pleased that one of so
great a house as yours should sue to her. I will give you a letter to
her, praying her to remember you at the next vacancy; and mayhap, if the
Lady Montagu could take you to visit her, you could prevail with her!
But, surely, some nunnery more worthy of your rank--'

'There is none that I should love so well,' said Esclairmonde, smiling.
'Mayhap I have learnt to be a vagabond, but I cannot but desire to toil
as well as pray.'

'And you are willing to wait for a vacancy?'

'When once safe from my kinsmen, in England, I will wait under my kind
Alice's wing till--till it becomes expedient that yonder gentleman be set
free.'

'You trust him?' said Bedford.

'Entirely,' responded Esclairmonde, heartily.

'Happy lad!' half sighed the Duke; but, even as he did so, he stood up to
bid the lady adieu--lingering for a moment more, to gaze at the face he
had longed for permission to love--and thus take leave of all his youth
and joy, addressing himself again to that burthen of care which in
thirteen years laid him in his grave at Rouen.

As he left the Castle and came out into the steep fortified street, Ralf
Percy came up to him, laughing. 'Here, my lord, are those two honest
Yorkshire knights running all over Calais to make a petition to you.'

'What--Trenton and Kitson! I thought their year of service was up, and
they were going home!'

'Ay, my lord,' said Kitson, who with his comrade had followed close in
Percy's wake, 'we were going home to bid Mistress Agnes take her choice
of us; but this morn we've met a pursuivant that is come with Norroy King-
at-arms, and what doth he but tell us that no sooner were our backs
turned, than what doth Mistress Agnes but wed--ay, wed outright--one Tom
of the Lee, a sneaking rogue that either of us would have beat black and
blue, had we ever seen him utter a word to her? A knight's lady--not to
say two--as she might have been! So, my lord, we not being willing to go
home and be a laughing-stock, crave your license to be of your guard as
we were of King Harry's, and show how far we can go among the French.'

'And welcome; no good swords can be other than welcome!' said Bedford,
not diverted as his brother would have been, but with a heartiness that
never failed to win respectful affection.

Long did James and Bedford walk up and down the Castle court together,
while the embarkation was going on. The question weighed on them both
whether they should eve