A Gentleman Player

, or wonderful froward."

e special product of those days was neither horses nor machines, but men. And such as the horses were, what were the roads they had to traverse! When a horse put his foot down, the chances were that it would land in a deep rut, or slide crunching down the hardened ridge at the side thereof, or find lodgment in a soggy puddle, or sink deep into soft earth, or fall, like certain of the Scriptural seed, upon stony places. It is no wonder, then, that on a certain occasion, when Queen Elizab

ge thereof, the more he sighed at having to increase the distance between himself and the reality. His reluctance to going from the neighborhood of her was none the less for the matter-of-fact promptness with which he did go therefrom. The face was no less a magnet to him for that he so readily and steadily resisted its drawing powers. Those drawing powers would, of course, by the very nature of magnets, decrease as he went farther fro

essarily affected by this new catastrophe to her household. He pitied her, as he thought of the confused and difficult situation into which she had been so suddenly plunged. And then he came to consider what must be her

part,-for being, indeed, the aider of her enemy against herself. Hal registered one determination: should the uncertain future-now of a most exceeding uncertainty in his case-bring him in his own person into the horizon of this woman, he would take care she should not know he had played this part. What had passed between them should be bl

n catching people for the council, and fool him by such a device as Hal had employed! Act a part in real life, even for a moment, to the complete deception of the spectator intended to be duped! To be sure, Dick Tarleton had done so, when he pretended in an inn at Sandwich to be a seminary priest, in order to be arrested

deceptively in real life. The spectator in a theatre expects to see a character pretended, and knows that what he sees is make-believe, not real. A spectator in real life, chosen to be duped, expects no such thing, and is therefore ready to take a pretence for what it purports t

achievement, not of a great feat of stage-playing, indeed, though to his stage training he owed his quick perception and imitation of

ls, should conceive the whim of covering up the track of this one fugitive who desired his track to be seen? Hal cast away this thought. He must proceed, confidently, though in blindness as to what was doing behind him. At present, silence was there; no sound of far-off horse-hoofs. But this might be attributed to Barnet's interruption by Anne's party; to measures for procuring fresh

ntipathy, he had ridden forward to Anthony and tried conversation with that person. Master Underhill listened as one swallows by compulsion a disagreeable dose, and gave b

the soldier; "that a papist should keep a Puritan in's

but then, in a manner of resignation, as if confession and apology wer

is many a year. Daily I resolve me to quit the service of them that cherish the gauds and idolatries of papistry. B

estate be decreased. The master being so oft abroad, and all left to your hands,

ou touch me not. What should they of no reli

m better than your scurvy, hang-dog, vinegar-faced non conformity! Nay, I have been Puritan, too, when it served my turn, in the days when I was of Walsingham

good service formerly, by comparison with its having this night made me partaker in a f

move from the captain's side; whereupon Kit, too amazed fo

y had passed yesternight in bed, warm and sober. So Hal decided that when the three should stop at dawn for rest, food, change of horses, and the removal of the false beard, himself and Kit should attempt an hour's repose while Anthony should watch. The Puritan should be one of the sleepers, Kit the watcher, at the second halt. Ha

, perchance, pound and call at a house or two, to bring these persons to windows with word of what they had heard. Hal marvelled as he thought of it the more, how the nature of things will let no man traverse this world, or any part of it, without leaving trace of his passage. He saw in this material fact an image of life itself, and in the night silence, broken only by the clatter of his horses and by

talking. The new horses were brought out to the green before the inn. Kit dismounted and examined them, then struck a bargain with the innkeeper for their use, dragging the latter's slow wits to a decision by main force. This done

e Barnet would eventually come. Hal, to forestall hindrance in case of a necessarily hasty departure, handed the innkeeper gold enough to cover all charges he might incur, and was shown, with Kit, to a small, bare-walled, wainscoted, plastered, slope-roofed room up-stairs. He threw open the casement toward the green, and promptly fell upon the eggs, fish, and beer that were by this time ser

led away to intervene again, and by the alternate menacings and mockings of a beautiful face, culminated in a clam

pen window. Hal looked out. The Puritan sat his horse on the green, holding the other two anim

s gaze, that an impression of the newly shaven face might remain well fixed in the host's mind; and then jerked rein for a start. Neither Hal nor Kit had yet taken time to look for the cause o

mson cloak and hood, and the Page_in green who had attended her at the theatre. Hal's

he reined up, and spoke to him. Hal could see the innkeeper presently, while answering her, put his hand t

the Page_were riding af

ing his pace, H

you saw coming? Are

she is enough to rais

that is h

tter from the pursuivant, and hath shot off, like bolt f

ommented Kit Bottle, who had taken in th

Hazlehurst,"

now her intentions. She cannot harm us here." (They were now out of the village.) "Though she would raise hell's own

termined, however; the temptation to play with fire in the shape of a beautiful woman was too alluring, the danger apparently too little. So the three horses dropped to a walk, and presently the two that followed were at thei

ill-protected," was Ha

when he met you last," was h

resumed his place at the head, and Francis, in order to be immediately behind his mistress, fel

brother," reiterated

d with a scrape of a razor! You should have bought the silence of mine host yonder, methinks! And changed your company, altered your attitude, rid yourself of the stiffness from the wound my brother gave you, and was

ted Hal, as if humoring her spirit of bitter derision against himself. He was glad of

e said, curtly, "which the more hindereth your

of his attitude; by the frown and the labial rigidity he partly simulated, partly had acquired since yesterday; by the gauntness and pallor, both due to nervous tension and to lack of sleep and

row them off that are coming yonder," she went on, indicati

"By your leave, madam, sith you be in their secret

at your heels ere this day'

y will do swift

replied, taunted by his courteous, almost sugary

way?" he inquired, with a most annoying

"I have run after y

u so? And what will

wered, with high serenity

choose the simple

I pray you?" sh

, which rested upon a gabled country-house far across t

alone the means of throwing you into the hands that bring the warrant for you. Nor

passing wayfarer, I and my men would be up-tails-and-away in a twinkling. For my own interest, I te

hand in the killing, he might finally implant in her mind the impression that, though he was Sir Valentine, he had not given the mortal thrust; that there was some mystery about the fight, to be explained in time. But he now perceived that if such an idea could be rooted into her mind, its effect must be to make her drop the chase and go back to Sir Valentine's neighborhood. There she might find conclusive

d the coolness of voice to answer Hal's

ur when I shall be your fell

!" was Hal's reply,-and again he had to curse his heedlessness, as again he saw how odious to her was the truth that had

you, I shall not los

eaten! Marry, you must be

g you to your undoing," she said, reso

f the road. Ods-death, if you

cers be with us, I shall go in your company, and the appear

men would offer more than mere appearan

ould serve. I take protection of you while I have need o

an to a lady, y

ion, "sith it be a practice in war to avail oneself

parent in her taking for granted that he would act her protector even on a journey in which her declared object was to hold him back for the death he was flying from. There

down to an easy gait in passing through the next villages, though he was ready to spur forward at a sign; but she indicated no thought of starting an outcry. She kept her eyes averted in deep thought. Hal would have given much to read what was passing within that shapely head. Without doubt, she was intent upon some plan for making a gift of him to his pursuers, some device for achieving that revenge which she craved as a

d ham she got at a country inn in Northamptonshire, at which Hal paused to bait the horses. They proceeded into Rutlandshire. Before entering Glaiston she swayed upon her side-sa

t Oakham," said Master Marryott, s

e miles or thirt

tuation favorable to hasty flight northward,-the clocks in the town were sounding noon; noo