“And would to God I could teach them thus again!” exclaimed the queen, tears coursing down her cheeks.  “Oh, Agnes, Agnes, were Robert here, not death itself should part us.  For my child’s sake, for his, I go hence for safety.  Could my resting, nay, my death benefit him, Agnes, I would meet it, weak as thou deemest me.”

“Nay, nay, I doubt it not, my queen,” answered Agnes, soothingly, “It is best thou shouldst find some place of repose till this struggle be past.  If it end in victory, it will be joy to hail thee once again within its walls; if otherwise, better thy safety should be cared for.”

“But for thee, my child, is it not unmaidenly for thee to linger here?”

“It would be, royal madam,” and a bright vivid flush glowed on her pale cheeks, “but for the protection of the Lady Seaton, who will not leave her husband.”

“I may not blame her, after mine own words,” said the queen, sorrowfully; “yet she is one I could have wished beside me.  Ha! that trumpet.  Merciful heaven! is it the foe?” and trembling with alarm, she dispatched attendant after attendant to know the cause.

The English force was known to be so near that many a warrior-heart beat quicker at any unusual blast, and it was not marvel the queen’s terrors should very often affect her attendants.  Agnes alone, amid the maiden train, ever retained a calm self-possession; strange in one who, till the last eventful year, had seemed such a very child.  Her mother trembled lest the turmoils and confusion of her country should ever approach her or those she loved; how might she, timid, nay; often fearful, weak, and yielding, as the flower on the heath, how might she encounter storm, and grief, and care?  Had her mother’s eye been on her now, and could have followed her in yet deeper trials, that mother scarce had known her child.

She it was whose coolness enabled her easily to recognize and explain the trumpet’s blast.  It was an officer with an escort from the Lord of Ross, informing the queen that, from late intelligence respecting the movements of the English, he deemed it better they should not defer their departure from the castle another night.

On the receipt of this message all was increased hurry and confusion in the apartments of the queen.  The advice was to be followed on the instant, and ere sunset the litters and mules, and other accommodation for the travellers, waited their pleasure in the outer court.

It was with a mien of princely dignity, a countenance grave and thoughtful, with which the youthful seneschal attended the travellers to the great gate of the castle.  In after years the expression of his features flashed again and again upon those who looked upon him them.  Calmly he bade his sister-in-law farewell, and bade her, should she be the first to see his brother, tell him that it was at her own free will and pleasure she thus departed; that neither advice nor persuasion on his part had been used; she had of her own will released him from his sacred charge; and if ill came of it, to free his memory from blame.