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The Tudor and the Percy.

"Ha!" quoth her Grace.

81

"Methinks, minx, you

are too peremptory on the instant!"

"Your Highness's pardon, my mother hath awaited your Grace's pleasure these five days. Shall she have audience?"

The Queen answered not. Upon the Countess of Northumberland she looked right coldly. You might have thought the royal lips were painful; fuch harsh and unwonted movements betrayed their discomfort. When her Grace thought the Lady fufficiently abashed, she turned o' the heel with a tofs o' the head.

"Come away, Doll!" quoth the Earl. ""Tis no place for the Countess of Northumberland where her mother shall be disrespected!" And the Percy, with a lofty gait and a firm ftride, drew his Lady towards the lower end. The Queen faw the gesture, fhe heard the jingle of angry fpurs, and the clatter of a restless sword. The broad shoulders and erect head of the English nobleman, though his back were turned, and a pretty delicate young woman leaned on his arm, was not a fubject for her Highness's fcorn-and she knew it. But she would not let it pass. "Ha! Our northern Lord's i' the dumps!" quoth fhe.

VOL. III.

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"Come," faid the Earl" come, Madam, this is no place for the widow Countefs of Leicester, nor for the Earl of Effex's mother; nor, for that matter, for the Percy's motherin-law. Come!" and he drew my Lady kindly home.

And when Effex learned how his mother had fought the Queen, and how his fifter had urged in that behalf, he felt ashamed that thofe he loved should peril themselves in his behoof. So he refolved henceforth to enact his own part boldly. And he embraced his mother and his fifter affectionately, and ordering his meiny fet off for Effex-house.

'Tis ftrange how sickness qualifieth a man! How the angry.paffions be fubdued by the heat of a fever; as the fun puts out the fire on the hearth! How pride bends as the body yields to pain; and how weakness and humility entwine themselves gracefully, like the pale rose and the pretty creeper! You shall see the strong man tremble. It is much. But it is more when the haughty spirit cometh down to the gentleness of a child.

At the wicket i' the Strand meets my Lord the Countess of Effex. She falleth on his neck, kiffing him. "My Robin! My Robin! heart! deareft!" and my Lord tenderly clasped his fond wife to his breast, and leading her

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to the chamber wept on her bofom; telling her, as to a confeffor, all his former wrongs and injuries-all he had failed her in. And on his faith as a Chriftian he vowed he would love and cherish her only for the time to come, and would fo far as in him lay make her right happy. And the glad woman hung on him, fhedding many tears, faying ever and anon, "Go to, Robin! what a coil! Ha' done, Robin!"

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But he would not cease till he had made a clean breast, as the faying is. "And now," quoth he, "Frank, I am happy!" So they fondled one another, and were as when they first loved; and they had their dear little ones about them toying here and there. And Elizabeth Sydney she grew apace, and the young Hereford was a noble lad; and they, staring, wondered at the change was in their father: but the younger ones noted it not.

And after fome days the Earl of Effex went to the Council; and he was pricked o' the confcience when he learned how it stood with our army in Ireland.

And he bethought him of his duty to his country: and of all the Lord Keeper had faid to him in that behalf. And of his mother's care for him, and of his fifter's 'haviour. And he refolved himself to pay his services at court.

So

my Lord, in a plain fuit of black fatin, and a small meiny, floateth to Greenwich, where the Court now lay. And it came to pass, as he drew to the steps, remembering how in the Earl of Leicester's time there was great ado in the ushering of them up, he noted how far more cheerfully he was met. One, unbidden, spreadeth the footclothanother closeth the draughty door-a third, fmiling, faith, "My Lord is right welcome"-a fourth, "God be praised my good Lord is again in health!" and fo on till the Prefence. And then many courtiers, who had erst stood aloof, preffed forward with their greeting; and others who had been hoftile held forth a cordial hand; for all men knew how great an affront had been thrust upon the Earl, and how nobly he had borne himself thereunder. And there is nothing can raise the respect of your equals more than your patient fuffering of thofe injuries, whofe fting they from their own feelings can beft appreciate.

When, for example, a foolish Prince once fpat in the face of a great General, that brave man faid, "If, fire, I could wash out this infult with your blood as I wipe it off with my kerchief, your body should be broached anon by that fword hath hitherto kept it whole!" Who not counted

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this man for a hero? You would not have had him slay the royal fool? nay, nor strike the princely beast? So it was with my Lord; there was none i' the presence but honoured him for the late action, and pitied his fick cafe. And, in truth, Effex looked very pale and careworn.

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So my Lord approached the throne orderly, making his leg as did the other Earls. But her Grace took no note of him. And thus it happened day after day. And Effex began to learn that the Queen's countenance was turned from him and he made up his mind thereto, with a Salvo that he should, if need be, spend himself for his Country notwithstanding. And in the Privy Council, one day, it was laid bare how that Rebellion grew more and more fierce, to the very peril of the English rule in Ireland; and how it was to be dreaded that Spain would not long delay to add fuel to that disastrous fire. And fome Lords faid there was no general fit for that exploit: and fome faid Ralegh was the man others fpake of Mountjoye. But Effex faid, "I fhall go! With my best blood I have served my Queen and Country, and with my very life will I stand against this adversary, so I have due powers give me.”

And it was foon told her Grace what the Earl of Effex

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