There was an awful pause while Helen seemed to weep. But so was not her sorrow to be shed. It was locked within the flood-gates of her heart.
In that suspension of the soul, when Bothwell knelt on one side of the bier and Ruthven bent his knee on the other, Bruce stretched out his hand to the weeping Isabella; "Come hither, my youthful bride, and let thy first duty be paid to the shrine of thy benefactor and mine! So may we live, sweet excellence; and so may we die, if the like may be our meed of heavenly glory!"
Isabella threw herself into his arms and wept aloud. Helen, slowly raising her head at these words, regarded her sister with a look of awful tenderness, then turning her eyes back upon the coffin, gazed on it as if they would have pierced its confines, and clasping the urn earnestly to her heart, she exclaimed, "'Tis come! the promise—Thy bridal bed shall be William Wallace's grave!"
Bruce and Isabella, not aware that she repeated words which Wallace had said to her, turned to her with portentous emotion. She understood the terrified glance of her sister, and with a smile which bespoke her kindred to the soul she was panting to rejoin, she answered, "I speak of my own espousals. But ere that moment is—and I feel it near—let my Wallace's hallowed presence bless your nuptials! Thou wilt breathe thy benediction through my lips," added she, laying her hand on the coffin, and looking down on it as if she were conversing with its inhabitant.
"O, no, no," returned Isabella, throwing herself on her knees before the almost unembodied aspect of her sister; "let me ever be the sharer of your cell, or take me with you to the kingdom of Heaven!"
"It is thy sister's spirit that speaks," cried Dunkeld, observing the awe which not only shook the tender frame of Isabella, but had communicated itself to Bruce, who stood in heart-struck veneration before the yet unascended angel, "holy inspiration," continued the bishop, "beams from her eyes, and as ye hope for further blessings, obey its dictates!"
Isabella bowed her head in acquiescence. As Bruce approached to take his part in the sacred rite, he raised the hand which lay on the pall to his lips. The ceremony began—was finished! As the bridal notes resounded from the organ, and the royal pair rose from their knees, Helen held her trembling hands over them. She gasped for breath, and would have sunk without a word, had not Bothwell supported her shadowy form upon his breast. She looked round on him with a grateful though languid smile, and with a strong effort spoke:
"Be you blessed in all things as Wallace would have blessed you! From his side I pour out my soul upon you, my sister—my being—and, with its inward-breathed prayers to the Giver of all good for your eternal happiness, I turn, in holy faith—to my long looked-for rest!"
Bruce and Isabella wept in each other's arms. Helen slid gently from the boom of Bothwell prostrate on the coffin, and uttering, in a low tone:
"I waited only for this! We have met—I unite thy noble heart to thee again—I claim my brother—at our Father's hands—in mercy!—in love—by his all-blessed Son!"