for hadst thou rested here, he would himself have found a sorry resting place within the keep of Cassel; but I did feel most sorely loth to part with thee, that thou mightest battle with such boors in aid of Louis-thine ancientest and most inveterate foe.-Robert, he hateth thee!"

"Hates me!-wherefore? - I never hated him-I never wronged-no, I never did him wrong. We followed both the selfsame milk white hind, my steed, more fleet, outstripping his, the prize was mine.-Is that a reason he should hate me?-No, no! 'tis not-nor should he so-for as the Bishop joined our hands, midst all my joy, I felt a pang that he, through me, should suffer pain,-for suffer, well I knew he must, at losing thee."

"If thou didst feel a pang at paining him, thou didst feel that which did thee honor, and I more love thee for it, Robert,-but the grief was ill bestowed,-he loved not me-he loved my station-he loved my brother's countenance and favor-he loved the royal blood. which flows within my veins-in fine, he loved

himself, not me, and when I think-I often do so of th' escape I had-oh, Robert!"— Here the Countess, flinging her arms around his neck, seemed almost to shrink into his bosom for protection, and in mental avoidance of something that she loathed,-" Beware of him, Robert!-he hates thee!-he never told me so, 'tis true-he has told no one so, much I doubt truly if he e'er-so cautious is he in his communings-dared to tell himself as much, but he doth hate thee-his eye hath told me so-his haviour tells me so-ay he doth hate thee more than he hateth the foul fiend, for him he'd clasp unto his heart in brotherhood, so that he would but aid him to destroy thee."

Why look you, Jeanne !-That Louis hath me not in strictest love, is not unlike:-in troth, I know 'tis so.-Our plays and pastimes, studies-all, through life, have been so much at variance, that 'twould be strange indeed, if fellowship had sprung up betwixt us: then too, the winning me thy heart, was not the properest means to win me his.-All this I grant,

but when thou sayest he hateth me!-Tush, Jeanne, tush! such are but female apprehensions, baseless, without ground to rest upon."

"Baseless—without ground to rest upon! Firstly, thou hast crossed him in his love-his love! Secondly, thou hast trod in the path of his ambition, and marred his hopes. Thirdly, thou art more in my brother's grace than he. Lastly, thou hast served him. Are not all these enow to make him hate thee? Beware of him-I tell thee not to fear-but to beware

of him."

"Fear him! I fear him not, my love."

CHAPTER X.

It is now time to return to Philip, whose first care on arriving at Paris, was to summon Edward to do homage for Guienne and his other Gallic possessions. This was what the English Monarchs had always shown themselves extremely unwilling to perform, and what indeed they seldom or ever did perform, except upon compulsion.

Although their ancestral territory of Normandy-I never enter Normandy, or think of Normandy, without sighing-had been long reft from the English crown, they still retained possession of a very considerable tract of land in France. Edward was Duke of Guienne and of Acquitaine, Count of Ponthieu

and of Montreuil, and these several dukedoms and counties made up a space of land, which might be of about eight thousand square leagues in extent. As these were originally granted on condition that homage should be done for them, Edward ought, in all propriety, to have complied with the demand made by his Sovereign. Yet, notwithstanding this, he had constantly, under one pretence or another, avoided doing so.

Philip therefore, being returned from Cassel, despatched another embassy, of which Pierre Roger, Abbot of Fescamp, afterwards better known by the name of Clement the Sixth, was the principal, again to summon him.

Edward being resolved not to comply with this, feigned sickness, as an excuse for not admitting the Ambassadors to his presence, and the utmost they could obtain was, an audience from the Queen Mother, from whom, not being able to get any satisfactory reply, they were compelled to return, as it were empty handed, to their Master.

Enraged at the obstinacy and ill faith of