dentified the
mournful history; or flocks of ravens and other carrion birds hovering
over the slightly-covered relics of a noble war-horse, which had been
unearthed by foxes, presented a more savage picture of carnage.
Sometimes a pale wounded soldier, whose inability to serve prevented his
being secured as a prisoner, or removed by his friends, was seen
lingering upon the spot that had proved fatal to his hopes of glory,
sustained by the compassion of the neighbourhood or asking alms of the
traveller with whom he crept over the graves of his comrades, shewing
where the charge was first made, pointing to the spot where the leader
fell, and telling what decided the fortune of the day.

Scenes very different, yet equally revolting to the feelings of Eustace
and his companions, were frequently exhibited by the fury of fanatic
mobs, employed in what they called reforming the churches and cleansing
them from idolatry. The exquisite remains of antient art, the paintings,
carvings, and other splendid decorations with which our ancestors
adorned the structures consecrated to the worship of God, were broken
and torn away with such unrelenting fury and blind rage of destruction,
as in many instances to threaten the safety of the edifice they
beautified. The Satanical spirit of fanaticism rioted uncontrolled; and
to use the words of a venerable Bishop[1], who saw his own cathedral
defaced, "it is no other than tragical to relate the carriage of that
furious sacrilege, whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses,
under the authority and presence of the sheriff. Lord! what work was
here--what clattering of glasses--what beating down of walls--what
tearing up of monuments--what pulling up of seats--what wresting out of
iron and brass from the windows and graves--what defacing of arms--what
demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in
the world but only of the cast of the founder, and the skill of the
mason--what tooting and piping upon the destroyed organ-pipes, and what
a hideous triumph on the market-day before all the country, when, in a
kind of sacrilegious and profane procession, all the organ-pipes,
vestments, copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had
been newly sawn down from over the green-yard pulpit, and the
service-books and singing-books that could be had, were carried to the
fire in the public marketplace; a lewd wretch walking along in the train
in his cope, trailing in