"You have pronounced my doom, and I must submit. Oh! Constance--for I will venture to call you so for one moment--I did not think you could have so quickly changed!" "My feelings towards you are unaltered," she rejoined. "But I am obliged to put a constraint upon them. We must forget what has passed." "The attempt would be vain on my part," cried Atherton, bitterly. "Oh! Constance, if you knew the anguish I now endure you would pity me. But I will not seek to move your compassion--neither will I reproach you--though you have raised up my hopes only to crush them. Farewell!" "Stay--one moment!" she cried. "I may never have an explanation with you----" "I do not want an explanation," he rejoined. "I can easily understand why Father Jerome has given you this counsel. So long as a mystery attaches to my birth, he holds that I have no right to pretend to your hand. That is his opinion. That would be Sir Richard's opinion." "No, it could not be my father's opinion," she cried. "Why do you think so?" he exclaimed, eagerly. She was hesitating as to the answer she should give him, when the priest reappeared. He was alone. "You are impatient for my departure, sir," said Atherton. "But you need not be uneasy. Miss Rawcliffe has followed your advice. All is at an end between us." With a farewell look at Constance, he then passed out. CHAPTER IV. GENERAL SIR JOHN MACDONALD. Towards evening, on the same day, Lord Pitsligo's regiment of horse, commanded by General Sir John MacDonald--Lord Pitsligo, owing to his age and infirmities, being compelled to occupy the prince's carriage--entered the town. The two divisions of the Highland army were left respectively at Wigan and Leigh. Lord Pitsligo's regiment, though its numbers were small, scarcely exceeding a hundred and fifty, made a very good show, being composed chiefly of gentlemen--all wearing their national costume, and all being tolerably well mounted. General MacDonald had ordered the official authorities to meet him at the Cross, and he found the two constables waiting for him there; but an excuse was made for the boroughreeve. The general demanded quarters for ten thousand men to be ready on the morrow, when the prince would arrive with the army, and immediate accommodation for himself, his officers, and men; intimating that his followers must not be treated like common troopers. Declaring that they acted on compulsion, the constables, who were very much awed by Sir John's manner, promised compliance with his injunctions. They recommended him to take up his quarters for the night at the Bull's Head, and undertook that the Highland gentlemen composing the troop should be well lodged. Satisfied with this promise, General MacDonald rode on to the market-place, attended by his officers, while the troopers were billeted without delay under the direction of the constables and their deputies.