Then, after sitting silent whilst one might tell an hundred, she spoke out suddenly, as though she thought aloud:—"Surely his uncle dare not harm my pretty Edward! Oh, no! not while my little Richard doth remain to be his avenger," she added, with a smile of satisfaction.
The Queen had evidently forgot the presence of her woeful messengers, so absorbed was she in her deep train of thought.
"A pleasant thing it is indeed to be the widow of a King, and the mother of a King," she said, again speaking to her heart. "Great, powerful, respected, happy. Ha, ha, ha! Yes, respected and happy.
"Hush! fear not; he shall not harm thee. Thou art with thy mother; and thy mother is the Queen. We had to fly to Sanctuary before, when Margaret had success. But look how thy father did defeat her, and again we came to power. Thy father is the King, and a great and gallant warrior. Again will he trample on his enemies. There, there, fear not, all things shall be well, all things shall be well. There's a good pet; go to sleep in thy mother's arms as thou didst years ago," and she patted an imaginary child in the gentle, soothing way known only to a mother.
I glanced enquiringly at Harleston.
He nodded.
We walked on tip-toe to the door, and stole softly from the room.
The sorrow of this woman was too sacred to be looked on by vulgar mortal eyes.
"What punishment can be severe enough to repay the causer of such woe for his accursed acts?" I asked of my friend, when we were alone in the room adjoining the one we had just left.
"Fear not," he replied; "his punishment must overtake him.