Besides,there are certain faitours there whom we would willingly have in safe keeping.You will furnish them,Master Secretary,with the warrant necessary to secure the bodies of Richard Varney and the foreign Alasco,dead or alive.Take a sufficient force with you,gentlemen--bring the lady here in all honour--lose no time,and God be with you!They bowed,and left the presence,Who shall describe how the rest of that day was spent at Kenilworth?The Queen,who seemed to have remained there for the sole purpose of mortifying and taunting the Earl of Leicester,showed herself as skilful in that female art of vengeance,as she was in the science of wisely governing her people.The train of state soon caught the signal,and as he walked among his own splendid preparations,the Lord of Kenilworth,in his own Castle,already experienced the lot of a disgraced courtier,in the slight regard and cold manners of alienated friends,and the ill-concealed triumph of avowed and open enemies.Sussex,from his natural military frankness of disposition,Burleigh and Walsingham,from their penetrating and prospective sagacity,and some of the ladies,from the compassion of their ***,were the only persons in the crowded court who retained towards him the countenance they had borne in the morning.
So much had Leicester been accustomed to consider court favour as the principal object of his life,that all other sensations were,for the time,lost in the agony which his haughty spirit felt at the succession of petty insults and studied neglects to which he had been subjected;but when he retired to his own chamber for the night,that long,fair tress of hair which had once secured Amy's letter fell under his observation,and,with the influence of a counter-charm,awakened his heart to nobler and more natural feelings.He kissed it a thousand times;and while he recollected that he had it always in his power to shun the mortifications which he had that day undergone,by retiring into a dignified and even prince-like seclusion with the beautiful and beloved partner of his future life,he felt that he could rise above the revenge which Elizabeth had condescended to take.
Accordingly,on the following day the whole conduct of the Earl displayed so much dignified equanimity--he seemed so solicitous about the accommodations and amusements of his guests,yet so indifferent to their personal demeanour towards him--so respectfully distant to the Queen,yet so patient of her harassing displeasure--that Elizabeth changed her manner to him,and,though cold and distant,ceased to offer him any direct affront.She intimated also with some sharpness to others around her,who thought they were consulting her pleasure in showing a neglectful conduct to the Earl,that while they remained at Kenilworth they ought to show the civility due from guests to the Lord of the Castle.In short,matters were so far changed in twenty-four hours that some of the more experienced and sagacious courtiers foresaw a strong possibility of Leicester's restoration to favour,and regulated their demeanour towards him,as those who might one day claim merit for not having deserted him in adversity.It is time,however,to leave these intrigues,and follow Tressilian and Raleigh on their journey.
The troop consisted of six persons;for,besides Wayland,they had in company a royal pursuivant and two stout serving-men.All were well-armed,and travelled as fast as it was possible with justice to their horses,which had a long journey before them.
They endeavoured to procure some tidings as they rode along of Varney and his party,but could hear none,as they had travelled in the dark.At a small village about twelve miles from Kenilworth,where they gave some refreshment to their horses,a poor clergyman,the curate of the place,came out of a small cottage,and entreated any of the company who might know aught of surgery to look in for an instant on a dying man.
The empiric Wayland undertook to do his best,and as the curate conducted him to the spot,he learned that the man had been found on the highroad,about a mile from the village,by labourers,as they were going to their work on the preceding morning,and the curate had given him shelter in his house.He had received a gun-shot wound,which seemed to be obviously mortal;but whether in a brawl or from robbers they could not learn,as he was in a fever,and spoke nothing connectedly.Wayland entered the dark and lowly apartment,and no sooner had the curate drawn aside the curtain than he knew,in the distorted features of the patient,the countenance of Michael Lambourne.Under pretence of seeking something which he wanted,Wayland hastily apprised his fellow-travellers of this extraordinary circumstance;and both Tressilian and Raleigh,full of boding apprehensions,hastened to the curate's house to see the dying man.
The wretch was by this time in the agonies of death,from which a much better surgeon than Wayland could not have rescued him,for the bullet had passed clear through his body.He was sensible,however,at least in part,for he knew Tressilian,and made signs that he wished him to stoop over his bed.Tressilian did so,and after some inarticulate murmurs,in which the names of Varney and Lady Leicester were alone distinguishable,Lambourne bade him make haste,or he would come too late.It was in vain Tressilian urged the patient for further information;he seemed to become in some degree delirious,and when he again made a signal to attract Tressilian's attention,it was only for the purpose of desiring him to inform his uncle,Giles Gosling of the Black Bear,that he had died without his shoes after all.Aconvulsion verified his words a few minutes after,and the travellers derived nothing from having met with him,saving the obscure fears concerning the fate of the Countess,which his dying words were calculated to convey,and which induced them to urge their journey with the utmost speed,pressing horses in the Queen's name when those which they rode became unfit for service.