e alarm
of the fighting, had fled away, we should have gone about for nothing.
'Tis but some three short miles to Holywood direct; the bell hath not
beat nine; the snow is pretty firm to walk upon, the moon clear; how if
we went even as we are?"

"Agreed," cried Alicia; but Joanna only pressed upon Dick's arm.

Forth, then, they went, through open leafless groves and down snow-clad
alleys, under the white face of the winter moon; Dick and Joanna walking
hand in hand and in a heaven of pleasure; and their light-minded
companion, her own bereavements heartily forgotten, followed a pace or
two behind, now rallying them upon their silence, and now drawing happy
pictures of their future and united lives.

Still, indeed, in the distance of the wood, the riders of Tunstall might
be heard urging their pursuit; and from time to time cries or the clash
of steel announced the shock of enemies. But in these young folk, bred
among the alarms of war, and fresh from such a multiplicity of dangers,
neither fear nor pity could be lightly wakened. Content to find the
sounds still drawing farther and farther away, they gave up their hearts
to the enjoyment of the hour, walking already, as Alicia put it, in a
wedding procession; and neither the rude solitude of the forest, nor the
cold of the freezing night, had any force to shadow or distract their
happiness.

At length, from a rising hill, they looked below them on the dell of
Holywood. The great windows of the forest abbey shone with torch and
candle; its high pinnacles and spires arose very clear and silent, and
the gold rood upon the topmost summit glittered brightly in the moon.
All about it, in the open glade, camp-fires were burning, and the ground
was thick with huts; and across the midst of the picture the frozen river
curved.

"By the mass," said Richard, "there are Lord Foxham's fellows still
encamped. The messenger hath certainly miscarried. Well, then, so
better. We have power at hand to face Sir Daniel."

But if Lord Foxham's men still lay encamped in the long holm at Holywood,
it was from a different reason from the one supposed by Dick. They had
marched, indeed, for Shoreby; but ere they were half way thither, a
second messenger met them, and bade them return to their morning's camp,
to bar the road against Lancastrian fugitives, and to be so much nearer
to the main army of York. For Richard of Gloucester, having finished the
battle and stamped out his foes