were amongst them; and the bride, perceiving their
entrance, drew the hand of the maiden within hers, and retained her
for a short season by her side.

The feast was begun; those who were for the mask took but a hasty
refreshment, being anxious to proceed into the 'tiring rooms, there to
array for the more interesting part of the night's revel. In due time
issued forth from their crowded bowers lords and ladies gay, buffoons,
morris-dancers, and the like; gypsies, fortune-tellers, and a medley
of giddy mummers, into the hall, where the more sedate or more sensual
were still carousing after the feast.

"Room for the masks!" was the general cry; and the musicians, each
after his kind, did pierce and vex the air with such a medley of
disquieting sounds that the talkers were fain to cease, and the
dancers to fall to in good earnest. Alice and her brother were
disguised as the cunning beggar had predicted--to wit, as the virgin
queen and her unfortunate lover. Masks were often dropping in, so that
the hall and adjoining chambers were fully occupied, resounding in
wild echoes with noise and revelry.

Loud and long was the merriment, increasing even until the roofs rung
with the din, and the revellers themselves grew weary of the tumult.

Alice was standing by the oaken screen during a temporary cessation on
her part from the labours incident to royalty, when there came from
behind it a tawny Moor, wearing a rich shawl turban, with a beard of
comely aspect. His arms were bare and hung with massive bracelets, and
he wore a tight jacket of crimson and gold. His figure was tall and
commanding; but his face was concealed by a visor of black crape,
which hindered not his speech from being clearly apprehended, though
the sound came forth in a muffled tone, as if feigned for the
occasion. Immediately there followed an Arabic or Turkish doctor,
clad in a long dark robe, and his head surmounted by a four-cornered
fur cap. In one hand he held a glass phial, and a box under his left
arm. Of an erect and majestic stature, he stood for a moment
apparently surveying the scene ere he mingled in the busy crowd. His
face also was covered with black crape, and through the "eyelet-holes"
a bright and burning glance shot forth, hardly repressed by the shadow
from his disguise. Alice, being unattended, shunned these unknown
intruders, and mingled again with a merry group who were pelting one
another with comfits and candied almonds. The statel