d the nobles of
this civilized land from travelling with such disorderly retinues; and
think you, that because I wear a coif, their sceptre has in my hand been
changed into a distaff? I tell you, no king in Christendom will less
brook his court to be cumbered, his people oppressed, and his kingdom's
peace disturbed, by the arrogance of overgrown power, than she who now
speaks with you.--My Lord of Leicester, and you, my Lord of Sussex, I
command you both to be friends with each other; or by the crown I wear,
you shall find an enemy who will be too strong for both of you!"

"Madam," said the Earl of Leicester, "you who are yourself the fountain
of honour know best what is due to mine. I place it at your disposal,
and only say that the terms on which I have stood with my Lord of Sussex
have not been of my seeking; nor had he cause to think me his enemy,
until he had done me gross wrong."

"For me, madam," said the Earl of Sussex, "I cannot appeal from your
sovereign pleasure; but I were well content my Lord of Leicester should
say in what I have, as he terms it, wronged him, since my tongue never
spoke the word that I would not willingly justify either on foot or
horseback.

"And for me," said Leicester, "always under my gracious Sovereign's
pleasure, my hand shall be as ready to make good my words as that of any
man who ever wrote himself Ratcliffe."

"My lords," said the Queen, "these are no terms for this presence; and
if you cannot keep your temper, we will find means to keep both that and
you close enough. Let me see you join hands, my lords, and forget your
idle animosities."

The two rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each unwilling
to make the first advance to execute the Queen's will.

"Sussex," said Elizabeth, "I entreat--Leicester, I command you."

Yet, so were her words accented, that the entreaty sounded like command,
and the command like entreaty. They remained still and stubborn, until
she raised her voice to a height which argued at once impatience and
absolute command.

"Sir Henry Lee," she said, to an officer in attendance, "have a guard
in present readiness, and man a barge instantly.--My Lords of Sussex and
Leicester, I bid you once more to join hands; and, God's death! he that
refuses shall taste of our Tower fare ere he sees our face again. I will
lower your proud hearts ere we part, and that I promise, on the word of
a Queen!"

"The prison?" said Leicester, "might be borne,