A Forgotten Hero | Page 4

thing to say."
"At your pleasure, Dame."
"I think it but meet to tell thee a thing I have heard from thy father--
that the Lord Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, thy lady's baron, is one that
hath some queer ideas in his head. I know not well what kind they are;
but folk say that he is a strange man and hath strange talk. So do thou
mind what thou dost. Alway be reverent to him, as is meet; but suffer
him not to talk to thee but in presence of thy lady."
Clarice felt rather frightened--all the more so from the extreme
vagueness of the warning.
"And now lap up thy sewing, child, for I see thy father coming in, and
we will go down to hall."
A few weeks later three horses stood ready saddled at the door of Sir
Gilbert's house. One was laden with luggage; the second was mounted
by a manservant; and the third, provided with saddle and pillion, was
for Clarice and her father. Sir Gilbert, fully armed, mounted his steed,
Clarice was helped up behind him, and with a final farewell to Dame
La Theyn, who stood in the doorway, they rode forth on their way to
Oakham Castle. Three days' journey brought them to their destination,
and they were witnesses of a curious ceremony just as they reached the

Castle gate. All over the gate horseshoes were nailed. A train of visitors
were arriving at the Castle, and the trumpeter sounded his horn for
entrance.
"Who goes there?" demanded the warder. "The right noble and puissant
Prince Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby; and his most
noble lady, Blanche, Queen Dowager of Navarre, Countess of the same,
cousins unto my gracious Lord of Cornwall."
"Is this my said noble Lord's first visit unto the lordship of Oakham?"
asked the warder, without opening the gate. "It is."
"Then our gracious Lord, as Lord of the said manor, demands of him
one of the shoes of the horse whereon he rides as tribute due from
every peer of the realm on his first coming to this lordship."
"My right noble and puissant Lord," returned the trumpeter, "denies the
said shoe of his horse; but offers in the stead one silver penny, for the
purchase of a shoe in lieu thereof."
"My gracious Lord deigns to receive the said silver penny in lieu of the
shoe, and lovingly prays your Lord and Lady to enter his said Castle."
Then the portcullis was drawn up, and the long train filed noisily into
the courtyard. This ceremony was observed on the first visit of every
peer to Oakham Castle; but the visitor was allowed, if he chose, as in
this instance, to redeem the horse-shoe by the payment of money to buy
one. The shoes contributed by eminent persons were not unfrequently
gilded.
The modest train of Sir Gilbert and Clarice crept quietly in at the end of
the royal suite. As he was only a knight, his horse-shoe was not in
request Sir Gilbert told the warder in a few words his name and errand,
whereupon that functionary summoned a boy, and desired him to
conduct the knight and maiden to Mistress Underdone. Having alighted
from the horse, Clarice shook down her riding-gown, and humbly
followed Sir Gilbert and the guide into the great hall, which was built
like a church, with centre and aisles, up a spiral staircase at one end of

it, and into a small room hung with green say [Note 3]. Here they had
to wait a while, for every one was too busily employed in the reception
of the royal guests to pay attention to such comparatively mean people.
At last--when Sir Gilbert had yawned a dozen times, and strummed
upon the table about as many, a door at the back of the room was
opened, and a portly, comfortable-looking woman came forward to
meet them. Was this the Countess? thought Clarice, with her heart
fluttering. It was extremely unlike her ideal picture.
"Your servant, Sir Gilbert Le Theyn," said the newcomer, in a cheerful,
kindly voice. "I am Agatha Underdone, Mistress of the Maids unto my
gracious Lady of Cornwall. I bid thee welcome, Clarice--I think that is
thy name?"
Clarice acknowledged her name, with a private comforting conviction
that Mistress Underdone, at least, would be pleasant enough to live
with.
"You will wish, without doubt, to go down to hall, where is good
company at this present," pursued the latter, addressing Sir Gilbert. "So,
if it please you to take leave of the maiden--"
Sir Gilbert put two fingers on Clarice's head, as she immediately knelt
before him. For a father to kiss a daughter was a rare thing at that time,
and for the daughter to offer it would