To thy beautiful castle and lands, so near mine own, Eleanor's son had succeeded, and ruled there in thy stead.

He being at Court just then, I saw him not, nor could I hear direct news of thee, though rumour said a convent.
"Then I remembered my cousin, Alfrida, lying sick at her manor in Chester.

To her I went; and, walking in unannounced--I, whom she had long thought dead--I forced the truth from her.

The whole plot stood revealed.

She and Eleanor had hatched it between them.