set in the midst of the hall, around which we gathered like moths. about a candle.

When the pleasant warmth had comforted their frozen limbs, the wits of the damsels began to brighten also, and their tongues to wag; mostly at first touching the groans of the roaring wind and the rain, which was falling through the chimney and wetting the floor. One said that a vessel had been seen not very far off the coast which was thought to be the queen's ship; but that it was not like to come into port that day, the gale being too strong.

"There are folks so unmannerly as to praise this ill-natured weather which keeps the French queen from landing," said Mistress Allianor Daubeney, shaping her small mouth as if she feared her words should issue from it too fast.

"For the which speech they should be hung by the neck,” cried Lady Isabel Butler, one of the ladies of the court which the most of us misliked for her haughty stomach and proud carriage.

"Heavens! how that wind doth moan, like unto a soul in jeopardy!" quoth Elizabeth de Scales, stopping her ears.

Methinks," said Mary Beaumont, "we should say some prayers for her majesty, for the storm waxeth more fierce every moment. See how the white edges of the great waves betoken a rough and dangerous sea."

"Is this the first time you have bethought yourself of praying for the queen, Mistress Beaumont ?" asked Lady Isabel, in that jeering fashion which she often used, to the no small discomfort of timid persons. "I ween there are some, it may be not so forward to counsel others, which nevertheless have not neglected that duty."

"For my part," sighed Joan Dacre, "I forgot to say my prayers this morn; I was so sick with early rising and the bad fare at Holy Cross."

One little Winefred Booth, the daughter of the queen's chancellor, Master John Wenlock, which, albeit only four years of age, because of her mother's death, who was the king's foster sister, was numbered amongst the maids of honour, slipt off my lap when she heard the others talk of prayers, and straightway kneeling on the floor, said a Pater Noster out loud, and then with a great bound exclaimed, "Winefred hath prayed. Is the queen come ?" which made us merry.

"I warrant you," sighed Elizabeth Beauchamp, "that, laughing or no laughing, I shall die of this Goddeshouse, if so be we must abide many days waiting for this 'pearl,' as the Duke Charles of Orleans styleth her majesty."

"A costly pearl she doth prove," Lady Isabel replied. "The king, like the merchant in the gospel, hath sold all he hath to buy

it. His jewels he hath parted with, and pawned the third part of the collar of St. George, whereof two parts are already engaged to my lord the cardinal, for to raise money for the queen's journey, and the wedding and the crowning, which are yet to come. I admire that kings should be so poor, when some of their subjects have so much wealth. If I were his majesty, beshrew me if I would not lay my hands on the cardinal's coffers, or impose round taxes on the greasy citizens of London."

"The king's majesty would not reign long an he followed your counsel," Mary Beaumont cried. "The saints deliver us from your queenship, Lady Isabel!"

"To my thinking," said Elizabeth Beauchamp, " that is as leal a prayer as any of the king's subjects could frame."

Lady Isabel's eyes flashed with anger; and drawing up her long neck, like an angry bird, she exclaimed, "There are subjects which should have brought the king, an he had wedded them, a richer dower than this French pearl; and then Maine and Anjou, those fair jewels of his crown, should not have been lost."

After a pause, Joan Dacre said: "Methinks the new queen should be very fair, sith she has no tocher. But, I pray you, is not her father the king of Jerusalem? I ween the pilgrims which go thither are like to take him presents, and so he should be rich. I admire that he gives his daughter no dower, and taketh from us Maine and Anjou, when he hath Jerusalem, which Friar Bradley of Norwich said, in a sermon I heard last Sunday, was built of gold and precious stones."

We could not choose but laugh a little at this speech; and Lady Isabel broke forth: "I' faith, Mistress Dacre, I am astonished at your learning and good memory, and I hope you will interpret this praise as charity doth warrant. But if there be any here present not so well informed as yourself, I can learn them that king Réné hath a better title to the name of Lackland than ever had our king John; for he holdeth not one foot of ground in Judea, nor yet now in Naples or Sicily; and even a great part of Lorraine he is reft of, for the Duke of Burgundy, his sworn foe, is leagued with the Vaudémonts to despoil him of it."

"He is a prince," said Lady Ann de la Pole, "of great parts, and a very sweet poet. The music he composes is so delectable, that none like unto it can be heard."

"And M. de Champchevrier says a more brave knight and pious and generous king can no where be found, not in all Christendom," Mary Beaumont added.

"Who is M. de Champchevrier?" asked Elizabeth Woodville,

the Duchess of Bedford's daughter, then for the first time opening her lips.

Mary answered: "He was a prisoner of Sir John Fastolf's since the battle of Agincourt; and I promise you, ladies, but that for the cunning dealings of this gentleman Bonne d'Armagnac should have been queen of this realm."

Lady Isabel lifted up her eyes, and then half closed them, so much as to say: "Mercy on us! what a new tale is this! how that young damsel's tongue doth wag!"

But taking no heed of her grimaces, Mary went on: "The chevalier, who is a knight of Anjou, was the first to speak to his majesty of Madame Marguerite, and by his praises to set him thinking on her."

Nay," quoth Lady Isabel; "if report speaketh truly, that should have been the doing of my lord the cardinal, to spite his grace of Gloucester."

"And I have heard it said," Lady Ann timidly uttered, "that my father was the cause of that change in the king's mind."

"I cry you mercy, ladies," Mary replied. "But my knowledge in this matter cannot be gainsayed, as you shall presently see. When this gentleman was Sir John's prisoner on parole at Caistor, I used often to meet him at Master Paston's house, whither he went for hawking and suchlike diversions. He often conversed with me, because I could speak French, and told me little tales, chiefly about king Réné's children, which he said were the most beautiful ever seen, and the fairest of all Madame Marguerite, which although then only a bud, was like to prove the most perfect flower in the whole world; and that her wit was so great, that if king Solomon had been alive, he alone would have been worthy of her. This always made me laugh, and was a jest between us; so that whensoever I saw him I was wont to say-for in those days I had a nimble tongue for my years-"

"Nay," interrupted my Lady Peacock, for by this name we called that vain Isabel Butler, "this should seem now an incredible thing!"

"Go on, go on, good Moll," we all cried, not well pleased that she should be jeered at; and so unheeding that remark, she continued.

"I was wont to say to him, 'Well, Monsieur, how fares it with the wife of king Solomon?' At which question he smiled, and sometimes answered that the Comte de St. Pol should be Solomon, or else that there was no prince on earth so great and excellent as to be worthy of the pearl of Anjou. But one day he came to

'The

our house in as gleesome a mood as can be thought of. king,' he said, 'had sent for him to Windsor.' He was a very curious limner of emblems and devices, and had painted a Missal so rarely ornamented with scrolls and minute pictures, that Master Westbury greatly desired his majesty should see it; and hence this summons to the court. We bade him God speed, and thought no more of it, until a short time afterwards, my father going to Caistor, touching some lands he had sold to Sir John, he found that good knight in so fierce a rage that nothing could be greater. He raved and stormed anent the French like unto a demented person, and swore, by the white beard and the black beard, he should have his revenge, for that the Chevalier had broken his parole and left England, without so much as one word touching his ransom, and that he should sue the Duke of Gloucester, who was a very good lord to him and his friend, to demand of the king of France that this caitiff be arrested and sent in chains to this country; and he went on in this manner for more than an hour, interspersing his speech with oaths not a few. A few weeks later we went to London; and when we had been there only two days, and had heard talk ministered for the first time of the king's marriage with Madame Marguerite, who should visit us at our lodgings but this false chevalier, with as gay a visage and bold carriage as if he had been one of the knights of the round-table? A less confused gentleman I never beheld. He then disclosed to us the cause of his absence, and described in a lively manner, as only Frenchmen know how to do, his first interview with the king, and the cunning praises he bestowed on Madame Marguerite, whose charms. and excellences he portrayed so as to inspire his majesty with a passion for this unseen princess, and an ardent desire to judge himself of her beauty; so that after three or four interviews with the knight, he charged him to travel with speed and secrecy to France, under cover of a safe-conduct in his own hand, and to confer with my Lord Suffolk, his plenipotentiary at Paris, touching the likeness of the princess, which he would have painted by the best limner which could be procured, in her simple kirtle, and as like as if she was seen. My lord was nothing loth to aid in this matter; and betwixt them they despatched a very cunning painter to Nancy, which in an incredible short time achieved his work; and the chevalier, with equal diligence, hastened with it to England. But as he passes through Paris, lo and behold he is arrested for his breach of parole, and thrust into prison; but Lord Suffolk, being apprised of it, dealt with the king of France to release him, and to grant him an interview. Methinks I can see the mes

senger's sly visage when, kneeling before his majesty, he drew from his breast in the one hand the king of England's safe-conduct, and in the other the portrait of Madame Marguerite.

"By our Lady of Liesse,' the French king exclaimed, this is verily a surprise! We listed not the wind had set that way. I' faith, sir knight, if you have had a hand in this matter, we commend you. It had been reported to us that our fair nephew, the king of England, moved by the dukes of Gloucester and Burgundy, was sueing for the hand of one of the Comte d'Armagnac's daughters, and that one Hans had been employed to portray the three damsels, for the better guidance of his choice. But he should have been a cunning limner to have painted them in such guise as to rival this lovely face!'

"Sire,' quoth the knight, 'the Duke of Gloucester did verily send his favourite painter to the count's court on this message; but Hans, an it please your majesty, is a Dutchman.'

"And you, sir knight, a Frenchman!' the king exclaimed, laughing, and so suffered not the grass to grow under your feet, like the good Hollander. Go to, go to, M. de Champchevrier : we commend your speed and your good service; and albeit our treasury is scantily replenished at this time, we will ourselves satisfy the Chevalier Fastolf touching your ransom, and you shall find us in the future well disposed to show you favour.'

"Whereupon the knight departed, well pleased to have served. both his masters and his own fortunes also, which is not often found to be possible. And thus ended his recital, if I except—”

"O, I pray you, except nothing," cried Lady Isabel, with an unmannerly yawn, which behaviour on her part cut short Mary's discourse, who said in a good-humoured voice:

"I crave your pardon, ladies, for this over-long tale; which, nevertheless, I thought to have some curiosity in it."

"Yea, and much pleasantness also," we most of us answered; but Lady Isabel could not restrain her ill temper.

"For all that chevalier's boasting," she cried, "I misdoubt his being the first mover of the king's marriage. I'll warrant you the Cardinal had the chiefest hand in it, and used him as his tool. Men can always make women believe what they like, howsoever shallow fools they be."

Then we all waxed dull and sleepy; and silence ensued, until the sound of a horse galloping, and then the jingling of spurs, and a quick tread along the cloisters, with much shuffling and noise of footsteps, waked us up.

The Lady de Scales was loudly called for, and her daughter,