Grisly Grisell

hou goe

unto th

e all around thee

Browning, A

Castle halted at Warwick House, and the Duchess Cecily, tall, fair, and stately, sailed into the hall, followed by three

isell!" and springing from the midst of her mother's suite, Margaret Plantagenet, a tall, lovely, dark-haired girl, thr

ns this?" demanded

aunt of Salisbury's manor," said Margaret, trying to lead fo

staunch baron of the north. My mother bestowed her at Wilton, whence the creature of the Pope's intruding Abbess has

Lord Duke sent for me, but he looks to you, my lord, to comp

Court. The elder daughters were languidly entertained by the Countess, but no one disturbed the interview of Margaret and Grisell, who, hand in hand, had withdra

et was called for. Again, in spite of surprised, not to say displeased looks, she embraced her dear old playfellow. "Don't go into a convent, Grise

ey would not meet again. The Duchess's intelligence had quickened Warwic

resford preferred a pillion to the bumps and jolts of the waggon-like conveyances called chariots, so Grisell rode by her side, the fresh spring breezes bringing back the sense of being really a northern maid, and she threw back her veil whenever she was alone with the attendants, who were used to her, though she drew it closely round when she encountered town or village. There were resting-places on the way. In great monasteries all were accommodated, being used to close quarters; in cast

o the company. Whether he did it in all innocence and ignorance, or one of the young squires had mischievously prompted him, there was no knowing; Dame Gresford suspected the latter, when he began the ballad of "Sir Gawaine's Wedding." She would have silenced it

o the gre

a green h

hat lady in

eemly wa

s and mouth changed places, as in the case of the "Loathly Lady." She heard of the condition on which the lady revealed the secret, an

took up th

ook up the

e they would

es nor f

ss of them, only listening how Sir Gawaine, Arthur's nephew, felt tha

she should be foul at night and fair by day, or fair each evening and frightful in the daylight hours. His choice at first was that her beauty should be for

him gent

y, that's

ou art min

have all

the spell of the stepda

me, being a f

een fores

I walk in wom

a fiend

t was broken, and Sir Gawa

nd feeling that it was startling to her to perceive that Dame Gresford was trying to h

Beggar of Bethnal Green," or "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," or any merry ballad. So it was borne in on Grisell that to these young gentlemen she was the lady unseemly to see. Yet though a f

Grisell felt a resolute purpose within her that though she could not be trans