Then, far indeed had proceeded that communication of hearts, which was now the aim of her life--and she was undone! Helen glanced at the face of Lady mar, and observing its changes, regarded them as corroborations of her having been the betrayer.

"If conscience disturbs you thus," thought Helen, "let it rend your heart, and perhaps remorse may follow!" As the tide of success seemed so full for the patriot Scots, Helen no longer feared that her cousin would rashly seek a precarious vengeance on the traitor Soulis, when he might probably soon have an opportunity of making it certain at the head of an army.

She therefore commenced her narrative from the time of Murray's leaving her at the priory, and continued it to the hour in which she had met her father, a prisoner in the streets of Stirling.

As she proceeded, the indignation of the earl and of Murray against Soulis became vehement.

The nephew was full of immediate personal revenge.