ld soldiers and Hordle John strode off together in all good
fellowship. Alleyne had turned to follow them, when he felt a touch upon
his shoulder, and found a young page by his side.

"The Lord Loring commands," said the boy, "that you will follow me to
the great chamber, and await him there."

"But my comrades?"

"His commands were for you alone."

Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the courtyard, where a
broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the main hall, the outer
wall of which is washed by the waters of the Avon. As designed at first,
no dwelling had been allotted to the lord of the castle and his family
but the dark and dismal basement story of the keep. A more civilized or
more effeminate generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such
a cellar, and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for
their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyne went, still following
his boyish guide, until at the folding oak doors the latter paused, and
ushered him into the main hall of the castle.

On entering the room the clerk looked round; but, seeing no one, he
continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with the greatest
interest a chamber which was so different to any to which he was
accustomed. The days had gone by when a nobleman's hall was but a
barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the common lounge and eating-room of
every inmate of the castle. The Crusaders had brought back with them
experiences of domestic luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of
Aleppo, which made them impatient of the hideous bareness and want of
privacy which they found in their ancestral strongholds. Still stronger,
however, had been the influence of the great French war; for, however
well matched the nations might be in martial exercises, there could be
no question but that our neighbors were infinitely superior to us in the
arts of peace. A stream of returning knights, of wounded soldiers,
and of unransomed French noblemen, had been for a quarter of a century
continually pouring into England, every one of whom exerted an influence
in the direction of greater domestic refinement, while shiploads of
French furniture from Calais, Rouen, and other plundered towns, had
supplied our own artisans with models on which to shape their work.
Hence, in most English castles, and in Castle Twynham among the rest,
chambers were to be found which would seem to be not wanting either in
beauty or in comfort.

I