During the happy mouths of the preceding autumn, while Scotland was yet
free, and the path of honorable distinction still open before her young
nobility, Wallace married Marion Braidfoot, the beautiful heiress of
Lammington. Nearly of the same age, and brought up from childhood
together, reciprocal affection had grown with their growth; and
sympathy of tastes and virtues, and mutual tenderness, made them so
entirely one, that when at the age of twenty-two the enraptured lover
was allowed to pledge that faith publicly at the altar, which he had so
often vowed in secret to his Marion, he clasped her to his heart, and
softly whispered: "Dearer than life! part of my being! blessed is this
union, that mingles thy soul with mine, now, and forever!"
Edward's invasion of Scotland broke in upon their innocent joys.
Wallace threw aside the wedding garment for the cuirass and the sword.
But he was not permitted long to use either-Scotland submitted to her
enemies; and he had no alternative but to bow to her oppressors, or to
become an exile from man, amid the deep glens of his country.
The tower of Ellerslie was henceforth the lonely abode of himself and
his bride.
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