m with Stephen
Birkenholt was allowed, and in right of it, he was permitted to sleep in
the waggon; and thereupon his big raw-boned charger was found sharing
the fodder of the plump broad-backed cart horses, while he himself,
whenever sport was not going forward for him, or work for the armourers,
sat discussing with Kit the merits or demerits of the liquors of all
nations, either in their own yard or in some of the numerous drinking
booths that had sprung up around.

To no one was this arrangement so distasteful as to Quipsome Hal, who
felt himself in some sort the occasion of the intrusion, and yet was
quite unable to prevent it, while everything he said was treated as a
joke by his unwelcome father-in-law. It was a coarse time, and Wolsey's
was not a refined or spiritual establishment, but it was decorous, and
Randall had such an affection and respect for the innocence of his
sister's young son, that he could not bear to have him exposed to the
company of one habituated to the licentiousness of the mercenary
soldier. At first the jester hoped to remove the lads from the danger,
for the brief remainder of their stay, by making double exertion to
obtain places for them at any diversion which might be going on when
their day's work was ended, and of these, of course, there was a wide
choice, subordinate to the magnificent masquing of kings and queens. On
the last midsummer evening, while their majesties were taking leave of
one another, a company of strolling players were exhibiting in an
extemporary theatre, and here Hal incited both the youths to obtain
seats. The drama was on one of the ordinary and frequent topics of
that, as of all other times, and the dumb show and gestures were far
more effective than the words, so that even those who did not understand
the language of the comedians, who seemed to be Italians, could enter
into it, especially as it was interspersed with very expressive songs.

An old baron insists on betrothing his daughter and heiress to her
kinsman freshly knighted. She is reluctant, weeps, and is threatened,
singing afterwards her despair, (of course she really was a black-eyed
boy). That song was followed by a still more despairing one from the
baron's squire, and a tender interview between them followed.

Then came discovery, the baron descending as a thunderbolt, the
banishment of the squire, the lady driven at last to wed the young
knight, her weeping and bewailing herself under his