The girls, than whom there were not two prettier maidens in all England, soon tired of evil-smelling and snarling animals, which in no wise came up to the wonderful creatures of their imagination, eked out by weird wood-cuts in the books they read.
They found the charming garden, with its beds of flowers and strawberries, its hedges of red and black currants, roses and gooseberries, and its golden plum-trees lining the brick walls facing west and south, far more to their liking.
Nor was it wholly unsuited to their age and condition that their eyes wandered from the cages of furtive wolves and uneasy bears to the smooth walks tenanted by a coterie of court ladies with their attendant gallants. Anna Cave, eighteen, yet looking older by reason of her tall stature and graceful carriage, Eleanor Roe, a year younger, a sweet girl, at once timid in manner and joyous in disposition, found much to cavil at in the Spanish fashions then prevalent in high circles. Born and bred in decorous and God-fearing households, they were not a little shocked by the way in which the great dames of the period dressed and comported themselves. Yet, with all their youthful disapproval there mingled a spice of curiosity, and Nellie, the shy one, often nudged her more sedate companion to take note of a specially ornate farthingale or a Spanish mantilla of exquisite design.
Now, despite the reverence in which the stout Sir Thomas held the King, he did not approve of some of the King’s associates. Especially was he unwilling that the bold eyes of any of the young adventurers and profligates who clustered under the banner of Rochester should survey the charms of his daughter and niece. Therefore, when the girls would have him walk with them in the wake of Lady Essex, then at the height of her notorious fame, he peremptorily vetoed their design.
“If you are aweary of the kennels,” he said, “we will stroll in our own garden. It is fair as this, and the scent of the flowers therein is not aped by the cosmetics of the women.”
“Nay, but, uncle,” pouted Eleanor, disappointed that the style of the much talked-of Countess should be no more than glimpsed in passing, “we have seen neither lion, nor tiger, nor humpbacked camel. Surely the King’s collection is not so meager that one may find as many wild beasts at any May-day fair in Islington?”
“Lions, tigers, and the rest, Got wot! What doth a girl like thee want with such fearsome cattle?”
“’Tis only a few days since I heard one declaiming a passage in Master Shakespeare’s play of ‘Macbeth,’ and he said:
What men dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm’d rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.