" This reply determined them to
keep their proceedings secret from him, and also from Lady Mar; for
both Lord Buchan and Lord Athol had, at different times, listened to
the fond dreams of her love and ambition. They had flattered her with
entering into her designs. Athol gloomily affected acquiescence, that
he might render himself master of all that was in her mind, and,
perhaps, in that of her lover; for he did not doubt that Wallace was as
guilty as her wishes would have made him. And Buchan, ever ready to
yield to the persuasions of woman, was not likely to refuse, when his
fair cousin promised to reward him with all the pleasures of the gayest
court in Europe. For, indeed, both lords had conceived, from the
evident failing state of her veteran husband, in consequence of the
unhealing condition of one of his wounds, that it might not be long
before this visionary game would be thrown into her hands.
Thus were they situated, when the news of Wallace's decisive victory,
distancing all their means to raise him who was now at the pinnacle of
power, determined the dubious to become at once his mortal enemies.
Lord Badenoch had listened with a different temper to the first
breathings of Lady Mar on her favorite subject.
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