They then marched completely round the hall,in order the more fully to display themselves,regulating their steps to organs,shalms,hautboys,and virginals,the music of the Lord Leicester's household.At length the four quadrilles of maskers,ranging their torch-bearers behind them,drew up in their several ranks on the two opposite sides of the hall,so that the Romans confronting the Britons,and the Saxons the Normans,seemed to look on each other with eyes of wonder,which presently appeared to kindle into anger,expressed by menacing gestures.At the burst of a strain of martial music from the gallery the maskers drew their swords on all sides,and advanced against each other in the measured steps of a sort of Pyrrhic or military dance,clashing their swords against their adversaries'shields,and clattering them against their blades as they passed each other in the progress of the dance.It was a very pleasant spectacle to see how the various bands,preserving regularity amid motions which seemed to be totally irregular,mixed together,and then disengaging themselves,resumed each their own original rank as the music varied.
In this symbolical dance were represented the conflicts which had taken place among the various nations which had anciently inhabited Britain.
At length,after many mazy evolutions,which afforded great pleasure to the spectators,the sound of a loud-voiced trumpet was heard,as if it blew for instant battle,or for victory won.
The maskers instantly ceased their mimic strife,and collecting themselves under their original leaders,or presenters,for such was the appropriate phrase,seemed to share the anxious expectation which the spectators experienced concerning what was next to appear.
The doors of the hall were thrown wide,and no less a person entered than the fiend-born Merlin,dressed in a strange and mystical attire,suited to his ambiguous birth and magical power.
About him and behind him fluttered or gambolled many extraordinary forms,intended to represent the spirits who waited to do his powerful bidding;and so much did this part of the pageant interest the menials and others of the lower class then in the Castle,that many of them forgot even the reverence due to the Queen's presence,so far as to thrust themselves into the lower part of the hall.
The Earl of Leicester,seeing his officers had some difficulty to repel these intruders,without more disturbance than was fitting where the Queen was in presence,arose and went himself to the bottom of the hall;Elizabeth,at the same time,with her usual feeling for the common people,requesting that they might be permitted to remain undisturbed to witness the pageant.
Leicester went under this pretext;but his real motive was to gain a moment to himself,and to relieve his mind,were it but for one instant,from the dreadful task of hiding,under the guise of gaiety and gallantry,the lacerating pangs of shame,anger,remorse,and thirst for vengeance.He imposed silence by his look and sign upon the vulgar crowd at the lower end of the apartment;but instead of instantly returning to wait on her Majesty,he wrapped his cloak around him,and mixing with the crowd,stood in some degree an undistinguished spectator of the progress of the masque.
Merlin having entered,and advanced into the midst of the hall,summoned the presenters of the contending bands around him by a wave of his magical rod,and announced to them,in a poetical speech,that the isle of Britain was now commanded by a Royal Maiden,to whom it was the will of fate that they should all do homage,and request of her to pronounce on the various pretensions which each set forth to be esteemed the pre-eminent stock,from which the present natives,the happy subjects of that angelical Princess,derived their lineage.
In obedience to this mandate,the bands,each moving to solemn music,passed in succession before Elizabeth,doing her,as they passed,each after the fashion of the people whom they represented,the lowest and most devotional homage,which she returned with the same gracious courtesy that had marked her whole conduct since she came to Kenilworth.
The presenters of the several masques or quadrilles then alleged,each in behalf of his own troop,the reasons which they had for claiming pre-eminence over the rest;and when they had been all heard in turn,she returned them this gracious answer:That she was sorry she was not better qualified to decide upon the doubtful question which had been propounded to her by the direction of the famous Merlin,but that it seemed to her that no single one of these celebrated nations could claim pre-eminence over the others,as having most contributed to form the Englishman of her own time,who unquestionably derived from each of them some worthy attribute of his character.Thus,she said,the Englishman had from the ancient Briton his bold and tameless spirit of *******;from the Roman his disciplined courage in war,with his love of letters and civilization in time of peace;from the Saxon his wise and equitable laws;and from the chivalrous Norman his love of honour and courtesy,with his generous desire for glory.Merlin answered with readiness that it did indeed require that so many choice qualities should meet in the English,as might render them in some measure the muster of the perfections of other nations,since that alone could render them in some degree deserving of the blessings they enjoyed under the reign of England's Elizabeth.
The music then sounded,and the quadrilles,together with Merlin and his assistants,had begun to remove from the crowded hall,when Leicester,who was,as we have mentioned,stationed for the moment near the bottom of the hall,and consequently engaged in some degree in the crowd,felt himself pulled by the cloak,while a voice whispered in his ear,My Lord,I do desire some instant conference with you.