_Hen._ Kent? Ha! We'll hear your tale That we may laugh at it. _Win._ You'll sooner weep, I fear. The princess Adelais, of France, Is free of the infliction that impaired Her noble mind, and through the pope makes suit For the recovery of a son--her child And the great Henry's. Gualo brings this letter, Beneath the pope's own seal, to England's primate, His grace of Canterbury. It is signed By Geoffrey de Burgh, the father of your Kent, And written five years back to Adelais, In care of 's Holiness, with the request That it be given her should she recover. The purport is--her child has lived to be A grace to manhood, but that he himself Approaches death, and from his worthy son, Hubert de Burgh, she may in proper time Learn all a mother's heart would know. _Hen._ Well plotted! _Win._ And here's another paper that great Pembroke, Dying, laid in my hands. It bears the seal Of Henry Second, and tells how his son And Adelais' is given to the charge Of Geoffrey de Burgh, lord keeper of the Tower And Dover Castle. _Hen._ Keep your paper, sir! Dost think that I'll believe these parchment tales Of one whose stainless past the world may read? _Win._ That precious past, sire, is the bed whereon This deed's embossed. All he has done that's noble Now serves to make this foul. Look at him now! He has no word, but stands as one made stiff By sin's confrontment. _Hen._ Rather like the god Was caught 'twixt the burning and the frozen worlds, For so my too-warm love and your deep hate Engulf him. _Win._ Hear the end, my liege. _Hen._ Go on, If there's an end. _Win._ This says that Henry's son, Arrived at thirty years, shall take his place 'Mong English nobles as the Duke of Bedford, And hold in fief five castles, herein named Rockingham, Harle, Beham and Fotheringay, With strongest Bedford as his ducal seat; But if the child should die, his great estate Shall to the church, and in the church's name I call De Burgh to show the heir, or prove That he is dead and by no hidden means. _Kent._ The devil, sir, must pay you bounteous hire, You sweat so in his service. Naught I know Of ghostly Bedford, or ever heard of him, Or that my father held a ward in charge. _Hen._ We know you innocent. _Win._ Then let him prove His claim to these five castles. Two he holds, And three were given in dowry with his sister When she became the wife of Albemarle. These must he yield, or show that Bedford lives, Else will the church by force possess its own.