y found the tradition of this tower. I
shame not to confess there is in my heart a deep yearning to learn the
truth. Wherefore, when thy harp and song have so pleasantly whiled the
evening hours, did not this tale find voice, good father?"

"Alas! my son, 'tis too fraught with horror, too sad for gentle ears. A
few stern, rugged words will best repeat it. I love not to linger on the
theme; listen then now, and it shall be told thee."

"In the reign of Malcolm the Second, the districts now called Aberdeen
and Forfar were possessed, and had been so, so tradition saith, since
Kenneth MacAlpine, by the Lords of Brus or Bris, a family originally
from the North. They were largely and nobly connected, particularly with
Norway and Gaul. It is generally supposed the first possessions in
Scotland held in fief by the line of Bruce can be traced back only to
the time of David I., in the person of Robert de Bruce, an Anglo-Norman
baron, whose father came over to England with the Conqueror. The cause
of this supposition my tale will presently explain.

"Haco Brus or Bris was the Lord of Aberdeen in the reign of Malcolm the
Second. He spent many years abroad; indeed, was supposed to have married
and settled there, when, to the surprise of his vassals, he suddenly
returned unmarried, and soon after uniting himself with a beautiful and
accomplished girl, nearly related to the blood-royal of Scotland,
settled quietly in this tower, which was the stronghold of his
possessions. Years passed; the only child of the baron, a son, born in
the first year of his marriage, grew up in strength and beauty, the idol
not only of his mother, but of his father, a man stern and cold in
seeming, even morose, but with passions fearful alike in their influence
and extent. Your eye glances to that pictured face, he was not the
baron's son of whom I speak. The affections, nay, the very passions of
the baron were centered in this boy. It is supposed pride and ambition
were their origin, for he looked, through his near connection with the
sovereign, for further aggrandizement for himself. There were some who
declared ambition was not the master-passion, that a deeper, sterner,
fiercer emotion dwelt within. Whether they spoke thus from the sequel, I
know not, but that sequel proved their truth.

"There was a gathering of all the knightly and noble in King Malcolm's
court, not perchance for trials at arms resembling the tournays of the
present day, but very s