hed, still kept his bright
searching eyes upon him, till the baron's quailed 'neath his gaze. The
hundred tongues of rumor chose to speak of relationship, that there was
a likeness between them, yet I know not how that could be. There is no
impress of the fiendish passion at work in the baron's soul on those
bright, beautiful features."

"Ha! Is it of him you speak?" involuntarily escaped from Nigel, as the
old man for a moment paused; "of him? Methought yon portrait was of an
ancestor of Bruce, or wherefore is it here?"

"Be patient, good my son. My narrative wanders, for my lips shrink from
its tale. That the baron and the knight met, not in warlike joust but in
peaceful converse, and at the request of the latter, is known, but on
what passed in that interview even tradition is silent, it can only be
imagined by the sequel; they appeared, however, less reserved than at
first. The baron treated him with the same distinction as his
fellow-nobles, and the stranger's manner towards him was even more
respectful than the mere difference of age appeared to demand. Important
business with the Lord of Brus was alleged as the cause of his accepting
that nobleman's invitation to the tower of Kildrummie, in preference to
others earlier given and more eagerly enforced. They departed together,
the knight accompanied but by two of his followers, and the baron
leaving the greater number of his in attendance on his wife and child,
who, for some frivolous reason, he left with the court. It was a strange
thing for him to do, men said, as he had never before been known to lose
sight of his boy even for a day. For some days all seemed peace and
hospitality within the tower. The stranger was too noble himself, and
too kindly disposed towards all his fellow-creatures, to suspect aught
of treachery, or he might have remarked the retainers of the baron were
changed; that ruder forms and darker visages than at first were
gathering around him. How the baron might have intended to make use of
them--almost all robbers and murderers by trade--cannot be known, though
it may be suspected. In this room the last interview between them took
place, and here, on this silent witness of the deed, the hand of the
father was bathed in the blood of the son!"

"God in heaven!" burst from Nigel's parched lips, as he sprang up. "The
son--how could that be? how known?"

"Fearfully, most fearfully!" shudderingly answered the old man; "through
the dying ravings