‘Now comes the chivalric age,’ said Elizabeth; ’never mind telling me all the names, only say who is the first of your heroes—­neither Orlando nor Sir Galahad, I suppose.’

‘No, nor Huon de Bordeaux,’ said Anne.

‘The Cid, then, I suppose,’ said Elizabeth, ’unless he is too fierce for your tender heart.’

‘Ruy, mi Cid Campeador?’ said Anne, ’I must have him in consideration of his noble conduct to the King who banished him, and the speech the ballad gives him: 

“For vassals’ vengeance on their lord,
Though just, is treason still;
The noblest blood is his, who best
Bears undeserved ill.”

And the loyalty he shewed in making the King clear himself of having any share in his brother’s death, even though Alphonso was silly enough to be affronted.’

‘Like Montrose’s feeling towards his lady-love,’ said Elizabeth; ’not bearing the least stain on what he loved or honoured.’

‘But he is not our earliest knight,’ said Anne; ’I begin with our own Alfred, with his blue shield and golden cross.’

‘King Alfred!’ exclaimed Elizabeth, ‘do you consider him a knight?’

‘Certainly,’ said Anne; ’besides that I care more for the spirit of chivalry than for the etiquette of the accolade and golden spurs; we know that Alfred knighted his grandson Athelstane, so that he must have been a knight himself.’

‘By-the-bye,’ said Elizabeth, ’I think I have found out the origin of the golden spurs being part of a knight’s equipment.  Do you remember when the Cid’s beloved king Don Sancho was killed, that Rodrigo could not overtake the traitor Bellido Dolfos, because he had no spurs on, whereupon he cursed every knight who should for the future ride without them.  Now that was at the time when the laws of chivalry were attaining their perfection, but—­’

‘Not so fast,’ said Anne; ’I have a much earlier pair of golden spurs for you.  Do not you remember Edmund, the last King of East Anglia, being betrayed to the Danish wedding-party at Hoxne, by the glitter of his golden spurs, and cursing every new married pair who should ever pass over the bridge where he was found.  I think that makes for my side of the question.  Here is Edmund, a knight in golden spurs when Alfred was a child.  Ah ha, Miss Lizzie!’

Before Elizabeth could answer, Winifred came to tell her that her mamma wanted her, and she was forced to leave the question of King Alfred’s and King Edmund’s chivalry undecided; for, to her praise be it spoken, she was much too useful a person ever to be able to pursue her own peculiar diversions for many minutes together.  She had to listen to some directions, and undertake some messages, so that she could not return to her own room till after Anne had gone down-stairs.  She herself was not ready till just as the elders were setting off to the dinner-party at Marlowe Court, and rejoicing in the cessation of the rain and the fineness of the evening.