ing perhaps of the hot spiced wine in the King's
cups.

After a moment of hesitation, she flew up to her saddle like a bird.
"Do you all think so?" she laughed. "Certainly I never felt in lustier
spirits. I declare that I will try it. Hasten, before the roses wilt in
my cheeks. Forward! To the Palace!"

Chapter XXVI. In The Judgment Hall

Strong is the bar
That must be raised
To admit all.
Ha'vama'l.

While he kept a firm hold upon the spear which he had dropped like a
gilded bar across the door, the English sentinel repeated for the tenth
time his respectful denial: "I will take it upon me to admit you to the
gallery, noble lady; but you were the Queen herself, I dare not let you
in to the lower part. There be none but men with the King, and it is not
fitting--"

"And is the son of a Saxon serf to decide where it is fitting for me to
go?" the Lady of Northampton demanded, facing him in a tempest of angry
beauty. "Whatsoever you shall do by my direction, dog, will in all
respects be available to your credit. Let me through to my husband, or I
can tell you that you will find your wariness terribly misplaced!"

The guard discreetly held his tongue,--but he likewise held his
position. Elfgiva's bosom was beginning to heave in hysterical menace
when a second soldier, lounging against the wall behind the first,
ventured a soothing word.

"For your own safety, noble one, ask it not. The King is listening to a
quarrel between an Englishman and a Dane; and by reason of it, there are
many in the room whose tempers may--"

Randalin, who alone of all the maidens had remained undauntedly at
her mistress' elbow, caught that elbow in a vice-like grip. "Take the
gallery, then, lady!" she urged in a piercing whisper. "The gallery, as
quick as you can."

As an angry cat wounds whoever is nearest, Elfgiva scratched her in the
same undertone. "Stupid! Do you imagine that the only Englishman who has
part in the world is the one you showed yourself a fool for? Do you not
understand that if I let them assign me to some dark gallery, Canute
will not be able to see me?"

It did not appear that the girl so much as felt the claws. Her eyes had
a look of strained listening as they gazed past the sentinel and across
the ante-room to the great curtained doorway. "He will succeed better in
seeing you through a dim light than through a stone wall," she returned.

Biting her lips, the fair Tyrant of Northampt