en our little Lady's
health failed again. The Lord King was so anxious about her that when
he was away from Windsor, he bade the Lady Queen to send him a special
messenger with news of her; and so delighted was he to hear of her
recovery, that he commanded a good robe to be given to the messenger,
and offered in thanksgiving an image of silver, wrought in the form of a
woman, to the shrine of Saint Edward."

"Then she did recover, Aunt?"

"Ay, but it was for the last time. As the summer drew on, the Lady
Queen asked Master Thomas if he thought it well that the little Lady
should have change again, and be sent into the country till the heat was
past. Master Thomas answered that he reckoned it unnecessary; and the
Lady Queen departed, well pleased. But as soon as she was gone, Master
Thomas said to me and Julian the Rocker, who were tending our little
Lady--`She will have a better change than to Swallowfield.' Quoth
Julian, `Say you so, Master? Whither do you purpose sending her?' And
he said, looking sadly on the child, `_I_ purpose sending her? Truly,
good Julian, no whither. But ere long time be over, the Lord our God
will send for her, by that angel that taketh no bribe to delay execution
of His mandate.' And then I knew his meaning: my darling was to die.
But the steps of the angel were very slow. The autumn came and went.
The child seemed languid and dull, and the Lord King offered a chasuble
of samite to the blessed Edmund of Pontigny at his altar at Canterbury."

Edmund Rich, afterwards called Saint Edmund of Pontigny, was an
Archbishop of Canterbury with whom King Henry the Third was at variance
as long as he lived, much in the same way as Henry the Second had been
with Becket. Now he was dead, a banished man, the Pope had declared him
a saint, and King Henry made humble offerings at his shrine. But it is
amusing to find that with respect to this offering at least, his
Majesty's instructions were to buy the samite of the lowest price that
could be found!

"It was all of no use," pursued Avice sorrowfully. "The angel had
received the mandate. Great feasts were held at Easter--there were
twenty beeves and fifty muttons, fifteen hundred pullets, and six
hundred shillings' worth of bread, beside many other things--but ere one
month was over, the feast became a fast. When Saint Philip's day dawned
my darling lay in her bed, with her fair eyes turned up to heaven and
her hands folded in prayer; and