n these three princes rose and knelt before the priest; in long
bright garments they were clad, and they glittered with gold and many
jewels, what while he standing among them shuddered in his sombre robe.
"Hail, King of England!" cried these three.

"Hail, ye that are my kinsmen!" he answered; "hail, ye that spring of
an accursed race, as I! And woe to England for that fearful hour
wherein Foulques the Querulous held traffic with a devil and on her
begot the first of us Plantagenets! Of ice and of lust and of
hell-fire are all we sprung; old records attest it; and fickle and cold
and ravenous and without shame are we Plantagenets until the end. Of
your brother's dishonor ye make merchandise to-day, and to-day
fratricide whispers me, and leers, and, Heaven help me! I attend. O
God of Gods! wilt Thou dare bid a man live stainless, having aforetime
filled his veins with such a venom? Then haro, will I cry from Thy
deepest hell... Nay, now let Lucifer rejoice for that his descendants
know of what wood to make a crutch! You are very wise, my kinsmen.
Take your measures, messieurs who are my kinsmen! Though were I any
other than a Plantagenet, with what expedition would I now kill you
that recognize the strength to do it! then would I slay you! without
any animosity, would I slay you then, and just as I would kill as many
splendid snakes!"

[Illustration: "'HAIL YE THAT ARE MY KINSMEN!'" _Painting by Howard
Pyle_]

He went away, laughing horribly. Gloucester drummed upon the table,
his brows contracted. But the lean Duke said nothing; big York seemed
to drowse; and Henry of Derby smiled as he sounded a gong for that
scribe who would draw up the necessary letters. The Earl's time was
not yet come, but it was nearing.

In the antechamber the priest encountered two men-at-arms dragging a
dead body from the castle. The Duke of Kent, Maudelain was informed,
had taken a fancy to a peasant girl, and in remonstrance her misguided
father had actually tugged at his Grace's sleeve.

Maudelain went first into the park of Windsor, where he walked for a
long while alone. It was a fine day in the middle spring; and now he
seemed to understand for the first time how fair his England was. For
entire England was his splendid fief, held in vassalage to God and to
no man alive, his heart now sang; allwhither his empire spread, opulent
in grain and metal and every revenue of the earth, and in stalwart men
(his chattels), and