than the jewelled sword my sovereign brother gives. Farewell, for a
brief, brief while; I go to watch and pray. Oh, let thy orisons attend
me, and surely then my vigil shall be blest."

"Pray thou for me, my Nigel," whispered the trembling girl, as he
clasped her in his arms, "that true as I may be, strength befitting thy
promised bride may be mine own. Nigel, my beloved, indeed I need such
prayer."

He whispered hope and comfort, and departed by the stone stairs which
led from the gothic casement where they had been sitting, into the
garden; he lingered to gather some delicate blue-bells which had just
blown, and turned back to place them in the lap of Agnes. She eagerly
raised them and pressed them to her lips, but either their fragile
blossoms could not bear even her soft touch, or the heavy air had
inwardly withered their bloom, for the blossoms fell from their stalks,
and scattered their beautiful petals at her feet.

CHAPTER IX.

The hour of vespers had come and passed; the organ and choir had hushed
their solemn sounds. The abbot and his attendant monks, the king who,
with his train, had that evening joined the solemn service, all had
departed, and but two inmates were left within the abbey church of
Scone. Darkness and silence had assumed their undisturbed dominion, for
the waxen tapers left burning on the altar lighted but a few yards
round, leaving the nave and cloisters in impenetrable gloom. Some twenty
or thirty yards east of the altar, elevated some paces from the ground,
in its light and graceful shrine, stood an elegantly sculptured figure
of the Virgin and Child. A silver lamp, whose pure flame was fed with
aromatic incense, burned within the shrine and shed its soft light on a
suit of glittering armor which was hanging on the shaft of a pillar
close beside it. Directly behind the altar was a large oriel window of
stained glass, representing subjects from Scripture. The window, with
its various mullions and lights, formed one high pointed arch, marked by
solid stone pillars on each side, the capitals of which traced the
commencement of the arch. Another window, similar in character, though
somewhat smaller in dimensions, lighted the west end of the church; and
near it stood another shrine containing a figure of St. Stephen, lighted
as was that of the Virgin and Child, and, like that, gleaming on a suit
of armor, and on the figure of the youthful candidate for knighthood,
whose task was to pa