"Thou hast done well, my Osric. Come, thou wilt be a knight; thou dost not now pine for the forest?"
"Not now; I have grown to love adventures."
"And it is so exciting to ride by night, as thou didst last winter with the Empress Queen."
"But I love the summer nights, with their sweet freshness, best."
"Thou dost not remember thy boyhood with regret now, and wish it back again?"
"Not now." And Osric made his bow and departed.
"There is a mystery about that youth; he is not English, as my lord thinks; there is not an atom of it about him," said the Countess, and fell into a fit of musing.
From the halls of pleasure let us turn to the dungeons beneath; but first a digression.
Even mediæval barons were forced to keep their accounts, or to employ, more commonly, a "scrivener" or accountant for that purpose; and all this morning Brian was closeted with his man of business, looking over musty rolls and parchments, from which extract after extract was read, bearing little other impression on the mind of the poor perplexed Baron than that he was grievously behind in his finances. So he despatched the scrivener to negotiate a farther advance—loan he called it—from the mayor, while he summoned Osric, who was quick at figures, to his presence.