sinewy arms the
fading and almost swooning form of Amy, "she is a lovely child; and
tho a rough nurse, your Grace hath given her a kind one. She is safe
with me as one of my own lady-birds of daughters."

So saying, he carried her off, unresistingly and almost unconsciously;
his war-worn locks and long gray beard mingling with her light-brown
tresses, as her head reclined on his strong square shoulder. The Queen
followed him with her eye. She had already, with that self-command
which forms so necessary a part of a sovereign's accomplishments,
supprest every appearance of agitation, and seemed as if she desired
to banish all traces of her burst of passion from the recollection of
those who had witnessed it. "My Lord of Hunsdon says well," she
observed: "he is indeed but a rough nurse for so tender a babe."...

Leicester partly started; but making a strong effort, he subdued his
emotion, while Elizabeth answered sharply, "You are something too
hasty, Master Varney: we will have first a report of the lady's health
and state of mind from Masters, our own physician, and then determine
what shall be thought just. You shall have license, however, to see
her, that if there be any matrimonial quarrel betwixt you--such things
we have heard do occur, even betwixt a loving couple--you may make it
up, without further scandal to our court or trouble to ourselves."

Varney bowed low, and made no other answer.

Elizabeth again looked toward Leicester, and said, with a degree of
condescension which could only arise out of the most heartfelt
interest, "Discord, as the Italian poet says, will find her way into
peaceful convents, as well as into the privacy of families; and we
fear our own guards and ushers will hardly exclude her from courts. My
Lord of Leicester, you are offended with us, and we have right to be
offended with you. We will take the lion's part upon us, and be the
first to forgive."

Leicester smoothed his brow, as if by an effort; but the trouble was
too deep-seated that its placidity should at once return. He said,
however, that which fitted the occasion, that "he could not have the
happiness of forgiving, because she who commanded him to do so could
commit no injury toward him."

V

THE ILLNESS AND DEATH OF LADY SCOTT[12]

(1826)

_Abbotsford, April 16, 1826._--I am now far ahead with _Nap_.[13] I
wrote a little this morning, but this forenoon I must write letters, a
task in which I am far behind. L