All is gone since I last greeted
thee--love and lover--vows and vower--king and kingdom.--How goes the
field, my Lord Abbot?--with us, I trust--yet what but evil can Mary's
eyes witness from this spot?"
Her attendants eagerly bent their eyes on the field of battle, but
could discover nothing more than that it was obstinately contested.
The small enclosures and cottage gardens in the village, of which they
had a full and commanding view, and which shortly before lay, with
their lines of sycamore and ash-trees, so still and quiet in the mild
light of a May sun, were now each converted into a line of fire,
canopied by smoke; and the sustained and constant report of the
musketry and cannon, mingled with the shouts of meeting combatants,
showed that as yet neither party had given ground.
"Many a soul finds its final departure to heaven or hell, in these
awful thunders," said the Abbot; "let those that believe in the Holy
Church, join me in orisons for victory in this dreadful combat."
"Not here--not here," said the unfortunate Queen; "pray not here,
father, or pray in silence--my mind is too much torn between the past
and the present, to dare to approach the heavenly throne--Or, if we
will pray, be it for one whose fondest affections have been her
greatest crimes, and who has ceased to be a queen, only because she
was a deceived and a tender-hearted woman."
"Were it not well," said Roland, "that I rode somewhat nearer the
hosts, and saw the fate of the day?"
"Do so, in the name of God," said the Abbot; "for if our friends are
scattered, our flight must be hasty--but beware thou approach not too
nigh the conflict; there is more than thine own life depends on thy
safe return.
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