"That is not my lord's wish, madam," said Furio, not daring to look
full at the duchess, and keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. "The
duke fears that even now the people murmur that an heir of base origin
shall grow up to rule over them. And he is forced to study the will of
his people. So he has sent me to take away the babes, and dispose of
them according to his royal orders."

When he had said this, Griselda looked at him as one who did not
understand the language which he spake. All the blood forsook her
cheek, her strength gave way, and falling at the feet of the old
servant, still holding her baby clasped to her breast, she looked up in
his face imploringly, like the deer who lies under the knife of the
hunter.

But when Furio began to take up the babes, the boy from his nest among
his cradle pillows, the girl from her soft refuge in the mother's
bosom,--then the sorrow of Griselda would have melted the tough flint
to tears. She prayed with moving words, she shed such floods of tears,
she gave such piteous cries of agony, that Furio, tearing the children
away with one strong effort, ran from the room with the screaming
infants, his own face drenched with weeping. When the duke heard of
all this, though it did not move him from his obstinacy of purpose, he
yet grieved in secret, and wondered if Griselda's love could outlast
this trial.

The twin babes, torn so rudely from their mother, were sent to a noble
sister of the duke, who dwelt in Pavia; but no word was told to
Griselda of their fate; and she, poor mother, submissive to her
husband's will, because she believed it supreme, like God's, dared not