"'A purer heart, a lovelier maid,
Ne'er shelter'd her in Whitby's shade.'
"Yet, King Henry declares she shall be torn from us, and given to this false Lord Marmion. I am helpless, a prisoner, with these innocent maidens, and I fear we have been betrayed by Henry, that Clara may fall into the hands of his favorite. I claim thine aid.
"'By every step that thou hast trod
To holy shrine and grotto dim,
By every saint and seraphim,
And by the Church of God!
For mark: When Wilton was betrayed,'
"it was by means of forged letters,—letters written by Constance de Beverley, at the command of Marmion, and placed, by De Wilton's squire, where they could be used against that noble knight.
"I have in my possession letters proving all this and more. I must not keep them. Who knows what may happen to me on my homeward journey? I now give this packet to thy care, O saintly Palmer! Bring them safe to the hands of Wolsey, that he may give them to the King, and for this deed there will be prayers offered for thee while I live. Why! What ailest thou? Speak!"
As he took the packet, he was shaken by strong emotion, but before he could reply, the Abbess shrieked, "What is here? Look at yon City Cross!"
"Then on its battlements they saw
A vision, passing Nature's law."
Figures seemed to rise and die, to advance and to flee, and from the midst of the spectre throng this awful summons came:—"Prince, prelate, potentate and peer, I summon one and all to answer at my tribunal."
"Then thunder'd forth a roll of names:
The first was thine, unhappy James!
Then all thy nobles came;
Crawford, Glencairn, Montrose, Argyle,
Ross, Bothwell, Forbes, Lennox, Lyle,
Why should I tell their separate style?
Each chief of birth and fame,
Of Lowland, Highland, Border, Isle,
Foredoomed to Flodden's carnage pile,
Was cited there by name;
And Marmion, Lord of Fontenaye.
"Prone on her face the Abbess fell,
And fast, and fast, her beads did tell;
She mark'd not, at the scene aghast,
What time, or how, the Palmer pass'd."