bred--ho, ho!" "Thanks, sir," she strove to say, but she was very
near weeping with the terror and strangeness of all around.

The low-browed gateway, barely high enough to admit a man on
horseback, opened before her, almost to her feelings like the gate of
the grave, and she could not help crossing herself, with a silent
prayer for protection, as she stepped under it, and came into the
castle court--not such a court as gave its name to fair courtesy,
but, if truth must be told, far more resembling an ill-kept, ill-
savoured stable-yard, with the piggeries opening into it. In
unpleasantly close quarters, the Schneiderlein, or little tailor,
i.e. the biggest and fiercest of all the knappen, was grooming
Nibelung; three long-backed, long-legged, frightful swine were
grubbing in a heap of refuse; four or five gaunt ferocious-looking
dogs came bounding up to greet their comrade Festhold; and a great
old long-bearded goat stood on the top of the mixen, looking much
disposed to butt at any newcomer. The Sorel family had brought
cleanliness from Flanders, and Hausfrau Johanna was scrupulously
dainty in all her appointments. Christina scarcely knew how she
conveyed herself and her blue kirtle across the bemired stones to the
next and still darker portal, under which a wide but rough ill-hewn
stair ascended. The stables, in fact, occupied the lower floor of
the main building, and not till these stairs had ascended above them
did they lead out into the castle hall. Here were voices--voices
rude and harsh, like those Christina had shrunk from in passing
drinking booths. There was a long table, with rough men-at-arms
lounging about, and staring rudely at her; and at the upper end, by a
great open chimney, sat, half-dozing, an elderly man, more rugged in
feature than his son; and yet, when he roused himself and spoke to
Hugh, there was a shade more of breeding, and less of clownishness in