"Greatest of mortals!"
But he was presently nonplussed, and the steward stept forth to his
relief, reciting how that the glorious beams from his Majesty's person
had stricken dumb this weaker divinity. Having finished, the heat being
intense, and they mightily encumbered with garments, did presently turn
their backs on the king's majesty, making all speed towards the gateway
for shelter. This breach of good manners was not unnoticed by the
monarch, who said, wittily, we suppose, for it was much applauded, that
these gods were not of High Olympus, but of the nether sort, inasmuch as
they had turned tail upon their subject.
James and his company, passing through the ponderous and embattled
gateway, entered into the great quadrangle, an area, it is reported, of
sufficient size to contain six hundred men. Here he alighted, and was
conducted in great state to the oaken chamber, where, royalty being very
hot, a tankard of Rhenish wine, mingled with rosewater, was handed to
him; of this he partook but sparingly, calling to Buckingham for a cup
of muscadine and eggs.
Goring and Finett were not idle, but each of them fully employed in
their respective vocations. Sir John had been pierced by a pair of dark
eyes from the crowd upon the staircase, and Goring was making all haste
for the royal hunt, his Majesty having signified that he would on that
same evening kill a stag. James was, generally, as quick to resolve as
he was impotent to execute; vacillating, and without any fixed purpose,
in matters that required decision and promptitude of action.
With his usual pusillanimity the king went through the business of the
hunt, the deer being literally driven into the very teeth of the dogs.
An hour having been thus occupied, he commanded that they should return,
highly satisfied with his own skill and intrepidity. Ascending the hill
with his favourite, Goring, and discoursing pleasantly on this noble
pastime, the king turned round on the sudden, as though recollecting
something he had lost.
"What! Jack Finett. Quhere? quhere, I say, is my Sienna balsam?" said
he, laying a deep emphasis on the guttural. This sally was acknowledged
with delight by the courtiers. But "Jack" had not been seen or even
remembered. Some trick or device was doubtless intended, and the king
held himself in readiness for the expected surprise; but none was
forthcoming. No magazine of mirth exploded; no mine was sprung; and
James entered into his chamber without any visible expression of
jocoseness issuing from the fertile brains of Sir John Finett. The
irritation produced by his absence seemed to arise, not from any need of
him, but from that tormenting desire which mortals universally feel for
the possession of objects beyond their reach. Search was commanded for
the truant, unsuccessfully; and supper was begun.
The eastern side of the hill on which the tower is built is bold and
rugged, being steep and difficult of access. At its base the Darwen
forces itself through a narrow channel, its waters tumbling over huge
heaps of rock, and reeling in mazy eddies to the echo of their own
voice. The river seems to have worked itself a passage through the
chasm; and the boiling and noisy torrent, struggling to free itself from
observation, foams and bellows like the gorge of a whirlpool, from
whence originates its name, "The Orr," not unlike in sound to the effect
that is here produced.
On the opposite shore the rock is nearly perpendicular, the dog-rose
and the bramble hiding its crevices, and the crawling campanula
wreathing its bright bells about the sterile front, from which its
sustenance was derived, like youth clinging to the cold and insensate
bosom of age. The declivity sloping abruptly from the tower was then
covered with a wild and luxuriant underwood, stunted ash and hazel twigs
thinly occupying a succession of ridges to the summit. Here and there a
straggling oak threw its ungraceful outline over a narrow path, winding
immediately under the base of the hill,--its bare roots undermined by
oozings from above, and giving way to the slow but certain operation of
the destroyer. From the heat and dryness of the season the torrent was
much diminished, rushing into a succession of deep pools, which the full
free light of heaven had scarcely ever visited. Now dimly seen through
the hot gleams of a summer evening, they seemed wavering in the lurid
reflection from surrounding objects.
Up this narrow gorge had strayed Sir John Finett with a companion, too
busily engaged, it might seem, in their own converse to note the lapse
of time, and the probable consequences of the king's displeasure.
"Fair lady," said the gay cavalier, "I am not more bold than my vocation
holdeth meet. Your cousin, at Myerscough, was so liberal of his own
suit, and my countenance therein, that he hath entrusted this
love-billet to my keeping, warning me that I should let none but
yourself be privy to its delivery."
"Would that my cousin had eschewed letter-writing! I am averse to his
suit, and yet he ceaseth not to vex me continually with his drivelling
ditties. His ballad-mongering to these 'eyne' alone would set up one of
your court rhymesters for a twelvemonth."
"Yet may aversion cease, and your mislikings be not over difficult to
assuage," said the courtier.
"I doubt not but Sir John Finett speaks of the capricious and changeable
humours he hath witnessed;--our country fashion holdeth not so lightly
by its affection or disfavour."
"Then there be doubtless of those stout vessels that shall never leak
out a lady's favour. That this lot were mine!"
Sir John, perhaps unconsciously, threw his dark eyes full upon the lady,
who blushed deeply; but the gloom concealed this outward show of
feeling, too unformed and indefinite for thought. She spoke not; but the
knight, under cover of his errand, continued the discourse without
awakening her alarm. He excelled in that specious, though apparently
heedless raillery, which is so apt to slip without suspicion into a
lady's ear; and he could ply his suit, under this disguise, with such
seeming artlessness and unconcern, that a lodgement in the citadel was
sometimes effected ere the garrison was aware of the intrusion.
This fair dame, Grace Gerard, was of gentle blood, a daughter of the
Gerards of Ashton Hall, near Lancaster. At the earnest solicitations of
the Hoghton family, she was induced to remain a guest with them during
the royal visit. Of a sweet and excellent temper, her form and face were
its very image and counterpart. The world was to her untried--fresh,
fair, unblemished--she looked upon it as though she were newly alighted
on "some heaven-kissing hill," from whence the whole round of life's
journey was blent and mingled with the glowing beam that now encompassed
her. Alas! that youth should so soon pluck and eat of the "Tree of
Knowledge!" that a nearer approach should dissipate the illusion! that
our path, as it winds through those scenes we have looked on from afar
in the light of our imagination, should at every step discover the
tracks of misery,--a world of wretchedness and of woe!
Sir John, with all his faults, inseparable it may be from the society
into which he had been thrown, was not vicious. Loving and beloved, he
existed but as the object of woman's regard. This foible he indulged not
farther. But many a bright eye waxed dim,--many a fond heart was
withered, in the first spring-tide of its affection.
"Now that I have granted you this audience for my cousin's sake, and
given him my reply, it is needful that we return. Besides, the night is
coming on. The king and the feast demand your presence."
"Nay, thou cruel tyrant, tell me not of my chain. The king's humour I
can control, but"----
"Presume not on the favour of princes; an ancient but wholesome
caution," said the maiden, laughing at Sir John, who, for the first
time, seemed to be aware of his duty, and was puzzling his brains for an
excuse.
The bell now rang out lustily from the Tower, increasing the knight's
perplexity. The innocent cause of this delay only laughed at his
concern, singing, as though to herself--
"'The bell has been rung, and the mass hath been sung,
And the feast eat merrily,
Merrily!'
"and the king's master of the ceremonies absent."
The aspect of affairs was now more serious than he had anticipated.
Supper was indeed commencing. Some scheme or witty device must be hit
upon,--speedily too, or the king's displeasure might be difficult to
assuage.
"But for thy bright eyes and fair speech, my lady Grace, I had not been
amissing from my duty." He looked thoughtful, and it was the maiden's
turn to rally.
They ascended the hill by a short but steep path. As they approached the
summit, he seemed to awake from a deep reverie.
"Now have you granted me an audience for a lover's sake--to-morrow, let
me be the ambassador for another."
"I have no lovers from whom I would care to be honoured with an
embassy!"
"None?" said the knight, peering curiously, as if he would penetrate the
folds of a real Flanders scarf she had thrown carelessly about her
head--
"'Then will I be thy lover true,
And thou my beauteous queene,'
"through these gay festivities. But mark me!"--He became serious on the
sudden. The expression of his eye, from its general character of assumed
gaiety, was changed into that of tenderness and respect. "Mark me, lady,
I would be spared the horror of a rival. Will you be my partner in these
pageantries--my mistress unto whom I may render mine homage and my
trust?"
"'Tis a brave speech, Sir John," cried the lady, as though wishful to
divert the subject. "My cousin tells me that you are a knight of great
courage and renown, but he sayeth not aught of your disposition to
outrival him in heroics. Good-bye--a promise made is a promise broken;
therefore, I'll offer none. I meet you not to-night at the feast, having
obtained mine excuse."
Saying this, she bounded from him ere he was aware, and was speedily out
of sight.
He was not a little chagrined at her abrupt departure; yet her very
carelessness, and the open simplicity of her manner, only served to fix
her the more deeply in his thoughts. But a problem of greater difficulty
was to be resolved than how to fix the chameleon hue of woman's
thought. He had a king to pacify--wayward as a child, fickle as a lady's
favour. Unless he could acquit himself by some witty quibble or device,
he might bid adieu to the gaieties over which he presided. The time was
short, and his wit must needs be ambling. As he passed through the
court, revolving many plans for his deliverance, he was aware of a loud
dispute between the two household divinities we have before noticed.
Words were nigh being exchanged for blows, but they were stayed out of
respect to the intruder.
Leaving Sir John to confer with those doughty disputants, let us follow
the king to supper. Space forbids that we describe the wonders of this
feast, and the dainties that were provided--how the swans were roasted,
and the herons eaten cold--how pies were baked of the red deer, and the
wild boar, not a whit too small for the reception of any moderate-sized
Christian subject of his Majesty's. There were turkeys, quails, poults,
and plovers; but of pheasants only two, and one for the king. The
greatest triumph, however, was reserved for the confections; an
artificial hen was here served of puff-paste; her wings displayed,
sitting upon eggs of the same materials. In each of these was enclosed a
fat lark roasted, and seasoned with pepper and ambergris.
They sat down, but the master of the ceremonies was still absent;
whereupon the king, much distempered thereby, called out to Sir George
Goring--
"Our mummer and our dancer being departed--whilk thing, aforetime, we
did maist righteously inhibit--thinkest thou, he may not henceforth
eschew our service?"
"My liege, your Grace's commands were to seek him a full hour agone, but
the scared deer hath taken to covert. He was, peradventure, afraid of
the hunting, and liketh his own neck better than the sport. He careth
not, methinks, to show his face that turns big back on his comrade's
peril."
"May be," said Buckingham, "your Majesty's favour is not so winsome as a
lady's cheek. I would wager my cap, Jack Finett hath found a smoother
tongue, but a harder service, than your Majesty's."
"O' my saul,--if I thought so," said the monarch, as he threw down a
spoonful of buttered pease, "I would send him to the Tower, and he
should write a book on Hercules his distaff."
"Or Omphale's spindle," said a voice at the lower end of the hall,
which, issuing from a mask, closely fitted, sounded wondrously hollow
and portentous. A profound silence ensued--all eyes being turned towards
the speaker, who was no less a personage than the first household god,
attired in his proper suit. He approached the king's table, waving his
hand in token of attention--
"The knight ye speak of, mark me well,
I've just drawn from the castle-well!"
"Mercy on us," cried Sir Richard Hoghton. "The draw-well is more than
eighty yards deep. Thou art a lying deity, and shalt be banished from
this bright Olympus."