small number of true men which garrison this
castle, I care not to acknowledge I had loved better to meet my foe on
open ground. Here I can scarce know friend from foe; traitors may be
around me, nay, in my very confidence, and I know it not."

"Art thou not infected with Queen Margaret's suspicions, Nigel? Why
ponder on such uneasy dreams?"

"Because, my best love, I am a better adept in the perusal of men's
countenances and manners than many, and there are signs of lowering
discontent and gloomy cowardice, arguing ill for unity of measures, on
which our safety greatly rests. Yet my fancies may be wrong, and at all
hazards my duty shall be done. The issue is in the hands of a higher
power; we cannot do wrong in committing ourselves to Him, for thou
knowest He giveth not the battle to the strong, and right and justice we
have on Scotland's side."

Agnes looked on his face, and she saw, though he spoke cheerfully, his
thoughts echoed not his words. She would not express her own anxiety,
but led him gently to explain to her his plan of defence, and prepare
her for all she might have to encounter.

Five days passed, and all within and without the walls remained the
same; the sixth was the Sabbath, and the greater part of the officers
and garrison were assembled in the chapel, where divine service was
regularly read by the Abbot of Scone, whom we should perhaps before have
mentioned as having, at the king's especial request, accompanied the
queen and her attendants to Kildrummie. It was a solemn yet stirring
sight, that little edifice, filled as it was with steel-clad warriors
and rude and dusky forms, now bending in one prayer before their God.
The proud, the lowly, the faithless, and the true, the honorable and the
base, the warrior, whose whole soul burned and throbbed but for his
country and his king, the coward, whose only thought was how he could
obtain life for himself and save the dread of war by the surrender of
the castle--one and all knelt there, the workings of those diverse
hearts known but to Him before whom they bent. Strangely and mournfully
did that little group of delicate females gleam forth amidst the darker
and harsher forms around, as a knot of fragile flowers blooming alone,
and unsheltered amidst some rude old forest trees, safe in their own
lowliness from the approaching tempest, but liable to be overwhelmed in
the fall of their companions, whom yet they would not leave. As calmly
as in his own