lagellations, but witticism and jest alike failed to move Myles's
patient virtue; he went his own gait in the habits of his life, and in
so going knew as little as the others of the mad court that the Prince's
growing liking for him was, perhaps, more than all else, on account of
that very temperance.

Then, by-and-by, the Prince began to confide in him as he did in none of
the others. There was no great love betwixt the King and his son; it has
happened very often that the Kings of England have felt bitter jealousy
towards the heirs-apparent as they have grown in power, and such was the
case with the great King Henry IV. The Prince often spoke to Myles of
the clashing and jarring between himself and his father, and the thought
began to come to Myles's mind by degrees that maybe the King's jealousy
accounted not a little for the Prince's reckless intemperance.

Once, for instance, as the Prince leaned upon, his shoulder waiting,
whilst the attendants made ready the barge that was to carry them down
the river to the city, he said, abruptly: "Myles, what thinkest thou of
us all? Doth not thy honesty hold us in contempt?"

"Nay, Highness," said Myles. "How could I hold contempt?"

"Marry," said the Prince, "I myself hold contempt, and am not as honest
a man as thou. But, prithee, have patience with me, Myles. Some day,
perhaps, I too will live a clean life. Now, an I live seriously, the
King will be more jealous of me than ever, and that is not a little.
Maybe I live thus so that he may not know what I really am in soothly
earnest."

The Prince also often talked to Myles concerning his own affairs; of
the battle he was to fight for his father's honor, of how the Earl of
Mackworth had plotted and planned to bring him face to face with the
Earl of Alban. He spoke to Myles more than once of the many great
changes of state and party that hung upon the downfall of the enemy
of the house of Falworth, and showed him how no hand but his own could
strike that enemy down; if he fell, it must be through the son of
Falworth. Sometimes it seemed to Myles as though he and his blind father
were the centre of a great web of plot and intrigue, stretching far and
wide, that included not only the greatest houses of England, but royalty
and the political balance of the country as well, and even before the
greatness of it all he did not flinch.

Then, at last, came the beginning of the time for action. It was in the
early part of May, an