en

doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot off the fire, and a

third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a portion of steaming

collops to each guest. alleyne bore his share and his ale-mug

away with him to a retired trestle in the corner, where he could

sup in peace and watch the strange scene, which was so different

to those silent and well-ordered meals to which he was

accustomed.

the room was not unlike a stable. the low ceiling, smoke-

blackened and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors

with rough-hewn ladders leading up to them. the walls of bare

unpainted planks were studded here and there with great wooden

pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from which hung

over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles. over the

fireplace were suspended six or seven shields of wood, with

coats-of-arms rudely daubed upon them, which showed by their

varying degrees of smokiness and dirt that they had been placed

there at different periods. there was no furniture, save a

single long dresser covered with coarse crockery, and a number of

wooden benches and trestles, the legs of which sank deeply into

the soft clay floor, while the only light, save that of the fire,

was furnished by three torches stuck in sockets on the wall,

which flickered and crackled, giving forth a strong resinous

odor. all this was novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth;

but most interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who

sat eating their collops round the blaze. they were a humble

group of wayfarers, such as might have been found that night in

any inn through the length and breadth of england; but to him

they represented that vague world against which he had been so

frequently and so earnestly warned. it did not seem to him from

what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place after all.

three or four of the men round the fire were evidently

underkeepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned and

bearded, with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the

deer among which they lived. close to the corner of the chimney

sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of norwich cloth,

the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the

neck and at the waist. his face was swollen and coarse, and his

watery protruding eyes spoke of a life which never wandered very

far from the wine-pot. a gilt harp, blotched with many stains

and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his

arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter.

next to him sat two other men of about the same age, one with a

trimming of fur to his coat, which gave him a dignity which was

evidently dearer to him than his comfort, for he still drew it

round him in spite of the hot glare of the faggots. the other,

clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a

cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard.

next to him sat hordle john, and beside him three other rough

unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair-free laborers

from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold

property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the

heart of the royal demesne. the company was completed by a

peasant in a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-

fashioned galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young

man with striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored

hosen, who looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and

held a blue smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he

brandished a busy spoon with the other. in the corner a very fat

man was lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously,

and evidently in the last stage of drunkenness.

"that is wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down beside

alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man. "that

is he who paints the signs and the tokens. alack and alas that

ever i should have been fool enough to trust him! now, young man,

what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that

being the proper sign of my hostel?"

"why," said alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an

eagle or a falcon. i can well remember that learned brother

bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed

one out to me as we walked together near vinney ridge."

"a falcon or an eagle, quotha? and pied, that is of two several

colors. so any man would say except this barrel of lies. he

came to me, look you, saying that if i would furnish him with a

gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and

also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied

merlin which i might hang along with the blazonry over my door.

i, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved,

leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must