[53] Low-crowned yellow caps covered their heads, and the upper
tunic was yellow, richly embroidered, reaching only to the knees. They
wore forked beards, well pointed, and gloves and boots of beautiful
Spanish leather. Their horses were low, but of an exquisite symmetry,
and the beasts were pawing and champing before the gate when Adam
hastened down into the courtyard. These were avant couriers or
messengers from Roger de Fitz-Eustace, whom they announced as being
nigh, and to be expected ere nightfall, with his daughter Maud, a maiden
much renowned for her beauty.
As the sun sank deeper into the gloom of the woods, and the shadows grew
long on the green and sunny slope of the hill, the wild shrill notes of
a clarion rung through the forest glades; a distant burst of martial
music was heard, together with the roll of a drum--an instrument
borrowed from the Saracens, and in use only after the crusades.
Now went forth Adam de Dutton and his train bareheaded to meet their
lord, whom they found riding at a slow pace, conversing familiarly, but
attentively, with the Dean of Whalley. Behind him came the blushing Maud
on a beautiful white palfrey, and beside her a comely youth, in a fair
hunting-suit, the son of De Whalley, who, by his fervid and impassioned
glances, showed himself apt in other and nobler exercises than the
upland chase and the forest cover could afford.
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