They remember her
happiness under the rule of our Alexanders; they see her sufferings
beneath the sway of a usurper; and if they can know these things, and
require arguments to bring them to their duty, should they then come to
it, it would not be to fulfill, but to betray. Ours, my dear Lord
Ruthven, is a commission from Heaven. The truth of our cause is God's
own signet, and is so clear, that it need only be seen to be
acknowledged. All honest minds will come to us of themselves; and
those who are not so, had better be avoided, than shown the way by
which treachery may effect what open violence cannot accomplish."
This reasoning, drawn from the experience of nature, neither encumbered
by the subtleties of policy nor the sophistry of the schools, was
evident to every honest understanding, and decided the question.
Lady Mar, unknown to any one, again applied to her fatal pen; but with
other views than for the ruin of the cause, or the destruction of
Wallace. It was to strengthen his hands with the power of all her
kinsmen; and finally, by the crown which they should place on his head,
exalt her to the dignity of a queen. She wrote first to John Cummin,
Earl of Buchan, enforcing a thousand reasons why he should now leave a
sinking cause and join the rising fortunes of his country.
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