"
Loch-awe proceeded: "Was this scroll, containing the names of certain
Scottish chiefs noted down for assassination, written by you, or under
your connivance?"
"I never saw the scroll, nor heard of the scroll, until this hour. And
harder than death is the pang at my heart when a Scottish chief finds
it necessary to ask me such a question regarding a people, to save even
the least of whom he has often seen me risk my life!"
"Another question," replied Loch-awe, "and then, bravest of men, if
your country acquits you not in thought and deed, Campbell of Loch-awe
sits no more amongst its judges! What is your knowledge of the Knight
of the Green Plume, that, in preference to any Scottish friend, you
should intrust him with your wishes respecting the Countess of
Strathearn?"
Wallace's answer was brief: "I never had any wishes respecting the wife
or the widow of my friend the Earl of Mar that I did not impart to
every chief in the camp, and those wishes went no further than for her
safety. As to love, that is a passion I shall know no more; and Lady
Strathearn alone can say what is the end she aims at, by attributing
feelings to me with regard to her which I never conceived, and words
which I never uttered.
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