It is fraught with
danger to every honest Scot who should know that he protects one who
bears it; and therefore, least of all, noble stranger, would I breathe
it to you." She averted her face, to conceal the emotions she could
not subdue.
The knight looked at her intensely, and profoundly sighed. Half her
unbraided locks lay upon her bosom, which now heaved with suppressed
feelings; and the fast-falling tears, gliding through her long
eyelashes dropped upon his hand; he sighed again, and tore his eyes
from her countenance. "I ask not, madam, to know what you think proper
to conceal; but danger has no alarms for me, when, by incurring it, I
serve those who need a protector."
A sudden thought flashed across her mind; might it not be possible that
this tender guardian of her safety, this heroic profferer of service,
was the noble Wallace? But the vain idea fled. He was pent up amidst
the beleaguered defiles of Cartland Craigs, sworn to extricate the
helpless families of his followers, or to perish with them. This
knight was accompanied by none but men; and his kind eyes shone in too
serene a luster to be the mirrors of the disturbed soul of the
suffering chief of Ellerslie.
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