urch; and with a great park
stretching for miles, for all kinds of sport.

'All this enclosed! Yet they make sic a wark about their bustards, as
they ca' them,' muttered Jean.

The forester had sent a messenger forward to inform the Duke of York
of his capture. The consequence was that the cavalcade had no sooner
crossed the first drawbridge under the great gateway of the castle,
where the banner of Plantagenet was displayed, than before it were seen
a goodly company, in the glittering and gorgeous robes of the fifteenth
century.

There was no doubt of welcome. Foremost was a graceful, slenderly-made
gentleman about thirty years old, in rich azure and gold, who doffed his
cap of maintenance, turned up with fur, and with long ends, and, bowing
low, declared himself delighted that the princesses of Scotland, his
good cousins, should honour his poor dwelling.

He gave his hand to assist Jean to alight, and an equally gorgeous but
much younger gentleman in the same manner waited on Eleanor. A tall,
grizzled, sunburnt figure received Lady Drummond with recognition on
both sides, and the words, 'My wife is fain to see you, my honoured
lady: is this your daughter?' with a sign to a tall youth, who took
Annis from her horse. Dame Lilias heard with joy that the Countess of
Salisbury was actually in the castle, and in a few moments more she was
in the great hall, in the arms of the sweet Countess Alice of her youth,
who, middle-aged as she was, with all her youthful impulsiveness had not
waited for the grand and formal greeting bestowed on the princesses by
her stately young sister-in-law, the Duchess of York.

There seemed to be a perfect crowd of richly-dressed nobles, ladies,
children; and though the Lady Joanna held her head up in full state, and
kept her eye on her sister to make her do the same, their bewilderment
was great; and when they had been conducted to a splendid chamber,
within that allotted to the Drummond ladies, tapestry-hung, and with
silver toilette apparatus, to prepare for supper, Jean dropped upon a
high-backed chair, and insisted that Dame Lilias should explain to her
exactly who each one was.

'That slight, dark-eyed carle who took me off my horse was the Duke of
York, of course,' said she. 'My certie, a bonnie Scot would make short
work of him, bones and all! And it would scarce be worth while to give a
clout to the sickly lad that took Elleen down.'

'Hush, Jean,' said Eleanor; 'some one called