plight to the King of Heaven?'

'Nay, madame,' faltered Malcolm; 'but if such troth were forbidden and
impossible?'

'None has the right or power to cancel mine,' replied the lady.

'Yet,' he still entreated, 'your kindred are mighty.'

'But my Bridegroom is mightier,' she said.

'O lady, yet--Say, at least,' cried Malcolm, eagerly, 'that were you free
in your own mind to wed, at least you would less turn from me than from
the others proposed to you.'

'That were saying little for you,' said Esclairmonde, half smiling. 'But,
Sir,' she added gravely, 'you have no right to put the question; and I
will say nothing on which you can presume.'

'You were kinder to me in England,' sighed Malcolm, with tears in his
eyes.

'Then you seemed as one like-minded,' she answered.

'And,' he cried, gathering fresh ardour, 'I would be like-minded again.
You would render me so, sweetest lady. I would kiss your every step,
pray with you, bestow alms with you, found churches, endow your Beguines,
and render our change from our childish purpose a blessing to the whole
world; become your very slave, to do your slightest bidding. O lady,
could I but give you my eyes to see what it might be!'

'It could not be, if we began with a burthened conscience,' said
Esclairmonde. 'We have had enough of this, Sieur de Glenuskie. You know
that with me it is no matter of likes or dislikes, but that I am under a
vow, which I will never break! Make way, Sir.'

He could but obey: she was far too majestic and authoritative to be
gainsaid. And Malcolm, in an access of misery, stood lost to all the
world, kneeling in the window-seat, where she had left him resting his
head against the glass, when suddenly a white plump hand was laid on his
shoulder, and a gay voice cried:

'All _a la mort_, my young damoiseau! What, has our saint been
unpropitious? Never mind, you shall have her yet. We will see her like
the rest of the world, ere we have done within her!'

And Malcolm found himself face to face with the free-spoken Jaqueline of
Hainault.

'You are very good, madame,' he stammered.

'You shall think me very good yet! I have no notion of being opposed by
a little vassal of mine; and we'll succeed, if it were but for the fun of
the thing! Monseigneur de Therouenne is on your side, or would be, if he
were sure of the Duke of Burgundy. You see, these prelates hate nothing
so much as the religious orders; and all the pride of the Luxem