thus upon the second day of their journey, having
experienced the service arising from the assumption of such a character on the
preceding day. The fountain, acting both as a mirror and ewer, afforded Amy the
means of a brief toilette, of which she availed herself as hastily as possible;
then took in her hand her small casket of jewels, in case she might find them
useful intercessors, and retiring to the darkest and most sequestered nook, sat
down on a seat of moss, and awaited till fate should give her some chance of
rescue, or of propitiating an intercessor.
 

                             Chapter Thirty-Fourth

 Have you not seen the partridge quake,
 Viewing the hawk approaching nigh?
 She cuddles close beneath the brake
 Afraid to sit, afraid to fly.
                                                                          Prior.
 
It chanced upon that memorable morning, that one of the earliest of the huntress
train, who appeared from her chamber in full array for the Chase, was the
Princess, for whom all these pleasures were instituted, England's Maiden Queen.
I know not if it were by chance, or out of the befitting courtesy due to a
mistress by whom he was so much honoured, that she had scarcely made one step
beyond the threshold of her chamber ere Leicester was by her side, and proposed
to her, until the preparations for the Chase had been completed, to view the
Pleasance, and the gardens which it connected with the Castle-yard.
    To this new scene of pleasures they walked, the Earl's arm affording his
Sovereign the occasional support which she required, where flights of steps,
then a favourite ornament in a garden, conducted them from terrace to terrace,
and from parterre to parterre. The ladies in attendance, gifted with prudence,
or endowed perhaps with the amiable desire of acting as they would be done by,
did not conceive their duty to the Queen's person required them though they lost
not sight of her, to approach so near as to share, or perhaps disturb, the
conversation betwixt the Queen and the Earl, who was not only her host but also
her most trusted, esteemed, and favoured servant. They contented themselves with
admiring the grace of this illustrious couple, whose robes of state were now
exchanged for hunting suits, almost equally magnificent.
    Elizabeth's silvan dress, which was of a pale blue silk, with silver lace
and aiguillettes, approached in form to that of the ancient amazons; and was,
therefore, well suited at once to her height, and to the dignity of her mien,
which her conscious rank and long habits of authority had rendered in some
degree too