St. George and St. Michael. Volume II

The next morning, immediately after breakfast, lord Herbert set out / for Chepstow first and then Monmouth, both which places belonged to / his father, and were principal sources of his great wealth.

Still, amid the rush of the changeful tides of war around them, and / the rumour of battle filling the air, all was peaceful within the / defences of Raglan, and its towers looked abroad over a quiet / country, where the cattle fed and the green wheat grew. On the far / outskirts of vision, indeed, a smoke might be seen at times from the / watch-tower, and across the air would come the dull boom of a great / gun from one of the fortresses, at which lady Margaret's cheek would / turn pale; but, although every day something was done to strengthen / the castle, although masons were at work here and there about the / walls like bees, and Caspar Kaltoff was busy in all directions, now / mounting fresh guns, now repairing steel cross-bows, now getting out / of the armoury the queerest oldest-fashioned engines to place / wherever available points could be found, there was no hurry and no / confusion, and indeed so little appearance of unusual activity, that / an unmilitary stranger might have passed a week in the castle / without discovering that preparations for defence were actively / going on. All around them the buds were creeping out, uncurling, / spreading abroad, straightening themselves, smoothing out the / creases of their unfolding, and breathing the air of heaven -- in some / way very pleasant to creatures with roots as well as to creatures / with legs. The apple-blossoms came out, and the orchard was lovely / as with an upward-driven storm of roseate snow. Ladies were oftener / seen passing through the gates and walking in the gardens -- where / the fountains had begun to play, and the swans and ducks on the / lakes felt the return of spring in every fibre of their webby feet / and cold scaly legs.