Idonia: A Romance of Old LondonWallis, Arthur Frederick
History
Idonia: A Romance of Old London
Wallis, Arthur Frederick
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
He stood without replying either to my threats or my amends, but gazed
upon me with a look that I saw meant mischief; though whether to be
done now or at a convenient time and secretly, I could not guess.
He was a fine bold man, of an height a good span greater than my own.
He wore no hair on his face, but that I could see under his plumed cap
was thick and black. His dress was of rare stuff and I supposed very
costly, being all slashed and broidered, and tagged with gold. Indeed,
had he not let slip that boast of intimacy with some lord I should have
been sure of his being a lord himself and perhaps master of one of
those great palaces upon the Strand. Thus, then, we stood thwarting
each other a considerable space, and I (at least) doubting of the
upshot, when a great fellow in a livery of blue, with a badge on his
sleeve, came running up the lane, and casting an eye upon me, pushed in
between us and spoke with the tall man low and seriously. There
remaining therefore nought to hinder me longer about that brawl, I went
off, but asked one that stood by what was the badge the man in livery
bore, and he answered 'twas the Earl of Pembroke's emblem of the green
dragon, and that they twain that communed together thus secretly were
both of his household of Baynards Castle by Blackfriars.
Without further mishap, but pondering rather heavily upon my late one,
I made my way through the streets, past the noble church of Paul's on
the south side of it, to Mr. Wall the goldsmith hard by the Exchange.
I have neither space nor words nor confidence either, to speak of all
the things I met with, beyond imagination marvellous to me; and even
where I was disappointed of my expectation; as in the little width of
the streets, and of Paul's that it lacked the spire it once had;
together with much else that lacked completion or seemed at hazard
builded; even there, I say, I found my idea bettered by the fact, and a
strange beauty in the irregularity and scant ordering of the City, that
the more bewildered me as I went the further into the midst of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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