y day
at the garden. And weary and woe-begone as he was, he says, "to look,
it did me good."

Now there was made fast by the tower wall
A garden fair, and in the corners set
A herbere green, with wands so long and small
Railed all about: and so with trees close set
Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knit
That no one though he were near walking by
Might there within scarce any one espy.

* * * * *

So thick the branches and the leafage green.
Beshaded all the alleys that there were,
And 'midst of ev'ry herbere might be seen
The sharp and green sweet-scented juniper,
Growing so fair with branches here and there,
That, as it seemed to any one without,
The branches spread the herbere all about.

* * * * *

And on the slender green-leaved branches sat
The little joyous nightingales, and sang
So loud and clear, the carols consecrat
To faithful love.[45]

[45] _King's Quair_, verse 31 _seq._

This "garden fair" was the scene of the romance which solaced this
royal prisoner, and helped him to bear his irksome lot, and to be able
to exclaim, after nearly eighteen years' captivity--a captivity since
boyhood:

Thanks be to the massive castle wall,
From which I eagerly looked forth and leant.

Looking from his window he espied, notwithstanding "hawthorne hedges"
and "beshaded alleys," Lady Johanna Beaumont (whom he wedded on his
release) walking in the garden. Neither poet nor historian tells how
they found means to communicate with one another, but tradition,
which is sometimes twin-brother to truth, has handed down the story of
a go-between who conveyed missives and tokens.

[Illustration: _Photo. Brueckmann._

RHENISH MASTER.

C. 1420, Frankfort Hist. Mus.

_To face page 185._]

In the accompanying picture we see a corner of a mediaeval garden,
hemmed round with castle wall. In it the artist has adapted an
everyday scene to a religious purpose, by giving my lady a crown, and
the baby an aureole, to suggest the Holy Mother and Child, whilst one
of the gentlemen-in-waiting is provided with wings, so as to make him
more in harmony with such saintly company. But this is only what might
have been seen on any bright morning in late spring or summer, in some
castle pleasaunce. My lady reads a book, whilst her maidens amuse
themselves, one holding a psaltery on whi