subject from a lad to his elders.

"It is quite a time since you were here last, Master Ormskirk," Lady De
Courcy said when he entered. "Albert so often goes up for a talk with you
when he has finished his studies at the monastery that you are forgetting
us here."

"I crave your pardon, Mistress De Courcy," Edgar said; "but, indeed, I
have been working hard, for my father has obtained for me a good master
for the sword--a Frenchman skilled in many devices of which my English
teachers were wholly ignorant. He has been teaching some of the young
nobles in London, and my father, hearing of his skill, has had him down
here, at a heavy cost, for the last month, as he was for the moment
without engagements in London. It was but yesterday that he returned.
Naturally, I have desired to make the utmost of the opportunity, and most
of my time has been spent in the fencing-room."

"And have you gained much by his instruction?" Sir Ralph asked.

"I hope so, Sir Ralph. I have tried my best, and he has been good enough
to commend me warmly, and even told my father that I was the aptest pupil
that he had."

"I will try a bout with you presently," the knight said. "It is nigh two
years since we had one together, and my arm is growing stiff for want of
practice, though every day I endeavour to keep myself in order for any
opportunity or chance that may occur, by practising against an imaginary
foe by hammering with a mace at a corn-sack swinging from a beam. Methinks
I hit it as hard as of old, but in truth I know but little of the tricks
of these Frenchmen. They availed nothing at Poictiers against our crushing