was dangerous trifling with the one-eyed Hans.


II.

How the Baron went Forth to Shear.

Baron Conrad and Baroness Matilda sat together at their morning
meal below their raised seats stretched the long, heavy wooden
table, loaded with coarse food - black bread, boiled cabbage,
bacon, eggs, a great chine from a wild boar, sausages, such as
we eat nowadays, and flagons and jars of beer and wine, Along
the board sat ranged in the order of the household the followers
and retainers. Four or five slatternly women and girls served
the others as they fed noisily at the table, moving here and
there behind the men with wooden or pewter dishes of food, now
and then laughing at the jests that passed or joining in the
talk. A huge fire blazed and crackled and roared in the great
open fireplace, before which were stretched two fierce, shaggy,
wolfish-looking hounds. Outside, the rain beat upon the roof or
ran trickling from the eaves, and every now and then a chill
draught of wind would breathe through the open windows of the
great black dining-hall and set the fire roaring.

Along the dull-gray wall of stone hung pieces of armor, and
swords and lances, and great branching antlers of the stag.
Overhead arched the rude, heavy, oaken beams, blackened with age
and smoke, and underfoot was a chill pavement of stone.

Upon Baron Conrad's shoulder leaned the pale, slender, yellow-