assault and defense now rung fearfully loud from the battlement of the castle. "In that war-cry is the downfall of thy house. The blood-cemented fabric of Front-de-Bouf's power totters to the foundation, and before the foes he most despised. The Saxon, Reginald, the scorned Saxon, assails thy walls! Why liest thou here like a worn-out hind, when the Saxon storms thy place of strength?"

-

"Gods and fiends!" exclaimed the wounded knight. Oh for one moment's strength, to drag myself to the mêlée, and perish as becomes my name!"

Think not of it, valiant warrior!" replied she. "Thou shalt die no soldier's death, but perish like the fox in his den when the peasants have set fire to the cover1 around it."

"Hateful hag, thou liest!" exclaimed Front-de-Bœuf. "My followers bear them bravely; my walls are strong and high; my comrades in arms fear not a whole host of Saxons, were they headed by Hengist and Horsa. The war-cry of the Templar and of the Free Companions rises high over the conflict. And by mine honor, when we kindle the blazing beacon, for joy of our defense, it shall consume thee, body and bones; and I shall live to hear thou art gone from earthly fires to those that never sent forth an incarnate fiend more utterly diabolical."

"Hold thy belief," replied Ulrica, "till the proof reach theeBut no!" she said, interrupting herself, "thou shalt know even now the doom which all thy power, strength, and courage is unable to avoid, though it is prepared for thee by this feeble hand. Markest thou the smouldering and suffocating vapor which already eddies in sable folds through the chamber? Didst thou think it was but the darkening of thy bursting eyes, the difficulty of thy cumbered breathing? No! Front-de-Boeuf, there is another cause. Rememberest thou the magazine of fuel that is stored beneath these apartments?"

'Woman!" he exclaimed with fury, thou hast not set fire to it? By Heaven, thou hast, and the castle is in flames!"

1 Low scrub; underbrush.

“They are fast rising, at least," said Ulrica with frightful composure; “and a signal shall soon wave to warn the besiegers to press hard upon those who would extinguish them. Farewell, Front-de-Bœuf! May Mista, Skogula, and Zernebock, the gods of the ancient Saxons, fiends, as the priests now call them,— supply the place of comforters at your dying bed, which Ulrica now relinquishes! But know, if it will give thee comfort to know it, that Ulrica is bound to the same dark coast with thyself, the companion of thy punishment. And now, parricide, farewell forever! May each stone of this vaulted roof find a tongue to echo that title into thine ear!"

So saying, she left the apartment; and Front-de-Bœuf could hear the crash of the ponderous key as she locked and doublelocked the door behind her, thus cutting off the most slender chance of escape. In the extremity of agony he shouted upon his servants and allies, "Stephen and St. Maur, Clement and Giles! I burn here unaided! To the rescue, to the rescue, brave Bois-Guilbert, valiant De Bracy! It is Front-de-Bœuf who calls! It is your master, ye traitor squires! - your ally, squires!—your your brother-in-arms, ye perjured and faithless knights! Traitors, do you abandon me to perish thus miserably!—They hear me not! They cannot hear me: my voice is lost in the din of battle. The smoke rolls thicker and thicker; the fire has caught upon the floor below. Oh for one draught of the air of heaven, were it to be purchased by instant annihilation!" And in the mad frenzy of despair, the wretch now shouted with the shouts of the fighters, now muttered curses on himself, on mankind, and on Heaven itself. "The red fire flashes through the thick smoke!" he exclaimed. "The Demon marches against me under the banner of his own element. -Foul spirit, avoid! I go not with thee without my comrades. All, all are thine,- that garrison, these walls. Thinkest thou Front-de-Bœuf will be singled out to go alone? No! The infidel Templar, De Bracy, Ulrica, the men who aided my enterprises, the dog Saxons and accursed Jews who are my prisoners,- all, all shall attend me, a goodly

fellowship as ever took the downward road. Ha, ha, ha!" and he laughed in his frenzy till the vaulted roof rang again. "Who laughed there?" exclaimed Front-de-Bœuf in altered mood, for the noise of the conflict did not prevent the echoes of his own mad laughter from returning upon his ear. "Who laughed there? — Ulrica, was it thou? Speak, witch, and I forgive thee; for only thou or the Fiend himself could have laughed at such a moment. Avaunt,1 avaunt!”.

But it were impious to trace any further the picture of the blasphemer and parricide's death-bed.

CHAPTER XXXI.

EDRIC, although not greatly confident in Ulrica's message,

CED

omitted not to communicate her promise to the Black Knight and Locksley. They were well pleased to find they had a friend within the place, who might, in the moment of need, be able to facilitate their entrance, and readily agreed with the Saxon that a storm, under whatever disadvantages, ought to be attempted, as the only means of liberating the prisoners now in the hands of the cruel Front-de-Bœuf.

The royal blood of Alfred is endangered," said Cedric.

"True," said the Black Knight. "And now, good Locksley, were it not well that noble Cedric should assume the direction of this assault?'

"Not a jot I," returned Cedric. 'I have never been wont to study either how to take or how to hold out those abodes of tyrannic power which the Normans have erected in this groaning land. I will fight among the foremost; but my honest neighbors well know I am not a trained soldier in the discipline of wars or the attack of strongholds."

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Since it stands thus with the noble Cedric," said Locksley,

1 Depart!

"I am most willing to take on me the direction of the archery; and ye shall hang me up on my own trysting-tree, an the defenders be permitted to show themselves over the walls without being stuck with as many shafts as there are cloves in a gammon of bacon at Christmas."

"Well said, stout yeoman," answered the Black Knight; “and if I be thought worthy to have a charge in these matters, and can find among these brave men so many as are willing to follow a true English knight, for so I may surely call myself, I am ready, with such skill as my experience has taught me, to lead them to the attack of these walls."

The parts being thus distributed to the leaders, they commenced the first assault, of which the reader has already heard the issue.

When the barbican was carried, the Sable Knight sent notice of the happy event to Locksley, requesting him at the same time to keep such a strict observation on the castle as might prevent the defenders from combining their force for a sudden sally, and recovering the outwork which they had lost. This the knight was chiefly desirous of avoiding, conscious that the men whom he led, being hasty and untrained volunteers, imperfectly armed and unaccustomed to discipline, must, upon any sudden attack, fight at great disadvantage with the veteran soldiers of the Norman knights, who were well provided with arms both defensive and offensive, and who, to match the zeal and high spirit of the besiegers, had all the confidence which arises from perfect discipline and the habitual use of weapons.

The knight employed the interval in causing to be constructed a sort of floating bridge, or long raft, by means of which he hoped to cross the moat in despite of the resistance of the enemy. This was a work of some time, which the leaders the less regretted, as it gave Ulrica leisure to execute her plan of diversion in their favor, whatever that might be.

When the raft was completed, the Black Knight addressed the besiegers: "It avails not waiting here longer, my friends. The

sun is descending to the west, and I have that upon my hands which will not permit me to tarry with you another day. Besides, it will be a marvel if the horsemen come not upon us from York, unless we speedily accomplish our purpose. Wherefore one of ye go to Locksley, and bid him commence a discharge of arrows on the opposite side of the castle, and move forward as if about to assault it; and you, true English hearts, stand by me, and be ready to thrust the raft endlong over the moat whenever the postern on our side is thrown open. Follow me boldly across, and aid me to burst yon sallyport in the main wall of the castle. As many of you as like not this service, or are but ill armed to meet it, do you man the top of the outwork, draw your bowstrings to your ears, and mind you quell with your shot whatever shall appear to man the rampart. - Noble Cedric, wilt thou

take the direction of those which remain?"

"Not so, by the soul of Hereward!" said the Saxon, "lead I cannot; but may posterity curse me in my grave if I follow not with the foremost wherever thou shalt point the way. The quarrel is mine, and well it becomes me to be in the van of the battle."

"Yet, bethink thee, noble Saxon," said the knight, "thou hast neither hauberk nor corselet, nor aught but that light helmet, target, and sword."

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The better," answered Cedric: "I shall be the lighter to climb these walls. And-forgive the boast, Sir Knight-thou shalt this day see the naked breast of a Saxon as boldly presented to the battle as ever ye beheld the steel corselet of a Norman." "In the name of God, then," said the knight, "fling open the door, and launch the floating bridge."

The portal, which led from the inner wall of the barbican to the moat, and which corresponded with a sallyport in the main wall of the castle, was now suddenly opened; the temporary bridge was then thrust forward, and soon flashed in the waters, extending its length between the castle and outwork, and forming a slippery and precarious passage for two men abreast to cross