t of a better) run thus?--

'If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.'"

The dame of honour uttered an exclamation of joy and surprise at so
happy a termination; and certainly a worse has been applauded, even when
coming from a less distinguished author.

The Queen, thus encouraged, took off a diamond ring, and saying, "We
will give this gallant some cause of marvel when he finds his couplet
perfected without his own interference," she wrote her own line beneath
that of Raleigh.

The Queen left the pavilion; but retiring slowly, and often looking
back, she could see the young cavalier steal, with the flight of a
lapwing, towards the place where he had seen her make a pause. "She
stayed but to observe," as she said, "that her train had taken;" and
then, laughing at the circumstance with the Lady Paget, she took the way
slowly towards the Palace. Elizabeth, as they returned, cautioned her
companion not to mention to any one the aid which she had given to the
young poet, and Lady Paget promised scrupulous secrecy. It is to be
supposed that she made a mental reservation in favour of Leicester,
to whom her ladyship transmitted without delay an anecdote so little
calculated to give him pleasure.

Raleigh, in the meanwhile, stole back to the window, and read, with a
feeling of intoxication, the encouragement thus given him by the Queen
in person to follow out his ambitious career, and returned to Sussex
and his retinue, then on the point of embarking to go up the river,
his heart beating high with gratified pride, and with hope of future
distinction.

The reverence due to the person of the Earl prevented any notice being
taken of the reception he had met with at court, until they had landed,
and the household were assembled in the great hall at Sayes Court; while
that lord, exhausted by his late illness and the fatigues of the day,
had retired to his chamber, demanding the attendance of Wayland, his
successful physician. Wayland, however, was nowhere to be found; and
while some of the party were, with military impatience, seeking him and
cursing his absence, the rest flocked around Raleigh to congratulate him
on his prospects of court-favour.

He had the good taste and judgment to conceal the decisive circumstance
of the couplet to which Elizabeth had deigned to find a rhyme; but other
indications had transpired, which plainly intimated that he had made
some progress in the Queen's favour. All hastened to wis