Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/152

 dedalised, and entangled to an intolerable extent. Then by the High Constable's solemn decree this great question was adjourned, prorogued, and continued to next Easter; and they all went to bed hoping that the morrow would be a warm and shiny day. But both the histories were curiously engrossed by the lettered men and laid up amongst the records of the Castle for the admiration of the after-ages. But it was discovered a short while afterwards that in neither of them was there one jot or tittle of the truth, since they both proceeded from the fertile brain of Sir Nicholas Kemeys, who had taken the hints of that great fool Thomas in the management of his fables. And in fact the two knights errant had been enjoying themselves all the time at Abergavenny, revelling, feasting, and making love to their hearts' content; drinking the strongest men under the table and hiding in aumbries and in dark corners till the town was too hot to hold them. And when my lord Humphrey had the real truth of this affair carried to him, so well-pleased was he with the ingenious and finely conceited lying of Sir Nicholas and Sir Dru that he gave to each of them a fat manor in his lordship of Netherwent, and would have them always in presence at Caldicot till he died.

Thus I brought my relation to a close; and it was then found to be time for sleeping, so that no man laid his thumbnail on what I had said, unless he did it in his dreams.