homeless orphans of the parents
murdered by either faction roamed the streets, and herded in the corners
like the vagrant dogs of Eastern cities; and meantime, the nobles and
their partisans revelled in wasteful pomp.

Scholar as he was, Dr. Bennet was not familiar enough with Parisian ways
not to be very grateful for aid from Esclairmonde in some of his
conferences, and for her explanations of the different tastes and needs
of French and English poor.

What she saw and heard, on the other hand, gave form and purpose to her
aspirations. The Dutch Sisters of St. Bega, the English Bedeswomen of
St. Katharine, were sorely needed at Paris. They would gather up the
sufferers, collect the outcast children, feed the hungry, follow with
balm wherever a wound had been. To found a Beguinage at Paris seemed to
her the most befitting mode of devoting her wealth; and her little
admirer, Alice, gave up her longing desire that the foundation should be
in England, when she learned that, as the wife of Nevil, her abode was
likely to be in France as long as that country required English
garrisons.

To the young heiress of Salisbury, her own marriage, though close at
hand, seemed a mere ordinary matter compared with Esclairmonde's
Beguinage, to her the real romance. Never did she see a beggar crouching
at the church door, without a whisper to herself that there was a subject
for the Beguines; and, tender-hearted as she was, she looked quite
gratified at any lamentable tale which told the need.

If Esclairmonde had a climax to her visions of her brown-robed messengers
of mercy, it was that the holy Canon of St. Agnes should be induced to
come and act the part of master to her bedeswomen, as did Master Kedbesby
at home.

She had even dared to murmur her design to Dr. Bennet; and when he, under
strict seal of secrecy, had sounded King Henry, the present real master
of Paris, he reported that the tears had stood in the King's eyes for a
moment, as he said, 'Blessings on the maiden! Should she be able to do
this for this city, I shall know that Heaven hath indeed sent a blessing
by my arms!'

For one brief week, Esclairmonde and Alice were very happy in this secret
hope; but at the end of that time the Bishop of Therouenne appeared.
Esclairmonde had ventured to hope that the King's influence, and likewise
the fact that her intention was not to enrich one of the regular monastic
orders, might lead him to lend a favourable ear to he