Lift up the largest flag-stone in the second, and you will be conducted
through a dark vault to an iron door; draw the bolt, and remain in the
cell it will open to you till the owner enters. He is the prior of St.
Fillan's and a Murray. Give him this golden cross, which he well
knows, as a mark you come from me; and say it is my request that he
assist you to gain the sea-shore. As for the iron box, tell him to
preserve it as he would his life; and never to give it up, but to
myself, my children, or to Sir William Wallace, it's rightful master.'"
"Alas!" cried Halbert, "that he had never been its owner! that he had
never brought it to Ellerslie, to draw down misery on his head!
Ill-omened trust! whatever it contains, its presence carried blood and
sorrow in its train. Wherever it has been deposited war and murder
have followed: I trust my dear master will never see it more!"
"He may indeed never see it more!" murmured Helen, in a low voice.
"Where are now my proud anticipations of freedom to Scotland? Alas,
Andrew," said she, taking his hand, and weeping over it. "I have been
too presumptuous; my father is a prisoner, and Sir William Wallace is
lost!"
"Cease, my dear Helen," cried he, "cease to distress yourself! These
are merely the vicissitudes of the great contention we are engaged in.
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