y," said Myles; "only at first, when she chid me for falling through
the roof of their arbor. And to think, Francis! Lady Anne herself
bade me hold the Lady Alice as my true lady, and to serve her in all
knightliness!" Then he told his friend that he was going to the privy
garden again on the next Saturday, and that the Lady Anne had given him
permission so to do.

Gascoyne gave a long, wondering whistle, and then sat quite still,
staring into the sky. By-and-by he turned to his friend and said, "I
give thee my pledge, Myles Falworth, that never in all my life did I
hear of any one that had such marvellous strange happenings befall him
as thou."

Whenever the opportunity occurred for sending a letter to Crosbey-Holt,
Myles wrote one to his mother; and one can guess how they were treasured
by the good lady, and read over and over again to the blind old Lord as
he sat staring into darkness with his sightless eyes.

About the time of this escapade he wrote a letter telling of those
doings, wherein, after speaking of his misadventure of falling from the
wall, and of his acquaintance with the young ladies, he went on to speak
of the matter in which he repeated his visits. The letter was worded
in the English of that day--the quaint and crabbed language in which
Chaucer wrote. Perhaps few boys could read it nowadays, so, modernizing
it somewhat, it ran thus:

"And now to let ye weet that thing that followed that happening that
made me acquaint with they two young Damoiselles. I take me to the south
wall of that garden one day four and twenty great spikes, which Peter
Smith did forge for me and for which I pay him fivepence, and that all
the money that I had left of my half-year's wage, and wot not where I
may get more at these present, withouten I do betake me to Sir James,
who, as I did tell ye, hath consented to hold those moneys that Prior
Edward gave me till I need them.

"Now these same spikes, I say, I take me them down behind the corner of
the wall, and there drave them betwixt the stones, my very dear comrade
and true friend Gascoyne holping me thereto to do. And so come Saturday,
I climb me over the wall and to the roof of the tool-house below,
seeking a fitting opportunity when I might so do without being in too
great jeopardy.

"Yea; and who should be there but they two ladies, biding my coming,
who, seeing me, made as though they had expected me not, and gave me
greatest rebuke for adventuring so moughtil