Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/136

 right. Then the High Constable bade his trumpeters sound a welcome on their clarions to this mirror of chivalry, and the guard were set all in order clothed in mail, and the portcullis men and the drawbridge men stood by their chains lest the gallant knight after many perils and hazards should end by falling into a pit. So as the trumpets pealed forth their close the bridge fell down, and bowing low to his lord above the gate Sir Nicholas was received once more within the bailey of Caldicot. First, as was right, the maids disarmed him and bore basins of fair water, and ungents [sic] and odours, and clothed him in a surcoat fit for the King's Majesty and tenderly handled him; for they saw Sir Nicholas was pale and thin and judged him to have gone through divers sore dangers in their behalf. Then (as if he had been a boar's head or peacock) he was brought into the hall in a pomp, to wit by the steward, the castellan, and the sergeant-marshal, with a music of pipes and vyalls and sweet singing, and the fool Thomas walked behind for his reward; and so was set at the Earl's right-hand, and feasted with the most delicate and opiparous fare and the most curious wines imaginable; for the High Constable noted that Sir Nicholas seemed all the while like a man in his twy-senses, between the call and the awakening. Scarce a word moreover, came from his lips, but he knit his brows, tapped his skull, and was heard once or twice to mutter "Surely I am myself and this is the hall of Caldicot in Netherwent, and my lord Humphrey sits beside me." They that heard