Was he crushed at thought of the whirlwinds of passion
that had raged between him and the father whom he had loved all the
time? or was there on him the weight of a foreboding that he, though
free from the grosser faults of his father, would never win and keep
hearts in the same manner, and that a sad, tumultuous, troubled
career and piteous, untimely end lay before him?
His mother, Grisell's Duchess, according to the rule of the Court,
lay in bed for six weeks--at least she was bound to lie there
whenever she was not in entire privacy. The room and bed were hung
with black, but a white covering was over her, and she was fully
dressed in the black and white weeds of royal widowhood. The light
of day was excluded, and hosts of wax candles burnt around.
Grisell did not see her during this first period of stately mourning,
but she heard that the good lady had spent her time in weeping and
praying for her husband, all the more earnestly that she had little
cause personally to mourn him.
CHAPTER XXVII--FORGET ME NOT
And added, of her wit,
A border fantasy of branch and flower,
And yellow-throated nestling in the nest.
TENNYSON, Elaine.
The Duchess Isabel sent for Grisell as soon as the rules of etiquette
permitted, and her own mind was free, to attend to the suite of lace
hangings, with which much progress had been made in the interval.
She was in the palace now, greatly honoured, for her son loved her
with devoted affection, and Grisell had to pass through tapestry-hung
halls and chambers, one after another, with persons in mourning, all
filled with men-at-arms first, then servants still in black dresses.
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