But now, to wish my father to shrink behind the excuse of far-strained family duties, and to abandon Sir William Wallace to the blood hounds who hunt his life, would be to devote his name of Mar to infamy, and deservedly bring a curse upon his offspring." "Then it is to preserve Sir William Wallace you are thus anxious.

Your spirit of freedom is now disallowed, and all this mighty gathering is for him.

My husband, his vassals, your cousin, and, in short, the sequestration of the estates of Mar and Bothwell, are all to be put to the hazard on account of a frantic outlaw, to whom, since the loss of his wife, I should suppose, death would be preferable to any gratitude we can pay him." Lady Helen, at this ungrateful language, inwardly thanked Heaven that she inherited no part of the blood which animated so unfeeling a heart.
"That he is an outlaw, Lady Mar, springs from us.

That death is the preferable comforter of his sorrows, also, he owes to us; for was it not for my father's sake that his wife fell, and that he himself was driven into the wilds?
I do not, then, blush for making his preservation my first prayer; and that he may achieve the freedom of Scotland, is my second." "We shall see whose prayers will be answered first," resumed Lady Mar, rising coldly from her seat.

"My saints are perhaps nearer than yours, and before the close of this day you will have reason to repent such extravagant opinions.