should rejoin her
husband as soon as possible, and the countess's promise that if she
wished it, she should herself be witness of her interview with Edward.
It was indeed poor comfort, but her mind was well-nigh wearied out with
sorrow, as if incapable of bearing more, and she acquiesced from very
exhaustion.

The desire that she herself should conjure the mercy of Edward had been
negatived even to her anxious heart by the assurance of both the earl
and the princess, that instead of doing good to her husband's cause she
would but sign her own doom, perchance be consigned to the power of her
father, and be compelled to relinquish the poor consolation of being
with her husband to the last. It was better she should retain the
disguise she had assumed, adopting merely in addition the dress of one
of the princess's own pages, a measure which would save her from all
observation in the palace, and give her admittance to Sir Nigel,
perchance, when as his own attendant it would be denied.

The idea of rejoining her husband would have reconciled Agnes to any
thing that might have been proposed, and kneeling at the feet of her
protectress, she struggled to speak her willingness and blessing on her
goodness, but her tongue was parched, her lips were mute, and the
princess turned away, for her gentle spirit could not read unmoved the
silent thankfulness of that young and breaking heart.

CHAPTER XXIV.

It would be useless to linger on the trial of Nigel Bruce, in itself a
mockery of justice, as were all those which had proceeded, and all that
followed it. The native nobility of Scotland were no subjects of the
King of England; they owed him homage, perchance, for lands held in
England, but on flocking to the standard of the Bruce these had at once
been voluntarily forfeited, and they fought but as Scottish men
determined to throw off the yoke of a tyrant whose arms had overrun a
land to which he had no claim. They fought for the freedom of a country,
for their own liberty, and therefore were no traitors; but these facts
availed not with the ruthless sovereign, to whom opposition was treason.
The mockery of justice proceeded, it gave a deeper impression, a graver
solemnity to their execution, and therefore for not one of his prisoners
was the ceremony dispensed with. Sir Christopher Seaton had been
conveyed to the Tower, with his wife, under pretence of there waiting
till his wounds were cured, to abide his trial, and in