"I have travelled far, my Liege," replied Catherine Beauchamp, in a gayer tone; "have made my pilgrimage, and passed part of my noviciate in a cell of the order I have chosen near Dijon. Coming back I met with some Canonesses, who were travelling under the escort of some troops of Burgundy, and with them journeyed to Peronne, whence, under the escort of Sir Richard of Woodville, and accompanied by this good maiden, I came hither. I will not waste your time, my Liege, by telling all the adventures that befel me by the way; but I have to ask pardon of my noble cousin Richard, here, for teasing him somewhat in Westminster and Nieuport, and doing him a still worse turn in Ghent by a letter to Sir John Grey. But, good faith, to say the truth, I thought he was a lighter lover than he has proved himself, and now that I know all, I crave his forgiveness heartily."
"You have it, sweet Kate," answered Richard of Woodville; "but you have several things to hear yet," he continued, in his blunt way, "and some perhaps that may not be very palatable to you."
"Nay, I have heard all," answered Catherine Beauchamp; "but I stand no more in the way of that love, which I had long seen turning to another, when I spurned it from me myself. My vows at the altar will remove all obstacles; and I trust that Dacre will see me as a sister and a friend, though it be but to bid me adieu for ever."
"And I, Woodville," said the King, turning to the young knight, "I, too, would ask you pardon, if I had ever truly suspected you. Such, however, is not the case; and there are many here who can testify, that though I was willing that you should be made to prove your innocence, I never doubted that you could do so. For services rendered, however, and high deeds done, as well as in compensation for much that you have suffered, I give you one half of the forfeited estates of the traitor Sir Thomas Grey, to hold for ever of us and of our heirs, on presentation of a mace, such as that which beat down the adversary of my brother Humphrey upon the day of Agincourt. Sir John Grey, my good old friend, I think you, too, have a gift to give. Come, let me see it given;" and leading forward Richard of Woodville, he brought him to the side of Mary Grey. The old knight placed her hand in his, and the King said "Benedicite."
Ella Brune turned away her head. Her cheek glowed; but there were no tears in her eyes; and, ere many months were gone, she was a cloistered nun in the same convent with Catherine Beauchamp.
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1]: The beard was, at this time, usually shaved off by the English nobles; but many of the older barons still retained it, and I find the mustachio very frequently in contemporaneous representations of younger knights.
[Footnote 2]: A common expression of the lower classes of Londoners in old times.
[Footnote 3]: The recorded words of Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury.
[Footnote 4]: Barros, Dec. i. lib. i. cap. 6.