"Ah! then," murmured she to herself,
"are there two men in Scotland who will speak thus?" She looked up in
his face. The plumes of his bonnet shaded his features; but she saw
they were paler than on his entrance, and a strange expression of
distraction agitated their before composed lines. His eyes were bent
to the ground as he proceeded:
"I am the servant of my fellow-creatures--command me and my few
faithful followers; and if it be in the power of such small means to
succor you or yours, I am ready to answer for their obedience. If the
villain from whom I had the happiness to release you be yet more deeply
implicated in your sorrows, tell me how they can be relieved, and I
will attempt it. I shall make no new enemies by the deed, for the
Southrons and I are at eternal enmity."
Helen could not withdraw her eyes from his varying countenance, which,
from underneath his dark plumes, seemed like a portentous cloud, at
intervals to emit the rays of the cheering sun, or the lightning of
threatening thunder. "Alas!" replied she, "ill should I repay such
nobleness were I to involve it in the calamities of my house. No,
generous stranger, I must remain unknown.
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