Knight's Fee

Hidden behind the battlements on the roof of the gatehouse crouched Randal the dog-boy, watching for the arrival of Hugh Goch, the new Lord of Arundel Castle. As the cavalcade approached the great gateway, a small thing happened; Randal dropped the fig he had been eating on to the nose of Hugh's mettlesome horse. It was this seemingly trivial incident that first set the boy, whose days had been spent among the castle hounds, on the path to a new life; it was the first step in his rise from dog-boy to knight--though the price he had to pay for this final honour was a heavy one.