But oh! is it not hard to put my all to the hazard; to see the bloody field on one side of my beloved Donald, and the mortal scaffold on the other ?" "Hush!" cried the earl, "it is justice that beckons me, and victory will receive me to her arms.

Let, oh Power above!" exclaimed he, in the fervor of enthusiasm, "let the victorious field for Scotland be Donald Mar's grave, rather than doom him to live a witness of her miseries!" "I cannot stay to hear you!" answered the countess; "I must invoke the Virgin to give me courage to be a patriot's wife; at present, your words are daggers to me." In uttering this she hastily withdrew, and left the earl to muse on the past--to concert plans for the portentous future..