"
"Thou knowest not what thou sayest," said the King, interrupting
her in anger. "Pearls! can all the pearls of the East atone for
a speck upon England's honour--all the tears that ever woman's
eye wept wash away a stain on Richard's fame? Go to, madam, know
your place, and your time, and your sphere. At present we have
duties in which you cannot be our partner."
"Thou hearest, Edith," whispered the Queen; "we shall but incense
him."
"Be it so," said Edith, stepping forward.--"My lord, I, your poor
kinswoman, crave you for justice rather than mercy; and to the
cry of justice the ears of a monarch should be open at every
time, place, and circumstance."
"Ha! our cousin Edith?" said Richard, rising and sitting
upright on the side of his couch, covered with his long camiscia.
"She speaks ever kinglike, and kinglike will I answer her, so she
bring no request unworthy herself or me."
The beauty of Edith was of a more intellectual and less
voluptuous cast than that of the Queen; but impatience and
anxiety had given her countenance a glow which it sometimes
wanted, and her mien had a character of energetic dignity that
imposed silence for a moment even on Richard himself, who, to
judge by his looks, would willingly have interrupted her.
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