“Health to the Holy Steel!” cried the cavalier rushing forward; “I bear a message from the Lords and People of Florence!”
“Ye will have to be wondrous hasty with your messages, I tell ye!” exclaimed the bluff soldier. “For d’ye see—all below us is flame and death—the convent is on fire, by St. Withold!”
“Brethren of the Holy Steel,” exclaimed the High Priest, as opening the pacquet he gazed calmly round over the erect forms of the uprisen monks and neophytes of the order—“who shall wear the ducal crown of Florence?”
“The Ladye Annabel!” echoed the Brethren of the Holy Steel, with one unanimous shout. “Live the Ladye Annabel, Queen of Florence!”
A moment passes—behold the spectacle!
A fair and lovely form, clad in robes of fluttering white, stands trembling in the midst of the group of black-robed men who cluster round, kneeling on the pavement, as they raise their hands in one hurried movement, and shout with wild acclaim—
“Live the Queen—live the Ladye Annabel, Duchess of Florence!”
And as the Secret Brethren sank kneeling round, priest and neophyte, all with heads bent low, before the form of the Ladye Annabel, who gazed around with a vague and wandering look, there standing erect with a flushed cheek and a rolling eye, the ancient man of the vault flinging the brand aloft, whirling the flame round and round again, as he shouted—
“’Tis merry, ’tis merry, ha, ha! ’Tis merry, ’tis merry—hurrah! Old Glow-worm is a demon—these all are demons! Ha, ha! Fire above, and fire below—old Glow-worm is king! On—on—brothers—on—light up the cozy nooks with the red flame—fire the timbers, heat the old rocks, scare old Death with the light! Ha—ha—ha! The stone rolled back, and he—was buried alive!”
“Up, up—an’ ye bear the hearts of men—up and save yourselves and save the Queen!” shouted Robin the Rough. “The fire has chased us through the long galleries of the convent, from chamber to chamber, from room to room, has it followed roaring at our heels! Up, and save the Queen! Her attendants have escaped or fallen in the flames. Yonder by the window of the stairway is our only hope! A staircase of massive stone, built outside the walls of this tower, leads downward to the southern wing of the convent, yet untouched by flame! Up, and save the Queen!”