a home--the former as his
physician and the latter as his page. [Footnote: Nott's Life of the Earl
of Surrey]

Love, the arts, and the sciences, caused the wounds that the king had
given his ambition, to heal over; and he now felt no more rancor; now
he almost thanked the king. For to his recall only did he owe his good
fortune; and Henry, who had wished to injure him, had given him his
sweetest pleasure.

He now smiled as he thought how Henry, who had taken from him the baton,
had, without knowing it, given him in return his own queen, and had
exalted him when he wished to humble him.

He smiled, and again took in hand the poem in which he wished to
celebrate in song, at the court festival that day, the honor and
praise of his lady-love, whom no one knew, or even suspected--the fair
Geraldine.

"The verses are stiff," muttered he; "this language is so poor! It has
not the power of expressing all that fulness of adoration and ecstasy
which I feel. Petrarch was more fortunate in this respect. His
beautiful, flexible language sounds like music, and it is, even just by
itself, the harmonious accompaniment of his love. Ah, Petrarch, I envy
thee, and yet would not be like thee. For thine was a mournful and
bitter-sweet lot. Laura never loved thee; and she was the mother of
twelve children, not a single one of whom belonged to thee."

He laughed with a sense of his own proud success in love, and seized
Petrarch's sonnets, which lay near him on the table, to compare his own
new sonnet with a similar one of Petrarch's.

He was so absorbed in these meditations, that he had not at all observed
that the hanging which concealed the door behind him was pushed aside,
and a marvellous young woman, resplendent with diamonds and sparkling
with jewelry, entered his cabinet.

For an instant she stood still upon the threshold, and with a smile
observed the earl, who was more and more absorbed in his reading.

She was of imposing beauty; her large eyes blazed and glowed like a
volcano; her lofty brow seemed in all respects designed to wear a crown.
And, indeed, it was a ducal coronet that sparkled on her black hair,
which in long ringlets curled down to her full, voluptuous shoulders.
Her tall and majestic form was clad in a white satin dress, richly
trimmed with ermine and pearls; two clasps of costly brilliants held
fast to her shoulders the small mantilla of crimson velvet, faced with
ermine, which covered her back and fell do