g
away the interval between the noon and evening meals,--repasts to which
already the young king inclined with that intemperate zest and ardour
which he carried into all his pleasures, and which finally destroyed the
handsomest person and embruted one of the most vigorous intellects of
the age.

The garden, if bare of flowers, supplied their place by the various
and brilliant-coloured garbs of the living beauties assembled on its
straight walks and smooth sward. Under one of those graceful cloisters,
which were the taste of the day, and had been recently built and gayly
decorated, the earl was stopped in his path by a group of ladies playing
at closheys (ninepins) of ivory; [Narrative of Louis of Bruges, Lord
Grauthuse. Edited by Sir F. Madden, "Archaelogia," 1836.] and one of
these fair dames, who excelled the rest in her skill, had just bowled
down the central or crowned pin,--the king of the closheys. This lady,
no less a person than Elizabeth, the Queen of England, was then in her
thirty-sixth year,--ten years older than her lord; but the peculiar
fairness and delicacy of her complexion still preserved to her beauty
the aspect and bloom of youth. From a lofty headgear, embroidered with
fleur-de-lis, round which wreathed a light diadem of pearls, her hair,
of the pale yellow considered then the perfection of beauty, flowed so
straight and so shining down her shoulders, almost to the knees, that
it seemed like a mantle of gold. The baudekin stripes (blue and gold) of
her tunic attested her royalty. The blue courtpie of satin was bordered
with ermine, and the sleeves, sitting close to an arm of exquisite
contour, shone with seed pearls. Her features were straight and regular,
yet would have been insipid, but for an expression rather of cunning
than intellect; and the high arch of her eyebrows, with a slight curve
downward of a mouth otherwise beautiful, did not improve the expression,
by an addition of something supercilious and contemptuous, rather than
haughty or majestic.

"My lord of Warwick," said Elizabeth, pointing to the fallen closhey,
"what would my enemies say if they heard I had toppled down the king?"

"They would content themselves with asking which of your Grace's
brothers you would place in his stead," answered the hardy earl, unable
to restrain the sarcasm.

The queen blushed, and glanced round her ladies with an eye which never
looked direct or straight upon its object, but wandered sidelong with