"We will hear the court-tidings at our better leisure," said the Lady Isabelle with the dignity of offended beauty, "and we trust your ample draughts of Malvoisie will not have washed such precious matter from your brains ere the morning."

"Marry! my tidings from the court will brook no such delay," said the stern, lord, exalting his voice to a pitch the ears of the proud beauty were ill accustomed to" I bear a message from King Philip, which matters of higher import had swept from my remembrance."

He rose

with fierce action from his seat, and while the Lady Isabelle, terrified and incensed, stood pale and proud, averting her looks, but delaying her departure

Lady of Courtenaye and Beaurevoir," he cried, "I come to claim thee as the ward of King Philip. He hath vowed thine hand to the Lord of Auberval; and if his lands be not broad as thine, or his coffers filled like yon ample chests," (here the Lord of Courtenaye cast a look of speechless agony on the chests

that then formed the principal furniture of feudal mansions, and which in the hall of Courtenaye were loaded with plate, gems, and coin, so as almost to be immoveable), "I pledged word, oath, and fealty, to deliver the royal hest, and five hundred of my knights and men-at-arms shall be thine escort to the court of King Philip, though their absence cost me to spare the lives of thrice that number of heretics — a debt which this good arm and brand shall soon redeem," and he brandished the former as he spoke: "meanwhile," he added, crossing the hall, "let me hail the future bride of the Lord of Auberval."

1

The spirit of her high-descended race glowed on the cheek and lit the eye of the noble maiden, as, withdrawing her hand from his touch, she exclaimed, with a strong but an illtimed allusion to the masculine and martial propensities of certain females of the count's family, "The dames of the house of de Monfort may be won, like the Amazons of old, by him who can deal the heaviest blows; but the ladies of Courtenaye are to be won by other

suitors, and in different wise from those who claim them as tributes to their liege lord."

Neither the incensed looks which the younger knights exchanged as they half rose from their seats, nor the majesty of insulted. and trembling beauty, touched the fierce spirit of de Monfort.

"For my dame," he said with a hoarse laugh, "I grant she can furbish a corslet, and even wield a brand at need - good gifts in times. like these ; but for thee, thou gaudy, delicate, disdainful toy, what must I say to thee? This only -yield thee to the will of King Philip, whose ward thou art, and think not to strive with me. Will thy skirt of tissue prove a fence against a royal mandate, or thy braided tresses man thy towers when the boldest of thy warders would tremble at the summons of the royal trumpet? Nay, dry thine eyes, lady- I promise thee a bridegroom noble and valiant- the minion of the king the very Hylas of our royal Hercules, as our school-bred courtiers phrase him; what would woman in all her fantastic cupidity, all her minstrel-taught visionry of loving

days and livelong nights, desire beyond such offer ?"

"Her liberty," answered the lady with a voice of power that made her persecutor start at the spirit he had raised. "Her liberty that liberty granted to the meanest cottagedame whose locks are hid by the coif, not bound by the coronal-the liberty which I would give to the daughter of the meanest serf who lives under the shadow of the towers of Courtenaye, to choose or reject her humble partner. And shall such privilege be denied to the daughter of the lordly line of Beaurevoir and Courtenaye?"—and the pride and spirit of her ancestry (the proudest of their day) seemed to dilate her form, and inspire her looks as she spoke.

"Thou knowest the law, or rather the will of the king," said de Monfort doggedly; "thy hand, person, and ample dower, are all at his dispose, or thou must redeem the pledge perchance at the price of half thy lands. The wars against these heretics have deeply drained the royal coffers; our liege hath also to watch the

movements of King John of England; and other matters, which may not be told to a lady's ear, have made King Philip willing to transfer some of the heavy chests that cumber this hall to make easy seats for his favourites at Paris."

"Lord of Monfort!" said the Lady Isabelle with that high-wrought energy of look, voice, and resolve, which, though originating in fear, has in woman all the effect of courage, "Lord of Monfort! Bear back my greetings to the king, and tell him thus, as thou art true knight -let him take lands and living, towers and towns despoil my domains and enslave my vassals; and then let him despair of bending to his will the spirit of Isabelle of Courtenaye, nor deem that her hand and her heart shall ever be bestowed but upon him she deems worthy of them, without consulting prince or peasant on the bequest."

Haughty terms and proud," said de Monfort, biting his lip till the blood came to curb his mood," from a ward to her guardian and her sovereign!"