by two or three ladies, and the nobles of her household. She looked more than once at the wherry in which the young adventurer was seated, spoke to those around her, and seemed to laugh. At length one of the attendants, by the Queen's order apparently, made a sign for the wherry to come alongside, and the young man was desired to step from his own skiff into the Queen's barge, which he performed with graceful agility at the fore part of the boat, and was brought aft to the Queen's presence, the wherry at the same time dropping into the rear. The youth underwent the gaze of Majesty, not the less gracefully that his self-possession was mingled with embarrassment. The muddied cloak still hung upon his arm, and formed the natural topic with which the Queen introduced the conversation.
'You have this day spoiled a gay mantle in our behalf, young man. We thank you for your service, though the manner of offering it was unusual, and something bold.'
'In a sovereign's need,' answered the youth, 'it is each liegeman's duty to be bold.'
'God's pity! that was well said, my lord,' said the Queen, turning to a grave person who sat by her, and answered with a grave inclination of the head, and something of a mumbled assent.—'Well, young man, your gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe keeper, and he shall have orders to supply the suit which you have cast away in our service. Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut, I promise thee, on the word of a princess.'
'May it please your Grace,' said Walter, hesitating, 'it is not for so humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it became me to choose—'
'Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me,' said the Queen, interrupting him. 'Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and so various are the means of thriftless folly, that to give gold to youth is giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means of self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess shall be abridged. Yet thou mayest be poor,' she added, 'or thy parents may be. It shall be gold, if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for the use on't.'
Walter waited patiently until the Queen had done, and then modestly assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her Majesty had before offered.
'How, boy!' said the Queen, 'neither gold nor garment? What is it thou wouldst have of me, then?'
'Only permission, madam—if it is not asking too high an honour—permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling service.'
'Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!' said the Queen.
'It is no longer mine,' said Walter; 'when your Majesty's foot touched it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its former owner.'
The Queen again blushed, and endeavoured to cover, by laughing, a slight degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.
'Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with reading romances. I must know something of him, that I may send him safe to his friends.—What art thou?'
'A gentleman of the household of the Earl of Sussex, so please your Grace, sent hither with his master of horse upon message to your Majesty.'
In a moment the gracious expression which Elizabeth's face had hitherto maintained, gave way to an expression of haughtiness and severity.
'My Lord of Sussex,' she said, 'has taught us how to regard his messages by the value he places upon ours. We sent but this morning the physician in ordinary of our chamber, and that at no usual time, understanding his lordship's illness to be more dangerous than we had before apprehended. There is at no court in Europe a man more skilled in this holy and most useful science than Doctor Masters, and he came from Us to our subject. Nevertheless, he found the gate of Sayes Court defended by men with culverins, as if it had been on the borders of Scotland, not in the vicinity of our court; and when he demanded admittance in our name, it was stubbornly refused. For this slight of a kindness, which had but too much of condescension in it, we will receive, at present at least, no excuse; and some such we suppose to have been the purport of my Lord of Sussex's message.'
This was uttered in a tone and with a gesture which made Lord Sussex's friends who were within hearing tremble. He to whom the speech was addressed, however, trembled not; but with great deference and humility, as soon as the Queen's passion gave him an opportunity, he replied, 'So please your most gracious Majesty, I was charged with no apology from the Earl of Sussex.'
'With what were you then charged, sir?' said the Queen, with the impetuosity which, amid nobler qualities, strongly marked her character. 'Was it with a justification?—or, God's death! with a defiance?'
'Madam,' said the young man, 'my Lord of Sussex knew the offence approached towards treason, and could think of nothing save of securing the offender, and placing him in your Majesty's hands, and at your mercy. The noble Earl was fast asleep when your most gracious message reached him, a potion having been administered to that purpose by his physician; and his Lordship knew not of the ungracious repulse your Majesty's royal and most comfortable message had received, until after he awoke this morning.'
'And which of his domestics, then, in the name of Heaven, presumed to reject my message, without even admitting my own physician to the presence of him whom I sent him to attend?' said the Queen, much surprised.
'The offender, madam, is before you,' replied Walter, bowing very low; 'the full and sole blame is mine; and my lord has most justly sent me to abye the consequences of a fault, of which he is as innocent as a sleeping man's dreams can be of a waking man's actions.'
'What! was it thou?—thou thyself, that repelled my messenger and my physician from Sayes Court?' said the Queen. 'What could occasion such boldness in one who seems devoted—that is, whose exterior bearing shows devotion—to his Sovereign?'
'Madam,' said the youth—who, notwithstanding an assumed appearance of severity, thought that he saw something in the Queen's face that resembled not implacability—'we say in our country, that the physician is for the time the liege sovereign of his patient. Now, my noble master was then under dominion of a leech, by whose advice he hath greatly profited, who had issued his commands that his patient should not that night be disturbed, on the very peril of his life.'
'Thy master hath trusted some false varlet of an empiric,' said the Queen.
'I know not, madam, but by the fact that he is now—this very morning—awakened much refreshed and strengthened from the only sleep he hath had for many hours.'
The nobles looked at each other, but more with the purpose to see what each thought of this news, than to exchange any remarks on what had happened. The Queen answered hastily, and without affecting to disguise her satisfaction, 'By my word, I am glad he is better. But thou wert over-bold to deny the access of my Doctor Masters. Knowest thou not the Holy Writ saith, 'In the multitude of counsel there is safety'?'
'Ay, madam,' said Walter; 'but I have heard learned men say that the safety spoken of is for the physicians, not for the patient.'
'By my faith, child, thou hast pushed me home,' said the Queen, laughing; 'for my Hebrew learning does not come quite at a call.—How say you, my Lord of Lincoln? Hath the lad given a just interpretation of the text?'
'The word SAFETY, most gracious madam,' said the Bishop of Lincoln, 'for so hath been translated, it may be somewhat hastily, the Hebrew word, being—'
'My lord,' said the Queen, interrupting him, 'we said we had forgotten our Hebrew.—But for thee, young man, what is thy name and birth?'
'Raleigh is my name, most gracious Queen, the youngest son of a large but honourable family of Devonshire.'
'Raleigh?' said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection. 'Have we not heard of your service in Ireland?'
'I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam,' replied Raleigh; 'scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to reach your Grace's ears.'
'They hear farther than you think of,' said the Queen graciously, 'and have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against a whole band of wild Irish rebels, until the stream ran purple with their blood and his own.'
'Some blood I may have lost,' said the youth, looking down, 'but it was where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's service.'
The Queen paused, and then said hastily, 'You are very young to have fought so well, and to speak so well. But you must not escape your penance for turning back Masters. The poor man hath caught cold on the river for
