1.
Fair star, that beamest
In my ladye's bower,
Pale ray, that streamest
In her lonely tower;
Bright cloud, when like the eye of Heaven
Floating in depths of azure light,
Let me but on her beauty gaze
Like ye unchidden. Day and night
I'd watch, till no intruding rays
Should bless my sight.
2.
Fond breeze, that rovest
Where my ladye strays,
Odours thou lovest
Wafting to her praise;
Lone brook, that with soft music bubblest,
Chaining her soul to harmony;
Let me but round her presence steal
Like ye unseen, a breath I'd be,
Content none other joy to feel
Than circling thee!
"In good sooth, thou canst govern the cadence well. Thou hast more skill
of love than thine age befits. But, mayhap, 'tis thy vocation, boy. Hast
thou had visitors betimes this morning!"
"None, good master, but Kelly."
"What of him?"
"Some business that waited your return. I thought you had knowledge of
the matter."
"Are there any clients astir so early at his chamber, thinkest thou?"
"None, save the rich merchant that dwells hard by, Cornelius
Ethelstoun."
"Cornelius!" repeated the cavalier, in a disturbed and inquiring
tone--"hath he departed?"
"Nay, I heard not his footsteps since I watched the old man tapping
warily at the prophet's door."
Rodolf hastily replaced his hat, and his short and impatient rap was
heard at the seer's chamber.
It occupied the north-eastern angle of the building, in the gloomiest
part of the house; overlooking, on one side, a small courtyard,
barricadoed by walls and battlements of stout masonry, along which were
ridges of long rank grass waving in all the pride of uncropped
luxuriance. Another window overlooked the dark-flowing Irk, lazily
rolling beneath the perpendicular rock on which the college was
built--the very site of the once formidable station of Mancunium, the
heart and centre of the Roman power in that vast district.
No answer being rendered to this hasty summons, Rodolf raised the latch,
but marvelled not a little when he beheld the room apparently deserted.
Voices were, however, heard in the inner apartment. Ere he could well
draw back the door slowly opened, nor could he avoid hearing the
following termination to some weighty conference.
"An hundred broad pieces--good! Ere night, thou sayest?"
"Ere the curfew," replied Cornelius.
"Look thee--'tis but a slender space for mine art to work, and"--The
seer, as he uttered this with great solemnity, entered the antechamber.
The gallant stood there, just meditating a retreat. A flush of anger and
confusion passed for a moment over Kelly's visage. Quickly recovering
his self-possession, with a severe aspect, he stood before the intruder.
"Art come to listen or to watch?" abruptly interrogated the seer. "Both
be rare accomplishments truly for a youth of thy breeding."
"Nay, good Master Kelly; I came but at thy bidding, and mine ears are
not the heavier or the wiser for what they have heard, I trow."
"I thought thee safe at morning prayers."
"Nay," replied Rodolf. "There be too many bright eyes and blushing
cheeks for the seasoning of a man's devotions."
"Cornelius, thou mayest retire. What mine art can compass shall not be
lacking at thy need."
The merchant, with a profound obeisance, withdrew. The seer adjusted his
beard, carefully brushed the down from his velvet cap, and sate for a
while as if abstracted from all outward intercourse. His keen quick eye
became fixed, its lustre imperceptibly waning. A cloud seemed to pass
gradually over his sharp features, until their expression was absorbed,
giving place to a look of mere lifeless inanity. A spectator might have
fancied himself gazing at a sage of some remote era, conjured up from
his dark resting-place. The wand of death seemed to have withered his
shrunk visage for ages under the dim shadow of the grave.
Rodolf, aware that he was not to be interrupted when the gift was upon
him, waited patiently the result of the seer's revelations. A
considerable time had elapsed when the cloud began to roll away. His
features gradually reassumed the attributes of life, as each separately
felt the returning animation. His eyes rested full on the cavalier.
"I have had a vision, Rodolf."
"To me is it not spoken?" inquired he.
"Yea, to thee!" The seer said this in a tone so hollow and energetic,
and with a look of such thrilling awe, that even Rodolf shuddered. He
seemed to feel his glance.
"Listen. The spirit warned me thus:--
"'The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.'"
"Nay, Master Kelly, thine art faileth this once, forsooth. To-night is
the saint's vigil, yet lurk I not in the beam of a woman's favour; and
ere another year I may be cured of the simples at my father's dwelling
in the old castle."
"The vision hath spoken, and it setteth not forth idle tales. Come to me
anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou
shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned
thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber."
Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious
and disturbed. He sat down, but his restlessness seemed to increase.
His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired,
nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the
more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere
night--albeit his bride were yet unsought--nor wooed, nor won! Nothing
could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive
and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every
age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither
pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better
breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his
fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and
the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and
disarrangements they had undergone. A considerable time had now elapsed;
in the meanwhile his impatience had risen to an alarming height,
insomuch that we would not have answered for the safety of his red cloth
hose and silken doublet, had not noon been happily announced.
Raising the latch of the seer's chamber with considerable eagerness, he
found the room completely dark. An unseen hand led him to a seat. Soon
he heard a low murmuring chant, as though from voices at a remote
distance. By degrees the words grew more articulate, shaping themselves
into the same quaint distich that Kelly had repeated,--
"The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea
Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy."
This was answered in a voice of considerable pathos; a burst of soft
music filling up the interval. Gradually the eye began to feel sensible
of the presence of surrounding objects, though in the ordinary way
nothing could be distinguished; a faculty peculiarly sensitive with the
loss of sight, and not quite dormant in the general mass of mankind. A
faint gleam was soon perceptible, like the first blush of morning,
apparently on the opposite side of the chamber. Becoming brighter,
flashes of a dim, rainbow-coloured light crept slowly by, like the
aurora sweeping over an illuminated cloud. Suddenly he saw, or his eyes
deceived him, a female form shaping itself from these chaotic elements.
But it was observed only during the short intervals when the beams
seemed to kindle with unusual brightness. Every flash, however, rendered
the appearance more distinct. Dazzled and bewildered, the heated senses
were become the victims of their own credulity, the mind receiving back
its own reactions. Taking its impression probably from the occurrences
of the morning, the eye rapidly moulded the figure into the likeness of
Kate. Her eyes were turned upon him, beaming with that soft and melting
expression he had so recently beheld. It was but momentary, or he could
have persuaded himself that she looked on him with an air the most
tender and compassionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so
lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be
"The imagination
Become impregnate with her own desire,"
yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the
blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could
have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the
heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a
blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short
glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her
feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the
features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his
repose.
A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the
speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober anticipations,
reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as
bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.
His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But--she had another lover!
The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy
chill of the grave. He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen
to return with the same intensity.
Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually
approached. A faint light flashed through the chamber. He saw his own
wild woods and the distant castle. It was just visible, dimly outlined
on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that
accompanied his departure. It arose tranquilly on his spirit. The voice
of other years visited his soul. His eyes filled--he could have wept in
the very overflowing of his delight. He dashed his hand across his
forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.
Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing was discerned,
save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer
sitting at his elbow.
"Boy, what sawest thou?" said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke,
but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.
"In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly. The maid I have just seen
is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may
approach with a safe warranty. I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if
this be the maiden I am to woo. And yet"--The form of the comely suitor
he had seen kneeling at her feet just then flashed on his mind, yet
cared he not to show the seer how much the phantom had disturbed him.
"Idle tales?" said Kelly. "I wot not but half the gay gallants in the
town would give the best jewel in their caps to have one sweet look, one
pretty smile from her cruel mouth. 'Tis but the report of those whom she
hath slighted with loathing and contempt, that hath raised this
apprehension in her disfavour. The churls know not what is hidden
beneath this outward habit of her perverse nature, and she careth not to
discover. Should some youth of noble bearing and condition but woo her
as she deserves, thou shouldest see her tamed, ay, and loving too, as
the very idol of her worship, or I would forfeit my best gift."
"But she hath a lover!" said Rodolf, gravely.
"Peradventure she hath, but not of her own choosing, or mine art fails
me. Look, this figure is the horoscope of her birth. Thou hast some
knowledge of the celestial sciences. The directions are so close worked
that should this night pass and Kate go unwed--indicated by Venus coming
to a trine of the sun on the cusp of the seventh house, she will refuse
all her suitors, and her whole patrimony pass into the hands of a
stranger; but"--he raised his voice with a solemn and emphatic
enunciation--"to-night! look to it! If not thine she may be another's."
The listener's brain seemed on a whirl; thought hurrying on thought,
until the mind lost all power of discrimination. The succession of
images was too rapid. All individuality was gone. He felt as though not
one idea was left out of the busy crowd on which to rest his own
identity. He seemed a mere passive existence, unable either to execute
the functions of thought or volition.
"Go, for a brief space. Thou mayest return at sunset. Yet"--the seer
fixed a penetrating glance on the youth as he retired--"go not nigh the
merchant's dwelling, unless thou wouldest mar thy fortune.
To-night--remember!"
In the dim solitude of his chamber Rodolf sought in vain to allay the
feverish excitement he had endured. He seemed left to the sport and
caprice of a power he could not control. The coursers of the imagination
grew wilder with restraint: he recklessly flung the reins upon their
neck; but this did not tire their impetuosity. His brain glowed like a
furnace; he seemed hastening fast on to the verge of either folly or
madness. He threw himself on the couch, when the voice of Altdorff came
like a winged harmony upon his spirit. The page was seated in the narrow
cloisters,--the lute, his untiring companion, enticing a few chords from
his touch, playful and gentle as the feelings that awaked them; some old
and quaint chant, scarce worth the telling, but cherished in the heart's
inmost shrine, from the hallowed nature of its associations. A deep
slumber crept heavily on the cavalier, but the merchant's daughter still
haunted him: sometimes snatched away from his embrace just as a rosy
smile was kindling on her lips; at others, she met him with frowns and
menace, but ere he could speak to her she had disappeared. Then was he
tottering on the battlements of some old turret, when a storm arose, the
maiden crept to his side, but in an instant, with a hideous crash, she
was borne away by the rude grasp of the tempest. He awoke, with a
mortifying discovery that the crash had been of a somewhat less
equivocal nature. A cabinet of costly workmanship lay overturned at his
feet, and a rich vase, breathing odours, strewed the floor in a thousand
fragments.
The noise brought up several of the college servitors; to rid himself
from the annoyance he ascended the roof, then protected by low
battlements, and leaded, so that a person might walk round the building
and pursue his meditations without interruption.
On this day, teeming with events, Dr Dee had been too closely engaged in
parish duties to give heed to these love fancies, and even had he been
ever so free to exercise his judgment in the matter, it is more than
likely Rodolf would not have opened to him the proceedings then afoot.
He well knew that the Doctor yet bore no good-will to Kelly, and might
possibly thwart his designs, to the undoing of any good purposed by the
strange transactions that had already occurred; he resolved, therefore,
to let this day pass, ere he opened his lips on the subject. But how to
while away the hours until evening was a most embarrassing problem.
Sleep he had tried, but he found no wish to repeat the experiment;
reading was just then foreign to his humour; mathematics must, that day,
go unstudied. After beating time to at least a dozen strange metres, he
hit upon the happy contrivance of writing a love-song, as a kind of
expedient to restore the equilibrium. He was rather unskilled at the
work; but the pen becomes eloquent when the soul moves it. We will,
however, leave him at this thrifty employment, having no design, gentle
reader, to make the occasion as wearisome to thee as to himself. Having
the power to annihilate both time and space, let us watch the round sun,
as he threw his last look, that evening, on the scene of this marvellous
history. The old walls of the college, and the church tower, were
invested with a gorgeous apparel of light, as though illumined for some
gay festival, some season of rejoicing, when gladness shines out visibly
in the shape of bonfires and torches. But few moments elapsed, ere the
love-sick youth was again admitted into the dark interior of the seer's
dwelling.