For some minutes the girl made no answer.  At length she said, standing up, and half turning toward the bushes: 

“I will trust you, Sir Archie.  I know you to be a brave and honourable knight, and I will trust you.  I know `tis a strange step to take, and the world will blame me; but what can I do?  If I refuse your offer I shall be kept a prisoner here until I consent to marry John of Lorne, whom I hate, for he is as rough and cruel as his father, without the kindness of heart, which, save in his angry moments, the latter has ever had toward me.  All my relations are against me, and struggle against my fate as I may, I must in the end bend to their will if I remain here. `Tis a hard choice to make; but what can I do?  Yes, I will trust to your honour; and may God and all the saints punish you if you are false to the trust!  Tomorrow evening, as the vespers are chiming, I will be at the water’s edge, behind yonder clump of bushes.”

Then, with head bent down and slow steps, Marjory returned to the convent, none addressing her as she passed through the groups of her companions, the order that she was to be shut out from the rest having been already issued.  Archie remained in his place of concealment until the gardens were deserted and night had fallen.  Then he left his hiding place, and, entering the lake, swam quietly away, and landed far beyond the village.  An hour’s walk brought him to the encampment of his comrades.

At daybreak next morning the band, under the command of William Orr, started for their long march round the head of the lake to the position which they were to take up on the opposite side facing the convent, Archie choosing three of the number most accustomed to the handling of oars to remain with him.  With these he set out on a hunt as soon as the main body had left, and by midday had succeeded in killing a stag.  With this swung on a pole carried by his followers Archie proceeded to the village.  He speedily found the fisherman with whom he had before bargained.

“I did not expect you back again so soon,” the old man said.

“We killed a buck this morning,” Archie said carelessly, “and my friends thought that the afternoon would be fine for fishing.”

“You can try if you like,” the fisherman said, “but I fear that you will have but little sport.  The day is too bright and clear, and the fish will be sulking at the bottom of the lake.”

“We will try,” Archie said, “nevertheless.  Even if the sport is bad it will be pleasant out on the lake, and if we catch nothing we will get you to give us some fresh fish instead of dry.  The folks in the hills will be no wiser, and it will not do for us to return empty handed.”

The fisherman assented, and placed the oars and nets in the boat, and Archie and his companions entering rowed out into the middle of the lake, and then throwing over the nets busied themselves with fishing.