Grisly Grisell

sed many a st

had been and

St. James, a

he of wanderi

Canterbur

ry, on which stood trenchers, wooden bowls, pewter and a few silver cups, and several large pitchers of ale, small

eties, and ranged round the floor lay ploughshares, axes, and mattocks, all polished up. The ring of hammers on the anvil was he

excepting Master Hall, a stout, brawny, grizzled man, with a good-humoured face, and his son, more slim, but gr

rovided in her honour, and she could not but take her little knife from the sheath in her girdle, turn back

-in-law in amaze. "She's

e be, bless her poor heart

her, that brought home word that they

r than to lend an ear to all the idle tales t

e enough to do," mu

sweet little face, only cru

her, an ordeal she had never undergone in the

e a bit more of the pasty, ladybird; we'll have far to ride ere we get to Wherwell, where the good sisters will give us a meal for young St. Edward's sake and thy Prioress'

we have little Agnes here to mind the things on earth meanwhile. Nay, nay, dame, I say nought to hinder thee; I know too well wh

ed his gad-about or pious wife, whichever he might call her, on her way, appa

eeping her veil well over her face, yearning over the last view of the beloved spire, thinking of Sister Avice ministering to her poor, and with a very definite fear of her own

pilgrim's hat of the dame, and to that of one of her attendants, and the tall staff and wallet each carried, were passports of security. Nothing could be kinder than Mistress Hall was to her charge, of whom she was really proud, and when they halted for the night at the nunnery of Queen Elfrida at Wherwell, she took care to explain that this was no burgess's daught

at the city gate that the Earl and Countess of Salisbury were absent, but th

roadway, but the house itself was like a separate castle, walled round, enclosing a huge space, and with a great arched po

insisted on civility to all comers, and they respected the sca

Art bound for St. Paul's? Here's s

other mould; she is the Lady Grisell Dacr

for the Abbess. Come this way, dame, and

it, and full of people of all kinds, for no less than six hundred stout yeomen wore red coats and the bear and ragged staff. Grisell would fain have clung to her guide, but s

s, and shut off by handsome tapestried and carved screens sat a half circle of ladies, with a young-looking lady in a velvet fur-trimmed

absolutely to require. The lady rose, the knight held out his hand to raise the bending figure. He had that power of recollection and recognition which is

ce, and he went on, "Welcome to my poor ho

tance her husband had risen to his great power. She was delicate and feeble, almost apathetic, and she followed her husband's lead, and received her guest with fair courtesy; and Grisell ventured in a trembling voice

his way," said Warwick. "So, fair maiden, if you will honour my house for a few days, as my

d to me," Grisell ventu

th already, as Sarum born. See that Goodwife Hall, the white smith's wife, and he

th Dacre of Gilsland and the Percies." Then seeing that Grisell knew nothing of all thi

constantly said for the King's recovery, and of late there had been thanksgivings for the birth of the Prince of Wales; but it was as much as she did know that just now the Duke of York was governing, for the poor King seemed as senseless as a stone, and

to her when all sat down to supper. Tables were laid all along the vast hall. She was placed at the upper one to her relief, beside an old lady, Dame Gresford, whom she remembered to have seen at Montacute

"they are but unmannerly lurdanes, and the Lord Earl would

res, and pages under him, besides the six hundred red jacketed yoemen, and servants of all degrees, in the immense court of the buttery and kitchen, as indeed there had need to be, for six oxen were daily cooked, with sh

ondon, and she was intensely gratified by the great Earl recollecting, or appearing to recollect, her and inquiring afte

most noble, excellent, and open-handed house in the world! Grisell's own wishes were not the same, for the great household was very bewildering-a strange change from her quietly-busy convent. The Countess was quiet enough, but dull and sickly, an

been sticking pins into King Harry's waxen image and roasting him before the fire, and that

ever dare," c

her will!" demanded the Earl. "Wouldst like to do pe

about Sister Avice and her cures. She set herself to persuade her husband to let her go down to one of his mother's Wiltshire houses to cons

in the court, or watched the exercises of the pages and squires. The dame's presence and authority prevented Grisell's being beset with uncivil remarks, but