"Thou dost but jest with me, father," said the Earl, astonished at the
strain of enthusiasm in which the astrologer delivered his prediction.
"Is it for him to jest who hath his eye on heaven, who hath his foot in
the grave?" returned the old man solemnly.
The Earl made two or three strides through the apartment, with his hand
outstretched, as one who follows the beckoning signal of some phantom,
waving him on to deeds of high import. As he turned, however, he caught
the eye of the astrologer fixed on him, while an observing glance of
the most shrewd penetration shot from under the penthouse of his shaggy,
dark eyebrows. Leicester's haughty and suspicious soul at once caught
fire. He darted towards the old man from the farther end of the lofty
apartment, only standing still when his extended hand was within a foot
of the astrologer's body.
"Wretch!" he said, "if you dare to palter with me, I will have your skin
stripped from your living flesh! Confess thou hast been hired to deceive
and to betray me--that thou art a cheat, and I thy silly prey and
booty!"
The old man exhibited some symptoms of emotion, but not more than the
furious deportment of his patron might have extorted from innocence
itself.
"What means this violence, my lord?" he answered, "or in what can I have
deserved it at your hand?"
"Give me proof," said the Earl vehemently, "that you have not tampered
with mine enemies."
"My lord," replied the old man, with dignity, "you can have no better
proof than that which you yourself elected. In that turret I have spent
the last twenty-four hours under the key which has been in your own
custody. The hours of darkness I have spent in gazing on the heavenly
bodies with these dim eyes, and during those of light I have toiled this
aged brain to complete the calculation arising from their combinations.
Earthly food I have not tasted--earthly voice I have not heard. You are
yourself aware I had no means of doing so; and yet I tell you--I
who have been thus shut up in solitude and study--that within these
twenty-four hours your star has become predominant in the horizon, and
either the bright book of heaven speaks false, or there must have been
a proportionate revolution in your fortunes upon earth. If nothing has
happened within that space to secure your power, or advance your favour,
then am I indeed a cheat, and the divine art, which was first devised in
the plains of Chaldea, is a foul imposture."