s until their trial was over, that
he might remain in pledge for the truth of his statements; and the heads
again held counsel on the next step they should take in the unexpected
event of the "traitor," as they called him, not being found at home,
notwithstanding of their attempted surprise by a night visit. These
doings had occupied as much time as allowed the glimmer of early dawn to
pass into a grey light, that, while it did not render the torches
unnecessary, exhibited in strange and grotesque shades the group of dark
figures, their changing faces, moving heads, and inauspicious gestures,
on which the gleams of the torches flickered faintly, in struggles with
the rising morn. Above them, the dangling noose claimed her averted eye,
and sent through her nerves shivers that seemed to make the blood run
back in the veins, and stagnate about the heart. In any other position
but that in which she was placed, she would have made the castle ring
with involuntary screams; and it was only the intense anxiety with which
she watched every sound in the distance, in the struggling hope that
Cockburn would not make his appearance, that bound her down in the
silent, breathless mood which she now exhibited. Neither could she have
borne the extraordinary spectacle below her casement, had it not been
that her wish to watch every indication in the direction of Tushielaw,
overcame the feelings inspired by the moving tumult of fierce men that
waited there for the blood of her husband. Sometimes the thought found
its way through her anxiety--why did they not call for or visit her? But
the solution was not difficult; for she knew that men bent on purposes
of cruelty, do not court the mediation of women. And then again she
meditated, for a moment, a descent to them, and an attempt, by throwing
herself at the feet of the king, to secure, by anticipation, mercy to
her husband, when he might, if ever he should, be found. This last
thought was passing through her mind, and she had intuitively drawn her
clothes around her bosom, as a preparation for her rising resolution,
when her husband's horn, in all its well-known windings, struck her ear.
That sound had hitherto inspired the pulses of a living heart, and sent
through her veins the delightful tumult of a gratified hope; it had been
the prelude to the close embrace of affection; the flourish of joy on
the meeting again of separated hearts. It was now the death-knell of
both. She would have sunk