ould see from where she stood the
multitude flying about the park in all directions, and therefore she
thought it best to remain in her present position and await the terrible
events. She concluded that some military force had arrived, and that if
she could maintain her present post, she hoped that the extreme danger
might pass. But while she indulged in these hopes, a dark cloud of smoke
came descending in the garden. It could not be produced by musket or
carbine: its volume was too heavy even for ordnance: and in a moment
there were sparks mingled with its black form; and then the shouting and
shrieking which had in some degree subsided, suddenly broke out again
with increased force and wildness. The Castle was on fire.

Whether from heedlessness or from insane intention, for the deed sealed
their own doom, the drunken Hell-cats brandishing their torches, while
they rifled the cellars and examined every closet and corner of the
offices, had set fire to the lower part of the building, and the flames
that had for some time burnt unseen, had now gained the principal
chambers. The Bishop was lying senseless in the main cellar, surrounded
by his chief officers in the same state: indeed the whole of the
basement was covered with the recumbent figures of Hell-cats, as black
and thick as torpid flies during the last days of their career. The
funeral pile of the children of Woden was a sumptuous one; it was
prepared and lighted by themselves; and the flame that, rising from the
keep of Mowbray, announced to the startled country that in a short hour
the splendid mimickry of Norman rule would cease to exist, told also the
pitiless fate of the ruthless savage, who, with analogous pretension,
had presumed to style himself the Liberator of the People.

The clouds of smoke, the tongues of flame, that now began to mingle with
them, the multitude whom this new incident and impending catastrophe
summoned hack to the scene, forced Sybil to leave the garden and
enter the park. It was in vain she endeavoured to gain some part less
frequented than the rest, and to make her way unobserved. Suddenly a
band of drunken ruffians, with shouts and oaths, surrounded her; she
shrieked in frantic terror; Harold sprung at the throat of the foremost;
another advanced, Harold left his present prey and attacked the new
assailant. The brave dog did wonders, but the odds were fearful; and
the men had bludgeons, were enraged, and had already wounded him. O