabled in asserting that I possessed fully the mighty mys-
tery 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 di-iven me forth from a sta-
tion 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 sor-
cerer."

KEXILWORTH. 153"

"l^ow, Heaven forgive them," said the artist, "who con*
found 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 Crank [Crane] herself in-
cluded, 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, apologising 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 dare say, 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-

154 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

string ; and intimated that, saving for the sake of the horses,
•which required both rest and food, he would advise his wor-
shipful 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 some-
thing soothed the asperity of the artist, which wholly vanished
before a choice capon, so delicately roasted that "the lard
frothed on it," said Wajdand, "like May-dew on a lilv"; and
both Gaffer Crane and his good dame became, in 1^ 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 boil 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 them-
selves for the night.

The next morning found them early travellers. And, not
to fatigue the reader with unnecessary particulars, they trav-
versed without adventure the counties of Wiltshire and Somer-
set, and, about noon of the third day after Tressilian' s leav-
ing Cunmor, arrived at Sir Hugh Eobsart's seat, called
Lidcote Hall, on the frontiers of Devonshire.

KENILWORTH. 165

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 HaU was situated near the
village of the same name, and adjoined the wild and extensive
forest of Exnioor, 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
pepper-boxes which, in modern Gothic architecture, are em-
ployed for the same purpose. One of these turrets was square,
and occupied as a clock-house. But the clock was now stand-
ing still — a circumstance peculiarly striking to Tressilian, be-
cause the good old kjiight, 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 shop-keepers 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 di-awbridge 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 man-

156 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

sion, 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 recognised Tres-
silian.

" Lord love you, " he said, " Master Edmund, be it thou in
flesh and fell? Then thou mayst 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?" de-
manded 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 S winef ord 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 Tres-
silian.

"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 some-
what move him, for you know, Master Edmund, he was par-
ticular 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. Mean-
while, let this person be ta'en to the buttery, and used with re-
spect. 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 him-

KENILWORTH. 157

self at a low wiiidow, " I have known as honest a faced fellow
iiave 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 in-
stant 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-di-aught 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 ap-
peared— 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 win-
dows. 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

158 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Hugh's great chamber, which the good knight usually in-
habited. 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, some-
what obscured by neglect, sat Sir Hugh Eobsart 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 ap-
peared to labour had, even during his few weeks' absence,
added bulk to his j)erson ; 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 vmcer-
tainty, 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 an-
other recess in the apartment. He, too, signed a mournful
greeting to Tressilian, and laid his book aside, to watch the
elfect his appearance should produce on the afflicted old
man.

As Tressilian, his own eyes filling fast with tears, ap-
proached 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 with-
out 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

KENILWORTH. 159

questions — none, Edmund; thou hast not found her, or so
found her that she were better lost."

Tressilian Avas 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 bitter-
ness."

"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 De'nshire 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 Eichard was slain ; out on my
memory ! and 1 warrant none of you will help me "

"The battle of Bosworth," said Master Mumblazen,
" stricken between Eichard Crookback and Heni-y Tudor,
grandsire of the Queen that now is, pHvio Henrici Septimi,
and in the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-five
post Christum natnm." '

"Ay, even so," said the old knight, "every child knows it.
But my poor head forgets all it should remember, and remem-
bers 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 re-
tire 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 b©
strengthened to sustain the trials He sends us."

» [Compare p. 114, where the battle of Stoke is spoken of.]

160 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" True — true, old friend, " said Sir Hugh, " and we will bear
our trials manfully. AVe have lost but a woman. See, Tres-
silian" — he drew from his bosom a long ringlet of glossy hair
— "see this lock! I tell thee, Edmund, the very night sh&
disappeared, when she bid me good even, as she was wont,
she hung about my neck and fondled me more than usiial ; 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 compli-
cation 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 in-
feriority. "

" C^est Vhomme,^^ said Master Mumblazen, " qui se bast, eS
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 briars 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 to-morrow!"

Tressilian and the curate joined in urging the exhausted
old man to lay himself to rest, and at length prevailed. Tres-
silian 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 cir-
cumstances.

KEXILWORTH. 161

They could not exclude from these deliberations Master
!RIichael Muniblazen ; and they admitted him the more readily
that, besides what hopes they entertained from his sagac-
ity, 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 re-
lated to the house of Robsart ; in virtue of which connexion,
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 pre-
cisely 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 unhaEppy 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 com-
pelled to abandon them to the Eomish wolves."

" That was in tertio 3Ia7'ice," 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 w.as a house of removal
for the monks of Abingdon."

" Whose arms, " said Master Michael, " I have seen over a
11

162 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

stone chimney in the hall — a cross patonc^ betwixt four
martlets."

" There, " said Tressilian, " this unhappy maiden resides,
in company with the villain Varney. But for a strange mis-
hap, 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, laquel amoris, or lacs
d' amour," said Mumblazen.

" It is in that I require your aid, my friends, " said Tres-
silian ; " 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 ccelebs and sine i^role" said Mumblazen,
with more animation than he usually expressed, " than part.

KENILWORTH. 163

per pale, the noble coat of Eobsart with that of such a mis-
creant!"

" If it be your object, as I cannot question, " said the clergy-
man, " 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 Leices-
ter j but I could kneel to the proud Dudley, if doing so could
remove one shade of shame from this unhappy damsel. Yon
will assist me, then, to procure the necessary powers from Sir
Hugh Eobsart?"

The curate assured him of his assistance, and the herald
nodded assent.

" You must hold yourselves also in readiness to testify, ia
case you are called upon, the open-hearted 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 oftea
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; Yarney was mufiled 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 St. Austen's Eve, I saw Varney's
groom, attired in his liveries, hold his master's horse and Mis-
tress Amy's palfrey, bridled and saddled pro-per, behind the
wall of the churchyard."

164 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" And now is she found mewed up in liis 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 saymg, Tressilian left the room.

" He is too hot, " said the eurate ; " and I pray to God that
He may grant him the patience to deal with Varney as is fit-
ting."

" 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 he 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 con-
fidence 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

KENILWOBTH. 165

draught to beast or body — I who can gie a drench, and a ball,
and bleed, or blister, if need, to my veiy 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 ventui-ed to
administer any medicine to Sir Hugh Robsart.

" Why, " replied the artist, " your worship cannot but re*
member that I told you I had made more progress into my
master's — I mean the learned Doctor Boboobie'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 par-
ticularly 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 Hiigh RobBart's health — thou
ghalt find thy grave at the bottom of a tin mine."

"I know too little of the great cnranum to convert the ore
to gold, " said Wayland, firmly. " But truce to your appre-
hensions, Master Tressilian. I imderstood the good knight's
ease, 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 Tres-
silian.

" 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 re-
sult of the good knight's slumbers."

166 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 what-
ever 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 at-
torney, 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 weU 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

KENILWORTH. 167

silver of various coinage, the savings of twenty years ; which
lie now, without speaking a syllable upon the subject, dedi-
cated to the service of the patron whose shelter and protection
had given him the means of making this little hoard. Tres-
silian 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
80 suddenly removed, and in a manner so imexpected.

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
Eobsart, 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 laAV ; and of this Tressilian re-
minded 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 mustachios ; 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 mustachios 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, ii- -

168 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

deed, pretend to be what is called a luau of mettle — one of
those rulEing teai-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 fiay.
But I know that I can serve your worship better in such quest
as yovirs 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 an useful attendant
upon the present emergency. Ere lie had come to a deter-
mination, the trampling of a horse was heard in the courtyard,
and Master Mumblazen and Will Badger both entered hastily
into TressiKan's chamber, speaking almost at the same mo-
ment.

" 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 holdiag in
his mouth a brick-bat, 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 Tkessilian, cub good Friexd axd Cousijt:

"We are at present so ill at ease, and otherwise so un-
happily circumstanced, that we are desirous to have around us
those of our friends on whose lovmg-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 ]30or lodging at Say's
Court, near Deptford, where we will treat farther with jou.
of matters which we deem it not fit to commit unto writing.
And so we bid you heartily farewell, being your loving kins-
man to command, Eatcliffe, Earl of Sussex."

KENILWORTH. 169

" Send up tlie messenger instantly, Will Badger, " said Tres-
silian ; and as the man entered the room he exclaimed : " Ah,
Stevens, is it 3'ou? how does my good lord?"

" 111, 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
fold 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 dis-
ease?"

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 api)etite, faint-
ness, 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 St.
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
his disease, and can cure him. Eemember 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 sus-

170 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

picions 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 hlessmgs, and,
attended by "Wayland and the Earl of Sussex's domestic, trav-
elled witli the utmost speed towards London.

CHAPTEK 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.

Tkessilian and his attendants pressed their route with all
despatch. He had asked the smith, indeed, when their de-
parture was resolved on, whether he would not rather choose
to avoid Berkshire, in which he had jDlayed a part so con-
spicuous? 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
mustachios 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 appear-
ance 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 fan-
tastic 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, sav-
age-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

KENILWORTH. 17j

cause of a metamorphosis so singular and so absolute, Way-
land 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 re-
minded 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 com-
pletely changed his disguise, which may be the more correct
mode of spfeaking, 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 gim-
powder 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 ex-
traordinary practice in farriery prevails in the Vale of White-
horse 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 4.

172 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

The haste of the travellers admitted their making no stay
upon their journey, save what the refresliment 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 pru-
dent 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 sersdceable.
He seemed, indeed, to have a j)leasure in displaying the alert-
ness with which he could baflle investigation, and amuse him-
self by putting the curiosity of tapsters and innkeepers on a
false scent. During the course of their brief journey, three
different and iaconsistent repoi-ts were cii'culated 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 Kory Oge MacCarthy Mac-
Mahon; 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, incog-
nito, to adjust the quarrel betwixt Philip and that princess.

Tressilian was angry, and expostulated with the artist on
the various inconveniences, and, iu particular, the uimecessary
degree of attention, to which they were subjected by the fig-
ments 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 (Tressil-
ian'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 exci-
ted 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 en-

KENILWORTH. 173

treaties of Wayland Smitli, who desired permission to take a
walk through the city.

" Take thy sword and buckler, and follow me, then, " said
TressUian ; " 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 in-
teresting moment, when rival factions at the court of Elizabeth
were running so high. Wayland Smith williugly 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 walk-
ing through Fleet Street, and permit him to make some
necessary purchases. Tressiliau 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 shop-keeper, 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 else-
where. But one ingredient, in particular, seemed almost im-
possible to be found. Some chemists plainly admitted they
had never seen it, others denied that such a drug existed, ex-
cepting 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 su-
perior 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 under-
stood 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

174 WAVmiLEY NOVELS.

left the shop, lie 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, neverthe-
less, 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 bye-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 saltier-ways, 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, meia
Ood, 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 ex-
hibited a powder, and then continued: " But it will cost much
monies. 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."

KENILWORTH. 175

" I do not know how often it is gathered on Mount Sinai, "
said Wayland, after looking at tlie drug offered hini 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 Tres-
silian could not understand a word, and which seemed to strike
the Jew with the utmost astonishment. He stared upon Way-
land like one who has suddenly recognised some mighty hero
or dreaded potentate in the person of an unknown and un-
marked 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 miser-
able threshold by crossmg it.

"Vill you not taste a cup vith the poor Jew, Zacharias
Yoglan? Vill you Tokay ave? — vill you Lachrymse 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 ex-
pression, which seemed to grudge every grain of what his cus-
tomer was about to possess himself, disputed ground in hi3
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

176 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 tliese I do mine own experi-
ment; one hair of the high-priest's beard would turn them."

"It suffices, " said the artist; and weighed out two di-achms
for himself of the black jjowder, 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 himseK to the substance of
the withered gou.rd of Jonah, the holy prophet? You vill 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 crea-
tion; watch, therefore, and pray, for thou must attain the
knowledge of Alchahest Elixir Samech ere I may commime
farther 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

KENILWORTH. 177

the whole lane he lives in with dollars, and scarce miss them
out of his own iron chest ; yet he goes mad after the philoso-
pher" s stone; and, besides, he would have cheated a poor serv-
ing-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 deal-
ing 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, com]30und the true orvietan,^ that noble
medicine which is so seldom found genuine and elfective
within these realms of Europe, for want of that most rare and
precious drug which I got but now from Yoglan."

"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. "Xo 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 pres-
ent habitation of Lord Sussex, an ancient house, called Say's
Court," near Deptford, which had long pertained to a family of

1 See Note 5.

" The court has now entirely disappeared, and its site is occupied by a
workhouse {Lahw).

12

178 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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. Say's 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 MemoirSf
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.

Say's Court was watched like a beleaguered fort; and so
high rose the suspicions of the time, that Tressilian and his at-
tendants 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 weKare ; 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 de-
termine. To finesse, to hold the cards, to oppose one interest

' Evelyn's name has also become familiar through his Memoirs, compris-
ing a Diary from 1641 to 1705, and a Selection of Familiar Letters, pub-
lished from his MSS., discovered at Say's Court in 1818 {Laiiig),

KENILWORTH. 179

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 fre-
quently 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 ser-
viceable 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, imiting in his person the representation
of the Eitz-Walters, as well as of the Eatcliffes, 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 HiU, 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 appre-
hensions, 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

180 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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.'

On Tressilian's arrival at Say's Court, he found the place
filled with the retainers of the Earl of Sussex, and of the gen-
tlemen who came to attend their patron in his illness. Arms
were in every hand, and a deep gloom on every comitenance,
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 per-
sons 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 ear-rings, having each
a pearl of considerable size. The countenance of this youth,
besides beuig regularly handsome and accomi^anied 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 en-
terprising character, the power of reflection and the prompti-
tude 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
> See Leicester and Sussex. Note 6.

KENILWORTH. 181

to them, without speaking to his companion. The looks of
the elder were of that sort which convinced the beltolder 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, partizans, and the similai' 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 mus-
tering his own dramatis i^ersonce^ 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 fi-om their mus-
ing and bade 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."

" Fy, " replied Tressilian, " my Lord of Leicester is honour-
able."

"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 hulk as they may
purchase by clubbing then- broken fortunes ; and so soon as
all is over we will lay our noble lord in a noble green grave.

182 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

have a blow at those who have hurried him thither, if oppor-
tunity suits, and then sail for the Indies with heavy hearts
and light purses."

*' It may be, " said TressUian, " 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 fortunes 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
eays another dear friend of thy name :

What man that sees the ever whirling wheel
Of change, 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 pac-
ing 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, saymg: "I marvel, Tressilian, you
will feed the lad in this silly humour. If there were aught 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, chilaish trick of poetry that came among us with
Master Walter Wittypate here and his comrades, twisting into
aU manner of uncouth and incomprehensible forms of speech
the honest plain English phrase which God gave us to express
our meaning withal."

KENILWORTH. 183

" 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." '

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 oa
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. Tres-
silian evaded his inquiries for a moment, and turning his dis-
course 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 hesi-
tated not, therefore, to communicate to Sussex the whole his-
tory of his attendant, and the pretensions he set up to euro
the disorder under which he laboured. The earl listened with
incredulous attention until the name of Demetrius was men-
tioned, 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."

The secretary turned to the passage at once, and read:
" And said declarant, beicg examined, saith, That he remem-
bers havuig 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.
« See Sir Walter Raleigh, Note 7.

184 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"It may be," said the earl, "thou art sent by those who
have begim this work, to end it for them ; but bethink, if I
miscarry under thy medicine, it may go hard with thee."

"That were severe measures," said Way land, "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 imder
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. TeE me how this medicine is to be taken."

"That will I do presently," said Way land; " 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 be fatal. I myself will Avatch 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 taldng it being my own
free action and choice, in regard I believe it to be a remedy
which God has furnished me by imexpected 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

KEXILWOETH. 1^

aad -will to serve lier, with more ability to do so tliaji liatli
been assigned to poor Tbomas E,atcliffe. "

He then folded bis bands, and seemed for a second or two
absorbed in mental devotion, tben took tbe potion in bis band,
and, jDausmg, regarded Wayland witb a look tbat seemed de-
signed to penetrate bis very soul, but wbicb caused no anxiety
or hesitation in tbe countenance or manner of tbe artist.

" Here is nothing to be feared, " said Sussex to Tressilian,
and swallowed the medicine without farther hesitation.

" I am now to pray your lordship," said Wayland, "to dis-
pose 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 death-bed,"

The chamberlain and secretary tben withdrew, giving orders
that all doors should be bolted, and all noise in the house
strictly prohibited. Several gentlemen were voluntary watch-
ers in the hall, but none remained in the chamber of the sick
eai-1, save bis groom of tbe chamber, the ai-tist, and Tressilian.
Wayland Smith's predictions were speedily accomplished, and
a sleep fell upon tbe earl so deep and sound that they who
watched bis bedside began to fear that, in his weakened state,
be might pass away without awakening from bis lethargy.
Wa3-land Smith himself appeared anxious, and felt the temples
of the eaii slightly from time to time, attending particularly
to tbe state of bis respiration, which was full and deep, but at
the same time easy and uninterrupted.

CHAPTER XV.

You loggerTieaded and nnpolish'd groomc,
What, no attendance, no regard, no duty?
"Where is the foolish knave I sent before ?

Taming of the Shrew.

Theke is no period at which men look worse in the eyes of
each other, or feel more micomfortable, than when tbe first
dawn of daylight finds them watchers. Even a beauty of the

186 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

first order, after tlie 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 Say's 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

KENILWORTH. 187

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 di-ive 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."

"Obase transmutation!" exclaimed his antagonist; "thou
hast already got the true rvistic 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 per^
fumed 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," an-
swered 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

188 WAVERLET NOVELS.

the young gallant, smiling contemptuously; "there lies the
sore point that will brook no handling. My good sbs, I
bounded my lamentations over my lord somewhat less loudly
than some of you ; but when the jwint comes of doing him
service, I will yield to none of you. Had this learned" leech
entered, thinkst thou not there had been such a coil betwixt
him and Tressilian's mediciuer that not the sleeper only, but
the very dead, might have awakened? I loiow what larum
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 Bloimt ; " 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 Ire-
land 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 intelli-
gence that the earl had awakened of himself, that he foujid his

KENILWORTH. 189

internal complaints much mitigated, and spoke with, a cheer-
fulness, and looked round with a vivacity, which of them-
selves showed a material and favourable change had taken
place. Tressilian at the same time commanded the attend-
ance 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 recollectiug 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 lackered
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 ns 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."

190 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 or
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 think' st — all thou carest — aU thou
deem'st 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 yeo-
m.en of the guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom
England could produce, guarded with their halberds the pas-
sage 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 teU the earl what we have seen."

KENILWORTH. 191

"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 resj)ectf ul 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 oflicer, 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 Blomit; "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 kernes
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
80 disposed around her that she could see and be seen on all
sides, came Elizabeth herself, then in the prime of woman-
hood, 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 strikmg and command-
ing 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

192 WAVERLET NOVELS.

order to avail himself of the present opportunity. His com-
panion, 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 Queea
was to pass somewhat closer than was permitted to ordinary
spectators. Thus the adventurous youth stood full in Eliza-
beth's eye — an eye never indifferent to the admiration which she
deservedly excited among her subjects, or to the fair propor-
tions 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 un mingled
with resentment, while a trifling accident happened which at-
tracted 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 pas-
sage. 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 n^ed the brush to-day, I wot. Nay, if you had meant
to make a foot-cloth of your mantle, better have kept Tracy's
old drah-de-hure^ which despises all colours."

"This cloak," said the youth, takuig 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

EENILWORTH. 193

economy : we shall have you in cuerpo soon, a3 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 young 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 behmd, 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 j ere would have
thought this !" And shaking his head witJ? a mysterious aii^
he walked to his own boat, embarked, and returned to Dept*
ford.

The young cavalier was, in the mean while, 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
sate 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 yoimg man was desired
to step from his own skiff into the Queen's barge, which he
13

194 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

performed witli graceful agility at tlie 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.

" 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 sate 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 unre-
warded. Go to the wardi'obe-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. "Fy, yoimg 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 mayst 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 io thou wouldst have of me, then?"

** Only permission, madam — if it is not asking too high an

KENILWORTH. 195

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 con-
fusion.

" 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.
a message to your Majesty."

In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face
had hitherto maintained gave way to an expression of haughti-
ness and severity.

" My Lord of Sussex, " she said, " has taught us how to re-
gard his messages, by the value he places upon ours. We
sent but this mornmg the physician in ordinary of our cham-
ber, 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
Say's 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 stub-
bornly refused. Eor 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 hearmg tremble. He
to whom the speech was addressed, however, trembled not;
but with great deference and humility, as soon as the Queen's

196 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

passion gave him an oppoi-tunity, he replied : " So please yon?
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,, sti'ongly
marked her character; "was it with a justification? or, God's
death! with a defiance?"

" Madam, " said the yonng 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 yoixr mercy. The noble earl was fast
asleep when your most gracious message reached him, a ^wtion
having been administered to that purpose by his physician;
and his lordship knew not of the ungracious repluseyour Maj-
esty'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
o^vn physician to the presence of him whom I sent him to
attend?" said the Queen, much sui-prised.

" 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 iimocent as a sleeping man's dreams
can be of a waking man's actions."

"What! was it thou? — thou thyself, that repelled my mes-
senger and my physician from Say's Court?" said the Queen.
*' What oould occasion such boldness in one who seems devot-
ed— 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. "

KEML WORTH. 197

'*' Tliy master liatli 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. I^ow'st thou not
the Holy Writ saith, *In the multitude of counsel there is
safety'?"

" Ay, madam, " said Walter, " but I have heard learned men
eay that the safety spoken of is for the j)hysieians, 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 ta^nslated, 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 Ave 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

198 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 in-
stantly 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 farther known. And here," she added,
giving him a jewel of gold in the form of a chessman, " 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 experi-
ence, 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. '

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 pur-
pose 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 mmister?"

It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech
was addressed ventured to oppose its purport.

» See Court Favour of Sir Walter Raleigh. Note 8.

KENILWORTH. 199

" 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 coimtenance was a lamp to the paths of her council-
lors ; and the ladies agreed with one voice that no noble in
England so well deserved the regard of England's royal mis-
tress as the Earl of Sussex — the Earl of Leicester's right being
reserved entire, so some of the more politic worded their as-
sent— an exception to which Elizabeth paid no apparent atten-
tion. The barge had, therefore, orders to deposit its royal
freight at Deptford, at the nearest and most convenient point
of commimication with Say's 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 impor-
tant 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 languishmg 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 Ealeigh, 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
iU to give direction. And Bloimt 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

200 WAVERLEY InOVELS.

porridge and toasted cheese; and slie 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 in-
different 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 exei-te, the Queen, with a canopy borne over her head,
walked, accompanied by her retinue, towards Say's Court,
where the distant acclamations of the j)eopie 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 infinitel}^ surprised at learnmg her
immediate approach — not that the Queen's custom of visiting
her more distinguished nobility, whether in health or sick-
ness, could be vmknown 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 gra-
cious visitation on him unaware, he hastened down with Tres-
silian, 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 Yarney, 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 aroimd 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 atten-
tion bestowed on his apparel could remove the ghastly effects
of long illness on a countenance which nature had marked with

KENILWORTH. 201

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 ele-
gance of manners and for beauty of person.

The earl's utmost despatch only enabled him to meet the
Queen as she entei-ed 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 Say's 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 uncivilised and dangerous practice of surrounding jonv
selves 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 phj^ician
whom we sent to you. Urge no excuse ; we know how that
matter fell out, and we have corrected for it the wild slip,
yoimg Raleigh. By the way, my lord, we will speedily relieve
your household of him, and take him into our own. Some-
thing there is about hun 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 remaui till refresh-
ment coidd be offered, but iii this he could not prevail. And,
after a few compliments of a much colder and more common^

202 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

place character than might have been expected from a step so
decidedly favourable as a personal visit, the Queen took her
leave of Say's 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 Say's 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 ear-shot 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
Say's Court looked like a guard-house, and smelt like an hos-
pital. '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 of 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

KENILWORTH. 203

all the ladies who were present had joined in ridiculing Lord
Sussex's housekeeping, and in contrasting it with the recep-
tion 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 aromid her."

"Your lordship meaneth that Ealeigh, 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
cap'd verses with him, and such fooleries. I would gladly
abandon, of my own free will, the part I have m her fickle
favour ; but I will not be elbowed out of it by the clown Sus-
sex 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 up-hill. Sussex's
illness was to us a god-send, 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 imder-
stand 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 Rat-
cliffe, but the retainers of every other nobleman and courtier.
Let them be well armed withal, but without any outward dis-
play of their weapons, wearing them as if more for fashion's

204 WAVERLET NOVELS.

sake than for use. Do thou thyseK keep close to me, I maj
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 know'st as
little of these toys as I do ; thou wouldst be ready enow at dis-
posing 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."

" We must not count cost to-day, Nicholas, " said the earl in
reply. "I am beholden to Ealeigh 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 win."

" 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 Leices-
ter the advantage over me by any imprudence of theirs."

KENILWORTH. 205

The Earl of Sussex ran so liastily througli these directions,
that it was with difficulty Tressilian at length found opportu-
nity to express his siu-prise, 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. " /, at least, ought not to have
been a counsellor when the object was a humiliatmg reference
to Leicester ; and I am surprised that you, Tressilian, a maa
of hono^ir, 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 Qufeen will hold a heavy one. But at all events she hath
the complaint before her."

Tressilian coidd 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 pro-
ceedhig most likely to be attended with success. But the step
was irrevocable, and Sussex escaped from farther 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 pres-
ence by high noon precisely."

"While the rival statesmen were thus anxiously preparing for
their approaching meeting in the Queen's presence, even Eliza-
beth herself was not without apprehension of what might
chance from the collision of two such fiery spirits, each backed

206 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

by a strong and numerous body of followers, and dividing be-
twixt 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 fol-
lowers, armed with shot or with long weapons ; and it was
even whispered that the high sheriff of Kent had secret in-
structions 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 glit-
tering 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
certain 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 privi-
lege. 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 waitmg with impatience
for some cause of tumult, or some apology for mutual aggres-
sion. 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 mean while, the more distinguished persons of each

KENILWORTH. 207

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 them-
selves, as it were instinctively, on the different sides of the
lofty apartments, and seemed eager to escape from the tran-
sient 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 after-
wards opened, and it was announced in a whisper that the
Queen was in her presence-chamber, to which these gave ac-
cess. Both earls moved slowly and stately towards the en-
trance— 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 in-
clination 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 mount-
ing to his face, " to do me this dishonour, when you but now
admitted a follower of my Lord of Sussex."

208 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"jVIy lord," said Bowyer, "Master Ealeigh is neivly ad-
mitted a sworn servant of her Grace, and to him my orders
did not apply."

" Thou art a knave — an ungrateful knave, " said Leicester;
" hut 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 homage
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 ia
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 com-
mands or those of the Earl of Leicester," who has publicly
menaced me with his displeasure, and treated me with dis-
paraging terms, because I denied entry to one of his followers,
in obedience to your Grace's precise orders?"

The spirit of Henry YIII. was instantly aroused in the
bosom, of his daughter, and she turned on Leicester with a
severity which apx)alled him, as well as all his followers.

"God's death! my lord," siich 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 Sim from our other faithful subjects. ^Vho 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

KENILWORTH. 209

Christian woman and crowned queen, I will hold you dearly-
answerable. Go, Bowyer, you have done the part of an hon-
est 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
avidacity. 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 exculpation.

He acted wisely ; for it was the policy of Elizabeth to hum-
ble, 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 gi*atified, 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 congi-atulation exchanged a,mongst those who
favoured Sussex, and it was no part of her policy to give
either party a decisive triumph.

'MMiat 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 in-
deed 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 civilised
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 Christen-
dom will less brook his court to ' be cumbered, his people op-
pressed, and his kingdom's peace disturbed, by the arrogance
of overgrown power, than she who now speaks with yoii. IMy
Lord of Leicester, and you, my Lord of Sussex, I command
14

210 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

you both to be friends witli 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 your-
self the ^fountain of honour, laaow best what is due to mine.
I place "t at your disposal, and only say, that the terms oa
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 Eat-
cliffe."

" 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 m 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 see our face again. I will lower your proud
hearts ere we part, and that I promise, on the word of a
queen !"

KENILWORTH. 211

" 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 j
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, audit 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 j)ossible, 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 Kaleigh. "The

212 WAVEELEY NO^^LS.

devil aids liim surely! for all that would sink another ten
fathom deej) seems but to make him float the more easily..
Had a follower of mine acted thus "

"Peace, my good lord," said Ealeigh — "for God's sake,
peace ! Wait the change of the tide ; it is even now on the
turn."

The acute observation of Ealeigh, perhaps, did not deceive
him; for Leicester's confusion was so great, and, indeed, for
the moment, so irresistibly overwhelmiiig, 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 ot\ti awakened suspi-
cions, she said suddenly : " Or is there more in this than w^e see,
or than you, my lord, wish that we should see? Where is
this Yarney? "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 pres-
ence, or that you should exclude fi-om it one who came to
justify himseK 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. Mas-
ter Usher, and taken our directions. You think yoiu-self a
great man, because but now we chid a nobleman on your ac-
count; yet, after all, we hold you but as the lead- weight that
keeps the door fast. Call this Yarney hither instantly ; there
is one Tressilian also mentioned in this petition; let them
both come before u.s."

She was obeyed, and Tressilian and Yarney appeared ac-
cordingly. Yarney 's first glance was at Leicester, his second
at the Queen. In the looks of the latter there appeared an
appi-oaching storm, and in the downcast countenance of his

KENILWORTH. 213

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 Yarney 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 himseK should he fail in doing so.

"Is it true, sirrah," said the Queen, with one of those
searchmg looks which few had the audacity to resist, " that
you have seduced to infamy a'young lady of birth and breed-
ing, the daughter of Sir Hugh Bobsart of Lidcote Hall?"

Yarney kneeled down, and replied, with a look of the most
profound contrition : " There had been some love passages
betwixt him and Mistress Amy Eobsart."

Leicester's flesh quivered with indignation as he heard his
dependant make this avowal, and for one moment he mamied
himself to step forward, and, bidding farewell to the court and
the royal favour, confess the whole mystery of the secret mar-
riage. But he looked at Sussex, and the idea of the tri-
umphant smile which would clothe his cheek upon hearing the
avowal sealed his lips. " Xot 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 Yarney uttered, and determined
to hide to the last the secret on which his couj't favour seemed
to depend. Meanwhile, the Queen proceeded in her examina-
tion of Yarney.

"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 Yarney, 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 beai-s me ill-will — one Master Edmund Tressilian,
whom I now see in the presence. "

"Soh!" replied the Queen; "and what was yoiu* right to
make the simple fool break her wortliy father^ s contract.

214 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

through your love passar/es, 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 hesi-
tation, answered: "Yes."

"Thou false villain!" said Leicester, bursting forth into
xage, 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 sur-
rounded 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, over-

KENILWORTH. 215

wlielmmg, 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. With-
out 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 accessary 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 I
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. Xo
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 IMinerva; but, to my think-
ing, 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, ]\Iaster 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 indiffer-
ence)— is there here, in this presence, any lady, the colour of
whose hair reminds thee of that braid? Methinks, without

216 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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."

Yarney looked round the presence-chamber, his eye travel-
ling from one lady to another, until at length it rested upon
the Queen herself, but with an aspect of the deepest venera-
tion, " I see no tresses, " he said, *' in this presence, worthy
of such similes, unless where I dare not look on them."

" How, sir knave, " said the Queen, " dare you intimate "

" Xay, 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 Yarney,
as if with the strength of an Eastern talisman. Men sus-
pended every, even the slightest, external motion, and would
have ceased to breathe, had nature permitted such an inter-
mission of her functions. The atmosphere was contagious,
and Leicester, who saw all around wishing or fearing his ad-
vancement or his fall, forgot all that love had previously
dictated, and saw nothing for the uistant but the favour or
disgrace which depended on the nod of Elizabeth and the
fidelity of Yarney. He summoned himself hastily, and pre-
pared 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, Yarney'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 Yarney, 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 comisel. "

" From your Highness, " said Leicester, dropping gracefully
on one knee, " it were treason he should. I would that my

EENILWORTH. 21f

heart itself lay before you, barer than the tongue of auy ser-
vant 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."

Eelieved 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 de-
termined to support his place in the Queen's favou?" ; 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. " Take from the poor Dudley, " he exclaimed, " all
that your bounty has made him, and bid him be the poor gen-
tleman 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 ; " Eliza-
beth hath not forgotten that, whilst you were a poor gentle-
man, despoiled of your hereditary rank, she was as jwor a
princess, and that in her cause you then ventured all that op-
pression had left you — your life and honour. Eise, my lord,
and let my hand go. Eise, and be what jau. 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 ownmg 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 irt
this noble eavl!"

A murmur of assent rose from the Leicestrian factioiiy

iJ18 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

vhicli tlie friends of Sussex dared not oppose. They remained
with their eyes fixed ou the ground, dismayed as well as morti-
fied 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, jet, 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 reve-
rence. 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 imabashed, 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, weE
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 speak 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 knowl-
edge, 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

KENILWORTH. 219

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 Shakspeare 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 split, 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 will-
ingly 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 Vamey,
"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 be-
twixt the bold and mutinous knaves notwithstanding. My
Lord of Leicester, will you warrant with your honour — that is.

220 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

to the best of your belief — that your servant speaks truth in
sayiiig he hath married this Auiy 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 mar-
riage "

" Out, sii-rah, " answered the Queen — " alleged marriage !
Have you not the Avord of this illustrious earl to warrant
the truth of what his servant says? But thou art a loser —
think' st thyself such at least — and thou shalt have indulgence j
we will look into the ma^tter 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 pxay jou 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 shonld, " said he, " mad-
am, 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 Leices-
ter, with blunt courtesy, though mingled with embarrass-

ZENILWORTH. 221

ment, his acceptance of liis invitation. As the earls exchanged
compliments on the occasion, the Queen said to her high
treasurer : " Methiuks, my lord, the count-enances 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 Csesar, 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 farther confer-
ence at present. My Lords of Sussex and Leicester, we have
a word more with you. Tressilian and Yarney are near your
persons; you will see that they attend you at Kenilworth.
And as we shall then have both Paris and Menelaus withiu
our call, so we will have the same fair Helen also whose fickle-
ness has caused this broil. Yarney, thy wife must be at Ken-
ilworth, and forthcoming at my order. My Lord of Leices-
ter, 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 pro-
ceeded 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 l^e debated. We will then take
the Avater for our divertisement, and you, my lords, will attend
us. And that remmds 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 re-
form your wardrobe."

222 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 dis-
missal 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 Eng-
land, 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
aroim^d 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 se-
cured by all means and at all hazards : it was the only plank
which he could cling to in the tempest. He must settle him-
self, therefore, to the task of not only preserving, but aug-
menting, 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

KENILWORTH. 223

on his mind tlie 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 ScyUa
under his bows must not for the time think of the more dis-
tant 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 hon-
oured 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 au
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 imhappy 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 ani-
mation and eloquence, and described the necessity of continu-
ing 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 fortimes of
a rival, who, after setting up a vain and mijust pretence to the
throne of England, was now, even while in the bosom of her
comitry, 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

224 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

duty wlien she adopted sucli 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
Comitess 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 ante-
rooms 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 the^ 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 con-
gratulations 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
lelt assured that the orb of his rival satellite, if not altogether
o&scured by his lustre, must revolve hereafter in a dimmer and
more distant sphere. So thought the court and courtiers, from
iigh to low, and they acted accordingly.

On the other hand, never did Leicester return the general
greeting with such ready and condescending courtesy, or en-
deavour 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

KENILWORTH. 225

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 Ayl-
ford, the suit of the city, affecting Queenhithe, shall be for-
warded as far as my poor interest can serve. Master Edmund
Spencer, 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, AYill Shakspeare — 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 answei
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 re-
member aught of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy
favour."

Then the earl was approached, with several fantastic con-
gees, 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 ab-
surd taste of the times, joined with a sharp, lively, conceited
expression of countenance, seemed to body forth a vain, hare-
brained 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 pert-
15

226 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ness of liis manner. A perpetual blusli, which occupied
rather the sharp nose than the thin cheek of this personage,
seemed to speak more of " good life, " as it Avas called, than of
modesty ; and the manner in which he approached to the earl
confirmed that suspicion.

" Good even to you, Master Kobert Laneham, " said Leices-
ter, and seemed desirous to pass forward without farther
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-cham-
ber door?"

" Clerk of the council-chamber door, " said Master Kobert
Laneham, with emphasis, by way of reply and of correction.

"Well, qualify thine of&ce 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 at-
tend the summer progress unto your lordship's most beautiful
and aU-to-be unmatched Castle of Kenil worth."

" 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 noble-
ness 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 coxmcil, 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."

" Methiuks 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."

KENILTVORTH. 227

" Speak it, and let me go, " said the earl ; " I think the Queeu
conies forth instantly."

" My very good lord, I would fain bring a bed-fellow with
me."

"How, you irreverent rascal!" said Leicester.

"Kay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons," an-
swered his unblushing, or rather his ever-blushing, petitioner.
" I have a wife as curious as her grandmother, who eat 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, iu
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. "^Vliy stop you me with such follies?"

The terrified clerk of the chamber door, astonished at the
burst of resentment he had so unconsciously produced, di'opped
his staff of office from his hand, and gazed on the incensed earl
with a foolish face of wonder and terror, which instantly re-
called Leicester to himself.

" I meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits
thine office," said he, hastily. "Come to Kenil worth, 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 we shall want a trifle for proper-
ties."

" Here is a crown for thee, " said the earl ; " make me rid of
thee — the great bell rings."

INIaster Eobert 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 hu-
mours 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 9.,

228 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 withdi-awing-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 as
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 apart-
ment 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, " said 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 ex-
pression, " 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 me-
chanically; untn, 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
embraced; permit me "

" Thou art a fool, Varney, as well as a knave, " said Leices-

KENILWORTH. 229

»er, shaking him off, and rejecting his officious assistance ; " we
are best thus, sir : Avhen 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 agi-
tations 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 un-
happy, 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 condi-
tion. 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

230 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

of passions by which he had been so lately agitated gave addi-
tional 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 shovild 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 wovild
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 now in his native element, made him
sensible that so ready a disclamation of the royal favour might
be misinterpreted. He sate 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 sun-
shine 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 myseK 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 whose
experience even my Lord Willoughby 's may be improved by."

KENILWORTH. 231

Lord Willougliby 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 fi'om all internal reflection by fixing them
on what was passing aroimd, 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 ab-
stracted his thoughts and feelings by a strong effort from every-
thing but the necessity of maintaining himself in the favour
of his patroness, and exerted his talents of pleasiog captiva-
tion 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 delibera-
tions. Which of you, my lords," said she, smiling, "know
aught of a petition from Orson Pinnit, the keeper, as he quali-
fies 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 Mac-
Donough, 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 ungrate-
ful. But this is not the question, " she said, her voice, which
had been awakened by her patriotic feelings, once more sub-
siding into the tone of gay and easy conversation ; " for this
Orson Pinnit' s request goes something farther. He complains

232 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 Shakspeare — 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 oth-
er 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 Shakspeare no hai-m. 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 Eliza-
beth, 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 de-
nial 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 com-
pare to the royal game of bear-baiting, which hath been graced
by your Highness 's countenance, and that of your royal prede-
cessors, in this your princely kingdom, famous for matchless
mastiffs and bold bear-wards over all Christendom? Greatly
is it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if men should

KENIL WORTH. 233

throng to hear the lungs of an idle player belch forth non-
sensical bombast, instead of bestowing their pence in encourag-
ing 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 on-
set of the mastiff, like a wily captain, who maintains his de-
fence that an assailant may be tempted to venture withm 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-cour-
age, neglect the policies of war, and, catching him in his arms,
strain him to his breast like a lusty wrestler, imtil 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 Tal-
bot 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 never-
theless 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

234 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

rumours, and disloyal insinuations. "When men are agape to
see how Marlow, Shakspeare, 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 mani-
fest."

"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 expres-
sions, 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, mider your
Grace's favour, far less than safe to permit these naughty, foul-
mouthed knaves to ridicule the godly for their decent gravit}-,
and in blaspheming Heaven, and slandering its earthly rulers,
to set at defiance the laws both of God and man."

" If we could tliink 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 Shakspeare, we think there is that in his plays
that is worth twenty bear-gardens ; and that this new under-
taking 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, Shakspeare 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,
Philii> 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

KENILWORTH. 235

a bold relation, and Philip murmurs them, I think, even ia
his dreams."

"You tantalise us, my lord," said the Queen. "Master
Philip Sidney is, we know, a minion of the Muses, and we ai'd
pleased it should be so. Valour never shines to more advan-
tage than when imited with the true taste and lo-s'e of letters.
But surely there are some others among our young coui-tiers
who can recollect Avhat 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 deter-
mined to transfer the advantage to his more ambitious young
friend; and, excusing himself on the score of want of recol-
lection, he added, that he believed the beautiful verses of
which my Lord of Leicester had spoken were in the remem-
brance of Master Walter Raleigh.

At the command of the Queen, that cavalier repeated, with
ftccent and manner which even added to their exquisite deli-
cacy 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, all arm'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

236 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

were not tlie less welcome wlien 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 mur-
mured over the last lines as if scarce conscious that she was
overheard, and as she uttered the words,

*' In maiden meditation, fancy free,"

she dropt 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 char-
acter 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 con-
veying some compliment, always couched in delicacy and ex-
pressed 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 sate 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

EENILWORTH. 237

own imagination) that, during this short passage, she leaned
on him somewhat more than the slippiness of the way ne-
cessarily demanded. Certainly her actions and words com-
bined to express a degree of favour which, even m his
proudest days, he had not till then attained. His rival,
indeed, was repeatedly graced by the Queen's notice; but it
was in a manner that seemed to flow less from spontaneous in-
clination 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 Ealeigh. They were indeed transient,
but they were conferred on one accomplished in mind and body
with grace, gallantry, literature, and valour. An accident oc-
curred 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 j for,
agreeable to her idea of what was at once modest and dignified,
the Maiden Queen on such occasions was wont to take in pri-
vate, 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 Ealeigh

238 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

but two or tliree minutes since, standing at tlie window of a
small pavilion or pleasure-house which, looked out on the
Thames, and writing on the glass with a diamond rmg."'

" 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 methmks 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 aU
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 sur-

KENILWORTH. 239

prise at so happy a termijiation ; 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, wheu
he finds his couplet perfected without his own interference, *"
she wrote her own line beneath that of Kaleigh.

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 staid 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 retxu-ned, 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 mean while, 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 Say's 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 suc-
cessful physician. \Yayland, however, was nowhere to be
found; and, while some of the party were, with military im-
patience, seeking him, and cursing his absence, the rest flocked
around Ealeigh 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

240 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

to find a rliyme ; but other indications had transpired whicTi
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, per-
haps, 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 ap-
parent 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 for-
tunes to farthings, and fine faces and witty coxcombs to the
acquaintance of dvill block and sharp axes."

So saying, Blount arose and left the hall, while Ealeigh
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
Way land 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

KENILWORTH. 241

basilisk. Thank God, I saw liini first, for, "being so seen, and
seeing not me, lie 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 Way land. " He that once hath
his features by heart would knoAv 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 himseK could not so disguise himself but that, sooner
or later, Doboobie would find him out. I must away to-mor-
row; 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 Tressi-
lian.

" Only by such caution as j^ou would use against the devil, "
answered Wayland. *' Let my lord's clerk of the kitchen kill
his lord's meat himseK, and dress it himself, using no spice
but what he procures from the surest hands. Let the sewer
serve it up himseK, 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 other-
wise. Especially, let him observe such caution if he goes
to Kenilworth: the excuse of his illness, and his being
imder diet, will, and must, cover the strangeness of such
practice."
16

242 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"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 ex-
tremity to the place where thou art knoAvn; 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 out-
line 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 com-
plices, Foster and Lamboiu-ne, as well as on those of my Lord
Leicester himself, Avho, I suspect, is partly a deceiver, and
not altogether the deceived in that matter. Here is my ruig,
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 in-
carnation of the devil, has, at least, as much of the demon
about him, in will, word, and action, as ever polluted human-
ity. 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 despera-
tion. Will your honour command my nag to be saddled?
I will but give the medicine to my lord, undivided in its

» See Note 10.

KENILWORTH. 243

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 Say's 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, after a day so im-
portant 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 cham-
berlain withdrew. The earl remained silent and almost
motionless in his chair, his head reclined on his hand, and his
elbow resting on 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 untU. he
should speak, desirous to know what was the finally predomi-
nant mood of a mind through which so many powerful emo-
tions had that day taken their course. But he waited on 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

244 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

superiority you have this day attained over your most formi-
dable 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 be-
traying, on the first push, the secret on which your fortunes
depended, and which you have so oft and so earnestly recom-
mended 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 faith-
ful servant to have done so without your commands."

" I cannot deny it, Varney, " said the earl, rising and walk-
ing 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 ivhat?" 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 matri-
monial 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 ex-
perienced a husband of different metal j and her husband had

KENILWORTH. 245

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 Leices-
ter, 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
think 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 write 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 reason-
able? that is the question. Her religious scruples are solved t
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 say'st," said Leicester j
*' 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

246 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

else perfect the device I liave 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 horo-
scopes, 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 smaU tun-et
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

KENILWORTH. 247

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 in-
struction and command in conversing with the prime favourite
of Elizabeth.

" Your i^rognostications 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 regiint honmies, sed reylt 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 review-
ing the horoscope which your lordship subjected to my skill,
you will observe that Saturn, being in the sixth house in op-
position 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 sou, is the map of thy fortimes, brilliant in aspect

248 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

as e'-'er 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, aston-
ished 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 im-
port. As he turned, however, he caught the eye of the as-
trologer fixed on him, while an observing glance of the most
shrewd jDenetration shot from under the penthouse of his
shaggy dark eyebrows. Leicester's haughty and suspicious
«oul at once caught fire; he darted towards the old man from
the further end of the lofty apartment, only standing still
when his extended hand was within a foot of the astrologer's
fcody.

KENILWORTH. 249

''TVretcli!" lie .said, "if you dare to palter witli 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 itseK.

" 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 dark-
ness 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 calculations arising from their combina-
tions. 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 soli-
tude 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 propor-
tionate revolution in your fortunes upon earth. If nothing
has happened within that space to secure your power or ad-
vance 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 say'st the horo-
scope indicates."

"Wherefore this distrust, then, my son?" said the astrologer,
assuming a tone of admonition; "the celestial intelligences
brook not diffidence, even in their favourite."

"Peace, father," answered Leicester, "I have erred in
doubting thee. Not to mortal man, nor to celestial intelli-

250 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

gence — under that whicli is supreme — will Dudley's lips say
more in condescension or apology. Speak rather to the pres-
ent 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 en-
able 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 farther indication respect-
ing 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 — Ealeigh and Tressilian — one of them is indicated ; I
must beware of both. Father, if I have done thy skill injus-
tice, 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 Var-
ney 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 rich-
ly considered. Here, Varney, conduct this venerable man to
thine own lodging ; tend him heedf ully in all things, but see
that he holds communications 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?" con-
tinued Varney.

" Not without challenge, " replied the old man, " but it did

KENILWORTH. 251

pass ; and I added, as before agreed, danger from a discovered
secret and a western youth. "

" My lord's fear will stand a sponsor to the one and his con-
science to the other of these prognostications," replied Vamey.
" Sure, never na.an chose to run such a race as this, yet con-
tinued 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 Vamey, with a sneer which habit
had rendered familiar to his features, and which forms the
principal characteristic that painters have assigned to those 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 Vamey proceeded. " Wot j^ou not
he hath offered a reward for the arch-quack and poison-vender,
Demetrius, who sold certain precious spice 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, shak-
ing Avith impotent anger : " it is well kno^vTi that I have ap-
proached 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

252 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the mystery of cheating, that, having imposed upon all man-
kind, thou hast at length, in some measure, imposed upon thy-
seK; and without ceasing to dupe others, hast become a species
of dupe to thine own imagination. Blush not for it, manj
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 beside — 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 l^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 combus-
tion "

"Away with your gibberish," replied Varney; "think'st
thou it is the patron thou speak'st 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 par-
ticular, 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

KENILWORTH. 253

of my policy to suffer such iuterlopers to interfere in my trade.
He pries into no mysteries more, I warrant you j for, as I^well
believe, lie hath been wafted to heaven on the wing of a fiery
dragon. Peace be with him ! But in this retreat of mine, I
shall 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 be-
come 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 say'st 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 imveiled her darkest
secrets ; if I have acquired the most secret signs and passwords
«f the Jewish Cabala, so that the greyest beard in the sjma-
gogue 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 favour-
ites by which I am now enthralled?"

" Now, bravo ! — bravo ! my good father, " said Varney, with.

254 WAVERLET NOVELS.

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 Eichard 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 im belief, gath-
ered 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, ex-
tends a lesson so clear that he who runs may read. Hath not
art, think' st 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 itseK 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, van-
ished infimio. Since that moment, when I paid for my free-
dom, I defy chemistry, astrology, palmistry, and every other
occult art, were it as secret as hell itself, to unloose the stric-
ture of my purse-strings. Marry, I neither defy the manna of
St. Nicholas nor can I dispense with it. Thy first task must
be to prepare some when thou get'st down to my little sequest-
ered 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 imiversal medicine, which shall clear away all mortal dis-

KENIL WORTH. 255

eases at once. But cheer up, tliou grave, learned, and most
melancholy j ackanapes ! Hast thou not told me that a moderate
portion of thy drug hath mild effects, no ways ultimately dan-
gerous 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, with-
out thinking either of the free blue sky or of the fair green-
wood, 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 exceed-
est 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 fax 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

256 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ordinary reasons which can be urged for her remaining a
housekeepei; "

" That is but natural, " said the alchemist, with a strange
smile, which yet bore a greater reference to the human char-
acter 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 for escape, should there
be detection?"

" All — all, and everything, thou infidel in all but the im-
possibilities of alchemy. Why, man, or 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 ques-
tion 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 Dr. Julio. Note 11.

KENILWORTH. 257

Wlieii Varney heard the adept's door shut and carefully
bolted within, he stepped towards it, and with similar precau-
tion carefully locked it on the outside, and took the key from
the lock, muttering to himself, ""Worse than thee, thou poison-
ing 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 pros-
pects. 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 re-
fuse to swallow a dozen healths on such an evening is a base
besognio and a puckfist, and shall swallow six inches of my
dagger!"

"Hark ye, scoundrel," said Varney, "be sober on the in-
stant, 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 re-
turned 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 mayst call him betimes.
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
17

258 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

eastern quadrangle, with, freedom to use the old elaboratory
and its implements. He is to have no access to the lady, but
Buch as I shall point out — only she may be amused to see his
philosophical jugglery. Thou wilt wait at Cumnor Place my
fai'ther orders; and, as thou livest, beware of the ale-bench
and the aquavitse 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 day-
break."

" 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 Vaxney, 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 St.
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 nmst
forbear it now, that I may one day drink it at my own pleas-
ure." And he quaffed a goblet of water to quench the fiimes
of the Ehenish 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 Vamey 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."

KENILWORTH. 259

CHAPTER XIX.

Pistol. And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
And happy news of price.

Falstaff. I prithee now, deliver them like to a man of this world.

Pistol. A foutra for the world, and worldlings base !
I speak of Africa, and golden joys.

Benry IV. Part II.

The puMic 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, bustlmg, arch fellow, whose pack and oaken ell-
wand, 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 manu-
factures 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 INIaster Goldthred, who,
though indeed without any such benevolent intention on his
own part, was the general butt of the evening. The pedlar

260 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

and he were closely engaged in a dispute upon the preference
due to the Spanish nether-stocks over the black Gascoigne
hose, and mine host had just winked to the guests around hiin,
as who should say, " You will have mirth presently, my mas-
ters, " when the trampling of horses was heard in the court-
yard, 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 m 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 gal-
lon of your best, uncle, and let it go round to the health of the
noble Earl of Leicester! What! shall we not collogue to-
gether, and warm the cockles of our ancient kindness? Shall
we not collogue, I say?"

" With all my heart, kinsman, " said mine host, who obvi-
ously 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

KENILWORTH. 261

means, nuncle?" lie 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, Mich-
ael," 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?"

" Sayst thou ?" said Lambourne. " Thou art deceived now —
no man shall see you an I give the word. By Heavens, mas-
ter's, an any one dare to look on this old gentleman, I wiU
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 Lei-
cester! 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 penal-

262 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ties; and Michael Lambourue, whose drunlven 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 sufiicient
reasons, an object both of the one and of the other.

In the mean while, the old man, seeing his guide in this un-
controllable humour, ceased to remonstrate with him, and sit-
ting 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 gen-
eral observation, and doing nothing which could recall his ex-
istence 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, buUy 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 Laurence 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 mches" ; and thou mayst 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 mer-
cer; " 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-stocks over the Gascoigne hose, al-
though thou seest how well the French hose set off the leg
and knee, being adorned with parti-coloured garters and gar-
niture in conformity,"

KENILWORTR 263

"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 ras-
cal 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 licddling 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 Eobin 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 Eobin 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 hoUands you won of me?"

"Why, well, as you may see. Master Goldthred," answered
Mike ; " I will bestow a pot on thee for the handsel. FiU the
flagon, ]\Iaster Tapster."

" Thou wilt win no more hoUands, I think, on such wager,
friend Mike," said the mercer; "for the silly swain, Tony
Foster, rails at thee aU to nought, and swears you shall ne'er

264 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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?" vocife-
rated Lambourne, " Why, then, he shall come down and re-
ceive my commands here, this blessed night, under my uncle's
roof! And I will rmg 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! Alast
good Mike, go sleep — go sleep."

" I tell thee what, thou thin-faced gull," said Michael Lam-
bourne, 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, some-
thing 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
wUl not leave his own roof, or come to alehouse 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 in-
fant 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 despatched — an int&rval
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, interf er
ing.

KENILWORTH. 265

^'Wliy, 'sblood, lie is at the tkreshold, " replied MiehaeL
"What said he, boy?"

*' If it please your worship, " answered the messenger, " he
looked out of window, with a niusquetoon 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
"wet 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 reck-
oning!" 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."

'V\Tiile 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 apart-
ment 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.

266 WAVERLET NOVELS.

"It was time, wlien the devil became one among you," re-
plied 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 j 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?"

"]\Iarry, 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 111 became him to be too inquisitive into other folks'
concerns ; he had already said that he could hear nothing but
that the lady lived still at Cunmor Place, in the closest seclu-
sion, 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 Poster
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. Kow, if you Avill don your pack, which will be your
best excuse, you may, perchance, win the ear of the old ser-
vant, 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 Way land, 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 unlikel}'," replied Giles Gosling. "I marvel
Master Tressilian will take such heed of her that cares not for
him."

KENILWORTH. 26r

" In either case I were foully sped, " said Wayland ; " and
therefore I do not, on the whole, much relish your device."

"Xay, 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 thiukso," 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 resolu-
tion;— "I will thwart that old villain's projects; my aifright
at his baleful aspect begins to abate, and my hatred to arise.
Help me on with my pack, good mine host. And look to thy-
self, 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 land-
lord through the postern gate of the Black Bear, took the
most private way from thence up to Cumnor Place.

CHAPTER XX.

Cltmn. You have of these pedlars, that have more in 'em than you'd
think, sister.

Winter's Tale, Act iv. Scene 3.

IiT his anxiety to obey the earl's repeated charges of secrecy,
as well as from his own imsocial 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 Vamey in the mansion,
one old male domestic and two aged crones, who assisted in

268 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

keeping the countess's apartments in order, were the only ser-
vants 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 fovmd the means of checking this vocife-
ration 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 aa
old ruinous garden-house, said: "Yonder he's her, mon — yon-
der he'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 Shakspeare, 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, caUed pedlars, " answered
Janet, demurely, " who utters his light wares in lighter meas-
ures. 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,"

KENILWORTH. 269

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 Way land,
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, consider-
ing 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 abso-
lute 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, wiU 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."

870 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"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 per-
fumes and sweet bags, or any handsome casting-bottles of the
aewest 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 Lei-
cester to entertain the Queen and court at his princely Castle
of Kenil worth.

"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 sum-
mer's progress ; and there are many who will tell you England
will have a king, and England's Elizabeth — God save herl— .
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 I"

KENILWORTH. 271

**May I perisii, lady," said Way land Smith, observing that
her violence directed itself towards him, " if I have done any-
thing 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 hint of Janet, to suppress
all appearance of displeasure. " I were loth," 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 con-
tents 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 beau, 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
guUery 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 done Master
Edmund TressHian, a worshipful gentleman in Cornwall, wlio,
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 Ids life."

He paused, and the lady remamed silent for some time, and

272 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

then asked, with a voice which she strove in vaia to render firm
and indifferent in its tone, " Is the gentleman you have men-
tioned perfectly recovered?"

"Passably, madam," answered Way land: " he hath at least
no bodily complaint. "

"I will take some of the medicine, Janet," said the coun-
tess. "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 farther 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 aug-
mented— 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 con-
versing with him, wished him good evening, and walked care-
lessly into the house, thus depriving Wayland of every op-
portunity 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 ped-
lar, 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,"
eaid Janet ; " my father must ere this be returned. "

" Do not be so rash, " said Wayland ; " you wiU 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."

KENILWORTH. 273

*'Ho"w 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 ge-
nius and prompt intellect which, joined to quick and brilliant
eyes, a weU-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: " jSTotwithstanding thy boasted honesty,
friend, and although I am not accustomed to read and pasa
judgment on such volumes as thou hast submitted to my peru-
sal, 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 coma
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 mistress.
See you, fair Janet, he brings the venom of the aspic imder
the assumed iimocence of the dove. What precise mischief
he meditates towards you I cannot guess ; but death and dis-
ease 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 spoks 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 obser-
vation, 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 anxi«?ty. Her father,
his old attendant, Lord Leicester's domestife aad the astrologer
18

274 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

entered the garden in tumidt and in extreme perplexity, en-
deavouring to quiet Lambourne, whose brain had now become
completely fired with liquor, and who was one of those unfortu-
nate 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 succes-
sive 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 mam-
mon thou worshippest!"

"For God's sake," said Foster, "speak low; come into the
house ; thou shalt have wine, or whatever thou wilt. "

"No, old puckfist, I will have it here," thundered the in-
ebriated rufiian — "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 quicksilver ;
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 aquafortis, and twenty devilish materials, bub-
bling 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
Tizier — why, excellent! And what shall I be, then? Why,

KENILWORTH. 276

emperor, — Emperor Lambourne ! I will see this clioice 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 eai-l? Answer me that,
Tony boy, you old reprobate, hypocritical dog, whom God
struck out of the book of life, but tormented with the con-
stant wish to be restored to it. You old bishop-burning, blas-
phemous 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 Lam-
bourne, wilt thou pledge me to the health of the noble Earl of
Leicester and Master Kichard 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 apothecaries' stuff.
Here goes it, vp sey es — 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 re-
fuses to pledge me I 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 di-aw 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 smiuises which she
could not help entertaining from the drunken ravmgs of Lam-
bourne. Her fears, however, though they assumed no certain
shape, kept pace with the advice of the pedlar; and she con-
firmed her mistress in her purpose of taking the medicine

276 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 happi-
ness, exposed to the machinations of such a gang of villains.
His indignation, too, had been highly excited by hearing th&
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 accommo-
dated 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 with-
out waiting for his consent. If I would meddle in this busi-
ness, 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 himted
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 joy-
fully than otherwise. The honest publican saw so much peril
in crossing the course of the Earl of Leicester's favourite, that

KENILWORTH. 27T

his virtue was scarce able to support him in tlie task, and he
was well pleased when it was likely to be removed from his
shoulders ; still, however, professing his good- will and readi-
ness, in case of need, to do Master 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. Meanwhile, Lei-
cester 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 oppor-
tunity for associating him, by marriage, into her sovereign
power.

Amid such a tide of prosperity, this minion of fortmie 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

278 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

bim to apprehend at every turn some sudden and overwhelm-
ing 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 com-
pounded 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 pre-
dominated over her weaknesses ; but the coiu-tiers 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 peo-
ple, but she was also the true daughter of Henry VIII. ; and
though early sufferings and an excellent education had re-
pressed 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 experi-
enced both the smiles and the frowns which he describes, " was
ofttime like the gentle air, that cometh from the westerly point
in a summer's morn : 'twas sweet and refreshing to all around
her. Her speech did win all affections. . . . Again, she could
put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking, as left
no doubtings 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 thimder fell in wondrous manner on aU
alike."'

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
tlfen on the indispensable services which they could render to
her councils and her crown. The favoux of Burleigh or of
Walsingham, of a description far less striking than that by

> Nugse Antiqiise, Letter of Sir J. Harrington to Mr. Robert Markham,
1606.

KEXILT70RTH. 27^

"which he was himself upheld, was founded, as Leicester was
well aware, on Elizabeth's solid judgment, not on her partial-
ity, and was, therefore, free from all those pruiciples 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 th&
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 contem-
plated 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 himseK, 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 be-
come 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 th: Calvinistie churches abroad — ^touched on by statists in
the very counoil at home. These bold insinuations have been
rebutted hr' no rebuke, no resentment, no chiding, scarce even
by the usual fer^.ale 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

280 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 I
And when I might stretch that hand out most boldly, it is
fettered down by a secret and inextricable bond ! And here I
Jiave 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 al-
ready. 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, di-awn on with toys of pas-
sion 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 qiiid fcemina ! "

He would then pause, and call for Varney, whose advice
was now more frequently resorted to than ever, because the
«arl remembered the remonstrances which he had made against
liis secret contract. And their consultation usually terminated
in anxious deliberation how, or in what manner, the countess
was to be produced at Keuilworth. These communings had
for some time ever ended in a resolution to delay the progress
from day to day. But at length a peremptory decision became
necessary.

" Elizabeth wUl 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 ex-
pressions which she uses to me, she often recurs to the story
of Amy Kobsart. 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

KENILWORTH. 281

thy device, Varney, for solving the inextricable difficulty. I
have thrown every such impediment in the way of these ac-
cursed revels as I could propound even with a shade of de-
cency, but to-day's interview has put all to a hazard. She said
to me kindly but peremptorily: *"We will give you no farther
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 Rob-
sart. We would wish to see the woman who could postpone yon-
der poetical gentleman. Master Tressilian, to your man, Eichard
Varney. ' Now, Varney, ply thine invention, whose forge hath
availed us so often ; for sure as my name is Dudley, the dan-
ger 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 naught. If I could give way to
it, she would not; for I tell thee, Varney, if thou know'st 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 light-
ning, 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 gives rise to the danger should do some-
what 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."

282 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" It is some what 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 per-
formed in the courts of as sharp-eyed monarchs as Queen
Elizabeth."

''Utter madness, Varney," answered the earl; "the coun-
terfeit would be confronted with Tressilian, and discovery
become inevitable."

" Tressilian might be removed from court," said the unhesi-
tating Yarney.

" 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 Cunmor 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 for the love she bears me."

" Well, my lord," said Varney, " your lordship is a wise and
an honourable man, and skilled in those high pomts of roman-
tic 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 con-
sider that other's wishes, conveniences, and safety?"

KENILWORTH. 28$

" I tell thee, Varney, " said the earl, " that all it "was iu 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 Yarney,
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 beau-
tiful— 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 villamy 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 creden-
tials, 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 Imes,
in which he conjured her, for reasons nearly concerning his
life and honour, to consent to bear the name of Varney for a

284 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 stupified, till he heard the tram-
pling 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, irouJr/ Elizabeth consent, would yield to me
their crown. And haVi I not such a claim, even in this king-
dom? That of Yor.kf descending from George of Clarence to
the house of .Huntirigdon, which, this lady failing, may have
a fair chance— Himtrngdon is of my house. But I will plunge
no deeper in these- high mysteries. Let me hold my course
in silence for a v^hile, and in obscurity, like a subterranean
river: the tiine shall come that I will burst forth in my
strength, and bear all opposition before me."

While Leicester was thus stupifying the remonstrances of
his own coa^cience by appealing to political necessity for his

KENIL WORTH. 285

apology, or losing himself amidst the wild dreams of ambition,
his agent left town and tower behiad him, on his hasty jour-
ney to Berkshire. He also nourished high hope. He had
brought Lord Leicester to the poiat 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 inter-
course 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 hus-
band, 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 pre-
dominant. Again he contemplated the possibility of her
being totally intractable, and refusing obstinately to play the
part assigned to her iu 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 a 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 determiaed 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 urge* us
both forward."

286 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTEK 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 tlie present, or of any other, period
must have allowed that the young and lovely Countess of Leices-
ter 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 ped-
lar, a liberal promptitude to make unnecessary pui-chases, solely
for the jDleasure 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-satii-ical praise of the precise
Janet, or an approving glance from the bright eyes which wit-
nessed 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 [Amy's] infancy;
her father contradicted her in nothing; and Tressilian, the
only one that approached her who was able or desirous to

KENILWORTH. 287

attend to the cultivation of lier mind, had much hurt his in-
terest with her by assuming too eagerly the task of a precep-
tor ; so that he was regarded by the lively, indulged, and idle
girl with some fear and much respect, but with little or noth-
ing of that softer emotion which it had been his hope and his
ambition to mspire. And thus her heart lay readily open,
and her fancy became easUy 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 haimt those splendid apartments which love had fitted up
for beauty. Her answers to Leicester conveyed these feelings
too blimtly, and pressed more naturally than prudently that
she might be relieved from this obscure and secluded residence
by the earl's acknowledgment of their mai-riage; and in ar-
ranging her arguments, with all the skill she was mistress of,
she ti'usted 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 Vamey; "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 oppo-
site 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

288 -W AVERLEY NOVELS.

that lie miglit 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 Candle-
stick— A Handful of Myrrh and Hyssop to put a Sick Soul to
Purgation — A Prauyht of Wafer from the Valley of Baca — >
Foxes and Firebrands. What gear caU 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, turn*

KENIL WORTH. 289

ing over such rare volumes as would now make the fortune of
twenty retail booksellers. Here was a Boke of Cookery, inv
Ijrinted hy Richard Lant, and Skelton's Books — The Passtivie
of the People — The Castle of KnowJ^rj<^, 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 rapid 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. "

"Yarney!" 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 ar-
rayed in her native loveliness, adorned with aU that Janet's
art, and a rich and tasteful undi-ess, could bestow. But the
most beautiful part of her attire was her profuse and luxuriant
light-brown locks, which floated in such rich abimdance 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 coun-
tess'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
19

290 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

yourself, and permit me to take breatli 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, lowering 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 per-
mit her attention to anjrthing 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 fear-
fully 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.

KENILWORTH. 291

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 1 I will have no other reply!" she continued, drown-
ing 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
hinderance."

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
grindhig his teeth, with an expression in which rage, and
shame, and fear, had each their share. The countess stood ia
the midst of her apartment like a juvenile pythoness, under
the influence of the prophetic fury. The veins in her beauti-
ful 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, flash-
ing red lightnmg on the foes whom 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 resent-
ment. 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 Kichard Varney.

" In the Truth's name, what ails your ladyship?" said the
former.

292 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"What, in tlie name of Satan, liave you done to her?" said
Poster 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 coimtess, "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
imattainable."

" 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 pleasu,re — 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 — Mm there, that
very cloak-brushing, shoe-cleaning fellow — Mm 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, Eoster, and you, yoimg 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 intrusted to him. " Nay,
lady, I must needs say you are over hasty in this. Such de-
ceit is not utterly to be condemned when practised for a

KENILWORTS 293

rigliteous end ; and thus even the patriarch Abraham feigned
Sarah to be his sister when they went down to Egypt."

" Ay, sir, " answered the contess ; " 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 Scrip-
ture 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 be-
cause 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
desti'oy its remembrance forever!"

So saying, she tore in pieces Leicester's letter, and stamped
in the extremity of impatience, as if she would have annihi-
lated 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 de\dsing ; 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 ovra in it."

"Thou liest, thou treacherous slave!" said the countess, in
spite of Janet's attempts to keep her silent, in the sad fore-
sight that her vehemence might only furnish arms against
herseK. "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 iirst encouraged him to unfold his vile projects."

" Madam, " said Yarney, overwhelmed in spite of his etf ront-
ery, " I entreat you to believe yourself mistaken."

" As soon will I believe light darkness, " said the enraged
countess. " Have I drank of oblivion? Do I not remember

294 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

former passages, wliicli, known to Leicester, had given thee
the preferment of a gallows instead of the honour of his inti-
macy? I would I were a man but for live 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 fool
course to which such scandalous deceits as thou hast recom-
mended on his behalf must necessarily lead me, I wiU 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 thread-
bare, 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 j 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 in-
dignation which, for the first time, he had heard burst from
the lips of a being who had seemed till that moment too lan-
guid and too gentle to nurse an angry thought or utter au
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?"

KEXILWORTH. 295

" In his laboratory, " answered Foster j " it is tlie hour lie is
not spoken withal ; we must wait till noon is past, or spoil his

important What said I, important? I would say, inter*

rupt 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 fol-
lowed Foster, who conducted him through private passages,
many of which were wellnigh ruinous, to the opposite side of
the quadrangle, where, in a subterranean apartment, now oc-
cupied by the chemist Alasco, one of the abbots of Abing-
don, 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 scrupu-
lously secured within, and again showed a marked hesitation
to disturb the sage in his operations. But Varney, less scru-
pulous, 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 mean while, 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 immasked him, Janet — I made the snake imcoil
aU his folds before me, and crawl abroad in his naked deform-

296 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ity. I susiDended my resentment, at the danger of suffocatktg
under the effort, until he had let me see the very bottom of a
heart more foul than hell's darkest corner. And thou, Leices-
ter, 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, look-
ing upwards and clasping her hands together — " I know nob
where I shall fly, or by Avhat 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 j
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 J for, while approaching the countess with the
respect due to her rank, he had tiU this time suffered to be-
come visible, or had been unable to suppress, the obdurate
sulkiness of his natural disposition, which, as is usual with
those of his unhapppy temper, was chiefl}^ 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 affec-
tation of civility and deference, as a ruffian hides his pistols
and bludgeon under his iU-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 farther injury. His hand trem-
bled also, his voice faltered, and his whole outward behavior
exhibited so much that was suspicious, that his daughter
Janet, after she had stood looking at him in astonishment for

KENILWORTH. 297

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 be-
twixt her father and her mistress, took the salver from the
hand of the former, and said in a low, but marked and de-
cided tone, " Father, I will fill for my noble mistress, when
such is her pleasure."

'*Thou, my chUd!" said Foster, eagerly and apprehen-
sively; "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?"

" ^Miy — 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, imless 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 con-
science-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 Ivmatics are said to overawe their unhappy patients ;
"will you neither let me serve my lady nor drink to her
myseK?"

The courage of the countess sustained her through this
dreadful scene, of which the import was not the less obvious

298 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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, m 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! 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 es-
cape ; 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 foimd the accomplices of his intended guilt.

"Has the sweet bird sipped?" said Yarney, with half a

KEXILWORTH. 299

smile; wliile tlie astrologer put the same question with his
eyes, but spoke not a word.

"She has not, nor she shall not from my hands," replied
Poster; "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 call'st 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 im-
mortal 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 copj^hold.
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 ar of pure gold, and
the foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones."

"Ay, T^ny," said Varney, "that were a paradise to thy
heart's content. Debate the matter wich him, Doctor Alasco;
I will be with you anon."

300 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ho 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 Var-
ney 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, how-
soever yonder reprobate may scoff at things too holy to be ap-
prehended by men merely of carnal and evil thoughts, yet
believe, that the city beheld by St. Jolm, in that bright vision
of the Christian Apocalypse, that Kew Jerusalem of which all
Christian men hope to partake, sets forth typically the dis-
covery 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
Kes."

"Well, my son," said the doctor, "and what is your infer-
ence from thence?"

" That those, " said Foster, " who distil poisons, and admin-
ister them in secrecy, can have no portion in those unspeak-
able 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 capa-
ble 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 wis-
dom, 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

KENILWORTH. 301

■wisdom ; when the art of healmg 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 sacri-
fice to the advancement of the holy millennium?"

" Millennium is the reign of the saints, " said Foster, some-
what doubtfully.

" Say it is the reign of the sages, my son, " answered Alasco j
"or rather the reign of Wisdom itself."

" I touched on the question with Master Holdforth last exer-
cising night, " said Foster ; " but he says your doctrine is het-
erodox, 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 wall defy that peevish divine to confute,
though he should strive with me as the magicians strove with
Moses before King Pharaoh. 1 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?"

"Yarney!" said the adept — "Varney already returned I
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. "
.: "Kay, then," said Varney, "I fear nothing. I know thou
wilt not go a step farther to the devil than thou art justly con-

302 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

sidered for. Thou wert paid to create illness, and "vrouldst
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 wide pilgrimage I

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 jealous household, returned to Cumnor Place, and hast-
ened 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 camo
in, she neither looked up nor stirred.

KENILWORTH. 303

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
drank it."

"God be praised!" said Janet, hastily. "I mean, God be
praised that it is no worse : the potion will not harm you.
Else, 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. "

" i^ot 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, sup-
ported by Janet, she walked to and fro in the apartment;
" but is it then so, and have I not swallowed a deadly di'aught?
Varney was here since thou wert gone, and commanded me, with
eyes in which I read my fate, to swallow yon horrible di-ug.

0 Janet ! it must be fatal : never was harmless draught served
by such a cupbearer!"

"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.

1 did but stipulate he would remove his hateful presence, and

304 WAYERLEY NOVELS.

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 deer-hound are stretched to grij)e her, if she
is strong enough to sprmg 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 as-
sured friend of yours, has shown himself to me in various
disguises, and sought speech of me, which — for my miud was
not clear on the matter until this evening — I have ever de-
clined. 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 deter-
mined me to speak with him. He waits even now at the pos-
tern 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 death-bed."

"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 coimtess,
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 be-
cause 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 ;

KENILWORTH. 305

" 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 him-
self 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 ser-
vice in some future emergency. The Comitess 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 notice. Ere
these preparations were fully made, the moon had arisen in
the summer heaven, and all in the mansion had betaken them-
selves 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 ob-
servation. Anthony Foster had accustomed himself to con-
sider 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 ovnx motions during the day-
time, 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-liouse
of her sect. It is true, the daughter of Foster was thus liber-
ally entrusted under the solemn condition that she should not
avail herself of these privileges to do anything mconsistent
with the safe-keeping of the countess ; for so her residence at
20

306 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Cumnor Place had been termed, since she began of late to ex-
hibit impatience of the restrictions to which she was sub-
jected. 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 de-
ceive her father's confidence. But from what she had wit-
nessed, she now conceived herself not only justified, but im-
peratively 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 doubt-
ful 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 inconven-
ience and difficulty attending these interruptions, the breath-
less haste of the first part of their route, the exhausting sensa-
tions 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 th»
alchemist pursued his occult experiments. "He is of those,"

KENILWORTH. 307

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 cap-
tivate my poor father. Well spoke the good Master Hold-
forth, 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 bet-
ter than the tyrant Kaas, who demanded the right eye of
those who were subjected to him?' And farther, he in-
sisted "

It is uncertain how long the fair Puritan's memory might
have supported her in the recapitulation of Master Hold-
forth's discourse; but the countess interrupted her, and as-
sured 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 eas-
ily, than the first hasty commencement. This gave them lei-
sure 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 confu-
sion of her mind, this very obvious subject of deliberation had
not occurred to the countess — Janet ventured to add, " Proba-
bly 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.'*

308 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"And whither will you, then, madam.?" said Janet.

" To Kenilworth, girl, " said the countess, boldly and freely.
" I Vill see these revels — these princely revels — the preparatiou
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, an-
grily, " 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 pre-
serve 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 j
" nay, let go my arm, I can walk without aid, and work with-
out 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 hus-
band," 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 atone-
ment for his errors 1"

"I were most unjust, dearest Janet, were it otherwise,'*
said the countess, resuming at once the fondness and confi-
dence 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 myself
on my husband's protection. I have left the abode he assigned
for me, because of the villauiy of the persons by whom I was

KENILWORTH. 30&

surrounded; but I will disobey liis commands in no other par-
ticular. I will appeal to liim alone ; I will be protected by
Mm alone. To no otber 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 wHl 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 hi in at Kenil-
worth is the surest way to attain my purpose."

While Janet hastily revolved in her mind the difficulties
and uncertainties attendant on the imforunate lady's situation,
she was inclined to alter her first opinion, and to think, upon
the whole, that, since the countess had withdi-awn 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 of 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 sit-
uation was likely greatly to prejudice her character; and if
she made such an avowal, it might occasion an ii-reconcilable
breach with her husband. At KeniLwoi-th, again, she might
plead her cause with her husband himself, whom Janet,
though distrusting him more than the countess did, believed
incapable of being accessary to the base and desperate means
which his dependants, fi'om 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 pro-
tection, 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, how-

310 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ever, to tlie countess tlie utmost caution in making her arrival
known to her husband.

"Hast thou thyself been cautious, Janet?" said the coun-
tess ; " this guide, in whom I must put my confidence, bast
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 be-
lieve 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
<;ease 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
Buch 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 playful-
ness, "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 cheney, 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 be-

KENILWORTH. 311

stow 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 di-essed as becomes the gentlewoman nearest in
love and in service to ^he first countess h\ 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 wrenchmg, 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 highroad.

"Is all safe?" said Janet to him, anxiously, as he ap-
proached them with caution.

" All, " he replied ; " but I have been unable to procure a
horse for the lady. Giles Gosling, the cowardly hilding, re-
fused 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. " To-mor-
row, I say that my lady is unable to rise."

" Ay, and that she hath achmg and heaviness of the head,
a throbbing at the heart, and lists not to be disturbed. Fear
not ; they will take the hmt, and trouble thee with few ques-
tions: 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, how-
ever angry, will suffer no harm to befall me."

312 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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, agam 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, sahit-like as they are, to look less scornfully
on me when we next meet."

The latter part of this adieu was whispered iato Janet's
ear; and, although she made no reply to it directly, yet her
manner, influenced no doubt by her desire to leave every mo-
tive 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 utm^ost despatch 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 mUes distant from
Cumnor. " Now, a plague upon all smooth-spoken hosts !" said
Wayland, unable longer to suppress his mortification and un-
easiness. " Had the false loon, Giles Gosling, but told me plain-
ly 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 head-borough. The farcy and the foun-
ders confound every horse in the stables of the Black Bear !"

KENILWORTH. BIS

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 an\nl about the
matter had we been farther 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 eai-ly for no other purpose than to pry into other folks'
affairs. I have been endangered by them ere now. But do
not fear," he added, "good madam; for wit, meeting with
opportimity, will not miss to find a salve for every sore."

The alarms of her guide made more impression on the coun-
tess'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 imeasiness, 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 times, and now assur-
ing 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 unex-
pected incident gave them the means of continuing their pil-
grimage with more speed and convenience.

314 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Richard. A horse ! — a horse ! — my kingdom for a horse !

Catesby. My lord, I'll help you to a horse.

Ridtard III.

Our travellers were in tlie act of passing a small thicket of
trees close by the roadside, when the first living being pre-
sented himself whom they had seen since their departure from
Cmnnor 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 bri-
dle what of all things they most wanted — a palfrey, namely,
with a side-saddle and all other garniture for a woman's mount-
ing; and he hailed "Wayland Smith with, "Zur, ye be zure
the party?"

" Ay, that I be, my lad," answered W^ayland, without au
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 moimt
on that which chance had thus presented for her acceptance.
Indeed, so naturally did the whole take place, that the coun-
tess, 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 knaw'st."

"Ay — ay," said Wayland, speaking at a venture; "and
thou 'Bacon,' thou know'st."

" Noa — noa, " said the lad ; " bide ye — bide ye ; it was ' Pease'
a should ha said."

KENILWORTH. 316

"Well — well," answered Wayland, "'Pease' belt, a God's
name! thougli '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 hesitat-
ing young boor, flung him a small piece of money, and made
amends for lost time by riding briskly off without fai-ther par-
ley. The lad was stiU 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. " ISTow this is what I call a God-
send, " 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
wiud behind them, "Robbery! — robbery! Stop thief!" and
similar exclamations, which Wayland's conscience readily as-
sured him must arise out of the transaction to which he had
been just accessary.

" 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 Turnball 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 repeat-
edly 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

316 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 j)lay betwixt us, sure, " thought Way-
land^ " 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 worst, it will be easy unhorsing him.
jSTay, '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 substi-
tute a bold and martial frown for the confusion and dismay
which sate 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's vein, " are we
commanded to stand and deliver on the king's highway? Then
out, Excalibar, and tell this knight of prowess that dire blows
must decide between us!"

KENILWORTH. 317

"Haro and help, and hue and cry, every true man I" said
the mercer, "I am withstood in seeking to recover mine own!"

" Thou swear'st thy gods in vain, foul paynim, " said Way-
land, " 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 hon-
est 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 aU 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
Shottesbrook 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 dam-
sel as for thee, most noble imp of musliu. 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 mayst 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

318 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

propose?" said Goldtlired, 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 damask' d leathern hangings,
stuffed full with velvet — single, double, triple-piled — rash,
taffeta and paropa, shag, damask, and mockado, 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 cheer-
fully 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 kmg'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 mufl&er as high as I might."

" If I thought so, " said Way land, " 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
farther temptation to pursue us, and endeavour to assume such
a change of shape as may baffle his pursuit, if he should per-
severe in it."

The travellers reached Donnington without farther alarm,
where it became matter of necessity that the countess should
enjoy two or three hours' repose, during which Wayland dis-
posed 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 Aiigel 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

KENILWORTH. 319

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 th6 price of which Master Goldthred
had a fierce dispute with the head-borough, whom he had
summoned to aid him in raising the country.

Having made this act of prudent, as well as just, restitu-
tion, Wayland procured such change of apparel for the lady,
as well as himself, as gave them both the appearance of coun-
try people of the better class ; it being farther 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 soimd 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 Don-
nington an hour or two before them, in order to proceed to
Kenilworth. Now it had occurred to Wayland that, by at-
taching themselves m 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 commimicated 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 accom-
plished. They pressed forward their horses, therefore, with
the purpose of overtaking the party of intended revellers, and

320 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

making the journey in tlieir 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 ac-
tion, 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. Way-
land looked anxiously back at these horsemen, became consid-
erably disturbed in his manner, looked back again, and
became pale, as he said to the lady : " That is Eichard Yar-
ney's trotting gelding : I would know him among a thousand
nags; this is a worse business tha,n 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
ii'on 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 Yarney or Lambourne in a good cause
— your palfrey will go yet faster if j^ou urge him — but yet —
nay, I pray you let him not break oif into the 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 vio-
lence. Could we once reach the party before us, we may herd
among them, and pass unobserved, unless Yarney be really
come in express pursuit of us, and then, happy man be his
dole!"

While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained
Ms horse, desirous to maintain the fleetest pace that was con-

KEXILWORTH. 321

sistenfc ■with tlie idea of an ordinary journey on the road, but
to avoid such rapidity of movement as might give rise to sus-
picion that they were flying.

At such a pace, they ascended the gentle hill we have men-
tioned, and, looking from the top, had the pleasui-e 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 rividet, beside which was a cottage or two.
In this place they seemed to have made a pause, which gave
"Wayland the hope of joiuuig them, and becoming a part of
their company, ere Yarney should overtake them. He was
the more anxious, as his companion, though she made no com-
plaints and expressed no fear, began to look so deadly pale
that he was afraid she might drop from her horse. ITotwith-
standing this symptom of decaying strength, she pushed on
her paKrey 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 lookuig 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 makmg any inquiries, or being asked
any" questions, they muigled with the group, as if they had
alwaj^s 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 lull, their horses' flanks and the
rowels of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate at
which they travelled. The api^earance of the stationaiy group
ai-ound the cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to
protect their masquing dresses, having their light cart for
transporting their scenery, and carrying various fantactio
21

I
322 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

properties in their hands for the more easy conveyance, let the
riders at once into the character and purpose of the com-
pany.

"You are revellers," said Varney, "designing for KenU-
-worth?"

^^ Recte quidem, Domine sjoectatissime," answered one of the
party.

"And why the devil stand you here," said Varney, "when
your utmost despatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in
time? The Queen dines at Warwick to-morrow, and you loi-
ter here, ye knaves!"

" In very truth, sir, " said a little diminutive urchin, wear-
ing a vizard with a couple of sproutiug 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 — "ta 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 devH he has !" answered Varney, whose laugh, how-
ever, never exceeded a sarcastic smile.

"It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masquer
"who spoke first: "our major devil — for this is but our minor
one — is even now at Lucinafer opem, within that very tugu-

" By St. George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a
tiusman of the fiend in the straw, a most comical chancel"
said Varney. " How sayst 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 ofiice."

"Saving always when my betters are in presence," said
Lambourne, with the civil impudence of a servant who knows
Ms services to be so indispensable that his jest will be per-
mitted 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. "

" Gatid^ nomine Sibyllce," said the first speaker: "she is

KENILWORTH. 323

called Sibyl Laneham, wife of Master Kichard [Robert]
Lanehain "

"Clerk to tbe council-cliamber 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 in-
quiry, 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 par-
ticularly 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 Mrs. 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 iEtna in his abdomen."

" I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to
witness his performance, " said Varney ; " but here is some-
thing 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.

324 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Aud now, " said the wily imp, sidling close up to Way-
land'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 ymi are, do you in return tell
me who /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 com-
pany, " 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 know'st 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, inan ! — she is a poor sister of mine, " said Way-
land. " 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, although I never heard it. "

" Then how canst thou love it. Flibbertigibbet?" said Way-
land.

" 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,

ZENILWORTH. 325

muttering afterwards betwixt his teeth, " Tlie 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 tal-
ents 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 re-
quired. The new-comers were invited to partake of the re-
freshments with which the party were provided; and it was
with some difficulty that Wayland Smith obtained an oppor-
tunity 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 conde-
scend, 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-lovmg de-
meanour, might have been the very emblem of the Wife of
Bath ; " and my gossip Laneham thinks as little of these mat-
ters as any one. By the ninth day, an the revels last so long,
we shall have her with us at Keuilworth, even if she should
travel with her bantlmg on her back."

There was something in this speech which took away all de-
sire on the Countess of Leicester's part to continue the con-
versation ; but having broken the charm by speaking to her
fellow-traveller first, the good dame, who was to play Rare
Gillian of Croydon ua one of the interludes, took care that si-
lence 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

S26 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

principal characters, but ever concluding witli " 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 "War-
wick 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 on my toe the whole even-
ing 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 part-
ner, I'll dance the hays yet with any merry lass in Warwick-
shire 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 dispo-
sition, which matched admirably with his sharp wit; the
former inducing him to plant himself as a spy on other peo-
ple'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
Bhould be breeched for thine assurance."

"Well," said the imp, drawing off, "all I say is, remember

KENILWORTH. 327

you have kept a secret from, me, and if I give thee not a Eow-
land 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 weari-
ness, she should express a desire to stop two or three miles
short of the fair town of War^vick, 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 cour-
teous 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 farther on the sub-
ject, which left Wayland imder the disagreeable uncertainty
whether or no she had formed any plan for her own future pro-
ceedings, as he knew her situation demanded circumspection, al-
though he was but imperfectly acquainted with all its peculiari-
ties. 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?

Tlie Glass Slipper.

The unfortunate Countess of Leicester had, from her in-
fancy upwards, been treated by those around her with mdul-
gence as unbounded as injudicious. The natural sweetness of

328 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

her disposition, liad 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 sj)ared
her childhood the painful, but most necessary, lesson of sub-
mission and seK-command. From the same indulgence, it fol-
lowed that she had only been accustomed to form and to ex-
press her wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfilling them;
and thus, at the most momentous period of her life, she wa8
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 imfortunate lady with over-
whelming force, on the morning which seemed to be the cri-
sis 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 vicin-
ity of both, a thousand consideration^ arose at once upon her
mind, startling her with acciunulated 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 sum-
mons. 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 dis-
covering Tressilian, and intimating to him the lady's api^roach,
when about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend
her. He found her dressed, and ready for resuming her jour-
ney, 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 be-
fore setting forward. "I have had,'' she said, "a cup of
water: the Avretch who is dragged to execution needs no
stronger cordial, and that may serve me which suffices for
him J do as I command you," Wayland Smith still hesitated^

KENILWORTH. 329

"What would you have?" said she. "Have I not spoken
plainly?"

"Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what
la your farther purpose? I only desii-e 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 pass-
ports 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 masquers, and again join ourselves with them?'*
The countess shook her head, and her guide proceeded, " Then
I see but one other remedy."

"Si)eak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps,
that he should thus oifer 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 m& 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 mv misfortunes, and
involve hijn 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 in-
dicated 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 farther is to be done. Thou hast yet
been true to me; here is something that will make thee rich
amends."

She oifered the artist a ring, containing a valuable stone.
Wayland looked at it, hesitated a moment, and then retui-ned

330 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

it. " Not, " lie said, " that I am above your kindness, madam,
being but a poor fellow, wlio 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 Kenil worth
Castle, and it is time enough to discharge your guide, as they
say, when you take your boots off. I trust in God your lady-
ship is as well assured of fitting reception when you arrive as
you may hold yourself certain of my best endeavours to con-
duct 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
wellnigh to suffocation. A moment afterwards the horses ap-
peared at the latticed window; the lady mounted, and found
that relief from the free air and change of place which is fre-
quently experienced in similar circumstances.

It chanced well for the countess's purpose that Way land
Smith, whose j)revious wandering and imsettled life had made
him acquainted with almost all England, was intimate with
all the bye-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 bye-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

KENILWORTH. 331

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 opportimity of in-
gratiating 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 waggon-whips and quarter-staves, which occasional riots
were usually quieted by a purveyor, deputy-marshal's man, or
some other person in authority, breaking the heads of bath
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 exhibitmg their real or pretended miseries,
forming a strange, though common, contrast betwixt the vani-
ties 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 j
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 onward, amongst those prim and pretty
moppets whose sires were knights and squires.

The throng and confusion was, however, of a gay and cheer-
ful character. All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all
• See Pilgrims to Kenilworth. Note 12.

332 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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
w^ere 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.
Yst, in the case of the Countess of Leicester, the noise and
tumult of this giddy scene distracted her thoughts, and ren-
dered 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 op-
portunity occurred of again moving forward, and frequently
turning altogether out of the direct road, followed some cir-
cuitous bye-path, which brought them into the highway again,
after having given them the opportunity of traversing a con-
siderable 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 pre-
vious 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
mean while, 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

KENILWORTH. 333

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 Kecorder, and to good Master Griffin,
the preacher, as they kneeled dowii at her coach window?"

" Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, " Master Eecorder,
men would have persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but
trul}- 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 will-
ingly 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, neighbor, " said a third ; " it is only when
the corporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me
that they put him off with dipt 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 slioidd di-aw off
from the road, and halt till she recovered. But, subdumg
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. Mean-
while, Wayland' s anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition
and her obvious distraction of mind was hourly mereasing,
and he became extremely desirous that, according to her re-
iterated requests, she should be safely introduced into the

334 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

castle, where, he doubted not, she was secure of a kind re-
ception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal on whom she re-
posed 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 o^vn
■sledge-hammer !"

At length the princely castle appeared, upon improving
^hich, 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 in-
closed 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
Tose near the centre of this spacious inclosure, was composed
of a huge pile of magnificent castellated buildings, apparently
of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearmg, 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 IVIercia,
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
xise and his fall had once gaily revelled in Kenilworth, while
ills dethroned sovereign, Edward II., languished in its

KENILWORTH. 335

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 en-
trance to the northward, over which he had erected a gate-
house, 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
Coimtess 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 imdoubted wife of the great earl, of Elizabeth's min-
ion 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 vmquestioned mistress of that proud castle, whose
lightest word ought to have had force sufficient to make its

336 WAVERLET IS'OVELS.

gates leap from tlieir massive hinges to receive her, yet she
could uot 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 farther 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 con-
structed 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 corslets richly carved and gilded, and wearing morions m-
stead 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 exhi-
bitions which were proposed.

The press was of consequence great around the entrance,
and persons of all kinds presented every sort of plea for ad-
mittance ; to which the guards turned an inexorable ear, plead-
ing in return to fair words, and even to fair offers, the strict-
ness of their orders, founded on the Queen's well-lcno-wn
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

IK!

Tht: liigliroiids wcri' filled witli droves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and liogs, and
choked witli loadi'd wains.

KENILWORTH. 337

to obtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his
head Avith great uncertainty'-, when the eai-l's pursuivant, hav-
ing cast an eye upon him, exclaimed, to his no small sui-prise,
"Yeomen, make room for the fellow in the orange-taAvny
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 un-
courteous invitation, which, for a mmute 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 flatter-
ing notice or distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward,
musing what difficulties it would be next their lot to encoun-
ter, through the broad avenue, which was sentinelled on either
side by a long line of retainers, armed with swords and parti-
zans, 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 his comrade, 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 bat-
tlements, 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 jjlumes disposed on the ter-
races and battlements, and all the gay and gorgeous scene, lier
heart, miaccustomed to such splendour, sank as if it died
within her, and for a moment she asked herself what she had
oifered 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.
22

338 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" I have given, him," she said, "all that -woman has to give»
Kame 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 claim-
ing 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, be-
longing to some one who had dropped himseK 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 un-
horse the urchin who climg to him. " Do Kenil worth 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 our 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.'

> See Amy Kobsart at Kenilworth. Note 13.

KENILWORTH. 339

CHAPTER XXVI.

Snuff. Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, 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 jjrim-
itive Britons by whom, accordmg 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, di-essed 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 representa-
tion 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, thewes, sinews, and bulk in
proportion, would ha^e enabled him to enact Colbrand, Asca-
part, 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 Avere 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 shoul-
ders, 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

« See Note U.

340 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

that huge, lumpisli, and heavy cast which are often annexed
to men of very uncommon size, and which, notwithstanding
some distinguished exceptions, have created a general preju-
dice 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 excel-
lently 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, whix;h 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 imder a fit of impa-
tience and anxiety. It was while the porter was pacing be-
fore 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 hint, began
to state that he belonged to a band of performers to which his
presence was indispensable, that he fiad 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 lit-
tle of ; and addressing betwixt whiles a refusal of admittance,
couched in language which was but too intelligible. A speci-
men 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

KENILWORTH. 341

break the pate of thee. (Oace more to himself) Here's a —
ao, I shall never get through it. "

"Stand still," whispered Flibtertigibbet into Waylaud'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 in-
duce 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 Af rite change his horrid frown into a look
of smooth submission more suddenly than the gigantic porter
of Kenilworth relaxed the terrors of his look at the instant
Flibbertigibbet's whisper reached his ears. He flung his club
upon the gi-ound 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 exul-
tation— "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 house-
wife uses in replacing a cracked china cup upon her mantel-
piece, calling out at the same time to Wayland and the lady,
" In with you — in with you j and take heed how you come too
late another day when I chance to be poiter."

"Ay — ay, in with you," added Flibbertigibbet; "I must
stay a short space with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of
Gath here; but I wiU be with you anon, and at the bottom
of all your secrets, were they as deep and dai-k 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

342 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 en-
tered 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, domes-
tics of every description, and all the appendages and pro-
moters of mirth and revelry.

Amid this stately and busy scene, Wayland halted his
liorse, 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 reso-
lutions, while she answered him in a low and suppressed
"voice, like the murmurs of one who speaks in a dream.

KENILWORTH. 343

"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. " 1 should summon my lord from
the Queen's royal presence to do your business, should I? I
were like to be thanked with a horsewhip. 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 com-
manding one fellow to take care of the stranger's 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 jesrs about liglit 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 gate-
way, which extended betwixt the principal keep, or donjon.

344 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 condiicted by their
guide to a small but strong tower, occupying the northeast
angle of the building adjacent to the great hall, and filling up
a space betAvixt the immense range of kitchens and the end of
the great hall itself. The lower part of this tower was occu-
pied 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 de-
mand 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 diame-
ter. The window, however, was pleasant, though narrow,
and commanded a delightful vicAV of what was called the Pleas-
ance — a space of ground inclosed and decorated with arches,
trophies, statues, fountains, and other architectural monu-
ments, which formed one access from the castle itself into the
garden. There was a bed in the apartment, and other prepa-
rations 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 com-
monly to be found in the bedrooms of those days), which in-
stantly suggested the idea of writing to Leicester, and remain-
ing private until she had received his answer.

The deputy-usher, having introduced them into this com-
modious apartment, courteously asked Wayland, whose gen.
erosity he had experienced, whether he could do anything f ai:-

KENILWORTH. 345

ther for his service. Upon receiving a gentle hint that some
refreshment would not be nnacce]Dtable, 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. Way land 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 him-
self making a hasty but hearty meal on more substantial fare.
He then returned to the apartment m the turret, where he
found the countess, who had finished her letter to Leicester j
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 naore 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, uito Lord
Leicester's own hand, and mark how he looks on receiving it."

Wayland, on his j)art, 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 ciwumstances
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 uncer-
tainty which appeared 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 im*

346 WAVERLET NOVELS.

probable opinion that the difficulties of her situation had in
some degree affected her understanding.

When she had escaped from the seclusion of Cuinnor 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 jurisdic*
tion 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 Tres-
silian, and communicate to him the arrival of the lady at Ken-
ilworth, and thus at once rid himseK of all farther responsibil-
ity and devolve the task of guiding and protecting this unfor-
tunate 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 on the coldest common in Eng-
land than share in their gayest revels."

KENILWORTH. 34T

CHAPTER XXVII.

In my time I have seen a boy do wondersr
Robin, the red tinker, had a boy
Would ha' run through a cat-hole.

The Coxcoirib.

Ami© 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 re-
tainers 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 farther
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 es-
corting 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 solem-
nities 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

S48 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

who weuu or came by the bridge, tlie 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 curvetted, along the tilt-yard, and ap-
proached 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 cacodemoois — 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."

" Why, thou little hop-the-gutter, thou art as sharp as vine-
gar this afternoon! But tell me, how didst thou come off
with yonder jolter-headed giant, whom I left thee with? I
was afraid he would have stripped thy clothes, and so swal-
lowed 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

KENILWORTH. 349

overburdened with a speecli that had been penned for him,
and which proved rather an overmatch for his gigantic facul-
ties. 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 floimdering, 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 Way-
land ; " haste thee, for Heaven's sake ! else the poor giant will
be utterly disconsolate for want of his dwarfish auxiliai-y.
Away with thee, Dickie!"

"Ay — ay!" answered the boy. "Away with Dickie, when
tve 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
Beci-et, but I try to be either at the right or the wrong end of
it, and so good evening to ye."

"oSTay, 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 extraordinaiy agility

350 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 m the pie, it cannot but prove a mess
fit for the devil's eating. I would to Heaven Master Tres-
silian would appear!"

Tressilian, whom he was thus anxiously expecting in one
direction, had returned to Kenilworth by another access. It
was indeed true, as Way land had conjectured, that, in the
eaiiier 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 disap-
pointed 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 there-
fore 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 sally-port 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

KENILWORTH. 351

Tesounded with tlie human voice, was silent, but for the whis-
pering of the leaves, the emulous warbling of the tenants of a
large aviary, with their happier companions who remained
denziens of the free air, and the plashing of the fountains
which, forced into the air from sculptures of fantastic and
grotesque forms, fell doAvn 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 com-
pared the magnificent scenes which he here traversed with the
deep woodland and wild moorland which surrounded Lidcote
Hall, and the image of Amy Eobsart glided like a phantom
through every landscape which his imagination summoned
up. Nothing is perhaps more dangerous to the future happi-
ness of men of deep thought and retired habits than the en-
tertaining an early, long, and unfortunate attachment. It
frequently sinks so deep into the mind that it becomes theia
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 thci
springs of the spirit were dried up along with it. This ach-
ing of the heart, this languishing after a shadow which has;
lost all the gaiety of its colouring, this dwelling on the re-
membrance 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 aroimd him, he felt aii
uncontrollable reluctance t ■ 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

352 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

immense range of kitcliens 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, ad-
vising him, in the present confused state of the castle, to keep
his door as mvich 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 recognised
that form to be Amy Eobsart. 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 appari-
tion ; the third and abiding conviction, that it was Amy her-
self, 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 Tressdian, 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, " un-
less 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, TressUian, 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
stigmatise the — ^the — the " She hesitated, dropped her

KENILWORTH. 353

tone of scorn, looked down, and was confused and silent; for
she recollected what fatal consequences might attend her com-
pleting 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 hus-
band 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 Tres-
silian ; 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, 7vretch/" 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 youi' 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 for-
got ; 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 Kenil worth 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."
23

354 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"Xot for all that is imder 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
coimtess, — "you once loved that I should call you so, — limit
uot 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 hon-
oured, respected, all but loved — and yet loved, too — loved,
too, Tressilian, though not as you wished me."

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 expres-
sions 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 herseK, and
has the means to make you so. It is surely worth your pa-
tience, for so short a space?"

EENILWORTE. 355

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
aad 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 anji;hing 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 imder that ex-
ternal semblance of youthful and self --willed folly deep feeling
and strong sense. In this I will confide, trusting your o^vu
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 j'Ou promise, as you are a gentleman and a man of honour,
to intrude in my matters neither by speech nor action, what-
ever you may see or hear that seems to you to demand your
interference? WiU you so far trust me?"

" I wiU, upon my honour, " said Tressilian ; " but when that
space is expired "

" When that space is expired, " she said, interrupting him,
"you ai-e 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

356 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

interest can you liave 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 attach-
ment."

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.

Pandienionium.

Tressilian, in strange agitation of mind, had hardly
stepped down the first two or three steps of the winding stair-
case, 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
downstairs; 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 bash-
fulness or embarrassment, and addressed him as if they had
been on kind and intimate terms : " What, no grudge between
us, I hope, upon old scores, Master Tressilian? Nay, I am
one who remember former kindness rather than later feud.
I'll convince you that I meant honestly and kindly, ay, and
comfortably, by you. "

KENILWORTH. 357

''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 rufl&an must have been
sensible of Amy's presence in his apartment ; " but if, " he con-
tinued, " thou art varlet of the chambers, and lackest a fee,
there is one to leave miue 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 make-bate, 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 counte-
nance, 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 Lamboui'ne."

"Make way, sir," said Tressilian, unable to bridle his in-
dignation ; " 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."

358 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

He spoke louder and louder, as Tressilian, by ■whom he felt
himself overawed, got farther and farther out of hearmg.

"I am no dog in the manger; but I will not carry coals
neither, mind that, my 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 / had done this now in a sti-ange
lord's castle, the word had been, 'The porter's lodge for the
knave!' and 'Have him flogged; trundle him downstaii'S 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 mider 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.

Shipwreck,

TRESSiLiAisr walked into the outer yard of the castle, scarce
knowing what to think of his late strange and most unex-
pected 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 her-
self 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

KENILWORTH. 359

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 gamed much towards securing effec-
tual 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 Avere circumstances which could not
but assist greatly the efforts which he might have occasion to
use in her behalf.

While he was thus balancuig the advantages and perils
which attended her unexpected presence in Kenilworth, Tres-
silian 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 in-
telligence 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 o^vn 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 — m 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 an 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
herseK 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."

360 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 hayloft 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, notwith-
standing the apology which he had made to appease the impa-
tient 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 Icnow, 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 gal-
lant, 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 myseK from th&

KENILWORTH. 361

whole mess of them. Life is dearer than gold; I will fly thig
instant, though I leave my reward behind me."

These reflections naturally enough occurred to a mind like
Wayland's, who found himseK engaged far deeper than he
had expected in a train of mysterious and imiutelligible in-
trigues, 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 have brought his
errant-damozel within his reach, so that he may look after her
himself; bat 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 riag 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. Way land 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 osbervation. 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 haU, led
to the bottom of the little winding stair that gave access to
the chambers of Mer\^n's Tower.

The artist congratulated himseK 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 op-

362 WAVERLET NOVELS.

posite wall of the staircase. Waylaiid drcAv 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
axt thou? and what seek'st 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.

" Say'st thou me so? Come hither, Laurence 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
r ask you in fair play who thou art, and what thou seek'st
here?"

"If the dungeon-grate once clashes behind me," thought
Wayland, " I am a gone man. " He therefore answered sub-
missively, "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 hand-
somely with all sorts of commodities. This will be a precious
tale of the sainted Master Tressilian, and will be welcome to

KENILWORTH. 363

some folks, as a purse of broad pieces to me. Hark ye, fel-
low, " he contiaued, addi-essing 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 hard-hearted, I hope," 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 St. Christopher!" said Lambourne.
"Orion, caH'st 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; Laurence, do thou bring him
along."

Laurence seized by the collar of the cloak the unresisting
juggler, while Lambourne, with hasty steps, led the way to
that same sally-port, 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 sally-port, Wayland in vain racked his brain for
some device which might avail the poor lady, for whom, not-
withstanding 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.

364 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Laurence 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 cai-
tiff from the castle, just when he was to bear a part in the
show that was beginning, and all this about a wench,"

" Ah, Laurence, " replied Lambourne, " thou art thinking of
Black Joan Jugges of Slingdon, and hast sympathy with hu-
man frailty. But corragio, most noble Duke of the Dungeoa
and Lord of Limbo, for thou art as dark in this matter as
thine own dominions of Little Ease. My most reverend Sig-
nior 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 fidl 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 Laurence
Staples, the upper-warder, or, in common phrase, the first
jailor of Kenilworth Castle, and of the liberty and honour be-
longing thereto ; " but how will you manage when you are ab-
sent 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 Laurence, "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 Lam-
bourne, 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?"

KENILWORTH. 365

" Wliy, as to fear. Master Lambourne, " said tlie f ellow> " I
mind it uot 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 Lam-
bourne, " and how the ghost is always most vociferous when
they boil leeks and stirabout, or fry toasted cheese, in the cu-
linary 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 Leices-
ter, or the like, fifty feet under ground, rather than I would
put them into that upper chamber yonder that they call Mer-
vyn's Bower. Indeed, by good St. 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

BGQ WAVERLEY NOVELS.

c'iaret, wliicli lie made use of without any cup, the warder
went on vindicating his own belief in the supernatui-al.

" Thou hast been few hours in this castle, and hast been for
the whole space so drunk, Lambourne, that thou art deaf,
dumb, and blmd. But we should hear less of your bragging,
Avere 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 northwest, 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
speak'st thou know'st 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 iu one
thing, some in another: it is all matter of fancy. I have
known them of all sorts, my dear Laurence Lock-the-Door,
and sensible men too. There's a great lord — we'll pass his
aame, Laurence — he believes in the stars and the moon, the
planets and their courses, and so forth, and that they twinkle
exclusively for his benefit j when, in sober, or rather in
drunken, truth, Laurence, they are only shining to keep hon-
est fellows like me out of the kennel. Well, sir, let his hu-
mour 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 thy-
self, 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

KENILTVORTH. 367

great man, my dear Laurence — and his name begins with Y,
and what believes he? Why, nothing, honest Laurence-—
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 catoh 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 Bricham was wont
to say. But this is Greek to you now, honest Laurence, and
in sooth learning is dry work. Hand me the ^Ditcher 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 mo-
ment 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 vmdertone, which soon rose to a high
one as his speech proceeded, " Never mind, Laurence ; if I be
dnmk, 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 talie
cold miless I take something comfortable beforehand. Not
play Orion ! Let us see the best roai'er that ever strained hii
lungs for twelve pence out-mouth me ! What if they see me a
little disguised? "VMierefore 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 uo names, Laurence. But your pottle of sack
is a fine shoeuig-horn to pull on a loyal humour and a merry
one. Huzza for Queen Elizabeth! — for the noble Leicester! —
for the worshipful Master Yarney! — and for Michael Lam-
bourne, that can turn them all romid his finger!"

So saying, he walked downstairs, and across the inner court.

The Avarder looked after him, shook his head, and, while he
drew close and locked a wicket, which, ci"Ossing the staircase,
rendered it impossible for any one to ascend higher than tho

368 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Btoiy immediately beneath Mervyn's Bower, as Tressilian's
chamber was named, he thus soliloquised with himself: "It's
a good thing to be a favourite. I wellnigh lost mine office
because, one frosty morning, Master Varney thought I smeUed
of aquavitse; and this fellow can appear before him drimk as
a wine-skin, and yet meet no rebuke. But then he is a pesti-
lent 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,

Tressiliax, when Wayland had left him, as mentioned in
the last chapter, remained uncertain what he ought next to do,
\5^hen 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

KENILWORTH. 369

who, not arriving in her immediate attendance, may appear in
their soiled and ruffled riding-dress. But look at Blount him-
self, Tressilian, for the love of laughter, and see hoAV his
villainous tailor hath apparelled him — in blue, green, and
crimson, with carnation ribands, 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 thiugs 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 ribands which garnished his dress as a
clown is in his holyday 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 particu-
lar 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
liOrd 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,"
24

370 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

replied Tressilian : " I would uot 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
uj^on 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 maJces 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 Tressil-
ian, who saw that his friend's imusual finery had take 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 think' st my garb well-fancied, for all Mr. Wit-
typate here ; for when one does a foolish thing, it is right to
do it handsomely."

So saying, Bloimt cocked his beaver, threw out his leg, and
marched manfully forward, as if at the head of his brigade of
pikeman, 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.

KENILWORTH. 371

vented itself in jests, wliicli he wTiispered into Tressilian's
ear.

In this manner they crossed the long hridge, 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 partizans, which was formed by
Leicester's retainers, wearing his liveries. The gentlemen
carried no arms save their swords and daggers. These gal-
lants were as gaily dressed as imagination could devise j 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, ribands, feathers, gems, and golden chains.
In spite of his more serious subjects of distress, Tressiliaa
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
dishabille was the subject of wonder among his own friends
and of scorn among the pai-tizaa§ of Leicester.

We could not suppress this fact, though it may seem some-
thing at variance with the gravity of Tressilian's [character j
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 mevitable death, but even the
doomed criminal who goes to certain execution, shows an anx-
iety 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 ex-
pectation of the Queen's immediate approach. The multiude
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 bai-rels of ale
set a-broach in different places of the road, had kept the pop-
ulace in perfect love and loyalty towards the Queen and her

372 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

favourite, which might have somewhat abated had fasting
been added to watching. They passed away the time, there-
fore, with the usual popular amusements of whooping, halloo-
ing, shrieking, and playing rude tricks upon each other, form-
ing 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 thou-
sands, 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 mari-
ners, 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 Wittens West-
lowe. "

" He wiU assuredly graze presently, " said Raleigh to Tres-
silian : " 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 boldest us all so lightly?"

"Who, I?" replied Raleigh. "An eagle am I, that never
wiR think of dull earth whUe there is a heaven to soar in and
a sun to gaze upon."

"Well bragged, by St. Barnaby!" said Blount; "but, good

KENILWORTH. 375

Master Eagle, beware the cage, and beware the fowler. Many
birds have flown as high, that I have seen stuffed with straw,
and himg up to scare kites. But hark, what a dead sUence
hath fallen on them at once!"

" The procession pauses, " said Raleigh, " at the gate of the
chase, where a sibyl, one of the Fatidicce, 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 Ee-
corder's speech yonder, at Ford Mill, as she entered the liber-
ties of "Warwick, how she was ' ^jericpsa harharce loqueloe. ' "

" The Queen whispered to Mm ! " said Blount, in a kind of
soliloquy. " Good God, to what will this world come!"

His farther meditations were interrupted by a shout of ap-
plause 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 cas-
tie, and announced to all within that Queen Elizabeth had en-
tered 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 them-
selves, 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 ; which, as we
have already noticed, was lined on either hand by the retain-
ers 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 herseK,
arrayed in the most splendid manner, and blazing with jewels,
formed the central figure. She was mounted on a milk-white

374 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 ap-
proach 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 resti-ained him, the foam flew from his
mouth and specked 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 Eng-
land, 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 solici-
tude 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 re-

KENILWORTH. 375

marked that lie was unusually pale, and they expressed to
each other their fear that he was taking more fatigue than
consisted with his health.

Yarney followed close behind his master, as the principal
esquire in waiting, and had charge of his lordship's black vel-
vet bonnet, garnished with a clasp of diamonds and surmounted
by a white pliune. 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, al-
though Yarney 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 Yarney' s own intelligence, that his coun-
tess laboured under an indisposition which formed an unan-
swerable apology to the Queen for her not appearing at Kenil-
worth, 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 Ivnights
and gentlemen, whose rank and birth, hoAvever 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

376 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

contents of one immense black-jack of double ale, which he
had just drank 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 a 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 sup-
pose that the first lines were addressed to the throng who ap-
proached 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 mag-
nificent train :

What stir, what turmoil, have we for the nones?
Stand back, my masters, or beware your bones I
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 enfolds,

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 I " *

Elizabeth received most graciously the homage of the Her-
culean 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

' See Imitation of Gascoigne. Note 15.

KENILWORTH. 377

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 en-
chantment, seemed now close at hand, now softened by distant
space, now wailing so low and sweet as if that distance were
gradually j)rolonged until only the last lingeruig 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 Keuilworth, 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,
Kaleigh 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 rea-
son, 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 smaR floating island, illuminated by a great
variety of torches, and surrounded by floating pageants forme(?
to represent sea-horses, on which sat Tritons, Nereids, and
other fabulous deities of the seas and rivers, made its appear-
ance 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, boimd 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

378 T^AVERLEY NOVELS.

with gold bracelets of uncommon size. Amidst her long sillfy
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 pic-
turesque effect, landed at Mortimer's Tower, with her two at-
tendants, just lis Elizabeth presented herself before that out-
work. 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 re-
doubted Sir Lancelot, and whose beauty had proved too pow-
erful 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 JNIortimers, 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 be-
longed to our own dominions, fair dame; but smce 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 inter-
ests."

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 Waylaiid, being chilled with re-
maining 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 impu-

KENILWORTH. 379

dence, tearing off his vizard, and swearing, "Cog's bones! lie
was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike Lam-
bourne, that had been drinking her Majesty's health from
morning till midnight, and was come to bid her heartily wel-
come to Kenii worth Castle."

This unpremeditated buffoonery answered the purpose prob-
ably 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 in-
stantly 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 ve-
hemency, that the heavens thundered, the waters surged, and
the earth shook ; and for my part, hardy as I am, it made m©
very vengeably afraid." '

CHAPTER XXXI.

Kay, this is matter for the month of ^Slarch,
Wlien hares are maddest. Either speak iii reason,
Giving cold argument the wail of passion,
Or I break up the court.

Beaumont akd Fletcher.

It is by no means our purpose to detail minutely all th©
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 Ijorrowed Laneham 'a

> See Festivities at Kenilworth. Xote IG.

380 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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, over-
shadowing a royal throne, and beside it was a door, which
opened to a long suite of apartments, decorated with the ut-
m.ost 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 kiss-
ing the hand which she held out, with an air in which roman-
tic and respectful gallantry was happily mingled with the
air of loyal devotion, he thanked her, in terms of the deep-
est 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. '

She at length raised him ; and, standing beside the throne,
lie explained to her the various preparations which had been,
made for her amusement and accommodation, all of which re-
ceived 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

* See Elizabeth and Leicester. Note 17.

KENILWORTH. 381

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 them-
selves into fresh attii-e, would have the honour of keeping her
presence-chamber.

"Be it so, my lord," answered the Queen; "you could man-
age 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, bemg iu 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
eame time, made it delightful."

Leicester, having received this permission, retired accord-
ingly, and was followed by those nobles who had attended the
Queen to Kenilworth in person. The gentlemen who had pre-
ceded 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 sharj) eye
soon distinguished Kaleigh 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 gra-
ciously. 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 con-
cisely, 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.

382 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 reluc-
tance, 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, Ealeigh 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 eye from the one to the other. " I
doubt," she said, "this same poetical Master Tressilian, who
is too learned, I warrant me, to remember what 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 senti-
ments, 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 Vv^th unavail-
ing and distressing pertinacity. As these reflections passed
through his active brain, the lower door was opened, and
Leicester, accompanied by several of his kinsmen and of the
nobles who had embraced his faction, re-entered the castle
haU.

The favourite earl was now apparelled all in white, his
shoes being of white velvet; his understocks, or stockings, of
knit silk ; his upper stocks of white velvet, lined with cloth of
silver, which was shown at the slashed x^art of the middle
thigh ; his doublet of cloth of silver, the close jerkin of white

KENILWORTH. 383

velvet, embroidered with silver and seed-pearl, liis 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 picee 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 per-
ceived, 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 in
presence, my lord?" His answer was ready: "Gracious
madam, she is not."

Elizabeth bent her brows 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 light-
est 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") can-
not attend on your royal presence."

Varney advanced, and pleaded with readiness, what indeed

S84 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

lie 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 gentle-
man 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 certifi-
cates in her hand, and glancing at their contents. " Let Tres^
silian come forward. Master Tressilian, we have much sym-
pathy for j^our 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 gentle-
man 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 prac-
tised 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 Leices-
ter'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 agamst 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 tha
truth of them, and upon what evidence."

KENILWORTH. 385

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 false-
hood 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 certifi-
cates 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 it."

"Why, Tressilian, thou art critical as well as poetical,"
said the Queen, bending on him a brow of displeasure ; " me-
thinks 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 lists to be so for-
mal— 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 pres-
ence, 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.
25

386 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"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 Say's 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 Coimtess of Rutland, next sang his praises, and both re-
membered the thin, beautiful Italian hand in which he was
wont to write his receipts, and which corresponded to the cer-
tificate produced as his.

" And uow, 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 weUnigh overpowered my Lord of Lei-
cester's perfumes."

So spoke Elizabeth, whose nicety of scent was one of the
characteristics of her organisation, as appeared long afterwards
when she expelled Essex from her presence on a charge against
his boots similar to that which she now expressed agaiust
those of Tressilian.

But Tressilian had by this time collected himself, aston-
ished 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 re-
quest! Decide not this matter so hastily. Give me but
twenty-four hours' interval, and I will, at the end of that

KENILWORTH. 387

brief space, produce evidence whicli will show to demonstra-
tion 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 lion in her to
fear. " The fellow must be distraught ; that witty knave, my
godson Harrington, must have him into his rhymes of Or-
lando Furioso! And yet, by this light, there is something
strange in the vehemence of his demand. Speak, Tressilianj
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 Tres-
silian.

"Pshaw!" replied the Queen. "God's light! thouspeak'st
like a fool. What head falls in England but by just sentence
of English law? I ask thee, man — if thou hast sense to un-
derstand me — wilt thou, if thou shalt fail in this improbable
attempt of thine, render me a good and sufi&cient reason why
thou dost undertake it?"

Tressilian paused, and again hesitated; because he felt con-
vmced that if, within the interval demanded, Amy should be-
come reconciled to her husband, he would in that case do her
the worst of offices by again ripping up the whole circum-
stances 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 em-
barrassment 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,
Ealeigh, 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 St. Luke's Hospital. But come back in.-

888 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

stantly 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 agam endeavouring to address the Queen,
when Ealeigh, in obedience to the orders he had received, in-
terfered, 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, Kaleigh entreated
Blount to see Tressilian safely conducted into the apartments
alloted 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 said'st I was a good soldier,
and a What besides, dearest Walter?"

"An all unutterable — cod's-head. For God's sake, be-
gone!"

Tressilian, without farther resistance or expostulation, fol-
lowed, or rather suffered himself to be conducted by Blount to

J- KENILWORTH. 389

Raleigh's lodgings, 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 pre-
text or desire of farther interference with the fortvmes 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 mor-
tification 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 disin-
terested efforts to save a female who had treated him with in-
gratitude 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 Tres-
silian was withdrawn, "to see a wise and learned man's wit
thus pitifully unsettled. Yet this public display of his imper-
fection of brain plainly shows us that his supposed injury and

390 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

accusation were fruitless ; and therefore, my Lord of Leices-
ter, 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 ear-
nestly 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 Eobsart, 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 an-
cestors 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 Har-
rington here, he could tell me the passage' — even trim my hair
and arrange my head-gear in such a steel mirror as this is.
Kichard Varney, come forth and kneel down. In the name of
God and St. George, we dub thee knight ! Be faithful, brave,
and fortunate. Arise, Sir Richard Varney,"

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

* See Italian Poetry. Note IS,

KENILWORTH. 391

himself in a subordinate situation to Leicester, was now wear-
ing 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 gratif^dng as it was tendered at a
moment when his rival's triumph appeared to be complete.

At the summons of Queen Elizabeth, Sussex hastily ap-
proached her person; and being asked on which of his fol-
lowers, 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 Eliza-
beth ; " 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 dis-
countenanced, " 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 Kutland,
who read in the Queen's manner that she had expected Sussex
would have named Ealeigh, and thus would have enabled her
to gratify her own wish while she honoured his recommenda-
tion, 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 honotxrs 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.

392 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Then, " pursued the duchess, " in the name of these fail
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-Coat shall become
the good knight Lack-Coat at your desire. Let the two aspi-
rants 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 distin-
guished or more illustrious object.

Shortly afterwards, Nicholas Blount entered, and, hastily
apprized 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 disposi-
tion, and converted a plain, honest, awkward man into a cox-
comb 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 broad side 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 correspondence with
this unhappy amble ; and the implied mixture of bashful fear
and self-satisfaction was so unutterably ridiculous that Leices-

KENILWORTH. 893

ter's friends did not suppress a titter, in which many of Sus-
sex's partizans 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 stock-
ings restored his self-confidence, when on he went at the same
pace as before.

The Queen conferred on poor Blount the honour of knight-
hood with a marked sense of reluctance. That wise princess
was fully aware of the propriety of using great circumspection
and economy in bestowing these titles of honour, which the
Stuarts, who succeeded to her throne, distributed with an
imprudent liberality which greatly dimiuished their value.
Blount had no sooner arisen and retired than she turned to
the Duchess of Kutland. " 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, " re-
plied 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 j

394 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

he may be a good soldier iu 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 banquet-
ing-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 the form of a swan in
full sail. That chivalry might not be omitted amid this
splendour, a silver St. 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, min-
strels, etc., with the usual cry of ^^ Largesse — largesse, cheva'
Hers 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 cele-
brate 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 be-
• See Furniture of Kenilworth. Note 19.

KENILWORTH. 396

stowed liis 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.

These 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 Eichard ! 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 farther of the festivities
of the evening, which were so brilliant in themselves, and re-
ceived 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 honoui-s of the
earl's coxicher.

"How! Sir Eichard," 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 dis-
charging the task, that pleasure which his words expressed.

396 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

"I am not afraid of men's misconstruction," lie 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 ex-
pect very soon to see persons of a rank far superior to that
which, by your goodness, I now hold, rendering the duties of
the bed-chamber 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 smaU
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 ges-
tures 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 heav-
enly bodies.

" Ye distant orbs of living fire, " so ran the muttered invo-
cation of the ambitious earl, " ye are silent while you wheel
your mystic rounds, but Wisdom has given to you a voice.
TeU me, then, to what end is my high course destined ! Shall
the greatness to which I have aspired be bright, pre-eminent.

KENIL-^ORTH. 397

and stable as your own ; or am I but doomed to di-aw 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 astrol-
ogy true. Alasco says that your favourite planet is culminat-
ing, 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 evd 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

398 WAVERLEY I^OVELS.

from Varney, Leicester drew the curtain, heavy with entwined
silk and gold, so as completely to shade his face. Yaruey
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 Leices-
ter, after another pause; "but it is written, 'Put not thy trust
in princes. ' "

" A good sentence and a true, " said Varney, " imless 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
sayst 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! talk'st thou of them," said Leicester, "that be-
lievest not in them or in aught else?"

" You mistake, my lord, under your gracious pardon, " said
Yarney : " 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

KENILWORTH. 399

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,
fi'om 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 Yarney : " the countess i:^
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 Tai'
ney, assuming the superiority of an innocent man subjected t^
imjust suspicion. ''I said nothing to deserve such a horrid
imputation as your violence infers. I said but that the coun-
tess 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 thon hast
talked of impossibilities as of things which may come to pass."

" ]\Iy 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 notwith'
standing. "

"iSTay, now, Vai-nej', 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

400 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

other countries, how a left-handed marriage might subsist be-
twixt persons of differing degree? — ay, and be no hinderance
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 clue."

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, smothermg a sneering laugh, answered : " He be-
lieved Master Tressilian had no such matter in his head."

"How!" said Leicester, "what mean'st 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 play-
er'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! mean'st thou a paramour?"

" Ay, my lord ; what female else waits for hours in a gen-
tleman's chamber?"

" By my faith, time and space fitting, this were a good tale

KENILWORTH. 401

to tell," said Leicester. "I ever distrusted those bookish,
hypocritical, seeming-virtuous scholars. Well, Master Tres-
silian 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, how-
ever, 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; "whatmean'st thou by that epi-
thet?"

I " It came unawares, my lord ; and yet it sounds so very nat-
Tiral 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 expe-
rience," said Varney; and, wishing his patron good-night, he
withdrew.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Here stands the victim ; there the proud betrayer,
E'en as the hind pull'd down by strangling dogs
I 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
laower. " I will not expect him, " she said, " till night : he
26

402 WAVERLEY NO .'ELS.

caanot be absent from his royal guest, even to see me. He
will, I know, come earlier if it be possible, but I will not ex-
pect Mm before nigbt. " 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-com-
mand 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 ren-
dered 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 for-
titude, 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 iu
Caesar's Tower, at no great distance from that called Mer-\'yn's,
began to send its pealing clamour abroad, in signal of the ar-
rival 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 stun-
ning 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 sala-
manders executing a frolic dance in the region of the sylphs,
the comitess 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

KENILWORTH. 403

time would have appeared to her at once captivating and fear-
ful. 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 ia the
opposing element, dived and rose, hissed and roared, and
spouted fire, like so many dragons of enchantment sporting
upon a biu'ning 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 re-
semble 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? 0 Leicester! after all — all that thou
hastf said — hast sworn — that Amy was thy love, thy life, cau
it be that thou art the magician at whose nod these enchant-
ments 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 KenUworth
only, but the whole country around, had been at once the scene
of solemnising 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 imlimited 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 coun-
tess withdrew fi-om the window at which she had sate listen-
ing to them. It was night, but the moon afforded considera-

404 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

ble 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 unauthorised intruder. She had
lost confidence in the key, since Tressilian had entered so
easily, though the door was locked on the inside ; yet aU 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 pre-
cautions, 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 in-
tervals 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 neces-
sarily ensue ere the pangs which they inflict can again be re-
newed.

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 an-
nounce 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 aa
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,

KENILWORTH. 405

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, soundmg not the mort, but
the jolly reveille, to remind the inmates of the Castle of Ken-
ilworth 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 wiR not come nigh
me ! A queen is his guest, and what cares he m 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 in-
effable 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 de-
bauchee, 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 Cuninor Place, her per-

406 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

son, 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 intoxi
cated ; 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 distrac-
tion into which Amy had thrown herseK, 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 thy-
self the labour. I love thy first frank manner the best; like
thy present as little (he made a step towards her, and stag-
gered)— as little as — such a danmed 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 Aonerica, girl, where the gold grows, and have
brought off such a load on't "

"Good friend," said the countess in great terror at the
ruf&an's determined and audacious manner, " I prithee begone,
and leave me."

" And so I will, pretty one, when we are tired of each oth-
er'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

KENILWORTH. 40T

aid, in the person of Laurence Staples, who had heard her
exclamatious from his apartment below, and entered in good
time to save her fi-om being discovered, if not from more
atrocious violence. Laurence was drunk also from the de-
bauch of the preceding night ; but fortunately his intoxicatioa
had talien a different turn from that of Lamboume.

"What the devil's noise is this in the Avard?" he said.
** What ! man and woman together in the same cell ! that is
against rule. I will have decency imder my rule, by St. Peter
of the Fetters."

"Get thee downstairs, thou drunken beast," said Lam-
bourne; " seest thou not the lady and I would be private?"

" Good sir — worthy sir, " said the countess, addressing the
jailor, " do but save me from him, for the sake of mercy!"

"She speaks fairly," said the jailor, "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 dis-
turb her in her penfold. So, let go the woman, or I'll knock
your brains out with my keys."

"I'll make a blood-puddmg of thy midriff first," answered
Lambourne, laying his left hand on his dagger, but still de-
taining 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!"

Laurence 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 doAvnstairs ; while, at the same mo-
ment, 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, havuig been opened for Lam-
bourne's admittance; so that she succeeded in escaping down
the stair, and fled into the Pleasauee, which seemed to her
hasty glance the direction in which she was most likely to
avoid pursuit.

408 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Meanwhile, Laurence and Lambourne rolled on the floor of
the apartment, closely grappled together. Neither had, hap-
pily, opportunity to draw their daggers ; but Laurence found
space enough to dash 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 interposi.
tion 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 Laurence hath swallowed her. That filthy
paunch of his devours as many distressed damsels and op-
pressed orphans as e'er a giant in King Arthur's history: they
are his prime food; he worries them body, soul, and sub-
stance."

"Ay — ay! It's no matter," said Laurence, 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 wiU call
for him shall tame you both, and that is Master Varney — Sir
Bichard, I mean ; he is stirring, I promise you : I saw him
«ross the court just now."

"Didst thou, by G — ?" said Lambourne, seizing on the

KENILWORTH. 409*

basin and sewer which stood in the apartment. " ^ay, 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 fer-
menting 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 jailor; "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. Hey I
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 jailor: "the prison's
broken, that is all. Kenilworth prison is broken," he con-
tinued, 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 jailor 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
jailor, 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 tur-
ret-chamber, from which the countess had been just delivered.

That imhappy lady, as soon as she found herseK 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

410 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

recess, iii which slie could lie concealed until she had an op-
portunity of addressing herself to a protector, to whom she
might communicate as much as she dared of her forlorn situ-
ation, 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 rim
the hazard of farther insult among the insolent menials of this
iU-ruled place. I will not again venture into an inclosed
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 live
persons together, laughing and jesting in their own fulness of
mirth and lightness of heart.

The retreat which she had chosen gave her the easy alterna-
tive 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 Avhich 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 ex-
pected sympathy) would engage in conference with so suspi-
cious 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 iastant, ere one could penetrate
from the entrance of the grotto to its extremity, in case the

KENILWORTH. 411

iutrusion of Varney or of Lambourne should render such, dis-
guise necessary. The dress which she wore under these vest-
ments was somewhat of a theatrical cast, so as to suit the
assumed personage of one of the females who Avas 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 foimtain, actuig 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 se-
questered 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 niga ?

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 re-
quired, where flights of steps, then a favourite ornament in
a garden, conducted them from terrace to terrace and from

412 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 dis-
turb, 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 ad-
miring the grace of this illustrious couple, whose robes of state
were now exchanged for hunting-suits, almost equally mag-
nificent.

Elizabeth's silvan dress, which was of a pale blue silk, with
silver lace and aiguiUettes, 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 dis-
tance (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 tender-
ness. 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
ber companion, which external gesture in females often indi-
cates 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

KENILWORTH. 413

on her cheek ; and still farther, " 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 con-
versation betwixt two persons of different sexes is often
decisive of their fate, and gives it a turn very different per-
haps from what they themselves anticipated. Gallantry be-
comes mingled with conversation, and affection and passion
come gradually to mix with gallantry. Kobles, 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 mean while 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 ac-
complished 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 ad-
dressed; 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 itseK.

*'Ko, Dudley," said Elizabeth, yet it was with broken ac-
cents— " no, I must be the mother of my people. Other ties,
that make the lowly maiden hajDpy, are denied to her sov-
ereign. 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;

414 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 extrem-
ity 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 col-
imin, at the foot of which arose the pellucid fountain, which
occupied the inmost recess of the twilight grotto. The classi-
cal mind of Elizabeth suggested the story of Numa and Egeria,
and she (k)ubted not that some Italian sculptor had here re-
presented the naiad whose inspirations gave laws to Eome.
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

KENIL WORTH. 415

■who entered tlie grotto alone, and, as she at Urst 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 ala-
baster pedestal agamst which she leaned. Her dress was of
pale seargreen 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 masquers 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
keem^ess that the astonishment which had kept Amy immov-
able 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, sav-
ing 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 beauti-
' f ul 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

416 WAVERLET NOVELS.

are his sworn enemy, maiden, and can reverse his charm.
Speak, we command thee."

Instead of answermg her by speech, the unfortunate coun-
tess 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 suppli-
cation 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 pe-
titioner.

" 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 wellnigh as she uttered the
fatal word, which was instantly caught up by the Queen.

"What Varney? Sir Eichard Varney — the servant of Lord
Leicester? What, damsel, are you to him, or he to you?"

" I — 1 — was his prisoner — and he practised on my life — and
I broke forth to — to "

" To throw thyself on my protection, doubtless, " said Eliza-

KE^^LWORTH. 417

"beth, " 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 HaU?"

"Forgive me — forgive me, most gracious princess!" said
Amy, droppiug once more on her knee, from which she had
arisen.

" For what should I forgive thee, silly wench?" said Eliza-
beth; "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 : " Xo, 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 A'arney ! 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 unde-
fined 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 dally 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 astonish-
ment. "The Earl of Leicester!" she repeated, with kindling

27

418 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 hear-
ing, 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 ad-
vanced, 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 coimtess, 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 aston-
ishment 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,
extenuated, 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 iU. " 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
aU is light and laughing around, a thimderbolt were to fall
from the clear blue vault of heaven, and rend the earth at the

KENILWORTH. 419

■very feet of some careless traveller, he could not gaze upon
tlie smouldering chasm which so unexpectedly yawned before
him with haK 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 disavow-
ing 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 iuto the circle, her pas-
sions 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 iu its ruins.
But the cemented stones, architrave and battlement, stood fast j
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 flagstones
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 iu 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 swolu with contending emotions, and only re-

420 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

plied : " 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 be-
stowed 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 yoiu- band of gen-
tlemen 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 know'st not of what he is guilty!"

Amy, who had by this time in some degree recovered her-
self, 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 thy-
self 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
T did, I foully belied him. May God so judge me, as I be-
lieve he was never privy to a thought that would harm me!"

" Woman !" said Elizabeth, " I will know who has moved

KENILWORTH. 421

thee to this ; or my wrath — and the wrath of kings is a flam-
ing 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 Avould 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 himseK the protector of his countess, when Var-
ney, born, as it appeared, to be his master's evil genius, rushed
into the presence, with every mai-k of disorder on his face and
appai-el.

"What means this saucy intrusion?" said Elizabeth.

Yarney, with the air of a man altogether overwhelmed with
grief and confusion, prostrated himself before her feet, ex-
claiming : " Pardon, my liege — pardon ! or at least let your jus-
tice avenge itself on me, where it is due ; but spare my noble,
my generous, my innocent patron and master!"

Amy, who was yet kneelin'g, started up a,s she saw the man
whom she deemed most odi*"us place himself so near her, and
svas about to fly towards I -ncester, when, checked at once by
the uncertainty and eve^ timidity which his looks had reas-
Bunied as soon as the appearance of his confidant seemed to
open a new scene^ she /lung back, and, uttering a faint scream,
besought of her M?,iV;sty to cause her to be imprisoned in the
lowest dungeon cf fhe castle — to deal with her as the worst of
criminals — " bvi> spare, " she exclaimed, " my sight and hear-
ing 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 thmk thou art distraught already,"

422 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

answered the Queen. " My Lord Huns don, 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 mo-
tive, offered their service to look after her; but the Queen
briefly answered : " Ladies, under favour, no. You have aU,
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 lady-
birds of daughters."

So saying, he carried her off, unresistingly and almost un-
consciously; 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 seK-command which forms so necessary
a part of a sovereign's accomplishments, suppressed every ap-
pearance of agitation, and seemed as if she desired to banish
fill 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's, "I
speak it not in defamation of his more noble qualities, hath
a broad license in speech, and garnishes his discourse some-
what 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 distempera-
ture. 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.

KENILWORTa 423

that affirmation? — I question if it were much cooled by mix-
ing 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 Huns-
don 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 de-
tected 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 pecul-
iar to many who are afflicted with this malady. He is at
hand for examination. "

424 WA^^ERLEY NOVELS.

" Let it be for anotlier time, " said the Queen. " But, Sii
Richard, we envy you not your domestic felicity : youi- lady
railed on you bitterly, and seemed ready to swoon at behold-
ing 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 com-
mand 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 — siich things-
we have heard do occur, even betwixt a loving couple — you
may make it up, without further scandal to oux 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."

KENILWORTH. 426

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 reville. 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 mutahile, " answered Ealeigh, in a similar tone.

" iSTay, I know nought of your Latin, " said Blount ; " but I
thank God Tressilian took not the sea during that hurricano.
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 Tres-
silian, I would 1 knew what were the matter with him. He
told me this morning he woidd 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
mo tint. Let us to horse, Blount: we young knights must
deeerre our spurs."

426 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Sincerity,
Thou first of virtues, let no mortal leave
The 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 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 Kenil worth
by Foster, who, in his terror for the consequences, had him-
self posted thither with the tidings. As Varney, in his nar-
rative, took especial care to be silent concerning those prac-
tices 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 cur-
rent 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 coimnands."

KENILWORTH. 427

" 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 de-
fiance; and to those, I fear, we must agaia 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 con-
descending, 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 Eliza-
beth as you did?"

Leicester sighed, and was silent for a moment, ere he re-
plied.

" 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 wit-
nessed those yieldings to human passion."

" We must do something, my lord," said Varney, " and that
speedily. "

" There is nought to be done, " answered Leicester, despond-

428 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

iugly; "I am like one that lias long toiled up a dangerous
precipice, and when he is within one joerilous 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 ac-
quiesced. Keep we your marriage from Elizabeth's knowl-
edge, 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 pres-
sure 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. Hiuisdon 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 oa
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^

KENILWORTH. 429

in whicli 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 Hunsdou
had, with military precaution, placed a sentinel, one of his
own northern retainers as it fortuned, who readily admitted
Sir Eichard Varney and his attendant, sayiag only, in his
northern dialect : " I would, man, thou couldst make the mad
lady be still yonder; for her moans do sae dirl thi-ough my
head that I would rather keep watch on a snow-drift 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 dis-
hevelled, 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?"

Leicester cut short her reproaches by stepping forward and
dropping his cloak, while he said, in a voice rather of author-
ity 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 around 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 testi-
monies of affection from a being so lovely that even the negli-
gence of dress, and the withering effects of feai-, grief, and

430 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

fatigue, which would have impaired the beauty of others,
rendered hers but the more interesting ! He received and re-
paid 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. Oh, Dudley! I have been ill! —
very ill, since we last met! — for I call not this morning's hor-
rible vision a meeting. I have been in sickiiess, 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 tran-
sient 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 noth-
ing of myself, only that, if it might be otherwise, I would not
wUlingly return thither ; yet if it concern your safety "

" We will think. Amy, of some other retreat, " said Leices-
ter; "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 an-
other— 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

KENILWORTH. 431

that is necessary as your right hand to your safety is free
from any accusation of mine. May he he 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 vio-
lence, nor would I acknowledge him as my husband were
all "

" It is a temporary deception, madam, " said Leicester, irri-
tated 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 com-
mand 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 dis-
honour, 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 miich
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 TressUian, 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 sus-
picion as displeasure.

The countess only said : " Would to God I were in my fa-
ther'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

432 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

tMs 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 sor-
row, 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 distin-
guished 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 spoke your mind, my lord," she said, "in these difficul-
ties, 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 dis-
pleases 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 du-

KENILWORTH. 433

plicity with which you have been induced to surround your-
self. Extricate yourself at once, my lord, from the tyranny
of these disgraceful trammels. Be like a true English gentle-
man, 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 per-
haps can" now trace even the remains, I gave my hand to this
Amy Eobsart.' You will then have done justice to me, my
lord, and to your own honour ; and should law or power re-
quire 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 disen-
tangling, before sneering foes and astoimded friends, all the
meshes of my own deceitful policy. And the Queen — but let
her take my head, as she has threatened."

"Your head, my lord!" said the coimtess; "because you
used the freedom and liberty of an English subject in choosmg
a wife? For shame; it is this distrust of the Queen's justice,
this apprehension of danger, which cannot but be imaginaiy,
that, like scarecrows, have induced you to forsake the straight-
forward path, which, as it is the best, is also the safest."

"Ah, Amy, thou little kno west!" said Dudley; but, in-
stantly 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
28

434 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 assist-
ance, and you are safe amidst a whole army of the envious
and malignant. Leave these behind you, and all other de-
fence will be fruitless. Truth, my noble lord, is well pain,ted
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
farther 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 con-
scious 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 are 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 th&
slightest appearances escape without inquiry. He asked tha
sentinel what the lad wanted with him, and received for an-

KENILWORTH. 435

«wer, 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
Avas 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
Yarney and party 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 l^edford I lead the Puritans, with their in-
terest, so powerful in all the boroughs. My brother of War-
wick is equal, wellnigh, to myself in wealth, followers, and
dependencies. Sir Owen Hopton is at my devotion ; he com-
mands the Tower of London, and the national treasure de-
posited there. My father and grandfather needed never to
have stooped their heads to the block had they thus forecast
their enterprises. Why look you so sad, Varney? I tell

436 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

thee, a tree so deep-rooted is not 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
mayst 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 sur-
rounded. 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 power-
ful 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 say'st, " he

KENILWORTH. 437

said ; " and, in sootli, I care not whether truth or cowardice'
dictate thy forebodings. But it shall not be said I fell with-
out 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 an onset fi-om the followers
of Sussex. Possess the townspeople with some apprehension ;
let them take arms and be ready, at a signal given, to over-
power the pensioners and yeomen of the guaid. "

" Let me remind you, my lord, " said Varney, with the samfr
appearance of deep and melancholy interest, " that you have
given me orders to prepare for disarmmg 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 sayst, or wouldst say?" replied the
earl; "we have no time to waste on words, when the time
calls us to action."

" ]\Iy 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
fi'uitless a question?"

"Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here.
Men wiU 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 un-
happily bound to speak ; and of whom I loill speak, were your
lordship to kill me for my zeal,"

438 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" Thou mayst 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 in-
terest in her, which it cost your lordship some pains to super-
sede. You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on
the suit against me in behalf of this lady, the open object of
ivhich 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 weU, good
Sir Eichard, and wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour,
as well as that of any other person, to save me from what thou
think'st 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 lady-
ship the countess."

*' Thou speak'st wild madness, Varney, with the sober face
of a preacher. Where or how could they communicate to-
gether?"

" My lord, " said Varney, " unfortunately I can show that
but too well. It was just before the supplication was pre-
sented 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,

KENILWORTH. 439

save thine own assertion? for, as I will punish, deeply, I will
examine coolly and warily. Sacred Heaven ! but no — I will ex-
amine 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 farther 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, wit-
nessed the whole, and was, indeed, the means of first intro-
ducing Tressilian into Cumnor Place j 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 noth-
ing fabulous, excepting that, not indeed by direct assertion,
but by inference, he led his patron to suppose that the inter-
view 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, Var-
ney— keep back from me such material information?"

" Because, my lord, " replied Varney, " the countess pre-
tended to Foster and to me that Tressilian had intruded him-
self 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 imwilling ears we
listen to evil surmises against those whom we love; and I
thank Heaven I am no make-bate or informer, to be the first
to sow them."

" You are but too ready to receive them, however. Sir
Richard," replied his patron. "How know'st thou that this
interview was not in all honour, as thou hast said? Methinka

440 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the wife of the Earl of Leicester might speak for a short time
with such a person as Tressilian without injury to me or sus-
picion 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 carr3dng 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 Lambs-
bey are scouidng the country in quest of him. The host is
rewarded with a ring for keeping counsel ; your lordshij) 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 con-
ferences 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 j and at length reach this castle, whisre the Coun-
tess 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 re-
mained 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, iishered 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 Yai-ney,
"that he was that night placed with Sir ]S"icholas Blount,
under a species of arrest. "

KENILWORTH. 441

"Did Carrol, or the other fellows, know who she was?"
demanded Leicester.

"Xo, luy lord," replied Varney. "Carrol aud 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 recognise 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 Yarney, "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; aud — 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 — wi-ong the
kind mistress who made me Avhat 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 Yarney, " 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 declai-ations which he had
extorted from the innkeeper Gosling and others, explained the
manner of her flight from Cumnor Place, and my own re-
searches discovered the steps which she had taken here."

" Xow, 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 I

442 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Hence, then, her hatred to thee, my trusty, my well-beloved
servant, because you withstood her plots and endangered hei
paramour's life!"

" I never gave her any other cause of dislike, my lord," re-
plied 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 false-
hood 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? Var-
ney, 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 recom-
pense!"

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 com-
forted himself, and subdued his self-reproaches, with the re-
flection 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 com-
municated itself to the countenance of his patron: "Yet
wherefore, if guilty, should she have perilled herself by com-
ing hither? Why not rather have fled to her father's or

KENILWORTH. 443

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
©f 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 profitable 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 dis-
honoured me — she would have murdered me ; all ties are burst
between us. She shall die the death of a traitress and adul-
teress, 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 Avork a mightier ministry in her for-
tunes."

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

444 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

some letter or billet which should make the fancied guilt of
his innocent countess j^et 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.

Vamey 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 Yarney. 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 re-
main 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 unlocked, he saw the door of Leicester's closet open, the
tapestry pushed aside, and the earl's face thrust cut, 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 repeat-
ed 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
fellness of purpose which he entertained contending with
various contrary passions. They passed a full hour in close

KENILWORTH. 445

consultation; after which the Earl of Leicester, with an in-
credible 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 Eichard 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 ap-
peared 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.

446 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

It was entirely different with Leicester. However habit-
uated his mind usually was to play the part of a good cour-
tier, 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 dread-
ful guest, whose workings could not be overshadowed or sup-
pressed; 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 pro-
duced upon the behaviour and conversation of the most accom-
plished 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, dis-
tracted the usual gracefvil 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 mis-

KENILWORTH. 447

takes of the Earl of Leicester ; and the watchful circle around
observed with astonishment that, instead of resenting his re-
peated negligence and want of even ordinary attention, al-
though 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 in-
consistent 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 pres-
ence 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 coimtenance 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 j^ou 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 re-
tired. At the door of the apartment he was met by Yarney,
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 imder a mental disorder, and may
be best committed to the charge of her friends. The oppor-
tunity is therefore free to remove her as we proposed."

448 WAVEKLEY NOVELS.

" But Tressilian?" said Leicester.

" He will not know of her departure for some time, " replied
Yarney ; " it shall take place this very evening, and to-morrow
he shall be cared for."

" No, by my soul, " answered Leicester ; " I will take ven-
geance on him with mine own hand!"

" You, my lord, and on so inconsiderable a man as Tres-
silian ! 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, Yarney!" exclaimed Leicester. "In-
considerable 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 ac-
cursed villian, I will unfold the whole tnith at Elizabeth's
footstool, and let her vengeance descend at once on them and
on myself."

Yarney 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 Yarney had formed for his
patron and for himseK. 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 reso-
lution for himseK."

"What, then, wouldst thou make me?" said Leicester,
struck at the change in his own physiognomy, though offended
at the freedom with which Yarney made the appeal. " Am I
to be thy ward, thy vassal — the property and subject of my
servant?"

EENILWORTH. 449

"No, my lord," said Varney, firmly, "but be master of
yourself and of your owu passion. My lord, I, your bora
Bervant, am shamed to see how poorly you bear yoiu"self in
the storm of fury. Go to Elizabeth's feet, confess your mar-
riage, impeach your wdfe and her paramour of adultery, and
avow 3'ourself, amongst all your peers, the wittol who married
a country giii, and was cozened by her and her book-learned
gallant. Go, my lord; but first take farewell of Richard
Varne}', 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 scat-
tered 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 firm-
ness of mind which he boasted was hardness and impenetra-
bility, yet he really felt the ascendency which he vaunted;
while the interest which he actually felt in the fortiuies of
Leicester gave unusual emotion to his voice and manner.

Leicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority; ifc
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 fij'st 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 exe*
29

450 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

cute, 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, com-
pressed 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 — 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 de-
termined— 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 those
ehall 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 win 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

KENILWORTa 461

token to tliose of your servants whom I must employ tliat 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, haK-whispered tone, but
with terrific emphasis, the words: "What thou dost, da
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 as-
sumed 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 ex-
change 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 ten-
derness 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. Eliza-
beth 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 herseK 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 agauist the violence

452 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

■vvhicli he exercised over them, but by many accidental circum-
stances, 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 Wil-
loughby, 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 phy-
sician 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 think' st thou of the run-
away 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
Chan trey ; 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 forefend!" 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 m 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 farther effort of expressing in
words his acquiescence in the Queen's sentiment.

KENIL WORTH. 463

" 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 ho.v.a, and removed from all this bustle of
pageants, which disturbs her weak brain with the most fan-
tastic phantoms. She drops hints as if she were some great
X^erson in disguise — some countess or princess perchance.
God help them, such are often the hallucinations of these in-
firm persons!"

'"Xay, 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 her-
self lady of all, I warrant you. It is pity so fair a form,
however, should havv. 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
honejmioon. "

As she said this, she looked on Leicester so expressively
that, while his heart revolted against the egregious falsehood,
lie did himself so much violence as to reply in a whisper, that
Leicester's love was more lowly than her Majesty deemed, since

454 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

it was settled wliere he could never command, but must ever
obey.

The Queen blushed, and bid him be silent ; yet looked as if
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 en-
trance of the masquers, and relieved Leicester from the hor-
rible 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 mistle-
toe. The masquers 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 Komans.

The sons of Eome, who came to civilise as well as to con-
quer, 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, accommo-
dating 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 Eoman eagles were borne before them by two

ZENILWORTH. 455

standard-bearers, who recited a hymn to Mars, and the clas-
sical 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 mar-
shalled by two minstrels, who sung 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 appear-
ance 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 masquers, ranging their torch-bearers behind
them, drew up in their several ranks on the two opposite sides
of the hall, so that the Eomans confrontmg 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 masquers 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 agamst 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

456 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 masquers 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 gam-
bolled 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 him-
self 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 himseK, 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 un-
distinguished 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 com-
manded by a royal maiden, to whom it was the will of fate

KENILWOPtTH. 457

"that they should all do homage, and request of her to pro-
nounce on the various pretensions which each set forth to be
esteemed the pre-eminent stock from which the present na-
tives, 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 civilisation 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 perfec-
tions 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 Avith
Merlin and liis assistants, had begun to remove fi'om the
crowded hall, when Leicester, who was, as we have mentioned,

458 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

stationed for tlie moment near the bottom of the hall, and
consequently engaged in some degree in the crowd, felt him*
self 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 occur-
rences 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 ap»
pearance, which consisted of a black silk doublet and short
mantle, with z. 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 dis-
tinguished.

" Who are you, or what do you want with me?" said Leices-
ter, not without betraying, by his accents, the hurried state of
his spirits.

" Ko 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 Leices-
ter, 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.^'

KENILWORTH. 459

"How! myhouour! Who dare impeach it?" said Leices-
ter.

" 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 hospi-
table 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 lord-
ship the justice to address myself first to you."

The thrill of astonishment which had penetrated to Leices*
ter'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 farther. 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 pas-
sion as scarce to be intelligible : " And what does Master Ed-
mund 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?"

" Ko, " 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

460 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Tressilian; "yet there is no occasion for distemperature. The
place is equal to me, so you allow me one liaK-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
tracmg the wiles by which he means still farther to practise
on me, and then of at once convicting and punishing his vil-
lainy. 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 di-
vided 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 ven-
geance, 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 Eliza-
beth.

"You come in time, my lord," she said, "to decide a dis-
pute between us ladies. Here has Sir Eichard Yarney 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 yomig person ;
but you are to know, that Sir Eichard Yarney hath this day

KENILWORTH. 461

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 confoimded, 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 de-
serve such a fate, or too ill of oui-s, to think it could be in-
flicted 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 revolu-
tions 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 pleas-
,ijig 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 Rich-
ard Varney had left the castle by the postern gate, with
three other persons, one of whom was transported in a horse-
litter.

462 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

" 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 lord-
ship'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 sad-
dling 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 pimished, 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 mat-
ter entrusted to your care, and strictly command you to pro-
ceed no farther 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 commend-
ing you to God's keeping, we rest your assured good friend
and master, R, Leicester.

KENILWORTH. 463

" 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 mstant alteration of de-
meanour from an approach to familiarity to the deepest re-
spect. 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 farther?" 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 Lam«
bourne, 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. "Cog's bones!

464 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

I thouglit 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 to-
gether in ecstasy, exclaiming, "The coimtess — -the countess!
I have the secret that shall make or mar me. But come
forth. Bayard," he added, leading his horse into the court-
yard, " for your flanks and my spurs must be presently ac-
quainted."

Lambourne mounted accordingly, and left the castle by the
postern gate, where his free passage was permitted, in conse-
quence of a message to that effect left by Sir Eichard 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 in-
vite me? No — there are other means of disengaging such
ties, without unloosing the cords of life. In the sight of
Ood, 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 depositaries of the deadly mystery. "

By sitch a train of argument did Leicester labour to recon-
cile his conscience to the prosecution of plans of vengeance so

The Earl striK-k Tressiliaii smaitly with liis sli.'athcil suord. and instantly
drawing his rapier, put himself into a posture of assault.

KENILWORTH. 465

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 illuminated 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.

INIusing 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 hiiman 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
SO

4=66 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

the various objects with its shadow, as passing them succes-
sively, 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, disgustmg 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 re-
plied with a haughty inclination of the head, and the words,
" You sought secret conference with me, sii- ; 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 favour-
able, hearing, that I will stoop to exculpate myself from what-
ever 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, m}^ lord. I am a friend, but neither a
dependent nor partizan, of the Earl of Sussex, whom courtiers
call your rival ; and it is some considerable time since I ceased
to regard either courts or court intrigues as suited to my
temper or genius."

"No doubt, sir," answered Leicester, "there are other occu-
pations 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 vmfortunate young per-
son 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 alto-

EENILWORTH. 467

getlier so deeply concern me that I stiould postpone my repose
to hear it. Spare me farther 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 com-
municate. "

"I will speak, then, without farther prelude, my lord,"
answered Tressilian; "having to say that which, as it con-
cerns 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 kno^vn 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 imtil 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 exclusion better fitted for bad
designs. This must be reformed, my lord — I speak it as
authorised 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 para-
mour, as if she had been an innocent woman, and he a disin-
terested 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

468 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

wliich she was doubtless to share with the lover who advocated
her cause with such eJEfrontery. Tressiliau had beeu 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 inter-
ruption, 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 himseK 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 rise
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; "fol-
low 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 fountams, which served to conceal
them, while six of the yeomen of the Queen's guard passed

KENILTYORTH. 469

along the middle walk of the Pleasance, and they could hear
one say to the rest, " We shall never find them to-night
amongst 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 know'st '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 know'st 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 disturb-
ance.

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 Merv}^Ti'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 fuiious inveteracy

470 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 satis-
faction 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
iis 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 brainsick 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 him-
self 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 wiU be glad of your lord-
ship's company."

Leicester was thus compelled to turn back with the rough
old lord to the Pleasance, where Hunsdon heard from the yeo-
men 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. Leices-
ter also thought it necessary to seem angry that no discov-
ery had been effected; but at length suggested to Lord Huns-
don that, after all, it could only be some foolish young men
who had been drinking healths pottle-deep, and who would be
sufficiently scared by the search which had taken place after

KENILWORTH. 47t

them. Hunsdon, who was himself attached to his eup, al-
lowed that a pint-flagon might cover many of the follies which
it had caused. " But, " he added, " imless 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 hav-
ing some of these good fellows into the guard-house, and treat-
ing 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 pre-
served in their ancient borough, and warranted for truth by
old histories and chronicles. In this pageant, one party of
the tOAvnsfolk 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 clergyman of the more precise cast, who chanced

472 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 per-
mission to represent it before her Highness, And when the
matter was canvassed in the little council which usually at-
tended the Queen for despatch 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, Avith-
out offence, the minds of many who, lacking them, might J&nd
worse subjects of pastime; and that their pastors, however
eommenable 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 Eng-
lish 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 caUed, 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 dis-
guises. 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 per-
sonages whom they represented. The Hocktide play was of
a different character, the actors being persons of inferior de-
gree, and their habits the l)etter fitted for the occasion the
more incongruous and ridiculous that they were in themselves.
Accordingly, their array, which the progress of our tale allows

KENILWORTH. 473

us no time to describe, was ludicrous enough, and their
weapons, though sufficiently formidable to deal sovmd blows,
were long alder-poles instead of lances, and sound cudgels for
swords; and for fence, both cavalry and mfantry were well,
equipped with stout head-pieces and targets, both made of
thick leather.

Captam Coxe, that celebrated humourist of Coventry, whose
library of ballads, almanacks, 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 bran-
dishmg 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 ci*aved, the first to enter the lists, and, passing the
gallery at the head of his mjn-midons, kissed the hilt of hi&
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 cava-
liers and infantry, he drew them up with martial skill at the
opposite extremity of the bridge, or tilt-yard, until his antag-
onists should be fairly prepared for the onset.

This was no long interval; for the Danish cavalry and in-
fantry, no way inferior to the English in number, valour, and
equipment, instantly arrived, Avith the noi-thern bagpipe blow-
ing before them in token of their countiy, and headed by a
cunning master of defence, only inferior to the renowned Cap-
tain 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 in-

474 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

flamed 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 inci-
dents 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 encum-
bered 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 foot-cloth of his
hobby-horse dropping water, and twice reanimated by voice
and example the drooping spirits of the English ; so that at
length 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 Kenil-
worth, 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

KENILWORTH. 475

before Elizabeth, in whose reign letters revived with suck
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 some-
times 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 au.diences with which she
had indulged the Earl of Leicester, by engagmg him in con-
versation 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 frora
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 be-
twixt 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 mo-
tions 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

476 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

fiuug hianself 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 draw-
ing every spectator. He there dismounted, bound his horse
to a tree, and only pronouncing the words, " Here there is no
xisk 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 weajDon, " 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 dero-
gation 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 svich 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 pre-
fer 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 giim smile, he held the point of
his rapier within two inches of the throat of his fallen ad-
-versary, and placing his foot at the same time upon his breast,

KENILWORTH. 477

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 for-
give you! I have given you no cause for this."

"1^0 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 ob-
stacle, 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.

" 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 caiise of these bloody quarrels between you,
and perchance of worse evils. Oh, if you would ever again en-
joy the peace of an innocent mind, if you hope agam 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 re-
venge so strangely frustrated, the Earl of Leicester could not
resist this extraordinary supplicant. He snatched the latter
from his hand, changed colour as he looked on the superscrip-

478 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

tion, 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 con-
scious 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 recognised as his old acquaintance Dickon, whose face,
once seen, was scarcely to be forgotten; but how he came
thither 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 protec-
tion, and mentioned the circumstances which had compelled
her to take refuge in Tressilian 's apartment, earnestly request-
ing he would, without delay, assign her a more suitable asylum.
The letter concluded with the most earnest expressions of de-
voted 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 j
but something within my breast ever whispered that it was by
egregious error."

KENILWORTH. 479

"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 es-
cape with Amy, the fatal practices which had driven her to
flight, and her anxious desire to throw herself under the in-
stant 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 some-
thing 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
Eobsart, 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
imworthy 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

480 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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, caknly, *'I mean you no offence, and
am far from seekmg 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 unboimd his horse from the street, threw him-
self into the saddle, and rode at full gallop towards the castle.

" Take me before you, Master Tressiliau, " 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 con-
trition, that in resentment at Wayland's evading all his in-
quiries 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 Kenil worth 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 ad-
dressed 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 respect-

KENILWORTH. 481

ing Yarney and Lambourne, led him to judge tliat 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 inso-
lent menials whom he applied to for that purpose. Once, in-
deed, 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 strove in vain to restore it
either to Tressilian or the countess, he put it into the hands,
as we have seen, of Leicester himseK, but unfortunately he
did not recognise him in his disguise.

At length the boy thought he was on the point of succeed-
ing, when the earl came down to the lower j)art 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 ap-
pointment settled betwixt them to take place in the Pleasance,
and resolved to add a third to the party, in hopes that, either
in coming or in 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 be-
twixt 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 recognised 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 re-
turn, informed him that his deep anxiety for the fate of the
unfortunate lady had brought him back to the neighbourhood
31

482 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 sepa-
rate 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 reached 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 or 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 counte-
nances had singularly changed during the space of his brief
absence. The mock fight was over, but the men, still habited
in their masquing suits, stood together in groups, like the in-
habitants of a city who have been just startled by some strange
and alarming news.

When he reached the base-oourt, 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 particu-
lar acquaintance Tressilian saw, who left him no time to make
inquiries, but greeted him with, " God help thy heart, Tressil-
ian, 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."

KENILWOETH. 483

"Why, what is the matter?" said Tressiliaii, letting go the
boy, who sprung to ground like a feather, and himself dis-
mounting at the same time.

" Why, no one knows the matter, " replied Blount. " I can-
not smell it out myself, though I have a nose like other court-
iers. Only, my Lord of Leicester has galloped along the
bridge, as if he would have rode over all in his passage, de-
manded 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 I" said Ealeigh, who that in-
stant appeared ; " you must immediately to the Queen's pres-
ence."

*' Be not rash, E-aleigh, " 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 Ealeigh hastily, leaving honest
Blomit with the bridle of his horse in one hand and the boy iu
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 ^vith 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 stock-
ings, " said the boy.

"Umph!" said Blount, looking down on his own immense
roses. " Nay, then the devil take him asks thee more ques-
tions."

Meantime, Tressilian traversed the full length of the great

484 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 mto the Queen's withdrawing-apartment. Ealeigh
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, TressUian 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 had abated. Before
the empty chair of state in which she had been seated, and
which was haK 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 efiigies
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
himseK; ''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 know'st 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."

KENILWORTH. 485

" Madam, " said Leicester, " do with me what it may be your
will to do, but work no injury on this gentleman; he hath in
DO 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 inter-
cession, thou doubly false — thou doubly forsworn — of thy in-
tercession, whose villainy hath made me ridiculous to my sub-
jects 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 ; and 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, Bur-
leigh 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 distrac-
tion!"

" Be but yourself, my Queen, " said Burleigh j " and soar far

486 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 re-
covered 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 thiuk, 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
might vent her wrath upon him, without laying open senti-

KENILWORTH. 487

ments of -wliicli she was asliamed, 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 ser-
vice, 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 im-
prudent and imdutiful. 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 waa
founded, and many particulars besides. Leicester's confes-
sion, 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 postitive 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 cai-es 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

488 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 unpro-
voked; and that, if beauty and condescending dignity could
seduce the fraO. 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 by this reply, which Leices-
ter 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 be-
lief 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 am-
bitious 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 m 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 solemnise 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 curi-
osity to know the happy bride. It is Amy Robsart, the same

KENILWORTH. 489

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 counte-
nance, 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 simili-
tude— 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 Cumuor 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 certaia 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 thiuk 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
Baleigh.

"Why, ay," said the Queen; "so God ha' me, thou hast
made a good choice. He is a yomig 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 fast keeping. You will

490 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

fumish them, Master Secretary, with the warrant, necessary to
secure the bodies of Eichard 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
Kenil worth? 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 sensa-
tions were, for the time, lost in tiie agony which his haughty
spirit felt at the succession ef 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 un^ier 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 under-
gone, 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

KENILWORTH. 491

the earl displayed so much dignified equanimity; he seemed
So solicitous about the accommodations and amusements of his
guestSj yet so indifferent to their personal demeanour towards
him; so respectfully distant to the Queen, yet so patient of
her harassing displeasui-e, that Elizabeth changed her manner
to him, and, though cold and distant, ceased to offer him any
direct affront. She mtimated also, with some sharpness, to
others around her, who thought they were consulting her
pleasiu'e 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 regu-
lated 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 Tressil-
ian and Ealeigh 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 theLt hoi-ses, which had along 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 refresh-
ment to theu- 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 preced-
ing 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

492 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

connectedly. Wayland entered the dark and lowly apart-
ment, 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 seek-
ing something which he wanted, Wayland hastily apprised his
fellow-travellers of this extraodinary circumstance ; and both
Tressilian and Kaleigh, 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 Tres-
silian, and made signs that he wished him to stoop over his
bed. Tressillian 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 farther 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 de-
rived nothing from having met with him save 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.

KENILWORTH. 493

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 in-
timated 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 pro-
posed to set forth early in the morning ; but reflecting that
the earl might relent in the interim, and seek another inter-
view 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 Lam-
bourne, and was exceedingly iucensed to find that his trusty
attendant was abroad on some ramble hi the neighbouring vil-
lage 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 mean while, 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, Yarney
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

494 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Anthony Foster was indispensable, and that Varney now
went to secure.

This person, naturally of a sour, imsocial disposition, and
somewhat tired, besides, with his journey from Cumnor to
Warwickshire, in order to bruig the news of the countess's
escape, had early extricated himself from the crowd of was-
sailers, 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 mur-
muring in his sleep, and could plainly distinguish the words,
" Ave llaria ova 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 foal!" 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 Var-
ney : " it augurs that the hour is come for converting thy lease-
hold into copyhold. What say'st 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 I looking on thy pale face,, which is a ghastly contradic-
tion 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."

KENILWORTH. 495

"Is that indeed all?" said Foster; "thou look*st deadly
pale, and thou art not moved by trifles — is that indeed all?"

" Ay, that — and maybe a trifle more, " answered Varney.

"Ah, that trifle more!" said Foster; "stiU thou look'st
paler and paler."

" Heed not my countenjance, " said Varney, " you see it by
this wretched light. Up and be doing, man. Think of Cum-
nor Place, thine own proper copyhold. Why, thou mayst
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 aU 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 pay-
ing 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 ad-
vice. 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? ^Vhy, 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."

" AVliither?" 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 wili 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, acquaint-
ing the sentinel with their purpose, as a matter sanctioned by

496 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 war-
rant— thou, who art capable of every villainy, from the black-
est 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 com-
pel 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 sub-
duing her high spirit ; " if you put me to it, you will find me
a rough groom of the chamber."

It was at this threat that Amy screamed so fearfuUy 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 Poster in the most affecting terms, conjuring him, as his
daughter Janet's honour and purity was 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 Poster; "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 Poster, the countess promised to arise and dress
herseK, if they would agree to retire from the room. Varney

KENILWORTH. 497

•at the same time assured her of all safety and honour while
in their hands, and promised that he himself would not ap-
proach her, since his presence was so displeasing. Her hus-
band, he added, would be at Cumnor Place within twenty-four
hours after they had reached it.

Somewhat comforted by this assurance, upon which, how-
ever, 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 imfortunate lady
dressed herself — with sensations how different from the days
in which she was wont to decorate herseK 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
imdisturbed 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 Mas-
ter 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
32

498 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 tiie
direction of the road rendered this no longer possible, she
drew back her head, and, sinking down in the litter, recom-
mended herself to the care of Providence.

Besides the desire of inducing the countess to proceed quiet-
ly on her journey, Varney had it also in view to have an inter-
view 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 judge him the most fit agent he could employ in
his farther 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 longj 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 wiiie,
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 laniguage, " 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 in-
solence, but ascribing it to liquor, suffered it to pass as if un-
noticed, 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 m his power to
reward his trusty followers to their utmost wish. And upon
Michael Lambourne 's seemmg ignorant what was meant, he

KENILWORTH. 499

plainly indicated " the litter-load, yonder; " as the impediment
which he desired should be removed.

"Look you, Sir Kichard, and so forth," said Michael,
" some are wiser than some, that is one thiug, 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 phrases 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, Lam-
bourne,' says his lordship, 'and you must bring back my signet
from him peremptorily. ' "

" Ay," replied Yarney, " 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 Yarney, "when my
lord so spoke?"

" Not a breathing creature, " replied Lamboui-ne. " Think
you my lord would trust any one with such matters save an
approved man of action like myself?"

" Most true, " said Yarney ; 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 Lam-
bourne: " And will you tui-n upon your master, who has intro-
duced you to this career of court-like favour — whose appren-
tice 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 tlie 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 I" said Varney; and

500 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

with a pistol wliicli 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, dismoimting, 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 com-
bination 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 coxuld 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 de-
graded 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 in-
trigues, and the bearer of mandates which he had no inten-
tions 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 pre-
pared to tell of the insane Lady Varney would have obtained
ready credit had she made an attempt to appeal to the com-
passion 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 com-
pany. 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

KENILWORTH. 501

of the litter, as he had done before repeatedly during their
progress, and asked, "What does she?"

" She sleeps, " said Foster. " I would we were home ; her
strength is exhausted."

" Best wiU restore her, " anwsered 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 aimts, 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 they hast fenced so curiously, must be her place of seclu-
sion ; 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 al-
ready, 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

502 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

favour, you go not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder ; you will
sleep to-uight 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 iadeed, 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 con-
ducted her up a stair of great height, preceded by one of the
old women with a lamjD, 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 diif erent from a prison room.

Foster stopped at the door and gave the lamp to the coun-
tess, 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.

KENILWORTH. 503

Varney, meanwhile, had lurked behind on the stairs, but
hearing the door barred, he now came up on tiptoe, and Fos-
ter, 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 communi-
cation between the deor of the bedroom, which he usually in-
habited, 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 machiBery, 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 m
a whisper, nigh to the lowest vault of the castle. Varney cast
once more a fixed and long look dojwn into this sable gulf, and
then followed Foster to the part of the manoj-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 hav^
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 eatert
or drunken since her master's departure, living perpetually
shut up in the laboratory, and talking as if the world's con-
tinuance 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 alcht-
mist. He returned, after a considerable absence, very pale,
but yet \vith his habitual sneer on his cheek and nostril.
" Our friend, " he said, " has exhaled. "

"Howl what mean you?" said Foster. "Kun away — fled

504 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

with my forty ijoimds, that should have been multiplied a
thousandfold? 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 swoln al-
ready in the face and body. He had been mixing some of
his devil's medicines, and the glass mask which he used con-
stantly 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 mer-
cy 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 Var-
ney— " an ugly spectacle : he was swoln 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 smeUed
enough to spoil my appetite. I broke the window, however,
and let in the air ; it reeked of sulphur and such -like suffo-
cating 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 wiU know in time, " said Varney. " And then this

KENILWORTH. 505

other banquet; but thou wilt esteem her too choice a morsel
for the fiend's tooth-; she must have her psahns, and harps,
and seraphs."

Anthony Foster heard, and came slowly back to the table :
"God! Sir Eichard, 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 Kichard — 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 springe, Tony, to catch a pewit; yonder trap-
door— yonder gimcrack of thine, will remain secure in appear-
ance, 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 sum-
moned Foster to the execution of their plan. Tider and Fos-
ter'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

506 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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 sudden-
ly 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 hus-
band's return."

"True! — most true," said Varney, rushing out, "I had Hot
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?"

" 0 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. "0 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!"

KENILWORTH. 607

" So pass our troubles, " said Yai-ney, 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 Tres-
silian 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 mys-
tery 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 sus-
picion would have been sufficient to deprive him of Leicester's
confidence, and to destroy all his towering plans of ambition.
"I was not bora," 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 appreJiended 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

508 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

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. "

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 un-
controlled 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, dis-
covered a secret passage, closed by an iron door, which, open-
ing from behind the bed in the Lady Dudley's chamber, de-
scended 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. L^nquestion-
ably 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

KENILWORTH. 509

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.'

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 aifection. 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 Cecil.

> S«e Death of Earl of Leicester. Note 20.

NOTES TO KENILWORTH.

Note 1. — Cumnob Hall, p. 8.

In a valuable work, by Mr, Adlard, on Amy Rohsart, the Earl ofleiceittr
and Kenilworth, 8vo, London, 1870, the author says [pp. 2i, 25] that Cunni».
Place was originally one of the country seats of the abbots of Abingdon,
and that, on the dissolution of the monasteries, it was granted by Henry
VIII. to his physician, George Owen. At Owen's death in 1561, it was
bought by Anthony Forster, and was occupied by him for several years ;
and at his demise it passed into the hands of the Earl of Leicester. The
Place ultimately became the property of Lord Abingdon.

"For a long period," says Mr. Adlard, "Cumnor was deserted; the
recollection of Amy Dudley's melancholy end was revived amongst the
ignorant villagers, whose imaginations conjured up forms and horrors be-
fore unheard of. and hence arose the legendary tales that have descended
to the present day. Decay followed fast on desertion, and, with the aid of
the wanton and mischievous, before a century had rolled away it had be-
come almost a ruin. ...

"A few fine elms scattered here and there are all that Is left to aid in
realizing the former picturesque appearance of this retreat, where we are
privileged to sympathise with suffering innocence and blighted affection."

The ballad of "Cumnor Hall," as stated in the Introduction, appeared,
"now first printed," in Evans's Collection of Old Ballads, vol, iv. p. 130,
1784 ; and in the new edition (the editor discarding the antique mode of
spelling), vol. iv. p. 94, 1810. In this form it is given above. The author,
William Julius Mickle, was a son of the minister of Langholm, in Dum-
friesshire, where he was born in 1734, and died at London in 1788. He is
now chiefly known by his translation from Camoens of the Lusiad {Laing).

Note 2.— Fostee, Lamboubne, and the Black Beas, p. 4G.

If faith is to be put in epitaphs, Anthony Forster was something the very
reverse of the character represented in the novel. Ashmole gives this de-
scription 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 crass 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. Un-
der the figure of the man is this inscription :

Antonius Forster, generis generosa propago.
Cumnerse Domiuus Bercheriensis erat.

512 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Armiger, Armigero prognatus patre Ricardo,

Qui quondam Iphletbaj Salopiensis erat.
Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati,

Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat.

Mente sagax, animo precellens, corjKjre promptua,

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 himr

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 :

Ouart I ^- ^ 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 Forster, in-
stead of being a vulgar, low-bred, Puritanical churl, was in fact a gentle-
man of birth and consideration, distinguished for his skill in the arts of
music and horticulture, as also in languages. In so far, therefoi'e, 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, name him as the active agent in the
death of the countess; and it is added, that from being a jovial and con-
vivial gallant, as we may infer from acme expressions in the epitaph, h«
sunk, after the fatal deed, into a man of gloomy and retired habits, whosu
looks and manners indicated that he suffered under the pressure of som*
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 Lam-
bourne 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 3. — Martin Swakt, p. 114.

The first verse or something similar, occurs in a long ballad, or poem, on
Flodden Field, reprinted by the late Henry Weber. —
See "Weber's Notes in the above volume, p. 182 {Laing).

NOTES. 513

The second verse, from 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.

Note 4. — Legend of Wayland Smith, p. 171.

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 Bacseg, the Danish chief, who was slain in this fight, is distin-
guished by a parcel of stones, less than a mile from the hill, set on edge,
inclosing 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 vul-
gar Wayland Smith, from an idle tradition about an invisible smith replac-
ing lost horse-shoes here." — Gough's Edition of Camden's Britannia, vol.
i., p. 221.

The popular belief still retains memory of this wild legend, which, con-
nected 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 Way-
land Smith's fee was sixpence, and that, unlike other workmen, he was
offended if more was offered. Of late his offices have again been calle<l 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. —

The Vale of the Whitehorse derives its name from the figure of a horse
■which has been described on the hillside at this place, the turf having
been removed from the chalky soil in such a way as to show at a distance
the form of a white horse. This figure is supposed to have been cut out
during the Saxon period to celebrate some victory. On certain occasions
the white horse is "scoured " or repaired by the peasantry of the neigh-
bourhood, who turn out in large numbers and remove any turf that may
have settled itself on the figure of the horse {Laing).

Note 5.— Orvietan, p. 177.

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.

Note 6. — Leicestek akd Sussex, p. 180.

Naunton gives us numerous and curious particulars of the jealous strug-
gle which took place between Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex and the rising fa-
Tourite Leicester. The former, when on his death-bed, predicted to his fol-
lowers that, after his death, the gipsy (so he called Leicester, from his
dark complexion) would prove too many for them.

Note 7. — Sib Walter Raleigh, p. 183.

Among the attendants and adherents of Sussex, we have ventured to
introduce the celebrated Ealeigh, in the dawn of his court favour.

33

514 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

In Aubrey's Correspondence there are some curious particulars of Sir
Walter Raleigh. " He was a tall, handsome and bold man ; but his nceve-
was that he was danmably proud. Old Sir Robert Harley of Brampton
Brian Castle, who knew him, would say, 'twas a great question who was
the proudest, Sir Walter or Sir Thomas Overbury; but the difference that
was was judged on Sir Thomas's side. ... In the great parlour at Down-
ton, 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 words of disgrace.
Is the name of the gentleman with a bold face."

Sir Walter Raleigh's beard turned up naturally, which gave him an ad-
vantage over the gallants of the time, whose mustachios received a touch
of the barber's art to give them the air then most admired.— See vol. ii.
part ii. pp. 509-512 [ed. 1813].

Note 8.— Court Favour of Sir Walter Raleigh, p. 198.

The gallant incident of the cloak is the traditional account of this cele-
brated 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 swaUow.
Being confined in the Tower for some offence, and understanding the
Queen was about to pass to Greenwich in her barge, he insisted on ap-
proaching the window, that he might see, at whatever distance, the queen
of his affections, the most beautiful object which the earth bore on its sur-
face. The lieutenant of the Tower (his own particular friend) threw him-
self between his prisoner and the window ; while Sir Walter, apparently
inflained with a fit of unrestrainable passion, swore he would not be de-
barred 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 9. — Robert Laneham, p. 227.

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 Ken-
ilwortb, written in a style of the most intolerable affectation, both in point
of composition and orthography. He describes himself as a bon t-ivant,
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 Ustener or a pryer in at the chinks or
lockhole, I am presently at the bones of him. If a friend comes, I make

NOTES. 515

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 con-
ceit and self-importance of a small man in oflSce. [Compare Note 16.]

Note 10. — Scottish Wild Cattle, p. 242.

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. [See also Bride of Lammer-
moor, chap, v., and a note to Castle Dangerous.']

Note 11. — De. Julio, p. 2.56.

The Earl of Leicester's Italian physician, Julio, was affirmed by his con-
temporaries 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 signi-
fied before, and then also had he the same fortune to have her husband
die quickly, with an extreme reume in his head (as it was given out), but
as other say, of an [artiiiciall catarre, that stopped his breath. The like
good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex (as I have said be-
fore), 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 Leycester for begetting his wife with childe in his absence (the childe
was a daughter, and brought up by the Lady Shandoies, W. Knooles his
wife), my Lord of Ley. hearing thereof, wanted not a friend or two to ac-
company the deputy, as among other a couple of the Earles owne servants,
Crompton (if I misse not his name), yeomen of his bottels, and Lloid his
secretary, entertained afterward by my Lord of Leycester, and so he died
in the way of an extreame flux, caused by an Italian recipe, and all his
friends are well assured, the maker whereof was a surgion (as is believed)
that then was newly come to my Lord from Italy--a cunning man and
sure in operation, with whom, if the good Lady had beene sooner ac-
quainted, and used his helpe, she should not have needed to have srtten so
pensive at home, and fearefull of her husband's former returne out of the
same countrey. . . . Neither must you marvaile though all these died iu
divers manners of outward diseases, for this is the excellency of the Italian
art, for which this surgion and Dr. Julio were entertained so carefully, who
can make a man die in what manner or shew of sicknesse 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
publique act in Oxford (and that in presence of my Lord of Leycester if I
be not deceived), maintaine that poison might so be tempered and given
as it should not appeare 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 die of a
flux, and another of a catarre, yet this importeth little to the matter, bur
sheweth rather the great cunning and skill of the artificer."— Parsons' j
Leicister's Commonwealth, pp. 23, 24.

616 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the earl is repre-
sented in the tale as being rather the dupe of villains than the unprin-
cipled author of their atrocities. In the later capacity, which a part at
least of his contemporaries imputed to him, he would have made a char-
acter 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 pre-
tenders to the mystic sciences.

Note 12. — Pilgrims to Kenilworth, p. 331.

Dr. Beattie, in his Castles of England [vol. i, p. 214, 1844], says, "The
romance of Kenilworth, it is probable, has brought within the last fifteen
years more pilgrims to this town and neighbourhood than ever resorted to
its ancient shrine of the Virgin, more knights and dames than ever figured
in its tilts and tournaments" {Laing).

Note 13. — Amy Robsart at Kenilworth, p. 338.

The historical critic will recognize an obvious anachronism in the
Author's account of Amy's visit to Kenilworth Castle. The festivities
there took place in July 1575, several years after the death of the real Amy
Dudley. It may be mentioned, however, that during these festivities the
Earl of Leicester was living in secret wedlock with Lady Sheffield.

With reference to these historical liberties, see the conclusion to the
Monastery {Laing).

Note 14. — Chopin, p. 339.

The old traveller Coryat, in his amusing work called Crudities [vol. ii. p.
36] , 1611, says the chopin is a thing ' ' so common in Venice, that no woman
whatsoever goeth without it, either in her house or abroad — a thing made
of wood, and covered with leather of sundry colours, some with white, some
redde, some yellow. It is called a 'chapiny,' which they weare under
their shoes. . . . There are many of these chapineys of a great height,
even half a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very
short seeme much taller than the tallest women we have in England "
{Lai7ig),

Note 15. — Imitation of Gascoigne, p. 376.

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, Chiswick, 1821.

Note 16. — Festivities at Kenilworth, p. 379.

See Laneham's Account of the Qiieen^s Entertainment at KiUingworth Castle
in 1575, a very diverting tract, written by as great a coxcomb as ever
blotted paper. [See Note 9 above.] The original is extremely rare, but it
has been twice reprinted; once in Mr. Nichols's very curious and interest-
ing collection of the Progresses ami Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, vol.
i. ; and more lately in a beautiful antiquarian publication termed Kenil-
worth Illustrated, printed at Chiswick for Merridew of Coventry and Rad-
clyfife of Birmingham [1821] . It contains reprints of Laneham's Letter^

NOTES. 517

Gascoigne's Princely Progress, and other scarce pieces, annotated with ac-
curacy and ability. The Author takes the liberty to refer to this work as
his authority for the account of the festivities.

Note 17. — Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 380.

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 Earl
of Leicester and Baron of Denbigh, with great solemnity at Westmester ;
herself (Elizabeth) helping to put on his ceremonial, he sitting upon his
knees before her, keeping a great gravity and discreet behavior ; but she
could not refrain from putting her hand in his neck to kittle {i.e. tickle)
him, smilingly, the French ambassador and I standing beside her." —
Memoirs, Bannatyne Edition, p. 120.

Note 18. — Italian Poetry, p. 390.

The incident alluded to occurs in the poem of Orlando Innamorato of
Boiardo, libro ii. canto 4, stanza 26.

Non si ritrova, 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 ivhole poem into English.

Note 19. — Furniture of Kenilwoeth, p. 394.

In revising this work for the present edition, 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 w"' silver and
divers workes, warlike ensignes, and ornaments, with xvj peeces of ordi-

518 WAVERLEY NOVELS.

nence. whereof ij on wheles, two anckei's on tlie foreparts, and on the
stearne the image of Dame Fortune standing on a globe with a flag in her
band. Pois xxxij oz.

A gilte salte like a swann, mother of perle. Pois xxx oz. iij q'ters.

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 w* white lioris and beares.

A perfuming pan, of silver. Pois xix oz.

In the halle. Tabells, long andshort, 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. Historic. Storie of
Susanna, the Prodigall Childe, Saule, Tobie, Hercules, Lady Fame, Hawk-
ing and Hunting, Jezabell, Judith and Holofernes, David, Abraham, Samp-
son, Hippolitus, Alexander the Great, Naaman the Assyrian, Jacob, etc.

Bedsteds, with theik Fcrniture.

These are magnificent and numerous. I shall copy, verbatim, the
description of what appears to have been one of the best.

A bedsted of wallnutt-tree, toppe fashion, the pillers redd and var-
nished, 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 pome-
granetts, 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 iy q'ters deepe. The celor, vallance,
and curteins lyned with cxymson taffata sarsenet.

A crymson sattin counterpointe, quilted and embr: wilh a golde twi^e,
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, iy yardes 3 q'ters naile
deepe, all lozenged over with silver twiste, in the midst a cinquefoile
within a garland of ragged staves, fringed rounds 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,
;ind crymson silk.

A carpett for a cupboarde of crymson sattin, embrothered with a border
of goulde twiste, aboute iij parts of it fringed with silk and goulde, lyned
with bridges sattin ; in length ij yards, and ij bredths of sattin.

" Probably on the centre and four corners of the bedstead. Four bears
and ragged staves occupied a similar position on another of these sumptu-
ous pieces of furniture.

NOTES. 519

There were eleven down beds and ninety feather beds, besides thirty-
seven mattresses.

Chatees, 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 bears and ragged staffe in clothe of silver,
garnished with lace and fringe of goulde, silver, and crimson silck. The
frame covered with velvet, bonnde 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 staflfe in a
wreathe of goulde, with my Lo: posie " Droyte et Loyall" written in the
same, and the l''" R. L. in clothe of goulder being garnished with lace,
fringe, buttons, and tassells, of gold, silver, and crimson sUck, lyned with
crimson tafF: being in length 1 yard q'ter.

A square cushen, of the like velvet, embr: suteable to the long cnshen.

Carpets.

There were 10 velvet catpets 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 crim-
son taffata sarsenett, being 3 breadths of velvet, one yard 3 q'ters long.

Agreat Turquoy carpett, the grownde blew, with a list of yelloe at each
end, being in length x yards, in bredthe iiij yards and q'ter.

A long carpett of blew clothe, lyned with bridges sattin, fringed with
blew silck and goulde, in length vj yards lack a q'ter, 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. Occa^on and Repentance. Lord Mowntacute. Sir Ja'- Crofts. Sir
W>-- Mildmay. S'- W°^ Pickering. Edwin Abp. of York.

A tabell of an historic of men, weomen, and children, molden in wax.

A little foulding table of ebanie, garnished with white bone, wherein are
written verses with 1''™ of goulde.

A table of my Lord's armes.

Pyve of the plannetts, painted in frames.

Twentie-three cardes, or maps of countries.

620 WAVERLET NOVELS.

Instbuments.

I shall give two specimens.

An instrument of organs, regalls, and virginalls, covered with crimson
velvet, and garnished with goulde lace.
A fair pair of double virginalls.

Cabonktts.

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 golde, silver, and silck, in a case of leather, lyned
with greene sattin of bridges.

Ano'' of purple velvet. A desk of red leather.

A chess horde 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 sorte in silver white, the other gilte, in a case gilded and lyned with
green cotton.

Ano'' of bone and ebanie. A pair of tabells of bone.

A great brason candelstick to hang in the roofe of the bowse, verie fayer
and curiouslye wrought, with xx^^iiij 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 candle-
cupps, of like propor^on to putt 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 20. — Death of the Earl of Leicester, p. 509.

In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben Jonson
to Drummond of Hawthornden, as abridged 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 retribu-
tion (see note on p. 7 of Introduction). It may be here added, that the
following satirical epitaph on Leicester occurs in Drummond's Collections^
but is evidently not of his composition: —

epitaph on the erle op leisteb.

Here lies a valiant warrior.

Who never drew a sword ;
Here lies a noble courtier.

Who never kept his word ;
Here lies the Earle of Leister,

Who govern'd the estates,
Whom the earth could never living love,

And the just Heaven now hates. —

See Archseologia Scotica, vol. iv.; and the volume published by the Shake-
speare Society, Notes on Ben Jonson's Conversations, p. 24, 1842 {Laing).

GLOSSARY

OF
WORDS, PHRASES, AND ALLUSIONS.

Abte, suffer for

Accolade, the light touch made
with the sword on the shoulder
of one who is knighted

Afrite, an evil demon in Mahom-
medan mythology

AiGUiLLETTE, lace tag

Albumazar, a famous Arabian as-
tronomer, born in Persia near
close of 8th century a.d., wrote
Flores Astrologici (Augsburg,
1488) , and other works on astrol-
ogy

Alicant, Spanish wine

Allan, or Allen, Thomas, mathe-
matician (1542-1632), regarded by
the vulgar as a magician

Almains, Germans

Alter ego, second self

Almoret, the beau-ideal of female
beauty in the Faerie Queene, Bk.
iii.

Amsterdam, great scholar of.
Erasmus was a native not of Am-
sterdam, but of Rotterdam.

Anan, I beg your pardon? pres-
ently

Angel, gold coin = 10s. in Eliza-
beth's reign

Another -guess, another sort of,
kind of

Anticly, grotesquely

Arcanum, the great secret of the
conversion of base metals into
gold

Argent, silver

Arion, ancient Greek poet, who,
when driven into the sea by en-
vious sailors, was carried to land
on a dolphin's back

Arrow, e'er a, ever a

Ascapart, a giant overcome by Sir
Be vis of Hampton (South-
ampton)

Ascham, Roger, tutor to Elizabeth,
and royal secretary to Edward
VI., Mary, and Elizabeth

Aspic, the asp

Astra eegunt, etc. (p. 247), The
stars rule men, but God rules the
stars

A-towling, a-tolling

AuTOLYcus, a crafty pedlar in Tlie
Winter's Tale

Ave Maria, ora pro nobis, Hail
Mary, pray for us

AvisED OF, aware of

Babies, to look, small images of
oneself reflected in the eyes of
another

Baillie, Harry, op the Tabard,
mine host of the Tabard Inn in
Southwark, where Chaucer's Can-
terbury Pilgrims assembled

Bartholomew Fair, held at West
Smithfield, London, on 24th Au-
gust (3d September from 1753), a
great cloth market and pleasure
fair, illustrated in Ben Jonson's
play Bnrtholomexv Fair

Base, a plaited skirt, sometimes im-
itated in mailed armour

Bastard, a sweet Spanish wine, re-
sembling Mugcadel

Bears, are you there with your.
A man, disliking a sermon on
Elisha and the bears, went on
the following Sunday to another
church ; but the sermon was on
the same subject, leading him to
utter this exclamation

522

WAVERLEY NOVELS.

Bear the bell, take the first place;
comp. the bell-wether, that guides
the flock

Belianis, hero of the chivalric ro-
mance, Don Belianis of Greece

Bell Savage, or Belle Sauvage,
inn in Ludgate Hill, London.
See Spectator, No. 28

Belus, Bel, or Baal, the sun-god
of Assyrians and Babylonians

Besognio, worthless fellow

Bittern bump, the deep trumpet-
like boom of the bittern or but-
ter-bump

Black Bull, perhaps the Red Bull,
in St. John's Street, Smithfield ;
perhaps the Bull in Bishopsgate
Street, both theatres

Black-jack, a large jug of waxed
leather, for holding ale

Black Sanctds, a burlesque of the
Sanctus of the Roman missal

Board of Green Cloth, a com-
mittee of the royal household,
formerly charged with the duties
of purveyance

Bona-roba, a wench, a showy wan-
ton

Boon whids, cut, give good words

Botcher, a cobbler, a tailor who
does repairs

B ratchet, a little brat

Briareus, the hundred-armed giant
in ancient Greek mythology

Bridges sattin, satin made at
Bruges, in Flanders

Brill, or Briel, captured in "1572
by the patriotic "Beggars of the
Sea," who shortly after were in
their turn besieged there by th-e
Spaniards

Burleigh and Cecil, Elizabeth's
great statesman William Cecil,
Lord Burleigh, and his son, Sir
Robert Cecil, whom Elizabeth
made Secretary of State in 1596

Bush over the door, a sign that
the house so adorned was an inn

Cabala, a mystic system of mingled
philosophy, theology, and magic
that originated amongst the Jews
of the "Middle Ages; cabalists,
alchemists, dealers in magic

Cacodemon, an evil spirit

Calipolis, wife of the Moorish
prince in Peele's play. The Battle
of Alcazar

Ca'liver, 16th century musket

Cameeadoes, comladea

Camici^, shirts

Capotaine, or capote, close-utting
hat

Gardes, charts, maps

Casting bottle, bottle for sprink-
ling perfumed waters

Cateb-cousin, on terms of close in-
timacy

Catlowdie, Or Catlowdy, a village
in the extreme north of Cumber-
land

Ceelor, or CELURE, bed-hangings,
a canopy covering a bed

C'est l'homjie qui, etc. (p. 160),
'Tis the man who does the fight-
ing and gives counsel

Charlatan:, charlatans

CherryI-pit, a game in which
cherry-stones are thrown into a
hole in the ground

Chopin, a high-soled shoe, worn in
Spain and Italy about 1600

Clary, a mixture of wine, honey,
and spices

Cockatrices, prostitutes

Cod's-head, fool

Coslebs, unwed

Cog's wounds, God's wounds, a
form of oath

Coif, a lady's head-dress

Coil, here's a, here's a to-do,
pother; keep a coil, make a^fuss,
ado, about

CoLBHAND, a Danish giant slain by
Sir Guy of Warwick

Combust, astrological term applied
to a planet when it is so near to
the sun as to be almost burnt up
or extingTiished

Compos voti, having accomplished
your wish

Compter, a prison for debtors.
London had two in the 16th cen-
tury, one in the Poultry, the other
in Wood Street

Cordovan, Spanish leather

Corinthian, a bully, adventurer

CoRHAGio, courage

Costard, the head

Cote, pass, overtake

Couchek, going to bed

Cricket, a small, low stool

Cross, silver coin marked with a
cross

CuLiss, or CT7LLIS, broth of boiled
meat 'strained

CuRETUR jentaculum, Look after
the breakfast

GLOSSARY.

523

Cut boos whids, give good words

CuTTEB, bully, sharper; cutteh's
LAW, thieves' law ; cuttikg, swag-
gering

Cyclops, ok Cyclopes, the assistants
of Vulcan, who laboured in his
workshops in Etna and other
volcanoes

Cymae, a loose, light robe

Cypkcs, cypress, or ciprus, a thin,
transparent kind of crape

Dan, a complimentary title, equiva-
lent to Master, sir, common with
the old poets

Daxdiepeat, dwarf, urchin

Deboshed, debauched

Dee, Dr. John, a London alche-
mist, who lived in the reigns from
Edward VI. to James I.

Devil looking over Lincoln, a
phrase referring to one of the fol-
lowing— a gargoyle, shaped Uke
a diabolic figure on a witch's
back, near the south porch of the
cathedral; a figure of Satan at
the east end of the south chapel
of the nave ; a figure of the devil
on the top of Lincoln College,
Oxford

Diablotin, little devil, mischievous
young imp

Died without his shoes, i.e. in bed

Difficilium, etc. (p. 127), endur-
ance of hardships from day to day

Dink, trim, tidy

DioNYSics, the Younger, tyrant of
Syracuse, retired after his second
expulsion in 343 b.c. to Corinth,
where he is said to have earned
his living as a schoolmaster

DiRL, thrill, vibrate

Dole. See Happy man be his dole

Douse, blow, stroke

Drap-de-buee, or bure, coarse
woollen stuff

DuDMAN AND Ramhead, two capes,
20 miles apart, on the Cornish
coast, which of course can never
meet

DuERGAR, or Dverger, the dwarfs
of Scandinavian mythology and
folklore

Duke of Norfolk's affair.
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke, was
beheaded in 1572 for treasonable
plotting in behalf of ^Inry Queen
of Scots and the Eoman Catholic
interest

Electttart, a medicine, consisting
of powders, etc., mixed with
honey or syrup, and licked by
the patient

Ell-wand, measuring-rod an ell
long

Erasmus Ab Die Fausto, Erasmus
de Holiday

Ergo, heus, etc. (p. 130), So ho
there, Richard, my pupil, come
hither, I pray thee

Et sic de ceteris, and so on with
the rest

EuMENipEs, Stygiumque nefas, the
Furies and the Stygian monster

Excalibue, famous sword of King
Arthur

Ex nomine, etc. (p. 126), From
w'hose name is derived the com-
mon word "gibberish"

Eye, by the, in abundance

Faeer fereabius, blacksmith

Faitoce, rogue, hypocrite

Fald-stqole, a folding stool or
chair, camp-stool

Fall back, fall edge, come what
may

Farcy, a disease of horses

Fatidic^, those who predict fate

Favete linguis, keep silence

Felix bis terque, twice, yea, three
times fortunate

Ferrateen, perhaps Ferrandin, a
kind of poplin ; perhaps harba-
teen, a coarse woollen cloth

Festina lente, make haste slowly,
don't be imi>atient

Flaw, a sudden and violent wind-
storm

Flight-shot, bowshot

Fcenum habet in corntj, It has hay
wrapped about its horns — a pro-
verbial expression for a danger-
ous fellow

Fortune, the, a theatre in Alders-
gate, London, opened about 1600,
after the time of this novel

Four-nooked, four-cornered

Fox, an old name for the .broad-
sword

Foxes and Firebrands, or a Speci-
men of tlic Danger and Harmony
of Popery and Separation (1682),
in verse, author not positively
known

Frippery, old clothes

Furens quid femina, what a fren-
zied woman (can do)

524

WAVERLEY NOVELS.

FcRMiTY, hulled wheat or rice
boiled in milk, and seasoned with
currants, raisins, etc.

FusiLLE, or FUSIL, an elongated
lozenge, term in heraldry

Galliaed, lively, jaunty

Galloon, worsted lace

Gambade, gambol, curvet

Gaudet nomine Sibylljs,' She re-
joices in the name of Sibyl

Gaze, to look attentively upon

Gaze-hound, greyhound

Gear, affair, thing, business

Geber, a famous Arabian alchemist
of the 8th century

Genethliacally, by calculating
nativities

Gillian, Rake. See Rare Gillian
of Croydon

Globe, the, a theatre on the south
bank of the Thames between
London and Blackfriars Bridges

GoGSNOUNS, a similar corruption to
Cog's wounds {q.v.)

Gold by the eye, money in plenty,
gold in abundance

Golden opinions, etc. (p. 193),
quoted from Macbeth, act i., sc. 7;
Shakespeare is therefore alluded to

GooDjERE, or GOUJEEKS, a coarsc ex-
pletive, the pox !

Grave Maurice, Count Maurice of
Nassau, second son and successor
of William of Orange as Gover-
nor of the Netherlands

Groat, silver coin worth 4d.

Grogram, or GROGRAiN, a texture
of silk and mohair or silk and
wool, stiffened with gum

Groyne (the), old name for Co-
runna in Spain

Halgaver, Mayor of. See Mayor
of Halgaver

Hali, or Ali ibn Aben-Ragel, an
Arab astrologer of the 11th cen-
tury, wrote De Judiciis Astrorum
(Venice, 1485)

Handsel, earnest-money of a bar-
gain

Happy man be his dole, may his
lot be that of a happy man

Haro, an old Norman cry for help

Harrowtry, heraldry

Harry noble. See Noble

Haruspices, soothsayers, diviners

Hays, or Hay, a country dance,
danced in a ring

Head-borough, head of a borough^

petty constable

Heart-spone, the depression in the
breast-bone ; the breast-bone

Hermetic, relating to alchemy, as-
trology, magic

Hilding, a mean, worthless wretch

HocKTiDE, second Tuesday after
Easter day

HoisE, to hoist, lift

HoLPED UP, embarrassed, in a pickle

HoR-sE-couRSER, dealer in horses

HospiTiuM, inn, tavern

HuNSDON, Lord, was Elizabeth's
first cousin, being the son of her
mother's sister

Incontinent, immediately

Incuerpo, in plain undress, without
cloak, naked

Indamira, more correctly Inda*
MORA, the heroine of Dryden's
tragedy Aurungzebe

In fumo, in smoke

Ingle, favourite, intimate

In rerum natura, as an actual fact

Iphyclus, one of the Argonauts,
and owner of large herds of cattle;
QUID hoc, etc. (p. 126), is a pro-
verbial phrase of uncertain origin

Ivy-tod, ivy bush

Jape, jest, trick

.TowRiNG, scolding, cursing

Juvenal, a youth

Ka me, ka thee, Help me, and I'll
help you

Keep a coil. See coil

Kennel, the gutter

Kernes, light-armed foot soldiers

King Cambyses's vein, i.e. bluster-
ing [and bullying. The original
character figures in Elkanah
Settle's Cambyses King of Persia
(1671)

Lachry'm^ (Cheisti), red Italian
wine, grown on the slopes of Mt.
Vesuvius

Lacs d' amour, laquei amoris, love
snares

Largesse, etc. (p. 394), Your gifts,
your gifts, bold knights

Left-handed, morganatic

Levanter easterly Mediterranean
wind

Lex Julia, law of the Roman Em-
peror Augustus, designed to pro-

GLOSSARY.

525

mote marriage and punish
adultery

Limber, supple, pliant

LiNDABKiDES, heroine in the Spanish
romance of The Mirror of Knight-
hood ; a kept mistress

Lingua Latins, etc. (p. 123),
Though not altogether ignorant of
Latin, most learned sir, I prefer
to speak in my mother tongue
I List (of yelloe), edge, border
,' LiTTOCKs, rags and tatters

Loon, fellow

LuciNA FER OPEM, Luciua, give
thine aid. Lucina was the god-
dess who presided over childbirth

LuDi MAGisTER, master of the
school ; also master of children's
play, he7ice holiday-master

Lyme-hound, sporting dog, that
hunts by scent

Maddow, right, in all probability
mead-wort or meadow-sweet is
meant, which, if gathered on the
right day, St. John's Day, will
reveal a thief

Madge-howlet, the barn owl

Maestricht, besieged and sacked
by the Spanish forces under
Alexander of Parma in 1579

Magister artium, the degree of
M.A.

Magisterium, the philosopher's
stone

Mandragora, mandrake, plant be-
lieved to possess magic qualities

Manna of St. Nicholas (of Bari),
the clear, tasteless poison sold by
the infamous hag Toffania of
Naples in the beginning of the
18th century

Marcus Tullius, i.e. Cicero, the
Roman orator

Maro, i.e. Virgil, the Roman poet

Martin Swart. The old song in
which the second verse (p. 114) oc-
curs is Skelton's Against a Comely
Coystrowne

Matamoros, or Matamork, the con-
ventional boaster of Spanish
comedy, the name signifying
"Slayer of Moors"

" Match for match," quoth the
DEVIL to the collier, in the old
farce The Collier of Croydon

Mayor of Halgaver, an imagi-
nary potentate, similar to the
Mayor of Garrat, •who enforced

offences against the unwritten
laws of popular opinion — A Cor-
nish proverb

Ml anime, corculum meum, my life,
my little heart

Minikin, minion, a little darling

MocKADo, a mixture of silk and
wool, or of either with flax, and
resembling velveteen

Monsieur, the Duke of Anjou,
youngest son of Henry II. of
France, a courtier and suitor of
Queen Elizabeth

Moppet, pretty young girl

MoRioR, etc. (p. 21), I die, I have
died, to die

MOUNTAIN-ASH, Or ROWAN-TREE, WaS

regarded as a safeguard against

witchcraft
Mr. Bayes's tragedy, TJie Rehearsal

(1671), by George Villiers, Duke

of Buckingham, Bayes being the

name of the hero
MuLciBER, Vulcan, the ancient

Roman god of fire.
Murrey, mulberry-coloured
Muscadine, a rich sweet wine
MusQUETOON, light, short hand-gun
Muster, pattern

NaAS, THE TYRANT, OT NaHASH, king

of the Ammonites. See 1 Sam. xi.
Naunton, Sir Robert, author of

The Court of Queen Elizabeth (1641)

and Fragmenta Regalia (1642)
Ne quisquam, etc. (p. 252), No one

but Ajax can conquer Ajax
Ne semissem quidem, not a single

groat
Nether-stocks, stockings
Nil ultra, nothing beyond
Noble, a gold coin==6s. 8d. ; Harry

NOBLE, a noble coined in the reign

of Henry VIII.; rose noble, noble

bearing representation of a rose,

first coined under Edward VI.,

and worth 10s.
Nonsuch, a royal castle. 3 or 4 miles

from Epsom in Surrey
Nooning, rest and repast at noon
Nostra paupera regna, our poor

domains
NuG.E, trifles
NuMiNiBUs, etc. (p. 123), prayers

heard by unfriendly deities

Oberon, vision of, from Midsummer
Night's Dream, which was not
acted until 1600. Shakisfeabb

526

WAVERLEY NOVELS.

himself was only a boy at the date
of this romance

0 c^cA MENS MOETALiuM, O dark-
ened mind of man

Or, gold

Ordinaky, eating house

Orion, a gigantic hunter of hand-
some appearance ; See Homer's
Odyssey, Bks. v. and xi.

Palabras, talk, palaver

Pantoufle, slipper

Parcel, partly

Paropa, a kind of textile material.

/Sfc Taylor (Water-Poet), Praise of

Hempseed
Partlet, covering for a woman's

neck and shoulders, kerchief
Parvo contentus, content with

little
Passant, walking — term in her-
aldry
Pass-devant, a fashionable dress, a

dress worn atda.nces
Passtime of the People, a rare

chronicle (1529) by John Rastell
Patienta, patience
Pauca verba, (say) few words, have

done
Perdue, hidden, in concealment
Per pale, by a vertical line ; said of

an esciitcheon
Pert-S)sa BARBARA LOQUEL^, heart-
ily sick of a language not her own
Pewit, the lapwing
Phaeton, the charioteer of the Sun
Philippine Cheney, that is Philip

and Cheney (i.e. China), some

kind of worsted or woollen stuff.

" Philip and Cheney," is an early

equivalent of "Dick-, Tom, and

Harry "
Phrenesis, violent madness, frenzy
Picaroon, one who lives by his wits ;

a rogue
Piccadilloe, sort of deep stiff collar
PizE, term of mild execration
Place of removal, cell, or pSace of

confinement
PoKiNG-AWL, rod for curling the

ruff, sometimes used as a stiletto
Portmantle, portmanteau
Port St. Mary's, town in the bay

of Cadiz, Spain
Post Christum katum, after the

birth of Christ, a.d.
Potosi, a town in South America

(Bolivia) with rich silver mines,

famous since the Spanish conquest

Peecisian. Puritan

Primo Henrici Septimi, in the first
year of Henry VII. 's reign

Pkincox, or princock, a coxcomb

Profecto, literally so

Projection, the process of trans-
muting metals, especially the ac-
tual fusing of the metals in the
crucible

Provant rapier, army sword

Puckfist, a niggardly person

PusEY horn. The manor of Pusey
in Berkshire is held by virtue of
an oxhorn, presented to the Pusey
family by Canute the Great

Quasi lucus a non lucendo, for the
reverse of the most obvious reason,
for an absurd reason

Quid mihi cum caballo? What
have I to do with the nag ?

Quintilian, celebrated Roman
grammarian and teacher of
rhetoric of the 1st century a.d.

Rabatine, broad collar

Raddle, thrash, beat

Ram's alley, off Fleet Street and
near Whitefriars, a resort of
thieves and bad characters, and
noted for its dirty cookshops ;
now called Hare Place

Rare Gillian of Croydon, if the
old farce. The Collier of Croydon, is
meant, for Gillian read Marian

Raro antecedentem, an allusion to
a passage in Horace's Odes, iii. 2, in
which punishment is said nearly
always to dog the heels of the evil-
doer

Rash, species of inferior silk

Ratcliffe, or Radcliffe, Earl of
Sussex, was Robert, not Thomas

Recte quidem, etc. <p. 322), As-
suredly we are, most worthy sir

Reeve, steward

Regalls, or REGAL, a small portable
organ

Reguardant, turned to look back

RiCARDE, ADsis, NEBULO, Richard,
you idle scamp, come hither

Robertson, William, Scottish his-
torian, died in 1793

Rosy Cross, order of, or Rosiceu-
ciANS, mystical philosophers, who
professed the transmutation of
metals, alchemy, magic, etc. :
flourished jirincipally in 17th and
18th centuries

GLOSSARY,

527

EotrNDELL, anythicg round, an ar-
ticle of feminine attire
RuFFLEH, bully, swaggerer

Sadler, Sib Ralph, whom Eliza-
beth employed in her dealings
with Scotland ; he was educated
under Thomas Cromwell, Earl of
Essex

St. Antonlin's, or rather St. An-
tholin's, a church (pulled down.
1874) in Watling Straet, London,
where in 1599 the Puyitans began
to hold very early morning ser-
vices

St. Austen's Eve. St. Augustine's
(Austin's) Day was 28th August

St. Barnaby, or Babna bas. the com-
panion of St. Paul

St. John's Berg, the Rhine wine
known as Johannisberger

St. Julian, patron saint of travel-
lers and hospitality

St. Lucy's Eve, 18th September. St.
Lucy was the "daughter to a
king of the Scots," lived in soli-
tude beside the river Meuse in
France, and died in 1090

St. Luke's Hospital, asylum in
Moorfields, London

St. Michael's Mount, rock off the
Cornish coast, near Penzance

St. Petee of the Fetters, best ex-
plained by a refer'^nce to Acts sii.
I The chains with which the Apos-
tle was bound, were, it is said,
' carried to Rome by Eudocia, wife
of Theodosius the Younger, in
439, and from that time regarded
with almost idolatrous veneration

Saltim banqui, quacks, mounte-
banks

Salve, domine, etc. (p. 123), Hail,
sir, dost thou understand Latin

Salving the weapon, etc. (p. 126),
as for instance with Sir Kenelm
Digby's sympathetic powder

Santo Diavolo, St. Satan

Sarsenet, thin, soft woven silk

Savin, oil of juniper

Scholar, great, of Amsterdam!
should be, of Rotterdam, where
Erasmus was born

Sconce, a fort, detached outwork

Scot aiJt) Lot, rates and taxes

Scroyle, a mean fellow, wretch

Seiant, sitting, a term in heraldry

Seven sleepers, martyrs of Ephe-
sus, who, according to the legend,

slept nearly two hundred years in
a cave, from the reign of the Em-
peror Decius to that of Theodo-
sius II

Shag, sort of rough cloth

Sheres, Jeres, town in Spain, fa-
mous lor its wine (sherry)

She-wolv of France, Isabella,
daughter of Philip V., king of
France

Shooter's Hill, near Greenwich, a
favourite haunt of highwaymen

Shot-window, window projecting
from a wall, used for defence

Shovel-board, in which the players
pushed pieces of money or count-
ers on to certain lines and squares
on a board

Shrewsbury, Countess of. Queen
Mary was at this time in the cus-
tody of the Earl of Shrewsbury

Sidney, Philip, the gallant poet
and soldier who fell before Zut-
phen in Holland in 1586

Sieve and shears, divination by
means of a sieve and a pair of
shears

Si fixum solvas, etc. (p. 144), If
you dissolve a fixed substance
and make the solution tly, and
then fix it again, being volatile,
you will live safe and sound ; if
the process causes a wind, it is
worth a hundred pieces of gold.
The wind blows where it lists.
Catch who catch can

Sine prole, childless

Sir Pandarus of Troy, chief of
thfi Lycians in the Trojan War,
but degraded in the romances of
chivalry to a pimp or procurer

Sib Talbot, a dog's name

Skelton's Books, or fuller, Certaine
Bokes compiled by Master Skeltov,
Poet Lanreat, of various contents

Skene, short sword, knife

Skinker, a tapster

Sleuth-hound, bloodhound

Slocket, to convey things privately
out of the house

Slop, sort of trousers ; a long, loose
outer sack-like garment

Smock-faced, of girlish face or com-
plexion

Snails, an oath, corrupted from
Christ's (God's) nails, with which
his hands and feet were pierced

Snick up, go, go and be hanged !
"Snick up," or "sneck up," is

528

WAVERLEY NOVELS.

possibly a corruption of *' Lis
neck up"

Spital, hospital

Spitchcocked, split and broiled

Stand and deliver, the formula
of highwaymen

Startup, high-topped shoe, bus-
kin

Stirabout, oatmeal and dripping
stirred together in a frying-pan
whilst cooking

S T o u p , a drinking-vessel, liquid
measure

Strappado, a military punishment;
the offender was drawn to a con-
siderable height and suddenly let
fall

Sufflamina, be silent

Swarf, faint swoon

Swashing, bullying, bragging

Taffeta, silk stuff

Tarleton, the player, was Rich-
ard Tarlton, (died 1588), a comic
actor and jester, patronised by
Leicester

Tau, letter, from the Greek alpha-
bet, corresponds to "t"

Tent stitch, single stitch in worsted
work and embroidery

Tertio Mari^, the third year of
Mary's reign, 1556

Three Crakes in the Vintrt, a
celebrated tavern in Upper
Thames Street, between London
Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge

Trismegistus, the name given in
the early Christian ages to the
Egyptian god Thoth, whom the
Ancient Greeks identified with
their god Hermes. Trismegistus
was regarded by the alchemists
as a father of their art

Trowl, to pass round

Truepenny, the name Hamlet ap-
plies to his Father's Ghost in Act
i. sc. 5

TuGURiA, huts, cottages

TURNBALL, or TURNBULL, StREET,

now Turnmill Street, near Clerk-
enwell, formerly a resort of bul-
lies and low characters

Twin streams (p. 221), the Rhone
and the Saone. See Caesar, JDe
Bell. Gall. Bk. i.

Ttbubn tippet, halter

Tyke, a dog

Uno atulso, etc. (p. 127), when one

has been torn off, another grows

in its place
Untimeously, untimely
Up sey es, a corrupted Dutch or

German phrase, meaning toss it

off! here it goes!

Vails, a windfall, tip, gratuity
given to servants

Vanbrugh, Sir John, dramatist
and architect of Queen Anne's
reign

Varium et mutabile, changeful
and capricious

Venlo, was besieged, but unsuccess-
fully, by the Spaniards in Novem-
ber 1578

Via ! away ! '^'r '

Virginal, small harpsichord or
old-fashioned piano without legs

Vogue la galere, come what may

VoTo A Dios, Spanish oath of men-
ace. By God !

Wassail, spiced ale or wine

Watchet, pale blue

" What man that sees," etc. (p.

182), from Spenser's Cantos on

Mutability, a fragment of the

Faerie Queene
Whiteboy, pet, darling, a term of

endearment
White witch, wizard or witch of

beneficent disposition
Whittle, a large knife, generally

one carried in the girdle
Wife of Bath, one of Chaucer's

Canterbury Pilgrims
Willoughby, Lord, Peregrine

Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eres-

by, a distinguished soldier, hero

of the ballad of " The Brave Lord

Willoughby"
Witch's elm, or rather rowan-tree,

as in the passage a few para- ^

graphs lower down (p. 130) \

Witch's mark, a wart or mark, in- "

sensible to pain, made by the

devil on his vassals
Won'd, dwelt
Wus, know
Wyvern, a winged dragon, a hei>

aldic term

INDEX.

Abiasd, Amy Rohsart, qnoted, 511
Aglionby, Recorder of Warwick,

333
Alasco, Holiday's account of, 127;

Way land's, 143; his interview

with Leicester, 246 ; with Varney,

250; sent down to Cumnor, 257;

his specious casuistry, 300 ; found

dead, 503
Ashraole, Antiquities of Berkshire,

quoted, 6, 511
Astrology, belief in, 143, 246, 300
Aubrey, Correspondence, quoted, 514
Author's Introduction, 5

Badger, Will, the huntsman, 114 ;

describes his master's condition,

156
Bear, the Leicester cognizance, 97
Bear-baiting, described, 233
Seattle, Castles of England, quoted,

516
Black Bear Inn, Cumnor, 13, 259,

511
Blount, Nicholas, at Say's Court,

180; sent to court to make Sussex's

apologies, 189 ; his gay dress, 369 ;

knighted, 392 ; his astonishment

at court intrigues, 483
Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, 517
Burleigh, advises the Queen, 485

Camdkn's Britannia, quoted, 513

Chopin, or'chapiney, Coryat on, 516

Coryat, Crudities, quoted, 516

Coventry custom, 473

Coxe, Captain, of Coventry, 473

Crane, Mistress, 150

Crank, Dame, 151

Cumnor, village, 13 ; Black Bear
Inn, 13, 259, 511 ; park, 38 ; Hall
or Place, 42, 511 ; apartments at,
70 ; secret trap-door, 503

Cumnor Hall, poem, 8, 511

Curate of Lidcote, 158

DoBOOBiE, Dr. See Alasco
34

Elizabeth, Queen, her mode of
governing, 178 ; on the river, 193 ;
her attention drawn to Raleigh,
194 ; visits Say's Court, 200 ; holds
court at Greenwich, 208 ; cross-
questions Varney, 213 ; gives audi-
ence to Tressilian, 218 ; receives
Leicester on her barge, 229 ; com-
pletes Raleigh's verse, 238; her
peculiar temper, 278 ; entry into
Kenilworth, 373 ; calls for Amy,
383; discovers her in the grotto,
414 ; scene with Leicester, 418 ;
her anger on his disclosure, 484

Evelyn, Mr,, 178

Flibbertigibbet, 130; guides Tres-
silian, 132 ; blows up the smithy,
148 ; replies to Varney's questions,
322; makes himself known to
Wayland, 324 ; his inquisitive-
ness, 324, 349 ; drops upon Way-
land's horse, 338 ; astonishes the
porter, 341 ; prompts him, 376 ;
stays Leicester, 477 ; explains his
behavior, 480

Foster, Anthony, 28 ; personal ap-
pearance of, 43; interview with
Lambourne, 46 ; his conversations
with Varney, 60, 98 ; attempts to
quiet Lambourne, 274 ; quotes
Scripture to Amy, 293 ; brings the
poison to Amy, 296 ; prays in his
sleep, 494 ; arranges the trap, 506 ;
his end, 508; the real Anthony
Forster, 511

Foster, Janet, 60, 74 ; declines the
earl's ring, 89 ; her dislike to the
pedlar, 269; overhears Lam-
boume's ravings, 273; intercepts
the poison, 297 ; aids Amy to es-
cape, 303 ; weds Wayland, 508

Gascoigne, imitation of, 370, 510
Goldthred, Laurence, the mercer,
20; tells of the lady at Cumnor
Place, 29 ; his wager with Lam-

530

INDEX.

Hourne, 32; carouses with him,
263 ; his horse seized by Way-
land, 314

Cosling, Cicely, 36

Uosling, Giles, landlord of the Black
Bear, 13 ; his concern about Tres-
silian, 23 ; conversation with him.
Ill; sends Wayland to Cumnor
Place, 266

Grimesby, Gaffer, 149

Hakrington, Sir John, 278, 517
Hobgoblin., See Flibbertigibbet
Holiday, Erasmus, 122, 125
Hostler, Jack, of Marlborough, 150
Hunsdon, Lord, 420, 470

Inteoduction, Author's, 5

JrLio, Dr., 515

Ke^iilworth, the novel, 5

Kenilworth Castle, 334 ; royal entry
into, 372 ; entertainments at, 377,
454, 472, 516 ; pilgrims to, 516 ;
furniture in, 517

Lambourne, Michael, returns to
Cumnor, 14 ; his wager with Gold-
thred, 32; visits Foster, 42, 54;
interrupts Varney and Tressilian,
57 ; taken into Varney' s service,
103; takes Alasco to Cumnor,
257 ; commands Fosterto the inn,
.264 ; his drunken ravings, 274 ;
encounter with Tressilian at Ken-
ilworth, 356 ; turns Wayland out
of the castle, 363 ; his welcome to
the Queen, 379; enters Amy's
apartment, 405; sent after Var-
ney, 463, his death, 492 ; shot by
Varney, 500; note on his name,
512

Laneham, Robert, pays court to
Leicester, 226 ; his description of
Kenilworth's festivities, 379, 516 ;
account of him, 514

Leicester, Earl of, visits Amy at
Cumnor, 84 ; offers Janet a pres-
ent, 89; talks of retiring from
court, 92 ; takes farewell of Amy,
95 ; at Woodstock, 108 ; in con-
sultation with Varney, 202, 243,
280, 395, 426 • summoned to Green-
wich, 206 ; difficulties of his posi-
tion, 222, 277; courted by Lane-
)iam, 226 ; summoned to the
Queen's barge, 228 ; Consults
Alasco, 246 ; receives the Queen
at Kenilworth, 380 ; his dress.

382; love passages with the Queen.
412, 517 ; confronted with Amy,
419 ; last interview with her, 429 ;
his desperate strait, 435 ; fatal de-
cision, 444 ; gives Varney his sig-
net ring, 451 ; accosted by Tres-
silian, 458 ; sends Lambourne
after Varney, 463 ; his meeting
with Tressilian, 466, 476; inter-
rupted by Flibbertigibbet, 477;
before the Queen, 484 ; his death,
520

Leicester's Commonwealth, 7, 515

Lidcote Hall, 155

Masters, the physician, turned
away by Raleigh, 187 ; his report
as to Amy's condition, 453

Mervyn's Bower, Kenilworth, 344

Mickle, author of Cumnor Hall, 8,
511

Mumblazen, Master, 157 ; gives his
purse to Tressilian, 166

" Of all the birds on bush or tree," 26
Orvietan, or Venice treacle, 177, 51?

Paget, Lady, 237
Pedlars, time of tale, 259
Pinnit, Orson, petition of, 231
Pleasance, at Kenilworth, 344, 409
Porter, gigantic, atKenilworth, 339 ;
his address to the Queen, 376

Raleigh, Walter, at Say's Court,
180 ; refuses to admit Dr. Masters,
187 ; accompanies Blount to court,
189 ; lays down his cloak for the
Queen, 192 ; in the royal barge,
194; recites the "Vision of Obe-
ron," 235 : writes on the window-
pane, 238; at Kenilworth, 368;
knighted, 392; sets off for Cum-
nor, 491 ; Aubrey's description of,
514 ; his skill as a courtier, 514

Robsart, Amy, Goldthred's account
of, 29 ; interview with Tressilian,
51 ; reception of Varney, 59 ; _ in
her new apartments, 73 ; interview
with Varney, 77 ; visit of Lei-
cester, 84 ; Leicester takes farewell,
95; buys from the pedlar, 269;
her tastes and training, 286, 327 ;
exciting interview with Varney,
289 ; drinks the poison, 302 ; es-
capes from Cumnor, 304 ; entrusts
herselfto Wayland, 311; amongst
the masquers, 321; her irresolu-
tion, 328 ; on the way to Kenil-
worth, 331 ; enters the chase, 337 ;

INDEX.

531

in Kenilworth Castle, 340; gives
Wayland tlie letter, 345 ; discov-
ered by Tressilian, 352 ; her case
before the Queen, 383; in Mervyn's
Bower, •402 ; her privacy invaded
by Lambourne, 405 ; discovered
by the Queen, 414 ; screens Leices-
ter. 421 ; put in confinement, 422 ;
last interview with Leicester, 429 ;
slandered by Varney, 439 ; car-
ried back to Cumnor, 493 ; arrives
there, 501 ; her death, 506 ; an-
achronisms regarding, 516
Kobsart, Sir Hugh, 114, 158, 509
Robsart, Sir Roger, 113, 159
Rutland, Duchess of, proposes Ra-
leigh for knighthood, 392

Say's CouKT, 178

Shakspeare, 225, 232, 234 ; his "Vi-
sion of Oberon," 235

Shrewsbury, Earl of, 420, 484

Sludge, Gammer. 122

Sludge, Richard. See Flibberti-
gibbet

Staples, Laurence, 362, 407

Sussex, Earl of, his letter to Tres-
silian, 168; his lineage, 179; takes
Wayland's drugs, 185 ; surprised
by Elizabeth, 200 ; summoned to
Greenwich, 206; supports Orson
Pinnit's petition, 231; proposes
Blount for knighthood, 391 ; his
jealousy of Leicester, 513

Swart, Martin, 113, 512

TiDEE, Robin, 493
Tracy, Earl of Sussex's man, 187
Tressilian, Edmund, at Cumnor,
22 ; his interest in the lady, 30 ;
joins Lambourne in his wager,
32 ; visits Cumnor Place, 42 ; his
interview with Amy, 51 ; encoun-
ter with Varney, 56 ; conversation
with Giles Gosling, 111 ; in the
Vale of Whitehorse, 121 ; inter-
view with Wayland, 138 ; at Marl-
borough, 149 ; arrives at Lidcote
Hall, 154 ; summoned to court
by Sussex, 168; goes with Way-
land to buy drugs. 173 ; arrives
at Say's Court, 180 ; before the
Queen, 218 ; returns to Kenil-
worth, 350 ; discovers Amy in
Mervyn's Bower, 352 ; meeting
with Lambourne, 356; hears
Wayland's report, 359 ; offends
the Queen, 385 ; accosts Leicester,
458; fights with him, 468, 476;

saved by Flibbertigibbet, 477;
summoned before the Queen, 483 ;
sets off for Cumnor, 491; his end,
509

Varney, Richard, encounter with
Tressilian, 56 ; reception of, by
Amy, 59; conversation with
Foster, 60 ; interview with Amy,
77 ; in counsel with Leicester, 92,
202, 243. 280, 395, 426; consults
with Foster, 98 ; takes Lambourne
into his service, 103 ; refused ad-
mission by Bowyer, 207; examined
by the Queen, 213 ; his talk with
Alasco, 250 ; sends him to Cimi-
nor, 257 ; ominous visit to Amy,
289 ; constrains her to take the
poison, 301 ; overtakes the mas-
quers, 322 ; presents the certifi-
cates, 384 ; knighted, 390; extri-
cates Leicester from his dilemma,
421; argues with him, 437, 448;
slanders Amy, 439 ; carries her off
to Cumnor, 494 ; shoots Lam-
bourne, 500; imitates Leicester's
whistle, 506 ; his suicide, 508

Venice treacle, or orvietan, 177, 513.

Wayland Smith, Holiday's account
of, 127 ; surprised by Tressilian.
138 ; his history, 142 ; his haunt
blown up, 148 ; at Marlborough,
149 ; gives a draught to Sir Hujrh
Robsart, 166; buys drugs, 173;
prescribes for the Earl of Sussex,
184 ; his fear of Alasco, 241 ; sent
down to Cumnor. 242; disguised
as a pedlar, 259 ; has audience of
Amy, 269 ; guides her to Kenil-
worth, 311 ; appropriates Gold-
thred's horse, 314 ; mingles with
the masquers, 321 ; accosted by
Flibbertigibbet, 324 ; on the way
to K e n i 1 w o r t h . 331 ; enters the
chase, 3.37 ; watches for Tressilian,
348 ; loss of the letter, 360 ; ex-
pelled by Lambourne, 363 ; ap-
pears before Leicester and Tres-
silian, 479 : weds Janet Foster,
508; note on, from Camden's
Britniuiiii, 513
"What stir, what turmoil," 376
Whiteliorse. Vale of, 121, 513
Wild cattle, Scottish, 242, 515
Willoughbv. Lord. 230
Woodstock Park, 106

YoGLAN, the Jew, 174

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