"A plague on it!" said Blount, as he descended the stairs; "had he sent
me with a cartel to Leicester I think I should have done his errand
indifferently well. But to go to our gracious Sovereign, before whom all
words must be lacquered over either with gilding or with sugar, is such
a confectionary matter as clean baffles my poor old English brain.--Come
with me, Tracy, and come you too, Master Walter Wittypate, that art the
cause of our having all this ado. Let us see if thy neat brain, that
frames so many flashy fireworks, can help out a plain fellow at need
with some of thy shrewd devices."
"Never fear, never fear," exclaimed the youth, "it is I will help you
through; let me but fetch my cloak."
"Why, thou hast it on thy shoulders," said Blount,--"the lad is mazed."
"No, No, this is Tracy's old mantle," answered Walter. "I go not with
thee to court unless as a gentleman should."
"Why," Said Blount, "thy braveries are like to dazzle the eyes of none
but some poor groom or porter."
"I know that," said the youth; "but I am resolved I will have my own
cloak, ay, and brush my doublet to boot, ere I stir forth with you."
"Well, well," said Blount, "here is a coil about a doublet and a cloak.
Get thyself ready, a God's name!"
They were soon launched on the princely bosom of the broad Thames, upon
which the sun now shone forth in all its splendour.
"There are two things scarce matched in the universe," said Walter to
Blount--"the sun in heaven, and the Thames on the earth."
"The one will light us to Greenwich well enough," said Blount, "and the
other would take us there a little faster if it were ebb-tide."
"And this is all thou thinkest--all thou carest--all thou deemest the
use of the King of Elements and the King of Rivers--to guide three such
poor caitiffs as thyself, and me, and Tracy, upon an idle journey of
courtly ceremony!"
"It is no errand of my seeking, faith," replied Blount, "and I could
excuse both the sun and the Thames the trouble of carrying me where
I have no great mind to go, and where I expect but dog's wages for my
trouble--and by my honour," he added, looking out from the head of the
boat, "it seems to me as if our message were a sort of labour in vain,
for, see, the Queen's barge lies at the stairs as if her Majesty were
about to take water."