Then Lord Powys, in search for the “rebels,” marched up and demanded aid. He was answered by silence: and he marched on and away, helped by no hand or voice in Cardiff Castle.
“I must give them up!” Constance whispered to Maude, in accents so hopelessly mournful that it wrung her tender heart to hear them. “I cannot give Him up!”
For just then, in the eyes of every Lollard, to follow Lord Cobham was equivalent to following Christ.
Weaker and weaker she grew now; always confined to bed; worse from day to day.
And at last, on the 28th of November, 1416, the ominous horn sounded without the moat, and the Sheriff of the county, armed with all the power of the law, entered the Castle of Cardiff, to call the Lady Le Despenser to account for her repeated and contumacious neglect of the royal command.
“Lady mine,” said Maude, tenderly, kneeling by her, “the Sheriff is here.”
“It is come, then!” replied Constance very quietly. “Bring my little maids to me. Let me kiss them once more ere they tear them away from me. God help me to bear the rest!”
She kissed them both, and blessed them fervently, bidding them “be good maids and serve God.” Then she lay back again in the bed, and softly turned her face to the wall so that the intruders would not see it.
“The Sheriff may enter in,” she said in a low voice. “Lord, I have left all, and have followed Thee!”
Does it seem a small matter for which to sacrifice all? The balances of the Sanctuary are not used with weights of earth.