retrieve their fortunes. The Duke of Lancaster, John of Ghent, who had married the Lady Constantia, the eldest daughter of the deceased King, Pedro, laid claim to the crown of Castile in her right, and was levying a formidable army in England, for the purpose of proceeding to Spain and enforcing that claim. Should his invasion prove successful, he would no doubt restore the Count de Denia to the wealth and honours of which he had been deprived, who would then be able to pay them down the stipulated ransom. The Duke's claim, however, which had at first revived the hopes of the two knights, ultimately proved the total destruction of them.

The Duke of Lancaster, to whose scheming and intriguing brain every thing conducive to the advancement of his own interest readily suggested itself, soon perceived how materially the object of his expedition into Castile might be furthered by his carrying in his train thither a young nobleman of so ancient a family and such extensive possessions as the Count de Denia; one too, who had such substantial reasons for wishing to depose the present monarch as the desires to revenge his father's death and recover his own patrimony. John of Ghent's avarice, however, or perhaps his poverty,

As

did not permit him to tender to the two knights the amount of the ransom-money which was owing to them, but he briefly and peremptorily summoned them to deliver up their prisoner to him upon pain of the King's and his own especial displeasure. The knights, on receipt of this summons, took the precaution to remove the young Count out of the way, and returned word, in answer to the Duke's message, that the Count de Denia was by the law of arms their prisoner, and that they would not give him up until he had paid his ransom. they knew that this answer could not fail to exasperate the Duke of Lancaster, they were prepared to expect the worst; and accordingly never went abroad, or even remained at home, unarmed, except when they retired to rest at night, in order that they might be able to repel any attempt which might be made to seize their persons. The Duke would have been very willing to overlook the insult which the knights had shown to his authority, could he have discovered the hiding-place of the young Count, who he did not doubt was held in strict and unwilling durance by his captors; but although he by his emissaries made the strictest search and inquiries in every place where it appeared probable that they had secreted their treasure, it was without being able to attain any satisfactory information.

Sir Robert Hawley and Sir John Shackell were one afternoon seated moodily and gloomily at a table in the middle of one of the large and superbly furnished apartments of their house at Westminster : the contrast between the scantiness of their present means and their splendid anticipations, was marked by the disorder and confusion which reigned around them in the midst of all their finery, the neglected and tarnished state of their rich hangings, the old and worn rushes with which the chamber was strewn, and the single domestic who, instead of the numerous attendants in rich liveries accustomed to wait upon them, now remained in the apartment, and who seemed so fully aware of the altered state of his masters' fortunes, that instead of standing in waiting upon them, he was actually seated at his ease in a chair at the opposite end of the apart

ment.

"Our affairs look sufficiently gloomy, Shackell," said Sir Robert Hawley; "would we had never seen the Count de Denia, or heard of the battle of Najara! Yet this robber Duke, who rides through England sword in hand, and demands our persons and our goods as though King, Lords, and Commons spake by his mouth, must not be tamely suffered to rob us of the prize which we have purchased by our toils and by our blood."

"shall

"Sooner, by Heaven!" said Shackell, the sword which I drew at Najara be sheathed in John of Ghent's bosom. 'Sblood! man, while King Richard lives, it will be no treason to kill the Duke of Lancaster."

At that moment a loud outcry was heard in the streets, and the door of the knights' house seemed to be violently assailed with the butt ends of lances, as if some persons were anxiously desiring admission. Sir Robert Hawley and the servant immediately drew their swords.

They must be resisted to the death," said Hawley. ""Tis the Duke's men-at-arms, who have come to complete what the Duke's summoners have begun, and to seize upon our persons and property, in the hope of compelling us to acquiesce in the injustice of their master."

"Nay, nay!" said Shackell," they will not go to that extremity yet. 'Tis but a repetition of the Let us hear them, for perchance we may find that they have somewhat moderated in their demands."

summons.

As Hawley seemed tacitly to accede to his companion's proposition, the servant left the apartment, and shortly afterwards returned, ushering in two knights armed from head to foot, except that their

visors were down, and followed by three men-atarms. Hawley and Shackell immediately started to their feet and drew their swords.

"What mean you, my masters," said Shackell, "thus cased in iron, and with naked weapons, to intrude upon the privacy of peaceful and inoffensive men? Sir Ralph Ferries, we have fought side by side with you at Cressy and Najara; and you, Sir Alan Buxhall, cannot be ignorant of our reputation and character; what crime can we have been guilty of, to be subjected to this outrage?"

"You look very like peaceful men, indeed, Sir John," said Ferries, " when even while sitting round your own hearth you think it necessary to be clothed in armour. Guilt is naturally suspicious, and fears even the shadow which its own timorous steps cast around it."

"I am not aware of having committed any crime, Sir Ralph," retorted Shackell, "unless it be one to have entitled myself to the gratitude of those who wish to bury the recollection of my services in oblivion, and to rob me of their hard-earned recompence."

"Sir John Shackell and Sir Robert Hawley," said Buxhall, "you have contumaciously resisted the King's commands, by refusing to deliver up the