I bear a message which I may not deliver to other ears save thine," said or rather gasped the boy, for he breathed with difficulty, either from exhaustion or emotion.
"Alone!" replied the countess, somewhat surprised.

"Leave us, Baldwin," she added, after a moment's pause.

"I am privately engaged for the next hour, denied to all, save his grace the king." He withdrew, with a respectful bow.

"And now, speak, poor child, what wouldst thou?
Nay, I hear nothing which my husband may not hear," she said, as the eyes of her visitor gazed fearfully on the earl, who was looking at him with surprise.
"Thy husband, lady--the Earl of Gloucester?
oh, it was to him too I came; the brother-in-arms of my sovereign, one that showed kindness to--to Sir Nigel in his youth, ye will not, ye will not forsake him now ?" Few and well-nigh inarticulate as were those broken words, they betrayed much which at once excited interest in both the earl and countess, and told the reason of the lad's earnest entreaty to see them alone.
"Forsake him!" exclaimed the earl, after carefully examining that the door was closed; "would to heaven I could serve him, free him! that there was but one slender link to lay hold of, to prove him innocent and give him life, I would do it, did it put my own head in jeopardy." "And is there none, none ?" burst wildly from the boy's lips, as he sprung from his knees, and grasped convulsively the earl's arm.

"Oh, what has he done that they should slay him?
why do they call him guilty?
He was not Edward's subject, he owed him no homage, no service, he has but fought to free his country, and is there guilt in this?
oh, no, no, save him, in mercy save him!" "Thou knowest not what thou askest, boy, how wholly, utterly impossible it is to save him.