ABSTRACT
It being Lady Ruthven's wish that the remains of her brother should be entombed with his ancestors, preparations were made for the mournful cavalcade to set forth the next morning towards Braemar Castle. The Countess, supposing that Wallace would accompany them, did not object to this proposal, which Lady Ruthven enforced with floods of tears. Had any one seen the two, and been called upon to judge by their deportment, of the relationship in which each lady stood to the deceased, he must have decided, that the sister was the widow. Lady Mar, at the moment of her husband's death, had felt a shock, but it was not that of sorrow for her loss: she had long looked forward to this event, as to the seal of her happiness: it was the sight of mortality that appalled her. The man she now doted on, nay, even herself, would one day lie as he - dead! insensible to all earthly joys or pains! but awake, perhaps fearfully awake, to the judgments of another world! This conviction caused her shrieks when she saw him expire. But the impression was evanescent. Every obstacle between her and Wallace, she now believed removed. Her husband was dead: Helen was carried away by a man devotedly enamoured of her, and most probably was at that time his wife. The spectres of conscience passed from her eyes, she no longer thought of death and judgment; and entirely estranging herself from the bier of her husband, under an excuse that her feelings could not bear the sight, she determined to seclude herself in her own chamber for a day or two, till the freshness of Wallace's grief for his friend should also pass away. But when she heard from the indignant Edwin, of the rebellious conduct of her kinsman, the young Lord Badenoch, and that the consequence was, the Regent's abdication of his dignity, her consternation superceded all caution, and rising from her chair in a horror of disappointment, she commanded Edwin to send Wallace to her. 'i will soon humble this proud boy!' exclaimed she, 'and let him know, that in opposing the elevation of Sir William Wallace, he treads down his own interest. You are beloved by the Regent, Edwin!' cried she, interrupting herself, and turning to him with one of her most persuasive looks, 'Teach his enthusiastic heart the true interests of his country! - I am the first woman of the blood of Cummin; and is not that family the mosth powerful in the kingdom? By the adherence of one branch to Edward, the battle of Falkirk was lost; by the rebellion of another, the Regent of Scotland is obliged to relinquish that dignity! It is in my power, at any moment, to move the whole race to my will: and if Wallace would mingle his blood with theirs, would espouse me, (an overture which the love I bear my country impels me to make,) every nerve would then be strained to promote the 396elevation of their nearest kinswoman - Wallace would reign in Scotland, and the whole land lie at peace.'
