The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring, and saying, "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 steal, with the flight of a lapwing, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 favour of Leicester, 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, and read, with a feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him by the Queen in person to follow out his ambitious career, and returned to Suss.e.x 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 a.s.sembled in the great hall at Sayes Court; while that lord, exhausted by his late illness and the fatigues of the day, had retired to his chamber, demanding the attendance of Wayland, his successful physician. Wayland, however, was nowhere to be found; and while some of the party were, with military impatience, seeking him and cursing his absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him on his prospects of court-favour.
He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive circ.u.mstance 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 favour. 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 most from a mixture of these motives, and a sense that the countenance shown to any one of Suss.e.x"s household was, in fact, a triumph to the whole. Raleigh returned the kindest thanks to them all, disowning, with becoming modesty, that one day"s fair reception made a favourite, any more than one swallow a summer. But he observed that Blount did not join in the general congratulation, and, somewhat hurt at his apparent unkindness, he plainly asked him the reason.
Blount replied with equal sincerity--"My good Walter, I wish thee as well as do any of these chattering gulls, who are whistling and whooping gratulations in thine ear because it seems fair weather with thee. But I fear for thee, Walter" (and he wiped his honest eye), "I fear for thee with all my heart. These court-tricks, and gambols, and flashes of fine women"s favour are the tricks and trinkets that bring fair fortunes to farthings, and fine faces and witty c.o.xcombs to the acquaintance of dull block and sharp axes."
So saying, 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 Tressilian, "My lord is calling for your fellow Wayland, and your fellow Wayland is just come hither in a sculler, and is calling for you, nor will he go to my lord till he sees you. The fellow looks as he were mazed, methinks; I would you would see him immediately."
Tressilian instantly left the hall, and causing Wayland Smith to be shown into a withdrawing apartment, and lights placed, he conducted the artist thither, and was surprised when he observed the emotion of his countenance.
"What is the matter with you, Smith?" said Tressilian; "have you seen the devil?"
"Worse, sir, worse," replied Wayland; "I have seen a basilisk. Thank G.o.d, I saw him first; for being so seen, and seeing not me, he will do the less harm."
"In G.o.d"s name, speak sense," said Tressilian, "and say what you mean."
"I have seen my old master," said the artist. "Last night a friend whom I had acquired took me to see the Palace clock, judging me to be curious in such works of art. At the window of a turret next to the clock-house I saw my old master."
"Thou must needs have been mistaken," said Tressilian.
"I was not mistaken," said Wayland; "he that once hath his features by heart would know him amongst a million. He was anticly habited; but he cannot disguise himself from me, G.o.d be praised! as I can from him.
I will not, however, tempt Providence by remaining within his ken.
Tarleton the player himself could not so disguise himself but that, sooner or later, Dob.o.o.bie would find him out. I must away to-morrow; for, as we stand together, it were death to me to remain within reach of him."
"But the Earl of Suss.e.x?" said Tressilian.
"He is in little danger from what he has. .h.i.therto taken, provided he swallow the matter of a bean"s size of the orvietan every morning fasting; but let him beware of a relapse."
"And how is that to be guarded against?" said Tressilian.
"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 clerk and sewer taste the dishes which the one dresses and the other serves. Let my lord use no perfumes which come not from well accredited persons; no unguents--no pomades.
Let him, on no account, drink with strangers, or eat fruit with them, either in the way of nooning or 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 thou," said Tressilian, "what dost thou think to make of thyself?"
"France, Spain, either India, East or West, shall be my refuge," said Wayland, "ere I venture my life by residing within ken of Dob.o.o.bie, Demetrius, or whatever else he calls himself for the time."
"Well," said Tressilian, "this happens not inopportunely. I had business for you in Berkshire, but in the opposite extremity to the place where thou art known; and ere thou hadst found out this new reason for living private, I had settled to send thee thither upon a secret emba.s.sage."
The artist expressed himself willing to receive his commands, and Tressilian, knowing he was well acquainted with the outline of his business at court, frankly explained to him the whole, mentioned the agreement which subsisted betwixt Giles Gosling and him, and told what had that day been averred in the presence-chamber by Varney, and supported by Leicester.
"Thou seest," he added, "that, in the circ.u.mstances in which I am placed, it behoves me to keep a narrow watch on the motions of these unprincipled men, Varney and his complices, Foster and Lambourne, as well as on those of my Lord Leicester 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 trebled if thou serve me faithfully. Away down to c.u.mnor, 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 devil, 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 heretofore; but if, like the Scottish wild cattle, I am vexed by frequent pursuit, I may turn on him in hate and desperation. [A remnant of the wild cattle of Scotland are preserved at Chillingham Castle, near Wooler, in Northumberland, the seat of Lord Tankerville. They fly before strangers; but if disturbed and followed, they turn with fury on those who persist in annoying them.] 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 is guarded, but let him beware of the future."
Wayland Smith accordingly made his farewell visit to the Earl of Suss.e.x, dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions concerning his diet, and left Sayes Court without waiting for morning.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The moment comes-- It is already come--when thou must write The absolute total of thy life"s vast sum.
The constellations stand victorious o"er thee, The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions, And tell thee, "Now"s the time."
--SCHILLER"S WALLENSTEIN, BY COLERIDGE.
When Leicester returned to his lodging, alter a day so important and so hara.s.sing, in which, after riding out more than one gale, and touching on more than one shoal, his bark had finally gained the harbour with banner displayed, he seemed to experience as much fatigue as a mariner after a perilous storm. He spoke not a word while his chamberlain exchanged his rich court-mantle for a furred night-robe, and when this officer signified that Master Varney desired to speak with his lordship, he replied only by a sullen nod. Varney, however, entered, accepting this signal as a permission, and the chamberlain withdrew.
The Earl 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 conscious of the entrance or of the presence of his confidant. Varney waited for some minutes until he should speak, desirous to know what was the finally predominant mood of a mind through which so many powerful emotions had that day taken their course. But he waited in vain, for Leicester continued still silent, and the confidant saw himself under the necessity of being the first to speak. "May I congratulate your lordship," he said, "on the deserved superiority you have this day attained over your most formidable rival?"
Leicester raised his head, and answered sadly, but without anger, "Thou, Varney, whose ready invention has involved me in a web of most mean and perilous falsehood, knowest best what small reason there is for gratulation on the subject."
"Do you blame me, my lord," said Varney, "for not betraying, on the first push, the secret on which your fortunes depended, and which you have so oft and 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, Varney," said the Earl, rising and walking across the room; "my own ambition has been traitor to my love."
"Say rather, my lord, that your love has been traitor to your greatness, and barred you from such a prospect of honour and power as the world cannot offer to any other. To make my honoured lady a countess, you have missed the chance of being yourself--"
He paused, and seemed unwilling to complete the sentence.
"Of being myself what?" demanded Leicester; "speak out thy meaning, Varney."
"Of being yourself a KING, my lord," replied Varney; "and King of England to boot! It is no treason to our Queen to say so. It would have chanced by her obtaining that which all true subjects wish her--a l.u.s.ty, n.o.ble, and gallant husband."
"Thou ravest, Varney," answered Leicester. "Besides, our times have seen enough to make men loathe the Crown Matrimonial which men take from their wives" lap. There was Darnley of Scotland."
"He!" said Varney; "a, gull, a fool, a thrice-sodden a.s.s, who suffered himself to be fired off into the air like a rocket on a rejoicing day.
Had Mary had the hap to have wedded the n.o.ble 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 mate of the meanest squire who follows the hounds a-horseback, and holds her husband"s bridle as he mounts."
"It might have been as thou sayest, Varney," said Leicester, a brief smile of self-satisfaction pa.s.sing over his anxious countenance. "Henry Darnley knew little of women--with Mary, a man who knew her s.e.x might have had some chance of holding his own. But not with Elizabeth, Varney for I thank G.o.d, when he gave her the heart of a woman, gave her the head of a man to control its follies. No, I know her. She will accept love-tokens, ay, and requite them with the like--put sugared sonnets in her bosom, ay, and answer them too--push gallantry to the very verge where it becomes exchange of affection; but she writes NIL ULTRA to all which is to follow, and would not barter one iota of her own supreme power for all the alphabet of both Cupid and Hymen."
"The better for you, my lord," said Varney--"that is, in the case supposed, if such be her disposition; since you think you cannot aspire to become her husband. Her favourite you are, and may remain, if the lady at c.u.mnor place continues in her present obscurity."
"Poor Amy!" said Leicester, with a deep sigh; "she desires so earnestly to be acknowledged in presence of G.o.d and man!"
"Ay, but, my lord," said Varney, "is her desire reasonable? That is the question. Her religious scruples are solved; she is an honoured and beloved wife, enjoying the society of her husband at such times as his weightier duties permit him to afford her his company. What would she more? I am right sure that a lady so gentle and so loving would consent to live her life through in a certain obscurity--which is, after all, not dimmer than when she was at Lidcote Hall--rather than diminish the least jot of her lord"s honours and greatness by a premature attempt to share them."
"There is something in what thou sayest," said Leicester, "and her appearance here were fatal. Yet she must be seen at Kenilworth; Elizabeth will not forget that she has so appointed."
"Let me sleep on that hard point," said Varney; "I cannot else perfect the device I have on the st.i.thy, which I trust will satisfy the Queen and please my honoured lady, yet leave this fatal secret where it is now buried. Has your lordship further commands for the night?"