r to one. In the night she would lie on
Jane's arm, and amid smothered sobs, would softly talk of her lover,
and praise his beauty and perfections, and pour her pathetic little
tale over and over again into Jane's receptive ear and warm responsive
heart; and Jane answered with soft little kisses that would have
consoled Niobe herself. Then Mary would tell how the doors of her
life, at the ripe age of eighteen, were closed forever and forever,
and that her few remaining years would be but years of waiting for the
end. At other times she would brighten, and repeat what Brandon had
told her about New Spain; how fortune's door was open there to those
who chose to come, and how he, the best and bravest of them all, would
surely win glory and fortune, and then return to buy her from her
brother Henry with millions of pounds of yellow gold. Ah, she would
wait! She would wait! Like Bayard she placed her ransom at a high
figure, and honestly thought herself worth it. And so she was--to
Brandon, or rather had been. But at this particular time the market
was down, as you will shortly hear.

So Mary remained at Windsor and grieved and wept and dreamed, and
longed that she might see across the miles of billowy ocean to her
love! her love! her love! Meanwhile Brandon had his trial in secret
down in London, and had been condemned to be hanged, drawn and
quartered for having saved to her more than life itself.

Put not your trust in princesses!

_CHAPTER X_

_Justice, O King!_

Such was the state of affairs when I returned from France.

How I hated myself because I had not faced the king's displeasure and
had not refused to go until Brandon was safely out of his trouble. It
was hard for me to believe that I had left such a matter to two
foolish girls, one of them as changeable as the wind, and the other
completely under her control. I could but think of the difference
between myself and Brandon, and well knew, had I been in his place, he
would have liberated me or stormed the very walls of London
single-handed and alone.

When I learned that Brandon had been in that dungeon all that long
month, I felt that it would surely kill him, and my self-accusation
was so strong and bitter, and my mental pain so great, that I resolved
if my friend died, either by disease contracted in the dungeon or by
execution of his sentence, that I would kill myself. But that is a
matter much easier sincerely to resolve upon than to execute w