 CHAPTER 24 Richard, a horse. A horse, my kingdom, for a horse. Kate's bee. My lord, I'll help you to a horse. Richard III Our travelers were in the act of passing the small thicket of trees close by the roadside when the first living being presented himself, whom they had seen since their departure from Cumnor Place. This was a stupid bout, seemingly a farmer's boy in a grey jerkin, with his head bare, his hose about his heels, and huge startups upon his feet. He held by the bridle one of all things they most wanted, a pal-free, namely, with a side saddle, and all other garniture for a woman's mountain, and he hailed Weyland Smith with, Sir, be ye, sir, the party. I, that I be, my lad, answered Weyland, without an instant's hesitation, and it must be owned that consciences trained in a stricter school of morality might have given way to an occasion so tempting. While they spoke he caught the rain out of the boy's hand, and almost at the same time helped down the countess from his own horse, and aided her to mount, on that which chance had thus presented for her acceptance. Indeed, so naturally did the whole take place that the countess as it afterwards appeared never suspected but that the horse had been placed there to meet them by the precaution of the guide or some of his friends. The lad, however, who was thus hastily dispossessed of his charge, began to stare hard and scratch his head, as if seized with some qualms of conscience for delivering up the animal on such brief explanation. I be right, sir, thou beest the party, said he, muttering to himself, but thou shouldest I say beans, thou gneist. I, I, said Weyland, speaking at a venture, and thou bacon, thou gneist. Noa, noa, said the lad, by g, by g, it was peas, I should have said. Well, well, answered Weyland, peas be it, a God's name, though bacon were the better password. And being by this time mounted on his own horse, he caught the rain of the palfrey from the uncertain hold of the hesitating young boar, flung him a small piece of money, and made amends for lost time by riding briskly off without further parlay. The lad was still visible from the hill up, which they were riding, and Weyland, as he looked back, beheld him standing with his fingers in his hair, as immovable as a guide post, and his head turned in the direction in which they were escaping from him. At length, just as they topped the hill, he saw the clown stoop to lift up the silver groat which his benevolence had imparted. Now, this is what I call a godsend, said Weyland. This is a bani, while ridden bid 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 human 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 not ridden a short mile from the place where they left the lad, before they heard a man's voice, shouting on the wind behind them, »Robbery! robbery! Stop thief!« and similar exclamations, which Weyland's conscience readily assured him, must arise out of the transaction to which he had been just acessory. »I better have gone barefoot all my life,« he said. »It is the human cry, and I am a lost man. Ah! Weyland! Weyland! Many a time thy father said horse-flesh would be the death of thee, were I once safe among the horse-coursers in Smithfield, or Turnbull Street. They should have left to hang me as high as St. Paul's, if I air-meddled more with nobles, knights, or gentlemenmen. Amidst these dismal reflections he turned his head repeatedly to see by whom he was chased, and was much comforted when he could only discover a single rider, who was, however, well-mountain, and came after them in a speed which left them no chance of escaping, even had the lady's strength permitted her to ride as fast as her palfrey might have been able to gallop. »There may be fair play betwixt a sure,« thought Weyland, where there is but one man on each side, and Yonderfellow sits on his horse more like a monkey than a cavalier. Shaw, if it comes to the worse, it will be easy unhorsing him. Nay, snails! I think his horse will take the matter in his own hand, for he has the bridle betwixt his teeth. »Once, what care I for him?« said he, as the pursuer drew yet nearer. It is but the little animal-bemercer from Abingdon when all is over. Even so it was, as the experienced eye of Weyland had described at a distance, for the valiant mercer's horse, which was a beast of metal, feeling himself put to his speed and discerning a couple of horses riding fast at some hundred yards' distance before him, but took himself to the road with such alacrity as totally deranged the seat of his rider, who not only came up with him 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, recenting himself in the saddle, and endeavouring to substitute a bold and marshal frown for the confusion in dismay which sat upon his visage during his involuntary career. Weyland had just time to caution the lady not to be alarmed, adding, This fellow is a goal, and I will use him as such. When the Mercer had recovered breath and audacity enough to confront them, he ordered Weyland, in a menacing tone, to deliver up his palfrey. How, said the Smith, in King Kambayase's vein, are we commanding to stand and deliver on the King's highway? Then out, Excalibur, and tell this night of prowess, that dire blows must decide between us. Harrow, and help, and human cry, every true man, said the Mercer, I am with students seeking to recover mine own. Thou swarest thy gods in vain, thou pain'em, said Weyland, for I will through with mine purpose, were death at the end on't. Nevertheless know, thou false man of frail Cambric and ferriting, that I am he, even the peddler, whom thou didst boast to meet on Maiden Castlemore, and his boil of his pack, for betake thee to thy weapons presently. I spoke but in jest, man, said Goldthread. I am an honest shopkeeper and citizen, who scorns to leap forth on any man from behind a hedge. Then, by my faith, most poisoned Mercer, answered Weyland. I am sorry for my vow, which was, that wherever I met thee, I would dispel thee of thy palfrey, and bestow it upon mine lemon, unless thou couldest defend it by blows of force. But the vow is passed and registered, and all I can do for these to leave the horse at Donnington in the nearest hostelory. But I tell thee, friend, said the Mercer, it is the very horse on which I was this day, to carry Jane Thackam, of shot as spoke, as far as the parish church yonder, to become dame Goldthread. She hath jumped out of the shot window of old Gaffer Thackam's Grange, and lo ye, yonder she stands at the place where she should have met the palfrey, with her camelette, 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 Weyland, as much for the fair damsel as for thee, most noble imp of muslin, but vows must have their course. Thou wilt find the palfrey at the angel, yonder at Donnington. It is all I may do for thee with a safe conscience. To the devil with thy conscience, said the dismayed Mercer, would itst thou have a bride walk to church on foot? Thou mayst take her on thy cropper, sir Goldthread, answered Weyland, it will take down thy steed's metal. And how if you, if you forget to leave my horse as you propose, said Goldthread, not without hesitation, for his soul was afraid within him? My pack shall be pledged for it, yonder it lies with Drow's gossing, in his chamber with the damast, leathern hangings, stuffed full with velvet, single double, treble-piled, rashed half-a-done, parapa, shagged damask, and mochado, 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 bunk him with Bonnie Bayard again. As you list for that, good Master Goldthread, and so good Morrow to you, and while pardoned, he added, riding on cheerfully with the lady, while the discountenance, Mercer, rode back, much slower than he came, pondering what excuse he should make to the disappointed bride, who stood waiting for her gallant groom in the midst of the king's highway. Me thought, said the lady, as they rode on, yonder full stared at me as if he had some remembrance of me, yet I kept my muffler as high as I might. If I thought so, said Wayland, I would ride back and cut him over the paint. There would be no fear of harm in his brains, for he never had so much as would make Pap to a sucking gosselin. We must now push on, however, and at Donnington we will leave the oaf's horse, that he may have no further temptation to pursue us, and endeavor to assume such a change of shape as may baffle his pursuit, if he should, persevere in it. The travelers reached Donnington without further alarm, where it became matter of necessity that the Countess should enjoy two or three hours repose, during which Wayland disposed himself with equal address and alacrity, to carry through those measures on which the safety of their future journey seemed to depend. Exchanging his peddlers' gabardine for a smockfrock, he carried the palfrey of Goldfren to the Angel Inn, which was at the other end of the village from that where our travelers had taken up their quarters. In the progress of the morning, as he traveled about his other business, he saw the steed brought forth and delivered to the cutting-mercer himself, who at the head of a valorous posse of the human cry came to rescue, by force of arms, what was delivered to him without any other ransom, than the price of a huge quantity of ale, drunk out by his assistants, thirsty it would seem with their walk, and concerning the price of which Master Goldfren 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 restitution, Wayland procured such change of apparel for the lady, as well as himself, as gave them both the appearance of country people of the better class, it being further resolved that, in order to attract the less observation, she should pass upon the road for the sister of her guide. A good but not a gay horse, fit to keep pace with his own, and gentle enough for a lady's use, completed the preparations for the journey. For making which, and for other expenses, he had been furnished with sufficient funds by Tresilian, and thus about noon, after the countess had been refreshed by the sounder pose 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 mask or memories, which made a part of the entertainment, with which the queen was usually welcomed on the royal progresses, had left the village of Donnington an hour or two before them in order to proceed to Kenilworth. Now it had occurred to Wayland that, by attaching themselves in some sort to this group, as soon as they should overtake them on the road, they would be less likely to attract notice than if they continued to travel entirely by themselves. He communicated his idea to the countess, who, only anxious to arrive at Kenilworth without interruption, left him free to choose the manner in which this was to be accomplished. They pressed forward their horses, therefore, with the purpose of overtaking the party of intended revelers, and making the journey in their company, and had just seen the little party consisting partly of riders, partly of people on foot, crossing the summit of a gentle hill, at about half a mile's distance, and disappearing on the other side, when Wayland, who maintained the most circumspect observation of all that met his eye in every direction, was aware that a rider was coming up behind them on a horse of uncommon action, accompanied by a serving man, whose utmost efforts were unable to keep up with his master's trotting hackney, and who, therefore, was feigned to follow him at a hand gallop. Wayland looked anxiously back at these horsemen, became considerably disturbed in his manner, looked back again, and became pale, as he said to the lady, that as Richard Barney's trotting gelding, I would know him among a thousand nags. This is a worse business than meeting the Mercer. Draw your sword, answered the lady, and pierce my bosom with it, rather than I should fall into his hands. I would rather, by a thousand times, answered Wayland, pass it through his body, or even mine own. But to say truth, fighting is not my best point, though I can look on cold iron, like another one needs must be. And indeed, as for my sword, put on, I pray you, it is a poor province rapier, and I warrant you, he is a special Toledo. He has a serving man, too, and I think it is the drunken Ruffian, lamb-born, 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 Barney or lamb-born in a good cause. Your palphea will go yet faster if you urge him. But yet, may I pray you, let him not break off into a gallop, lest they should see we fear them and give chase, keep him only at the full trot. But yet, though I fear them not, I would we were well rid of them, and that rather by policy than by violence. Could we once reach the party before us, we may herd among them, and pass and observe, unless Barney be really come and express pursuit of us, and then, happy man, be his dole. While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained his horse, desirous to maintain the flitus pace that was consistent with the idea of an ordinary journey on the road, but to avoid such rapidity of movement as might give rise to suspicion that they were flying. At such a pace they ascended the gentle hill we have mentioned, and, looking from the top, had the pleasure to see that the party, which had left Donnington before them, were in the little valley or a bottom on the other side, where the road was traversed by a rivulet, beside which was a cottage or two. In this place they seemed to have made a pause which gave Wayland the hope of joining them and becoming a part of their company, ere Barney should overtake them. He was the more anxious, as his companion, though she made no complaints and express no fear, began to look so deadly pale that he was afraid she might drop from her horse. Notwithstanding the symptom of decaying strength, she pushed on her palfrey, so briskly, that they joined the party in the bottom of the valley ere Barney 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 disheveled locks and looks of great importance ran in and out of one of the cottages, and the men stood around holding the horses and, looking silly enough, as is usual in cases where their assistance is not wanted. Wayland and his charge paused, as if out of curiosity, and then gradually, without making any inquiries, or being asked any questions, they mingled with the group, as if they had always made part of it. They not stood there, above five minutes, anxiously keeping as much to the side of the road as possible, so as to place the other travelers betwixt them and Barney, when Lord Lester's master of the horse, followed by Lamborn, came riding fiercely down the hill. Their horses, flanks, and the rows of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate at which they traveled. The appearance of the stationary group around the cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to protect their masking dresses, having their light-card for transporting their scenery, and carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more easy conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and purpose of the company. You are revelers, said Barney, designing for Kenilworth. And why the devil will stand you here, said Barney, when your utmost dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time. The queen dines at Warwick tomorrow, and you loiter here, ye nays. I very truth, sir, said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a wizard with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet hue, having moreover a black surged jerkin, drawn close to his body by lacing, garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped as to resemble cloven feet. In very truth, sir, and you are in the right aunt, it is my father the devil who, being taken in labor, has delayed our present purpose by increasing our company with an imp too many. The devil he has, answered Barney, whose laugh, however, never exceeded a sarcastic smile. It is even as the juvenile hath said, added the masquerer who spoke first, our major devil, for this is but our minor one, is even now at Lucina, fair open, within that very tigurium by St. George, or rather by the dragon, who may be a kinsman of the fiend in the straw, most comical chance, said Barney, how sayest thou, lamborn, wilt thou stand Godfather for the nonce? If the devil were to choose a gossip, I know no one more fit for the office. Saving always when my betters are in presence, said lamborn, with the civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to be so indispensable that his jest will be permitted to pass muster. And what is the name of this devil, or devil's dam, who has timed her turn so strangely? We can ill afford to spare any of our actors. Gaudit nomina, Sibylai, said the first speaker, she's called Sibyl Lainhem, wife of master Robert Lainhem. Clerk to the council chamber door, said Barney, 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 wrote so hastily up the hill before me even now? Do they belong to your company? Whelan was about to hazard a reply to this alarming inquiry, when the little Diablotin again thrust in his oar. So please you, he said, coming close up to Barney, and speaking so as not to be overheard by his companions. The man was our devil major, who is strict enough to supply the lack of a hundred, such as Dame Lainhem, and the woman, if you please, is the sage person whose assistance is most particularly necessary to our distressed comrade. Oh, what, you've got the wise woman, then, said Barney. Why, truly, she wrote like one bound to a place where she was needed, and you have a spare limb of Satan besides to supply the place of Mr. Lainhem. I, sir, said the boy, they're not so scarce in this world, as your honour's virtuous eminence would suppose. This masterfiend shall spit a few flashes of fire and a ruck de volume or two of smoke on the spot, if it will do you pleasure. You would think he had Edna in his abdomen. I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to witness his performance, said Barney, but here is something for you all to drink the lucky hour. And so, as the play says, God be with your labour. Thus speaking, he struck his horse with his spurs and rode on his way. Lamb bore Terry the momenter to behind his master and rummaged his pouch for a piece of silver, which he bestowed on the communicative imp, as he said, for his encouragement on his path to the infernal regions, some sparks of whose fire he said he could discover flashing from him already. Then having received the boy's thanks for his generosity, he also spurred his horse and rode after his master as fast as the fire flashes from Flint. And now, said the wily imp, siding close up to Wayland's horse and cutting a gamble in the air, which seemed to vindicate his title to relationship with the prince of that element, I have told them who you are, do you in return tell me who I am? Either Fliberty Gibbet, answered Wayland Smith, or else an imp of the devil, in good earnest. Thou hast hinted, answered Dickie Sludge, I am thine own Fliberty Gibbet 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 worded 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 Engel, said Wayland, but it 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 ascend my waggish face and sweet company, said Dickie. But how wilt thou travel with us? I mean in what character? Even in that thou hast assigned me, to be sure, as a juggler. Thou knowest I am used to the craft, answered Wayland. I, but the lady, answered Fliberty Gibbet, 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. O she, man, she is a poor sister of mine, said Wayland, she can sing and play of the lute, would win the fish out of the stream. Let me hear her instantly, said the boy, I love the lute rarely, I love it of all things, though I never heard it. Then how can thou love it, Fliberty Gibbet, said Wayland? As knights love ladies in old tales, answered Dickie, on hearsay. Then love it on hearsay a little longer, till my sisters recovered from the fatigue of her journey, said Wayland, muttering afterwards betwixt his teeth. The devil take the imp's curiosity, I must keep fair weather with him, or we shall fare the worse. He then proceeded to state, to Master Holiday, his own talents as a juggler, with those of his sister as a musician. Some proof of his dexterity was demanded, which he gave in such a style of excellence, that delighted at attaining such an accession to their party. They readily acquiesced in the apology, which he offered, when a display of his sister's talents was required. The newcomers were invited to partake of the refreshments, with which the party were provided, and it was with some difficulty, that Wayland Smith obtained an opportunity of being apart with his supposed sister, during the meal, of which interval he availed himself to entreat her, to forget for the present, both her rank and her sorrows, and condescend, as the most probable chance of, remaining concealed, to mix in the society of those with whom she was to travel. The countess allowed the necessity of the case, and when they resumed their journey, endeavored to comply with her guide's advice, by addressing herself to a female near her, and expressing her concern for the woman, whom they were thus obliged to leave behind them. Oh, she is well attended, madam, replied the dame whom she addressed, who, from her jolly and laughter-loving demeanor, might have been the very emblem of the wife of Bath. And my gossip, plain him, thinks as little of these matters as any one. By the ninth day, and the revels last so long, we shall have her with us at Kenilworth, even if she should travel with her, banthling on her back. There was something in this speech which took away all desire on the countess of Lester's part to continue the conversation, but having broken the charm by speaking to her fellow-traveller first, the good dame, who was to play Rare Gillian of Coydon in one of the interludes, took care that silence did not again settle on the journey, but entertained her mute companion with a thousand anecdotes of revels from the days of King Harry downwards, with the reception given them by the great folk, and all the names of those who played the principal characters, but ever concluding with, they would be nothing to the princely pleasures of Kenilworth. And when shall we reach Kenilworth, said the countess, with an agitation which she in vain attempted to conceal. We that of horses may, with late writing, get to Warwick to-night, and Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles, but then we must wait till the foot people come up, although it is like my good lord of Lester 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 bedders. And yet, lord help me, I have seen the day I would have trapped five leagues of Leland, and turned, and my toe, the whole evening after, as a juggler spins a pewter platter on the point of a needle. But age has clawed me somewhat in his clutch, as the song says, though if I like the tune, and like my partner, I'll dance the haze yet with any merry lass in Warwickshire, that writes that unhappy figure of four with a round O after it. If the Countess was overwhelmed with the garrulity of this good dame, Wim Smith, on his part, had enough to do to sustain and parry the constant attacks made upon him by the indefatigable curiosity of his old acquaintance, Richard Sludge. Nature had given that arch-youngster a prying cast of disposition which matched admirably with his sharp wit. The former inducing him to plan himself as a spy on other people's affairs, and the latter quality, leading him perpetually to interfere, after he had made himself master of that which concerned him not. He spent the live long 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, Wailand, he said, has a fair neck to have been born in a smithy, and a pretty taper hand to have been used for twirling the spindle. Faith, I'll believe in your relationship when the crow's egg is hatched into a signet. Go to, said Wailand. Now art a prading boy, and should be breached for thine assurance. Well, said the imp, drawing off, all I say is, remember you have kept a secret from me, and if I give thee not a rollen for thine Oliver, my name is not Deacon Sludge. This threat, and the distance at which Hobgoblin kept from him for the rest of the way, alarmed Wailand very much, and he suggested to his pretended sister that on pretext of weariness she should express a desire to stop two or three miles short of the fair town of Warwick, promising to rejoin the troop in the morning. A small village in afforded them a resting place, and it was with secret pleasure that Wailand saw the whole party, including Deacon, pass on after a courteous farewell, and leave them behind. Tomorrow, madam, he said to his charge, we will wither or leave, again start early, and reach Kenilworth before the route, which are to assemble there. The Countess gave assent to the proposal of her faithful guide, but, somewhat to his surprise, said nothing further on the subject, which left Wailand under the disagreeable uncertainty whether or no she had formed any plan for her own future proceedings, as he knew her situation demanded circumspection, although he was but imperfectly acquainted with all its peculiarities. Concluding, however, that she must have friends within the castle, whose advice and assistance she could safely trust, he supposed his task would be best accomplished by conducting her thither in safety, agreeably to her repeated commands. End Chapter 24 Hark, the bell's 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. Would eyes were thine, proud prince, which in the gleam of yon gay meteors, lost that better sense, that o'er the glowworm doth the star esteem, and merits modest blush, or courtly insolence? The Glass Slipper The unfortunate Countess of Lester, had from her infancy upwards been treated by those around her with indulgence as unbounded as injudicious. The natural sweetness of her disposition had saved her from becoming insolent and ill-humored, but the Caprice which preferred the handsome and insinuating Lester before Tressilion, of whose high honor and unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm an opinion. That fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, had its origin in the mistaken kindness, that had spared her childhood the painful, but most necessary lesson of submission and self-command. From the same indulgence it followed that she had only been accustomed to form and to express her wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfilling them, and thus at the most momentous period of her life she was the like destitute of presence of mind, and of ability to form for herself any reasonable or prudent plan of conduct. These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with overwhelming force on the morning which seemed to be the crisis of her fate. Overlooking every immediate consideration, she had only desired to be at Kenilworth and to approach her husband's presence. And now, when she was in the vicinity of both, a thousand considerations arose at once upon her mind, startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, some real, some imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situation alike helpless and destitute of aiding counsel. A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she was altogether unable to attend Weyland's early summons. The trusty guide became extremely distressed on the lady's account, and somewhat alarmed on his own, and was on the point of going alone to Kenilworth, in the hope of discovering Tressillian, and intimating to him the lady's approach. When about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend her, he found her dressed and ready for resuming her journey, but with a paleness of countenance which alarmed him for her health. She intimated her desire that the horses might be God instantly ready, and resisted with impatience her guide's request that she would take some refreshment before sending forward. I have had, she said, a cup of water. The wretch who is dragged to execution needs no stronger cordial, and that may serve me which suffices for him. Do as I command you. Weyland Smith still hesitated. What would you have, said she, have I not spoken plainly? Yes, madam, answered Weyland, but may I ask, what is your further purpose? I only wish to know that I may guide myself by your wishes. The whole country is afloat and streaming towards the castle of Kenilworth. It will be difficult traveling thither, even if we had the necessary passports for safe conduct and free admittance. Unknown and unfriended, we may come by mishap. Your relationship will forgive me, speaking my poor mind. Were we not better try to find out the maskers, and again join ourselves with them? The Countess shook her head, and her guide proceeded. Then I see but one other remedy. Speak out, then, said the lady, not displeased perhaps, that he should thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask. I believe thee faithful, what wouldest thou counsel? That I should warn Master Tressylian, said Weyland, that you are in this place. I am right certain he would get to horse with a few of Lord Sussex's followers, and ensure your personal safety. And is it to me, you advise, said the Countess, to put myself under the protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble Lester? Then seeing the surprise with which Weyland stared upon her, and afraid of having too strongly intimated her interest in Lester, she added, And for Tressylian, it must not be, mention not to him I charge you my unhappy name. It would but double my misfortunes, and involve him in dangers beyond the power of rescue. She paused, but when she observed that Weyland continued to look on her with that anxious and uncertain gaze, which indicated a doubt whether her brain was settled, she assumed an air of composure and added, Do thou but guide me to Kenilworth Castle, good fellow, and thy task is ended, since I will then judge what further is to be done. Thou hast yet been true to me. Here is something that will make thee rich amends. She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone. Weyland looked at it, hesitated a moment, and then returned it. Not, he said, that I am above your kindness, madam, being but a poor fellow, who hath 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 fairer used to say to his customers, No cure, no pay. We are not yet in Kenilworth Castle, and it is time enough to discharge your guide, as they say, when you take your boots off. I trust in God your leadership is as well assured of fitting reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certain of my best endeavors to conduct you thither safely. I go to get the horses. Meantime, let me pray you once more as your poor physician, as well as guide, to take some sustenance. I will, I will, said the lady hastily. Be gone, be gone instantly. It is in vain I assume audacity, said she, when he left the room. Even this poor groom seized through my affectation of courage, and fathoms the very ground of my fears. She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some food, but was compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even a single morsel gave her so much uneasiness, as amounted well nigh to suffocation. A moment afterwards the horses appeared at the lattice window, the lady mounted, and found that relief from the free air and change of place, which is frequently experienced in similar situations. It chanced well for the countess's purpose that Wayland Smith, whose previous wandering and unsettled life had made him acquainted with almost all England, was intimate with all the by-roads as well as direct communications through the beautiful county of Warwick. For such and so great was the throng which flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth to see the entry of Elizabeth into this splendid mansion of her prime favorite, that the principal roads were actually blocked up and interrupted, and it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travelers could proceed on their journey. The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth. The Earl of Lester's household officers had been scouring the country for the same purpose, and many of his friends and allies, both near and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiating themselves by sending large quantities of provisions and delicacies of all kinds, with game in huge numbers, and whole tons of the best liquors, foreign and domestic. Thus the high roads were filled with droves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and hogs, and choked with loaded rains, whose axel trees cracked under their burdens of wine cask, and hog's heads of ale, and huge hampers of grocery goods, and slaughtered game and salted provisions, and sacks of flour. Perpetual stoppages took place as these wanes became entangled, and their rude drivers, swearing and brawling till their wild passions were fully raised, began to debate precedents with their wagon 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 both parties. Here were presides, players, and mummers, jugglers and showmen of every description, traversing and joyous bands, the path 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, mendicans were exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming a strange, though common, contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrows of human existence. All these floated along with the immense tide of population, whom mere curiosity had drawn together, and where the mechanic and his leather napron elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his city mistress, where clowns with hobnail shoes were treading on the cives of substantial burgers and gentlemen of worship, and where Joan of the Dairy, with robust pace and red sturdy arms, rode her way onward amongst those prim and pretty moppets whose sighs were knights and squires. The thronging confusion was, however, of a gay and cheerful character. All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all laughed at the trifling inconveniences which at another time might have chafed their temper. Accepting the occasional brawls which we have mentioned among that irritable race, the Carmen, the mingled sounds which arose from the multitude were those of light-hearted mirth and tiptoe jollity. The musicians prelooted on their instruments, the minstrels hum their songs, the licensed jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness as he brandished his bobble. The Morris dancers jangled their bells, the rustics hallowed and whistled. Men laughed loud and maidens giggled shrill. While many a broad jest flew like a shuttlecock from one party to be caught in the air and returned from the opposite side of the road by another, at which it was aimed. No infliction can be so distressing to a mind absorbed in melancholy as being plunged into a scene of mirth and revelry forming an accompaniment so dissonant from its own feelings. Yet in the case of the Countess of Leicester the noise and tumult of this giddy scene distracted her thoughts and rendered her this sad service that it became impossible for her to brood on her own misery or to form terrible anticipations of her approaching fate. She traveled on like one new dream following implicitly the guidance of Weyland, who with great address now threaded his way through the general throng of passengers, now stood still until a favorable opportunity occurred of again moving forward and frequently turning altogether out of the direct road, followed some circuitous bypass which brought them into the highway again after having given them the opportunity of traversing a considerable way with greater ease and rapidity. It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose castle, that ferris monument of ancient and chivalrous splendor which yet remains uninjured by time. Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and where she was deterring, until past noon, at that time the general hour of dinner throughout England, after which were passed she was to proceed to Kenilworth. In the meanwhile each passing group had something to say in the sovereign's praise. They're not absolutely without the usual mixture of satire, which qualifies more or less our estimate of our neighbors, especially if they chance to be also our betters. Her Jew, said one, how graciously she spoke to Master Bailiff and the recorder, and to Good Master Griffin, the preacher, as they kneel down at her coach window. I, and how she said to little Agly and me, Master Recorder, men would have persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I think, so well did you reckon up to me the virtues of a sovereign, that I have more reason to be afraid of you. And then with what grace she took the fair rot purse, with the twenty gold sovereign's, seem it as though she would not willingly handle it, and yet taking it with all. I, I, said another. Her fingers closed on it, pretty willingly, me thought, when all was done. And me thought, too, she weighed them for a second in her hand, as she would say, I hope they be a voire de poire. 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 clipped coin. Well, there is a God above all, little Master Recorder, since that is the word. We'll be greater now than ever. Come, good neighbor, 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, be sure thy heart for the word, replied the handicraft. But she will give all to the Earl of Leicester anon, me thinks. You are turning ill, lady. Said Whelan Smith to the Countess of Leicester, and proposed that she should draw off in the road, and halt till she recovered. But subduing her feelings at this, and different speeches to the same purpose, which caught her ear as they passed on, she insisted that her guide should proceed to Kenneworth, with all the haste, which the numerous impediments of their journey permitted. Meanwhile, Whelan's anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition, and her obvious distraction of mine, was hourly increasing, and he became extremely desirous that, according to her reiterated request, she should be safely introduced into the castle. Where he doubted not, she was secure of a kind reception, though she seemed unwilling, to reveal on whom she reposed her hopes. And I were once rid of this peril, thought he, and if any man shall find me plain squire of the body to a damsel errand, he shall have leave to beat my brains out with my own sledgehammer. At length the princely castle appeared, upon improving which, and the domains around, the Earl of Lester had, in his son, expended sixty thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present money. The outer wall of the splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven anchors, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbors and parters, and the rest formed the large base court of outer yard of the noble castle. The lordly structure itself, which rose near the center of this spacious enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent, cast-related buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned. The emblems of mighty chiefs, who had long passed away, and whose history, could ambition, have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty favorite, 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, a fore 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 Ken Elf, from whom the castle had its name, a Saxon king of Mercia, and others to an early era of the Norman conquest, on the exterior walls frowned the scuncheon of the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I, and at the yet more redoubted Simon, New Montfort, by whom, during the Barrens wars, Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III. Here Mortimer, Earl of March, famous alike for his rise and his fall, had once gaily reveled in Kenilworth, where his dethroned sovereign, Edward II, languished in its dungeons. Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster, had widely extended the castle, erecting that noble and asapile, which yet bears the name, of Lancaster's buildings, and muster himself, had outdone the former possessors, princely and powerful as they were, by erecting another immense structure, which now lies, crushed under its own ruins, the monument of its owner's ambition. The external wall of this royal castle was, on the south and west sides, adorned and defended by a lake partly artificial, across which Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth might enter the castle by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of the usual entrance to the northward, over which he had erected a gatehouse or a 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, rows in every species of game, and a bounding 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 in hero's font, now in the bloody earnest of storm and siege, and now in the games of chivalry, where beauty dealt the prize which Balor 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 splendor once was, and to impress on the musing visitor the transitory value of human possessions, and the happiness of those who enjoy a humble lot in virtuous contentment. It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate countess of Lester viewed those gray and massive towers, when she first beheld them rise above the embaloring and richly shaded woods, over which they seemed to preside. She, the endoweded wife of the great Earl, of Elizabeth's minion, and England's mighty favourite, was approaching the presence of her husband, and that husband sovereign, under the protection, rather than the guidance of a poor juggler, and though unquestioned mistress of that proud castle, whose lightest word ought to have had force sufficient to make its gates leap from their massive hinges to receive her, yet she could not conceal from herself the difficulty and peril which she must experience in gaining admission into her own halls. The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment, and at length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further progress, at the great gate leading to a broad and fair road, which traversing the breadth of the chase for the space of two miles, and commanding several most beautiful views of the castle and lake, terminated at the newly constructed bridge, to which it was an appendage, and which was destined to form the Queen's approach to the castle on that memorable occasion. Here the Countess and Whelan found the gate at the end of this avenue, which opened on the Warwick Road, guarded by a body of the Queen's mounted yeoman of the guard, armed in coarselets, richly carved and gilded, and wearing morians instead of bonnets, having their caravans resting, with the buttoned 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 persuident, graced with the bear and ragged staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl of Lester, and preemptorly refused all admittance, accepting to such as were guests invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform some part in the mirthful exhibitions which were proposed. The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and persons of all kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance, to which the guards turned in inexorable ear, pleading in return to fair words and even to fair offers, the strictness of their orders, founded on the Queen's well-known dislike to the rude pressing of a multitude. With those whom such reasons did not serve, they dealt more rudely, repelling them without ceremony by the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses and good round blows from the stock of their carabines. These last maneuvers produced undulations amongst the crowd, which rendered Weyland much afraid that he might perforce be separated from his charge in the throng. Neither did he know what excuse to make in order to obtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his head with great uncertainty. When the earl's persuievent, having cast an eye upon him, exclaimed, to his no small surprise, Yeoman, make room for the fellow in the orange tawny cloak. Come forward, Sir Coxcomb, in Maycase, when the fiend's name has kept you waiting, come forward with your bale of woman's gear. While the persuievent gave Weyland this pressing yet uncurdy invitation, which for a minute or two he could not imagine was applied to him, the Yeoman 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 cautious fear and anxiety, that the crowd not greatly pleased at any rate with the preference bestowed upon them, accompanied their admission with hooting and a loud laugh of derision. Admitted thus within the chase, though with no very flattering notice or distinction, Weyland in his charge rode forward, musing what difficulties it would be next their lot to encounter, through the broad avenue, which was sentineled on either side by a long line of retainers, armed with swords and partisans richly dressed in the earl of Lester's liveries, and bearing his cognizance of the bear and ragged staff, each placed within three paces of each other, so as to line the whole road from the entrance into the park to the bridge. And indeed when the lady obtained the first commanding view of the castle, with its stately towers rising from within a long sweeping line of outward walls, ornamented with battlements and turrets, and platforms at every point of defense, with many abandoners streaming from its walls, and such a bustle of gay crests and waving plumes disposed on the terraces and battlements, and all the gay and gorgeous scene, her heart, and a custom to such splendor, sank as if it died within her, and for a moment she asked herself what she had offered up to Lester, to deserve to become the partner of this princely splendor. But her pride and generous spirit resisted the whisper which bade her despair. I have given him, she said, all that woman has to give, name and fame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificence at the altar, and England's queen could give him no more. He is my husband, and I am his wife, whom God have joined, man cannot send her. I will be bold in claiming my right, even the bolder that I come thus unexpected, and thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well. He will be something impatient at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley will forgive her. These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guide, Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by a pair of long, thin black arms, belonging to someone who had dropped himself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst the shouts of laughter which burst from the sentinels. This must be the devil or fliberty give it again, said Wayland, after a vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhors the urgent whom clung to him. Do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns? In sooth do they, Master Wayland, said his unexpected adjunct, and many others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, without my teaching you. How would you have passed the persuivant? 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 climbered up into the tree from the top of the wane, and I suppose they're all mad for want of me by this time. Naven, thou art a limb of the devil and 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 Lester approach for the first time the magnificent abode of her almost princely husband. End Chapter 25 Chapter 26 of Kenilworth This labor box recording is in the public domain. Kenilworth buys Sir Walter Scott. Chapter 26 Snug Have you the lion's part written? Pray if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. Quince, you may do it, extemporary, for it is nothing but roaring. Midsummer Night's Dream When the countess of Lester arrived at the outer gate of the castle of Kenilworth, she found the tower beneath which its ample portal arch opened, guarded in a singular manner. Upon the battlements were placed gigantic warders with clubs, battle axes, and other implements of ancient warfare designed to represent the soldiers of King Arthur, those primitive Britons by whom, according to romantic tradition, the castle had been first teneted, though history carried back its antiquity only to the times of the Heptarchy. Some of these tremendous figures were real men, dressed up with vizards and buskens. Others were mere pageants composed of pace board and bakram, which viewed from beneath and mingled with those that were real, formed a sufficiently striking representation of what was intended. But the gigantic porter who waited at the gate beneath and actually discharged the duties of water, owed none of his terrors to fictitious means. He was a man whose huge stature, Thu's, Senu's, and bulk, in proportion, would have enabled him to enact coal-brown, ascapart, or any other giant of romance, without raising himself nearer to heaven, even by the altitude of a chopin. The legs and knees of the son of Anak were bare, as were his arms from a span below the shoulder, but his feet were defiant with sandals, fastened with cross-straps of scarlet leather, studded with brazen knobs. A closed jerkin of scarlet velvet looped with gold, with short breeches of the same, covered his body and a part of his limbs, any more on his shoulders instead of a cloak, the skin of a black bear. The head of his formidable person was uncovered, except by his head, which descended on either side around features of that huge lumpish and heavy cast, which are often annexed to men of very uncommon size, and which, notwithstanding some distinguished exceptions, have created a general prejudice against giants, as being a dull and sullen kind of persons. This tremendous water was appropriately armed with a heavy clum spiked with steel. In fine he represented excellently one of those giants of popular romance, who figure in every fairy tale, or legend of night air and treat. The demeanor of this modern Titan, when Wayland Smith bent his attention to him, had in it something arguing much mental embarrassment and vexation. For sometimes he sat down for an instant on a massive stone bench, which seemed place for his accommodation beside the gateway. And then ever and on he started up, scratching his huge head and striding to and fro in his post, like one under a fit of impatience and anxiety. It was while the porter was pacing before the gate in this agitated manner, that Wayland, modestly, yet as a matter of course, not however without some mental misgiving, was about to pass him and enter the portal arch. The porter, however, stopped his horse, bidding him in a thundering voice, stand back, and enforcing his injunction by heaving up his steel-shot 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 clamor. Wayland, availing himself of Dickie's hints, began to state that he belonged to abandoned performers to which his presence was indispensable, that he had been accidentally detained behind, and much to the same purpose. But the porter was inexorable and kept muttering and murmuring something betwixt his teeth, which Wayland could make little of, and addressing betwixt wiles a refusal of admittance, couched in language that was but too intelligible. A specimen of his speech might run thus, how now, my masters, to himself, here's a stir, here's a coil, then to Wayland, you are a loitery nave and shall have no entrance. Again to himself, here's a throng, here's a thrusting, I shall never get through with it, here's a hum, ah, to Wayland, back from the gate or I'll break the pay to thee, once more to himself, here's a, no, I shall never get through it. Stand still, whispered, flippity-gibbit, into Wayland's ear, I know where the shoe pinches and will tame him in an instant. He dropped down from the horse and, skipping up to the porter, plucked him by the tail of the bearskin, so as to induce him to decline his huge head, and whispered something in his ear. Not at the command of the lord of some eastern talisman did ever Afrite change his horrid frown into a look soon submission, more suddenly, than the gigantic porter of Kenilworth relaxed the terrors of his looks, at the instant flippity-gibbit's whisper reached his ears. He flung his club upon the ground and caught up Dickie Sludge, raising him to such a distance from the earth, as might have proved perilous had he chance to let him slip. It is even so, he said, with a thundering sound of exaltation, it is even so my little dandier-pratt. But who the devil could teach at thee? Do not thou care about that, said flippity-gibbit, but he looked at Wailand and the lady and then sunk what he had to say in a whisper which needed not be a loud one, as the giant held him for his convenience close to his ear. The porter then gave Dickie a warm caress and set him on the ground with the same care which a careful housewife uses replacing a crack china cup upon her mantelpiece, calling out at the same time to Wailand and the lady, in with you, in with you, and take heed how you come too late another day when I chance to be porter. I, I, in with you, added flippity-gibbit, I must stay a short space with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of Gath here, but I will be with you anon and at the bottom of all your secrets, where they is deep and dark as the castle dungeon. I do believe thou wouldst, said Wailand, but I trust the secret will be soon out of my keeping, and then I shall care the less whether thou or anyone knows it. They now crossed the entrance tower which obtained the name of the gallery tower from the following circumstance, the whole bridge extending from the entrance to another tower on the opposite side of the lake called Mortimer's tower was so disposed as to make a spacious tilt yard about 130 yards in length and 10 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. The 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 scrunchion of the Earl of March whose daring ambition overthrew the throne of Edward II and aspired to share his power with the she-wolf of France to whom the unhappy monarch was wedded. The gate which opened under this ominous memorial was guarded by many warders in rich liveries but they offered no opposition to the entrance of the Countess and her guide who having passed by license of the principal porter at the gallery tower were not, it may be supposed, liable to interruption from his deputies. They entered accordingly in silence the great outward court of the castle having then full before them that vast and lordly pile with all its stately towers each gate open as if in sign of unlimited hospitality and the apartments filled with noble guests of every degree besides dependents, retainers domestics of every description and all the appendages and promoters of mirth and revelry. Amid this stately and busy scene Weyland halted his horse and looked upon the lady as if waiting her commands what was next to be done since they had safely reached the place of destination. As she remained silent, Weyland after waiting a minute or two ventured to ask her in direct terms what were her next commands. She raised her hand to her forehead as if in the act of collecting her thoughts and resolution while she answered him in a low and suppressed voice of one who speaks in a dream. Commands? I may indeed claim right to command but who is there will obey me. Then suddenly raising her head like one who has formed a decisive resolution she dressed a gaily dressed domestic who is crossing the court with importance and bustle in his countenance. Stop, sir, she said I desire to speak with the Earl of Lester With whom, and 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 best of bedlam is this would ask to see my lord on such a day as the present. Friend, said the Countess be not insolent by business with the Earl is most urgent. You must get someone else to do it were at Thrice's urgent, said the fellow I should summon my lord from the Queen's Royal Presence to do your business, should I? I would like to be thanked with a horse whip I marvel our old porter took not measure of such a wear 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 flurring wane which the serving man expressed himself and Weyland alarmed both for himself and the lady hastily addressed himself to one who appeared the most civil and thrusting a piece of money in his hand held a moment's counsel with him on the subject of finding a place of temporary retreat for the lady. The person to whom he spoke being one in some authority rebuked the others for their incivility and commanding the fellow to take care of the strangers' horses. He desired them to follow him. The Countess retained presence of mind sufficient to see that it was absolutely necessary she should comply with his request and leaving the rude lackeys and grooms to crack their brutal justs about light heads, light heels and so forth. Weyland and she followed in silence the deputy usher who undertook to be their conductor. They entered the inner court of the castle by the Great Gateway which extended betwixt the principal keep or dongeon called Caesar's Tower and a stately building which passed by the name of King Henry's lodging and were thus placed in the center of the noble pile which presented on its different fronts magnificent specimens of every species of castellated architecture from the conquest to the reign of Elizabeth with the appropriate style and ornaments of each. Across this inner court also they were conducted by their guide to a small but strong tower occupying the northeast angle of the building adjacent to the Great Hall and filling up a space betwixt the immense range of kitchens and the end of the Great Hall itself. The lower part of this tower was occupied by some of the household officers of Lester convenient vicinity to the places where their duty lay but in the upper story which was reached by an arrow winding stair was a small octangular chamber which in the Great Demand for lodgings had been on the present occasion fitted up for the reception of guests though generally said to have been used as a place of confinement for some unhappy person who had been there murdered. Tradition called this prisoner Mervyn and transferred his name to the tower that it had been used as a prison was not improbable for the floor of each story was arched the walls of tremendous thickness while the space of the chamber did not exceed 15 feet in diameter. The window however was pleasant though narrow and commanded a delightful view of what was called the pleasant a space of ground and closed and decorated with arches trophies, statues fountains and other architectural monuments which formed one access from the castle itself into the garden. There was a bed in the apartment and other preparations for the reception of a guest to which the countess paid but slight attention. Her notice being instantly arrested by the side of writing materials was not very common to be found in the bedrooms of those days which instantly suggested the idea of writing to Lester and remaining private until she had received his answer. The deputy usher having introduced them into this Commodi's apartment curiously asked Wayland whose generosity he had experienced whether he could do anything further for his service upon receiving a gentle hint of some refreshment would not be unacceptable. He presently conveyed the smith to the buttery hatch where dressed provisions of all sorts were distributed with hospitable profusion to all who asked for them. Wayland was readily supplied with some light provisions such as he thought would best suit the faded appetite of the lady and did not omit the opportunity of himself making a hasty prayer. He then returned to the apartment in the turret where he found the Countess who had finished her letter to Lester and in lieu of a seal and silk and thread had secured it with a braid of her own beautiful tresses fastened by what is called a true love knot. A good friend said to Wayland whom God had sent to aid me at my utmost need I do beseech thee for an unfortunate lady to deliver this letter to the noble earl of Lester be it received as it may she said with features agitated betwixt hope and fear thou good fellow shalt have no more cumber with me but I hope the best and if ever lady made a poor man rich thou has surely deserved it at my hand should my happy days ever come round again. Give it I pray you to Lord Lester's own hand and mark how he looks on receiving it. Wayland on his part readily undertook the commission but anxiously prayed the lady in his turn to partake of some refreshment in which he at length prevailed more through importunity and her desire to see him be gone on his errand than for many inclination the Countess felt to comply with his request. He then left her advising her to lock her door on the inside and not to stir from her little apartment and went to seek an opportunity of discharging her errand as well as of carrying into effect a purpose of his own which circumstances had induced him to form. In fact from the conduct of the lady during the journey her long fits of profound silence the irresolution and uncertainty which seemed to pervade all her movements and the obvious incapacity of thinking and acting for herself under which she seemed to labor. Wayland had formed the not improbable opinion that the difficulties of her situation had in some degree affected her understanding. When she had escaped from this occlusion of come her place and the dangers to which she was there exposed it would have seemed her most rational course to retire to her fathers 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 Trisilian and to appeal to the protection of the queen. But now instead of following this natural course she entrusted him with a letter to Lester the patron of Barney and within whose jurisdiction at least if not under his express authority all the evil 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 by delivering the letter to Lester that he would seek out Trisilian and communicate to him the arrival of the lady at Kenilworth and thus at once rid himself of all further responsibility and of all of the task of guiding and protecting this unfortunate lady upon the patron who had at first employed him in her service. He will be a better judge than I am said Wayland whether she is to be gratified in this humor of appeal to Lester, 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 girdon and then show the castle of Kenilworth a pair of light hails for after the work I've been engaged in it will be I fear neither a safe nor wholesome place of residence and I would rather shoe colds and the coldest calm in England than share in their gayest revels End Chapter 26 Chapter 27 of Kenilworth This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott Chapter 27 In my time I have seen a boy do wonders Robin the red tinker had a boy would have run through a cat hole the cocks come Amid the universal bustle which filled the castle and its environs it was no easy matter to find out any individual and Wainlin was still less likely to light upon Tressillion whom he sought so anxiously because sensible of the danger of attracting attention in the circumstances in which he was placed he dare not make general inquiries among the retainers or domestics of Lester He learned however by indirect questions that in all probability Tressillion 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 Lester had received them with marks of the most formal respect and distinction he further learned that both urls with their followers and many other nobles, knights and gentlemen had taken horse and gone towards Warwick several hours since for the purpose of escorting the queen to Kenilworth Her Majesty's arrival like other great events was delayed from hour to hour and it was now announced by a breathless post that Her Majesty being detained by her gracious desire to receive the homage of her lesions who had thronged a weight upon her at Warwick it would be the hour of twilight ere she entered the castle The intelligence released for a time those who were upon duty in the immediate expectation of the queen's appearance and ready to play their part in the solemnities with which it was to be accompanied and Weyland, seeing several horsemen enter the castle was not without hopes that Tressylian might be of the number that he might not lose an opportunity of meeting his patron in the event of this being the case Weyland placed himself in the base court of the castle near Mortimer's tower on the edge the extremity of which was protected by that building thus stationed nobody could enter or leave the castle without his observation and most anxiously did he study the garb and countenance of every horseman as passing from under the opposite galley tower they paced slowly or crevetted along the tilt yard and approached the entrance of the base court but while Weyland gazed thus eagerly at 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 Flippity Gibbet who, like the imp whose name he bore and whom he had been a cotured in order to resemble seemed to be ever at the ear of those who thought least of him whatever were Weyland's internal feelings he judged it necessary to express pleasure at their unexpected meeting ah, is it thou, my minnequin my millerslam my prince of cock-o-demons my little mouse I, said Dickie the mouse which gnawed asunder the toils just when the lion who was caught in them began to look wonderfully like an ass thy, that little hop the gutter thou art as sharp as vinegar this afternoon but tell me how did thou come off with yonder jolter-headed giant whom I left thee with I was afraid he would have stripped thy clothes and so swallowed thee as men peal and eat a roasted chestnut had he done so replied the boy he would have had more brains than his guts than ever he had in his noodle but the giant is a courteous monster and more grateful than many other folk whom I have helped at a pinch master Weyland Smith the shroomy Flippity Gibbet replied Weyland but thou art sharper than a sheffield whittle I would I knew by what charm you muscled yonder old bear I, that is in your own manner answered Dickie you think fine speeches will pass muster instead of goodwill however as to this honest porter you must know that when we presented ourselves at the gate yonder his brain was overburdened with the speech that had been penned for him and which proved rather an overmatch for his gigantic faculties now the same pithy oration had been indicted like sundry others by my learned magister Erasmus Holliday so I had heard it often enough to remember every line as soon as I heard him blundering and floundering like a fish upon dry land through the first verse and perceived him at a stand I knew where the shoe pinched and I 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 mission to hide me under his bearish gabardine and prompt him in the hour of need I've 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 whelan hasty for heaven's sake else the poor giant will be utterly disconsolate for want of his dwarfish auxiliary away with thee Dickie I I answered the boy away with thee Dickie 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 whelan oh stand ye on these terms said the boy well I care not greatly about the matter only I never smell under secret but I try to be either at the right or the wrong end of it and so good evening to ye nay but Dickie said whelan 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 I said Dickie and that day may prove an eye one fare thee well whelan I will to my large limb friend who if ye have not so sharp a wit as some folk grateful for the service which other folk render him and so again good evening to ye so saying he cast a summer set through the gateway and lighting on the bridge ran with the extraordinary agility which was one of his distinguishing attributes towards the gallery tower and was out of sight in an instant I went to God I were safe out of this castle again prayed whelan internally for now that this mischievous imp has put his finger in the pie it cannot but prove a mess fit for the devil's eating I would to heaven master Treselyan would appear Treselyan whom he was thus anxiously expecting in one direction had returned to Kenilworth by another access it was indeed true as whelan had conjectured that in the earlier part of the day he had accompanied the urls on their cavalcade towards warwick without hope that he might in that town hear some tidings of his emissary being disappointed in this expectation and observing Barney amongst Lester's attendants seeming as if he had some purpose of advancing to and addressing him he conceived in the present circumstances it was wisest to avoid the interview he therefore left the present chamber when the high sheriff of the county was in the very midst of his beautiful address to her majesty and mountainous horse rode back to Kenilworth by a remote and circuitous road and entered the castle by a small salve important the western wall at which he was readily admitted as one of the followers of the Earl of Sussex towards whom Lester had commanded the utmost courtesy to be exercised it was thus that he met not whaland 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 space in the presence 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 Lester had there assembled the greater part of the persons of condition had left the castle for the present and formed part of the Earl's cavalcade others who remained behind were on the battlements outer walls and towers eager to view the splendid spectacle of the royal entry the garden therefore while every other part of the castle resounded with a human voice was silent but for the whispering of the leaves the emulus warbling of the tenants of a large aviary with their happier companions with the denizens of the free air and the plashing of the fountains which forced into the air from sculptures of fantastic and protest forms fell down with ceaseless sound into the great basins of Italian marble the melancholy thoughts of Tresillian cast a gloomy shade on all the objects with which he was surrounded he compared the magnificent scenes which he here traversed with the deep woodland and wild moorland which surrounded Lidcote Hall and the image of Amy Robesart glided like a phantom through every landscape which his imagination summoned up nothing is perhaps more dangerous to the future happiness of men of deep thought and retired habits than the entertaining and early long and unfortunate attachment it frequently sinks so deep into the mind that it becomes their dream by night and their vision by day mixes itself with every source of interest and enjoyment and when blighted and withered by final disappointment it seems as if the springs of the heart were dried up along with it the shaking of the heart this languishing after a shadow which has lost all the gaiety of its coloring this dwelling on the remembrance of a dream from which he had been long roughly awakened is the weakness of a gentle and generous heart and it was that of Tarsillion he himself at length became sensible of the necessity of forcing other objects upon his mind and for this purpose he left the pleasant in order to mingle with the noisy crowd upon the walls and view the preparation for the pageants but as he left the garden and heard the busy hum mixed with music and laughter which floated around him he felt an uncontrollable reluctance to mix with society whose feelings were in a tone so different from his own and resolved instead of doing so to retire to the chamber assigned him and employ himself in study until the tolling of the great castle bell should announce the arrival of the Elizabeth Tristlin crossed accordingly by the passage betwixt the immense range of kitchens and the great hall attended to the third story of Mervyn's tower and applying himself to the door of the small apartment which had been allotted to him was surprised to find it was locked he then recollected that the deputy Chamberlain had given him a master key advising him in the present confused state of the castle to keep his door as much shut as possible he applied this key to the lock the bolt revolved he entered and in the same instant saw a female form seated in the apartment and recognized the form to be Amy Robesart his first idea was that a heated imagination had raised the image on which it doded into visible existence his second that he beheld an apparition the third and abiding conviction that it was Amy herself paler indeed than thinner than in the days of heedless happiness when she possessed the form and hue of a wooden imp with the beauty of a silk but still Amy unequaled in loveliness by aught which had ever visited his eyes the astonishment of the Countess was scarce less than that of Trissilian although it was of shorter duration because she had heard from Wailyn 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 flush Trissilian she said at length why come you here nay, why come you here Amy return Trissilian unless it be at length to claim that aid which as far as one man's heart and arm can extend shall instantly be rendered to you she was silent a moment and then answered in a sorrowful rather than an angry tone I require no aid Trissilian 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 obliged to protect me the villain then hath done you the poor justice which remained in his power said Trissilian and I behold before me the wife of Varney the wife of Varney she replied with all the emphasis of scorn with what base name sir does your boldness stigmatize the she hesitated dropped her tone of scorn looked down and was confused and silent for she recollected what fatal consequences might attend her completing the sentence with the countess of Lester which were the words that had naturally suggested themselves it would have been a betrayal of the secret on which her husband assured her that his fortunes depended to Trissilian to Sussex to the queen and to the whole assembled court never she thought will I break my promise silence I will submit to every suspicion rather than that the tears rose to her eyes as she stood silent before Trissilian while looking on her with mingled grief and pity he said alas Amy your eyes contradict your tongue that speaks of a protector willing and able to watch over you but these tell me you are ruined and deserted by the wretch to whom you have attached yourself she looked on him with eyes in which anger sparkled through her tears but only repeated the word wretch with a scornful emphasis yes wretch said Trissilian for were he ought better you here and alone in my apartment why was not fitting provision made for your honorable reception in your apartment repeated Amy in your apartment it shall instantly be relieved of my presence she hastened towards the door but the sad recollection of her deserted state at once pressed on her mind and pausing on the threshold she added in a tone ununderably pathetic alas I had forgot I know not where to go I see I see it all said Trissilian 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 a representative of your excellent and brokenhearted father on the very threshold of the castle gate you shall meet Elizabeth and the first deed she shall do in the halls of Kenilworth shall be an act of justice to her sex and her subjects strong in my good cause and in the queen's justice the power of her minion shall not shake my resolution I will instantly seek Sussex not for all that is under heaven said the Countess much alarmed and feeling the absolute necessity of attaining time at least for consideration Trissilian you were want 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 Trissilian but demand not of me oh limit not your boon exclaim the Countess you once loved that I should call you so limit not your boon to reason for my case is all madness and frenzy must guide the councils which alone can aid me if you speak thus wildly said Trissilian astonishment again overpowering both his grief and his resolution I must believe you indeed incapable of thinking or acting for yourself oh no she is blamed for 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 Trissilian by yours whom I have honored respected all but loved and yet loved to love too Trissilian though not as you wish to be there was an energy a self-possession an abandonment in her voice and manner a total resignation of herself to his generosity which together with the kindness of her expressions to himself moved him deeply he raised her and in broken accents entreated her to be comforted I cannot she said I will not be comforted till you grant me my request I will speak as plainly as I dare I am now awaiting the commands of one who has a right to issue them the interference of the third person of you and a special Trissilian will be ruined utter ruin to me wait but four and twenty hours and it may be that the poor Amy may have the means to show that she values and can reward your disinterested friendship that she is happy herself and has the means to make you so it is surely worth your patience for so short a space Trissilian paused and weighing in his mind the various probabilities which might render a violent interference on his part more prejudicial than advantageous both to the happiness and reputation of Amy considering also that she was within the walls of Kenilworth and could suffer no injury in a castle honored 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 actually whether Amy's hopes of extricating herself from her difficulties rested on anything stronger than a blinded attachment to Varney whom he supposed to be her seducer Amy he said sad and express of 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 the girlish and willful there lay under that external semblance of youthful and self-willed folly deep-filling and strong sense in this I will confide trusting your own fate in your own hands for the space of 24 hours without my interference by word or act do you promise me this Tresselian, said the Countess is it possible you can yet repose so much confidence in me do you promise as you are a gentleman and a man of honour to intrude in my manners neither by speech nor action whatever you may see or hear that seems to you to demand your interference will you so far trust me I will upon my honour said Tresselian but when that space is expired then that space is expired she said, interrupting him you are free to act as your judgment shall determine is there not besides which I can do for you Amy said Tresselian nothing said she save to leave me that is if I blushed to acknowledge my helplessness by asking it if you can't spare me your apartment for the next 24 hours this is most wonderful said Tresselian what hope or interest can you have in a castle where you cannot command even an apartment argue not but leave me she said and added as he slowly and unwillingly retired generous Edmund the time may come when Amy may show she deserved thy noble attachment End Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of Kennelworth this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Kennelworth by Sir Walter Scott Chapter 28 what man, near lack a draft 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 a virtue not to boast of I'm a striker would have the world strike with me pal mel all pandemonium Tresselian in strange agitation of mine had hardly stepped down the first two or three steps of the winding staircase when greatly to a surprise and displeasure he met Michael Lamborn wearing an impudent familiarity of visage for which Tresselian felt much disposed to throw him down stairs until he remembered the prejudice which Amy the only object of his solicitude was likely to receive from his engaging in any act of violence at that time and in that place he therefore contented himself with looking sternly upon Lamborn as upon one whom he deemed unworthy of notice and attempted to pass him in his way downstairs without any symptom of recognition but Lamborn 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 humor of humbling himself before any man's looks he stalked Tresselian upon the staircase without the least bashfulness or embarrassment and addressed him as if he had been unkind in intimate terms what no grudge between us I hope upon old scores master Tresselian nay I am one who remembers former kindness rather than latter feud I'll convince you that I mean honestly and kindly I am comfortably by you I desire none of your intimacy Tresselian keep company with your mates now see how hasty he is said Lamborn and how these gentles that are made questionless out of the porcelain clay of the earth look down upon poor Michael Lamborn take master Tresselian now for the most made like, modest, simple and squire of dames that ever made love when candles were long in the stuff snuff call you it why you would play the saint on us master Tresselian and forget that even now thou hast a commodity in thy very bed chamber to the shame of my lord's castle ha ha have I touched you master Tresselian I know not what you mean said Tresselian inferring, however, too surely that this licentious ruffian must have been sensible of Amy's presence in his apartment but if, he continued thou art barlet of the chambers and lackest of fee, there is one to leave mine unmolested Lamborn 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 while that pays with gold and my clamborn was never a make-bait or a spoil-sport or the like even 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 Tresselian you may look sweet on me at least and were I to want a little backing or countenance being caught as you see the best of us may be in a sort of picadillo why you owe it me and so even make your chamber serve you and that same bird and bower beside it's all one to my clamborn make way sir said Tresselian unable to bridle his indignation you have had your fee hmm said Lamborn giving place however while he sulkily muttered between his teeth repeating Tresselian's words make way and you have had your fee but it matters not I will spoil no sport as I said before I'm no dog in the manger mind that he spoke louder and louder as Tresselian by whom he felt himself over odd godfather and father out of hearing I'm no dog in the manger but I will not carry coals neither mind that master Tresselian whom you have quartered so commodiously in your old haunted room afraid of ghosts be like and not too willing to sleep alone if I had done this now in a strange lords castle the word had been the porter's lodge for the nave and have him flogged trundling downstairs like a turnip I but your virtuous gentlemen take strange privileges over us who are downright servants of our senses well I have my master Tresselian's head under my belt by this lucky discovery that is one thing certain and I will try to get a side of this lindaportese of his that is another End Chapter 28