Chapter 13

Too much rest is rust,
There's ever cheer in changing;
We tyne by too much trust,
So we'll be up and ranging.
OLD SONG.

Early on the subsequent morning, a gallant company, saddened
indeed by the deep mourning which their principals wore, left the
well-defended Castle of the Garde Doloureuse, which had been so
lately the scene of such remarkable events.

The sun was just beginning to exhale the heavy dews which had
fallen during the night, and to disperse the thin gray mist which
eddied around towers and battlements, when Wilkin Flammock, with
six crossbowmen on horseback, and as many spearmen on foot,
sallied forth from under the Gothic gate-way, and crossed the
sounding drawbridge. After this advanced guard, came four
household servants well mounted, and after them, as many inferior
female attendants, all in mourning. Then rode forth the young Lady
Eveline herself, occupying the centre of the little procession,
and her long black robes formed a striking contrast to the colour
of her milk-white palfrey. Beside her, on a Spanish jennet, the
gift of her affectionate father,--who had procured it at a high
rate, and who would have given half his substance to gratify his
daughter,--sat the girlish form of Rose Flammock, who had so much
of juvenile shyness in her manner, so much of feeling and of
judgment in her thoughts and actions. Dame Margery followed, mixed
in the party escorted by Father Aldrovand, whose company she
chiefly frequented; for Margery affected a little the character of
the devotee, and her influence in the family, as having been
Eveline's nurse, was so great as to render her no improper
companion for the chaplain, when her lady did not require her
attendance on her own person. Then came old Raoul the huntsman,
his wife, and two or three other officers of Raymond Berenger's
household; the steward, with his golden chain, velvet cassock, and
white wand, bringing up the rear, which was closed by a small band
of archers, and four men-at-arms. The guards, and indeed the
greater part of the attendants, were only designed to give the
necessary degree of honour to the young lady's movements, by
accompanying her a short space from the castle, where they were
met by the Constable of Chester, who, with a retinue of thirty
lances, proposed himself to escort Eveline as far as Gloucester,
the place of her destination. Under his protection no danger was
to be apprehended, even if the severe defeat so lately sustained
by the Welsh had not of itself been likely to prevent any attempt,
on the part of those hostile mountaineers, to disturb the safety
of the marches for some time to come. In pursuance of this
arrangement, which permitted the armed part of Eveline's retinue