travel books: Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor, came to her side and asked her how she had fared her first day at Court. This question took Lizbeth unawares and for a moment she could only stammer her reply. " 'Tis all so amazing," she said, "and ... and ... the Queen Sir Christopher smiled. " The Queen does fish for men's souls," he said, "and has so sweet a bait that no one can escape her net." Lizbeth had known what he meant, and in the days that followed she knew that her own soul had been caught in Elizabeth's net. The Queen's virtues were extolled whenever her name was spoken, but perhaps her Maids of Honour saw her in a different light from other people. To them she was always letting impulse break through the regal formalities of the Court. She could be sweet and gentle and tender, although a second later she would be berating the same person with a fury and anger that was like a summer thunderstorm. Tears followed smiles and yet the smiles would come again as quickly as they had been extinguished. Yet even when she was angry, Lizbeth thought, the Queen never lost her regal dignity. To-day in white on the gold throne she appeared like a goddess, and it was easy to understand why every man's heart, whether he was young as the Earl of Essex or as old as Sir Francis Walsingham, beat the faster because they were near her. The Earl seemed to Lizbeth to swing between fiery vigour and sulky lassitude, and yet everyone at the Court admired him and the Queen seemed, when he was not there, to yearn for his fresh, gay youth. All the Maids of Honour were in love with someone. Lady Mary Howard daringly with the young Earl, Elizabeth Throgmorton, whose blue eyes and gold hair reminded Lizbeth of Phillida, dreamed and yearned for Sir Walter Raleigh. There were others who fancied the haughty Earl of Southampton, the tall and graceful Sir Charles Blount, another of the Queen's favourites, or her god-son, Sir John Harrington. " You will be in love with someone before you have been here a week," Lady Mary threatened. books

Books > Old Books > Elizabethan Lover (1953)

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor, came to her side and asked her how she had fared her first day at Court. This question took Lizbeth unawares and for a moment she could only stammer her reply.
" 'Tis all so amazing," she said, "and ... and ... the Queen Sir Christopher smiled.
" The Queen does fish for men's souls," he said, "and has so sweet a bait that no one can escape her net."
Lizbeth had known what he meant, and in the days that followed she knew that her own soul had been caught in Elizabeth's net. The Queen's virtues were extolled whenever her name was spoken, but perhaps her Maids of Honour saw her in a different light from other people.
To them she was always letting impulse break through the regal formalities of the Court. She could be sweet and gentle and tender, although a second later she would be berating the same person with a fury and anger that was like a summer thunderstorm. Tears followed smiles and yet the smiles would come again as quickly as they had been extinguished.
Yet even when she was angry, Lizbeth thought, the Queen never lost her regal dignity. To-day in white on the gold throne she appeared like a goddess, and it was easy to understand why every man's heart, whether he was young as the Earl of Essex or as old as Sir Francis Walsingham, beat the faster because they were near her.
The Earl seemed to Lizbeth to swing between fiery vigour and sulky lassitude, and yet everyone at the Court admired him and the Queen seemed, when he was not there, to yearn for his fresh, gay youth.
All the Maids of Honour were in love with someone. Lady Mary Howard daringly with the young Earl, Elizabeth Throgmorton, whose blue eyes and gold hair reminded Lizbeth of Phillida, dreamed and yearned for Sir Walter Raleigh. There were others who fancied the haughty Earl of Southampton, the tall and graceful Sir Charles Blount, another of the Queen's favourites, or her god-son, Sir John Harrington.
" You will be in love with someone before you have been here a week," Lady Mary threatened.