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had not grace, had a sort of tact and habitual knowledge of breeding, which came in place of it. The Queen turned her eye from the one to the other << I doubt, she said, « this same poetical Master Tressilian, who is too learned, I warrant me, to remember what presence he was to appear in, may be one of those of whom Geoffrey Chaucer says wittily, the wisest clerks are not the wisest men. I remember that Varney is a smooth-tongued varlet. I doubt this fair runaway had reasons for breaking her faith. »

To this Raleigh durst make no answer, aware how little he should benefit Tressilian by contradicting the Queen's sentiments, and not at all certain, on the whole, whether the best thing that could befall him, would not be that she should put an end at once by her authority to this affair, upon which it seemed to him Tressilian's thoughts were fixed with unavailing and distressing pertinacity. As these reflections passed through his active brain, the lower door of the hall opened, and Leicester, accompanied by several of his kinsmen, and of the nobles who had embraced his faction, re-entered the Castle-hall.

The favourite Earl was now apparelled all in white, his shoes being of white velvet; his understocks (or stockings) of knit silk; his upper stocks of white velvet, lined with cloth of silver, which was shewn at the slashed of the midpart dle thigh; his doublet of cloth of silver, the close jerkin of white velvet, embroidered with silver and seed-pearl; his girdle and the scabbard

of his sword of white velvet with golden buckles; his poniard and sword hilted and mounted with gold; and over all, a rich loose robe of white satin, with a border of golden embroidery a foot in breadth. The collar of the Garter, and the azure Garter itself around his knee, completed the appointments of the Earl of Leicester; which were so well matched by his fair stature, graceful gesture, fine proportion of body, and handsome countenance, that at that moment he was admitted by all who saw him, as the goodliest person whom they had ever looked upon. Sussex and the other nobles were also richly attired, but in point of splendour and gracefulness Leicester far exceeded them all.

Elizabeth received him with great complacency. «We have one piece of royal justice, she said, « to attend to. It is a piece of justice, too, which interests us as a woman, as well as in the character of mother and guardian of the English people. »

An involuntary shudder came over Leicester, as he bowed low, expressive of his readiness to receive her royal commands; and a similar cold fit came over Varney, whose eyes (seldom during that evening removed from his patron,) instantly perceived, from the change in his looks, slight as that was, of what the Queen was speaking. But Leicester had wrought his resolution up to the point which, in his crooked policy, he judged necessary; and when Elizabeth added - « It is of the matter of Varney and

Gracious

Tressilian we speak is the lady here, my lord? His answer was ready : madam, she is not. »

Elizabeth bent her brows and compressed her lips. Our orders were strict and positive, my lord, » was her answer

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« And should have been obeyed, good my liege,» answered Leicester, « had they been expressed in the form of the lightest wish. But Varney, , step forward this gentleman will inform your Grace of the cause why the lady (he could not force his rebellious tongue to utter the words his wife,) cannot attend on your

royal presence. »>

Varney advanced, and pleaded with readiness, what indeed he firmly believed, the absolute incapacity of the party, (for neither did he dare, in Leicester's presence, term her his wife,) to wait on her Grace.

Here, » said he, « are attestations from a most learned physician, whose skill and honour are well known to my good Lord of Leicester; and from an honest and devout Protestant, a man of credit and substance, one Anthony Foster, the gentleman in whose house she is at present bestowed; that she now labours under an illness which altogether unfits her for such a journey as betwixt this Castle and the neighbourhood of Oxford. »

<< This alters the matter,» said the Queen, taking the certificates in her hand, and glancing at their contents -«Let Tressilian come for

sympathy for your situation, the rather that you seem to have set your heart deeply on this same Amy Robsart, or Varney. Our power, thanks to God and the willing obedience of a loving people, is worth something, but there are some things which it cannot compass. We cannot, for example, command the affections of a giddy young girl, or make her love sense and learning better than a courtier's fine doublet; and we cannot controul sickness, with which it seems this lady is afflicted, who may not, by reason of such infirmity, attend our court here, as we had required her to do. Here are the testimonials of the physician who hath her under his charge, and the gentleman in whose house she resides, so setting forth. »>

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Under your Majesty's favour», said Tressilian hastily, and, in his alarm for the consequence of the imposition practised on the Queen, forgetting, in part at least, his own promise to Amy, « these certificates speak not the truth. » How, sir!» said the Queen, Impeach my Lord of Leicester's veracity! But you shall have a fair hearing. In our presence the meanest of our subjects shall be heard against the proud est, and the least known against the most favoured; therefore you shall be heard fairly, but beware you speak not without a warrant. Look at these certificates in your own hand, and say manfully if you impugn the truth of them, and upon what evidence.

As the Queen spoke, his promise and all its consequences rushed on the mind of the unfortunate Tressilian, and while it controuled his natural inclination to pronounce that a falsehood which he knew from the evidence of his senses to be untrue, gave an indecision and irresolution to his appearance and utterance, which made strongly against him in the mind of Elizabeth, as well as of all who beheld him. He turned the papers over and over, as if he had been an idiot, incapable of comprehending their contents. The Queen's impatience began to become visible. - «You are a scholar, sir,» she said, and of some note, as I have heard; yet you seem wondrous slow in reading text hand. How say you, are these certificates true

or no? »

i

« Madam,» said Tressilian, with obvious embarrassment and hesitation, anxious to avoid admitting evidence which he might afterwards have reason to confute, yet equally desirous to keep his word to Amy, and to give her, as he had promised, space to plead her own cause in her own way Madam, your Grace

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Madam

calls on me to admit evidence which ought to be proved valid by those who found their defence upon them.

«Why, Tressilian, thou art critical as well as poetical,» said the Queen, bending on him a brow of displeasure; «methinks, these writings, being produced in the presence of the noble Earl to whom this Castle pertains, and his honour