"But Wisdom, Amy," answered Leicester, "is arrayed in panoply of proof. Argue not with me on the means I shall use to render my confession-since it must be called so-as safe as may be; it will be fraught with enough of danger do what we will. Varney, we must hence. Farewell, Amy, whom I am to vindicate as mine own, at an expense and risk of which thou alone couldst be worthy! You shall soon hear farther from me."

He embraced her fervently, muffled himself as before, and accompanied Varney from the apartment. The latter, as he left the room, bowed low, and, as he raised his body, regarded Amy with a peculiar expression, as if he desired to know how far his own pardon was included in the reconciliation which had taken place betwixt her and her lord. The countess looked upon him with a fixed eye, but seemed no more conscious of his presence, than if there had been nothing but vacant air on the spot where he stood.

"She has brought me to the crisis," he muttered"She or I am lost. There was something-I wot not if it was fear or pity, that prompted me to avoid this fatal crisis. It is now decided-She or I must perish."

While he thus spoke, he observed, with surprise, that a boy, repulsed by the sentinel, made up to Leicester, and spoke with him. Varney was one of those politicians, whom not the slightest appearances escape without inquiry. He asked the sentinel what the lad wanted with him, and received for answer, that the boy had wished him to transmit a parcel to the mad lady, but that he cared not to take charge of it, such communication being beyond his commission. His curiosity satisfied in that particular, he approached his patron, and heard him say "Well, boy, the packet shall be delivered."

"Thanks, good Master Serving-man," said the boy, and was out of sight in an instant.

Leicester and Varney returned with hasty steps to the earl's private apartment, by the same passage which had conducted them to Saintlowe's Tower.

CHAPTER XVII.

-I have said

This is an adultress-I have said with whom :

More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is

A federary with her, and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself.

Winter's Tale.

THEY were no sooner in the earl's cabinet, than, taking his tablets from his pocket, he began to write, speaking partly to Varney, and partly to himself:-" There are many of them close bounden to me, and especially those in good estate and high office; many who, if they look back towards my benefits, or forward towards the perils which may befall themselves, will not, I think, be disposed to see me stagger unsupported. Let me see-Knollis is sure, and through his means Guernsey and JerseyHorsey commands in the Isle of Wight-My brother-inlaw, Huntingdon, and Pembroke, have authority in Wales. -Through Bedford I lead the Puritans, with their interest so powerful in all the boroughs-My brother of Warwick is equal, well nigh, to myself, in wealth, followers and dependences-Sir Owen Hopton is at my devotion; he commands the Tower of London, and the national treasure deposited there-My father and grandfather needed never to have stooped their heads to the block, had they thus forecast their enterprizes.-Why look you so sad, Varney? I tell thee, a tree so deep-rooted, is not easily to be torn up by the tempest.'

"Alas! my lord," said Varney, with well-acted passion, and then resumed the same look of despondency which Leicester had before noted.

"Alas!" repeated Leicester, "and wherefore alas, Sir Richard? Doth your new spirit of chivalry supply no more vigorous ejaculation, when a noble struggle is im

pending? Or, if alas means thou wilt flinch from the conflict, thou mayest leave the castle, or go join mine enemies, whichever thou thinkest best."

"Not so, my lord," answered his confidant; "Varney will be found fighting or dying by your side. Forgive me, if, in love to you, I see more fully than your noble heart permits you to do, the inextricable difficulties with which you are surrounded. You are strong, my lord, and powerful; yet, let me say it without offence, you are so only by the reflected light of the queen's favour. While you are Elizabeth's favourite, you are all, save in name, like an actual sovereign. But let her call back the honours she has bestowed, and the prophet's gourd did not wither more suddenly. Declare against the queen, and I do not say that in the wide nation, or in this province alone, you would find yourself instantly deserted and outnumbered; but I will say, that even in this very castle, and in the midst of your vassals, kinsmen, and dependants, you would be a captive, nay a sentenced captive, should she please to say the word. Think upon Norfolk, my lord,-upon the powerful Northumberland, -the splendid Westmoreland;-think on all who have made head against this sage princess. They are dead, captive, or fugitive. This is not like other thrones, which can be overturned by a combination of powerful nobles; the broad foundations which support it are in the extended love and affections of the people. You might share it with Elizabeth if you would; but neither yours, nor any other power, foreign or domestic, will avail to overthrow, or even to shake it."

He paused, and Leicester threw his tablets from him with an air of reckless despite. "It may be as thou say'st," he said; "and, in sooth, I care not whether truth or cowardice dictate thy forebodings. But it shall not be said I fell without a struggle.-Give orders, that those of my retainers who served under me in Ireland be gradually drawn into the main Keep, and let our gentlemen and friends stand on their guard, and go armed, as if they expected an onset from the followers of Sussex.

Possess the town's-people with some apprehension; let them take arms, and be ready at a signal given to overpower the pensioners and yeomen of the guard."

"Let me remind you, my lord," said Varney, with the same appearance of deep and melancholy interest, "that you have given me orders to prepare for disarming the queen's guard. It is an act of high treason, but you shall nevertheless be obeyed.”

"I care

"I care not," said Leicester, desperately ;not. Shame is behind me, Ruin before me; I must on." Here there was another pause, which Varney at length broke with the following words: "It is come to the point I have long dreaded. I must either witness, like an ungrateful beast, the downfall of the best and kindest of masters, or I must speak what I would have buried in the deepest oblivion, or told by any other mouth than mine."

"What is that thou sayest, or would say?" replied the earl; "we have no time to waste on words, when the time calls us to action."

"My speech is soon made my lord-would to God it were as soon answered! Your marriage is the sole cause of the threatened breach with your sovereign, my lord, is it not?"

"Thou knowest it is!" replied Leicester. "What needs so fruitless a question?"

"Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here. Men will wager their lands and lives in defence of a rich diamond, my lord; but were it not first prudent to look if there is no flaw in it ?"

"What means this?" said Leicester, with eyes sternly fixed on his dependant; " of whom dost thou dare to speak?"

"It is of the Countess Amy, my lord, of whom 1 am unhappily bound to speak; and of whom I will speak, were your lordship to kill me for my zeal."

"Thou may'st happen to deserve it at my hand," said the earl; "but speak on, I will hear thee."

"Nay, then, my lord, I will be bold. I speak for my own life as well as for your lordship's. I like not this

lady's tampering and trickstering with this same Edmund Tressilian. You know him, my lord. You know he had formerly an interest in her, which it cost your lordship some pains to supersede. You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit against me in behalf of this lady, the open object of which is to drive your lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy marriage, the point to which my lady also is willing, at any risk, to urge you."

Leicester smiled constrainedly. “Thou meanest well, good Sir Richard, and wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour, as well as that of any other person, to save me from what thou think'st a step so terrible. But, remember," he spoke these words with the most stern decision," you speak of the Countess of Leicester."

"I do, my lord," said Varney; "but it is for the welfare of the Earl of Leicester. My tale is but begun, I do most strongly believe that this Tressilian has, from the beginning of his moving in her cause, been in connivance with her ladyship the countess."

"Thou speak'st wild madness, Varney, with the sober face of a preacher. Where, or how, could they communicate together?"

"My lord," said Varney, "unfortunately I can show that but too well. It was just before the supplication was presented to the queen, in Tressilian's name, that I met him, to my utter astonishment, at the postern-gate, which leads from the demesne at Cumnor-Place."

"Thou met'st him, villain! and why didst thou not strike him dead exclaimed Leicester.

ง

"I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not my foot slipped, he would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-block in your lordship's path."

Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise. At length he answered, "What other evidence hast thou of this, Varney, save thine own assertion ?-for, as I will punish deeply, I will examine coolly and warily. Sacred Heaven! but no-I will examine coldly and warily, 16* VOL TI.