d scarcely say no to a prayer from such rosy lips. But
let me not imply aught to disparage his humane and gracious heart. To
Lord Hastings, next to God and his saints, I owe all that is left to
me on earth. Strange that he is not yet here! This is the usual day and
hour on which he comes, from pomp and pleasurement, to visit the lonely
widow." And, pleased to find an attentive listener to her grateful
loquacity, the dame then proceeded, with warm eulogies upon her
protector, to inform Sibyll that her husband had, in the first outbreak
of the Civil War, chanced to capture Hastings, and, moved by his valour
and youth, and some old connections with his father, Sir Leonard, had
favoured his escape from the certain death that awaited him from the
wrath of the relentless Margaret. After the field of Towton, Hastings
had accepted one of the manors confiscated from the attainted House of
Longueville, solely that he might restore it to the widow of the
fallen lord; and with a chivalrous consideration, not contented with
beneficence, he omitted no occasion to show to the noblewoman whatever
homage and respect might soothe the pride, which, in the poverty of
those who have been great, becomes disease. The loyalty of the Lady
Longueville was carried to a sentiment most rare in that day, and rather
resembling the devotion inspired by the later Stuarts. She made her home
within the precincts of the Tower, that, morning and eve, when Henry
opened his lattice to greet the rising and the setting sun, she might
catch a dim and distant glance of the captive king, or animate, by that
sad sight, the hopes and courage of the Lancastrian emissaries, to whom,
fearless of danger, she scrupled not to give counsel, and, at need,
asylum.

While Sibyll, with enchanted sense, was listening to the praise of
Hastings, a low knock at the door was succeeded by the entrance of that
nobleman himself. Not to Elizabeth, in the alcoves of Shene, or on
the dais of the palace hall, did the graceful courtier bend with more
respectful reverence than to the powerless widow, whose very bread was
his alms; for the true high-breeding of chivalry exists not without
delicacy of feeling, formed originally by warmth of heart; and though
the warmth may lose its glow, the delicacy endures, as the steel that
acquires through heat its polish retains its lustre, even when the shine
but betrays the hardness.

"And how fares my noble lady of Longueville? But need I ask? for h