Wallace secured a passage in her; and, going on board, wrote his
promised letter to Edward. It ran thus:
"This testament is to assure Edward, King of England, upon the word of
a knight, that Queen Margaret, his wife, is in every respect guiltless
of the crimes alleged against her by the Lord Soulis, and sworn to by
the Baroness de Pontoise. I came to the court of Durham on an errand
connected with my country; and that I might be unknown, I assumed the
disguise of a minstrel. By accident I encountered Sir Piers Gaveston,
and, ignorant that I was other than I seemed, he introduced me at the
royal banquet. It was there I first saw her majesty. And I never had
that honor but three times; and the third and last in her apartments,
to which your majesty's self saw me withdraw. The Countess of
Gloucester was present the whole time, and to her highness I appeal.
The queen saw in me only a minstrel; on my art alone as a musician was
her favor bestowed; and by expressing it with an ingenuous warmth which
none other than an innocent heart would have dared to display, she has
thus exposed herself to the animadversions of libertinism, and to the
false representations of a terror-struck, because worthless, friend.
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