slight, notice from the old Knight. Fulk Clarenham, too, having
received from the Prince the government of Perigord, was seldom
at court, and no active enemy appeared to be at work against him.

Agnes de Clarenham, always retiring and pensive, and seldom sought
out by those who admired gayer damsels, was sitting apart in the
embrasure of a window, whence, through an opening in the trees of
the garden, she could catch a distant glimpse of the blue waters
of the river where it joined the sea, which separated her from her
native land, and from her who had ever been as a mother to her. She
was so lost in thought, that she scarce heard a step approaching,
till the unwelcome sound of "Fair greeting to you, Lady Agnes"
caused her to look up and behold the still more unwelcome form of
Sir Leonard Ashton. To escape from him was the first idea, for his
clownish manners, always unpleasant to her, had become doubly so,
since he had presumed upon her brother's favour to offer to her
addresses from which she saw no escape; and with a brief reply of
"Thanks for your courtesy, Sir Knight," she was about to rise and
mingle with the rest of the party, when he proceeded, bluntly,
"Lady Agnes, will you do me a favour?"

"I know of no favour in my power," said she.

"Nay," he said, "it is easily done, and it is as much to your brother
as to myself. It is a letter which, methinks, Fulk would not have
read out of the family, of which I may call myself one," and he gave
a sort of smirk at Agnes;--"but he writes so crabbedly, that I, for
one, cannot read two lines,--and I would not willingly give it to a
clerk, who might be less secret. So methought, as 'twas the Baron's
affair, I would even bring it here, and profit by your Convent-