rose to her feet.

"Eh, my God!" she said; "I am wearied of such ungracious aid! Not an
inch of the way but you have been thinking of your filthy books and
longing to be back at them! No; I except the moments when you were
frightened into forgetfulness--first by Falmouth, then by the trooper. O
Eternal Father! fraid of a single dirty soldier!"

"Indeed, I was very much afraid," said Messire Heleigh, with perfect
simplicity; "_timidus perire_, madame."

"You have not even the grace to be ashamed! Yet I am shamed, messire,
that Osmund Heleigh should have become the book-muddled pedant you are.
For I loved him--do you understand?--I loved young Osmund Heleigh."

He also had risen in the firelight, and now its convulsive shadows marred
two dogged faces. "I think it best not to recall that boy and girl who
are so long dead. And, frankly, madame and Queen, the merit of the
business I have in hand is questionable. It is you who have set all
England by the ears, and I am guiding you toward opportunities for
further mischief. I must serve you. Understand, madame, that ancient
folly in Provence yonder has nothing to do with the affair. Remember
that I cry _nihil ad Andromachen_! I must serve you because you are a
woman and helpless; yet I cannot forget that he who spares the wolf is
the sheep's murderer. It would be better for all England if you were
dead. Hey, your gorgeous follies, madame! Silver peacocks set with
sapphires! Cloth of fine gold--"

"Would you have me go unclothed?" Dame Alianora demanded, pettishly.

"Not so," Osmund retorted; "again I say to you with Tertullian, 'Let
women paint their eyes with the tints of chastity, insert into their ears
the Word of God, tie the yoke of Christ about their necks, and adorn
their whole person with the silk of sanctity and the damask of devotion.'
And I say to you--"

But Dame Alianora was yawning quite frankly. "You will say to me that I
brought foreigners into England, that I misguided the King, that I
stirred up strife between the King and his barons. Eh, my God! I am
sufficiently familiar with the harangue. Yet listen, my Osmund: They
sold me like a bullock to a man I had never seen. I found him a man of
wax, and I remoulded him. They gave me England as a toy; I played with
it. I was the Queen, the source of honor, the source of wealth--the
trough, in effect, about which swine gathered. Never in all my English
life, Osmund, has man or woman lov