Michel and Angele [A Ladder of Swords] — CompleteParker, Gilbert
History
Michel and Angele [A Ladder of Swords] — Complete
Parker, Gilbert
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; Huguenots -- Fiction; Jersey (Channel Islands) -- Fiction
“Why was he so called? Who put the name upon Who but the Earl of Sussex
as he died--as noble a chief, as true a counsellor as ever spoke truth
to a Queen. But truth is not all at Court, and Sussex was no flatterer.
Leicester bowed under the storm for a moment when Sussex showed him in
his true colours; but Sussex had no gift of intrigue, the tide turned,
and so he broke his heart, and died. But he left a message which I
sometimes remember with my collects. ‘I am now passing to another
world,’ said he, ‘and must leave you to your fortunes and to the Queen’s
grace and goodness; but beware the Gipsy, for he will be too hard for
all of you; you know not the beast so well as I do.’ But my Lord Sussex
was wrong. One there is who knows him through and through, and hath
little joy in the knowing.”
The look in the eyes of the Duke’s Daughter became like steel and her
voice hardened, and Angele realised that Leicester had in this beautiful
and delicate maid-of-honour as bitter an enemy as ever brought down
the mighty from their seats; that a pride had been sometime wounded,
suffered an unwarrantable affront, which only innocence could feel so
acutely. Her heart went out to the Duke’s Daughter as it had never
gone out to any of her sex since her mother’s death, and she showed her
admiration in her glance. The other saw it and smiled, slipping a hand
in hers for a moment; and then a look, half-debating, half-triumphant,
came into her face as her eyes followed Leicester down the green
stretches of the tilting-yard.
The trumpet sounded, the people broke out in shouts of delight, the
tilting began. For an hour the handsome joust went on, the Earl of
Oxford, Charles Howard, Sir Henry Lee, Sir Christopher Hatton, and
Leicester challenging, and so even was the combat that victory seemed to
settle in the plumes of neither, though Leicester of them all showed not
the greatest skill, while in some regards greatest grace and deportment.
Suddenly there rode into the lists, whence, no one seemed to know, so
intent had the public gaze been fixed, so quickly had he come, a mounted
figure all in white, and at the moment when Sir Henry Lee had cried
aloud his challenge for the last time. Silence fell as the bright figure
cantered down the list, lifted the gauge, and sat still upon his black
steed. Consternation fell. None among the people or the Knights Tilters
knew who the invader was, and Leicester called upon the Masters of the
Ceremonies to demand his name and quality. The white horseman made
no reply, but sat unmoved, while noise and turmoil suddenly sprang up
around him.
Presently the voice of the Queen was heard clearly ringing through the
lists. “His quality hath evidence. Set on.”
The Duke’s Daughter laughed, and whispered mischievously in Angele’s
ear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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