een.

"Or if she doth, remember thy plighted promise under the wide cope of
blue heaven, the old nor least holy temple of our common Father."

With these words he left the room.

CHAPTER VII.

Harold passed into the Queen's ante-chamber. Here the attendance was
small and select compared with the crowds which we shall see presently in
the ante-room to the King's closet; for here came chiefly the more
learned ecclesiastics, attracted instinctively by the Queen's own mental
culture, and few indeed were they at that day (perhaps the most
illiterate known in England since the death of Alfred [117]); and here
came not the tribe of impostors, and the relic-venders, whom the
infantine simplicity and lavish waste of the Confessor attracted. Some
four or five priests and monks, some lonely widow, some orphan child,
humble worth, or protected sorrow, made the noiseless levee of the sweet,
sad Queen.

The groups turned, with patient eyes, towards the Earl as he emerged from
that chamber, which it was rare indeed to quit unconsoled, and marvelled
at the flush in his cheek; and the disquiet on his brow; but Harold was
dear to the clients of his sister; for, despite his supposed indifference
to the mere priestly virtues (if virtues we call them) of the decrepit
time, his intellect was respected by yon learned ecclesiastics; and his
character, as the foe of all injustice, and the fosterer of all that were
desolate, was known to yon pale-eyed widow and yon trembling orphan.

In the atmosphere of that quiet assembly, the Earl seemed to recover his
kindly temperament, and he paused to address a friendly or a soothing
word to each; so that when he vanished, the hearts there felt more light;
and the silence hushed before his entrance, was broken by many whispers
in praise of the good Earl.

Descending a staircase without the walls--as even in royal halls the
principal staircases were then--Harold gained a wide court, in which
loitered several house-carles [118] and attendants, whether of the King
or the visitors; and, reaching the entrance of the palace, took his way
towards the King's rooms, which lay near, and round, what is now called
"The Painted Chamber," then used as a bedroom by Edward on state
occasions.

And now he entered the ante-chamber of his royal brother-in-law. Crowded
it was, but rather seemed it the hall of a convent than the ante-room of
a king. Monks, pilgrims, priests, met his eye in every nook; and not