Who then will repel them from these walls?
Who will defend your wife and only son from falling again into the hands of our doubly incensed foes ?" Mar observed Lord Lennox color at this imputation on his bravery, and shocked at the affront which his unreflecting wife seemed to give so gallant a chief, he hastily replied, "Though this wounded arm cannot boast, yet the Earl of Lennox is an able representative of our commander." "I will die, madam," interrupted Lennox, "before anything hostile approaches you or your children." She attended slightly to this pledge, and again addressed her lord with fresh arguments for the detention of Wallace.

Sir Roger Kirkpatrick, impatient under all this foolery, as he justly deemed it, abruptly said, "Be assured, fair lady, Israel's Samson was not brought into the world his duty better than allow himself to be tied to any nursery girdle in Christendom." The brave old earl was offended with this roughness, but ere he could so express himself, the object darted her own severe retort on Kirkpatrick, and then, turning to her husband, with an hysterical sob, exclaimed, "It is well seen what will be my fate when Wallace is gone! Would he have stood by and beheld me thus insulted ?" Distressed with shame at her conduct, and anxious to remove her fears, Lord Mar softly whispered her, and threw his arm about her waist.

She thrust him from her.

"You care not what may become of me, and my heart disdains your blandishments." Lennox rose in silence, and walked to the other end of the chamber.
Sir Roger Kirkpatrick followed him, muttering, pretty audibly, his thanks to St.Andrew that he had never been yoked with a wife.
Scrymgeour and Murray tried to allay the storm in her bosom by circumstantially detailing how the fortress must be equally safe under the care of Lennox as of Wallace.

But they discoursed in vain; she was obstinate, and at last left the room in a passion of tears.
On the return of Wallace, Lord Lennox advanced to meet him.