The apprehensive heart of Helen guessed
some direful explanation; she looked with speechless inquiry upon her
aunt and Grimsby. Isabella and Ercildown hastened to Bruce; and Lady
Ruthven being too much appalled in her own feelings to think for a
moment on the aghast Helen, hurriedly read to her from Lord Ruthven's
letter the brief but decisive account of Wallace's dangerous
situation--his seizure and conveyance to the Tower of England. Helen
listened without a word; her heart seemed locked within her; her brain
was on fire; and gazing fixedly on the floor while she listened, all
else that was transacted around her passed unnoticed.
The pangs of a convulsion fit did not long shackle the determined
Bruce. The energy of his spirit struggling to gain the side of Wallace
in this his extreme need (for he well knew Edward's implacable soul),
roused him from his worse than swoon. With his extended arms dashing
away the restoratives with which both Isabella and Ercildown hung over
him, he would have leaped on the floor had not the latter held him down.
"Withhold me not!" cried he; "this is not the time for sickness and
indulgence. My friend is in the fangs of the tyrant, and shall I lie
here? No, not for all the empires in the globe will I be detained
another hour.
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