Her low murmurs reached the ears of Wallace.
The dimness having left his eyes, and the blood (the extreme loss of
which, from his great agitation, had alone caused him to swoon), being
stopped by an embalmed bandage, he seemed to feel no impediment from
his wound; and rising, hastened to the side of Helen. Lord Mar softly
whispered his daughter-"Sir William Wallace is at your feet, my dearest
child; look on him, and tell him that you live."
"I am well, my father," returned she, in a faltering voice; "and may it
indeed please the Almighty to preserve him!"
"I, too, am alive and well," answered Wallace; "but thanks to God, and
to you, blessed lady, that I am so! Had not that lovely arm received
the greater part of the dagger, it must have reached my heart."
An exclamation of horror at what might have been burst from the lips of
Edwin. Helen could have re-echoed it, but she now held her feelings
under too severe a rein to allow them so to speak.
"Thanks to the Protector of the just," cried she, "for your
preservation! Who raised my eyes to see the assassin! His cloak was
held before his face, and I could not discern it; but I saw a dagger
aimed at the bank of Sir William Wallace! How I caught it I cannot
tell, for I seemed to die on the instant.
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