KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Kenilworth“Thou speakest wild madness, Varney, with the sober faceof a preacher. Where, or how, could they communicate together?”“My lord,” said Varney, “unfortunately I can show that buttoo well. It was just before the supplication was presented tothe Queen, in Tressilian’s name, that I met him, to my utterastonishment, at the postern gate which leads from the demesneat Cumnor Place.”“Thou met’st him, villain! and why didst thou not strikehim dead?” exclaimed Leicester.“I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not myfoot slipped, he would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-blockin your lordship’s path.”Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise. At length heanswered, “What other evidence hast thou of this, Varney,save thine own assertion?—for, as I will punish deeply, I willexamine coolly and warily. Sacred Heaven!—but no—I willexamine coldly and warily-coldly and warily.” He repeatedthese words more than once to himself, as if in the very soundthere was a sedative quality; and again compressing his lips, asif he feared some violent expression might escape from them,he asked again, “What further proof?”“Enough, my lord,” said Varney, “and to spare. I would itrested with me alone, for with me it might have been silencedfor ever. But my servant, Michael Lambourne, witnessed thewhole, and was, indeed, the means of first introducingTressilian into Cumnor Place; and therefore I took him intomy service, and retained him in it, though something of adebauched fellow, that I might have his tongue always undermy own command.” He then acquainted Lord Leicester howeasy it was to prove the circumstance of their interview true,by evidence of Anthony Foster, with the corroborative testimoniesof the various persons at Cumnor, who had heard thewager laid, and had seen Lambourne and Tressilian set offtogether. In the whole narrative, Varney hazarded nothing fabulous,excepting that, not indeed by direct assertion, but byinference, he led his patron to suppose that the interview betwixtAmy and Tressilian at Cumnor Place had been longerthan the few minutes to which it was in reality limited.“And wherefore was I not told of all this?” said Leicestersternly. “Why did all of ye—and in particular thou, Varney—keep back from me such material information?”400