Norman race, but to his own fellow-citizens, whose tame submission had, in the first instance, encouraged Montfauçon to such an outrage, and, in the second, permitted the escape of the assassin. Edmund, they say, leaned against the wall like a man in a dream, and seemed to hear and see nothing of what passed. Only when his brother, grasping him fiercely by the hand, called on him to share his vow, Edmund shrank from him, and turned silently away.

A year or two had passed, when one morning some sailors, passing down the river, perceived that the foundation of a small building of rough stone had been laid in the islet near the town, and that a solitary figure was engaged on its construction. It was soon finished, and an anchorite took up his abode in the little hermitage. He soon became known in the neighbourhood for the austerity alike and the charity of his life. The sick and the afflicted learned to look for his coming as the one bright hour in their day of suffering; and the sinful resorted to his cell, as to the place where hope and comfort were to be obtained. His features were wasted with the effects of a malady, from which he had but lately recovered, and his long hair and beard almost hid them from view; yet ever and anon some among the citizens fancied they recognised in him a person, who, in former years, had not been wholly unknown to them. "Ah, I guess," said Brett. "It must have been Edmund."

A

"It was," said Mr. Leigh. "His grief had brought on a severe sickness, which lasted for many months; and a year or two had elapsed after that, ere he had sufficiently recovered to leave his sick chamber. About the same time the inhabitants of Barford were alarmed by rumours of the ravages committed by a pirate vessel, which lay in wait off the mouth of the Shorwell, seizing all the ships which chanced to pass that way, and exacting ransom for the crews, or putting them to the sword.

Several attempts were made to put an end to the evil, but they all failed. Redwing, as the pirate chief was called, from the tuft of crimson feathers which he carried on his helm, proved invincible on every occasion. At length his audacity reached such a height, that he sailed up the Shorwell, and built a strong fortress on the islet you see yonder, from whence he awed the whole country for miles round. One night, attended by his followers, he suddenly embarked and sailed up to Barford. Landing his force, he made a sudden assault on Montfauçon's castle. The baron's retainers, taken wholly by surprise, made but a feeble resistance; and the whole of the garrison, with the exception of Conrad, was massacred without mercy."

"Ah!" interrupted Hope, in a low tone, "that was Osbert."

"You are right," said Mr. Leigh. "He was furious at the escape of Conrad, who had taken shelter with the Hermit of the Island; but even he did not dare to violate the sanctity of that cell. Ho returned victorious to his castle, and having espoused the side of Matilda in the wars which ensued, was ennobled and protected by Henry on his accession to the throne. He lived. many years in prosperity and splendour. But a wound, which he had received in the attack on the castle, had never entirely healed, and a long wasting sickness was the consequence. He gradually lost the strength which

had borne down the enemies who confronted him in battle-he could neither mount his steed nor don his armour. At length he grew so feeble that he was unable to stir from the soft seat by the hall fire, and he began to fear that death was approaching. One day he summoned an attendant, and despatched him with a message to the Hermit of the Island, with the fame of whose sanctity and charitable deeds the whole country was rife.

"When the messenger approached the shores of the

monk's islet, he found a numerous throng gathered weeping and praying at the door of the lowly hermitage. Father Anselm, as he was usually called, had fallen sick of a malignant fever, caught at the death-bed of one of his penitents, and now lay at the point of death. When Redwing's messenger entered his cell, the hermit motioned to all present, except the new comer, to quit the room, and then, with some eagerness, demanded what he sought.

"Sir Osbert, the Rover, called by men "Redwing," said the messenger, 'sends thee greeting, and he would fain ask of thee, reverend hermit, thy counsel in his present strait. My lord hath no pleasure in his life. His soul is full of regret for the past, of disquietude for the future, and of weariness of the present. Men never loved him, he knows full well; and, now that they no longer fear, they have ceased to honour him. I pray you send back by me some word of comfort and of hope.'

"The dying man raised himself in his bed. 'Bear back,' he said, 'to Osbert, the son of Anwold, the greeting of his brother Edmund, who has lived honoured and loved of men, and who dies happy. He who would so live, must forgive his wrongs; he who would so die, must be himself forgiven.'

"He sank on his pillow exhausted with the effort, and before the messenger had re-crossed the threshold, was dead.

"The legend says that Redwing, on the receipt of his brother's message, straightway commanded his castle to be reduced to the ruin in which it has ever since lain, and went to dwell in the hermitage which Edmund had so long occupied, where, not many years afterwards, he too died. The hermitage was never tenanted again, and slowly crumbled to decay."-" Barford Bridge," Rev. H. C. Adams,

It was from prudence, not from want of courage, that the Scots avoided great battles with the English. They readily engaged in smaller actions, when they fought with the utmost valour on both sides, till, as an old historian expresses it, sword and lance could endure no longer, and then they would part from each other, saying, "Good day: and thanks for the sport you have shown." A very remarkable instance of such a desperate battle occurred in the year 1388.

The Scottish nobles had determined upon an invasion of England on a large scale, and had assembled a great army for that purpose; but learning that the people of Northumberland were raising an army on the eastern frontier, they resolved to limit their incursion to that. which might be achieved by the Earl of Douglas, with a chosen band of four or five thousand men. With this force he penetrated into the mountainous frontier of

England, where an assault was least expected, and issuing forth near Newcastle, fell upon the flat and rich country around, slaying, plundering, burning, and loading his army with spoil.

Percy, Earl of Northumberland, an English noble of great power, and with whom the Douglas had frequently had encounters, sent his two sons, Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Percy, to stop the progress of the invasion. Both were gallant knights; but the first, who, from his impetuosity, was called Hotspur, was one of the most distinguished warriors in England, as Douglas was in Scotland. The brothers threw themselves hastily into Newcastle, to defend that important town; and as Douglas, in an insulting manner, drew up his followers before the walls, they came out to skirmish with the Scots.

Douglas and Henry Percy encountered cach other; and it so chanced that Douglas in the struggle got possession of Hotspur's spear, to the end of which was attached a small ornament of silk, embroidered with pearls, on which was represented a lion, the cognizance, as it is called, of the Percies. Douglas shook his trophy aloft, and declared that he would carry it into Scotland, and plant it on his own Castle of Dalkeith.

"That," said Percy, "shalt thou never do. I will regain my lance ere thou canst get back into Scotland." "Then," said Douglas, "come to seek it, and thou shalt find it before my tent."

The Scottish army, having completed the purpose of their expedition, began their retreat up the vale of the little river Reed, which afforded a tolerable road running north-westward towards their own frontier. They encamped at Otterburn, about twenty miles from the Scottish border, on the 19th of August, 1388.

In the middle of the night the alarm arose in the Scottish camp, that the English host were coming upon them, and the moonlight showed the approach of Sir