No guilty wish was there; but an admiration of him, a pity
which undermined my health, and left me miserable! I forbade him to
approach me. I tried to wrest him from my memory; and nearly had
succeeded, when I was informed by my late husband's nephew--(the youth
who now stands beside Sir William Wallace)--that he was returned under
an assumed name from France. Then I feared that all my inward
struggles were to recommence. I had once conquered myself; for
abhorring the estrangement of my thoughts from my wedded lord, when he
died I only yearned to appease my conscience; and in penance for my
involuntary crime, I refused Sir William Wallace my hand. His return
to Scotland filled me with tumults, which only they who would sacrifice
all they prize to a sense of duty, can know. Edwin Ruthven left me at
Huntingtower; and, that very evening, while walking alone in the
garden, I was surprised by the sudden approach of an armed man. He
threw a scarf over my head, to prevent my screams, but I fainted with
terror. He then took me from the garden by the way he had entered, and
placing me on a horse before him, carried me whither I know not; but on
my recovery I found myself in a chamber, with a woman standing beside
me, and the same warrior.
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