hou knowest the story;
thou must bid him hither at once! Why, I would thank him with my own
lips for his heroism. For is not Gertrude as our own sister in love?"

"Ay, Eleanor, bid him come," pleaded Alphonso, a fragile-looking boy a
year younger than Joanna, whose violet-blue eyes and fair skin were in
marked contrast to her gipsy-like darkness of complexion; and this
request was echoed eagerly by another boy, a fine, bold-looking lad,
somewhat older than Alphonso, by name Britten, who was brought up with
the king's children, and treated in every way like them, as the wardrobe
rolls of the period show, though what his rank and parentage were cannot
now be established, as no mention of him occurs in any other documents
of that time.

The Princess Eleanor, as she would now be called, although in those
far-back days the title of Lady was generally all that was bestowed upon
the children of the king, did not attempt to resist the combined
entreaties of her younger playfellows. Indeed, although somewhat mature
both in mind and appearance for her years, she was by no means devoid of
childish or feminine curiosity, and was as willing to see the hero of
Gertrude's oft-told tale as her more youthful companions could be.
Moreover, it was her father's policy and pleasure to be generous and
gracious towards all those who submitted themselves to his feudal
sovereignty; and to the young he ever showed himself friendly and even
paternal. The stern soldier-king was a particularly tender and loving
father, and his wife the best of mothers, so that the family tie in
their household was a very strong and beautiful thing. When the monarch
was called away from his own royal residences to quell sedition or
rebellion in this turbulent country of Wales, his wife and children
accompanied him thither; and so it happened that in this rather gloomy
fastness in North Wales, when the rebellion of the warlike Llewelyn had
but just been crushed, the king's children were to be found assembled
within its walls, by their bright presence and laughter-loving ways
making the place gay and bright, and bringing even into political
matters something of the leniency and good fellowship which seems to be
the prerogative of childhood.

Thus it was that one powerful and turbulent noble, Einon ap Cadwalader,
had left as hostage of his good faith his only child, the Lady Arthyn,
to be the companion of the king's daughters. She had been received with
open arms by