CHAPTER XXXVII.
You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting With most admired disorder. --MACBETH.
It was afterwards remembered that during the banquets and revels whichoccupied the remainder of this eventful day the bearing of Leicester andof Varney were totally different from their usual demeanour. Sir RichardVarney had been held rather a man of counsel and of action than a votaryof pleasure. Business, whether civil or military, seemed always to behis proper sphere; and while in festivals and revels, although he wellunderstood how to trick them up and present them, his own part was thatof a mere spectator; or if he exercised his wit, it was in a rough,caustic, and severe manner, rather as if he scoffed at the exhibitionand the guests than shared the common pleasure.
But upon the present day his character seemed changed. He mixed amongthe younger courtiers and ladies, and appeared for the moment to beactuated by a spirit of light-hearted gaiety, which rendered him a matchfor the liveliest. Those who had looked upon him as a man given upto graver and more ambitious pursuits, a bitter sneerer and passer ofsarcasms at the expense of those who, taking life as they find it,were disposed to snatch at each pastime it presents, now perceived withastonishment that his wit could carry as smooth an edge as their own,his laugh be as lively, and his brow as unclouded. By what art ofdamnable hypocrisy he could draw this veil of gaiety over the blackthoughts of one of the worst of human bosoms must remain unintelligibleto all but his compeers, if any such ever existed; but he was a man ofextraordinary powers, and those powers were unhappily dedicated in alltheir energy to the very worst of purposes.
It was entirely different with Leicester. However habituated hismind usually was to play the part of a good courtier, and appear gay,assiduous, and free from all care but that of enhancing the pleasureof the moment, while his bosom internally throbbed with the pangs ofunsatisfied ambition, jealousy, or resentment, his heart had now ayet more dreadful guest, whose workings could not be overshadowed orsuppressed; and you might read in his vacant eye and troubled brow thathis thoughts were far absent from the scenes in which he was compellinghimself to play a part. He looked, moved, and spoke as if by asuccession of continued efforts; and it seemed as if his will had insome degree lost the promptitude of command over the acute mind andgoodly form of which it was the regent. His actions and gestures,instead of appearing the consequence of simple volition, seemed, likethose of an automaton, to wait the revolution of some internal machineryere they could be performed; and his words fell from him piecemeal,interrupted, as if he had first to think what he was to say, then howit was to be said, and as if, after all, it was only by an effort ofcontinued attention that he completed a sentence without forgetting boththe one and the other.
The singular effects which these distractions of mind produced upon thebehaviour and conversation of the most accomplished courtier of England,as they were visible to the lowest and dullest menial who approached hisperson, could not escape the notice of the most intelligent Princess ofthe age. Nor is there the least doubt that the alternate negligence andirregularity of his manner would have called down Elizabeth's severedispleasure on the Earl of Leicester, had it not occurred to her toaccount for it by supposing that the apprehension of that displeasurewhich she had expressed towards him with such vivacity that very morningwas dwelling upon the spirits of her favourite, and, spite of hisefforts to the contrary, distracted the usual graceful tenor of his mienand the charms of his conversation. When this idea, so flattering tofemale vanity, had once obtained possession of her mind, it proved afull and satisfactory apology for the numerous errors and mistakes ofthe Earl of Leicester; and the watchful circle around observed withastonishment, that, instead of resenting his repeated negligence, andwant of even ordinary attention (although these were points on which shewas usually extremely punctilious), the Queen sought, on the contrary,to afford him time and means to recollect himself, and deigned to assisthim in doing so, with an indulgence which seemed altogether inconsistentwith her usual character. It was clear, however, that this could notlast much longer, and that Elizabeth must finally put another and moresevere construction on Leicester's uncourteous conduct, when the Earlwas summoned by Varney to speak with him in a different apartment.
After having had the message twice delivered to him, he rose, and wasabout to withdraw, as it were, by instinct; then stopped, and turninground, entreated permission of the Queen to absent himself for a briefspace upon matters of pressing importance.
"Go, my lord," said the Queen. "We are aware our presence must occasionsudden and unexpected occurrences, which require to be provided for onthe instant. Yet, my lord, as you would have us believe ourself yourwelcome and honoured guest, we entreat you to think less of our goodcheer, and favour us with more of your good countenance than we havethis day enjoyed; for whether prince or peasant be the guest, thewelcome of the host will always be the better part of the entertainment.Go, my lord; and we trust to see you return with an unwrinkled brow, andthose free thoughts which you are wont to have at the disposal of yourfriends."
Leicester only bowed low in answer to this rebuke, and retired. At thedoor of the apartment he was met by Varney, who eagerly drew him apart,and whispered in his ear, "All is well!"
"Has Masters seen her?" said the Earl.
"He has, my lord; and as she would neither answer his queries, norallege any reason for her refusal, he will give full testimony that shelabours under a mental disorder, and may be best committed to the chargeof her friends. The opportunity is therefore free to remove her as weproposed."
"But Tressilian?" said Leicester.
"He will not know of her departure for some time," replied Varney; "itshall take place this very evening, and to-morrow he shall be caredfor."
"No, by my soul," answered Leicester; "I will take vengeance on him withmine own hand!"
"You, my lord, and on so inconsiderable a man as Tressilian! No, mylord, he hath long wished to visit foreign parts. Trust him to me--Iwill take care he returns not hither to tell tales."
"Not so, by Heaven, Varney!" exclaimed Leicester. "Inconsiderable do youcall an enemy that hath had power to wound me so deeply that my wholeafter-life must be one scene of remorse and misery?--No; rather thanforego the right of doing myself justice with my own hand on thataccursed villain, I will unfold the whole truth at Elizabeth'sfootstool, and let her vengeance descend at once on them and on myself."
Varney saw with great alarm that his lord was wrought up to such a pitchof agitation, that if he gave not way to him he was perfectly capable ofadopting the desperate resolution which he had announced, and which wasinstant ruin to all the schemes of ambition which Varney had formedfor his patron and for himself. But the Earl's rage seemed at onceuncontrollable and deeply concentrated, and while he spoke his eyesshot fire, his voice trembled with excess of passion, and the light foamstood on his lip.
His confidant made a bold and successful effort to obtain the mastery ofhim even in this hour of emotion. "My lord," he said, leading him toa mirror, "behold your reflection in that glass, and think if theseagitated features belong to one who, in a condition so extreme, iscapable of forming a resolution for himself."
"What, then, wouldst thou make me?" said Leicester, struck at the changein his own physiognomy, though offended at the freedom with which Varneymade the appeal. "Am I to be thy ward, thy vassal,--the property andsubject of my servant?"
"No, my lord," said Varney firmly, "but be master of yourself, and ofyour own passion. My lord, I, your born servant, am ashamed to see howpoorly you bear yourself in the storm of fury. Go to Elizabeth'sfeet, confess your marriage--impeach your wife and her paramour ofadultery--and avow yourself, amongst all your peers, the wittol whomarried a country girl, and was cozened by her and her book-learnedgallant. Go, my lord--but first take farewell of Richard Varney, withall the benefits you ever conferred on him. He served the noble, thelofty, the high-minded Leicester, and was more proud of depending on himthan he would be of commanding tho
usands. But the abject lord who stoopsto every adverse circumstance, whose judicious resolves are scatteredlike chaff before every wind of passion, him Richard Varney serves not.He is as much above him in constancy of mind as beneath him in rank andfortune."
Varney spoke thus without hypocrisy, for though the firmness of mindwhich he boasted was hardness and impenetrability, yet he really feltthe ascendency which he vaunted; while the interest which he actuallyfelt in the fortunes of Leicester gave unusual emotion to his voice andmanner.
Leicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority it seemed to theunfortunate Earl as if his last friend was about to abandon him. Hestretched his hand towards Varney as he uttered the words, "Do not leaveme. What wouldst thou have me do?"
"Be thyself, my noble master," said Varney, touching the Earl's handwith his lips, after having respectfully grasped it in his own; "beyourself, superior to those storms of passion which wreck inferiorminds. Are you the first who has been cozened in love--the first whom avain and licentious woman has cheated into an affection, which shehas afterwards scorned and misused? And will you suffer yourself to bedriven frantic because you have not been wiser than the wisest men whomthe world has seen? Let her be as if she had not been--let her pass fromyour memory, as unworthy of ever having held a place there. Let yourstrong resolve of this morning, which I have both courage, zeal,and means enough to execute, be like the fiat of a superior being, apassionless act of justice. She hath deserved death--let her die!"
While he was speaking, the Earl held his hand fast, compressed his lipshard, and frowned, as if he laboured to catch from Varney a portion ofthe cold, ruthless, and dispassionate firmness which he recommended.When he was silent, the Earl still continued to rasp his hand, until,with an effort at calm decision, he was able to articulate, "Be itso--she dies! But one tear might be permitted."
"Not one, my lord," interrupted Varney, who saw by the quivering eye andconvulsed cheek of his patron that he was about to give way to a burstof emotion--"not a tear--the time permits it not. Tressilian must bethought of--"
"That indeed is a name," said the Earl, "to convert tears into blood.Varney, I have thought on this, and I have determined--neither entreatynor argument shall move me--Tressilian shall be my own victim."
"It is madness, my lord; but you are too mighty for me to bar yourway to your revenge. Yet resolve at least to choose fitting time andopportunity, and to forbear him until these shall be found."
"Thou shalt order me in what thou wilt," said Leicester, "only thwart menot in this."
"Then, my lord," said Varney, "I first request of you to lay aside thewild, suspected, and half-frenzied demeanour which hath this day drawnthe eyes of all the court upon you, and which, but for the Queen'spartial indulgence, which she hath extended towards you in a degreefar beyond her nature, she had never given you the opportunity to atonefor."
"Have I indeed been so negligent?" said Leicester, as one who awakesfrom a dream. "I thought I had coloured it well. But fear nothing, mymind is now eased--I am calm. My horoscope shall be fulfilled; and thatit may be fulfilled, I will tax to the highest every faculty of my mind.Fear me not, I say. I will to the Queen instantly--not thine own looksand language shall be more impenetrable than mine. Hast thou aught elseto say?"
"I must crave your signet-ring," said Varney gravely, "in token to thoseof your servants whom I must employ, that I possess your full authorityin commanding their aid."
Leicester drew off the signet-ring which he commonly used, and gave itto Varney, with a haggard and stern expression of countenance, addingonly, in a low, half-whispered tone, but with terrific emphasis, thewords, "What thou dost, do quickly."
Some anxiety and wonder took place, meanwhile, in the presence-hall, atthe prolonged absence of the noble Lord of the Castle, and great wasthe delight of his friends when they saw him enter as a man from whosebosom, to all human seeming, a weight of care had been just removed.Amply did Leicester that day redeem the pledge he had given to Varney,who soon saw himself no longer under the necessity of maintaining acharacter so different from his own as that which he had assumed in theearlier part of the day, and gradually relapsed into the same grave,shrewd, caustic observer of conversation and incident which constitutedhis usual part in society.
With Elizabeth, Leicester played his game as one to whom her naturalstrength of talent and her weakness in one or two particular points werewell known. He was too wary to exchange on a sudden the sullen personagewhich he had played before he retired with Varney; but on approachingher it seemed softened into a melancholy, which had a touch oftenderness in it, and which, in the course of conversing with Elizabeth,and as she dropped in compassion one mark of favour after another toconsole him, passed into a flow of affectionate gallantry, the mostassiduous, the most delicate, the most insinuating, yet at the same timethe most respectful, with which a Queen was ever addressed by a subject.Elizabeth listened as in a sort of enchantment. Her jealousy of powerwas lulled asleep; her resolution to forsake all social or domesticties, and dedicate herself exclusively to the care of her people, beganto be shaken; and once more the star of Dudley culminated in the courthorizon.
But Leicester did not enjoy this triumph over nature, and overconscience, without its being embittered to him, not only by theinternal rebellion of his feelings against the violence which heexercised over them, but by many accidental circumstances, which, inthe course of the banquet, and during the subsequent amusements of theevening, jarred upon that nerve, the least vibration of which was agony.
The courtiers were, for example, in the Great Hall, after having leftthe banqueting-room, awaiting the appearance of a splendid masque,which was the expected entertainment of this evening, when the Queeninterrupted a wild career of wit which the Earl of Leicester was runningagainst Lord Willoughby, Raleigh, and some other courtiers, by saying,"We will impeach you of high treason, my lord, if you proceed in thisattempt to slay us with laughter. And here comes a thing may make us allgrave at his pleasure, our learned physician Masters, with news belikeof our poor suppliant, Lady Varney;--nay, my lord, we will not have youleave us, for this being a dispute betwixt married persons, we do nothold our own experience deep enough to decide thereon without goodcounsel.--How now, Masters, what thinkest thou of the runaway bride?"
The smile with which Leicester had been speaking, when the Queeninterrupted him, remained arrested on his lips, as if it had been carvedthere by the chisel of Michael Angelo or of Chantrey; and he listened tothe speech of the physician with the same immovable cast of countenance.
"The Lady Varney, gracious Sovereign," said the court physician Masters,"is sullen, and would hold little conference with me touching the stateof her health, talking wildly of being soon to plead her own causebefore your own presence, and of answering no meaner person'sinquiries."
"Now the heavens forfend!" said the Queen; "we have already sufferedfrom the misconstructions and broils which seem to follow this poorbrain-sick lady wherever she comes.--Think you not so, my lord?" sheadded, appealing to Leicester with something in her look that indicatedregret, even tenderly expressed, for their disagreement of that morning.Leicester compelled himself to bow low. The utmost force he couldexert was inadequate to the further effort of expressing in words hisacquiescence in the Queen's sentiment.
"You are vindictive," she said, "my lord; but we will find time andplace to punish you. But once more to this same trouble-mirth, this LadyVarney. What of her health, Masters?"
"She is sullen, madam, as I already said," replied Masters, "and refusesto answer interrogatories, or be amenable to the authority of themediciner. I conceive her to be possessed with a delirium, which Iincline to term rather HYPOCHONDRIA than PHRENESIS; and I think she werebest cared for by her husband in his own house, and removed from allthis bustle of pageants, which disturbs her weak brain with the mostfantastic phantoms. She drops hints as if she were some great person indisguise--some Countess or Princess perchance. God help them, such areoften the hallucinations of
these infirm persons!"
"Nay, then," said the Queen, "away with her with all speed. Let Varneycare for her with fitting humanity; but let them rid the Castle of herforthwith she will think herself lady of all, I warrant you. It is pityso fair a form, however, should have an infirm understanding.--Whatthink you, my lord?"
"It is pity indeed," said the Earl, repeating the words like a taskwhich was set him.
"But, perhaps," said Elizabeth, "you do not join with us in our opinionof her beauty; and indeed we have known men prefer a statelier and moreJuno-like form to that drooping fragile one that hung its head like abroken lily. Ay, men are tyrants, my lord, who esteem the animationof the strife above the triumph of an unresisting conquest, and, likesturdy champions, love best those women who can wage contest withthem.--I could think with you, Rutland, that give my Lord of Leicestersuch a piece of painted wax for a bride, he would have wished her deadere the end of the honeymoon."
As she said this, she looked on Leicester so expressively that, whilehis heart revolted against the egregious falsehood, he did himself somuch violence as to reply in a whisper that Leicester's love was morelowly than her Majesty deemed, since it was settled where he could nevercommand, but must ever obey.
The Queen blushed, and bid him be silent; yet looked as of she expectedthat he would not obey her commands. But at that moment the flourish oftrumpets and kettle-drums from a high balcony which overlooked the hallannounced the entrance of the maskers, and relieved Leicester from thehorrible state of constraint and dissimulation in which the result ofhis own duplicity had placed him.
The masque which entered consisted of four separate bands, whichfollowed each other at brief intervals, each consisting of six principalpersons and as many torch-bearers, and each representing one of thevarious nations by which England had at different times been occupied.
The aboriginal Britons, who first entered, were ushered in by twoancient Druids, whose hoary hair was crowned with a chaplet of oak, andwho bore in their hands branches of mistletoe. The maskers who followedthese venerable figures were succeeded by two Bards, arrayed in white,and bearing harps, which they occasionally touched, singing at thesame time certain stanzas of an ancient hymn to Belus, or the Sun. Theaboriginal Britons had been selected from amongst the tallest and mostrobust young gentlemen in attendance on the court. Their masks wereaccommodated with long, shaggy beards and hair; their vestments wereof the hides of wolves and bears; while their legs, arms, and the upperparts of their bodies, being sheathed in flesh-coloured silk, on whichwere traced in grotesque lines representations of the heavenly bodies,and of animals and other terrestrial objects, gave them the livelyappearance of our painted ancestors, whose freedom was first trenchedupon by the Romans.
The sons of Rome, who came to civilize as well as to conquer, were nextproduced before the princely assembly; and the manager of the revels hadcorrectly imitated the high crest and military habits of that celebratedpeople, accommodating them with the light yet strong buckler and theshort two-edged sword, the use of which had made them victors of theworld. The Roman eagles were borne before them by two standard-bearers,who recited a hymn to Mars, and the classical warriors followed with thegrave and haughty step of men who aspired at universal conquest.
The third quadrille represented the Saxons, clad in the bearskins whichthey had brought with them from the German forests, and bearing intheir hands the redoubtable battle-axes which made such havoc among thenatives of Britain. They were preceded by two Scalds, who chanted thepraises of Odin.
Last came the knightly Normans, in their mail-shirts and hoods of steel,with all the panoply of chivalry, and marshalled by two Minstrels, whosang of war and ladies' love.
These four bands entered the spacious hall with the utmost order,a short pause being made, that the spectators might satisfy theircuriosity as to each quadrille before the appearance of the next. Theythen marched completely round the hall, in order the more fully todisplay themselves, regulating their steps to organs, shalms, hautboys,and virginals, the music of the Lord Leicester's household. At lengththe four quadrilles of maskers, ranging their torch-bearers behind them,drew up in their several ranks on the two opposite sides of the hall,so that the Romans confronting the Britons, and the Saxons the Normans,seemed to look on each other with eyes of wonder, which presentlyappeared to kindle into anger, expressed by menacing gestures. At theburst of a strain of martial music from the gallery the maskers drewtheir swords on all sides, and advanced against each other in themeasured steps of a sort of Pyrrhic or military dance, clashing theirswords against their adversaries' shields, and clattering them againsttheir blades as they passed each other in the progress of the dance. Itwas a very pleasant spectacle to see how the various bands, preservingregularity amid motions which seemed to be totally irregular, mixedtogether, and then disengaging themselves, resumed each their ownoriginal rank as the music varied.
In this symbolical dance were represented the conflicts which had takenplace among the various nations which had anciently inhabited Britain.
At length, after many mazy evolutions, which afforded great pleasure tothe spectators, the sound of a loud-voiced trumpet was heard, as ifit blew for instant battle, or for victory won. The maskers instantlyceased their mimic strife, and collecting themselves under theiroriginal leaders, or presenters, for such was the appropriate phrase,seemed to share the anxious expectation which the spectators experiencedconcerning what was next to appear.
The doors of the hall were thrown wide, and no less a person enteredthan the fiend-born Merlin, dressed in a strange and mystical attire,suited to his ambiguous birth and magical power.
About him and behind him fluttered or gambolled many extraordinaryforms, intended to represent the spirits who waited to do his powerfulbidding; and so much did this part of the pageant interest the menialsand others of the lower class then in the Castle, that many of themforgot even the reverence due to the Queen's presence, so far as tothrust themselves into the lower part of the hall.
The Earl of Leicester, seeing his officers had some difficulty to repelthese intruders, without more disturbance than was fitting where theQueen was in presence, arose and went himself to the bottom of thehall; Elizabeth, at the same time, with her usual feeling for the commonpeople, requesting that they might be permitted to remain undisturbedto witness the pageant. Leicester went under this pretext; but his realmotive was to gain a moment to himself, and to relieve his mind, were itbut for one instant, from the dreadful task of hiding, under the guiseof gaiety and gallantry, the lacerating pangs of shame, anger, remorse,and thirst for vengeance. He imposed silence by his look and sign uponthe vulgar crowd at the lower end of the apartment; but instead ofinstantly returning to wait on her Majesty, he wrapped his cloak aroundhim, and mixing with the crowd, stood in some degree an undistinguishedspectator of the progress of the masque.
Merlin having entered, and advanced into the midst of the hall, summonedthe presenters of the contending bands around him by a wave of hismagical rod, and announced to them, in a poetical speech, that the isleof Britain was now commanded by a Royal Maiden, to whom it was the willof fate that they should all do homage, and request of her to pronounceon the various pretensions which each set forth to be esteemed thepre-eminent stock, from which the present natives, the happy subjects ofthat angelical Princess, derived their lineage.
In obedience to this mandate, the bands, each moving to solemn music,passed in succession before Elizabeth, doing her, as they passed, eachafter the fashion of the people whom they represented, the lowestand most devotional homage, which she returned with the same graciouscourtesy that had marked her whole conduct since she came to Kenilworth.
The presenters of the several masques or quadrilles then alleged, eachin behalf of his own troop, the reasons which they had for claimingpre-eminence over the rest; and when they had been all heard in turn,she returned them this gracious answer: "That she was sorry she was notbetter qualified to decide upon the doubtful question which ha
d beenpropounded to her by the direction of the famous Merlin, but that itseemed to her that no single one of these celebrated nations could claimpre-eminence over the others, as having most contributed to form theEnglishman of her own time, who unquestionably derived from each of themsome worthy attribute of his character. Thus," she said, "the Englishmanhad from the ancient Briton his bold and tameless spirit of freedom;from the Roman his disciplined courage in war, with his love of lettersand civilization in time of peace; from the Saxon his wise and equitablelaws; and from the chivalrous Norman his love of honour and courtesy,with his generous desire for glory."
Merlin answered with readiness that it did indeed require that so manychoice qualities should meet in the English, as might render them insome measure the muster of the perfections of other nations, since thatalone could render them in some degree deserving of the blessings theyenjoyed under the reign of England's Elizabeth.
The music then sounded, and the quadrilles, together with Merlin and hisassistants, had begun to remove from the crowded hall, when Leicester,who was, as we have mentioned, stationed for the moment near the bottomof the hall, and consequently engaged in some degree in the crowd, felthimself pulled by the cloak, while a voice whispered in his ear, "MyLord, I do desire some instant conference with you."