politic worded
their assent - an exception to which Elizabeth paid no apparent attention. The
barge had, therefore, orders to deposit its royal freight at Deptford, at the
nearest and most convenient point of communication with Say's Court, in order
that the Queen might satisfy her royal and maternal solicitude, by making
personal inquiries after the health of the Earl of Sussex.
    Raleigh, whose acute spirit foresaw and anticipated important consequences
from the most trifling events, hastened to ask the Queen's permission to go in
the skiff, and announce the royal visit to his master, ingeniously suggesting,
that the joyful surprise might prove prejudicial to his health, since the
richest and most generous cordials may sometimes be fatal to those who have been
long in a languishing state.
    But whether the Queen deemed it too presumptuous in so young a courtier to
interpose his opinion unasked, or whether she was moved by a recurrence of the
feeling of jealousy, which had been instilled into her, by reports that the Earl
kept armed men about his person, she desired Raleigh, sharply, to reserve his
counsel till it was required of him, and repeated her former orders, to be
landed at Deptford, adding, »We will ourselves see what sort of household my
Lord of Sussex keeps about him.«
    »Now the Lord have pity on us!« said the young courtier to himself. »Good
hearts, the Earl hath many a one round him; but good heads are scarce with us -
and he himself is too ill to give direction. And Blount will be at his morning
meal of Yarmouth herrings and ale; and Tracy will have his beastly black
puddings and Rhenish; - those thorough-paced Welshmen, Thomas ap Rice and Evan
Evans, will be at work on their leek porridge and toasted cheese - and she
detests, they say, all coarse meats, evil smells, and strong wines. Could they
but think of burning some rosemary in the great hall! but vogue la galère, all
must now be trusted to chance. Luck hath done indifferent well for me this
morning, for I trust I have spoiled a cloak and made a court fortune - May she
do as much for my gallant patron!«
    The royal barge soon stopped at Deptford, and, amid the loud shouts of the
populace, which her presence never failed to excite, the Queen, with a canopy
borne over her head, walked, accompanied by her retinue, towards Say's Court,
where the distant acclamations of the people gave the first notice of her
arrival. Sussex, who was in the act of advising with