n send us a safe deliverance
from this peril!"

"Amen!" responded the peasant, devoutly crossing himself. "It will be a
happy day for me, and my dame too, should we live to see our Henry
restored to his rights."

The worthy knight shook his head as he replied, "I fear me there is but
small chance of that. The king is a young man; he is popular, and has
sons to succeed him, and so long as there is one of the line of York to
hold the sceptre of England, the house of De Clifford will be under a
ban."

"Time, with the aid of Providence, works wonders, my lord."

"True, good Robin, true; but there is not much at present to encourage
such hopes, and I would not have you speak thus to Henry."

"There would be little wisdom, indeed, in that," replied Robin smiling.
"Shall I tell him I have seen you, my lord?"

"Yes, surely--and you can tell him, also, why I thought it prudent to
depart without seeing him, for I would not have him think me careless or
unkind."

He then gave Robin money for his journey, and when all was arranged the
good man took his leave, and Sir Lancelot Threlkeld departed from
Londesborough that same day.

It was joyful news for Henry to hear that he was going to live so near
to his own dear mother again. In the gladness of his heart he was
almost inclined to regard his enemies in the light of friends, since
they had been the cause of this happy change. Maud was very glad too,
for anything that gave pleasure to Henry was always pleasing to her,
besides which she was devotedly attached to Lady Margaret, and rejoiced
in the thought of being settled in a place where she would see her more
frequently than she had done of late, and as for the children, they were
almost out of their wits with delight, for young folks were quite as
fond of novelty four hundred years ago as they are now.

The journey was a long and a rough one, as travellers of a humble class
could not get on very fast in those days when there were no roads, and
it was often a difficult matter to make their way through forests, or
over wide tracts of waste land where the ground was rugged, uneven, and
covered with brushwood. The vast forests which then existed in the
north of England, have long since been cleared away, and wild trackless
heaths have been converted into parks, meadows, and corn-fields. Maud
and the two girls rode in a waggon wherein they had placed some wooden
stools, several baskets of provision, and all their clothi