“Nigel, Nigel, rash, impetuous boy, what hast thou done?” exclaimed the countess, losing all mien and accent of command in the terror with which she clung round him, as if to protect him from all ill, in the tone and look of maternal tenderness with which she addressed him.  “Why, why must it be my ill fate to hurl down increase of misery and danger on all whom I love?”

“Speak not so, noble lady, in mercy do not!” he whispered in reply; “keep that undaunted spirit shown but now, I can better bear it than this voice of anguish.  And thou,” he added, laying his hand on the shoulder of the boy, who still clung to his knees, as if fascinated there by speechless terror, and gazed alternately on him and the countess with eyes glazed almost in madness, “up, up; this is no place for thee.  What can they do with me but slay—­let them come on—­better, far better than a scaffold!” but the boy moved not, Nigel spoke in vain.

The fate he dared seemed indeed threatening.  Wrought well-nigh to phrensy at this daring insult to his sovereign, in whose acts of cruelty and oppression he could far better sympathize than in his more knightly qualities, the Earl of Berwick loudly and fiercely called on his soldiers to advance and cut down the traitor, to bring the heaviest fetters and bear him to the lowest dungeon.  The men, roused from their stupor of amaze, rushed on impetuously to obey him; their naked swords already gleamed round Nigel; the Countess of Buchan was torn from his side, her own especial guards closing darkly around her; but vainly did they seek to unclasp the convulsive grasp of the boy from Nigel, he neither shrieked nor spake, but he remained in that one posture, rigid as stone.

“Fiends! monsters! would ye, dare ye touch a boy, a child as this!” shouted Nigel, struggling with herculean strength to free himself from the rude grasp of the soldiers, as he beheld the sharp steel pointed at the breast of the boy, to compel him to unloose his hold.  “Villains, cowards! bear back and let me speak with him,” and nerved to madness by the violence of his emotions, he suddenly wrenched himself away, the rapidity of the movement throwing one of the men to the earth, and bent over the boy; again they rushed forward, they closed upon him, they tore away the lad by force of numbers, and flung him senseless on the earth; they sought to bear away their prisoner, but at that moment Hereford, who had been parleying loudly and wrathfully with Berwick, spurred his charger in the very midst of them, and compelled them to bear back.

“Back, back!” he exclaimed, making a path for himself with his drawn sword; “how dare ye thrust yourselves betwixt me and my lawful prisoner, captive of my sword and power? what right have ye to dare detain him?  Let go your hold, none but the men whose prowess gained this gallant prize shall guard him till my sovereign’s will be known.  Back, back, I say!”

“Traitor!” retorted Berwick, “he is no longer your prisoner.  An insult offered to King Edward, in the loyal citadel of Berwick, in my very presence, his representative as I stand, shall meet with fit retribution.  He hath insulted his sovereign by act and word, and I attach him of high treason and will enforce my charge.  Forward, I say!”