“And thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by the perpetual restlessness of fear. “At length the old lord died, and Leoline was left entirely alone. “One evening, as she sat with her maidens, the ringing of a horse’s hoofs were heard in the outer court of the castle. “A horn sounded. “The heavy gates were unbarred, and a handsome soldier entered the hall. “He stopped for one moment at the entrance, as if overpowered by his emotions. “In the next instant he had clasped Leoline to his breast. “‘Dost thou not recognise me, Leoline?’ he said, tenderly. “He doffed his helmet, and she saw that majestic brow, which, unlike that of Charles, her lover, had never changed or been clouded in its aspect to her. “‘The war is suspended for the present,’ said he. ‘I learnt my father’s death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall, and spend my days in peace.’ “Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Edward’s face. “His hair, deepened in its shade, was now worn from the temples, and disclosed a battle-scar which rather heightened the beauty of his countenance. “He had apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not that fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all others, and forbade him to replace the image he had graven upon his soul. “Leoline’s lips trembled with the name of her absent lover, Charles. “But a certain recollection of his coldness stifled even her anxiety. “Edward hastened to forestall her question. “‘My brother is well,’ he said, ‘and is now sojourning at Calais; he lingered there so long that the war terminated without his aid. Doubtless he will soon return; a week, nay, a day might restore him to you, fair Leoline.’ “Leoline was much consoled. “Yet something seemed untold. “‘Why was he so eager for the strife, and to serve the king against the French, if Charles had thus tarried at Calais so long?’ she thought. “She wondered at this, but did not dare to search farther into her heart. “The generous Edward concealed from her that his brother led a life of the most reckless and indolent dissipation, wasting his wealth in the pleasures of the reckless and gay, and only occupying his ambition with travelling and gambling, and whatever else that was useless and inglorious. “Edward and Leoline resumed their old friendship, and Leoline believed that it was friendship alone. “They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had strayed. “They looked down on the eternal mirror of the lakes. “Ah! could it have reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life’s early spring! “The grave and contemplative mind of Lord Edward had not been so contented with the horrors of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources of emotion which were yet found among the sages of the east. “He therefore had little in common with the ruder lords around him. “He summoned them not to his board, nor attended their noisy wassails.