her side; and, intoxicated with the idea, she ran through many a
melodious descant, till toughing on the first strains of Thusa ha measg
na reultan mor, she saw Wallace start from his contemplative position,
and with a pale countenance leave the room. There was something in
this abruptness which excited the alarm of the Earl of Lennox, who had
also been listening to the songs; he rose instantly, and overtaking the
chief at the threshold, inquired what was the matter? "Nothing,"
answered Wallace, forcing a smile, in which the agony of his mind was
too truly imprinted; "but music displeased me." With this reply he
disappeared. The excuse seemed strange but it was true; for she whose
notes were to him sweeter than the thrush-whose angel strains used to
greet his morning and evening hours-was silent in the grave! He should
no more see her white hand upon the lute; he should no more behold that
bosom, brighter than foam upon the wave, to him? A soulless sound, or
a direful knell, to recall the remembrance of all he had lost.

Such were his thoughts when the words of Thusa ha measg rung from Lady
Mar's voice. Those were the strains which Halbert used to breathe from
his heart to call Marion to her nightly slumbers-those were the strains
with which that faithful servant had announced that she slept to wake
no more!

What wonder, then, that Wallace fled from the apartment, and buried
himself, and his aroused grief, amid the distant solitudes of the
beacon-hill!

While looking over the shoulder of his uncle, on the station which
Stirling held amid the Ochil hills, Edwin had at intervals cast a
side-long glance upon the changing complexion of his commander; and no
sooner did he see him hurry from the room, than fearful of some