"Ha! what?" exclaimed Tracy; "that was no slight mark of favour. If the Earl can but come through, he will match with Leicester yet. Is Masters with my lord at present?"
"Nay," replied Walter, "he is half way back to Greenwich by this time, and in high dudgeon."
"Thou didst not refuse him admittance?" exclaimed Tracy.
"Thou wert not, surely, so mad?" ejaculated Blount.
"I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny to a blind beggar—as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access to a dun."
"Why, in the fiend's name, didst thou trust him to go to the gate?" said Blount to Tracy.
"It suited his years better than mine," answered Tracy; "but he has undone us all now thoroughly. My lord may live or die, he will never have a look of favour from her Majesty again."
"Nor the means of making fortunes for his followers," said the young gallant, smiling contemptuously;—"there lies the sore point that will brook no handling. My good sirs, I sounded my lamentations over my lord somewhat less loudly than some of you; but when the point comes of doing him service, I will yield to none of you. Had this learned leech entered, think'st thou not there had been such a coil betwixt him and Tressilian's mediciner, that not the sleeper only, but the very dead might have awakened? I know what larurm belongs to the discord of doctors."
"And who is to take the blame of opposing the Queen's orders?" said Tracy; "for, undeniably, Doctor Masters came with her Grace's positive commands to cure the Earl."
"I, who have done the wrong, will bear the blame," said Walter.
"Thus, then, off fly the dreams of court favour thou hast nourished," said Blount, "and despite all thy boasted art and ambition, Devonshire will see thee shine a true younger brother, fit to sit low at the board, carve turn about with the chaplain, look that the hounds be fed, and see the squire's girths drawn when he goes a-hunting."
"Not so," said the young man, colouring, "not while Ireland and the Netherlands have wars, and not while the sea hath pathless waves. The rich West hath lands undreamed of, and Britain contains bold hearts to venture on the quest of them. Adieu for a space, my masters. I go to walk in the court and look to the sentinels."
"The lad hath quicksilver in his veins, that is certain," said Blount, looking at Markham.
"He hath that both in brain and blood," said Markham, "which may either make or mar him. But in closing the door against Masters, he hath done a daring and loving piece of service; for Tressilian's fellow hath ever averred that to wake the Earl were death, and Masters would wake the Seven Sleepers themselves, if he thought they slept not by the regular ordinance of medicine."
Morning was well advanced when Tressilian, fatigued and over-watched, came down to the hall with the joyful intelligence that the Earl had awakened of himself, that he found his internal complaints much mitigated, and spoke with a cheerfulness, and looked round with a vivacity, which of themselves showed a material and favourable change had taken place. Tressilian at the same time commanded the attendance of one or two of his followers, to report what had passed during the night, and to relieve the watchers in the Earl's chamber.
When the message of the Queen was communicated to the Earl of Sussex, he at first smiled at the repulse which the physician had received from his zealous young follower; but instantly recollecting himself, he commanded Blount, his master of the horse, instantly to take boat, and go down the river to the Palace of Greenwich, taking young Walter and Tracy with him, and make a suitable compliment, expressing his grateful thanks to his Sovereign, and mentioning the cause why he had not been enabled to profit by the assistance of the wise and learned Doctor Masters.
"A plague on it!" said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had he sent me with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done his errand indifferently well. But to go to our gracious Sovereign, before whom all words must be lacquered over either with gilding or with sugar, is such a confectionary matter as clean baffles my poor old English brain.—Come with me, Tracy, and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the cause of our having all this ado. Let us see if thy neat brain, that frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at need with some of thy shrewd devices."
"Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help you through; let me but fetch my cloak."
"Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,—"the lad is mazed."
"No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter. "I go not with thee to court unless as a gentleman should."
"Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of none but some poor groom or porter."
"I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my own cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth with you."
"Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a cloak. Get thyself ready, a God's name!"
They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad Thames, upon which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.
"There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said Walter to Blount—"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the earth."
"The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount, "and the other would take us there a little faster if it were ebb-tide."
"And this is all thou thinkest—all thou carest—all thou deemest the use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers—to guide three such poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an idle journey of courtly ceremony!"
"It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I could excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying me where I have no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's wages for my trouble—and by my honour," he added, looking out from the head of the boat, "it seems to me as if our message were a sort of labour in vain, for, see, the Queen's barge lies at the stairs as if her Majesty were about to take water."
It was even so. The royal barge, manned with the Queen's watermen richly attired in the regal liveries, and having the Banner of England displayed, did indeed lie at the great stairs which ascended from the river, and along with it two or three other boats for transporting such part of her retinue as were not in immediate attendance on the royal person. The yeomen of the guard, the tallest and most handsome men whom England could produce, guarded with their halberds the passage from the palace-gate to the river side, and all seemed in readiness for the Queen's coming forth, although the day was yet so early.
"By my faith, this bodes us no good," said Blount; "it must be some perilous cause puts her Grace in motion thus untimeously, By my counsel, we were best put back again, and tell the Earl what we have seen."
"Tell the Earl what we have seen!" said Walter; "why what have we seen but a boat, and men with scarlet jerkins, and halberds in their hands? Let us do his errand, and tell him what the Queen says in reply."
So saying, he caused the boat to be pulled towards a landing-place at some distance from the principal one, which it would not, at that moment, have been thought respectful to approach, and jumped on shore, followed, though with reluctance, by his cautious and timid companions. As they approached the gate of the palace, one of the sergeant porters told them they could not at present enter, as her Majesty was in the act of coming forth. The gentlemen used the name of the Earl of Sussex; but it proved no charm to subdue the officer, who alleged, in reply, that it was as much as his post was worth to disobey in the least tittle the commands which he had received.
"Nay, I told you as much before," said Blount; "do, I pray you, my dear Walter, let us take boat and return."