that of a man borne down and crushed to the earth by the burden
of his inward feelings. It seemed to the Scot that only the
sense of the deepest penitence, remorse, and humiliation could
have thus prostrated a frame so strong and a spirit so fiery.

He approached him as if to speak; but the recluse anticipated his
purpose, murmuring in stifled tones, from beneath the fold in
which his head was muffled, and which sounded like a voice
proceeding from the cerements of a corpse,--"Abide, abide--happy
thou that mayest--the vision is not yet ended." So saying, he
reared himself from the ground, drew back from the threshold on
which he had hitherto lain prostrate, and closed the door of the
chapel, which, secured by a spring bolt within, the snap of which
resounded through the place, appeared so much like a part of the
living rock from which the cavern was hewn, that Kenneth could
hardly discern where the aperture had been. He was now alone in
the lighted chapel which contained the relic to which he had
lately rendered his homage, without other arms than his dagger,
or other companion than his pious thoughts and dauntless courage.

Uncertain what was next to happen, but resolved to abide the
course of events, Sir Kenneth paced the solitary chapel till
about the time of the earliest cock-crowing. At this dead
season, when night and morning met together, he heard, but from
what quarter he could not discover, the sound of such a small
silver bell as is rung at the elevation of the host in the
ceremony, or sacrifice, as it has been called, of the mass. The
hour and the place rendered the sound fearfully solemn, and, bold
as he was, the knight withdrew himself into the farther nook of
the chapel, at the end opposite to the altar, in order to