KENILWORTH - Penn State University

KenilworthLeicester was overpowered by his assumed superiority itseemed to the unfortunate Earl as if his last friend was aboutto abandon him. He stretched his hand towards Varney as heuttered the words, “Do not leave me. What wouldst thouhave me do?”“Be thyself, my noble master,” said Varney, touching theEarl’s hand with his lips, after having respectfully grasped it inhis own; “be yourself, superior to those storms of passionwhich wreck inferior minds. Are you the first who has beencozened in love—the first whom a vain and licentious womanhas cheated into an affection, which she has afterwards scornedand misused? And will you suffer yourself to be driven franticbecause you have not been wiser than the wisest men whomthe world has seen? Let her be as if she had not been—let herpass from your memory, as unworthy of ever having held aplace there. Let your strong resolve of this morning, which Ihave both courage, zeal, and means enough to execute, be likethe fiat of a superior being, a passionless act of justice. Shehath deserved death—let her die!”While he was speaking, the Earl held his hand fast, compressedhis lips hard, and frowned, as if he laboured to catchfrom Varney a portion of the cold, ruthless, and dispassionatefirmness which he recommended. When he was silent, theEarl still continued to rasp his hand, until, with an effort atcalm decision, he was able to articulate, “Be it so—she dies!But one tear might be permitted.”“Not one, my lord,” interrupted Varney, who saw by thequivering eye and convulsed cheek of his patron that he wasabout to give way to a burst of emotion—”not a tear—the time permits it not. Tressilian must be thought of—”“That indeed is a name,” said the Earl, “to convert tearsinto blood. Varney, I have thought on this, and I have determined—neitherentreaty nor argument shall move me—Tressilian shall be my own victim.”“It is madness, my lord; but you are too mighty for me tobar your way to your revenge. Yet resolve at least to choosefitting time and opportunity, and to forbear him until theseshall be found.”“Thou shalt order me in what thou wilt,” said Leicester,“only thwart me not in this.”“Then, my lord,” said Varney, “I first request of you to layaside the wild, suspected, and half-frenzied demeanour which410