Wyseby

OF THE FIRST 1KVINGS.
49
masonry rushing down. A numerous band of men,
wild and grotesque in the red glare of the torches
and the redder glare of the ruins, moving to and fro.
'Twas a fearful spectacle that ! A moment o;" voice-
less horror past, — ' Forward to the charge !' yelled
Francis. Onward the fierce band whirls. Roused
by the thundering of approaching steeds, the party
at the ruins speedily form in a solid column. They
wait the attack. By the rood, it were a brave band
who would attack them ! But those who come rush-
ing out of darkness are brave, and their leader — he
is mad. ' Forward ! spare none !' shouted Francis.
" ' A Carruthers ! a Carruthers !' cried a voice
from the ranks of the assailed. A warrior sprung
forward. ' Hold ! in the name of Bruce !' he
shouted. Instantly every steed was reined. That
warrior was the brave, romantic Edward Bruce. ' It
& in vain,' remonstrated Edward, as Francis pressed
cowards the pile ; ' I tell thee that moment we ar-
rived we saw the blackened bodies fall with the fall-
ing floors 'mid the hungry flames.'
" At that instant there was a movement amid the
party nearest the ruins. A warrior sprung from
the throng ; through the crumbling portal, defying
smoke and the flames, he rushed. 'Twas a moment
of breathless anxiety. Now he emerges from the
red darkness. A falling mass grazes his plume, — a
tongue of fire, as a baffled fiend, rushes after him ;
.but he is safe, — and, folded in his powerful embrace,
he holds a sleeping child. A shout — wild, pene-
trating, the upheaving of many hearts — rent the
air. ' Another may be safe!' cried Francis, dashing
forward ; a strong arm arrested him; in fury he turn-
ed — he was detained bv the hero who saved the child.