"Worse with Hodge Smith for letting him touch his irons."

"Nay, what call had Dick Jenner to lay his foul, burning gunpowder--a
device of Satan--in this yard? A mercy we are not all blown to the
winds."

The Countess, again ordering peace, reached the girl, whose moans
showed that she was still alive, and between the barber-surgeon and
the porter's wife she was lifted up, and carried to a bed, the
Countess Alice keeping close to her, though the "Mother of the
Maidens," who was a somewhat helpless personage, hung back, declaring
that the sight of the wounds made her swoon. There were terrible
wounds upon the face and neck, which seemed to be almost bared of
skin. The lady, who had been bred to some knowledge of surgical
skill, together with the barber-surgeon, did their best to allay the
agony with applications of sweet oil. Perhaps if they had had more
of what was then considered skill, it might have been worse for her.

The Countess remained anxiously trying all that could allay the
suffering of the poor little semi-conscious patient, who kept moaning
for "nurse." She was Grisell Dacre, the daughter of the Baron of
Whitburn, and had been placed, young as she was, in the household of
the Countess of Salisbury on her mother being made one of the ladies
attending on the young Queen Margaret of Anjou, lately married to
King Henry VI.

Attendance on the patient had prevented the Countess from hearing the
history of the accident, but presently the clatter of horses' feet
showed that her lord was returning, and, committing the girl to her