"He will get the knot untied," she said. "So thick as the King and
his crew are with the Pope, it will cost him nothing, but we may, for
very shame, force a dowry out of his young knighthood to get the
wench into Whitby withal!"
"So he even proffered on his way," said the Baron. "He is a fair and
knightly youth. 'Tis pity of him that he holds with the Frenchwoman.
Ha, Bernard, 'tis for thy good."
For the boy was clinging tight to his sister, and declaring that his
Grisly should never leave him again, not for twenty vile runaway
husbands.
Grisell returned to all her old habits, and there was no difference
in her position, excepting that she was scrupulously called Dame
Grisell Copeland. Her father was soon called away by the summons to
Parliament, sent forth in the name of King Henry, who was then in the
hands of the Earl of Warwick in London. The Sheriff's messenger who
brought him the summons plainly said that all the friends of York,
Salisbury, and Warwick were needed for a great change that would dash
the hopes of the Frenchwoman and her son.
He went with all his train, leaving the defence of the castle to
Ridley and the ladies, and assuring Grisell that she need not be
downhearted. He would yet bring her fine husband, Sir Leonard, to
his marrow bones before her.
Grisell had not much time to think of Sir Leonard, for as the summer
waned, both her mother and Bernard sickened with low fever.
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