"Amen!" responded the calm voice of the old Dominican.
St. Bernard shut his missal, and covered his face with the sleeve of his vestment.
As one man, the silent thousands raised their heads, and Sanders Screw shook the flame of his torch, to light it fully.
Jane arose, and gazed placidly around her.
The time had come!
Then, if it could be possible, the heart of Roland Vipont beat quicker, and he unsheathed his sword.
"Aid me, thou blessed Power, whom all these hearts have invoked! aid me for her sake! But, aid or no aid, if I am forsaken, 'tis but the soldier's death! Vipont! Vipont!" he exclaimed, and suddenly urging his horse towards the stake, he threw his left arm around Jane, and drew her across his saddle before any one had the least idea of what he meant to do; and brandishing his sword around his head, dashed the gory spurs again into the torn flanks of his horse.
Appalled by the rapidity of the action, the vast assemblage stood immovable.
Down the frightful steep towards the King's Meuse he rode with the speed of an arrow; and, as the clouds part before a thunderbolt, the horsemen gave way, and the people parted before him.
"Shut the gates of the town!" cried Sir Andrew Preston; but a roar of voices burst from the multitude, and amid that roar his voice was confounded and lost.