nd were acquaintances of many years; the
ground was all familiar. She was going now once more into a new world,
to new acquaintances, new scenes, new incidents. The journey over land
was in itself very pleasant. But the journey over sea from Bristol was
so exceedingly unpleasant, that poor Maude found herself acquainted with
a degree of physical misery which until then she had never imagined to
exist. And when at last the great, grim, square towers of the Castle of
Cardiff, which was to be her new home, rose before her eyes, she thought
them absolutely lovely--because they were _terra firma_. It can only be
ascribed to her unusual haste on the one hand, or to her usual caprice
on the other, that it had not pleased the Lady of Cardiff to give any
notice of her approach. Of course nobody expected her; and when her
trumpeter sounded his blast outside the moat, the warder looked forth in
some surprise. It was late in the evening for a guest to arrive.

"Who goeth yonder?"

"The Lady and her train."

"Saint Taffy and Saint Guenhyfar!" said the warder.

"Put forth the bridge!" roared the trumpeter.

"It had peen better to send word," calmly returned the warder.

"Send word to thy Lord, thou lither oaf!" cried the irate trumpeter,
"and see whether it liketh him to keep the Lady awaiting hither on an
even in January, while thou pratest in chopped English!"

Thereupon arose a passage of arms between the two affronted persons of
diverse nationalities, which was terminated by Constance, with one of
her sudden impulses, riding forward to the front, and taking the
business on herself.

"Sir Warder," she said--with that exquisite grace and lofty courtesy
which was natural to every Plantagenet, be the other features of his
character what they might,--"I am your Lady, and I pray you to notify
unto your Lord that I am come hither."

The warder was instantly mollified, and blew his horn to announce the
arrival of a guest. There was a minute's bustle among the minor
officials about the gate, a little running to and fro, and then the
drawbridge was thrown across, and the next moment the Lord Le Despenser
knelt low to his royal spouse. He could have had no idea of her coming
five minutes before, but he did his best to show her that any omissions
in her welcome were no fault on his part.

Thomas Le Despenser was just twenty years of age. He was only of
moderate height for a man; and Constance, who was a tall woman, nearl