Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/147

 by the sea.' Thus the old woman with the swine led me through a fair open country till we came to a high wall of stone around a castle, having towers and alures and a strong gate house, even as this castle of Caldicot. At this gate house the old woman bade me wait while she drove her hogs round by the postern, and in a little while the drawbridge fell down, and the lord of the castle came forth to meet me, a grave and comely man with blue eyes and a long white beard. And he took me by the hand and led me in, calling me brother and bidding me command him and all his men to do whatsoever I would. 'Many a year gone by,' said he, 'a gallant knight like you came here in search of adventures, and so fertile a land did he find it that he never returned to his country, but died here; and he too was of Gwent.' With these words we came to the banqueting house, lofty and magnificent, and in a gallery was a quire that sang and played every manner of instrument while the company were at meat. Then mine host made me sit beside him at the high table, whereat sat also his nine daughters, such girls as it does a man's eyes good to gaze upon for one of them would turn an abbey upside down. And at the board below was as brave a sort of ladies and of knights as I ever desire to see, all gallant and gay, and dressed in splendid robes of velvet and silk and golden stuff, enriched with jewells beyond all price. Let me say nothing of the feast or of the wine that graced it, for neither surely did come from any earthly cook or perishable vineyard, but were rather