"To thee, Sir John, I owe much of my happiness, for Raymond was ever a bashful lover. An he were but a simple squire I would have married him, but when thou toldest me that he had been made a knight I was filled with joy. And for thy kindly thought in sending a special messenger to bring me hither to await your arrival I deem myself ever indebted to thee!"
"Nay, thank me not, fair lady," replied the gallant old warrior. "Is it not the bounden duty of a true knight to help another? For Raymond, though ever first in the field of war, hath been a laggard in the lists of love. Yet I am but a feeble instrument in this case, for against thy charms he would be powerless but in my heart I thank God for the part I played in bringing together two noble families estranged by a fatal feud."
* * * * *
Little remains to be told. Sir Reginald Scarsdale, in spite of his old age and infirmities, died as he wished, falling in defence of the Border against a band of Scottish raiders, and in a quiet Yorkshire church he rests, his altar-tomb showing his effigy with the lions at his feet, making a fitting addition to the four crossed-legged images of his crusading ancestors.
Sir John Hacket, after seeing further service in France, acquiring additional glory and renown at Poictiers, died peacefully at a great age within sight of the castle whose Constableship he had held so worthily.
And as for Sir Raymond and the fair Lady Audrey, they lived a life of unalloyed happiness in their manor of Churston, in the midst of the hills of Devon. Yet when the call to arms sounded, the redoubtable Sir Raymond did not shrink from its summons, and at Poictiers and at the slaughter of Najera in the wilds of Spain he added to his laurels. And does not the prowess of the head of the Revyngtons at the repulse of the French descent upon Dartmouth in 1377 still linger amongst the annals of the sons of Devon?
From the union of the rival Revyngton and Scarsdale families descended the successors of a noble heritage—men courageous and generous in war, noble and law-abiding in peace, men whose names have helped to make the British Empire what it is to-day, and whose motto has been, and let us hope will ever be—
"Non sibi, sed patriae."
THE END
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