power to stir the stagnant souls of thousands and guide them with a
word. She looked in feature as in form a queen; fitted to be beloved,
formed to be obeyed. Her heavy robe of dark brocade, wrought with thick
threads of gold, seemed well suited to her majestic form; its long,
loose folds detracting naught from the graceful ease of her carriage.
Her thick, glossy hair, vying in its rich blackness with the raven's
wing, was laid in smooth bands upon her stately brow, and gathered up
behind in a careless knot, confined with a bodkin of massive gold. The
hood or coif, formed of curiously twisted black and golden threads,
which she wore in compliance with the Scottish custom, that thus made
the distinction between the matron and the maiden, took not from the
peculiarly graceful form of the head, nor in any part concealed the
richness of the hair. Calm and pensive as was the general expression of
her countenance, few could look upon it without that peculiar sensation
of respect, approaching to awe, which restrained and conquered sorrow
ever calls for. Perchance the cause of such emotion was all too
delicate, too deeply veiled to be defined by those rude hearts who were
yet conscious of its existence; and for them it was enough to own her
power, bow before it, and fear her as a being set apart.

Musingly she had stood looking forth on the wide waste; the distant
ocean, whose tumbling waves one moment gleamed in living light, at
others immersed in inky blackness, were barely distinguished from the
lowering sky. The moaning winds swept by, bearing the storm-cloud on
their wings; patches of blue gleamed strangely and brightly forth; and,
far in the west, crimson and amber, and pink and green, inlaid in
beautiful mosaic the departing luminary's place of rest.

"Alas, my gentle one," she had internally responded to her daughter's
words, "if thy mother's patriot heart could find no shield for woe, nor