CHAPTER V.
Fierce he broke forth: "And darest thou then To beard the lion in his den?
The Douglas in his hall?
And hopest thou hence unscathed to got No, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no! Up drawbridge, grooms!--ho! warder, ho! Let the portcullis fall!" MARMION For three weeks the Lady Margaret had expected the duke and her brother; for three weeks Gilbert had impatiently awaited his father's return.
Toward the close of September, a group of young children might be seen clustering around an old man, at the edge of the forest, within a stone's throw of the Church of the Nativity.

They were listening eagerly and delightedly to the patriarch they had surrounded, in whom we recognize Father Omehr.

The faces of the infant band were bright with innocence and that happy alchemy which turns the merest toy to a costly treasure.

There was a tender piety on the features of those children that moved the heart.

Devotion lies upon the face of youth with a peculiar fitness.