sonal 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.

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"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.

It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech was addressed ventured to oppose its purport. 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.

The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and, amid the loud shouts of the populace, which her presence never failed to excite, the Queen, with a canopy borne over her head, walked, accompanied by her retinue, towards Say's Court. Sussex, who was in the act of advising with Tressilian how he should make up the supposed breach in the Queen's favor, 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 pleasing. Besides, he was low of stature, and though broad-shouldered, athletic, and fit for martial achievements, his presence in a peaceful hall was not such as ladies love to look upon.

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 ? 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 neighborhood 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 Something there is about him which merits to be

our own.

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 favorable 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 XIII.

"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."

"I maintain it was nothing," said Varney; nay, I 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. Let not your heart fail you, my lord, and all shall be well." My heart never failed me, sir," replied Leicester.

"No, my lord," said Varney; "but it has betrayed you right often. He that would climb a tree, my lord, must grasp by the branches, not by the blossom."

"Well-well-well!" said Leicester, impatiently, "I understand thy meaning. My heart shall neither fail me nor seduce me. Have my retinue in order; see that their array be so splendid as to put down not only the rude companions of Ratcliffe, but the retainers of every other nobleman and courtier.

Let them be well armed withal, but without any outward display of their weapons, wearing them as if more for fashion's sake than Do thou thyself keep close to me; I may have business

for use. for you.

The preparations of Sussex and his party were not less anxious than those of Leicester.

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'Thy supplication, impeaching Varney," said the earl to Tressilian," is by this time in the Queen's hand. I have sent it through a sure channel. Methinks your suit should succeed, being, as it is, founded in justice and honor, and Elizabeth being the very muster of both. But, I wot not how, the gipsy (so Sussex was wont to call his rival, on account of his dark complexion) hath much to say with her in these holyday times of peace. Were war at the gates, I should be one of her whiteboys; but soldiers get out of fashion in peace time. Well, we must be gay. Blount, hast thou seen our household put into their new braveries ?

"My good lord," answered Blount, "Raleigh hath been here, and taken that charge upon him. Your train will glitter like a May morning."

"Give my brave kinsmen the strictest charges," said Sussex, "that they suffer no provocation short of actual violence to provoke them into quarrel; they have hot bloods, and I would not give Leicester the advantage over me by any imprudence of theirs."

The Earl of Sussex ran so hastily through these directions, that it was with difficulty Tressilian at length found opportunity to express his surprise, that he should have proceeded so far in the affair of Sir Hugh Robsart as to lay his petition at once before the Queen." It was the opinion of the young lady's friends," he said, "that Leicester's sense of justice should be first appealed to, as the offense had been committed by his officer, and so he had expressly told to Sussex."

"This could have been done without applying to me," said

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Sussex, somewhat haughtily. I, at least, ought not to have been a counselor when the object was a humiliating reference to Leicester; and I am surprised that you, Tressilian, a man of honor, and my friend, would assume such a mean course. If you said so, I certainly understood you not in a matter which sounded so unlike yourself."

"My lord," said Tressilian," the course I would prefer, for my own sake, is that you have adopted; but the friends of this most unhappy lady

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"O, the friends the friends," said Sussex, interrupting him; they must let us manage this cause in the way which seems best. This is the time and the hour to accumulate every charge against Leicester and his household, and yours the Queen will hold a heavy one. But at all events she hath the complaint

before her."

Tressilian could not help suspecting that, in his eagerness to strengthen himself against his rival, Sussex had purposely adopted the course most likely to throw odium on Leicester, without considering minutely whether it were the mode of proceeding most likely to be attended with success. But the step was irrevocable, and Sussex escaped from farther discussing it by dismissing his

company.

While the rival statesmen were thus anxiously preparing for their approaching meeting in the Queen's presence, even Elizabeth herself was not without apprehension of what might chance from the collision of two such fiery spirits, each backed by a strong and numerous body of followers. The band of gentlemen pensioners were all under arms, and a reinforcement of the yeomen of the guard was brought down the Thames from London.

The eventful hour, thus anxiously prepared for on all sides, at length approached, and, each followed by his long and glittering train of friends and followers, the rival earls entered the palace yard of Greenwich at noon precisely.

As if by previous arrangement, or perhaps by intimation that