“I joy thou wert not punished for thy rashness, Duncan.  Yet ’twas not in such mood I hoped to find thee; knowest thou that ’tis to yon brave stranger thou owest thy life?”

“Better it had been forfeited, than that he should stand between me and mine honor.  I thank him not for it, nor owe him aught like gratitude.”

“Peace, ungrateful boy, an thou knowest not thy station better,” was his sister’s calm, yet dignified reply; and the stranger smiled, and by his courteous manner, speedily dismissed her fears as to the impression of her brother’s words, regarding them as the mere petulance of a child.

Days passed, and still the stranger lingered; eminently handsome, his carriage peculiarly graceful, and even dignified, although it was evident, from the slight, and as it were, unfinished roundness of his figure, that he was but in the first stage of youth, yet his discourse and manner were of a kind that would bespeak him noble, even had his appearance been less convincing.  According to the custom of the time, which would have deemed the questioning a guest as to his name and family a breach of all the rules of chivalry and hospitality, he remained unknown.

“Men call me Sir Robert, though I have still my spurs to win,” he had once said, laughingly, to Lady Isabella and her kinsman, Sir Malise Duff, “but I would not proclaim my birth till I may bring it honor.”

A month passed ere their guest took his departure, leaving regard and regret behind him, in all, perhaps, save in the childish breast of Earl Duncan, whose sullen manner had never changed.  There was a freshness and light-heartedness, and a wild spirit of daring gallantry about the stranger that fascinated, men scarce knew wherefore; a reckless independence of sentiment which charmed, from the utter absence of all affectation which it comprised.  To all, save to the Lady Isabella, he was a mere boy, younger even than his years; but in conversation with her his superior mind shone forth, proving he could in truth appreciate hers, and give back intellect for intellect, feeling for feeling; perhaps her beauty and unusual endowments had left their impression upon him.  However it may be, one day, one little day after the departure of Sir Robert, Isabella woke to the consciousness that the calm which had so long rested on her spirit bad departed, and forever; and to what had it given place?  Had she dared to love, she, the betrothed, the promised bride of another?  No; she could not have sunk thus low, her heart had been too long controlled to rebel now.  She might not, she would not listen to its voice, to its wild, impassioned throbs.  Alas! she miscalculated her own power; the fastnesses she had deemed secure were forced; they closed upon their subtle foe, and held their conqueror prisoner.