"This letter," continued the countess, "was followed by many others;
and suffice it to say, that the latent affection in my heart, and his
subduing love, were too powerful in his cause. How his letters were
conveyed I know not; but they were duly presented to me by the woman
who attended me. At last the knight who had brought me to the place,
and who wore green armor, and a green plume, reappeared."
"Prodigious villain!" broke from the lips of Edwin.
The countess turned her eye on him for a moment and then resumed: "He
was the warrior who had borne me from Huntingtower, and from that hour
until the period I now speak of, I had never seen him. He put another
packet into my hand, desiring me to peruse it with attention, and
return Sir William Wallace a verbal answer by him. Yes! was all he
required. I retired to open it; and what was my horror, when I read a
perfect development of the treasons for which he is now brought to
account! By some mistake of my character, he had conceived me to be
ambitious; and knowing himself to be the master of my heart, he fancied
himself lord of my conscience also. He wrote, that until he saw me, he
had no other end in his exertions for Scotland than her rescue from a
foreign yoke; 'but,' added he, 'from the moment in which I first beheld
my adored Joanna, I aspired to place a crown on her brow!" Be then
told me, that he did not deem the time of its presentation to him on
the Carse of Stirling a safe juncture for its acceptance; neither was
he tempted to run the risk of maintaining an unsteady throne when I was
not free to partake it; but since the death of Lord Mar, every wish,
every hope was re-awakened; and then he determined to become a king.
Pages:
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069