"If the long letters were bows, and the short letters arrows, I might know something of the matter," said the honest yeoman; "but as the matter stands, the meaning is as safe, for me, as the stag that's at twelve miles distance."

"I must be clerk, then," said the Black Knight; and taking the letter from Locksley, he first read it over to himself, and then explained the meaning in Saxon to his confederates.

"Execute the noble Cedric!" exclaimed Wamba; "by the rood, thou must be mistaken, Sir Knight.'

Not I, my worthy friend," replied the knight "I have explained the words as they are here set down."

"Then, by St. Thomas of Canterbury," replied Gurth, “ we will have the castle, should we tear it down with our hands."

"We have nothing else to tear it with," replied Wamba, "but mine are scarce fit to make mammocks of free-stone and morter."

"'Tis but a contrivance to gain time," said Locksley; "they dare not do a deed for which I would exact a fearful penalty."

"I would," said the Black Knight, "there were some one among us who could obtain admission into the castle, and discover how the case stands with the besieged. Methinks, as they require a confessor to be sent, this holy hermit might at once exercise his pious vocation, and procure us the information we desire."

"A plague on thee, and thy advice," said the good hermit; "I tell thee, Sir Slothful Knight, that when I doff my friar's frock, my priesthood, my sanctity, my very Latinare put off alongwith it; and when in my green jerkin, I can better kill twenty deer than confess one Christian."

"I fear," said the Black Knight, "I fear greatly, there is no one here that is qualified to take upon him, for the once, this same character of father confessor?”

All looked on each other, and were silent.

"I see," said Wamba, after a short pause, " that the fool must be still the fool, and put his neck in the venture which wise men shrink from. You must know, my dear cousins and countrymen, that I wore russet before I wore motley, and was bred to be a friar ere I found I had wit enough to be a fool. I trust, with the assistance of the good hermit's frock, together with the priesthood, sanctity, and learning which is stitched into the cowl of it, I shall be found qualified to administer both worldly and ghostly comfort to our worthy master Cedric, and his companions in adversity."

"Hath he sense enough, think'st thou!" said the Black Knight, addressing Gurth.

"I know not," said Gurth; "but if he hath not, it will be the first time he hath wanted wit to turn his folly to account.'

"On with the frock then, good fellow," quoth the Knight, "and let thy master send us an account of their situation within the castle. Their numbers must be few, and it is five to one they may be accessible by a sudden and bold attack. Time wears-away with thee."

"And, in the mean time," said Locksley, "we will beset the place so closely, that not so much as a fly shall carry news from thence. So that, my good friend," he continued, addressing Wamba, "thou may'st assure these tyrants, that whatsoever violence they exercise on the persons of their prisoners, shall be most severely rapaid upon their own."

"Pax vobiscum," said Wamba, who was now muffled in his religious disguise.

And so saying, he imitated the solemn and stately deportment of a friar, and departed to execute his mission.

WHEN the Jester, arrayed in the cowl and frock of the hermit, and having his knotted cord twisted around his middle, stood before the portal of the castle of Front-de-Bœuf, the warder demanded of him his name and errand.

"Pax vobiscum," answered the Jester, "I am a poor brother of the Order of St. Francis, who come hither to do my office to certain unhappy prisoners now secured within this castle."

"Thou art a bold friar," said the warder, "to come hither, where, saving our own drunken confessor, a cock of thy feather hath not crowed these twenty years."

"Yet I pray thee, do mine errand to the lord of the castle," answered the pretended friar; "trust me it will find good acceptance with him, and the cock shall crow, that the whole castle shall hear him."

"Gramercy," said the warder; "but if I come to shame for leaving my post upon thine errand, I will try whether a friar's gray gown be proof against a gray-goose shaft."

With this threat he left his turret, and carried to the hall of the castle the unwonted intelligence that a holy friar stood before the gate and demanded instant admission. With no small surprise he received his master's commands to admit the holy man immediately; and having previously manned the entrance

to guard against surprise, he obeyed, without further scruple, the commands which he had received. The hair-brained self-conceit which had emboldened Wamba to undertake this dangerous office, was scarce sufficient to support him when he found himself in the presence of a man so dreadful, and so much dreaded, as Reginald Front-de-Bœuf, and he brought out his pax vobiscum, to which he, in a good measure, trusted for supporting his character, with more anxiety and hesitation than had hitherto accompanied it. But Front-de-Bœuf was accustomed to see men of all ranks tremble in his presence, so that the timidity of the supposed father did not give him any cause of suspicion. "Who and whence art thou,

priest?" said he.

"Pax vobiscum," reiterated the Jester, "I am a poor servant of St. Francis, who, travelling through this wilderness, have fallen among thieves, (as Scripture hath it,) quidam viator incidit in latrones, which thieves have sent me unto this castle in order to do mine ghostly office on two persons condemned by your honourable justice."

"Aye, right," answered Front-de-Bœuf; " and canst thou tell me, holy father, the number of those banditti?"

"Gallant sir," answered the Jester, " nomen illis legio, their name is legion."

"Tell me in plain terms what numbers that are or, priest, thy cloak and cord will ill protect thee."

?

Alas!" said the supposed friar, "cor meum eructavit, that is to say, I was like to burst with fear? but I conceive they may be-what of yeoman-what of commons, at least five hundred men,'

"What!" said the Templar, who came into the hall that moment, "muster the wasps so thick here? it is time to stifle such a mischievous brood." Then takng Front-de-Bœuf aside," knowest thou the priest?" "He is a stranger from a distant convent," said Front-de-Beuf; "I know him not."

Then trust him not with thy purpose in words," answered the Templar. Let him carry a written order to Bracy's company of Free Companions, to repair instantly to their master's aid. In the meantime, and that the shaveling may suspect nothing, permit him to go freely about his task of preparing these Saxon hogs for the slaughter-house."

"It shall be so," said Front-de-Bœuf. And he forthwith appointed a domestic to conduct Wamba to the apartment where Cedric and Athelstane were confined.

or

The impatience of Cedric had been rather enhanced than diminished by his confinement. He walked from one end of the hall to the other, with the attitude of one who advances to charge an enemy, to storm the breach of a beleaguered place, sometimes ejaculating to himself, sometimes addressing Athelstane, who stoutly, and stoically awaited the issue of the adventure; digesting, in the meantime, with great composure, the liberal meal which he had made at noon, and not greatly interesting himself about the duration of his captivity, which he concluded, would, like all earthly evils, find an end in Heaven's good time.

"Pax vobiscum," said the Jester entering; "the blessing of St. Dunstan, St. Dennis, St. Duthoc, and all other saints whatsoever, be upon ye and about ye." "Salvete et vos," answered Cedric to the supposed friar," with what intent art thou come hither?"

"To bid you prepare yourself for death," answered the Jester.

"It is impossible,” replied Cedric, starting. “Fearless and wicked as they are, they dare not attempt such open and gratuitous cruelty."

"Alas!" said the Jester, "to restrain them by their sense of humanity, is the same as to stop a runaway horse with a bridle of silk thread. Bethink thee, therefore noble Cedric, and you also gallant Athelstane, what crimes you have committed in the