and manners were far more pleasing and polished than were usual at
that day in England, for I made it a point to spend several weeks each
year in the noble French capital, the home and center of good-breeding
and politeness.

My appointment as Master of the Dance, I am sure, was owing entirely
to my manner. My brother, the baron, who stood high with the king, was
not friendly toward me because my father had seen fit to bequeath me
so good a competency in place of giving it all to the first-born and
leaving me dependent upon the tender mercies of an elder brother. So I
had no help from him nor from any one else. I was quite small of
stature and, therefore, unable to compete, with lance and mace, with
bulkier men; but I would bet with any man, of any size, on any game,
at any place and time, in any amount; and, if I do say it, who perhaps
should not, I basked in the light of many a fair smile which larger
men had sighed for in vain.

I did not know when Brandon first came to London. We had all remained
at Greenwich while the king went up to Westminster to waste his time
with matters of state and quarrel with the Parliament, then sitting,
over the amount of certain subsidies.

Mary, the king's sister, then some eighteen or nineteen years of age,
a perfect bud, just blossoming into a perfect flower, had gone over to
Windsor on a visit to her elder sister, Margaret of Scotland, and the
palace was dull enough. Brandon, it seems, had been presented to Henry
during this time, at Westminster, and had, to some extent at least,
become a favorite before I met him. The first time I saw him was at a
joust given by the king at Westminster, in celebration of the fact
that he had coaxed a good round subsidy out of Parliament.