cations in the North of England, steamers were
chartering from every port for passengers to the Montfort tournament
within one hundred miles' distance--were equal to the preparation, the
affair must be a great success. The grounds round the castle seemed to
be filled every day with groups of busy persons in fanciful costume,
all practising their duties and rehearsing their parts; swordsmen and
bowmen, and seneschals and esquires, and grooms and pages, and heralds
in tabards, and pursuivants, and banner-bearers. The splendid pavilions
of the knights were now completed, and the gorgeous throne of the
Queen of Beauty, surrounded by crimson galleries, tier above tier, for
thousands of favoured guests, were receiving only their last stroke of
magnificence. The mornings passed in a feverish whirl of curiosity,
and preparation, and excitement, and some anxiety. Then succeeded the
banquet, where nearly one hundred guests were every day present; but the
company were so absorbed in the impending event that none expected
or required, in the evenings, any of the usual schemes or sources of
amusement that abound in country houses. Comments on the morning, and
plans for the morrow, engrossed all thought and conversation, and my
lord's band was just a due accompaniment that filled the pauses when
perplexities arrested talk, or deftly blended with some whispered phrase
almost as sweet or thrilling as the notes of the cornet-a-piston.

"I owe my knighthood to you," said Prince Florestan to Lady Roehampton,
"as I do everything in this country that is agreeable."

"You cannot be my knight," replied Lady Roehampton, "because I am told I
am the sovereign of all the chivalry, but you have my best wishes."

"All that I want in life," said the prince, "are your good wishes."

"I fear they are barren."

"No, they are inspiring," said the prince with unusual feeling. "You
brought me good fortune. From the moment I saw you, light fell upon my
life."

"Is not that an exaggerated phrase?" said Lady Roehampton with a smile,
"because I happened to get you a ticket for a masquerade."

"I was thinking of something else," said the prince pensively; "but life
is a masquerade; at least mine has been."

"I think yours, sir, is a most interesting life," said Lady Roehampton,
"and, were I you, I would not quarrel with my destiny."

"My destiny is not fulfilled," said the prince. "I have never quarrelled
with it, and am least disposed to do so at thi