In my time I have seen a boy do wonders.

Robin, the red tinker, had a boy

Would ha run through a cat-hole.

--THE COXCOMB.

Amid the universal bustle which filled the Castle and its environs, it

was no easy matter to find out any individual; and Wayland was still

less likely to light upon Tressilian, whom he sought so anxiously,

because, sensible of the danger of attracting attention in the

circumstances in which he was placed, he dared not make general

inquiries among the retainers or domestics of Leicester. He learned,

however, by indirect questions, that in all probability Tressilian must

have been one of a large party of gentlemen in attendance on the Earl

of Sussex, who had accompanied their patron that morning to Kenilworth,

when Leicester had received them with marks of the most formal respect

and distinction. He further learned that both Earls, with their

followers, and many other nobles, knights, and gentlemen, had taken

horse, and gone towards Warwick several hours since, for the purpose of

escorting the Queen to Kenilworth.

Her Majesty's arrival, like other great events, was delayed from hour

to hour; and it was now announced by a breathless post that her Majesty,

being detained by her gracious desire to receive the homage of her

lieges who had thronged to wait upon her at Warwick, it would be the

hour of twilight ere she entered the Castle. The intelligence released

for a time those who were upon duty, in the immediate expectation of the

Queen's appearance, and ready to play their part in the solemnities with

which it was to be accompanied; and Wayland, seeing several horsemen

enter the Castle, was not without hopes that Tressilian might be of the

number. That he might not lose an opportunity of meeting his patron

in the event of this being the case, Wayland placed himself in the

base-court of the Castle, near Mortimer's Tower, and watched every one

who went or came by the bridge, the extremity of which was protected by

that building. Thus stationed, nobody could enter or leave the Castle

without his observation, and most anxiously did he study the garb and

countenance of every horseman, as, passing from under the opposite

Gallery-tower, they paced slowly, or curveted, along the tilt-yard, and

approached the entrance of the base-court.

But while Wayland gazed thus eagerly to discover him whom he saw not, he

was pulled by the sleeve by one by whom he himself would not willingly

have been seen.

This was Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, who, like the imp whose name

he bore, and whom he had been accoutred in order to resemble, seemed

to be ever at the ear of those who thought least of him. Whatever were

Wayland's internal feelings, he judged it necessary to express pleasure

at their unexpected meeting.




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