Aliva gazed out into the beautiful balmy night, and a peace to which she had long been a stranger stole in upon her heart. The world was at rest, and it seemed sad to think that in a few short hours, when the darkness should be over, man would be once more at his cruel work of war. But the stars, shining deep in the purple overhead and reflected in the placid stream below, seemed to her stars of hope.
"It is the hour when lovers' vows
Seem sweet in every whispered word,
And gentle winds and waters near
Make music to the lonely ear."
As she gazed she thought she heard her name called softly from out of the gloom below.
"Aliva!" said a voice, "Aliva!"
CHAPTER XX.
LOVE LAUGHS AT LOCKSMITHS.
When the interview with his uncle had ended and Ralph's endeavours to cheer the latter's gloom had in a measure succeeded, the young knight went off to make his report upon John de Standen's operations to his superiors. Evening was falling fast ere he found himself free, and then it suddenly came into his mind to pay a kind of unofficial visit to the sentries on the south side of the river, and see if they were on the alert. Perhaps, also, he was impelled by an uncontrollable desire to gaze from as close a point as was possible on that stern keep, where he had that noontide learned from Beatrice Mertoun that his lady-love lingered in much doubt and distress.
He crossed the bridge and walked along the river-bank, giving the required password to each post, and adding a few syllables of caution. In so doing, he told himself he was but fulfilling the object of his nocturnal ramble. Ere long he found himself facing the huge keep, rising on the opposite shore of the river black against the northern sky.
Ralph knew every window of the southern face of the keep, and well-nigh every stone. He perceived a light in one of the large openings of the upper story. He knew that window well. It was that of the lady's bower, which had been his cousin's apartment in the old days, and was probably now occupied by the Lady Margaret.
Dark though the night was, the young man's eyesight was keen, and as he gazed at that window, a crowd of tender thoughts flooding his heart, he saw in the opening two figures in dark profile against the light behind them.