ught she could observe doubt and irresolution
amongst them.

"Catharine," said Ramorny, "I must not quit this station, which is
necessary for my defence; but I can speak with you here as well as
elsewhere."

"Say on," answered Catharine, "I am prepared to hear you."

"You have thrust yourself, Catharine, into a bloody secret. Have you the
firmness to keep it?"

"I do not understand you, Sir John," answered the maiden.

"Look you. I have slain--murdered, if you will--my late master, the Duke
of Rothsay. The spark of life which your kindness would have fed
was easily smothered. His last words called on his father. You are
faint--bear up--you have more to hear. You know the crime, but you know
not the provocation. See! this gauntlet is empty; I lost my right hand
in his cause, and when I was no longer fit to serve him, I was cast off
like a worn out hound, my loss ridiculed, and a cloister recommended,
instead of the halls and palaces in which I had my natural sphere! Think
on this--pity and assist me."

"In what manner can you require my assistance?" said the trembling
maiden; "I can neither repair your loss nor cancel your crime."

"Thou canst be silent, Catharine, on what thou hast seen and heard in
yonder thicket. It is but a brief oblivion I ask of you, whose word
will, I know, be listened to, whether you say such things were or were
not. That of your mountebank companion, the foreigner, none will hold
to be of a pin point's value. If you grant me this, I will take your
promise for my security, and throw the gate open to those who now
approach it. If you will not promise silence, I defend this castle till
every one perishes, and I fling you headlong from these battlements.
Ay, look at them--it is not a leap to be rashly braved. Seven courses of
stairs brought you up hither with fatigue and shortened breath; but you
shall go from the top to the bottom in briefer time than you can breathe
a sigh! Speak the word, fair maid; for you speak to one unwilling to
harm you, but determined in his purpose."

Catharine stood terrified, and without power of answering a man who
seemed so desperate; but she was saved the necessity of reply by the
approach of Dwining. He spoke with the same humble conges which at all
times distinguished his manner, and with his usual suppressed ironical
sneer, which gave that manner the lie.

"I do you wrong, noble sir, to intrude on your valiancie when engaged
with a fair damsel. But I com