However, dear
daughter, as it is only a suspicion of mine that this knight is that
young prince, for his safety, and for the sake of the cause, we must
not let that name escape our lips; no, not even to your relations when
you rejoin them, nor to the youth whom his humanity put under my
protection. Till he reveals his own secret, for us to divulge it would
be folly and dishonor."
Helen bowed acquiescence; and the hermit proceeded to inform her who
the youth was whom the stranger had left to be her page.
In addition to what the knight had himself told her of Walter Hay, the
unfortunate shepherd boy of the ruined hut, her venerable host narrated
that the young warrior having quitted the holy cell after his first
appearance there, soon returned with the wounded youth, whom he had
found. He committed him to the care of the hermit, promising to
revisit him on his way from the south, and take the recovered Walter
under his own protection. "He then left us," continued the old man,
"but soon reappeared with you; showing, in the strongest language, that
he who, in spite of every danger, succors the sons and daughters of
violated Scotland, is proclaimed by the Spirit of Heaven to be her
future deliverer and king.
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