mething that maketh me to feel that if I
leave thee now I ne'er shall see thee more!"

"Nay, nay, my dearest, God, the King of Kings, will not be so cruel.
He will again unite those which truly love him and keep his
commandments. Break not one of these by not obeying thy mother. Go
with thy brother, my dear, and thus escape the danger that here must
soon o'ertake thee, if thou dost tarry. Go, go! our prayers follow
thee, and may God protect thee and still have thee in his keeping!"

Dorset seized the palfrey's rein and started on his journey. The Queen
mother stood gazing after them, and her lips still muttered prayers.
Soon they were lost to view, as they turned a corner in the path.

As the Queen slowly re-entered the Sanctuary the bell from the chapel
began to toll for some poor soul whose body was about to be returned to
mother earth, to be the food of worms. As the bell rang out, like a
soul-rending cry of anguish, the Queen started as though she had been
stabbed. "A bad omen," I heard her mutter, as she leaned upon mine arm.

CHAPTER XVIII

RICHARD TRIUMPHS

When Gloucester discovered how he had been duped by the Queen his
feelings can better be imagined than described. However, he was too
clever a man, by far, to show his disappointment openly, or even to let
the world know that he had been outwitted. He had the audacity to have
the statement quietly circulated, in such a manner as to give to each
person the impression that he was the trusted possessor of a state
secret, that an attempt had been made to abduct the Duke of York, but
that it had miscarried. "Therefore," said the Duke's friends, "it has
become necessary for the Lord Protector, in the proper fulfilment of
his duties of the high office with which the people have honoured him,
to take every precaution to prevent another attempt of the same kind
from being more successful."

"Yea," said the gossips, who were no doubt paid by the Protector, "'tis
even feared that the King himself may be the object of their next
attempt. Therefore the good Lord Protector, in his wisdom, and by
reason of his great solicitude for the safety of the King--his lord and
master--hath deemed it best that both the young King and his little
brother, the Duke of York, be placed in safety, within the strong walls
of the noble Tower that Caesar,--though a heathen, was yet no doubt the
instrument of God,--laid the foundations of. And, unquestionably, the
Lord f