began his rounds in the castle so soon as daylight had touched the top of the eastern horizon. A natural instinct led him first to those stalls which, had the fortress been properly victualled for a siege, ought to have been tenanted by cattle; and great was his delight to see more than a score of fat kine and bullocks in the place which had last night been empty! One of them had already been carried to the shambles, and a Fleming or two, who played butchers on the occasion, were dividing the carcass for the cook's use. The good father had well nigh cried out, a miracle; but, not to be too precipitate, he limited his transport to a private exclamation in honour of Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse. "Who talks of lack of provender?-who speaks of surrender now?" he said. "Here is enough to maintain us till Hugo de Lacy arrives, were he to sail back from Cyprus to our relief. I did purpose to have fasted this morning, as well to save victuals as on a religious score: but the blessing of the saints must not be slighted.--Sir Cook, let me have half a yard or so of broiled beef presently; bid the pantler send me a manchet, and the butler a cup of wine. I will take a running breakfast on the western battlements."* At this place, which was rather the weakest point of the Garde Doloureuse, the good father found Wilkin Flammock anxiously superintending the necessary measures of defence. He greeted him courteously, congratulated him on the stock of provisions with which the castle had been supplied during the night, and was inquiring how they had been so happily introduced through the Welsh besiegers, when Wilkin took the first occasion to interrupt him. "Of all this another time, good father; but I wish at present, and before other discourse, to consult thee on a matter which presses my conscience, and moreover deeply concerns my worldly estate." "Speak on, my excellent son," said the father, conceiving that he should thus gain the key to Wilkin's real intentions. "O, a tender conscience is a jewel! and he that will not listen when it saith, 'pour out thy doubts into the ear of the priest,' shall one day have his own dolorous outcries choked with fire and brimstone. Thou wert ever of a tender conscience, son Wilkin, though thou hast but a rough and borrel bearing." "Well, then," said Wilkin, "you are to know, good father, that I have had some dealings with my neighbour, Jan Vanwelt, concerning my daughter Rose, and that he has paid me certain gilders on condition I will match her to him." "Pshaw, pshaw! my good son," said the disappointed confessor, this gear can lie over-this is no time for marrying or giving in marriage, when we are all like to be murdered." "Nay, but hear me, good father," said the Fleming, "for this point of conscience concerns the present case more nearly than you wot of.-You must know I have no will to bestow Rose on this same Jan Vanwelt, who is old, and of ill conditions; and I would know of you whether I may, in conscience, refuse him my consent?" "Truly," said Father Aldrovand, "Rose is a pretty lass, though somewhat hasty; and I think you may honestly withdraw your consent, always on paying back the gilders you have received." "But there lies the pinch, good father," said the Fleming-"the refunding this money will reduce me to utter poverty. The Welsh have destroyed my substance; and this handful of money is all, God help me! on which I must begin the world again." 'Nevertheless, son Wilkin," said Aldrovand, "thou must keep thy word, or pay the forfeit; for what saith the text? Quis habitabit in tabernaculo, quis requiescet in monte sancto?-Who shall ascend to the tabernacle, and dwell in the holy mountain? Is it not answered again, qui jurat proximo, et non decipit?-Go to, my son-break not thy plighted word for a little filthy lucre-better is an empty stomach Old Henry Jenkins, in his Recollections of the Abbacies before their dissolution, has preserved the fact, that roast beef was delivered out to the guests, not by weight, but by measure. and a hungry heart with a clear conscience, than a fatted ox with iniquity and word-breaking.-Sawest thou not our late noble lord, who (may his soul be happy!) chose rather to die in unequal battle, like a true knight, than live a perjured man, though he had but spoken a rash word to a Welshman over a wine flask?" "Alas! then," said the Fleming, "this is even what I feared! We must e'en render up the castle, or restore to the Welshman, Jorworth, the cattle, by means of which I had schemed to victual and defend it." "How-wherefore-what dost thou mean?" said the monk in astonishment. "I speak to thee of Rose Flammock, and Jan Van-devil, or whatever you call him, and you reply with talk about cattle and castles, and I wot not what!" So please you, holy father, I did but speak in parables. This castle was the daughter I had promised to deliver over-the Welshman is Jan Vanwelt, and the gilders were the cattle he has sent in, as a partpayment beforehand of my guerdon." Parables!" said the monk, colouring with anger at the trick put on him; "what has a boor like thee to do with parables?-But I forgive thee-I forgive thee." "I am therefore to yield the castle to the Welshman, or restore him his cattle?" said the impenetrable Dutchman. "Sooner yield thy soul to Satan!" replied the monk. "I fear me it must be the alternative," said the Fleming; "for the example of thy honourable lord" "The example of an honourable fool"-answered the monk; then presently subjoined, "Our Lady be with her servant!-This Belgic-brained boor makes me forget what I would say.' "Nay, but the holy text which your reverence cited to me even now," continued the Fleming. "Go to," said the monk; "what hast thou to do to presume to think of texts ?-knowest thou not that the letter of the Scripture slayeth, and that it is the exposition which maketh to live?-Art thou not like one who, coming to a physician, conceals from him half the symptoms of the disease?-I tell thee, thou foolish Fleming, the text speaketh but of promises made unto Christians, and there is in the Rubric a special exception of such as are made to Welshmen." At this commentary the Fleming grinned so broadly as to show his whole case of broad strong white teeth. Father Aldrovand himself grinned in sympathy, and then proceeded to say, "Come, come, I see how it is. Thou hast studied some small revenge on me for doubting of thy truth; and, in verity, I think thou hast taken it wittily enough. But wherefore didst thou not let me into the secret from the beginning? I promise thee I had foul suspicions of thee." "What!" said the Fleming, "is it possible I could ever think of involving your reverence in a little matter of deceit ? Surely heaven hath sent me more grace and manners.-Hark, I hear Jorworth's horn at the gate." "He blows like a town swineherd," said Aldrovand, in disdain. "It is not your reverence's pleasure that I should restore the castle unto him, then?" said Flammock. Yes, thus far. Prithee deliver him straightway over the walls such a tub of boiling water as shall scald the hair from his goat-skin cloak. And, hark thee, do thou in the first place try the temperature of the kettle with thy forefinger, and that shall be thy penance for the trick thou hast played me." The Fleming answered this with another broad grin of intelligence, and they proceeded to the outer gate, to which Jorworth had come alone. Placing himself at the wicket, which, however, he kept carefully barred, and speaking through a small opening, contrived for such purpose, Wilkin Flammock demanded of the Welshman his business. "To receive rendition of the castle, agreeable to promise," said Jorworth. "Ay? and art thou come on such an errand alone?" said Wilkin. "No, truly," answered Jorworth; "I have some two score of men concealed among yonder bushes.' "Then thou hadst best lead them away quickly," answered Wilkin, "before our archers let fly a sheaf of arrows among them." "How, villain! Dost thou not mean to keep thy promise?" said the Welshman. "I gave thee none," said the Fleming; "I promised but to think on what thou didst say. I have done so, and have communicated with my ghostly father, who will in no respect hear of my listening to thy proposal." And wilt thou," said Jorworth," keep the cattle which I simply sent into the castle on the faith of our agreement?" "I will excommunicate and deliver him over to Satan," said the monk, unable to wait the phlegmatic and lingering answer of the Fleming, "if he give horn, hoof, or hair of them, to such an uncircumcised Philistine as thou or thy master." "It is well, shorn priest," answered Jorworth, in great anger. But mark me-reckon not on your frock for ransom. When Gwenwyn hath taken this castle, as it shall not longer shelter such a pair of faithless traitors, I will have you sewed up each into the carcass of one of these kine, for which your penitent has forsworn himself, and lay you where wolf and eagle shall be your only companions." Thou wilt work thy will when it is matched with thy power," said the sedate Netherlander. False Welshman, we defy thee to thy teeth!" answered, in the same breath, the more irascible monk. I trust to see the hounds gnaw thy joints ere that day come that ye talk of so proudly.' By way of answer to both, Jorworth drew back his arm with his levelled javelin, and shaking the shaft till it acquired a vibratory motion, he hurled it with equal strength and dexterity right against the aperture in the wicket. It whizzed through the opening at which it was aimed, and flew (harmlessly, however,) between the heads of the monk and the Fleming; the former of whom started back, while the latter only said, as he looked at the javelin, which stood quivering in the door of the guard-room, "That was well aimed, and happily balked." Jorworth, the instant he had flung his dart, hastened to the ambush which he had prepared, and gave them at once the signal and the example of a rapid retreat down the hill. Father Aldrovand would willingly have followed them with a volley of arrows, but the Fleming observed that ammunition was too precious with them to be wasted on a few runaways. Perhaps the honest man remembered that they had come within the danger of such a salutation, in some measure, on his own assurance. When the noise of the hasty retreat of Jorworth and his followers had died away, there ensued a dead silence, well corresponding with the coolness and calmness of that early hour in the morning. This will not last long," said Wilkin to the monk, in a tone of foreboding seriousness, which found an echo in the good father's bosom. "It will not, and it cannot," answered Aldrovand; "and we must expect a shrewd attack, which I should mind little, but that their numbers are great, ours few; the extent of the walls considerable, and the obstinacy of these Welsh fiends almost equal to their fury. But we will do the best. I will to the Lady Eveline-She must show herself upon the battlements-She is fairer in feature than becometh a man of my order to speak of; and she has withal a breathing of her father's lofty spirit. The look and the word of such a lady will give a man double strength in the hour of need." "It may be," said the Fleming; "and I will go see that the good breakfast which I have appointed be presently served forth; it will give my Flemings more strength than the sight of the ten thousand virgins may their help be with us!--were they all arranged on a fair field." THE morning light was scarce fully spread abroad, when Eveline Berenger, in compliance with her confessor's advice, commenced her progress around the walls and battlements of the beleaguered castle, to confirm by her personal entreaties the minds of the valiant, and to rouse the more timid to hope and to exertion. She wore a rich collar and bracelets, as ornaments which indicated her rank and high descent; and her under tunic, in the manner of the times, was gathered around her slender waist by a girdle, embroidered with precious stones, and secured by a large buckle of gold. From one side of the girdle was suspended a pouch or purse, splendidly adorned with needle-work, and on the left side it sustained a small dagger of exquisite workmanship. A darkcoloured mantle, chosen as emblematic of her clouded fortunes, was flung loosely around her; and its bood was brought forward, so as to shadow but not hide, her beautiful countenance. Her looks had lost the high and ecstatic expression which had been inspired by supposed revelation, but they retained a sorrowfal and mild, yet determined character-and, in addressing the soldiers, she used a mixture of entreaty and command-now throwing herself upon their protec tion-now demanding in her aid the just tribute of their allegiance. The garrison was divided, as military skill dictated, in groups, on the points most liable to attack, or from which an assailing enemy might be best annoyed: and it was this unavoidable separation of their force into small detachments, which showed to disadvan tage the extent of walls, compared with the number of the defenders; and though Wilkin Flammock had contrived several means of concealing this deficiency of force from the enemy, he could not disguise it from the defenders of the castle, who cast mournful glances on the length of battlements, which were unoccupied save by sentinels, and then looked out to the fatal field of battle, loaded with the bodies of those who ought to have been their comrades in this hour of peril. The presence of Eveline did much to rouse the gar rison from this state of discouragement. She glided from post to post, from tower to tower of the old gray fortress, as a gleam of light passes over a clouded landscape, and, touching its various points in succession, calls them out to beauty and effect. Sorrow and fear sometimes make sufferers eloquent. She addressed the various nations who composed ber little garrison, each in appropriate language. To the English, she spoke as children of the soil-to the Flemings, as men who had become denizens by the right of hospitality-to the Normans as descendants of that victorious race, whose sword had made them the nobles and sovereigns of every land where its edge had been tried. To them she used the languag of chivalry, by whose rules the meanest of that nation regulated, or affected to regulate, his actions. The English she reminded of their good faith and honesty of heart; and to the Flemings she spoke of the de struction of their property, the fruits of their honest industry. To all she proposed vengeance for the death of their leader and his followers-to all she re commended confidence in God and Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse; and she ventured to assure all of the strong and victorious bands that were already in march to their relief. "Will the gallant champions of the cross" she said, "think of leaving their native land, while the wail of women and of orphans is in their ears?--it were to convert their pious purpose into mortal sin. and to derogate from the high fame they have so well won. Yes-fight but valiantly, and perhaps before the very sun that is now slowly rising shal sink in the sea, you will see it shining on the ranks of Shrewsbury and Chester. When did the Welsh "Which way lie the enemy?" said Eveline; " methinks I can spy neither tents nor pavilions." man wait to hear the clangour of their trumpets, or "It will not be so long," answered Flammock; the rustling of their silken banners? Fight bravely-"we shall have noise enough, and that nearer to our fight freely but a while!-our castle is strong-our ears than yesterday. munition ample your hearts are good-your arms are powerful God is nigh to us, and our friends are not far distant. Fight, then, in the name of all that "They use none, lady," answered Wilkin Flamis good and holy-fight for yourselves, for your wives, mock. 'Heaven has denied them the grace and for your children, and for your property-and oh! fight knowledge to weave linen enough for such a purpose for an orphan maiden, who hath no other defenders-Yonder they lie on both sides of the river, covered but what a sense of her sorrows, and the remembrance with naught but their white mantles. Would one of her father, may raise up among you!" think that a host of thieves and cut-throats could look so like the finest object in nature-a well-spread bleaching-field ?-Hark-hark!-the wasps are beginning to buzz; they will soon be plying their stings." In fact, there was heard among the Welsh army a low and indistinct murmur, like that of Such speeches as these made a powerful impression on the men to whom they were addressed, already hardened, by habits and sentiments, against a sense of danger. The chivalrous Normans swore, on the cross of their swords, they would die to a man ere they would surrender their posts-the blunter Anglo-Saxons cried, "Shame on him who would render up such a lamb as Eveline to a Welsh wolf, while he could make her a bulwark with his body!" -Even the cold Flemings caught a spark of the enthusiasm with which the others were animated, and muttered to each other praises of the young lady's beauty, and short but honest resolves to do the best they might in her defence. "Bees alarm'd, and mustering in their hives." Terrified at the hollow menacing sound, which grew louder every moment, Rose, who had all the irritability of a sensitive temperament, clung to her father's arm, saying, in a terrified whisper, "It is like the sound of the sea the night before the great inundation." "And it betokens too rough weather for women to be abroad in," said Flammock. Go to your cham ber, Lady Eveline, if it be your will-and go you too, Roschen-God bless you both-ye do but keep us idle here.” Rose Flammock, who accompanied her lady with one or two attendants upon her circuit around the castle, seemed to have relapsed into her natural character of a shy and timid girl, out of the excited state into which she had been brought by the suspicions And, indeed, conscious that she had done all that which in the evening before had attached to her was incumbent upon her, and fearful lest the chill father's character. She tripped closely but respect- which she felt creeping over her own heart should fully after Eveline, and listened to what she said from infect others, Eveline took her vassal's advice, and time to time, with the awe and admiration of a child withdrew slowly to her own apartment, often castlistening to its tutor, while only her moistened eyeing back her eye to the place where the Welsh, now expressed how far she felt or comprehended the ex-drawn out and under arms, were advancing their tent of the danger, or the force of the exhortations, ridgy battalions, like the waves of an approaching tide. There was, however, a moment when the youthful The Prince of Powys had, with considerable milimaiden's eye became more bright, her step more con-tary skill, adopted a plan of attack suitable to the fident, her looks more elevated. This was when fiery genius of his followers, and calculated to alarm they approached the spot where her father, having on every point the feeble garrison. discharged the duties of commander of the garrison, was now exercising those of engineer, and displaying great skill, as well as wonderful personal strength, in directing and assisting the establishment of a large mangonel, (a military engine used for casting stones,) upon a station commanding an exposed postern-gate, which led from the western side of the castle down to the plain; and where a severe assault was naturally to be expected. The greater part of his armour lay beside him, but covered with his cassock to screen it from the morning dew; while in his leathern doublet, with arms bare to the shoulder, and a huge sledgehammer in his hand, he set an example to the mechanics who worked under his direction. In slow and solid natures there is usually a touch of shamefacedness, and a sensitiveness to the breach of petty observances. Wilkin Flammock had been unmoved even to insensibility at the imputation of treason so lately cast upon him; but he coloured high, and was confused, while hastily throwing on his cassock, he endeavoured to conceal the dishabille in which he had been surprised by the Lady Eveline. Not so his daughter. Proud of her father's zeal, her eye gleamed from him to her mistress with a look of triumph, which seemed to say, "And this faithful follower, is he who was suspected of treachery!" Eveline's own bosom made her the same reproach; and, anxious to atone for her momentary doubt of his fidelity, she offered for his acceptance a ring of value, "in small amends," she said, "of a momentary misconstruction." "It needs not, lady," said Flammock, with his usual bluntness, "unless I have the freedom to bestow the gaud on Rose; for I think she was grieved enough at that which moved me little,--as why should it?" "Dispose of it as thou wilt," said Eveline; "the stone it bears is as true as thine own faith." The three sides of the castle which were defended by the river, were watched each by a numerous body of the British, with instructions to contine themselves to the discharge of arrows, unless they should observe that some favourable opportunity of close attack should occur. But far the greater part of Gwenwyn's forces, consisting of three columns of great strength, advanced along the plain on the western side of the castle, and menaced, with a desperate assault, the walls, which, in that direction, were deprived of the defence of the river. The first of these formidable bodies consisted entirely of archers, whc dispersed themselves in front of the beleagured place and took advantage of every bush and rising ground which could afford them shelter; and then began to bend their bows and shower their arrows on the battlements and loopholes, suffering, however, a grea, deal more damage than they were able to inflict, as the garrison returned their shot in comparative safety, and with more secure and deliberate aim.* Under cover, however, of their discharge of arrows, two very strong bodies of Welsh attempted to carry the outer defences of the castle by storm. They had axes to destroy the palisades, then called barriers; fagots to fill up the external ditches; torches to set fire to aught combustible which they might find; and, above all, ladders to scale the walls. but, under favour of Lord Lyttleton, they probably did not use It was shorter * ARCHERS OF WALES.-The Welsh were excellent bowmen; the long bow, the formidable weapon of the Normans, and afterwards of the English yeomen. That of the Welsh most likely rather resembled the bow of the cognate Celtic tribes of Ireland, and of the Highlands of Scotland. the ear, more loosely strung, and the arrow having a heavy iron than the Norman long-bow, as being drawn to the breast, not to head; altogether, in short, a less effective weapon. It appears from the following anecdote, that there was a difference between the Welsh arrows and those of the English. In 1122, Henry the II., marching into Powys-Land to chastise Meredyth ap Blethyn and certain rebels, in passing a defile was ex-struck by an arrow on the breast. Repelled by the excellence of his breastplate, the shaft fell to the ground. When the King felt the blow and saw the shaft, he swore his usual oath, by the death of our Lord, that the arrow came not from a Welsh, but an English bow; and, influenced by this belief, hastily put Here Eveline paused, and looking on the broad panded plain which extended between the site of the castle and the river, observed how silent and still the morning was rising over what had so lately been a scene of such extensive slaughter. VOL. IV.-4 P an end to the war. These detachments rushed with incredible fury to- | wards the point of attack, despite a most obstinate defence, and the great loss which they sustained by missiles of every kind, and continued the assault for nearly an hour, supplied by reinforcements which more than recruited their diminished numbers. When they were at last compelled to retreat, they seemed to adopt a new and yet more harassing species of attack. A large body assaulted one exposed point of the fortress with such fury as to draw thither as many of the besieged as could possibly be spared from other defended posts, and when there appeared a point less strongly manned than was adequate to defence, that, in its turn, was furiously assailed by a separate body of the enemy. ceptable to Gwenwyn as to the exhausted garrison of the Garde Doloureuse, But in the camp or leaguer of the Welsh there was glee and triumph, for the loss of the past day was forgotten in recollections of the signal victory which had preceded this siege; and the dispirited garrison could hear from their walls the laugh and the song, the sound of harping and gayety, which traumphed by anticipation over their surrender. The sun was for some time sunk, the twilight deepened, and night closed with a blue and cloudless sky, in which the thousand spangles that deck the firmament received double brilliancy from some slight touch of frost, although the paler planet, their mis tress, was but in her first quarter. The necessities of Thus the defenders of the Garde Doloureuse re- the garrison were considerably aggravated by that of sembled the embarrassed traveller, engaged in repel- keeping a very strong and watchful guard, ill accordling a swarm of hornets, which, while he brushes ing with the weakness of their numbers, at a time them from one part, fix in swarms upon another, and which appeared favourable to any sudden nocturnal drive him to despair by their numbers, and the boldness alarm; and, so urgent was this duty, that those who and multiplicity of their attacks. The postern being had been more slightly wounded on the preceding of course a principal point of attack, Father Aldro-day, were obliged to take their share in it, notwithvand, whose anxiety would not permit him to be ab- standing their hurts. The monk and Fleming, who sent from the walls, and who, indeed, where decency now perfectly understood each other, went in comwould permit, took an occasional share in the active pany around the walls at midnight, exhorting the defence of the place, hasted thither, as the point warders to be watchful, and examining with ther chiefly in danger. own eyes the state of the fortress. It was in the course of these rounds, and as they were ascending an elevated platform by a range of narrow and uneven steps, something galling to the monk's tread, that they perceived on the summit to which they were as cending, instead of the black corslet of the Flemish sentinel who had been placed there, two white forms the appearance of which struck Wilkin Flammock with more dismay than he had shown during any of the doubtful events of the preceding day's fight. Here he found the Fleming, like a second Ajax, grim with dust and blood, working with his own hands the great engine which he had lately helped to erect, and at the same time giving heedful eye to all the exigencies around. "How thinkest thou of this day's work?" said the monk in a whisper. "What skills it talking of it, father?" replied Flammock; "thou art no soldier, and I have no time for words." "Nay, take thy breath," said the monk, tucking up the sleeves of his frock; "I will try to help thee the whils-although, Our Lady pity me, I know nothing of these strange devices-not even the names. But our rule commands us to labour; there can be no harm, therefore, in turning this winch—or in placing | this steel-headed piece of wood opposite to the cord,' (suiting his action to his words,) nor see I aught uncanonical in adjusting the lever thus, or in touching the spring." The large bolt whizzed through the air as he spoke, and was so successfully aimed, that it struck down a Welsh chief of eminence, to whom Gwenwyn himself was in the act of giving some important charge. "Well driven, trebuchet-well flown, quarrel ! cried the monk, unable to contain his delight, and giving, in his triumph, the true technical names to the engine, and the javelin which it discharged. And well aimed, monk," added Wilkin Flammock; "I think thou knowest more than is in thy breviary." "Care not thou for that," said the father; "and now that thou seest I can work an engine, and that the Welsh knaves seem something low in stomach, what think'st thou of our estate?" "Well enough-for a bad one-if we may hope for speedy succour; but men's bodies are of flesh, not of iron, and we may be at last wearied out by numbers, Only one soldier to four yards of wall, is a fearful odds; and the villains are aware of it, and keep us to sharp work." "Father," he said, "betake yourself to your tools -es spuckt-there are hobgoblins here!" The good father had not learned, as a priest, to defy the spiritual host, whom, as a soldier, he had dreaded more than any mortal enemy; but he began to recite, with chattering teeth, the exorcism of the church, “ Conjuro vos omnes, spiritus maligni, magni, atque parvi," when he was interrupted by the voice of Eveline, who called out, "Is it you, Father Aldrovand ?"”' Much lightened at heart by finding they had no ghost to deal with, Wilkin Flammock and the priest advanced hastily to the platform, where they found the lady with her faithful Rose, the former with a half-pike in her hand, like a sentinel on duty. How is this, daughter?" said the monk; "bow came you here, and thus armed? and where is the sentinel,-the lazy Flemish hound, that should have kept the post?" May he not be a lazy hound, yet not a Flemish one, father?" said Rose, who was ever awakened by any thing which seemed a reflection upon her country; methinks I have heard of such curs of English breed." "Go to, Rose, you are too malapert for a young maiden," said her father. Once more, where is Peterkin Vorst, who should have kept this post?" "Let him not be blamed for my fault," said Eve line, pointing to a place where the Flemish sentinel lay in the shade of the battlement fast asleep-" He was overcome with toil-had fought hard through the day, and when I saw him asleep as I came hither, like a wandering spirit that cannot take slumber or repose, I would not disturb the rest which I envied. As he had fought for me, I might, I thought, watch an hour for him; so I took his weapon with the purpose of remaining here till some one should come to relieve him." The renewal of the assault here broke off their conversation, nor did the active enemy permit them to enjoy much repose until sunset; for, alarmning them with repeated menaces of attack upon different points, besides making two or three formidable and furious assaults, they left them scarce time to breathe, "I will relieve the schelm, with a vengeance!" said or to take a moment's refreshment. Yet the Welsh Wilkin Flammock, and saluted the slumbering and paid a severe price for their temerity; for while no- prostrate warder with two kicks, which made his thing could exceed the bravery with which their men corslet clatter. The man started to his feet in no repeatedly advanced to the attack, those which were small alarm, which he would have communicated to made latest in the day had less of animated despera- the next sentinels and to the whole garrison, by crytion than their first onset; and it is probable, that the ing out that the Welsh were upon the walls, had not sense of having sustained great loss, and apprehen- the monk covered his broad mouth with his hand just sion of its effects on the spirits of his people, made as the roar was issuing forth.-"Peace, and get thee nightfall, and the interruption of the contest, as ac-down to the under bayley," said he;-" thou deservest death, by all the policies of war-but, look ye, variet, and see who has saved your worthless neck, by watching while you were dreaming of swine's flesh and beer-pots." The Fleming, although as yet but half awake, was sufficiently conscious of his situation, to sneak off without reply, after two or three awkward congees, as well to Eveline as to those by whom his repose had been so unceremoniously interrupted. "He deserves to be tied neck and heel, the houndsfoot," said Wilkin. "But what would you have, lady? My countrymen cannot live without rest or sleep." So saying, he gave a yawn so wide, as if he had proposed to swallow one of the turrets at an angle of the platform on which he stood, as if it had only garnished a Christmas pasty. "True, good Wilkin," said Eveline; "and do you therefore, take some rest, and trust to my watchfulness, at least till the guards are relieved. I cannot sleep if I would, and I would not if I could.". "Thanks, lady," said Flammock; "and in truth, as this is a centrical place, and the rounds must pass in an hour at farthest, I will e'en close my eyes for such a space, for the lids feel as heavy as floodgates." "O, father, father!" exclaimed Rose, alive to her sire's unceremonious neglect of decorum-"think where you are, and in whose presence!" "Ay, ay, good Flammock," said the monk, "remember the presence of a noble Norman maiden is no place for folding of cloaks and donning of night caps. "Let him alone, father," said Eveline, who in another moment might have smiled at the readiness with which Wilkin Flammock folded himself in his huge cloak, extended his substantial form on the stone bench, and gave the most decided tokens of profound repose, long ere the monk had done speak ing.-"Forms and fashions of respect," she continued, "are for times of ease and nicety;-when in danger, the soldier's bedchamber is wherever he can find leisure for an hour's sleep-his eating-hall, wherever he can obtain food. Sit thou down by Rose and me, good father, and tell us of some holy lesson which may pass away these hours of weariness and calamity.' The father obeyed; but however willing to afford consolation, his ingenuity and theological skill suggested nothing better than a recitation of the penitentiary psalms, in which task he continued until fatigue became too powerful for him also, when he committed the same breach of decorum for which he had upbraided Wilkin Flammock, and fell fast asleep in the midst of his devotions. CHAPTER IX. "O night of wo," she said and wept, THE fatigue which had exhausted Flammock and the monk, was unfelt by the two anxious maidens, who remained with their eyes bent, now upon the dim landscape, now on the stars by which it was lighted, as if they could have read there the events which the morrow was to bring forth. It was a placid and melancholy scene. Tree and field, and hill and plain, lay before them in doubtful light, while, at greater distance, their eye could with difficulty trace one or two places where the river, hidden in general by banks and trees, spread its more expanded bosom to the stars, and the pale crescent. All was still, excepting the solemn rush of the waters, and now and then the shrill tinkle of a harp, which, heard from more than a mile's distance through the midnight silence, announced that some of the Welshmen still protracted their most beloved amusement. The wild notes, partially heard, seemed like the voice of some passing spirit; and, connected as they were with ideas of fierce and unrelenting hostility, thrilled on Eveline's ear, as if prophetic of war and wo, captivity and death. The only other sounds which disturbed the extreme stillness of the night, were the occasional step of a sentinel upon his post, or the hooting of the owls, which seemed to wail the approaching downfall of the moonlight turrets, in which they had established their ancient habitations. The calmness of all around seemed to press like a weight on the bosom of the unhappy Eveline, and brought to her mind a deeper sense of present grier, and keener apprehension of future horrors, than had reigned there during the bustle, blood, and confusion of the preceding day. She rose up-she sat downshe moved to and fro on the platform-she remained fixed like a statue to a single spot, as if she were trying by variety of posture to divert her internal sense of fear and sorrow. At length, looking at the monk and the Fleming as they slept soundly under the shade of the battlement, she could no longer forbear breaking silence. "Men are happy," she said, "my beloved Rose; their anxious thoughts are either diverted by toilsome exertion, or drowned in the insensibility which follows it. They may encounter wounds and death, but it is we who feel in the spirit a more keen anguish than the body knows, and in the gnawing sense of present ill and fear of future misery, suffer a living death, more cruel than that which ends our woes at once. "Do not be thus downcast, my noble lady," said Rose; "be rather what you were yesterday, caring for the wounded, for the aged, for every one but yourselfexposing even your dear life among the showers of the Welsh arrows, when doing so could give courage to others; while I-shame on me-could but tremble, sob, and weep, und needed all the little wit I have to prevent my shouting with the wild cries of the Welsh, or screaming and groaning with those of our friends who fell around me." "Alas! Rose," answered her mistress, "you may at pleasure indulge your fears to the verge of distrac tion itself-you have a father to fight and watch for you. Mine-my kind, noble, and honoured parent, lies dead on yonder field, and all which remains for me is to act as may best become his memory. But, this moment is at least mine, to think upon and to mourn for him.", So saying, and overpowered by the long-repressed burst of filial sorrow, she sunk down on the banquette which ran along the inside of the embattled parapet of the platform, and murmuring to herself, "He is gone for ever!" abandoned herself to the extremity of grief. One hand grasped unconsciously the weapon which she held, and served, at the same time, to prop her forehead, while the tears, by which she was now for the first time relieved, flowed in torrents from her eyes, and her sobs seemed so convulsive, that Rose almost feared her heart was bursting. Her affection and sympathy dictated at once the kindest course which Eveline's condition permitted. Without attempting to control the torrent of grief in its full current, she gently sat her down beside the mourner, and possessing herself of the hand which had sunk motionless by her side, she alternately pressed it to her lips, her bosom, and her brow-now covered it with kisses, now bedewed it with tears, and amid these tokens of the most devoted and humble sympathy, waited a more composed moment to offer her little stock of consolation in such deep silence and stillness, that, as the pale light fell upon the two beautiful young women, it seemed rather to show a group of statuary, the work of some eminent sculptor, than beings whose eyes still wept, and whose hearts still throbbed. At a little distance, the gleaming corslet of the Fleming, and the dark garments of Father Aldrovand, as they lay prostrate on the stone steps, might represent the bodies of those for whom the principal figures were mourning, After a deep agony of many minutes, it seemed that the sorrows of Eveline were assuming a more composed character; her convulsive sobs were changed for long, low, profound sighs, and the course of her tears, though they still flowed, was milder and less violent. Her kind attendant, availing herself of these gentler symptoms, tried softly to win the spear from her lady's grasp. "Let me be sentinel for a while," she said, my sweet lady-I will at least scream louder than you if any danger should approach." She |