"There is something in what thou sayest," said Leicester, "and her

appearance here were fatal. Yet she must be seen at Kenilworth;

Elizabeth will not forget that she has so appointed."

"Let me sleep on that hard point," said Varney; "I cannot else perfect

the device I have on the stithy, which I trust will satisfy the Queen

and please my honoured lady, yet leave this fatal secret where it is now

buried. Has your lordship further commands for the night?"

"I would be alone," said Leicester. "Leave me, and place my steel casket

on the table. Be within summons."

Varney retired, and the Earl, opening the window of his apartment,

looked out long and anxiously upon the brilliant host of stars which

glimmered in the splendour of a summer firmament. The words burst from

him as at unawares, "I had never more need that the heavenly bodies

should befriend me, for my earthly path is darkened and confused."

It is well known that the age reposed a deep confidence in the vain

predictions of judicial astrology, and Leicester, though exempt from the

general control of superstition, was not in this respect superior to his

time, but, on the contrary, was remarkable for the encouragement which

he gave to the professors of this pretended science. Indeed, the wish to

pry into futurity, so general among the human race, is peculiarly to

be found amongst those who trade in state mysteries and the dangerous

intrigues and cabals of courts. With heedful precaution to see that it

had not been opened, or its locks tampered with, Leicester applied a key

to the steel casket, and drew from it, first, a parcel of gold pieces,

which he put into a silk purse; then a parchment inscribed with

planetary signs, and the lines and calculations used in framing

horoscopes, on which he gazed intently for a few moments; and, lastly,

took forth a large key, which, lifting aside the tapestry, he applied to

a little, concealed door in the corner of the apartment, and opening it,

disclosed a stair constructed in the thickness of the wall.

"Alasco," said the Earl, with a voice raised, yet no higher raised than

to be heard by the inhabitant of the small turret to which the stair

conducted--"Alasco, I say, descend."

"I come, my lord," answered a voice from above. The foot of an aged man

was heard slowly descending the narrow stair, and Alasco entered the

Earl's apartment. The astrologer was a little man, and seemed much

advanced in age, for his heard was long and white, and reached over

his black doublet down to his silken girdle. His hair was of the same

venerable hue. But his eyebrows were as dark as the keen and piercing

black eyes which they shaded, and this peculiarity gave a wild and

singular cast to the physiognomy of the old man. His cheek was still

fresh and ruddy, and the eyes we have mentioned resembled those of a

rat in acuteness and even fierceness of expression. His manner was not

without a sort of dignity; and the interpreter of the stars, though

respectful, seemed altogether at his ease, and even assumed a tone

of instruction and command in conversing with the prime favourite of

Elizabeth.




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