smiling with starry blossoms. Far remote from the battlefield was
that abode of peace,--that once happy home, where she had watched the
coming of the false one!

Loftier and holier were the thoughts of the fated king. He had turned
his face from the field, and his eyes were fixed upon the tower of the
church behind. And while he so gazed, the knoll from the belfry began
solemnly to chime. It was now near the hour of the Sabbath prayers,
and amidst horror and carnage, still the holy custom was not
suspended.

"Hark!" said the king, mournfully, "that chime summons many a soul to
God!"

While thus the scene on the eminence of Hadley, Edward, surrounded by
Hastings, Gloucester, and his principal captains, took advantage of
the unexpected sunshine to scan the foe and its position, with the eye
of his intuitive genius for all that can slaughter man. "This day,"
he said, "brings no victory, assures no crown, if Warwick escape
alive. To you, Lovell and Ratcliffe, I intrust two hundred knights,--
your sole care the head of the rebel earl!"

"And Montagu?" said Ratcliffe.

"Montagu? Nay, poor Montagu, I loved him as well once as my own
mother's son; and Montagu," he muttered to himself, "I never wronged,
and therefore him I can forgive. Spare the marquis.--I mislike that
wood; they must have more force within than that handful on the skirts
betrays. Come hither, D'Eyncourt."