tirely do condemn the course which d'Artois taketh to revenge him, I do marvel little at it: and pity for the sufferer:-your Grace must pardon this!-doth well nigh breed in me forgiveness of his error.

"And so farewell,

"Your Grace's loving Consort,

"JEANNE."

Scarcely affording himself time to arrive at the end of this letter, Robert opened the one enclosed in it, and read the following confession.—

"In the name of the blessed Trinity, and of the holy Saints who wonne in heaven!—

"I, the undersigned, hight, and known by the name of Inez, believing me to be upon the eve of receiving judgment of mine offences from our most blessed and sweet Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ; and with the intent and in hope that through the intercession of our gentle Lady, his mother, Queen of heaven-this, my

free and true avowal, will procure me mercy, do

declare :

Imprimis,

"That the Lord Robert of Artois is wholly and entirely guiltless of the foul act wherewith he hath been most slanderously charged. That it was I who-in part, instigated by the vexation of some slight put on me by the Lord Robert's Lady; in part, incited to it by the Lord Louis, Count of Flanders, his most mortal foe-did avail me of the aid and the abetment of one whom I had known in former days, hight Jean Zannecq, own brother to the Cassel rebel; and did cause this caitiff to leave certain papers at the palace, pretending that there lay hidden in a secret cabinet of Saint Bertin's Abbey, documents, which being thence drawn forth, would make his claims upon the lands of Artois clear and doubtless.

Item,

"I do make avouer that, when thinking to cause right appear, Lord Robert journeyed to

St. Omer, it was by the contrivance of this felon Zannecq-since, as hath been noted to me, raised to the priorship of an English conventthat he did find hidden in an arke of heben, this document of which he hath been falsely and foully charged with the forgery. This document do I declare and I adjure our blessed Lord Jesus, in whose presence I shall soon stand, to witness these my words!-was writ by me, who have skill to copy and to counterfeit all manner of writing.

Item,

"I do avouch and affirm that the aforesaid Robert, Lord of Artois, did ne'er entreat me contrary to his Grace's love: or in ought which it was unbefitting me to listen to; but that it was a trick hatched up and planned by the Lord of Flanders, and by me adopted, to estrange his Grace's favour from Lord Robert, and draw it on himself. I did first contrive to rouse his Grace's jealousy by the means of a certain emerald: which, by legierdemayne and tampering with his menials, he being absent, I did obtain

from out its casket, and there restore when it had served my needs.

"All this do I avouch, affirm, and maintain, as true; and should so have done ere now-for I have oft been pricked unto't—had not shame withheld my tongue.

"Amen.

"INEZ."

This paper had been written out by the priest who shrived her, but was signed by herself.

'Tis much pity, methinks, that ordinary spirits having-in them so great a store of the quality which they misname 'pride,'—can never be persuaded to own they have done wrong! Has any one committed a crime?-so much the worse both for him, his friends, and all the world. He has been human, but yet, perhaps, has done no more than what his severest censurers have also done, or would have done, or might have done, or will do. Yet, let him, convinced of his error, and repenting of it, speak out and own it—boldly, own it-own it like a man,-and not hug it to and hide

it in his heart, as a poor trembling wretch waiting till a stomach-ache shall twist it from him. The first line of conduct is grand and good, the other mean, pitiful, and altogether unworthy of one who hopes to have a footing 'mid the stars.

Robert read and re-read both this and the preceding letter; then folding them back into the form in which he had received them, presented the parcel to the King: who, during the time of Robert's being thus occupied, had resumed his former position, and, leaning over his saddlebow, was resting on his arm.

"I weeted not, my Lord," he said, as the King received the parcel from his hands-"I weeted not that such legierdemayne as is here told of, had been practised on us!"

The King remained silent.

"Since then your Grace hath learned that I in tort was banished from your realms, Jeanne is no longer captive!

-Still the King answered not, but his bosom heaved as with convulsions.

"Let me beseech your Grace!" Robert again asked, but now in a tone of angry impatience