l parcel of noble bachelors, and choose her husband. Helena was
not slow to make her choice, for among these young lords she saw the
Count Rousillon, and turning to Bertram, she said, "This is the man. I
dare not say, my lord, I take you, but I give me and my service ever
whilst I live into your guiding power." "Why, then," said the king,
"young Bertram, take her; she is your wife." Bertram did not hesitate to
declare his dislike to this present of the king's of the self-offered
Helena, who, he said, was a poor physician's daughter, bred at his
father's charge, and now living a dependent on his mother's bounty.
Helena heard him speak these words of rejection and of scorn, and she
said to the king, "That you are well, my lord, I am glad. Let the rest
go." But the king would not suffer his royal command to be so slighted;
for the power of bestowing their nobles in marriage was one of the many
privileges of the kings of France; and that same day Bertram was married
to Helena, a forced and uneasy marriage to Bertram, and of no promising
hope to the poor lady, who, though she gained the noble husband she had
hazarded her life to obtain, seemed to have won but a splendid blank,
her husband's love not being a gift in the power of the King of France
to bestow.

Helena was no sooner married, than she was desired by Bertram to apply
to the king for him for leave of absence from court; and when she
brought him the king's permission for his departure, Bertram told her
that he was not prepared for this sudden marriage, it had much unsettled
him, and therefore she must not wonder at the course he should pursue.
If Helena wondered not, she grieved when she found it was his intention
to leave her. He ordered her to go home to his mother. When Helena heard
this unkind command, she replied, "Sir, I can nothing say to this, but
that I am your most obedient servant, and shall ever with true
observance seek to eke out that desert, wherein my homely stars have
failed to equal my great fortunes." But this humble speech of Helena's
did not at all move the haughty Bertram to pity his gentle wife, and he
parted from her without even the common civility of a kind farewell.

Back to the countess then Helena returned. She had accomplished the
purport of her journey, she had preserved the life of the king, and she
had wedded her heart's dear lord, the Count Rousillon; but she returned
back a dejected lady to her noble mother-in-law, and as soon as s