twice gracious to me, I could have no choice, in these four walls,
between an Edward and a Henry on the throne. But I have a king whose
throne is in mine own breast, and, alack, it taxeth me heavily, and
with sore burdens."

"I comprehend," said the visitor, glancing round the room,--"I
comprehend: thou wantest money for thy books and instruments, and thy
melancholic passion is thy sovereign. Thou wilt incur the risk?"

"I will," said Adam. "I would rather seek in the lion's den for what
I lack than do what I well-nigh did this day."

"What crime was that, poor scholar?" said Robin, smiling.

"My child worked for her bread and my luxuries--I would have robbed
her, old schoolfellow. Ha, ha! what is cord and gibbet to one so
tempted?"

A tear stood in the bright gray eyes of the bluff visitor. "Ah,
Adam," he said sadly, "only by the candle held in the skeleton hand of
Poverty can man read his own dark heart. But thou, Workman of
Knowledge, hast the same interest as the poor who dig and delve.
Though strange circumstance hath made me the servant and emissary of
Margaret, think not that I am but the varlet of the great." Hilyard
paused a moment, and resumed,--

"Thou knowest, peradventure, that my race dates from an elder date
than these Norman nobles, who boast their robber-fathers. From the
renowned Saxon Thane, who, free of hand and of cheer, won the name of
Hildegardis, [Hildegardis, namely, old German, a person of noble or