"
"I am trusting to you entirely. The distance is but thirteen leagues,
and can be accomplished easily in a day. Once on the other side of the
river she may despatch her kinsman, or some more trustworthy messenger,
to her own Castle, and thus summon the two waiting-women who will share
her seclusion."
"Is it your intention, my Lord, that her imprisonment shall--?"
The Archbishop of Mayence held up his thin hand with a gesture of
deprecation.
"I use no word so harsh as 'imprisonment.' The penance, if you wish so
to characterize it, is rather in the nature of a retreat, giving her
needed opportunity for reflection, and, I hope, for regret."
"Nevertheless, my Lord, your action seems to me unnecessarily severe.
How long do you propose to detain her?"
"I am pained to hear you term it severity, for her treatment will be of
the mildest description. I thought you would understand that no other
course was open to me. So far as I am personally concerned, she might
have said what pleased her, with no adverse consequences, but she
flouted the highest Court of the realm, and such contempt cannot be
overlooked.
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