to hear of the unsuccessful attempt to set his prisoner free. He
scolded everybody impartially all round, but especially Matthew and
Father Jordan, the latter of whom was very little to blame, since he was
not only rather deaf, but he slept on the other side of the house, and
had never heard the noise at all. Matthew growled that if he had calmly
marched the conspirators up to the prisoner's chamber, and delivered her
to them, his father could scarcely have treated him worse; whereas he
had safely secured two out of the three, and the prisoner had never been
in any danger.

Kate had been captured as well as the conspirators, and instead of
receiving the promised crespine, she was bitterly rueing her folly,
locked in a small turret room whose only furniture was a bundle of straw
and a rug, with the pleasing prospect of worse usage when her mistress
should return. The morning after their arrival at home, Lady Foljambe
marched up to the turret, armed with a formidable cane, wherewith she
inflicted on poor Kate a sound discipline. Pleading, sobs, and even
screams fell on her ears with as little impression as would have been
caused by the buzzing of a fly. Having finished her proceeding, she
administered to the suffering culprit a short, sharp lecture, and then
locked her up again to think it over, with bread and water as the only
relief to meditation.

The King was expected to come North after Parliament rose--somewhere
about the following February; and Sir Godfrey wrathfully averred that he
should deal with the conspirators himself. The length of time that a
prisoner was kept awaiting trial was a matter of supremely little
consequence in the Middle Ages. His Majesty reached Derby, on his way
to York, in the early days of March, and slept for one night at
Hazelwood Manor, disposing of the prisoners the next morning, before he
resumed his journey.

Nobody at Hazelwood wished to live that week over again. The King
brought a suite of fourteen gentlemen, beside his guard; and they all
had to be lodged somehow. Perrote, Amphillis, Lady Foljambe, and Mrs
Margaret slept in the Countess's chamber.

"The more the merrier," said the prisoner, sarcastically. "Prithee,
Avena, see that the King quit not this house without he hath a word with
me. I have a truth or twain to tell him."

But the King declined the interview. Perhaps it was on account of an
uneasy suspicion concerning that truth or twain which might be told