ully; "yet she is one I could have wished beside me. Ha! that
trumpet. Merciful heaven! is it the foe?" and trembling with alarm, she
dispatched attendant after attendant to know the cause.

The English force was known to be so near that many a warrior-heart beat
quicker at any unusual blast, and it was not marvel the queen's terrors
should very often affect her attendants. Agnes alone, amid the maiden
train, ever retained a calm self-possession; strange in one who, till
the last eventful year, had seemed such a very child. Her mother
trembled lest the turmoils and confusion of her country should ever
approach her or those she loved; how might she, timid, nay; often
fearful, weak, and yielding, as the flower on the heath, how might she
encounter storm, and grief, and care? Had her mother's eye been on her
now, and could have followed her in yet deeper trials, that mother
scarce had known her child.

She it was whose coolness enabled her easily to recognize and explain
the trumpet's blast. It was an officer with an escort from the Lord of
Ross, informing the queen that, from late intelligence respecting the
movements of the English, he deemed it better they should not defer
their departure from the castle another night.

On the receipt of this message all was increased hurry and confusion in
the apartments of the queen. The advice was to be followed on the
instant, and ere sunset the litters and mules, and other accommodation
for the travellers, waited their pleasure in the outer court.

It was with a mien of princely dignity, a countenance grave and
thoughtful, with which the youthful seneschal attended the travellers to
the great gate of the castle. In after years the expression of his
features flashed again and again upon those who looked upon him them.
Calmly he bade his sister-in-law farewell, and bade her, should she be
the first to see his brother, tell him that it was at her own free will
and pleasure she thus departed; that neither advice nor persuasion on
his part had been used; she had of her own will released him from his
sacred charge; and if ill came of it, to free his memory from blame.

"Trust me, Nigel; oh, surely you may trust me! You will not part from me
in anger at my wilfulness?" entreated Margaret, as clinging to his arm,
she retained him a few minutes ere he placed her in the litter.

"In anger, my sweet sister, nay, thou wrongest me!" he said, a bright
smile dispersing a moment the pensive c