with iron on all
sides, effectually preventing egress from within, but exposing its
inmate, whoever that might be, to every passer-by. The impatient king
had commanded several of the artisans employed in its erection to be
thrown into prison, because it was not completed fast enough to please
him; but, despite his wrath and impatience, the work of fashioning the
iron, wood, and stone, as he required, occasioned them to proceed but
slowly, and it was now, three months after the royal order had been
given, only just completed, and firmly fixed on the principal turret of
the castle. Day after day the people flocked to gaze and marvel for whom
it could be intended, and when it would be occupied; their thoughts only
turned from it by the intelligence that the Earl of Hereford, with some
Scottish prisoners of high rank, was within four-and-twenty hours' march
of the town, and was there to deliver up his captives to the seneschal
of the castle, the Earl of Berwick. At the same time rumors were afloat,
that the prisoner for whom that cage had been erected was, under a
strong guard, advancing from Carlisle, and likely to encounter Hereford
at the castle gates.

The popular excitement increased threefold; the whole town seemed under
the influence of a restless fever, utterly preventing the continuance of
their usual avocations, or permitting them to rest quiet in their
houses. Crowds filled the streets, and pressed and fumed to obtain
places by the great gates and open squares of the castle, through which
both parties must pass. That wind, rain, and sunshine alternately ruled
the day, was a matter of small importance; nor did it signify that
English soldiers were returning victorious, with Scottish prisoners,
being a thing now of most common occurrence. Before the day was over,
however, they found anticipation for once had been less marvellous than
reality, and stranger things were seen and heard than they had dreamed
of.

From sunrise till noon they waited and watched, and waxed impatient in
vain. About that time trumpets and drums were heard from the south, and
there was a general rush towards the bridge, and hearts beat high in
expectancy of they knew not what, as a gallant band of English archers
and men-at-arms, headed by some few knights, were discovered slowly and
solemnly advancing from the Carlisle road. Where, and who was the
prisoner? A person of some consequence, of dangerous influence it must
be, else why had the k