They had not been unkindly received by their companions, although,
as the other pages were nearly all the sons of nobles, there was a
marked restraint in the way in which they condescended to boys who
had only one name {6}. Still, the earl's will was law, and
since he had willed that the newcomers should share the privileges
of the others, no protest could be made.

And as for Hubert there was no difficulty; he was one of nature's
own gentlemen, and there was something in his brave winning ways,
in which there was neither shyness nor presumption, which at once
found him friends; besides, his speech was Norman French, and he
was au fait in his manners.

But poor little Martin--the lad from the greenwood--surely it was
a great mistake to expose him to the jeers and sarcasms of the lads
of his own age, but of another culture; every time he opened his
mouth he betrayed the Englishman, and it was not until the
following reign that Edward the First, by himself adopting that
designation as the proudest he could claim, redeemed it from being,
as it had been since the Conquest, a term of opprobrium and
reproach.

The day always began at Kenilworth Castle with an early mass in the
chapel at sunrise; then, unless it were a hunting morning, the
whole bevy of pages was handed over to the chaplain for a few brief
hours of study, for the earl was himself a literary man, and would
fain have all under him instructed in the rudiments of learning
{7}.

Hubert did not show to advantage, for he regarded all such studies