But where was he, who had delivered herself from a worse fate
than death? Where was the dweller of her daily thoughts, the bright
apparition of her unslumbering pillow?
Helen's sight, now clearing to as keen a vision as before it had been
dulled and indistinct, with a timid and anxious gaze glanced from face
to face of the chieftains around; but all were strange. Then
withdrawing her eyes with a sad conviction that their search was indeed
in vain; in the very moment of that despair, they were arrested by a
glimpse of the features of Wallace. He had raised his head; he shook
back his clustering hair, and her secret was revealed. In that
god-like countenance she recognized the object of her devoted wishes!
and with a gasp of overwhelming surprise, she must have fallen from her
seat, had not Lady Ruthven, hearing a sound like the sigh of death,
turned round, and caught her in her arms. The cry of her aunt drew
every eye to the spot. Wallace immediately relinquished the countess
to her husband, and moved toward the beautiful and senseless form that
lay on the bosom of Lady Ruthven. The earl and his agitated wife
followed.
"What ails my Helen?" asked the affectionate father.
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