Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/191

 hissing hot from the flames, and in truth it tasted in the mouth like burning coals. But the wine was well cooled in the bubbling fountain of the Salmons, and was very fragrant delicious claret, and light and easily carried in the belly and the head; so we were comfortable enough by dinner time. But when our meal was duly discharged, we called our host again, and craved him to set us a table and chairs under a shady mulberry in his garden, and this he easily granted us; so we were greatly at our ease, and sat listening to the roaring and shouting and singing of the multitude, whom no sun could keep quiet. But when the day began to cool and our wits to grow clear, we all asked the Seigneur of La Roche Nemours to devise some relation for us, since he came from beyond seas and could tell us of what we knew not. "Nay," answered he, "but the pleasantest adventure I have in my head was produced by your own soil of Gwent, and was recounted to me by a young clerk of Chepstow, with whom I journey this very day." "Let us hear it, by all means," quoth the Canon Cursal, "for I know this soil to be a rich and racy one teeming with good things both for mind and body. Wait but a moment while I move my chair, for the sun is gaining on me; and then do you devise." So sitting in the shade, hearing now and again above the noise and clamour closes and intonations of strange solemn music, that seemed to come from a ruined realm of færy, we hearkened to the stranger's tale of our own dear land.