swords shall conquer, and your hearts bestow; with you I live and
die."

In the midst of the shouts and unrestrained clamor succeeding this
eloquent address, the fiery chargers of the king and his attendant
barons and esquires were led to the foot of the staircase. And a fair
and noble sight was the royal _cortege_ as slowly it passed through the
old town, with banners flying, lances gleaming, and the rich swell of
triumphant music echoing on the air. Nobles and dames mingled
indiscriminately together. Beautiful palfreys or well-trained glossy
mules, richly caparisoned, gracefully guided by the dames and maidens,
bore their part well amid the more fiery chargers of their companions.
The queen rode at King Robert's left hand, the primate of Scotland at
his right, Lennox, Seaton, and Hay thronged around the Countess of
Buchan, eager to pay her that courteous homage which she now no longer
refused, and willingly joined in their animated converse. The Lady Mary
Campbell and her sister Lady Seaton found an equally gallant and willing
escort, as did the other noble dames; but none ventured to dispute the
possession of the maiden of Buchan with the gallant Nigel, who, riding
close at her bridle rein, ever and anon whispered some magic words that
called a blush to her cheek and a smile on her lip, their attention
called off now and then by some wild jest or courteous word from the
young Lord Douglas, whose post seemed in every part of the royal train;
now galloping to the front, to caracole by the side of the queen, to
accustom her, he said, to the sight of good horsemanship, then lingering
beside the Countess of Buchan, to give some unexpected rejoinder to the
graver maxims of Lennox. The Princess Margory, her cousins, the Lady
Isoline Campbell and Alice and Christina Seaton, escorted by Alan of
Buchan, Walter Fitz-Alan, Alexander Fraser, and many other young
esquires, rejoicing in the task assigned them.

It was a gay and gorgeous sight, and beautiful the ringing laugh and
silvery voice of youth. No dream of desponding dread shadowed their
hearts, though danger and suffering, and defeat and death, were darkly
gathering round them. Who, as he treads the elastic earth, fresh with
the breeze of day, as he gazes on the cloudless blue of the circling
sky, or the dazzling rays of the morning sun, as the hum of happy life
is round him--who is there thinks of the silence, and darkness, and
tempest that come in a few brief hours, on