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CHAPTER XIV.
In rough magnificence array'd,
When ancient Chivalry display'd
The pomp of her heroic games,
And crested chiefs and tissued dames
Assembled, at the clarion's call,
In some proud castle's high-arched hall.
Warton.
Prince John held his high festival in the
Castle of Ashby. This was not the same building of which the stately ruins still interest the
traveller, and which was erected at a later period
by the Lord Hastings, High Chamberlain of
England, one of the first victims of the tyranny
of Richard the Third, and yet better known as
one of Shakespeare's characters than by his historical fame. The castle and town of Ashby, at
this time, belonged to Roger de Quincy, Earl of
Winchester, who, during the period of our history, was absent in the Holy Land. Prince John,