"I give you good morrow, fair sir!" said he. "My chamberlain says that you would speak with me. Methinks my good fortune has made me see your face before. Say, can Buckingham serve you?" And as he spoke he considered the young stranger attentively, as if he did really remember him.
"Your grace is ever courteous," replied the knight; and then added, seeing that the chamberlain still staid--"but, in the first place, let me say that what I was unwilling to communicate to this your officer, I am equally unwilling to speak before him."
"Leave us!" said the duke. "In truth, I know not why you stay. Now, fair sir, may I crave your name?"
"'Tis now a poor one, my good lord," replied the knight. "Osborne Darnley."
"Rich, rich, dear youth, in virtue and in merit!" cried the duke, taking him in his arms and embracing him warmly, which accolade did not escape the reverted eyes of the chamberlain; "rich in honour and courage, and every good quality. The Lord of Surrey, my good son-in-law, to whom you are a dear companion in arms, wrote me from Ireland some two months past that I might expect you here; evolved to me the plans which you have formed to gain the favour of the king, and prepared me to aid you to the best of my poor power. Hold you the same purpose of concealing your name which you proposed when you wrote from Flanders to Lord Surrey, and which you observed when last in this our happy country?"
"I do, my good lord," replied the knight, "on every account; but more especially as it is the wish and desire of him I am bound most to honour and obey: my father."
"My judgment goes with his and yours," said the duke, "more especially as for some cause that proud man Wolsey, when, not long since, I petitioned the king to see your noble father, stepped in and staid the wavering consent that hung upon his grace's lips. But think not, my dear youth, that I have halted in your cause! Far from it; I have urged your rights with all the noblest and best of the land; while your own merits, and the high name you have acquired in serving with the emperor, have fixed your interest on the sure basis of esteem; so that, wherever you find a real English heart, and but whisper the name of Darnley, there you shall have a friend; yet, indeed, I have much to complain of in my lord your father."
"Indeed, indeed, your grace?" cried the knight, the quick blood mounting into his cheek. "Some misconception must make you think so. My father, heaven knows! is full of gratitude and affection towards you."
"Nay, protest not," replied Buckingham, with a smile. "I have the strongest proof of his ingratitude and bad esteem; for what can be so great a proof of either as to refuse an offered kindness?"
"Oh! I understand your grace," said Sir Osborne. "But though the noble, the princely offers, of pecuniary assistance which your grace held out to him were declined, my father's gratitude was not the less. For five long years I have not seen him, but in all his letters he speaks of the noble Duke of Buckingham as one whose virtues have shamed him from misanthropy."