image;
mind, not a wish. Insensibility it was not, alas! no, that void was woe,
all woe, which folded up heart and brain as with a cloak of fire,
scorching up thought, memory, hope--all that could recall the past,
vivify the present, or vision forth the future. She breathed indeed and
spoke, and clung to that aged man with all the clinging helplessness of
her sex, but scarce could she be said to live; all that was real of life
had twined round her husband's soul, and with it fled.

The old man felt not his advanced age, the consciousness of the many
dangers hovering on their way; his whole thought was for her, to bring
her to the soothing care and protection of the king, and then he cared
not how soon his sand run out. When wandering in the districts of
Annandale and Carrick, before he had arrived at Berwick, he had learned
the secret but most important intelligence that King Robert had passed
the winter off the coast of Ireland, and was supposed to be only waiting
a favorable opportunity to return to Scotland, and once more upraise his
standard. This news had been most religiously and strictly preserved a
secret amid the few faithful adherents of the Bruce, who perhaps spoke
yet more as they hoped than as a fact well founded.

For some days their way had been more fatiguing than dangerous, for
though the country was overrun with English, a minstrel and a page were
objects far too insignificant, in the present state of excitement, to
meet with either detention or notice. Not a week had passed, however,
before rumors of Buchan's parties reached the old man's ears, and filled
him with anxiety and dread. The feverish restlessness of Agnes to
advance yet quicker on their way, precluded all idea of halting, save in
woods and caverns, till the danger had passed. Without informing her of
all he had heard, and the danger he apprehended, he endeavored to avoid
all towns and villages; but the heavy rains which had set in rendered
their path through the country yet more precarious and uncertain, and
often compelled him most unwillingly to seek other and better shelter.
At Strathaven he became conscious that their dress and appearance were
strictly scrutinized, and some remarks that he distinguished convinced
him that Buchan had either passed through that town, or was lingering in
its neighborhood still. Turning sick with apprehension, the old man
hastily retraced his steps to the hostel, where he had left Agnes, and
found her, fo