Produced by Paul Dring, Delphine Lettau, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net PENSHURST CASTLE [Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TOWER, PENSHURST CASTLE.] PENSHURST CASTLE _IN THE TIME OF_ SIR PHILIP SIDNEY BY EMMA MARSHALL _Author of 'Under Salisbury Spire,' 'Winchester Meads,' etc._ 'A right man-like man, such as Nature, often erring, yet shows sometimes she fain would make.'--Sir Philip Sidney. LONDON SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED ESSEX STREET, STRAND 1894 _PREFACE_ For the incidents in the life of Sir Philip Sidney, who is the central figure in this story of 'the spacious times of great Elizabeth,' I am indebted to Mr H. R. Fox Bourne's interesting and exhaustive Memoir of this noble knight and Christian gentleman. In his short life of thirty-one years are crowded achievements as scholar, poet, statesman and soldier, which find perhaps few, if indeed any equal, in the records of history; a few only of these chosen from among many appear in the following pages. The characters of Mary Gifford and her sister, and the two brothers, Humphrey and George Ratcliffe, are wholly imaginary. The books which have been consulted for the poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and the times in which he lived are--Vol. I. of _An English Garner;_ M. Jusserand's _Roman du Temps de Shakespere,_ and a very interesting essay on Sir Philip Sidney and his works, published in Cambridge in 1858. WOODSIDE, LEIGH WOODS, CLIFTON, _October_ 5, 1893. _CONTENTS_ BOOK I. PAGE I. THE SISTERS, 1 II. IN THE PARK, 17 III. A STRANGE MEETING, 35 IV. THE HAWK AND THE BIRD, 60 V. RESISTANCE, 82 VI. THREE FRIENDS, 101 VII. WHITSUNTIDE, 1581, 121 VIII. DEFEAT, 146 IX. ACROSS THE FORD, 171 BOOK II. X. AT WILTON, 207 XI. LUMEN FAMILIÆ SUÆ, 223 XII. FIRE AND SWORD, 243 XIII. RESTORED, 258 XIV. WHAT RIGHT? 276 XV. THE PASSING OF PHILIP, 296 XVI. FOUR YEARS LATER--1590, 311 _LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_ THE ENTRANCE TOWER, PENSHURST CASTLE, _Frontispiece_ PAGE PENSHURST CHURCH AND CASTLE, 4 THE LYCH GATE, PENSHURST, 64