You are the same to Joanna Mar
whether as a monarch or a private man, so long as you possess that
supremacy in all, excellence which first gained her esteem. It is for
Scotland's sake alone that I wish you to be her king. You have taught
me to forget all selfish desires-to respect myself," cried she; "and,
from this hour I conjure you to wipe from your memory all my folly-all
my love-"
With the last word her bosom heaved tumultuously, and she rose in
agitation. Wallace now gazed on her with redoubled wonder. She saw
it; and hearing a foot in the passage, turned, and grasping his hand,
said in a soft and hurried tone, "Forgive, that which is entwined with
my heart should cost me some pangs to wrest thence again. Only respect
me and I am comforted." Wallace in silence pressed her hand, and the
door opened.
Lady Ruthven entered. The countess, whose present aim was to throw the
virtue of Wallace off its guard, and to take that by sap, which she
found resisted open attack, with a penitential air disappeared by
another passage. Edwin's gentle mother was followed by the same youth
who had brought Helen's packet to Berwick. It was Walter Hay, anxious
to be recognized by his benefactor, to whom his recovered health had
rendered his person strange.
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