ner is full of
presumption,--ay, and even her height."

The Queen having approved of Essex's decision, on her own part condemned
the Princess for her aversion to her spouse, which, though the world
alleged to have been caused by his being the cut-throat of her family,
she saw nothing to justify, whatever a husband might be. A wife was a
wife; and Herod had done quite right in cutting off the heads of the
offenders.

Faustus, who affected universal knowledge, assured her Majesty that all
the historians were in error on that point; for he had had it himself
from a living witness, that the true cause of Herod's vengeance was his
spiteful old-maid of a sister--Salome's overhearing Mariamne, one day at
prayers, beg of Heaven to rid her of her worthless husband.

After a moment of thought, the Queen, with the same indifference with
which she would have called for her waiting-maid, desired to see
Cleopatra; for the Egyptian queen not having been quite as _comme il
faut_ as the British, the latter treated her accordingly. The beautiful
Cleopatra quickly made her appearance at the extremity of the
gallery,--and Elizabeth expected that this apparition would fully make
up for the disappointment which the others had occasioned. Scarcely had
she entered, when the air was loaded with the rich perfumes of Arabia.

Her bosom (that had been melting as charity) was open as day; a loop of
diamonds and rubies gathered the drapery as much above the left knee as
it might as well have been below it; and a woven wind of transparent
gauze softened the figure which it did not conceal.

In this gay and gallant costume, the mistress of Antony glided through
the gallery, making a similar pause as the others. No sooner was her
back turned, than the courtiers began to tear her person and frippery to
pieces,--the Queen calling out, like one possessed, for paper to burn
under her nose, to drive away the vapours occasioned by the gums with
which the mummy was filled,--declared her insupportable in every sense,
and far beneath even the wife of Herod or the daughter of Leda,--shocked
at her Diana drapery, to exhibit the most villanous leg in the
world,--and protested that a thicker robe would have much better become
her.

Whatever the two courtiers might have thought, they were forced to join
in these sarcasms, which the frail Egyptian excited in peculiar
severity.

"Such a cocked nose!" said the Queen.

"Such impertinent eyes!" said Essex.

S