hundred! By'r Lady, there would
be scarcely five hundred fools in merry England to waste good nobles on
spoilt rags, specially while bows and mail are so dear."

"Young gentleman," said Adam, rebukingly, "meseemeth that thou wrongest
our age and country, to the which, if we have but peace and freedom, I
trust the birth of great discoveries is ordained. Certes, Master Alwyn,"
he added, turning to the goldsmith, "this achievement maybe readily
performed, and hath existed, I heard an ingenious Fleming say years ago,
for many ages amongst a strange people [Query, the Chinese?] known to
the Venetians! But dost thou think there is much appetite among those
who govern the State to lend encouragement to such matters?"

"My master serves my Lord Hastings, the king's chamberlain, and my lord
has often been pleased to converse with me, so that I venture to say,
from my knowledge of his affection to all excellent craft and lere,
that whatever will tend to make men wiser will have his countenance and
favour with the king."

"That is it, that is it!" exclaimed Adam, rubbing his hands. "My
invention shall not die!"

"And that invention--"

"Is one that will multiply exemplars of books without hands; works of
craft without 'prentice or journeyman; will move wagons and litters
without horses; will direct ships without sails; will--But, alack! it is
not yet complete, and, for want of means, it never may be."

Sibyll still kept her animated countenance fixed on Alwyn, whose
intelligence she had already detected, and was charmed with the profound
attention with which he listened. But her eye glancing from his sharp
features to the handsome, honest face of the Nevile, the contrast was so
forcible, that she could not restrain her laughter, though, the moment
after, a keen pang shot through her heart. The worthy Marmaduke had
been in the act of conveying his cup to his lips; the cup stood arrested
midway, his jaws dropped, his eyes opened to their widest extent, an
expression of the most evident consternation and dismay spoke in every
feature; and when he heard the merry laugh of Sibyll, he pushed his
stool from her as far as he well could, and surveyed her with a look of
mingled fear and pity.

"Alas! thou art sure my poor father is a wizard now?"

"Pardie!" answered the Nevile. "Hath he not said so? Hath he not spoken
of wagons without horses, ships without sails? And is not all this what
every dissour and jongleur tells us of in