ottage, coming from the Queen, who had infused
him of me. 'I have heard of you from a high masthead,' said he. 'If the
Spanish main allure you, come with me. There be galleons yonder still;
they shall cough up doubloons.' 'It hath a sound of piracy,' said I.
'I am expurgated. My name is written on clean paper now, blessed be the
name of the Queen!' 'Tut, tut, Buonesperado,' laughed he, 'you shall
forget that Tyburn is not a fable if you care to have doubloons reminted
at the Queen's mint. It is meet Spanish Philip's head be molted to
oblivion, and Elizabeth's raised, so that good silver be purged of
Popish alloy.' But that I had sworn by the little finger of St. Peter
when the moon was full, never to leave the English seas, I also would
have gone with Drake of Devon this day. It is a man and a master of men
that Drake of Devon."

"'Tis said that when a man hath naught left but life, and hath treated
his honour like a poor relation, he goes to the Spanish main with Drake
and Grenville," said Lempriere.

"Then must Obligato go, for he hath such credentials," said the fool,
blowing thistle-down in the air. "Yesterday was no Palm Sunday to
Leicester. Delicio's head was high. 'Imperial Majesty,' quoth Obligato,
his knees upon the rushes, 'take my life but send me not forth into
darkness where I shall see my Queen no more. By the light of my Queen's
eyes have I walked, and pains of hell are my Queen's displeasure.'
'Methinks thy humbleness is tardy,' quoth Delicio. 'No cock shall crow
by my nest,' said she. 'And, by the mantle of Elijah, I am out with sour
faces and men of phlegm and rheum. I will be gay once more. So get thee
gone to Kenilworth, and stray not from it on thy peril. Take thy malaise
with thee, and I shall laugh again.' Behold he goeth. So that was the
end of Obligato, and now cometh another tune."

"She hath good cheer?" asked Lempriere eagerly. "I have never seen
Delicio smile these seven years as she smiled to-day; and when she
kissed Amicitia I sent for my confessor and made my will. Delicio hath
come to spring-time, and the voice of the turtle is in her ear."

"Amicitia--and who is Amicitia?" asked Lempriere, well flushed with
wine.

"She who hath brought Obligato to the diminuendo and finale," answered
the fool; "even she who hath befriended the Huguenottine of the black
eyes."

"Ah, she, the Duke's Daughter--v'la, that is a flower of a lady! Did
she not say that my jerkin fitted neatly when I did