then
gradually, without making any inquiries, or being asked any questions,
they mingled with the group, as if they had always made part of it.

They had not stood there above five minutes, anxiously keeping as much
to the side of the road as possible, so as to place the other travellers
betwixt them and Varney, when Lord Leicester's master of the horse,
followed by Lambourne, came riding fiercely down the hill, their horses'
flanks and the rowels of their spurs showing bloody tokens of the rate
at which they travelled. The appearance of the stationary group around
the cottages, wearing their buckram suits in order to protect their
masking dresses, having their light cart for transporting their scenery,
and carrying various fantastic properties in their hands for the more
easy conveyance, let the riders at once into the character and purpose
of the company.

"You are revellers," said Varney, "designing for Kenilworth?"

"RECTE QUIDEM, DOMINE SPECTATISSIME," answered one of the party.

"And why the devil stand you here?" said Varney, "when your utmost
dispatch will but bring you to Kenilworth in time? The Queen dines at
Warwick to-morrow, and you loiter here, ye knaves."

"I very truth, sir," said a little, diminutive urchin, wearing a vizard
with a couple of sprouting horns of an elegant scarlet hue, having,
moreover, a black serge jerkin drawn close to his body by lacing,
garnished with red stockings, and shoes so shaped as to resemble cloven
feet--"in very truth, sir, and you are in the right on't. It is my
father the Devil, who, being taken in labour, has delayed our present
purpose, by increasing our company with an imp too many."

"The devil he has!" answered Varney, whose laugh, however, never
exceeded a sarcastic smile.

"It is even as the juvenal hath said," added the masker who spoke first;
"Our major devil--for this is but our minor one--is even now at LUCINA,
FER OPEM, within that very TUGURIUM."

"By Saint George, or rather by the Dragon, who may be a kinsman of the
fiend in the straw, a most comical chance!" said Varney. "How sayest
thou, Lambourne, wilt thou stand godfather for the nonce? If the devil
were to choose a gossip, I know no one more fit for the office."

"Saving always when my betters are in presence," said Lambourne,
with the civil impudence of a servant who knows his services to be so
indispensable that his jest will be permitted to pass muster.

"And what is the name of this devi