His visor was so closed that I could not see
his face. On my expressing alarm at my situation, he addressed me in
French, telling me he had provided a man to carry an excuse to
Huntingtower, to prevent pursuit; and then he put a letter into my
hand, which, he said, he brought from Sir William Wallace. Anxious to
know the purpose of this act, and believing that a man who had sworn to
me devoted love could not premeditate a more serious outrage, I broke
the seal and, nearly as I can recollect, read to this effect:
"That his passion was so imperious, he had determined to make me his in
spite of those sentiments of female delicacy which, while they tortured
him, rendered me dearer in his eyes. He told me, that as he had often
read in my blushes the sympathy which my too severe virtue made me
conceal, he would now wrest me from my cheerless widowhood; and having
nothing in reality to reproach myself with, compel me to be happy. His
friend, the only confidant of his love, had brought me to a spot whence
I could not fly; there I should remain, till he, Wallace, could leave
the army for a few days, and throwing himself on my compassion and
tenderness, he received as the most faithful of lovers, the fondest of
husbands.
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