Sir Mortimer

s. The room looked upon the park, and the pale autumn sunshine flooding it made the most of rich court raiment, purple hangings, green rushes on the floor, lengths of crimson velvet

ioner, "'but the good countenance; nor the cutting that valueth the diamond, bu

her fancy busy with other embroidery, not so much listening to the spoken

of a friend if it be but to try me, nothing if it be to betray me. I am of Scipio's mind, who had rather that Hannibal should eat his heart with salt tha

ds, her level gaze upon nothing short of the great highway of the sea and certain sh

ng that a raven should peck out my eyes than a dove. To die of the meat one liketh not is better than to surf

e gold thread loose between her fingers. She was the fairest there, and the gentleman w

k upon King David's crown to laugh aloud, with some malice and some envy in her mirth. "Prithee, let her alone! She will dream thus even in the presenc

that, was it so she looked, a many King Davids had found excuse for loving one Bathsheba. Then the inner light which had so informed every feature sought again its shrine, and Mistress Damaris Sedley, who was of a nature admirably poised and a wit most ready, lif

e had been reading still had she not risen, laid her work aside, and with a deep and graceful courtesy to the merry group left th

o her by heart, but she liked to feel them in her hands while her gaze went down the river that had borne his ship out to sea. Where was now the ship? Like a white sea-bird her fancy followed it by day and by night, now here, now there, through storm and sunshine. It was of the dignity of her nature that she could look steadfastly upon the vision of it in storm or in battle. There were times when she was sure that it was in danger, when her every breath was a prayer, and there were times, as on this soft a

d, and her voice was like a caress, for the girl was younger than herself. "I know thy 'Oh, Damaris, Da

ight I ran hither, for every moment I feared to see thee enter! Thou wouldst have died hadst thou heard it there in the great antechamber

orm to which she clung had grown rigid in her embrace. "Two of t

net and

ugh to loosen it, but the hand dropped again to her side. The silken coverlet upon the bed was awry; she went to it and laid it smooth with unhurried touch. Fro

Damaris!" cried t

answered the other. "Sometimes Damari

th!" exclaimed Cecily. "Sir Mor

cheek glow pure carnation, saw the quivering of the long eyelashes and the happy trembling of the lip. Presently the wave of color fled; she u

d I know not as to thy brother. I am not sure ... mayhap I did not

ill have thy meaning, Cis. 'They sa

eard--all the court--his friends and thine and his foes. The matter's all abroad. The

for?--Why not Sir Mortimer Fern

doth suffer. There is a thing that he did.--He hath confessed, or sur

ee again an thou say th

n with flying fingers undid and laid aside her ruff, substituting for it a structure of cobweb lace, between whose filmy walls were displayed her white throat and bosom. Around her throat she clasped three rows of pearls, and also wound with pearls

THEY CALL H

g heart, at last broke silence: "O

glanced at her full and sweeping skirts of green silk shot with silver. "I have broken my fan," she said; "wilt lend me thy great plumed one?" Cecily brought the splendid toy. The maid of honor took it from h

d, a fool's paradise and the garden where grew most thickly the apples of Sodom. In it were caged all greed, all extravagance, all jealousies; hopes, fears, passions that may be born of and destroy the soul of man; and within it also flamed splendid folly and fealty to some fixed star, and courage past disputing, and clear love of God and country. Yonder glass of fashion and mould of form had stood knee-deep in an Irish bog keeping through a winter's night a pack of savages at bay; this jester at a noble's elbow knew when to speak in earnest; and this, a suitor with no present in his hand, so lightly esteemed as scarce to seem an actor in the pageant, might to-night take his pen and give to after-time a priceless gift. Soldiers, idle gallants, gentlemen and officers of the court; men of law and men of affairs; churchmen, poets, foreigners, spendthrifts, gulls, satellites, and kinsmen of great lords; the wise, the foolish, the noble and the base--up and down moved the restless, brilliant throng. Some excitement was toward, for the great room buzzed with talk. The courtiers drew together in groups, and it seemed that a man's name was being bandied to and fro, dark shuttlecock to this painted throng. Damans Sedley, entering the

an of the treasure which their eyes beheld, and those who had been his friends, who guessed at whom had been levelled those fair arrows of song, to start full cry (when they had noted that she was merry) u

n, pomander-ball in hand, "had you a venture in that ship? Then the less beauteous Amphitrite hath played highwayman to your weal

e lady. "Master Darrell,"--to a dark-browed, saturnine personage

nother, and made parade of blunt speech. Now a shrug of the shoulder accompanied his

is. "But God, not man, sende

t well for them had they died with their ship, in

Some would have stayed Black Darrell, but not the Queen herself could have bidden him on with more imperious gesture than did Damaris

m. Men bowed low as he passed, and the circle about the maid of hono

ayety, "my sister sends messages to you from Wilton! The day

ixed upon Black Darrell, who scorned to budge an inch for any court favorite and frien

all fellow beside! If they died, they died with curses on their lips, and

ly. "This, sir, is no speech for gentle ears. Mad

n. "I have a venture in this voyage," she said. "Certes, the value of a pearl necklace, and I will know if I am beggared of it! Moreover, dear Sir Philip, English courage and English tragedy do move me more than

tle, for they landed all their forces, of which Sir John Nevil made admirable disposition. But there was an Achan in the camp, a betrayer high in place, who laid his body and his life in the b

of honor. "But on, sir, on! Afterwards ther

h the group, checked by Damaris's rais

ockatrice the galleon was her own! So in flame and thunder they kissed, but n

and gallant gentlemen who led this venture? Where

of much promise who sailed upon the Cygnet.... Ah! you perceive that such converse in her presence is not gentle nor seemly." He took Damaris's hand; it was quite cold. "Sweet lady," he said, in a

but to put forth her hand to touch a coffin-lid. She no longer saw the forms about her, scarce felt the pressure of Sidney's hand, knew not, so brave a lady was she, so fixed her habit of the court, that she smiled upon the group

a good knight who rode steadfastly to that noblest Co

t her forehead. "I am his only sister," she said, "and we have no father nor mother nor brother. We have been much together--all our lives--and w

en of a statelier world awaiting tidings that would make or mar. He was the most chivalric, the best-loved, spirit of his time, and his heart ached that, like his own Amphialus, he must deal so sweet a soul so deadly a blow. Seeing that it must be so, he told quietly and with proper circumstance, not the wild exaggeration and tales of aforethought treason whic

a groan. "Avoweth that, wrung by their hellish tormen

ight against the

derstand. He paused a moment as for consideration, then drew from his doublet a fo

lip Sidney

venture. For myself, who was thy friend, I will show thee in lines of thy own ma

-bed peaco

ng-sheet

false-seem

executo

ur friendship of old I will speak no farther than to cry

For God's sake, Philip Sidney, get me this! I am not yet under arrest--I am hard by the Palace, at the Bell Inn.--You may effect it if y

iend; time is, t

MER F

ey! I am not a

ed,--yet the face upon which in one revealing moment he had gazed seemed not less old than the face of Helen--of Medea--of Ariadne; not less old and not less imperishably beautiful. Neither spoke of her idyll turned to a crowder's song. Knowing that there were no words which she could bear, he waited, his mind filled with deep pity, hers with God knows what complexity, what singleness

"I sent him mask and cloak--he came by yonder way,--met me here..

uld be," answered

he took her hand and led her to an entrance beside which leaned a slender lad in a ragged blue jerkin and hose. "Robin, you will watch yonder

im was strange once more, like the face of Fatal Love rising clear from the crash of its universe. She had drunk the half of a bitter cup, and the remainder she must drink; but

e marble chimney-piece and causing faint shadows to chase one another across an arra

against the chimney-piece--a beautiful woman in the heart of the glow from the fire. At first she said no word, for she was thinking dully. "I

it t

ep forward out of the red glow towards the bar of s

, verily, I did! Then, seeing that I dwell not in Edmund Spenser's faerie-land nor believe that an enchanter's wand may make white seem black and black seem white, I now see myself nakedly as I am,--

myself his murderer.... See the shadow at thy feet, the heavy shadow that lies between you and me!... How may I say that I would have given my life for him who was thy brother and my charge, whom for his own sake I loved, when I gave not my life, when I bought my

, beneath her breath. "Wh

of them both is a nobleman of Spain--Don Luiz de Guardiola, Governor of Nueva Cordoba. He filched from me my honor, but left me life that I might taste death in life. He set me on the river sands that I might call to the ships I had not sunken and to the comrades I had not slain. He gave m

, groping with her hands for the chair beside the table. Finding it, she sank down, outstretched her arms upon the board, and bowed her head upon them. Through

e, thou needst not blush, for now I have seared away that eve above the river, that morn at Penshurst. And there will be no more singing, and men will soon

er in a low, peremptory "At once!" A pause that seemed filled with laboring breath, then footsteps passed her; the door closed. Alone, she rose to her feet, stood for a moment with her hands at her temples, then

e reached her own chamber unmolested. Towards evening Cecily, fluttering in after long hours of attendance, found her in her night-rail, half kneeling beside the bed, half fallen upon the fl

as too late. Suddenly before him, at the head of a short flight of stairs, the massive leaves of the great doors swung open and halberdiers appeared--beyond them a confused yet stately approach of sound and color and indistinguishable forms. The halberdiers advanced, a double line forming an aisle for the passage of some brilliant throng,

d received from the latter a most passionate and vehement gesture of dissuasion. On came the bright wave, with menace of discomfiture and shame, towards the man who, surrounded though he was by petty courtiers, citizens, and country knights, could hardly f

ar, goodly, his old accustomed company. This face--and that--and that! how he startled from it laughter or indifference or vagrant thought. There were low exclamations, a woman's slight scream, pause, confusion, and from the rear an authoritative voice demanding reason for the delay. Past him, staring and m

fanciful; the woman not above coquetry, vanity, and double-dealing, the monarch whose hand was heavy upon the council board, whose will perverted law, whose prime wish was the welfare of her people--she drew near to the man to whom she

hree impetuous steps, then, indignant, stayed with her lifted hand the progress of her train. Ferne knelt. In th

o has dared to do this-

h a motion of his hand he indicated the long cloak beside him. "

ight royally you gave my subjects' lives to the Spaniard. There's a deat

low voice. As he spoke he raised his

ot that, what then?" she cried. "God's death! Is't the Spanish fa

thing of naught, a shade drawn to look once more upon old ways, old walls, the place where once I freely walked. None brought me; none stayed me, for am I not a ghost? I only grieve that your Grace's clear eyes should have marked this shade of what I was, for most unwittingly I, uncommanded, find myself in your Grace's presence." He bent lower, touched the hem of her magn

d the murmur of the waiting throng and the autumna

st is lost, and other and greater matters clamor for our attention. Go! hold thyself a prisoner, at our pleasure, in thy house of Ferne! If thou art but a shade with other shadows, then seek the company of thy dead father and of other loyal and gallant gentlemen of thy name. Perchance, one and all, they would have blenched

n, on they swept into the pleasant outer air. The one man of the motley throng of suitors to whom Elizabeth had spoken rose from his knee, pick