TO SING BEFORE THE QUEEN 181

upon the hearth, warming his hands by the gathering
blaze while he listened to the song:

“Cold ’s the wind, and wet ’s the rain;
Saint Hugh, be our good speed!
Ill is the weather that bringeth no gain,
Nor helps good hearts in need.

“Down-a-down, hey, down-a-down,
Hey derry derry down-a-down!”

He could hear Colley Warren above them all. What a
voice the boy had! Like a golden horn blowing in the
fresh of a morning breeze. It made Nick tingle, he could
not tellwhy. He and Colley often sang together, and their
voices made a quivering in the air like the ringing of a
bell. And often, while they sang, the viols standing in
the corner of the room would sound aloud a deep, soft
note in harmony with them, although nobody had touched
the strings; so that the others cried out that the instru-
ments were bewitched, and would not let the boys sing
any more. Colley Warren was Nick’s best friend—a dark-
eyed, quiet lad, as gentle as a girl, and with a mouth like
a girl’s mouth, for which the others sometimes mocked him,
though they loved him none the less.

It was not because his voice was loud that it could be
so distinctly heard; but it was nothing like the rest, and
came through all the others like sunshine through a mist.
Nick pulled the stool up closer, and sat down in the chim-
ney-corner, humming a second to the tune, and blowing
little glory-holes in the embers with the bellows. He liked