ee that thy Duchess
mother hath arrived, and would speak with thee at once."

Then the bright red roses faded from the poor little lady's cheeks, for
she knew well that the Duchess, who was not her real mother, but only
her step-mother, wished her no good. Sorrowfully she rode up to the
castle, Lord William at her side, and it seemed to both of them as if
the little birds had stopped singing, and the sun had suddenly grown
dim.

And it was indeed terrible tidings that the little maiden heard when she
reached the room where her stern-faced step-mother awaited her. An old
Marquis, a friend of her father's, who was quite old enough to be her
grandfather, had announced his wish to marry her, and, as she had five
sisters at home, all waiting to get a chance to become maids-of-honour,
and see a little of the world, her step-mother thought it was too good
an opportunity to let slip, and she had come to fetch her home.

In vain poor Lady Katherine threw herself at the Duchess's feet, and
besought her to let her marry the gallant Scottish knight. Her ladyship
only curled her lip and laughed. "Marry a beggarly Scot!" she said. "Not
as long as I have any power in thy father's house. No, no, wench, thou
knowest not what is for thy good. Where is thy waiting-maid? Let her
pack up thy things at once; thou hast tarried here long enough, I trow."

So Lady Katherine was carted off, bag and baggage, to the great turreted
mansion on the borders of Wales, where her five sisters and her
grandfatherly old lover were waiting for her, without ever having a
chance of bidding Lord William farewell.

As for that noble youth, he mounted his horse, and called his
men-at-arms together, and straightway rode away to Scotland, and never
halted till he reached the old gray castle, three days' ride over the
Border. When he arrived there he shut himself up in the great square
tower where his own apartments were, and frightened his family by
growing so pale and thin that they declared he must have caught some
fever in England, and had come home to die. In vain the Earl, his
father, tried to persuade him to ride out with him to the chase; he
cared for nothing but to be left alone to sit in the dim light of his
own room, and dream of his lost love.

Now Lord William was fond of all living things, horses, and dogs, and
birds; but one pet he had, which he loved above all the others, and that
was a gay gos-hawk which he had found caught in a snare, one da