, sank as if it died within her, and for a
moment she asked herself what she had offered up to Leicester to deserve
to become the partner of this princely splendour. But her pride and
generous spirit resisted the whisper which bade her despair.

"I have given him," she said, "all that woman has to give. Name and
fame, heart and hand, have I given the lord of all this magnificence
at the altar, and England's Queen could give him no more. He is my
husband--I am his wife--whom God hath joined, man cannot sunder. I
will be bold in claiming my right; even the bolder, that I come thus
unexpected, and thus forlorn. I know my noble Dudley well! He will be
something impatient at my disobeying him, but Amy will weep, and Dudley
will forgive her."

These meditations were interrupted by a cry of surprise from her guide
Wayland, who suddenly felt himself grasped firmly round the body by a
pair of long, thin black arms, belonging to some one who had dropped
himself out of an oak tree upon the croup of his horse, amidst the
shouts of laughter which burst from the sentinels.

"This must be the devil, or Flibbertigibbet again!" said Wayland, after
a vain struggle to disengage himself, and unhorse the urchin who clung
to him; "do Kenilworth oaks bear such acorns?"

"In sooth do they, Master Wayland," said his unexpected adjunct, "and
many others, too hard for you to crack, for as old as you are, without
my teaching you. How would you have passed the pursuivant at the upper
gate yonder, had not I warned him our principal juggler was to follow
us? And here have I waited for you, having clambered up into the tree
from the top of the wain; and I suppose they are all mad for want of me
by this time."

"Nay, then, thou art a limb of the devil in good earnest," said Wayland.
"I give thee way, good imp, and will walk by thy counsel; only, as thou
art powerful be merciful."

As he spoke, they approached a strong tower, at the south extremity of
the long bridge we have mentioned, which served to protect the outer
gateway of the Castle of Kenilworth.

Under such disastrous circumstances, and in such singular company, did
the unfortunate Countess of Leicester approach, for the first time, the
magnificent abode of her almost princely husband.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SNUG. Have you the lion's part written? pray, if it be, give
it me, for I am slow of study.
QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.