sleep i' this house, and not be
waked up wi' jarring and jangling. I tell thee what, Avice--when the
big folks up to London town runs short o' money, I wonder they don't
clap a bit of a tax on women's tongues! It'd bring 'em in a tunful in a
week, _that_ would."

"How would you collect it, Uncle Dan?"

"Nay, there thou floors me. They'd best send down a chap all over steel
to th' smithy, He'd get plucked o' pieces else. Well, God be wi' thee,
Avice. God bless thee, Bertha, my lass. Good-night!"

And Uncle Dan disappeared into the darkness. There were no street lamps
then. Every man had to carry his own lantern, unless he chose to run
the risk of breaking his neck over the round stones which formed the
streets, or the rough ground, interspersed with holes and pits, to be
found everywhere else.

They now sat down to work for the rest of the evening, Avice on the
settle in the corner, Bertha on one of the low stools which she brought
up to the hearth.

"Lack-a-day! what have I forgot!" said Avice as Bertha drew up her stool
and unfolded the apron she was making. "I thought to have asked Nora
Goldhue for a sprig of betony, or else purslane. 'Tis o'er late
to-night, and verily I am too weary to go forth again."

"Have you bad dreams, Aunt?" asked Bertha, knowing that a sprig of
either of those herbs under the pillow was believed to drive them away.

"Ay, child; they have troubled me these four nights past, but last night
more especially."

No wonder, after a supper on franche-mule! But it never occurred to
ignorant Avice that supper and dreams could have anything to do with one
another.

"Shall I fetch you a laurel leaf, Aunt?" suggested Bertha.

"Ay, do, child; maybe that shall change the luck. Best go ere it rain,
too; and that will not be long, for I saw a black snail in the channel
as we came in."

Bertha tied on her hood, and ran out to the house of the next-door
neighbour, who had a laurel in her garden, to beg a few of its leaves,
which were supposed to bring pleasant dreams. Having placed these under
her aunt's bolster, she sat down again to her work, and Avice resumed
her interrupted story.

"It was in July, 1254, when our little Lady was but eight months old,
that the Lady Queen set forth to join the Lord King in Gascony. There
were many ships taken up for her voyage, amongst which were the _Savoy_,
the _Falcon_, and the _Baroness_, that was my Lord of Leicester's ship.
In the ship wh