her when he first spoke.

"'Twas of my mother, Nigel, of my beloved, my noble mother that I
thought; proscribed, hunted, set a price upon as a traitor. Can her
children think on such indignity without emotion--and when I remember
the great power of King Edward, who has done this--without fear for her
fate?"

"Sweetest, fear not for her; her noble deed, her dauntless heroism has
circled her with such a guard of gallant knights and warriors, that, in
the hands of Edward, trust me, dearest, she shall never fall; and even
if such should be, still, I say, fear not. Unpitying and cruel as Edward
is, where his ambition is concerned, he is too true a knight, too noble
in spirit to take a woman's blood; he is now fearfully enraged, and
therefore has he done this. And as to indignity, 'tis shame to the
proscriber not to the proscribed, my love!"

"There is one I fear yet more than Edward," continued the maiden,
fearfully; "one that I should love more. Oh, Nigel, my very spirit
shrinks from the image of my father. I have sought to love him, to
dismiss the dark haunting visions which his name has ever brought before
me. I saw him once, but once, and his stern terrible features and harsh
voice so terrified my childish fancies, that I hid myself till he had
departed, and I have never seen him since, and yet, oh yet, I fear him!"

"What is it that thou fearest, love?"

"I know not," she answered; "but if evil approach my mother, it will
come from him, and so silently, so unsuspectedly, that none may avoid
it. Nigel, he cannot love my mother! he is a foe to Bruce, a friend of
the slaughtered Comyn, and will he not demand a stern account of the
deed that she hath done? will he not seek vengeance? and oh, will he
not, may he not in wrath part thee and me, and thus thy bodings be
fulfilled?"

"Agnes, never! The mandate of man shall never part us; the power of man,
unless my limbs be chained, shall never sever thee and me. He that hath
never acted a father's part, can have no power on his child. Thou art
mine, my beloved!--mine with thy mother's blessing; and mine thou shalt
be--no earthly power shall part us. Death, death alone can break the
links that bind us, and must be of God, though man may seem the cause.
Be comforted, sweet love. Hark! they are chiming vespers; I must be gone
for the solemn vigil of to-night, and to-morrow thou shalt arm thine own
true knight, mine Agnes, and deck me with that blue scarf, more precious
even