Philip of France had made secret articles with him to that end. He was
to hold Scotland of him. While to make the surrender of his country's
independence sure to Philip, and its scepter to himself and his
posterity, he attempted to persuade me there would be no crime in
destroying the chiefs whose names he enrolled in this list. The pope,
he added, would absolve me from a transgression dictated by connubial
duty; and, on our bridal day, he proposed the deed should be done. He
would invite all the lords to a feast; and poison, or dagger, should
lay them at his feet.
"So impious a proposal restored me to myself. My love at once turned
to the most decided abhorrence; and hastening to the Knight of the
Green Plume, I told him to carry my resolution to his master, that I
would never see him more till I should appear as his accuser before the
tribunal of his country. The knight tried to dissuade me from my
purpose, but in vain, and at last, becoming alarmed at the punishment
which might overtake himself as the agent of such treason, he confessed
to me that the scene of his first appearance at Linlithgow was devised
by Wallace, who, unknown to all others, had brought him from France to
assist him in the scheme he durst not confide to Scotland's friends.
Pages:
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070