She then related how, at her instigation,
the regent had deposed him from his military command, and she ended
with saying, that impelled by loyalty to Edward (whom her better reason
now recognized as the lawful sovereign of her country), she had come to
exhort that monarch to renew his invasion of the kingdom.
Intoxicated with her beauty, and enraptured, by a manner which seemed
to tell him that a softer sentiment than usual had made her select him
as the embassador to the king, De Warenne greedily drank in all her
words; and ere he allowed this, to him, romantic conference to break
up, he had thrown himself at her feet, and implored her, by every
impassioned argument, to grant him the privilege of presenting her to
Edward as his intended bride. De Warenne was in the meridian of life;
and being fraught with a power at court beyond most of his peers, she
determined to accept his hand and wield its high influence to the
destruction of Wallace, even should she be compelled in the act to
precipitate her country in his fall. De Warenne drew from her a
half-reluctant consent; and, while he poured forth the transports of a
happy lover, he was not so much enamored of the fine person of Lady
Strathearn as to be altogether insensible to the advantages which his
alliance with her would give to Edward in his Scottish pretensions.
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