The ladies brought forth their most splendid apparel; and the houses of
Stirling were hung with tapestry to hail with due respect the
benefactor of the land.
At last the hour arrived when a messenger, whom Lord Mar had sent out
for the purpose, returned on full speed with information that the
regent was passing the Carron. At these tidings the animated old earl
called out his retinue, mounted his coal-black steed, and ordered a
sumptuous charger to be caparisoned with housings wrought in gold by
the hands of Lady Mar and her ladies. The horse was intended to meet
Wallace and to bring him into the city. Edwin led it forward. In the
rear of the Earls Mar and Badenoch came all the chieftains of the
country, in gallant array. Their ladies, on splendid palfreys,
followed the superb car of the Countess of Mar; and, preceding the
multitudes of Stirling, left the town a desert. Not a living being
seemed now within its walls except the Southron prisoners, who had
assembled on the top of the citadel to view the return of their
conqueror.
Helen remained in Snawdoun, believing that she was the only soul left
in that vast palace. She sat musing on the extraordinary fate of
Wallace, a few months ago a despised outlaw, at this moment the idol of
the nation! And then turned to herself--the wooed of many a gallant
heart, and now devoted to one, whom, like the sun, she must ever
contemplate with admiration, while he should pass on above her sphere,
unconscious of the devotion which filled her soul.
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