to do his lord's bidding, and he only hesitated for a moment, looking
up, Griselda saw him, and greeted him with a smile.

"Enter, good Furio," she said. "See, they are both asleep. When he
sleeps, my boy is most like his father; but awake, my girl's dark eyes
recall him most. Have you any message from my lord, Furio?"

"My lady," answered the old man, hesitatingly, "I have a message. It
is somewhat hard to deliver, but the duke must have his own will. My
lord fears you are too much with the babes; that you are not quite a
fitting nurse for them. Not that he fears your low birth will taint
the manners of his children, but he fears the people might fancy it was
so, and he must consult the wishes of his people."

"If my lord thinks so," answered Griselda, "he may find nurses for his
babes. It seems as if no love could be so dear as mine. But perchance
he is right. My ways are uncouth beside those of royal blood. I will
give my babes a better teacher. Only I may see them often, and love
them still as dear, can I not, Furio?"

"That is not my lord's wish, madam," said Furio, not daring to look
full at the duchess, and keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. "The
duke fears that even now the people murmur that an heir of base origin
shall grow up to rule over them. And he is forced to study the will of
his people. So he has sent me to take away the babes, and dispose of
them according to his royal orders."

When he had said this, Griselda looked at him as one who did not
understand the language which he spake. All the blood forsook her
cheek, her strength gave way, and falling at the feet of the old
servant, still holding her baby clasped to her breast, she looked up in
his face imploringly, like the deer who lies under the knife of the
hunter.

But when Furio began to take up the babes, the boy from his nest among
his cradle pillows, the girl from her soft refuge in the mother's
bosom,--then the sorrow of Griselda would have melted the tough flint
to tears. She prayed with moving words, she shed such floods of tears,
she gave such piteous cries of agony, that Furio, tearing the children
away with one strong effort, ran from the room with the screaming
infants, his own face drenched with weeping. When the duke heard of
all this, though it did not move him from his obstinacy of purpose, he
yet grieved in secret, and wondered if Griselda's love could outlast
this trial.

The twin babes, torn so rudely fr