ense of unusual awe had
softened into a sound much lower than its usual coarse tones.

Edith could remain silent no longer. "If your Grace," she said to the
Queen, "make not your own way, I make it for you; or if not for your
Majesty, for myself at least.--Chamberlain, the Queen demands to see
King Richard--the wife to speak with her husband."

"Noble lady," said the officer, lowering his wand of office, "it grieves
me to gainsay you, but his Majesty is busied on matters of life and
death."

"And we seek also to speak with him on matters of life and death," said
Edith. "I will make entrance for your Grace." And putting aside the
chamberlain with one hand, she laid hold on the curtain with the other.

"I dare not gainsay her Majesty's pleasure," said the chamberlain,
yielding to the vehemence of the fair petitioner; and as he gave way,
the Queen found herself obliged to enter the apartment of Richard.

The Monarch was lying on his couch, and at some distance, as awaiting
his further commands, stood a man whose profession it was not difficult
to conjecture. He was clothed in a jerkin of red cloth, which reached
scantly below the shoulders, leaving the arms bare from about half way
above the elbow; and as an upper garment, he wore, when about as at
present to betake himself to his dreadful office, a coat or tabard
without sleeves, something like that of a herald, made of dressed bull's
hide, and stained in the front with many a broad spot and speckle of
dull crimson. The jerkin, and the tabard over it, reached the knee; and
the nether stocks, or covering of the legs, were of the same leather
which composed the tabard. A cap of rough shag served to hide the upper
part of a visage which, like that of a screech owl, seemed desirous to
conceal itself from light, the lower part of the face being obscured by
a huge red beard, mingling with shaggy locks of the same colour. What
features were seen were stern and misanthropical. The man's figure was
short, strongly made, with a neck like a bull, very broad shoulders,
arms of great and disproportioned length, a huge square trunk, and thick
bandy legs. This truculent official leant on a sword, the blade of which
was nearly four feet and a half in length, while the handle of twenty
inches, surrounded by a ring of lead plummets to counterpoise the weight
of such a blade, rose considerably above the man's head as he rested his
arm upon its hilt, waiting for King Richard's further di