Both names went down on the Countess's tablet, after Guenllian had lighted a candle for that purpose.
"Did David give the thralls to wit of the games and rejoicings allowed to-morrow?"
"Ay, my Lady: and he saith one and all were greatly gladded thereby. My young Lord shall be right welcome to all his vassals some day to be."
The Countess drew a long breath of semi-apprehension. "May he be none the less desired, God grant, when they shall lay his head beneath the mould! O my maid, how great and awesome a thing is the life of a man on earth!"
"Madam, I heard once the parson of Ludgarshal, Dan John, to say"——
"Have on. A good man is Dan John. What said he?"
"That our Lord bound Him to care for the childer of them that feared Him; and that no prayer so made should ever be lost."
"But how answered?" was the low-toned reply. "Wenteline, our prayers be sometimes heard in a manner that crusheth the heart of him that prayed them. If the babe were to die!"
"Very dear Lady, it might be, elsewise, that a twenty years' space hereafter, you should heartily wish that he had died the sooner. Surely it can be no evil thing for a little child to go right to God, while he is yet lapped about with the white robes of his chrisom."
"I have buried three, Wenteline: and of them one went so. The other were pretty little childer that prattled at my knee. And it was like burying a piece of mine own heart to part with every one."