The Scottish Chiefs

by Jane Porter

  Chapter XLVII.

  Lammington.

  When Wallace was left alone with Edwin, the happy youth (afterexpressing delight that Murray then held his headquarters in BothwellCastle) took from his bosom two packets; one from Lord Mar, the otherfrom the countess. "My dear cousin," said he, "has sent you manyblessings; but I could not persuade her to register even one on paperwhile my aunt wrote all this. Almost ever since her own recovery,Helen has confined herself to my uncle's sick chamber, now totallydeserted by the fair countess, who seems to have forgotten all dutiesin the adulation of the audience-hall."

  Wallace remarked on the indisposition of Mar, and the attention of hisdaughter, with tenderness. And Edwin, with the unrestrained vivacityof happy friendship, proceeded sportively to describe the regal stylewhich the countess had affected, and the absurd group with which shehad welcomed the Earls Badenoch and Athol to their native country."Indeed," continued he, "I cannot guess what vain idea has takenpossession of her; but when I went to Snawdoun, to receive her commandsfor you, I found her seated on a kind of throne, with ladies standingin her presence, and our younger chieftains thronging the gallery, asif she were the regent himself. Helen entered for a moment, but,amazed, started back, never before having witnessed the morning courtsof stepmother."

  But Edwin did not relate to his friend all that had passed in thesucceeding conference between him and his gentle cousin.

  Blushing for her father's wife, Helen would have retired immediately toher own apartments, but Edwin drew her into one of Lady Mar's rooms,and seating her beside him, began to speak of his anticipated meetingwith Wallace. He held her hand in his. "My dearest cousin," said he,"will not this tender hand, which has suffered so much for our bravefriend, write him one word of kind remembrance? Our queen here willsend him volumes."

  "Then he would hardly have time to attend to one of mine," repliedHelen, with a smile. "Besides, he requires no new assurance toconvince him that Helen Mar can never cease to remember her benefactorwith the most grateful thoughts."

  "And is this all I am to say to him, Helen?"

  "All, my Edwin."

  "What! not one word of the life you have led since he quitted Stirling?Shall I not tell him that, when this lovely arm no longer wore thelivery of its heroism in his behalf, instead of your appearing at thegay assemblies of the countess, you remained immured within youroratory? Shall I not tell him that since the sickness of my uncle youhave sat days and nights by his couch-side, listening to the dispatchesfrom the borders--subscribing, with smiles and tears, to his praises ofour matchless regent? Shall I not tell him of the sweet maid who liveshere the life of a nun for him? Or, must I entertain him with thepomps and vanities of my most unsaintly aunt?"

  Helen had in vain attempted to stop him, while, with an arch glance ather mantling blushes, he half whispered these insidious questions."Ah, my sweet cousin, there is something more at the bottom of thatbeating heart than you will allow your faithful Edwin to peep into."

  Helen's heart did beat violently, both before and after this remark;but conscious, whatever might be there, of the determined purpose ofher soul, she turned on him a steady look. "Edwin," said she, "thereis nothing in my heart that you may not see. That it reveres SirWilliam Wallace beyond all other men, I do not deny. But class not mydeep veneration with a sentiment which may be jested on! He has spokento me the language of friendship--you know what it is to be hisfriend--and having tasted of heaven, I cannot stoop to earth. Whatpleasure can I find in pageants?-what interest in the admiration ofmen? Is not his esteem of a value that puts to naught the homages ofall else in the world? Do me then justice, my Edwin! believe me, I amno gloomy, no sighing, recluse. I am happy with my thoughts, andthrice happy at the side of my father's couch; for there I meet theimage of the most exemplary of human beings, and there I perform theduties of a child to a parent deserving all my love and honor."

  "Ah, Helen! Helen!" cried Edwin; "dare I speak the wish of my heart!But you and Sir William Wallace would frown on me, and I may not!"

  "Then, never utter it!" exclaimed Helen, turning pale, and tremblingfrom head to foot; too well guessing, by the generous glow in hiscountenance, what would have been that wish.

  At this instant the door opened, and Lady Mar appeared. Both rose ather entrance. She bowed her head coldly to Helen. To Edwin shegraciously extended her hand. "Why, my dear nephew, did you not comeinto the audience-hall?"

  Edwin answered, smiling, that as he "did not know the Governor ofStirling's lady lived in the state of a queen, he hoped he should beexcused for mistaking lords and ladies in waiting for company; and forthat reason, having retired till he could bid her adieu in a lesspublic scene."

  Lady mar, with much stateliness, replied, "Perhaps it is necessary toremind you, Edwin, that I am more than Lord Mar's wife. I am not onlyheiress to the sovereignty of the northern isles, but, like Badenoch,am of the blood of the Scottish kings."

  To conceal an irrepressible laugh at this proud folly in a woman,otherwise of shrewd understanding, Edwin turned toward the window; butnot before the countess had observed the ridicule which played on hislips. Vexed, but afraid to reprimand one who might so soon resent it,by speaking of her disparagingly to Wallace, she unburdened theswelling of her anger upon the unoffending Helen. Not doubting thatshe felt as Edwin did, and fancying that she saw the same expression inher countenance. "Lady Helen," cried she, "I request an explanation ofthat look of derision which I now see on your face. I wish to knowwhether the intoxication of your vanity dare impel you to despiseclaims which may one day be established to your confusion."

  This attack surprised Helen, who, absorbed in other meditations, hadscarcely heard her mother's words to Edwin. "I neither deride you,Lady Mar, nor despise the claims of your kinsman, Badenoch. But sinceyou have condescended to speak to me on the subject, I must, out ofrespect to yourself, and duty to my father, frankly say, that theassumption of honors not legally in your possession may excite ridiculeon him, and even trouble to our cause."

  Provoked at the just reasoning of this reply and at beingmisapprehended with regard to the object with whom she hoped to shareall the reflected splendors of a throne, Lady Mar answered, ratherinconsiderately, "Your father is an old man, and has outlived everynoble emulation. He neither understands my actions, nor shall hecontrol them." Struck dumb by this unexpected declaration, Helensuffered her to proceed. "And as to Lord Badenoch giving me the rankto which my birth entitled me, that is a foolish dream--I look to agreater hand."

  "What!" inquired Edwin, with a playful bow, "does my highness auntexpect my uncle to die, and that Bruce will come hither to lay thecrown of Scotland at her feet?"

  "I expect nothing of Bruce, nor of your uncle," returned she, with ahaughty rearing of her head; "but I look for respect from the daughterof Lord Mar, and from the friend of Sir William Wallace."

  She rose from her chair, and presenting Edwin with a packet forWallace, told Helen she might retire to her own room.

  "To my father's I will, madam," returned she.

  Lady Mar colored at this reproof, and, turning to Edwin, more gentlysaid, "You know that the dignity of his situation must be maintained;and while others attend his couch, I must his reputation."

  "I have often heard that 'Fame is better than life!'" replied Edwin,still smiling; "and I thank Lady mar for showing me how differentlypeople may translate the same lesson. Adieu, dear Helen!" said he,touching her mantling cheek with his lips.

  "Farewell," returned she, "may good angels guard you!"

  The substance of the latter part of this scene Edwin did relate toWallace. He smiled at the vain follies of the countess, and broke theseal of her letter. It was in the same style with her conversation; atone moment declaring herself his disinterested friend, in the next,uttering wild professions of never-ending attachment. She deplored thesacrifice which had been made of her, when quite a child, to the dotingpassion of Lord Mar; and complained of his want of sympathy with a
ny ofher feelings. Then picturing the happiness which must result from thereciprocal love of congenial hearts, she ventured to show how trulyhers would unite with Wallace's. The conclusion of this strangeepistle told him that the devoted gratitude of all her relations of thehouse of Cummin was ready, at any moment, to relinquish their claims onthe crown, to place it on brows so worthy to wear it.

  The words of this letter were so artfully and so persuasively penned,that had not Edwin described the inebriated vanity of Lady Mar, Wallacemight have believed that she was ambitious only for him, and that couldshe share his heart, his throne would be a secondary object. Toestablish this deception in his mind, she added, "I live here as at thehead of a court, and fools around me think I take pleasure in it; butdid they look into my actions, they would see that I serve while I seemto reign. I am working in the hearts of men for your advancement."

  But whether this were her real motive or not, it was the same toWallace; he felt that she would always be, were she even free, notmerely the last object in his thoughts, but the first in his aversion.Therefore, hastily running over her letter, he recurred to a secondperusal of Lord Mar's. In this he found satisfactory details of thesuccess of his dispositions. Lord Lochawe had possessed himself of thewestern coast of Scotland, from the Mull of Kintyre, to the furthestmountains of Glenmore. There the victorious Lord Ruthven had met him,having completed the recovery of the Highlands, by a range of conquestsfrom the Spey to the Murray frith and Inverness-shire. Lord Bothwell,also, as his colleague, had brought from the shore of Ross and thehills of Caithness, every Southron banner which had disgraced theirembattled towers.

  Graham was sent for by Wallace to hear these pleasant tidings.

  "Ah!" cried Edwin, in triumph, "not a spot north of the Forth nowremains, that does not acknowledge the supremacy of the Scottish lion!"

  "Nor south of it either," returned Graham; "from the Mull of Gallowayto my gallant father's government on the Tweed; from the Cheviots tothe Northern Ocean, all now is our own. The door is locked againstEngland, and Scotland must prove unfaithful to herself before theSouthrons can again set feet on her borders."

  The more private accounts were not less gratifying to Wallace; for hefound that his plans for disciplining and bringing the people intoorder were everywhere adopted, and that in consequence, alarm andpenury had given way to peace and abundance. To witness the success ofhis comprehensive designs, and to settle a dispute between Lord Ruthvenand the Earl of Athol, relative to the government of Perth, Lord Marstrongly urged him (since he had driven the enemy so many hundred milesinto their own country) to repair immediately to the scene ofcontroversy. "Go," added the earl, "through the Lothians, and acrossthe Queens ferry, directly into Perthshire. I would not have you cometo Stirling, lest it should be supposed that you are influenced in yourjudgment either my myself or my wife. But I think there cannot be aquestion that Lord Ruthven's services to the great cause invest himwith a claim which his opponent does not possess. Lord Athol has nonebeyond that of superior rank; but being the near relation of my wife, Ibelieve she is anxious for his elevation. Therefore come not near us,if you would avoid female importunity, and spare me the pain of hearingwhat I must condemn."

  Wallace now recollected a passage in Lady Mar's letter which, thoughnot speaking out, insinuated how she expected he would decide. Shesaid: "As your interest is mine, my noble friend, all that belongs tome is yours. My kindred are not withheld in the gift my devoted heartbestows on you. Use them as your own; make them bulwarks around yourpower, the creatures of your will, the instruments of your benevolence,the defenders of your rights."

  Well pleased to avoid another rencounter with this lady's love andambition, Wallace sent off the substance of these dispatches to Murray;and next morning, taking a tender leave of the venerable Gregory andhis family, with Edwin and Sir John Graham, he set off for the Frith ofForth.