"Gramercy, my damsels, but you must be a-weary!" said she. "I wis I was when we hither came. You shall yet have seen none, as I reckon, save our own Queen?"
"None at all," answered Avice. "I would right fain see my Lord Prince."
"And the King and Queen of France—be they here?" said Frideswide.
"They be so," replied Christian, as they found the girl was named: "but, gramercy! they be not much to look at."
Christian pulled an affirmative face. She was evidently ready to continue the conversation to any extent; but both the chamberers were so tired that when their duties were over, they were only too thankful to lie down in bed. Only, before they dropped asleep, Frideswide said,—
"Know you if the Queen hath or no any leaning toward our doctrine?"
"Hush, prithee! I cannot tell, in any wise. The King is good man and holy—men say, holy as any saint. The Queen, I have heard, is a great almsgiver—or so were, when she had alms to give. Poor lady! now ’tis well nigh come to asking alms, with her."
"What a world this is!—a cur of a world, which fawns on its master, and bites the beggar. Ha, ha! it fawns on me now, for the beggar has bought the cur."—EDWARD, EARL LYTTON.
A brilliant spring morning greeted Frideswide’s eyes when she opened her curtains in the little turret-room at Amboise where the chamberers were lodged. Avice was still asleep, but Frideswide, hearing sounds of life without, and fearing it might be late, roused her, and they dressed quickly, and hastened to the Countess’s rooms. They found that lady refreshed by her night’s rest, and in the highest spirits. From the sanguine tone of her conversation, it might have been supposed that the conquest of England was only a thing to ask and have. They would soon be back at Warwick or Middleham,—there could not be the least doubt of it: King Henry would be restored amid the acclamations of a delighted and loyal people, that rebel would have his head cut off, and all would be smooth as a looking-glass, and sweet as a bouquet of roses, for ever thenceforward.
It was not Frideswide’s place to utter a word. But in her heart she thought that she had no wish to return to Middleham. Were it in her power to return to Lovell Tower, that would have been a different matter.