Part 16 (2/2)
Not one of the co the host But Captain Dawe asked where his daughter and Mistress Stowe had hidden theone out into the Moorfields to take the air and see an archery contest, the heat in the city having been well-nigh intolerable that afternoon
The twilight was growing faint, the narrow street was in semi-darkness
Johnnie inquired which way the ladies would return, and getting the direction started out to one far before he sao ladies hurrying along, huddled rather closely together, and a couple of city gallants bowing and s fellow's face flushed; for, even in the growing darkness, he recognized one slight, graceful figure as that of Dorothy He hastened forward, and soon got near enough to distinguish the faces of the four, and to perceive that the ladies were being annoyed by the unwelcome attentions of the two fops, who, attracted doubtless by Dolly's beauty and apparent rusticity, were endeavouring to force acquaintance upon the buxom hostess of the ”Swanne” Johnnie seized both the situation and the offenders in athe youths by the nape of the neck, he cracked their curled heads together until they yelled with pain Then he forced their noses down to their knees
”Bo, ye rascals,” he cried ”Lower still; ye are not doing sufficient hoe to beauty and innocence yet”
The two collapsed, toppled forward, and lay prone on their storound they walk on,” pursued the relentless Johnnie; ”'tis what yeapes profess to do Kiss it--letsmacks rewarded his efforts
”Now,” he said, ” or two I'll lout the heads of both of you together if I see your s faces in this street any htened himself, offered an arhts shone fro after they were douted in the other houses of Wood Street Johnnie had to recount all the incidents of his visit to the court; and Dorothy and the hostess asked hi her dress and her jewels, and quite beyond his powers of answering He said nothing about the pron in a ed hie and adventure on the Spanish Main
”Tireater length to Bob to- ard ho!
until the spring co for a later day, and make my plans now in silence”
The party fro that time Johnnie went twice to Whitehall, on the second occasion taking Dorothy with hiracious to her pretty subject from the west, and praised her beauty openly Yet, in spite of the royal condescension, Dolly felt terribly afraid, and owned to Raleigh that she was very glad to get outside the palace doors again
On another day the knight took them to the play on the other side of the river, where they saw a comedy of Ben Jonson's After the play the captain went to see the bear-baiting in the bear-pit hard by, but the two young people preferred a trip on the river as far as Chelsea This was a very busy and an down to the ”Merh was presiding over a gathering of the ”Mer countryman found himself in a very nest of poets--Shakespeare, Jonson, Marlowe, Sidney, and Raleigh himself In after years he hardly knehich to call the most notable moment in his life--the one when he kissed his Queen's hand, or the one when he drank a cup of sack with the greatest wits and geniuses of his age
When the Severn-side folks ards again, Paignton Rob accompanied them; for Johnnie had invited thein the spring to go with hie to the New World
Chapter XXIV
TWO CHANCE WAYFARERS
It was the feast of St Tho sun, the Queen's highway frozen into an iron hardness, and the pools and ditches frost-bound The wind had shaken the hoar froes, and the holly-berries stood out in brilliant bunches against the dark green of the encircling leaves Along the road between Bristol and Gloucester, and, but for the wintry haze that narrowed the horizon, within sight of the latter city, trudged a burly fellow, staff in hand and a sea song on his lips His thick shoon awoke echoes fro in unison Hosen of wars, and he had a doublet of the saoodly stuff; a cap, trihtly over his ears, and an aaudy blue flapped in the keen wind; ri like pearls in his black beard He rolled in his walk as a sailor should, and soe fro of the words
”Then ho! for the Spanish Main, And ha! for the Spanish gold; King Philip's shi+ps are riding deep With the weight of wealth untold
They're prey for the saucy lads Who dance on the Plymouth Hoe; They'll all sail hoalleon in to, With a rich galleon in tow!”
Theof his chorus, and his hearty voice pealed out like a tru!” cried a voice in the sailor's rear
He turned sharply around, and found a thin, wiry fellow close at his heels ”_Madre de Dios!_” he cried, with a Spanish oath ”Where didst thou spring from? I heard no steps behind me”
”Hardly possible, friend, that thou shouldst hear a little fellow like , staff, and heavier footfalls I fell in thy wake out of the lane at Quedgely, and have been trying to come up with thee for the sake of thy jolly coely?”
”Ay Thou art a stranger; Devon, if thy speech is to be trusted”
”Devon is my bonny country, lad--Devon every inch of me Dost know Devon?”
”But little 'Tis a brave shi+re, and breeds brave sons Could I be born again, I'd pray to see the sun first from a Devon cradle”