d fain stay here

forever amid all these beautiful things--" staring hard at the

blushing tita as he spoke--"but we must be back at our lord's

hostel ere he reach it." amid renewed thanks and with promises

to come again, the two squires bade their leave of the old

italian glass-stainer and his daughter. the streets were clearer

now, and the rain had stopped, so they made their way quickly

from the rue du roi, in which their new friends dwelt, to the rue

des apotres, where the hostel of the "half moon" was situated.

chapter xxii.

how the bowmen held wassail at the "rose de guienne."

"mon dieu! alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face?" cried ford

as they hurried along together. "so pure, so peaceful, and so

beautiful!"

"in sooth, yes. and the hue of the skin the most perfect that

ever i saw. marked you also how the hair curled round the brow?

it was wonder fine."

"those eyes, too!" cried ford. "how clear and how tender --

simple. and yet so full of thought!"

"if there was a weakness it was in the chin," said alleyne.

"nay. i saw none."

"it was well curved, it is true."

"most daintily so."

"and yet----"

"what then, alleyne? wouldst find flaw in the sun?"

"well, bethink you, ford, would not more power and expression

have been put into the face by a long and noble beard?"

"holy virgin!" cried ford, "the man is mad. a beard on the face

of little tita!"

"tita! who spoke of tita?"

"who spoke of aught else?"

"it was the picture of st. remy, man, of which i have been

discoursing."

"you are indeed," cried ford, laughing, "a goth, hun, and vandal,

with all the other hard names which the old man called us. how

could you think so much of a smear of pigments, when there was

such a picture painted by the good god himself in the very room

with you? but who is this?"

"if it please you, sirs," said an archer, running across to them,

"aylward and others would be right glad to see you. they are

within here. he bade me say to you that the lord loring will not

need your service to-night, as he sleeps with the lord chandos."

"by my faith!" said ford, "we do not need a guide to lead us to

their presence." as he spoke there came a roar of singing from

the tavern upon the right, with shouts of laughter and stamping

of feet. passing under a low door, and down a stone-flagged

passage, they found themselves in a long narrow hall lit up by a

pair of blazing torches, one at either end. trusses of straw had

been thrown down along the walls, and reclining on them were some

twenty or thirty archers, all of the company, their steel caps

and jacks thrown off, their tunics open and their great limbs

sprawling upon the clay floor. at every man's elbow stood his

leathern blackjack of beer, while at the further end a hogshead

with its end knocked in promised an abundant supply for the

future. behind the hogshead, on a half circle of kegs, boxes,

and rude settles, sat aylward, john, black simon and three or

four other leading men of the archers, together with goodwin

hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had left his yellow cog in the

river to have a last rouse with his friends of the company. ford

and alleyne took their seats between aylward and black simon,

without their entrance checking in any degree the hubbub which

was going on.

"ale, mes camarades?" cried the bowman, "or shall it be wine?

nay, but ye must have the one or the other. here, jacques, thou

limb of the devil, bring a bottrine of the oldest vernage, and

see that you do not shake it. hast heard the news?"

"nay," cried both the squires.

"that we are to have a brave tourney."

"a tourney?"

"aye, lads. for the captal du buch hath sworn that he will find

five knights from this side of the water who will ride over any

five englishmen who ever threw leg over saddle; and chandos hath

taken up the challenge, and the prince hath promised a golden

vase for the man who carries himself best, and all the court is

in a buzz over it."

"why should the knights have all the sport?" growled hordle john.

"could they not set up five archers for the honor of aquitaine

and of gascony?"

"or five men-at-arms," said black simon.

"but who are the english knights?" asked hawtayne.

"there are three hundred and forty-one in the town," said

aylward, "and i hear that three hundred and forty cartels and

defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being

sir john ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating

sickness, and cannot set foot to ground."

"i have heard of it from one of the archers of the guard," cried

a bowman from among the straw; "i hear that the prince wished to

break a lance, but that chandos would not hear of it, for the

game is likely to be a rough one."

"then there is chandos."

"nay, the pr