and so it reached the ears
of Queen Maudlin of Bramber. Then she, a creature of quick whims, who
was sated with the easy conquests of her beauty, yet eager always for
triumphs to cap triumphs, devised a journey from Adur to Arun, and a
great summer season of revelry to end in an autumn chase. "And," said
she, "we will have joustings and dancings in beauty's honor, but she
whose knight at the end of all brings her the antlers of the snow-white
hart shall be known for ever in Sussex as the queen of beauty; since,
once I have hunted it, the hart will be hart-royal." For this, as
perhaps you know, dear maidens, is the degree of any hart that has been
chased by royalty.

However, before the festival was undertaken, the Queen of Bramber must
needs know if the Arun could show any habitation worthy of her; and her
messengers went and came with a tale of a noble castle fallen into
ruins, but with its four-square walls intact, and a sward within so
smooth and fair that it seemed only to await the coming of archers and
dancers. So the Queen called a legion of workmen and bade them go there
and build a dwelling in one part of the green court for her to stay in
with her company. "And see it be done by midsummer," said she.
"Castles, madam," said the head workman, "are not built in a month, or
even in two." "Then for a frolic we'll be commoners," said the Queen,
"and you shall build on the sward not a castle, but a farm." So the
workmen hurried away, and set to work; and by June they had raised
within the castle walls the most beautiful farmhouse in Sussex; and
over the door made a room fit for a queen.

But alas for Proud Rosalind!

When the men first came she confronted them angrily and commanded them
to depart from her fathers' halls. And the head workman looked at the
ruin and her rags and said, "What halls, girl? and where are these
fathers? and who are you?"--and bade his men get about the Queen's
work. And Rosalind was helpless. The men from the Adur asked the people
of the Arun about her, and what rights she had to be where she was. And
they, being unfriendly to her, said, "None. She is a beggar with a bee
in her bonnet, and thinks she was once a queen because her housing was
once a castle. She has been suffered to stay as long as it was
unwanted; but since your Queen wants it, now let her go." And they came
in a body to drive her forth. But they got there too late. The Proud
Rosalind had abandoned her conquered stronghold