 7. This is he who rides on the court gale, controls its tides, knows all their secret shoals and fatal eddies, whose frown abasos and whose smile exalts. He shines like any rainbow, and perchance, his colors are as transient. OLD PLAY There was some little displeasure and confusion on the Countess's brow, owing to her struggle with Varney's pertinacity. But it was exchanged for an expression of the purest joy and affection as she threw herself into the arms of the noble stranger, who entered, and clasped in 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 her to remain. She took her place at the farther end of the apartment and continued standing, as if ready for attendance. Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned to his lady's caress with the most affectionate ardor, 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 Mencalve, 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 and a velvet scabbard. But so cannot men say of thee thou noble Earl, said his lady, as the cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as princes when they ride abroad. Thou art the good and well-tried steel, whose inly worth deserves, yet disdains its outward ornaments. Do not think Amy can love thee better in this glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart to him, who wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon. And now too, said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically, he led his beautiful countess towards the chair of state, which was prepared for them both. Thou too, my love, hast on to dress which becomes thy rank, though it cannot improve thy beauty. What thinkest thou of our court taste? The lady cast a side-long 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. I, 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 splendor, and learn for the first time how princes are attired. And with the childish wonder which her youth and rustic education rendered not only excusable but the coming, mixed as it was with a delicate show of the most tender, conjugal affection, she examined and admired from head to foot the noble form in princely attire of him who formed the proudest ornament of the court of England's maiden queen, renowned as it was for splendid courtiers as well as for wise counselors. Regarding affectionately his lovely bride, and gratified by her unrepressed admiration, the dark eye and noble features of the Earl expressed passions more gentle than the commanding and aspiring look which usually sat upon his broad forehead, and in the piercing brilliancy of his dark eye. And he smiled at the simplicity which dictated the questions she put to him concerning the various ornaments with which he was decorated. The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee, he said, is the English garter, an ornament which kings are proud to wear. See, here is the star which belongs to it, and here the diamond George, the jewel of the order. You have heard how King Edward and the countess of Salisbury. Oh, I know all that tale, said the countess, slightly blushing. And how a lady's garter became the proudest badge of English chivalry. Even so, said the Earl, and this most honorable 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 foreign rank, but what then? He that climbs the ladder must begin at the first round. But this other fair collar so richly wrought with some jewel like a sheep hung by the mill attached to it. What, said the young countess, does that emblem signify? This collar, said the Earl, with its double fusels interchanged with these knobs, which are supposed to present Flintstone sparkly with fire, and sustaining the jewel you inquire about, is the badge of the noble order of the Golden Fleece. Once appertaining to the House of Burgundy, it hath high privileges, Miami, belonging to it, this most noble order. For even the King of Spain himself, who hath now succeeded to the honors and domains of Burgundy, may not sit in judgment upon a night of the Golden Fleece, unless by assistance and consent of the great chapter of the order. And is this an order belonging to the cruel King of Spain? said the Countess. Alas, my noble lord, that you will defile your noble English breast by bearing such an emblem. But think you of the most unhappy Queen Mary's days when this same Philip held sway with her in England, and of the piles which were built for our noblest and our wisest, and our most truly sanctified prelates and divines. And will you, whom men call the standard bearer of the true Protestant faith, be contented to wear the emblem and mark of such a romish tyrant as he of Spain? Oh, content you, my love, answered the Earl. We who spread our sales to gales of court favor cannot always display the insigns we love the best, or at all times refuse sailing under colors which we like not. Believe me, I'm not the less good Protestant, that for policy I must accept the honor offered me by Spain, in admitting me to this his highest order of knighthood. Besides, it belongs properly to Flanders, and Egmont, Orange, and others have pride in seeing it displayed on an English bosom. Nay, my lord, you know your own path best, replied the Countess, and this other caller, 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 Scotland. It was bestowed on me when it was thought the young widow of France and Scotland would gladly have wedded an English baron. But a free coronet of England is worth a crown matrimonial, held at the humour of a woman, and owing only the poor rocks and bogs of the north. The Countess paused as if what the Earl last said had excited some painful but interesting train of thought. And as she still remained silent, her husband proceeded. And now, loveliest, your wish is gratified, and you have seen your vassal in such of his trim array as a course with riding vestments. For robes of state and coronets are only for princely halls. Well then, said the Countess, my gratified wish has, as usual, given rise to a new one. And what is it thou canst ask that I can deny? said the fond husband. I wish to see my Earl visit this obscure and secret bower. Said the Countess, in all his princely array. And now, me thinks I long to sit in one of his princely halls and see him enterdressed in sober russet, as when he won poor Amy Robesart's heart. That is a wish easily granted, said the Earl. The sober russet shall be done tomorrow, if you will. But shall I, said the lady, go with you to one of your castles, to see how the richness of your dwelling will correspond with your peasant habit? Why, Amy, said the Earl, looking round. Are not these apartments decorated with sufficient splendor? I gave the most unbounded order, and, me thinks, it has been indifferently well obeyed. But if thou canst tell me ought which remains to be done, I will instantly give direction. Name, my lord. Now you mock me, replied the Countess. The gait of this rich lodging exceeds my imagination, as much as it does my dessert. 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, 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 labour's estate, and cares and toils of ambition, to spend my life in dignity and honour on my own broad domains with thee, my lovely Amy, for my friend and companion. But Amy, this cannot yet be, and these dear but stolen interviews are all I can give to the loveliest and the best beloved of her sex. But why can it not be, urged the Countess, in the softest tones of persuasion? Why can it not immediately take place this more perfect, this uninterrupted union for which you say you wish, and which the laws of God and man alike command? Ah, did you but desire it half as much as you say, mighty and favourite as you are. Who or what should bar you or attain in your wish? The Earl's brow was overcast. Amy, he said, you speak of what you understand not. We that toil in courts are like those who climb a mountain of loose sand. We dare make no halt, until some projecting rock affords us a secure footing and resting place. If we pause sooner, we slide down by our own weight, an object of universal division. I stand high, but I stand not secure enough to follow my own inclination. To declare my marriage were to be the artificer of my own ruin. But believe me, I will reach a point, and that speedily, when I can do justice to thee and to myself. Meantime, poison not the bliss of the present moment, by desiring that which cannot at present be. Let me rather know whether all here is managed to thy liking. How disfoster bear himself to you. In all things respectful I trust, else the fellow shall dearly ruin. He reminds me sometimes of the necessity of this privacy. Answer the lady with a sigh. But that is reminded me of your wishes, and therefore I am rather bound to him than disposed to blame him for it. I have told you the stern necessity which is upon us, replied the Earl. Foster is, I note, somewhat solvent of mood. But Varni mourns to me his fidelity and devotion to my service. If thou hast not, however, to complain of, the mode in which he discharges his duty, he shall abide it. Oh, I have not to complain of, answered the lady. So he discharges his task with fidelity to you, and his daughter Janin is the kindest and best companion of my solitude. Her little error of precision sits so well upon her. Is she indeed, said the Earl, she who gives you pleasure must not pass unrewarded. Come hither, damsel. Janet, said the lady, come hither to my lord. Janet, who, as we already noticed, had discreetly retired to some distance, that her presence might be no check upon the private conversation of her lord and lady, now came forward. And as she made her reverential curtsy, the Earl could not help smiling at the contrast, which the extreme simplicity of her dress and the prim demuriness of her looks, made with a very pretty countenance and a pair of black eyes, that laughed in spite of their mistress's desire to look grave. I am bound to you, pretty damsel, said the Earl, for the contentment which your service hath given to this lady. As he said this, he took from his finger a ring of some price and offered it to Janet Foster, adding, wear this for her sake and for mine. I am well pleased, my lord, answered Janet demurely, that my poor servant hath gratified my lady, whom no one can draw nigh to without desiring to please. But we of the precious Master Hold Forth's congregation seek not, like the gay daughters of this world, to twine gold around our fingers, or wear stones upon our necks, like the vain women of Tyre and of Sidon. Oh, what! You are a great professor of the precise sisterhood, pretty Mistress Janet, said the Earl, and I think your father's of the same congregation in sincerity. I like you both the better for it, for I've been prayed for and wished well to in your congregations. And you may the better afford the lack of ornament, Mistress Janet, because your fingers are slender, and your neck white. But here is what neither a papus nor a puritan, latitudeinarian, nor a persisian, ever boggles or makes mouths at. Even take it, my girl, and employ it as you list. So saying, he put into her hand five broad gold pieces of Philip and Mary. I would not accept this gold, either, said Janet, but that I hope to find a use for it, which will bring a blessing on us all. Even please thyself, pretty Janet, said the Earl, and I shall be well satisfied. And I, prithee, let them hasten the evening collation. I have been in Master Barney and Master Foster to stop 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. Reflight her husband, and I am the better please thou hast done them this grace. Because Richard Barney is my sworn man, and a close brother of my secret counsel. And for the present, I must knees 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 tomorrow, my love, replied the Earl. I see they opened the folding doors into the baked greening parlor, and as I have ridden far and fast, a cup of wine will not be unacceptable. So saying, he led his lovely wife into the next apartment, where Barney and Foster received them with the deepest reverences, which the first paid after the fashion of the court, and the second after that of the congregation. The Earl returned their salutation, with the negligent curtsy of one long use to such homage, while the Countess repaid it with the punctilious solicitude which showed it was not quite so familiar to her. The banquet at which the company seated themselves, corresponded in magnificence with the splendor of the apartment in which it was served up. But no domestic gave his attendance. Janet alone stood ready to wait upon the company, and indeed the board was so well supplied with all that could be desired, that little or no assistance was necessary. The Earl and his lady occupied the upper end of the table, and Barney and Foster sat beneath the salt, as was the custom with inferiors. The latter, over-odd perhaps by society, to which he was altogether unused, did not utter a single syllable during the repast. While Barney, with great tact and discernment, sustained just so much of the conversation, as without the appearance of intrusion on his part, prevented it from languishing, and maintained the good humor of the Earl at the highest pinch. This man was indeed highly qualified by nature to discharge the part in which he found himself placed, being discreet and cautious on the one hand, and on the other, quick, keen-witted and imaginative, so that even the Countess, prejudiced as she was against him on many accounts, felt and enjoyed his powers of conversation, and was more disposed than she had ever hitherto found herself to join in the praises which the Earl lavished on his favorite. The hour of rest at length arrived. The Earl and Countess retired to their apartment, and all was silent in the castle for the rest of the night. Early on the ensuing morning, Barney acted as the Earl's chamberlain, as well as his master of horse, though the latter was his proper office in that magnificent household, where knights and gentlemen of good descent were well contented to hold such menial situations, as nobles themselves held in that of the sovereign. The duties of each of these charges were familiar to Barney, who sprung from an ancient but somewhat decayed family, was the Earl's page during his earlier and more obscure fortunes, and faithful to him in adversity, had afterwards contrived to render himself no less useful to him in his rapid and splendid advance to fortune. Thus establishing in him an interest resting both on present and past services, which rendered him an almost indispensable share of his confidence. Help me to do on a plainer riding suit, Barney, said the Earl, as he laid aside his morning gown, floured 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, while nigh, broke with the weight of them. I am half of the mind that they shall gall me, no more. There are bonds which knaves have invented to fetter fools. How thinkest thou, Barney? Faith, my good Lord, said his attendant, I think fetters of gold are like no other fetters. They are ever the weightier, the welcomeer. For all that, Barney, replied his master, I am well nigh resolved, they shall buy me to the court no longer. What can further service and higher favour give me, beyond the high rank and large estate which I have already secured? What brought my father to the block, but that he could not bound his wishes within right and reason? I have, you know, had mine own ventures and mine own escapes. I am well nigh resolved to tempt the sea no further, but sit me down and quiet on the shore. And gather cockleshells, with Dan Cupid to aid you, said Barney. How mean you by that, Barney, said the Earl, somewhat hastily. Nay, my Lord, said Barney, be not angry with me, if your lordship is happy and a lady so rarely lovely that, in order to enjoy her company with somewhat more freedom, you are willing to part with all you have hitherto lived for. Some of your poor servants may be sufferers. But your bounty hath placed me so high that I shall ever have enough to maintain a poor gentleman in the rank befitting the high office he has held in your lordship's family. You seem discontented when I propose throwing up a dangerous game which may end in the ruin of both of us. Hi, my Lord, said Barney. Surely I have no cause to regret your lordship's retreat. It will not be Richard Barney 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 frostwork. I would only have you yourself to be assured, my Lord, ere you take a step which cannot be retracted, that you consult your fame and happiness in the course you propose. Speak on, then, Barney, said the Earl. I tell thee I have determined nothing and will weigh all considerations on either side. Well, then, my Lord, replied Barney, we will suppose the step taken, the frown frowned, the laugh laughed, and the moan moaned. You have retired, we will say, to some one of your most distant castles, so far from court that you hear neither the sorrow of your friends nor the glee of your enemies. We will suppose, too, that your successful rival will be satisfied, a thing greatly to be doubted, with a bridgene 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 staff and controlled her parliaments, is now a rural baron, hunting, hawking, drinking fat ale with country squires, and mustering his men at the command of the High Sheriff. Barney, forbear, said the Earl. Named, 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 open to ambition more splendid than ambition ever dreamed of. You hear all this as you sit by the hob under the shade of your hall chimney. You then begin to think what hopes you have fallen from, and what insignificance you have embraced, and all that you might look, may be in the eye of your fair wife oftener than once a fortnight. I say, Barney, 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. Mere witness to me, Barney, 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 port mantle. Thou shalt be master of the day, Barney. 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 would want yet more dear to me. But the patriot must subdue the husband. Having said this in a melancholy but firm accent, he left the dressing apartment. I am glad thou art gone, thought Barney, or practice as I am in the follies of mankind. I had laughed in the very face of thee. Thou mayest tire as thou wilt of thy new bobble, thy pretty piece of painted eaves flesh there. I will not be thy hindrance. But of thine old bobble, ambition, thou shalt not tire. For as you climb the hill, my lord, you must drag Richard Barney up with you, and if he can urge you to the ascent he means to profit by, believe me, he will spare neither whip nor spur. And for you, my pretty lady, that would be countess outright, you were best not thwart my courses, lest you are called to an old reckoning on a new score. Thou shalt be master, did he say? By my faith he may find that he spoke truer than he is aware of. And thus he who, in the estimation of so many wise judging men, can match Burley and Walsingham in policy, and Sussex in war, becomes pupil to his own menial, and offer a hazel eye and a little cunning red and white, and so falls ambition. And yet, if the charms of mortal women could excuse a man's politic fate for becoming bewildered, my lord had the excuse at his right hand on this blessed evening that has last passed over us. Well, let things roll as they may, he shall make me great, or I will make myself happy. And for that softer piece of creation, if she speak not, out her interview with Dresselion, 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. While my lord, I order your retinue now. The time may soon come that my master of the horse shall order mine own. What was Thomas Cromwell but a smith son? And he died my lord on a scaffold doubtless, but that too was in character. And what was Ralph Sadler but the clerk of Cromwell? And he is gazed 18 fair lordships. Thea, I know my steerage as well as they. So sane he left the apartment. In the meanwhile, the Earl had re-entered the bench chamber, bent on taking a hasty farewell of the lovely Countess, and scarce daring to trust himself in private with her. To her request 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, sighmar of silk lined with furs, her little feet unstocking, then hastily thrust into slippers, her unbraided hair escaping from under her midnight quaff with little array but her own loveliness, rather augmented than diminished by the grief which he felt at the approaching moment of separation. Now God be with thee, my dearest and loveliest, said the Earl, scarce tearing himself from her embrace, yet again returning to fold her again and again in his arms, and again bidding farewell and again returning to kiss and bid adieu once more. The sun is on the verge of the blue horizon. I dare not stay. Here this I should have been ten miles from hence. Such were the words with which at length he strove to cut short their parting interview. You will not grant my request then, said the Countess. Ah, false knight, did ever lady with bare foot in slipper seek boon of a brave knight, yet return with denial. Anything, Amy, anything thou canst ask, I will grant, answered the Earl, always accepting, he said, that which might ruin us both. Nay, said the Countess, I urge not my wish to be acknowledged in the character which would make me the envy of England. As the wife that is of my brave and noble Lord, the first is the most fondly beloved of the 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's ill, the good old kind-hearted man. They say, asked the Earl hastily, who says, did not Barney 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 favorite and wanted exercise? Who is 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 fame be assured by my own eyesight that my father as well. Be contented, Amy, thou canst not now have communication with thy father or his house. Were it not a deep course of policy to commit no secret unnecessarily, to the custody more than must needs be, a worse efficient reason for secrecy that yonder Cornish man, yonder Trebonian or Tresilian or whatever his name is, haunts the old knight's house and must necessarily know whatever is communicated there. My Lord, answer the Countess, I do not think it so. My father's been long noted a worthy and honorable man, and for Tresilian, 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 honor, I will not trust him. I would rather the falfene intermingle in our secret than this Tresilian. And why, my Lord, said the Countess, though she shuddered slightly at the tone of determination in which he spoke, let me but know why you think thus hardly of Tresilian. Madam, replied Thurl, my will ought to be sufficient reason. If you desire more, consider how this Tresilian is leaned and with whom. He stands high in the opinion of this rag-glyph, the Sussex, against whom I am barely able to maintain my ground in the opinion of our suspicious mistress. If he had had me at such advantage, Amy, as to become acquainted with the tale of our marriage, before Elizabeth were fitly prepared, I would not cast from her grace forever a bankrupt, at once in favor, and in fortune, perhaps, for she hathen her a touch of her father Henry, a victim, and it may be a bloody one, to her effented and jealous resentment. But why, my Lord, again earned tis lady, should you deem thus injuriously of a man of whom you know so little? What you do know of Tresilian 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 effented 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 a secret as that which is spoken in a confessional. I seek no one's ruin, but he who thrust himself on my secret privacy were better look well to his future walk. The bear brooks no one to cross his awful path. Note to reader, the Lester cognizance was the ancient device adopted by his father, when Earl of Warwick, the bear, and ragged staff. And readers note, awful indeed, said the Countess, turning very pale. You are ill, my love, said the Earl, supporting her in his arms. Stretch yourself on your couch again. It is but an early day for you to leave it. Have you had else involving less than my fame, my fortune and my life to ask of me? Nothing, my Lord in love, answer the Countess faintly, something there was that I would have told you, but your anger is driven it for my recollection. Reservant till our next meeting, my love, said the Earl fondly, and again embracing her, and barring only those requests which I cannot and dare not grant, thy wish must be more than England and all its dependencies can't fulfill if it is not gratified to the letter. Thus saying, he at length took farewell. At the bottom of the staircase he received from Barney an ample livery cloak and slouch tat, in which he wrapped himself so as to disguise his person and completely conceal his features. Horses were ready in the courtyard for himself and Barney, for one or two of his trains, entrusted with the secrets of bars to know or guess that the Earl intrigued with a beautiful lady at that mansion, though her name and quality were unknown to them, had already been dismissed overnight. Anthony Foster himself had in hand the reign of the Earl's palfry, a stout and able nag for the road. While his old serving man held the bridle of the Morshoi and gallant steed which Richard Barney was to occupy in the character of master. As the Earl approached, however, Barney advanced to hold his master's bridle and to prevent Foster from paying that duty to the Earl, which he probably considered as belonging to his own office. Foster scowled at an interference which seemed intended to prevent his paying his court to his patron, but gave place to Barney and the Earl mounting without further observation and forgetting that his assumed character of a domestic, through whom 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, Barney 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 as stark on me, Anthony,' he said, as if I had deprived thee of a party nod of my lord, but I have moved him to leave thee a better remembrance for thy faithful service. See here, a purse of as good gold as ever chinked under a miser's thumb and forefinger. "'I count them, lad,' said he, as Foster received the gold with a grim smile, and add to them the goodly remembrance he gave last night to Janet. "'How's this? How's this?' said Anthony Foster hastily, gave he gold to Janet. "'I, ma'am, wherefore not? Does not her service to his fair lady require garedon?' "'She shall have none, aunt,' said Foster. "'She shall return it. I know his dotage on one face is as brief as it is deep. His affections are as fickle as the moon.' "'Why, Foster, thou art mad. Thou dost not hope for such good fortune as that my lord should cast an eye on Janet?' "'Who, in the fiend's name, would listen to the thrush while the nightingale is singing?' "'Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler.' "'And, Master Barney, you can sound the quail-pipe most daintily to while wantons into his nets. I desire no such devil as preferment for Janet as you have brought many a poor maid into. "'Does thou laugh? I will keep one limb of my family at least from Satan's clutches, that thou mayest rely on. She shall restore the gold.' "'I, or give it to thy keeping, Tony, which will serve as well,' answered Barney. "'But I have that to say which is more serious. Our lord is returning to court in an evil humor 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 bruise his bargain.' "'Not a whit, Tony,' answered the master of the horse. He doeth on her and will forsake the court for her. Then down go hopes, possessions, and safety. Church lands are resumed, Tony, and well if the holders be not called to account in exchequer.' "'That were ruined,' said Foster, his brow darkening with apprehensions, and all this for a woman. Had it been for a 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 Barney. "'But I think the devil will give thee little credit for thy compelled poverty, and so thou loosest on all hands. But follow my counsel, and come to a place shall be thy coffee-hole yet. Say nothing of this Tressillian's visit, not a word, until I give thee notice.' "'And wherefore I pray you,' asked Foster, suspiciously.' "'Dull beast,' replied Barney. "'In my Lord's present humour, it were the ready way to confirm him in his resolution of retirement. Should he know that his lady was haunted with such a spectre in his absence? He would be for playing the dragon himself over his golden fruit. And then, Tony, thy occupation is ended.' "'A word to the wise. Farewell, I must follow him.' He turned his horse, struck him with the spurs, and rode off under the archway in pursuit of his lord. "'With thy occupation were ended, or thy neck broken, damned pander,' said Anthony Foster. "'But I must follow his back, for his interest and mine are the same, and he can wind the proud Earl to his will. "'Janet shall give me those pieces, though. They shall be laid out in some way for God's service, and I will keep them separate in my strong chest till I can fall upon a fitting employment for them. No contagious vapor shall breathe on Janet. She shall remain pure as the blessed spirit, word but to pray God for her father. I need her prayers, for I am in a hard pass. Strange reports are abroad concerning my way of life. The congregation looked cold on me, and when Master Holdforth spoke of hypocrites being like a whiteed supple cure, which within was full of dead men's bones, me thought he looked full at me. The Romish was a comfortable faith. Lamborn spoke true in that. A man had but to follow his thrift by such ways as offered, tell his beads, hear a mass, confess, and be absolved. These Puritans tread a harder and rougher path. But I will try. I will read my Bible for an hour, ere I again open mine iron chest. Varney, meantime, spurred after his thorn whom he found waiting for him at the poster and gate of the park. "'You waste time, Varney,' said the Earl, and it presses. I must be at Woodstock before I can safely lay aside my disguise, until then I journey in some peril.' "'It is but two hours prescribing, my Lord,' said Varney. "'For me I only stop to enforce your commands of care and secrecy on Yonder Foster, and to inquire about the abode of the gentleman, whom I would promote to your Lordship's train, in the room of Trevers.' "'Is he fit for the Meridian and the Antichamber? Think as 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 Cummner, 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-flush that you may be with me at my levee.' So sane, he gave his horse the spur, and proceeded on his journey, while Varney rode back to Cummner by the public road, avoiding the park. The latter alighted at the door of the Bonnie Black Bear, and desired to speak with Master Michael Lamborn. That respectable character was not long of appearing before his new patron, but it was with downcast looks. "'Thou hast lost the scent,' said Varney, of thy comrade Tristleon, I know it by thy bang-dog visage. "'Is this thy lackity, thou impudent knave?' "'Cogs, moons,' said Lamborn. There was never trail so finely hunted. I saw him to earth at my uncle's here. Stuck to him, like beeswax, saw him at supper, watched him to his chamber, and presto. He's gone next morning. The very hostler knows not where.' "'This sounds like practice upon me, sir,' replied Varney. "'And if it proves so, by my soul, you shall repentant.' "'Sir, the best hound will be sometimes at fault,' answered Lamborn. "'How should it serve me, that this fellow should have best evanished?' "'You may ask my host, Giles Gosling, as the tapster and hustler, as Sicily and the whole household, how I kept eyes on Tristleon 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 abet in his chamber. That will be allowed me surely.' Varney did, in fact, make some inquiry among the household, which confirmed the truth of Lamborn's statement. Tristleon, it was unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly and unexpectedly the twix-night and morning. "'But I will wrong no one,' said my 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 sat on his own, gilding, as it seems, without the host's assistance. Thus satisfied of the rectitude of Lamborn'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 Lamborn, 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?' replied Lamborn. "'I love pleasure.' "'That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one,' said Varney. "'Know you out of the requisites expected from the retainer of a rising courtier?' "'I have imagined them to myself, sir,' answered Lamborn. "'As, for example, a quick eye, a closed mouth, a ready and bold hand, a sharp wint, and a blunt conscience,' and, I suppose, said Varney, has had its edge blunted long since. "'I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever overkeen,' replied Lamborn. When I was a youth, I had some few whimsies, but I rubbed them partly out of my recollection on the rough grindstone of the wars, and what remained I washed out in the broad waves of the Atlantic. "'Thou hast served, then, in the Indies.' "'In both east and west,' answered the candidate for court service, by both sea and land. "'I have served both the Portugal and the Spaniard, both the Dutchmen and the Frenchmen, and have made war on our own account with the crew of jolly fellows, who held there was no peace beyond the line.' "'Reader's note, Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold buccaneer of those days, were, in fact, little better than pirates. "'End reader's note.' "'Thou mayest do me, and my lord, and thyself, good service,' said Barney, after a pause. "'Would observe. I know the world, and answer me truly. "'Canst thou be faithful?' "'Did you not know the world?' answered Lamborn. "'It were my duty to say I, without further circumstance, and to swear to it with life and honor and so forth, but as it seems to me, that your worship is one who desires rather honest truth than politic falsehood. "'I reply to you that I can be faithful to the gallowsfoot eye, 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 Barney, in a jeering tone, the knack of seeming serious and religious, when the moment demands it.' "'It would cost me nothing,' said Lamborn, to say yes. "'But to speak on the square, I must need 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 was that sort of godliness which always ended in being great gain. "'But I have no such knack of it.' "'Well,' replied Barney, "'if thou hast no hypocrisy, hast thou not a nag here in the stable?' "'I, sir,' said Lamborn. "'That shall take hedge and ditch with my Lord Duke's best hunters.' "'Then I made a little mistake on Shooter's Hill and stopped an ancient grazier, whose pouches were better limed than his brain-pan. The Bonnie Bay nag carried me sheer off in spite of the whole hue and cry. "'Saddle him then instantly and attend me,' said Barney. "'Leave thy clothes and baggage under charge of mine host, and I will conduct thee to a surface in which, if thou do not better thyself, the fault shall not be fortunes, but thine own.' "'Brave and hardy,' said Lamborn, and I am mountain in an instant. "'Nave, hustler, saddle my nag without the loss of one second, as thou dost value the safety of thy noddle. Pretty Cisley, take half this purse to comfort thee for my son and departure.' "'Gog's nouns,' replied the father. Cisley 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 Cisley of thy mine host,' said Barney. I have heard much talk of her beauty.' "'It is a sunburnt beauty,' said mine host. While qualified to stand out, rain and wind, but little calculated to please such critical gallants as herself, 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 Barney. Our horses are impatient. We bid you good day.' "'Does my nephew go with you, so please you,' said Gosling. I, such is his purpose,' answered Richard Barney. "'You are right, fully right,' replied mine host. "'You are, I say, fully right, my kinsman. Thou hast got a gay horse. See thou light not unaware upon a halter, or, if thou wilt needs be made immortal by means of a rope, which thy purpose, of following this gentleman, renders not unlikely. I charge thee to find a gallows as far from Cumner as thou conveniently mayest. And so I commend you to your saddle.' The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted accordingly, leaving the landlord to conclude his ill omen farewell, to himself and at leisure, and set off together at a rapid pace, which prevented conversation until the ascent of the steep sandy hill permitted them to resume it. "'You are contented, then,' said Barney, to his companion, to take court service. I, worshipful sir, if you like my terms as well as I like yours.' "'And what are your terms?' demanded Barney. "'If I am to have a quick eye for my patient's interest, he must have a dull one towards my faults,' said Lamborn. "'I,' said Barney, so they lie not so grossly open that he must need to break his shins over them.' "'A green,' said Lamborn. "'Next, if I run down game, I must have the picking of the bones.' "'That is but reason,' replied Barney, "'so that your bedders are served before you.' "'Good,' said Lamborn. "'And it only remains to be said, that if the law and I quarrel, my patron must spare me out, for that is a chief point.' "'Reason again,' said Barney, "'if the quarrel hath happened in your master's service.' "'For the wage and so forth I say nothing,' proceeded Lamborn. "'It is the secret, Geriden, that I must live by.' "'Never fear,' said Barney. "'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 honour,' replied Michael Lamborn, "'and it only remains that you tell me my master's name.' "'My name is Master Richard Barney,' answered his companion. "'But I mean,' said Lamborn, "'the name of the noble lord to whose service you are to prefer me.' "'How, Nave, are thou too good to call me master?' said Barney hastily. "'I would have thee bold to others, but not saucy to me.' "'I crave your worship's pardon,' said Lamborn. "'But you seem familiar with Anthony Foster. "'Now I'm familiar with Anthony myself.' "'Thou art a shrewd, Nave, I see,' replied Barney. "'Mark me. I do indeed propose to introduce thee into a nobleman's household, but it is upon my person that thou wilt chiefly wait, and upon my countenance that thou wilt depend.' "'I am his master of horse. Thou wilt soon know his name. It is one that shakes the council and wields the state.' "'By this light a brave spell to conjure with,' said Lamborn, "'if a man would discover hidden treasures.' "'Use with discretion, it may prove so,' replied Barney. "'But Mark, if thou conjure with it, at thine own hand, it may raise a devil who will tear thee in fragments.' "'Enough said,' replied Lamborn, "'I will not exceed my limits.' The travellers then resumed, the rapid rate of travelling, which their discourse had interrupted, and soon arrived at the royal park of Woodstock. This ancient possession of the Crown of England was then very different from what it had been when it was the residence of the fair Rosamond, and the scene of Henry II's secret and illicit amours, and yet more unlike to the scene which exhibits in the present day, Woodplundam House commemorates the victory of Marlborough, and no less the genius of Danborough, 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 that repair, which had long ceased to be honoured with the royal residence, to the great impoverishment of the adjacent village. The inhabitants, however, had made several petitions to the Queen to have the favour of the sovereign's countenance occasionally bestowed upon them, and upon this very business, ostensibly at least, was the noble Lord, whom we have already introduced to our readers, a visitor at Woodstock. Barney and Lamborn galloped without ceremony into the courtyard of the ancient and dilapidated mansion, which presented, on that morning, a scene of bustle which it had not exhibited for two rains, officers of the Earl's household, livery men and retainers, when and came with all the insolent fracas, which attaches to their profession. The day of horses and the bane of hounds were heard, for my Lord and his occupation of inspecting and surveying the manor and domain was of course provided with the means of following his pleasure in the chase or park, said to have been the earliest that was enclosed in England, and which was well stocked with deer that had long roamed there unmolested. Several of the inhabitants of the village in anxious hope of a favourable result from this unwanted visit loitered about the courtyard and awaited the great man's coming forth. Their attention was excited by the hasty arrival of Barney and a murmur ran amongst them, the Earl's master of the horse, while they hurried to bespeak favour by hastily unmoneting and proffering to hold the bridle and strip of the favoured retainer and his attendant. Stand somewhat aloof, my masters, said Barney haughtily, and let the domestics do their office. The mortified citizens and peasants fell back at the signal while lamborn, who had his eye upon the superior's department, repelled the services of those who offered to assist him with yet more discourtesy. Stand back, Jack peasant, with a murmur unto you, and let these naïve footmen do their duty. While they gave their nags to the attendants of the household and walked into the mansion with an air of superiority which long practice and consciousness of birth rendered natural to Barney, and which lamborn endeavored to imitate as well as he could, the poor inhabitants of Woodstock whispered to each other, while the day God save us from all such misproud printcoxes, and the master be like the men why the fiend may take all, and yet have no more than his doom. Silence, good neighbours, said the bailiff, keep tongue Metwick's teeth, we shall know more by and by. But never will Lord come to Woodstock so welcome, as bluff old King Harry, he would horse-whip a fellow one day, with his own royal hand, and infling him a handful of silver grotes, with his own broad face on them, to noint the sore withal. I, recipe with him, echoed the auditors, it will be long ere this lady Elizabeth horse-whip 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 consequence than those left in the courtyard awaited the appearance of the Earl, who was yet kept his chamber. All paid court to Varney, with more or less deference, as suited their own rank, or the urgency of the business which brought them to his Lord's levy. 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 Copley, was the reply. The Chamberlain, distinguished by a 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, marshaled by his Chamberlain and the steward of his family, and followed by Richard Varney. In his noble mean, and princely features, men read nothing of that insolence which was practiced by his dependents. His courtesies were, indeed, measured by the rank of those to whom they were addressed, but even the meanest person present had to share of his gracious notice. The inquiries which he made respecting the condition of the manor, of the Queen's rights there, and of the advantages and disadvantages which might attend her occasional residence at the royal seat of Woodstock, seem to show that he had most earnestly investigated the manner of the petition of the inhabitants, and with a desire to forward the interest of the place. Now the Lord, love his noble countenance, said the Baeliff, who had thrust himself into the present chamber. He looked somewhat pale. I warned him he had spent the whole night in perusing our memorial. Master Tuff yarn, who took six months to draw it up, said it would take a week to understand it, and see if the Earl hath not knocked the mare out of it in twenty-four hours. The Earl then acquainted them that he should move their sovereign to honor Woodstock occasionally with her residence during her royal progresses, that the town and its vicinity might derive from her countenance in favor, the same advantages as from those of her predecessors. Meanwhile he rejoiced to be the expounder of her gracious pleasure in assuring them that for the increase of train and encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool. This joyful intelligence was received with the acclamations not only of the better sort who were admitted to the audience chamber, but of the commons who awaited without. The freedom of the corporation was presented to the Earl upon me by the magistrates of the place, together with a purse of gold pieces, which the Earl handed to Barney, who on his part gave a share in a lamb-borne as the most acceptable earnest of his new service. The Earl and his retinue took course soon after to return to court, accompanied by the shouts of the inhabitants of Woodstock, who made the old oaks ring with re-echoing, long live Queen Elizabeth and the noble Earl of Leicester, the urbanity and courtesy of the Earl, even through a gleam of popularity over his attendants, as their haughty department had formally obscured that of their master, and men shouted, long life to the Earl and to his gallant followers, as Barney and Lamb-borne, each in his rank, rode proudly through the streets of Woodstock. N. CHAPTER VIII. HOST. I will hear you, Master Fenton, and I will at the least keep your counsel. MARRY WIVES OF WINZER. It becomes necessary to return to the detail of those circumstances which accompanied, and indeed occasioned, the sudden disappearance of Tressylian from the sign of the Black Bear at Khamna. It will be recollected that this gentleman, after his rank counted with Barney, had returned to Jiles Gosling's caravansary, where he shut himself up in his own chamber, demanded pen, ink, and paper, and announced his purpose to remain private for the day. In the evening he appeared again in the public room, where Michael Lamb-borne, who had been on the watch for him, agreeably to his engagement to Barney, endeavored to renew his acquaintance with him, and hoped he retained no unfriendly recollection of the part he had taken in the morning's couple. But Tressylian repelled his advances firmly, though with civility. Master Lamb-borne said he, I trust I have recompense to your pleasure the time you have wasted on me, under the show of wild bluntness, which you exhibit, I know you have sense enough to understand me, when I say, frankly, that the object of our temporary acquaintance having been accomplished, we must be strangers to each other in future. Lotto, said Lamb-borne, twirling his whiskers with one hand, and grasping the hilt of his weapon with the other. If I thought that this usage was meant to insult me, you would bear it with discretion, doubtless, interrupted Tressylian, as you must do at any rate. You know too well the distance that is betwixt us to require me to explain myself further. Good evening. So, saying, he turned his back upon his former companion, and entered into discourse with the Lamb-borne. Michael Lamb-borne felt strongly disposed to bully, but his wrath died away in a few incoherent o's and ejaculations, and he sank unresistingly under the ascendancy which superior spirits possess over persons of his habits and description. He remained moody and silent in a corner of the apartment, paying the most marked attention to every motion of his late companion. Against him he began now to nourish a quarrel on his own account, which he trusted to avenge by the execution of his new master Barney's directions. The hour of supper arrived, and was followed by that of repose, when Tressylian, 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 adore on its hinges, and a light was seen to glimmer in the apartment. Tressylian, who was as brave as steel, sprang from his bed at this alarm, and had laid hand upon his sword, when he was prevented from drawing it by a voice which said, Be not too rash with your rapier, Master Tressylian, it is I your host, Driles Gosling. At the same time, I'm shrouding the dark lantern, which had hitherto only a minute and indistinct glimmer. The googly aspect and figure of the landlord of the black bear was visibly presented to his astonished guest. What memory is this, my host? said Tressylian. Have you slept as jollily as last night, and so mistaken your chamber? Or is midnight a time for masquerading in your guest lodging? Master Tressylian replied, my host. I know my place and my time, as well as air, are merry landlown in England. But here has been my hangdog, Kingsman, watching you as close as ever a cat watched a mouse. And here have you, on the other hand, quarreled in plot, 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 Tressylian. Thy Kingsman is beneath my resentment, and besides, why shouldest thou think I quarreled with anyone whosoever? O sir, replied the innkeeper. There was a red spot on thy very cheekbone, which boated of a late brawl, as sure as the conjunction of Mars and Saturn threatens misfortune. And when he returned, the buckles of your girdle were brought forward, and your step was quick and hasty, and all things shown your hand and your hilt have been lately acquainted. Well, good, my host, if I have been obliged to draw my sword, said Tressylian, why should such a circumstance fetch thee out of thy warm bed at this time of night? Thou seeest the mischief is all over. Under favor, 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 Kingsman, why, I have told you what he is. And if these two old cronies have made up their old acquaintance, I would not, my worshipful guest, that it should be at thy cost. I promise you, my clan borne has been making very particular inquiries at my hustler, when and which way you ride. Now, I would have you think, whether you may not have done or said something for which you may be way-laid and taken at disadvantage. Thou art an honest man, my host, said Tressylian, after a moment's consideration, and I will deal frankly with thee. If these men's malice is directed against me, as I deny, not but it may, it is because they are the agents of a more powerful villain than themselves. You mean Master Richard Varney, you do not, said the landlord. He was at Cumberplace yesterday, and came not thither so private, but what he was aspired by one who told me. I mean the same, my host. Then, for God's sake, worshipful Master Tressylian, said on his jostling, look well to yourself. This Varney is the protector and patron of Anthony Foster, who holds under him and, my his favour, some lease of yonder mansion in the park. Varney got a large grant of the lands of the apesie of Abingdon, and Cumberplace, amongst others, from his master, the Earl of Lester. 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 Tressylian. Unsprecious, but it must be helped in some manner, said the host. Richard Varney, why, what between his influence with my lord and his pretending to so many old and vexatious claims in right of the Abadir? Men fear almost to mention his name, much more to set themselves against his practices. You may judge by our discourses the last night. Men said their pleasure of Tony Foster, but not a word of Richard Varney, though all men judge him to be at the bottom of yonder mystery about the pretty wench. But perhaps you know more of that matter than I do. For women, though they wear not swords, are occasioned for many ablaze exchanging the sheath of neat flutter for one of flesh and blood. I do indeed know more of that, poor and fortunate 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 than I have a favour to ask when my tale is ending. Good master Tesselion, said the landlord, I am but a poor innkeeper, been labelled to adjust, or a counsell such a guest is yourself, but, as sure as I have risen decently above the world, by giving good measure and reasonable charges, I am an honest man, and as such, if I may not be able to assist you, I am at least not capable to abuse your confidence. Say away, therefore, as confidently as if you spoke to your father, and thus far at least be certain that my curiosity, for I will not deny that which belongs to my calling, is joined to a reasonable degree of discretion. I doubt it not, my host, answered Tesselion, and while his order to remain an 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 Wabsart, who in that battle violently took part with Henry VII, the Queen's grandfather, and round of the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Geraldine and his wild Irish, and the Flemmings, whom the Duchess of Burgundy had sent over, in the quarrel of Lambert's Simmel. I remember both one and the other, said Giles Gossley. It is sung of a dozen times a week on my L-bench below. Sir Roger Wabsart of Devon. Oh, I, tis him of whom minstrel sing to this hour. He was the flower of Stoke's red field, when martins weren't, on ground lace lane. In Raging Mount he never reeled, but like a rock did firm remain. Reader's Note. This verse, or something similar, occurs in a long ballad or poem, on Flood and Field, reprinted by the late Henry Weber. End Reader's Note. I, and then there was Martin Swart, I have heard my grandfather talk of, and of the jolly Al-Main, whom he commanded, with their slash doublets and quaint hoes, all frounced with ribbons, above the nether stalks. Here's a song goes of Martin Swart, too, and I have but memory for it. Martin Swart and his men. Saddle them, saddle them. Martin Swart and his men. Saddle them well. Reader's Note. This verse, of an old song, actually occurs in an old play where the singer bows. Courteously I can both counter a knack of Martin Swart and all his merry men. End Reader's Note. True, good mind-host, the day was long talked of, but if you sing so loud, you will wake more listeners than I care to commit my confidence unto. I pray pardon, my worshipful guest, said mind-host. I was oblivious. When an old song comes across us, merry old nights, of the spigot, it runs away with our discretion. While, mind-host, my grandfather, like some other Cornishman, kept a warm affection to the house of York, and espoused the quarrel of this symbol, assuming the title of Earl of Warwick, as the county afterwards, in great numbers, countenance the cause of Perk and Warbeck, calling himself the Duke of York. My grand sire joined Simnall's standard and was taken fighting desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders of that unhappy army were slain in their harness. The good night to whom he rendered himself, Sir Roger Robsart, protected him from the immediate vengeance of the King, and dismissed him without ransom. But he wasn't able 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 night did what he might to mitigate the distresses of my ancestor, and their friendship became so strict that my father was bred up as the sworn brother and intimate of the present Sir Hugh Robsart, the only son of Sir Roger, and the heir of his honest and generous and hospitable temper, though not equal to him in martial achievements. I have heard of good Sir Hugh Robsart, interrupted the host, many a time and oft. His huntsman and sworn servant, Will Badger, has spoken of him a hundred times in this very house. A jovial night he is, and hath loved hospitality and open housekeeping more than the present fashion, which lays as much gold lace on the seams of a doublet, as would feed a dozen of tall fellows with beef and ale for a twelve month, 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, my host, said Tress Union, you hath heard enough of Sir Hugh Robsart, and therefore I will but say that the hospitality you bust 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 bequeep it. And here begins my share in the tale. Upon my father's death, now several years since, the good Sir Hugh would willingly have made me his constant companion. There was a time, however, at which I felt the kind nine success of love for field sports detain 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 moral evocations. The exclusive beauty of Mistress Amy Robsart, as she grew up from childhood to woman, could not escape one whom circumstances obliged to be so constantly in her company. I loved her in short, my host, and her father saw it. And crossed your true loves, no doubt, said my 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, my 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 same keeper. I fear me your suit proved a cold one. She yielded me her esteem, said Tressylian, and seemed not unmooming that I should hope it might ripen into a warmer passion. There was a contract of future marriage executed between us, upon her father's intercession, but to comply with her anxious request the execution was deferred for a twelve month. During this period Richard Barney appeared in the country, and veiling themself of some distant family connection with Sir Hugh Robsart spent much of his time in his company until at length he almost lived in the family. That could bode no good to the place he honored with his residents, said Gosling. No, by the rude, replied Tressylian. Misunderstanding and misery followed his presence, yet so strangely that I am at this moment at a loss to trace the gradations of their encroachment upon a family which had till then been so happy. For a time Aimee Robsart received the attention of this man Barney, with the indifference attached to common courtesies, then followed a period in which she seemed to regard him with dislike, and even with disgust, and then an extraordinary species of connection appeared to grow up between them. Barney dropped those heirs of pretension and gallantry which had marked his former approaches, and Aimee, on the other hand, seemed to renounce the ill disguise discussed 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, has since arisen on my memory to convince me of their private understanding. But I need not detail them. The fact speaks for itself. She vanished from her father's house. Barney disappeared at the same time, and this very day I have seen her in the character of his Paramore, living in the house of his sordid dependent Foster, and visited by him, muffled, and by a secret entrance. And this, then, is the cause of your quarrel. Many things you should have been sure that the fair lady either desired or deserved your interference. My host, Ann Sir Tresselian, my father, such I must ever consider Sir Hugh Robbsard, sits at home struggling with his grief, or, if so far recovered, mainly attempting to drown in the practice of his field sports, the recollection that he had once a daughter, a recollection which ever in an dawn breaks from him under circumstances the most pathetic. I could not broke the idea that he should live in misery, and aimy in guilt, and I endeavored to seek her out with the hope of inducing her to return to her family. I have found her, and when I have either succeeded in my attempt, or found it altogether unavailing, it is my purpose to embark for the Virginia voyage. Be not so rash, good Sir, replied Giles Gosselin, and cast not yourself away because a woman, to be brief, is a woman, and changes her lovers, like a suit of ribbons, with no better reason than mere fantasy. An air we probe as matter further, let me ask you what circumstances of suspicion directed you so truly to this lady's residence, or rather, to replace a consumer. The last is the better chosen word, my host, answered Gosselin. And touching your question, the knowledge that Barney held large grants of the domain formerly belonging to the monks of Abingdon directed me to this neighborhood, 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, my host, said Gosselin, to renew my visit to the place of her residence tomorrow, and to seek a more detailed communication with her than I have had today. She must indeed be wildly changed from what she once was, if my words make no impression upon her. Under your favor, Master Gosselin, 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 Gosselin. I cannot deny it. Then, Mary, by what right or interest do you process a compulsory interference with her inclination? Disgraceful as it may be to herself and her parents. Unless my judgment gulls me, those under whose protection she has thrown herself, would have small hesitation to reject your interference, even if it were that of a father or brother. But as a discarded lover, you expose yourself to be repelled with a strong hand, as well as with scorn. You can apply it to no magistrate for aid or countenance, and you are hunting, therefore, a shadow in water, and will only, excuse my plainness, come by ducking and danger in attempting to catch it. I will appeal to the Earl of Lester, said Gosselin, against the infamy of his favorite. He courts the severe and strict sect of Puritans. He dare not, for the sake of his own character, refuse my appeal, even although he were destitute of the principles of honor and nobleness with which fame invests him. Or I will appeal to the Queen herself. Should Lester, said the landlord, be disposed to protect his dependent, as indeed he has said to be very confidential with Barney, the appeal to the Queen may bring them both to reason. Her majesty is strict in such matters, and if it be not treason to speak it, or rather, in his said, pardon a dozen courtiers for falling in love with herself, then one for giving preference to another woman. Garagio, then, my brave guest. For if thou layest a petition from Sir Hero at the foot of the throne, muffled by the story of nine-owned rongs, the favorite Earl dared to assume leap into the Thames, at the fullest and deepest, as offered to protect Barney in the cause of this nature. But to do this with any chance of success, you must go formally to work, and without staying here to tilt with the master, of course, to a purgy counselor, and expose yourself to the dagger of his camarados. You should hide you to Devonshire, get a petition drawn up for Secure Robesart, and make as many friends as you can to forward your interested court. You have spoken well, my host, said Tresselian, and I will profit by your advice, and leave you tomorrow early. Nay, leave me tonight, sir, before tomorrow comes, said the landlord. I never prayed for a guest's arrival more eerily 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 honored 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 underanomal, said Tresselian, giving one to the host. Give the balance to Pretty Sicily, your daughter, and the servants of the house. They shall taste of your bounty, sir, said Gosling, and you should taste of my daughter's lips in grateful acknowledgement, 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 Tresselian. Oh, sir, we will keep measure, but I wonder not that you are jealous of them all. May I crave to know, with what aspect, the fair lady at the place, yesterday received you. I own, said Tresselian, it was angry as well as confused, and affords me little hope that she is yet awakened from her unhappy delusion. In that case, sir, I see not why you should play the champion of a wrench that will none of you, and incur the resentment of a favorite's favorite, as dangerous a monster as ever a night adventurer encountered in the old story books. You do me wrong in this opposition, my host. Gross wrong, said Tresselian. I do not desire that Amy should ever turn thought upon me more. Let me but see her restored to her father, and all I have to do in Europe, perhaps in the world, is over and ended. A wiser resolution were to drink a cup of sac, and forget her, said the landlord. But five and twenty, and fifty, look on those matters with different eyes, especially when one case of paper is said in the skull of the young gallant, and the other in that of an old publican. I pity you, Master Tresselian, but I see not how I can age you in the matter. Only thus far, my host, replied to Tresselian, keep a watch on the motions of those at the place, which thou canst easily learn without suspicion, as all men's news fly to the ale bench, and be pleased to communicate the tidings and ridings to such a person, and to no other, who shall bring you this ring as a special token. Look at it. It is of value, and I will freely bestow it on you. Nay, sir, I desire no recompense, but it seems an unadvised course in me, being in a public line, to connect myself in a matter of this dark and perilous nature. I have no interest in it. You and every father in the land, who would have his daughter released from the snares of shame, and sin, and misery, have an interest deeper than the not-concerned earth only could create. While, sir, said the host, these are brave words, and I do pity for my soul the frank-hearted old gentleman, who has diminished his estate in good housekeeping for the honour in this 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 barny, and though you're a part in the matter as someone of the wildest, yet I will even 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 intelligence are concerned. 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-warner interfered in such matters. Barney has interest enough, with the justices, to dismount my noble emblems from the post on which he swings so gallantly, to call on my license, and ruin me from Garrett to Seller. Do not doubt my secrecy, my host, said Tresselyan, I will retain besides the deepest sense of thy service, and of the rest thou dost rung. Remember the ring is my short 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 tried as gently as if eggs were under your foot, instead of dual-boards. No man must know when or how you departed. By the aid of his dark lantern he conducted Tresselyan, as soon as he had made himself ready for his journey, through a long intricacy of passages, which opened to an outer court, and from thence to a remote stable, where he had already placed his guest's horse. He then aided him to fasten on the saddle, the small port mantle, which contained his necessaries, opened a poster-endure, and with a hearty shake of the hand, and a reiteration of his promise to attend to what went on at Cumberplace, he dismissed his guest to his solitary journey. End Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Kenilworth This labor box recording is in the public domain. Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott Chapter 9 Far in the lane a lonely hut he found, no tenant ventured on the unwholesome ground. Here smokes his forge, he bears 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. Gaze trivia As it was deemed proper by the traveler himself, as well as by Giles Gosling, that resilient should avoid being seen in the neighborhood of Cumner by those whom accident might make early risers. The landlord had given him a route consisting of various byways and lanes, which he was to follow in succession, and which, all the turns and shortcuts duly observed, was to conduct him to the public road to Marlborough. But, like counsel of every other kind, this species of direction is much more easily given than followed, and what betwixt the intricacy of the way, the darkness of the night, Tresselian's ignorance of the country, and the sad and perplexing thoughts with which he had to contend. His journey proceeded so slowly that morning found him only in the veil of White Horse, memorable for the defeat of the Danes and the former days. With his horse deprived of a forefoot shoe, an accident which threatened to put a stop to his journey by blaming the animal. The residence of a Smith was his first object of inquiry, in which he received little satisfaction from the dullness or sullenness of one or two peasants, early bound for their labor, who gave brief and indifferent answers to his questions on the subject. Anxious at Lang that the partner of his journey should suffer as little as possible from the unfortunate accident, Tresselian 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 Lang waited on to the place, which proved only in assemblage of five or six miserable huts, about the doors of which one or two persons, whose appearance seemed as rude as that of their dwellings, were beginning the toils of the day. One cottage, however, seemed of rather superior aspect, and the old dame who was sweeping her threshold, appeared something less rude than her neighbors. To her Tresselian addressed the oft-repeated question, whether there was a Smith in this neighborhood, 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 truly is there a Smith. What would this have with Unman? To shoe my horse, good dame, answered Tresselian, you may see that he has thrown a four-foot shoe. Master Holliday exclaimed the dame, without returning any direct answer. Master Rasmus Holliday, come and speak to Manon, please you. Fawitay linguis. Answer the 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 Holliday, come ye out, do ye. Here's Amon, wood to wail in Smith, and I care not to show him way to devil. His horse hath cashew. Quid me he cum cabalo, 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 bespoken. A long lean, shambling, stooping figure, was surmounted by a head, thatched with length, black hair, somewhat inclining to gray. His features had the cast of habitual authority, which I suppose Dionysius carried with him, from the throne to the school master's pulpit, and bequeathed as a legacy to all of the same profession. A black buck ran cashing, was gathered at his middle, with a belt, at which hung, instead of knife or weapon, a goodly leather and pen and ink case. His pharaoh law was stuck on the other side, like Harlequin's wooden sword, and he carried in his hand the tattered volume, which he had been visibly perusing. I'd seen a person of Tressylian's appearance, which he was better able to estimate, than the country folks had been. The school master, unbonanted, and accosted him with Salway Domine, in Telekisna, Linguan, Latinum. Tressylian mustered his learning to reply, Linguan, Latinum. The Latin reply had upon the school master the effect which the Mason sign is said to produce on the brethren of the trial. He was at once interested in the learning traveller, listened with gravity to a story of a tired horse and a lost shoe, and then replied with solemnity. It may appear a simple thing, most worshipful, to reply to you that there dwells, within a brief mile of these, to Goria, the best Faubour Ferraris, the most accomplished blacksmith, that ever nailed iron upon horse. Now, were I to say so? I warned me you would think yourself, Kampas Woti, or, as the vulgar of it, a main man. I should at least, said Tressylian, 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 one, said the old woman, the sending a living creature to Wayland Smith. Peace, Gammer Sludge, said the pedagogue. How go where by a Gammer Sludge? Look to the Firmity, Gammer Sludge. Kuretor Hentakulum, Gammer Sludge. This gentleman is none of thy gossips. Then, turning to Tressylian, he resumed his lofty tone. And so, most worshipful, you would really think yourself, Felix Spiss Turquois. Should I point out to you the dwelling of the same Smith? Sir, replied Tressylian, I should in that case have all that I want at present, a horse fit to carry me forward, out of hearing of your learning. The last words he uttered to himself. O Kaisa Men's Mortallium, said the learned man. What was it sung by Junius Juvenalis? Numenibus Wota, Exaudita Malignis. Learned Magister, said Tressylian, Your edition so greatly exceeds my poor intellectual capacity that you must excuse my seeking elsewhere for information which I can better understand. There again, now replied the pedagogue, how fondly you fly from him that would instruct you. Truly said Quintilian, I praise her, let Quintilian be for the present and answer in a word and in English. If your learning can condescend so far, whether there is any place here where I can have opportunity to refresh my horse until I can have him shod. Thus much courtesy, sir, said the schoolmaster, I can readily render you, that although there is in this poor hamlet, nostra palpera regna, no regular ha sputium, as my namesake arrasmus calleth it. Yet for as much as you are someone imbued, or at least tinged, as it were, with good letters, I will use my interest with the good woman of the house to accommodate you with a platter of firmini, and wholesome food for which I have found no Latin phrase. Your horse shall have a share of the cowhouse, with a bottle of sweet hay, in which the good woman's lunch so much abounds that it may be said of her cow, flinum hobbit in cornu. And if it please you to bestow on me the pleasure of your company, the banquet shall cost you ne simism quidum, so much as gammer sludge bound to me, for the pains I have bestowed on the top and bottom of her hopeful Aaron Dickie, whom I have painfully made to travel through the accidents. Now God yield ye for it master harrasmus, said the good gammer, and grant that little Dickie may be the better for his accident. And for the rest the gentlemen list to stay, breakfast shall be on the board in the ringing 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, Treselyan 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 magistre harrasmus holiday, partook of his firmany, and listened to his learned account of himself for a good half hour, ere he could get him to talk upon any other topic. The reader will readily excuse our accompanying this man of learning into all the details with which he favored Treselyan, of which the following sketch may suffice. He was born at Hogsnorton, where, according to popular saying, the pigs play upon the organ, a pauper which he interpreted allegorically as having reference to the herd of Epicurus, of which litter Horace confessed himself a porker. His name of harrasmus he derived partly from his father, having been the son of a renowned washerwoman, who had held that great scholar in clean linen, all the while he was at Oxford, a task of some difficulty, as he was only possessed of two shirts, the one as she expressed herself, to wash the other. The vestiges of one of these, Camicia, as master holiday most did, were still in his possession, having fortunately been detained by his grandmother to cover the balance of her bill. But he thought there was still a higher and overruling cause for his having had the name of Arrasmus conferred on him. Namely, the secret presentment 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 appellate. He was inclined to think that he bore the name of holiday quasi locus, a non-lucendo, because he gave such few holidays to his school. Hence, said he, the schoolmaster is termed, classically, mudai magister, because he deprives boys of their play. And yet, on the other hand, he thought it might bear a very different interpretation, and referred to his own exquisite art in arranging pageants, moorist dances, mayday festivities, and such like holiday delights, for which he assured Tressylian he had positively the purest and the most inventive brain in England. In so much that his cunning in framing such pleasures had made him known to many honourable persons, both in country and court, and especially to the noble earl of Lester. And although he may now seem to forget me, he said, in the multitude of state affairs, yet I am well assured that had he some pretty pastime to array for an attainment of the queen's grace, horse and man would be seeking the humble cottage of Erasmus' holiday. Paro contentus. In the meanwhile, I hear my pupils parse and construe, worshipful sir, and drive away my time with the aid of the muses. And I have, at all times, winning correspondence with foreign scholars, subscribe myself, Erasmus ab dai fausto, and have enjoyed the distinction due to the learned under that title. Witness the erudite, Deen Rikus Weaker Shokius, who dedicated to me under that title his treaties on the letter Dal. 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 hulk an ipthokli bois. What has all this to do with the shooing of my poor nag? Vestina Lente, said the man of learning. We will presently come to that point. You must know that some two or three years past, there came to these parts one who called himself Dr. Dabumi, although it may be he never wrote even Magister Artium, save and right of his hungry belly. Or it may be that if he had any degrees, they were of the devil's giving, for he was what the vulgar call a white witch. A cunning man and such like. Now, good sir, I perceive you are impatient, but if a man tell not his tale his own way, how have you warrant to think that he can tell it in yours? Well then, Murnin, sir, take your way. Answer, Tressilien, only let us travel at a sharper pace, for my time is somewhat of the shortest. Well, sir, resumed Erasmus Holliday with the most provoking perseverance. I will not say that the 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 Rosicross, a disciple of Gieber, ex nomine Kuyus, when it werebum werenaculum gibberish. He cured wounds by solving the weapon instead of the sore. Told fortunes by palmistry. Discovered stolen goods by the sieve and shears. Gathered the right maddo and the male fernseed. Through use of which men walk invisible. Pretended some advances towards the panacea, or universal elixir, and affected to convert good land into sorry silver. In other words, said Tressilien, he was a quack-solver and common cheat. But what has all this to do with my nag, and the shoe which he has lost? With your worshipful patience, replied the diffusive man of letters, you shall understand that presently, patientia, right worshipful. Which word, according to our Marcus Tullius, is difupilium rerum diurna perpessio. The same Demetrius dububi, after dealing with the country, as I have told you, began to acquire fame, enter magnates, among the prime men of the land. And there is likelihood he might have aspired to great matters, had not, according to vulgar fame, for I there, not the thing is according with my certain knowledge. The devil claimed his right, one dark night, and flown off with Demetrius, who was never seen or heard of afterwards. Now here comes the medulla, the very marrow of my tale. This doctor dububi had a servant, a poor snake, whom he employed in trimming his furnace, regulating it by just measure, compounding his drugs, tracing his circles, cajoling his patience, at seek day cateries. While, right worshipful, the doctor being removed thus strangely, and in a way which struck the whole country with terror, this poor zany things to himself, in the words of Maro, uno a uso, non deficit alter. And even as a tradesman's apprentice, sets himself up in his master's shop, when he is dead, or hath retired from business. So Doth this wailen, assume the dangerous trade of his defunct master. But although, most worshipful sir, the world is ever prone to listen to the pretensions of such unworthy men, who are indeed, mere saltum bonqui and charlatanai. Though usurping the style and skill of doctors of medicine, yet the pretensions of this poor zany, this wailen, 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 Perseus, though in their own rugged words. Deleuus, Hallamborum, Certo, Campuscaraputo, Nessius Exalmen, Watathok Natura Medeni, which I have thus rendered in a poor paraphrase of my own, wilt thou mix, Hallibor, who does not know how many grains should to the mixture grow? The art of medicine, this forbids, I trove. Moreover, the evil reputation of the master, and his strange and doubtful end, were at least sudden disappearance, prevented any accepting the most desperate of men, to seek any advice or opinion from the servant, wherefore the poor vermin was likely at first to swerve for very hunger. But the devil that serves him, since the death of Demetrius, or Dububi, put him on a fresh device, this nave, whether from the inspiration of the devil, or from early education, shoes horses better than aramen betwixt us and Iceland, and so he gives up his practice on the bipeds, the two-legged and un-fledged species called mankind, and betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses. Indeed, and where does he lodge all this time, said Tricelian, and does he shoe horses well, but show me his dwelling presently? The interruption pleased not the magister, who exclaimed, Okaika men's mortallium. Though, by the way, I use that quotation before, but I, with the classics, could afford me any sentiment of power to stop those who are so willing to rush upon their own destruction. Here, 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 his work, said the dame, who stood by, enraptured, as it were, with the line words and learned apotheogens, which glided so fluently from her erudite inmate master holiday. But this interruption pleased not the magister, more than that of the traveller. He said he, Gammer's Lunge, know your place, if it be your will. Suflamina, Gammer's Lunge, and allowed me to expound this matter to our worshipful guest. Sir, said he, again addressing Tresselian. This old woman speaks true, though in her own rude style, for certainly this bopper, horarius, or blacksmith, takes money of no one. And that is a sure sign he deals with Satan, said dame's Lunge, since no good Christian would ever refuse the wages of his labour. The old woman hath touched it again, said the pedagogue. Ramakku Teteget, she asked Perknet with her needle's point. This whelan takes no money and dean, nor doth he show himself to anyone. And can this mad man, for such I hold him, said the traveller, no ought like good skill of his trade? O, sir, and that let us give the devil his due. Mulsaber himself, with all his cyclops, could hardly amend him. But, assuredly, there is little wisdom in taking counsel, or receiving aid, from one who was let too plainly in league with the author of evil. I must take my chance of that, good master Holliday, said Tresselian, rising, and as my horse must now have eaten his provinder, I must mean 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. I, I, do you show him, Master Horosmiths, said the old dame, who was perhaps desirous to get her house freed of her guest. I must need to go when the devil drives. Do, Manus, said the Magister, I submit, taking the world to witness, that I have possessed this honorable gentleman with the full injustice which he has done, and shall do to his own soul, if he becomes thus a trinketer with Satan. Neither will I go forth with our guest myself, but rather send my pupil. Under your favor, not so, answered the old woman. You may prowl your own soul a few list, but my son shall bunch on no such errand. And I wonder at you, Dominique Doctor, to propose such a piece of service for little Dickie. Nay, my good gammer sludge, answered the preceptor. Ricardus shall go but to the top of the hill, and indicate with his digit to the stranger the dwelling of Wayland Smith. Believe not that any evil can come to him, he having read this morning, fasting, a chapter of the Septu-genet, and moreover, having had his lesson in the Great Testament. I, said his mother, and I have sown a sprig of wisheselm in the neck of Unstublet, ever since that foul thief has begun his practices on man and beast in these parts. And as he goes off, as I hugely suspect, towards this conjurer for his own pastime, he may for once go thither, or near it, to pleasure us, and to assist the stranger. The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came stumbling into the room, a queer, shambling, ill-mayed urchin, who by his stunted growth seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, though he was probably in reality a year or two older, with a charity-pain and huge disorder, a freckled, sunburnt visage, with a snub nose, a long chin and two peary gray eyes, which had a droll, obliquity of vision, approaching to his squint, though perhaps not a decided one. It was impossible to look at the little man without some disposition to laugh, especially when Gammer sludge, seizing a pawn and kissing him. In spite of his struggling and kicking and replying to her caresses, termed him her own precious pearl of beauty. Riccardo, 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, Weyland Smith's workshop. A proper errand of a morning, said the boy, in better language than trestling expected, and who knows but the devil may fly away with me before I come back. I, merry-may-un, said Dame Sludge, and you might have thought twice, Master Domini, ere you set my dainty darling on arrow such errand. It is not for such doings I feed your belly and clothe your back, I warn't you. Pasha, no guy, good Gammer Sludge, answered the preceptor. I ensure you that Satan, if there be Satan in the case, shall not touch a thread of his garment, for Dickie can say his potter with the best, and may defy the foul fiend. O minidays, stigmayum qua nefos. I and I, as I said before, have sowed a sprig of the mountain ash into his collar, said the good woman, which will avail more than your clerkship I was, but for all that it is ill to seek the devil or his mates either. My good boy, said Trestling, who saw from a grotesque sneer on Dickie's face that he was more likely to act upon his own bottom than by the instructions of his elders. I will give thee a silver groat, my pretty fellow, if you will but guide me to this man's forage. The boy gave him a knowing sign-look, which seemed to promise acquiescence, while at the same time he exclaimed, I be your guide to Wailand Smith's? Why, man, did I not say that the devil might fly off with me, just as the kite there, looking to the window, is flying off with one of Grandam's chicks? The kite, the kite, exclaimed the old woman in return, and, forgetting all other matters in her alarm, hastened to the rescue of her chickens, as fast as her old legs could carry her. Now for it, said the urchin to Trestling, snatch your beaver, get out your horse, and have at the silver groat you spoke of. Nay, but Terry, Terry, said the preceptor, Suflamina Ricarde. Tear yourself, said Dickie, and think what answer you are to make to Granny for sending me post to the devil. The teacher, aware of the responsibility he was incurring, bustled up in great haste to lay hold of the urchin, and to prevent his departure. But Dickie slipped through his fingers, bolted from the cottage, and spent him to the top of a neighboring rising ground, while the preceptor, despairing, by a well-taught experience, of recovering his people by speed of foot, had recourse to the most honeyed epithets the Latin vocabulary affords to persuade his return. But to Neonima corculum meum, and all such classical endearments, the truant turned a deaf ear, and kept frisking on the top of the rising ground, like a goblin by moonlight, making signs to his new acquaintance, Tressillian, to follow him. The traveler lost no time in getting out his horse, and departing to join his elfish guide. After half-forcing on the poor, deserted teacher, a recompense for the entertainment he'd received, which partly allayed that terror he had for facing the return of the old lady of the mansion. Apparently this took place soon afterwards, for Air Tressillian and his guide had proceeded far on their journey. They heard the screams of a cracked female voice, intermingled with the classical abrogations of master Erasmus Holiday. But Dickie sludge, equally deaf to the voice of internal tenderness, and of magisterial authority, skipped on unconsciously before Tressillian, only observing that if they cried themselves hoarse, they might go lick the honeypot, for he had eaten up all the honeycomb himself on yesterday even.