And through her tears Maud Lindesay watched him from the top of the great square keep, as he rode off gallantly behind the Earl and his brother.
"In time past I have dreamed," she thought to herself, "that I loved this one and that; but it was not at all like this.

I cannot put him out of my mind for a moment, even when I would!" As the brothers William and David Douglas crossed the rough bridge of pine thrown over the narrows of the Dee, they looked back simultaneously.

Their mother stood on the green moat platform of Thrieve, with their little sister Margaret holding up her train with a pretty modesty.

She waved not a hand, fluttered no kerchief of farewell, only stood sadly watching the sons with whom she had travailed, like one who watches the dear dead borne to their last resting-place.
"So," she communed, "even thus do the women of the Douglas House watch their beloveds ride out of sight.

And so for many times they return through the ford at dawn or dusk.