what it sought to avoid. He hastily pulled aside Wallace's plaid to
throw it over the glittering hilt of the sword, and thus exposed the
iron box. The light of the torches striking upon the polished rivets,
displayed it to all lookers on, but no remark was made. Wallace, not
observing what was done, again shook hands with Monteith, and calling
his servants about him, galloped away. A murmur was heard, as if of
some intention to follow him; but deeming it prudent to leave the open
and direct road, because of the English marauders who swarmed there, he
was presently lost amid the thick shades of Clydesdale.


Chapter II.

Lanark.



The darkness was almost impenetrable. Musing on what had passed with
Monteith, and on the likelihood of any hero appearing, who, by freeing
his country, could ever claim the privilege of investigating the
mystery which was now his care. Wallace rode on till, crossing the
bridge of Lanark, he saw the rising moon silver the tops of the distant
hills; and then his meditations embraced a gentler subject. This was
the time he had promised Marion he should be returned, and he had yet
five long miles to go, before he could reach the glen of Ellerslie; he
thought of her being alone-of watching, with an anxious heart, the
minutes of his delay. Scotland and its wrongs he now forgot, in the
idea of her whose happiness was dearer to him than life. He could not
achieve the deliverance of the one, but it was his bliss to preserve
the peace of the other; and putting spurs to his horse, under the now