"Behold!" he replied; and, drawing back a mass of the pendant ivy and wild-roses that overhung the entrance of the vault, he displayed the beautiful valley or dell, through which the noble Clyde, so broad, blue, and crystalline, was winding between its banks of lofty wood, and overlooked by the dark façade of Bothwell's princely stronghold.
Full on the long line of its crenelated rampart, on the strong round towers that the patriot Wallace, and "proud Pembroke's haughty Earl," had built, on its shining casements and lofty keep, overtopping the summer foliage and the morning mist, shone the warm splendour of the early sun. Anna gave one fixed and fierce glance at the edifice, and then arose with tottering steps, and wildness in her air and eyes.
"Whither wouldst thou, Anna?" said Konrad imploringly, retaining her hand.
"I am going to him"——
"To Bothwell?"
"I will—I shall see him once again, though only to expire at his feet. One interview may"——
"Dear Anna," said Konrad, who never for an instant, under all her petulance and neglect, altered his gentle and loverlike tone; "thou forgettest that he is wedded to another—a great lady of the land—and that thou art now but as a weed, a bramble in his path, to be crushed or thrown aside."
"Go to! Konrad—'tis but jealousy that makes thee speak thus."
"Thou wrongest me, Lady Anna; 'tis long since jealousy died within me. Oh! that was an agony that could not last with life. Tarry but one hour, I implore—thou art so faint, Anna"——
"Dare you detain me, sir?"