f minutes. Oh, for the sake of one that loved us both, the
sainted one now gone to heaven, for the memory of whom thou didst once
bless me with fonder love than thou gavest to my sisters, because my
features bore her stamp, my king, my father, pardon me and let me
speak!"

"Speak on," muttered the king, passing his hand over his features, and
turning slightly from her, if there were emotion, to conceal it. "Thou
hast, in truth, been over-bold, yet as thou art here, speak on. What
wouldst thou?"

"A boon, a mighty boon, most gracious father; one only thou canst grant,
one that in former years thou wouldst have loved me for the asking, and
blessed me by fulfilment," she said, as she continued to kneel; and by
her beseeching voice and visible emotion effectually confining the
attention of the courtiers, now assembled in a knot at the farther end
of the apartment, and preventing their noticing the deportment of the
page who had accompanied her; he was leaning against a marble pillar
which supported the canopy raised over the king's couch, his head bent
on his breast, the short, thick curls which fell over his forehead
concealing his features; his hands, too, crossed on his breast,
convulsively clenched the sleeves of his doublet, as if to restrain the
trembling which, had any one been sufficiently near, or even imagined
him worthy of a distant glance, must have been observable pervading his
whole frame.

"A boon," repeated the king, as the princess paused, almost breathless
with her own emotion; "a mighty boon! What can the Countess of
Gloucester have to ask of me, that it moves her thus? Are we grown so
terrible that even our own children tremble ere they speak? What is this
mighty boon? we grant not without hearing."

"'Tis the boon of life, my liege, of life thou canst bestow. Oh, while
in this world thou rulest, viceregent of the King of kings on high,
combining like Him justice and mercy, in the government of his
creatures, oh! like, Him, let mercy predominate over justice; deprive
not of life, in the bloom, the loveliness of youth! Be merciful, my
father, oh, be merciful! forgive as thou wouldst be forgiven--grant me
the life I crave!"

Urged on by emotion, the princess had scarcely heard the suppressed
interjection of the king which her first words had occasioned, and she
scarcely saw the withering sternness which gathered on his brow.

"Thou hast in truth learnt oratory, most sapient daughter," he said,
bitt