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KENILWORTH - Penn State University

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Sir Walter Scottmiliation, was about to quit his place.A noble courtier, the gallant Lord Willoughby, read, as hethought, something in the Queen’s face which seemed to pityRaleigh’s real or assumed semblance of mortification.“It is not for us old courtiers,” he said, “to hide the sunshinefrom the young ones. I will, with her Majesty’s leave, relinquishfor an hour that which her subjects hold dearest, thedelight of her Highness’s presence, and mortify myself bywalking in starlight, while I forsake for a brief season the gloryof Diana’s own beams. I will take place in the boat which theladies occupy, and permit this young cavalier his hour of promisedfelicity.”The Queen replied, with an expression betwixt mirth andearnest, “If you are so willing to leave us, my lord, we cannothelp the mortification. But, under favour, we do not trustyou—old and experienced as you may deem yourself—withthe care of our young ladies of honour. Your venerable age,my lord,” she continued, smiling, “may be better assortedwith that of my Lord Treasurer, who follows in the thirdboat, and by whose experience even my Lord Willoughby’smay be improved.”Lord Willoughby hid his disappointment under a smile—laughed, was confused, bowed, and left the Queen’s barge togo on board my Lord Burleigh’s. Leicester, who endeavouredto divert his thoughts from all internal reflection, by fixingthem on what was passing around, watched this circumstanceamong others. But when the boat put off from the shore—when the music sounded from a barge which accompaniedthem—when the shouts of the populace were heard from theshore, and all reminded him of the situation in which he wasplaced, he abstracted his thoughts and feelings by a strong effortfrom everything but the necessity of maintaining himselfin the favour of his patroness, and exerted his talents of pleasingcaptivation with such success, that the Queen, alternatelydelighted with his conversation, and alarmed for his health, atlength imposed a temporary silence on him, with playful yetanxious care, lest his flow of spirits should exhaust him.“My lords,” she said, “having passed for a time our edict ofsilence upon our good Leicester, we will call you to counselon a gamesome matter, more fitted to be now treated of,amidst mirth and music, than in the gravity of our ordinarydeliberations. Which of you, my lords,” said she, smiling,209

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