"Hear me, my lord; for the sake of your wife, now an angel hovering near you, hear what I have to say." Wallace looked around with a wild countenance.

"My Marion near me! Blessed spirit! Oh, my murdered wife! my unborn babe! Who made those wounds ?" cried he, catching Halbert's arm with a tremendous though unconscious grasp; "tell me who had the heart to aim a blow at that angel's life ?" "The Governor of Lanark," replied Halbert.
"How?
for what ?" demanded Wallace, with the terrific glare of madness shooting from his eyes.

"My wife! my wife! what had she done ?" "He came at the head of a band of ruffians, and seizing my lady, commanded her on the peril of her life, to declare where you and the Earl of Mar and the box of treasure were concealed.

My lady persisted in refusing him information, and in a deadly rage he plunged his sword into her breast." Wallace clinched his hands over his face, and Halbert went on.

"Before he aimed a second blow, I had broken from the men who held me, and thrown myself on her bosom; but all could not save her; the villain's sword had penetrated her heart!" "Great God!" exclaimed Wallace, "dost thou hear this murder ?" His hands were stretched toward heaven; then falling on his knees, with his eyes fixed.