Grisly Grisell

er ear, wa

ith vanity

r fears, her

hin the clo

, Mar

aves off a large mass of wood-sorrel which had been brought

said by the Chaplain, the nuns kneeling in their order and making their responses. It was a low-browed chapel of Norman or

back to her couch, slept a little, and then wondere

news of Amesbury-who was riding at the ring, or who had shot the best bo

llow, and gave her a dried plum and a

e said, "and then you will be

ayfellow for me?

omes daily to learn her hornbook and her sam

shall love no one as well as

uly admired, and then she asked wearily whethe

who has been here for a time has gone out into the wor

n on the wall?

s a King's daughter. Edith was her name, and two days after Holy

exclaimed Grisell. "

cially. She promised one who went away to be wedded that she would be godmother to her first little daughter, but ere the daughter was born the saintly Edith had died. The babe was carried to be ch

this taper, in token that thy lamp shall be alight when the Bridegroom cometh," the form held the torch, shining bright, clear, and like no candle or light on earth ever shone, and the face was the face of

p in her hand? Oh, I should ha

oly soul?" sa

here, by the little window into t

as she was told, slept her long sleep in the church below. It may be feared that one chief reliance was on the fact that she could not be holy

long recovery, which was still very slow, but was becoming more confirmed every day. Grisell could use her eye, turn her head, and the wounds closed healthily under the sister's treatment without showing symptoms of breaking out afresh; and she grew in strength likewise, first taking a walk in the trim ga

lly a lay sister, who came to help; but the first time she went down the turret stair into the cloister-a beautiful succession of

r Avice. "This is Grisell Dacre, who hath suffered s

sell drew up her head within, "Oh, if you had

fast as her weakness allowed, and found her si

g her. Every one will hate

re against the strict rule of Benedictine nuns, and soothe an

once at Amesbury! but my face was not well th

wed the use of worldly things like

ke, tell me what like

ou art mine own little one, given back to us by the will of Heaven. Aye

d flee from me, as from a basilisk or cockatrice, o

kind deeds. They are better than looks. And here too they sha

e this despite, and he is fair and beauteous as a very angel, and I did love him so, and now he and his

usly, he would surely not have made the

have a husband no

unbridge and Dinton come to see me they look old and careworn, and are full of tales of the turmoil and trouble of husbands, and sons, and dues, and tenants' fees, and villeins, and I know not w

d to her like a sort of prison. Sister Avice had to soothe and comfort her, till her tears were all spent, as so often before, and she had cried hersel

ught before her, and Sister Avice set herself to teach her how goodness, sweetness, and kindness could endear any countenance, and indeed Grisell saw for herself how much more loved was the old and very plain Mother Anne than the very beautiful young Sister Isabel, who had been forced into the convent by her tyrannical brothe

. It was the same with convent life, and each nunnery had traditional works of its own, either in embroidery, cookery, or medicine. Some secrets there were not imparted beyond the professed nuns, and only to the more trustworthy of them, so that each sisterhood might have its own especial glory in confections, whether in portrait-worked vestments, in illuminations, in sweetmeats, or in salves and unguents; but the pensioners were instructed in

the devout, so that the services could be intelligently followed even by those who did not learn Latin, as did Grisell. Selections from Scripture history, generally clothed in rhyme, and versified lives of the Saints, were read aloud at meal-times in the refectory, and Grisell became so good a reader that she was often chosen to chant out the sacred story, and her sweet northern voice was much valued in the singing in the church. She was quite at