302 THE CASTLE A HOME. 



hall, issued laws to his estates, lived by the court fees, 

 by taxes levied on passing caravans, and by ransoms 

 for prisoners, sometimes obtained in fair war, some- 

 times by falling upon peaceful travellers. Dark deeds 

 were done within those ivy covered towers which now 

 exist for the pleasure of poets and pilgrims of the 

 picturesque. Often from turret chambers and grated 

 windows arose the shrieks of violated maidens and the 

 yells of tortured Jews. Yet castle-life had also its 

 brighter side. To cheer the solitude of the isolated 

 house, minstrels and poets and scholars were courted 

 by the barons, and were offered a peaceful chamber, 

 and a place of honour at the board. In the towns of 

 ancient Italy and Greece there was no family: the 

 home did not exist. The women and children dwelt 

 together in secluded chambers : the men lived a 

 club life in the baths, the porticoes, and the gjmi- 

 nasia. But the castle lord had no companions of his 

 own rank except the members of his own family. On 

 stormy days, when he could not hunt, he found a plea- 

 sure in dancing his little ones upon his knee, and in 

 telling them tales of the wood and weald. Their tender 

 fondlings, and their merry laughs, their half-formed 

 voices, which attempted to pronounce his name — all 

 these were sweet to him. And by the love of those 

 in whom he saw his own image mirrored, in whom his 

 own childhood appeared to live again, he was drawn 

 closer and closer to his wife. She became his coun- 

 sellor and friend ; she softened his rugged manners ; 

 she soothed his fierce wrath ; she pleaded for the 

 prisoners 'and captives, and the men condemned to 

 die. And when he was absent, she became the 

 sovereign lady of the house, ruled the vassals, sat in 



