high words had passed between him and the Prince respecting a hearth-
tax, and that since he had returned to his government, and seldom
or never appeared at the council board. It was the Earl of Pembroke
who was all-powerful there. And here the old Gascon wandered into
lamentable complaints of the aforesaid hearth-tax, from which Eustace
could scarcely recall him to answer whether the English Baron de
Clarenham had arrived at Bordeaux. He had come, and with as splendid
a train as ever was beheld, and was in high favour at court.

This was no pleasing intelligence, but Eustace determined to go the
next day to present his nephew to the Prince immediately after the
noontide meal, when it was the wont of the Plantagenet Princes to
throw their halls open to their subjects.

Accordingly, leading Arthur by the hand, and attended by Gaston, he
made his appearance in the hall just as the banquet was concluded,
but ere the Knights had dispersed. Many well-known faces were there,
but as he advanced up the space between the two long tables, he was
amazed at meeting scarce one friendly glance of recognition; some
looked unwilling to seem to know him, and returned his salutation
with distant coldness; others gazed at the window, or were intent on
their wine, and of these was Leonard Ashton, whom to his surprise he
saw seated among the Knights.

Thus he passed on until he had nearly reached the dais where dined
the Prince and the personages of the most exalted rank. Here he
paused as his anxious gaze fell upon the Prince, and marked his
countenance and mien--alas! how changed! He sat in his richly-
carved chair, wrapped in a velvet mantle, which, even on that
bright day of a southern spring, he drew closer round him with a