Kings & rulers > Kenilworth > Volume 1

3
KENILWORTH.
“ B)' the mass, that is strange. What, so many
of our brave English hearts are abroad, and you,
who seem to be a man of mark, have no friend,
uo kinsman, among them ?”
“Nay, if you speak of kinsmen,” answered
Gosling, “ I have one wild slip of a kinsman,
who left us in the last year of Queen Mary, but
he is better lost than found.”
“ Do not say so, friend, unless you have heard
ill of him lately. Many a wild colt has turned
out a noble steed.—His name, I pray you ?”
“ Michael Lambourne,” answered the land¬
lord of the Black Bear; “ a son of my sister’s—
there is little pleasure in recollecting either the
name or the connection.”
“ Michael Lambourne !” said the stranger, as
if endeavouring to recollect himself—“ what, no
relation to Michael Lambourne, the gallant ca¬
valier who' behaved so bravely at the siege of
Venlo, that Grave Maurice thanked him at the
head of the army ? Men said he was an English
cavalier, and of no high extraction.”
14 It could scarce be my nephew,” said Giles
Gosling, “ for he had scarce the courage of a
hen-partridge for aught but mischief.”
“ O, many a man finds courage in the wars,”
replied the stranger.
“ It may be,” said the landlord; “ but I would
have thought our Mike more likely to lose the
little he had.”
“The Michael Lambourne whom I knew,”
continued the traveller, “ was a likely fellow—
went always gay and well attired, and had a
hawk’s eye after a pretty wench.”
“ Our Michael”’ replied the host, “ had the
look of a dog with a bottle at its tail, and wore a
coat every rag of which was bidding good-day t©
the rest.”