t; there will be store of fools there besides, and so you will be fitted."
"Nay, an there be fools, my lord," replied Laneham, with much glee, "I warrant I will make sport among them, for no greyhound loves to cote a hare as I to turn and course a fool. But I have another singular favour to beseech of your honour."
"Speak it, and let me go," said the Earl; "I think the Queen comes forth instantly."
"My very good lord, I would fain bring a bed-fellow with me."
"How, you irreverent rascal!" said Leicester.
"Nay, my lord, my meaning is within the canons," answered his unblushing, or rather his ever-blushing petitioner. "I have a wife as curious as her grandmother who ate the apple. Now, take her with me I may not, her Highness's orders being so strict against the officers bringing with them their wives in a progress, and so lumbering the court with womankind. But what I would crave of your lordship is to find room for her in some mummery, or pretty pageant, in disguise, as it were; so that, not being known for my wife, there may be no offence."
"The foul fiend seize ye both!" said Leicester, stung into uncontrollable passion by the recollections which this speech excited--"why stop you me with such follies?"
The terrified clerk of the chamber-door, astonished at the burst of resentment he had so unconsciously produced, dropped his staff of office from his hand, and gazed on the incensed Earl wi
