anest thou? There is ever knavery in that
laugh of thine, Varney."

"I only meant, my lord," said Varney, "that Tressilian has taken the
sure way to avoid heart-breaking. He hath had a companion--a female
companion--a mistress--a sort of player's wife or sister, as I
believe--with him in Mervyn's Bower, where I quartered him for certain
reasons of my own."

"A mistress!--meanest thou a paramour?"

"Ay, my lord; what female else waits for hours in a gentleman's
chamber?"

"By my faith, time and space fitting, this were a good tale to tell,"
said Leicester. "I ever distrusted those bookish, hypocritical,
seeming-virtuous scholars. Well--Master Tressilian makes somewhat
familiar with my house; if I look it over, he is indebted to it for
certain recollections. I would not harm him more than I can help. Keep
eye on him, however, Varney."

"I lodged him for that reason," said Varney, "in Mervyn's Tower, where
he is under the eye of my very vigilant, if he were not also my very
drunken, servant, Michael Lambourne, whom I have told your Grace of."

"Grace!" said Leicester; "what meanest thou by that epithet?"

"It came unawares, my lord; and yet it sounds so very natural that I
cannot recall it."

"It is thine own preferment that hath turned thy brain," said Leicester,
laughing; "new honours are as heady as new wine."

"May your lordship soon have cause to say so from experience," said
Varney; and wishing his patron good night, he withdrew. [See Note 8.
Furniture of Kenilworth.]

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Here stands the victim--there the proud betrayer,
E'en as the hind pull'd down by strangling dogs
Lies at the hunter's feet--who courteous proffers
To some high dame, the Dian of the chase,
To whom he looks for guerdon, his sharp blade,
To gash the sobbing throat. --THE WOODSMAN.

We are now to return to Mervyn's Bower, the apartment, or rather the
prison, of the unfortunate Countess of Leicester, who for some time kept
within bounds her uncertainty and her impatience. She was aware that, in
the tumult of the day, there might be some delay ere her letter could be
safely conveyed to the hands of Leicester, and that some time more might
elapse ere he could extricate himself from the necessary attendance on
Elizabeth, to come and visit her in her secret bower. "I will not expect
him," she said, "till night; he cannot be absent from his royal guest,
even to see me. He will, I k