'din of the recommenced assault and defence now rung fearfully loud from the battlements of the castle; "in that war-cry is the downfall of thy houseThe blood-cemented fabric of Front-de Bœuf's power totters to the foundation and before the foes he most despised!--The Saxon, Reginald!--the scorned Saxon assails thy walls!-Why list thou here, like a worn-out hind, when the Saxon storms thy place of strength?"

"Gods and fiends!" exclaimed the wounded knight; "O for one moment's strength, to drag myself to the mellay, 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 cover around it."

"Hateful hag! thou liest," exclaimed Front-deBœuf;" 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 honour, when we kindle the blazing beacon, for joy of our defence, it shall consume thee, body and bones; and I shall live to hear thou art gone from earthly fires to those of that hell, which never sent forth an incarnate fiend more utterly diabolical!"

"Hold thy belief," replied Ulrica, " till the proof reach thee-But, 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 vapour which already eddies in sable folds though the chamber?-Didst thou think it was but the darken. ing of thy bursting eyes-the difficulty of thy cumbered breathing? No! Front-de-Bœuf, 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!"

"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, 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 the comfort, to know it, that Ulrica is bound to the same dark coast with thyself, the companion of thy punishment as the companion of thy guilt.-And now, parricide, farewell for ever!-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-deBœuf could hear the crash of the ponderous key as she locked and double-locked 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 snd Saint 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--your brother in arms, ye perjured and faithless knights!-all the curses due to traitors upon your recreant heads, do you abandon me to perish thus miserably! They hear me not-they can not hear me-ny voice is lost in the din of battle.The smoke rolls thicker and thicker--the fire has Caught upon the floor below-O for one draught of the air of heavan, were it to be purchased by instant annihilation!" And in the mad phrenzy of despair, the wretch now shouted with the shouts of the fight. ers, 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 elementFoul spirit, avoid!-I go not with thee without my comrades-all, all are thine, that garrison these walis -Thinkest thou, Front-de-Bœuf will be singled out to go alone?-No-the infidel Templar-the licentious De Bracy-Ulrica, the foul murthering strumpet-the men who aided my enterprises-the dog Saxons and accused Jews, who are my prisonersall, 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 rung 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 frenzied 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 of hell himself could have laughed at such a moment. Avauntavaunt!".

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

CHAPTER VIII.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead.

-And you, good yeomen,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture-Let us swear
That you are worth your breeding.

King Henry V.

CEDRIC, although not greatly confident in Ulrica's message, 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.

"The honour of a noble lady is in peril,' said the Black Knight.

And by the saint Christopher at my baldric,' said the good yeoman, were there no other cause than the safety of that poor faithful knave, Wamba, I would jeopard a joint ere a hair of his head were hurt.'

And so would I,' said the Friar; what, sirs! I trust well that a fool-I mean, d'ye see me, sirs, a fool that is free of his guild and master of his craft, and can give as much relish and flavour to a cup of wine as ever a flitch of bacon can-I say, brethren, such a fool shall never want a wise clerk to pray for or fight for him at a strait, while I can say a mass or flourish a partizan.'

And with that he made his heavy halbert to play around his head as a shepherd boy flourishes his light crook.

True, Holy Clerk,' said the Black Knight; 'true as if saint Dunstan himself had said it.-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 neighbours well know I am not a trained soldier in the discipline of wars, or the attack of strong holds.'

'Since it stands thus with the noble Cedric,' said Locksley, 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,' said 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 knight, for so I may 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 an 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

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