heavily laden, with all things necessary
for a close and numerous encampment--all these could be plainly
distinguished in rapid advance towards the castle, marking their path
through the country by the smoke of the hamlets they had burned. Many
and eager voices resounded in various parts of the castle; numbers had
thronged to the tower, with their own eyes to mark the approach of the
enemy, and to report all they had seen to their companions below,
triumphantly or despondingly, according to the temper of their minds.
Sir Nigel Bruce and Sir Christopher Seaton, with others of the superior
officers, stood a little apart, conversing eagerly and animatedly, and
finally separating, with an eager grasp of the hand, to perform the
duties intrusted to each.

"Ha! Christine, and thou, fair maiden," exclaimed Sir Christopher,
gayly, as on turning he encountered his wife and Agnes arm-in-arm. "By
mine honor, this is bravely done; ye will not wait in your tiring-bower
till your knights seek ye, but come for information yourselves. Well,
'tis a goodly company, is't not? as gallant a show as ever mustered, by
my troth. Those English warriors tacitly do us honor, and proclaim our
worth by the numbers of gallant men they bring against us. We shall
return the compliment some day, and pay them similar homage."

His wife smiled at his jest, and even felt reassured, for it was not the
jest of a mind ill at ease, it was the same bluff, soldier spirit she
had always loved.

"And, Nigel, what thinkest thou?"

"Think, dearest?" he said, answering far more the appealing look of
Agnes than her words; "think? that we shall do well, aye, nobly well;
they muster not half the force they led me to expect. The very sight of
them has braced me with new spirit, and put to ignominious flight the
doubts and dreams I told thee had tormented me."

Movement and bustle now pervaded every part of the castle, but all was
conducted with an order and military skill that spoke well for the
officers to whom it was intrusted. The walls were manned; pickaxes and
levers, for the purposes of hurling down stones on the besiegers,
collected and arranged on the walls; arms polished, and so arranged that
the hand might grasp them at a minute's warning, were brought from the
armory to every court and tower; the granaries and storehouses were
visited, and placed under trustworthy guards. A band of picked men,
under an experienced officer, threw themselves into the barb