Bruce knew the veteran nobleman too well to attribute this advice to any motive save deep interest in his safety.  He saw, too, that it was utterly impossible for them to remain as they then were, without serious evils alike to his female and male companions; the common soldiers, steady and firm as they still continued in loyalty, yet were continually dispersing, promising to reassemble in the spring, but declaring that it was useless to think of struggling against the English, when the very elements were at war against them.  With a sad foreboding, Robert saw, and communicated to his devoted wife the necessity of their separation.  He felt that it was right and best, and therefore he resisted all her tearful entreaties still to linger by his side; her child was suffering, for her tender years could not bear up against the cold and the want of proper nourishment, and yet even that claim seemed less to the mother’s heart than the vision of her husband enduring increase of hardship alone.  Her acquiescence was indeed at length obtained, but dimmed by many very bitter tears.

A hasty consultation with his few remaining friends speedily decided the Bruce’s plans.  The castle of Kildrummie, a strong fortress situated at the head of the Don, in Aberdeenshire, yet remained to him, and thither, under the escort of his brother Nigel and three hundred men, the king determined to send his wife and child, and the other ladies of his court.  Himself, his three brothers, Edward, Alexander, and Thomas, Douglas, Sir Niel Campbell, and his remaining two hundred followers, resolved on cautiously making their way southward across Loch Lomond, and proceed thence to the coast of Ireland, there to await the spring.  In pursuance of this plan, Sir Niel Campbell was dispatched without delay to conciliate Angus, Lord of the Isles, to whom Cantire then belonged.  Knowing he was unfriendly to his near neighbors, the Lords of Lorn, the king trusted he should find in him a powerful ally.  To appeal yet more strongly to the chivalric hospitality which characterized the chieftain, Sir Niel consented that his wife and daughter Isoline should accompany him.  Lady Campbell had too lately undergone the grief and anxiety attendant on the supposed loss of her husband to consent to another parting.  Even the king, her brother, sought not to dissuade her; but all persuasions to induce Agnes to accompany them were vain; bitter as the pang of separation was to her already aching heart—­for Lady Campbell and Isoline were both most dear to her—­she steadily resolved to remain with the queen and her attendants, and thus share the fate of her betrothed.