I looked around in utter amazement, as my first idea returned to my mind. There stood the Duke himself, smiling in his old genial fashion at my surprise.
"It can never be!" I exclaimed.
"And why not? You are a reader of romances, Mistress Loveday. Tell me, is it not the duty of a true knight to save distressed damsels from the power of wicked enchanters?"
"Your Grace is another King Arthur," said mine uncle.
"I would I were, and had Merlin at my command," said the Duke. "I would soon rid this land of some its dragons."
"How can I ever repay your Grace what you have done for me and this poor child?" said mine uncle, bending his knee as he kissed the hand the Duke held out to him.
"Tut, old man. I love an adventure old as I am, as well as when I was a wild lad of twenty, and beside, to say truth, I had no one near me to whom I cared to trust this gear. But where is Dame Joan?"
At these words, an exquisitely neat elderly woman came forward into the light. She was dressed like any country dame, but still there was about her an indescribable air of refinement.
"I bring you a weary damsel, my good cousin," said the Duke, addressing her with marked courtesy. "Do you have her to bed, and when we are all rested, we will talk over our plans."
The old lady, for such she clearly was, courtesied, and then taking my hand she led me through a gallery and up a stair to a chamber where all was neat and comfortable, though every thing in the room seemed as old as the Wars of the Roses at least.