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 http://www.archive.org/details/arabellastuartro01jame
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 A ROMANCE 
 FEOM ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. 
 
 author of 
 "darnlev," "de l'orme," "the false heir," etc. etc. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1844.
 
 London : 
 Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, 
 Baneor House, Shoe Lane,
 
 I/. I 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO REAR-ADMIRAL 
 SIR GEORGE F. SEYMOUR, C.B., G.C.H. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 If the dedication of a work like the present, 
 
 could afford any adequate expression of high 
 
 respect and regard, I should feel greater pleasure 
 
 than I do, in offering you these pages ; but such 
 
 things have become so common, that, though 
 
 every one who knows you, will understand the 
 
 ^feelings which induce me to present you with 
 
 'Hhis small tribute, yet I cannot but be aware that 
 
 ^it is very little worthy of your acceptance. You 
 
 j^will receive it, however, I know, with the same 
 
 kindness which you have frequently displayed 
 
 ^.towards me, as a mark, however slight, of my 
 
 "^ gratitude for the interest you have always shewn 
 
 _rin myself and my works, and as a testimony of
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 unfeigned esteem from one, who can fully appre- 
 ciate in others higher qualities than he can pre- 
 tend to himself. 
 
 Although I am inclined to believe that the 
 public may judge this one of the most interest- 
 ing tales I have written, I can take but little 
 credit to myself on that account ; for all the 
 principal events are so strictly historical, that 
 little was left to the author but to tell them as 
 agreeably as he could. The story of the fair 
 and unfortunate Arabella Stuart, is well known 
 to every one at all acquainted with English His- 
 tory ; and has called forth more than one poem 
 of considerable merit, though, I believe, as yet 
 has never been made the foundation of a romance. 
 From that story, as it has been told by contem- 
 poraries, I have had but very little occasion to 
 deviate, merely supplying a few occasional links 
 to connect it with other events of the time. 
 
 In depicting the characters of the various 
 persons who appear upon the scene, however, I 
 have had a more difficult task to perform, being 
 most anxious to represent them as they really 
 were, and not on any account to distort and cari-
 
 DEDICATION. V 
 
 cature them. The rudeness of the age, — the vio- 
 lent passions that were called into action, — the 
 bold and erratic disregard which thus reigned of all 
 those principles which have now been universally 
 recognised for many years, rendered it not easy to 
 give the appearance of truth and reality to events 
 that did actually happen, and to personages who 
 have indeed existed ; for to the age of James I. 
 may well be applied the often repeated maxim, 
 that " Truth is stranger than Fiction." 
 
 Difficulties as great, and many others of a dif- 
 ferent description, have been overcome in the ex- 
 traordinary romance called *' Ferrers;"'' but it is 
 not every one who possesses the powers of vigor- 
 ous delineation which have been displayed by the 
 author of that remarkable work ; and I have been 
 obliged to trust to the reader's knowledge of his- 
 tory, to justify me in the representation which I 
 have given of characters and scenes, which might 
 seem overstrained and unnatural, to those who 
 have been only accustomed to travel over the 
 railroad level of modern civilization. 
 
 The character of James I. himself has been 
 pourtrayed by Sir Walter Scott with skill, to
 
 VI DEDICATION. 
 
 Avhicli I can in no degree pretend, but with a 
 very lenient hand. He here appears under a 
 more repulsive aspect, as a cold, brutal, vain, 
 frivolous tyrant. Nevertheless, every act which 
 I have attributed to him blackens the page of His- 
 tory, with many others, even more dark and foul, 
 which I have not found necessary to introduce. 
 Indeed, I would not even add one deed which 
 appeared to me in the least degree doubtful ; for 
 I do believe that we have no right to charge the 
 memory of the dead, with any thing that is not 
 absolutely proved against them. We must re- 
 member, that we try them in a court where they 
 cannot plead ; before a jury chosen by ourselves ; 
 and pronounce a sentence, against which they can 
 make no appeal : and I should be as unwilling 
 to add to the load of guilt which weighs down 
 the reputation of a bad man, as to detract from 
 the high fame and honour of a great and good 
 one. My conviction, however, is unalterable, 
 that James I. was at once one of the most cruel 
 tyrants, and one of the most disgusting men, that 
 ever sat upon a throne. 
 
 In the account I have given of Lady Essex, 
 I shall probably be accused of having drawn an
 
 DEDICATION. vu 
 
 incarnate fiend ; but I reply, that / have not 
 done it. Her character is traced in the same 
 colours by the hand of History. Fortunately, it 
 so happens that few have ever been like her ; for 
 wickedness is generally a plant of slow growth, 
 and we rarely find, that extreme youth is totally 
 devoid of virtues, though it may be stained wdth 
 many vices. Such as I have found her, so have 
 I painted her ; suppressing, indeed, many traits 
 and many actions which were unfit for the eye, of 
 a part at least, of my readers. Dark as her cha- 
 racter was, however, its introduction into this tale 
 afforded me a great advantage, by the contrast it 
 presented to that of Arabella Stuart herself; 
 bringing out the brightness of that sweet lady's 
 mind, and the gentleness of her heart, in high 
 relief; and I hope and trust, tending to impress 
 upon the minds of those who peruse these pages, 
 the excellence of virtue and the deformity of vice. 
 Upon the character and fate of Sir Thomas 
 Overbury there has always hung a degree of 
 mystery. I do not know whether these pages 
 may tend at all to dispel it ; but, at all events, 
 I have not written them without examining mi- 
 nutely into all the facts ; and, probably, the con-
 
 Vlll DEDICATION. 
 
 elusions, at which I have arrived, are as accurate 
 as those of others. I must reserve, however, one 
 statement for which I find no authority, but wdiich 
 was necessary to the construction of my story, 
 namely, that which refers to Overbury's proposal 
 of a marriage between Rochester and the Lady 
 Arabella. 
 
 I need not tell one so intimately acquainted 
 with English History as yourself, that all the 
 other characters here introduced, with one or two 
 exceptions amongst the inferior personages, are 
 historical ; and I have endeavoured, to the best of 
 my power, to represent them such as they really 
 were. 
 
 Having said thus much, I shall add no more ; 
 for, in submitting the work to you, though I know 
 I shall have an acute judge, yet I shall have a kind 
 one ; and trusting that you will, at all events, 
 derive some amusement from these pages, I will 
 only further beg you to believe me, 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 Your most faithful servant, 
 
 G. P. R.JAMES. 
 
 The Oaks, near Walmer, Kent, 
 1st December, 1843.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 There was a small, old-fashioned, red brick 
 house, situated just upon the verge of Cam- 
 bridgeshire, not in the least peculiar in its 
 aspect, and yet deserving a description. The 
 reader shall know why, before we have done. 
 As you came along the road from London you 
 descended a gentle hill, not very long, and yet 
 long enough to form, with an opposite rise, one 
 of those sweet, calm valleys which are peculiarly 
 characteristic of the greater part of this country. 
 When you were at the top of the hill, in looking 
 down over some hedge-rows and green fields, 
 the first thing your eye lighted upon in the 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 bottom of the dale was a quick-running stream, 
 which seemed to have a peculiar art of catching 
 the sunshine wherever it was to be found. Its 
 course, though almost as rapid as if it had come 
 down from a mountain, — having had, it is true, 
 a pretty sharp descent about a mile to the west- 
 ward, — was nevertheless, at this spot, directed 
 through soft green meadows, and between flat and 
 even banks. The water was of some depth also, 
 not less in general than from five to six feet, 
 though not in most places above four or five yards 
 in width. Where it crossed the road, however, 
 there being no bridge, and the highway somewhat 
 raised, it spread itself out into a good broad shallow 
 stream, which, in the deepest part, only washed 
 your horses feet a little above the pastern. 
 
 Having carried it thus far, reader, we will leave 
 it, without pursuing its course on towards the sea, 
 which it reached somehow, and somewhere, by 
 ways and through channels with which we have 
 nothing to do. 
 
 The eye of the traveller, however, on the 
 London road, in tracing this stream farther up, 
 came upon a clump of tall old trees disencum-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 3 
 
 bered of all brushwood, spreading wide at the top, 
 but ungarriished by boughs or green leaves below, 
 and affordinof habitation to a multitude of busy 
 rooks, whose inharmonious voices — when joined 
 together in full chorus, and heard from a distance — 
 formed a peculiar kind of melody connecting itself 
 with many memories in the hearts of almost every 
 one, and rousing soft and pensive imaginations 
 from its intimate connection with those country 
 scenes, and calm pleasures, amongst which must 
 lie all man's sweetest associations. From the top 
 of the hill, on which we have placed ourselves, 
 a number of chimney tops, somewhat quaint and 
 fantastic in their forms, appeared to be actually 
 rising from the very heart of the rookery ; but if 
 you stopped to let your horse drink at the stream 
 in the bottom of the valley, and looked up its 
 course to the left, you perceived that the house 
 to which those chimneys belonged, lay at the 
 distance of more than two hundred yards from 
 the trees, and had a large garden with a long 
 terrace, and a low wall between it and them. 
 
 The mansion was of no great extent, as we have 
 already hinted, and might belong to a gentleman 
 
 B 2
 
 4 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 of limited means, though moving in the better 
 ranks of life ; the windows were principally of 
 that peculiar form which was first introduced 
 under the Tudors, as the pointed arch of a pre- 
 ceding epoch began to bow itself down towards 
 the straight line in which it was extinguished 
 not long after. The whole building might 
 have risen from the ground somewhat more than 
 half a century before the period of which we now 
 speak, perhaps in the reign of Mary Tudor, 
 perhaps in that of her brother Edward ; and yet 
 I will not take upon myself to say that the 
 bloody and ferocious monster, their father, might 
 not have seen it as he travelled down into Cam- 
 bridgeshire. The colouring, indeed, was of that 
 soiled and sombre hue, which bespoke long ac- 
 quaintance with the weather ; and though origi- 
 nally the glowing red bricks might have shown as 
 rubicund a face as any newly painted Dutch house 
 at the side of a canal, they were now sobered 
 down with age, and grey with the cankering hand 
 of time. Although the garden was neatly kept, 
 and somewhat prim, according to the fashion 
 of the day, and a bowling-green just within the
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 5 
 
 terrace was as trim and neatly shaved as if the 
 scythe passed over it every morning, neverthe- 
 less about the building itself were some signs and 
 symptoms of decay, the work of neglect, rather 
 than of time. Instead of neat and orderly point- 
 ing, the brick work displayed, in various places, 
 many an unstopped joint ; and though, doubtless, 
 weather-tight within, the stone coping was here 
 and there broken, while one or two of the chim- 
 neys, which were gathered into groupes of four 
 set angularly, displayed the want of a brick in 
 various places, which destroyed their fair propor- 
 tions, without perhaps affecting their soundness. 
 
 It was in the year 1603, two hundred and 
 forty years ago, reader, a long time for you and 
 me to look back to, but yet the men and women 
 of those days were the same creatures that we 
 see moving round us at present, with this slight 
 difference, that they had been less enured to 
 restrain their passions, and conceal their feelings, 
 than we are in a more polished and civilized 
 state of society. Two hundred and forty years ! 
 What a lapse of time it seems ; and yet to each 
 of the many, whose lives have filled up the inter-
 
 b ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 vening period, tlieir own allotted portion, when 
 they have looked back from the end of existence 
 to the beginning, has seemed but a mere point — 
 a moment out of the long eternity. To each, 
 too, the changes which have taken place, and 
 which to us in the aggregate appear vast and 
 extraordinary, have been so slow^ and gradual, that 
 he has scarcely perceived them, any more than we 
 notice the alteration which fashion effects in our 
 garments as we go on from year to year. Customs 
 and manners, indeed, were very different in those 
 days, though human beings were the same ; but 
 we must not stop to dwell upon minute parti- 
 culars, or to detail forms and ceremonies, for it 
 is not so much our object, to depict the fashions 
 and habits of that age as to sketch a sad and 
 extraordinary part of its history. 
 
 Between six and seven o'clock on an evening 
 
 o 
 
 in the month of May, while the sky overhead 
 was just beginning to be tinged with the hues of 
 the declining sun, and the old trees of the rook- 
 ery, covered with their young green leaves, looked 
 almost autumnal in the various tints with which 
 spring had decked them, a gentleman of fifty-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 7 
 
 eight or fifty-nine years of age, walked slowly 
 up and down upon the terrace which ran along 
 before the building. He was upright in figure, 
 well made though spare in form, rather below 
 than above the middle height, calm and sedate 
 in his step, thoughtful and perhaps sad in the 
 expression of his countenance. His hair was 
 quite white, soft, silky, and hanging as was then 
 customary, in curls upon his neck. His eye- 
 brows, which like his hair and beard were colour- 
 less, were somewhat bushy and arched. His 
 mustachios were neatly trimmed, and his beard 
 pointed, not very long, but yet not cut round, 
 as was the fashion with the younger men of 
 the day. He was dressed in black velvet, with 
 shoes bearing large black rosettes, a small hat with 
 a single feather, and had no ornament whatsoever 
 about his person, unless the buttons of jet which 
 studded his doublet, and the clasp of the same 
 material which fastened his short cloak, deserved 
 that name. 
 
 He was, indeed, altogether a very grave and 
 serious looking personage, with much mildness 
 and benevolence as well as sagacity in his coun-
 
 8 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 tenance ; and yet there was a certain slight turn 
 of the lip, an occasional twinkle of the eye, and 
 a drawing up of the nostril, which seemed to in- 
 dicate the slightest possible touch of a sarcastic 
 spirit, which had, perhaps, at an earlier period 
 been more unruly, though it was now chastened 
 by the cares, the sorrows, the anxieties, and the 
 experience of life. 
 
 He walked up and down, then, upon the 
 terrace for some minutes, each time he turned, 
 whether at the one end or the other, gazing 
 down the course of the stream between the 
 slopes of the hills towards the spot where the 
 road from London crossed the valley, and then 
 again bending his eyes upon the ground in me- 
 ditation. Occasionally, however, he would look 
 up to the sky, or down into the bowling-green ; 
 and, after one of the latter contemplations, he 
 descended a flight of four stone steps which led 
 down to the green sward, with the same calm, and 
 sedate step which had distinguished his prome- 
 nade above ; and taking up the large, round, 
 wooden ball which lay on the grass, he held 
 it in his hand for a moment and then bowled
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 9 
 
 it deliberately at a set of skittles wliicli had 
 remained standing at the other end of the green. 
 Tlie ball hit the pin at which it was aimed, 
 which in its fall overthrew a number of others, 
 while the gentleman whose hand had despatched 
 the messenger of mischief on its errand, looked 
 on with a grave smile. There was evidently 
 something more in the expression of his coun- 
 tenance than mere amusement at seeing the heavy 
 pieces of wood tumble over one another, and he 
 murmured to himself as he turned away, — 
 
 " Thus it is with human projects — ay the 
 best intended and most firmly founded ; some 
 accidental stroke overthrows one of our moral 
 ninepins, and down go the whole nine ! " 
 
 So saying, he returned to the terrace, and 
 raising his voice he cried, " Lakyn, Lakyn!" 
 upon which a stout old serving-man with a badge 
 upon his arm came out unbonneted Lo receive 
 his master's commands. 
 
 " Take away those ninepins, Lakyn," said 
 
 the gentleman, *' they have no business on the 
 
 bowling-green ; and put the bowls too under 
 
 shelter. It will rain before morning."" 
 
 b5
 
 10 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " God bless your worship," replied the 
 servant looking up to the sky, " you are as 
 weather-wise as a conjurer." 
 
 " Or a shepherd," replied the gentleman, 
 resuming his walk ; and the old man proceeded 
 to gather up the implements of the good old 
 game of our ancestors, muttering to himself 
 " Who would have thought it would rain before 
 morning with such a sky as that. He knows 
 more than other men that 's certain." 
 
 While he was busy with the bowls, his mas- 
 ter's eye, glancing down again as before to the 
 spot where the road and the stream met, rested 
 on the figure of a single horseman coming from 
 the direction of London. 
 
 " There ! Lakyn, Lakyn ! " he exclaimed ; 
 " Run in, and never mind the bowls. Tell 
 Sharpe to go round and take Mr. Seymour's 
 horse at the garden gate. I will meet him 
 there." 
 
 The old man hastened to obey, and, with 
 his usual composed step, Sir Harry West, for 
 such was the gentleman's name, proceeded from 
 the terrace, through the garden which we have
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 11 
 
 mentioned, to the angle next to the rookery 
 where he waited, leaning upon a little gate, till 
 the horseman he had seen on the road arrived at 
 the spot. At the same moment another old ser- 
 vant dressed in grey, ran down panting, and, 
 doffing his bonnet to the. stranger with lowly 
 reverence, held the bridle while he dismounted. 
 
 The horseman then at a quick pace advanced 
 to the gate which was by this time open to receive 
 him, and with a look of glad and well satisfied 
 reverence kissed the hand of the master of the 
 house. Sir Harry West, however, threw his 
 arm around him affectionately, and gazed in his 
 face, saying, " Welcome, my dear William, 
 welcome ! So you are back from Flanders at 
 length. 'Tis eighteen months since I have seen 
 you." 
 
 " 'Tis a long time indeed, sir," replied the 
 visitor ; " but time has made no change in you 
 I am glad to see." 
 
 '* It has in you William," answered Sir 
 Harry West, " a great change, but a good one — 
 though why in our boyhood we should desire 
 man's estate I know not. 'Tis but a step to the
 
 12 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 grave. However, you are a man now both in 
 years and appearance, though you left me but a 
 youth," and once more he gazed over the young 
 gentleman's face and form as we look at a country 
 we have known in our early years on returning 
 after a long absence, tracing the changes that 
 have been made therein, and sometimes per- 
 haps regretting even the improvements. 
 
 The countenance and the form that he looked 
 upon were not indeed ill calculated to bear 
 inspection, being those of an English gentleman 
 of about one or two and twenty years of age, and 
 of the best class and character. Now there can 
 be little doubt to any one who has travelled 
 far and wide over distant lands, that the English 
 people are, on the whole — with the exception 
 perhaps of some small tribes in the Tyrol, and of 
 one or two districts in Spain, where the Moorish 
 blood has been mixed with the Gothic — the 
 handsomest race that this quarter of the world 
 called Europe can produce ; and the young 
 stranger was certainly not inferior to any of his 
 countrymen in personal appearance. He was 
 tall and evidently powerful in form, though
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 13 
 
 some of the slightness of youth was still there, 
 and all its graces. His hair was dark brown and 
 curling in large waves, and his features were as 
 fine as those of any of the faces that poet, paint- 
 er, or sculptor have ever dreamed or pourtrayed. 
 
 There was, moreover, a peculiar expression in 
 his countenance which struck the eye more than 
 even the beauty of the lines. It was an expres- 
 sion of depth, of intensity, which sometimes 
 may be seen in very ugly faces, but which is sure 
 to give them a charm which nothing can take 
 away. His manner, too, harmonised with the 
 expression, and gave it force. Before he spoke, 
 especially when, as in the present case, he was 
 intimate with the person with whom he conversed, 
 he paused for a single moment looking at him 
 thoughtfully, as if seeking the spirit within and 
 addressing himself to it ; so that it seemed that 
 there was a communication established between 
 himself, and those he loved, distinct from that of 
 speech. 
 
 These things, though they be slight, have 
 a considerable influence on the intercourse of 
 ordinary life ; and as the sum of human ex-
 
 14' ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 istence is made up of small things, (the greater 
 events being but the accidents) all that af- 
 fects their course has its importance. 
 
 Nor is dress, in general, altogether unworthy 
 of attention. Somebody has called it the habitual 
 expression of a man's mind ; and, though I 
 cannot agree to that definition in the full sense, 
 yet, certainly, where there is no impediment to 
 his following his own wishes, a man's dress affords 
 strong indications of his tastes and habits of 
 thought. That of William Seymour was not 
 studied, but yet it was such as well became him ; 
 there was a certain degree of carelessness about 
 the slashed doublet, of dark green cloth showing 
 the white satin with which it was lined here and 
 there ; but yet it fitted well. The cloak of the 
 same colour, with its edging of gold, was thrown 
 lightly on the shoulder, and the hat and plume 
 not quite straight upon the head. As if fond 
 of the same hues, no other colours were used in 
 any part of his dress, even to the sheath of his 
 sword and dagger, with the exception of the 
 large riding boots of untanned leather which 
 Avere those commonly worn by all gentlemen
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 15 
 
 in travelling. These of course bore tlieir own 
 russet hue, and displayed marks of a long ride. 
 The rest of his dress also was somewhat dusty, 
 for the day had been warm and dry ; and the 
 roads of England were in those times not of the 
 same firm and solid consistence of which they 
 may boast at present, so that the garments of the 
 traveller were generally more powdered with sand 
 in the summer, and more splashed with mud 
 in the winter, though his horse might display 
 less frequently a pair of broken knees, and his 
 own head find a softer resting-place if he chanced 
 to meet with a fall. 
 
 Of the conversation which ensued at the 
 garden gate betweeen Sir Harry West and 
 William Seymour, I shall not stop to give the 
 details. Suffice it that the words of the travel- 
 ler merely evinced his satisfaction at seeing again 
 one who had been the guide of his youth, under 
 whom he had first tried his arms in Ireland 
 against Tyrone, and who was, moreover, nearly 
 related to him, being his mother's first cousin ; 
 while those of Sir Harry West displayed little 
 less pleasure at seeing the boy whom he had
 
 16 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 educated in the way of honour, than if he had been 
 his only child. Talking over the events of the 
 last eighteen months, and mingling their conver- 
 sation with many a reference to former years, they 
 passed through the garden and over the terrace 
 into the house. 
 
 There, over pleasant memories, amidst which 
 there was but little to forget, — for even pains 
 and anxieties, strifes and fatigues, which pass 
 away, gain through the softening glass of memory 
 a rosy hue, mellowed yet warm, — they enjoyed 
 an hour of that sweet intercourse which can only 
 be known to hearts conscious of high and upright 
 purposes ; for the things on which remembrance 
 dare not rest, are only follies and vices. All 
 accidental sorrows may be dwelt upon with calm- 
 ness, or recollected with gratitude to him who 
 sent them ; the sorrows that sprang from ourselves 
 preserve their unmitigated bitterness. But here 
 there were none such to recall ; and, though they 
 spoke of perils, ay, and disasters, of the loss of 
 friends well loved, of bright expectations disap- 
 pointed, and of aspirations for their country's 
 good unfruitful, yet, in that old hall, no self-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 17 
 
 reproach mingled with the theme of their dis- 
 course ; and it was pleasant and soothing both to 
 the young man and the old. 
 
 There we will leave them for a certain time, 
 to return to them ere long.
 
 18 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 There was a large fire blazing in the wide, 
 open chimney of a little village inn, although it 
 was, as we have said, the month of May, and the 
 temperature during the day had been wami. To- 
 wards evening, however, it had growii colder, and 
 small drops of rain had begun to descend, ending 
 in a heavy shower as night fell. The fire, how- 
 ever, had not been piled up, with the logs of 
 which it was principally composed, altogether for 
 the purpose of keeping out the chilly air of even- 
 ing — though several of the neighbouring peasantry 
 had taken advantage of the cheerful blaze to warm 
 themselves while they drank their jug of ale, 
 and mine host, with his fair white apron, took 
 care to give them every encouragement to remain, 
 and showed not the slightest disinclination to 
 make as many journeys to the hogshead as his
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 19 
 
 guests desired. His wife, however, and his 
 daughter, both of whom were busily engaged in 
 basting some provision, which turned upon two 
 large spits before the crackling wood, seemed 
 much less disposed to the society of the villagers, 
 giving many a hint that they interrupted them 
 in the care of the capons, distracted their atten- 
 tion from the sirloin, and had well-nigh made 
 them spoil "the dumplings and all " by letting the 
 pot boil over. In the end, the elder dame, warm 
 by nature, and heated still farther by the fire, 
 gave one of the boors a push with her broad 
 hand, which brought him from his stool to the 
 floor, exclaiming, 
 
 '' Get thee gone, Cobbler Hodge ; 'tis time 
 for thee to be home with thy wife. The gentry 
 will be here anon, and we must have the place 
 cumbered with the like of thee, must we !" 
 
 " Nay, nay, Maude," said her husband, " the 
 great people ever say half-an-hour before they in- 
 tend to come. Let the man remain, I tell thee ; 
 they won't be here for this hour." 
 
 '* And we will stay till they come," cried 
 Hodge, rising up, and resuming his seat a little
 
 20 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 farther from the fair virago of the inn. "We 
 want to see who are these gentry that arrive so 
 late at night. These are perilous times, Master 
 Millponcl, when the Queen is just dead, and the 
 King's Majesty not arrived from the North.'" 
 
 " It may be the King himself, God bless His 
 Grace !" said another of the boors ; but, even as 
 he spoke, to prove the conjecture false, as well as 
 the prognostications of the landlord, the sound of 
 horses'* feet, and persons speaking, was heard ap- 
 proaching the door ; and, the moment after, a 
 voice was added calling loudly, and in a tone of 
 great authority, for host, hostlers, and horseboys. 
 
 The landlord rushed out with all speed ; his 
 wife abused her humble neighbours in no very 
 gentle and tender terms ; the peasants themselves 
 drew back in awe, the greater because the object 
 of it was undefined ; and, after a few moments of 
 confusion, clatter, and talking without, mine host 
 reappeared, bowing to the ground, as he ushered 
 in his guests. 
 
 The first who entered — nearly a minute before 
 any of the rest — was certainly not the sort of 
 being the persons assembled within expected to
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 21 
 
 see, for the door only gave admission to a beauti- 
 ful girl of some nineteen or twenty years of age, 
 with her rich, clustering hair, wet with the rain, 
 falling from its bands about her face and should- 
 ers, and with a look of laughing, yet half-rueful, 
 satisfaction on her face as she turned to one of 
 those behind, saying in a sweet, though jesting 
 tone, 
 
 " Good faith, my friend, if thou art as wet as 
 I am, the lowliness of the roof will not mar your 
 joy in taking shelter under it.*" 
 
 "Lord love you, sweet lady!" cried the 
 hostess, advancing. " Well, you are wet indeed ! 
 What a night for such a beautiful lady as you to 
 be out in. Why, all the rich velvet and the 
 gold lace is spoiled. Heart of grace ! and your 
 yellow riding-coat is all draggled with mud above 
 your knees V 
 
 " Ay ! good truth," replied the lady, advanc- 
 ing toward the fire, " it is so, indeed, dame. 
 Forty sterling marks cast away upon a miserable 
 shower of rain, and a weary ride from Walden. 
 But here seems the comfort of plentiful food, and 
 a good fire to dry one."
 
 22 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Oh, yes, lady ; oli, yes," replied the hostess, 
 " everything is quite ready ; let me take out that 
 buckle, lady. — Get you home to your beds, fel- 
 lows ! what do you stand staring at there, as if. 
 you never saw a young gentlewoman before ? — 
 It 's all because you 're so beautiful, ma'am, that 
 puts them out of their manners. 'Tisn't every 
 day they see a skin like that, I trow."" 
 
 The lady tossed her head with a gay laugh. 
 
 " I thought such words were the coin of 
 courts,'"* she said, "not current in the country; 
 but I am overburdened with such small change, 
 good dame, so tell me no more of my beauty, 
 and do not drive these good people from the fire, 
 where they have as much right as I have. Now, 
 Maltby and Adams, bring in all the bags here, 
 or they will soon be as wet as we are ; and do not 
 let the girl Marian stay out there all night to 
 look after goods and chattels which will not melt 
 as easily as herself, I warrant. We must stay 
 here this night, that ""s clear. Why, what "'s the 
 matter, Marian : you seemed scared ?"" 
 
 The girl whom she addressed, and who was 
 evidently the maid of a person of quality, ran up
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 2S 
 
 to her mistress with somewhat frightened and 
 mysterious looks, whispering something in her 
 ear ; while the hostess, on the other side, assailed 
 her with assurances that everything was quite 
 right and prepared " for her bedchamber, and 
 guest-chamber, and all,"' muttering between whiles 
 to herself, " Stay here ? — To be sure ! Marry, 
 when all is made ready, why should she not ?'' 
 
 The lady might be somewhat embarrassed by 
 the discourses of the two who addressed her at 
 once ; but, nevertheless, she seemed to catch the 
 words of each, and replied to both. 
 
 '• Four men ?" she said, speaking to the maid. 
 " Well, what of that, girl ? They will do thee 
 no harm, though they be on horseback. You 
 say, my good dame, that all is made ready for 
 me ; but, in good truth, I fear there is some 
 mistake, which, I trust, may not deprive me of 
 my supper and a lodging. I intended to have 
 gone farther to-night, — perhaps to Royston ; and 
 it was the rain that drove me hither. Mayhap 
 thy good things are made ready for some other 
 person.'" 
 
 '• For me, madam," said a gentleman, advanc-
 
 2i ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 ing from the door the threshold of which he had 
 crossed the moment before. " But, right happy 
 am I," he added, " that what was prepared for me 
 may be used by you, whom all men are bound to 
 honour and obey." 
 
 The lady had turned, with some surprise, at 
 first sound of the speaker's voice, and, certainly, 
 his words did not diminish her astonishment. 
 He was a tall, thin, bony man, dark in com- 
 plexion, somewhat sharp in features, with a cold, 
 calm, steady eye, but a bland and a pleasant smile 
 about the mouth. He was dressed in the style 
 of a military man of some rank, and affected the 
 bushy beard and long mustachios of the swagger- 
 ing adventurers of the day. Nothing else, how- 
 ever, in his appearance or manner indicated that 
 he belonged to that somewhat disagreeable and 
 dangerous race of animals. But no line or feature 
 in his face called up any recollection of him in 
 the lady's mind ; and, after a momentary pause 
 to consider his countenance, she replied, " You 
 seem to know me, sir, and yet, may be mistaken. 
 I am a very humble person, whom no one is 
 bound to obey that I know of, but my good girl,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 25 
 
 Marian, here, and one or two trusty servants, 
 who find the bond more in their affection than 
 their duty." 
 
 *' The Lady Arabella Stuart," answered the 
 stranger, " is not to be mistaken ; and surely 
 one so near the crown of England may well 
 command our duty." 
 
 *' I am the King's most humble subject, 
 though his kinswoman, sir," replied the Lady 
 Arabella coldly ; for, young as she was, she had 
 already been the object of ambitious designs on 
 the part of some, and needless jealousy on the 
 part of others. '' I claim no duty from any one 
 but my own people, and would fain make that as 
 light as may be.'' 
 
 " Your ladyship is wise and right," said 
 the stranger ; " and love makes duty light to all 
 men. What I would say is, madam, I rejoice that 
 I yesterday commanded preparations in this poor 
 inn as all is ready for you, which it might not 
 otherwise have been. Come, dame hostess, show 
 the lady to a chamber where she may change her 
 dress ; and, in the mean time, good master, serve 
 the supper, to be ready when she returns. Have 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 26 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 you the vacant room prepared which I ordered ? 
 — With her permission, I will be the Lady 
 Arabella's humble carver." 
 
 The lady bowed her head, gave a quick glance 
 round three or four other faces, which were now- 
 gathered together at the farther side of the room, 
 and, accompanied by her maid, retired, with the 
 landlady's daughter lighting her, and one of the 
 two men-servants carrying a pair of ponderous 
 leathern bags, such as were then commonly used 
 for conveying the various articles of dress which 
 a traveller might need upon his journey. 
 
 As soon as she was gone, the gentleman 
 who had been speaking to her, turned to three 
 other personages, who seemed to have arrived in 
 his company, and held a low and earnest conver- 
 sation with them for some minutes. The land- 
 lord's ears were sharp, and he had his own share 
 of shrewdness ; but, although he manoeuvred 
 skilfully to come nearer to the strangers, and 
 used his faculty of hearing to the utmost, he 
 could only catch two or three words. 
 
 One said, somewhat louder than the rest, 
 " 'Tis most fortunate ;" another, " We should
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 27 
 
 have passed them in the night, and missed our 
 mark. Good luck to the rain !" 
 
 The landlord could gather no more ; and, 
 seeing the eye of the principal visitor upon him, 
 he thought it best to apply himself seriously 
 to carry in the supper, into an adjoining cham- 
 ber, which had been prepared according to di- 
 rections received beforehand. When he returned 
 from his first expedition with trenchers and 
 drinking-cups, he found the stranger who seem- 
 ed the leader of ^ the rest, standing before the 
 fire, while the villagers, Avho had lingered till 
 they received a very sharp and definite hint from 
 the landlady, were no longer apparent. 
 
 As soon as the landlord came in, his guest 
 made a slight and scarcely perceptible motion 
 across his breast. The host instantly crossed 
 himself, bowing his head low, and from that 
 moment a sort of confidential intercourse was 
 established between him and the stranger, which 
 made them both understand each other perfectly, 
 without a word of explanation being spoken. 
 
 In the meanwhile the lady had been shown 
 
 into a room, low in the roof, with the large dark 
 
 c 2
 
 28 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 rafters protruding from the ceiling. It contained 
 two beds, a small mirror, not much larger than 
 one's hand, a table, some chairs, and a large 
 brazen sconce against the wall, with lamps not 
 lighted. While the serving-man laid the large 
 leathern bags across a stool, and the landlady's 
 daughter bustled about in setting things to 
 rights, Arabella Stuart, seated before the table, 
 had fallen into a deep reverie. 
 
 We must look into her thoughts ; for she 
 spoke not, though she was carrying on an argu- 
 ment with herself. 
 
 " I know not his face," she said, " I know not 
 his face, and yet I must doubt the man — and 
 that other face over his shoulder ? Methinks I 
 have seen it before — can it have been with the 
 Jesuit, Parsons ? — else why did it bring up that 
 wicked, cunning man to my mind, who would 
 fain have entangled me in things for my destruc- 
 tion ? Well, well, I will treat it lightly — ay, 
 lightly. The shaft that may hit the heavy-flying 
 crow misses the light-winged swallow. Yet I 
 will be upon my guard ; and if I find new plot- 
 ters, I will not house with them through the
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 29 
 
 night — I will no plots, not I. If they will but 
 let me live my little life in peace, and die with 
 an innocent spirit, I ask no more. — Marian, 
 girl !" she added aloud, and then whispered to the 
 maid for a moment, who instantly quitted the 
 room. 
 
 *' Come hither, pretty maiden,"' continued the 
 lady, addressing the landlord's daughter, " and 
 help me to put off this dress. It seems a fair 
 country this round your village, as well as I 
 could judge through the rain. Now, there is 
 many a gentleman's house in the neighbourhood, 
 I '11 warrant." 
 
 " Good heart, no," replied the girl ; '* we are 
 but poorly off in such commodities." 
 
 " Why, faith, I thought I saw several large 
 houses as I came along," rejoined the lady. 
 " Whose was that large mansion on the top of 
 the hill, about a mile hence ?" 
 
 The girl laughed. '* That 's the great black 
 barn," she said. " It does look like a castle by 
 night, with the trees round it. No, madam ; 
 the only large house we have near is Sir Harry 
 West's."
 
 so ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " I must have passed it as I came," answered 
 the lady. " Undo this knot, good girl. — I 
 know Sir Harry West well. He showed himself 
 a gallant gentleman in the Irish wars, though 
 as mild as he is brave. Which was his house ?" 
 
 " If you are journeying from London," said 
 the girl, " you passed it two miles hence, on the 
 left, up the valley, by the side of the stream. 
 But I doubt if you could see it by night," 
 
 The lady made no reply, and the moment after 
 her maid re-entered the room, and took the place 
 of the landlady's daughter in assisting the Lady 
 Arabella at her toilet. The dress was soon 
 changed, — at least as far as she would suffer it 
 to be ; for the long riding-skirt, in which she 
 had come thither, she retained over her other 
 garments, though it was soiled, and somewhat 
 wet. In this plight, however, she returned to 
 the kitchen of the inn, where she found the 
 strange cavalier ready to receive her, and was by 
 him led, with courtier-like formality, into an 
 adjoining chamber, where a table was placed 
 groaning under the abundant supper which had 
 been prepared. But only one cover was laid
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 31 
 
 upon the board, apparently intended for herself. 
 To this place the stranger conducted her, and 
 seemed literally about to take upon himself the 
 office of carver, as he had proposed ; but Arabella 
 paused, without sitting down, saying, 
 
 ** Nay, my good sir, I should surely be want- 
 ing in courtesy to let you stand and carve, while 
 I, like the wild beast, which loves to feast without 
 company, devour your supper. You have more 
 gentlemen too, I think, with you, — though I 
 know neither their name nor yours to ask you 
 to be seated."" 
 
 " Oh, my followers, madam, will find supper 
 without," replied the stranger ; *' and, as to my 
 name, lady, I am called the Baron de Mardyke, 
 — a foreign name, as you will see, but having 
 been bom in England in King Edward's time, 
 I am more than half an Englishman." 
 
 *' Pray, then, be seated," said the Lady Ara- 
 bella ; and the stranger, drawing a stool to the 
 table, did as she bade him. 
 
 Before he took his place, however, he crossed 
 himself reverently, in rather an ostentatious man- 
 ner, very different from that which he had used
 
 S2 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 in making the same sign before the landlord. 
 The lady could not help noticing the gesture ; 
 but she took no notice, and, after a brief grace 
 murmured to herself, sat down at table. 
 
 The gentleman, as in duty bound, carved for 
 her; and, as she made no observation, the meal 
 was silent for several minutes, while the landlord 
 and one of the stranger's servants came in and 
 out, and caused a bustle amongst the plates 
 and trenchers. 
 
 " In Spain," said the stranger, breaking si- 
 lence, with a smile, " the host of an inn so near 
 the capital as this would have been ashamed 
 to send up capons of last year to a lady's 
 table." 
 
 " You have been in Spain, then," said the 
 Lady Arabella. " It is a fair country, is it not.^ 
 — rich in song and romance ?''"' 
 
 " Rich in everything," replied the Baron ; 
 " beautiful to the eye, delicious in climate, full 
 of splendid cities and courteous gentlemen, — a 
 land of princes, lady." 
 
 " Good truth, then, it must be but a dull 
 place," exclaimed Arabella, with a gay laugh. " I
 
 ARABELLA STUART. SS 
 
 have seen some princes since my birth, and I 
 must say that they are the dullest specimens of 
 mortal man I ever met with/' 
 
 '' You have known few Spanish princes, 
 madam,'"' said her companion, " or you would 
 judge differently."" 
 
 " No,"" answered the lady, " the only one 
 • I ever met with, who bore his dignity with mo- 
 desty and elevated it by grace, was a German." 
 
 " True," rejoined the Baron, " some of the 
 Royal and Electoral Houses have produced men 
 not easily to be banished from a lady's memory, 
 — or her heart.'' 
 
 " Nay," said Arabella with a careless smile, 
 " my little heart is all too narrow to take in so 
 great a thing as a prince." 
 
 Her companion cast a quick glance around 
 the room to see that no one was near, and then 
 replied in a low but emphatic tone, " I hope 
 not — I hope not." 
 
 The blood came up into the lady's cheek, and 
 after gazing in his face for an instant, she cast 
 down her eyes again and remained silent. Se- 
 veral of the dishes were removed, now others 
 
 c5
 
 34 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 put upon the table; and then, as if acciden tally, 
 both the landlord and the serving-man quitted 
 the room. 
 
 *' How strange are the events of life," said 
 the Baron de Mardyke. 
 
 '' They are indeed,'' answered the Lady Ara- 
 bella, " almost as strange as man's own heart." 
 
 " Here was I," continued her companion 
 not appearing to heed her words, " riding on an 
 errand of much importance to visit a fair and 
 noble lady whom I should have missed seeing 
 till it was too late, had it not been for a shower 
 of rain." 
 
 " If you mean me, sir," said the fair girl 
 beside him, " you must have made some mistake 
 in your errand ; for I am a being of so little con- 
 sequence myself that nothing of importance can 
 have reference to me." 
 
 " You may in a few weeks be of much more," 
 replied the Baron. 
 
 " Nay, heaven forbid !" cried Arabella, resum- 
 ing the gay and jesting tone which she had laid 
 aside for a moment. '* I can conceive no fate 
 more perverse than that which would make me
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 35 
 
 of any consequence at all. I never knew a 
 bird that cared, so that his wings were tied, 
 whether the threads that tied them were golden 
 or hempen. Greatness is a snare from which 
 one never escapes, once having fallen into it. — 
 But, good truth, I am curious who you can be 
 sir," she continued, stopping him as he was about 
 to speak, " I am shrewd at divining ; but yet 
 men take such disguises now-a-days a poor 
 woman can hardly discover them. — Nay, tell 
 me not, tell me not ! I love to puzzle out a mys- 
 tery, and I would fain guess for myself who and 
 what you may be." 
 
 " Who think you, madam .^" asked the stran- 
 ger. 
 
 '' Baron de Mardyke ! " said Arabella 
 thoughtfully, " that may be some assumed title 
 of a great man who would fain appear less than 
 he is, — you may be one of those Spanish princes 
 you talk of." 
 
 " Or his envoy," answered the other. 
 
 " Hush, hush ! " cried the lady in the same 
 tone of raillery, *' let me see, — Baron de Mar- 
 dyke ! That on the contrary may be a name
 
 S6 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 taken by some lesser man who wishes to seem 
 greater than he is, — you may be a Jesuit in dis- 
 guise, a disciple of Loyola, or Lainez," and she 
 looked keenly at him as he spoke. 
 
 There was a slight contraction of the lips, and 
 a passing shade upon the brow of the gentleman 
 whom she addressed ; but he replied in an unal- 
 tered tone, " You will guess right ere long, 
 madam ; for when you have exhausted conjecture 
 you will come back to simple truth, and leave 
 the Baron de Mardyke just what he was before. 
 — But ere we are interrupted, let me say that 
 I have matter of much importance for your 
 private ear after this meal be over, — secrets of 
 great moment ! " 
 
 " Trust them not to me then !" cried the 
 young lady, '^ for I have a strange habit of drop- 
 ping jewels by the way. I never could keep 
 anything that was precious in my life — 'tis but 
 yesterday I lost a diamond ; and as for secrets, 
 I am so conscious of my carelessness, that I 
 always give them to the next person I meet with, 
 being quite sure that any one will preserve them 
 better than myself."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 37 
 
 Tlie stranger bit his lip ; but the host enter- 
 ing the moment after, stopped him in his reply. 
 When the supper was over, however, he kept 
 his eyes fixed upon the lady, while the host and 
 the servant were clearing away all that encumber- 
 ed the table ; and it was evident that he was 
 waiting impatiently for them to be gone. But 
 just as the landlord was about to retire, Ara- 
 bella addressed him in a quiet tone, saying 
 '' Send my girl Marian hither, mine host ; I 
 wish to speak with her." 
 
 The Baron made him a quick and scarcely 
 perceptible sign ; and by some accident the land- 
 lord quite forgot to obey the lady's behest, 
 taking the opportunity of scolding his daughter 
 for something that had gone amiss, and then 
 aiding the rest of the party who were assembled 
 in the kitchen to consume the remains of the 
 supper which he had brought out of the neigh- 
 bouring room. 
 
 In that chamber the lady Arabella and the 
 Baron de Mardyke, as we must call him for 
 the time, remained for nearly twenty minutes, 
 while the host and the Baron's followers talked
 
 38 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 loud, and passed many a joke and many a 
 cup of good strong ale round the table. The 
 girl Marian and one of the Lady Arabella's ser- 
 vants were seated with the rest ; but the other 
 serving-man had remained at the stable tending 
 the horses. At the end of the time we have 
 mentioned, however, he made his appearance 
 again ; and the voices of the horse-boys of the 
 inn were heard without the door. Marian started 
 up as soon as she saw him ; and the man, who 
 was a bluflP English servant of some forty-five, 
 or fifty years of age, walked straight up to the 
 chamber where his mistress was, and opening the 
 door, said aloud, " The horses are waiting, lady." 
 
 The cheek of Lady Arabella Stuart was some- 
 what flushed and her face grave ; but she instant- 
 ly resumed her sweet and playful smile, while 
 her companion exclaimed, " You surely are not 
 going on, in such a night as this, madam ? ''\ 
 
 " As surely as I live,"" replied the lady ; " you 
 know, good sir, I could not plunder you of your 
 lodging as well as your supper ; and so I will 
 even wish you a fair good night, and take my 
 leave, beseeching you to bear in mind what I
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 39 
 
 have said, as on that score I change not, and it 
 may be well to be careful. I thank you for 
 your courtesy,'' she continued, '' though, if I 
 had known one part of my entertainment here, 
 I should have found shelter elsewhere."" 
 
 Thus saying she adjusted her head gear, while 
 moving across the kitchen towards the door of 
 the inn ; and, taking a piece of gold from a silken 
 purse which she carried in her bosom, she gave 
 it to the host saying, " That 's for your fee, my 
 friend ; but remember, another time when I tell 
 you to send my woman to me, do as you are 
 directed." 
 
 The host made a thousand apologies, laying 
 the blame upon a bad memory ; and the Lady 
 Arabella, without heeding him, issued forth 
 into the night with her servants following, the 
 landlady and her daughter curtsying, and the 
 host holding a lantern snatched up in haste. 
 
 In the meantime, the personage who had borne 
 her company at supper, was surrounded by his 
 three companions, asking him questions in a low 
 but rapid voice. 
 
 " She is a fool," he replied, '' and yet not
 
 40 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 a fool either, — keen enough as to what concerns 
 her not, but blind to her own interest. She 
 casts away a crown," he added in a lower tone, 
 " as a child does a long used plaything.'' 
 
 ''Will she betray us?" asked one of his 
 companions. 
 
 " I think not," replied the other. 
 
 " Think not ? " said a third, '' we had better 
 make sure of that !'' But, at the same moment, 
 the sound of horses' feet trotting away was heard ; 
 and the landlord and his family came back from 
 the door.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 41 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The old hall was varm and comfortable ; the 
 great, wide, open hearth, displayed some half- 
 dozen logs of blazing wood ; and the fitful flame 
 of the fire outshinino: the two candles that stood 
 upon the table, flickered round the whole room, 
 glancing upon the quaint old carvings that sur- 
 rounded the panels, prying into the deep bays of 
 the windows, and catching here and there upon 
 some well-polished casque, breastplate, or other 
 piece of ancient armour, which, suspended by 
 hooks and brackets, ornamented the walls. The 
 ceiling, which was of old oak, like the wainscot, 
 was lost in the obscurity above ; but the rich 
 mantle-piece was fully seen by the light of the 
 candles near it, and was the pride of the room and 
 that part of the country. It had been carved by a 
 famous Flemish artist, and presented by him to
 
 42 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 good Sir Harry West for some kindly service 
 rendered during the time of the Low Country 
 wars. What was the deed that merited the gift 
 we do not, indeed, know ; but it is probable 
 that the oaken sculpture had some reference to 
 the cause of the sculptor's gratitude, as on either 
 side of the chimney stood the figure of an armed 
 knight, in full relief, bearing upon his shoulder a 
 corner of the entablature, on which was repre- 
 sented, in a smaller size, the history of the good 
 Samaritan. 
 
 Before the fire-place, at a convenient dis- 
 tance, stood a round table, covered with the 
 relics of the evening-meal. Drinking-cups are 
 there, and flagons, and it would seem that in that 
 squat flat-sided, long-necked bottle, there is some 
 precious and much-esteemed liquor, from the tall 
 glasses, gilt and bedizened, which stand by, and 
 can never be destined for the conveyance of any 
 unworthy fluid. Between the table and the fire, 
 so near the former that the elbow could rest com- 
 fortably upon it, sat the good knight the master 
 of the house, and his young kinsman ; and be- 
 tween them, again, and the chimney, lay a large.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 43 
 
 shaggy hound, such as would have delighted the 
 soul of a Landseer, or a Scott, and who may have 
 been a remote connection of one of those immor- 
 talized by Rubens. Stretched out like a trussed 
 hare, with his paws before him, and his long 
 muzzle gracefully leaning over the ankle next to 
 the fire, the good dog seemed to be asleep ; and, 
 perhaps, had his head been in a position to ac- 
 complish such a feat, he might have nodded 
 from time to time ; but, nevertheless, he was 
 evidently only in a state of pleasant drowsiness, 
 for ever and anon he opened his keen eyes, and 
 gazed into the fire, as if wondering what that 
 extraordinary element could be, and twice lifted 
 up his head, and looked in his master's face, 
 to see that all was right, speedily settling him- 
 self down to his doze again. 
 
 It is a sweet and pleasant thing for two old, 
 familiar friends, to spend together a long hour 
 after the sun has gone down, and when all the 
 world is quiet, in a warm room, with a blazing 
 fire, and with the moderate use of the pure juice 
 of the grape to fill the intervals of conversation. 
 No haste is upon them, no hurry, no hateful pres-
 
 44 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 sure of importunate business ; there tliey can sit 
 as long as they choose ; it matters not whether 
 they rise the next minute, or three hours hence. 
 They are free, in short — free from the bondage 
 of worldly affairs, and can do what they think fit 
 with their little treasure of time. No liberty is 
 more pleasant than the emancipation, from all the 
 chains, and shackles, and bars, and bonds of busi- 
 ness ; and there, when Memory, sweet Memory, 
 takes us by the hand, and leads us back into the 
 flower-garden of other years, and points out all the 
 blossoming things that we loved, looking as fresh 
 and beautiful as ever, how sweet are the sensa- 
 tions, how entrancing would they be, were it not 
 for the subdued consciousness that it is all a part 
 of the dream that is passing away. 
 
 Nor is the pleasure of such intercourse lessen- 
 ed when there exists some difference in age be- 
 tween the two companions. Youth brings its 
 eager fancy, its bright expectations, its energetic 
 rashness, to the mithridate ; and Age its sober 
 reason, its bright remembrances, its calm know- 
 ledge, and its tried powers. The party must 
 never extend beyond two, however ; a dog, in-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 45 
 
 deed, you may admit, a friendly, faithful dog, 
 the image of unbought attachment and unvarying 
 love ; but there must be no one else. 
 
 Thus had Sir Harry West and his young 
 friend been passing the last hour — now turning 
 their thoughts to the days when William Sey- 
 mour was a mere boy, and, as the second son 
 of a noble family, had been left greatly to the care 
 of his maternal relations ; now talking of those 
 days of strange adventure, when, under the 
 guardianship of the good knight, he had first 
 mounted horse for the battle-field in that beautiful 
 neighbouring island to which England has been 
 '' little more than kin, and less than kind"" — when 
 about half-past nine o'clock, which was, indeed, 
 half an hour later than Sir Harry West's usual 
 bed-time in the country, the dog, who lay upon 
 the hearth, gave signs of being awake, by raising 
 one ear perpendicularly from his head, without, 
 however, moving from his place, or lifting his 
 muzzle from his paw. 
 
 '* He hears some sound without," observed his 
 master, whose eyes had been fixed contemplative 
 upon him.
 
 46 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " And yet," said William Seymour, who un- 
 derstood that he spoke of the dog, for he had 
 been looking in the same direction, without any 
 visible cause for his eyes being turned towards 
 the animal except that those of his friend were 
 resting upon it, " and yet the rain is dropping 
 so hard and heavily that I should suppose no 
 sound from without but a very loud one, would 
 drown its noise and the crackling of the fire, for 
 ears that lie so near the blaze as his." 
 
 '• They are quicker than our own even in 
 youth," replied his friend ; " it is wonderful how 
 dogs will catch the lightest sound, and distinguish 
 in a moment whether it is one they are accustom- 
 ed to or not. They are learned in sounds, these, 
 triangular-headed gentry. See ! he looks up. 
 if it were a moonlight night, I should think some 
 of the young neighbouring vagabonds had come 
 to plunder the rookery or the dovecote." 
 
 As he spoke the dog gazed in his master's face 
 for a moment, as if for encouragement, and then 
 gave a short growl. 
 
 ^ " What is the matter, Mark'em ?" asked the 
 old knight, patting his head ; and instantly the
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 47 
 
 dog sprang forward into one of the bay-windows, 
 with a loud, angry bark, which was repeated more 
 fiercely still the next moment, when a thundering 
 heavy blow upon the door of the house announced 
 that some visitor sought admission. 
 
 *' Down, Mark'em ! — down !" cried Sir Harry 
 West. " On my life, this is a stormy night for 
 any one to venture out. Those blue-bottles of 
 mine must not keep the man waiting, whoever he 
 be ;" and, advancing to the door of the room, he 
 called loudly to several of the servants by name. 
 
 Before they could come, however, he himself 
 had crossed to the hall -door, and opened it, saying, 
 " Come in, whoever you are ! — What is it you 
 want, good fellow ? I know your face. Whose 
 servant are you ?" 
 
 " The Lady Arabella's, Sir Harry," replied 
 the man ; " but we want help quickly. Her horse 
 has fallen in this dark night ; and, though she 
 says she is not hurt, yet we all fear it is but to 
 give us comfort." 
 
 " Bring lanterns ! bring lanterns !" cried Sir 
 Harry vehemently. " Lakyn ! Matthew! Dick! 
 Here, William Seymour, come with me. Here
 
 48 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 is that dear, beautiful girl, with her horse down, 
 and herself hurt. Patience and mercy ! what 
 made her ride out in such a night as this ?" 
 
 But William Seymour was by this time at the 
 hall-door. 
 
 " I will go, I will go," he exclaimed. " Stay 
 you. Sir Harry. Send down the lanterns. I 
 will go." 
 
 And, without waiting to catch up cloak or 
 hat, he ran out over the terrace and through the 
 garden, passed the little gate, and huri'ied on down 
 the narrow road which kept along the stream. 
 He had not far to go, however ; for about half- 
 way between the house and the London road, he 
 came suddenly upon a group of three human 
 beings and five horses standing together, with 
 the rain pouring down upon them in as heavy 
 a stream as our somewhat weeping and un- 
 certain skies ever let flow upon a hapless tra- 
 veller. 
 
 " Are you hurt, are you hurt ?''^ exclaimed the 
 young gentleman, addressing the taller of the two 
 women who formed parts of the group. 
 
 " No, indeed," replied the lady ; " very little,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 49 
 
 if at all. I know your voice, sir, tlioiigh I see 
 you are not my old friend, Sir Harry West. 
 Good heaven ! can it be Mr. Seymour ?" 
 
 " The same, lady, and ever the humblest of 
 your servants," replied the young gentleman. 
 " Pray, let me assist you to the house. There 
 are people coming with lanterns directly. Let 
 me support you."" 
 
 Arabella gave him her hand without any sign 
 of unwillingness ; and he led her on with care, 
 asking again, in a low voice, as soon as they were 
 some ten or twenty steps from her attendants, 
 "Are you hurt.?" 
 
 The question was put in one of those tones 
 that give peculiar value and meaning to words, 
 otherwise of no import, — those tones that may be 
 called a second language, an universal tongue, in 
 which all the comments of the heart are written 
 upon the colder and more abstruse dialect in which 
 we carry on our conversation with the ordinary 
 world. He had asked her before the same ques- 
 tion, and received an answer. What was it, then, 
 he now said ? A vast deal more, though without 
 using any other than the words he had first em- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 ployed. He told her, then, with the thrilling 
 anxiety of deep interest, that he feared she 
 ■was more hurt than she would allow ; that 
 he was alarmed, grieved, pained by what had 
 happened ; that he was rejoiced to see her 
 again ; that the lightest injury to her was of 
 deep importance to him. Yes, although he 
 only used those few words, that brief question, 
 like Lord Burleigh's famous shake of the head, 
 meant all this. Luckily, it so happens that 
 there is no instruction required to learn the 
 language of which we speak ; the key to the 
 cypher is in the hearts of every one, but more 
 especially in the breast of woman ; and Arabella, 
 whatever were her own feelings, easily translated 
 the tone of William Seymour into express terms. 
 Not that he had ever said one word to her which 
 the most distant acquaintance might not justify ; 
 not that one phrase had ever passed between 
 them which the ear of the whole world might hot 
 have heard, but he had often spoken as he 
 now spoke, and the tones had often made her 
 heart thrill. She was, however, accustomed to 
 inspire interest and excite admiration ; she could
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 51 
 
 not but "know it ; and, though in many cases she 
 cared little about it, perhaps William Seymour's 
 was not the instance in which she valued it the least. 
 
 Arabella Stuart fancied herself in no degree 
 ambitious. She had seen princes at her feet, 
 without estimating them in the least by the 
 crowns they offered, or the territories they pos- 
 sessed. She had willingly seen the proposals of 
 some of the highest men in Europe rejected by 
 those who ruled her fate ; and yet she was per- 
 haps the most ambitious person that it is possible 
 to conceive ; for she sought to obtain that which 
 is the most difficult for any human being to gain 
 — especially of royal blood. The object of her am- 
 bition was happiness ! that glorious crown which 
 all the jewels of the world cannot enrich, which, 
 studded with the diamonds of the heart, can re- 
 ceive no additional lustre from such paltry things 
 as power, or wealth, or station. 
 
 In reply, she assured her companion that she was 
 
 not hurt, and in her tone she thanked him much 
 
 more than by mere words. She even let him know 
 
 in some degree that she understood the interest 
 
 he felt towards her, and was grateful to him for it. 
 
 D 2 
 
 u: v€ ill: ur
 
 52 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Not much time, however, was allowed them 
 for conversation of any kind ; for ere they had 
 proceeded a hundred yards they were met by 
 Sir Harry West, with his servants bearing lan- 
 terns ; and the good knight, with William Sey- 
 mour, accompanied her back to the house, while 
 the attendants went on to give assistance to the 
 party left behind. 
 
 The same question which she had already an- 
 swered was of course addressed to Arabella by 
 her old friend, and he too showed almost as 
 deep an interest as his companion had displayed, 
 thoufrh it was of a different sort. Satisfied on 
 that head, he put a number of other inquiries to 
 her : whence she last came — whither she was 
 going, how she happened to be riding forth at 
 such a time of night, especially as it had been 
 raining hard for several hours. 
 
 " Nay, nay, Sir Harry," cried the lady gaily, 
 " this is a catechism, and I will not answer you 
 on all these heads now. You shall give me lodg- 
 ing in your castle- for the night, if you be a gal- 
 lant gentleman and true ; and, when I have once 
 more cast off my wet garments, I will come and
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 53 
 
 reply to all interrogatories as faithfully and dis- 
 creetly as if I were before the Star Chamber." 
 
 " So shall it be, dear lady, so shall it be," re- 
 plied Sir Harry West. " My good old house- 
 keeper, Dame Cicely, has been called out of the 
 still-room to tend upon you ; and, thanks to this 
 young gentleman's arrival this afternoon, the best 
 chamber is ready prepared for your reception." 
 
 The lady, of course, said something apologetic 
 for the trouble that she gave. '' She was sorry, 
 too," she said, " to deprive Mr. Seymour of his 
 chamber." But the young gentleman assured 
 her that he would sleep more sweetly for know- 
 ing that she was lodged in safety and in comfort ; 
 and Sir Harry answered laughingly, that he had 
 taught the boy, in years long past, to put up 
 with hard beds and scanty lodging. 
 
 Thus talking, they soon reached the house, 
 where a good matronly old woman, in a long 
 stiff bodice, serge petticoat, and flowered gown, 
 whose years would have had to roll back again 
 some way to reach the age of sixty, accompani- 
 ed by a handmaiden, who prided herself upon 
 being at least five years younger than Dame
 
 54 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Cicely, were waiting in the hall to give whatever 
 help and tendance might be needed by the Lady 
 Arabella. To their hands her two male compa- 
 nions consigned her, and then returned into the 
 chamber where they had been passing the even- 
 ing, when their conversation had been interrupt- 
 ed by the events which we have described. 
 Without sitting down, both took their places 
 before the fire again ; and William Seymour 
 brushed the wet with his hand from the curls of 
 his hair, murmuring to himself, 
 
 " I trust she will not suffer from this." 
 
 " It is, indeed, a terrible night," said his old 
 friend, " for such frail creatures as womankind to 
 be out. There is nothing, William, that I thank 
 God for more, amongst all the blessings he has 
 showered upon me, than for not making me a 
 woman." 
 
 *' And yet, my dear sir," replied William Sey- 
 mour, " you were always a most devoted admirer, 
 and humble servant of the fair." 
 
 *' At a respectful distance, William, at a re- 
 spectful distance," said the old knight, smiling. 
 '' When I was of your age, it is true, I had some
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 55 
 
 impulses of matrimony upon me, which, like other 
 diseases of children, by a strong constitution and 
 good management, I got over easily." 
 
 " Nay," cried William Seymour, " surely you 
 do not call love a disease." 
 
 ''Just as much the disease of youth," answered 
 Sir Harry, with that slight touch of sarcasm in 
 his look which we have already noticed, "just as 
 much a disease of youth as measles, or chin- 
 cough, or mumps amongst children, or the dis- 
 temper amongst dogs. True, it sometimes at- 
 tacks us in mature age, and even in later life ; 
 but the cases are rare, and then it goes hard with 
 the patient. Take care of thyself, my dear boy. 
 Thou art just about the age to catch it ; but if 
 ever you do, come to me, and I will be your 
 physician. Ha ! Lakyn. Bring them in, bring 
 them in ! Show that pretty maiden to her mis- 
 tress's chamber. Is the horse much hurt ?^^ 
 
 " Both his knees as full of holes as a beggar's 
 coat. Sir Harry," replied the old man. 
 
 " That is bad, that is bad," said Sir Harry 
 West. " Have them well bathed with hot water, 
 Lakyn ; then take a gill of Bordeaux wine, an
 
 56 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 ounce of salt, and a little sweet oil to anoint 
 them with." 
 
 " I know, I know. Sir Harry," answered the 
 man. " 'Tis a marvellous receipt ; but this horse 
 is a mighty deal worse than the grey gelding." 
 
 Thus saying he withdrew, taking with him to 
 the buttery the two servants of the Lady Ara- 
 bella, with the hospitable design of comforting 
 each with a cup of humming ale ; and the con- 
 versation was renewed between Sir Harry West 
 and his young friend, much in the same strain as 
 before, till the Lady herself made her appear- 
 ance in the old hall. 
 
 She was somewhat paler than usual, and her 
 step had less of its buoyant lightness, as she was 
 led by her good host with ceremonious respect to 
 a chair by the fire. She owned, too, that she felt 
 somewhat bruised with her fall, and expressed her 
 determination soon to retire to rest. 
 
 " I am afraid, Sir Harry," she said, " that I can- 
 not say my catechism to-night ; but, to satisfy you 
 on one head before I go, I will tell you the cause 
 of my journey. The King, you know, is already on 
 his Avay from Scotland, and has crossed the border,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 57 
 
 I understand, some days. 'Twas only yesterday, 
 however, that my Aunt of Shrewsbury gave me 
 notice that such was the case, and urged me 
 strongly by her letters to hasten to meet his 
 Majesty, my royal cousin, and offer him my 
 loyal duty. As she knew I was but poorly at- 
 tended, she told me that some ten of her own 
 people should meet me at Stamford, if I would 
 come thither with all speed. Thus, you see, I set 
 out with but two men and my girl, Marian ; and, 
 as the day was fine, I hoped to have a moonlight 
 ride for an hour or two during the night.'*' 
 
 " I fear, dear lady,"" answered the knight, 
 " that the good Countess has led you to a need- 
 less, as well as unlucky journey. She does not 
 seem to know that the King has issued a pro- 
 clamation, forbidding all persons resort to the 
 court during its progress towards London. It 
 were wise of you, ere you proceed, to send a 
 messenger to his Majesty, asking permission to 
 wait upon him." 
 
 " Nay," exclaimed the Lady Arabella, " surely 
 he will not refuse to receive his poor kins- 
 woman ?"
 
 58 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Dear lady," replied her old counsellor, " you 
 surely should know something of royal person- 
 ages ; and yet methinks you are ignorant of how 
 small a thing with them may turn love into dis- 
 liking. A light word spoken, an act of deference 
 forgotten, the slightest disobedience, even when it 
 springs from affection, may deprive one of favour, 
 and never be forgiven. No after, devotion, no pe- 
 nitence will wipe away the impression ; and dark 
 looks and a cloudy brow, whenever you appear, 
 will be all that you can expect for life." 
 
 " Oh !" cried Arabella, " how differently would 
 I act if I were a queen ! Love should to me 
 stand in place of duty, truth should well supply 
 respect, honour should be the courtesy that I 
 would prize, and merit have its reward, not fawn- 
 ing. I would be bountiful, — not only in deeds, 
 but in words and looks, — would break no promise 
 that I made, and never inflict upon hope the 
 agony of delay. When I refused, it should be 
 with gentleness ; when I gave, it should be at 
 once. I should be loth to punish, punishing my 
 own heart at the same time. I would be careful
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 59 
 
 of my lightest word, knowing that no words are 
 light upon a monarch's lips/' 
 
 " I am sure you would," exclaimed William 
 Seymour, in a tone that made Arabella raise her 
 eyes to his face, with a slight increase of colour 
 in her cheek. 
 
 But good Sir Harry West did not seem to 
 enter into the enthusiasm of his young friend. 
 
 " You would be a very sweet lady, then," he 
 said, " but perhaps not a good queen. Royalty 
 is a rough thing, lady ; it has to deal with hard 
 matters, and must be somewhat hard itself. True, 
 sovereigns often think that they are exempt froni 
 the milder duties of mankind, and in that are 
 wrong ; for they require more qualities than 
 other men, not less. They should want no 
 kindly affections of the heart, but have the greater 
 strength to rule them, from the greater need. 
 The acts of ordinary men affect but a narrow 
 circle ; the acts of sovereigns spread round to 
 every human being throughout their whole domi- 
 nions. An individual may make any sacrifice he 
 pleases of that which is his own property, without
 
 60 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 injuring any one ; a monarch is the property of 
 his people, and can make no sacrifice without 
 affecting all. Stern facts, lady, stern facts, but 
 no less true than stern." 
 
 " Thank God I am not a queen !" said Ara- 
 bella, after a moment's pause. " But, to re- 
 turn," she continued, '' what would you have me 
 do, Sir Harry, in this business with the King ? 
 He may take offence if I go not forward to meet 
 him, and think me wanting in duty ; and, as you 
 say, if I do approach the court after the pro- 
 clamation, I may be held as disobedient. What 
 shall I do ? I will be guided by your advice." 
 
 " Stay here, dear lady," replied Sir Harry 
 West, " and send a messenger to ask permission 
 of the King. You will thus show both obedi- 
 ence and duty. Here is our young friend, Wil- 
 liam Seymour, doubtless he will willingly perform 
 your behest, and be back in a day or two." 
 
 William Seymour, however, did not look so 
 well satisfied as the old knight expected ; and 
 Arabella Stuart paused for a few moments with- 
 out reply, as if not quite willing to take advan- 
 tage at once of the proposal.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 61 
 
 *' I could scarcely venture to ask Mr. Sey- 
 mour/"' she said, at length, raising her soft eyes to 
 his face ; " and perhaps he may not be inclined 
 to go." 
 
 William Seymour could not find in his heart 
 so far to belie his own feelings as to say he 
 was willing, and yet he dared not explain what 
 those feelings were. Perhaps Arabella was not 
 willing to send him ; but of that we know no- 
 thing, although, if she was very anxious that he 
 should be her messenger, she did not quite dis- 
 play a woman's skill in carrying her point. On 
 the contrary, indeed she was the first to furnish 
 him with a fair excuse for declining the com- 
 mission. 
 
 '* On second thoughts," she continued, after 
 the young gentleman had made a somewhat 
 hesitating tender of his services, — " on second 
 thoughts, I must not even ask Mr. Seymour ; 
 for, if disobedience to the proclamation might 
 bring the King's anger upon me, the same act 
 would, of course, affect him in the ]ike manner. 
 There is the royal blood," she added, with a 
 smile, " flowing in his veins as well as mine ;
 
 b2 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 and, of course, our sovereign's indignation would 
 fall more heavily upon a man than upon a poor 
 girl like me/"* 
 
 " True," said the old man, " true ; I had for- 
 gotten that ; you must send some inferior person, 
 lady. If you will write a letter to his Majesty 
 to-night, I will dispatch it by a messenger to- 
 morrow, who shall put it into the hands of Sir 
 Robert Cecil, to be laid before the King." 
 
 " I will do it at once," replied Arabella, " and 
 then hie me to my bed ; for, to speak truth, I 
 am somewhat weary with my journey, with the 
 rain, and with my fall." 
 
 The letter was accordingly written in all due 
 form, beseeching the King to suffer his poor 
 cousin to pay her duty to him, by meeting him 
 on the road to London ; and on the following 
 morning, before Arabella had left her bed, a 
 trusty messenger was bearing it towards the 
 north. 
 
 Whether the fair writer slept well that 
 night matters not to our history ; William Sey- 
 mour scarcely closed an eye, and for two long 
 hours after he had sought his chamber he sat
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 63 
 
 almost in the same attitude, with his head resting 
 on his hand, in deep thought. As his medita- 
 tion ended, he murmured a few words to himself, 
 " Now or never,'"* he said. " Oh, golden oppor- 
 tunity ! I will not suffer doubt or dismay to 
 snatch thee from me ! "
 
 64 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Although duty and propriety, and a number 
 of other considerations, should lead us to follow 
 the messenger of Sir Harry West to the busy 
 and bustling scene which was taking place at 
 Newark-upon-Trent, on the occasion of King 
 James''s entrance into that very respectable city, 
 yet, yielding to temptation like other men, we 
 feel ourselves so well pleased in the company of 
 Arabella Stuart and William Seymour in the 
 old knight's house, that we cannot resist our in- 
 clination to remain a little longer with them, and 
 to shun the noise and hurry of the court. 
 
 Oh, how sweetly, when we think of all that noise 
 and hurry, do the calm and tranquil scenes of the 
 country come upon the heart ! The sunshine 
 slumbering upon the green field, the waving
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 65 
 
 branches of the old trees, the free and dancing 
 brightness of the rapid stream, the whispering of 
 the soft-breathed wind, the singing of the joyous 
 birds, how sweet they all fall upon the eye and 
 ear — ay, even the cawing of the glossy rooks 
 amongst the tall elms, heard through the open 
 casement in which Seymour and Arabella now 
 stand together, gazing out upon the bright aspect 
 of the valley, as it glistens in the morning sun- 
 shine after the heavy rains of night. 
 
 The mild air of the May morning is wooing 
 her soft cheek, the tender graces of the spring are 
 saluting her bright eye, the music of the wood- 
 land songsters is thrilling on her ear, the harmony 
 of all is sinking into her heart. 
 
 They are alone together ; the old knight in 
 his justice-room, busy in reconciling differences, 
 and in spreading peace, has left them to them- 
 selves ; there is no ear to listen but that of 
 nature ; no eye to mark the emotions of their 
 bosoms but His who made them to feel and to 
 enjoy. Have a care, have a care, you two young 
 and inexperienced beings ! Have a care of the 
 gulph that is before you, and stand no longer on
 
 66 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 the giddy brink ! Oh, perilous hour ! Why could 
 it not be averted ? Why could the words spoken 
 never be blotted out from the record of things 
 done ? But it is all in vain to wish, or to re- 
 gret. Fate was before them, and hand in hand 
 they went upon the way that led them to de- 
 struction. 
 
 There had been a long, silent pause, after 
 some words of common courtesy; a pause such 
 as takes place when people feel and know that 
 they are upon the eve of things which may affect 
 their whole future life. Arabella was anxious to 
 say something upon matters totally indifferent to 
 them both ; but, busy with deeper thoughts, 
 could find no such indifferent topic. Seymour, 
 on the contrary, longed to talk of thoughts and 
 feelings which had rested in his heart unchanged 
 since last he saw her, but hesitated how to begin, 
 lest the very first word should alarm her. 
 
 At length, however, Arabella spoke; for she 
 felt that such long silence might seem to have 
 more meaning than any words. 
 
 "It is nearly two years, I think," she said, 
 " since you went to Flanders ?"
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 67 
 
 *' Fully," he replied ; '' and a long, dull time 
 it has been/' 
 
 " Nay," answered the lady, '* I think that, 
 were I a young man, nothing I should like so 
 much as seeing foreign lands and mingling with 
 strange people. There must be a great delight 
 in watching all their habits, and in the adventures 
 one meets with amongst them." 
 
 " When the heart is at ease," replied William 
 Seymour ; '' but mine was not so/' 
 
 " Indeed !" said Arabella, fixing her eyes 
 upon him. " I should have thought no heart 
 more light." 
 
 " Truly, then, you have never seen it," rejoined 
 the young gentleman, "for it is often heavy 
 enough." 
 
 " I grieve to hear it," replied the lady, with a 
 look of interest ; and then in a gayer tone she 
 added, with that attraction towards dangerous 
 subjects which is to woman as the light to the 
 moth, '' Come, what is it weighs it down? 
 Make me your father confessor. Woman's wit 
 will often find a way to attain that which man's 
 wisdom fails to reach."
 
 68 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 «^Well then, I will," said William Sey- 
 mour. " I could not have a fairer confessor, nor 
 one who has more right to assign the penance 
 for my sins. Lady, my heart is heavy, from an 
 hereditary disease, which has caused much mis- 
 chief and much grief amongst my race already. 
 You may probably have heard of it." 
 
 " Nay, never,*' answered Arabella, with real 
 astonishment. " I always thought the very name 
 of Seymour implied health and strength, and long 
 life. — What is this sad malady ?^^ 
 
 " That of loving above our station," replied 
 William Seymour ; and instantly her face became 
 deadly pale, her frame trembled, and her eyes 
 sought the ground. 
 
 He proceeded, however, " This sad ambition," 
 he said, "cost my grandfather nine years'* impri- 
 sonment, and well nigh his head ; but he, as you 
 well know, little cared or sorrowed for what he 
 had suffered, though grieved deeply for the sweet 
 lady on whom their mutual love had brought so 
 severe a punishment." 
 
 " And she," replied Arabella, looking up, with 
 the colour mounting in her cheek, — " and she
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 69 
 
 grieved for him, not for herself. — The Greys were 
 an unfortunate race, however. How strange is 
 the will of God, that of two so beautiful and ex- 
 cellent, Jane should perish on the scaffold, and 
 Catherine waste her best days in prison ! Yet 
 methinhs they must have been both happy even 
 in their misfortunes, both suffering for those they 
 loved." 
 
 '' 'Twas a sad trial, and test of affection,'' said 
 William Seymour. 
 
 " Yet one that any woman would take who 
 truly loves," replied Arabella. 
 
 '' Ay, that is the point," he answered, looking 
 down. " Such love may, to her who feels it, 
 compensate for all suffering, and, to him who 
 possesses it, repay the sacrifice of all, even of life 
 itself. But, what must be the fate, lady, of 
 one who loves as deeply as man can love, yet sees 
 the object far above his reach, without one cheer- 
 ing hope to lead him on, one cause to think the 
 passion in his own heart has awakened any return 
 in the being, for whom he could cast away his life, 
 as a gambler does his coin ?" 
 
 " It must be sad, indeed — " said Arabella in
 
 70 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 a low and hesitating tone, — '' sad, indeed," she 
 repeated. " But yet, perhaps — "" and there she 
 paused, leaving the sentence incomplete, while her 
 colour varied like the morning sky as the sun 
 rises in the east. 
 
 " Yet such is my fate," rejoined her compa- 
 nion ; " such has been the weight upon my 
 heart, which has crushed its energies, quelled its 
 hopes, made the gay scenes of other lands all dull 
 and empty, and even in the field deprived my 
 arm of one-half its vigour. Oh ! had the light 
 of happy love been but before me, what deeds 
 would have I done, what things accomplished — 
 Arabella," he continued, taking her hand, and 
 gazing in her face, — " Arabella ?" 
 
 She did not withdraw it ; but she turned 
 away her head, and, with the fair fingers of the 
 other hand, chased away a bright drop from her 
 dark eyelashes. 
 
 It was enough ; his arm stole round her slight 
 waist. She did not move. His lips pressed her 
 soft cheek. A gasping sob was her only reply. 
 " Arabella, Arabella, speak to me !" he said, 
 " leave me not in doubt and misery !"
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 71 
 
 One moment more she remained still and 
 silent ; then, starting from his arms, she brushed 
 her hair back from her forehead with a sad and 
 bewildered look, exclaiming, *' Oh, Seymour, 
 spare me ! — This takes me by surprise — This is 
 unkind ; — think — think of all the risk, the 
 danger, the sorrow — " 
 
 '* I have thought, beloved," he replied, 
 " through many a long and weary night, through 
 many a heavy and irksome day. I have paused, 
 and pondered, and doubted, and trembled, and 
 accused myself of base selfishness, and asked if I 
 could bring danger, and perhaps unhappiness, on 
 her whom I love far, far before myself. — Arabella, 
 I have sought you not. I would never have 
 sought you ! But we have met ; and in your 
 presence, I am a poor, weak, irresolute creature, 
 powerless against the mastery of the passion in 
 my heart. Rebuke, revile, contemn, tread upon 
 me, if you will, I am at your feet, to do with as 
 it pleases you." 
 
 She shook her head with a sorrowful smile, 
 murmuring, " It is for you I fear !" But, then, 
 suddenly raising her eyes towards heaven, while
 
 72 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 her lips moved for a moment, she added, " No, 
 Seymour, no ; I will not plunge you in misery 
 or danger. Your bright career shall not be cut 
 off or stayed by me. No, no ; it is better not 
 to speak or think of such thing. My life may 
 pass, cold, and cheerless, in the hard bonds of a 
 fate above my wishes ; but you must cast off 
 such feelings. — You must forget me, and in the 
 end—" 
 
 " Forget you, Arabella .^" he interrupted, — 
 " forget you ? You little know the man who 
 loves you Whether 3^ou be mine or another's, 
 I will remember you till life's latest hour," and 
 he kept his word. 
 
 " I will never be another's," replied Arabella. 
 "Fear not that, Seymour. Happily, all the 
 interests, and all the jealousies, of whatever 
 monarch may sit upon the throne of this realm, 
 are certain to combine in withholding my hand 
 from any one. I have no sufficient dower to make 
 me worthy of the suit of princes ; the only attrac- 
 tion in their eyes might be some very distant and 
 unreasonable claim to a crown I covet not ; and I 
 shall find it no difficult task to persuade the King
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 73 
 
 to refuse this poor person to any one to whom 
 it might convey a dangerous, though merely con- 
 tingent right. I will live on,"" she continued, 
 resuming her lighter tone — though there was ever 
 a certain degree of melancholy ran through her 
 gayest moods, — " I will live on in single free- 
 dom, with a heart, perhaps, not unsusceptible 
 of affection, had fate blessed me with a humble 
 station, but one which will never load itself with 
 the guilt of bringing sorrow and destruction 
 upon the head of another. — Nay, Seymour, nay, 
 say no more ! I esteem you highly, regard you 
 much — perhaps, if out of all the world — But let 
 that pass ! Why should I make you share re- 
 grets I myself may feel ? It is in vain, it 
 is impossible ; so you must utter no farther 
 words upon this matter, if you would have my 
 company, for I must hear no more. — Come, let 
 us walk out and talk of other things. We will 
 go watch the rivulet that dances along, like the 
 course of a happy life, sparkling as it goes, to 
 find repose, at length, in the bosom of that" vast, 
 immeasurable ocean, where all streams end. — 
 Nay, not a word more, if you love me !" 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 "I do ! I do !" cried William Seymour, 
 pressing his eager and burning lips upon her 
 hand, — "I do! I do, Arabella! better than 
 anything else on earth.*" 
 
 " Well, then, peace !" she said, " peace ! for 
 your sake and for mine ; for nothing is so hope- 
 less on earth as the love we feel." 
 
 We feel ! The confession was made ; the 
 words were spoken ; and, though Seymour feared 
 to urge her farther then, they sunk into his heart, 
 a sweet solace for the years to come. 
 
 Poor Arabella Stuart ! If she thought, by the 
 walk along that gentle stream, through those soft 
 fields, amidst the old trees waving over head, 
 listening to the voices of the birds, feeling the 
 tender air of spring, talking over a thousand 
 subjects, in which the ever-present impression of 
 their love was only repressed in words to find 
 utterance in vague and fanciful allusions, — if she 
 thought by such means to cure her lover or herself 
 of the disastrous passion which he had so boldly, 
 she so timidly, acknowledged, alas ! she was very, 
 very much mistaken ! Like the spirit of the Univer- 
 sal Deity of the Pagans, their love was all around
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 75 
 
 them in everything they saw, or heard, or felt, in 
 every word they uttered, unseen, but powerful, 
 throughout the whole creation. 
 
 Yet she thought she was seeking safety ; and 
 her spirits rose in the unconsciousness of danger, 
 and the certainty of present happiness. Thus, 
 when, some time after, they were joined by the 
 master of the mansion, there was nothing whatso- 
 ever in her manner to show that she had been 
 agitated or alarmed ; and when they returned to 
 the early dinner of those days, her heart seemed 
 so light that one might have thought not a drop 
 of royal blood was running in her veins. 
 
 " You are very gay," said William Seymour 
 in a tone almost reproachful, as they entered the 
 hall. 
 
 *' So gay," she answered, " that I could sit 
 down and sing ; — but I fancy cold Sir Hany 
 West," she continued, turning playfully to the 
 old knight, " whose heart, no fair lady could ever 
 bring into tune with her own, has not an instru- 
 ment of music in all his house, no virginals, no 
 lute ?" 
 
 "Nay," replied the old knight, '' you do me 
 
 E 2
 
 76 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 great injustice, fairest lady. I have all my life 
 been the devoted servant of bright eyes. 'Tis 
 but that I have loved them all so well, I never 
 could be such a niggard of my heart as to bind 
 myself to one ; and, as to instruments of music — 
 that sweetest of all the many modes of poetry — 
 though virginals, God bless the mark ! with their 
 dull tinkling, I have none, yet I possess a lute 
 in my own chamber such as all the rest of Eng- 
 land cannot boast, framed with great skill in 
 Venice by the famous Mallesini, who taught me 
 how to use it, too, when I was in the city of the 
 sea, and used to serenade all the Venetian 
 dames." 
 
 " All .?■" exclaimed Arabella, shaking her fin- 
 ger at him. " Fie upon such democracy in 
 love ! In that, at least, I would be a monarch, 
 and reign alone, or not at all. But, pray send 
 for this rare instrument. Sir Harry, I would fain 
 try how it will sound under my weak fingers.'' 
 
 " Add but your voice, and the music will be 
 sweet enough," said William Seymour while the 
 old knight went himself to bring the lute. But
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 77 
 
 Arabella replied not ; and a shade of deep sadness 
 passed across her fair face for a moment. - 
 
 "• He is tuning it,*" she said the instant after, 
 bending her ear to listen to some sounds which 
 came from a neighbouring chamber. '' He is a 
 kind and excellent man." When Sir Harry re- 
 entered the room, she took the lute, and after 
 running her hand for a moment over the strings, 
 sang one of those little ballads which perhaps 
 obtained for her a place in Evelyn's list of fair 
 poets. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 " Who is the boy comes steahng here, 
 With looks demure and mild ? 
 Keep off I keep off ! Let him not near ! 
 There 's malice in that child, 
 
 '' Yet, see, he plays amidst the flowers. 
 As innocent as they ; 
 His smile as bright as summer hours, 
 His eyes as soft as May. 
 
 " Beauty and Grace his vestments are ; 
 To sport seems all his joy. 
 Gaze if thou wilt, but keep him far. 
 There 's danger in the boy.
 
 78 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " How various are his gladsome smiles, 
 His every look is bright ; 
 Sure there can be no vi^icked wiles 
 Within that thing of light ! 
 
 " Lo, he holds out a flower to me, 
 A rosebud like a gem ! 
 Keep him afar ! Dost thou not see 
 The thorns upon the stem ? 
 
 'I Vain was the warning given ; the maid 
 Clasped to her heart the boy ; 
 But could not pluck him thence. He stayed, 
 And stayed but to destroy. 
 
 " Sweet Love, let others be beguiled, 
 Thy treacherous arts I fear, 
 Keep afar off, thou dangerous child ! 
 Thou shalt not come too near !" 
 
 She ended, and turned a gay look upon Sir 
 Harry West, saying, " That is your history, 
 noble friend, is it not .^" and then, ere he could 
 answer, fell into a deep fit of thought, which gave 
 to William Seymour the assurance, and it was a 
 sweet one, that her heart was not so free as she 
 would fain have made it appear. The rest of 
 the day went by in varied and pleasant conversa- 
 tion, though over the mind of William Seymour 
 and the Lady Arabella deep fits of thought, not
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 79 
 
 unmingled with anxiety, came shadowy from time 
 to time, like the clouds of an autumnal sky. Sir 
 Harry West quitted them no more that day ; and 
 Seymour began to imagine that he had some sus- 
 picion of all that was passing in their hearts. 
 But on the following day, again, they were once 
 more left alone together for some hours ; another 
 and another day succeeded ; and words were 
 spoken that nothing could recall.
 
 80 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Neither good soldier nor good man was ever 
 ■without love for his horse, if he had one ; and 
 the reader may have already divined, from certain 
 words let fall by good Sir Harry West, that he was 
 peculiarly careful and attentive to the four-hoofed 
 creatures under his care. Every man on earth, 
 probably, has his particular point of coxcombry, 
 and Sir Harry West was not without his. It 
 showed itself in his garden and his bowling- 
 green, in his old hall and in his old wine. In a 
 slight degree it was apparent in the studious sim- 
 plicity of his dress ; but it was more evident 
 than in anywhere else in his stable, where six as 
 fine horses as England could produce, two of 
 them being old chargers who had borne him in 
 battle, had as much care bestowed on their toilet 
 and their meals as ever court-lady and reverend 
 alderman.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 81 
 
 Mounted on one of the stoutest of these well- 
 fed animals, Matthew Lakyn, an old soldier, and 
 an old servant, sped on towards the fair town of 
 Newark-upon-Trent, intrusted by the knight, as 
 his most confidential attendant, to carry the letter 
 of the Lady Arabella to the Court of King James, 
 which was then on its progress from the land 
 of the monarch's birth towards the capital of his 
 new kingdom. As usual in those days, the good 
 old man bore upon his arm a badge to distin- 
 guish the family to which he belonged, repre- 
 senting, to use heraldic terms, on a field argent a 
 fesse dancettee sable. A buckler was on his 
 shoulder, a stout sword by his side ; and al- 
 though, as we have said, he was not young, yet 
 he was hale and hearty, and looked well capable 
 of dealing a blow or biding a bufi'et. 
 
 His first day's journey went by quietly 
 enough. For ten miles of his road he only saw 
 one person whom he did not know, and that was 
 a stout, dark-browed horseman, who passed him 
 within five minutes after he had left his master's 
 gate. They exchanged a word of salutation on 
 the road, a courteous custom of those days, 
 
 £ 5
 
 89 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 which, with many another, has gone by in our 
 more civilized times ; and then the stranger rode 
 on, while old Lakyn pursued his course more 
 slowly. 
 
 Towards three o'clock on the evening of the 
 second day the good knight's messenger turned 
 into a small village-house of entertainment, in 
 order to give his horse some food, and apply 
 some of the good things of this life to his 
 own support. The room which Lakyn entered, 
 after seeing to his beast's accommodation, was not 
 exactly like that in which we first introduced the 
 reader to the Lady Arabella Stuart ; but it was a 
 small parlour, approached by two descending 
 steps from the road side ; and this he found 
 tenanted by two men, sitting on either side of a 
 small table, with a stoup of wine between them, 
 and their heads close together, in earnest conver- 
 sation. 
 
 One of these men we shall not describe, 
 having done so on a former occasion, when he 
 gave himself the name of Baron de Mardyke. 
 The other was one of the personages who were
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 83 
 
 with him at that time, whom he had then called 
 his servants, and whom we did not honour with 
 any particular remark. We must now, however, 
 be more particular, and state that he was a tall, 
 thin, black-bearded man, close-shaved, except a 
 small mustachio, and a tuft of hair upon the chin, 
 neither of which seemed to be the growth of 
 many months. His dress, which was plain, con- 
 sisted entirely of black and grey ; but he wore 
 sword and dagger, though there was a slouch in 
 the shoulders, and an awkward disjointedness 
 about the limbs, which spoke of no long military 
 training. Both he and his companion were 
 booted and spurred as if for a journey ; and the 
 moment that Lakyn entered the room they 
 ceased their conversation abruptly, and looked 
 round, as if not well pleased with his presence. 
 The old man, however, was in no way disturbed 
 by theirs ; but, seating himself at another table, 
 he stretched out his limbs, to rest them more 
 conveniently, and waited patiently till the flagon 
 was brought him. The strangers, in the mean 
 time, sipped their wine together, and talked of
 
 84 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 the weather, of the appearance of the crops, and 
 various other things, which were somewhat too 
 evidently distant from their thoughts. 
 
 This had gone on some quarter of an hour, 
 when suddenly the door of the room was again 
 thrown open, and in strode the dark-browed 
 horseman who had passed the old servant on the 
 road. He cast a glance round the chamber as 
 he entered, and his eye rested upon Lakyn for 
 an instant ; after which he passed on to the table 
 where the other two were seated, and, bending 
 over it, spoke with them for a few minutes in a 
 low tone. 
 
 Sir Harry West's good servant was an old sol- 
 dier, as we have said, and had many of the qua- 
 lities of his class. He recognised his fellow-tra- 
 veller immediately ; but, seeing either that the 
 other did not remember him, or affected not to 
 do so, he gave not the slightest indication of 
 having himself a better memory. He applied 
 himself, on the contrary, diligently to his ale ; 
 and, though it must be confessed that he listened 
 with all his ears, from a curious sort of mistrust 
 or dislike which he felt towards the whole party,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 85 
 
 yet he heard nothing but the last words of their 
 conversation, wliich were " Find out !" 
 
 The moment these two monosyllables were 
 pronounced by the Baron de Mardyke the last- 
 comer quitted the room. After being absent for 
 about five minutes, he returned, and again spoke 
 to the other two in as low a voice as before. 
 Matthew Lakyn, however, thought that he 
 caught the words " Going on immediately;" and 
 he said to himself, " If they are talking of me, 
 they speak the truth. Neither shall I lose any 
 time upon the road," 
 
 Thus thinking, he rose, quitted the room, 
 paid his score, and, having tightened his horse's 
 girths, and replaced the bit in his mouth, he 
 rode on upon his way, at a more rapid pace than 
 he had heretofore employed during his journey. 
 He was now just entering Rutlandshire ; and, in 
 those days a great quantity of common land, 
 waste and dreary enough, lay between Stamford 
 and Grantham, especially about Witham, where 
 a large extent of dreary ground, some four miles 
 across, according to the course of the high road, 
 and spreading to five or six miles on either
 
 86 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 liand, presented not a single house, cottage, or 
 hut, as far as the eye could reach. After riding 
 on for about an hour and a half, Lakyn saw this 
 wide heath extending before him, with nothing 
 to relieve its bare monotony but a clump of tall 
 trees, about two miles in advance. 
 
 Now, he was anything but a man of a faint 
 heart ; but still so many charges had been 
 given him regarding the letter which he bore, 
 that he had conceived that document to be of 
 much greater importance than it really was ; 
 and, as the bearer thereof, he had risen to 
 considerable importance in his own eyes. Those 
 were somewhat lawless times, it must be re- 
 membered, when, notwithstanding the wisdom 
 with which Elizabeth had ruled, the comparative 
 thinness of the population, and the general state 
 of society, left many opportunities for violent 
 acts, of which there were not wanting persons to 
 take advantage. Why or wherefore good Mat- 
 thew Lakyn had taken a strong dislike to the 
 party he had just left, we shall not attempt to 
 explain to the reader, as in truth, the good man 
 could not explain it to himself; but certainly he
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 87 
 
 had thought of them more than once as lie rode 
 along the highway ; and, when he reached the 
 edge of the common which we have mentioned, 
 he turned in the saddle and gave a look behind 
 him. 
 
 As he had been slightly ascending for some 
 time, his view comprised nearly a mile of the 
 road, and at about half that distance he perceived 
 two horsemen following him at a very rapid rate. 
 Recollecting a warning of his master, in times of 
 old, to be always prepared for whatever might 
 happen, the old man assured himself that his 
 sword played easily in the sheath, and then 
 spurred on, disdaining to quicken his pace to 
 any great degree, but still keeping his horse at 
 his very quickest trot, in the hopes of coming 
 near some house before he was overtaken. Those 
 who followed, however, whether out of sport or 
 any more serious intention, did not spare the 
 speed or wind of their beasts ; and the moment 
 they came upon the common ground they quitted 
 the sandy road for the turf at the side, and put 
 their horses into a gallop. This pace soon 
 brought them to the side of Sir Harry West's
 
 88 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 good servant, where they seemed inclined to pull 
 up, giving him time to recognise the dark-browed 
 gentleman whom he had twice before met with, 
 and the tall, thin, ungainly man whom he had 
 seen in the inn. The former now thought fit to 
 give him a nod of recognition ; and Lakyn, whose 
 wit was upon the stretch, exclaimed, with a laugh, 
 " Ah ! good evening, sir. If you are riding 
 races, my masters, I '11 beat you across the com- 
 mon for a stoup of wine ;" and, without waiting 
 for a reply, he struck his spurs into his good 
 horse''s sides, and was soon several lengths ahead. 
 The others spurred after for some way, but did not 
 succeed in catching him ; and he was still going 
 at the same rapid rate, when he approached the 
 clump of oaks which we have already mentioned. 
 There, however, he drew in his rein suddenly on 
 the little knoll from which trees sprang, and which 
 was covered with dry green turf. To his very 
 great comfort and satisfaction he had perceived 
 as he approached a large party of men and 
 women, in gay attire, seated with baskets and 
 panniers in the shade, apparently resting their 
 horses and asses — for several of both were there,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. ' 89 
 
 — and at the same time indulging their own 
 appetites, at the expense of sundry pasties and 
 cold joints of meat. 
 
 " Hallo !'' cried one of the travellers, as the 
 old servant approached, " are you riding for your 
 life, or has your horse run away with you ?"" 
 
 *' Neither, neither," cried Lakyn ; " 'tis but 
 a race for a stoup of wine Avith those two gentle- 
 men behind ;" and with some difficulty he kept 
 his horse from dashing forward, determined, now 
 that he had met with company, not to lose sight 
 of it again if he could help it. 
 
 " Why, you seem mighty happy, ladies and 
 gentlemen," he continued. " May I ask which 
 way your steps are bent ?" 
 
 " We are going to meet the King as he comes 
 from Newark," said a jolly-looking man. '' We 
 have got an address and petition from the town 
 of Oakham, drawn up by our good clerk." 
 
 " Then, by your leave," cried Lakyn, spring- 
 ing to the ground, '* I will go on with you. 
 'Tis not good riding alone in such days as 
 these." 
 
 " Alone ?" exclaimed the other. ^' Why, you
 
 90 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 have a queer notion of solitude, having two com- 
 panions with you/' 
 
 " One may have companions that are not com- 
 rades," answered Lakyn ; " and, to say sooth, 
 these are no friends of mine." 
 
 " Why, how now," cried the black-browed 
 man, riding up at this moment, about fifty yards 
 in advance of his fellow-traveller, " why, how 
 now, master serving-man, you have soon come to 
 an end of your race. We shall be at the other 
 side of the common first, and make you pay 
 your losings." 
 
 '« Ride on, then," said Lakyn, in a jeering 
 tone. " With two such jades as yours I don't 
 fear you. I '11 give you a start half-way to the 
 other side, and beat you notwithstanding." 
 
 The man turned a grim look of a somewhat 
 menacing character upon him, and replied, " We 
 will make you pay if you lose, depend upon it." 
 
 " No fear, no fear," answered Lakyn, " ride 
 on, and spare your horses' wind till I come up 
 with you. I '11 make you use whip and spur be- 
 fore I have done with you." 
 
 As he spoke, the other stranger joined them;
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 91 
 
 but lie took no part in the conversation, only 
 saying to his companion, " Come on, Slingsby, 
 come on !" and forward they rode together. 
 
 " Why, you will lose your stoup of wine," said 
 the jolly traveller under the trees, addressing 
 Lakyn, while the others proceeded on their way. 
 
 " Small payment for good deliverance," re- 
 joined the serving-man. " I love not the looks 
 of those two gentlemen ; and, as I am going on 
 an errand from good Sir Harry West, my master, 
 to his Highness the King, I must risk nothing till 
 it is accomplished." 
 
 " What, Sir Harry West of Bourne .?" cried 
 a grave-looking gentleman in ruff, '' if you be 
 one of his people, right gladly will we have you 
 in our company ; for, in the question of the 
 meadow at Merton, he decided in favour of 
 Oakham, like a worthy good gentleman, as 
 he is." 
 
 " Those are his arms, I think," said Matthew 
 Lakyn, pointing with pride to the badge upon his 
 sleeve. 
 
 " To be sure ! to be sure !" replied the grave 
 personage, putting a pair of large horn spectacles
 
 92 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 upon the bridge of his nose. " Polly, my dear, 
 look, those are Sir Harry West's arms. Don't 
 you remember how he said to me, ' Thou art a 
 very sedate and reverend person, Master Smallit, 
 and have given your evidence in a devout and 
 proper manner ?" 
 
 The girl confirmed her father's recollection ; 
 and the good townspeople of Oakham seemed to 
 think that they could not show too much civility 
 and attention to the servant of Sir Harry West. 
 They were rather slow, it is true, in their mo- 
 tions ; but, nevertheless, Matthew Lakyn was 
 willing to put up with a little tardiness, for the 
 sake of the security their company afforded, and, 
 accordingly, he not only proceeded in their com- 
 pany to Grantham that night, but begged leave 
 to make one of the party to Newark the next day. 
 His patience was somewhat tried, it is true, in the 
 morning, by the very different proceedings of the 
 good people of Oakham, from the military ra- 
 pidity and precision which usually attended, his 
 master's journeys when they took place. The 
 hour appointed for setting out was in itself some- 
 what late, being no earlier than nine, but Mrs.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 93 
 
 Polty, the wife of one of the principal personages 
 in the company, had a queasy stomach, and could 
 not travel till she had broken her fast. The 
 morning-meal took more time than had been ex- 
 pected, and half an hour was spent in settling the 
 landlord's score ; then it was discovered that one 
 of the horses had a shoe loose ; and then half the 
 baskets and panniers were still unpacked. Thus, 
 what between eating, and drinking, and scolding, 
 and grumbling, and shoeing the horse, and pack- 
 ing the panniers, and loading the asses, and 
 mounting the steeds, the hand of Grantham dial 
 pointed to twenty minutes past eleven ; and then 
 ten minutes more were spent in bidding good-b'ye 
 to the host and hostess of the inn, and laughing 
 and tittering at the parting jests. 
 
 The fourteen or fifteen miles which lay between 
 Grantham and Newark occupied much more time 
 than was required even by the slow pace at which 
 they marched ; for numerous parties were on the 
 road, either coming or going to the good town 
 upon Trent, where the King had arrived during 
 the preceding morning, and with each person 
 who would stop to indulge them, the good towns-
 
 94 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 folk of Oakham paused to gossip, making mani- 
 fold inquiries as to the court, and the King's 
 appearance and demeanour ; on all of which 
 points they received the same sort of satisfactory 
 information which is usually afforded by common 
 rumour. By some persons they were informed 
 that the King was tall, and thin, and fair ; by 
 another, that he was a fat, swarthy man, with 
 trunk-hose of prodigious dimensions, and a large 
 Spanish hat upon his head. Again they were 
 assured that the court displayed great pomp, and 
 was very unapproachable ; and again, that all was 
 freedom, and gaiety, and rejoicing. 
 
 Thus proceeding, it w^as near four o'clock be- 
 fore the little party entered Newark ; and then 
 it was wdth the greatest difficulty that they found 
 accommodation in a fourth-rate inn, at the ex- 
 treme verge of the town, on the side of Notting- 
 ham. All was bustle and confusion iii the 
 place, notwithstanding the proclamation, the 
 court- yard was crowded with horses; and eating 
 and drinking, which had begun at five in the 
 morning, was still going on with undiminished 
 voracity. A buzz of manifold voices came from
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 95 
 
 every room in the house, above which arose, from 
 time to time, various loud and angry calls for 
 tapsters, hostlers, and the landlord. Margery, 
 the host''s pretty daughter, had had more kisses 
 ravished from her in one day than ever she be- 
 stowed willingly in her life ; and the landlord, 
 bustling about, and vowing that he should be ruin- 
 ed and undone by the confusion that reigned in his 
 establishment, took ample care that if any one 
 did, indeed, escape his vigilant eyes without 
 paying their scores, the more honest, or less 
 fortunate, should abundantly make up for the 
 deficiency. 
 
 For some time it seemed, though the citizens 
 of Oakham had acquired a somewhat importunate 
 appetite on the road, that no provisions were to 
 be had for love or money ; and, leaving Masters 
 Smallit and Polty to settle that affair as they 
 might, and get all ready against his return, Mat- 
 thew Lakyn, with due reverence for the business 
 with which he was intrusted, went out at once on 
 foot, to deliver the letter to Sir Robert Cecil. 
 
 Well aware of the difficulty of getting to a 
 great man's presence in the midst of a Court,
 
 96 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Lakyn determined, in the first place, to inquire 
 for one of the servants of tlie fannous minister, 
 with several of whom he had been acquainted 
 when his master had frequented the gay scenes 
 of the capital. On this errand he was bustling 
 along through the crowds which nearly blocked 
 up the principal street of the town, when, in a 
 group of persons at one of the doors, he caught 
 si^ht of the well-known colours of the Cecil 
 family and the badge, with its barry and escut- 
 cheoned field ; and making his way through, he 
 was soon shaking hands with an old compotator, 
 whom he had not seen for several years. His 
 business was easily explained; but, on hearing 
 of the letter, the serving-man put on a wise and 
 diplomatic look, such as official personages as- 
 sume to nip a request in the bud before being 
 driven actually to refuse it. 
 
 '' Is it a petition ?" he asked ; " for *tis not 
 easy to bring petitions to my good master. He 
 abhors them as a love-sick maiden hates cheese/' 
 
 " Oh dear, no,*" replied Lakyn, with a proud 
 toss of the head. " My master is much too great 
 a man, as you well know, to make petitions. If
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 97 
 
 any one wants his services they must petition 
 hira, and are very likely to get refused even then. 
 I do not know, for I have not seen, what the 
 letter contains ; but I rather think it is a civil 
 excuse for not coming to wait upon the King. 
 But, you know, he is tired of Courts, and wishes 
 to spend the rest of his life in peace, doing good 
 to all around him by his wonderful wisdom.*" 
 
 "Oh, if that be all," cried the servant, "it 
 will soon be done. It is of those who come to 
 Court great men are afraid, not those who stay 
 away from it. Come away up with me to the 
 house yonder ; and, as Sir Robert gets off his 
 horse after the hunting, you may deliver him the 
 letter yourself." 
 
 Lakyn was in the midst of his reply, telling 
 the servant that there was a party waiting for 
 him at the inn, and that he would but give 
 them notice, and return in a minute, when there 
 was a sudden cry of " The King ! the King !"" 
 
 All was in a moment bustle and confusion. 
 Some men on horseback, riding forward, drove 
 back the crowd on either side of the road, making 
 a lane for the royal cavalcade to pass ; and, 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 in the change of movements which took place, — 
 as these harbingers were careful to treat more 
 roughly those they did not know than those 
 they did, it naturally happened that the servant 
 of Sir Robert Cecil and his friend obtained a 
 position in front of the rest. 
 
 "Now," said the man, "now! My master 
 is coming just behind the King, on this side. 
 Step forward with me as he passes, and give him 
 the letter. I will tell him who you are." 
 
 Lakyn looked down the street, and, at the 
 distance of about thirty yards beheld a somewhat 
 corpulent and heavy-looking man, on horseback, 
 riding with a slouching and uneasy air, coarse in 
 feature, clumsy in person, with his broad lips 
 partly open, and the tip of his tongue visible 
 between his teeth. He had a small cap or bonnet 
 on his head, and a long feather, clasped by a large 
 jewel. His dress was of a bright, and somewhat 
 glaring green ; a hunting-horn hung at his side, 
 and a long knife, but no sword ; and ever and 
 anon, as the people shouted, " God save the 
 King ! God save King James !" he bowed his
 
 ARABELLA STUART- 99 
 
 head with a sidelong inclination, which was any- 
 thing but graceful, though he seemed by his self- 
 satisfied look to fancy it very gracious. Behind 
 him came a crowd of gentlemen, amongst the first 
 of whom, appeared a personage, who, though 
 slightly deformed, displayed the dignified carriage 
 of an English gentleman, and sat his fiery horse 
 with ease and grace. Lakyn immediately recog- 
 nized Cecil, and was in the act of stepping for- 
 ward to speak to him, when, putting his hand 
 to the black velvet pouch, which, suspended by 
 a belt over his shoulder, contained the important 
 letter, he found the fingers of a stranger, armed 
 with a knife, busily employed in cutting it away 
 from his side. 
 
 Turning suddenly round, the old man caught 
 the cut-purse by the throat, instantly recognizing 
 the black-browed Master Slingsby. Sir Robert 
 Cecil's serv^t threw himself upon him also, hav- 
 ing been watching quietly for the last half minute 
 the man's proceedings in regard to his companion, 
 Lakyn. Slingsby endeavoured to cast off his 
 opponents and make his escape, while the people 
 
 F 2
 
 100 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 gathered round, exclaiming, " A cut-purse ! a 
 cut-purse ! — Away with him to prison, away with 
 him !'' 
 
 The tumult thus occasioned right in the King's 
 path could not fail to attract his attention as he 
 rode on ; and, though several of the officers of 
 the court hurried up to see what was the matter, 
 and to remove the obstruction by driving back 
 the crowd, in not the most ceremonious or tem- 
 perate manner, the King himself rode forward, 
 exclaiming, " What is it they cry, what is it ? — 
 A cut-purse ? — Let the man be brought before 
 us : we are the best judge of such matters." 
 
 These words were pronounced with a strong 
 Scottish accent, and many an interjection peculiar 
 to the Monarch himself ; but, albeit we are not 
 ourselves without drops of Scottish blood in our 
 veins, we do not possess the tongue in sufficient 
 purity to venture upon giving the Monarch's ex- 
 pressions in their original dialect. 
 
 " Hold him fast," continued the King, " hold 
 him fast ; and let him be brought before us, with 
 the witnesses against him. We will inquire into 
 the case ourselves at nine o'clock this night, after
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 101 
 
 we have had time to repose ourselves, and take 
 some necessary sustenance/"* 
 
 Plenty of hands were ready to secure the un- 
 fortunate blaster Slingsby, who, seeing that he 
 was detected in the fact, affected to treat the 
 matter as a jest, acknowledging that he cut the 
 strap of the man's pouch, but only for the pur- 
 pose of seeing what it contained. He was hur- 
 ried away to prison, notwithstanding; and Sir 
 Robert Cecil's servant remained in the midst of 
 the crowd with Lakyn, answering the innumera- 
 ble inquiries of the multitude, which were as 
 vague and wide of the point as usual. 
 
 One man demanded, in a serious tone, if the 
 culprit did not wear a brown beaver; and, on 
 receiving a reply in the affirmative, shook his 
 head ruefully, exclaiming, " Ah, the villain !*' 
 
 Another made particular inquiries as to his 
 beard ; and a third was sure he had seen him 
 somewhere, but could not tell where. A fourth 
 wished to know whether he had cut the strap 
 with a knife or a pair of shears, and opined that 
 it would make a great difference in the judgment 
 of the King.
 
 102 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Drawing his friend away from the mob as soon 
 as he could, Sir Harry West's messenger asked 
 in a doubtful tone, '' Do you think the King 
 will really examine him himself?" 
 
 '' Ay, that he will, Matthew," answered the 
 servant, "and perhaps judge him too. Nay, 
 shake not your head : we have seen strange 
 things done since the Court crossed the border. 
 So, at all events, you be ready to give your 
 evidence ; and I will call in for you at half-past 
 eight, so that we be not late if His Majesty in- 
 quires for us." 
 
 Lakyn promised to be ready, and, with this 
 appointment, they parted.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The recital of the adventure which had just 
 taken place in the streets of Newark, and the 
 apprehension of Slingsby, may well be supposed 
 to have produced considerable excitement amongst 
 the party from Oakham, who had seen that 
 worthy gentleman pursuing their good friend 
 Matthew Lakyn over the heath near Witham ; 
 and Messieurs Smallit and Polty were extremely 
 anxious to accompany Sir Harry West's servant 
 to the presence of the King as witnesses. To 
 this suggestion, however, Matthew Lakyn gave 
 no encouragement, and Sir Robert Cecil's man, 
 who made his appearance exactly at the hour ap- 
 pointed, put a decided negative upon it, saying 
 that the court was already more crowded than 
 it would bear. 
 
 Hurrying through the dark streets of Newark,
 
 104 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Lakyn and his companion were soon in the King's 
 ante-chamber, where they found good Master 
 Slingsby guarded by some of the constables of the 
 place. The few hours of imprisonment which he 
 had undergone, and perhaps the conversation of 
 those who held him in custody, had worked a great 
 change in the demeanour of that personage ; and 
 he was now evidently inclined to treat the charge 
 as a more serious afFair than he had thought it at 
 first. He would fain have spoken to Lakyn, and 
 beckoned him to come across the room ; but the 
 constables rebuked him sharply, and one of the 
 attendants of the King exclaimed, *' No, no ; no 
 cogging here !" 
 
 A minute or two after, the door of the King's 
 chamber, against which was stationed a halber- 
 dier, was thrown open by some one within, and a 
 voice called, " Bring in the prisoner and the wit- 
 nesses ;" and entering the adjoining room, after 
 Slingsby had been led forward by the officers, 
 Lakyn found himself in the presence of the King. 
 James was seated in a large arm-chair, dressed in 
 the same garments which he had worn in the 
 morning, with hands and face not particularly
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 105 
 
 well washed, and an air of slovenly untidiness 
 about his whole person. In fact, he was distin- 
 guished from the rest of the Court principally by 
 being more unlike a gentleman than any one 
 present. On his right hand stood Sir Robert 
 Cecil, on his left some other officers of the 
 crown. A bishop, and two or three clergymen, 
 were also in the room ; and the circle on the 
 King's right was extended by the mayor and 
 corporation of Newark, who had that night been 
 graciously admitted to his presence. Before him, 
 at the moment Lakyn entered, stood the tall 
 dark man whom we have seen as Slingsby's com- 
 panion on the road ; and with him the Monarch 
 seemed conversing in a familiar tone, though his 
 eye wandered constantly from the person whom 
 he was addressing to those who came in at the 
 door, following them round the room, till they had 
 taken their stations at the opposite side. 
 
 " Your petition, man," he said, speaking to 
 the man who stood before him, " shall have 
 all due consideration, and, depend upon it, right- 
 ful and even justice shall be done ; but I would 
 fain ask you a question or two thereanent. You
 
 106 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 call yourself an English gentleman, and your pe- 
 tition smacks of the humanities. I dare to say, 
 now, you have had a good education ?" 
 
 " Much pains has been bestowed upon it, sire,^' 
 replied the stranger. 
 
 " And, if a king may be so bold as to ask," 
 said James, with the same broad Scottish accent 
 of which he found it difficult to divest himself, 
 '' where was it carried on, Master Winter, if 
 such be your name ?" 
 
 The man hesitated for a moment or two, and 
 then replied, " At Oxford, sire." 
 
 " And at what college, man ?" demanded the 
 King, turning a shrewd look towards Cecil. 
 
 "At Corpus Christi College, your Majesty," 
 answered the personage to whom the question 
 was addressed. 
 
 " A very learned place," replied James, 
 " though somewhat given, we have heard, to the 
 doctrines of Popery. But our memory, man, is 
 very long and troublesome ; and, as we take great 
 delight in the progress of our subjects, especially 
 in those studies which are vulgarly called the hu- 
 manities, we have diligently perused the names of
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 107 
 
 all the scholars at our two Universities in the 
 kingdom of England, and we cannot just readily 
 recollect the name of Winter amongst those who 
 matriculated at Oxford within the last five-and- 
 twenty years. It is true that the memory of a 
 King ought, by God's grace, to be better than 
 that of a subject. However, we may fail as all 
 men ; so just recollect yourself, and see if you 
 have not studied also in Rome, France, or Bra- 
 bant. It is not so easy to deceive us, man, as 
 some folks think ; and you have so much the 
 look of what is profanely termed a seminary priest, 
 that we would fain take further informations con- 
 cerning you." 
 
 Master Winter, as he called himself, turned as 
 pale as ashes, and began in a hesitating manner 
 to acknowledge that he had studied some time on 
 the Continent. 
 
 " Doubtless, doubtless," cried the King, " and 
 have taken all the degrees and orders. Are you 
 ready, sir, to receive the oath of supremacy, ac- 
 knowledging that in this realm of England the 
 supreme rule and governance of affairs ecclesias- 
 tical is in the King alone ? — What ! you make no
 
 108 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 answer ! Well, then, you see you are found out. 
 My Lord Bishop, — having now opened the exa- 
 mination of this man, so that your lordship may 
 clearly see and learn the course in which we 
 would have it conducted, we give the case over 
 to you for farther investigation ; and should it 
 turn out, as we believe, that a papistical priest 
 has dared to intrude himself into our sacred pre- 
 sence, we will have him committed to be dealt 
 with according to law. Let him be put in charge 
 of a pursuivant, and perhaps to morrow we may 
 hold farther discourse with him, in the hope of 
 opening his blinded eyes, and reclaiming him 
 from his errors. Stand down, sir. Let the other 
 fellow be brought forward — not so near, not so 
 near. He is as ill-looking a body as ever I set 
 eyes on. Where are the witnesses ?" 
 
 While the man Winter was removed to the 
 other side of the room, Lakyn, Sir Robert Cecil's 
 servant, and two other persons, who had been 
 standing near in the crowd when the attempt to 
 cut off the pouch was made, advanced, and 
 were examined by the King touching the whole 
 transaction. The facts were clearly proved be-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 109 
 
 yond a doubt ; and it was also shown that the 
 man had not denied the attempt. 
 
 " Well, sir, and what have you to say for 
 yourself now ?''^ demanded James. " Have you 
 any evidence to rebut this charge .?" 
 
 " May it please your Majesty,"" replied Slings- 
 by, *' I do not deny that I attempted to cut off 
 the pouch ; but — " 
 
 '* What ! then you make confession, man ?" 
 said the King. " This is the eighth or ninth 
 time since we left Berwick that robbery has 
 been committed upon persons attending our 
 Court, and, now we have got you, we will make 
 an example, depend upon it." 
 
 " I wished but to see what the pouch contain- 
 ed, your Majesty," exclaimed Slingsby, in a do- 
 lorous tone. 
 
 " Just like all other robbers and plunderers," 
 answered James ; " they all want to see what the 
 purses they take contain, and the more the bet- 
 ter." 
 
 " But, but," cried the man, " it was only 
 curiosity." 
 
 " Hout tout !" exclaimed James, ^' such curi-
 
 110 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 osity as that must be stopped with a rope," (or, 
 as the King expressed it, with a " wuddie,") — 
 ''and being the sovereign judge, to whom all 
 other judges in this realm are merely subservient 
 or assistant, having tried the case ourselves, and 
 finding this man taken in the act, and not making 
 denial of his guilt, we shall proceed to pass sen- 
 tence upon him according to law, ordering him 
 to be taken back to prison, and thence, to-mor- 
 row morning, at six of the clock, to the place of 
 public execution, there to be hanged by the neck 
 until he be dead. Let a warrant be prepared, 
 directed to our Recorder of the town of Newark, 
 for due execution of our sentence." 
 
 Every person in the room looked almost as 
 much aghast as the unhappy prisoner ; for such a 
 gross and unheard-of violation of the laws of Eng- 
 land seemed to every one more dangerous than if 
 a thousand cut-purses had escaped. 
 
 " But, sire,"" exclaimed Cecil stepping for- 
 ward. 
 
 " Not a word. Sir Robert, not a word," cried 
 the King, " we will have no pleading for him. 
 He is taken in the fact, confesses his crime.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. Ill 
 
 and it is but right and befitting to make our 
 English subjects Icnow that we hold the sword 
 of Justice with a firm hand, and will not fail 
 to strike at all oflfenders against the law. — Take 
 the man away, let the warrant be made out and 
 executed without fail. As we are a crowned 
 King, we will not bate a tittle of our sentence." 
 
 The courtiers looked in each other's faces, 
 and the unhappy Slingsby was dragged away, 
 endeavouring to stammer forth some appeal to 
 the King's mercy and to the laws of the land. 
 But no one attended to him, and so great was the 
 popular excitement in favour of a new monarch, 
 that, although such an act had not been com- 
 mitted since the darkest period of British his- 
 tory, no one ventured to oppose it, and the 
 warrant was made out according to the King's 
 command. 
 
 James himself seemed not to entertain the 
 slightest doubt or hesitation in regard to his 
 own proceedings, nor indeed any sorrow or com- 
 punction for the fate of the unhappy man whom 
 he had just doomed to death. 
 
 " Well now," he cried, addressing Lakyn,
 
 112 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " the cutpurse being disposed of, let us see the 
 pouch, man." 
 
 Lakyn, who held it in his hand, for the strap 
 by which it was suspended had been quite cut 
 through, immediately presented it to the King 
 upon his knee ; and James, taking it from him, 
 without farther ceremony, undid the loop and 
 button, and put his hand into the inside. Feel- 
 ing, however, that some degree of ridicule might 
 attach to him for displaying the same curiosity 
 which he had condemned so severely the minute 
 before, he began a discourse in justification of 
 his own proceeding, full of all those quaint 
 niceties and hairs-breadth distinctions on which 
 he prided himself. He explained, in the first 
 place, in broad general terms, that conduct which 
 might be criminal in a subject was perfectly 
 justifiable in a King. He then went on to 
 show more at large that the impropriety or pro- 
 priety of a man's actions depended entirely upon 
 the circumstances and the position of the man 
 himself, exemplifying his truisms with various 
 homely and strangely contrasted instances, from 
 the rights of a schoolmaster in birch and cane
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 113 
 
 to the rights of a monarch on the throne ; and 
 certainly in both cases he was inclined to stretch 
 prerogative sometimes beyond its just limits. 
 He ended, however, after a discourse of a quarter 
 of an hour, during which time his fingers still 
 remained in the bag, by declaring that, evidently, 
 the man's pretext of curiosity was false and 
 absurd. " For why," asked the King, " should 
 he have a greater desire to see what was in one 
 bag than in another ? " 
 
 " Why, may it please your majesty," replied 
 Lakyn, " I do think the man said true in that, 
 for knowing that I was bearing a letter to your 
 Majesty's Court from the Lady Arabella Stuart, 
 — that is, not to say that he did know it, but he 
 might for all I can say to the contrary. — How- 
 ever, he followed me all the way down from 
 Cambridgeshire, and as there were more people 
 with him, I can't help thinking it was a plot to 
 get the letter and see the contents."" 
 
 " Ha ! " cried the King, turning pale, '* a 
 plot already ? Did we not tell you. Sir Robert, 
 did we not tell you, Taylor, that it would not 
 be lonfif first. — Why, what's the matter there ?
 
 T14 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 The man seems to have tumbled down," and 
 he pointed with his hand to the other side of 
 the room, where there was a good deal of bustle 
 about the spot where the personage who called 
 himself Winter had been standing in custody 
 of a pursuivant. 
 
 '' What 's the matter there I say ? " cried the 
 King, '' Will nobody answer their Sovereign 
 Lord and Master ? " 
 
 " It is the priest, your majesty," said the 
 pursuivant ; "he has fallen down in a swoon, 
 after complaining much of the heat." 
 
 " Let him take care that he get not to a 
 hotter place,'' answered James ; "but take him 
 out man, take him out, and keep him in the ante- 
 room till further orders. Now, man, what is 
 this you tell me," he continued, turning to 
 Lakyn ; " a plot did you say ? " 
 
 Lakyn, according to the King's command, 
 and in answer to his manifold questions, detailed 
 all that had occurred since he had left Sir 
 Harry West's house, and the reasons which 
 made him suspect that he had been watched and 
 pursued. On one point, however, it must be
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 115 
 
 acknowledged, he was not quite sincere with the 
 King, never hinting the slightest suspicion that 
 the man whom he had seen in the King's pre- 
 sence under the name of Winter, was one of 
 those by whom he had been dogged. 
 
 The truth is, however, that good Matthew 
 Lakyn had, in common with other Englishmen, a 
 great respect for the laws of the land, and loved 
 not to see them violated whether by King or com- 
 moner. James''s dealing with the man Slingsby 
 had shocked all his notions of an Englishman's 
 rights and privileges ; and he was resolved that 
 he would not willingly bring another under the 
 rod of a monarch who seemed inclined to make 
 such an arbitrary use of his power. His account 
 seemed to give the King great satisfaction, 
 however, for there are many men whose minds, 
 like the body of a ferret, are so constituted as 
 to find themselves most at ease when twisting 
 in and out, through long and intricate holes ; and 
 nothing pleased the first of our Stuart race so 
 much as tracing the small lines and narrow 
 connexions of any plot or intrigue. 
 
 While making these inquiries the King had
 
 116 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 drawn forth the letter of the Lady Arabella, 
 and kept turning it in liis hand with an evi- 
 dent inclination to open it, although he must 
 have seen clearly that it was not addressed to 
 himself. The presence of Cecil, however, re- 
 strained him from the pitiful act ; and after 
 one or two woful looks of irresolution, after 
 thrusting his hand once or twice into his pocket, 
 and twitching the ties of his stuffed doublet, 
 he gave the letter to his English councillor, say- 
 ing, " There, Sir Robert, there ! This epistle is 
 addressed to you, though by my soul, man, — " 
 and he added an oath which for so pious a 
 monarch was neither very reverent nor cleanly, 
 — " I know not why our cousin has not addressed 
 herself to us. Read, read, man, and let us hear 
 the contents as far as may be in discretion." 
 
 Cecil immediately took the letter, and without 
 displaying in any degree the hesitation which 
 he really felt, he merely opened it, and having 
 spread it forth, put it into the king's hand. 
 
 " Well and dutifully done. Sir Robert," said 
 James, with a gracious inclination of the head, 
 and then commenced reading as follows in a
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 117 
 
 tone "Nvhicli, though somewhat subdued, rendered 
 the words audible to those who were immediately 
 about his person, commenting from time to time, 
 as he proceeded, after his own peculiar fashion. 
 
 " ' Sir Robert, my very good friend, — this is to 
 let you know, that being on my way, as in duty 
 bound, to present my humble service to his Ma- 
 jesty the King, and to congratulate him on his 
 accession to the throne of this realm of England,' 
 — " Rightly said, for we were in full possession of 
 Scotland before ; but she should have added Ire- 
 land and France. She is but a young thing, 
 however, and the letter is not that ill written." — 
 ' I have been informed that his Majesty at York 
 published a proclamation, forbidding the approach 
 of any to his Court except those specially called. 
 Knowing that obedience to the commands of our 
 Sovereign Lord is the first duty of a subject, I 
 have stopped at the house of my old and re- 
 spected friend. Sir Harry West."* — ''A wise and 
 elderly person, I trust, ha, Sir Robert ? For it 
 does not do for maidens of the blood royal to 
 sojourn at the house of flaunting courtiers.'' 
 " A very wise and reverend gentleman, sire,"
 
 118 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 replied Cecil, " of three score years, or there- 
 abouts." 
 
 " That is right, — that is right," continued the 
 King, '' and, indeed, she shows a just discretion 
 in all things. Would that all our subjects would 
 take example by her implicit obedience to our 
 best commands. But what says she farther ?''^ 
 and he proceeded to read, — " ' Sir Harry West, 
 where I was driven to take refuge, as I shall 
 shortly explain to you. I do beseech you, there- 
 fore. Sir Robert, to lay my humble duty before 
 the King, and to petition him that I may be per- 
 mitted to approach him in person, not alone to 
 pay respect and reverence to him, of which he 
 must be well assured, both on my part and that 
 of all his subjects, but also to communicate to 
 him certain discourses which were held to me in an 
 inn near this place, where I had thought to spend 
 the night. Now, though these discourses were 
 light and foolish, and unworthy the attention of 
 so great a King, yet, as they seemed to me of a 
 treasonable kind of folly, and were also Popish, 
 and contrary to the established religion of the 
 realm, I did not choose to abide under the same
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 119 
 
 roof with the strangers who had held them ; but, 
 notwithstanding it being a dark night, and tempes- 
 tuous weather, came on to this house of Bourne, 
 where I have been kindly and hospitably entreat- 
 ed. Judging that the matter which drove me 
 from the inn should be revealed to his Majesty 
 before any other person, I will not enter into 
 farther particulars ; but beg you to solicit for me 
 his gracious permission, not venturing to write to 
 him myself, to present myself in his Court, ac- 
 cording to my duty. Yours, most assuredly, 
 
 ' Arabella Stuart.' 
 ' From the house of Sir Harry West, 
 at Bourne, this — of May, 1603.' " 
 
 " A well-composed and very judicious letter,"" 
 said the King ; " though in her inexperience 
 this young lady has committed one error, which 
 we shall, notwithstanding, freely pardon, as it 
 was not of malice, — namely, that she did not 
 cause the immediate arrest of these persons, but 
 in all others she has conducted herself discreetly. 
 You will be pleased to answer her. Sir Robert, 
 telling her that as we tend towards your good 
 house of Theobald's, we shall be glad to see her
 
 ISO ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 there, and hear more from her, letting her know 
 that we commend her prudence and obedience, 
 and do her grace accordingly. Now, man, 
 where 's the warrant ? Please God, we will sign 
 it without further delay.''' 
 
 " It is usual, sire," said Cecil, resolved to make 
 one effort, " to put a man upon his trial be- 
 fore—'' 
 
 " Hout ! puddings' ends !" cried the King. 
 " What ! taken flagrante delicto, and making 
 confession of his crime ? Give me the warrant, 
 man ; if I am a crowned King, and there be 
 hemp in England, he shall end his days in a 
 tow before noon to-morrow." 
 
 The warrant was accordingly placed before the 
 King, whose face had grown somewhat red at 
 even the slight opposition which he had met 
 with. A small table, with pen and ink, was 
 brought forward, and with a quick and determined 
 hand James signed a paper, which might at any 
 other time have shaken the throne of England. 
 
 " There !" he said, when he had done. " Con- 
 vey that to the Recorder of Newark, and let him 
 disobey at his peril. Answer the lady's letter
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 121 
 
 to-night, Sir Robert, and take good care of her 
 messenger, who seems a sober and prudent 
 person." 
 
 " Your Majesty was pleased to say,'' replied 
 Cecil, that there was another letter to be remem- 
 bered ; but, whether you will be pleased to an- 
 swer it yourself, or commit the task to a secretary, 
 I know not ?" 
 
 "What talk you of? what talk you of?'' 
 exclaimed the King, somewhat impatiently. 
 " By my soul ! I will write no more letters to- 
 night." 
 
 " It was concerning that excellent good soldier 
 and politic gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh," re- 
 plied the courtier, " and his application to be 
 permitted to wait upon your Majesty." 
 
 " Fie now, Sir Robert, to trouble me with 
 such matters," replied the King. " Let the 
 man wait. He has no title, I trow, to be impor- 
 tunate." 
 
 " Certainly not, sire," replied Cecil ; " but 
 persons who have been greatly favoured by mo- 
 narchs do sometimes presume, and Sir Walter, 
 as you know, was a prime favourite of the late 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 \22 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Queen, as, indeed, his merits well deserved. 
 Doubtless her majesty gave no heed to the 
 charge of atheism against him, and forgave him 
 his hatred against my Lord of Essex. But, as 
 your Majesty knows, being captain of the 
 guard, he may think he has some claim — " 
 
 '^ None but our pleasure, man ! none but our 
 pleasure !" cried the King. '' His malice at 
 Essex, poor fellow ! will be no grace in our 
 eyes ; and as to his atheism, that shall be in- 
 quired into. We will have none such about 
 the Court. Tell him to mind the proclamation ; 
 and, hark ye, gossip, there may be a new captain 
 of the guard some day. Make the letter short, 
 and do not say too much ; we will do everything 
 civilly, but I am thinking we can find a captain 
 of the guard amongst our own friends ;" and 
 with these words began the ruin of Raleigh. 
 
 The King soon after rose, and retired to 
 rest ; the courtiers remained for a few minutes 
 conversing with apparent frankness over the 
 strange scene which they had just witnessed, yet 
 none of them venturing to give his real opinion
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 123 
 
 to his neighbour ; but Sir Robert Cecil afforded no 
 one an opportunity of misrepresenting his words, 
 for, after merely ordering his son to take care of 
 Lakyn, he quitted the room, to write the letters, 
 according to the King's command. 
 
 G 2
 
 2H ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 In a house not far from the Strand, there was 
 a dark room, of somewhat large dimensions, 
 lined with small square panels of black oak. 
 The mantel-piece was of the same wood, richly- 
 carved with monkeys, and devils, and many a 
 wild creature of the imagination, supporting the 
 various cornices and crowning the three-twisted 
 columns on either side, while, on a sort of enta- 
 oiaiure aoove, appeared, in marquetry of sandal- 
 wood and ebony, the whole history of King 
 David, from his first encounter with Goliath of 
 Gath to the death of Absalom. The figure of the 
 Psalmist King, it is true, was not in the most 
 harmonious proportions, his head being somewhat 
 larger than his body, and his crown, after he had 
 attained the dignity of empire, rather larger than 
 his head. Goliath, from his protuberance before,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. \25 
 
 must decidedly have taken but little exercise, and 
 appeared to have had a fondness for turtle and ve- 
 nison, so that he might be strongly suspected of 
 having sat as an alderman at the civic festivals of 
 Gath. About Absalom, however, there could be 
 no mistake, for his hair, which wasof black ebony, 
 could have belonged to nobody else on earth 
 but himself, and greatly resembled the contents 
 of an unpicked mattress. Some bears and stags 
 were introduced, for reasons unassigned, and 
 there were harps enough in various parts of the 
 piece to have served David for twenty more books 
 of psalms than ever he composed.* Neverthe- 
 less, it was a very splendid piece of sculpture in 
 its way, and was the only thing that enlivened the 
 room, if we except a silver sconce of three 
 branches, with the lights which they contained 
 
 In this chamber, not many days after the events 
 which we have lately related, sat a very respect- 
 able personage, about the middle age, dressed 
 in costly, but serious-coloured apparel, of the 
 
 * A similar mantelpiece is still to be seen in the house 
 of J. Wood, Esq., of Sandwich, in which Queen Elizabeth 
 resided during her visit to that ancient town.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Spanish cut, while near him appeared a gentle- 
 man considerably younger, in the highest mode 
 of the English fashion. The countenance of the 
 latter bore a quick, impatient, and somewhat 
 discontented air, and while he spoke he continued 
 to trifle with the roses in his shoes, stirring 
 them from side to side with the point of Ms 
 sword. The language that they both used was 
 French ; in which tongue, however, the elder 
 gentleman was much more fluent than the other, 
 although he himself did not speak it with per- 
 fect purity, mingling from time to time several 
 Spanish expressions, and several Dutch ones also, 
 with his conversation. 
 
 At the moment which we choose, for the pur- 
 pose of introducing them to the reader, a short 
 pause had taken place, and each seemed buried 
 in thought. At length the elder looked round 
 at his companion, saying, " Well, my Lord .^" 
 
 " Well, Count?" replied the other, and both 
 fell again into thought. 
 
 "It is not impossible, I repeat, Lord Cob- 
 ham," continued the elder, at length ; " though 
 the sum required be large, I say it is not im-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 127 
 
 possible, upon the conditions I have mentioned ; 
 but, if you look at the matter rightly, you will 
 find that it is not less for your safety than for 
 the security of the King, my master, that these 
 three points should be ascertained. First, at 
 the head of the party must be one who can 
 lay a good title to the crown of England. 
 There is but one that I know of, and she must 
 be ours — of course, not to rule and guide us 
 till she be actually upon the throne, but as 
 the colour and pretence of our opposition to 
 the King of Scotland, the rallying-point of 
 the party, and our justification in the eyes of 
 Europe. Her title is better than his, inasmuch 
 as she is directly descended from Henry the Se- 
 venth. She is also an Englishwoman by birth 
 and education, which he is not ; and long ago 
 the English nation pronounced that they would 
 not have a foreigner sit upon the throne. But 
 not only that, I find that the law of England 
 declares, no alien can inherit landed property in 
 the realm. How then, can an alien, like this 
 King James, inherit the crown, with all the 
 domain attached to it ? This I have explained
 
 128 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 to you all before, and this is absolutely necessary 
 as the first condition. In the next place, my 
 very good Lord, I must see some commander 
 of great distinction engaged in the cause. Not 
 that you are otherwise yourself than a good and 
 skilful soldier, in whom we could have all con- 
 fidence, and for whom — " 
 
 "Pooh! pooh !^' cried Lord Cobham, "let 
 us cease compliments. Count Aremberg. What 
 you want, of course, is some man whose name 
 and reputation, as well as his valour and skill, 
 will inspire the whole party with trust. But I 
 will pledge myself for such a man." 
 
 " For whom ?^^ demanded Count Aremberg. 
 " None other than my old and dear friend. 
 Sir Walter Raleigh," replied Lord Cobham. 
 " He will never hang back when Cobham asks 
 him to draw the sword, and, moreover, he has 
 already received disgust which makes his blood 
 boil. I saw him this morning, with a letter 
 from Cecil in his hand. The King refuses to 
 see him, and he has a cool and complacent hint 
 that he had better resign his honourable post
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 129 
 
 of Captain of the Gruard. An auspicious com- 
 mencement of a new Monarch's reign, to slight 
 and injure the best servants of the crown. — What ! 
 you look dark, my noble Count, remembering 
 whose good sword has so often been drawn against 
 the power of Spain. But let not that be a 
 stumbling-block. Raleigh will serve his country 
 when Spain is our friend as well as he served her 
 when Spain was her enemy ; and whoever 
 wishes to pull down this slovenly Scotch tyrant — 
 whose first act in England was to violate the 
 laws of the land he came to govern — must be a 
 friend to our native country." 
 
 "Nay," answered Count Aremberg, "you 
 misinterpret my looks. Courage and high quali- 
 ties deserve respect as much in an enemy as in a 
 friend ; and, assuredly Sir Walter Raleigh has 
 shown all the great points of a distinguished cap- 
 tain. It is a pity, only, that his Queen gave 
 him no other occupation than that of a pirate." 
 
 He could not refrain from the sarcasm ; but, 
 seeing the colour come up in Lord Cobham's 
 cheek, he proceeded hastily, '' I shall be right 
 
 o o
 
 130 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 glad to see him draw his sword in a nobler career. 
 But, can you be sure of him ? — Have you 
 sounded him ?" 
 
 " Not yet," replied Lord Cobham, — *' not 
 yet ; but I will undertake for him ; only he 
 must have money to equip his forces. That is 
 the first necessity, and without it he is too wise 
 to act. Now, Sir Count, to your third demand. 
 I forget what it was — something of less import- 
 ance than the others, I think." 
 
 " Not in my estimation," answered Count 
 Aremberg. " It is, that the heads of the Ca- 
 tholic party in England give you their adhesion ; 
 and herein, my Lord, seems the greatest diffi- 
 culty, for the favour which the King has shown 
 to the two Lords Howard, has greatly divided 
 the feelings of those who in this country adhere 
 to the true faith." 
 
 " Pshah !" cried Lord Cobham ; " a piece 
 of paper, and a lump of wax will soon set all that 
 to rights. I mean a papal brief, my Lord. 'Odds 
 life ! you zealous Catholics ought to know right 
 well that there is not a man of you who will venture 
 to refuse his aid and assistance in re-establishing
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 131 
 
 the old ecclesiastical rule in England; and, I have 
 little doubt that, were it necessary, a brief of his 
 Holiness would be found, ere to-morrow at noon, 
 within the limits of this good city of London, 
 commanding all true children of the Apostolic 
 Church to give their aid in excluding the heretic 
 Scotchman from the throne." 
 
 " Indeed !" said Aremberg, with a doubtful 
 look. " If it be so, his Holiness has not made 
 his intentions known to the Court of Spain."*"* 
 
 " Pshah ! most excellent sir !" replied Lord 
 Cobham. " Use not your diplomatic qualities 
 on me, for it will only lengthen our discussion 
 without attaining any end. You know of the 
 Pope's bull right well ; and your only object is to 
 save the claim of the Infanta. But, be assured, 
 that no alien will ever sit upon the throne of 
 England, if James be rejected."" 
 
 Count Aremberg smiled, and it must be re- 
 marked that his smile was always a coarse and 
 unpleasant one. 
 
 " Well," he said, " granting that it be as you 
 declare, and that the King of Spain be willing to 
 aid in the great and laudable object of re-esta-
 
 132 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 blishing the Catholic religion in these realms, 
 still, as he must make a sacrifice of the claims of 
 the Infanta, he is entitled to some compensation. 
 What have you to propose on that head .^" 
 
 " We will first terminate the question of the 
 three conditions you require, worthy Count," re- 
 plied Lord Cobhara. "Two of them are dis- 
 posed of : you have the Lady Arabella as the 
 head of the party, Sir Walter Raleigh as its mi- 
 litary leader ; and I have shown you good means 
 of insuring that the Catholics of England will 
 readily draw the sword for a lady, whom we have 
 every reason to believe well disposed to that 
 Church. However, if you want more proof, I 
 can bring you the head of one of our chief Ca- 
 tholic families, and two excellent priests of your 
 religion^ named Fathers Watson and Clarke, who 
 will pledge themselves for the rest of their commu- 
 nity. The good fathers are below even now, 
 and Sir Griffin Markham will be here in a few 
 minutes." 
 
 He rose as he spoke, as if to call the priests 
 into the room ; but Count Aremberg stopped 
 him, saying, " Stay, my Lord, stay. Give me
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 133 
 
 yet one minute of your private company. The 
 last point is perhaps the most important of all.'" 
 
 " Ay, so I thought," cried Lord Cobham. 
 
 ** <What is the King of Spain to receive as an 
 equivalent," continued Count Aremberg, " for 
 relinquishing the claims of the Infanta.'^" 
 
 *' I -will show you what her claims are worth," 
 said Lord Cobham, putting his hand in his 
 pocket : '* thus much, and no more, most excel- 
 lent Count ;" and he laid a silver groat upon the 
 table, pointing to it with the fore-finger of his 
 right hand. 
 
 '' 'Tis a small sum," observed the Count, " for 
 very great claims. But I did think that some- 
 thing was mentioned about the loan or gift of 
 six hundred thousand Spanish crowns. Now 
 this, my noble Lord, is a considerable amount for 
 any Prince to give, especially when it is to be 
 employed for the purpose of doing away the 
 claim of his own family, though that claim be 
 but worth a groat. Your Lordship must see," he 
 added, with a dry laugh, " that something as an 
 equivalent must be assigned to the King, before 
 he can entertain your proposals."
 
 134 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Cobham frowned, and bit his lip. He could 
 not but feel that there was much force in what the 
 Spanish ambassador said ; that he had no right to 
 expect, indeed, that the King of Spain, whatever 
 might be his bigotry in favour of the Church of 
 Rome, would give so large a sum of money, and 
 at the same time resign long-cherished, though 
 chimerical hopes, without some strong human 
 consideration totally independent of religious 
 zeal. He was not prepared, however, with any 
 proposal to meet Count Aremberg's objection, 
 and consequently remained silent, turning the 
 matter moodily in his mind. Here the conference 
 might have broken off, perhaps ; but a quick 
 step was heard upon the stairs, and he exclaimed, 
 
 " Here comes Sir Griffin Markham ! It were 
 as well to be silent with him regarding this dif- 
 ficulty. The Catholics are easily discouraged. 
 I will discuss this question in secret with you 
 hereafter." 
 
 As he spoke, the door was thrown open, and 
 in came, booted and spurred, a cavalier younger 
 than either of the other two, with a frank and 
 somewhat reckless bearing, and an air of affected
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 135 
 
 indifference, as if he were entering some gay 
 drawing-room. 
 
 " Ha ! George," cried Lord Cobham, '* is that 
 you ? I thought it was Markham. When did 
 you arrive ?" 
 
 " Five minutes and a half ago," replied Sir 
 George Brooke. " I saw the King safely housed 
 at Theobald's, and rode on hither with all speed. 
 Monday will see him at the Charter House, my 
 good brother, where you need not show yourself 
 unless you like, for you will not have too gra- 
 cious a reception." 
 
 " You know. Count Aremberg, I think," re- 
 joined Lord Cobham. " Count, you know my 
 brother ?" 
 
 The Spanish ambassador bowed ; and taking 
 up the cover of a richly-chased cup which stood 
 upon the table, he said, " This is exquisitely 
 wrought, my Lord. Pray, are your goldsmiths 
 in England equal to such nice work as this ?" 
 
 " Nay, that came from Italy," replied Lord 
 Cobham impatiently. " But, to return to the 
 matter before us, your Excellency need not fear 
 my brotherv He is the soul of our party."
 
 136 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " I Lave nought to say more than I have 
 said," replied Count Aremberg. ^' I am here 
 but to learn your wishes, and to hear your pro- 
 posals ; very willing to give you any aid and 
 assistance in my power — with due regard for the 
 interests of my master, the King of Spain." 
 
 " Well, Count, what does the King want ?" 
 cried George Brooke, casting himself noncha- 
 lantly into a chair. " There is excellent brawn 
 at Oxford, excellent cheese in the county of 
 Cheshire, capital venison all over England ; but, 
 bating these articles, we have nothing else to 
 give that I know of." 
 
 " Except, it would seem, a crown," replied 
 Count Aremberg ; "for that trifle you appear 
 profusely disposed to deal withal, taking it from 
 one, denying it to another, bestowing it upon a 
 third. What I ask, sir, is, when you require 
 his most Catholic Majesty to resign the claims of 
 the Infanta, and to bestow upon you six hundred 
 thousand crowns, for the purpose of raising a 
 young lady of your own country to the throne, 
 what inducement have vou to offer him .^^
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 137 
 
 " Hum !" said George Brooke, pursing up Lis 
 lips ; " various things tliat his Majesty has 
 sought for many a year. First, a great deal of 
 confusion in England, perhaps a civil war. — What 
 a splendid set off against the destruction of the 
 Armada ! Secondly, the re-establishment of the 
 Roman Catholic religion. We may throw in a 
 few fires at Smithfield ; and, if the matter be 
 fully completed, perhaps we may grant a touch 
 or two of the Inquisition, at least as far as the 
 rack and thumb-screws go ; though, as to the 
 whole order of St. Dominic, and other piebald 
 gentry of the kind, I cannot exactly promise ; — 
 that must depend upon circumstances.'* 
 
 " Weighty considerations these, certainly," an- 
 swered Count Aremberg gravely ; " but I do not 
 think that they would figure well in a despatch."" 
 
 " Better in a private and confidential letter," 
 said George Brooke in the same easy tone. " How- 
 ever, for the public document, we will have a firm 
 and lasting peace between England and Spain, — 
 an alliance offensive and defensive, if you will." 
 
 *' A treaty !" exclaimed Count Aremberg, shak-
 
 138 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 ing his head ; " we have too much parchment in 
 Spain already. The kingdom is covered with 
 sheepskin." 
 
 " Can you get no wool off it ?" asked George 
 Brooke. " Methinks just now, with the most 
 Christian King of France and Navarre on the 
 one side, Meynheer Van Barneveldt on the 
 other, and the unpleasant aspect of the Emperor 
 on a third, the Court of Spain, and more espe- 
 cially that of Brussels, might be very well pleased 
 to have the helping hand of England, and rather 
 see Raleigh thundering on the coast of Holland, 
 than setting the Indies in a flame, and sweeping 
 the sea of your galleons." 
 
 '' Were England at peace with herself," said 
 the Spanish ambassador, '' this proposal might 
 have some weight." 
 
 " But she shall be at peace within a year, 
 most excellent Count," replied George Brooke. 
 " Let us but harpoon this Scotch porpoise, and 
 confine him for a season in the Tower, and then 
 the very hem of sweet Arabella's satin petticoat 
 shall sweep the land clear of all contention.'' 
 
 " But what," asked Count Aremberg, " if she
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 139 
 
 choose to give her fair hand to some enemy of 
 Spain ?" 
 
 Lord Cobham smiled, saying, " You are won- 
 drous cautious, Count." 
 
 " Ha ! are you there ?" cried George Brooke. 
 *' Well, there we are prepared to meet you. We 
 will engage that the lady shall be guided in her 
 choice by the King of Spain.'* 
 
 " Now you speak reason," replied Count Arem- 
 berg ; " but yet I will tell you that it will be 
 more satisfactory to me and to my master, if the 
 lady herself make the engagement. In a word, 
 as these are your proposals and not mine, if you 
 can gain me the assurance under the lady's own 
 hand, guaranteed by yourselves, that she, when 
 Queen of England, will grant full toleration to 
 the Catholic faith, will sign a lasting peace be- 
 tween England and Spain, and be guided by the 
 sovereign I represent in her choice of a husband, 
 the matter may go forward : if not,I must pause." 
 
 " It shall be done," said George Brooke, and 
 Lord Cobham echoed the same words. " But," 
 continued the former, *' are you ready to give us 
 assurance that if we do, our request is granted ?"
 
 140 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Nay,'' replied the ambassador, " I cannot 
 give a definite promise. That must depend upon 
 the King himself."" 
 
 " Then this is all foolery," said Lord Cobham. 
 " The opportunity will be lost sending between 
 London and Madrid." 
 
 " You know right well, my Lord," replied 
 Count Aremberg, " that I was not sent to Eng- 
 land on this matter, and consequently I have no 
 instructions." 
 
 He saw a cloud come over the brow of George 
 Brooke, the bolder and less cautious negotiatior 
 of the two, and added a few words to soften the 
 disappointment which was evidently felt, and to 
 give such hopes as might prevent the conspiracy 
 from being abandoned in despair. 
 
 '' I can but speak my own individual opinion,"" 
 continued Count Aremberg, " but, such as it is, 
 you shall have it frankly." 
 
 " Frankly ?"" cried George Brooke, with a 
 bitter laugh. 
 
 " Yes, on my life," answered the ambassador, 
 '* and it is, that there cannot be the slightest, 
 doubt his Majesty the King will at once consent
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 141 
 
 to supply the money you require, if you give 
 him the assurances which I have pointed out. 
 Nay, more," he added, in a quiet tone, *' should 
 need be, he will, I feel very sure, furnish you 
 with a body of soldiers sufficient to take the field 
 at once." 
 
 " No, no,"' cried George Brooke, *' no Spanish 
 soldiers in England, noble Count. The people 
 have not yet forgot some late passages, in which 
 the Spanish soldiers and the English were less 
 friendly than is pleasant. They did nothing, it 
 is true, but cut each others' throats ; but still 
 that does not cement amity." 
 
 *' They need not be Spanish soldiers," said 
 Count Aremberg, in reply; " they may be from 
 Flanders." 
 
 " Still they will be the troops of a foreign 
 sovereign," answered Lord Cobham. 
 
 " Not if you raise and pay them yourselves," 
 said Count Aremberg, always bearing in view the 
 strong inclination of the Spanish crown to regain 
 a hold upon England. 
 
 " That might be done, it is true," said 
 George Brooke; ''but that is an after conside-
 
 142 ARABELLA. STUART. 
 
 ration ; the present question is about the money. 
 If we once have means of engaging a sufficient 
 number, by showing them that we have strong 
 support, and that the enterprise is feasible, we 
 may seize upon James, confine him in the Tower, 
 and, with the command of the capital, which we 
 shall certainly possess, we have little resistance 
 to fear. An outbreak may take place here or 
 there amongst the Scotchman's friends in the 
 country, but they will be speedily suppressed. 
 The two Howards must remain neuter; for, 
 though their inclination would lead them to 
 James, their religion will bind them to us. 
 Northumberland, though he will not begin the 
 strife, will go with us heart and soul when it is 
 begun ; and so will a thousand other noble gen- 
 tlemen, who have long suffered in their faith, or 
 in their persons. Others, again, will be upon 
 our side, from hatred to the Scotch, and disgust 
 at the swine that Scotland has sent us. The 
 great body of the Church will go with us ; for 
 ambition is the great vice of the ecclesiastics, 
 and the re-establishment of the Romish Hier- 
 archy must naturally open to them a thousand
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 143 
 
 new roads to their end. Many a sober Pro- 
 testant parson regrets the confessional, and the 
 mass, and the procession, and the embroidered 
 garments, and the lordly rule of each priest in 
 his parish ; and we should have thousands gladly 
 coming back to the good old days of Rome. But 
 the question is now, how are we to get the 
 means of setting the enterprise agoing ? James's 
 movements are uncertain ; on Monday he will 
 be at the Charter House ; on Wednesday or 
 Thursday at the Tower ; where he may be a 
 fortnight hence no one can tell. You can- 
 not count upon a reply from Spain under six 
 weeks, and it is necessary to secure the bird 
 while he is in the net. Six weeks delay will be 
 ruinous." 
 
 Count Aremberg paused and mused, and, after 
 waiting for a minute or two, in expectation of 
 his reply, Lord Cobham exclaimed, *' Unless we 
 can have some certainty in less time than that, 
 it were better to give the whole thing up, and 
 think no more of it." 
 
 " If the question be but regarding the money," 
 said the Count, " I doubt not the Archduke
 
 ]44 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 can settle that point at once. I believe that, 
 sooner than suffer a scheme for delivering his 
 fellow Catholics from the yoke under which they 
 now groan, he would advance the sum out of his 
 private treasury.'" 
 
 " Although that may cause some delay," said 
 George Brooke, " still it will not present such 
 an obstacle as the other plan. If this can be done 
 then, and your Excellency is enabled by the next 
 courier from Brussels to treat definitely, we will 
 go on, and obtain for you the assurances you 
 require from the Lady Arabella. If not, I fear 
 the enterprise must fall to the ground." 
 
 " I will write immediately," replied Aremberg, 
 " and send the dispatch by a trusty messenger. 
 
 *'It were well," said George Brooke, "that 
 he were accompanied by some one on our part. 
 What think you, Cobham, — will Watson go ?" 
 
 '' Nay, Clarke is the shrewder of the two," 
 replied his brother. 
 
 " Settle that between yourselves, as you like, 
 gentlemen," said Count Aremberg, with the ap- 
 pearance of perfect indifference — though, to say 
 truth, he was not at all disinclined that a great
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 145 
 
 part of the responsibility of the transaction 
 should be removed from his own shoulders, and 
 that he should escape the necessity of committing 
 himself on some delicate points in writing. 
 " Choose your messenger discreetly, and in my 
 dispatch I w^ll refer to him as intrusted by 
 certain English lords and gentlemen to con- 
 vey their opinions upon various points to the 
 Archduke. Now, however, I will hie me home, 
 for I have been some time absent ; and it must 
 not be forgotten that I am at this moment sick 
 in bed.'' 
 
 " I wish your Excellency a happy delivery," 
 cried George Brooke, with one of his light laughs, 
 " I shall come and inquire after the baby in a 
 day or two." 
 
 " I trust it may be a stout and healthy child," 
 replied Count Aremberg in the same tone, " and 
 at all events we will baptize it in the Catholic 
 faith." 
 
 Thus saying, he took up a large cloak which 
 lay on the back of one of the chairs, enveloped 
 himself completely in its folds, and, lighted by 
 George Brooke, descended the stairs, at the 
 bottom of which he was joined by a man dressed 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 as a servant, who was called from a little room 
 at the side. Without a farther word, but " Good 
 night,'"* the ambassador issued forth into the 
 street, and walked along for some way, with th^ 
 man close beside hira. 
 
 " What have you learnt, Gonzalez ?" he asked 
 at length, in Spanish, looking up and down the 
 street by the moonlight, and seeing that no one 
 was near. 
 
 '^ According to their showing, your Excel- 
 lency, full one-third of the inhabitants of Lon- 
 don are prepared to rise, and more than one-half 
 of the country. Making a little allowance for 
 exaggeration, the discontent seems to be very 
 extensive, and likely to spread." 
 
 " What did they give you ?" demanded 
 Count A rem berg. 
 
 " Fifty gold angels," replied the man, after 
 a short pause. 
 
 " Ha !'' said the Count, " are you sure they 
 did not discover you for what you are ?''^ 
 
 ^* Quite certain," he replied; "for, though 
 they were civil in the matter of the money, the 
 two priests kept me standing all the time."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 147 
 
 '^ Then his Holiness is determined the matter 
 shall proceed," said Aremberg. " Fifty angels 
 to a serving-man does not come from two poor 
 conspirators, or two persecuted Catholic priests. 
 It may, perhaps, turn out something of im- 
 portance, after all. 
 
 H 2
 
 14S ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the confines of Hampshire and Wilt- 
 shire, at the distance of about twenty miles 
 from Salisbury, was a good house belonging for- 
 merly to the Dowager Countess of Lennox, sur- 
 rounded by a park of nearly a thousand acres, 
 paled in from the neighbouring country on ac- 
 count of some very fine deer which it con- 
 tained. The hand of nature had done far more 
 for it than art, and nothing could be more beauti- 
 ful than the variety of hill and dale, of forest, fell 
 and mead, which it displayed. It is true no 
 mountains were there, no bold and rocky scenery ; 
 but it was full of rich old woods, deep ferny dells 
 and constant heights and falls of ground, which 
 compelled a considerable stream swarming with 
 fine trout, to wander in a thousand turns and 
 bends, so that its course through the park, if
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 149 
 
 traced along its meanderings, could not extend to 
 less than many miles in length. 
 
 The woodpecker and the squirrel found there 
 a home to their utmost satisfaction, multitudes of 
 hai'es whose possession was only disputed by the 
 herds of deer, might be found sleeping in their 
 forms on the sunny sides of the hill, or seen gal- 
 loping along when disturbed, ever and anon 
 standing raised upon their hind feet, and listening 
 with erected ear for any sound of pursuit ; while 
 towards the close of evening, the rabbits, in a part 
 especially called the Warren, came out to play in 
 thousands, like schoolboys issuing forth for sport 
 after the tasks of the day are ended. 
 
 In this park, in the month of June, and towards 
 the hour of nine in the morning, a lady was 
 sitting on the grass under the trees, at a consider- 
 able distance from the house. The spot she had 
 chosen, was the side of one of the little hills 
 which was crowned by a clump of old oaks, and 
 looking down over a considerable extent of scene, 
 both in front and on either hand. It was, in 
 fact, a sort of spur or promontory from the high 
 ground to the westward of the park, on which
 
 150 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 ran the paling, bounding a high road. The 
 distance between the hill and the public way, 
 however, was at least four hundred yards ; and 
 the intervening space was filled with wide-spread- 
 ing trees, devoid of underwood, so that it was from 
 that side alone that any one could approach the 
 spot chosen by the lady for her seat without being 
 perceived by her, even at a considerable distance. 
 
 The sun was rising bright over the fair land- 
 scape beneath her eyes, the wanderings of the 
 stream were in every direction seen, like the 
 beneficent hand of the Almighty in all his works, 
 to the eye of the thoughtful believer giving 
 light and brightness to the whole ; and, while the 
 long shadows of the trees moved slowly as the 
 morning sun got up in Heaven, like the 
 tardy progress of the world's affairs, the deep blue 
 shadow of some passing clouds floated rapidly over 
 the bright scene, resembling the free thoughts of 
 man when his heart is at rest. 
 
 For several minutes the lady sat and gazed 
 around her, leaning lightly on her rounded arm, 
 and fixing her soft and thoughtful eyes from time 
 to time, upon each fair spot in the glowing
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 151 
 
 landscape. Was she merely drinking in the 
 flood of beauty that poured upon the eye, con- 
 templating the magnificence of nature, feeling 
 with delight and awe the perfection of God's 
 works ? Or were her thoughts turned inward to 
 her own fate and circumstances, and her eye 
 roving inattentive over things familiar to her ? 
 Neither was exactly the case ; she felt the love- 
 liness of the scene, she marked with pleasure 
 many a fair object in the view, she looked 
 " through Nature up to Nature'*s God," but still 
 her own hopes and wishes, her own fears and anx- 
 ieties intruded themselves, whether she would or 
 not, upon her attention with importunate appeal, 
 and connected her own fate with all her contem- 
 plations, deriving from the objects before her 
 eyes, sometimes fanciful illustrations, sometimes 
 consolations higher and holier than any that man 
 can give. 
 
 Thus she sat for several minutes, and why or 
 wherefore matters not much, nor can we indeed 
 tell — for who can trace the wanderings of a quick 
 and imaginative mind — but that fit of her reverie 
 ended with a bright drop upon her eyelids. The
 
 152 ARABELLA STUART 
 
 next moment, however, sweet Arabella Stuart 
 roused herself, though with a sigh, to other 
 thoughts. Oh, how hard it is when the mind, 
 like a young bird, has soared forth at liberty, 
 into the face of Heaven, and tried its wing 
 at large, amongst all the joyous things of nature, 
 to be called back to the close cage of the dull 
 world's doings, the strifes, the cares, the mean- 
 nesses, which form the bars that prison in the 
 heart. Such was her fate, however, continually 
 through life. 
 
 As if to make the transition more easy, how- 
 ever, she repeated — we may call it sung, for she 
 preserved, though her voice rose scarcely above 
 a murmur, the air of the song — the lines cf 
 some long forgotten poet, which were but too 
 applicable to herself. 
 
 I must not love where I would love, 
 I must not dwell where I would stay. 
 
 "Alas, it is all in vain," she added, " and now 
 to the letter."" 
 
 Thus saying, she drew forth from her bosom 
 a note, the seal of which had been broken, but 
 of the contents of which she had, as yet, only read
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 153 
 
 the first words. Unfolding it, her eye ran over 
 the lines it contained ; and her cheek grew very 
 pale ; a look of anxiety and apprehension rose in 
 her countenance ; and at length clasping her hands 
 together, she exclaimed " the King and all the 
 Court live in daily dread of the plague ; but if 
 these rash men did but know how much more I 
 dread the plague of their ambitious designs, they 
 would not surely try to communicate the infection 
 to me, by such letters as this. What is to be 
 done with this thing now ? If I reveal it, I bring 
 the poor wretch to the block. If I conceal it, 
 I make myself a sharer of their treasons." 
 
 She paused and meditated for a moment or 
 two, and then exclaimed aloud, " Oh that I had 
 some one to advise me !"" 
 
 The words were scarcely uttered, when there 
 was a step amongst the trees behind, and starting 
 up with a look of alarm, she turned round. The 
 blood rose in her cheek, her eye sparkled, though 
 she would fain have quenched its light, and her 
 voice faltered with emotion, as she exclaimed, 
 ** Oh, Seymour ! rash, rash, young man, your im- 
 prudence will be the ruin of yourself and me!" 
 
 h5
 
 154- ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 '' Nay, dearest Arabella," he replied, with a 
 gay smile, ^' neither rash nor imprudent — bold, 
 perhaps, to watch you as you sat here musing ; 
 but I claim but the privilege of the sun, who 
 looks at you through the green leaves, even 
 whilst you fancy yourself hidden from his bright 
 eye." 
 
 " Nay, but you are rash, William," she an- 
 swered, " rash to come hither at all." 
 
 " I could not help it Arabella," he said in 
 reply, kissing her hand. " You would not have 
 me a traitor or a rebel ?" 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " exclaimed Arabella, her 
 imagination immediately connecting his words 
 with the letter she had just been reading. '^ Oh, 
 William, of all things, if you would not break 
 my heart, avoid all dealings with the many dan- 
 gerous men who are striving for things impossible. 
 But you are laughing — I have mistaken you. — 
 Nay, if you smile so, I shall call back again all 
 my old careless gaiety, which, to say truth, has 
 been somewhat disturbed. If you could not help 
 coming, tell me wliat brings you ?" 
 
 '' The King's commands," replied William Sey-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 155 
 
 mour. " The King's commands, to bid you to 
 Wilton on Wednesday next." 
 
 '* Oh, then, the King*'s commands shall be 
 obeyed," said Arabella, " and his messenger is 
 right welcome. But how got you in ? — You 
 could not come hither from the house without my 
 seeing you.''' 
 
 " I sent on horses and servants," answered 
 William Seymour, "letter and all — for there 
 is an epistle, brightest Arabella, writ by the 
 King's own hand, in very choice Latin, as I un- 
 derstand, judging you a learned lady." 
 
 " Heaven help the mark !" interrupted Ara- 
 bella. '' But still — how got you in, William 
 Seymour ? 'Tis very rude of you to take me so 
 by surprise." But her smiles, as the reader has 
 already supposed, contradicted her words. 
 
 " Nay," said Seymour, " 'tis worse than that, 
 for I did so on purpose. Dismounting on the 
 road, I sent my men and horses on, and leapt 
 the paling, telling them that I would fain 
 take a walk through the park ; but, in truth, 
 having an intimation from a good enchanter, that 
 I should find Arabella beneath these trees."
 
 156 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Fie, fie !" cried Arabella, " you are an im- 
 postor, Seymour, and would have me think that 
 love can work miracles, in order to cheat me into 
 the belief that ours can be happy. How was it, 
 in sober truth, you knew that I was here ? "* 
 
 *' Well, then, in sober truth," replied Sey- 
 mour, pointing to the country beyond the park, 
 which was seen over a break in the trees. "Well, 
 then, in sober truth, beloved, as I rode along 
 yonder bridle-way, which you perceive crossing 
 the country beyond the fence, I turned my eyes 
 hither. Now, love is an enchanter, whatever you 
 may think, who strangely lengthens men's sight, 
 ay, better than the best perspective glass ; and 
 by his aid, I saw something beautiful walk slowly 
 through the park up to this spot, and knew it was 
 Arabella. Then, riding on till I came near, I 
 parted with my company, as I have told you, 
 and, like a deer-stealer, leapt the paling ; then, 
 creeping quietly through the trees, I stood and 
 watched you as you lay, wishing that I were a 
 sculptor, and had power to carry away an image 
 of that lovely form in all its thoughtful grace." 
 
 *' Hush, flatterer ! hush !" cried Arabella, " I
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 157 
 
 would only have my image in the heart of those 
 who love me. — But it was not fair." 
 
 " Oh, yes," answered Seymour, " for whatever 
 I saw or heard would be to me as sacred as my 
 conscience." 
 
 " Heard !" exclaimed Arabella ; " what, did I 
 speak ?" 
 
 " Yes, in truth," replied her lover, " first you 
 sat musing ; then took out a letter — this which 
 you have dropped ; " and, lifting it from the 
 ground, he gave it to her, while she turned some- 
 what pale to see how nearly she had lost it. 
 *' Then you murmured something indistinctly, 
 and then you cried, ' Oh that I had some one 
 to advise me !' — But you turn pale, Arabella." 
 
 " Not at what you think," she answered with 
 a smile. " Now would Seymour give a purse of 
 gold to know what is in this epistle, and has 
 jealous thoughts of rivals, and half doubts that 
 Arabella plays him false. — Is it not so ? " 
 
 " No, on my life," replied William Seymour, 
 " I might as well be jealous of the sun for shining 
 on other lands than mine. Why should Arabella 
 give me one smile, but from her pure bounty .'*
 
 158 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 I have no claim, I have no right, and 'twere 
 a needless policy to let me think you love me, 
 if you did not. One frown, one word, one cold 
 look were enough to crush out all the hopes you 
 have raised, and snatch the blessing from me. — 
 Why should you deceive me ? — Oh, no ! I am as 
 confident of you as Heaven, and nothing shall 
 ever make me doubt." 
 
 Arabella put her hand in his, and gazed upon 
 him with a look of melancholy tenderness that, 
 had there been a doubt, would have banished it 
 for ever. 
 
 " Oh no !" she said, " though I may never 
 be yours, I shall never love but you ; and whom 
 should I trust but him I love ? Yet before 1 
 do trust you fully, Seymour, and ask for your 
 advice, you must promise me, — for you men 
 are sad, headstrong creatures, and we must ever 
 bind you with some chain, — that you will never 
 reveal what I have told, or shown, or asked you, — 
 nay even if I follow not your counsel." 
 
 " That promise is soon made Arabella," he 
 replied, " indeed I should feel the engagement 
 binding on me, were no promise given ; and, as
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 159 
 
 to advice, you shall have the best my mind will 
 afford, though in times so difficult as these, it 
 is sometimes hard to say what is the wisest 
 course." 
 
 " Well then, read that," said the lady, " and 
 tell me how I should act." 
 
 Seymour took the letter which she placed in 
 his hand, opened it and read. The effect upon 
 him Avas scarcely less strong than it had been 
 upon Arabella. His brow contracted, his lip 
 quivered, his eye took an eager and anxious ex- 
 pression ; and, at the end, he turned back again 
 and read it through once more. Then gazing 
 in the lady's face he exclaimed, " Oh, Arabella ! 
 Have you ever given encouragement to such 
 designs as these ? " 
 
 " Never, never ! '"* cried Arabella, " not even 
 in my most secret thoughts." 
 
 " There may be men," continued Seymour in 
 a musing tone, " who think that in offering you 
 a crown, they would increase your happiness ; and 
 had I one to bestow, out of all the world I would 
 choose you to wear it. But far, far rather, did I 
 possess one myself, would I lay it down, to share
 
 160 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 with you a humbler and a happier lot, than 
 raise you to the golden misery which ever rests 
 upon a throne. Your virtues may deserve the 
 highest station, Arabella ; but believe me, dearest, 
 power is not happiness." 
 
 " Except the power of blessing those we love," 
 she answered, laying her hand upon his arm. 
 
 " But were you England's Queen to-morrow," 
 he continued, " you never could be mine. Re- 
 member Elizabeth herself, despotic as ever eastern 
 Sovereign was, ventured not to raise a subject to 
 the throne, though no one doubts her wishes ; 
 and, besides, see what these men propose, that 
 you should give pledges' to a foreign potentate 
 to be guided by him in the disposal of your 
 hand. Here is evidently a bar to your free 
 choice. Even if their schemes were feasible, or 
 had a probability of success, which they have not, 
 what would you become ? A slave of a foreign 
 prince, and not a Queen. — But why smile you, 
 Arabella ? " 
 
 " To see William Seymour argue,''*' she 
 replied, " as if such vain schemes and treason- 
 able folly could wake in my breast one wish, one
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 161 
 
 idle thought in favour of that which you justly 
 called a golden misery. Besides, Seymour, I 
 am neither unjust, a traitor, nor a fool. I 
 would not be an usurper for the diadem of the 
 whole world. James's is the right ; he is next in 
 blood to the last Monarch, and I have no claim 
 at all.— As to what Lord Cobham says regard- 
 ing exclusion of aliens from the throne, 'tis but 
 a pretence as empty as the wind. I never can 
 hold that man to be an alien who is born with- 
 in these isles. Nature made them one, marked 
 them out for one empire, and rolled the barrier 
 of the sea around them to separate them from all 
 the rest of the earth, as the habitation of one 
 people under one monarch. It is vain to 
 struggle against the plans of God. Men may 
 mark out frontiers, and draw lines, and strive 
 for a mile or two of barren border land this 
 way or that ; but the limits fixed by nature will 
 stand fast, and ultimately be recognised by all. — 
 No, no, James is no alien ; and though, to say 
 sooth, I never was more disappointed in the 
 aspect of a man, yet he is King of England, and, 
 for me, shall ever remain so. Besides," she con-
 
 162 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 tinued, " do you suppose that I would give up 
 my humble freedom for the gemmed thraldom of 
 a throne ; to have no privacy, to live with the 
 thousand eyes of policy upon me, to have my 
 very thoughts watched, to make my very mind a 
 slave to others, my heart, with all its affections, 
 a bondman to the petty policies of state. — Oh 
 no, Seymour, no ! — if they were here before me 
 with the crown at my feet, ay, and could add 
 France to England, and take in Spain, with all 
 the golden Indies and their mines, I would not, 
 if a choice were left me, give them another look. 
 — It was not that on which I asked advice.*'*' 
 
 " What then ? " said Seymour, who had 
 been gazing on her with love and admiration in 
 his eyes. 
 
 " It is what I am to do with this treasonable 
 paper, that I seek to know,'' she answered .taking 
 it from his hand, and gazing vacantly upon it. 
 " It is, I fear, my duty to send it to the King ; 
 and yet I would not for all the world bring 
 on my head the blood of those who sought to 
 serve me even wrongfully ; and yet — "" 
 
 " If you do not," replied Seymour, " you
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 163 
 
 peril your own life. Nay, more, should any at- 
 tempt be made in consequence of this scheme — 
 should they, notwithstanding a cold and reproving 
 answer from you, seize on the King, put him 
 to death, involve the land in civil war, and cause 
 all the bloodshed and confusion which little 
 more than a century ago stained all our fair fields 
 and desolated our happy homes, what would 
 Arabella feel, when she remembered that, from 
 the fear of bringing bad men to punishment, 
 she suffered all these things to arise, when she 
 could have averted them. Shut our eyes how 
 we will, he who conceals treason is a traitor. 
 Besides, my beloved, you must not think that 
 it is love for you that moves these men. It is 
 their own selfish interests, their own passions, their 
 own ambition. 'Tis that the King has slighted 
 Cobham, done some wrong to Raleigh, offended 
 this man, disappointed that, hurt the pride of 
 another, — 'tis this that moves them. No deep 
 devotion to Arabella Stuart." 
 
 *' Say no more, say no more," said the lady, 
 " I fear it is my duty ; and, however grievous, I 
 must perform it. What you urge is true ; did
 
 164 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 I conceal this, and the plot take effect, even so 
 far as bringing civil war into the land, I should 
 never know peace again. But tell me, Seymour 
 — counsel me, how I may treat the matter so as 
 to move the indignation of the King as little as 
 possible, against these misguided men. It is not 
 long since I had to tell him of other overtures, 
 not so distinct in truth as these, but still evidently 
 treasonable in their kind. He then took little 
 heed ; and perhaps, if I manage rightly, he may 
 deal with this scheme as lightly." 
 
 " I fear he will not," answered Seymour ; 
 " yet it is but wise to calculate, how you may 
 follow the voice of duty, and yet excite as little 
 wrath as may be against those who have certainly 
 deserved it." 
 
 He paused, and thought for several moments, 
 adding at length with a faint smile, " Were I 
 you, I would treat it lightly, Arabella. We often 
 by the tone and manner in which we speak of 
 things give them, in the first impressions, such 
 importance that they can never after be dealt 
 with as trifles. But if we speak of them as 
 matters of small moment in the beginning, they
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 165 
 
 are sure, if they be really of weight, to find their 
 proper estimation in the end. — I would treat it 
 lightly. My Arabella has a custom, with a gay 
 and laughing humour to cover, from the eyes 
 of most men, the deeper treasures of her heart, 
 like those bright streams I have seen in another 
 land which, under the sparkling ripple of their 
 waters, conceal their sands of gold. This art 
 which you have used — '"* 
 
 "Have you found out that?'*'' she asked; 
 " Love must, indeed, be a diviner, then ; for 
 never, even to the companions of my youth, 
 have I shown by word or hint that my gaiety 
 was more upon the lip than in the heart." 
 
 " But you have shown me the heart, too," 
 replied Seymour ; " and as I was saying, this 
 art, which you have used to cover your feelings 
 on many subjects, may well be employed now, 
 to hide what you think of this. Treat the mat- 
 ter as an idle jest — a thing of no importance, too 
 foolish to be judged seriously ; and thus, perhaps, 
 the King — especially if Cecil be not near him, 
 which he was not when I came away — may take 
 measures to avert all danger, and yet not think
 
 166 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 the subject so important as to require the 
 sword of justice. He is of a light and trifling 
 disposition, given to the discussion of fine sub- 
 tleties, full of learned importance and self-satis- 
 faction, but, I should think, not cruel." 
 
 " I do not know," said Arabella thoughtfully. 
 " Placed amidst perilous rocks, the pilot watches 
 narrowly each ripple on the surface of the sea. 
 Thus, in the dangers of a position too high for 
 safety, and too low for power, I have scanned 
 narrowly the actions and demeanours of men ; 
 and I have always remarked, that those who are 
 the fondest of trifles, and give little weight to 
 things of real importance, are generally cruel, 
 treating human suffering as a trifle also. But 
 that I must not think of ; the only way for my- 
 self and them is, as you say, to give the whole 
 a laughing air. But come, Seymour, let us go — 
 they will think that we stay long." 
 
 " Nay, nay, dear Arabella," replied her lover ; 
 " the consciousness of our own happiness makes 
 us often think, that others see through the dis- 
 guises we assume to conceal it. Let us not 
 even lose a minute of the time during which
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 167 
 
 we may be to each other Arabella Stuart and 
 William Seymour. The time will come soon 
 enough to be Madam and Sir again. They who 
 know not when or how we met, will not look at 
 the clock to see how long we have been together." 
 
 Arabella smiled ; '' Love's sophistry, Sey- 
 mour ! " she said : " but my good aunt of Shrews- 
 bury is at the house ; and, let me tell you, her 
 eyes are quick, her thoughts keen, although she 
 be kind and noble, and I do not know that she 
 would frown upon our affection, even were she 
 aware of it." 
 
 " I do not think she would," replied Seymour 
 eagerly ; " she has ever been a kind friend to 
 me, and, though of as lofty a spirit as any woman 
 now on earth, yet she does not forget that there 
 are human passions in all hearts, and that will 
 be listened to." 
 
 " Yet we must confide in no one," answered 
 Arabella with a serious air, " our secret is but 
 safe in our own breasts. She has lately caught 
 me somewhat in a sighing mood ; and but last 
 night, vowing I was in love, she reckoned over 
 on her fingers some ten men of the court ; but
 
 168 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 happily your name was not amongst them, or 
 perhaps the unruly colour in my cheek might 
 have betrayed the truth. — Nay, let us go, we 
 shall soon meet again ; and as we walk soberly 
 towards the house we can speak all our thoughts 
 to each other with whatever kind words we will, 
 looking all the while demure and grave as if 
 we were solving some deep problem of lines and 
 angles. In good truth, William,'' she continued 
 as they went on, '' were it not as well, to set 
 up some apparent lover at the court, to hide my 
 rash friend's somewhat real suit ?" 
 
 " Nay, I should be jealous then, indeed," said 
 Seymour. 
 
 " That would be pleasant," answered Ara- 
 bella laughing, " nothing but jealousy is wanting, 
 I think, to make your love perfect. But I fear 
 that he of whom I thought, is not capable of 
 raising the sweet yellow passion in your breast. 
 What would you say to Fowler, the Queen's 
 secretary .'' " 
 
 Seymour smiled ; " Oh ! the crack-brained 
 fool," he cried, " he surely would never raise his 
 eyes so high."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 169 
 
 " Nay, nay, you know not," answered Ara- 
 bella ; ** I have had delicate speeches about 
 bright eyes and coral lips, and verses over and 
 above full of sighing swains and dying swans, 
 and all the ammunition of pastoral love. ""Tis 
 a perilous case, I assure you." 
 
 Seymour laughed lightly. " In truth," he 
 exclaimed, " this is a rival to be feared. I shall 
 go distracted, Arabella, if you give him but a 
 glance too much." 
 
 But the lady had fallen into thought again, 
 and, looking up, she said, " This letter, and 
 the duty that it forces on me, weigh down my 
 heart, Seymour. Lord Cobham too has ever 
 been kind and courteous to me — I cannot 
 think that this treason is of his designing." 
 
 '•Oh, no!" cried William Seymour, "he is 
 but the tool, dear girl ; and I trust that so it 
 will appear, in which case it will be easy for 
 his friends to gain his pardon. But here comes 
 some one from the house ; and now for all due 
 reverence." 
 
 Arabella cast down her eyes with a look of 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 painful anxiety ; and the moment after they filled 
 with tears. 
 
 "With all due reverence!^' she repeated. 
 " Alas ! William, when and how will this end ?'' 
 
 He gazed upon her with a look of deep and 
 tender affection, but did not reply ; for a servant, 
 evidently in search of the lady, was now rapidly 
 approaching. As the man's step came near, 
 Arabella looked up and said, " I suppose my 
 aunt has sent you, Ralph, to tell me that there 
 are messengers from the King ; but I have met 
 this gentleman in the park, and am returning 
 to receive his Majesty's commands.'" 
 
 '' Yes, madam," replied the man ; " but I had 
 charge to tell you also that Sir Harry West is 
 here ; and I saw Master George Brooke ride up 
 as I came away.""* 
 
 Arabella turned a quick glance upon William 
 Seymour, and seemed to catch from his look 
 what he would have her do. 
 
 " If he wants me," she replied, " tell him I 
 must decline to see him." 
 
 The man looked surprised, and she repeated, 
 " Exactly so — tell him I must decline to see
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 171 
 
 him. He will understand the reason — Mr. 
 George Brooke, I mean. Sir Harry West I 
 shall be right happy to receive ; and as I do 
 not wish to meet with any one displeasing to 
 me, go forward, good Ralph, and open the door 
 into my aunt's cabinet. I will there receive the 
 King''s letter, Mr. Seymour, and write my humble 
 answer to his Majesty." 
 
 The man obeyed, hurrying on with a quick 
 footstep, while Arabella raised her eyes to Sey- 
 mour's face, inquiring in a low but eager voice, 
 "Have I done right?" 
 
 '' Perfectly," replied her lover ; " it were 
 madness to receive him, my Arabella. What- 
 ever you might say, it would be proved that you 
 had held conference with one of these conspira- 
 tors, and, if I judge right, with the most dan- 
 gerous of them all. But see, there is Lady 
 Shrewsbury herself upon the terrace — let us go 
 forward straight towards her." 
 
 They did so accordingly ; but, whatever were 
 their intentions, that high but kindly dame was 
 not easily deceived ; and while she held out her 
 fair hand to William Seymour, who pressed his
 
 172 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 lips upon it with respectful gallantry, she turned 
 a keen glance from his face to that of Ara- 
 bella. 
 
 " Welcome, Sir Truant, welcome," she said. 
 " So you leaped the paling, I find from your men, 
 to take a walk in the park ; but I doubt me, 
 poacher, that it was not without good expecta- 
 tion of meeting with a deer." 
 
 William Seymour was not discomposed, how- 
 ever, though Arabella was ; and he replied, " If 
 it was so, fair lady, you see I was not disap- 
 pointed. If I had sought for a hart, I might 
 have been so." 
 
 Many a grave thing in those days was covered 
 by an idle play upon words ; but the shrewd 
 Countess shook her head, and a moment or two 
 after took an opportunity to whisper in her 
 niece's ear, " I fear, Arabel, I must reduqe the 
 list of lovers down to one," and thus saying she 
 led the way towards the house. 
 
 " Let us go in by your cabinet, dear aunt," 
 said Arabella, whose cheek was now glowing 
 like a rose. " There is some one at the other 
 side I would fain not meet."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 173 
 
 " Whatever course you please, fair maiden,'"' 
 answered the countess ; "I will not thwart 
 you ;" and she turned across the terrace to the 
 left.
 
 ]74 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "Not see me?" exclaimed George Brooke 
 with a flushed cheek and a flashing eye. " Not 
 see me, for reasons I will know ! Body of Satan ! 
 but the lady is courteous. Pray tell her, master 
 lackey, that I know no reason, why any lady in 
 the land should so forget that which is civil, as 
 to send so rough a message by such a messenger. 
 Now for my horses and my people ! — Ha f there 
 she comes across the terrace ; but I w^ere wanting 
 as much as herself in courtesy, were I to force 
 the audience she refuses to request. My horses, 
 sir, I say !"" 
 
 " They are coming round, sir," replied the 
 servant. 
 
 " What !" cried George Brooke in the same 
 angry tone, " you ordered them round as you 
 came ? — See how meanness can mimic the arro-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 175 
 
 gance of its masters. The cobbler''s cur flies at 
 the beggar to whom his master refuses a farthing. 
 But every dog has its day, sirrah, and I forgive 
 thee. There ""s a crown for thee, to buy thee 
 better manners, if thou canst find them — though, 
 by my faith, I think they are all exported." 
 
 " No, sir," replied the man putting away the 
 crown piece with the back of his hand ; " I take 
 not money and hard words together. Neither 
 must you say more against my lady, as sweet 
 a one and gentle as any in the land, who never 
 said or did an unkind thing, nor refused her 
 presence to any who deserved it. There 's not 
 a man in this house, but will break the pate of 
 any one who dares say aught against her, be he 
 gentle or simple." 
 
 Brooke gave him a look of contempt, and put 
 his foot into the stirrup, his horses having by this 
 time been brought round ; and swinging himself 
 into the saddle, he rode slowly and sullenly away. 
 His thoughts were all on fire, however, and his 
 heart filled with anything but the dull sulkiness 
 that he displayed upon the surface. 
 
 " What is to be done ?'' he asked himself;
 
 176 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " the matter is clear, she has betrayed us to the 
 King. Cobham is an idiot, to write her a letter 
 under his own hand, when I had promised to 
 speak to her by word of mouth. See what it is to 
 trust fools ; and yet we could not well go forward 
 without him. Still, what is to be done now ? 
 That is the question. If Grey were ready we 
 might act at once, seize upon James at Wilton 
 and complete the affair at a blow. If not, it 
 were better for all of us to fly. But I must 
 show no haste, so long as there are other eyes 
 upon me. Once past the park gates, then spur 
 on to London, and let them know our misfortune. 
 There is time yet ; for this fatal letter could 
 but reach her late last night, or early this morn- 
 ing. — Here, Jones !" 
 
 A servant rode up ; and his master, after mus- 
 ing for a moment, continued, " As soon as we 
 are out of the gates, ride to Salisbury with all 
 speed ; find out Doctor Watson, who is at the 
 third house from the gate near the city wall. 
 Tell him to come to London with all speed; 
 say that this being summer time the swallows 
 are beginning to fly ; then follow me to Cobham
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 177 
 
 House. Baldock, you away to Wilton, and 
 offer my humble duty to Sir Robert Cecil, my 
 good brother-in-law. — ' A little more than kin 
 and less than kind,' as the player has it. Ask 
 after his health ; and tell my good sister that the 
 gloves have come from France, and I would send 
 them if I feared not the infection ; but they have 
 lain in London for some days. This done, come 
 both of you and join me at Cobham House. 
 Let each use well his eyes and tell me what 
 you see. You, Baldock, mark shrewdly Sir 
 Robert's face, when you compliment him on my 
 part. I would fain know," he added in a care- 
 less tone, " whether I should have a good re- 
 ception at the Court, were I to venture thither. 
 You are quick and keen, remark all things, and 
 let me know the result. You may, if you make 
 haste, overtake me before I reach London, as I 
 shall go but slowly." 
 
 At the park gates the men took leave of their 
 master, and rode on in the direction of Salisbury ; 
 while he pursued a narrow lane which joined the 
 high London road after winding through the 
 
 country for about five miles. The moment his 
 
 I 5
 
 178 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 servants were out of sight, he set spurs to his 
 horse, which was a powerful charger, and gal- 
 loped on over the sandy ground for about three 
 miles without drawing a rein. Suddenly, how- 
 ever, the animal showed symptoms of going lame, 
 and on dismounting to see what was the matter, 
 he found that it had cast a shoe. 
 
 "Now out upon fortune !"' he cried; "if I 
 could reach London ere to-morrow morning, the 
 affair might yet go forward ; if I be delayed 
 another day there 's nothing for it but flight."" 
 
 He had to blame his own folly, however, 
 rather than the fortune that awaited him; and, 
 had the delay which took place been no gi-eater 
 than that which was necessary to repair the little 
 accident that had happened, all might have gone 
 well with him. But small vices have more fre- 
 quently ruined vast enterprises than even great 
 crimes. Ere he had proceeded half a mile, lead- 
 ing his horse by the bridle, he came to a little 
 open spot where an object attracted his attention, 
 of which we must give some account. On the 
 left hand side of the road was a high bank of 
 sand-stone, retiring about thirty yards from the
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 179 
 
 path, and topped with some feathery trees, which 
 were waving their green branches in the sun- 
 shine. The foot of the cliff was covered with 
 soft turf; and, hollowed out of the stone, was 
 a little niche lined with masonry, having a shal- 
 low basin at the bottom to receive the clear 
 bright water of a spring, which issued from the 
 bank and, welling over the edge, formed a little 
 rivulet running at the side of the lane. 
 
 Close to this well, which some kind hand 
 had erected for the solace of the thirsty tra- 
 veller, was seated a young girl of seventeen or 
 eighteen years of age, di-essed in a quaint and 
 singular costume very different from that of the 
 English peasantry. She had a tall pointed hat 
 upon her head, adorned with bugles, a black 
 bodice and red petticoat bordered with a tinsel 
 lace, a snowy apron of fine lawn, and some gay 
 bracelets on her arms. She was lightly but 
 beautifully made ; and, though her complexion 
 was somewhat dark, her skin seemed smooth and 
 soft, her features fine, her hair rich and luxuriant, 
 and her hands and feet small and delicate. The 
 attitude in which she had cast herself down was
 
 180 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 full of grace, but the whole expression of her 
 figure, as well as her face, was that of deep 
 sorrow, and the tears were running rapidly from 
 her large dark eyes. 
 
 The attention of George Brooke was instantly, 
 as we have said, attracted towards her ; and, 
 although it is scarcely possible to conceive that 
 the sight of sorrow in a woman could fail to 
 awaken compassion in the breast of anything de- 
 serving the name of man, certain it is that less 
 than holy feelings mingled in the sensations of 
 him who now paused to regard her. 
 
 " Well," he thought, " I suppose Dame P'or- 
 tune has determined that I shall have to fly 
 my country, and has sent me a fair companion 
 to cheer the hours of exile. By my life ! she is 
 a pretty creature, and as enticing as a royal 
 banquet. — What is the matter I wonder.? A 
 quan-el with a lover ? — if so, I may help her to 
 a better — or a lost pigeon ? — if so I '11 be her 
 dove. — Why, pretty one, what ails thee ? " he 
 continued, advancing towards her. 
 
 " I am very unhappy," sobbed the girl, with 
 a strong foreign accent.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 181 
 
 " I see that," replied George Brooke ; " and 
 I grieve that those bright eyes should run over. 
 But what is the cause ? " 
 
 " I know not where to go to," exclaimed the 
 girl, clasping her hands together, and addressing 
 her words rather to Heaven than him. 
 
 "Go to.?" cried her companion, gazing at 
 her, with his wild and reckless spirit ready for 
 any folly or for any crime. " Why come with me, 
 sweet one. — I will take good care of thee." 
 
 The girl looked up in his face with an inquiring 
 glance ; but there was in it no look of that deep 
 feeling, that kind-hearted benevolence, which 
 gives confidence and hope. There was the light 
 half-serious, half-jesting smile, which mocks at 
 all things, even while they are felt most weighty ; 
 the sort of scoffing carelessness with which the 
 wicked strive to alleviate the burden of their 
 own conscience. There was, moreover, that ex- 
 pression of habitual dissipation which always soon 
 marks the man who gives himself up to vice. 
 
 The girl shook her head mournfully, and made 
 no answer. 
 
 " Nay, nay," continued George Brooke, as-
 
 182 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 suming a more serious and more feeling tone ; 
 " if any evil have really befallen you, tell me 
 what it is, and I will help you if I can." 
 
 " You cannot,"*' said the girl, " you cannot. 
 I have left a very wicked old man, who brought 
 me over to this country two years ago, to sing 
 before the gentry and play upon the lute ; and I 
 know not where to go to." 
 
 " But why did you leave him ?" asked George 
 Brooke. 
 
 " Because he wanted me to do what is wrong," 
 replied the girl, the colour mounting in her face 
 and temples ; and again she burst into tears. 
 Alas ! she spoke to one who had no respect 
 for — scarcely any belief in, virtue ; and his evil 
 purposes were but confirmed by what he saw 
 and heard. 
 
 " Nay," he said, " you shall tell me the whole 
 story, and if it is as I think, I will bring you 
 to a place where you shall be well taken care of 
 and kindly treated. My horse has gone lame, 
 to I will tie him to a tree, and sit down by you 
 to hear your little history." 
 
 The girl offered no opposition ; and ho did as
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 183 
 
 he said, fully resolved to take her with him to 
 London, under the pretence of providing for her, 
 and then using his opportunities as he might 
 think fit. 
 
 All the first part of her tale she told without 
 hesitation, that she was a Milanese by birth, 
 and had been brought over — purchased, in fact, 
 from her parents, by an English perfumer and 
 charlatan, who had visited Italy in search of rare 
 drugs and essences. For some time his ex- 
 pectations of making money by her little talents 
 had not been disappointed. She had sung and 
 played upon the lute, she said, before the Lord 
 Southampton and even the Queen ; but the state 
 of agitation at the English court during the 
 illness of Elizabeth, put a stop to his gains ; and 
 he had taken her from place to place through 
 the country, obtaining but little repayment for 
 his trouble. Of the causes which induced her 
 suddenly to quit him, however, he could obtain 
 no farther account than that which she had 
 already given, " that he wished her to do what 
 was wrong." But George Brooke put his own 
 construction on her words, and as she had de-
 
 184 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 scribed the charlatan as old and ugly, expressing 
 great personal disgust towards him, he fancied 
 that she might entertain very different feelings 
 towards a younger and a handsomer man. What 
 farther took place may not require detail. Not- 
 withstanding the urgent necessity for his presence 
 in London, he sat talking with her for nearly 
 an hour, and whither passion hurried him on, 
 matters not ; but at the end of that time a loud 
 scream and cry for help rang along the lane, and 
 reached the ears of a party of horsemen coming 
 slowly from the side of Salisbury. 
 
 " Ha ! there is some violence going forward,'' 
 cried Sir Harry West, putting his horse into a 
 gallop ; " Come on, come on ! — Why, how now, 
 Master Brooke?" he continued, as he rode up 
 to the little well, beside which the girl was 
 standing, all trembling and in tears. " Offering 
 violence to a woman ? Fie, sir, fie I " 
 
 " Ride on your way, Sir Harry West," replied 
 Brooke fiercely, " and mind your own affairs." 
 But even while he spoke, two or three men on 
 foot came down the lane, from the other side, 
 exclaiming, '' Ah, here she is, here she is, and
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 185 
 
 here 's the fellow who has lured her away. — Have 
 them both before the Justice ; he will put the 
 rogue in the stocks, I warrant you, and give the 
 wench an exhortation." 
 
 George Brooke would now have given his right 
 hand that he had not been tempted to lose time 
 which was but too precious in his circumstances ; 
 for he easily comprehended that he might now 
 be detained somewhat longer than would be 
 pleasant to him. Indeed, the manner in which 
 the men approached him, and the words which 
 they used, showed him clearly that he himself 
 was one of the objects of their constabular in- 
 dignation ; and, if anything had been wanting, 
 one of the rural Dogberries exclaimed, running 
 up to lay his hand upon the gentleman'*s collar, 
 " I comprehend you sir, in the King's name, 
 and charge you go along with me." 
 
 At the same time, two of his companions took 
 hold of the girl by the arm, saying " Come 
 along, pretty mistress, come along to Justice 
 Scully. 
 
 George Brooke, however, grasped the hilt of 
 his sword, exclaiming " Stand back, fellow — put
 
 186 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 a finger on me if you dare ! You are a fool, 
 and know not what you are about. I am a 
 gentleman, the brother of Lord Cobham." 
 
 " Gentle or not gentle," replied the consta- 
 ble, ''lord or no lord, 1 am sent to comprehend 
 you, and please God so I will, for enticing the 
 girl away from her master. Draw your sword 
 against the law if you dare. All you stand ers by, 
 I charge you in the King's name, give me help. 
 You see he has got his sword out, and may 
 do me a damage." 
 
 " You had better go quietly," said Sir Harry 
 West ; " it is your duty not to resist the civil 
 power." 
 
 " I have no time, Sir Harry, to spend upon such 
 fooleries," said George Brooke — " I am in haste 
 for London, sir." 
 
 " You had plenty of time," replied. Sir 
 Harry West, " to offer violence to an undefend- 
 ed girl. You were in no haste but now." 
 
 " Pshaw !" cried George Brooke, who saw that 
 he had placed himself in an unpleasant predica- 
 ment, " my horse had cast a shoe, and it takes no
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 187 
 
 long time to snatch a kiss from a pair of ruddy 
 lips, by the road-side." 
 
 " Nor to do any other bad action," said Sir 
 Harry West; " but you had better go quietly, sir; 
 for if the man requires us in the King's name, 
 we must give him aid, to make you." 
 
 " I had thought," replied the other, thrusting 
 his sword angrily into the sheath, *' that gentle- 
 men were bound to aid gentlemen." 
 
 *' When their deeds are those of gentlemen," 
 replied Sir Harry West ; " if yours be such, you 
 have nothing to fear ; if they be not, you have 
 no right to apply to me for assistance : I will 
 go with you, however, and vouch for who you 
 are. Do you intend to resist ?" 
 
 " Not unless he puts his hand upon me," 
 replied George Brooke, " if he do, I will as 
 surely send my sword through him as I live. 
 — Let him lead on ; there is no fear of my es- 
 caping, with Sir Harry West at the head of the 
 watch." 
 
 " You cannot make me angry, sir," replied 
 the old knight. " Constable, do not touch him,
 
 188 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 he will go quietly. — What is it, Lakyn ?" he 
 continued, speaking to his worthy servant, who 
 had dismounted, and, after conversing for a minute 
 or two with the girl, had approached his mas- 
 ter and pulled his sleeve. 
 
 '' The poor thing would fain speak to your 
 worship," said Matthew Lakyn in a low voice ; 
 " she seems even more afraid of this master, 
 they talk of, than of Mister Brooke, though she 
 says he used her ill enough." 
 
 '' Well, hold my horse then," replied the old 
 knight ; and dismounting, he approached the girl, 
 as she stood trembling between the two consta- 
 bles, who continued to hold her tight by either 
 graceful arm, as if they had to do with some 
 furious criminal. 
 
 "Nay, nay, good fellows," said Sir Harry 
 West ; " take off your hands, she will go quietly 
 enough. Now what would you with me my poor 
 thing?" 
 
 "Oh don''t give me back to that wicked old 
 man," cried the girl. " You must not, indeed, 
 you must not." 
 
 " Are you an Italian ?" asked Sir Harry West,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 189 
 
 remarking her accent. " If so, I can speak your 
 language ; and you can tell me more of this affair, 
 in your own tongue." 
 
 The joy of the poor girl at hearing this intelli- 
 gence, sparkled brightly in her eyes; and she 
 poured forth upon the old knight a torrent of 
 Italian, accompanied by a thousand wild but 
 graceful gestures, which made the sober consta- 
 bles of ungesticulating England begin to fancy 
 she was crazed. In five minutes. Sir Harry West 
 was acquainted with her whole history, and had 
 learned that her name was Ida Mara ; that her 
 father was a carver in Milan ; her mother dead ; a 
 step-mother acting towards her the step-mothers 
 part ; and her only surviving parent careless and 
 unfeeling enough to sell her for a sum of ready 
 money to the charlatan, who had brought her 
 to England. Not even to the old knight, whose 
 manner was certainly well calculated to encourage 
 confidence, would she enter into the particulars of 
 the conduct of her master, as she called him. 
 But Sir Harry West had no curiosity on the 
 subject ; she assured him with tears, that the man 
 had wanted her to do what was very wrong ; and
 
 190 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 he easily conceived that she had received just 
 cause to quit him. 
 
 When her tale was ended, and she looked up in 
 the old knighf s face with an appealing glance, he 
 replied with a kindly smile, " Do not be alarmed. 
 If it is all exactly as you say, this man can have 
 no power over you in England. We do not re- 
 cognize here such purchases of our fellow Chris- 
 tians. The case will be different, indeed, if 
 you have yourself signed any paper obliging you 
 to serve him as an apprentice; but even then the 
 law will protect you against wrong." 
 
 " I have signed nothing, I have signed 
 nothing," cried the girl, vehemently, " it was all 
 my father's doing, and I do not think he signed 
 anything either." 
 
 " Well, we shall soon see,**' said Sir Harry 
 West ; *' the only difficulty is, what is to become 
 of you if you are taken from this man .?" 
 
 The girl looked down thoughtfully and sadly ; 
 and then replied, raising her eyes with a beam 
 of hope in them, " I can knit, I can sow, I can 
 work all kind of things — I hate singing and 
 playing on the lute — I used to love it once ; and
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 191 
 
 it was my only comfort when my mother died ; 
 but I hate it, now that I am obliged to do it for 
 strange men to stare at me.'*' 
 
 " I dare say thou dost," replied the knight 
 with feelings of deep interest growing upon him, 
 " I will see what may be done for you, my poor 
 girl ; so take comfort, for this is a land where it 
 seldom happens, that those who are really good 
 and in distress, do not find some one to help 
 them." 
 
 While they had been thus conversing, the 
 whole party had proceeded on their way, George 
 Brooke walking first, with the constable keeping 
 a respectable distance, holding the gentleman's 
 sword, it must be confessed, in great reverence, 
 after he had seen how readily it sprang out of its 
 sheath. The way was somewhat long, and quit- 
 ting the lane in which they were, they turned 
 into another on the left, before they reached 
 the high road, upon which — as it led him in an 
 opposite direction to that which he wished to go, 
 — George Brooke burst forth with one of the 
 blasphemous oaths so common in those days, 
 adding to the constable, " In the name of Satan,
 
 19S ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 and all the devils, is this never to come to an 
 end ? Why, you are taking me quite out of my 
 way !'^ 
 
 " 'Tis but a short mile farther to Browbury 
 House, master," replied the constable ; *' and 
 there Justice Scully will soon settle your affair, 
 I warrant ye." 
 
 " Warrant ! " exclaimed George Brooke ; " I 
 wish you and your warrants were at the devil. 
 If I have any say in the world to come, you 
 shall be kept sitting in a pair of red-hot stocks 
 till the marrow fries in your ankle bones." 
 
 "Where will you be then yourself .f*" asked the 
 constable ; and there dropped the pleasant con- 
 versation. 
 
 At length they approached the house of the 
 justice, which was a good old country mansion, 
 with a village round about it. All parties seemed 
 glad to see it, except poor Ida Mara, who, terri- 
 fied at the thought of meeting her tyrant, crept 
 up to the side of the old knight's horse, which 
 he had remounted at the close of their con- 
 versation. 
 
 " Do not be afraid, my dear," he said ; " I
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 193 
 
 will see that justice is done to you. Here, 
 Lakyn, you look to her ; and take care that she 
 be well treated. I will go in and speak to 
 worshipful Master Scully." 
 
 " And so will I,'' cried George Brooke ; " I 
 am not to be kept like a lackey waiting in a 
 hall." 
 
 The knight's name soon procured admission, 
 but Lord Cobham's brother was kept for several 
 minutes in the ante-chamber with the constables 
 and Ida Mara. At first he expressed some 
 haughty indignation ; but, becoming calmer and 
 more thoughtful by degrees, he turned to one 
 of the constables, saying, " Hark ye, good 
 fellow, there 's a crown for you, tell some of 
 the servants to have my horse shod, while I am 
 kept waiting." 
 
 The man took the crown readily enough, the 
 sight of the well-filled purse from which it came 
 making a considerable difference in his estimation 
 of the prisoner's culpability. 
 
 " The smith lives two miles off, sir,"" he an- 
 swered ; "at the corner of the high road; but 
 they can run up with the beast in a minute." 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Let them do so, let them do so/' replied 
 the gentleman ; "it will save time at all events." 
 
 He then approached the side of the poor 
 girl, and spoke a few words to her in a low 
 tone. 
 
 " No,'' she cried aloud, ''no, I will die first !'' 
 
 George Brooke bit his lip, murmuring, " You 
 are an idiot ;"" and the moment after the whole 
 party were summoned before the justice. 
 
 He was a fat, good-humoured-looking man, 
 who seemed to reckon his years by barrels of 
 ale, but on whose brow sat a slight frown of 
 habitual self-importance. Sir Harry West was 
 seated beside him, with a clerk at the end of the 
 table ; and standing on his right hand was a tall 
 thin man apparently about sixty years of age, of 
 a very unprepossessing countenance. His white 
 hair was thrust back from his forehead, which 
 was narrow and low, but prominent over the 
 eyes, which were shaded by bushy grey brows. 
 The eyes themselves were keen and fiery; his 
 lips were thin and in continual movement, even 
 when he was not speaking ; and his ears unnatu- 
 rally large, with a gold ring in one of them.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 195 
 
 and a topaz in the other. His nose was aquiline, 
 and depressed at the point, his complexion sallow, 
 but his teeth brilliantly white and perfect, for a 
 man of his age. He was dressed more richly 
 than his condition warranted, and with a degree 
 of extravagance in the colour and form of his 
 habiliments which made their costliness the more 
 remarkable. His ruff was of the finest lace, his 
 coat of Genoa velvet ; and his hands were co- 
 vered with innumerable rings. 
 
 " That is the girl," he cried, as soon as Ida 
 Mara appeared ; '- that is the girl, and I claim 
 her as my property."* 
 
 ''Silence !" exclaimed worshipful Master Scully; 
 " and let nobody speak till they are spoken to. 
 What were you saying, Sir Harry ? *" 
 
 " Merely that I thought it would be best," 
 replied the knight, " to enter into the charge 
 against Mr. Brooke in the first instance, as I 
 understand that he is in haste." 
 
 '* I am in haste," rejoined George Brooke ; 
 " and as to a charge, there is none that I know 
 of against me. Methinks 1 must have got into 
 the kingdom of jackasses, to be thus brought 
 
 K 2
 
 196 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 by one fool before another, for no reason ^vllat- 
 soever but to gratify their niutual stupidity."" 
 
 Mr. Justice Scully looked perfectly thunder- 
 struck at the insolence of this speech ; and the 
 clerk, who, having lost one of his fore-teeth, 
 whistled somewhat in the utterance, strongly re- 
 commended that the gentleman should be com- 
 mitted. Sir Harry West, however, interposed ; 
 and the regular course of proceeding was com- 
 menced. 
 
 " Now, sir, what is your name ? " asked the 
 Justice, turning to the old man on his right. 
 
 " My name is Jonas Weston,^' was the reply ; 
 " by trade a perfumer and druggist." 
 
 " Well, Master Jonas," said the Justice ; ''if 
 you ever do get into the whale's belly, you are 
 just the man to give him an emetic." 
 
 The clerk and the constables laughed, but Sir 
 Harry West looked grave, though such jests 
 were then not uncommon, even on serious occa- 
 sions ; and the court proceeded to ask the per- 
 fumer what was his charge against Master George 
 Brooke. 
 
 " None that I know of," replied the perfumer;
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 197 
 
 " I never saw the gentleman before in my life, 
 that I know of." 
 
 " Yes thou hast, thou imp of evil !'"* cried 
 George Brooke, " when thou wert playing deputy 
 devil to Mrs. Turner, of Shore Lane — But if 
 he has no charge against me, why am I brought 
 hither .^" 
 
 " Why, your worship," said the chief con- 
 stable advancing ; " that man with the ear-rings 
 swore he thought the girl had gone off with 
 some young man from the inn at Hadleigh, 
 so as we found him with her, we brought them 
 both." 
 
 " You did right," said the magistrate, " there 
 was just cause for suspicion ; and constables have 
 a right to apprehend all suspicious persons." 
 
 George Brooke burst into a loud laugh, " I 
 have heard of Hampshire hogs," he cried, '* and 
 this seems to be hog law. Sir Harry West, 
 I wish you joy of your company, and unto the 
 whole Court a very good morning. As there 
 is no charge against me, I shall go." Thus say- 
 ing he stuck his beaver on his head and walked 
 towards the door.
 
 198 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Shall I stop him ?" cried the constable ; but 
 Mr. Justice Scully seemed to be decidedly of 
 the opinion of Dogberry, " The watch ought to 
 offend no man ! and it is an offence to stay a 
 man against his will ; " so that George Brooke 
 was suffered to depart in peace, though not 
 without having lost nearly three hours of time, 
 which to him and his fellows was invaluable. 
 
 " Now then," cried the Justice as soon as 
 he was gone, " Master Jonas Weston, if you 
 have nothing to say against the man, what have 
 you to say against the woman ? " 
 
 " That she ran away without my consent,*" 
 answered the perfumer. 
 
 " That is a very grave offence," said Master 
 Scully, ''is it not clerk ? "" 
 
 " That will depend upon the particulars of 
 the case," replied the clerk with a grave look. 
 
 " How are we to proceed ? "*' inquired the 
 Justice ; and he turned his eyes towards Sir 
 Harry West. 
 
 " I do not presume to interfere," said the 
 old knight ; " but T think. Master Scully, I have 
 had some cases similar to this brought before me,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 199 
 
 and if you will permit me to ask a few ques- 
 tions, — " 
 
 " Pray do, pray do," cried the Justice de- 
 lighted to be delivered from an inquiry which he 
 knew not how to conduct ; "I always think it 
 a proper compliment, Sir Harry West, to a bro- 
 ther magistrate, when he does me the honour to 
 visit me, to let him do just as he likes in my 
 court." 
 
 *' You are extremely polite and courteous. Mas- 
 ter Scully,'* answered the old knight. "' Now, 
 sir, upon your oath, what right have you to 
 this girPs services ? " 
 
 " Why I bought and paid for her with my 
 own money,"" replied the man boldly. 
 
 " In this country ? " asked Sir Harry. 
 
 " No," answered Weston, ''in Italy." 
 
 " Lucky for yourself- it is so," said the old 
 knight, " otherwise, it would have been a mis- 
 demeanour, for which you must have been in- 
 stantly committed." 
 
 " Please your worship," rejoined Weston, who 
 was not one easily to lose his hold, " the girl is 
 my apprentice."
 
 200 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 *' Show me her indentures," said Sir Harry 
 West, " we may have cause to cancel them before 
 we have done." 
 
 " I have them not here with me," answered 
 the man with a sullen look. 
 
 " Well, 'tis no great matter," replied Sir Harry 
 West; ''for, according to your own statement, 
 they are null in themselves, if they do exist. 
 You paid for her you say, instead of receiving 
 with her an apprentice fee, — the law of England 
 recognises no such transactions." 
 
 " Well," said the man, " she is my servant, 
 at least, and has no right to quit me without 
 due notice that I might provide myself with 
 another. A runaway servant is punishable by all 
 laws ! " 
 
 " If they run away without due cause," an- 
 swered Sir Harry West, " but if there be cause, 
 I think, Master Scully, we have no law to punish 
 them." 
 
 " Certainly not," replied his worship, " if any 
 master requires his servant to do what is against 
 the law of God or man, the servant has a right
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 201 
 
 to run away. When you brought her to my 
 house hist night to play on the lute, she seemed 
 very well contented." 
 
 " No, she was not," answered Weston ; " she 
 told me a month ago that she would leave me." 
 
 " But what made me tell you so ? " cried Ida 
 Mara, bursting forth, " why don't you tell what 
 you said to me ? Will you tell what you want- 
 ed me to do ! " 
 
 " Nothing, you fool," cried Weston with his 
 sharp eyes flashing fire ; "you mistook what I 
 said ; but if ever I catch you, I '11 take the skin 
 off your back." 
 
 " That you shall never do," said Sir Harry 
 West, " I think your worship," he continued, 
 turning to the Justice, " that the case is very 
 clear." 
 
 " So I think too, Sir Harry," replied the 
 magistrate ; "the girl must be discharged, the 
 girl must be discharged ! and if he attempts to 
 molest her, we will punish him." 
 
 " I have some doubts whether he does not de- 
 serve punishment already," said Sir Harry West. 
 
 K 5
 
 202 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " However, as we have no charge against him, 
 1 suppose he must be sufFered to depart for the 
 present." 
 
 " I should think, your worships," observed the 
 clerk in a sweet tone, while the perfumer took 
 two or three steps towards the door, and then 
 paused, as if unwilling to depart without making 
 another effort, " I should think he might be put 
 in the stocks, as a vagabond going about from 
 place to place, not in his lawful calling.'" 
 
 " He is a vagrant certainly, your worships," 
 said the constable, " that I can certify, for he 
 does go from place to place." 
 
 Master Jonas Weston, seeing that he was in 
 sufficiently distressed circumstances to have an 
 ill word from everybody, determined not to 
 provoke further hostility by his presence, and 
 consequently made his way out without loss of 
 time, while Sir Harry West and the Justice 
 consulted together for a moment, as to whether 
 he should be suffered to depart. 
 
 " It is better, perhaps," said the knight, '' to 
 let him go. I think I have seen the man's face 
 somewhere before; but as no one has made a charge
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 203 
 
 against him of which you can take cognizance, I 
 do not know how we coukl proceed with him — 
 and now, my poor girl, what is to be done with 
 you, I wonder ? " 
 
 '^ Oh, sir," cried Ida Mara, clasping her hands 
 and speaking in Italian, " you said you would 
 protect me. Do not, do not abandon me. You 
 think because I am in this strange dress, that I am 
 a wild light girl, and can do nothing but sing songs 
 and play upon the lute; but I can do a great 
 many things, and will do anything to show how 
 grateful I am, if you but protect me. Think 
 what I am to do, if you send me out into the 
 world, without money, without friends, without a 
 home. Oh, let me go with you, I am sure you 
 are good and kind. I see it in your face, I hear 
 it in your voice. Let me be the lowest of your 
 servants — anything, rather than cast me out upon 
 the world again, — For the love of God have 
 pity upon me !"" 
 
 " I fear, my poor child," said the knight, " that 
 in my sober and homely house, we could find no 
 occupation for hands like yours. On my life, 
 I believe that you are as good a girl as ever
 
 204 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Jived, and something I will certainly do for you ; 
 but the only question is, what, — I am very much 
 perplexed, worshipful Master Scully,*" he con- 
 tinued, turning to the magistrate, who was sitting 
 with his eyes very wide open at hearing such a 
 torrent of a foreign language, which had never 
 met his ear before, " I am very much per- 
 plexed, as to what is to be done with this poor 
 girl. I evidently saw she had been ill-treated 
 as I came along, and promised she should have 
 protection."" 
 
 , '' Oh, let her find her way back to her own 
 country,""* replied Master Scully, " I dare say 
 she ""s a slut." 
 
 " I think not," replied Sir Harry West. 
 " All I have seen of her, though it is not much, 
 to be sure, makes me think her a good and vir- 
 tuous girl ; and at near sixty years, Sir, after much 
 mingling with the world, one is not easily de- 
 ceived in such things. At all events, to turn 
 her out and let her find her way back to Italy, 
 will not be the means to keep her good, if she 
 be so." 
 
 "Oh, if she is a virtuous maiden," replied
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 205 
 
 the justice, " that 's another thing. Come nearer 
 to me, mistress, and let me look at you." 
 
 The girl approached timidly; but Sir Harry 
 West, who had no great confidence in the deli- 
 cacy of the justice, determined to cut the matter 
 short, and take her away with him for the time. 
 " Come," he said. " Ida Mara ; for the present, 
 you shall go with me ; and I will put you under 
 the care of the good landlady where I lodge, 
 in the small town of Andover. Methinks I re- 
 collect hearing a high lady say, that one of her 
 maids is going to leave her to be married. Now, 
 if you be really what you seem, I will tell her 
 your history, and see whether she will like to 
 take you." 
 
 Ida Mara clasped her hands together, and 
 gave a low cry of joy ; but the old knight 
 continued, raising his finger. " Mark me, how- 
 ever, Ida Mara. Before recommending you, I 
 shall make the strictest inquiries at every place 
 where you say you have been ; and, if your con- 
 duct has not been what it should be, in every 
 respect, I can do nothing of the kind for you." 
 
 The girl caught his hand and kissed it eagerly.
 
 206 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 saying, " Ask, ask ! I desire no better. If you 
 can find I have ever done what is wrong, upon 
 good witness, cast me off altogether. But do 
 not take that man's word," she added suddenly, 
 " for he will tell you that I am headstrong, and 
 passionate, and disobedient, though T never re- 
 fused to do anything he told me, that was right."" 
 
 " Well," answered Sir Harry West, " so shall 
 it be then ; but in the meanwhile, I do not 
 know well how to convey you to Andover, my 
 poor girl." 
 
 " Why, Sir Harry," said his servant Lakyn, 
 who had been watching the whole course of pro- 
 ceedings with some interest, looking upon Ida 
 Mara as a sort of protegee of his own, " why, Sir 
 Harry, if we could get a pillion, she could ride 
 behind me, or one of the other men to An- 
 dover — 'tis but seven miles, and the horses are 
 quite fresh." 
 
 " Oh, my worshipful friend," cried Mr. Jus- 
 tice Scully, " we can lend you a pillion. Having a 
 house full of women here, I am always amply 
 provided in that sort. You can send it back 
 to me by the carrier who passes to Winchester."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 207 
 
 " Many thanks, many thanks," replied Sir 
 Harry West. *' I will gladly accept your offer. 
 Take her behind thee thyself, Lakyn, for thou 
 art older, and more sedate than the other fellows ; 
 and make as much haste as you can, for we have 
 intruded too long upon Master Scully." 
 
 " Not at all, not at all," exclaimed the justice. 
 " I count boldly that you will stay and take your 
 noon-meal with me; your people and the girl 
 shall be cared for in the buttery — .What, shaking 
 your head ? No time, 1 11 warrant ; you cour- 
 tiers are always as busy as a merchant. — Well, 
 you must come in at least, and let me introduce 
 you to the ladies. You must break bread and 
 taste a cup of wine, to that there is no denial." 
 
 " Feeling that, in courtesy, he could not refuse. 
 Sir Harry West accompanied the worthy jus- 
 tice to another part of the house, while the 
 servants and Ida Mara were taken to the buttery, 
 and treated with true old English hospitality. 
 In about half an hour, however, the whole party 
 were once more on horseback, and riding slowly 
 away towards Andover.
 
 208 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 We must now accompany George Brooke on 
 his way, not, indeed, stopping to trace all his pro- 
 ceedings, but merely stating that the time thrown 
 away in consequence of his meeting with Ida Mara, 
 and the loss of his horse's shoe, was not altogether 
 less than five hours. At the end of that period, 
 however, he once more found himself riding 
 rapidly on towards London, and, as is usual 
 in such cases, cursing the folly wdiich induced 
 him to forget great and important objects in pur- 
 suit of petty gratifications. 
 
 By six o'clock his horse was quite knocked 
 up ; and leaving it at an inn to be sent after 
 him, he procured another, with which, at the end 
 of about four hours more, he approached the me- 
 tropolis. His thoughts had been in a wild and 
 hurried state, and he had more than once asked 
 himself, " with whom shall I take counsel ? If
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 209 
 
 Clarke be come back from Brussels," he con- 
 tinued in the same train of thought, " he would 
 be the man, but of that I am not sure, — Cobham 
 is such a fool I cannot trust to him, and Ra- 
 leigh's coldness in the business has shaken his 
 constancy. It must be with Markham ; he is 
 bold and decided, though a slippery knave I fear. 
 — We can go on to Cobham House afterwards. 
 Ho boy !" he continued, speaking to the post- 
 boy who rode with him to take back the horse, 
 "which is the shortest cut to the Village of 
 Chelsea .?" 
 
 " Down to the right, sir," replied the man ; 
 " the first turning, and then the second to the left." 
 
 George Brooke accordingly rode on, and in a few 
 minutes caught a glimpse of the Thames, shining 
 in the rising moon. 
 
 " Ay, now I know my way," he said, and rode 
 straight on to the gates of an old brick house, 
 with a garden and orchard, looking towards the 
 river on one side, and on the other towards 
 the road. 
 
 Ringing the great bell at the door, with his 
 usual impetuous haste, George Brooke speedily
 
 210 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 brought a porter to answer his summons, and 
 asked eagerly if Sir Griffin Markham were 
 within. 
 
 '' He is somewhat sick,"" replied the man, 
 '' and cannot see any one/' 
 
 " Nay, were he sick to the death I must see 
 him," cried George Brooke ; " methinks, however, 
 Master Porter, that there is somewhat loud talk- 
 ing in the place, for a sick man's house. Go, tell 
 Sir Griffin that Master George Brooke wishes to 
 see him, and must too, immediately."" 
 
 " Oh, sir, if you be Master Brooke, you may 
 come in," said the man ; and the young gentle- 
 man sprang to the ground, giving the horse to 
 the post boy, and bidding him wait. Then follow- 
 ing the porter across an old stone hall, he was 
 admitted to a room on the other side, which he 
 found occupied by some twelve or fourteen per- 
 sons, bearing the appearance of gentlemen. A 
 large table was in the midst, round which some 
 were sitting, and some were standing, while one or 
 two were looking out of the windows upon the 
 silver Thames, as it glided along in the moonlight 
 calm and tranquil, the image of a bright and
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 211 
 
 a peaceful life, offering a strange contrast to all 
 the scenes of contention and turbulence that 
 daily take place on its banks. Seated close 
 together, so that that they could whisper to 
 each other from time to time, were two Romish 
 Priests, named "Watson and Clarke ; and at 
 the head of the table, not far from them, with 
 his cheek resting on his hand, was the master 
 of the house, in whom the reader, if he could 
 have seen him, would instantly have recognized 
 as no other than the Baron de Mardyke. The 
 moment the name of George Brooke was an- 
 nounced by the porter. Father Clarke started up, 
 and advancing towards him, took his hand, whis- 
 pering rapidly at the same time, " not a word of 
 our plans, till you hear what is going on." 
 
 " Let it go off then as quickly as possible," 
 answered George Brooke, in the same tone, " for 
 I have intelligence of deep importance, affecting 
 our lives." 
 
 Thus saying, he advanced into the room, 
 shaking hands with one or two persons whom 
 he knew, and being welcomed by Sir Griffin 
 Markham with great cordiality.
 
 212 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 '' We are here, my dear Brooke,'' said Sir 
 Griffin aloud, after a significant nod from the 
 Priest, "to discuss a petition to be presented 
 to the King, for toleration in our own religion, 
 and equal privileges with our fellow subjects. 
 We have just determined to set forth our claims 
 in the strongest possible language, to represent 
 the injustice that we have suffered, and to point 
 out that, at least, two millions of Englishmen 
 are deprived of religious liberty, and straitened in 
 their conscience. Now, I know, that although 
 your family have unhappily given in to what we 
 consider heresy, yet you are ready and will- 
 ing to join in obtaining for us that toleration 
 which you would fight for in your own case were 
 it needful ; and we shall be glad of the signature 
 of any Protestant gentlemen, who regard liberty 
 of conscience as the right of all men.'' 
 
 George Brooke was too shrewd not to smile 
 at the assurance with which zealous Roman Catho- 
 lics, notwithstanding their utter intolerance of 
 every religion but their own, can assert the great 
 principle of that liberty of conscience, which they 
 deny to others, when they themselves may benefit
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 213 
 
 by it ; but as he was very indifferent to religion of 
 any kind, he was quite ready to support the 
 views of Sir Griffin Markham, as he would have 
 supported those of a puritan, for any object he had 
 in view. 
 
 " I perfectly agree with you, my good friend," 
 he replied, " as to religious toleration, and am 
 quite ready to sign the paper, though, remember, 
 I am not quite so heretically disposed as you 
 imagine, and am quite ready to receive in- 
 struction in the Catholic faith, on the first conve- 
 nient opportunity.'' 
 
 An exclamation of satisfaction broke from se- 
 veral of the gentlemen around ; and George 
 Brooke, eager to have the business over as soon 
 as possible, took a pen and dipped it in the ink, 
 saving, " Where shall I sign ?" 
 
 But one or two of the more bigoted of the 
 party exclaimed, " Stay, stay, there are some 
 changes to be made ;" and then a discussion 
 commenced regarding several paragraphs in the 
 petition, some wishing them stronger and more 
 violent, others more moderate and mild. 
 
 George Brooke sat upon thorns ; minute after
 
 S14 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 minute passed by in vain and often frivolous dis- 
 quisitions, while he knew that the avenging sword 
 was suspended over his head but by a hair. 
 The two priests endeavoured to cut short the dis- 
 pute, but without success. What was too strong 
 for one party, was too weak for the other ; and 
 at length Lord Cobham''s brother whispered to 
 the master of the house, " On my life, Mark- 
 ham, if you do not put a stop to this, I must 
 ride on to town. The petition is all nonsense, 
 and can never be presented ; and I have life 
 and death under my doublet." 
 
 " I know it can never be presented," said the 
 shrewd knight in the same low tone ; " but it 
 has been agreed to get the petition drawn up 
 and signed by everybody that we can, throughout 
 the realm, as a sort of muster-roll, that we may 
 know those whom we can call upon in case of 
 need. That is why it is necessary to make it 
 as violent as possible : but what do you mean 
 by having life and death under your doublet ? " 
 
 '' I mean," replied George Brooke, still in 
 a whisper, " that your head and mine, and some 
 dozen others, may depend upon my speaking
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 215 
 
 to you, ^Yitlluut all your Popish rabble, ere five 
 minutes be over. I do not mind the two priests, 
 they are men of sense, and had better hear what 
 I have to say ; but our safety depends upon 
 your getting rid of these long-tongued gentry 
 as fast as possible." 
 
 Markham mused for a minute or two, and then 
 rose, saying, " Gentlemen, as there seems a good 
 deal of difference of opinion to-night, and as 
 Father Watson here has heard all your views, 
 I should propose that he make a fresh draught 
 of the petition, and have it ready against to- 
 morrow night at nine. I dare say he can em- 
 body all your ideas ; and, for my part, what- 
 soever so reverend and devout a priest thinks 
 fit for the occasion I am ready to sign." 
 
 " So am I," cried one, " and so are we all, 
 I dare say ; but — " and, as usual on such occa- 
 sions, there were half-a-dozen *' buts" to be spoken 
 and commented upon, before it was finally settled 
 that Sir Griffin Markham's proposal should be 
 agreed to, and the company had left the house. 
 
 At length, however, the room was cleared, the 
 door closed, and with looks in which the full
 
 2\6 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 anxiety of their hearts was for the first time 
 fully displayed, the knights and the two priests 
 surrounded George Brooke, and eagerly inquired 
 what was the intelligence he had to communi- 
 cate. In reply, he informed them that his bro- 
 ther, Lord Cobham, had ventured to write to the 
 Lady Arabella Stuart, giving her intimation of 
 the plans formed for raising her to the throne, 
 and requiring her consent to the conditions pro- 
 posed by Count Aremberg. He told them also, 
 that as soon as he had heard of this rash step, 
 he had set off post haste to see the lady himself, 
 and to ascertain her feelings, in order to act 
 immediately as the circumstances might require. 
 He then gave an account of the reception he 
 had met with, and ended by saying, " Now, 
 gentlemen, you know the whole affair; what is 
 your judgment regarding it ?''"' 
 
 '' That we are ruined,'' replied Clarke. 
 
 " That she will communicate the whole to 
 the King,'' said Sir Griffin Markham ; "she did 
 so before regarding some overtures I made to 
 her while James was on his way from Scotland. 
 Luckily, she neither knew me nor Watson, who
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 217 
 
 was with me ; and I took the name of the Baron 
 de Mardyke, which put them upon the wrong- 
 scent, for Mardyke, who was over just at the 
 time, quitted England for Nieuport the day after 
 I saw her. Slingsby and Winter, who were sent 
 to watch her messenger, were caught; but Slingsby 
 was hanged for endeavouring to filch the letter, 
 and died silent, knowing that it would do him 
 no good but rather harm to confess his object. 
 Winter, as you all know, was thrown into prison 
 as a Catholic priest, but no other charge was 
 made against him. I fear this is a worse affair.^' 
 " Well — now, having heard your opinions,'' 
 said George Brooke, " I will tell you mine. It 
 is that this sweet lady sent Cobham's letter to 
 the King as soon as ever she received it, some 
 of James''s people were with her even when 
 I was there, doubtless sent over to inquire far- 
 ther. We shall hear more of it ere long ; and 
 the only question is, have we any chance of 
 success by going forward, striking a bold stroke 
 at once, hurrying down with what men we can 
 raise, this very night, to Wilton, seizing James's 
 person, Cecil's, Pembroke's, the Howards, and 
 
 VOL. 1. li
 
 5^18 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 conveying tliem all prisoners to the Tower ? If 
 you judge so, I am ready to draw the sword 
 and throw away the scabbard. I am even willing 
 to put all the Scotch vermin to death, if need 
 should be. — It is timidity alone that ruins great 
 enterprises. If not, the sooner we begin our 
 travels the better, for we shall be much improved 
 by a continental tour." 
 
 " I am for flight," cried Watson ; " if the 
 matter have gone as far as you think, depend 
 upon it all precautions are already taken at the 
 Court." 
 
 " So say I !" exclaimed Clarke ; " the case is 
 hopeless."" 
 
 " I do not know,"" said Sir Griffin Markham 
 thoughtfully, and laying his finger on his fore- 
 head. He paused for a moment or two in con- 
 sideration. Ere his reflections came to an end, 
 however, there was a gentle ring at the great 
 bell, and all the conspirators started and looked 
 towards the door. The next instant there was 
 a sound of scuffling, and voices speaking in the 
 hall. George Brooke threw up the window, and 
 jumped out into the garden upon the banks of
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 219 
 
 the Thames ; but he had not taken two steps 
 "when his coHar was seized on either side, and 
 he was thrown down upon the turf. 
 
 " In the King's name ! '' said a loud voice ; 
 and without making the slightest resistance he 
 was led back into the house. 
 
 He there found the two priests and Sir Griffin 
 Markham in the hands of the officers, with terror 
 and dismay in the countenances of all. Brooke, 
 however, had by this time recovered from his 
 first consternation and surprise, and turning to 
 one of the men who held him, he said, " May 
 I request, sir, if not inconvenient to you, that 
 you would take your hand from my collar ? 
 It is, as you will remark, a Spanish cut, deli- 
 cately laced, ingenious collar, — most likely to 
 suffer from rough fingers. I would not for the 
 world put you to any inconvenience, but still 
 it would be more convenient to me to have my 
 throat at my own command.'"' 
 
 " May it long be so, sir," said the man bluffly, 
 taking off his hand : " I have some doubts of 
 its being so, though." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that," replied George 
 
 L 2
 
 220 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Brooke ; "it is a part of my property which, 
 being the great channel of communication be- 
 tween the custom-house and the receiver-general, 
 I shall be sorry to see stopped or cut off." 
 
 "Ha, ha, ha I""* exclaimed the sergeant, who 
 had some turn for the dry and far-fetched jests 
 of the day ; " I suppose you mean your stomach 
 and your mouth — God send that they may not 
 have a long separation. However, I must do 
 my duty, and carry you to London. We must 
 tie your hands, gentlemen, — there's no help 
 for it." 
 
 "Nay," said George Brooke; "what there's 
 no help for, must be submitted to. — Did you ever 
 see a pig killed on a scouring table ?''"' 
 
 " No sir," answered the man. 
 
 " I am sorry for it," said George Brooke ; " it 
 is an instructive sight. This fat gentleman, sub- 
 mits with all patience, because, as you say, there 
 is no help for it ; but he has his squeak not- 
 withstanding. Nevertheless, you will let us have 
 a cup of wine before we go. On my faith I am 
 both hungry and thirsty ; and if you look at the 
 countenances of those three fair gentlemen op-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 221 
 
 posite, you will see that tliey are somewhat in- 
 commoded at the stomach." 
 
 " Come, come, I can't stay," replied the 
 officer. " You may have some wine when you 
 get to the Tower/' 
 
 " Oh, the Tower ! " said George Brooke ; 
 " we are to be taken there first, are we ?" 
 
 " No, sir — first to Cobham House," answered 
 their captor. 
 
 "Cobham House?'"* exclaimed George Brooke 
 with an aflPectation of surprise. " What, is poor 
 Cobham in the scrape too ? I have sins enough 
 to answer for, so that my only puzzle is, which 
 I am arrested for. But Cobham, poor fellow, is 
 as innocent as a sucking dove." 
 
 " I have a warrant against him for high treason, 
 however," replied the officer ; " and I thought 
 to find him here. But we have been deceived, 
 it seems." 
 
 " Heaven send you the like good fortune for 
 the future !" replied Brooke ; '' but if I must 
 ride, the sooner the better, and if you could 
 spare me the gay bracelets, you talk of, I would 
 give you my word of honour neither to make
 
 ^22 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 use of my own two legs, nor the horse'^s four in 
 anything less seemly than a slow and quiet pro- 
 cession to the Tower." 
 
 *' No, no, Master Lightheart, I can't trust 
 you," replied the officer ; " come, go to business, 
 my masters ;" and, in about five minutes more, 
 Brooke and his companions were mounted, and 
 on their way to London, guarded by a strong 
 party of officers and soldiers. 
 
 The streets of the great city were dull and 
 desolate ; for the plague was raging sadly in the 
 English capital, and not a soul ventured beyond 
 the threshold of his own door, unless driven 
 to do so by urgent business. Passing along 
 one of the once thronged thoroughfares, they at 
 length reached Cobham House ; and, pausing at 
 a little distance from the door, the officer in 
 command dismounted with two or three of his 
 men, and, approaching with a quiet step, rang 
 the bell. A burly porter instantly appeared ; and 
 two other servants were seen slumbering on either 
 side of the empty fire-place. Everything be- 
 tokened feelings of security ; but when the porter 
 saw by the dresses of those without, the nature
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 228 
 
 of their calling and object, he would fain have 
 banged the door to, in the chief officer's face. 
 
 Experience, however, had taught the latter to 
 provide against all such contingencies ; and the 
 moment that the large mass of wood rolled back, 
 he had put his foot against it, so as to frustrate 
 the porter'*s efforts at once. 
 
 " Here, Harrington," he said, " keep these 
 good fellows under arrest, while I and the others 
 go up to speak to my Lord Cobham." 
 
 His orders were obeyed immediately ; and 
 several of his followers entered and took pos- 
 session of the hall, forbidding any one to stir 
 on pain of death. The chief officer and three 
 others in the meantime advanced straight up stairs 
 10 the small room where we have seen a con- 
 ference held between Lord Cobham and Count 
 Aremberg. The chamber was vacant, however ; 
 and walking on to a door that was ajar on the 
 opposite side, the officers passed through an 
 anteroom to another door, which they opened 
 unceremoniously. There they found the noble- 
 man they sought, sitting quietly reading in a 
 dressing-gown.
 
 224 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " Good evening, my lord,'' said the chief 
 officer ; "I am afraid you must come with us. 
 I have a warrant to convey you to the Tower." 
 
 Cobham started up with a face as pale as 
 death. " This is Raleigh's doing !" he cried : 
 " the villain — the traitor, — this is all Raleigh's 
 doing ! I thought he would betray me — out upon 
 the false-hearted knave !" 
 
 " Well, my lord," replied the man ; " you 
 and he must settle that together. He 's by this 
 time safe enough ; and now you had better put 
 on your coat, for we have no time to spare." 
 
 Cobham obeyed slowly, pausing every minute 
 to pour forth invectives upon Raleigh, and to 
 give way to all the wild and incoherent excla- 
 mations that rage and despair could suggest. At 
 tlie end of about a quarter of an hour, however, 
 he was conveyed into the street, and, being taken 
 down to the bank of the river, was placed in a 
 boat with the other prisoners, and borne rapidly 
 onward to the dark and fatal Tower of London. 
 Cobham would fain have spoken with his brother ; 
 and George Brooke tried more than once to give 
 the peer a hint for his guidance ; but silence was
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 225 
 
 imposed upon them by the guard, and they were 
 placed as far from each other as possible, till at 
 length the barge was rowed slowly towards the 
 landing-place.
 
 226 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " I MUST see the King, Master Graves," said 
 William Seymour on the afternoon of the day, 
 some of the events of which we have just recorded, 
 " and that immediately if it be possible." 
 
 " You cannot have speech of him now, sir,'' 
 replied the usher. " His Majesty is deep in 
 consultation with Lord Essendon."" 
 
 " Lord Essendon r exclaimed William Sey- 
 mour ; " who may that be ? — Oh, Sir Robert 
 Cecil, I suppose ; but, nevertheless, Master 
 Graves, I must beg you to inform his Majesty 
 that I am here, and have something important 
 to communicate to him.**' 
 
 After considerable hesitation, the usher quitted 
 the antechamber and entered the King's closet. 
 The door was partly left open behind him, and 
 Seymour heard the Monarch's voice engaged in
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 221 
 
 instructing Cecil in the art and mystery of 
 removing the dew-claws of deer-hounds. Never- 
 theless, he appeared not a little disturbed by 
 the interruption of this important disquisition, 
 said first, that the gentleman must wait, asked 
 what need he had to be in such a hurry; and 
 at length, being informed that his business was 
 of importance, he bade the usher show him in, 
 adding with a horribly blasphemous oath, "Let 
 liim come in, then, let him come in ; but if I 
 find he interrupts my council without cause, I 
 will have his ears slit.'*'' 
 
 The blood came up into Seymour^'s face as lie 
 heard those words, and he walked slowly and with 
 a stern brow into the King's presence, as soon 
 as the usher threw back the door to give him 
 admission. 
 
 " Well now, man, well,"'* cried James shuffling 
 himself impatiently to the other side of his chair, 
 " what 's the matter now, that you must disturb 
 us, when in deep consultation on matters of impor- 
 tance ? — What, is this all ?" he continued taking 
 up a letter which Seymour placed before liini 
 *' The lassie'*s epistle might well have waited for
 
 228 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 a more convenient season. We will criticise it at 
 our leisure. Her style is not amiss, and deserves 
 correction. — You may go, sir ; but you must 
 learn not to intrude with trifles upon a King 
 who has more serious matters to think of."" 
 
 " The lady informed me, sire," replied Sey- 
 mour, " that the letter was of the utmost con- 
 sequence. She made me promise to deliver it 
 into your Majesty's own hand, and not to lose 
 a moment till I did so."' 
 
 " That 's the way with all these women," said 
 James throwing down the letter upon the table ; 
 " they think that the merest trifle about them — 
 a pair of gloves, or a pot of perfume — is as much 
 as the safety of a kingdom, or a fundamental point 
 of doctrine." 
 
 " The Lady Arabella said, sire," answered 
 Seymour, taking a step towards the door, " that 
 the letter concerned your Majesty's safety, and 
 the welfare of the State." 
 
 " Ha .'—what ?— What 's that ye say, sir.?" 
 exclaimed the King, snatching up the letter again 
 with a nervous twitching of the face. " Our
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 229 
 
 immediate safety ? — Stay man, stay,"" and he 
 opened the letter in haste. 
 
 " Oddslife !" he cried when he had read it, 
 and before he had opened the enclosure, " she 's 
 a good lassie, and has a tender regard for our 
 sacred person, with all due humility on her part. 
 Read what she says, my lord, while we peruse 
 the enclosed." 
 
 Cecil took the letter from the King's hand, 
 and examined the contents attentively, but, with 
 his usual cool and impenetrable look, showing not 
 the slightest emotion of any kind. In the mean- 
 while the King read through from beginning 
 to end the letter from Lord Cobham, which 
 Arabella had enclosed, without making any re- 
 mark till he came to the conclusion, when he 
 said, " Just so, just so, this is full confirmation.""* 
 
 " Perhaps, sire, Mr. Seymour had better retire 
 for a little,"*' observed Cecil. 
 
 " No need, man, no need,"*"* replied James ; 
 "he''s a discreet young man, and will not divulge 
 the King's counsel. What think ye of this 
 affair, my lord ?""
 
 2S0 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " The lady seems to treat it very lightly, sire,**' 
 replied his councillor ; " she evidently looks upon 
 the whole matter as a scurvy jest." 
 
 "Ay does she ? and rightly," said the King, 
 " as far as she is personally concerned ; but ye 
 see when she comes to speak of our safety she 
 takes up a very different tone, saying, ' What- 
 ever affects your Majesty, however, immediately 
 grows into a matter of such importance, that 
 although I cannot help regarding what this lord 
 has written to me as even more foolish than 
 wicked, and in fact only to be laughed at, yet 
 I will venture to send the letter to your Ma- 
 jesty/ She might have spared that word ;" 
 observed the King, looking up to William Sey- 
 mour. '* You must tell her, sir, always to 
 attend to the euphony of her sentences; and 
 there is nothing that destroys it so much as tau- 
 tology, producing a cacophony very unpleasant 
 to the ear ; " — and turning to the letter again, 
 he read on, " ' trusting that you will rather for- 
 give an over zeal, though it be troublesome, 
 than a neglect of duty.** — That's not amiss, 
 my lord, we have nothing to reprove in that
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 231 
 
 phrase. Now, sir, what think ye ought to be 
 done ?" and he looked slily in Cecil's face with 
 an expression which the minister did not com- 
 prehend. 
 
 *' I should suggest your Majesty," replied 
 Cecil, " under correction of your wisdom, that 
 a warrant should be immediately issued for the 
 apprehension of this Lord Cobham Though it is 
 usual to call the Council together upon such 
 an occasion, yet your Majesty'^s undoubted pre- 
 rogative and the necessity of haste, well overstep 
 such ceremonies." 
 
 " True, my lord, true,"" said James, " for 
 if a rat-catcher lets all his dogs run on before 
 him, he'*ll not gripe many of the long-tailed 
 gentry that frequent the holes and corners of old 
 houses." 
 
 ''Assuredly, sire,"" replied Cecil gravely. 
 
 " Do ye not think it 's better," continued 
 the King, '' for him to go quietly and secretly 
 to work, peering into this hole, and that, and 
 catching a beast here and a beast there, and 
 baiting his traps artificially with a piece of cheese 
 or a piece of bacon as the case may be, without
 
 232 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 even whispering in the cat's ear to take care 
 where she puts her paws ! '' 
 
 " Beyond all doubt, sire," answered Cecil, 
 " that is the most expedient course." 
 
 " Well, man, well," cried James bursting 
 into a fit of laughter, " I am the rat-catcher, and 
 by this time I trust I have gotten all the brutes 
 safe in the trap." 
 
 " Practised as Cecil was in the ways of a 
 Court, powerful as was his command over his 
 own countenance, he could not refrain from an 
 expression of some surprise not unmingled with 
 curiosity as to the monarch's meaning. As the 
 intention of James, however, was evidently to 
 astonish him, the courtier may have perhaps 
 displayed even more than he felt, when he ex- 
 claimed aloud, " Your Majesty fills me with won- 
 der, — I cannot tell what you mean." 
 
 " We will tell thee, we will tell thee," cried 
 James, " we will expound the matter, my good 
 Lord Secretary. Here is a list of certain gen- 
 tlemen," and he produced a paper, not the most 
 cleanly in its appearance, which he proceeded to 
 read, saying, '' The Lord Cobham, the Lord
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 233 
 
 Grey de Wilton, Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, 
 Sir Griffin Markham, Sir Edward Parham, — both 
 Knights, — Master George Brooke, Master Copely, 
 Fathers Watson and Clarke. There's a goodly 
 list containing some of the most ill-ordered men 
 in the kingdom. Two Popish priests, a Puritan, 
 an Atheist, three or four free-thinkers and 
 libertines, and all traitors. Now, if God have 
 any mercy left for this poor realm of ours, all 
 these rats, man, are by this time in the Tower, 
 by virtue of a warrant under our hand despatched, 
 yesterday evening at four of the clock.'' 
 
 " I can scarcely believe my ears, sire," ex- 
 claimed Cecil. " How might your Majesty's 
 wisdom discover this affair ? " 
 
 " Ay that 's a secret, man, that 's a secret," 
 cried the King, " and by — " and he used one of 
 his usual blasphemous oaths of a very terrible 
 and disgusting sort, " I will never tell how I 
 discovered it. But it is just so, Cecil ; and had 
 this girl not thought fit to let us know the trea- 
 sonable practices of these men towards her, she 
 might have brought suspicion on herself. You 
 see, mv lord, that this letter of the Lord Cobham,
 
 234/ ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 is dated the evening before last, at five post meri- 
 dian. Now she could not well get it till this 
 morning." 
 
 " I found her in great tribulation, sire," said 
 William Seymour, " and she said she was glad 
 to find a messenger she could trust. Master 
 George Brooke, too, whom your Majesty has 
 just named, called while I was there, but the 
 Lady Arabella refused to see him, and sent him 
 away with a short answer." 
 
 " Ha ! " exclaimed the King, " she should 
 not have done that, she should have admitted him 
 to her presence, given him soft words, and lured 
 him gently to display all his evil intentions and 
 secret machinations." 
 
 " Perhaps, sire," said William Seymour, with 
 more respect in his tone than he really felt 
 in his heart, " she might think that therein she 
 might have trenched upon your Majesty's peculiar 
 province ; for nobody I should think is so com- 
 petent to carry on such a keen and subtle inves- 
 tigation as yourself." 
 
 Cecil gave a sharp glance at him, to see if 
 he felt the keen satire of his own speech, or if
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 235 
 
 on the contrary he had uttered it in simplicity. 
 William Seymour's face, however, was perfectly 
 calm and grave ; and the King, according to his 
 custom, took nothing but the complimentary part 
 to himself." 
 
 " True, sir, true," he cried, " a very discreet 
 observation, and doubtless the young lady judged 
 rightly in leaving the matter in our hands. We 
 are, it must be confessed, not insignificantly 
 astute in discovering the designs of conspirators. 
 We have had, to our sorrow, much experience in 
 such matters, our good people of Scotland being 
 a somewhat unruly and self-willed race, with very 
 little reverence for anything, especially for kings, 
 though they should know that a monarch, being 
 anointed of the Lord, is in fact God"'s Vicegerent 
 on earth, to whom all men owe obedience and 
 honour." 
 
 Seymour merely bowed his head ; but Cecil 
 enlarged upon the theme, and expressed without 
 any reservation his wish that people would a 
 little more consider whence the authority of 
 kings was derived. 
 
 '• Wait a little, wait a little," cried James,
 
 2S6 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " we will indoctrinate them, and, if there be any 
 sense left in the world, will show them from Scrip- 
 ture on what the prerogative of a monarch is 
 founded. And so, Cecil, I can see you would 
 fain know whence came our information regarding 
 this plot — Ye '11 never divine, man. It 's a secret 
 for our own keeping. But this much 1 11 tell ye, 
 that it came from neither an Englishman nor a 
 Scot, a Frenchman nor an Italian, a Spaniard nor 
 a Hollander. Now go to and con your riddle."" 
 
 " It is beyond my capacity, sire," replied 
 Cecil, " and it only remains for me to inquire 
 what your majesty would have farther done." 
 
 " They must all be tried, man, they must all 
 be tried," said King James, " but the plague 
 being still in London, we will have them brought 
 to Winchester. Though it may be as well to 
 have the man called Markham and the two 
 priests fetched hither ; for we would fain ask our 
 fair cousin Arabella whether they are the men she 
 saw in Cambridgeshire." 
 
 " May not that be better done at the trial, 
 sire ? " asked Cecil, who would fain have pre-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 237 
 
 vented the king, if possible, from stepping out of 
 the usual course of proceeding. 
 
 *•' No, no, man," cried James, " we will have 
 it so. A little preliminary investigation by 
 ourselves will save the lawyers a great deal of 
 trouble. And you, sir,"" he continued, addressing 
 William Seymour, " as you have behaved your- 
 self very discreetly in this affair, shall go over on 
 the Wednesday morning, — was it not Wednes- 
 day, we said ? — with another gentleman, to escort 
 the Lady Arabella to our Court. What, sir, you 
 do not look pleased ! " 
 
 William Seymour who, to say truth, was only 
 displeased at having any one else joined with him 
 in the commission, immediately replied, *' I 
 am here only to obey your Majesty's command, 
 and am always well pleased to do so." 
 
 " That is right, sir, that is right,"' said the 
 King, " always act as wisely as you have done 
 in this, and you shall have advancement ; — you 
 may now retire." 
 
 Seymour gladly obeyed the monarch's com- 
 mands ; for though he was of a loyal race and dis- 
 position, it was very difficult to keep up a remem-
 
 238 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 brance of what is always due to a monarch for his 
 very office sake, in the presence of one whose cha- 
 racter as well as his demeanour, whose acts as well 
 as his person, had so little in them to secure 
 respect. He had pleasant anticipations before 
 him, however ; and the rest of the evening was 
 passed in thinking of the sweet task appointed 
 for the following Wednesday, or in building 
 airy structures, with the aid of those master 
 architects, Hope and Imagination. 
 
 Alas ! how often does it happen that the events 
 to which we look forward with the brightest 
 expectations^ which seem to our eyes full of 
 coming joy, are fraught with sorrow and disaster ! 
 We must not exactly say, that the day to which 
 Seymour stretched the longing eyes of love and 
 hope, proved the most unfortunate in his life, for 
 such was not the case. There was a far darker 
 and more fatal one beyond ; but still the events 
 it brought forth were amongst the most un- 
 pleasant which had yet befallen him in life. 
 
 The morning of that Wednesday dawned 
 brightly ; the sky was clear and serene ; there 
 was sufficient air to refresh the traveller as he
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 239 
 
 rode along ; and William Seymour, followed by 
 his own servants, and accompanied by Sir Lewis 
 Lewkenor, who held the office of Master of the 
 Ceremonies at the King's Court, proceeded at a 
 quick pace, to the temporary residence of the 
 Lady Arabella Stuart. 
 
 They found her dressed and waiting for them, 
 her servants all prepared, and her own horse 
 saddled, and at the door. She could not refrain 
 from greeting Seymour with more warmth than 
 a mere stranger^ and, to say the truth, her 
 countenance fell a little at the sight of his com- 
 panion ; for she had hoped that they might enjoy, 
 during their two hours ride, some of that private 
 conversation which they had now but too few 
 opportunities of obtaining. Sir Lewis, perhaps, 
 remarked this difference of manner towards him- 
 self and Seymour, with whom he had been giving 
 himself some airs of importance as they came 
 along, to which the young gentleman, occupied 
 with his own thoughts, had paid but little atten- 
 tion. The knight, at all events, chose the moment 
 of their departure for the display of his official 
 consequence ; and when Arabella, after taking
 
 240 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 leave of her aunt, approached the side of her 
 horse, in order to rnoun*, he advanced as of right 
 to assist her. But Seymour took one step for- 
 ward between him and the lady, and, wdth a 
 light and easy hand, lifted her at once to the 
 saddle. 
 
 " Sir, I do not understand what you mean 
 by this ! "" exclaimed Sir Lewis ; " you take too 
 much upon yourself, and forget that it is my right 
 to place the lady on her horse, as one of the 
 chief officers of his Majesty's household." 
 
 Seymour turned towards him with a look of 
 surprise not unmingled with anger and scorn. 
 
 '' It is you who forget yourself. Sir Lewis 
 Lewkenor,"" he replied : " pray remember to 
 whom you speak, and do not forget that you are 
 but a petty gentleman, somewhat honoured by 
 the King, but not fitted to put yourself ypon a 
 par with the old nobility of this realm." 
 
 " Sir," exclaimed the knight, in a fierce tone, 
 which he strove in vain to moderate, " it is on 
 the rights of my office that I stand ; and I tell 
 you that you have done what you ought not to 
 have done, even had you been a much more
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 2il 
 
 important person than you are or ever will 
 be." 
 
 " The question of the rights of your office, sir," 
 answered Seymour, " will easily be settled by 
 a reference to his Majesty. In regard to my 
 own station, I should think I lowered it, even 
 by bringing it into comparison with Sir Lewis 
 Lewkenor. But to end this dispute, as you 
 must see it is painful to the lady, let me say that 
 to me first the King assigned the task of escorting 
 her to Wilton ; and I should be neglecting my 
 duty to myself and her, and forgetting that the 
 same blood runs in my veins and those of his 
 Majesty, as well as showing myself wanting in 
 respect to him who gave me the commission, if 
 I yielded precedence to any simple knight. — If you 
 think I do wrong, you can report the case to his 
 Majesty." 
 
 While he had been speaking, he had put his 
 foot in the stirrup ; and now, springing into the 
 saddle, he placed himself on Arabella's right. 
 The Lady paused a moment for Sir Lewis to 
 mount, and the whole party then issued forth 
 from the gates. For about two miles they con- 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 24^2 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 tinned in the same order, Seymour speedily for- 
 getting the little dispute that had occurred, and 
 talking at first gravely, but after a time more 
 gaily with Arabella ; while Sir Lewis Lewkenor, 
 on her left, maintained a sombre and angry silence, 
 working himself up into fury at the indignity 
 which he supposed was put upon him. 
 
 At length, however, he suddenly brought 
 round his horse, pushed it violently between that 
 of Seymour and the lady's jennet, and exclaimed ; 
 " My post is on the right, sir ; and I will not 
 give it up to any man — though he be the grand- 
 son of a saucy Earl, who once well nigh lost his 
 head for his presumption." 
 
 Seymour's eyes flashed fire ; and he had seized 
 the bridle of the knight's horse, when Arabella 
 interposed. " I beseech, I intreat ! " she cried ; 
 "Oh, Mr. Seymour, do noo show yourself so in- 
 temperate as this person, who certainly strangely 
 forgets himself, to do such things in my pre- 
 sence." 
 
 William Seymour was calm in a moment. 
 The angry light passed away from his eyes ; he 
 let go the bridle of Sir Lewis Lewkenor's horse,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 248 
 
 and turning his own rein, rode round upon 
 Arabella's left hand. A painful pause of a few 
 minutes then succeeded ; but, after a slight effort, 
 the lover mastered the feelings of indignation in 
 his heart, and resumed his conversation with her 
 he loved, gradually returning to the easy and 
 unconstrained tone in which he had before been 
 speaking ; so that the lady fancied he would easily 
 forget all the offence which had been given. 
 Women''s hearts are generally forgiving, except 
 on one or two points ; and they are ever inclined 
 to believe that those of men are equally placable 
 with their own. It is, perhaps, a happy error, and 
 yet it is a great one. William Seymour felt him- 
 self insulted ; and he was not one to pass over 
 an insult, though he might forget an injury. 
 
 The ride onward, on his part, passed in perfect 
 tranquillity ; while, on the side of Sir Lewis 
 Lewkenor, nought was displayed but that silent 
 and dogged sullenness, which rarely fails to mark 
 the conduct of one who feels that he has been 
 both wrong and disagreeable. 
 
 They at length reached the splendid mansion 
 of Wilton to which their steps were directed, and 
 
 M 2
 
 244. ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Se}T:nour, springing from his horse, lifted Arabella 
 from the saddle. Their angry companion did not 
 interfere, but bowed low as she turned to depart ; 
 while Seymour kissed her hand, with the admitted 
 gallantry of the time, and followed her to the door, 
 as if he were going to enter with her. The mo- 
 ment he saw her within the hall, and led for- 
 ward by the royal servants, however, he turned 
 hastily upon his steps, and approached Sir Lewis 
 Lewkenor, who was talking to one of the grooms. 
 *' I must have the honour of speaking to you 
 for a moment, sir," he said, with a low inclination 
 of the head. 
 
 The knight looked somewhat surprised, but 
 followed him to a little distance, and then paused, 
 demanding in a much more placable tone, " What 
 is it, Mr. Seymour ? " 
 
 ••' Simply, sir," replied the young gentleman, 
 " that you must be aware, such conduct as you 
 have displayed towards me this day, must be ac- 
 counted for." 
 
 " I protest, sir," replied the knight, " that I 
 have stood but upon the prerogative of my office ; 
 and of that his Majesty must decide."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 245 
 
 '■' Certainly/"* replied Seymour ; " but you have 
 also used words with which the King can have 
 no concern. You termed me the grandson of a 
 saucy Earl, who had once nearly lost his liead 
 for his presumption. The man who used such 
 terms was a liar ; and the man who ventures to be 
 insolent under the protection of a lady's presence, 
 but shrinks from the weight of what he has said 
 when she is gone, is a coward. I trust, sir, you are 
 not of the latter class, and I maintain you to be of 
 the former. It will, therefore, become you to fol- 
 low me, if you have no urgent business that may 
 detain you." 
 
 Sir Lewis Lewkenor was by no means a timid 
 man ; and though perhaps he would have given 
 not a little to have been able with propriety to 
 retract his words, yet the false laws of honour 
 would not permit him to do so ; and he con- 
 sequently replied, " I am with you, sir ; but 
 perhaps you are unaware, that any one who draws 
 a sword within the precincts of the Royal resi- 
 dence, subjects himself to severe punishment."" 
 
 " I am fully aware of the fact,**' replied Wil- 
 liam Se}Ti'iour; "and I neither intend to expose
 
 246 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 you nor myself to such consequences ; but a short 
 walk after our long ride will do us no harm ; 
 and if you do not object, we will retread our steps 
 towards a solitary oak, which you may remember 
 we passed but now. It is beyond the limits, 
 I think ; and though I must certainly apologize 
 for the trouble I give you, in making so long an 
 excursion, I trust you will forgive me, seeing 
 that I have no choice." 
 
 " Well, sir, well ! I will not disappoint you,"''' 
 said the knight. " It is certainly beyond the 
 precincts of the Court, and I am with you when 
 you please." 
 
 " I will accompany you this moment," replied 
 Seymour, " we shall be missed if we stay long, — 
 my sword, I think, is somewhat shorter than 
 yours ; so that there is no advantage on my 
 side." 
 
 " Nor any on mine," answered the knight. 
 '' Shall we go on foot or on horseback ?" 
 
 " On foot by all means," replied Seymour, 
 " our beasts are too much exhausted to do good 
 service. Will you walk ? I am ready."" 
 
 " Your most humble servant,.'' answered Sir
 
 ARABELLA STUART. ^^T 
 
 Lewis ; and with these courteous words, they set 
 out side by side, forbidding the servants to follow, 
 and taking their way towards the oak tree Sey- 
 mour had mentioned, with every appearance of 
 amity and good will upon their countenances.
 
 248 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 In the great drawing-room of Lord Pembroke's 
 house at Wilton, sat the King and Queen of 
 England, offering a strange contrast to each other, 
 both in person and manners ; she, in the beauty, 
 grace, and suavity, for which she was famous, and 
 which won the hearts of her husband's people ; and 
 he, in the ungainly ugliness, awkwardness, and 
 pride, which regal state only served to render more 
 prominent and remarkable. They were surround- 
 ed by a brilliant court, though not a very ample 
 one ; for the fears entertained of the plague, which 
 was then raging in England, induced the monarch 
 to keep, at a distance, a great number of the 
 principal nobles of the land. But the taste of 
 the Queen for splendour, and the love of the 
 King for fine clothing, not on his own person, but 
 on his favourites, ensured that the most costly
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 249 
 
 Stuffs and the richest hues should be displayed 
 around him, as if for a contrast to his own slovenly 
 and ill-fashioned garments. 
 
 With all her popular qualities, Anne of Den- 
 mark had, as is well-known, not only a strong 
 but a somewhat passionate spirit ; and there was 
 a heightened spot in her fair cheek which showed 
 to those who knew her, that something had 
 gone wrong between her husband and herself. 
 Nothing had, indeed, occurred in public to in- 
 dicate what was the occasion of quarrel, for the 
 Court was merely assembled to receive the ad- 
 dress of some neighbouring town, the King hav- 
 ing been induced to admit the deputation, not 
 without much persuasion and argument. 
 
 His demeanour to the worthy mayor and 
 aldermen had been cold and repulsive, while that 
 of Anne had been full of gracious condescension 
 and kindness. The King had made an harangue 
 after his style, in which he set forth the rights of 
 kings, and dwelt much more upon his own autho- 
 rity and dignity, than upon the loyalty of his peo- 
 ple generally, or that of the Corporation before him 
 in particular ; and the deputation retired delighted
 
 250 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 with the manners and appearance of the Queen, 
 but somewhat sick and disgusted with his Majesty, 
 and utterly at a loss to know what he meant 
 by the long disquisition into which he had 
 entered. 
 
 The moment they were gone, James began 
 to fidget in his seat, looked twice round to the 
 face of Arabella Stuart, who stood on the left 
 hand of the Queen's chair, and then gave a nod 
 to one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, 
 saying, in a low voice, '' Now bring them in, 
 bring them in." 
 
 '' I wonder what nonsense is to be enacted 
 now ?"" said Anne of Denmark, addressing Ara- 
 bella in a whisper, and in the Italian tongue, 
 which, notwithstanding her northern extraction, 
 she spoke much more fluently than English. 
 " The king has some surprise in store — ^He is 
 too fond of this stage effect." 
 
 " I really do not know," replied Arabella, 
 whose cheek was pale, and her voice faint. " I 
 hope and trust he is not going to enter upon 
 the affair of that unfortunate quarrel, which I 
 mentioned to your Majesty. I fear it may be
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 251 
 
 SO, for he insisted upon my being present to-day, 
 though I felt unwell, and little equal to the task. 
 Neither do I see Sir Lewis Lewkenor nor Mr. 
 Seymour present." 
 
 " We shall soon know," answered the Queen ; 
 " but don't be alarmed, poor child ; I will quiet 
 the matter. But who are these, they are bring- 
 ing in ? — No, this is some other aifair." 
 
 As she spoke, two officers with several hal- 
 berdiers, entered the room, escorting three men 
 evidently prisoners, for though their limbs were 
 at liberty, they wore neither sword nor dag- 
 ger, as was customary for all gentlemen in 
 those days, while, before and after each walked 
 an armed soldier of the guard. 
 
 " There, there," cried the King, " bring them 
 not too near — that will do ; let them stand there. 
 Show your faces, sirs, so that this lady may 
 see them. Now, Lady Arabella, look at these 
 men well, and tell me if any of them were 
 amongst those who accompanied the Baron de 
 Mardyke — whom you once told me of, and who 
 has since fled from England — when he began 
 broaching to you treason, at a time when we had
 
 252 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 scarce crossed the border to take possession of the 
 throne, which descended to us by hereditary 
 right. — Why, what ails the lassie ? She 's as 
 white as a Holland sheet, and shaking like a 
 man in an ague !" 
 
 " Oh, sire, I do beseech you," exclaimed 
 Arabella ; " do not force me to become a wit- 
 ness against any of these misguided men. I 
 did hope and trust that, in dealing openly with 
 your Majesty, as in duty bound, and in con- 
 cealing nothing, even when it seemed to me 
 trifling, which affected your Majesty's sacred 
 rights, you would spare me, and not force me 
 to take any farther part in matters that might 
 doom them to death. Surely your Majesty's 
 own wisdom and judgment, is sufficient to con- 
 demn or exculpate them without my having any 
 share in it." 
 
 As she spoke, she held her eyes resolutely 
 down, while Sir Griffin Markham, who stood in 
 the front, fixed on her a keen and anxious glance, 
 knowing how much it would aggravate his crime, 
 if it could be proved that he was the very first 
 to move in the treason, for which he was now a
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 2oS 
 
 prisoner, and that he had twice put himself 
 forward to oppose the King's title to the crown. 
 
 " Nonsense !" cried the King ; *' we must first 
 know the truth, madam, before ^ye can judge of 
 it. — Look at them this minute, I say. — We 
 have examined them ourselves this morning, and 
 must hear whether their story be true — what 
 are you afraid of?" 
 
 " She is afraid, to be sure,"" said Anne of Den- 
 mark, interposing, " of being called hereafter into 
 a rude court of justice, questioned by brutal 
 lawyers, exposed to the gaze of the rabble, and 
 all those things to which a lady of her rank and 
 age ought not to be subjected." 
 
 " If that be all," said Cecil, taking a step 
 forward, " I know his Majesty does not propose 
 that the Lady Arabella should be called as a 
 witness on the trial ; and, of course, to satisfy his 
 Majesty upon the point in question, here in pri- 
 vate, she can have no hesitation. — The King will 
 not be satisfied," he added in a low tone to 
 Anne of Denmark, while James called one of 
 the ushers to him, and made him arrange the 
 prisoners in a line ; *' the King will not be
 
 254^ ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 satisfied, without an answer ; and the sooner this 
 scene is over the better."" 
 
 " Now look at the men, lady,"' said James, 
 as soon as he saw that the culprits were disposed 
 according to his pedantic notions of regularity, 
 '* and answer my question." 
 
 "I did not hear it rightly, sire," answered 
 Arabella, still hesitating and trembling. 
 
 " Then you should make better use of your 
 luggs," cried the monarch sharply. " I told 
 you to look at these three men, and say whe- 
 ther you saw either of them with the Baron de 
 Mardyke, who has fled from England, what time 
 he held some conversation with you in Cambridge- 
 shire, for I find by faithful witnesses that they 
 were all in those parts about that time." 
 
 Arabella raised her eyes timidly, and gazed 
 at the three prisoners, while Sir Griffin Mark- 
 ham turned as pale as death, and the two priests 
 looked sternly down upon the ground. The 
 lady's eyes first turned upon Watson, and then 
 upon Clarke, the latter of whom had indeed 
 been at the inn on the occasion referred to. Be- 
 ing one of those, however, who had remained
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 255 
 
 behind in the kitchen, while she had conversed 
 with the knight in the next room, and had sat with 
 his back towards her, as she passed out again, 
 the glance she had had of his features was very- 
 slight. She then turned towards Markham, and 
 her heart beat quick when she recognised the 
 person who had assumed the name of the Baron 
 de Mardyke. Immediately after, however, the 
 terms of the King's question came back to her 
 mind, and though her pure, high heart dreaded 
 the thought of prevarication, she did not feel 
 herself bound to do more than answer it exactly 
 as it stood. 
 
 "• T do not see any one, sire," she replied, after 
 a moment's consideration, " who I can be sure 
 was with the Baron de Mardyke on the occasion 
 to which your Majesty refers. Two of their 
 faces I have seen somewhere before, but — " 
 
 " Come, come," cried the King, interrupting 
 her ; " we must have a clearer answer. Mistress 
 Arabel. Take them one by one. — Stand forward, 
 Father Watson, — though why we should call 
 you Father I don't know. Now, lady, is this 
 man one of them ?"
 
 2o6 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " I never saw his face before," replied Ara- 
 bella. 
 
 " Now, Father Clarke,'*'' continued the King, 
 "it''s your turn now;''"' and, as the Priest came 
 forward, James turned his eyes to Arabella'*s 
 face. 
 
 " Somewhere I have seen this gentleman," she 
 said, after gazing at him attentively ; " but I 
 do not by any means know that it was there — 
 it might have been anywhere else as well." 
 
 The King looked dissatisfied, and lolled his 
 tongue about in his mouth. 
 
 " Now, Sir Griffin Markham," he cried ; and 
 at the sound of his name Arabella started with 
 a feeling of relief, while the King turned to her, 
 inquiring, " Well, what do you say to him .^" 
 
 Arabella gazed on him steadfastly, and then 
 replied, " In this case I am quite sure, sire, that 
 this gentleman, who you say is Sir Griffin Mark- 
 ham, was not with the Baron de Mardyke at that 
 time." 
 
 The lips of the prisoner moved without giving 
 utterance to any sound, but he said in his heart.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 257 
 
 " If I live, lady, I will not forget your conduct 
 this day, and will repay it." 
 
 Arabella felt her heart sink ; for though what 
 she said was literally true, yet it was calculated 
 to mislead ; and she loved not to do so, even to 
 save a fellow creature's life. 
 
 " There, take them away, take them away," 
 cried the King, disappointed, for he had fancied 
 that his skill and dexterity had puzzled out a 
 connexion between the schemes formerly revealed 
 to him by his fair cousin, and those in which 
 Lord Cobham had been lately engaged. " Away 
 with them, away with them ! — and now we will 
 proceed to that other business." 
 
 " I beseech you, sir," said Anne of Denmark, 
 as the prisoners were removed from the room ; 
 " to suffer me and these ladies to retire if you 
 have any more such matters to inquire into. 
 They neither please nor befit us ; and our fair 
 cousin here is not so well as to endure such 
 things with safety." 
 
 " Ay, but she must stay, she must stay," cried 
 the King ; " for this is a matter, regarding which,
 
 258 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 she only can speak. Call Mr. Seymour here, 
 and Sir Lewis Lewkenor. We must hear how 
 all this befel." 
 
 "I beseech you, sire, let me go," said Arabella. 
 " I have been frightened and agitated already 
 this morning, by the quarrel of these gentlemen. 
 I have been also agitated by the questions your 
 Majesty has asked. I have told you all that 
 occurred." 
 
 " No, no, that wonH do," cried James ; " you 
 must repeat it here in order. "" 
 
 " Then let me do so, sire, at once," said 
 Arabella. " The first dispute was which should 
 place me on my horse, and Mr. Seymour having 
 done so, Sir Lewis reproached him for taking 
 what he called his place, saying that his office 
 in your Majesty's Court entitled him to it. Mr. 
 Seymour replied, however, that your commands 
 to escort me were first given to him ; that his 
 rank, and the fact of his bearing in his veins the 
 same blood as your Majesty, however distantly, 
 gave him precedence over any simple knight, and 
 that he should think he was wanting even in
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 259 
 
 duty to you if lie did not take upon him the 
 post which you had assigned him.""* 
 
 " Well, what more, what more ?"' cried the 
 King, just as William Seymour, followed by an 
 usher, entered the drawing-room, and approached 
 the circle. " There were after words, I think ? '' 
 
 " But few, sire," replied Arabella, the warm 
 blood coming u]) into her cheek ; " Mr. Sey- 
 mour rode for some way on my right hand, 
 while Sir Lewis on the left seemed sullen and 
 discontented. At length, however, he came 
 round and insisted that Mr. Seymour should give 
 up that place to him." 
 
 " There he was wrong," cried the King ; 
 " there he was wrong ; what more, lady ?''"' 
 
 " Really I cannot justly tell, sire," replied Ara- 
 bella ; " I was much frightened, and not a little 
 displeased ; and after some sharp words between 
 the two gentlemen Mr. Seymour yielded, I think 
 out of pity to me, and came to the other side." 
 
 ^' There he was right," said James. " But 
 where is Sir Lewis Lewkenor ? have you called 
 him, usher ?"
 
 260 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " He is in bed, your Majesty," said the usher, 
 " and humbly begged your Majesty would excuse 
 him." 
 
 " In bed ?" exclaimed the King ; " why what 
 ails him ? He has not got the plague, has he ? " 
 
 " No, your Majesty," replied the usher; ''he's 
 somewhat badly wounded in the shoulder." 
 
 " T found myself bound, sire," said William 
 Seymour, taking a step forward, " to punish a 
 personage, who thought fit to use towards me 
 words unbecoming a gentleman to give or to re- 
 ceive ; and who had, moreover, paid no respect 
 either to my rank and station, to my distant 
 relationship to your Majesty, or to your own 
 will in naming me the first to escort the Lady 
 Arabella hither." 
 
 " And so ye have fought ?" cried the King, 
 opening his large eyes, and gaping upon him 
 with his mouth, as if in utter astonishment ; " and 
 so ye have fought — My truly ! ye are a graceless 
 pack ; and if ye have drawn your swords within 
 the precincts of our Court, ye shall both suffer 
 accordingly." 
 
 " No sire," replied Seymour; "we took care
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 261 
 
 not so to offend. But immediately on our re- 
 turn, we went beyond the park walls to a spot 
 about a mile and a half distant, and there ended 
 our quarrel as became us." 
 
 " Became you .?" cried the King ; " I 'd have 
 you to know, that, nothing of the kind becomes 
 you at all — I will have a stop put to such things, 
 and no more bickering, and quarrelling, and 
 taking to the strong hand, in my dominions. As 
 ye punished him, as ye call it, I '11 punish you 
 and' banish you from our realm, not to return 
 till our pleasure. Ye take much upon you, sir, 
 on the strength of a very distant relationship 
 to ourselves; ye set great store by a small 
 matter." 
 
 " No small matter, sire, in my eyes to be 
 ever so distantly related to your Majesty," re- 
 plied the young gentleman, who, though grieved 
 and indignant, was anxious if possible to con- 
 ciliate the King, and obtain a reversal of his 
 sentence. 
 
 " That 's not ill«spoken, sir," answered James ; 
 " but, nevertheless, we will have you take the air 
 of the continent for a couple of years, the warmer
 
 262 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 climate may suit your warm blood, and when we 
 have sure proof that it has grown cooler we will 
 let you come back again, but not before ; for we 
 are resolved that such strife shall no longer go 
 on." 
 
 William Seymour stood before the King for a 
 moment without reply. There was, indeed, an 
 answer springing to his lips : that it was not in 
 the power of any King, by his mere word to 
 banish a British subject from the land of his 
 birth. But he recollected that by such conduct 
 he might blast all his own dearest hopes for ever, 
 that there were means, too, within the reach of 
 those in authority to change the fate which 
 seemed to await him even for a worse ; and, in 
 the mood which apparently reigned throughout 
 the whole Court and kingdom, the King's will, 
 he feared, would be taken for law. 
 
 A hope, too, might enter into his breast, that 
 by using the influence of his family and friends 
 he might shake the monarch"'s decision ; and, 
 amongst the multitude of hurrying thoughts that 
 crossed his mind, during the single moment that 
 he stood there silent, there came a sweet delu-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 2GS 
 
 sive dream, full of romance and love, — for it 
 could not be called a plan, — which made him 
 fancy that, under some circumstances, his exile 
 might be converted into the brightest of blessings. 
 After a brief pause, then, he bowed and retired, 
 thinking that he caught upon the countenance 
 of Cecil a slight smile, as if the minister were 
 not altogether displeased at the course which 
 events had taken, but unable to comprehend 
 whence arose the enmity which that look betrayed.
 
 264 ARABELLA STUART, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 With a pale cheek, and a faint heart, and 
 limbs from which all strength seemed gone, Ara- 
 bella followed the Queen when she rose, and with 
 slow steps accompanied Anne of Denmark to the 
 door of her own apartments. There with a low 
 reverence she left her and hurried back to her 
 own chamber, where, sinking on her knees by 
 the side of the bed, she gave way to a violent 
 burst of tears. 
 
 She did not perceive that any one was in 
 the room, but the moment after, she heard some- 
 thing move, and a voice say, " Oh, lady !"" and 
 looking round she saw the girl Ida Mara, whom 
 she had consented to receive at the entreaty of 
 Sir Harry West. 
 
 Arabella instantly started up and tried to wipe
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 9i65 
 
 away the tears ; but the girl looked down, as if 
 she wished not to see them floAv, and said in a 
 quiet but sad tone, " Shall I leave you, madam ? 
 I know too Avell that, when one is sorrowful, it 
 is better to be alone." 
 
 " No," replied Arabella, " no, you may stay. 
 It is but that I have been agitated by the quarrel 
 you saw this morning between those two gentle- 
 men, and by hearing just now^ that they have 
 fought since their arrival." 
 
 " Fought .'^" cried the girl eagerly, " I hope he 
 has punished him, then." 
 
 " Which do you mean ?" asked Arabella with 
 a sad smile. 
 
 '' Oh, the tall one with the clear open brow^ 
 and gentle look," replied the girl. "The other 
 was so insolent and rude, I could have struck him 
 on the spot if I had been a man." 
 
 Arabella shook her head sadly, " All do not 
 judge as you do, Ida Mara," she replied; "would 
 that they did ; the one who gave the offence has 
 escaped with a wound, which perhaps may be 
 but a scratch. The other is banished from the 
 realm." 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 ^66 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Ida clasped her hands vehemently over her 
 eyes exclaiming, '' This is man's justice ! — When 
 will it come to an end ?" 
 
 Arabella cast herself into a chair, and mused 
 for a minute or two. Her tears flowed as she 
 thought ; but at length wiping them away, she 
 said, " Perhaps it is better. God knows how 
 it would have ended. — Come, Ida Mara, sit down 
 here upon this stool beside me ; and let me hear 
 your tale from your own lips. Sir Harry West 
 has told me something of it ; but I would hear 
 more.'*'' 
 
 The girl obeyed ; and, sitting down at her mis- 
 tress's feet, and raising her large Italian eyes to 
 the lady's countenance, she told her little history 
 in plain and simple language, which carried the 
 conviction of truth along with it. 
 
 To that tale, as the reader knows it, wfe have 
 little, if anything to add. She recounted how 
 miserable she had been in her own home after 
 her mother's death, and her father's marriage to 
 another wife ; how she felt even a sort of relief 
 when he sold her to the old English traveller ; 
 how she thought it would be a happy and a tran-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 267 
 
 quil life merely to sing as she had been accus- 
 tomed, and to play upon her lute ; and how she 
 soon found that it was full of sorrow, and insult, 
 and discomfort. She told the lady, too, that 
 when her wanderings began, the man Weston was 
 accompanied by his wife, a very shrew, who ruled 
 him with a rod of iron, and whenever he proved 
 the least refractory threatened to disclose some 
 secrets of which she seemed to have gained pos- 
 session. This always had the effect of cowing 
 him completely ; but his wife had died in London, 
 the girl said, some two months before. After 
 this woman's death, whom Ida Mara represented 
 as little less wicked than her husband, he sought 
 to take advantage of the poor girl's unprotected 
 state, not only for the gratification of his own 
 passions, but for the purposes of gain. 
 
 " I must not say," continued Ida Mara, " all 
 that I think he wanted me to do, for his words 
 were dark and doubtful ; but this I know, lady, 
 that, unless the misery of life was so great that 1 
 wished it speedily to end, I would not eat of food 
 which his hand had come near, nor drink of a cup 
 that had been within his reach, for the world." 
 
 N 2
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Arabella smiled incredulously. "" Those are 
 your Italian notions," she said ; " we never hear 
 of such things in England, Ida Mara. But now 
 you are safe from him, and may banish fear ; and 
 if you show yourself a good girl, and are faithful 
 to me, you shall never want a friend and a pro- 
 tector as long as I live." 
 
 " I will love you to my last hour," replied 
 Ida Mara, kissing her hand, " and that good old 
 knight too. He is the first man who ever showed 
 me kindness in the world, — real kindness I mean, 
 — kindness without guile ; and I would give my 
 life to prove to him how grateful the poor Italian 
 girl can be." 
 
 "I am sure you would," replied Arabella ; 
 " but now leave me, Ida Mara, and if you wish to 
 behold the splendour of a Court, go down and 
 stand in the vestibule. You see the King and 
 Queen are going forth. There stand the King''s 
 horses and her Majesty's coach, for their evening 
 airing. I am calmer now, Ida Mara ; and I 
 would fain have time to think.*" 
 
 The girl accordingly left her; and Arabella con- 
 tinued leaning her head upon her hand and gazing
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 269 
 
 out of the window without giving much note to 
 the objects which were passing before her eyes. 
 The expression of her countenance was sad, and 
 yet it varied continually, without, however, be- 
 coming, even for a moment, cheerful. A smile 
 indeed crossed it more than once ; but that smile 
 was so tinged with melancholy, that it afforded 
 no indication of the rise of one hope, of the 
 existence of one joy. The changes that passed 
 over her beautiful face were merely signs of the 
 rapid movement of thought and fancy ; but all 
 her ideas were gloomy, all her imaginations 
 sad. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Queen entered her 
 carriage and drove away, the King mounted his 
 horse, and rode out, with almost all the gentle- 
 men of the Court. Arabella gazed upon the 
 train as it departed, and murmured to herself 
 what she would not, knowingly, have spoken to 
 the ears of any one, " What a sad thing it is 
 to be a tyrant ! And yet it is less dangerous to 
 oneself, to one's realm, and to one's children, to 
 be a fierce tyrant like Harry the Eighth, than a 
 weak and vain one like this man. — They are
 
 270 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 very late this evening. It will be dark in an 
 hour ;" and again she fell into thought. 
 
 The course of her meditations seemed now 
 more sad than before, for the tears rose in her 
 bright eyes, and trembled amidst the dark lashes 
 as if they would run over. But just as she was 
 wiping them away, there was a slight noise at 
 her chamber door ; and, thinking it was one of 
 her maids, she said, " Come in," without turning 
 her head. 
 
 The next instant she started up and looked 
 round ; for she knew the step, and it was not that 
 which she expected. She could not restrain her 
 feelings, however, in that hour of bitter sorrow ; 
 and in another moment she was in Seymour's 
 arms. 
 
 "Oh, William !'' she cried, "how could you 
 think of coming here ? — Suppose you were dis- 
 covered, what would they think, what would they 
 say?'' 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, my beloved," he replied ; 
 " you do not yet know all the changes that our 
 good Queen has brought into the Court. She 
 has banished all those idle ceremonies and vain
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 271 
 
 restraints with which every movement was formerly 
 shackled, and declares that she will have all 
 Italians sent out of England, lest they should 
 introduce those fanciful doubts and jealousies of 
 the ladies of the land, which they entertain 
 towards their own women.* However, sweet Ara- 
 bel, if there had been lions and dragons at the 
 door, I must have come. Do you think that I 
 could quit my native country, and leave you for 
 months — perhaps for years, without the sad 
 solace of a farewell.'^ 
 
 "Oh ! but we shall have time," cried Arabella ; 
 *' surely it will not be so soon."" 
 
 William Seymour shook his head. "Cecil is 
 against me,^** he said, " though I know not what 
 offence I have given; and, before he rode out with 
 the King, he came to me with a smooth face, tell- 
 ing me, that to mitigate the expression of his 
 Majesty's anger, and not to let it seem that I was 
 sent from my own country in disgrace, he had 
 obtained the King's consent to my being ap- 
 pointed to the nominal embassy at one of the 
 
 * She made use of very nearly the same expressions 
 herself to Cardinal Bentivoglio.
 
 272 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 small Italian Courts, that of Parma, but only on 
 condition that I set out immediately. I am to 
 leave Wilton this very night." 
 
 ''This is cruel, indeed!" cried Arabella; and 
 the tears ran rapidly from her eyes, while William 
 Seymour held both her hands in his, and gazed 
 upon that fair but sorrowful face with looks of 
 love and deep emotion. 
 
 " It is, indeed, cruel," he said " and no less 
 cruel than unjust. But what can I do, Arabella ? 
 — I have no power to resist. If I refuse to go, a 
 thousand to one, I find my way into the Tower. 
 Pretences are never wanting in these days, and 
 the liberty of Englishmen seems but to have 
 become an idle name. I care not, indeed, for 
 quitting England. Although it be the country of 
 my birth, and of my love, it loses all its charms 
 for me, when I see security and right trampled 
 under foot, and the vain name of prerogative 
 raised above law and justice. — I care not for 
 quitting England ; but to quit Arabella is anguish 
 indeed. My enemies do not know all that they 
 inflict upon me, or they would rejoice, even more 
 than they do."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 273 
 
 " Is there no way to prevent it ?" exclaimed 
 Arabella, " Will not your grandfather inter- 
 fere ?" 
 
 " The King has not yet received him at the 
 court," replied Seymour ; " and it was thought a 
 great mark of grace that I was permitted to 
 attend upon him here at Wilton. — No, no, 
 Arabella, there is but one way of preventing our 
 separation." 
 
 " Is there one ?" cried Arabella eagerly, " Oh ! 
 take it then, Seymour, take it." 
 
 " Nay, it is you must take it, sweetest,"" he 
 replied. " Tis that Arabella goes with me, that 
 she flies with him she loves, from this hated 
 court. Nay, turn not pale, beloved, or I shall 
 fear to urge all the arguments which love has 
 ready to persuade you. Here, seat you here, 
 dear Arabella, and listen. — I know all that it is 
 I ask of you. I know the sacrifice, the great 
 sacrifice that is required." 
 
 "It is not that, Seymour," she said, earnest- 
 ly ; " what sacrifice should I think too great to 
 make you happy, and to free myself from the 
 state of bondage in which I live ? — But how, Sey- 
 
 N 5
 
 274 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 moiir, how can we fly?" continued Arabella, 'Hhe 
 moment the Queen returns, most likely she 
 will send for me. Nothing is prepared. We 
 should be caught and brought back again with 
 shame."" 
 
 " Oh ! not to-night, dear one," replied Wil- 
 liam Seymour, " but if you consent, the matter is 
 quite easy. — You will, you will, Arabella ! — The 
 joy of that hope nearly turns my brain. Say, 
 say you will !" 
 
 Arabella bent down her glowing face upon 
 his shoulder, but gave no reply except by silence ; 
 and Seymour, drawing her closer to him, strove 
 to banish the doubts and fears which he knew 
 would arise before her imagination, at the 
 thought of the rash enterprise he proposed. 
 
 "Listen, dearest, listen," he said, ''and you 
 will see it is all fair and feasible. The Court 
 goes to London in three days for the ceremony of 
 the coronation. As many persons will be left out 
 of the procession, on account of the plague, you 
 must feign great apprehensions. They will easily 
 let you go back into Cambridgeshire to your
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 215 
 
 Aunt Emily's. I, in the meantime, must hasten 
 to London, where I ^Y ill make preparations; for I 
 cannot go upon an embassy without some sort 
 of splendour. When all is ready, I will let you 
 know ; and sailing away from London, will anchor 
 my ship in the Thames' mouth, opposite the 
 small town of Leigh. An easy journey by 
 Chelmsford, will bring you near the shore, where 
 a boat shall be waiting for you night and day. 
 Then sailing away together, long ere any one 
 knows that you have departed, we shall be safe, 
 beyond pursuit, and linked together for life by 
 that sweet and blessed bond, which confirms and 
 sanctifies the contract of two hearts that love. 
 Is not this easy, Arabella ? — Where is the diffi- 
 culty ? — Long ere the news can reach the capital, 
 we shall be across the sea ; and my going from 
 London alone, will render it weeks, perhaps 
 months, a matter of doubt, what has become 
 of you. — See you any obstacle, dearest ? — Is there 
 any danger ?" 
 
 " I know not,'' answered Arabella, " I know 
 not ; and yet I doubt and fear. — But hark !
 
 216 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 They are come back again. — There comes the 
 Queen's coach. — Leave me, Seymour, leave me, 
 oh, in pity, leave me !" 
 
 " Will you then, dearest — will you ?*" he cried 
 hastily ; '' I cannot leave you till you say you 
 will." 
 
 " Yes, yes," she answered, " I will do any- 
 thing to make you happy ;" and catching her to 
 his bosom for a moment, he took one embrace, 
 and left her. 
 
 The agony of parting is with those that re- 
 main. The changing scene, the hurry of pre- 
 paration, the bustle of the journey, the incidents 
 on the road, the very excitement of action, are 
 all causes of diversion from sadder thoughts; 
 and though every hour, nay, every moment, Sey- 
 mour's mind reverted to Arabella, the difference 
 was, that through the livelong day, she sat and 
 dwelt upon no other image but his. Yet her 
 fancies were as checquered as the light and shade 
 of the grim foliage in the sunshine ; and for 
 many an hour, her thoughts wandered first to 
 dark pictures of danger, and difficulty, discovery,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 277 
 
 and disappointment ; and then, with trembling 
 hope, glanced towards the brighter scene, and 
 she drew for herself airy sketches of escape, and 
 freedom, and love, and joy. But in all that 
 her imagination called up, Seymour was by her 
 side, sharing the peril, and so rendering it doubly 
 terrible, or partaking the happiness, and making 
 it more intensely bright.
 
 278 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 It may be doubted whether Arabella Stuart 
 would have played her part well, in feigning ap- 
 prehensions that she did not experience, regarding 
 the plague which was then raging in London ; 
 for by nature she was not a dissembler, and the 
 very quickness of her feelings and of her imagi- 
 nation would have made her fearful at every 
 turn lest the deceit should be discovered. But, 
 luckily, she was saved the trouble of assuming 
 anything. The agitation and apprehensions that 
 she felt whenever her mind turned to the" ful- 
 filment of her promise to Mr. Seymour ; the 
 emotion, the anxiety, the fear, could not be con- 
 cealed from the eyes of those who surrounded 
 her ; but, as she had shared her secret with no 
 one, the principal persons at the Court, as Avell 
 as the Queen herself, attributed the whole to
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 279 
 
 terror at the idea of the plague, and Anne of 
 Denmark was the first to propose, that she should 
 take no part at the coronation. 
 
 Arabella gladly caught at the offer, and asked 
 the royal permission to cross the country into 
 Cambridgeshire, and to take up her residence 
 at the house, where she had lately spent much 
 of her time, till the coronation was over, and 
 the Court once more in an uninfected place. 
 Permission was readily given ; and, as it was 
 evident to the Queen that her young cousin's 
 health had somewhat suffered, one of the royal 
 coaches was appointed to convey her to the 
 place of her destination. All these arrange- 
 ments were made on the day preceding the re- 
 moval of the Court to London ; and Arabella 
 retired to her chamber to meditate upon her future 
 plans. 
 
 '' In whom shall I confide ?" she thought ; 
 '• my girl Marian, though faithful and true, is 
 herself about to wed the man of her choice ; 
 doubtless, she would go with me if I asked her, 
 but it were cruel to put her attachment towards 
 me to such a test. — Ida Mara .^" she continued ;
 
 280 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 " I think the girl is honest and good — I am 
 sure she is, there is something in her manner, 
 and even in her look, that cannot deceive one. 
 Yet I have known her but a short time. — She 
 has no tie to me, and perhaps it were rash to 
 trust her. Nevertheless, I must either tell 
 Marian my secret, or send her home. She is 
 jealous ■ of the Italian girl, that is clear, and 
 perhaps it were better to leave her by the way, 
 at her own parents' house, as she is to become 
 a wife, it seems, in three weeks. Then I must 
 see what can be done. — I will watch Ida Mara 
 keenly. My old and faithful servant Adams 
 I can trust, at all events — he will go with me 
 to the death. But I must conceal my plans 
 from Emily Cavendish — she is too light and 
 giddy to be confided in, though she would not 
 injure me for the world.'' 
 
 The morning was somewhat dull and showery 
 when the Lady Arabella, with her two maids, 
 entered the coach which was to convey them 
 into Cambridgeshire. To Marian she had al- 
 ready communicated her purpose of leaving her 
 at her father's house as they past, and had, ac-
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 281 
 
 cording to the good old custom, added to the 
 girFs dower as large a marriage present as her 
 own somewhat scantily furnished purse could 
 afford. 
 
 " As we go, Ida Mara," she said, " we will 
 stop for one night at good Sir Harry West's, 
 if he be yet returned, so that you may see your 
 friend and benefactor ; and if he be not returned 
 as yet, he will doubtless soon come over to see 
 us when he does come back."" 
 
 As Arabella expected, the poor girPs eyes 
 were instantly lighted up with joy ; and, in her 
 eager Italian manner, she declared that she would 
 go down upon her knees to him, and kiss his 
 hand a thousand times, for having befriended her 
 in the hour of need, and placed her with a lady 
 whom she could love so well. The girl Marian 
 listened with somewhat of a curling lip ; and, 
 though she did not venture to make any com- 
 ment aloud, in her heart she called the poor 
 Italian's warm expressions of gratitude and at- 
 tachment "nothing but flattery and servility." 
 
 It was about five o'clock on the evening of 
 the following day that, after having deposited
 
 282 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 the girl Marian safely at her father's house, the 
 carriage containing Arabella, wound up the little 
 road which led to the mansion of Sir Harry 
 West. Passing by the garden gate, it pro- 
 ceeded to the great doors ; and there the bell 
 was rung; but for some minutes no one came 
 to answer its summons. At length old Lakyn 
 and another man appeared, and if Arabella had 
 remarked their faces, she would have seen that 
 both were somewhat grave. But she took no 
 heed to their looks, and merely said, " Sir Harry 
 has returned, I suppose. — Is he within ? " 
 
 " Yes, lady," replied Lakyn, " he is within. 
 He has not been out all day ; for he feels some- 
 what unwell." 
 
 " Indeed ! " exclaimed Arabella in a grieved 
 tone ; " Is he in bed ? " 
 
 " No, my lady, he is in the hall," answered 
 Lakyn. 
 
 "Oh, then, I will go and try to cheer him," 
 replied the lady; *='come, Ida Mara, it will do 
 him good to hear that you are happy with me ;" 
 and stepping out of the carriage, followed by 
 the girl, with a light step, she walked quickly
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 283 
 
 along the passage before the servants, and opened 
 the door of the okl hall. 
 
 Though it was the month of July, a large fire 
 was blazing in the chimney; and seated beside 
 it, with his head resting on his hand, appeared 
 Sir Harry West, wrapped in a large cloak of 
 sables. His face was very pale, and his eyes 
 bright and fiery, with a dark line beneath them. 
 The heaviness of severe sickness was evidently 
 upon him; but the moment the Lady Arabella 
 appeared, he started up and took a step or two 
 towards her ; then paused and said, " Lakyn, you 
 should not have done this. Dear lady, I am 
 ill ! — Do not come too near. It may be in- 
 fectious." 
 
 " Oh, I am not afraid," replied Arabella, ad- 
 vancing and taking his hand, which felt dry and 
 burning. " What is the matter, dear Sir 
 Harry?" she continued; ''we have come to 
 comfort and console you." 
 
 " Nay, nay," cried the knight, drawing his hand 
 quickly away, and retreating a step : "I cannot 
 have you stay here, dear lady. Through a long 
 life I have never felt as I feel now ; and I fear
 
 284 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 that this may be even worse than it seems. You 
 must go on with all speed ; and stop not at the 
 village ; the landlord of the inn is lying sick — 
 of the plague, they tell me. I saw him the day 
 before yesterday ; and he was then past hope.'' 
 
 " He is dead, sir," said Lakyn, who had lin- 
 gered at the door ; *' I wish to Heaven you 
 would take some antidote !"*' 
 
 "I will, I will,'' replied Sir Harry West; 
 " but you must hurry away, lady. I will not 
 have you stay a minute longer. They say the 
 disease is not so infectious till the spots appear. 
 Of that, I am still free, thank God, for your 
 sake ; but you must away at once. I beseech 
 you, not another word." 
 
 Arabella turned towards the door; but ere 
 she reached it, Ida Mara caught her hand and 
 kissed it, saying, " I must stay with him, lady ! — 
 He was the first that ever befriended me on 
 earth. — I cannot, I cannot leave him !" 
 " Good girl !" cried Arabella. 
 " She must not stay, she shall not !" exclaimed 
 Sir Harry West. " I beseech you, madam, take 
 her with you."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 285 
 
 But Ida Mara darted back, and kneeling 
 before him, cast her arms round him, exclaim- 
 ing, " Here I will stay ! — Now send me with 
 her if you Avill, to carry the infection with me." 
 
 '* Ah ! my poor girl," exclaimed the old man, 
 putting his hand upon her head, while the tears 
 rose in his eyes ; " you know not what you do ?" 
 
 ''I do, I do !" cried Ida Mara, kissing his 
 hand, " for whom could I give my life so well 
 as you ? — But God will protect me, never fear ; 
 and I will save you too." 
 
 " A Veil, lady," said Sir Harry West, sinking 
 into his chair again ; "I suppose, if you will 
 consent, she must stay now ; but I do beseech 
 you go yourself as quickly as may be — God send 
 it be not too late already. Go, pray go — " 
 
 " I will," said Arabella ; " and may Heaven 
 protect and restore you, Sir Harry. I will go, 
 though I do feel that this poor girPs devotion, 
 is almost a reproach to me. However, fare you 
 well ; I fear I ought not to risk my life, al- 
 though Heaven knows I wish it were at an end." 
 
 Thus saying, she retired and re-entered the car- 
 riage, which was soon turned, and on its way to
 
 286 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 the house of the Lady Emily Cavendish. After 
 driving on for an hour or two, night fell, and 
 Arabella, alone in the vehicle, gave herself up to 
 melancholy thoughts. 
 
 '' This is a dreadful disease," she said to her- 
 self, "a dreadful disease, indeed; so fierce in its 
 nature, that few who approach the sick escape 
 the contagion, and few who are once stricken 
 ever cast off the malady. It is so easily con- 
 veyed too — I wonder if Emily will receive me. It 
 is hardly right to carry the danger to her house, 
 — with all her children too, — and I know she dreads 
 it tembly. I may have it upon me at this mo- 
 ment r"* and she asked herself, what if it were so ? 
 Her frame was weakened, her spirits depressed 
 by all the grief and anxiety she had lately gone 
 through; and care, and apprehension took pos- 
 session of her entirely, as the carriage rolled 
 slowly on, through the darkness of the night. 
 The horses were tired, the coachman somewhat 
 sullen at being disappointed of his expected 
 place of repose, so that the journey was ren- 
 dered longer in point of time than it needed 
 to have been, by the dulness of both man and
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 287 
 
 beast. Arabella grew impatient, anxious, heated, 
 her head began to ache violently, her lips grew 
 dry ; and again she asked herself, '' what, if I 
 have caught the disease ?'' 
 
 At length, at the little village of St. Neot's, the 
 coachman stopped at the door of a clean looking 
 little inn, saying that he must water his horses, 
 though the mansion towards which their steps 
 were directed, was now within five miles. Ara- 
 bella descending from the vehicle entered the 
 house ; and being known to the people of the 
 place, she was received with all the reverence due 
 to her station. 
 
 "Bless me, madam," said the landlady, as 
 she led her to her chamber up stairs, " you do 
 not look well !" 
 
 " I am fatigued,*'' replied Arabella, " and have 
 so violent a headache, that I think I shall stay 
 here for the night. Pray call my servant Adams 
 to me, and bid him bring the paper-case which 
 lies upon the seat of the carriage." 
 
 As soon as the man appeared, Arabella told 
 him, that she had determined to remain there the 
 night, but that he must ride on with a note to
 
 288 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 Lady Emily, and bring her back an answer. She 
 then, in a few brief lines, explained to her cousin 
 that she had been in a house where she feared 
 there was a case of plague, and that not feeling 
 well, she had stopped at the inn at St. Neot's to 
 see what would be the result. She begged her, 
 moreover, to send her back by the messenger 
 any letters that might be waiting for her, and 
 then gave the note to the man, telling him to 
 use all speed and return. 
 
 When he was gone, the landlady with officious 
 care, bustled about to provide for the comfort 
 of her distinguished guest ; but Arabella sat 
 silent at the table, with her temples throbbing, 
 and her heart faint. All she asked for, was 
 citron juice and water to quench her thirst ; and 
 at length the good hostess beginning to feel 
 alarmed, ran down to her husband, to tell him 
 that the young lady looked very ill, and 
 that she should not wonder if she had got the 
 plague. 
 
 At the end of as short a space of time as it was 
 possible to make the journey and return in, Ara- 
 bella'^s servant came back, and, entering the room.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 289 
 
 gazed anxiously upon his fair mistress's counte- 
 nance, ^vllile he said, " Here is this letter from 
 the Lady Emily, madam, but I found a messenger 
 waiting at the house, who would deliver his packet 
 to none but yourself. He has come hither with 
 me ; but I fear you are not well enough to see 
 him." 
 
 " Let him come up, let him come up," cried 
 Arabella, eagerly, and before she had finished 
 reading the few wild and apprehensive lines of 
 her cousin, the stranger was in the room. 
 
 " I have charge to deliver this letter, madam, 
 into your own hands,'*'' he said, " and to receive 
 your answer.''"* 
 
 Arabella took the packet and looked at the 
 address. It was in the hand- writing of William 
 Seymour, and eagerly tearing it open, she read, 
 
 *' I am driven to set out from London," he 
 wrote, " two days before I intended ; for if I stay 
 even till Wednesday, I shall have the company of 
 Sir George Carew forced upon me, and all our 
 hopes are at an end. The ship will lie off Leigh 
 all day to-morrow, and all the following night. 
 Come then, my beloved, come with all speed, and 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 ^90 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 give me back the happiness that I have not 
 known since I left you." 
 
 Arabella pressed her hand tightly upon her brow, 
 and gazed wildly into vacancy. Every wish of her 
 heart induced her to fly to him. The very de- 
 spairing feeling of being alone, sick, and perhaps 
 stricken by the pestilence, made her heart yearn 
 to seek the arms of him who loved her, and find 
 shelter, and comfort, and gentle tendance there. 
 " But,'" she asked herself, '' shall I take it to him 
 I love ? Shall I carry disease and death to one 
 for whom I would willingly sacrifice my own life ? 
 Shall any selfish longing for the blessing of his 
 presence, induce me to destroy him ? Oh, no, 
 no .'" 
 
 " If you will wait below for a moment," she 
 said, addressing the messenger, as soon as she 
 could collect her thoughts, " I will write an 
 answer;" and, seating herself at the table, she 
 drew the writing materials towards her. Her brain 
 whirled, her heart felt faint, she feared that 
 she would never be able to accomplish the task ; 
 but dipping the pen in the ink, she proceeded 
 with a hurried and unsteady hand.
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 291 
 
 '* I cannot come,"" she said, *' otherwise no- 
 thing should induce me to break my promise, how- 
 ever rash that promise might be. But I cannot 
 come, for I am ill, and unequal to the journey. 
 Even did I feel strength enough to undertake 
 it, I could not bear to join you ; for I have been 
 in a house infected by the plague ; and, although 
 I will not deny that to see you Avould be the 
 greatest blessing on earth, yet I would not pur- 
 chase even that blessing, at the risk of carry- 
 ing the pestilence to you. Go on your way then, 
 William, and may God bless and prosper you. 
 I will not tell you to forget me ; I will not tell 
 you to remember me. Do as your heart dictates ; 
 but believe me in life or in death, yours, Ara- 
 bella." 
 
 After she had done, she gazed at the letter 
 for a moment, and then said to herself, 
 
 " It will alarm him — Perhaps it will make him 
 come in, and that would be his ruin ;" and, taking 
 the pen again, she added, " Though I feel very 
 ill, I do not think it is the plague. — T am sure, 
 indeed, it is not — there has not yet been time. 
 Heaven bless you. — Adieu !"' and bending her
 
 292 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 liead over the letter, she let the tears which were 
 in her eyes, drop upon the page. Then folding 
 and sealing it, she called the man who had 
 brought it, and putting some money into his 
 hand, bid him make all speed. 
 
 Without delay, he set off upon his errand, 
 and, riding all night, reached, early the next 
 morning, the little port of Leigh, off which 
 the ship that bore William Seymour had been 
 moored on the preceding evening. The ship's 
 boat was at the shore, and the messenger enter- 
 ing it without delay, was soon rowed to the 
 vessel, where, in the cabin waiting for him alone, 
 he found his young master. 
 
 " The lady is very ill, sir," he said in a low 
 voice, " she looked very ill, indeed." 
 
 " 111 l^"* exclaimed her lover with a look full 
 of grief and disappointment. " Good Heaven, 
 how unfortunate !" and taking the letter he opened 
 it, and read. The colour left his cheek, as he 
 did so, and his hand shook with agitation. " I 
 cannot go," he cried, " I cannot go and leave 
 her. — Hark you. Williams, hark you ! — Quick,
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 29S 
 
 pack up some things in the saddle bags. — Can 
 I get a horse at Leigh ?" 
 
 " None but the one that brought me, sir," re- 
 plied the man, " and that is ^vell nigh knocked up. 
 — We have no saddle bags with us, sir." 
 
 " Row on shore then," said his master. *' Do 
 the best you can to refresh your horse, and send 
 back the boat for me. — I will join you in a couple 
 of hours. By that time he will be able to go 
 on." 
 
 The man shook his head. — " Part of the way 
 at least, till I can get another," added the young 
 gentleman ; " he must — he shall." 
 
 The man knew it was useless to argue, and 
 retiring from the cabin, mounted the ladder to 
 the deck. 
 
 William Seymour pressed his lips upon the 
 letter again, and again. " She was weeping 
 when she wrote it," he said, gazing at the blotted 
 page. " Dear girl, I will see thee, if it be for 
 an hour." 
 
 But scarcely had the words passed his lips, 
 when, through the little window in the stern,
 
 294 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 he saw one of the gilded barges of the day come 
 rushino^ alono^ with full wind and tide ; and the 
 next moment a good deal of shouting and noise 
 was heard above. An instant after, his servant 
 ran down, and closing the door behind him, said, 
 " Sir George Carew is alongside, sir, asking if 
 this is your vessel." 
 
 " Curses upon him I'** cried Seymour, striking 
 the table. " But it is not his fault either. — It 
 is impossible now ;" and folding up the letter, 
 he placed it in his bosom, while a number of 
 voices were heard talking upon deck, and some 
 steps descending the ladder. 
 
 " Stay, Williams, stay," he said ; ''I must 
 WTite an answer to this, which you must bear back 
 again. If you can see the lady, tell her what has 
 happened. — Tell her I was coming to see her, 
 but*" — The door opened as he spoke, arid he 
 added in an altered tone — " then join me at Brus- 
 sels with all speed. — Ah Carew ! so you have 
 caught me." 
 
 " Yes, Seymour," replied Sir George shaking 
 him by the hand ; " it was very kind of you 
 to lay to for me all night."
 
 ARABELLA STUART. 295 
 
 '' Nay," answered the young gentleman, '■'• I 
 cannot take credit for such courtesy. I wished 
 much to liave news of a friend who is very ill." 
 
 " Some fair lady I will swear,"" replied Sir 
 George Carew. " God send her better, Seymour ; 
 and now as soon as my packages are in, I am 
 ready to sail, for the King's commands are 
 strict upon both you and me to lose no time." 
 
 " I must write a letter first," said William 
 Seymour ; " then I am yours." 
 
 The letter was written, and the servant hav- 
 ing received it, returned to Leigh well furnish- 
 ed with money for his journey. As soon as his 
 horse was in condition to travel, he once more 
 set out for St. Neot's which he reached about 
 ten o'clock on the following morning. It was 
 not without some apprehensions, to say the truth, 
 that he asked for the Lady Arabella, for the sus- 
 picions which had been entertained regarding 
 the plague, had reached his ears on his former 
 visit. The countenance of the hostess, how- 
 ever, was more cheerful, and the usual bustle of 
 the inn was going on in full activity. 
 
 " She has got the doctors from Cambridge
 
 296 ARABELLA STUART. 
 
 with her," replied the landlady, "and I doubt 
 that she will see you, master, for she is to be kept 
 very quiet they say." 
 
 '' But how goes it with her ?" asked the man. 
 " Is it as you fancied ?" 
 
 "No, no, God forbid?'"' cried the landlady, 
 " they say she has had poison, but not enough to 
 kill, and she is somewhat better already." 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, 
 
 Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
 
 RABELi" 
 
 1 
 STUART. 
 
 A ROMANCE | 
 kl ENGLISH HISTOr! 
 
 [G. p. K. JAMES, ¥J 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 iJNLEY/' " DE l'oRMI 
 'illE FALSE ireiK," tM 
 
 n THRER Y<»L. Mi.ri 
 
 VOL. I
 
 .'• •^^•i'st'. 
 
 ■^^ojj
 
 UNIVERSmr OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 069046487