came that the arrival might be expected in the afternoon. Commands
were sent that the inhabitants of the little town at the park gate
should keep within doors, and not come forth to give any show of
welcome to their lord and lady, lest it should be taken as homage to
the captive queen; but at the Manor-house there was a little family
gathering to hail the Earl and Countess. It chiefly consisted of
ladies with their children, the husbands of most being in the suite
of the Earl acting as escort or guard to the Queen. Susan Talbot,
being akin to the family on both sides, was there with the two elder
children; Humfrey, both that he might greet his father the sooner,
and that he might be able to remember the memorable arrival of the
captive queen, and Cicely, because he had clamoured loudly for her
company. Lady Talbot, of the Herbert blood, wife to the heir, was
present with two young sisters-in-law, Lady Grace, daughter to the
Earl, and Mary, daughter to the Countess, who had been respectively
married to Sir Henry Cavendish and Sir Gilbert Talbot, a few weeks
before their respective parents were wedded, when the brides were
only twelve and fourteen years old. There, too, was Mrs. Babington
of Dethick, the recent widow of a kinsman of Lord Shrewsbury, to whom
had been granted the wardship of her son, and the little party
waiting in the hall also numbered Elizabeth and William Cavendish,
the Countess's youngest children, and many dependants mustered in the
background, ready for the reception. Indeed, the castle and manor-
house, with their offices, lodges, and outbuildings, were an absolute
little city in themselves. The castle was still kept in perfect
repair, for the battle of Bosworth was not quite beyond the memory of
living men's fathers; and besides, who could tell whether any day
England might not have to be contested inch by inch with the
Spaniard? So the gray walls stood on the tongue of land in the
valley, formed by the junction of the rivers Sheaf and Dun, with