Brilliant as a ruby that with spark of fire glows.”
II
When we came in sight of the castle of Orthez, there rose from the great chimneys a dark cloud of smoke. The drawbridge fell, and the steward rode forth to meet us.
“Lo, my Lord,” he cried, “hasten home. Whilst thou wert absent here hath come a great lord, the Due de Berry, with messages from the King.”
“Hath he a great following?” questioned my Lord.
“Seventy lances and thirty sumpter mules. They are cared for, my Lord, and all have supped.”
We hurried forward. As my Lord rode into the court, the Due de Berry cometh through the door to meet him. He was elder than my Lord, and was uncle to King Charles, and a powerful and noble lord. Never had I looked on one so great as he. All France hath heard how he taxed his people and gathered from them great stores of money that he might have gold to buy palaces, that he might get from strange and foreign countries noble pictures with which to deck his walls, and tapestries wrought in coloured threads and gold. Not only these things did he buy, but books enriched with jewels and filled with images of saints and others, coloured with blue, red, and gold. After him rode hundreds of followers when he went to war or travelled abroad in strange countries.
As one looked upon him, his face seemeth harsh at first, yet a smile became it well, and he smiled when he looked on my mistress, as doth everyone who seeth her.
One, two, three days he tarried. ’Twas said that his matters were despatched in one, and true it is that when my mistress was before him, his eyes ne’er left her face.
Right seemly she looketh, thought I, as I stood behind her chair when they supped. Never before had she borne herself so bravely, and rich were the gauds that tirewoman furnished forth. One evening my Lady came into the great hall in a gown of cherry red, made from the thread of the silkworm and wonderous soft and fine. Above this was a long coat with wide pointed sleeves, and it was bound about her with a sash of cloth that shone like silver. Her hair was woven with strings of pearls, large and white, and over her hung a veil like unto a spider’s web, set full with shining threads. Well do I remember all this, for it was the first time that ever I had seen such richness of apparel.