ON THE STILL ISIS.
The breath of spring was in the air. The verdant meadows had put on their rich new dress, and the flowers were springing up as if to welcome the returning strength and heat of the sun. The fritillaries gemmed the river-banks, and the stretches of woodland were blue with the carpet of fragrant wild hyacinth. The song of the cuckoo was in the air, and on north slopes the star-like primrose lingered yet. The chill east winds were changed to soft, summer-like zephyrs from the south, and everything in nature spoke of joy and hope and coming summer-tide.
Between its green banks, fringed sometimes by stately forest trees; meandering sometimes through wide stretches of green pasture, where cattle fattened upon the rich herbage or stood knee-deep in the shallow tide, the silent Isis slipped leisurely along.
Passing the Abbey of Eynsham, it widened out to a considerable breadth as it pursued its leisurely course towards the city of Oxford, seeming to linger lovingly in these pleasant reaches, far from the tumult and stir which surrounds the abodes of man.
The sun shone lovingly down upon the green world, and upon the shining, silver river, on this bright day in May. A boat was drifting slowly along the tide, propelled sometimes by the strong arms of the rower, at others idly lying upon the bosom of the stream, gently floating downwards with the slow, still current. Half-way betwixt Oxford and Eynsham two fishermen on the banks awaited the return of the tardy boat; but engrossed by their occupation, and soothed by the soft stillness of the afternoon, they were in no haste for its arrival. They had met with considerable success in pursuit of their craft, and a number of shining fish lay upon the bank beside them.
Edmund de Kynaston and Jack Dugdale were the fishermen; the fair Alys and Leofric Wyvill were the occupants of the boat.
They had all started forth together, with the intention of paying a visit to Lotta and her mother; but in the end the temptations of the river had proved too much for the anglers. Instead of waiting till they reached the pool near Eynsham, they had been landed some miles lower down; and whilst Alys and Leofric pursued the original plan, they remained engrossed by their sport, in no hurry at all for the return of their companions.
Nor did those companions appear in any haste to rejoin them.
Eight years had passed away since Leofric, an almost penniless lad, had first entered Oxford, uncertain whether or not he should ever succeed in maintaining himself there. Now, although not yet five-and-twenty, he had achieved many successes and distinctions, and was regarded by the authorities of the place as a promising young Master, secure of honours and rewards. He had become the recipient of royal bounty, and was in a position of modest affluence, which seemed to him almost like riches.
Already he had in part carried out the plan suggested by Jack when first the knowledge of the Prince's generosity had been made known to them. One hundred marks represented something like sixty pounds, and sixty pounds in those days was equivalent to several hundreds in our times. It was positive wealth to Leofric, and enabled him to enter at once upon a new phase of his career.