We will meet under the free cope of heaven." "You are discomposed or displeased, my lord," replied Tressilian; "yet there is no occasion for distemperature.

The place is equal to me, so you allow me one half-hour of your time uninterrupted." "A shorter time will, I trust, suffice," answered Leicester.

"Meet me in the Pleasance when the Queen has retired to her chamber." "Enough," said Tressilian, and withdrew; while a sort of rapture seemed for the moment to occupy the mind of Leicester.
"Heaven," he said, "is at last favourable to me, and has put within my reach the wretch who has branded me with this deep ignominy--who has inflicted on me this cruel agony.

I will blame fate no more, since I am afforded the means of tracing the wiles by which he means still further to practise on me, and then of at once convicting and punishing his villainy.

To my task--to my task! I will not sink under it now, since midnight, at farthest, will bring me vengeance." While these reflections thronged through Leicester's mind, he again made his way amid the obsequious crowd, which divided to give him passage, and resumed his place, envied and admired, beside the person of his Sovereign.