not let us miss the right way, for the
rough stones and the steep mountain-side. Thou hast trodden before us
every foot of that weary road, and we need but to plant our steps in Thy
footmarks, which we know well from all others by their blood-marked
track. O blessed Jesu Christ! it is fair journeying to follow Thee, and
Thou leadest Thy sheep safe to the fold of the Holy Land."

I mind her words well. For, woe is me! they were nearhand the last that
ever I heard of her.

"Dame," said I, "do you bid me retreat belike?"

"Nay, daughter," quoth she, and smiled, "thou art no longer at my
bidding. Ask thine husband, child."

So I told Jack what my mother had said. He sat and meditated thereon
afore the fire, while I made ready my Christmas gown of blue kaynet
guarded with stranling. [Note 6.]

"Sissot," saith he, his meditation ended, "I think Dame Alice speaks
wisely."

"Then wouldst thou depart the Court, Jack?" said I.

"I? Nay, sweet heart. The young King hath about him no more true men
than he needeth. And as I wait at his _coucher_, betimes I can drop a
word in his ear that may, an' it please God, be to his profit. He is
yet tender ground, and the seed may take root and thrive: and I am tough
gnarled old root, that can thole a blow or twain, and a rough wind by
now and then."

"Jack!" cried I, laughing. "`A tough gnarled old root,' belike! Thou
art not yet of seven-and-thirty years, though I grant thee wisdom enough
for seventy."

"I thank you heartily, Dame Cicely, for that your courtesy," quoth he,
and made me a low reverence. "Ay, dear heart, a gnarled root of
cross-grained elm, fit for a Yule log. I 'bide with the King, Sissot.
But thou wist, that sentence [argument] toucheth not thee, if thou
desire to depart with Dame Alice. And maybe it should be the best for
thee."

"I depart from the Court, Jack, on a pillion behind thee," said I, "and
no otherwise. I say not I might not choose to dwell elsewhere the
rather, if place were all that were in question; but to win out of ill
company at the cost of thy company, were to be at heavier charge than my
purse can compass. And seeing I am in my duty therein, I trust God
shall keep me from evil and out of temptation."

"Amen!" saith Jack, and kissed me. "We will both pray, my dear heart,
to be kept out of temptation; but let us watch likewise that we slip not
therein. They be safe kept that God keepeth; and seeing that not our
self-will nor