as
ungloved, as if for salutation. The day had been cloudy, and the hall,
with its stone floor, high roof, oaken furniture, and walls covered by
dark tapestry, was full of gloom, only partially relieved by the
firelight from the wide, open hearth. While Claverhouse was coming up
the stairs to the sound of his spurs and the striking of his sword
against the wall, the sun came out from behind a cloud, and a ray of
light streaming from an opposite window fell upon the doorway as he
entered. It lingered but for a moment, and after touching his
picturesque figure as with a caress, disappeared, and the eyes of John
Graham and Jean Cochrane met.

They were the opposite of each other: he slight and graceful, she tall
and strong; he dark and rich of complexion, with hazel eye, she fair
and golden, with eyes of gray-blue; he a born and convinced Cavalier,
and she a born and professed Covenanter; he a kinsman of the great
marquis whom the Covenanters beheaded, and she on her mother's side
the daughter of a house which hated Montrose and all his works. There
was nothing common between them; they stood distant as the east from
the west, and yet in that instant their hearts were drawn together.
They might never confess their love--there would be a thousand
hindrances to give it effect--it was in the last degree unlikely that
they could ever marry, but it had come to pass with them as with
innumerable lovers, that love was born in an instant.

"I thank you, my lord," said Claverhouse, bowing low to the earl,
"for this friendly greeting, and for the invitation you now give to be
your guest during my short stay in the district. It is strange that
through some ordering of circumstances, to me very disappointing, I
have never had the honor of offering to you an assurance of my respect
as a good subject of the king, and one whom the king has greatly
honored. As you know, my lord, I come and go hastily on the king's
business. I only wish, and I judge his Majesty would join in the wish,
that my visits to those parts were fewer. One is tempted, preachers
tell us, to think well of himself, overmuch indeed, maybe, but I have
been wonderfully delivered from the snare of imagining that I am a
beloved person in the west of Scotland." As he spoke, a sudden and
almost roguish look of humor sprang from his eyes and played across
his face. And he smiled pleasantly to Lady Jean, to whom he was now
introduced, and whose hand he kissed.

"You will gi