a rude trick of the olden time-our forefathers were but a discourteous race."

"Ha, old Sir Aymer," cried de Monfort recognizing him, "art thou there? Marry, I was much amiss not to seek for thee at the first amongst beardless chins and gaudy doublets what, hast thou yet made peace between those near neighbouring foes, thy green head and gray beard? -never trust me an' thou lookest not among those gay and gilded youths like a roosted owl amid a cast of newlybathed falcons with their bells and bravery on - that beard of thine waves like a scourge to whip the boy Cupid from the very chamber thou hauntest get thee a scythe and hourglass, man, so thou mayest save the charges of a wooden figure of time for an abbey clock, or some old monument. Thou make love to ladies! provide thee first a bright eye, a curled head, a soft palm, and a straight back, and thou mayest yet win the grace of my lady's bower-woman to swear thee her servant on the knot of her pantoffle; for trust me, knight, even in thy better days (I should say

thine earlier), thy wit was all too unreclaimed to pounce on nobler quarry."

"An' it were not less of a haggard than thine, de Monfort," said the knight laughing, but much irritated, "I would not fly it at the coif of a country wench."

"But whereto tends this," cried de Monfort without heeding him" but whereto tends this?" and he looked round with an amazed disdain. "These be crusaders that sit around me, as I guess by the crosses on their mantles, and knights of birth and valour, as our host speaks them (himself a meet judge of valour), otherwise I might have guessed them for a band of troubadours. What, am I summoned to a battle or a banquet? The champion of the church looked for other greeting in these towers where be the harness clattering on the floor and the war-steeds neighing in the court, the clasping of gorgets and the closing of helmets, the grasping of brands and the wielding of lances, and all that glorious and stirring invitation to the high-heaped feast of battle that makes a warrior of a very coward,

and turns a warrior into a host? What, is there an Albigeois left in Languedoc, that the crusaders are sitting at a feast? My Lord of Courtenaye," he continued, "when I reached your castle, I deemed to see it moated with the blood of the enemies of God, and to note every knosp and pinnacle of your battlements crested with an heretic head (the best blazon they ever could boast); and now, what see I?a band of revellers a masque-a pageant: by Heaven, the Pope is sore deceived in the trust he puts in these crusaders!"

"Thou art deceived, unadvised lord," said the Bishop of Toulouse in a voice that stilled even the turbulent and ferocious de Monfort; "thou seest around thee men bound heart and hand, body and soul, to the service of holy church, and her warfare against her, enemies. What though they be garbed in satin, they have felt the griding pressure of steel on head, breast, and body ere now; moreover, noble de Monfort," he whispered, our hands are held for a space the Dalilah of the Vatican hath bound the strong man- we wait for further

missives from the legate, or rather from his concubine, who hath some foolish pity on these Albigeois, being herself a native of Languedoc. There is a monk they call him the monk of Montcalm an ascetic-a very Eremite-a St. Simeon Stylites, or whatever saint you please to miscall him, who is inward with the legate. He outpreacheth the Dominicans, worketh miracles, and doeth such tricks that I dare not quarrel with him for the value of my mitre. The legate hath employed him to win a truce between the heretics and us for a space-mark me, for a space only. Now, in the name of Heaven, lord, since such reasons are uttered to you, restrain your free speech, and do no further offence to this fair meeting."

"It is well," said de Monfort, who appeared slowly, but at length thoroughly, to apprehend the bishop's reasons; "and my hand must then be in the pasty, and not on my brand; but, mercy of Heaven, what stuff is here!" striking down with the hilt of his dagger a rich and luscious confectionary, as if to avenge himself on inanimate things" a sotiltye, with streamers and I

know not what devices as high as a bannered castle! - Bear it away, knave!" to the sewer. "My noble guest," said the Lord of Courmore solid viands at

tenaye, "there are hand."

"Look that there be," said de Monfort rudely to the attendants, without regarding his host; "meanwhile fill me a cup of wine, and break up that pasty (that seems as if it held venison) to prepare the way for my next draught."

By this time the Lady Isabelle, shrinking alike from this gross excess and obvious negligence of her rank and sex, rose with her female attendants to quit the banquet-hall, polluted by the presence of the brutal lord and his companions, who were fast following his example in insolence and licentiousness.

"Stay, lady, stay!" cried de Monfort as he saw her preparing to retire; "what, flying without news from the courts? - how queen Ingelberg sets her hood, and how many gems her girdle is studded withal — meet tidings for fair dames when uttered by courtier-lips like mine !"