broidery. The
renowned Earl of Leicester of Queen Elizabeth's time, the benefactor
of the hospital, reclines at full length on the tablet of one of these
tombs, side by side with his Countess,--not Amy Robsart, but a lady who
(unless I have confused the story with some other mouldy scandal) is
said to have avenged poor Amy's murder by poisoning the Earl himself.
Be that as it may, both figures, and especially the Earl, look like the
very types of ancient Honor and Conjugal Faith. In consideration of
his long-enduring kindness to the twelve brethren, I cannot consent to
believe him as wicked as he is usually depicted; and it seems a marvel,
now that so many well-established historical verdicts have been
reversed, why some enterprising writer does not make out Leicester to
have been the pattern nobleman of his age.

In the centre of the chapel is the magnificent memorial of its founder,
Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick in the time of Henry VI. On a richly
ornamented altar-tomb of gray marble lies the bronze figure of a knight
in gilded armor, most admirably executed: for the sculptors of those
days had wonderful skill in their own style, and could make so life-like
an image of a warrior, in brass or marble, that, if a trumpet were
sounded over his tomb, you would expect him to start up and handle his
sword. The Earl whom we now speak of, however, has slept soundly in
spite of a more serious disturbance than any blast of a trumpet, unless
it were the final one. Some centuries after his death, the floor of the
chapel fell down and broke open the stone coffin in which he was buried;
and among the fragments appeared the Earl of Warwick, with the color
scarcely faded out of his checks, his eyes a little sunken, but in other
respects looking as natural as if he had died yesterday. But exposure to
the atmosphere appeared to begin and finish the long-delayed process of
decay in a moment, causing him to vanish like a bubble; so that, almost
before there had been time to wonder at him, there was nothing left of
the stalwart Earl save his hair. This sole relic the ladies of Warwick
made prize of, and braided it into rings and brooches for their own
adornment; and thus, with a chapel and a ponderous tomb built on purpose
to protect his remains, this great nobleman could not help being brought
untimely to the light of day, nor even keep his love-locks on his skull
after he had so long done with love. There seems to be a fatality that