t of all, shall any miserable jealousy
prevent me from placing my hand and sword under the guidance of the
bravest, the most loyal, the most heroic spirit among our Scottish
nobility."

"Pity," said Sir Duncan Campbell, "that you cannot add to this panegyric
the farther epithets of the most steady, and the most consistent. But I
have no purpose of debating these points with you, my lord," waving
his hand, as if to avoid farther discussion; "the die is cast with you;
allow me only to express my sorrow for the disastrous fate to which
Angus M'Aulay's natural rashness, and your lordship's influence, are
dragging my gallant friend Allan here, with his father's clan, and many
a brave man besides."

"The die is cast for us all, Sir Duncan," replied Allan, looking gloomy,
and arguing on his own hypochondriac feelings; "the iron hand of destiny
branded our fate upon our forehead long ere we could form a wish, or
raise a finger in our own behalf. Were this otherwise, by what means
does the Seer ascertain the future from those shadowy presages which
haunt his waking and his sleeping eye? Nought can be foreseen but that
which is certain to happen."

Sir Duncan Campbell was about to reply, and the darkest and most
contested point of metaphysics might have been brought into discussion
betwixt two Highland disputants, when the door opened, and Annot Lyle,
with her clairshach in her hand, entered the apartment. The freedom of
a Highland maiden was in her step and in her eye; for, bred up in the
closest intimacy with the Laird of M'Aulay and his brother, with
Lord Menteith, and other young men who frequented Darnlinvarach, she
possessed none of that timidity which a female, educated chiefly among
her own sex, would either have felt, or thought necessary to assume, on
an occasion like the present.

Her dress partook of the antique, for new fashions seldom penetrated
into the Highlands, nor would they easily have found their way to a
castle inhabited chiefly by men, whose sole occupation was war and the
chase. Yet Annot's garments were not only becoming, but even rich. Her
open jacket, with a high collar, was composed of blue cloth, richly
embroidered, and had silver clasps to fasten, when it pleased the
wearer. Its sleeves, which were wide, came no lower than the elbow, and
terminated in a golden fringe; under this upper coat, if it can be so
termed, she wore an under dress of blue satin, also richly embroidered,
but which was seve