stranger knight, but the young-seeming knight and the maiden I had seen
in the garden. To my eyes they clung together there; though they say,
that to the eyes of all else, it was but for a moment that the queen held
both his hands in hers; to me also, amid the shouting of the multitude,
came an under current of happy song: 'Oh! truly, very truly, my noblest,
a hundred years will not be long after this.' 'Hush, Ella, dearest, for
talking makes the time speed; think only.'

"Pressed close to each other, as I saw it, their bosoms heaved--but I
looked away--alas! when I looked again, I saw nought but the stately
stranger knight, descending, hand in hand, with the queen, flushed with
joy and triumph, and the people scattering flowers before them.

"And that was long ago, very long ago." So he ceased; then Osric, one of
the two younger men, who had been sitting in awe-struck silence all this
time, said, with eyes that dared not meet Giles's, in a terrified half
whisper, as though he meant not to speak, "How long?" Giles turned round
and looked him full in the face, till he dragged his eyes up to his own,
then said, "More than a hundred years ago."

So they all sat silent, listening to the roar of the south-west wind; and
it blew the windows so, that they rocked in their frames.

Then suddenly, as they sat thus, came a knock at the door of the house;
so Hugh bowed his head to Osric, to signify that he should go and open
the door; so he arose, trembling, and went.

And as he opened the door the wind blew hard against him, and blew
something white against his face, then blew it away again, and his face
was blanched, even to his lips; but he plucking up heart of grace, looked