il, jellies in the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty
which formed an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor--these
were a few of the strange dishes which faced him. An archer had brought
him a change of clothes from the cog, and he had already, with the
elasticity of youth, shaken off the troubles and fatigues of the
morning. A page from the inner banqueting-hall had come with word that
their master intended to drink wine at the lodgings of the Lord Chandos
that night, and that he desired his squires to sleep at the hotel of the
"Half Moon" on the Rue des Apotres. Thither then they both set out in
the twilight after the long course of juggling tricks and glee-singing
with which the principal meal was concluded.

A thin rain was falling as the two youths, with their cloaks over their
heads, made their way on foot through the streets of the old town,
leaving their horses in the royal stables. An occasional oil lamp at the
corner of a street, or in the portico of some wealthy burgher, threw a
faint glimmer over the shining cobblestones, and the varied motley crowd
who, in spite of the weather, ebbed and flowed along every highway. In
those scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole
busy panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city. Here passed the
round-faced burgher, swollen with prosperity, his sweeping dark-clothed
gaberdine, flat velvet cap, broad leather belt and dangling pouch all
speaking of comfort and of wealth. Behind him his serving wench, her
blue whimple over her head, and one hand thrust forth to bear the
lanthorn which threw a golden bar of light along her master's path.
Behind them a group of swaggering, half-drunken Yorkshire dalesmen,
speaking a dialect which their own southland countrymen could scarce
comprehend, their jerkins marked with the pelican, which showed that
they had come over in the train of the north-country Stapletons. The
burgher glanced back at their fierce faces and quickened his step, while
the girl pulled her whimple closer round her, for there was a meaning in
their wild eyes, as they stared at the purse and the maiden, which
men of all tongues could understand. Then came archers of the guard,
shrill-voiced women of the camp, English pages with their fair skins and
blue wondering eyes, dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy
loud-tongued Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants
of the Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered