ughter, Constance Le Despenser;" she named two of
the most eminent Lollards living (Sir Lewis Clifford and Sir Richard
Stury) as her executors; she showed that she retained, like the majority
of the Lollards, a belief in Purgatory, by one bequest for masses to be
sung for her soul; and lastly--a very Protestant item when considered
with the rest--she desired to be interred, not by the shrine of any
saint or martyr, but "whithersoever her Lord should appoint."

The priests said that she died "very penitent." But for what? For her
early follies and sins, no doubt she did. But of course they wished it
to be understood that it was for her Wycliffite heresies.

It was about the beginning of February, 1393, that the Duchess died.
Her husband never awoke fully to his irreparable loss until long after
he had lost her. But he held her memory in honour at her burial, with a
gentle respect which showed some faint sense of it. The cemetery which
he selected for her resting-place was that nearest her home--the Priory
Church of Langley. There the dust slept quietly; and the soul which had
never nestled down on earth, found its first and final home in Heaven.

It might not unreasonably have been expected that Constance, now left
the only woman of her family, would have remembered that there was
another family to which she also belonged, and a far-off individual who
stood to her in the nominal relation of husband. But it did not please
her Ladyship to remember any such thing. She liked queening it in her
father's palace; and she did not like the prospect of yielding
precedence to her mother-in-law, which would have been a necessity of
her married life. As to the Lord Le Despenser, she was absolutely
indifferent to him. Her childish feeling of contempt had not been
replaced by any kindlier one. It was not that she disliked him: she
cared too little about him even to hate him. When the thought of going
to Cardiff crossed her mind, which was not often, it was always
associated with the old Lady Le Despenser, not at all with the young
Lord.

Now and then the husband and wife met for a few minutes. The Lord Le
Despenser had grown into a handsome and most graceful gentleman, of
accomplished manners and noble bearing. When they thus met, they
greeted each other with formal reverences; the Baron kissed the hand of
the Princess; each hoped the other was well; they exchanged a few
remarks on the prominent topics of the day, and