ing at caged birds; they should keep within wire for me, while my brave merlin flew at other game. Plainly, my Liege, why should the poor maiden quit her convent-pallet for this bootless night-journey?" 66 "Merciful-hearted child of the Devil!" said Rufus, "I will enlighten thee. The treasurebearer of thy parable is the Orphan' of Jodesac's. He hath in very deed, 'come for his inheritance-but of that anon. Meanwhile, zeal for De Mowbray's house hath eaten him up.— He would give his birth-right to have this babyfaced minion of his Lord north of the Humber; and, for his own sake, being, as I well believe, a right gallant stripling, I have listed for once to play the gracious fool, and give him our royal assent to bear the damsel hence." 66 66 Aye!" ejaculated Flambard. Aye," repeated the Monarch, "but by St. Mary, clogged with a back-breaking provisoto wit, if his luck holds, and he meet not by the way with those who shall thrust him out of saddle at lance-point, ere he have ridden two leagues of his journey." "Diablezot! a passage of arms!" exclaimed the Minister, amused with the romance and chivalrous absurdity of the thing. "De Mowbray's champion against all comers, rejoined Rufus, " but, by St. Luke's face! I think there will be never a lance splintered in the matter. Our court gallants are a-weary of saddle and helmet-they like not the humour of again thrusting their dainty bodies into steel harness-nay, I have tried divers of them within this hour. Here was De Lacy, with his curled Lucifer-lip, and furnace-glaring eye; no slug-abed to look at; and yet, forsooth, he sorrowed to say, a ravelled matter of his own craved knitting up to-night, were all vows kept; and so much for the helping hand of De Lacy. Then came the newly risen-up Du Coci, our Castellan elect of the Tyne Castle-and he, by'r Lady, said me nay, after a worse fashion, for, under 6 our royal favour,' and craving our royal pardon,' and so forth, he is bound rather to couch lance against than for us, in this matter of De Mowbray's daughter. Last, came the daintily attired De Tunbridge, and he indeed hath pledged him to the work, but with the like devotion that a man would finger a serpent withal." Now, as I am a Christian man, and a peaceful," said Flambard, "your Grace, at a pinch, is well-holpen of these bull-headed Barons! Marry, if there were land or gold for the winning, they would be up and doing, were it to cut the throats of their mothers; fast sleepers else, I warrant them! For Sir Ilbert de Tunbridge, he knows not which it were best to pleasure or offend-the King of the South, or the King of the North, (craving my Liege's pardon.) Howbeit, betwixt the Devil and the deep sea, he runs upon your Grace." "He must run upon sharp steel," said Rufus, "and that with good heart and heed; or, by St. George, if De Mowbray's varlet bear him as I surmise, there will be a cry for leechcraft, and a bloody couch upon the forest turf." "And a fair riddance of the fair Dame," said Flambard, "who might, had wisdom been listened to, have proved good hostage for the saving of blood-spilling and leechcraft a thousand fold! -O King!" continued the Justiciary, after a slight pause—“ O King, live for ever! but grant me, I pray thee, a boon!". "Give me a thousand merks," said the King, "that I may consider it graciously." "Grammercy!" cried Flambard, "your gracious Grace hath been too often in the Jewry. A thousand merks! the matter of my boon were dear at a bezant's purchase. It is but, for once in a hundred years, to make the speaking of plain truth to a King no treason.' "Oh, villain!" exclaimed the Monarch, "not for France and Normandy, Anjou, Maine and Picardy, to the boot of this filthy England! plain truth? pah! there was never a King that could abide it! Let us to supper, Ranulph, where, if thou must needs poison me, do it with juice of toads and aspics, and not with plain truth." "For the Lady Constance' sake," returned the Favourite, "I will pledge your Grace, as a most gallant, chivalrous, generous, and magnanimous 66 Fool!" added the King, completing the sentence. "In veritate victoria!"" cried Flambard, "who shall gainsay PLAIN TRUTH! And they betook them to the supper-chamber. CHAPTER IX. "Who thundering comes on blackest steed, THE Lady Matilda did not quit Nunna Mynstre until she had learned with sufficient certainty the intended departure of Constance that night; nor did Reginald de Lacy fail to repair in his former disguise to receive the report of his ally. He had just issued from the convent portal, when his attention was caught by the sound of hoofs thundering towards him along the street between Wolvesley Castle and the Cathedral. He threw up his cowl, and saw a cavalier approaching at the fleetest pace to which he could urge a charger, black as night, but fresh and fiery as morning. A mere instant seemed to bring this furious rider up to De Lacy's side, but there was at least time for one hurried |