her, when a graceful cavalier, unarmed, was at her side.  He raised her hand to his lips, and her whole soul responded to the touch.  He was about to speak, when her father suddenly appeared, with a dark and forbidding aspect.  He began to chide, and the stranger, with a glance she could not erase from her recollection, disappeared.  It was this glance which subdued her proud spirit to its influence.  Her maidenly apprehensions became aroused; she attempted, but in vain, to drive away the intruder:  the vision haunted her deeply—­too deeply for her repose!  Marks of some outward impression were yet visible on her hand, whether from causes less occult than the moving phantasma of the mind, is a question that would resist all our powers of solution.  In a mood thus admirably fitted for the encountering of some marvellous adventure, did she mount her little white palfrey, all pranked out and caparisoned for the occasion.

Followed by a train of some length, with Oskatell by her side, the daughter of the house of Lathom allured the eyes of not a few as she passed on.  Many a stately knight bent his head, and many an inquiry was directed to the esquires and attendants as she drew near.

The scene of this renowned combat was a spacious plain below the city, on the opposite side of the river Itchen.  The chalky cliffs, which obtained for it the name of Caer Gwint, or the White City, were studded with gay and anxious multitudes, whose hopes and fears have long been swept off by the waves of passing generations.

Winchester being one of the fixed markets or staples for wool appointed by King Edward, the city had risen in power and affluence above its neighbours.  Yet the plague, by which it was almost depopulated some years before, had considerably abated its magnificence.  But the favour of royalty still clung to it, and Arthur’s “Round Table” attested its early claims to this distinguishing character—­a monarch’s residence.  The castle, where the Round Table is still shown, was then a building of great strength, and, enlivened by the king’s presence, displayed many a staff and pennon from its stately battlements.

Isabella passed by the fortress just as the trumpets announced the near approach of the king down the covered way.  The chains of the drawbridge were lowered, and presently issued forth the armed retinue of the monarch.  Isabella and her train were obliged to remain awhile as idle spectators.

The king, though old and infirm, yet retained his lofty and commanding appearance.  His charger was armed with the chanfrons and gamboised housings, having thereon the royal arms, and proudly did the conscious beast paw and champ, as if rejoicing under his burden.

Edward was dressed in a glittering surcoat of crimson silk, worked with lions and fleurs-de-lis. His helmet was cylindrical, surmounted by a lion as its crest.  Round the rim was a coronet of gold, worked with fleurs-de-lis and oak leaves.  A gorget and tippet covering the shoulders was fastened beneath the chin, giving the head a stiff but imposing air of command.  He carried a short truncheon, which he wielded with great dexterity; yet his armour, though light and of the finest temper, seemed more cumbersome to him now than in former days.