al barons who had joined his
standard. Names there were already famous in the annals of
patriotism--Fraser, Lennox, Athol, Hay--whose stalwart arms had so nobly
struck for Wallace, whose steady minds had risen superior to the petty
emotions of jealousy and envy which had actuated so many of similar
rank. These were true patriots, and gladly and freely they once more
rose for Scotland. Sir Christopher Seaton, brother-in-law to the Bruce,
Somerville, Keith, St. Clair, the young Lord Douglas, and Thomas
Randolph, the king's nephew, were the most noted of those now around the
Bruce; yet on that eventful day not more than fourteen barons were
mustered round their sovereign, exclusive of his four gallant brothers,
who were in themselves a host. All these were attired with the care and
gallantry their precarious situation permitted; half armor, concealed by
flowing scarfs and graceful mantles, or suits of gayer seeming among the
younger knights, for those of the barons' followers of gentle blood and
chivalric training were also admitted within the church, forming a
goodly show of gallant men. Behind them, on raised seats, which were
divided from the body of the church by an open railing of ebony, sate
the ladies of the court, the seat of the queen distinguished from the
rest by its canopy and cushion of embroidered taffeta, and amongst
those gentle beings fairest and loveliest shone the maiden of Buchan, as
she sate in smiling happiness between the youthful daughter of the
Bruce, the Princess Margory, and his niece, the Lady Isoline, children
of ten and fourteen, who already claimed her as their companion and
friend.

The color was bright on the soft cheek of Agnes, the smile laughed alike
in her lip and eye; for ever and anon, from amidst the courtly crowd
beneath, the deep blue orb of Nigel Bruce met hers, speaking in its
passioned yet respectful gaze, all that could whisper joy and peace unto
a heart, young, loving, and confiding, as that of Agnes. The evening
previous he had detached the blue riband which confined her flowing
curls, and it was with a feeling of pardonable pride she beheld it
suspended from his neck, even in that hour, when his rich habiliments
and the imposing ceremony of the day marked him the brother of a king.
Her brother, too, was at his side, gazing upon his sovereign with
feelings, whose index, marked as it was on his brow, gave him the
appearance of being older than he was. It was scarcely the excit