At length Rose suddenly felt her young mistress shiver in her embrace, and that Eveline's hand grasped her arm rigidly as she whispered, "Do you hear nothing?" ventured to kiss her cheek, and throw her arms around | utmost caution being used to prevent noise, the manEveline's neck while she spoke; but a mute caress, ning of the walls was accomplished in silence, and which expressed her sense of the faithful girl's kind the garrison awaited in breathless expectation the intentions to minister if possible to her repose, was success of the forces who were rapidly advancing to the only answer returned. They remained for many their relief. minutes silent and in the same posture,-Eveline, like The character of the sounds, which now loudly an upright and slender poplar,-Rose, who encircled awakened the silence of this eventful night, could no her lady in her arms, like the woodbine which twines longer be mistaken. They were distinguishable from around it. the rushing of a mighty river, or from the muttering sound of distant thunder, by the sharp and angry notes which the clashing of the riders' arms mingled with the deep bass of the horses' rapid tread. From the long continuance of the sounds, their loudness, and the extent of horizon from which they seemed to come, all in the castle were satisfied that the approaching relief consisted of several very strong bodies of horse.* At once this mighty sound ceased, as if the earth on which they trode had either devoured the armed squadrons, or had become incapable of resounding to their tramp. The defenders of the made a sudden halt to give their horses breath, examine the leaguer of the enemy, and settle the order of the attack upon them. The pause, however was but momentary. "No-nothing but the hooting of the owl," answered Rose, timorously. "I heard a distant sound," said Eveline,-"I thought I heard it-hark, it comes again!-Look from the battlements, Rose, while I awaken the priest and thy father." Dearest lady," said Rose, "I dare not-What can this sound be that is heard by one only ?--You are de-Garde Doloureuse concluded that their friends had ceived by the rush of the river." "I would not alarm the castle unnecessarily," said Eveline, pausing, "or even break your father's needful slumbers, by a fancy of mine-But hark-hark!-I hear it again-distinct amidst the intermitting sound of the rushing water-a low tremulous sound, mingled with a tinkling like smiths or armourers at work upon their anvils." Rose had by this time sprung up on the banquette, and flinging back her rich tresses of fair hair, had applied her hand behind her ear to collect the distant sound. "I hear it," she cried, "and it increasesAwake them, for Heaven's sake, and without a moment's delay!" Eveline accordingly stirred the sleepers with the reversed end of the lance, and as they started to their feet in haste, she whispered, in a hasty but cautious voice, "To arms-the Welsh are upon us!" "What-where?" said Wilkin Flammock, "where be they?" "Listen, and you will hear them arming," she replied. "The noise is but in thine own fancy, lady," said the Fleming, whose organs were of the same heavy character with his form and his disposition. "I would I had not gone to sleep at all, since I was to be awakened so soon." "Nay, but listen, good Flammock-the sound of armour comes from the north-east." "The Welsh lie not in that quarter, lady," said Wilkin, "and, besides, they wear no armour.' "I hear it-I hear it!" said Father Aldrovand, who had been listening for some time. "All praise to St. Benedict!-Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse has been gracious to her servants as ever!-It is the tramp of horse-it is the clash of armour-the chivalry of the Marches are coming to our relief-Kyrie Eleison!" "I hear something too," said Flammock,-"something like the hollow sound of the great sea, when it burst into my neighbour Klinkerman's warehouse, and rolled his pots and pans against each other. But it were an evil mistake, father, to take foes for friends -we were best rouse the people." The British, so alert at surprising their enemies, were themselves, on many occasions, liable to surprise. Their men were undisciplined, and sometimes negligent of the patient duties of the sentinel; and, besides, their foragers and flying parties, who scoured the country during the preceding day, had brought back tidings which had lulled them into fatal security. Their camp had been therefore carelessly guarded, and confident in the smallness of the garrison, they had altogether neglected the important military duty of establishing patrols and outposts at a proper distance from their main body. Thus the cavalry of the Lords Marchers, notwithstanding the noise which accom panied their advance, had approached very near the British camp, without exciting the least alarm. But while they were arranging their forces into separate columns, in order to commence the assault, a loud and increasing clamour among the Welsh announced that they were at length aware of their danger. The shrill and discordant cries by which they endeavoured to assemble their men, each under the banner of his chief, resounded from their leaguer. But these rallying shouts were soon converted into screams, and clamours of horror and dismay, when the thundering charge of the barbed horses and heavily-armed cavalry of the Anglo-Normans surprised their undefended camp. Yet not even under circumstances so adverse öd the descendants of the ancient Britons renounce their defence, or forfeit their old hereditary privilege, to be called the bravest of mankind. Their cries of defiance and resistance were heard resounding above the groans of the wounded, the shouts of the triumphant assailants, and the universal tumult of the nightbattle. It was not until the morning light began to peep forth, that the slaughter or dispersion of Gwenwyn's forces was complete, and that the earthquake voice of victory" arose in uncontrolled and unmingled energy of exultation. Then the beseiged, if they could be still so termed, looking from their towers over the expanded country "Tush!" said the priest, "talk to me of pots and beneath witnessed nothing but one wide-spread scene kettles?-Was I squire of the body to Count Stephen of desultory flight and unrelaxed pursuit. That the Mauleverer for twenty years, and do I not know the Welsh had been permitted to encamp in fancied secu tramp of a war-horse, or the clash of a mail-coat?-rity upon the hither side of the river, now rendered But call the men to the walls at any rate, and have me the best drawn up in the basecourt-we may help them by a sally." "That will not be rashly undertaken with my consent," murmured the Fleming; "but to the wall if you will, and in good time. But keep your Normans and English silent, Sir Priest, else their unruly and noisy joy will awaken the Welsh camp, and prepare them for their unwelcome visiters." The monk laid his finger on his lip in sign of intelligence, and they parted in opposite directions, each to rouse the defenders of the castle, who were soon heard drawing from all quarters to their posts upon the walls, with hearts in a very different mood from that in which they had descended from them. The their discomfiture more dreadfully fatal. The single pass by which they could cross to the other side was soon completely choked by fugitives, on whose rear raged the swords of the victorious Normans. Many threw themselves into the river, upon the precarious chance of gaining the farther side, and, except a few, who were uncommonly strong, skilful, and active, perished among the rocks and in the currents; others, more fortunate, escaped by fords, with which they had accidentally been made acquainted; many dis persed, or, in small bands, fled in reckless despair to Even the sharp and angry clang made by the iron scabbards of modern cavalry ringing against the steel-tipp'd saddles and stirrup, betrays their approach from a distance. The clash of the armour of knights, armed cap-a-pie, must have been much more easily discernible. The Normans, mean while, divided into small parties, followed and slaughtered them at pleasure; while, as a rallying point for the victors, the banner of Hugo de Lacy streamed from a small mount, on which Gwenwyn had lately pitched his own, and surrounded by a competent force, both of infantry and horsemen, which the experienced Baron permitted on wards the castle, as if the fortress, which had beat them | of short chestnut curls; and although his armour off when victorious, could be a place of refuge to them was of a massive and simple form, he moved under it in their present forlorn condition; while others with such elasticity and case, that it seemed a graceful roamed wildly over the plain, secking only escape attire, not a burden or encumbrance. A furred mantle from immediate and instant danger, without knowing had not sat on him with more easy grace than the whither they ran. heavy hauberk, which complied with every gesture of his noble form. Yet his countenance was so juvenile, that only the down on the upper lip announced deeisively the approach to manhood. The females, who thronged into the court to see the first envoy of their deliverers, could not forbear mixing praises of his beauty with blessings on his valour; and one comely middle-aged dame, in particular, distinguished by the tightness with which her scarlet hose sat on a well-shaped leg and ankle, and by the cleanness of her coif, pressed close up to the young squire, and, more forward than the rest, doubled the crimson hue of his cheek, by crying aloud, that Our Lady of the Garde Doloureuse had sent them news of their redemption by an angel from the sanctuary;-a speech which, although Father Aldrovand shook his head, was received by her companions with such general acclamation, as greatly embarrassed the young man's modesty. no account to wander far from it. The rest, as we have already said, followed the chase with shouts of exultation and of vengeance, ringing around the battlements, which resounded with the cries, "Ha, Saint Edward!-Ha, Saint Dennis! -Strike-slay-no quarter to the Welsh wolvesthink on Raymond Berenger!" The soldiers on the walls joined in these vengeful and victorious clamours, and discharged several sheaves of arrows upon such fugitives, as, in their extremity approached too near the castle. They would fain have sallied to give more active assistance in the work of destruction; but the communication being now open with the Constable of Chester's forces, Wilkin Flammock considered himself and the garrison to be under the orders of that renowned chief, and refused to listen to the cager admonitions of Father Aldrovand, who would, notwithstanding his sacerdotal character, have willingly himself taken charge of the sally which he proposed. "Peace, all of ye!" said Wilkin Flammock-"Know you no respects, you women, or have you never seen a young gentlemen before, that you hang on him like flies on a honeycomb ? Stand back, I say, and let us hear in peace what are the commands of the noble Lord of Lacy." "These," said the young man, "I can only deliver in the presence of the right noble demoiselle, Eveline Berenger, if I may be thought worthy of such honour." At length, the scene of slaughter seemed at an end. The retreat was blown on many a bugle, and "That thou art, noble sir," said the same forward knights halted on the plain to collect their personal dame, who had before expressed her admiration so followers, muster them under their proper pennon, energetically; "I will uphold thee worthy of her and then march them slowly back to the great stand-presence, and whatever other grace a lady can do ard of their leader, around which the main body were thee." again to be assembled, like the clouds which gather around the evening sun-a fanciful simile, which might yet be drawn farther, in respect of the level rays of strong lurid light which shot from those dark battalions, as the beams were flung back from their polished armour. The plain was in this manner soon cleared of the horsemen, and remained occupied only by the dead bodies of the slaughtered Welshmen. The bands who had followed the pursuit to a greater distance were also now seen returning, driving before them, or dragging after them, dejected and unhappy captives, to whom they had given quarter when their thirst of blood was satiated. It was then that, desirous to attract the attention of his liberators, Wilkin Flammock commanded all the banners of the castle to be displayed, under a general shout of acclamation from those who had fought under them. It was answered by a universal cry of joy from De Lacy's army, which rung so wide, as might even yet have startled such of the Welsh fugitives, as, far distant from this disastrous field of flight, might have ventured to halt for a moment's repose. "Now hold thy tongue, with a wanion!" said the monk; while in the same breath the Fleming exclaimed, "Beware the cucking-stool, Dame Scant-o'Grace!" while he conducted the noble youth across the court. "Let my good horse be cared for," said the cavalier, as he put the bridle into the hand of a menial; and in doing so got rid of some part of his female retinue, who began to pat and praise the steed as much as they had done the rider; and some, in the enthusiasm of their joy, hardly abstained from kissing the stirrups and horse furniture. But Dame Gillian was not so easily diverted from her own point as were some of her companions. She continued to repeat the word cucking-stool, till the Fleming was out of hearing, and then became more specific in her objurgation.-"And why cuckingstool, I pray, Sir Wilkin Butterfirkin? You are the man would stop an English mouth with a Flemish damask napkin, I trow! Marry quep, my cousin the weaver! And why the cucking-stool, I pray?-because my young lady is comely, and the young squire is a man of mettle, reverence to his beard that is to come yet! Have we not eyes to see, and have we not a mouth and a tongue ?" "In troth, Dame Gillian, they do you wrong who doubt it," said Eveline's nurse, who stood by; "but I prithee, keep it shut now, were it but for womanhood." "How now, mannerly Mrs. Margery ?" replied the incorrigible Gillian; "is your heart so high, because you dandled our young lady on your knee fifteen years since?-Let me tell you, the cat will find its way to the cream, though it was brought up on an abbess's lap." Presently after this greeting had been exchanged, a single rider advanced from the Constable's army towards the castle, showing, even at a distance, an unusual dexterity of horsemanship and grace of deportment. He arrived at the drawbridge, which was instantly lowered to admit him, whilst Flammock and the monk (for the latter, as far as he could, associated himself with the former in all acts of authority) hastened to receive the envoy of their liberator, They found him just alighted from the raven-coloured horse, which was slightly flecked with blood as well as foam, and still panted with the exertions of the "Home, housewife-home!" exclaimed her husevening; though, answering to the caressing hand band, the old huntsman, who was weary of this pubof his youthful rider, he arched his neck, shook his hic exhibition of his domestic termagant-"home, or sted caparison, and snorted, to announce his una-I will give you a taste of my dog-leash-Here are bated mettle and unwearied love of combat. The both the confessor and Wilkin Flammock wondering young man's eagle look bore the same token of at your impudence." unabated vigour, mingled with the signs of recent exertion. His hemlet hanging at his saddle-bow, showed a gallant countenance, coloured highly, but not inflamed, which looked out from a rich profusion "Indeed!" replied Gillian; "and are not two fools enough for wonderment, that you must come with your grave pate to make up the number three?", There was a general laugh at the huntsman's ex pense, under cover of which he prudently withdrew his spouse, without attempting to continue the war of tongues, in which she had shown such a decided superiority. This controversy, so light is the change in human spirits, especially among the lower class, awakened bursts of idle mirth among beings, who had so lately been in the jaws of danger, if not of absolute despair. CHAPTER X. They bore him barefaced on his bier, And many a tear bedew'd his grave The Friar of Orders Gray. WHILE these matters took place in the castle-yard, the young squire, Damian Lacy, obtained the audience which he had requested of Eveline Berenger, who received him in the great hall of the castle, seated beneath the dais, or canopy, and waited upon by Rose, and other female attendants; of whom the first alone was permitted to use a tabouret or small stool, in her presence, so strict were the Norman maidens of quality in maintaining their claims to high rank and observance. The youth was introduced by the confessor and Flammock, as the spiritual character of the one, and the trust reposed by her late father in the other, authorized them to be present upon the occasion. Eveline naturally blushed, as she advanced two steps to receive the handsome youthful envoy; and her bashfulness seemed infectious, for it was with some confusion that Damian went through the ceremony of saluting the hand which she extended towards him in token of welcome. Eveline was under the necessity of speaking first. We advance as far as our limits will permit us," she said, "to greet with our thanks the messenger who brings us tidings of safety. We speak-unless we err-to the noble Damian of Lacy?"" "To the humblest of your servants," answered Damian, falling with some difficulty into the tone of courtesy which his errand and character required, "who approaches you on behalf of his noble uncle, Hugo de Lacy, Constable of Chester." "Will not our noble deliverer in person honour with his presence the poor dwelling which he has saved?" "My noble kinsman," answered Damian, "is now God's soldier, and bound by a vow not to come beneath a roof until he embark for the Holy Land. But by my voice he congratulates you on the defeat of your savage enemies, and sends you these tokens that the comrade and friend of your noble father hath not left his lamentable death many hours unavenged." So saying, he drew forth and laid before Eveline the gold bracelets, the coronet, and the eudorchawg, or chain of linked gold, which had distinguished the rank of the Welsh Prince.* "Gwenwyn hath then fallen ?" said Eveline, a natural shudder combating with the feelings of gratified vengeance, as she beheld that the trophies were specked with blood,-" The slayer of my father is no more !" "My kinsman's lance transfixed the Briton as he endeavoured to rally his flying people-he died grimly on the weapon which had passed more than a fathom through his body, and exerted his last strength in a furious but ineffectual blow with his mace." "Heaven is just," said Eveline; "may his sins be forgiven to the man of blood, since he hath fallen by EUDORCHAWG, OR GOLD CHAINS OF THE WELSH.-These were the distinguished marks of rank and valour among the Champion, gained the name of Torquatus, or he of the chain, Manlius, the Roman on account of an ornament of this kind, won, in single combat, from a gigantic Gaul. Aneurin, the Welsh bard, mentions, in his poem on the battle of Catterath, that no less than three hun dred of the British, who fell there, had their necks wreathed with the Eudorchawg. This seems to infer that the chain was a badge of distinction, and valour perhaps, but not of royalty; otherwise there would scarce have been so many kings present in one battle. This chain has been found accordingly in Ire land and Wales, and sometimes, though more rarely, in Scotland. Doubtless it was of too precious materials not to be usually converted into money by the enemy into whose hands numerous tribes of Celtic extraction. it fell. a death so bloody!-One question I would ask you, noble sir. My father's remains"- -She paused, unable to proceed. "An hour will place them at your disposal, most honoured lady," replied the squire, in the tone of sympathy which the sorrows of so young and so far an orphan called irresistibly forth. Such preparations as time admitted were making even when I left the host, to transport what was mortal of the noble Berenger from the field on which we found him, amid a monument of slain which his own sword had raised. My kinsman's vow will not allow him to pass your portcullis; but, with your permission, I will represent him, if such be your pleasure, at these honoured obsequies, having charge to that effect." My brave and noble father," said Eveline, making an effort to restrain her tears, "will be best mourned by the noble and the brave." She would have continued, but her voice failed her, and she was obliged to withdraw abruptly, in order to give vent to her sorrow, and prepare for the funeral rites with such ceremony as circumstances should permit. Daman bowed to the departing mourner as reverently as he would have done to a divinity, and taking his horse returned to his uncle's host, which had encamped hastily on the recent field of battle. The sun was now high, and the whole plain presented the appearance of a bustle, equally different from the solitude of the early morning, and from the roar and fury of the subsequent engagement. The news of Hugo de Lacy's victory every where spread abroad, with all the alacrity of triumph, and had induced many of the inhabitants of the country, who had fled before the fury of the Wolf of Plinlimmon, to return to their desolate habitations. Numbers also of the loose and profligate characters which abound in a country subject to the frequent changes of war, had flocked thither in quest of spoil, or to gratify a spirit of restless curiosity. The Jew and the Lombard, despising danger where there was a chance of gain, might be already seen bartering liquors and wares with the victorious men-at-arms, for the bloodstained ornaments of gold lately worn by the defeated British. Others acted as brokers betwixt the Welsh captives and their captors; and where they could trust the means and good faith of the former, sometimes became bound for, or even advanced in ready money, the sums necessary for their ransom; whilst a more numerous class became themselves the purchasers of those prisoners who had no immediate means of settling with their conquerors. That the spoil thus acquired might not long encumber the soldier, or blunt his ardour for farther enterprise, the usual means of dissipating military spoils were already at hand. Courtezans, mimes, jugglers, minstrels, and tale-tellers of every description, had accompanied the night-march; and, secure in the military reputation of the celebrated De Lacy, had rested fearlessly at some little distance until the battle was fought and won. These now approached, in many a joyous group, to congratulate the victors. Close to the parties which they formed for the dance, the song, or the tale, upon the yet bloody field, the countrymen summoned in for the purpose, were opening large trenches for depositing the dead-leeches were seen tending the wounded-priests and monks confessing those in extremity-soldiers transporting from the field the bodies of the more honoured among the slain peasants mourning over their trampled crops and plundered habitations--and widows and orphans searching for the bodies of husbands and parents, amid the promiscuous carnage of two combats. Thus wo mingled her wildest notes with those the Garde Doloureuse formed a singular parallel to of jubilee and bacchanal triumph, and the plain of the varied maze of human life, where joy and grief are so strangely mixed, and where the confines of mirth and pleasure often border on those of sorrow and of death. About noon these various noises were at once silenced, and the attention alike of those who rejoiced or who grieved was arrested by the loud and mournful sound of six trumpets, which, uplifting and uniting their thrilling tones in a wild and melancholy death note, apprized all, that the obsequies of the valiant! Raymond Berenger were about to commence. From a tent, which had been hastily pitched for the immediate reception of the body, twelve black monks, the inhabitants of a neighbouring convent, began to file out in pairs, headed by their abbot, who bore a large cross, and thundered forth the sublime notes of the Catholic Miserere me, Domine. Then came a chosen body of men-at-arms, trailing their lances, with their points reversed and pointed to the earth; and after them the body of the valiant Berenger, wrapped in his own knightly banner, which, regained from the hands of the Welsh, now served its noble owner instead of a funeral pall. The most gallant knights of the Constable's household (for, like other great nobles of that period, he had formed it upon a scale which approached to that of royalty) walked as mourners and supporters of the corpse, which was borne upon lances; and the Constable of Chester himself, alone and fully armed, excepting the head, followed as chief mourner. A chosen body of squires, men-at-arms, and pages of noble descent, brought up the rear of the procession; while their nakers and trumpets echoed back, from time to time, the melancholy song of the monks, by replying in a note as lugubrious as their own. The course of pleasure was arrested, and even that of sorrow was for a moment turned from her own griefs, to witness the last honours bestowed on him, who had been in life the father and guardian of his people. "Yet mourning times have their own commerce,' said the stranger, approaching still closer to the side of Margery, and lowering his voice to a tone yet more confidential. "I have sable scarfs of Persian silk-black bugles, in which a princess might mourn for a deceased monarch-cyprus, such as the East hath seldom sent forth-black cloth for mourning hangings-all that may express sorrow and reverence in fashion and attire; and I know how to be grateful to those who help me to custom. Come, bethink you, good dame-such things must be had-I will sell as good ware and as cheap as another; and a kirtle to yourself, or, at your pleasure, a purse with five florins, shall be the meed of your kindness." "I prithee peace, friend," said Margery, "and choose a better time for vaunting, your wares-you neglect both place and season; and if you be farther importunate, must speak to those who will show you the outward side of the castle gate. I marvel the warders would admit pedlars upon a day such as this they would drive a gainful bargain by the bedside of their mother, were she dying, I trow.' So saying, she turned scornfully from him. While thus angrily rejected on the one side, the merchant felt his cloak receive an intelligent twitch upon the other, and, looking round upon the signal, he saw a dame, whose black kerchief was affectedly disposed, so as to give an appearance of solemnity to a set of light laughing features, which must have been captivating when young, since they retained so many good points when at least forty years had passed over The mournful procession traversed slowly the plain them. She winked to the merchant, touching at the which had been within a few hours the scene of such same time her under lip with her forefinger, to varied events; and, pausing before the outer gate of announce the propriety of silence and secrecy; then the barricades of the castle, invited by a prolonged gliding from the crowd, retreated to a small recess and solemn flourish, the fortress to receive the remains formed by a projecting buttress of the chapel, as if to of its late gallant defender. The melancholy sum- avoid the pressure likely to take place at the moment mons was answered by the warder's horn-the draw- when the bier should be lifted. The merchant failed bridge sunk-the portcullis rose-and Father Aldro- not to follow her example, and was soon by her side, vand appeared in the middle of the gateway, arrayed when she did not give him the trouble of opening in his sacerdotal habit, whilst a little space behind his affairs, but commenced the conversation_herself, him stood the orphaned damsel, in such weeds of "I have heard what you said to our dame Margery mourning as time admitted, supported by her attend--Mannerly Margery, as I call her-heard as much, ant Rose, and followed by the females of the household. at least, as led me to guess the rest, for I have got an The Constable of Chester paused upon the threshold eye in my head, I promise you." of the outer gate, and, pointing to the cross signed in white cloth upon his left shoulder, with a lowly reverence resigned to his nephew, Damian, the task of attending the remains of Raymond Berenger to the chapel within the castle. The soldiers or Hugo de Lacy, most of whom were bound by the same vow with himself, also halted without the castle gate, and remained under arms, while the death-peal of the chapel bell announced from within, the progress of the procession. It winded on through those narrow entrances, which were skilfully contrived to interrupt the progress of an enemy, even should he succeed in forcing the outer gate, and arrived at length in the great court-yard, where most of the inhabitants of the fortress, and those who, under recent circumstances, had taken refuge there, were drawn up, in order to look, for the last time, on their departed lord. Among these were mingled a few of the motley crowd from without, whom curiosity, or the expectation of a dole, had brought to the castle gate, and who, by one argument or another, had obtained from the warders permission to enter the interior. The body was here set down before the door of the chapel, the ancient Gothic front of which formed one side of the court-yard, until certain prayers were recited by the priests, in which the crowd around were supposed to join with becoming reverence. It was during this interval, that a man, whose peaked beard, embroidered girdle, and high-crowned hat of gray felt, gave him the air of a Lombard merchant, addressed Margery, the nurse of Eveline, in a whispering tone, and with a foreign accent.-"I am a travelling merchant, good sister, and am come hither in quest of gain-can you tell me whether I can have any custom in this castle?" "You are come at an evil time, Sir Stranger-you may yourself see that this is a place for mourning, and not for merchandise." Α pair of them, my pretty dame, and as bright as drops of dew in a May morning.' "Oh, you say so, because I have been weeping," said the scarlet-hosed Gillian, for it was even herselt who spoke; "and to be sure, I have good cause, for our lord was always my very good lord, and would sometimes chuck me under the chin, and call me buxom Gillian of Croydon-not that the good gentleman was ever uncivil, for he would thrust a silver twopennies into my hand at the same time.-Oh! the friend that I have lost!-And I have had anger on his account too-I have seen old Raoul as sour as vinegar, and fit for no place but the kennel for a whole day about it; but as I said to him, it was not for the like of me to be affronting our master, and a great baron, about a chuck under the chin, or a kiss, or such like." "No wonder you are so sorry for so kind a master, dame," said the merchant. "No wonder indeed," replied the dame, with a sigh; "and then what is to become of us?-It is like my young mistress will go to her aunt-or she will marry one of these Lacys that they talk so much of-or, at any rate she will leave the castle; and it's like old Raoul and I will be turned to grass with the lord's old chargers. The lord knows, they may as well hang him up with the old hounds, for he is both footless and fangless, and fit for nothing on earth that I know of."` 66 Your young mistress is that lady in the mourning mantle," said the merchant, who so nearly sunk down upon the body just now?" "In good troth is she, sir-and much cause she has to sink down. I am sure she will be to seek for such another father." "I see you are a most discerning woman, gossip Gillian," answered the merchant; "and yonder youth that supported her is her bridegroom?" "Much need she has for some one to support her," said Gillian; "and so have I for that matter, for what can poor old rusty Raoul do?" "But as to your young lady's marriage?" said the merchant. the deceased; but the lady herself, and most of his attendants, observed a stern course of vigil, discipline, and fasts, which appeared to the Normans a more decorous manner of testifying their respect for the dead, than the Saxon and Flemish custom of banqueting and drinking inordinately upon such occasions. "No one knows more, than that such a thing was in treaty between our late lord and the great Constable of Chester, that came to-day but just in time to prevent the Welsh from cutting all our throats, Mean while, the Constable De Lacy retained a and doing the Lord knoweth what mischief beside. large body of his men encamped under the walls of But there is a marriage talked of, that is certain-- the Garde Doloureuse, for protection against some and most folk think it must be for this smooth-new irruption of the Welsh, while with the rest he cheeked boy, Damian, as they call him; for though took advantage of his victory, and struck terror into the Constable has gotten a beard, which his nephew the British by many well-conducted forays marked hath not, it is something too grizzled for a bride- with ravages scarcely less hurtful than their own. groom's chin-Besides, he goes to the Holy Wars Among the enemy, the evils of discord were added to fittest place for all elderly warriors-I wish he would those of defeat and invasion; for two distant relations take Raoul with him.-But what is all this to what of Gwenwyn contended for the throne he had lately you were saying about your mourning wares even occupied, and on this, as on many other occasions, now ?-It is a sad truth, that my poor Lord is gone the Britons suffered as much from internal dissension -But what then ?-Well-a-day, you know the good as from the sword of the Normans. A worse politiold saw,cian, and a less celebrated soldier, than the sagacious and successful De Lacy, could not have failed, under such circumstances, to negotiate as he did an advantageous peace, which, while it deprived Powys of a part of its frontier, and the command of some important passes, in which it was the Constable's purpose to build castles, rendered the Garde Doloureuse inore secure than formerly, from any sudden attack on the part of their fiery and restless neighbours. De Lacy's care also went to re-establishing those settlers who had fled from their possessions, and putting the whole lordship, which now descended upon an unprotected female, into a state of defence as perfect as its situation on a hostile frontier could pos sibly permit. - 'Cloth must we wear, Eat beef and drink beer, Though the dead go to bier,' And for your merchandising, I am as like to help you with my good word as Mannerly Margery, provided you bid fair for it; since, if the lady loves me not so much, I can turn the steward round my finger." "Take this in part of our bargain, pretty Mrs. Gillian," said the merchant; "and when my wains come up, I will consider you amply, if I get good sale by your favourable report.-But how shall I get into the castle again? for I would wish to consult you, being a sensible woman, before I come in with my luggage." "Why," answered the complaisant dame, "if our English be on guard, you have only to ask for Gillian, and they will open the wicket to any single man at once; for we English stick all together, were it but to spite the Normans;-but if a Norman be on duty, you must ask for old Raoul, and say you come to speak of dogs and hawks for sale, and I warrant you come to speech of me that way. If the sentinel be a Fleming, you have but to say you are a merchant, and he will let you in for the love of trade." The merchant repeated his thankful acknowledgment, glided from her side, and mixed among the spectators, leaving her to congratulate herself on having gained a brace of florins by the indulgence of her natural talkative humour; for which, on other occasions, she had sometimes dearly paid. The ceasing of the heavy toll of the castle bell now gave intimation that the noble Raymond Berenger had been laid in the vault with his fathers. That part of the funeral attendants who had come from the host of De Lacy, now proceeded to the castle hall, where they partook, but with temperance, of some refreshments, which were offered as a death-meal; and presently after left the castle, headed by young Damian, in the same slow and melancholy form in which they had entered. The monks remained within the castle to sing repeated services for the soul of the deceased, and for those of his faithful men-at-arms who had fallen around him, and who had been so much mangled during, and after, the contest with the Welsh, that it was scarce possible to know one individual from another; otherwise the body of Dennis Morolt would have obtained, as his faith well deserved, the honours of a separate funeral.* CHAPTER XI. -The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage table.-Hamlet. THE religious rites which followed the funeral of Raymond Berenger, endured without interruption for the period of six days; during which, alms were distributed to the poor, and relief administered, at the expense of the Lady Eveline, to all those who had suffered by the late inroad. Death-meals, as they were termed, were also spread in honour of * The Wish, a fierce and barbarous people, were often accused Whilst thus anxiously prov'dent in the affairs of the orphan of the Garde Doloureuse, De Lacy, dering the space we have mentioned, sought not to de turb her filial grief by any personal intercourse. His nephew, indeed, was despatched by times every moming to lay before her his uncle's devoirs, in the highflown language of the day, and acquaint her with the steps which he had taken in her affairs. As a meed due to his relative's high services, Damian was always admitted to see Eveline on such occasions, and returned charged with her grateful thanks, and her implicit acquiescence in whatever the Constable proposed for her consideration. But when the days of rigid mourning were elapsed, the young De Lacy stated, on the part of his kingman, that his treaty with the Welsh being concluded, and all things in this district arranged as well as cr cumstances would permit, the Constable of Chester now proposed to return into his own territory, in order to resume his instant preparations for the Holy Land, which the duty of chastising her enemies hal for some days interrupted. "And will not the noble Constable, before he departs from this place," said Eveline, with a burst of gratitude which the occasion well merited, receive the personal thanks of her that was ready to perish, when he so valiantly came to her aid?" "It was even on that point that I was commis sioned to speak," replied Damian; "but my noble kinsman feels diffident to propose to you that which he most earnestly desires-the privilege of speaking to your own ear certain matters of high import, and with which he judges it fit to intrust no third party." "Surely," said the maiden, blushing, "there can be naught beyond the bounds of maidenhood, in my seeing the noble Constable whenever such is he pleasure." "But his vow," replied Damian, "binds my kineman not to come beneath a roof until he sets sail far of mangling the bodies of their slain antagonists. Every one must remember Shakspeare's account, how -"the noble Mortimer, Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight |