 CHAPTER XVII Well then, our course is chosen, spread the sail, heave off the lead, and mark the soundings well. Look to the helm, good master. Many a shoal marks the stern coast, and rocks, where sits the siren. Who, like ambition, lures men to their ruin. The Shipwreck During the brief interval that took place betwixt the dismissal of the audience and the setting of the privy council, Lester had time to reflect that he had that morning sealed his own fate. It wasn't possible for him now, he thought, after having in the face of all that was honourable in England pledged his truth, though in an ambiguous phrase, for the statement of Barney, to contradict or disavow it, without exposing himself, not merely to the loss of court favour, but to the highest displeasure of the Queen, his deceived mistress, and to the scorn and contempt at once of his rival, and of all his compares. This certainty rushed at once on his mind, together with all the difficulties which he would necessarily be exposed to, in preserving the secret which seemed now equally essential to his safety, to his power and to his honour. He was situated like one who walks upon ice, ready to give way around him, and whose only safety consists in moving onwards by firm and un-vastlating steps. The Queen's favour, to preserve which he had made such sacrifices, must now be secured by all means and at all hazards. It was the only plank which he could cling to in the tempest. He must settle himself, therefore, to the task of not only preserving, but augmenting the Queen's partiality. He must be the favourite of Elizabeth, or a man utterly shipwrecked in fortune and in honour. All other considerations must be laid aside for the moment, and he propelled the intrusive thoughts which forced on his mind the image of Amy, by saying to himself there would be time to think hereafter how he was to escape from the labyrinth, ultimately, since the pilot who sees Assylla under his bows must not for the time think of the more distant dangers of corruptice. In this mood, the Earl of Lester that day assumed his chair at the council table of Elizabeth, and when the hours of business were over, in this same mood, did he occupy an honour place near her during her pleasure excursion on the Thames, and never did he display to more advantage his powers as a politician of the first rank, or his parts as an accomplished courtier. It chanced that, in that day's council, matters were agitated touching the affairs of the unfortunate Mary, the seventh year of whose captivity in England was now in doleful currency. There had been opinions in favour of this unhappy princess, laid before Elizabeth's council, and supported with much strength of argument by Cessex and others, who dwelt more upon the law of nations and the breach of hospitality, than, however, softened or qualified, was agreeable to the Queen's ear. Lester adopted the contrary opinion with great animation and eloquence, and described the necessity of continuing the severe restraint of the Queen of Scots as a measure essential to the safety of the kingdom, and particularly of Elizabeth's sacred person, the lightest hair of whose head he maintained, ought, in their lordship's estimation, to be matter of more deep and anxious concern than the life and fortunes of a rival, who, after setting up a vain and unjust pretense to the throne of England, was now, even while in the bosom of her country, the constant hope and theme of encouragement to all enemies to Elizabeth, whether at home or abroad. He ended by craving pardon of their lordships, if in the zeal of speech he had given any offence, but the Queen's safety was a thing which hurried him beyond his usual moderation of debate. Both should him, but not severely, for the weight which he attached unduly to her personal interests, yet she owned that since it had been the pleasure of heaven to combine those interests with the will of her subjects. She did only her duty when she adopted such measures of self-preservation as circumstances forced upon her, and if the council and their wisdom should be of opinion that it was needful to continue some restraint on the person of her unhappy sister of Scotland, she trusted they would not blame her if she requested of the countess of Shrewsbury to use her with as much kindness as might be consistent with her safekeeping. And with this intimation of her pleasure the council was dismissed. Never was more anxious and ready way-made for my lord of Lester than as he passed through the crowd and enter rooms to go towards the river-side in order to attend her majesty to her barge. Never was the voice of the ushers louder to make room, make room for the noble earl. Never were these signals more promptly and reverently obeyed. Never were more anxious eyes turned on him to obtain a glance of favour, or even of mere recognition. While the heart of many a humble follower throbbed betwixt the desire to offer his congratulations and the fear of intruding himself on the notice of one so infinitely above him. The whole court considered the issue of this day's audience, expected with so much doubt and anxiety, as a decisive triumph on the part of Lester, and felt assured that the orb of his rival satellite, if not altogether obscured by his Lester, must revolve hereafter in a dimmer and more distant sphere. So thought the court and courtiers from high to low, and they acted accordingly. On the other hand never did Lester return the general greeting with such ready and condescending courtesy, or endeavor more successfully to gather, in the words of one who at that moment stood at no great distance from him, golden opinions from all sorts of men. For all, the favourite earl had a bow, a smile at least, and often a kind word. Most of these were addressed to courtiers whose names have long gone down the tide of oblivion, but some to such as sound strangling our ears when connected with the ordinary matters of human life, above which the gratitude of posterity has long elevated them. A few of Lester's interlocutory sentences ran as follows. Pointings, good-morrow, and how does your wife and fair daughter? Why come they not to court? Adams, your suit is not. The queen will grant no more monopolies. But I may serve you in another manner. My good alderman, Alford, the suit of the city, affecting Queen Hithe, shall be forwarded as far as my poor interests can serve. Master Edmund Spencer, touching your Irish petition, I would willingly aid you, from my love to the muses, but thou hast nettle'd the Lord treasurer. My lord, said the poet, were I permitted to explain, come to my lodging, Edmund, answer the earl, not to-morrow or next day, but soon. Ha! Will Shakespeare, wild will, thou hast given my nephew Philip Sidney love-powder, he cannot sleep without thy Venus and Adonis under his pillow. We will have thee hang'd for the various wizard in Europe. Hark thee, mad wag, I have not forgotten thy matter of the patent and of the bears. The player bowed, and the earl nodded and passed on, so that age would have told the tale. In ours, perhaps, we might say the immortal had done homage to the mortal. The next tomb the favourite accosted was one of his own zealous dependents. How now, Sir Francis Denning, he whispered, in answer to his exulting salutation, that's mild hath made thy face shorter by one-third than when I first saw it this morning. What, Master Boyer, stand you back, and thank you, I bear malice. You did what your duty this morning, and if I remember odd of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour. Then the earl was approached, with several fantastic conges by a person quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiously slashed and pinked with crimson satin, a long cox feather in the velvet bonnet, which he held in his hand, and an enormous ruff, stiffened to the extremity of the absurd taste of the times, joined with a sharp, lively, conceited expression of countenance, seemed to body forth a vain, hair-brained coxcomb and small wint, while the rod he held, an assumption of formal authority, appeared to express some sense of official consequence, which qualified the natural pertness of his manner. A perpetual blush, which occupied rather the sharp nose than the thin cheek of his personage, seemed to speak more of good life, as it was called, than of modesty, and the manner in which he approached to the earl, confirmed that suspicion. Good even to you, Master Robert Lanham, said Luster, and seemed desirous to pass forward without further speech. I have a suit to your noble lordship, said the figure, boldly following him. And what is it, good master, keeper of the council chamber door? Clerk of the council chamber door, said Master Robert Lanham, with emphasis, by way of reply and of correction. Well, qualify thine office as thou wilt man, replied the earl. What wouldest thou have with me? Answered Lanham. That your lordship would be as here to fore, my good lord, and procure me license to attend the summer progress unto your lordship's most beautiful and all-to-be-unmatched castle of Kenneworth. To what purpose, good master Lanham? Replied the earl. Be-think you, my guest must needs me many. Not so many, replied the petitioner, but that your nobleness will willingly spare your old servitor, his crib and his mess. Be-think you, my lord, how necessary is this rod of mine to fright away all those listeners, who also play at Bo Peep with the honorable council, and be searching for key-holes and crannies in the door of the chamber, so as to render my staff as needful as a fly-flap in a butcher's shop. Be-think you have found out a fly-blown comparison for the honorable council, Master Lanham, said the earl. But seek not about to justify it. Come to Kenneworth, if you list. There will be store of fools therebesides, and so you will be fitted. Nay, and there be fools, my lord, replied Lanham, with much glee. I warn't, I will make sport among them, for no Greyhound loves to coat a hair, as I deturn in course a fool. But I have another singular favor to beseech of your honor. Take it, and let me go, said the earl. I think the Queen comes forth instantly. My very good lord, I would feign bring a bedfellow with me. How, you irreverent rascal, said Lester. Nay, my lord, my meaning is within the cannons. Answered his unblushing, or rather his ever-blushing petitioner. I have a wife as curious as her grandmother, who ate the apple. Now, take her with me, I may not, her highness's orders being so strict against the officers, bringing with them their wives in a progress, and so lumbering the court with womankind. But what I would crave of your lordship is to find room for her in some mummery, or pretty pageant in disguise, as it were, so that not being known for my wife, there may be no offence. The falphine sees you both, said Lester, stung into uncontrollable passion by the recollections which this speech excited. Why stop you, me, with such follies? The terrified clerk of the chamber-door, astonished at the burst of resentment he had so unconsciously produced, dropped his staff of office from his hand, and gazed on the incense-drill, with the foolish face of wonder and terror, which instantly recalled Lester to himself. I meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits thine office, said he hastily. Come to Kelleworth, and bring the double with thee, if thou wilt. My wife, sir, hath played the double ear now, in a mystery, in Queen Mary's time, but we shall want a trifle for properties. Here is a crown for thee, said the earl. Make me rid of thee, the great bell rings. Master Robert Lennon stared a moment at the agitation which he had excited, and then said to himself, as he stooped to pick up his staff of office. The noble earl runs wild humorous today, but they who give crowns expect us, woody fellows, to wink at their unsettled starts, and by my faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would finger them tightly. Reader's note, note 6, chapter 17, Robert Lennon. Little is known of Robert Lennon, save in his curious letter to a friend in London, giving in account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainments at Kelleworth, written in a style of the most intolerable affectation, both in point of composition and orthography. He described himself as a bon vivant, who was want to be jolly and dry in the morning, and by his good will would be chiefly in the company of the ladies. He was, by the interest of Lord Lester, clerk of the council chamber door, and also keeper of the same. When council sits, says he, I am at hand, if any makes a babbling, peace, say I. If I see a listener or a prior in at the chinks or lockhole, I am presently on the bones of him. If a friend comes, I make him sit down, by me, on a form or chest. The rest may walk a God's name. There has been seldom a better portrait of the pragmatic conceit and self-importance of a small man in office. Lester moved hastily on, neglecting the courtesies he had hitherto dispensed so liberally, and hurrying through the courtly crowd, until he paused in a small withdrawing-room, into which he plunged to draw a moment's breath unobserved and in seclusion. What am I now, he said to himself, that I am thus jaded by the words of a mean, weather-beaten, goose-brained gull. Conscience, thou art a bloodhound, whose growl wakes us readily at the paltry stir of a rat or mouse, as at the step of a lion. Can I not quip myself by one bold stroke, of a state so irksome, so unhonored? What if I kneel to Elizabeth, and, owning the whole, throw myself on her mercy? As he pursued this train of thought, the door of the apartment opened and Barney rushed in. Thank God, my lord, that I have found you, was his exclamation. Thank the devil, whose agent, thou art, was the earl's reply. Thank whom you will, my lord, replied Barney, but hastened to the water-side, the queen is on board and asks for you. Go, say I am taken suddenly ill, replied Lester, for by heaven my brain can sustain this no longer. I may well say so, said Barney, with bitterness of expression, for your place I, and mine, who was your master of the horse, was to have attended your lordship, is already filled up in the queen's barge. The new minion, Walter Raleigh, and our old acquaintance, Tresselian, were called forward to fill our places, just as I hastened away to seek you. Thou art a devil, Barney, said Lester hastily, but thou hast the mastery for the present, I follow thee. Barney replied not, but led the way out of the palace and towards the river, while his master followed him, as if mechanically, until, looking back, he said in a tone which savoured of familiarity at least, if not of authority. How is this, my lord? Your cloak hangs on one side. Your hoses are embraced. Permit me. Thou art a fool, Barney, as well as a knave, said Lester, shaking him off, and rejecting his officious assistance. We are best thus, sir, when we require you to order our person, it is well, but now we want you not. So saying that Earl resumed at once his air of command, and with it his self-possession, shook his dress into yet wilder disorder, past before Barney, with the air of the superior and master, and in his turn led the way to the river side. The queen's bard was on the very point of putting off, the seat allotted to Lester and the stern, and that to his master of the horse on the bow of the boat, being already filled up. But on Lester's approach there was a pause, as if the bargeman anticipated some alteration in their company. The angry spot was, however, on the queen's cheek, as in that cold tone, with which superiors endeavored to veil their internal agitation, while speaking to those before whom it would be derogation to express it. She pronounced the chilling words, We have waited, my lord of Lester. Madam and most gracious princess, said Lester, you who can pardon so many weaknesses, which your own heart never knows, can best bestow your commissuration on the agitations of the bosom, which, for a moment, affect both head and limbs. I came to your presence a-dowting in an accused subject, your goodness penetrated the clouds of defamation, and restored me to my honor. And what is yet dearer to your favor? Is it wonderful, though for me it is most unhappy, that my master of the horse should have found me in the state which scarce permitted me to make the exertion necessary to follow him to this place, when one glance of your highness, although alas, an angry one, has had power to do that for me in which Escalepius might have failed? How is this, said Elizabeth hastily, looking at Barney? Hath your lord been ill? Something of a feigning fit, answered the ready-witted Barney, as your grace may observe from his present condition. My lord's haste would not permit me leisure even to bring his dress in order. It matters not, said Elizabeth, as she gazed on the noble face and form of Lester, to which even the strange mixture of passions by which he had been so lately agitated gave additional interest. Make room for my noble lord. Your place, master Barney, has been filled up. You must find a seat in another barge. Barney bowed and withdrew. And you, too, are young squire of the cloak, added she, looking at Raleigh, must for the time go to the barge of our ladies of honor. As for Treselyan, he hath already suffered too much by the caprice of women that I should agree with him by my change of plan, so far as he is concerned. Treselyan interceded himself in his place in the barge and close to the sovereign. Raleigh rose to retire, and Treselyan would have been so ill-timed in his courtesy as to offer to relinquish his own place to his friend, had not the acute glance of Raleigh himself, who seemed now in his native element, made him sensible that so ready a disclamation of the royal favor might be misinterpreted. He sat silent, therefore, whilst Raleigh, with a profound bow and a look of the deepest humiliation, was about to quit his place. A noble courtier, the gallant Lord Willoughby, read as he thought something in the queen's face which seemed to pity Raleigh's real or assumed semblance of mortification. It is not for us old courtiers, he said, to hide the sunshine from the young ones. I will with her majesties leave, relinquish for an hour, that which her subjects hold dearest, the delight of her highnesses' presence, and mortify myself by walking in starlight, while I forsake for a brief season the glory of Diana's own beams. I will take place in the boat, which the ladies occupy, and permit this young cavalier his hour of promise felicity. The queen replied with an expression betwixt mirth and earnest, if you are so willing to leave us, my lord, we cannot help the mortification. But under favour, we do not trust you, old and experienced as you may deem yourself, with the care of our young ladies of honour. Your venerable age, my lord, she continued smiling, may be better assorted with that of my lord treasure, who follows in the third boat, and by whose experience even my lord Willoughby's may be improved. Lord Willoughby hid his disappointment under a smile, laughed, was confused, bowed, and left the queen's barge to go on board, my lord Burley's. Lester, who endeavored to divert his thoughts from all internal reflection by fixing them on what was passing around, watched this circumstance among others. But when the boat put off from the shore, when the music sounded from a barge which accompanied them, when the shouts of the populace were heard from the shore, and all reminded him of the situation in which he was placed, he abstracted his thoughts and feelings by a strong effort from everything but the necessity of maintaining himself in the favour of his patroness, and exerted his talents of pleasing captivation with such success that the queen, alternately delighted with his conversation and alarmed for his health, at length imposed a temporary silence on him, with playful yet anxious care, lest his flow of spirits should exhaust him. My lord, she said, having passed for a time our edict of silence upon our good Lester, we will call you to counsel on a gamesome matter more fitted to be now treated of amidst mirth and music than in the gravity of our ordinary deliberations. Which of you, my lord, said she, smiling? No ought of a petition from Orson, pennant, the keeper, as he qualifies himself, of our royal bears, who stands godfather to his request. Mary, with your grace's good permission, that do I, said the Earl of Sussex. Orson, pennant, was a stout soldier before he was so mangled by the skeins of the Irish clan, Macdonough. And I trust your grace will be, as you always have been, good mistress to your good and trusty servants. Surely, said the Queen, it is our purpose to be so and inespecial to our poor soldiers and sailors, who hazard their lives for little pay. We would give, she said, with her eye sparkling, yonder royal palace of ours, to be a hospital for their use, rather than they should call their mistress ungrateful. But this is not the question, she said. Her voice, which had been awakened by her patriotic feelings, once more subsiding into the tone of gay and easy conversation. For this Orson, pennant's request goes something further. He complains that, amidst the extreme delight with which men haunt the playhouses, and inespecial their eager desire for seeing the exhibitions of, one will Shakespeare, whom I think my lords we have all heard something of. The manly amusement of bear-bathing is falling into comparative neglect, since men will rather throng to see these rogish players kill each other in jest, than to see our royal dogs and bears worry each other in bloody earnest. What say you to this, my lord of Cessex? Why truly, gracious madam, said Cessex, you must expect little from an old soldier like me in favor of battles in sport, when they are compared with battles in earnest. And yet, by my faith, I wish will Shakespeare no harm. He is a stout man at quarter-staff, and single-fulsion, though, as I am told, a halting fellow. And he stood, they say, a tough fight with the rangers of old Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charles Coat, when he broke his dear park and kissed his keeper's daughter. I cry you mercy, my lord of Cessex, said Queen Elizabeth, interrupting him. That matter was heard in council, and we will not have this fellow's offence exaggerated. There was no kissing in the matter, and the defendant hath put the denial on record. But what say you to his present practice, my lord, on the stage? For there lies the point, and not in any ways touching his former errors, in breaking parks or the other follies you speak of. Why truly, madam, replied Cessex, as I said before, I wish the game some mad fellow no injury. Some of his horse and poetry, I crave your grace as pardon for such a phrase, has wrung in my ears as if the line sounded to boot and saddle. But then it is all froth and folly, no substance or seriousness in it, as your grace is already well touched. What are half a dozen names, with rusty foils and tattered targets, making but a mere mockery of a stout fight, to compare to the royal game of bear-baiting, which hath been graced by your Highness's countenance and that of your royal predecessors, in this year's Princely Kingdom, famous for matchless mastiffs and bold bear wards over all Christendom? Greatly is it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if mentioned wrong to hear the lungs of an idle player, bulge forth nonsensical bombast, instead of bestowing their pence and encouraging the bravest image of war that can be shown in peace? And that is the sports of the bear garden. There you may see the bear lying at guard, with his red, pinky eyes, watching the onset of the mastiff, like a wily captain, who maintains his defense, that an assailant may be tempted to venture within his danger. And then comes Sir Mastiff, like a worthy champion, in full career at the throat of his adversary. And then shall Sir Bruin teach him the reward for those who, in their over-courage, neglect the policies of war, and catching him in his arms, strain him to his breast like a lusty wrestler, until rib after rib crack like the shot of a pistolet. And then another mastiff, as bold, but with better aim and sounder judgment, catches Sir Bruin by the netherlip, and hangs fast, while he tosses about his blood and slather, and tries in vain to shake Sir Talpott from his hold. And then, named by my honor, my lord, said the queen laughing, you describe the hole so admirably that had we never seen a bear-baiting, as we have beheld many, and hope with heaven's allowance to see many more. Your words were sufficient to put the whole bear-garden before our eyes. But come, who speaks next? In this case, my lord of Lester, what say you? Am I then to consider myself as un-muzzled, please your grace? replied Lester. Surely, my lord, that is if you feel hardy enough to take part in our game, answered Elizabeth. And yet, when I think of your cognizance of the bear and ragged staff, we think we have better hear some less partial orator. Nay, on my word, gracious princess, said the earl, though my brother and bros of Warwick and I do carry the ancient cognizance, your highness stains to remember. I nevertheless desire nothing but fair play on all sides, or as they say, flight dog, fight bear. And in behalf of the players, I must need say that they are witty nays, whose rants and jests keep the minds of the commons from busying themselves with state affairs, and listening to traitorous speeches, idle rumors, and disloyal insinuations. When men are agape to see how Marlowe, Shakespeare, and other play-artificers work out their fanciful plots, as they call them, the mind of the spectators is withdrawn from the conduct of their rulers. We would not have the mind of our subjects withdrawn from the consideration of our own conduct, my lord, answered Elizabeth, because the more closely it is examined, the true motives by which we are guided, will appear the more manifest. I have heard, however, madam, said the dean of St. Ossoff's, an eminent puritan, that these players are want in their plays not only to introduce profane and lute expressions, tending to foster sin and harlotry, but even to bellow out such reflections on government, its origin and its object, as tend to render the subject discontented, and shake the solid foundations of civil society, and it seems to be under your gracious favour, far less than safe, to permit these naughty, foul-mouthed nays to ridicule the godly for their decent gravity, and, in blasphemy, heaven and slandering its earthly rulers, to senate defiance the laws both of God and man. If we could think this for true, my lord, said Elizabeth, we should give sharp correction for such offenses, but it is ill arguing against the use of anything from its abuse. And touching this Shakespeare, we think there is that in his plays that is worth twenty bear gardens, and that this new undertaking of his chronicles, as he calls them, may entertain, with honest mirth, mangled with useful instruction, not only our subjects, but even the generation which may succeed to us. Your Majesty's reign will need no such feeble aid to make it remembered to the latest posterity, said Lester. And yet in his way Shakespeare hath so touched some incidence of Your Majesty's happy government, as may countervail what has been spoken by his reverence, the Dean of St. Asif's. There are some lines, for example, I would my nephew Philip Sidney were here, there scarce ever out of his mouth, there spoken in a mad tale of fairies, love charms, and I won't not want besides. But beautiful they are, however short they may, and must involve the subject to which they bear a bold relation. And Philip murmurs them, I think, even in his dreams. You tantalize us, my lord, said the Queen. Master Philip Sidney is, we know, a minion of the Muses, and we are pleased it should be so. Valor never shines, to more advantage, than when united with the true taste and love of letters. But surely there are some others among our young courtiers who can recollect what Your Lordship has forgotten amid way to Your affairs. Master Tressylian, you are described to me as a worshiper of Minerva. Remember you ought of these lines. Tressylian's heart was too heavy, his prospects in life too fatally blinded, to profit by the opportunity which the Queen thus offered to him, of attracting her attention. But he determined to transfer the advantage to his more ambitious young friend, and excusing himself on the score of want of recollection, he added that he believed the beautiful verses of which my Lord of Lester had spoken were in the remembrance of Master Walter Raleigh. At the command of the Queen, that cavalier repeated, with accent and manner, which even added to their exquisite delicacy of tact and beauty, of description, the celebrated vision of Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, flying between the cold moon and the earth, Cupid all armed, a certain aim he took at a fair vessel, thrown by the west, and loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow, as it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft quenched in the chase beams of the watery moon. And the imperial votress passed on, and made in meditation, fancy free. The voice of Raleigh, as he repeated the last lines, became a little tremulous, as if diffident, how the sovereign to whom the homage was addressed, might receive it, exquisite as it was. If this diffidence was affected, it was good policy. But if real, there was little occasion for it. The verses were not probably new to the queen, for when was ever such elegant flattery, long in reaching the royal ear to which it was addressed. But they were not the less welcome, when repeated by such a speaker as Raleigh. alike delighted with the matter, the manner, and the graceful form and animated countenance of the gallant young reciter, Elizabeth kept time to every cadence, with look and with finger. When the speaker had ceased, she murmured over the last lines as if scarce cautious that she was overheard. And as she uttered the words, in maiden meditation, fancy free, she dropped into the Thames the supplication of Orson Pinnott, keeper of the royal bears, to find more favorable acceptance at sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it. Lester whispered to emulation by the success of the young courteers' exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a high-metaled colt passes him on the way. He turned the discourse on shows, banquets, pageants, and on the character of those by whom these gay scenes were then frequenten. He mixed acute observation with light satire, in that just proportion, which was free alike from malignant slander and insipid praise. He mimicked with ready accent the manners of the affected or the clownish, and made his own graceful tone and manner seem doubly such when he resumed it. Foreign countries, their customs, their manners, the rules of their courts, the fashions, and even the dress of their ladies, were equally his theme. And seldom did he conclude without conveying some compliment, always couched in delicacy, and expressed with propriety to the Virgin Queen, her court, and her government. Thus passed the conversation during this pleasure voyage, seconded by the rest of the attendants upon the royal person in gay discourse, varied by remarks upon ancient classics and modern authors, and enriched by maxims of deep policy and sound morality, by the statesmen and sages who sat around and mixed wisdom with the lighter talk of a female court. When they returned to the palace, Elizabeth accepted, or rather selected, the arm of Lester to support her from the stairs where they landed to the Great Gate. It even seemed to him, though that might arise from the flattery of his own imagination, that during the short passage she leaned on him somewhat more than the slipiness of the way necessarily demanded. Certainly her actions and words combined to express a degree of favor, which, even in his proudest day, he had not till then attained. His rival indeed was repeatedly graced by the Queen's notice, but it was in manner that seemed to flow less from spontaneous inclination than is extorted by a sense of his merit, and in the opinion of many experienced courtiers, all the favor she showed him was overbalanced by her whispering in the ear of the Lady Darby, that now she saw sickness was a better alchemist than she before wanted of it, seeing in a change my Lord of Sussex's copper nose into a golden one. The jest transpired, and the earl of Lester enjoyed his triumph, as one to whom court favor had been both the primary and the ultimate motive of life. While he forgot, in the intoxication of the moment, the perplexities and dangers of his own situation. Indeed, strange as it may appear, he thought less at that moment of the perils arising from his secret union than of the marks of grace which Elizabeth from time to time showed to young Raleigh. They were indeed transient, but they were conferred on one accomplished in mind and body, with grace, gallantry, literature, and valor. An accident occurred in the course of the evening which riveted Lester's attention to this object. The nobles and courtiers who had attended the Queen on her pleasure expedition were invited with royal hospitality to a splendid banquet in the Hall of the Palace. The table was not, indeed, graced by the presence of the Sovereign, for agreeable to her idea of what was at once modest and dignified, the maiden Queen on such occasions was want to take in private, or with one or two favorite ladies, her lied in temperate meal. After a moderate interval the court again met in the splendid gardens of the Palace, and it was while thus engaged that the Queen suddenly asked a lady who was near to her both in place and favor, what had become of the young squire lack cloak. The lady pageant answered, she had seen Master Raleigh but two or three minutes since standing at the window of a small pavilion or a pleasure-house, which looked out on the Thames and riding on the glass with a diamond ring. That ring, said the Queen, was a small token I gave him to make amends for his spoiled mantle. Come, pageant, let us see what you see is made of it, for I can see through him already. He is a marvelously sharp-witted spirit. They went to the spot, within sight of which, but at some distance, the young Cavalier still lingered, as the Fowler watches the net, which he has set. The Queen approached the window on which Raleigh had used her gift to inscribe the following line. Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall. The Queen smiled, read it twice over, once with deliberation to Lady Pageant, and once again to herself. It is a pretty beginning, she said, after the consideration of a moment or two, but me thinks the Muses have deserted the young Witt at the very outset of his task. It were good-natured, were it not Lady Pageant, to complete it for him. Try your rhyming faculties. Lady Pageant, prosaic from her cradle upwards, as ever any lady of the bed-chamber before or after her, disclaimed all possibility of assisting the young poet. Nay then, we must sacrifice to the Muses ourselves, said Elizabeth. The incense of no one can be more acceptable, said Lady Pageant, and your highness will impose such obligation on the ladies of Parnassus. Hush, Pageant, said the Queen, you speak sacrilege against the immortal nine, yet virgins themselves, they should be extroval to a virgin queen, and therefore let me see how he runs his first, feign when I climb, but that I fear to fall. Might not the answer, for a fault of a better, run thus. If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all. The day of honor uttered an exclamation of joy and surprise at so happy a termination, and certainly a worse has been applauded, even when coming from a less distinguished author. The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring and sang, We will give this gallant some cause of marvel when he finds his couplet perfected without his own interference. She wrote her own line beneath that of Raleigh. The Queen left the pavilion, but retiring slowly and often looking back, she could see the young cavalier, steel, with the flight of a lap wing, towards the place where he had seen her make a pause. She stayed but to observe, as she said, that her train had taken. And then, laughing at the circumstance with the Lady Paget, she took the way slowly towards the palace. Elizabeth, as they returned, cautioned her companion not to mention to any one the aid which she had given to the young poet, and Lady Paget promised scrupulous secrecy. It is to be supposed that she made a mental reservation in favor of Lester, to whom her ladyship transmitted without delay, an anecdote so little calculated to give him pleasure. Raleigh, in the meanwhile, stole back to the window in red, with the feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him by the Queen, in person, to follow out his ambitious career, and return to Sussex and his retinue, then on the point of embarking to go up the river. His heart beating high with gratified pride and with hope of future distinction. The reverence due to the person of the Earl prevented any notice being taken of the reception he had met with at court, until they had landed and the household were assembled in the Great Hall at Seya's Court, while that Lord, exhausted by his late illness and the fatigues of the day, had retired to his chamber, demanding the attendance of Weyland, his successful physician. Weyland, however, was nowhere to be found, and while some of the party were with military impatience, seeking him in cursing his absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him on his prospects of court favor. He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive circumstance of the couplet to which Elizabeth had deigned to find a rhyme, but other indications had transpired which plainly intimated that he had made some progress in the Queen's favor. All hastened to wish him joy on the mended appearance of his fortune, some from real regard, some perhaps from hopes that his preferment might hasten their own, and rose from a mixture of these motives, and a sense that the countenance shown to any one of Sussex's household was, in fact, a triumph to the whole. Raleigh returned the kindest thanks to them all, disowning, with becoming modesty, that one day's fair reception made a favorite, any more than one swallow a summer. But he observed that Blount did not join in the general congratulation, and somewhat hurt at his apparent unkindness he plainly asked him the reason. Not replied with equal sincerity. My good Walter, I wish thee as well as do any of these chattering goals, who are whistling and whooping graduations in thine ear, because it seems fair weather with thee. But I fear for thee, Walter. And he wiped his honest eye. I fear for thee with all my heart. These court tricks and gambles, and flashes of fine women's favor, are the tricks and trinkets that bring fair fortunes to farthings, and fine faces and woody coxcombs to the acquaintance of dull block and sharp axes. So sane, Blount arose and left the hall, while Raleigh looked after him with an expression that blanked for a moment his bold and animated countenance. Stanley just then entered the hall and said to Tresselian, My lord is calling for your fellow Wayland, and your fellow Wayland has just come hither in a scholar, and is calling for you, nor will he go to my lore till he sees you. The fellow looks as he were mazed, me thinks. I would you would see him immediately. Tresselian instantly left the hall, and causing Wayland Smith to be shown into a withdrawing apartment, and lights placed, he conducted the artist's thither, and was surprised when he observed the emotion of his countenance. What is the matter with you, Smith? Said Tresselian, have you seen the devil? Worse, sir, worse, replied Wayland. I have seen a basilisk. Thank God I saw him first. For being so seen and seen not me, he will do the less harm. In God's name speak sense, said Tresselian, and say what you mean. I have seen my old master, said the artist. Last night a friend whom I had acquired took me to see the palace clock, judging me to be curious in such works of art. At the window of a turret next to the clockhouse I saw my old master. Now must needs have been mistaken, said Tresselian. I was not mistaken, said Wayland. He that once hath his features by heart would know him amongst a million. He was antically habited, but he cannot disguise himself for me, God be praised, as I can from him. I will not, however, tempt providence by remaining within his kin. Tarleton, the player himself, could not so disguise himself, but that sooner or later Dububi would find him out. I must away tomorrow, for as we stand together it were death to me to remain within reach of him. But the Earl of Sussex, said Tresselian, he is in little danger from what he hitherto taken, provided he swallowed the matter of a bean-size of the Orveton every morning fasting, but let him beware of a relapse. And how was that to be guarded against, said Tresselian? Only by such caution as you would use against the devil, answered Wayland, let my lord's clerk of the kitchen kill his lord's meat himself and dress it himself, using no spice but what he procures from the surest hands. Let the sewer serve it up himself, and let the master of my lord's household, see that both the clerk and sewer, taste the dishes which the one dresses and the other serves. Let my lord use no perfumes which come not from well-accredited persons, no unguents, no pomades. Let him on no account drink with strangers, or eat fruit with them, either in the way of noonine or otherwise. Especially let him observe such caution if he goes to Kenilworth. The excuse of his illness, and his being under diet, will and must cover the strangeness of such practice. And now, said Tresselian, what does thou think to make of thyself? France, Spain, either India, east or west, shall be my refuge, said Wayland, ere I venture my life by residing within Ken of Dububi, Demetrius, or whatever else he calls himself for the time. Well, said Tresselian, this happens not inopportunely. I had business for you in Berkshire, but in opposite extremity to the place where thou art known. And ere thou hast found out this new reason for living private, I had settled to send thee thither upon a secret envisage. The artist expressed himself, willing to receive his commands, and to Tresselian, knowing he was well acquainted with the outline of this business at court, frankly explained to him the whole, mentioned the agreement which subsisted between Straus, Gosling, and him, and told what had that day been avert in the present chamber by Varney, and supported by Lester. Thou seeest, he added, that in the circumstances in which I am placed, it behooves me to keep a narrow watch on the emotions of these unprincipled men, Varney and his accomplices, Foster and Lamborn, as well as on those of my Lord Lester himself, who I suspect is partly a deceiver, and not altogether the deceived in that matter. Here is my ring, as a pledge to Giles Gosling. Here is besides gold which shall be troubled if thou serve me faithfully. Away down to Cumner, and see what happens there. I go with double good will, said the artist. First because I serve your honour, who has been so kind to me, and then that I may escape my old master, who if not an absolute incarnation of the double, has at least as much of the demon about him in will, word, and action as ever polluted humanity. And yet let him take care of me. I fly him now as here's before, but if like the Scottish wild cattle I am vexed by frequent pursuit, I may turn on him in hate and desperation. Readers note, a remnant of the wild cattle of Scotland are preserved in Chillingham Castle, near Wooler, in Northumberland, the seat of Lord Tancreville. They fly before strangers, but if disturbed and followed they term with fury to those who persist in annoying them. Readers note, Will your honour command my nag to be saddled? I will but give the medicine to my lord, divided in its proper proportions, with a few instructions. His safety will then depend on the care of his friends and domestics, for the past he has guarded, but let him beware of the future. Wayland Smith accordingly made his farewell visit to the Earl of Sussex, dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions concerning his diet, and left say his court without waiting for morning. End CHAPTER XVIII. The moment comes, it is already come, when thou must write the absolute total of thy life's vast sum. The constellations stand victorious, or thee, the planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions, and tell thee, now is the time. Schiller's Vonenstein by Courage. When lest a return to his lodging, after a day so important and so harassing, in which after riding out more than one gale and touching on more than one shoal, his bar can finally gain the harbor, with banner displayed. He seemed to experience as much fatigue as a mariner after a perilous storm. He spoke not a word while his chamberlain exchanged his rich court mantel for a furred night-room, and when this officer signified that Master Barney desired to speak with his lordship, he replied only by a sullen nod. Barney, however, entered, accepting this signal as a permission, and the chamberlain withdrew. Barney remained silent and almost motionless in his chair, his head reclined on his hand, and his elbow resting upon the table which stood beside him, without seeming to be cautious of the entrance or of the presence of his confidant. Barney waited for some minutes until he should speak, desirous to know what was the final predominant mood of a mind through which so many powerful emotions had that day taken their course. But he waited in vain, for Lester continued, still silent, and the confidant saw himself under the necessity of being the first to speak. May I congratulate your lordship, he said. On the deserved superiority you have to stay attained over your most formidable rival. Lester raised his head and answered sadly, but without anger. Thou, Barney, whose ready invention is involved me in a web of most mean and perilous falsehood, know as best what small reason there is for a graduation on the subject. Do you blame me, my lord, said Barney, for not betraying on the first push, the secret on which your fortunes depended and which you have so often so earnestly recommended to my safe keeping? Your lordship was present in person, and might have contradicted me and ruined yourself by an avowal of the truth. But surely it was no part of a faithful servant to have done so without your commands. I cannot deny it, Barney, said the Earl, rising and walking across the room. My own ambition has been traded to my love. Say rather, my lord, that your love has been traded to your greatness, and barred you from such a prospect of honor and power as the world cannot offer to any other. To make my honored lady accountess you have missed the chance of being yourself. He paused and seemed unwilling to complete the sentence. Of being myself what? demanded Lester. Speak out thy meaning, Barney. Of being yourself a king, my lord, replied Barney, and king of England to boot. It is no treason to our queen to say so. It would have chance by her obtaining that which all true subjects wish her, a lusty noble and gallant husband. Thou ravest, Barney, answered Lester. Besides, our times have seen enough to make men loathe the crown matrimonial which men take from their wives' lap. There was darnly in Scotland. He, said Barney, a gull, a fool, a thrice-sauden-ass, who suffered himself to be fired off into the air like a rocket on a rejoicing day. Had Mary had the habit to have wedded the noble earl, once destined to share her throne, she had experienced a husband of different metal, and her husband had found in her a wife as complying and loving as the maiden of the meanest squire who follows the hounds a horseback and holds her husband's bridle as he mounts. It might have been, as thou sayest, Barney, said Lester, a brief smile of self-satisfaction passing over his anxious countenance. Henry Darnley knew little of women, with Mary, a man who knew her sex, might have had some chance of holding his own. But not with Elizabeth Barney, for I thank God when he gave her the heart of a woman gave her the head of a man to control its follies. No, I know her. She will accept love tokens, I, and requite them with the like. Put sugared sonnets in her bosom, I, and answer them, too. Push gallantry to the very verge where it becomes exchange of affection. But she writes, no ultra, to all which is to follow, and would not barter one iota of her own supreme power for all the alphabet of both Cupid and Hyman. The better for you, my lord, said Barney, that is, in the case supposed, if such be her disposition, since you think you cannot aspire to become her husband, her favorite you are, and may remain, if the lady at come her place continues in her present obscurity. Poor Amy, said Lester, with a deep sigh. She desires so earnestly to be acknowledged in presence of God and man. I, but my lord, said Barney, is her desire reasonable? That is the question. Her religious groupals are solved. She is an honored and beloved wife, enjoying the society of her husband at such times as his way dear duties permit him to afford her as company. What would she more? I am unsure that a lady so gentle and so loving would consent to live her life through in a certain obscurity, which is after all not dimmer than when she was at Lidcote Hall, rather than diminish the least joy of her lords, honors, and greatness by a premature attempt to share them. There is something in what thou sayest, said Lester, and her appearance here were fatal. Yet she must be seen at Kenilworth. Elizabeth will not forget that she has so appointed. Let me sleep on that hard point, said Barney. I cannot else perfect the device I have on the Stithi, which I trust will satisfy the queen and please my honored lady. Yet leave this fatal secret where it is now buried. Has your lordship further commands for the night? I would be alone, said Lester. Leave me and place my steel casket on the table. Be within summons. Barney retired and the Earl, opening the window of his apartment, looked out long and anxiously upon the brilliant host of stars, which glimmered in the splendor of summer firmament. The words burst from him, as that unawares. I had never more need than the heavenly bodies, should befriend me, for my earthly path is darkened and confused. It is well known that the age reposed a deep confidence in the vain predictions of judicial astrology, and Lester, though exempt from the general control of superstition, was not in this respect superior to his time, but on the contrary, was remarkable for the encouragement which he gave to the professors of this pretended science. Indeed, the wish to pry into futurity, so general among the human race, is peculiarly to be found amongst those who trade in state mysteries and the dangerous intrigues and cabals of courts. With heedful precaution to see that it had not been opened or its locks tampered with, Lester applied a key to the steel casket and drew from it first a parcel of gold pieces, which he put into a silk purse. Then a parchment inscribed with planetary signs and the lines and calculations used in framing horoscopes, on which he gazed intently for a few moments. And lastly took forth a large key, which, lifting beside the tapestry, he applied to a little concealed door in the corner of the apartment. And opening it disclosed a stair constructed in the thickness of the wall. Alaska, said the Earl, with a voice raised, yet no higher raise than to be heard by the inhabitant of the small turret to which the stair conducted. Alaska, I say, descend. I come, my lord. Answer the voice from above. The foot of an agent man was heard slowly descending the narrow stair, and Alaska entered the Earl's apartment. The astrologer was a little man and seemed much advanced in age, for his beard was long and white and reached over his black doublet down to his silken girdle. His hair was of the same venerable hue, but his eyebrows were as dark as the keen and piercing black eyes, which they shaded, and this peculiarity gave a wild and singular cast to the physiognomy of the old man. His cheek was still fresh and ruddy, and the eyes we had mentioned resembled those of a rat in acuteness and even fierceness of expression. His manner was not without a sort of dignity, and the interpreter of the stars, though respectful, seemed all together at his ease, and even assumed a tone of instruction and command in conversing with the prime favorite of Elizabeth. Your prognostications have failed, Alaska, said the Earl, when they had exchanged salutations. He is recovering. My son replied the astrologer, let me remind you I warranted not his death, nor is there any prognostication that can be derived from the heavenly bodies, their aspects and their conjunctions, which is not liable to be controlled by the will of heaven. Of what avail, then, is your mystery, inquired the Earl. Of much, my son, replied the old man, since it can show the natural and probable course of events, although that course moves in subordination to a higher power. Thus, in reviewing the horoscope, which your Lordship subjected to my skill, you will observe that Saturn, being in the sixth house, in opposition to Mars, retrograde in the house of life, cannot but denote long and dangerous sickness. The issue, whereof, is in the will of heaven, though death may probably be inferred. Yet if I knew the name of the party, I would erect another scheme. His name is a secret, said the Earl. Yet I must stone thy prognostication have not been unfaithful. He has been sick, and dangerously so. Not, however, to death. But hast thou again cast my horoscope, as Barney directed thee, an art that prepared to say what the stars tell of my present fortune? My art stands at your command, said the old man, and here, my son, is the map of thy fortunes, brilliant in aspect as ever beamed from those blessed signs whereby our life is influenced, yet not uncheckered with fears, difficulties, and dangers. My lot were more than mortal, were it otherwise, said the Earl. Proceed, father, and believe you speak with one ready to undergo his destiny in action and in passion, as may be seem a noble of England. Thy courage to do and to suffer must be wound up yet a strained hire, said the old man. The stars intimate yet a prouder title, yet a higher rank. It is for thee to guess their meaning, not for me to name it. Name it, I conjure you. Name it, I command you, said the Earl, his eyes brightening as he spoke. I may not, and I will not, replied the old man. The eye of princes is as the wrath of a lion, but mark and judge for thyself. Here Venus, ascendant in the house of life, and conjoined with soul, showers down the flood of silver light, and blent with gold, which promises power, wealth, dignity, all that the proud heart of man desires. And in such abundance, that never the future augustus of that old and mighty room, heard from his herespises such a tale of glory, as from this rich text my lore might read to my favorite son. Thou dost but jest with me, father, said the Earl, astonished at the strain of enthusiasm in which the astrologer delivered his prediction. Is it for him to jest who hath his eye on heaven, who hath his foot in the grave? Returned the old man solemnly. The Earl made two or three strides through the apartment with his hand outstretched, as one who follows the beckoning signal of some phantom, waving him on to deeds of high import. As he turned, however, he caught the eye of the astrologer fixed on him, while in observing glance of the most shrewd penetration shot from under the penthouse of his shaggy, dark eyebrows. Lester's haughty and suspicious soul at once caught fire. He darted towards the old man from the farther end of the lofty apartment, only standing still when his extended hand was within a foot of the astrologer's body. Rich, he said, if you dare to paltre with me, I will have your skin stripped from your living flesh. Convest thou hast been hired to deceive and to betray me, that thou art a cheat, and I thy silly prey and booty. The old man exhibited some symptoms of emotion, but not more than the furious deportment of his patron might have extorted from innocence itself. What means this violence, my lord, he answered, or in what can I have deserved it at your hand? Give me proof, said the earl vehemently, that you have not tampered with mine enemies. My lord, replied the old man, with dignity, you can have no better proof than that which you yourself elected. In that turret I have spent the last twenty-four hours under the key which has been in your own custody. The hours of darkness I have spent engaging on the heavenly bodies with these dim eyes, and during those of light I have toiled this aged brain to complete the calculation arising from their combinations. Earthly food I have not tasted, earthly voice I have not heard. You are yourself aware I had no means of doing so, and yet I tell you, I have been thus shut up in solitude and study, that within these twenty-four hours your stars become predominant in the horizon, and either the bright book of heaven speaks false, or there must have been a proportionate revolution in your fortunes upon earth. If nothing has happened within that space to secure power or advance your favor, then MIND to cheat, and the divine art which was first devised in the plains of Chaldea, is a foul imposter. It is true, said Lester, after a moment's reflection. Thou art closely immune, and it is also true that the change has taken place in my situation, which thou sayest the horoscope indicates. Wherefore this distrust then, my son, said the astrologer, assuming a tone of admonition. The celestial intelligences broke no diffidence, even in their favorites. Peace, Father, answered Lester. I have erred in doubting thee. Not to mortal man, nor to celestial intelligence, under that church's supreme. Will Dudley's lips say more in condescension or apology? Speak rather to the present purpose. Amid these bright promises, thou has said there was a threatening aspect. Can thy skill tell whence, or by whose means, such danger seems to impend? Thus far only, answered the astrologer. Does my art enable me to answer your query? The infortune is threatened by the malignant, an adverse aspect, through means of a youth and, as I think, arrival. But whether in love or in Prince's favour, I know not, nor can I get further indication respecting him. Save that he comes from the western quarter. The western? Ha! Replied, Lester. It is enough. The tempest does indeed brew in that quarter. Cornwall and Devon, Ralee and Tressilion. One of them is indicated. I must beware of both. Father, if I have done thy skill and justice, I will make thee a lordly recompense. He took a purse of gold from the strong casket, which stood before him. Have thou doubled the recompense which Barney promised. Be faithful, be secret, obey the directions thou shot received from my master of the horse, and grudge not a little seclusion or restraint in my cause. It shall be richly considered. Here, Barney, connect this venerable man to thine own lodging, tend him heedfully in all things, but see that he holds communication with no one. Barney bowed, and the astrologer kissed the earl's hand in token of adieu, and followed the master of the horse to another apartment, in which replaced wine and refreshments for his use. The astrologer sat down to his repast, while Barney shut two doors with great precaution, examined the tapestry, lest any listener lurked behind it, and then sitting down opposite to the sage, began to question him. Saw you my signal from the court beneath? I did, said Alaska, for by such name he was a present called, and shaped the horoscope accordingly. And it passed upon the patron without challenge, continued Barney. Not without challenge, replied the old man. But it did pass, and I added as before, agreed, danger from a discovered secret, and a Western youth. My Lord's fear will stand sponsor to the one, and his conscience to the other, of these prognostications, replied Barney. Sure never man chose to run such a race as his, yet continued to retain those silly scruples. I feigned to cheat him to his own profit. But touching your matters, sage interpreter of the stars, I can tell you more of your own fortune than plan or figure can show. You must be gone from hence forthwith. I will not, said Alaska, peevishly. I've been too much hurried up and down of late, and mirrored for day and night in a desolate turret chamber. I must enjoy my liberty and pursue my studies, which are more important than the fate of fifty statesmen and favorites that rise and burst like bubbles in the atmosphere of a court. At your pleasure, said Barney, with a sneer, that habit had rendered familiar to his features, and which forms the principal characteristic which painters have assigned to that of Satan. At your pleasure, he said, you may enjoy your liberty and your studies until the daggers of Sussex's followers are clashing within your doublet and against your ribs. The old man turned pale, and Barney proceeded. Won't you not, he hath offered a reward for the arch-quack and poison-vendor Demetrius, who sold certain precious spices to his lordship's cook? What? Turn you pale, old friend! Does Holly already see an infortune in the house of life? Why hark thee? People hath thee down to an old house of mine in the country, where thou shalt live with a hobnailed slave, whom thy alchemy may convert into duckets, for to such conversion alone is thy art serviceable. It is false, thou foul-mouthed railer, said Alaska, shaking with impotent anger. It is well known that I have approached more nearly to projection than any hermetic artist who now lives. There are not six chemists in the world who possess so near an approximation in the grand Arcanum. Come, come, said Barney, interrupting him. What means this in the name of heaven? Do we not know one another? I believe thee to be so perfect, so very perfect, in the mystery of cheating, that having imposed upon all mankind, thou hast at length in some measure imposed upon thyself, and without ceasing to dupe others, has become a species of jubb to thine own imagination. Blush not for it, man, thou art learned, and shalt have classical comfort. Nisquist, quia cum, poset superara, nisayawax. No one but thyself could have gold thee, and thou hast gold the whole brotherhood of the rosy cross besides, none so deep in the mystery as thou. But hark thee in thine ear, had the seasoning, which spiced Sussex's broth, wrought more surely, I would have thought better of the chemical science thou dost both so highly. Thou art a hardened villain, Barney, replied Alaska. Many will do those things who dare not speak of them. And many speak of them who dare not do them, answered Barney. But be not, Roth, I will not quarrel with thee. If I did, I were feigned to live on eggs for a month, and I might feed without fear. Tell me at once, how came thine art to fail thee at this great emergency? The Earl of Sussex's horoscope intimates, replied the astrologer, that the sign of the Ascendant being in combustion. Away with your gibberish, replied Barney, think as thou it is the patron thou speakest with. I crave your pardon, replied the old man, and swear to you I know but one medicine that could have saved the Earl's life, and as no man living in England knows that antidote saved myself. Moreover, as the ingredients, one of them in particular, are scarce possible to become by. I must need to suppose his escape was owing to such a constitution of lungs and vital parts, as was never before bound up in a body of clay. There was some talk of a quack who waited on him, said Barney, after a moment's reflection. Are you sure there was no one in England who has this secret of thine? One man there was, said the doctor, once my servant, who might have stolen this of me, with one or two other secrets of art. But content you, Master Barney, it is no part of my policy to suffer such interlopers to interfere in my train. He prized into no mysteries more, I warrant you, for as I well believe he hath been wafted to heaven on the wing of a fiery dragon. Peace be with him. But in this retreat of mine shall I have the use of mine, a laboratory, of a whole workshop-man, said Barney, for a reverend father Abbot, who is feigned to give place to Bluff King Hal and some of his courtiers. A score of your sense, had a chemist complete apparatus, which he was obliged to leave behind him to his successors. Thou shalt there occupy and melt and puff and blaze and multiply, until the green dragon, become a golden goose, or whatever the newer phrase of the brotherhood, may testify. Thou art right, Master Barney, said the alchemist, sending his teeth close and grinding them together. Thou art right even in thy very contempt of right and reason, for what thou sayest, in mockery, may in sober verity chance to happen ere we meet again. If the most venerable sages of ancient days have spoken the truth, if the most learned of our own have rightly received it, if I have been accepted, wherever I traveled in Germany, in Poland, in Italy, and in the farther Tartary, as one to whom nature has unveiled her darkest secrets, if I have acquired the most secret signs and passwords of the Jewish cabala, so that the grayest beard in the synagogue would brush the steps to make them clean for me. If all this is so, and if there remains but one step, one little step betwixt my long, deep, and dark, and subterranean progress, and that blaze of light which shall show nature, watching her richest, and her most glorious productions in the very cradle, one step betwixt dependence, and the power of sovereignty, one step betwixt poverty, and such a sum of wealth as earth, without that noble secret, cannot minister from all her minds in the old or the newfound world. If this be also, is it not reasonable that to this I dedicate my future life, secure for a brief period of studious patience, to rise above the mean dependence upon favorites and their favorites, by which I am now enthralled? Now bravo, bravo, my good father, said Barney, with the usual sardonic expression of ridicule on his countenance. Yet all this approximation to the philosopher's stone bringeth not one single crown out of my Lord Lester's pouch, and far less out of Richard Barney's. We must have earthly and substantial surfaces, man, and care not whom else thou canst allude with thy philosophical charlatanry. My son Barney, said the alchemist, the unbelief gathered around thee like a frost fog, hath dim nine acute perception, to that which is a stumbling block to the wise, and which yet, to him who seeketh knowledge with humility, extends a lesson so clear that he who runs may read, hath not art, thinkest thou? The means of completing nature's imperfect concoctions and her attempts to form the precious metals, even as by art we can perfect those other operations of incubation, distillation, fermentation, and similar processes of an ordinary description, by which we extract life itself out of a senseless egg, summon purity and vitality out of muddy drags, or call unto vivacity the inert substance of a sluggish liquid. I have heard all this before, said Barney, and my heart is proofigan such can't ever since I sent twenty good gold pieces. Mary was in the non-edge of my wit, to advance the grand magisterium, all which, God help the while, vanished in fumo. Since that moment, when I paid for my freedom, I defy chemistry, astrology, palmistry, and every other occult art, were it as secret as hell itself, to enluse the structure of my purse-strings. Mary, I neither defy the manna of St. Nicholas, nor can I dispense with it. The first task must be to prepare some, when thou getest down to my little sequestered retreat yonder, and then make as much gold as thou wilt. I'll make no more of that dose, said the alchemist, resolutely. Then, said the master of the horse, thou shalt be hanged for what thou hast made already, and so were the great secret for ever lost to mankind. Do not, humanity, this injustice, good father, but even bend to thy destiny, and make us an ounce or two of this same stuff, which cannot prejudice above one or two individuals, in order to gain lifetime, to discover the universal medicine, which shall clear away all mortal diseases at once. But cheer up, thou grave-learned and most melancholy and jack-and-ape. Hath thou not told me that a moderate portion of thy drug hath mild effects? No ways, ultimately dangerous to the human frame, but which produces depression of spirits, nausea, headache, and unwillingness to change a place. Even such a state of temper as would keep a bird from flying out of cage, were the door left open. I have said so, and it is true, said the alchemist. This effect will it produce, and the bird who partakes of it, in such proportion, shall sit for a season, drooping on her perch, without thinking either of the three blue sky or of the fair green wood, though the one be lighted by the rays of the rising sun, and the other, ringing with the newly awakened song of all the feathered inhabitants of the forest. And this without danger to life, said Barney, someone anxiously. I, so that proportion and measure be not exceeded, and so that one who knows the nature of the manna be ever near to watch the symptoms, and suck or in case of need, thou shalt regulate the whole, said Barney, thy reward shall be princely if thou keep his time and touch, and exceedest not the due proportion to the prejudice of her health, otherwise thy punishment shall be a signal. The prejudice of her health, repeated Alaska, it is then a woman I am to use my skill upon. No, thou fool, replied Barney, said I not it was a bird, a reclaimed linnet, whose pipe might soothe the hawk when in mid-stube. I see thine eye sparkle, and I know thy beard is not altogether so white as art has made it. That at least, thou hast been able to transmute to silver. But mark me, this is no mate for thee. This caged bird is dear to one who brooks no rivalry, and far less such rivalry is thine, and her health must overall things be cared for. But she is in the case of being commanded down to yonder Kenilworth revels, and it is most expedient, most needful, most necessary that she fly not thither. Of these necessities and their causes, it is not needful that she should know ought. And it is to be thought that her own wish may lead her to combat all ordinary reasons which can be urged for her remaining a housekeeper. That is but natural, said the alchemist with a strange smile, which yet bore a greater reference to the human character than the uninterested and abstracted gaze which his physiognomy hitherto expressed, where all seemed to refer to some world-distant from that which was existing around him. It is so, answered Varney. You understand women well, though it may have been long since you were conversant amongst them. Well then, she is not to be contradicted, yet she is not to be humored. Understand me, a slight illness sufficient to take away the desire of removing from thence, and to make sure of your wise fraternity, as may be called into aid. Recommend a quiet residence at home. Will, in one word, be esteemed good service and remunerated as such. I am not to be asked to affect the house of life, said the chemist. On the contrary, we will have thee hanged if thou dost, replied Varney. And I must, added Alaska, have opportunity to do my turn and all facilities for concealment or escape. Should there be detection? All, all, everything, thou infidel, and all but the impossibilities of alchemy. Why, man, for what dost thou take me? The old man rose, and taking a light, walked towards the end of the apartment, where was a door that led to the small sleeping-room, destined for his reception during the night? At the door he turned round and slowly repeated Varney's question ere he answered it. For what do I take thee, Richard Varney? Why, for worse double than I have been myself, but I am in your toils, and I must serve you till my turn be out. Well, well, answered Varney hastily, be stirring with gray light, and may be we shall not need thy medicine. Do not till I myself come down. Michael Lambborn shall guide you to the place of your destination. Reader's note, note 7, Chapter 18, Dr. Julio. The Earl of Lester's Italian physician, Julio, was affirmed by his contemporaries to be a skillful compounder of poisons, which he applied with such frequency that the Jesuit Parsons extolls, ironically, the marvelous good luck of this great favorite, in the opportune deaths of those who stood in the way of his wishes. There is a curious passage on the subject. Long after this he fell in love with the lady, Sheffield, whom I signified before, and then also had he the same fortune to have her husband die quickly, with an extreme room in his head as it was given out, but his other say of an artificial guitar that stopped his breath. The light good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Lester's, as I have said before, and that at a time most fortunate for his purpose, for when he was coming home from Ireland with intent to revenge himself upon my Lord of Lester, for beginning his wife with child in his absence. The child was a daughter, and brought up by the lady Shandoes, W. Knowles, his wife. My Lord of Lester, hearing thereof, wanted not a friend or two to accompany the deputy, as among other a couple of the Earl's own servants, Compton, if I miss not his name. Yeoman of his waddles, and Lloyd his secretary, entertained afterward by my Lord of Lester. And so he died in the way of an extreme flux caused by an Italian recipe, as all his friends are well assured. The maker, whereof, was a surgeon, as it is believed, that then was newly come to my Lord from Italy. A cunning man, and sure in operation, with whom, if the good lady had been sooner acquainted, and used his help, she should not have needed to sit in so pensive at home, and fearful of her husband's former return out of the same country. Neither must you marvel, though all of these died in diverse manners of outward diseases, for this is the excellency of the Italian art for which this surgeon and Dr. Julio were entertained so carefully. Who can make a man die in what manner, or show of sickness, you will, by whose instructions no doubt, but his lordship is now cunning, especially adding also to these the counsel of his Dr. Bailey, a man also not a little studied, as he seemed, in his art. For I heard him once myself in a public act in Oxford, in that in presence of my Lord of Lester, if I be not deceived, maintain that poison might be so tempered, and given as it should not appear presently, and yet should kill the party afterward, at what time should be appointed. Which argument be like, pleased well his lordship, and therefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience, if I be not deceived, of his being that day present? So though one dive a flux and another of Qatar, yet this importeth little to the matter, but showeth rather the great cunning and skill of the artificer. Parsons Lester's Commonwealth, page 23. It is unnecessary to state the numerous reasons why the Earl is stated in the tale to be rather the dupe of villains than the unprincipled author of their atrocities. In the latter capacity, which apart at least of his contemporaries imputed to him, he would have made a character too disgustingly wicked to be useful for the purposes of fiction. I have only to add that the union of the poisoner, the quack-solver, the alchemist and the astrologer, in the same person, was familiar to the pretenders, to the mystic sciences. When Varney heard the adept store shot and carefully bolted within, he stepped towards it, and, with similar precaution, carefully locked it on the outside, and took the key from the lock, lettering to himself, worse than the, thou poisoning, quack-solver and witch-monger, who, if thou art not abound enslaved to the devil, it is only because he disdains such an apprentice. I am a mortal man, and seek my mortal means, the gratification of my passions, and advancement of my prospects. Thou art a vassal of hell itself. So ho, land-born, he called in another door, and Michael made his appearance with a fleshed cheek, and an unsteady step. Thou art drunk, thou villain, said Varney to him. Doubtless, noble sir, replied the unabashed Michael, we have been drinking all even to the glories of the day, and to my noble lord of Lester, and his valiant master of the horse. Drunk, odds, blades, and panyards, he that would refuse to swallow a dozen healths on such an evening, is a base besognio, and puck-foyest, and shall swallow six inches of my dagger. Harkey's scoundrel, said Varney, be sober on the instant. I command thee. I know thou canst throw off thy drunken folly, like a fool's coat at pleasure, and if not, it were the worst for thee. Land-born drooped his head, left the apartment, and returned in two or three minutes with his face composed, his hair adjusted, his dress in order, and exhibiting as great a difference from his former self as if the whole man had been changed. Art thou sober now, and dost thou comprehend me? said Varney, sternly. Turn bowed in acquiescence. Thou must presently down to come to place, with the reverend man of art who sleeps shawnder in the little vaulted chamber. Here is the key, that thou mayest call him by times. Take another trusty fellow with you. Use him well on the journey, but let him not escape you. Pistol him, if he attempt it, and I will be your warrant. I will give thee letters to foster. The doctor is to occupy the lower apartments of the eastern quadrangle, with freedom to use the old elaboratory, and its implements. He is to have no access to the lady, but such as I shall point out. Only she may be amused to see his philosophical jugglery. Thou wilt away to come to place, my further orders, and, as thou livest, beware of the ale bench, and the aquavita flask. Each breath drawn in come to place must be kept severed from common air. Enough, my lord. I mean my worshipful master. Soon I trust to be my worshipful nightly master. You have given me my lesson and my license. I will execute the one, and not abuse the other. I will be in the saddle by daybreak. Do so, and deserve favor. Stay. Here thou go, as spill me a cup of wine. Get out of that flask, Sarah, as Lamborn was pouring out, from that which Alaska had left half finished. Fetch me a fresh one. Lamborn obeyed, and Varney, after rinsing his mouth with the liquor, drank a full cup, and said, as he took up a lamp to retreat to his sleeping apartment, It is strange. I am as little the slave of fancy as any one, yet I never speak for a few minutes with this fellow Alaska, but my mouth and lungs feel as if soiled with the fumes of calcined arsenic. So saying, he left the apartment. Lamborn lingered to drink a cup of the freshly opened flask. It is from St. Jonesburg. He said, as he paused on the draft, to enjoy its flavor, and has the true relish of the violet. Then I must forbear it now, that I may one day drink at my own pleasure. And he quaffed a goblet of water to quench the fumes of the rendish wine. Retired slowly towards the door, made a pause, and then, finding the temptation irresistible, walked hastily back, and took another long pull at the wine flask, without the formality of a cup. Were it not for this accursed custom, he said, I might climb as high as Barney himself. But who can climb when the room turns round with him, like a parish top? I would the distance were greater, or the road rougher, betwixt my hand and mouth. But I will drink nothing to-morrow, save water. Nothing save fair water. CHAPTER XIX PISTOL And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys, and happy news of price. False stuff. I prevey, now deliver them, like to men of this world. Pistol. A futra for the world, and world lean space. I speak of Africa, and golden joys. Henry IV. II The public room of the black bear at Cumner, to which the scene of our story now returns, boasted, on the evening which we treat of, no ordinary assemblage of guests. There had been a fair in the neighborhood, and the cutting Mercer of Abingdon, with some of the other personages whom the reader has already been made acquainted with, as friends and customers of Giles Gosling, had already formed their wanted circle around the evening fire, and were talking over the news of the day. A lively bustling archfellow, whose pack and oaken elwind, studded duly with brass points, denoted him to be of Italicus' profession, occupied a good deal of the attention, and furnished much of the amusement of the evening. The peddlers of those days, it must be remembered, were meant of far greater importance than the degenerate and degraded hawkers of our modern times. It was by means of these peripatetic vendors that the country trade, in the finer manufactures used in female dress particularly, was almost entirely carried on. And if a merchant of this description arrived at the dignity of traveling with a pack horse, he was a person of no small consequence, and company for the most substantial yeoman, or franklin, whom he might meet in his wanderings. The peddler of whom we speak bore accordingly an active and unreviewed share in the merriment to which the rafters of the bonny black bear of Cumner resounded. He had his smile with pretty mistressesly, his broad laugh with mine-host, and his jest upon dashing master gold-thread, who so indeed, without any such benevolent intention on his own part, was the general butt of the evening. The peddler and he were closely engaged in a dispute, upon the preference due to the Spanish nether-stock over the black gas-goin hose, and mine-host had just winked to the gas around him, as who should say, you will have mirth presently in my masters. When the trampling of horses was heard in the courtyard, and the hossler was loudly summoned, with a few of the newest oaths, then in vogue, to add force to the invocation, out-tumbled will-hossler, John Tapster, and all the militia of the inn, who had slung from their post in order to collect some scattered crumbs of the mirth which was lying about among the customers, out into the yard sowing mine-host himself, also, to do fitting salutation to his new guests, and presently returned, ushering into the apartment, his own worthy nephew, Michael Lamporn, pretty tolerably drunk, and having under his escort the astrologer. Alaska, though still a little old man, had by altering his gown to a riding-dress, trimming his beard and eyebrows and so forth, struck at least a score of years from his apparent age, and might now seem an active man of sixty or little upwards. He appeared at present exceedingly anxious, and had insisted much, with Lamporn, that they should not enter the inn, but go straight forward to the place of their destination. But Lamporn would not be controlled. By Cancer and Capricorn, he vociferated, and the whole heavenly host, besides all the stars that these blessed eyes of mine have seen sparkle in the southern heavens, to which these northern blinkers are but farthing candles. I will be unkindly, for no one's humor. I will stay and salute my worthy uncle here. Chessu, that good blood, should ever be forgotten betwixt friends. I gallant of your best uncle, and let it go round to the health of the noble Earl of Leicester. But shall we not collogue together and warm the cockles of our ancient kindness? Shall we not collogue, I say? With all my heart, kinsmen, said mine-host, who obviously wished to be rid of him. But are you to stand shot to all this good-looker? This is a question has quelled many a jovial toper, but it moved not the purpose of Lamporn's soul. Question my means, uncle, he said, producing a handful of mixed gold and silver pieces. Question Mexico and Peru. Question the Queen's ex-checker. God save her majesty. She is my good lord's good mistress. While kinsmen, said mine-host, it is my business to sell wine to those who can't buy it. So Jack Tapster, do me thine office. But I would I knew how to come by money as lightly as thou dost, Mike. Why, uncle, said Lamporn, I will tell thee a secret. Does see this little old fellow here, as old and withered a chip as ever the devil put into his porridge, and yet, uncle, between you and me, he hath Potosi in that brain of his, splun, he can coin ducats faster than I can vent oaths. I'll have none of his coinage in my purse, though, Michael, said mine-host. I know what belongs to falsifying the Queen's coin. Thou art an ass, uncle, for as old as thou art. Pull me not by the skirts, doctor, thou art an ass thyself to boot. So being both asses, I tell you, I spoke but metaphorically. Are you mad, said the old man, is the devil in you? Can you not let us be gone without drawing all men's eyes on us? Sayest thou, said Lamporn, thou art deceived now. No man shall see you, and I give the word. By Heaven's masters, and any one dare to look on this old gentleman, I will slash the eyes out of his head with my poignard. So sit down, old friend, and be merry. These are mine-ingles, mine ancient inmates, and will betray no man. Had you not better withdraw to a private apartment, nephew, said Giles Gosling, you speak strange matter, he added, and there be intelligences everywhere. I care not for them, said the magnanimous Michael, intelligences. Shaw, I serve the noble Earl of Leicester. Here comes the wine. Fill round, Master Skinker, a corrales to the health of the flower of England, the noble Earl of Leicester. I say, the noble Earl of Leicester, he that does not reason is a swine of Sussex, and I'll make him kneel to the pledge, if I should cut his hams and smoke them for bacon. None disputed a pledge given under such formidable penalties, and Michael Lamporn, whose drunken humor was not, of course, diminished by this new quotation, went on in the same wild way, renewing his acquaintance with such of the guests as he had formerly known, and experiencing a reception in which there was now something of deference mingled with a good deal of fear. For the least servidor of the favourite Earl, especially such a man as Lamporn, was for very sufficient reasons an object both of the one and of the other. In the meanwhile the old man, seeing his guide in this uncontrollable humor, ceased to remonstrate with him, and sitting down in the most obscure corner of the room, called for a small measure of sack, over which he seemed as a word to slumber, withdrawing himself as much as possible from general observation, and doing nothing which could recall his existence to the recollection of his fellow traveller, who by this time had gotten into close intimacy with his ancient comrade, Goldthread of Abingdon. Never believe me, bully Mike, said the Mercer, if I am not as glad to see thee as ever I was to see a customer's money. Why, thou canst give a friend this lie-place in a mask or a rubble now, Mike. I, or I warrant thee, thou canst say in my lord's ear, when my honourable lord is down in these parts, and wants to spend the shrub for the like, thou canst say in his ear, there is my old friend, young Lawrence Goldthread of Abingdon, has as good wares, lawn, Tiffany, Cambridge, and so forth. Mine is as pretty a piece of man's slush, too, as in Berkshire, and will ruffle it for your lordship with any man of his inches, and thou mayest say, I can say a hundred damned lies besides Mercer, answered Lamporn, what, one must not stand upon a good word for a friend. Here is to thee, Mike, with all my heart, said the Mercer, and thou canst tell one the reality of the new fashions, too. Here was a rogue-peddler, but now was crying up the old-fashioned Spanish nether-stock over the gas-going hose, although thou seeest how well the French hose set off the leg, any, being adorned with party-coloured garters, and garniture in conformity. Excellent, excellent, replied Lamporn, why, thy limber bit of a thigh, thrust through that bunch of slashed buckram and Tiffany, shows like a housewife's to staff, when the flax is half spun off. Said I not so, said the Mercer, whose shallow brain was now overflowed in his term, where, then, where be this rascal-peddler? There was a peddler here, but now, me thinks, mine host, where the felfiend is this peddler? Where wise men should be, Master Goldthread, replied Giles Gosling, even shut up in his private chamber, telling over the sales of to-day, and preparing for the custom of to-morrow. Hang him, a mechanical chuff, said the Mercer, but for shame, it were a good deed to ease him of his wares, a set of peddly naves who stroll through the land and hurt the established trader. They're good fellows in Berkshire yet, mine host, your peddler may be met with all on Maiden Castle. I replied, mine host, laughing, and he who meets him may meet his match. The peddler is a tall man. Is he, said Goldthread. Is he, replied the host. I, by cock and pie, is he. The very peddler he who rattled Robin Hood so tightly, as the song says. Now Robin Hood drew his sword so good, the peddler drew his brand, and he hath rattled him, Robin Hood, till he neither could see nor stand. Hang him, foul scroyal. Let him pass, said the Mercer. If he be such a one, there were small worship to be one upon him. And now tell me, Mike, my honest Mike, how where's the Holland, you one of me? Why, well, as you may see, Master Goldthread, answered Mike, I will bestow a pot on thee for the hansel. Fill the flag in, Master Tapster. Thou wilt win no more hallens, think on such a wager, friend Mike, said the Mercer. For the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails at thee all to not, and swears you shall never darken his doors again, for that your oaths are enough to blow the roof off a Christian man's dwelling. Doth he say so, the mincing, hypocritical miser, the siphirated lamb-born? Why, then, he shall come down and receive my commands here, this blessed night, under my uncle's roof, and I will bring him such a black sanctus that he shall think the devil hath him by the skirts for a month to come, for barely hearing me. Nay, now the puddle-pot is uppermost with a witness, said the Mercer. Tony Foster, obey thy whistle. Alas, good Mike, go sleep, go sleep. I tell thee what, thou thin face-skull, said Michael lamb-born, in high chafe. I will wager thee fifty angels against the first five shells of thy shop, numbering upward from the false light, with all that is on them, that I make Tony Foster come down to this public house before we have finished three rounds. I will lay no bet to that amount, said the Mercer, something sobered by an offer which intimated, rather, to private a knowledge on lamb-born's part of the secret recesses of his shop. I will lay no such wager, he said, but I will stake five angels against thy five, if thou willed, that Tony Foster will not leave his own roof, or come to ale-house after prayer-time for thee or any man. Content, said lamb-born, hear, uncle, hold stakes and let one of your young bleed-barrels there, one of your infant tapsters, trip presently up to the place, and give this letter to Master Foster, and say that I, his ingol, Michael lamb-born, pray to speak with him at my uncle's castle here, upon business of grave import. Away with thee, child, for it is now sundown, and the wretch go to bed with the birds to save mutton-suit, far. Shortly after this messenger was dispatched, an interval which was spent in drinking and buffoonery, he returned with the answer that Master Foster was coming presently. One, one, said lamb-born, darting on the stakes. Not till he comes, if you please, said the Mercer, interfering. Wise-blood, he is at the threshold, replied Michael. What said he, boy? If it please your worship, answered the messenger, he looked out of window with a muscatune in his hand, and when I delivered your errand, which I did with fear and trembling, he said, with a vinegar aspect, that your worship might be gone to the infernal regions. Or to hell, I suppose, said lamb-born, it is there he disposes of all that are not of the congregation. Even so, said the boy, I use the other phrase as being the more poetical. An ingenious youth, said Michael, shall have a drop to wet thy poetical whistle, and what said Foster next? He called me back, answered the boy, and did me say you might come to him if you had ought to say to him. And what next, said lamb-born? He read the letter and seemed in a fluster, and asked if your worship was in drink, and I said you were speaking a little Spanish, as one who had been in the canaries. Out, you diminutive pint-pot, warped of an overgrown reckoning, replied lamb-born. Out! But what said he then? Why? said the boy. He muttered that if he came not, your worship would bolt out what were better kept in, and so he took his old flat cap and thread-bare blue cloak, and, as I said before, he will be here incontinent. There is truth in what he said, replied lamb-born, as if speaking to himself. My brain has played me its old dog-strick, but, Caragio, let him approach. I have not rolled about in the world. For many a day to fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober. Bring me a flagon of cold water to christen my sack with all. While lamb-born, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have recalled to a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing to receive him. Those gossings stole up to the apartment of the peddler, whom he found traversing the room in much agitation. You withdrew yourself suddenly from the company, said the lamb-born to the guest. It was time, when the devil became one among you, replied the peddler. It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name, said gossing, nor is it kindly in me to reply to it, and yet, in some sort, Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan. Who, I talk not of the swaggering ruffian, replied the peddler. It is of the other, who fraud I know, but when go they, or wherefore come they? Mary, these are questions I cannot answer, replied the host. But look you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy master Tessillion, a pretty stone it is. He took out the ring and looked at it, adding, as he put it into his purse again, that it was too rich a gwarden for anything he could do for the worthy donor. He was, he said, in the public wine, and it ill became him to be too inquisitive into other folks' concerns. He had already said that he could hear nothing but that the lady lived still at Cumner Place in the closest seclusion, and as such as by chance had view of her, seemed pensive and discontented with her solitude. But here, he said, if you are a desirous to gratify your master, is the rarest chance that hath occurred for this many a day. Tony Foster is coming down hither, and it is but Lenny Mike Lamborn smell another wine flask, and the Queen's command would not move him from the ale bench. So they are fast for an hour or so. Now, if you will don your pack, which will be your best excuse, you may, for chance, win the ear of the old servant, being assured of the master's absence, to let you try to get some custom of the lady. And then you may learn more of her condition than I or any other can tell you. True, very true, answered Wayland, for he it was, an excellent device, but may think something dangerous, for say Foster should return. Very possible indeed, replied the host, or say, continued Wayland, the lady should render me cold thanks for my exertions. As is not unlikely, replied Giles Gossin, a marvel master tricillion will take such heed of her that cares not for him. In either case, I were foully sped, said Wayland, and therefore I do not, on the whole, much relish your device. Nay, but take me with you, good master surveyman, replied my host. This is your master's business, and not mine, you best know the risk to be encountered, or how far you are willing to brave it. But that which you will not yourself hazard, you cannot expect others to risk. Hold, hold, said Wayland. Tell me but one thing, go genre old man up to Cumber. Surely I think so, said the landlord. Their servant said he was to take their baggage thither, but the ale-tap has been as potent for him as the sack-spigot has been for Michael. It is enough, said Wayland. Assuming an error of resolution, I will thwart that old villain's projects. Maya fright at his maleful aspect begins to abate, and my hatred to arise. Help me on with my pack, good mine-host, and look to thyself, old Albu Mazar. There is a malignant influence in thy horoscope, and it gleams from the constellation Ursa Major. So sane he assumed his burden, and guided by the landlord, through the poster and gate of the black bear, took the most private way from Lentz up to Cumberplace. End Chapter 19