craving some succour from the Countess Jeanne, was aided by her bounty.-I found her well instructed; she wrote a clear and good text hand. Partly for this, and partly that I wished to serve her, did I entrust some papers to her care, and bid her copy them.-Now, having thus, my lord, put forth the cause and origin of her abode with me, I claim to be instructed wherefore she hath drawn upon herself the charge of forgeryof forgery, too, committed at my bidding!

"She doth profess that art,-the art of counterfeiting the written characters of others."

"Verily!" replied d'Artois, with surprise,66 saith your Grace so! Certes then may I not-Yet do I take the Saints to witness, that I ne'er knew of this her cunning. But, my Lord, how is this apparent?"

"She did so avow."

66

Voluntarily, or on the wheel, my Lord?" 'Ay, sir, upon the wheel. She would own to nothing until placed thereon; but then she did confess it all."

66 Confess it all! All what, my lord? That

VOL. II.

CHAPTER VI.

In such guise as I have attempted to describe in the foregoing chapter was it, that d'Artois remained some moments regarding the king;his soul seemed to be replete with thoughts to which it struggled to give utterance; but could not, from the very exuberance of its own imaginings. He drew himself more erect, and again placing his hands upon the sides of his scat, still kept gazing on him with a mien so haughty, that had a stranger entered, he might have mistaken him for the king himself, about to chide the conduct of some mal-fayting vassal.—At last he broke silence.

My Lord!-my Liege I would have said—

but that implieth bonds-yourGrace hath severed

those which linked us!-It hath just reached mine ears, that Devion, one who is under my protection, hath undergone the question.-Was this by your Grace's mandate?"

Philip nodded his head in silent assent.

i

"My Lord! that poor woman is my menial.* —It is unusual-nay, till this very hour hath it been unheard of, thus to tear domestics from the service of their Lord-that Lord too being Peer, and in the number of those great feudatories of the crown, whose hands have placed, and power upholds, their Sovereign on his throne."

Philip's cheek became red as fire-he bit his lip.-But Robert had said rightly enough; and though there were some present who rejoiced at the confession drawn forth by torture, there were scarcely any who felt displeased at the reproof given to the action, as, had a precedent been made from it, none could tell how soon his

*Menial-I believe it is not universally known, that this word does not signify a servant in a mean capacity, but, like domestic, any servant within one's walls.-If this note is uncalled for, I beg pardon for having inserted it.

*

her bruised limbs were dislocate, and her body mangled by the rough handling of a savage felon! her lips bore witness to intensity of pain, and to the weakness of her mortal frame to bear it. They nought avowed but this, my Lord! It is a barbarous and inhuman habit this, of wrenching from poor creatures, in an hour of agony, satanic lies, then name them heavenly truths. Your Grace hath often heard me raise my voice as reason ever doth-against such fiendish practices, such pain-compelled acknowledgments of crime, when fools force weakness thus to slide off evil from themselves and thrust it on another. To show how little I do care what this poor wretch hath, in her suffering, said, I do most freely from my heart grant pardon to her for it. Jane and I again will take her to our confidence, with full as great security as e'er we felt."

The allusion Robert had just made to the

* One might, I believe, search the dictionary in vain for the word dislocate used adjectively, but Shakspeare makes the Duke of Gloucester say:

"For Suffolk's duke, would he were suffocate!

Albigentes, or Albigeois, a sect in the south of France, whose principles resembled those of the ancient Manicheans and Paulicians, at least so said the Monkish writers of that day,-who believed the universe to be governed by two Spirits, equal in power, but differing in the use they made of it, was, most surely, not well calculated to do him service in the opinion of those before whom he spoke, who all held such tenets in utter abhorrence and execration.

Besides this, their first amazement and dismay at his bold intrusion, having, in great measure, subsided, they began to feel that they made but a sorry figure in suffering their sovereign to be thus insulted in their presence, and when Robert pronounced the words,-"Fools force weakness, &c."-as by a simultaneous movement they all arose,-twelve or fifteen hands grasped as many swords,-yet Robert still remained seated; scarce a muscle of his countenance was altered ;-he waved his hand,—

"Peace!"

Peace was.-Each blade remained half drawn and suspended within its scabbard, until its