had been given for the ensuing meal, all the yeomen and young
men of the neighbourhood came up to the great outer court of the castle,
where there was ample space for sports and military exercises, shooting
with the long and cross bow, riding at the quintain and the like, in
competitions with the grooms and men-at-arms attached to the retinue of
the various great men; and the wives, daughters, and sweethearts came
up to watch them. For the most successful there were prizes of leathern
coats, bows, knives, and the like, and refreshments of barley-bread,
beef, and very small beer, served round with a liberal hand by the
troops of servants bearing the falcon and fetterlock badge, and all was
done not merely in sport but very much in earnest, in the hope on the
part of the Duke, and all who were esteemed patriotic, that these youths
might serve in retaining at least, if not in recovering, the English
conquests.

Those of gentle blood abstained from their warlike exercises on this day
of the week, but they looked on from the broad walk in the thickness of
the massive walls; the Duke with his two beautiful little boys by his
side, the young Earls of March and Rutland, handsome fair children, in
whom the hereditary blue eyes and fair complexion of the Plantagenets
recurred, and who bade fair to surpass their father in stature. Their
mother was by right and custom to distribute the prizes, but she always
disliked doing so, and either excused herself, or reached them out
with the ungracious demeanour that had won for her the muttered name
of 'Proud Cis'. On this day she had avoided the task on the plea of the
occupations caused by her approaching journey, and the Duke put in her
place his elder boy and his little cousin, Lady Anne Beauchamp, the
child of the young King of the Isle of Wight--a short-lived little
delicate being, but very fair and pretty, so that the two children
together upon a stone chair, cushioned with red velvet, were like a
fairy king and queen, and there was many a murmur of admiration, and
'Bless their little hearts' or 'their sweet faces,' as Anne's dainty
fingers handled the prizes, big bows or knives, arrows or belts, and
Edward had a smile and appropriate speech for each, such as 'Shoot at a
Frenchman's breast next time, Bob'; 'There's a knife to cut up the deer
with, Will,' and the like amenities, at which his father nodded, well
pleased to see the arts of popularity coming to him by nature.
Sir Patric