Wyseby

90 wyseby: a legend
behind the cottage, to try if, amid the ever-deepen-
ing gloom, she could discern his approaching form.
A moment she gazed ; an exclamation of joy burst
from her lips ; — there he comes ; she rushed forward
to meet him. Ah me ! it was only Wanop, another
retainer. Who can conceive the horror of the noble
girl when she heard that her father was a prisoner
in the dungeon of Holmains, on the charge —of all
charges the blackest — of treason to his chief? Wanop
told that a suspicious-looking stranger had that morn-
ing been arrested near Holmains, who, on his safety
being promised, had confessed that a raid was me-
ditated by the De Lacys, and that Walter of the
Longsword had agreed, for a certain sum of gold, to
place the keep of Holmains in their power. Wanop
told, too, that the person stated he was on his way,
at the time he was arrested, to treat with Walter as
to the time, and other circumstances, of the intended
inroad.
" Wildly hurrying forward, all regardless of impe-
diments, Marion paused not until she reached Hol-
mains. She sought and obtained an audience of the
chief. With all the indignation of a noble soul, she
denied the foul charge against her father ; with all
the eloquence of affection, she besought his release :
but the chief was inflexible. The doom of the pri-
soner, so far as man had power to will, was sealed.
The treason of his best beloved retainer had, for the
time, overthrown the old man's faith in the noble-
ness of human nature ; and in such hours pity finds
no place in the soul. Then she sought permission to
share her father's dungeon ; — looking on the ago-
nised supplicant, the chief could not deny that.
"' Passionately affectionate was the embrace of the