"Nay, my good sir, I should surely be wanting in courtesy to let you stand and carve, while I, like the wild beast, which loves to feast without company, devour your supper. You have more gentlemen, too, I think, with you--though I know neither their name nor yours, to ask you to be seated." "Oh, my followers, madam, will find supper without," replied the stranger; "and as to my name, lady, I am called the Baron de Mardyke,--a foreign name, as you will see, but having been born in England, in King Edward's time, I am more than half an Englishman." "Pray, then, be seated," said the Lady Arabella; and the stranger, drawing a stool to the table, did as she bade him. Before he took his place, however, he crossed himself reverently, in rather an ostentatious manner, very different from that which he had used in making the same sign before the landlord. The lady could not help noticing the gesture; but she took no notice, and, after a brief grace murmured to herself, sat down at table. The gentleman, as in duty bound, carved for her; and, as she made no observation, the meal was silent for several minutes, while the landlord and one of the stranger's servants came in and out, and caused a bustle amongst the plates and trenchers. "In Spain," said the stranger, breaking silence, with a smile, "the host of an inn so near the capital as this, would have been ashamed to send up capons of last year to a lady's table." "You have been in Spain, then," said the Lady Arabella. "It is a fair country, is it not?--rich in song and romance?" "Rich in everything," replied the baron; "beautiful to the eye, delicious in climate, full of splendid cities and courteous gentlemen--a land of princes, lady." "Good truth, then, it must be but a dull place," exclaimed Arabella, with a gay laugh. "I have seen some princes since my birth, and I must say that they are the dullest specimens of mortal man I ever met with." "You have known few Spanish princes, madam," said her companion, "or you would judge differently." "No," answered the lady; "the only one I ever met with, who bore his dignity with modesty and elevated it by grace, was a German." "True," rejoined the Baron, "some of the Royal and Electoral Houses have produced men not easily to be banished from a lady's memory--or her heart." "Nay," said Arabella, with a careless smile, "my little heart is all too narrow to take in so great a thing as a prince." Her companion cast a quick glance around the room to see that no one was near, and then replied in a low but emphatic tone, "I hope not--I hope not." The blood came up into the lady's cheek, and after gazing in his face for an instant, she cast down her eyes again, and remained silent. Several of the dishes were removed, now others put upon the table; and then, as if accidentally, both the landlord and the serving-man quitted the room. "How strange are the events of life," said the Baron de Mardyke.