ew, he wore an anxious look. He was devoted to the Countess, and was
aye wont to be timorous where she was concerned.

"'Tis the English Earl of Salisbury," he said, "who desires to speak
with your Grace. I asked him to entrust his message to me, and I would
deliver it, but he gave answer haughtily, that he would speak with no
one but the Countess."

"Then speak with me he shall," said my lady, with a flash of her eye,
"but he must e'en bring himself to catch my words as they drop like
pearls from the top of the tower. Summon the archers, Walter, and let
them stand behind me for a bodyguard: no man need know how old and frail
they be, if they are high enough up, and keep somewhat in the
background. And thou, Marian, attend me, for 'tis not fitting that the
Countess of Dunbar and March should speak with a strange knight in her
husband's absence, without a bower-woman standing by."

Casting her wimple round her, she ascended the steep stone stairs, and,
as we followed, Walter Brand put his head close to mine. "I like it
not," he said in his sober way, "for this Earl of Salisbury is a bold,
brazen-faced fellow, and to my ears his voice rings not true. I fear me,
he wishes no good to our lady. They say, moreover, that he is one of the
best Captains that the King of England hath, and he hath at least two
hundred men with him."

"Trust my lady to look after her own, and her husband's honour," I said
sharply, for, good man though he was, Walter Brand aye angered me; he
seemed ever over-anxious, a character I love not in a man.

All the same my heart sank, as we stepped out on the flat roof of the
tower, and glanced down over the battlements.

I saw at once that Walter had spoken truly. Montague, Earl of Salisbury,
had a bold, bad face, and his words, though honeyed and low, had a false
ring in them.

"My humblest greetings, fair lady," he cried; "my life is at thy
service, for I heard but yesterday that thy lord, caitiff that he be,
hath left thee alone among rough men, in this lonely wind-swept Castle.
Methinks thou art accustomed to kinder treatment and therefore am I come
to beg thee to open thy gates, and allow me to enter. By my soul, if
thou wilt, I shall be thy servant to the death. Such beauty as thine was
never meant to be wasted in the desert. Let me enter, and be thy friend,
and I will deck thee with such jewels,--with gold and with pearls, that
thou shalt be envied of all the ladies in Christendom."

My la