Kenilworth Chapter XXXIV

In which the Queen, in the midst of a hunting morning’s festivity, is led into a grave scene of tragic revelation by the distressed Countess Amy, whose desperate appeal for protection against the machinations of Varney unfolds before the assembled court with all the intensity of royal passion and suspicion. This unwelcome disclosure ruffles the dignified calm of the Pleasance, casting a shadow across noble faces and reminding all that beneath the golden hue of splendour, darker tempests are ever at hand.