"But where is he to be found?" intemperately and suspiciously demanded
Lady mar.
"If his testimony be necessary to validate mine," returned Wallace, with dignity, "I believe the Lady Helen can point to his name."
"Name him, Helen; name him, my dear cousin," cried Murray, "that I may have some link with thee. O! let me avenge this deed! Tell me his name! and so yield to me all that thou canst now bestow on Andrew Murray!"
There was something in the tone of Murray's voice that penetrated to the heart of Helen. "I cannot name him whom I suspect to any but Sir William Wallace; and I would not do it to him," replied she, "were it not to warn him against future danger. I did not see the assassin's face, therefore, how dare I set you to take vengeance on one who perchance may be innocent? I forgive him, my blood, since Heaven has spared to Scotland its protector."
"If he be a Southron," cried Baron Hilton, coming forward, "name him, gracious lady, and I will answer for it, that were he the son of a king, he would meet death from our monarch for this unknightly outrage."
"I thank your zeal, brave chief," replied she; "but I would not abandon to certain death even a wicked man. May he repent! I will name him to Sir William Wallace alone; and when he knows his secret enemy, the vigilance of his own honor, I trust, will be his guard. Meanwhile, my father, I would withdraw." Then whispering to him, she was lifted in his arms and Murray's and carried from the hall.
As she moved away her eyes met those of Wallace. He arose; but she waved her hand to him, with an expression in her countenance of an adieu so firm, yet so tender, that feeling as if he were parting from a beloved sister, who had just risked her life for him, and whom he might never see again, he uttered not a word to any that were present, but leaning on Edwin, left the hall by an opposite door.
Chapter XLIII.
The Carse of Stirling.
Daybreak gleamed over the sky before the wondering spectators of the late extraordinary scene had dispersed to their quarters.