ked up into the boy's face, with one
of his sweet smiles flitting across his lips. The sketch was finished
at last.

"Dear lad!" he said lovingly, "Bertram Lyngern, ask the Lamb to show
thee."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. A title at this time restricted to the Emperor of Germany. The
first English King to whom it was applied, was Richard the Second. It
is often said that Henry the Eighth was the first to assume it, but this
is an error.

Note 2. It is surely not the least interesting association with the
Castle of the Wartburg, whose best-known memories are connected with
Luther, to remember that it was the home of Rudolph and Gertrude von der
Wart.

CHAPTER FIVE.

CHANGES AND CHANCES OF THIS MORTAL LIFE.

"Now is done thy long day's work;
Fold thy palms across thy breast,
Fold thine arms, turn to thy rest,
Let them rave."
_Tennyson_.

The Earl and Countess were away from home, during the whole spring of
the next year; but Constance stayed at Langley, and so did Alvena and
Maude. There was a grand gala day in the following August, when the
Lord of Langley was raised from the dignity of Earl of Cambridge to the
higher title of Duke of York: but three days later, the cloth of gold
was changed for mourning serge. A royal courier, on his way from
Reading to London, stayed a few hours at Langley; and he brought word
that the mother of the King, "the Lady Princess," was lying dead at
Wallingford.

The blow was in reality far heavier than it appeared on the surface, and
to the infant Church of the Lollards the loss was irreparable. For the
Princess was a Lollard; and being a woman of most able and energetic
character, she had been until now the _de facto_ Queen of England. She
must have been possessed of consummate tact and prudence, for she
contrived to live on excellent terms with half-a-dozen people of
completely incompatible tempers. When the reins dropped from her dead
hand a struggle ensued among these incompatible persons, who should pick
them up. The struggle was sharp, but short. The elder brothers retired
from the contest, and the reins were left in the Duke of Gloucester's
hand. And woe to the infant Church of the Lollards, when Gloucester
held the reins!

He began his reign--for henceforward he was virtually King--by buying
over his brother of York. Edmund, already the passive servant of
Gloucester, was bribed to acti