"To drive the deer with hound and horne
Earl Percy took his way;
The child may rue that is unborne
The hunting of that day."
_Ballad of Chevy Chase_.
"Willemina!" said the old Lady Le Despenser to her bower-maiden, "what
horn was that I heard but now without?"
"Shall I certify your Ladyship?" asked Willemina, rising and gathering
together the embroidered quilt on which she was working.
"Ay, child," said the Dowager; "so do." But when Willemina came back,
she looked very important.
"Madam, 'tis a sumner from my Lord's Grace of Canterbury, that beareth
letter for Sir Ademar. Counteth your Ladyship that he shall be made
bishop or the like?"
"With Harry of Bolingbroke in the throne, and Thomas de Arundel bearing
the mitre?" responded the old lady with a laugh. "Marry, my maid, that
were a new thing."
"Were it so, Madam?" asked Willemina innocently. "Truly, Sir Ademar is
well defamed [has a good reputation] of all around here."
"This is not the world, child!" said the Dowager.
"'Tis more like--Well, Sir Ademar? Hath my Lord's Grace--_Jesu, pour ta
pite_!"
Ademar had walked quietly into the room, and placed a paper in the hands
of the Dowager. It was a solemn writ of excommunication against Ademar
de Milford, clerk in orders, and it was dated on the Sunday which had
intervened between the marriage of Maude and that of Constance. All
official acts of Ademar since that day were invalidated. Maude's
marriage, therefore, was not affected, but Constance was no longer
Countess of Kent.
"Sir Ademar, this is dread!" exclaimed the old lady in trembling
accents. "What can my Lord's Grace have against you? This--this
toucheth right nearly the Lady, our daughter--Christ aid her of His
mercy!"
"Maybe, Madam, it were so intended," said Ademar shrewdly. "For me,
truly I wis little what my Lord hath against me--saving that I see not
in all matters by his most reverend eyes. I know better what the Lord
hath against me--yet what need I note it, seeing it is cancelled in the
blood of His Son?--But for our Lady--ah me!"
"Sir Ademar!"--and the dark sunken eyes of the Dowager looked very
keenly into his--"arede me your thought--is my Lord of Kent he that
should repair this wrong, or no?"