Even the king, her brother, sought not to dissuade her; but all persuasions to induce Agnes to accompany them were vain; bitter as the pang of separation was to her already aching heart--for Lady Campbell and Isoline were both most dear to her--she steadily resolved to remain with the queen and her attendants, and thus share the fate of her betrothed.
"Did not my mother commend me to thy care?
Did she not bid thee tend me as a brother until happier hours, and shall I seek other guardianship than thine, my Nigel ?" were her whispered words, and Nigel could not answer them.

So pure, so unselfish was her love, that though he felt his happiness would have departed with her presence, could he have commanded words he would have implored her to seek the hospitality of the Lord of the Isles as a securer home than Kildrummie.

Those forebodings already alluded to had returned with darker weight from the hour his separation from his brother was resolved on.

He evinced no sign of his inward thoughts, he uttered no word of dissent, for the trust reposed in him by his sovereign was indeed as precious as it was honorable; but there was a mournful expression on his beautiful countenance--when unobserved, it would rest upon his brother--that Agnes could not define, although it filled her spirit with incomprehensible alarm, and urged her yet more to abide by his side.
The dreaded day arrived at length, and agonized was indeed that parting.
Cheerfully the king looked, and hopefully he spoke, but it had no power to calm the whelming tide of sorrow in which his wife clung to his embrace.

Again and again she returned to that faithful heart which bore so fondly, so forbearingly, with all her faults and weaknesses; and Margory, although she could not comprehend the extent of sorrow experienced by her mother, wept bitterly at her side.