arming countenance, as the sufferer said this with something
of the grace of a well-born man, whose boyhood had been taught to serve
God and the Ladies.

There was a short pause before she answered, looking down, "Nay, sir, I
was sufficiently beholden to you; and for the rest, all molestation was
over. But I will now call your nurse--for it is to our servant, not
us, that your thanks are due--to see to your state, and administer the
proper medicaments."

"Truly, fair damsel, it is not precisely medicaments that I hunger and
thirst for; and if your hospitality could spare me from the larder a
manchet, or a corner of a pasty, and from the cellar a stoup of wine
or a cup of ale, methinks it would tend more to restore me than those
potions which are so strange to my taste that they rather offend than
tempt it; and, pardie, it seemeth to my poor senses as if I had not
broken bread for a week!"

"I am glad to hear you of such good cheer," answered Sibyll; "wait but a
moment or so, till I consult your physician."

And, so saying, she closed the door, slowly descended the steps, and
pursued her way into what seemed more like a vault than a habitable
room, where she found the single servant of the household. Time, which
makes changes so fantastic in the dress of the better classes, has a
greater respect for the costume of the humbler; and though the
garments were of a very coarse sort of serge, there was not so great a
difference, in point of comfort and sufficiency, as might be supposed,
between the dress of old Madge and that of some primitive servant in
the North during the last century. The old woman's face was thin and
pinched; but its sharp expression brightened into a smile as she caught
sight, through the damps and darkness, of the gracious form of her young
mistress. "Ah, Madge," said Sibyll, with a sigh, "it is a sad thing to
be poor!"

"For such as thou, Mistress Sibyll, it is indeed. It does not matter for
the like of us. But it goes to my old heart when I see you shut up here,
or worse, going out in that old courtpie and wimple,--you, a knight's
grandchild; you, who have played round a queen's knees, and who might
have been so well-to-do, an' my master had thought a little more of the
gear of this world. But patience is a good palfrey, and will carry us
a long day. And when the master has done what he looks for, why, the
king--sith we must so call the new man on the throne--will be sure to
reward him; but, swe