d, and the Countess desired Levina
to summon the varlets to bear the heavy burden down to the gate.

"Peace wait on my Lady!" said the pedlar, bowing low as he took leave.
"If it please the Holy One, my Belasez shall be here at my Lady's
command before a week is over."

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Note 1. This was the answer given to her judges, four hundred years
later, by Leonora Galigai, when she was asked to confess what kind of
magic she had employed to obtain the favour of Queen Maria de' Medici.

Note 2. The Earl's quotation from Scripture was extremely free,
combining Matthew eleven verse 25 with the substance, but not the exact
words, of several passages in the Psalms. Nor did Friar Matthew Paris
know much better, since he refers to it all as "that passage in the
Gospels."

Note 3. King Henry was given to allusions of this class, to the revered
memory of his excellent father.

Note 4. "Oh, delightful!" The modern schoolboy's "How jolly" is really
a corruption of this. The companion regret was "Ha, chetife!"--("Oh,
miserable!")

Note 5. The wimple covered the neck, and was worn chiefly out of doors.
Ladies from a queen to a countess wore it coming over the chin; women
of less rank, beneath.

Note 6. Tight-lacing dates from about the twelfth century.

Note 7. A short cloak, worn by both sexes, ornamented with buttons.

CHAPTER THREE.

BELASEZ.

"And, born of Thee, she may not always take
Earth's accents for the oracles of God."

_Felicia Hemans_.

The last word had scarcely left the pedlar's lips, when the door of the
ante-chamber was flung open, and a boy of Margaret's age burst into the
room.

He was fair-haired and bright-faced, with a slender, elegant figure, and
all his motions were very agile. Beginning with--"I say, Magot!"--he
stopped suddenly both tongue and feet as he caught sight of the
Countess.

"Well, Sir Richard?" suggested that lady.

"I cry you mercy, Lady. I did not know you were here."

"And if you had done--what then?"

"Why, then," answered Richard, laughing but colouring, "I suppose I
ought to have come in more quietly."

"Ah! Did you ever read with Father Nicholas about an old man who said
that the Athenians knew what was right, but the Lacedemonians did it?"

"Your pardon, Lady! I always forget what I read with Father Nicholas."

"I should suppose so. I am afraid there is Athenian blood in y