subjects; and to make himself only a life-giving sun, when he might be a destructive thunderbolt."

"He is very kind, and we all owe him thanks," said Ivo, who had a confused notion that the Pope might strike him dead with lightning, but was good-natured "Still, he might think of this plan, for they say that the lady is an old friend of Hereward's, and not over fond of her Scotch husband." "That I know well," said William.

enough not to do so.

"And beside-if aught untoward should happen to Dolfin and his kin

"She might, with her broad lands, be a fine bait for Hereward. I see. Now, do this, by my command. Send a trusty monk into Ely. Let him tell the monks that we have determined to seize all their outlying lands, unless they surrender within the week. And let

him tell Hereward, by the faith and oath of William of Normandy, that if he will surrender himself to my grace, he shall have his lands in Bourne, and a free pardon for himself and all his comrades."

The men assented, much against their will, and went out on their errand.

"You have played me a scurvy trick, sir," said Ascelin to Ivo, "in advising the king to give the Lady Alftruda to Hereward."

"What! Did you want her yourself? On my honour I knew not of it. But have patience. You shall have her yet, and all her lands, if you will hear my counsel, and keep it."

"But you would give her to Hereward!"

"And to you too. It is a poor bait, say these frogs of fenmen, that will not take two pike running. Listen to me. I must kill this accursed fox of a Wake. I hate him. I cannot eat my meat for thinking of him. Kill him I must."

"And so must I."

"Then we are both agreed. Let us work together, and never mind if one's blood be old and the other's new. I am neither fool nor weakly, as thou knowest." Ascelin could not but assent.

"Then here. We must send the King's message. But we must add to it."

"That is dangerous."

"So is war; so is eating, drinking; so is everything. But we must not let The Wake come in. We must drive him to despair. Make the messenger add but one word—that the king exempts from the amnesty Torfrida, on account of—You can put it into more scholarly shape than I can."

"On account of her abominable and notorious sorceries; and demands that she shall be given up forthwith, to be judged as she deserves."

"Just so. And then for a load of reeds out of Haddenham fen!"

"Heaven forbid!" said Ascelin, who had loved her once. "Would not perpetual imprisonment suffice?" "What care I? That is the King's affair, not ours. But I fear we shall not get her. Even so Hereward will flee with her-maybe escape to Flanders or Denmark. He can escape through a rat's hole if he

I had sooner

will. However, then we are at peace. kill him and have done with it: but out of the way he must be put."

So they sent a monk in with the message; and commanded him to tell the article about the Lady Torfrida, not only to Hereward, but to the abbot and all the monks.

A curt and fierce answer came back, not from Hereward, but from Torfrida herself that William of Normandy was no knight himself, or he would not offer a knight his life, on condition of burning his lady.

William swore horribly. "What is all this about?" They told him-as much as they chose to tell him. He was very wroth. Who was Ivo Taillebois, to add to his message? He had said that Torfrida should not burn." Taillebois was stout; for he had won the secretary over to his side meanwhile. He had said nothing about burning. oversight of the King's. knew, could not, with all included in an amnesty. astical censure, and the ecclesiastical courts.

He had merely supplied an The woman, as the secretary deference to his majesty, be

She was liable to ecclesi

"Ecclesiastical courts? What is this new doctrine, Churchman?" asked William.

"The superstition of sorcery, my Lord King, is neither more nor less than that of heresy itself; seeing that the demons whom it invokes are none other than the old Pagan gods: and as heresy—” William exploded with fearful oaths.

He was

always jealous (and wisely) for his own prerogatives. And the doctrine was novel, at least in England. Witches were here considered as offenders against the private person enchanted, rather than against the Church; and executions for witchcraft rarely, if ever, took place, unless when the witch was supposed to have injured life or property.

"Have I not given you churchmen enough already, that you must assume my King's power of life and death? Do I not slay and torment enough, heaven forgive me? without needing you to help me?"

The Italian saw that he had gone too far. "Heaven forbid," he said, "that the Church should stain her hands with the blood of the worst of sinners. All she could do was, having proved guilt, to deliver the offender over to the secular arm, doubtless with merciful entreaties that there might be no shedding of blood."

"There is none, I presume, when folks are burned alive," quoth William, with a sneer. "So you are to be the judges, and me your executioner, eh? An honourable office, truly. Beware, Sir Clerk! Beware!"

"If the fire of my zeal has for a moment too rashly melted the ice of my modesty

"Of thy craft, say"

"My humility humbly entreats forgiveness. I do not press the matter. Only it seemed-it seemed at least to me, that after the slight scandal-forgive my fidelity the word-to the faithful caused by

your highness's unhappy employment of the witch of Brandon__”

William cursed under his breath.

"Your highness might nobly atone therefor by executing justice on a far more flagitious offender, who has openly compassed and effected the death of hundreds of your highness's otherwise invincible warriors

"And throw good money after bad," said William, laughing. "I tell thee, priest, she is too pretty to burn, were she the Witch of Endor herself."

"Be it so. Your royal clemency can always remit her sentence, even so far as to pardon her entirely, if your merciful temper should so incline you. But meanwhile, what better could we have done, than to remind the monks of Ely that she was a sorceress; that she had committed grave crimes, and was liable to punishment herself, and they to punishment also, as her shelterers and accomplices?"

"What your highness wanted," quoth Taillebois, "was to bring over the monks; and I believe that message had been a good stroke toward that. As for Hereward, you need not think of him. He never will come in alive. He has sworn an oath, and he will keep it."

And so the matter ended.