So careful was he, in overlooking, by his well-chosen officers,
civil and military, every transaction, that the slightest dereliction
from the straight order of things was immediately seen and examined
into. Many of these trusty magistrates having been placed in the
Lothians, before March took the government, he could not now remove
them without exciting suspicion; and therefore, as they remained, great
circumspection was used to elude their watchfulness.
From the time that Edward had again entered into terms with the
Scottish chiefs, Lord March sent regular tidings to Lord Soulis of the
progress of their negotiations. He knew that nobleman would gladly
welcome the recall of the King of England; for ever since the
revolution in favor of Scotland, he had remained obstinately shut up
within his castle of Hermitage. Chagrin at having lost Helen was not
the least of his mortifications; and the wounds he had received from
the invisible hand which had released her, having been given with all
the might of the valiant arm which directed the blow, were not even now
healed; his passions kept them still inflamed; and their smart made his
vengeance burn the fiercer against Wallace, who he now learned was the
mysterious agent of her rescue.
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