something of the parvenu about him, and, unlike
the Duke of York or Archbishop Stafford, who were free, bright, and
good-natured to the meanest persons, he was haughty and harsh to every
one below the line of gentle blood, and in his own train he kept up a
discipline, not too strict in itself, but galling in the manner in which
it was enforced by those who imitated his example. By the time the suite
was collected, Christmas and the festival of St. Thomas a Becket were so
near that it would have been neglect of a popular saint to have left his
shrine without keeping his day. And after the Epiphany, though the
party did reach Dover in a day's ride, a stormy period set in, putting
crossing out of the question, and detaining the suite within the massive
walls of the castle.

At last, on a brisk, windless day of frost, the crossing to Calais
was effected, and there was another week of festivals spread by the
hospitality of the Captain of Calais, where everything was as English
as at Dover. When they again started on their journey, Suffolk severely
insisted on the closest order, riding as travellers in a hostile
country, where a misadventure might easily break the existing truce,
although the territories of the Duke of Burgundy, through which their
route chiefly lay, were far less unfavourable to the English than actual
French countries; indeed, the Flemings were never willingly at war with
the English, and some of the Burgundian nobles and knights had been on
intimate terms with Suffolk. Still, he caused the heralds always to keep
in advance, and allowed no stragglers behind the rearguard that came
behind the long train of waggons loaded with much kitchen apparatus, and
with splendid gifts for the bride and her family, as well as equipments
for the wedding-party, and tents for such of the troop as could not
find shelter in the hostels or monasteries where the slowly-moving party
halted for the night. It was unsafe to go on after the brief hours of
daylight, especially in the neighbourhood of the Forest of Ardennes, for
wolves might be near on the winter nights. It was thus that the first
trouble arose with Sir Patrick Drummond's two volunteer followers.
Ringan Raefoot had become in his progress a very different looking being
from the wild creature who had come with 'Geordie of the Red Peel,' but
there was the same heart in him. He had endured obedience to the Knight
of Glenuskie as a Scot, and with the Duke of York and throug