uld, calling
loudly:

"Edward! Edward Devereaux!"

The youth looked up, but the girl was uncertain as to whether he saw her
or not. Mrs. Shelton hurried forward at the sound of her voice.

"Child!" she cried pulling her forcibly from the window, "dost want to be
taken elsewhere and lodged? There are other towers far gloomier than
this, and if thou carest not to taste their shadows thou wilt be more
circumspect."

"Thy pardon, mistress," said Francis recovering her self-possession. "I
meant not to transgress, 'tis the first time since I saw my mother that I
have looked upon a face that was known to me. I could not but greet him,
e'en though he be mine enemy."

"Thine enemy?" said the woman curiously. "How now, mistress? Tell me the
tale. 'Twill speed the hour and, forsooth, there is need of entertainment
here."

Thus adjured Francis related the story of the shooting of the deer; the
incident of the duel; spoke of the enmity that had always existed between
the families of Staffords and Devereaux; narrated how Edward had favored
her when the Lady Priscilla Rutland had stolen her hair; concluding
with:

"Therefore, thou seest, good Mistress Shelton, that there can be naught
but enmity betwixt us twain. He hath done me service, 'tis true, and
otherwise is a proper youth, I dare say. Yet still he is mine enemy."

"'Yet still he is mine enemy,'" mocked Mrs. Shelton. "Marry, girl! 'Tis
marvelous hate that thou showest when thou dost call to him when he hath
been brought into durance. 'Yet still he is mine enemy.'" She laughed.

"Make merry, an ye will, mistress," said Francis, "but still is it as I
tell ye."

"There, child! I meant not to vex thee," appeased the woman who had grown
fond of Francis, so long had she been in her keeping. "I must learn more
of the lad."

"Do find why he hath been committed," cried the girl eagerly. "I can but
wonder at it. Hath he too been engaged in treasonable enterprise----"

"Nay;" interrupted Mrs. Shelton, "for then he would have entered under
the tower of St. Thomas through the Traitor's Gate."

In a few days she reported to Francis that the charge against him was a
nominal one. He seemed to be committed only to be restrained of his
liberty and was given the privilege of the Tower, wandering through the
wards at pleasure save only that he could not pass the outer walls of the
fortress.

And so it happened one day that when Francis, attended by Mrs. Shelton,
was taking the a