ne sight of that
brutal sport made the boy so sick that they never went again, but to the
stage-plays at the Rose instead, which Nick enjoyed immensely, for Carew
himself acted most excellently, and Master Tom Heywood always came and
spoke kindly to the lonely boy.

For, in spite of all, Nick's heart ached so at times that he thought it
would surely break with longing for his mother. And at night, when all
the house was still and dark, and he alone in bed, all the little,
unconsidered things of home--the beehives and the fragrant mint beside
the kitchen door, the smell of the baking bread or frying carrots, the
sound of the red-cheeked harvest apples dropping in the orchard, and the
plump of the old bucket in the well--came back to him so vividly that
many a time he cried himself to sleep, and could not have forgotten
if he would.

On Midsummer Day there was a Triumph on the river at Westminster, with a
sham-fight and a great shooting of guns and hurling of balls of
wild-fire. The Queen was there, and the ambassadors of France and
Venice, with the Duke of Lennox and the Earls of Arundel and
Southampton. Master Carew took a wherry to Whitehall, and from the green
there they watched the show.

The Thames was fairly hidden by the boats, and there was a grand state
bark all trimmed with silk and velvet for the Queen to be in to see the
pastime. But as for that, all Nick could make out was the high carved
stern of the bark, painted with England's golden lions, and the bark was
so far away that he could not even tell which was the Queen.

Coming home by Somerset House, a large barge passed them with many
watermen rowing, and fine carpets about the seats; and in it the old
Lord Chamberlain and his son my Lord Hunsdon, who, it was said, was to
be the Lord Chamberlain when his father died; for the old lord was
failing, and the Queen liked handsome young men about her.

In the barge, beside their followers, were a company of richly dressed
gentlemen, who were having a very gay time together, and seemed to
please the old Lord Chamberlain exceedingly with the things they said.
They were somebodies, as Nick could very well see from their carriage
and address; and, so far as the barge allowed, they were all clustered
about one fellow in the seat by my Lord Hunsdon. He seemed to be the
chiefest spokesman of them all, and every one appeared very glad indeed
to be friendly with him. My Lord Hunsdon himself made free with his own
n