artifices and intrigues of courtiers, to consummate my downfall? Will
Cecil or Raleigh suffer her heart to act for itself, even if the spirit
of her father were not in her? It is in vain to hope it."

But still Essex gazed at the ring with an absorbed attention, that
proved how much hope his sanguine temperament had concentrated here,
when there was none else for him in the wide world, save what lay in the
compass of that hoop of gold. The spark of brightness within the
diamond, which gleamed like an intenser than earthly fire, was the
memorial of his dazzling career. It had not paled with the waning
sunshine of his mistress's favor; on the contrary, in spite of its
remarkable tinge of dusky red, he fancied that it never shone so
brightly. The glow of festal torches,--the blaze of perfumed lamps,--
bonfires that had been kindled for him, when he was the darling of the
people,--the splendor of the royal court, where he had been the peculiar
star,--all seemed to have collected their moral or material glory into
the gem, and to burn with a radiance caught from the future, as well as
gathered from the past. That radiance might break forth again.
Bursting from the diamond, into which it was now narrowed, it might been
first upon the gloomy walls of the Tower,--then wider, wider, wider,--
till all England, and the seas around her cliffs, should be gladdened
with the light. It was such an ecstasy as often ensues after long
depression, and has been supposed to precede the circumstances of
darkest fate that may befall mortal man. The earl pressed the ring to
his heart as if it were indeed a talisman, the habitation of a spirit,
as the queen had playfully assured him,--but a spirit of happier
influences than her legend spake of.

"O, could I but make my way to her footstool!" cried he, waving his
hand aloft, while he paced the stone pavement of his prison-chamber with