my Lord Abbot," retorted Angus, suspicious that there was some treachery hidden behind this singular interruption to their course; "but if they be worthy of the warrant you have given for them, the lady will not hesitate to acquaint us where we may find the King."

"If she has knowledge of it she will not hesitate, I stake my word," rejoined Panther, suavely, "when she learns. that no harm is intended towards his Grace-whom Heaven keep in safety-and that it is the knave Cochrane whom we seek. Answer his lordship's question, Mistress Katherine, if you can."

She hesitated, and then spoke with proud coldness.

"I accept your pledge, my Lord Abbot, that this goodly company who have broken upon his Majesty's privacy mean

him no harm."

"Our honour is pledged to that-is it not, gentlemen ? "Most faithfully," said Lord Gray, and several echoed his words.

But Angus remained silent, too haughty to give a pledge which he deemed none should have required from him, notwithstanding the threatened attitude he occupied at the moment.

"You seek Cochrane?" she exclaimed, remembering with what eagerness he had hurried the King away; "he has given his Majesty reason to believe that you were about to attack his royal person."

"And so has obtained protection for himself whilst he makes us seem blackest villains, by hurrying the King away from us," added Lamington.

"As I guessed," muttered Angus; "the more need to find his Majesty at once. Speak, mistress; whither fled

he?"

"He went hence by a private passage, and Cochrane with him," she answered; "but I have no knowledge of their hiding-place."

"Follow me, some of you," cried the earl, "to the chambers of the Queen-spread the rest of you throughout the palace, and leave no corner that would hide a toad unsearched for the assassin Cochrane."

The command was acted upon, the instant it was uttered. Half a dozen accompanied Angus, and amongst them Panther, that he might be near his royal mistress in the emer

gency, and that he might exercise what restraint he could upon the heated passions of his companions. The others seized the various lights which illuminated the King's apartments, and directed themselves to the search for the general foe.

Cochrane had need of all his courage and cunning this night, for those who were on his track had smarted under the slights his ambition and vanity had inflicted; many of them were kin to nobles and esquires who had been banished the court by his influence. They were men, too, of resolution, and conscious that their failure in this open ou break against the favourites of James would result in their own compulsory retirement for a while, if in nothing

worse.

Lamington alone remained with Katherine. A solitary taper shed a feeble light athwart the chambers of royalty which had been so recently ablaze and resonant with voices. Now they were deserted and filled with a ghostly silence, all the more remarkable from the bustle which had prevailed a little while previously.

Katherine watched the last of the conspirators disappear, and then she turned eagerly to Gordon.

"Lamington-Lamington," she cried, "do you credit them are you satisfied that they mean the King no harm -and why are you leagued with these men?"

"Because I love you, and because I hate Cochrane. That is why I have leagued myself with those whom he has wronged, and who thirst like me for his destruction."

"But do they seek it wisely in thus breaking through all law and exposing themselves-exposing you, Lamington, to the suspicion of the foulest treason?"

"There is no time for explanation, Katherine," he said, with a strange tone of sadness in his voice, arising from the many conflicting emotions which her presence inspired, and which their singular meeting this night had served to heighten; "I am with them for reasons which have satisfied me that theirs is the only course whereby justice may be wrought."

"And if they fail ?"

"If they fail I perish utterly, for death will be the smallest penalty that our victors will requite us with. Angus and the rest have staked much upon this venture,

but I stake more than all of them, for my hopes of winning you rest on the hazard."

"Then pause now;

it is not too late."

"I dare not pause without being counted doubly false; for I can only prove the worth of the motive that has tempted me so far by pushing straight forward to the end."

"You will destroy all-the good Queen Margaret is our friend. She has given me her protection; she has made me one of her own closest attendants, and she has pledged herself to set you right in the estimation of the King-she has pledged herself that all you most desire shall be granted in spite of twenty Cochranes, if we will only have patience for a little while. She has given her gracious promise for all this, and the Queen has never failed her word."

"I do not doubt it, and from my soul I am grateful to her; but it is too late to turn."

66

Can nothing stay you-not even me?"

"Nothing can stay me, when to stay is to lose you. Cease your persuasions, Katherine, and help me to the end we both desire. We have already wasted time, and I am a laggard when I should be most active. As you are the cause of my sloth, be you likewise the means of proving my industry."

"In what can I aid you ?"

"Show me which way has Cochrane fled. That is how you can aid me, and remember upon my finding him tonight depends our future."

She did not answer.

"You hesitate, and with me, when you have learned how much depends upon the issue of this night's work!" he ejaculated, drawing back from her in wonder.

"If I have hesitated, Lamington, it has been for your sake-the soldiers have been summoned from the town; the guard will be released, and your escape will be impossible."

"Ha!—the soldiers already called in from the townthe more need for haste. Show me the way, if you are as wishful for our speedy union as I would fain believe you to be."

"If I am? Oh, Lamington!" she exclaimed, reproachfully.

"Prove it, then, and let Cochrane be swept for ever from our path."

66 As you will, and the Sacred Mother help us both." She took the remaining taper from its stand, and approached an ebony cabinet which stood near the bedstead. She drew open one of the panels, and displayed a recess filled with various articles of curiosity. These she thrust aside.

"I do not think his Majesty would have moved from his place had it not been for Cochrane," she explained, as she proceeded; "he drew his Grace away and would not permit him to encounter the nobles, as he wished to do, even when I delivered to him the Queen's message begging him to fly-for she had been cruelly alarmed by what little she was enabled to learn from one of her attendants."

Ay, Cochrane no doubt feared to let him act as his Majesty's own good sense dictated, and as a monarch should have acted."

"He almost dragged his Grace away, for he seemed to become too much confused to know what he was doing," Katherine continued; "it seemed as if Cochrane were the master rather than the servant, and in my anxiety at the moment I obeyed him as though I did not recognize in him my bitterest foe. He bade me replace these things as you see them now, and whilst he was moving them, as we are doing, I watched him closely, and so discovered the trick of this passage."

As she spoke, a portion of the back of the cabinet yielded to her touch, and sliding to one side, disclosed the stone wall of the chamber. Again, obedient to a cunningly contrived spring, a part of the masonry revolved noiselessly on a hinge, revealing an opening only large enough to permit one person to pass at a time. Gordon went first, and Katherine reclosed the various traps which concealed the outlet.

Then she took the lead, holding the taper high to show the path.

He wished to go first, but she was obstinate. She did not explain her dread, lest from some unknown recess he might be stricken down without the possibility of raising

his hand in self-defence.

Whilst she preceded him, holding the light, and with

its aid scanning every dark, suspicious nook, there was at least the probability that she would be able to give him warning before he could be assaulted. So she was resolute, and no entreaty of his could move her from the determination to be his guide.

She suddenly slackened her pace, and listened eagerly for any sound that might indicate the neighbourhood of others than themselves.

"Do you hear aught or see aught, that you linger ? he said, lowering his voice instinctively.

"No," she rejoined, in the same whispering tone; "but the last words I heard Cochrane utter were that the vaults would be the safest place. I fear that we may pass the entrance to the stair that leads to them."

"Think you his Majesty would go with him?"

"I think he would proceed at once to the Queen's apartments, where he would be most safely concealed. Ah! here is the stair."

They descended a steep staircase and reached a lower passage, the walls of which were so damp, and the atmosphere so close, that no doubt was left that this was the region of the vaults.

They had only advanced a few paces cautiously when Lamington suddenly wheeled about at the light sound of a footstep behind them, coming from the direction on which they had turned their backs.

A man darted up the staircase, and instantly disappeared in the darkness.

Gordon would have followed, but his guide restrained him. "It was his Majesty; I saw his mantle," she said.

"Then Cochrane is left behind. Now, St. Andrew, give strength to my arm, for no holier cause was ever served than that of destroying so foul a knave. Give me the light."

As he snatched it from her hand she had no option but to follow him with what speed she could. He rushed towards the place from which the man who had just ascended the staircase appeared to have come.

A voice called hoarsely, "Are they there?"

Guided by the sound, Lamington burst into a low, damp, noisome-smelling vault. He heard an exclamation of terror, but at first could see nothing.