sullenly and slowly; and by him
walked a girl, just grown a woman, as pale as death, looking at the
man that sate in the cart with a look of terror and love; sometimes
she would take his helpless hand, and murmur a word; but the man
heeded not, and sate lost in his pain. As they passed him he could see
a great bandage on the man's chest that was red with blood. He asked
the waggoner what this was, and he told him that it was a young man of
the country-side that had been hurt in a fight; he was but newly
married, and it was thought he could not live. The cart had stopped,
and the woman pulled a little cup out of a jug of water that stood in
the straw, and put it to the wounded man's lips, who opened his eyes,
all dark and dazed with pain, but with no look of recognition in them,
and drank greedily, sinking back into his sick dream again. The girl
put the cup back, and clasped her hands over her eyes, and then across
her breast with a low moan, as though her heart would break. The tears
came into Sir Henry's eyes; and fumbling in his pockets he took out
some coins and gave them to the woman, with a kind word. "Let him be
well bestowed," he said. The woman took the coins, hardly heeding him;
and presently the cart started again, a shoot of pain darting across
the wounded man's face as the wheels grated on the stones.

Sir Henry stood long looking after them; and it came into his heart
that war was a foul and evil thing; though he half envied the poor
soul that had fought his best, and was now sinking into the shadow of
death.

While he thus lingered there sprang into his mind a thought that made
him suddenly grow erect.

He walked swiftly along the lane with its high hedges and tall elms.
The lane was at the foot of the down, but raised a little above the
plain, so that he could see the rich woodland with its rolling lines,
and far away the faint line of the northern hills. It was very still,
and there seemed not a care in the great world; it seemed all peace
and happy quiet life; yet the rumbling of the cartwheels which he
still heard at a distance, now low and now loud, told him of the
sorrow that lay hidden under those dreaming woods; was it all thus?
And then he thought of the great armies that were so near, and of all
the death they meant to deal each other. And yet God sat throned aloft
watching all things, he thought, with a calm and quiet eye, waiting,
waiting. But for what? Was His heart indeed pitiful and lovi