not interfere in her behalf until she had used her own efforts to have her rights acknowledged by him."

"Ha!" said Leicester, "remember you to whom you speak?"

"I speak of her unworthy husband, my lord," repeated Tressilian," and my respect can find no softer language. The unhappy young woman is withdrawn from my knowledge, and sequestered in some secret place of this castle, if she be not transferred to some place of seclusion better fitted for bad designs. This must be reformed, my lord,-I speak it as authorized by her father, and this ill-fated marriage must be avouched and proved in the queen's presence, and the lady placed without restraint, and at her own free disposal. And, permit me to say, it concerns no one's honour that these most just demands of mine should be complied with so much as it does that of your lordship.".

The earl stood as if he had been petrified at the extreme coolness with which the man, whom he considered as having injured him so deeply, pleaded the cause of his criminal paramour, as if she had been an innocent woman, and he a disinterested advocate; nor was his wonder lessened by the warmth with which Tressilian seemed to demand for her the rank and situation which she had disgraced, and the advantages of which she was doubtless to share with the lover who advocated her cause with such effrontery. Tressilian had been silent for more than a minute ere the earl recovered from the excess of his astonishment; and, considering the prepossessions with which his mind was occupied, there is little wonder that his passion gained the mastery of every other consideration. "I have heard you, Master Tressilian," said he, "without interruption, and I bless God that my ears were never before made to tingle by the words of so frontless a villain. The task of chastising you is fitter for the hangman's scourge than the sword of a nobleman, but yet-Villain, draw and defend thyself!"

As he spoke the last words, he dropped his mantle on the ground, struck Tressilian smartly with his sheathed sword, and instantly drawing his rapier, put himself into a posture of assault. The vehement fury of his language at first filled Tressilian, in his turn, with surprise equal to what Leicester had felt when he addressed him. But astonishment gave rise to resentment, when the unmerited insults of his language were followed by a blow, which immediately put to flight every thought save that of instant combat. Tressilian's sword was instantly drawn, and though perhaps somewhat inferior to Leicester in the use of the weapon, he understood it well enough to maintain the contest with great spirit, the rather that of the two he was for the time the more cool, since he could not help imputing Leicester's conduct either to actual frenzy, or to the influence of some strong delusion.

The rencontre had continued for several minutes, without either party receiving a wound, when of a sudden voices were heard beneath the portico, which formed the entrance of the terrace, mingled with the steps of men advancing hastily.

"We are interrupted," said Leicester to his antagonist; "follow me."

At the same time a voice from the portico said, "The jackanape is right—they are tilting here."

Leicester, meanwhile, drew off Tressilian into a sort of recess behind one of the fountains, which served to conceal them, while six of the yeomen of the queen's guard passed along the middle walk of the pleasance, and they could hear one say to the rest, "We shall never find them to-night amongst all these squirting funnels, squirrelcages, and rabbit-holes; but if we light not on them before we reach the farther end, we will return, and mount a guard at the entrance and so secure them till morning."

"A proper matter," said another, "the drawing of swords so near the queen's presence, ay, and in her very palace as 'twere!-Hang it, they must be some poor 19 VOL. II.

drunken game-cocks fallen to sparring-were pity almost we should find them-the penalty is chopping off a hand, is it not?-'twere hard to lose hand for handling a bit of steel, that comes so natural to one's gripe." "Thou art a brawler thyself, George," said another; "but take heed, for the law stands as thou say'st."

66

Ay," said the first," an the act be not mildly construed; for thou know'st 'tis not the queen's palace, but my Lord of Leicester's."

"Why, for that matter, the penalty may be as severe," said another; "for, an our gracious mistress be queen, as she is, God save her, my Lord of Leicester is as good as king."

"Hush! thou knave!" said a third; "how know'st thou who may be within hearing?"

They passed on, making a kind of careless search, but seemingly more intent on their own conversation than bent on discovering the persons who had created the nocturnal disturbance.

They had no sooner passed forward along the terrace, than Leicester, making a sign to Tressilian to follow him, glided away in an opposite direction, and escaped through the portico undiscovered. He conducted Tressilian to Mervyn's Tower, in which he was now again lodged; and then, ere parting with him, said these words, "if thou hast courage to continue and bring to an end what is thus broken off, be near me when the court goes forth to-morrow we shall find a time, and I will give you a signal when it is fitting."

"My lord," said Tressilian, "at another time I might have inquired the meaning of this strange and furious inveteracy against me. But you have laid that on my shoulder, which only blood can wash away; and were you as high as your proudest wishes ever carried you, I would have from you satisfaction for my wounded hon

On these terms they parted, but the adventures of the night were not yet ended with Leicester. He was compelled to pass by Saintlowe's Tower, in order to gain the

private passage which led to his own chamber, and in the entrance thereof he met Lord Hunsdon half clothed, and with a naked sword under his arm.

"Are you awakened too, with this 'larum, my Lord of Leicester ?" said the old soldier. ""Tis well-By gog'snails, the nights are as noisy as the day in this castle of yours. Some two hours since I was waked by the screams of that poor brain-sick Lady Varney, whom her husband was forcing away. I promise you, it required both your warrant and the queen's, to keep me from entering into the game, and cutting that Varney of your's over the head; and now there is a brawl down in the pleasance, or what call you the stone terrace-walk, where all yonder gimcracks stand?"

The first part of the old man's speech went through the earl's heart like a knife; to the last he answered that he himself had heard the clash of swords, and had come down to take order with those who had been so insolent so near the queen's presence.

66

Nay then," said Hunsdon, "I will be glad of your lordship's company."

Leicester was thus compelled to turn back with the rough old lord to the pleasance, where Hunsdon heard. from the yeomen of the guard, who were under his immediate command, the unsuccessful search they had made for the authors of the disturbance; and bestowed for their pains some round dozen of'curses on them, as lazy knaves and blind whoresons. Leicester also thought it necessary to seem angry that no discovery had been effected; but at length suggested to Lord Hunsdon, that after all it could only be some foolish young men, who had been drinking healths pottle-deep, and who would be sufficiently scared by the search which had taken place after them. Hunsdon, who was himself attached to his cup, allowed that a pint-flagon might cover many of the follies which it had caused. "But," he

added, "unless your lordship will be less liberal in your house-keeping, and restrain the overflow of ale, and wine, and wassail, I foresee it will end in my having some of

these good fellows into the guard-house, and treating them to a dose of the strappado-and with this warning, good-night to you."

Joyful at being rid of his company, Leicester took leave of him at the entrance of his lodging, where they had first met, and entering the private passage, took up the lamp which he had left there, and by its expiring light found the way to his own apartment.

CHAPTER XX.

Room! room! for my horse will wince
If he comes within so many yards of a prince:
For to tell you true, and in rhyme,

He was foal'd in Queen Elizabeth's time;
When the great Earl of Lester

In his castle did feast her.

Masque of Owls-Ben Jonson.

THE amusement with which Elizabeth and her court were next day to be regaled, was an exhibition by the true-hearted men of Coventry, who were to represent the strife between the English and the Danes, agreeably to a custom long preserved in their ancient borough, and warranted for truth by old histories and chronicles. In this pageant, one party of the town's folk represented the Saxons and the other the Danes, and set forth both in rude rhymes and with hard blows, the contentions of these two fierce nations, and the Amazonian courage of the English women, who, according to the story, were the principal agents in the general massacre of the Danes, which took place at Hocktide, in the year of God 1012. This sport, which had been long a favourite pastime with the men of Coventry, had, it seems, been put down by the influence of some zealous clergymen, of the more precise cast-who chanced to have considerable influ