96 3Hje Nut=^m of JUogamonVg (Srabe. 



on the highest point of what had seats been cut in the 

 broad slope might have been termed an amphitheatre, 

 looked down on the rich and smiling banks of the Avon 

 and the Nadder, with the venerable towers of Wilton 

 Abbey.* Here then, were often witnessed the proudest 

 exhibitions of chivalric enterprise, and often did the 

 little Ela gaze with awe and wonder from the windows 

 of her father's castle, on knight and banners, and all the 

 pomp and pageantry of those heroic games. 



Scarcely, however, had Ela attained her eighth year, 

 when the Earl of Salisbury having died, after a short ill- 

 ness, she became the orphan heiress of his princely patri- 

 mony, and an exile ; for scarcely had the banners, and 

 the scutcheons, and the mutes passed by, and all the 

 pomp of death went after him to his last resting-place, 

 than the little Ela suddenly disappeared, and was 

 nowhere to be found. Some said that her mother 

 sought her sorrowing; others, that she gave but little 

 heed, and that while knights and servants rode the 

 country over, asking questions of all they met, and 

 exploring every brake and hollow on the ample downs ; 

 returning ever and anon, either with some hope of 

 finding the lost child, or else to consult with her lady 

 mother concerning the next course to pursue ; she alone 

 seemed as if indifferent to the matter. The countess 

 had large possessions in Normandy or Champaign, and 

 it was at length conjectured that the orphan had been 

 * Hatcher's Account of Salisbury. 



