which Paladour had never thought more beautiful, "if it pitied not my very heart to see his plight, and I chid myself for the delight I had taken in that cruel sport." "Well then, to please thee, they shall not be stags, but a sort of foxes, that we shall deem we hunt to-morrow," said De Montfort"foul, filthy vermin. We will place thee on a hill, whence thou shalt see us untappice the sly malign beasts, smoke them out of their earth-holes, and chase them over the country with their young, till not one of the foul vermin be left to poison the land."

"Not one-not one be left alive," was the universal shout of the Crusaders. "Ado

lescentulos cum puellis, senes cum infantibus, as the Psalmist hath it," chaunted the Abbot of Normoutier.-"Alas," said the lady, shuddering, "in times of peril, such sights must be; but must women's eyes be forced to look on them?"-" Marry must they," persevered De Montfort. "As you would wish for short shrift and light penance next confession-day.

"Fair

My lord of Toulouse, you will yield this fair back-slider such weighty reasons." niece," interposed the Lord of Courtenaye,

'you will do us pleasure in hearkening to the bishop's reasons."--" I trust, noble lady," the bishop was commencing, when one of the menials hastily entering the hall put into his hands a torn and bloody scroll.

"How now, knave!" said the Lord of Courtenaye, "be these thy manners to thrusta villainous and filthy scroll into the hands of my lord of Toulouse?" The bishop did not mark him: his countenance changed as his eyes fell on the disfigured paper.

"What hath changed your favour, lord bishop?" said De Montfort.

"Read," answered the bishop, putting the paper into his hands. It contained only the word "Beware!" written in blood, and but freshly traced.

While De Montfort with some difficulty decyphered the word, the domestic answered the enquiries of the bishop. He said that he

had followed in the train of the Crusaders that day; and that returning late he had fallen over something that lay in his path: a groan convinced him it was a living being, but one who had not long to live. The unfortunate man was unable to tell the name of his murderer; but he collected his dying strength to adjure him by gestures to convey the scroll, marked with his own blood, to the Bishop of Toulouse; and, while he was speaking, expired. The relator had no more to disclose, and the bishop mused in silence.

"A toy, a device, on my life, a very foolish and insufficient toy !" cried De Montfort, striking down the scroll with the hilt of his dagger: "I will wage," he continued, raising his voice-" I will wage the broad lands of De Montfort against the peak of l'Aigle sur la Roche-a noble's having 'gainst an outlaw's hold, that, leaving the body of our battle to fence these towers, without man-at-arms, squire, or page, I and the knights-crusaders alone will encounter the heretics, and not

leave one to tell the tidings within the bounds of fair. Languedoc or ere the sun be high tomorrow!"

This wild proposal was received with as wild acclamation by the knights, who began to be inflamed with the wine they had drunk, and by the hope of distinguishing themselves in the eyes of lady Isabelle.

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The bishop, who only might controul the frantic purpose of De Montfort, was still musing, heedless of what passed; and Sir Aymer alone had the sense to see the danger and folly of the motion, and the courage to oppose it. Why, how now, mad lords!" he said, "where is your wisdom ?---where is your discretion?---nay, where is your valour? Sith true valour setteth not more by the peril it risks, than by the glory that gives to peril its sweetness and its price. Be ye such peevish and unskilled chess-players, that ye will hazard Knight, Bishop, and Castle, against a file of beggarly pawns? Are ye avised what men they be against whom ye thrust yourselves in such raw and unpre

pared fashion? By the mass! they fight from behind a bare crag, as it were a warded tower ;---then they have a whoreson, villainous trick of rolling down stones from the heights on visitors that come not in a fashion to please them; and they will send you over a thicket certain damnable convincing touches with arrows that will find out every crevice in your armour. An' ye come not back stuck all over with darts, like so many Saint Sebastians, or battered like cocks with cudgels at Shrovetide, say there is neither truth, wisdom, nor manhood in Sir Aymer." And so ending his free, honest speech, the knight sat down. His blunt rebuke was lost in the tumult of voices scoffing and shouting; and scarcely could the knights be withheld, by the mover of the mad enterprise himself, from rushing out to undertake it that mo

ment.

"Forbear!" said De Montfort, exalting his voice--" forbear while I marshal the cavalcade for the chase to-morrow. The lady Isabelle and her damsels, most like the hun