"
The two young knights, so goodly in their bright steel, knelt for
their mother's blessing, and then sprang like chamois down the ivy-
twined steep, followed by their men, and were lost to sight among the
bushes and rocks. Yet even while her frame quivered with fear, her
heart swelled at the thought what a gulf there was between these days
and those when she had hidden her face in despair, while Ermentrude
watched the Debateable Ford.
She watched now in suspense, indeed, but with exultation instead of
shame, as two waggons safely crossed; but the third stuck fast, and
presently turned over in the stream, impelled sideways by the efforts
of the struggling horses. Then, amid endeavours to disentangle the
animals and succour the driver, the travellers were attacked by a
party of armed men, who dashed out of the beechwood, and fell on the
main body of the waggons, which were waiting on the bit of bare
shingly soil that lay between the new and old channels. A wild melee
was all that Christina could see--weapons raised, horses starting,
men rushing from the river, while the clang and the shout rose even
to the castle.
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