"The joy of being restored to you counterbalances every evil," she whispered in his ear.
"Mine own sweetheart! Then think of the time when I shall be always with you, and when we shall never be parted again."
There was a tender and mute embrace, which was suddenly interrupted by a sound of alarm.
"Hark—what is that?" exclaimed Madeline starting back.
"The explosion of an arquebuse——"
"And voices——"
"Quite near us, too—be still—we are beset!"
"To your sword, Fawside," cried Claude Hamilton, coming hastily forward; "some of these pestilent English stragglers are close by. Remove the countess—Father John, lead her within, and leave the young laird and me to make what service we may, and to keep the mouth of this dark hole while life and blood and steel remain to us."
Madeline was led away, while Florence and the old knight of Preston, with their swords drawn, crept close to the mouth of the cavern, from whence, as the moon was now up, a clear, broad, and yellow one, for the season was harvest, they could distinctly sec the coming danger. Several of the enemy's pillagers had been passing near, and had too evidently heard the sound of voices in these caverns, the echoes of which repeat each other with many reverberations.