to
the spot where she stood.

"Do not leave him there, he will be trampled on," she said, imploringly,
to the officers beside her. "He can do no harm, poor child, Scotch
though he be. A little water, only bring me a little water, and he will
speedily recover."

All she desired was done, the boy was tenderly raised and brought within
the circle of her guards, and laid on the ground at her feet. She knelt
down beside him, chafed his cold hands within her own, and moistened his
lips and brow with water. After a while his scattered senses returned,
he started up in a sitting posture, and gazed in wild inquiry around
him, uttering a few inarticulate words, and then saying aloud, "Sir
Nigel, my lord, my--my--master, where is he? oh! let me go to him; why
am I here?"

"Thou shalt go to him, poor boy, as soon as thy strength returns; an
they have let thee follow him from Scotland, surely they will not part
ye now," said the countess soothingly, and her voice seemed to rouse the
lad into more consciousness. He gazed long in her face, with an
expression which at that time she could not define, but which startled
and affected her, and she put her arm round him and kissed his brow. A
convulsive almost agonized sob broke from the boy's breast, and caused
his slight frame to shake as with an ague, then suddenly he knelt before
her, and, in accents barely articulate, murmured--

"Bless me, oh bless me!" while another word seemed struggling for
utterance, but checked with an effort which caused it to die on his lips
in indistinct murmurs.

"Bless thee, poor child! from my very heart I do, if the blessing of one
sorrowing and afflicted as myself can in aught avail thee. For thy
faithfulness to thy master, I bless thee, for it speaketh well for thee,
and that face would bid me love and bless thee for thyself, I know not
wherefore. Good angels keep and bless thee, gentle boy, thou hast
Isabella's prayers, and may they give thee peace."

"Pray for me, aye, pray for me," repeated the boy, in the same murmured
tones. He clasped her hands in both his, he pressed them again and again
to his lips, repeated sobs burst from his laboring breast, and then he
sprung up, darted away, and stood at Sir Nigel's side, just as the Earl
of Hereford had commanded his men to wheel a little to the right, to
permit the Countess of Buchan, her guards and officers, free passage
over the drawbridge, and first entrance within the fortress.

The brow of t