but a few moments
since. I fain would have assisted him, for the damsel appeared wofully
beset, but the whole throng of mincing lords and screaming ladies, in
the rankest riot, over-ran me. They swept me from my feet and bore me
back to the farthest wall, where I found myself pinned tight and fast
against a window.

What the danger was I could not see, but it must have been dolorous
from the headlong terror of their flight. Soon by the thinning of the
crowd through the doors I saw the cause. It was a motley and a moving
spectacle. For by some mischance a flock of sheep had broken into the
ball-room, and frightened out of their shallow senses by the lights and
music, they rushed pell-mell here and there, upsetting without
discrimination whatever stood in their path.

Verily such an onset would do brave work against an enemies' ranks, for
could our knights but make a gap like that, an army of children might
march through unhindered. All went down alike before their charge, my
lord and my lady, the Prince of the Blood, and the humblest page who
bore his pouncet box. Such a slipping and a sliding across a floor
slickened with much wax and polishing, was never in a ball room before,
nor ever was again. One old ram regarded each mirror as a certain
avenue of escape, and the radiating fracture of each taught him no
greater wisdom concerning the others.

Standing spellbound as a statue in the midst of the ruins, I caught
sight of a florid, rotund lady, speechless in her horror and her misery.

"The Duchess does not enjoy her quaint surprise," laughed a light voice
behind me, and a slim finger directed my gaze toward the lady whom I
had just noted.

I observed then at my back, standing upon a chair where she could see
the better, a young woman of distinguished appearance, rather more
plainly attired than the balance. She appeared greatly to enjoy the
confusion.

"That is the reward for her romantic and pastoral tastes," and she
laughed till the tears dripped down her cheeks. Her hair was still
black, and neither paint nor sticking plaster marred the whiteness of
her skin. I asked no questions, but regarded more closely this young
woman with whom I now drifted naturally into conversation. Her manners
were strikingly free and unconstrained. There was, however, an air of
reserve, of dignity--of majesty even---about her, despite her
frankness, which forbade anything but the utmost deference.

"Does my lord unde