passed the frontiers, I'll to Philip straight, and"

Pardon, most noble lady, that I thus rudely break upon your speech. I will also go unto your royal brother, accompanied by the reverend Abbot of St. Bertin, and some others; and we will use the arguments most like to draw him from his present error. I am myself in error much, if 'tis not Louis who hath worked up all this mischief. Wherefore? Not to serve me! He is no better friend of mine, Count Robert, than of yours. But we may not tarry thus. Time flies apace-this evening will the mandate of arrest be issued. Should you be found within the walls of Paris then? Haste! leave it-prick your steed towards Piccardy and Artois; cross our frontiers, and you are safe."

Jeanne, ah Jeanne!" said Robert, hastily pacing up and down the chamber after Otho had left it, and addressing his words partly to her, and partly to himself," I'm as a desperate gamester, who begins to play, and thinks to win some mighty mass of silver, but 'stead of this, doth lose-perhaps it is some trifle. To regain

the which he playeth on, still losing, till at length, grown desperate from loss, and thinking fortune will not always persecute, he doubles stakes or triples them; till all at last being gone except a few poor marks, he playeth on for sol or dernier, that he may gain withal to buy him bread. What would I now not give, could I call back th' events of but the two last months! Yet who hath worked me all this scathe?"

"Who e'er it be, my dearest, best beloved-Oh thou in whom my hopes begin and end, dear, dearest Robert!" said the Countess, sobbing as she flung herself upon his neck-" whoe'er it be, prepare to-oh! to leave me. Once safe, my love-Ah! would thou wert so now!-beyond the frontiers, I and thy friends may treat with Philip, and thou shalt be recalled."

I omit the scene which took place between Robert and the Countess immediately previous to the departure of the former, whom to say she loved, would be to say but little. Her soul hung on him with an intensity of affection, the measure of which could be equalled only by its purity.

The Countess had for some time past been in a delicate state of health. The grief she had so long continued to feel for the loss of her daughter, and the constant vexation which she experienced in finding Robert so sorely take to heart his being deprived of his ancestral domains, had combined to impair a constitution, not naturally robust. There was a sad tale told upon her cheek. To amend this evil, the gentlest management was requisite. Rest, care, and the most delicate attentions-of these she nothing lacked from Robert, but he was now about to leave her-this was a blow indeed! and added to the circumstance of her being so long gone in childbearing, was more than she could well support. To minister to one we love,-to one, whose love

"Doth make our mortal labours light"

To bring her comfort;-To wait by her in sickness through the day;-To lave her lips with cooling drink, and her wan cheek with tears;-To smooth her pillow, and to sooth her pain;—To watch the gnomon mark the long dull hours of

nightly vigil;-To start at each, the slightest, sound, and fear 'twas death who made it;-To pale at every silence, and arise, in breathless agony, to listen if she breathe, or if-that which to think on maketh mad the brain!-To wake, to watch, to weep, to joy, to grieve, to hope, to fear, to pray, to curse-ah! such deep curses,heard, perchance, in heaven,-on them, the Gouls-the human Gouls, who made the ill, or might have mended it, and would not! Ah! to do this is but a sad and sorry task-but to leave her in such sickness!

CHAPTER IX.

HAVING, at length, made the reader acquainted with the circumstances leading to the Count of Artois' disgrace, and which terminated in a banishment as fatal to himself, his sovereign, and his country, as it was advantageous to England; it will be necessary to quit the subject for a while, in order to detail events of a more domestic nature, at that time taking place in another part of Europe.

Situated in the Dutchy of Berri, there is a town called Mauny, from which its possessors taking their name, styled themselves Seigneurs de Mauny; but having, either by marriage or succession, acquired other territories in Hainault, they quitted this ancient residence, and esta