seen him?"

"If you had," replied the Earl, "you would do well to keep that
interview as secret as that which is spoken in a confessional. I seek no
one's ruin; but he who thrusts himself on my secret privacy were better
look well to his future walk. The bear [The Leicester cognizance was the
ancient device adopted by his father, when Earl of Warwick, the bear and
ragged staff.] brooks no one to cross his awful path."

"Awful, indeed!" said the Countess, turning very pale.

"You are ill, my love," said the Earl, supporting her in his arms.
"Stretch yourself on your couch again; it is but an early day for you to
leave it. Have you aught else, involving less than my fame, my fortune,
and my life, to ask of me?"

"Nothing, my lord and love," answered the Countess faintly; "something
there was that I would have told you, but your anger has driven it from
my recollection."

"Reserve it till our next meeting, my love," said the Earl fondly, and
again embracing her; "and barring only those requests which I cannot
and dare not grant, thy wish must be more than England and all its
dependencies can fulfil, if it is not gratified to the letter."

Thus saying, he at length took farewell. At the bottom of the staircase
he received from Varney an ample livery cloak and slouched hat, in which
he wrapped himself so as to disguise his person and completely conceal
his features. Horses were ready in the courtyard for himself and Varney;
for one or two of his train, intrusted with the secret so far as to know
or guess that the Earl intrigued with a beautiful lady at that mansion,
though her name and duality were unknown to them, had already been
dismissed over-night.

Anthony Foster himself had in hand the rein of the Earl's palfrey, a
stout and able nag for the road; while his old serving-man held the
bridle of the more showy and gallant steed which Richard Varney was to
occupy in the character of master.

As the Earl approached, however, Varney advanced to hold his master's
bridle, and to prevent Foster from paying that duty to the Earl which he
probably considered as belonging to his own office. Foster scowled at
an interference which seemed intended to prevent his paying his court
to his patron, but gave place to Varney; and the Earl, mounting without
further observation, and forgetting that his assumed character of a
domestic threw him into the rear of his supposed master, rode pensively
out of the quadrangle, not without wa