The countess saw not what was passing in his mind, but
kissing her hand to him, disappeared from the window when he entered
the palace.
Another eye beside Lady Mar's had witnessed the triumphant entry of
Wallace. Triumphant in the true sense of the word; for he came a
victor over the hearts of men; he came, not attended by his captives
won in the war, but by the people he had blessed, by throngs calling
him preserver, father, friend, and prince! By every title which can
inspire the soul of man with the happy consciousness of fulfilling his
embassy here below.
Helen was this witness. She had passed the long interval, since she
had seen Wallace, in the state of one in a dream. The glance had been
so transient, that every succeeding hour seemed to lessen the evidence
of her senses that she had really beheld him. It appeared impossible
to her that the man whom her thoughts had hitherto dwelt on as the
widowed husband of Marion, as the hero whom sorrow had wholly dedicated
to patriotism and to Heaven, should ever awaken in her breast feelings
which would seem to break like a sacrilegious host upon the holy
consecration of his. Once she had contemplated this idea with the
pensive impressions of one leaning over the grave of a hero; and she
could then turn as if emerging from the glooms of sepulchral monuments
to upper day, to the image of her unknown knight! she could then
blamelessly recollect the matchless graces of his figure! the noble
soul that breathed from his every word and action; the sweet, though
thoughtful, serenity that sat on his brow! "There," whispered she to
herself, "are the lofty meditations of a royal mind, devising the
freedom of his people.
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