Middle Ages [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION IF there is a phrase in our tongue which connotes the atmosphere of romance it is that of " the Middle Ages." Do but mention the words, and it is as another opening of Pandora's box. Out there streams a retinue of goodly knights, each armed cap-h-picy each bearing in his helmet some gaily coloured thread or ribbon, the favour of the lady of his allegiance. Yonder before them tower the battlements of an ancient ci^, its walls grim and grey even beneath the dazzling shafts of sunlight, which make armour and weapons shine like very silver. As the knights ride two by two over the sharp cobble-stones and under the low, overhanging turret archway, the clatter of their steeds and the shrill notes of the bugle mingle in the air. Thus they disappear, a gallant company, followed as they go by the timid glance of many a gentle-eyed maiden, peeping shyly through her casement after the knight of her heart, bound, perchance, on some perilous adventure. The noise of the bugles grows louder, sounding more and more defiant as it cuts through the air. Then as it dies away is heard the flutter of little sighs. For who can tell which of these brave knights will ever return, bringing the tattered remnants of the ribbon now floating so bravely in the breeze ? Something of the fascination which emanates from the Middle Ages with a spell strong as that of the strains of the Pied Piper is due to matters of chronology. However elastic the boundaries of that period may be, they circumscribe a time not too remote to have passed beyond the grasp of imagination, yet not too near for things of magic and faery chance to appear incongruous. Thus in greater degree than is true in the case of the legends of either a more ancient or a more