--And so,mistress,leave off your wailing.--Why!why,surely,there was a woman here!I think you are all mad this morning,said the sewer.I saw no woman here,nor no man neither in a proper sense,but only two beasts rolling on the floor.Nay,then I am undone,said the jailer;the prison's broken,that is all.Kenilworth prison is broken,he continued,in a tone of maudlin lamentation,which was the strongest jail betwixt this and the Welsh Marches--ay,and a house that has had knights,and earls,and kings sleeping in it,as secure as if they had been in the Tower of London.It is broken,the prisoners fled,and the jailer in much danger of being hanged!So saying,he retreated down to his own den to conclude his lamentations,or to sleep himself sober.Lambourne and the sewer followed him close;and it was well for them,since the jailer,out of mere habit,was about to lock the wicket after him,and had they not been within the reach of interfering,they would have had the pleasure of being shut up in the turret-chamber,from which the Countess had been just delivered.
That unhappy lady,as soon as she found herself at liberty,fled,as we have already mentioned,into the Pleasance.She had seen this richly-ornamented space of ground from the window of Mervyn's Tower;and it occurred to her,at the moment of her escape,that among its numerous arbours,bowers,fountains,statues,and grottoes,she might find some recess in which she could lie concealed until she had an opportunity of addressing herself to a protector,to whom she might communicate as much as she dared of her forlorn situation,and through whose means she might supplicate an interview with her husband.
If I could see my guide,she thought,I would learn if he had delivered my letter.Even did I but see Tressilian,it were better to risk Dudley's anger,by confiding my whole situation to one who is the very soul of honour,than to run the hazard of further insult among the insolent menials of this ill-ruled place.I will not again venture into an enclosed apartment.Iwill wait,I will watch;amidst so many human beings there must be some kind heart which can judge and compassionate what mine endures.In truth,more than one party entered and traversed the Pleasance.But they were in joyous groups of four or five persons together,laughing and jesting in their own fullness of mirth and lightness of heart.
The retreat which she had chosen gave her the easy alternative of avoiding observation.It was but stepping back to the farthest recess of a grotto,ornamented with rustic work and moss-seats,and terminated by a fountain,and she might easily remain concealed,or at her pleasure discover herself to any solitary wanderer whose curiosity might lead him to that romantic retirement.Anticipating such an opportunity,she looked into the clear basin which the silent fountain held up to her like a mirror,and felt shocked at her own appearance,and doubtful at;the same time,muffled and disfigured as her disguise made her seem to herself,whether any female (and it was from the compassion of her own *** that she chiefly expected sympathy)would engage in conference with so suspicious an object.
Reasoning thus like a woman,to whom external appearance is scarcely in any circumstances a matter of unimportance,and like a beauty,who had some confidence in the power of her own charms,she laid aside her travelling cloak and capotaine hat,and placed them beside her,so that she could assume them in an instant,ere one could penetrate from the entrance of the grotto to its extremity,in case the intrusion of Varney or of Lambourne should render such disguise necessary.The dress which she wore under these vestments was somewhat of a theatrical cast,so as to suit the assumed personage of one of the females who was to act in the pageant,Wayland had found the means of arranging it thus upon the second day of their journey,having experienced the service arising from the assumption of such a character on the preceding day.The fountain,acting both as a mirror and ewer,afforded Amy the means of a brief toilette,of which she availed herself as hastily as possible;then took in her hand her small casket of jewels,in case she might find them useful intercessors,and retiring to the darkest and most sequestered nook,sat down on a seat of moss,and awaited till fate should give her some chance of rescue,or of propitiating an intercessor.