tones, "The Lord de Clarenham!"

"Ha!" cried Eustace, "it was justly then that your father, Arthur,
bade me beware of him when he committed you to my charge on the
battle-field of Navaretta."

"Did he so?" exclaimed Father Cyril. "Did he commit the boy to your
guardianship? Formally and before witnesses?"

"I can testify to it, good Father," said Gaston. "Ay! and you, Ingram,
must have been within hearing--to say nothing of Du Guesclin."

"And Leonard Ashton," said Ingram.

"It is well," said Father Cyril; "he will be here to-morrow to be
confronted with Clarenham. It is the personal wardship that is of
chief importance, and dwelt most on my Lady's mind."

"Clarenham lays claim then to the guardianship?" asked Eustace.

Father Cyril proceeded with a narrative, the substance of which was
as follows:--Simon de Clarenham, as has been mentioned, had obtained
from King Edward, in the days of the power of Isabel and Mortimer, a
grant of the manor of Lynwood, but on the fall of the wicked Queen,
the rightful owner had been reinstated, without, however, any formal
revocation of the unjust grant. Knowing it would cost but a word of
Sir Reginald to obtain its recall, both Simon and Fulk de Clarenham
had done their best to make him forget its existence; but no sooner
did the news of his death reach England, than Fulk began to take an
ungenerous advantage of the weakness of his heir. He sent a summons