The earl's next essay was with Helen. He feared that a rumor of the
stranger's indignation at the late execution, and that the Earl of
Gloucester had taken him in charge, might, when associated with the
fact of the widow of Sir William Wallace still remaining under his
protection, awaken some dangerous suspicion and direct investigations,
too likely to discover the imposition he had put on the executioners of
the last clause in his royal father's most iniquitous sentence. He
therefore explained his new alarm to Helen, and conjured her, if she
would yet preserve the hallowed remains before her from any chance of
violence (which her lingering near them might induce by attracting
notice to her movements), she must consent to immediately leave the
kingdom. The valiant and ever faithful heart of Wallace should be her
companion; and an English captain, who had partaken of his clemency at
Berwick, be her trusty conductor to her native land. To meet every
objection, he added, "Bruce shall be protected by me with strict
fidelity till some safe opportunity may offer for his bearing to
Scotland the sacred corpse that must ever be considered the most
precious relic in his country.
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