And as it would consequently increase his own importance with that
monarch, he lost no time in communicating the circumstances to him.
Edward suspected something in this sudden attachment of the countess,
which, should it transpire, might cool the ardor of his officer for
uniting so useful an agent to his cause; therefore, having highly
approved De Warenne's conduct in affair, to hasten the nuptials, he
proposed being present at their solemnization that very evening. The
solemn vows which Lady Strathearn then pledged at the altar to be
pronounced by her with no holy awe of the marriage contract; but rather
as those alone by which she swore to complete her revenge on Wallace,
and, by depriving him of life, prevent the climax to her misery, of
seeing him (what she believed he intended to become) the husband of
Helen Mar.
The day after she became De Warenne's wife, she accompanied him by sea
to Berwick; and from that place she dispatched messengers to the
regent, and to other nobles, her kinsmen, fraught with promises, which
Edward, in the event of success had solemnly pledged himself to ratify.
Her embassador arrived at Stirling the day succeeding that in which
Wallace and his troops had marched from Ballochgeich.
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