useway
it appeared but one mass of men. But other shouts rent the air. The
besiegers now poured in on every side; wherever that gallant body turned
they were met by English. On, on they came, fresh from some hours of
repose, buoyed up by the certainty of conquest; unnumbered swords and
spears, and coats of mail, gleaming in that lurid light; on came the
fiery steeds, urged by the spur and rein, till through the very flames
they bore their masters; on through the waters of the moat, up the
scorching ruins, and with a sound as of thunder, clearing with a single
bound all obstacles into the very court. It was a fearful sight; that
little patriot band, hemmed in on every side, yet struggling to the
last, clearing a free passage through men and horse, and glancing swords
and closing multitudes, nearing the church, slowly, yet surely, forming
in yet closer order as they advanced; there, there they stood, as a
single bark amid the troubled waves, cleaving them asunder, but to close
again in fatal fury on her track.

In vain, amid that furious strife, did the Earl of Lancaster seek out
the azure plume and golden helmet that marked the foe he still desired
to meet; there was indeed a face, beautiful and glorious even in that
moment, ever in the very thickest of the fight, alike the front, the
centre, the rear-guard of his men; there was indeed that stately form,
sitting his noble charger as if horse and man were one; and that
unhelmed brow, that beautifully formed head, with its long curls
streaming in the night wind, which towered unharmed, unbent, above his
foes; and where that was, the last hope of his country had gathered. The
open door of the church was gained, and there the Scottish patriots made
a stand, defended in their rear by the building. A brief and desperate
struggle partially cleared their foes, and ere those in the rear could
press forward, the besieged had disappeared, and the heavy doors were
closed. The sudden pause of astonishment amidst the assailants was
speedily dispelled by the heavy blows of axes and hatchets, the sudden
shout "To the wall! to the wall!" while several ran to plant
scaling-ladders and mount the inner barrier, left unhappily unguarded
from the diminished numbers of the Scotch; there, however, their
progress was impeded, for the space which that wall inclosed being
scarce half the size of the ballium, and the barrier itself uninjured,
they were repulsed with loss from within. The church-doo