Chapter 1. At the Mermaid
Chapter 2. At the Queen's Palace
Chapter 3. A Christmas Carol of the Olden Time
To my sister Lina
in memory of
the Christmases of our childhood.
"All, though feigned, is true."
Table of Contents
Thus Raleigh, thus immortal Sidney shone
(Illustrious names!) in great Eliza's days.
--Thos. Edwardes.
The numberless diamond-shaped window panes of the Mermaid Tavern are twinkling like so many stars in the chill December air of London. It is the last meeting of the Mermaid Club for the year 1596, and not a member is absent. As they drop in by twos and threes and gather in groups about the room, it is plain that expectation is on tip-toe. They call each other by their Christian names and pledge healths. Some are young, handsome, fastidious in person and dress; others are bohemian in costume, speech, and action; all wear knee breeches, and nearly all have pointed beards. He of the harsh fighting face, of the fine eye and coarse lip and the shaggy hair, whom they call Ben, although one of the youngest is yet plainly one of the leaders both for wit and for wisdom.
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows."
That grave and handsome gentleman whose lordly bearing and princely dress mark his high rank, is another favourite. He has written charming poems, has fought gallantly on many fields, has voyaged widely on many seas, has founded colonies in distant America, is a favourite of the Queen. But in this Mermaid Club his chief glory is that he is its founder and leader, the one whose magnetism and personal charm has summoned and cemented in friendship all these varied elements.