it now, at his peril."

Grisell was cowering among her pillows, and no one knew how much she
heard or understood. The Countess was glad to get Lady Whitburn out
of the room, but both she and her Earl had a very trying evening, in
trying to keep the peace between the two parents. Sir William
Copeland was devoted to the Somerset family, of whom he held his
manor; and had had a furious quarrel with the Baron of Whitburn, when
both were serving in France.

The gentle King had tried to bring about a reconciliation, and had
induced the two fathers to consent to a contract for the future
marriage of Leonard, Copeland's second son, to Grisell Dacre, then
the only child of the Lord of Whitburn. He had also obtained that
the two children should be bred up in the household of the Earl of
Salisbury, by way of letting them grow up together. On the same
principle the Lady of Whitburn had been made one of the attendants of
Queen Margaret--but neither arrangement had been more successful than
most of those of poor King Henry.

Grisell indeed considered Leonard as a sort of property of hers, but
she beset him in the manner that boys are apt to resent from younger
girls, and when he was thirteen, and she ten years old, there was
very little affection on his side. Moreover, the birth of two
brothers had rendered Grisell's hand a far less desirable prize in
the eyes of the Copelands.

To attend on the Court was penance to the North Country dame, used to
a hardy rough life in her sea-side tower, with absolute rule, and no
hand over her save her husband's; while the young and outspoken