The earl was brave, but
his wounds had robbed him of much of his martial vigor. Might she not
then be indeed set free? And might not Wallace, on such an event, mean
to repay her for all those sighs he now sought to repress from ideas of
a virtue which she could admire, but had not the courage to imitate?
These wicked meditations passed even at the side of her husband, and,
with a view to further every wish of her intoxicated imagination, she
determined to spare no exertion to secure the support of her own
family, which, when agreeing in one point, was the most powerful of any
in the kingdom. Her father, the Earl of Strathearn, was now a
misanthrope recluse in the Orkneys; she therefore did not calculate on
his assistance, but she resolved on requesting Wallace to put the names
of her cousins, Athol and Badenoch, into the exchange of prisoners, for
by their means she expected to accomplish all she hoped. On Mar's
probable speedy death she so long thought that she regarded it as a
certainty, and so pressed forward to the fulfillment of her love and
ambition with as much eagerness as if he were already in his grave.
She recollected that Wallace had not this time thrown her from his
bosom, when in the transports of her joy she cast herself upon it; he
only gently whispered, "Beware, lady, there are those present who may
think my services too richly paid.
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