under a safe escort to Norway, whose
monarch was friendly to the interests of Scotland. This latter scheme
the king very strongly advised, representing in vivid colors the misery
they might have to endure if they adhered to him; the continual danger
of their falling into the hands of Edward, and even could they elude
this, how was it possible their delicate frames, accustomed as they were
to luxury and repose, could sustain the rude fare, the roofless homes,
the continued wandering amid the crags and floods and deserts of the
mountains. He spoke eloquently and feelingly, and there was a brief
silence when he concluded. Margaret had thrown her arms round her
husband, and buried her face on his bosom; her child clung to her
father's knee, and laid her soft cheek caressingly by his. Isabella of
Buchan, standing a little aloof, remained silent indeed, but no one who
gazed on her could doubt her determination or believe she wavered. Agnes
was standing in the same recess she had formerly occupied, but how
different was the expression of her features. The arm of Nigel was
twined round her, his head bent down to hers in deep and earnest
commune; he was pleading against his own will and feelings it seemed,
and though he strove to answer every argument, to persuade her it was
far better she should seek safety in a foreign land, her determination
more firmly expressed than could have been supposed from her yielding
disposition, to abide with him, in weal or in woe, to share his
wanderings, his home, be it roofless on the mountain, or within palace
walls; that she was a Highland girl, accustomed to mountain paths and
woody glens, nerved to hardship and toil--this determination, we say,
contrary as it was to his eloquent pleadings, certainly afforded Nigel
no pain, and might his beaming features be taken as reply, it was
fraught with unmingled pleasure. In a much shorter time than we have
taken to describe this, however, the queen had raised her head, and
looking up in her husband's face with an expression of devotedness,
which gave her countenance a charm it had never had before, fervently
exclaimed--

"Robert, come woe or weal, I will abide with thee; her husband's side is
the best protection for a wife; and if wandering and suffering be his
portion, who will soothe and cheer as the wife of his love? My spirit is
but cowardly, my will but weak; but by thee I may gain the strength
which in foreign lands could never be my own. Imag