at when morning broke Uncle
David was gone, and was seen afterwards no more. So then they tried to
keep on the old forge a little longer; but Grandfather was past work,
and Cousin Jack was young and inexperienced, and customers would not
come as they had done to brawny-armed Uncle David, to whose ringing
blows on the anvil Maude had loved to listen. And one day she heard
Aunt Elizabeth say to Grandfather that the forge brought in nothing, and
they must go up to the castle and ask the great Lord there, whose
vassals they were, to find them food until Jack was able to work: but
the old man rose up from the settle and answered, his voice trembling
with passion, that he would starve to death ere he would take food from
the cruel hand which had deprived him of his boy. So then, Cousin Jack
used to go roaming in the forest and bring home roots and wild fruits,
and sometimes the neighbours would give them alms in kind or in money,
and so for a while they tried to live. But Grandfather grew weaker, and
Mother and Aunt Elizabeth very thin and worn, and the bloom faded from
Cousin Hawise's cheeks, and the gloss died away from her shining hair.
And at last Grandfather died. And then Aunt Elizabeth went to a
neighbouring franklin's farm, to serve the franklin's dame; and Cousin
Jack went away to sea; and Maude could not recollect how they lived for
a time. And then came another mournful day, when strange people came to
the cottage and roughly ordered the three who were left to go away.
They took Cousin Hawise with them, for they said she would be comely if
she were well fed, and the Lady had seen her, and she must go and serve
the Lady. And Maude never knew what became of her. But Mother wept
bitterly, and seemed to think that Hawise's lot was a very unhappy one.
So then they set out, Mother and Maude, for London. The reasons for
going to London were very dim and vague to Maude's apprehension. They
were going to look for somebody; so much she knew: and she thought it
was some relation of Grandmother's, who might perchance give them a home
again. London was a very grand place, only a little less than the
world: but it could not fill quite all the world, because there was room
left for Pleshy and one or two other places. The King lived in London,
who never did any thing all day long but sit on a golden throne, with a
crown on his head, and eat bread and marmalade, and drink Gascon wine;
and the Queen, who of course sat on a