rne the sternest scrutiny, there was
naught which the most rigid mentor could condemn, yet a feeling that
evil would come of this was amongst the many others which weighed on her
heart. She could not tell wherefore, yet she wished it had been
otherwise, wished the honor of being selected as the king's companion
had fallen on other than her son, for separate herself from him she
could not. One cause of this despondency might have been traced to the
natural sinking of the spirit when it finds itself alone, with time for
its own fancies, after a long period of exertion, and that mental
excitement which, unseen to all outward observers, preys upon itself.
Memory had awakened dreams and visions she had long looked upon as dead;
it did but picture brightly, beautifully, joyously what might have been,
and disturbed the tranquil sadness which was usual to her now; disturb
it as with phantasmagoria dancing on the brain, yet it was a struggle
hard and fierce to banish them again. As one sweet fancy sunk another
rose, even as gleams of moonlight on the waves which rise and fall with
every breeze. Fancy and reason strove for dominion, but the latter
conquered. What could be now the past, save as a vision of the night;
the present, a stern reality with all its duties--duties not alone to
others, but to herself. These were the things on which her thoughts must
dwell; these must banish all which might have been and they did; and
Isabella of Buchan came through that fiery ordeal unscathed, uninjured
in her self-esteem, conscious that not in one thought did she wrong her
husband, in not one dream did she wrong the gentle heart of the queen
which so clung to her; in not the wildest flight of fancy did she look
on Robert as aught save as the deliverer of his country, the king of all
true Scottish men.

She rose up from that weakness of suffering, strengthened in her resolve
to use every energy in the queen's service in supporting, encouraging,
endeavoring so to work on her appreciation of her husband's character,
as to render her yet more worthy of his love. She had ever sought to
remain beside the queen, ever contrived they should be of the same
party; that her mind was ever on the stretch, on the excitement, could
not be denied, but she knew not how great its extent till the call for
exertion was comparatively over, and she found herself, she scarcely
understood how, the only female companion of her sovereign, the
situation she had most