ye
should, I will be a true man to you, Jean, till death us do part. I
have not been better than other men, but women have never made me play
the fool, and even your own folk, who hate me, will tell you that I
have been a clean liver. And now I will never touch or look on any
other woman in the way of love save you. If I have to leave your side
to serve the king, I will return when the work is done, and all the
time I am away my love will be returning to you. If you be not in my
empty arms, you shall ever be in my heart; if I win honor or wealth,
it will now be for you. If I can shelter you from sorrows and trouble,
I will do so with my life, and if I die my last thought, after the
cause, will be of you, my lady and my love.

"Jean Cochrane, can you trust yourself to me; will you be the wife of
John Graham of Claverhouse?"

They had risen as by an instinct, and were facing one another where
the light of the setting sun fell softly upon them through the fretted
greenery of the beech tree.

"For life, John Graham, and for death," and as she said "death" he
clasped her in his arms. The brown hair mingled with the gold, they
looked into one another's eyes, and their lips met in a long,
passionate kiss, renewed again and again, as if their souls had flowed
together. Then she disentangled herself and stood a pace away, and
laying her hands upon his shoulders and looking steadfastly at him,
she said: "Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will
lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

The sooner they were married the better pleased John Graham and Jean
Cochrane would be, for life in Paisley Castle could not be a paradise
for Jean after that betrothal. Three weeks later Claverhouse rode down
one Saturday from Edinburgh to Paisley against his marriage day on the
following Tuesday. His love for Jean had steadily grown during those
days, and now was in a white heat of anticipation, for she was no nun,
but a woman to stir a man's senses. Yet there were many things to
chasten and keep him sober. No sooner was it known that he was to
marry Lady Cochrane's daughter and the granddaughter of Lord Cassillis
than his rivals in the high places of Scotland and at Whitehall did
their best to injure him, setting abroad stories that he was no longer
loyal, and that in future he would play into the hands of the enemy.
His young wife would certainly get round him and shake his integrity,
and it would not