arms so many times on the battlements to see the sun set, but what I can remember your face."

"Come, come! friend Royston,” said another,

you need not to turn your face from us as if one could not swear to those broad shoulders and bony arms in the dark. You have kept us close enough to our saddles of late; nor have we much hope of quitting either bridle or stirrup, until our master has seen you shorter by the head."

The leader approached Royston, and whispered something in his ear.

"Never!" answered the old crusader, extending his hand, and speaking in a low tone of voice; "thou shalt see that a soldier will stick as closely to the new duty, which his own conscience hath marked out, as if he was under the obeyance of the bravest chieftain."

"An' thou preferrest thy honour to thy life," replied Anlof. "I have said my say, and, mayhap, something more than becomes my duty."

"I would have done as much for thyself," replied Royston, "and thou wouldst have rejected the offer as I do now.

We but traverse

the highway of death once, and surely a journey which we are not called upon to take every day, ought to be done becomingly."

"I honour thy heart in this matter," replied the leader; "but beshrew me, if I reverence thine head."

"May I never hear matins again!” said one of the soldiers, "if we do not find an old acquaintance hidden under that suit of armour. Come, Master Page, doff your glittering helmet, and let us look at that bashful face of yours. By my love of woman's lips, you showed yourself a bold hawk, to pounce on such a quarry, and fly off with the mistress, when others would have hovered round, a long summer-day, before they dared to have put their talons on the maid."

"I doff my helmet at no one's bidding," answered Edwin, " and caution thee to keep thy tongue within narrower limits, or thou mayest provoke me to break a few of thy bones."

"Ha! ha! ha! well done my little cupbearer," replied the soldier, laughing; "so thou thinkest my bones are about the substance of a sparrow's, and that thou couldst as easily crush them. Well! well! I forgive thee! for

since thou hast been hunting for black-berries in the forest with Lady Margaret, perchance thou hast drawn thy sword against some fox's cub, and the victory has made thee valorous."

"I will show thee how I dealt with the remainder of the litter," said Edwin, stepping up with his fist clenched, and dealing the man such a hearty blow on the helmet, that he staggered for the space of several feet; then fell with such force on the floor, that the blood gushed from his mouth.

"Well and fairly hit," said one of the soldiers, stooping to pick up his fallen comrade; "Marry! but thou hast struck him hard; and a few more such blows would soon have converted his helmet to a mortar, and his head to sausage meat. How now, Lightfoot?" added he, placing his companion on the settle; "but thy very name tells that thy heels were safe to come uppermost; thou hadst better been a Surefoot or a Broadfoot."

"Hey, by my faith!" said another, "or Harefoot, so that he had but been fleet enough. to have escaped such a blow."

Up man, and show thyself a Sigwulf," said another of his comrades, "thou mayest yet

obtain the victory. Thou callest thyself a Saxon too; come and I will lend thee mine arm, and be thy Earnulph; surely, thou wouldst show some defence for thine honour. Thou wilt not? well then, I will believe thee to be a descendant of Edgar the peaceable, and would advise thee to take to wife a woman named Wynfreda."

They might then, perchance, beget a race of fox-cub killers," said another; "or instil valour enough in their brats to wage war with a field mouse."

The crest-fallen soldier, however, made no reply to these taunts, but sat with his eyes rivetted upon the floor."

"Come, let us bestir ourselves," said Anlof who had been appointed leader. "Our orders were to bear away this hag of the heath. Up, old parchment skin!" said he, laying hold of Elwerwolf; "the king would fain reward thee for thy achievements in witchcraft; and Sir Geoffrey de Marchmont give thee some recompense for the murrain thou hast lately spread among the flocks and herds. But whether it will be the burning plough-shares, a plunge into the river, or merely a thrust of thine arm

into a boiling cauldron, I know not. But some chance they will leave thee, I dare be sworn, to prove thine innocence. Though, by Saint Thomas! thou lookest more like a witch than Duskena of the Dark-valley; and she screamed like a thousand fiends before she had borne the red-hot bar three paces, though it weighed not more than a pound."

"Loose thy hold, monster!" exclaimed Edwin, stepping up and planting himself between the soldier and Elwerwolf; "shame on thee, to lay thine hand upon a woman; and one too, whose whole life has been a string of sorrows. Is it not enough that her hut was burnt upon the heath, and that she is compelled to seek shelter under the roof of another, in her old age? By the darkness of hell! I will thrust my sword down the throat of the next villain, who dares to lay hand upon her."

"Put up thy weapon, noble youth," said Elwerwolf, arising; "I have seen blood flow like water-runnels too often. I will obey the summons which these Norman slaves have brought. And dearly shall the baron, whom ye serve- " but her eye fell at that moment upon Margaret's, and she finished not the