"Come to Kenilworth, and bring the devil with thee, if thou wilt." "My wife, sir, hath played the devil ere now, in a Mystery, in Queen Mary's time; but me shall want a trifle for properties." "Here is a crown for thee," said the Earl,--"make me rid of thee--the great bell rings." Master Robert Laneham stared a moment at the agitation which he had excited, and then said to himself, as he stooped to pick up his staff of office, "The noble Earl runs wild humours to-day.

But they who give crowns expect us witty fellows to wink at their unsettled starts; and, by my faith, if they paid not for mercy, we would finger them tightly!" [See Note 6.

Robert Laneham.] Leicester moved hastily on, neglecting the courtesies he had hitherto dispensed so liberally, and hurrying through the courtly crowd, until he paused in a small withdrawing-room, into which he plunged to draw a moment's breath unobserved, and in seclusion.
"What am I now," he said to himself, "that am thus jaded by the words of a mean, weather-beaten, goose-brained gull! Conscience, thou art a bloodhound, whose growl wakes us readily at the paltry stir of a rat or mouse as at the step of a lion.

Can I not quit myself, by one bold stroke, of a state so irksome, so unhonoured?
What if I kneel to Elizabeth, and, owning the whole, throw myself on her mercy ?" As he pursued this train of thought, the door of the apartment opened, and Varney rushed in.
"Thank God, my lord, that I have found you!" was his exclamation.
"Thank the devil, whose agent thou art," was the Earl's reply.
"Thank whom you will, my lord," replied Varney; "but hasten to the water-side.

The Queen is on board, and asks for you." "Go, say I am taken suddenly ill," replied Leicester; "for, by Heaven, my brain can sustain this no longer!" "I may well say so," said Varney, with bitterness of expression, "for your place, ay, and mine, who, as your master of the horse, was to have attended your lordship, is already filled up in the Queen's barge.