offence in my life, you should be ever putting of some affront upon me: but I can endure it from you no longer. I would have you remember I wear a sword."

"Indeed!" answered the other with a very evident scorn. "I have had my doubts of that. Wear a sword do you? I did suppose you had only a scabbard, for I have found you marvellous chary of shewing the blade."

Master Francis put his hand to his rapier on the instant.

"No," exclaimed he, making a struggle to put down his anger, "you are the friend of Sir Walter Raleigh."

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"A good excuse o' my life!" cried the colonel with a look of derision, a famous good excuse. But cowards are never at a loss for excuses, and your wretched scribblers and paltry secretaries be ever the errantest cowards that live. Know you not I am the best swordsman in Europe?"

"I neither know nor care," replied his companion, yet still striving to keep down his indignation at the continual provocation he was receiving. "Coward I am not nor ever was, as Sir Walter Raleigh, under whose eye I have fought, can sufficiently assure you. Neither am I a braggart-so aught of what I have done you will not know from me. I seek not to quarrel with you. I will add, let you impute it to what motive you please, I would rather avoid it: but not from any fear of your skill in the weapon. That you are a brave soldier, I have heard; but 'tis a pity your long experience in matters of war hath made you forget there was a necessity for your being also as brave a gentleman."

"Say you so, my fine secretary fellow?" said the other in the same insulting tone and manner he had used from the first. "Fine talking o' my life! Brave words! An excellent good speech? Out of what book didst steal such holiday phrases? Alack, it be a pitiful thing methinks that your fine talkers should ever be such poor fighters. So, forsooth, your worship doth not take me to be a gentleman! How infinitely vexed am I! I will on the instant get me a fine doublet. I will study the courtliest phrases out of book. I will stifle my valour and take to scribbling. Why, how now, varlet! What dost mean by such impudency! What know you of gentlemen -a paltry poor fellow of no note or quality, that eannot say who was his own father?"

Master Francis had been much moved before-but now he became exceeding agitated. He breathed hard-he pressed his teeth upon his lower lip so firmly that the blood oozed from it, and his cheek, which had hitherto been famously flushed, now grew wonderfully pale.

"Colonel Harquebus!" exclaimed he, looking proudly and angrily at his insulter, "I have borne more from you than ever I endured from any man in my life. As the friend of one for whom I feel the affection of a son, you have had in my eyes a claim to my forbearance, which I should be loth to set aside. But forbearance hath its limits. Urge me not any more, for were you fifty times the skilful swordsman you are, give me such another affront, I will die but I will avenge it on you with my sword. Colonel Harquebus, I would pass you."

Thereupon Master Francis bowed haughtily to his companion, and seemed intent upon taking himself away.

"Never saw I such thorough cowardice," replied the colonel scornfully; at hearing which the young secretary stopped of a sudden, and looked on the other with knitted brows and a fearless gaze. "It be palpable. No sun at noon-day ever was seen so clearly. Go to! you are contemptible! You are paltry! You are vile! I have suspected your worthless origin with sufficient cause. Such base behaviour proveth you to be the base offspring of some wanton woman!" In an instant the rapier of Master Francis flashed from its sheath.

"Thou liest!" shouted he, trembling with irrepressible rage, his eyes glancing with a brilliancy they had never till then exhibited, and his countenance, though pale as death, expressing extreme anger and defiance. "Thou liest, for a foul-mouthed calumniating villain. Draw, if thou hast the spirit of a man, and I will prove that thou art a slanderer on thy villanous body."

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"Not so fast, Master Secretary," coolly replied the colonel, as he slowly drew forth his weapon. All in good time. I like not to be hurried I promise you. Right glad am I however to see that you wear something beside a scabbard. 'Tis a pretty blade. I hope you are tolerably skilled in the use of it, for I like not killing one who is ignorant of his defence. Put forth your cunning. Live as many minutes as you may. But I would fain persuade you to the saving of your life. You know what a master of fence I am. Be wise in time. Sheathe your weapon and go your ways."

Master Francis only replied by throwing his hat on one side, and making a demonstration of readiness to attack his opponent. Colonel Harquebus very unconcernedly put his hat at the foot of a tree close by; but he looked not so scornful as he had done; indeed, he seemed to be setting upon a conflict of life and death as though it were a marvellous pleasant pastime to him.

"Then you accept not of my clemency, Master Secretary ?" said he advancing towards him. "Life is sweet. Death endeth all scribbling. I pray you have pity on yourself and sheathe your weapon."

"Heed not me!" replied Master Francis, in no way lessening his rage. "I am loth to draw in a quarrel; but I sheathe not my weapon till I have had satisfaction for an injury."

"Then look to yourself, Master Secretary," added Colonel Harquebus, as he made a flourish of his rapier, "I must needs kill you. Yet I like not making a hole in so fine a doublet."

The sarcasm contained in the last sentence seemed to have increased the anger of Master Francis; for he instantly crossed the other's weapon with his own, and began a brisk assault. The Colonel took it at first very coolly, scarcely exerting of himself at all, as if he believed he had so poor a swordsman to deal with there was no necessity for his putting forth any particular skill for the vanquishing of him, but this contemptuous behaviour the more stirred up the indignation of the young secretary. Still, however greatly angered he was, he bore in mind his adversary's reputation with his weapon, and used such caution as would give him as little advantage as was possible. Presently the colonel found himself so pressed, he was by

little and little forced into the using of all the cunning he possessed. Now their weapons flashed against each other with such marvellous rapidity the eye could not follow their movements. The colonel looked not so cool as he did. In a minute or two the colonel found himself obliged to give ground. I know not whether it was Colonel Harquebus was not such a master of fence as he had said, or that increased excitement led Master Francis to the using of a greater vigour; but the colonel was now so hotly assaulted he had to employ all his vigilance, all his strength, and all his skilfulness in his own defence; and having his attention fully employed by his adversary, could not notice where he was retreating to, till his foot came against the root of a tree that projected somewhat above the earth, and in a moment he measured his length on the ground.

"Hold thy hand, boy!" shouted he, upon seeing the point of the other's weapon coming direct upon his breast. "Wouldst kill thine own father?"

Master Francis dropped his rapier on the instant, and stood with clasped hands, and looks of wonder, fear, and horror, gazing upon his prostrate antagonist. As for the colonel, all trace of any ill feeling had vanished from his features, and he looked now with a sort of half-ashamed and half-pleased face.

"Well, colonel-art satisfied?" enquired Sir Walter Raleigh, coming up with Master Shakspeare unseen by the combatants, followed by Dame Elizabeth and Alice, and Harry Daring and young Raleigh, all excepting the first looking as if they marvelled exceedingly.

"Satisfied, quotha!" replied the other, as he sprang upon his feet, and began wiping of his hot face. "O' my life, I had nigh been satisfied after such a fashion as would have left me naught to desire in this world! A valiant young villain!-a very Hector! As pretty a fellow at his weapon as ever I met. You have seen something of my skill at the sword, Sir Walter: I have overcome the best masters of fence in Christendom. But, by my troth! though I sought with all my cunning to disarm him, that I might then say who I was, and acknowledge him as a son of mine, the varlet not only would not allow of such a thing, but.pressed on me with such a furious valour, I had great ado to keep me a whole skin."

"You will take my word next time," said Raleigh with a smile; then turning to Master Francis, who was gazing on one and on the other, so bewildered it was evident he scarce knew what to say or do, he added-"Master Francis! or, as you must henceforth be called, Master Francis Harquebus, it is now my business to tell you, and I would gladly have told you before had I been allowed, that, from the likeness you bear to your most virtuous and excellent mother, the colonel, on the first sight of you, did, suspect your relationship to him, and did question me very closely upon your history, the which I told to the full extent of what I knew. Thereupon he acknowledged himself your father, stating that he had secretly married your mother, and soon after left England for foreign wars, to escape being forced into a marriage he liked not, as I told you before; but, finding you were my secretary, and hearing you were much

given to studiousness and writing, which he hath a most unreasonable contempt of, he would on no account have you made aware of your kindred to him. It was in vain I related such instances of your courage as had come under mine own eyes: his dislike of scribblers and mere gallants would not allow him to think otherwise than that I was partial in my commendations of you, and stated his resolve to make trial of your valour, that if you proved yourself of such gallant spirit as would make him glad to own you as a son, his son you should be immediately acknowledged; but if, as he imagined, you had no such spirit in you, nothing should be said about the matter; for he said he would never be brought to own relationship to a pitiful fine milksop. Upon this he tried to affront you, expecting you to call him to account for it. Your forbearance he took for fear, and vowed he would have none of you for a son. I said what I could to create in him a different opinion; and he continued to put upon you such insults as he thought most offensive and intolerable. I do believe you endured till nature could endure no longer; and now you have convinced him that learning, and taste in apparelling of oneself, can do no hurt to true valour."

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"O' my life! I do begin to believe they be not so bad as I have thought," observed the colonel good-humouredly, as he sheathed his rapier.

"One thing more," continued Sir Walter. "You must not suppose, from the harshness of his behaviour to you, that your father is of the crabbed nature he hath seemed. I have known him long, and have seen him oft; and do in all sincerity assert there liveth not a kinder, heartier, and more sweetly disposed gentleman in this world -as far as I know of it."

"O' my life!" exclaimed the colonel. "I do believe he hath taken such offence at my behaviour, and knowing once I would have none of him for a son, he will turn the tables, and now have none of me for a father."

Master Francis had no such idea in him. He was lost in a sort of pleasing wonder; and his feelings were overpowered at remembering that the parent he had been so anxious to meet, the ignorance of whom had occasioned him such extreme unhappiness, he was a moment since on the point of running through the body.

"Wilt shake hands and be friends, son Francis?" enquired his father. "Wilt have peace after all this famous fighting? Dost care for owning an old soldier for thy father, thou valiant young villain ? Heed not what I have said; care not for what I have done. Thou art of my blood I could swear by the way thou holdest thy weapon. I am proud of thee. I will be hanged if ever I affront thee again, thou desperate little Hercules! Thou hast thy mother's look and thy father's spirit, so if thou wilt, become a son to me in my old age, and

I will love thee as well as I loved thy mother."

Master Francis, with a heart too full for utterance did hasten to his father, who, after shaking of him cordially by the hand, presently pressed him in his arms with such shew of affection as was delightful for the others to look upon.

"By Gog and Magog, this be the happiest day of my life!" ex

claimed Harry Daring, whose honest face beamed with joy at hist friend's good fortune; and every one of that party seemed to be as greatly rejoiced.

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"And now, Master Francis Harquebus," said Sir Walter Raleigh; "I must needs dismiss you from my service: the colonel will not allow you to remain my secretary. But I part with you with the less regret, as I here place you in a situation of equal confidence, with one whose service I doubt not you will find far more pleasant than mine." Thereupon he took the hand of Alice and placed it in that of her lover.

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And hark you, Master Francis!" cried Master Shakspeare, looking to be in his merriest humour. "If from this time forward I catch you wearing of a melancholy visage, I will do my best to have you smothered in sad-coloured taffeta, or sent to become an undertaker's apprentice.'

"And look you, Mistress Alice!" exclaimed Raleigh with the like good nature. "If from this time forward I catch you breaking your wicked jests upon man animals of any sort, I will do my best to have you shut up in a mousetrap, or put in a cage like a tame raven, and hung where you shall not have sight of a man for the rest of your days."

All laughed at these sallies; and Alice turned away blushing very prettily, still holding her lover by the hand, and they two turned their steps towards the house. Master Shakspeare and Dame Elizabeth followed; then came Sir Walter Raleigh and his companion in arms Colonel Harquebus; and lastly, Harry Daring and the child: and it was no easy matter to say of these which wore the happiest countenance, or who had the gladdest heart.

All the goodly chambers in Durham House were filled with company. Crowds of fine gallants and of beautiful dames were moving to and fro. There had been feasting in such prodigality that it was the marvel of all. There had been such delicate sweet music as seemed never to have been heard till then. Dancing had there been of such a sort the oldest there remembered not any thing so commendably done; and pageants of such wonderful excellent conceits had been performed which eclipsed all things of the like kind that had ever been seen before. So brilliant a company it was thought by all, at no time had met together upon one occasion; for here were all the chiefest nobles of the land; here were all the most famous commanders of the age; here were all the loveliest ladies of the court; here were all the greatest wits of the time; and such splendour of apparelling, such bountiful shew and infinite variety of all manner of rarest fabrics and costliest jewels were there to be seen, that a stranger gazing thereon might have said there would be no occasion for any one going to distant parts in search of an El Dorado here it was at his hand. But more magnificent than all, on a rich throne placed upon a raised dais, in the fairest chamber of the mansion, sat Queen Elizabeth, looking to be in such sweet content as was the admiration of her loving subjects.

And for what occasion had this noble company been brought together?-To do honour to the marriage of Master Francis Harque