"'From this night all men shall kneel--all men on whom I
deign to cast my eyes'" _Frontispiece_

FACING
PAGE
"Your Grace, it is this lady who is to do me the great
honour of becoming my Lady Dunstanwolde" 232




HIS GRACE OF OSMONDE

_CHAPTER I_

_The Fifth Day of April, 1676_


Upon the village of Camylott there had rested since the earliest peep
of dawn a hush of affectionate and anxious expectancy, the very
plough-boys going about their labours without boisterous laughter, the
children playing quietly, and the good wives in their kitchens and
dairies bustling less than usual and modulating the sharpness of their
voices, the most motherly among them in truth finding themselves
falling into whispering as they gossiped of the great subject of the
hour.

"The swallows were but just beginning to stir and twitter in their