Those English warriors tacitly do us honor, and proclaim our worth by the numbers of gallant men they bring against us.

We shall return the compliment some day, and pay them similar homage." His wife smiled at his jest, and even felt reassured, for it was not the jest of a mind ill at ease, it was the same bluff, soldier spirit she had always loved.
"And, Nigel, what thinkest thou ?" "Think, dearest ?" he said, answering far more the appealing look of Agnes than her words; "think?
that we shall do well, aye, nobly well; they muster not half the force they led me to expect.

The very sight of them has braced me with new spirit, and put to ignominious flight the doubts and dreams I told thee had tormented me." Movement and bustle now pervaded every part of the castle, but all was conducted with an order and military skill that spoke well for the officers to whom it was intrusted.

The walls were manned; pickaxes and levers, for the purposes of hurling down stones on the besiegers, collected and arranged on the walls; arms polished, and so arranged that the hand might grasp them at a minute's warning, were brought from the armory to every court and tower; the granaries and storehouses were visited, and placed under trustworthy guards.

A band of picked men, under an experienced officer, threw themselves into the barbacan, determined to defend it to the last.