hich depended on one side a strong sword, and on the other a
dagger, the richly wrought handle of which seemed to declare it of
Turkish make. His arms and hands were covered with a steel tissue,
sitting close and so flexible that it yielded lightly to every motion.
The squire who followed him was old, and a certain familiarity was
mingled with the respect of his manner, and seemed to declare that he
had been long accustomed to his master. In truth he had served
the father of our knight, and the latter had grown up beneath his
attendance, which had not unfrequently become his protection. His
armour, far from adorning his person, scarcely left a human figure
visible beneath its heavy plates of iron, fastened by nails whose
monstrous heads seemed cast in the same mould with those which
strengthened the heavy oak doors of the palace. His helmet seemed the
section of a water-pipe of cast iron. Visor it had none; but in its
place was a plate or bar of iron descending from the forehead to the
chin, almost touching the nose and mouth, and he had a group of arms
suspended from his saddle. It was Sir Guy de Dampierre and his squire.

The seneschal conducted them with much ceremony to the knight's
apartments in the castle, where a small table placed by the side of an
enormous log-fire in the middle of the room, and plentifully furnished
with cold salted and dried meats, together with the thin wines of
France, and the more potent juice of the German grape, soon made him
forget the cold and thirst he had endured in the forest. The beer he
quaffed with peculiar pleasure, as it invitingly foamed in a silver
tankard, which had been thickly embossed by the abbot of Wansfort, and
presented by him to the Emperor Baldwin previous to his embarkation
for the Holy Land.

Having praised the flavour of the beer and helped himself to some
slices from a well cured wild boar's head, he said to the chamberlain,
"And Baldwin of Avesnes is not yet arrived, you say?"

"No, Count," replied the chamberlain; "we expected he would be with
you."

"Why, my road lay through Namur, and he comes directly from Bruges. I
marvel therefore he be not arrived--and I have news for him," said the
knight.

[The next page includes a passing notice of the _introduction of
chimneys_ into England, referable, though not without dispute, to
this date:--]

The warder's horn was again heard; and after due time the person in
question made his appearance. He