Wyseby

OF THE FIRST IRVINGS. 65
his brow. Ah ! my child, looking into the face of
Nature, how we forget the might of time ! But
there were evanescent things in that view, too.
On the opposite bank of the Sol way, the sunbeams
fell on halberd, and shield, and broadsword, and
spear. — on the varied arms of thirty thousand men.
How strange it was to gaze upon them, moving
to and fro in the sunbeams, noiselessly as the figures
in the pageant of a dream, for no sound reached
the ear of the chief; — yet to know that they were
there on their mysterious journey, the commissioned
fashioners of the future. The while, between him and
the Solway, along the narrow and broken paths — for
there were no roads here in these days —what crowds
hurry ! — old and young ; the maid of sixteen, and the
matron of sixty; the boy whose arm never wielded
a sword or bent a bow, and the grey veteran, — the
terrible in nearly-forgotten wars. When the sun of
yesterday set, they rejoiced in peace and fair abun-
dance ; now they are forth to live as they may, with
the earth for their couch, and the blue sky for their
canopy. Ah, my child ! there were stern doings in
these old days.
In the long lines, in the close columns of the foe,
the experienced eye of the chief read the number of
those who thronged the valley. But the hollow of
these hills, — what do they contain? Immediately
after the breaking up of the council, scouts were
dispatched by Douglas to ascertain. " It must be
near the muster hour," said Irving, half aloud, cast-
ing a hasty glance at the sun. He wheeled his
steed, and dashed rapidly across the country, to-
wards the place of rendezvous.
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