I have written it, that my memory
might not err, and that my country may be unquestionably satisfied of
the accuracy of every syllable I utter."
She paused an instant, drew a quick breath, and proceeded reading from
the paper, thus: (But as occasion occurred for particularly pointing
its contents, she turned her tutored eye upon the object, to look a
signet on her mischief.)
"I am not to tell you, my lord, that Sir William Wallace twice released
the late Earl of Mar and myself from Southron captivity. Our deliverer
was what you see him: fraught with attractions, which he too
successfully directed against the peace of a young woman married to a
man of paternal years. While to all the rest of the world, he seemed
to consecrate himself to the memory of his ill-fated wife, to me alone
he unveiled his straying heart. I revered my nuptial vow too sincerely
to listen to him with the complacency he wished; but, I blush to own,
that his tears, his agonies of love, his manly graces, and the virtues
I believed he possessed (for well he knows to feign!), cooperating with
my gratitude, at last wrought such a change in my breast that--I became
wretched.
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