HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,

13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1862.

The right of Translation is reserved.

250 f 41

FOREST KEEP.

CHAPTER I.

THE HERO.

"You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old

Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage.

Richard II.

Ir is day-break, day-break in the perfumed and velvet-cushioned hall of royalty, and in the cheerless hovel of poverty; in the still chamber of pallid, motionless death, and in the bower of the blushing, palpitating young bride; on the free breezy summit of the snow-capped mountain, and in the narrow cell of the captive, where the intercepted light scarcely penetrates the close-fitted bars; in the shadowy aisle of the sanctuary, and in the unhallowed abode of vice and riot ; on the wide plains of the heaving ocean, and in the green

cattle-sprinkled meadows. Day-break to their eyes who have watched all night, in breathless agony by the fevered couch, the rapid ebbing of some too dearly loved life, and to those of the mother who stands by her infant, and beholds his smile as he wakes from peaceful slumber. It is day-break everywhere alike; where man suffers, and where he rejoices; for whether we smile, or whether we weep, whether we go boldly forth to struggle with the difficulties of life, or whether we sink desponding by the wayside, and complain of the roughness of the path, still will the sun rise, and set about as usual his daily task of warming and re-invigorating all nature; performing regularly his world-important duties, as though no such querulous, capricious, short-sighted being as man existed.

It is day-break also within the walls of Bordeaux, for night has rolled away her dark curtain, and o'er the whole city "the tide of sunrise swells,

"Till tower and dome and bridgeway proud

Are mantled in a golden cloud."

Thousands of restless minds, that for a few short hours have rested, lulled to repose in the kindly arms of sleep, now wake once more to thought and activity.

And

And now begin throughout the streets those different sounds which in that century filled with their din most of the larger French towns. these were rendered here yet more multifarious. and discordant by the warlike preparations which were being made that morning in Bordeaux. The ringing noise of numerous little bells, borne by tall figures draped in black, the jingling of each of which declared to those around that during the night some spirit had passed away from the world, for such was the manner in which a death was made known at that period; the highpitched cries of peasant women just come in from the country, and who bore large baskets of delicious-looking fruit or of vegetables of various kinds, and each of whom appeared to consider it a point of honour that her own voice should be raised in a louder and shriller key than that of her fellows, as she screamed the name and the price of her own commodities; the clanging of armour, and the clattering feet and the neighing of horses, as the men at arms hastened to join the standards of their respective leaders; the low monotonous murmur produced by the repeated chant that swelled out from the long processions of monks or nuns, who, with tapers in their hands, traversed the city,