"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.