untlet. She awoke, and sure enough there was the impression as of some
mailed hand upon her delicate fingers! While marvelling at this strange
adventure, a deep slumber again overpowered her, when a graceful
cavalier, unarmed, was at her side. He raised her hand to his lips, and
her whole soul responded to the touch. He was about to speak, when her
father suddenly appeared, with a dark and forbidding aspect. He began to
chide, and the stranger, with a glance she could not erase from her
recollection, disappeared. It was this glance which subdued her proud
spirit to its influence. Her maidenly apprehensions became aroused; she
attempted, but in vain, to drive away the intruder: the vision haunted
her deeply--too deeply for her repose! Marks of some outward impression
were yet visible on her hand, whether from causes less occult than the
moving phantasma of the mind, is a question that would resist all our
powers of solution. In a mood thus admirably fitted for the encountering
of some marvellous adventure, did she mount her little white palfrey,
all pranked out and caparisoned for the occasion.

Followed by a train of some length, with Oskatell by her side, the
daughter of the house of Lathom allured the eyes of not a few as she
passed on. Many a stately knight bent his head, and many an inquiry was
directed to the esquires and attendants as she drew near.

The scene of this renowned combat was a spacious plain below the city,
on the opposite side of the river Itchen. The chalky cliffs, which
obtained for it the name of Caer Gwint, or the White City, were studded
with gay and anxious multitudes, whose hopes and fears have long been
swept off by the waves of passing generations.

Winchester being one of the fixed markets or staples for wool appointed
by King Edward, the city had risen in power and affluence above its
neighbours. Yet the plague, by which it was almost depopulated some
years before, had considerably abated its magnificence. But the favour
of royalty still clung to it, and Arthur's "Round Table" attested its
early claims to this distinguishing character--a monarch's residence.
The castle, where the Round Table is still shown, was then a building of
great strength, and, enlivened by the king's presence, displayed many a
staff and pennon from its stately battlements.

Isabella passed by the fortress just as the trumpets announced the near
approach of the king down the covered way. The chains of the drawbridg