Something in the frank and noble bearing of the lad seemed to please the knightly stranger.  He laid a friendly hand on Gaston’s shoulder as the youth paced with springy strides beside him.

“I trow thou art a mettlesome knave, and I owe thee and thy brother something more than fair words for the service ye have rendered me this night.  I have lost three or four of my followers by disease and accident since I left the shores of England.  Boy, what sayest thou to taking service with me for a while —­ thou and thy brother likewise —­ and journeying to fair England as two of my young esquires?  I like you well, and in these days it is no small thing to rank in one’s train those to whom the language of Gascony is familiar.  I trow ye be able to speak the French tongue likewise, since ye be so ready with our foreign English?”

“Ay, we can both speak and understand it,” answered Gaston, whose cheeks had crimsoned with eager delight; “but we speak English better.  Good Sir, we could desire nothing better than to follow you to the world’s end; but we have not been trained to the use of arms, nor to knightly exercises.  I know not if we could make shift to please you, be our service never so faithful.”

“In such a case as that, sure I should be a hard master to please,” returned the other, and Gaston knew from his voice that he was smiling.  “But we need not settle it all out here in this dark wood.  You must wait awhile to see what manner of man it is you speak of serving.  And you may at least be my companions of voyage across the sea, though once on English shores you shall please yourselves whether or not you serve me farther.  As for my name, it is James Audley, and I am one of the King’s knights.  I am now bound for Windsor —­ thou hast doubtless heard of Windsor, the mighty fortress where the King holds his Court many a time and oft.  Well, it hath pleased his Majesty of late to strive to bring back those days of chivalry of which our bards sing and of which we hear from ancient legend —­ days that seem to be fast slipping away, and which it grieves our most excellent King to see die out in his time.  Hast heard, boy, of the great King Arthur of whom men wrote and sung in days gone by?  Has his fame reached as far as thy Gascon home?”

“Yea, verily,” answered Gaston eagerly.  “Our mother in long-past days would speak to us of that great King, and of his knights, and of the Round Table at which they sat together, their King in their midst —­”

“Ay, truly thou knowest well the tale, and it is of this same Round Table I would speak.  The King has thought good to hold such a Round Table himself, and has sent forth messages to numbers of his knights to hold themselves in readiness to attend it early in the year which will soon be upon us.  Men say that he is building a wondrous round tower at his fortress of Windsor, wherein his Round Table will be placed and the feast celebrated.  I know not with