voice and strength returned.

"Alas! I feared there was more in this deep agony than we might see,"
she said; "but I imagined not, dared not imagine aught like this. Poor
unhappy sufferer, the saints be praised thou hast come to me! thy
husband's life I may not save, but I can give protection, tenderness to
thee--aye weep, weep, there is life, reason in those tears."

The gentle voice of sympathy, of kindness, had come upon that
overcharged heart, and broke the icy agony which had closed it to the
relief of tears. Mind and frame were utterly exhausted, and Agnes buried
her face in the hands of the princess, which she had clasped
convulsively within both hers, and wept, till the wildness of agony
indeed departed, but not the horrible consciousness of the anguish yet
to come. Gradually her whole tale was imparted: from the resolution to
follow her betrothed even to England, and cling to him to the last; the
fatal conclusion of that rite which had made them one; the anxiety and
suffering which had marked the days spent in effecting a complete
disguise, ere she could venture near him and obtain Hereford's consent
to her attending him as a page; the risks and hardships which had
attended their journey to Berwick, till even a prison seemed a relief
and rest; and then the sudden change, that a few days previous, the Earl
of Berwick had entered Sir Nigel's prison, at the head of five or ten
ruffians, had loaded him with fetters, conveyed him to the lowest and
filthiest dungeon, and there had administered the torture, she knew not
wherefore. Her shriek of agony had betrayed that she had followed them,
and she was rudely and forcibly dragged from him, and thrust from the
fortress. Her brain had reeled, her senses a brief while forsaken her,
and when she recovered, her only distinct thought was to find her way to
Carlisle, and there obtain access to the Earl and Countess of
Gloucester, of whom her husband had spoken much during their journey to
England, not with any wish or hope of obtaining mercy through their
influence, but simply as the friends of former years; he had spoken of
them to while away the tedious hours of their journey, and besought her,
if she should be parted from him on their arrival at Berwick, to seek
them, and implore their protection till her strength was restored. Of
herself, however, in thus seeking them, she had thought not; the only
idea, the only thought clearly connected in her mind was to beseech
the