border with gold thread. The sur-tunic was also richly embroidered; and
the heavy mantle clasped upon the shoulder with a rare jewel was of some
rich texture almost unknown to the boys. The make and set of his
garments, and the jewelled and plumed cap which he held upon his knee,
alike proclaimed him to be English; yet as he gazed upon the noble face,
and looked into the clear depths of the calm and fearless eyes, Wendot
felt no hostility towards the representative of the hostile race, but
rather a sort of reluctant admiration.

"In faith he looks born to command," he whispered to Griffeth. "If all
were like unto him --"

But the lad did not complete the sentence, for he had suddenly caught
sight of another figure, another face, and he stopped short in a sort of
bewildered amaze.

In Dynevor Castle there had never been a girl child to share the honours
with her brothers. No sister had played in its halls, or tyrannized over
the lads or their parents. And now when Wendot's glance fell for the
first time upon this little fairy-like creature, this lovely little
golden-haired, blue-eyed maiden, he felt a new sensation enter his life,
and gazed as wonderingly at the apparition as if the child had been a ghost.

And the soft shy eyes, with their fringe of dark lashes, were looking
straight at him. As he gazed the child suddenly rose, and darted towards
the brothers as if she had wings on her feet.

"Oh, you have come back!" she said, looking from one to the other, and
for a moment seeming puzzled by the likeness; "and -- why, there are two
of you," and the child broke into the merriest and silveriest of laughs.
"Oh, I am so glad! I do like boys so much, and I never have any to play
with at home. I am so tired of this old man and his harp. Please let me
go somewhere with you," and she thrust her soft little hand confidingly
into Wendot's, looking up saucily into his face as she added, "You are
the biggest; I like you the best."

Wendot's face glowed; but on the whole he was flattered by the attention
and the preference of the little maiden. He understood her soft English
speech perfectly, for all the Dynevor brothers had been instructed in
the English tongue by an English monk who had long lived at the castle.
Res Vychan, the present Lord of Dynevor, foresaw, and had foreseen many
years, the gradual usurpation of the English, and had considered that a
knowledge of that tongue would in all probability be an advantage to