She put her hand into his with a glow of delight.
"While Sir William Wallace allows me to call him brother," answered she, "that will ever be a sanction to our friendship; but courts are formal places, and I now go to one."
"And I will soon remove you to another," replied he, "where"—he hesitated—looked at Wallace and then resumed: "where every wish of my sister Helen's heart shall be gratified, or I be no king."
Helen blushed deeply and hastened toward the palfrey. Wallace placed her on the embroidered saddle, and Prince Louis preceding the cavalcade, it moved on.
As Bruce vaulted into his seat he said something to his friend of the perfectly feminine beauty of Helen.
"But her soul is fairer!" returned Wallace.
The Prince of Scotland, with a gay but tender smile, softly whispered:
"Fair, doubly fair to you!"
Wallace drew a deep sigh.
"I never knew but one woman who resembled her, and she did indeed excel all of created mold. From infancy to manhood I read every thought of her angelic heart; I became the purer by the study, and I loved my model with an idolatrous adoration. There was my error! But those sympathies, those hours are past. My heart will never throb as it has throbbed; never rejoice as it has rejoiced; for she who lived but for me, who doubled all my joys, is gone! Oh, my prince, though blessed with friendship, there are times when I feel that I am solitary!"