KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Sir Walter Scottpressed; and you might read in his vacant eye and troubledbrow that his thoughts were far absent from the scenes inwhich he was compelling himself to play a part. He looked,moved, and spoke as if by a succession of continued efforts;and it seemed as if his will had in some degree lost the promptitudeof command over the acute mind and goodly form ofwhich it was the regent. His actions and gestures, instead ofappearing the consequence of simple volition, seemed, likethose of an automaton, to wait the revolution of some internalmachinery ere they could be performed; and his wordsfell from him piecemeal, interrupted, as if he had first to thinkwhat he was to say, then how it was to be said, and as if, afterall, it was only by an effort of continued attention that hecompleted a sentence without forgetting both the one andthe other.The singular effects which these distractions of mind producedupon the behaviour and conversation of the most accomplishedcourtier of England, as they were visible to thelowest and dullest menial who approached his person, couldnot escape the notice of the most intelligent Princess of theage. Nor is there the least doubt that the alternate negligenceand irregularity of his manner would have called downElizabeth’s severe displeasure on the Earl of Leicester, had itnot occurred to her to account for it by supposing that theapprehension of that displeasure which she had expressed towardshim with such vivacity that very morning was dwellingupon the spirits of her favourite, and, spite of his efforts tothe contrary, distracted the usual graceful tenor of his mienand the charms of his conversation. When this idea, so flatteringto female vanity, had once obtained possession of hermind, it proved a full and satisfactory apology for the numerouserrors and mistakes of the Earl of Leicester; and the watchfulcircle around observed with astonishment, that, insteadof resenting his repeated negligence, and want of even ordinaryattention (although these were points on which she wasusually extremely punctilious), the Queen sought, on the contrary,to afford him time and means to recollect himself, anddeigned to assist him in doing so, with an indulgence whichseemed altogether inconsistent with her usual character. It wasclear, however, that this could not last much longer, and thatElizabeth must finally put another and more severe constructionon Leicester’s uncourteous conduct, when the Earl was407