CHAPTER IV.
The royal couple lived at Westminster, in the palace of Edward the Confessor, and Matilda devoted much of her time to the care of the sick and the needy. She was so strict concerning her religious duties, that every day in Lent she went to Westminster Abbey barefooted and clothed in a garment of haircloth. Then she would wash and kiss the feet of the poorest people. One day a courtier reproved her for it, but she replied, as the following curious dialogue, taken from a rhyming chronicle of the day, will show,—
"Madam, for God's love is this well ado
To handle such unclean limbs and to kiss so?
Foul would the king think if this thing he wist,
And right well avile him ere he your lips kist."
"Sir, sir!" quoth the queen, "be still. Why say you so?
Our Lord himself example gave for to do so."