"So the Count assures me," answered Woodville; "and I doubt it not, Ella; but, at all events, I will care for you, be assured, poor thing." "You tell me to put all the baggage in one room," said Ned Dyram, thrusting in his head; "and the men tell me that they are to have each his harness, and you yours. Two contrary orders, master of mine! Which is to be obeyed?" "Your wit is strangely halting just now, Ned," answered his master. "Put all, but what I have ordered to be taken, into the room, and see that it be arranged rightly, and quickly too. Now, Ella, cast something over your head, and come with me to your kinsman's shop. What wait you for, sir?" "To know which suit you are pleased to have," replied Ned Dyram; while Ella passed him to seek the wimple which she had cast off in the house. "I have given orders on that score to others," answered his master; and as the man retired, he murmured to himself, "I shall have to send that fellow back to the King. He does not please me." With a rapid step Richard of Woodville led the way, as soon as Ella joined him, to the wide open space which then, as since, was used as a market, before the old castle of the Counts of Flanders; and, as none of the shops or stalls bore their masters' names inscribed, he entered the first they came to, and inquired which was the house of Nicholas Brune? "His house," replied the man to whom he had addressed himself in French, "is at the other end of the town; but his shop is yonder," and he pointed with his hand from the door to one of the projecting cases, covered with a network of iron wire, under which the goldsmiths of Ghent at that period exposed some of their larger goods for sale. "The last stall but one," added the trader; and Woodville and his fair companion sped on towards the spot. At the unglazed window, behind this booth, stood a man of middle age, grey headed, but with a fresh and cheerful countenance, who, as soon as he saw the two approach, demanded, in the common terms of the day, what they sought in his trade. The next instant, however, his eye rested upon Ella's face, which wore a faint smile, and he exclaimed in his native tongue,--"Mesaunter! if there be not my cousin Ella! How art thou, lass? Welcome to Ghent! What news of the good old man? My dame will be right glad to see you both again." "She will never see him more," replied Ella Brune, in a sad tone; "but of that I will tell you hereafter, kinsman; for I must not stay this noble gentleman, who has befriended me on the way. What I seek to know is, if you can give me shelter at your dwelling for a week, till I can look around me? I will pay for my abiding, Nicholas," she added, perhaps knowing that her cousin, dealing in gold, had somewhat too great a fondness for the pure metal.