carried her dislike, that when it had once been necessary for him to salute her with his cap in passing, she had turned from him with such open marks of disgust, that an ancient lady of the court, who was standing by her side, bad reminded her of the impropriety of her conduct, by saying-" Your Highness forgets that the Lord Fitzroy is your father's son." To which she replied "I remember that he is my father's bastard." This illiberal observation had already reached the ears of Lord Fitzroy, who, judging the present an apt moment for acquainting her that he had a knowledge of it, wrote thus in reply : "HENRY FITZROY greets MARY, Princess of England. He acquaints her that he would sooner part with life than a residence rendered doubly dear to him, as the joint donation of an estimable father father and a beloved brother. Were he inclined to resign it, he should conceive it an insult to her dignity, to offer her the acceptance of any gift from her father's bastard." The haughty and impetuous soul of Mary was stung to the quick by this reply; but she had no redress at her command, and was accordingly compelled to bury her resentment in silence. Lord Fitzroy took immediate possession of Framlingham Castle; and hence arose the implacable enmity which Lady Blunt has informed Eleonora subsisted between the queen and that nobleman. It may perhaps be wondered that a temper of the acknowledged violence of Queen Mary's did not rouse her, on her accession to the throne, to revenge an indignity which had created her so much pain. But from this step she was withheld by the religious principles of Lord Fitzroy. His tenets were, were, like her's, of the Romish church. Her endeavours were all turned towards the re-establishment of that religion, in the country over which she was become sovereign; and she preferred to smother in her breast the anger which she felt against him as an individual, rather than to place it in the power of the reformists to say, that she had acted otherwise than with kindness to any member of her own sect. Having now deduced the history of Framlingham Castle, and its possessors, down to the present period of our history, we may again pursue our narrative without interruption. CHAP CHAP. VII. "This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Unto our gentle senses." MACBETH. "For something still there lies In Heav'n's dark volume, which I read through mists." DRYDEN. As Eleonora and her companions proceeded, the trees, which had hitherto screened from their observation the base of the castle, appeared to recede on either side, and to open a vista, at the extremity of which they beheld the magnificent abode of Lord Henry Fitzroy. The solid mass which composed the stupendous fabric, impressed upon the scene a feature of the sublimest kind. Its towers and battlements appeared to raise their massive massive heads into the clouds, whilst its high banks and ramparts spread along the plain in bold masses, which seemed to bid defiance to the power of every enemy. On entering the park, the road once more wound into a valley, which shut the castle for a while from their view. Here their attention was called to the sleek and spotted deer, which were reposing in groups beneath clusters of the oak, the beech, the elm, and the sycamore, that were tastefully blended in knots upon its verdant and sloping sides, whilst the cowslip, the hairbell, and the violet, growing around in wanton luxuriance, refreshed by the morning shower, perfumed the air with their sweets. Again an easy ascent bore them within sight of the castle, and it was now beheld by them in another point of view. Grandeur and sublimity were still its characteristics; but the landscape by which it was surrounded was enriched by a partial sight of the river Meer, which was seen rolling its |