Wayland had just time to caution the lady not to be alarmed, adding,
"This fellow is a gull, and I will use him as such."

When the mercer had recovered breath and audacity enough to confront
them, he ordered Wayland, in a menacing tone, to deliver up his palfrey.

"How?" said the smith, in King Cambyses' vein, "are we commanded to
stand and deliver on the king's highway? Then out, Excalibur, and tell
this knight of prowess that dire blows must decide between us!"

"Haro and help, and hue and cry, every true man!" said the mercer. "I am
withstood in seeking to recover mine own."

"Thou swearest thy gods in vain, foul paynim," said Wayland, "for I
will through with mine purpose were death at the end on't. Nevertheless,
know, thou false man of frail cambric and ferrateen, that I am he, even
the pedlar, whom thou didst boast to meet on Maiden Castle moor, and
despoil of his pack; wherefore betake thee to thy weapons presently."

"I spoke but in jest, man," said Goldthred; "I am an honest shopkeeper
and citizen, who scorns to leap forth on any man from behind a hedge."

"Then, by my faith, most puissant mercer," answered Wayland, "I am sorry
for my vow, which was, that wherever I met thee I would despoil thee of
thy palfrey, and bestow it upon my leman, unless thou couldst defend it
by blows of force. But the vow is passed and registered, and all I
can do for thee is to leave the horse at Donnington, in the nearest
hostelry."

"But I tell thee, friend," said the mercer, "it is the very horse on
which I was this day to carry Jane Thackham, of Shottesbrok, as far as
the parish church yonder, to become Dame Goldthred. She hath jumped out
of the shot-window of old Gaffer Thackham's grange; and lo ye, yonder
she stands at the place where she should have met the palfrey, with
her camlet riding-cloak and ivory-handled whip, like a picture of Lot's
wife. I pray you, in good terms, let me have back the palfrey."

"Grieved am I," said Wayland, "as much for the fair damsel as for thee,
most noble imp of muslin. But vows must have their course; thou wilt
find the palfrey at the Angel yonder at Donnington. It is all I may do
for thee with a safe conscience."

"To the devil with thy conscience!" said the dismayed mercer. "Wouldst
thou have a bride walk to church on foot?"

"Thou mayest take her on thy crupper, Sir Goldthred," answered Wayland;
"it will take down thy steed's mettle."

"And how if you--if you forget to leave my horse, as you propose?" said
Goldthred, not without hesitation, for his soul was afraid within him.

"My pack shall be pledged for it--yonder it lies with Giles Gosling,
in his chamber with the damasked leathern hangings, stuffed full with
velvet, single, double, treble-piled--rash-taffeta, and parapa--shag,
damask, and mocado, plush, and grogram--"

"Hold! hold!" exclaimed the mercer; "nay, if there be, in truth and
sincerity, but the half of these wares--but if ever I trust bumpkin with
bonny Bayard again!"

"As you list for that, good Master Goldthred, and so good morrow to
you--and well parted," he added, riding on cheerfully with the lady,
while the discountenanced mercer rode back much slower than he came,
pondering what excuse he should make to the disappointed bride, who
stood waiting for her gallant groom in the midst of the king's highway.

"Methought," said the lady, as they rode on, "yonder fool stared at me
as if he had some remembrance of me; yet I kept my muffler as high as I
might."

"If I thought so," said Wayland, "I would ride back and cut him over the
pate; there would be no fear of harming his brains, for he never had
so much as would make pap to a sucking gosling. We must now push on,
however, and at Donnington we will leave the oaf's horse, that he may
have no further temptation to pursue us, and endeavour to assume such a
change of shape as may baffle his pursuit if he should persevere in it."

The travellers reached Donnington without further alarm, where it became
matter of necessity that the Countess should enjoy two or three hours'
repose, during which Wayland disposed himself, with equal address and
alacrity, to carry through those measures on which the safety of their
future journey seemed to depend.

Exchanging his pedlar's gaberdine for a smock-frock, he carried the
palfrey of Goldthred to the Angel Inn, which was at the other end of the
village from that where our travellers had taken up their quarters. In
the progress of the morning, as he travelled about his other business,
he saw the steed brought forth and delivered to the cutting mercer
himself, who, at the head of a valorous posse of the Hue and Cry, came
to rescue, by force of arms, what was delivered to him without any
other ransom than the price of a huge quantity of ale, drunk out by his
assistants, thirsty, it would seem, with their walk, and concerning
the price of which Master Goldthred had a fierce dispute with the
headborough, whom he had summoned to aid him in raising the country.

Having made this act of prudent as well as just restitution, Wayland
procured such change of apparel for the lady, as well as himself, as
gave them both the appearance of country people of the better class; it
being further resolved, that in order to attract the less observation,
she should pass upon the road for the sister of her guide. A good but
not a gay horse, fit to keep pace with his own, and gentle enough for
a lady's use, completed the preparations for the journey; for making
which, and for other expenses, he had been furnished with sufficient
funds by Tressilian. And thus, about noon, after the Countess had been
refreshed by the sound repose of several hours, they resumed their
journey, with the purpose of making the best of their way to Kenilworth,
by Coventry and Warwick. They were not, however, destined to travel far
without meeting some cause of apprehension.

It is necessary to premise that the landlord of the inn had informed
them that a jovial party, intended, as he understood, to present some
of the masques or mummeries which made a part of the entertainment with
which the Queen was usually welcomed on the royal Progresses, had left
the village of Donnington an hour or two before them in order to
proceed to Kenilworth. Now it had occurred to Wayland that, by attaching
themselves in some sort to this group as soon as they should overtake
them on the road, they would be less likely to attract notice than if
they continued to travel entirely by themselves. He communicated his
idea to the Countess, who, only anxious to arrive at Kenilworth without
interruption, left him free to choose the manner in which this was to
be accomplished. They pressed forward their horses, therefore, with the
purpose of overtaking the party of intended revellers, and making the
journey in their company; and had just seen the little party, consisting
partly of riders, partly of people on foot, crossing the summit of a
gentle hill, at about half a mile's distance, and disappearing on
the other side, when Wayland, who maintained the most circumspect
observation of all that met his eye in every direction, was aware that
a rider was coming up behind them on a horse of uncommon action,
accompanied by a serving-man, whose utmost efforts were unable to keep
up with his master's trotting hackney, and who, therefore, was fain
to follow him at a hand gallop. Wayland looked anxiously back at these
horsemen, became considerably disturbed in his manner, looked back
again, and became pale, as he said to the lady, "That is Richard
Varney's trotting gelding; I would know him among a thousand nags. This
is a worse business than meeting the mercer."

"Draw your sword," answered the lady, "and pierce my bosom with it,
rather than I should fall into his hands!"

"I would rather by a thousand times," answered Wayland, "pass it through
his body, or even mine own. But to say truth, fighting is not my best
point, though I can look on cold iron like another when needs must be.
And indeed, as for my sword--(put on, I pray you)--it is a poor Provant
rapier, and I warrant you he has a special Toledo. He has a serving-man,
too, and I think it is the drunken ruffian Lambourne! upon the horse on
which men say--(I pray you heartily to put on)--he did the great robbery
of the west country grazier. It is not that I fear either Varney or
Lambourne in a good cause--(your palfrey will go yet faster if you urge
him)--but yet--(nay, I pray you let him not break off into a gallop,
lest they should see we fear them, and give chase--keep him only at the
full trot)--but yet, though I fear them not, I would we were well rid
of them, and that rather by policy than by violence. Could we once reach
the party before us, we may herd among them, and pass unobserved, unless
Varney be really come in express pursuit of us, and then, happy man be
his dole!"

While he thus spoke, he alternately urged and restrained his horse,
desirous to maintain the fleetest pace that was consistent with the
idea of an ordinary journey on the road, but to avoid such rapidity of
movement as might give rise to suspicion that they were flying.

At such a pace they ascended the gentle hill we have mentioned, and
looking from the top, had the pleasure to see that the party which had
left Donnington before them were in the little valley or bottom on the
other side, where the road was traversed by a rivulet, beside which was
a cottage or two. In this place they seemed to have made a pause, which
gave Wayland the hope of joining them, and becoming a part of their
company, ere Varney should overtake them. He was the more anxious, as
his companion, though she made no complaints, and expressed no fear,
began to look so deadly pale that he was afraid she might drop from her
horse. Notwithstanding this symptom of decaying strength, she pushed on
her palfrey so briskly that they joined the party in the bottom of the
valley ere Varney appeared on the top of the gentle eminence which they
had descended.

They found the company to which they meant to associate themselves in
great disorder. The women with dishevelled locks, and looks of great
importance, ran in and out of one of the cottages, and the men stood
around holding the horses, and looking silly enough, as is usual in
cases where their assistance is not wanted.

Wayland and his charge paused, as if out of curiosity, and then
gradually, without making any inquiries, or being asked any questions,
they mingled with the group, as if they had always made part of it.

They had not stood there above five minutes, anxiously keeping as much
to the side of the road as possible, so as to place the other travellers
betwixt them and Varney, when Lord Leicester's master of the horse,
followed by Lambourne, came riding fiercely down the hill, their horses'
flanks and the rowels of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate
at which they travelled. The appearance of the stationary group around
the cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to protect their
masking dresses, having their light cart for transporting their scenery,
and carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more
easy conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and purpose
of the company.

"You are revellers," said Varney, "designing for Kenilworth?"

"RECTE QUIDEM, DOMINE SPECTATISSIME," answered one of the party.

"And why the devil stand you here?" said Varney, "when your utmost
dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time? The Queen dines at
Warwick to-morrow, and you loiter here, ye knaves."

"I very truth, sir," said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a vizard
with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet hue, having,
moreover, a black serge jerkin drawn close to his body by lacing,
garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped as to resemble cloven
feet--"in very truth, sir, and you are in the right on't. It is my
father the Devil, who, being taken in labour, has delayed our present
purpose, by increasing our company with an imp too many."

"The devil he has!" answered Varney, whose laugh, however, never
exceeded a sarcastic smile.

"It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masker who spoke first;
"Our major devil--for this is but our minor one--is even now at LUCINA,
FER OPEM, within that very TUGURIUM."

"By Saint George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a kinsman of the
fiend in the straw, a most comical chance!" said Varney. "How sayest
thou, Lambourne, wilt thou stand godfather for the nonce? If the devil
were to choose a gossip, I know no one more fit for the office."

"Saving always when my betters are in presence," said Lambourne,
with the civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to be so
indispensable that his jest will be permitted to pass muster.

"And what is the name of this devil, or devil's dam, who has timed her
turns so strangely?" said Varney. "We can ill afford to spare any of our
actors."

"GAUDET NOMINE SIBYLLAE," said the first speaker; "she is called Sibyl
Laneham, wife of Master Robert Laneham--"

"Clerk to the Council-chamber door," said Varney; "why, she is
inexcusable, having had experience how to have ordered her matters
better. But who were those, a man and a woman, I think, who rode so
hastily up the hill before me even now? Do they belong to your company?"

Wayland was about to hazard a reply to this alarming inquiry, when the
little diablotin again thrust in his oar.

"So please you," he said, coming close up to Varney, and speaking so as
not to be overheard by his companions, "the man was our devil major, who
has tricks enough to supply the lack of a hundred such as Dame Laneham;
and the woman, if you please, is the sage person whose assistance is
most particularly necessary to our distressed comrade."

"Oh, what! you have got the wise woman, then?" said Varney. "Why, truly,
she rode like one bound to a place where she was needed. And you have a
spare limb of Satan, besides, to supply the place of Mistress Laneham?"

"Ay, sir," said the boy; "they are not so scarce in this world as your
honour's virtuous eminence would suppose. This master-fiend shall spit a
few flashes of fire, and eruct a volume or two of smoke on the spot, if
it will do you pleasure--you would think he had AEtna in his abdomen."

"I lack time just now, most hopeful imp of darkness, to witness his
performance," said Varney; "but here is something for you all to drink
the lucky hour--and so, as the play says, 'God be with Your labour!'"

Thus speaking, he struck his horse with the spurs, and rode on his way.

Lambourne tarried a moment or two behind his master, and rummaged his
pouch for a piece of silver, which he bestowed on the communicative imp,
as he said, for his encouragement on his path to the infernal regions,
some sparks of whose fire, he said, he could discover flashing from him
already. Then having received the boy's thanks for his generosity he
also spurred his horse, and rode after his master as fast as the fire
flashes from flint.

"And now," said the wily imp, sidling close up to Wayland's horse,
and cutting a gambol in the air which seemed to vindicate his title to
relationship with the prince of that element, "I have told them who YOU
are, do you in return tell me who I am?"

"Either Flibbertigibbet," answered Wayland Smith, "or else an imp of the
devil in good earnest."

"Thou hast hit it," answered Dickie Sludge. "I am thine own
Flibbertigibbet, man; and I have broken forth of bounds, along with my
learned preceptor, as I told thee I would do, whether he would or not.
But what lady hast thou got with thee? I saw thou wert at fault the
first question was asked, and so I drew up for thy assistance. But I
must know all who she is, dear Wayland."

"Thou shalt know fifty finer things, my dear ingle," said Wayland;
"but a truce to thine inquiries just now. And since you are bound for
Kenilworth, thither will I too, even for the love of thy sweet face and
waggish company."

"Thou shouldst have said my waggish face and sweet company," said
Dickie; "but how wilt thou travel with us--I mean in what character?"

"E'en in that thou hast assigned me, to be sure--as a juggler; thou
knowest I am used to the craft," answered Wayland.

"Ay, but the lady?" answered Flibbertigibbet. "Credit me, I think she IS
one and thou art in a sea of troubles about her at this moment, as I can
perceive by thy fidgeting."

"Oh, she, man!--she is a poor sister of mine," said Wayland; "she can
sing and play o' the lute would win the fish out o' the stream."

"Let me hear her instantly," said the boy, "I love the lute rarely; I
love it of all things, though I never heard it."

"Then how canst thou love it, Flibbertigibbet?" said Wayland.

"As knights love ladies in old tales," answered Dickie--"on hearsay."

"Then love it on hearsay a little longer, till my sister is recovered
from the fatigue of her journey," said Wayland; muttering afterwards
betwixt his teeth, "The devil take the imp's curiosity! I must keep fair
weather with him, or we shall fare the worse."

He then proceeded to state to Master Holiday his own talents as a
juggler, with those of his sister as a musician. Some proof of his
dexterity was demanded, which he gave in such a style of excellence,
that, delighted at obtaining such an accession to their party, they
readily acquiesced in the apology which he offered when a display of his
sister's talents was required. The new-comers were invited to partake
of the refreshments with which the party were provided; and it was with
some difficulty that Wayland Smith obtained an opportunity of being
apart with his supposed sister during the meal, of which interval he
availed himself to entreat her to forget for the present both her
rank and her sorrows, and condescend, as the most probable chance of
remaining concealed, to mix in the society of those with whom she was to
travel.

The Countess allowed the necessity of the case, and when they resumed
their journey, endeavoured to comply with her guide's advice, by
addressing herself to a female near her, and expressing her concern for
the woman whom they were thus obliged to leave behind them.

"Oh, she is well attended, madam," replied the dame whom she addressed,
who, from her jolly and laughter-loving demeanour, might have been the
very emblem of the Wife of Bath; "and my gossip Laneham thinks as little
of these matters as any one. By the ninth day, an the revels last so
long, we shall have her with us at Kenilworth, even if she should travel
with her bantling on her back."

There was something in this speech which took away all desire on the
Countess of Leicester's part to continue the conversation. But having
broken the charm by speaking to her fellow-traveller first, the good
dame, who was to play Rare Gillian of Croydon in one of the interludes,
took care that silence did not again settle on the journey, but
entertained her mute companion with a thousand anecdotes of revels, from
the days of King Harry downwards, with the reception given them by
the great folk, and all the names of those who played the principal
characters; but ever concluding with "they would be nothing to the
princely pleasures of Kenilworth."

"And when shall we reach Kenilworth? said the Countess, with an
agitation which she in vain attempted to conceal.

"We that have horses may, with late riding, get to Warwick to-night, and
Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles. But then we must
wait till the foot-people come up; although it is like my good Lord of
Leicester will have horses or light carriages to meet them, and bring
them up without being travel-toiled, which last is no good preparation,
as you may suppose, for dancing before your betters. And yet, Lord help
me, I have seen the day I would have tramped five leagues of lea-land,
and turned an my toe the whole evening after, as a juggler spins a
pewter platter on the point of a needle. But age has clawed me somewhat
in his clutch, as the song says; though, if I like the tune and like
my partner, I'll dance the hays yet with any merry lass in Warwickshire
that writes that unhappy figure four with a round O after it."

If the Countess was overwhelmed with the garrulity of this good dame,
Wayland Smith, on his part, had enough to do to sustain and parry the
constant attacks made upon him by the indefatigable curiosity of his
old acquaintance Richard Sludge. Nature had given that arch youngster a
prying cast of disposition, which matched admirably with his sharp wit;
the former inducing him to plant himself as a spy on other people's
affairs, and the latter quality leading him perpetually to interfere,
after he had made himself master of that which concerned him not.
He spent the livelong day in attempting to peer under the Countess's
muffler, and apparently what he could there discern greatly sharpened
his curiosity.

"That sister of thine, Wayland," he said, "has a fair neck to have been
born in a smithy, and a pretty taper hand to have been used for twirling
a spindle--faith, I'll believe in your relationship when the crow's egg
is hatched into a cygnet."

"Go to," said Wayland, "thou art a prating boy, and should be breeched
for thine assurance."

"Well," said the imp, drawing off, "all I say is--remember you have kept
a secret from me, and if I give thee not a Roland for thine Oliver, my
name is not Dickon Sludge!"

This threat, and the distance at which Hobgoblin kept from him for the
rest of the way, alarmed Wayland very much, and he suggested to his
pretended sister that, on pretext of weariness, she should express a
desire to stop two or three miles short of the fair town of Warwick,
promising to rejoin the troop in the morning. A small village inn
afforded them a resting-place, and it was with secret pleasure that
Wayland saw the whole party, including Dickon, pass on, after a
courteous farewell, and leave them behind.

"To-morrow, madam," he said to his charge, "we will, with your leave,
again start early, and reach Kenilworth before the rout which are to
assemble there."

The Countess gave assent to the proposal of her faithful guide; but,
somewhat to his surprise, said nothing further on the subject, which
left Wayland under the disagreeable uncertainty whether or no she had
formed any plan for her own future proceedings, as he knew her situation
demanded circumspection, although he was but imperfectly acquainted with
all its peculiarities. Concluding, however, that she must have friends
within the castle, whose advice and assistance she could safely trust,
he supposed his task would be best accomplished by conducting her
thither in safety, agreeably to her repeated commands.



CHAPTER XXV.

     Hark, the bells summon, and the bugle calls,
     But she the fairest answers not--the tide
     Of nobles and of ladies throngs the halls,
     But she the loveliest must in secret hide.
     What eyes were thine, proud Prince, which in the gleam
     Of yon gay meteors lost that better sense,
     That o'er the glow-worm doth the star esteem,
     And merit's modest blush o'er courtly insolence?
     --THE GLASS SLIPPER.

The unfortunate Countess of Leicester had, from her infancy upwards,
been treated by those around her with indulgence as unbounded as
injudicious. The natural sweetness of her disposition had saved her from
becoming insolent and ill-humoured; but the caprice which preferred
the handsome and insinuating Leicester before Tressilian, of whose high
honour and unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm an
opinion--that fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, had
its origin in the mistaken kindness; that had spared her childhood the
painful but most necessary lesson of submission and self-command. From
the same indulgence it followed that she had only been accustomed to
form and to express her wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfilling
them; and thus, at the most momentous period of her life, she was alike
destitute of presence of mind, and of ability to form for herself any
reasonable or prudent plan of conduct.

These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with overwhelming
force on the morning which seemed to be the crisis of her fate.
Overlooking every intermediate consideration, she had only desired to be
at Kenilworth, and to approach her husband's presence; and now, when
she was in the vicinity of both, a thousand considerations arose at once
upon her mind, startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, some
real, some imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situation
alike helpless and destitute of aid and counsel.

A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she was
altogether unable to attend Wayland's early summons. The trusty guide
became extremely distressed on the lady's account, and somewhat alarmed
on his own, and was on the point of going alone to Kenilworth, in
the hope of discovering Tressilian, and intimating to him the lady's
approach, when about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend her.
He found her dressed, and ready for resuming her journey, but with a
paleness of countenance which alarmed him for her health. She intimated
her desire that the horses might be got instantly ready, and resisted
with impatience her guide's request that she would take some refreshment
before setting forward. "I have had," she said, "a cup of water--the
wretch who is dragged to execution needs no stronger cordial, and that
may serve me which suffices for him. Do as I command you." Wayland Smith
still hesitated. "What would you have?" said she. "Have I not spoken
plainly?"

"Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what is your further
purpose? I only wish to know, that I may guide myself by your wishes.
The whole country is afloat, and streaming towards the Castle of
Kenilworth. It will be difficult travelling thither, even if we had the
necessary passports for safe-conduct and free admittance; unknown
and unfriended, we may come by mishap. Your ladyship will forgive my
speaking my poor mind--were we not better try to find out the maskers,
and again join ourselves with them?" The Countess shook her head, and
her guide proceeded, "Then I see but one other remedy."

"Speak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps, that he
should thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask; "I believe
thee faithful--what wouldst thou counsel?"

"That I should warn Master Tressilian," said Wayland, "that you are in
this place. I am right certain he would get to horse with a few of Lord
Sussex's followers, and ensure your personal safety."

"And is it to ME you advise," said the Countess, "to put myself under
the protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble Leicester?"
Then, seeing the surprise with which Wayland stared upon her, and afraid
of having too strongly intimated her interest in Leicester, she added,
"And for Tressilian, it must not be--mention not to him, I charge you,
my unhappy name; it would but double MY misfortunes, and involve HIM in
dangers beyond the power of rescue." She paused; but when she observed
that Wayland continued to look on her with that anxious and uncertain
gaze which indicated a doubt whether her brain was settled, she assumed
an air of composure, and added, "Do thou but guide me to Kenilworth
Castle, good fellow, and thy task is ended, since I will then judge what
further is to be done. Thou hast yet been true to me--here is something
that will make thee rich amends."

She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone. Wayland
looked at it, hesitated a moment, and then returned it. "Not," he said,
"that I am above your kindness, madam, being but a poor fellow, who have
been forced, God help me! to live by worse shifts than the bounty of
such a person as you. But, as my old master the farrier used to say to
his customers, 'No cure, no pay.' We are not yet in Kenilworth Castle,
and it is time enough to discharge your guide, as they say, when you
take your boots off. I trust in God your ladyship is as well assured of
fitting reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certain
of my best endeavours to conduct you thither safely. I go to get the
horses; meantime, let me pray you once more, as your poor physician as
well as guide, to take some sustenance."

"I will--I will," said the lady hastily. "Begone, begone instantly!--It
is in vain I assume audacity," said she, when he left the room; "even
this poor groom sees through my affectation of courage, and fathoms the
very ground of my fears."

She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some food, but
was compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even a single morsel
gave her so much uneasiness as amounted well-nigh to suffocation. A
moment afterwards the horses appeared at the latticed window. The lady
mounted, and found that relief from the free air and change of place
which is frequently experienced in similar circumstances.

It chanced well for the Countess's purpose that Wayland Smith, whose
previous wandering and unsettled life had made him acquainted with
almost all England, was intimate with all the byroads, as well as direct
communications, through the beautiful county of Warwick. For such and so
great was the throng which flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth,
to see the entry of Elizabeth into that splendid mansion of her prime
favourite, that the principal roads were actually blocked up and
interrupted, and it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travellers
could proceed on their journey.

The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages
of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which
the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board
of Green Cloth. The Earl of Leicester's household officers had been
scouring the country for the same purpose; and many of his friends and
allies, both near and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiating
themselves by sending large quantities of provisions and delicacies
of all kinds, with game in huge numbers, and whole tuns of the best
liquors, foreign and domestic. Thus the highroads were filled with
droves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and hogs, and choked with loaded
wains, whose axle-trees cracked under their burdens of wine-casks and
hogsheads of ale, and huge hampers of grocery goods, and slaughtered
game, and salted provisions, and sacks of flour. Perpetual stoppages
took place as these wains became entangled; and their rude drivers,
swearing and brawling till their wild passions were fully raised, began
to debate precedence with their wagon-whips and quarterstaves, which
occasional riots were usually quieted by a purveyor, deputy-marshal's
man, or some other person in authority, breaking the heads of both
parties.

Here were, besides, players and mummers, jugglers and showmen, of every
description, traversing in joyous bands the paths which led to the
Palace of Princely Pleasure; for so the travelling minstrels had termed
Kenilworth in the songs which already had come forth in anticipation of
the revels which were there expected. In the midst of this motley show,
mendicants were exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming a
strange though common contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrows
of human existence. All these floated along with the immense tide
of population whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where the
mechanic, in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, his
city mistress; where clowns, with hobnailed shoes, were treading on the
kibes of substantial burghers and gentlemen of worship; and where Joan
of the dairy, with robust pace, and red, sturdy arms, rowed her way
unward, amongst those prim and pretty moppets whose sires were knights
and squires.

The throng and confusion was, however, of a gay and cheerful character.
All came forth to see and to enjoy, and all laughed at the trifling
inconveniences which at another time might have chafed their temper.
Excepting the occasional brawls which we have mentioned among that
irritable race the carmen, the mingled sounds which arose from the
multitude were those of light-hearted mirth and tiptoe jollity. The
musicians preluded on their instruments--the minstrels hummed their
songs--the licensed jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness, as he
brandished his bauble--the morrice-dancers jangled their bells--the
rustics hallooed and whistled-men laughed loud, and maidens giggled
shrill; while many a broad jest flew like a shuttlecock from one party,
to be caught in the air and returned from the opposite side of the road
by another, at which it was aimed.

No infliction can be so distressing to a mind absorbed in melancholy,
as being plunged into a scene of mirth and revelry, forming an
accompaniment so dissonant from its own feelings. Yet, in the case of
the Countess of Leicester, the noise and tumult of this giddy scene
distracted her thoughts, and rendered her this sad service, that
it became impossible for her to brood on her own misery, or to form
terrible anticipations of her approaching fate. She travelled on like
one in a dream, following implicitly the guidance of Wayland, who,
with great address, now threaded his way through the general throng of
passengers, now stood still until a favourable opportunity occurred
of again moving forward, and frequently turning altogether out of the
direct road, followed some circuitous bypath, which brought them into
the highway again, after having given them the opportunity of traversing
a considerable way with greater ease and rapidity.

It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose Castle (that fairest
monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains uninjured
by time) Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and where she was
to tarry until past noon, at that time the general hour of dinner
throughout England, after which repast she was to proceed to Kenilworth,
In the meanwhile, each passing group had something to say in the
Sovereign's praise, though not absolutely without the usual mixture
of satire which qualifies more or less our estimate of our neighbours,
especially if they chance to be also our betters.

"Heard you," said one, "how graciously she spoke to Master Bailiff and
the Recorder, and to good Master Griffin the preacher, as they kneeled
down at her coach-window?"

"Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, 'Master Recorder, men would
have persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I think, so well
did you reckon up to me the virtues of a sovereign, that I have more
reason to be afraid of you.' and then with what grace she took the
fair-wrought purse with the twenty gold sovereigns, seeming as though
she would not willingly handle it, and yet taking it withal."

"Ay, ay," said another, "her fingers closed on it pretty willingly
methought, when all was done; and methought, too, she weighed them for a
second in her hand, as she would say, I hope they be avoirdupois."

"She needed not, neighbour," said a third; "it is only when the
corporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me, that they put
him off with clipped coin. Well, there is a God above all--little Master
Recorder, since that is the word, will be greater now than ever."

"Come, good neighbour," said the first speaker "be not envious. She is
a good Queen, and a generous; she gave the purse to the Earl of
Leicester."

"I envious?--beshrew thy heart for the word!" replied the handicraft.
"But she will give all to the Earl of Leicester anon, methinks."

"You are turning ill, lady," said Wayland Smith to the Countess of
Leicester, and proposed that she should draw off from the road, and halt
till she recovered. But, subduing her feelings at this and different
speeches to the same purpose, which caught her ear as they passed on,
she insisted that her guide should proceed to Kenilworth with all
the haste which the numerous impediments of their journey permitted.
Meanwhile, Wayland's anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition, and
her obvious distraction of mind, was hourly increasing, and he became
extremely desirous that, according to her reiterated requests, she
should be safely introduced into the Castle, where, he doubted not, she
was secure of a kind reception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal on
whom she reposed her hopes.

"An I were once rid of this peril," thought he, "and if any man shall
find me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant, he shall have
leave to beat my brains out with my own sledge-hammer!"

At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and the
domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixty
thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present
money.

The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven
acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a
pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest
formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. The
lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious
enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated
buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and
bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass,
and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems
of mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history, could
Ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty
favourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. A
large and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of
uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhaps
from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so called. Some
antiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the
Castle had its name, a Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early era
after the Norman Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon
of the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and
of the yet more redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons'
wars, Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III. Here Mortimer,
Earl of March, famous alike for his rise and his fall, had once gaily
revelled in Kenilworth, while his dethroned sovereign, Edward
II., languished in its dungeons. Old John of Gaunt, "time-honoured
Lancaster," had widely extended the Castle, erecting that noble and
massive pile which yet bears the name of Lancaster's Buildings; and
Leicester himself had outdone the former possessors, princely and
powerful as they were, by erecting another immense structure, which now
lies crushed under its own ruins, the monument of its owner's ambition.
The external wall of this royal Castle was, on the south and west sides,
adorned and defended by a lake partly artificial, across which Leicester
had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth might enter the Castle
by a path hitherto untrodden, instead of the usual entrance to the
northward, over which he had erected a gatehouse or barbican, which
still exists, and is equal in extent, and superior in architecture, to
the baronial castle of many a northern chief.

Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red deer, fallow deer,
roes, and every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees, from
amongst which the extended front and massive towers of the Castle were
seen to rise in majesty and beauty. We cannot but add, that of this
lordly palace, where princes feasted and heroes fought, now in the
bloody earnest of storm and siege, and now in the games of chivalry,
where beauty dealt the prize which valour won, all is now desolate.
The bed of the lake is but a rushy swamp; and the massive ruins of the
Castle only serve to show what their splendour once was, and to impress
on the musing visitor the transitory value of human possessions, and the
happiness of those who enjoy a humble lot in virtuous contentment.

It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate Countess of
Leicester viewed those grey and massive towers, when she first beheld
them rise above the embowering and richly-shaded woods, over which
they seemed to preside. She, the undoubted wife of the great Earl, of
Elizabeth's minion, and England's mighty favourite, was approaching
the presence of her husband, and that husband's sovereign, under the
protection, rather than the guidance, of a poor juggler; and though
unquestioned Mistress of that proud Castle, whose lightest word ought
to have had force sufficient to make its gates leap from their massive
hinges to receive her, yet she could not conceal from herself the
difficulty and peril which she must experience in gaining admission into
her own halls.

The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment, and
at length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further progress at
the great gate leading to a broad and fair road, which, traversing the
breadth of the chase for the space of two miles, and commanding several
most beautiful views of the Castle and lake, terminated at the newly
constructed bridge, to which it was an appendage, and which was destined
to form the Queen's approach to the Castle on that memorable occasion.

Here the Countess and Wayland found the gate at the end of this avenue,
which opened on the Warwick road, guarded by a body of the Queen's
mounted yeomen of the guard, armed in corselets richly carved and
gilded, and wearing morions instead of bonnets, having their carabines
resting with the butt-end on their thighs. These guards, distinguished
for strength and stature, who did duty wherever the Queen went in
person, were here stationed under the direction of a pursuivant, graced
with the Bear and Ragged Staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl of
Leicester, and peremptorily refused all admittance, excepting to such as
were guests invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform some
part in the mirthful exhibitions which were proposed.

The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and persons
of all kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance; to which the
guards turned an inexorable ear, pleading, in return to fair words,
and even to fair offers, the strictness of their orders, founded on the
Queen's well-known dislike to the rude pressing of a multitude. With
those whom such reasons did not serve they dealt more rudely, repelling
them without ceremony by the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses,
and good round blows from the stock of their carabines. These last
manoeuvres produced undulations amongst the crowd, which rendered
Wayland much afraid that he might perforce be separated from his charge
in the throng. Neither did he know what excuse to make in order to
obtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his head with great
uncertainty, when the Earl's pursuivant, having cast an eye upon him,
exclaimed, to his no small surprise, "Yeomen, make room for the fellow
in the orange-tawny cloak.--Come forward, Sir Coxcomb, and make haste.
What, in the fiend's name, has kept you waiting? Come forward with your
bale of woman's gear."

While the pursuivant gave Wayland this pressing yet uncourteous
invitation, which, for a minute or two, he could not imagine was applied
to him, the yeomen speedily made a free passage for him, while, only
cautioning his companion to keep the muffler close around her face, he
entered the gate leading her palfrey, but with such a drooping crest,
and such a look of conscious fear and anxiety, that the crowd, not
greatly pleased at any rate with the preference bestowed upon them,
accompanied their admission with hooting and a loud laugh of derision.

Admitted thus within the chase, though with no very flattering notice
or distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward, musing what
difficulties it would be next their lot to encounter, through the
broad avenue, which was sentinelled on either side by a long line of
retainers, armed with swords, and partisans richly dressed in the Earl
of Leicester's liveries, and bearing his cognizance of the Bear and
Ragged Staff, each placed within three paces of each other, so as to
line the whole road from the entrance into the park to the bridge. And,
indeed, when the lady obtained the first commanding view of the Castle,
with its stately towers rising from within a long, sweeping line of
outward walls, ornamented with battlements and turrets and platforms at
every point of defence, with many a banner streaming from its walls, and
such a bustle of gay crests and waving plumes disposed on the terraces
and battlements, and all the gay and gorgeous scene, her heart,
unaccustomed to such splendour, sank as if it died within her, and for a
moment she asked herself what she had offered up to Leicester to deserve
to become the partner of this princely splendour. But her pride and
generous spirit resisted the whisper which bade her despair.

"I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give. Name and
fame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificence
at the altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is my
husband--I am his wife--whom God hath joined, man cannot sunder. I
will be bold in claiming my right; even the bolder, that I come thus
unexpected, and thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well! He will be
something impatient at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley
will forgive her."

These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guide
Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by a
pair of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one who had dropped
himself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst the
shouts of laughter which burst from the sentinels.

"This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!" said Wayland, after
a vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse the urchin who clung
to him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns?"

"In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct, "and
many others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, without
my teaching you. How would you have passed the pursuivant at the upper
gate yonder, had not I warned him our principal juggler was to follow
us? And here have I waited for you, having clambered up into the tree
from the top of the wain; and I suppose they are all mad for want of me
by this time."

"Nay, then, thou art a limb of the devil in good earnest," said Wayland.
"I give thee way, good imp, and will walk by thy counsel; only, as thou
art powerful be merciful."

As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south extremity of
the long bridge we have mentioned, which served to protect the outer
gateway of the Castle of Kenilworth.

Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular company, did
the unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for the first time, the
magnificent abode of her almost princely husband.



CHAPTER XXVI.

     SNUG.   Have you the lion's part written?  pray, if it be, give
     it me, for I am slow of study.
     QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
     --MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

When the Countess of Leicester arrived at the outer gate of the Castle
of Kenilworth, she found the tower, beneath which its ample portal arch
opened, guarded in a singular manner. Upon the battlements were placed
gigantic warders, with clubs, battle-axes, and other implements of
ancient warfare, designed to represent the soldiers of King Arthur;
those primitive Britons, by whom, according to romantic tradition,
the Castle had been first tenanted, though history carried back its
antiquity only to the times of the Heptarchy.

Some of these tremendous figures were real men, dressed up with vizards
and buskins; others were mere pageants composed of pasteboard and
buckram, which, viewed from beneath, and mingled with those that
were real, formed a sufficiently striking representation of what was
intended. But the gigantic porter who waited at the gate beneath, and
actually discharged the duties of warder, owed none of his terrors to
fictitious means. We was a man whose huge stature, thews, sinews, and
bulk in proportion, would have enabled him to enact Colbrand, Ascapart,
or any other giant of romance, without raising himself nearer to heaven
even by the altitude of a chopin. The legs and knees of this son of Anak
were bare, as were his arms from a span below the shoulder; but his
feet were defended with sandals, fastened with cross straps of scarlet
leather studded with brazen knobs. A close jerkin of scarlet velvet
looped with gold, with short breeches of the same, covered his body and
a part of his limbs; and he wore on his shoulders, instead of a cloak,
the skin of a black bear. The head of this formidable person was
uncovered, except by his shaggy, black hair, which descended on either
side around features of that huge, lumpish, and heavy cast which are
often annexed to men of very uncommon size, and which, notwithstanding
some distinguished exceptions, have created a general prejudice against
giants, as being a dull and sullen kind of persons. This tremendous
warder was appropriately armed with a heavy club spiked with steel. In
fine, he represented excellently one of those giants of popular romance,
who figure in every fairy tale or legend of knight-errantry.

The demeanour of this modern Titan, when Wayland Smith bent his
attention to him, had in it something arguing much mental embarrassment
and vexation; for sometimes he sat down for an instant on a massive
stone bench, which seemed placed for his accommodation beside the
gateway, and then ever and anon he started up, scratching his huge head,
and striding to and fro on his post, like one under a fit of impatience
and anxiety. It was while the porter was pacing before the gate in this
agitated manner, that Wayland, modestly, yet as a matter of course (not,
however, without some mental misgiving), was about to pass him, and
enter the portal arch. The porter, however, stopped his progress,
bidding him, in a thundering voice, "Stand back!" and enforcing his
injunction by heaving up his steel-shod mace, and dashing it on the
ground before Wayland's horse's nose with such vehemence that the
pavement flashed fire, and the archway rang to the clamour. Wayland,
availing himself of Dickie's hints, began to state that he belonged to a
band of performers to which his presence was indispensable, that he had
been accidentally detained behind, and much to the same purpose. But
the warder was inexorable, and kept muttering and murmuring something
betwixt his teeth, which Wayland could make little of; and addressing
betwixt whiles a refusal of admittance, couched in language which was
but too intelligible. A specimen of his speech might run thus:--"What,
how now, my masters?" (to himself)--"Here's a stir--here's a
coil."--(Then to Wayland)--"You are a loitering knave, and shall have no
entrance."--(Again to himself)--"Here's a throng--here's a thrusting.--I
shall ne'er get through with it--Here's a--humph--ha."--(To
Wayland)--"Back from the gate, or I'll break the pate of thee."--(Once
more to himself)--"Here's a--no--I shall never get through it."

"Stand still," whispered Flibbertigibbet into Wayland's ear, "I know
where the shoe pinches, and will tame him in an instant."

He dropped down from the horse, and skipping up to the porter, plucked
him by the tail of the bearskin, so as to induce him to decline his huge
head, and whispered something in his ear. Not at the command of the lord
of some Eastern talisman did ever Afrite change his horrid frown into
a look of smooth submission more suddenly than the gigantic porter
of Kenilworth relaxed the terrors of his looks at the instant
Flibbertigibbet's whisper reached his ears. He flung his club upon the
ground, and caught up Dickie Sludge, raising him to such a distance from
the earth as might have proved perilous had he chanced to let him slip.

"It is even so," he said, with a thundering sound of exultation--"it is
even so, my little dandieprat. But who the devil could teach it thee?"

"Do not thou care about that," said Flibbertigibbet--"but--" he looked
at Wayland and the lady, and then sunk what he had to say in a
whisper, which needed not be a loud one, as the giant held him for his
convenience close to his ear. The porter then gave Dickie a warm caress,
and set him on the ground with the same care which a careful housewife
uses in replacing a cracked china cup upon her mantelpiece, calling out
at the same time to Wayland and the lady, "In with you--in with you! and
take heed how you come too late another day when I chance to be porter."

"Ay, ay, in with you," added Flibbertigibbet; "I must stay a short space
with mine honest Philistine, my Goliath of Gath here; but I will be with
you anon, and at the bottom of all your secrets, were they as deep and
dark as the Castle dungeon."

"I do believe thou wouldst," said Wayland; "but I trust the secret will
be soon out of my keeping, and then I shall care the less whether thou
or any one knows it."

They now crossed the entrance tower, which obtained the name of the
Gallery-tower, from the following circumstance: The whole bridge,
extending from the entrance to another tower on the opposite side of
the lake, called Mortimer's Tower, was so disposed as to make a spacious
tilt-yard, about one hundred and thirty yards in length, and ten in
breadth, strewed with the finest sand, and defended on either side by
strong and high palisades. The broad and fair gallery, destined for the
ladies who were to witness the feats of chivalry presented on this area,
was erected on the northern side of the outer tower, to which it gave
name. Our travellers passed slowly along the bridge or tilt-yard, and
arrived at Mortimer's Tower, at its farthest extremity, through which
the approach led into the outer or base-court of the Castle. Mortimer's
Tower bore on its front the scutcheon of the Earl of March, whose daring
ambition overthrew the throne of Edward II., and aspired to share his
power with the "She-wolf of France," to whom the unhappy monarch was
wedded. The gate, which opened under this ominous memorial, was guarded
by many warders in rich liveries; but they offered no opposition to the
entrance of the Countess and her guide, who, having passed by license of
the principal porter at the Gallery-tower, were not, it may be supposed,
liable to interruption from his deputies. They entered accordingly, in
silence, the great outward court of the Castle, having then full before
them that vast and lordly pile, with all its stately towers, each gate
open, as if in sign of unlimited hospitality, and the apartments filled
with noble guests of every degree, besides dependants, retainers,
domestics of every description, and all the appendages and promoters of
mirth and revelry.