Chapter 4

Beside yon brigg out ower yon burn,
Where the water bickereth bright and sheen,
Shall many a falling courser spurn,
And knights shall die in battle keen.
PROPHECY OF THOMAS THE RHYMER.

The daughter of Raymond Berenger, with the attendants whom we have
mentioned, continued to remain upon the battlements of the Garde
Doloureuse, in spite of the exhortations of the priest that she
would rather await the issue of this terrible interval in the
chapel, and amid the rites of religion. He perceived, at length,
that she was incapable, from grief and fear, of attending to, or
understanding his advice; and, sitting down beside her, while the
huntsman and Rose Flammock stood by, endeavoured to suggest such
comfort as perhaps he scarcely felt himself.

"This is but a sally of your noble father's," he said; "and though
it may seem it is made on great hazard, yet who ever questioned
Sir Raymond Berenger's policy of wars?--He is close and secret in
his purposes. I guess right well he had not marched out as he
proposes, unless he knew that the noble Earl of Arundel, or the
mighty Constable of Chester, were close at hand."

"Think you this assuredly, good father?--Go, Raoul--go, my dearest
Rose--look to the east--see if you cannot descry banners or clouds
of dust.--Listen--listen--hear you no trumpets from that quarter?"

"Alas! my lady," said Raoul, "the thunder of heaven could scarce
be heard amid the howling of yonder Welsh wolves." Eveline turned
as he spoke, and looking towards the bridge, she beheld an
appalling spectacle. The river, whose stream washes on three sides
the base of the proud eminence on which the castle is situated,
curves away from the fortress and its corresponding village on the
west, and the hill sinks downward to an extensive plain, so
extremely level as to indicate its alluvial origin. Lower down, at
the extremity of this plain, where the banks again close on the
river, were situated the manufacturing houses of the stout
Flemings, which were now burning in a bright flame. The bridge, a
high, narrow combination of arches of unequal size, was about half
a mile distant from the castle, in the very centre of the plain.
The river itself ran in a deep rocky channel, was often
unfordable, and at all times difficult of passage, giving
considerable advantage to the defenders of the castle, who had
spent on other occasions many a dear drop of blood to defend the
pass, which Raymond Berenger's fantastic scruples now induced him
to abandon. The Welshmen, seizing the opportunity with the avidity
with which men grasp an unexpected benefit, were fast crowding
over the high and steep arches, while new bands, collecting from