Carry your Heart with you.

173

"Well! and no offence to my Lord of Leicester; but I trow where you might get as wholesome air and better,

cheap-down in Llanfrey; or, for that matter, at Chartley yonder!"

""Tis but for a while, 'Zekiel-just as it were to learn the trick of it."

"Ay, ay! So faid the good man in Queen Mary's time. When they piled the fagots about him, father faid he heard him-think I did, too, though a boy about your lordship's age- The time of life is fhort,' quod he, too short, maybe, to learn how to live: no time to con the devil's tricks. Now,' quod he, you fhall presently get a lesson in dying, and that gratis.'”

"And then ".

"Ay! then a fell to 's prayers."

"Well! what make you of that?”

Why, I'd as lief keep you out of the fire of Court policy, per fæcula fæculorum, as they say."

"But, 'Zekiel, all the nobles take a turn at the Court."

"Ay, truly, and fome at the Axe, too!"

"Fie, fie!"

"But fee, my Lord, your noble father (God bless his

memory!) took his turn as you fay, and the Queen took her

turn out o' him. Ruined him! No good came of it: none will-what was, will be! Court waters be fo muddy

that one may

pair of

fee as deep in them as another. 'Tis a good

eyes that will look round the corner."

"Come, come, 'Zekiel, I am ready."

When Effex defcended to the court-yard, he found his horse caparisoned, and 'Zekiel presently mounted. Four running footmen were awaiting him. There was another horse there, and another groom prepared.

"Ha, Philip!"

"Ha, Eflex! How went all at Court?

"Well-well enough! Whither wilt?"

"Have with you?"

"I am for fupper at the Great Harry,' in Old Crofs.street."

They now mounted and rode out at the new gate. Turning to the right, they followed the narrow lane which connects the Twin cities. Here and there this thoroughfare is much infringed upon by the premises of the nobles, whose houses be built along the Strand, and it is a tortuous

To the "Great Harry."

175

and tedious route fhould you be in a hurry. They paffed those venerable monuments of early Saxon piety, St. Mary's and St. Clement Danes; and, entering London by the Temple-bar, rode on more rapidly up Fleet-street-over the little stream, and fo to the right again into the once facred precincts of Blackfriars.

"Ne fpight itfelfe, that all good things doth spill,
Found aught in him that he could fay was ill."

ASTROPHEL.

HILIP Sidney is now in his thirtieth year. He is one of the most accomplished and pleasing

men you could meet in England or elsewhere.

By the frankness of his addrefs-that gay cheerfulness without familiarity or levity: the honefty of his discourse, fo void of pedantry: the foundnefs of his views, based on the largest charity-he has become the favourite of all claffes, and the admired of all admirers. And his favours: to delicate yet manly features, a figure flight and tall gives to each gesture of the body that ease which characterises, and is, in effect, the outward charm of the gentleman.

Contrafted with this, yet furely at one with it, you will not fail to note the perfectest repofe of his countenance. There are no violent paffions ftruggling to exprefs themselves through those eyes and lips! No fcorn there; nor no haughty fuperciliousness in that yet lofty face! There is nothing can shake that form without, for the foul is at peace within him. Happy Sidney! Thy memory fhall live wreathed in the choicest praise of England's worthies! for already Edmund Spencer hath proclaimed thy virtuous condition.

Now Master Philip hath, as he will tell his friends, had great advantages. He hath, you fee, made great use of them. His father, for example, was private with that promifing prince, King Edward the Sixth. His mother, too, the Lady Mary, daughter of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, brought him from the first step into the highest room of the Court. Then he ftudied at both universities -moft men being fatisfied with one. With his uncle Leicester he went to France: and again was there with his now father-in-law when the massacre took place; and then by himself visited the northern Italian States. Her Grace, who loves him (but only as a godmother should), fent him

VOL. I.

N