TRE DAISY OF THE DALE 
305 
She paused, she heard a distant sound ; 
Like war-horse tramp it shook the ground; 
The jingling ring of arms drew near; 
She drew her breath ’tween hope and fear. 
O Mary, thanks ! her own true knight 
Did from his foam-flecked steed alight. 
Though loss of blood had left him pale. 
He kissed the Daisy of the Dale. 
Her beauty on another occasion saved her father’s fort- 
ress from the burning brand of the besiegers, when the 
castle was beleaguered during the wars between the rival 
houses of York and Lancaster, and when her lover was 
compelled to mingle amongst the assailants. 
On the battlements the cross-bowmen had perished one 
by one, shot down by the unerring aim of the archers who 
were assembled without the moat, and whose arrows went 
whistling through every opening of the embrasures, wher- 
ever a defender appeared. The gates of the outer bar- 
bican were already carried ; the chains by which the draw- 
bridge was uplifted had been severed by the stout blows 
of a battle-axe, and had fallen down with a thundering 
and heavy crash across the deep waters of the moat ; while 
throughout the chambers of the inner keep echoed at 
intervals the measured sound of the mighty battering-ram, 
as it threatened at every blow to carry from their hinges 
the iron-studded doors which swung between the grey old 
towers — the last defence that stood between the besiegers 
and the castle. 
But if every blow which shook that ancient archway 
went through the heart of the fair inhabitant within, it 
did not fall less lightly on that of one of the young assail- 
ants without, knocking against his armour, while, under 
the stern eye of his unbending father, he hesitated for 
a moment to obey his commands, as he stood with his 
foot upon the scaling-ladder, which was already planted 
before the tall turret. 
He felt the wreath of Daisies, that was crushed and 
concealed beneath the weight of his hauberk, and fas- 
tened behind his gorget with a white silken band, biting 
into his flesh, like so many barbed arrow-heads of pointed- 
steel ; and when he had gained the summit, and leaped 
