A faint and pale light in the east brought the ridge and its triple edifices forward in strong outline, and the gigantic willows were seen waving their graceful branches mournfully in the rising wind. The darkness of utter obscurity veiled the front of the craigs, and the deep hollow at their base, then a rough and savage gorge, round the edge of which lay the road the earl and his sister were to pursue. A bell rang. "Oh, Archibald, let us hasten," said Lady Jane; "the nuns are already saying the compline at St. Mary's yonder; see how the chapel is lighted up!" "Faith! my good sister, I have dwelt so long under English Henry's roof, that I have well-nigh forgotten these small items of our ancient faith. I have seen church lands turned into fair lay baronies, and more than one stately priory become an earl's fief, its chapel a dining-hall, its cloisters a stableyard, its refectory a dog's kennel. But omit not to ask the fair Josina* to say one prayer for me, though I am such a reprobate pagan. By all the furies! it seems very droll to think that my little friend Josina hath become a prioress! I cannot realize it! She will have quite forgotten me." * Josina Henrison was prioress of the Dominicans, at the Siennes, near Edinburgh, in the time of James V. "Do not think so, for she still uses the missal you gave her before----" "My kinswoman Sybil came home from the convent at Northberwick," said the earl, quickly. "Poor Josina!--and I shall see her once more." "To-morrow at noon, when you and Roland come for me--and yet perhaps it were better not." "Thou art right, sister of mine. Poor Josina!" and, with a sigh that told its own little story, the earl paused. "A religious life certainly never seemed to be her vocation; and yet I pray God that she is happy. How now?" he added, on hearing his followers wind up the wheels of their hacques by the spanners (as they were named) which were attached to the locks by small chains; "what dost thou hear, Gilzean?" "Footsteps, my lord." "The echoes of our own, perhaps; but where?" "Behind; to be forewarned is to be forearmed." Lady Jane clung to her brother's arm, and drew her hood closer over her face. They were now in a most lonely part of the road. Above them, about a hundred and fifty yards up the hill, towered the convent of St. Mary, with its high black walls and waving willows; below them, on the left, the lights of Holyrood were twinkling like wildfire, in the hollow afar off, at the foot of the Craigs. The clouds were flying in masses from west to east, and the tremulous stars looked forth at intervals like red and fiery eyes. "Turn, my lord!" cried Gilzean, "for armed men are close behind us." "Armed?" "Like oursels. 'Odslife! I heard the clink of iron-graith!"