Wishes,
hopes, and designs, which two years before, she would have shuddered
at, as not only sinful but derogatory to female delicacy, she now
embraced with ardor, and naught seemed dreadful to her but
disappointment. The prolonged life of Lord Mar cost her many tears,
for the master-passions of her nature, which she had laid asleep on her
marriage with the earl, broke out with redoubled violence at the sight
of Wallace. His was the most perfect of manly forms--and she loved; he
was great--and her ambition blazed into an unextinguishable flame.
These two strong passions, meeting in a breast weakened by the
besetting sin of her youth, their rule was absolute, and neither
virtue, honor, nor humanity could stand before them. Her husband was
abhorred, her infant son forgotten, and nothing but Wallace and a crown
could find a place in her thoughts.
CHAPTER LI.
Stirling and Snawdoun.
The few chieftains who had remained on their estates during the
suspense before the battle, from a belief that if the issue proved
unfavorable they should be safest amongst their native glens, now came
with numerous trains to greet the return of their victorious regent.
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