"Sing hey-trix, trim-go-trix, Under the mistletoe!"Then, standing in the centre of his court, the Lord of Misrule bade his herald declare that from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night he was Lord Supreme; that, with his magic art, he transformed all there into children, and charged them, on their fealty to act only as such. "I absolve them all from wisdom," he said; "I bid them be just wise enough to make fools of themselves, and do decree that none shall sit apart in pride and eke in self-sufficiency to laugh at others"; and then the fun commenced.
Off in stately Whitehall, in the palace of the boy king, her brother, the revels were grander and showier; but to the young Elizabeth, not yet skilled in all the stiffness of the royal court, the Yule-tide feast at Hatfield House brought pleasure enough; and so, seated at her holly-trimmed virginal--that great-great-grandfather of the piano of to-day,--she, whose rare skill as a musician has come down to us, would--when wearied with her "prankes and japes"--"tap through" some fitting Christmas carol, or that older lay of the Yule-tide "Mumming":
To shorten winter's sadness see where the folks with gladness Disguised, are all a-coming, right wantonly a-mumming, Fa-la!
"Whilst youthful sports are lasting, to feasting turn our fasting:
With revels and with wassails make grief and care our vassals, Fa-la!"The Yule-log had been noisily dragged in "to the firing," and as the big sparks raced up the wide chimney, the boar's head and the tankard of sack, the great Christmas candle and the Christmas pie, were escorted around the room to the flourish of trumpets and welcoming shouts; the Lord of Misrule, with a wave of his staff, was about to give the order for all to unmask, when suddenly there appeared in the circle a new character--a great green dragon, as fierce and ferocious as well could be, from his pasteboard jaws to his curling canvas tail. The green dragon of Wantley! Terrified urchins backed hastily away from his horrible jaws, and the Lord of Misrule gave a sudden and visible start.
The dragon himself, scarce waiting for the surprise to subside, waved his paw for silence, and said, in a hollow, pasteboardy voice:
"Most noble Lord of Misrule, before your feast commences and the masks are doff'd, may we not as that which should give good appetite to all,--with your lordship's permit and that of my lady's grace,--tell each some wonder-filling tale as suits the goodly time of Yule? Here be stout maskers can tell us strange tales of fairies and goblins, or, perchance, of the foreign folk with whom they have trafficked in Calicute and Affrica, Barbaria, Perew, and other diverse lands and countries over-sea. And after they have ended, then will I essay a tale that shall cap them all, so past belief shall it appear."The close of the dragon's speech, of course, made them all the more curious; and the Lady Elizabeth did but speak for all when she said: "I pray you, good Sir Dragon, let us have your tale first. We have had enow of Barbaria and Perew. If that yours may be so wondrous, let us hear it even now, and then may we decide.""As your lady's grace wishes," said the dragon. "But methinks when you have heard me through, you would that it had been the last or else not told at all.""Your lordship of Misrule and my lady's grace must know," began the dragon, "that my story, though a short, is a startling one.
