lder, and
there was that in his cry which made those nearest turn.

A tall figure in black draperies stood towering above him, and in truth
above all the rest of the crowd. 'Twas a woman, and she called out to
the mad creatures about her in command.

"Fools!" she cried; "have a care. Do you want to swing at a rope's end
yourselves?" 'Twas a fierce voice, the voice of a brave creature who
feared none of them; though 'twas a rich voice and a woman's, and so
rang with authority that it actually checked the tempest for a moment
and made the leaders turn to look.

She made her way nearer and threw back her hood from her face.

"I am Clorinda Mertoun, who is Duchess of Osmonde," she cried to them.
"There are many of you know me. Call back your senses, and hearken to
what I say."

The ladies afterwards in describing the scene used to quake as they
tried to paint this moment.

"There was a cry that was like a low howl," they said, "as if beasts
were baffled and robbed of their prey. Some of them knew her and some
did not, but they all stood and stared. Good Lord! 'twas her great
black eyes that held them; but I shall be affrighted when I think of
her, till my dying day."

'Twas her big black eyes and the steady flame in them that held the
poor frenzied fools, perchance as wolves are said to be held by the eye
of man sometimes; but 'twas another thing, and on that she counted.
She looked round from one face to the other.

"You know me," she said to one; "and you, and you, and you," nodding at
each. "I can pick out a dozen of you who know me, and should find more
if I marked you all. How many here are my friends and servants?"

There was a strange hoarse chorus of sounds; they were the voices of
women who were poor bedraggled drabs, men who were thieves and
cutthroats, a few shrill voices of lads who were pickpockets and ripe
for the gallows already.

"Ay, we know thee! Ay, your Grace! Ay!" they cried, some in half-sullen
grunts, some as if half-affrighted, but all in the tones of creatures
who suddenly began to submit to a thing they wondered at.

Then the woman who had begun the turmoil suddenly fell down on her
knees and began to kiss her Grace's garments with hysteric, choking
sobs.

"She said thou wert the only creature had ever spoke her fair," she
cried. "She said thou hadst saved her from going distraught when she
lay in the gaol. Just before the cart was driven away she cried out
sobbing, 'Oh, Lord! Oh, y