"Far be it from me to do so," said Varney. And then, after a moment"s silence, he added, with a real or affected plainness of manner, very different from his usual smooth courtesy, "Come, madam, I will show you that a courtier dare speak truth as well as another, when it concerns the weal of those whom he honours and regards, ay, and although it may infer his own danger." He waited as if to receive commands, or at least permission, to go on; but as the lady remained silent, he proceeded, but obviously with caution. "Look around you," he said, "n.o.ble lady, and observe the barriers with which this place is surrounded, the studious mystery with which the brightest jewel that England possesses is secluded from the admiring gaze. See with what rigour your walks are circ.u.mscribed, and your movement restrained at the beck of yonder churlish Foster. Consider all this, and judge for yourself what can be the cause.
"My lord"s pleasure," answered the Countess; "and I am bound to seek no other motive."
"His pleasure it is indeed," said Varney; "and his pleasure arises out of a love worthy of the object which inspires it. But he who possesses a treasure, and who values it, is oft anxious, in proportion to the value he puts upon it, to secure it from the depredations of others."
"What needs all this talk, Master Varney?" said the lady, in reply. "You would have me believe that my n.o.ble lord is jealous. Suppose it true, I know a cure for jealousy."
"Indeed, madam?" said Varney.
"It is," replied the lady, "to speak the truth to my lord at all times--to hold up my mind and my thoughts before him as pure as that polished mirror--so that when he looks into my heart, he shall only see his own features reflected there."
"I am mute, madam," answered Varney; "and as I have no reason to grieve for Tressilian, who would have my heart"s blood were he able, I shall reconcile myself easily to what may befall the gentleman in consequence of your frank disclosure of his having presumed to intrude upon your solitude. You, who know my lord so much better than I, will judge if he be likely to bear the insult unavenged."
"Nay, if I could think myself the cause of Tressilian"s ruin," said the Countess, "I who have already occasioned him so much distress, I might be brought to be silent. And yet what will it avail, since he was seen by Foster, and I think by some one else? No, no, Varney, urge it no more. I will tell the whole matter to my lord; and with such pleading for Tressilian"s folly, as shall dispose my lord"s generous heart rather to serve than to punish him."
"Your judgment, madam," said Varney, "is far superior to mine, especially as you may, if you will, prove the ice before you step on it, by mentioning Tressilian"s name to my lord, and observing how he endures it. For Foster and his attendant, they know not Tressilian by sight, and I can easily give them some reasonable excuse for the appearance of an unknown stranger."
The lady paused for an instant, and then replied, "If, Varney, it be indeed true that Foster knows not as yet that the man he saw was Tressilian, I own I were unwilling he should learn what nowise concerns him. He bears himself already with austerity enough, and I wish him not to be judge or privy-councillor in my affairs."
"Tush," said Varney, "what has the surly groom to do with your ladyship"s concerns?--no more, surely, than the ban-dog which watches his courtyard. If he is in aught distasteful to your ladyship, I have interest enough to have him exchanged for a seneschal that shall be more agreeable to you."
"Master Varney," said the Countess, "let us drop this theme. When I complain of the attendants whom my lord has placed around me, it must be to my lord himself.--Hark! I hear the trampling of horse. He comes! he comes!" she exclaimed, jumping up in ecstasy.
"I cannot think it is he," said Varney; "or that you can hear the tread of his horse through the closely-mantled cas.e.m.e.nts."
"Stop me not, Varney--my ears are keener than thine. It is he!"
"But, madam!--but, madam!" exclaimed Varney anxiously, and still placing himself in her way, "I trust that what I have spoken in humble duty and service will not be turned to my ruin? I hope that my faithful advice will not be bewrayed to my prejudice? I implore that--"
"Content thee, man--content thee!" said the Countess, "and quit my skirt--you are too bold to detain me. Content thyself, I think not of thee."
At this moment the folding-doors flew wide open, and a man of majestic mien, m.u.f.fled in the folds of a long dark riding-cloak, entered the apartment.
CHAPTER VII.
"This is he Who rides on the court-gale; controls its tides; Knows all their secret shoals and fatal eddies; Whose frown abases, and whose smile exalts.
He shines like any rainbow--and, perchance, His colours are as transient."--OLD PLAY.
There was some little displeasure and confusion on the Countess"s brow, owing to her struggle with Varney"s pertinacity; but it was exchanged for an expression of the purest joy and affection, as she threw herself into the arms of the n.o.ble stranger who entered, and clasping him to her bosom, exclaimed, "At length--at length thou art come!"
Varney discreetly withdrew as his lord entered, and Janet was about to do the same, when her mistress signed to her to remain. She took her place at the farther end of the apartment, and continued standing, as if ready for attendance.
Meanwhile the Earl, for he was of no inferior rank, returned his lady"s caress with the most affectionate ardour, but affected to resist when she strove to take his cloak from him.
"Nay," she said, "but I will unmantle you. I must see if you have kept your word to me, and come as the great Earl men call thee, and not as heretofore like a private cavalier."
"Thou art like the rest of the world, Amy," said the Earl, suffering her to prevail in the playful contest; "the jewels, and feathers, and silk are more to them than the man whom they adorn--many a poor blade looks gay in a velvet scabbard."
"But so cannot men say of thee, thou n.o.ble Earl," said his lady, as the cloak dropped on the floor, and showed him dressed as princes when they ride abroad; "thou art the good and well-tried steel, whose inly worth deserves, yet disdains, its outward ornaments. Do not think Amy can love thee better in this glorious garb than she did when she gave her heart to him who wore the russet-brown cloak in the woods of Devon."
"And thou too," said the Earl, as gracefully and majestically he led his beautiful Countess towards the chair of state which was prepared for them both--"thou too, my love, hast donned a dress which becomes thy rank, though it cannot improve thy beauty. What think"st thou of our court taste?"
The lady cast a sidelong glance upon the great mirror as they pa.s.sed it by, and then said, "I know not how it is, but I think not of my own person while I look at the reflection of thine. Sit thou there," she said, as they approached the chair of state, "like a thing for men to worship and to wonder at."
"Ay, love," said the Earl, "if thou wilt share my state with me."
"Not so," said the Countess; "I will sit on this footstool at thy feet, that I may spell over thy splendour, and learn, for the first time, how princes are attired."
And with a childish wonder, which her youth and rustic education rendered not only excusable but becoming, mixed as it was with a delicate show of the most tender conjugal affection, she examined and admired from head to foot the n.o.ble form and princely attire of him who formed the proudest ornament of the court of England"s Maiden Queen, renowned as it was for splendid courtiers, as well as for wise counsellors. Regarding affectionately his lovely bride, and gratified by her unrepressed admiration, the dark eye and n.o.ble features of the Earl expressed pa.s.sions more gentle than the commanding and aspiring look which usually sat upon his broad forehead, and in the piercing brilliancy of his dark eye; and he smiled at the simplicity which dictated the questions she put to him concerning the various ornaments with which he was decorated.
"The embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee," he said, "is the English Garter, an ornament which kings are proud to wear. See, here is the star which belongs to it, and here the Diamond George, the jewel of the order. You have heard how King Edward and the Countess of Salisbury--"
"Oh, I know all that tale," said the Countess, slightly blushing, "and how a lady"s garter became the proudest badge of English chivalry."
"Even so," said the Earl; "and this most honourable Order I had the good hap to receive at the same time with three most n.o.ble a.s.sociates, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Northampton, and the Earl of Rutland.
I was the lowest of the four in rank--but what then? he that climbs a ladder must begin at the first round."
"But this other fair collar, so richly wrought, with some jewel like a sheep hung by the middle attached to it, what," said the young Countess, "does that emblem signify?"
"This collar," said the Earl, "with its double fusilles interchanged with these k.n.o.bs, which are supposed to present flint-stones sparkling with fire, and sustaining the jewel you inquire about, is the badge of the n.o.ble Order of the Golden Fleece, once appertaining to the House of Burgundy it hath high privileges, my Amy, belonging to it, this most n.o.ble Order; for even the King of Spain himself, who hath now succeeded to the honours and demesnes of Burgundy, may not sit in judgment upon a knight of the Golden Fleece, unless by a.s.sistance and consent of the Great Chapter of the Order."
"And is this an Order belonging to the cruel King of Spain?" said the Countess. "Alas! my n.o.ble lord, that you will defile your n.o.ble English breast by bearing such an emblem! Bethink you of the most unhappy Queen Mary"s days, when this same Philip held sway with her in England, and of the piles which were built for our n.o.blest, and our wisest, and our most truly sanctified prelates and divines--and will you, whom men call the standard-bearer of the true Protestant faith, be contented to wear the emblem and mark of such a Romish tyrant as he of Spain?"
"Oh, content you, my love," answered the Earl; "we who spread our sails to gales of court favour cannot always display the ensigns we love the best, or at all times refuse sailing under colours which we like not.
Believe me, I am not the less good Protestant, that for policy I must accept the honour offered me by Spain, in admitting me to this his highest order of knighthood. Besides, it belongs properly to Flanders; and Egmont, Orange, and others have pride in seeing it displayed on an English bosom."
"Nay, my lord, you know your own path best," replied the Countess. "And this other collar, to what country does this fair jewel belong?"
"To a very poor one, my love," replied the Earl; "this is the Order of Saint Andrew, revived by the last James of Scotland. It was bestowed on me when it was thought the young widow of France and Scotland would gladly have wedded an English baron; but a free coronet of England is worth a crown matrimonial held at the humour of a woman, and owning only the poor rocks and bogs of the north."
The Countess paused, as if what the Earl last said had excited some painful but interesting train of thought; and, as she still remained silent, her husband proceeded:--
"And now, loveliest, your wish is gratified, and you have seen your va.s.sal in such of his trim array as accords with riding vestments; for robes of state and coronets are only for princely halls."
"Well, then," said the Countess, "my gratified wish has, as usual, given rise to a new one."
"And what is it thou canst ask that I can deny?" said the fond husband.
"I wished to see my Earl visit this obscure and secret bower," said the Countess, "in all his princely array; and now, methinks I long to sit in one of his princely halls, and see him enter dressed in sober russet, as when he won poor Amy Robsart"s heart."
"That is a wish easily granted," said the Earl--"the sober russet shall be donned to-morrow, if you will."
"But shall I," said the lady, "go with you to one of your castles, to see how the richness of your dwelling will correspond with your peasant habit?"