The
king's servants tolled diligently making ready for so great a
concourse of guests. Soldiers ran to and fro, busily seeking hostels
for this fair assemblage. Houses were swept and garnished, spread with
reeds, and furnished with hangings of rich arras. Halls and chambers
were granted to their needs, together with stables for the horses and
their provand. Those for whom hostelries might not be found abode in
seemly lodgings, decently appointed to their degree. The city was full
of stir and tumult. In every place you beheld squires leading horses
and destriers by the bridle, setting saddles on hackneys and taking
them off, buckling the harness and making the metal work shining and
bright. Grooms went about their business. Never was such a cleansing
of stables, such taking of horses to the meadows, such a currying and
combing, shoeing and loosing of girths, washing and watering, such a
bearing of straw and of grass for the litter, and oats for the manger.
Nor these alone, but in the courtyards and chambers of the hostels you
might see the pages and chamberlains go swiftly about their tasks, in
divers fashions. The varlets brushed and folded the habiliments and
mantles of their lords. They looked to the stuff and the fastenings of
their garments.
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