Something in this interview had whispered to him what he had never dreamed before--that she was dearer to him than fifty thousand cousins.

And while the blood flushed and retreated in the complexion of Helen, and her downcast eyes refused to show what was passing there, while she hastily ran over the circumstances of her acquaintance with the stranger knight, Murray's own emotions declared the secret of hers; and with a lip as pale as her own, he said, "But where is this brave man?
He cannot have yet joined us, for surely he would have told Wallace or myself that he came from you ?" "I warned him not to do so," replied she, "for fear that your indignation against my enemies, my dear cousin, might have precipitated you into dangers to be incurred for our country only." "Then, if he had joined us," replied Murray, rising from his seat, "you will probably soon known who he is.

To-morrow morning Sir William Wallace will enter the citadel, attended by his principal knights; and in that gallant company you must doubtless discover the man who had laid such obligations on us all by your preservation." Murray's feelings told him that glad should he be, if the utterance of that obligation would repay it! Helen herself knew not how to account for the agitation which shook her whenever she adverted to her unknown preserver.

At the time of the hermit's friend (the good lay brother), having brought her to Alloa, when she explained to Lady Ruthven the cause of her strange arrival, she had then told her story with composure, till she mentioned her deliverer; but in that moment, for the first time she felt a confusion which disordered the animation with which she described his patriotism and his bravery.

But it was natural, she thought, that gratitude for a recent benefit should make her heart beat high.