enemy than the others, might be seen a light and delicate female form, and
on the shore which she was approaching, a little above the village of
Northbrigg, stood a soldier, whose accoutrements bespoke him to belong to
the army of Sir Hugh Spenser.

The lady landed, and the soldier hastened to meet her. "Dearest Isabel,"
he said, "blessings upon thy generous trusting heart, for this sweet
meeting! I have much to tell thee, but that my tongue dares not utter all
with which my mind is stored; and if it dared, it is not on such a night
as this, so bright, so beautiful, that tidings dark as mine should be
communicated." Isabel, who had laid her head upon his breast when they
met, started from him, and gazed with the utmost terror and surprise at
the unwonted gloom which darkened his countenance.

"Walter, what means this? Come you to break the trusting heart which beats
for you alone? Come you to cancel your vows--to say that we must part for
ever? Oh! better had you left me to the mercy of the wave, when its work
of death was half achieved, if you reserved me only for the misery which
waits upon a broken heart, and blighted and betrayed affections?"

"Sweet, dry these tears!" replied the soldier; "while I have life I am
thine. I come to warn thee of sure but unseen danger. The walls of
Hereford are strong, and the arms and hearts of her citizens firm and
trusty; but her hour is come, and the path of the destroyer, although
secret, is like the stream which hides itself for a time beneath the earth
only to spring forth more strongly and irresistibly than ever."

"Thy words are dark and dreadful; but I do not know of any cause for fear,
or of any means of avoiding it, if it exists."