Be ready, when I give a signal, to strike naker, and | blow trumpets, if we have any; if not, some cowhorns-any thing for a noise. And hark ye, Neil Hansen, do you, and four or five of your fellows, go to the armory and slip on coats-of-mail; our Netherlandish corslets do not appal them so much. Then let the Welsh thief be blindfolded and brought in amongst us-Do you hold up your heads and keep silence-leave me to deal with him-only have a care there be no English among us." The monk, who in his travels had acquired some slight knowledge of the Flemish language, had well nigh started when he heard the last article in Wilkin's instructions to his countryman, but commanded himself, although a little surprised, both at this suspicious circumstance, and at the readiness and dexterity with which the rough-hewn Fleming seemed to adapt his preparations to the rules of war and of sound policy. Wilkin, on his part, was not very certain whether the monk had not heard and understood more of what he said to his countryman, than what he had intended. As if to lull asleep any suspicion which Father Aldrovand might entertain, he repeated to him in English most of the directions which he had given,, adding, "Well, good father, what think you of it?" "Excellent well," answered the father, "and done as you had practised war from the cradle, instead of weaving broad-cloth." "Nay, spare not your gibes, father," answered Wilkin. "I know full well that you English think that Flemings have naught in their brainpan but sodden beef and cabbage; yet you see there goes wisdom to weaving of webs." Right, Master Wilkin Flammock," answered the father; "but, good Fleming, wilt thou tell me what answer thou wilt make to the Welsh Prince's summons?" "Reverend father, first tell me what the summons will be," replied the Fleming. "To surrender this castle upon the instant," answered the monk. "What will be your reply?" My answer will be---Nay, unless upon good composition." 'How, Sir Fleming! dare you mention composition and the Castle of the Garde Doloureuse in one sentence?" exclaimed the monk. "Not if I may do better," answered the Fleming. "But would your reverence have me dally until the question amongst the garrison be, whether a plump priest or a fat Fleming will be the better flesh to furnish their shambles?" "Pshaw!" replied Father Aldrovand, "thou canst not mean such folly. Relief must arrive within twenty-four hours at farthest. Raymond Berenger expected it for certain within such a space." Raymond Berenger hath been deceived this morning in more matters than one," answered the Fleming. "Hark thee, Flanderkin," answered the monk, whose retreat from the world had not altogether quenched his military habits and propensities, "I counsel thee to deal uprightly in this matter, as thou dost regard thine own life; for here are as many English left alive, notwithstanding the slaughter of the day, as may well suffice to fling the Flemish bullfrogs into the castle-ditch, should they have cause to think thou meanest falsely, in the keeping of this castle, and the defence of the Lady Eveline!" "Let not your reverence be moved with unnecessary and idle fears," replied Wilkin Flammock-"I am castellane in this house, by command of its lord, and what I hold for the advantage of mine service, that will I do." "But I," said the angry monk, "I am the servant of the Pope the chaplain of this castle, with power to bind and to unloose. I fear me thou art no true Christian, Wilkin Flammock, but dost lean to the heresy of the mountaineers. Thou hast refused to take the blessed cross-thou hast breakfasted, and drunk both ale and wine, ere thou hast heard mass. Thou art not to be trusted, man, and I will not trust • Naker-drum thee-I demand to be present at the conference betwixt thee and the Welshman." "It may not be, good father," said Wilkin, with the same smiling, heavy countenance, which he maintained on all occasions of life, however urgent. "It is true, as thou sayest, good father, that I have mine own reasons for not marching quite so far as the gates of Jericho at present; and lucky I have such reasons, since I had not else been here to defend the gate of the Garde Doloureuse. It is also true that I may have been sometimes obliged to visit my mills earlier than the chaplain was called by his zeal to the altar, and that my stomach brooks not working ere I break my fast. But for this, father, I have paid a mulct even to your worshipful reverence, and methinks since you are pleased to remember the confession so exactly, you should not forget the penance and the absolution." The monk, in alluding to the secrets of the confessional, had gone a step beyond what the rules of his order and of the church permitted. He was baffled by the Fleming's reply, and finding him unmoved by the charge of heresy, he could only answer in some confusion, "You refuse, then, to admit me to your conference with the Welshman?" "Reverend father," said Wilkin, "it altogether respecteth secular matters. If aught of religious tenor should intervene, you shall be summoned without delay." "I will be there in spite of thee, thou Flemish ox." muttered the monk to himself, but in a tone not to be heard by the bystanders; and so speaking, he left the battlements. Wilkin Flammock, a few minutes afterwards, having first seen that all was arranged on the battlements, so as to give an imposing idea of a strength which did not exist, descended to a small guard-room, betwixt the outer and inner gate, where he was attended by half-a-dozen of his own people, disguised in the Norman armour which they had found in the armory of the castle,-their strong, tall, and bulky forms, and motionless postures, causing them to look rather like trophies of some past age, than living and existing soldiers. Surrounded by these huge and inanimate figures, in a little vaulted room which almost excluded daylight, Flammock received the Welsh envoy, who was led in blindfolded betwixt two Flemings, yet not so carefully watched but that they permitted him to have a glimpse of the preparations on the battlements, which had, in fact, been made chiefly for the purpose of imposing on him. For the same purpose an occasional clatter of arms was made without; voices were heard, as if officers were going their rounds; and other sounds of active preparation seemed to announce that a numerous and regular garrison was preparing to receive an attack. When the bandage was removed from Jorworth's eyes for the same individual who had formerly brought Gwenwyn's offer of alliance, now bare his summons of surrender-he looked haughtily around him, and demanded to whom he was to deliver the commands of his master, the Gwenwyn, son of Cyvelioc, Prince of Powys. "His highness," answered Fleming, with his usual smiling indifference of manner, "must be contented to treat with Wilkin Flammock of the Fulling-mills, deputed governor of the Garde Doloureuse." Thou deputed governor!" exclaimed Jorworth; "thou!-a low country-weaver!-it is impossible.-Low as they are, the English Crogan* cannot have sunk to a point so low, as to be commanded by thee! These men seem English, to them I will deliver my message." "You may if you will," replied Wilkin, "but if they return you any answer save by signs, you shall call me schelm." "Is this true?" said the Welsh envoy, looking towards the men-at-arms, as they seemed, by whom Flammock was attended; "are you really come to this pass? I thought that the mere having been born on British earth, though the children of spoilers and invaders, had inspired you with too much pride to brook the yoke of a base mechanic. Or, if you are This is a somewhat contumelious epithet, applied by the Welsh to the English. not courageous, should you not be cautious?-Well | speaks the proverb, Wo to him that will trust a stranger!-Still mute-still silent?-answer me by word or sign-Do you really call and acknowledge him as your leader?" The men in armour with one accord nodded their casques in reply to Jorworth's question, and then remained motionless as before. * The Welshman, with the acute genius of his country, suspected there was something in this which he could not entirely comprehend, but, preparing himself to be upon his guard, he proceeded as follows: "Be it as it may, I care not who hears the message of my Sovereign, since it brings pardon and mercy to the inhabitants of this Castell an Carrig, which you have called the Garde Doloureuse, to cover the usurpation of the territory by the change of the name. Upon surrender of the same to the Prince of Powys, with its dependencies, and with the arms which it contains, and with the maiden Eveline Berenger, all within the castle shall depart unmolested, and have safe-conduct wheresoever they will, to go beyond the marches of the Cymry." "And how, if we obey not this summons?" said the imperturbable Wilkin Flammock. "My whole mills and buildings have been this morning burnt to the earth""Thou shalt have a thousand marks of silver, man, in the place of thy goods," said the Welshman; but the Fleming continued, without seeming to hear him, to number up his losses. My lands are forayed, twenty kine driven off, and". "Threescore shall replace them," interrupted Jorworth, "chosen from the most bright-skinned of the spoil." "But my daughter-but the Lady Eveline"-said the Fleming, with some slight change in his monotonous voice, which seemed to express doubt and perplexity-"You are cruel conquerors, and" "To those who resist us we are fearful," said Jorworth, "but not to such as shall deserve clemency by surrender. Gwenwyn will forget the contumelies of Raymond, and raise his daughter to high honour among the daughters of the Cymry. For thine own child, form but a wish for her advantage, and it shall be fulfilled to the uttermost. Now, Fleming, we understand each other." "I understand thee, at least," said Flammock. "And I thee, I trust ?" said Jorworth, bending his Then shall your portion be with Raymond Beren-keen, wild blue eye on the stolid and unexpressive ger, your late leader," replied Jorworth, his eyes, while face of the Netherlander, like an eager student who he was speaking, glancing with the vindictive ferocity seeks to discover some hidden and mysterious meanwhich dictated his answer. "So many strangers asing in a passage of a classic author, the direct imbe here amongst ye, so many bodies to the ravens, so many heads to the gibbet!-It is long since the kites have had such a banquet of lurdane Flemings and false Saxons." "Friend Jorworth," said Wilkin, "if such be thy only message, bear mine answer back to thy master, That wise men trust not to the words of others that safety, which they can secure by their own deeds. We have walls high and strong enough, deep moats, and plenty of munition, both long-bow and arblast. We will keep the castle, trusting the castle will keep us, till God shall send us succour." Do not peril your lives on such an issue," said the Welsh emissary, changing his language to the Flemish, which, from occasional communication with those of that nation in Pembrokeshire, he spoke fluently, and which he now adopted, as if to conceal the purport of his discourse from the supposed English in the apartment. "Hark thee hither," he proceeded, "good Fleming. Knowest thou not that he in whom is your trust, the Constable De Lacy, hath bound himself by his vow to engage in no quarrel till he crosses the sea, and cannot come to your aid without perjury? He and the other Lords Marchers have drawn their forces far northward to join the host of Crusaders. What will it avail you to put us to the toil and trouble of a long siege, when you can hope no rescue?" "And what will it avail me more," said Wilkin, answering in his native language, and looking at the Welshman fixedly, yet with a countenance from which all expression seemed studiously banished, and which exhibited, upon features otherwise tolerable, a remarkable compound of dullness and simplicity, "what will it avail me whether your trouble be great or small?" "Come, friend Flammock," said the Welshman, "frame not thyself more unapprehensive than nature hath formed thee. The glen is dark, but a sunbeam can light the side of it. Thy utmost efforts cannot prevent the fall of this castle; but thou mayst hasten it, and the doing so shall avail thee much." Thus speaking, he drew close up to Wilkin, and sunk his voice to an insinuating whisper, as he said, "Never did the withdrawing of a bar, or the raising of a portcullis, bring such vantage to Fleming as they may to thee, if thou wilt." "I only know," said Wilkin, " that the drawing the one, and the dropping the other, have cost me my whole worldly substance." "Fleming, it shall be compensated to thee with an overflowing measure. The liberality of Gwenwyn is as the summer rain." * Castle of the Craig. port of which seems trite and trivial. "You believe that you understand me," said Wilkin; "but here lies the difficulty,-which of us shall trust the other?" "Darest thou ask?" answered Jorworth. "Is it for thee, or such as thee, to express doubt of the purposes of the Prince of Powys?" "I know them not, good Jorworth, but through thee; and well I wot thou art not one who will let thy traffic miscarry for want of aid from the breath of thy mouth." As I am a Christian man," said Jorworth, hurrying asseveration on asseveration-" by the soul of my father-by the faith of my mother--by the black rood of" "Stop, good Jorworth-thou heapest thine oaths too thickly on each other, for me to value them to the right estimate," said Flammock;, "that which is slightly pledged, is sometimes not thought worth redeeming. Some part of the promised guerdon in hand he whilst, were worth a hundred oaths." "Thou suspicions churl, darest thou doubt my word?" "No-by no means," answered Wilkin;-" ne'ertheless, I will believe thy deed more readily." "To the point, Fleming,' said Jorworth—"What wouldst thou have of me?" "Let me have some present sight of the money thou didst promise, and I will think of the rest of thy proposal.". "Base silver-broker!" answered Jorworth, "thinkest thou the Prince of Powys has as many moncybags, as the merchants of thy land of sale and barter? He gathers treasures by his conquests, as the waterspout sucks up water by its strength; but it is to disperse them among his followers, as the cloudy column restores its contents to earth and ocean. The silver that I promised thee has yet to be gathered out of the Saxon chests--nay, the casket of Berenger himself must be ransacked to make up the tale." "Methinks I could do that myself, (having full power in the castle,) and so save you a labour," said the Fleming. "True," answered Jorworth, "but it would be at the expense of a cord and a noose, whether the Welsh took the place or the Normans relieved it-the one would expect their booty entire-the other their countryman's treasures to be delivered undiminished." "I may not gainsay that," said the Fleming. "Well, say I were content to trust you thus far, why not return my cattle, which are in your own hands, and at your disposal? If you do not pleasure me in something beforehand, what can I expect of you afterwards?" "I would pleasure you in a greater matter," answered the equally suspicious Welshman. "But what would it avail thee to have thy cattle within the fortress? They can be better cared for on the plain beneath." "In faith," replied the Fleming, "thou sayst truth -they will be but a trouble to us here, where we have so many already provided for the use of the garrison.-And yet, when I consider it more closely, we have enough of forage to maintain all we have, and more. Now, my cattle are of a peculiar stock, brought from the rich pastures of Flanders, and I desire to have them restored ere your axes and Welsh hooks be busy with their hides." "You shall have them this night, hide and horn," said Jorworth; 'it is but a small earnest of a great boon." "Thanks to your munificence," said the Fleming; "I am a simple-minded man, and bound my wishes to the recovery of my own property." "Thou wilt be ready, then, to deliver the castle?" said Jorworth. "Of that we will talk farther to-morrow," said Wilkin Flammock; “if these English and Normans should suspect such a purpose, we should have wild work-they must be fully dispersed ere I can hold farther communication on the subject. Mean while, I pray thee, depart suddenly, and as if offended with the tenor of our discourse.' "Yet would I fain know something more fixed and absolute," said Jorworth. "Impossible-impossible," said the Fleming; "see you not yonder tall fellow begins already to handle his dagger-Go hence in haste, and angrily-and forget not the cattle." "I will not forget them," said Jorworth; "but if thou keep not faith with us" So speaking, he left the apartment with a gesture of menace, partly really directed to Wilkin himself, partly assumed in consequence of his advice. Flammock replied in English, as if that all around might understand what he said, "Do thy worst, Sir Welshman! I am a true man; I defy the proposals of rendition, and will hold out this castle to thy shame and thy master's!-Herelet him be blindfolded once more, and returned in safety to his attendants without; the next Welshman who appears before the gate of the Garde Doloureuse, shall be more sharply received." racter, and a line of conduct, superior and something The aids of religion were not forgotten; and according to the custom of the times, and the doctrines of the Roman church, she endeavoured to propitiate the favour of Heaven by vows as well as prayers. In a small crypt, or oratory, adjoining to the chapel, was hung over an altar-piece, on which a lamp constantly burned, a small picture of the Virgin Mary, revered as a household and peculiar deity by the family of Berenger, one of whose ancestors had brought it from the Holy Land, whither he had gone upon pilgrimage. It was of the period of the Lower Empire, a Grecian painting, not unlike those which The Welshman was blindfolded and withdrawn in Catholic countries are often imputed to the Evanwhen, as Wilkin Flammock himself left the guard-gelist Luke. The crypt in which it was placed was room, one of the seeming men-at-arms who had accounted a shrine of uncommon sanctity-nay, supbeen present at this interview, said in his ear, in posed to have displayed miraculous powers; and English, "Thou art a false traitor, Flammock, and Eveline, by the daily garland of flowers which she shalt die a traitor's death !" offered before the painting, and by the constant prayers with which they were accompanied, had constituted herself the peculiar votaress of Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse, for so the picture was named. Startled at this, the Fleming would have questioned the man farther, but he had disappeared so soon as the words were uttered. Flammock was disconcerted by this circumstance, which showed him that his interview with Jorworth hath been observed, and its purpose known or conjectured, by some one who was a stranger to his confidence, and might thwart his intentions; and he quickly after learned that this was the case. CHAPTER VI. A wretched virgin bends the knee. Hymn to the Virgin. THE daughter of the slaughtered Raymond had descended from the elevated station whence she had beheld the field of battle, in the agony of grief natural to a child whose eyes have beheld the death of an honoured and beloved father. But her station, and the principles of chivalry in which she had been trained up, did not permit any prolonged or needless indulgence of inactive sorrow. In raising the young and beautiful of the female sex to the rank of princesses, or rather goddesses, the spirit of that singular system exacted from them, in requital, a tone of cha Now, apart from others, alone, and in secrecy, sinking in the extremity of her sorrow before the shrine of her patroness, she besought the protection of kindred purity for the defence of her freedom and honour, and invoked vengeance on the wild and treacherous chieftain who had slain her father, and was now beleaguering her place of strength. Not only did she vow a large donative in lands to the shrine of the protectress whose aid she implored; but the oath passed her lips, (even though they faltered, and though something within her remonstrated against the vow,) that whatsoever favoured knight Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse might employ for her rescue, should obtain from her in guerdon whatever boon she might honourably grant, were it that of her virgin hand at the holy altar. Taught as she was to believe, by the assurances of many a knight, that such a surrender was the highest boon which heaven could bestow, she felt as discharging a debt of gratitude when she placed herself entirely at the disposal of the pure and blessed patroness in whose aid she confided. Perhaps there lurked in this devotion some earthly hope of which she was herselt scarce conscious, and which reconciled her to the indefinite sacrifice thus freely offered. The Virgin, (this flattering hope might insinuate,) kindest and most benevolent of patronesses, will use compassionately the power resigned to her, and he will be the favoured champion of Maria, upon whom her votaress would most willingly confer favour. But if there was such a hope, as something selfish will often mingle with our noblest and purest emotions, it arose unconscious of Eveline herself, who, in the full assurance of implicit faith, and fixing on the representative of her adoration, eyes in which the most earnest supplication, the most humble confidence struggled with unbidden tears, was perhaps more beautiful than when, young as she was, she was selected to bestow the prize of chivalry in the lists of Chester. It was no wonder that, in such a moment of high excitation, when prostrated in devotion before a being of whose power to protect her, and to make her protection assured by a visible sign, she doubted nothing, the Lady Eveline conceived she saw with her own eyes the acceptance of her vow, As she gazed on the picture with an overstrained eye, and an imagination heated with enthusiasm, the expression seemed to alter from the hard outline, fashioned by the Greek painter; the eyes appeared to become animated, and to return with looks of compassion the suppliant entreaties of the votaress, and the mouth visibly arranged itself into a smile of inexpressible sweetness. It even seemed to her that the head made a gentle inclination. Overpowered by supernatural awe at appearances of which her faith permitted her not to question the reality, the Lady Eveline folded her arms on her bosom, and prostrated her forehead on the pavement, as the posture most fitting to listen to divine communication. But her vision went not so far; there was neither sound nor voice, and when, after stealing her eyes all around the crypt in which she knelt, she again raised them to the figure of Our Lady, the features seemed to be in the form in which the limner had sketched them, saving that, to Eveline's imagination, they still retained an august and yet gracious expression, which she had not before remarked upon the countenance. With awful reverence, almost amounting to fear, yet comforted, and even elated with the visitation she had witnessed, the maiden repeated again and again the orisons which she thought most grateful to the ear of her benefactress; and, rising at length, retired backwards, as from the presence of a sovereign, until she attained the outer chapel. Here one or two females still knelt before the saints which the walls and niches presented for adoration; but the rest of the terrified suppliants, too anxious to prolong their devotions, had dispersed through the castle to learn tidings of their friends, and to obtain some refreshment, or at least some place of repose for themselves and their families. "Who dares say so?" said a veiled female, who had been kneeling unnoticed in a sequestered corner of the chapel, but who now started up and came boldly betwixt Lady Eveline and the monk. "Go hence, thou saucy minion," said the monk, surprised at this bold interruption; "this concerns not thee." "But it doth concern me," said the damsel, throwing back her veil, and discovering the juvenile countenance of Rose, the daughter of Wilkin Flammock, her eyes sparkling, and her cheeks blushing with anger, the vehemence of which made a singular contrast with the very fair complexion, and almost infantine features of the speaker, whose whole form and figure was that of a girl who has scarce emerged from childhood, and indeed whose general manners were as gentle and bashful as they now seemed bold, impassioned, and undaunted.-"Doth it not concern me," she said, "that my father's honest name should be tainted with treason? Doth it not concern the stream when the fountain is troubled? It doth concern me, and I will know the author of the calumny." "Damsel," said Eveline, "restrain thy useless passion; the good father, though he cannot intentionally calumniate thy father, speaks, it may be, from false report." "As I am an unworthy priest," said the father, "I speak from the report of my own ears. Upon the oath of my order, myself heard this Wilkin Flammock chaffering with the Welshman for the surrender of the Garde Doloureuse. By help of this hauberk and mail hood, I gained admittance to a conference where he thought there were no English ears. They spoke Flemish too, but I knew the jargon of old." "The Flemish," said the angry maiden, whose headstrong passion led her to speak first in answer to the last insult offered, is no jargon like your piebald English, half Norman, half Saxon, but a noble Gothic tongue, spoken by the brave warriors who fought against the Roman Kaisars, when Britain bent the neck to them-and as for this he has said of Wilkin Flammock," she continued, collecting her ideas into more order as she went on, "believe it not, my dearest lady; but, as you value the honour of your own noble father, confide, as in the Evangelists, in the honesty of mine!" This she spoke with an imploring tone of voice, mingled with sobs, as if her heart had been breaking. Eveline endeavoured to soothe her attendant. "Rose," she said, "In this evil time suspicions will light on the best men, and misunderstandings will arise among the best friends. Let us hear the good father state what he hath to charge upon your parent. Fear not but that Wilkin shall be heard in his defence. Thou wert wont to be quiet and reasonable." "I am neither quiet nor reasonable on this matter," said Rose, with redoubled indignation; "and it is ill of you, lady, to listen to the falsehoods of that reverend mummer, who is neither true priest nor true soldier. But I will fetch one who shall confront him either in casque or cowl." Bowing her head, and muttering an ave to each saint as she passed his image, (for impending danger makes men observant of the rites of devotion,) the Lady Eveline had almost reached the door of the chapel, when a man-at-arms, as he seemed, entered hastily; So saying, she went hastily out of the chapel, while and with a louder voice than suited the holy place, the monk, after some pedantic circumlocution, acunless when need was most urgent, demanded the quainted the Lady Eveline with what he had overLady Eveline. Impressed with the feelings of vene- heard betwixt Jorworth and Wilkin; and proposed to ration which the late scene had produced, she was her to draw together the few English who were in about to rebuke his military rudeness, when he spoke the castle, and take possession of the innermost again, and in anxious haste, "Daughter, we are be- square tower; a keep which, as usual in Gothic fortrayed!" and though the form, and the coat-of-mail tresses of the Norman period, was situated so as to which covered it, were those of a soldier, the voice make considerable defence, even after the exterior was that of Father Aldrovand, who eager and anx-works of the castle, which it commanded, were in the ious at the same time, disengaged himself from the mail hood, and showed his countenance. "Father," she said, "what means this? Have you forgotten the confidence in Heaven which you are wont to recommend, that you bear other arms than your order assigns to you?" "It may come to that ere long," said Father Aldrovand; "for I was a soldier ere I was a monk. But now I have donn'd this harness to discover treachery, not to resist force. Ah! my beloved daughter-we are dreadfully beset-foemen without-traitors within! The false Fleming, Wilkin Flammock, is treating for the surrender of the castle!" hand of the enemy. "Father," said Eveline, still confident in the vision she had lately witnessed, "this were good counsel in extremity; but otherwise, it were to create the very evil we fear, by setting our garrison at odds amongst themselves. I have a strong, and not unwarranted confidence, good father, in our blessed Lady of this Garde Doloureuse, that we shall attain at once vengeance on our barbarous enemies, and escape from our present jeopardy; and I call you to witness the vow I have made, that to him whom Our Lady should employ to work us succour, I will refuse nothing, were it my father's inheritance, or the hand of his daughter." "Something I m have heard," said Eveline, dropping her eyes, whi slight tinge suffused her cheek; "but I refer ine to the disposal of Our Lady of Succour and Consolation." Ave Maria! Ave Regina Cæli!' said the priest; | ancient profession, and present disguise, than his on a rock more sure you could not have founded spiritual character; and with the words, "I attach your trust. But, daughter," he continued, after the thee, Wilkin Flammock, of acknowledged treason to proper ejaculation had been made, "have you never your liege lady," would have laid hand upon him, had heard, even by a hint, that there was a treaty for your not the Fleming stepped back and warned him off, hand betwixt our much-honoured lord, of whom we with a menacing and determined gesture, while he are cruelly bereft, (may God assoilzie his soul!) and said,-"Ye are mad!-all of you English are mad the great house of Lacy?" when the moon is full, and my silly girl hath caught the malady.-Lady, your honoured father gave me a charge, which I purpose to execute to the best for all parties, and you cannot, being a minor, deprive me of it at your idle pleasure.-Father Aldrovand, a monk makes no lawful arrests.-Daughter Roschen, hold your peace and dry your eyes--you are a fool." "I am, I am," said Rose, drying her eyes, and regaining her elasticity of manner-"I am indeed a fool, and worse than a fool, for a moment to doubt my father's probity.-Confide in him, dearest lady; he is wise though he is grave, and kind though he is plain and homely in his speech. Should he prove false he will fare the worse! for I will plunge myself from the pinnacle of the Warder's Tower to the bot tom of the moat, and he shall lose his own daughter for betraying his master's." As she spoke, Rose entered the chapel with the same vivacity she had shown in leaving it, leading by the hand her father, whose sluggish though firm step, vacant countenance, and heavy demeanour, formed the strongest contrast to the rapidity of her motions, and the anxious animation of her address. Her task of dragging him forward might have reminded the spectator of some of those ancient monuments, on which a small cherub, singularly inadequate to the task, is often represented as hoisting upwards towards the empyrean the fleshly bulk of some ponderous tenant of the tomb, whose disproportioned weight bids fair to render ineffectual the benevolent and spirited exertions of its fluttering guide and assistant. Roschen-my child-what grieves thee?" said the Netherlander, as he yielded to his daughter's violence with a smile, which, being on the countenance of a father, had more of expression, and feeling than those which seemed to have made their constant dwelling upon his lips. "Here stands my father," said the impatient maiden; "impeach him with treason, who can or dare! There stands Wilkin Flammock, son of Dieterick, the Cramer of Antwerp,-let those accuse him to his face who slandered him behind his back!" Speak, Father Aldrovand," said the Lady Eveline; we are young in our lordship, and, alas! the duty hath descended upon us in an evil hour; yet we will, so may God and Our Lady help us, hear and judge of your accusation to the utmost of our power." This Wilkin Flammock," said the monk, "however bold he hath made himself in villany, dares not deny that I heard him with my own ears treat for the surrender of the castle." "Strike him, father!" said the indignant Rose,"strike the disguised mummer! The steel hauberk may be struck, though not the monk's frock-strike him, or tell him that he lies foully!” "Peace, Roschen, thou art mad," said her father, angrily; "the monk hath more truth than sense about him, and I would his ears had been farther off when he thrust them into what concerned him not." Rose's countenance fell when she heard her father bluntly avow the treasonable communication of which she had thought him incapable-she dropt the hand by which she had dragged him into the chapel, and stared on the Lady Eveline, with eyes which seemed starting from their sockets, and a countenance from which the blood, with which it was so lately so highly coloured, had retreated to garrison the heart. Eveline looked upon the culprit with a countenance in which sweetness and dignity were mingled with sorrow. "Wilkin," she said, "I could not have believed this. What! on the very day of thy confiding benefactor's death, canst thou have been tampering with his murderers, to deliver up the castle, and betray thy trust!-But I will not upbraid thee-I deprive thee of the trust reposed in so unworthy a person, and appoint thee to be kept in ward in the western tower, till God send us relief, when, it may be, thy daughter's merits shall atone for thy offences, and save farther punishment.-See that our commands be presently obeyed." "Yes-yes-yes!" exclaimed Rose, hurrying one word on the other as fast and vehemently as she could articulate-"Let us go-let us go to the darkest dungeon-darkness befits us better than light." The monk, on the other hand, perceiving that the Fleming made no motion to obey the mandate of arrest, came forward, in a manner more suiting his "This is all frenzy," said the monk-"Who trusts avowed traitors?-Here, Normans, English, to the rescue of your liege lady-Bows and bills-bows and bills!" "You may spare your throat for your next homily, good father," said the Netherlander, "or call in good Flemish, since you understand it, for to no other laaguage will those within hearing reply." He then approached the Lady Eveline with a real or affected air of clumsy kindness, and something as nearly approaching to courtesy as his manners and features could assume. He bade her good night, and, assuring her that he would act for the best, left the chapel. The monk was about to break forth into revilings, but Eveline, with more prudence, checked his zeal. "I cannot," she said, "but hope that this man's intentions are honest" "Now, God's blessings on you, lady, for that very word!" said Rose, eagerly interrupting her, and kissing her hand. But if unhappily they are doubtful," continues Eveline, "it is not by reproach that we can bring him to a better purpose. Good father, give an eye to the preparations for resistance, and see naught omitted that our means furnish for the defence of the castle." Fear nothing, my dearest daughter," said Aldrovand; "there are still some English hearts amongst us, and we will rather kill and eat the Flemings themselves than surrender the castle. "That were food as dangerous to come by as bear's venison, father," answered Rose, bitterly, still on fire with the idea that the monk treated her nation with suspicion and contumely. On these terms they separated;-the women to indulge their fears and sorrows in private grief, or alleviate them by private devotion: the monk to try to discover what were the real purposes of Wilkin Flammock, and to counteract them if possible, should they seem to indicate treachery. His eye, however, though sharpened by strong suspicion, saw nothing to strengthen his fears, excepting that the Fleming had, with considerable military skill, placed the prin cipal posts of the castle in the charge of his own countrymen, which must make any attempt to dispossess him of his present authority both difficult and dangerous. The monk at length retired, summoned by the duties of the evening service, and with the determination to be stirring with the light next morning. CHAPTER VII. O, sadly shines the morning sun Seem nodding to their fall.-Old Belled. |