ousehold having assembled for that important meal, a huge oaken table,
which in shape resembled the letter T, groaned under massive sirloins.
Attended by his jesters, the lord of the castle took his seat on the
dais, which was reserved for his family and his guests of high rank;
while the knights, squires, pages, and retainers ranged themselves above
and below the salt, according to their claims to precedence; and hawks
stood around on perches, and hounds lay stretched on the rushy floor,
waiting their turn to be fed.

Much ceremony was of course observed. The sirloins were succeeded by
fish and fowl, and dishes curiously compounded; and, as was the fashion
of that feudal age, the dinner lasted three hours. But, notwithstanding
the pride and pomp exhibited, the meal was by no means dull. The jesters
and minstrels did their work. During the intervals the jesters exercised
all their wit to divert the lord and his friends; and the minstrels, in
the gallery set apart for their accommodation, discoursed flourishes of
music, borrowed from the Saracens and brought from the East, for the
gratification of the company, or roused the aspirations of the youthful
warriors by some such spirit-stirring strain as the battle-hymn of
Rollo.

'I marvel much, good Walter,' said Guy Muschamp to his brother-in-arms,
'I marvel much where we are destined to dine this day next year.'

'Beshrew me if I can even form a guess,' replied Walter Espec,
thoughtfully; 'methinks no seer less potent than the Knight of
Ercildoune, whom the vulgar call "True Thomas," could on such a point do
aught to satisfy your curiosity.'

'Mayhap at Acre or Jerusalem,' suggested Guy, after a pause.

'By Holy Katherine,' exclaimed Walter, 'ere you named Acre and
Jerusalem, my imagination had carried me to the palace of the caliph at
Bagdad.'

CHAPTER III.

THE HEIRS OF THE ESPECS.

IN the days when the Norman kings reigned in England, the Especs were of
high account among the Anglo-Norman barons. Many were the brave and
pious men who bore the name; but the bravest and most pious of them all
was that Walter Espec, a great noble of the north, who maintained high
feudal state at the castles of Wark, Helmsley, and Kirkham, and who
figured so conspicuously as chief of the English at the battle of the
Standard, and harangued the soldiers before the battle from the chariot
from which the standard was displayed.

But not only as a warrior was Walter Espec kno