that we need to fear. Naught of harm will I come to."

"Upon mine honor, Stafford," said Lord Shrope going to Lord Stafford who
had bowed his head upon his hands, "even as I have two lady birds of
daughters of mine own, so will I look after thine. Take heart, old
friend. I believe that all will be well else I would not advise this
step. Courage!"

CHAPTER XII

THE FAVOR OF PRINCES

The Bow bells were ringing as Francis and her escort, Lord Shrope, drew
near the city of London three days later. It was sunset and the silvery
peal of the bells was clearly borne to them upon the evening breeze.
Merrily they rang. Now wild and free; now loud and deep; now slower and
more slow until they seemed to knell the requiem of the day.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed Francis involuntarily drawing rein. "Pause, I
pray you, my lord. Do they always ring so?"

"Ay, child. Ever since and long before they sounded so musically in Dick
Whittington's ears: 'Turn again, turn again, thrice lord mayor of
London'! What think you they say? Do they bear a message to your ears?"

The girl listened intently.

"Methinks they say, 'Come not to London, Francis! Come not to London
town!' But is there not in truth amidst all their toning some melody or
chant?"

"There is, child, but not as thou hast so fancifully thought a warning to
thee. How melodious is their chime! Think the rather on that than on
aught else."

"Yes, my lord; and how wonderful is the city! Marry! whatever betides I
shall have seen London!"

She sat erect as she spoke, and drank in the scene with appreciative
eyes. Lord Shrope looked at Britain's metropolis with pride.

The last rays of the setting sun fell lingeringly upon the great city.
For great it was though it numbered but one and thirty thousand
inhabitants at this time. Paris alone excelled it in numbers. London, as
the representative of England in her supremacy of the seas, her
intellectual grandeur, and above all as the friend of those who dared to
oppose the power of Rome, London stood in the eyes of all men as the
greatest city of the world.

The towers and turrets that gleamed above the strong walls that
encircled the city; the sure gates that gave entrance thereto; the
princely palaces with their large gardens, rich porches and stately
galleries; the open fields that came up close to the walls; the distant
hills of Essex, Middlesex, Surrey and Kent covered thickly with woods;
the silvery Thames, the s