of Christendom to take part in the opening of the Round Tower
of Windsor six years before, and to try their luck and their skill
at the tournament connected with it, had deeply modified the English
fashions of dress. The old tunic, over-tunic and cyclas were too sad and
simple for the new fashions, so now strange and brilliant cote-hardies,
pourpoints, courtepies, paltocks, hanselines and many other wondrous
garments, parti-colored or diapered, with looped, embroidered or
escalloped edges, flamed and glittered round the King. He himself, in
black velvet and gold, formed a dark rich center to the finery around
him. On his right sat the Prince, on his left the Bishop, while Dame
Ermyntrude marshaled the forces of the household outside, alert and
watchful, pouring in her dishes and her flagons at the right moment,
rallying her tired servants, encouraging the van, hurrying the rear,
hastening up her reserves, the tapping of her oak stick heard everywhere
the pressure was the greatest.

Behind the King, clad in his best, but looking drab and sorry amid the
brilliant costumes round him, Nigel himself, regardless of an aching
body and a twisted knee, waited upon his royal guests, who threw many
a merry jest at him over their shoulders as they still chuckled at the
adventure of the bridge.

"By the rood!" said King Edward, leaning back, with a chicken bone held
daintily between the courtesy fingers of his left hand, "the play is
too good for this country stage. You must to Windsor with me, Nigel, and
bring with you this great suit of harness in which you lurk. There you
shall hold the lists with your eyes in your midriff, and unless some
one cleave you to the waist I see not how any harm can befall you. Never
have I seen so small a nut in so great a shell."

The Prince, looking back with laughing eyes, saw by Nigel's flushed and
embarrassed face that his poverty hung heavily upon him. "Nay," said he
kindly, "such a workman is surely worthy of better tools."

"And it is for his master to see that he has them," added the King. "The
court armorer will look to it that the next time your helmet is carried
away, Nigel, your head shall be inside it."

Nigel, red to the roots of his flaxen hair, stammered out some words of
thanks.

John Chandos, however, had a fresh suggestion, and he cocked a roguish
eye as he made it: "Surely, my liege, your bounty is little needed in
this case. It is the ancient law of arms that if two cavali