Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

16 ‘Roanoke of Roanoke Hall, the cloud-army, the only signs of what had befallen. _ Yet all night long as I lay in dismay, while the thunder muttered and the lightning flick- ered through my casement, above the rush- ing of the rain and the wailing of the wind I heard ever and again the rattle of hoofs in the courtyard below my window as some way- farer arrived, or their fast-dying beat as some hurried messenger sped out into the night and storm. . We were used to rise betimes in those days, not like to the young sparks of the present period, who, yawning, take a dish of tea or chocolate at midday, and think greatly of themselves if they are dressed and out-of- doors by four in the afternoon ; but had my custom been otherwise I could not have played the lie-a-bed that morning, for, looking forth even at the gray of dawn, I saw the courtyard filled with cavaliers, and bright with floating plumes and glinting armor, and I should have been no boy had I not burned to be among them. I donned my garments with all speed, and was hastening down to learn what all this To te Al a { 1 x ow