trust me, cannot be; therefore go forth in confidence. I
fear not to await your return, e'en should I linger here alone. Grant
but my boon."

"Nay, an it must be, lady, I promise all thou demandest," answered
Bruce, more cheerfully, for her words reassured him; "but, by mine
honor, thou hast asked neither well nor kindly. Remember, my pledge is
passed but for real danger, and that only for Scotland's sake, not for
mine own; and now farewell, lady. I trust, ere we meet again, these
depressing fancies will have left thee."

"They have well-nigh departed now, my liege; 'twas simply for thee and
Scotland these heavy bodings oppressed me. My son," she added, after a
brief pause, "I would your highness could prevail on him to accompany
you to-day. Wherefore should he stay with me?"

"Wherefore not rather, lady?" replied the king, smiling. "I may not
leave thee to thine own thoughts to weave fresh boons like to the last.
No, no! our young knight must guard thee till we meet again," and with
these words he departed. They did not, however, deter the countess from
resuming her persuasions to Alan to accompany his sovereign, but without
success. Isabella of Buchan had, however, in this instance departed from
her usual strict adherence to the truth, she did not feel so secure that
no evil would befall her in the absence of the Bruce, as she had
endeavored to make him believe.

Some words she had caught during her brief captivity caused her, she
scarcely knew why, to believe that the Earl of Buchan himself was in the
neighborhood; nay, that the very party which had captured her were
members of the army under his command. She had gathered, too, that it
was a very much larger force than the king's, and therefore it was that
she had made no objection to Robert's wish that she should rest some few
days in the hunting-lodge. She knew that, however her failing strength
might detain and harass their movements, Bruce and his followers would
never consent to leave her, unless, as in the present case, under a
comparatively comfortable roof and well-concealed shelter; and she knew,
too, that however she might struggle to accompany them in their
wanderings, the struggle in her present exhausted state would be utterly
in vain, and lingering for her might expose her sovereign to a renewal
of the ills with which he had already striven so nobly, and perchance to
yet more irreparable misfortune. The information of the scouts had
partially reassu