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.
