The hundred tongues of rumor chose to speak of relationship, that there was a likeness between them, yet I know not how that could be.

There is no impress of the fiendish passion at work in the baron's soul on those bright, beautiful features." "Ha! Is it of him you speak ?" involuntarily escaped from Nigel, as the old man for a moment paused; "of him?
Methought yon portrait was of an ancestor of Bruce, or wherefore is it here ?" "Be patient, good my son.

My narrative wanders, for my lips shrink from its tale.

That the baron and the knight met, not in warlike joust but in peaceful converse, and at the request of the latter, is known, but on what passed in that interview even tradition is silent, it can only be imagined by the sequel; they appeared, however, less reserved than at first.

The baron treated him with the same distinction as his fellow-nobles, and the stranger's manner towards him was even more respectful than the mere difference of age appeared to demand.