Your own fifty warriors await
me at the bottom of Cartlane Craigs; and if any treachery should be
meditated against my uncle, that moment we will make the towers of
Dumbarton shake to their foundation."
Helen's reply was a deep sigh: she though it might be Heaven's will
that her father, like the good Lord Douglas, should fall a victim to
royal revenge; and so sad were her forebodings, that she hardly dared
to hope what the sanguine disposition of her cousin promised. Grimsby
now came forward; and unloosing an iron box from under his arm, put it
into the hands of Lord Murray.
"This fatal treasure," said he, "was committed to my care by the earl,
your uncle, to deliver to the prior of St. Fillan's."
"What does it contain?" demanded Murray; "I never saw it before."
"I know not its contents," returned the soldier; "it belongs to Sir
William Wallace."
"Indeed!" ejaculated Helen. "If it be treasure, why was it not rather
sent to him!"
"But how, honest soldier," asked Murray, "did you escape with it, and
Halbert, too! I am at a loss to conjecture, but by miracle."
He replied, that as soon as the English, and their Scottish partisans
under Lord Soulis, had surprised the castle, he saw that his only
chance of safety was to throw off the bonnet and plaid, and mix amongst
the numerous soldiers who had taken possession of the gates.
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