ht
confide to that young heart the despondency, the hopelessness, that to
none other might be spoken, none other might suspect--the secret fear
that his crime would be visited on his unhappy country, and he forbidden
to secure her freedom even by the sacrifice of his life.

"If it be so, it must be so; then be thou her savior, her deliverer, my
Nigel," he would often urge; "droop not because I may have departed;
struggle on, do as thy soul prompts, and success will, nay, must attend
thee; for thou art pure and spotless, and well deserving of all the
glory, the blessedness, that will attend the sovereign of our country
freed from chains; thou art, in truth, deserving of all this, but I--"

"Peace, peace, my brother!" would be Nigel's answer; "thou, only thou
shalt deliver our country, shall be her free, her patriot king! Have we
not often marked the glorious sun struggling with the black masses of
clouds which surround and obscure his rising, struggling, and in vain,
to penetrate their murky folds, and deluge the world with light, shining
a brief moment, and then immersed in darkness, until, as he nears the
western horizon, the heaviest clouds flee before him, the spotless azure
spreadeth its beautiful expanse, the brilliant rays dart on every side,
warming and cheering the whole earth with reviving beams, and finally
sinking to his rest in a flood of splendor, more dazzling, more imposing
than ever attends his departure when his dawn hath been one of joy. Such
is thy career, my brother; such will be thy glorious fate. Oh, droop not
even to me--to thyself! Hope on, strive on, and thou shalt succeed!"

"Would I had thy hopeful spirit, my Nigel, an it pictured and believed
things as these!" mournfully would the Bruce reply, and clasp the young
warrior to his heart; but it was only Nigel's ear that heard these
whispers of despondency, only Nigel's eye which could penetrate the
inmost folds of that royal heart. Not even to his wife--his Margaret,
whose faithfulness in these hours of adversity had drawn her yet closer
to her husband--did he breathe aught save encouragement and hope; and to
his followers he was the same as he had been from the first, resolute,
unwavering; triumphing over every obstacle; cheering the faint-hearted;
encouraging the desponding; smiling with his young followers, ever on
the alert to provide amusement for them, to approve, guide, instruct;
gallantly and kindly to smooth the path for his female com