But you must not escape your penance for turning back Masters the poor man hath caught cold on the river; for our order reached him when he was just returned from certain visits in London, and he held it matter of loyalty and conscience instantly to set forth again. So hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail not to wear thy muddy cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be farther known. And here," she added, giving him a jewel of gold, in the form of a chess-man, " I give thee this to wear at the collar." Raleigh, to whom nature had taught intuitively, as it were, those courtly arts which many scarce acquire from long experience, knelt, and, as he took from her hand the jewel, kissed the fingers which gave it. He knew, perhaps, better than almost any of the courtiers who surrounded her, how to mingle the devotion claimed by the queen, with the gallantry due to her personal beauty-and in this, his first attempt to unite them, he succeeded so well, as at once to gratify Elizabeth's personal vanity, and her love of power." His master, the Earl of Sussex, had the full advantage of the satisfaction which Raleigh had afforded Elizabeth, on their first interview. "My lords and ladies," said the queen, looking around to the retinue by whom she was attended, " methinks, since we are upon the river, it were well to renounce our present purpose of going to the city, and surprise this poor Earl of Sussex with a visit. He is ill, and suffering doubtless under the fear of our displeasure, from which he hath been honestly cleared by the frank avowal of this malapert boy. What think ye? were it not an act of charity to give him such consolation as the thanks of a queen, much bound to him for his loyal service, may perchance best minister ?" It may be readily supposed, that none to whom this speech was addressed, ventured to oppose its purport. "Your grace," said the Bishop of Lincoln," is the breath of our nostrils." The men of war averred, that the face of the sovereign was a whetstone to the soldier's sword; while the men of state were not less of opinion, that the light of the queen's countenance was a lamp to the paths of her counsellors; and the ladies agreed, with one voice, that no noble in England so well deserved the regard of England's royal mistress as the Earl of Sussexthe Earl of Leicester's right being reserved entire; so some of the more politic worded their assent-an exception to which Elizabeth paid no apparent attention. The barge had, therefore, orders to deposit its royal freight at Deptford, at the nearest and most convenient point of communication with Say's Court, in order that the queen might satisfy her royal and maternal solicitude, by making personal inquiries after the health of the Earl of Sussex. Raleigh, whose acute spirit foresaw and anticipated important consequences from the most trifling events, hastened to ask the queen's permission to go in the skiff, and announce the royal visit to his master; ingeniously suggesting, that the joyful surprise might prove prejudicial to his health, since the richest and most generous cordials may sometimes be fatal to those who have been long in a languishing state. But whether the queen deemed it too presumptuous in so young a courtier to interpose his opinion unasked, or whether she was moved by a recurrence of the feeling of jealousy, which had been instilled into her, by reports that the earl kept armed men about his person, she desired Raleigh, sharply, to reserve his counsel till it was required of him, and repeated her former orders, to be landed at Deptford, adding, "We will ourselves see what sort of nousehold my Lord of Sussex keeps about him." "Now the Lord have pity on us!" said the young courtier to himself. "Good hearts, the earl hath many a one round him; but good heads are scarce with usand he himself is too ill to give direction. And Blount will be at his morning meal of Yarmouth herrings and ale; and Tracy will have his beastly black puddings and Rhenish ;-those thorough-paced Welchmen, Thomas ap Rice and Evan Evans, will be at work on their leek porridge and toasted cheese-and she detests, they say, all coarse meats, evil smells, and strong wines. Could they but think of burning some rosemary in the great hall! but vogue la galère, all must now be trusted to chance. Luck hath done indifferent well for me this morning, for I trust I have spoiled a cloak and made a court fortuneMay she do as much for my gallant patron!" presence never borne over her The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and amid the loud shouts of the populace, which her failed to excite, the queen, with a canopy head, walked, accompanied by her retinue, towards Say's Court, where the distant acclamations of the people gave the first notice of her arrival. Sussex, who was in the act of advising with Tressilian how he should make up the supposed breach in the queen's favour, was infinitely surprised at learning her immediate approach—not that the queen's custom of visiting her more distinguished nobility, whether in health or sickness could be unknown to him ; but the suddenness of the communication left no time for those preparations with which he well knew Elizabeth loved to be greeted, and the rudeness and confusion of his military household, much increased by his late illness, rendered him altogether unprepared for her reception. Cursing internally the chance which thus brought her gracious visitation on him unaware, he hastened down with Tressilian, to whose eventful and interesting story he had just given an attentive ear. "My worthy friend," he said, " such support as I can give your accusation of Varney, you have a right to expect, alike from justice and gratitude. Chance will presently show whether I can do aught with our sovereign, or whether, in very deed, my meddling in your affair may not rather prejudice than serve you." Thus spoke Sussex, while hastily casting around him a loose robe of sables, and adjusting his person in the best manner he could to meet the eye of his sovereign. But no hurried attention bestowed on his apparel could remove the ghastly effects of long illness on a countenance which nature had marked with features rather strong than pleas ing. Besides, he was low of stature, and though broadshouldered, athletic, and fit for martial achievements, his presence in a peaceful hall was not such as ladies love to look upon; a personal disadvantage, which was supposed to give Sussex, though esteemed and honoured by his sovereign, considerable disadvantage when compared with Leicester, who was alike remarkable for elegance of manners, and for beauty of person. The earl's utmost despatch only enabled him to meet the queen as she entered the great hall, and he at once perceived there was a cloud on her brow. Her jealous eye had noticed the martial array of armed gentlemen and retainers with which the mansion-house was filled, and her first words expressed her disapprobation-"Is this a royal garrison, my lord of Sussex, that it holds so many pikes and calivers? or have we by accident overshot Say's Court, and landed at our Tower of London ?” Lord Sussex hastened to offer some apology. "It needs not," she said. "My lord, we intend speedily to take up a certain quarrel between your lordship and another great lord of our household, and at the same time to reprehend this uncivilized and dangerous practice of surrounding yourselves with armed, and even with ruffianly followers, as if, in the neighbourhood of our capital, nay in the very verge of our royal residence, you were preparing to wage civil war with each other. We are glad to see you so well recovered, my lord, though without the assistance of the learned physician whom we sent to you-Urge no excuse we know how that matter fell out, and we have corrected for it the wild slip, young Raleigh. By the way, my lord, we will speedily relieve your household of him, and take him into our own. Something there is about him which merits to be better nurtured than he is like to be amongst your very military followers." To this proposal Sussex, though scarce understanding how the queen came to make it, could only bow and express his acquiescence. He then entreated her to remain till refreshment could be offered, but in this he could not prevail. And, after a few compliments of a much colder and more common-place character than might have been expected from a step so decidedly favourable as a personal visit, the queen took her leave of Say's Court, having brought confusion thither along with her, and leaving doubt and apprehension behind. CHAPTER XVI. Then call them to our presence. Face to face, Richard II. "I AM ordered to attend court to-morrow," said Leicester, speaking to Varney, " to meet, as they surmise, my Lord of Sussex. The queen intends to take up matters betwixt us. This comes of her visit to Say's Court, of which you must needs speak so lightly." 66 “I maintain it was nothing," said Varney; nay, 1 know from a sure intelligencer, who was within ear-shot of much that was said, that Sussex has lost rather than gained by that visit. The queen said, when she stepped into the boat, that Say's Court looked like a guard-house, and smelt like an hospital. Like a cook's shop in Ram's Alley rather,' said the Countess of Rutland, who is ever your lordship's good friend. And then my Lord of Lincoln must needs put in his holy oar, and say, that my Lord of Sussex must be excused for his rude and oldworld housekeeping, since he had as yet no wife.” "And what said the queen?" asked Leicester, hastily. "She took him up roundly," said Varney," and asked what my Lord Sussex had to do with a wife, or my Lord 18 VOL. 1. |