well, then — our course is chosen — spread the sail —
heave oft the lead, and mark the soundings well —
look to the helm, good master — many a shoal
marks this 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 sitting of the privy-council, leicester had time to reflect that he had that morning sealed his own fate. “it was impossible 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 varney, 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 compeers.” this certainty rushed at once on his mind, together with all the difficulties which he would necessarily be exposed to in preserving a 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 unvacillating 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 repelled 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 a scylla under his bows must not for the time think of the more distant dangers of charybdis.
in this mood the earl of leicester 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 honoured 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 sussex 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. leicester 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 lordships’ 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 pretence 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 theme which hurried him beyond his usual moderation of debate.
elizabeth chid 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 weal 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 in 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 safe keeping. and with this intimation of her pleasure the council was dismissed.
never was more anxious and ready way made for “my lord of leicester,” than as he passed through the crowded anterooms 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 leicester, and felt assured that the orb of his rival satellite, if not altogether obscured by his lustre, 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 leicester return the general greeting with such ready and condescending courtesy, or endeavour 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 strangely in our ears, when connected with the ordinary matters of human life, above which the gratitude of posterity has long elevated them. a few of leicester’s interlocutory sentences ran as follows:—
“poynings, good morrow; and how does your wife and fair daughter? why come they not to court?— adams, your suit is naught; the queen will grant no more monopolies. but i may serve you in another matter.— my good alderman aylford, the suit of the city, affecting queenhithe, shall be forwarded as far as my poor interest can serve.— master edmund spenser, touching your irish petition, i would willingly aid you, from my love to the muses; but thou hast nettled the lord treasurer.”
“my lord, “ said the poet, “were i permitted to explain —”
“come to my lodging, edmund,” answered the earl “not tomorrow, 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 hanged for the veriest 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 whom the favourite accosted was one of his own zealous dependants.
“how now, sir francis denning,” he whispered, in answer to his exulting salutation, “that smile hath made thy face shorter by one-third than when i first saw it this morning.— what, master bowyer, stand you back, and think you i bear malice? you did but your duty this morning; and if i remember aught of the passage betwixt us, it shall be in thy favour.”
then the earl was approached, with several fantastic congees, by a person quaintly dressed in a doublet of black velvet, curiously slashed and pinked with crimson satin. a long cock’s 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, harebrained coxcomb, and small wit; while the rod he held, and 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 this 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 laneham,” said leicester, 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 laneham, with emphasis, by way of reply, and of correction.
“well, qualify thine office as thou wilt, man,” replied the earl; “what wouldst thou have with me?”
“simply,” answered laneham, “that your lordship would be, as heretofore, 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 kenilworth.”
“to what purpose, good master laneham?” replied the earl; “bethink you, my guests must needs be many.”
“not so many,” replied the petitioner, “but that your nobleness will willingly spare your old servitor his crib and his mess. bethink you, my lord, how necessary is this rod of mine to fright away all those listeners, who else would play at bo-peep with the honourable council, and be searching for keyholes 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.”
“methinks you have found out a fly-blown comparison for the honourable council, master laneham,” said the earl; “but seek not about to justify it. come to kenilworth, if you list; there will be store of fools there besides, and so you will be fitted.”
“nay, an there be fools, my lord,” replied laneham, with much glee, “i warrant i will make sport among them, for no greyhound loves to cote a hare as i to turn and course a fool. but i have another singular favour to beseech of your honour.”
“speak it, and let me go,” said the earl; “i think the queen comes forth instantly.”
“my very good lord, i would fain bring a bed-fellow with me.”
“how, you irreverent rascal!” said leicester.
“nay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons,” 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 foul fiend seize ye both!” said leicester, 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 incensed earl with a foolish face of wonder and terror, which instantly recalled leicester to himself.
“i meant but to try if thou hadst the audacity which befits thine office,” said he hastily. “come to kenilworth, and bring the devil with thee, if thou wilt.”
“my wife, sir, hath played the devil ere now, in a mystery, in queen mary’s time; but me 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 laneham 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 humours today. but they who give crowns expect us witty fellows to wink at their unsettled starts; and, by my faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would finger them tightly!”15
leicester 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 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 quit myself, by one bold stroke, of a state so irksome, so unhonoured? 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 varney 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 varney; “but hasten to the water-side. the queen is on board, and asks for you.”
“go, say i am taken suddenly ill,” replied leicester; “for, by heaven, my brain can sustain this no longer!”
“i may well say so,” said varney, with bitterness of expression, “for your place, ay, and mine, who, as 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 tressilian were called for to fill our places just as i hastened away to seek you.”
“thou art a devil, varney,” said leicester hastily; “but thou hast the mastery for the present — i follow thee.”
varney 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 hose are unbraced — permit me —”
“thou art a fool, varney, as well as a knave,” said leicester, 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, the earl resumed at once his air of command, and with it his self-possession — shook his dress into yet wilder disorder — passed before varney with the air of a superior and master, and in his turn led the way to the river-side.
the queen’s barge was on the very point of putting off, the seat allotted to leicester in the stern, and that to his master of the horse on the bow of the boat, being already filled up. but on leicester’s approach there was a pause, as if the bargemen anticipated some alteration in their company. the angry spot was, however, on the queen’s cheek, as, in that cold tone with which superiors endeavour 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 leicester.”
“madam, and most gracious princess,” said leicester, “you, who can pardon so many weaknesses which your own heart never knows, can best bestow your commiseration on the agitations of the bosom, which, for a moment, affect both head and limbs. i came to your presence a doubting and an accused subject; your goodness penetrated the clouds of defamation, and restored me to my honour, and, what is yet dearer, to your favour — is it wonderful, though for me it is most unhappy, that my master of the horse should have found me in a 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 esculapius might have failed?”
“how is this?” said elizabeth hastily, looking at varney; “hath your lord been ill?”
“something of a fainting fit,” answered the ready-witted varney, “as your grace may observe from his present condition. my lord’s haste would not permit me leisure even to bring his dress into order.”
“it matters not,” said elizabeth, as she gazed on the noble face and form of leicester, 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 varney, has been filled up; you must find a seat in another barge.”
varney bowed, and withdrew.
“and you, too, our young squire of the cloak,” added she, looking at raleigh, “must, for the time, go to the barge of our ladies of honour. as for tressilian, he hath already suffered too much by the caprice of women that i should aggrieve him by my change of plan, so far as he is concerned.”
leicester seated himself in his place in the barge, and close to the sovereign. raleigh rose to retire, and tressilian 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 no in his native element, made him sensible that so ready a disclamation of the royal favour 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 majesty’s leave, relinquish for an hour that which her subjects hold dearest, the delight of her highness’s 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 promised 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 treasurer, 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 burleigh’s. leicester, who endeavoured 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 lords,” she said, “having passed for a time our edict of silence upon our good leicester, 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 lords,” said she, smiling, “know aught of a petition from orson pinnit, the keeper, as he qualifies himself, of our royal bears? who stands godfather to his request?”
“marry, with your grace’s good permission, that do i,” said the earl of sussex. “orson pinnit was a stout soldier before he was so mangled by the skenes 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 in especial to our poor soldiers and sailors, who hazard their lives for little pay. we would give,” she said, with her eyes sparkling, “yonder royal palace of ours to be an 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 pinnit’s request goes something further. he complains that, amidst the extreme delight with which men haunt the play-houses, and in especial 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-baiting is falling into comparative neglect, since men will rather throng to see these roguish 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 sussex?”
“why, truly, gracious madam,” said sussex, “you must expect little from an old soldier like me in favour 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 falchion, 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 charlecot, when he broke his deer-park and kissed his keeper’s daughter.”
“i cry you mercy, my lord of sussex,” 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 sussex, “as i said before, i wish the gamesome mad fellow no injury. some of his whoreson poetry (i crave your grace’s pardon for such a phrase) has rung in mine ears as if the lines sounded to boot and saddle. but then it is all froth and folly — no substance or seriousness in it, as your grace has already well touched. what are half a dozen knaves, 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 your princely kingdom, famous for matchless mastiffs and bold bearwards over all christendom? greatly is it to be doubted that the race of both will decay, if men should throng to hear the lungs of an idle player belch forth nonsensical bombast, instead of bestowing their pence in 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 defence 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 nether lip, and hangs fast, while he tosses about his blood and slaver, and tries in vain to shake sir talbot from his hold. and then —”
“nay, by my honour, my lord,” said the queen, laughing, “you have described the whole 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 leicester, what say you?”
“am i then to consider myself as unmuzzled, please your grace?” replied leicester.
“surely, my lord — that is, if you feel hearty enough to take part in our game,” answered elizabeth; “and yet, when i think of your cognizance of the bear and ragged staff, methinks we had better hear some less partial orator.”
“nay, on my word, gracious princess,” said the earl, “though my brother ambrose of warwick and i do carry the ancient cognizance your highness deigns to remember, i nevertheless desire nothing but fair play on all sides; or, as they say, ‘fight dog, fight bear.’ and in behalf of the players, i must needs say that they are witty knaves, whose rants and jests keep the minds of the commons from busying themselves with state affairs, and listening to traitorous speeches, idle rumours, and disloyal insinuations. when men are agape to see how marlow, 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. asaph’s, an eminent puritan, “that these players are wont, in their plays, not only to introduce profane and lewd 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 grace’s favour, far less than safe to permit these naughty foul-mouthed knaves to ridicule the godly for their decent gravity, and, in blaspheming heaven and slandering its earthly rulers, to set at defiance the laws both of god and man.”
“if we could think this were true, my lord,” said elizabeth, “we should give sharp correction for such offences. 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, mingled 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 leicester. “and yet, in his way, shakespeare hath so touched some incidents of your majesty’s happy government as may countervail what has been spoken by his reverence the dean of st. asaph’s. there are some lines, for example — i would my nephew, philip sidney, were here; they are scarce ever out of his mouth — they are spoken in a mad tale of fairies, love-charms, and i wot not what besides; but beautiful they are, however short they may and must fall of 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. valour 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 weightier affairs.— master tressilian, you are described to me as a worshipper of minerva — remember you aught of these lines?”
tressilian’s heart was too heavy, his prospects in life too fatally blighted, 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 leicester 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, allarm’d: a certain aim he took
at a fair vestal, throned by the west;
and loos’d his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
as it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
but i might see young cupid’s fiery shaft
quench’d in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
and the imperial vot’ress passed on,
in maiden 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 conscious that she was overheard, and as she uttered the words,
“in maiden meditation, fancy free,” she dropped into the thames the supplication of orson pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to find more favourable acceptance at sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it.
leicester was spurred to emulation by the success of the young courtier’s exhibition, as the veteran racer is roused when a high-mettled 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 frequented. 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 leicester 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 this short passage she leaned on him somewhat more than the slippiness of the way necessarily demanded. certainly her actions and words combined to express a degree of favour 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 as extorted by a sense of his merit. and in the opinion of many experienced courtiers, all the favour she showed him was overbalanced by her whispering in the ear of the lady derby that “now she saw sickness was a better alchemist than she before wotted of, seeing it had changed my lord of sussex’s copper nose into a golden one.”
the jest transpired, and the earl of leicester enjoyed his triumph, as one to whom court-favour 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 valour. an accident occurred in the course of the evening which riveted leicester’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 wont to take in private, or with one or two favourite ladies, her light and 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 favour, what had become of the young squire lack-cloak.
the lady paget answered, “she had seen master raleigh but two or three minutes since standing at the window of a small pavilion or pleasure-house, which looked out on the thames, and writing 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, paget, let us see what use he has made of it, for i can see through him already. he is a marvellously 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 paget, and once again to herself. “it is a pretty beginning,” she said, after the consideration of a moment or two; “but methinks the muse hath deserted the young wit at the very outset of his task. it were good-natured — were it not, lady paget?— to complete it for him. try your rhyming faculties.”
lady paget, prosaic from her cradle upwards as ever any lady of the bedchamber 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 paget; “and your highness will impose such obligation on the ladies of parnassus —”
“hush, paget,” said the queen, “you speak sacrilege against the immortal nine — yet, virgins themselves, they should be exorable to a virgin queen — and therefore — let me see how runs his verse —
‘fain would i climb, but that i fear to fall.’
might not the answer (for fault of a better) run thus?—
‘if thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.’”
the dame of honour 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 coxcombs 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 god, i saw him first; for being so seen, and seeing not me, he will do the less harm.”
“in god’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, god 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, doboobie 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 tressilian.
“he is in little danger from what he has hitherto 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 doboobie, 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 embassage.”
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 circumstances 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 cumnor, 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.16 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 sussex, dictated instructions as to his regimen, and precautions concerning his diet, and left sayes court without waiting for morning.
