continued the other. should know of it."

"But I would as soon die as my wife

Sir Robert Cecil had much difficulty to restrain from smiling, knowing, as he did, that the Lady Howard was so close to her husband she could hear every whisper he uttered; and that therefore the secret, whatever it might be about, and he knew of what character it was most like to be, could not help being known by her the moment it was said.

"For

"The fact is, these women will be my ruin," added the Lord Howard with a truly wonderful complacency. mine own part, I know not why it is, for I see not I am a properer man than others, but I am ever a finding of some pretty woman desperately in love with me, and I cannot help being like to get myself into some scrape with my wife, who is one of so rigid a virtue she cannot abide the thought of any thing unlawful. Indeed, I believe her to be the very purest wife that breathes."

"You have much occasion to congratulate yourself, my good lord," observed Sir Robert.

66

Ay, that have I," said her husband. "But what am I to do? These women no sooner have sight of me, than they straightway get furiously enamoured. Mayhap, if I should appear indifferent to the many tokens they afford me of their attachment, they would go upon violent courses; and I should have their deaths upon my conscience, which I assure you, would make me infinitely miserable all my days."

"Doubtless, to occasion the death of a fair creature is by no means a pleasant source of after reflection," remarked Cecil, with an excellent gravity.

"I could never exist with it," replied my Lord Howard. "In honest truth, I am of so mild a heart, that the knowledge of a pretty woman being in any sort of suffering for me, maketh me as pitiful as a child. So if any love me, I must needs love them in return. Methinks I could do no less without the very absolutest cruelty. What think you?"

"It be a delicate matter to pronounce judgment on," answered his companion. "Yet, being possessed of so incomparable a wife, it seemeth to me an injustice to her, that you should seek the love of any other."

"That is the very devil of it," exclaimed my lord. "Yet, : if you will believe me, seek I the love of none. Do what I may they be ever after me. For my lady's sake I would fain avoid them if I could; but the more attempts I make to

be true to her, the more violently do they persevere in their affections towards me. Never was a man so besieged. Go where I will I meet them. I can turn no way without finding some fair dame furiously intent upon loving me whether I will or no. O' my life, it be the difficultest thing possible to keep my Lady Howard ignorant of these matters.. By this light, I know not what she would do came she to get acquainted with any part of what I have told you."

At that moment Cecil observed her ladyship peeping from behind the figure of the man in armour which was now at the back of her husband, and the expression of her countenance was a mixture of exceeding curiosity and anger. What to do he scarce knew, for he expected something would happen; but knowing that such women are never at a loss under the most embarrassing circumstances, he left the management of the matter to her.

"But now for the secret I would you should know of," continued my Lord Howard of Walden, with an air of mystery, as he drew Sir Robert closer to the corner of the room where his wife stood concealed. "I beg of you keep a strict silence. Should you drop a hint of it to another, mayhap it would come to my lady's ears, who hath such extreme horror of unlawful love, there be no knowing what mischief it might do, she would be so shocked."

"Unless you tell it her yourself, Lord Thomas, be sure she can never hear of it," replied his companion.

"I tell it her!" exclaimed her husband in a famous astonishment. "I would no more dare breathe a syllable of it to her than fly. She is so marvellous chaste a wife that were she but to suspect of such a thing, I doubt not she would have no more to do with me; and then the queen coming to knowing of it, with whom she is wonderfully familiar, I should not be able to show my face at court. So I implore you, be cautious. By this hand, I would not repose this confidence in you, but that I do believe you to be of so trustworthy a disposition, there is nothing you would rather not do than that I should receive hurt at your hands."

“Indeed, you but do me justice, my lord," answered the other with his usual affectation of sincerity. "It will ever be my happiness to serve you in any way in which my poor ability lieth; and from the admiration which I cannot but entertain for my Lady Howard, in consequence of the wonderful goodness of her nature, in any thing in which she is

concerned, you may always count upon my instant good offices-out of very absolute affection I assure you."

"Now, that be exceeding kind of you!" cried my lord, shaking his supposed friend by the hand very cordially. "It doth my heart good to meet such friendship. I would do you such another turn at any time."

"I doubt it not, I doubt it not, my lord," replied Cecil, returning the other's shake of the hand with infinite earnest

ness.

"But about this secret," continued his companion, dropping his voice a little, and assuming a greater mysteriousness than ever. "You must know there hath lately come on a visit to my wife, as sweet a young creature as eye ever beheld. To describe to you her charms of feature and person, could I never with any justice. In honest truth, her comeliness is of such a sort that none could gaze on without loving. By this light, I tried all I could not to be enamoured with her. I would scarce look at her. I avoided being left alone with her at any time. I gave her such a lack of civil speech as must have offended any other. Yet it was easy to see from the beginning she had taken a desperate liking to me. She possesseth the most moving eyes woman ever had; and these she should fix on me for such a length of time, and with such an extreme tenderness, I could not help knowing what her thoughts were about. Still was I mightily circumspect in my behaviour. Finding this of no avail, she would, ever and anon, fetch such woful sighs as were quite pitiful to hear; and give me such sly glances as would have set any man in a flame. However, I kept thinking of my lady, and regarded her with as little attention as was possible. Afterwards she took to showing me the lovingest passages out of Master Shakspeare's most sweet poem, the Rape of Lucrece, and asked me, with a look that shot a thousand arrows into my heart and liver, if I did not believe them to be monstrous delicately writ. I must confess, at this I began to be somewhat moved. By this hand, there can be no man living who could read of such things pointed out to him by a sweet young creature, and remain indifferent. I could not help acknowledging, with some emphasis, that they were writ with a very infinite delicacy. Thereupon she smiled on me after so loving a fashion, that my heart could not avoid dissolving of itself away like a lump of sugar in a cup of wine. The next time I handed her to dinner she

squeezed my hand. O' my life, she did squeeze it so tenderly I was forced into doing of the same; I could no more help it than I could help any other thing that I must needs do; for, to say the truth, she hath the plumpest, delicatest hand I ever held; and no mortal man could have his fingers pressed by such a sweet young creature and feel it not.

"Still I tried not to love her. By this light, the more I tried the less I succeeded! There was she, day after day, giving me the lovingest looks, the touchingest sighs, and the movingest squeezes of the hand, that ever were known. I did all that could have been expected of me. But to hold out with an indifference of such things was more than I could have done had I been as virtuous as a pickled herring. My humanity would endure it no longer. I straightway fell to lov ing her as famously as I might. My heart is now filled with her night and day. I know that she is enamoured of me to that extent she cannot eat, drink, or sleep with any comfort; and I, having knowledge of this, cannot but be in the like way affected. All that troubleth me is the fear that my Lady Howard should suspect me. I am in a constant alarm at the thought of it. It be beyond all manner of doubt that she is the very virtuousest of wives; yet, betwixt you and I, when she hath been put out at all, she hath a look with her of so terrible a sort, that-oh Lord!" exclaimed he, breaking off on a sudden in his narration, and starting back in as complete a fright as ever was seen, for, to his utter confusion, there stood his wife before him; and, as if to show he had in no way exaggerated the terribleness of her looks, she had fixed on him a gaze so threatening, gloomy, and indignant, as must have made her appear to him a very Medusa.

CHAPTER V.

Now, gentlemen, I go

To turn an actor and a humourist.

BEN JONSON.

Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on;
Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.

MILTON.

Seeing too much sadness hath congealed your blood,
And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy,
Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.

SHAKSPEARE.

"COME, Master Francis! Prythee let us tarry no longer! Master Shakspeare bade me tell you to be sure to be at the playhouse early, as there was a new play, which he wished you to see from the beginning."

"I shall be ready on the instant, Harry."

The two young friends were in a room fitted up as a library, that stood in a turret of Durham House looking over upon the river, and Harry was leaning out of the casement taking note of what sort of persons were upon the water, on whom he would make all sorts of droll remarks, and occasionally turning of himself round to hurry his companion, who was now fastening on his rapier. In a few minutes they were both speeding together in the direction of the playhouse in the Blackfriars. There was a marked difference between the two young men. Harry Daring was full of spirits, talking and laughing as he went as if he cared for nothing in the world; but Master Francis looked with as absolute a melancholy as ever was seen in him, and took heed of nothing that was said of the other, or of any one thing or person that he passed. In truth, what had been told him by Sir Robert Cecil had made a wonderful impression on his sensitive nature, and had created in him with increased force those humiliating feelings regarding his birth that had ofttimes before