uld betoken any outlet or concealment. The
floor was examined, and with the same result; so that they were fain
to depart, little doubting that the whole was the effect of some
mental disturbance.

With the morning dawn came Sir Thomas Broughton. A grand council was
appointed for that day, in which the final arrangement of their plans
was to be discussed. A royal banquet was prepared, and the Flemish
gunners were to give a specimen of their craft from the battlements.

The forenoon came on chill and squally, with a low scud driving
rapidly from the west. A drizzling rain was the result, which
increased with the coming tide.

The little island was covered with tents, forming an encampment of no
mean extent and appearance.

Sir Thomas, with a few attendants, after being ferried over the
channel which separates the island of Fouldrey from the mainland, was
conducted through avenues of tents and armed men. The Flemish
soldiers, fierce and almost motionless, looked like an array of grim
statues. The Irish levies, in a state of more lax discipline, were
collected in merry groups, whiling away the time in thriftless and
noisy discourse.

Sir Thomas Broughton, descended from an Anglo-Saxon family of great
antiquity, was by virtue of this hereditary and aboriginal descent, of
a proud and pompous bearing. Being allied to most of the principal
families in these parts, he was won over by solicitation from the
Duchess of Burgundy, as one of the confederates in her attempt to
restore the line of York to the English crown. Fond of show, and
careful as to his own personal appearance, he was clad in a steel coat
of great beauty; this ponderous form of defence having been brought to
great perfection in the preceding reign. His sword-belt was so
disposed that the weapon remained in front, while a dagger was
attached to the right hip. Over his armour he wore a scarlet cloak,
and as he strode proudly up the avenues to the gate, he looked as
though he felt that on his fiat alone depended the very existence of
those he beheld. After he had passed the first drawbridge into the
outer court or bayle, a band of archers, drawn up in full array,
opened their ranks to receive this puissant chieftain. These were the
most efficient of the troops, and partly English, having been brought
from Ireland by the deputy. They were clad in shirts of chain mail,
with wide sleeves, over which was a small vest of red cloth, laced in
front. They had tight h