nsel, and abide thy
prisoner still. Oh, no, no! I swear to thee I will do naught that can
make thee regret thou hast granted an orphan's prayer."

"And who art thou that pleadeth thus?" inquired the earl, moved alike by
the thrilling sweetness of his voice and the earnestness of his manner.
"Thou must have some wondrous interest in him to prefer imprisonment
with him to all the joys which liberty can give."

"And I have interest," answered the boy, fervently; "the interest of
gratitude, and faithfulness, and love. An orphan, miserably an
orphan--alone upon the wide earth--he hath protected, cherished, aye,
and honored me with his confidence and love. He tended me in sorrow, and
I would pour back into his noble heart all the love, the devotion he
hath excited in mine. Little can I do, alas! naught but love and serve;
yet, yet, I know he would not reject even this--he would let me love him
still!"

"Grant the poor boy his boon," whispered Lancaster, hurriedly; "of a
truth he moveth even me."

"Thine heart is of right true mettle, my child," said his colleague,
even tenderly. "Yet bethink thee all thou must endure if I grant thy
boon; not while with me, for there would be a foul blot upon my
escutcheon did so noble a knight as Sir Nigel Bruce receive aught save
respect and honor at my hands. But in this business I am but a tool, an
agent; when once within the boundaries of Edward's court, Sir Nigel is
no longer my prisoner; I must resign him to my sovereign; and then, I
dare not give thee hope of gentle treatment either for thyself or him."

"I will brave it," answered the boy, calmly; "danger, aye, death in his
service, were preferable to my personal liberty, with the torture of the
thought upon me, that I shrunk from his side when fidelity and love were
most needed."

"But that very faithfulness, that very love, my child, will make thy
fate the harder; the scaffold and the axe, if not the cord," he added,
in a low, stifled tone, "I fear me, will be his doom, despite his youth,
his gallantry--all that would make _me_ save him. Thou turnest pale at
the bare mention of such things, how couldst thou bear to witness them?"

"Better than to think of them; to sit me down in idle safety and feel
that he hath gone forth to this horrible doom, and I have done naught to
soothe and tend him on his way," replied the boy, firmly, though his
very lip blanched at Hereford's words. "But must these things be? Is
Edward so inexorab