Shoreby!"

CHAPTER II--"IN MINE ENEMIES' HOUSE"

Sir Daniel's residence in Shoreby was a tall, commodious, plastered

mansion, framed in carven oak, and covered by a low-pitched roof of

thatch. To the back there stretched a garden, full of fruit-trees,

alleys, and thick arbours, and overlooked from the far end by the tower

of the abbey church.

The house might contain, upon a pinch, the retinue of a greater person

than Sir Daniel; but even now it was filled with hubbub. The court rang

with arms and horseshoe-iron; the kitchens roared with cookery like a

bees'-hive; minstrels, and the players of instruments, and the cries of

tumblers, sounded from the hall. Sir Daniel, in his profusion, in the

gaiety and gallantry of his establishment, rivalled with Lord Shoreby,

and eclipsed Lord Risingham.

All guests were made welcome. Minstrels, tumblers, players of chess, the

sellers of relics, medicines, perfumes, and enchantments, and along with

these every sort of priest, friar, or pilgrim, were made welcome to the

lower table, and slept together in the ample lofts, or on the bare boards

of the long dining-hall.

The Black Arrow