y
equalled him. His Norman blood showed itself in his dark glossy hair,
his semi-bronzed complexion, and his dark liquid eyes, the expression of
which was grave almost to sadness. An extremely short upper lip perhaps
indicated blue blood, but it gave a haughty appearance to his features,
which was not indicative of his character. He had a sweet low-toned
voice, and an extremely winning smile.

The Princess suffered her husband to lift her from the pillion on which
she rode behind Bertram Lyngern, who had been transferred to her service
by her father's wish. At the door of the banquet-hall the Dowager Lady
met them. Maude's impression of her was not exactly pleasant. She
thought her a stiff, solemn-looking, elderly woman, in widow's garb.
The Lady Elizabeth received her royal guest with the lowest of
courtesies, and taking her hand, conducted her with great formality to a
state chair on the dais, the Lord Le Despenser standing, bare-headed, on
the step below.

The ensuing ten minutes were painfully irksome to all parties.
Everybody was shy of everybody else. A few common-place questions were
asked and answered; but when the Dowager suggested that "the Lady" must
be tired with her journey, and would probably like to rest for an hour
ere the rear-supper was served, it was a manifest relief to all.

A sudden incursion of so many persons into an unprepared house was less
annoying in the fourteenth century than it would be in the nineteenth.
There was then always superfluous provision for guests who might
suddenly arrive; a castle was invariably victualled in advance of the
consumption expected; and as to sleeping accommodation, a sack filled
with chaff and a couple of blankets was all that any person anticipated
who was not of "high degree." Maude slept the first night in a long
gallery, with ten other women; for the future she would occupy the
pallet in her lady's chamber. Bertram was provided for along with the
other squires, in the banquet-hall, the chaff beds and blankets being
carried out of the way in the morning; and as to draughts, our
forefathers were never out of one inside their houses, and therefore did
not trouble themselves on that score. The washing arrangements,
likewise, were of the most primitive description. Princes and the
higher class of peers washed in silver basins in their own rooms; but a
squire or a knight's daughter would have been thought unwarrantably
fastidious who was not fully sa