Kings & rulers > Kenilworth > Volume 1

KENILWORTH,
2?3
fellows to wink at their unsettled starts; and, by
my faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would
finger them tightly.”
Leicester moved hastily on, neglecting the cour¬
tesies he had hitherto dispersed so liberally, and
harrying through the courtly crowd, until he
paused in a small withdrawing room, into which
he plunged to draw a moment’s breath unobserv¬
ed, and in seclusion.
“ What am I now,” he said to himself, “ that
am thus jaded by the words of a mean, weather¬
beaten, goose-brained gull !—Conscience, thou art
a blood-hound, whose growl wakes as readily at
the paltry stir of a rat or mouse, as at the step of
a lion.—Can I not quit myself by one bold stroke
of a state so irksome, so unhonoured? What if I
kneel to Elizabeth, and, owning the whole, throw
myself on her mercy ?’’—
As he pursued this train of thought, the door of
the apartment opened, and Varney rushed in.
u Thank God, my lord, that I have found you,”
was his exclamation.
“ Thank the devil, whose agent thou art,” was
the Earl’s reply.
“ Thank whom you will, my lord,” replied
Varney; “but hasten to the water-side. The
Queen is on board and asks for you.”
“ Go, say I am taken suddenly ill,” replied
Leicester ; “ for, by heav en, my brain can sustain
this no longer.”
“ I may well say so,” said Varney, with bit¬
terness of expression ; “ for your place, ay, and
mine, who, as your master of the horse was to
have attended your lordship, is already filled up
in the Queen’s barge. The new minion, Walter
Raleigh, and our old acquaintance, Tressilian,
were called for to fill our places just as I hasten¬
ed away to seek you.”
“ Thou art a devil, Varney,’’ said Leicester