e sought to save--the
Countess Isabelle. He pressed her to his bosom--he conjured her to
awake--entreated her to be of good cheer--for that she was now under
time protection of one who had heart and hand enough to defend her
against armies.

"Durward!" she said, as she at length collected herself, "is it indeed
you?--then there is some hope left. I thought all living and mortal
friends had left me to my fate.--Do not again abandon me."

"Never--never!" said Durward. "Whatever shall happen, whatever danger
shall approach, may I forfeit the benefits purchased by yonder blessed
sign, if I be not the sharer of your fate until it is again a happy
one!"

"Very pathetic and touching, truly," said a rough, broken, asthmatic
voice behind. "A love affair, I see, and, from my soul, I pity the
tender creature as if she were my own Trudchen."

"You must do more than pity," said Quentin, turning towards the speaker,
"you must assist in protecting us, Meinheer Pavillon. Be assured this
lady was put under my especial charge by your ally the King of France,
and, if you aid me not to shelter her from every species of offence and
violence, your city will lose the favour of Louis of Valois. Above all,
she must be guarded from the hands of William de la Marck."

"That will be difficult," said Pavillon, "for these schelms of
lanzknechts are very devils at rummaging out the wenches. But I'll do my
best.--We will to the other apartment, and there I will consider.--It is
but a narrow stair, and you can keep the door with a pike, while I look
from the window, and get together some of my brisk boys of the curriers'
guildry of Liege, that are as true as the knives they wear in their
girdles.--But first undo me these clasps--for I have not worn this
corselet since the battle of Saint Tron [fought by the insurgents of
Liege against the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, when Count
of Charalois, in which the people of Liege were defeated with great
slaughter. S.] and I am three stone heavier since that time, if there be
truth in Dutch beam and scale."

The undoing of the iron enclosure gave great relief to the honest man,
who, in putting it on, had more considered his zeal to the cause of
Liege, than his capacity of bearing arms. It afterwards turned out that
being, as it were, borne forward involuntarily, and hoisted over the
walls by his company as they thronged to the assault, the magistrate had
been carried here and there, as the tide of