’My lord of Glamorgan is patient as Grisel.  He would pass through the pains of purgatory with never a grumble.  But purgatory is for none such as he.  In good sooth I am made of different stuff.  My soul doth loath deceit, and worse in a king than a clown.  What king is he that will lie for a kingdom!’

Day after day passed, and nothing was done to speed the messenger, who grew more and more anxious to procure his despatches and be gone; but lord Worcester, through the king’s behaviour to his honourable and self-forgetting son, with whom he had never had a difference except on the point of his blind devotion to his majesty’s affairs, had so lost faith in the king himself that he had no heart for his business.  It seems also that for his son’s sake he wished to delay Mr. Boteler, in order that a messenger of his own might reach Glamorgan before Ormond should receive the king’s despatches.  For a whole fortnight therefore no further steps were taken, and Boteler, wearied out, bethought him of applying to the countess to see whether she would not use her influence in his behalf.  I am thus particular about Boteler’s affair, because through it Dorothy came to know what the king’s behaviour had been, and what the marquis thought of it; she was in the room when Mr. Boteler waited on her mistress.

‘May it please your ladyship,’ he said, ’I have sought speech of you that I might beg your aid for the king’s business, remembering you of the hearty affection my master the king beareth towards your lord and all his house.’

’Indeed you do well to remember me of that, master Boteler, for it goeth so hard with my memory in these troubled times that I had nigh forgotten it,’ said the countess dryly.

’I most certainly know, my lady, that his majesty hath gracious intentions towards your lord.’

‘Intention is but an addled egg,’ said the countess.  ’Give me deeds, if I may choose.’

’Alas! the king hath but little in his power, and the less that his business is thus kept waiting.’

’Your haste is more than your matter, master Boteler.  Believe me, whatsoever you consider of it, your going so hurriedly is of no great account, for to my knowledge there are others gone already with duplicates of the business.’

‘Madam, you astonish me.’

’I speak not without book.  My own cousin, William Winter, is one, and he is my husband’s friend, and hath no relation to my lord marquis of Ormond,’ said lady Glamorgan significantly.

’My lord, madam, is your lord’s very good friend, and I am very much his servant; but if his majesty’s business be done, I care not by whose hand it is.  But I thank your honour, for now I know wherefore I am stayed here.’

With these words Boteler withdrew—­and withdraws from my story, for his further proceedings are in respect of it of no consequence.

When he was gone, lady Glamorgan, turning a flushed face, and encountering Dorothy’s pale one, gave a hard laugh, and said: