bour, and then a score of knights all in brave raiment, and
squires withal, and sergeants; but down in the hall were the men-at-arms
and serving-men, and a half hundred of folk of the countryside, queans
as well as carles, who had been gathered for the show and bidden in. No
other women were there in the hall till Goldilind and her serving-women
entered. She went straight up the hall, and took her place in the
high-seat; and for all that her eyes seemed steady, she had noted
Christopher standing by the shot-window just below the dais.

Now when she was set down, and there was silence in the hall, Earl
Geoffrey came forth and said: "Lords and knights, and ye good people,
the Lady Goldilind, daughter of the Lord King Roland that last was, is
now of age to wed; and be it known unto you, that the King, her father,
bade me, in the last words by him spoken, to wed her to none but the
loveliest and strongest that might be, as witness I can bring hereto.
Now such a man have I sought hereto in Meadhamstead and the much-peopled
land of Meadham, and none have I come on, however worthy he were of
deeds, or well-born of lineage, but that I doubted me if he were so fair
or so doughty as might be found; but here in this half-desert corner of
the land have I gotten a man than whom none is doughtier, as some of you
have found to your cost. And tell me all you, where have ye seen any as
fair as this man?" And therewith he made a sign with his hand, and
forth strode Christopher up on to the dais; and he was so clad, that
his kirtle was of white samite, girt with a girdle of goldsmith's work,
whereby hung a good sword of like fashion, and over his shoulders was
a mantle of red cloth-of-gold, furred with ermine, and lined with green
sendall; and on his golden curled locks sat a chaplet of pearls.

Then to the lords and all the people he seemed so fair and fearless and
kind that they gave a great shout of welcome; and Goldilind came forth
from her chair, as fair as a June lily, and came to Christopher and
reached out her hand to him, but he refrained him a moment, so that all
they could see how sweet and lovely a hand it was, and then he took it,
and drew her to him, and kissed her mouth before them all; and still he
held her hand, till the Abbot of Meadhamstead aforetold came and stood
by them and blessed them.

Then spake the Earl again: "Lo ye, here hath been due betrothal of these
twain, and ye may see how meet they be for each other in