“Nay, Ralph de Sudley,” replied the baron, “my castle must needs put on its best looks, when it beholds the entry of one who is to be its lord and protector when I shall be no more.  But I see you are all impatience to go within; and, in truth, the sooner your first interview be over the better, for the table is prepared, and the pasty awaits us, and the chaplain too, whose inward man, after the morning’s Mass, craves some solid refreshment.”

“A moment, my worthiest of friends, and I am with you,” said the knight, as he hurried by:  in another instant the Lady Alianore was in his embrace.  Need we repeat the oft-told tale of love?  Need we describe the day of delight Sir Ralph passed in the castle, lingering from hour to hour until the dusk?  O, there is some one we must depict, the lady herself, who so subdued and softened this knightly soul.  There, one hand upon the shoulder of her lover, her other hand locked in his, she sits listening to his words, and luxuriating in his discourse.  The Lady Alianore, somewhat tall in stature, but perfect in form, has a face of dazzling beauty, yet the bewitching sweetness of her smile is tempered by a certain dignity of countenance, to which her dark, raven hair, and darker eyes, do not a little contribute; her hands, and the foot that peeps from beneath, her graceful robe, are of exquisite smallness, and bespeak the purest Norman blood.  Her extreme fairness, shaded by her sable locks, form a strong contrast to the auburn hair and ruddy visage of the stalwart warrior beside her.

“This will indeed be too much, Ralph,” observed the lady; “a monarch, his queen, and his court, to come to this out-of-the-way castle, to honor the wedding of a lone damsel like myself; I can hardly support the idea of so much splendor.”

“Fear not, my beloved,” replied the knight, “Richard is homely enough, and all good nature.  Moreover, it is but a return of civility; for I it was who accompanied him to the altar, where he obtained the hand of Berengaria of Navarre; the office was a dangerous one then, since I incurred by it the wrath of Philip of France.  And why, dearest, should not every magnificence attend our nuptials?  It is the outward emblem of our great content—­a mark, like those gorgeous ceremonies that accompany the festive prayers of the Church, which tell the people of the earth of a joy having something of the gladness and glory of Heaven in it.”

“Be it as you wish, my own true knight; yet I almost feel that I am too happy.  May God bless and protect us!”

Thus passed this bright day, until the approach of dusk imperatively compelled the enraptured lovers to separate.  The knight had urgent business to settle, early on the morrow, at his own castle, before setting out for London, to announce to the king the day fixed for the espousal, and to beg from the monarch the fulfilment of the promise he had made, to be present in person with his court, at the wedding of his gallant and faithful vassal.  The knight was therefore forced to depart ere the gloom advanced; for though his journey lay in a friendly and peaceful country, it was not the habit in those days to be abroad much after dusk, without an efficient escort.