o which they were variously subjected; yet it was not without considerable effort and much struggling that Marmaduke's senses recovered the shock recei

he associated, displeasingly, with recollections of pain; he glanced off to a fair face, with eyes that looked tender pity whenever he writhed or groaned under the tortures that, no doubt, that old accursed carle had inflicted upon him. But even this face did not dwell with pleasure in his memory,-it woke up confused and labouring associations of something weird and witchlike, of sorceresses and tymbesteres, of wild warnings screeched in his ear, of incantations and devilries and doom. Impatient of these musings, he sought to leap from his bed, and was amazed that the leap subsided into a tottering crawl. He found an ewer and basin, and his ablutions refreshed and invigorated him. He searched for his raiment, and discovered it all except the mantle, dagg

atient thus arrayed and convalescent, and would suddenly have re

cure-nay, it may be a life hitherto of little worth, save to myself-do n

ds from his clasp, "our poor cares have been a sli

nd, perchance, I deserve the disaster I met with in leaving thee so discour

displeasing remembrance-passed over Sibyll's charming countenance, as the sufferer said this with s

you; and for the rest, all molestation was over. But I will now call your nurse-for it is to our se

, or a corner of a pasty, and from the cellar a stoup of wine or a cup of ale, methinks it would tend more to restore me than those potions which a

er," answered Sibyll; "wait but a momen

ter respect for the costume of the humbler; and though the garments were of a very coarse sort of serge, there was not so great a difference, in point of comfort and sufficiency, as might be supposed, between the dress of old Madge and that of some primitive servant in the North d

u, who have played round a queen's knees, and who might have been so well-to-do, an' my master had thought a little more of the gear of this world. But patience is a good palfrey, and will carry us a long day. And when the master

er is recov

I have not forgot it. You see I wanted no dinner myself-what is dinner to old fol

another sigh, and a downcast look that did not dare to face the consternation of Madge,

bad for the lad, either. Wine! There's Master Sancroft of

the gittern for something. Get on your

our only pleasure when you sit

Madge with it, laden with instructions that the wine should be of the best. She then once more mounted the rugged steps, and halting a moment at Marmaduke's door, as she heard his feeble step

ep walls in which they were sunk. The room contained a strong furnace and a rude laboratory. There were several strange-looking mechanical contrivances scattered about, several manuscripts upon some oaken shelves, and a large pannier of wood and charcoal in the corner. In that poverty-stricken house, the money spent on fuel alone, i

patronage of a prince or noble to obtain the costly ingredients consumed in the alchemist's crucible. In early life, therefore, and while yet in possession of a competence derived from a line of distinguished and knightly ancestors, Adam Warner had devoted himself to the surer and less costly study of the mathematics, which then had begun to attract the attention of the learned, but which was still l

father, though not with the husband. But, fortunately, as it seemed to her, she (a Frenchwoman by birth) had passed her youth in the service of Margaret of Anjou, and that haughty queen, who was equally warm to friends and inexorable to enemies, had, on her attendant's marriage, promised to ensure the fortunes of her offspring. Sibyll at the age of nine-between seven and eight years before the date the story enters on, and two years prior to the fatal field of Towton, which gave to Edward the throne of England-had been admitted among the young girls whom the custom of the day ranked amidst the attendants of the queen; and in the interval that elapsed before Margaret was obliged to dismiss her to her home, her mother died. She died without foreseeing the reverses that were to ensue, in the hope that her child, at least, was nobly provided for, and not without the belief (for there is so much faith in love!) that her husband's researches, which in his youth had won favour of the Protector Duke of Gloucester, the most enlightened prince of h

, was sent back to her father's desolate home. There had she grown a flower amidst ruins, with no companion of her own age, and left to bear, as her sweet and affectiona

, she became the actual head. But latterly-that is, for the last few weeks-even these sources failed her; for as more peaceful times allowed her neighbours to interest themselves in the affairs of others, the dark reports against Warner had revived. His name became a by-word of horror; the lonely light at the lattice burning till midnight, against all the early usages and habits of the day; the dark smoke of the furnace, constant in summer as in winter, scandalized the religion of the place far and near. And finding, to their great dissatisfaction, that the king's government and the Church interfered not for their protection, and unable themselves to volu

ch reconciled her to all temporary sacrifices. The violent prejudices, the ignorant cruelty, thus brought to bear against existence itself, filled her with sadness, it is true, but not unmixed with that contempt for her persecutors, which, even in the meekest tempers, takes the sting from despair. But hunger

and which he imagined he was now rapidly bringing to perfection. His hands and face were grimed with the smoke of his forg

ger Bacon only suggested I shall accomplish! How it will change th

ce of Sibyll, "my poor father, t

relaxed into a tender expres

his model, "the time comes when i

eaking on every feature. "What is the valour of knight and soldier-dull statues of steel-to thine?

ake Engla

ive to make them wiser. Remember the death of Bolingbroke, [A mathematician accused as an accomplice, in sorcery, of Eleanor Cobham, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Glou

nced to any living thing. "Child," he said at length, shaking his head in grave reproof, "le

r whole countenance changing into a soft and caressing endearment, she added, "But now come, Father. Thou hast laboured well for this morning. We s

l, lingering look at his model, and a sigh to be disturbed from

gentry who had very little money at command were contented with hardships from which a menial of this day would revolt. What they could spend in luxury was usually consumed in dress and the table they were obliged to keep. These were the essentials of dignity. Of furniture there was a woful stint. In many houses, even of knights, an edifice large enough to occupy a quadrangle was composed more of offices than chambers inhabited by the owners; rarely boasting more than three beds, which were bequeathed in wills as articles of great value. The reader must, therefore, not b

ng to see in this, as in all else, the reverse of their natural position,-the child tending and heeding and protecting, as it were, the father; and that not from his deficiency, but his greatness; not because he was below the vulgar intelligences of life, but above them. And certainly, when, his patriarchal hair and beard smoothed into order, and his velvet gown flowing in majestic folds around a figure tall and commanding, Sibyll followed her father into Marmaduke's chamber, she might well have been proud of his appearance; and she felt the innocent v

was long and low; an old and very narrow table, that might have feasted thirty persons, stretched across a dais raised upon a stone floor; there was no rere-dosse, or fireplace, which does not seem at that day to have been an absolute nece

of a cold capon, a pasty, and a flask of wine brought to his mind by a train of ideas that actively glided by the intervening circumstances, w

the spelling of the time is adopted in the text.] To you also, worshipful sir! Gramercy! it seems that there is nothing which better stirs a man's appetite than a sick bed. And, speaking thereof, deign to inform me, kind sir, how lon

, who so cruelly assaile

r worshipful father, whether this mischance happened hours, days, mo

oung sir, I fear I am almost as oblivious as yourself. It was not yesterday that you arrived, no

fifth day," a

on, bit and spur, to the great road. I pray you, sir, tell me the news of the

perplexed by this question. "The king, save his honoured head," said he, inclining his own, "is, I fear me, always at t

d; and drawing closer to Nevile, she put her hand with touching confidence on his arm, and whispered, "Y

pointed to the salt-cellar, as he answered in th

aid he, "that I must now leave you; and while it is yet b

even his mathematics and his model were forgotten. "No, young sir," said he, "you must not quit us yet; your danger

tingly, "what distance it is to the Temple

the least," a

r have they left even a half groat to supply their place. Verily, therefore, since ye permit me to burden your hospitality longer, I will not say ye nay, provided you, worshipful sir, will suffer one of your people to step to the h

imon or Jonas to put himse

the house these six years! How could he look on the capon, the wine, and the velv

ively speaking, dear (and this had been a queen's gift), for sufficient to provide decently for some days; and, elated herself with the prospect of so much good cheer, she readily consented to be the messenger to Nicholas Alwyn. When with a light step and a lighter heart Sibyll tripped back to the hall, she was scarcely surprised to find the guest alone.

ort of casque, which has not, I opine, been worn this century, had its merits; the vizor is less open to the arrows. But as for these chain suits, they suited only-I venture, with due deference, to declare-the Wars of the Crusades, where the enemy fo

saw the arch

ntle damsel," said he, in some confu

l garden in the rear;" and so saying, she led the way into the small withdrawing-room, or rather closet, which was her own favourite chamber, and which communicated, by

nity not wholly unlike his young mistress's wish to make the best possible display in the eyes of a guest, spread his plumes broadly in the sun. Sibyll threw him some bread, which she h

alf to herself, "thy plumage las

ve knight," said Marmad

st of the ca

-I am a

to be won but th

of, or heed for,

be a minstrel, who gave delight; a

ull safety to the soul, and that only in the higher prelates and dignitaries. For the minstrel, I love him, I would

d half displeased the young adventurer. B

r past and present life, as the reverses of her father, occasioned by costly studies, her own brief sojourn at the court of Margaret, and the solitude, if not the struggles, in which her youth was consumed. It would have been a sweet and grateful sight to some kindly bystander to hear these pleasant communications between two young persons so unfriended, and to imagine that hearts thus opened to

This girl, with her wise converse and her child's face, was a character so thoroughly new to him. Her language was superior to what he

ne of the pauses of their conversation-"your father, then,

Sibyll, smiling; "my father is one of the six men

himself. "That is awsome indeed! He ha

and the French; my mothe

father and uncle say is a language fit for gentles and knights, specially those who come, like

it was but to those whom she wished to win. She cared not for the heart, if the hand or the brain could not assist her. But, poor queen, who could blame her

ile, observing her pause, and with the gen

at home; my father is all in this world to me! Thou knowest not, Master Nevile, how it flatters the weak to think there is some one they can protect. But eno' of myself. Tho

again. "The gold spurs-I thank thee, Mistress Sibyll!-will it be

t the questioner, and seeing hi

ile, I can read thee all riddles

e, with blunt simplicity. "I thought ye more learned damozel

" (she added touchingly) "is from that which I have seen of thy past. Thou hast a brave heart, and a gentle; thou hast a frank tongue, and a courteous; a

gifts, gent

countenance. And the conversation flagged till Marmaduke, feeling more weakened by his