'"
"And what, O foolish Helen, do you call a higher duty than that of a
child to a parent, or a husband to his wife?"
"Duty of any kind," respectfully answered the young daughter of Mar,
"cannot be transgressed with innocence. Nor would it be any
relinquishing of duty to you, should my father leave you to take up
arms in the assertion of his country's rights. Her rights are your
safety; and therefore, in defending them, a husband or a son best shows
his sense of domestic, as well as of public duty."
"Who taught you this sophistry, Helen? Not your heart, for it would
start at the idea of your father's blood."
Helen turned pale. "Perhaps, madam, had not the preservation of my
father's blood occasioned such malignity from the English, that nothing
but an armed force can deliver his preserver, I, too, might be content
to see Scotland in slavery. But now, to wish my father to shrink
behind the excuse of far-strained family duties, and to abandon Sir
William Wallace to the blood hounds who hunt his life, would be to
devote his name of Mar to infamy, and deservedly bring a curse upon his
offspring."
"Then it is to preserve Sir William Wallace you are thus anxious.
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