"I tried the Douglas hardly for it. But he was too selfish, and would not die for me. Base, cruel knight! No, he _would not_ die for me; even though I got him to believe that I was put to death, and my ghost haunting him, yet he _would not_ kill himself. What a value those monstrous men set upon their lives! Musgrave died. Lady Jane has conquered, and I am _married_! I wish I were dead, Kirkmichael!" "'Tis a pity but that you were, madam! If ladies are to live on these terms with the world, they had better be out of it. For you know if the man that one loves best will not condescend always to die when the gratification of his mistress' vanity requires it, why there is an end of all endurance. I managed otherwise with young Spinola." "Mention the name of your Spinola again to me for the head that stands on your body, since you deprecate the more gentle prescription of bleeding below the tongue; and now find me some anodyne without delay for the distemper that is preying on my vitals. None of your jeers and your jibes, Kirkmichael, for I am not in humour to bear them. The worst thing of all is yet to come. This puppet,--this painted doll,--this thing of wax! after triumphing over me in my own country and among my own people,--after being died for, while I was only lived for,--after being courted, and flattered, and smiled on, while I was only bowed to and gazed on,--after being carressed by my father, and bedaubed with praises by my newfangled and volatile mother,--after all this, I say, there is she going to be set at liberty, and without all question wedded to one of the royal dukes, one of the princes of the blood! How shall the blood of the Bruce and the spirit of the Stuart brook this? Before I heard of that lady's name, I knew not what jealousy was. Ever since that time has she held me in misery. I thought I had once achieved the greatest conquest that ever was accomplished by heroine. And I _did_ seize a noble prize! How has it turned out?--in every instance to her honour, and my disparagement. And there, through the unnatural fondness of my doating mother, will she return home, and be courted for her princely fortune, not for her beauty I am sure! But then, they will hear that the bravest and most chivalrous knight in England _died for her_; and as certainly as I speak to you, will she achieve a higher marriage than Margaret, and how shall she ever show her face again?" "A higher marriage than you, dearest lady? Then must she be married to some of the kings on the continent, for in all the dominion of England there is not a subject of such power as your lord, the Earl of Douglas and Mar, nor one whose military honours flourish so proudly." "My lord and husband is all that I could wish in man, only----" "Only that he is _not dead_. That's all."