"Doctor Masters, physician to her Grace in ordinary, sent by her
especial orders to inquire after the Earl's health," answered Walter.

"Ha! what?" exclaimed Tracy; "that was no slight mark of favour. If the
Earl can but come through, he will match with Leicester yet. Is Masters
with my lord at present?"

"Nay," replied Walter, "he is half way back to Greenwich by this time,
and in high dudgeon."

"Thou didst not refuse him admittance?" exclaimed Tracy.

"Thou wert not, surely, so mad?" ejaculated Blount.

"I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny
to a blind beggar--as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access
to a dun."

"Why, in the fiend's name, didst thou trust him to go to the gate?" said
Blount to Tracy.

"It suited his years better than mine," answered Tracy; "but he has
undone us all now thoroughly. My lord may live or die, he will never
have a look of favour from her Majesty again."

"Nor the means of making fortunes for his followers," said the young
gallant, smiling contemptuously;--"there lies the sore point that will
brook no handling. My good sirs, I sounded my lamentations over my lord
somewhat less loudly than some of you; but when the point comes of
doing him service, I will yield to none of you. Had this learned leech
entered, think'st thou not there had been such a coil betwixt him and
Tressilian's mediciner, that not the sleeper only, but the very dead
might have awakened? I know what larurm belongs to the discord of
doctors."

"And who is to take the blame of opposing the Queen's orders?" said
Tracy; "for, undeniably, Doctor Masters came with her Grace's positive
commands to cure the Earl."

"I, who have done the wrong, will bear the blame," said Walter.

"Thus, then, off fly the dreams of court favour thou hast nourished,"
said Blount, "and despite all thy boasted art and ambition, Devonshire
will see thee shine a true younger brother, fit to sit low at the board,
carve turn about with the chaplain, look that the hounds be fed, and see
the squire's girths drawn when he goes a-hunting."

"Not so," said the young man, colouring, "not while Ireland and the
Netherlands have wars, and not while the sea hath pathless waves. The
rich West hath lands undreamed of, and Britain contains bold hearts to
venture on the quest of them. Adieu for a space, my masters. I go to
walk in the court and look to the sentinels."

"The lad hath quicksilver in his veins, that is certain," said Blount,
looking at Markham.

"He hath that both in brain and blood," said Markham, "which may either
make or mar him. But in closing the door against Masters, he hath done
a daring and loving piece of service; for Tressilian's fellow hath ever
averred that to wake the Earl were death, and Masters would wake the
Seven Sleepers themselves, if he thought they slept not by the regular
ordinance of medicine."

Morning was well advanced when Tressilian, fatigued and over-watched,
came down to the hall with the joyful intelligence that the Earl
had awakened of himself, that he found his internal complaints much
mitigated, and spoke with a cheerfulness, and looked round with a
vivacity, which of themselves showed a material and favourable change
had taken place. Tressilian at the same time commanded the attendance of
one or two of his followers, to report what had passed during the night,
and to relieve the watchers in the Earl's chamber.

When the message of the Queen was communicated to the Earl of Sussex, he
at first smiled at the repulse which the physician had received from his
zealous young follower; but instantly recollecting himself, he commanded
Blount, his master of the horse, instantly to take boat, and go down
the river to the Palace of Greenwich, taking young Walter and Tracy with
him, and make a suitable compliment, expressing his grateful thanks to
his Sovereign, and mentioning the cause why he had not been enabled to
profit by the assistance of the wise and learned Doctor Masters.

"A plague on it!" said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had he sent
me with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done his errand
indifferently well. But to go to our gracious Sovereign, before whom all
words must be lacquered over either with gilding or with sugar, is such
a confectionary matter as clean baffles my poor old English brain.--Come
with me, Tracy, and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the
cause of our having all this ado. Let us see if thy neat brain, that
frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at need
with some of thy shrewd devices."

"Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help you
through; let me but fetch my cloak."

"Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,--"the lad is mazed."

"No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter. "I go not with
thee to court unless as a gentleman should."

"Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of none
but some poor groom or porter."

"I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my own
cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth with you."

"Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a cloak.
Get thyself ready, a God's name!"

They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad Thames, upon
which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.

"There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said Walter to
Blount--"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the earth."

"The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount, "and the
other would take us there a little faster if it were ebb-tide."

"And this is all thou thinkest--all thou carest--all thou deemest the
use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers--to guide three such
poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an idle journey of
courtly ceremony!"

"It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I could
excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying me where
I have no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's wages for my
trouble--and by my honour," he added, looking out from the head of the
boat, "it seems to me as if our message were a sort of labour in vain,
for, see, the Queen's barge lies at the stairs as if her Majesty were
about to take water."

It was even so. The royal barge, manned with the Queen's watermen
richly attired in the regal liveries, and having the Banner of England
displayed, did indeed lie at the great stairs which ascended from the
river, and along with it two or three other boats for transporting such
part of her retinue as were not in immediate attendance on the royal
person. The yeomen of the guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom
England could produce, guarded with their halberds the passage from
the palace-gate to the river side, and all seemed in readiness for the
Queen's coming forth, although the day was yet so early.

"By my faith, this bodes us no good," said Blount; "it must be some
perilous cause puts her Grace in motion thus untimeously, By my counsel,
we were best put back again, and tell the Earl what we have seen."

"Tell the Earl what we have seen!" said Walter; "why what have we seen
but a boat, and men with scarlet jerkins, and halberds in their hands?
Let us do his errand, and tell him what the Queen says in reply."

So saying, he caused the boat to be pulled towards a landing-place
at some distance from the principal one, which it would not, at that
moment, have been thought respectful to approach, and jumped on shore,
followed, though with reluctance, by his cautious and timid companions.
As they approached the gate of the palace, one of the sergeant porters
told them they could not at present enter, as her Majesty was in the act
of coming forth. The gentlemen used the name of the Earl of Sussex; but
it proved no charm to subdue the officer, who alleged, in reply, that
it was as much as his post was worth to disobey in the least tittle the
commands which he had received.

"Nay, I told you as much before," said Blount; "do, I pray you, my dear
Walter, let us take boat and return."

"Not till I see the Queen come forth," returned the youth composedly.

"Thou art mad, stark mad, by the Mass!" answered Blount.

"And thou," said Walter, "art turned coward of the sudden. I have seen
thee face half a score of shag-headed Irish kerns to thy own share of
them; and now thou wouldst blink and go back to shun the frown of a fair
lady!"

At this moment the gates opened, and ushers began to issue forth in
array, preceded and flanked by the band of Gentlemen Pensioners. After
this, amid a crowd of lords and ladies, yet so disposed around her that
she could see and be seen on all sides, came Elizabeth herself, then in
the prime of womanhood, and in the full glow of what in a Sovereign was
called beauty, and who would in the lowest rank of life have been truly
judged a noble figure, joined to a striking and commanding physiognomy.
She leant on the arm of Lord Hunsdon, whose relation to her by her
mother's side often procured him such distinguished marks of Elizabeth's
intimacy.

The young cavalier we have so often mentioned had probably never yet
approached so near the person of his Sovereign, and he pressed forward
as far as the line of warders permitted, in order to avail himself of
the present opportunity. His companion, on the contrary, cursing his
imprudence, kept pulling him backwards, till Walter shook him off
impatiently, and letting his rich cloak drop carelessly from one
shoulder; a natural action, which served, however, to display to the
best advantage his well-proportioned person. Unbonneting at the same
time, he fixed his eager gaze on the Queen's approach, with a mixture of
respectful curiosity and modest yet ardent admiration, which suited
so well with his fine features that the warders, struck with his rich
attire and noble countenance, suffered him to approach the ground over
which the Queen was to pass, somewhat closer than was permitted
to ordinary spectators. Thus the adventurous youth stood full in
Elizabeth's eye--an eye never indifferent to the admiration which she
deservedly excited among her subjects, or to the fair proportions of
external form which chanced to distinguish any of her courtiers.

Accordingly, she fixed her keen glance on the youth, as she approached
the place where he stood, with a look in which surprise at his boldness
seemed to be unmingled with resentment, while a trifling accident
happened which attracted her attention towards him yet more strongly.
The night had been rainy, and just where the young gentleman stood a
small quantity of mud interrupted the Queen's passage. As she hesitated
to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid
it on the miry spot, so as to ensure her stepping over it dry-shod.
Elizabeth looked at the young man, who accompanied this act of devoted
courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush that overspread his
whole countenance. The Queen was confused, and blushed in her turn,
nodded her head, hastily passed on, and embarked in her barge without
saying a word.

"Come along, Sir Coxcomb," said Blount; "your gay cloak will need the
brush to-day, I wot. Nay, if you had meant to make a footcloth of your
mantle, better have kept Tracy's old drab-debure, which despises all
colours."

"This cloak," said the youth, taking it up and folding it, "shall never
be brushed while in my possession."

"And that will not be long, if you learn not a little more economy; we
shall have you in CUERPO soon, as the Spaniard says."

Their discourse was here interrupted by one of the band of Pensioners.

"I was sent," said he, after looking at them attentively, "to a
gentleman who hath no cloak, or a muddy one.--You, sir, I think,"
addressing the younger cavalier, "are the man; you will please to follow
me."

"He is in attendance on me," said Blount--"on me, the noble Earl of
Sussex's master of horse."

"I have nothing to say to that," answered the messenger; "my orders are
directly from her Majesty, and concern this gentleman only."

So saying, he walked away, followed by Walter, leaving the others
behind, Blount's eyes almost starting from his head with the excess of
his astonishment. At length he gave vent to it in an exclamation, "Who
the good jere would have thought this!" And shaking his head with a
mysterious air, he walked to his own boat, embarked, and returned to
Deptford.

The young cavalier was in the meanwhile guided to the water-side by the
Pensioner, who showed him considerable respect; a circumstance which,
to persons in his situation, may be considered as an augury of no small
consequence. He ushered him into one of the wherries which lay ready to
attend the Queen's barge, which was already proceeding; up the river,
with the advantage of that flood-tide of which, in the course of their
descent, Blount had complained to his associates.

The two rowers used their oars with such expedition at the signal of
the Gentleman Pensioner, that they very soon brought their little skiff
under the stern of the Queen's boat, where she sat beneath an awning,
attended by two or three ladies, and the nobles of her household. She
looked more than once at the wherry in which the young adventurer was
seated, spoke to those around her, and seemed to laugh. At length one
of the attendants, by the Queen's order apparently, made a sign for the
wherry to come alongside, and the young man was desired to step from
his own skiff into the Queen's barge, which he performed with graceful
agility at the fore part of the boat, and was brought aft to the Queen's
presence, the wherry at the same time dropping into the rear. The
youth underwent the gaze of Majesty, not the less gracefully that his
self-possession was mingled with embarrassment. The muddled cloak still
hung upon his arm, and formed the natural topic with which the Queen
introduced the conversation.

"You have this day spoiled a gay mantle in our behalf, young man.
We thank you for your service, though the manner of offering it was
unusual, and something bold."

"In a sovereign's need," answered the youth, "it is each liegeman's duty
to be bold."

"God's pity! that was well said, my lord," said the Queen, turning to
a grave person who sat by her, and answered with a grave inclination
of the head, and something of a mumbled assent.--"Well, young man, your
gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe keeper, and he
shall have orders to supply the suit which you have cast away in our
service. Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise
thee, on the word of a princess."

"May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not for so
humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it
became me to choose--"

"Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the Queen, interrupting
him. "Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and
so various are the means of thriftless folly, that to give gold to
youth is giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means of
self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess
shall be abridged. Yet thou mayest be poor," she added, "or thy parents
may be. It shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for
the use on't."

Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then modestly
assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her
Majesty had before offered.

"How, boy!" said the Queen, "neither gold nor garment? What is it thou
wouldst have of me, then?"

"Only permission, madam--if it is not asking too high an
honour--permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling
service."

"Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!" said the Queen.

"It is no longer mine," said Walter; "when your Majesty's foot touched
it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its
former owner."

The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a slight
degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.

"Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with
reading romances. I must know something of him, that I may send him safe
to his friends.--What art thou?"

"A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please your
Grace, sent hither with his master of horse upon message to your
Majesty."

In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had hitherto
maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and severity.

"My Lord of Sussex," she said, "has taught us how to regard his messages
by the value he places upon ours. We sent but this morning the physician
in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no usual time, understanding his
lordship's illness to be more dangerous than we had before apprehended.
There is at no court in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most
useful science than Doctor Masters, and he came from Us to our subject.
Nevertheless, he found the gate of Sayes Court defended by men with
culverins, as if it had been on the borders of Scotland, not in the
vicinity of our court; and when he demanded admittance in our name, it
was stubbornly refused. For this slight of a kindness, which had but too
much of condescension in it, we will receive, at present at least, no
excuse; and some such we suppose to have been the purport of my Lord of
Sussex's message."

This was uttered in a tone and with a gesture which made Lord Sussex's
friends who were within hearing tremble. He to whom the speech was
addressed, however, trembled not; but with great deference and humility,
as soon as the Queen's passion gave him an opportunity, he replied, "So
please your most gracious Majesty, I was charged with no apology from
the Earl of Sussex."

"With what were you then charged, sir?" said the Queen, with the
impetuosity which, amid nobler qualities, strongly marked her character.
"Was it with a justification?--or, God's death! with a defiance?"

"Madam," said the young man, "my Lord of Sussex knew the offence
approached towards treason, and could think of nothing save of securing
the offender, and placing him in your Majesty's hands, and at your
mercy. The noble Earl was fast asleep when your most gracious message
reached him, a potion having been administered to that purpose by his
physician; and his Lordship knew not of the ungracious repulse your
Majesty's royal and most comfortable message had received, until after
he awoke this morning."

"And which of his domestics, then, in the name of Heaven, presumed
to reject my message, without even admitting my own physician to
the presence of him whom I sent him to attend?" said the Queen, much
surprised.

"The offender, madam, is before you," replied Walter, bowing very low;
"the full and sole blame is mine; and my lord has most justly sent me
to abye the consequences of a fault, of which he is as innocent as a
sleeping man's dreams can be of a waking man's actions."

"What! was it thou?--thou thyself, that repelled my messenger and my
physician from Sayes Court?" said the Queen. "What could occasion such
boldness in one who seems devoted--that is, whose exterior bearing shows
devotion--to his Sovereign?"

"Madam," said the youth--who, notwithstanding an assumed appearance
of severity, thought that he saw something in the Queen's face that
resembled not implacability--"we say in our country, that the physician
is for the time the liege sovereign of his patient. Now, my noble master
was then under dominion of a leech, by whose advice he hath greatly
profited, who had issued his commands that his patient should not that
night be disturbed, on the very peril of his life."

"Thy master hath trusted some false varlet of an empiric," said the
Queen.

"I know not, madam, but by the fact that he is now--this very
morning--awakened much refreshed and strengthened from the only sleep he
hath had for many hours."

The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see what
each thought of this news, than to exchange any remarks on what had
happened. The Queen answered hastily, and without affecting to disguise
her satisfaction, "By my word, I am glad he is better. But thou wert
over-bold to deny the access of my Doctor Masters. Knowest thou not the
Holy Writ saith, 'In the multitude of counsel there is safety'?"

"Ay, madam," said Walter; "but I have heard learned men say that the
safety spoken of is for the physicians, not for the patient."

"By my faith, child, thou hast pushed me home," said the Queen,
laughing; "for my Hebrew learning does not come quite at a call.--How
say you, my Lord of Lincoln? Hath the lad given a just interpretation of
the text?"

"The word SAFETY, most gracious madam," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "for
so hath been translated, it may be somewhat hastily, the Hebrew word,
being--"

"My lord," said the Queen, interrupting him, "we said we had forgotten
our Hebrew.--But for thee, young man, what is thy name and birth?"

"Raleigh is my name, most gracious Queen, the youngest son of a large
but honourable family of Devonshire."

"Raleigh?" said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection. "Have we not
heard of your service in Ireland?"

"I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam," replied
Raleigh; "scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to reach your
Grace's ears."

"They hear farther than you think of," said the Queen graciously, "and
have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against a whole
band of wild Irish rebels, until the stream ran purple with their blood
and his own."

"Some blood I may have lost," said the youth, looking down, "but it was
where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's service."

The Queen paused, and then said hastily, "You are very young to have
fought so well, and to speak so well. 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
further 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. [See Note 5. Court favour of Sir Walter
Raleigh.]

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 councillors; 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 Sussex--the 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 Sayes 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 household 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 us--and 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
Welshmen, 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 GALERE, 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 fortune. May she do
as much for my gallant patron!"

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 Sayes 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 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; 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 dispatch 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 Sayes 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 commonplace character than might have been expected from a step so
decidedly favourable as a personal visit, the Queen took her leave
of Sayes 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,
     And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
     The accuser and accused freely speak;--
     High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
     In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.--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 Sayes 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 earshot 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 Sayes 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 old-world
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 Bishop to speak on such a subject. 'If
marriage is permitted,' she said, 'I nowhere read that it is enjoined.'"

"She likes not marriages, or speech of marriage, among churchmen," said
Leicester.

"Nor among courtiers neither," said Varney; but, observing that
Leicester changed countenance, he instantly added, "that all the ladies
who were present had joined in ridiculing Lord Sussex's housekeeping,
and in contrasting it with the reception her Grace would have assuredly
received at my Lord of Leicester's."

"You have gathered much tidings," said Leicester, "but you have
forgotten or omitted the most important of all. She hath added another
to those dangling satellites whom it is her pleasure to keep revolving
around her."

"Your lordship meaneth that Raleigh, the Devonshire youth," said
Varney--"the Knight of the Cloak, as they call him at court?"

"He may be Knight of the Garter one day, for aught I know," said
Leicester, "for he advances rapidly--she hath capped verses with him,
and such fooleries. I would gladly abandon, of my own free will, the
part--I have in her fickle favour; but I will not be elbowed out of
it by the clown Sussex, or this new upstart. I hear Tressilian is
with Sussex also, and high in his favour. I would spare him for
considerations, but he will thrust himself on his fate. Sussex, too, is
almost as well as ever in his health."

"My lord," replied Varney, "there will be rubs in the smoothest road,
specially when it leads uphill. Sussex's illness was to us a godsend,
from which I hoped much. He has recovered, indeed, but he is not now
more formidable than ere he fell ill, when he received more than one
foil in wrestling with your lordship. 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 for use. Do thou thyself keep close to me, I may have business
for you."

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

"Thy Supplication, impeaching Varney of seduction," 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 honour, 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 white boys; but soldiers, like their bucklers and Bilboa blades, get
out of fashion in peace time, and satin sleeves and walking rapiers bear
the bell. Well, we must be gay, since such is the fashion.--Blount, hast
thou seen our household put into their new braveries? But thou knowest
as little of these toys as I do; thou wouldst be ready enow at disposing
a stand of pikes."

"My good lord," answered Blount, "Raleigh hath been here, and taken that
charge upon him--your train will glitter like a May morning. Marry, the
cost is another question. One might keep an hospital of old soldiers at
the charge of ten modern lackeys."

"He must not count cost to-day, Nicholas," said the Earl in reply. "I
am beholden to Raleigh for his care. I trust, though, he has remembered
that I am an old soldier, and would have no more of these follies than
needs must."

"Nay, I understand nought about it," said Blount; "but here are your
honourable lordship's brave kinsmen and friends coming in by scores to
wait upon you to court, where, methinks, we shall bear as brave a front
as Leicester, let him ruffle it as he will."

"Give them 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 offence had been
committed by his officer, and so he had expressly told to Sussex."

"This could have been done without applying to me," said Sussex,
somewhat haughtily. "I at least, ought not to have been a counsellor
when the object was a humiliating reference to Leicester; and I am
suprised that you, Tressilian, a man of honour, 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--"

"Oh, 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 further discussing it by dismissing his company, with the command,
"Let all be in order at eleven o'clock; I must be at court and in the
presence by high noon precisely."

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, and dividing betwixt them, either openly or in secret, the
hopes and wishes of most of her court. 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. A royal proclamation was sent
forth, strictly prohibiting nobles of whatever degree to approach the
Palace with retainers or followers armed with shot or with long weapons;
and it was even whispered that the High Sheriff of Kent had secret
instructions to have a part of the array of the county ready on the
shortest notice.

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 such was
the Queen's pleasure, Sussex and his retinue came to the Palace from
Deptford by water while Leicester arrived by land; and thus they entered
the courtyard from opposite sides. This trifling circumstance gave
Leicester a ascendency in the opinion of the vulgar, the appearance
of his cavalcade of mounted followers showing more numerous and more
imposing than those of Sussex's party, who were necessarily upon foot.
No show or sign of greeting passed between the Earls, though each looked
full at the other, both expecting perhaps an exchange of courtesies,
which neither was willing to commence. Almost in the minute of their
arrival the castle-bell tolled, the gates of the Palace were opened, and
the Earls entered, each numerously attended by such gentlemen of their
train whose rank gave them that privilege. The yeomen and inferior
attendants remained in the courtyard, where the opposite parties eyed
each other with looks of eager hatred and scorn, as if waiting with
impatience for some cause of tumult, or some apology for mutual
aggression. But they were restrained by the strict commands of their
leaders, and overawed, perhaps, by the presence of an armed guard of
unusual strength.

In the meanwhile, the more distinguished persons of each train followed
their patrons into the lofty halls and ante-chambers of the royal
Palace, flowing on in the same current, like two streams which are
compelled into the same channel, yet shun to mix their waters. The
parties arranged themselves, as it were instinctively, on the different
sides of the lofty apartments, and seemed eager to escape from the
transient union which the narrowness of the crowded entrance had for an
instant compelled them to submit to. The folding doors at the upper
end of the long gallery were immediately afterwards opened, and it was
announced in a whisper that the Queen was in her presence-chamber, to
which these gave access. Both Earls moved slowly and stately towards
the entrance--Sussex followed by Tressilian, Blount, and Raleigh, and
Leicester by Varney. The pride of Leicester was obliged to give way to
court-forms, and with a grave and formal inclination of the head, he
paused until his rival, a peer of older creation than his own, passed
before him. Sussex returned the reverence with the same formal civility,
and entered the presence-room. Tressilian and Blount offered to follow
him, but were not permitted, the Usher of the Black Rod alleging in
excuse that he had precise orders to look to all admissions that day. To
Raleigh, who stood back on the repulse of his companions, he said, "You,
sir, may enter," and he entered accordingly.

"Follow me close, Varney," said the Earl of Leicester, who had stood
aloof for a moment to mark the reception of Sussex; and advancing to
the entrance, he was about to pass on, when Varney, who was close behind
him, dressed out in the utmost bravery of the day, was stopped by the
usher, as Tressilian and Blount had been before him, "How is this,
Master Bowyer?" said the Earl of Leicester. "Know you who I am, and that
this is my friend and follower?"

"Your lordship will pardon me," replied Bowyer stoutly; "my orders are
precise, and limit me to a strict discharge of my duty."

"Thou art a partial knave," said Leicester, the blood mounting to his
face, "to do me this dishonour, when you but now admitted a follower of
my Lord of Sussex."

"My lord," said Bowyer, "Master Raleigh is newly admitted a sworn
servant of her Grace, and to him my orders did not apply."

"Thou art a knave--an ungrateful knave," said Leicester; "but he that
hath done can undo--thou shalt not prank thee in thy authority long!"

This threat he uttered aloud, with less than his usual policy and
discretion; and having done so, he entered the presence-chamber, and
made his reverence to the Queen, who, attired with even more than her
usual splendour, and surrounded by those nobles and statesmen whose
courage and wisdom have rendered her reign immortal, stood ready
to receive the hommage of her subjects. She graciously returned the
obeisance of the favourite Earl, and looked alternately at him and at
Sussex, as if about to speak, when Bowyer, a man whose spirit could
not brook the insult he had so openly received from Leicester, in the
discharge of his office, advanced with his black rad in his hand, and
knelt down before her.

"Why, how now, Bowyer?" said Elizabeth, "thy courtesy seems strangely
timed!"

"My Liege Sovereign," he said, while every courtier around trembled
at his audacity, "I come but to ask whether, in the discharge of mine
office, I am to obey your Highness's commands, or those of the Earl of
Leicester, who has publicly menaced me with his displeasure, and
treated me with disparaging terms, because I denied entry to one of his
followers, in obedience to your Grace's precise orders?"

The spirit of Henry VIII. was instantly aroused in the bosom of his
daughter, and she turned on Leicester with a severity which appalled
him, as well as all his followers.

"God's death! my lord." such was her emphatic phrase, "what means this?
We have thought well of you, and brought you near to our person; but it
was not that you might hide the sun from our other faithful subjects.
Who gave you license to contradict our orders, or control our officers?
I will have in this court, ay, and in this realm, but one mistress, and
no master. Look to it that Master Bowyer sustains no harm for his duty
to me faithfully discharged; for, as I am Christian woman and crowned
Queen, I will hold you dearly answerable.--Go, Bowyer, you have done the
part of an honest man and a true subject. We will brook no mayor of the
palace here."

Bowyer kissed the hand which she extended towards him, and withdrew
to his post! astonished at the success of his own audacity. A smile
of triumph pervaded the faction of Sussex; that of Leicester seemed
proportionally dismayed, and the favourite himself, assuming an
aspect of the deepest humility, did not even attempt a word in his own
esculpation.

He acted wisely; for it was the policy of Elizabeth to humble, not to
disgrace him, and it was prudent to suffer her, without opposition or
reply, to glory in the exertion of her authority. The dignity of
the Queen was gratified, and the woman began soon to feel for the
mortification which she had imposed on her favourite. Her keen eye also
observed the secret looks of congratulation exchanged amongst those who
favoured Sussex, and it was no part of her policy to give either party a
decisive triumph.

"What I say to my Lord of Leicester," she said, after a moment's pause,
"I say also to you, my Lord of Sussex. You also must needs ruffle in the
court of England, at the head of a faction of your own?"

"My followers, gracious Princess," said Sussex, "have indeed ruffled in
your cause in Ireland, in Scotland, and against yonder rebellious Earls
in the north. I am ignorant that--"

"Do you bandy looks and words with me, my lord?" said the Queen,
interrupting him; "methinks you might learn of my Lord of Leicester the
modesty to be silent, at least, under our censure. I say, my lord, that
my grandfather and my father, in their wisdom, debarred the nobles of
this civilized land from travelling with such disorderly retinues; and
think you, that because I wear a coif, their sceptre has in my hand been
changed into a distaff? I tell you, no king in Christendom will less
brook his court to be cumbered, his people oppressed, and his kingdom's
peace disturbed, by the arrogance of overgrown power, than she who now
speaks with you.--My Lord of Leicester, and you, my Lord of Sussex, I
command you both to be friends with each other; or by the crown I wear,
you shall find an enemy who will be too strong for both of you!"

"Madam," said the Earl of Leicester, "you who are yourself the fountain
of honour know best what is due to mine. I place it at your disposal,
and only say that the terms on which I have stood with my Lord of Sussex
have not been of my seeking; nor had he cause to think me his enemy,
until he had done me gross wrong."

"For me, madam," said the Earl of Sussex, "I cannot appeal from your
sovereign pleasure; but I were well content my Lord of Leicester should
say in what I have, as he terms it, wronged him, since my tongue never
spoke the word that I would not willingly justify either on foot or
horseback.

"And for me," said Leicester, "always under my gracious Sovereign's
pleasure, my hand shall be as ready to make good my words as that of any
man who ever wrote himself Ratcliffe."

"My lords," said the Queen, "these are no terms for this presence; and
if you cannot keep your temper, we will find means to keep both that and
you close enough. Let me see you join hands, my lords, and forget your
idle animosities."

The two rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each unwilling
to make the first advance to execute the Queen's will.

"Sussex," said Elizabeth, "I entreat--Leicester, I command you."

Yet, so were her words accented, that the entreaty sounded like command,
and the command like entreaty. They remained still and stubborn, until
she raised her voice to a height which argued at once impatience and
absolute command.

"Sir Henry Lee," she said, to an officer in attendance, "have a guard
in present readiness, and man a barge instantly.--My Lords of Sussex and
Leicester, I bid you once more to join hands; and, God's death! he that
refuses shall taste of our Tower fare ere he sees our face again. I will
lower your proud hearts ere we part, and that I promise, on the word of
a Queen!"

"The prison?" said Leicester, "might be borne, but to lose your Grace's
presence were to lose light and life at once.--Here, Sussex, is my
hand."

"And here," said Sussex, "is mine in truth and honesty; but--"

"Nay, under favour, you shall add no more," said the Queen. "Why, this
is as it should be," she added, looking on them more favourably; "and
when you the shepherds of the people, unite to protect them, it shall
be well with the flock we rule over. For, my lords, I tell you plainly,
your follies and your brawls lead to strange disorders among your
servants.--My Lord of Leicester, you have a gentleman in your household
called Varney?"

"Yes, gracious madam," replied Leicester; "I presented him to kiss your
royal hand when you were last at Nonsuch."

"His outside was well enough," said the Queen, "but scarce so fair, I
should have thought, as to have caused a maiden of honourable birth and
hopes to barter her fame for his good looks, and become his paramour.
Yet so it is; this fellow of yours hath seduced the daughter of a good
old Devonshire knight, Sir Hugh Robsart of Lidcote Hall, and she hath
fled with him from her father's house like a castaway.--My Lord of
Leicester, are you ill, that you look so deadly pale?"

"No, gracious madam," said Leicester; and it required every effort he
could make to bring forth these few words.

"You are surely ill, my lord?" said Elizabeth, going towards him with
hasty speech and hurried step, which indicated the deepest concern.
"Call Masters--call our surgeon in ordinary.--Where be these loitering
fools?--we lose the pride of our court through their negligence.--Or
is it possible, Leicester," she continued, looking on him with a very
gentle aspect, "can fear of my displeasure have wrought so deeply on
thee? Doubt not for a moment, noble Dudley, that we could blame THEE
for the folly of thy retainer--thee, whose thoughts we know to be far
otherwise employed. He that would climb the eagle's nest, my lord, cares
not who are catching linnets at the foot of the precipice."

"Mark you that?" said Sussex aside to Raleigh. "The devil aids him
surely; for all that would sink another ten fathom deep seems but to
make him float the more easily. Had a follower of mine acted thus--"

"Peace, my good lord," said Raleigh, "for God's sake, peace! Wait the
change of the tide; it is even now on the turn."

The acute observation of Raleigh, perhaps, did not deceive him; for
Leicester's confusion was so great, and, indeed, for the moment, so
irresistibly overwhelming, that Elizabeth, after looking at him with
a wondering eye, and receiving no intelligible answer to the unusual
expressions of grace and affection which had escaped from her, shot her
quick glance around the circle of courtiers, and reading, perhaps, in
their faces something that accorded with her own awakened suspicions,
she said suddenly, "Or is there more in this than we see--or than you,
my lord, wish that we should see? Where is this Varney? Who saw him?"

"An it please your Grace," said Bowyer, "it is the same against whom I
this instant closed the door of the presence-room."

"An it please me?" repeated Elizabeth sharply, not at that moment in the
humour of being pleased with anything.--"It does NOT please me that he
should pass saucily into my presence, or that you should exclude from it
one who came to justify himself from an accusation."

"May it please you," answered the perplexed usher, "if I knew, in such
case, how to bear myself, I would take heed--"

"You should have reported the fellow's desire to us, Master Usher, and
taken our directions. You think yourself a great man, because but now we
chid a nobleman on your account; yet, after all, we hold you but as the
lead-weight that keeps the door fast. Call this Varney hither instantly.
There is one Tressilian also mentioned in this petition. Let them both
come before us."

She was obeyed, and Tressilian and Varney appeared accordingly. Varney's
first glance was at Leicester, his second at the Queen. In the looks
of the latter there appeared an approaching storm, and in the downcast
countenance of his patron he could read no directions in what way he
was to trim his vessel for the encounter. He then saw Tressilian, and
at once perceived the peril of the situation in which he was placed.
But Varney was as bold-faced and ready-witted as he was cunning and
unscrupulous--a skilful pilot in extremity, and fully conscious of the
advantages which he would obtain could he extricate Leicester from his
present peril, and of the ruin that yawned for himself should he fail in
doing so.

"Is it true, sirrah," said the Queen, with one of those searching looks
which few had the audacity to resist, "that you have seduced to infamy
a young lady of birth and breeding, the daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of
Lidcote Hall?"