ing made such extraordinary provision for
confinement? There were not wanting suggestions and guesses, and
wondrous fancies; for as yet there was such a close guard in the centre
of the cavalcade, that the very person of the prisoner could not be
distinguished. Nay, there were some who ventured to hint and believe it
might be the excommunicated Earl of Carrick himself. It was most likely,
for whom else could the cage, so exactly like a crown, be intended? and
there were many who vaunted the wise policy of Edward, at having hit on
such an expedient for lowering his rival's pride. Others, indeed,
declared the idea was all nonsense; it was not likely he would incur
such expense, king as he was, merely to mortify a traitor he had sworn
to put to death. The argument waxed loud and warm. Meanwhile the
cavalcade had crossed the bridge, been received through the south gate,
and in the same slow and solemn pomp proceeded through the town.

"By all the saints, it is only a woman!" was the information shouted by
an eager spectator, who had clambered above the heads of his fellows to
obtain the first and most coveted view. His words were echoed in blank
amazement.

"Aye, clothed in white like a penitent, with her black hair streaming
all over her shoulders, without any covering on her head at all, and
nothing but a thin, torn sandal on her bare feet; and the knights look
black as thunder, as if they like not the business they are engaged in."

It was even so. There was an expression on the face of the officers
impossible to be misunderstood; frowningly, darkly, they obeyed their
sovereign's mandate, simply because they dared not disobey; but there
was not one among them who would not rather have sought the most deadly
front of battle than thus conduct a woman, aye, and a most noble one,
unto her prison. The very men, rude, stern, as they mostly were, shared
this feeling; they guarded her with lowered heads and knitted brows; and
if either officer or man-at-arms had to address her, it was with an
involuntary yet genuine movement and manner of respect that little
accorded with their present relative position. The crowds looked first
at the cavalcade and marvelled, then at the prisoner, and they did not
marvel more.

Clad as she was, in white, flowing garments, very similar to those worn
by penitents, her head wholly undefended from cold or rain even by a
veil; her long, luxuriant, jet-black hair, in which as yet, despite of
care