sy, common matter at our very hands--for to aid our slow
wits. He is Bread of Life, and Water for cleansing, and Raiment to put
on, and Staff for leaning upon, and Shepherd, and Comforter."

"Enough, now," said Custance, with that strange gentleness which seemed
so unlike her old bright, wilful self. "Leave me learn that lesson ere
I crave a new one."

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Note 1. The Earl of Northumberland, to induce King Richard to place
himself in the power of his cousin Henry.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

FROST AND SNOW.

"Whan bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And every lady went hame,
Than ilka lady had her yong sonne,
But Lady Helen had nane."

_Old Ballad_.

"I have come home, Mother!"

It was Constance who spoke, standing in the hall at Cardiff, wrapped in
the arms of the Dowager Lady Le Despenser. And in every sense, from the
lightest to the deepest, the words were true. The wanderer had come
home. Home to the Castle of Cardiff, which she was never to leave any
more; home to the warm motherly arms of Elizabeth Le Despenser, who cast
all her worn-out theories to the winds, and took her dead son's hapless
darling to her heart of hearts; home to the great heart of God. And the
ear of the elder woman was open to a sound unheard by the younger. The
voice of that dead son echoed in her heart, repeating his dying charge
to her--"Have a care of my Lady!"

"My poor stricken dove!" sobbed the Lady Elizabeth. "Child, men's cruel
handling hath robbed thee of much, yet it hath left thee God and thy
mother!"

Constance looked up, with tears gleaming in her sapphire eyes, now so
much calmer and sadder than of old.

"Ay," she said, the remembrance thrilling through her of the heavy price
at which she had bought back her children; "and I have paid nought for
God and thee."

"Nay, daughter dear, Christ paid that wyte [forfeit] for thee. We may
trust Him to have a care of the quittance," [receipt].

The children now claimed their share of notice. Richard kissed the old
lady in an energetic devouring style, and proclaimed himself "so glad,
Grammer, so glad!" Isabel offered her cheek in her cold unchildlike
way. The baby Alianora at once accepted the new element as a perfectly
satisfactory grandmamma, and submitted to be dandled and talked nonsense
to with pleased equanimity.

"O Bertram!" said Maude that night, "surely our Lady's troubles