courage of Lady Bothwell; and she, on the other hand, more
agitated than she had expected, endeavouring to fortify herself
by the desperate resolution which circumstances had forced her
sister to assume. The one perhaps said to herself that her
sister never feared anything; and the other might reflect that
what so feeble-minded a woman as Jemima did not fear, could not
properly be a subject of apprehension to a person of firmness and
resolution like her own.

In a few moments the thoughts of both were diverted from their
own situation by a strain of music so singularly sweet and solemn
that, while it seemed calculated to avert or dispel any feeling
unconnected with its harmony, increased, at the same time, the
solemn excitation which the preceding interview was calculated to
produce. The music was that of some instrument with which they
were unacquainted; but circumstances afterwards led my ancestress
to believe that it was that of the harmonica, which she heard at
a much later period in life.

When these heaven-born sounds had ceased, a door opened in the
upper end of the apartment, and they saw Damiotti, standing at
the head of two or three steps, sign to them to advance. His
dress was so different from that which he had worn a few minutes
before, that they could hardly recognize him; and the deadly
paleness of his countenance, and a certain stern rigidity of
muscles, like that of one whose mind is made up to some strange
and daring action, had totally changed the somewhat sarcastic
expression with which he had previously regarded them both, and
particularly Lady Bothwell. He was barefooted, excepting a
species of sandals in the antique fashion; his legs were naked