to Lord Douglas, but I durst not attempt to warn him of it; and, to
secure my charge, which a return to the room might have hazarded, I
hastened into the courtyard, and being permitted to mount my horse, set
off at full speed.

"On arriving at this place, I remembered the secret closet, and
carefully deposited the box within it. A week passed, without any
tidings of Lord Douglas. At last a pilgrim appeared at the gate, and
requested to see me alone; fearing nothing from a man in so sacred a
habit, I admitted him. Presenting me with a packet which had been
intrusted to him by Lord Douglas, he told me my patron had been
forcibly carried on board a vessel at Montrose, to be conveyed with the
unhappy Baliol to the Tower of London. Douglas, on this outrage, sent
to the monastery at Aberbrothick, and under the pretense of making a
religious confession before he sailed, begged a visit from the
sub-prior. 'I am that prior,' continued the pilgrim; 'and having been
born on the Douglas lands, he well knew the claim he had to my
fidelity. He gave me this packet, and conjured me to lose no time in
conveying it to you. The task was difficult; and, as in these
calamitous seasons we hardly know whom to trust, I determined to
execute it myself.'

"I inquired whether Lord Douglas had actually sailed. 'Yes,' replied
the father; 'I stood on the beach till the ship disappeared.'"

A half-stifled groan burst from the indignant breast of Wallace. It
interrupted Monteith for an instant, but without noticing it he
proceeded:

"Not only the brave Douglas was then wrested from his country, with our