Evening star., 1898-12-17

dusty barns. ground in mills, or close
pressed in thatched rick. He breasted the
long smooth rise and entered the woods
which encircled the bright lake of Carlin-
Wark, the pearl of all the southland Scot
tish lochs
With strange sense of detachment he
looked down upon the greensward between
MN and his mothers gable end, upon
which as a child he had wandered. Then it
was nearly as large as the world, and the
grass was most comfortable to small bare
rect There were children playing upon it
now, even as there had been of old-among
them his own little sister Magdalen whose
hair was spun gold, and whose eyes blue as
the forset-me-not in the marshes of the
Isle Wood. The children We're dressed In
white, five little girls in all, as for festal
day, and their voices came upward to
Sholto's ear through the arches of the great
beeches which studded the turf even as
they had done to that Of William Douglas
| In the springtime of the year.
The minor note, the dying fall of the in
nocent voices tugged at his heart strings
He could hear little Magdalen leading the
chorus:
Margaret Douglas, fresh and fair,
A bunch of roses she shall wear;
Gold and silver by her side,
l know who's her bride.
1t was at Fair Maid they were playing
the mystic dance of southland maidenhood,
at whose Vestal rites no male of any age
was ever permitted to be present The
words broke in upon the gloom which op-
pressed Sholto's heart. Momentarily he
forgot his master and saw Maud Lindsay
with the little Margaret Douglas of whom
the chlldren sang, again gathering the gow-
ans on the braesides of Thrieve or periIous-
iy reaching for the purple irises athwart
the bitches of the isle
Take her by the lily-white hand
Lead her Ger the wafer
Give her kisses, one, two, three,
For she's a lady's daughter.
AS Sholto MacKim listened to the quaint
moving a
| INTO the field of his vision that which stiff
1ened him into a statue Of breathing
marble
For without clatter or accouterment or
tramp OF hoof, without companion or at
tendant, white palfrey had appeared
through the green arches of the woodlands
A girl was seated upon the saddle, swaying
with gentle movement to the motion of her
steed. AT the sight of her face as she came
nearer, low cry of horror and amazement
broke from Sholto's lips.
| 1t was the Lady Sybilla.
Yet he knew that he had left her behind
MIN In Edinburgh, the siren temptress of
Earl Douglas, she who had led his master
into the power of the enemy, she for whose
| sake he had refused the certainty of free
| dom and life. Anger against this smiling
enchantreSs suddenly surged up in Sholto' S
| heart.
Halt thereon your lfe! he cried, and
urged his wearied steed forward. Like a
winter wind among dried leaves the chill
! dren were dispersed every way by the gust
| OF his angry shout, But the maiden On the
| palfry either needed not or did not hear.
| Whereupon Shoto rode furiously to in
| tercept her. He would learn what had he
| fallen his master At least he would avenge
! him upon one-the chefest and subtlest of
| his enemies. But not till he had come
| within ten PAGES did the Lady Sybilla turn
| upon him her regard. Then he saw her
| face. 1t broke upon him sudden as the
! imminent sight of hell to one sure of sal
| walton. He had expected to find there
gratified ambition, stated lust, exultant
| pride, cruel vengeance. He saw instead as
1t had been the face of an angel cast out of
| heaven, of martyr who had passed
| through the torture chamber on her way to
the place of burning.
The sight stopped Sholto, stricken and
| wavering. His anger fell from him like a
| garment.
! The Lady Sybilias face showed of no
| earthly paleness. Marble white it was the
| eyes heavy with weeping. purple lings be-
/ meath accentuating the horror that dWelt
in them. The lips that had been as the
| bow OF Apollo were parted as though they
| mad been singing the dirge of one beloved,
| and ever as she rode the tears ran down
! her cheeks and fell on her white robe, and
upon her palfreys name.
| She looked at Sholto when he came near.
/ but not as one who sees or recognizes
| Rather as If dumb, drunken, besotted with
| grief looked forth the soul of the LADY
Sybilla upon the captain Of the Douglas
| Guard. She needed not his angry shout
| Tor another voice rang ever in her ears
speaking the knightliest words ever uttered
| by man about to die. Sholto's sword was
| threateningly in his hand, but SybilIa saw
only another sword gleam bright in the