e, within
seven years, and the other to send me, on his deathbed, if he died
away from me, a sure token of his death. I have not yet waited seven
years, nor have I had the token of his death. I am still the wife of
Black Colin of Loch Awe."

This steadfastness gradually daunted her suitors and they left her
alone, until but one remained, the Baron Niel MacCorquodale, whose
lands bordered on Glenurchy, and who had long cast covetous eyes on
the glen and its fair lady, and longed no less for the wealth she was
reputed to possess than for the power this marriage would give him.

The Baron's Plot

When the seven years were over the Baron MacCorquodale sought the Lady
of Loch Awe again, wooing her for his wife. Again she refused,
saying, "Until I have the token of my husband's death I will be wife
to no other man." "And what is this token, lady?" asked the Baron, for
he thought he could send a false one. "I will never tell that,"
replied the lady. "Do you dare to ask the most sacred secret between
husband and wife? I shall know the token when it comes." The Baron was
not a little enraged that he could not discover the secret, but he
determined to wed the lady and her wealth notwithstanding; accordingly
he wrote by a sure and secret messenger to a friend in Rome, bidding
him send a letter with news that Black Colin was assuredly dead, and
that certain words (which the Baron dictated) had come from him.

A Forged Letter

One day the Lady of Loch Awe, looking out from her castle, saw the
Baron coming, and with him a palmer whose face was bronzed by Eastern
suns. She felt that the palmer would bring tidings, and welcomed the
Baron with his companion. "Lady, this palmer brings you sad news,"
quoth the Baron. "Let him tell it, then," replied she, sick with fear.
"Alas! fair dame, if you were the wife of that gallant knight Colin of
Loch Awe, you are now his widow," said the palmer sadly, as he handed
her a letter. "What proof have you?" asked Black Colin's wife before
she read the letter. "Lady, I talked with the soldier who brought the
tidings," replied the stranger.

The letter was written from Rome to "The Right Noble Dame the Lady of
Loch Awe," and told how news had come from Rhodes, brought by a man of
Black Colin's band, that the Knight of Loch Awe had been mortally
wounded in a fight against the Saracens. Dying, he had bidden his
clansmen return to their lady, but they had all perished but one,
fighting for veng