A Forgotten Hero | Page 4

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 have been thought quite disrespectful, and much too familiar.
"Farewell, Clarice," said he. "Be a good maid, be obedient and meek; please thy lady; and may God keep thee, and send thee an husband in good time."
There was nothing more necessary in Sir Gilbert's eyes. Obedience was the one virtue for Clarice to cultivate, and a husband (quality immaterial) was sufficient