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 asinjudicious. The natural sweetness of her disposition had saved her frombecoming insolent and ill-humoured; but the caprice which preferredthe handsome and insinuating Leicester before Tressilian, of whose highhonour and unalterable affection she herself entertained so firm anopinion--that fatal error, which ruined the happiness of her life, hadits origin in the mistaken kindness; that had spared her childhood thepainful but most necessary lesson of submission and self-command. Fromthe same indulgence it followed that she had only been accustomed toform and to express her wishes, leaving to others the task of fulfillingthem; and thus, at the most momentous period of her life, she was alikedestitute of presence of mind, and of ability to form for herself anyreasonable or prudent plan of conduct.
These difficulties pressed on the unfortunate lady with overwhelmingforce on the morning which seemed to be the crisis of her fate.Overlooking every intermediate consideration, she had only desired to beat Kenilworth, and to approach her husband's presence; and now, whenshe was in the vicinity of both, a thousand considerations arose at onceupon her mind, startling her with accumulated doubts and dangers, somereal, some imaginary, and all exalted and exaggerated by a situationalike helpless and destitute of aid and counsel.
A sleepless night rendered her so weak in the morning that she wasaltogether unable to attend Wayland's early summons. The trusty guidebecame extremely distressed on the lady's account, and somewhat alarmedon his own, and was on the point of going alone to Kenilworth, inthe hope of discovering Tressilian, and intimating to him the lady'sapproach, when about nine in the morning he was summoned to attend her.He found her dressed, and ready for resuming her journey, but with apaleness of countenance which alarmed him for her health. She intimatedher desire that the horses might be got instantly ready, and resistedwith impatience her guide's request that she would take some refreshmentbefore setting forward. "I have had," she said, "a cup of water--thewretch who is dragged to execution needs no stronger cordial, and thatmay serve me which suffices for him. Do as I command you." Wayland Smithstill hesitated. "What would you have?" said she. "Have I not spokenplainly?"
"Yes, madam," answered Wayland; "but may I ask what is your furtherpurpose? I only wish to know, that I may guide myself by your wishes.The whole country is afloat, and streaming towards the Castle ofKenilworth. It will be difficult travelling thither, even if we had thenecessary passports for safe-conduct and free admittance; unknownand unfriended, we may come by mishap. Your ladyship will forgive myspeaking my poor mind--were we not better try to find out the maskers,and again join ourselves with them?" The Countess shook her head, andher guide proceeded, "Then I see but one other remedy."
"Speak out, then," said the lady, not displeased, perhaps, that heshould thus offer the advice which she was ashamed to ask; "I believethee faithful--what wouldst thou counsel?"
"That I should warn Master Tressilian," said Wayland, "that you are inthis place. I am right certain he would get to horse with a few of LordSussex's followers, and ensure your personal safety."
"And is it to ME you advise," said the Countess, "to put myself underthe protection of Sussex, the unworthy rival of the noble Leicester?"Then, seeing the surprise with which Wayland stared upon her, and afraidof 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 indangers beyond the power of rescue." She paused; but when she observedthat Wayland continued to look on her with that anxious and uncertaingaze which indicated a doubt whether her brain was settled, she assumedan air of composure, and added, "Do thou but guide me to KenilworthCastle, good fellow, and thy task is ended, since I will then judge whatfurther is to be done. Thou hast yet been true to me--here is somethingthat will make thee rich amends."
She offered the artist a ring containing a valuable stone. Waylandlooked 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 havebeen forced, God help me! to live by worse shifts than the bounty ofsuch a person as you. But, as my old master the farrier used to say tohis 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 youtake your boots off. I trust in God your ladyship is as well assured offitting reception when you arrive, as you may hold yourself certainof my best endeavours to conduct you thither safely. I go to get thehorses; meantime, let me pray you once more, as your poor physician aswell as guide, to take some sustenance."
"I will--I will," said the lady hastily. "Begone, begone instantly!--Itis in vain I assume audacity," said she, when he left the room; "eventhis poor groom sees through my affectation of courage, and fathoms thevery ground of my fears."
She then attempted to follow her guide's advice by taking some food, butwas compelled to desist, as the effort to swallow even a single morselgave her so much uneasiness as amounted well-nigh to suffocation. Amoment afterwards the horses appeared at the latticed window. The ladymounted, and found that relief from the free air and change of placewhich is frequently experienced in similar circumstances.
It chanced well for the Countess's purpose that Wayland Smith, whoseprevious wandering and unsettled life had made him acquainted withalmost all England, was intimate with all the byroads, as well as directcommunications, through the beautiful county of Warwick. For such and sogreat was the throng which flocked in all directions towards Kenilworth,to see the entry of Elizabeth into that splendid mansion of her primefavourite, that the principal roads were actually blocked up andinterrupted, and it was only by circuitous by-paths that the travellerscould proceed on their journey.
The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villagesof those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for whichthe owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Boardof Green Cloth. The Earl of Leicester's household officers had beenscouring the country for the same purpose; and many of his friends andallies, both near and remote, took this opportunity of ingratiatingthemselves by sending large quantities of provisions and delicaciesof all kinds, with game in huge numbers, and whole tuns of the bestliquors, foreign and domestic. Thus the highroads were filled withdroves of bullocks, sheep, calves, and hogs, and choked with loadedwains, whose axle-trees cracked under their burdens of wine-casks andhogsheads of ale, and huge hampers of grocery goods, and slaughteredgame, and salted provisions, and sacks of flour. Perpetual stoppagestook place as these wains became entangled; and their rude drivers,swearing and brawling till their wild passions were fully raised, beganto debate precedence with their wagon-whips and quarterstaves, whichoccasional riots were usually quieted by a purveyor, deputy-marshal'sman, or some other person in authority, breaking the heads of bothparties.
Here were, besides, players and mummers, jugglers and showmen, of everydescription, traversing in joyous bands the paths which led to thePalace of Princely Pleasure; for so the travelling minstrels had termedKenilworth in the songs which already had come forth in anticipation ofthe revels which were there expected. In the midst of this motley show,mendicants were exhibiting their real or pretended miseries, forming astrange though common contrast betwixt the vanities and the sorrowsof human existence. All these floated along with the immense tideof population whom mere curiosity had drawn together; and where themechanic, in his leathern apron, elbowed the dink and dainty dame, hiscity mistress; where clowns, w
ith hobnailed shoes, were treading on thekibes of substantial burghers and gentlemen of worship; and where Joanof the dairy, with robust pace, and red, sturdy arms, rowed her wayunward, amongst those prim and pretty moppets whose sires were knightsand 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 triflinginconveniences which at another time might have chafed their temper.Excepting the occasional brawls which we have mentioned among thatirritable race the carmen, the mingled sounds which arose from themultitude were those of light-hearted mirth and tiptoe jollity. Themusicians preluded on their instruments--the minstrels hummed theirsongs--the licensed jester whooped betwixt mirth and madness, as hebrandished his bauble--the morrice-dancers jangled their bells--therustics hallooed and whistled-men laughed loud, and maidens giggledshrill; 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 roadby 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 anaccompaniment so dissonant from its own feelings. Yet, in the case ofthe Countess of Leicester, the noise and tumult of this giddy scenedistracted her thoughts, and rendered her this sad service, thatit became impossible for her to brood on her own misery, or to formterrible anticipations of her approaching fate. She travelled on likeone in a dream, following implicitly the guidance of Wayland, who,with great address, now threaded his way through the general throng ofpassengers, now stood still until a favourable opportunity occurredof again moving forward, and frequently turning altogether out of thedirect road, followed some circuitous bypath, which brought them intothe highway again, after having given them the opportunity of traversinga considerable way with greater ease and rapidity.
It was thus he avoided Warwick, within whose Castle (that fairestmonument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remains uninjuredby time) Elizabeth had passed the previous night, and where she wasto tarry until past noon, at that time the general hour of dinnerthroughout England, after which repast she was to proceed to Kenilworth,In the meanwhile, each passing group had something to say in theSovereign's praise, though not absolutely without the usual mixtureof 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 andthe Recorder, and to good Master Griffin the preacher, as they kneeleddown at her coach-window?"
"Ay, and how she said to little Aglionby, 'Master Recorder, men wouldhave persuaded me that you were afraid of me, but truly I think, so welldid you reckon up to me the virtues of a sovereign, that I have morereason to be afraid of you.' and then with what grace she took thefair-wrought purse with the twenty gold sovereigns, seeming as thoughshe would not willingly handle it, and yet taking it withal."
"Ay, ay," said another, "her fingers closed on it pretty willinglymethought, when all was done; and methought, too, she weighed them for asecond in her hand, as she would say, I hope they be avoirdupois."
"She needed not, neighbour," said a third; "it is only when thecorporation pay the accounts of a poor handicraft like me, that they puthim off with clipped coin. Well, there is a God above all--little MasterRecorder, since that is the word, will be greater now than ever."
"Come, good neighbour," said the first speaker "be not envious. She isa good Queen, and a generous; she gave the purse to the Earl ofLeicester."
"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 ofLeicester, and proposed that she should draw off from the road, and halttill she recovered. But, subduing her feelings at this and differentspeeches to the same purpose, which caught her ear as they passed on,she insisted that her guide should proceed to Kenilworth with allthe haste which the numerous impediments of their journey permitted.Meanwhile, Wayland's anxiety at her repeated fits of indisposition, andher obvious distraction of mind, was hourly increasing, and he becameextremely desirous that, according to her reiterated requests, sheshould be safely introduced into the Castle, where, he doubted not, shewas secure of a kind reception, though she seemed unwilling to reveal onwhom she reposed her hopes.
"An I were once rid of this peril," thought he, "and if any man shallfind me playing squire of the body to a damosel-errant, he shall haveleave to beat my brains out with my own sledge-hammer!"
At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and thedomains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixtythousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our presentmoney.
The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed sevenacres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by apleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the restformed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. Thelordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spaciousenclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellatedbuildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, andbearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass,and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblemsof mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history, couldAmbition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughtyfavourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. Alarge and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was ofuncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhapsfrom its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so called. Someantiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom theCastle had its name, a Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early eraafter the Norman Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheonof the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; andof 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 gailyrevelled in Kenilworth, while his dethroned sovereign, EdwardII., languished in its dungeons. Old John of Gaunt, "time-honouredLancaster," had widely extended the Castle, erecting that noble andmassive pile which yet bears the name of Lancaster's Buildings; andLeicester himself had outdone the former possessors, princely andpowerful as they were, by erecting another immense structure, which nowlies 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 Leicesterhad constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth might enter the Castleby a path hitherto untrodden, instead of the usual entrance to thenorthward, over which he had erected a gatehouse or barbican, whichstill exists, and is equal in extent, and superior in architecture, tothe 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, fromamongst which the extended front and massive towers of the Castle wereseen to rise in majesty and beauty. We cannot but add, that of thislordly palace, where princes feasted and heroes fought, now in thebloody 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 theCastle only serve to show what their splendour once was, and to impresson the musing visitor the transitory value of human possessions, and thehappiness of those who enjoy a humble lot in virtuous contentment.
It was with far different feelings that the unfortunate Countess ofLeicester viewed those grey and massive towers, when she first beheldthem rise above the embowering and richly-shaded woods, over whichthey seemed to preside. She, the undoubted wife of the great Earl, ofElizabeth's minion, and England's mighty favourite, was approachingthe presence of h
er husband, and that husband's sovereign, under theprotection, rather than the guidance, of a poor juggler; and thoughunquestioned Mistress of that proud Castle, whose lightest word oughtto have had force sufficient to make its gates leap from their massivehinges to receive her, yet she could not conceal from herself thedifficulty and peril which she must experience in gaining admission intoher own halls.
The risk and difficulty, indeed, seemed to increase every moment, andat length threatened altogether to put a stop to her further progress atthe great gate leading to a broad and fair road, which, traversing thebreadth of the chase for the space of two miles, and commanding severalmost beautiful views of the Castle and lake, terminated at the newlyconstructed bridge, to which it was an appendage, and which was destinedto 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'smounted yeomen of the guard, armed in corselets richly carved andgilded, and wearing morions instead of bonnets, having their carabinesresting with the butt-end on their thighs. These guards, distinguishedfor strength and stature, who did duty wherever the Queen went inperson, were here stationed under the direction of a pursuivant, gracedwith the Bear and Ragged Staff on his arm, as belonging to the Earl ofLeicester, and peremptorily refused all admittance, excepting to such aswere guests invited to the festival, or persons who were to perform somepart in the mirthful exhibitions which were proposed.
The press was of consequence great around the entrance, and personsof all kinds presented every sort of plea for admittance; to which theguards turned an inexorable ear, pleading, in return to fair words,and even to fair offers, the strictness of their orders, founded on theQueen's well-known dislike to the rude pressing of a multitude. Withthose whom such reasons did not serve they dealt more rudely, repellingthem without ceremony by the pressure of their powerful, barbed horses,and good round blows from the stock of their carabines. These lastmanoeuvres produced undulations amongst the crowd, which renderedWayland much afraid that he might perforce be separated from his chargein the throng. Neither did he know what excuse to make in order toobtain admittance, and he was debating the matter in his head with greatuncertainty, when the Earl's pursuivant, having cast an eye upon him,exclaimed, to his no small surprise, "Yeomen, make room for the fellowin the orange-tawny cloak.--Come forward, Sir Coxcomb, and make haste.What, in the fiend's name, has kept you waiting? Come forward with yourbale of woman's gear."
While the pursuivant gave Wayland this pressing yet uncourteousinvitation, which, for a minute or two, he could not imagine was appliedto him, the yeomen speedily made a free passage for him, while, onlycautioning his companion to keep the muffler close around her face, heentered the gate leading her palfrey, but with such a drooping crest,and such a look of conscious fear and anxiety, that the crowd, notgreatly 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 noticeor distinction, Wayland and his charge rode forward, musing whatdifficulties it would be next their lot to encounter, through thebroad avenue, which was sentinelled on either side by a long line ofretainers, armed with swords, and partisans richly dressed in the Earlof Leicester's liveries, and bearing his cognizance of the Bear andRagged Staff, each placed within three paces of each other, so as toline 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 ofoutward walls, ornamented with battlements and turrets and platforms atevery point of defence, with many a banner streaming from its walls, andsuch a bustle of gay crests and waving plumes disposed on the terracesand battlements, and all the gay and gorgeous scene, her heart,unaccustomed to such splendour, sank as if it died within her, and for amoment she asked herself what she had offered up to Leicester to deserveto become the partner of this princely splendour. But her pride andgenerous spirit resisted the whisper which bade her despair.
"I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give. Name andfame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificenceat the altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is myhusband--I am his wife--whom God hath joined, man cannot sunder. Iwill be bold in claiming my right; even the bolder, that I come thusunexpected, and thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well! He will besomething impatient at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudleywill forgive her."
These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guideWayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by apair of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one who had droppedhimself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst theshouts of laughter which burst from the sentinels.
"This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!" said Wayland, aftera vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse the urchin who clungto him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns?"
"In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct, "andmany others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, withoutmy teaching you. How would you have passed the pursuivant at the uppergate yonder, had not I warned him our principal juggler was to followus? And here have I waited for you, having clambered up into the treefrom the top of the wain; and I suppose they are all mad for want of meby 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 thouart powerful be merciful."
As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south extremity ofthe long bridge we have mentioned, which served to protect the outergateway of the Castle of Kenilworth.
Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular company, didthe unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for the first time, themagnificent abode of her almost princely husband.