"My brother! my father!" exclaimed Catherine, with an expression of
agonized apprehension--"they are in the midst of peril, and I in
safety!"
"Would to God," said Roland, "that I were with them, and could
ransom every drop of their blood by two of mine!"
"Do I not know thou dost wish it?" said Catherine--"Can a woman say to
a man what I have well-nigh said to thee, and yet think that he could
harbour fear or faintness of heart?--There is that in yon distant
sound of approaching battle that pleases me even while it affrights
me. I would I were a man, that I might feel that stern delight,
without the mixture of terror!"
"Ride up, ride up, Lady Catherine Seyton," cried the Abbot, as they
still swept on at a rapid pace, and were now close beneath the walls
of the castle--"ride up, and aid Lady Fleming to support the
Queen--she gives way more and more."
They halted and lifted Mary from the saddle, and were about to support
her towards the castle, when she said faintly, "Not there--not
there--these walls will I never enter more!"
"Be a Queen, madam," said the Abbot, "and forget that you are a
woman."
"Oh, I must forget much, much more," answered the unfortunate Mary, in
an under tone, "ere I can look with steady eyes on these well-known
scenes!--I must forget the days which I spent here as the bride of the
lost--the murdered----"
"This is the Castle of Crookstone," said the Lady Fleming, "in which
the Queen held her first court after she was married to Darnley.
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