llest to sleep again, I must
tweak thee by the nose!"

This terrible threat seemed to be nearly as effectual as the mop.
Edmund stretched himself lazily, and in very sleepy accents desired to
know what his brother could possibly mean by such wanton cruelty.

"Where is thy breeding, churl, to use such thewis [manners] with a
lady?" demanded little Roger in a scandalised voice.

"Lady!--where is one?" murmured Edmund, whose eyes were still shut.

"Methinks thou art roused now, Nym," said Constance. "But when thou
shalt be a knight, I pity thy squire. Haste, lad, rise and busk thee in
silence, but make as good speed as ever thou canst Roger, see he turneth
not back to sleep. I go to thy sisters."

"Nay, but he will, an' you pluck him not out of bed!" said little Roger,
who evidently felt himself unfit to cope with the emergency.

"Thou canst wring him by the nose, then," said Constance, laughing.
"Come, Nym! turn out--quick!" Edmund turned over on his face, buried it
in the pillow, and tacitly intimated that to get up at the present
moment was an impossibility.

"He'll have another nap!" said little Roger, in the mournful tone of a
prophet who foresaw the speedy accomplishment of his tragical
predictions.

"But he must not!" exclaimed Constance, returning. "Then you must pluck
him out, and set him on the floor," repeated little Roger earnestly.
"'Twill be all I can do to let him to [hinder him from] get in again
then--without you clap his chaucers [slippers] about his ears," he added
meditatively, as if this expedient might possibly answer.

Constance took the future master of England by his shoulders, and pulled
him out of bed without any further quarter. The monarch elect grumbled
exceedingly, but in so inarticulate a style that very little could be
understood.

"Now, Nym!" said Constance warningly to her refractory and dilatory
nephew, "if thou get into bed again, we will leave thee behind, and
crown Roger, that is worth ten of thee. By my Lady Saint Mary! a pretty
King thou wilt make!"

"Eh?" inquired Edmund, brightening up. "Let be. Go on and busk thee.
Roger! if he is not speedy, come to the door and say it."

Constance went back to the girls. She found Anne nearly ready, but
Alianora, who apparently shared the indolent disposition of her elder
brother, was dressing in the most deliberate manner, though Maude and
Anne were both hastening her as much as they could.

"Now, Nell!" said Constanc