Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 22 (1831).djvu/273



CHAPTER XIV.

This is rare news thou tell'st me, my good fellow; There are two bulls fierce battling on the green For one fair heifer--if the one goes down, The dale will be more peaceful, and the herd, Which have small interest in their brulziement, May pasture there in peace. --OLD PLAY.

Sayes Court was watched like a beleaguered fort; and so high rose the suspicions of the time, that Tressilian and his attendants were stopped and questioned repeatedly by sentinels, both on foot and horseback, as they approached the abode of the sick Earl. In truth, the high rank which Sussex held in Queen Elizabeth's favour, and his known and avowed rivalry of the Earl of Leicester, caused the utmost importance to be attached to his welfare; for, at the period we treat of, all men doubted whether he or the Earl of Leicester might ultimately have the higher rank in her regard.

Elizabeth, like many of her sex, was fond of governing by factions, so as to balance two opposing interests, and reserve in her own hand the power of making either predominate, as the interest of the state, or perhaps as her own female caprice (for to that foible even she was not superior), might finally determine. To finesse--to hold the cards--to