when the nurse, expecting to he torn from her tender charge, exclaimed, in barbarous English, "Take not the princess from me ! I promised the Lady Elin never to re-sign her save to the hands of the good Queen of England." " Comfort thee, good woman," said the earl, kindly. " I will myself convey thee, with the babe, to Caernarvon, where thou mayest discharge thy trust by bestowing the little orphan with the royal friend of her mother." Con-signing the other captives to the care of his knights, he gave the nurse in charge to his groom, and himself care-fully lifting the wicker cradle with its lovely occupant to the horse before him, led the way towards the castle. Eleanora received the daughter of Elin de Montfort with tears of tender welcome, and lavished upon the child the same affection that she bestowed upon her own infant Ed-ward. The little cousins were nurtured together, and the nurse soon became tenderly attached to both children, and conceived an almost reverential devotion to the pious queen ; and as Eleanora gave her frequent opportunities for communion with the natives of the vicinity, &he lost no occasion of publishing the virtues of her mistress. She represented that Eleanora and little Edward were scarce inferior in beauty to the Madonna and child, and that they were as good as they were beautiful ; and, she added, on her own responsibility, that since the queen treated Guendoline with as much affection as though she were her own daughter, there could be no doubt that she looked upon her as the future bride of the young prince. Meantime, Edward had prospered in Iiis military plans. David could never collect an army sufficient to face the English in the field, being chased from hill to hill, and hunted from one retreat to another, and was finally betray-ed to his enemy and sent to England. The Snowdon barons, deprived of their leader, and aware that their princess Guendoliue was in possession of the English king, and somewhat mollified by the prognos-tication of her future greatness, at length obeyed the sum-mons of Edward to a conference at Caernarvon. The hardy 416 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.