They imagined they heard their malicious whispers, their derisive laughter; and it pierced their hearts like the stab of a dagger.
At length they had surmounted it--at length the palace lay behind them, and they were at least free to pour out in words the agony that consumed them--free to be able to break out into bitter execrations, into curses and lamentations.
"Lost! all is lost!" said Earl Douglas to himself in a hollow voice.

"I am thwarted in all my plans.

I have sacrificed to the Church my life, my means, ay, even my daughter, and it has all been in vain.

And, like a beggar, I now stand on the street forsaken and without comfort; and our holy mother the Church will no longer heed the son who loved her and sacrificed himself for her, since he was so unfortunate, and his sacrifice unavailing." "Despair not!" said Gardiner, solemnly.

"Clouds gather above us; but they are dispersed again.