your lovely daughter and yourself."

"Nay, Ralph de Sudley," replied the baron, "my castle must needs put on
its best looks, when it beholds the entry of one who is to be its lord
and protector when I shall be no more. But I see you are all impatience
to go within; and, in truth, the sooner your first interview be over the
better, for the table is prepared, and the pasty awaits us, and the
chaplain too, whose inward man, after the morning's Mass, craves some
solid refreshment."

"A moment, my worthiest of friends, and I am with you," said the knight,
as he hurried by: in another instant the Lady Alianore was in his
embrace. Need we repeat the oft-told tale of love? Need we describe the
day of delight Sir Ralph passed in the castle, lingering from hour to
hour until the dusk? O, there is some one we must depict, the lady
herself, who so subdued and softened this knightly soul. There, one hand
upon the shoulder of her lover, her other hand locked in his, she sits
listening to his words, and luxuriating in his discourse. The Lady
Alianore, somewhat tall in stature, but perfect in form, has a face of
dazzling beauty, yet the bewitching sweetness of her smile is tempered by
a certain dignity of countenance, to which her dark, raven hair, and
darker eyes, do not a little contribute; her hands, and the foot that
peeps from beneath, her graceful robe, are of exquisite smallness, and
bespeak the purest Norman blood. Her extreme fairness, shaded by her
sable locks, form a strong contrast to the auburn hair and ruddy visage
of the stalwart warrior beside her.

"This will indeed be too much, Ralph," observed the lady; "a monarch, his
queen, and his court, to come to this out-of-the-way castle, to honor the
wedding of a lone damsel like myself; I can hardly support the idea of so
much splendor."

"Fear not, my beloved," replied the knight, "Richard is homely enough,
and all good nature. Moreover, it is but a return of civility; for I it
was who accompanied him to the altar, where he obtained the hand of
Berengaria of Navarre; the office was a dangerous one then, since I
incurred by it the wrath of Philip of France. And why, dearest, should
not every magnificence attend our nuptials? It is the outward emblem of
our great content--a mark, like those gorgeous ceremonies that accompany
the festive prayers of the Church, which tell the people of the earth of
a joy having something of the gladness and glory of Heaven in it."

"Be it