“Now, o’ my troth, but ye be a pair of rude curs, barking from a warm kennel at your betters, who are shivering in the cold, without so much as a bone to pick, or a wisp of straw to their tails!  Well, well, ’tis soon said; every dog, you know,—­and ’twill be my turn soon.  I come hither from the castle at Halton, where my Lady Fitz-Eustace would lay your curs’ noses to the grinding-stone; but, rest her soul, she will not long be above ground, I trow.  Know then, masters, I am her seneschal, whom she sends with a goodly train to the burying.  Quick, old goat-face, or we will singe thy beard to light thee to our discovery.”

The gates were immediately unbolted at this command, opening wide before so dignified a personage, who, as the representative of the Fitz-Eustace, was evidently impressed with a sufficient sense of his own importance, while he and his attendants rode through the grim Norman arch into the courtyard.  The uppermost extreme of this illustrious functionary was surmounted with a sort of Phrygian-shaped bonnet or cap, made of deerskin, suitably ornamented.  A mantle or cloak of a dark mulberry colour, fancifully embroidered on the hem, was clasped upon one shoulder by a silver buckle.  Underneath was a short upper riding-tunic made of coarse woollen, partly covering an under-vest made of finer materials.  A leathern girdle was buckled round his loins, having sundry implements attached thereto, requisite during the performance of so long a journey through a thinly-inhabited region.  The upper garment scarcely covered the knee, over which stockings of red cloth were seen, reaching half-way up the thigh; round the leg were bandages or cross-garterings well bespattered with mud; low boots or buskins protected the feet and ankles; to these spurs were fastened, the head being spear-shaped and something crooked in the shank.  His beard was forked, and this appendage, apparently the result of a careful and anxious cultivation, he occasionally twisted with one hand whilst speaking.  He carried a lance, or rather hunting-spear, which he wielded with an air of great formality and display; his followers were likewise furnished each of them with a cloak and tunic, and a conical cap of coarse felt tied under the chin with a leathern band:  a girdle of the same material was buckled round the waist, with a scrip and other necessaries for the journey.  They rode horses of the Welsh breed, small and stout-built; spoil captured, in all probability, from that rebellious and unruly nation.

The entry of this armed train was more like an act of taking possession than that of a peaceable and formal embassage; and the newly-arrived seneschal soon began to exercise the office of governor or castellan, seizing the reins of government with an iron grasp.  He was a square carroty-headed personage, about the middle size, and of a ruddy aspect.  He held an office of trust under the Fitz-Eustace, and, spite of his saucy garrulity, in which he indulged on most occasions, he was faithful, and would have challenged and immolated any one who had dared to question the right of the Fitz-Eustace to precedence before any other baron of the land.  Long service rendered him more intrusive than would have been thought becoming, or even excusable in any other enjoying less of his mistress’s confidence.