hose reverend head should have lent weight
to his words: but they were words, and nought else. How many days were,
ere it was broken to shivers? I tell thee, Nib, Harry of Bolingbroke
may swear an' it like him by every saint in the calendar from Aaron to
Zachary; and when he is through, my faith in his oaths will go by the
eye of a needle. Why, what need of oath if a man be but true? If I
would know somewhat of Maude yonder, I shall never set her to swear by
Saint Nicholas; I can crede her word. And if a man's word be not
trustworthy, how much more worth is his oath?"

"But, Custance! the King's Grace and my Lord Archbishop--"

"How thou clarifiest [glorifiest] the King's Grace! Satan ruleth a
wider realm than he, child, but I would not trust his oath. What caused
them to take account that I should not believe them, unless their own
ill consciences?"

Isabel was silent.

"Isabel!" said her cousin, suddenly turning to her, "have they _his_
oath for the same?"

"Whose, Custance?--my Lord of Kent?"

Custance nodded impatiently.

"Oh, ay."

"He hath allowed our wedding void in law?"

"Ay so."

"What manner of talk held his conscience with him, sithence,
mewondereth?" suggested Custance, in a low, troubled voice. "But maybe,
like thee, he accounteth if but priest's gear."

"Marry, 'tis far lighter travail. I list not to carry mine own sins: I
had the liefer by the worth of the Queen's Highness' gems they were on
the priest's back."

"Ah, Nib!--but how if God charge them on thy back at the last?"

"Good lack! a white lie or twain, spiced with a little matter of
frowardness by times! My back is broad enough."

"I am fain to hear it, for so is not mine."

"Ah! thou art secular--no marvel."

"Much thanks for thy glosing [flattery], mine holy sister!" said
Custance sarcastically. "The angels come down from Heaven, to set thee
every morrow in a bath of rose-water, trow? While I, poor sinner that I
am, having been twice wed, may journey to Heaven as best I can in the
mire. 'Tis well, methinks, there be some secular in the world, for
these monks and nuns be so holy that elsewise there were no use for
God's mercy."

"Nay, Custance!"

"Well, have it as thou wilt, child! What matter?" returned her cousin
with a weary air. "I am no doctor of the schools, to break lances with
thee. Only methinks I have learned, these last months, a lesson or
twain, which maybe even thy holiness were not the worser