six years old, brought to her—the fattest she had ever seen, but so foolish as to be unable to understand that she was his Queen. After the fat boy, she was invited to inspect an enormous sheep: the biggest of their kind, these two, and both bred on Robert’s territory. The Queen laughed immoderately, and this was a good beginning.
They left the tent and followed the chase which was to lead them to Kenilworth Castle.
The Queen, at the head of the chase, kept Robert beside her, and while he pointed out with pride all the beauties and richness of the scene, he said: “I owe all this to my dearest mistress. May I die the moment I forget it!”
She was pleased, and as she was reluctant to give up the hunt, there was little daylight left when they reached the gates of Kenilworth Park.
In the Park, pageants greeted her. Smiling, she acknowledged the greetings of all; and when she reached the castle itself, there at the entrance stood a man of immense stature, carrying a club and keys. As she approached he expressed surprise at the magnificence of the company, until, affecting to see the Queen for the first time, he went on with great wonder:
“Oh, God, a priceless pearl!
No worldly wight, I doubt—some sovereign goddess sure!
In face, in hand, in eye, in other features all,
Yes, beauty, grace and cheer—yea, port and majesty,
Shew all some heavenly peer with virtues all beset.
Come, come, most perfect paragon, pass on with joy and bliss:
Have here, have here, both club and keys, myself, my ward, I yield.
E’en gates and all, my lord himself, submit and seek your shield.”
The Queen smiled happily; she loved such eulogies; and she loved this particularly because it had been designed by her Robert.
As the company passed through the castle gates, Robert saw, for the first time, one in that company who made his heart leap with sudden pleasure.
Lettice Knollys had come to Kenilworth.
Robert conducted the Queen to her chamber. Through the windows she could see the fireworks which made a good display in the Park, a sign to the countryside that the Queen had come to Kenilworth. At intervals the guns boomed forth. It was as though a King entertained a Queen. And that was how Elizabeth would have it.
“Robert,” she said, “you are a lavish spender.”
“Who could spend too lavishly in the entertainment of Your Majesty?”
She gave him the familiar tap on the cheek, thinking: Age cannot take his charm from him. It is there just as it was in the days of his flaming youth; and now he is a subtler man, and I doubt not many would love him still; yet he has remained unmarried for my sake.
“I shall remember my stay in Kenilworth to the end of my days,” she said. Then, to hide her emotion, added: “The clock there has stopped.”
He smiled. “All clocks in the Castle were stopped the moment Your Majesty entered.”
She “pupped” her lips and raised her eyebrows.
“Time stands still for goddesses,” he said.
That was a nice touch and typical of Robert.
He took her hand and kissed it. “You have promised to rest here for twelve days. During that time we will forget clocks. We will forget all but the entertaining of Your Majesty.”
“There was never one like you … never!” she said tenderly.
“Madam,” he answered, “a goddess might lose her Mutton and her Bellwether, her attendant Moor, and even her Spirit; but her Eyes do her better service than any of these.”
“Mayhap there’s truth in that,” she said. “Now leave me, Robin. I am tired with the day’s journey.”
He bowed over her hand and raised it to his lips.
She was smiling affectionately after he had gone.
In a corridor he came face to face with Lettice, and he knew that she had waylaid him. She was more beautiful than she had been in those days when he had first attracted her. She was no longer Lady Hereford, for her husband had been made Earl of Essex. She seemed bolder, and because of that faint resemblance to the Queen which came from her grandmother, Mary Boleyn, she reminded him of the young Elizabeth whom he had known in the Tower of London.
“A merry day to you, my lord,” she said.
“I knew not that you would come.”
“You remember me?”
“Remember! I do indeed.”
“I am honored. So the great Earl of Leicester forgets me not! The most honored man in the realm—by the Queen if not by the people—does not forget a humble woman on