“I will—­I will,” said Blount; “but methinks this court-haunting is no such bad pastime, after all.  We shall rise by it, Walter, my brave lad.  Thou saidst I was a good soldier, and a—­what besides, dearest Walter?”

“An all unutterable-codshead.  For God’s sake, begone!”

Tressilian, without further resistance or expostulation followed, or rather suffered himself to be conducted by Blount to Raleigh’s lodging, where he was formally installed into a small truckle-bed placed in a wardrobe, and designed for a domestic.  He saw but too plainly that no remonstrances would avail to procure the help or sympathy of his friends, until the lapse of the time for which he had pledged himself to remain inactive should enable him either to explain the whole circumstances to them, or remove from him every pretext or desire of further interference with the fortunes of Amy, by her having found means to place herself in a state of reconciliation with her husband.

With great difficulty, and only by the most patient and mild remonstrances with Blount, he escaped the disgrace and mortification of having two of Sussex’s stoutest yeomen quartered in his apartment.  At last, however, when Nicholas had seen him fairly deposited in his truckle-bed, and had bestowed one or two hearty kicks, and as hearty curses, on the boots, which, in his lately acquired spirit of foppery, he considered as a strong symptom, if not the cause, of his friend’s malady, he contented himself with the modified measure of locking the door on the unfortunate Tressilian, whose gallant and disinterested efforts to save a female who had treated him with ingratitude thus terminated for the present in the displeasure of his Sovereign and the conviction of his friends that he was little better than a madman.

CHAPTER XXXII.

     The wisest Sovereigns err like private men,
     And royal hand has sometimes laid the sword
     Of chivalry upon a worthless shoulder,
     Which better had been branded by the hangman. 
     What then?—­Kings do their best; and they and we
     Must answer for the intent, and not the event.—­Old play.

“It is a melancholy matter,” said the Queen, when Tressilian was withdrawn, “to see a wise and learned man’s wit thus pitifully unsettled.  Yet this public display of his imperfection of brain plainly shows us that his supposed injury and accusation were fruitless; and therefore, my Lord of Leicester, we remember your suit formerly made to us in behalf of your faithful servant Varney, whose good gifts and fidelity, as they are useful to you, ought to have due reward from us, knowing well that your lordship, and all you have, are so earnestly devoted to our service.  And we render Varney the honour more especially that we are a guest, and, we fear, a chargeable and troublesome one, under your lordship’s roof; and also for the satisfaction of the good old Knight of Devon, Sir Hugh Robsart, whose daughter he hath married, and we trust the especial mark of grace which we are about to confer may reconcile him to his son-in-law.—­Your sword, my Lord of Leicester.”