Malcolm angrily denied this, and they parted, not the best friends imaginable.

On reviewing all that had passed, the boy reproached himself incessantly for having said too much, and was continually tormented by an indefinable fear that some evil would follow.

This fear kept him by the side of the countess, instead of, as was his wont, following Sir Alan to the chase.

The increasing darkness had concealed her from him, but he was the first to distinguish her whistle.

He had reached the spot time enough to recognize the supposed woodman in the second speaker, and to feel with painful acuteness his boyish thoughtlessness had brought this evil on a mistress, to serve whom he would willingly have laid down his life.
Resistance he knew, on his part, was utterly useless, and therefore he determined to follow their track, and thus bring accurate intelligence to the king.