CHAPTER 41 The death-bell thrice was heard to ring, an aerial voice was heard to call, and thrice the raven flapped its wing around the towers of Cumner Hall. Nicol. We are now to return to that part of our story where we intimated that Varney possessed of the authority of the Earl of Lester, and of the Queen's permission to the same effect, hastened to secure himself against discovery of his perfidy by removing the Countess from Cunnellworth Castle. He had proposed to set forth early in the morning, but reflecting that the Earl might relent in the interim, and seek another interview with the Countess. He resolved to prevent by immediate departure all chance of what would probably have ended in his detection and ruin. For this purpose he called for Lamborn and was exceedingly incensed to find that his trusty attendant was abroad in some ramble in the neighboring village or elsewhere. As his return was expected Sir Richard commanded that he should prepare himself for attending him on an immediate journey, and follow him in case he returned after his departure. In the meanwhile Varney used the ministry of a servant called Robin Tider, one to whom the mysteries of Cumner Place were already in some degree known, as he had been there more than once in attendance on the Earl. To this man whose character resembled that of Lamborn, though he was neither quite so prompt nor altogether so profligate, he gave command to have three horses saddled, and to prepare a horse litter, and have them in readiness at the poster and gate. The natural enough excuse of his lady's insanity, which was now universally believed, accounted for the secrecy with which she was to be removed from the castle, and he reckoned, on the same apology, in case the unfortunate Amy's resistance or screams should render such necessary. The agency of Anthony Foster was indispensable, and that Varney now went to secure. This person, naturally of a sour, unsocial disposition, and somewhat tired besides, with his journey from Cumner to Warwickshire, in order to bring the news of the Countess's escape, had early extricated himself from the crowd of Wasailers, and had taken himself to his chamber, where he lay asleep. When Varney, completely equipped for travelling, and with a dark lantern in his hand, entered his apartment, he paused an instant to listen to what his associate was murmuring in his sleep, and could plainly distinguish the words, Awe Maria, ora pro nobis. No, it runs not so. Deliver us from evil. I, so it goes. Praying in his sleep, said Varney, and confounding his old and new devotions, he must have more need of prayer ere I am done with him. What ho, holy man! Most blessed penitent! Awake! Awake! The devil has not discharged you from service yet. As Varney at the same time shook the sleeper by the arm, it changed the current of his ideas, and he roared out, Thieves! Thieves!  That has cost me so dear. Where's Janet? Is Janet safe? Safe enough. Thou bellowing fool, said Varney. Are thou not ashamed of thy clamour? Foster by this time was brought awake, and sitting up in his bed, asked Varney the meaning of so untimely a visit. It augurs nothing good, he added. A false prophecy, most St. Anthony, returned Varney, it augurs that the hours come for converting thy leasehold into copyhold. What sayest thou to that? Hadest thou told me this in broad day, said Foster, I had rejoiced, but at this dead hour, and by this dim light, and looking on thy pale face, which is a ghastly contradiction to thy light words, I cannot but rather think of the work that is to be done, than the Gwerden to be gained by it. Why, thou fool, it is but to escort thy charge back to come her place. Is that indeed all? said Foster, thou look as steadily pale, and thou art not moved by trifles. Is that indeed all? I that, and maybe a trifle more, said Varney. Ah, that trifle more, said Foster, still thou look as paler and paler. He not my countenance, said Varney, you see it by this wretched light. Up and redoing, man, think of come her place, thine own proper copyhold. Why, thou mayst found a weekly lectureship, besides endowing Janet like a barren stotter. Seventy pounds, and odd. Seventy-nine pounds, five shillings, and five pence, half penny, besides the value of the wood, said Foster. And am I to have it all, this copyhold? All, man, squirrels and all, no gypsies shall cut the value of a broom, no boy so much as to take a bird's nest, without paying the aquitains. I, that is right, don nine matters as fast as possible, horses and everything already. I'll save that accursed villain, lamborn, who is out on some infernal gamble. I, sir Richard, said Foster, you would take no advice. I ever told you that drunken profligate would fail you at need. Now I could have helped you do a sober young man. What, some slow-spoken, long-breathe brother of the congregation? Why, we shall have use for such also man. Heaven be praised, we shall lack laborers of every kind. I, that is right, forget not your pistols. Come now, and let us away. With her, said Anthony, to my ladies chamber and mine, she must along with us. Thou art not a fellow to be startled by a shriek. Not if scripture reason can be rendered for it, and it is written, wives obey your husbands. But will my lord's commands bear us out if we use violence? Touch, man, here is his signet, answered Varney, and having thus silenced the objections of his associate, they went together to Lord Hunston's apartments, and equating the sentinel with their purpose, as a matter sanctioned by the queen and the Earl of Lester, they entered the chamber of the unfortunate Countess. The horror of Amy may be conceived when, starting from a broken slumber, she saw at her bedside Varney the man on earth she most feared and hated. It was even a consolation to see that he was not alone, though she had so much reason to dread his solemn companion. Madam, said Varney, there is no time for ceremony. My lord of Lester, having fully considered the exigencies of the time, sends you his orders immediately to accompany us on a return to come to place. See, here is his signet, in token of his instant and pressing commands. It is false, said the Countess, thou hast stolen the warrant, thou who art capable of every villainy, from the blackest to the basest. It is true, madam, replied Varney, so true that if you do not instantly arise and prepare to attend us, we must compel you to obey our orders. Compel, thou darest not put it to that issue, basis thou art, exclaimed the unhappy Countess. That remains to be approved, madam, said Varney, who had determined on intimidation as the only means of subduing her high spirit. If you put me to it, you will find me a rough groom of the chambers. It was at this threat that Amy screamed so fearfully that, had it not been for the received opinion of her insanity, she would quickly have had Lord Hunston and others to her aid. Perceiving, however, that her cries were vain, she appealed to foster in the most affecting terms, conjuring him, as his daughter Janet's honor and purity were dear to him, not to permit her to be treated with unwomanly violence. Why, madam, wives must obey their husbands. Their scripture warrant for it, said Foster.  Need no help arrive, and comforted even by the dogged language of Foster, the Countess promised to arise and dress herself if they would agree to retire from the room. Varney at the same time assured her of all safety and honor while in their hands, and promised that he himself would not approach her, since his presence was so displeasing. Her husband, he added, would be at come-n-er-place within twenty-four hours after they had reached it. Somewhat comforted by this assurance, upon which, however, she saw little reason to rely. The unhappy Amy made her toilette by the assistance of the lantern, which they left with her when they quitted the apartment. Weeping, trembling, and praying, the unfortunate lady dressed herself with sensations how different from the days in which she was wont to decorate herself in all the pride of conscious beauty. She endeavored to delay the completing her dress as long as she could, until, terrified by the impatience of Varney, she was obliged to declare herself ready to attend them. When they were about to move, the Countess clung to Foster, with such an appearance of terror at Varney's approach, that the latter protested to her, with a deep oath, that he had no intention whatever of even coming near her. If you do but consent to execute your husband's will in quietness, you shall, he said, see but little of me. I will leave you undisturbed to the care of the usher, whom your good taste prefers." My husband's will, she exclaimed, but it is the will of God, and let that be sufficient to me. I will go with Master Foster as unresistingly as ever did a literal sacrifice. He is a father at least, and will have decency if not humanity. For thee, Varney, were at my latest word, dowered an equal stranger to both. Varney replied only she was at liberty to choose, and walked some paces before them to show the way. While half leaning on Foster, and half carried by him, the Countess was transported from St. Lowe's Tower to the poster gate, where a titer waded with the litter and horses. The Countess was placed in the former without resistance. She saw with some satisfaction that while Foster and Titer rode close by the litter, which the latter conducted, the dreaded Varney lingered behind, and was soon lost in darkness. A little while she strove as the road winded round the verge of the lake, to keep sight of those stately towers which called her husband Lord, and which still in some places sparkled with lights, where wasailors were yet rumbling. But when the direction of the road rendered this no longer possible, she drew back her head and, sinking down in the litter, recommended herself to the care of Providence. Besides the desires of inducing the Countess to proceed quietly on her journey, Varney had it also in view to have an interview with Lamborn, by whom he every moment expected to be joined, without the presence of any witnesses. He knew the character of this man, prompt, bloody, resolute, and greedy, and judged him the most fit agent he could employ in his further designs. But ten miles of their journey had been measured, ere he heard the hasty clatter of horses hooves behind him, and was overtaken by Michael Lamborn. Friended as he was, with his absence, Varney received his profligate servant with a rebuke of unusual bitterness. Drunken villain, he said, thy idleness and debauched folly will stretch a halter ere it be long, and for me I care not how soon. The style of abjugation, Lamborn, who was elated to an unusual degree, not only by an extraordinary cup of wine, but by the sort of confidential interview he had just had with the Earl, and the secret of which he had made himself master, did not receive with his wanted humility. He would take no insolence of language, he said, from the best night that ever war spurs. Lord Lester detained him on some business of import, and that was enough for Varney, who was but a servant like himself. Varney was not a little surprised at his unusual tone of insolence, but ascribing it to liquor, suffered it to pass as if unnoticed, and then began to tamper with Lamborn, touching his willingness to aid in removing, out of the Earl of Lester's way, an obstacle to arise, which would put it in his power to reward his trusty followers to their utmost wish. And upon Michael Lamborn's seeming ignorant what was meant, he plainly indicated, the litter-load yonder, as the impediment which he desired should be removed. Look you, Sir Richard, and so forth, said Michael, some are wiser than some, that is one thing, and some are worse than some, that's another. I know my Lord's mind on this matter better than thou, for he hath trusted me fully in the matter. Here are his mandates, and his last words were, Michael Lamborn, for his Lordship speaks to me as a gentleman of the sword, and useeth not the words drunken villain, or such like phrase, of those who know not how to bear new dignities. Varney says he, must pay the utmost respect to my countess. I trust you for looking to it, Lamborn, says his Lordship, and he must bring back my signet from him, peremptorly. I replied, Varney. Said he so indeed, you know all, then. All, all, and you were as wise to make a friend of me while the weather is fair betwixt us. And was there no one present, said Varney, when my Lord so spoke? Not a breathing creature, replied Lamborn. Thank you, my Lord, would trust any one with such matters, save an approved man of action like myself. Most true, said Varney. And making a pause, he looked forward on the moonlit road. They were traversing a wide and open heath, the litter being at least a mile before them, was both out of sight and hearing. He looked behind and there was an expanse, lighted by the moonbeams, without one human being in sight. He resumed his speech to Lamborn. And will you turn upon your master, who has introduced you to this career of court-like favor, whose apprentice you have been, Michael, who has taught you the depths and shallows of court intrigue? Michael, not me, said Lamborn. I have a name, will brook a master, before it. As well as another. And as to the rest, if I have been an apprentice, my indenture is out, and I am resolute to set up for myself. Take thy quittens first, thou fool, said Varney. And with a pistol, which he had for some time held in his hand, shot Lamborn through the body. The wretch fell from his horse without a single groan, and Varney dismounting, rifled his pockets, turning out the lining, that it might appear he had fallen by robbers. He secured the Earl's packet, which was his chief object, but he also took Lamborn's purse, containing some gold pieces, the relics of what his debauchery had left him, and from a singular combination of feelings, carried in his hand only the length of a small river, which crossed the road, into which he threw it as far as he could fling. Such are the strange remnants of conscience, which remain after she seems totally subdued, that this cruel and remorseless man would have felt himself degraded had he pocketed the few pieces belonging to the wretch whom he had thus ruthlessly slain. The murderer reloaded his pistol after cleansing the lock and barrel from the appearances of late explosion, and rode calmly after the litter, satisfying himself that he had so adroitly removed a troublesome witness to many of his intrigues, and the bearer of mandates which he had no intentions to obey, and which therefore he was desirous it should be thought had never reached his hand. The remainder of the journey was made with the degree of speed which showed the little care they had for the health of the unhappy Countess. They paused only at places where all was under their command, and where the tale they were prepared to tell of the insane Lady Barney would have obtained ready credit, had she made an attempt to appeal to the compassion of the few persons admitted to see her. But Amy saw no chance of obtaining a hearing from any to whom she had an opportunity of addressing herself, and besides was too terrified for the presence of Barney to violate the implied condition under which she was to travel free from his company. The authority of Barney, often so used during the Earl's private journeys to Cumnor, readily procured relays of horses where wanted, so that they approached Cumnor Place upon the night after they left Kenilworth. At this period of the journey Barney came up to the rear of the litter, as he had done before repeatedly during their progress, and asked, How does she? She sleeps, such foster. I would be her home. Her strength is exhausted. Rest will restore her, said Barney. She shall soon sleep sound and long. We must consider how to lodge her in safety. In her own apartments, to be sure, said Foster, I have sent Janet to her aunts with a proper rebuke, and the old women are truth itself, for they hate this lady cordially. We will not trust them, however, friend Anthony, said Barney. We must secure her in that stronghold where you keep your gold. My gold, said Anthony, much alarmed. Why, what gold have I? God help me, I have no gold. Why, what I had?  If I did, could I not find a hundred better ways to come at it? In one word, thy bed-chamber, which thou hast spent so curiously, must be her place of seclusion. And now, thou hind, shall press her pillows of down. I dare to say that Earl will never ask after the rich furniture of these four rooms. This last consideration rendered Foster tractable. He only asked permission to ride before, to make matters ready, and spurring his horse, he posted before the litter. While Barney, falling about, rescore paces behind it, it remained only attended by Tider. When they had arrived at come her place, the Countess asked eagerly for Janet, and showed much alarm when informed that she was no longer to have the attendance of that amiable girl. My daughter is dear to me, madam, said Foster gruffly, and I desire not that she should get the court tricks of line and scaping, somewhat too much of that has she learned already, and it pleases your ladyship. The Countess, much fatigued and greatly terrified by the circumstances of her journey, made no answer to this insolence, but mildly expressed a wish to retire to her chamber. I am uttered Foster. Tis but reasonable, but under favor. You go not to your Guga toy house, Shonder. You will sleep tonight in better security. I wouldn't wear my grave, said the Countess, but that mortal feeling shiver at the idea of soul and body partying. You, I guess, have no chance to shiver at that, replied Foster. My lord comes hither to-morrow, and doubtless you will make your own ways good with him. But does he come hither? Does he indeed, good Foster? Oh, I, good Foster, replied the other, but what Foster shall I be to-morrow when you speak of me to my lord? Though all I have done was to obey his own orders. You shall be my protector, a rough one indeed, but still a protector. Answer the Countess. Oh, that Janet were but here. She is better where she is, answered Foster.  But will you taste any refreshment? Oh, no, no, my chamber, my chamber. I trust, she said apprehensively, I may secure it on the inside. With all my heart, answered Foster, so I may secure it on the outside. And, taking the light, he led the way to a part of the building where Amy had never been, and conducted her up a stair of great height, preceded by one of the old women with the lamp. At the head of the stair, which seemed of almost immeasurable height, they crossed a short wooden gallery, formed of black oak, and very narrow. At the farther end of which was a strong oaken door, which opened and admitted them into the miser's apartment, homely in its accommodations in the very last degree, and, except a name, little different from a prison room. Foster stopped at the door and gave the lamp to the Countess, without either offering or permitting the attendance of the old woman who had carried it. The lady stood non-on ceremony, but, taking it hastily, barred the door, and secured it with the ample means provided on the inside for that purpose. Varney, meanwhile, had lurked behind on the stairs, but hearing the door barred, he now came up on tiptoe, and Foster, winking to him, pointed with self-complacence to a piece of concealed machinery in the wall, which, playing with much ease and little noise, dropped a part of the wooden gallery after the manner of a drawbridge, so as to cut off all communication between the door of the bedroom, which he usually inhabited, and the landing-place of the high, winding stair, which ascended to it. The rope by which this machinery was wrought was generally carried within the bedchamber, it being Foster's object to provide against invasion from without. But now that it was intended to secure the prisoner within, the cord had been brought over to the landing-place, and was there made fast, when Foster, with much complacency, had dropped the unsuspected trapdoor. Varney looked with great attention at the machinery, and peeped more than once down the abyss, which was opened by the fall of the trapdoor. It was dark as pitch, and seemed profoundly deep. Going as Foster informed his Confederate in a whisper, nigh to the lowest vault of the castle. Varney cast once more a fixed and long look down into this sable gulf, and then followed Foster to the part of the manor house, most usually inhabitant. When they arrived in the parlor, which we had mentioned, Varney requested Foster to get them supper, and some of the choicest wine. I will seek a lasco, he added, we have work for him to do, and we must put him in good heart. Foster groaned at this intimation, but made no remonstrance. The old woman assured Varney that a lasco had scarce eaten or drunken since her master's departure. Living perpetually, shut up in the laboratory, and talking as if the world's continuance, dependent on what he was doing there. I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him, said Varney, seizing a line and going in quest of the alchemist. He returned after a considerable absence, very pale, but yet with his habitual sneer on his cheek and nostril. Our friend, he said, has exhaled. How? What mean you, said Foster? Run away, flood with my forty pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousandfold. I will have hue and cry. I will tell thee a sure way, said Varney. How? Which way? exclaimed Foster. I'll have back my forty pounds. I deem them as surely a thousand times multiplied. I'll have back my input, at the least. Go hang thyself then, and sue a lasco in the devil's court of chanceery, for thither he has carried the cause. How? What does thou mean, is he dead? I, truly is he, said Varney, and properly swollen, already in the face and body. He had been mixing some of his devil's medicines, and the glass mask, which he used constantly, had fallen from his face, so that the subtle poison entered the brain and did its work. Sankta Maria, said Foster.  Had he not had protection, thank you. Saw you know ingots in the crucibles. Nay, I looked not but at the dead carrion, answered Varney.  He was swollen like a corpse three days exposed on the wheel. Pah, give me a cup of wine. I will go, said Foster. I will examine myself. He took the lamb, and hastened to the door, but there hesitated and paused. Will you not go with me? said he to Varney. To what purpose, said Varney? I have seen and smelled enough to spoil my appetite. I broke the window, however, and let in the air. It reeked of sulfur and such like suffocating steams, as if the very devil had been there. It might not be the act of the demon himself, said Foster, still hesitating. I have heard he is powerful at such times, and with such people. Still, if it were that Satan of thine, answered Varney, who thus jades thy imagination, thou art in perfect safety, unless he is a most unconscionable devil indeed. He hath two good sops of late. How two sops? What mean you, said Foster? What mean you? You will know in time, said Varney, and then this other banquet. But that will esteem her two choice-emorseful for the fiend's tooth. She must have her psalms, and harps, and serifs. Anthony Foster heard, and came slowly back to the table. God! Sir Richard! And must that thing be done? I, in very truth, Anthony, where there comes no copy-hold in thy way, replied his inflexible associate. I always foresaw it would land there, said Foster. But how, Sir Richard? For not to win the world would I put hands on her. I cannot blame thee, said Varney. I should be reluctant to do that myself. We miss Alaska and his manna sorely. I and the dog land-born. Why, where Terry's land-born? said Anthony. Ask no questions, said Varney. That would see him one day if that creed is true. But to our graver matter. I will teach thee a spring-tony to catch a pubert. Yonder trap-door, yonder gim-crack of thine, will remain secure in appearance. Will it not, though the supports are withdrawn beneath? I, Mary will it, said Foster, so long as it is not trodden on. But were the lady to attempt an escape over it? replied Varney. Her weight would carry it down. A mouse's weight would do it, said Foster. Why, then, she dies in attempting her escape, and what could you or I help it, honest Tony? Let us to bed. We will adjust our project to-morrow. On the next day, when evening approached, Varney summoned Foster to the execution of their plan. Titer and Foster's old man-servant were sent on a feigned errand down to the village, and Anthony himself, as if anxious to see that the Countess suffered no want of accommodation, visited her place of confinement. He was so much staggered at the mildness and patience, with which she seemed to endure her confinement, that he could not help earnestly recommending to her not to cross the threshold of her room on any account whatever, until Lord Lester should come. Which, he added, I trust in God will be very soon. Amy patiently promised that she would resign herself to her fate, and Foster returned to his hardening companion with his conscience half-eased of the perilous load that weighed on it. I have warned her, he said. Surely in vain is the snare set in the side of any bird. He left, therefore, the Countess's door unsecured on the outside, and under the eye of Varney withdrew the supports, which disdained the falling trap, which, therefore, kept its level position merely by a slight adhesion. They withdrew to wait the issue on the ground floor adjoining, but they waited long in vain. At length, Varney, after walking long to and fro, with his face muffled in his cloak, threw it suddenly back and exclaimed, Surely never was a woman full enough to neglect so fair an opportunity of escape. Perhaps she has resolved, said Foster, to await her husband's return. True, most true, said Varney, rushing out, I had not thought of that before. In less than two minutes Foster, who remained behind, heard the tread of a horse in the courtyard and then a whistle, similar to that which was the Earl's usual signal. The instant after the door of the Countess's chamber opened, and in the same moment the trap door gave way. There was a rushing sound, a heavy fall, a faint ron, and all was over. At the same instant Varney called in at the window, in an accent and tone which was an indescribable mixture, betwixt horror and railery. Is the bird caught? Is the deed done? Oh God, forgive us, replied Anthony Foster. Why thou fool, said Varney, thy toil is ended and thy reward secure. Look down into the vault, what see is thou? I see only a heap of white clothes, like a snowdrift, said Foster. Oh God, she moves her arm. Earl, something down on her. Thy gold chest, Tony, it is a heavy one. Varney, thou art an incarnate fiend, replied Foster. There needs nothing more. She is gone. So pass our troubles, said Varney. Entering the room, I dreamed not I could have mimicked the Earl's call so well. Oh, if there be judgment in heaven, thou hast deserved it, said Foster, and will to meet it. Thou has destroyed her by means of her best affections. It is a seething of the kid in the mother's milk.  Let us now think how the alarm should be given, the bodies to remain where it is. But their wickedness was to be permitted no longer, for even while they were at this consultation, Triselyon and Raleigh broke in upon them, having obtained admittance by means of Tider and Foster's servant, whom they had secured at the village. Anthony Foster fled on their entrance, and knowing each corner and pass of the intricate old house, escaped all search. But Varney was taken on the spot, and instead of expressing compunction for what he had done, seemed to take a fiendish pleasure in pointing out to them the remains of the murdered Countess, while at the same time he defied them to show that he had any share in her death. The despairing grief of Triselyon, on viewing the mangled and yet warm remains of what had lately been so lovely and so beloved, was such that Raleigh was compelled to have him removed from the place by force, while he himself assumed the direction of what was to be done. Varney, upon a second examination, made very little mystery, either of the crime or of its motives, alleging, as a reason for his frankness, that though much of what he confessed could only have attached to him by suspicion, yet such suspicion would have been sufficient to deprive him of Lester's confidence and to destroy all his towering plans of ambition. I was not born, he said, to drive on the remainder of life, a degraded outcast, nor will I so die that my fate shall make a holiday to the vulgar herd. From these words, it was apprehended, he had some design upon himself, and he was carefully deprived of all means by which such could be carried into execution. But like some of the heroes of antiquity, he carried about his person a small quantity of strong poison, prepared probably by the celebrated Demetrius Alaska. Having swallowed this potion overnight, he was found next morning, dead in his cell. Nor did he appear to have suffered much agony, his countenance presenting, even in death, the habitual expression of sneering sarcasm which was predominant while he lived. The wicked man, sayeth scripture, have no bonds in his death. The fate of his colleague in wickedness was long unknown. Cumnar Place was deserted immediately after the murder, for in the vicinity of what was called the Lady Dudley's Chamber, the domestics pretended to hear groans and screams and other supernatural noises. After a certain length of time, Janet, hearing no tidings of her father, became the uncontrolled mistress of his property, and conferred it with her hand upon Weyland, now a man of settled character, and holding a place in Elizabeth's household. But it was after they had been both dead for some years that their eldest son in error, in making some researches about Cumnar Hall, discovered a secret passage, closed by an iron door which, opening from behind the bed in the Lady Dudley's Chamber, descended to a sort of cell in which they found an iron chest containing the quantity of gold, and a human skeleton stretched above it. The fate of Anthony Foster was now manifest. He had fled to this place of concealment, forgetting the key of the spring lock, and being barred from escape by the means he had used for preservation of that gold, for which he had sold his salvation. He had there perished, miserably. Unquestionably the groans and screams heard by the domestics were not entirely imaginary, but were those of this wretch, who, in his agony, was crying for relief and succor. The news of the Countess's dreadful fate put a sudden period to the pleasures of Kenilworth, Lester retired from court, and for a considerable time abandoned himself to his remorse. But his Varney in his last declaration had been studious to spare the character of his patron. The role was the object rather of compassion than resentment. The Queen at length recalled him to court. He was once more distinguished as a statesman and favorite, and the rest of his career is well known to history. But there was something retributive in his death, if, according to an account very generally received, it took place from his swallowing a draft of poison which was designed by him for another person. Note to Chapter 41 Death of the Earl of Lester In a curious manuscript copy of the information given by Ben Johnson to Drummond of Hawthorndon, as transcribed by Sir Robert Sibbled, Lester's death is ascribed to poison administered as a cordial by his Countess, to whom he had given it, representing it to be a restorative in any faintness, in the hope that she herself might be cut off by using it. We have already quoted Johnson's account of his merited stroke of retribution in a note of the introduction to this volume. It may be here added that the following satirical epitaph on Lester occurs in Drummond's collection, but is evidently none of his composition. Epitaph on the Earl of Lester Here lies a valiant warrior, who never drew a sword. Here lies a noble courtier, who never kept his word. Here lies the Earl of Lester, who governed the estates, whom the earth could never live in love, and the just heaven now hates. Sir Hugh Ropesart died very soon after his daughter, having settled his estate on Trisilion, but neither the prospect of rural independence, nor the promises of favour, which Elizabeth held out to induce him to follow the court, could remove his profound melancholy. Wherever he went he seemed to see before him the disfigured corpse of the early and only object of his affection. At length, having made provision for the maintenance of the old friends and old servants who formed Sir Hugh's family at Lidcote Hall, he himself embarked with his friend Raleigh for the Virginia expedition, and, young in years but old in grief, died before his day in that foreign land. Of inferior persons it is only necessary to say that Blount's wit grew brighter as his yellow roses faded, that during his part as a brave commander in the wars he was much more in his element than during the short period of his following the court, and that Fliberty Gibbets, acute genius, raised him to favour and distinction in the employment both of Burley and Walsingham.


1. Alice, one of your old world stories, Uncle John, such as you tell us by the winter fire till we all wonder it has grown so late. Uncle John, the story of the witch that ground to death two children in her mill, or will you have the tale of goodie cutbursts?  No, let us have a tale of elves that ride by night with jingling rains, or gnomes of the mine, or water fairies, such as you know how to spin till willy's eyes forget to wink, and good Aunt Mary, busy as she is, lays down her knitting. Uncle John, listen to me then. It was in the olden time long, long ago, and long before the great oak at our door was yet an acorn. On a mountain side lived with his wife, a cottager. They dwelt beside a glen and near a dashing brook, a pleasant spot in spring where first the wren was heard to chatter, and among the grass, flowers opened earliest. But when winter came, that little brook was fringed with other flowers, white flowers, with crystal leaf and stem, that grew in clear November nights, and later still that mountain glen was filled with drifted snows from side to side that one might walk across, while many a fathom deep below the brook sang to itself, and leaped and trotted on, unfrozen, or its pebbles, toward the veil. Alice, a mountain side you said, the Alps perhaps, or our own Alleghenes? Uncle John, not so fast, my young geographer. For then the Alps, with their broad pastures, happily were untrod of Herdsman's foot, and never human voice had sounded in the woods that overhang our Alleghenes streams. I think it was upon the slopes of the great Caucasus, or where the rivulets of Ararat seek the Armenian veils, that mountain rose so high that on its top the winter snow was never melted, and the cottagers among the summer blossoms far below saw its white peaks in August from their door. One little maiden in that cottage home dwelt with her parents, light of heart and limb, bright, restless, thoughtless, flitting here and there, like sunshine on the uneasy ocean waves, and sometimes she forgot what she was bid, as Alice does. Alice, or willy quite as oft, Uncle John, but you are older, Alice, two good years, and should be wiser. Eva was the name of this young maiden, now twelve summers old. Now you must know that in those early times, when autumn days grew pale, there came a troop of childlike forms from that cold mountaintop. With trailing garments through the air they came, or walked the ground with girded loins, and through spangles of silvery frost upon the grass, and edged the brook with glistening parapets, and built at crystal bridges, touched the pool and turned its face to glass, or rising thence they shook from their fall laps the soft light snow, and buried the great earth, as autumn winds bury the forest floor in heaps of leaves. A beautiful race were they, with baby brows and fair bright locks, and voices like the sound of steps on the crisp snow, in which they talked with man, as friend with friend.  But when the spring came on, what terror reigned among these little people of the snow. To them the sun's warm beams were shafts of fire, and the soft south wind was the wind of death. Away they flew, all with a pretty scowl upon their childish faces to the north, or scampered upward to the mountain's top, and there defied their enemy, the spring. Skipping and dancing on the frozen peaks and molding little snowballs in their palms, and rolling them to crush her flowers below, down the steep snow fields. Alice, that too must have been a merry sight to look at. Uncle John, you are right, but I must speak of graver matters now. Midwinter was the time, and Eva stood within the cottage all prepared to dare the outer cold, with ample furry robe, close belted round her waist, and boots of fur, and a broad kerchief which her mother's hand had closely drawn about her ruddy cheek. Now stay not long abroad, said the good dame, for sharp is the outer air, and mark me well, go not upon the snow beyond the spot where the great Lindenbounds the neighbouring field. The little maiden promised and went forth, and climbed the rounded snow swells firm with frost beneath her feet, and slid with balancing arms into the hollows. Once as up adrift she slowly rose, before her in the way she saw a little creature, lily-cheeked, with flowing flaxen locks, and faint blue eyes that gleamed like ice, and robe that only seemed of a more shadowy whiteness than her cheek. On a smooth bank she sat. Alice, she must have been one of your little people of the snow. Uncle John, she was so, and as Eva now drew near the tiny creature bounded from her seat, and come, she said, my pretty friend, today we will be playmates. I have watched thee long and seen how well thou luffs to walk these drifts, and scoop their fair sides into little cells, and carve them with quaint figures, huge limbed men, lions, and griffons. We will have to-day a merry ramble over these bright fields, and thou shalt see what thou hast never seen. On went the pair, until they reached the bound where the great linden stood, set deep in snow, up to the lower branches. Here we stop, said Eva, for my mother has my word that I will go no further than this tree. Then the snow maiden laughed, and what is this? This fear of the pure snow, the innocent snow that never harmed ought living. How mayst Rome for leagues be on this garden, and return in safety? Here the grim wolf never prowls, and here the eagle of our mountain crags prays not in winter. I will show the way, and bring thee safely home. Thy mother sure counsel thee thus, because thou hast no guide. By such smooth words was Eva one to break her promise, and went on with her new friend over the glistening snow and down a bank where a white shelf wrought by the eddying wind, like to a billow's crest in the great sea, curtained an opening. Look, we enter here, and straight beneath the fair or hanging fold entered the little pair that hill of snow. Walking along a passage with white walls and a white vault above where snow-stars shed a wintry twilight, Eva moved in awe and held her peace, but the snow-maiden smiled and talked and tripped along as down the way deeper they went into that mountainous drift. End of Section I, Section II of The Little People of the Snow by William Cullen Bryant. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. And now the white walls widened, and the vaults swelled upward like some vast cathedral dome, such as the Florentine, who bore the name of heaven's most potent angel, reared long since. O the unknown builder of that wondrous fane, the glory of Burgos, here a garden lay in which the little people of the snow were wont to take their pastime when their tasks upon the mountain side and in the clouds were ended. Here they taught the silent frost to mock in stem and spray, and leaf and flower, the growths of summer. Here the palm upreared its white columnar trunk and spotless sheaf of plume-like leaves. Here cedars, huge as those of Lebanon, stretched far their level boughs, yet pale and shadowless. The sturdy oak stood with the huge, gnarled roots of seeming strength, fast anchored in the glistening bank. Light sprays of myrtle, roses in their bud and bloom, drooped by the winding walks, yet all seemed wrought of stainless alabaster. Up the trees rend the lithe jessamine, with stalk and leaf, colorless as her flowers. Go softly on, said the snowmaiden. Touch not with thy hand the frail creation round thee, and beware to sweep it with thy skirts. Now look above how sumptuously these bowers are lighted up with shifting gleams that softly come and go. These are the northern lights, such as thou seeest in the midwinter nights, cold, wandering flames that float with their processions through the air, and here within our winter padduses mimic the glorious daybreak. Then she told how, when the wind in the long winter night swept the light snows into the hollow dale, she and her comrades guided to its place each wandering flake, and piled them quaintly up in shapely colonnade and listening arch, with shadowy aisles between, or bad them grow beneath their little hands, to bowery walks in gardens such as these, and o'er them all built the broad roof. But thou hast yet to see a fairer sight, she said, and led the way to where a window of palusid ice stood in the wall of snow beside their path. Look, but thou mayst not enter. Eva looked, and lo, a glorious hall from whose high vault stripes of soft light, ruddy and delicate green and tender blue, flowed downward to the floor, and far around, as if the aerial hosts at march on high by night, with beamy spears and streaming banners, to that place had brought their radiant flags to grace a festival. And in all that hall, a joyous multitude of those by whom its glistening walls were reared, whirled in a merry dance to silvery sounds, that rang from symbols of transparent ice, and ice-cups, quivering to the skillful touch of little fingers. Round and round they flew, as when in spring, about a chimney-top, a cloud of twittering swallows just returned, wheel round and round, and turn and wheel again, unwinding their swift track. So rapidly flowed the meandering stream of that fair dance beneath that dome of light. Bright eyes that looked from under lily-brows, and gauzy scarfs sparkling like snow wreaths in the early sun, shot by the window in their mazy whirl, and there stood Eva, wandering at the sight of those bright revelers and that graceful sweep of motion as they passed her. Long she gazed and listened long to the sweet sounds that thrilled the frosty air. Till now the encroaching cold recalled her to herself. Too long, too long I linger here, she said, and then she sprang into the path and with a hurried step followed it upward. Ever by her side her little guide kept pace, as on they went Eva bemoaned her fault. What must they think, the dear ones in the cottage, while so long hour after hour I stay without? I know that they will seek me far and near and weep to find me not. How could I wickedly neglect the charge they gave me? As she spoke the hot tears started to her eyes. She knelt in the mid-path. Father, forgive this sin, forgive myself, I cannot. Thus she prayed, and rose and hastened onward. When at last they reached the outer air the clear north breathed a bitter cold from which she shrank with dread. But the snow maiden bounded as she felt the cutting blast and uttered shouts of joy and skipped with boundless glee from drift to drift and danced round Eva as she labored up the mounds of snow. Oh, me, I feel my eyes grow heavy, Eva said. They swim with sleep. I cannot walk for utter weariness, and I must rest a moment on this bank, but let it not be long. As thus she spoke, in half formed words, she sank on the smooth snow with closing lids. Her guide composed the robe about her limbs, and said, A pleasant spot is this to slumber in. On such a couch oft I have slept away the winter night, and had the sweetest dreams. So Eva slept. But slept in death, for when the power of frost locks up the motions of the living frame, the victim passes to the realm of death through the dim porch of sleep. The little guide, watching beside her, saw the hues of life fade from the fair smooth brow and rounded cheek, as fades the crimson from a morning cloud, till they were white as marble, and the breath had ceased to come and go. Yet knew she not at first that this was death, but when she marked how deep the paleness was, how motionless that once lithe form of fear came over her. She strove to wake the sleeper, plucked her robe, and shouted in her ear, but all in vain. The life had passed away from those young limbs. Then the snow made and raised a wailing cry, such as a dweller in some lonely wild, sleepless through all the long December night hears when the mournful east begins to blow. But suddenly was heard the sound of steps grating on the crisp snow. The cottagers were seeking Eva. From afar they saw the twain, and hurried toward them. As they came, with gentle chidings ready on their lips, and marked that death-like sleep, and heard the tale of the snowmaiden, mortal anguish fell upon their hearts, and bitter words of grief and blame were uttered. Cruel, cruel one to tempt her daughter thus, and cruel we who suffered her to wander forth alone in this fierce cold. They lifted the dear child and bore her home, and chafed her tender limbs, and strove by all the simple arts they knew to make the chilled blood move, and when the breath back to her bosom, fruitlessly they strove. The little maid was dead. In blank despair they stood, and gazed at her who nevermore should look on them.  They said, without her life is bitterness. Now came the funeral day. The simple folk of all that pastoral region gathered round to share the sorrow of the cottagers. They carved away into the mound of snow, to the glen's side, and dug a little grave in the smooth slope. And following the beer in long procession from the silent door, chanted a sad and solemn melody. Lay her away to rest within the ground. Yea, lay her down whose pure and innocent life was spotless as these snows. For she was reared in love, and past in love life's pleasant spring. And all that now our tenderest love can do, is to give burial to her lifeless limbs. They paused. A thousand slender voices round like echoes softly flung from rock and hill, took up the strain, and all the hollow air seemed mourning for the dead. For on that day the little people of the snow had come from mountain peak and cloud and icy hall to Eva's burial. As the murmur died, the funeral train renewed the solemn chant. Thou, Lord, has taken her to be with Eve, whose gentle name was given her. Even so, for so thy wisdom saw that it was best for her and us. We bring our bleeding hearts and ask the touch of healing from thy hand. As with submissive tears we render back the lovely and beloved to him who gave. They ceased. Again the paint of murmur rose. From shadowy skirts of low-hung cloud it came, and wide white fields and fir trees kept with snow, shivering to the sad sounds. They sank away to silence in the dim-seen distant woods. The little grave was closed. The funeral train departed. Winter wore away. The spring steeped with her quickening rains. The violet tufts, by fond hands planted, were the maiden slept. But after Eva's burial, never more the little people of the snow were seen by human eye, nor ever human ear heard from their lips articulate speech again. For a decree went forth to cut them off, for ever, from communion with mankind. The winter clouds along the mountainside rolled downward toward the veil, but no fair form leaned from their folds. And in the icy glens and aged woods under snow-loaded pines, where once they made their haunt, was emptiness. But ever, when the wintry days drew near around that little grave in the long night, frost wreaths were laid, and tufts of silvery rhyme in shape like blades and blossoms of the field as one would scatter flowers upon a beer. End of section two. End of The Little People of the Snow by William Cullen Bryant


Tuesday, September 6th, Governor Andy Beshear announced the start of a project to replace almost 20,000 feet of water lines and presented 2.6 million in funding to improve water infrastructure in Floyd County. We're actually here with a couple of investments that were planned even before this. Investments in Floyd County to make sure we're not just lifting our brothers and sisters been knocked down, but we're helping a community to move forward. Today, I get to announce $770,669 for a project to construct a 430,000 gallon per day water treatment plan. My name is Aaron Crump, Chief Medical Officer at Pikeville Medical Center. The Heart and Vascular Institute, it's really an incredible program. Made incredible because of the providers, because of the technology, and because of the staff. We've truly become the leading provider of Heart and Vascular Services in Eastern Kentucky, and in fact what we do compares to anywhere in the nation. Pikeville Medical Center, when it comes to your heart, place your care in our hands. The project will replace the existing Wheelwright water treatment plant with a new and larger capacity plant. This will ensure reliable water service for 356 households and 15 businesses in Wheelwright. This year also presented an additional $1.5 million for the Wayland-Talaki Waterline Replacement Project and $1.9 million for the Kentucky 680 Mini to Kentucky 80 Waterline Extension Project. Everybody deserves access to clean drinking water. It is a basic human right, and we've seen what happens if you don't have the water and wastewater systems that can handle the types of events we've seen. So we knew investing in water in Eastern Kentucky was important, but we all see how much more work there is to do. But you know what? This is going to be a start. These projects will provide residents of Floyd County with a sustainable and reliable water source and serve 10 households who previously had no access to city water. For Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.


I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Heather Neff. I own and operate a company named Neff Creative here in Asheville. I'm a graphic designer and a Squarespace web developer. I've been in business for 19 years working on e-commerce. So my background is especially in user experience design and user interface design. So we're going to start off with the basics of graphics. A lot of you guys are going to roll your eyes at this, but this is kind of a graphic of how to show vector versus pixels. Vector graphics are usually designed in Adobe Illustrator, which is a mathematical-based program that will create lines and shapes based on calculations that can be scaled indefinitely and have no resolution. Whereas pixels, you guys are probably all familiar with, are resolution-based and are called raster graphics. So jumping into the image file types, all of you are going to be very familiar with what a JPEG is. They are universally accepted across every platform. GIFs or GIFs are great for animation and very small colored images that you're creating. PNGs are great for transparencies. They're actually pretty much the only thing you can use when you have a transparent background. Note that transparent images and PNGs can actually be very large because they're lossless images, so when you export them, they stay very good in quality.  As a graphic designer, one of the things a lot of people don't know about PDFs is that they can be an actual editable illustrator file from Adobe Illustrator. So if you're working with a graphic designer, it's good to know that if you get a PDF from them, it's probably containing editable vector graphics. TIFFs are usually in the CMYK format for print. They are the best quality for when you're sending images to print that you want to use. I don't get into too much about the differences between RGB and CMYK, but real quick, RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, which is the screen resolution color schemes. CMYK stands for Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black, which are the cartridges that you'd get on a printer at your home printer. And that's how images are converted for print is to put into that image mode. Now, there's something that you guys probably don't know about, which is called WebP images, which is new from Google. They're working on their own image format right now. The way that WebP images are programmed is they actually take your JPEGs and your PNGs, and they convert them into WebP images by compressing them by about 30% for speed. So Google is actually working on their own system right now. And there is a WordPress plugin that you can put into your sites that will then convert all of your JPEGs and PNGs into WebP images.  So then you have to program and fall back images. So keep your eye on that particular type of format that's coming as they want to speed up the web. And of course, scalable vector graphics. So I talk a lot about SVGs as I'm kind of a fan of them as vector graphics can be much, much smaller in file size than anything pixels. Pixels are always photographs. So you can't actually make an SVG out of a photograph or pixel-based image. You have to have vector artwork to create a true SVG. These can be perfect for logos or icons within a website. So as you're working with web developers and want to worry about site speed, you definitely want to consider changing anything that's a logo or an icon into an SVG file. So let me go back real quick. So SVG code can be exported from Illustrator. And I want to show you this animation that's happening is something that when you export SVGs from Illustrator, you can actually go ahead and animate it because it's actually XML code as well. And so this is actually a gif of some SVG code being animated, but it kind of gives you the idea that there's a program called svgader.com that will allow you to animate all your SVG files. So I want to explain retina graphics as well because it's kind of tricky. And this has been something as a graphic designer that's driven me a little nuts over the last few years. Basically what it means is that the web does not care what resolution images are. It cares how big they are. So when you're exporting an image from Photoshop and you have a standard size and it's 72 res and it's programmed at a certain size, it's going to be what's considered low res. If you double that image and then program it to be 50%, you're restraining the height and the width of it to be smaller, then it becomes higher resolution. If you have an image that is then basically in a 100% table that can flow back and forth that can depend on what screen it's being looked at. It's either going to be high resolution or it's going to be low resolution depending on what screen and that's called a fluid resolution. So working a lot with Facebook ads and Instagram ads and Instagram and so forth, people should know that when you're uploading the images into these social media platforms, the images are then highly compressed and optimized by those programs. Also when you're dealing with images, you really don't want to put text on top of images. When you put text on top of image, they're first not search engine friendly and they're not screen reader friendly. So anybody who's blind or deaf when they're using a screen reader, if you have text embedded into an image that will not be ADA compliant for that. When you're also dealing with images on a mobile device, you want to make sure that you're using really clear and simple fonts that are easy to read because a lot of times people will take a graphic and they'll put a bunch of text on it and then they don't realize that when they shrink it down into the mobile device, the text becomes almost apparel impossible to read. So I highly advise checking where you're putting text on images and if you can avoid it, avoid it if you can't because you're doing something like an Instagram ad and they get really, really plain and simple and definitely check it on the mobile device before you make sure it goes out into the world. So because this talk is about SEO as well, so we're gonna talk a little bit about user experience design. Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on user experience design as well and one of the things that's really important is load time because the number one thing that Google is actually doing right now is indexing your mobile site and how fast that mobile site loads is partly the most important factor in how you're being categorized and ranked in Google these days. So load time affects everything about that and Google will also notice if your load time is too high, it will start penalizing you and you'll start coming up so high in the rankings. You also wanna make sure that when you're doing basic SEO work that you're doing keyword research. You guys should be familiar with doing some of that. If you don't, basically use a Google keyword research tool there's plenty of other tools out there to find what your keywords are. What you wanna do is take that list and create a document that would have all of the top keywords for your website. So if you're a WordPress designer and you were trying to rank for WordPress designer, I use this example as what you would wanna name your JPEGs, but you also wanna realize that when you're designing a website page that has a bunch of different graphics in it and you just basically keyword stuff with WordPress designer.jpg for every single image, Google actually understands that what you're trying to do is kinda SEO for that one particular word and you're not probably serving up the exact same image. So what you wanna do is carefully select your keywords and rename every single JPEG or PNG differently but with SEO in mind so that Google understands that you are taking the time to SEO your JPEGs and your PNGs with the intention of making sure that they are different images. So the next step is to take that same SEO keywords. When you want to be ADA compliant, you have to give alt text to all of your images.  So every single image in your website has to have an alt tag. An alt tag is in the backend which you can hide and not display on your website or it's something that you can actually have as a caption underneath the image and it has to be coded correctly as the alt tag. And in the alt tag you have an opportunity to then use those keywords again to basically help your SEO but at the same time you also want to make sure that you're being ADA compliant which means you're describing what actually is inside that image. So if it's a picture of a dog but you want to SEO about whatever your company is you have to gently massage your SEO and the ADA compliance together. So you want to make sure that that's a really important factor that you do for every single image in your website. There's actually software out there for ADA compliance that you can run and it will tell you if you're missing your alt tags because a lot of us get busy, we start designing stuff and all of a sudden we forgot the alt tag.  So put it on your to-do list to go check the image names of every single graphic in your website. Check and see if you have alt tags and see if they're SEOed because that can really help your site improve a lot for both ADA and compliance for SEO. So once you've exported images through Photoshop you can also run through compressor.io or tinypng.com. There's also WordPress plugin for compressing images that you can add to your website and some content managers systems when you upload your image will then create various sizes for images as well. So I work on Squarespace, what they do is I upload one image and they create seven and they have programs that will then deliver which one is appropriate for which device at that time. So the average time it takes to load a mobile site is 22 seconds yet the 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load and that's a big problem. So we're gonna talk about how to test your speed. This is a list of URLs where you can basically just go there and punch in your URL. What will happen is these sites will basically analyze your website. It will come back with how faster site is. It will give you a whole list of things that are wrong with it and how to fix it. So it'll give you a cascading thing about your JavaScript and your images and how you can press them and there's all kinds of tips and helps to do this. My favorite is thejtmetrics.com that seems to be the most accurate. I want you guys to know that every single speed test is different and you can also change the location. So you can say I wanna know how fast my site speed is from where I am from New York City or Canada or France because that load time is going to be different. You can also test the top link for Think with Google is actually a mobile site test. Just to let you know too mobile sites with Google always tell you that you're crazy slow. They always, it's a matter of what site it is. They seem to always make you sound like you're the worst developer ever and that it's horrible. So just take that with a grain of salt. Google tends to make you feel bad about your site speed. And then also one really important thing too is because you're trying to speed up your site because it's the most crucial thing you can do for your website right now is that you wanna benchmark your tests by taking screenshots of any of these speed tests that you happen to be doing so that when you change something on the web you can go back and see how you did. So you can also lazy load images. You've probably seen this before and especially in e-commerce sites where there's a ton of images that are being loaded when you go to a web page and you see these gray boxes that basically say like image coming soon.  So as a person scrolls down they are then loaded as needed but if they don't scroll down this page loads a lot faster. So this is just gonna be really quick exporting ads from Photoshop CC. If anyone wants really good detailed information you can come see me and talk to me about graphics because I love talking about Photoshop and I've been doing it since basically 1999. But the Save As has a function at the on the top left you can see a little teeny tiny plus button and you can add two X, three X images as you're exporting right straight from Photoshop. One of the key things you wanna do to make a smaller file size is actually crop it and make it pretty much the size that it wants to be but eliminate extra information off an image if you can because that can actually if you could literally cut off all the pixels you're not exporting it helps you save kilobytes. At the top right side you can see where the quality is for an image. Note that the preview is actually showing the image of how it looks, you have a really good idea of how the quality is actually gonna look so you can determine if it needs to be at 100% because you just really need to look at its best or if you can drop the quality down for speed. I highly recommend working on trying different image sizes for what you need and then playing with the quality to get what you want but you actually don't need too much of quality. 30 to 40% actually works quite well for a lot of different things. You can also just scale an image in Photoshop and that will do the same thing or you can actually type in the width and height and it will be automatically connected. Now note this original image that I'm working with was a high res image. If you just do save as in Photoshop and you're in the screen, the original image is not actually changed in size or manipulated in any way. You're doing all of this in the exportation of a new graphic. Also there's a choice here on the bottom right to include the copyright and contact information which I highly suggest you just check that off. And also I highly suggest converting it to SRGB which is now the universal screen format for color to make it most accurate. This is exporting an SVG code from Illustrator and as you're walking through the last screen and it pops up to save the graphic, you can see here at the bottom there's an actual little button that says SVG code. If you click on that, it pops up in a text box which has some XML code. This XML code also has CSS in it and as you take this code and you can put a code block into your website, it will actually display the graphic. So this is actually a logo being displayed on the right here. Now kind of just note that when you do the SVGs, it's not good for something as complicated as an infographic. So if you have designed, when you work with a graphic designer and they're in Illustrator and they design something that has a bunch of different elements like an infographic, you try to export and you're like, I'm gonna do SVG codes, they're so super cool. And you take this SVG code and you put it in the website, it could actually be 10 times higher in file size than a PNG because of the fact that this XML code is actually trying to render the SVG and tell the browser what it looks like.  And that's the only thing I would kind of tell you to do if you did wanna try this code stuff out. It is pretty cool when you see that you're not actually using an image file, you're using code to display a logo. First I was like, that's some miracle. It's magic, I don't know how that happens. But as a graphics person, it was kind of cool. But I also noticed that when I put two or three of these little XML codes into the website, all of a sudden the CSS started clashing and they started looking bad. And I was like, what is going on here? So you have to go back in and start giving them individual ID tags. And then they're just finicky. So be careful in this here. I don't actually recommend if you're gonna do something quick to throw these on the internet. Play with them, see what you think. I'm really looking forward to the SVG talk here later today in this room to find out more about what he has to say. But one of the things you can do is simple logos and icons in SVG code, which is kind of really cool. And that's my time. So, it's at 1.45. I'm gonna have a lightning talk at is. So I know I was gonna say, can I take five minutes of questions or not? I don't know, because lightning talks are really lightning. So, got a question? Yeah, I'm actually a huge fan of the export for web legacy because I'm a huge fan of the export for web legacy. I used to use it all the time. But when I discovered that you can not actually have to go to image, image size first and then do export for web because you can't change the image size in the export for legacy. Check this, the export as out because you can actually not even resize your, you have to skip that step of resizing your images completely. And it doesn't actually affect the original image. So they advanced it quite some. So you just go in and... Yes, yes. And then, actually, one of the screens you can, yeah, so there's also, I don't know if I can get back to that screen, but on the top left here, you can see where I've got it down to under 50 kilobytes here that shows you where the kilobytes are. And that's a really important thing to say it again. You upload the image and you just go export as. Yeah, so this is in Photoshop CC. This is the export as screen. And again, you want to keep working on your kilobytes. The number one thing that will kill your site speed is image sizes. So make sure that you get them as close as you can to 50 kilobytes and under. And SVG files, by the way, can be as low as five kilobytes. They're actually tiny, tiny. That's a very good question. And a lot of people come to me and ask that kind of question. Like, I use Canva. How do I do that? And I go, I don't know. I use Photoshop CC because I'm a professional designer. I don't know how to do that. So there is, I know that there's a lot of screen resolutions where I'm sure if you upload it, if you're not worried about it, you can upload stuff into Facebook and that will optimize some stuff. But it used to be that you had a low res screen that you could just screenshot something and it would be kind of a low res version of it. Then I got this retina screen and I started screenshot things and I was like, I had screenshots, three megabytes. Like, how did that happen? So you have to be really careful about that. I know a lot of people are moving from the cloud subscription of Photoshop to Affinity. Do you know anything about Affinity? Does it have, because I was thinking about buying it. It's only 40 bucks and it's supposed to be comparable to Photoshop, do you know if it has a lot of these features? I don't. I haven't actually used it. It does. If you think about Affinity Designer, there's Affinity Photo that kind of replaces Photoshop. Affinity Designer, which is kind of like fireworks used to be, which does some raster and some vector together. And yeah, if you want to dump the Adobe remachine, you can, yeah, it does everything and it opens all Photoshop files and you can save as Photoshop. Well, I knew that, but I know if someone who actually used it was comparable. Yeah, I've never tried it before because I've just been with Photoshop for 20 years, but I do know that you can get Photoshop now just as a single program for $9.99 a month. So that's a nice alternative. They don't have to, they used to make it the package that you had to get it for, I believe, $20, $29 or something. Now it's only $9.99 a month. So they're really making it friendly enough that people can at least export your images to the foreweb and really control that kilobytes. I can't emphasize that enough. That's probably the number one thing that people don't do is export their images in a proper way to get the kilobytes down. Yes? What is the scale right there? Yeah, so the scale function, actually, if you just leave like the normal image, so when you open up high-res images, like 6,000 pixels wide, if you hit the scale, you can basically use that as a way to drop it to 10% of what it was and it will automatically bring it down. So it will change all the settings if you take the scale and guess. Is there a reason you wouldn't want your canvas size and image size to be the same? The canvas size and image size are the same. It's kind of like, they're kind of linked. It's kind of hard to explain. The canvas size is actually, well, Photoshop treats them in a different way, but they're the same thing, technically.


Namaste, welcome to the session design of dimultipleisure tree. At the end of this session, students will be able to design a dimultipleisure tree. Now before proceeding further, we have already discussed dimultipleisure. So, take a pause here and recall what is dimultipleisure. So, multipleisure is also a combinational circuit which distributes a single input binary information to one of the 2 raised to n number of output lines using n number of selection or also known as control lines. Dimultipleisure are also known as data distributor because it distributes the same information to all of the output one by one. It has exactly reverse process of multipleisure. So, this is the block diagram of 1 is to n dimultipleisure where you can see there is a single data input line and 2 raised to n data output line whereas, we have n number of select lines which selects one of the output which is get connected to the input line and hence the data is get distributed among all of the outputs. Applications of dimultipleisure. Dimultipleisure are most widely used in communication field. So, along with multipleisure, dimultipleisure are both used in communication field. In serial to parallel data conversion to produce the parallel data from incoming serial data stream dimultipleisure are used. Dimultipleisure are also used to design combinational logic circuit which is very easy to design. Dimultipleisure are used in arithmetic and logical unit to store the data in multiple registers. Now, let us see design of multipleisure. So, let us have a example of 1 is to 4 dimultipleisure. So, very first step is to draw the block diagram. So, as we know that we have to design 1 is to 4 dimultipleisure, it means that we have single data input and 4 output lines. So, we have to find out how many select inputs are required. So, there is a formula 2 raised to m is equal to n where m select inputs are there and n number of data outputs. So, we know that in 1 is to 4 dimultipleisure, so n is 4 data outputs. So, we require 2 select inputs. So, m becomes 2. So, let us draw the block diagram. So, here input single input is there denoted as i and 4 outputs are denoted as y0, y1, y2, y3 and 2 select inputs are denoted as s1 and s0. So, in our truth table we include all these inputs along with outputs. So, i is a single input where it may be 0 or 1 or it may be stream of 0s and 1s. So, here we have select input s1 and s0. So, based on s1 and s0 combination we have 4 outputs. So, let us consider i may be 0 or 1. So, when s1 and s0 both are 0 0 then y0 is get selected and others are not selected. So, here input is get connected to the output y0. When we have s1 0 and s0 1 then again i may be 0 or 1. Now, this time y1 is get selected. So, input is get connected to y1 here when s1 is 1 and s0 is 0 then according to the truth table y2 output is get selected. So, here the input 0 or 1 is connected to the y2 output and when s1 and s0 both are 1 1 when input i may be 0 or 1 then it is get connected to y3. In the next step we are going to write logic equations for all the outputs of demultiplizer. So, here in 1s to 4 demultiplizer we have 4 outputs y3 y2 y1 y0. So, the equation here for y0 we are getting y0 when s1 and s0 are both 0 0 along with y. So, equation becomes y0 is equal to s1 bar s0 bar i then y1 we are getting y1 because when s1 is 0 and s0 is 1 along with i. So, y1 becomes s1 bar s0 i. Similarly, y2 equation having y2 is equal to s1 s0 bar i and y3 we are getting when s1 and s0 both are 1 1 along with i. So, y3 is equal to s1 s0 i. In the next step we are going to draw logic circuit for 1s to 4 demultiplizer. So, to draw logic circuit we require equations of output. So, based on these 4 equations so, 4 AND gates are giving 4 outputs as y3 y2 y1 y0. We have common single input data line that is i and s1 s0 are select lines. Now, let us discuss how to design demultiplizer tree. A larger demultiplizer can be implemented using a tree of smaller demultiplizers. So, let us have example here to construct 1s to 4 demultiplizer using 1s to t demultiplizer. So, here we require 2 numbers of 1s to 2 demultiplizer 2 select inputs. So, in 1s to 4 demultiplizer we have y0 y1 y2 y3 outputs and here we are considering d in as data input. So, this is the block diagram construction of 1s to 4 demultiplizer using 1s to 2 demultiplizer. So, this is the first 1s to 2 demultiplizer and this is the second 1s to 2 demultiplizer. So, each one of these demultiplizers giving 2 outputs. So, total we have 4 outputs, but these having individual input. So, there will be 2 inputs. So, these 2 inputs are combined together and made single input line denoted as d in. Then we are using s1 and s0 select inputs s1 is used as a enable input. So, one of the demultiplizer is get enable at a time. Then s0 is used to select one of the output of each of these 2 demultiplizer. Now, let us see how it works. Now, consider that input is already there, d in input is distributed to the d in input of both 1s to 2 demultiplizers. So, when s1 and s0 are 0, 0. So, this s1, 0 is converted to 1. So, whenever 1 input is given, the first demultiplizer is get enable and because of that second demultiplizer is get disabled as e2 having here 0. Then due to the s0 as it is 0, the first output of each of these demultiplizers are get selected as second demultiplizer is already disabled. So, the d in input is directly connected to the y0. So, in the second case when s1 is 0 and s0 is 1. So, in this case also, due to this s1, 0 the first demultiplizer is get enable and second demultiplizer is get disabled. So, as s0 is 1, but here first demultiplizer is enable. So, we are getting input connected d in to the y1. So, in the next case s1 is 1 and s0 is 0 due to this 1 as it is s1, it becomes 0 to e1. So, first demultiplizer is get disabled and due to this 1, the second demultiplizer is get enable. So, when s0 is 0, so in this way y2 is get selected and it is connected to input. When s1 and s0 are both 1, 1 then s1 is 1 which is enabling second demultiplizer and disabling first demultiplizer and when s0 is 1, it is selecting second output of second demultiplizer. So, hence the d in input is get connected to the y3. So, in this way demultiplizer tree works. Now, let us have example of 1 is to 16 demultiplizer using 1 is to 8 demultiplizer and 1 is to 2 demultiplizer. In this example the block diagram is. So, both demultiplizer will produce totally 16 outputs. So, that will fulfill our 16 output, but which are having single input. So, here 2 inputs are there which are connected to one more 1 is to 2 demultiplizer. So, there will be only 1 data input denoted as i. And we know that in 1 is to 16 demultiplizer we require 4 select inputs. So, out of 4 select inputs the first one is used in the 1 is to 2 demultiplizer and remaining 3 are commonly used for both 1 is to 8 demultiplizer. So, in this design we require 2 number of 1 is to 8 demultiplizer and 1 is to 2 demultiplizer. Here we also require 4 select inputs to select one of the 16 output. So, we have here y15 to y0 output and single data input denoted as i. So, in this way we can construct a larger demultiplizer using smaller demultiplizer which is known as demultiplizer tree. So, these are references. Thank you.