w the fibres of his face work as he implores
the ungrateful brutes, whom he has heaped with obligations, to permit
him to get such a start for his life as the hare has from the greyhounds
when men course her fairly. Look also at the sullen, downcast, dogged
faces with which, fluctuating between fear and shame, the domestic
traitors deny their lord this poor chance for his life. These things
thought themselves the superior of a man like me! and you, foolish
wench, think so meanly of your Deity as to suppose wretches like them
are the work of Omnipotence!"

"No! man of evil--no!" said Catharine, warmly; "the God I worship
created these men with the attributes to know and adore Him, to guard
and defend their fellow creatures, to practise holiness and virtue.
Their own vices, and the temptations of the Evil One, have made them
such as they now are. Oh, take the lesson home to thine own heart of
adamant! Heaven made thee wiser than thy fellows, gave thee eyes to look
into the secrets of nature, a sagacious heart, and a skilful hand; but
thy pride has poisoned all these fair gifts, and made an ungodly atheist
of one who might have been a Christian sage!"

"Atheist, say'st thou?" answered Dwining. "Perhaps I have doubts on that
matter--but they will be soon solved. Yonder comes one who will send
me, as he has done thousands, to the place where all mysteries shall be
cleared."

Catharine followed the mediciner's eye up one of the forest glades, and
beheld it occupied by a body of horsemen advancing at full gallop. In
the midst was a pennon displayed, which, though its bearings were not
visible to Catharine, was, by a murmur around, acknowledged as that of
the Black Douglas. They halted within arrow shot of the castle, and a
herald with two trumpets advanced up to the main portal, where, after a
loud flourish, he demanded admittance for the high and dreaded Archibald
Earl of Douglas, Lord Lieutenant of the King, and acting for the time
with the plenary authority of his Majesty; commanding, at the same time,
that the inmates of the castle should lay down their arms, all under
penalty of high treason.

"You hear?" said Eviot to Ramorny, who stood sullen and undecided. "Will
you give orders to render the castle, or must I?"

"No, villain!" interrupted the knight, "to the last I will command you.
Open the gates, drop the bridge, and render the castle to the Douglas."

"Now, that's what may be called a gallant exertion of free