ot smiled at the notion. He did not entirely understand that he was
requested to take part in a bit of defiant frolic which the young
princes and princesses were well aware would not have been permitted by
their parents. All he grasped was that the Lady Joanna requested his
assistance in a hunt which she had planned, and with the details of
which he was perfectly familiar, and he agreed willingly to her request,
not sorry, either for his own sake or for that of his more discontented
brothers, that the monotony of the days spent in waiting the return of
the king should be beguiled by anything so attractive and exciting as a
wolf hunt.

The Dynevor brothers had often hunted wolves before, and saw no special
peril in the sport; and Joanna and Gertrude felt that not even the most
nervous guardian could hesitate to let them go with such a stout protector.

"I do like him, Gertrude," said Joanna, when Wendot and his brother had
retired. "I hope if I ever have to marry, as people generally do,
especially if they are king's daughters, that I shall find somebody as
brave and handsome and knightly as your Wendot of Dynevor."

For Gertrude and Joanna both took the view that the breaking of the
king's gold coin between them was equivalent to the most solemn of troth
plights.

CHAPTER VI. WELSH WOLVES.

The Princess Joanna was accustomed to a great deal of her own way. She
had been born at Acre, whilst her parents had been absent upon Edward's
Crusade, and for many years she had remained in Castile with her
grandmother-godmother, who had treated her with unwise distinction, and
had taught her to regard herself almost as a little queen. The
high-spirited and self-willed girl had thus acquired habits of
independence and commanding ways which were perhaps hardly suited to her
tender years; but nevertheless there was something in her bright
vivacity and generous impetuosity which always won the hearts of those
about her, and there were few who willingly thwarted her when her heart
was set upon any particular thing.

There were in attendance upon the king and his children a number of
gallant youths, sons of his nobles, who were admitted to pleasant and
easy intercourse with the royal family; so that when Joanna and Alphonso
set their hearts upon a private escapade of their own, in the shape of a
wolf hunt, it was not difficult to enlist many brave champions in the
cause quite as eager for the danger and the sport as the r