, and
peacefully; and she displayed upon the throne all the daring, wit, and
wisdom that had marked her actions when, years before, she was nothing
but a sprightly and determined little Chinese maiden, on the banks of
the turbid Yellow River.

EDITH OF SCOTLAND.: THE GIRL OF THE NORMAN ABBEY.

(Afterward known as the "Good Queen Maud" of England.) A.D. 1093.

On a broad and deep window-seat in the old Abbey guest-house at
Gloucester, sat two young girls of thirteen and ten; before them,
brave-looking enough in his old-time costume, stood a manly young fellow
of sixteen. The three were in earnest conversation, all unmindful of
the noise about them--the romp and riot of a throng of young folk,
attendants, or followers of the knights and barons of King William's
court.

For William Rufus, son of the Conqueror and second Norman king of
England, held his Whitsuntide gemot, or summer council of his lords and
lieges, in the curious old Roman-Saxon-Norman town of Gloucester, in the
fair vale through which flows the noble Severn. The city is known to the
young folk of to-day as the one in which good Robert Raikes started the
first Sunday-school more than a hundred years ago. But the gemot of
King William the Red, which was a far different gathering from good Mr.
Raikes' Sunday-school, was held in the great chapter-house of the old
Benedictine Abbey, while the court was lodged in the Abbey guest-houses,
in the grim and fortress-like Gloucester Castle, and in the houses of
the quaint old town itself.

The boy was shaking his head rather doubtfully as he stood, looking down
upon the two girls on the broad window-seat.

"Nay, nay, beausire(1); shake not your head like that," exclaimed the
younger of the girls. "We did escape that way, trust me we did; Edith
here can tell you I do speak the truth--for sure, 't was her device."

(1) "Fair sir": an ancient style of address, used especially toward
those high in rank in Norman times.

Thirteen-year-old Edith laughed merrily enough at her sister's
perplexity, and said gayly as the lad turned questioningly to her:

"Sure, then, beausire, 't is plain to see that you are Southron-born and
know not the complexion of a Scottish mist. Yet 't is even as Mary said.
For, as we have told you, the Maiden's Castle standeth high-placed on
the crag in Edwin's Burgh, and hath many and devious pathways to the
lower gate, So when the Red Donald's men were swarming up the steep, my
uncle