ur to fetch stone or brick, or to use the flints of the hills. About
the doors of the two inns there were gathered groups of people; among
them the liveries of the nobles visiting the castle were conspicuous;
the place was full of them, the stables were filled, and their horses
were picketed under the trees and even in the street.

Every minute the numbers increased as others arrived; men, too (who had
obtained permission of their lords), came in on foot, ten or twelve
travelling together for mutual protection, for the feuds of their
masters exposed them to frequent attack. All (except the nobles) were
disarmed at the barrier by the warden and guard, that peace might be
preserved in the enclosure. The folk at the moment he passed were
watching the descent of three covered waggons from the forest track, in
which were travelling the ladies of as many noble families.

Some, indeed, of the youngest and boldest ride on horseback, but the
ladies chiefly move in these waggons, which are fitted up with
considerable comfort, and are necessary to sleep in when the camp is
formed by the wayside at night. None noticed him as he went by, except a
group of three cottage girls, and a serving-woman, an attendant of a
lady visitor at the castle. He heard them allude to him; he quickened
his pace, but heard one say, "He's nobody; he hasn't even got a horse."

"Yes he is," replied the serving-woman; "he's Oliver's brother; and I
can tell you my lord Oliver is somebody; the Princess Lucia--" and she
made the motion of kissing with her lips. Felix, ashamed and annoyed to
the last degree, stepped rapidly from the spot. The serving-woman,
however, was right in a measure; the real or supposed favour shown
Oliver by the Prince's sister, the Duchess of Deverell, had begun to be
bruited abroad, and this was the secret reason why the Baron had shown
Oliver so much and so marked an attention, even more than he had paid to
Lord Durand.

Full well he knew the extraordinary influence possessed by ladies of
rank and position. From what we can learn out of the scanty records of
the past, it was so even in the days of the ancients; it is a
hundredfold more so in these times, when, although every noble must of
necessity be taught to read and write, as a matter of fact the men do
neither, but all the correspondence of kings and princes, and the
diplomatic documents, and notices, and so forth, are one and all, almost
without a single exception, drawn up