"Man!" exclaimed Bertram, almost in a pet, "wist not that Paul did ordain Timothy Bishop of Ephesus, and bade him do the like to other,-- and so from each to other was the blessed grace handed down, till it gat at the priests that now be?" "Was it so?" said Hugh coolly. "But when and where bade Paul that Timothy should forgive sins?" Bertram found it much harder to prove his assertion than to state it. He could only answer that he did not know. "Nor I neither," returned Hugh. "Nor Timothy neither, without I much mistake." "I must needs give thee up. Thou art the worst caitiff to reason withal, ever mortal man did see!" Hugh laughed. "Lo' you, friend, I ask but for one instance of authority. Show unto me any passage of authority in God's Word, whereby any priest shall forgive sins; or show unto me any priest that now liveth, which shall bring forth his letters of warrant by healing a man all suddenly of his sickness whatsoever, and I am at a point. Bring him forth, prithee; or else confess thou hast no such to bring." "Hold thy peace, for love of Mary Mother!" said Bertram, passing his irrepressible opponent a plateful of smoking pasty, for the party were at supper; "and fill thy jaws herewith, the which is so hot thou shalt occupy it some time." "My words being, somewhat too hot for thee, trow?" rejoined Hugh comically. "Good. I can hold my peace right well when I am wanted so to do." When Constance returned home to Cardiff, she remained there for some little time without any further visit to Court. She alone of all the Princesses was absent from the Church of Saint Nicholas at Calais, when the King was married there to the Princess Isabelle of France--a child of only eight years old. Something far more interesting to herself detained her at Cardiff; where, on the 30th of November, 1396, an heir was born to the House of Le Despenser. That the will of "the Lady" stood paramount we see in the name given to the infant. He was christened after her favourite brother, Richard--a name unknown in his father's line, whose family names were always Hugh and Edward. In their unfeigned admiration of this paragon of babies, its mother and grandmother sank all their previous differences. But when the difficult question of education arose, the differences reappeared as strongly as ever. The only notion which Constance had of bringing up a child was to give it everything it cried for; while the Dowager was prepared to go a long way in the opposite direction, and give it nothing in respect to which it showed the slightest temper. The practical result was that the boy was committed to the care of Maude, whom both agreed in trusting, with the most contradictory orders concerning his training. Maude followed the dictates of her own common sense, and implicitly obeyed the commands of neither of the rival authorities; but as little Richard throve well under her care, she was never called to account by either.