Personal flatteries having made no impression on Helen, ambitious
projects were attempted with equal failure. Had De Valence been lord
of the eastern and western empires, could he have made her the envy and
admiration of a congregated world, all would have been in vain; she had
seen and known the virtues of Sir William Wallace; and from that hour,
all that was excellent in man, and all that was desirable on earth,
seemed to her to be in him summed up. "On the barren heath," said she
to herself, "in some desert island, with only thee and thy virtues, how
happy could be Helen Mar! how great! For, to share thy heart--thy thy
noble, glorious heart--would be a bliss, a seal of honor from Heaven,
with which no terrestrial elevation could compare!" Then would she
sigh; capable of appreciating and loving above all earthly things the
matchless virtues of Sir William Wallace. On the very evening of the
night in question in which he had so unexpectedly appeared to release
her, her thoughts had been engaged in this train: "Yes," cried she to
herself, "even in loving thy perfections there is such enjoyment, that
I would rather be as I am--what others might call the hopeless Helen,
than the loving and beloved of any other man on earth.
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