Lady Katrine Bulmer's spirits were of that elastic quality not easily repressed; and before ten minutes were over, all her gaiety returned in full force, nor did it cease its flow till their arrival in Greenwich.
For his part, Sir Osborne strove to keep pace with her liveliness, and perhaps even forced his wit a little in the race, that he might not be behindhand. Heaven knows what was passing in his mind! whether it really was an accession of gaiety at approaching the court, or whether it was that he wished to show his fair companion that the discovery he had made of her engagements to Lord Darby did not at all mortify him, notwithstanding the little coquetry that she might have exercised upon himself.
They now, however, approached the place of their destination, under the favourable auspice of a fair afternoon. The most pardonable sort of superstition is perhaps that which derives its auguries from the face of nature, leading us to fancy that the bright golden sunshine, the clear blue heaven, the soft summer breeze, and the cheerful song of heaven's choristers, indicate approaching happiness to ourselves; or that the cloud, the storm, and the tempest, come prophetic of evil and desolation. At least both hope and fear, the two great movers in all man's feelings, lend themselves strangely to this sort of divination, combining with the beauty of the prospect, or the brightness of the sky, to exalt our expectations of the future; or lending darker terrors to the frown of nature, and teaching us to dread or to despair.
When Sir Osborne and his party arrived at the brow of Shooter's Hill, the evening was as fair and lovely as if it had been summer: one of those sweet sunsets that sometimes burst in between two wintry days in the end of March or the beginning of April: a sort of heralds to announce the golden season that comes on. The whole country round, as far as they could see, whether looking towards Eltham and Chiselhurst, or northwards towards the river, was one wide sea of waving boughs, just tinged with the first green of the spring; while the oblique rays of the declining sun, falling upon the huge bolls of the old oaks and beeches, caught upon the western side of each, and invested its giant limbs as with a golden armour. Every here and there, too, the beams, forcing their way through the various openings in the forest, cast across the road bright glimpses of that rich yellow light peculiar to wood scenery, and, alternated with the long shadows of the trees, marked the far perspective of the highway descending to the wide heath below. The eye rested not on the heath, though it, too, was glowing with the full effulgence of the sky; but passing on, caught a small part of the palace of Greenwich, rising above the wild oaks which filled the park; and then still farther turning towards the west, paused upon the vast metropolis, with its red and dizzy atmosphere, high above which rose the heavy tower and wooden spire of Old Paul's Church; while to the left, beyond the influence of the smoke, was seen standing almost alone, in solemn majesty, the beautiful pile of the West Minster.
Sir Osborne Maurice impulsively reined in his horse, and seemed as if he could scarcely breathe when the whole magnificent scene rushed at once upon his view. "So this is London!" cried he; "the vast, the wealthy, and the great; the throne of our island monarchs, from whence they sway a wide and powerful land. On! on!" and striking his horse with his spurs, he darted down the road, as if he were afraid that the great city would, before he reached it, fade away like the splendid phantasms seen by the Sicilian shepherds, showing for a moment a host of castles, and towers, and palaces, and then fleeting by, and leaving nought but empty air!
CHAPTER XIV.
Paracelsus and his chymistical followers are so many Promethei, will fetch fire from heaven.--Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.
Now might I expend five pages of post octavo, with great satisfaction to my readers and myself, in describing minutely the old rambling palace inhabited by Henry VIII. at Greenwich, particularising its several angles and abutments, its small lattice windows, its bays and octagons, together with the various cartouches and mascarons which filled up the spaces and covered the corbels between; but unhappily I am in an egregious hurry, having already expended one whole tome without getting through a fifth part of the portentous bulk of Professor Vonderbrugius. I might, indeed, comfortably extend my tale to four volumes instead of three. But no, gentle reader! out of consideration for thine exemplary patience, I spare thee the infliction, and shall curtail my descriptions, compress my dialogues, circumscribe my digressions, and concentrate my explanations, so as to restrain my history within the bounds I had originally proposed for its extent.
Suffice it, then, to say that Lady Katrine, having recalled to the knight's remembrance that his course lay towards Greenwich, and not to London, as he seemed inclined to direct it, they turned their horses to the right at the bottom of the hill, and soon reached the river-side, where, spreading along a little to the eastward of the spot on which the hospital at present stands, lay a large mass of heavy architecture, which, if judged by modern notions, would be regarded as not very fit for the dwelling of a king.
The dull appearance of the building, however, was relieved by the gaiety of the objects round about; for though the sun was now half below the horizon, yet loitering round the various gates of the palace, or running to and fro on their separate errands, was seen a host of servants and attendants in rich and splendid suits, while multitudes of guards and henchmen, decked out to pamper the costly whims of their luxurious lord, showed forth their finery to the evening air. More than one group of lords, and ladies too, enjoying the fine sunset before the palace, made the parade a sort of living pageant; while the river beyond, as if emulous of the gay scene, fluttered and shone with the streamers and gilding of the various barges with which it was covered.