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Still, hope was as stubborn now as doubt had been before; she
could not bring herself to accept the verdict of the test; she
must try the thing again--the failure must have been only an
accident; so she startled the boy out of his sleep a second and a
third time, at intervals--with the same result which had marked
the first test; then she dragged herself to bed, and fell
sorrowfully asleep, saying, "But I cannot give him up--oh no, I
cannot, I cannot--he MUST be my boy!"
The poor mother's interruptions having ceased, and the Prince's
pains having gradually lost their power to disturb him, utter
weariness at last sealed his eyes in a profound and restful sleep.
Hour after hour slipped away, and still he slept like the dead.
Thus four or five hours passed. Then his stupor began to lighten.
Presently, while half asleep and half awake, he murmured--
"Sir William!"
After a moment--
"Ho, Sir William Herbert! Hie thee hither, and list to the
strangest dream that ever . . . Sir William! dost hear? Man, I
did think me changed to a pauper, and . . . Ho there! Guards!
Sir William! What! is there no groom of the chamber in waiting?
Alack! it shall go hard with--"
"What aileth thee?" asked a whisper near him. "Who art thou
calling?"
"Sir William Herbert. Who art thou?"
"I? Who should I be, but thy sister Nan? Oh, Tom, I had forgot!
Thou'rt mad yet--poor lad, thou'rt mad yet: would I had never
woke to know it again! But prithee master thy tongue, lest we be
all beaten till we die!"
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