troubles distract her brain,--chide her not if they sour her speech.
Saints above! will ye not pardon Margaret if at times her nature be
turned from the mother's milk into streams of gall and bloody purpose,
when ye see, from your homes serene, in what a world of strife and
falsehood her very womanhood hath grown unsexed?" She paused a moment,
and her uplifted eyes shed tears fast and large. Then, with a sigh,
she turned to Hilyard, and resumed more calmly, "Yes, thou art right,
--adversity hath taught me much. And though adversity will too often
but feed and not starve our pride, yet thou--thou hast made me know
that there is more of true nobility in the blunt Children of the
People than in many a breast over which flows the kingly robe.
Forgive me, and the daughter of Charlemagne shall yet be a mother to
the Commons, who claim thee as their brother!"

Thoroughly melted, Robin of Redesdale bowed over the hand held to his
lips, and his rough voice trembled as he answered, though that answer
took but the shape of prayer.

"And now," said the princess, smiling, "to make peace lasting between
us, I conquer myself, I yield to thy counsels. Once more the
fugitive, I abandon the city that contains Henry's unheeded prison.
See, I am ready. Who will know Margaret in this attire? Lead on!"

Rejoiced to seize advantage of this altered and submissive mood, Robin
instantly took the way through a narrow passage, to a small door
communicating with the river. There Hugh was waiting in a small boat,
moored to the damp and discoloured stairs.

Robin, by a gesture, checked the man's impulse to throw himself at the
feet of the pretended priest, and bade him put forth his best speed.