“Well, well, patience, patience! thou shalt
have thine audience at last,” muttered Adam,
as he retired from the room, his eyes fixed upon the
neglected infant of his brain.
How, on leaving king Log,
foolish wisdom runs A-Muck on
king Stork.
At the outer door of the Tower by which he had entered,
the philosopher was accosted by Catesby,—a
man who, in imitation of his young patron, exhibited
the soft and oily manner which concealed intense ambition
and innate ferocity.
“Worshipful my master,” said he, bowing
low, but with a half sneer on his lips, “the
king and his Highness the Duke of Gloucester have heard
much of your strange skill, and command me to lead
you to their presence. Follow, sir, and you,
my men, convey this quaint contrivance to the king’s
apartments.”
With this, not waiting for any reply, Catesby strode
on. Hugh’s face fell; he turned very pale,
and, imagining himself unobserved, turned round to
slink away. But Catesby, who seemed to have eyes
at the back of his head, called out, in a mild tone,—
“Good fellow, help to bear the mechanical—you,
too, may be needed.”
“Cog’s wounds!” muttered Hugh, “an’
I had but known what it was to set my foot in a king’s
palace! Such walking may do for the silken shoon,
but the hobnail always gets into a hobble.”
With that, affecting a cheerful mien, he helped to
replace the model on the mule.
Meanwhile, Adam, elated, poor man! at the flattery
of the royal mandate, persuaded that his fame had
reached Edward’s ears, and chafed at the little
heed paid by the pious Henry to his great work, stalked
on, his head in the air. “Verily,”
mused the student, “King Edward may have been
a cruel youth, and over hasty; it is horrible to think
of Robert Hilyard’s calamities! But men
do say he hath an acute and masterly comprehension.
Doubtless, he will perceive at a glance how much
I can advantage his kingdom.” With this,
we grieve to say, selfish reflection—which,
if the thought of his model could have slept a while,
Adam would have blushed to recall, as an affront to
Hilyard’s wrongs—the philosopher followed
Catesby across the spacious yard, along a narrow passage,
and up a winding turret-stair, to a room in the third
story, which opened at one door into the king’s
closet, at the other into the spacious gallery, which
was already a feature in the plan of the more princely
houses. In another minute Adam and his model
were in the presence of the king. The part of
the room in which Edward sat was distinguished from
the rest by a small eastern carpet on the floor (a
luxury more in use in the palaces of that day than
it appears to have been a century later); [see the
Narrative of the Lord Grauthuse, before referred to]
a table was set before him, on which the model was
