s cheek.

"Mine own Philippa," she said, in the softest accent of her soft voice,
"dost thou think I have waited thirty years for that?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. I am aware that this resolution will appear inconsistent with
Isabel's character; yet any other would have been inconsistent with her
times. The vows of recluses were held very sacred; and the opinions of
the Boni-Homines on the monastic question were little in advance of
those of the Church of Rome.

Note 2. Had Sir Richard been a peer, he would have said "_our_ hands."
This style, now exclusively royal, was in 1372 employed by all the
nobles.

Note 3. This adjective also was peculiar to the peerage and the Royal
Family. It was given to every relation except between husband and wife:
and the French _beau-pirt_ for _father-in-law_ is doubtless derived from
it. Nay, it was conferred on the Deity; and "Fair Father Jesu Christ"
was by no means an uncommon title used in prayer. In like manner, Saint
Louis, when he prayed, said, "_Sire Dieu_," the title of knighthood.
Quaint and almost profane as this usage sounds to modern ears, I think
their instinct was right: they addressed God in the highest and most
reverential terms they knew.

CHAPTER TEN.

FOUR YEARS LATER.

"When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the billows past?"

Keble.

It was winter again; and the winds blew harshly and wailingly around the
Castle of Arundel. In the stateliest chamber of that Castle, where the
hangings were of cramoisie paned with cloth of gold, the evening tapers
were burning low, and a black-robed priest knelt beside the bed where an
old man lay dying.

"I can think of nothing more, Father," faintly whispered the penitent.
"I have confessed every sin that I have ever sinned, so far as my memory
serveth: and many men have been worse sinners than I. I never robbed a
church in all my wars. I have bequeathed rents and lands to the Priory
of God and Saint Pancras at Lewes, for two monks to celebrate day by day
masses of our Lady and of the Holy Ghost,--two hundred pounds; and for
matins and requiem masses in my chapel here, a thousand marks; and four
hundred marks to purchase rent lands for the poor; and all my debts I
have had a care to pay. Can I perform any other good work? Will that
do, Father?"

"Thou canst do nought else, my son," answered the priest. "Thou hast
right nobly purc