n was about.

And indeed it was none too soon to look to all these things, for
although the country seemed quiet enough through the hours of that short
afternoon, when night fell, and I was putting the bairns to bed, my lady
helping me--for, when one bears a troubled heart (and her heart must
have been troubled, in spite of her cheerful face), it aye seems lighter
when the hands are full--a little page came running in to tell us that
there were lights flickering to Southward among the trees.

"Now hold thy silly tongue, laddie," said I, for I was anxious that we
should at least get one good night's rest before the storm and stress of
war came upon us.

My lady looked up with a smile from where she was kneeling beside
Mistress Jean's cradle. "Let him be, Marian," she said; "the lad meant
it well, and 'tis good to know how the danger threatens. Come, we will
go up and watch with old Andrew."

So, as soon as the bairns were asleep, we threw plaids over our heads,
and crept up the narrow stairs to where old Andrew was watching in his
own little tower, which stood out from the great tower like a
corbie's[15] nest, and, crouching down behind the battlements to gain
some shelter from the cruel wind, we watched the flickering lights
coming nearer and nearer from the Southward, and listened to the
shouting of men, and the tramp of horses' hoofs, which we could hear at
times coming faintly through the storm.

[Footnote 15: Crow's.]

For two long hours we waited, and then, as we could only guess what was
taking place, it being far too dark to see, we crept down the narrow
stairs again, stiff and chilled, and threw ourselves, all dressed as we
were, on our beds.

The gray winter dawn of next morning showed us that the English Earl
meant to do his best to reduce our fortress in good earnest, for a small
army of men had been brought up in the night, from Berwick most likely,
and they were encamped on a strip of greensward facing the Castle. They
must have spent a busy night, for already the tents had been pitched,
and fires lit, and the men were now engaged in cooking their breakfast,
and attending to their horses. At the sight my heart grew heavier and
heavier; but my lady's spirits seemed to rise.

"'Tis a brave sight, is it not, Marian?" she said. "In good troth, my
Lord of Salisbury does us too much honour, in setting a camp down at our
gates, to amuse us in our loneliness. Methinks that is his own tent,
there on the